ETC says goodbye after five-year run

From staff reports

Equipping Today's Church (ETC), the Baptist State Convention's (BSC) annual training conference for church leaders is being discontinued, BSC officials said.

ETC events have been held at least twice a year for the last five years.

The conference was initially held each September at Ridgecrest Conference Center where 700 to 1,000 leaders from across our state attended.

Later, a second session was added in October at Caswell for leaders from the eastern part of the state. Typically, that conference trained as many as 500 to 600 leaders each year.

A third ETC was developed in recent years that focused on the northeastern segment of the state. Another 100 to 200 leaders received training there.

Robert Stewart, who retired in June 2003 as a Sunday School coach/consultant for the BSC, was a driving force behind ETC. He was known as "Mr. Sunday School of North Carolina."

"ETC was Robert's baby," said Don Bouldin, executive leader of the Congregational Services Group and Robert's former supervisor. "It was his idea. He and the Bible Teaching/Reaching Team originated the whole concept."

ETC began as a Sunday School leadership conference, but quickly evolved into something much larger, Bouldin said.

"Discipleship, deacons, pastoral ministries, Christian life, WMU, Baptist men, special ministries, evangelism and missions have all utilized this instrument to help train their leadership," he said. "ETC was a real winner."

With Stewart's retirement, BSC officials decided to go in another direction.

"ETC has been one of our most effective and popular events," Bouldin said. "Still, we want to be careful to make sure that it ceases like it began ... with a bang. Therefore, we intend to build upon what we've accomplished. We don't want this to be just another event crammed into the lives of busy people. So, we're celebrating all ETC has accomplished and preparing to move on."

The Congregational Services Group, the primary sponsor of ETC, will be using other methods to provide leadership training. Regional events will be featured in 2004-2005.

"We're planning some experiences now that we think will be even more effective in meeting the need of Baptist leaders across our state," said Phil Stone, team leader of the Bible Study/Church Administration team.

Stone encouraged Baptists to watch for advertisements of new events that will be coming in the spring and fall of 2004.

"We're grateful for Robert and his wonderful brain-child, Equipping Today's Church," Bouldin said. "We want to thank God for all that has been accomplished in leadership training over the last five years. Now, we're anticipating some powerful new experiences that God is planning that will equip Baptist leaders in the years just ahead."