When Grant Ethridge was elected president of the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference, the weight of the task quickly became evident.
 

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"The first thing that I did was pray and say, 'Okay, Lord, You have given me this assignment, and I've just got to trust You to guide me through it and show me exactly who You want to preach,'" Ethridge, senior pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Hampton, Va., recounted. "Because it's really not my conference or even the convention's conference -- this is a time when God speaks to His servants."

Ethridge attended his first Pastors' Conference in 1984, led by Charles Stanley, pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta.

"I attended every session, heard every sermon, went early and stayed late," Ethridge said.

That conference began to prepare him for his election as president more than 25 years later, impacting his ideas and goals for this year's June 17-18 sessions in New Orleans to create an atmosphere of influence and enrichment for pastors' spiritual lives.

"I was like a spiritual sponge. I just couldn't get enough," Ethridge said of his first Pastors' Conference. "I think about the awesome opportunity we have to influence young pastors. And so, certainly, that's part of our goal."

The Pastors' Conference is about more than the spiritual development of pastors and church planters. To Ethridge, it's also centered on equipping pastors to bring renewal to their churches.

Source: Baptist Press | Brandon Pickett & Amanda Sullivan