Hawaii Pacific Baptist January 2015 Issue

Churches in the Pacific impacting the world

January 2015

Vol. 45, No. 1

BAPTIST

in this issue Giving Report See the final giving report for 2014.

Page 3 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering Find more information on missionaries the offering supports.

Pages 4-5 Top 10 Baptist Press Stories Read the Top 10 stories from Baptist Press in 2014.

Page 8

By Jim Burton

TORONTO—Clint Eastwood directed, produced and starred in a film called “Gran Torino” in 2008.

The film was about Walt, a retired Detroit autoworker and widower whose neighborhood was no longer homogenous. Gangs were wreaking havoc in the area. When an Asian teen refused to steal Walt’s treasured Gran Torino automobile under gang initiation pressure, Walt befriended the boy, who was Hmong.

Eastwood filmed the movie in Daniel Yang’s childhood neighborhood. “‘Gran Torino’ was glamorized compared to how I grew up,” said Yang, who is a second-generation American Hmong. “Jesus, rock and roll and the girls in my youth group  See DANIEL YANG... Page 4

Moving for Missions

AN ANNIE ARMSTRONG FEATURE

Supreme Court to rule on same-sex marriage

By Tom Strode

Pastor Daniel Tomita, on the left, celebrated his 20th Anniversary as Pastor of Kinoole Baptist Church in Hilo with a surprise party following the morning worship on Jan. 4. Youth Minister, Karl Sunagawa, on the right, coordinated the spectacular production with a tribute to God, Pastor Daniel, Tomita family, Kinoole Church family, the Big Island Baptist Association, the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention and friends who came from all over to congratulate Pastor Daniel. Photos by Clyde Kakiuchi

Moving? See page 2 (0401)

Washington—The U.S. Supreme Court will not wait any longer to rule on samesex marriage.

The high court announced Jan. 16 that it would review an appeals court decision on the issue.

The announcement came after a private conference among the justices the same day.

The court will hear oral arguments in March or April and likely issue an opinion before it adjourns this summer. Depending on the justices’ decision, gay marriage could be legal throughout the country by the end of June or states could maintain their authority to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.

Advocates on both sides of the issue recognized the importance of the high court’s order.

“This case could potentially transform the cultural landscape of America,” Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said. “We should pray for the court, that they will not seek to redefine marriage. Marriage was not created by government action, and it shouldn’t be re-created by government action.

“And even more than that,” Moore said, “we should

pray for churches who will know how to articulate and embody a Christian vision of marriage as the one-flesh union of a man and a woman in the tumultuous years ahead.”

One of the leading supporters of same-sex marriage also commented on the high court’s decision to review gay marriage. “The Supreme Court’s decision today begins what we hope will be the last chapter in our campaign to win marriage nationwide -- and it’s time,” Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, said.

Same-sex marriage is now legal in 36 states, nearly three times the number of states where it was legal just 18 months ago. It also is legal in the District of Columbia.

The high court granted review of a November decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals involving challenges to laws in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit, which is based in Cincinnati, was the first federal appellate body to rule states could limit marriage to the union of a man and a woman. Four other appeals courts had previously invalidated state laws that prohibited gay marriage.

In its order, the Supreme Court consolidated four cases and

limited consideration to two questions: (1) Does the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution require a state “to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?” and (2) Does the 14th Amendment require a state “to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?”

The court set the time for oral arguments on the first question at 90 minutes. It allotted one hour for arguments on the second question.

The court’s decision may provide some clarity in a legal debate that has been especially active during the last 18 months.

Courts have issued more than three dozen opinions in favor of gay marriage since the Supreme Court struck down a section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in June 2013, saying it violated “equal protection” under the Constitution by refusing to recognize same-sex marriages. Though the high court refused to say states could not limit marriage to heterosexual couples, most courts have used the decision as a basis for striking down state laws that define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Only a handful of decisions have  See COURT...Page 12

2

HAWAII PACIFIC

HAWAII PACIFIC BAPTIST 2042 Vancouver Drive Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 (USPS 237-540)

CHRISTOPHER MARTIN Editor FAITH McFATRIDGE Associate Editor The Hawaii Pacific Baptist is published bi-monthly by the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention. For general information, call (808) 946-9581.

Periodicals postage paid at Honolulu, Hawaii, and additional mailing office.

To subscribe: Send request to the Hawaii Pacific Baptist at the above address.

Subscriptions for nonresident members of the HPBC are $12 annually.

To register a change of address: Send the mailing label from page 1, along with your new address, to The Hawaii Pacific Baptist at the above address.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to HAWAII Pacific BAPTIST, 2042 Vancouver Dr., Honolulu, HI 96822-2491 To give news tips: Call the editor at (808) 9469581.

To submit a letter: Letters on any subject will be considered for publication if sent to the above address, provided they do not make a personal attack on anyone. Letters are limited to 250 words and may be edited for length.

Publishing services provided by Western Recorder Inc., Box 43969, Louisville, KY 40253.

Join us on Facebook Be part of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention via Facebook. Already have an account? Simply type “Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention” in the search box.

Then click the “Like” box on the right side of the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention header. It’s that easy. Followers of HPBC will receive all the updates and be current with the events and activities as they are posted. Let’s keep connected. For more information, contact Faith McFatridge at faith@hpbaptist.net.

JANUARY 2015

Reflections on my first year as HPBC executive director

By Chris Martin

In reflecting over this past year, my first year as your HPBC Executive Director, many wonderful thoughts fill my mind.

Wendy and I have enjoyed an incredible va-riety of experiences as we have traveled our convention and shared in worship, missions and ministry with you.

Early in the year, as we Chris Martin were in the time of transition, the members of the Executive Board and your HPBC staff team worked diligently to help us adjust to life in Honolulu. They made sure that we learned our churches, the schedules, the neighborhoods and the traffic. Although we are still learning, the initial support was a tremendous asset to our beginning.

Leaving our Maui churches, especially leaving Lahaina was difficult for us as we had thought that we would serve at Lahaina Baptist until retirement. The church and the community was our ohana. Even though we knew that God was guiding us, we also knew that we would have to be separated from the church that we had loved dearly. During that time of transition, we received great support

from Lahaina and the MCBA and always look forward to being on Maui again.

In leaving our home in Lahaina and moving to Honolulu, we have been welcomed by the OBN churches with a warm, supportive heart. Whether speaking at a worship service, sharing a report from the convention or just sitting in the back to share in corporate worship, we have been truly blessed in learning more about our Oahu churches and missions.

Traveling to the Island of Hawaii always brought an awesome time of fellowship, worship and more! The Big Island churches are working in a sweet harmony in church planting, cooperative missions, collegiate ministry and fellowship. That spirit has prepared them for many powerful times of ministry - now and in the days ahead.

The Garden Isle churches are working to reach their communities in new ways, such as radio ministries and language group outreaches, but also in many proven ways, such as pregnancy counseling and VBS. And they are preparing for new church plants to see more of the local community reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our churches in American Samoa and Guam are breaking down the barriers to take the Gospel to the South Pacific. The needs of the islands around them are engaged with the same passions as their own villages and

CALL TO PRAYER More thank conquerors in 2015 and beyond

By Frank Page

Nashville, Tenn.—Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this year was the year during which we live as “more than conquerors”? The Lord gives us the key to see how this may be accomplished in our lives -- it can only be done “through Him who loved us.”

These words from Romans 8:37–39 shine as one of God’s brightest promises to His children. The passage says: “In all these things we are more than Frank Page conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (KJV).

I believe that this could be a turnaround year for many if we would focus on our relationship with the Lord and develop positive spiritual disciplines to help us deepen our walk in a consistent way. We do not need a momentary flash in the pan, an emotional high with God; we need a long-term, consistent growth pattern.

Would you develop a time of prayer that is earnest and serious?

For many years I have used the PRAY acrostic. I like to spend time in Praise and then time in making Requests to the Lord. I then spend time in Adoration followed by a time of Yielding unto the Lord.

Others like to use the ACTS acrostic, another prayer pattern I have used over the years. It begins with Adoration -- adoring the Lord and focusing on at least one attribute of His character. After that, spend time in Confession. Take time dealing with that which is in your life that ought not to be there.

Remember how Jesus dealt with sin, calling for a surgical excision of it from our lives.

After adoration and confession, spend time in Thanksgiving. Devote time to thanking the Lord for what He has done for you. Following that, spend time in Supplication, asking the Lord to help in various areas of your life. For me, this deals with areas of family, friends, churches, convention matters and personal areas of need.

After you have developed a powerful time of serious, consistent prayer every day, would you also engage in a practice of scriptural study and reading? On Jan. 1, I began my 41st year of reading the Bible through in a year. I love to read a section from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs every day. A one-year type Bible is available in many translations and can help you in this systematic study of God’s Word. His Word is precious and we need to spend serious time every day studying it.

A plethora of devotional helps also are available. The bottom line is you need to do something that is consistent and ongoing so that you can reach the spiritual goals which God has for you.

What is it that we keep holding back from the Lord? What areas of our lives have yet to be totally submitted to the Lordship of Christ? What unconfessed sin lies lurking below the surface and has yet to be dealt with decisively?

Our focus in 2015 must be one of absolute dependence upon our Lord and absolute submission to Him in every area of our lives. As you willingly yield to Him, I am hoping and praying that 2015 will be one of the greatest years for you and that God will use you in a mighty way in this New Year to bring glory to Him! Frank Page is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee. Printed with permision from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com)

communities and God is transform-ing lives in many amazing ways. God is providing an unbelievable vision for our churches and leaders to follow in seeing more people groups empowered by His Spirit.

And our churches in Asia are moving ahead with unity and clarity in spite of the dis-tances and difficulties of being on the far reaches of our convention. Together, they are forming a new association in the HPBC that they can be stronger in church plant-ing, student ministry, evangelism and much, much more in the years ahead. The pastors and staff of our Asian churches are among the best in all of the SBC and are committed to being solid partners with the other churches of the HPBC in every way.

