GBMB Annual Associational Meeting

Please click the link below for the Asso­ci­a­tion­al Mis­sion­ar­ies Meet­ings for 2018

Sug­gest­ed Report Material

 

Sug­gest­ed Report Material

For Annu­al Asso­ci­a­tion­al Meet­ings, 2016 

SECTION III

STATE MISSIONS MINISTRIES

Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board state mis­sion­ar­ies seek to reduce lost­ness by focus­ing with Bap­tists on spir­i­tu­al renew­al result­ing in King­dom gen­eros­i­ty, church revi­tal­iza­tion, church plant­i­ng, and authen­tic evangelism.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/ADMINISTRATION

1. Robert White

jwhite@gabaptist.org

 

Assist­ing Geor­gia Bap­tists in reach­ing lost peo­ple in Geor­gia for Jesus Christ is the pri­or­i­ty of all state mis­sions min­istries. State mis­sion­ar­ies began align­ing all min­istries with the 5 Smooth Stones fol­low­ing their adop­tion at the 2011 Con­ven­tion annu­al meet­ing. The 5 Smooth Stones or core ini­tia­tives of Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al, King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty, Church Revi­tal­iza­tion, Church Plant­i­ng, and Authen­tic Evan­ge­lism, will help Geor­gia Bap­tists reach the pro­ject­ed 8.1 mil­lion lost peo­ple expect­ed to live in Geor­gia by the year 2020. It will take spir­i­tu­al renew­al among all Geor­gia Bap­tists result­ing in our work­ing togeth­er to accom­plish these ini­tia­tives in order to make the need­ed impact of the Gospel upon our state.

 

The admin­is­tra­tion of state mis­sions is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion. The min­istries and oper­a­tions of state mis­sions are under the lead­er­ship of Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, J. Robert White. State mis­sion­ar­ies serve through the var­i­ous min­istries across the state assist­ing our church­es in respond­ing to the Great Com­mand­ment and the Great Commission.

 

The Geor­gia Woman’s Mis­sion­ary Union and Women’s Enrich­ment Min­istries is an aux­il­iary to the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion and serves our church­es through pro­vid­ing resources, train­ing and mis­sion oppor­tu­ni­ties. The Chris­t­ian Index serves the inter­ests of state mis­sions in the pub­li­ca­tion of news and in pro­mo­tion of the var­i­ous min­istry activities.

 

State mis­sions min­istry is sup­port­ed through the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram and the annu­al Mis­sion Geor­gia Offer­ing. It depends upon the local church fam­i­ly to faith­ful­ly and unselfish­ly share their resources through our coop­er­a­tive efforts to reach Geor­gia with the Gospel and pro­vide a strong base for car­ry­ing out the Great Com­mis­sion through­out the world.

 

 

ETHICS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Mike Grif­fin, State Missionary

mgriffin@gabaptist.org

http://gabaptist.org/publicaffairs/

 

Over the past year the Pub­lic Affairs Min­istry has been very suc­cess­ful in rep­re­sent­ing Geor­gia Bap­tists on their posi­tions regard­ing social and moral con­cerns. In 2016, Mike Grif­fin, Pub­lic Affairs Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, and his assis­tant, Tom Rush, mon­i­tored over 35 bills in the Geor­gia Gen­er­al Assem­bly. The two great­est accom­plish­ments were stop­ping casi­no gam­bling and pass­ing the most com­pre­hen­sive reli­gious lib­er­ty leg­is­la­tion in the his­to­ry of Geor­gia. How­ev­er, Gov­er­nor Nathan Deal vetoed the lat­ter legislation.

 

Each year a Leg­isla­tive Prayer Break­fast is held at the State Capi­tol for all elect­ed offi­cials. These break­fasts are impor­tant in com­mu­ni­cat­ing that Geor­gia Bap­tists are not just con­cerned about pub­lic pol­i­cy, but also the spir­i­tu­al health of our legislators.

 

In addi­tion to lob­by­ing on leg­is­la­tion, hun­dreds of pas­tors have been trained through Pas­tors’ Days at the Capi­tol, Pub­lic Affairs Pastor’s Train­ing Sem­i­nar and Alliance Defend­ing Free­dom Church Pro­tec­tion Seminar.

 

When the Geor­gia Gen­er­al Assem­bly is not in ses­sion, Mike Grif­fin is trav­el­ing the state speak­ing in asso­ci­a­tions, church­es and con­duct­ing Pub­lic Affairs Brief­in­gs for min­is­ters and laymen.

 

 

 

WOMAN’S MISSIONARY UNION AND WOMEN’S ENRICHMENT MINISTRY

Beth Ann Williams, Exec­u­tive Director-Treasurer

bawilliams@gabaptist.org

 

The pur­pose of WMU and Women’s Enrich­ment Min­istry is to encour­age and equip Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es to ful­fill the Great Com­mis­sion and, more specif­i­cal­ly, to lead women and girls to dis­cov­er and live out their pur­pose in God’s Kingdom.

• We assist new and exist­ing church­es in cre­at­ing a tai­lored mis­sions involve­ment strategy.
• We con­nect women and church­es to local and glob­al mis­sion opportunities.
• We lay the foun­da­tion essen­tial for chil­dren and youth to become tomorrow’s mis­sion leaders.
• We offer a cus­tomized, com­pre­hen­sive min­istry strat­e­gy for women.
• We pre­pare women to lead through per­son­al­ized con­sul­ta­tions, team train­ing, and workshops.
• We chal­lenge chil­dren, youth and women to a deep­er com­mit­ment to Christ that leads to a mis­sion­al lifestyle.

 

Min­istries that high­light our 5 Smooth Stone pri­or­i­ties include:

 

Spir­i­tu­al Renewal

• Approx­i­mate­ly 600 women gath­ered at the Jekyll Island Con­ven­tion Cen­ter for the 2016 Spring Event to hear speak­er and author, Mar­garet Fein­berg, musi­cian Shelly John­son, and a vari­ety of out­stand­ing con­fer­ence lead­ers and missionaries.
• To learn more vis­it gabaptistwomenspringevent.com.
• The annu­al His­pan­ic Women’s Retreat was held in two loca­tions with 573 par­tic­i­pants between the GA Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Cen­ters in Toc­coa and Nor­man Park. There were three salvations.
• Thir­ty-five women’s min­istry lead­ers from 22 church­es gath­ered for three days at Pin­na­cle Retreat Cen­ter to par­tic­i­pate in a retreat designed for net­work­ing, fel­low­ship, and spir­i­tu­al enrichment.
• Through the theme Liv­ing Faith, 100 par­tic­i­pants at the Women on Mis­sion Series at Pin­na­cle Retreat Cen­ter were chal­lenged to live out their faith in all con­texts of their lives. There were three salvations.
• One in Prayer is our web-based prayer ini­tia­tive to equip and encour­age a more effec­tive indi­vid­ual and cor­po­rate pray­ing life. For more infor­ma­tion vis­it www.oneinprayer.net.

 

King­dom Generosity

• 3 in1, our online order­ing resource, con­tin­ues to enable church­es to cre­ate a stand­ing order that leads to auto­mat­ic ship­ments of mate­ri­als for the Lot­tie Moon, Annie Arm­strong, and Mis­sion Geor­gia offer­ing emphases. Vis­it 3in1missions.org.
• The Geor­gia Mis­sion­ary Par­ents Fel­low­ship con­tin­ues to pro­vide sup­port and encour­age­ment to par­ents of mis­sion­ar­ies through a fall retreat, a spring meet­ing and a vibrant prayer network
• In 2016, staff pro­vid­ed aware­ness of the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram at events and in local church­es and uti­lized mis­sion­ary per­son­nel at events to per­son­al­ize giv­ing through the Coop­er­a­tive Program.
• In 2016, Camp Pin­na­cle Sum­mer Mis­sions Camp edu­cat­ed girls about the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram and gave a por­tion of their sum­mer offer­ing to the Coop­er­a­tive Program.
• Six sem­i­nary schol­ar­ships were award­ed to young women attend­ing South­ern Bap­tist sem­i­nar­ies. Three mis­sion trip schol­ar­ships were award­ed to Camp Pin­na­cle sum­mer staff and six schol­ar­ships for trav­el to the MK Retreat were giv­en to first-time col­lege-bound mis­sion­ary kids.

 

Church Revi­tal­iza­tion

• Equip­ping for mis­sions growth took place in a vari­ety of venues for 650 Anglo, African-Amer­i­can, His­pan­ic, Kore­an, Cam­bo­di­an, Viet­namese, Laot­ian and Moldovan leaders.
• Sum­mer Mis­sions Camp exists to help girls and teens expe­ri­ence God and under­stand His desire to reach the nations with the truth of Jesus Christ. Our 2016 missions/culture camp focused on Utah. Ten girls accept­ed Jesus, five sur­ren­dered to mis­sions, and one camp staff com­mit­ted to semes­ter mis­sions in Utah.  Vis­it www.camppinnacle.net to learn more.
• Held in three loca­tions, more than 600 boys and girls expe­ri­enced how God is work­ing through mis­sion­ar­ies around the world at Children’s Extrav­a­gan­za. Par­tic­i­pants engaged in hands-on com­mu­ni­ty mis­sions projects, wor­ship and inter­act­ed with mis­sion­ar­ies from around the world. A Geor­gia church planter was high­light­ed in each loca­tion. One girl made a deci­sion for Christ.
• Sis­ters Who Care served as a liai­son to African-Amer­i­can church­es for the pur­pose of mis­sions aware­ness and mis­sions education.

 

Authen­tic Evangelism

• Women focused on Project HELP: Post Trau­mat­ic Stress Dis­or­der and con­tin­ue to learn how to min­is­ter to those affect­ed by PTSD.
• In July, the His­pan­ic WMU mis­sion trip took place in South Geor­gia. Ten women par­tic­i­pat­ed in prayer walk­ing and min­istry outreach.  One stu­dent accept­ed Christ.
• In part­ner­ship with church­es and asso­ci­a­tions in Geor­gia, women par­tic­i­pat­ed in Christ­mas in Appalachia fill­ing over 25,000 backpacks.
• Women par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Hamp­ton Big A craft project in Hamp­ton, TN. Twen­ty-five church­es par­tic­i­pat­ed and there were 16 deci­sions for Christ.
• Chris­t­ian Women’s Job Corps (CWJC) pro­vid­ed a Chris­t­ian con­text in which women in need were intro­duced to Christ and equipped for life and employ­ment. Sev­en CWJC sites pro­vid­ed job train­ing, per­son­al men­tor­ing and week­ly Bible study.
• Forty-eight young women, ages 18–35, and 11 vol­un­teers par­tic­i­pat­ed in a mis­sions dis­ci­ple­ship week­end that equipped them to engage their cul­ture in spir­i­tu­al con­ver­sa­tions and exposed them refugee mis­sions opportunities.

 

Pin­na­cle Retreat Cen­ter in Clay­ton, Geor­gia, is owned and oper­at­ed by Geor­gia WMU.  This beau­ti­ful mul­ti-pur­pose con­fer­ence cen­ter, nes­tled in the north­east Geor­gia moun­tains, is an ide­al set­ting for staff, dea­con or church retreats from August through May.  June and ear­ly July are reserved for our sum­mer mis­sions camp. Vis­it www.pinnacleretreatcenter.com.

 

We are eager to assist church­es and asso­ci­a­tions with per­son­al con­sul­ta­tions and cus­tomized training.  If we can serve you, please con­tact us at 770–936-5234 or 1–800-746‑4422, exten­sion 324 or vis­it us at www.georgiawmu.org

 

 

ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Robert A. Boswell, State Missionary

bboswell@gabaptist.org

 

The state mis­sion­ar­ies of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board pro­vide lead­er­ship train­ing, con­fer­ences and resources to assist 3,600 Geor­gia Bap­tist churches.  Each event, con­fer­ence and resource is designed to assist church­es with Mis­sion Geor­gia, the 5 Smooth Stones empha­sis: Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al, King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty, Church Revi­tal­iza­tion, Church Plant­i­ng and Authen­tic Evangelism.

 

• Adult Groups and Faith Development
• Asso­ci­a­tion­al Mis­sions and Con­ven­tion Planning
• Church Admin­is­tra­tion Ministry
• Church and Indi­vid­ual Finance Strategy
• Church Min­is­ter Relations
• Church Plant­i­ng Ministry
• Church Research Services
• Church Revi­tal­iza­tion and Evangelism
• Col­le­giate Ministry
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
• Com­mu­ni­ty Mis­sions and Dis­as­ter Response
• Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram Giv­ing and Stewardship
• Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Centers
• Geor­gia Bap­tist Men’s Ministry
• His­tor­i­cal Archives
• Infor­ma­tion Technology
• Inter­cul­tur­al Church Plant­i­ng and Mis­sions Ministry
• Kids Groups and Faith Development
• Mis­sion Board Finan­cial Services
• Mis­sion Board Operations
• Region­al State Missionaries
• Sup­port Services
• Stu­dent Groups and Faith Development
• The Chris­t­ian Index
• Wor­ship and Music Ministry

 

State mis­sion­ar­ies are avail­able for con­sul­ta­tion to asso­ci­a­tions and churches.  You may con­tact each min­istry by phone at 800-RING-GBC (800.746.4422), 770.455,0404 or vis­it the GBC web­site at www.gabaptist.org to receive the lat­est infor­ma­tion in each of these ministries.

 

In addi­tion to state mis­sion­ar­ies locat­ed at the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sions and Min­istry Cen­ter in Duluth, numer­ous field per­son­nel are locat­ed through­out the state.  Among those avail­able are the region­al state mis­sion­ar­ies locat­ed in three regions of Georgia.  The RSM con­tact infor­ma­tion is:

 

Charles Drum­mond, North Geor­gia Region, Augus­ta  cdrummond@gabaptist.org

Har­ris Mal­com, Mid­dle Geor­gia Region, Mon­roe  hmalcom@gabaptist.org

Mike Ever­son, South Geor­gia Region, Val­dosta  meverson@gabaptist.org

George Bar­nett, Part-time, North Geor­gia, gbarnett@gabaptist.org

 

Each min­istry exists to serve the asso­ci­a­tions and church­es of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion, strength­en church­es and reduce lost­ness in Georgia.  You may con­tact Robert A. Boswell, Assis­tant Exec­u­tive Direc­tor at 6405 Sug­ar­loaf Park­way, Duluth, Geor­gia 30097 or call 800-RING-GBC, 770–936-5381 or e‑mail — bboswell@gabaptist.org

 

 

ADULT GROUPS AND FAITH DEVELOPMENT

Tim Smith, State Missionary

Smith@gabaptist.org

 

All Geor­gia Bap­tists have the desire to accom­plish the Great Commission!  The Adult Groups & Faith Development(AGFD) state mis­sion­ar­ies believe that small groups are one of the best tools to impact the lost­ness and make disciples.

 

Adult Groups & Faith Devel­op­ment – The largest age group in our church­es as well as our com­mu­ni­ties are those 19 years of age and older.  To reach and teach adults takes a vari­ety of min­istries and approaches.  Whether it is the young sin­gle adult or the old­est senior adult we desire for them to know and grow in the Lord.  Pas­tors and oth­er lead­ers need resources to help them in their mis­sion to reach the lost and dis­ci­ple the saved.  Through the min­istry of Groups and Faith Devel­op­ment we part­ner with church­es and lead­ers to ful­fill the Great Commission.

 

The state mis­sion­ar­ies of AGFD are ready to assist you, your group and your church to accom­plish the goals of reduc­ing lost­ness and mak­ing disciples.  The team has resources and con­fer­ences, as well as per­son­al con­sul­ta­tions, to assist you with dai­ly Bible read­ing, train­ing mem­bers to share their faith, con­nect­ing with mem­bers, plan­ning mis­sion projects, start­ing new classes/groups and train­ing present and poten­tial teachers/leaders.

 

• In 2016, state mis­sion­ar­ies in AGFD con­duct­ed 454 state, region­al, asso­ci­a­tion­al, and local church train­ing events, with a com­bined atten­dance of 33,272.
• Through the FREE Grow­ing Groups Online train­ing and oth­er Social Media video train­ing over 90,000 var­i­ous resources have been viewed for group train­ing, instruc­tion, per­son­al devel­op­ment, equip­ping lead­ers and encouragement.  Pas­tors, min­is­ters, lead­ers, direc­tors, teach­ers, and/or mem­bers were equipped to improve their skills to reduce lost­ness and make disciples.

 

 

Our Vision: “Every Geor­gia Bap­tist church engaged in cre­at­ing a dis­ci­ple mak­ing culture.”

 

Our Mis­sion: “Part­ner­ing with lead­ers and strength­en­ing church­es in their mis­sion of mak­ing dis­ci­ples through groups to reduce lostness.”

 

Our Approach:

• Events — The tar­get audi­ence is the per­son in the pew.
• Train­ing — The tar­get audi­ence is the vol­un­teer lead­er­ship, Sun­day School teach­ers, and small group leaders.
• Net­work­ing — The tar­get audi­ence is the pro­fes­sion­al staff member.
• Resources — Both print and online.  Both free and pay.
• Engagement/Coaching — With lead­ers, church­es or groups.

 

The AGFD state mis­sion­ar­ies pro­vide lead­er­ship train­ing in church­es as well as through asso­ci­a­tion­al, region­al, and state events that give Geor­gia Bap­tists the tools they need to have healthy groups.  Below is a quick review of some of the major events pro­vid­ed by AGFD.

 

• Min­is­ter of Edu­ca­tion GBACE in January.
• Two 55+ Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ences in February.
• Fif­teen Asso­ci­a­tion­al & Region­al Sun­day School/Small Group Train­ing Workshops.
• Go Geor­gia Con­fer­ence in August.
• Four Grow­ing Groups Forums in October.
• Geor­gia Bap­tist Sun­day School Director’s Sum­mit in October.
• Nine Sun­day School men­tor­ing groups in part­ner­ship with the local associations.
• Month­ly FREE on-demand/on-line train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties through Grow­ing Groups On-Line.

 

 

ASSOCIATIONAL MISSIONS AND CONVENTION PLANNING

Frank A. Nuck­olls, State Missionary

fnuckolls@gabaptist.org

 

This min­istry area seeks to engage Geor­gia Bap­tists in accom­plish­ing the Great Com­mis­sion through the mis­sion of the “Five Smooth Stones.”  This task is accom­plished through the fol­low­ing ministries:

 

Asso­ci­a­tion­al Mis­sions Min­istries engaged Geor­gia Bap­tists in accom­plish­ing the Great Com­mis­sion through:

• Engag­ing 10 asso­ci­a­tions in the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of a mis­sion­al strategy.
• Equip­ping asso­ci­a­tion­al mis­sion­ar­ies in Great Com­mis­sion ministry.
• Encour­ag­ing and enlist­ing approx­i­mate­ly 20,000 vol­un­teers to serve on mis­sion in Appalachia through a part­ner­ship with Appalachi­an Region­al Min­istries of the North Amer­i­can Mis­sion Board.  (www.arministry.org)
• Engag­ing Geor­gia Bap­tists to pro­vide 35,281 Christ­mas Back­packs for Appalachi­an chil­dren, result­ing in over 1,000 pro­fes­sions of faith in Christ.

 

Con­tin­u­ing Edu­ca­tion Min­istries engaged Geor­gia Bap­tists in accom­plish­ing the Great Com­mis­sion through:

• Equip­ping approx­i­mate­ly one thou­sand church lead­ers through Con­tin­u­ing Edu­ca­tion Min­istries in asso­ci­a­tion­al, African-Amer­i­can, eth­nic, and prison Con­tin­u­ing Edu­ca­tion Centers.
• These church lead­ers were trained in twen­ty dif­fer­ent locations.
• Equip­ping over 100 stu­dents in min­istry at the Wheel­er Cor­rec­tion­al Cen­ter in Alamo.

