ATLANTA – The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has opened pre-registration for its 2008 General Assembly June 19-20 in Memphis, Tenn.
Under the theme "Embrace the World: Building Bridges," the Assembly will gather at the Cook Convention Center for worship, ministry workshops, fellowship, annual business sessions and other activities. Highlights include a special time of Assembly-wide guided prayer and discernment about the future, a Thursday evening keynote address by human rights activist and Baptist minister Lauran Bethell, and a Friday evening celebration of missional churches engaged in ministry around the world.
A major schedule change this year involves the annual commissioning of CBF Global Missions field personnel, which will be held the evening of Wednesday, June 18, prior to the Assembly.
This will be the Assembly’s first in Memphis, a prominent Mississippi Delta city in close proximity to several of the Fellowship’s Together for Hope ministry sites, which aim to reduce poverty in rural areas of the United States.
"Our theme of ‘Building Bridges’ was chosen for the prominence of the bridges that span the mighty Mississippi River, crossing into areas of the world CBF has targeted for its Together for Hope emphasis," said Randy Hyde, chairman of the Assembly planning committee and pastor of Pulaski Heights Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.
Pre-registration for the Assembly can be completed online or by calling the Fellowship at (800) 352-8741. Pre-registration is required before making reservations at the area hotels with Assembly room discounts. The Marriott Memphis Downtown is the host hotel and is connected to the Cook Convention Center. Two other hotels have CBF room discounts with rates varying from $99-$109 per night.
Pre-register and learn more about at the Fellowship’s Assembly Web site, www.thefellowship.info/involved/events/generalassembly.icm. A tentative Assembly schedule, further information on hotels and things to do and see in Memphis, and Assembly promotion materials are available on the Web site.
CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.