This past year has been a great year of ministry, but we still have much to do. Let us renew our commitment to following God’s ways in all of our ministries, seeking to build each other up in the work of God’s Kingdom as we labor in the harvest fields of our Master.

I stand with you in pursuing the paths that God has prepared for us in 2015 to see the glory of God continue to rise in our midst.

We are the convention! Together!

Mahalo and God bless you!

Christopher Martin is the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention executive director.

Your input is needed The Communications Committee of the Executive Board approved a recommendation that the “Hawaii Pacific Baptist” go to being primarily an online version.

The print paper will only be mailed to those who indicate that they want to receive the hard copy. The plan is begins in 2015.

The “Hawaii Pacific Baptist” is currently sent free to active church members of every HPBC-cooperating church.

Your Cooperative Program offerings help to sustain the cost of editing and printing the paper.

Churches or individuals can send their lists requesting a copy mailed to their address to hpbcnews@gmail.com.

Your comments are very valuable.

Please contact Andrew Large, chair of the Communications Committee, with your comments at pastor@waikikibaptist.com.

For more information see pages 4-5

HAWAII PACIFIC

JANUARY 2015

Giving report for Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches and missions January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014 KEY: CP—Cooperative Program AA—Annie Armstrong Church/Mission

CP

AA

LM

HPBC

LM—Lottie Moon WH

Asia Association Koza Baptist Church.......................$18,000.00.................. $14,777.49............$74,894.39.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Seoul International Baptist.............$12,500.00............................$0.00.............. $7,000.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Songtan Central Baptist Church.......$2,600.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Yokohama International Baptist........$6,000.00............................$0.00............$27,848.23.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Big Island Baptist Association Cornerstone Christ. Fellow...............$1,590.00............................$0.00................. $480.00.................$545.00.....................$0.00 Engage Church.................................$2,665.01........................$102.00................... $10.00...................$56.00.....................$0.00 Faith Baptist Mission - B.I................... $810.01............................$0.00..................... $0.00...................$50.00.....................$0.00 Hamakua Baptist Church..................... $720.00........................$280.00................. $150.00.................$250.00...................$50.00 Hilo Baptist Church........................$14,598.00.................... $2,197.00.............. $2,000.00..............$2,621.00.....................$0.00 Hilo Korean Christian Church............. $600.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Iglesia Bautista-Ebeen-ezer..............$2,565.04........................$432.00................... $40.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 In Christ Alone House Church.........$2,897.50........................$205.00..................... $0.00...................$70.00.....................$0.00 Kaumana Drive Baptist Church......$15,174.51.................... $1,315.00................... $25.00.................$965.00.................$335.00 Kinoole Baptist Church..................$16,384.82.................... $2,338.12.............. $2,026.00..............$1,132.00.................$523.00 Kohala Baptist Church......................$7,691.00........................$285.00.............. $1,065.15.................$532.00...................$41.00 Kona Baptist Church......................$12,750.00.................... $2,465.32................. $147.02..............$4,894.22.....................$0.00 Ocean View Baptist Baptist...............$5,017.53........................$500.00................. $975.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Ohana Church of Hilo.......................... $900.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.................$500.00.....................$0.00 Pahala Baptist Church......................$2,227.79............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Pahoa Christian Mission......................... $0.00............................$0.00................. $100.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Paradise Park Baptist Church...........$3,349.31........................$375.00..................... $0.00.................$150.00...................$10.00 Puna Baptist Church........................$8,095.88.................... $1,776.00.............. $1,819.09..............$1,283.00.....................$0.00 Puuanahulu Baptist Church................ $975.77............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Waiakea Uka Bible Church.............$16,635.98.................... $2,431.00.............. $2,430.00..............$2,235.00.....................$0.00 Waikoloa Baptist Church................$21,321.00........................$350.00.............. $1,637.05.................$494.00.....................$0.00 Waimea, Fbc.....................................$2,192.91........................$220.00................. $300.00.................$100.00.....................$0.00 Guam Baptist Association Calvary Baptist Church.....................$5,398.96........................$850.00................. $769.00.................$252.00.................$285.00 Guam Baptist Association................... $715.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Guam, Fbc............................................... $0.00........................$214.00..................... $0.00.................$180.00.................$150.00 Marianas Baptist Church..................$1,100.00.................... $1,000.00.............. $1,000.00...................$50.00.....................$0.00 Tamuning Baptist Church.................$1,896.76............................$0.00..................... $0.00...................$95.15.....................$0.00 The Lighthouse Church....................$1,050.00........................$158.00................... $78.00.................$750.00.................$152.79 Garden Island Baptist Association Eleele Baptist Church.....................$13,928.37.................... $2,165.00.............. $2,560.00..............$1,500.00.................$100.00 Lihue Baptist Church......................$12,906.56.................... $2,186.66................. $290.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Waimea Baptist Church....................$1,400.00........................$325.00................. $200.00.................$486.00.....................$0.00 Maui County Baptist Assciation Kahului Baptist Church..................$17,777.95.................... $1,500.00.............. $3,000.00..............$1,345.00.....................$0.00 Kaunakakai Baptist Church............$12,077.66........................$685.00.............. $1,208.03..............$1,075.00.................$786.58 Kihei Baptist Chapel.........................$2,400.00........................$627.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.................$800.00 Lahaina Baptist Church..................$12,994.92............................$0.00.............. $1,162.00..............$1,660.70.................$116.00 Lanai Baptist Church........................$4,045.03........................$456.94................. $496.26..............$1,585.00..............$1,015.00 Maui 1st Korean Baptist Church......... $600.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Maui-Philippine Baptist Church.......$2,389.46........................$392.00................... $75.00.................$198.00.................$126.00 Pukalani Baptist Church.................$28,223.00.................... $1,541.00................. $650.00..............$1,494.00.................$626.00 Valley Isle Fellowship.....................$37,627.60.................... $1,892.00.............. $5,363.00..............$1,997.00.................$110.00 Oahu Baptist Network Abundant Life Christian Fellowship.... $500.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Agape Japanese Baptist Church.......... $600.00..........................$76.00................. $100.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Agape Mission Baptist Church.........$1,800.00............................$0.00.............. $1,500.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Aina Haina Baptist Church...............$3,708.00........................$698.00................. $635.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 All Nations Fellowship.....................$4,026.80............................$0.00................. $160.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 All People Mission Church..................... $0.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.................$500.00 Aloha Community Church................$2,729.28........................$100.00.............. $1,429.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Anapouo Church of Hawaii..................... $0.00............................$0.00................... $16.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Antioch Bc Of Hawaii........................$4,125.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.................$550.00.....................$0.00 Bethel Korean Bc................................... $90.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Central Baptist Church...................$10,172.08.................... $1,012.00.............. $1,217.31..............$1,033.00.....................$0.00 Chinese Baptist Church....................... $550.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Chuukese Christian Fellowship............. $55.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Cornerstone Fellowship.................$40,558.38.................... $5,497.97.............. $3,783.00..............$3,218.29.....................$0.00 Dong Tam Baptist Church................$1,069.61............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00

