By HENRY DURAND, The Christian Index<\/p>\n
HIAWASSEE, Ga. \u2014 In a region where churches are often separated by mountains, winding roads, and long drives, 522 pastors, leaders, and volunteers registered for Sunday night\u2019s SPARK training at McConnell Baptist Church<\/a> designed to equip local churches for ministry and evangelism.<\/p>\n The gathering drew leaders from 59 churches and three associations, with 96 walk-up attendees, reflecting the desire for practical ministry training in northeast Georgia and the importance of bringing the SPARK conference<\/a> within reach of churches in every part of the state.<\/p>\n For churches in the mountains, access matters.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you live up here, you understand because there\u2019s no straight highways,\u201d Jeremy Pearson, executive pastor at McConnell, said. \u201cYou have to go over a mountain to get somewhere. So to host SPARK here in our backyard, I think is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott Sullivan, discipleship catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board<\/a>, said he had been told it would be nearly impossible to gather a large crowd in one of the far corners of Georgia, but the McConnell gathering showed the need is there.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain just how significant this event was for Towns County,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cPastor Steve Taylor and Executive Pastor Jeremy Pearson are leading one of the most impressive volunteer groups in Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n The turnout, Sullivan said, showed what can happen when churches, associations, and the Mission Board work together.<\/p>\n \u201cThis event proves that you can gather a strong crowd when the local church fully buys in to training, the association and nearby associations support the opportunity, and the Georgia Baptist Mission Board team provides quality resourcing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n SPARK is part of the Mission Board\u2019s effort to provide practical training for pastors, staff members, and lay leaders across the state. Sullivan said the goal is to make that training accessible to churches in every region, including those in the more rural corners of Georgia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are committed to bringing SPARK conference training to all areas of Georgia,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a three-year rotation for SPARK around each region with a goal of providing quality training within 45 minutes for every Georgia Baptist.\u201d<\/p>\n Steven Taylor, lead pastor of McConnell, said the church was honored to host the northeast Georgia gathering. He thanked the church\u2019s volunteers and staff members who helped make the evening possible and said SPARK has consistently encouraged McConnell\u2019s own leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot say enough about the positive impact the SPARK Conferences have made on our leadership team and our volunteers,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cEvery time we have attended the SPARK Conference, our church leadership has returned encouraged and inspired.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor said the value of SPARK is that it equips not only pastors, but also the volunteers who serve throughout the church.<\/p>\n \u201cFor pastors, it is a dream come true,\u201d he said. \u201cFor volunteers who are searching for answers and encouragement in their area of ministry, this is the place to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n Pearson said many churches in the region are led by bivocational pastors and rely heavily on lay leaders, which makes training those leaders \u201ccrucial.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not a metro area, many of our pastors are bivocational, and our churches face some unique challenges,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why hosting the SPARK Conference here meant so much. It reminded our local churches that they are seen, valued, and worth investing in, while equipping and encouraging pastors and leaders to keep doing the good work God has called them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Eli Blalock, senior pastor of\u00a0Blacks Creek Baptist Church<\/a>, said he has been in his first senior pastorate only a few weeks. He brought about eight people from his church and said he was especially encouraged that volunteers could receive training alongside him.<\/p>\n \u201cYou should always want to be sharper,\u201d Blalock said. \u201cThere\u2019s always something new to learn and to grow in. I also think this is a really good opportunity to bring other people along and encourage them to come and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Chad Rising, associational missionary strategist for the Sarepta Baptist Association<\/a>, said four churches from his association brought more than 30 people to the conference. Many came especially for the breakout sessions and the opportunity to learn practical discipleship skills they could take back to their churches.<\/p>\n Rising said Britt\u2019s message also challenged churches to think intentionally about how they are reaching and discipling people in their communities.<\/p>\n Joey Hyatt, a McConnell member who volunteered during the conference, said hosting SPARK mattered because churches need to equip believers for ministry beyond the walls of the building.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to learn and teach people how to be the church, not a building, but to send people out to be the church,\u201d Hyatt said. \u201cPeople have to be the church and know how to reach the lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, opened the main session by highlighting the gospel need across the state and calling for every church to see its own community as a mission field.<\/p>\n Hammond said helping churches reach their communities is the goal of Mission Georgia. He reminded those gathered that more than 7 million people in the state do not have a relationship with Christ. \u201cWe live in a mission field,\u201d Hammond said.<\/p>\n He said every church should consider the three-, four-, five-, or six-mile radius around its building and ask how it can help get the gospel to every person in that circle.<\/p>\n \u201cThis mandate is given to us by the Lord,\u201d Hammond said. \u201cWe\u2019re to take the gospel. We\u2019re to make disciples of all nations. We\u2019re to go into all the world. We need to go across the street as well as across the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n Jason Britt, lead pastor of Bethlehem Church<\/a>, continued the missional theme in his keynote message, preaching from Luke 19 and using the account of Zacchaeus to call churches to build a gospel culture while surrounded by a godless culture.<\/p>\n Britt warned that \u201cfamiliarity brings passivity,\u201d saying churches can become so accustomed to the language and rhythms of ministry that they lose sight of the people Jesus sees.<\/p>\n Britt said the account of Zacchaeus reminds church leaders that accumulation does not equal fullness, that Jesus sees people rather than reputations, and that the natural pull of the local church is inward while the pull of the gospel is outward.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Jesus sees people, the church has to see people,\u201d Britt said.<\/p>\n He urged pastors and leaders to cultivate churches where every member understands that he or she can invite somebody, pray for somebody, and share with somebody. \u201cNot any one person can reach everybody, but everybody can reach somebody,\u201d Britt said.<\/p>\n Blalock said Britt\u2019s message reminded him that churches must keep grace central.<\/p>\n \u201cJesus didn\u2019t visit because Zacchaeus changed,\u201d Blalock said. \u201cZacchaeus changed because Jesus visited. If we lose that, we\u2019re just doing religious services, and there\u2019s nothing powerful there.\u201d<\/p>\n Ricky Powell, pastor of First Baptist Church Blairsville<\/a>, called the SPARK Conference \u201ca true gift\u201d to his church family.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gathered with brothers and sisters from churches across northeast Georgia for rich worship, meaningful fellowship, and practical training for our members, staff, and leaders,\u201d Powell said. \u201cTrue to its name, the conference sparked in us a renewed passion for Christ and a fresh urgency to share the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n Powell was encouraged not just through the training, but also through the visible partnership among churches.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a pastor, I\u2019m reminded tonight that I don\u2019t shepherd alone,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for a network of churches and a state convention that pours into us so we can reach Georgia for Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2026 SPARK conference season continues Sept. 13 at Central Baptist Church in Americus, Sept. 20 at Flat Creek Baptist Church in Fayetteville, and Sept. 27 at Crossroads Baptist Church in Valdosta. Registration and additional information are available at thesparkconference.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By HENRY DURAND, The Christian Index HIAWASSEE, Ga. \u2014 In a region where churches are often separated by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-276698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}