 

Con­ven­tion Plan­ning Min­istries seeks to accom­plish the Great Com­mis­sion through the logis­ti­cal plan­ning of the Annu­al Meet­ing of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Convention.

 

For addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion on Asso­ci­a­tion­al Mis­sions Min­istries con­tact Frank Nuck­olls at fnuckolls@gabaptist.org.

 

 

 

 

CHURCH ADMINISTRATION MINISTRY

1. Alan Fol­som, State Missionary

afolsom@gabaptist.org

 

The Church Admin­is­tra­tion Min­istry seeks to strength­en church­es by equip­ping and inform­ing lead­ers through rel­e­vant resources in order to com­ply with applic­a­ble laws and Bib­li­cal mandates.  Church­es are chal­lenged by 1 Corinthi­ans 14:40, “…let all things be done decent­ly and in order…”

 

Church Admin­is­tra­tion is orga­nized into four areas of min­istry and resources: F.O.R.M.

 

FINANCIAL	ORGANIZATIONAL	RELATIONAL	MANAGERIAL
Finan­cial Compliance	Church Gov­er­nance	Per­son­nel & Min­istry Support	Gen­er­al Administration
•       Budget •       Finan­cial Compliance •       Treasurer/Finance Training •       Min­is­ters Tax Info •       Insur­ance Review •       Pay­roll & Benefits	•       Incorporation •       Church Constitution •       By-Laws •       Poli­cies & Procedures •       Par­lia­men­tary Procedure •       Legal Issues	•       Min­is­ters Job Descriptions •       Per­son­nel Policies •       Min­is­ters Compensation •       Min­istry Development •       Min­istry Job Descriptions •       Min­istry Teams •       Nom­i­nat­ing Committee	•       Build­ing & Grounds •       Facilities/Space Analysis •       Poli­cies & Procedures •       Child Pro­tec­tion Policies •       Admin­is­tra­tive Assis­tants (GBAMA) •       Insur­ance Coverage

 

Church Admin­is­tra­tion Min­istry high­lights for 2016

• Over 2,000 min­istry con­tacts, con­sul­ta­tions, con­ver­sa­tions and con­fer­ences relat­ed to Church Admin­is­tra­tion issues were pro­vid­ed to 1,000 churches.
• Over 500 church finan­cial lead­ers were equipped in finan­cial com­pli­ance account­abil­i­ty in 10 loca­tions across the state.
• 350 min­istry lead­ers were trained through Min­istry Safe’s Child Pro­tec­tion- Safe­ty Sys­tem to pro­tect chil­dren and those who serve them in church­es and child-serv­ing organizations.
• 50 Min­istry Assis­tants were equipped and encour­aged through the annu­al Geor­gia Bap­tist Asso­ci­a­tion of Min­istry Assis­tants con­fer­ence at Pin­na­cle Retreat Cen­ter in Clay­ton, GA.

 

For assis­tance, con­tact Alan Fol­som, afolsom@gabaptist.org or Tony Neal tneal@gabaptist.org or call 770–936-5274.

 

 

CHURCH MINISTER RELATIONS

Mar­cus Mer­ritt, State Missionary

mmerritt@gabaptist.org

www.gabaptist.org/churchministerrelations

 

Church Min­is­ter Rela­tions assists church­es and staff in ful­fill­ing the Great Com­mand­ment and the Great Com­mis­sion by pro­vid­ing encour­age­ment, train­ing, and resources to devel­op and main­tain healthy min­is­ters and con­gre­ga­tions. We pro­vide min­istries to min­is­ters, church­es and asso­ci­a­tions in a per­son­al, pro­fes­sion­al, bib­li­cal (and con­fi­den­tial) man­ner. We always hon­or the auton­o­my of the local church, asso­ci­a­tion, and the New Tes­ta­ment office of pas­tor. Our depart­ment is direct­ly relat­ed to the office of Dr. J. Robert White, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board, and is fund­ed through the Coop­er­a­tive Program.

 

Our min­istries focus on the revi­tal­iza­tion of church­es and indi­vid­ual min­is­ters. This focus blends quite nat­u­ral­ly into the mis­sion of The Five Smooth Stones, par­tic­u­lar­ly Church Revi­tal­iza­tion. Access to the Church-Min­is­ter web­site: www.gabaptist.org/churchministerrelations

 

Resume Ser­vice: This ser­vice is avail­able to any min­is­ter seek­ing a new place of ser­vice as well as church­es, asso­ci­a­tions, insti­tu­tions and agen­cies that are search­ing for new lead­er­ship. We do not make rec­om­men­da­tions, but share resumes as infor­ma­tion only through a pro­file sys­tem deter­mined by those mak­ing the request. Our online resume shar­ing ser­vice is con­nect­ed to nine state con­ven­tions across the coun­try. Dur­ing 2016, we received 276 requests for resumes and we shared 11,346 indi­vid­ual copies of resumes. To access the resume ser­vice use: http://resume.sbcworkspace.com/Default.aspx

 

Com­mit­tee Training/Consultation: We pro­vide training/orientation for Pas­tor (or staff) Search Com­mit­tees. This pro­gram is done on-site at the local church and at a time con­ve­nient for a com­mit­tee. Train­ing includes a step-by-step plan with print­ed mate­ri­als from Life­Way. It also includes local demo­graph­ic infor­ma­tion, access to the online resume shar­ing ser­vice, a 10-year ACP report, and a sam­ple search process. We are also avail­able to meet with a church dur­ing tran­si­tion­al times — with com­mit­tees, lead­er­ship, or the entire con­gre­ga­tion to give guid­ance dur­ing the inter­im peri­od. Last year, 26 Geor­gia Bap­tist Church­es request­ed and par­tic­i­pat­ed in these services.

Pas­toral Care: This min­istry reach­es out to Geor­gia Bap­tist min­is­ters, their fam­i­lies, and the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion staff with com­pas­sion, encour­age­ment, prayer, sup­port, and assis­tance dur­ing times of ill­ness and cri­sis through per­son­al con­tacts and on-site vis­its. Each month, our staff trav­els an aver­age of 5,000 miles, extend­ing an aver­age of 50 vis­its to GBC min­is­ters and their fam­i­lies, 20 vis­its with asso­ci­a­tion­al mis­sion­ar­ies and 13 with Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board employ­ees. An aver­age of 400 addi­tion­al con­tacts were made by phone, e‑mail and reg­u­lar mail.

 

Barn­abas Min­istry: The Barn­abas Min­istry is an ongo­ing out­reach and min­istry of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board to ter­mi­nat­ed and hurt­ing min­is­ters. Geor­gia Bap­tist Church­es forcibly ter­mi­nat­ed 29 Pas­tors (full-time and bi-voca­tion­al) and 10 full time church staff mem­bers; result­ing in 39 min­is­ters being forcibly ter­mi­nat­ed dur­ing 2016. In 2016, Church-Min­is­ter Rela­tions part­nered with Sher­wood Bap­tist Church and Pas­tor Michael Catt to com­bine the “Barnabas Retreat” with their “ReFRESH” Con­fer­ence. Ter­mi­nat­ed min­is­ters received both inspi­ra­tion (through live­ly cor­po­rate wor­ship) and infor­ma­tion (through break-out class­es) with this approach.

In addi­tion to the con­fer­ence, last year 12 forcibly ter­mi­nat­ed min­is­ters were helped with finan­cial aid total­ing over $13,100.00.

 

Inter­im Min­istries: On aver­age, ten per­cent of Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es are seek­ing a pas­tor. We are avail­able to con­sult with church­es dur­ing the inter­im time to help the church dis­cov­er which type of inter­im min­istry is best for the church. Options include; Pul­pit Sup­ply, Inter­im Pas­tor, or Tran­si­tion­al Pas­tor. As a ser­vice to both min­is­ters and church­es, our office keeps a ros­ter of avail­able inter­im min­is­ters. In 2016, 24 church­es request­ed resumes for an inter­im min­is­ter and we mailed 285 resumes in response.

 

We offer Tran­si­tion­al Pas­tor Train­ing in part­ner­ship with Life­Way Chris­t­ian Min­istries. In 2016, we trained 41 min­is­ters to serve Geor­gia Bap­tist Church­es as Tran­si­tion­al Pas­tors. This more in-depth inter­im ser­vice usu­al­ly lasts twelve to eigh­teen months and fol­lows an eight-step process.

 

Dea­con Min­istry: This min­istry gives lead­er­ship by pro­vid­ing Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es with dea­con train­ing and resources that will help the church achieve its min­istry objec­tives. We offer an annu­al Pastor/Deacon/Spouse Retreat which is held at the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Cen­ter. In 2016, Drs. Chuck and Rhon­da Kel­ley led our Con­fer­ence. We had a total of 166 participants.  In addi­tion to the annu­al Dea­con Retreat, we host­ed 3 dea­con fel­low­ships in 3 dif­fer­ent parts of the state and had a total of 175 participants.

 

Con­flict Medi­a­tion: When min­is­ters and/or church­es find them­selves in con­flict, we are avail­able for coun­sel, medi­a­tion and arbi­tra­tions. We were involved with Geor­gia Bap­tist Church­es and Asso­ci­a­tions at two lev­els of con­flict medi­a­tion assis­tance. We had 24 Church­es where we pro­vid­ed on-site vis­its and assistance.  In addi­tion, we had 80–100 church­es that we assist­ed through emails and phone con­ver­sa­tions and pro­vid­ed con­flict coaching.

 

Coun­sel­ing Ser­vices: In 2016, the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board, part­ner­ing with The Geor­gia Bap­tist Health Care Min­istry Foun­da­tion, pro­vid­ed pro­fes­sion­al coun­sel­ing ser­vices for Geor­gia Bap­tist min­is­ters and their imme­di­ate fam­i­ly mem­bers. Last year we assist­ed 12 Geor­gia Bap­tist min­is­ters and fam­i­ly mem­bers through coun­sel­ing, with the Convention’s co-pay­ment, which totaled $1240.00 for 45 coun­sel­ing ses­sions. Local church­es are encour­aged to uti­lize these coun­sel­ing ser­vices for church mem­bers and oth­ers in the com­mu­ni­ty. A list of Chris­t­ian Coun­selors is avail­able on the Church-Min­is­ter Rela­tion web­site. Our depart­ment also has a part­ner­ship with the “Clergy in Cri­sis” pro­gram of The Pas­toral Insti­tute of Colum­bus, Georgia.

 

Forgiveness/Restoration Min­istry: Moral and/or eth­i­cal fail­ure in the life of a min­is­ter, a key church leader, or a mem­ber of their fam­i­ly has a great impact upon the total life of a church and its wit­ness. A good bib­li­cal mod­el for a restora­tion min­istry in these types of cri­sis is essen­tial. We pro­vide coun­sel and resources in these areas.

 

Min­is­ter­s’ Wives http://gbmw.org; Mary Cox, State Missionary

Min­is­ter­s’ Wives are spe­cial women with a great call­ing to be the help­mate in min­istry to their hus­bands and to use their spir­i­tu­al gift­ed­ness in min­istry. We pro­vide min­istries that encour­age, refresh and renew in the areas of phys­i­cal, spir­i­tu­al and emo­tion­al health. There are two events that are held every year for minister’s wives.

 

1. Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion Annu­al Meet­ing Luncheon

The annu­al meet­ing lun­cheon is used to encour­age and inspire Geor­gia Bap­tist Min­is­ter­s’ Wives. The speak­ers and wor­ship lead­ers bring mes­sages that focus on their call­ing as a Chris­t­ian woman and min­is­ter­s’ wife. The theme for 2016 was ‘Hope Anchors the soul’. Our guest speak­er was, Mrs. Joy Ear­le, Woman’s Min­istry speak­er and musi­cian. We had 155 in atten­dance at the luncheon.

 

2016 Offi­cers                                                                2017 Offi­cers

Pres­i­dent — Mrs. Mrs. Star­la Harbin                                 Pres­i­dent — Mrs. Lisa Bullard

Vice-Pres­i­dent — Mrs. Stephanie Mer­rit­t                           Vice-Pres­i­dent — Mrs. Glen­da Hearn

Secretary/Treasurer — Mrs. Becky Davis                          Secretary/Treasurer — Mrs. Deb­bie West

 

2. Geor­gia Bap­tist Min­is­ter­s’ Wives Win­ter Retreat

The Min­is­ters Wives win­ter retreat is held every Jan­u­ary and is a time of rest, relax­ation, and renew­ing of mind, body, soul and rela­tion­ships. In 2016, 264 wives par­tic­i­pat­ed in the retreat at the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Cen­ter in Toc­coa, GA. The theme was ‘Resting in His pres­ence’. The guest speak­ers were Joy Ear­le and Jen­na Floyd. Heather Mes­sick led the spe­cial music. Fri­day after­noon was a per­son­al time of rest that includ­ed a spa day, break­out ses­sions health screen­ings. Each evening was filled with wor­ship and encour­age­ment through God’s word.

 

Church-Min­is­ter Rela­tions Staff:

Mar­cus Mer­ritt, State Mis­sion­ary            770–936-5260

Mar­ty Young­blood, State Mis­sion­ary      770–936-5243

Bryan Alexan­der, State Mis­sion­ary         770–936-5280

Robert Ander­son, State Mis­sion­ary        770–936-5279

Mary Cox, State Mis­sion­ary                   770–936-5253

Lau­ra Simms, State Mis­sion­ary Sup­port 770–936-5362

Ruth Smith, State Mis­sion­ary Sup­port    770–936-5362

 

 

CHURCH PLANTING MINISTRY

Butch Butch­er, State Missionary

bbutcher@gabaptist.org

 

As part­ners with church­es and asso­ci­a­tions, Church Plant­i­ng Min­istry serves to ful­fill the Great Com­mis­sion by plant­i­ng cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant, healthy-king­dom, Eng­lish speak­ing, repro­duc­ing church­es in Georgia.  Dur­ing the year of 2016, we assist­ed with plant­i­ng eigh­teen new church­es, of which ten were Anglo con­gre­ga­tions and eight were African-Amer­i­can congregations.

 

Our work can be divid­ed into four areas.

 

1. READINESS: We strive to cre­ate an envi­ron­ment for church plant­i­ng with the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board fam­i­ly of asso­ci­a­tions, church­es, pas­tors and staff, Mis­sion Board staff and laity.

 

It is our task to assist Geor­gia Bap­tists to be more aware of the lost­ness of the pop­u­la­tion in Geor­gia and how plant­i­ng con­tex­tu­al and cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant church­es among the Eng­lish-speak­ing pop­u­la­tion can pen­e­trate that lost­ness with the Gospel.

 

Readi­ness includes spir­i­tu­al prepa­ra­tion, under­stand­ing the cul­tur­al diver­si­ty of our pop­u­la­tion, and iden­ti­fy­ing peo­ple groups and their recep­tiv­i­ty toward the Gospel.

 

1. ENLISTING: We recruit and enlist asso­ci­a­tions, church­es, pas­tors and staff, Mis­sion Board staff, lay per­sons and stu­dents to par­tic­i­pate in a statewide church plant­i­ng effort and to pray for a church plant­i­ng move­ment in Geor­gia. We also recruit church planters and church plant­i­ng part­ners from among the “called of God” to serve the Lord in the area of church planting.

 

It is our task to recruit and enlist indi­vid­u­als, church­es, and asso­ci­a­tions to par­tic­i­pate in the min­istry and mis­sion of plant­i­ng con­tex­tu­al and cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant church­es among the Eng­lish-speak­ing pop­u­la­tion in Georgia.

 

Enlist­ment includes enlist­ing Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es and lead­ers to spon­sor and part­ner with church planters and new church plants. It also includes iden­ti­fy­ing and rais­ing up lead­ers who will become involved in church plant­i­ng as planters, staff mem­bers, coach­es, strate­gists, small group lead­ers, team mem­bers and soul-win­ners. These lead­ers may be voca­tion­al, bi-voca­tion­al, and/or vol­un­teers. We are look­ing for mis­sion­ary-mind­ed ser­vants who are com­mit­ted and “called of God” to the church plant­i­ng arena.

 

III. EQUIPPING: We offer train­ing and encour­age­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and events for church planters, church planter­s’ wives, church plant­i­ng staff, church plant­i­ng lay lead­ers, asso­ci­a­tion staff, sponsoring/partnering pas­tors, and coaches.

 

It is our task to equip and encour­age church planters and church plant­i­ng teams, spon­sor­ing church­es, strate­gists, coach­es and oth­er lead­ers and part­ners in the church plant­i­ng effort. Equip­ping also includes finan­cial sup­port avail­able through the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram min­istry of the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion. Finan­cial sup­port is avail­able in the form of start-up funds and church planter assistance.

 

Equip­ping and encour­ag­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and events include: Church Planter Ori­en­ta­tion, Assess­ment Event, Church Plant­i­ng School, con­fer­ences, and coaching.

 

1. MULTIPLICATION: We pro­mote and assist in the estab­lish­ing of a mul­ti­pli­ca­tion and repro­duc­tion vision and strat­e­gy among church planters and church plant­i­ng teams, spon­sor­ing and part­ner­ing church­es, asso­ci­a­tion­al mis­sion­ar­ies and staff, Region­al State Mis­sion­ar­ies, Mis­sion Board staff, and lay leaders.

 

The mul­ti­pli­ca­tion and repro­duc­tion vision and strat­e­gy includes pro­mot­ing and assist­ing church­es to be strong, healthy king­dom church­es that are repro­duc­ing new believ­ers, dis­ci­ples, lead­ers, planters and plant­i­ng teams for the plant­i­ng of new churches.

 

Mul­ti­pli­ca­tion includes an inten­tion­al and strate­gic com­mit­ment to evan­ge­lism and discipleship/leadership devel­op­ment. It focus­es on a strong mis­sions focus rec­og­niz­ing the more and more diverse and sec­u­lar ori­en­ta­tion of our state pop­u­la­tion. This focus demands a gospel sow­ing and mis­sion­ary send­ing effort in all com­mu­ni­ties and areas of our state. The idea is sim­ply to make dis­ci­ples who make dis­ci­ples and to plant healthy king­dom church­es that plant healthy king­dom churches.

 

 

COLLEGIATE MINISTRY

Joe Gra­ham, State Missionary

jgraham@gabaptist.org

 

The col­lege and uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents of today will be the lead­ers of, and mis­sion­ar­ies from, our church­es with­in a generation.  Col­le­giate Min­istry works to inspire col­le­gians with the prin­ci­ples of on-going coop­er­a­tive mis­sions and min­istry while allow­ing their cre­ativ­i­ty and ener­gy to flow back to the church­es, to Geor­gia Bap­tists, and to South­ern Baptists.  For more infor­ma­tion about Geor­gia Bap­tist Col­le­giate Min­istry around the state, please vis­it our web­site at http://gabcm.org/

 

Geor­gia Bap­tist Col­le­giate Min­istry focus a great deal of ener­gy on Col­le­giate Mis­sions through Send Me Now Missions.  Every aspect of 5 Smooth Stones is enhanced as these stu­dents pre­pare for their roles in God’s Mission.  In the sum­mer of 2016, Geor­gia BCMs and part­ner­ing church­es sent 173 stu­dents to serve in mis­sions here in Geor­gia, across the nation, and around the world and raised $226,085 to send them.  For more infor­ma­tion, go to http://sendmenow.net/

 

Statewide Col­le­giate Events focus on Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al, Church Revi­tal­iza­tion, and Authen­tic Evangelism.  Con­flu­ence is a statewide col­le­giate con­fer­ence for all Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es and BCMs.  Con­flu­ence 2017 will take place Sep­tem­ber 22–24 at Eagle’s Land­ing FBC near McDonough.  The theme is “Seek, Know, Fol­low” and the empha­sis will be on wor­ship and prayer.  For more infor­ma­tion, go to http://www.confluencega.com/   ENGAGE 24 is a nation­al col­le­giate empha­sis on evan­ge­lism that is focused on encour­ag­ing every col­le­gian to share his or her faith with some­one who is not a believ­er dur­ing one 24-hour period.  This year, the empha­sis date is Octo­ber 10.  Many of your Geor­gia Bap­tist Cam­pus Min­is­ters have expand­ed this empha­sis to mul­ti­ple days, an entire week, and for some, an entire month.  For more infor­ma­tion and resources for ENGAGE 24, go to www.engage24.org.

