July 11, 2016 Illinois Baptist

Illinois Baptist

Nathan Carter’s eye-opening trip to the SBC P. 13

POLITICS 2016

Fractured alliances

Evangelicals and the choices they’d rather not make

P. 7

FIRST AMENDMENT

The mosque debate

‘House of Worship’ lawsuits make unexpected allies

P. 5

ESSAY

5 uneasy pieces

Carey Nieuwhof offers responses to cultural turmoil

P. 9

Religious liberty

at the 2016 sbc

Culture shift

Pastor urges ‘yes’ to refugees

St. Louis | Phil Nelson, pastor of Lakeland Baptist Church in Carbondale, came to the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis and brought with him three young men from his church, Dalton Sharrow, Sean Morecraft, and Brandon McNeely. Of all the actions the messengers considered, it was Resolution 12 on assisting refugees that caught their attention.

“We saw the resolutions and we saw what’s going on with the Confederate flag and some

others, and we thought that’s awesome the walls have come down,” Nelson said, “but we need to communicate to the world outside the ports of America that when our government and society is saying, ‘No, don’t come,’ we represent a different Kingdom.”

Together, the four wrote and proposed an amendment to further strengthen the resolution. Their amendment encouraged “Southern Baptist churches and families to welcome and adopt refugees into their churches and homes as a means to demonstrate to the nations that our

How one Illinois church is stopping the return to prison P. 11

NELSON

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

Snapshots from the world of Illinois Baptists

While few religious ‘nones’ say believing in God, reading the Bible, or resting on the Sabbath are essential to being a moral person, most agree that being honest at all times is essential to morality.

– PewForum.org

Christians: Faith essentials

Percent of evangelical Christians who said these traits are essential to what being a Christian means to them:

Culture:

What ‘nones’ value

Percent of religiously unaffiliated people who said these traits are essential to being a moral person:

the cooperative program

Giving by IBSA churches as of 06/28/16 $2,806,067

Budget Goal: $3,028,846

Received to date in 2015: $2,894,618

2016 Goal: $6.3 Million

The Illinois Baptist staff

Editor - Eric Reed

Graphic Designer - Kris Kell

Contributing Editor - Lisa Sergent

Editorial Contributors - Meredith Flynn Morgan Jackson

For questions about subscriptions, articles, or upcoming events, contact the Illinois Baptist at (217) 391-3119 or IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org

The Illinois Baptist is seeking news from IBSA churches. E-mail us at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org to tell us about special events and new ministry staff.

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

NATE ADAMS

The wonderful, average church

The election for President of the Southern Baptist Convention last month understandably attracted a lot of attention. But I was just as intrigued with the election for President of the annual SBC Pastors Conference that took place the day before.

Dave Miller, pastor of a medium-sized church in Sioux City, Iowa, somewhat surprisingly prevailed with 55% of the vote. The Pastors Conference President has traditionally been a megachurch pastor, often from a southern or larger state.

From my perspective, Pastor Miller ran not so much on his personal ministry resume as on a platform of ideas that proposed taking at least the 2017 Pastors Conference in a very new direction. Conference speakers would be only from SBC churches. No one who has spoken at the Pastors Conference in the past five years would speak at the 2017 meeting. Speakers would represent a diversity of geography, age, ethnicity, preaching style, and perspective. And there would be a focus on inviting pastors to speak who lead churches of 500 or fewer.

Not many of these parameters describe the Pastors Conferences of recent years, and the new ideas clearly resonated with a majority of those voting. Pastor Miller was elected, and his response the next day in his SBC Voices blog reminded me a little of the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for.” He wrote, “The budget of this two-day event is pretty much the annual budget of my church…But we are in this together and we are going to be looking to expand our circle.”

While I personally would have been glad for either candidate to lead next year’s Pastors Conference, I can’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction in the ideas that it appears will now influence next year’s program. I too have wondered why the same men sometimes speak in consecutive years of the Pastors Conference, or why speakers aren’t always from SBC churches.

Most of all, as a Midwestern Southern Baptist, I celebrate the idea that there are gifted preachers in small to medium-sized churches, and in churches outside the Deep South, and in churches of diverse cultural settings. The Pastors Conference will benefit from some of these voices, as it has from the gifted communicators who lead many of our megachurches.

After 10 years at IBSA, I still speak in or visit a church for the very first time at least once or twice a month. Many times someone in those churches will say something like, “We didn’t think you would come to a church our size,” or “We waited until our 100th anniversary to invite you because we know you’re so busy.”

I’m always humbled and a little embarrassed by those assumptions. So I want to say again that IBSA and I personally truly desire to serve and assist each and every local church we can, regardless of size, location, ethnicity, or age. Especially if I’ve never been there, I would love to come to your church, to get to know your church family, and to listen to your pastor or give him a week off, whatever serves the church best.

The average Southern Baptist church in Illinois had about 80 in worship last year. Across the SBC, the average was around 110. It may be that larger churches tend to have more full-time pastors and more practiced and polished preachers. But the ones I’ve been learning from all my life lead these wonderful, average churches. I’m glad a pastor from western Iowa reminded us that pastors from these churches have a lot to offer. And I’d love to come and worship in yours sometime soon.

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

I’m glad we are reminded that these churches have a lot to offer.

Abortion ruling makes access easier

Split opinion shows importance of future High Court nominees

Recent actions affecting ‘freedom of conscience’

Mississippi marriage clerks

A federal judge ruled June 27 county clerks in Mississippi cannot cite their religious beliefs as a reason to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The ruling prevents the state from enforcing HB 1523, the “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act.” The bill was passed in response to last summer’s Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.

Illinois doctors

Washington, D.C. | Abortion advocates celebrated in June when the U.S. Supreme Court released its 5-3 opinion striking down a Texas law which held abortion clinics to a higher standard of care. The New York Times hailed it as the “most significant victory in a generation for a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.”

Reaction from pro-life advocates was swift. Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said, “We lament another legal victory for the abortion lobby, coming at the expense of children, women, and families. Keeping abortion providers accountable should not be a political wedge issue. This ruling is further proof how much more work the pro-life movement has to do in the cause of life and human dignity.”

The Supreme Court ruled in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt that the Texas law placed an “undue burden” on a woman’s “constitutional right” to have an abortion. The law had required abortion clinics to meet the same health and safety regulations as other outpatient surgical centers, and for its physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within a 30-mile radius of the clinic.

Using the phrase “wrong side of” that has become popular with progressives, Moore wrote in his June 27 blog post, “The Supreme Court today has taken a stand on the wrong side of justice, the wrong side of human dignity, and the wrong side of the gospel.”

In his June 28 podcast Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, condemned the culture that led to the ruling. “Abortion is so absolutely central to the sexual revolution-

aries and to the moral revolution around us, because if abortion were to be found in any way to be morally wrong, the entire edifice of their moral revolution would fall apart,” he said.

He also cautioned evangelicals on the Court’s creation of constitutional rights.

“The invention of what was declared to be a woman’s right to choose abortion in 1973 in the Roe decision set the stage just a year ago for the Court to invent yet another right, and that is the right for two people of the same gender to marry….Once you begin inventing rights, rights are whatever you decide to invent.”

Before the law was enacted there were 41 abortion clinics in Texas; since then, that number has dropped to 19. The ruling affects 13 other states with similar laws in place.

For many on both sides of the issue, the ruling highlighted the importance of the coming U.S. presidential election, with the possible replacement of up to five justices by the next president. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, immediately called the decision “a victory for women in Texas and across America.”

The evangelical advisory board for Republican Donald Trump released a statement:

“In an unprecedented meeting last week with American Christian leaders, Donald J. Trump promised to only appoint pro-life justices. We commend him and pray that the tragedy of today’s ruling will not be repeated in subsequent administrations.” Trump himself has not made any comment on the high court’s ruling, to the chagrin of many evangelicals.

