For the past 50 years, in some form or another, I have had the privilege of serving in ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention. While I now serve as interim president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, I have pastored churches in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia, and most recently, retired as executive director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. The financial strain of retirement While a privilege to bear, the demands on pastors are great. For most, … [Read more...]
FIRST-PERSON: Persecution and protection of Iranian Christians
With the present war involving Iran, the United States and surrounding countries, a closer look at the history of Christianity in Iran may help place these events in context and guide believers in how to pray for Christians living there. Throughout Iran’s history with Christianity, there has been sporadic discrimination against and persecution of believers. When outside forces threaten Iran, the relationship between Iranian Christians and the ruling government has often changed. Beginnings … [Read more...]
How should we respond when failure no longer surprises us?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jeremy Plymale serves as pastor of Cross Haven Church in O'Fallon, Mo. Moral failure among pastors has become tragically familiar. What is perhaps most revealing is not that it continues to happen – Scripture already assumes the ongoing presence of sin – but that we still seem surprised when it does. Each new story is treated as an unthinkable collapse rather than a sober reminder of how fragile our assumptions about spiritual health can be. We are quick to express shock, … [Read more...]
Home visitation brings hope to young families
by Charles Phillips/MBCH EDITOR'S NOTE: Charles Phillips serves as Assistant VP (West) for MBCH Children and Family Ministries. MBCH Children and Family Ministries (MBCH-CFM) is committed to walking alongside families during some of the most important and vulnerable seasons of life. Through its Home Visitation ministry, MBCH-CFM serves pregnant women and new mothers with children from birth to age three, offering consistent support, encouragement, and practical resources that help … [Read more...]
‘One Great Day of Evangelism’: MBC outreach initiative set for Oct. 24
Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Perhaps that’s what inspired his lifelong motto: Great things have small beginnings. That has been true of spiritual awakenings in the United States as well. The Haystack Revival of 1806 began with four students taking refuge from a thunderstorm under a haystack. The Laymen’s Revival of 1857-58 began with Jeremiah Lamphyre gathering on the third floor of a church with just five or six other men. I believe the same … [Read more...]
First-Person: Senior deer hunts led by BHHM have ‘remarkable impact’
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ron Mackey serves as vice president of community engagement for Baptist Homes & Heathcare Ministries. JEFFERSON CITY – Several years ago, our president, Rodney Harrison (president of the Baptist Homes & Healthcare Ministries) came to me with a very unique idea—take our elderly residents deer hunting. I must admit my first impressions ranged from concern for the liability of our resident’s safety, to concerns over whether or not our insurance would cover such an … [Read more...]
Opportunities & choices: The parable of the talents
Every day and many times throughout each day we are presented with choices that determine outcomes for us and others. I am thankful for MBCH staff that help parents and children make better choices and seize upon better opportunities. For some families, they did not know or understand they had a better life set before them through a pattern of different decisions. Jesus gives us a parable about opportunities in Matthew 25. God has blessed all of us differently. God, according to the … [Read more...]
Christmas carol recounts tragedy, encourages us to protect the innocents
EDITOR’S NOTE: John Francis is the minister of worship at Parkway Baptist Church, St. Louis, and an adjunct professor of music and worship at Missouri Baptist University. He also produces a weekly podcast, titled “The Monday Morning Worship Leader.” “Coventry Carol” is an odd little carol. Written by Robert Croo in the sixteenth century, it is found in less than twenty hymnals published within the last 100 years. In fact, to use a pun, it is almost as it were “sent to Coventry” as it … [Read more...]
First Person: IMB missionary shares how cancer challenged beliefs, strengthened trust in God
by Jenna Morehart/IMB missionary My family and I went to serve with the International Mission Board in Portugal in 2017. Like many of my friends on the mission field, I felt the IMB knew me better than I did following a slew of medical exams, tests, labs and needed vaccinations. I landed on the field as a healthy mother of three small children and immediately got to work studying language. However, just three months in, the daily grind and overwhelming pollution that encompassed … [Read more...]
God will provide
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jason Myers serves as vice president with the MBCH Children and Family Ministries. In Genesis 22, God calls Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on a mountain in the land of Moriah. As they journeyed, Isaac noticed there was no lamb for the offering. Abraham responded with faith: “The Lord will provide.” And He did. At the last moment, an angel stopped Abraham, and God provided a ram caught in a thicket. Someday in heaven, I’d love to hear the ram’s side of the story. Maybe … [Read more...]
The impact of a brief life
“The majority of mortals complain bitterly of the spitefulness of Nature, because we are born for a brief span of life, because even this space that has been granted to us rushes by so speedily and so swiftly that all save a very few find life at an end just when they are getting ready to live . . . It is not that we have a short span of time, but that we waste much of it.” – Seneca the Younger A few Sundays ago, we sang the beautiful hymn, “My Jesus, I Love Thee” by a practically unknown … [Read more...]
Revving engines, reaching souls in the Midwest
On the western edge of South Dakota lies the sleepy little town of Sturgis. For most of the year about 7000 people call Sturgis their home. But for 10 days in early August, the population surges to over 500,000 people. The reason? The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. When entering the town of Sturgis, visitors pass under a banner that reads: Sturgis: The Ride. The Roar. The Rally. For several dozen Southern Baptists, an additional phrase could be added. The Gospel! While most people do not … [Read more...]
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