SPRINGFIELD – His song was edged out last week by “Hidden Heroes,” but Mark Mathes, music minister at Crossway Baptist Church, here, penned Dove Award-nominated song, “Sometimes it Takes a Mountain.” Performed by the Gaither Vocal Band, Mathes’s work was one of five nominees in the category for Southern Gospel Song of the Year. The 46th Annual Dove Awards were held in Nashville Oct. 13 and televised Oct. 18. Mathes found out the song was nominated this summer and travelled to Nashville … [Read more...]
Yeats, other execs make state conventions’ case
KANSAS CITY – Leaders from five midwest and southern conventions laid out the history – and their vision for the future – of state conventions in Southern Baptist Life at SBC and the 21st Century symposium at Midwestern Seminary Sept. 29. The Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) Executive Director John Yeats joined Paul Chitwood of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, Tim Lubinus of the Baptist Convention of Iowa, Jim Richards of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and Anthony Jordan of … [Read more...]
‘War Room’ wins with heart, humor
Settling into my seat with my tub of popcorn and a Diet Pepsi that cost roughly half a mortgage payment, I expected “War Room” to be to an affirming, charming movie with a solidly biblical worldview. Confession: Though I respect the aims of “God’s Not Dead,” “Son of God,” “Fireproof” and the like, I thought they failed at being entertaining movies. I expected some stiff acting from “War Room,” and an admirable but predictable moral; I expected to give it a hearty “Meh.” What I didn’t expect … [Read more...]
MBCH wary of potential new labor laws
BRIDGETON – The Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (MBCH) is used to fighting hard for its funding – whether it’s state contracts, tax credits or donations – but if proposed federal labor laws go into effect Jan. 1 of next year, the costs could put a serious hurt on MBCH’s ministry. The Obama Administration and the Department of Labor have proposed changing the definition of “exempt” employees with respect to overtime laws. The proposed regulations would more than double the current salary … [Read more...]
Deaf challenged to reach out
FULTON – The pastor asked the crowd to get into small groups to pray, and they did. But when they did, no heads were bowed, no eyes were closed and not a sound was heard. The pastor – Bob Barker of Plano, Texas’s StoryOne ministry – and the crowd were deaf. Instead of lifting up their prayer with voices, there were flurries of sign language as they prayed for more deaf to come to know Christ. It was part of the 60th anniversary and annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Conference of the … [Read more...]
MBCH serves women who choose life
BRIDGETON – It’s a constant retort from those that defend abortion: “Women facing an unplanned pregnancy often don’t have any other option. They don’t know how or can’t take care of an infant without any support. It’s better to just terminate the pregnancy.” The Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (MBCH) stands at hand, ready to give that support. In the second quarter of 2015, MBCH served 12 women in its pregnancy resedential program in St. Louis, and 78 women through in-home services in … [Read more...]
HLGU, SBU weigh CCCU options in light of gay marriage policy
BOLIVAR – What started as policy changes at two obscure Mennonite colleges has grown into a nationwide controversy leaving Bible-believing institutions like Southwest Baptist University (SBU) and Hannibal-LaGrange University (HLGU) caught in the middle. Goshen College, an Indiana school affiliated with the Mennonite Church USA, announced in July it would expand hiring and benefits practices to include employees in same-sex marriages. Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, also connected … [Read more...]
Kansas City’s Clifton leads legacy church planting breakout
NASHVILLE – Amid all the young faces making up the crowd at the SEND Conference, there was also talk of the old. Not old Christians – though there were plenty represented – but old and dying churches that can see new life by being replanted to reach their communities for the gospel. Kansas City’s John Mark Clifton, along with First Baptist, Woodstock, Ga.’s Johnny Hunt, led an Aug. 4 break out session focusing on the idea of legacy church planting and revitalization for several hundred … [Read more...]
Free evangelistic horse whisperer show coming to Fair’s Opening Day
SEDALIA – James Frazier wrestled steers and manhandled broncs as a rodeo cowboy in his youth, but at 45, he has found a calmer, quieter, not to mention safer, way of bringing an animal with a bad attitude in to submission: talking to it. Frazier will host a free horse whispering demonstration 10 a.m. Aug. 13 at the Mathewson Exhibition Center at the Missouri State Fair. Admission to the Fair is normally $10 for adults and $7 for seniors, but on the 13th, Opening Day, admission is $4 for … [Read more...]
HLGU, SBU, MBCH react to SCOTUS ruling
JEFFERSON CITY – Leaders from Missouri Baptist entities – Southwest Baptist University (SBU), Hannibal-LaGrange University (HLGU) and the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (MBCH) – have had time to digest the June 26 United States Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage. They are unanimous in their disagreement with the court, but believe their legal standing is valid – for now – as they maintain the close, covenant relationship with the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) and a … [Read more...]
Italy next up for partnership missions
JEFFERSON CITY – If approved by messengers to the annual meeting in October, Missouri Baptists will form a new, four-year partnership for missions with Italy beginning Jan. 1, 2016. The initial plan was approved by the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) executive board July 14 based on the recommendation of Rick Hedger, MBC partnership missions specialist. Hedger has been praying for Italy and seeking the next MBC partnership for two years, and said God has laid the former … [Read more...]
Missouri church planter in Omaha seeks to engage
OMAHA – Rick Posey came away with an unintended consequence after he led mission teams from his Valley Springs, Ark. church to this thriving city along Interstate 29: he wanted to stay. A Missouri native from Springfield, he spent the last 15 years pastoring in Arkansas and Missouri (including six years as associate pastor at Skyline Baptist Church in Branson). While there his church helped a few new church plants take root, and that’s when God began to impress upon him that he and his … [Read more...]
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