ROLLA — Learning to lead a small group is an essential skill needed to start a new ministry or enhance a current one. Recently 38 individuals from various churches excitedly discussed what they had learned at a recent Bible study and Sunday school training provided by the Dent and Phelps County Baptist Associations and held at the Macedonia Baptist Church in Rolla. Mark Donnell, former Sunday School Specialist at Missouri Baptist Convention and currently pastor of First Baptist Church in … [Read more...]
Gatlinburg fire suspects elicit churches’ sympathy
GATLINBURG, Tenn. (BP) -- The arrests of two teenagers in connection with deadly wildfires in and around Gatlinburg, Tenn., have provoked expressions of sadness from three local Southern Baptist congregations that lost buildings in the blaze. The three Gatlinburg churches -- Roaring Fork Baptist Church, First Baptist Church and Banner Baptist Church -- also report God's continued work in their midst, including at least four first-time professions of faith in Christ over the past two … [Read more...]
Billy Graham’s “My Hope” a tool for sharing the gospel
ST. LOUIS – My Hope combines video with personal testimonies to share the gospel. My Hope created by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has been used globally to win millions to Jesus. Since 2013, My Hope has been available in the United States. “The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) has two goals,” David Claybrook, Missouri State Coordinator for BGEA, said. “Number one to proclaim the gospel and two, to equip the church to share the gospel.” Claybrook outlined how My … [Read more...]
Transform: Registration now open for Great Commission Conference
JEFFERSON CITY – “Transform” is the theme of the 2017 Great Commission Conference, formerly known as the MBC Evangelism Conference. Building on the Missouri Baptist Convention’s vision of “Transforming lives and communities with the gospel,” the Great Commission Conference incorporates biblical preaching and teaching, corporate worship, training, relationship-building, and a celebration of God’s work among us to make disciples, multiply churches, and develop leaders, according to Matt … [Read more...]
A ‘High-tech and high-touch’ way to share the gospel
LENEXA, Kan. – Every Christian has a story to tell, and now there is one more way to spread that story far and wide. Steve Barnes, a minister on staff at Lenexa Baptist Church (a Missouri Baptist Convention-affiliated church, despite their west-of-the-border geography), is the brains behind 1millionstories.org, a website that helps people share the story of how Christ changed their lives. The site is free, available to churches and individuals, and is quick and easy to use for both the … [Read more...]
Engaging the culture without losing Christ
We live in a time when fewer and fewer Americans are self-identifying as Christians, and more and more Americans are explicitly rejecting Christian values. Christian understandings of sexuality, marriage, the sanctity of life, gender, and religious liberty are increasingly seen as outdated, if not dangerous. Younger people especially are rejecting religion in general and Christianity in particular as lifestyles of intolerance and even oppression. The idea of America as a Christian nation, … [Read more...]
Teen’s trek to secluded apt. complex takes a turn
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (BP) – It might be easy to look at Hallay Cagle’s life and ministry and think the doors just swung wide open. Not so. “The community was very closed off,” Cagle said of a Mixteco population living in a secluded apartment complex in Montgomery, Ala. She’d gone there as a high schooler trying to build relationships with what she thought was a Spanish-speaking people group from Mexico. “We went there to do a backyard Bible club, and we had brought a Spanish translator with … [Read more...]
Gaines to EC: SBC needs ‘renewal from heaven’
NASHVILLE (BP) – Spiritual awakening, soul winning and stewardship will be the three-pronged emphasis of Steve Gaines’ Southern Baptist Convention presidency, he told the SBC Executive Committee Monday (Sept. 19). Addressing the EC via video because of a scheduling conflict, Gaines said America’s morally deteriorating culture evidences the need for revival and awakening. He asked Southern Baptists to pray for revival using Psalm 85:6 and Habakkuk 3:2 as prompts. Revival “is a renewal from … [Read more...]
Offering to benefit refugee ministry
ST. CHARLES – A special offering will take place Oct. 25 during the Missouri Baptist Convention’s annual meeting to benefit the Good Neighbor Initiative, a ministry of the St. Louis Metro Baptist Association. Beginning this fall, the Good Neighbor Initiative aims to bring Mark 12:31 to life as cities like St. Louis become home to refugees from around the world. That verse reads: “'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." "Every year … [Read more...]
Columbine martyr film seeks bold youth revival
NASHVILLE (BP) – When two fellow classmates approached Rachel Joy Scott on the lawn of Columbine High School and questioned her belief in Jesus, she affirmed her faith and was shot to death at point-blank range. The story of her martyrdom has been told perhaps countless times in books, sermons and interviews in the past nearly 20 years, but Pure Flix Entertainment hopes its upcoming film of Scott’s 17 years on earth inspires students nationally to accept and boldly proclaim Jesus as Lord … [Read more...]
‘Intergalactic missions’?
NASHVILLE (BP) – Discovery of another planet that might support life has given rise to speculation about intelligent life elsewhere in the universe – and whether such lifeforms would need the Gospel. “Briefly stated, saying that scientists ‘think there may be life’ on [the newly discovered planet] is greatly overstating what the scientific community is thinking,” said Bill Nettles, physics department chair at Union University. But “if there is intelligent life on other planets, we … [Read more...]
Making the Bronx ‘a better city’
THE BRONX, New York City (BP) – You’ve seen the pictures: burned-out buildings, junk cars littering vacant lots, drug dealers loitering on street corners. You’ve seen the news: In a single sweep recently, police arrested dozens of gang members accused of multiple murders, including the slaying of a 92-year-old woman. But the police can’t fix the Bronx. Social workers can’t heal the New York City borough, located north of Manhattan. Politicians? Israel Kelly has a better idea: the ABC … [Read more...]
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