NASHVILLE (BP) — Even before the wide-scale interruption of a worldwide pandemic, 2020 showed itself early to be a busy and momentous year for the SBC Executive Committee.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (BP) – Messengers to the annual meeting of the Alaska Baptist Resource Network took the unprecedented step of attempting to withhold the allocation of future Cooperative Program funds intended for the North American Mission Board.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Baptist Press has announced two strategic staff changes: Lucinda Clark has joined as editor of Baptist Press en Español (BPEE), and Laura Erlanson has been named BP managing editor.

NASHVILLE (BP) – As the COVID-19 pandemic stymied the economy and forced numerous churches to cancel in-person worship for months, Southern Baptists continued supporting the Cooperative Program, now in its 95th year.

In these uncertain, divisive and fearful times, I want to remind us of a sustaining vision we find in God’s inerrant, all-sufficient Word – a vision recorded by the apostle John in the midst of their own fearful and uncertain times. The church of the John’s generation had been scattered, hunted down, imprisoned and tortured. The apostle John himself was boiled in oil and socially distanced, by himself, on the island of Patmos.

NASHVILLE(BP) – Decreased giving during the COVID-19 pandemic led the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to adopt a Cooperative Program Allocation Budget Tuesday (Sept. 22) that is 5 percent less than the committee projected last February.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Southern Baptist layman and financial expert Jeff Pearson will be the next chief financial officer of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, replacing William "Bill" Townes who is retiring.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Since the end of February 2020, I have carried a deep and increasing burden about the following things:

NASHVILLE (BP) – Greg Addison has been named executive vice president for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Charles Grant has been named executive director of African American relations and mobilization at the SBC Executive Committee. In a partnership jointly funded by the SBC EC and the North American Mission Board, Grant will work to equip and mobilize African American churches, as well as to engage potential new churches.