April 1, 2024 Illinois Baptist

Table Talk with Michael

SBC Executive Committee

post

Dallas, Texas | Jeff Iorg’s election as President and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee March 21 came with sighs of relief across the Convention and in Illinois, where EC Trustee Adron Robinson had led the first attempts to find a captain for the listing denomination.

“He’ll do a good job of restoring integrity to the Executive Committee,” said Robinson, a pastor in Chicagoland, after his return from the election in Dallas. “It was definitely one of those divine synchronicity moments,” he said, as “God worked on Jeff’s heart, so it all came together.” Iorg had declined consideration for the post three previous times and at 65 was headed to retirement in May after 20 years as president of Gateway Baptist Theological Seminary. Already known to many Southern P. 4

The Illinois Baptist staff

Editor - Eric Reed

Graphic Designer - Kris Kell

Contributing Editor - Lisa Misner

Comm. Coordinator - Nic Cook

Graphics Assistant - Makayla Proctor

Team Leader - Ben Jones

The general telephone number for IBSA is (217) 786-2600. For questions about subscriptions, articles, or upcoming events, contact the Illinois Baptist at (217) 391-3127 or IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org

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POSTMASTER: The Illinois Baptist is owned and published every month by the Illinois Baptist State Association, 3085 Stevenson Drive, Springfield, Illinois 62703-4440. Subscriptions are free to Illinois Baptists. Subscribe online at IBSA.org.

The BIG Baptist family album

Welcome to the family!

Pray the news

Oreana Baptist Church affiliated with IBSA at the 2023 Annual Meeting. Pastor Keith Schmutzler was called in February 2021. He is a native of Oreana, a graduate of Hannibal-LaGrange University, and teaches at Argenta-Oreana High School.

March for Life is set for April 17 in Springfield. Pray for a good turnout for the annual pro-life event which will take the case for protection of the unborn to the state capitol. Pray for lawmakers’ hearts to be moved in the state with the most liberal abortion laws.

CP giving in action

IBSA Evangelism Director Scott Harris speaks during the March Ignite Evangelism conference at First Baptist Fairview Heights. These regional trainings, held in the spring and fall, inspire local church members and pastors to reach the lost in their communities and equip them with tools to help everyone in the church share the gospel.

Total giving by IBSA churches as of 2/29/24 $995,287

2024 budget goal to date: $947,453

2024 Goal: $6 Million

turn

Alittle more than a hundred years ago, Baptist soldiers and volunteers were returning to America from World War I-ravaged Europe, lamenting the physical, emotional, and spiritual devastation they were leaving behind. Back home they found many of those same needs in a traumatized America.

For years prior to that, Southern Baptist churches had already been cooperating to send international missionaries like Lottie Moon, and to advance domestic missions and church multiplication through advocates like the Woman’s Missionary Union’s Annie Armstrong. But with hearts newly broken for the lostness of their nation and world, those early century pastors and churches resolved that more could be done, and that more must be done.

Maybe the war bond drives had given people a new vision of what was possible when shared convictions focused shared resources on a shared mission. Or maybe the death toll they witnessed all too personally had given those families and churches a new urgency and compassion for how many were stepping into eternity without Christ.

Or maybe it was just that generation’s time and turn to step up to the Great Commission calling of Jesus.

But they stepped up big.

During a five-year campaign launched in 1919, everyday Baptists like you and me gave through their churches more than $58 million to worldwide ministries and missions, the equivalent of over a billion dollars today. That experience with the power of cooperative missions giving emboldened Southern Baptists to then establish the Cooperative Program in 1925, a trusted, church-based, foundational system that continues to prepare and place thousands of missionaries, pastors, church planters, and volunteers today.

Why do thousands of autonomous, diverse Baptist churches across America continue to voluntarily cooperate across generations in this great missions endeavor? That same year, our wise forebears also recognized the value in creating a brief, biblical statement summarizing what most Southern Baptists believe, titled The Baptist Faith and Message. This concise, pamphlet-sized overview of the Bible’s primary doctrines has helped reassure churches over the years that the pastors, missionaries, seminaries, and other SBC entities that coordinate our cooperative work together are standing together faithfully on the Word of God.

How will we meet this calling in our century?

Nobody’s perfect, including Southern Baptists, but here’s the bottom line on cooperation. God loves it when his people in his churches believe his Word and then say to one another, “How can we work together to obey God?”

And here’s what that generation did for us a hundred years ago that has stood the test of time: They gave us The Baptist Faith and Message to facilitate multi-church unity around God’s Word. And they gave us the Cooperative Program to facilitate multi-church cooperation in God’s mission.

And as we now approach 2025, it’s time to ask how we will meet our time, and our turn, in this early part of our century. Will we continue to embrace the vision of what is possible when shared convictions focus shared resources on a shared mission? Will we continue to believe that it pleases God when his churches ask how they can best work together to obey his Word and to cooperate in his Great Commission?

In my heart I can imagine what it would look like for your church and mine to embrace this 100-year milestone and declare with hundreds of other churches in Illinois, and thousands of others across the SBC, that “we’re in” at a new, sacrificial level that will fuel worldwide missions through the Cooperative Program for a new century.

I believe the Spirit of God moves mightily when his people and his churches unify and cooperate to obey his Word. And I’m eager to see what will happen when we, the generation that will see 2025, take our turn.

Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org. Our

Southern Baptist Convention

Bart Barber to visit Illinois Baptists

Pastor-rancher-president will speak on SBC issues

Springfield | Two months ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, SBC President Bart Barber will visit with pastors and church leaders in Illinois. Invited by IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams, Barber

one another, to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Barber appointed the study committee that will report to the convention in June on the outcomes of the Great Commission Resurgence, a 2012 move to further streamline some SBC entities and to refocus their program assignments on evangelistic and missional work. In the decade since, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has joined the others in a downward turn in membership, while also dealing with claims of sexual abuse in some local churches and the subsequent fallout.

will be the featured speaker at a Q-and-A luncheon with Illinois Baptists April 16 at the IBSA Building in Springfield.

“We are eager to host Barber because I think he has been a candid, honest, transparent spokesperson for the challenging issues that are happening at the national SBC,” Adams told the IBSA Board at their March 19 meeting.

“Several of our churches are expressing concern over what’s happening in this or that SBC entity, or what might happen at the convention or what might be voted on,” Adams said. “I think the opportunity to listen to him and ask questions of him will do a lot of good.”

In an interview with the Illinois Baptist in September, Barber described keeping his eye on the upcoming Indianapolis meeting, and his twin desires to deal carefully with important issues, including the definition of pastor and the role of women in the church, while also bringing as many voices to the microphone as possible.

Barber is especially interested in promoting the future of the SBC’s Cooperative Program on the eve of its 100th anniversary, a concern shared by Adams and Illinois leaders. “I want to rally Southern Baptists around a vision for cooperation that we had in 1925 that is as good in 2025,” he told the Illinois Baptist. “I want to get our hearts and our spirit back into the idea of cooperating with

Meeting an SBC President personally is a rare opportunity for many people. IBSA hosted a similar event with Fred Luter in his second term as SBC President in 2013. Luter, and his wife, Elizabeth, were well received by a capacity crowd at the IBSA Building during his historic service as the first African American to hold the top elected SBC office.

Barber’s visit promises some lighter moments, beyond the heavy issues he may discuss. The Farmersville, Texas pastor of a church with 300 in attendance has broken the mold of recent megachurch pastor presidencies. He has also become known for his sense of humor, often from his ranching and the names he gives his cattle. Lottie Moooon, Annie Farmstrong, and Bully Graham have become famous on Barber’s social media page on X (formerly Twitter). And as a St. Louis Cardinals fan who grew up listening to the games from his Arkansas home, Barber recently added Yadier Moolina to the herd in honor of the Cards’ famous catcher.

Adams joked about learning about cows in preparation for Barber’s visit. The team preparing for the luncheon ordered a life-size cutout of a cow for photos with Barber and church leaders. In a state that celebrates the Butter Cow at the annual State Fair, the gesture seemed appropriate.

