CP giving 3.77% below 2009 pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 3.77 percent below the same time frame in 2009. As of Nov. 30, the year-to-date total of $31,991,253.91 for Cooperative Program gifts is $1,253,250.22 below the $33,244,504.13 received at the same point in 2009. Designated giving of $7,760,594.01 for the same year-to-date period is 12.28 percent, or $1,086,190.44, below gifts of $8,846,784.45 received at this point last year. For the SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget, the year-to-date total of $31,991,253.91 is 96.06 percent of the $33,303,681.70 budgeted to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America. The SBC operates on an Oct. 1-Sept. 30 fiscal year.
Alabama pares budget, affirms CP unity
Messengers to the annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention approved a 2011 Cooperative Program budget of $43 million, down from $46 million for the current year, during their Nov. 16-17 annual meeting. The 943 messengers, representing 419 churches, affirmed the CP in one of several resolutions adopted during their sessions.
Kentucky Baptists adopt missions plan
Messengers to the 173rd annual meeting of the Kentucky Baptist Convention embarked on a new course that eventually will lead the convention to an equitable division of Cooperative Program funds between state and Southern Baptist causes. The report of the Great Commission Task Force was passed by nearly two-thirds of messengers, but not without some last-minute adjustments. The task force originally called for the KBC to move to a reallocation of CP funds to an even 50/50 allocation between Kentucky Baptist and SBC missions and ministry causes within seven years. That target date was extended by three years, aiming now for an even split by the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Louisiana Baptists maintain CP percentage
Messengers to the 163rd annual meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Convention voted without discussion to keep the percentage of Cooperative Program receipts they forward to national and international causes at 36.49 percent. Louisiana Baptists, meeting Nov. 15-16, approved a 2011 budget of $21,284,217, down $1.2 million from the current year.
Major group won’t endorse NIV 2011 Bible
A major evangelical organization that supports a complementary position on manhood and womanhood says the newest translation of the NIV Bible is a significant improvement over its predecessor, the TNIV, although the group says it still cannot endorse it because it contains many of the same problems. The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) released a statement Nov. 19 stating that the NIV 2011 has many of the same flaws that prevented the TNIV from gaining in popularity among the evangelical community. CBMW, though, did applaud the translators for the “openness and honesty” of the translation process. The older translation of the NIV – now called the NIV 1984 version – is being phased out and eventually won’t be published, its publisher, Zondervan, has said. The NIV 2011 will be in print next year and currently is available only online. (BibleGateway.com hosts it and many other translations.)
Tim Yarbrough named Arkansas editor
Tim Yarbrough of the North American Mission Board was elected editor of the Arkansas Baptist News by the ABN board of directors Nov. 18. Yarbrough, 50, has been NAMB’s Acts 1:8 challenge coordinator since 2002. He will become ABN editor on Jan. 1, succeeding Charlie Warren, who is retiring after 11 years as editor. From 1987-89, Yarbrough was a section editor for the Arkansas Democrat, and earlier served as news editor and staff writer for various daily and weekly newspapers.
SBC registration secretary faces cancer
Jim Wells, registration secretary for the Southern Baptist Convention, has been diagnosed with cancer and will undergo treatment in mid-December. Wells, director of missions for Tri-County Baptist Association in Nixa, Mo., has served as the convention’s registration secretary since 2002. In a Nov. 23 e-mail, he expressed gratitude for the outpouring of concern he has received from across the country. Wells has a sarcoma malignancy in his left hip muscle. He is scheduled to have surgery for its removal on Dec. 14, followed by radiation treatment. Wells can be contacted via e-mail at tricountydom@yahoo.com.
Full-scale Noah’s Ark park planned for Ky.
The same group behind the Creation Museum is partnering with another group to build a full-scale version of Noah’s Ark that will anchor a family-oriented Bible-themed attraction costing an estimated $150 million. The “Ark Encounter” is scheduled to be completed in spring 2014 and will be built in northern Kentucky at a site to be determined, according to a news release. The Creation Museum, which by comparison cost $27 million, also is located in northern Kentucky in Petersburg, near Cincinnati.
Morgan Patterson, GGBTS dean, dies
Morgan Patterson, retired dean of academic affairs at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, died of cancer at his home Nov. 19. He was 85. Patterson served at Golden Gate from 1976-84 and arranged for the donation of his extensive library collection of church history and related material to the seminary upon his death.