ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)–The North American Mission Board has entered into the first cooperative agreement with the newly formed Convention of Southern Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico, beginning a historic new relationship with Southern Baptist partners on the Caribbean island.
NAMB trustees approved the agreement during their May 19 meeting at the board’s headquarters in Alpharetta, Ga.
Also during the meeting, trustees appointed Mike Carlisle as vice president of a new Strategic Communications Group; agreed to begin endorsing chaplains to serve with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief; approved 71 new missionaries for the United States and Canada; and adopted a resolution affirming the Acts 1:8 Challenge, a missions emphasis for local churches.
Barry Holcomb, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Andalusia, Ala., was elected as trustee chairman for 2004-05. Elected as first vice president was Bill Curtis, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Florence, S.C., and second vice president, Larry Thomas, director of missions for the Little Red River Baptist Association in Heber Springs, Ark.
NAMB’s trustee board also met for the first time in history with the trustee board of the SBC International Mission Board to affirm and celebrate initiation of the Acts 1:8 Challenge. The new initiative, jointly developed by the two mission entities in consultation with state Baptist conventions and regional associations, is designed to help local churches accept Jesus’ challenge to the local church to reach “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.”
A joint celebration service was held Wednesday evening at the Atlanta-area First Baptist Church in Woodstock, which was broadcast live at www.ActsOne8.com and is archived at the website for viewing.
The cooperative agreement with the Puerto Rico convention marked a significant change in a longstanding relationship. Before the new convention was formed last year, churches and associations in Puerto Rico related directly to the North American Mission Board through national missionaries. The new relationship is the same as that of state conventions, in which the convention and NAMB will partner on supporting missionaries and missions work. The cooperative agreement spells out the terms of the partnership.
“It gives the churches of Puerto Rico ownership of their work, and we come alongside them as partners to encourage them and assist under the leadership of their staff,” said Harry Lewis, NAMB’s executive director for cooperative strategies. “It’s something that we have encouraged, and we look forward to the opportunity of working with them.”
The formation of NAMB’s Strategic Communication Group was part of a reorganization designed to make the board more effective across a broad range of media. Included under the group are all Internet, radio, television, video production, editing, design and marketing functions. Although FamilyNet, NAMB’s broadcasting arm located in Fort Worth, remains a wholly owned subsidiary, production of some programming aired through FamilyNet will be created by the new communications group.
Carlisle has worked with NAMB since 1998 — most recently as chief information officer. A former pastor and church planter in California, he also has extensive experience in corporate management.
He led Searidge Community Church in Mission Viejo from about 30 members in 1988 to more than 800 members when he joined NAMB 10 years later. Earlier he led Capistrano Valley Baptist Church in San Juan Capistrano to grow from about 100 members to more than 1,400 members over a seven-year period, while also serving as superintendent of the church’s Christian school.
Earlier Carlisle served as national director for Evangelism Explosion, as an assistant to the president for Times Mirror Cable Television and as a general manager for cable television systems in three states.
The new policy on endorsing chaplains to serve with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief was initiated by NAMB’s chaplaincy evangelism team. The first Southern Baptist Disaster Relief chaplain, endorsed May 18, is Daniel Lovin, an Illinois pastor who has been endorsed to work with the Illinois Baptist State Association.
Special requirements for the endorsement include basic Southern Baptist Disaster Relief training, a special training course for volunteer Disaster Relief chaplains developed by NAMB and nationally recognized Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) or National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) training.
Also in chaplaincy ministry:
— NAMB is modeling its encouragement of corporate chaplaincy with the endorsement of Doug Metzger, director of prayer evangelism for NAMB, to also serve as a chaplain to NAMB staff.
— NAMB has implemented a new area of chaplaincy by recognizing eight inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola as “certified chaplain’s assistants.” The inmates have been taking courses through New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
— In the first endorsement of an International Mission Board missionary, Roy Burson, a missionary in Pattaya, Thailand, was endorsed as a hospital chaplain in cooperation with the IMB. The endorsement will allow him to extend his ministry to two international hospitals in the city.
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(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: HISTORIC AGREEMENT and NAMB OFFICERS.
