Lebanon will be Missouri stop on bus tour
August 31, 2004
JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri stop on the nationwide bus tour of Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), will be in Lebanon, at First Baptist Church, Lebanon, Sept. 23.
Plans call for Welch to speak at 6 p.m. followed by a night of visitation. This is the pattern Welch will be following on the tour as he visits all 50 states to focus on soul-winning and the Great Commission.
“He’s come to our church a couple of times, and we’ve formed a good relationship,” said Scott Guinter, minister of education and administration at First Lebanon. “It’s a great honor. We’d like to invite other Missouri Baptist churches to come out that night and work with us.”
In Missouri, Welch is inviting Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director David Clippard, MBC State Evangelism Director Bob Caldwell, MBC Sunday School Director Bruce Morrison, MBC President David Tolliver, MBC Pastors Conference President Mike Green and Don Hinkle, editor of The Pathway, to join him on the bus. The goal is for Welch to hear how he can help them.
Missouri will be represented on the first leg of the tour by Pathway staff writer Allen Palmeri, who was asked by Baptist Press to serve as their reporter on the bus for those two weeks. From Aug. 29 to Sept. 10, the bus will be in 25 states, from Florida to Maine and back down to Texas and Oklahoma. The second half of the tour will begin in Arkansas Sept. 23 before the bus rolls into Lebanon that evening.
Missouri Baptists on the western side of the state will have another opportunity to see Welch when the tour comes to Kansas City, Kan., Sept. 29.