Georgia Baptists adopt 10-year evangelism plan
Georgia Baptists voted to establish a new association and approved an operating budget of $45 million during their 189th annual meeting. Also, a 10-year plan to reach Georgia Baptists, Mission Georgia 2020, was adopted by the 1,354 registered messengers. Messengers voted to establish a new association, Southwest Atlanta Baptist Association, and to accept 50 new churches and missions in Georgia. In other business at the meeting, messengers voted to exclude Druid Hills Baptist Church of Atlanta because a woman is serving as co-pastor. The vote carried with a significant majority, but not a unanimous vote. The $45 million budget reflects a decrease of $500,000 from 2010.
N.C. Baptists shorten meeting, cut budget
North Carolina Baptists, meeting Nov. 8-10 in Greensboro, decided to shorten their future annual meetings from three days to two. Messengers adopted a $32.7 million budget, passed motions that reopen controversial discussions related to alcohol and doctrinal positions, and passed resolutions affirming the Cooperative Program and the work of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. During his address Nov. 8, executive director-treasurer Milton Hollifield stated his support for moving the convention to a 50/50 split of church Cooperative Program receipts with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Tennessee Baptists OK 50/50 CP
Tennessee Baptist Convention messengers overwhelmingly adopted a recommendation from the TBC Executive Board to begin moving toward a 50/50 distribution of Cooperative Program funds with the Southern Baptist Convention. The TBC budget currently provides 60 percent of Cooperative Program receipts for Tennessee Baptist missions and ministry endeavors, while forwarding 40 percent to the Southern Baptist Convention for national and international missions and ministries. The recommendation approved by messengers begins the process of moving toward a 50/50 distribution to begin “no later than the 2012-2013 budget year and continue in a manner and over a time frame so as to enhance, not inhibit, the ministry of the TBC as well as the SBC.”
Florida adopts task force report, 50/50 goal
Messengers to the Florida Baptist State Convention overwhelmingly approved the recommendations of the state convention’s Imagine If Great Commission Resurgence Task Force, which included a recommendation to move to a 50/50 distribution of Cooperative Program funds with the Southern Baptist Convention within 4-7 years. The task force report, of which CP distribution was one recommendation, was the most highly anticipated item of business during the Nov. 8-9 meeting at First Baptist Church in Brandon. The 28-member Imagine If Great Commission Resurgence Task Force was created at the 2009 FBSC annual meeting, which authorized John Cross, FBSC president, to appoint the group to study how Florida Baptists could be more effective and efficient in fulfilling Jesus’ missions mandate.
‘Blume’ event open to teen girls, collegians
Several thousand teen girls and collegiate young women will gather for Blume, a four-day focus on missions, next July at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Fla. Blume, a WMU event held every four or five years, will include hands-on ministry projects; interaction with missionaries; worship, Bible studies and breakout sessions; and an interactive cultural activity in Epcot customized for Blume through Disney’s Youth Education Series (Y.E.S.) program. For more information on Blume, visit www.blumeforgirls.com.
Pioneer evangelist broke racial barrier in 1950s
Howard O. Jones, the first African-American preacher to join the Billy Graham crusade team, died Nov. 14, 2010, in Oberlin, Ohio. He was 89. Jones, described as the “Jackie Robinson” of American evangelicalism in a 1998 Christianity Today magazine article, joined the Graham team in 1957. And like Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in major-league baseball in 1947, Jones experienced the “pain of living with the often unfriendly fallout of being a pioneer in the fragile chronicle of racial progress in America,” according to the Christianity Today article. Jones served as an associate with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for more than 35 years until his retirement in 1994.
Ala. DOMs call for slowdown of GCR
The Alabama Baptist Conference of Directors of Associational Missions has issued an open letter calling for a slowdown in funding changes related to the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report. The GCR report recommends phasing out cooperative agreements that govern state convention and local association relationships with the North American Mission Board, and has some state conventions and local associations reassessing their vision, strategy and financial plans. The open letter was overwhelmingly approved during the group’s annual meeting Nov. 15. “We want to address the areas that are going to be left out of the Great Commission Resurgence paradigm,” said Steve Loggins, president of the conference and director of missions for North Jefferson Baptist Association.