Baptist Briefs

D.C. convention elects executive director. Ricky Creech, a former Southern Baptist church-and-community missionary and associational director of missions and more recently on the staff of a Georgia United Methodist church, was elected executive director of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention. The unanimous candidate of the search committee, Creech was endorsed by the convention’s executive committee, but the full board voted 35-28 with one abstention to call him. With 153 churches, the D.C. convention is unique in its affiliation with three denominational bodies, plus the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship—American Baptist Churches USA, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Creech, 47, is a graduate of Furman University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He succeeds Jeffrey Haggray, who resigned in 2009 to become pastor of First Baptist Church in Washington.

Registration open for SBC children’s programs. Registration is open for families to enroll their children in preschool childcare and the children’s conference in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix. Childcare for newborns through 3-year-olds will be available June 12-15. There is a nonrefundable registration fee of $10 per child for preschool care, in addition to $5 per-child session fees for the convention. To register, visit www.sbcannualmeeting.net. The deadline for preschool childcare registration is June 1 and is limited to 150 children per session. Children ages 4 to 12 can participate in the children’s conference at the SBC annual meeting. The cost for children ages 4-6 is $50 per child for the four days of the children’s conference, Sunday evening through Wednesday, $45 per child registered Monday through Wednesday and $40 per child for Tuesday through Wednesday. Specific information about the Fuge camp for grades 6 through 12, yet to be released, will be posted at www.sbcannualmeeting.net. Questions about the children’s conference program can be phoned to Children’s Conferences International at (317) 447-8213 or (586) 879-8421 or e-mailed to info@childrensconferences.com. The deadline for enrollment is June 1 and is limited to 400 children.

Church historian Gaustad dies. Prolific author, influential historian and lifelong Baptist Edwin Gaustad died March 25 in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 87. Gaustad, professor emeritus of history and religious studies at the University of California, Riverside, was one of America’s leading experts on America’s colonial period, particularly in areas of religious liberty, pluralism and dissent. His books include A Religious History of America, Dissent in American Religion, Baptist Piety: Last Will and Testament of Obadiah Holmes, Faith of the Founders and Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America. Gaustad was born in Iowa but grew up Houston. After military service, he graduated from Baylor University and completed his graduate work at Brown University. His teaching career took him from Shorter College in Rome, Ga., to the University of Redlands in California and finally to the University of California, Riverside, where he remained until retiring in 1989. Gaustad was married for 63 years to Helen Virginia Morgan, who died in 2009. Survivors include three children, four grandchildren and one great grandchild.