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Baptist Press Stories for Apr. 25 2014
SBC BALTIMORE: Luter ready for revival through prayer
Sex-saturated culture addressed at summit
'Whole Gospel' needed in sexualized age
Mohler open to meeting with gay author
Easter sermon yielded to Ukraine's president
SBC Executive Committee, boards, commission, seminaries, committee nominees announced
Luter names Committee on Committees
Pastors' Conference to 'pour into pastors'
SBC Pastors' Conference 2014 Schedule
'Highs & lows' to be pastors' wives theme
WMU focus: Annie Armstrong's challenge
WMU Celebration, Annual Meeting Schedule
NAAF priority: church planting strategy
Black network eyes membership growth
Filipinos to 'multiply' church planting
Native Americans to build urban strategy
Messianics to focus on 'Kingdom Purpose'
Associational leaders focus on harvest
Ministers' Wives to hear Priscilla Shirer
Evangelists to unveil new website
Seminaries slate luncheons at Baltimore SBC
NAMB, messengers to 'experience Baltimore'
LifeWay to unveil small groups emphasis
GuideStone to offer wellness, retirement help
FIRST-PERSON: Aborted babies as medical waste
CALL TO PRAYER: Petition & praise in prison
EDITORIAL: Fe Que Transforma
SBC BALTIMORE: Luter ready for revival through prayer
By Shawn Hendricks
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- With a desire to keep the focus on the power of revival and prayer, Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter expressed excitement about this year's SBC annual meeting June 10-11 in Baltimore. Messengers also will elect a new president as Luter wraps up his second term.
Pointing to the annual meeting theme "Restoration and Revival through Prayer," Luter noted the return of a Tuesday evening revival service -- similar in style to last year's -- that has drawn positive feedback from participants.
"I wanted to again stay with the theme revival, but let's undergird it with prayer," Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, told Baptist Press. "Last year in Houston ... it was phenomenally successful. It was standing room only.... All we had was music and preaching.
"That was something that we thought went so well that we wanted to do that again. [On that Tuesday evening,] we just come for worship and the word. That's it. No business will be conducted."
Luter selected the theme verse Psalm 80:18-19: "Then we will not turn away from You; revive us, and we will call on Your name. Restore us, Yahweh, the God of Hosts; look on us with favor, and we will be saved" (HCSB).
As the first-ever African American to lead the SBC when he was elected in 2012, Luter will give his last message to the convention as SBC president June 10. Luter also will address Southern Baptist associational leaders June 6 at a banquet at the Inner Harbor Holiday Inn. Tickets are still available by going to http://www.sbcal.org/.
Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd will be nominated for SBC president by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. Floyd's nomination for president is the only one that has been announced so far for this year's meeting.
Floyd has led Cross Church in northwest Arkansas -- with campuses in Springdale, Rogers and Fayetteville -- for 27 years.
Floyd led the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force for the SBC in 2009-10. The task force report called for international missions to receive 51 percent of all Cooperative Program gifts. Last year, Cross Church contributed more than $700,000 to the Cooperative Program, Mohler noted in his a letter announcing Floyd's nomination.
Floyd is a former chairman of the SBC Executive Committee and was a member of the SBC's Program and Structure Task Force during the mid-1990s. In recent months, Floyd helped spearhead two pastor/leader prayer gatherings -- one in Atlanta and the other in Ft. Worth. Each drew participants from about 30 states. In addition to serving as general editor for LifeWay's updated "Bible Studies for Life," Floyd has authored 10 books. His latest book, which was released in 2011, is "Our Last Great Hope: Awakening the Great Commission."
Two other nominees for SBC offices have been announced:
-- Clint Pressley, senior pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., will be nominated by Ted Traylor, senior pastor of Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, for the office of first vice president. Pressley serves as vice president of the SBC Pastor's Conference and is a former vice chairman of the trustees for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
-- Hance Dilbeck, senior pastor of Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, will be nominated for the office of second vice president by former SBC president Johnny Hunt. Dilbeck has led the 4,600-member church since 2003 and has been a pastor for more than 20 years.
Crossover Baltimore
The Baltimore Baptist Association, the North American Mission Board, local churches, associations and other volunteers are working closely as they gear up for this year's Crossover Baltimore.
The outreach -- with its block parties and door-to-door evangelism efforts -- joins Baptists together in evangelism in the host city of the annual meeting.
"Our churches are excited about the unique opportunity to share Christ with our city that Crossover will bring," Bob Mackey, executive director of the Baltimore Baptist Association, said in a March 10 article released by Baptist Press.
"Baltimore is not like a lot of other places in the country," Mackey said. "We're not in a predominantly Christian region of the country; we don't have a church on every corner or throngs of people actively seeking out Christianity. Our hope is that, through the partnership of others in the SBC, Crossover will represent Christ to the people of Baltimore and our region and lay a greater foundation for our local churches."
Baltimore is one of NAMB's key 32 cities in the Send North America strategy to plant more churches in the largest and least-reached cities in North America. Some of the Crossover Baltimore projects will directly benefit local church plants in the city.
For more information on Crossover Baltimore, visit [URL=http://www.namb.net/crossover/]www.namb.net/crossover[/URL] and [URL=http://embracebaltimore.com/crossover/]http://embracebaltimore.com/crossover/[/URL]. Or, contact Cindy Irizarry, director of mobilization and logistics at firstname.lastname@example.com or 443-219-2543.
Qualifications for churches
The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee will consider a proposal June 9 to update the SBC constitution regarding qualifications for churches to send messengers to the annual meeting.
During its Feb. 17-18 meeting in Nashville, the Executive Committee decided to place the item on its June 9 agenda prior to the SBC annual meeting in Baltimore to allow Southern Baptists time to discuss the proposed change and provide feedback. The committee's deliberations, then, will determine whether the proposed revision will be presented to messengers during the annual meeting. Read more about the proposal [URL=http://www.bpnews.net/42039/updated-qualifications-weighed-for-messengers]here[/URL] and [URL=http://www.bpnews.net/42114/qa-article-iii-on-messenger-qualifications]here[/URL].
SBC smartphone app
Messengers to the annual meeting once again can stay up to date with an SBC annual meeting smartphone app, which will include more than a dozen features, including maps, alerts, the Book of Reports and the Daily Bulletin. More information will be available about the app in the weeks ahead.
Other highlights
-- With the theme "Show Us Your glory," the June 8-9 Pastors' Conference will welcome pastors and their wives for a two-day event of preaching, worship and prayer. The sessions will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center.
Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference President Bruce Frank has said he chose speakers who "have a heart to pour into pastors."
The Pastors' Conference is free and requires no registration. To learn more about this year's schedule, sponsors and theme, visit [URL=http://sbcpc.net/]sbcpc.net[/URL].
Childcare for children ages birth through 12 years will be offered during all Pastors' Conference sessions. Children ages 4-12 may register for a conference provided by Children's Conferences International. Register at [URL=http://www.childrensconferences.com/#!events/cee5]www.childrensconferences.com[/URL]. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief childcare volunteers will offer childcare for newborns through age 5 during the Pastors' Conference.
-- During its fourth annual Send North America luncheon, the North American Mission Board will once again highlight its partnership with Southern Baptists to push back lostness throughout North America. The event will be held at noon Monday, June 9, in the Ballroom on Level 400 of the Baltimore Convention Center. There is limited seating for this free Baltimore-themed lunch. Attendees must register and have a ticket to attend. Tickets are available at [URL=http://snaluncheon.com/]snaluncheon.com[/URL].
-- With the theme "Go Forward," the WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting will take place June 8–9 in Baltimore. WMU will wrap up a yearlong celebration of its 125th anniversary. "What better place ... than the home of Annie Armstrong!" Debby Akerman, president of national WMU, said in reference to Baltimore and Armstrong, who was instrumental in the missions organization's founding in 1888 and was its first corresponding secretary. This year's Woman's Missionary Union celebration will feature a joint commissioning service (June 8) of about 100 new field personnel representing the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board.
-- With the theme, "No Fear. No Excuses. He is Able" from 2 Timothy 1:12, the Ministers' Wives' Luncheon will be held June 10 in the Key Ballroom at the Hilton Baltimore. The event will feature Priscilla Shirer, author of several books, including "One in a Million," "The Resolution for Women" and most recently "God is Able." Advance tickets are $15 at LifeWay.com/sbcwives; $20 at the door.
-- The National African American Fellowship will celebrate its 20th anniversary June 7-9 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The fellowship is working to establish a partnership with the North American Mission Board to plant churches. It would focus on utilizing models that are culturally relevant and raising money to fund church plants.
-- Two weeks following the SBC's annual meeting, the Korean Council of Southern Baptist Churches in America will hold its 35th annual meeting June 23-26 at the Hilton Washington Dulles hotel. The meeting is expected to draw 800 or more attendees.
-- GuideStone Financial Resources will again offer a wellness center during the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Messengers can visit the exhibit hall in Baltimore to take advantage of the wellness center's services, valued at $150. GuideStone will offer retirement and insurance meetings during the SBC annual meeting and Pastors' Conference June 9-11.
Register online at [URL=http://www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbc14/default.asp]www.sbcannualmeeting.net[/URL] under the Messengers tab. After completing online registration, each messenger will receive an eight-digit registration code to present at the annual meeting's Express registration lane. There, the registration code can be entered into a computer and a nametag will be printed. The traditional registration method also will be available.
Messengers planning to propose resolutions must submit them no later than 15 days prior to the annual meeting. Detailed guidelines on submitting resolutions are available at [URL=http://www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbc14/default.asp]www.sbcannualmeeting.net[/URL] under the Messengers tab. Resolutions may be submitted online but must be followed up by a letter of credentials from the submitter's church.
Children & students
Preschool child care and activities for children who have completed grades 1-6 will be housed at the Baltimore Convention Center, the annual meeting site. Youth who have completed grades 7-12 will begin their days at the convention center with worship before going into the community for hands-on missions work.
Pre-registration is required online at [URL=http://www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbc14/default.asp]www.sbcannualmeeting.net[/URL] under the "Children/Youth" tab. All participants should register as soon as possible because of limited space. Due to space limitations and worker-to-children ratio objectives, onsite registration will not be accepted.
To read more about child care options offered during the SBC Pastors' Conference and annual meeting click [URL=http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=42122]here[/URL].
Shawn Hendricks, managing editor of Baptist Press, wrote and compiled this story. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Sex-saturated culture addressed at summit
By Tom Strode
Apr. 25 2014
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Pastors and other evangelical Christians should speak biblically and live purely to minister faithfully in a sex-saturated culture, speakers said at a Southern Baptist-sponsored summit on the Gospel and sexuality.
In addresses during the three-day conference, speakers challenged participants with messages designed to equip church leaders and other Christians to live with purity while aiding people inside and outside the church who are captive to a sexualized society. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission sponsored its inaugural ERLC Leadership Summit in sessions April 21-23 at the Southern Baptist Convention building in Nashville.
As sexualized as American culture is, it does not appear to be at the saturation point, ERLC President Russell D. Moore said.
"In terms of the entire society, I don't think we're there yet, because I think that what's happening is that technology is making the sexual revolution more and more elastic," Moore said during a panel discussion on ministry in a sex-permeated culture.
He suspects that "what we are going to find is there are a lot of people who have been promised a kind of easy gospel of sexual freedom who are going to be asking, 'What now? What's after this?' And so I think we need to be the sort of church and the sort of people who can be ready" to welcome and help them, Moore said.
The summit, titled "The Gospel and Human Sexuality," dealt with such issues as moral purity, marital sexuality, pastoral care for sexual immorality, pornography, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, sex trafficking, discussing sex with children and young people, and biblical manhood and womanhood.
J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church in the Raleigh/Durham (N.C.) area, said presenting the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus is vital in dealing with sexuality and sexual sin.
"The problem is not that our desire for sex is so strong but that our love for God is so weak," he said in a keynote speech on pastoral care for sexual sin.
"[O]ur message cannot simply be, 'Stop having sex.' Our message has to be, 'Behold your God,'" Greear told the audience, which consisted of 205 registrants.
"What you have to do is to be consumed with a God and His work so much that it breaks the craving" for sex, he said.
Various speakers pointed to the need for pastors to preach systematically through the Bible, and some pointed to the damage that preaching to address felt needs has done among evangelicals in recent decades.
"The generational effect of felt-needs preaching, the generational effect of preaching what we think people want to hear and not exalting the unique person and unique work of Jesus Christ has caused irreparable harm in the church world," said Kevin Smith, assistant professor of preaching at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and teaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
"It's easy to scapegoat gay people," he said. "It's easy to scapegoat the culture war without proclaiming the Word of God from the pulpit to the people sitting in your congregation looking at your face."
Evangelicals should make certain they are speaking biblically and factually while befriending gays and lesbians when addressing homosexuality and same-sex marriage, speakers noted.
"The point is not homosexuality; the point is the Lordship of Jesus," Greear said.
"God doesn't send people to hell for homosexuality. He sends people to hell for self-rule and self-righteousness," he said.
