ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Baptist New Mexican)–The weather for this year’s
evangelism conferences sponsored by the Baptist Convention of New Mexico
was much better than it was the same week last year, and it made a huge
difference in how many people took advantage of the opportunity to be
reminded of “God’s Plan for Sharing.”

The Baptist New Mexican
estimated that more than 800 people gathered in the auditorium of
Hoffmantown Church in Albuquerque for the State Evangelism Conference’s
opening session on Monday evening, Jan. 30, significantly more than last
year, when a bitter blast of cold and snow arrived that day and
terrorized much of the state the rest of the week.

This year’s
weather was delightful in comparison, and chances are that the weather
for next year’s conference will be better than it was for four of the
past eight years too, since the conference will be moved closer to the
onset of spring, March 4-6, partly to avoid colder weather.

Bathed in Prayer

Mike
Napier, who directs evangelism and discipleship for the state
convention, had been calling on New Mexico Baptists for weeks to pray
fervently that God would visit the conferences with his presence and
power, and Baptists across the state had been enlisted to pray for each
speaker during each of the sessions.

Enlisting the pray-ers was
Connie Dixon, the BCNM’s missions strategist who serves as state WMU
director, missions education consultant and prayer strategist. She also
made sure a prayer room with prayer material was available at
Hoffmantown, so those who came to the conference would have a quiet
place to go to meet with God.

Sharing Christ Stressed

They
were praying that God would move and empower New Mexico Baptists to
share Christ, which was encouraged throughout each of the conferences.

The
Hispanic Evangelism Conference was held Sunday evening and Monday
morning at Del Norte Conference Center; the State Evangelism Conference
was held at Hoffmantown Church on Monday evening and Tuesday morning,
afternoon and evening; and the Senior Adult Evangelism Conference was
held on Wednesday morning at Hoffmantown.

The State Conference
included a special luncheon with renowned apologist Lee Strobel on
Tuesday, and the Senior Adult Conference again concluded with the annual
Senior Adult Luncheon.

Speaking at the State Conference were
Strobel, Don Wilton, Thomas Hammond, Dan Morgan, James Walker, Mary Jo
Sharp and Michael Keahbone.

Strobel has been described in the
Washington Post as “one of the evangelical community’s most popular
apologists”; Wilton is senior pastor of First Baptist Church,
Spartanburg, S.C., where famed evangelist Billy Graham is a member;
Hammond is team leader of the North American Mission Board’s God’s Plan
for Sharing Initiative; Morgan is professor of church planting and the
Nehemiah Project director at the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in
Cochrane, Alberta, Canada; Walker, who grew up as a Mormon, is a leader
in Christian counter-cult evangelism, apologetics and discernment; Sharp
is a certified apologetics instructor with NAMB; and Keahbone is a
Native American who is a regular speaker for the University of Oklahoma
football team and has preached across the country.

During the
conference’s opening session on Monday evening, Napier took a few
minutes to introduce and interview his son’s wrestling coach, Corey
Anderson, who shared about how the evangelism director had led him to
faith in Christ and the difference the Lord has since made in his life
and the life of his family.

On Tuesday afternoon, participants
had two opportunities to attend breakout conferences that were led by
Hammond, “How to Make Your Church More Visitor Friendly”; Manny Montaño
of Cedar Crest, Evangelism Response Center training; Morgan, “The
Continuously Fruitful Church”; John Bailey of NAMB’s church planter
mobilization team, “The Multiplying Church”; Walker, “Witnessing With
the Book of Mormon”; Sharp, “Islam: A Christian Response”; and Chris
Cooper of the Mapping Center for Evangelism, on the center’s ministry.

Leading worship during all three conferences was Kari Jobe of Southlake, Texas, and her band.

Many
of those who came Monday evening moved after the session to
Hoffmantown’s Big City Studio for a pie and coffee fellowship, and for
the second straight year, dozens of volunteers stuck around after the
Tuesday evening session to set up 71 tables and put 500 chairs around
them in Hoffmantown’s worship center for the conference and meal for
seniors the following day.

