Make plans now to attend 2009 Convocation

You will not want to miss the 2009 Convocation at Park Road Baptist Church in Charlotte April 17-19. We will explore what it means to be "Weaving with the Spirit" and we will honor Stan Hastey as he retires after more than 20 years of service to the Alliance. Read more, and register by Jan. 15 for early bird rates...

As Alliance minister for missions and ecumenism Stan Hastey approaches his retirement in June, we thought you'd be interested in some facts about his early life. How many of these Hastey factoids

did you know?

—That Stan grew up in a missionary family in Costa Rica and Mexico, that at 17 he moved back to the U.S. to go to Oklahoma Baptist University, where he majored in U.S. government? that while at OBU he came under the tutelage of two remarkable teachers, Betty and James Ralph Scales, later of Wake Forest University?

 —That Stan's other two most influential teachers at the old Southern Baptist Theological Seminary were Penrose St. Amant and E. Glenn Hinson? That he was St. Amant's last doctoral student and that together with his other professors Hinson set him on the course of his career as a journalist by introducting him to the work of the Baptist Joint Committee? That he wrote an early history of the BJC as a doctoral dissertation?

 —That for 15 years at the Baptist Joint Committee Stan was an accredited journalist in the old Baptist Press network? That for 10 of those years he was the accredited Baptist reporter at the White House? That he covered two U.S. presidents, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan? That he was the second journalist (after Helen Thomas of UPI) to be granted an interview with Mr. Carter after he left Washington in January 1981 and returned to Plains, GA?

As we move into the new year,the Alliance is eager to share the six new initiatives that will shape our ministry over the next five years."The energy around these new Initiatives is palpable," said Brian Ammons of Raleigh, NC, chair of the strategic initiatives planning committee. "We come out of a story that still matters and I feel lucky to be a part of continuing our important work in new ways."

 The new initiatives name our commitments to ministries including midwifing new congregations and enlisting new members; new national and international mission partnerships; a new spiritual entrepreneurship and the development of ministry resources; supporting students and recent graduates in discerning God’s call; relationships among Alliance clergy, chaplains and pastoral counselors; enhancing the value of Convocation and finding new ways to come together.

The strategic initiatives planning committee will meet at the end of January. Read more about the work of this committee.

2009 Bridges of Hope Offering

We will be supporting 29 mission partners through the 2009 offering. New to the offering this year are the Andrew P. Stewart Center in Atlanta, the Hope Center at Pullen Baptist Church in Raleigh, the National Council of Churches of Cuba Women and Gender program, the National Coalition for Burned Churches, and AMOS Health and Hope in Managua, Nicaragua.

Diana Butler Bass, who will offer leadership for the 2009 Convocation, is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture.  She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including the best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us, released in 2006. 

More about Diana.

Why I support the Alliance

“I am committed to the Alliance for its strong stance on equality for all persons— sexual orientation, race, gender — based on a solid theological ground. I also delight in the theology of missions I see lived out in the Alliance. And, I see a commitment by the Alliance to quality and creative worship married to intellectual honesty. It's the best of what being Baptist can be.”

Read more about Steve Jolly

The Alliance Nominating Committee is soliciting suggestions for persons to serve on the board of directors beginning April 2009. Candidates must be individual members of the Alliance and must have agreed to have their names submitted for consideration. Send your suggestions to committee chair Jack Price. Include your name and contact information as well as the name, contact information and church of the person you are recommending. The deadline is January 15.

 2008 Finances

Receipts through Dec. 31, 2008.

YTD Expenses: $501,756

Receipts: $389,522

Mission Goal: $131,000

Receipts: $106,362

Please consider how you might influence the future of the Alliance as well as the future of the 29 ministries supported through our Bridges of Hope Mission Offering.

Make your gift now to support the work of the Alliance during 2009.

Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates. Read more of Nicholas Kristoff's op-ed piece that appeared Dec. 20 in the New York Times.

Mark Jensen, an Alliance-endorsed chaplain, is one of 1,200 Americans trained by Al Gore to spread the message about the challenges of and solutions to the climate crisis. Mark is willing to speak on this subject to churches and other groups within a three-hour drive of his home in Clemmons, NC, at no charge. Mark can be reached at 336-766-0602.

Mark's daughter Anna works for the North Carolina Farm Worker Project and is available to speak to churches on issues related to migrant ministry. 

Search and call 

First Baptist Church of Iowa City is looking for a pastor and a hospital in Arizona is looking for a director of spiritual care. Details about these and other openings are on our web site.

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