At press time, there were a few spaces left for the luncheon. Pastors and church leaders should register at IBSA.org/meet-the-president

—Eric Reed

Sexual abuse

DOJ probe closed SBC statement addresses one federal investigation

Nashville, Tenn. | Following a year-and-a-halflong investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice has concluded its inquiry into Southern Baptist Convention leaders’ handling of sexual abuse allegations. No charges have been filed.

The DOJ has not released any statement following the close of the investigation, but the SBC Executive Committee commented:

“On February 29, 2024, counsel for the SBC [EC] was informed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York concluded its investigation into the EC with no further action to be taken,” EC interim president/CEO Jonathan Howe said in a statement March 6.

“While we are grateful for closure on this particular matter, we recognize that sexual abuse reform efforts must continue to be implemented across the Convention…We remain steadfast in our commitment to assist churches in preventing and responding well to sexual abuse in the SBC,” Howe said.

The SBC EC announced the launch of the DOJ’s investigation in August 2022, following an investigation by Guidepost Solutions, a third-party group that released a report in May of 2022 sending shockwaves and calls for reform throughout SBC. In February at the EC’s meeting in Nashville, the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force announced the launch of the Abuse Reform Commission, an independent group tasked with implementing sexual abuse reform throughout the SBC.

Sexual abuse survivors have contended that the Tennessee office of the Department is conducting its own investigation, and that DOJ is looking into actions by separate SBC entities, including at least one seminary, however, the claims remain unconfirmed by the DOJ which makes no public statements unless charges are filed.

As summarized by The Tennessean, the SBC EC spent $2.8 million in legal expenses in the 2022-23 fiscal year and in September laid off staff due to the heightened expenses related to the denomination’s abuse response.

—IB staff, with The Baptist Paper and The Tennessean

From the front: Iorg elected to lead SBC Executive Committee

Continued from page 1

Baptists, especially leaders, now the whole convention will learn to pronounce his name. (Iorg rhymes with “forge, the “i” is silent. Like “orange” with no “n.”)

A well-traveled speaker and teacher, Iorg is familiar in Illinois. And appreciated.

“The unanimous vote Dr. Iorg received from the Executive Committee and the board and enthusiastic support being expressed from so many arenas of SBC life communicate great optimism for the days ahead,” said IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams. “I’m especially excited to have someone in this role who has experience as an Executive Director of a medium-sized Baptist state convention like ours in Illinois.”

“He has a keen perspective of being a sojourner, a witness for God in enemy territory,” Robinson observed. “That’s a great position for a leader to have, to understand that we are in an ungodly culture.”

Before his call as seminary president in 2004, Iorg was a pastor in Oregon, then led the Northwest Baptist Convention serving Washington and Oregon starting in 1995. Iorg’s record includes relocating Golden Gate Baptist Seminary from the San Francisco area to metro Los Angeles with a new name and a firm footing with a $60 million endowment. He expanded the school to five campuses. Iorg is the author of eight books.

Iorg served as chaplain for Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants across a decade, which made him holder of three World Series rings. He also served as bellwether for Baptists in the Midwest, alerting ministry leaders to cultural trends headed their way. He was a speaker at the Midwest Leadership Summit as recently as January, and has

dance and cast a unanimous vote that stands in stark contrast to their previous split decisions and closed-door arguments over sexual abuse allegations and their EC’s legal actions.

“In my heart I knew God had the man for the EC and gave him to us just as he had planned” Carty said. “I feel a peace that has been a long time coming.”

EC Chair Phillip Robertson called Iorg “a leader that all Southern Baptists can unite around.”

‘Wonderful day’

“Southern Baptists are a force for good,” Iorg said following the vote. “My story is just one of millions of stories of boys and girls who have been impacted by the gospel, nurtured in Southern Baptist churches, educated in Southern Baptist colleges and seminaries, and sent across the world … to make a difference.

“I am grateful to Southern Baptists for how they have impacted my life over the last 50 years.”

and leading its relocation, Iorg did not feel released to leave for a new post.

Until now.

The call to national leadership is a significant turn for Iorg and his wife, Ann. “It wasn’t very many weeks ago that we were tracking toward retirement plans,” Iorg said. Now he has yet another calling.

The EC is often tasked with dealing with the “difficulties of Southern Baptist life,” Iorg said, noting that “we face those honestly, with greater transparency than almost any other organization imaginable.”

taught at Priority Women’s Conference.

“I have yet to meet another Christian leader as effective as Jeff Iorg,” said Sandy Wisdom-Martin, Executive Director of National WMU and an Illinois native. “He is visionary, inspirational, resilient, extremely skilled, and wonderfully gifted by God. What’s so beautiful is he so willingly pours into others. I am a beneficiary of his sacred investment.”

Iorg brings a full skillset to the denomination that needs renewed missional direction, clarity on implementation of its theological positions, and financial stability after a decade described as tumultuous.

“A huge burden has been lifted and God has given clear direction,” said Illinois EC Trustee Sharon Carty of Carlinville after the vote she attended in Dallas. “I think the vote speaks volumes.... Dr. Iorg shows strong leadership and tremendous knowledge, yet he is very humble about himself and his accomplishments.”

In all, 60 of the EC’s 85 trustees were in atten-

Iorg’s election comes two-and-one-half years after previous CEO Ronnie Floyd left the post under a cloud connected to handling of sexual abuse claims by top SBC leadership. The intervening time included naming an interim CEO, Willie McLaurin, an EC vice president who resigned when, as part of vetting for nomination to the post permanently, it was discovered that McLaurin had padded his resume with university courses and degrees he did not have. He resigned.

Before that was the consideration of Texas pastor Jared Wellman as nominee, which was led by the search committee headed by Robinson. In an ugly hours-long debate, EC trustees turned aside Wellman’s nomination, in part because he had been a significant leader in the sexual abuse investigation and was serving as EC chairman as consideration of his name for the CEO post started.

That failed vote triggered the end of service of the search committee and election of a new one, headed by Neal Hughes, a director of mission from Alabama.

The second committee was prepared to bring a nomination in February. The nominee was later reported to be Georgia Baptist Convention Executive Director Thomas Hammond, but that candidate also withdrew from consideration for “the job nobody wanted,” as it came to be called.

The nomination and election of Iorg only two months later may seem speedy, given previous failures and vetting challenges. But Iorg was actually high on the list in searches dating back to the election of Floyd in 2019.

But serving as President of Gateway Seminary

Asked at a news conference after the election how he intended to restore trust in the EC, given the controversies of the last several years, Iorg said, “Organizational trust is earned by… sacrificial service and demonstrated competence. You don’t gain trust by asking people to trust you. You gain trust by doing the right thing.” He promised sacrificial leadership with “competence and credibility.”

Iorg will lead distribution of mission monies from the SBC’s central unified giving system, the Cooperative Program. Some of his predecessors have considered themselves the chief cheerleader for CP, which has suffered significant declines in percentage giving by SBC churches. Iorg said his “real challenge is lifting up the mission of God and calling Southern Baptists to that. The Cooperative Program is a means to fulfilling that. I don’t see myself as trying to convince people to give more money. My role is to try to convince people that the vision is worthy of more resources.”

Carty called the EC meeting, historic with its unanimous vote, “a wonderful day.” It will be followed by years of hard work.

Return visit planned

Iorg is repeatedly described as a humble man. Robinson said the position he assumes in life gives him valuable perspective.

“He has been a member of a Black church in California,” Robinson said. “A friend of mine was there a couple of weeks ago and said Jeff Iorg was in the parking lot, helping to park cars. You don’t get much more humble than that.”

Iorg will assume the new post May 13, after he finishes his tenure at Gateway Seminary. He and Ann will move to Nashville where the EC is headquartered, with the full support of their three children and their families who live mostly on the West Coast. They will also keep a house in Oregon near relatives who require assistance.

Iorg will make Illinois one of his early stops as he visits state conventions. “I certainly wish Dr. Iorg all the best as he serves and leads,” Adams said. “And we look forward to hearing from him at our Annual Meeting here in Illinois this November.”

The IBSA Annual Meeting is set for Nov. 12-13 at Ashburn Baptist Church in Chicago’s southwest suburbs.