A bill awaiting Governor Bruce Rauner’s signature would require medical professionals, regardless of their religious beliefs, to refer patients for procedures such as abortion, sterilization, and some end-of-life protocols. Prior to the end of the spring session, Illinois state lawmakers passed SB 1564, which amends the Health Care Right of Conscience Act.

Washington pharmacists

The U.S. Supreme Court announced June 28 it would not consider an appeal by pro-life pharmacists of a lower court decision requiring them to dispense abortion causing drugs. They argued the requirement violates their First Amendment rights for the free exercise of religion. The justices’ refusal to review the federal appeals court opinion apparently will force the closure of Christian family-owned Ralph’s Thriftway Pharmacy in Olympia, Washington, and the departure from the profession or state of the other pharmacists in the case.

Three justices dissented, describing it as “an ominous sign.” “If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern,” Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote on behalf of the dissenters.

– Slate.com, Illinois Family Institute, Baptist Press

Lake County aids Hungary Association

“It’s a different kind of hardship we face when it comes to religion today,” Gyuri Varga said on a visit to Illinois. Varga is a pastor in Hungary. After 17 years with CRU (Crusade for Christ) in his country, Varga started Erdligeti Bible Fellowship Church in 2003. He is a leader in the Hungary Baptist denomination.

“Generally speaking, we have freedom of religion in Hungary since the fall of communism,” he said, “but the society is more secular, so there is a, uh, putting away of religion or discussion about belief in God.”

The Hungarian Baptist group formed a three-year partnership with Illinois’ Lake County Baptist Association. They will trade mission teams to assist evangelistic outreach and children’s camps.

Varga came to faith in Christ in 1984 while he was in college. At that time the Christian church was underground. When the Soviet government fell, religious freedom came quickly to Hungary, but the pastor says at that time the church was weak and poorly equipped to handle a surge of interest of Christianity. That interest quickly declined, he said, but “I think we have a new opportunity coming to us, to stand up and voice the gospel.”

From the front: Refugee resolution

Continued from page 1

After 25 years, the Hungarian people are experiencing a new kind of dissatisfaction that political freedom isn’t “fulfilling all their hopes and dream—people are still sinners. The church needs to share Christ with them and to bless our community and our nation,” he said. Visiting the U.S., Varga observed, “Our cultures spiritually are more similar than we thought earlier.”

Richard Brummit and his wife first served as volunteers in a school in Hungary in 2013, teaching English to enthusiastic students, he said. That mission trip was arranged by an International Mission Board missionary. Since then, Brummit, a member of New Song Church in Zion, has led establishment of the partnership with Lake County Association.

“After I retired, my wife and I wanted to serve in some missions. We’re already involved in Disaster Relief, and we wanted to expand our service,” Brummit said. “We saw this project on the IMB site, and eventually felt God leading us to a longer partnership with Pastor Varga’s church and Hungarian Baptists.”

Varga says people in Hungary are becoming aware of Baptist work. There are about 12,000 members in 300 churches. Of the partnership, Varga said, “It feels like God is pulling his people together for something great.”

God longs for every tribe, tongue, and nation to be welcomed at His Throne…”

According to the resolution, the world is currently experiencing its largest refugee crisis since WWII with more than 60 million people displaced. The majority of these refugees come from the Middle East and Africa and are Muslim. The movement of more than 350,000 Syrians into Europe has been especially problematic.

President Barack Obama pledged to bring 85,000 refugees to the United States last September, with 10,000 coming from Syria. Some Southern Baptists spoke to the migration at the time, but couldn’t take up the issue as a body until the annual meeting held in June.

“Resolution 12: On Refugee Ministry” acknowledged the suffering refugees endure and Baptists’ historical role in refugee care, calling upon Baptists to “minister care, compassion, and the Gospel to refugees who come to the United States.”

The resolution also called on the government to “implement the strictest security measures possible in the refugee screening and selection process.”

Refugee care is already part of missionsminded ministry in some churches. Members of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia, pastored by former SBC president Bryant Wright, have been hosting Syrian refugee families. “It was just so heartbreaking to see the humanitarian disaster that is occurring because of the war in Syria,” Wright told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Knowing the United States was going to be taking on more Syrian refugees, we just wanted to be stepping up to minister with the love of Christ to these folks who have often lost everything.”

Shortly after the amended resolution was approved, Nelson told the Illinois Baptist, “Our citizenship is in a different place. We want to communicate clearly we belong to a different Kingdom. It’s not an American Kingdom, it’s the Kingdom of God. We want to tell all those who are orphans and refu-

gees, you’re welcome here. I don’t care what religion, what background, you’re welcome because we believe the gospel can rescue and save everyone.

“When we first heard David Platt give his story about the refugee issues in Somalia and Syria and other places, I couldn’t stop weeping,” Nelson said, his voice breaking. “I started seeing the kids that had no place to go. All of a sudden I thought, we have 46,000 Southern Baptist churches, what would happen if each one of those churches said we’ll take a refugee. We’ll take a family.”

Nelson shared how another Southern Baptist pastor was part of their inspiration. As they were writing the amendment, a friend of Nelson’s who is originally from India stopped to say hello. The friend, now a pastor in South Carolina, “came over here in 1990 as a Hindu, had his gods in a suitcase.”

“A Baptist family that adopted him,” Nelson explained, “let him come and live with them, where he saw the gospel lived out, and as a result gave up his Hindu background, gave up his Hindu gods. Now he’s going back to India every year planting churches.

“I thought if we’re going to reach the nations, and we’re going to convince the world that the gospel is for everybody, we’ve got to set the standard and say, ‘Y’all come.’”

GENESIS – Brandon McNeely (left), Sean Morecraft, Phil Nelson, and Dalton Sharrow of Lakeland Baptist Church in Carbondale created an amendment to the Resolution on Refugees at the 2016 convention in St. Louis.

EXODUS – Syrian refugees huddled in the Keleti railway station in Budapest, Hungary, in September 2015, enroute to Germany where many hoped to find permanent shelter.

WHIRLWIND TOUR – Pastor Gyuri Varga of Erdliget, Hungary (second from left) visited the IBSA building with Richard Brummit of Zion. The two men have established a mission partnership with the Lake County Baptist Association.

Baptists defend Muslim rights

First Amendment case makes for unusual, uncomfortable allies

BY LISA SERGENT

The 2016 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting has been hailed for its show of unity on race, the Confederate flag, and election of the SBC president, but messengers were not in agreement on all issues.

Most obvious: Should Southern Baptists support Muslims’ rights to build mosques?

Two messengers made motions opposing the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s submitting a friend of the court brief in support of a federal lawsuit by the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, N.J. (The Muslim group was denied a building permit by the town’s planning board.) One of the messengers later challenged ERLC President Russell Moore on the issue when Moore delivered his report.

Moore’s response was succinct: “What it means to be a Baptist is to support soul freedom for everybody,” he said.

“When you have a government that says, ‘We can decide whether or not a house of worship is being constructed based upon the theological beliefs of that house of worship,’ then there are going to be Southern Baptist churches in San Francisco and New York and throughout this country who are not going to be able to build,” Moore said.

The ERLC’s amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief, he said, was not about building mosques, but about upholding the right to religious freedom. The gospel—not just selfinterest—is at stake, Moore told messengers.

Scholars weigh-in

A few days prior to the June 14-15 convention, three Southern Baptist academics issued an open letter supporting the ERLC’s brief. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Provost Jason Duesing, Cedarville University President Thomas White, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Malcolm Yarnell wrote a response to a Georgia Christian Index editorial that condemned the brief.