 

Reduc­ing “lostness” in Geor­gia is some­thing about which we are all con­cerned. One of the ways we mea­sure our suc­cess is by the total evan­ge­lis­tic impact of Bap­tist Col­le­giate Ministries.  Dur­ing the 2015–16 aca­d­e­m­ic year, we had 5,599 stu­dents involved reg­u­lar­ly in our min­istries statewide.  Dur­ing that year our Cam­pus Min­is­ters report­ed 255 col­le­gians who made pro­fes­sions of faith dur­ing BCM wor­ship times and events.  191 oth­er indi­vid­u­als made pro­fes­sions of faith as a result of BCM min­istry pro­grams and/or teams. Final­ly, our stu­dent Sum­mer Mis­sion­ar­ies report­ed that 1,190 indi­vid­u­als made pro­fes­sions of faith dur­ing the sum­mer as a result of their min­istries. That was a total of 1,636 peo­ple who pro­fessed faith in Christ over the past year as a result of Geor­gia Bap­tist­s’ invest­ment in Col­le­giate Ministry.  This means for every 3.4 stu­dents involved in our min­istry, one new Chris­t­ian found faith in Christ.  1:3.4 is an out­stand­ing ratio and Geor­gia Bap­tists can be proud of their Cam­pus Min­is­ters and students.

 

 

COMMUNITY MISSIONS AND DISASTER RESPONSE

Stu­art Lang, State Mis­sion­ary, slang@gabaptist.org

Ricky Thrash­er, State Mis­sion­ary, rthrasher@gabaptist.org

 

Com­mu­ni­ty Mis­sions engaged Geor­gia Bap­tists in accom­plish­ing the Great Com­mis­sion through:

 

• Assist­ing church­es in reach­ing their com­mu­ni­ties by engag­ing them with the Gospel.
• Encour­ag­ing, assist­ing, and train­ing Geor­gia Bap­tist chap­lains who serve in the mil­i­tary, hos­pi­tals, pris­ons, busi­ness­es, and institutions.
• Sup­port­ing church and com­mu­ni­ty min­istries through 10 Bap­tist min­istry cen­ters through­out Geor­gia. These cen­ters served 10,000 peo­ple last year.
• Coor­di­nat­ing prison evan­ge­lism, min­istry, and con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion class­es that min­is­tered to 50,000 inmates.
• Addic­tion Recov­ery Min­istries through HEART Min­istries and Pen­field Chris­t­ian Homes. These min­istries served 125 men and women.
• Aid­ing stu­dent sum­mer mis­sion­ar­ies to serve in local asso­ci­a­tions. In 2016, 20 stu­dent sum­mer mis­sion­ar­ies were trained and sent out to do mis­sions and min­istry in Geor­gia, result­ing in 115 pro­fes­sions of faith in Christ.
• Pro­mot­ing and admin­is­ter­ing the South­ern Bap­tist Glob­al Hunger Offer­ing serv­ing 5 mil­lion meals with 22,000 pro­fes­sions of faith in Christ in North America.
• Sup­port­ing and direct­ing the Mis­sion­ary Ser­vice Corp (MSC) min­istry in Geor­gia. There are 56 MSC mis­sion­ar­ies doing mul­ti­ple min­istries in Geor­gia, includ­ing food min­istries, home­less min­istries, evan­ge­lism min­istries, and church support.
• Part­ner­ing with Resort Min­istries to evan­ge­lize peo­ple in the resort set­ting. Loca­tions for Resort Min­istries include Helen, North­east Geor­gia, and the Gold­en Isles.

 

For addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion on Com­mu­ni­ty Mis­sions, please con­tact Ricky Thrash­er at rthrasher@gabaptist.org.

 

Dis­as­ter Response con­tin­ues to engage Geor­gia Bap­tists to be mis­sion­al through the unique oppor­tu­ni­ties of ser­vice pre­sent­ed by nat­ur­al dis­as­ters. We work with 41 oth­er state con­ven­tions and the North Amer­i­can Mis­sion Board to coor­di­nate dis­as­ter respons­es through­out the nation and world with cre­den­tialed volunteers.

 

Addi­tion­al­ly, we help church­es devel­op their own strat­e­gy for dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness and church secu­ri­ty. Please con­tact Stu­art Lang at slang@gabaptist.org for fur­ther infor­ma­tion or with any oth­er ques­tions you may have as per­tains to Dis­as­ter Relief, church secu­ri­ty, or dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness for your church family.

 

 

COOPERATIVE PROGRAM GIVING AND STEWARDSHIP

Buck Burch, State Missionary

bburch@gabaptist.org

 

The Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram Giv­ing and Stew­ard­ship Min­istry of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board has as its pur­pose “to enlist and part­ner with church­es to effec­tive­ly meet their needs in edu­cat­ing, assist­ing and encour­ag­ing them to ful­fill the Great Com­mis­sion of Jesus by devel­op­ing bib­li­cal stew­ards and mis­sions support.”  The Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram begins in the hearts of indi­vid­ual believ­ers who are com­mit­ted to reach­ing the world for Christ.  As they give through their local church, the church then deter­mines what por­tion of its receipts will be chan­neled through the Coop­er­a­tive Program.  These funds are sent through the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board, where they are divid­ed between Geor­gia Bap­tist caus­es and national/international South­ern Bap­tist causes.  Geor­gia Bap­tists con­tin­ue to be one of the lead­ing con­ven­tions in both per­cent­age and total dol­lar giv­ing through the Coop­er­a­tive Program.  The Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram allows the mem­ber church­es of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion to extend their wit­ness for Jesus Christ through­out our state, nation and around the world.  As Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram pro­duces nat­ur­al rela­tion­ships among indi­vid­u­als, church­es, asso­ci­a­tion, and the var­ied regions through­out Geor­gia, this past year has brought about sev­er­al excit­ing con­nec­tion points:

 

Bridges to Mis­sions – In March, May and Octo­ber of 2016, there were Bridges to Mis­sions Cel­e­bra­tions in the Cen­ten­ni­al and Augus­ta Asso­ci­a­tions and among Atlanta area His­pan­ic church­es, designed to draw atten­tion to prayer for spir­i­tu­al renew­al, a renewed com­mit­ment to gen­eros­i­ty, and our uni­ty in giv­ing through the Coop­er­a­tive Program.  In total, almost 100 Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es par­tic­i­pat­ed in the week­end ban­quets and Sun­day mis­sion­ary speakers.  A total of 572 peo­ple attend­ed the three banquets/missions celebrations.

 

CP Sun­day 2016 – April 10, 2016, was des­ig­nat­ed CP Sun­day by the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion as a nation­al empha­sis on our coop­er­a­tive mis­sions sup­port through the Coop­er­a­tive Program.  A sig­nif­i­cant increase in the num­ber of Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es order­ing bul­letin inserts, posters, and video down­loads for CP Sun­day with the theme “Beyond” was observed as our office pro­mot­ed the emphasis.

 

Mis­sion Geor­gia Empha­sis 2016 – John Bryan, State Mis­sion­ary, jbryan@gabaptist.org Sep­tem­ber 2016 was set aside as a month of prayer and offer­ing for Mis­sions to Geor­gia through­out the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion to reduce lostness.  The theme for 2016 was “BEYOND: Prov­ing the Pow­er of God.”  There were 1,221 sep­a­rate orders for mate­ri­als total­ing 118,102 prayer guides in Eng­lish and Span­ish, 3,983 posters, 139,975 offer­ing envelopes, and 724 DVDs.  Speak­ers were request­ed by 184 churches.  The total offer­ing was $1,462,031, an increase of 4.4% from the last year.

 

Stew­ard­ship Lead­er­ship Min­istries – Scott M. Preissler, State Mis­sion­ary, spreissler@gabaptist.org Stew­ard­ship Lead­er­ship pro­vides a wide port­fo­lio of ser­vices and prod­ucts for Geor­gia pas­tor and churches.  Two pri­ma­ry ser­vices are:  (1) Edu­ca­tion­al train­ing and (2) Con­sul­ta­tion sup­port services.  These ser­vices are con­sis­tent­ly updat­ed to always remain current.  Results are annu­al­ly assessed and mon­i­tored to annu­al­ly offer new port­fo­lio of cur­rent “stewardship help­s” and per­son­al con­sul­ta­tion for pastors.  Research con­sis­tent­ly shows that the local church pas­tor is not sem­i­nary-equipped nor trained for com­mon church stew­ard lead­er­ship duties.  In response, Stew­ard­ship Lead­er­ship Min­istries mobi­lizes depend­able helps for pas­tors which they can turn to and can count on, with low-cost, if not free, resources.  A com­plete­ly new and pack­aged 2017 Stew­ard­ship Series was planned and achieved with a coali­tion of South­ern Bap­tist stew­ard­ship state direc­tors known as the Stew­ard­ship Direc­tors Asso­ci­a­tion (SDA).  The newest series is enti­tled “Generosity.”  This series includes ready-made church bul­letin inserts on a giv­ing theme for four Sun­days, with a pro­mo­tion­al video on CD to use in church with the con­gre­ga­tion, themed offer­ing envelopes, and posters.

 

A strate­gic part­ner­ship con­tin­ues with the fol­low­ing top shelf lead­er­ship part­ners to wide­ly assist GBC pastors:

• The Nation­al Cen­ter for Stew­ard­ship and Gen­eros­i­ty – the Unit­ed States’ largest knowl­edge cen­ter on bib­li­cal stewardship’s impact for Chris­t­ian and Bap­tist gen­eros­i­ty. A dig­i­tal quar­ter­ly mag­a­zine has been released by e‑mail, free of charge, to all Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion church leaders.  Over 10,000 free sub­scrip­tions were pro­vid­ed dig­i­tal­ly by e‑mail attach­ment to church leaders.
• The King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty Col­lec­tion (KGC) – The KGC is the largest expe­ri­en­tial stew­ard­ship edu­ca­tion col­lec­tion and expres­sion of his­toric and cur­rent Chris­t­ian and Bap­tist bib­li­cal giv­ing arti­facts, resources, and artis­tic mod­els. A new pre-arranged tour for church teams is now avail­able at the Mis­sions and Min­istry Cen­ter in Duluth, Georgia.
• Stew­ard­ship Devel­op­ment Asso­ci­a­tion (SDA) – released a new annu­al com­bi­na­tion video and mate­ri­als resource enti­tled, “Generosity.” This cur­rent audio visu­al and print­ed resources is the tenth new resource in the same num­ber of years, avail­able in free sam­ple sets to Geor­gia pastors.
• Stew­ard­ship Work­shops and Sem­i­nars – Cus­tomized work­shops are col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly deliv­ered with fel­low Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board depart­ments to ensure good atten­dance. Some of these are Church Admin­is­tra­tion Min­istries, Geor­gia Bap­tist Women and WMU, Church Plant­i­ng, Church Revi­tal­iza­tion and Evan­ge­lism, Guide­Stone Retire­ment and Retire­ment Ser­vices, Men’s Min­istries, Groups and Faith Devel­op­ment, and the Geor­gia Bap­tist Foundation.  2016 launch­es sev­en state-wide tours on Stew­ard­ship education.  A spe­cial empha­sis on “Under 19” has been a high­light focus.
• Sam­ple Resource Pack­ets – 30,000 edu­ca­tion­al resources “sample pack­et­s” in ten dif­fer­ent top­ics are avail­able. A Geor­gia Bap­tist pas­tor may request a sam­ple pack­et of any avail­able stew­ard­ship series and per­son­al­ly obtain a com­plete series sam­ple of materials.  There are cur­rent­ly ten series available.

 

Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram Advance­ment and Endow­ment Ministries

John Bryan, State Mis­sion­ary, jbryan@gabaptist.org

 

Because we are called to be stew­ards and wise man­agers of what we have been entrust­ed, we must demon­strate this by giv­ing back to God and in shar­ing the Gospel around the world.  By doing so, we can assure future gen­er­a­tions that we care enough about mis­sions to pro­vide for the present needs and are will­ing to meet the mis­sion needs of the future.  A con­tin­u­ance of shar­ing the Gospel of Jesus Christ through on-going fund­ing is the goal and chal­lenge pre­sent­ed to all who par­tic­i­pate in this ministry.

The Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram Endow­ment Mis­sions Fund has been estab­lished to ensure present and future gen­er­a­tions that our wit­ness for Christ will not fade.  We can make a dif­fer­ence now and until Jesus comes.  Indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies, church­es, asso­ci­a­tions and cor­po­ra­tions can all par­tic­i­pate in leav­ing a spir­i­tu­al and finan­cial legacy.  The fol­low­ing are just a few ways in which this can be accomplished:  estate plan­ning, trusts, wills, char­i­ta­ble gifts and bequests.  Although many wor­thy char­i­ta­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties are avail­able for con­sid­er­a­tion, the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram Endow­ment Fund (CP Fund) offers the assur­ance that noth­ing will be wast­ed and every­thing will go to advance God’s work through South­ern Bap­tist ministries.  Sim­ply put, it is a one-stop method of giv­ing with a guar­an­tee of integri­ty for the present and into the future.

 

Indi­vid­u­als may par­tic­i­pate through cash gifts or by plac­ing the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram Endow­ment Fund in their wills.  Church­es are also encour­aged to par­tic­i­pate through a joint ven­ture between this min­istry and the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board.  This unique approach, called Lega­cy For Life, allows a church to receive coun­sel and oppor­tu­ni­ty for all of its church mem­ber­ship to par­tic­i­pate in an estate plan­ning event ben­e­fit­ing the mem­bers, the church, and the Coop­er­a­tive Program.  Last year our min­istry depart­ment ser­viced 124 church­es and/or asso­ci­a­tions through con­fer­ences, estate plan­ning or train­ing events.  Over 2,600 indi­vid­u­als heard the mes­sage of leav­ing a lega­cy gift through the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram Endow­ment Fund, with many respond­ing through our estate plan­ning services.  For more infor­ma­tion about Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram Advance­ment, access:  http://gabaptist.org/cp

 

 

GEORGIA BAPTIST CONFERENCE CENTER

Bill Wheel­er, State Missionary

bwheeler@gabaptist.org

 

The Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Cen­ter in Toc­coa serves asso­ci­a­tions and church­es by pro­vid­ing retreat facil­i­ties where peo­ple can “seek Jesus.”  Toc­coa offers a serene moun­tain and lake set­ting where both the body and soul can be nour­ished and renewed.  Com­fort­able accom­mo­da­tions, deli­cious meals, ample meet­ing facil­i­ties, and the nat­ur­al beau­ty of God’s cre­ation com­bine to cre­ate a tran­quil atmos­phere for fel­low­ship, relax­ation and spir­i­tu­al renew­al and growth.  Toc­coa was blessed by serv­ing more than 24,500 guests in 2016.  More than 325 peo­ple received Christ as their per­son­al sav­ior at the con­fer­ence cen­ter in 2016.

 

The Toc­coa Con­fer­ence Cen­ter includes 240 guest rooms, 1000-seat audi­to­ri­um, 300-seat chapel, 42 meet­ing rooms, the High­er Grounds Cof­fee Shop, the Ser­vice Sta­tion Snack and Gift Shop and the Lake­side Din­ing Room also known for deli­cious buf­fet meals.

5 Stone Per­son­al Retreat

 

Please call the con­fer­ence cen­ter to book your per­son­al, com­ple­men­tary, 2 day, 1 night Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al retreat.  Let us assist you as you seek how God wants to use Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al, King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty, Church Revi­tal­iza­tion, Church Plant­i­ng, and Inten­tion­al Evan­ge­lism to sup­port the vision of your asso­ci­a­tion or church.

 

Your con­fer­ence cen­ter min­istry assists church­es by:

• Pro­vid­ing a place for Pas­tors to devel­op and equip a cohe­sive staff
• Pro­vid­ing envi­ron­ments to encour­age relax­ation, reflec­tion and spir­i­tu­al renewal
• Enabling Church­es to ful­fill their Mis­sion by pro­vid­ing a place of retreat for:
• Pas­tors and Fam­i­lies, Youth and Chil­dren Camps,
• Dea­con and Church Lead­er­ship, Senior adults
• Men’s and Women’s Groups, Cou­ples Renew­al Weekends
• Choir, Band or Orches­tra Events
• Senior Adult Retreats
• Offer­ing hands on vol­un­teer mis­sion projects for churches
• Encour­ag­ing per­son­al renew­al, relax­ation, and rejoic­ing in the Lord.

 

The exis­tence of this life-chang­ing min­istry can only con­tin­ue with spe­cial care and devot­ed support.  Prayer, Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram gifts, and Mis­sion Geor­gia Offer­ings are vital for Geor­gia Bap­tists to con­tin­ue to see lives refreshed and God’s King­dom increased as peo­ple are saved at this beau­ti­ful retreat center.  The Con­fer­ence Cen­ter under­writes dai­ly oper­at­ing expens­es through fees charged; how­ev­er, cap­i­tal improve­ments and facil­i­ty devel­op­ment can only hap­pen through the sup­port of Geor­gia Baptists.

 

For more infor­ma­tion about the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Cen­ter Min­istry in Toc­coa please con­tact Bill Wheeler.  Bill can be reached at 706–886-3133.

 

Social Media Links

• Web: MyToccoa.com
• Face­book: o Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Cen­ter – Toccoa
• Email: o Toccoa@gabaptist.org

 

 

GEORGIA BAPTIST MEN’S MINISTRY

1. Glen McCall, State Missionary

gmccall@gabaptist.org

 

Glen McCall and Mike Flow­ers served 5,624 men and boys through their train­ing and speak­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties through Men’s Min­istry, involv­ing 38 asso­ci­a­tions, and 65 churches.  In addi­tion, 3,745 chil­dren, youth, and church group mem­bers attend­ed Camp Kaleo, con­duct­ed by Men’s Min­istries last year.  A total of 78 sal­va­tion deci­sions for Christ were made.  Men’s Min­istry also host­ed four On Mis­sion Con­nec­tions through which over 17,000 mem­bers and atten­dees par­tic­i­pat­ed in this Mis­sions Edu­ca­tion part­ner­ship with IMB, NAMB, and the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board Missionaries.  The total par­tic­i­pa­tion in Men’s Min­istry events was over 26,300 people.

 

77% of Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es have some type of min­istry to men and boys. We are delight­ed to work with you to devel­op an envi­ron­ment for men who fol­low the lead­er­ship of Christ to ful­fill the Great Commission.  Reach­ing men will help the church grow.  When a father is the first in a fam­i­ly to receive Christ, near­ly 93% of the time his whole fam­i­ly will follow.  It should be our high­est pri­or­i­ty because of the far-reach­ing effects on the fam­i­ly and the church.  We stand ready to assist you.

