Washington, D. C. | President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive actions his first week in office has drawn mixed reviews from evangelicals.
Initiatives to combat radical gender ideologies and protect pro-life demonstrators sparked praise while facets of Trump’s immigration crackdown met with caution in some cases and opposition in others.
The president’s other executive actions spanned a range of topics, including freedom of speech; the death penalty; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives; and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S Capitol Building.
An executive order signed on Trump’s first day in office defined male and female as biological realities determined at conception and ordered federal agencies to follow those definitions. The order also called for Trump’s
Total giving by IBSA churches as of 12/31/24 $5,392,920
2024 Budget Goal to date: $5,392,920 2024 Goal: $6.1 Million
local
IBSA churches give about to missions through the Cooperative Program each year. The money comes from members who put it in the offering plate or contribute to their local church online. They know that their gifts will go the Baptist work worldwide, taking the gospel everywhere it’s needed.
$6 million
CP gifts are divided between state missions (56.5%) through IBSA, and global missions (43.5%) through SBC mission boards, and seminaries. Church planting receives 8.1% of total CP gifts given by IBSA churches. Good Church is a new congregation in Flint, Michigan, which is 85% unchurched. They opened an inexpensive laundromat in the basement to help where there is no laundry available.
The Illinois Baptist staff
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Team Leader - Ben Jones
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NATE ADAMS
Why we’re here
When I served at the North American Mission Board, one of my responsibilities was World Changers, a ministry that mobilized thousands of students each summer to help rehab substandard housing for residents in a hundred different cities. The projects gave students and their adult leaders many opportunities to interact with the residents they were serving, to connect them and their neighbors to local partner churches, and to have a positive impact on the entire community.
One of the challenges we faced, though, was translating our acts of service into opportunities to share the gospel. Some students were natural evangelists who would walk the neighborhoods during breaks and have conversations with the neighbors. Many, however, felt nervous, unprepared, or afraid to share their faith, as we all sometimes do.
To help everyone get involved, we created a pocket-sized tool the size of a business card, folded in half. You could use it in conversation, or leave it on a restaurant table, or share it with anyone who dropped by the work site. The front panel of the card simply said, “Why We’re Here” in large type, followed by the sentence, “Often people ask what brought us here, and why we’re doing what we’re doing. There are three simple reasons I came to serve others this week…”
The inside panel of the card then shared those three reasons:
1. I met God one day, and he has changed my life.
2. I want you to see God’s love in my service.
3. I hope you will want to know more about how to have a personal relationship with God.
That third reason also referenced John 3:16, perhaps the most familiar verse in the Bible, and one that almost every student knew by memory. It read, “John 3:16 is just one verse in the Bible, but it explains a great deal about God and his plan for you. If you have a few minutes, I’d be happy to talk with you about knowing God personally through Jesus.”
The remaining two panels then broke John 3:16 into four main points of a gospel presentation, and provided a sample prayer to accept Christ. Contact information for a local church and for NAMB were included.
3/16 is the perfect time to launch a 3:16 evangelistic outreach.
This simple tool, and this simple plan to present the gospel using the best-known verse of the Bible, was not only powerful, but it effectively engaged many otherwise reluctant Christians, students and adults alike, in sharing their faith.
Now fast forward to 2025.
This year, March 16 or 3/16 falls on a Sunday. The last time that happened was 2014, and the next time will be 2031. Once again, we have a unique opportunity to use the widespread familiarity with John 3:16, and the gospel-presenting power of that verse, to help get everyone involved in sharing the good news about Jesus.
Along with our friends at the North American Mission Board, IBSA is urging churches to take advantage of “3:16 on 3/16” and plan a John 3:16 message on March 16. Challenge your church members to pray for and invite their friends to church that week. Continue praying and inviting them all the way through Easter Sunday, just four weeks later.
IBSA has resources at IBSA.org/316 that include a brief video, prayer tools, promotional materials, sermon starter outlines, and more. These can help your church use John 3:16 on 3/16 to get everyone involved in praying, inviting, and sharing the good news. Feel free to e-mail IBSA’s gifted Evangelism Director at ScottHarris@IBSA.org if you would like some personal help.
Let’s not miss the opportunity this year to make 3/16 about the message of 3:16. It’s why we’re here!
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.
Pro-life advocates mark anniversary, gains
Meanwhile 4 abortion clinics shut down
Washington, D. C. | The month of January saw a slate of mostly encouraging actions for the pro-life movement including the closure of abortion facilities in Illinois, restoration of the Mexico City Policy, the March for Life, and more.
Jan. 24 marked the 52nd Annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. which included several Southern Baptists and the staff of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). In an editorial that appeared in USA Today, ERLC Executive Director Brent Leatherwood wrote, “Churches should not be silent about being pro-life. Instead, we should continue to present the rich vision for humanity that sees every human life as made in the image of God worthy of protection.”
He urged, “And there is no institution better suited to herald that message than the local church, whose mission is defined by service, evangelism, discipleship and formation.”
Illinois clinics close
Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) announced Jan. 22 the closure of four facilities as part of a restructure due to financial shortfalls. The facilities in Ottawa, Decatur, and Bloomington, and Englewood will cease accepting appointments in March leaving 13 facilities.
The four locations do not provide procedural abortion but do provide medication abortions. PPIL does plan to expand its services at other lo-
cations along with increasing its telehealth care services.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, abortions have increased by 47% in Illinois with women traveling from at least 40 other states.
National
advances
On the national level, President Donald Trump signed pardons for 23 people imprisoned by the previous administration for violating the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act. “Today is a new day for the pardoned pro-life advocates who have suffered FBI raids, federal prosecutions, and severe punishment for peacefully and courageously witnessing for life,” stated the Thomas More Society’s Peter Breen, which had submitted a pardon request package for 21 of the imprisoned.
The President signed two executive orders related to abortion on January 24. The first, restores the Mexico City Policy, which bans U.S. foreign aid from being spent on abortions. The second, requires enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which restricts the federal government from funding most abortions.
On Capitol Hill, The U.S. House of Representatives passed the ERLC-supported Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act on Jan. 24; however, it failed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate on Jan. 25.
Parents’ rights bill introduced
Illinois not on board
Washington, D. C. | A Republican-led bill looks to seize on the momentum for legislation designed to protect parents’ rights in the upbringing of their children. The Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act (S.204) was filed Jan. 23 in the U. S. Senate and a corresponding bill was introduced in the House.
The legislation seeks “to protect the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children as a fundamental right.”
“I will always fight to put parents back in the driver’s seat and ensure they remain the lead decision maker in their child’s life,” said Senate sponsor Tim Scott of South Carolina. “…to protect the role of parents at home and in the classroom.”
On Jan. 8, Ohio became the 23rd state to adopt a Parents Bill of Rights that, like others, generally aims to protect parents’ involvement in their children’s education, but Illinois is not one of them.
A move to bring similar legislation was blocked in the General Assembly. The Illinois bill would have addressed medical procedures specifically. A Wheaton-based group collected 500,000 signatures to support a November 2024 vote, but a political maneuver stopped it.
Opponents have criticized the legislation in calling them “Don’t Say Gay” bills. The Ohio law, for instance, allows parents to review “sexuality content” and opt their child out. The definition of such content includes “instruction of sexual concepts or gender ideology” and specifically prohibits such content for children in kindergarten through third grade. Parents are also to be notified of any request by their child to identify as a different gender.
“Parents are to be the primary teachers of ‘spiritual and moral values’ and, by their example and discipline, encourage their children to make choices based on biblical teaching.”