Their letter read, “For Christian Americans to question whether Muslim Americans qualify for religious freedom is essentially a question about whether all Americans are under the protection of the first and fourteenth amendments. We believe that all Americans, including Muslims, are granted, as an inalienable human right, the freedom of conscience to worship God as they believe best…

“We understand that granting such rights to some forms of Islam might one day lead to the threatening of Christians in our worship,” the professors conceded, “however, we trust God will honor our faithfulness to proclaim and practice his Word for his glory and to the best of our ability.”

Moore questions

John Wofford, pastor of Armorel Baptist Church in Blytheville, Ark. is the messenger who questioned Moore. The question he posed was, “Do you actually believe that if

Jesus Christ were here today that he would support this and that he would stand up and say, ‘Well, let us protect the rights of those Baal worshipers to erect temples to Baal?’ Do you believe that, Dr. Moore?”

In his answer, Moore said, “A government with ‘the power to outlaw people from assembling together’ is a threat to all. Forcing people into confessing their beliefs does not turn people into Christians. That turns people into pretend Christians, and it sends them straight to hell.

“The answer to Islam is not government power. The answer is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the new birth that comes from that.”

Islam in the U.S. Small but growing

109 mosques in Illinois, the vast majority in metro Chicago

2,100+ mosques in the United States

3.3 million Muslims live in the U.S., or about 1% of the population. That number is projected to grow to 8.1 million people, or 2.1% of the total population, by 2050.

– The Hartford Institute, Pew Research

A few days later, Woodford submitted a response to Moore via the the Arkansas Baptist newspaper. He acknowledged, “The freedom of religion as granted by our civil government applies to all faiths. But, the issue I was addressing with Dr. Moore was not a civil government issue. Rather, it was a spiritual issue.”

Since the annual meeting, Wofford said, “I have been called by some a ‘bigot’ and a ‘racist.’ It has been said I am a ‘fearful hater’ who wants to ‘deny men their religious freedoms.’ This is simply not true. I hate no one, nor do I fear any man—only God.”

Wofford said his concern is investing “efforts or money in helping [Muslims] to erect places of false worship which keeps them under condemnation and invalidates my witness of the One True God.”

– with info from Baptist Press, USA Today, The Becket Fund, and Arkansas Baptist

Evangelicals and ‘Brexit’

Although American evangelicals may think the U.K.’s exit from the European Union has little significance for them, Southeastern Seminary professor Bruce Ashford says the opposite is true. “It is no secret that the surprises of the 2016 election cycle are caused in no small part by concerns about globalization, free trade, and immigration,” he noted. Evangelicals must respond, Ashford said. “If we do not, we will be pouring gasoline on the fire of populist anger and passing up an evangelical opportunity to love our (populist) neighbor by helping find solutions to his very real problems.”

Hostility down, terror up

From some angles, it looks like the beginning of a hopeful trend among the steady stream of persecution headlines. Both government and societal harassment of religion dropped worldwide in 2014, according to a new Pew Research Center study. Overall, religious restrictions were high in 34% of the 198 countries and self-governing territories in 2014, down from 39% in 2013 and 43% in 2012. About half of the countries (51%) saw decreases in government restrictions, while about a third (36%) saw increases.

However, more countries had “religion-related terrorist activity” (82, up from 73), including injuries or deaths (60, up from 51).

Is Illinois unpatriotic?

Illinois ranks 46th out of 50 states in its level of patriotism.

The WalletHub survey is based half on military engagement and half on civic engagement. Virginia ranks number one, followed by Alaska, South Carolina, Colorado, and Georgia. Illinois is at the bottom with Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

Illinois had lower military enlistment in 2014 and fewer veterans per capita than 45 other states. Another measurement considered as “civic engagement” is the frequency of Google searches for the American flag.

– BruceAshford.com, Christianity Today, Washington Post

Get breaking news in The Briefing online, posted every Tuesday at www.ib2news.org.

Freedom, dangerous and endangered

The great experiment in democracy is in trouble.

We have only to look at the presidential election to see the truth in that statement. Apparently anyone can become president.

It is hardly believable that same-sex marriage was legalized in the U.S. only one year ago. In the brief time since, the moral ground beneath us has shifted with the force of tectonic plates in quake.

On Broadway, the most popular show lauds our founding fathers (who, little did we know, were hip-hop artists!). But the freedom today’s culture celebrates is license, not liberty. In a few short decades the nation has abandoned the very principles on which it was founded.

Our founding fathers established this nation with a few basic understandings: individual rights are derived from a Creator and our civil laws are based on “the laws of nature and Nature’s God.” The great experiment in American democracy is also built on the presumption of an educated electorate, culture with a conscience, and society with a solid moral foundation. Tocqueville observed that in a democratic republic, education about the constitution and morality must remain inseparable.

Yes, our founders were sinners: ambitious, schemers, slaveholders, adulterers. But

knowing the wickedness of the human heart, they crafted a system they hoped would hold those wills and ills in check. They held high the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and more specifically, the basic freedoms of religion, the press, peaceable assembly, and the redress of grievances against the government.

Good luck with that. We can’t even get the Social Security Administration to answer the phone without a three-month appointment. Congress is in gridlock, the Supreme Court issues endless rulings irrespective of morality, and the Administration makes edicts that endanger the psychosexual wellbeing of our children—all in the name of freedom. All in violation of basic common sense.

Not since William Wallace painted his face blue and led his native Scotland to a rousing victory over England has the world so needed someone to raise his fist and shout “freedom!” But it’s not freedom to have our own way that we need. What America needs is a fresh understanding that true freedom is liberty to be and do what God intends. Freedom that truly respects human dignity doesn’t allow people to destroy themselves and the nation by liberty gone wild. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. The rest is just illusion.

—1 PETER 2:16—

It’s our right Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievance.

IN FOCUS

Fractured alliances

BY MEREDITH FLYNN

With the national conventions for both major American political parties just days away and the nominees all but a foregone conclusion, the only remaining question is how voters in November will react to this most unusual presidential election.

Christian voters in particular have yet to coalesce behind either candidate, although a June meeting between presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and nearly 1,000 evangelicals signaled things may be changing, at least for some conservative leaders.

And Trump’s announcement of an evangelical advisory committee, including several Southern Baptists,

reverberated around the Twitter-sphere, shaking the unified front Baptists had shown just days before at the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis.

The divide is growing between conservatives who support Trump over Hillary Clinton’s liberal ideals, and those who say they won’t vote for the businessmanturned-reality TV star with a penchant for saying whatever is on his mind. Along with the differences among Christians, some pundits see a growing split between the traditional “religious right” and the Republican party.

Continued on page 8

ON THE COVER: LONG MAY SHE WAVE

Scott LoBaido, “the Patriot Artist,” painted a flag mural on a VFW post in each of the 50 states in 2015. The flag on the front page and on page 9 is on Staten Island.

ScottLobaido.com

As the national political conventions approach, it’s time for evangelicals to decide. For some, it’s a choice they’d rather not make.

Trump’s SBC advisors

Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory committee includes at least eight Southern Baptists:

Ronnie Floyd

Pastor, Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas; Past President, Southern Baptist Convention

On the process: Floyd blogged June 27 that he wants to model how the prophet Daniel and evangelist Billy Graham interacted with political leaders, “rather than sitting on the sideline, critiquing every political candidate and anyone whom God would raise up to influence them.”

Jack Graham

Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano

On voting: Graham wrote on FoxNews.com that he can vote for Trump because of his positions on Supreme Court nominees, the sanctity of life, and religious liberty.

Jerry Falwell, Jr.

President, Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va.

On the candidate: Falwell endorsed the candidate in January, calling Trump “a successful executive and entrepreneur, a wonderful father and a man who I believe can lead our country to greatness again.”

Robert Jeffress

Pastor, First Baptist Church, Dallas

On faith: “Mr. Trump’s faith is very impor tant to him but it’s also very personal to him. And I think what evangelical Christians need to know is that if Donald Trump is elected president, evangelicals will have a true friend in the White House.” (BP)

David Jeremiah

Pastor, Shadow Mountain Community Church, El Cajon, Ca.

