EWING – Missouri Baptists from Northeast Missouri churches gathered to perpetuate the work of Jesus during “On Mission Connection” (OMC), an event hosted by First Baptist Church here, March 21-23. Fourteen workers representing the International Mission Board (IMB), North America Mission Board (NAMB), and the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) shared their stories at OMC, which was sponsored by the Mt. Salem/Wyaconda Southern Baptist Association. After a dinner at FBC, Ewing, these workers … [Read more...]
Seven words that reveal Islam’s worldview
Sharing our faith with Muslims requires Christians to know at least something about the religion Muhammad established 14 centuries ago. Particularly enlightening are seven words that expose Islam’s view of the non-Muslim world and help us understand why Muhammad and his followers have consistently treated Christians with disdain. Kafir. A kafir is “one who covers or conceals the known truth; an unbeliever.” In other words, a kafir is any non-Muslim. Since kafirs reside outside the … [Read more...]
Keeping the Southern Baptist faith
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Southern Baptist Convention with 15 million members is the largest Protestant denomination in the country. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., is its oldest and arguably most influential seminary. Albert Mohler has been president at Southern Seminary for more than 20 years, but when he arrived there as a young man still in his 30s, he had a huge task before him. The seminary had taken a hard, left turn in liberalism, and his job was to do no … [Read more...]
‘Do You Believe?’ is powerful follow-up to ‘God’s Not Dead’
NASHVILLE – What’s the best evangelistic movie ever? By that, I mean the best film that has, at its core, the Gospel – and one that makes the message of Christ the film’s theme. I have a new nomination, and it came out in theaters March 20. The film is called Do You Believe?, a movie that follows the lives of a dozen people as they face their own unique challenges in life and must decide what they believe about God – and then what they’re going to do about it. It’s written by the same … [Read more...]
Where’s the Remote?
Oh, the things we do to keep from having to get up off the sofa. “Do you have the remote?” “No. You had it last.” “You sure you don’t have it? Get up.” I’m not sure why there are places in the deepest recesses of the couch where the remote becomes completely invisible. There must be an entrance into some kind of parallel TV universe in there. Incidentally, the first time I heard they were making a “universal remote,” I thought we finally had something that would help with the … [Read more...]
Your church can be an Easter illustration
WEBSTER GROVES (BP) – For years in Southern Baptist life the message among pastors about plateaued and dying churches was simple -- stay away. As a church planter, I believed, and experience had shown me, that it was easier to start a new church rather than resurrect a dying church with damaged DNA. But there was a problem with that belief. Jesus is in the resurrection business. The church must be as well. When a community sees a once-dead church become a thriving, Gospel-proclaiming, … [Read more...]
Setbacks and victories of religious freedom
NASHVILLE (BP) – The freedom to live according to one's religious beliefs has been a fundamental right in America since its founding. As the culture changes and those opposed to biblical values become more vocal, it is becoming increasingly difficult to express religious beliefs without being socially ostracized or legally penalized. The following compilation by SBCLIFE, the journal of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, lists many of the political and cultural … [Read more...]
Was Saint Peter the first pope?
This is the last in a four-part series on Roman Catholicism. After Simon Peter makes his famous declaration that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus tells the apostle, “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it” (Matt. 16:16, 18). Jesus further states, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is already … [Read more...]
Mountain Grove rebuilds, reaches out
MOUNTAIN GROVE – Sometimes the road to church revitalization is less a road and more of a potato field. A year ago, Mountain Grove Family Church, a once-thriving congregation here in south central Missouri, was stuck mid-stride in a stalled building program, with just six or seven members paying the church’s expenses out of pocket to keep the doors open. The church sought help from the Missouri Baptist Convention, which paired them Westside Baptist Church 90 minutes north in Waynesville as … [Read more...]
Revitalization brings hope
WARSAW – After 15 years of serving small, dying churches, Daniel Yoder looked forward to birthing a new church here in 2012. But he had no idea that God would use him also to revive one of Warsaw’s small, established churches. Yet, beginning July 1, 2012, that is exactly what happened. On that day, Yoder’s church plant opened its doors for worship, and also on that day members from Open Arms Baptist Church, an established but struggling church in town, began to speak with Yoder about … [Read more...]
8 elements leading to community-wide revival
“Jesus Freak” is a label that suits me well. I was part of the Jesus Movement in the 1970s. Our Baptist church’s youth group conducted a weekly prayer meeting that attracted many lost kids and youth groups from several other churches. Keep in mind the setting: small town, rampant drugs and alcohol, over half of the freshman classes never graduated high school, unchurched families moved in with a new manufacturing plant, stagnant churches, perfunctory Bible teaching, and few if any teens … [Read more...]
What do Roman Catholics believe? (Part 2)
This is the third in a four-part series on Roman Catholicism. To view the first two columns, click here. Roman Catholics embrace at least seven doctrines that evangelical Christians reject as unbiblical. In the previous article, we explored five of these doctrines. This column examines two more. Sacramentalism The Bible reveals that salvation is a gift of God received by faith in Jesus Christ. The Christian partakes of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as acts of obedience, or … [Read more...]
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