September 4, 2000
Texas Evangelism Conference
moves to San Antonio in 2001
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___The Texas Evangelism Conference is moving. After 13 consecutive years in Fort Worth, the conference will be held in San Antonio's Municipal Auditorium Jan. 29-30.
___Construction at the Fort Worth Convention Center forced conference planners to look for an alternative site, said Bailey Stone, evangelism director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. They found the San Antonio auditorium to fit the bill.
___During the past 30 years, Fort Worth has been the site of the meeting all but four years, when neighboring Dallas got the nod. In 1964, San Antonio was the site of one of five regional evangelism conferences.
___"When I first walked into the Municipal Auditorium, I was deeply moved," Stone said of his visit to the site in fall 1999. "It was almost an emotional experience. I felt this is where God wants us, this is where we need to be; and I felt it so deeply."
___Stone has been evangelism director since 1992, so this is the first time he's planned the conference away from Fort Worth.
___"We chose San Antonio because it is a convention city, a city people enjoy visiting," he said. Its location also will make it easier for Baptists in South Texas to attend the conference.
___Municipal Auditorium, however, is a smaller venue. It seats 5,000. In Fort Worth, the Evangelism Conference typically attracted 7,000 to 8,000 on a "good night," Stone said. More than 9,000 attended one session last year.
___To compensate, two identical sessions will be held on Tuesday night when Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, returns for a second-time engagement. Participants will choose between attending a 4 p.m. session or a 7:30 p.m. session. Also, overflow space will be available downstairs in the auditorium and across the street at First Baptist Church.
___"Municipal Auditorium is a bit smaller," Stone said, "but it's so warm and people-friendly. It fits the worship experience we look for. It's a great preaching place."
___In addition to Cymbala, the conference will feature Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, and Luis Palau, internationally known evangelist on Monday night.
___Tuesday morning's speakers will be Albert Reyes, president of Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio; Thom Rainer, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.; and Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.
___Six seminars are planned for early Tuesday afternoon.
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