Jimmy Scroggins, senior pastor of First Baptist church in West Palm Beach, Fla., said Christians should "reject redneck theology in all its forms," including jokes about "Adam and Steve."
The summit addressed the pervasiveness of pornography, especially among church leaders and other Christians.
Pornography "represents the greatest moral crisis in the history of the church," said Heath Lambert, executive director of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors and assistant professor of biblical counseling at Southern Seminary.
While there are all sorts of moral problems, "porn is something evangelicals can do in a dark room behind a shut door after they have railed against homosexual marriage," he said during his keynote speech.
"I think the greatest threat to the church today is the Christian pastor, the Christian school teacher, the Christian college and seminary student who exalts sound theology, who points to the Bible and then retreats to the basement computer" for an hour of pornography, Lambert told the audience.
The average age of a boy's first experience with hard-core pornography is 12, Lambert said. "We don't know what it is like to have a nation of men who are addicted to pornography," he said.
David Prince, pastor of preaching at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., and associate professor of preaching at Southern Seminary, said he is convinced pornography is "devastating the spiritual vitality of our churches."
Pastor and seminary professor Tony Merida said Christians can battle sex trafficking by halting their consumption of pornography.
"I would go so far as to say if you are viewing pornography you are perpetuating the sex trafficking industry," said Merida, founding pastor of Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, N.C., and associate professor of preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
Pastors need to be accountable to others regarding pornography and to address their churches, Lambert said. While practical strategies are needed, "[t]here is no grasp of porn that is so tight that the grace of Jesus cannot break it," he said.
Evangelicals need to awaken the culture to the problem, Lambert said. "[W]e need to dedicate ourselves to a decades-long fight to end this."
While discussion of pornography focused on the need of males to be on guard, Trillia Newbell said women should not be forgotten by pastors when they address the issue of pornography and other sexual sins.
Research from 2007 showed about 13 million women go to online porn sites each month, said Newbell, an author and the ERLC's consultant for women's initiatives. About one-third of visitors to adult entertainment websites are females, Newbell reported.
"There is a stereotype and a really, really, really bad rumor that women don't struggle with sexual sin. Or so it appears," she said.
All Scripture is useful, "and therefore those [biblical] texts aren't meant for only men," but for women also, Newbell said.
The problem of pornography among evangelicals was reflected in research data presented by Mark Regnerus, an author and associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin. He cited research showing:
-- 25 percent of evangelical men report using pornography in the past week.
-- 14 percent of evangelical men report porn usage in the past day.
Regnerus also reported that more than 48 percent of evangelicals report having premarital sex with their spouse.
Prince pointed to the Gospel in a keynote address about helping parents address their children's sexuality.
"We are to have a distinctive, Christ-centered view of everything, including sexuality," he said.
"Our approach can't be, 'Just say no.' That is not Christian sexuality. We want them to have a comprehensively, Christ-centered view of sexuality."
Among his recommendations, Prince encouraged parents to recognize sex education as an important part of Gospel education, to answer questions without hesitation when asked by their children and to be the first to explain sexual intercourse to their children.
Smith said pastors and other Christians should address sexuality but with the "tone of Scripture" and "in ways that reflect God's glory."
"[W]e must realize the over-sexualization of our society can't lead to the a-sexualization of the church," he said. "[W]e can't get to a place where the church" doesn't talk about sex.
He urged the audience -- some who were watching by live-stream -- to avoid vulgarity and "ways that remove the mystery of the special intimacy between a husband and wife."
"I'm tired of preachers bragging about their hot wife," he said. "No. 1, hot is an objectifying term. There is nothing good, profitable or godly about calling your wife hot in public. All it does is set up an examination" of your wife.
"We're trying to heighten the conversation," Smith said. "We're not trying to make sex less dramatic. We're trying to make sex more dramatic."
Videos of the summit sessions are available online at [URL=http://erlc.com/summit/videos]http://erlc.com/summit/videos[/URL]
Tom Strode is Baptist Press' Washington Bureau chief. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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'Whole Gospel' needed in sexualized age
By Tom Strode
Apr. 25 2014
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Evangelicals must proclaim the Christian sexual ethic and the 'whole Gospel' to an increasingly confused culture, Southern Baptist lead ethicist Russell D. Moore told pastors and others during a three-day leadership summit.
The president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) said fulfilling their God-given commission means Southern Baptists and other evangelical Christians must truthfully address the deception foisted upon people by the devil and his demonic forces.
"[I]f we tell the culture around us what we think they want to hear or if we practice the sort of selective universalism that tells them what they want to hear only as it relates to sexuality, we will not breed evangelism," Moore said April 22. "We will breed cynicism from a group of people who will say, 'If we cannot trust you to tell us the truth about your Gospel, then how can we trust you to tell us how to be resurrected from the dead.'"
Moore delivered one of the keynote addresses during the first ERLC Leadership Summit, which addressed the topic "The Gospel and Human Sexuality" April 21-23 in Nashville.
The way to address Americans "is not by more culture-war posturing but by a Christ-shaped counter-revolution that takes seriously what the Bible speaks about sexuality, about marriage, about human dignity and focuses that upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ," Moore said.
He acknowledged the Christian view of sexuality in a sexualized culture not only will appear strange but may, in many cases, "seem even subversive to the people around us."
"What I think we ought to commit to do as the people of God is not to run away from the strangeness of Christianity but to reclaim the strangeness of Christianity as it is found and focused on a crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ," Moore said.
In too many of their circles for too long, evangelicals have had an "almost gospel" or a "discount-store prosperity gospel," he told the pastors and other church leaders.
"[W]hen we are calling people to a Christian sexual ethic, if we have spent all of our time preaching a gospel that fulfills all the expectations that you already have of what it means to live your normal life -- your best life now with heaven at the end of it -- then of course it seems nonsensical" to tell those called to singleness the path to celibacy is difficult, to tell people they must fight against temptation, to tell spouses their marriage should not be ended when it becomes demanding, to tell Christians their lives are going to be ones of spiritual warfare, Moore said.
"The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not pretend that the path to sexual purity is easy," he said. "The Gospel of Jesus Christ says that the entire life of the Christian is one of bearing a cross, which is why we need the entire body of Christ ... so that the stronger will bear up the weaker," he told the audience.
Everyone needs "not an almost gospel but a whole Gospel that speaks to us truthfully of God's justice and truthfully of God's justification to understand and to know the joy of what it means to follow and to walk after Jesus, which means sometimes that we walk in places that don't seem to make sense...," Moore said.
An "almost gospel is no match for the sexual revolution," he said.
Among problems Moore cited as marking America's sexualized culture are pornography, divorce, abortion, child abuse, the objectification of young women and challenges to the concepts of love, fidelity and family.
With Luke 3:2-22 as his text, Moore said the mission of John the Baptist, described in the passage, is the same as the mission of the church -- "to point and say, 'Behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.'"
God designed the human sex drive to be powerful so a man "will leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife, and they will become one flesh," he said.
In the one-flesh union of a man and a woman, God "is showcasing, He is picturing, He is demonstrating the union of Christ and His church," Moore said, adding, "That is not just a relationship. It's a gospel tract. It's an invitation hymn."
Evangelicals must not only address the deceptions of the devil but his accusations, Moore said.
"You and I are living in a world full of sexual brokenness in which the devil is saying to people all around us, 'I know who you are. I know what you've done,'" he said. Many people inside and outside the church, he added, are hiding from the voice of God because of the devil's accusation.
The call for people to be reconciled to God should be done with not only the message of Jesus but in the way He did it, Moore told the audience.
Speaking prophetically means doing so "in a way that opposes the devil without acting like the devil," he said. "It is easy to demonize opponents. It is difficult to oppose demons."
Tom Strode is Baptist Press' Washington Bureau chief. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Mohler open to meeting with gay author
By David Roach
Apr. 25 2014
Originally posted Thursday, April 24, 2014
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Through an exchange on Twitter, R. Albert Mohler Jr. has expressed his willingness to meet with author Matthew Vines, whose new book "God and the Gay Christian" argues that Scripture permits monogamous homosexual relationships.
Four Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professors who contributed with Mohler to an e-book critiquing Vines also apparently have shared their interest on Twitter in meeting with him.
Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, edited the e-book "God and the Gay Christian? A Response to Matthew Vines," released by SBTS Press the same day as Vines' book. Contributing chapters to the book were Mohler; James Hamilton, professor of biblical theology; Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies; Owen Strachan, assistant professor of Christian theology and church history; and Heath Lambert, assistant professor of biblical counseling. Burk, Strachan and Lambert teach primarily for Boyce College, the undergraduate school of Southern Seminary.
In the e-book, Mohler and his co-authors noted that Vines' arguments are flawed biblically and historically. (For Baptist Press' story on the book, click [URL=http://www.bpnews.net/42415/progay-book-exceedingly-dangerous]here[/URL].)
On April 22, Mohler tweeted a link to a Religion News Service interview featuring written comments from himself and Vines on the topic of Christianity and homosexuality. Mohler included Vines' Twitter handle in the post, and several minutes later Vines responded, "@albertmohler Thank you for engaging with my book. If you are open to it, I'd love to connect and get to know you, even in the midst of differences."
Mohler responded, "I will be very glad to meet you in person and not merely in print. I am thankful for a respectful exchange of beliefs." Vines, who said in his book that he is homosexual, replied that a meeting would be "wonderful" and offered to travel to Kentucky, where Southern Seminary is located.
In response to an inquiry by Baptist Press, Southern Seminary's executive editor and chief spokesman James A. Smith Sr. said, "Dr. Mohler is grateful for the respectful initial dialogue with Matthew Vines, but he will not be commenting further at this time."
The next day, Vines had a Twitter exchange with three of the Southern Seminary professors who contributed to the e-book -- Hamilton, Lambert and Burk.
Hamilton tweeted a link to a blog post he wrote which characterized one of Vines' arguments as a "misunderstanding of Jesus." Hamilton asked Vines, "If you were convinced you had misread something, would you be open to reconsidering?"
Vines responded that he is "always open to reconsidering" and said he would like to meet Hamilton and the other e-book authors when he travels to Kentucky. Hamilton, Lambert and Burk tweeted publicly that they welcomed the meeting. A separate tweet by Vines made it appear that Strachan had privately accepted the invitation to meet.
Vines tweeted that he also looked forward to meeting with Andrew Walker of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, who wrote a review critiquing "God and the Gay Christian." Walker had contacted Vines via Twitter and told him that he "would be happy to meet."
In the RNS interview with Mohler and Vines, senior columnist Jonathan Merritt asked them, "If there is one thing you could ask the other party and those they represent, what would it be?"
Vines replied, "My main request to non-affirming Christians is simply to listen. If you are straight and don't have close relationships with many gay Christians, it isn't appropriate to respond to this conversation with knee-jerk outrage and condemnation. I may be young, but this issue affects my life far more intimately than it affects the lives of straight Christians, and I think it is important for straight people in particular to be open to listening and learning. We won't all agree in the near future, but if we turn down the volume and respect and value one another's faith, the church will be able to offer a more Christ-like witness because of it."
Mohler said, "If the Bible, plainly understood by Christians for two thousand years, is not to be trusted to reveal our true identity, our true need, and God's plan and purpose for our lives, then why even attempt to argue that the church has misread the Bible for two millennia? I would ask those arguing for the acceptance of same-sex sexuality and marriage within the church to consider that they are trying to make of Christianity what it has never been and can never be. What is at stake is nothing less than eternal salvation. The church must not fail those with same-sex attractions by forfeiting the only gospel that leads to salvation."
David Roach is Baptist Press' chief national correspondent; see yesterday's story about Vines' book [URL=http://www.bpnews.net/42421/progay-book-departs-from-christian-tradition]here[/URL]. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Easter sermon yielded to Ukraine's president
By Sharayah Colter/Southern Baptist TEXAN
Apr. 25 2014
KIEV, Ukraine (BP) -- Texas evangelist Michael Gott saw an unexpected opportunity and seized it when he yielded his preaching time on Easter morning to Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov.
Ukrainians attending the service at a large and crowded Baptist church in Kiev were unaware that Turchynov, a fellow Baptist and an occasional lay preacher, would be there when they gathered to celebrate Christ's resurrection, Gott said in a statement provided to the Southern Baptist TEXAN.
Turchynov, designated as acting president following protests and bloodshed in the former Soviet republic, spoke to the crowd for more than 20 minutes about his faith in Jesus Christ. He noted his deep appreciation for their prayers and referred to them several times as "dear brothers and sisters," Gott said.
Gott, whose Michael Gott International ministry is based in Keller, Texas, is in Ukraine on an evangelistic tour with the Arkansas Baptist Master'Singers choir. He said he urged the president to take the opportunity to encourage his fellow Ukrainians.
"Mr. President, I honor you for the courage you have to stand before this nation as a humble, born-again Christian," Gott told Turchynov from his seat near the leader. "While the world is watching, let them hear you confess Jesus Christ as the risen Lord."
Turchynov was "gracious in his words of encouragement," Gott said.
When it was announced Turchynov was in attendance, the Baptist church broke out in applause -- unusual for a Ukrainian church, he noted.
