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Kan.-Neb. Baptists increase CP to SBC causes


OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BP) — Messengers to the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists increased the percentage of Cooperative Program receipts they will forward to Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries and affirmed both biblical marriage and the sanctity of life during the convention’s annual meeting Oct. 12-13 at Blue Valley Baptist Church in Overland Park, Kan.

“One Mission” was the theme of the Kansas City-area gathering, which drew 287 registered messengers and 80 visitors.

In his address to messengers, outgoing KNCSB President Andy Addis focused on Proverbs 14:4: “Without oxen, a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.”

Addis, pastor of CrossPoint Church in Hutchinson, Kan., urged Kansas-Nebraska Southern Baptists to “prioritize the harvest” by doing the work of missions and evangelism because “clean stables aren’t doing a hell-bound world any good.”

During business sessions, messengers approved the 2016 KNCSB budget of $4,827,852, a decrease of 1.3 percent from 2015. Anticipated CP gifts for 2016 are $2.8 million, with an additional $860,016 anticipated from the North American Mission Board and $53,700 from LifeWay Christian Resources.

Messengers increased the percentage of CP receipts to be forwarded to SBC missions and ministries 0.5 percent to 24 percent. The convention will retain 76 percent of CP receipts for Kansas-Nebraska ministries. The budget includes no shared ministry expenses.

An additional 1 percent increase in CP receipts forwarded to SBC causes is anticipated for 2017.

KNCSB Executive Director Bob Mills cited financial challenges the two-state convention is facing. But he expressed faith, noting, “Our God is faithful. I’m not distressed. I’m just waiting for the new thing He’s going to do.”

Mills urged Kansas-Nebraska Southern Baptists to:

— “Be a people that focus on the Lord Jesus Christ”;

— Focus on evangelism, missions and discipleship; and

— Recapture a cooperative spirit.

Joe Stiles, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Lawrence, Kan., was elected president without opposition. He previously served two years as vice president.

Derrick Lynch, pastor of Blue Valley Baptist Church, the annual meeting host church, was elected vice president over Voyt Lynn, pastor of First Baptist Church in Douglass, Kan.

Re-elected officers include: recording secretary, Bryan Jones, pastor of Tyler Road Southern Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan.; assistant recording secretary, Susan Pederson, member of Prairie Hills Baptist Church in Augusta, Kan.; and historian, Tony Mattia, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Wamego, Kan.

A resolution on “the rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States” decried the court’s decision this year to legalize same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges as well as its decision four decades ago to legalize abortion in Roe v. Wade.

“We reject the ruling of SCOTUS to legalize ‘same-sex marriage’ as a civil rights issue,” the resolution stated, “since homosexuality does not qualify as a class meriting special protections, like race and gender.”

The resolution added, “We further reject the ongoing practice of abortion as legalized by the same court.”

A second resolution expressed appreciation to the host church.

Next year’s KNCSB annual meeting will be held Oct. 10-11 at the Omaha-area LifeSpring Church in Bellevue, Neb.

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    About the Author

  • Eva Wilson/Baptist Digest

    Eva Wilson is associate editor of Baptist Digest, newsjournal of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists. With reporting by David Roach, chief national correspondent for Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention’s news service. BP reports on missions, ministry and witness advanced through the Cooperative Program and on news related to Southern Baptists’ concerns nationally and globally.

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