September 16, 2024 - September 17, 2024

Robert Smith, Jr. (Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Doctor of Sacred Theology (STD, Honorary Doctorate), Temple Community Bible College, Cincinnati, OH; (2009) Doctor of Divinity Honoris Causa, Newburgh Theological Seminary, Newburgh, Indiana) recently retired from serving as Professor of Christian Preaching and holds the Charles T. Carter Baptist Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School. Dr. Smith is the 2017 E. K. Bailey Expository Preaching Conference Living Legend and has been chosen to receive the Legacy Legend Award by Truett Seminary of Baylor University on September 28, 2022. A popular teacher and preacher, he received Southern’s 1996 Findley B. Edge Award for Teaching Excellence. An ordained Baptist minister, he served as pastor of the New Mission Missionary Baptist Church in Cincinnati, OH for twenty years. He and his wife, Dr. Wanda Taylor-Smith, Ph.D., are the parents of four adult children (two in heaven) and eight grandchildren.

Jimmy Scroggins is the Lead Pastor of Family Church in South Florida, where he has served since July 2008. He and his wife, Kristin, have eight children and four grandchildren – James (Reilly, James VI, Wyatt), Daniel (Mary-Madison, Willow Kate, Haven Hope), Jeremiah (Logan), Isaac, Stephen, Anna Kate, Mary Claire and Caleb. Under Jimmy’s leadership, Family Church has grown to a network of neighborhood churches and schools across three counties in three languages. Family Church is passionate about building families by helping them discover and pursue God’s design while carrying out their vision of taking the gospel to every person in every neighborhood in South Florida. Jimmy is the author of Full Circle Parenting and Turning Everyday Conversations into Gospel Conversations and hosts the Church for the Rest of Us podcast at familychurchnetwork.com. He also serves on the Board of Trustees at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Dr. Scroggins teaches as a visiting professor at both SBTS and SEBTS.

James Merritt is the pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia.  He is the host of a nationwide and worldwide broadcast ministry, Touching Lives.  He earned a Master of Divinity degree and a PhD in Evangelism from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  He served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention – the largest protestant denomination in the country.  He and his wife, Teresa, have three sons and five grandchildren.

Dr. Pace has served in pastoral ministry for over 20 years in a variety of full-time and interim capacities in three states. He speaks regularly at conferences and training events that seek to equip pastors and church leaders. Prior to his vocational calling, Scott served in the corporate world as an accountant and the private sector as a business manager. He and his wife, Dana, have been married since 1999 and have four children – Gracelyn, Tyler, and Tessa, and Cassie.