David Roach/Baptist Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) – An evangelism strategy that involves giving away guns to attract unchurched men to wild game dinners has drawn criticism from gun control advocates in an array of national media outlets this month, including TIME, USA Today, MSNBC, Fox News and the Huffington Post. But Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC) leaders say God is using KBC’s controversial ministry effort and the flurry of media attention to increase attendance and salvation … [Read more...]
Ministers’ Tax Guide
Jennifer Carter/GuideStone DALLAS – The 2014 edition of GuideStone’s annual Tax Return Preparation and Federal Reporting Guide is now available. In this helpful guide, both active and retired minsters will find step-by-step instructions, sample forms and detailed help in understanding the latest tax laws. This year’s edition also contains a special supplement addressing the key points of the recent housing allowance ruling. Additionally, church treasurers and other church leaders will … [Read more...]
Blunt on Hobby Lobby Case
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, member of First Baptist Church of Branson, speaks in support of religious freedom in Hobby Lobby case. WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in Hobby Lobby v Sebelius, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) joined U.S. Senators Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), and Jim Inhofe (Okla.) in a colloquy on the U.S. Senate floor to highlight their continued fight to protect Americans’ religious freedoms, which are protected by the First … [Read more...]
‘I have everything,’ God tells church planting Pennsylvania pastor
Karen L. Willoughby/Baptist Press PITTSBURGH, Pa. (BP) – The Cooperative Program (CP) is personal to Pittsburgh Baptist Church Pastor Kim Grueser and his congregation. “They asked if we could do the 1% Challenge,” Grueser said of the congregation. “When it hits you personally, you really understand the value of [the Cooperative Program].” The pastor quickly rattled off three ways he has seen the Cooperative Program in action. “When I was in seminary, we would not have made it … [Read more...]
Baptist Covention of Iowa names new Exec.
DES MOINES, Iowa – The regional and global ministry director at Cornerstone Church in Ames has been elected executive director/treasurer of the Baptist Convention of Iowa (BCI). Tim Lubinus was elected by the convention’s Executive Board at a March 10 meeting and will succeed interim Executive Director/Treasurer Tom Law March 24. “I am pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Tim Lubinus as the new executive director,” said Lloyd Eaken, president of the Baptist Convention of Iowa and … [Read more...]
HIS leaders pick church planter as coordinator
Lee Warren/contributing writer Kansas City – The Heartland Interstate Strategy (HIS) task force met at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on Feb. 25 for its final meeting involving all of its original members. HIS decided to streamline its team (pairing down to one representative from each convention) after convention executives approved Jeffrey Chavez as its new coordinator. The meeting included HIS task force members Mark Elliott (Nebraska), Kurt Simon (Missouri), Gene Stockton … [Read more...]
Deaf church planter works so Detroit’s unchurched might hear
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...]
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...]
Florida convention to appeal jury judgment
Joni B. Hannigan/Florida Baptist Witness JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP) – An attorney for the Florida Baptist Convention has voiced confidence that a judgment by a jury to award $12.5 million to a man molested by a former church planting pastor will be overturned on appeal. “That confidence is based, in large part, on the jury’s express finding that Myers was an independent pastor who was not hired, employed or supervised by the convention,” Gary Yeldell, the Florida Baptist Convention’s … [Read more...]
Racial diversity in churches elusive
Bob Smietana NASHVILLE (BP) – Having a racially diverse church remains more dream than reality for most Protestant pastors. More than eight in 10 (85 percent) say every church should strive for racial diversity, according to a survey from LifeWay Research. But few have diverse flocks. Most (86 percent) say their congregation is predominately one racial or ethnic group. It’s a reality that once led Martin Luther King Jr. to call Sunday mornings the most segregated time of the … [Read more...]
Kan.-Neb. Baptists overcoming isolation
Eva Wilson/Baptist Press LINCOLN, Neb. (BP) – With nearly half the counties in Kansas and Nebraska lacking Southern Baptist churches, congregations there must purposefully connect to overcome the isolation they face, the president of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB) noted during their annual meeting. “We need each other,” John Shields said. “We need to overcome the vulnerability of our isolation by connecting on purpose.” Such isolation met Shields when … [Read more...]
Inner-city Philadelphia church uses Billy Graham outreach
Diana Chandler/contributing writer PHILADELPHIA (BP) – My Hope America with Billy Graham has provided a catalyst for Christians to live evangelistic lives extending outside church walls and into all walks of life, said K. Marshall Williams, an inner-city Southern Baptist pastor in Philadelphia. Williams will be one of the featured speakers at the Sowing in Tears conference Jan. 27-28 at Crossway Baptist Church in Springfield. “I think the problem today is not the increase of … [Read more...]