Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB)

Keep old treasures, embrace new ones, messengers urged

The Royal Ambassador group from First Southern Baptist Church, Lawrence, Kan., shined shoes for the crowd at the KNCSB annual meeting. Westside Family Church, Lenexa, Kan., played host to the Oct. 13-14 meeting. Contributions for the shoe shines were given to missions. The Lawrence RA group is named for Jimmy Cobb, the church’s former pastor who has serves in Canada with his wife, Carlene.

Kansas-Nebraska Southern Baptists were challenged to keep the old treasures of doctrine and cooperation while embracing the new treasures of “the next Christian” and “the next generation.”

KNCSB held its 63rd annual meeting Oct. 13-14 at Westside Family Church, Lenexa, Kan., on the western edge of Kansas City. The meeting drew 354 messengers and 231 registered visitors.

The meeting theme was “Balanced Kingdom Leadership: Embracing Treasures Old and New,” based on Mark 13:52 (NIV)—“... The kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

Throughout the meeting, speakers stressed cooperation, including Steve Holdaway in his presidential address in the opening session.

Holdaway is pastor of LifeSpring Church in Bellevue, Neb., on the south edge of Omaha.

“Cooperation works—we are better together,” Holdaway said.

He also challenged the crowd to obey the Great Commission and embrace the new treasure of “the next Christian.”

After a show of hands revealed the majority of the crowd was older than 40, Holdaway called for embracing “the next generation.”

To pastors, he asked, “What young pastor are you mentoring?”

Messengers approved the 2009 KNCSB budget of $5,673,852. This is an increase of slightly than 1 percent above the 2008 budget. Giving to the national Cooperative Program will remain at 32 percent.

All officers were re-elected by acclamation, including Holdaway as president. The other officers are:

• Vice president: Ron Pracht, pastor of Olivet Southern Baptist Church, Wichita, Kan.
 
• Recording secretary: Bryan Jones, pastor of Tyler Road Southern Baptist Church, Wichita, Kan.
 
• Assistant recording secretary: Gloria Garner, member of First Baptist Church, Burlington, Kan.
 
• Historian: Tony Mattia, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, Wamego, Kan.

In other activity, R. Rex “Peck” Lindsay, KNCSB executive director, thanked Kansas-Nebraska Southern Baptists for their unwavering support of Webster Conference Center, Salina, Kan.

In the past 20 years, Southern Baptists have given $3 million to support capital needs at WCC. This has kept helped keep the costs down for children and youth to attend camp and respond to the gospel, he said.

Numerous awards were presented in the area of missions and volunteers:

• Lee Martin of Topeka, Kan., was honored for his 15-year career as a chaplain with the Topeka Police Department. After his recent retirement, Martin started Family Dispatch Church, aimed at law-enforcement officers and firefighters.
 
• Elijah “Touch” Touchton of Pittsburg, Kan., received the Kelley Shelton Memorial Award for a Mission Service Corps missionary. Shelton was a leader in Kansas-Nebraska Woman’s Missionary Union. In 1999, she and her husband, Jeff, went to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee to serve as MSC missionaries. A few weeks later she died of injuries suffered in a canoe accident.
 
• Lora Robinson of Valley Center, Kan., received a national disaster-relief award from the North American Mission Board.
 
• Mary Jo Robertson of Kansas City, Kan., was honored for her life achievement in church-and-community ministries. “Her life has been a life of ministry,” said Bob Mills, KNCSB director of missions.
 
• First Southern Baptist Church, Pratt, Kan., was honored for its support after the May 4, 2007, tornado in Greensburg, Kan. The church has hosted volunteers from 16 states since the tornado.

Dates and locations were announced for upcoming KNCSB annual meetings:

• Oct. 12-13, 2009, at Country Acres Baptist Church, Wichita, Kan.
 
• Oct. 11-12, 2010, in Kearney, Neb., with the site to be announced.
 
• Oct. 17-18, 2011, at Lenexa Baptist Church, Lenexa, Kan.