 

5 Smooth Stones Impact in 2016:  Four of the Five – Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al, Church Revi­tal­iza­tion, Authen­tic Evan­ge­lism, and King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty were key ele­ments addressed through Men’s Min­istry train­ing events in South and North Geor­gia, and through men’s retreats and con­fer­ences across the state.  Through the Right­eous Man­hood Con­fer­ence in Jan­u­ary, with Phil Kramer, the Iron to Iron Men’s Con­fer­ence, with Jeff Crook, and the GO Geor­gia Men’s Break­out train­ing with Kelvin Cochran (Over­com­ing Strong­holds of Con­dem­na­tion), and the empha­sis on 33 The Series with Rick Cald­well and Tierce Green with Authen­tic Man­hood, men are get­ting fired up about their rela­tion­ship and respon­si­bil­i­ty with Christ.  In addi­tion, our 2nd Annu­al North Geor­gia Men’s Con­fer­ence, in part­ner­ship with the asso­ci­a­tions and church­es in the North Geor­gia Moun­tains result­ed in sal­va­tions, reded­i­ca­tions, and prayer for families.  The event was led by Randy How­ell (2014 Bass Mas­ter Clas­sic Cham­pi­on) and the singing group was Crim­son Ridge.

 

Church Plant­i­ng, Authen­tic Evan­ge­lism, and King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty – four asso­ci­a­tions host­ed OMC’s — Gor­don Memo­r­i­al, Grady, Ogeechee Riv­er, and Tat­tnall-Evans, intro­duc­ing church­es to the min­istries of State, NAMB, and IMB mis­sion­ar­ies which are sup­port­ed through the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram, and our spe­cial mis­sion gifts – Mis­sion Geor­gia, Annie Arm­strong, and Lot­tie Moon.  Over a hun­dred church­es were involved with over 17,000 mem­bers participated.

 

Resources for Your Men and Boys:  Men’s Min­istries can help you with Men’s Mis­sions and Spir­i­tu­al Devel­op­ment, Church Lay Renew­al, Lega­cy Builders Retreats, On Mis­sion Cel­e­bra­tions, Camp Kaleo Retreats and camps, Roy­al Ambas­sadors & Chal­lengers Pro­grams includ­ing – Sum­mer Camp, Cam­poree, Rac­er Der­by, Cam­pout Con­gress and State Track Meet.  Please con­tact us for assistance.  All events and mate­ri­als are avail­able at www.gabaptist.org/mensministry  or call 1–800-746‑4422 ext. 257.

RA’s, Chal­lengers and Camp Kaleo

 

2016 was anoth­er great year in the life of RA’s, Chal­lengers, and Camp Kaleo.  Next gen­er­a­tion min­is­ters, mis­sion­ar­ies and lay lead­ers are being devel­oped and taught to be well-informed respon­si­ble fol­low­ers of Christ, to have a Christ-like con­cern for all peo­ple, to car­ry the mes­sage of Christ around the world, to work with oth­ers in shar­ing Christ, and to keep them­selves clean and healthy in mind and body.  Scrip­ture study and mem­o­ry are para­mount along with the study of SBC mis­sion­ar­ies and their work in coun­tries around the world.

 

Total of 3,746 attend­ed Camp Kaleo for 2016:

Jan­u­ary – April                          1,015 Attendees

May – August                            1,676 Attendees

Sep­tem­ber – Decem­ber             1,054 Attendees

 

Total of 940 attend­ed State Roy­al Ambas­sadors Events:

State RA Rac­er Der­by 400

State RA Cam­poree 224

RA Sum­mer Camp 171

State RA Con­gress 145

 

Total Deci­sions at Camp Kaleo: 78 Pro­fes­sions of Faith; 3 rededications

 

Con­tact:

Michael Flow­ers, Con­sul­tant & Direc­tor Camp Kaleo

www.campkaleo.org

www.ga-ra.org

478–994-5333 or 800–746-4422 x 257

Web­site: www.gabaptist.org/mensministry

Admin­is­tra­tive Email: sdavis@gabaptist.org

 

 

 

 

INTERCULTURAL CHURCH PLANTING AND MISSION MINISTRY

Jer­ry Bak­er, State Missionary

jbaker@gabaptist.org

 

Inter­cul­tur­al Church Plant­i­ng & Mis­sion Min­istry relates to church­es and asso­ci­a­tions work­ing cross cul­tur­al­ly with peo­ple of oth­er lan­guages, cul­tures and nations. Reports includ­ed below reflect the var­ied work done by state mis­sion­ar­ies who are a part of this min­istry. It also serves to sup­port Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board statewide ini­tia­tives of 5 Smooth Stones, most specif­i­cal­ly in church plant­i­ng and evangelism.

 

Jer­ry Bak­er – State Missionary

Car­lene Coop­er – State Mis­sion­ary Support

Luz Ayala – State Mis­sion­ary Support

Diana Brown – State Mis­sion­ary, Part-time, Bap­tist Mobile Health Ministry

Lore­na Saenz — State Mis­sion­ary, Part-time, Bap­tist Mobile Health Ministry

Paulette Dehart – State Mis­sion­ary, Lit­er­a­cy Missions

Moses Valdés – State Mis­sion­ary, His­pan­ics – North Georgia

Den­nis Rivera – State Mis­sion­ary, His­pan­ics – South Georgia

Vacant – State Mis­sion­ary, Asian

Yong Nam Suh – State Mis­sion­ary, Part-time, Korean

 

http://gabaptist.org/icpmm/

 

New Works: There were 11 new church starts report­ed in 2016.  Burmese, Kore­an, His­pan­ic, and Nigerian.

 

CONFERENCES AND TRAINING MEETINGS DURING THE YEAR INLUDED:

• The Inter­cul­tur­al Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ences met at Nor­man Park, Duluth with 90 total attendance.
• Church Plant­i­ng Sem­i­nars for Mul­ti­eth­nic pas­tors over 4 weekends.
• Assess­ment Events for poten­tial Church Planters
• Inter­na­tion­al Youth Camp at Super­wow served 60 campers.
• Span­ish Youth Camps met at Super­wow and Nor­man Park & Jekyll Island with 124 attend­ing the latter.
• South Geor­gia His­pan­ic Church Growth and Mis­sions Con­fer­ence report­ed 240 attending.
• South Geor­gia His­pan­ic Mul­ti­ply­ing Church Net­works met in three regions.
• Bible Insti­tutes in Span­ish in Savan­nah and Hinesville
• Basic Train­ing Jour­ney for His­pan­ic Church Planters
• Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence of the Deaf met at Nor­man Park
• Inter­preter Train­ing Pro­gram (Deaf) met at Camp Kaleo

 

Lit­er­a­cy Mis­sion trains vol­un­teers in 6 spe­cif­ic areas.  4,733 stu­dents par­tic­i­pat­ed, led by 1,015 vol­un­teers and 610 Teach­ers. 16 Cit­i­zen­ship class­es were pro­vid­ed, 100 nations were enrolled, result­ing in 47 pro­fes­sions of faith and 17 baptisms.   http://gabaptist.org/literacymissions/

 

Bap­tist Mobile Health Min­istry com­plet­ed 21 years of ser­vice in part­ner­ship with the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board. There were 105 clin­ic days were pro­vid­ed in 35 sites to more than 3,000 people.  Four of these sites were for Geor­gia Bap­tist Min­is­ters and staff members.  All clin­ics pro­vide den­tal care and 30 per­cent of the clin­ics pro­vide med­ical screening.   There were 30 report­ed pro­fes­sions of faith dur­ing the clinic/health fairs.

http://gabaptist.org/baptist-mobile-health-ministry/

 

 

KIDS GROUPS AND FAITH DEVELOPMENT

Tim Smith, State Missionary

tsmith@gabaptist.org

 

All Geor­gia Bap­tists have the desire to accom­plish the Great Commission!  The Kid’s Groups & Faith Development(KGFD) state mis­sion­ar­ies believe that small groups are one of the best tools to impact the lost­ness and make disciples.

 

Kid’s Groups & Faith Devel­op­ment – At the youngest age we believe that we are build­ing a foun­da­tion for chil­dren to move from preschool to ele­men­tary school it is our prayer that every child make a pro­fes­sion of faith.  We are excit­ed when we see our chil­dren come to know the Lord and we are just as enthused about lead­ing our chil­dren to grow in their rela­tion­ship with Christ.  The home is the pri­ma­ry place of Chris­t­ian instruc­tion so we believe in in equip­ping parents.  The church is the sec­ondary place so we believe in invest­ing in teach­ers, lead­ers and staff.

 

The state mis­sion­ar­ies of GFD are ready to assist you, your group and your church to accom­plish the goals of reduc­ing lost­ness and mak­ing disciples.  The team has resources, con­fer­ences, and per­son­al con­sul­ta­tions to assist you in dai­ly Bible read­ing, train­ing mem­bers to share their faith, con­nect­ing with mem­bers, plan­ning mis­sion projects, start­ing new classes/groups and train­ing present and poten­tial teachers/leaders.

 

• In 2016, a total of 3,207 VBS lead­ers were trained through the Groups and Faith Devel­op­ment area, who then impact­ed 1,459 church­es result­ing in 5,836 report­ed salvations.
• VBS sum­mer mis­sion­ar­ies assist­ed 18 church­es and reached 1,173 peo­ple, 57 of whom made spir­i­tu­al decisions.
• In 2016, 584 chil­dren, youth, and high school­ers par­tic­i­pat­ed in Bible Drill dis­ci­ple­ship events this year. 279 high scor­ing stu­dents, rep­re­sent­ing 54 church­es in 32 asso­ci­a­tions, advanced to region­al and state Bible Drill competition.

 

Our Vision “Every Geor­gia Bap­tist church engaged in cre­at­ing a dis­ci­ple mak­ing culture.”

 

Our Mis­sion “Part­ner­ing with lead­ers and strength­en­ing church­es in their mis­sion of mak­ing dis­ci­ples through groups to reduce lostness.”

Our Approach

• Events — The tar­get audi­ence is the peo­ple in the pew.
• Train­ing — The tar­get audi­ence is the vol­un­teer lead­er­ship, Sun­day School teach­ers, and small group leaders.
• Net­work­ing — The tar­get audi­ence is the pro­fes­sion­al staff member.
• Resources — Both print and online. Both free and pay.
• Engagement/Coaching — With lead­ers, church­es or groups.

 

The KGFD state mis­sion­ar­ies pro­vide lead­er­ship train­ing in local church­es as well as through asso­ci­a­tion­al, region­al, and state events that give Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es the tools they need to have healthy groups.  Below is a quick review of some of the major events pro­vid­ed by KGFD.

 

• Twelve VBS Jump­Starts in January.
• Kids Min­istry Sum­mit in February.
• Six Region­al VBS Clin­ics in March.
• Sev­en Region­al and State Bible Drill and Speak­ers Events in April and May.
• Three One-Day Bible Drill Extreme Events in September.
• Ten Kid’s Min­istry Round­ta­bles in Sep­tem­ber and October.
• Month­ly FREE on-demand/on-line train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties through Grow­ing Groups On-Line.

 

 

REGIONAL STATE MISSIONARIES

Charles Drum­mond, North Geor­gia Region, Augus­ta  cdrummond@gabaptist.org

Har­ris Mal­com, Mid­dle Geor­gia Region, Mon­roe  hmalcom@gabaptist.org

Mike Ever­son, South Geor­gia Region, Val­dosta  meverson@gabaptist.org

George Bar­nett, Part-time, North Geor­gia, gbarnett@gabaptist.org

 

In addi­tion to State Mis­sion­ar­ies locat­ed at the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sions and Min­istry Cen­ter in Duluth, numer­ous field per­son­nel are locat­ed through­out the state.  Among those avail­able are the Region­al State Mis­sion­ar­ies locat­ed in three regions of Georgia.

 

 

STUDENT GROUPS AND FAITH DEVELOPMENT

Doug Couch, State Missionary

dcouch@gabaptist.org

 

Stu­dent Groups and Faith Devel­op­ment serves Christ by strength­en­ing church­es to share the faith with the next gen­er­a­tion. We accom­plish that goal by offer­ing strate­gic youth events, train­ing events, and strength­en­ing local net­works of youth lead­ers to coop­er­ate toward reach­ing the 954,000 stu­dents for Christ who live in our state. www.superwow.com

 

This past year was a sea­son of tran­si­tion. Cindy Fruit­tich­er, with 20 years in ser­vice to Geor­gia Bap­tists, and Bri­an Bone, with 8 years in ser­vice, tran­si­tioned to min­istry in a church.  We are thank­ful for their con­tri­bu­tion to the min­istry and the lega­cy they leave behind.

 

We wel­comed to the depart­ment two new state mis­sion­ar­ies. Mike Ricks served Bri­ar­wood Bap­tist Church in Watkinsville for over 26 years. He has faith­ful­ly served as a net­work coach for many of those years, and will pro­vide lead­er­ship in fur­ther devel­op­ment of our Stu­dent Min­istry Net­work. We also wel­comed Ricky Smith, who has served in stu­dent min­istry in Colum­bus, Geor­gia for the past 20 years. Ricky has also served as a coach in our net­work for many years and will offer lead­er­ship in con­fer­ences and camps.

 

This past sum­mer, over 3,000 stu­dents and their lead­ers attend­ed Super­wow. There was one week of Super­wow on Jekyll Island and two weeks in Ft. Wal­ton Beach, Florida.

 

Again, this year Impact was two camps in one loca­tion for High School and Mid­dle School students.  Both groups met at the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Cen­ter in Toccoa.  We wel­comed 968 stu­dents and lead­er­s  who attend­ed this one great week of Impact.

 

This sum­mer we had our eighth sum­mer of MERGE in Toccoa.  MERGE is a full-fledged mis­sion camp and we had 312 in atten­dance. In addi­tion to see­ing stu­dents come to know Christ, we also saw many stu­dents share Christ with a lost per­son for the first time in their lives.  Our stu­dents com­plet­ed ser­vice projects in the city that includ­ed con­struc­tion projects, Vaca­tion Bible Schools, and a vari­ety of min­istry ini­tia­tives. The most impres­sive dynam­ic of the camp was watch­ing the MERGE stu­dents and adults pour them­selves into the local com­mu­ni­ty by pro­vid­ing over 7,480 hours of ser­vice in one week. MERGE was tru­ly a beau­ti­ful exam­ple of the pow­er of coop­er­a­tion with the State Con­ven­tion, the asso­ci­a­tion, youth groups from around the nation, and the city of Toc­coa work­ing togeth­er to bless a community.

 

The 2016 MOVE Con­fer­ence was held at the Macon Cen­tre­plex on Decem­ber 29 – 30, 2016. The goal of MOVE is to expose as many stu­dents as pos­si­ble to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to chal­lenge stu­dents who already have a per­son­al rela­tion­ship with Christ to make a dif­fer­ence in their fam­i­lies, church, and on their cam­pus­es. With an atten­dance of over 6,300 stu­dents and their lead­ers we saw over 334 stu­dents con­fess Christ as their per­son­al Lord and Savior.

 

For our 18th year of Con­clave, in Chat­tanooga, Ten­nessee on Jan­u­ary 28 – 30, 2016, we had over 600 youth work­ers from Geor­gia, Alaba­ma, North Car­oli­na, South Car­oli­na, Ten­nessee and Louisiana come togeth­er for three chal­leng­ing days of train­ing and wor­ship. This was a coop­er­a­tive effort between the state con­ven­tions. In addi­tion, there were over 30 sem­i­nar choic­es taught by the lead­ing youth min­is­ters from each state.

 

Stu­dent Groups and Faith Devel­op­ment also leads the Stu­dent Min­istry Net­work. The Net­work exists to help youth pas­tors and work­ers con­nect for net­work­ing, men­tor­ing, train­ing and exten­sion. With over 55 expe­ri­enced and trained youth min­is­ters, or “coaches,” around the state of Geor­gia, there is always some­one close by to turn to for help. To find a coach in your area, please go to http://superwow.com/smn.

 

We cel­e­brate that we have wit­nessed 946 deci­sions. Of those 534 were first time pro­fes­sions of faith, 237 recom­mit­ments to Christ, and 155 sur­ren­der­ing to a call of min­istry. In total, we resourced and part­nered with Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es to wel­come 11,212 indi­vid­u­als to our stu­dent events, not includ­ing Conclave.

 

Each of our events cre­ates an envi­ron­ment of Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al from the cor­po­rate wor­ship to the small group expe­ri­ence. Through offer­ings tak­en at cer­tain events and through service/mission projects that atten­dees par­tic­i­pate in, the oppor­tu­ni­ty for King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty is pre­sent­ed. Church Revi­tal­iza­tion is present at each of our events through lead­er­ship devel­op­ment and our state-wide train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties with the net­work of youth min­is­ters. Our events offer afford­able oppor­tu­ni­ties for church plants to net­work with oth­er young and small church­es across our state.  At our events, train­ing times, or in casu­al con­ver­sa­tion with youth min­is­ters and youth, Authen­tic Evan­ge­lism per­me­ates what Stu­dent Groups and Faith Devel­op­ment is all about. Oper­at­ing costs for Con­clave, Impact, Super­wow, Merge, and Move are based on con­fer­ence reg­is­tra­tion income. Thank you Geor­gia Bap­tists, for your con­tin­ued prayers and support.

 

 

WORSHIP AND MUSIC MINISTRY

Jon Dun­can, State Missionary

jduncan@gabaptist.org

 

The pur­pose of Wor­ship and Music Min­istry is to strength­en, enhance, and encour­age the praise and procla­ma­tion min­istries of local church­es. When wor­ship life in our church­es is healthy then so, too is the evan­ge­lis­tic life in our peo­ple. In order to win Geor­gia we need a vibrant wor­ship life in our church­es. When peo­ple encounter God in worship—EVERYTHING changes! When peo­ple wor­ship on the first day of the week, they are more apt to present a vibrant wit­ness on day 2 through 7! It is our desire to equip God’s peo­ple to dis­cov­er bib­li­cal wor­ship which trans­forms lives. The bib­li­cal man­date for choral and instru­men­tal min­istry also includes the procla­ma­tion of the Word (1 Chron­i­cles 25.1–7). The music of the church not only inspires God’s people—it teach­es the Word of God (Col. 3.16). The music of the church allows the wor­shiper to grasp and inter­nal­ize doc­tri­nal truths from Scrip­ture. It also pro­vides a means and vehi­cle for express­ing a uni­fied con­fes­sion of who we are as God’s peo­ple and the mes­sage we are respon­si­ble to car­ry out to the nations. The Wor­ship and Music Min­istry area is focused on wor­ship and pro­claim­ing the Good News of Jesus Christ and is a vital com­po­nent of the 5 Smooth Stones initiative.

 

Our two state choral groups include The Sons of Jubal (www.gabaptistworshipmusic.org/soj and the Jubal­heirs (www.gabaptistworshipmusic.org/jubalheirs. The Sons of Jubal is a male cho­rus com­prised of min­is­ters of music and music lead­ers serv­ing in local Bap­tist church­es. This group has wit­nessed out­stand­ing growth. In 2016 the group has well over 300 enrolled mem­bers. The Sons of Jubal sing to more than 12,000 peo­ple each year. This past year the men sang in church­es large and small through­out every region of the state. The group is mak­ing prepa­ra­tions for an evan­ge­lis­tic mis­sion endeav­or to Great Britain in 2018.   Our local church con­certs present the Gospel through­out the state. We are wit­ness­ing an increas­ing num­ber of peo­ple in all age groups and eth­nic­i­ties attend­ing our con­certs and offer­ing sup­port to the Jubal ministry.

The Jubal­heirs is a choir com­posed of women who serve in var­i­ous capac­i­ties in local church min­istry. This group has con­tin­ued to grow in num­bers and effec­tive­ness. The 300+ voice choir has pre­sent­ed con­certs in a vari­ety of set­tings. Like the Sons of Jubal, the Jubal­heirs’ pur­pose is all about mis­sion advance­ment. In 2016 the ladies were busy gath­er­ing mate­ri­als, devel­op­ing teams, and mak­ing musi­cal prepa­ra­tions for an aggres­sive mis­sion endeav­or in New Orleans. Next year’s report will pro­vide details of the mis­sion trip and its impact. As the men, the ladies will do their best to sing in any church that can accom­mo­date the group. The ladies also pro­vid­ed over $10,000 in schol­ar­ship help stu­dents to attend Surge 150 (music camp).

