Illinois Baptist
Nate Adams announces retirement plans
IBSA Executive Director of 19 years discusses transition timeline with Board leadership
Springfield | During the February 24-25 meetings of IBSA Board Committees, Executive Director Nate Adams shared with Board leadership his desire to begin working with the full Board on a timeline for retirement as Executive Director. Adams has served IBSA since March 2006.
Adams said that during past discussions, Board leadership had asked for at least a year of advance notice of his retirement plans, to help ensure adequate time for a careful search process, and to hopefully allow for some overlap time between the current and new Executive Directors.
During the February 24-25 discussions, Adams asked Board leaders to consider proceeding with the election of an Executive Director Search Committee at its upcoming March 25
meeting in Springfield.
In an e-mail announcement to the full lBSA Board shortly thereafter, Adams wrote, “It’s been a great privilege to serve as IBSA’s Executive Director for the past 19 years, and with the Lord’s continued grace and help I intend to continue working diligently, and planning and leading strategically, and then to run hard through the finish line about a year from now. Long leadership tenures provide many benefits, but they also create a need for especially careful planning, coordination, and communication as a new leader is prayerfully selected and engaged. Your role as IBSA Board members will be central in this, and I will be praying for you, believing the Lord has brought you to the IBSA Board for just such a time as this.”
is a Kentucky native who moved with his family to Illinois at age 5 when his father, Tom, was called to pastor in Southern Illinois, then the Chicago suburbs, followed by service
graduated from Judson College (now University) in Elgin.
For 17 years, he was in leadership at Christianity Today International, a major publisher headquartered in Carol Stream. Then Adams was called to a vice presidency at the North American Mission Board, with an increasing portfolio of responsibilities including media and mobilization ministries. Adams accepted the call to return home to lead Illinois Baptist work in 2006. After 19 years, he is one of the longest tenured Executive Directors presently serving among 41 Baptist state conventions.
Adams is married to Beth. They have three adult sons and their wives: Caleb (Laura), Noah (Alyssa), Ethan (Alyssa), and six grandchildren.
Adams
as a Director of Missions. Adams
Total giving by IBSA churches as of 1/31/25 $436,757
2025 Budget Goal to date:$546,141 2025 Goal: $6.1 Million
At its founding, one goal of the new Cooperative Program was to allocate 50% of the national SBC offerings to international missions, ending the need for missionaries to leave their field to make appeals for funding back home.
This Kurdish family, enjoying a roadside picnic, represents an unreached people group. Almost 98% of the 45 million Kurdish people are Sunni Muslims. SBC missionaries often work as teachers and builders in countries where sharing Christ is not allowed.
The Illinois Baptist staff
Editor - Eric Reed
Contributing Editor - Lisa Misner
Production Manager - Nic Cook
Graphics Assistant - Makayla Proctor
Team Leader - Ben Jones
The general telephone number for IBSA is (217) 786-2600. For questions about subscriptions, articles, or upcoming events, contact the Illinois Baptist at (217) 391-3127 or IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org
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 month by the Illinois Baptist State Association, 3085 Stevenson Drive, Springfield, Illinois 62703-4440. Subscriptions are free to Illinois Baptists. Subscribe online at IBSA.org.
Mom’s ministry
I’ve now written a column in The Illinois Baptist for 19 years. But my father Tom Adams wrote a continuous column in this same paper for the previous 34. Dad went to be with the Lord one month after I started my service with IBSA. But I have always felt that I stand on the shoulders of his reputation with Illinois Baptists.
Today, though, I’d like to offer a brief tribute to my mom, Romelia Ann Hooks Adams, who joined my dad with the Lord just four days before Christmas. A summary of her life and ministry was published in the February issue, and of course her obituary can be found online, so I won’t repeat those details. But this does seem an appropriate place to celebrate how deeply intertwined her ministry life was with Southern Baptists and Illinois Baptists.
My dad’s typing skills were hunt-andpeck at best. One of my parents’ regular and shared ministries for decades was for my dad to write, cross out, and rewrite his columns on a yellow legal pad. Many of those “original manuscripts,” and then Mom’s neatly typed versions, are now treasured remembrances of their faithful partnership.
The format of Dad’s columns over the years were mostly question-and-answer (Ask Tom Adams) or opinion (Speaking Out). So, he and Mom also answered a lot of letters. As you might imagine, Mom was his sounding board, his research assistant, his editor, and sometimes his balance in the biblical wisdom he sought to share.
In going through the house that Mom and Dad lived in since 1978, my siblings and I are seeing countless other ways that Baptist church life shaped, and also benefitted from, their ministries. Dad’s connections to Baptist life were more public. But Mom would want you to know that since she surrendered her life to Jesus as a 9-year-old girl that faithful women, especially through the Woman’s Missionary Union and beginning with the GA and Acteens organizations, shaped and blessed and equipped her life richly.
Along with her Baptist Student Union at Murray State University (where she met my dad, and was also college yearbook editor), these biblically faithful, Great Commission motivated organizations planted within her lifelong commitments to missions, and to church service. Then for many years, Mom reinvested those passions in girls and young women.
Sorting through the evidence of her life well lived—and her Lord well served.
In Mom’s house I found many letters from those she had discipled and encouraged in missions over the years, and from many of the missionaries she had known and prayed for faithfully. I continue to meet those women, some of whom are now leading ladies in our Illinois churches. Still, Mom sometimes worried aloud to me that the influences and opportunities she enjoyed aren’t as prominent today.
The Lord granted my mom more than 94 years, and in the second half of her life she invested missionally in the public schools she served, and in an extraordinary amount of correspondence, both handwritten and electronic. Going through her house now, it’s newly amazing to me all the Baptist “inputs” that we’re finding, from Lifeway published Bibles, studies, and books, to missions periodicals from WMU and our mission boards, to her church newsletters and marked-up directories, to practically every issue of The Illinois Baptist since the 1960’s.
I also see her “outputs”—her prayer lists, her giving statements, her boxes of past and current correspondence, her to-do lists. I see a faithful woman’s substantial and lifelong ministry, both alongside and independent from my dad. I see it in her family, her church, her workplace, her neighborhood, and her mission fields. Well done, good and faithful Mom.
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.
NATE ADAMS
Seminaries
Midwestern is top ranked in full-time equivalency enrollment
Surpasses Southern in leading all 6 SBC seminaries
Kansas City, Mo. | In his 12 years as president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Jason Allen has taken the Southern Baptist Convention’s second youngest seminary from near-last place in many categories to first place in full-time student enrollment and a sparkling reputation for its leadership, academic training, and “For the Church” commitment to local ministry.
Midwestern is now on top.
“Midwestern Seminary is reaching the world,” Allen reported to the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis. “From North Carolina to North Korea, our students are making a gospel impact throughout the world.”
And new numbers back up the story. A recent report on enrollment shows the Kansas City school has surpassed its Louisville sister, Southern, by the equivalent of 25 full-time students in the recently completed 2023-24 academic year. That may seem like a small number, but it represents a big shift among the six SBC seminaries.
nary’s portion of Cooperative Program dollars.
Allen came to the Midwestern presidency in 2012 from a senior administrative position at Southern. He was a professor and pastor as well. He came into the senior role as one of the youngest presidents in higher education.
