The only amendment to any of the 10 resolutions proposed at the state convention annual meeting came Nov. 18 when Mike Shaw, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pelham, thought one resolution just wasn’t quite good enough.
In Resolution No. 4 — On Appreciation for Rick Lance — Shaw joked that the writer had “come up with all kinds of adjectives” to thank Lance, Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) executive director, for 10 years of faithful leadership but had not put in enough about “his wife, Pam.”
Shaw moved that messengers vote to add “lovely and gracious” to Pam Lance’s description, a suggestion met with laughter and affirmation.
Nine other resolutions passed during the two-day meeting without objection. Alabama Baptists celebrated the $1 billion mark in Cooperative Program (CP) giving and voiced opinions on a host of moral issues.
“The resolutions have turned out to be very good in the past few years,” said Joe Bob Mizzell, director of the SBOM office of Christian ethics and chaplaincy ministries, who works with the resolutions committee.
Alabama Baptists, he said, do well with using resolutions as a show of solidarity on issues. Several other states passed far fewer resolutions this year, he said. In addition to Lance’s resolution, this year’s resolutions were:
- On Cooperative Program Giving — celebrates Alabama Baptists’ passing the $1 billion milestone in CP giving.
- On Freedom of Choice Act — reaffirms state Baptists’ opposition to the Freedom of Choice Act, which would permit federal funding for abortions and invalidate state regulatory laws such as those that require parental notification or consent for minors and that ban post-viability abortions.
- On Calling for a Federal Marriage Amendment — calls for Alabama’s congressional delegation, pastors and citizens to support a marriage amendment to the United States Constitution.
- Commending California Citizens on the Passage of Proposition 8 — applauds California’s citizens for defending the sanctity of marriage by returning the state to a definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.
- On Sunday School Open Enrollment — encourages “church Sunday Schools to actively and aggressively practice an open enrollment strategy by enrolling anyone, anywhere, at anytime, as long as they agree.” Also encourages ministry to and follow up with members and discourages a purging of the rolls.
“The State Board’s Sunday School department (who proposed the resolution) wants to see Sunday School grow and thinks this is the big push of what Southern Baptists have done over the years,” Mizzell said in an interview with The Alabama Baptist, adding that it was meant to encourage Alabama Baptists in their Sunday School enrollment efforts.
- On Electronic Bingo Gambling — reaffirms Alabama Baptists’ “historic opposition to all forms of gambling in the State of Alabama” and voices opposition to expanded electronic bingo gambling in the state.
Also calls for the Alabama Legislature to allow the state’s citizens to vote on a constitutional amendment to repeal existing laws with “broad interpretations” that have allowed for expanded bingo gambling.
- On Appreciation for Gideons International — affirming Gideons for more than a century of Bible distribution ministry.
“A resolution was submitted last year at the convention about the Gideons but there wasn’t time to get it ready for presentation. This year’s resolution is the result of that,” said Buddy Champion, chairman of the resolutions committee and pastor of First Baptist Church, Trussville.
- On Appreciation for Dan Ireland — thanking Dan Ireland for the 30 years he “stood strong for the moral issues that have confronted the state of Alabama” as head of Alabama Citizens Action Program until his retirement earlier this year.
- On Appreciation — thanking convention leadership, Montgomery Baptist Association, area churches and First Baptist Church, Montgomery, for hosting the 2008 annual meeting.
(TAB)
Share with others: