Art Toalston

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Unity among Hispanic Baptists continues to gain momentum. It will be evidenced again when Hispanic pastors and leaders gather for "Celebrating Our Diversity and Unity in Christ" June 10 in Birmingham, Ala., prior to the Southern Baptist Convention's June 11-12 annual meeting.

ABERDEEN, Miss. (BP) -- First Amendment legal precedent has been cited in a federal court's dismissal of a lawsuit against the North American Mission Board by a former executive of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. Senior Judge Glen Davidson of the U.S. District Court Northern District of Mississippi ruled April 22 that a lawsuit by Will McRaney would require the court to determine religious elements in the case.

FORESTDALE, Mass. (BP) -- Denton Lotz, general secretary emeritus of the Baptist World Alliance, died Tuesday (April 23) at his home in Forestdale, Mass., at age 80. Lotz led the BWA from 1988 until his retirement in 2007; he joined the staff in 1980 as director of evangelism and education. He subsequently was pastor of Trenton Temple Baptist Church in Boston until 2017.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (BP) -- Kimber Huff once was in Russia engaging in church planting in the nation's fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg, with an estimated 1.4 million people. Today, Huff is in Northborough, Mass., writing and editing articles for the Baptist Convention of New England and its 360 churches.

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (BP) -- Nick Floyd has been nominated as senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, the church's board of directors announced to the congregation Sunday (April 14). A vote will be held in each service at Cross Church's four campuses on Sunday, April 28.

PLANO, Texas (BP) -- Ernie Myers, founding executive director of the Nevada Baptist Convention, died Tuesday, April 2, in Plano, Texas. He was 93. Myers was elected as executive director when the Nevada convention was constituted in 1978 in Las Vegas during an Oct. 16-17 meeting at Red Rock Baptist Church.

BEAUREGARD, Ala. (BP) -- The small community of Beauregard is facing the grief of at least 23 deaths, including children, after a tornado struck the southeastern Alabama community on Sunday afternoon (March 3). Search efforts for about a dozen people who had not been accounted for were continuing Monday amid the debris.

JACKSON, Miss. (BP) -- Jim Futral, executive director-treasurer of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, has announced his retirement, effective Oct. 31 of this year. Futral, 74, has led the Mississippi convention for 20 years, since Oct. 1, 1998.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Salvation and stewardship. The Southern Baptist Foundation is tuned in to both. The foundation recorded several milestones during its past fiscal year, "but we're also about winning people to Christ," SBF President Warren Peek said.

DECATUR, Ill. (BP) -- Roads for new subdivisions, basements for new homes and ponds dug around town were the construction jobs handled by Gale Hutchens Excavating. Hutchens and his 10 employees operated backhoes, bulldozers and scrapers to clear trees and debris and to move dirt and rock from one place to another.