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Matt Sharp commended the congressional legislation. This bill “restrains federal government overreach by reaffirming the role of parents to guide the upbringing, education and health care of their children. It also requires federal courts to safeguard parental rights with the same level of protection afforded other fundamental rights, like free speech and religion.”
—Scott Barkley, Baptist Press, with IB staff
—Lisa Misner
from the front: executive orders address gender, refugees, more Continued from page 1
staff to produce within 30 days a proposed bill to codify the traditional definitions of gender in federal law.
“Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being,” the order stated. “The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.”
Kristen Waggoner, president and CEO of the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), applauded Trump’s stand for the traditional definitions of gender.
“President Trump’s executive order to end the U.S. government’s promotion of gender ideology and restore the true definition of ‘sex’ in federal law is momentous,” Waggoner said in a statement. “It’s a 180-degree turn back toward reality and common sense. Men and women have real biological differences. When the law denies this, people suffer.”
In Illinois, Gov. J. B. Pritzker criticized the string of Executive Orders as harmful. “Individual rights are under attack, causing fear for people with disabilities, for pregnant women, for legal immigrants and temporary migrants, for LGBTQ Americans, small business owners and so many others,” Pritzker said. “Our Midwestern values are under siege.”
Praise also flowed for Trump’s pardons of two dozen pro-life advocates convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a 1994 law enacted to protect abortion clinics against obstruction and threats. Trump called those pardoned “peaceful pro-life protestors” when he signed a pardon Jan. 23, adding it was “a great honor to sign this.”
Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, expressed gratitude for Trump’s actions regarding gender and abortion.
“On two top issues of concern to Southern Baptists – the sanctity of life and respecting biological gender realities – headway was made, without a doubt,” Leatherwood said. “Ensuring taxpayer resources will not go to ending preborn lives, both here at home and abroad, is a significant accomplishment. At the same time, mandating that our government recognizes what we all know to be true about there only being two sexes is a return to sanity this nation needs. These are important steps, ones that will keep lives from harm and death, and I deeply appreciate them.”
SBC messengers have addressed gender and abortion numerous times in resolutions. A 2023 resolution “condemn[ed] and oppose[d] ‘gender-affirming care’ and all forms of ‘gender transition’ interventions.” A 2022 resolution committed to “eliminate any perceived need for the horror of abortion.”
Immigration
Leatherwood was supportive of Trump’s efforts to secure the border but said he is “concerned about the confusion and alarm created by some of the actions taken in the area of immigration.”
At least eight executive orders during Trump’s first week in office addressed immigration. They included calls for more physical border barriers, a declaration of emergency at the southern border and mobilization of the military to seal the border.
One controversial order on immigra-
“We have to walk both lines, to be compassionate and merciful equally, but also to abide by the laws.”
ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley called the pardons a welcome reversal of the Biden administration’s treatment of pro-lifers.
“The Biden administration politicized and abused the FACE Act to target and discriminate against peaceful pro-life advocates,” Hawley said. “While they received harsh prison sentences, vandals who violently attacked pro-life pregnancy centers got off scot-free. Now, President Trump has rightly restored equal protection of the law by pardoning the peaceful pro-life advocates.”
A separate executive order called for enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, a law preventing the use of taxpayer money to fund elective abortions.
our nation’s borders. I am hopeful our leaders can come together and find a lasting solution.”
Leatherwood echoed sentiments expressed in a 2023 SBC resolution that “implore[d] our government leaders to maintain robust avenues for valid asylum claimants seeing refuge.”
Some Christian leaders strongly opposed the suspension of USRAP. World Relief President and CEO Myal Green said, “We’re heartbroken by the decision.”
On Trump’s first day in office, the Department of Homeland Security also issued a directive permitting authorities to enter churches, schools and health care facilities to enforce immigration laws. The Biden administration had issued directives labeling such areas “sensitive” and off-limits for immigration enforcement.
Leatherwood took issue with the Trump administration’s directive.
“No church that I’m aware of harbors criminal actors, whether they’re here legally or illegally, and no church leader wants that,” he said. “President Trump is right to fix our broken immigration system—something we’ve long called for—but it must be done without turning churches into wards of the state or expecting pastors to ask for papers of people coming through their doors.
“The unintended impact of this change will be that many law-abiding immigrants will be fearful to attend our churches, and our central mission of Gospel proclamation and biblical formation will be inhibited,” Leatherwood said.
our power to help people find faith, to live out their faith for the betterment of their families and their lives,” Thompson said.
“At the same time, we are a land of laws, and we have to walk both of those lines to be compassionate and merciful to everyone equally, but then also to abide by the laws. We don’t have also the answers figured out yet, but we will try to do both to the best of our ability,” he said.
ICE officers arrested approximately 100 people in metro Chicago in the first round of deportations, according to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling.
Virtually all Trump’s executive actions followed up on campaign promises by the president, who drew strong support from religious voters in November. Protestant and Catholics both broke for Trump by wide margins, according to NBC News.
But can executive actions alone sustain a government shift toward common sense and Judeo-Christian values? Leatherwood doubts it.
“Ultimately, with all these matters, that means Congress must rediscover its primary role as the lawmaking body in our constitutional order,” Leatherwood said. “President Trump can make any number of moves but, should Congress fail to act, this will all be short lived.”
More actions
Still, multiple items of interest to many evangelicals have been addressed by executive actions. Among Trump’s other executive actions:
tion suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), a channel of legal immigration that resettled last year nearly 30,000 Christians who claimed religious persecution.
“Our system has been a disaster for a generation now,” Leatherwood said. “For the sake of national security and for the safety of those seeking to come here legally, it must be fixed. Through the years, broad support for those fleeing persecution to find refuge here and for allowing churches and ministries to serve them has never wavered. In their local communities, Southern Baptists have so often been at the forefront of those efforts. We must find a solution that allows this work to move forward while safeguarding
Tommy Thompson, pastor of Ashburn Baptist Church in the Chicago suburbs, expressed similar views in an interview with ABC News. His congregation, with multiple locations, serves Latino communities where the U.S. Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) has gathered illegal immigrants for deportation. Some members of his congregations are scared, he said, and are staying home, but “I think the likelihood of ICE raiding a church would be a rare instance.”
Thompson said the church has consulted an immigration attorney about its own position in the issue.
“Churches across America, like ours, are ministries of mercy to help people find new life in Jesus. So we’re going to do everything we can within
An order “ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity” denounced “illegal DEI” policies. It ordered federal agencies to “terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences” and “combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences.”
Trump’s actions, especially the combatting of radical gender ideology, left ADF’s Waggoner optimistic.
With Trump’s executive order, the U.S. government “switched sides” in the conflict over gender, she said, “from promoting the lie to defending the truth. We thank President Trump for his leadership on this crucial issue, and we look forward to working with the administration to restore common sense in American policy.
—David Roach for Baptist Press, with reporting by IB staff
the briefing
Pastor born without limbs to seek SBC office
Daniel Ritchie of Raleigh, North Carolina will allow his name to be placed in nomination for first vice president of the SBC at the annual meeting in Dallas this June. Ritchie is an evangelist and author. He has spent the past 20 years traveling to churches and camps and conferences, telling his story. “A man with no arms was never going to fit in a world where everyone has two arms,” Ritchie wrote in his book, My Affliction for His Glory. “But God had more in store for me than to be a victim of a life defined by the things that I was never going to be.” Ritchie and his wife, Heather, have two children. They are members of Summit Church, pastored by former SBC President J. D. Greear.