Gott said Turchynov's address to the church was "a historic moment. Never before has an acting Ukrainian president attended a Baptist worship service. Never. And I would remind all of us that this is the same Ukraine that once harshly persecuted Baptists and called them 'a despised cult.' But also this is the Ukraine in which Nikita Khrushchev once said, 'Ukraine does not need Jesus Christ -- they have me!'"
Gott said he even joked with Turchynov that he would make a good evangelist, yielding a "Thank you" and a smile from the head of state.
Later in the day, Gott spoke to an estimated 20,000 people at Maidan, in the heart of Kiev, where he reminded the open-air crowd and a live national television audience that political leadership would not solve the unrest plaguing the nation.
"A new president is not the solution to Ukraine's problems," Gott said. "This nation needs a new birth -- a spiritual awakening."
Gott commended the nation for uniting to oust a corrupt leader, but said the lasting hope for Ukraine would be found in kneeling before the risen Lord.
The pro-Western government took over after Viktor Yanukovich, the Moscow-backed president, fled the capital amid civil unrest after his refusal, under Russian pressure, to strengthen ties with the European Union.
Moscow refuses to acknowledge the acting Kiev government and reportedly has troops positioned along its border with Ukraine. In March Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in what the United States condemned as an illegal "land grab."
Ukrainians need Christians worldwide to join them in prayer, Gott said.
"The situation in Ukraine reminds all of us how we need to become world Christians and to recognize that some of these major events taking place in the world directly affect our brothers and sisters in Christ, and so we all need a new sensitivity about the work of God going on in many places in the world.
"But for Ukraine in particular, we need to imagine the anguish and the struggle in the hearts of these people," Gott said. "An invasion from Russia in Ukraine would be disastrous and it would almost force the world to go back to the Cold War mentality. Ukraine could not withstand a Russian military invasion. We need to pray for peace, and we need to ask for God to intervene, and we need to recognize that all of this indirectly affects the work of the Great Commission. Let us ask God to bless the people of Ukraine."
During his time there, Gott has also visited with the Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists president, Viacheslav Nesteruk, thanking him for his support and adding, "We have come to lift up Jesus Christ and to see people drawn to him."
The choir tour is covering seven cities in western Ukraine. The choir received an official invitation from the Ukrainian minister of culture that gives them permission to hold events in public buildings, Gott said.
Sharayah Colter is a writer for the Southern Baptist TEXAN (www.texanonline.net), newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
-- End of story --
SBC Executive Committee, boards, commission, seminaries, committee nominees announced
By Staff
Apr. 25 2014
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Nominees to serve on the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, the four denominational boards -- International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, LifeWay Christian Resources and GuideStone Financial Resources -- the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the six seminaries and the Committee on Order of Business have been selected by the 2014 SBC Committee on Nominations.
Nominees will serve if elected by the messengers to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, June 10-11 in Baltimore.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (83 members): 22 nominations considered; 13 new members; 9 renominations.
Nominees with term to expire in 2018 replacing members ineligible for re-election include Charles S. Worthy, pastor, First Baptist Church, Willow, Alaska, replacing Bruce V. Rowell, Palmer, Alaska; Paul Eugene (Gene) McPherson, layperson and member of Central Baptist Church, Magnolia, Ark., replacing David R. Mitchell, Cabot, Ark.; Rolland E. Slade, pastor, Meridian Southern Baptist Church, El Cajon, Calif., replacing Milton F. Steck, Vacaville, Calif.; Michael R. (Mike) Stone, pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Blackshear, Ga., replacing Ernest L. Easley, Marietta, Ga.; Cheryl S. Samples, layperson and member of Pickett's Mill Baptist Church, Dallas, Ga., replacing Barry P. Ladd Sr., Gainesville, Ga.; Mike Holloway, pastor, Cook Baptist Church, Ruston, La., replacing Tommy G. Middleton, Baton Rouge, La.; Ron E. Hale, senior adult/pastoral care pastor, West Jackson Baptist Church, Jackson, Tenn., replacing Jamie L. Work, Cleveland, Tenn.; Stephen K. Swofford, pastor, First Baptist Church, Rockwall, Texas, replacing Chris S. Osborne, College Station, Texas; James W. Gregory, pastor, First Southern Baptist Church, Mountain Home, Idaho, replacing Gary O. McKean, Layton, Utah; Timothy Hight, pastor, GraceLife Baptist Church, Christiansburg, Va., replacing Rodney F. Autry, Manassas, Va.
Nominated for term to expire in 2017 is Michael E. (Mike) Pope, layperson and member of Grace Baptist Church, Somerset, Ky., replacing Arnaldo (Tino) Soto-Cuevas, Corbin, Ky., who resigned.
Nominated for term to expire in 2016 are Charles (Glynn) Rhinehart, layperson and member of First Baptist Church, Youngsville, La., replacing Edward J. (Eddie) Dease, Covington, La., who resigned; Tom Tucker, pastor, Sisk Memorial Baptist Church, Fort Mill, S.C., replacing Alan Quigley, Greenwood, S.C., who resigned.
Nominated for second term are D. Wayne Myrick, Hoover, Ala.; R. Ron Madison, Huntsville, Ala.; Andy Wilson, Springdale, Ark.; Stephen N. Rummage, Brandon, Fla.; Robert D. (Dan) Summerlin, Paducah, Ky.; David E. Hamilton, Pontotoc, Miss.; Terry H. Montgomery, Charlotte, N.C.; Robert W. (Bob) Neely, Spartanburg, S.C.; Becky S. Illingworth, Royse City, Texas.
GUIDESTONE FINANCIAL RESOURCES (44 members): 10 nominations considered; 3 new members; 7 renominations.
Nominees with term to expire in 2018 replacing members ineligible for re-election include David S. Puckett, layperson and member of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala., replacing J. Timothy (Tim) Wilkes, Mobile, Ala.; Renee A. Trewick, layperson and member of Bronx Baptist Church, Bronx, N.Y., replacing Roger D. Phillips, Liverpool, N.Y.
Nominated for term to expire in 2015 is James S. (Steve) Dighton, pastor, Lenexa Baptist Church, Lenexa, Kan., replacing Terry A. Kilgore, Liberal, Kan., who resigned.
Nominated for second term are William H. (Buddy) Sutton, Little Rock, Ark.; James N. (Jim) Law, Woodstock, Ga.; Peter G. (Pete) Livingston, Jefferson City, Mo.; Michael L. Rochelle, Las Vegas, Nev.; Thomas G. (Tom) Evans, Cherokee, Okla.; M. O'Neal Miller Jr., Conway, S.C.; David B. McMillan, Kingsport, Tenn.
INTERNATIONAL MISSION BOARD (84 members): 19 nominations considered; 13 new members; 6 renominations.
Nominees with term to expire in 2018 replacing members ineligible for re-election include Cecil M. Sanders Jr., pastor, First Baptist Church, Headland, Ala., replacing Raymond (Ray) Jones, Dothan, Ala.; Edwin (Ed) Rock, layperson and member of Hibernia Baptist Church, Fleming Island, Fla., replacing Waylon B. Moore, Tampa, Fla.; William H. Ricketts, pastor, Prince Avenue Baptist Church, Bogart, Ga., replacing Gene M. Williams, Conyers, Ga.; William H. (Opie) Hurst, layperson and member of Harrisburg Baptist Church, Tupelo, Miss., replacing A. Keith Heartsill, Grenada, Miss.; DeeEdrah J. White, layperson and member of Granite Hills Baptist Church, Reno, Nev., replacing Kathleen R. (Kathy) Kelley, Las Vegas, Nev.; Samuel S. Taylor, pastor, Nashua Baptist Church, Nashua, N.H., replacing Jesse R. Smith, Rochester, N.H.; Michael C. Cloer, pastor, Englewood Baptist Church, Rocky Mount, N.C., replacing Robert H. Jackson, Mooresville, N.C.; Gerald Doss Estep, mission pastor, Urbancrest Baptist Church, Lebanon, Ohio, replacing Willis C. (Will) Pollard, Dublin, Ohio; Joseph B. (Jody) Ratcliffe, associate pastor, First Baptist Church, West Columbia, S.C., replacing Henry L. Holland, Sumter, S.C.; Phillip D. Mitchell, pastor, First Baptist Church, Adamsville, Tenn., replacing Brenda M. Jicka, Orlinda, Tenn.; Robert R. Welch, Jr., pastor, Rock Hill Baptist Church, Brownsboro, Texas, replacing Jimmy D. Pritchard, Forney, Texas.
Also nominated for term to expire in 2018 is Barbara Carlson, layperson and member of First Baptist Church, Ruidoso, N.M., replacing Ronald (Maurice) Hollingsworth, Las Cruces, N.M., who resigned.
Nominated for term to expire in 2015 is Chuck A. Pourciau, pastor, Broadmoor Baptist Church, Shreveport, La., replacing James D. Rivers, Moss Bluff, La., who resigned.
Nominated for second term are Matthew S. (Matt) Pearson, El Dorado, Ark.; June M. Coleman, Decatur, Ga.; Andrew D. Finch, Blanchard, Okla.; Nathan Lorick, Justin, Texas; John B. Ross, Longview, Texas; Robert M. (Mike) Simmons, Cedar Hill, Texas.
NORTH AMERICAN MISSION BOARD (57 members): 15 nominations considered; 8 new members; 7 renominations.
Nominees with term to expire in 2018 replacing members ineligible for re-election are Mike D. McLemore, minister, Lakeside Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala., replacing Rickey E. (Ric) Camp, Trussville, Ala.; David Saylor, pastor, First Baptist Church, Manchester, Conn., replacing Charlotte R. Gurney, Hooksett, N.H.; Robert J. Lowe, pastor, First Baptist Church, Yelm, Wash., replacing Wesley R. Eader Sr., Kalama, Wash.; Denny J. Gorena, pastor, First Baptist Church, Leonard, Texas, replacing William S. (Scott) Moody, Silsbee, Texas; Zoila G. Lopez, layperson and member of First Baptist Church, Forney, Texas, replacing David Self, Houston, Texas; Manuel A. Martinez, pastor, Primera Iglesia Bautista, Irving, Texas, replacing Raymond L. Edge, Bastrop, Texas; Jarrett L. Stephens, teaching pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas, replacing David R. Kehrer, Pflugerville, Texas.
Also nominated for term to expire in 2018 is Rebecca C. (Becky) Sherman, layperson and member of First Baptist Church, Palmer, Alaska, replacing Corey L. McGee, Nikiski, Alaska, who resigned.
Nominated for second term are Charles M. (Danny) Wood, Birmingham, Ala.; Tad D. Thompson, Siloam Springs, Ark.; Stephen E. (Spike) Hogan, Jacksonville, Fla.; Lane R. Moore, Shreveport, La.; Rebecca L. Williams, Madison, Miss.; Keith D. Warden, Picayune, Miss.; Cynthia E. (Cindy) Bush, Raleigh, N.C.
LIFEWAY CHRISTIAN RESOURCES (58 members): 17 nominations considered; 11 new members; 6 renominations.
Nominees with term to expire in 2018 replacing members ineligible for re-election include Don L. Blackmore, discipleship pastor, Central Baptist Church, Jonesboro, Ark., replacing Mark Dance, Conway, Ark.; James H. (Jimmy) Scroggins, pastor, First Baptist Church, West Palm Beach, Fla., replacing Jerry T. Webb, Bunnell, Fla.; J.D. Perry, layperson and member of Jefferson Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, La., replacing Barbara A. Nylin, Baton Rouge, La.; Linda K. Dean, layperson and member of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Farmington, N.M., replacing Neta F. Gill, Ruidoso, N.M.; Christopher (Todd) Fannin, layperson and member of Life Fellowship Church, Pryor, Okla., replacing Rick A. Geist, Seminole, Okla.; Sandra W. Peoples, layperson and member of Stewartstown Baptist Church, Stewartstown, Pa., replacing Fanny L. Grote, Mechanicsburg, Pa.; Burt D. Landers, layperson and member of First Baptist Church, Shelbyville, Tenn., replacing Dale Clayton, Morristown, Tenn.; Roger A. Yancey, director of missions and member of West Conroe Baptist Church, Conroe, Texas, replacing Michael A. Deahl, Dallas, Texas; Brad H. McLean, pastor, First Baptist Church, New Braunfels, Texas, replacing David L. Lino, Kingwood, Texas; Brice D. Mandaville, pastor, First Baptist Church, Seguin, Texas, replacing R. Lynn Snider, Rosehill, Texas.
Nominated for term to expire in 2017 is A. Kenneth Carlton, associate pastor, Kempsville Baptist Church, Virginia Beach, Va., replacing Robert A. Pryor, Virginia Beach, Va., who is deceased.
Nominated for second term are N. Bruce Moseley, Mobile, Ala.; Gary A. Richardson, Oxford, Miss.; Greg F. Jackson, Camden, Ohio; George E. Goudelock, Hartsville, S.C.; Kennith D. Carter, Lubbock, Texas; Travis Best, Caldwell, Idaho.
SOUTHERN SEMINARY (44 members): 9 nominations considered; 3 new member; 6 renominations.