Historically Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, the second oldest SBC Seminary, has been the largest in many categories. But the decline that followed sexual abuse cover-up allegations under Paige Patterson and the very short presidency of his successor, Adam Greenway, dropped Southwestern to fifth place. That allowed perennial second place Southern, the oldest of the SBC schools founded in 1859, to claim the largest full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment—until now.
The findings, reported by Baptist News Global, evidence significant, even amazing growth out on the prairie. Midwestern FTEs have increased 11% over the past two years, while Southern FTEs declined by 13%. Southern still has the highest overall enrollment at 4,222, while Midwestern has 3,766 non-duplicated enrollment.
Based on FTEs, Midwestern and Southern are followed in order by Southeastern, New Orleans, Southwestern, and Gateway. Combined, the six schools have 8,362 FTE enrollment, but including part-time students, the schools have 18,639. The SBC uses FTE enrollment to calculate each semi-
In addition to stabilizing the institution after some challenging years, Allen built up The Spurgeon Center as a research institute with its considerable holdings of Charles Spurgeon’s library and personal manuscripts, and recently added 12,000 artifacts to the connection. The undergraduate program is named Spurgeon College.
Allen launched “For the Church” as an approach for the seminary’s ministry that has resulted in training conferences and publications for local church leaders bearing that branding. The term has caught on.
“We exist for the Church,” Allen said. “Southern Baptist churches are not an impediment or hindrance to our ministry; Southern Baptist churches are our ministry. It is an honor to serve you.”
At the 2024 convention in Indianapolis, Allen reported completion of major renovations, including student housing, totaling more than $50 million. “By God’s grace… those projects have been completed, and we have not one red cent of indebtedness,” he told SBC messengers.
Allen announced a tuition break to allow incoming residential master’s degree students to focus on learning. “That first year of studies is daunting for most students,” Allen said. “By God’s grace, incoming residential master of divinity students in our
For the Church Cohorts program can study their first year 100% tuition free.”
Midwestern offers an 81-hour master of divinity, which it considers the requirement for pastoral ministry. The school awarded 147 master of divinity degrees last year, while Southern led with 359. Overall the six seminaries awarded 833 master of divinity degrees, 189 master of theology degrees and 1,090 master of arts and other two-year graduate degrees.
—IB staff, with reporting from BNG and Baptist Press
MORE—Hymnwriter and pastor Matt Boswell will join the MBTS faculty as visiting worship leader in Fall 2025. The co-author of “His Mercy is More” and “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery” has led worship for the seminary’s For the Church conferences.
ALLEN
the briefing
SBC pastor, NFL player leads HUD
Former Associate Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in metro Dallas has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Scott Turner received a 55-44 vote, with two Democrats joined all Republican Senators in approving his nomination. Prestonwood Pastor Jack Graham thanked President Trump on X (formerly Twitter), saying “Scott is a son in the ministry to me and I am absolutely elated.” In the NFL, Turner played for Washington, San Diego, and Denver. He then led an economic development initiative in the first Trump Administration.
“As a country, we are not building enough homes,” he said at the hearing for his HUD nomination. “We need millions of homes, all kinds of homes—multifamily, single family, duplex, condo, manufacturing housing, you name it—we need housing in our country for individuals and families to have a roof over their head and to call home.”
Hispanic Network expands leadership
The National Hispanic Baptist Network (NHBN) has elevated its executive director, Bruno Molina, from a part-time role to a new full-time role after receiving grants from the Lilly Foundation and cooperation with the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas. “Hispanic Southern Baptists make up a mission force of bilingual and transcultural missionaries that are poised to make a significant kingdom impact. United for the His glory, we exist to connect on mission, contribute resources, and celebrate what God is doing among us in collaboration with the body of Christ,” said Molina, a pastor, professor, and missionary. NHBN serves 3,400 SBC churches with 11 teams covering all aspects of ministry.
Send Relief head retires
Bryant Wright will retire March 31 as President of Send Relief, the SBC’s disaster relief and compassion ministry. Wright led the joint ministry of the North American Mission Baord (NAMB) and the International Mission Board (IMB) since 2020, providing a public face for the work. He will not be replaced. Instead, NAMB President Kevin Ezell and IMB President Paul Chitwood will share oversight, while two Send Relief vice presidents handle day-to-day operations. No explanation for the change was given. “Having the mission board presidents take a more active role in leading sends the clear signal that Send Relief is here to stay and is a top priority for NAMB, IMB, and Southern Baptists,” a spokesperson said.
Baptist Press, Alabama Baptist
Southern Baptist Convention
Illinoisans to take lead in Dallas
Nashville, Tenn. | Four Illinoisans have been nominated for posts in Southern Baptist leadership ahead of the 2025 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. SBC President Clint Pressley has named Jacksonville native Andrew Walker to chair the Resolutions Committee. He will guide preparation of the denomination’s statements about theology and culture for presentation to messengers in Dallas.
BROWN TODD MENGHINI WALKER
Walker is associate dean of the School of Theology and associate professor of Christian ethics and public theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He previously served with the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
Obbie Tyler Todd, pastor of Third Baptist Church of Marion, will also serve on the 10-member panel. Todd is also a writer and an adjunct professor of theology for Luther Rice College and Seminary.
“For several years now, I have known Dr. Walker to be an exceptional Christian thinker, writer and leader,” Pressley said. “I have full confidence that he will serve all Southern Baptists well as chairman of our 2025 Committee on Resolutions.”
Walker co-wrote the SBC’s resolution on invitro fertilization which was approved at the 2024 convention in Indianapolis.
“Resolutions are a vital expression of what Southern Baptists believe about the pressing issues of our day, providing clarity, conviction, and biblical truth in a world awash in confusion,” Walker said in a statement to Baptist Press. “Resolutions
are vital to the work of our entities and provide guidance for individuals like me who are tasked with educating future leaders in our Convention.
“I pray that our work will faithfully represent the heart of our Convention, voice unity in our witness, and glorify Christ in all we do.”
Committee on Committees
Pressley also named two Illinoisans to join the Committee on Committees: Eric Brown, pastor of Brainard Avenue Baptist Church and IBSA Board member, and Carmen Halsey-Menghini, a member of Raymond Baptist Church. She is also a Leadership Development Director for the Illinois Baptist State Association.
The committee will meet over the next six weeks to prepare a slate of nominees to serve on the 2025-2026 Committee on Nominations. If elected by messengers to the Dallas convention, that committee will then nominate those who will serve on the various SBC entity boards.
Michael Wood, pastor of First Baptist Church of Monroe, Louisiana will chair the Committee on Committees.
Pressley urges adjustment, not redesign
Nashville, Tenn. | When Porsche debuted the 911 model in 1964, it had flaws, including a propensity to spin out when rounding corners. But Porsche knew it had a winning design and stuck with it, opting to adjust rather than redesign. The Southern Baptist Convention should take a lesson from that approach, President Clint Pressley said in an address to the Executive Committee meeting in Nashville Feb. 17.
The Convention runs on what Pressley has dubbed “two rails”: The Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M) and the Cooperative Program (CP). With such a design, he said, Southern Baptists must avoid two extremes.
sume inerrancy of the Bible, you lose inerrancy.”