Illinois’ Darling rejoins Ethics Commission
Dan Darling, formerly a pastor in Illinois, has rejoined the staff of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). He will serve as church engagement strategist. Darling, who previously served with the ERLC as vice president of communications, will also continue in his current role as the director of The Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and assistant professor of faith and culture at Texas Baptist College. Prior to his leadership of the Land Center, Darling served as the senior vice president for communications at National Religious Broadcasters.
New appointment to combat sex abuse
The SBC Executive Committee (EC) has named a leader for the long-term strategies to combat abuse in SBC churches, according to a statement by EC President and CEO Jeff Iorg. Jeff Dalrymple of Jacksonville, Fla. comes to the Executive Committee after serving as executive director of the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention (ECAP), which works to set national standards to protect vulnerable groups. He previously served nine years as VP at Southern Seminary and two years with the Kentucky Baptist Convention. The EC’s Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response department will be funded in its initial stages by approximately $1.8 million remaining from the $3 million gift by Send Relief in June 2022 toward the SBC’s sexual abuse response.
excerpted from Christian Post and Baptist Press
Faithful servant remembered, honored
Romelia Adams, 1930-2024
Several IBSA staff members tell stories about receiving a phone call from Romelia Adams The calls were always upbeat, congratulatory, and encouraging. Sometimes she would say, “You don’t have to tell Nate I called.” It was always a pleasure to hear from Nate’s mom. She lauded the work of accomplished women, and she appreciated writers, among others. Her husband, Tom, wrote a column for the Illinois Baptist for 34 years, and she was always helpful and supportive in his endeavors. As a pastor’s wife, and in Tom’s 12 years as Director of Missions of Fox Valley Baptist Association, she served well and is remembered lovingly. With Romelia at his side, Tom pastored churches in Kentucky and Illinois including First Baptist Church of Johnston City and First Baptist Church of Des Plaines.
Romelia Adams died December 21 at age 94.
“She shared that she had wanted to be a foreign missionary when she was a teenager,” said Nita Springer of Calvary Baptist Church in Elgin where the Adamses were members. “Romelia never served on the foreign mission field, but she felt like the Lord allowed her to serve on the field where he placed her, in Elgin.”
She ministered to Cambodians and Laotians in
Pastor’s wife mourned
Samantha Mitchell, 1992-2024
Gospelife Church in Carol Stream suffered a great loss just before Christmas when the wife of Pastor Teyvone “Tey” Mitchell lost her battle with Stage 4 Breast Cancer at age 32. Samantha Elizabeth (Lightbourne) Mitchell died December 19, leaving behind Tey and their three young children.
A Bermuda native, she grew up serving in local Bible summer camps and explored the world through short term mission trips serving in Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Maarten, Belize, and Florida.
As an adult she moved to the U.S. and earned a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute and an M.A. in Applied Behavior Analysis from National Louis University. According to her family, she loved her work until “she became a full-time stay-at-home mother…her favorite role of all time.”
In funeral services, Mitchell was remembered as a devoted follower of Jesus, a beloved wife, mother, and friend.
the early 80’s and God placed her in a neighborhood with people of different nationalities. “She had a neighbor who didn’t speak English well. She tried to witness to him and gave him a Bible in his native language,” Springer said of one characteristic outreach.
Romelia and Tom were active in ministry, even in retirement. And Romelia continued service at Calvary Church for nearly two decades after Tom’s death in 2006. “She was a prayer warrior and her prayer life increased as her physical abilities decreased.”
Her passion for books was well known. A graduate of Bethel Women’s Junior College and Murray State University, both in her native Kentucky, Romelia served 20 years as learning center library director for several junior high schools in District 59. She served as church librarian, always ensuring the books offered were biblically sound. And she served at Elgin’s Judson University through the Friends of Judson.
Romelia and Tom were married 55 years. They had three sons, Nevin, Nate, and Carey, and a daughter, Alita. Romelia is survived by their families, including eleven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
A funeral service was held at Calvary Baptist Church with IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams and his son Noah conducting the service.
‘Forever 12’ Alex Doom, 2012-2024
The grandson of longtime IBSA staff member Carol Doom and great-grandson of the late state missionary Jim Doom died December 27 from a fast-moving infection.
Alex attended Williamsville Junior High School where he was in the 7th grade and a member of the wrestling team. His classmates and their families dressed in school colors to attend his funeral.
Alex was a St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan who loved going to see his team play at Busch Stadium. He attended Western Oaks Baptist Church in Springfield. Described by his family as “loving, kind, and friendly,” they will “remember his unwavering friendship, care, and the joy he bestowed upon them simply by being himself.”
He is survived by his parents, Carrie and Grant Bjork, and brothers and sisters, and a host of family. A Go Fund Me page was established to cover the cost of a life flight medical transport from Springfield to St. Louis.
The death of 12-year-old Alex Doom touched churches and schools in Central Illinois.
Churches offer shelter after snow and ice storm
Illinois | Volunteers from Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) spent most of January helping downstate neighbors recover from a massive snow and ice storm, while local churches told stories about coming to the rescue with food and shelter as the storm put some residents out of their homes.
The state’s southernmost counties were covered in two-thirds of an inch of ice that brought down tree limbs and knocked out power to a reported 60,000 customers during the January 4-5 storm. The City of Harrisburg asked if Dorrisville Baptist Church could serve as a warming center after its own center quickly filled.
In his second week as pastor, Carlton Binkley called members together to set up the church’s multi-purpose room as warming center. “If you know people who are without power, who are without any kind of water, or any kind of heat, they can come in and shelter in place here,” Binkley alerted the community in a Facebook video.
The church housed 120 people the first night and served at least 200, including those who came in to take a shower and charge their phones.
Members from McKinley Avenue
and Liberty Baptist Churches in Harrisburg also volunteered. And First Baptist Church Harrisburg brought supplies from its crisis pregnancy center.
Thirty minutes away, Cornerstone Church in Marion set-up a warming center to help care for the homeless and others in its community. Care Pastor Jason Thrash said they served 34 people, with an average of 10 staying overnight. Most have been local homeless people, but a few have been
Fighting wildfires
those without power and the state police brought in some stranded motorists.
IBDR joins the efforts
As conditions became safe for them to work, Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) began responding to requests to remove downed trees and tree limbs from homes and yards following the storm. IBDR was nearly overwhelmed with 387 total requests. There were so many, that at one point, IBDR had to
Illinois couple’s experience in Maui recovery informs California teams
California | As wildfires continue to burn across Los Angeles County destroying thousands of acres, Send Relief and California Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (CSBDR) have boots on the ground.
In mid-January Send Relief had a chaplain team serving at each of the area’s two Disaster Recovery Centers set up for organizations such as FEMA to aid survivors. According to Send Relief’s Keturah Quimby, “We have been given a table as emotional and spiritual care providers at these.” A feeding team is also providing meals at one of the centers.
In an email update to state disaster relief directors, Quimby stated Send Relief was in consultation with Hawaii Baptist Disaster Relief Directors John and Gay Williams, formerly of Granite City. The Williamses, who attended Grace Baptist Church, navigated disaster relief ministry following the Lahaina fire. That fire, on the Hawaiian island of Maui,
killed at least 102 people in early August 2023.
“We are following the Lahaina fire timeline pretty closely as far as response goes,” wrote Quimby. “John and Gay have been very helpful by sharing their experiences with me.” The Illinois natives moved to Denver and were active in recovery after wildfires there. Then they moved to Hawaii after retirement.
CSBDR has deployed a mobile kitchen at a FEMA center at the UCLA Research Park and The Church on Pearl in Santa Monica is hosting the cooking team. They are preparing 300 meals a day for first responders and survivors. Send Relief and CSBDR volunteers have also been putting together and distributing crisis response buckets to support those impacted by the fires.