UNANIMOUS – “It was an atmosphere of celebration, of release, of joy, of unity,” said Adron Robinson of Illinois, describing the election of Jeff Iorg. The Iorgs and Robinson (far right) are pictured with National African American Fellowship President Gregory Perkins and SBC EC VP Charles Grant in Dallas.

CONSECRATION — Trustees prayed over Ann and Jeff Iorg after the vote.

—Eric Reed with additional reporting by Jayne Rogers of The Baptist Paper

Illinois Baptist State Association

Shorter Annual Meeting approved

Board trims one day for easier attendance, funds strategic initiatives

Springfield | The IBSA Board of Directors approved a plan to condense the state association’s Pastors Conference and Annual Meeting from three days to two days starting in November 2024, making it easier for messengers to attend.

The action was one of several approved in the March 19 board meeting. Others included funding four strategic initiatives by drawing on reserve funds, and hearing a report from Executive Director Nate Adams on improving baptisms among IBSA churches.

Annual meeting streamlined

Each year immediately following the IBSA Annual Meeting, the Order of Business Committee evaluates the gathering. Noting that many messengers have difficulty attending all three days of the meeting, the Committee decided to investigate ways to condense the Pastors Conference and Annual Meeting in 2024, both scheduled to be held at Ashburn Baptist Church in Orland Park, a Southwest suburb of Chicago.

After discussion with IBSA staff, Pastors Conference leadership, and Chicagoland Association leaders directly involved, the Committee voted unanimously to bring its plan to the Board.

The Board approved moving the meeting dates from Wednesday-Thursday, November 13-14, to Tuesday-Wednesday, November 12-13. The change will also make Thursday, November 14 available for mission projects and/or vision tour opportunities. The Pastors Conference has historically started its meeting on Tuesday, making the whole event three days long.

local associations in revitalization ministries.

2. Provide for a specialized consultant to pilot a project engaging churches in strategies to reach younger generations.

3. Increase previously reduced staff travel budgets back to 2023 levels in order to prioritize face-to-face engagement between IBSA staff and local churches.

4. Fund up to two full-time Zone Consultant contracts as pilots in regions of the state with higher concentrations of churches. IBSA Zone Consultants presently serve as part-time employees in 10 regions of Illinois. Three of the southernmost zones are currently without a consultant.

Metrics continue to improve

Adams presented a report to the Board that included a recap of 2023 and early indicators for 2024 which both show churches’ continued rebounding from Covid-impacted years. He noted that in 2022, 629 churches baptized no one or just one person. By 2023, that number dropped to 471, with 25% of those churches experiencing movement from being “stuck.” Overall, baptisms grew to 3,361 in 2023, up 29.6% from 2022.

“We can rejoice in the rebounding that we see in IBSA churches overall, even though we realize that many are still in recovery,” said Adams.

In other reports, 83 churches have already participated in Multiply Illinois Regional Hubs, which provide leadership development, networking, resources, and partnership. And the year’s first Ignite Conference, a regional evangelism training event, was held March 17-18 in Fairview Heights.

The Order of Business Committee will now work with IBSA staff and Pastors Conference leadership to condense the celebration, inspiration, and business elements of the yearly gathering into a new schedule.

Board funds new strategic initiatives

In other actions, the board approved spending from reserve funds up to $250,000 this year in support of four strategic initiatives proposed by the Resource Development Committee:

1. Continue funding a contracted consultant with IBSA’s Health Team, enabling the IBSA to maintain serving more than 100 churches and 20

Adams stated that more than 100 churches and 21 associations are now engaged with IBSA in a revitalization process and 187 churches are in a next step consulting relationship. “We believe that churches are the best hope of delivering the gospel to lost people in Illinois,” he said. “To continue to invest in churches is still worthy of our best efforts.”

In other business

→The 2025 Cooperative Program (CP) goal and ratio of 56.5%/43.5% (unchanged from 2023) was approved.

→The CP budget goal of $6 million, with a utilization of up to $500,000 of reserves was approved.

→The Board approved the clean, unqualified audit report from Batts, Morrison, Wales and Lee (BMWL).

→Board Chairman Bruce Kirk introduced four new board members: Jennifer Damotte from FBC Morton, Scott Douglas from FBC Fairview Heights, Chris Marsh from Ditney Ridge in Norris City, and Mike Young from New Beginnings in Streator.

Alliance Defending Freedom

Court weighs abortion pill

While the U.S. Supreme Court considers arguments the justices heard March 26 on the legality of distribution of an abortion-inducing pill by mail, court watchers are keeping their eyes on the team behind the lawsuit—and one woman in particular.

Led by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group and ministry partner with IBSA, anti-abortion doctors argued against the Food and Drug Administration’s loosening of regulations for the longapproved medication mifepristone. They said users have suffered the type of direct harm that would give them sufficient legal grounds to bring the lawsuit.

Making the case was Erin Hawley, an ADF attorney and wife of Missouri U. S. Senator Josh Hawley. She was part of the team that successfully argued for repeal of Roe v. Wade two years ago, which limited or shut down abortions in two dozen states. She is a graduate of Yale and clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court. The Hawleys call Ozark, Missouri home.

Hawley addressed the latest suit in an online column for World magazine March 28:

“The FDA now permits abortion providers to mail drugs to women and girls to take alone at home or in their dorm room without ever seeing a healthcare provider in person. An amicus brief details what this looks like in practice: A woman was told by Planned Parenthood to drive across state lines to a McDonald’s parking lot to call a telehealth provider, who directed her to pick up abortion drugs from a FedEx drop box…In short, the FDA has shown a callous disregard for women’s health (not to mention unborn life) by ending the safety standards it once provided to women using abortion drugs.”

Many observers said the justices seemed unlikely to change a lower court ruling making widespread distribution possible, although the court is likely to be split. A ruling is expected in June.

ADF urged witness slips

In pending legislation in the Illinois General Assembly, ADF urged Illinoisans to file “witness slips” ahead of a March 21 House Committee meeting on the bill that would include churches and religious organizations in requirements for “reproductive health decisions” by employers. The amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act (HB 4867 and SB 3492) would force compliance by Christian schools and pro-life pregnancy resource centers in hiring practices, despite their objections.

—IB staff, with additional info from the Washington Post

We need another Blackaby

The lights went down in Georgia Dome and hushed the crowd. More than 20,000 were in attendance for the Southern Baptist Convention in June 1995. Out of the darkness, the lights beamed behind a lone figure on the platform, a kind of clumpy grayhaired man in a dark suit. The crowd gasped.

It was Henry Blackaby. And for some reason, we had not been expecting him. Not like that.

Rarely is there a gasp-worthy moment in Southern Baptist life anymore, but that was one as I recall it. As a pastor in New Orleans, I had just led my first study group through Blackaby’s Experiencing God. For our little clutch of eight, it was life changing—as it would be for successive groups and our whole congregation as we sought God’s will for a changing church in a changing community.

Week-by-week, we listened as Henry unfolded his little Canadian church story on video. He taught how God led Moses and Moses followed. He talked about the work of the Holy Spirit, both in Scripture and in his own experience. He told how God led and Henry’s people followed, as the Lord did amazing things among many churches in the middle of nowhere Canada.

Henry and the believers in Saskatoon really experienced God. And so did our church miles and years away.

What Henry Blackaby and his co-author Claude King did for Southern Baptists was to open our eyes to the work of the Spirit in ways that Baptists didn’t often discuss. He called us as a denomina-

tion to deeper spiritual life, after decades buried in growth methods and doctrinal arguments. At the pew level, he caused us to expect God to speak, and he required us to listen. And follow.

When we hear from God, we must obey immediately, he explained. It’s not a time to ponder obedience.

At least eight million people studied Experiencing God, based on sales of the Lifeway study book. And Bro. Blackaby became a leader for prayer at the denominational level. We needed that.

We still do.

News in February that Blackaby had died at age 88 was great for him there, but sad for us here. It was one of those times we ask again, “Who’s gonna fill their shoes?” Specifically, who’s going to step up—or should we say, kneel down—and bring us all to a place of prayer.