On Christian values: Jeremiah joined religious leaders who prayed with Trump last fall. The pastor’s Facebook page said he was involved because he “cares deeply about standing up for Christian values.”

Richard Land

Past President, SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

On the advisory group: “It is our duty to speak biblical truth to Mr. Trump. It is his responsibility as to how Mr. Trump responds to our counsel and advice.” (Christian Post)

James MacDonald

Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel, Chicagoland

On the meeting: Following the June 21 meeting, MacDonald posted on Instagram, “Loved the way the gospel and concerns of Christ followers were shared with him and how he listened.”

Jay Strack

President, Student Leadership University; Past President, Southern Baptist Evangelists

On leadership: Christianity Today noted Strack has said little publicly about Trump, but pointed to a January tweet quoting leadership expert John Maxwell: “Let’s vote for someone who can win. ‘A leader has followers; if not, you’re just a man or a woman taking a walk.’”

Continued from page 7

“In the coming weeks, we are going to be learning a great deal more about the presidential candidates,” forecasted Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler in a recent edition of his Briefing podcast. “But it’s also increasingly true that we’re going to be learning a great deal about ourselves as evangelical Christians in America.

“Perhaps we’d better brace ourselves for what we’re going to learn.”

Meeting the Donald

On June 20, Donald Trump met in New York City with nearly 1,000 Christian leaders, including immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention Ronnie Floyd and newly elected president Steve Gaines, along with several other Southern Baptists.

The gathering, emceed by former Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, included a Q&A time with Trump, who has won over conservative voters in the primaries even as Christian leaders have decried his volatile speaking style and confession last year that he wasn’t sure he had ever asked God for forgiveness of his sins.

Following the meeting, Trump named a 25-member evangelical advisory board, which includes Floyd and at least seven fellow Southern Baptists (see sidebar). Floyd is among the members of the board who say their participation doesn’t constitute an endorsement of the candidate, rather “as an avenue to voice what matters to evangelicals,” he told The Christian Post.

Floyd also cited several key issues that compelled him to participate on Trump’s advisory board, including Supreme Court appointments, the sanctity of human life, religious liberty, Israel and the Middle East, and racial tension.

But many Christian and conservative leaders took issue with the meeting and the participation of those appointed to the advisory board. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and a recent Trump target on Twitter, took on the seeming divide between Trump’s public persona and his coziness with evangelicals:

“If you wondered why younger, theological, gospel-centered evangelicals reacted (negatively) to the old guard Religious Right, well, now you know,” Moore tweeted June 21, following up with, “If character matters then character matters.”

Moore wasn’t the only voice to question the authenticity of Trump’s relationship with Christians. Writing for The Federalist online, film critic Rebecca Cusey described reading through the meeting transcript, “thinking maybe Trump might exhibit some charm, some thoughtfulness in a smaller setting that is lost on the large stage, something that would explain why people who profess to believe in Jesus would be so taken in by Trump.

“Sadly, no. The transcript is shocking in its pandering: of Trump to evangelicals, yes— we expected that—but also in their pandering to Trump.”

Floyd acknowledged the widespread criticism, blogging a few days after the meeting

that his short time out of the office of SBC president had been in some ways more difficult than leading the denomination for two years. He listed several Bible characters who had opportunity to speak into the lives of national leaders, including Old Testament prophet Daniel.

“What if Daniel had refused to acknowledge King Nebuchadnezzar and acted like he was too righteous to relate to him?” Floyd asked.

Similarly, Richard Land, who preceded Moore as president of the ERLC, asked critics of the Trump meeting what they would have the advisory team do instead of participate when asked.

“Would they really have us spurn the opportunity to give spiritual counsel and advice to Mr. Trump and his team?” Land wrote in a column for The Christian Post. “How would that be obedience to our Saviour’s command to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world?”

Weighing other options

Some evangelicals are looking to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as an alternative to Trump, in spite of her policies on abortion and LGBT issues that run counter to traditionally-held conservative views.

Thabiti Anyabwile, in a column for The Gospel Coalition, said in May he planned, for the time being, to vote for Clinton. “…However we might evaluate her as a leader or her platform as a vision for America, we could say more or less the exact same things about Trump—with one glaring exception,” wrote Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church in Washington, D.C.

“We have no way of predicting Trump’s behavior from one hour to the next. None. Except to predict that the behavior will be vile and repulsive for any person who cares about civility, truth, and the dignity of the office.”

Deborah Fikes, executive advisor to the World Evangelical Alliance, gave Clinton her endorsement in June, saying of Trump, “…I worry that allowing religious and ethnic intolerance here in America will undermine our ability to have a prayer of fighting it around the world.”

Still, Trump has branded himself as the candidate most invested in religious liberty and other Christian concerns. So far, a majority of voters agree: A June poll by CBS found Trump leads Clinton among evangelical voters by a margin of 62% to 17%.

However, as Religion News Service’s analysis of the poll pointed out, Trump’s 62% is lower than the percentage of white evangelical voters who favored George Bush (79%), John McCain (73%) and Mitt Romney (79%) in the last three elections.

Gallup polling from May found the two candidates neck and neck among those who identify as “Protestant” or “Other Christian”—36% had a favorable opinion of Clinton, and 38% had a favorable opinion of Trump. Both candidates’ numbers were slightly lower among the “Highly religious”—35% for Clinton and 37% for Trump.

For those voters who don’t foresee an appealing option for November, Christian and

– Fox News poll, June 29

conservative leaders have floated other ideas, including third-party candidates, write-in voting, and abstention. Alan Noble, a professor at Oklahoma Baptist University, wrote for Vox that “unless a third-party candidate with broad appeal emerges, evangelical Christians would be better served by abstaining from that vote and shifting their energy toward electing people to Congress and local and state governments who have the opportunity to restrain whichever candidate is elected as needed.”

But many Christian leaders have been vocal about getting out the vote, even for candidates that are less than ideal. On his tour of state capitals, evangelist Franklin Graham has urged Christians to vote, but hasn’t endorsed specific candidates. Graham has instead warned against inactivity, citing a statistic that reports 20 million evangelicals did not vote in the 2012 presidential election.

In Springfield, Graham told several thousand gathered in front of the Capitol, “Our job as Christians is to make Christ felt in every [area] of life—religious, social, economic, political.”

Keep the lines open

No matter who believers support in the election, said Wheaton College’s Ed Stetzer, the rhetorical tone should be loving.

“In years past, I generally had to encourage evangelicals to avoid scorning fellow evangelicals who voted Democrat. Now, perhaps we need exhortation to avoid scorning those who vote for Donald Trump….Rather than looking down with scorn on evangeli-

cal Trump supporters, perhaps we should sit down with them, listen to them, and hear their concerns.”

Mohler prescribed similar action in his June 22 podcast, urging Christians to think through the issues at hand.

“In this difficult political season, evangelicals must not demonize one another as to how we’re thinking through these issues, but I must plead with all evangelicals that we must indeed think through these issues carefully and faithfully, and think very biblically and candidly.”

To fail to remember oneness in Christ and fall instead into factions and camps could result in a loss of the unity achieved during the recent Southern Baptist Convention, wrote Pastor Ted Traylor following the meeting with Trump, which he attended. At the June 14-15 convention in St. Louis, Baptists united around one presidential candidate, Steve Gaines, after another, J.D. Greear, bowed out prior to a second run-off election.

Now, as Baptists consider another election, Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., advised them to think carefully in a blog post titled, “What I learned from a conversation with Donald Trump.”

“There has been much vitriol on social media about the Trump meeting within the tribe of Southern Baptists. We left our convention last week in unity. Demonizing each other over secular politics will quickly destroy what we saw and hailed as God-given unity. We are in the Gospel business.

