Upcoming move for State Board of Missions on schedule

Upcoming move for State Board of Missions on schedule

By Jennifer Davis Rash

The Alabama Baptist

Employees of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) have begun the process of cleaning out, packing up and rehearsing the name of their new office structure.

Great Commission Ministries Resource Center will replace the longtime “Baptist Building” reference as soon as the SBOM staff occupies the soon-to-be-built 39,900-square-foot facility in Prattville.

Projections are for staff members to relocate from their current location on the corner of Narrow Lane Road and East South Boulevard in Montgomery on Jan. 1, 2018.

The move from the existing 87,500-square-foot structure was approved by state convention messengers in November 2016.

SBOM Executive Director Rick Lance said the value of the proposed building and acreage is in line with the appraised value — $7.6 million — of the current Baptist Building.

“The proposal would position missions personnel and resources closer to the geographic center of the state,” he said. “This would provide more accessibility for Alabama Baptists to utilize their State Board of Missions facility as a Great Commission Ministries Resource Center.”

Bobby DuBois, SBOM associate executive director, added, “This is in line with the right-sizing of our staff that has been underway since the arrival in 1998 of Dr. Lance as our executive director. After Dr. Lance joined the staff, our full-time employee count was 121. Today we have 67 full-time employees.”

The relocation was made possible by an “exchange of keys” negotiation with Baptist Health, which has a medical center next door to the current SBOM building. Baptist Health is building the new facility in Prattville on land it currently owns and the two entities will then “trade” facilities.