Joe Westbury

DULUTH, Ga. (BP) — The Georgia Baptist Convention experienced its most dramatic staff reduction ever Jan. 27 and Jan. 30 as 16 employees and two vacant positions were eliminated in the latest round of downsizing. Staffing has now been cut 26 percent since the 2008 recession. Cooperative Program receipts in 2011 finished the year 5.86 […]

MOUNT VERNON, Ga. (BP)–Longtime Georgia Baptist educator Mike Simoneaux has been named president of Brewton-Parker College. Simoneaux, an administrator at Truett-McConnell College for the past 12 years, has been on loan to Brewton-Parker since February when BPC trustees named him acting president. He was serving as Truett-McConnell’s vice president for advancement at the time. Both […]

DULUTH, Ga. (BP)–A study committee will encourage stewardship growth among the state’s Baptists while examining the percentage allocation of funds to the Georgia and Southern Baptist conventions. The committee will examine how Georgia Baptists can impact lostness around the world without neglecting those in their own backyard, GBC Executive Committee members told The Christian Index, […]

DULUTH, Ga. (BP)–The recession may be officially over but a continuing slumping economy is forcing the Georgia Baptist Convention to trim its 2011 budget by $1,025,000 and once again reduce staffing levels. The downsizing at the GBC Missions and Ministry Center continues the reductions first set in place nearly two years ago when the effects […]

WOODSTOCK, Ga. (BP)–Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., and immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has extended his leave of absence from the church through mid-September, citing physical and emotional exhaustion. Hunt had been expected to return to the Woodstock pulpit Aug. 8 following his annual July sabbatical. However, […]

DENVER (BP)--Executive directors from nine Southern Baptist state conventions in the West and Canada have told the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force that the committee's proposed restructuring of the North American Mission Board would severely curtail their ministries.

“Thank you” goes long way in missions support DULUTH, Ga. (BP)–J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, has long been recognized as an unashamedly strong supporter of the Cooperative Program. Whenever he has traveled on behalf of Southern Baptists for the past 36 years as pastor and denominational leader, he has challenged […]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (BP)--Great Commission Resurgence Task Force members have wrapped up three days of deliberations in advance of making a preliminary report ...

[QUOTE@left@150="If we lose this ministry [NAMB] in the homeland, we have lost our homeland security."
-- J. Robert White]DULUTH, Ga. (BP)--The North American Mission Board is "absolutely essential" to Southern Baptists as a stand-alone entity and is critical to reaching the continent for Christ, Georgia Baptist Convention Executive Director J. Robert White said to the GBC executive committee in mid-September.

TOCCOA, Ga. (BP)--A Georgia Baptist pastor was shot and killed by undercover police officers on Sept. 2, apparently in relation to a drug sting.