“However, as we render to Caesar what is his we must be wise, kind and discerning.”

Uneasy choices

How do we respond to the rapidly changing moral culture?

BY CAREY NIEUWHOF

Ever feel like the world you stepped into when you began in ministry no longer exists? You’re not alone. The culture around us is changing.

You can debate when the collapse of Christendom in the West began, but there is little doubt we are witnessing a massive shift away from the cultural consensus that existed even a few generations ago.

So as a church leader—as views on sexuality, family, parenting, drugs, finance and other values change— how do you respond? What do you do when the world for which you trained—maybe even the world where your approach was once effective—is disappearing before your eyes?

What’s the key to responding when the world around you no longer shares your value system, pays much attention to you, or thinks you add anything to the cultural mix?

I see at least five approaches emerging, some that are helpful and some that aren’t.

1. Be oblivious to culture

Some churches appear to be oblivious to culture. Walk into a church like this, and you won’t be able to tell whether it’s 2016, 1996 or 1966 for that matter. The sermons are theoretical and not at all practical, nor do they engage the realities of the world people inevitably will walk back into Monday morning.

The music is remarkably stale and sounds like nothing you’d hear anywhere else. No one looks like they would be comfortable visiting a trendy local restaurant. It’s the same old, same old, and this church seems old. This approach produces irrelevance.

2. Hide from culture

Unlike churches that are indifferent to the culture, churches that hide from the culture are aware of what’s going on around them. But they’re scared. Really scared.

So they hide.

You’ll hear Christians in this camp vow to never do anything ‘secular.’ Sometimes Christians set up their own networks as a safe cocoon from others. They live on GodTube and Faithbook. They have “Christian” alternatives to everything you can think of.

This approach stifles the mission of the church. Effectively it’s a retreat and runs counter from the church’s mission to advance. As a result, many in this camp don’t actually know any non-Christians. You can’t reach the world you don’t know, understand, or love.

3.

Slam the culture

This has become a very popular approach over the last few decades, perhaps peaking when the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. last year.

I continue to be baffled as to why Christians insist non-Christians adopt our moral views. Why on earth would Christians expect non-Christians to act like Christians when…they’re not Christians? If you want to keep being ineffective at reaching unchurched people, keep judging them.

Continued on page 10

Clinton leads Trump 44% to 38% among registered voters, but among white evangelicals, Trump leads by 48 points.

Having a government that doesn’t embrace the church’s values line for line actually puts Christians in some great company—the company of the earliest followers of Jesus. He spent zero time asking the government to change during his ministry. In fact, people asked him to become the government, and he replied that his Kingdom is not of this world.

The Apostle Paul appeared before government officials regularly. Not once did he ask them to change the laws of the land. He did, however, invite government officials to have Jesus personally change them. Paul constantly suffered at the hands of the authorities, ultimately dying under their power, but like Jesus, he didn’t look to them for change.

None of us in the West are suffering nearly as radically as Jesus and Paul suffered at the hands of a government. In fact, in Canada and the U.S., our government protects our freedom to assemble and even disagree with others. Plus, it gives us tax breaks for donations.

We honestly don’t have it that hard.

4. Embrace people and offer an alternative

Of all the approaches I’ve noticed, this is the most encouraging in my view. And it’s the one I also try to embrace.

In an age when so many churches push away people they don’t agree with, the field is ripe for Christians willing to embrace their neighbors. To actually love them. Kind of like Jesus told us to.

Does that mean we have to agree with everything they do? Of course not.

But the church is uniquely positioned to offer a radically beautiful alternative to the culture in so many key issues, like our sexuality, how we handle our money, what we do with our bodies, and in basic disciplines like confession and self-control.

When culture truly becomes post-Christian (as it has in Canada, where I live), it’s often not that people are rejecting Christian teachings, it’s that they don’t even know what those teachings are. And they’re surprisingly open to Christianity if the Christians they meet are loving and generous people.

Many are open to a new way to live.

Here are just a few alternatives core to Christianity providing an intriguing counter-cultural viewpoint:

• In an age where sex is anything you want it to be, Christianity teaches that sex is sacred and that we value the who far more than the what, which changes the what and the how.

• In a culture where greed and debt have become the norm, Christ-followers can model and teach generosity and life that isn’t measured by what we accumulate. Teaching young families to save and give is truly countercultural these days, and deeply biblical.

“We’re all ministers of the gospel and of the Word and of Jesus Christ. So it is imperative, I think, that we acquire the tools and the knowledge for a lifetime of ministry ahead.”

ELIZABETH YAO-HWA SUNG ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

• In an era when the family is morphing and even fragmenting before our eyes, Christians can offer support and mentor kids and teens and extend friendship and tangible support to parents and adults who are alone.

Do you see the pattern? There are so many other areas where we can embrace people who are different than we are and humbly come alongside to help.

5. Use the culture to reach the culture

The culture around us isn’t the only culture around. Your church has a culture too. And it can be a bridge or a barrier to reaching people.

From the outset, I’ve believed the most effective strategy we can follow is to adapt our culture within the church so it becomes a bridge to the culture around us and not a barrier.

It’s time for churches to cut the weird, the irrelevant, and the ineffective. Our mission is too important. When you adapt your music and your communication style to make your church accessible to the unchurched, you don’t necessarily water down a thing. You simply make what you’re sharing accessible and understandable.

If you want to make your church more effective, use the culture to reach the culture.

Carey Nieuwhof is founding pastor of Connexus Church and author of several books, including his latest best-selling work, Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow. Connect with him at CareyNieuwhof.com where he blogs about leadership, change and personal growth, and hosts his popular weekly leadership podcast.

TEDS faculty are gifted men and women who represent a wide spectrum of international backgrounds, church and ministry involvements, and evangelical theological positions, but they are united around the centrality of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. They minister as much through research and writing as through local church involvement, but their primary ministry is teaching and caring for our students.

“You can’t reach the world you don’t know, understand, or love.”

NIEUWHOF

MISSION

Ending the cycle

Herrin church wants to keep former prisoners out of jail—and on the road to recovery.

BY ERIC REED AND MORGAN JACKSON

Herrin | “Pastor Hurricane! Pastor Hurricane! Me next!” a 9-year-old redhead shouts.

“That’s not his name, Dominic! That’s his church,” the boy’s mother chides. “He’s Pastor Gee.”

“Me, me, Pastor Gee!” Dominic chants. He wants his turn on the bicycle training path.

On this warm day behind the Herrin House of Hope soup kitchen and thrift shop, Pastor Jeffrey Gee of Hurricane Memorial Baptist Church and several volunteers are teaching children bike safety, complete with helmets and a course lined with orange traffic cones. The bikes they are riding are second-hand, but they have been completely repaired and spruced up in the church’s bike shop. It’s all part of Gee’s plan to keep the kids out of trouble, and at the same time teach former convicts a trade to keep them from returning to prison.

By Gee’s calculations, a fourth of Herrin’s population “has been in jail for at least one day,” said Gee, “many for a year or two.” That’s believable in a state that has 45,000 people in prison right now. This fact led the Hurricane church to start a “re-entry ministry” five years ago. Today their outreach to former prisoners includes a 12-step program, gardens, housing, and their ever-expanding bicycle shop.

World of wheels

The basement under the sanctuary of Hurricane Memorial is packed with bicycles, a hundred or more in rows and rows. Gee buys them at police auction—stolen and broken bikes that can’t be reunited with their owners—and brings them to the workshop. On this day, new repairman Gene has one turned upside down on a worktable. In his 50s, Gene is one of four men

Continued on page 12

Reintegrating into society is difficult for many newly released prisoners. More than half go back to jail. Pastor Jeffrey Gee and Hurricane Memorial Baptist Church want to give them a fresh start with job skills, a purpose, and a place in the community.

