WORDS FROM OUR PASTORS

WORDS FROM OUR PASTORS

WORDS FROM OUR PASTORS

2021 SEND Conference

Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee—home of country music, the Grand Ole Opry, the Predators, Titans, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the 2021 SEND Conference and SBC Annual Meeting. On behalf of your nine messengers here representing FCBC-FV, I send our love and greetings in Christ.
Allow me to structure this blog as a Q&A and answer questions you might have:

“How are you doing, Pastor Godfrey?”

The trip for me had an inauspicious beginning: my lower back gave out after sitting through the long delay on the tarmac at John Wayne and subsequent 4-hour flight to Nashville. I was barely able to walk off the plane and get into my hotel room. On Dr. Woo’s orders, I stayed in bed and missed the entire first evening, including a message by Dr. Tony Evans, and music by Michael W. Smith and Crowder. ☹ Thanks to God and for your prayers, I woke up this morning significantly better. 

“What is this trip all about?”

These first two days—Sunday and Monday—have been for the SEND Conferencea missions and evangelism conference organized by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and International Mission Board (IMB). The goal is to inspire pastors and church leaders to the work of the Gospel; to be, as this year’s theme states, “Together on Mission.” Through the preached Word (Psalm 44, Matthew 28, Acts, Ephesians 4, Colossians, Revelation 22), musical worship, testimonies, interviews and multimedia presentations—the SEND Conference has essentially been a two-day spiritual rally to move God’s people deeper into relationship with Christ and His kingdom work.

The second two days—tomorrow and Wednesday—are the SBC Annual Meeting, for us messengers to hear reports and celebrate the past year of ministry in the SBC, including the IMB, the NAMB, seminaries, Lifeway and Guidestone. Moreover, we will be called upon to vote on various officers and resolutions. Back home at FCBC, we call this a “business meeting.”

“Business Meeting? Sounds boring!”

Well, maybe if one doesn’t see the bigger picture of God’s work. But I trust that our messengers—all of whom are at their very first annual meeting—will be at least a little bit impressed, if not awestruck(!), by God’s work through our convention of 14+ million members and 47,000+ churches. Plus, the resolutions and discussions should be quite interesting, in light of recent events within and without the convention.

“So how was today? What happened? Anything to report?”

I have invited each messenger to share something by video, and you can find those videos here, along with some additional random photos and videos from the day. Enjoy! We will be back tomorrow with more updates. Thanks for reading! Love you all!

Together on Mission with you,
Pastor Godfrey