Baptist Briefs_53104

Posted: 5/28/04

Baptist Briefs

Texans named to SBC committees. Southern Baptist Convention President Jack Graham named Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, to the SBC credentials committee and Clifton Cummings, pastor of First Baptist Church in Beaumont, to the convention's tellers committee. Cornerstone Baptist is uniquely aligned with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. First Baptist in Beaumont is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Endowment to help CBF missionary families. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship received a $100,000 gift from Ed and Laura Anne Vick of Raleigh, N.C., to begin an endowment to promote the spiritual, emotional and physical health of missionaries and their families through counseling, retreats and crisis assistance. The Vicks' goal is to grow the endowment fund through matching gifts to at least $1 million. Ed Vick, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., and his wife both have been active in missions work through the Fellowship and CBF of North Carolina. He is current chair of the CBF Foundation board of directors and a founding member of the CBF of North Carolina Endowment Management board of directors.

Kim calls for revival in England. The president of the Baptist World Alliance called on thousands of people assembled at the 2004 Baptist Assembly in Cardiff, Wales, to pray for revival as the 100th Baptist World Congress approaches in Birmingham in 2005. Billy Kim, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Suwon, Korea, urged British Baptists to pray for the kind of revival that happened in Wales in 1904, when more than 150,000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ in four months.

New York Baptist executive director to retire. J.B. Graham, executive director-treasurer of the Baptist Convention of New York since 1997, has announced plans to retire effective Nov. 5, following the annual state convention. Graham will retire after 50 years in the ministry, including more than 30 years with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board.

SBC seminary presidents issue statement. On the same day Massachusetts began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, presidents of the six Southern Baptist seminaries issued a joint statement upholding marriage as "the permanent bond of a man and woman before God." More than 300 faculty members from the seminaries joined in signing the statement.

Seminary marks largest graduating class. Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in Cochrane, Alberta, graduated its largest class this spring, granting diplomas to 24 graduates from seven countries. Dan Yeary, senior pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix, brought the commencement address.

Regional CBF and American Baptist groups meet. Regional bodies of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the American Baptist Churches USA met in combined session in Manchester, N.H., representing the first-ever joint meeting of the Baptist bodies. The American Baptist Churches of Vermont and New Hampshire and the CBF-affiliated Baptist Fellowship of the Northeast held a joint annual convention that drew about 400 Baptists from New York to Maine. The group collected more than $10,000 in an offering for the Baptist World Alliance.

Graham hospitalized after fall. Evangelist Billy Graham recently had surgery at Missions Hospitals in Asheville, N.C., to stabilize a fractured pelvis after he fell in his home. Graham had been recovering from partial hip replacement surgery in January that occurred after a fall in a hotel room. The 85-year-old evangelist's "Heart of America" crusade in Kansas City, Mo., has been rescheduled for Oct. 7-10, and the crusade at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., has been rescheduled for Nov. 18-21.