May 1, 2022 Illinois Baptist

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Baptist

IBSA reviews abuse policy

Plus: SBC report due soon

Springfield | No bombshells are expected when results of an investigation into the SBC’s handling of sexual abuse claims are released in May. What may come are recommendations on the state level to improve existing response mechanisms in local churches and denominational entities, including in Illinois.

An independent firm is contracted to report on its examination of the SBC Executive Committee’s actions on claims by alleged victims one month prior to the June 12-15 Annual Meeting. (See related story page 3.) In the meantime, the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission continues its role as advocate for victims and educator for church leaders before they are confronted with abuse. New guidelines are expected, in addition to the Caring Well initiative developed after reports of poorly handled abuse cases were first published by the Houston Chronicle in 2019.

Closer to home, state conventions are reviewing their own procedures.

Illinois was not one of the 12 Baptist state conventions where messengers to their annual meetings last year voted to require a state investigation, but the Illinois Baptist State Association is reviewing its own increased screening, reporting, and training procedures implemented after the national abuse stories surfaced.

“Illinois messengers did not request any actions like this at IBSA’s annual meeting, perhaps because in recent

The Illinois Baptist staff

Editor - Eric Reed

Graphic Designer - Kris Kell

Contributing Editor - Lisa Misner

Copy Editor - Leah Honnen

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.

The BIG Baptist family album

Our Illinois mission field

Vince Bissey and his wife, Cristen, will launch Requiem Church in Alton this fall. Bissey was pastor of discipleship and development at August Gate Church in Belleville, his sending church. Bissey’s prayer is that Jesus will develop a culture of intentional gospelcentered relationships through Requiem.

Pray the news: SBC ramps up response

NATE ADAMS

Hope set high

Have you ever set out with high hopes, only to find things not working out as you expected? Should that happen even in church and in ministry?

Last summer our son Noah and his family moved from the Chicago suburbs where he was a pastor to the front range of the Colorado mountains and a church staff there. Beth and I just visited them, in part to care for our grandson Ezra while Noah and Alyssa took some time off together prior to our second grandson’s arrival in June.

Almost from the outset, the trip we experienced was not the trip we expected. A sore throat and sinus infection left me sluggish and medicated most of the trip. The couple’s departure for their “babymoon” was delayed by an emergency at her workplace. Throughout our visit, cool temperatures and high winds altered many of our outdoor ambitions.

So, a focus of our time together became a home improvement project. It involved replacing the flooring on the main level of their home, and all the moving, sawing, trimming, bending, and cleanup that implies.

To be fair, this was plan B for our week, and Noah had already completed almost half of the project by himself before we arrived. He continued to do all the most difficult and skilled labor, while we simply assisted and lent extra hands and encouragement.

While working together, we talked not only about the change in our week’s plans, but about the unexpected turns that life and ministry sometimes bring. Through a series of circumstances, three ministerial staff from Noah’s church have resigned or retired since his arrival. The needs and challenges of the church and his own job description have changed dramatically, requiring that he adjust, problem-solve, and grow.

The SBC’S Send Relief leaders visited Baptists in Romania and Moldova April 8-12 to learn about their ministry to Ukranian refugees. Baptists there were first responders as refugees flooded across their borders. President Bryant Wright said the organization plans to send funds for food, clothing, and medical supplies. SBC churches have given $8 million so far.

Cooperative Program offerings at work

Times change and so do expectations. Will

we?

During one of our conversations, I recalled for Noah advice from a mentor who told me that you really want to be confident in God’s calling to a place because “the things that bring you somewhere may not be the things that keep you there.”

In other words, things change, sometimes a lot.

People in your life change, sometimes a lot. Circumstances and challenges change, sometimes a lot. And if God has called you to a place, he has called you to face and to help others through those changes, whether they match your prior expectations or not. Sometimes you come to hike and end up replacing flooring.

Amy Grant sang, “I’ve got my hope set high… And I can do my best and pray to the Father, but the one thing I ought to know by now, when it all comes down…if there’s anything good that happens in life, it’s from Jesus.”

Noah had his hope set high when he moved to Colorado. I had my hope set high when I came to IBSA. You had your hope set high when you accepted your current place of ministry. Now a lot of stuff has changed. Will our hope?

IMB missionary Angela Dawson weighed the sacrifice of a call to long-term missions, including diminished chances of having a family. Serving in Thailand, God provided a family for her. Angela provides a home for abandoned teenage girls. They call her “Mom.”

Giving by IBSA churches as of 04/22/22

$1,668,015

Budget Goal: $2,026,927

Received to date in 2021: $1,937,322.52

2022Goal: $6.2 Million

When hopes are set based on our plans and expectations, we inevitably get disappointed, even hurt. But when we remember that our hope—our confident expectation of future good—is based on God and his calling and promises, we can adjust and persevere, confident that it is these very challenges to which we have been called.

On the day we headed home from Colorado, we acknowledged that the transformative work we did, and the spiritual conversations we had, were the Lord’s real purpose for our time together, regardless of our prior expectations. It has encouraged me again to keep my hope set high, and therefore my perseverance.

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

– IMB photo of refugees leaving Suceava, Romania April 18, headed to Bucharest.

