Week of February 6, 2006
SBC messenger registration opens …
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Online registration for the
2006 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C.,
opened Feb. 1.
Churches will be able to register their messengers
online at the SBC website, www.sbc.net, to avoid waiting at the counter
upon arrival at the convention while a registration volunteer types in
various lines of information.
Online registration ends at midnight June 10 – after
which registration must be done at the registration desk beginning at 4
p.m. June 11.
Names can be added, edited and deleted up to June 10
as well. Each messenger must present the printed form that shows the
messenger’s reference number – given on the website – at the
registration booth in order to receive a nametag and set of ballots.
Technically, a person is not a messenger until the messenger reference
number is presented at the registration booth. But, unlike the
traditional method, the person is pre-registered before he or she
arrives to the convention.
The traditional registration method also will be available for those churches unable to use Internet access.
GuideStone releases Ministers’ Tax Guide …
DALLAS (BP) – Ministers can find additional help in
preparing their 2005 federal income tax returns from GuideStone
Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. The annual
Ministers Tax Guide for 2005 Returns details recent changes to tax laws
and their effect on ministers.
“This year’s tax guide includes the features
ministers have come to expect,” said O.S. Hawkins, GuideStone’s
president and chief executive officer. “The informative free tax guide
includes sample tax returns with step-by-step instructions for active
and retired ministers, as well as a special pull-out section regarding
the federal reporting requirements for churches.”
An overview of the tax change highlights was written
by Richard Hammar, a CPA, attorney and widely published author who
specializes in legal and tax issues for ministers.
The tax guide can be accessed in an electronic PDF
format by visiting the GuideStone website at www.GuideStone.org. Copies
also can be obtained by calling customer service at 1-888-98-GUIDE
(1-888-984-8433) between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday-Friday Central time.
Vines delivers final sermon …
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP) – Longtime pastor Jerry
Vines delivered his final sermon to his First Baptist Church of
Jacksonville, Fla., congregation Jan. 29. Vines, First Baptist’s pastor
the past 23 years and a former Southern Baptist Convention president,
retires this month after delivering a final sermon Feb. 7 at the
national Pastors’ Conference he leads each year in Jacksonville.
Thereafter, Vines will continue to minister through Jerry Vines
Ministries, to be based in Georgia. “I felt sadness and gladness,”
Vines told reporters on Jan. 28. “It was a very unusual experience, to
say the least. I wouldn’t say today is a hard day, but it’s a different
day.”