Eleven Portraits

Visitors to the IBSA office building in Springfield sometimes take note of eleven portraits displayed there, acknowledging the men who have served IBSA as executive director since its formation in 1907. Those portraits used to hang in the entrance lobby, and since our building renovation a few years ago they have been on display in our first floor Resource Room. While it’s hard for me to believe, by God’s grace I have just celebrated 10 years in that executive director role. That milestone recently led me to a few reflective moments in front of those portraits. Four of those men are simply historical figures to me, but I’ve had the privilege of meeting the other six personally. They each served in different times and faced different challenges, but together they form the legacy of leadership on which I now gratefully stand.

Church: Some Christians espouse evolution

38% of evangelicals say humans evolved over time, but they differ on how:

I’ve been told by others around the Southern Baptist Convention that 10 years seems to be about the typical length of service in the state executive director role. Since years of service are noted on a little plaque beneath each of the IBSA portraits, I did the math and learned that indeed the average term of service here in Illinois has been just over nine years.

There are, however, two distinct groups of IBSA executive directors among my 10 predecessors. Six men served less than seven years, and four served 12 or more. The smaller, longer-serving group were four of the first five executive directors, all of whom completed their service by the 1970s. The larger, shorter-serving group represent the more current trend. And at 10 years’ service, I now stand in the middle.

There are many reasons why leaders stay in roles for a short time, including some which are beyond their control. So I wouldn’t second guess the Lord’s leadership or providence in any of the shorter terms of service. But after investing 10 years here at IBSA, I have a new appreciation for the men in the longer term group.

It takes time to establish relationships, and to build trust. It takes time to learn the many systems and traditions and landmines inherent in a thousand diverse churches working together. It takes time to learn the regional and ethnic and generational uniqueness of churches and their leaders. It takes time to take necessary risks and make unavoidable mistakes, and then to recover and learn from them. And I’m now discovering that it takes time to do it all again and again, as new pastors and leaders come on the scene.

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After 10 years, I feel in some ways I’m just getting started and just beginning to figure some things out. Yet by the law of averages I’ve already had as many years as most executive directors ever get. It makes me admire the men who stayed 12, or 17, or 19 years. And it makes me want to sprint right past this 10-year mark and see what might be possible in the company of these long-tenured men that preceded me.

It’s certainly possible to overstay your welcome, or to outstay your effectiveness. And it’s always best when a leader can recognize that time long before anyone else does. But for the most part, it can be very good for an organization and its mission when a leader finds favor and stays.

So if you are wondering whether to stay and persevere where you are, let me encourage you to do so if at all possible. One day you will take your place among the portraits of former leaders in your place of service. It may be less and less common for leaders to stay long in one place. But if God gives you grace and favor to do so, I believe you will find a unique influence that only comes with time.

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

From the front: chicago gun fight

Continued from page 1

His church is now raising money to build a community center in its place.

In 2015, Chicago had 468 homi cides, the Chicago Tribune reported, the most of any U.S. city. More than 2,900 people were shot. Already in 2016, there have been 467 shooting victims in Chicago.

Brooks’s church sits in a neighborhood that one newspaper labeled in 2014 the city’s most dangerous. But when New Beginnings moved in to the location, they were looking for a place they could make a difference.

“We wanted an area that really needed the gospel, an area that really needed a lot of help,” Brooks told the Illinois Baptist. “God has really been good to us, and we’re doing the best we can do in that area. It’s difficult, but we’re working really hard.”

Disaster Relief

5 Teams Respond To Water Crisis

Flint, Mich. | Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief teams will join a national effort to provide clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan, which made headlines last year after contaminated water sickened residents.

For six months, Southern Baptist volunteers will travel weekly to Flint to install water filtration systems in individual homes.

“This is very different than most disaster responses,” said IBSA’s Rex Alexander, who heads the state’s Disaster Relief ministry. “But because Southern Baptist Disaster Relief had such an impact after the flooding in Warren, Michigan, the Michigan Emergency Operations Center is asking specifically for Southern Baptists to help them again.”

Disaster Relief teams from across the country, including five from Illinois, responded in 2014 to the situation in Warren, where more than 1,000 homes were flooded. The opportunity to help in Flint came out of the assistance volunteers provided then, Mickey Caison, executive director of disaster relief for the North American Mission Board, told Baptist Press.

“Here we have government asking Southern Baptists to go into homes to do a specific task, but part of that task is to talk with the homeowners,” Caison said. “It’s interesting to me that God, in his love and grace, provides the opportunity to step into this environment. God continues to honor our commitment to serve him in this unique way, and he opens the doors for us in other places.”