2. Celebrate the good financial responsibility of our entities.
SBC entities “operate with responsible transparency,” Pressley said. That transparency stems from the Convention’s Business and Financial Plan as well as the SBC system of electing entity trustees who are members of Southern Baptist churches.
“On the one hand, we avoid the status quo,” Pressley said, cautioning against “acting like the design doesn’t need some adjustment” and “telling churches [to] ‘just give your money’ without displaying some compelling reason for them to do so.”
The other extreme to avoid is “a scorched earth approach” that begins “dismantling and disparaging the design just because there are some fixable flaws in the system.”
In the year when Southern Baptists will mark the centennials for both Baptist pillars, Pressley offered four recommendations:
1. Celebrate our confessional fidelity.
Many ministries have drifted from the gospel and the inerrancy of Scripture during the same decades the SBC kept its hold on both, Pressley said. “That is a remarkable thing when you think about the size of our denomination.”
Remembering the doctrines on which Southern Baptists stand is crucial, he said, “because if you assume the Gospel, you lose the Gospel. If you as-
Some adjustments in the SBC’s operating procedures may be advisable, including “a standardized training for trustees” at all entities. Additionally, “it would be wise to keep up a clear, constant communication with the churches because there are so many good things going on.”
3. Celebrate the missional integrity of our entities. Our mission board and seminaries “have stayed on the mission,” Pressley said. “If there is something that, as a Convention, we are doing that is distracting,” he said, then “we stop and we pause” and make sure “this over here doesn’t take away from the mission.”
4. Celebrate the relational continuity of the SBC. Cooperation must extend beyond giving money to investing in fellow Southern Baptists, Pressley said. That should include gathering in person as often as possible and eschewing the negativity that can characterize social media. “Our entire ecosystem, the whole thing, is based on relational capital,” he said.
Pressley will guide the Dallas celebration of the BF&M and CP. “The SBC and the Cooperative Program,” he said, “nothing else even comes close.”
—David Roach, Baptist Press
Tough financial decisions
EC approves $190 million budget that includes legal costs
Nashville, Tenn. | SBC Executive Committee members approved a recommendation Feb. 18 for a $190 million 2025-26 SBC Cooperative Program
Allocation Budget that includes $3 million earmarked for anticipated legal costs resulting mostly from the investigation into sexual abuse claims and their handling by previous EC leadership.
The recommendation moves forward to messengers for a vote at the SBC Annual Meeting held in Dallas in June.
EC members spent approximately 33 minutes of the 46-minute report brought by the Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship discussing the $3 million allocation’s potential pitfalls as well
while leaving current percentages in place.
The move would “strengthen the EC position in the short-term,” he said, but “provide opportunity” for church leaders looking to bypass Cooperative Program giving.
Sandefur advocated for resetting CP allocation percentages instead.
Passage of the recommendation, he said, would cause money forwarded to the International Mission Board to fall below 50% of total receipts, which conflicts with a long-held goal of Southern Baptists. Furthermore, he said, given the IMB’s current allocation of 50.41%, the move would take away more than $1.5 million from the international mission efforts.
as other options. In its separate meeting Monday, Feb. 17, the standing committee discussed the issue (among others) in more than two hours of executive (closed) session.
In his address to trustees, EC President Jeff Iorg outlined the steps that have brought the SBC to this point, saying “bills must be paid.”
As reported by the Alabama Baptist, Iorg told EC trustees, “Decisions were made by (SBC) messengers in 2021. Those decisions have consequences, which have costs — and those bills are due and must be paid.”
Unless the SBC building (which is on the market for $35 million) sells soon, then the remaining (as well as upcoming) legal bills related to the sexual abuse investigation will be paid with Cooperative Program funds, Iorg explained.
Although the original 2021 motion approved the payment of legal costs from the Cooperative Program, the Executive Committee has thus far paid for those out of reserves to the tune of $13 million. The EC has spent its reserves down to about $1 million covering legal bills to this point, so all other options have been exhausted.
“I signed on (as SBC EC president) to guide us through these current challenges, not around them but through them,” Iorg said. Iorg is now nine months into his tenure as the SBC top paid staff member. “My hope is that the leaders in this room (EC meeting), thousands of pastors and millions of Southern Baptists will sign on to go through this together.”
Although the motion eventually passed overwhelmingly, some trustees voiced the hope that other options could be found before the annual meeting.
Nick Sandefur, senior pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., agreed with Iorg on the need to use CP funds for business, including paying bills. His disagreement came with the money coming through a priority allocation
“I would encourage our [EC] members to look at reducing funding percentages in a way that aligns with the heart of Southern Baptists,” he said.
Lamar Morin, lead pastor of Hoffmantown Church in Albuquerque, N.M., asked if the SBC’s bylaws prohibited a grassroots effort among churches to give directly toward the legal costs.
There is no prohibition on such a grassroots move nor on the EC’s calling for a special offering or gifts from individuals, Iorg explained, but the EC cannot ask churches to put the amount in its budget or compete with the Cooperative Program.
“The most challenging shortcoming of the offering approach is that we really don’t know what our future legal expenses are going to be,” Iorg said. “This is an estimated solution for next year’s budget.”
These particular legal matters could be resolved by the end of the year or go into the next. Legal costs could be more. They could be less, he added.
Dani Bryson, an attorney and member of First Baptist in Dickson, Tenn., pointed out the potential legal ramifications should the SBC lose one of the lawsuits it currently faces.
“If we’re going to be standing before a court trying to tell them that we don’t have access to all the Cooperative Program funds… this designation sure doesn’t make that look true.”
Iorg pointed out that priority allocations are not new. However, the one in question is “definitely a new amount and a new perspective.”
Later in the meeting, EC Chair Philip Robertson reiterated Iorg’s comments from the night before that the option on the table isn’t offered out of preference, but necessity.
“Your finance committee yesterday voted overwhelmingly after robust discussion to recommend to you all today this solution. And so that’s where we are,” he said.
One lawsuit pending is the defamation claim by former North American Mission Board Vice President Johnny Hunt, who said he lost earnings potential when accusations of his sexual misconduct were made public. If the case is not settled first, it will go to court about the time of the SBC annual meeting in Dallas in June.
Bubble removed
The city of Carbondale repealed a law forbidding pro-life advocates within 100 feet of abortion clinics in late February. At the same time, the U.S. Supreme court declined to take up a case, Hill v. Colorado, which could have clarified the issue nationally. In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas regretted the lost opportunity to rule on the legality of the zones.
Commenting on the Court’s decision, Molly Malone Rumley, Assistant Legislative Chair at Illinois Right to Life Action, said, “This is a great disappointment to pro-lifers around our state and should be as well to anyone who supports free speech. Justice Thomas was right when he said that this is an abdication of judicial duty.”
Thomas More Society VP Peter Breen, representing Coalition Life, noted, “Carbondale quietly repealed its bubble zone ordinance in a shadowy, four-minute, weekend meeting, knowing full well their bubble zone would fail constitutional scrutiny if it came before the Supreme Court.”