From the front: ibsa reviews sexual abuse policies

Continued from page 1

years IBSA has practiced very transparent and proactive reporting in this area, and also offered resources and training in prevention,” IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams said. “Still, it seemed wise to me to appoint a staff study team, and to ask them to consider additional input from professionals and victims, in order to assess IBSA’s current practices and future needs as we assist churches.”

Associate Executive Director Mark Emerson is heading up the IBSA staff study team. He joined representatives from other state conventions and the ERLC in a conference on the issue in early April.

Emerson expects new recommendations to focus increasingly on victims, as well as legal requirements, mandatory reporting, and handling of staff or volunteers who are accused. “That’s an ‘ah-ha’ moment for us,” Emerson said. “The list of everything you’re supposed to be doing needs greater focus on ministry to the victim. We need to ‘be Jesus’ in that situation.”

Some state representatives said they struggled to find professionals who knew both legal and ministry requirements in

bchfs

cases of abuse and were able to train organizations for their response. Emerson said he was encouraged by the number of “trauma-informed counselors” available to assist churches in Illinois Baptist life.

Even with the first round of training for churches after abuse stories in the SBC were first reported, Emerson said the view persists that “it can’t happen here.” It can.

“We all need heightened awareness, training, and vigilance in order to provide environments that are consistently safe from abuse, and from the predators who often seek to prey on trusting and open environments such as churches,” Adams said. Adams pointed to the value of the Caring Well resources produced at the national SBC level. So far, only about five percent of SBC churches have participated in the training.

“I would urge each church and ministry to do these kinds of self-studies, and to be prepared proactively, both to prevent and, when tragically necessary, to respond responsibly to reports of sexual abuse,” Adams said. “Our IBSA staff is willing and available to help churches train and prepare in their local contexts.”

Houseparent charged with assault

Carmi | A staff member of the Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services of Illinois (BCHFS) was arrested Friday, April 15, on four counts of Criminal Sexual Assault/ Supervisor with Victim 13–17. The charges involved one person.

Daniel W. Lanning Jr. was charged after a resident of the BCHFS facility in Carmi made a report against him. BCHFS cooperated with the Department of Children and Family Services and the White County Sheriff’s office in their investigation, according to the head of the Children’s Home.

Lanning and his wife served as houseparents in a BCHFS cottage since July 2021. His wife was not implicated in the investigation, according to BCHFS. The head of the ministry also reports a thorough background check was conducted at the time Lanning was hired with no incidents reported. Both Lanning and his wife were terminated after his arrest.

“We are fully cooperating with investigators,” said Interim Executive Director

Doug Devore. “The care of our residents is very important to us, and we have extensive policies in place in an ongoing effort to protect the children in our care.” There will be a thorough review of BCHFS policies and practices, Devore said. Devore served on the staff of BCHFS 44 years, including 22 years as Executive Director. He returned in an interim capacity in February following the departure of the Executive Director to accept a position out of state.

BCHFS is one of three entities operating under the umbrella of the Illinois Baptist State Association. The Association itself (IBSA) serves almost 1,000 Illinois churches in missions, evangelism, church planting, and leadership development. The Baptist Foundation of Illinois (BFI) leads financial development for Illinois Baptist interests and church members. All three entities operate with their own separate constitutions and boards of directors.

SBC study due soon

Costs $1.7 million so far

Nashville, Tenn. | The cost of the national investigation into alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has reached $1.7 million since being commissioned last fall, according to invoice summaries provided to Baptist Press. The budget provided by Guidepost Solutions, the firm contracted to conduct the investigation, originally projected the investigation to cost between $1.3 million and $1.6 million.

Willie McLaurin, interim EC President and CEO, said those expenditures reflect the wishes of Southern Baptists regarding the investigation.

“The final authority and final accountability for how funds are spent is given by the messengers and the convention,” he said. “Southern Baptists can be confident that while the investigation focused on the Executive Committee, the EC has diligently fulfilled the request of the messengers by funding the investigation. I am incredibly thankful that for such a time as this, reserve funds were available to use without having impact on our cooperative work.”

The reserve funds McLaurin referenced are generated from gifts allocated through the Cooperative Program to the EC. Those reserves have been built over the years through investments and as of February stood at $15 million, with $12.2 million in unrestricted funds.

Legal fees were originally approved for $500,000, but also increased in February to $2 million in a unanimous vote by EC trustees.

Bruce Frank, pastor of Biltmore Church in Arden, N.C., and chair of the Sexual Abuse Task Force, commended Guidepost’s work and thanked them for a $458,154 credit to the February invoice. “I am very grateful for the immense professionalism shown by Guidepost in dealing with a condensed time frame—due to EC delays—and a large project,” Frank said. “We are also grateful for the professional courtesy discount given by Guidepost due to this project’s importance.”

SBC President Ed Litton appointed the Task Force to oversee an independent, third-party review, per the motion brought forward and approved by messengers. The Guidepost report will be released prior to the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim. It explored the handling of claims of sexual abuse within SBC churches by EC leaders, and involved about 200 interviews of EC staff, trustees, church leaders, and advocates for victims of abuse.

“This process has been difficult and costly, but these obstacles do not compare to the devastation and pain wrought by sexual abuse,” Litton said. “I am grateful that in recent months our Executive Committee staff and trustees have acted decisively to support this investigation. I would ask all Southern Baptists to continue to pray not only for this process but for the recommendations and reforms it will yield.”

