Alabama Baptists to serve at SBC annual meeting

Alabama Baptists will be among those serving during the June 19–20 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in New Orleans.

• Buddy Champion, pastor of First Baptist Church, Trussville, will serve as chairman of the Committee on Committees.
• Timothy Cox, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church, Chelsea, will serve as a member of the Committee on Committees.

The Committee on Committees will assemble in New Orleans just prior to the SBC annual meeting to nominate members of the Committee on Nominations who, in turn, nominate trustees to serve on boards of the various entities of the SBC. SBC Bylaw 19 also provides that the Committee on Committees “shall nominate all special committees authorized during the sessions of the Convention not otherwise provided for.”

The Committee on Committees has 70 members, two from each of the 35 state or regional conventions qualified for representation on boards of SBC entities.

• Alabamians Raymond Jones, pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Dothan, and Paul Murphy, pastor of First Baptist Church, Arab, will serve on the Credentials Committee.

The Credentials Committee functions during the registration timeframe of the SBC annual meeting and works with participants attempting to register without all the proper credentials in place.

SBC President Bryant Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga., named the members of these two committees as well as the members of the Resolutions and Tellers committees.

Alabama Baptists also are among those nominated by the 2012 SBC Committee on Nominations to serve on the trustee boards of the Executive Committee, International Mission Board (IMB), North American Mission Board, LifeWay Christian Resources and GuideStone Financial Resources, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the six seminaries as well as on the Committee on Order of Business.

Nominees will serve if elected by the messengers to the annual meeting. Those nominated from Alabama are:

• James W. (Jim) Averett, layperson and member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham, replacing Mitchell E. Gavin, Alexander City, to serve on the Executive Committee with term to expire in 2016.
• Kenneth J. Burnham, layperson and member of Meadowbrook Baptist Church, Oxford, replacing Robert E. Jackson, Decatur, who declined to serve a second term on the trustee board of IMB with term to expire in 2016.
• Richard L. Richie, pastor of Flint Baptist Church, Decatur, to serve a second term on the trustee board of the IMB.
• Charles C. (Craig) Carlisle, pastor of Twelfth Street Baptist Church, Gadsden, to serve a second term on the trustee board of LifeWay Christian Resources.
• Michael E. (Mike) Shaw, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pelham, replacing Bud Young, Mobile, on the board of New Orleans Seminary with term to expire in 2017.
• Ben O. Character, layperson and member of Meadowbrook Baptist Church, Oxford, replacing Robert E. (Bob) Ball, Muncie, Ind., on the board of Midwestern Seminary with term to expire in 2017.

(BP)