By Connie Davis Bushey News Editor, Baptist and Reflector HERMITAGE — Mike Kinle and Pastor David Taft visit shut-ins for First Baptist Church here every Monday afternoon. Kinle always reads the Scripture he has chosen for the people they are visiting. He also leads the prayer, including for prayer requests learned of during the visit. Kinle may not take the lead in the conversations, but he listens and prepares to

Baptist Press ST. LOUIS (BP) — The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting drew 7,321 messengers to St. Louis June 14-15 from the nation’s 46,000-plus Southern Baptist churches. The unofficial total is 35 percent above last year’s 5,407 messengers in Columbus, Ohio. When registered guests, exhibitors and others are included, the count of those at the SBC annual meeting rose to 11,581 as of Wednesday morning. SBC registration secretary Jim Wells

Wilson Henderson credits hard work and loving people as basics of his ministry By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector COLUMBIA — On the last day of December in 2000, Wilson Henderson retired after about 45 years as a minister of music, including the last 13 at Dalewood Baptist Church in Nashville. In April of 2001 Henderson was contacted by Highland Park Baptist Church in Columbia to see if he

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist & Reflector ST. LOUIS — Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines was elected by acclamation as president of the Southern Baptist Convention after fellow nominee J.D. Greear of North Carolina withdrew his name from consideration. The day before (June 14), Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, missed election as president by three votes in a runoff election with Greear, pastor of Summit Church in Durham, N.C.