SALINA, Kan. (BP) — The Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB) will increase by 1.5 percentage points its Cooperative Program giving to national and international missions and ministries in 2018.
Messengers approved the increase at the KNCSB 2017 annual meeting, held Oct. 9-10 at the convention’s Webster Conference Center in Salina, Kan. Of an anticipated $2,777,000 in CP receipts in 2018, KNCSB will forward 28.5 percent to national and international causes.
KNCSB Executive Director Bob Mills praised the “faithful giving of churches to the Cooperative Program,” and described 2017 as “a great year both in ministry and giving.” The meeting drew 271 registered messengers and 48 visitors.
Thanks to churches’ faithful giving to the Cooperative Program, the KNCSB budget is on track to finish 2017 above its projected CP receipts, Mills told the crowd. If this occurs, 50 percent of the CP receipts above budget will be sent to the national CP. This could total another one half of 1 percent, Mills said.
Messengers approved a 2018 KNCSB budget of $4,409,916, a decrease of about 1 percent from the 2017 budget.
Messengers also spent considerable time discussing a proposed resolution asking Southern Baptist entity heads not to hold staff positions in local churches.
After discussion from people who were for and against the resolution, messengers approved KNCSB President Joe Stiles’ request for the presidential prerogative to refer the proposed resolution to the KNCSB Executive Committee for further examination. The committee is expected to give a report on the matter at the 2018 KNCSB annual meeting.
In other activity, messengers elected KNCSB officers. Derrick Lynch, pastor of Blue Valley Baptist Church in Overland Park, Kan., and a former KNCSB vice president, was elected president. Voyt Lynn, pastor of First Baptist Church in Douglass, Kan., is the newly elected vice president.
Re-elected to continue in their current office are recording secretary Bryan Jones, pastor of Tyler Road Southern Baptist Church, Wichita, Kan.; assistant recording secretary Susan Pederson, a member of Prairie Hills Baptist Church, Augusta, Kan.; and historian Tony Mattia, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, Wamego, Kan.
Future KNCSB annual meetings are set for Oct. 8-9, 2018, at First Southern Baptist Church, Pratt, Kan.; and Oct. 14-15, 2019, at Parkview Baptist Church, Lexington, Neb.