“While our clients are now able to sidewalk counsel freely in Carbondale, the city flagrantly violated their Free Speech rights for eighteen months, without penalty,” Breen added. “And pro-abortion government bodies in many other cities across the country continue to unconstitutionally restrict the speech of pro-life sidewalk counselors. This game of legal WhacA-Mole is an unsustainable dynamic, and the only solution is for the court to overrule Hill once and for all.”
70 believers beheaded
An extremist Islamic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is blamed for he gruesome deaths of 70 Christians there. “We are no longer talking about simple violence,” International Christian Concern quoted a pastor as saying. “We are losing fellow innocent Christians time and again. Our churches are now remaining empty…. The people of the Lord are suffering, and it’s just not bearable to watch.” The extremist group rounded up 100 believers in Mayba and massacred 70, including women and children.
50 worshipers attacked
Sunday services at a church in Rajathastan state in western India were interrupted by a mob of 200 people; 50 Christians were attacked. Several sustained injuries as attackers wielded iron rods and destroyed property, before police arrived.
Christian Post, Baptist Press
—reported by Brandon Porter of Baptist Press, with additional content from The Alabama Baptist and IB staff
Southern Baptist Convention
First Person
Jeff Iorg reports progress with abuse response
(Editor’s note: After nine months as President and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, Jeff Iorg reported to EC trustees in February on several key issues, including financial obligations resulting from legal representation in the sexual abuse investigation. He also reported on progress in handling abuse claims, since responsibility was returned to the EC at the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis. Here is a portion of his report addressing abuse response. The full report is posted at IllinoisBaptist.org.)
At the SBC annual meeting last year, the Executive Committee was assigned the responsibility for determining the organizational placement of sexual abuse prevention and response in the SBC ecosystem. After considering multiple options, the Executive Committee assigned itself that responsibility. We then launched a national search for a Director of Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response, resulting in Jeff Dalrymple joining our team in January 2025. Under Jeff’s leadership, we are working on six initiatives to finalize before the annual meeting in June. At that meeting, we will then announce additional plans for the next year. These six initiatives include the following:
1. First, we are enhancing the Essentials curriculum and continuing to make it available free to all churches. We appreciate the ARITF (Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force) creating the first version of this curriculum. Now that it has been field tested for almost a year, we are updating it, making it a more effective tool, and streamlining its distribution and availability.
2. I am appointing an Advisory Committee on sexual abuse prevention and response strategies. This Committee will have a cross-section of people with a proven record of leading on these issues, serving cooperatively among Southern Baptists, and balancing the wide range of concerns related to abuse prevention and response.
3. Third, the Executive Committee has assumed operation of the sbcabuseprevention.com website and are enhancing and enlarging what is offered through the site.
4. We are pursuing ways to improve the SBC hotline, both improving its administration and the services we offer persons who contact it.
5. We are formalizing the network of state convention abuse prevention and response leaders. State conventions, as in every national effort, are vital partners who have direct contact with churches and church leaders. We foresee regular communication among this group as we customize responses in every state.
6. We will be hosting a training event, “Safeguarding the Next Generation,” at the annual meeting in Dallas, along with raising the profile of abuse prevention and response with dedicated exhibit space in our booth area.
The Executive Committee is taking measured, intentional, proactive steps toward establishing sexual abuse prevention and response as a ministry responsibility. Part of defining the nature of this response is understanding the scope of the problem among Southern Baptists. We now have one important data source, the hotline results, which inform our planning. While it is not our only data source, it is a primary source of independently verified information.
Here is what we have learned.
The hotline has been operational since May 2022. Since then, the hotline has received 1,008 contacts by phone and email. Of those 1,008 contacts, 334
“We are responding to this problem now and creating an ongoing response framework for the future.”
(33%) were requests for information, opinions, or spam. The other 674 (67%) reported alleged abuse. Of the 674 reported allegations, 458 (68%) were among Southern Baptists; 216 (32%) were not among Southern Baptists. Of the 458 reported allegations among Southern Baptists, 187 (41%) were adult/adult incidents and 271 (59%) were adult/minor incidents.
While these overall data points are significant for the total picture, it is important to note that 513 (51%) of the hotline contacts came in the first four months it was open, as would be expected to account for a back log of concerns. When we look past the surge at the beginning and isolate the data for the last 24 months, it provides a better picture of the ongoing reporting we are receiving.
Over the past 24 months (January 2023 through December 2024), the hotline received 315 contacts, an average of 13 per month. When the percentages above are applied to these 13 monthly contacts, it means about 4 people requested information and 9 reported alleged abuse. Of those 9, 2 were likely not Southern Baptists. Of the remaining 7 contacts, 2-3 cases would involve adult/adult incidents and 4-5 cases would involve adult/minor incidents. Of these 315 total contacts over the previous 24 months, the hotline referred 128 cases—just over 5 per month— to the Credentials Committee for consideration of whether a church is in friendly cooperating with
the Convention. The Credentials Committee has processed or is processing those referrals. Seven churches have been declared not in friendly cooperation and removed from the SBC based on their response related to these issues.
What does this hotline data mean? Two broad conclusions: First, sexual abuse is a serious and real problem. And when it happens, it is devastating for the survivors, the church, the community, and every person connected to anyone involved. Survivor stories are particularly gut-wrenching and heart-breaking. Every church must make every reasonable effort to prevent sexual abuse and respond proactively if it happens. We are committed to these standards at the Executive Committee: no tolerance for abuse and every church is a safe place for the vulnerable.
We also acknowledge the hotline data does not define the full scope of the problem. The explosion of child pornography, rising licentiousness across our culture, and predatory nature of offenders means we must be ever vigilant. I say again, even one case is one too many. That’s why we are taking proactive steps like those already mentioned and creating ongoing processes—beyond resolutions or study committees—to equip churches to protect the vulnerable. We can and we will do this together.
The second conclusion, according to the hotline data, is that abuse is not frequently reported in Southern Baptist churches. We have widely publicized this issue for the past five years and encouraged people to come forward with information and allegations. We now have verified, third-party data, from which we can draw information and develop strategies. While we fully acknowledge reported incidents of sexual abuse, we also reject the false narrative Southern Baptist churches are dangerous places for children, are protecting predators, and are uncaring in responding to survivors. The data indicates a continuing problem—13 total contacts and 5 referrals per month are too many—but it also puts the problem in perspective among more than 12 million Southern Baptists in more than 47,000 churches.
Some may twist my words, accusing me of minimizing the problem. That’s simply not true. We are responding to this problem now and creating an ongoing response framework for the future. Thousands of SBC churches have implemented prevention measures over the past five years. With seven rare exceptions, Southern Baptist churches—even those contacted by the Credentials Committee—are cooperating to prevent abuse and address abuse allegations. Sexual abuse—no matter how few incidents are reported among 47,000 churches—is an evil we want stopped. The Executive Committee is working with state convention partners and entity partners to provide the resources, support, and training necessary to strengthen churches in this battle. And, when a church refuses to respond appropriately, we will declare them not in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Working groups IN FOCUS
New report helps evaluate discipleship ministries
BY MARISSA POSTELL SULLIVAN
Although Sunday School goes by many names today, it is still a time-honored and effective ministry for teaching the Bible, reaching people for Christ, assimilating them into the church, and growing them as disciples. But many churches are asking how their Bible study groups are doing after the disruptions of the past few years.