“We are thankful for our SBC family of churches and leaders who have responded to the needs that have arisen from the Los Angeles fires,” said CSBC executive director Pete Ramirez. More SBDR volunteers from California and neighboring states are expected to be able to serve once first responders have contained the fires and deemed the area safe. At this time, Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief is not expected to be needed to participate in the California callout.
—with reporting from Baptist Press
stop accepting new work requests. At least 95 IBDR volunteers were involved in the efforts, which resulted in two salvation decisions by homeowners. “This is our reason for going,” said State Coordinator Arnold Ramage Structural damage to homes in the area was limited. “The jobs are ranging from minor branches and twigs, up to and including limbs piercing the roof of homes,” said Ramage. “However, most of the jobs are occurring between the two extremes.”
Bad weather hampered early efforts allowing teams from Saline and Williamson Associations to work on January 9 before having to cease their efforts. Once the weather cleared, work began again in earnest on January 13 and they were joined by teams from Franklin, Greater Wabash, Kaskaskia, Salem South, and Three Rivers Associations.
To help with the high volume of job requests, Mennonite volunteers from the Stonefort area and American Baptist teams are assisting. At least 231 jobs have been completed with local teams completing jobs as time allows.
FIREFIGHTERS—Illinois natives John and Gay Williams (top) were instrumental in recovery efforts in Maui last year. Their insight is guiding California DR workers. CSBC Executive Director Pete Ramirez toured kitchens where meals were prepared for first responders and residents (above). Donations were gathered near the fire zone (left).
MISSION
The hand-off
How leaders can plan to pass the baton to a younger generation
IBSA TEAM REPORT
W hen Tyler Sterchi was fairly fresh out of college and interviewing for his first church staff position, the pastor quizzing him said, if Sterchi were called, he would become the next pastor of that church. Twelve years later, it happened.
That’s what you call long-term planning.
It’s also a well-executed hand-off of leadership, something mostly missing in church life today. And it’s desperately needed as the largest generation is retiring from the scene.
“We think we can lead and strategize our way into a generation of Jesus followers,” said Sterchi, the lead pastor at New Hope Church in Effingham. “We think we can plan a movement of Jesus in each new generation, but we’re wrong.”
It’s not bosses or managers the next generation needs. “It needs fathers and mothers,” he said. “It needs family. And I know that because that was my story.”
While growing up, Sterchi lacked an example of leadership in his own life. Then, when he was 10, a friend invited him to a church event, and he began spending almost every Saturday night at that friend’s house so he could go to church with him on Sunday morning. He became a Christian and was baptized by the time he turned 12.
P. 8
An annual training event hosted by IBSA, the Illinois Leadership Summit addresses key issues facing churches today. Speakers focused on handing off to the next generations. It doesn’t just happen.
Continued from page 7
When Sterchi was 17 he met Tim Maxson, the youth pastor at his church, who he said, “invited me into his life and treated me like a son.”
For three years, from late high school into early college, he described, “I literally went to his house like almost every night. I ate meals with him. I studied scripture with him.” Maxson took him on mission trips and taught him how “to do ministry” before leaving to serve on the international mission field.
Next, Sterchi described being “spiritually adopted” by his associate pastor, Larry Weber, who he described as a “good old farm boy who was called into ministry in his 40s.” Weber, who drove a truck for a vinegar plant in Olney, became a “spiritual father” to him.
“He took me on pastoral calls,” said Sterchi. “I rode with him to conferences. He gave me opportunities to preach and teach.”
are jumping ship.”
“Gen Z will be the ones to transcend the left vs. right, and they will take us upward and forward!”
In his book, Future-Ready Church (written with Adelle Banks and Warren Bird, Zondervan 2024), Yang points to eight shifts in church leadership required for Gen Z and the people leading ministry now. Among them is the reality that church membership is losing its appeal. It doesn’t always “generate feelings of being known and seen. Going forward, church leaders should prioritize not only giving their members a sense of community, but also providing a welcoming space that shapes their sense of identity and belonging” (p. 19).
Beyond “if you build it, they will come,” this represents a major shift in church culture, especially when that culture has been dominated by elder generations. Such a shift is not easy and it takes time. For Paul Cooper it was nine years.
Halfway through his current 18-year pastorate, Cooper was ready to tackle changes that would welcome new people into the life of his small-town church. “I had no desire to pastor a traditional church,” he said. “I saw myself as a church planter. But look where I landed—the most traditional of churches.”
Cooper’s change journey meant reaching the next generations. His church embraced the vision and the change it required—eventually. Today the church has more than doubled in size, with 300 average worship attendance. (See Cooper’s story on page 9.)
Passing the baton
A few years before he died of cancer, Weber began telling Sterchi about a pastor in Effingham that he should meet. Sterchi, who was then living in Chicago, kept putting him off. Finally, he contacted Van Brooks, and they arranged to meet. The two hit it off and the rest is history.
More about that later.
Multiple shifts required
“We’re doing an amazing job with young people who will plant the churches of 40 years ago,” Daniel Yang told the crowd in one plenary session of the Summit. “We might be underpreparing the next generation,” he said. The vast majority of Generation Z (80 million people born between 1995 and 2012) does not identify with evangelicalism. But they are spiritually open.
The prevailing narrative for church leaders is that if we just strengthen our churches, we will change America and eventually the world. But that’s not the solution to the shrinking church and rising unbelief.
“We have a lot of jobs here, but our main job is to make sure we do not drop the baton of God’s gospel,” Yang said. Yang has pastored and planted churches. He works with World Relief, based in Chicagoland.
Reaching the next generations means some leaders will need to focus on different language than the church of Boomers and Gen X has, when their debate has been focused on culture wars. “Some of our in-house arguments—the tone, the lack of graciousness, the bitterness—looks like drilling holes in the boat,” Yang said. “It’s no wonder some
Back in Effingham about two years ago, Van Brooks was ready to retire and Tyler Sterchi was ready to move up. Sterchi had served 12 years as associate pastor in a variety of roles. And at every step along the way, Brooks was faithful to include Sterchi and other young people in church leadership.
More than occasional opportunities to chime in, Brooks intentionally sought their opinions. Sterchi recalled his pastor-mentor saying in meetings, “For the next 30 minutes, let’s let only those under 30 talk.” And the older pastor would sit back and soak in their young perspectives.
By the time he assumed the senior pastorate, New Hope had grown into a multi-site congregation. Today it is one church meeting in three locations, Effingham, Newton, and Shelbyville. The
church has as its vision “to see a greater movement of Jesus in each new generation.”
And its senior pastor, now 36, is making mentoring a priority, just as the men who passed the baton to him did. “Do I know what I am passing on to others?” he asked. “Is it intentional? Or is it accidental?”
This kind of leadership—focused on the next generations—“is not a gimmick to draw a crowd.” Adapting methods to reach them, while the message remains biblically faithful, “is not compromising your beliefs…. This is literally the entire church getting on the same page around that we are called to do.
Sterchi draws on the VIM model developed by Southern Baptist philosopher and teacher Dallas Willard: Vision, Intention, and Means.
Vision isn’t “a side thing, it’s a main thing,” he said. Ministry done with intention requires conscious decisions. “Senior leaders must be committed at every level. It must be talked about with the congregation regularly.”
Means is about budget and time, but it’s also about next generation leadership. “What are your next hires? What is the average age of your team? How much time and energy goes to reaching the next gen?”
