I love to hop in the car and drive without a particular destination in mind. Maybe one or two stops are rolling around in my head, but the potential of discovering new places and things is part of the fun.
When it comes to leadership, however, most of your followers will want to know where you are taking them. Part of the excitement of leadership in Christian ministry is prayerfully listening as God places vision and direction on your heart and then stepping out in faith to pursue that vision and direction.
One of the joys of my role with the Kentucky Baptist Convention is in the direction-setting part of the job title, “Executive Director-Treasurer.” I love to set direction and always hope to do it in a way that honors Jesus and His mission for His people.
Listed below are seven priorities for our Kentucky Baptist Convention for the year ahead:
1. The Gospel to Every Home, Phase 2: Phase one of the GTEH is nearly 100% complete with 99% of the 1,728,681 homes in Kentucky being adopted and now Phase 2, delivering the Gospel to those homes, is underway. I am hearing stories almost daily of churches organizing for Gospel outreach.
2. Calling out the Called: This initiative, which is scheduled to be launched at the November Annual Meeting in Elizabethtown, aims at mobilizing Kentucky Baptists to help those who are hearing and answering a call from God on their life for Christian ministry leadership.
3. Friends of Life KY: Kentucky Baptists are pro-life people, but Friends of Life will seek to mobilize us for awareness, advocacy, and action all aimed at abolishing the human rights atrocity of legalized abortion in the Commonwealth.
4. REACH Conference: Our aim is to see the REACH Evangelism & Missions Conference serve as a catalyst to inspire, equip, and encourage Kentucky Baptists for even greater Gospel impact than we are already experiencing.
5. Church in the Search: This priority will seek to gather the very best resources to help Kentucky Baptist Churches in their search to fill vacant ministry positions.
6. Cooperative Program Training Kit: One of the challenges faced by those who love Cooperative Program missions is to educate and equip church members to understand and support the Cooperative Program. A new training kit coming from the KBC Communications group will help Kentucky Baptist churches tell the story of how God is using their cooperative efforts to impact the world with the Gospel.
7. Re-engaging the Disengaged: Over time, some of our KBC churches have become less engaged than they were in times past. This priority aims at strengthening our relationship with these churches and helping them re-engage with their fellow Kentucky Baptists.
I am excited about the months ahead and am thrilled to be part of a convention of churches that lives out the principle that we can do more together than we can do apart.
Please pray for your state convention and ask God to make us able to do all He has called us to do.
Dr. Todd Gray 