2009 SBC Annual Meeting News

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–“American Idol” season six finalist Phil Stacey presented a concert to students and their families as one of the many family activities during the Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, Ky., June 23-34. Stacey, a preacher’s kid, was ministering at a church in Jacksonville, Fla., and in the U.S. Navy when he auditioned for […]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--More than 350 representatives of small to large Southern Baptist churches were honored for their 2008 gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions during a June 23 luncheon ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Members of the Council of Korean Southern Baptist Churches in America are celebrating the mobilization of 1,000 people for missions service through the IMB.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)—The "Run for the Roses" is well-known at Churchill Downs, but for assistant chaplain Yurian Cabrera, the "roses" of the Kentucky Derby come second to seeing faith blossom at the famed racetrack's fruit of ministry.       Cabrera, a 29-year-old native of Cuba, is a church planting missionary and part-time pastor of Iglesia Bautista Senda de Luz in Louisville.       Serving as a chaplain at the racetrack is yet another of his passions.       "I just love the smell, the track, the horses and, most of all, the people who work here," Cabrera smiled broadly, a dark goatee highlighting bright cheeks.       Early in the mornings, he relays a "Minute with God" over Churchill Downs' PA system in both English and Spanish as a devotional for track workers.       "It is a very brief reminder that God is real and that He cares about the workers here at the track," Cabrera said.       More than 700 Hispanics, mostly from Mexico, Central America and Cuba, work in some capacity at the track. Many live within the stable area, or "backside" of the track, with others in nearby apartment buildings.       A beautiful on-site "Christ Chapel" at Churchill Downs provides a place for Cabrera to hold services in Spanish on Monday evenings. Local churches and ministries provide supper, while worship and praise music is provided by local musicians and church groups.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Evangelists from across the nation gained interactive training during breakout sessions at the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists June 19 in Louisville, Ky. ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The chairman of a task force charged with helping improve Southern Baptists' service to Christ through their Great Commission mandate has asked for 5,000 volunteers who will pray regularly on behalf of the committee.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Gen. Douglas Carver, chief of chaplains for the U.S. Army, thanked Southern Baptists for the 1,300 SBC military chaplains who minister to some 3 million American troops in service around the world.       "We're looking at the best of this generation, 1 percent of the American population -- soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen -- who are carrying the burden for 300 million Americans in one of the most difficult and challenging times in the history of our nation," Carver told participants in the annual chaplains luncheon June 22 preceding the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Louisville, Ky.       Carver, himself a Southern Baptist from Rome, Ga., reminded the crowd of 150 that America remains a nation at war.       "We've been at war since 9/11 when our nation was attacked. Those devastating images still resonate in our soul as we lost some 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in a lonely cornfield in Pennsylvania," Carver said. "May we never forget and may it remind us of the cost of staying free.       "I represent about 1.2 million soldiers and a total of 2,700 chaplains of all faiths in the Army, Reserves and National Guard," Carver added. "Some 200,000 of our soldiers are scattered in over 80 countries across the globe."       Carver said while most of the troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan, some are in dangerous locales like the Horn of Africa, where they combat human trafficking, drugs and piracy.       More than 5,000 Americans have been killed since the war began in Iraq and Afghanistan, Carver noted.       "We have had 30,000 wounded in action and 1,000 of these are amputees," Carver said. "Those who suffer amputation experience 20 or 25 surgeries before they are dismissed from a military hospital. I know of one soldier who underwent 60 surgeries before he was released."       These casualties don't include what Carver called the "invisible" ones, the thousands who have suffered the trauma of combat. "They have images they will take to their graves unless they are miraculously healed from those memories by the Lord Jesus Christ," Carver said.       Last year, the U.S. Army recorded the largest number of suicides ever, more than 140, Carver added.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Associational leaders should live as servant leaders and find creative strategies for leading other Christians to do the same, speakers said during the June 21-22 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Directors of Missions. Southern Baptist leaders O.S. Hawkins, Ken Hemphill and Thom Rainer addressed the DOMs at the Fern […]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Members of the Black Southern Baptist Denominational Servants Network honored the late Sid Smith during its annual meeting June 21 in Louisville, Ky., noting Smith’s “lofty goals and great ideas.” “Dr. Smith inspired us to reach toward excellence,” said Ken Ellis, executive director of the Black Servants Network since Smith’s death in April. […]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–Sid Smith Jr., who died in April, was awarded posthumously the distinguished alumni award from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary June 24. His wife Arnette and son Sid Smith III accepted the award on his behalf at the Golden Gate luncheon during the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, Ky. […]