“What boundaries are you crossing for the sake of the gospel?” Sterchi asked.
8 shifts for the future
1. From attendance to attachment
2. From nuclear families to forged families
3. From mind to soul
4. From church refugees to church as refuge
5. From silence to righteousness
6. From racial tension to community blessing
7. From physical only to healthy hybrid
8. From numbers to vitality
Coming demographic ‘cliff’
Population decline will challenge church leaders
An immediate concern for future-conscious leaders is the coming demographic cliff described by Kelly Kannwischer. Just beginning to impact the U.S., it is a population of drop-off of 15%. It’s a global phenomenon already effecting countries like Japan and South Korea where “they are not having enough children to replace the population,” she said. Such a decline in population leads to eventually not “having enough adults to sustain our infrastructure,” said Kannwischer. She listed contributing factors such as the high cost of living. “Housing costs, education costs… people are saying, ‘I can’t afford to have children.’ Unfortunately, I think theologically, there’s also some aspect of the choices relative to (they) just don’t want to sacrifice that much to have kids.”
Kannwischer said, “The data is showing that the people who choose to have children anyway are people who value community and family. By and large, those are people of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith, belief, (and) traditions. Because you have to have some reason to sacrifice for a greater benefit, which we would say would be the community and the family that God’s given us.”
The church can’t turn attitudes around on its own, but there are things it can do, she told summit goers. “Yes, the Lord says, be fruitful and multiply,” Kannwischer noted. “The Lord also says you should do good work. You have a responsibility as a follower of Jesus Christ, as
It takes time
one of God’s children, to have a vocation and bring value to the world. You have an obligation to be a good steward of resources.”
However, doing all those things can be complicated. “One of the ways that the church could be more encouraging of families is not as an institution,” she said, “but as those of us who are part of the church, that we actually show up for each other’s kids.”
She provided an example from her own church where they don’t do small groups based on age, but by families. As the children age, they become more involved in the reading and discussions with the adults, plus they all pray together.
“No one feels really alone raising their kids,” she said.
Breaking tradition to reach generations
When Paul Cooper graduated from seminary his plan was to become a church planter. “I had zero desire to ever pastor a traditional church,” he said.
But God had different plan. Cooper became pastor of Marshall Baptist Church, which he described as “the most textbook traditional Southern Baptist church you could imagine.” The small-town church had an attendance of about 120, wasn’t growing, and still did things much like it had for the last 50 years.
“We were doing the same things, the same ways, with the same people, and we were seeing generations leave,” said Cooper.
Because church members agreed they needed to reach the next generation, the church now averages around 300 on Sunday mornings and has moved into a former Walmart building. Members recently celebrated the church’s 75th anniversary.
It took effort to get there in a nation were 350 churches close each month., many because they refuse to change to reach the next generation.
“Every church says they want to reach young people… But what are you doing to reach them? Are we speaking the gospel in a way they will understand?” he asked.
Cooper said churches “need to become super intentional about reaching the next generation because the Bible says so.” He cited several Bible verses about teaching and raising the generations to know the Lord, including Psalm 78:4, which he called, “a very convicting verse. It says, we will not hide these truths from our children.”
When it was time to begin making changes at the church, Cooper said he started by preaching through the Book of Acts, “because Acts is all about God doing something completely new in order to reach new people.”
To reach the next generation, the old ways would need to die because they weren’t working, and new ways need to be embraced. However, he stressed, “The message doesn’t change… We must teach God’s unchanging Word.”
To catch the vision, Cooper stated every church member will need to decide, “Will your focus be on who you are trying to keep or who you are trying to reach?”
That doesn’t mean not showing empathy or taking time with members who are having difficulty. Cooper said to love and listen to them as they work through changes.
Despite its challenges, it was worth it. Cooper said, “When I see the young families and the kids filling our church, and I see the baptistery full, and I see new people every week… I’m so glad we changed.”
1. The worship team from Gospelife in Wheaton led praise at the IBSA Building.
2. The Summit included 4 plenary sessions and 21 breakouts for participants.
3. IBSA’s Scott Foshie taught breakout sessions on church revitalization.
4. Marshall Baptist Church pastor Paul Cooper shared his church’s story of growth and renewal across generations.
Connected despite time and distance
ho would guess that in one moment two Illinois churches deciding to cooperate with IBSA would discover a connection dating back nearly 100 years and stretching halfway around the world? But that is exactly what happened in November at the 2024 IBSA Annual Meeting.
During a dinner for newly cooperating churches, each representative was asked to stand and share a little about his congregation with the audience of IBSA staff and invited guests. I was excited to be introduced to a few new churches and hear a bit of their stories. But what I ended up hearing was something only God could orchestrate, and it illustrated perfectly why we network together.
STARTING POINT
Judson,
Pastor Joe Radosevich, from Manchester Baptist Church, stood and began telling what compelled them to become a cooperating church with the IBSA and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
“What do I say to introduce our church?” he recollected. “Sometimes
I can nerd out about the history because, I think the history of the church can explain the culture of the church. So I was like, You know what? I think this is a room where people will care about this detail.”
He went on to introduce the audience to the church, in tiny Manchester, a village of about 350 people in west central Illinois. The former American Baptist church was over 190 years old and had a rich history of passion for missions. “We found in our records that our church had supported the mission to the Karen people, which was a part of Adoniram Judson’s ministry in Burma,” Radosevich said, describing the culture that motivated this well-established church to connect with a new network.
“Our church’s history goes way back supporting missions. We are a strong church reaching our own town, but we realized if every person in Illinois, and even around the world, is going to hear the gospel, then we’re going to have to join with other likeminded churches to do that.”
The room affirmed his words with amens and supporting applause. The next man stood, as all eyes trained on the Asian pastor in his gray sport jacket. “My name is Thang Kio. I am pastor of Lai Christian Church in East Moline. And we are from Burma.”
In that moment, the world seemed small, and our shared task of global missions seemed shockingly local. Because our Baptist forefather Judson sacrificed to take the gospel to Burma (modern Myanmar), and because Manchester Baptist and churches like it sacrificed to send finances to sup-
port missionary work, nearly 100 years later there is a thriving Christian community among the Karen people of Burma, some of whom are now living and worshipping right here in our Illinois cities.
In one moment our “why” was clearly on display. We can’t reach Illinois on our own. We can’t reach the nations on our own. In Psalm 2, God says, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.” Through Jesus, he is fulfilling that promise as we work together.
Retreat for deaf women at Sallateeska
Lake Sallateeska Baptist Camp will serve as the site for a retreat especially for deaf women. The event set for March 21-23 is led by Unveiled Heart and Breakthrough Corner Ministries. It focuses on soul care.
With about 400,000 deaf and hearingimpaired people in Illinois, the need for ministry is great. Special speakers include the leaders of the two organizations planning the retreat.
The cost of the retreat is $170-285 for two nights, depending on the lodging choice, and five meals are included. Daughters may attend with a $20 discount. Register by Feb. 7, or by Feb. 28 for an additional $20. For payment information, contact deafwomensoulcare@gmail.com
FINISH LINE—The meeting place was in Orland Park at the IBSA Annual Meeting where Manchester met Myanmar. Pictured are Pastor Joe Radosevich of Manchester Baptist Church (center) with pastors Dawt Lian Cung (left) and Thang Kio (right) of Lai Christian Church, East Moline.
Belmont Bible Church / 5430 Belmont Rd.
Old, old story
IN FOCUS
What do you know?