– Excerpted from Baptist Press

Court hears praying coach

The U.S. Supreme Court’s five conservative justices seemed to favor the football coach who was penalized for praying on the field after games. That assessment by USA Today was based on questions the justices asked when they heard the case April 25. Joe Kennedy of Washington state initially prayed alone, but then students began joining him. Some parents objected, saying their children felt pressured to pray. Kennedy was placed on paid leave and did not pursue renewal of his contract. Illinois Family Institute was one of a dozen religious organizations that joined a brief in support of Kennedy, who twice lost his suit against the school board in lower courts. A ruling is expected this summer.

Protestant justice joins bench

Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Protestant to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court since the death of John Paul Stevens in 2010. She will also be the first black woman to serve on the Court.

“Despite the philosophical and legal differences individuals like me will have with her, Judge Jackson’s confirmation is a history-making moment,” said Brent Leatherwood, acting president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “We should appreciate it as such. If we lose the ability to do that, we lose something that makes America an exceptional nation.”

Confirmed by the U.S. Senate April 7, she will replace retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. Her appointment is not expected to change the balance of the Court.

States prepare for federal abortion ruling

While the country awaits the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson, which could alter the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade, many state legislatures enacted stricter abortion laws. A few states, however, strengthened efforts to be known as “sanctuaries” for women seeking abortions.

Kentucky legislators passed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, then voted to override a veto by Gov. Andy Beshear. The state’s two abortion clinics closed immediately.

Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have now taken the state to court. Florida also passed a 15-week ban which will go into effect July 1.

Oklahoma banned abortion except to save the life of the mother. Idaho made it illegal to perform an abortion if a heartbeat can be detected. Arizona, South Dakota, and West Virginia also passed pro-life measures this spring.

Pro-life activists warned the language in a proposed California bill could legalize infanticide. The bill is similar to one passed in Maryland that restricts investigation of infant deaths including those caused by miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, or perinatal death up to four weeks after birth.

Meanwhile, Colorado guaranteed abortion as a “fundamental right,” similar to a recent New Jersey law. The Illinois House passed a resolution declaring a commitment to abortion through “reproductive health” and condemned recent pro-life actions in Missouri, Texas, and Florida.

Schools seek help in hard times

HLGU and TEDS raise funds, Lincoln closes

Illinois | Experts in higher education have predicted tough times for smaller institutions as enrollments dwindle and costs rise, with the outcome that many of them will close. Several Illinois colleges and seminaries are facing that reality now.

Hannibal-LaGrange University (HLGU) in Missouri is seeking to raise $2.2 million by July in order to reopen for the fall semester. As of mid-April, the school had sold some property, accepted contributions from donors and several nearby churches, and received a pledge of $180,000 from the Missouri Baptist Convention. But board chair Mark Anderson reported HLGU will still need to raise $120,000 per week through the summer.

HGLU is considering a reduction in staff and cutting some of their 30 majors. The enrollment dropped by 450 to about 1,200 over a decade, according to published statistics.

Meanwhile, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in suburban Deerfield, Illinois has cut seven faculty positions and trimmed almost $1 million from its budget in an effort to stave off financial disaster. The student body at the Chicago-area seminary has declined 44% in 20 years, according to Christianity Today

“TEDS, never a big school, has long had an outsized influence on evangelicalism,”

the magazine reported. “The seminary made a name for itself in the defense of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy…. It was the institutional home for theologians D. A. Carson, Wayne Grudem, Clark H. Pinnock, Kevin Vanhoozer, and Bruce Ware, and has produced scholars such as Scot McKnight, Douglas Moo, Mark Noll, and David F. Wells.”

Lincoln Christian College and Seminary is closing. The school will graduate its last classes May 13 after 157 years in operation. Lincoln, in the town that bears the same name, had record enrollment in the two years prior to the pandemic, with dorm housing at capacity, but the shutdown caused by Covid proved to be an obstacle they could not overcome. MacMurray College in Jacksonville closed in 2020 after 146 years. First founded by Methodists, “Mac” had 1,500 students at its peak, but fell to 530 before debt of more than $3 million forced closure. Its aging properties at the heart of Jacksonville were sold to developers.

“You have to have a clear long-term strategy,” former MacMurray Vice President for Academic Affairs David Fitz told the Detroit Free Press. “I’m not sure the college ever did that well. We moved from crisis to crisis and managed well, until we couldn’t and then it had to close.”

Bus tour brings hope to city

Chicago | A Chicagoland tradition returned in April after a Covid-induced absence— the bus tour bringing prayer support to churches, pastors, and planters.

“It was an intense and rewarding way to spend the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter, longing for the power of God to be displayed in the hard places of our city,” said Nathan Carter, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church and an IBSA zone consultant for Cook and Dupage counties.

The tour, organized by the Chicago Metro Baptist Association (CMBA), started with breakfast, singing, and prayer at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Englewood. Then about 25 participants boarded the bus with stops in South Chicago, the Lakeshore, Independence Park, and Willow Springs.

CMBA Prayer Coordinator Cheryl Dorsey planned intercession all along the way— much like prayer walking on wheels.

