Lexington—Kentucky Baptists will focus on the urgent need to share the good news of God’s love during the 171st Kentucky Baptist Convention annual meeting Nov. 11 at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.

The annual meeting will include an address by 30-year-old megachurch leader David Platt, senior pastor at The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala., during the final session on Tuesday night, as well as the election of new convention officers and an address by KBC President Bill Henard.

Messengers to the meeting will vote on a new Cooperative Program budget goal for 2009-10 and consider a formal definition of what constitutes a gift to the missions funding program for the convention. The annual Distinguished Cooperative Program Leadership Award also will be presented.

More than 1,500 messengers from churches across the state are expected to meet for convention business, fellowship and inspiration. The theme for the annual meeting will be “Kentucky Baptists Connect: Sharing Christ with Urgency,” continuing the Kentucky Baptists Connect emphasis which began at the 2004 annual meeting.

Kentucky Baptists Connect is a five-year initiative focused on renewing commitments to evangelism, missions, leadership training, church growth, networking and relationships with Baptist agencies and institutions. This year’s convention will place an emphasis on encouraging churches to make a strong push toward achieving the goals of the initiative.

Three convention sessions are planned—Tuesday morning, 8:20 a.m.–noon; Tuesday afternoon, 1:25–4:45 p.m.; and Tuesday evening, 6:50–8:35 p.m. Convention messengers voted last year to forgo routinely holding a Wednesday morning session and no such session is scheduled this year.

The Tuesday morning session will feature an address by Henard, who was elected Southern Baptist Convention first vice president at the SBC annual meeting in June.

The highlight of Tuesday’s afternoon session will include the election of a new KBC president. John Mark Toby, pastor of Beacon Hill Baptist Church in Somerset, is currently the only announced candidate for the post.

The election of other convention officers—first vice president, second vice president, secretary and assistant secretary—also will be held during the afternoon session. Skip Alexander, pastor of Campbellsville Baptist Church, is the only announced candidate for first vice president. Nominees for the other positions have yet to be named.

Kevin Smith, pastor of Watson Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville, will bring the convention’s annual sermon Tuesday afternoon. Smith, an assistant professor of church history at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, served as first vice president of the convention in 2006-07.

Platt’s message will highlight the annual meeting’s final session on Tuesday evening. The senior pastor at the 3,500-member Church at Brook Hills since 2006, Platt has traveled at length, both nationally and internationally, to teach the Bible in churches, seminaries, underground churches and even under shade trees in Africa and Latin America.

A self-proclaimed lifelong learner, Platt has earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Georgia, and holds a Master of Divinity, Master of Theology and Doctor of Philosophy from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

He previously served at New Orleans Seminary as dean of chapel and assistant professor of expository preaching and apologetics, and as staff evangelist at Edgewater Baptist Church in New Orleans.

“I believe that God has uniquely created every one of His people to impact the world,” Platt said. “Some may count it as idealistic, but I believe it is thoroughly biblical, rooted in Psalm 67:1-2, yet covering Scripture from beginning to end. God is in the business of blessing His people so that His ways and His salvation might be made known among all people.”

The annual KBC Pastor’s Conference will be held Nov. 10. Featured speakers include Jeff Iorg, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, and James Merritt, pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Ga.

For more information about this year’s KBC annual meeting, visit www.KyBaptist.org/AnnualMeeting.