HPBC—Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention

Church/Mission

CP

WH—World Hunger IMB

NAMB

HPBC

WH

Emmanuel Korean Baptist Church...$3,300.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.................$500.00.................$500.00 Enchanted Lake Baptist Church........$3,677.00........................$790.00.............. $1,590.00..............$1,195.00.................$170.00 Ewa Beach Baptist Church...............$1,834.80............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$3.00 Faith Baptist Church - Kailua................ $54.00........................$200.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Fellowship Baptist Church...............$1,150.00........................$595.00................. $355.00.................$353.00.................$243.00 Filipino International Baptist............$2,563.00........................$200.00................. $187.00.................$460.00.....................$0.00 Global Revival (Kailua 1st KorBC)....... $550.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Halawa Heights Baptist Church........... $493.98........................$165.00................. $516.00.................$350.00.....................$0.00 Haleiwa Filipino Mission....................... $99.60............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Haleiwa, FBC....................................$2,709.70........................$147.00................. $113.96.................$215.00.....................$8.00 Hawaii Bhansok Bapt Church...........$3,900.00........................$200.00..................... $0.00.................$200.00.....................$0.00 Hawaii Chinese (was Nuu Chese)..$15,562.23........................$690.00.............. $1,026.00.................$855.00.....................$0.00 Hawaii Chinese BC - English Dept... $2,405.88............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Hawaii Christian BC.........................$4,800.00........................$180.00................. $197.00.................$180.00.....................$0.00 Hawaii Hope Mission BC.................... $300.00............................$0.00................. $100.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Hawaii Kai Baptist Church..............$75,543.57.................... $4,000.00.............. $5,000.00..............$2,691.11.....................$0.00 International Baptist Fellowship.......$7,924.14........................$640.88................. $870.00.................$235.00.................$132.27 Kailua Baptist Church.......................$6,650.00........................$500.00.............. $1,015.00.................$400.00.................$905.00 Kalihi Baptist Church......................$10,397.83.................... $1,659.86.............. $2,979.95..............$1,900.90.................$375.00 Korean BC of Waikiki.......................$2,400.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Makaha Valley Chapel......................$1,495.30............................$0.00................. $125.00.....................$5.00.....................$0.00 Makakilo Baptist Church..................$2,400.00........................$424.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Mililani Baptist Church..................$96,741.77.................... $8,474.00.............. $8,602.88.................$200.00.................$325.00 Mililani Fil-Am Baptist Church........... $600.00..........................$30.00..................... $0.00.................$161.50.....................$0.00 Mountain View Community..............$1,200.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Nanakuli Fbc........................................... $0.00........................$255.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 New Community Baptist Church......$3,850.00........................$500.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 New Covenant Baptist Church..........$2,000.00........................$500.00................. $500.00.................$500.00.....................$0.00 No. Windward Baptist Chapel..........$1,200.00........................$582.00..................... $0.00.................$100.00.....................$0.00 Nuuanu Baptist Church..................$71,221.85.................... $5,875.38.............. $7,645.00..............$5,113.00..............$2,573.00 Nuuanu Chuuckese BC - Sa’Puk............. $0.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 OlaNui!................................................ $400.00.................... $2,147.00..................... $0.00..............$1,755.75.....................$0.00 Olive Baptist Church............................ $150.00............................$0.00................... $15.00...................$15.00...................$11.00 Olivet Baptist Church......................$99,634.26.................... $8,289.11............$15,395.00..............$7,611.00..............$5,540.00 Olivet Bc-Japanese Dept................$12,560.04.................... $1,470.00.............. $1,544.00..............$1,280.00.................$795.00 Pali View Baptist Church................$24,398.68.................... $2,771.36.............. $4,155.00..............$2,257.00.....................$0.00 Pali View Japanese Church................. $633.10..........................$30.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Palisades Baptist Church...............$24,808.56.................... $2,004.00.............. $2,433.00..............$1,957.06.....................$0.00 Pawa’a Community Church............$10,037.92........................$375.00..................... $0.00.................$495.00...................$20.00 Pearl City, FBC...............................$67,962.51.................... $2,602.00.............. $8,867.00..............$4,553.25.....................$0.00 Pearl Harbor Korean Bc....................$1,200.00............................$0.00.............. $1,720.00.....................$0.00..............$1,594.00 Pearl Harbor, Fsbc............................$5,186.87........................$620.00................. $960.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Sa’Puk Chuukese Church.................$1,321.90............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 The Gathering...................................$3,451.00.................... $5,175.00.............. $5,175.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 University Avenue Bc.....................$48,167.26.................... $7,600.86.............. $8,812.06..............$3,891.86..............$4,658.88 Village Park BC................................... $618.50........................$170.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Wahiawa, FBC................................$41,859.57.................... $4,077.00................. $360.49..............$2,534.00..............$1,555.12 Waialae Baptist Church..................$32,659.70.................... $5,273.00.............. $3,860.25.................$114.00.................$100.00 Waianae Baptist Church...................$5,490.31.................... $1,613.05.............. $2,246.00..............$1,159.68.....................$0.00 Waikiki Baptist Church...................$23,873.65.................... $1,788.47................. $510.22..............$2,083.58...................$40.00 Waimanalo Fbc.................................$3,289.22........................$832.00.............. $1,201.00.................$720.00.................$345.00 Waipahu Com Christn Ch................$2,059.00........................$207.00................. $207.00.................$207.00.................$206.00 Waipio Community Bc.....................$7,532.31........................$320.00................... $20.00.................$492.00...................$20.00 West Oahu Community Church.......$1,568.50............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 South Pacific Baptist Association Emmanuel Baptist Church................... $988.10........................$342.00.............. $1,010.00.................$300.00.................$390.00 First Chinese BC, A.S.............................. $0.00........................$200.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Go International Fellowship..................... $0.00........................$156.00..................... $0.00.................$257.00.................$127.00 Happy Valley Baptist Church............$3,526.00........................$300.00................. $300.00.................$330.00.................$400.00 Pago Pago Baptist Church...............$1,230.00........................$296.64..................... $0.00.................$216.74.................$250.58 Samoa Korean Bc.............................$1,100.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.................$180.00.................$276.00 Ua Taunu’u Baptist Church.................. $270.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00.....................$0.00.....................$0.00 Miscellaneous Hawaii Baptist Foundation....................... $0.00............................$0.00..................... $0.00..............$1,259.30.....................$0.00 Kapaa Baptist Church.......................$1,986.19.................... $1,065.00..................... $0.00.................$500.00.................$500.00 Miscellaneous......................................... $0.00........................$270.00..................... $0.00.................$700.00.....................$0.00 TOTAL:.....................................$1,159,765.28.............. $128,028.11.........$238,252.34..........$83,830.09.......... $27,789.22

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Daniel Yang Continued from page 1

saved me [from the gang experience].”

The Hmong are a minority people group from Southeast Asia, and they have no homeland. They reside in Vietnam, Thailand, China and Laos. Following the Vietnam War and the Laotian Civil War, many sought refuge in Thailand. By the late 1970s, many of those refugees resettled in Western countries. Detroit was just one landing spot.

The immigrant experience defined Yang both then and now. As he struggled to define God’s call upon his life after college and while starting his career, one thing became clear. “I made you for the Word,” Yang felt God saying. “I’m going to use your story of being a second-generation immigrant.”

Faith stabilized his family Immigration is a jolting experience as families face language, culture and economic barriers. His parents made a profession of faith through a Lutheran church, then started attending a Southern Baptist church. By age 7, Yang had also professed faith in Christ.

“There was a strong awareness of Jesus in my life,” Yang recalled. “It set the trajectory of my life and prevented me from joining gangs.”

By age 21, Yang sensed a calling to “some kind of missional ministry.” But first, there was the American dream.

Yang attended the University of Michigan on a full scholarship, majoring in computer science, then spent more than eight years as a software developer.

But deep inside, he wanted to study the Bible and answer the question, “Do I believe this stuff?”

He enrolled in extension courses through The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and realized that God was redirecting him to vocational ministry.

“I didn’t want to be a pastor,” Yang said. “I thought I would be a missionary.”

He learned about church planting and saw it as a great merger of being a missionary and staying in North America where he felt led to help churches navigate cultural issues. Detroit seemed the natural place to do that. But even with a team and meeting place secured there, Daniel and his wife, Linda, realized that Detroit was not their destiny.

So he detoured to Texas.

Texas pit stop After participating in an assessment process and deciding not to plant in Detroit, Yang received an invitation to Texas where he joined the staff of NorthWood Church for the Communities in Keller, a predominantly Anglo congregation where he developed a college and young adult ministry while also serving as an associate worship pastor.

“God was orchestrating something completely different from what I would have ever planned for myself,” Yang said.

He finished his seminary degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary while receiving

Hawaii Pacific Goal

$150,000

Top: Daniel Yang, lead pastor of Toronto’s Trinity Life Church, meets with neighbors Rebecca, Ava and Kelley Ackerman at a local cafe.

Bottom:Yang helps a Send North America Experience Toronto tour stop participant during a session break. The July 2014 event, aimed at helping strengthen connections and partnerships among Toronto churches, drew more than 1,000 Christian leaders. NAMB Photos by George Qua-Endo

mentoring at NorthWood. Senior Pastor Bob Roberts introduced Yang to NAMB’s Farm System, aimed at assisting churches in discovering, developing and deploying the next generation of missionaries. Yang began looking for a city to plant a church. That’s when Toronto came into view. After their second vision trip there, Yang recalled, “My wife looked at me and asked, ‘Why aren’t we doing this already?’”

Though just four hours from Detroit, the cities are vastly different. Detroit is 87 percent black. Toronto is vastly intercultural and rapidly on the rise as the financial capital of Canada, while Detroit has been in steady decline. Still, he found one similarity.

“I grew up in one of the worst neighborhoods in Detroit, and Regent Park historically was the worst in Toronto,” Yang said.

Trinity Church in Regent Park Regent Park is a revitalizing area near downtown Toronto, a city of neighborhoods. Today, Regent Park is fast changing as young adults, many of whom are college educated, are choosing to live there.

“Toronto is much like New York City,” Yang said. “It’s

Yang lead the Send North America Experience July 2014 tour stop in Toronto where more than 1,000 Christian leaders gathered to discover more ways to help push back lostness in their city. NAMB Photo by George Qua-Endo

a thinking city. You engage people’s hearts through their minds.”

Fellow church planter Mike Seaman and his wife, Missy, joined the Yangs in planting Trinity Church. The families started a home Bible study as they began building relationships in a city where they knew no one.

“It’s always tempting to do what is manageable and predictable,” Yang said. “We could have stayed a house church for a long time.”

Through a relationship with the Toronto Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club, a meeting space opened up. In September 2013, Trinity Life Church launched with the motto, “Discovering identity and destiny in Christ, influencing the city and the world.”

“It’s helpful when immigrants see that God sent me to North America and I’m on mission here,” Yang said.

As one of North America’s most culturally diverse cities, Toronto is a natural platform for influence. One of many reasons it is one of 32 Send North America cities. But first, there’s the matter of planting more churches there.

“We’d like to see multiple churches planted in different neighborhoods,” Yang said. Soon, a church planting intern will join them from NAMB’s Farm System.

Yang has come to appreciate how Canadian and Southern Baptists do missions through the Cooperative Program and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®.

“We are NAMB missionaries,” Yang said, who recognizes the advantage that support from the entity and Canadian Baptists affords him. “[It] allows us to have a level of stability in terms of me raising my family here in Canada.”

He also likes the vision.

“We are part of something bigger,” Yang said of Southern Baptists’ cooperative missions method. “It’s tempting to be a myopic church planter. The support encourages us to be more generous in the way we think.”

The goal for the 2015 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering is $60 million. To learn more about the Week of Prayer, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and how your church can be mobilized to push back lostness in North America, visit www.anniearmstrong.com.

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WHO IS ANNIE ARMSTRONG? Each year, we honor the life and advocacy of Annie Walker Armstrong (18501938) when we give to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions. As a tireless servant of God and a contagious advocate and supporter of missions efforts throughout the world, Annie Armstrong led women to unite in missions endeavors that ultimately led to the formation of Woman’s Missionary Union, for which she served as the first corresponding secretary.

Annie believed in and followed Christ with all her heart, but it was her hands that expressed that belief in tangible ways.

