For close to seven decades God’s word was proclaimed from the intricately carved wooden pulpit. That historic piece of craftsmanship, where numerous Southern Baptist forefathers preached, will come alive once again June 12-13 at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference in Anaheim, California. The conference will be held in conjunction with the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting.
The “Bellevue Pulpit,” once used by former SBC presidents such as Adrian Rogers, R.G. Lee and Ramsey Pollard, will make its cross-country trek from its home at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee, to southern California, where “another page of history” will be written as the 2022 PC preachers will “stand behind it to proclaim the Word,” Matt Henslee, president of the 2022 conference, announced Jan. 20.
“I knew the pulpit we used was not everything, but it sure was something,” Henslee wrote in a blog.
“After a lot of prayers, I shot my shot. I reached out to Steve Gaines to ask about the ‘Bellevue Pulpit,’ and [he] and Bellevue Baptist in Memphis generously and graciously agreed to loan it to us for the conference,” he wrote.
This year’s lineup
In December Henslee announced the lineup of 12 preachers for the conference.
The 12 who were selected “are faithful men of God who love their families well, lead their churches well and handle the inerrant, infallible, sufficient word [of God] well,” Henslee said.
In addition to Henslee, associational mission strategist for Collin Baptist Association in Fairview, Texas, other PC officers are vice president Cam Triggs, lead pastor of Grace Alive in Orlando, Florida, and treasurer Sam Greer, senior pastor of Red Bank Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
