DAVIS—Approximately 60 pastors and church leaders attended the Oklahoma Bible Conference (OBC) at Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, Sept. 26-28. This year’s OBC focused on the book of Malachi, which will be the emphasis for the January Bible Study for Oklahoma Baptists.
Bobby Kelly and Scott Pace, Bible professors at Oklahoma Baptist University, were the OBC instructors who were well received. Brett Selby, pastoral leadership specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, led prayer times centered on themes in Malachi and God’s instructions to the priests.
“The 2017 January Bible Student emphasis gives Oklahoma Baptist preachers an opportunity at the Oklahoma Bible Conference to have an important discussion,” Selby said. “How do we preach Old Testament texts? Obviously we preach them as the inerrant Word of God. In addition to that, we must proclaim this book in the scope and in the stream of the storyline of Biblical theology, the overarching storyline of the Gospel of redemption. This actually provides those of us who preach on a regular basis a ‘workshop’ to get better in our preaching.”
This was the first time OBC met in the Mathena Family Event Center at Falls Creek. The new facility has been resourceful for a variety of meetings and events, since it opened in February.
Selby said the Event Center provided the ideal setting for the OBC, as attendees learned the importance of sharing the Gospel regardless of which book of the Bible is addressed from the pulpit.
“One of the realities of church life today is that we rarely have the same crowd every Sunday,” said Selby. “So there is a need to make sure that our weekly proclamation always is gospel-focused, regardless of the particulars of the day. It might be Mother’s Day. It might be Baccalaureate Sunday. Or it might be the day on which Malachi is being preached. However, on that day, hopefully a lost person will be there, and he or she needs to hear the Gospel, no matter where the preacher’s text is taken. This is what they need to hear, and not merely a story with a moral example or a set of behavioral imperatives.”