Lifeway Research conducted a comprehensive study on how churches are conducting groups in the United States. The State of Groups study surveyed 1,021 adult Bible study groups ministry leaders in Protestant or non-denominational churches. The resulting report answers the question, “How healthy are our groups?” and included practical guidance for taking groups to the next level.
“When it comes to Bible study groups, it’s less about the name we give the ministry and more about what the groups actually do,” said Ken Braddy, director of Sunday School and network partnerships at Lifeway.
“If a group learns and obeys God’s Word, invites others to follow Jesus, forms deeper relationships, and engages in acts of service inside the church and out in the community, you can call a group ministry whatever you like,” he said.
What makes us grow? A church without discipleship is just a gathering. And groups ministry is key for making disciples in the local church. This survey offers important tools for encouraging growth.
Continued from page 7
What do groups look like?
Groups remain a vital part of disciple making in the local church. These ongoing adult small groups go by a variety of names depending on the church, including adult Bible studies, Sunday School, small groups, adult Bible fellowships, LIFE groups and connect groups.
Churches are most likely to say they want the primary focus of their groups to be on studying Scripture. At the average church, around 2-in-5 worship attendees (44%) typically participate in small groups.
“Involvement in worship and small groups are not in competition,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Studies have shown participation in ongoing Bible studies bolsters worship attendance. The higher a church’s percentage of weekend worship attendees involved in a small group, Sunday School class, or similar group, the greater likelihood of five-year worship attendance growth.”
more than 1-in-3 churches (36%) say they do not provide any training for their small group leaders.
Where do churches go from here?
When churchgoers find a group, most stick with it. Nearly 9-in-10 group ministry leaders (89%) say most group participants have been in the same group for at least two years. Only around a third of leaders (34%) say they started new ongoing adult Bible study groups in the first half of 2024.
And when groups start to grow, most leaders are not going to intervene. Although experts suggest forming new groups out of ones that begin to grow too large, 9-in-10 groups ministry leaders say they do not limit the size of ongoing adult Bible study groups.
In any church, groups ministry is dependent on volunteers to lead each small group. And in many cases, these small group leaders do not have formal theological training or educational experience. Yet
No matter a church’s size or context, there are some key challenges churches face when it comes to groups ministry. But equipped with practical tools for navigating these challenges, leaders can step into opportunities to grow their groups ministry and increase discipleship in their churches. Churches struggling to see movement from “rows to circles”—meaning from worship attendance to small group participation—are not alone as they face this reality. However, churches do not have to accept dwindling groups participation as their settled fate. Rather, The State of Groups invites church leaders to implement the ideas presented in this report to help worship attendees become small group participants. This will produce a spiritual impact in the lives of those moving into small groups and will have lasting ramifications in the life of the church.
In this report, insights based on data encourage pastors and groups ministry leaders to start new groups, proactively help worship attendees become small group participants and regularly provide training to equip group leaders to teach and disciple their group members. Based on the latest groups research, pastors and church leaders will be challenged to take steps toward building a groups culture where churchgoers participate, groups multiply and disciples are made, advancing the kingdom of God through the local church.
To explore the complete findings, download The State of Groups Insights Report from
MISSION
Baptisms rising
Annual Church Profile shows positive trend in several areas
ILLINOIS BAPTIST TEAM REPORT
“IBSA has made a major impact on how we do ministry in the west side of Chicago,” said Maurice Gaiter, pastor of Empower Community Church of Chicago. Last year, Gaiter attended an IBSA-hosted event led by State Evangelism Director Scott Harris that he called “life-changing.”
“It has given us the model to make Jesus known,” Gaiter shared. “Every Sunday we’ve been out in the neighborhoods making Jesus known.” Church members have handed out over 500 Bibles and two churches have been planted. And the church’s baptisms increased five-fold last year.
His church is not alone.
The latest tally of church vital signs in Illinois, the Annual Church Profile, shows an 8.8% increase in baptisms from 2023 to 2024. IBSA churches have finally surpassed the 2019 numbers, which came just before Covid-19 curtailed church activities.
“While I don’t think it’s helpful to think of pre-Covid as the ‘good old days’ to which we should want to return,” IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams said, “looking at 2019 can provide churches with a sort of statistical benchmark for the future. That’s why I find it wonderfully encouraging that last year our Illinois churches surpassed their 2019 baptism number and moved beyond it.”
Salt and Life
At Salt Church, baptisms are a regular part of worship (above and on page 10). The congregation is reaching students at Illinois State University and across Bloomington-Normal. On page 10 (lower left): Jeremy Bennett baptizes a student as Dorrisville Baptist celebrates creekside.
Top IBSA churches in total baptisms
1
Harris is also very pleased with the improvement.
“We have talked for several years about our desire to see a move of the Holy Spirit that brings a fresh wave of salvations across our state,” Harris said. “We give God the glory for what he is doing.”
Harris saw the trend in 2022 of churches that reported one or zero baptisms. There were 23 churchs represented in a group he invited to participate in Ignite training. Together they focused on simple, regular actions by church members that bring the gospel to the community and encourage people to share their faith.
“We asked them to start by finding one thing they could do in their community to start meeting people, and meeting a need,” Harris said.
“Just as I have done in churches I served as interim pastor, we encouraged pastors to lead their members in prayer, and to care and share,” Harris said. “We got on our knees in worship services and
At an IBSA Annual Meeting several years Continued from page 9
prayed for lost people. Then we looked for opportunities to show the neighbors that we care. And church members began to share their faith.”
In the Ignite cohort Gaiter joined, 23 churches had reported a baptism statistic of one or none in the previous year. In 2024, 15 of those churches together baptized 68 people.
For churches struggling to bring people to faith and to the waters of baptism, baptizing just one or two new believers after a long dry spell is invigorating.
“We brought in the top ten baptizing churches in a several size categories to our first evangelism roundtable, to see what they were doing in here in Illinois that was proving effective,” Harris said. “We shared our findings with churches that needed encouragement— because we knew it’s possible to bring people to faith in our state.”
Continued from page 10
ago, a messenger said from the floor that making non-baptizing churches a ministry priority should be included in staff goals. His motion was heartily approved. And it’s being met now, year after year. And the impact multiplies. “That has taken root, and God is bringing fruit,” Harris said.
The number of IBSA churches reporting one or none in the ACP baptism report declined from 623 out of about 900 IBSA churches in 2022, to 477 in 2023, and then to 430 last year.
5.18%
Average CP giving by Illinois churches from their undesignated receipts in 2024. That is down from 6.68% in 2019.
The next goal is to once again reach 4,000 baptisms in a single year.
Harris continues to bring together pastors who want to see God revive their church’s passion for evangelism. He invites those who are interested in participating to contact him about the next round of Ignite cohorts, and to engage in the Revive Conference in Mt. Vernon March 20-21. More information is available at the IBSA website.
How it worked
According to Pastor Gaiter, Empowerment Community Church went from recording five baptisms in 2023 to 25 in 2024. And 2025 is getting off to a good start. In the next few months, the pastor said 11 young people are in line to be baptized.
“We strongly believe in baptism,” he said. “Baptism by immersion is an outside representation of what should transpire inside.”
