Improving all aspects of local church life that fulfills the basic mission of bringing the Gospel to the world is the goal of South Carolina Baptist Convention Executive Director-Treasurer Dr. Jim Austin.

To that end, Austin will hold a listening session from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday, Sept. 10, at Four Holes Baptist Church in Orangeburg.

Austin said he has held these meetings with church leaders and members at various locations around South Carolina over the last several years. The first meeting this year was held in Florence.

"We're having six listening sessions this year," Austin said. "We want to get feedback and input from churches and leaders from a convention perspective in order to structure resources to assist them and encourage relationship building.

"More often than not, what we hear is about the needs individual churches have. Many discussions also revolve around how to present the Gospel and other topics related to administrative issues."

The state Baptist Convention has no authority over local Baptist congregations, which are autonomous and relate voluntarily. There are approximately 2,100 member churches in South Carolina.

Austin said the convention has a new organizational structure to help struggling and solid Baptist churches become stronger through relevant ministries for their members.

"Secondly, we are addressing the issue of new churches as our population grows and demographics change in different areas of the state," Austin said. "We want to get churches in those areas and grow."

"When it comes to missions and evangelism, we also want to provide opportunities locally and throughout the world," he said.

Austin said the listening sessions help the convention improve by discovering what's working and what's not. He also wants to discover how to make strong programs stronger.

"One that we are good at is disaster relief," Austin said. "We are the third-largest disaster relief organization, following the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. For tornadoes, floods and hurricanes, we had teams on the ground in the fires in Myrtle Beach and in other areas, Aiken, Augusta (Ga.)."

Austin said a cause of concern among Christian denominations is membership levels.

"We have had some plateaus, and we've seen some decline," Austin said. "We want to reemphasize evangelism and the basics to foster growth. We want to provide ministries for the community because Christ came for all. We serve him through our fellow man, and we must be sensitive to local communities. For example, in this current recession, we are training families how to survive in this financial environment. We are looking for ways to partner with and help local schools.

"We are just looking at everything to see how we can serve. Our main goal is to live the Christian life, share the good news and help people know God through Jesus Christ."

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T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached by e-mail at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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