With all the issues facing Southern Baptists right now, and confronted by believers in every walk and witness of life, we need another rumpled prophet who will call us to listen for the voice of God, to give up our own machinations, to seek divine direction afresh, and to obey.

As Blackaby said, and so many of us have quoted since, we need to determine where God is working and join him there.

Thank you, Henry, for pointing the way—thus far.

Eric Reed is editor of Illinois Baptist media.

Henry Blackaby with his wife, Marilyn, at the time of his 80th birthday.

IN FOCUS

Mental health

How churches can help overcome stigmas

BY LISA MISNER

Springfield | The group of church leaders were exchanging their own experiences with mental issues. A recently widowed pastor shared how his congregation didn’t know how to minister to him, leaving him to grieve alone at home where he’d fallen into a deep depression. A mother said she’d found a letter her daughter had written expressing suicidal thoughts. Frightened and needing advice, she took it to her pastor who told her not to worry. “It’s just a phase teens go through,” he advised her.

They were at the Midwest Leadership Summit and were gathered for the breakout session on “Mental Health: The Church’s Response,” led by Sandy Wisdom-Martin, WMU national executive director-treasurer. It was an overview of WMU’s Christian Leader Learning online course, “Mental Health: The Church’s Response” for individual church members or small groups. Wisdom-Martin rattled off a series of statistics

that provided support to their experiences. “Onein-five people are affected by some kind of mental health issue,” she said. “And, one-in-20 experience a serious mental health challenge. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 10-24.”

One of the reasons it’s so vital the church prepares itself to help is because the church is often one of the first places people turn to for help, the course teaches. Kay Bennett, the executive director of Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, is featured in the course’s video. “Mental health challenges are not often the result of sin or mistakes,” said Bennett. “Churches can take away the stigma that is attached to mental health and be a community of support.”

It’s that stigma, along with a lack of resources and denial that can keep people from dealing with the mental health challenges which may be brought on by trauma.

P. 8

Jesus heals

In the stained-glass image on page 1, Jesus in the town of Nain raises a widow’s son from the dead. The compassion of Christ extends to loss and suffering of all types, including mental illness. But the stigma of such incapacity is harder to overcome. A new online training by WMU may help: christianleaderlearning.com/collections/CM

Continued from page 7

Pastors and mental health

A recent study by Lifeway Research found 54% of Protestant pastors have known at least one member of their church who has been diagnosed with a severe mental illness such as clinical depression, bipolar disorder, or depression. Of those same pastors, 26% say they’ve personally struggled with mental illness, with 17% professionally diagnosed and the remaining 9% self-diagnosed. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of pastors say they’ve never personally experienced any type of mental illness.

Most pastors (60%) say they speak about mental illness in sermons or in a large group setting at least once a year. While at least 2-in-5 bring the issue up multiple times a year, 9% about once a month, and 4% several times a month.

“While the typical pastor hasn’t experienced mental illness themselves, they are proactively teaching about this need and feel a responsibility to help,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “While preaching on mental illness is the norm and even more pastors feel their church is responsible to help the mentally ill, still 37% of pastors rarely or never bring it up from the pulpit.”

According to Lifeway Research, 9-in-10 pastors agree “local churches have the responsibility to provide resources and support for individuals with mental illness and their families.” They report doing this by maintaining a resource list of experts (68%), having a plan to provide support for families (40%), providing training that offers encouragement (26%), and offering programs like Celebrate Recovery (26%). Others say they provide training for leaders to identify the symptoms of mental illness (20%), have a counselor on staff (18%), or provide another type of resource (7%).

Depression is common

Wisdom-Martin’s session focused on a common mental health concern, depression. “We want to help you help them by recognizing signs and symptoms,” she emphasized. “Early on the person’s appearance can be a sign. They may become unkempt. They may become a little angry.”

She stressed, there will be times we won’t be qualified to solve the problems we encounter.

Panel discussion:

“Our job is not to be a diagnoser or a fixer of the problems. Our job is to walk alongside them to get the help they need and to support them.”

Jennifer Smith is an Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief chaplain and a member of Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville. She’s had training in dealing with a variety of emotional and mental issues, most recently from the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC).

“If we can catch people [when problems start] we can save a lot of grief in the future,” said Smith. “If you have a physical problem, you get an over-thecounter medicine. If it doesn’t work, you see physician. Then you may need to go to the ER. With mental health there’s no continuum. That’s where the church could sit in the middle. The church just needs lend an ear to listen.”

Like Wisdom-Martin, Smith emphasized the importance of recognizing problems when they start. “We need to better recognize the signs of when they need help and have a contact list prepared.… The closer the contacts we have in the community, whether it’s the pastoral counselor, the abuse counselor, or another, researching the partners we have to work with getting outside our bubble is important.

“It’s really Christ who’s going to work with you,” Smith ultimately believes. “He will do everything

Encourage, don’t judge those with mental health issues

New Orleans | Mental health and the church were the topics of a panel discussion led by National WMU’s Sandy Wisdom-Martin on the Cooperative Program (CP) Stage at the 2023 Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting. “Mental health challenges are often simultaneously overlooked and stigmatized in our church settings,” she said. “As Christians, we’re called to encourage those around us with the love of the Lord…”

Illinois native Gay Williams, a licensed clinical counselor and co-director of HawaiiPacific Disaster Relief, shared that just as people have physical injuries, they also have spiritual injuries in churches. “And it’s not a sin issue,” Williams stressed. “It’s not people who’ve necessarily done anything wrong except a normal human response

to a crisis or a difficult time in their life.”

While an individual might need to talk with a biblical counselor or pastor, they also might “need a psychologist or a psychiatrist who can give them medication to help them heal from an injury.”

One of the worst things church members can do to spiritually stigmatize and further

through every available vessel for those who will work with him.”

How we talk about mental health matters, said Wisdom-Martin. She suggested using first person languages. Her examples included “she lives with bipolar,” not “she has bipolar.” Instead of saying “she’s an addict,” say “she has a substance abuse challenge.”

“It’s hard for us to be vulnerable, but it’s necessary for us to be vulnerable and let people know we are right there with them,” Wisdom-Martin said.

Some early signs of depression last more than a day or two, said Wisdom-Martin. Examples include when a person becomes uninterested in a favorite hobby, looks tired most of the time, appears more unkempt than usual for the individual, has declining hygiene, or expresses hopelessness.

Wisdom-Martin said it’s important to let that person know that you are concerned. “Make sure they know you are there to walk along beside them.” But if that person becomes violent or begins to threaten their own life or someone else’s, it’s time to seek professional help.

Putting training into practice

“It’s important to be willing to walk with people and be present when it’s uncomfortable” said Melissa Pryer, a registered dietician and mem-

injure someone experiencing a mental health issue is to tell them, “Well, if you just pray about that some more, or if you just have a little more faith, then that wouldn’t take place, or you could overcome that,” said Jerry Haag, president of One More Child in Lakeland, La.

Good training in recognizing mental health issues is important “because the average layperson is not set up to do that” stressed Keith Gates, National RA Challenger Ministry consultant.

By becoming more educated about the issue, Kay Bennett, executive director of Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, said we become “less judgmental towards a person, allowing them to feel more free to open up… And that’s when the healing starts.”

ber of Ten Mile Baptist Church in McLeansboro. “We don’t always have to able to fix [the problem] or speak wisdom. Sometimes it’s enough just to say ‘I’m sorry’ and be able to hug them.” Pryer recently completed her certification to become a Christian mental health coach through ACC. Her husband, Jared, is a licensed clinical counselor.

Pryer works with youth in her church and said it was important for her to “gain a credible Christian-based perspective” on mental health. “Topics can dive off into areas I’m not comfortable with,” she said. “I wanted to be prepared when those things develop in front of me. It gives me a framework to not be able to react, and to develop a response when talking about things that are hard in their world.”

That can mean not reacting when youth make statements, but asking “good questions” instead. “Sometimes we need not to be a fixer, but guide with good questions that help them see the answers,” Pryer explained. “When working with teens, never make a statement when you can ask a question that opens a door for a conversation—because it shows respect for their personhood.”