Nominees with term to expire in 2019 are Thomas E. (Tom) Rush, pastor, Berean Baptist Church, Social Circle, Ga., replacing Paul E. Garrison, Toccoa, Ga.; Johnny J. Touchet, pastor, Mount Moriah Baptist Church, Piedmont, S.C., replacing James W. (Skip) Owens, Charleston, S.C.
Also nominated for term to expire in 2019 is Richard L. Staab, layperson and member of Highview Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., replacing James L. Blount, Jr., Louisville, Ky., who declined to serve a second term.
Nominated for second term are James B. (Jim) Henry, Orlando, Fla.; David E. Hankins, Deville, La.; John W. Manry, Jarrettsville, Md.; David C. Sheppard, St. Charles, Mo.; Chad P. Wilson, Jackson, Tenn.; Billy F. Ross, Centreville, Va.
SOUTHWESTERN SEMINARY (39 members): 7 nominations considered; 4 new members; 3 renominations.
Nominees with term to expire in 2019 replacing members ineligible for re-election include Wayne D. Dickard, pastor, Siloam Baptist Church, Easley, S.C., replacing James D. (Jim) Spencer III, Easley, S.C.; John M. Rayburn, layperson and member of First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas, replacing Geoffrey M. Kolander, Austin, Texas.
Also nominated for term to expire in 2019 are Ronald T. Pracht, pastor, Olivet Baptist Church, Wichita, Kan., replacing Timothy S. Johnson, Lincoln, Neb., who declined to serve a second term; Richard L. Wall, pastor, Browns Mill Baptist Church, Browns Mill, N.J., replacing George R. Tynes, Philadelphia, Pa., who declined to serve as second term.
Nominated for second term are Guy G. Grimes, Fountain Valley, Calif.; Jonathan D. Leeman, Washington, D.C.; Christopher B. (Bart) Barber, Farmersville, Texas.
NEW ORLEANS SEMINARY (40 members): 8 nominations considered; 1 new member; 7 renominations.
Nominated for term to expire in 2017 is David G. Brittain, pastor, Celebration Baptist Church, Rio Raucho, N.M., replacing Douglas H. (Doug) McKinnon, who resigned.
Nominated for second term are William R. Bagwell, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Danny K. (Dan) Wilson, Highland, Calif.; Frank Cox, Lawrenceville, Ga.; Thomas L. Clore, Eldorado, Ill.; Melanie H. Hart, McMurray, Pa.; David E. Leavell, Millington, Tenn.; Jack G. Bell, Ringgold, La.
SOUTHEASTERN SEMINARY (30 members): 6 nominations considered; 2 new members; 4 renominations.
Nominee with term to expire in 2019 replacing member ineligible for re-election is Rick G. Butterworth, pastor, First Southern Baptist Church, Overaard, Ariz., replacing Harry Edward (Ed) Litton, Jr., Saraland, Ala.
Also nominated for a term to expire in 2019 is Arthur E. Werry, pastor, New Life Baptist Church, Fraser, Mich., replacing George B.A. Fountain, Monroe, Mich., who declined to serve a second term.
Nominated for second term are Douglas L. Jividen, Mishawaka, Ind.; Erik G. Estep, Blythewood, S.C.; Charles M. Jacumin, Raleigh, N.C.; Donald L. Warren, Gastonia, N.C.
MIDWESTERN SEMINARY (35 members): 6 nominations considered; 5 new members; 1 renomination.
Nominees with term to expire in 2019, replacing members ineligible for re-election include Ken F. Shaddox, pastor, Park Hill Baptist Church, North Little Rock, Ark., replacing Jim B. Shaw, Trumann, Ark.; Phyllis J. Mason, layperson and member of Colonial Baptist Church, Randallstown, Md., replacing Judy L. Crain, Easton, Md.; Kima J. Jude, layperson and member of New Day Baptist Church, Beavercreek, Ohio, replacing Dan T. Stowe, Dublinh, Ohio; Jon L. Sapp, state convention director of evangelism and member of Western Hills Baptist Church, Topeka, Kan., replacing Roger H. Marshall, Effingham, Ill.
Also nominated for term to expire in 2019 is Charles S. Wesner, pastor, First Southern Baptist Church, Wellton, Ariz., replacing Steve E. Suttill, Phoenix, Ariz., who declined to serve a second term.
Nominated for second term is G. Richard (Rick) Hastings, Raytown, Mo.
GOLDEN GATE SEMINARY (39 members): 9 nominations considered; 7 new members; 2 renominations.
Nominees with term to expire in 2019, replacing members ineligible for re-election include Al Fernandez, director, south Florida urban impact ministries and member of Christ Fellowship Church, Palmetto Bay, Fla., replacing Paul H. Dixon, Naples, Fla.; Andrew M. Dyer, pastor, Corinth Baptist Church, London, Ky., replacing Corey L. Abney, Louisville, Ky.; Jacob B. Atchley, pastor, Church at Martinsburg, Martinsburg, W.Va., replacing Robert K. (Ken) Owens, Bluefield, W.Va.; Vincent Hayes, layperson and member of New Seasons Church, Spring Valley, Calif., replacing T. James (Jim) Williams, Fresno, Calif.
Also nominated for term to expire in 2019 is Arthur A. (Rally) deLeon, layperson and member of Providence Baptist Church, Raleigh, N.C., replacing R. Shawn Dobbs, Winston-Salem, N.C., who resigned.
Nominated for term to expire in 2017 is Robert A. Anderson, layperson and member of The Vine Church, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., replacing J. David Tate, Vacaville, Calif., who resigned.
Nominated for term to expire in 2015 is Tomey (Van) McClain, professor, Mid-America Baptist Seminary and member of Trinity Baptist Church, Niskayuna, N.Y., replacing Freddy T. Wyatt Jr., New York, N.Y., who resigned.
Nominated for second term are Larry W. Felkins, Clanton, Ala.; Cathy Bates, Redlands, Calif.
ETHICS & RELIGIOUS LIBERTY COMMISSION (33 members): 9 nominations considered; 4 new members; 5 renominations.
Nominee with term to expire in 2018, replacing member ineligible for re-election is Dan R. Anderson, pastor, Prairie Hills Southern Baptist Church, Augusta, Kan., replacing Lynne A. Fruechting, Newton, Kan.
Also nominated for term to expire in 2018 are Billy M. (Mike) Aultman, pastor, Military Baptist Church, Sumrall, Miss., replacing Dan W. Curran, Louisville, Miss., who resigned; Kenneth S. Barbic, layperson and member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., replacing H. Ray Newman Sr., Winder, Ga., who is deceased.
Nominated for term to expire in 2017 is Allen L. (Al) Simmons, layperson and member of Applewood Baptist Church, Wheat Ridge, Colo., replacing Lewis Adkison, Colorado Springs, Colo., who resigned.
Nominated for second term are Curtis R. Starner, Streator, Ill.; Lynn O. Traylor, Buckner, Ky.; Robert Dean, Basom, N.Y.; Bernard J. Snowden, Fairfax Station, Va.; W. Rod Compton, Tijeras, N.M.
COMMITTEE ON ORDER OF BUSINESS (7 members): 1 nomination considered; 1 new member.
Nominee with term to expire in 2017, replacing member ineligible for re-election is Andrew Hebert, pastor, Taylor Memorial Baptist Church, Hobbs, N.M., replacing Marvin Parker, Maywood, Ill.
Andrew Hebert was nominated as chairman.
-- End of story --
Luter names Committee on Committees
By Staff
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Appointments to the Southern Baptist Convention's Committee on Committees have been announced by SBC President Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. Luter announced the appointments in accordance with SBC Bylaw 19, which calls for providing notice to Southern Baptists of the appointees well in advance of each year's convention.
The Committee on Committees will assemble in Baltimore just prior to the SBC's June 10-11 annual meeting to nominate members of the Committee on Nominations who, in turn, nominate trustees for the boards of SBC entities. SBC Bylaw 19 also provides that the Committee on Committees "shall nominate all special committees authorized during the sessions of the Convention not otherwise provided for."
The Committee on Committees has 68 members, two from each of the 34 states and regions qualified for representation on boards of SBC entities.
The president named Roc Collins, pastor of Indian Springs Baptist Church in Kingsport, Tenn., to serve as chairman of this year's Committee on Committees.
Committee members are:
ALABAMA -- Dennis Culbreth, First Baptist Church, Jasper; Bobby Burt, University Baptist Church, Huntsville
ALASKA -- Alan Dial, Upper Tanana Valley Regional Church, Tok; Gary Bearce, Pioneer Baptist Church, Wasilla
ARIZONA -- John Guillot, Green Valley Baptist Church, Green Valley; Bob Dodridge, CrossPoint Baptist Church, Tempe
ARKANSAS -- Gary Hollingsworth, Immanuel Baptist Church, Little Rock; Ronnie Parrott, Cross Church, Springdale
CALIFORNIA -- Randy Bennett, Daybreak Baptist Church, Bakersfield; Don Fugate, Foxworthy Avenue Baptist Church, San Jose
COLORADO -- Matthew Perry, Arapahoe Road Baptist Church, Centennial; Mike Atherton, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Lone Tree
FLORIDA -- Walter West, Anastasia Baptist Church, St. Augustine; Tommy Green, First Baptist Church, Brandon
GEORGIA -- Herman Parker, First Baptist Church, Bremen; Daniel Jack Lee, Altamaha Baptist Church, Jesup
HAWAII -- Vince Tabudlo, All Nations Fellowship, Honolulu; Michael Landry, Oceanview Baptist Church, Oceanview
ILLINOIS -- Mary Sue Jones, Tabernacle Baptist Church, Decatur; Doug Nguyen, Uptown Baptist Church, Chicago
INDIANA -- Chris Gustafson, Eastern Heights Baptist Church, Jeffersonville; Rick Hillard, Eastlake Baptist Church, Crown Point
KANSAS-NEBRASKA -- Jon Sapp, Western Hills Baptist Church, Topeka, Kan.; Abraham Arevalo, Casa de Dios, Wichita, Kan.
KENTUCKY -- Norman Brock, First Baptist Church, East Bernstadt; Roger Alford, Long Ridge Baptist Church, Owenton
LOUISIANA -- Jerilyn Johnston, First Baptist Church, Covington; James Jenkins, Baptist Bible Fellowship, Shreveport
MARYLAND-DELAWARE-D.C. -- Harold Phillips, Pleasant View Baptist Church, Port Deposit, Md.; David Griesemer, Landover Hills Baptist Church, Landover Hills, Md.
MICHIGAN -- Winford Williams, First Baptist Church, Brighton; Dan Russell, Calvary Baptist Church, Southgate
MISSISSIPPI -- Greg Warnock, First Baptist Church, Brookhaven; Jason Dukes, First Baptist Church, Booneville
MISSOURI -- Richard Biesiadecki, LifePointe Church, Wildwood; Charles McLain, First Baptist Church, Crystal City
NEVADA -- David Simpson, Green Valley Baptist Church, Henderson; Matthew Zamudio, South Reno Baptist Church, Reno
NEW ENGLAND -- John Revell, Stamford Baptist Church, Stamford, Conn.; John Scoggins, Nashua Baptist Church, Nashua, N.H.
NEW MEXICO -- Kathy Loudat, First Baptist Church of West Albuquerque, Albuquerque; Andrew Hebert, Taylor Memorial Baptist Church, Hobbs
NEW YORK -- Steve Allen, Bible Church International, Randolph; Frank Williams, Wake Eden Baptist Church, Bronx
NORTH CAROLINA -- Bobby Blanton, Lake Norman Baptist Church, Huntersville; J. Bartley Wooten, Beulaville Baptist Church, Beulaville
NORTHWEST -- Don Moor, Dayspring Baptist Church, Chehalis, Wash.; Adrian Hall, First Baptist Church, Beaverton, Ore.
OHIO -- Mark Stinson, Trinity Baptist Church, Cambridge; Nicole Strother, Central Baptist Church, Marion
OKLAHOMA -- Todd Parr, First Baptist Church, Broken Arrow; Kathy Franklin, Crossway First Baptist Church, Sulphur
PENNSYLVANIA/SOUTH JERSEY -- Philip Pham, Vietnamese Baptist Church, Philadelphia; Thomas Harris, Ezekiel Baptist Church, Philadelphia
SOUTH CAROLINA -- Alex Sands, Kingdom Life Christian Center, Greenville; Tommy Kelly, Varnville First Baptist Church, Varnville
TENNESSEE -- Roc Collins, Indian Springs Baptist Church, Kingsport (chairman); Scott Andrews, First Baptist Church, Sevierville
TEXAS -- Dalia Gonzales, Iglesia Bautista La Vid, Colleyville; Joe Davis, Church at the Cross, Grapevine
UTAH-IDAHO -- James Thompson, First Baptist Church, Provo, Utah; Pat Panagoplos, First Baptist Church, Roy, Utah
VIRGINIA -- Brad Russell, Old Powhatan Baptist Church, Powhatan; Kevin Cummings, Fincastle Baptist Church, Fincastle
WEST VIRGINIA -- Raymond Bouchoc, Baker Heights Baptist Church, Martinsburg; Kevin Belcher, Burke Memorial Baptist Church, Princeton
WYOMING -- Fred Creason, Boyd Avenue Baptist Church, Casper; Frances Irizarry, Iglesia Bautista Principe De Paz, Casper
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Pastors' Conference to 'pour into pastors'
By David Roach
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Through hearing a diverse array of speakers -- both in terms of race and age -- Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference President Bruce Frank hopes pastors will attain a clearer vision of God's glory. Hence the theme of this year's gathering: "Show Us Your Glory!"
