Mission Ohio: Reaching the Unreached Acts 1:8 58th Annual Meeting State Convention of Baptists in Ohio

“Mission Ohio: Reaching the Unreached Acts 1:8” provided the theme for the 58th annual meeting of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio meeting November 2-3, 2011 at the Lima Baptist Temple in Lima, Ohio.  Upwards to 11.5 million people live in Ohio.  Estimates of the lostness in Ohio range from 6 to 7 million people.  “Reaching the Unreached” captures the essence of Mission Ohio which is the cooperative effort of Southern Baptists to reach at least one million believers in 2,020 congregations by the end of 2020.

Mission Ohio celebrated 22 new congregations started in 2010-11 year: 7 are primarily language and 3 are primarily African-American.  This brings the total to 231 for new congregations started and continuing to reach, baptize, and disciple Ohioans since 1996.  These 231 congregations represent 33% of the 699 congregations affiliated with the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio.  The SCBO annual meeting also celebrated 4,172 baptisms reported from the churches on the past year’s annual church profile.

Messengers to the 58th annual meeting approved the 2011-12 Mission Ohio budget which requires $33.00 less in Cooperative Mission Program funds from Ohio Southern Baptist churches than the previous year’s mission budget.  This budget maintains the division of receipts from churches through the Cooperative Mission Program to 59.75% for mission work in Ohio and 40.25% for worldwide missions outside of Ohio.

As a missionary convention, the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio exits to assist Ohio Southern Baptist churches and associations obey the Great Commission.  The program for the 58th annual meeting utilized Acts 1:8 to highlight Southern Baptist “Reaching the Unreached” mission work from “Jerusalem” to “Judea” to “Samaria” to “the Ends of the Earth” dedicating the four sessions to each of these delineated areas.  Dwayne Lee coordinated worshipful and inspirational music for each session.  Jack Kwok, Mission Ohio Executive Director, spoke during the “Jerusalem” session.  Mark Wilson, pastor of North Fairfield Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ohio, preached the annual sermon during the “Samaria” emphasis which highlighted the work of Southern Baptists in North America.  Steve Davis, NAMB Midwest VP, preached during the “To the Ends of the Earth” session.  David Gray, pastor of First Baptist Church in Garrettsville, Ohio, preached during the “Judea” session which focused upon Ohio in the place of President Ron Hopkins.  President Ron Hopkins missed the annual meeting due to cancer treatment.

Messengers elected Mike Wilson, pastor of Lincoln Heights Baptist Church in Mansfield, Ohio, as president for 2011-12.  They elected Mark Stinson, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ohio, as first Vice President and James Edwards, pastor of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Bedford Heights, Ohio, as second Vice President.  Following the pattern of messengers from previous annual meetings, they elected Faye Rodgers as Recording Secretary, Annette Dessecker as Assistant Recording Secretary, and Jack Kwok as Historian.

As Recording Secretary, Fayed Rodgers presented a report of Mission Council actions including baptisms, church starts, church loans, scholarships, sale of Broad Street property, improvements at Antares property, and oil and gas lease for the Seneca Lake property among others.  Other actions at the annual meeting included the election of Mission Council members and approval of 9 resolutions.  These resolutions are posted (www.scbo.org) on the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio website.

Additional business included the approval of the Time, Place, and Preacher report for the 2012 Annual Meeting.  Messengers chose David Starry, pastor of First Baptist Church in Vandalia, Ohio, to preach the annual sermon and Steve Cavanaugh, pastor of Reynoldsburg Baptist Church in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, as the alternate to preach the annual sermon.

Next year, the annual meeting of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio will convene at the Kalahari Convention Center in Sandusky, Ohio November 7-8, 2012.  This is in the Northcoast Association which is the IMPACT Association for 2012.

IMPACT is an acronym for Intensive Mission Projects to Affect Community Transformation.  Ohio Southern Baptists concentrate on the chosen IMPACT Association to assist the churches minister and reach people for Christ.  West Central Association was the IMPACT Association this year.  Messengers and guests celebrated the professions of faith recorded from the evangelistic activities this year. 

Northcoast Association is the IMPACT Association next year.  Dan Duffy is the Northcoast Associational Missionary.  To participate in IMPACT 2012 contact him: dan.duffy@earthlink.net or 1 440 537 7265.