Messengers to the 153rd annual meeting of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention approved a ministry task force report that includes recommendations to regionalize executive board ministries, increase the percentage of Cooperative Program funds forwarded to Southern Baptist Convention causes, and explore bringing the Arkansas Baptist News, currently a convention agency, under the Arkansas convention Executive Board.
Each recommendation from the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 meeting will be referred to other Arkansas convention committees or boards for further deliberation.
The 837 messengers also authorized the Arkansas convention executive board and its officers to build a Baptist building in a new location if the existing building in downtown Little Rock sells. The potential relocation results from the donation of five acres of land in west Little Rock by an anonymous Baptist deacon and hinges upon the start of construction as soon as possible. The land was appraised at just under $1 million.
For a second year, messengers also approved giving agency status to the Arkansas Baptist Assembly at Siloam Springs. Because the action involved a change to the convention's Articles of Incorporation, it required passage at two consecutive conventions. Messengers approved Articles of Incorporation for the Assembly, along with a 15-member board of directors recommended by the nominating committee.
Other business included a slight revision to the Cooperative Program unified budget formula and adoption of a 2007 Cooperative Program budget of more than $20 million. Ministries within Arkansas will receive 58.23 percent and SBC ministries will receive 41.77 percent of 2007 Cooperative Program receipts.
In other business, recommendations from a nine-member task force, appointed in early 2005 to study Baptist life, included:
• That the president of the executive board and the president of the Arkansas Baptist News board each appoint a committee of no more than three board members, including themselves, to discuss the possibility of merging the Arkansas Baptist News and the Vision publication under the executive board ministries of the state convention. The committee will be appointed and a meeting likely will be scheduled in early 2007.
• That the Executive Board “study the feasibility of regionalizing” executive board ministries and “pursue such action related to relocation of the Baptist building as to maintain the most effective stewardship of Cooperative Program resources and efficiency in ministry to our churches.”
• That leaders increase Cooperative Program percentages forwarded to SBC causes.
• That the constitution and bylaws committee consider eliminating from the convention's Articles of Incorporation the following statement: “The Baptist Faith and Message shall not be interpreted as to permit open communion and/or alien immersion.”
Associated Baptist Press