AURORA, Colo. (BP) — A focus on revival and an announcement the Colorado Baptist General Convention will sell its Denver-area office building were among highlights of the convention’s Oct. 9-10 annual meeting at Mississippi Avenue Baptist Church in Aurora, Colo.
Colorado Baptists also increased the percentage of Cooperative Program receipts they will forward to Southern Baptist Convention causes and celebrated their first annual meeting with Nathan Lorick as CBGC executive director.
“We experienced a heightened sense of joy and expectancy upon the arrival of our new state executive, Dr. Nathan Lorick,” said outgoing CBGC President Mike Routt. “We believe God has sent him to us ‘for such a time as this.’
“Colorado Baptists were so excited with the challenge Dr. Lorick presented on Tuesday night, and flooded the altar after his address to join him in prayer for God to revive His people called Colorado Baptists, initiating a spiritual awakening that would sweep across our nation,” said Routt, pastor of Circle Drive Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, Colo.
In July, Lorick, a former evangelism leader with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, succeeded retiring Colorado executive director Mark Edlund.
Routt, whose two-year tenure as president focused on spiritual awakening, presented a series of theme interpretations and led the 144 messengers from 72 churches in multiple seasons of prayer. The meeting’s theme of “reaching people” included emphases on personal evangelism, servant evangelism and church planting/replanting.
The convention’s executive board announced its unanimous vote in September to sell the CBGC office building in Englewood, Colo., and relocate to a smaller facility. The move will allow more CP dollars to be used for missions and ministry rather than building expenses, Lorick told Baptist Press, adding the convention is “in the beginning stages” of the relocation process.
A budget of $3,416,237 adopted for 2018 marks a decrease of less than .2 percent from 2017 and includes $1,989,237 in anticipated CP receipts from churches, $1,375,000 from the North American Mission Board and $60,000 from LifeWay Christian Resources.
The Colorado convention will forward 32.97 percent of CP receipts to SBC missions and ministries, an increase of .5 percentage points from this year. The budget does not include any shared ministry expenses with the SBC.
Officers elected included: president, Calvin Wittman, pastor of Applewood Baptist Church in Wheat Ridge, Colo.; first vice president, James Moreland, pastor of Denver Christian Bible Church in Denver; second vice president Rolland Kenneson, pastor of Rosemont Baptist Church in Montrose, Colo.; and recording secretary, Jan Loser, a CBGC ministry assistant.
Among the meeting’s speakers were former SBC President Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, and Todd Unzicker, pastor of missions at The Summit Church in Raleigh/Durham, N.C.
“God’s presence was evident at our annual meeting of Colorado Baptists,” Lorick said. “The preaching was powerful, the worship was incredible and the spirit was phenomenal. God’s people came together to celebrate all that God is doing through our family of churches. These are great days to be a Colorado Baptist.”
The 2018 annual meeting is set for Oct. 15-16 at First Baptist Church of Black Forest in Colorado Springs, Colo.
