Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB)

Messengers celebrate WCC’s 25th year

Kansas-Nebraska Southern Baptists celebrated the 25th anniversary of their conference center as a place where “God is at work.”

More than 450 people gathered Oct. 16-17 in Salina, Kan., home of Webster Conference Center. The first three meeting sessions were held at First Southern Baptist Church there. Bel-Air Southern Baptist Church, the other Southern Baptist church in Salina, was co-host. The crowd gathered at WCC on Tuesday night for the 25th anniversary celebration.

The crowd included 353 registered messengers and 102 visitors.

Messengers re-elected all of the convention’s officers by acclamation:

• President: Steve Dighton, pastor of Lenexa Baptist Church, Lenexa, Kan.


• Vice president: Steve Holdaway, pastor of West Bellevue Church, Bellevue, Neb.


• Recording secretary: Bryan Jones, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church, Junction City, Kan.


• Assistant recording secretary: Gloria Garner, a member of First Baptist Church, Burlington, Kan.


• Historian: Tony Mattia, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, Wamego, Kan.

In other activity, LifeWay Christian Resources honored a Nebraska pastor as its 2006 Small Church Pastor of the Year. Jim Turnbo, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Scottsbluff, received the award to a resounding round of applause.

Three other Nebraskans were honored for their untiring efforts in ministry. Jennifer Mayfield serves as a Mission Service Corps missionary on the Santee Sioux Reservation. (Mission Service Corps is the North American Mission Board’s long-term volunteer program.) Mayfield received the Kelley Shelton MSC Missionary of the Year Award.

Shelton was a leader in Kansas-Nebraska Woman’s Missionary Union. She and her husband, Jeff, went to Gatlinburg, Tenn., in the spring of 1999 to serve as MSC missionaries. A few weeks later, Kelley died of injuries suffered in a canoe accident.

Bob and Rhonda Besco received the John and Shirley Hopkins Church and Community Ministries Award. The Bescos are MSC missionaries who lead the ministry of the Omaha Baptist Center in the inner city of Omaha, Neb.

John and Shirley Hopkins were the long-time leaders of Southern Baptist Ministries in Kansas City, Kan. They are now retired and still make their home in that city. John Hopkins led church-and-community ministries for KNCSB and was editor of The Baptist Digest.

The 2007 KNCSB annual meeting will be held Oct. Oct. 15-16 at West Bellevue Church, Bellevue, Neb.