COLUMBUS, Ohio - Students from Midwestern Seminary and North Central Missouri College were among more than 3,300 volunteer missionaries at 47 venues around the city the week before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, knocking on 10,000 doors, sharing 4,900 gospel presentations, resulting in at least 345 professions of faith. Dianne Barnes, the leader of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at North Central in Trenton took five students with her, working with Stowe Mission in inner … [Read more...]
John Yeats: Back to our knees
Recurring medical developments with my precious wife, Sharon, have motivated me to rediscover a pattern of finding my knees in prayer. When you face those challenges in life that touch the deep places in your heart, you know that all of your personal creativity, intelligence and ability are completely inadequate to fix whatever you are facing. You fall to your knees with arms raised in helpless submission and with many tears you cry out to the Lord. Desperation is when you have exhausted … [Read more...]
Church planters win at U.S. Supreme Court
Just as everyone was headed home from Columbus, Ohio, from another productive Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, word came of a major victory at the U.S. Supreme Court for free speech and church planters. On June 18 the Supremes delivered a stunning, unanimous 9-0 victory for the 82-year-old pastor of Good News Presbyterian Church in Gilbert, Ariz., finding that the Town of Gilbert’s sign ordinance is content-based discrimination. The win paves the way for smaller congregations … [Read more...]
SBC panel: Value love, Gospel with LGBT community
COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) – Christians should not undervalue the effect of love or the Gospel in relating to gays and lesbians, recognizing, however, that faithfulness to the biblical definition of marriage will prove costly, members of a special panel told messengers at the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention. During the Wednesday afternoon session (June 17), five panelists answered questions from SBC President Ronnie Floyd about how churches and pastors can minister in an American culture that … [Read more...]
Naghmeh Abedini calls for husband’s release
WASHINGTON (BP) – The release of Americans imprisoned in Iran should be a condition of any nuclear deal with the Persian nation, the wife of imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini told the House Foreign Affairs Committee June 2. Following testimony from Negmeh Abedini and the families of other U.S. citizens imprisoned or missing in Iran, the committee passed a resolution stating, “Iran should release all detained United States citizens immediately and provide any information it possesses … [Read more...]
‘Captive’ highlights God’s grace, Page says
NASHVILLE (BP) – Frank S. Page recalls the moment 10 years ago when he learned the single mother held captive in her Atlanta-area home by an accused murderer and rapist was the same Ashley Smith he had baptized when she was 12 years old. National attention focused on news reports of the manhunt for Brian Nichols, who killed a judge and three others in his escape from an Atlanta courthouse while accused of rape. As the story unfolded on live news coverage, it became clear Nichols had taken … [Read more...]
This could be the year
In a most passionate way, Dr. Ronnie Floyd is convening Southern Baptists to seek the Lord for revival and spiritual awakening. The urgency of the hour is evident to anyone who cares about life and liberty. The entire agenda of the SBC Annual Meeting is new. We cannot do business as usual. While there is business to do, the need of the hour is what happens starting Tuesday evening when Dr. Floyd and several other key leaders call God’s people to repentance and prayer. Authentic revival … [Read more...]
Mule muffins: A liberal’s view of Christians, politics
There seems no end to the cacophony of liberals in the media demanding that there be no biblical influence on government. One of the most recent is David Rosman, columnist for The Missourian in Columbia, in his column, “Forcing religion into government is wrong.” To make his point, Rosman cites two instances where it was apparently attempted. The first was Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia requesting a grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The church wanted to resurface … [Read more...]
Lottie Moon mission gifts top $153 million
RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- As they plan creative new ways to reach the lost, International Mission Board and Woman’s Missionary Union leaders expressed gratitude to Southern Baptists for the generous support churches gave to the 2014 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. Finalized in early June, the 2014 Lottie Moon offering totaled $153,002,394.13 -- the second-highest total in the 126-year history of the offering. While it fell about $1 million short of 2013’s all-time … [Read more...]
How can 5 billion people be wrong?
The world’s population stands at more than 7.1 billion people. According to Adherents.com, this number includes 1.5 billion Muslims, 1.1 billion nonreligious people, 900 million Hindus, nearly 400 million Buddhists, and millions of followers of other faiths. The website also reports there are 2.1 billion “Christians,” a broad category that includes Catholics and Protestants, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and so-called “nominal” Christians. If the exclusive claims of Jesus are true, … [Read more...]
Building trust as a leader
“Trust me!” Ever hear yourself saying these words to those you lead? We live in a world that is skeptical of trusting anyone. A recent Gallup poll suggested that Americans don’t trust anything, from used car salesmen to Supreme Court justices. The poll also included banks, television news reports, the police, public schools, and just about everything else. Probably for good reasons, 56% of those surveyed don’t trust church leaders either. In 1973, “the church or organized religion” was the … [Read more...]
Is the Holy Spirit like electricity?
A recent survey by LifeWay Research, as reported in Facts & Trends magazine, reveals that 59 percent of American evangelicals believe the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being, and another 10 percent are not sure. This lack of understanding of the divine and personal nature of the Spirit is more at home in counterfeit forms of Christianity like the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, whose adherents are known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Our JW friends promote a “holy spirit” that … [Read more...]
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