ST. LOUIS — A Missouri Baptist University (MBU) employee embezzled around $107,000 by using her position as the university’s controller from 2009-2012, according to an internal audit and subsequent investigation which led St. Louis County prosecutors to charge her with the crime, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Melinda Okai, 48, of O’Fallon was charged Nov. 9 with stealing more than $25,000, the newspaper reported. The thefts included various schemes, Creve Coeur police said, and led … [Read more...]
Missouri DR wrapping up in NJ, looking toward New York City
MIDDLETOWN , N.J. – It’s been a full month since Hurricane Sandy hit the northeast, but the clean-up job in New Jersey – where Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Disaster Relief (DR) units have been focusing – is almost complete Three crews from Mineral Area Baptist Association, and churches in Macon and Perryville were working in the second wave of Missouri’s DR response; two doing mud-out and one clearing debris with chainsaws. The exceptionally strong storm claimed at least 88 lives in … [Read more...]
State Evangelism Conference gets ‘ReFRESHed’
BRANSON – The State Evangelism Conference is going to look different in 2013. It’s now an evangelism/discipleship event and it’s called “ReFRESH,” based on a program from Sherwood Baptist Church in Georgia. It will be Feb. 28 and March 1 at First Baptist Church, Branson. Registration begins at 4:30, and the evening session runs 6-8:30 p.m. The next day’s sessions run 8:30-11 a.m., 2-4 p.m. and 6-8:30 p.m. ReFRESH events normally cost $150 per person, but thanks to Cooperative Program … [Read more...]
Missouri’s Lottie Moon goal $3.75 mil.
JEFFERSON CITY – A chill is in the air, and that means carols, pageants, family dinners, and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. The Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) has set a statewide goal of $3.75 million for the 2012 offering. That works out to about $7.13 per Baptist church member in Missouri. The goal is the same as last year’s in Missouri, however Missouri Baptists surpassed that goal, giving $3,789,519. The Southern Baptist Convention’s nationwide goal … [Read more...]
Three Missouri churches building long-term relationships in Haiti
BOREL, Haiti – What could pull Missourians to one of the poorest nations on Earth three times in six months? Nothing but God. Mila Ayers, a member of Second Baptist Church in Bowling Green, joined 17 others from her church, members of Desloge Baptist Church and Macon Baptist Church for a mission trip to Haiti in late October. This trip followed closely on the heels of an initial trip in June and a third coming up in this month. They went to Borel, a city about 60 miles north of … [Read more...]
Kansas megachurch affiliates with MBC
LENEXA, Kan. — Lenexa Baptist Church has joined the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC). The suburban Kansas City megachurch can now be counted among about a half a dozen similarly sized MBC churches while also retaining its affiliation with the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists. In November its Sunday average was 2,470 at both its main campus and a second site in Greenwood, Mo. “We intend on having multiple churches in Missouri,” said Steve Dighton, who on Jan. 21, 2013, … [Read more...]
August Gate brings light to St. Louis
ST. LOUIS — Noah Oldham, lead pastor for August Gate Church here in the downtown area where Interstates 44 and 55 meet, is not trying to attract people to a church building. “We understand that we need to go to the world’s turf and take the light there to push back the darkness,” he said. Oldham, 30, is part of a group of young Southern Baptist church planters who are illuminating urban centers. August Gate launched in August 2009 and is up to 200-250 people every week, with another 50-80 … [Read more...]
First person: A Missouri mother embraces life, not abortion
One of the happiest moments of my life was when I found out I was going to be a mom. That was a miracle in itself, since, due to medical issues, we had been told we wouldn’t be able to have kids. My husband, mother and I went to the 20-week ultrasound full of anticipation. We were hoping to find out if the little one I was carrying was a boy or girl. We quickly found out I was having a boy. We were ecstatic. There were some odd things going on with our ultrasound tech, she seemed to be … [Read more...]
Joy in the math; in the Lord times infinity
I read somewhere that the reason shopping malls have benches is so that men can have somewhere to sit while they give up the will to live. I wonder how often guys have said the words, “I will give you five hundred bucks right here on the spot if you’ll just pick a pair of shoes right now. Any pair.” Of course, any man who says that doesn’t understand that as the words are coming out of his mouth, the savvy woman shopper is already calculating how many more pairs of shoes that will buy. … [Read more...]
Ten biblical truths about the afterlife
Three-year-old Colton Burpo had a near-death experience (NDE) while on the operating table. When it was over, he described his “three minutes in heaven” in vivid detail, including encounters with Samson, John the Baptist, and Jesus, who had sea-blue eyes and owned a rainbow-colored horse. Colton’s father, a Wesleyan pastor, believes the lad’s experience was real because he shared it with “the simple conviction of an eyewitness.” You may read Colton’s story in Heaven is for Real: A Little … [Read more...]
JOHN YEATS: A Cooperative Program story worth repeating
At the Annual Meeting, a Cooperative Program (CP) survey was conducted and a large percentage of respondents commented that they wanted to hear the stories about the impact of our cooperative ministries. I couldn’t agree more and we are working at “taking our game” to the next level. So when this letter about the Risen Ranch Cowboy Church and Pastor Steve Stafford and his wife, Debbie, hit my email box, I said, “We cannot keep stories like this to ourselves.” I trust you will be … [Read more...]
Fairview Baptist pastor has burden to reach Amish
POLLOCK — Sam Burkholder was a member of the Old Order Amish Church when he noticed that some of his Christian relatives were different. “I saw they had a peace and joy that the Amish didn’t have,” he said. “I knew they had something we were missing.” He found that something, the Holy Spirit, on the way to becoming an evangelical Christian believer and now a bivocational Baptist pastor. Burkholder, 66, serves as pastor of Fairview Baptist Church, near Pollock, in northern Missouri. He … [Read more...]
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