JUNEAU, Alaska (BP) — The Alaska Baptist Convention is budgeting just over $700,000 in Cooperative Program gifts from the 100 cooperating churches in the state in 2014, a 2.8 percent increase over the $683,679 received in 2013.
Counting the anticipated $703,383 in CP funds, messengers to the Alaska Baptists’ annual meeting adopted an overall $1.7 million budget for 2014 during the convention’s 68th annual meeting, an increase of more than 13 percent over the 2013 budget of $1.5 million.
Alaska voted to send $224,652 of its CP funds to Southern Baptist Convention national and world missions, maintaining the 36 percent allocation from last year. Meanwhile, $79,349 is allocated for shared expenses between the Alaska convention and the SBC.
While CP funds account for 42 percent of the new budget, 53 percent of the budget will come from the North American Mission Board and 4 percent from LifeWay Christian Resources.
Don Shannon, pastor of Sunset Hills Baptist Church in Anchorage, was re-elected president, as was recording secretary Mary Sue Foster, a member of Fairview Loop Baptist Church in Wasilla. Also elected as 2014 officers: first vice president Jack Sherman, a member of First Baptist Church in Palmer, and second vice president Harold Conrad, pastor of Montana Creek Baptist Church in Talkeetna.
The Sept. 24-25 meeting at Glacier Valley Baptist Church in Juneau was attended by 75 messengers representing 30 congregations. The theme was “He is Able,” taken from Ephesians 3:20.
Guest speakers included Steve Bass, NAMB’s West Region vice president; D. August Boto, executive vice president and general counsel of the SBC Executive Committee; Jeff Ward, senior relationship manager with GuideStone Financial Resources; and Jan Watkins, a representative from LifeWay Christian Resources.
In other business, ABC Executive Director Mike Procter reported the executive board’s decision at its May meeting to enter into a five-year formal partnership with the Central Coast Baptist Association in California, effective Jan. 1.
In a resolution, messengers stated that “we of the Alaska Baptist Convention will continue to be Watchmen of the Word, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, and boldly proclaiming it as we should (Ezekiel 3:1-17; 2 Timothy 2:15; Ephesians 6:30; Colossians 4:4).”
In conjunction with the annual meeting, a missions rally was held Sept. 23 at Glacier Valley featuring testimonies and a message by speakers representing the International Mission Board and NAMB. The Pastors’ Conference was held Sept. 24 at First Baptist Church in Juneau with the theme “I Can” from Philippians 4:13. Kerry Chadwick, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sitka, was elected as the conference’s new president, with Doug Burrows, pastor of First Baptist Church in Soldotna, as vice president.
The ABC Woman’s Missionary Union held its 64th annual meeting concurrently Sept. 24 at Glacier Valley.
Next year’s meeting of the Alaska Baptist Convention is scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at College Heights Baptist Church in Soldotna.
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Compiled by Baptist Press staff writer Diana Chandler, with reporting by Alaska Baptist Convention staff. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).
