Sights and sites from CBF Memphis

In a business session Friday morning, participants unanimously approved a $16.5 million budget and new officers. An “offering” of surveys compiled during two periods of “prayer and discernment” were brought forward. During the evening service, an “offering of letters” encouraging the U.S. Congress to increase funding for global economic development efforts was also received.

During a missions-oriented worship time on Friday evening, a choir of Karen (ka-RIN) people, refugees from Burma, sang as representatives from Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville spoke of how they had welcomed and come to love about 140 new Karen members.

Moderator Harriet Harrel of Fort Worth turned over the gavel to incoming moderator Jack Glasgow of Zebulon, N.C. (above). Hal Bass, a professor at Oachita Baptist University, was named moderator-elect.

CBF missions coordinator Rob Nash (left) acknowledged missions personnel as well as volunteers, and the service closed, as usual, with a service of communion.

The city of Memphis is a charming small city with nice parks along the Mississippi, a convenient trolley system, lots of restaurants, and the world’s most overrated barbeque. Favorite sites include the ducks who hang out in the fountain of the Peabody Hotel, the Orpheum Theater, the Mud Island River Park, and any place where Elvis left a fingerprint.

Visitors should not miss spending a morning or afternoon (at least) in the National Civil Rights Museum, which is built around the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The museum is very informative, almost to the point of being overwhelming. If you click on the picture at right to expand it, you can see a wreath outside room 306, where King was standing on the balcony when he was shot.

We found the people of Memphis — with the notable exception of most trolley operators — to be warm and courteous hosts, but once Elvis had left the building, it was time to go.