2018 State Annual Meeting Reports

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. (BP) -- The 60th anniversary of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana was celebrated during the Oct. 8-9 annual meeting at Highland Lakes Baptist Camp with 160 messengers and 53 guests representing 80 churches across the state. The SCBI became the 29th convention in the Southern Baptist Convention on Oct. 3, 1958. E. Harmon Moore, elected as the SCBI's first executive secretary-treasurer, served 22 years in the position. The SCBI today encompasses 420 churches and church plants from the convention's initial 111 churches.

RENO, Nevada (BP) -- Nevada Baptists celebrated their 40th anniversary with a theme of "Legacy" that included memories of the past and vision for the future. Organized in October 1978 after nearly 30 years of Southern Baptist churches being started and informally cobbling together for fellowship, what is known today as the Nevada Baptist Convention began with 65 churches and missions and a $135,000 annual budget that included 10 percent -- $13,500 -- to missions through the Cooperative Program. Today, the Nevada convention encompasses 215 churches and plants and a 2019 budget of $2,248,220, which includes 50 percent of the anticipated $1,176,020 Cooperative Program giving from Nevada churches -- or $588,000 -- allocated to CP national and international missions and ministry.

PRATT, Kan. (BP) -- Start new ministries in 91 area counties that have no Gospel witness, attendees of the 2018 Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB) were urged. The meeting was held Oct. 8-9 at First Southern Baptist Church in Pratt, Kan., with the theme "Leading through Change," based on Joshua 1-3. KNCSB Executive Director Bob Mills told of counties that don't have a Southern Baptist witness -- 31 counties in Kansas and 60 in Nebraska. Many of these ...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (BP) -- With "Together We Can Because He Can" as its annual meeting theme, and a Cooperative Program dinner to start things off, messengers to the Dakota Baptist Convention (DBC) voted again to increase Cooperative Program giving next year by 2 percent. This was in addition to the $25,000 it sent in extra funds to Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries earlier this year, for the second year in a row, because of increased giving by DBC churches.

HELENA, Mont. (BP) -- Twenty-nine people from across Montana stayed an extra day after the 2018 annual meeting of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention to participate in the convention's first-ever Crossover evangelistic initiative. The 29 messengers from the annual meeting assisted four of Helena's Southern Baptist churches Oct. 6 by joining in door-to-door Gospel conversations, canvassing neighborhoods and distributing flyers about the churches.

WASILLA, Alaska (BP) -- An Alaska Baptist Convention "Vision Plan for a New Tomorrow" was approved by messengers at the ABC's 73rd annual meeting, Sept. 25-26 at First Baptist Church in Wasilla. Sweeping changes include a decrease in Cooperative Program giving from 37 percent to 20 percent to Southern Baptist Convention causes; a restructuring from four associations to six regions; and a potential name change. "This came out of discussions at Executive Board meetings," said Randy Covington, executive director/treasurer of the Alaska Baptist Convention since 2016, about the CP decrease. "If we're going to reach our state for Christ, we're going to have to keep more money at home.

NISKAYUNA, N.Y. (BP) -- Messengers to the Baptist Convention of New York increased giving to Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries for the fourth year in a row and heard a report on the sale of the convention's office building in East Syracuse, N.Y. The BCNY also kicked off its 50th year of ministry and approved creation of a team to cast vision for the future. A total of 82 messengers from 56 churches attended the Sept. 23-25 sessions at Trinity Baptist Church in Niskayuna, just northwest of Albany.

ARLINGTON, Texas (BP) -- A celebration of unity and diversity took place as 2,054 messengers and visitors gathered at the 2018 Texas Baptists Family Gathering and Annual Meeting. Several ethnic fellowships and conventions were represented in the three-day event at the Arlington Convention Center. Messengers also elected a new slate of officers, and newly elected leaders set a course for the next year of cooperative missions and ministry work.