JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptists are “staunchly, unapologetically pro-life,” Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director Wes Fowler told an enthusiastic audience at the Midwest March for Life, May 1. Fowler was featured twice on the Midwest March for Life schedule, but he wasn’t the sole Missouri Baptist to take the stage during the rally. Alongside him were Brandy Meeks, president of the Vitae Foundation and a member of the MBC’s Christian Life Commission; and Susan Klein, … [Read more...]
Christians must engage to defend truth and keep state pro-life, Missouri legislator says
JEFFERSON CITY – Since being elected for the first time to office in 2018, Pastor Doug Richey of Pisgah Baptist Church, Excelsior Springs, has served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. Last month, I spoke with Richey about the importance of Christian involvement in the public sphere, as well as about ongoing efforts to keep Missouri a pro-life state. The following transcription of our conversation has been edited because of space limitations: BENJAMIN HAWKINS: Why should … [Read more...]
Library content contested, summer reading options
Many of my fondest memories involve books—scanning my father’s bookshelves as a boy, perusing the set of print encyclopedias displayed in my family’s living room, growing in faith as a teenager while reading missionary biographies, like Jesse Fletcher’s Bill Wallace of China. My father often took me and my siblings to the local library in the small, western Oklahoma town where I grew up. It was a treat to spend an hour there, letting my mind roam free among so many books. The library was a … [Read more...]
God is all Goodness, the Giver of all good things
Only one week before his death in July 1555, English Protestant John Bradford wrote from prison to his mother. “I die not, my good mother, as a thief, a murderer, an adulterer,” he wrote, “but I die as a witness of Christ, His gospel and verity.” Though he would soon become a martyr for his faith, Bradford trusted in God’s goodness. Writing to comfort men and women who likewise faced suffering and death, he described the Christian life as a voyage on a stormy sea. Buffeted and beaten by … [Read more...]
The thread of Scripture leads us to the real Jesus
More than 2 million people flocked to northern Italy in 2015 to take a rare glimpse at the Shroud of Turin, purportedly the burial clothe in which the crucified Christ was wrapped and which now bears His image. Around the same time, CNN featured the shroud in the first of several documentaries attempting to uncover the “historical Jesus” by examining such relics. “Why are we so fascinated with any historical artifact—relics, as some call them—associated with Jesus?” David Gibson and … [Read more...]
Missouri Baptists called to be salt, light in public sphere
KANSAS CITY – Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) President Chris Williams, pastor of Fellowship Church in Greenwood, has called his congregation to “contend for the faith in the public square in a manner that is gospel-centered and grounded in truth.” But Fellowship Church isn’t the only congregation equipping Missouri Baptists to be salt and light in their communities, state and nation. ‘Bring your faith into politics’ “Politics is important,” Williams told his church, March 3. In fact, … [Read more...]
Defend the sanctity of life with compassion, conviction
Decline to Sign initiative petition supporting abortion Struggling to survive in Nazi-occupied Holland during World War II, a Jewish mother and her baby sought refuge in the home of Casper ten Boom, who lived with his unmarried daughter’s Corrie and Betsie. At that time, their home was already the hiding place for a handful of other Jews, and adding a mother and child to the household would only draw unwanted attention from the authorities. They needed to find another safe space for the … [Read more...]
Executive Board sets $15 million CP budget
JEFFERSON CITY – During their meeting here, March 4-5, the Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) executive board recommended 2025 goals for the Cooperative Program (CP) and other statewide offerings. The board set the 2025 CP goal at $15 million, while setting statewide offering goals as follows: $800,000 for the Missouri Missions Offering (MMO); $4 million for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering; $2.2 million for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering; and $150,000 for the World Hunger … [Read more...]
Missouri House votes to defund Planned Parenthood
Pro-life bill heads to Senate; Mo. Attorney General files suit against Planned Parenthood EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was updated, March 6, to include comments from Missouri Baptist Convention legislative liaison Timothy Faber. JEFFERSON CITY – In a 104-49 vote, the Missouri House of Representatives chose to defund Planned Parenthood, March 4, less than a week after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed suit “against Planned Parenthood for trafficking minors out of state to … [Read more...]
Lostness abounds in the United States
Pray for North American missions, March 3-10 Nearly a dozen years ago, I spoke with Southern Baptist missionaries who at that time served in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece – that is, the home of the biblical Thessalonians, one of the first cities the apostle Paul visited on his first missionary journey to the European continent. Before moving to Thessaloniki, these same missionaries had served on mission at the edge of the world – namely, in the Russian city of Petropavlovsk, lying on … [Read more...]
‘One generation will declare Your works to the next’
From within the walls of a bleak Nazi prison cell, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote words of joy and wisdom to his niece and her soon-to-be husband in May 1943. “Marriage is more than your love for each other,” Bonhoeffer wrote at the conclusion of his letter. “It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which He wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. “In your love you see only your two selves in the world,” he added, “but in … [Read more...]
Friendship is God’s gift, a reflection of Christ’s love
A peace lily sitting near a large window in my family’s living room surprised us this winter by sending up not only one or two, but six new, pure white blooms. It’s a beautiful plant, which we received a couple of years ago after a family member’s funeral and graveside service. This peace lily is quite meaningful for us, a daily reminder of a beloved family member who has gone ahead of us to heaven. But it’s even more meaningful because it was a gift from some friends who – as far as we … [Read more...]
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