NOVEMBER 4-5 SPRINGFIELD, IL
Crowne Plaza, Springfield
JOIN US FOR THE 2025
IBSA ANNUAL MEETING
Celebrating Unity & Cooperation
PRACTICAL BREAKOUTS
ON WEDNESDAY
Choose from multiple different breakouts taught by IBSA leaders, Local Pastors, and national experts.
Categories include:
- For the Pastor
- For the Pastor’s Wife & Women in Leadership
- For the Church Planter
- For the Hispanic Church Leader
- For the Leader in Church Health and Revitalization
- For the Leader of Church Ministries
- For the Leader in Missions and Evangelism
main session speakers
More details and registration info
coming END OF AUGUST
Dr. Jeff iorg
Dr. Jeff Iorg is President and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee. He served as president of Gateway Seminary from 2004-24, managing its relocation to Southern California, leading its rebranding, and overseeing significant institutional growth.
Before his tenure at Gateway Seminary, Iorg was Executive Director of the Northwest Baptist Convention for almost 10 years, after pastorates in Oregon, Missouri, and Texas.
A native Texan, Iorg is the author of eight books focusing on biblical leadership, character development, leading through change, evangelism, and church health. He and his wife, Ann, have three children and five grandchildren.
Dr. Mark A. Croston, Sr.
A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Mark Croston has ministered in churches in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Virginia. He currently serves as National Director of Black Church Ministries at Lifeway Christian Resources in Nashville, Tennessee; General Editor for the YOU Urban Bible Study curriculum; Executive Editor of Deacon Magazine; a Teaching Pastor of Christ Fellowship, Miami, Florida; and Executive Pastor of Mount Gilead Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author or contributor to multiple books, including his most recent, Big Results: Leadership.
Dr. Croston has served as President and Treasurer of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention; President of the Baptist General Association of Virginia; and President of the Virginia Baptist State Convention.
Three years after the death of his first wife, Dr. Croston married his current wife, Brenda. This blended family has four children
Brian Croft
Brian Croft is the former Senior Pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky and is the Founder and Executive Director of Practical Shepherding, Inc. He is also Senior Fellow for the Mathena Center for Church Revitalization and an Adjunct Professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Croft has served in pastoral ministry for over twenty-five years, spending seventeen of those years as Senior Pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church.
He has written or contributed to over twenty-five books to help serve pastors and church leaders on the practicalities of pastoral ministry, and trains and mentors hundreds of pastors all over the world on a weekly basis through video cohorts in partnership with the North American Mission Board. He and his wife Cara have four children.
Bruce Kirk
Bruce Kirk is Senior Pastor of Alpha Missionary Baptist Church in Bolingbrook, Illinois. He spent his early years in Tennessee and Ohio, before relocating to the Chicago area in 1984. Kirk was on a trajectory of a successful career in industrial robotics when he was born again on December 28, 1989.
He was baptized into the fellowship of Alpha Baptist and discipled by founding pastor, William Rorer, and began serving the church as a volunteer minister. Upon Rorer’s retirement, Kirk was installed as senior pastor of Alpha Missionary Baptist church in September of 2013.
He is passionate about leading his church to reach the community and grow leaders. Pastor Kirk and his wife Michelle have 6 wonderful children and 10 grandchildren.