Georgia Baptist convention expected to draw 3,000

MARIETTA - More than 3,000 participants were expected at the two-day Georgia Baptist Convention&#39;s annual meeting this week. <br> <br> Governor-elect Sonny Perdue received a standing ovation Monday as he addressed the crowd Monday and gave thanks to God for his election victory last week. <br> <br> A campaign to give lay members more power dominated the first day. The Rev. Mark Johnson, pastor of Cherokee Heights Baptist Church in Macon, was to offer an amendment to the convention&#39;s constitution Tuesday to increase the number of lay people on the executive committee. <br> <br> The Executive Committee currently has about 130 members. One is a woman and five are lay people, according to Johnson. The rest are ministers. <br> <br> The convention also was expected to make a decision on whether to accept a list of trustees for Shorter College, a Baptist-affiliated school in Rome. Unhappy with how the trustees were chosen, the convention has been withholding money generated by an endowment fund for the college since January.