The Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Executive Committee dealt with name changes for the SBC and the Annuity Board during it’s Feb. 16–17 meeting in Nashville.
SBC President Jack Graham called for a new name for the denomination during his president’s address to the Executive Committee.
He said he will appoint a committee in the coming weeks to report back to the 2005 SBC annual meeting in Nashville. The committee will represent the SBC both “geographically and generationally,” Graham said, noting the name change would reflect the fact that Southern Baptists are a nationwide and worldwide body of believers.
The Annuity Board’s proposed name change to GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention was unanimously approved during the Executive Committee’s September 2003 meeting. Along with moving the original proposal along, a recommendation to permit the entity to serve evangelical ministry organizations outside the SBC was passed during the February meeting.
Other business
Also during the Executive Committee meeting:
A 2004–05 Cooperative Program (CP) Allocation budget of $183,201,694 was adopted and will be recommended to the convention at the annual meeting in June.
The new budget will continue to allocate 50 percent of receipts to the International Mission Board and 22.79 percent to the North American Mission Board.
The percentage allocated to the seminaries is 21.4 percent. According to the seminary enrollment formula, Southwestern Seminary would receive 5.18 percent; Southern Seminary, 4.42 percent; New Orleans Seminary, 4.38 percent; Southeastern Seminary, 4.08 percent; Golden Gate Seminary, 1.83 percent; and Midwestern Seminary, 1.52 percent.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission would receive 1.49 percent of the budget, and .76 percent would go to the Annuity Board for its ministry to retired ministers whose annuities were underfunded during their careers.
The Executive Committee, encompassing the work of the convention between annual meetings as well as the costs for each annual meeting, would receive 3.32 percent of the CP budget. The Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives would receive .24 percent.
A 2004–05 SBC Operating Budget of $7,975,000 was adopted and will be recommended to the convention in June.
Jerry Tidwell of Alabama and Tom Boyd of Tennessee were elected to three-year terms as Southern Baptist Foundation trustees. (BP)
Share with others: