nineteen hundred and forty-six - Amazon Web Services

PROCEEDINGS • 41
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT
DUKE K. McCALL, Executive Secretary
AUSTIN CROUCH. Executive Secretary Emeritus
I. E. DILLARD, Director of Promotion
WALTER M. GILMORE, Director of Publicity
At the regular meeting of the Executive Committee in June, 1945, Dr. Austin
Crouch, who served as Executive Secretary of the Committee since its reorganization
in June, 1927, requested to be retired from active service after
October 1, 1945.
After due consideration, the Committee reelected Dr. Crouch to serve as
Executive Secretary until his successor could be found and he could take ovei
the responsibilities of the office, at which time Dr. Crouch would become secretarj
emeritus. A committee of ten was appointed to nominate a successor.
At the December meeting of the Committee, the special committee nominated
Dr. Duke K. McCall, president of the Baptist Bible Institute of New Orleans, as
Executive Secretary, and he was unanimously elected. On January 25, he
accepted the call to become effective May 1, 1946, at which time he took over
the office of Executive Secretary and Dr. Crouch became' secretary emeritus.
PROMOTION
"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."
During the stressful times through which we have passed we have endeavored
to carry on all the work committed to us in the best way possible under the
circumstances. We are grateful to God and to all who have helped. Executive
secretaries, editors, organizations, pastors, and our people in general, have been
sympathetic and co-operative thereby enabling us to report progress along many
if not all lines.
PUBLICITY
In addition to utilizing the newspapers in publicising our work we have
published seven issues of The Baptist Program during the year, which has gone
to more pastors than ever before. The Baptist Bulletin Service, emphasizing
every phase of our denominational life, has far exceeded in circulation all former
records, approximately 300,000 each week. The same is true in reference to
our tracts and posters. *
1945: THE CENTENNIAL CRUSADE
In 1945, the Centennial year of our Convention, a special effort was made
to worthily complete, celebrate, climax, and crown the century for Christ. We
call this special effort the Centennial Crusade. There were six great objectives,
namely: (1) Winning a million more souls to Christ; (2) enlisting a million
more souls for Christ; (3) teaching a million more souls the word and will of
Christ; (4) rebuilding war's wreckage; (5) reviving scriptural giving; (6) relieving
humanity's needs. It was hoped our people would contribute at least
$20,000,000 for the support of our denominational work, state and Southwide.
We did not reach all these objectives, but this Centennial year was in many
ways the greatest year in our Convention history. Our total church contributions
for 1945 were $98,458,425 which was an increase of $21,859,005 over 1944.
Our gifts to mission causes for 1945 were $22,490,751 which was an increase
of $5,187,232 over 1944.
Our gifts for Southwide causes through the Nashville office for 1945 were
$5,735,559.83 which was an increase of $1,458,067.53 over 1944.
Our gifts for church support and denominational work were much the largest
in our history, but still were insufficient to meet the crying needs of our denomination
and a broken world.
1946: THE ENLARGED CO-OPERATIVE PROGRAM
Your Executive Committee acting for the Convention tried to launch a new
Century for Christ in the year 1946. This enlarged program stresses six points:
(1) Indoctrination, or informing our people as to our doctrines, program, and
work. (2) Conservation, or holding fast the victories already achieved, namely,