April 26, 2024
DULUTH, Ga. – Numbers coming in for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s SPARK conference point to what could be the annual event’s largest attendance ever, the organizer said Monday.
More than 1,600 Georgia Baptists attended SPARK conferences held at regional sites across the state and nearly 1,000 more logged on for the event’s digital premiere.
By the end of the year, the number of church leaders who participate in the conference could exceed 6,000 nationwide, said Scott Sullivan, the state Mission Board’s discipleship catalyst.
In SPARK, Georgia Baptist lay leaders received training in a myriad of areas, including evangelism and discipleship strategies, church growth, public relations, church security, children and youth ministries, missions, even church finances.
“We know if we’re going to strengthen churches, we’ve got to train the lay leaders, and that’s what SPARK does,” said Sullivan, who organizes the annual event.
Sullivan pulled together a strong cast of speakers for the Spark digital vault, including former Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter Jr. who is the fiery pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, He also brought in Tod Bolsinger, a seminary professor and author of the acclaimed book Canoeing the Mountains, and Michael Catt, author, producer, and retired senior pastor of Georgia’s Sherwood Baptist Church, plus Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., and founder of Replicate Ministries.
They were in addition to speakers like Newnan pastor Ken Adams, founder of Impact Ministries; Alabama pastor Bill Wilks, founder of Living the D-Life; Florida pastor and author Jimmy Scroggins; and Woodstock First Baptist Church Pastor Jeremy Morton.
Nearly 6,000 people took part in last year’s SPARK conference, making it one of the state Mission Board’s most popular training events. With the COVID-19 pandemic waning, Sullivan expanded this year’s SPARK conference to include in-person training at five regional locations across the state.
He said 184 churches from at least 24 Georgia Baptist associations attended the regional events.
Eighteen state Baptist conventions have signed on to offer the digital training to their churches, which is expected to increase the number of participants exponentially.
“It is the future of lay-leader equipping,” Sullivan said. “SPARK combines the best of in-person and on-demand digital training then makes it affordable for the masses.”