Needs Met

Roy Martin, minister
of music and church administration at Parkland Baptist Church in Clovis,
told the Baptist New Mexican that he appreciated this year’s emphasis
and that he was especially blessed by the breakout conference that dealt
with making churches more “visitor friendly.”

“Very refreshing” was the evaluation by Bill Friese, pastor of Mimbres Baptist Church in Rio Mimbres.

Challenges
at home had almost caused Friese and his wife, Sharon, to cancel their
plans to attend the conference, but they made the effort needed to come
anyway, they said, and they were glad they did.

The conference, Friese said, caused him to reflect on and recommit himself to God’s call on his life.

It
did the same for a couple who drove to Albuquerque all the way from
their home in Granbury, Texas, just to attend the New Mexico conference.

Sherman
and Tammy Aten are former New Mexico Baptists who are just celebrated
their 20th anniversary of ministering as full-time music evangelists.
God used this year’s conference to “stir up” their passion for the
ministry they heard God call them to during the conference in 1991, when
Aten was serving as music minister at First Baptist Church in Artesia.

While
the Atens sang at some of the conferences after they moved to West
Texas to enter their new ministry, it has been 15 years or so since they
had attended one. They both said it was well worth the more than 600
mile trip.

Hispanic and Senior Conferences

More than 100
predominantly Spanish speakers met at Del Norte Conference Center
earlier that week, on Sunday evening and Monday morning, for the annual
Hispanic Evangelism Conference (Conferencia de Evangelismo).

Most
of them had walked across the parking lot from nearby Del Norte Baptist
Church, where they had enjoyed supper before the evening session and
breakfast before the morning session.

The conference, which is
usually held at the church, was instead held at its conference center
this year because, Pastor Bob Myers told everyone, completion of the
church’s renovation project on the auditorium was still a couple of
weeks away.

Jobe and her band led worship for that conference as
well, much of it in Spanish, and Joshua Del Risco, national coordinator
of church mobilization for NAMB’s mobilization group, preached a message
in each session.

The president of the Spanish Baptist Convention
of New Mexico, Raúl Arreola, who is pastor of Buenas Nuevas Mission in
Las Cruces, also spoke on Sunday evening.

Close to five dozen
churches in the state are affiliated with both of the state’s Baptist
conventions, the BCNM, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year,
and the Spanish Baptist Convention of New Mexico, which was formed in
1923.

Sharing his testimony the following morning was Carlos Pino, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Emanuel in Santa Teresa.

When
asked during the conference where they were from, those in attendance
indicated that they had come to New Mexico from a number of Latin
American countries—including Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia and
Mexico—and Puerto Rico.

Senior Adults

The Senior Adult Evangelism Conference took place on Wednesday morning at Hoffmantown.

Speaking were Wilton; evangelist and retired director of missions Ernie Perkins of Edmond, Okla.; and Keahbone.

Leading
worship were singer and songwriter Brad Porton of Broken Bow, Okla.;
with songwriter, arranger, accompanist, worship leader and evangelist
John Roe of Rio Rancho; and Jobe and her band.

Presiding during
the session and the luncheon that followed was W.A. Bradshaw, retired
director of music, student, recreation and family ministries for the
BCNM and currently associate pastor, music and senior adults, at First
Baptist Church, Rio Rancho.

The luncheon featured more musical
entertainment by Porton and Roe and Perkins’ humorous account of the
early days of his ministry and marriage.

The conferences were
provided by Cooperative Program gifts from churches affiliated with the
BCNM and from NAMB. Next year’s lineup for the March 4-6 conferences
will include Mark Mittelberg, Greg Frizzell, Charles Billingsley and
Rudy Gonzalez.
–30–
This article originally appeared in the
Baptist New Mexican (bcnm.com), newsjournal of the Baptist Convention of
New Mexico. John Loudat is editor of the Baptist New Mexican.