COLUMBIA, Mo. — Attendees elected Michael Olmsted of Springfield, Mo., moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Heartland for the coming year during a luncheon business session March 15 at First Baptist Church, Columbia, Mo.
The session followed the Liberty, Mo.-based fellowship’s morning meeting of its coordinating council.
Olmsted, originally elected moderator when Kathy Pickett resigned to accept the senior pastorate of Prairie Baptist Church in Prairie, Kan., in late 2013, was elected to a full one-year term.
Nancy Thompson of Des Moines, Iowa, the current moderator-elect, is slated to continue in that role for the next year.
Attendees elected Rodd Kassman of Jefferson City as vice-moderator.
They also reelected Leslie Limbaugh of St. Louis, Mo., recorder, and Charles Cantrell of Mountain View, Mo.. treasurer. Bruce Gentry of Cape Girardeau, Mo., will serve another year as immediate past-moderator.
CBF Heartland added two new at-large members to the coordinating council: Jordan Dollar of Edwardsville, Ill., and Meredith Holladay of Lawrence, Kan.
CBF’ers also approved their ministry plan for the fiscal year Oct. 1, 2014, through Sept. 30, 2015, with a total budget of $207,000.
The annual budget calls for $160,770 in personal expenditures to cover salaries, retirement, medical insurance and travel for Harold Phillips, coordinator, and Jeff Langford, associate coordinator, both full-time positions, and salary for part-time Office Manager Ellen Gregory.
Another $31,330 was budgeted to cover administrative costs like rent, office expenses, accounting services and insurances.
Among the remaining sections of the budget are:
• Missions, $7,200, including expenses related to CBF Heartland’s Bosnian ministry, Roma partnership, the Student.Go program, Together for Hope, field personnel, Camp Connect, disaster response, the Heart for Missions program and others.
• Leadership, $3,450, including the Emerge and Fellowship Scholars programs, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, collegiate congregational interns, a young ministers event, peer learning groups, Women in Ministry and others.
• Various community projects, $2,750.
Word&Way will report on other aspects of the March 15 in the next issue.
