October CP giving 4.5% above 2009
October contributions of $17,624,768.46 through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program were 4.5 percent above CP gifts received in October 2009. Meanwhile, designated giving of $4,062,274.35 during October was 10.9 percent below gifts received last October. During the last fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2009-Sept. 30, 2010), Cooperative Program receipts for the year were down 4 percent, and combined CP and designated giving for the year declined 2.5 percent.
Reservations open for Phoenix SBC
Housing reservations have opened for the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 14-15, 2011, annual meeting in Phoenix. Hotel reservations can be made in several ways: via the Internet at www.sbcannualmeeting.net (select the “Online Hotel Reservations” link); clicking the “2011 SBC Housing Reservation Form” link at www.sbcannualmeeting.net, mail completed form to SBC Housing Bureau, c/o Experient, 568 Atrium Dr., Vernon Hills, Ill., or fax it to 847-996-5401; calling toll-free 1-800-974-3084; using the housing form in the September/October edition of SBC Life; obtaining a housing form from state Baptist convention offices. The official housing deadline is May 23, 2011, in order to guarantee convention rates.
Ga. Baptists cut budget to 2000 levels
The recession may be officially over, but a continuing slumping economy is forcing the Georgia Baptist Convention to trim its 2011 budget by $1,025,000 and once again reduce staffing levels. The downsizing at the GBC Missions and Ministry Center continues the reductions first set in place nearly two years ago when the effects of the recession began to be felt. Staff positions eliminated during the nearly two-year period now stand at 39, placing the headcount at the GBC headquarters building in Duluth at a record low 103. That is down from a high of 163 employees in 2008 before the recession hit, said Mike Williams, assistant executive director and vice president of operations.
N.C. Biblical Recorder editor resigns
Norman Jameson, editor of the North Carolina Biblical Recorder since Aug. 1, 2007, has resigned, effective Dec. 31, 2010. Saying his resignation was “not required, but necessary,” Jameson offered to resign prior to a regularly scheduled board meeting Oct. 21. Board members expected their meeting to include discussion about an announced challenge to the Recorder’s Cooperative Program funding through the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Cooperative Program funding accounts for about 45 percent of the Biblical Recorder’s $726,500 budget in 2010.
Newest NIV version is now online
The newest update to the New International Version (NIV) Bible is now online, and scholars, pastors and everyday Christians are debating the changes to what has been the most popular modern English translation. The NIV was first released in 1978 before being revised in 1984, and in September 2009 Biblica, Zondervan and the Committee on Bible Translation announced that another revised NIV was in the works. It won’t be available in print until 2011 but can be read online at BibleGateway.com. The revision is being closely watched because Zondervan’s most recent major NIV revision, the TNIV, was controversial due to gender-neutral language. Although it had its fans, the TNIV never caught on in the evangelical community. The TNIV is being discontinued, as apparently is the older NIV.
SWBTS acquires more scrolls fragments
Less than a year after acquiring three fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Southwestern Seminary has added three more biblical fragments, making it the largest collection at an institution of higher education in the United States. The new fragments were obtained from a private collector in Europe through a gift from an anonymous donor and friend of the seminary. The set of six fragments is one more than those owned by Azusa Pacific University near Los Angeles, which acquired five pieces in 2009. The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago also owns a fragment.
Assessment under way after tsunami
Southern Baptist relief workers are assessing needs in the wake of a tsunami that struck remote island villages in western Indonesia Oct. 26. The 10-foot wave that swept over the villages was created by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake on the same fault line that spawned the 2004 monster wave that killed 230,000 people in countries all around the Indian Ocean. Early reports indicate at least 113 people were killed and as many as 500 are missing, Indonesia’s Health Ministry crisis center told reporters. Strong winds and rough seas were making it difficult for rescue teams to get to the Mentawai Islands, which can only be reached by a 12-hour boat ride, the Associated Press reported.
Ezell charges 62 new missionaries
In his first missionary commissioning sermon as the new president of the North American Mission Board, Kevin Ezell told 62 missionaries and chaplains to “stay focused and stay faithful” as they begin their new ministries throughout the United States and Canada. About 700 people packed New Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, an African-American congregation in south-central Los Angeles, for the Oct. 17 commissioning service. Ezell was named NAMB’s new president on Sept. 14 by the Southern Baptist entity’s 56-member board of trustees who attended the commissioning service at New Mount Calvary prior to their quarterly board meeting, also held in Los Angeles.