KANSAS CITY – Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS) will welcome Anthony Allen as vice president for administration June 1. He joins the administrative staff at a critical point in the seminary’s life – just as it is embarking on an $8.7 million capital campaign. Allen brings extensively developed skills and experience in this area from his previous 16 years of work at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) as assistant to the vice president for institutional advancement, and then vice president for financial development.
“Anthony Allen brings great depth of experience and extensive knowledge to Midwestern. He also has a great passion for the Lord and for the Lord’s work,” said MBTS President R. Philip Roberts. “It is a blessing for Midwestern to have him as our vice president of administration. We believe he will make a great contribution to our institution.”
“I believe that Midwestern has achieved some solid milestones in the past five years under the leadership of Dr. Phil Roberts,” said Allen. “I consider it an honor to join this strong team of cabinet members currently serving alongside the president. The institution has advanced to new heights, and I firmly believe that God is doing a great work at Midwestern.”
BIRCH TREE – First Baptist Church here held revival services March 25-28 and saw 34 people come to know Christ, according to Aaron Davis, pastor. Sixteen others rededicated their lives to Christ.
Jack Graham to speak at Spurgeon workshop
KANSAS CITY – Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS) will sponsor a one-day workshop on pastoral leadership on April 24, 8 a.m.-noon and 1-4:30 p.m. The schedule will include worship, lecture and breakout sessions.
“Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is dedicated to biblically educating God-called men and women to be and to make disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the world,” said MBTS President R. Philip Roberts. “This workshop will be a good opportunity for God-called men to interact with a leader in pastoral ministry and put their learning into practice.”
The featured speaker will be Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas and former two-term president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Graham earned his doctor of ministry degree in “Church and Proclamation” and has led dynamic, effective ministries at several Southern Baptist churches ever since.
Graham has pastored churches in Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida. He joined Prestonwood as senior pastor in 1989 and has seen its membership go from 8,000 to 26,000. Today, the church holds three weekend worship services, a midweek service, Bible Fellowship classes, and multiple outreach and community ministries that touch thousands. The church is also planning construction of a second campus in Prosper, Texas.
Graham’s ministry spans the country and reaches throughout the world through his broadcast ministry, PowerPoint Ministries. PowerPoint, started in April 1994, takes the Gospel message through radio, television and Internet media to the world. The ministry goes out by way of 58 radio stations – including national satellite XM and SIRIUS stations and an international station in the UK – and television stations viewed in more than 72 countries to 500,000 people around the globe.
At this workshop, Graham will speak to the issue of pastoral leadership from the perspective of a broad and successful experience.
The workshop is free to all pastors and students who register by April 23.
Hannibal – Hannibal-LaGrange College (HLG) senior Bible major, Chad Shinn, directed and performed his original scripts on April 14, at 7 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church in Hannibal. This performance project fulfilled an internship requirement for graduation.
Shinn is enthusiastic about the debut of his original work. “The most exciting aspect of this project is that I really love theatre and media development. I was able to use my talents in script writing and video production on this project,” said Shinn.
Approximately 15 HLG students participated in Shinn’s student-directed performance. As a member of HLG’s New Edition, a Christian theatre troupe, Shinn was fortunate to recruit several New Edition members to help with his project. “It’s encouraging to me that my New Edition friends would step outside of their regular duties and help me with this performance,” said Shinn.
The April 14 performance also served as a fundraiser for New Edition summer mission work. Beginning in June, the team will travel throughout the Midwest and internationally performing for children and youth camps. A love offering was taken during the performance.
Bethany Baptist Church holds Easter egg hunt
Cape Girardeau – Hundreds of eggs, scores of children, 14 minutes, one inch of rain. A good time was had by all.
Even the cold rain could not dampen the enthusiasm of the kids, 10 years and younger, as they sought out the Easter eggs and especially the large eggs with the money tucked inside.
Over 60 kids were treated to this event by Bethany Baptist and in less than 15 minutes the park was wiped clean.
Bethany Baptist provides this hunt as an annual event, for the young kids in the immediate area of the church and is very well attended. “We enjoy seeing the excitement in the young children”, Rosemary Askew, organizer of the event, said.
Bill Adams, Sunday School superintendent, inserted a card of “outreach” in the Bethany Gift Bag provided for all children attending. The card gives parents an opportunity to respond in several different ways and follow up visits are then arranged.
FBC Sarcoxie calls and ordains Wilson
SARCOXIE – First Baptist Church recently ordained Samuel D. Wilson to the Gospel Ministry. Wilson came to the church as pastor on Jan. 4.
Wilson and his wife, LeeAnn, and their twins, Hallee and Luke, moved to Sarcoxie from Welch, Okla.