PHOTO: SETTING CAPTIVES FREE

Prison ministry

Big challenges for outreach to inmates

Nashville, Tenn. | While most Protestant pastors visit correctional facilities and want to help prisoners and their families, their churches often lack the training or finances to run an effective prison ministry. Those are among the findings of a new survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors from LifeWay Research.

Researchers found widespread support among pastors for the idea of prison ministry: 83% of pastors have visited a correctional facility. And nearly all believe churches should help families of those incarcerated (97%) and provide care for those getting out of jail (95%).

But, about a third of pastors (31%) say no former inmates attend their church. “When half the pastors haven’t had someone from their church sent to jail, then prison ministry isn’t on their ministry radar,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

The report comes at a time when incarceration rates in the United States remain at record levels. More than 2.2 million Americans are held in state and federal prisons or local jails, according to the Institute for Criminal Policy Research. That’s more than in any other nation in the world.

Continued from page 11

recently released from prison who live in the church’s former parsonage, and who work on the bikes.

Hurricane Memorial has a big vision for Gene and others like him. The pastor characterizes his congregation as a neighborhood church. With 80 members, “we’re really just a small church,” he went on, “but we do a lot.”

“When I first encountered what Hurricane Memorial has done under Pastor Gee’s leadership, I was struck at how much ministry to the community they were doing as a small church,” said Stephen Williams, one of IBSA’s zone consultants for Southern Illinois. It doesn’t take a big church to have a big impact.

The parsonage serves as a halfway house, giving the people who stay there time to get re-integrated into society. With the bike shop, as well as an organic garden and greenhouse, there is no shortage of work to be done.

The bike program allows volunteer workers to prove that they can show up for work faithfully. They earn a reference in order to get a paying job. And they can choose and fix their own bicycle, a means of transportation to a future job.

The road to recovery

Keeping these men from returning to prison is a considerable challenge. In Illinois, 51.7% of former inmates are sentenced for later offenses and are back in jail within three years—higher than the national average. A Pew Research study shows if Illinois could cut its recidivism (return) rate by 10%, the state would save $40 million. More important, lives would be changed.

Gee and Hurricane Memorial Church are doing their part.

started by pastor Rick Warren and Saddleback Community Church in California with chapters in local churches.

In May, Gee led “Celebrate Recovery Sunday,” conducting the morning service as if it were any other C.R. night. The aim was to get the church members on board with the ministry, and to let them see how beneficial it can be for people struggling with addictions. For this small congregation, “Pastor Hurricane” continues stirring up a whirlwind of ministry activity.

Faithful volunteers are key Karen Swanson, director of the Institute for Prison Ministries at Wheaton College, said pastors often don’t know how to start ministering to inmates. Other ministries, like distributing school supplies to kids or volunteering at a food pantry, are relatively easy to start. But ministering to inmates and their families is more difficult, she said, requiring special training and often a long-term commitment from volunteers.

Money is an issue as well. Half of pastors (48%) say a lack of finances is a barrier to ministry. A recent report from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability found donations to prison ministries declined 6% from 2011 to 2014.

Swanson hopes more pastors will consider getting their churches involved in prison ministry. They may be surprised, she noted, to find the ministry hits close to home. “The mission field is in your backyard,” she said. “Almost every county has a jail. And almost all prisoners are going to return home.”

“These are messy, long-term ministries,” McConnel advised. “You really have to demonstrate biblical faithfulness to be involved with them. It’s a lot easier to pick a ministry where there are quick rewards, but you would miss out on the opportunity to impact families and communities.”

The study was sponsored by the Institute for Prison Ministries, Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, Wheaton College; Correctional Ministries and Chaplains Association, Assemblies of God; and the Crossroad Bible Institute.

– By Bob Smietana, LifeWay Research

In addition to teaching work skills, the church offers a group meeting to help people stay clean and sober. Their Celebrate Recovery ministry offers a place to find biblical truth and community with those facing similar struggles. The 12-step program geared towards all “hurts, habits, and hangups” is based on principles from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It’s a national ministry

In just over a year, the bike team has repaired and distributed over 100 bicycles free of charge. Gee hopes to open another shop in Marion about 12 miles away, making more bicycles available to kids and to adults who need transportation to work. “If you see an adult riding a bike around Herrin or Marion,” Gee said, “it’s probably one of ours.”

FREE WHEELIN’ – Pastor Jeffrey Gee (above, left) looks on as recently released inmate Gene works on a bike at the Hurricane Memorial church’s workshop. (Below) Another worker, David, helps a girl with her helmet at a bike safety class.

Five top barriers churches face in expanding prison ministry:

The sinking sand of cultural Christianity

I did not grow up a Southern Baptist. In fact, I only stumbled into the denomination 12 years ago. But every year I become happier and happier to be associated with this great tradition and organization. And this year’s Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis made me more pleased than ever before to be a Baptist.

Maybe I am set up for future disappointment. I hear that these meetings are not always as eventful. This year, attendance was up. Emotions were high. We gathered in the immediate wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, the worst in our country’s history. We remembered the tragic shooting in Charleston one year earlier and acknowledged the racially charged atmosphere reflected in nearby Ferguson. “Election” also loomed large. The theological understanding of the term was a subtext for the hotly contested SBC presidential election. And the upcoming U.S. presidential election was in everyone’s mind.

One of the most memorable moments for me, though, came amid a flurry a motions presented to convention messengers. One brother from Arkansas had requested the removal of Southern Baptist officials or officers who support a right for Muslims in America to build mosques. The next day, after the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s report, the same brother pressed ERLC President Russell Moore on the issue, likening the defense of the right to construct mosques to Jesus endorsing the erection of temples for Baal in ancient Israel.

Dr. Moore’s response was sharp and received by the majority of messengers with applause. “The answer to Islam is not government power,” he said. “The answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the new birth that comes from that.”

In defending the idea of soul freedom for every individual, he illuminated a critical theological concept that lies at the heart of being Baptist. I am referring to religious liberty—the belief that no religion should be established by the state, but all faiths should be free to win adherents through the power of persuasion and not the sword.

In our history, Baptists have been persecuted by the government for non-conformity. We have seen the damage done by state churches to true religion. We do not baptize babies, in part, because we believe you cannot be born a Christian. Everyone must be genuinely converted without coercion. This should compel us to a radical witness to our Muslim neighbors and refugees, not to seek political action against them.

Recently there was a debate between a Christian and an atheist at the university near our church. It was sponsored by an evangelical campus ministry. To get there, you took the escalators to the third floor and turned left to find a small room with perhaps 100 mostly Anglo attenders. That same night, in the large room to the right of the escalators, there was a banquet for Islam Awareness Week with hundreds of Mus-

lims from places like the Middle East and South Asia.

The lesson is this: We can wring our hands at the growing influence of Islam in the U.S., or we can get to work witnessing in new ways. Now is not the time for fear, but for bold faith.

In the New Testament era, the church is an altogether different institution than the state, with distinct ends and means. The two cannot be confused. So today, the proper analog to Baal altars in Israel is not Islamic Centers in Wheaton. It is idolatry in the corporate worship of the Church. Patriotism definitely has its place, but perhaps one appropriate application would be to examine whether nationalism has crept into our Christianity. There are many forms of syncretism. As former SBC President James Merritt eloquently said in favor of a resolution to cease display of the Confederate battle flag, “Southern Baptists are not a people of any flag. We march under the banner of the cross of Jesus and the grace of God.”

As our culture continues to unravel and even the Bible Belt unbuckles, we must remember that our hope is in Christ, not country. His kingdom is unshakeable. And in many ways the dismantling of cultural Christianity that fused God and country is a good thing for the cause of the gospel. We Baptists want real believers that worship Christ alone, even if they are persecuted by a secular state or Islamic State.

