___ SBC attendance low. The 9,559 messengers registrated at this year's Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting accounted for the second-lowest registration in 28 years and the lowest for a Southern city in 52 years. The only other lower messenger registration in recent history was in 1998, when the convention met in Salt Lake City with 8,582 messengers. Beyond that, the previous low attendance mark was in Portland, Ore., in 1973, when 8,871 messengers registrered. The last meeting in a Southern city with attendance as low as this year was in Oklahoma City in 1949. That year, messenger registration was 9,393. The last time the SBC met in New Orleans, 1996, 13,000 messengers registered.
___ Blacks celebrate gains. An increase in the number of African-American denominational workers over the last year represents a significant accomplishment, said Sid Smith, executive director of the Black Southern Baptist Denominational Servants Network. "It's a new day in the Southern Baptist Convention," Smith told participants in the group's annual meeting June 10 in New Orleans. Two African-Americans within the last year were named vice presidents of SBC agencies, and one was elected executive director of a state convention.
___ Texans named to SBC committee. Two Texans have been elected to the Southern Baptist Convention committee on nominations. David Shepherd of Trinity Baptist Church in Niskayuna, N.Y., will serve as chairman. Texans serving on the committee will be Paul Garcia of Victory Baptist Church in Plano and Mike Mericle of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin. Both churches have left unique alignment with the Baptist General Convention of Texas to become dually aligned with the alternative Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
___ Hispanics urged on. It's time for Hispanic Baptists to rise up and proclaim the gospel in America, said evangelist Alberto Mottesi of Anaheim, Calif. Mottesi delivered a rousing message June 9 to the National Fellowship of Hispanic Southern Baptist Churches. "Let history judge me, but I have the conviction that God is going to use the Hispanic peoples to cause a revival and ask this nation to come home to God," predicted Mottesi. Officers re-elected by acclamation include Herberto Becerra as president and Vice President Moises Rodriguez, pastor of First Mexican Baptist Church in Fort Worth.
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