Churches Join, Change Alignment

                                                                                                                                         Vol. XVI, No. 2, February 2003

Five churches have applied to join the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia since our annual meeting 11-12 November. Four of them seek unique alignment:

Community Baptist Church, Mineral, Rev. John Beer

Sugar Grove Baptist Church, Sugar Grove, Rev. Kenny Price

The Tabernacle, Danville, Rev. Lamarr Mooneyham

Wayside Baptist Church, Chesapeake, Rev. Rick Williams

Community and Sugar Grove are SBCV church plants. Tabernacle is a large, formerly independent Baptist church.

Applying for dual alignment is Westmont Baptist Church, Johnstown, PA, Rev. Jon Estes.

Changing from dual to unique affiliation are:

First Baptist Church, Roanoke, Rev. Jim Austin

Sedalia Baptist Church, Big Island, Rev. Mike Jones

Tussekiah Baptist Church, Meherrin, Rev. Greg Noland

The decision by First, Roanoke, is significant. It is a very large church with some 3,800 resident members and total membership of 6,000. Its pastor for many years was the well-known and highly respected Dr. Charles Fuller, and its present pastor, as noted above, is Dr. Jim Austin. First Baptist gives about $340,000 annually to the Cooperative program. But even more important than the church’s size and financial contributions is that it is a leader among Southern Baptist churches in southwestern Virginia. It will be interesting to watch whether there may be a number of additional affiliation requests from churches in that area in the months ahead.

One church has withdrawn from the SBCV: Corinth Baptist Church, New Kent.

At the SBCV Executive Board meeting of 14 January the above requests received provisional approval. These requests and any others received in time for Executive Board action will be voted on for final approval at our next annual meeting this coming November.

We warmly welcome the decisions of these churches and look forward to working with them to bring God’s Word to Virginia, the United States, and the world.