Baptist Briefs_30705

Posted: 3/4/05

Baptist Briefs

CBF adds staff. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council elected Barbara Baldridge coordinator of global missions and hired Constance McNeill as coordinator of administration for the Fellowship's resource center in Atlanta. Baldridge, 54, was co-coordinator of CBF global missions with her husband, Gary, from 1999 until his retirement Dec. 31. She has been serving as acting coordinator since Jan. 1, and her election as sole coordinator is retroactive to that date. McNeill, 51, was vice president for development and chief operating officer of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City.

Laity Institute names new director. Linda Cross has been elected director of the Texas Baptist Laity Institute by the group's board of directors. Cross has served as vice president of the institute since 2002. She first began working with the Laity Institute in 2000 as a mentor in the pilot program at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Cross is a graduate of Baylor University with a master's degree in theological ethics. She is a member of Royal Lane Baptist Church of Dallas, where she teaches a Bible study and is a deacon.

Online registration open for SBC. Churches can register messengers to the 2005 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, June 21-22 in Nashville, Tenn., online at the SBC website, www.sbc.net. By registering online, the SBC website gives a church a "messenger reference number" form to be printed out and presented by each messenger at the SBC registration booth in exchange for a nametag and a set of ballots. The appropriate church-authorized representative must complete all online registration. The process includes entering information normally found on the traditional messenger card. Online registration ends at midnight June 18, after which registration must be done at the registration desk beginning at 4 p.m. June 19. Names can be added, edited and deleted up to June 18 as well.

CBF names human rights offering for Carters. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council approved a proposal to name an annual offering, collected at the CBF general assembly, the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Offering for Religious Liberty and Human Rights. One-third of the proceeds will go to support human rights and religious liberty programs of the Baptist World Alliance, and the remaining two-thirds will support CBF-related initiatives related to religious liberty or human rights. The former president and first lady are "world citizens" with a passion for religious liberty and human rights, said Walter Shurden of Macon, Ga., chairman of the task force that initiated the proposal. Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize as well as the Baptist World Alliance human rights award, for his human rights work.

Georgia churches seek to join Virginia Baptists. First Baptist Church of Rome, Ga., is considering ending its affiliation with the Georgia Baptist Convention and joining the Baptist General Association of Virginia. And two other North Georgia churches–North Broad Baptist Church of Rome and First Baptist Church of Dalton–are exploring possible links with the Virginia convention. First Baptist of Rome, which ordains women as deacons and supports the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, has increasingly found itself out of step with the conservative Georgia Baptist Convention, which frowns on both. The Virginia convention, however, includes many churches with women deacons and ministers, and it assists congregations that want to channel funds to the CBF. The 1,800-member congregation in Rome, about 75 miles north of Atlanta, will vote on the issue March 13, Pastor Joel Snider said.