 

The Jubal Cho­rus is a com­bi­na­tion of both choirs which presents 1 or 2 pro­grams in local church­es each year. Whether at a local church, con­cert hall, a prison, or mis­sion point across the ocean, these min­istry orga­ni­za­tions are com­mit­ted to the cause of Christ. The Jubals rep­re­sent one of the strongest min­istries of its kind in South­ern Bap­tist life. The 5 Smooth Stones are all touched upon by this suc­cess­ful ministry.

 

In addi­tion to these pro­grams, we are thrilled with the resur­gence of music camps. Surge 150 (www.gabaptistworshipmusic.org/event/surge150) is draw­ing stu­dents from across the state. All three music camps are healthy and God is bless­ing the efforts with deci­sions that hon­or Christ. Near­ly 400 stu­dents and fac­ul­ty mem­bers make Surge 150 a major suc­cess sto­ry in Geor­gia Bap­tist life. Last year we had sev­er­al who pro­fessed faith in Christ and were bap­tized in their local church­es. Many more made reded­i­ca­tions, and oth­ers sur­ren­dered to voca­tion­al ser­vice. These camps are a vital tes­ti­mo­ny to the vibran­cy of Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram sup­port. These pro­grams reflect our com­mit­ment to all of the 5 Smooth Stones as we devel­op lead­ers that will impact king­dom gen­eros­i­ty, authen­tic evan­ge­lism, church revi­tal­iza­tion, church plant­i­ng, and spir­i­tu­al renewal.

 

We also expe­ri­enced excel­lent par­tic­i­pa­tion in our fes­ti­val pro­grams. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, our 2016 REEL FEST youth choir event had to be can­celed due to weath­er issues.  Over 200 par­tic­i­pat­ed at the Hand­bell Fes­ti­val (www.gabaptistworshipmusic.org/event/handbellfestival) at Jekyll Island. Our Senior Adult Choir fes­ti­vals drew over 400 in two loca­tions in North and South Geor­gia. These events touch evan­ge­lism as we see stu­dents come to faith in Christ, spir­i­tu­al renew­al, and king­dom gen­eros­i­ty with the empha­sis placed on sup­port of Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram. Our Key­board Fes­ti­vals (www.gabaptistworshipmusic.org/events/category/keyboardfestivals) encour­age stu­dents to play hymns and oth­er ser­vice music to pre­pare them for ser­vice in the church. We had near­ly 100 chil­dren and youth par­tic­i­pate in these region­al events.

 

In 2016, we added our newest staff mem­ber. Nick Duke came to us from War­ren Bap­tist Church in Augus­ta. He will be lead­ing a train­ing empha­sis to help equip our church­es that uti­lize a more con­tem­po­rary approach to church music. He has exper­tise in all areas of tech­nol­o­gy as well as giv­ing effec­tive lead­er­ship to those who are in church “bands.” His work is espe­cial­ly cru­cial as we enter a new phase of reach­ing out to stu­dents in the upcom­ing years.

 

Near­ly 1,000 attend­ed Go Geor­gia (www.gogerogia.net) held at Prince Avenue Bap­tist Church. This was a “first” as we com­bined with many oth­er depart­ments to pro­vide total staff train­ing in mul­ti­ple areas of min­istry. This event offered more than 100 class options over the 2 days. Lead­ers from across the state came to receive train­ing and inspi­ra­tion for their local min­istries. The music train­ing at the event is par­tic­u­lar­ly dri­ven to address the needs of revi­tal­iza­tion of the wor­ship life and music min­istries of our churches.

 

Anoth­er area of growth is in the area of per­son­al con­sul­ta­tion. As a state mis­sion­ary, I have worked with dozens of church­es deal­ing with search com­mit­tee train­ing, con­flict medi­a­tion, tutor­ing oth­er wor­ship lead­ers, and pro­vid­ing encour­age­ment to hurt­ing min­is­ters. A week sel­dom pass­es in which we aren’t con­tact­ed by min­is­ters of Christ need­ing some form of per­son­al help. We offer what time is pos­si­ble and place indi­vid­u­als at the fore­front of atten­tion. Email me at jduncan@gabaptist.org if I can be of assis­tance in any of these areas.

 

Our con­nec­tion with asso­ci­a­tion lead­er­ship train­ing con­tin­ues to grow. We were in more than a dozen asso­ci­a­tions pro­vid­ing train­ing events in con­junc­tion with the asso­ci­a­tion­al mis­sion­ary in areas of wor­ship lead­er­ship, key­board train­ing, sound sys­tems, and much more.

 

Although we are thrilled with the growth and suc­cess of these min­istries, the real rejoic­ing relates to the church­es that are strength­ened in their min­istries. These train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and inspi­ra­tional events are designed with the church in mind. Of course, we couldn’t pro­vide any­thing with­out the incred­i­ble sup­port of the church­es. It is a joy to serve such won­der­ful peo­ple known as Geor­gia Baptists!

 

To con­tact Music and Wor­ship Min­istries, please call 1–800-RINGGBC (800–746-4422), 770–936-5265 or email dbailey@gabaptist.org. Vis­it our web­site at www.gabaptistworshipmusic.org to access infor­ma­tion about events, cal­en­dar, our staff, pod­casts and photos.

 

 

VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE

MISSION BOARD FINANCIAL SERVICES

Toby How­ell, State Missionary

thowell@gabaptist.org

 

The Mis­sion Board Finan­cial Ser­vices Office receives, process­es and dis­burs­es all funds in accor­dance with guide­lines set by the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion Con­sti­tu­tion and Bylaws.

 

FUNCTIONS:

• Account­ing – Per­forms all account­ing func­tions for the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board. Respon­si­bil­i­ties include com­ply­ing with Gen­er­al­ly Accept­ed Account­ing Prin­ci­ples (GAAP).
• Accounts Payable – Dis­tri­b­u­tion of funds approved for Mis­sion Board relat­ed pur­pos­es are dis­bursed from this office under strict inter­nal con­trol policies.
• Gift Receipts – Receipt of mis­sion con­tri­bu­tions from the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board fam­i­ly of church­es. All gifts are received in Mis­sion Board Finan­cial Ser­vices and dis­bursed month­ly in strict accor­dance with bud­getary guide­lines and donor designations.
• Pay­roll – All pay­roll is processed for Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board employees.

 

 

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS

1. Kevin Smith, State Missionary

ksmith@gabaptist.org

 

The Vice Pres­i­dent for Oper­a­tions has the respon­si­bil­i­ty for coor­di­na­tion of min­istries staff and busi­ness oper­a­tions accord­ing to the pur­pos­es of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board.

 

Min­istry areas that are under the coor­di­na­tion of the Vice Pres­i­dent for Oper­a­tions are Church Finan­cial Ser­vices, Employ­ee Ser­vices, Infor­ma­tion Ser­vices, Research Ser­vices, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Sup­port Services.

 

This min­istry area’s func­tions include:

 

• Lead­er­ship in the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sions and Min­istry Cen­ter operations
• Assist the Vice Pres­i­dent of Finance in plan­ning, prepa­ra­tion and admin­is­tra­tion of the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram budget
• Lead­er­ship in Employ­ee Services
• Shared respon­si­bil­i­ties for Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­fer­ence Cen­ters at Nor­man Park and Toccoa
• Research and writ­ing assign­ments for the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee and spe­cial studies.
• Assist min­istries, work teams, and com­mit­tees of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion by man­ag­ing resources that enable the suc­cess­ful ful­fill­ment of their visions.

 

 

CHURCH AND INDIVIDUAL FINANCE STRATEGY

Kei­th Hamil­ton, State Missionary

khamilton@gabaptist.org

 

The Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board has a long tra­di­tion of pro­vid­ing some great ben­e­fits to min­is­ters and oth­er church employ­ees of its mem­ber church­es. Annu­al­ly, Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board has pro­vid­ed a well­ness retreat, pri­vate con­fi­den­tial per­son­al coun­sel­ing, con­flict res­o­lu­tion assis­tance, resume ser­vices, and many oth­er min­istries to min­is­ters and church employ­ees. Anoth­er min­istry the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board has pro­vid­ed over the years has been the sur­vivor pro­tec­tion and dis­abil­i­ty income ben­e­fits. Last year alone, along with Guide­Stone Finan­cial Resources of the SBC, the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board paid out over $750,000 in ben­e­fits to sur­viv­ing spous­es or dis­abled church staff mem­bers. This is a tremen­dous ben­e­fit for church employees.

 

The pro­tec­tion ben­e­fits are based on month­ly con­tri­bu­tions to a participant’s retire­ment account at Guide­Stone. Min­is­ters are eli­gi­ble for pro­tec­tion ben­e­fits from the first day of employ­ment and full-time sup­port staff employ­ees are eli­gi­ble after three years of South­ern Bap­tist employ­ment. The only require­ment the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board has of mem­ber church­es is to con­tribute at least $420 per retire­ment plan par­tic­i­pant to the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram to help recov­er part of the cost of pro­vid­ing these excel­lent pro­tec­tion benefits.

 

Since 1918, Guide­Stone has been meet­ing the needs of min­is­ters, church work­ers, and employ­ees of hos­pi­tals, uni­ver­si­ties, col­leges, sem­i­nar­ies, retire­ment and children’s homes, and oth­er insti­tu­tions. Guide­Stone is a diver­si­fied Chris­t­ian finan­cial ser­vices provider, offer­ing retire­ment, insur­ance, invest­ment man­age­ment, prop­er­ty and casu­al­ty cov­er­age, and exec­u­tive plan­ning prod­ucts and ser­vices to the South­ern Bap­tist churches.

 

Guide­Stone spon­sors the nation’s largest Chris­t­ian-screened reg­is­tered mutu­al fund fam­i­ly, Guide­Stone Funds. Through Guide­Stone Funds, they also offer Roth and tra­di­tion­al IRAs and per­son­al invest­ing opportunities.

Today, Guide­Stone serves more than 200,000 par­tic­i­pants world­wide serv­ing in some 36,000 church­es, mis­sion-send­ing agen­cies, hos­pi­tals, edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions and oth­er relat­ed ministries.

 

Guide­Stone Retire­ment and Insur­ance Ser­vices seeks to assist church­es and their staffs in King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty by help­ing church staff mem­bers and church­es under­stand the impor­tance of Bib­li­cal finan­cial plan­ning prin­ci­ples and pro­vid­ing lead­er­ship train­ing work­shops and mate­ri­als in insur­ance and retire­ment matters.

 

 

CHURCH RESEARCH SERVICES

Tom Crites, State Missionary

tcrites@gabaptist.org

 

Church Research Ser­vices exists to reduce lost­ness in Geor­gia by encour­ag­ing coop­er­a­tive mis­sions, equip­ping Mis­sion Board min­istries, and empow­er­ing local con­gre­ga­tions to become health­i­er, mis­sion-mind­ed church­es by pro­vid­ing rel­e­vant, time­ly, and accu­rate information.

 

Church Research Ser­vices pro­vides and inter­prets cus­tomized reports for church­es, asso­ci­a­tions, and Mis­sion Board staff strat­e­gy plan­ning and deci­sion-mak­ing. In 2016, we had the priv­i­lege of com­plet­ing an esti­mat­ed 800 Mis­sion Field Reports – demo­graph­ics and local­ized trends rel­e­vant to each church and asso­ci­a­tion area.  We also pro­vid­ed over 500 church and asso­ci­a­tion­al sta­tis­ti­cal reports, sur­veys and oth­er specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored reports. We were excit­ed to be able to pro­vide many of our pas­tors with a new online access to prospects liv­ing in their com­mu­ni­ties. This rep­re­sents an esti­mat­ed 1,300 total reports pro­vid­ed to near­ly one thou­sand church­es and asso­ci­a­tions for the pur­pose of reach­ing the peo­ple of Geor­gia for Jesus.

 

We also col­lect and ana­lyze the Annu­al Church Report allow­ing pas­tors the oppor­tu­ni­ty to under­stand what God is doing around the state.

 

Church Research Ser­vices is con­tin­u­al­ly devel­op­ing new resources offer­ing essen­tial, min­istry focused and local­ly rel­e­vant tools. We strive to make every tool freely avail­able to each Geor­gia Bap­tist mem­ber, Geor­gia Bap­tist church and Geor­gia association.

 

Please feel free to con­tact your Church Research Ser­vices Team by call­ing 770–936-5238 or email­ing us at research@gabaptist.org.

 

 

COMMUNICATIONS

Mark Strange, State Missionary

mstrange@gabaptist.org

 

The Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­istry area inten­tion­al­ly pro­vides com­mu­ni­ca­tions, mar­ket­ing and pro­duc­tion sup­port for the 5 Smooth Stones strat­e­gy of Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al, King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty, Church Revi­tal­iza­tion, Church Plant­i­ng, and Authen­tic Evan­ge­lism through all the min­istry areas of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board.

 

The ministry’s pur­pose state­ment says, “Communications min­is­ters as a team called by God to cre­ate and con­nect through effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tions in sup­port of Geor­gia Baptists.” It is the vision of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Ser­vices to be a pri­ma­ry part­ner with Geor­gia Bap­tists in effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ing their min­istries to reach their communities.

 

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Ser­vices provides

• Cre­ation and devel­op­ment of pro­mo­tion­al mate­ri­als for min­istry departments
• Pro­duc­tion and print­ing ser­vices for min­istry departments
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion of Geor­gia Bap­tist sto­ries and min­istry successes
• Pub­lic Rela­tions activ­i­ties & mon­i­tor­ing; includ­ing social media
• Web design and main­te­nance of Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board web­sites includ­ing, but not lim­it­ed to: 
  • The cor­po­rate site at gabaptist.org
  • Event sites such as for the Go Geor­gia train­ing event (gogeorgia.net) and the Big Invite, and more
  • Oth­er sites includ­ing https://studentministrynetwork.com/, http://superwow.com/, http://ymconclave.org/, and oth­ers for var­i­ous ministries
• Video pro­duc­tion that includes: Exec­u­tive Direc­tor emails, suc­cess sto­ries, pro­mo­tion­al videos, doc­u­men­taries and min­istry support/reports for annu­al meeting
• Radio pro­gram­ming through: 
  • Mis­sion Geor­gia Radio Inter­net radio at http://lifewithpurposeradio.com/missiongeorgiaradio/

4 hours a day/7 days a week)

• Life With Pur­pose Radio at www.lifewithpurposeradio.com and syn­di­cat­ed on radio sta­tions in Geor­gia and nationally

• Pub­li­ca­tion of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sions and Min­istry Guide and Calendar
• Assis­tance with cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tion needs of church­es and associations
• Con­sul­ta­tions with church­es and asso­ci­a­tions in mar­ket­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion areas includ­ing print design, web design, social media con­sult­ing, A/V needs, and video production

 

 

HISTORICAL ARCHIVES

1. Kevin Smith, State Missionary

ksmith@gabaptist.org

 

The Geor­gia Bap­tist His­tor­i­cal Archives and Muse­um work in coor­di­na­tion with the Geor­gia Bap­tist His­tor­i­cal Com­mis­sion to pro­mote, pre­serve and record Geor­gia Bap­tist his­to­ry and heritage. Doc­u­ments and arti­facts are assessed and stored that are of sig­nif­i­cance to Geor­gia Bap­tist his­to­ry includ­ing items at the state, asso­ci­a­tion and local church levels. The archives also serve as a repos­i­to­ry for asso­ci­a­tions and church­es who need a safe stor­age facil­i­ty for their own his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments. By pre­serv­ing our past, we encour­age future gen­er­a­tions of Geor­gia Bap­tists to engage in learn­ing and con­serv­ing their own unique his­to­ry in the making.

 

 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Kevin Wil­son, State Missionary

kwilson@gabaptist.org

 

Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy (IT) seeks to pro­vide solu­tions to the infor­ma­tion­al and tech­no­log­i­cal needs of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board staff, Bap­tist agen­cies and insti­tu­tions, asso­ci­a­tions, and churches.  IT plays a vital role in the imple­men­ta­tion of the Five Smooth Stones ini­tia­tive. Through the work of IT; a sta­ble, reli­able tech­nol­o­gy infra­struc­ture is pro­vid­ed for State Mis­sion­ar­ies to con­nect with asso­ci­a­tions and church­es across our state.

In IT, we are pas­sion­ate about serv­ing the Lord by seek­ing to effec­tive­ly uti­lize tech­nol­o­gy in ministry.  We see in tech­nol­o­gy viable tools that can be used to great­ly enhance and enable the Five Smooth Stones strat­e­gy. The gifts giv­en through the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram and the Mis­sion Geor­gia Offer­ing allow us to use tech­nol­o­gy as a tool to reach the over 7 mil­lion lost peo­ple in Georgia.

 

We indi­rect­ly sup­port your church by sup­port­ing the statewide min­istries of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board, cov­ered in our ser­vices sec­tion below.  If we can ever be of ser­vice to you or to your church, please con­tact us in Infor­ma­tion Services.

 

Ser­vices

We admin­is­ter, main­tain and sup­port the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board net­work, the cor­po­rate email sys­tem, the tele­phone sys­tem and mobile phones, and we pro­vide secu­ri­ty to pro­tect our tech­nol­o­gy sys­tems from exter­nal threats (i.e. virus pro­tec­tion, etc.). We pro­vide tech­ni­cal sup­port for inter­net ser­vices, gen­er­al hard­ware and soft­ware tech sup­port, con­sult­ing for church­es and asso­ci­a­tions (as time allows), and infor­ma­tion sup­port for callers (relat­ed to iGO).

 

We also work to main­tain and devel­op iGO, the cen­tral data­base of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion. iGO includes over 100,000 records describ­ing our Geor­gia Bap­tist Church­es and their staff mem­bers. We offer iGO and Microsoft Access sup­port, inte­grate oth­er data­bas­es with iGO, and process approved label and list requests (please con­tact the office of Dr. J. Robert White to request labels or lists). A large por­tion of the infor­ma­tion with­in iGO comes from the Annu­al Church Report (ACR). Each year, we work with Church Research Ser­vices to col­lect and process the infor­ma­tion you send us about your church. We update the changes to church and lead­er­ship records and incor­po­rate the year­ly church sta­tis­tics into iGO.

 

Events

We have con­tin­ued to offer tech­nol­o­gy train­ing for our staff through­out the year. We work each year to help with the reg­is­tra­tion process at the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion Annu­al Meet­ing, as well as set­ting up and over­see­ing our reg­is­tra­tion process for the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion Annu­al Meet­ing. In addi­tion to the annu­al meet­ings, we over­see the reg­is­tra­tion process for many of our Geor­gia Bap­tist events through­out the year using our iGO system.

SUPPORT SERVICES

Judy Hines­ley, State Missionary

jhinesley@gabaptist.org

 

Sup­port Ser­vices part­ners with state mis­sions staff and relat­ed min­istries to pro­vide a pleas­ant and safe work­ing envi­ron­ment. The depart­ment is respon­si­ble for the over­sight of the Mis­sions and Min­istry Cen­ter (MMC), and the facil­i­ty is con­stant­ly being main­tained to pro­vide a beau­ti­ful place that will hon­or our Lord. The MMC hous­es the state mis­sions staff as well as office space for the Geor­gia Bap­tist Foun­da­tion, Geor­gia Bap­tist Health Care Min­istry Foun­da­tion and The Chris­t­ian Index.

