nineteen hundred and forty-six - Amazon Web Services

312 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
NEW WORKERS ADDED
During the past year some changes have taken place in the personnel of
the Board. Rev. Joe W. Burton, Secretary of Education, resigned and accepted
a position with the Sunday School Board. Mr. Burton has been with the Home
Mission Board for ten years and has done a magnificent work in the field of
publicity. Dr. John Caylor, of Shreveport, Louisiana, was elected by the
Board to take his place. Dr. Caylor for a number of years was pastor of Highland
Baptist Church of Shreveport. He was very active in the denominational
life in Louisiana. He is supremely qualified for the task of filling Mr.
Burton's place.
The Board has also established a department of Visual Education and Rev.
R. G. Van Royen, who was at the time of his employment superintendent of
City Missions in Corpus Christi, Texas, has been employed to head this department.
Mr. Van Royen has given a great deal of study in this particular
field and .comes highly recommended for this position.
One of the most important departments of the Home Mission Board is the
revitalization of the country church. The Home Mission Board is cooperating
with the state mission boards in this very important task. Recognizing the
need in this field, the Board has employed Dr. John D. Freeman, who was at one
time Editor of the Baptist and Reflector and for a number of years Executive
Secretary of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, from which position he went
to Kentucky as Editor of the Western Recorder, from which position he comes
to the Home Mission Board as Field Secretary in the Rural Department. Dr.
Freeman has made a special study of the country church and comes to this department
with a store of information that will be very helpful. No one among
Southern Baptists knows more about the country church and its problems than
Dr. Freeman and no one is more interested in the building up of our country
work than he.
Mr. B. M. Crain, Educational Director of the Highland Baptist Church,
Shreveport, Louisiana, has been elected as Associate Office Secretary, to assist
Mr. Wing, the Office Secretary. For a number of years Mr. Crain was in the
accounting department of an insurance company and went from there into
religious work. He is well trained and well qualified, and comes well recommended
for the task to which he has been elected.
New fields have been opened up to the Home Mission Board in California,
Arizona and New Mexico. In these states there are great mission fields of
need. The Home Mission Board is endeavoring to meet these needs. In
addition to cooperating through the state mission boards in an enlarged missionary
program, the Board has employed Rev. Fred A. McCaulley as General
Field Worker. Brother McCaulley comes from the chaplaincy. He was formerly
the Superintendent of Sunday School work in Oklahoma. From this task he
went into the ministry and attended- Southwestern Seminary. From a pastorate
in Texas, he volunteered for the chaplaincy and now he comes to the Home Mission
Board for mission work in these great needy western fields.
The report of the work done during the past year is given by departments
and follows in the body of the board's report to the Convention.
SUMMARY OF WORK FOR 1945
Number of workers (including 206 summer workers) .... 851
Conversions 16,833
Additions to churches 10,929
Sermons and Addresses 58,524
Prayer Meetings Conducted 17,568
Religious Visits 255,546
Persons contacted in personal work 289,372
Bibles and Gospels distributed 42,511
Pages of tracts distributed .2,006,010
Mission courses taught « 10,558
Revivals conducted 1,173
New missions opened 471
New churches organized 123
Number of kindergartens 26
Number of Vacation Bible Schools 1,936
Churches, Pastors' homes chapels, provided built or improved 358 29