Lindsay Wineinger said she “jumped at the chance” to take a Mental Health First Aid course. The former president of Illinois WMU and member of Woodland Baptist Church in Peoria, said she found the knowledge she obtained to be “incredibly helpful for my work with Super Summer (IBSA’s annual student leadership ministry) and just being with students at my church.

“With knowledge comes compassion, making sure I felt the empathy the students need,” Wineinger said. “The last thing I wanted is for my kids to feel judged when they’re dealing with the panic attached to mental illness or suicide.”

She is also using the training in her volunteer work with the women and children’s shelter near her church. “It’s helped me to understand how their past experiences may deal directly with why they may not want our help,” she said. “Before I may have taken it personally, but now I know it’s not us. It’s what’s happened to them in the past.”

Wineinger said she believes having church members trained to recognize and help those with mental needs “can only benefit the church as a whole.” In her experience, “It’s creating an avenue where we can step in, and [an opening] for the gospel where we can share Jesus with hurting people.”

Get WMU’s Christian Leader Learning online course Mental Health: The Church’s Response at christianleaderlearning.com/collections/CM. Mental Health First Aid training is offered online at mentalhealthfirstaid.org. The American Association of Christian Counselors offers training at aacc.net.

Case study:

Pioneer missionary forgotten over mental illness

Thomas Jefferson Bowen was the first Southern Baptist missionary to focus on winning Muslims to Christ and the first missionary sent by the convention to Central or South America, but generations have not known his name.

By 1860, Southern Baptists only had mission work in four countries, and Bowen was respon-

The Bowens established the first Baptist mission station in Central Africa, and had a daughter who lived only a few months.

“All the diseases that killed most of the other white people left him physically and mentally maimed for the rest of his life,” Hardwicke said. “He started experiencing anxiety and depression in 1854. He began to be psychotic in 1854, suicidal in 1855.”

sible for two. He was a national hero, publishing with the Smithsonian Institution, preaching, and speaking throughout the eastern U.S., yet mental illness all but erased the memory of his existence.

Jim Hardwicke, author of Unthinkable: The Triumph and Endurance of Forgotten American Hero T.J. Bowen, spent years digging up his story, consulting more than 1,000 primary sources, so future generations can be inspired by his example.

Born in Georgia in 1814, Bowen joined the fight to defend the Republic of Texas as one of the original Texas Rangers. Saved in 1840, he preached and helped establish churches and associations in southern Georgia, eastern Alabama, and northern Florida.

Around the Southern Baptist Convention’s founding in 1845, Bowen read early reports of missions work and became burdened for Central Africa. He offered himself to the Foreign Mission Board (FMB) as a missionary and was approved but had to raise his own funds. He was sent with another white man as well as a slave whose freedom Bowen helped purchase.

The trio pressed nearly 70 miles into the African interior and preached briefly before the two white men became ill, Hardwicke said. The former slave nursed them for a time but then returned to the coast. Soon, Bowen’s associate died, leaving him to evangelize the African interior alone.

At the time, Africans were enslaving and selling other Africans. Bowen used his military experience to lead a city of 60,000 to stand against the enslavers. In turn, the city leaders negotiated a treaty with the British to open the interior to opportunities for missionaries.

In 1853, Bowen returned to America where he would preach at the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore and marry Lurana, a wealthy Georgian, before returning for another attempt at evangelizing the heart of Africa.

But Bowen still managed to write the bestseller Central Africa, a 359-page account of his explorations and missionary efforts.

He also compiled a grammar and dictionary of the Yoruba language, published by the Smithsonian Institution. As late as 1940, the grammar was still being used in Nigerian schools, and it was instrumental in translating the Bible into the Yoruba language.

While Bowen longed to return to Africa, his health kept him back. In 1859, the FMB agreed to send him the shorter distance to Brazil, where he planned to reach Yorubas taken there as slaves.

Shortly after arriving with his wife, Bowen ran afoul of the Roman Catholic authorities and was imprisoned on suspicion of inciting insurrection among the slaves. The FMB contacted the U.S. War Department, and the commander of the American fleet at Rio threatened to fire upon the city unless he was released, which he was.

In Brazil he suffered a major physical and mental breakdown, and the Bowens returned home. Alone in final 14 years of his life, tormented by severe headaches and other ailments, he wandered the South, without money, and given to drunkenness.

Hardwicke asked two physicians to examine a primary document about Bowen’s health, and they determined the illnesses he acquired in Africa likely included malaria, Gambian sleeping sickness, worms, and possibly typhoid and strep.

Admitted to a Georgia insane asylum seven times, Bowen died and was buried in an unmarked grave there in 1875.

“[Southern Baptists] were embarrassed by his insanity, and they were embarrassed by reports of his drunkenness,” Hardwicke said. “They put a veil over his life, especially that part of his life.”

Bowen is still revered in Nigeria where he started what became the Nigerian Baptist Convention, which has grown to more than 20,000 churches with more than 10 million members. A university and a hospital there bear his name. From Nigeria, millions of people have been reached for Christ in other parts of Africa, Hardwicke noted.

“I have no doubt that in heaven T.J. Bowen and Lurana are greatly honored,” Hardwicke said. “The fruit that has been born of their sacrifices is multiplied millions of believers and tens of thousands of churches in South America and Africa.”

—Erin Roach for Baptist Press

Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief

Illinois DR teams aid volunteers in neighboring states

Bettendorf, Iowa | Illinois Baptists reached out to officials with the Iowa convention to offer help as they are rebuilding their disaster relief teams. In the first shared event, 39 people were trained in disaster relief ministry at First Baptist Church, Bettendorf, on February 24. This was a joint training for Illinois Baptist State Association (IBSA) and Baptist Convention of Iowa (BCI).

The Iowa convention has fielded disaster relief efforts in the past, but volunteers have dwindled and many volunteers retired from service. They no longer have much equipment and are having to rely on other states such as Illinois and Missouri to help in times of disaster.

Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) State Director Arnold Ramage said, “Last year Gaylon Moss (Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief Director) and I met with Iowa representatives to form a partnership to relaunch Southern Baptist Disaster Relief in Iowa. The Bettendorf training represents a giant step forward.”

The types of DR training offered to the volunteers included DR 101 (the basic course), feeding (including quick response feeding), shower/laundry, and flood recovery.

“As a result of the training Iowa now has a core group of volunteers to respond to disasters in their state and nationwide,” Ramage said. “To further expand upon this initial training we are inviting Iowa residents to attend all upcoming Illinois trainings.”

IBDR’s Sharon Carty of Carlinville coordinated the training. She said the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa have many flood-prone areas and they thought there was a good response from area volunteers to the flood recovery training. The Iowa Baptists are being led in their rebuilding efforts by Gared Shaffer, pastor of Solid Rock Baptist Church, Wapello, Iowa.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is also promoting a new faster response to feeding efforts with “Quick Response” units. These are small

trailers or vehicles resembling a concession stand or a food truck that would be seen at a fair. The units can provide meals or refreshments in a disaster or emergency situation.

The first Illinois QR unit was unveiled at the IBSA Annual Meeting in November.

Carty said they hope to have these units based across Illinois and able to respond within two to four hours of an incident. Donuts, coffee, hot chocolate, bottled water, sandwiches, and cookies could be provided. The key is small, nimble, and quickly available.

“There was a big fire in Girard recently. It was during a time of extreme cold and the firefighters were much in need of hot drinks,” Carty said. She is hopeful in the future there will be an Illinois DR Quick Response unit available to be dispatched.

Illinois DR vet expands reach

Logan County, Ohio | As Disaster Relief teams from Ohio and Indiana state conventions assessed storm damage that left three dead in mid-March, one of the leaders on the ground was familiar to Illinois Baptists—former state Disaster Relief director Butch Porter.

At least three were reported dead in Ohio in a wave of storms that also left dozens injured in Indiana. Indiana Disaster Relief prepared to respond to damage in the towns of Selma and Winchester, with assessors, storm recovery, chaplains and a feeding unit said Porter, who now serves with Indiana.

After Porter and his wife Debbie relocated there from their Illinois

home last year, they immediately engaged with the Indiana team. Porter is now Indiana state DR director.

