Kansas-Nebraska Baptists creating a culture of discipleship, partnership
By Kevin Ferstl/Church Forward KNCSB
SALINA, Kan. (BP) – The 2025 Annual Meeting of Church Forward (Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists) was hosted by the convention-owned Webster Conference Center Oct. 13-14.
This year was marked by an exciting partnership with the North American Mission Board’s Evangelism Team. Every attendee received a NAMB Evangelism Kit. Breakout sessions were integrated into a single training event, led by Tim Dowdy, NAMB’s vice president for evangelism, and JJ Washington, NAMB’s director of personal evangelism.
“We are grateful for the sincere partnership with the North American Mission Board,” said Church Forward Executive Director David Manner. “Their impact is felt across Kansas and Nebraska through church planting, residency builder program and evangelism funds available for our churches to reach their communities for the sake of the Gospel.”
The meeting drew 249 messengers and 51 visitors, who heard guest speakers Kevin Ezell, NAMB president; Kelly Randolph, associational mission strategist for the Heart of Kansas Southern Baptist Association in Wichita, Kan.; and David Gibbs, Church Forward president and pastor of First Baptist Church of Towanda, Kan.
Music for all general sessions was led by emerging leaders from various Christian Challenge campus ministries, as well as trusted ministry partners from CrossPoint Worship, a ministry of CrossPoint Church, Hutchinson, Kan.
“For 80 years, we have been gathering to celebrate as a convention of churches,” Manner said. “It is always a joy to come together and celebrate what God has done in and through the churches and ministries of Kansas and Nebraska Southern Baptists.”
The 2026 budget was approved in an amount of $4,565,376, slightly below last year’s. The convention’s allocation for national and international Cooperative Program ministry is 29 percent, with 71 percent remaining for local and regional mission causes. These percentages are unchanged from last year.
Officers elected were President David Crowther, Vice President Shane Lester, Recording Secretary Vicki VanMeter, Assistant Recording Secretary Andrew Abbott, Parliamentarian Sandy Peterson and Historical Secretary Tony Mattia.
The 2026 Church Forward annual meeting will be hosted by Webster Conference Center of Salina, Kan., Oct. 12-13, 2026.
New Mexico Baptists celebrate One-Day mission trip
By Johanna Nelson/Baptist New Mexican
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Two hundred fifty-three messengers from 91 New Mexico Baptist churches and 46 guests gathered for the 2025 Baptist Convention of New Mexico Annual Meeting. They met at First Baptist Church in Las Cruces Oct. 21-22.
Attendees heard from several speakers, including Stephen Baum, the outgoing 2025 BCNM president; Adam Groza, president of Gateway Seminary; Steve Ballew, BCNM executive director and lead missionary; and David Brittain, senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Farmington.
Baum spoke on the meeting’s central theme, “One Faith, One Mission,” which is based on Ephesians 4:1-6.
Baum also presented questions to Jeff Dalrymple, the director of abuse prevention and response for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, and Groza during a question-and-answer panel.
Attendees also heard from Matt Thackerson, team leader for the BCNM’s church mission office, and Rick Brittain, team leader for the church health office, about a mission trip called One Day, in which churches worked together to to serve their neighbors in Silver City and Tucumcari on Sept. 27.
Volunteers from 74 churches gathered in Silver City and Tucumcari to share the Gospel with as many residents as possible. More than 1,000 people heard the Gospel, and 18 people chose to give their lives to Christ during the event, Thackerson and Brittain reported.
The BCNM plans to hold another One Day Sept. 26, 2026, in Roswell and in an area known as the East Mountains, which includes towns on the eastern side of the Sandia Mountains, east of Albuquerque.
Messengers approved all resolutions and voted to change the dates for the 2026 and 2027 BCNM Annual Meetings. The BCNM proposed the change to give attendees time to return to their churches sooner for Wednesday night activities.
Messengers approved a 2026 budget of $4,540,150, which is $245,140 higher than the 2025 budget.
Of that, 62 percent will be allocated to local and regional Cooperative Program ministries. The remainder will be allocated as follows:
- Cooperative Program New Mexico (3 percent) – $125,000
- State Missions Offering (11 percent) – $480,000
- Designated Funds and New Mexico Baptist Foundation Investments (7 percent) – $329,900
- Sivells Baptist Camp (6 percent) – $295,700
- Inlow Baptist Camp (4 percent) – $193,550
- Investment Gains of Prior Years (5 percent) – $210,000
- Other (2 percent) – $81,000
Twenty percent of the BCNM’s Undesignated Cooperative Program funds will go to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to be distributed as directed by the SBC Allocation Budget. This percentage is unchanged from last year.
During the meeting’s final day, the attending messengers elected Chris Promersberger, the lead teaching pastor from Mountain Valley Baptist Church in Edgewood, as the new BCNM president. Promersberger served as first vice president in 2025. Messengers elected Joel Gunn, the 2025 second vice president, as 1st vice president Sam Swann as the 2026 second vice president. Gunn serves as pastor for First Baptist Church in Bloomfield. Swann serves as the associate pastor of discipleship and education at Calvary Baptist Church in Las Cruces.
The 2026 BCNM Annual Meeting will take place Oct. 19-20, 2026, at Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Albuquerque.
For the full story, click here. For a complete business report, click here.
Related posts:
STATE MEETINGS: Mississippi, Ohio, Northwest 
YEAR IN REVIEW: Top 12 most-read stories in 2024 
STATE MEETINGS: Indiana, Mississippi 
North Carolina pastor arrested on sexual exploitation charges 
‘I have everything,’ God says to pastor 
Record-breaking gift to support retired Florida Baptist pastors, widows 
STATE MEETINGS: New England, Oklahoma 
1% Challenge Cooperative Program
