Working the hill

For several years now, my oldest son and I have been on a quest to climb the highest mountains in Colorado, known as “14ers” because they exceed 14,000 feet in altitude. We can’t hike every year, but this summer we were able to reach four more summits, bringing our total to thirty-seven.

As is often the case, the final hike of the week seemed the most difficult. The remote trail to 14,004 Sunshine Peak first passes over neighboring 14,037 Redcloud Peak, and then returns the same way. The 13-mile roller coaster hike requires over 4,800 feet of total elevation gain, and in our case about nine hours.

More than a thousand miles east of those two peaks, there is also a steep hill behind my house, though the elevation difference from top to bottom is probably only 50-75 feet. Not long ago, we had three dead or damaged trees cut down there. To save money I asked the guys to just leave the trees in manageable pieces, and I would finish the job and stack the logs.

It turned out to be a more difficult job than I expected. Not only was the hill steep, but the footing was often uneven. Some of the logs or branches required further trimming, and many were too heavy to carry and required slow rolling. As I pushed and carried and tossed dozens of logs up and down my own little hill, I recall thinking, “This is harder on my legs and back than mountain climbing in Colorado!”

Working hard on my own little hill that day was a good and thoughtful exercise. It helped me realize that, while the climb to the top of a 14er is demanding, it’s not really any harder than a hundred climbs up the hill in my own backyard.

That led me to think again about our Illinois mission field, the one right here in our own backyards. Yes, the lostness of our nation and the world is big, and our generous giving and sacrificial going are needed to send missionaries and church planters there. But here in Illinois, our churches are the missionaries. We are the missionaries. This is our hill. And it’s to our own backyard that we have the greatest responsibility.

This was never more evident to me than this past month when well-trained, compassionate Disaster Relief volunteers from dozens of IBSA churches all over the state converged on my hometown of Springfield, following the tornado and straight-line winds that downed countless trees and powerlines all over our city. As these missionaries from IBSA churches helped restore order—and hope—to more than 150 homes and families, I saw quite literally the impact of churches working together on backyard hills like mine.

Coordinated Disaster Relief ministry is just one reason we urge churches to give generously through the Mission Illinois Offering each year. While the offering helps support church planters, collegiate ministers, missions volunteers, and many other ministries here in Illinois, it also helps deliver key strategies, staff, and resources that focus on increasing the health, growth, and mission impact of more than 900 churches that are our missionary presence here.

For many, a mission trip or even an annual missions offering can feel like a big, one-time effort, much like my trip to the Colorado mountains. But here in Illinois, the second flattest state in the U.S., our mission field is more like 900 steep hills of hard work than one lofty 14er. And your Mission Illinois Offering helps our IBSA network assist each church in working its own hill more effectively, and in working the hill of our Illinois mission field together.

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

From the front: ‘pastors’ dialogue urged

Continued from page 1 state that only “churches that affirm, appoint, or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture” will be viewed to be in friendly cooperation with the SBC.

That action came as messengers also turned away appeals from Pastors Rick Warren and Linda Barnes Popham to reinstate their churches’ SBC membership. The SBC Executive Committee (EC) dismissed Saddleback Community Church and Fern Creek Baptist Church for having women as teaching pastors or lead pastors. Three other congregations were similarly disfellowshipped, but only Warren’s and Popham’s churches appealed for reinstatement from the floor of the convention.

“These actions, while within the rights of our messengers, undermine the tie that binds, i.e., the autonomy of the local church and are inconsistent with our shared Baptist polity,” wrote Perkins, who is lead pastor of The View Church in Menifee, Calif. “This may signal to churches in the SBC that do not believe that women should be the Senior Pastor but allow women the usage of a pastoral title, or appoints a woman to a pastoral role, are no longer welcome in the SBC.”

The NAAF letter also objected to the lack of a ballot vote on the constitutional change, lack of time for messengers to consider its ramifications, and appropriateness of such a change without first engaging a study task force.

In response, Barber called the request for prayer and dialogue “Christ-honoring” and “biblical.”

“I will make sure that the entire SBC family has ample opportunity for prayer and dialogue throughout the coming year leading up to our meeting next June in Indianapolis,” Barber wrote. His first stop was the Black Church leadership week at Ridgecrest Conference Center later in July.

Meanwhile, Greear sided with NAAF in a statement posted at The Summit Church website. “This amendment forces conformity down to tertiary levels in ways that will both violate local church autonomy and are inconsistent with our past practice,” Greear said.

“If we continue down this road, we might become a Convention that spends its time focused on who is in and who is out, instead of on the best ways to reach our communities and glorify Jesus.

“I’m tired of micromanaging churches; I want to be about the Great Commission,” Greear said.

A second favorable vote on the constitutional amendment will be required for it to become official. The 2024 SBC Annual Meeting is set for June 11-12 in Indianapolis.

– With info from Baptist Press and Christian Post

New search team interviews

The search team seeking the next President and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee has resumed interviews with interim Willie McLaurin, the team’s chairman announced July 17. This comes after public support for McLaurin following the failed election of another candidate in May.

McLaurin was the EC’s vice president for Great Commission relations and mobilization before becoming interim president and CEO in February 2022, following the resignation of Ronnie Floyd. He was one of the candidates considered by the original search team appointed to fill the President/ CEO post, but the team recommended Texas pastor Jared Wellman instead. Wellman’s nomination failed after some EC members expressed concerns about the search process. Wellman was board chair of the Executive Committee until January 26, when he recused himself. The board chair serves as an ex officio member of the search team.

A new search team was elected at that EC meeting in Dallas that was described at the time as a “hot mess” by one of the 81 committee members in attendance.

Neal Hughes, director of missions for the Montgomery (Ala.) Baptist Association, was elected to chair the new panel. Hughes wrote in a statement shared with Baptist media, “Considering the many endorsements from pastors, state convention leaders, and national entity heads, and considering an overwhelming sense in our hearts that we are being obedient to the Holy

Spirit, your present search team decided that we should continue where the former search team left off by doing our own due diligence and interviews with Dr. Willie McLaurin, Interim President/CEO of the SBC Executive Committee.”

McLaurin is the first African American to serve as head of a Southern Baptist entity, including interim leaders. Before coming to the EC, he was special assistant to the executive director at the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

Hughes said that the last six weeks for the search team have been filled with “face-toface gatherings, Zoom meetings, numerous email discussions and much research.”

McLaurin’s popularity was cited as one reason why the Wellman nomination failed in a 50-31 vote. The first team had publicly said McLaurin was a candidate in early 2023, before they turned their consideration to Wellman.

People familiar with Baptist practices asked whether someone holding an interim office should be considered for the post permanently, or if he should resign before pursuing the job.

Illinois pastor and EC member Adron Robinson chaired the first search team which met and worked for 16 months. Robinson acknowledged the complications of considering an interim officer holder, but he said nothing in EC policies forbids it.

The search team is planning another update in the next six weeks. Their next fall meeting of the EC trustees is September 18-19.