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Kentucky Baptists adopt missions plan
Drew Nichter, Baptist Press
December 02, 2010
3 MIN READ TIME

Kentucky Baptists adopt missions plan

Kentucky Baptists adopt missions plan
Drew Nichter, Baptist Press
December 02, 2010

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Messengers

to the 173rd annual meeting of the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC) adopted a

plan to send more money “to the nations” and honored an executive director

nearing the end of his tenure.

Kentucky Baptists embarked

on a course that eventually will lead the convention to an equal division of

Cooperative Program (CP) funds between state and Southern Baptist causes.

After nearly an hour of

discussion, the report of the Great Commission Task Force (GCTF) containing

four key recommendations was passed by nearly two-thirds of messengers Nov. 16

at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky. — but not without some last-minute

adjustments.

Delivering the report on

behalf of the task force, chairman Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist

Church in Frankfort and a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor,

announced significant changes to the task force’s second proposal.

In it, the group originally

called for the KBC to move to a reallocation of Cooperative Program funds to an

even 50/50 allocation between Kentucky Baptist and Southern Baptist Convention

missions and ministry causes within seven years.

That target date was

extended by three years, aiming now for an even split by the 2020-21 fiscal

year.

The change “gives a little

more wiggle room, a little more time to strategize and flesh out exactly what

this would mean,” York told messengers.

The task force amended the

report’s proposal No. 2 even further, decreasing the required across-the-board

budget cuts for the KBC and its partnering entities, institutions and auxiliary

from 6 percent to 5 percent.

In addition, the extra 7

percent deduction for the convention’s two liberal arts colleges —

Campbellsville University and University of the Cumberlands — was dropped to 6

percent, resulting in an approximate 11 percent overall budget reduction

instead of the initial 12.58 percent.

The rest of proposal No. 2

was unchanged, including the elimination of the KBC’s contribution to the

annuities of pastors and church staff members (approximately $400,000) and a

reduction of Mission Board staff by 12 percent.

The task force’s proposal

No. 1 is the three-year “More for Christ” emphasis, described in the GCTF

report as “an intentional time of repentance, renewal and redirection for the

future” of the KBC.

Proposal No. 3, meanwhile,

urges all Kentucky Baptist churches to increase their Cooperative Program

giving by at least 0.25 percent of undesignated receipts per year, which would

result in a 3 percent bump in convention-wide CP gifts annually.

Proposal No. 4 allows for

the Great Commission Task Force to remain in place and report to KBC messengers

each year over the next decade.

The much-discussed Great

Commission report likely precipitated a significant bump in the messenger count

for this year’s meeting. With 1,185 messengers registered, it was the first

time since 2006 that KBC registration reached four figures.

Many of those messengers

were on hand to honor longtime KBC executive director Bill Mackey, who will retire

May 31, 2011.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Nichter is

news director for the Western Recorder, newsjournal for Kentucky Baptists.)