“The majority of the tornado damage is minor and residents are taking care of their own needs,” said Ohio DR director John Heading “However, Indian Lake was seriously hit and unfortunately is now a mass casualty event.”

Roads to the town were closed at the time of the report. “Ohio Disaster Relief is on standby to respond with volunteers and our quick response feeding unit,” Harding said. “Please pray for those affected by this disaster.”

—with reporting by Baptist Press

Carty encourages Illinois Baptists to register for additional training events this year. Emmanuel Baptist Church, Carlinville, will be the location for training April 12-13 with a range of classes, including flood recovery, chainsaw crews, shower/ laundry, and childcare. Chaplains will be trained starting on Friday, April 12.

Another training will be offered at Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church, Jacksonville, on May 18.

The DR 101 course may also be taken online prior to the more advanced specialized training areas. For more information check the website at: www.ibsa.org/ministries/disaster-relief/.

Richard Nations is Associational Mission Strategist for Sandy Creek Baptist Association.

GOOD NEIGHBORS — Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief leaders assist in nearby states, offering training for new volunteers in Iowa. IBDR’s Harold Booze (above) teaches a class in Bettendorf. And an Illinois vet, Butch Porter, joined the Indiana team which was called out after a March 14 tornado (top photo).

MISSION

‘Not done yet’

Outreach to children leads to pastor’s baptism milestone

BY BEN JONES

“There was a time, probably a year ago, it was really heavy. I really felt like, maybe somebody else can do a better job. And then just all of a sudden, here come all these baptisms. And I think, well, I don’t think the Lord’s done with me yet.”

In March, Joppa Missionary Baptist Church celebrated the 300th person baptized during David Wright’s 24 years as pastor. That is an average of more than one baptism per month for over two decades.

That number would be significant for most churches, but for a small-town church that reported Sunday morning worship attendance of 77 in their most recent Annual Church Profile (ACP), that many baptisms is striking.

Go down to Joppa

With a population of 350, Joppa sits on the north bank of the Ohio river, downstream between Paducah, Kentucky, and Cairo, Illinois. Like its biblical namesake, where the backslidden prophet Jonah tried to flee God’s presence by hopping a ship, this tiny Illinois village is a port town, of sorts.

Joppa was founded around a riverboat landing in the 1800’s.

Now only a local public boat ramp for fishermen remains. The real port lies just west of the village, where an industrial facility loads a half-million tons of cement onto barges each year, then ships it away to build up someone else’s town.

And just as Jonah continued lower in his Joppa journey, the tiny Illinois community can feel down in more than one sense of the word. Less than a dozen zip codes in the state are farther south. The population has dropped almost 15% in the last 20 years. And the closure of the nearby power plant in 2022, a provider of more than 100 jobs and over $800,000 in annual county tax revenue, took its toll.

“It had a big impact on the whole county,” said Terry Mathis, the Associational Mission Strategist of the Union Baptist Association with its office in neighboring Metropolis.

“But they are all putting together what they have to help others. They’re being the center of a town that has fallen on hard times, again, because of the closing of that plant,” Mathis said. “But through that (the church) has reached out and done a greater work of ministry and made people aware of Christ.”

Wright is keenly aware of the difficulties his neighbors continue

Continued from page 11

to face, but talking with the white-haired pastor, the tough times in Joppa rarely come up. Instead, he exudes enthusiasm for the most recent wave of baptisms and love for his church and community.

Pray, love, baptize

“This is such a loving church. They’re so in love with one another. I’m not saying that we don’t have problems, because we do. But it’s just built on love,” Wright said.

It is that love for one another and love for the community, along with a consistent commitment to prayer, that Wright credits for so many baptisms during his tenure. “We are really trying to be a house of prayer, and we really are big on giving.”

What he describes as big on giving is the church’s generosity. “They are one of the most giving and helping churches I’ve ever seen,” Mathis commented.

That generosity shows up in their commitment to consistently send about 25% or more of tithes and offerings out in support of missions including Cooperative Program (CP), their local Union Baptist Association, as well as through special offerings such as the Mission Illinois Offering for state missions, Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions, and Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions. That consistent generosity adds up over time, allowing a rural church like Joppa Missionary to give nearly one million dollars for missions during Wright’s pastorate.

The church is also quick to serve community people in need. Wright points to the generous hearts of the church’s kitchen committee as just one illustration. When a non-member family from the community experienced a sudden death, the church quickly hosted a dinner and took up a love offering to help with funeral expenses.

But it’s prayer that Wright offers as the longrunning labor that is resulting in so much spiritual fruit at the church.

“When I first came here, I was really big on prayer. I believed that prayer is so vital in a church and in a marriage and in our lives,” he said.

That led to an invitation for a deacon to join him in prayer during the hour before Sunday school. It quickly grew to three deacons, then another mission-hearted member, then an open invitation to the church.

“Now 24 years later, we meet in one of our Sunday school classrooms and we’ll run anywhere from 30 to 35 and we just pray,” Wright said.

He describes people praying through lists of needs, physical and spiritual, praying through

classrooms, in the sanctuary, at each pew—for families who regularly sit there and for visitors who will sit there that day. There’s prayer at the piano and prayer at the pulpit, and prayer walking around the outside of the building.

“I just don’t think you can go wrong by becoming a house of prayer” Wright said. “And I think that’s why God is blessing us so much, is because we’re trying to be more and more in tune with him by praying and talking and listening and going and doing as he wants us to.”

That listening recently opened the door to another avenue for the church to love God and love their community. And it is responsible for the most recent wave of baptisms.

Just a kid’s meeting

Mandy Greer has attended Joppa Missionary Baptist Church since birth. She teaches English at Massac County High School. When the news of the impending power plant closure broke a few years ago, there were realistic fears that the small community would also lose their local school. The whole community was concerned. Greer recalled a conversation during that time with a friend.

“She’s like, let’s pray that God doesn’t shut it down. And I said, no, let’s pray that God does something. He might have something bigger in store,” Greer said. “So, I just started praying for something big to happen.”

In the meantime, another church member, Pam, had started a van ministry to bring local kids to the church. Despite their unchurched backgrounds, the kids simply had a desire to be at church at any opportunity. Even if that meant that on Wednesday nights the kids, ranging from pre-K through sixth grade, were just sitting in an adult Bible study.

Greer began to take notice as she continued to pray for God to do something big. “It was maybe a year into these kids showing up at church that I felt like God was saying, ‘I’ve already started something big. And it’s starting with these kids.’”

After a brief conversation with her pastor, a Wednesday night children’s ministry was born. “It’s just a kids’ meeting. We’ve not got a name for it,” Wright said. “But this is one of the key factors in the last year’s baptisms and salvations.”

Greer serves as the primary teacher, with about eight other adult volunteers helping out with teaching and supervision. Her husband now serves, too. “He just absolutely loves these kids. He’s a lot nicer to them than I am,” she said, jokingly.

On a typical Wednesday night the church ministers to 20-35 kids, providing a meal, Bible lesson, and activities, though that number is growing. And

while the church sees the growing numbers as a blessing, it hasn’t been easy.

“It’s been hard to adjust because we’ve never had all these kids coming in who don’t have parents at church with them. And it’s been a struggle,” Greer said. One of the greatest challenges has been teaching the Bible to a wide age range of kids with no biblical background at all. She has contacted Michael Awbrey, an IBSA Leadership Development Director with years of children’s ministry experience, who is working to help them find the right curriculum and develop sustainable ministry plans.

“But the church has been so supportive. They’re willing to finance the food and we’ve had people give money, but it’s been a big change.”

The next 100

The upside of that big change is baptisms. Like most churches, 2020-2022 were challenging years for ministry. Baptism numbers during that span were the lowest since the beginning of Wright’s ministry at Joppa. The children’s ministry has breathed new life into the church again, with 15 baptisms in 2023 and eight more in just the last few months.

But it’s not only the kids who are being reached. Greer shared that an entire family is now coming to the church because of a girl who was recently baptized, with the older sister and grandmother also being baptized. And last September, Wright baptized a father and his three kids, all in one service.

