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LAS COLINAS—Designed to encourage and equip churches in evangelism, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s annual Empower Conference has steadily grown in recent years, culminating in last year’s record attendance of more than 2,800. This year’s conference—Feb. 25-26 at the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas—features a modified schedule and diverse speaker lineup that includes Trip Lee, D.A. Horton, Lee Strobel and Brooklyn Tabernacle pastor Jim Cymbala.
“There are a lot of great conferences out there, but what sets Empower apart from the others is that it is a true evangelism conference,” said Shane Pruitt, SBTC director of evangelism. “I’ve asked every speaker and breakout leader to speak on something under the umbrella of evangelism and making disciples.”
This year’s schedule includes two days of breakout sessions, allowing attendees to select from a list of 25 breakouts led by ministry experts. Sessions are designed to give practical tools and action steps for churches to use in evangelizing their communities. A full list of breakout sessions can be found at sbtexas.com/empower.
The conference begins Monday, Feb. 25, with a missions luncheon and classics luncheon from 11 a.m.-12:45 p.m., followed by breakout sessions, a new pastors’ orientation, women’s session and classics session.
Monday evening will feature worship by Jimmy McNeal and Austin Stone Worship, along with sermons from author, pastor and rapper Trip Lee; best-selling author and apologetics professor Lee Strobel; and D.A. Horton, a church planter in Los Angeles and national coordinator of Urban Student Missions at the North American Mission Board. Following the evening session will be a late-night gathering with Trip Lee on reaching the next generation with the gospel.
On Tuesday morning, attendees will hear messages from Noe Garcia, Nathan Lorick and Gregg Matte, followed by a Cooperative Program lunch and afternoon breakout sessions.
The conference will conclude with a session from 4:45-5:45 p.m. featuring a sermon from Jim Cymbala, the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle since 1971. Under his ministry, the multicultural church has grown from around 20 people to more than 10,000 in weekly attendance. The story of God’s mighty work in the church is chronicled in Cymbala’s award-winning book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.
Registration for the Empower Conference sessions is free and available at sbtexas.com/empower. Tickets for meals are available for purchase at the website as well.
