Charles Braddix/Baptist Press JOHANNESBURG (BP) – A young child sits on the side of the road in Madagascar crushing rocks with a hammer almost too heavy for him to hold. Another accidentally slices his hand open with a machete while opening cocoa pods on a plantation in Ghana. A young teenage girl, trafficked for the sex industry, walks the beaches of Kenya looking for business. A young boy squats naked in a mineshaft in Burkina Faso, chipping ore and loading it into buckets all … [Read more...]
2013 mental health motion addressed by Exec. Comm.
NASHVILLE (BP) – The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee has concurred with the spirit of a motion referred from the 2013 SBC annual meeting regarding mental health ministry. In its Feb. 17-18 meeting in Nashville, the Executive Committee voted to amend an annual ministry report form it solicits from the SBC’s entities to include questions asking appropriate entities what they are doing to assist Southern Baptist churches in equipping and ministering to people with … [Read more...]
Deaf church planter works so Detroit’s unchurched might hear
TOBIN PERRY /Baptist Press MACOMB, Mich. (BP) – Scott Blanchard is familiar with all the public perceptions of Detroit and its surrounding area: It’s dying. No one wants to live there. The church can’t thrive in the Motor City. But the fact is, the Detroit-area native and Southern Baptist church planter just doesn’t buy those perceptions. During the past three years as he has planted Lakepointe Church in Macomb, Mich., just outside Detroit, he has seen a different story take … [Read more...]
Baptist troubadours strum gospel in Sochi
Evelyn Adamson/Baptist Press SOCHI, Russia (BP) – Members of the Earl Brackin Band sing and strum their traditional bluegrass instruments, rendering a soul-stirring version of “I’ll Fly Away,” as dozens of Olympics fans gather to listen, some of whom capture the music on their smartphones. Earl Brackin, minister of worship at Church on the Hill in Dalton, Ga., said prior to leaving for Russia, “In Sochi, we’ll be like troubadours. Since bluegrass bands don’t need electricity, we can … [Read more...]
Church planters help two Quebec university students encounter gospel
ADAM MILLER/Baptist Press LENNOXVILLE, QC (BP) – Canadians easily dismiss Christianity – especially in Quebec. The history of mistrust is woven deep within the fabric of Québécois culture – a culture that’s decidedly Catholic and, at the same time, increasingly secular. But Lucas Aube in Lennoxville, Quebec, has worked to make rejecting Christ a greater challenge than ever among the thousands of students of Bishops University and Champlain College. The immediate response many give to … [Read more...]
Sochi: Missouri trooper has biblical encounter
William Bagsby/Baptist Press SOCHI, Russia (BP) – In the basement of a church hung a forgotten American flag, and when John Christensen laid eyes on it, he knew it was the flag he’d been praying for to take to the Sochi Olympics. “I have a flag at home, but I just thought, ‘Lord, show me a flag. I want to have a symbol to take.’ And the very first time I walked into that church,” Christensen recalls, “I saw that flag hanging there and I told our pastor, ‘I’m taking this flag to … [Read more...]
New gay marriage rules hamper states
Tom Strode/Baptist Press WASHINGTON (BP) – The U.S. Justice Department’s new, wide-ranging policies supporting same-sex marriages even in states where such unions are illegal came as no shock, but will hamper states’ efforts to govern on the issue, says a Southern Baptist public policy expert. Attorney General Eric Holder’s Feb. 10 memorandum officially announcing the changes marked the latest in a series of actions by the Obama administration to extend federal benefits to people in … [Read more...]
Ukraine’s violence escalates
KIEV, Ukraine (BP) – Scripture portions helped provide a flicker of faith as violence escalated in Ukraine on Feb. 18. At least 25 were killed and hundreds injured as government forces acted to forcibly remove protesters from Kiev’s Independence Square. The dead include civilians and police officers. The Interior Ministry demanded that protesters leave the square by 8 p.m. Feb. 18. When the deadline passed, riot police dismantled barricades with the help of armored vehicles, water … [Read more...]
SBC.net sports new look
NASHVILLE (BP) – A more visual redesign of sbc.net, the official website of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Executive Committee (EC), has officially launched, Frank Page announced to committee members in Nashville. While the new website will feature much of the same information and resources that readers have logged on to the site to access, it also will include a variety of new visual updates, said Page, EC president. One of those updates includes a rotating slideshow of images … [Read more...]
200,000 Hindi Bibles donated for Asia
Aaron Earls/Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) – LifeWay Christian Stores set a goal last fall of donating 100,000 Hindi language Bibles across South Asia, but customers gave enough for twice that many. “LifeWay has proven once again it is an organization with a heart for the world,” Tom Eliff, president of the International Mission Board (IMB), said. “Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine The Thomas Project would be such an overwhelming success.” Named for the disciple believed to … [Read more...]
Oscar nod rescinded, song still benefits
Diana Chandler/Baptist Press BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (BP) – The movie “Alone Yet Not Alone” lost its nomination for best original song more likely because of Oscar-related politics than prejudice against a Christian message, because another nominated movie prominently includes Christian music, a film industry insider said. The Disney animated movie “Frozen,” nominated for best original song for “Let It Go,” opens with “Vuelie,” a tune including music from the Danish Christmas hymn … [Read more...]
Ronnie Floyd to be SBC president nominee
Art Toalston/Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) – Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) at the SBC annual meeting this June, seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. announced Feb. 20. Floyd has “unparalleled experience as a leader among us, an unquestioned commitment to the Great Commission, and he has demonstrated an unstinting urgency to unite Southern Baptists around our shared beliefs, mission, and programs,” Mohler, … [Read more...]
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