2018 State Annual Meeting Reports

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- The Kentucky Baptist Convention will cut ties with a small group of churches that remain dually aligned with a missions network that took steps earlier this year to allow the hiring of LGBT staff members. Messengers to the KBC annual meeting voted today (Nov. 13) to accept a recommendation from the Credentials Committee, the Administrative Committee and the Mission Board to terminate affiliation with congregations that choose to remain a part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). The CBF was founded in 1991 as a fellowship of churches that objected to the ideology and methods of the Southern Baptist Convention's Conservative Resurgence.

YORK, Pa. (BP) -- Messengers to the 2018 annual meeting of the Baptist Resource Network (BRN) of Pennsylvania/South Jersey heard challenges on "Kingdom Compassion" from Luke 4:18-19, increased their Cooperative Program giving to SBC causes and elected a new slate of officers, among other business. This year's meeting, attended by 148 messengers and 89 guests representing 105 of 330 active BRN churches, was held Nov. 1-2 at BRN's property in York, Pa. Executive director's report In his report to the network, BRN executive director Barry Whitworth recapped the BRN's ...

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (BP) -- Obeying Jesus' command to spread the Gospel is worth the changes His mission often entails in our lives, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear told West Virginia Baptists at the group's 2018 annual meeting. "If you're really serious about following Jesus, obedience to him is going to take you 180 degrees opposite of the direction you want to go," Greear said, "and in that moment the only thing that will compel you forward is the belief that Jesus is worth it!" Greear, a West Virginia native and current pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., focused on four convictions of people who transform the world during the meeting, ...

HAVERHILL, Mass. (BP) -- "Church planting is the natural consequence of intimacy with God," Tanner Turley, a church planter based in greater Boston, noted during a testimony at the Baptist Convention of New England's 36th annual meeting. The Nov. 2-3 sessions were held at First Baptist Church in Haverhill, Mass., which was founded before the Revolutionary War. Two hundred twenty-one messengers and 103 guests were in attendance for fellowship, worship, extended prayer, business and celebrating what God doing is by "Embracing the Future Through Church Planting."

GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP) -- North Carolina Baptists approved a 2019 budget, elected a new slate of officers and adopted a resolution honoring the late Billy Graham during the 2018 Baptist State Convention of North Carolina's (BSCNC) annual meeting, which emphasized loving one's neighbors and reaching them for Christ. A total of 1,425 messengers attended the meeting, which was held Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 5-6) at the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, N.C. The event's theme was "Who Is My Neighbor?" based on the question asked of Jesus in Luke 10:29 in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

MILLS, Wyo. (BP) -- Two standing ovations marked a leadership transition during the Wyoming Southern Baptist Mission Network's 35th annual meeting. Lynn Nikkel retired after 13 years as state missionary plus five previous years as the state convention's religious education director. He first moved to Wyoming from Oklahoma in 1994 to pastor Memorial Baptist Church in Wheatland, serving there six years. Quin Williams, pastor since 1996 of Boyd Avenue Baptist Church in Casper, was approved Sept. 14 by the convention's Executive Board as the new state missionary, effective Nov. 1. Williams came to Wyoming after pastoring in Texas for 17 years.

JONESBORO, Ark. (BP) -- Just two weeks before Nov. 6 balloting, Arkansas Baptists expressed their opposition to Issue 4, a proposed constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling to expand to four additional Arkansas counties. Arkansas Baptists unanimously approved a resolution encouraging all voters to vote against Issue 4, which would expand casino gambling beyond Hot Springs and West Memphis. Messengers at the 165th annual meeting of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC) further committed to restore and rehabilitate individuals involved in "problem gambling" and also provide a "safety net" for gamblers' families and communities if Issue 4 is approved.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (BP) -- Increasing the convention's number of credentialed churches by 38 percent and receiving a new vision for accelerating Gospel impact in Colorado were among highlights of the Colorado Baptist General Convention's Oct. 15-16 annual meeting. Colorado Baptists also increased for the second year in a row the percentage of Cooperative Program receipts they will forward to Southern Baptist Convention causes. Some 203 messengers from 92 churches gathered at First Baptist Church of Black Forest in Colorado Springs, Colo., around the theme "A New Thing."

KEARNS, Utah (BP) -- Prayer permeated the Oct. 19 annual meeting of the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention, as it did the two-day pastors' conference preceding it. The one-day annual meeting, attended by 115 messengers, took place at The Point Church in Kearns, Utah, where Corey Hodges has been pastor since 1998. Sixty-six messengers were from Utah and 49 from Idaho -- from St. George, Utah, nearly 1,100 miles north to Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. "The challenge is not focusing on numbers but focusing on starting healthy churches and strengthening all our existing churches," Rob Lee, UISBC executive director, said in his report to the convention. "We are working on different church revitalization projects to help churches become stronger by assisting with evangelism funds to help them with evangelistic projects and other strategies.

CLOVIS, Calif. (BP) -- Messengers to the 2018 California Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC) annual meeting elected a new convention president and approved a 2019 budget during their 78th session that highlighted "Empowering Church Vision." Held at Clovis Hills Community Church Oct. 23-24, the annual meeting sessions focused on the convention's new structure, put in place by Bill Agee who was elected executive director in May 2017. The four "initiatives teams" made presentations during each session: church planting, church revitalization, ...