convention strategy

MERIDIAN, Idaho – The 57^th Annual Meeting of the Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention met on October 29 at Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho. The theme was Delighting in the Word based on messages given from Psalm 119. Convention sermon was on prioritizing the gospel, above all else by host pastor, Clint Henry of CVBC. Worship was led by Robbie Tschorn of Redeeming Life Church in Bountiful, UT.

Reports were provided in person by national agency partners; Dr. Jeff Iorg of Gateway Seminary, Jonathan Howe of the SBC Executive Committee, Hoon Im of Guidestone, Bobby Wood of North American Mission Board, Ed Upton of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, David-Andrew and Pam Fox of the International Mission Board. Several other reports were given via video.

Due to a glitch, we were unable to present a personal message from Dr. Ronnie Floyd given directly to Utah Idaho Southern Baptists via video. We have uploaded that video to our YouTube page for you to view now. Here is the link to that message by Dr. Floyd. We apologize for not having it presented during our live meeting or YouTube session. https://youtu.be/Z9MQHSROPK4

The Utah Idaho Executive Board presented and the messengers approved the renewed and updated Vision Report after a year of work by the board appointed Vision Task Force. The main change from the original Vision 2020 report is the addition of the word “Churches” in front of our three main priorities and recognizing that we do what we do surrendered to the authority of Christ. The new preamble to the vision report is “Surrendered to Christ, U&I Together are Churches Sharing Christ, Churches Starting Churches, and Churches Strengthening Churches”.

The heart of the renewed vision is to empower and encourage churches to be catalysts for helping other affiliated churches within the convention and pick up tasks previously provided by the UISBC staff. All must recognize that none of those priorities can be accomplished in isolation. We must be surrendered to Christ. The full text of this report can be read and downloaded here from our website. https://www.uisbc.org/annual-convention/am-documents/.

A new slate of convention officers was elected. President, Jared Jenkins, Risen Life Church, Salt Lake City, UT. First Vice President, Roger Naylor, FBC Bonners Ferry, ID. Second Vice President, Dave Carver, Water’s Edge Fellowship, Burley, ID. Recording Secretary, Timothy O’Day, Christ Fellowship Church, Lehi, UT. Time/Place/Preacher Committee presented the 2023 Annual Meeting will take place on Friday, October 27 at Calvary Baptist Church in Idaho Falls, ID with convention sermon to be preached by Matt McGukin, host pastor. Dave Carver will be the alternate preacher. 

The main highlight of the afternoon session was the announcement that the North American Mission Board and UISBC are partnering together to form Send Utah-Idaho, a network that will serve to be catalysts for church planting across Utah and Idaho. This is an expansion of what NAMB was doing through Send Salt Lake City over the previous decade.

Resolutions were presented by Jason DeFoor of Canyons Church in Salt Lake City, Chairman of the Resolutions Committee. In addition to offering gratitude to the host church, a resolution on the abolishment of abortion was passed by the 92 messengers in attendance. The full text of the resolutions can be read using the above link or scanning the QR code in this article with your phone.  

A video recording playlist of the 57^th Annual Meeting of the UISBC can be found on our YouTube channel or by visiting the Annual Meeting page on our website. https://www.uisbc.org/annual-convention

The 58^th Annual Meeting of the Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention will be held at Mountain View Baptist Church in Layton, UT on October 28, 2022.