CP: 1.6 percent above last year’s pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 1.66 percent above the same time frame in 2005. As of April 30, the year-to-date total of $117,595,665 for CP missions is $1,919,758 above the $115,675,906 received at the same point in 2005. For the month, receipts of $17,151,474 were 0.48 percent, or $81,683, above the $17,069,790 received in April 2005. Designated giving of $131,872,672 for the same period is 0.43 percent, or $560,366, above gifts of $131,312,306 received at this point last year. The $16,971,319 in designated gifts received last month is $2,216,174 above the $14,755,145 received in April 2005, an increase of 15.02 percent. The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ method of supporting missions and ministry efforts of state and regional conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention.
SBC committees, boards nominees
Nominees to serve on the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, the four denominational boards, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and the six seminaries have been selected by the 2006 SBC Committee on Nominations. If elected by the messengers to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, South Carolinians serving will include: Executive Committee – Margaret Brown, layperson, College Street Baptist Church, Walhalla, replacing Michael Hamlet, Spartanburg; GuideStone – Truman Fallaw, Columbia, second term; International Mission Board – Henry Holland, layperson and member of First Baptist Church, Sumter, term to expire in 2010, replacing Bobbie Caldwell, Simpsonville; LifeWay Christian Resources – Kent Holt, Spartanburg, second term; Southern Seminary – Lewis Powell Jr., senior pastor, New Hope Baptist Church, Cross Anchor, term to expire in 2011, replacing Warren Arthur, Hartsville; Golden Gate Seminary – Stuart Smith, layperson, First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, term to expire in 2007, replacing Dick Lincoln, Columbia, who resigned.
Stone, Stovall named to SBC committee
Appointments to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Committee on Committees have been announced by SBC president Bobby Welch. The Committee on Committees will assemble in Greensboro, N.C., just prior to the SBC’s June 13-14 annual meeting to nominate members of the Committee on Nominations who, in turn, nominate trustees to serve on boards of the various SBC entities of the SBC. Representing South Carolina will be Fred Stone, First Baptist Church, Pickens, and James Stovall, First Baptist Church, Taylors. Welch also has named the members of the SBC Tellers Committee, which will include one South Carolinian: Tommy Spotts, pastor, Saluda River Baptist Church, Columbia.