SOPHIA, N.C. — The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina’s board of directors unanimously endorsed a $31 million Cooperative Program (CP) budget proposal for 2025 as well as several recommended changes to the convention’s articles and bylaws during a regularly scheduled meeting held Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 23-24, at Caraway Conference Center near Asheboro.
The board also elected new officers, took action on other business items and heard several ministry reports during the two-day meeting.
The budget proposal and bylaw recommendations will now go before messengers attending the N.C. Baptist annual meeting for consideration. The annual meeting is scheduled for Nov. 4-5 at the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, N.C.
The $31 million budget proposal reflects the same overall total as the current 2024 budget, and it also keeps CP receipts allocated equally between the state convention and global ministry partners. The board’s executive committee had previously given its unanimous support to the budget proposal as recommended by the Budget Special Committee during a meeting held in August.
The proposed article and bylaw changes primarily deal with updates that provide greater clarity and specificity to the N.C. Baptist executive director-treasurer (EDT) search process. The proposed bylaw changes also remove a restriction that currently prevents N.C. Baptists whose personal residence is across state lines from serving on various boards, committees and elected offices of the state convention. Additional bylaw recommendations involve updating references to Provision Financial Resources of N.C. Baptists (formerly the N.C. Baptist Foundation) to reflect the organization’s name change that took place late last year.
Robert Hefner, pastor of Pleasant Garden Baptist Church, was elected board president, and Spence Shelton, lead pastor of Mercy Church in Charlotte, was elected board vice president. Angela Kilby, whose husband, Pat, serves as senior pastor of Cary First Baptist Church, was reelected board secretary.
Following is a detailed rundown of actions and other business addressed by the board.
Budget proposal
In addition to approving the $31 million budget proposal for 2025, the board also unanimously endorsed a special 2025 CP “challenge budget,” as well as a $2.6 million goal and allocations for next year’s North Carolina Missions Offering (NCMO).
The challenge budget proposal calls for any funds received in excess of the final approved 2025 CP budget to be allocated equally between global mission causes and the Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina.
The NCMO proposal keeps the offering goal and percentage allocations the same as 2024. Gifts to the NCMO support the 19 different ministries of N.C. Baptists on Mission (62%), church planting (28%) and associational missions (10%).
Financial update
State convention officials reported that through the end of August, Cooperative Program giving from N.C. Baptist churches totaled more than $18.2 million. The total is about 2.8% behind year-over-year giving and about 11.9% behind the year-to-date budget.
Based on projections, CP giving is expected to total about $29.6 million for 2024. Although that total would be about $1.4 million below this year’s $31 million budget, it would reflect an increase in year-over-year giving for the second year in a row.
N.C. Baptist Executive Director-Treasurer Todd Unzicker said he is still hopeful and prayerful that 2024 CP giving will reach at least $30 million. State convention officials said the last time CP giving eclipsed $30 million was 14 years ago in 2010. Convention leaders said CP giving would eclipse $30 million this year if every cooperating N.C. Baptist church contributed an additional $200 between now and the end of the year, which works out to be about $15 per week, per church.
Convention officials also reported that through the end of August, giving to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions totaled more than $6.4 million, giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions totaled more than $9.9 million and giving to the North Carolina Missions Offering totaled more than $713,000.
Bylaw details
The proposed changes to the state convention’s bylaws related to the executive director-treasurer search process comes amid a multiyear examination and review of the existing bylaws.
Following Unzicker’s election as EDT in 2021, the appointed search committee at that time asked the Articles and Bylaws Committee to consider updates to the search and election process because the search team believed the existing bylaws were vague and outdated for the needs of conducting a modern executive search.
In 2022, proposed bylaw revisions were presented to messengers during that year’s annual meeting, which included proposed changes to the EDT search process. While some bylaw revisions passed, changes to the EDT search process were voted down.
The primary concern at the time focused on whether the messengers or the board of directors would hold the final vote in the election of a new EDT.
In early 2023, the board voted to direct the Articles and Bylaws Committee to revisit the EDT search issue. During the course of its review, the Articles and Bylaws Committee asked the board for more time to conduct its review and bring forth recommendations this year.
Under the current proposal approved by the board this week, messengers would retain the final vote on an EDT candidate, and the N.C. Baptist board of directors would still nominate a candidate for consideration.
The proposed changes would also add a section to the bylaws that outlines how an EDT search committee would be formed, along with an overview of the committee’s roles and responsibilities. Under the proposal, the search committee would recommend a single candidate to the board’s Executive Committee. The Executive Committee would then recommend that candidate to the board or request that the search team present another candidate for consideration.
The bylaws, as currently written, provide no guidance related to how the EDT search process should be conducted other than to say “the Board shall nominate a person to the Convention for consideration.”
“Frankly, our current bylaws present significant problems on this matter,” said Brooke Medina, chair of the Articles and Bylaws Committee.