 

Sup­port Ser­vices sched­ules and coor­di­nates meet­ings and con­fer­ences, and over­sees oper­a­tions of the switch­board, recep­tion area, build­ing secu­ri­ty, mail ser­vices, ship­ping and receiv­ing, fleet ser­vices, and food ser­vices. In addi­tion to dai­ly oper­a­tions, this min­istry area is respon­si­ble for reg­is­tra­tion at the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board’s annu­al meeting.

 

Sup­port Ser­vices also has the priv­i­lege to lead tours of this beau­ti­ful build­ing that God has blessed us with. We share how the archi­tec­ture, the inspi­ra­tional murals and paint­ings, the his­tor­i­cal stew­ard­ship col­lec­tion, along with the min­istry work with­in and with­out point to Him and glo­ri­fy who He is and what He has done. These tours give a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to share about the impor­tance of the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram and how much more can be accom­plished for king­dom pur­pos­es through work­ing together.

 

TENT MINISTRY

The Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board was blessed in late 2016 with two new tents to replace two of the three tents that are main­tained through gifts of Geor­gia Bap­tists through Mis­sion Geor­gia and the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram. These tents are active­ly being used for evan­ge­lis­tic pur­pos­es all over Geor­gia. In 2016, 30 events were held under the dome of these tents includ­ing revival cru­sades, Vaca­tion Bible Schools, children’s camps, com­mu­ni­ty out­reach, church anniver­sary and home­com­ing cel­e­bra­tions, wild game din­ners, Sun­day wor­ship ser­vices, gospel singing/music con­cert, Youth hunt­ing com­pe­ti­tion, back-to-school out­reach, pic­nics and BBQ din­ners, sportsman’s din­ners, Fall fes­ti­vals, Fair Expo out­reach, church rebuild project, col­lege cam­pus out­reach, and GO Geor­gia. From the reports we received in 2016, the atten­dance totaled 29,022. The Word of God preached, the Gospel shared, the music sung, and the tes­ti­monies shared under these tents result­ed in 691 sal­va­tions, 260 reded­i­ca­tions and 37 bap­tisms. To God be the glo­ry for the way He uses a piece of can­vas stretched over poles to draw peo­ple to Him and to a sav­ing knowl­edge of Jesus Christ! Vis­it gabaptist.org/tentrental for details on leas­ing the tent.

 

 

THE CHRISTIAN INDEX 

1. Ger­ald Har­ris, Edi­tor and State Missionary

gharris@gabaptist.org

 

It has been said, “I can’t change the direc­tion of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Adjust­ing ones’ sails to reach a desired des­ti­na­tion is not always easy, espe­cial­ly for one who is a high “I” and “S” on the Disc Profile.  A high “S” sig­ni­fies that the indi­vid­ual test­ed does not par­tic­u­lar­ly like change.

 

Chang­ing a 195-year-old pub­li­ca­tion from almost two cen­turies of being a print­ed news jour­nal to an online (com­put­er) pub­li­ca­tion has not been easy for many, and par­tic­u­lar­ly for me, but I am begin­ning to see the wis­dom of the decision.

 

We endeav­ored to con­tin­ue the print­ed edi­tion of The Chris­t­ian Index even though our pri­ma­ry focus was on the elec­tron­ic edi­tion, but sub­scrip­tions con­tin­ued to plum­met until it was no longer fea­si­ble to con­tin­ue to do so.

 

How­ev­er, I am pleased to report that our online read­er­ship con­tin­ues to grow. In 2106 we had 815,998 page views from those who read at least por­tions of The Index. This year our goal is to sur­pass one mil­lion page views and we are on track to do just that. Now, we are attract­ing read­ers from all over the world with mul­ti­ple read­ers in Eng­land, Aus­tralia, India and Russia.

 

Our objec­tive is not sim­ply to attract read­ers to boost our num­bers, but to high­light the var­i­ous min­istries and mis­sions ser­viced and sup­port­ed by the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board as togeth­er we endeav­or to imple­ment the “Five Smooth Stones”. We are of the firm con­vic­tion that when our church­es begin to catch a vision to plan and imple­ment min­istries that will focus on Spir­i­tu­al Renew­al, King­dom Gen­eros­i­ty, Church Revi­tal­iza­tion, Church Plant­i­ng and Authen­tic Evan­ge­lism they will begin to flour­ish. If your church is unusu­al­ly blessed in one or more of these five areas, let us know. We would love to fea­ture your church’s min­istry in our publication.

 

The Chris­t­ian Index is also excit­ed about the U2019 empha­sis dur­ing the remain­der of this decade. We must reach our chil­dren and youth if we expect to have viable church­es and effec­tive min­istries in the years ahead. We are always just one gen­er­a­tion away from total athe­ism; and accord­ing to recent sur­veys the “nones” (those who pro­fess no reli­gion) are grow­ing at an expo­nen­tial rate. Church­es must focus on reach­ing and evan­ge­liz­ing the chil­dren and youth of our cul­ture. You will hear much about U2019 in the weeks and months ahead. Please embrace the chal­lenge to reach the next gen­er­a­tion for Jesus.

 

Please, go to: https://christianindex.org/ and sub­scribe for email updates and urge oth­ers to do like­wise. It is pos­si­ble for peo­ple to read our pub­li­ca­tion any­where in the world at no cost. We also sell adver­tis­ing to those who are inter­est­ed in mak­ing their events or prod­ucts known to count­less read­ers. Please call us at 770–936-5590 if you are inter­est­ed in plac­ing an ad on our web­site. Except for our adver­tis­ing rev­enue our min­istry is now made pos­si­ble entire­ly by your gifts to the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram; and we are grateful.

 

 

VICE PRESIDENT OF STAFF COORDINATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Steve Parr, State Missionary

Sparr@gabaptist.org

 

The V.P. of Staff Coor­di­na­tion and Devel­op­ment pro­vides com­pre­hen­sive lead­er­ship for all Mis­sion Board min­istries coor­di­nat­ing train­ing, devel­op­ing lead­er­ship, and imple­ment­ing strat­e­gy that aligns all teams around the Mis­sion Geor­gia vision, the U2019 Ini­tia­tive, and the five pri­or­i­ties referred to as The Five Smooth Stones. The vision of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board is as fol­lows: The Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board will seek to reduce lost­ness by focus­ing with Bap­tists on spir­i­tu­al renew­al result­ing in King­dom gen­eros­i­ty, church revi­tal­iza­tion, church plant­i­ng and authen­tic evangelism.

 

Respon­si­bil­i­ties relat­ed specif­i­cal­ly to this min­istry area include but are not lim­it­ed to:

• Ser­vice on the Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship Team.
• Lead­er­ship and coor­di­na­tion of the U2019 initiative.
• Plan­ning and lead­ing staff meet­ings to enhance com­mu­ni­ca­tion for and between staff members.
• Plan­ning staff fel­low­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties through­out the year.
• Seek­ing to align all staff mem­bers around the vison of Mis­sion Georgia.
• Work­ing with staff to coor­di­nate cal­en­dars and enhance min­istry activities.
• Devel­op­ing train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve staff per­for­mance includ­ing an annu­al Staff Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment Retreat.
• Work­ing with church and asso­ci­a­tion­al lead­ers to pro­vide qual­i­ty min­istry expe­ri­ences to strength­en their min­istries and leadership.

 

What is U2019? U2019 is an ini­tia­tive of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board to chal­lenge church­es to reach out to kids and teens like nev­er before. “U” means “under” and the chal­lenge is to focus on reach­ing and mak­ing dis­ci­ples of those age 19 and under. This is impor­tant for two rea­sons. First, church­es in recent years have been bap­tiz­ing few­er teens and chil­dren. [The aver­age num­ber of teen bap­tisms last year was only one per church.] If the decline con­tin­ues, the con­se­quences will have a great impact on our church­es in future years. Sec­ond, almost three-fourths of peo­ple come to faith in Christ when they are in this age group. The Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board will be help­ing church­es and asso­ci­a­tions to part­ner togeth­er to equip lead­ers to be more effec­tive at reach­ing the next gen­er­a­tion. That is what U2019 is all about. It is a choice we are call­ing on all Bap­tists to make. By God’s grace and in His strength we are choos­ing to reach the next gen­er­a­tion. For more infor­ma­tion, please go to www.U2019.net.

 

 

VICE PRESIDENT OF CHURCH REVITILIZATION AND EVANGELISM

Lar­ry Wynn, State Missionary

lwynn@gabaptist.org

 

Church Revi­tal­iza­tion is a process that begins with the pas­tor, the leader of the church. The pas­tor is the gate­keep­er and the com­mu­ni­ca­tor of vision for the church. Our goal is to help pas­tors under­stand and embrace the process for revi­tal­iza­tion in the church. Revi­tal­iza­tion begins as the pas­tor influ­ences the church and leads the church into revi­tal­iza­tion. The church makes changes and as a result the com­mu­ni­ty is impacted

 

PASTOR ROUNDTABLES

Our most request­ed revi­tal­iza­tion tool is the pas­tor round­table. Pas­tor round­ta­bles are being pro­mot­ed through­out the state. Its foun­da­tion is Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharp­ens iron, so a man sharp­ens the coun­te­nance of his friend.” (NKJV)  The pur­pose of the pas­tor round­table is to strength­en pas­tors through the open exchange of ques­tions, ideas, best prac­tices, mis­takes and suc­cess­es. It’s an envi­ron­ment where pas­tors can come togeth­er to exchange ideas and dis­cuss top­ics relat­ed to min­istry in the local church. These groups typ­i­cal­ly involve five to ten pas­tors rep­re­sent­ing church­es of sim­i­lar size, demo­graph­ics. These church­es do not have to all do church the same way. We wel­come diver­si­ty in this for­mat because we can learn a lot from each oth­er. The meet­ing is a pro­duc­tive time of encour­age­ment and discussion.  Pas­tor Round­table guide­lines.

 

The Church Revi­tal­iza­tion team pro­vides resources to assist pas­tors with the revi­tal­iza­tion process.  These resources include per­son­al growth and devel­op­ment, com­mu­ni­cat­ing and con­nect­ing effec­tive­ly, “Ten Com­mand­ments for New Pastors,” strate­gic plan­ning, embrac­ing change, tran­si­tion­al pas­tor­ing, bi-voca­tion­al pas­tor­ing, and consultation.  We also resource the church through the exist­ing tools of evan­ge­lism, Sun­day School/small groups, dis­ci­ple­ship, church assess­ments, com­mu­ni­ty assess­ments and effec­tive church mergers.  http://gabaptist.org/churchrevitalization

 

Your Evan­ge­lism Min­istries team has the vision of see­ing every Geor­gia Bap­tist church being inten­tion­al­ly evangelistic.  The triple focus thrust that dri­ves our min­istry across the state: ele­vate, edu­cate and cel­e­brate evangelism.  The dri­ving com­po­nent in our help­ing church­es become inten­tion­al and fruit­ful in evan­ge­lism is our 6E Strat­e­gy, a com­pre­hen­sive strat­e­gy that not only fits every church regard­less of size, com­mu­ni­ty or cul­ture, but one that has a proven track record of results in help­ing church­es increase their baptisms.

 

A Geor­gia Bap­tist Evan­ge­lism Con­fer­ence is held each year. Hun­dreds of Geor­gia Bap­tists have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to come togeth­er to be encour­aged and inspired for the great work of evan­ge­lism. Some of the best preach­ers, tech­ni­cians, tes­ti­monies and musi­cians avail­able are sched­uled each year to lead these ser­vices. Our evan­ge­lism con­fer­ences are called REACH.

 

In 2016, two REACH con­fer­ences were held. The preach­ing con­fer­ence at Pied­mont Church in Mari­et­ta, was held in the Spring, and the strat­e­gy con­fer­ence was held in the Fall at North­way Bap­tist in Macon. Con­fer­ence sched­ules and details are always post­ed at www.GBCEvangelismConferences.com.

 

RESOURCES

 

Top Ten Tour 

Each year we iden­ti­fy the top 10 bap­tiz­ing church­es in 5 size cat­e­gories and pub­lish that list at GBCTopBaptizing.com.  From that list, we select from that pas­tors to make “tour stop­s” around the state in var­i­ous local associations.  Small events are orga­nized so that they can share with oth­er pas­tors what’s work­ing for their church right now in reach­ing more with the Gospel.  These small events have proven very effective.

 

Evan­ge­lism Blog 

Our main infor­ma­tion and con­tent por­tal online. Locat­ed at EvangelismGA.com

 

Evan­ge­lism Podcast 

Inter­views, train­ing and more.  Avail­able on iTunes.

 

Mobile App

Avail­able on Android or iPhone. Search the App Store for ‘GBC Evan­ge­lism Ministries’

Online Revival Plan­ning Guide 

Full online train­ing, includ­ing prep, pro­mo­tion, fol­low-up and more. Go to RevivalPrep.com.

 

Where to Start? 

Down­load a free gift and get on our mail­ing list at EvangelismGA.com/freegift

 

 

ASSOCIATED MISSIONS ACTIVITIES

 

Through the North Amer­i­can Mis­sion Board and Inter­na­tion­al Mis­sion Board of the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion, Geor­gia Bap­tists coop­er­ate in wit­ness­ing for Christ and build­ing the King­dom of God to the ends of the earth. These two South­ern Bap­tist boards under­take to project glob­al­ly the same kind of min­istries that the local church­es and con­ven­tions under­take at home. Mis­sion­ar­ies of the boards, on behalf of all South­ern Bap­tists, are preach­ing the Gospel, teach­ing the truths of the King­dom, heal­ing the sick, win­ning the lost, and grow­ing self-sup­port­ing and coop­er­at­ing church­es across the coun­try and around the world.

 

Finan­cial sup­port for these North Amer­i­can and inter­na­tion­al pro­grams is pro­vid­ed through the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram. In addi­tion to the reg­u­lar sup­port pro­vid­ed each month through the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram, des­ig­nat­ed gifts made dur­ing the obser­vance of spe­cial days in the Sun­day Schools, church­es and the sea­sons of prayer in Woman’s Mis­sion­ary Union orga­ni­za­tions make a valu­able con­tri­bu­tion toward the work of these two mis­sion boards.

 

Both the North Amer­i­can Mis­sion Board and the Inter­na­tion­al Mis­sion Board are agen­cies of the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion. Mem­bers of these Boards (four mem­bers on each of these boards are from Geor­gia) are elect­ed by the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion, and the Boards are respon­si­ble to that body for the work they direct. Geor­gia Bap­tists, through their faith­ful­ness to the Great Com­mis­sion, have made it pos­si­ble for Geor­gia to be one of the top con­trib­u­tors to mis­sions in the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion. An increas­ing num­ber of Geor­gia church­es are coop­er­at­ing with the Woman’s Mis­sion­ary Union in observ­ing the Annie Arm­strong sea­son of prayer and offer­ing for North Amer­i­can mis­sions and the Lot­tie Moon sea­son of prayer and offer­ing for inter­na­tion­al mis­sions. Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es are urged to increase their gifts through the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram by at least one-half per­cent each year so that Geor­gia and South­ern Bap­tists may con­tin­ue to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ at home and around the world.

 

 

North Amer­i­can Mis­sion Board

4200 North Point Park­way, Alpharet­ta GA 30022–4174

Kevin Ezell, President

 

The North Amer­i­can Mis­sion Board (NAMB) exists to serve pas­tors and church­es as they seek to reach oth­ers for Christ and NAMB wants to see all believ­ers on mis­sion for Christ. NAMB has two areas of pri­ma­ry empha­sis: Send North Amer­i­ca and Send Relief. Send North Amer­i­ca focus­es on church plant­i­ng in strate­gic cities. Send Relief focus­es on pro­vid­ing dis­as­ter relief work as well as min­istry in areas such as hunger and pover­ty, adop­tion and fos­ter care, den­tal and med­ical clin­ics, human traf­fick­ing, first respon­der and more.

 

NAMB pro­vides assis­tance to church­es through the following:

• Plant­i­ng healthy, mul­ti­ply­ing, evan­ge­lis­tic South­ern Bap­tist churches

In 2015, 927 church­es were plant­ed and 192 church­es affil­i­at­ed with the SBC. More than 250 vision tours were pro­vid­ed in the Send Cities with more than 1,600 atten­dees and more than 600 church­es rep­re­sent­ed. Tours are designed to help pas­tors con­nect with church plants with which they might want to partner.

• Evan­ge­lism and mak­ing disciples

NAMB con­tin­ued the per­son­al evan­ge­lism tool called 3 Cir­cles: Life Con­ver­sa­tion Guide in 2015. Over 1.5 mil­lion guides have been dis­trib­uted. In 2016, Your Church on Mis­sion will launch and will help pas­tors with prac­ti­cal and strate­gic train­ing to help them lead their church on mission.

• Appoint­ing, sup­port­ing and assur­ing account­abil­i­ty for missionaries

NAMB sup­ports 5,684 mis­sion­ar­ies. The improved assess­ment process for poten­tial church planters in Send Cities will help NAMB place these planters. 387 GenSend stu­dent mis­sion­ar­ies were placed in 15 of the 32 Send Cities in 2015 where they were immersed in urban church planting.

• Pro­vid­ing mis­sions edu­ca­tion and coor­di­nat­ing vol­un­teer mis­sions opportunities

NAMB con­tin­ues to pro­vide mis­sion edu­ca­tion resources through tra­di­tion­al avenues. In addi­tion to tra­di­tion­al meth­ods, NAMB has devel­oped mis­sion-spe­cif­ic train­ing. SEND North Amer­i­ca Con­fer­ence had more than 13,500 par­tic­i­pants dur­ing the two-day event.

• Lead­er­ship Development

A vari­ety of resources are avail­able to min­is­ters and their fam­i­lies through NAMB. Some of the resources avail­able are the Pas­toral Care Line (1–844-PASTOR1), Gala­tians 6:6 mar­riage retreats, Pas­tor Round Tables, ReFresh con­fer­ences and Timothy+Barnabas con­fer­ences. Equip­ping is also pro­vid­ed through SendNetwork.com.

• Dis­as­ter Relief

In 2015, more than 5,000 Dis­as­ter Relief vol­un­teers respond­ed to those in need across the Unit­ed States. Through these vol­un­teers more than 300 pro­fes­sions of faith were recorded.

 

 

Inter­na­tion­al Mis­sion Board

PO Box 6767 (3806 Mon­u­ment Avenue) Rich­mond VA 23230

David J. Platt, President

 

The Inter­na­tion­al Mis­sion Board (IMB) is focused on five pri­ma­ry aims: exalt­ing Christ, mobi­liz­ing Chris­tians, equip­ping the church, facil­i­tat­ing church plant­i­ng and play­ing our part in the com­ple­tion of the Great Commission

 

IMB pro­vides assis­tance to church­es through the following:

• Evan­ge­lize peo­ple, plant church­es and nur­ture church plant­i­ng movements

The 2015 Annu­al Sta­tis­ti­cal Report of the IMB reports that the unreached peo­ple groups in the world totals 6,832. IMB mis­sion­ar­ies engaged 886 peo­ple groups and out of these 742 of them are con­sid­ered “unreached.” Near­ly two mil­lion peo­ple heard a gospel wit­ness and 127,385 became believers.

• Send and sup­port mis­sion­ar­ies and volunteers

In 2015, 136 new career/­long-term per­son­nel and 179 new short-term per­son­nel were appoint­ed. IMB mis­sion­ary per­son­nel con­tin­ue to reflect the geo­graph­ic and church size diver­si­ty of the SBC with mis­sion­ar­ies from all 50 states and these mis­sion­ar­ies come from all size churches.