Increased biblical literacy only comes through increased immersion in God’s Word
BY MEREDITH FLYNN
lyssa Caudill was a college student studying the Bible with her dormmates when God impressed on her the real purpose of reading His Word. Caudill, now a pastor’s wife in Carmi, realized she was great at coming up with answers to her friends’ questions. But they—and she—needed more.
“Alyssa, you are giving them your own thoughts and opinions, and they don’t need that,” she sensed God saying then. “They need my Word; they need me.”
Caudill is one of a growing number of leaders focused on increasing biblical literacy in their churches. And the need is big. A recent Lifeway Research survey found that while many churchgoers are familiar with certain Old Testament stories, a significant portion may still lack basic understanding of God’s Word and the stories in it.
For Caudill, that initial realization—that studying the Bible is transformative because of the work God does in the reader—still informs how she leads women today.
“Biblical literacy only comes through really immersing yourself in the Word continually,” she said, noting that’s more difficult in a culture bent on instant gratification.
Caudill said if people don’t easily grasp something, they have this idea they must not be smart enough to get it, so they give up.
“To truly understand the Word, you have to spend time.”
Part of the journey
In Marion, people checking out First Baptist Church (FBC) are invited to ask a big question: If I become part of your church, what are you going to do with me?
The answer, said Bob Dickerson, is to give them a plan, a clearly defined discipleship pathway based on the Bible and eight markers of spiritual maturity. Dickerson recently retired as pastor of FBC Marion and joined the staff of the Illinois Baptist State Asssociation (IBSA). The church uses Lifeway’s Bible Studies For Life curriculum, based on these eight markers: serve God and others; live unashamed; build relationships; seek God; exercise faith; share Christ; engage with Scripture; and obey God and deny self.
In their weekly Sunday School classes, Dickerson’s church studies each of those attributes every
verses and key Bible passages, Brannen said—that what they recall in seconds as kids and teens, they’ll remember for a lifetime.
Brannen’s ministry runs a digital app loaded with Bible Drill content, including memory verses for kids, middle schoolers, and high schoolers. Bible Drill resources are also available through Lifeway Kids.
In Bible Drill, Brannen said, young people learn how to handle a Bible and to understand its basic structure of two divisions and 66 books. They also learn to look up verses and memorize Scriptures that become life passages, she said. Their knowledge is tested in the short-term through Bible drills held locally and at the state and national levels.
“These are the things that, hidden in their lives, are going to make a difference as young adults,” Brennan said. She recounted an email she received from a young man who participated in Bible Drill despite a busy teenage schedule. “I never understood why you and mom thought it was so important for me to do Bible Drill,” wrote the college student. “But now, I know how to share my faith with my friends.”
“It’s hard work to get into the Word and dig deep, and it’s hard work to help others do the same. The end result, though, is worth the work.”
—Alyssa Caudill, FBC Carmi
year, tackling two every quarter. In the worship service, his preaching built on the topics they discussed in class. For instance, if Sunday School covered the Cain and Abel account in Genesis, Dickerson might preach on a different aspect of family responsibility.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, Dickerson said, his church returned to the Bible Studies for Life plan every year, and clearly shared it with people. In 2024-25 academic year, they focused on living on purpose, navigating family conflict, the heart of worship, all signs point to Jesus, an Old Testament study of Elisha, and a summer study on risk-takers and walking by faith.
The hope is that the continuity will breed more biblical understanding for adults and kids, who study the stories of the Bible through a discipleship lens. Additionally, FBC Marion is working to increase biblical literacy among kids through its Sunday evening Awana program focused on memorizing Scripture and understanding what it means.
It’s all part of the plan, said Dickerson. “In our preschool, children, youth, and adult classes, we have a plan. For the next year, here’s what we intend to teach you, and here’s why.”
‘A lifetime to remember’
Helping kids learn and know the Bible is a life-long calling for Maria Brannen. The children’s minister is executive director of Georgia Baptist Bible Drill and Speakers, a non-profit formed in 2019 to continue to build on the long-running ministry of the Bible Drill program.
“It’s the best discipleship resource to lay spiritual foundations in the lives of our kids and for them to know God’s Word and to recall it years later,” said Brannen, a 37-year Bible Drill veteran. That’s the goal of the program that helps kids memorize
A systematic approach
Alyssa Caudill had a long-time practice of meeting with one other woman to study the Bible. She had developed a system for studying Scripture and was eager to share it with others, who would in turn use it to teach others how to engage God’s Word.
It’s not easy work, said Caudill, who meets weekly with a group of 21 women. In the fall, they studied the Book of James. They talk about the historical context of the passage they’re studying
Belief about Scripture
29% say it’s mostly about morals, history, moral precepts
Bible stories are a ‘fuzzy memory’ for many
“Those churchgoers with evangelical beliefs—which include expressing personal responsibility to share the message of Jesus Christ as Savior with others—are more confident that they can tell several classic Old Testament stories from memory than churchgoers without these beliefs. Yet the large number of churchgoers that readily admit they are fuzzy on some of the details of God’s interactions with the patriarchs helps explain the need for regular Bible teaching within churches.”
—Scott McConnell, Lifeway Research
and how it fits into the overall framework of the Bible. Throughout their weeks of study, they make observations from the text, interpret the passage, and make application to their lives. By the time you’ve spent several days with a particular passage, Caudill said, it’s easy for the Lord to say, “Here’s what I want you to do.”
Along the way, she tells her fellow Bible students: “This is a new way for you to look and understand and try to read the Scripture. You’re not going to do this perfectly on the first try.”
Biblical literacy is hard work, she said.
“We often struggle because we are so used to instant gratification. It’s hard work to get into the Word and dig deep, and it’s hard work to help others do the same. The end result, though, is worth the work,” Caudill said.
“When the Lord teaches you himself through his Word, those lessons have a tendency to stick for the long-term.”
This article was first published by Lifeway Research.com.
20% say it’s the literal Word of God
49% say the Bible is inspired, but not to be taken literally
GROWING
MEET THE TEAM
Mike Klunke
Baptist Campus Ministry
Illinois State University
Home: My hometown is Buffalo, NY (Go Bills!), but home is in Normal, Illinois.
Education: U of I, Urbana-Champaign with a degree in biology. Master’s from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Church Ministries
Before IBSA: I have been pastor of Cornerstone Church, serving the ISU campus, since its inception in 2001.
My ministry field: The campus is super accessible, and the students are genuinely open with their lives. For example, I’m thinking of Ryan whose dad deserted him when he was 7 and the path of healing is long. He is not yet a follower of Jesus, but he is confronted with the warmth and acceptance of a community that longs for him to believe.
Life verse: “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:6).
Hobby: Cooking!
Local discovery: Jerry’s Pen and Hat Museum in Forrest, Illinois
Snack: Heath Bar.
Author: C. S. Lewis
Movie genre: Character study dramas
Desert island download: Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”
Podcast: “Locked On: Bills”
Superhero: Spider-Man. He’s objectively the most liked.
Secret talent: I have a fantastic Elmo impersonation.
table talk
Doctrines for partly-Baptists
Yes, I preached through the Baptist Faith & Message
ell, that will bore the church to tears,” I thought to myself when a fellow elder suggested preaching a sermon series through the Baptist Faith and Message (2000). It certainly did not sound exciting. Plus, taking one sermon per article, I was looking, at minimum, at an 18-week sermon series.
The content and length of such a long series seemed arduous. But after discussing both the logistics of the series and the possible benefits, I felt more confident in its helpfulness to our people.
Divided across 21 total sermons, we began by tackling the articles on the Scriptures, God, and man in successive weeks leading up to Easter. Then we designated the first Sunday of every other month as “We Believe” Sunday. On those days we baptize as the Lord provides, take the Lord’s Supper, and focus the sermon on one article of BF&M. Hindsight affords me the opportunity to reflect on the several ways it has been helpful to our church.
