Baptist Briefs: CBF allocates funds for Syrian refugee relief

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship sent $15,000 to field personnel in Macedonia and Lebanon to assist with humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees. An estimated 4.1 million Syrians have fled their homeland during four years of civil war, creating the worst refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Most are in neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan but now are spilling into Europe. CBF sent $5,000 to field personnel Alicia and Jeff Lee in Skopje, Macedonia, to support their partnerships with local nongovernmental organizations meeting immediate needs of refugees traveling through the country. The Fellowship sent $10,000 to Chaouki and Maha Boulos in Lebanon, who have been responding to the Syrian refugee crisis since 2011. Currently, they are feeding nearly 500 Syrian refugee individuals and families in Lebanon, as well as providing emergency food support to families inside Syria through a ministry partner.

Georgia Baptists adopt new name and approve new ministry direction. The current Georgia Baptist Convention headquarters building will be sold as part of a restructuring.Georgia Baptist Convention Executive Director Robert White announced the organization’s new name, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, to members of the Georgia Baptist Executive Committee Sept. 15. Georgia Baptists are reinventing themselves with a new focus, new organizational structure, and new name that better communicates their mission and identity, he said. The changes grew out of a year of study on objectives ranging from involving the next generation to equipping churches better and mobilizing people to be more involved in ministry and financial support. White stressed three major emphases—commitment to global missions support, Georgia church services and church-planting partnerships, and Georgia community evangelism and missions. The Georgia Baptist Mission Board will move toward field-based personnel, employees and practitioners in local churches. More employees disbursed across the state will mean less need for the current headquarters building, which could be sold at a premium from its original construction cost, White said. The sale of the property would then free the board to purchase a much smaller facility to primarily house administrative staff.

Georgia Baptist paper ceases printed edition. The Christian Index will transition to an online presence Jan. 1, the Georgia Baptist Convention’s newsjournal has announced, citing rising production and distribution costs, coupled with declining revenue from circulation and advertising. The Georgia Baptist news organization will produce its final biweekly print edition Dec. 24. The Christian Index describes itself as the nation’s oldest continuously published Christian newspaper, dating back to 1822, when missions supporter Luther Rice started it as the Columbia Star in Washington, D.C. The paper first became part of the Georgia convention in 1840; the convention sold and repurchased the paper in the following years, acquiring it for the final time in 1919. In addition to posting articles on its website, The Christian Index will provide a weekly synopsis churches can download and print for those who prefer a paper copy. 

Angola prison ministry dedicates new facility. Celebrating a 20-year partnership, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary/Leavell College dedicated a new facility with expanded classroom and library space at the Louisiana State Penitentiary near Angola, La. The dedication followed a ceremony marking the program’s 278th graduate. The program offers the bachelor of arts degree in Christian ministry and non-credit certificate degrees. The Joan Horner Center, an 11,000-square-foot building with a computer lab, two classrooms, an auditorium and library, was named in memory of benefactor Joan Horner, founder of Premier Designs of Dallas, who with husband Andy Horner were longtime supporters of the Angola ministry. An anonymous donor provided funds for the structure.

West Virginia Baptists elect executive leader. The West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists Executive Board elected William D. Henard III as executive director-treasurer. Henard, who assumes his new role in October, has been senior pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., since 1999 and professor of evangelism and church growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary since 2007. He earned his undergraduate degree from Cumberland College, master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of philosophy degree from Southern Seminary. Henard has served as first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, as a trustee of LifeWay Christian Resources, serving as chairman two years, and as president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. He succeeds Terry Harper, who served the West Virginia convention 13 years. Henard and his wife, Judy, have been married nearly 40 years. They have a daughter, two sons and four grandchildren.

Baptist ministers protest construction of dam in India. Baptist pastors in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur are protesting construction of the Mapithel Dam, saying it will displace about 12,000 people, most of them Christians. The dam, part of the Thoubal Multipurpose Project, will use water from the Yangwui Kong River to provide irrigation for about 54,000 acres of farmland, as well as a 7.5-megawatt electricity generation plant for Imphal, capital of Manipur. The Baptist ministers assert farmers would lose about 1,920 acres, and an additional 1,470 acres of forest would be submerged. Farmers would lose “immovable assets handed down by their ancestors, which have been the principal means of livelihood since time immemorial,” the pastors told the Baptist World Alliance. At least two church buildings, one Baptist and one Catholic, also will be destroyed and their burial grounds lost if construction of the dam proceeds. Protestors allege authorities engaged in a “divide and rule policy,” saying officials offered proper and comprehensive resettlement and rehabilitation program for the affected villagers and conducted no impact assessments.