Terry Barone

FRESNO, Calif. — Fermín A. Whittaker, the longest-tenured executive director of California Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC), died Friday, Feb. 7, at his Nashville home after a lengthy illness. He was 83.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—It was an Easter celebration almost 30 years in the making for two Ukrainian childhood friends that spanned two continents, three countries and about 6,500 miles.

FRESNO, Calif. (BP) -- The California Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC) signed a purchase agreement June 16 to sell Jenness Park Christian Camp to Gracepoint Fellowship Church of Berkeley for $1.5 million. The agreement is scheduled to close June 30. The sale was predicated on a CSBC Executive Board action in mid-May to sell the camp because of deficit spending, some $2 million in the past seven years, and a 2020 camping season devoid of revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic.

FRESNO, Calif. (BP) -- Bill Agee has been elected as executive director of the California Southern Baptist Convention Executive Board. The 64-year-old minister of church planting and revitalization at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., was elected to the position today (May 11) by the board. His election culminated a yearlong search replacing Fermín A. Whittaker, who retired Feb. 28 after serving 22 years. Agee will begin his new duties June 1.

FRESNO, Calif. (BP) -- Fermín A. Whittaker, executive director of California Southern Baptist Convention since 1995, announced May 13 he will retire next February upon completing 22 years of service. In his announcement to the CSBC Executive Board during its regular spring meeting, Whittaker said that since his early call to ministry "I have known the blessings of being a servant of God. I find it amazing that God could take a stuttering kid like me [to be] a pastor of His church."

[QUOTE@right@180="(I)t is not with any joy, it is out of a sense of loss."
-- Montia Setzler, CSBC board chairman]FRESNO, Calif. (BP) -- The California Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Board voted Thursday (Sept. 11) to withdraw fellowship from a church whose pastor says he believes homosexual acts are not always sinful.

CLOVIS, Calif. (BP) — California Southern Baptists celebrated their diversity and considered Executive Board recommendations regarding the Focus 21 Task Force during the Oct. 23-24 annual meeting at Clovis Hills Community Church. Highlighting the California Southern Baptist Convention theme, “United: Every ethné, for Christ,” the meeting featured three congregations involved in reaching an ethnic group […]

CLOVIS, Calif. (BP) — California Southern Baptists celebrated their diversity and considered Executive Board recommendations regarding the Focus 21 Task Force during the Oct. 23-24 annual meeting at Clovis Hills Community Church. Highlighting the California Southern Baptist Convention theme, “United: Every ethné, for Christ,” the meeting featured three congregations involved in reaching an ethnic group […]

FRESNO, Calif. (BP)--A Georgia trust company has taken control of the assets of the Church Loan Fund operated by California Baptist Foundation after obligations to investors had not been met since the fall of 2010.

CLOVIS, Calif. (BP)–Messengers to the California Southern Baptist Convention approved a 12-member task force to study the state convention’s efforts in fulfilling the Great Commission during the CSBC’s 70th annual meeting at Clovis Hills Community Church in Clovis. Messengers also approved a trimmed down Cooperative Program objective for 2011. Following suit of the Southern Baptist […]