That leads back to Wright’s 300th baptism—a teenage boy, small enough for the self-described “good-sized guy” to immerse side-by-side in the church’s narrow baptistry, designed for the administer to stand outside the water.

“When I first started, I said, Lord, I sure would like to have 100 baptisms,” he remembered.

“My 100th one was a little skinny girl. Well, I said, God, you’re a big God!”

The prayers for baptism number 200 began, and again, about eight years later, the prayers were answered.

In March, after number 300, one of the church trustees told him, “We’re praying for 400.”

Wright, who began ministry in his mid-forties, is not sure if he will be around for the next milestone, but is excited just to have the opportunity.

“Whatever comes would be great. We’ll still rattle the bushes and try to tell them about Jesus.”

300 BAPTISMS — Pastor David Wright (top, left) baptizes his 300th person, Ashton Eddington. Wright points to wet footprints in the carpet after a Sunday morning baptism.

EDIBLE RAINBOWS Kids build lesson-connected crafts during the Wednesday night ministry.

GROWING table

MEET THE TEAM

Zone 2 Consultant

Home: Gurnee, famous for our shopping mall and Six Flags Great America

Education: Ph.D. in Higher Ed from Loyola, Chicago; MBA and BBA from University of Wisconsin; Master of Arts and Master of Divinity from Trinity Int’l University, Deerfield

Prior to IBSA: I have taught in Christian colleges and universities for over 20 years.

How I came to IBSA: Nate Adams invited me onto the IBSA board nearly 10 years ago, and later invited me to work with IBSA. It is a joy and privilege to work here.

Favorite verse: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Favorite Bible person: Paul, for his love and clarity and courage!

Author: Doug Moo, the greatest living Pauline scholar

Hobby: Watching the Food Network

Discovery: The New Warsaw Buffet by Midway Airport

My secret talent: Cooking for large groups of people

Best decision: To follow Christ

Second best decision: To marry Lyndsey 17 years ago, who gives me the same grace she gives her elementary education students

Vacation spot: Camping in Michigan with my family

talk

Getting there

Requires knowing where here is

One of the most damaging mistakes we are making today is obsessing on where we want to be without getting honest about our current reality. Maybe Siri and Google Assistant have fueled the delusion. When we ask them for directions, they automatically launch directions to where we want to be from our current location. They allow us to assume our current location.

In real life and ministry, assuming the starting point is delusional. You won’t get there, until you start here.

Vice Admiral Jim Stockdale was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for eight years. Stockdale had no prisoner rights, no promised release date, and no assurance the torturing would end or that he would survive to see his family again. Yet he endured and helped other prisoners do the same.

When author Jim Collins asked, “Who didn’t make it out?” Stockdale replied, “Oh, that’s easy. The optimists.” The legendary Admiral explained, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end…with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.”

Collins coined this The Stockdale Paradox: maintaining faith for a victory while confronting the brutal facts. We must embrace that paradox for gospel ministry.

Scripture is replete with the

promises of our prevailing. We are new creations, all things passed away (2 Cor. 5:17). We are seated with him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). We will reign with him (2 Tim. 2:12).

Simultaneously, Scripture provides a brutal reality check: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves (1 Jn. 1:8). Those who live according to the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21). To be ashamed of Jesus now results in him being ashamed of you, then (Lk. 9:26). Remember, repent and repeat your good works or I will remove your lampstand (Rev. 2:5).

Are you that candidly honest about your current reality, while resting in the victory secured by Jesus?

I recently marveled at how Paul was honest about his own life. In ignorance of the Gospel, he violently persecuted the church. By God’s grace a dramatic revelation of Christ saved him from success and extreme zeal for his Jewish traditions (Gal. 1:11-14).

Paul was also vulnerable about his own ministry. He knew that he was called by God to lead the Gospel ministry to the Gentiles, and he would prepare for three years prior to going to the Apostles in Jerusalem. From this place of honestly and vulnerability, he was positioned to have a most difficult conversation with the Galatians:

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (3:1).

When you address the plank in your eye, you can see clearly to help your brother with his speck (Mt. 7:5). We are not to avoid helping fellow believers with their specks; we just can’t do that while people are trying to keep from getting hit by the massive planks protruding out of our faces.

If you know the year we had at Cornerstone, you know we were dealt a very difficult situation. The moral failure of a pastor immediately caused parents to fear for the safety of their children. With tears streaming down my face, I reflected, “Why didn’t we see it sooner?”

Without exception, that situation created the two most intense weeks of ministry—in my life. Without question, we were committed to honest assessment. Whatever we found, that was our starting point. And it was that approach that allowed us to protect our reputation, honor the name of Jesus, and act with complete integrity.

I challenge you to honestly assess your current reality. Though it may be quite unsettling to “go there,” it will actually establish your credibility with all who are watching you. When you are honest about you, it is far easier for them to trust you to be honest with them. When you accurately evaluate your current reality, you make it far easier for them follow you on a difficult journey to a desired destination.

What plank do you (or your church) have that is stopping you from helping them?

What reality check have you avoided because you are afraid of what you might find?

Your journey to a place of blessing and victory unavoidably begins from your current location. You won’t get there until you start here

Michael Nave is pastor of Cornerstone Church in Marion. He is serving a second term as IBSA president.

“I heard the cast of The Chosen got started in church plays.”

Jay Simala

Time for a wake-up call?

Sometimes our churches need a nudge. for the pastor

While each of our churches has many things we can celebrate, if we’re honest, we know some areas where we have unmet redemptive potential. For instance, if they’re honest, a church that is strong in fellowship may discover that they are much more passionate about welcoming each other than seeing new people join the family. A church excited about providing food to people in the community might realize that they aren’t breaking past the surface to share the Gospel during most of those opportunities.

Throughout Scripture, we see God giving churches and leaders a wake-up call. Every church and leader needs many wake-up calls throughout our lifetimes. For a church, regular wake-up calls and responding in obedience are essential to maintaining vibrance, health, and resilience. The same is true of individual leaders. There are three Biblical components for churches and leaders to maintain their vitality, effectiveness, vision, and passion.

1. Life-giving relationship must come first.

God did not create us to be alone. He designed us to glorify him and to delight in a life-giving relationship with him. We begin to enjoy this relationship when we are born again, and God intends for us to abide daily in him throughout our lives. However, when we become selfish and

harbor sin, we can isolate ourselves from the life only he can bring.

Spending time with him, confessing sin, and asking him to help us fully abide are essential to our spiritual vitality.

God also wants each church to enjoy the fullness of a passionate, life-giving relationship with him. This means staying rooted in Scripture, authentically praying together, and staying free of idolatry. With today’s cultural headwinds, this can be a challenge.

2. Honest assessment is essential

As we seek God, we must embrace honest assessment. Spiritual leaders must embrace opportunities to see themselves the way God sees them, even if that involves some pain.

Church families also need to examine themselves at the surface, systems, and heart levels to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and sins needing to be confessed. Assessments of ourselves as leaders and our churches need to happen in a supportive environment, and it can have the most impact when trusted friends are

Your IBSA Ministry Partner

Churches face legal issues all the time, so they need to be prepared. And when an issue arises, churches need trusted counsel.

With over 24 years of service, at all court levels, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has seen the cultural and legal trends clearly shift against the Church.

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involved in helping us take the assessments and interpret the results.

3. Jesus invites us on a transformational journey.

Jesus loves us so much! He meets us where we are while loving us too much to leave us there. Whether individually or as a church family, God uses honest assessment to invite us on an exciting new journey with him. This will involve change, adjustment, and sacrifice, but it is worth it! We see churches being invited to journeys of transformation throughout the New Testament, and God continues to extend his invitation to each of us today.

IBSA would love to serve as your guide. As you seek God’s wake-up call for you and your church, your IBSA Health Team of pastors, associational leaders, and IBSA staff stand ready to serve you. We offer relationships, encouragement, prayer, and various honest assessments. We can also help guide you on a transformational journey toward achieving your God-given potential. Let’s continue fully pursuing God together.

Scott Foshie serves Illinois Baptists as IBSA Health Team Leader.