The proposed changes would also eliminate a clause in the existing bylaws that allows for additional EDT nominations to be made from the floor of the convention.
“Open nominations for the role of EDT would undermine the diligent work of the search committee and represents a significant departure from best practices for executive hiring,” Medina said.
In a separate but related measure, the board also approved a recommendation that authorized the state convention’s human resources staff to draft an accompanying policy regarding the operations and practices for any future EDT search committee. The drafted policy is due to the Articles and Bylaws Committee by Jan. 31, 2025.
Medina also said the members of the Articles and Bylaws Committee felt like the clause in the current bylaws that prohibits N.C. Baptists whose personal residence is located across state lines from serving in leadership roles with the state convention is “overly restrictive.”
Medina said a number of pastors and members of N.C. Baptist churches live across state lines, especially along the borders of South Carolina and Virginia.
“The committee would like to maximize our opportunities to have North Carolina Baptists serving in important roles such as these,” Medina said. “We believe living a short distance across the state line should not prevent someone from serving on our boards and committees.”
New board officers elected
During the meeting, Zeb Cook announced he would not seek reelection for another term as board president. Cook became board president in April 2023 when then-president Casey Norkett resigned to join the staff of the state convention. Cook was re-elected as board president later that fall.
After nearly two full years in the role, Cook said he felt it was a good time to step down to allow others to serve and so he could also provide more attention to the church he pastors, Apex Baptist. Cook has one year remaining on his term of service on the board, and he will remain as a board member in 2025.
Cook subsequently nominated current board vice president Robert Hefner, pastor of Pleasant Garden Baptist Church, to serve as next year’s board president. Hefner was elected unanimously by the board.
“I am grateful to serve N.C. Baptists in this tremendous season of fruitful ‘on mission together’ work,” Hefner told the Biblical Recorder in written comments. “I couldn’t have shadowed a better president than Zeb Cook. I look forward to partnering with our board of directors and N.C. Baptists in all God has for us in the days ahead.”
Spence Shelton, lead pastor of Mercy Church in Charlotte, was elected vice president of the board for 2025 in a unanimous vote. Shelton was nominated by Will Toburen, lead pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.
Angela Kilby, whose husband, Pat, pastors Cary First Baptist Church, was reelected board secretary. Kilby was nominated by Justin Alexander, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Hendersonville.
Hefner, Shelton and Kilby were the only individuals nominated for their respective positions.
Other business
In other business, the board approved a motion by the Operations Special Committee to establish the Caswell Capital Improvement Endowment Fund. The fund would be managed by Provision Financial Resources of N.C. Baptists, and proceeds of the fund would support improvement projects at Fort Caswell Coastal Retreat and Conference Center. Fort Caswell is owned and operated by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and will be celebrating its 75th year of ministry in 2025.
The board also approved a motion by the Operations Special Committee to sell a piece of property in Salisbury owned by the state convention that has not been used for ministry in a number of years. Convention officials said a prospective buyer approached the convention about purchasing the property. Proceeds from the $50,000 sale would be placed in state convention reserves.
The board also affirmed a decision by the Fruitland Baptist Bible College’s board of directors to lease one of its buildings to a private Christian school that recently opened in Hendersonville. The building that will be leased receives minimal use, and Fruitland and state convention leaders said the move would create a new revenue stream while also exposing future prospective students to the school.
The N.C. Baptist board also approved three individuals to serve on the Fruitland Baptist Bible College’s board of directors. They were: Josh Evans, pastor of Crabtree Baptist Church in Clyde; Adam Love, layperson at Red Cross Baptist Church in Oakboro; and Larry McDonald, layperson at First Baptist Church of Hendersonville.
Board members recognized
State convention leaders also recognized 11 individuals who are completing their terms of service on the board at the end of 2024. They were: Matt Brogli, senior pastor of Eagle Springs Baptist Church; Lee Callicutt, pastor of preaching and teaching at Grace Hill Church in Pittsboro; Andrew Clark, co-pastor of Arran Lake Baptist Church in Fayetteville; Jeff Dowdy, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Swannanoa; Adam Hatley, senior pastor of West Albemarle Baptist Church in Albemarle; Angela Honeycutt, lay member of Big Rock Creek Baptist Church in Bakersville; Danny Justice, pastor of Burgaw Baptist Church; William Niera, pastor of Cristo Vive Baptist Church in Forest City; Denise O’Donoghue, director of counseling development at Imago Dei Church in Raleigh; Jennifer Thoppil, layperson at Salem Baptist Church in Dobson; and Hayward Tomblin, pastor of Cashiers Baptist Church.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the N.C. Baptist board of directors is scheduled for Jan. 27-28, 2025, at Caraway Conference Center.
The Executive Committee of the board is scheduled to meet Nov. 4 in conjunction with the N.C. Baptist annual meeting.
