Denominational servants plan ‘kindred spirits’ gathering

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About 200 African Americans serve in associations, state/regional conventions and denominational entities within the Southern Baptist Convention. Their Black Southern Baptist Denominational Servants Network will hold its annual meeting at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, June 19, at Berean Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., prior to the June 21-22 SBC annual meeting. Sid Smith, director of the Florida Baptist Convention’s African American division, is the network’s executive director. He has announced his retirement later this year from both positions. The third volume of The Journal of African American Southern Baptist History is to be released at the meeting. Smith and Roy Cotton, DFW Metroplex regional consultant for the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ church-starting center, co-chair the history project. Smith is slated to speak on “The Southern Baptist Odyssey of a Texan.” Maxie Miller, coordinator for African American church planting for the Florida Baptist Convention, is the group’s treasurer. Nashville’s Berean Baptist Church, where Robert Stoutt is pastor, is located at 4825 Fairmeade Court.