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Hawaii Pacific Baptists hold 70th annual meeting
Faith McFatridge, Baptist Press
January 10, 2013
4 MIN READ TIME

Hawaii Pacific Baptists hold 70th annual meeting

Hawaii Pacific Baptists hold 70th annual meeting
Faith McFatridge, Baptist Press
January 10, 2013

HONOLULU – Hawaii-Pacific Baptists (HPBC) highlighted missions during their 70th annual meeting in Honolulu, even as the convention faces a 2.4 percent reduction in Cooperative Program (CP) funding for its outreach.

The Hawaii-Pacific Baptist Convention will continue to give 31.5 percent of an anticipated $1,210,000 in CP gifts from its churches to national and international missions of the Southern Baptist Convention, down from the $1,238,774 received during the current fiscal year. The 31.5 percent allocation does not include any shared expenses.

The convention’s overall 2013 budget of $3,086,559 from the North American Mission Board and other sources reflects an increase of just over $10,000 from the 2012 budget of $3,076,108.

With the theme “Celebrate: One Mission, Many Generations,” drawn from Ephesians 4:4-7, the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention’s Nov. 8-9 meeting at Olivet Baptist Church in Honolulu focused heavily on missions.

Speakers recalled being discipled by the early missionaries, by family members who faithfully took them to church or friends who genuinely cared about them – people who made it their “mission” to go out and spread the Good News of Jesus in their community. Paul Kaneshiro, pastor Pukalani Baptist Church on Maui, preached the annual sermon.

The HPBC historical committee spotlighted different eras of the convention’s history with photos, testimony and songs. In celebrating the 1990s to the present, a combined youth choir led the music. Other musical praise leaders were churches on Oahu and the Big Island, Olivet’s adult choir and a Japanese choir.

Messengers approved the affiliation of two new congregations, Emmanuel Korean Baptist Church in Oahu and Songtan Central Baptist Church in Seoul, Korea. The HPBC now consists of 110 constituted churches and 32 mission congregations in Hawaii, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, (Western) Samoa, Okinawa, Japan and Seoul, Korea. Congregations worship weekly in 14 different languages.

In attendance were 329 messengers and guests from 70 state convention churches. To illustrate the many languages of the member churches, at each session five to seven people read the theme scripture in their native languages.

The current officers were re-elected: president, Steve Irvin, pastor of Pali View Baptist Church in Honolulu; first vice president, Chris Martin, pastor of Lahaina Baptist Church in Lahaina, Maui; and second vice president Peter Lee, pastor of the All People Mission Church in Honolulu. Connie Landry, a member of Ocean View Baptist Church on Hawaii, was elected as recording secretary.

The HPBC recognized 10 churches for their CP giving: Mililani Baptist Church, Nuuanu Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Pearl City, Hawaii Kai Church, University Avenue Baptist Church, Cornerstone Fellowship, First Baptist Church of Wahiawa, Waialae Baptist Church, Valley Isle Fellowship and the host congregation, Olivet Baptist Church.

FBC Wahiawa and Olivet also were recognized for increasing their 2012 CP giving, as were Waikiki Baptist Church, Seoul International Baptist Church, Pukalani Baptist Church, Waipio Community Baptist Church, Kinoole Baptist Church, Ewa Beach Baptist Church, All People Mission Church and Waikoloa Baptist Church.

The HPBC presented certificates of excellence in Vacation Bible School to Kahului Baptist Church, Hawaii Christian Baptist Church, Hamakua Baptist Church, Fellowship Baptist Church, Kaumana Drive Baptist Church, Palisades Baptist Church, Waianae Baptist Church and Lihue Baptist Church.

Darla Richardson was recognized for leading eight weeks of Backyard Bible Clubs. The convention honored seven churches for completing the four quadrants of the Acts 1:8 Challenge: Kohala Baptist Church, Lahaina Baptist Church, Hawaii Kai Church, Paradise Park Baptist Church, Pawaa Community Church, FBC Pearl City and Tafuna Baptist Church.

Recognized for completing three quadrants of the Acts 1:8 Challenge were Filipino International Baptist Church, Seoul International Baptist Church, Waikiki Baptist Church and Yokohama Baptist Church.

Commended for the most baptisms were Faith Baptist Mission and Ocean View Baptist Church, among church with no more than 50 members; Marianas Baptist Church and Waianae Baptist Church, among churches with 51 to 100 members; Maui Philippine and Anapouo Church, in the 101 to 150 membership range; and Antiochi Baptist Church, Lihue Baptist Church, Koza Baptist Church and Mililani Baptist Church in the 150-plus membership category.

The annual meeting was broadcast live via the Internet and videos are available here.

The 2013 annual meeting will be Nov. 7-8 at the Hawaii Baptist Academy in Honolulu.

(EDITOR’S NOTE ­– Faith McFatridge is associate editor of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist, newsjournal of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention.)