Messengers approve new partnerships, record budget

Alabama Baptists approved two new international missions partnerships and a record budget for 2006 during the annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC) at Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville, in Madison Baptist Association. Messengers unanimously voted during the Nov. 15 report to begin partnerships with both Guatemala and Ukraine.
   
Both of these are three-year partnerships with the potential for renewal and will begin in 2006.
   
Reggie Quimby, director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions office of global partnerships and volunteers in missions, said the partnership with Guatemala is through the International Mission Board’s (IMB) Operation GO (Global Outreach) strategy of Guatemala and the National Baptist Convention of Guatemala.
   
“I’m excited about the opportunities that present themselves in Guatemala through Operation GO,” Quimby said. These opportunities include prayer walking, establishing churches and Bible studies, construction and leadership training.
   
The partnership with Ukraine is with national Baptists and international missionaries serving there. According to a video presentation, the country has a population of 48 million people and only 2,000 Baptist churches. The focus of the Ukraine partnership will be church planting, teaching English, prayer walking and establishing medical, dental and eyeglass clinics.
   
Quimby introduced Mick Stockwell, the IMB strategy associate for Belarus, Ukraine and satellite countries.
   
Stockwell said although he and the workers in Ukraine are excited about the partnership, he was not asking Alabama Baptists to come work there “because we’re poor or in need.”
   
“We’re asking you to come to Ukraine because God is at work there, and we’re in such a strategic location,” Stockwell said. He noted that the work there is focused on reaching those living in the country’s cities and developing leaders to go out from Ukraine as missionaries.
   
Quimby noted that between the two partnerships, more than 120 projects have been presented already from the new partners, and more than 20 percent of those have already been accepted by churches and groups planning to go and work there.
   
Messengers also adopted a record Cooperative Program (CP) base budget of $42,645,000; a 2006 CP state causes budget of $500,000; and a CP challenge budget of $43,650,000, as presented by Mike Shaw, chairman of the State Board of Missions (SBOM).
   
Shaw noted that the SBOM also set special offering goals for 2006 in the amount of $18,325,000 with the following breakdown:
   
• Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — $10 million
• Annie Armstrong Easter Offering — $5.25 million
• Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries offering — $2.1 million
• World Hunger Offering — $875,000
• Disaster relief offering — $100,000
   
In other business, messengers approved the 2004 auditor’s report on the SBOM.
   
They also heard from Joe Godfrey, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pleasant Grove, in Birmingham Baptist Association, about the work of the church employee medical insurance study committee. Godfrey appointed this committee during his first year as ABSC president. Chaired by Henry Cox, the current president of ABSC, Godfrey was an ex-officio member.
   
He explained that the committee was looking into ways to help pastors and churches with medical insurance costs.
   
The committee worked with both Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama and GuideStone Financial Services of the Southern Baptist Convention, Godfrey said. And while all involved worked for several months, they were unable to reach an agreement, he noted. 
   
“This committee worked very hard to do the best we could do to help remedy the insurance situation in Alabama,” Godfrey explained. “Baptist polity makes it hard to do medical insurance as a group.”
   
The committee offered five affirmations with no recommendations to the messengers as printed in the convention bulletin for Nov. 15. These are:
   
• Make sure the coverage made available to church employees is portable.
• Make sure that plan documents do not allow the policy to be cancelled due to catastrophic health care costs.
• Pursue all options when shopping for medical coverage.
• Take advantage of current tax laws by reimbursing out-of-pocket medical expense on a pretax basis. Call Jim Swedenburg for details at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 283.
• Stay alert to emerging developments in product offerings such as the Health Savings Account.
   
SBOM also paid tribute to the more than 600 Alabama Baptist men and women who have given of their time and talents to respond to natural disasters in the United States and worldwide.
   
In a video presentation, volunteers, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders and victims of the recent hurricanes shared their testimonies of what disaster relief has meant to them. SBC President Bobby Welch thanked Alabama Baptists for their participation in disaster relief. “God bless you for all you’re doing to come together in this cooperative effort to give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name,” Welch said.
   
In a statement, Tommy Puckett, director of disaster relief for Alabama Baptists, described the work that has been done during 2005.
   
“Internationally Alabama Baptists have been rebuilding in Thailand following the (Dec. 26) tsunami,” Puckett said. Six teams of 10 have traveled to Thailand since July, and 10 more teams of 10 are slated to go into both Thailand and Indonesia during the next six months.
   
On the home front, hurricane relief has been the focus of disaster relief teams since Hurricane Dennis hit July 10. He noted that Alabama disaster relief teams have been continuously serving since that time.
   
Jerry Butler, pastor of South Sauty Baptist Church, Langston, in Marshall Baptist Association, thanked Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions; Puckett and other state leaders for their hearts for disaster relief.
   
“Disaster relief volunteers are truly light in a dark world,” said Butler, Alabama disaster relief state coordinator of cleanup/recovery, mud-out and chain saw.
   
From Dennis through hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, Alabama Baptists deployed 30 disaster relief units — some as many as six times — from 28 associations to respond to needs. 
   
Volunteers have cooked 500,000 meals; cleared 1,000 driveways and yards; provided 10,000 showers and facilitated the delivery of more than 450 messages. The temporary emergency child care unit cared for more than 600 children, according to figures provided by Puckett. Units and teams are still deployed, Butler noted.
   
“All this is because the 600-plus (disaster relief) trained volunteers in Alabama said, ‘I care,’” Butler said. But there was more work than volunteers to do it, he added. “I think of the number of people we could have helped if someone had just said, ‘Yes, I’ll take the time to get trained.’”
   
Puckett said training volunteers and evaluating equipment will be a focus of Alabama Baptist disaster relief in 2006. 
   
“Preparing Alabama Baptists to serve with a helping hand and with the gospel of Jesus Christ will be the focus of being more ready next time,” he said.
   
Edwin Jenkins, director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions’ office of leadership and church growth, presented the Troy L. Morrison Leadership/Church Growth Award to three Alabama pastors nominated by their peers. 
   
Jenkins said recipients were judged based on their spiritual growth, missions involvement, ministry advancement and numerical growth. He said the award categories were bivocational work, new work — a church less than 10 years old — and established work — a church more than 10 years old.
   
Troy Morrison, the award’s namesake, and Barry Cosper, director of missions for Tallapoosa Baptist Association and chairman of the award’s selection committee, were on hand to help with the presentation.
   
This year’s recipients were Harold Rogers, pastor of Lighthouse Bible Baptist Church, Enterprise; Jay Wolf, pastor of First Baptist Church, Montgomery; and Billy C. Masters, pastor of Victory Hill Baptist Church, Albertville.