“All the churches we visited were greatly encouraged,” Carter said. “The participants got to know each other and experience a good representative sample of the different mission fields in Chicagoland.”

JACKSON

HANDS ON – Pastors Bryan Coble (top photo foreground) and Rick Dorsey shared prayer support at the community center where Coble is planting a congregation. Pray-ers sang in English and French at Gabaon Baptist Church, a Haitian congregation (bottom photo).

Pastors’ Conference focuses on Colossians

Planners listened to more than 500 sermons as they selected a dozen speakers for the 2022 SBC Pastors’ Conference. “What you will see on the platform in Anaheim is what you see on any Sunday throughout the Southern Baptist Convention—pastors from all backgrounds in churches of every style and size, remaining faithful to preach the inerrant Word of God,” said PC President Matt Henslee.

Baptist Press characterized the list this way: “from small congregations to megachurches and combat veteran to former Division I college football player.”

“And they’re gonna bless your Crocs, ColeHaans, or boots off, y’all!” Henslee said. The speakers will preach verse-by-verse through the Book of Colossians.

The Pastors’ Conference will be held June 12-13. Conference preachers will join song leaders Matt Boswell and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Cowden Hall Band. Guest preachers will be SWBTS President Adam Greenway and motivational speaker Daniel Ritchie

Here are the preachers:

Julio Arriola is NAMB church planting coordinator and recent executive director of Hispanic Relations and Mobilization for the SBC Executive Committee.

Matt Carter pastors Sagemont Church, Houston. His previous congregation in Austin began with 15 people and grew to more than 8,000.

Mark Clifton is NAMB senior director of Church Replanting and Rural Strategy and replanting pastor in Linwood, Kansas.

Marcus Hayes of Crossroads Baptist Church, The Woodlands, Texas, began as pastor during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Al Jackson recently retired after 42 years as pastor of Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, Ala.

Omar Johnson, Temple Hills (Md.) Baptist Church, is one of two speakers who are former interns of Capitol Hill Baptist in DC.

Daryl Jones of The Rock Fellowship Church, Pembroke Pines, Fla., is an accomplished track/football athlete and now a church planter.

Mathew Mueller, Valley Life Church, Peoria, Ariz., is a combat veteran and church planter.

Clay Smith, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga., succeeded Bryant Wright at the Atlanta-area megachurch.

P. J. Tibayan, Bethany Baptist Church, Bellflower, Calif., is the other former Capitol Hill DC intern.

Hanley Liu leads the English-speaking service at First Chinese Baptist Church, Walnut, Calif.

Israel Villalobos is pastor of Spanish Ministries at Plymouth Park Baptist Church, Irving, Texas.

The event starts at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 12, and continues most of Monday, June 13, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with a few breaks.

SBC Preview

Turnover

Big ballot changes, but it’s still a three-man race

More hurdles developed in the race for president of the Southern Baptist Convention as one candidate withdrew and another announced his intention to run—all this after current SBC President Ed Litton chose not to seek the customary second one-year term.

Texas pastor Bart Barber is the newest candidate, following the withdrawal of Florida pastor Willy Rice in April. Barber will be nominated by SBC Pastors’ Conference president Matt Henslee at the Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, June 14-15, 2022.

Pastor of First Baptist Church, Farmersville, Barber will also serve as the chairman of the Committee on Resolutions at the June meeting, a position he was appointed to by Litton.

“Barber is what Southern Baptists are when they are at their best,” Henslee told Baptist Press. “(FBC Farmersville) gives generously through the Cooperative Program and directly supports missionaries and church planters. As a pastor, Barber is actively involved in the local association, state convention, and the national level of the Southern Baptist Convention. He preaches the Word faithfully, reaches the lost passionately, and truly believes Baptists are at their best when they are working together to advance the kingdom.

In addition to his leadership of the Committee on Resolutions this year, Barber served on the committee in 2021, preached at the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 2017, served as first vice president of the SBC from 2013 through 2014, served on the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention executive board from 2008 through 2014 (including serving as chairman and vice chairman), served as a trustee for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 2009 through 2019 and served on the SBC Committee on Committees in 2008. He also previously taught as an adjunct professor at SWBTS from 2006 through 2009.

According to Annual Church Profile information, FBC Farmersville reported 14 baptisms in 2021 and averaged 320 in weekly worship. The church collected

California, here we come

Southern Baptists will gather in Anaheim next month for the 2022 Annual Meeting. This is the first time in 40 years the convention will be held in metro Los Angeles. The last time, 1981, was also the last time an incumbent SBC president declined to seek a second term.

Farewell, Charlotte

With 10,000 messengers expected to attend the 2022 Convention in Anaheim, it has quickly become apparent that the 2023 convention could be too big to fit in Charlotte, North Carolina, where facilities max out at 8,000. So, the SBC Executive Committee has chosen New Orleans as a replacement site.

The upswing in attendance began with the 2018 Dallas convention. Last year, 15,726 messengers and 21,474 total attendees encamped in Nashville. Jonathan Howe, the EC’s VP for Communications, characterized the increases as the result of a younger generation of Southern Baptists engaging with the convention. A cou ple of those gatherings were also marked by political fallout, controversial issues, and hotly contested presidential elections.

The last time the convention was held in New Orleans was 2012, when the Crescent City’s own Fred Luter was the elected as the SBC’s first African American president.

