JACKSON, Miss. (ABP) — For the first time in its 169-year history, the Mississippi Baptist Convention elected an Hispanic as an officer. Messengers also threw their support behind state and national bans on gay marriage.
Joel Medina, bivocational pastor of Iglesia Internacional Las Americas in Carthage, was elected second vice president Oct. 26 without opposition.
Gene Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church, Brandon, was re-elected to a second term as president. Thad Moore, pastor of Poplar Springs Drive Baptist Church in Meridian, was reelected to a second term as first vice president. Both were unopposed.
Messengers approved without dissent a 2005 budget of $31,314,491, which is a 1.5 percent increase over the current year's budget. The portion of the budget going to Southern Baptist Convention causes remains steady at 35 percent.
Messengers avoided an effort to make the “Baptist Faith and Message,” revised in 2000 to incorporate more conservative views, the convention's doctrinal statement. Responding to a motion introduced during the 2003 annual meeting, the chairman of the constitution and bylaws committee offered an alternative on behalf of the committee.
“I move that the Mississippi Baptist Convention reaffirm their historical position that the Word of God is our standard of faith and practice, and recognize that the 'Baptist Faith and Message' can serve as a guide for understanding and teaching Baptist doctrine,” said Ken Anderson, pastor and messenger from Parkway Baptist Church, Clinton.
Speaking in favor of Anderson's motion was Lowell Ingram of Macon, who proposed the original 2003 motion. There was no opposition voiced, and the motion passed.
The marriage resolution voiced support for constitutional amendments on a number of ballots around the country Nov. 2 that limit the definition of marriage to the union of one man and one woman.
Another resolution set aside the first Tuesday of each month as a time of prayer and fasting for revival in America.
The official messenger registration count for the 2004 meeting was 1,236, a decline of 177 messengers from the 2003 meeting.