This summer the church plans to set a pool up in its parking to host a baptism service every third Sunday from June through September as part of its “We See You” outreach campaign based on Matthew 9:35-38. Jesus went about the cities and villages sharing the gospel and was moved with compassion by them. The people were scattered abroad and had no shepherd, the harvest was plenty, but the workers were few.
Like the cities and villages Jesus visited, Gaiter said Empowerment Community is in a multicultural neighborhood. He and his church members see the people just like Jesus did. “We want to baptize 50 people from all races and backgrounds,” said Gaiter.
“Baptisms should be the first fruits of revitalized health in churches, and an early indicator of good things to come,” Adams said. “When churches rekindle their passion for reaching the lost, the other markers of healthy church life will often follow.”
More improvement to come
In his report to the IBSA Board, Adams pointed out three take-aways from the 2024 ACP tally.
1. IBSA churches saw continued 2024 increases in baptisms (+8.8%), AM Worship (+3%), SS Attendance (+1.1%) and VBS (+10.4%). Still, these categories are significantly lower than 2019 except for baptisms. IBSA churches did have a significant increase in professions of faith—up 15.6% from 2023 and 17.7% from 2019.
2. 2024 missions involvement in IBSA churches continued to increase significantly since last year in all areas. However, the involvement has not recovered to 2019 levels. As one example, the participation by church members in local missions projects five years ago was 19,824; but the number last year was 15,906. That’s a decline of 19.7%. While we can’t blame Covid for everything, its impact is still felt.
3. Overall giving to IBSA churches has increased beyond the 2019 level, and 2024 CP giving is 1% higher than 2023, but remains 13% lower than 2019. IBSA churches received total offerings of $92,863,510 in 2019; five years later that number had bounced back from Covid declines to 104,123,056. CP giving declined in that period, however, from $6,205,953 to $5,392,920.
State missions update MIO sees new participants, but comes up short of goal
Across Illinois | Receipts for the 2024 Mission Illinois Offering (MIO) totaled $307,486.41, below the goal of $350,000, and 6.8% below the 2023 total. The annual offering, collected by churches throughout the state each September, provides a financial boost for missions and ministry here in Illinois.
A total of 312 churches submitted MIO giving with individual church receipts ranging from $10 up to almost $13,000.
Last year’s campaign saw 49 new churches that did not collect an offering in 2023. However, there were 47 churches who did not register any MIO giving who participated the previous year, keeping the total church participation nearly unchanged.
“We are extremely thankful for the generous giving of each Illinois Baptist and the participation of each church that promotes the Mission Illinois Offering,” said IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams. “The spiritual need in Illinois is great. The prayers and financial contributions given every September through the MIO provide essential support, helping advance the gospel in our state.”
Every dollar given through the offering remains in Illinois, supporting ministries like evangelism training for churches, camps and retreats for students and kids, revitalization processes for existing churches, and support needed to plant new church-
es in the state.
In 2024, MIO supported ministries resulted in 154 churches equipped with new evangelism strategies, 14 churches planted or restarted, 173 churches engaged in revitalization processes, and over 1,000 teens and children learning about Jesus at Lake Sallateeska and Streator Baptists camps.
The 2025 Mission Illinois Offering and Week of Prayer is set for September 14-21, with the theme and financial goal to be announced this spring.
Church safety seminar offered
Because ‘no place is safe’
“There is no place that is safe,” said Jimmy Meeks
Last year in the U.S. alone, he said there were 114 violent deaths on church and faith-based properties. The retired police officer and Southern Baptist minister said, “Less than 10% of the violence was persecution related. Over 90% of the deaths are because they [the perpetrators] are angry, just mad at somebody.”
MEEKS
Meeks is the founder of Sheepdog Seminars, which is hosting the Bulletproof Church Safety Conference on April 24-26 at Central Christian Church in Mt. Vernon.
“When you add up all the people who have died, more people die a violent death in church shootings than in schools,” Meeks noted. “That’s not to say that one should be given more attention than the other.”
The conference features longtime Southern Baptist Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a U.S. Army Ranger, paratrooper, and former West Point psychology professor. Since his retirement from the Army in 1998, he’s trained military, law enforcement, mental health providers, church leaders, and school organizations in safety and violence prevention. He’s assisted with training mental health professionals in the aftermath of the Jonesboro school shooting and was involved in the counseling and/or court cases following the Paducah, Springfield (Oregon), Littleton, and Nickel Mines Amish school shootings.
Other speakers include:
• Hank Fahnert, the first officer to arrive at the scene of the 2017 mass shooting at First Baptist Church in Southerland Springs, Texas, where a gunman shot 46, killing 26.
• Carl Chinn, founder and president of Faith-Based Security Network (FBSN)
• Ken Alexandrow, founder of AGAPE Tactical; Sgt.
• Charles Lowe, retired St. Louis Metro Police
• Texas Police Officer Greg Stevens, who received the Presidential Medal of Valor for preventing the first ISIS attack on U.S. soil.
“Church people are waking up to the reality that the criminal mind doesn’t care where you are at, they will kill you,” Meeks warned.
The three-day conference is $75 per person.
To learn more or to register, go to bulletproofworship.com.
Misner
—Lisa
New signs of the times
Several years ago, I asked our graphic designer to help me with project. There was such a proliferation of pronouns at the time that I wanted him to take all the new ones and make a word cloud of them. There were 15 on the list. I planned to use the cloud with a column, saying that my preferred pronoun is “y’all.” I meant it tongue-in-cheek, of course. After all, Southerners know y’all is never singular.
But there was suddenly such an escalation in the pronoun debate that I was concerned my essay about the meanings of words would not be understood. More to the point, for some people it might seem personally hurtful. That was not my desire.
With the slew of executive orders concerning gender designations and what is acceptable for federal government usage, there is in the past month some sense that the pendulum has swung. The test of that theory might just be a junior high boy from Massachusetts whose lawsuit defending his right to support traditional gender designations could make it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a July 2023 report on minors and sexual transition surgeries, we included a sidebar on Liam Morrison. He wore a T-shirt to school reading, “There are only two genders.” School administrators forbade him to wear the shirt. He taped over part of the wording and wrote in “censored.” The school forbade that one too.
A whole school year has passed, and it appears the U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear Liam’s case.
The case isn’t about T-shirts, said David
Cortman, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the student. “It’s about a public school telling a middle-schooler that he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own,” he said.
The school can flood its hallways with Rainbow/ Pride imagery, Liam’s parents said at the time, but stopping him from expressing a counter opinion is a violation of their son’s First Amendment rights. They went to court. And lost.
A lower court in Boston upheld the concept that a school is a special environment where what might be free speech elsewhere could be personally damaging or disruptive there, and could be prohibited.
“The question here is not whether the T-shirts should have been barred,” David Barron wrote for a three-judge panel. “The question is who should decide whether to bar them—educators or federal judges.”
Or, if they choose, the nine highest justices in the land.
If the high court takes up the case, some will choose to read it not only as a case about First Amendment rights, but also as indicating a shift in the culture around gender issues. That M or F but not X are accepted gender designations on government documents. That diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are being dismantled. That major corporations are leaving DEI in the dust, even as some big box retailers have removed pride products from their shelves.