Down ballot races

More nominations for SBC officers are expected. Javier Chavez, pastor of Amistad Cristiana Church in Gainesville, Ga., will be a candidate for recording secretary, as will Nathan Finn, provost at North Greenville University in Tigerville, S.C. Former Baptist Press reporter David Roach will be nominated as well. He is presently pastor of Shiloh Church in Saraland, Ala. He also assisted the SBC Resolutions Committee for 13 years.

Two names have been added to candidates to lead the 2023 SBC Pastors’ Conference: Daniel Dickard, pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C., and Voddie Baucham, dean of theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia. Baucham’s nomination was announced in a statement posted at the Founders Ministries website.

$1,189,783 total undesignated receipts, with $145,528 (12.23%) given through CP. Barber is a graduate of Baylor University and has both an M.Div. and Ph.D. from SWBTS. He and his wife, Tracy, have two teenage children.

Why Rice withdrew

Roughly a month after announcing his plans to accept a nomination for the presidency, news broke April 1 about a leadership position at his church that brought Rice under fire. A former public school teacher with a history of sexual misconduct serves as a deacon at Calvary Baptist in Clearwater, Florida, something Rice said the church leaders knew and monitored for years following the deacon’s repentance and restoration process.

Rice noted the deacon was not allowed to work with children or youth, and the leaders believed he was fully restored and in a position to be ordained as a deacon.

“It did not involve criminal charges, and he has never been identified by law as a sexual offender,” Rice said in a five-and-ahalf-minute video posted on social media explaining the situation. “Nevertheless, it was a terrible sin, and it devastated people’s lives.”

When Rice was contacted recently by a pastor in another state expressing concern about the deacon’s past, Rice and church leaders decided the man would need to step down as deacon.

From there, the conversation continued and debate developed over the original

Angels in the Outfield

In town against the Mets, June 10-12. In LA against the Dodgers, June 14-15.

Anaheim GardenWalk

Near the entrance to Disneyland, loaded with famous franchise restaurants, bowling, and outdoor seating.

Exciting things to do while you’re there.

Honda Center

Home of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks. Hockey season will be over, but if California’s too hot for you, duck inside to sit near the ice rink.

Center Street Promenade

The city loves its shopping district lined with palm trees and eateries.

The Packing District

A few blocks from the Promenade, this food hall and shopping center was once a Packard dealership (ever seen a Packard?) and a marmalade factory. Sweet!

decision and how it plays out with the current focus on sexual abuse issues within the denominational structure.

Rice’s withdrawal from the race was announced via Twitter.

“The last few days have been very difficult and I’ve found myself in an untenable position of watching people I love in a church I love done immeasurable harm simply because my name was being considered for this office,” he wrote. “My calling is to my local church, my family and to the mission field God has given me. I wish to return my time and attention to those things.”

Still running

The remaining candidates in the race are another Florida pastor, Tom Ascol of Cape Coral, and former IMB missionary Robin Hadaway of California.

Ascol is president of Founders Ministries, an organization he helped start in 1982 that is “committed to encouraging the recovery of Gospel and the biblical reformation of local churches,” according to its website.

Hadaway served in Tanzania, Northern Africa, and South America, and more recently taught missions at Midwestern Theological Seminary. He presently lives in California.

Pick up a jar of jam from Knotts’ Berry Farm and ride the roller coaster. We never understood the combination of fruit and amusement park, but it works for The Californians.

Disneyland

The “happiest place on earth” said Uncle Walt. California Adventure, built on its former parking lot, is a recent addition.

Saddleback Church*

The iconic church pastored by Rick Warren has 11 locations, including one in Anaheim. The original is in Lake Forest.

Shadow Mountain Community Church*

Nowhere near Anaheim, the church pastored by David Jeremiah is outside San Diego.

*These are not on the visitors’ bureau list, but we thought you might like to know.

ASCOL

HADAWAY RICE

BART BARBER

– From Baptist Press and The Baptist Paper

MISSION

Going global again

BY ERIC REED

You might say mission trips are suffering from “long Covid,” that extended version of the illness that takes months or longer for some of its victims to overcome. Most aspects of church life are getting back to “normal” two years after the pandemic shut down worship services and youth ministries and small groups, but missions has yet to bounce back—the kind that require travel and meeting strangers in order to share the gospel.

But it’s not time to quit missions. In fact, the time is right to get ready for a bold mission thrust (to borrow a term from several decades back).

Covid forced churches to invent new kinds of very necessary mission work nearby, such as food deliveries. So the numbers of people reporting engagement in missions in 2021 was down, but not out. Now, as travel restrictions ease somewhat, and with the anticipation of greater freedom next year, now is the time to plan the next mission trip. To identify the next mission relation-

ship for your church. To have your church’s heart burdened anew for an unengaged, unreached people group. To engage them. To go where no one has gone in a couple of years.

And these international missionaries now living in Illinois are the right guides for the task.

Shannon Ford • IBSA Missions Director Served in Ukraine and the Czech Republic

Shannon Ford has fond memories of Jim from Clearwater, Florida. After visiting Ukraine on a mission trip with Calvary Baptist Church, Jim contacted Ford asking about a return trip. “He was a regular guy who went on mission trips who wanted people to know the name of Jesus,” Ford said. And God had laid on Jim’s heart a return to Horodok, south of Lviv, where Ford and his wife, Katie, were serving as missionaries with the International Mission Board.