First, preaching through the BF&M both teaches and reinforces basic theological doctrines.
Many Christians were never formally and directly taught doctrine, but instead pieced it together over years of Sunday school classes, Bible studies, and sermons. Sometimes what they have pieced together is incomplete or incompatible with Baptist doctrines.
For instance, Lifeway Research
standing of the Trinity. In an article titled “Americans Believe in Heaven, Hell, and a Little Bit of Heresy,” Bob Smietana reported in 2014 that “more than 1-in-7 Americans (15%) say the Holy Spirit is less divine than God the Father and Jesus. A third (33%) believe God the Father is more divine than Jesus. [And] 1-in-5 (19%) say Jesus was the first creature made by God. All of those run counter to Christian doctrine as found in historic creeds of the Church.”
A commitment to preaching through the BF&M could help push back against the tide of theological illiteracy. I have had several post-sermon conversations with members whose interest was sparked by topics such as eschatology.
The plan to pause whatever series we may have been in to focus on a doctrinal sermon was also intentional. I hoped it would convey the idea that biblical doctrine matters. It is not just for new believers to learn and pastors to study. Such things matter to how we think and live in everyday life.
Our doctrinal beliefs as Baptists are not only essential to teach new disciples but also to remind and bring clarity to more seasoned ones as well. More than once a member has said something to me after a sermon on basic doctrine like, “I never knew that!” It’s not just for adults either. Our family minister has outline a multi-year teaching plan for our middle
“I stopped using special promotions after 17 people returned their free chihuahuas.”
that covers our doctrine in depth. The preacher also stands to benefit.
Seminary and personal study may have given us a firm grasp on some theological concepts articulated in the BF&M such as salvation, baptism, or the Lord’s Supper. We may not be as sharp on other articles like “education” and “religious liberty” requiring more rigorous study to clearly articulate. So, a commitment to preach the entirety of our statement of faith forces the preacher to confront his own deficiencies in understanding.
Second, the BF&M series acquaints new Southern Baptists with our beliefs. Prior to moving to Illinois, I pastored in the Bible belt state of North Carolina. In that area, the majority of members in a Baptist church were lifelong Baptists. But here in the Midwest, our church is comprised of people from various denominational backgrounds. I preach weekly to former members of nondenominational churches, Churches of Christ, and the Catholic church among others.
Giving a brief overview of Baptist beliefs in a new member class is helpful, but a sermon series allowed me to cover them much more in depth.
Third, the series provides great opportunities for other preachers. The pace by which we planned our series afforded natural places for other gifted preachers in our congregation to exercise their spiritual giftedness. I invited some to preach certain articles because it leaned into their strengths and interests.
As our sermon series on the BF&M draws to a close this year, two years after it began, I remain committed to keeping sound doctrine—Southern Baptist doctrine—in front of my people.
Josh Parsons is pastor of Western Oaks Baptist Church in Springfield.
Let’s get connected It will change our ministry and our relationships
o you remember playing with Legos as a child? They snap together to make all kinds of wonderful things. They are made for connections!
Christians are made for connections as well. We work best when we work together. All kinds of wonderful things happen when we connect.
I can’t help but notice that Christians and churches seem less connected than ever at a time when we need connections more than ever. Never have we needed each other more than in this age of moral and spiritual confusion. At the same time pastors, leaders and churches appear to be more isolated. We are made for connections.
Early in my term as IBSA President, I’m thinking of ways we can connect better in 2025.
1. Let’s connect missionally.
One of our deepest connections stems from the mission we share. We are about the business of glorifying God and making the gospel known to the ends of the earth. We are about making disciples of all nations. We do this mission best when we do this mission together.
Do we have a method for connecting missionally? Yes! The Cooperative Program is a means by which we impact our state convention locally and the work God has given us nationally and internationally. 2025 happens to be the 100-year anniversary of this incredible strategy of every church working together in fulfilling the Great Commission.
Let’s connect by supporting the work God has for us by generous support of the Cooperative Program.
2. Let’s connect theologically.
One of our firmest connections stems from the beliefs we share. What we believe about God’s word and God’s work bonds us together as Southern Baptists and Illinois Baptists. While we appreciate all others who follow Jesus, we are Baptists by conviction. We love the word of God and want to follow it closely. We share common beliefs.
Do we have a guideline for connecting theologically? Yes! The Baptist Faith and Message is an expression of our common beliefs. This year, 2025, happens to be the 100-year anniversary of the BF&M (1925) and the 25-year anniversary of the BF&M (2000). Let’s connect by standing firm on our common beliefs.
3. Let’s connect relationally.
One of our happiest connections stems from the relationships we enjoy. We benefit from the encouragement that comes from knowing each other and growing in our faith together. Christians need other Christians, pastors need other pastors and churches need other churches. We sharpen each other like iron sharpens iron. Do we have a method for connecting relationally? Yes! Our local churches, local associations, state conventions and national conventions give us opportunities to meet, pray and learn together. Our active participation allows us to get to know each other and to gain the mutual benefit that comes with that relationship. Let’s connect by gathering in all these ways.
As Legos are made to connect, we are made to connect. We are stronger, better and more effective together. So let’s get connected!
Doug Munton is IBSA President and senior pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon.
Send items to IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org
New Beginnings Baptist Church in Streator seeks fulltime pastor. Founded in 1876, the church serves a city with a population of about 12,200 people. Attendance has been about 74 over the last year. Submit a letter of interest and resume to nbbcnewpastor@gmail.com.
Search more church openings at IBSA.org/pastor-search or scan this code.
with the lord
Frank T. “Tommy” Walters Sr., 82, died January 12 following a battle with cancer. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Waylon Baptist University, Waco, Texas and a master’s from Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary, Memphis, Tenn. He married Marie White in 1965, and they had two children, five grandchildren, three step-grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by two grandchildren. He served as Streator Baptist Camp Manager from the late 1980s through the mid 1990s. Walters was counseling pastor at Eastview Baptist Church in Springfield for 13 years. Prior to that he pastored Roanoke Baptist and other Illinois Baptist Churches as well as Briarwood Baptist in Missouri. Walters served over 20 years in the United States Marine Corps. Walters was buried with full military honors in Camp Butler National Cemetery.
God sees and hears BRIGHTER DAY
Carson to speak at HLGU
imagine Hagar was a woman at the absolute end of her rope. Any mother who has sent her child away because she can’t stand to watch him die would be utterly and ultimately without hope. And that’s exactly where she is in Genesis 21, sitting apart from her son in the desert, waiting for their anguish to finally end.
Hagar. He saw her. He met her at another moment of despair and loneliness, this time at a well. After Hagar’s encounter with God, the well came to be named Beer-lahai-roi—“the well of the Living One who sees me.”
Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, will speak at Hannibal-LaGrange University March 13.
I imagine that Hagar felt completely alone. Cast aside, invisible at this desperate point of her life, and soon to be forgotten in death. Until God heard. Not Hagar herself, according to Scripture, but the voice of her child. “What troubles you, Hagar?” God’s angel asked her. “Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is” (Gen. 21:17). God heard, and he lifted Hagar and Ishmael up from their dire circumstances into the promise he’d already made—and intended to keep.
The older I get, the more often I have this sobering thought: most of the pain we carry is felt in isolation. Yes, we have families and friends and communities that ideally help bear our burdens. But they also have burdens. None of us is capable of seeing and hearing anyone else’s every hurt and grief, even those we love the most.
