The Baptist General Conference’s ninetieth annual meeting, recently held in Estes Park, Colorado, reflected the denomination’s rapidly increasing size and social consciousness. Delegates represented 634 churches and approximately 100,000 members. Annual statistics revealed a healthy 8.6 per cent increase in stewardship and a corresponding jump in membership. Nineteen churches joined the conference, a higher than average accretion.
The conference’s racial complexion displayed change as it took in one all-black church and added some Negroes to older congregations. Following an address by black evangelist Tom Skinner, delegates almost unanimously allocated $225,000 for a three year “spiritual ministry” in minority communities. Retiring general secretary Lloyd Dahlquist described this as “evangelistic work in ghetto areas of our communities with black people of the same mind as we are.” Efforts will start in Chicago and spread to New York and Los Angeles.
In other significant actions the Baptist General Conference:
- Elected Warren Magnuson of St. Paul, Minnesota, general secretary, replacing Dahlquist, a veteran of ten years.
- Approved a record budget of $2,432,405.
- Reelected Dr. Carl Lundquist to his fourth five-year term as president of conservative Bethel College and Seminary in St. Paul.
Lundquist, in his traditional annual report, broke from routine and urged the denomination to regard the “student revolt movement” as “her greatest opportunity.” He claimed that most youth are “reformers,” not “destroyers,” and are only crying “in anguish over the infringement of individual liberty everywhere” and “the open festering sores of humanity,” such as Biafra, napalm in Viet Nam, and profiteering in the ghetto. Lundquist pleaded, “We should listen to our youth,” but admitted, “America may not be willing to … respond thoughtfully to her young.”
