1960 Southern Baptist Convcntion Miami Beach, Fla. WC Fields
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1960 Southern Baptist Convcntion For Release: 9 P.M. Miami Beach, Fla. Friday, May 20 W. C. Fields, Press Representative Theo Somerkamp, Assistant HOME MISSION BOARD Atlanta, Ga. The first fruits of a re-organized Southern Baptist Rome Mission Board were report- ed this week to messengers here for the annual Southern Baptist Convention. This is the first year that the board has operated under a reorganization that group- ed related departments into five divisions, with directors responsible to the executive secretary. Reports show increases in most phases of home mission work, with strong emphasis on pioneer mission fields, language missions, National (Negro) Baptists, and mission centers. Pioneer missions, work mostly in the western half of the United States, received about $1,312,000 (or 64.7 per cent) of mission funds. These funds were paid through 12 state conventions, including border states of New Mexico, Illinois, and Maryland. Executive Secretary Courts Redford of Atlanta, Ga. announced a missionary force of 2096 worlccrs at the close of 1959, including 470 student summer missionaries. This was a gain in personnel of 344 over the previous year. This force is now reported at more than 2500. The increase was attributed to an emphasis on co-operative agreements between state conventions and the Rome Mission Board. Working agreements with 16 states combined fin- zncial and personnel resources for a unified, evangelistic, and missionary program with- in the states, according to Redford. The execiltive secretary said stronger states are encouraged to accept a larger financial share; churches and missions are encouraged to become self-supporting as rapidly as possible; and churches are encouraged to sponsor mission projects where possible. Redford outlined seven programs of home mission work: evangelism, church loans, chaplaincy, pioneer and associational missions, city missions, National Baptists, and language group missions. Factors which point to a growing service for the board were listed by Redford as 1) urgency of trends and opportunities that make the board's ministries needed and appreciated, 2) the close relationship between the board and states and other SBC bodies, 3) the re-organization of the board, 4) a called and trained staff, and 5) increased in- terest and concern of the denomination in home missions. The board's church loans division has directed its efforts toward the pioneer areas due to increased demand for church buildings and the dependence of those churches upon home mission funds. Loans amounting to almost $2 million and totaling 155 were made during 1959, according to G. Frank Garrison, director of the division. The Southern Bap- tist Convention has made $4 million available to the board for loans for the five-year period 1959-63. A11 boards and agencies of the Convention joined with five other North Amcrican Baptist groups to make 1959 a year of evangelism. Southern Baptists alone baptized 430,000 people, reported 1% million church members signing soul-winning commitment cards, and a record-breaking number taking soul-winning study courses. Evangelistic crusades were conducted in Canada and Alaska, and emphasis was given to evangelism in foreign lands. C. E. Autrey, Dallas, newly elected director of the division of evangelism, voic- ed plans for increased emphasis on personal soul-winning on the local church level. Autrey was formerly professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort Worth, Tex. Sixteen state conventions developed co-operative mission agreements with the Home Mission Board during 1959, according to Arthur B. Rutledge, Atlanta, director of the missions division---the largest of the board's five divisions. Increased opportunities precipitated the need for additional staff, Rutledge said. A former colleke professor of Corpus Christi, Tex,, Lewis Newman, was elected associate in the association- a1 missions department; and Gerald Palmer, former language missions co-ordinator in New Mexico, was elected associate in the department of language group ministries. 2- EUME MISS ION BOARD "Services of the division of education and promotion are provided to implement !~uale mission programs," said L, 0, Griffith, director of that division. An annual sr2rLes of home mission study books, a monthly magazine, Home Missions, motion pictures, iiirnstrips, pictures for publication, tracts, exhibits, Schools of Missions and mission speakers are provided to inform Southern Baptist pastors and laity of home mission vork. The division operates a regional office of Baptist Press and produces special l-rograms for the Southern Baptist Convention and home mission weeks at Southern Baptist ssscmblies in North Carolina and New Mexico. COURTS R3DFORD is executive secretary-treasurer of the Home Mission Board, 'lacatnd in Atlanta, Ga. He was born in Calhoun, Mo., Sept. 4, 1898. He served as professor at Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Okla., and president of South- vesr Baptist College, Bolivar, Mo. He was assistant executive secretary of the Home Mission Board before being elected executive secretary. The Southern Baptist Convention For Release: 9:35 A.M. 1960-Miami Beach, Fla, Friday, May 20 W. C. Fields, Press Representative Theo Somerltamp, Ass is tant With Report Of Committee On Time And Place, 1965 (If Dallas is voted as 1965 site) Here is a statistical summary of vital factors to be considered regarding the proposed Southern Baptist Convention's meeting in Dallas, Tcxas, in 1965, 1. MEETING PLACES A. Memorial Auditorium 1. Seating Capacity. 