“I thought, ‘Oh dear, what am I going to do with Jim for a week?” Ford said.

To the ends of the earth

Jeff and Kathy Deasy led teams from Illinois to Brazil (above) and Kenya, countries where they served with the SBC’s International Mission Board before coming back to the States.

Illinois Baptists reached out to women in a southeast Asian country on several mission trips (page 1). IBSA’s Carmen Halsey was on a team that ministered at a girls’ school and developed relationships with workers trying to create businesses to support their families.

As Covid limitations ease, these former international missionaries encourage Illinois churches in renewal of their worldwide mission

Jim’s trip turned into one of the best missions weeks Ford remembers. “We visited schools, because Jim would say, ‘I wonder who’s the director there? Can we go in?’ And we would.”

Doors opened, and soon the national team of church planters found opportunities to minister to at-risk children, families in need of winter clothing, and teacher training. All because Jim had become a champion for missions.

Every church needs one. Or more.

“Often it’s the pastor, but sometimes the champion is someone else who cares about missions,” said Ford, who now serves as IBSA’s Mission Director. The local church needs someone who will lead missions, whether it’s at home or on the other side of the world, someone who will make connections and develop plans. Ford said the champion will often remark, “I feel convicted to see this happen. How can we do it?”

To spot a champion, he advises listening to how people pray. Are the nations on their hearts and on their lips? Have they hosted an exchange student? Have they traveled abroad?

“Of course, the pastor who is looking for a missions champion is already alert to missions, and may be the champion himself,” Ford observed.

With Covid waning, the former IMB missionary recommends Illinois churches seeking to reengage first contact their former partners from previous missions. “They’ve been shut down, too,” he said, “and may not know who is ready to get started again, ready to return.”

Ford is available to help churches rejuvenate their heart for missions. He also recommends contacting the Associational Mission Strategist at their local Baptist association for mission opportunities nearby.

And Ford suggests innovative thinking when planning. Medical teams and backyard Bible clubs are excellent gospel opportunities in the right settings, but “it doesn’t have to be a traditional mission team.”

He has seen gospel success with teams teaching English and staging business workshops for young professionals.

“Maybe they’re just prayer walking, but while they’re walking, they’re collecting data and later debriefing the church planters about future opportunities for the gospel,” Ford said. “A team that does ‘discovery’ sets the groundwork for the next team.”

Jeff Deasy • IBSA Operations Team Leader Served in Brazil and Kenya

The best mission trips are the ones where indigenous people set the agenda. As missionaries in Brazil and later in Kenya, Jeff and Kathy Deasy hosted a half dozen or more mission groups from the U.S. each year, often taking them on forays into jungles and bush that required hardscrabble camping and offered few amenities. Churches from back home could hardly know the kinds of assistance that missionaries and pastors in those places really needed.

“We had a plan to provide Kenyan pastors with motorcycles,” Kathy said.

“They could get to remote areas for ministry, and they could use the motorcycles as taxis to supplement their income,” said Jeff, a bike enthusiast wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Christian Motorcycle Association logo. “But that’s not what they wanted. Know what they wanted?”

“Milk cows,” Kathy responded, to feed their families and earn extra money. “That’s an example of asking what pastors on the field really need. Instead of planning a VBS week first, ask the missionaries what kind of ministry will help them.”

After twenty years with IMB, Jeff accepted a position leading IBSA’s Operations Team. As members of Chatham Baptist Church, they have led mission trips to their former mission fields. And when planning those trips, the Deasys took their own advice.

“The best mission trips we had (as missionaries) were the ones where the churches contacted us months in advance and asked what was needed,” Kathy said. Jeff advised contacting the missionaries at least a year in advance, then planning the itinerary.

“One group came with no plans at all,” Kathy said. “Every morning they would say, ‘What are we going to do today?’ There was a lot of wasted time on that trip. We told mission teams they have to be prepared to deviate from the plan depending on the circumstances, but there has to be a plan to deviate from.”

The process of identifying the needs then developing a strategy to engage people based on their needs is key to creating gospel opportunities. So is involvement of the sending congregation—and lots of prayer.

“At least six months before the trip, start sharing information with the church members,” Jeff recommended, with frequent testimonies and a variety of communications. “The mission team isn’t the only ones going on mission.”

“The person who can’t go because of cost or ability can be a prayer warrior. They may be the very person you need most while your team is on the field,” Kathy said. “Give them your itinerary so they can pray every day.”

When the team returns home, share the victory.

Greg Alexander • Heartland Baptist Network Served in Canada and the U.K.

Greg Alexander points to two simple first steps in reinvigorating a church’s interest in international missions: go somewhere nearby and go to a place where they speak English. “The need is really great in Europe now,” he said, “and many countries on the continent are English-fluent, especially Germany and the Netherlands.”

Alexander was called as Associational Mission Strategist for Harvest Baptist Network serving Sangamon County in March. He and his wife, Ros, have returned to Illinois after planting churches through campus ministries in Toronto, Canada and Bristol, England. Alexander previously served at the University of Illinois in Urbana and on staff with IBSA.

