Florida Baptist historians & DOMS meet in Pensacola

Nov 24, 2009
By STAFF

Related Coverage:

2009 FBSC Annual Meeting, Pensacola

PENSACOLA (FBW)–Two organizations related to the Florida Baptist Convention met in Pensacola Nov. 9 for their annual meetings.

FLORIDA BAPTIST HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Nov. 9, Florida Baptist Historical Society members heard reports of new avenues of research in Florida Baptist history now available to scholars around the world. According to Jerry Windsor, FBHS secretary-treasurer, associational minutes from the 19th century are now available on the society’s website.

“Anyone on line, even in Europe and Africa, can read the associational minutes from the 1850’s,” he said.

The associational annual records from 1845-1854 have been scanned into PDF format and are available on the website, floridabaptisthistory.org. In the 21st century, however, FBHS receives annual minutes from only 15 of the 49 Baptist associations in the state, creating a “major gap in historical research” in ten years, Windsor said.

The historical society continues to solicit church histories from 2,800 Florida Baptist churches. Almost 450 local church histories, “some elaborate and some sparse,” are in the FBHS archives, but “we continue to need histories,” Windsor said.

“These histories show the connectedness of our Baptist churches, because one man may pastor 6-8 churches,” he said.

The society’s second annual preaching contest will culminate in March 2010, the deadline for submission of 2,200-3,000-word sermons on “The Power of Biblical Preaching.” The winner will receive $250 and a trip to the society’s spring meeting to preach the winning sermon.

In other business, the society named Doak S. Campbell the winner of the 2009 Heritage Award. Campbell, 1888-1973, was a public school teacher, author and university president. He served as state director of Sunday School and Baptist Young People’s Union, and was president of the Florida Baptist State Convention.

DIRECTORS OF MISSIONS

Directors of Missions of Florida’s 49 Baptist associations met Nov. 9 at East Brent Baptist Church. About a dozen DOMs heard Attorney Gary Yeldell speak in the afternoon session on the importance of a church’s governing documents.

Yeldell, a Jacksonville attorney and founder of Wise Counsel Legal Services, termed a church’s constitution and by-laws its “best defense against legal attack.”

“Thorough and up-to-date by-laws are a church’s best protection against dispute and discord,” he said. “As long as you can wrap yourself in the by-laws…it is very unlikely that a court will overturn the action.”

Some churches’ by-laws, however, are “missing in action,” are out of date, or are completely irrelevant or in opposition to current practices.

“If you haven’t looked at your by-laws in a year, they are out of date. Some by-laws are stuck in the way things were done 30 years ago,” he said.

In a series of true/false statements, he tested the associational leaders’ legal acumen, and asked who they guessed would be sitting on a jury and deciding a church’s case. He said churches could not assume jury members would be “well educated professionals able to grasp the nuances” of the case, “folks raised by Christian parents who would be sympathetic” to a church, or even “attentive and earnest listeners.”

In business session, directors of mission voted to retain its 2009 officers, and to elect future officers for two year terms, said David Drake, director of missions in the Northeast Florida association and president of the organization. Other officers are president-elect, Coba Beasley, Chipola; vice-president, Bill Faulkner, Greater Orlando; secretary/treasurer, Pete Menendez, Marion; recreation director, Harvey Webb, Treasure Coast; and prayer, promotions and Webmaster, Wayne Harvey, Santa Fe River.

Related Coverage:

2009 FBSC Annual Meeting, Pensacola

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