Swafford heads church planting office

The State Board of Missions (SBOM) unanimously elected Gary Swafford as director of the office of associational missions and church planting (formerly called associational and cooperative missions) during its Jan. 24 meeting held at First Baptist Church, Pelham.  
   
Swafford, a Huntsville native, formerly served as an associate in that office for nearly 10 years.  He served as a Southern Baptist missionary in Malawi for 22 years prior to becoming director of missions for Butler Association in Alabama in 1992.  
   
Swafford succeeds Ron Madison as director of the office. Madison resigned to become pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Huntsville. 
   
In other personnel related items, SBOM Executive Director Rick Lance announced that in addition to his regular responsibilities, he will temporarily lead the missions mobilization team of the state board. 
   
That team consist of global partnerships/volunteers in missions, Cooperative Program and stewardship development, men’s ministry and associational ministry/church planting. Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union cooperates with the team.
   
Lance told members of the SBOM that the current 102 employees of the board are 18 fewer than were employed in 1998 when he was elected executive director. 
   
He also reported that the largest number of employees now work on the evangelism/discipleship team. 
   
The state board also received a report that its church planting committee had approved pastor salary assistance for 22 churches and missions across the state. 
   
Monthly grants to the combined churches total more than $6,500. 
   
Nine of the 22 churches and missions are focused toward language groups in Alabama or predominantly black populations.  
   
Also approved by the church planting committee were two grants of $20,000 each to purchase property for new church starts and deployment of seven mobile mission chapels to four different new church start sites.  
   
SBOM members also approved salary and medical insurance support for new directors of missions in Sipsey, Mobile, Cherokee and Tennessee River Associations. SBOM contributes financially to the support of each director of missions in Alabama. 
   
During its first meeting in 2005, the SBOM also took the first steps toward compiling the 2006 annual budget. 
   
The board’s budget advisory committee recommended and members approved that the 2006 budget reflect an increase of 2.75 percent. That is the same percent of increase shown by the 2005 budget over the 2004 state convention budget.  
   
The recommendation also specified that the present Cooperative Program budget formula be used for the distribution of all funds received. That formula forwards 43.3 percent to worldwide causes through the Southern Baptist Convention and uses 57.7 percent to support Baptist causes within the state.  
   
During his executive director’s report, Lance shared with board members that unanticipated circumstances around the construction of a new Baptist Campus Ministry center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) had driven the cost of the facility up about $130,000 more than expected. 
   
However, because of a number of administrative decisions, the facility will open this spring debt free. Lance said it will not be necessary to borrow the approved $375,000 for completion of the center. (TAB)