She spent a great amount of time typing and handwriting letters in support of missions. Many of these letters were quite

lengthy and all were filled with conviction that more could and should be done in our missions efforts. Annie also never hesitated to use her hands to reach out to hug a child or distribute food, clothing and the Word of God to those in need. Her hands held her own Bible as she studied to know how best to share Gods love with others. And, most important, Annie was a woman of prayer, folding her hands in prayer to intercede for the missionaries and for those they were helping discover Christ.

Annie rallied churches to give more, pray more and do more for reaching people for Christ. As modern-day missions advocates unite to continue that work today, we can be confident that her legacy will also be ours.

Annie Armstrong Easter Offering Fast Facts › Reason we give: To support the efforts of the North American Mission Board’s Send North America strategy, as missionaries and church planters push back lostness in the United States and Canada. › Amount of AAEO used to support missionaries and their work: 100% › Amount of NAMB budget that comes from AAEO: 49% › Amount of NAMB budget from Cooperative Program: 38% › Year offering started: WMU started it in 1895 › Amount given in 1895: $5,000 + › Amount given to AAEO in 2013: Year-end figures totaled $57 million › Year offering named for Annie Armstrong: 1934 › The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering Goal for 2015: $60 million

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How Southern Baptists became pro-life

By David Roach

Nashville, Tenn.—In 1979, Larry Lewis picked up a copy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and saw a full-page ad listing the Southern Baptist Convention among denominations that affirmed the right to abortion.

“Right there beside the Unitarians and universalists was the Southern Baptist Convention,” Lewis, a St. Louis pastor who went on to become president of the Home Mission Board (now the North American Mission Board), told Baptist Press. “... That bothered me a lot.”

So Lewis did something about it, proposing in 1980 the first of more than 20 pro-life resolutions adopted by the SBC over the next few decades. As HMB president in 1987, one of Lewis’ first actions was to create the office of abortion alternatives to help churches establish crisis pregnancy centers.

Thanks to Lewis and others, newspapers do not call the SBC pro-choice anymore. In 1979 though, it may have seemed a reasonable classification.

Baptists and Roman Catholics had long agreed that life begins at conception, but Baptist scholars, unlike their Catholic counterparts, generally did not develop biblical and theological arguments regarding unborn children. By the mid20th century, abortion rarely came up among Southern Baptists, and average church members had only “a general feeling that abortion was wrong,” Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, told BP. Between 1965-68, abortion was referenced at least 85 times in popular magazines and scholarly journals, but no Baptist state paper mentioned abortion and no Baptist body took action related to the subject, according to a 1991 Ph.D. dissertation by Paul Sadler at Baylor University.

In 1970, a poll conducted by the Baptist Sunday School Board found that 70 percent of Southern Baptist pastors supported abortion to protect the mental or physical health of the mother, 64 percent supported abortion in cases of fetal deformity and 71 percent in cases of rape.

Three years later, a poll conducted by the Baptist Standard newsjournal found that 90 percent of Texas Baptists believed their state’s abortion laws were too restrictive.

Support for abortion rights was not limited to theological moderates and liberals. At New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in the early 1970s, some conservative students who went on to become state convention presidents and pastors of prominent churches supported abortion for reasons other than to save the life of the mother, Richard Land, former president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told BP. “They pretty much bought into the idea that life begins when breath begins, and they just thought of [abortion] as a Catholic issue,” Land, who attended New Orleans Seminary between 1969-72, said of his fellow students.

A 1971 SBC resolution on abortion appeared to capture the consensus. It stated that “society has a responsibility to affirm through the laws of the state a high view of the sanctity of human life, including fetal life.”

But the resolution added, “We call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape,

incest, clear evidence of fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.”

When the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in 1973 with its Roe v. Wade decision, some Southern Baptists criticized the ruling while maintaining their support of abortion rights as defined in the 1971 resolution. Others embraced the Supreme Court’s decision.

A 1981 pamphlet published by the Christian Life Commission, a precursor organization to the ERLC, spoke of “Christian concern for the value of the defenseless fetus” but went on to argue, “It is questionable that Christian love and justice would be served by extremely restrictive laws which do not give conscientious people with proper medical advice the opportunity to choose when they are faced with very grave moral dilemmas related to abortion.”

In a more extreme stance, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Paul Simmons argued that “God is prochoice,” and some prominent Baptist leaders were among early supporters of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights.

Not all Southern Baptists supported abortion rights, however. Lewis became strongly pro-life in the late 1960s when he and his wife sought to adopt a child.

The Lewises were told they had to wait five years to adopt due to a shortage of children.

As the 1970s progressed Lewis and thousands of individual Southern Baptists argued for protecting unborn life in all cases except to save the physical life of the mother. Among non-Southern Baptists, apologist Francis Schaeffer and future U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop argued that abortion was immoral and gained increased support for the prolife cause.

Theologians Carl Henry and Norman Geisler both became ardently pro-life.

“Some of our pastors in those years hadn’t really studied what Scripture said about abortion,” Jerry Vines, former SBC president and retired pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., told BP. Studying a Greek word from the New Testament “really nailed down the abortion issue for me,” Vines said.

The word “brephos,” translated as “baby,” is used eight times in the New Testament, Vines said. Six of those occurrences refer to children who have already been born, but two speak of John the Baptist in his mother’s womb.

“That’s pretty convincing evidence that Scripture looks on a baby in its mother’s womb as a baby,” said Vines.

When a succession of conservative presidents were selected by messengers to lead the SBC beginning in 1979, they appointed resolutions committees that consistently proposed pro-life statements.

In turn, messengers to the convention’s annual meetings supported those statements -- partially because some had changed their opinions and partially because greater numbers of conservative messengers were attending the meetings.

Current SBC President Ronnie Floyd told BP that Southern Baptists must build on victories of the past and rearticulate their commitment to defend unborn life in every generation.

Printed with permision from Baptist Press.

HPBC Disaster Relief on standby

By Darrell McCain

The Kilauea lava flow is still active and Disaster Relief is on standby to respond.

Teams that specialize in psychological first aid for children came over to help children deal with the emotional stress on October and November.

Thank you to the teams from Mississippi and Texas Children response for coming over to bring help, healing and

hope to the Puna district.

Please continue to pray for the people of Pahoa and our churches Puna BC and Paradise Park BC as they continue to help in these communities. Many of the Hilo churches are helping as well to support these churches and our Disaster relief volunteers.

Darrell McCain is a disaster relief coordinator for the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention.

Disaster Relief Training Dates February 6-7, 2015

Lihue Baptist Church on Kauai Chaplain training led by Naomi Paget.

March 6-7, 2015

Oahu Chainsaw training.

Required to attend both days.

March 7, 2015

Oahu Disaster Relief training

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Survey: Race relations improve, long way to go

By Bob Smietana

Nashville, Tenn.—Race relations in America are better than they used to be.

And most Americans see diversity as a good thing, a new LifeWay Research study shows.

But there’s still a long way to go, according to two new surveys from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.

Researchers asked 1,000 Americans and 1,000 Protestant pastors about their views on race relations. They found many Americans have mixed feelings about the state of racial diversity in the United States.

Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research, says Americans are still adapting to the nation’s demographic shifts.

In 1960, 89 percent of Americans were white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Today, America is much more diverse. Fewer than two-thirds of Americans—and just over half of schoolchildren—are Non-Hispanic whites.

By 2050, no one group will be a majority.

That’s a big change that Americans are still trying to sort through, McConnell says. The fallout from the deaths of Mike Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York has increased tension about racial relations.

“Recent high profile cases highlight the lack of understanding, respect, and trust that remains between races,” he said.

Among the research findings: Eight in 10 Americans (82 percent) say racial diversity is good for the country.

One in 7 (14 percent) disagree.

Three quarters of Americans (74 percent) agree with the statement, “We have come so far on racial relations.”

About a quarter disagree (23 percent).

But few are satisfied with the state of race relations. Eight in 10 (81 percent) agree with the statement, “We’ve got so far to go on racial relations.” One in 6 (16 percent) disagree.

LifeWay Research found support across ethnic groups for the statement, “We’ve come so far on racial relations.” Three quarters of whites (74 percent), AfricanAmericans (74 percent) and HispanicAmericans (73 percent) all agree.

However, McConnell says, some Africans-Americans take issue with that statement. One in 6 (17 percent) strongly disagree, compared to 11 percent of whites and 5 percent of Hispanics.

There are similar differences in intensity of responses to the statement, “We’ve got so far to go on racial relations.”

Fifty-seven percent of AfricanAmericans strongly agree. That drops to 39 percent of whites and 42 percent of Hispanics.

Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research, said, “On the surface, most Americans agree that racial reconciliation matters. But we’re divided about how important this issue is. For many white Americans, progress on issues of race is a good thing but not urgent. For many African-Americans, it’s front and center.”

Younger Americans—those 18 to 24— are the most optimistic about race relations. Almost 9 in 10 (88 percent) say diversity is good for the country. And most (84 percent) agree with the statement, “We’ve come so far on racial relations.”

Older Americans are a bit more

skeptical. About three quarters (76 percent) of those over 65 say diversity is good for the country. Seven out of 10 (71 percent) of those 45 to 54 say the nation has come far on racial relations.

Whites (85 percent) are more likely to agree that diversity is good for the country than African-Americans (75 percent) or Hispanic-Americans (74 percent). Christians (80 percent) are less likely than the Nones (89 percent) to see diversity as a good thing.

As other polls have shown, LifeWay Research found few Americans believe race relations have improved since the election of President Barack Obama.

About half (49 percent) say race relations have stayed the same. Three in 10 (29 percent) believe relations are more strained. About 1 of 7 (15 percent) say things have improved.

About a quarter of African Americans (23 percent) say relations have improved since Obama’s election. That drops to 1 in 7 (14 percent) for whites.

Faith still matters in race relations Christian pastors and other religious leaders took a leading role during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. Many Americans say those leaders still fill an important role today.

