Baptist Briefs_122004

Posted: 12/17/04

Baptist Briefs

Mercer president announces retirement plans. Kirby Godsey, Mercer University's longest-serving president, announced he will retire in 18 months, and trustees expect to start the search for his successor as early as spring. At a recent trustee meeting, Godsey, 68, revealed his plans to step down June 30, 2006. Mercer trustee and Augusta attorney David Hudson will head the search committee, which will begin work in the spring. Godsey went to work for the historically Baptist university in 1977 as executive vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Previously he was vice president and dean of the college at Averett College in Danville, Va. When Godsey became president in 1979, Mercer had an enrollment of 3,800 students, an endowment of $16.5 million and a budget of $21.3 million. It grew under his leadership to become Georgia's second-largest private university, with an enrollment of 7,300 students, an endowment of more than $176 million, a budget of $173.8 million and 665 faculty members.

BGCT president to address CBF assembly. Baptist General Convention of Texas President Albert Reyes has been added to the list of keynote speakers at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly, June 29-July 2 at Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine. Reyes, who also is president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, will speak during the Thursday evening session. Online registration and hotel reservations for the general assembly can be made at the Fellowship's website, www.thefellowship.info.

Baptist chaplain honored. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains recently presented its Legion of Honor award to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-endorsed chaplain Keith Ethridge. Ethridge is acting deputy director for the National Chaplains Center for the Department of Veterans Affairs. A former U.S. Navy chaplain, Ethridge has been a clinical pastoral education supervisor 17 years. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, a national nonprofit organization established to encourage cooperation and promote unity without uniformity, annually recognizes individuals from all walks of life who render selfless service. Dedicated by President Truman in 1951, the chapel was inspired by the courageous acts of four U.S. Army chaplains serving aboard the U.S. troop carrier Dorchester, which was sunk by a torpedo off the coast of Greenland in 1943. The chaplains–Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Jewish and Methodist–went down with the ship after surrendering their own lifejackets to servicemen aboard.

LifeWay to offer seminars after 2005 SBC. LifeWay Christian Resources will offer intensive ministry training sessions immediately following the 2005 Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tenn. "Fast 50: 50 Seminars for Growing Leaders" will be held June 23-24. Seminars will cover evangelism, discipleship, Sunday school, general church leadership, age-group specific leadership and mission leadership. "Fast 50" participants will have the opportunity to attend four seminars each day. Online registration is available beginning Feb. 1 at sbc.net. Registration fee is $50 per day per person or $80 for both days.

CBF partners to provide consulting services. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has launched a three-year partnership with the Center for Congregational Health, a consulting and training center in Winston-Salem, N.C., to provide a number of consulting services free to churches. The center will provide consultation to Fellowship churches in strategic planning, interim ministry, conflict management, staff relationships and leadership. Bo Prosser, the Fellowship's coordinator for congregational life, said the partnership also will allow for the creation of a network of CBF-trained intentional interim pastors available for churches. The partnership, which will run until June 2007, will provide free on-site consultation for up to 75 hours, with the churches paying only travel costs for the consultants.