TOBIN PERRY /Baptist Press MACOMB, Mich. (BP) – Scott Blanchard is familiar with all the public perceptions of Detroit and its surrounding area: It’s dying. No one wants to live there. The church can’t thrive in the Motor City. But the fact is, the Detroit-area native and Southern Baptist church planter just doesn’t buy those perceptions. During the past three years as he has planted Lakepointe Church in Macomb, Mich., just outside Detroit, he has seen a different story take … [Read more...]
Church planters help two Quebec university students encounter gospel
ADAM MILLER/Baptist Press LENNOXVILLE, QC (BP) – Canadians easily dismiss Christianity – especially in Quebec. The history of mistrust is woven deep within the fabric of Québécois culture – a culture that’s decidedly Catholic and, at the same time, increasingly secular. But Lucas Aube in Lennoxville, Quebec, has worked to make rejecting Christ a greater challenge than ever among the thousands of students of Bishops University and Champlain College. The immediate response many give to … [Read more...]
Sochi: Missouri trooper has biblical encounter
William Bagsby/Baptist Press SOCHI, Russia (BP) – In the basement of a church hung a forgotten American flag, and when John Christensen laid eyes on it, he knew it was the flag he’d been praying for to take to the Sochi Olympics. “I have a flag at home, but I just thought, ‘Lord, show me a flag. I want to have a symbol to take.’ And the very first time I walked into that church,” Christensen recalls, “I saw that flag hanging there and I told our pastor, ‘I’m taking this flag to … [Read more...]
Missouri’s Annie Armstrong goal $2M
JEFFERSON CITY – Easter is fast approaching, and that means it istime for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering to support the efforts of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Missouri Baptists have set a goal for the 2014 offering of $2 million. That is up from the $1.75 million goal last year, since Missourians blew by the goal and gave $2,002,727.17. The nationwide goal is $70 million for ministry across the country, including in Missouri. This year’s week of prayer for NAMB … [Read more...]
200,000 Hindi Bibles donated for Asia
Aaron Earls/Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) – LifeWay Christian Stores set a goal last fall of donating 100,000 Hindi language Bibles across South Asia, but customers gave enough for twice that many. “LifeWay has proven once again it is an organization with a heart for the world,” Tom Eliff, president of the International Mission Board (IMB), said. “Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine The Thomas Project would be such an overwhelming success.” Named for the disciple believed to … [Read more...]
God carries Poplar Bluff native through hurdles to plant NYC’s Graffiti 2
SARA SHELTON/Baptist Press NEW YORK (BP) – High school student Shamar Smith has been attending Graffiti 2 Community Ministries’ after-school program for years. Raised in the South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven, Shamar is no stranger to the lifestyle and perils that mark the lives of many in the neighborhood; his own brother is already serving out a sentence on Rikers Island, New York’s primary jail complex. Had he not found his safe haven at Graffiti 2, Shamar knows his path might … [Read more...]
On Mission magazine debuts redesign
Joe Conway/North American Mission Board ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – The North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) flagship publication, On Mission, has undergone a redesign, and something of a re-launch, with the New Year. “Beginning with the current issue, we have begun to organize the magazine around the themes of gospel, mission and ministry,” said Aaron Coe, NAMB vice president for mobilization and marketing and editor in chief of On Mission. “This makes the magazine a tool for use in our … [Read more...]
Bumpers: Reach the world “whatever it takes”
SPRINGFIELD – Pastor Eddie Bumpers of Crossway Baptist Church challenged Missouri Baptists at the “Sowing in Tears” conference to do “whatever it takes” to reach the lost. Preaching from Matt. 9:1-8, Bumpers recounted how four faithful friends dug a hole in someone’s roof to get their lame friend to Jesus for the restoration he needed. Bumpers shared four characteristics that believers should imitate as they reach the lost. First, like these four friends, believers should love the … [Read more...]
Ezell: We must redefine success for churches
Mike Ebert/NAMB INDIANAPOLIS – Kevin Ezell told trustees of the North American Mission Board that he is determined to help pastors and laypeople redefine what success looks like for their churches. “Success cannot be defined based on how many people a church keeps,” Ezell told trustees gathered for their Feb. 5 meeting. “We must help them redefine success based on how many a church sends. Churches are designed to be sending agencies.” As Ezell addressed the entity’s leaders, winds … [Read more...]
With ‘feeling faith’ come hope and tears
Once he feels its flame, a child will never doubt the candle’s heat. Likewise, the English Reformer William Tyndale once wrote, those who “feel” their faith will stand firm in the truth of Scripture and the promises of God. Convinced that Englishmen and women needed to hear God’s Word in their own language, Tyndale published in 1526 the first English New Testament translated from the Greek text. Throughout the 10 years of ministry that followed, he often spoke of “feeling” – a term that he … [Read more...]
‘Normal Christianity’ comes with tears
Editor’s Note: *Denotes name changed for security. SPRINGFIELD – “Normal Christianity” brings persecution, missionary and author Nik Ripken* said during the Missouri Baptist Convention’s 2014 “Sowing in Tears” conference at Crossway Baptist Church here, Jan. 27-28. “In the Bible, persecution is normal,” Ripken said, reporting that “70 percent of all Christians practicing their faith live in environments of persecution.” When Ripken* entered Somalia with the International Mission … [Read more...]
States budget more for Great Commission
Tammi Reed Ledbetter/Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) – Trending among Baptist state convention meetings this year was the decision to send more money to the mission field – a challenge set forth by the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) at its 2010 annual meeting in Orlando. This year more than half of the cooperating state Baptist conventions increased the portion of undesignated Cooperative Program (CP) receipts from local churches … [Read more...]
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