Messengers to the the 182nd Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC) are set to consider merging two offices of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) during the annual meeting at Eastmont Baptist Church, Montgomery.
They will also vote on recommendations for convention emphases through 2011, consider a proposed $41.5 million Cooperative Program (CP) budget and will elect a new president to lead the convention.
According to Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), the direction of Alabama Baptists in the next several years will be guided by a Strategic Initiatives Task Force (SITF) recommendation, to be presented during the Tuesday afternoon session.
“The report will include a recommendation of three convention emphases for 2006–2011,” Lance said.
SITF Chairman Gary Hollingsworth, pastor of First Baptist Church, Trussville, said the task force is recommending the convention follow two-year themes to more fully develop and implement them. The 2006–2007 theme is Intentional Evangelism, as it is for 2005, making it the first three-year theme in recent convention history. The 2008–2009 theme is Missions Mobilization. The 2010–2011 theme is Leadership Development.
He noted the task force, which is commissioned by the convention to do long-range planning and analyses of past and present performance, is made up of laypeople and pastors from across the state.
Task force recommendations
“We are doing a good job as Baptists and we don’t see a need for major shifts in the state board’s organizational structure or programs,” Hollingsworth said.
But the task force does recommend one change — a merging of the offices of evangelism and discipleship — currently separate offices at the SBOM. Hollingsworth said the two offices are so closely related that this change could enhance the effectiveness of the evangelism/discipleship thrust. The SBOM, should the remmendation be adopted, would determine how and over what time span the changes would occur.
Lance said if the convention approves the SITF report then the SBOM will consider “realignment and refocusing of its staff to reflect the emphasis” upon the three themes for 2006–2011. Then a proposal would be brought before the SBOM board of trustees in January 2005.
Another aspect of business messengers will consider is adoption of the proposed $41.5 million CP budget for 2005. The budget, which represents a 2.65 percent increase over 2004’s, will help guide Alabama Baptists as they continue faithful support of state, national and international missions and work through the Southern Baptist Convention, Lance said.
He noted that currently the ABSC is second in the nation among state Baptist conventions in its support of Southern Baptist causes.
Some of the CP money will help resource Baptist churches in Alabama as the ABSC embraces the Intentional Evangelism convention theme. Each session of the convention will have an interpretation of this emphasis.
“The Tuesday evening session will be a time devoted exclusively to launching our statewide efforts in magnifying the importance of intentionally reaching people for Christ in our various communities,” Lance said.
Alabama Baptists will also elect new officers. Outgoing ABSC President Joe Godfrey, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pleasant Grove, has served two one-year terms, the maximum number to serve.
At press time Henry Cox, pastor of First Baptist Church, Bay Minette, was the only known candidate for president. Cox served for the last two years as first vice president of the state convention and the two years prior to that as second vice president.
Messengers will also bring resolustions before the convention. As Baptists consider their collective role in addressing social concerns of society they will discuss and vote on several resolutions, according to Joe Bob Mizzell, director of the SBOM office of Christian ethics and chaplaincy ministries.
Philip Morris, pastor of Heflin Baptist Church, Heflin, has filed a resolution expressing appreciation for chaplains serving in Iraq, Mizzell added.
He said a general resolution expressing thanks to Eastmont Baptist Church, Montgomery, and other Montgomery area churches hosting the convention would be presented.
Resolutions committee chairman Travis Coleman, pastor of First Baptist Church, Prattville, said the seven-member resolutions committee will meet Nov. 9 to review the resolutions they have in hand at that time. “We anticipate certain issues and will do some research so we can be prepared to have meaningful conversation about them,” he said.
He said some issues they are anticipating this year are the Federal Marriage Amendment and same-sex “marriage,” separation of church and state and the power of judges and embryonic stem cell research.
Mizzell said there is a resolution expressing opposition to same-sex “marriage.”
“It is well written and I don’t expect there will be any problem with it,” he said.
Although the committee urges resolutions of the convention to be sent to them before the convention begins, written resolutions may be submitted until noon on Tuesday of the convention — Nov. 16 — in time for the committee to review them. The resolutions will be presented and voted on during the morning session on Nov. 17, Coleman said.
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