"You don't want to miss any of it," Frank, pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C., said. "By going and getting coffee or skipping a speaker, you very well could miss exactly what God wants to say to you right then."
The June 8-9 Pastors' Conference will feature preaching, worship and prayer to undergird the ministry of pastors and their wives. The sessions at the Baltimore Convention Center will be held prior to the Southern Baptist Convention's June 10-11 annual meeting there.
"What I did as I thought about the speakers and the theme was to have guys that have a heart to pour into pastors," Frank said.
Speakers for Sunday evening (June 8) at the Pastors' Conference will include Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga.; H.B. Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.; and David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala.
Monday morning (June 9) will feature messages from Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas; Clayton King, evangelist and founder of Crossroads Worldwide in Shelby, N.C.; and Eric Mason, pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia.
Monday afternoon speakers will include J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C.; and Tony Evans, pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas.
Monday evening speakers will include Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.; James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows, Ill.; and Francis Chan, founder of Eternity Bible College in Simi Valley, Calif.
Worship will be led by Christian recording artist Matt Redman, Harvest Bible Chapel's Vertical Church Band and Biltmore Baptist Church's Biltmore Worship.
The Pastors' Conference offering will go to Mission:Dignity, a program administered by GuideStone Financial Resources that provides financial assistance to retired pastors, Christian workers and their widows who are struggling to make ends meet. In addition to an offering, attendees are asked to bring blankets to be donated to the homeless in Baltimore through a local ministry.
This year's leadership team, which includes Clint Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., as vice president and Alex Himaya, pastor of theCHURCH.at in Tulsa, Okla., as treasurer, hopes the conference will refresh pastors and their families.
"The design of this conference is simply for men and women who oftentimes are just giving, giving, giving -- pouring out. Ministry can be kind of lonely. Ministry can be exhausting," Frank said. "The design is that there would be a worship experience that would refresh and renew the men and women who are going to be there."
The Pastors' Conference is free and requires no registration. To learn more about this year's schedule, sponsors and theme, visit [URL=http://sbcpc.net/]sbcpc.net[/URL]. For a schedule, click [URL=http://www.bpnews.net/42442/sbc-pastors-conference-2014-schedule]here[/URL].
Child care for children ages birth through 12 years will be offered during all Pastors' Conference sessions. Children ages 4-12 may register for a conference provided by Children's Conferences International. Register at [URL=http://www.childrensconferences.com/#!events/cee5]www.childrensconferences.com[/URL].
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief childcare volunteers will offer childcare for newborns through age 5 during the Pastors' Conference.
David Roach is Baptist Press' chief national correspondent. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
-- End of story --
SBC Pastors' Conference 2014 Schedule
By Staff
Apr. 25 2014
Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference 2014
June 8-9, 2014
Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore
Theme: "Show us Your Glory!"
President: Bruce Frank, lead pastor, Biltmore Baptist Church, Asheville, N.C.
Free and Open to the Public –- no registration required
Website: sbcpc.net
"Both our prayer and our theme for the SBC Pastors Conference this year is taken from Exodus 33:18 when Moses said to the Lord, 'Please show me your glory,'" Frank said. "We are praying for this to be a time of renewal and refreshment for thousands of ministers, lay people and their families."
Frank and his leadership team; Alex Himaya, senior pastor of theCHURCH.at of Tulsa, Okla., and Clint Pressley, senior pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., have been working, praying and planning to create an experience where the presence of God is sensed in a life-changing and powerful way.
Johnny Hunt, author, pastor, First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga.
H.B. Charles, author, pastor-teacher, Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla.
David Platt, author, senior pastor, The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, Ala.
Ronnie Floyd, author, senior pastor, Cross Church, Northwest Arkansas
Clayton King, author, evangelist, founder, Crossroads Worldwide
Eric Mason, author, lead pastor, Epiphany Fellowship, Philadelphia, Pa.
J.D. Greear, author, lead pastor, The Summit Church, Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
Tony Evans, author, senior pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas
Rick Warren, author, senior pastor, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif.
James MacDonald, author, senior pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel, Rolling Meadows, Ill.
Francis Chan, author, founder, Eternity Bible College
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'Highs & lows' to be pastors' wives theme
By Tammi Reed Ledbetter
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Addressing "The Highs and Lows of Ministry," the annual Pastors' Wives Conference will feature Lois Evans of Dallas speaking on the seasons of a woman's life, Kathy MacDonald of Chicago on how God answers prayer to work through family and church challenges and Christine Hoover of Charlottesville, Va., on conversations a wife should have with her husband.
The conference is scheduled from 9-11:45 a.m. Monday, June 9, in the Key Ballroom at the Hilton Baltimore adjacent to the Baltimore Convention Center. There is no cost for the event and registration is not required. Women who serve in any facet of local church leadership, missions and denominational work are invited to attend.
Evans is senior vice president of The Urban Alternative, founder of Pastors' Wives Ministry and author of several books, including "Our Love Is Here to Stay." Married to Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, they have four children and 10 grandchildren.
MacDonald's husband James pastors Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago. Natives of Ontario, Canada, the MacDonalds have three children and five grandsons.
Hoover authored "The Church Planter's Wife," having relocated from Texas with her husband Kyle who leads a church start in Charlottesville, Va. They have three sons.
Kathy Litton, wife of Ed Litton, pastor of First Baptist Church North Mobile in Saraland, Ala., will lead an interactive prayer time. She is the North American Mission Board's director of ministry to pastors' wives.
Kristin and Eric Yeldell of First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., again will lead music for the session.
LifeWay Christian Resources and the North American Mission Board are assisting with funding for this year's Pastors' Wives Conference.
Tammi Reed Ledbetter is managing editor of the Southern Baptist TEXAN print edition.
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WMU focus: Annie Armstrong's challenge
By Julie Walters
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- With the theme "Go Forward," the WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting will take place June 8–9 in Baltimore.
"What better place to wrap up a yearlong celebration of the 125th anniversary of WMU than the home of Annie Armstrong!" Debby Akerman, president of national WMU, said in reference to the Baltimore woman who was instrumental in the missions organization's founding in 1888 and was its first corresponding secretary.
"[W]e will embrace Annie's challenge to 'go forward' with missions," Akerman said of the June meeting, "as we celebrate how God is working around the world and through WMU, and renew our commitment to advancing missions education and involvement."
This year's celebration will feature a rare opportunity on Sunday afternoon to experience a joint commissioning service of up to 100 new field personnel representing the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board, along with messages from SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page, mission board presidents Tom Elliff of IMB and Kevin Ezell of NAMB and national WMU leaders. This portion of the WMU event will take place at 4 p.m. in the Baltimore Convention Center Ballroom.
"Commissioning missionaries for special service is a great privilege," said Wanda S. Lee, executive director of national WMU. "It is a time to celebrate their calling, voice our affirmation and prayers as we hear their testimonies and commit ourselves to 'hold the ropes' prayerfully and financially as they go. We invite everyone to join us and be a part of the commitment, prayer and excitement as these follow the Lord's call to their place of service."
On Monday at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel (soon to be Baltimore Harbor Hotel), attendees will hear from a variety of international and North American missions personnel, including Taylor Field, a NAMB LoveLoud missionary who serves at Graffiti Center in New York City. Field also is the author of "Upside-Down Leadership: Rethinking Influence and Success" and "Upside-Down Freedom: Inverted Principles for Christian Living." His new book, "Upside-Down Devotion: Extreme Action for a Remarkable God," will be available later this spring.
Also on Monday will be a special opportunity to see significant historical sites related to Annie Armstrong on a bus tour.
The event is free but advance registration is required to participate in the tour of Annie Armstrong sites. To register for the tour, go to wmu.com/annietour; registration is open through May 15.
Visit [URL=wmu.com/baltimore]wmu.com/baltimore[/URL] for more information. For a schedule, click [URL=http://www.bpnews.net/42445/wmu-celebration-annual-meeting-schedule]here[/URL].
Julie Walters is the corporate communications team leader for WMU (Woman's Missionary Union), based in Birmingham, Ala.
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WMU Celebration, Annual Meeting Schedule
By Staff
Apr. 25 2014
WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting
June 8–9, 2014
Theme: "Go Forward ... to our nation and the world"
Two locations: Baltimore Convention Center Ballroom (corner of Pratt and Howard streets) and Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel (soon to be Baltimore Harbor Hotel, 101 West Fayette Street)
SUNDAY, JUNE 8, 4 p.m. -- BALTIMORE CONVENTION CENTER BALLROOM
Commissioning Service for NAMB and IMB Missionaries
(Presession music by Colonial Baptist Church, Baltimore, begins at 3:40 p.m.)
Welcome and Introductions -- Wanda Lee, national WMU
Opening Prayer -- Frank Page, SBC Executive Committee President and CEO
Testimonies from Missionaries
Special Music by Native Praise, Oklahoma
Testimonies from Missionaries
Charge to Missionaries -- Tom Elliff, IMB president
Prayer Experience -- Debby Akerman, national WMU
Charge to the Church -- Kevin Ezell, NAMB president
Commitment Time/Closing Prayer
WMU Missions Celebration
Welcome to Baltimore/Opening Prayer
Celebrating Our Past -- Rosalie Hunt, national WMU
Meet the Missionaries
Music for Worship/Special Music -- Native Praise, Oklahoma
Celebrating Our Future -- National Acteens Panelists
Living Upside-Down in America -- Taylor and Susan Field, NAMB, New York
Morning breakout options
Enjoy multiple options including breakout sessions, an interactive missions area, meet and greet WMU staff and program guests, get books signed by Taylor and Susan Field, and participate in a ministry project!
Tour of Annie Armstrong's Baltimore
Join us for an afternoon bus tour of places Annie lived and served in Baltimore. Tour is free, but advanced registration is required by May 15 at wmu.com/annietour.
(For those not going on the tour, breakout sessions, a ministry project, and interactive area will be available at the hotel from 1:30–5:00 p.m.)
WMU Missions Celebration
(Presession music Native Praise, Oklahoma, begins at 6:40 p.m.)
Opening Prayer
Greetings from Burkina Faso WMU -- Kathy Shafto and Beatrice Zoma
Music for Worship
Go Forward to the Nations -- Jay and Kay, IMB personnel
Celebrating Our Future -- National Acteens Panelists
Music for Worship/Offering for Vision Fund
Celebrating Our Past -- Rosalie Hunt, national WMU
Election of Officers
Go Forward -- Debby Akerman, national WMU
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NAAF priority: church planting strategy
By Diana Chandler
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Developing resources to plant churches within the context of the African American community will be the National African American Fellowship's main focus at its 2014 meeting in Baltimore, NAAF President A.B. Vines said.
The African American pastors will celebrate NAAF's 20th anniversary June 7-9 at the Baltimore Convention Center, site of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 10-11.
The fellowship is working to establish a partnership with the North American Mission Board to plant churches utilizing guidelines that conform to the needs of the African American community and to raise money to fund church plants, Vines said.
"We want to be a conduit so that churches can work in concert to help plant churches," he said. "We need to plant our churches within the context of the African American community."
NAAF aims to partner with NAMB to plant churches using models that are culturally relevant, Vines said, noting that urban churches are not necessarily African American because of changing demographics.
"We're still trying to work arrangements with NAMB to get more funding to help us with that," Vines said. "There's a lot of different ways to plant churches. We're trying to find the best format that we can.
"Since NAMB has decreased tremendously its African American footprint in the convention, we need to work alongside them in planting African American churches," Vines said, although the specific number of black church planters is not available.
"We can do it ourselves and partner with them from our context," Vines said, "as opposed to us trying to partner with them in their context. Once we raise our funding stream, we'll be able to raise money to do our own church planting."
In other priorities, NAAF is making plans to award its first two NAAF scholarships, $5,000 awards to a male and a female high school graduate.
"We're going through the applications now and the winner will be announced in June, at the convention probably," Vines said. "We have the scholarship funds, but we're going to offset the money, so we don't wind up draining our account."
NAAF will elect officers at its business meeting June 9 at 4 p.m. in Room 346 of the convention center. NAAF's board at its spring meeting recommended as 2014-15 officers: K Marshall Williams, president, pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Philadelphia; Byron J. Day, vice president, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Laurel, Md.; Frank Williams, secretary/ treasurer, assistant pastor of Bronx Baptist Church and interim pastor of Wake Eden Community Baptist Church, both in Bronx, N.Y.; and historian/parliamentarian Michael Pigg, pastor of Philadelphia Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga.