Times, they are a’changing, y’all.
—Eric Reed is IBSA media editor
FREE SPEAKER—Liam Morrison was in the seventh grade when he wore this T-shirt to school. His ADF attorneys said he “sought to participate in his school’s marketplace of ideas and address sociopolitical matters in a passive, silent, and untargeted way.”
GROWING
MEET THE TEAM
Sam Winkleman
Campus Ministry
McKendree University
Home: Harrisburg, Illinois
Education: Graduated from McKendree University, and currently studying at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary towards a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry.
Journey: During my sophomore year of college, the church I was attending was preparing to send out a new church plant. Through much prayer, the Lord made it clear that I was to move and be part of this plant, which became the church I now pastor, Rooted Community Church.
Family: When at McKendree University, I met my wife. We have twin boys!
Life verse: Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Favorite Bible person: Paul. His life shows that God can change anyone and use them to bring himself glory.
Value of my work: College students are typically searching to find purpose in life, and students from all across the globe have come right into our backyards. God has given us such an amazing opportunity. We have seen growth in numbers, but more importantly, we are seeing people come to know, and follow Jesus more and more.
What do I like about the area: McKendree and Lebanon both have a great small town feel.
Hobby: Watching movies and trying new fun restaurants
Ice Cream: Mint Chocolate Chip
Movie: Lord of the Rings
table talk
OHelp us be the Church
There’s more
ne of the top requests that churches in Illinois ask of our state convention is “Help us grow our church.” As a pastor myself, I want to offer some clarifying versions of that request. First, “Can you help us be the church in our context with the resources that we have?”
Here in the metro Chicago, that would involve thinking carefully about being a warm congregation that welcomes a variety of people. It would require sharing ourselves with others—people who may not vote the way we do, look the way we look, dress the way we dress, or believe everything we believe. The first days of the first church recorded in Acts 2:42-47 help us evaluate whether we are doing this well.
Welcoming people with sincerity leads to having a good reputation in the community. The term Luke uses is “favor” (v. 47). One pastor shared with me a concern about our SBC family: “It seems that we are known more for what we are against than what we are for.” If the only time our communities hear from us is when we are standing against something, we will not appear very open to them. The words of Jeremiah ring true: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:3).
Here’s a second version of the need: “Help us discern creative ways to serve our community.”
Not by doing what every other church is doing or what we have
than one way to grow your ministry
always done, but in ways relevant to people in our context, I would say. VBS and book bag give-aways are good, but they’re not the only ministry methods available.
For example, the church I pastor took a mission trip to New Orleans to work with a church plant. One of the primary projects was cleaning storm drains. The city does not have resources to keep storm drains in working order, and clogged drains mean frequent flooding. So, this church walks through the neighborhood with trash bags and cleans the storm drains. The residents are so appreciative they come from their homes and places of business to say thank you. One bakery shop owner brought us fresh cupcakes! Cleaning storm drains afforded us opportunities to have dozens of gospel conversations. A church may not have signs and wonders like the apostles, but every church can find their “storm drain.”
A third statement churches might say is “Help us understand what it means to make disciples and how to do it.” I would say think inside and outside the church. It may be in a small group setting at the church building, or in a home, or one-on-one at a coffee shop.
Regardless of the church’s size or demographics, everyone can impart some measure of spiritual wisdom to encourage others in their walk with Jesus. A group of seasoned saints can offer childcare for a few hours in the evening while young couples or
“Does it really matter which one of us got to the tomb first?”
single moms in the neighborhood enjoy an evening out. Moms can offer baking classes at the church or in a home and invite kids from the neighborhood to attend. Such efforts provide opportunities to serve, but they also create environments to model faith with children and develop relationships with parents.
As in Acts 2:42, churches would do well to develop rhythms of focused prayer, where every member is praying for unsaved, unchurched, and de-churched people. I traveled to Dallas, Texas recently to preach a funeral. The funeral director was a retired SBC pastor. He asked how my church was doing. I told him that God is doing great things, but there are always challenges with reaching new people. His response impacted me greatly, “Keep praying for lost people in your community and allow God to work.”
Every church can pray, and God still answers prayer. The Pentecost explosion was preceded by a room full of people praying (Acts 1:14). Cornelius’ entire household and several friends and neighbors were saved because his prayers made their way into the presence of God (Acts 10:1-4;23-48). The great church at Philippi started with a woman named Lydia who led a small prayer meeting by the side of a river (Acts 11-16). Of all the ingredients needed to advance the kingdom, there is no substitute for fervent prayer.
The first-century church would not have considered itself as implementing a grand strategy for church growth. They were simply obedient to the call of Christ and yielded to the unction of the Spirit. They were being the church that Jesus made them to be, and it worked.
Bryan Price pastors Love Fellowship Baptist Church in Romeoville. He also serves as IBSA Zone Consultant in Chicagoland.
BRIGHTER DAY
Heart of the matter
When our girls were younger, The Jesus Storybook Bible was our bedtime reading on most nights. And the story they often chose was “The Girl No One Wanted,” about Jacob’s lesser-loved wife Leah and her long struggle to be valued.
In this version of the story, Sally Lloyd-Jones uses modern language to describe the differences between Leah and her sister Rachel, Jacob’s cherished wife. Rachel was the girl invited to every party and picked for every team, she writes. Leah, on the other hand, often went unnoticed. Some people even thought she was ugly.
The Leah story I knew growing up noted her “weak eyes” and put her in a very distant second place to her sister. Either version is a hard story, especially for girls who grow up fearing their “weak eyes” or any number of other physical attributes will hold them back or, worse, that their appearance somehow makes them less valuable, less worthy.
Our girls came back to it again and again, though, mostly drawn in by the story’s resolution. Leah wasn’t loved by her husband as whole-heartedly as her sister, Rachel, but in the end, she was still
seen and loved and used by God. The names she chose for her first sons acknowledge that God saw her affliction and heard her, despite a lesser-than status in her sprawling, complicated family.
It’s a reminder God must have known we would need again and again. Several times in Scripture, we’re reminded of our tendency to judge a book by its cover, while God looks at the heart.
David didn’t compare well with his brothers, but God made him a king (1 Samuel 16:7).
Jesus “didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2), but God has lifted him up and given him the name above every other (Philippians 2:9).
Don’t let your true beauty be outward, Peter warns in 1 Peter 3. Instead, focus on your heart.
In The Jesus Storybook Bible, the illustration on the last page of Leah’s chapter is her smiling, trailed by a parade of children God gave her—each a reminder that he keeps his promises. That our tendency to judge outer appearances is not how he operates. God is sovereign over all he has created, and his plans cannot be thwarted.
Meredith Flynn is a wife, mother of two, and writer living in Springfield. She and her family are active members of Delta Church.
with the lord
Floyd Andrew Hendrix, 60, of Murrayville, died Feb. 4 after a long illness. He served many Illinois churches, including Villa Hills in Belleville, Grace Winchester, Calvary Jacksonville, Nilwood, and Cutler. A native of Dupo, Hendrix graduated from Liberty University with a bachelor’s in theology. He is survived by his wife, Kris, with whom he had three sons and one daughter. Hendrix was known as a guitarist. He loved bluegrass and gospel music.
