HARRISBURG (BRN) – As we begin our conference, I want to thank you for attending and for your sacrifice of time and resources to be here today. I want to especially express my gratitude to our sponsors and vendors for not only attending today, but for their resources that help make this conference a blessing to the BRN family.
I want to also thank my team for all the hard work they put into making this conference happen every year. Accelerate has always been designed with this end in mind, to help encourage and equip pastors and lay people in their sphere of work and influence to accelerate Kingdom movement throughout PA/SJ. It is our hope that you will receive that today.
Today we live in a world that is both challenging to our faith and what we believe as Baptists. The world and its key evil manipulator are seeking to divide the culture and the body of Christ. The SBC itself has been going through some tenuous times, division seems constantly prevalent with opinions shooting from every side. But . . . God is still on His throne, the Word is still the Word, His message and story will prevail, and the gospel will not be hidden even though many from darkness, and some who claim to have light, try to diminish His work in the world today.
I want you to know that the BRN will never compromise our beliefs as Baptists. We will strive to never let divisive ideologies split us. We will not let legalism or modernistic philosophies divide us nor allow any divisive egotism to conform us with opinions that are contrary to the Word of God.
The BRN marches forward to assist Jesus’ church, by honoring God and His Word, by seeking to fulfill His plan, by ultimately doing all that we can to bring Him glory on the earth. No matter what happens around us, we will be committed as a network of churches in PA and SJ – in our part of the Northeast U.S. – in working together towards fulfilling the Great Commandment and Great Commission of Jesus Christ.
At Accelerate last year, we focused on encouraging next steps within our BRN churches. Our goal is to see 150 churches complete a next step by the end of 2025. To date, 112 churches have completed one next step, and 181 churches have taken one or more steps overall. We celebrate this movement amongst our churches. Thank you, pastors, for leading them well.
This year we set out to ask the question, “How can we help churches, and our team move to the next level of our ministry?”
I started the year asking our team, “What BOLD move do we need to make to reach our next level in resourcing and servicing our 313 churches across the BRN?” I am a very firm believer that whatever we promote, we practice.
In previous years, our team has taken our own next steps – as we’ve encouraged churches to take next steps – in becoming more effective and vibrant in our work. Before I explain to you how we’ve taken steps this year to move to the next level of our work, let me share some quick highlights that might help you see the greater health and steps that have been taken across our two-state area. In the most recent ACP (2023), 1,602 baptisms were recorded across the BRN, which is a 61% increase from the previous year.
Ministry and evangelism grants churches requested and utilized so far this year total nearly $200,000. Cooperative Program (CP) giving, just this year, is at the strongest level in the history of the BRN. And, this morning, during the business session you approved sending another 1% nationally to CP, making this the 7th consecutive year we’ve increased CP giving. We’ve now gone from 26% in 2017 to 34% in 2025.
Thank you for faithfully giving to CP! The stories we’ve received from our churches are indicating that there is more and more lay involvement occurring in evangelism, disciple-making, internships, mission trips, and community ministry that we haven’t see in a long, long time. Church history communicates and teaches that in any culture it is the movement among the laity that creates the greatest impact for the gospel. Movements might be started because of preaching, but they are birthed because people in the pews practice what Jesus commanded the church to do.
Throughout this year the BRN launched several new initiatives to help move our network to its next level of work. One of those initiatives was by encouraging more churches – that are like-minded doctrinally – to become a part of the BRN family.
We’ve now upgraded our affiliation process which smoothly communicates and enhances who we are as a network, and now gives other like-minded evangelical churches the opportunity to explore the possibility of joining our network for greater impact across PASJ. The affiliation process can now be completed online for approval from our executive board. Having more churches will allow us to have a greater impact in reaching millions of lost people across PASJ. If you know a church in your region that could benefit from networking with our churches within the BRN, please send them to brnunited.org/affiliate.
Another initiative we created this year was to produce a more effective way to communicate the Cooperative Program. Our own Shannon Baker produced a new CP Partnership Guide – which you have in your packet – to help better communicate the value of partnering together in CP to reach more people with the gospel in PA/SJ and across the world.
Next year, at the birthplace of the Cooperative Program in Memphis, Tennessee, the SBC family will celebrate the 100th year anniversary of CP. This funding mechanism has help change millions upon millions of lives, here, and all around the world. CP is one of two trademarks of who we are as Southern Baptists, the other being our stance and conviction upon standing on the Word of God. We believe this guide will provide easier access to information about CP and will help pastors better communicate the importance and significance of giving to the Cooperative Program as it impacts the world today. All these resources are now available to you online at brnunited.org/cp.
