ROANOKE — Joe Lewis, who presided at last week's meeting as he concluded his year as BGAV president, opened the sessions by calling messengers to “celebrate the family called Virginia Baptists and celebrate the response to the invitation of God, to the good things he is doing now and the things he will do in the neighborhood.”
Photo by Alice Rusher
Joe Lewis
“You can be proud to be a Virginia Baptist,” said Lewis, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Petersburg. “Now is a good time to be a Baptist and it is an exceedingly great time to be a Virginia Baptist.”
Lewis encouraged his audience to celebrate “the next two days” by “increasing our love of God” and “increasing our love of neighbor,” referring the meeting's theme, “Who Is My Neighbor?”
Also welcoming messengers was Roanoke Mayor David A. Bowers, who noted that two Baptist ministers have been mayor of his city — Nelson Harris, pastor of Virginia Heights Baptist Church in Roanoke, and Noel Taylor, who was the Star City's first African-American to hold the office.
Adding his greetings was Bob Hetherington, director of missions for the Roanoke Valley Baptist Association, many of whose churches provided volunteers to assist at the annual meeting.