When his presidency ends in June, Vines will remain active in NAAF as representative for the Pacific region, the board recommended. Brian King, senior pastor of Ezekiel Baptist Church in Philadelphia, was recommended to another term representing NAAF's Eastern region, and Garland Moore, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Milan, N.M., was recommended to continue representing the Mountain region. The board recommended Jeffrey Friend, pastor of Suburban Baptist Church in New Orleans, to head the Central region.
Vines will deliver the presidential address at NAAF's banquet June 9 from 6:30–9:30 p.m. in the convention center's Camden Lobby. There, NAAF will honor its past presidents. Banquet tickets are $55 each and are available at www.naafsbc.org under the E-Giving tab. NAAF encourages reservations be made by June 3, as only a few tickets will be available at the event. Additional information is available on NAAF's website under "Announcement."
The group's annual worship service will be held June 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Seventh Metro Baptist Church, 30 E. North Ave., Baltimore. Joseph Lyles, pastor of Fort Foote Baptist Church in Fort Washington, Md., and a past NAAF president, will preach. Ryan Palmer is the host pastor.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press' general assignment writer/editor. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Black network eyes membership growth
By Diana Chandler
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- The Black Denominational Servants Network continues to focus on strengthening participation in the face of a declining membership base as it prepares for its 2014 meeting in Baltimore, network president Eugene McCormick said.
The network will meet from 8:30-10:30 a.m. June 9 at Colonial Baptist Church, 9411 Liberty Road in Randallstown, Md., in advance of the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting June 10-11 at the Baltimore Convention Center. "Keep on Keeping On" will be the network's theme.
"New people have joined the network, but not as much as I'd hoped for," McCormick said. "Hopefully things will continue to move in that direction." About 25 people attended the group's last meeting at the Black Church Leadership and Family Conference in Ridgecrest, N.C., in July 2013.
"You know the last couple of years we've lost a lot of people in denominational life, I guess due to the economy and just different directions that organizations have gone," McCormick said.
The specific number of African Americans employed among the SBC entities is not available. The network has active participation of as many as 35, McCormick said.
"We're looking at ways we can continue to promote our group, looking at what we do and really just trying to get more participation," McCormick said.
In its Baltimore breakfast meeting, the network will elect officers and recognize outstanding denominational servants.
Robert Anderson, a former member of the SBC Executive Committee, is host pastor.
The network seeks to encourage networking among African American employees of SBC entities. Membership fees are $25 for students, $50 for individuals, $250 at the institutional level and $500 for a 10-year silver membership.
To join the network, send checks payable to the "Black Southern Baptist Denominational Servants Network" to Florida Baptist Convention, c/o Eugene McCormick, 1230 Hendricks Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32207. Fees may be paid at the annual meeting.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press' general assignment writer/editor. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Filipinos to 'multiply' church planting
By David Roach
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- There are 4 million Filipinos in the United States and Canada but only about 200 Filipino Southern Baptist churches. That's just one church for every 20,000 Filipinos.
Lowering that ratio by planting churches will be the focus of the Filipino Southern Baptist Fellowship of North America's annual meeting June 9-10 in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore.
The group will gather for a dinner fellowship Monday, June 9, from 5-7 p.m. at Redeemer International Baptist Church in Baltimore at 2320 Alma Road. A basketball game pitting pastors against laymen will follow at a nearby gym. The annual meeting Tuesday, June 10, will begin at 2:30 p.m. in the Holiday Ballroom, section 5, at the Hilton Baltimore.
Frank Page, president of the SBC Executive Committee, will be a speaker at the meeting. The gathering's theme is "Multiply," emphasizing the need for Filipino church planting.
"The biggest challenge is finding the next church planters who will commit to reach our people in various metro areas with the Gospel of Jesus Christ," Peter Yanes, president of the fellowship, said. "To address that, we need every local church to be intentional in developing their church members as the new generation of church planters to reach our own people."
The Filipino Fellowship hopes to establish partnerships with other Asian Southern Baptist groups to help reach Filipinos in areas where there is no Filipino church. The idea of such partnerships emerged through Yanes' service on the Asian American Advisory Council, which communicates to Page and other SBC leaders the perspectives of churches and leaders from several Asian cultures. Members of the Advisory Council represent Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Lao and Vietnamese churches.
"In every major city of the nation, the Asian population is growing so fast," said Yanes, who serves as a North American Mission Board church planting catalyst and ethnic strategist for the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania/South Jersey. "That will be the main focus of the partnerships."
The fellowship also will discuss planting churches in the Philippines, especially in the area hit by Typhoon Haiyan last November.
Immigration attorney Ruben Bayawa will speak at the Monday night dinner on U.S. immigration policy as it relates to Filipinos. Two significant issues for the group are how to get visas for pastors from the Philippines and how to help church members with work visas gain permanent resident status.
Every aspect of the meeting will relate to the theme of multiplication through church planting, Yanes said.
"Filipino churches in our Southern Baptist Convention are very much a key player among ethnic churches in church planting in the USA and Canada," he said.
Leading up the meeting, Filipino Fellowship churches will participate in a 40-day prayer campaign beginning May 2. Prayers will focus on asking God to provide more workers for Filipino church plants.
To register for the annual meeting, email Yanes at firstname.lastname@example.com. The fellowship has a Facebook page and will post updates on the June gathering as the date approaches.
David Roach is Baptist Press' chief national correspondent. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Native Americans to build urban strategy
By David Roach
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- A church planting strategy to reach Native Americans in major cities and an effort to make Native churches less dependent on outside help will be among the topics of discussion when Native Americans and those interested in Native American ministry gather for the June 9 meeting of the Fellowship of Native American Christians.
Attendees also will discuss developing resources to facilitate church planting, leadership development and evangelism among Native Americans.
"We invite anyone who is presently involved in Native ministries or anyone who desires a better understanding of Native ministries to attend our meeting to explore potential network possibilities," FoNAC executive director Gary Hawkins said. "We are going to discuss some possible paradigm changes."
The Fellowship of Native American Christians was established in 2008 to advance Southern Baptist ministries among Native Americans. Hawkins was elected as FoNAC's first executive director during its 2012 annual meeting in New Orleans.
FoNAC's upcoming meeting will take place in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention's June 10-11 annual meeting in Baltimore at the Baltimore Convention Center. The FoNAC meeting will begin at 10 a.m. Monday, June 9, in Rooms 345 and 346 of the convention center.
FoNAC chairman Emerson Falls said an urban church planting strategy is urgent since 75 percent of Native Americans live in urban areas, with more than 100,000 estimated in New York City alone. Yet most mission teams seeking to reach Natives travel to reservations.
Falls compared urban church planting among Natives to the apostle Paul's preaching of the Gospel in Rome. After diverse people came to Christ in a major hub of social life and commerce, they spread Christianity across the Roman Empire by returning to their homelands.
"A lot of Native people in urban areas will eventually go back to their own tribal groups," said Falls, who also serves as Native American specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. "So by reaching them in urban areas, we're going to also reach out into these other areas."
Ministry on the reservations remains important, but many reservation ministries need to adopt new strategies, Falls said. Just as Natives are learning to succeed in business and gain independence from government assistance, Native churches must learn to succeed in ministry without a steady stream of assistance from outside churches, he said.
"When we have strong Native churches, generally the Native people do it themselves without outside resources," Falls said, adding that mission teams are appreciated but should complement Native ministries rather than replace them.
Falls and Hawkins pray that God uses the strategies discussed in Baltimore to bring a new level of fruitfulness in Native ministry. Hawkins requested prayer from Southern Baptists during the FoNAC meeting and the entire month of November, which is national Native American Heritage Month. FoNAC will provide a list of prayer concerns from across Native America on its website and Facebook page.
"What we're proposing to do is a God-sized task," Hawkins said. "With that realization, we understand that it cannot just be strategies that we develop, but a movement that God has ordained. And we really request prayer support from around the world."
For more information about ministry to Native peoples in the United States and Canada, visit [URL=http://www.fonac.org/]www.fonac.org[/URL].
David Roach is Baptist Press' chief national correspondent. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Messianics to focus on 'Kingdom Purpose'
By David Roach
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Partnering with other groups to evangelize Jewish people, increasing multiethnic church planting and promoting Cooperative Program giving by Jewish congregations will be among the topics discussed at the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship meeting June 6-7 in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Baltimore.
With a theme of "Kingdom Purpose," SBMF members and guests will meet Friday, June 6, at 7 p.m. in the Latrobe Room of the Hilton Baltimore. They will reconvene Saturday, June 7, at 9:30 a.m.
The theme encourages Messianic Jews (Jews who follow Jesus as Messiah) to work "together with other Jewish evangelism groups to bring the Good News to the Jewish people group," SBMF President Ric Worshill said. "We are a small group and we need to partner with other sound and grounded associations who do the same work."
Speakers at the meeting will include Bruce Stokes, SBMF vice president and pastor of the DiscipleCenter in Anaheim Hills, Calif., and Michael Herts, SBMF missions development manager and founding leader of B'nai Avraham Messianic Fellowship in Hampton, Va.
In a business session, attendees will discuss possible increased involvement in the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism. Individual SBMF members have affiliated with the consultation in the past, but now the entire group will consider joint participation, Worshill said.
Messianic congregations also will be encouraged to send additional church planters and learn about an online messianic studies diploma program available through New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Worshill's appointment to the SBC's Multi-Ethnic Advisory Council will be discussed as a platform for helping Southern Baptists reach Jews with the message that Jesus is the promised Messiah. The Multi-Ethnic Advisory Council is a ministry initiative to help SBC entity leaders more fully understand and appreciate the perspectives of churches and church leaders from a variety of ethnic groups as they partner to reach America and the nations with the Gospel.
"We will attempt to encourage our members to engage their congregational members to become more involved in ministries outside the walls of their congregations," Worshill said. "We must be actively involved, understanding the urgency of ministering to the lost and building up missionaries willing to be sent out to minister in the local church in Jewish evangelism and start more Jewish evangelistic congregations."
There is great need for believers "to actually go out into their community," Worshill said, "not just to touch people's hearts and minds but to give part of their life to the people in their community so that those people see that life that comes from Christ and are able to open up and listen to the message."
For more information about the 2014 SBMF meeting or to find out more about the SBMF, visit [URL=http://www.sbmessianic.net/]www.sbmessianic.net[/URL].
David Roach is Baptist Press' chief national correspondent. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Associational leaders focus on harvest
By Diana Chandler
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- "Ready Churches, Ready Harvest" will be the theme for Southern Baptist associational leaders when they meet June 7-8 in Baltimore in advance of the 2014 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting there.
Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter will address the group at a June 6 banquet at 7 p.m. at the Inner Harbor Holiday Inn, with seating limited to 150. Tickets are still available.
Formerly the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Directors of Missions, the group changed its name to the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders (SBCAL) and restructured at its 2013 annual meeting in Houston.
Conference team leader Johnny Rumbough, director of missions for the Lexington Baptist Association in South Carolina, said the conference will focus on equipping and encouraging associational leaders to prepare and mobilize their churches to reach the harvest for Christ.
Rick Fisher, vice president of Blackaby Ministries in Greenville, S.C., will preach at the 10:15 a.m. Sunday worship service, and a second Sunday morning service may be added, Rumbough said. Fisher is the author of the 2014 "CROSSing North America" Associational Missions Emphasis sermon series, downloadable at no cost at www.ame.basicshift.com.
In meetings from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Saturday and from 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Sunday, a lineup of leaders from various facets of Southern Baptist life will speak, including Randy Bradley, SBCAL executive team chairman; Aaron Coe, vice president of mobilization for the North American Mission Board; IMB President Tom Elliff; O.S. Hawkins, president of GuideStone Financial Resources; Valerie Rumbough, chief operating officer and executive vice president of the Baptist Foundation of South Carolina; and Ed Stetzer, president of Lifeway Research.
In 20 breakout sessions, topics will include pastor search committee training, increasing associational funding, the association's role in making disciples, the merging of two associations, the Woman's Missionary Union and associational partnerships, associational engagement in NAMB's 32 Send Cities, an overview of affinity groups identified by the International Mission Board, and the worth of groups in associational purpose and survival.
Recording artist and worship leader Jason Rumbough of Raleigh, N.C., will serve as conference worship leader.
SBCAL conference registration of $100, with free admission for spouses, includes admission to all sessions excluding the June 6 banquet, which has a $32.50 admission fee. Tickets and conference registration are available on the group's website, www.sbcal.org.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press' general assignment writer/ editor. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Ministers' Wives to hear Priscilla Shirer
By Shannon Baker
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Ministers' wives will take note of God's ability to sustain them through worship during their annual luncheon in Baltimore under the theme, "No Fear. No Excuses. He is Able" from 2 Timothy 1:12.
The 2014 SBC Ministers' Wives Luncheon, to begin at noon Tuesday, June 10, in the Key Ballroom at the Hilton Baltimore, will feature Priscilla Shirer, author of several books, including "One in a Million," "The Resolution for Women" and most recently "God is Able."
Shirer, of Going Beyond Ministries, is the daughter of Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas.
