HARRISBURG (BRN) – Proving to be their most well-attended annual meeting since COVID, with nearly 300 individuals present and 90 churches represented, the Baptist Resource Network (BRN) of Pennsylvania/South Jersey (PA/SJ) hosted their fourth annual business session and Accelerate Conference on Oct. 8 at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg-Hershey Hotel in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Per tradition, the BRN’s annual business session preceded the Accelerate Conference, with Executive Board President Dr. Brian King Sr. formally opening the meeting with a time of prayer.
At the time of the business session, 111 messengers were seated and a total of 126 guests were present. Mike Blackie, who seated the messengers, is one of two outgoing executive board members, along with Dr. Jerome Coleman of First Baptist Church of Crestmont.
During the meeting, messengers voted to increase the BRN’s external cooperative giving by 1% in 2025, agreeing to give 34% to global mission efforts accomplished through the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
This decision makes 2024 the seventh consecutive year that the BRN has increased their CP giving.
The services supported by this investment include those provided by the International Mission Board (IMB), North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the SBC’s six seminaries.
BRN messengers also approved to retain 66% of cooperative giving for in house efforts, such as the servicing and resources of BRN churches, BRN operational costs, team salaries and executive board expenses.
Messengers fully approved the BRN’s proposed 2025 budget of $2,353,750.
This budget approval comes at a time when the BRN is experiencing an increased trend in its Cooperative Program (CP) giving. Currently, the state convention’s cooperative missions giving is 6.4% ahead of last year’s numbers, accompanied by a 13.5% increase in global missions giving.
Pennsylvania/South Jersey was commended for its cooperative efforts and contribution to the CP by Brandon Porter, SBC executive committee vice president for convention communications, who made the trek from Nashville to Harrisburg to attend the meeting.
Porter reminded BRN messengers of the upcoming centennial celebration in 2025 for the Cooperative Program (CP) and encouraged the convention to continue in a spirit of unity for the sake of the gospel.
In addition to financial updates, messengers also voted on a new executive board president. In a unanimous vote, presidential nominee Jason Hunter, current executive board vice president and pastor at First Baptist Church of Clarion, was elected the board’s next president.
Other notable highlights were mentioned by BRN Executive Director Dr. Barry Whitworth, such as the addition of 27 affiliated churches and a 61% increase in baptisms since 2022.
The business portion of the day wrapped up with Whitworth and his wife, Beth, presenting a special gift to King and his wife, Cynthia, as a thank you for their two years of leadership on the board.
The worship team from Fellowship CrossPoint Church in Chesterfield, N.J., then transitioned guests into the Accelerate Conference, followed by emcee Dr. Ryan Day, senior pastor at Wrightsdale Baptist Church, Peach Bottom, Pa., introducing Dr. Whitworth as the first main session speaker.
Whitworth jumped right in, getting to the heart of the conference’s theme, “Bold,” by reporting that the BRN’s goal is to see 150 churches take one bold next step by the end of 2025. To date, 112 churches across Pennsylvania/South Jersey have completed one next step, and 181 churches have taken one or more steps overall.
“I am a very firm believer that whatever we promote, we practice,” said Whitworth, noting that across the two-state region there has been an increase in baptisms, use of evangelism grants, and CP giving.
“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,” said Whitworth.
He continued: “Movements might be started because of preaching, but they are birthed because people in the pews practice what Jesus commanded the church to do.”
At the administrative level, the BRN is right in step with its churches, creating new resources and taking next steps to best serve its churches and their lay people.
So far in 2024, the BRN has upgraded its affiliation process (www.brnunited.org/affiliate) to be more user friendly, created a new CP Partnership Guide, created and participated in an all new compassion ministry initiative called #ServePASJ and unveiled a Next Level conversation starter, which is intended to “help churches design and implement BOLD moves towards reaching God’s vision for their church.”
All of these new resources and more are available to BRN churches at brnunited.org.
Whitworth concluded his time by exhorting Accelerate guests to “go bold,” citing the conference’s theme verse Proverbs 28:1: “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
“If we don’t move with boldness, we will stagnate, and that’s where 82% of churches currently find themselves today,” urged Whitworth.
“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.”
In between sessions, Whitworth led guests in a time of intentional prayer for Hurricane Helene victims, including BRN partners from the N.C. and the S.C. Baptist conventions, and those bracing themselves for Hurricane Milton.
At the conference, a special offering of over $3,000 was collected to assist Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) in hurricane relief efforts.
Accelerator Awards were also presented to churches who go above and beyond to accelerate Kingdom movement in their specific context and community. A total of five churches were awarded during the event.
For the second session, BRN director of church advancement and evangelism, Dr. Larry Anderson, took the stage to glean a message of boldness from the book of Joshua.
During his days, Joshua was repeatedly called to “be strong and courageous” as he was positioned to move God’s people forward in a new, bold way.
“Being bold was challenging Joshua to do something different…it was causing him to completely trust in the Lord for victory,” said Anderson.
Noting that past tactics were not God’s chosen path to victory in Joshua’s story, Anderson challenged BRN churches to evaluate their own strategies of evangelism.
“Being bold calls us to evaluate our strategies for building up the Kingdom of God…and dare to adjust, dare to adapt, dare to accept that, though uncomfortable, God may be doing something new…something different,” said Anderson.
Following Anderson’s session, guests dispersed to 12 breakout sessions, which each focused on a different bold topic and were led by BRN pastors and ministry leaders.
“I loved all the churches in the same room and being able to rub shoulders with other people who are on mission and serving the Lord. I think what stuck out to me most this year was the breakout sessions, being able to hear from people who are really genuine in their faith and praying and listening to the Lord and being obedient in radical ways…I was challenged by that,” said Jenn Paris of Restored Church.
In between sessions, guests had the opportunity to benefit from a networking expo that featured 16 sponsors and 22 vendors.
The conference concluded with four BRN pastors sharing personal testimonies of a time when they were called to be bold.
“Bold faith is constantly in the sense that it requires dependency upon God…sometimes we get so concerned about the outcome it hinders our obedience,” encouraged Joe Velarde, senior pastor of Riverbend Community Church.
The BRN’s next statewide conference, Advance, will take place March 17, 2025. A BRN conference for youth students, 7-12 grade, known as Amplify, will be hosted February 21-23, 2025. Stay tuned to brnunited.org for forthcoming updates on these events. View more photos from Accelerate 2024 here.
*This article was updated on Oct. 28 to reflect a necessary edit in the conference attendance.
