BRN’s Annual Meeting is canceled; virtual mini-conference will be held instead, says Exec

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the Executive Board has determined that it is necessary to cancel the BRN Annual Business Session and Annual Gathering for 2020, originally slated for November 5-6.

September 16, 2020
Barry Whitworth

Hello BRN Family! I want to bring a report to you on behalf of our Executive Board, who met on Friday, September 11.

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the Executive Board has determined that it is necessary to cancel the BRN Annual Business Session and Annual Gathering for 2020, originally slated for November 5-6. After careful consideration and consultation with legal counsel, it has been determined that it is not possible to hold the planned annual meeting and comply with the current orders issued by the Governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Accordingly, the Executive Board voted to adopt the 2020 budget as approved by the 2019 messengers and to keep the messenger-approved officers from 2019 for another year.

Additionally, Board members approved an alternative virtual mini-conference on Thursday, November 5, from 12:30-4:30 p.m. that will feature keynote presentations from Jeff Christopherson and Barry Whitworth, as well as breakouts on a variety of topics based on the theme, “Kingdom Vision,” from Revelation 7:9.

Christopherson, who is about fostering Kingdom movements of reproducing churches that transform neighborhoods and the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the author of Kingdom First: Starting Churches that Shape Movements, Kingdom Matrix: Designing a Church for the Kingdom of God, and the recently released, Venal Dogmata.

He will lead the following three keynotes:

A Kingdom Vision and its Theological Basis
A Kingdom Vision in a Pre-Christian World
A Kingdom Vision for a Post-Pandemic World

The mini-conference’s breakout topics will include discipleship, online church, justice and so much more.

Please mark your calendar to join us for this special gathering on November 5, albeit online. Invite your church members to join you as well. All can register online at brnunited.org/events. We can’t wait to see you there. God bless you!

Barry Whitworth

Barry has been in ministry for over 30 years, serving as a mission pastor, associate pastor, church planter, pastor, interim pastor, transitional pastor and planter, church planting strategist, lead church planting catalyst, church planting director, and now executive director.

Before his calling as Executive Director of the Baptist Resource Network in February 2017, he was a church planting missionary and served the Multiplying Churches Team Leader for the BRN.