Donna Avant, president of this year's luncheon and wife of John Avant, senior pastor of First Baptist Concord in Knoxville, Tenn., said she had picked the theme long before she learned the name of Shirer's latest book.
"As we were praying through the theme, Priscilla's book was already at the printers!" she said. Each attendee at the conference will receive a copy of the book.
But Avant wants them to receive much more. "When the women walk away from this luncheon, I hope they have experienced fellowship with one another, teaching of God's Word -- which I know we will receive from Priscilla Shirer -- and I desperately want these women to truly worship and have a personal encounter with Christ," she said.
"We will get all the business done first, so women can really focus on worship," she said, noting the luncheon will include a 50-member choir of women from across Maryland and Delaware. "Only once a year do so many ministers' wives get to gather together like this. I hope they walk away, saying, 'I worshipped.'"
The luncheon's vice president, Sherry Lee, wife of David Lee, retired executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware in Columbia, Md., is excited that ministers' wives in Maryland and Delaware will be able to attend this year's luncheon. For many, it will be their first, because Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings generally do not meet in the Northeast.
"It is a magnificent opportunity for a Northeast convention to host this and for our ladies to be ministered to and refreshed," Lee said, adding, "There is a difference in the way you have to do ministry in the Northeast. It is not the Bible Belt."
Pointing to the ever-changing cultural landscape, Lee said, "We are on the front end of the curve because challenges often come to us first. We have to learn quickly how to minister to a culture that is not embracing Christianity."
At this year's luncheon, table hostesses will be ministers' wives from the Northeast, who will share their story about what it is like to minister in the region, and all wives will be given the opportunity to share with one another how God has been faithful in their lives and ministries.
Shirer, who has been married to Jerry for 13 years, is the mother of three boys. With God's Word and a message in her heart, thousands have either heard her speak or been a part of one of her Bible studies.
At only 18 Shirer began to share the simple truths of Scripture that she was studying in her own personal time with the Lord, and she has been in fulltime ministry ever since. Her ministry to women across the country and around the world is focused on expository teaching of the Word of God. Her desire is to see women come to a full understanding of who they are in Christ by hearing the uncompromising truth of Scripture.
Advance tickets are $15 at LifeWay.com/sbcwives; $20 at the door.
This year's officers also include vice presidents Donna Conrad, wife of John Conrad, worship/missions pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga., and Jackie Anderson, wife of Robert Anderson, senior pastor of Colonial Baptist Church in Randallstown, Md., and current president of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware.
The SBC Ministers' Wives Luncheon dates back to 1955 when two Georgia pastors' wives realized the importance of that state's ministers' wives' conference and decided that the national convention would benefit from such an organization. They made plans for a tea at the Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City during the 1956 convention and were overwhelmed by the response.
Always held on Tuesday during the SBC annual meeting, the luncheon is open to wives of all ministers, including pastors, staff members, chaplains, missionaries and denominational workers.
Shannon Baker is director of communications for the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware.
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Evangelists to unveil new website
By David Roach
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Unveiling a new website and discussing the role of evangelists in 21st-century America will be among the agenda items when the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists gathers around the theme "Answering His Call" June 6-8 in Baltimore.
"We want Southern Baptist evangelists to have their finger on the pulse of the culture so that we can be as relevant and effective as possible in impacting the culture with the Gospel," COSBE President Eric Ramsey said.
The meeting will begin with a retreat Friday, June 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hilton Baltimore Holiday Ballroom. It will be a time of evangelists "connecting with their support system" and "connecting with people who get who they are and get what they do," said Ramsey, president of Tom Cox World Ministries in Mountainburg, Ark.
Evangelists will participate in Crossover June 7, with COSBE members partnering with local churches in ministries ranging from music to ventriloquism to traditional personal witnessing. While evangelists have long participated in Southern Baptists' annual pre-convention evangelistic blitz, this year they will do so in conjunction with the North American Mission Board's Send: Baltimore strategy.
A banquet Saturday evening back at the Hilton Baltimore will include a keynote address by Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, and two inductions to COSBE's Hall of Faith. A new home for the Hall of Faith exhibit will also be announced.
Inductions to the Hall of Faith are "never a celebration of the individuals. It's honoring those individuals, but it's a celebration of being able as a believer to be involved in what God does. Our hope is that the Southern Baptist Evangelists' Hall of Faith will be utilized to call out the called, those whom God is calling to the office of the evangelist."
COSBE will host its Sunday morning worship service from 9 to 11:30 in the Hilton's Holiday Ballroom. Speakers had not been announced at press time.
The COSBE gathering will conclude with a business meeting at 2 p.m. Sunday, when the group will unveil its new website, elect officers and announce changes in the process by which its evangelists relate to each other and churches.
The "Answer His Call" theme references God's call to carry out the office of evangelist individually and as a part of Christ's body, Ramsey said.
"We believe that a big part of the role of an evangelist is not just to evangelize," he said, "but to equip the church in evangelism and to help God's people live out the call of making Christ known."
David Roach is Baptist Press' chief national correspondent. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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Seminaries slate luncheons at Baltimore SBC
By Staff
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Alumni and friends of Southern Baptists' six seminaries will gather Wednesday, June 11, in Baltimore to hear updates from their respective schools and renew their friendships.
The noontime luncheons will be held in conjunction with the June 10-11 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in the Baltimore Convention Center.
A list of the seminaries' plans follows:
GOLDEN GATE -- Jeff Iorg, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary's president, will be the featured speaker at the alumni and friends luncheon Wednesday, June 11, at noon in Room 310 of the Baltimore Convention Center. Iorg will report on the seminary's activities over the past year and discuss new initiatives for the coming year. In addition, Golden Gate's distinguished alumni awards will be presented. Reserved tickets, at $10 per person, are available by calling 1-888-442-8709 or emailing firstname.lastname@example.com. Tickets also may be purchased at Golden Gate's booth in the Exhibit Hall during the SBC annual meeting.
MIDWESTERN -- Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's luncheon will feature a panel on "The Life and Work of Charles Spurgeon." President Jason K. Allen and other special guests will be discussing the life and legacy of British preacher and theologian and considering what impact he should make on our churches. The event, slated for Rooms 343-344 on Level 300 of the Baltimore Convention Center, is open to all SBC attendees, with tickets at $15. More information will be available at www.mbts.edu.
NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's alumni relations office will host a reunion luncheon for alumni and friends on Wednesday, June 11, at the SBC annual meeting in Baltimore. Immediately following the morning session, the luncheon will be served in the Key Ballroom 3/4/6, Level 2 at the Hilton Baltimore Hotel. In addition to connecting with friends and former classmates, NOBTS President Chuck Kelley will update attendees on the previous year's developments and activities at the seminary. The Distinguished Alumni for 2014 will be named and national alumni officers will be elected. Tickets are $20 per person if purchased by May 31, $25 afterward. To purchase a ticket before the convention, send a check payable to NOBTS to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Attn: Alumni Relations, 3939 Gentilly Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70126. Or, tickets are available online at www.nobts.edu. All luncheon tickets may be picked up at the seminary's booth in the Exhibit Hall during the SBC annual meeting. Tickets also may be purchased during the convention at the NOBTS exhibit.
SOUTHEASTERN -- Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary will host its alumni and friends in Oriole Park at Camden Yards. A panel moderated by Ed Stetzer will feature Danny Akin, Bruce Ashford, Nathan Finn, Trillia Newbell and Thom Rainer. The annual luncheon during the SBC annual meeting will be held at noon on Wednesday, June 11, in Suite B. Tickets are $20 per person, $10 for children 12 and under, with a $60 maximum for families of four or more. Register at sebts.edu/alumni/events, email firstname.lastname@example.com or call 919-761-2177.
SOUTHERN -- Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will welcome alumni and friends from around the country for its annual luncheon at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting at noon Wednesday, June 11, in Ballroom IV of Level 400 of the Baltimore Convention Center. Attendees will hear what God is doing in and through Southern Seminary from President R. Albert Mohler Jr. Tickets are $25 and are available for purchase on Southern Seminary's website at www.sbts.edu/alumni-and-friends/sbc-luncheon and at the seminary's booth at the convention center.
SOUTHWESTERN -- Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's national alumni and friends luncheon on June 11 will begin at noon in Ballroom I on Level 400 of the Baltimore Convention Center. SWBTS President Paige Patterson will present the seminary's annual report and the 2014 distinguished alumnus awards to Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and U.S. Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma. Tickets may be purchased for $20 per person online at www.swbts.edu/sbclunch or by calling 1-877-GO SWBTS (467-9287). Tickets also will be available during the SBC annual meeting at Southwestern's booth in the Exhibit Hall.
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NAMB, messengers to 'experience Baltimore'
By Tobin Perry
Apr. 25 2014
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- The North American Mission Board again will focus on its partnership with Southern Baptists to push back lostness through its Send North America strategy at the SBC annual meeting in Baltimore.
The Send North America luncheon, at noon Monday, June 9, in the Ballroom on Level 400 of the Baltimore Convention Center, will allow Southern Baptists to experience the sights, smells and tastes of Baltimore as they learn how they can engage lostness in the city and other cities through NAMB's Send North America initiative.
Attendees will learn the story of Baltimore through the stories of those who have lived its recent history, centering around the city's increasing urbanization, as evidenced in its growing diversity and density. Southern Baptists also will learn about the ministry opportunities those changes have given to churches and church plants. Luncheon attendees will be challenged to look for the same opportunities in their communities.
There is limited seating for this free event but attendees must register and have a ticket to attend. Tickets are available at snaluncheon.com.
"God is gathering more people to our cities than ever before," said Kevin Ezell, NAMB's president. "The question is, 'How will Southern Baptists respond? How will we use the remarkable amount of resources and the opportunity He has given us?'"
Ezell will address convention messengers at 2:53 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10, with NAMB's report and presentation. His message will spotlight the impact Southern Baptists are having through Send North America. He will share about NAMB church revitalization efforts and the need for Southern Baptists to reduce the number of churches that close their doors each year.
Messengers will meet NAMB missionary David Pothier and learn how God is working through his church plant in Montreal, one of the most unreached cities in North America.
During the NAMB presentation, Ezell also will introduce messengers to two new tools to help pastors mobilize their congregations for missional engagement. Each messenger attending will receive samples of the new tools, including one designed to help individuals share their faith.
Throughout the convention, Send North America city coordinators and mobilizers will be at NAMB's exhibit to help connect churches to mission opportunities. NAMB's efforts this year will focus on helping pastors mobilize their entire congregation through Send North America. City coordinators and mobilizers will be encouraging pastors to involve their congregations in the 2015 Send North America Conference in Nashville. They'll also introduce visitors to the one-day Send North America Experiences taking place throughout the continent prior to the 2015 conference. Both the conference and one-day Send North America Experiences are designed to help pastors cast a vision for pushing back lostness in North America with other pastors and lay leaders in their own congregations.
NAMB leaders, church planters and pastors will participate in several panel discussions on church planting and pushing back lostness in North America. The discussions will take place at the SBC Executive Committee's Cooperative Program exhibit.
NAMB is partnering with the Baltimore Baptist Association to minister to the local community on Saturday, June 7, through Crossover, the annual event through which Southern Baptists reach out evangelistically to the host community. SBC churches and church plants across the Baltimore area will host evangelistic events and ministries within their neighborhoods. Southern Baptists from throughout North America are invited to come to the convention early and participate in the outreach efforts. New church plants will be among the churches reaching out to their neighborhoods during Crossover. For more information about Crossover, visit embracebaltimore.com/crossover.
Also hosted at the Baltimore Convention Center:
-- Hispanic pastors and church leaders are invited to the National Hispanic SBC Conference on June 8, starting at 5 p.m. in Room 337-338. The conference is co-sponsored by NAMB, Guidestone Financial Resources, LifeWay Christian Resources and the International Mission Board. NAMB's workshop, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Room 344, will focus on "Mobilizing the Hispanic Church."
-- NAMB invites all SBC chaplains to participate in a reception from 3-5 p.m. on June 9 in Room 340-341. To register for the event, email Keith Travis at firstname.lastname@example.com.
-- A free LoveLoud breakfast June 11 at 7 a.m. in Rooms 307-308. A panel will explore issues related to mental and emotional health and the church's responsibility to minister to individuals and families experiencing these struggles. To register, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mental-illness-and-the-mission-of-the-church-tickets-11428804863 or email Heather Aldrich at firstname.lastname@example.com.
-- A NAMB-sponsored lunch honoring bivocational pastors and their wives will take place June 11 at 11:30 a.m. in Room 309.
NAMB is also partnering with the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders who will host a June 6-8 meeting preceding the convention. The meeting will include large group worship and training, presentations by various SBC leaders, as well as practical breakout sessions for associational ministry. For more information, email email@example.com.
For more information about Send North America and NAMB's SBC presence, visit namb.net.
Tobin Perry writes for the North American Mission Board.
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LifeWay to unveil small groups emphasis
By Marty King
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Reviews of new group Bible study materials, book signings by leading Christian authors and a screening of a new movie are planned by LifeWay Christian Resources at the June 10-11 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Baltimore.