• Mobi­lize South­ern Bap­tists to be involved in missions

The Lot­tie Moon Christ­mas Offer­ing was $153 mil­lion which is the sec­ond largest in the his­to­ry of the IMB. Many church­es also com­mit­ted to pray for mis­sion­ar­ies and their work around the world. Through­out 2016, pro­grams for train­ing and equip­ping will be pro­vid­ed through the new train­ing office.

• Devel­op glob­al strategies

Human needs oper­a­tions admin­is­tered 297 relief and devel­op­ment projects in 53 coun­tries. More than 3,246 com­mu­ni­ties were assist­ed through devel­op­ment projects and dis­as­ter relief projects. Over 1.4 mil­lion peo­ple were helped with basic life essen­tials using SBC World Hunger Funds and funds des­ig­nat­ed for Glob­al Hunger Relief.

 

 

 

 

SECTION IV

 

BENEVOLENCES

 

 

GEORGIA BAPTIST CHILDREN’S HOMES AND FAMILY MINISTRIES, INC.

Ken­ny Thomp­son, Pres­i­dent and CEO

www.gbchfm.org

 

HOME. We all long for a place to call home. A place where we can feel safe, accept­ed and loved.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, for many of the chil­dren in our care, home has some­times been a place of hope­less­ness, fear and despair.

 

The chil­dren and fam­i­lies we serve today often come to us with very few pos­ses­sions. Instead, they come with heavy emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal scars. Many arrive defi­ant, trau­ma­tized, and angry at the world and every­one in it.  And who can blame them?  How would any of us feel if we had been forced to live on the streets, a home­less shel­ter, in the back of an old car, or in just anoth­er failed place­ment through the system?

 

Geor­gia Bap­tist Children’s Homes isn’t just our name; it’s who we are. We are a place where heal­ing and hope can be found.  A place where the knowl­edge of our liv­ing Sav­ior can be found.  A Place to Call Home.  We real­ize that even though we may only be a tem­po­rary “Home” for some of our res­i­dents, we have the awe­some respon­si­bil­i­ty of help­ing them build a sol­id foun­da­tion for their future.

 

Our cam­pus­es, res­i­den­tial group homes and fam­i­ly fos­ter care pro­grams offer a new begin­ning for chil­dren who have expe­ri­enced abuse, aban­don­ment or neglect. Our spe­cial­ty min­istries offer hope chil­dren with high­er behav­ioral needs, girls who have been vic­tim­ized through human traf­fick­ing, chil­dren with devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties in need of respite care, moth­ers and their chil­dren over­com­ing domes­tic vio­lence, and indi­vid­u­als cop­ing with phys­i­cal and devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties through an inno­v­a­tive ther­a­peu­tic rid­ing pro­gram. Our com­mu­ni­ty coun­sel­ing cen­ters, locat­ed on our cam­pus­es through­out the state, serve as a place for fam­i­lies to seek help, guid­ance, and understanding.

 

In 2016, we helped 1,274 chil­dren and their fam­i­lies find hope through a vari­ety of inno­v­a­tive pro­grams and min­istries designed to bring spir­i­tu­al, emo­tion­al, and phys­i­cal healing.

 

We con­tin­ue to min­is­ter to all of our children’s spir­i­tu­al needs and show them that true heal­ing and hope only comes through the sal­va­tion of Jesus Christ. We are blessed to share that this past year 49 chil­dren in our care made pro­fes­sions of faith! 

 

We are proud of our her­itage as an agency of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Con­ven­tion. Since we do not receive Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram fund­ing, we are espe­cial­ly grate­ful to many of our Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es across the state that place us in their church bud­gets, rec­og­nize spe­cial offer­ings for our min­istry and par­tic­i­pate in asso­ci­a­tion­al truckloadings.

 

Dur­ing our 145 years of min­istry, we have seen the world change and grow and have always adapt­ed our min­istry to the chang­ing needs of the chil­dren in our care. Our min­istry has changed; our pro­grams have changed; but the one thing that has not changed is our com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing a strong spir­i­tu­al foun­da­tion for each child we serve.

 

To view the Audit of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Children’s Homes & Fam­i­ly Min­istries, select AUDITS

 

 

 

 

THE GRAHAM FOUNDATION

 

The Gra­ham Foun­da­tion pro­vides emer­gency loans to stu­dents who need assis­tance to remain in school. In 1991 the trustees turned over dai­ly admin­is­tra­tion of the Foun­da­tion funds and loan ser­vic­ing to the Geor­gia Bap­tist Foun­da­tion, Inc. The Geor­gia Bap­tist Foun­da­tion was char­tered in 1941 to serve as the inde­pen­dent trust agency of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Convention.

 

The Geor­gia Bap­tist Foun­da­tion is audit­ed annu­al­ly. Their report is sub­mit­ted to the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee for inclu­sion in the Book of Reports. The audit of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Foun­da­tion suf­fices for the Gra­ham Foundation’s require­ment for an annu­al audit. The unau­dit­ed Gra­ham Foun­da­tion finan­cial state­ments and notes sub­mit­ted here are com­piled from account infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by the Geor­gia Bap­tist Foundation.

 

To view Audit of the Gra­ham Foun­da­tion, select AUDITS

 

 

GEORGIA BAPTIST HEALTH CARE MINISTRY FOUNDATION

Will C. Bacon, Pres­i­dent and CEO

www.gbhcmf.org

 

Geor­gia Bap­tist Health Care Min­istry Foun­da­tion is pleased to present our annu­al report for 2016.

 

As we select­ed the grant recip­i­ents for this year, we con­tin­ued to empha­size trans­form­ing health care min­istries in and through Geor­gia Bap­tist associations.

 

Our efforts in health care offer gen­eros­i­ty that we pray will even­tu­ate into con­tin­u­al deeds of kind­ness, both for the ones receiv­ing the min­istry, and the ones who offer it.   In our Chris­t­ian voca­tion, we are called to bring uni­ty, walk with the stranger, lift the oppressed and give voice to the unheard.   Our grants are dis­trib­uted to help ren­o­vate com­mu­ni­ties for Christ, by touch­ing indi­vid­u­als at their points of health care need.

 

Demon­strat­ing the love of Jesus Christ through a health care min­istry, grants from the Geor­gia Bap­tist Health Care Min­istry Foun­da­tion make a sig­nif­i­cant impact in the neigh­bor­hoods where our grantees are min­is­ter­ing, now and in the future.  We thank you for your inter­est, prayers, and efforts to help us ful­fill our great co-mission.

 

Please access our web­site at www.gbhcmf.org to learn more about our orga­ni­za­tion, and the grant appli­ca­tion process.

To view Audit of the Health Care Min­istry Foun­da­tion, select AUDITS

 

 

BAPTIST RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES OF GEORGIA

Peg­gy J. Beck­ett, Pres­i­dent and CEO

pbeckett@grcga.org

 

Our Mis­sion: To pro­vide com­fort­able, attrac­tive homes for senior adults at an afford­able price with­in a Chris­t­ian envi­ron­ment, and to fur­ther pro­vide ser­vices and pro­grams that enrich senior liv­ing and enable senior adults to age in place.

 

From the begin­ning of our min­istry in 1967 until today seniors have enjoyed a stan­dard of liv­ing and com­mu­ni­ty expe­ri­ence that sat­is­fies and enrich­es their lifestyle. Over 400 seniors reside or receive ser­vices from our three communities.

 

 

 

 

Clair­mont Crest

 

Locat­ed on the out­skirts of charm­ing, revi­tal­ized down­town Decatur, Geor­gia near Emory Uni­ver­si­ty and hos­pi­tal and Vet­er­an­s’ Hos­pi­tal, Clair­mont Crest is our urban com­mu­ni­ty. Two 5 sto­ry apart­ment build­ings are con­nect­ed with light­ed path­ways through prayer gar­dens, flower patch­es, a foun­tain, and an in ground swim­ming pool. Stu­dios, one and two bed­room apart­ments for inde­pen­dent liv­ing are avail­able. The res­i­dents of Clair­mont Crest call them­selves Crestors and live full, active lives. Reg­u­lar planned trips help them take advan­tage of the pletho­ra of cul­tur­al and enter­tain­ment events pro­vid­ed by a large metrop­o­lis. From sim­ple shop­ping, din­ing out, to the fab­u­lous Fox and its vari­ety shows, plays, and con­certs to church ser­vices and adven­tures in botan­i­cal gar­dens the Crestors can be found enjoy­ing them­selves. An orga­nized activ­i­ty pro­gram ascer­tains that those who pre­fer stay­ing near home have ample oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in games, par­ties, and enrich­ment ser­vices such as week­ly Bible stud­ies and prayer meet­ings. Oth­er ameni­ties of Clair­mont Crest are an on-site beau­ty and bar­ber shop and a ful­ly equipped senior gym. Podi­a­trist, audi­ol­o­gist, and fam­i­ly prac­tion­ers who do house calls are part of the Clair­mont Crest expe­ri­ence. A spe­cial agree­ment with Abil­i­ty Reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­vides on-site ther­a­pies and free strength­en­ing exer­cis­es. Our staff chap­lain leads ves­pers and Sun­day morn­ing ser­vices. Hos­pi­tal vis­i­ta­tions, coun­sel­ing and some small group focus ses­sions are also done by our chaplain.

 

Pal­met­to Park

 

Pal­met­to Park is our rur­al com­mu­ni­ty. Sit­u­at­ed on thir­ty acres in Pal­met­to, Geor­gia, the very edge of South Ful­ton Coun­ty, Pal­met­to Park offers spa­cious grounds, love­ly rolling hills and peace­ful mead­ows. Twen­ty-six gar­den cot­tages for inde­pen­dent liv­ing are nes­tled around a pond filled with fish, tur­tles, and alter­nate­ly wild geese. Deer and turkey often vis­it the cam­pus. Sit­u­at­ed on a small rise next to the cot­tages stands Bap­tist Manor, a two-sto­ry con­gre­gate liv­ing facil­i­ty offer­ing inde­pen­dent liv­ing stu­dios, and one bed­room apart­ments. Bap­tist Manor has a large ele­gant din­ing room with vault­ed ceil­ings and wide win­dows fac­ing the pond. Res­i­dents enjoy waiter/waitress ser­vice with some table-side prepa­ra­tions, sal­ad bars and a select menu. Oth­er ameni­ties include week­ly light house­keep­ing, and con­ve­nient laun­dry facil­i­ties. A Lifestyle Direc­tor plans a full pro­gram of social, phys­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al enrich­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. The staff chap­lain is avail­able for prayer meet­ing and vis­i­ta­tion. Local busi­ness­es deliv­er gro­ceries and phar­ma­cy pre­scrip­tions and sup­plies at no addi­tion­al charge for res­i­dents. On-site physi­cians are avail­able for those who wish to have check-ups and fam­i­ly prac­tice vis­its. A beau­ty and bar­ber shop as well as a day spa com­plete with mas­sages are avail­able by appointment

 

Hiawassee Park

 

Hiawassee Park is our moun­tain resort com­mu­ni­ty. Locat­ed on the out­skirts of Hiawassee, Geor­gia, this com­mu­ni­ty is built on a moun­tain­side over­look­ing Lake Chatuge and Brass Town Bald Moun­tain. Present­ly there are 34 cot­tages offer­ing inde­pen­dent liv­ing and a cen­tral club­house that fea­tures a large kitchen and recre­ation area, a stone fire­place, and large screen TV where movies nights and games are shared. There is a ful­ly equipped senior gym, and a sep­a­rate pool room where res­i­dents may work out in the resis­tance pool which has cross cur­rents and a retractable under­wa­ter tread­mill. This no impact exer­cise is great for osteoarthri­tis. A Lifestyle Direc­tor plans group and indi­vid­ual activ­i­ties, trips and excur­sions. Res­i­dent led clubs offer oppor­tu­ni­ty for shar­ing spe­cial inter­ests such as bridge, pho­tog­ra­phy, crafts, and writ­ing. Our Joy­ful Hearts Home­care ser­vice is housed in this com­mu­ni­ty and allows res­i­dents to age in place with peace of mind and secu­ri­ty. Trans­porta­tion for gro­cery shop­ping, doc­tors’ appoint­ments and oth­er neces­si­ties is available.

 

There is nev­er a large buy-in fee for BRC. Rental rates are all-inclu­sive, with excep­tion of elec­tric­i­ty at Clair­mont Crest and Hiawassee Park. No addi­tion­al main­te­nance or ameni­ty fees apply. Our age require­ment begins at fifty. Present­ly all our com­mu­ni­ties are in the upper 90 per­centile for occu­pan­cy. God has rich­ly blessed our min­istry and we give Him the glo­ry for all the suc­cess it enjoys. As an agency of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board we a part of the Coop­er­a­tive Pro­gram bud­get and receive a por­tion each month. Many church­es have been led to include us in their bud­gets on a month­ly or quar­ter­ly basis. Indi­vid­u­als have remem­bered us in their wills either with an out­right gift or a trust with the Geor­gia Bap­tist Foun­da­tion. These funds enable us to adhere to our min­istry mis­sion of offer­ing afford­able rates as they sup­ple­ment rental income.

 

We are grate­ful to Geor­gia Bap­tists for their gen­er­ous and faith­ful sup­port of our min­istry. Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to devel­op new ser­vices and com­plete our new com­mu­ni­ty all to the glo­ry of God. You are wel­come to vis­it us at any loca­tion at any time or you may take a vir­tu­al tour and view pic­tures on our web­site. The indi­vid­ual com­mu­ni­ties also main­tain Face­book inter­net for res­i­dents, fam­i­lies and friends to inter­act and view first­hand life at BRCGA.  Web­site www.brcga.org

 

To View Audit of Bap­tist Retire­ment Com­mu­ni­ties, select AUDITS 

 

 

BAPTIST VILLAGE RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES

Delos L. Sharp­ton, President/CEO

www.baptistvillage.com

 

The growth of Bap­tist Vil­lage Retire­ment Com­mu­ni­ties from facil­i­ties accom­mo­dat­ing five res­i­dents to facil­i­ties in three loca­tions pro­vid­ing retire­ment liv­ing for over five hun­dred senior adults shows the con­tin­ued com­mit­ment of Geor­gia Bap­tists to min­is­ter to the needs of Senior Adults.   Bap­tist Vil­lage is the only Geor­gia Bap­tist min­istry that that pro­vides a full con­tin­u­um of care, from Inde­pen­dent Liv­ing, Per­son­al Care, to Skilled Nursing.

 

Inde­pen­dent Living

 

The sin­gle fam­i­ly and duplex homes offer all the ameni­ties one would expect from a mod­ern planned community.  A lifestyle where upkeep and repairs are some­one else’s con­cern, and a loca­tion where shop­ping, med­ical, recre­ation facil­i­ties are nearby.  Inde­pen­dent liv­ing allows res­i­dents to age in place with tran­quil­i­ty and the avail­abil­i­ty of oth­er lev­els of care.  Bap­tist Vil­lage offers Inde­pen­dent Liv­ing vil­las in Way­cross and Macon.

 

Per­son­al Care

 

Per­son­al Care is designed for the moment in time when an indi­vid­ual needs assis­tance in activ­i­ties of dai­ly liv­ing but does not require nurs­ing care.  The goal of this lev­el of care is to help the res­i­dent main­tain as much inde­pen­dence as possible.  Bap­tist Vil­lage pro­vides a pro­gram that offers the res­i­dent per­son­al com­fort and inde­pen­dence with the ben­e­fits of a com­pas­sion­ate staff that gives each res­i­dent the assis­tance they may need.  Bap­tist Vil­lage Per­son­al Care facil­i­ties are locat­ed in Way­cross, Macon, and Lake Park.

 

Skilled Nurs­ing Care

 

The J. Olan Jones Health Cen­ter in Way­cross offers the most inten­sive lev­el of skilled nurs­ing care available.  Through every avenue avail­able Bap­tist Vil­lage strives to improve the qual­i­ty of life for residents.  This is accom­plished in part through a mul­ti-dis­ci­plined team skilled in respond­ing to the health care needs of the residents.

 

For almost six decades Bap­tist Vil­lage Retire­ment Com­mu­ni­ties has pro­vid­ed seniors with hous­ing and health care in a Chris­t­ian envi­ron­ment, and has stood as a unique com­mu­ni­ty where faith and car­ing are a way of life.  With a mis­sion to make life bet­ter for res­i­dents and their fam­i­lies the vision of Bap­tist Vil­lage Retire­ment Com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ues to be Serv­ing God by Pro­vid­ing Excel­lence in Retire­ment Liv­ing.

For more detailed on Bap­tist Vil­lage Retire­ment Com­mu­ni­ties please vis­it us at www.baptistvillage.com .

 

To View Audit of Bap­tist Vil­lage Retire­ment Com­mu­ni­ties, select AUDITS

 

 

 

 

 

SECTION V

 

EDUCATION

 

 

GEORGIA BAPTIST FOUNDATION AND ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE

Johnathan W. Gray, Pres­i­dent and CEO

www.gbfoundation.org

 

The Geor­gia Bap­tist Foun­da­tion stew­ards Gospel gen­eros­i­ty by work­ing along­side indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions to gath­er and increase dona­tions through cre­ative gift plans and asset management.  Because of our work, the Foun­da­tion strength­ens min­istry efforts to bring Gospel trans­for­ma­tion to every part of life, in every place on earth, across every gen­er­a­tion. We do this by man­ag­ing and pro­duc­ing funds for church­es, min­istries, and insti­tu­tions as well as help­ing gen­er­ous givers con­tribute to their Spir­it-led passions.   As a ser­vice-ori­ent­ed min­istry, we con­tin­ue the search for new ways to assist our Bap­tist fam­i­ly and lever­age our gifts to stew­ard all those we serve.

 

The Foun­da­tion pro­vides pro­fes­sion­al invest­ment solu­tions that are both diver­si­fied and screened.  For church­es, agen­cies, and insti­tu­tions we pro­vide long-term invest­ment man­age­ment strate­gies for endow­ment-type funds as well as tai­lored strate­gies to meet par­tic­u­lar needs.  Fur­ther­more, we pro­vide a short-term invest­ment strat­e­gy for funds with a 2–4 year invest­ment horizon.  Addi­tion­al­ly, we work with indi­vid­u­als who want to give a por­tion of their estate to sup­port Bap­tist caus­es or who may be seek­ing tax and income solu­tions for appre­ci­at­ed assets.  We are also proud to report that in the fall of 2016, our account­ing team suc­cess­ful­ly tran­si­tioned our trust account­ing soft­ware to a new sys­tem which updates the user expe­ri­ence for our clients as well as enables expan­sion of our ser­vices in the future.

 

Our min­istry is pro­duc­ing good fruit! The Foun­da­tion man­ages over 1,600 min­istry and trust accounts with a mar­ket val­ue of assets under man­age­ment of approx­i­mate­ly $360 mil­lion dollars.  These funds are invest­ed in a port­fo­lio of stocks and bonds to pro­vide sus­tain­able income to sup­port Bap­tist ministries.  In 2016, a total of $10.8 mil­lion dol­lars flowed from the Foun­da­tion to sup­port Bap­tist ministry.

 

Eleven staff mem­bers form our min­istry team, led by Johnathan W. Gray as President/CEO.  Susan DePasquale serves as Vice-Pres­i­dent and Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer, Can­dy Can­non serves as Client Account­ing & Schol­ar­ship Direc­tor, and Scott Mitchell as Invest­ment Account­ing Direc­tor. Rachel Pinard also assists with account­ing, as well as records management.  Sam Warn­er serves as the Direc­tor of Devel­op­ment for North Geor­gia and Ray Sul­li­van as our Direc­tor of Devel­op­ment for South Georgia.  Rick Head serves as our Direc­tor of Devel­op­ment for Insti­tu­tion­al Endow­ment and Pam Mills as Vice-Pres­i­dent of Trust Services.  Nan­cy Pat­ter­son is our Direc­tor of Donor Relations.  Ruth Ruiz serves as Exec­u­tive Admin­is­tra­tive Assis­tant and Cor­po­rate Secretary.

