[1]LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio (BP) — Ohio Southern Baptists adopted a resolution reaffirming their support of the Cooperative Program and approved a budget forwarding more than 40 percent of CP receipts to Southern Baptist Convention causes during their annual meeting Nov. 5-6 at Liberty Heights Baptist Church in Liberty Township.
The annual meeting theme was “Pray Ohio: Stand in the Gap through Partnering in the Great Commission, Presenting Christ, Promoting Growth, and Planting Churches.”
Messengers adopted six resolutions expressing appreciation to convention officers, the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association and the employees of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio (SCBO); reaffirming the Cooperative Program; affirming armed forces personnel and the role of chaplaincy; pledging prayer for elected leaders to make biblically based decisions; and supporting the sufficiency of Scripture regarding the afterlife.
Some 233 messengers and 33 guests registered at the annual meeting for a total of 266.
Re-elected as convention officers were: president, Mark Stinson, pastor of Trinity Baptist church in Cambridge; and first vice president, James Edwards, church planting catalyst for the Cleveland Hope Association. Messengers elected as second vice president Steven Spurgin, pastor of Miamisburg First Baptist Church.
Messengers approved a 2014-15 Mission Ohio budget of $7,657,592, a 2.9 percent decrease from the current year.
[2]Included in the 2014-15 budget: $4,315,118 in anticipated CP giving from Ohio’s churches; $1,182,529 from the North American Mission Board; $64,000 from LifeWay Christian Resources; and $18,500 from GuideStone Financial Resources.
The convention will continue to forward 40.25 percent of CP receipts to the SBC’s national and international missions and ministries. Going to Ohio missions and ministries will be 59.75 percent of CP receipts. The budget does not include any shared expenses with the SBC.
Messengers celebrated the coming of the SBC annual meeting to Columbus in 2015, the first time the SCBO will host an SBC annual meeting. A report detailed plans for Crossover Columbus, the blitz of evangelistic ministries preceding the SBC annual meeting co-hosted by the Metro Columbus Baptist Association and NAMB.
In 2015 the SCBO will designate the Metro Columbus Association as its IMPACT association, where resources will be devoted to missions projects to impact the community. Messengers to the SCBO annual meeting celebrated the success of the 2014 IMPACT association, the Cincinnati Area Association.
The Heartsong praise team from Cedarville University in Cedarville led music for the annual meeting.
Speakers included Stinson; Jack Kwok, SCBO executive director; Johnathan Young, pastor of Dayton Avenue Baptist Church in Xenia; Randy Davis, executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention; and Ronnie Floyd, president of the SBC and pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas.
Chad Keck, pastor of Kettering First Baptist Church, was elected to preach the 2015 annual sermon. Mike O’Bryant, pastor of Bloom Baptist Church in Lithopolis, is the alternate.
Cornelius Hancock, pastor of Springboro First Baptist Church, received the Darty Stowe Award, presented annually by the Darty Stowe family and Georgetown College to a Southern Baptist pastor who has served faithfully in Ohio.
Next year’s annual meeting will be Nov. 3-4 at Jersey Baptist Church in Pataskala.
Ohio Southern Baptists adopted a resolution reaffirming their support of the Cooperative Program and approved a budget forwarding more than 40 percent of CP receipts to Southern Baptist Convention causes during their annual meeting Nov. 5-6 at Liberty Heights Baptist Church in Liberty Township.