___ Pilot church starts slowly. A pilot church in a new North American Mission Board strategy to partner with mega-churches to establish new Southern Baptist congregations outside the Bible Belt is finding the going slow. LakePoint Church in the affluent Chicago suburb of Lake Villa, Ill., made its official launch Easter Sunday with about 115 worshippers. Forty were first-time visitors. The launch followed several months of groundwork, including mailing about 70,000 pieces of promotional material and a weeklong blitz during which missions volunteers knocked on 16,000 doors. The church, funded with matching grants of $250,000 over two years by NAMB and Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., hopes to be self-sustaining, which would require between 350 and 400 people, before its funding ends in June 2002. NAMB plans four other church starts on the same model.
___ BWA moves. The Baptist World Alliance has relocated from old offices in McLean, Va., to a new building in another Washington suburb, Falls Church, Va. The new address for headquarters of the international organization of Baptist unions and conventions is 406 N. Washington Street, Falls Church, Va. 22046. Phone and fax numbers, as well as e-mail addresses, are unchanged.
___ SBC leaders visit White House. A contingent of Southern Baptist Convention leaders were among 170 people invited to the White House May 3 for a National Day of Prayer event sponsored by President George W. Bush. The ceremony included comments from Bush, as well as remarks and a prayer by former SBC President Adrian Rogers. It marked the 50th anniversary of the observance and was the first time such a Day of Prayer event had been held at the White House. Other SBC figures in attendance were James Merritt, convention president and pastor of the First Baptist Church of Snellville, Ga.; Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee; Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board; O.S. Hawkins, president of the Annuity Board; Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; William Crews, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary; Phil Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Claude Thomas, chairman of the SBC Executive Committee and pastor of First Baptist Church of Euless; Jerry Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va.; Paul Pressler, retired Houston judge who was a leader in the SBC's conservative movement; and Harold O'Chester, pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin.
___ Midwestern trustees change leaders. Without public explanation, trustees of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary last month defeated the re-election bid of the board chairman who has led the seminary through turbulent waters over the last two years. Carl Weiser, a pastor from Lynchburg, Va., was defeated on a 17-9 vote by Conrad "Buster" Brown, pastor of East Cooper Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant, S.C. Weiser served two years as chairman, during a period in which the board fired President Mark Coppenger, dealt with irregularities in enrollment reporting and hired a new president.
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