A third initiative we produced to help our work grow stronger and to have more impact across our two-state region, was to develop a way for people to give directly to something that they feel passionate about, and that they would want to provide as an eternal investment for Kingdom work. The BRN Executive Board, having already created an endowment called the #LovePASJ Legacy Fund – which helps generates more resources for our work, agreed to create the Impact Fund where people today can generously support specific areas of ongoing work throughout the BRN.
Impact Funds are designed to make a greater impact in areas that help change lives across PA/SJ, areas like taking care of pastors and their needs, advancing church health, next gen ministry, internships, starting new churches, disaster relief, and compassion and #ServePASJ ministries. We are excited that people anywhere can help advance and accelerate our witness and testimony through giving to support these critical areas of ministry. You can see all about this fund at brnunited.org/impact-funds.
And speaking of compassion ministry, we ‘ve created something that we believe will help people in PA and SJ experience the love of Jesus Christ. We call this #ServePASJ. Last month we had our very first inaugural Serve Tour in Erie, Pa. Nearly 300 people journeyed from across PA/SJ to Erie to assist our three churches located there, Harborcreek Community Church, Millcreek Community Church, and Walnut Creek Baptist Church.
The volunteers participated in 19 projects throughout the Erie area. Over 3,400 people were served, and 306 gospel conversations were made during this two-day endeavor. A want to give a special shout out of thanks to Buff McNickle and our team, they worked tirelessly for this event. We’re now excited to next go to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in June of next year. We invite all of you to participate. This event has shown that it can be very life changing. You can check out the stories/testimonies of what happened in Erie and get future information about Serve Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at servepasj.com. You will see a short video about this below.
This year we also redesigned our online ACP process to help make it more accessible and easier to use. It is now available for year-round use. The ACP is one of three mechanisms communicated in the original SBC Charter that we agree to support and give as Southern Baptists. Our desire is to get the information that the report provides to the SBC as straightforward as possible. ACP helps measure growth and passes on critical information to our SBC entity partners. You can now access the new ACP report at brnunited.org/acp.
We also spent time this year redesigning our operational system. I felt it was time to analyze and redesign our system to fully complement our current strategy. Most organizations don’t fail because of strategy, they mainly fail because of their operating system. A system is the delivery mechanism for getting work successfully completed. It’s been said, “Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you’re currently getting.”
I have always believed this to be true, and we routinely observe this throughout many churches that we work with today. Strategy isn’t always the problem; normally it’s the system around the strategy that’s the issue. Knowing and believing that our BRN strategy has shown evidence that its effective, I wanted to examine our system to make sure we’re receiving measurable and successful results as we move forward. We’ve now basically aligned everything within the BRN to function under three key components: strategic leadership, strategic initiatives, and strategic advancement. Everything and everybody will now function within this framework.
A final piece we initiated this year was creating a Next Level conversation starter, that will help churches design and implement BOLD moves towards reaching God’s vision for their church. We have placed within your registration bag a Next Level Guide that asks this question, “Are you ready to lead your church to the next level?” The guide, being more geared for the pastor and church leadership, helps ask the questions, “What is God calling our church to achieve?” And are we moving boldly in fulfilling the mission and vision God has for our church?”
People cannot embrace something they don’t know or has no goals in getting them there. We want to help a pastor, and the church, to know how to create a journey that fulfills what God expects to see and happen through His church. We share this resource from our own experience as a team. Having developed and walked this journey ourselves, and what you’ve observed and experienced the last three years, we desire to help you make bold moves in getting to the next level God is wanting to you to achieve. Dr. Anderson will speak more on this in a moment, and a breakout session has been designed to help start this conversation with you.
Today’s conference theme is meant to inspire: “BOLD: Next Level.” Our theme verse is Proverbs 28:1, “The wicked flee when no one pursues them, but the righteous are as BOLD as a lion.” The wicked (the ungodly) flee when no one pursues: This speaks of a confusion and fear that accurately belong to the wicked, but not to the godly (the righteous) things are different. This proverb implies that the wicked, prompted by a guilty conscience or a fear of judgment, become fearful and suspicious of everyone. However, God’s righteous stand even when one comes against them, and with God’s power they are as bold as a lion.
