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Indy’s John Newland is 2nd VP nominee


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–John Newland, senior pastor of Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis, will be nominated for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, John Rogers of Indianapolis announced May 14.

Newland is the third announced nominee for election as SBC second vice president during this year’s June 10-11 annual meeting in Indianapolis. To date, the other nominees are Jim Hamilton, executive director-treasurer of the Dakota Baptist Convention, and Brian Fossett, president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists.

Rogers, missions/evangelism team leader for the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana, noted that Newland leads the church planting team for Crossroads Baptist Association in Indianapolis and is coordinating the church planting facet of Crossover ’08, the citywide evangelistic emphasis preceding each year’s SBC annual meeting.

Newland has led Fall Creek Baptist Church since 2004 and previously was pastor of First Baptist Church in Grayson, Ky.

Newland inadvertently entered the national spotlight in February 2007 when the National Football League sent his church a letter demanding that they stop plans to show the Super Bowl during a party at the church.

“Although he regarded the NFL’s selective application of its copyright as unfair and discriminatory, John led Fall Creek Baptist to respect the existing law and the NFL’s request by declining to pursue legal redress of the situation,” Rogers said. “In the aftermath of the controversy, FCBC has grown from 275 to 350 in average attendance today. Due in large part to Newland’s principled and courteous stand, the NFL reversed its ban earlier this year.”

While in Grayson, Ky., Newland led First Baptist, which averaged about 200 in attendance each Sunday, to challenge itself by setting a 2003 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal that was four times higher than the record $2,500 it had received the year before.

Information from the 2007 Annual Church Profile (Oct. 1, 2006 –- Sept. 1, 2007) for Fall Creek Baptist Church lists 20 baptisms and primary worship service attendance of 302. The church gave $39,526, or 5.9 percent, through the Cooperative Program from total undesignated receipts of $666,559. According to the ACP, the church also received $7,500 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $4,648 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.
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Compiled by Mark Kelly, an assistant editor with Baptist Press.

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