About the SBC Bus Tour

Dr. Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, will launch a nationwide bus tour Aug. 29 from First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he is pastor. He will visit churches in all 50 states to encourage Southern Baptists to evangelize more passionately and reach a goal of 1 million baptisms.

"My invitation, prayer and expectation is to visit all sizes and types of churches in order to string together a mosaic of what the SBC really looks like at its grassroots and heart," Welch said in a statement to Baptist Press.

Welch will travel in a 45-foot-long bus built by Hemphill Bros. Coach Company in Nashville, Tenn., the company that built President Bush's campaign bus.

Painted on the side of the bus are faces of Southern Baptists interposed on an American flag with the words "The Southern Baptist Convention Kingdom Challenge" and "Everyone Can Witness, Win and Baptize ... One Million!" The design also reads, "Do all you can ... with all you have ... where you are ... NOW!"

In 25 travel days spanning from Aug. 29 to Oct. 7, Welch expects to log approximately 20,000 miles. On board will be a six-person team of Welch, two drivers, a Baptist Press reporter, a media specialist and a coordinator.

The format for each stop will be for Welch to make some opening remarks before joining church members in door-to-door visits within the community. In each state, Welch will invite the executive director, evangelism director, Sunday School director, convention president, pastor's conference president and newspaper editor to join him on the bus while in their state.

"[This will be a time] for me to hear from them what they think our convention needs most and how I can help their state work," Welch said.

From Daytona Beach, the bus will travel up the East Coast through Georgia and the Carolinas to Richmond, Va., and then into New England. Then it will travel back through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and down to the South through Nashville, Tenn., before making its way into Texas by Sept. 10. The crew will take a brief break and then pick up in the Midwest before traveling north to Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas. Next will be a trip out West through Colorado, Montana and California.

The bus tour will wrap up with a trip to Vancouver, Canada, an SBC Strategic Focus City with the North American Mission Board, and Welch's travels will finish with trips to Alaska and Hawaii.

Please click here for bus tour schedule.

Click here to learn more about the Southern Baptist Convention.