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Convention Meets Challenges Of Changing Times

By Rosaland Tyler
Assistant Editor
New Journal and Guide

   Some things will change and yet remain the same, when the Virginia Baptist State Convention holds its 141st annual session at the Chesapeake Conference Center from May 12-16.
    Aimed at attracting more young adults this year, the four-day convention will feature an opening-night concert that is expected to include a mass-choir with 2000 members. Praise dancers will also perform. Throughout the week, the convention will feature diverse events such as a president’s banquet, and special events designed specifically for youth, women, men, and Baptist from overseas.
   “We have been changing much of our tradition,” said the Rev. Dr. Naomi P. Chambers, who is the moderator of the Sharon Missionary Baptist Association, which is co-hosting this year’s convention with Tidewater-Penisula Baptist Association.
   “We are coming into the 21st century with open minds and the desire of our constituents,” said Chambers, the first female to head the SMBA in 93 years. “I had to tell myself, when I was elected that this is an act of the Almighty. I’m here in this position not as a female but as a leader. I have to help lift up the organization to help it grow.”
    This is one reason why convention planners will include the old and new at the upcoming convention. The overall goal is to increase the population of the churches, said Chambers, whose organization currently oversees 30 member-churches in Hampton Roads.

Posted May 7, 2008

So the convention will feature a free-opening night musical that will require a ticket. To attract more youth, middle-age women, and men, Chambers said, plans call for featuring more trumpets, praise dancers, and representatives from Africa, as she did at her inaugural session which was held in July 2007.
    There are other experienced convention planners who are also offering input that will help the convention move forward. For example, there is the Rev. Maurice Chambers, who has pastored Suffolk’s Pleasant Union Baptist Church for 35 years. He has attended the annual Baptist convention for 20 years
   “We are attempting to keep up with the times,” Chambers said. “We have more seminary-trained pastors now and more enlightened congregations as a result.”
    This philosophy has caused attendance at the convention to steadily increase each year. “It has grown,” said Geraldine Hopson, first vice moderator of the Tidewater-Penisula Baptist Association. “This is our year of moving forward and addressing the issues of a new day and a new generation.
   “For example, you have more people who are going abroad as missionaries. And you have people who are coming from India and Africa to preach the gospel in America,” Hopson said.

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