Updated Monday, April 14, 2008

New women's ministry to focus on missions

By Steve DeVane

BR Managing Editor

A new Baptist State Convention (BSC) ministry to women may include missions education and promotion, but that doesn't mean it will do what Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina (WMU-NC) traditionally does in those roles.

BSC Executive Director-treasurer Milton Hollifield said during remarks at the BSC Executive Committee meeting April 10 that missions education and promotion may be part of the new ministry. But he also said the direction of the effort is not seeking "to duplicate the work of WMU-NC."

A task force is meeting to study a new ministry to women. The move comes after WMU-NC decided to leave its offices in the BSC's building and assert its autonomy over of its own staff.

WMU-NC leaders say the group will continue to serve N.C. Baptist churches. WMU has traditionally promoted the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions, the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American missions and the North Carolina Missions Offering. The group also supports missions education efforts in churches.

BSC spokesman Doug Baker said in an e-mail message to the Recorder that the new ministry will have "at its core, new ways and methods to do missions education."

The BSC Executive Committee received an update from task forces studying new ministries to women and senior adults at its meeting April 10 in Cary.

The task force studying ministry to senior adults met April 9, Hollifield said.

Shane Nixon, director of information services for the Baptist Children's Homes (BCH) of North Carolina, presented the report on behalf of BCH president Michael Blackwell. Nixon said the group has settled on the name North Carolina Baptist Aging Ministry (NCBAM).

The group wants to minister to aging adults, their caregivers and churches and associations trying to help aging adults, Nixon said.

"What we really want to do is be a restorer, an encourager," he said.

The task force was formed after the Baptist Retirement Homes (BRH) of North Carolina voted to start electing its own trustees, a vote which prompted nearly two years of dialogue between BRH and the Convention trying to work out a new and mutually acceptable relationship. Hollifield said the new ministry will not include residential care like that offered by BRH.

Instead, the task force is proposing a badly needed ministry to those not in residential care.

Hollifield said the two task forces have generated "a lot of prayer, a lot of excitement."

A study committee looking at the BSC's four giving plans has a survey on the BSC web site through April 30.

Hollifield said he had gotten a call from someone who thought the committee's decision was a foregone conclusion. He said he disagreed based on discussion by the committee, which has representatives who favor all four plans.