First Presbyterian Church of Demopolis will host its 28th annual Missions Conference on Friday, Feb. 28 through Sunday, March 2.

The theme of the weekend is “Now you are the body of Christ…” which is from First Corinthians 12:27.

There will be several services throughout the weekend dealing with different topics relating to missions work.

“Our goal is to encourage people about what the Lord is doing with missions across the world, both through evangelism and mercy ministry,” First Presbyterian Pastor Tommy Carr said. “We also want to challenge people to do something as well. Not everyone can go and be a missionary, but everyone can have a part in someone else going.”

First Presbyterian supports many missionaries across the world, both from the Demopolis area and from other places.

The keynote speaker for the weekend will be Al Baker, who has been in the ministry in Birmingham for more than 30 years. He is an evangelist with the Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship and is the director of the Alabama Church Planting Network.

“Pastor Baker will be speaking about missions and revival in the church,” Carr said. “He came here a couple of years ago and did a prayer revival. He’s big in bringing revival back into churches.”

The special guest for the weekend will be Opal Hardgrove, who works to combat human trafficking in the United States.

“She will be talking about her work, how evil it is, and how we can help,” Carr said.

Carr said it’s important for people to hear from missionaries to know what the Lord is doing around the world.

“In this country, it can be discouraging sometimes because it looks as though the church is moving backwards, but that’s not the case in other places,” he said. “In many parts of the world, the church has more power and it’s working. That encourages us.”

The goal of the conference is to not only encourage the people in attendance, but the missionaries as well.

“We want people to realize there’s something they can do,” he said. “Missionaries give up a lot and they sacrifice a lot. We make faith promises to them, which is a promise for a certain amount of money to their mission. We can also pray for them, which is the most important thing we can do. The third thing we can do is communicate with them. In today’s world, there are so many ways to communicate with them to help encourage them.”

Baker will be preaching in services on Friday and Saturday night and Sunday morning during the conference. He will also speak at the men’s breakfast Saturday morning. Hardgrove will be speaking at the services on Friday and Saturday night. She will also be speaking at the ladies luncheon Saturday morning.

The schedule of events for the conference is as follows:

•Friday, Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. – Fellowship supper

•7 p.m. – Worship service

•Saturday, March 1 at 8 a.m. – Men’s breakfast

•11:30 a.m. – Ladies luncheon

•5:30 p.m. – Barbecue supper

•6:30 p.m. – Worship service

•Sunday, March 2 at 9:30 a.m. – Concert of prayer

•11 a.m. – Worship service

•12 p.m. – Wrap-up luncheon