10,439. 2. Auxiliary auditorium seating capacity. 1,780 3. Location. 3 blocks from downtown all as' Baker Hotel, and Adulphus Hotel. 4% blocks from Statler I-Iilton Hotel .8 blocks from Sheraton-Dallas Hotel. 5 bloc lcs from Nieman-Marcus . 4. Exhibit Area, 110,000 sq. ft. available in two story exhibit building, 53,750 on first floor; 21,250 on second floor; 23,120 in auxiliary exhibit hall. 5. Meeting rooms. 4 conference rooms seating 250-1,000 6 conference rooms seating 40-250. 6. Facilities for press, radio, TV coverage, 7. Parlcing, parking lot with 1,100 auto capacity. 3,000 parking spaces within two blocks of auditorium (C of C figures). B. Cobb Stadium 1. Seating Capacity. more than 23,000 2. Location. five minutes drive just off Stemmons Freeway (Highway 77) from down- town Dallas, in northeast Dallas. 11. HOTEL AND MOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS 1, More than 6,000 hotel and motel rooms i~ downtown hotels and nearby motels. 2. Nearby Fort Worth, 30 minutes drive by new 6-lane expressaay direct to auditorium, accommodates 5,000 in downtown hotels and nearby motels. 111. RESIDENT BAPTISTS IN METROPOLITAN DALLAS 1. More than 152,000 Baptists reside in Dallas Baptist Association, 2. Total of 205 Baptist churches in Dallas county. 3. Dallas Baptists comprise one-tenth of total Texas Baptist membership of 1% million, 4. New Dallas Baptist College. 5. Dallas offices for Baptist General Convention of Texas. 6. Dallas offices in new 15 story building for SBC Relief & Annuity Board. 7. Baptist Standard, with largest circulation in Texas, located in Dallas. 1V. OTHER BAPTIST MEETINGS IN DALLAS 1. Billy Graham, principal speaker at 1958 Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference. 2. More than 10,000 attended 1958 evangelism conference. 3. C. Wade Freeman, director of evangelism conference, said that hotels easily accommodate crowds, with no need for residential home services. 1960 Southern Baptist Convention FOR RELEASE: 11:55 AM Miami Beach, Fla. Friday, May 20 W. C. Fields, Press Representative Theo Somerknmp, Assistant Baptist World Alliance Report Office: Washington, D. C. Brazil, a nominally Catholic nation, will be the site this summer of one of the big- gest Baptist congresses in history. Arnold T. Ohrn, Washington, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, said an attendance of 20,000 delegates or messengers is expected for the tenth Baptist: World Congress in Rio de Janeiro, June 26-July 3. Aio Baptists h.ope, further, to fill the 155,000-scat Maracana Stadium with Brazilian visitors for the Congress' closing session Sunday afternoon, July 3, when Evangelist Billy Graham speaks. Southern Baptist Missionary Edgar Hallgck of Rio has said the occasion could be "another Pentecost"'--referring to a New Testament event when 3,000 people were converted to Christianity. There awe about 175,000 Baptists in Brazil. Ohrn announced that Baptist membership around the world has climed to 23 million in more than 100 countries, This compares with 6 million from 21 countries when the Alliance was organized in 1905. Speaking at the annual sessions of the Southern Baptist Convehtion here, Ohrn re- minded Southern Baptists that their more than 9 million members constitute about 40 per cent of the world's Baptist population, and their convention is the largest single group in the Alliance. Theodore F. Adams, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Va., and president of the Alliance, and Robert S. Denny, director of the Alliance's world-wide youth program, also spoke on the Alliance's portion of the Convention program. Attendance at the Rio meeting is expected to come from 60 or more countries on all continents. A 70-passenger Super Constellation plane has been chartered through Air I France to bring delegates from Europe. Its passenger list includes eight from Russia and still more from other Iron Curtain countries. I Ohrn told Southern Baptists that "the Alliance is unique among Baptist organizations -- a channel through which fellow believers of many conventions and many nations help one another, through fellowship, service and cooperation, to fulfill the objectives of the Great Commission.'' Through cooperative study and work, the Alliance is encouraging Baptist advances around the world in evangelism, Bible study, missions, youth work, refugee relief, and understanding of the church's doctrines. The fellowship also aids all Baptists of the world -- regardless of the political ideology of their country -- to express themselves unitedly for full religious liberty and world peace.