Baptist Briefs: Crossover evangelistic events scheduled

Crossover evangelistic events scheduled. In the days leading up to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, Crossover ’09 will mobilize as many as 1,000 volunteers throughout Louisville, Ky., and its surrounding communities June 19-20. Teams will survey and witness door-to-door through assigned neighborhoods, with priority given to areas where new church starts are planned. About 40 Southern Baptist churches in Long Run Baptist Association will participate in 32 block parties in Louisville neighborhoods. Prayer journeys and Compassion in Action projects also are planned. About 1,000 Southern Baptist volunteers from around the nation are expected to travel to Louisville to support Crossover events, with the goal of generating 2,000 commitments to Christ. For details, visit crossoverlouisville.com.

SBC messengers can register online. Online registration for the Southern Baptist Convention June 23-24 in Louisville, Ky., is available at www.sbcannualmeeting.net. The website gives a church a messenger reference number form to be printed out and presented by each messenger at the registration booth in exchange for a nametag and a set of ballots. The appropriate church-authorized representative must complete all online registrations. The traditional registration method continues to be available. Registration cards are available from state convention offices.

Huckabee to speak at SBC Pastors’ Conference. Former Southern Baptist pastor and 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will be featured on the program at the SBC Pastors’ Conference. Other speakers include Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship and J.D. Greear of Summit Church in Durham, N.C. The event will convene at the Kentucky Exposition Center at 5:30 p.m. June 21. More information about the program is available at sbcpc.net.

SBC reports Cooperative Program down. Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 3.37 percent below the same period last year and 3.15 percent off budget for 2009, SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman reported. As of April 30, the year-to-date total of $116,226,583.55 for Cooperative Program missions is about $4 million below the amount received at the end of April 2008. Designated giving of $132.4 million for the same year-to-date period is 7 percent, or $9.96 million, below gifts received at this point last year.

Former pastor pleads guilty to sex abuse. A former Southern Baptist pastor arrested in 2007 on charges that he sexually abused two teenage boys has avoided prison—for now. Steven C. Haney, 48, pastor of Walnut Grove Baptist Church in the Memphis suburb of Cordova, Tenn., for 20 years before his resignation in December 2006, pleaded guilty to rape and sexual battery by an authority figure in a settlement intended to allow victims and their families to avoid the stress of testifying. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported Judge John Colton Jr. approved the settlement, sentencing Haney to probation for eight years and adding his name to the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry. He was given suspended, concurrent sentences of eight and three years. Haney still faces federal child pornography charges in an indictment handed down in October 2007, punishable by a minimum of 10 years in prison.