April 9, 2001

First Baptist of Houston dually aligns
___HOUSTON--First Baptist Church of Houston has voted to dually align with the new Southern Baptists of Texas Convention while reducing but not ending its ties with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___About 500 of the church's 21,000 members voted on the matter April 1. The recommendation from a study committee was approved with only a "handful" of opposing votes reported.
___The church has not yet made decisions about how the dual alignment will impact missions giving. However, last year the church gave 1.8 percent of its $9 million budget to the BGCT and SBC Cooperative Program, a total of $156,505.
___The church reportedly will still give enough through the BGCT to retain convention voting privileges and make church members eligible to serve on BGCT trustee boards.
___The church cited a number of reasons for aligning with the new state convention, most related to concerns that the BGCT is not loyal to the Southern Baptist Convention.
___Ken Hemphill, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is interim pastor.

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