SBTC messengers unified in convention business
By Southern Baptist TEXAN Staff
HOUSTON — Messengers to the 2024 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) annual meeting, gathered at Sagemont Baptist Church Nov. 11-12 to conduct the business necessary for the convention’s year-round work amid two days of fellowship and inspiration.
Only one motion was submitted from the floor, asking the convention to consider ways to assist congregations with insurance costs. The Committee on Order of Business assigned the motion to the SBTC Executive Board for consideration.
During the Tuesday morning business session, messenger Rob Collingsworth of Redemption City Church in Fort Worth raised a point of order regarding a motion adopted in 2022 that intended to clarify the SBTC Constitution’s qualifications for affiliation in Article IV. Collingsworth called the motion a “procedural violation” and a “de facto amendment to our constitution” that violated the process for making an amendment. The chair allowed messengers to consider the question of whether the motion in 2022 expanded the meaning of the constitution. After a lengthy discussion, messengers declared the 2022 motion in order.
The convention’s executive board recommended a 2025 budget of $27,833,488, which is equal to the 2024 budget. It shows no increase because the 2024 budget exceeded receipts collected in 2023. Cooperative Program receipts will continue to be allocated with 55% sent to the Southern Baptist Convention for worldwide ministries and 45% being retained for ministries in Texas. Messengers approved the budget without discussion.
Convention officers were each elected by acclamation. Danny Forshee, pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, was elected to a second term as president. Ed Johnson III, church planter of Harvest Fellowship Baptist Church in Desoto, will serve as convention vice president. The convention’s secretary for 2025 is Amy Hinote of First Baptist Church in Justin.
Upon the recommendation of the Committee on Order of Business, messengers selected East Texas as the site for the 2027 annual meeting.
At final count, 1,122 people attended the annual meeting — 864 registered messengers and 258 registered guests representing 351 churches.
Planters commissioned in moving ceremony
Thirty-seven Send Network SBTC church planters were commissioned during the first night of the annual meeting. Those planters represent churches from every corner of Texas, from Abilene to College Station to San Antonio. They’re dispatched to locations big and small, from Houston and Fort Worth to Murphy and Mabank. Many of the planters stood hand-in-hand with their spouses and children.
It’s been a year to celebrate for Send Network SBTC, the church planting partnership between the SBTC and the North American Mission Board. Send Network SBTC recently completed the largest assessment weekend in the history of the national Send Network, with 31 planters assessed. By the end of this year, Send Network SBTC will have planted between 60-65 churches — the largest number since 2005.
The gospel hits the streets of Houston during Crossover event
Over 10 teams representing a dozen area churches participated in Crossover Houston on Nov. 9. The event was held in conjunction with the 2024 SBTC annual meeting that began the next day. The Houston initiative was patterned after Crossover events held prior to the national Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) each year.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to join efforts in spreading the message of hope and redemption to folks in the Houston area,” said Tony Mathews, SBTC’s senior strategist of Missional Ministries. The SBTC coordinated the event with Sagemont Church, host of the annual meeting. The event included not only outreach, but also evangelism training for participants.
Georgia Baptists answering the call, leading the way
By Henry Durand, The Christian Index
STATESBORO, Ga. — Georgia Baptists wrapped up their annual meeting, with the theme “Answer the Call,” on Nov. 12 in Statesboro. This year’s theme built upon last year’s, which was “Calling out the Called.”
Some 860 messengers gathered at First Baptist Statesboro for the three-day event, which kicked off Sunday, Nov. 10 with an inspirational service.
During that service, W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, and Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board, signed a partnership to plant churches in the state. “They know how to plant churches. They know how to do the assessments, and how to do training, and how to do the necessary equipping and mentoring and coaching. and what we have are the churches that say, ‘We want to plant churches in Georgia.’” Ezell agreed, saying “NAMB does not plant churches, churches plant churches.”
Through the efforts of Send Network Georgia, Hammond hopes to reach the nearly 7 million people in Georgia that are lost, a number that is growing as the state’s population increases.
In his executive director’s report to the convention, Hammond celebrated the thriving ministry of Georgia Baptists to their state, and shared ways in which Georgia Baptists are “leading the way.” Whether it be through church revitalization efforts, equipping church leaders and members, reaching the next generation, empowering women for ministry, or caring for the well-being of pastors, Georgia Baptists are working hard to make an impact in the state.
Through Mission Georgia, the statewide missions offering, Georgia Baptists are making it possible to reach the state by meeting needs and serving in challenging circumstances. From foster care to literacy, disaster relief to prison ministry, Georgia Baptist churches are being equipped and empowered to respond compassionately just as Christ would.
David Melber, chief operating officer of the GBMB, told messengers that the GBMB projects an increase in Cooperative Program giving for 2025. The board projects CP giving in 2025 to be more than $34 million, a 2.5% increase from 2024. Georgia Baptists are anticipated to give almost $17 million to the International Mission Board and more than $9 million to the North American Mission Board in 2025. The portion forwarded to national and international SBC causes remains 40%.
Georgia Baptists also elected a new slate of officers to lead them in 2025. Steve Browning, lead pastor of First Baptist Church Alpharetta, was elected as president.
This year, due to a change in the convention’s bylaws, only two vice presidents were elected. Garrett Grubbs, senior pastor at Crossroads Baptist Church in Valdosta, will serve as first vice president, and Benjamin Moore, pastor at Salem Bilingual Church and youth pastor at Salem Baptist Church in Dalton, was voted in as second vice president.
Georgia Baptists passed resolutions expressing their support for passage of a religious freedom restoration act in the state, as well as affirming the right to life of every human being.
Next year’s annual meeting will be held at First Baptist Church of Atlanta on Nov. 10-11.