Five teams from Illinois currently are preparing to serve in Flint, and each project is being organized by regional Disaster Relief leaders. Volunteers must be credentialed DR workers and undergo a background check. Interested volunteers should contact the individual leaders for the week they want to serve:

• March 13-20: Tom Clore (618) 841-4010

• March 20-27: Don Kragness (618) 983-5546

• April 3-10: Myron Taylor (618) 303-3748

• May 1-8: David Howard (217) 303-4699

• May 22-29: Daniel Waters (217) 691-3106

For more information about Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief training and missions opportunities, go to IBSA.org/dr.

The church started a non-profit called “Project HOOD” that focuses on mentoring initiatives. It was Brooks’s time on the motel roof that first introduced him to talk show host Steve Harvey, who gave the pastor his Best Community Leader Award in 2012. Harvey’s foundation has since partnered with Project HOOD.

On the Feb. 15 episode of Harvey’s show, which tapes in Chicago, Brooks’s fellow panelists—a former school principal, a journalist, and a Catholic priest—came from very different walks of life than his own. But to solve the problem of gun violence, Brooks said, people are going to have to work together.

In fact, that’s why his church affiliated with the Illinois Baptist State Association in 2015. “I realized that this issue is a lot bigger than what an independent church can handle,” Brooks said. “You need to be aligned and partnering and collaborating with other groups that believe what you believe” so that you can bring needed resources into communities, he said.

“The thing that will change and solve the problem of violence is the gospel.”

Camp manager named

Former IMB missionary to serve at Streator

Streator | Mike Young is the new manager of Streator Baptist Camp, IBSA’s camp and retreat facility in northern Illinois.

Young and his wife, Wendi, are returning to Illinois following a 9-year assignment with the International Mission Board in Czech Republic. As church planters there, they used a variety of outreach methods to reach people with the gospel, including some—archery classes, kite flying competitions, and nature hikes—that could come in handy in their new role at Streator.

“Mike has a unique skill set that we believe will help us take the ministry of Streator Baptist Camp to the next level,” said IBSA’s Mark Emerson.

The Youngs, whose families live in southern Illinois, both grew up in Belleville and lived in Nashville, Ill., before moving to Czech Republic. They have two children: Tyler, 19, and Emma, 16.

“We have seen, in Czech Republic and in Illinois, what an impact Christian camps can have on the people who attend,” Mike Young said. “Because camps allow a very unique opportunity to share the gospel, especially with youth, we have seen lives changed.

“We’re excited and humbled to be a small part of what God will do at Streator Baptist Camp.”

Young began his role at Streator on March 1.

Greear to run for SBC president

J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the annual meeting in St. Louis, Baptist Press reported March 2.

Florida pastor Jimmy Scroggins, who plans to nominate Greear, said he “is God’s man for the hour who models in his church the best of what a Southern Baptist pastor is all about.”

Greear, 42, has pastored The Summit for 14 years, during which time worship attendance has grown from 350 to just under 10,000, Scroggins told Baptist Press. The Summit’s giving to Southern Baptist missions and ministry includes more than $1 million annually to IMB-related causes and more than half a millions dollars to NAMB-related causes.

Greear said, “One of the things God has put on my heart is that my generation needs to take personal responsibility for the agencies and the mission boards of the SBC and not just think of them as the SBC’s, but think of them as ours.”

The Baptist divide

This political year illustrates a divide in the SBC, said Tennessee pastor and Baptist21 leader Jon Akin, over how the gospel influences how we engage the culture.

“…I think every well-intentioned Southern Baptist would say when pressed that the gospel is the only thing that can ultimately change a people or a country,” Akin wrote on the B21 website. “What I mean is our actions and emotions reveal which side of the divide we are on.

“Does the kingdom of God advance through a prophetic, gospel-witness in the culture that transforms individuals and communities all around the globe? Or, does the kingdom advance and (is) change effected through electing the right people who will make America ‘great again’ as a bastion for Christianity and conservative values?”

Abortion clinics close

The number of abortion clinics in the U.S. is on a steep downward trend, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. At least 162 abortion providers have closed or stopped performing abortions since 2011, while only 21 have opened. “State regulations that make it too expensive or logistically impossible for facilities to remain in business drove more than a quarter of the closings,” Bloomberg reported. “Industry consolidation, changing demographics, and declining demand were also behind the drop, along with doctor retirements and crackdowns on unfit providers.”

– Baptist Press, Baptist21, Bloomberg

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