Stories tagged with: alaska baptist convention

• Alaska continues refocus on vision, 'face,' structure

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Tuesday, October 01, 2019 (4 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  SOLDOTNA, Alaska -- The Alaska Baptist Convention (ABC) entered the third year of its refocusing effort involving a "new vision, new face, new structure" at its 74th annual meeting Sept. 23-24 at College Heights Baptist Church in Soldotna. Messengers also learned that their churches' membership and attendance each grew by around 4 percent.

  A total of 115 congregations in a state more than twice the size of Texas affiliate with what will now be known as the Alaska Baptist Resource Network (ABRN.) This is ABC's new "face." Read More

• An appeal from Cold Bay: 'Please don't abandon us!'

  by Randy Covington, posted Wednesday, July 03, 2019 (5 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  COLD BAY, Alaska (BP) -- Cold Bay! Sounds ominous! When the pastor of the Community Chapel called to let me know that he was moving, I knew I needed to visit and assist with his departure plans and make arrangements to winterize the church parsonage.

  Although I had grown up in Alaska, I had never been to Cold Bay and didn't know where it was. Read More

• Earthquake sends Alaska Baptists into ministry mode

  by Erin Roach, posted Monday, December 17, 2018 (5 years ago)

  

  Photo courtesy of the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities

  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (BP) -- Scott Belmore was outside his house, loading some old furniture into his truck with his son and a friend when Alaska experienced one of its most powerful earthquakes in half a century. The men clung to the truck as it bounced on the driveway amid the shaking.

  Inside the house, Dana Belmore was shaken to the floor in her bedroom and feared for the safety of their young daughter who had been reading on the bottom bunk in her room. The two of them, terrified, were able to reunite and flee the house after the shaking, still not believing what had just happened. Read More

• Alaskans embrace 'Vision Plan for a New Tomorrow'

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Wednesday, October 03, 2018 (5 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  WASILLA, Alaska (BP) -- An Alaska Baptist Convention "Vision Plan for a New Tomorrow" was approved by messengers at the ABC's 73rd annual meeting, Sept. 25-26 at First Baptist Church in Wasilla.

  Sweeping changes include a decrease in Cooperative Program giving from 37 percent to 20 percent to Southern Baptist Convention causes; a restructuring from four associations to six regions; and a potential name change.

  "This came out of discussions at Executive Board meetings," said Randy Covington, executive director/treasurer of the Alaska Baptist Convention since 2016, about the CP decrease. "If we're going to reach our state for Christ, we're going to have to keep more money at home. Read More

• God's call from Alabama to Alaska, 27 yrs. & counting

  by Grace Thornton/The Alabama Baptist, posted Tuesday, May 29, 2018 (6 years ago)

  

  Photo by Didi Vardaman

  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (BP) -- As Jae McKee read the job description, he said it felt like a tap on the shoulder, like a clarion call saying, "This is the job for you."

  So he applied -- for something else.

  "It's kind of comical in hindsight," McKee said. "I felt specifically like my call to missions was a call to Juneau, Alaska. I didn't question it. But it was like my fleece at the time -- I wanted the decision to be God's, not mine, and I wanted Him to confirm it." Read More

• Alaska Baptists celebrate outreach to highways, hedges

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Thursday, October 05, 2017 (6 years ago)

  

  KETCHIKAN, Alaska (BP) -- Alaska Baptists celebrated baptisms, new pastors to their state convention, progress in areas without a Gospel witness, and heard other encouraging ministry reports during its 72nd annual meeting, Sept. 25-27, held in Ketchikan.

  Ketchikan, known as "salmon capital" as well as "rain capital" of the world, is the southernmost city in Alaska and its fifth-largest, with an area population of nearly 14,000. With no road to Ketchikan except the on-island Tongass Highway, most people fly in despite the $600 cost one-way from Fairbanks in the center of the state. The meeting took place at the Ted Ferry Civic Center, with First Baptist Church of Ketchikan serving as host church. Read More

• 'Miracle man' Stewart continues ministry after accident

  by Diana Chandler, posted Wednesday, May 24, 2017 (7 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (BP) -- A two-hour "Holy Ghost revival" was in progress in Jimmy Stewart's office not long after he returned to work at the Alaska Baptist Convention earlier this year.

  Longtime Southern Baptist leader Paul Kim and his wife Rebekah from Boston were visiting the director of evangelism and church development. A small group of ministers and friends were praising God for answering their prayers and healing Stewart from a July, 2016, gas leak explosion at his rural Alaskan cabin. Physically fit and athletic before the accident, the evangelist was scarred from third-degree ... Read More

• Bill Hunke, former Alaska exec & historian, dies

  by Art Toalston, posted Monday, November 14, 2016 (7 years ago)

  

  SUN LAKES, Ariz. (BP) -- E.W. "Bill" Hunke Jr., executive director of the Alaska Baptist Convention from 1966-71 and prolific chronicler of Southern Baptist work in the western U.S., died Oct. 31 in Sun Lakes, Ariz. He was 92.

  Hunke led a large-scale disaster relief effort in Fairbanks after harrowing flooding of the Chena River in 1967. And he led the Alaska convention to prevail in a dispute with the city of Anchorage in 1970 over taxation of the Baptist Building offices.

  In 1971, Hunke was part of a 14-day simultaneous crusade for the Alaska ... Read More

• Cloyd Sullins, Alaska exec from 1995-2000, dies

  by Art Toalston, posted Monday, November 14, 2016 (7 years ago)

  

  MOORE, Okla. (BP) -- Cloyd Sullins, who led the Alaska Baptist Convention from its 50th anniversary year in 1995 until his retirement in 2000, died Nov. 7 in Moore, Okla. He was 81.

  Sullins, a native of Oklahoma City, also served the Alaska convention as director of evangelism/church growth from 1991-1994. He spent an intervening year as director of evangelism for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Read More

• Alaska Baptists look ahead with new exec. director

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Thursday, October 06, 2016 (7 years ago)

  

  Photo by Adam Covington

  FAIRBANKS, Alaska (BP) -- Alaska Baptists' 71st annual meeting heralded the arrival of native son Randy Covington as the convention's new executive director/treasurer.

  Covington, in addressing the meeting, said Baptists will continue to impact lostness in Alaska and beyond by relying on God's direction and building on the work He has already accomplished, yet with an eye to adapt methods as needed while not compromising the Gospel message. Read More