Baptist Briefs

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Posted: 2/15/08

Baptist Briefs

Fewer forced terminations in SBC churches last year. Forced terminations in the Southern Baptist Convention were down during 2006. The Southern Baptist Church-Minister Relations Association found 680 full-time and bivocational pastors were forced out of their positions in 2006, plus 265 staff members. While the total of 945 is 27 percent lower than the 1,302 reported for 2005, Barney Self, a former pastoral counselor with LifeWay Christian Resources who conducted the survey, pointed out the report lacked input from four state conventions. The omissions mean the actual number of terminations may have been closer to 1,100, he noted. According to the survey, control issues were the top reason for staff dismissals—the same reason that has topped the surveys since they were initiated in 1996.


SBC conducts online survey about youth. Teenagers, their parents, student ministry volunteers and youth ministers in Southern Baptist churches are eligible to participate in an online survey through April 13. Church registration for the survey, at www.sbcstudents.com/annualsurvey, runs through the end of March. After the survey closes, each participating church will be able to download a full report April 15. It will show the responses of their congregation separated into groups without identifying specific individuals who took the survey. All individual input will remain confidential. Free online manuals will be made available to churches to guide them in conducting workshops that bring key parents, youth and leaders to the table to set a new direction based on the information gathered from the survey. State conventions will be able to post statistics from their states on their websites, while SBC entities will have access to national figures to help determine effective directions for student ministry within the convention. Participating churches, meanwhile, will be able to compare their results with statewide and nationwide results.


Third nominee enters SBC president’s race. Frank Cox, pastor of North Metro First Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga., will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the June 10-11 annual meeting in Indianapolis, Alabama evangelist Junior Hill announced. Cox is the third nominee to be announced, joining Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and Bill Wagner, a former Southern Baptist missionary and seminary professor and current president of Olivet University International in San Francisco. Cox is a former president of the Georgia Baptist Convention and former SBC first vice president. He also served on the SBC Executive Committee nine years and is a member of the convention’s funding study committee. Cox has been North Metro’s pastor more than 27 years. Beginning in 2002, North Metro has been in the top 100 of all SBC churches in total dollars contributed through the Cooperative Program, ranking 44th out of 44,223 congregations in 2006.


Baptists plan world youth conference. The Baptist World Alliance has scheduled its next global youth conference for July 20 to Aug. 3 in Leipzig, Germany. Events at the 2008 conference will include morning worship services, concerts and evening sessions with keynote speakers. Opportunities to participate in mission projects throughout Europe prior to and following the conference also will be available, organizers said. Early registration ends March 31.









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