LifeWay will challenge SBC churches to start 100,000 new group Bible studies during its presentation Wednesday morning. "Every new group started in a church will have a multiplying impact on evangelism, discipleship and fellowship," says Thom Rainer, LifeWay's president.
Rainer will lead LifeWay's report, which also will include unveiling the new Explore the Bible study materials and presentation of the Holman Christian Standard Bible Award, the highest honor LifeWay bestows.
Messengers are invited to a panel discussion on "Salvation and the Mission of God" featuring Frank Page, president of the SBC Executive Committee; David Platt, senior pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala.; Ed Stetzer, vice president of LifeWay; and Trevin Wax, managing editor of LifeWay's The Gospel Project group study materials.
The free panel discussion sponsored by The Gospel Project will be Tuesday, June 10, from 6:30-8 a.m. in Ballroom IV of the Baltimore Convention Center. Each attendee will receive a free breakfast and more than a dozen free books. Seating is limited. Pre-registration is available at GospelProject.com/SBC14.
LifeWay Films will screen a new movie by James Dobson titled "Your Legacy," which will premiere nationwide in October. In the film, the renowned family expert will examine how to leave a family legacy of faith. The film will be shown Monday, June 9, at 9 p.m. at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel's Chesapeake Ballroom.
The SBC exhibit hall will feature LifeWay's popular 8,000-square-foot Christian store offering a wide selection of books, Bibles and other Christian products.
A special story time for kids will be held daily at 2 p.m. in the B&H Publishing Group area featuring noted children's authors reading their books. Veggie Tales characters Bob and Larry will appear each afternoon at 2:15 p.m. in the LifeWay Store.
Book signings are scheduled in the LifeWay store throughout the convention by bestselling authors including Dr. Ben Carson, Gary Chapman, David Platt, Tom Elliff, Jerry Vines and many more.
Marty King is corporate communications director of LifeWay Christian Resources.
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GuideStone to offer wellness, retirement help
By Roy Hayhurst
Apr. 25 2014
BALTIMORE (BP) -- GuideStone Financial Resources will again offer a wellness center during the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Messengers can visit the exhibit hall in Baltimore to take advantage of the wellness center's services, valued at $150.
Additionally, GuideStone will make available retirement and insurance meetings during the SBC annual meeting and Pastors' Conference June 9-11.
The wellness screening offers blood-based screenings, so for best results, fast at least the previous 12 hours. Participants will receive a personalized report suitable to take to their family doctors.
Additionally, GuideStone will make available its Retirement Income Solutions seminar along with Compensation Planning for Smaller Churches.
Retirement Income Solutions is designed for participants in GuideStone's retirement plans who are within five years of their intended retirement date and offers information on GuideStone's retirement income options. Compensation Planning for Smaller Churches offers insights on how smaller churches can make the most of limited budgets while providing adequately for their pastors' needs.
Retirement Income Solutions will be offered at two different times: 1-2 p.m. Monday, June 9, and 2-3 p.m., Tuesday, June 10 in Baltimore Convention Center Room 311. Compensation Planning for Smaller Churches will meet from 9-10 a.m. Tuesday in the same room.
GuideStone's property and casualty again will host Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company experts who will discuss "Doctrines of the Faith." The meeting -- which discusses doing church in a changing culture -- includes a free breakfast and will be held in Baltimore Convention Center Room 312.
Pre-registration is recommended for both Retirement Income Solutions and Compensation Planning for Smaller Churches and is required for the Doctrines of the Faith breakfast. Visit www.GuideStone.org/SBC14 after May 1 to register. Participants also can download a health questionnaire on the website and take it to the Wellness Center.
Mission:Dignity materials for Mission:Dignity Sunday can be obtained by visiting the GuideStone booth in the exhibit hall. Mission:Dignity Sunday is June 22 across the Southern Baptist Convention; however, materials are undated to allow churches to highlight Mission:Dignity at a time of the church's choosing.
For more details on Mission:Dignity, which provides critical financial support for retired Southern Baptist pastors and their widows in critical need, visit www.MissionDignitySBC.org.
While supplies last, pastors who stop by the GuideStone booth also can pick up a free copy of Nelson's Annual Preacher's Sourcebook, edited by GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins.
Roy Hayhurst is department head of denominational and public relations services at GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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FIRST-PERSON: Aborted babies as medical waste
By Kelly Boggs
Apr. 25 2014
ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) -- It came to light recently that a waste-to-energy plant in Oregon was burning the remains of aborted babies along with other medical waste to produce electricity, according to a variety of overseas news sources. The waste material was being shipped to the plant from the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The Marion County Board of Commissioners halted the medical waste program when it learned of the aborted remains, the British newspaper The Daily Mail reported. Marion County is located just south of Portland and is the home of Oregon's capital city of Salem.
A variety of sources reported in March that more than 15,000 aborted and miscarried babies had been incinerated as medical waste by some hospitals in Britain. Some of the remains were used in waste-to-energy plants similar to the one in Oregon. When the Department of Health learned of the situation, it issued a ban on the practice, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported.
"This practice is totally unacceptable," Britain's health minister, Dan Poulter, said, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The revelations from Oregon and the United Kingdom prompt the question of what routinely happens to remains of aborted and miscarried babies. Many are cremated. Some are tossed out with the trash as medical waste. Others are sealed in containers and sent to pathology labs. Some facilities actually bury the unborn children in mass graves. And some of the tiny bodies are taken by their mothers and given funeral services.
Those who take the children are women who have experienced miscarriages as well as those who aborted their child due to some major problem discovered prenatally. In both cases, the women viewed their unborn children as persons of value.
If an unborn baby is viewed as nothing more than a fetus, void of personhood, and routinely cremated and/or tossed out as medical waste, why would the practice of burning the remains to produce electricity be viewed as unacceptable and disgusting? It would seem practical and utilitarian to use the discarded remains to produce power. After all, the argument would run, aren't we just burning medical waste?
Why not do the same with dead bodies? Cremation is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Why not just stack dead people like cord wood and use them at waste-to-energy plants?
We don't use deceased people as fuel to produce energy for the same reason we shouldn't use aborted and miscarried babies -- because they are persons and their passing should be treated with as much dignity as possible.
In spite of what the advocates of evolution maintain, humans are more than just highly evolved animals. Mankind is a special creation, formed in the image of God and is precious and valuable at every stage of development. As such, each person should be treated with the utmost dignity.
It seems that civilizations the world over innately understand the intrinsic worth of human life. Birth is celebrated in all cultures; so is death. Death rituals or funerals are observed around the world. Though the forms are different, they all share a celebration of life and a mourning of death and are all, in their own way, dignified.
The only way to justify discarding the remains of an unborn child as medical waste, or callously incinerating its remains, is to view it as less than a person, less than human.
Nazi Germany did this to justify the Holocaust of European Jews, classifying the Jews as less than human, even subhuman. So, forcing them into ghettos seemed to them of no consequence. Cramming them like cattle onto railroad cars for transport to the so-called labor camps -- in reality death camps -- seemed to them reasonable.
Using strong healthy Jews as beasts of burden was acceptable to the Nazis, because, they thought, the Jews were not fully human. Working them until they were used up and then killing them was, for the Nazis, considered acceptable; it was how one discarded an animal that was no longer useful.
When the extermination of the Jews first began, the Nazis buried the dead bodies in mass graves. However, the practice proved too cumbersome and time-consuming; thus it gave way to the efficiency of incinerating them in specially constructed crematoriums. What you and I view as atrocities against the Jews were deemed acceptable by the Nazi regime.
If, as abortion proponents contend, the unborn child is nothing more than a fetus and void of personhood, why do they care what is done to it? Abort it, dissect it, study it, burn it for fuel, they say. Oddly, some modern-day advocates of abortion believe an unborn baby should be afforded some dignity when its remains are being disposed of.
They should extend their view to abortion in general: An unborn child should be afforded dignity and protected from any and all harm.
Kelly Boggs is a weekly columnist for Baptist Press, director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention's office of public affairs, and editor of the Baptist Message (www.baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress[/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp]baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]).
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CALL TO PRAYER: Petition & praise in prison
By Myriah Snyder
Apr. 25 2014
PADUCAH, Ky. (BP) -- "Thank you, Lord for Your mercy and grace," a female inmate writes in prayer. "I ask for wisdom, Lord, and to prosper in any and everything I touch. Bless everyone that comes across my path. I pray that Your hand be with me, protect me from evil, and that I may not cause any pain."
Prisoners, specifically women prisoners, are largely forgotten. The spiritual state of incarcerated individuals is not among the day-to-day thoughts of most Christians.
In working with a prison ministry in Paducah, Ky., I learn about various inmates from all walks of life, often through the prayer requests they pen weekly. Many of their stories are tragic; sometimes I see that an inmate is no older than my 22 years.
I grew up in a Christian home, with a Christian education continuing into my college years. Although my life was far from perfect, I received love and nurture in abundance. When I consider the person I have become today, I am fully aware of the faith that was birthed and nurtured amid my surroundings.
At the same time, I can tell from the inmates' prayer requests and from volunteers' ministry reports that these women often are the product of their upbringing. So many of them have been abused, unsheltered and forgotten by those who should have nurtured them. Sometimes, I wonder how I would have turned out had their lives been mine. Of course, this stands as no excuse for whatever actions landed them behind bars. Nevertheless, their heart-wrenching pasts are sobering.
This ministry's sole purpose is to lead these forgotten souls to Christ, working primarily with inmates in two women's prisons and with women and men in the McCracken County Regional Jail in Paducah. Each week, volunteers conduct worship and teach a scriptural lesson. What could be boring paperwork received at our office yields the life stories of these women, helping staff and volunteers to understand the situations they are in and, often, their brokenness before the Lord.
Intercession & praise
"Please pray for my family and also for each and every one here and their families, including all the inmates and staff," one woman inmate writes. "I give praise to God for opening doors for [faithful Christ-followers] to come and teach us about God."
Sometimes the prayer requests we receive are just a line or two. Other times, they are paragraph-long heartfelt prayers from broken lives. Their situations are so bleak and sentences so long, but what makes these prayers stand out in my mind is gratitude. In a place where not one individual on the outside could imagine being thankful, they pour out praise.
I often wonder if I were in their place, if my prayers would consist of pleading with the Lord for a hurried release, or if they would be the unselfish offerings of praise that so many of these individuals write.
Prayers for family
Another moving aspect of the inmates' prayers is their concern for the families they left behind.
"I ask that you pray for my children and their caregivers," one female prisoner writes. "Pray that my children are being taught God's word and are safe...." Again, these women have next to nothing, but they share their heart to the Lord for those whom they care about.
Working with this ministry has impacted my life in many ways. Most importantly, it has challenged me. When I start to take for granted the things that the Lord has kept me from, I think of where I could be if my circumstances had been different.
The prayer requests and paperwork that I see on a weekly basis inspire me to be more thankful, caring and soul-conscious. The blessings in my life are constant reminders of Christ's extended grace to me on a daily basis. In light of this, I am stirred to be more apt to reach out to those in need of that same grace -- in this case, incarcerated individuals.
Above all, pray
One of the simplest ways to reach out to these inmates -- and to the inmates in your community -- is to pray for them.
Pray for their families. Reach out to them in love.
Whatever the reason for their incarceration, they are hurting souls. Praying for the inmates themselves and for the volunteers who work with them is an encouragement not only to those in our prayers, but also to the one who is praying.
Myriah Snyder is a senior at Mid-Continent University in Mayfield, Ky.
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EDITORIAL: Fe Que Transforma
By Fermín Whittaker
Apr. 25 2014
NOTA DEL EDITOR: La columna First-Person (De primera mano) es parte de la edición de hoy de BP en espańol. Para ver historias adicionales, vaya a
FRESNO, Calif. (BP) -- Los recientes acontecimientos políticos en algunos países del medio oriente urge una conversación del impacto que nuestra fe puede tener. Varios líderes políticos han renunciado. Muchas personas han perdido sus vidas a consecuencia de las violencias.
En este momento, hay muchos buscando fortaleza y paz. Como cristiano, no encuentro respuestas en entidades políticas, organizaciones seculares o relaciones desconectadas. Nuestra fe está en Dios y la verdadera transformación es eterna,
Muchas veces pienso que las noticias no tienen la menor idea del impacto del poder de Dios en nuestras vidas y comunidades. Diariamente llegan a mi oficina informaciones de eventos espirituales cambiando vidas. Campańas evangelísticas, ministerios comunitarios, predicaciones importantes y otros eventos presentan claramente el poder transformador de Dios.
Cuando confiamos en Jesús, tenemos la confianza que nuestra fe provee una satisfacción eterna. Creo que fe en Dios puede transformar vidas, familias y comunidades. También esta fe puede transformar corazones y gobiernos. Como cristianos nos urge vivir la fe transformadora y que otros vean que nuestro Dios ama, perdona y transforma vidas.
Fermín Whittaker es el director ejecutivo de la Convención Bautista del Sur en California. Los materiales en espańol publicados por esta convención se encuentran en http://www.csbc.com/languageresources.
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