“Christian leaders have the opportunity to influence millions of Americans to value each and every person no matter their race,” McConnell said.

ERLC turns to race issue for March summit Nashville, Tenn.—The Southern Baptist Convention’s ethics entity has announced a summit on race relations in the wake of grand jury decisions regarding police killings of black men that have provoked widespread protests and a nationwide discussion.

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission will hold a leadership summit with the theme “The Gospel and Racial Reconciliation” March 26-27 in Nashville. The ERLC previously had announced the topic of its second summit on the same dates would be developing a pro-life ethic but changed the topic in response to recent events.

On Dec. 3, a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner despite a widely viewed video of the incident.

The failure to indict also occurred in spite of a ruling by the New York City medical examiner’s office that Garner’s death was a homicide.

That decision in a New York City borough followed by only nine days a St. Louis County grand jury’s refusal to indict

Two-thirds (65 percent) of U.S. adults say religious leaders play a positive role in race relations in the United States.

About 3 in 10 (30 percent) disagree, while 5 percent are not sure.

Evangelicals (74 percent) and Christians (71 percent) are most likely to say religious leaders have a positive role in race relations. Those of other faiths (56 percent) and the Nones (46 percent) are more skeptical.

Hispanic-Americans (57 percent) are less likely to agree than whites (67 percent) or African-Americans (72 percent).

For their part, Protestant senior pastors see a close connection between diversity and the central message of Christianity.

Nine of out 10 pastors (90 percent) agree with the statement: “Racial reconciliation is mandated by the gospel.”

Only six percent disagree.

LifeWay Research found this connection between the gospel and racial reconciliation has widespread support among pastors.

Most evangelical (90 percent) and Mainline (93 percent) pastors agree.

Pastors of smaller churches (83 percent) and those from larger congregations (95 percent) also agree. About 3 out of 4 (76 percent) African American pastors and 9 in 10 (91 percent) white pastors say racial reconciliation is

mandated by the gospel.

Many pastors have hands-on experience working on diversity. About 3 out of 4 (72 percent) say their church is “personally involved at the local level in addressing racial reconciliation.” A quarter disagree (23 percent). Four percent are not sure.

Pastors of larger congregations—those with more than 250 attendees—are more likely to agree (79 percent) than pastors whose churches have less than 50 in attendance (66 percent).

African American pastors (93 percent) are more likely to agree their church is involved in racial reconciliation than white pastors (71 percent).

Previous LifeWay Research studies found most pastors say their congregations should reflect the racial makeup of their community. But few have diverse flocks.

More than 8 in 10 (86 percent) say their congregation is made up of one predominant racial or ethnic group, according to a LifeWay Research study released in January 2014.

The latest wave of the National Congregations Study found similar results.

“If pastors want to lead a movement of racial reconciliation, they need to make sure their members are following,” McConnell said. “If church members are not inviting and welcoming people of other ethnic groups, their reconciliation efforts are not taking root.” (BP)

a white police officer in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

No incriminating video existed of Brown’s August death in Ferguson, Mo., and witnesses provided conflicting accounts.

Extensive criticism and protests—as well as discussion about the different perspectives by many blacks and whites on the decisions—continue in response to both incidents.

ERLC President Russell Moore explained why relations between people of different ethnicities are a gospel issue.

“The New Testament is clear that the gospel reconciles us not only to God but also to each other,” Moore said in a written release. “Racism and injustice are not just social ills; they are sins against God. Racial reconciliation is a matter of what gospel we believe and to what mission we’ve been called.

“This summit will help equip us to tear down carnal divisions, to bring about peace, so that churches reflect the kingdom of God,” he said.

Joining Moore as speakers at the summit will be such African American leaders as John Perkins, Fred Luter and H.B. Charles as well as Hispanic pastor Juan Sanchez. Speakers include: n Perkins, author and leading

evangelical voice in the civil rights movement. n Luter, first African American president of the SBC and senior pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist in New Orleans. n Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist in Jacksonville, Fla. n Sanchez, preaching pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. n Robert George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University. n Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. n Kevin Smith, assistant professor of preaching at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and teaching pastor at Highview Baptist in Louisville. n D.A. Horton, national coordinator for urban student missions at the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board. n Trillia Newbell, an author and the ERLC’s consultant for women’s initiatives. n David Prince, pastor of preaching at Ashland Avenue Baptist in Lexington, and associate preaching professor at Southern Seminary. n Josh Smith, lead pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist in Irving, Texas.

Information on the March racial reconciliation summit is available at http://erlc.com/summit2015. (BP)

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Top BP news stories for Baptists in 2014 ‘Pastor David Platt succeeds Tom Elliff as IMB president’ In August, Baptist Press reported the election of David Platt as president of the International Mission Board.

Platt Platt, 36, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, succeeded former missionary, pastor and Southern Baptist Convention president Tom Elliff, 70. Platt’s election drew praise for his youth and passion for international missions and concerns from others questioning his commitment to the Cooperative Program.

Platt wrote the New York Times bestseller “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.”

‘Baptists work to educate West Africa about Ebola’ In October, the deadly Ebola virus continued to claim lives in West Africa. Baptists in the region were implementing strategies to provide basic education about the virus.

Trevor Yoakum, an International Mission Board missionary, said false beliefs about the virus continued to spread in West Africa. “Some people believe that if they bathe with water and salt then they will be cured of Ebola,” Yoakum said. To confront some of these beliefs, Yoakum, in conjunction with Baptist Global Response, helped formulate a campaign in Togo to distribute 15,000 Ebola information brochures across the country.

In December, “The Ebola Fighters,” many of whom were motivated by their Christian faith to risk their lives in battling the deadly disease in West Africa, were named TIME’s “Person of the Year.” Kent Brantly, an American medical doctor with the missions organization Samaritan’s Purse who contracted Ebola while running a treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia, was one of several medical workers featured on a TIME Magazine cover as part of the magazine’s recognition of “Ebola Fighters” as the 2014 Person of the Year.

‘Ferguson crisis calls churches to ‘unify & pray’ In November, Baptist Press reported on riots in Ferguson, Mo., that broke out after a grand jury reported its decision not to indict a white Missouri police officer in the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American. Baptist churches responded by calling Christians to unify and pray for the nation.

“We need to be both an empathetic listening ear for the community and herald forth a prophetic voice for justice and compassion in a spirit of humility,” Marshall Williams, senior pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pa., said in a statement to Baptist Press. Williams is also the president of Southern Baptists’ National African American Fellowship. Since then, protestors throughout the country have continued to voice opposition to the grand jury decision.

Black and white Southern Baptists also voiced reaction to the

case involving a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of New York City man Eric Garner. And most recently, in what police and media were reporting as a revenge killing, two New York City police officers were gunned down Dec. 20 in broad daylight by a man who later committed suicide in a subway station. On Dec. 15, SBC President Ronnie Floyd launched a racial reconciliation initiative, calling for Southern Baptists to repent of racism and unite in love.

‘GOP gain Senate, Southern Baptists win’ seats Baptist Press reported in November that voters gave the Republican Party a majority in the U.S. Senate in November’s mid-term election, leaving President Obama without a Democratic-controlled chamber in Congress for the first time since he took residence in the White House nearly six years ago. Southern Baptist candidates, meanwhile, won first-time seats in Congress as part of the Republican blitz, but social conservatives did not fare as well on some state initiatives.

Several states made decisions on abortion and marijuana. Pro-life advocates gained an important win in one state but lost in two others. Tennessee voters approved an amendment affirming that nothing in the state constitution can be construed to support an unfettered right to abortion, thereby giving legislators more authority to regulate abortion. Voters in Colorado and North Dakota, however, defeated pro-life amendments.

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said the election illustrates that “the pro-life issue persists and can win,” which he deemed the “most important aspect” of Election Day 2014.

‘Ice Bucket Challenge hits stem cell snag’

‘Baptists called on to provide aid to Iraqi Christians, Yazadi Kurds’ In August, Baptist Press ran a story reporting that the International Mission Board and ministry partner Baptist Global Response were turning to Southern Baptists to help provide humanitarian relief for tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians and Yazidi Kurds forced from their homes by Islamic terrorists.

The White House called the situation a “looming humanitarian catastrophe.” On Aug. 3, Sunni extremists known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) seized the Iraqi city of Sinjar, forcing Yazidi Kurds to flee fearing massacre. Many Iraqis without transportation escaped to the nearby Sinjar Mountains.

While the U.S. has airdropped water, food and other supplies to Yazidi refugees in the mountains, BGR representatives continue ongoing efforts in helping displaced Iraqi refugees who have fled ISIS militants’ rapid advance.

In August, Baptist Press reported participants in the popular, social media-driven Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised millions to combat ALS, may have unwittingly supported embryonic stem cell research.

Fueled by online videos of friends, high-profile athletes, politicians and celebrities participating in the challenge, the summer craze involved participants dousing themselves with ice water to create awareness and help generate funding for ALS research while challenging others to do the same.

Pro-life advocates warned the ALS Association, the principal charity benefitting from the challenge, said in a statement that it sponsors one study using embryonic stem cells, though donors can “stipulate that their funds not be invested in this study or any stem cell project.” The Ethics &

Religious Liberty Commission cautioned participants to “consider whether their contributions are unwittingly undergirding a philosophical worldview at odds with Christian ethics. ... Fostering a culture of life predicated on the destruction of life is contradictory.” The article noted “pathways to participation” in the Ice Bucket Challenge “that don’t require moral compromise.”

The ERLC’s website lists ALS charities that only fund adult stem cell research.

‘Supreme Court finds in favor of Hobby Lobby’ In June the Supreme Court ruled to strike down a key mandate of the Affordable Care Act, ruling that “closely held” companies may exercise religious opinions and conscientiously object to providing contraceptives through health insurance.

