SAN FRANCISCO (BP) — O.S. Hawkins, president of GuideStone Financial Resources, reported on the continued growth in the number of the entity’s expanded ministry participants at a meeting of the trustees in San Francisco. Trustees also were updated on GuideStone’s long-range plan and on health care reform efforts. Expanded ministry participants, Hawkins said, help provide stability and strength to GuideStone’s insurance program. “Each year, we see value from our efforts to reach out and … [Read more...]
GuideStone prepares for re-enrollment season
DALLAS – As employers nationwide – including most churches – prepare for 2014, the year that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act becomes more fully applicable, questions are understandably arising from pastors, business administrators and church personnel and finance committees. GuideStone Financial Resources continues in its role as an advocate for church plans in general and for pastors and others in ministry it serves specifically. “Since the enactment of ObamaCare in 2010, … [Read more...]
Southern Baptists seeing like a camera
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP) – “OK, I know it’s here somewhere. I know I took it! I pulled the car over, rolled down the window, and CLICK! The beautiful field, mountains in the background and that fabulous elk standing right there in front of me!” Undaunted, you begin going through your pictures again, and then on the third time through, you find it. But somehow, the elk seems so much smaller. In fact, he’s a tiny little thing, hardly even noticeable in the picture. It’s just not how you remember … [Read more...]
Success without love for God is failure
FORT WORTH, Texas (SWBTS) – Great academic and ministerial success without a burning, genuine love for the Lord will ultimately result in failure, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson told a bumper crop of new and returning students, Aug. 22. Patterson’s remarks came during Southwestern’s convocation chapel service on the first day of fall classes. “If you came to seminary and you learned everything that every professor knows until you could recite it in your … [Read more...]
SBC President Fred Luter on marriage: ‘We cannot compromise Scripture’
INDEPENDENCE – With the recent Supreme Court rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Proposition 8 in California, now more than ever, Southern Baptists must be united under Christ and in accordance with His Scripture, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Fred Luter said during a June 28 question-and-answer session with members of Mount Washington Baptist Church here. “If there was ever a time for the body of Christ to come together it is now,” said the pastor of Franklin … [Read more...]
A cooperative ministry resurgence?
JASON Allen/MBTS president On eight occasions Southern Baptists have convened their annual meeting in Houston, with none of these gatherings more consequential than 1979’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). In that year messengers elected Adrian Rogers president, demonstrated the Pressler-Patterson coalition was a force with which to be reckoned, and birthed what would come to be known as the Conservative Resurgence. Though no Houston convention is likely ever to rival 1979 in … [Read more...]
Mental health issues garner SBC attention
Barbara Denman/Baptist Press HOUSTON (BP) – During a year when mass shootings and suicides have stunned the nation, a resolution on “Mental Health Concerns and the Heart of God” was overwhelmingly approved by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC)June 11-12 annual meeting in Houston. The resolution offered by the SBC Committee on Resolutions sought to “affirm, support and share God’s love and redemption” while opposing “all stigmatization and prejudice” to those with mental … [Read more...]
Missouri’s Chambers keeps SBC meeting on task, on time
HOUSTON – They’re perhaps the most appreciated words at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Annual Meeting: “I recommend we advance the agenda 20 minutes.” The bearer of that good news has been a Missouri Baptist: Andy Chambers, a member of West County Community Church. His day job is senior vice president for senior development and professor of Bible for Missouri Baptist University, but he has served each summer as the chairman of the SBC Committee on Order of Business working behind … [Read more...]
Luter, MBC’s Yeats, Wells re-elected to SBC offices
HOUSTON (BP) – Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, was elected without opposition to a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, leading a slate of candidates who ran mostly unopposed. Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church, Farmersville, Texas, was elected first vice president, while Jared Moore, pastor of New Salem Baptist Church, Hustonville, Ky., won a term as second vice president. John Yeats, executive director of the Missouri … [Read more...]
DON HINKLE: Reflecting on Houston, homosexuality, RU-486
Some random thoughts on a variety of subjects as we enter the summer of 2013: Three thoughts come to mind as I reflect on this year’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Houston June 11-12. 1. The low attendance. Barely 5,000 messengers showed up and the question everyone wants answered is why? The SBC surveys messengers to gauge their feelings about various aspects of the meeting. It may be awhile before we have that data, but I am sure it will be studied closely. I … [Read more...]
SBC Annual Meeting: Missourians named to Committee on Nominations
HOUSTON – Two Missourians are among the 70 Southern Baptists from 35 state Baptist conventions that were named to serve on the 2013-14 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Committee on Nominations during the SBC annual meeting here June 11-12. They are: Ted D. Middleton, pastor, First Baptist Church, Lewiston, and Jennifer Farr, a member of First Baptist Church, Steelville. The Committee on Nominations will nominate people to serve on the SBC’s boards, commissions and committees. They will … [Read more...]
Missourians front, center at Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting
HOUSTON – Missouri Southern Baptists will maintain a steady presence on stage at the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) annual meeting June 11-12 at the George R. Brown Convention Center here. Among those prominently appearing will be Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director John Yeats, who will again serve as SBC recording secretary. Yeats is also slated to receive “The Distinguished Alumni Award” from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary during the school’s alumni … [Read more...]