“It’s not as easy to get people to go to Europe because they think they have lots of churches over there, but they’re mostly empty,” Alexander said. “People think of rural areas as places that are gospel deficient, but Europe is very depleted evangelically.”

If the cost of a mission trip to Europe is prohibitive right now, Alexander recommends serving in large cities such as Toronto where half the population are internationals. Chicago and New York City offer similar opportunities to serve among people from other countries. And “Houston is the most multi-cultural city in the U.S. now,” he said. “People don’t have to leave the country to experience international missions.”

The advice Alexander has begun giving to churches in Illinois is to make the mission trip a mentoring trip, much as he did with university students. He advises pairing youth and adults in mentoring relationships on the field, rather than sending out groups of youth or adults only.

“Multiple times I’ve seen students come home with a commitment to missions,” Alexander said, with 29 students committing to church planting under his ministry. And the experience that teams have on the mission field feeds the discipleship pipeline. “In a two-week mission trip, we can development more discipleship than in a year in a classroom.”

The mission trip, even in somewhat familiar surroundings, is a good laboratory. “When many people get put in these situations, they have to ‘faith’ their experience—faith as a verb, rather than a noun. They don’t know what to do, and it creates teachable moments,” Alexander said.

As for using mission trips for discipleship, “you’re benefitting the mission field, but also benefitting your church by developing disciples.”

Jim (foreground) and the mission team in Horodok, Ukraine

A mission team stages a colorful carnival of fun in Brazil.

Overcoming small town blues

For this Brookport pastor, the answer is good news

BY BEN JONES

“We lost our grocery store. We lost our bank. The only consistent business in town is the bar,” the pastor says.

Sitting on the banks of the Ohio River, near the southern tip of Illinois, Brookport has seen brighter days. Drive through town and you’ll see evidence of the struggles. Like many small towns in Illinois, closed mom-and-pop shops and long-vacant storefronts are the remnants of a once thriving local economy.

Of Illinois’ 102 counties, 87 shrank in the last decade. Rural counties and small towns saw heavy losses, while the few growth areas were urban and suburban, like Chicagoland, Metro East, and the college hubs of Bloomington and Champaign. Illinois’ five southernmost counties, where Brookport lies, lost a staggering 18.7% of their residents. It’s obvious on the streets.

Across from the abandoned hardware store sits a boarded-up church building. Just a few blocks north lie the charred bricks of another church that recently burned. At first glance hope is in short supply.

But David Siere says God is at work in Brookport.

Known to most in the community as “Buck,” Siere has served as pastor of Brookport’s First Baptist Church for 18 years. On this Monday afternoon, he sits at his desk and flips through papers and points out numbers from the past two decades. “God has been good to us,” he says. Some years have seen more blessings than others. One year they baptized 19, but he is quick to also point to years with zeroes.

the Mission Team. “Lost people are everywhere around us,” he said. “There is no place too small or too large for there to be a need for the gospel.” Harris is working with FBC Brookport to help the church take their next step. Their journey started with a conversation about the one thing Siere most wanted to see in the church.

The pastor points to charts drawn in marker on large sheets of paper stuck to his office wall. “Scott came in and talked and helped me see where we have been and where we might be going.”

An evangelistic culture quickly surfaced as the greatest need for the future. Harris helped him get to the root of why the church wasn’t more evangelistic. Did they just need better training? Did they need more organized structure to make this happen?

Siere answered, “It’s me.”

He confessed that the church’s past attempts to be more evangelistic have been good ideas but had not really materialized into action. “My first step is to be more evangelistic in my own life so I can lead the church to be more evangelistic.”

The pastor’s desire is to be a more vibrant witness in his everyday life, so it might come as a surprise that God didn’t start there. Instead, Siere says God reminded him of the need to share the gospel clearly in his preaching and to call for a response. So, he scrapped his sermon for the next Sunday and began working on a simple gospel message.

sisters to the Lord.’ And he was on cloud nine,” Harris said. “That’s going to change the culture of that church.”

“God is at work,” Harris observed. “The gospel still changes lives. It’s changing lives in Brookport and it can do the same in every town across our state.”

“My desire is that when the next pastor comes in, whenever that may be, I want to leave him something good to build on,” Siere said. “There’s hope for Brookport, and for the lives of more people, young and old, like Olivia and Allyson. Jesus does the work. We’re just called to be obedient.”

“I could look at the number of baptisms over the years, and say ‘that’s not bad,’ but I know in my heart of hearts that there are so many more out there,” he says through emotion. The economic struggles and transient nature of many people in the town, population 1,000, can make ministry difficult. But it can also present opportunity. “I can go to the same address two or three times a year and find someone new there. If I get to them while they’re there, something might happen.”

Scott Harris lives for opportunities like this. Harris is IBSA’s director of evangelism and leads

Enter Olivia and Allyson, ages 14 and 16. “They are sweet girls,” Siere said. “We’ve had a relationship with their family for years.” They had been recipients of gospel seed sown for years by bus ministry drivers, VBS leaders, Sunday school teachers, and children’s church workers.

Siere preached a focused gospel message from John 14:1-6 that day. He knew the Lord was at work in both girls, but they did not respond. The call from a family member came later that day. The girls needed to talk to the pastor about Jesus. Monday morning, David visited with the family at their home, and both girls accepted Christ as Lord.

