Alabama Baptists are only a few weeks away from their annual “family reunion” and a chance to stop and celebrate the ways that God is working through their ministries.
Rod Marshall, president and CEO of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries, was named Humanitarian of the Year by Samford University. Marshall has devoted his career focus to child care and helping families seek God’s healing.
Paul Miller, who served as president of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012, died July 2. ABCH was the only place he ever worked.
This past year, Gavin Norris has been the campus missionary at the University of North Alabama, a new position created at four Alabama universities by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“To be in a group of ministry leaders in the same season has been very encouraging to me because it reassures me I’m not on an island,” said Tucker Bryson, youth minister of First Baptist Church Centre.
Bryan Blass, director of the office of LeaderCare at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said 60 to 70 percent of Alabama Baptist churches are led by bivocational pastors.
A group of Baptist leaders gathered in Memphis on May 13 to commemorate the centennial of the Cooperative Program through a time of prayer and signing of a Declaration of Cooperation.
“I kept thinking about how the next generation doesn’t understand the Cooperative Program,” said Belinda Stroud, a children’s ministry specialist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
