DALLAS (ABP)—The board of the nation's only independent news service for Baptists honored two Baptist communicators and a Dallas congregation for their contributions to the cause of Christian journalism April 27.
Meeting in Dallas, directors of Associated Baptist Press also adopted a final 2007 budget and unanimously agreed to move ahead with a business plan for a strategic partnership between ABP, the Texas Baptist Standard, the Religious Herald and other Baptist publications.
The news agency gives three honors to individuals and organizations that its directors believe have stood for religious liberty and press freedom.
W.C. Fields, who for 28 years worked as director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Press news service, received the 2007 ABP Religious Freedom Award. Baptist Standard Editor Marv Knox called Fields “a leader of integrity” who understood the importance of telling Baptists the complete and accurate story—even when that was not what denominational leaders wanted.
“Freedom has been a central theme and a central concern in Baptist life from the very beginning,” Knox said, adding that Fields “stood in rooms where it was very uncomfortable at times, for all of us.”
Fields, in directing the SBC's news agency, built it from a loose network of Baptist state newspapers into a daily news service whose journalistic integrity commanded the respect of religious and secular publications alike. Other de-nominational news agencies have since modeled their operations on the Baptist Press of Fields' era, Knox noted.
In his acceptance speech, Fields said news outlets must still aim to tell difficult stories, especially in light of a regional “folk faith” among Baptists in the South “has frequently done more to canonize prejudice than to wrestle for truth.”
Pastor George Mason accepted the ABP Founders Award on behalf of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Greg Warner, ABP's executive editor, praised the Wilshire congregation as “a pioneer.” In 1997, the church committed $50,000 in support for FaithWorks magazine, published for six years by ABP.
The award, which honors support for ABP's mission, previously has been given to two other congregations—Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas and Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss.
Ken Camp, managing editor of the Baptist Standard, received the ABP Writer's Award for his ongoing contributions to Baptist journalism. Previously news director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Camp joined the Standard in 2004.
Each year, ABP carries scores of stories under Camp's byline, Warner noted. The award recognizes Camp's entire body of work as a “prolific contributor” to the news service, rather than one single achievement, he said.
“Without his contributions, we would be a significantly smaller news organization,” Warner said.
In two days of meetings leading up to the awards banquet, ABP's directors approved, without dissent, a draft business plan for its new venture with the Standard. The collaborative effort will enable both organizations and other Baptist publications to coordinate newsgathering efforts, share resources and streamline the distribution of news to readers.
The Standard board of directors will consider the proposal May 15.
ABP directors also gave final approval to a 2007 budget of $ $551,218. Warner told board members the organization ended the previous fiscal year in good shape.
“We finished 2006 [with] probably our strongest finish ever … with a surplus of $32,000,” he said.
However, Warner noted that receipts for the first quarter of 2007 had been sluggish. The slow giving was partially due, he said, to the departure of the news service's fundraising officer. Tim Norton resigned as ABP's development director in February to join the staff of the First Baptist Church of Knoxville, Tenn.
Nonetheless, he added, the agency's staff had cut operating expenses significantly in recent months through measures such as moving to a virtual-office model. ABP's employees now operate out of Jacksonville, Fla.; New York and Washington. An Internet telephone system has cut expenses, he said, as has closing ABP's former headquarters office in Jacksonville, with the two remaining employees at that location moving to home offices.
ABP's next board meeting is scheduled Sept. 17-18 in Richmond.