 

It is our joy to serve believ­ers along with hun­dreds of Bap­tist church­es and min­istries as we fol­low God togeth­er in mak­ing all things new.

GBFOUNDATION.ORG

800.452.9064

 

To View Audit of the Geor­gia Bap­tist Foun­da­tion, Select AUDITS

 

 

 

BREWTON-PARKER COLLEGE

Steve Echols, President

201 David-Eliza Foun­tain Circle

PO Box 197

Mount Ver­non, GA 30445

Phone: 880.342.1087

Web­site: www.bpc.edu

 

Brew­ton-Park­er Col­lege (BPC) is grate­ful for its Geor­gia Bap­tist her­itage. The school had its begin­ning in 1904 through the efforts of local Geor­gia Bap­tists who had a vision for the impor­tance of Chris­t­ian edu­ca­tion. Along with lead­ers from the towns of Mt. Ver­non and Ailey and the sur­round­ing area, Dr. John C. Brew­ton and C.B. Park­er were par­tic­u­lar­ly instru­men­tal in the found­ing of the school. Since its incep­tion, the insti­tu­tion has unapolo­get­i­cal­ly pro­vid­ed bib­li­cal­ly cen­tered instruc­tion and a Chris­t­ian world­view. Ini­tial­ly estab­lished to offer a grade school edu­ca­tion, today Brew­ton-Park­er Col­lege is the only accred­it­ed four-year Chris­t­ian col­lege south of Macon and north of Jack­sonville, Florida.  As Alma Mater to over 20,000 stu­dents from through­out Geor­gia, the Unit­ed States, and across the globe, the influ­ence of BPC for the Kingdom’s sake con­tin­ues to be inestimable.

 

Brew­ton-Park­er Col­lege offers stu­dents a pic­turesque 270-acre cam­pus set in the heart of sweet Vidalia onion coun­try. Stu­dents find a warm wel­com­ing atmos­phere fos­tered by the cities of Mount Ver­non and Ailey and the oth­er near­by towns and coun­ties. Typ­i­cal of the scenic set­ting, the BPC com­mu­ni­ty enjoys din­ing togeth­er in the beau­ti­ful and recent­ly remod­eled cafe­te­ria. From there, the view encom­pass­es Jones Lake which is adjoined by a quaint his­toric vil­lage and Tyre chapel where the cross steeple is a reminder of the pur­pose of the college.

 

The ath­let­ic fields, the track, and the newest addi­tion to BPC, the Bar­tow and Jean Snooks Ath­let­ic Com­plex, are places where the stu­dents and com­mu­ni­ty enjoy root­ing for the Barons who com­pete on 12 ath­let­ic teams in one of the best NAIA con­fer­ences. How­ev­er, far more impor­tant than the final stand­ings in the con­fer­ence is the stat­ed pas­sion of the entire ath­let­ic staff, which is to lead our stu­dent ath­letes be ful­ly devot­ed fol­low­ers of Jesus Christ.

 

BPC equips stu­dents spir­i­tu­al­ly, and through numer­ous majors and con­cen­tra­tions pro­vides stu­dents with the edu­ca­tion­al foun­da­tion they need to have suc­cess­ful careers. Sta­ple majors, includ­ing busi­ness, Eng­lish, his­to­ry, Chris­t­ian stud­ies, biol­o­gy, music, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, social sci­ence, min­istry, and edu­ca­tion, estab­lish the core of our insti­tu­tion. A small stu­dent-to-fac­ul­ty ratio allows for men­tor­ing and per­son­al atten­tion to the stu­dents by fac­ul­ty members.

 

In recent years, BPC has made enor­mous progress in its finan­cial health. The school has reduced its debt from over four­teen mil­lion dol­lars to a lit­tle less than eight mil­lion dol­lars. BPC has oper­at­ed in the black for the last sev­er­al years and in addi­tion to endow­ment and oper­a­tional funds, BPC has an ongo­ing cash reserve fund of over three mil­lion dol­lars. Because of its finan­cial progress, BPC has more than dou­bled its fed­er­al finan­cial com­pos­ite score (a DOE mea­sure of finan­cial health) to a cur­rent num­ber of 3.0 (the high­est pos­si­ble score). In 2014, SACS gave BPC a reaf­fir­ma­tion of accred­i­ta­tion with the next major review due in 2021. More recent­ly, (Decem­ber 2016) BPC passed a finan­cial review that was part of the five-year SACSCOC report. BPC received the best pos­si­ble report with no rec­om­men­da­tions or nota­tions of any kind con­cern­ing its finan­cial health. In addi­tion, the over­all report for the five-year review (Jan­u­ary 2017) was very good. The min­i­mal respons­es required on a very small num­ber of items is the best out­come the school has had in many years.

 

While BPC exists as a lib­er­al arts aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tion, the most impor­tant part of the mis­sion of BPC is to see spir­i­tu­al trans­for­ma­tion. This aca­d­e­m­ic year, 40 stu­dents have made pro­fes­sions of faith and 70 more made recom­mit­ments of their lives to the Lord­ship of Jesus Christ. Tak­ing this spir­i­tu­al com­mit­ment beyond the cam­pus, BPC has endeav­ored to min­is­ter to the sur­round­ing area. Our staff, stu­dents, and fac­ul­ty serve in many of the church­es in the area on a vol­un­teer basis. Cab­i­net mem­bers and fac­ul­ty have preached in numer­ous church­es over the past year and the con­cert choir and Voic­es of Truth have per­formed in Geor­gia Bap­tist church­es through­out the state, includ­ing being the fea­tured singing group at the 2016 Geor­gia Bap­tist Annu­al Meet­ing in Savannah.

Dr. Bil­ly Puck­ett, BPC’s direc­tor of church and com­mu­ni­ty rela­tions, has led our stu­dents to min­is­ter at sev­er­al dis­as­ter relief sites. In an expres­sion of BPC’s com­mit­ment to local church­es, Dr. Puck­ett also serves in a unique part­ner­ship with the Daniell Bap­tist Asso­ci­a­tion as their DOM. In Octo­ber of 2016, BPC stu­dents were instru­men­tal in help­ing to evac­u­ate nurs­ing home res­i­dents from the coast to Vidalia dur­ing the threat of Hur­ri­cane Matthew. Recent­ly BPC ath­letes helped with major cleanup and ren­o­va­tion efforts at the Mont­gomery Coun­ty Recre­ation Cen­ter. Our stu­dents are active in tutor­ing stu­dents at local schools, and work in the local Boys Club.  The BPC cam­pus is the loca­tion for many events with thou­sands of guests annu­al­ly at the sports day camps for chil­dren, fall fes­ti­val, East­er egg hunt, ath­let­ic games, sum­mer enrich­ment camps, bian­nu­al math and sci­ence fes­ti­vals, and a Young Writer’s Con­fer­ence. These events pro­vide BPC with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to give back to the com­mu­ni­ty and share the love of Christ.

 

BPC con­tin­ues to work hard to improve its facil­i­ties. With the excep­tion of one dorm (remod­eled in 2010), all of the dorms at BPC have been remod­eled in the past two years. The school will com­plete a new dorm unit by the fall of 2017 that will house 24 male stu­dents. An addi­tion­al, unit is planned for the fall of 2018. These two units are part of a $1.5 mil­lion dol­lar Rise and Shine Cam­paign, which will also include exten­sive ren­o­va­tions on roofs, HVAC sys­tems, and oth­er improvements.

 

With so many bless­ings from God, includ­ing an increas­ing num­ber of stu­dents, there is good rea­son for enthu­si­as­tic opti­mism con­cern­ing the future of BPC. Total enroll­ment for the 2016–2017 aca­d­e­m­ic year is 897. That is an increase of 190 or 26% over last year’s 707.  Signs are point­ing to anoth­er major enroll­ment increase for the fall of 2017. We ask that you join our lead­er­ship in pray­ing for BPC to ful­fill its mis­sion of see­ing the lives of stu­dents trans­formed spir­i­tu­al­ly and aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly for the glo­ry of God.

 

Ath­let­ic web­site: www.gobaronsgo.com

Face­book: www.facebook.com/brewtonparker

Twit­ter: www.twitter.com/brewtonparker

 

To View the Audit of Brew­ton-Park­er Col­lege, select AUDITS

 

 

SHORTER UNIVERSITY

Don Dow­less, President

315 Short­er Avenue, Rome, GA 30165

Phone: 800–868-6980 / 706–291-2121

Web Site: www.shorter.edu

 

Kay Yow was the head coach of the women’s bas­ket­ball team at North Car­oli­na State Uni­ver­si­ty and won many titles in the high­ly com­pet­i­tive Atlantic Coast Con­fer­ence. When she died in 2009 of can­cer, a video of her was played at her funer­al. She told the peo­ple gath­ered that she was very proud of the accom­plish­ments in her life—the cham­pi­onships, the rela­tion­ships, the years of coach­ing bas­ket­ball. She was able to be at the height of her pro­fes­sion. But she said that the great­est moment of her life was not any cham­pi­onship: the great­est day of her life, she said, was the day she received Jesus Christ as her Savior.

 

The book of Colos­sians tells us that in Christ “are hid­den all the trea­sures of wis­dom and knowl­edge” (2:3). As a Christ-cen­tered Uni­ver­si­ty, Short­er seeks to extend God’s king­dom through the lives of its stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, and staff to every cor­ner of the globe. Our edu­ca­tion­al phi­los­o­phy encour­ages stu­dent-men­tor rela­tion­ships that help each stu­dent devel­op aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly, always keep­ing in mind that a great Short­er edu­ca­tion is the begin­ning, not the end, of becom­ing a life­long leader for Christ. It is impor­tant that stu­dents earn a liv­ing and con­tin­ue to devel­op pro­fes­sion­al­ly in their cho­sen areas of study. But a greater impact is made through shar­ing Jesus Christ with oth­ers in every­thing we do.

 

We great­ly appre­ci­ate the ongo­ing sup­port of Geor­gia Bap­tists and are pleased to pro­vide the fol­low­ing report of accom­plish­ments from the 2016–17 aca­d­e­m­ic year. Short­er con­tin­ues to be ranked among the Best Region­al Col­leges in the South by U.S. News & World Report and as a Best South­east­ern Col­lege by The Prince­ton Review. Our online pro­grams are ranked among the 25 Best Online Col­leges in Geor­gia by Col­lege Choice and among the Top 10 Best Online Col­leges in Geor­gia by Val­ue Col­leges. The Uni­ver­si­ty was ranked as one of the 25 Most Beau­ti­ful Chris­t­ian Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties in the South by Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­si­ties Online, and we were ranked as No. 21 on the list of 50 Most Afford­able Chris­t­ian Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties, among the 25 Best Chris­t­ian Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties in the South, and among the Top 50 Chris­t­ian Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties for Vet­er­ans, all by Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­si­ties Online. Indi­vid­ual pro­grams have also received recog­ni­tion. Our online Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Human Ser­vices was ranked the No. 19 Best Buy among the 31 Best Afford­able Online Human Ser­vices Degrees by GetEducated.com, and our online Sport Man­age­ment pro­gram was rec­og­nized as No. 11 among 15 Most Afford­able Online Bachelor’s Degrees in Sports Man­age­ment by AffordableColleges.com and as No. 25 among the Top 30 Best Online Sports Man­age­ment Degrees by Best Degree Programs.

 

In the fall of 2016, Short­er opened a new 3,300-square-foot Stu­dent Well­ness Cen­ter locat­ed near the heart of cam­pus. The major­i­ty of fund­ing for the ren­o­va­tion project was pro­vid­ed by a gen­er­ous grant from the Geor­gia Bap­tist Health Care Min­istry Foun­da­tion, and the facil­i­ty has been a boost to both stu­dent reten­tion and stu­dent recruit­ment. The work­out facil­i­ty offers a wide array of car­dio and weight equip­ment for use by stu­dents, fac­ul­ty and staff. In Octo­ber 2016, Short­er host­ed a rib­bon cut­ting for a new­ly ren­o­vat­ed micro­bi­ol­o­gy lab­o­ra­to­ry, which was named the Ware Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion Micro­bi­ol­o­gy Lab­o­ra­to­ry in hon­or of Mari­et­ta, Ga., res­i­dents Joe and Char­lotte Ware, whose con­tri­bu­tion fund­ed the ren­o­va­tion project. The ren­o­va­tion includ­ed updat­ing the micro­bi­ol­o­gy lab­o­ra­to­ry, which also serves as the lab for anato­my, phys­i­ol­o­gy and genet­ics. The lab is now equipped with state-of-the-art equip­ment includ­ing top-of-the-line micro­scopes and smart­board, incu­ba­tors and upgrad­ed furnishings.

 

Stu­dent achieve­ment remains strong. Our Alpha Chi Nation­al Hon­or Soci­ety was named a Star Chap­ter for the sev­enth con­sec­u­tive year, mark­ing it as one of the best chap­ters in the nation. Senior Eng­lish major Zayne Allen was cho­sen to receive the pres­ti­gious Nolle Schol­ar­ship from the nation­al Alpha Chi orga­ni­za­tion, and Asso­ciate Provost Dr. Kathi Vose­vich and junior nurs­ing major Kay­la Avery were elect­ed to exec­u­tive coun­cil seats for Alpha Chi. Sport man­age­ment major Savan­nah Thomas land­ed a pres­ti­gious intern­ship with the award-win­ning Intern Group that will take her to Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia, in Octo­ber 2017. She was select­ed from 20,000 appli­cants. Dur­ing 2016, senior Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Arts major Caleb Britt com­plet­ed a paid intern­ship at WSB-TV, gain­ing expe­ri­ence as a mul­ti­me­dia jour­nal­ist. Research by sci­ence stu­dents Jacob Case and Chris Elsey gar­nered a $1,000 grant from the Tri­Beta Nation­al Bio­log­i­cal Hon­or Soci­ety. In the fall, Shorter’s Kap­pa Chi chap­ter of Zeta Tau Alpha Fra­ter­ni­ty was rec­og­nized as the chap­ter with the high­est aca­d­e­m­ic aver­age in the nation.

 

Short­er also seeks to instill in our stu­dents an under­stand­ing of the impor­tance of serv­ing oth­ers through par­tic­i­pa­tion in ser­vice projects. Short­er fresh­men vol­un­teered hun­dreds of hours at the Rome Com­mu­ni­ty Kitchen through their fresh­man sem­i­nar class­es. Stu­dent mis­sion teams trav­eled to Alas­ka and Cov­ing­ton, Ken­tucky. Short­er had six stu­dents select­ed to serve as BCM sum­mer mis­sion­ar­ies dur­ing the sum­mer of 2017. They will be serv­ing in Ugan­da, Italy, Ottawa (Cana­da), New Eng­land, New York City, and Hous­ton. Oth­er Short­er stu­dents will be work­ing at Camp Win­Shape and with refugees in Amer­i­ca through IMB. Dur­ing Spring Break, Short­er stu­dents did Hur­ri­cane Matthew relief work in John­sonville, S.C., and in Albany, Ga.

 

Our Cheer Hawks won the Nation­al Cheer­lead­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (NCA) Nation­al Cham­pi­onship, the program’s fifth nation­al title. The Short­er Lady Hawks vol­ley­ball team won the Gulf South Con­fer­ence reg­u­lar sea­son cham­pi­onship and reached the finals of the GSC tour­na­ment. In Feb­ru­ary, Short­er Hawk bas­ket­ball play­er Phil Tay­lor aver­aged 36 points per game, mak­ing him the most pro­lif­ic scor­er at any lev­el of col­lege bas­ket­ball this sea­son. His num­bers earned him a men­tion in Sports Illus­trat­ed and Newsweek.

 

Most impor­tant­ly, we had 17 stu­dents accept Christ as their per­son­al sav­ior this year. Bap­tist Col­le­giate Min­istries (BCM) had a total of sev­en dif­fer­ent Bible stud­ies involv­ing at least 75 stu­dents. BCM also had two major out­reach events. In the fall, they spon­sored a “Week of Shar­ing” where stu­dents were encour­aged to share their tes­ti­mo­ny with at least one per­son, made sand­wich­es and deliv­ered them to stu­dents who texted ques­tions about Chris­tian­i­ty, and pro­mot­ed Face­book tes­ti­monies through social media. That week end­ed with a bon­fire to which stu­dents were encour­aged to invite non-Chris­t­ian friends. In the spring, we had spe­cial ser­vices led by Jason Lovins Band and Chris James.

 

We are grate­ful for the ongo­ing sup­port of Geor­gia Bap­tists, the Geor­gia Bap­tist Mis­sion Board, and of its lead­er­ship as we work toward Trans­form­ing Lives through Christ. We ask three things of you. Pray for us, that the Lord will con­tin­ue to bless Short­er. Sup­port us. Send us stu­dents. If we make a dif­fer­ence in the life of one stu­dent, it is worth it.

 

To View the Audit of Short­er Uni­ver­si­ty, select AUDITS

 

 

TRUETT-McCONNELL UNIVERSITY

Emir Caner, President

100 Alum­ni Drive

Cleve­land GA 30528

Phone: 706–865-2134

Web Site: www.truett.edu

 

The fol­low­ing points are true of Truett-McConnell University:

• Truett McConnell was char­tered on July 23, 1946 to train up a gen­er­a­tion of min­is­ters to pas­tor church­es and stu­dents who would love Christ.  This same vision stays intact and only grows and expands.
• Scrip­ture is the foun­da­tion for every­thing we do and of all that we are.
• Stu­dents get a bib­li­cal edu­ca­tion, inside and out­side the classroom.
• All under­grad­u­ates are required to take the Great Com­mis­sion minor.
• We’re train­ing stu­dents to love the Lord, love the Word, love the Church and love the lost.
• We’re prepar­ing stu­dents not only for a career or to receive a pay­check, but to ful­fill God’s high call­ing on their lives.
• We’re locat­ed in the beau­ti­ful North­east Geor­gia Moun­tains in Cleve­land, Georgia.
• All full time fac­ul­ty have pub­li­cal­ly signed the Bap­tist Faith and Mes­sage 2000.
• We offer a wide array of pro­grams of study includ­ing Biol­o­gy, (for all pre-health majors – den­tal, allied health, med­i­cine, phar­ma­cy, vet­eri­nar­i­an, etc.), Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion, Chris­t­ian Stud­ies, Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, Edu­ca­tion, Eng­lish, Exer­cise Sci­ence, His­to­ry, Music, Nursing, Psy­chol­o­gy and World Missions.
• We offer online pro­grams includ­ing a BS in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion, B.A. in Chris­t­ian Studies, B.S. in Psy­chol­o­gy, M.A. in The­ol­o­gy, and BS in Crim­i­nal Justice.
• We offer Mas­ter pro­grams of study in Busi­ness, Edu­ca­tion, Bib­li­cal Coun­sel­ing, The­ol­o­gy, and Biology.
• TMU has a fam­i­ly friend­ly cam­pus which offers stu­dents Uni­ver­si­ty activ­i­ties includ­ing sport­ing events (Vol­ley­ball, Men and Women’s Soc­cer, Men and Women’s Bas­ket­ball, Men and Women’s Golf, Men and Women’s Cross Coun­try, Men and Women’s Track and Field, Wrestling, Women’s Lacrosse, Soft­ball, and Baseball).
• Res­i­den­tial stu­dents live and learn in a com­mu­ni­ty of faith with per­son­al atten­tion from TMU faculty.

 

To View the Audit of Truett-McConnell Uni­ver­si­ty, select AUDITS