Hobby Lobby filed suit against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. Under the law, the company was required to provide insurance coverage for nearly 20 forms of contraception, including four that result in abortion.

Hobby Lobby owners believe life begins at conception and objected on religious grounds. They faced massive fines for noncompliance with the ACA.

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JANUARY 2015

Four resolutions for every small town church

By Jonathan Davis

Most people make New Year’s resolutions and end up breaking them quickly. Whether kept or not, the habit of New Year’s resolutions in our culture speaks to humanity’s desire for new beginnings. Lucky for us, our God is a God of new beginnings.

What would a new beginning look like in your small town church in 2015? Here are four resolutions: Obedience over activity Like many churches, small town churches face great temptation to pad the calendar with activities for the sake of “doing ministry” and perhaps worst of all—“filling out the calendar.”

What if in 2015, our need to busy ourselves gives way to listening to God’s “still, small voice?”

The prophet Ezekiel’s final vision of a restored temple, a restored priesthood, and a restored Israel came at the beginning of a new year (Ezek. 40:1). A vision from the Lord is rarely a regularly calendared event.

In 2015, let’s not become so busy with business as usual that we don’t have room for a fresh vision from God. Obedience over activity is not about doing nothing. Rather, it’s a call to do what God is calling us to and not what makes us comfortable.

Take advantage of the fact that small-town life often moves at a slower pace than urban life. The Lord might lead you and your

congregation to a season of renewal.

Contentment over worry Many small-town churches focus on survival, and understandably so. n Rural populations suffer brain drain; the best and the brightest leave for college and never come back because there are no jobs in their field at home. n Young adults are not magically flocking back to church when they have kids anymore. n Manufacturing and industry sometimes leave small-towns in the U.S. for major cities or even developing markets overseas. n Climate change threatens agriculture as weather becomes less predictable and more severe.

Small-town people and churches seemingly have much to worry about.

One small-town clergy couple recently shared in an online forum about taking a pay cut, nearly their entire salary, to stay in a county impaired by rural poverty. Instead of being gripped by fear, the couple is working to find contentment, even though they both work outside of church to pay bills. I’m inspired by their commitment to God’s call.

If small-town churches and clergy embraced contentment over worry, we might find incredible freedom to live into God’s unique calling.

Risk-taking over playing-it-safe.

Like obedience, contentment is not the same as inaction. If we find

8 financial planning myths

contentment in our calling as smalltown churches, embracing the unique mission field God has given us, and if we are obedient to God’s call, we will likely take bold ministry risks. What if, in being closer to creation and the earth than our urban counterparts, small-town church began bold new initiatives to live God’s call to stewardship of the earth?

How might God call your church in 2015 to embrace risk-taking mission and service? The needs are urgent. The time for bold mission and fresh expressions is now.

Prayer over everything Finally, we should cover our ministry efforts in prayer. Obedience to God, finding contentment, and taking bold missional risks will certainly not come without a sincere commitment to prayer. Too often we turn to the latest poll, the hottest new program from a best-selling book, or congregational consultants/coaches to tell us what we’re doing wrong.

When we want to grow, we are quick to chase everything but God. I like a saying attributed to John Wesley: “Prayer is where the action is.” Theories are helpful. Best practices for stewardship are great.

Making sure your campus is welcoming and has enough parking is ideal. But none of those things trump prayer.

How will you embrace these principles in 2015? (BNG)

Children still being hurried in 2015

By David Garrard

In 1982, David Elkind wrote “The Hurried Child”—a book he is still famous for. As a professor of child development at Tufts University, Elkind warned that children were being pushed into activities and environments that they were not ready for developmentally.

“The Hurried Child” was part of a trilogy of books that included “Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk” and “All Grown Up and No Place to Go: Teenagers in Crisis.”

Elkind says that the hurrying began about the time the federal government created the Head Start early child education, somewhere in the mid-1960s.

Although intended to provide help for disadvantaged children, the program gave birth to the idea that education was a race, and that the sooner you got started the better. Middle- and upper-class parents wanted their kids to have every advantage in what was a race to achieve, and so they jumped onboard and began the push to have children reading, doing math, learning foreign languages, etc., earlier and earlier.

As Elkind’s books documented and demonstrated, this approach put preschoolers at risk in many ways, forcing them into structured learning environments and experiences that were simply inappropriate for their age. Hurried or pushed children ultimately produced adolescents who had done it all by the time they were 12 and 13. With nowhere to go, nothing much to accomplish and nothing to look forward to, boredom set in, which often led to the wrong kinds of things.

As a minister to children, I saw it all the time … and I am seeing it again today. For this reason, I have decided to devote my 2015 Family Forum columns to revisiting Elkind’s themes, introducing his ideas to a new generation of parents. I hope you will find them challenging.

David Garrard is minister to children at St. Matthews Baptist Church.

Four considerations for Southern Baptist churches

By Don Spencer

By Ronnie Floyd

1. Financial planning is just investment advice.

While investing is important in financial planning, there are many other issues, including goals, budgets, insurance, taxes, retirement plans and estate plans.

2. Save 10 percent of your salary. Is this enough? For some, it is not. Much depends on the purpose of the savings and your total financial picture. Determine the purpose of your savings and calculate the amount you need to save.

3. Keep an amount equal to 3-5 months of spendable income in an emergency checking account.

You do need an emergency fund, but NOT in a checking account. Consider other options, still keeping the money safe and accessible.

4. You will need 75 percent of your pre-retirement income in retirement. You may need less or more, depending on many financial variables.

5. Life insurance should equal 5 times your salary.

Have an insurance professional assess your needs. For some, unique personal issues dictate a need for significantly more insurance. Needs for others are less, and they may be paying for more insurance than needed.

6. Put a percentage of your savings equal to 100 minus your age into stocks. Many planners use this as a general guide. This may be too conservative for some.

7. I’m too young for a financial plan. The earlier, the better. Every decade you delay saving for retirement, you’ll have to save about three times as much money per month to accumulate the same sum.

8. I’ll retire at 65. This is false: 65 was an arbitrary number chosen in the 1940s for Social Security. Full retirement is now 66 and rising to 67.

As we near the coming of the Lord, we should be more focused than ever before.

As our congregations partner in gospel causes, I ask you to consider these things in 2015: 1. Personally, collectively and cooperatively, we need to own the Great Commission.

As Southern Baptists, our missional vision is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations. There is not one of us that can escape this vision, not because it our vision as Southern Baptists, but because it is the vision of Jesus Christ for each of us as His disciples.

We must own this responsibility personally. This means that my church and your church must own the responsibility of presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person and make disciples of every people group in our own region. It also means we must work cooperatively to reach the world for Jesus Christ.

Our church cannot do it by ourselves. Your church cannot do it by yourselves. Our 50,000 plus churches and congregations must cooperate like never before through our 1,100 associations, 42 state conventions, and 12 Southern Baptist entities. As Southern Baptists, we must own the Great Commission.

Don Spencer is a certified financial planner and a consultant with the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s church financial benefits department.

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2. Increase your financial support of our Great Commission work together.

Unashamedly and unapologetically, I humbly request that each local church increase their giving through our Cooperative Program.

I have never been more convinced that each church must give more than we have ever given before through our Cooperative Program.

Whether your practice is to give by percentage or dollar amount, I call upon each of our churches to increase giving. This is imperative if we are going to see all of our Great Commission ministries advanced.

The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving through which churches give to reach the world for Jesus Christ. As Southern Baptists, I have heard us talk about our great commitment to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

We must renew and increase our financial commitment to seeing the gospel advanced throughout the world. Tell the story. Trust your people. I believe they will step up in an unprecedented manner.

3. Plan now to be represented at our upcoming Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting on June 16-17 in Columbus, Ohio.

Since the moment I was elected as SBC president, I have extended a clear calling to Columbus, Ohio, for our

annual gathering in 2015. Regardless of the size of your church, we need your church represented. We need our Southern Baptist family in one place, praying, worshipping, and working together to see the Great Commission completed in our generation. Soon, I will begin to talk about many more specifics of our upcoming gathering, but right now, do all you can to be in Columbus, Ohio. If you have questions, go online to our annual meeting website or call 615-244-2355 to have your questions answered.

We would like to see every church represented in Columbus. Join me. I believe this will be one of the great spiritual highlights for each of us this year.

4. Join many of us that are praying and seeking the face of God daily for the next Great Awakening and to reach the world for Christ.

Our beloved nation and world needs the next great move of God to come upon us more than anything.

Spiritual awakening is our greatest need in America. We need to see places, regions, and prayerfully even nationally, a sweeping, God-sized moving of God. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Take these four considerations to the Lord in prayer, then take them to your church. The need is now. (BP) Ronnie Floyd is president of the SBC and pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas.

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HAWAII PACIFIC

JANUARY 2015

Newsweek’s slam of the Bible called ‘irresponsible’

By David Roach

Nashville, Tenn.—A Newsweek cover article calling conservative evangelicals “God’s frauds” and characterizing the Bible as full of errors has drawn a range of corrective responses from Baptist commentators.

“When Newsweek, now back in print under new ownership, let loose its first issue of the New Year on the Bible, I held out the hope that the article would be fair, journalistically credible, and interesting, even if written from a more liberal perspective,” Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote in a Dec. 29 blog post. “But Newsweek’s cover story is nothing of the sort. It is an irresponsible screed of post-Christian invective leveled against the Bible and, even more to the point, against evangelical Christianity. It is one of the most irresponsible articles ever to appear in a journalistic guise.”

Appearing on the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” Dec. 30, Mohler said the article demonstrates “ignorance of the facts” regarding Scripture.

“When you have someone in the media give a balanced view and talk about the great truths of the faith in an honest and balanced and journalistic way, that’s fair game,” Mohler told host Elizabeth Hasselbeck and guest host Scott Brown, a former Masschusetts senator. “But that’s not what we’re dealing with here. From the opening shot, this (article) is an open attack upon Christianity.”

