The Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention met on December 1 in Columbia to conduct year-end business and share ministry updates. Chair Steve Hogg presided over the session which included an update from the Executive Director-Treasurer Search Team and greetings from an international missions partner.

EDT Search Team Chair Ian Geimer gave an update on the group’s work, saying he is thankful “the Lord is going before us and providing wisdom and discernment as we are going through this process.” The team is currently conducting interviews and hopes to identify a candidate to present to the convention before current EDT Gary Hollingsworth’s retirement on April 30. 

In related news, Hogg announced that Convention President Albert Allen requested to be excused of his responsibilities as a member of the EDT Search Team. According to bylaws, when a convention session is called to present the EDT candidate, the president moderates the session. Allen asserts this could be seen as a conflict if he remained on the team. The board affirmed the decision. 

Board members heard administrative and Cooperative Program updates from Chief Financial Officer Bryan Holley, including that 18 new churches made the decision to cooperate with the state convention in 2022. Operations Committee Chair Tim Coker said the approval was given for several SCBaptist ministry requests totaling roughly $47,000. Budget, Finance & Audit Committee Chair Talmadge Tobias reported routine institutional audits were all positive, and that Cooperative Program giving was down 1.9 percent compared to this time last year.  

Talmadge reminded board members of their previous decision to set aside $1 million dollars for ongoing mission allocations. 

Hollingsworth introduced a partner serving in East Asia through the International Mission Board who shared how financial support from SCBaptist is being used in work with national partners, saying “South Carolina Baptist’s ‘seed money’ has gone to train 40 national partners in cross-cultural Great Commission tasks, and now they are serving on four continents.” 

Hollingsworth announced a $10,000 SCBaptist gift has been given to the Baptist Educational & Missionary Convention of South Carolina for its development of the upcoming “Out of the Balcony” documentary project telling historical stories of African American believers in South Carolina.

The board took procedural action to thank 14 outgoing board members for their service and approve a candidate to complete the term of a Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries trustee who has died. Members heard reports from The South Carolina Baptist Ministries of Aging and North Greenville University, and recognitions of SCBaptist retirements and staff anniversaries, including the celebration of Lee Douglas’ 40 years of service. 

The board re-elected Hogg and Geimer to serve another year in their respective roles and elected Roland Dry to serve as Secretary. 

Allen introduced the 2023 convention theme “Let’s Go!” by encouraging board members and their churches to engage missionally. The theme is intended to “mobilize churches to hit the mission field, to go do something, to go somewhere and be an incarnational witness in our efforts to take the gospel to the world.” Scheduled speakers include IMB President Paul Chitwood and former IMB and SBC President Tom Ellis for the meeting held November 13-14 at Shandon Baptist in Columbia. 

The board will reconvene on April 25, 2023.