Ministry to kids and teens is not babysitting or just a starting point for real ministry. Your work with Next Generation ministries is frontline ministry.

Next Gen Call-Ins are quarterly online meetings to support and develop ministry leaders and workers.

▶ April 30 from noon - 1 p.m.

▶ With Michael Awbrey and Van Brooks

NeTworkiNg

McArthur Drive Baptist Church is seeking a bi-vocational pastor to lead into their next phase of ministry. Send resume to Pastor Search Committee, 109 N. McArthur Drive, North Pekin, IL 61554, or email MDBC65@yahoo.com.

Send NetworkiNg items to IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org

Church marks Orr’s anniversary

Roy Dale Orr was ordained to the gospel ministry by Union Grove Baptist Church in Eldorado on March 25, 1984. Forty years later, Orr and his wife, Rita, returned for a celebration at the Southern Illinois church on March 24, 2024. IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams was on hand to present a plaque from Illinois Baptists marking the occasion (right).

Orr was called to ministry in 1982, then served as youth pastor beginning a year later. Since then, Orr has served nine churches: Wasson, Union Grove, Junction, New Hope, Junction, New Salem, Scott Street, Raleigh, and New Castle.

Orr earned a degree in business management from Southeastern Illinois College. He served as a bivocational pastor through much of his ministry, working as

Martinsville First Baptist Church seeks a bi-vocational pastor. The church seeks an energetic candidate to work with a motivated congregation to grow programs for all ages. Send resume to MFBCpastorsearch@ yahoo.com.

Search more church openings at IBSA.org/pastor-search or scan this code.

Women’s Conference

April 26-27, 2024

Bank of Springfield Center, Springfield, Il

For more information visit IBSA.org/priority or scan the QR code

a miner until his retirement in 2007. He has been active in leadership with Saline Association, and since 1985 has been speaker on The Baptist Hour broadcast locally.

“Roy Dale is a very humble man and totally underestimates his value to God and to others,” said Union Grove Pastor Steve Nyberg Orr was joined by pastors in the Saline Association for the celebration and a luncheon.

welcome

Bob Stockland was called as pastor of Colona First Southern Baptist Church in February. He served as interim pastor at numerous churches in Minnesota and for more than decade as Director of Missions for the Northwoods Baptist Association, which covers northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Stockland and his wife, Faye, have three adult children.

Jon McDonald is the new Young Adult Pastor at First Baptist O’Fallon. McDonald is a graduate of Union University, and previously served as pastor of FBC Casey for almost a decade. He and his wife, Lindsay, have two children.

Ryne Fullerton became pastor of Faith Baptist, Freeburg, in December. Fullerton is a native of Nashville, Ill., and graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He previously served Illinois churches in Bluford, Woodlawn, and Albion, as well as in North Carolina. He is married to Kathy. They have four children and one on the way.

Sam Dalton is minister of Youth and Families at First Baptist Church in Carterville. A graduate of Southwest Baptist University, he previously worked with youth in Morton and Hazelwood, Mo. He and his wife, Angela, reside in Herrin.

BRIGHTER DAY

Slumps need good teammates

Is it possible to start a season already in a slump? The trees and temperatures are signaling spring, but winter’s slowness still has a hold on me. Signs of new life are all around, but I’m more likely to muster a “meh” than much enthusiasm for the new season.

I’m still struggling to gel with a new schedule for our family. Projects I’d hoped to finish are undone. These last few months have been spiritually dry. For all those reasons, I’m starting this spring in a bit of a slump.

Even in the sluggishness, though, there is evidence of God’s goodness and mercy. As I struggle to get with the program for a new season, he’s reminding me of the valuable teammates he’s graciously put around me:

→ A husband who already bears at least half of the responsibilities we share, finding ways to take on more of mine while acting as if it isn’t a sacrifice.

→ A new work friend who, more consistently than anyone I know, puts the needs of others above her own, pointing people toward Jesus as she goes.

→ A small group of women I meet with regularly who, all in their 20s and well acquainted with changing circumstances, encourage me to trust God more fully in this season and all the others.

april 12-13

EVENTS

D-Now Weekend

Where: Streator Baptist Camp

There are others too. Some of these teammates have offered literal acts of service—a shared project at work, an extra afternoon of school pickup. Others have encouraged me through their example of faithfulness. All have been invaluable, bringing me to a familiar place where I remember again God’s provision in community. The history of the church is covered in examples of believers encouraging each other, lifting one another through slumps and hard seasons.

“Encourage one another daily,” Hebrews 3:13 exhorts us. “Outdo one another in showing honor,” Paul urges in Romans 12:10 (ESV). And be filled with the Holy Spirit, he says in Ephesians 5:18-19, “speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.”

A slump is less weighty when accompanied by the songs and prayers of fellow pilgrims who have trudged through a similar season. God’s gift of community is good all the time, but perhaps even more when life forces us to lean into it a little more than we’d like.

Slumps are isolating, but we weren’t meant to walk through them alone.

Meredith Day Flynn is a wife and mother of two living in Springfield. She writes on the intersection of faith, family, and current culture.

What: Includes worship and recreation. Group sessions will be led by your leaders using the Never Alone D-Now curriculum from LeaderTreks and provided by IBSA.

Cost: $35, T-shirts +$10

Contact: TammyButler@IBSA.org

Info: IBSA.org/events/d-now-weekend

Ignite Evangelism Conference

May 5-6 – Campground Church, Mt. Vernon

May 19-20 – Alpha Church, Bolingbrook

What: Learn to share faith effectively. Help your church reach lost friends, family, and people in your community for Christ.

Cost: Free

Info: IBSA.org/ministries/evangelism/

Contact: ScottHarris@IBSA.org

Trends from nearby and around the world.

People: Public engagement

Should churches and church leaders be very involved publicly in these contemporary issues?

Summary: a majority agreed on only two issues.

Abortion 54%

Acceptable expressions of religious faith 51%

Free speech/censorship/1st amendment 48%

Parental rights in public school decisions about individual children 46%

Antisemitism 45%

Racism/racial justice 45%

Transgender issues 42%

Election integrity/fairness 34%

Criminal justice/sentencing reform 32%

Donor privacy 32%

Gun legislation/2nd amendment 30%

Grey Matter Research polled more than 1,039 evangelical Protestants in late 2023.

Disaster Relief Training

April 12-13 – Emmanuel Baptist, Carlinville

May 18 – Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church, Jacksonville

What: Practical training in chaplaincy, flood recovery, feeding, chainsaw, childcare, communications, more.

Cost: Current members are free. New members or those with expired badges pay $50, which includes trainings for three years, badge, and background check.

Info: IBSA.org/ministries/disaster-relief/

Contact: IBDRdirector@gmail.com

April 20-26

Guatemala Mission Trip

Where: Southeast Guatemala

What: IBSA pastors are invited to assist in pastoral training, personal evangelism, and revival services. Carlton Binkley, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist in Decatur, will guide the team along with IBSA Mission Director Shannon Ford.

Cost: Approx. $1,500 each (airfare, local travel, food, lodging)

Info: IBSA.org/events/guatemalamissiontrip/

Contact: ShannonFord@IBSA.org

See the IBSA calendar for more events. https://www.ibsa.org/calendar/

May 15

Hyfi Curriculum Preview

What: Designed specifically for churches navigating a changing cultural landscape, Hyfi equips you with engaging resources to nurture the faith journeys of children and students.

Cost: Free

Register: vimeo.com/event/4162873

Info: IBSA.org/events/hyfi-curriculum-preview

Contact: MichaelAwbrey@IBSA.org

Multiply Hubs

What: Multiply IL is a collaborative space for growth and learning. This gathering will help pastors and leaders take their churches to the next level with best practices for growing, healthy, thriving churches. Explore proven strategies. Connect with passionate peers. Deepen your knowledge.

May 2 – South Region, TBA

May 9 – Chicago Region, TBA

May 14 – East Central Region, TBA

May 16 – West Central Region, TBA

June 1 – Hispanic, TBA

Cost: Free

Info: IBSA.org/multiply-illinois-hubs/

Contact: AubreyShelby@IBSA.org

MEREDITH FLYNN