Nathan Carter is pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Chicago.

fresh ideas

Go and mow

Here’s one wildly successful ministry idea that happened this summer:

Living Faith Indy, a church plant in Indianapolis, loaded a trailer with a riding lawnmower, some push mowers, edgers, blowers and brooms. The group prayed, asking God’s direction for where to begin, then hauled the equipment to a nearby neglected neighborhood near their church plant. They went house to house, asking permission to mow each home’s lawn for free.

DIANA DAVIS

As they approached each home, a different volunteer was assigned to ring the doorbell. After getting permission to work, the joyful crew meticulously groomed the yard while the volunteer lingered on the porch to chat with that neighbor.

As they moved from one house to the next, the entire neighborhood seemed to come alive. One neighbor played music; another brought some water to workers; children came out to help. The atmosphere was astonishing!

When the church group left, the block looked fabulous, and they’d made dozens of positive contacts. They played with kids, prayed for peoples’ needs, made friends and served joyfully. They’d invited every person to Sunday worship, and many promised to come. Only eternity will reveal the final results, but that church was so energized by the response, they’re now planning for different small groups to do the same project on various streets until they cover their community.

The last words of Jesus on this earth were these: “Go and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19a). The first word of that verse indicates Christians are to tell others about Jesus as they go out. If we stay inside our church building, enjoying sweet fellowship and caring only for one another, we are missing a huge part of God’s command.

There are ministry opportunities all around you. The primary focus is to show God’s love, engage strangers in conversation, and invite them to know Jesus. No church or small group is too small, too old, too stagnant or too busy.

Make an intentional “go” plan for your small group or church. People nearby are waiting to hear God’s Good News.

© Diana Davis’s new book, “Across the Street and Around the World,” will be released this fall.

As our culture unravels, we must remember our hope is in Christ, not country.

The method of selecting deacons changed during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Leaders from Illinois elected

meet the team

Meet: Dwayne Doyle Specialized Missions Mobilization Director

Family: I am a native of Mississippi, a graduate of Mississippi College and Southern Seminary. My lovely wife is Melissa (Woodward) Doyle, and is originally from High Ridge, Mo. Our children are David, 12, Darcy, 10, and Daisy Claire, 6. Each of our three were born in different countries in Southern Europe while we served overseas with the International Mission Board.

Favorite thing about church as a kid: Through Royal Ambassadors and key discipleship opportunities like Bible Drills, I learned that being a believer and being on mission is a daily part of following Jesus.

Favorite thing about church now: The true and lasting impact of church happens in relationship. Recently I was surprised by the influence I had in one friendship when my friend commented in a way that showed growth in his life. We were not going through a specific discipleship program. We were just living life together and the Lord allowed me to see a glimpse of the good effect I was having on my friend.

Favorite movies: I tend to enjoy action adventure movies that have deep meaning for men, think “Braveheart.” But most recently, my movie selection has revolved around the Disney selections that my children are interested in watching.

Illinois impressions: I had no idea that Illinois was so flat. Very beautiful, but flat. The two treasures that IBSA has for camp and retreat centers, Sallateeska and Streator, are truly beautiful places that I look forward to being involved with and sending my three children to camp.

Favorite Scripture: Philippians 4:6-7

NeTworkiNg

Find more information on ministry positions at IBSA.org/connect

Send NetworkiNg items to IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org

people

Welcome

St. Louis | Several leaders and members of IBSA churches were elected to serve on Southern Baptist boards and committees at the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis. The individuals are nominated to serve by the SBC Committee on Nominations, which is selected by the Committee on Committees (appointed by the SBC president and consisting of two people from each state convention).

Representing Illinois on various boards and committees:

Charles Campbell of Delta Church in Springfield was elected to a second term on the board of trustees for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

Sammy Simmons, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church,

Benton, was elected to the North American Mission Board’s board of trustees. Simmons replaces Bob Dickerson, pastor of First Baptist Church, Marion, who served two terms on the board.

Nina Wilson of First Baptist Church, Machesney Park, was elected to a second term on the board of trustees for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

Pat Pajak and Elmo Randle will represent Illinois on the 2016-17 SBC Committee on Nominations. Pajak, a member and former pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Decatur, is IBSA’s associate executive director for the Church Consulting Team. Randle is a lay leader from Hillcrest Baptist Church in Country Club Hills.

David Hutton is the new director of missions of East Central Baptist Association, headquartered in Mahomet. He and his wife, Shannon, are originally from Georgia and Texas, respectively, but spent 10 years in New England before serving with the International Mission Board for 10 years in North Africa and the last four years in South Asia.

The Huttons have two sons, Caleb and Zach, who are students at North Greenville University in South Carolina.

Retirement

James Echols retired in April after nine years at Rain or Shine Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago. Prior to his pastorate at the church, Echols served almost 24 years at New Bethel Baptist in Chicago.

Echols and his wife, Shirley, celebrated his retirement with a musical event at Rain or Shine and a banquet earlier this summer. The couple are members at Evening Star Missionary Baptist Church.

Nominees needed for IBSA boards, committees

Springfield | IBSA’s boards and committees are in need of 49 new members to begin serving next year. The groups that nominate those individuals currently are seeking recommendations.

IBSA’s Nominating Committee recommends people to serve on the Association’s three boards: IBSA, Baptist Foundation of Illinois (BFI), and Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS). The com-

mittee will fill 11 positions on the IBSA Board of Directors, seven on BFI’s Board of Trustees, and seven on the BCHFS Board of Trustees.

Mark Goldman, pastor of First Baptist Church, Carlyle, is chairman of the Nominating Committee and may be reached at markrgoldman@ yahoo.com.

The Committee on Committees will fill four positions on each of IBSA’s six committees: Nominating,

Order of Business, Constitution, Resolutions and Christian Life, Historical, and Credentials. Brian Kenney, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church, Beardstown, is chairman of the Committee on Committees and may be contacted at first_southern @casscomm.com.

For nomination forms, go to IBSA.org, call (217) 391-3107, or email SandyBarnard@IBSA.org. Return nomination forms by August 4.

Calvary Baptist Church, Streator, is seeking a bivocational pastor who is Southern Baptist and agrees with The Baptist Faith and Message (2000). Please send resumes to P.O. Box 324, Streator, IL 61364 or e-mail calvarybaptiststreator@gmail.com.

First Baptist Church, Columbia, is seeking an associate pastor of worship and discipleship. Some experience and education preferred. Please send resumes to kmercer@ fbccolumbia.com or First Baptist Church, Attn: Karen Mercer, 1200 Valmeyer Rd., Columbia, IL 62236.

Needed: Families of Faith Christian Academy, affiliated with FBC Channahon, is seeking football equipment, including blocking sleds, tackling dummies, goal posts, lining equipment, etc. Contact Kenton Ayers at (815) 467-6846.

ALL IN FAVOR – Messengers to the 2016 Convention in St. Louis cast their ballots, which were green this year.

EVENTS

July 11-15

Summer Worship University

What: Training in church worship, art, and discipleship for students in grades 6-12

Where: Hannibal-LaGrange University, Hannibal, Mo. Register: IBSA.org/students

July 18-22

IBSA Summer Camp

Where: Streator Baptist Camp

Who: Grades 3-6, 7-12 Register: IBSA.org/kids

Cost: $100 course deposit; additional $80 due at the door Register: IBSA.org/women

August 4, 11, 18

Regional Leadership Training: Children’s Missions Education

What: Development and fellowship for missions leaders

Where: Aug. 4: IBSA, Springfield; Aug. 11: Friendship, Plainfield; Aug. 18: Second, Marion

Cost: $5, includes lunch and materials Register: IBSA.org/kids

August 5-6

Coaching Clinic

What: For leaders who want to increase productivity, better set goals, strengthen relationships, and learn coaching tools

Where: IBSA Building, Springfield

Cost: $25, includes Saturday lunch Register: IBSA.org/women

July 24-29

ChicaGO Week

What: Students in junior high through college serve alongside church planters in Chicagoland

Where: Judson University, Elgin, Ill. Register: IBSA.org/students

July 27-30

Faith Community Nursing Certification Training

What: Training for registered nurses seeking to make a difference in their communities

Where: IBSA Building, Springfield

August 16

iConnect: The IBSA/ Pastors Meet-Up

What: Introduction to IBSA staff, ministries, training, and opportunities for pastors and church staff members

Where: IBSA Building, Springfield Info: AlexisDumire@IBSA.org

August 20

IBSA Softball Tournament

Where: Rotary Park, Decatur Register: By August 16 Info: AlexisDumire@IBSA.org

dave says

A free ride?

