Southern Seminary students focus on Kentucky convention
___By Trennis Henderson
___Kentucky Western Recorder
___LOUISVILLE, Ky.--A group of students at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has joined forces with the Kentucky Baptist Laymen's Network in an effort to elect a conservative president at this month's Kentucky Baptist Convention annual meeting.
___Students for Convention Involvement, an informal student organization on Southern Seminary's Louisville campus, recently distributed a memo to students noting that "conservatives in the Kentucky Baptist Convention desperately need our help during the next state convention" Nov. 13-14 in Murray.
___The one-page memo, signed by doctoral student Mark Overstreet, claims that "moderates are seeking to control the KBC, and many of them enthusiastically support the liberal Cooperative Baptist Fellowship."
___Identifying Tom Butler as "the conservative candidate" for the KBC presidency, the memo adds that "student messengers from Southern Seminary could be the deciding factor" in a close presidential vote.
___Both Butler and Harold Greenfield, the two announced candidates for the KBC presidency, said they have not sought endorsements from any group. Butler, however, has been active in the laymen's network and said he would be "humbly grateful" for the group's support.
___Overstreet's memo assured students, "If you have need we will provide transportation, food and a place to stay during the convention." He said those resources are being provided on a voluntary basis by churches in the Murray area that have agreed to donate lodging and meals for seminary students.
___Students for Convention Involvement distributed the memo as an insert in the Kentucky Baptist, the laymen's network newsletter.
___About 1,600 copies of the memo and newsletter were mailed through the campus post office.
___John Michael, a former seminary trustee who is president of the conservative laymen's network, described Students for Convention Involvement as "a student-initiated thing."
___Last year, the Kentucky Baptist Laymen's Network worked unsuccessfully to elect a slate of convention officers and distributed newsletters endorsing specific candidates. KBC messengers responded by adopting a motion barring the distribution of campaign materials at future KBC meeting sites.
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