North Carolina Baptists
meeting Nov. 8-10 in Greensboro decided they no longer want to take three days
to conduct their annual business and approved two-day meetings for the future.
They also adopted a budget six percent smaller than in 2010, re-elected their
officers, passed motions that reopen controversial discussions related to
alcohol and doctrinal positions, and passed resolutions affirming the
Cooperative Program and the work of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.
During his address Nov. 8,
Executive Director-Treasurer Milton A. Hollifield Jr., also stated his support
for moving the Convention to a 50-50 split of Cooperative Program receipts from
churches with the Southern Baptist Convention.
The 2011
budget inches CP sharing with the SBC up half a percentage point to 35 percent.
It is the sixth consecutive such increase, despite declining gifts pushing the
2011 budget down to the size of the 1999 budget.
BSC photo by K Brown Each of the Baptist State Convention officers were re-elected to second terms without opposition. From left: CJ Bordeaux, second vice president and pastor of Gorman Baptist Church, Durham; Beth and Mark Harris, first vice president and pastor of First Baptist Church, Charlotte; and Tanya and Ed Yount, president and pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church, Conover. |
Some 1,746 messengers passed
two motions and three resolutions. One motion, presented by Phil Addison,
pastor of Stony Point Baptist Church, asked the Board of Directors to adopt the
Baptist Faith & Message 2000 as the doctrinal statement of the BSC.
A motion by Tim Rogers,
pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Indian Trail, asked for a study on the use
of alcohol, especially in relation to funding church plants, people in
leadership and hiring of personnel.
Two resolutions, published
in the Oct. 23 Biblical Recorder and available online, thanked the host city
and embraced the Cooperative Program as Baptists’ primary missions funding
channel.
The Cooperative Program
resolution, also offered by Tim Rogers, acknowledged the “value of concerted,
cooperative ministries of our churches to reach the peoples of our state, the
nation and the world” and a resolve to “embrace the Cooperative Program model
as the most accountable, effective and compelling method for fulfilling the
Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A resolution rejected by the
Resolutions Committee, but approved by messengers who had to vote by two-thirds
majority to suspend the rules to hear it, thanked the Great Commission
Resurgence Task Force for its work. The resolution was offered by Brent Hobbs,
pastor of Severn Baptist Church.
Of the 1,746 messengers, 599
were pastors, 243 were church staff, 199 were spouses and 703 were laity.
Visitors totaled 182 bringing the total in attendance to 1,928, 127 fewer than
last year and just 27 more than the number that attended the 1952 meeting.
Shrinking budget
This will mark the sixth
year of the past eight that CP gifts from churches have been lower than the
previous year. Messengers adopted a 2011 budget of $32.7 million, which is six
percent lower than last year and the size of the 1999 budget. Yet in 2011, for
the sixth consecutive year, the SBC allocation of CP gifts has been increased
one-half percent.
In the North Carolina
budget, 44.2 percent of gifts fund North Carolina board directed ministries and
20.8 percent support North Carolina’s institutions and agencies. The rest, 35
percent, is sent to the Southern Baptist Convention for national and
international missions and education.
Hollifield said in his
address that he wants to move toward a 50-50 split “over a protracted period”
as North Carolina Baptist churches step up their giving.
The only budget opposition
voiced was to the reduction in funds to the Baptist Children’s Homes of North
Carolina. Budget Chairman Steve Hardy explained that budget recipients’ income
is tied to percentages and a decrease in anticipated income results in fewer
dollars, even though the percentage of the budget remains the same.
Re-elected
All officers who served this
year were re-elected with no other nominations from the floor. Ed Yount, pastor
of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Conover, maintains his presidency. Mark Harris,
pastor of First Baptist Church in Charlotte, stays on as first vice president,
and C.J. Bordeaux, pastor of Gorman Baptist Church in Durham, is second vice
president.
Committee news
In other committee reports,
the Historical Committee recognized Roger Bullard, member of First Baptist
Church in Wilson, as winner of the 2010 History Writing Contest.
Bullard won for his “The
Life and times of First Baptist Church Wilson, 1860-2010.”
Messengers approved the
Committee on Nominations report brought by chair Perry Brindley with no
discussion.
The full list of persons to
serve on the BSC board and as trustees of institutions and agencies has been
printed in the Biblical Recorder.
The next annual meeting will
be Nov. 7-8, 2011 at the Koury Center in Greensboro. The convention will return in 2012 to the Coliseum, followed by two more years at the Koury Center.