Dakota Baptist Convention

The Dakota Baptist Convention Executive Board met for their regular meeting in Mandan August 4-5. The meeting featured worship led by the Board’s vice-chairman Chris Wallace (Bismarck: Hope City) and devotionals from Rob Graywater (Fort Totten: Dakota Baptist) and DBC Executive Director Fred MacDonald.

During the meeting the Board approved a 2024 budget and 2024 calendar. Both will be presented to the messengers for approval at the annual meeting in October. The annual meeting is October 5-6 at South Canyon Baptist Church in Rapid City.

Other actions taken by the Board included transferring funds to replenish the Capital Improvement Fund. This fund provides grants to churches that are engaged in capital improvement projects. They also approved a plan to consolidate similar financial statement designated accounts. The plan will reduce the number of accounts from 47 to 32 and categories of accounts from ten to three.

In another action, the Board authorized MacDonald to form a team that would research, craft, and implement an effort to request that the Southern Baptist Convention change its practice of not allowing trustee representation for smaller state conventions. The effort will lead up to introducing a motion at the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis. Currently the DBC has one trustee on the SBC Executive Committee. None of the other agencies have Dakota Baptists on their trustee board.

The Board discussed several other issues without taking any specific actions. The full minutes will be included in the 2023 Book of Reports, which will be available at the annual meeting in October.