QMy son is going off to college soon, but he’s never had a job. His uncle has offered him a really nice, low mileage used car for $3,000. My husband doesn’t want us to give him money for the car, but I think this deal is just too good to pass up. What do you think?

AUnless there’s some sort of disability that’s prevented your son from working part time over the last few years, I’ve got to agree with your husband on this. Your son needs a car, but he also needs to work for it. If you get this car for him, you’re just teaching him that mommy and uncle will take care of everything. That’s not a good lesson for any child to learn, and it’s an especially bad thing for a teenager.

When you and your husband first started out in life, I’m guessing you didn’t start out rich. Am I right? It’s not really the car deal that’s the problem here; it’s the lesson that will be learned. At his age, it’s silly for him not to want to work for a car, and you and your husband need to be up in his face about that. Then, if he chooses not to work for a car, he can walk. He shouldn’t be rewarded for showing no desire to go earn things and make stuff happen.

If you don’t teach your son how to work now, he’ll be living with you when he’s 30 years old and doing exactly what he’s doing now—which is nothing.

This automobile deal is a bad deal, because it doesn’t teach your son to work for it.

DAVE RAMSEY

Back on your feet

QI’m going through a divorce that’s about to become final in two weeks. I moved in with my parents temporarily while I save up money to get my own place and start over. I make $30,000 a year, and it looks like I’ll have around $43,000 in debt when the divorce is finalized. Should I pause my debt snowball in order to financially get back on my feet again?

AYeah, that’s what I would do. There are reasons to pause the debt snowball, and one of those can be going through a divorce. Not only are there expenses, but you may end up with payments you don’t even expect.

I think the motivation and the heart behind the debt snowball is that you gain momentum and traction, and you do it quickly when you’re in a positive emotional position. You may not have that right now, so I think pressing pause and building up for expenses that may come— plus getting your own place—is a good idea.

Just rent the cheapest spot you can as soon as possible. Then, once you get in there and get your life in operational mode again, you’ll be ready to rock on!

Financial advisor Dave Ramsey is a prolific author and radio host.

TEACHER. SHEPHERD. LEADER.

Sunday School Resource Conference

IBSA Building, Springfield

Saturday, August 27

Time: 8 a.m. Registration

Event: 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Cost: $10 (lunch & materials)

For more information, call (217) 391-3124; CathyWaters@IBSA.org

october 9 bsa.org/ ye2016

Bible study leaders serve more than one role. Here’s fresh insight on teaching and growing your small groups.

Church needed here...

Location: Bridgeport

Reaching: This neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side is home to English-speaking, unchurched families who represent a variety of ethnic groups.

Characteristics: Bridgeport has a high concentration of never-married, single adults, a growing number of locally-owned restaurants and coffee shops, and a mix of single-family homes, condos, and townhouses.

Prayer needs: Pray for God to call a church planter with the ability to relate to many ethnic groups; for the single adults to be protected from loneliness and isolation; and that God will prepare people in the community to receive and respond to the gospel.

inspirations

pinterest.com/illinoisBaptist

Plan now for back-to-school

School starts in about a month. Here are some ways to prepare:

Compact VBS. For kids who were really on vacation during VBS, do a condensed version on a Saturday just before school starts in August. Choose two lessons and make a day of it. Encourage kids to bring friends from school.

Train teachers. Schedule a one-day workshop for all teachers and small group leaders. Invite an expert (or a really good teacher) to share how they make learning exciting. Practice some new techniques. Everyone can benefit from a refresher. And a growing Sunday school and discipleship ministry is fueled by invigorated teachers. Invigorate them!

Backpacks. Ask the principal of the nearby school how many children will start the year without adequate supplies. Collect those supplies, fill new backpacks, and give them to the principal ahead of registration day to distribute to kids who need them.

Get crafty. Admit it. There’s a bunch of old junk in the Sunday school cabinet. Clean it out. Ask teachers to make a list of their craft needs for the new year. Collect the supplies from church members and restock the supply closet.

The Fall issue of Resource magazine is all about creating community: Turn strangers into friends, and friends into family. Look for it in the church’s mailbox in July. Order your own subscription at Communications @IBSA.org.

A better preoccupation

The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.” (Acts 8:29)

i lead

Who’s holding the baton?

No one can lead all the time. Which means, quite often, we leaders are going to have to be followers.

Leaders are used to being out front. Taking a step back, or to the side at least, to let someone else lead can be difficult. But it’s an important part of self-leadership, and it’s something that I’ve valued in the strongest leaders I’ve had the privilege to work with over the years.

I’ve been trained in music since the third grade. One of the first things you learn in music is that whoever’s holding the baton is in charge.

As a member of the U.S. Air Force Band, I had the opportunity to conduct my commander.

Even though he outranked me, with that baton in my hand, he operated as if I was the leader.

When I was serving as a minister of education, my senior pastors supported the discipleship programs we put in place by promoting them from the pulpit, and by being in a small group themselves. Similarly, during Vacation Bible School, they spent time in each class during the week, because we knew the kids needed to see them sitting on the floor with them, or in a chair their size.

KEVIN CARROTHERS

Luke chronicles how God used Philip to take the gospel from Jerusalem to Samaria to the ends of the earth. In Samaria, Philip preached powerfully in the Lord’s name and was empowered by the Holy Spirit to do mighty signs and miracles. The city was responding with joy to the gospel. Then God called Philip to go and meet an Ethiopian man on the road to Gaza. Philip willingly followed the Spirit’s prompting and engaged this man with the truth of God.

I have been a longtime contributor to the various mission offerings of Illinois Baptists. In some hearts and minds that is all it takes to fulfill the Great Commission, but it isn’t. I was challenged to lead God’s people to become missional, but was told that I had to be missional in my own life in order to lead others to do so. This led to my first mission trip ever to Bulgaria, but also led to me to see the needs in the ministry field I served.

To be missional means being available to the Spirit’s prompting and adjusting our lives to serve God where he is working. God is seeking more “Philips” to be on mission with him. Are you willing as Philip was?

PRAYER PROMPT: Lord God, please let our hearts and minds be preoccupied with you and your purposes and not our self-centered desires.

Kevin Carrothers serves as pastor of Rochester FBC and President of IBSA.

Pastors, join the IBSA Pastors’ Prayer Room on Facebook. E-mail oweaver7307@ gmail.com.

Good leaders know when to follow. They’re able to assess a situation and determine whether their particular strengths will contribute positively to the situation, and when they could possibly contaminate it. They know when to step forward, and when to sit back and let someone else do the leading.

At First Baptist Church, Bethalto, the last senior pastor I served with was excellent about leading the staff to take time away for retreats. His willingness to take time away from a busy church schedule showed us he wanted to hear from us, even when he wasn’t in charge of the agenda.

I generally was tasked with setting the meeting schedule, and for our first several retreats, he allowed me to emcee our meeting time. After a while, he took on more of a leadership role.

That’s another thing about good leaders: They know the value of learning from others.

Larry Rhodes served on staff at West Gate Baptist Church in Trenton, FBC Salem, and FBC Bethalto, where he retired in 2014 after 22 years. He is an IBSA zone consultant in Metro East St. Louis.

LARRY RHODES