Written by veteran business and financial reporter Kurt Eichenwald, Newsweek’s article is titled “The Bible: So Misunderstood It’s a Sin” and appears in the magazine’s Jan. 2 issue. Eichenwald does not cite conservative evangelicals as sources but quotes Bart Ehrman, a New Testament professor who has gained a

reputation for attacking historic Christianity.

The 8,500-word essay begins, “They wave their Bibles at passersby, screaming their condemnations of homosexuals.

They fall on their knees, worshipping at the base of granite monuments to the Ten Commandments while demanding prayer in school. They appeal to God to save America from their political opponents, mostly Democrats. They gather in football stadiums by the thousands to pray for the country’s salvation. They are God’s frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch.”

Rebuttals of Newsweek The Newsweek article presents as fact a list of supposed errors, contradictions and problems in the Bible. Though all of Eichenwald’s assertions have been addressed by conservative biblical scholars, he does not mention that in the essay. In his blog post, Mohler countered some of Eichenwald’s claims, including: n “No television preacher has ever read the Bible. Neither has any evangelical politician. Neither has the pope. Neither have I. And neither have you. At best, we’ve all read a bad translation—a translation of translations of translations of hand-copied copies of copies of copies of copies, and on and on, hundreds of times.”

Mohler responded, “No knowledgeable evangelical claims that the Bibles we read in English are anything other than translations. But it is just wrong and reckless to claim that today’s best translations are merely ‘a translation of translations of translations.’”

Charles Quarles, professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, added in written comments to Baptist Press, “Several excellent translations of the Bible are available today. Many evangelical scholars read the Bible in the original languages, prepare

Crouch kindled ‘new dimension’ of worship Nashville, Tenn.—Legendary gospel songwriter and performer Andraé Crouch has died at the age of 72.

Crouch’s songs—among them:“My Tribute,” “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power,” “Soon and Very Soon,” “Bless the Lord” and “Through It All”—have become standards and are included in the hymnals of both African American and Anglo churches.

He was a major figure in the “Jesus Movement” of the 1960s and 1970s, which led to the rise in popularity of gospel and contemporary Christian music. He is credited with pioneering the urban gospel sound, blending elements of traditional gospel, R&B, jazz and pop.

Crouch’s sound became so synonymous with gospel music that anytime a mainstream artist or movie studio needed a gospel song, he was their first call. His work in writing, arranging and directing can be heard on recordings by Elvis Presley, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Paul Simon and others, as well as on soundtracks for movies like “The Lion King” and “The Color Purple,” for which Crouch was nominated for an

Academy Award. He is one of only a handful of gospel musicians with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Crouch could craft an innovative melody and heartfelt lyric while unabashedly proclaiming the gospel in his songs. Crouch’s songs were transparent and honest about the struggles of the Christian life, yet full of hope.

In 1965, he founded The Disciples, the group that became an outlet for his compositions and launched him to gospel music fame.

Before disbanding in 1979, The Disciples had performed in front of nationwide audiences, including “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, and in 68 countries.

Crouch continued to perform as a solo artist, with a team of background musicians and singers.

In the 1990s, he also took over as senior pastor of the church his parents helped build.

Crouch had dealt with multiple illnesses, including cancer and diabetes.

He died Jan. 8 at Northridge Hospital Medical Center near Los Angeles from complications following a heart attack. (BP)

their lectures and sermons from the Hebrew and Greek texts, and constantly consult ancient manuscripts of these texts.

I frequently read directly from facsimiles of ancient biblical texts like Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and p46. The author of this article is clearly unaware of the outstanding biblical research conducted

by Christian scholars or conveniently chose to ignore it.” n “About 400 years passed between the writing of the first Christian manuscripts and their compilation into the New Testament,” Eichenwald writes. “(That’s the same amount of time between the arrival of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and today.) The first books of the Old Testament were written 1,000 years before that. In other words, some 1,500 years passed between the day the first biblical author put stick to clay and when the books that would become the New Testament were chosen.”

Mohler responded that Eichenwald “grossly exaggerates the time between the writing of the New Testament documents and the establishment of a functional canon.” The apostle Peter referred to Paul’s writings as already regarded among the “Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16), and an ancient document written by Papias of Hierapolis reveals that the canonical Gospels existed as a collection by A.D. 110, according to Christian History Magazine. n The Koiné Greek of the New Testament “was written in what is known as scriptio continua—meaning no spaces between words and no punctuation,” Eichenwald said. “A sentence like weshouldgoeatmom could be interpreted as ‘We should go eat, Mom,’ or ‘We should go eat Mom.’ Sentences have different meaning depending on where the spaces are

placed.”

Mohler acknowledged that the New Testament was indeed written without spaces or punctuation. But he observed, “There is no text in the Bible in which this is truly a problem. Context determines the meaning, and no mom is in any danger of being eaten due to confused punctuation.”

Eichenwald suggests the Bible does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity, and he criticizes Christians who believe it condemns homosexuality.

Mohler countered that while there is not an isolated proof text that says God is one essence and three persons, “the doctrine of the Trinity (is) drawn from the totality of the New Testament.” Mohler noted that Eichenwald “appears unable to deny ... that Romans 1:27 identifies men lusting after other men as sinful.”

Various Christian scholars have countered additional claims of error presented as fact in the Newsweek article.

For example, Eichenwald writes that “contradictions abound” between the accounts of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke.

But Thor Madsen, professor of New Testament, ethics and philosophy at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in a Dec. 23 BP article, “Matthew’s infancy narrative would contradict Luke’s only if, in some respect, Matthew says ‘A’ and Luke says ‘not A.’ ... What we see, rather, are differences arising from the standards by which Matthew chooses to include information not given by Luke, and vice versa.”

In the end, “this article is likely to do far more damage to Newsweek” than Christianity,” Mohler wrote. “...To take advantage of Newsweek’s title—it so misrepresents the truth, it’s a sin.” (BP)

HAWAII PACIFIC

JANUARY 2015

Missionaries blow past LMCO goal

By Tess Rivers

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic—Facing what some called a “God-sized” challenge, a group of IMB missionaries far exceeded their offering goal of $100,000 for international missions.

More than a quarter of a million dollars—$277,217.92—was collected at a gathering of 240 IMB families serving among American people groups around the world. Of the total, $125,000 came from outside donations while $152,217.92 came from IMB missionaries.

The amount, given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions is unprecedented, said David Steverson, IMB vice president for finance.

He described it as the largest offering ever received from a single gathering of IMB missionaries in the organization’s history.

The gift exceeded the goal of $100,000 set

by Terry Lassiter, strategy leader for IMB’s American peoples affinity group.

Understanding that discretionary income for missionaries is limited, Lassiter said such a lofty goal might generate some doubt. Reaching the $100,000 goal meant each family would need to give an average of $416, nearly 20 percent of one month’s base salary for an IMB career couple.

“That way,” Lassiter said, “if (the goal) was met, people would know God moved.”

Although Lassiter expected skepticism, he became concerned that the goal would not be met when he received little response to the monthly podcast in which he presented the goal.

“I started doubting a bit,” Lassiter admitted.

Some of the missionaries under Lassiter’s leadership did, too. “How can a group of ordinary missionaries collect this much money in a time of budget cuts?” some asked. Others applauded

Lassiter’s vision and considered $100,000 to be an attainable goal.

A few weeks before the July meeting, a few missionaries began donating, but amounts were small. Elliott Baze,* IMB director of finance for the Americas, described the giving as “an initial flurry of donations followed by a slow but steady march upward.” Lassiter was getting worried.

Then came the conference—and daily messages about how God accomplished his purposes through ordinary people.

“You could feel the energy of the group build on itself,” Baze recalled. “The offering gained momentum as the meeting unfolded.”

That momentum only continued to grow when the group learned that an anonymous donor was willing to match the goal with a $100,000 gift, if it was reached. Another outside donor committed an additional $25,000.

Then, Baze said, the group “blew past the goal,” and excitement grew.

‘We want to reach our people’ To fuel the missionaries’ enthusiasm, John Brady, IMB vice president for global strategy, offered to shave his head if the offering reached $225,000. Steverson followed suit, also offering to shave his head if the offering reached $250,000.

“I figure my hair is worth a quarter of a million dollars,” Steverson said with a grin.

The missionaries said while the headshaving stunts were fun and increased excitement, the offering was really about getting the gospel to every language, people, tribe and nation.

At the conference, missionaries had the opportunity to give their money with the same “heartfelt passion” with which they had given their lives for this cause years before, Baze said.

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John Brady, IMB vice president for global strategy, laughs as his head is shaved in response to $225,000 in gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions at a gathering in the Dominican Republic of IMB missionaries serving among American people groups. (Photo

by Wilson

For Marty Childers, who serves in Mexico, an experience three weeks before the gathering cemented his desire to give 20 percent beyond the amount he initially planned to give.

“I had the privilege of being among a people group of about 100,000 people with less than 75 Christ followers,” Childers said. “I met with a group of five of them, and we talked about sharing their faith.”

With tears in his eyes, one of the leaders of the small house group said to Childers, “We want to reach our people, but we don’t know how. Can you teach us?”

Childers said he realized his gifts could send more teachers and trainers to the more than 3,000 unengaged, unreached people groups around the world. Firsthand awareness prompted him to give more.

Reachable goal Missionaries also saw their opportunity to give as a model of sacrificial giving for another reachable goal: this year’s international missions offering.

“If field workers do not give

sacrificially, how can we expect our SBC constituency to do the same?” Tim Kunkel, who serves in Paraguay, said.

IMB’s 2014 goal for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is $175 million.

In 2013, Southern Baptists gave an unprecedented $154 million, breaking the record for the largest total in the offering’s 125-year history. While this was good news for the more than 4,800 IMB missionaries worldwide who depend on the offering to fund their work, an additional $21 million will still be needed to reach this year’s goal.

