Baptist Briefs

Council ratifies CBF report. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council approved the 2012 Task Force report May 1, sending it to the General Assembly this summer for a vote. A quorum of the council met in Atlanta, on the phone and through virtual meeting software, to receive the task force's response to questions and suggestions raised at a February meeting. After detailed discussions and changes in wording, the report was approved unanimously. The two-year study charting the future of the moderate Baptist organization recommends changes in governance, funding and how CBF relates to partners. The vote on the report is scheduled June 21 at the 2102 General Assembly in Fort Worth.

Missions experiences for children, youth offered at SBC. Woman's Missionary Union will offer missions-oriented worship, small-group Bible studies and hands-on mission projects for students entering seventh grade through 12th grade during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, June 19-20 in New Orleans. "To the Finish Line" is the theme of a missions day camp for children entering first through sixth grades. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief childcare volunteers from the Alabama and Mississippi state conventions will care for preschoolers through age 5. Childcare for preschoolers and missions camp for children both will be at the Ernest Morial Convention Center, the site of the SBC annual meeting. Students also will meet in the mornings at the convention center, then travel to the Baptist Friendship House for missions service each day. For pricing information and to register preschoolers, children or students, visit www.sbcannualmeeting.net. There is no registration deadline, but space is limited.

Kentucky Baptists losing 27 staff. One-third of Kentucky Baptist Convention employees are opting to resign or retire early in anticipation of a reorganization of the Baptist Building staff in Louisville. Officials said 23 full-time and four part-time employees of the KBC Mission Board accepted incentive packages and will leave their jobs by June 30. With the latest round of cuts, the second in a year, 43 full-time staff will remain at the Kentucky Baptist Building and eight full-time Baptist campus ministers will serve university and college campuses across the state. The cutbacks result from a decade-long decline in income received through the Cooperative Program unified budget and a vote at the 2010 state convention annual meeting to reduce the percentage of mission gifts from churches that stay in Kentucky from 62 percent to 50 percent within 10 years.

Ministers' wives luncheon planned. Mary Kassian, wife of a professional football team's chaplain and professor of women's studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, will speak at the annual Southern Baptist Convention Ministers' Wives Luncheon June 19 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, La. The theme for this year's luncheon is "The Hidden Person of the Heart," based on 1 Peter 3:3-4. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door, and they can be ordered at www.lifeway.com/sbcwives.