It’s not unlike a few chapters earlier in Genesis, the first time Hagar ran from Abraham and Sarah’s tangled web of family dynamics. Except that time, Scriptures uses a different sense to describe how God rescued with
I EVENTS
February 2-3
Pursuing God Together Marriage Retreat
Where: Wyndham Springfield City Centre
What: Retreat for pastors and wives provides encouragement, replenishment, and renewed passion in pursuit of God’s purpose. Cost: Free, but space is limited
Info: https://ibsa55435.ac-page.com/PGTFeb25all
Contact: TammyButler@IBSA.org
February 28-March 1
Student Discipleship Retreats
Where: Lake Sallateeska Baptist Camp
When: Friday 5 p.m.-Saturday 5 p.m.
What: A Done-For-You Disciple Now Weekend! The theme and curriculum, “Gravitate,” comes from our friends at LeaderTreks and is provided by IBSA! For students grade 6-high school.
Where: First Baptist Church, Morton When: 6:30 p.m.
What: Bring the entire leadership team, paid or volunteer, for two educational breakout sessions. Ministry training areas include children, student, women, worship, and more.
Cost: Free
Info: IBSA.org
Contact: TammyButler@IBSA.org
Even when we do see and hear another’s struggles, our efforts to soothe or solve are like drops in a bucket. We are so limited in how we can help.
But Hagar’s story is a reminder that our God hears and sees and responds. He is not limited in his ability to comfort us. Even when fear threatens to paralyze us, or grief overwhelms, or pain of any kind pushes us into isolation, we can echo her words in Genesis 16 because we have lived them too.
“You are a God of seeing. Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
Meredith Flynn is a wife, mother of two, and writer living in Springfield. She and her family are active members of Delta Church.
March 2-9
Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and Week of Prayer
What: Bring the entire leadership team, paid or volunteer, for two educational breakout session. Ministry training areas include children, student, women, worship, and more.
Cost: Free
Info: IBSA.org
Contact: TammyButler@IBSA.org
March 16
316 on 316 Evangelism Day
What: Join churches and communities across the nation in coming together to intentionally share the good news of Jesus Christ. The day is based on John 3:16. Info and resources: https://www.ibsa.org/316-on-316/ Contact: ScottHarris@IBSA.org
March 20-21
Revive Gathering with Richard Blackaby, Mark Clifton, and Team
What: IBSA and NAMB are offering this free two-day conference for pastors and lay leaders, led by Richard Blackaby and Mark Clifton.
Where: Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Mount Vernon
Cost: $15 per person, use code REVIVE25 for free registration Info: IBSA.org/revive25
Contact: ScottFoshie@IBSA.org
“Dr. Carson’s expertise in the fields of medicine, politics, and Christian service will encourage and remind us of the importance of connecting values with vocation, a message that all of us need to hear” says Dr. Eric Turner, Christian Studies Division Chair. “I am excited to hear Dr. Carson’s insights on preserving individual liberty and how we foster opportunities for Americans within our free market system.”
The event will take place at the Maybee Sports Complex on the HLGU campus as part of the university’s spring lecture series. Doors open at 6 p.m., the event begins at 7 p.m.
April 11-12
Student Discipleship Retreats
Where: Streator Baptist Camp
When: Friday 5 p.m.-Saturday 5 p.m.
What: A done-for-you Disciple Now Weekend! The theme and curriculum, “Gravitate,” come from LeaderTreks. For students grade 6-high school.
What: Imagine the impact of 500 Illinois Baptists joining Serve Tour Evansville, Indiana by serving local churches, low-income schools, and other organizations in need of assistance. Projects may include light construction, painting, hosting neighborhood grill walks, and block parties.
see the IBSA calendar for more events. www.ibsa.org/calendar/
MEREDITH FLYNN
Take Another Look
100 years of the Baptist Faith & Message
On the centennial of the SBC’s statement of faith, let’s explore what we believe and take time to reinforce a solid foundation.
Our new series
In 2025 Southern Baptists are celebrating an important anniversary. In addition to the creation of the SBC’s Cooperative Program, the Baptist Faith and Message was also adopted in 1925. At the time, many SBC churches held to the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, but the convention had not created or adopted its own statement. Concerned about the growing rejection of orthodox positions on topics like miracles in the Bible and the resurrection of Jesus, leading SBC voices said it was time to bring clarity to what most Southern Baptists believed about important doctrines.
In the 1925 report of the Committee on Statement of Baptist Faith and Message, E. Y. Mullins, then president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote, “The present occasion for a reaffirmation of Christian fundamentals is the prevalence of naturalism in the modern teaching and preaching of religion. Christianity is supernatural in its origin and history. We repudiate every theory of religion which denies the supernatural elements in our faith.”
Mullins and others took the New Hampshire Confession of Faith and revised it at points, adding articles to meet the theological challenges of their day.
Throughout its 100 years the BF&M
1. The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:710; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19-21.
Download BF&M (2000) from SBC.net
has been revised or amended four times, in 1963, 1998, 2000, and most recently in 2023. As the theological challenges of the day have changed, the convention has continued to clarify the language of the BF&M to meet those challenges.
A century later, Southern Baptists clearly express to the culture, and to each other, that we are not only committed to cooperate for missions and ministry, but that we are also committed to a theologically conservative faith. In recognition of this milestone year, each issue of the Illinois Baptist will feature content highlighting one or more of the BF&M’s 18 articles of faith.
Booklet available from Lifeway
The same, but different
The fact that Article 1 expresses the belief that the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is divinely inspired, true, trustworthy, and reveals God to humans is not uncommon. Many denominations’ statements of faith express this.
There are two emphases that set Article 1 apart as a uniquely Southern Baptist expression of belief in the Scriptures. The first is the level of detail with which it expresses its convictions.
While many confessions convey that the Bible is “inspired by God” or written by “men inspired by God,” the BF&M uses phrases like “perfect treasure of divine instruction” and “truth without any mixture of error for its matter.” In short, the Southern Baptist view is not simply that the Bible contains the words of God, implying that some words it contains are simply the words of men. Article 1 instead expresses in detail that the Bible, every word, is the word of God.
Not leaving logical conclusion to chance, the BF&M also makes sure to state in detail that the divine, perfect nature of Scripture means that the Scripture is “the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.” It is first, in everything.
The fact that the framers of the BF&M decided to place the Scriptures as Article 1, reinforces this belief. While the Christian will learn about the character of God and the way of Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, the first place to learn these things and the standard by which one measures all truth claims is the Bible.
The second emphasis that sets the BF&M apart is its expression of the purpose of Scripture. Other confessions of faith communicate that the Scriptures are “containing all things necessary to salvation.” While this is certainly true, Southern Baptists take that a step further, affirming that the Bible has “salvation for its end” and that “all Scripture is a testimony to
Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”
This belief is rooted in several verses, most notably John 5:39, which reads, “You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me” (CSB).
Why this matters
As Southern Baptists, this level of commitment to the inerrancy, authority, and primacy of the Scriptures should matter to us denominationally. When a church gives through the Cooperative Program, they can be confident that they are supporting seminary professors, sending missionaries, planting churches, helping produce Bible study materials, and putting on youth and children’s camps all rooted in these high views of the Bible. We give with the hope that the next generation of new believers who are made have this same confidence in God’s word.
And second, as Southern Baptists, what Article 1 says about the Scriptures should matter to us personally. The Bible must be our foundation. Looking to anything else first, for what to believe or how to live, would put us on shaky ground. It is our call to know the Scriptures and, in every place within the Scriptures, seek to know Jesus more.