If the 16 million people purported to make up the Southern Baptist Convention will give just $10.93 each, the $175 million goal can easily be reached, Kunkel said. While American families spend about $750 on Christmas, most Southern Baptist churches base their missions giving goal on an average gift of $10 per person.

“If we can show that missionaries are leading the way in sacrificial giving, might this not spark a change?” Kunkel asked. “This is what we are hoping for.”

(BP)

*Name changed.

Discipleship, prayer advocate T.W. Hunt dies at age 85 and his seminary will miss him profoundly. Now, my friend, enjoy all that Spring, Texas—Thomas W. (“T.W.”) Hunt, God has now richly provided for you,” widely recognized in Christian circles as Patterson said. an authority on prayer, died Dec. 11 at the Born in 1929, Hunt grew up in a age of 85.

Christian home and accepted Christ at Hunt was the author of such books as age 10, although it would be many years “The Mind of Christ” and before he fully surrendered to “Disciple’s Prayer Life” and a God’s plan for his life. Hunt former professor of music and earned bachelor’s, master’s and missions at Southwestern Baptist doctoral degrees in musicology Theological Seminary in Fort and piano and taught music Worth, Texas. classes at the University of North Hunt’s granddaughter, Texas and, later, at Oklahoma Katherine Fruge, a doctor of College for Women. philosophy student at The trajectory of Hunt’s life Southwestern, characterized his changed, however, when he T.W. Hunt passing as “successfully finishing received a special gift in 1959—a his race,” noting that he died copy of the Martin Luther peacefully with family by his side translation of the Bible—from a student “cheering him on to victory.” who knew that he spoke German, which “T.W. Hunt met Jesus yesterday,” Hunt learned while serving overseas in Southwestern President Paige Patterson the Army and as a missionary. said in a Dec. 12 statement. “It was a The day he received the Bible was one meeting of a faithful servant and his of the most memorable of his life. “It just Lord, to be sure. But in a sense, it was just seemed to be kind of … me,” he recalled in a reunion of old friends, because few men a Baptist Press article many years later. ever walked with God like Enoch and T.W. “Luther had linguistic skill and spiritual Hunt. insight. (I made) the decision to commit “As a faculty member, as a pastor and all my life to Christ in 1959, reading that as a friend, Dr. Hunt was the champion of German Bible.” prayer and devotional walk with the Four years later, Hunt followed God’s Master. His family, his friends, his church call to teach in Southwestern’s school of

By Alex Sibley

church music. Within a few years, he had transformed the way music was used for missions. Specifically, he developed the Music in Missions class that is still in the school’s catalogue today.

The new course, for which Hunt wrote the textbook, offered students techniques for using music to communicate the message of the gospel by focusing on the indigenous music of the particular mission field. This concept would later prove to have played an integral role in revolutionizing music evangelism.

In 1987, LifeWay Christian Resources (then-Baptist Sunday School Board), which had previously published Hunt’s Disciple’s Prayer Life and “The Doctrine of Prayer,” asked Hunt to move to Nashville to serve as the board’s first prayer consultant.

Although the decision was difficult due to Hunt’s fondness for teaching, after much prayer and Bible study, it became clear he had finished what God wanted him to do at Southwestern and it was time to move on. So, confident in God’s will, Hunt accepted the position.

From that position, Hunt became recognized as an earnest prayer warrior and often was asked to speak on prayer at conferences and state conventions, sparking several thousand churches to begin or undergird their prayer ministries. He retired from LifeWay in

1994. After leaving LifeWay, Hunt remained an active author and speaker over the next two decades.

In 1994, LifeWay published what would be Hunt’s most popular work, “The Mind of Christ,” a Bible study co-authored with Claude V. King on Philippians 2:5-11.

Throughout more than five decades of ministry, Hunt always asked people not to focus on him. Instead, as he once said to Baptist Press, “I’d rather they know about God.” Mark Estep, pastor of Spring Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, where Hunt was a longtime member, said Hunt was the most godly person he ever met.

“He truly walked with the Lord and demonstrated that walk each and every day,” Estep said. “He was my friend, mentor and encourager. There is no one on this earth for whom I or my church has more respect than T.W. Hunt. T.W. taught in our church many times, usually on the subject of prayer or the work of the Holy Spirit.

“Our people always were blessed by his deep insight and his ability to communicate what God had taught him.

He will be missed more than words can say.” (BP) Printed with permision from Baptist Press (www. baptistpress.com)

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AROUND THESE ISLANDS

HAWAII PACIFIC

Court

Jo Evans Scholarship available for student musicians

Continued from page 1

conflicted with the pro-gay marriage trend.

In October, the high court denied review of federal appeals court decisions overturning laws in five states that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman.

The justices’ refusal to hear the appeals came in spite of requests from both sides of the same-sex marriage debate that they rule soon.

The ERLC joined four other religious organizations in a September friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices “to end the divisive national debate.” The current legal ambiguity is burdening religious organizations and people of faith, they said.

The expansion of same-sex marriage has resulted in a clash between the supposed rights of gay couples and the religious freedom of individuals and organizations.

Photographers, florists, bakers and

The Jo Evans Scholarship is available to students pursuing a career in music. The

Supporters of gay marriage stormed a rally in Providence, R.I., shouting at attendees and National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown. BP Photo

other business owners who oppose serving in support of same-sex wedding ceremonies have been penalized or are facing penalties for their refusal.

In the cases the justices will consider, the voters of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee all approved constitutional amendments between 2004 and 2006 that limited marriage to a man and a woman.(BP) Printed with permision from Baptist Pres (www. baptistpress.com)

calendar HPBC-sponsored events in bold JANUARY 24 Convention Committees Orientation 24 Executive Board

22 Connect 28 Evangelism Conference – Big Island (Kona)

FEBRUARY 1-28 “True Love Waits” Emphasis Month 2-5 Continuing Education ConferenceHilo 6-7 WMU Annual Meeting 7 Evangelism Conference - Oahu 8 Racial Reconciliation Sunday 9-15 Focus on WMU 14 Children’s Ministry Day 14 Chaplains & Church Planters Family Picnic 16 President’s Day 20-22 The Gathering, Big Island 21 Evangelism Conference - Kauai

MARCH 1-7 Youth Week 1 Evangelism Conference – Big Island (Hilo) 7 Disaster Relief Training – Oahu 7 Evangelism Conference – Maui 1-8 Week of Prayer & Mission Study NAMB & Annie Armstrong 15 Start a Church Sunday 19-21 Children’s Mission Adventure Camp – Puu Kahea 22 Substance Abuse Prevention Sunday 26 Prince Kuhio Day 28 Vacation Bible School Training

prayer calendar FEBRUARY 1 Helen Taura – Retired, Oahu 2 Betty Russell – Retired, Okinawa 3 David Whitehead – Assoc BIBA, Big Island 7 Jerrell Tate – Abundant Life, Oahu 8 Sunny Chung – Chaplaincy, Oahu 8 Douglas Phillips – Chaplaincy, Oahu 10 Vailua Tuisuga – Fagalii, West Sam 12 Jay Armstrong – Kihei, Maui 12 Amy Kaneshiro – Valley Isle, Big Island 14 Emiko Takaki – FBC Haleiwa, Oahu 14 Todd Morikawa – Kailua, Oahu 14 Danielle Reagan – Waipahu Community, Oahu 15 Vhee Bosi – Lighthouse, Guam 15 Tim Morita – Olivet, Oahu 16 Chris Metcalf – Lihue, Kauai 16 John Elliff – Makakilo, Oahu 18 Rejoice Aitel – Yigo Mission, Guam 21 Grace Lee – Olive, Oahu 23 David Park – New Community, Oahu 23 Masue Uejo – Retired, Big Island 24 Joanne Moses – Chaplaincy, Oahu 27 Andrew Tong – Hawaii Chinese, Oahu 27 Diana Ventura – Waikiki, Oahu MARCH 1 Cristy Hasha – University Ave., Oahu 2 Song Ja Choi – Hawaii Bhansok, Oahu 3 Stephanie Williams – BCM Oahu, Oahu 3 Sue Wagner – Hawaii Bhansok, Oahu

5 Joan Matsukawa – Retired, Oahu 5 Casey Oh – Retired, Oahu 7 Arjay Gruspe – Pawa’a, Oahu 9 Deanna Aoki – Retired, Oahu 10 John Jim Phanchy – Chuukese Christian, Guam 10 Meredith Brunson – International Minisry/BCM Oahu, Oahu 10 Katherine Sanbei – Retired, Big Island 11 John Reimer – Koza, Okinawa 12 Kischa Cabatingan – Valley Isle, Maui 12 Janice Richey – Waikoloa, Big Island 13 Tram Nguyen – International Ministry, Oahu 14 Alan Tamashiro – Puna, Big Island 14 Alfred Chong – Retired, Oahu 14 Gay Sprankle – Waimanalo, Oahu 17 Betty Petherbridge – Retired, Oahu 19 Jared Lawrence – International Fellowship 19 Emily Hew – Kahaluu, Oahu 20 Dick Bento – HBA, Oahu 21 Grace Phillips – Chaplaincy, Oahu 21 Ralph Honjo – Retired, Oahu 23 Tupe Sovea – Seafarers, AmSam 24 Song Sakai – Waikakea Uka, Big Island 26 Dee Ann Gray – FBC Wahiawa, Oahu 27 Lydia Gomintong – Hawaii Christian, Oahu 28 Shane Sowers – Central, Oahu 29 Cindy Gaskins – University Ave., Oahu

JANUARY 2015 applicant must complete an application and meet certain criteria. The form is available on the HPBC website. Deadline is Saturday, April 18, 2015. Scholarship is for the Fall 2015 to Summer 2016 school year.