Have you noticed that everything about a lion looks bold? The way he walks and moves is bold. His majestic mane is bold. The way he opens his mouth and roars is bold. A lion’s teeth and claws look bold. Everything on the outside of a lion seems bold; yet, what really makes a lion bold is not what he looks like on the outside, but who he is on the inside. It’s not his mane, teeth, or claws that make him bold; it is his heart. A lion is bold from the inside-out! This should describe us!!
The world we live in today is an enemy-occupied jungle, and we need more than a select few to show up. We need the righteous—those in right standing with God—to show up as bold as a lion! We don’t need to be the largest or fastest or smartest or most powerful beings in the jungle; we just need to be the hungriest. Lions aren’t feared because they’re the most qualified; they’re dangerous because they’re never satisfied. Catch the implications here: When you’re hungry, you pursue something! And if you’re not pursuing anything – if you’re not hungering and thirsting for righteousness – it might suggest that you’re already satisfied. Let me ask you, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with how things are in the church today?
The aim of this conference is to hopefully inspire you to greater boldness – hungering and thirsting in doing what is right in the eyes of our King – and to challenge you to not only take next steps but to move boldly to the next level Jesus desires to take you and your ministry in the days to come.
In today’s conference, you will be challenged to think about being bold and moving to your next level, either personally, or as a church. Dr. Anderson will challenge you on how to evaluate and strategize for greater boldness. Our breakout leaders will discuss certain areas that will help strengthen your work and inspire boldness. The testimonies you will hear later are designed to encourage you on how God has led some pastors to make bold moves. Even our vendors are here to communicate resources that will inspire boldness. Please check those out today.
It’s time to get off our recliners and move boldly in our faith.
There is an idiom that you’ve probably heard, “Go big (bold) or go home.” That idiom I believe applies to the church today. It’s time to get off our recliners and move boldly in our faith. If we don’t move with boldness, we will stagnate, and that’s where 82% of churches currently find themselves today. I believe churches are stagnated, not mainly because of what they are doing in today’s world, but because of what they are not doing, which is not relying on Jesus for everything and boldly taking steps to move the church exactly where He wants it to be.
When God’s people are not being bold for Christ they become “timid, anxious, fearful, fainthearted, spiritless, afraid, and weak.” Unfortunately, and sadly, this describes many churches today. When you have the Holy Spirit within you fear shouldn’t be the prevalent element of our faith, boldness should! 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
If there is one thing we know about a lion, its bold. Proverbs 28:1 communicates that boldness should be the character of one who follows Jesus Christ. To help inspire us to greater boldness, let me share an acrostic that might encourage you in becoming bolder in your faith today. When you think about being BOLD, I challenge you to consider these words, and Scriptures:
Believe: Have confidence that you can move to your next level.
- Phil. 1:6 — And being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
- 2 Tim. 1:12 – “But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.”
Obey: Do what Jesus wants and not what satisfies you or others.
- Luke 6:46 – “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
- John 14:15 – “if you love me, you will obey my commands”
- Luke 11:28 – “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Limitless: There are no limits in what God can do through you.
- Luke 1:37 – “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
- Job 42:2 – “I know that you can do anything and no plan of yours can be thwarted.”
- 1 Thess. 5:24 – “He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.”
Determined: Don’t ever give up!
- 2 Corinthians 12:10 – “Stand firm, and you will win life”
- Galatians 6:9 -“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”
- Hebrews 10:36 – “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”
As I close, let me remind you that in the book of Acts, and in Hebrews 11, we see clearly the boldness of those who have gone before us.
The ancients of old, through faith, sacrificed everything to be obedient to God. The Apostles, and the early church, prayed and sacrificed boldly. Peter and Paul spoke boldly the Word, as did Stephen before he was martyred for his faith.
History tells us that millions of Christians have been martyred for their faith, and yes even today many saints around the world live and die in extremely dangerous places because of their witness and love for Christ.
Let us never forget that Jesus himself lived and acted boldly before the religious system that hated him, and how He willingly and boldly went to the cross to die a brutal death for our sin. Because of what Jesus did for us, individually and collectively, we are indebted to sacrifice it all for Him. To live boldly, to go to the next level and journey boldly, means we give everything within us to Jesus today.
I challenge you as a church to be bold, to be bold in your witness and actions. Be bold in being faithful in going to the next level that Jesus wants to take you. Please remember this; bold defines us (not fear), why, because “the righteous are as bold as a lion!”
Boldness is our trademark! Roar for Jesus, roar for the lion of Judah!! Let’s be bold, let’s go to the next level Jesus has for us, let’s be lions for Jesus’ sake, until we all reach the prize Christ has for us in our “heavenly home.” Amen!