All the sessions of the 2024 annual meeting can be accessed on the ACTS2 website.
Alabama Baptists seek to be ‘DifferenceMakers’
By The Alabama Baptist staff
DAPHNE, Ala. — Messengers to the Nov. 12-13 Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting at Eastern Shore Baptist Church in Daphne approved a $37.5 million Cooperative Program allocation budget for 2025 and re-elected all current officers to a second one-year term.
The budget is up $500,000 over the 2024 budget and maintains the 50/50 percentage allocation between Southern Baptist Convention and state convention-related Great Commission missions and ministries.
Messengers also approved the following 2025 special offering goals, all of which are the same amount as last year:
- Lottie Moon Christmas Offering: $12 million
- Annie Armstrong Easter Offering: $6 million
- Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries: $3 million
- Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering: $1.2 million
- World Hunger Offering: $800,000
In other financial updates, Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said Alabama Baptists will give Mission:Dignity recipients three extra checks in 2025 funded by interest income, similar to what was done in 2024.
Mission:Dignity helps retirement-age Southern Baptist ministers and widows who are struggling to pay for their basic needs, like housing, food and medication.
State convention president Craig Carlisle, who serves as director of missions for Etowah Baptist Association in the Gadsden area, was re-elected without opposition as were the two vice presidents.
Jarman Leatherwood, pastor of House of Hope and Restoration Church in Huntsville, Alabama, was re-elected first vice president, and Ryan Whitley, pastor of CrossPoint Church in Trussville, Alabama, was re-elected second vice president.
Also re-elected were Debbie Oliver as recording secretary and Mike Jackson as statistical secretary and registration secretary. Oliver and Jackson both serve on staff of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
The 201st annual meeting of Alabama Baptists also included various presentations featuring the meeting’s theme of DifferenceMakers.
A major focus for Carlisle during his year as president — and continuing into his second year in the role — is that of the pastor shortage “crisis.”
“Here in Alabama, we have 3,162 churches, and presently 501 of our churches do not have pastors,” he shared during his president’s address. “That represents 16% of our churches.”
Nearly 90% of pastorless churches are smaller congregations that need bivocational or part-time ministers, he added.
Carlisle led an effort to develop a Calling Out the Called emphasis that was launched during the annual meeting.
Kevin Blackwell, disciple-making/teaching pastor at The Station Church in Bessemer, Alabama, is part of the Calling Out the Called Alabama team and shared a report on the new web-based resource with messengers during the Nov. 12 afternoon session.
Blackwell hopes the new strategy will be a “game changer for our churches,” many of which are congregations that average less than 75 in worship and are seeking bivocational pastors.
“There is a growing number of open ministerial positions, particularly bivocational [ones], and a diminishing number of people responding to a call to ministry,” Blackwell said.
A total of 830 people representing 358 churches were present for the state convention annual meeting — 660 messengers and 170 guests.
The 2025 annual meeting will be held Nov. 11—12 at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville.
New Mexico Baptists approve budget restructure
By Kevin Parker
CLOVIS, N.M. — The Baptist Convention of New Mexico met for its 2024 annual meeting at Restoration Church in Clovis. The location was significant. The church is a replant effort of the Tri-Area Association and the state convention. Previously First Baptist Church, the congregation had diminished and found itself on hard times. With assistance, the congregation agreed to a replant under direction. The church is again reaching its community.
Attendance at the meeting fell below 200 messengers for the first time since 1980, the earliest year of current records. In the final count, 191 messengers from 72 churches and 65 visitors for a total registered attendance of 256.
The program for the meeting included two pre-convention meetings: The 2024 WMU Missions Celebration and the 2024 Pastors’ and Laymen’s Conference (PLC). Parkland Baptist Church, Clovis, hosted both meetings. The WMU meeting featured testimonies from IMB missionaries, skits, prayer times and testimonies from churches. The PLC featured Kansas City pastor and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary dean Todd Shipman.
Messengers heard from three speakers — BCNM President Stephen Baum; SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Jeff Iorg; and New Mexico pastor Stephen Soto.
Messengers also approved a 2025 budget of $4,295,010 — $58,562 higher than last year. The budget represented a change in convention structure. The new convention organization funded by the budget consists of two primary teams, two support teams and a team of five regional missionaries.
The two primary teams are the Church Health Team and the Church Missions Team. The two support teams address the less visible functions of the convention and churches. They are the Office of Communication and Technology and the Office of Administration and Finance. The five regional missionaries engage in direct relationships with churches and connect them with convention resources.
The approved budget removes BCNM reliance on partner funding for its core functions. To accomplish that goal, messengers changed the Cooperative Program sharing ratio from 75% retained and 25% forwarded to the Southern Baptist Convention’s CP allocation budget to a new ratio of 80% retained and 20% forwarded to the SBC’s CP allocation budget. Convention leaders have expressed a desire to strengthen churches and the convention’s ministry to reach more people and eventually reverse the ratio change.
The convention will still receive and use partner funding when available. However, the new budget, structure and CP ration enables the convention to provide ministries and resources without concern for SBC entities’ ability to supply funds. In the past, major portions of BCNM funding came from Lifeway Christian Resources and the North American Mission Board. The convention still partners with those organizations whenever possible. But, New Mexicans are now funding their own ministries to reach the state with the gospel, as well as participating in funding CP ministries through the SBC.
During officer elections, messengers reelected Baum to serve a second term as president and Al Carroll to serve a second term as first vice president. They also elected Joel Gunn as second vice president. Gunn serves as executive pastor at First Baptist Church, Bloomfield. Carroll serves as pastor of First Baptist Church, Bernalillo.
The convention’s next annual meeting will convene Oct. 21-22, 2025, at First Baptist Church, Las Cruces.