Gerald “Jerry” McDaniel, 94, died Feb. 10 at his home in Robinson. McDaniel was a pastor and preacher for 70 years, following his call to ministry at 19. He held degrees from Bible Institute in Decatur and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. McDaniel served several churches in his ministry, including Highland Avenue Baptist Church in Robinson 1997-2003. He also served various roles in Palestine Baptist Association. He is survived by his wife of 75 years, June, three children and their spouses, and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
CLASSIFIED AD
FULL-TIME PASTOR
For rural community in south-central Missouri. SBC church averages 80-90 members on Sunday morning. We would like a man who wants to lead and work beside us as we serve our community and share the Gospel.
Reply to: Mary Moore, search committee secretary First Baptist Church, P.O. Box 665, Belle, MO 65013 or email maryalicemoore2016@gmail.com.
MEREDITH FLYNN
EVENTS
March 2-9
Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and Week of Prayer
Where: Your church
Info: anniearmstrong.com
March 4
Metro Peoria All Church Training
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/ACT
Contact: TammyButler@IBSA.org
March 13
Metro East All Church Training
Where: Meadow Heights Baptist Church, Collinsville
When: 6:30 p.m.
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/ACT
Contact: TammyButler@IBSA.org
see the IBSA calendar for more events. www.ibsa.org/calendar/
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 offer this conference for pastors and lay leaders.
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
Disaster Relief Training
March 20-21: temple baptist, canton april 11-12: emmanuel, carlinville
What: Courses: Vary by location, childcare and chaplaincy, flood recovery and incident management. Check online. Cost: Current members are free. New members or those with expired badges cost $50. Info: IBSA.org/events
Contact: JanetSheley@IBSA.org
March 29
Multiply IL Español
What: Multiply IL Español will focus on reaching and developing the next generation of Hispanic church leaders. Where: Iglesia Emanuel, Aurora Cost: Free Info: IBSA.org/events
Contact: PaulWestbrook@IBSA.org
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! For students grade 6-high school.
Cost: $40, plus $10 for optional T-shirt
Info: IBSA.org/events/student-discipleship-retreat-streator/ Contact: TammyButler@IBSA.org
April 25-26
(Optional pre-conference april 24)
PRIORITY
Where: Wyndham Springfield City Centre, Springfield
When: Thursday 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
What: IBSA’s premiere conference for women leaders. Cost: Pre-Conference Cost: $50 (Box lunch included)
Conference Cost: $60 (Box lunch included)
Conference Bundle Option: $90 (includes leadership breakfast, T-shirt)
Info: IBSA.org/ministries/women/priority/
Contact: TammyButler@IBSA.org
May 2-3
Send Relief Serve Tour
Where: Evansville, Indiana
What: Imagine the impact of 500 Illinois Baptists joining Serve Tour Evansville, where they will serve 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.
Cost: Free Info: https://www.sendrelief.org/serve-tour/evansville-servetour-stop/
Contact: ShannonFord@IBSA.org
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.
An expansive, yet precise view of God
The Baptist Faith & Message has always expressed our belief that God is three-in-one. But the brief five lines found in Article II of the 1925 BF&M gave only the most basic explanation of the Three. Attributes and activities of each were sprinkled throughout the other 24 articles (now condensed to 18). But beginning with the 1963 BF&M, Article II was expanded into three parts.
Within this expansive treatment, readers will find familiar beliefs about God, widely shared among orthodox Christians. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is omnipotent and omniscient. He is the infinite Creator and Ruler of all. But a closer look reveals words carefully chosen to emphasize the particular Southern Baptist theoloical beliefs about the triune God.
Doctrine in the details
This stands against both open theism and hard determinism.
God is Creator of all, but he is Father only to those who become his children through faith in Jesus. This stands against a soft universalism.
Our God is not just Creator and Ruler, but also Redeemer of the universe. Our God’s perfect knowledge knows no bounds, extending into eternity past and future. His knowing even peers into the future decisions of his free creatures.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being
A. God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
Gen 1:1; 2:7; Exod 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Lev 22:2; Deut 6:4;
affirms his death in the place of sinners as the chief accomplishment of the cross.
“There is nought that can fill the heart of man except the Trinity. God has made man’s heart a triangle. Men have been for centuries trying to make the globe fill the triangle, but they cannot do it.”
Christ is the eternal Son of God. He was not a man who became the Son of God at his baptism. His conception was supernatural, born of a virgin. He honored God’s divine law by living a perfect life, free from sin. He died a substitutionary death, not simply an exemplary one. He was raised from the dead in a resurrected body and ascended to Heaven where he is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man. This stands against views of Jesus as less than fully human or fully divine. And it
32:6; 1 Chron 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8; Jer 10:10; 17:13; Matt 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-8; Acts 1:7; Rom 8:14-15; 1 Cor 8:6; Gal 4:6; Eph 4:6; Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17; Heb 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7.
B. God the Son Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mis-
The Holy Spirit is the fully divine third person of the Godhead. Reflecting our central belief in the primacy of Scripture, the BF&M details the work of the Holy Spirit in inspiring the Bible’s authors and his work in illuminating the Bible’s readers. Standing against a works salvation, the Spirit’s role in conviction of sin, regeneration of the sinner, and sanctifying and sealing the believer is affirmed. And distinct from Pentecostalism, the BF&M states that the Holy Spirit baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ at the moment of regeneration, not a second experience.
The God who was, is, and is to come
How should this expression of our faith affect us? Maybe it is most succinctly stated by the 17th century hymn writer Thomas Ken.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
sion. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord. Gen 18:1ff.; Psalm 2:7ff.; 110:1ff.; Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 53:1-12; Matt 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11; Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70; 24:46; John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:7-11; 16:15-16,28; 17:1-5, 21-22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20; Rom 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4; 1 Cor 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28; 2 Cor 5:19-21; 8:9; Gal 4:4-5; Eph 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10; Phil 2:5-11; Col 1:13-22; 2:9; 1 Thess 4:14-18; 1 Tim 2:5-6; 3:16; Titus 2:1314; Heb 1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:1215,24-28; 12:2; 13:8; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22; 1 John 1:7-9; 3:2; 4:14-15; 5:9; 2 John 7-9; Rev 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 12:10-11; 13:8; 19:16.
C. God the Holy Spirit
judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of
Gen 1:2; Judges 14:6; Job 26:13; Psalm 51:11; 139:7ff.; Isaiah 61:1-3; Joel 2:28-32; Matt 1:18; 3:16; 4:1; 12:28-32; 28:19; Mark 1:10,12; Luke 1:35; 4:1,18-19; 11:13; 12:12; 24:49; John 4:24; 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:714; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4,38; 4:31; 5:3; 6:3; 7:55; 8:17,39; 10:44; 13:2; 15:28; 16:6; 19:1-6; Rom 8:9-11,14-16,2627; 1 Cor 2:10-14; 3:16; 12:3-11,13; Gal 4:6; Eph 1:13-14; 4:30; 5:18; 1 Thess 5:19; 1 Tim 3:16; 4:1; 2 Tim 1:14; 3:16; Heb 9:8,14; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 John 4:13; 5:6-7; Rev 1:10; 22:17.