“The pastor called me and said, ‘I just led two

$21.90 International missions $9.90 North American missions $9.70 Theological education $1.30 SBC operations and Executive Committee $.70 Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

THE cooperative program • 1st quarter report jan. 1 - march 31

This report includes contributions received by the Illinois Baptist State Association through the first quarter of 2022. For questions about this report, contact the IBSA Church Cooperation Team at (217) 391-3106, email JeffDeasy@IBSA.org, or write to P.O. Box 19247, Springfield, IL 62794-9247.

Top 100 Illinois churches in Cooperative Program support through the first quarter of 2022

Living Word Bible, Darien 543.00

Panther Creek New Beg., Chandlerville 453.00

Dow Southern, Dow 312.50

Chicago West Bible, Chicago 149.94

Grace, Granite City 124.14

Heights Community, Collinsville 111.53

Calvary, Montgomery 100.43

Redemption Community, Belleville 99.91

Church of the Cross, Mahomet 97.80

Prairie Grove, Oblong 96.95

Woodland, Peoria 88.73

Pleasant Dale, Girard 87.79

Gospel Grace, Woodstock 83.97

Delta, Springfield 83.33

Lincoln Avenue, Jacksonville 78.72

Quincy, Quincy 75.61

Emmanuel, Lemont 71.15

The Lord’s Church, Naperville 68.18

Mt Zion First, Mt Zion 67.08

Cross of Christ, Naperville 64.75

Lovington First, Lovington 63.56

Effingham First, Effingham 61.59

Willow Springs First, Willow Springs 59.42

Chatham, Chatham

LivingStone Community, Marion 41.67

Vera, Ramsey 41.42

Cutler First, Cutler 41.01

Nashville First, Nashville 40.91

Tabernacle, Decatur 40.82

Logan Street, Mount Vernon 40.74

Litchfield First, Litchfield 40.37

Twin Oaks, Sleepy Hollow 40.10

Iglesia Peniel, Chicago 40.00

Liberty, Harrisburg 39.99

Peaceful, Rolling Mdws 38.89

Emmanuel, Sterling 37.98

Erven Avenue, Streator 37.97

Mt Zion, Piasa 37.72

New Prospect, Broughton 37.06

New Salem, Mc Leansboro 36.52

Meadowdale First, Carpentersville 35.71

New Beginnings, Streator 35.03

Greenup First Southern, Greenup 34.48

Dorrisville, Harrisburg 34.37

Emmanuel, Sandwich 34.09

Union Grove, Eldorado 33.44

$8.10 Church

$8.10 Illinois

$5.70 Church

$5.50 IBSA Camps and collegiate ministries $4.80 IBSA operations

Hillerman Missionary, Grand Chain

Grace Fellowship Davis Junction

Peace Community, Chicago 33.33

Royalton First,

support through the first quarter of 2022

56.5% 43.5%

For every gift to Cooperative Program, goes to missions in Illinois, and is forwarded to the national SBC for missions worldwide.

IBSA churches gave an average of of their general offerings to CP in 2021, compared to the previous year.

6.1% 6.7% 10%

Many churches make their CP giving goal.

GROWING

Learning curve recommendaTions

99 Essential Doctrines

The Gospel Project

Fran Trascritti suggested this free book for me to check out in addition to the Sunday school material that we do at our church. It has really helped me to better understand and enjoy The Gospel Project. Available on thegospelproject. com.

table talk ‘One more fall’

My wife, Jeanette, has walked with a slight limp for as long as I have known her. She has had joint issues that required her to exercise caution when moving about. For years, some degree of numbness has been present in her hands and feet. Earlier attempts to identify and correct these matters were not successful. So, she learned to adapt, endure, and move forward without complaint.

George Muller: Delighted in God

Roger

Steer

This biography shows God’s great kindness in answering our prayers. I have been encouraged to have a renewed emphasis on prayer in my personal walk and ministry. The same God who demonstrated kindness in answering bold prayers by George Muller continues to do so today.

– Drake Caudill Senior Pastor, FBC Carmi

The Minister’s Little Devotional Book

H.B. London Jr. and Stan Toler

Each devotion focuses on a character trait or skill for ministers. The spiritual refreshment and encouragement found throughout the book make it worth the read.

Her aches and pains have not stopped her from taking care of our home, serving as a pastor’s wife, being a denominational servant, or serving as a mission volunteer. But in recent years these issues have become more of a challenge. In the past two years her pain has been excruciating and her mobility has been limited. In the past year she has required a cane and then a walker to move around the house.

The pandemic slowed the journey to discover the causes of these problems. Our efforts were further delayed by deaths in the family. But in the course of time, it was revealed that she had spinal stenosis in her lower back and neuropathy in her feet. Medications and physical therapy helped with the pain and enhanced her mobility to a degree, but it was obvious that her problems were numerous and complicated.

In January we had a consultation with a neurologist who did a thorough examination. He concurred about the neuropathy and

stenosis, but he said these things should not be causing the current level of weakness in her legs, her gait, reflexes, and the tingling and numbness in her feet and hands. The doctor ordered a battery of tests. Although he was not convinced of the need for it, he also ordered an MRI performed on her neck.

Within a couple of hours, we saw the results online. The MRI revealed severe stenosis in her neck at the C-4, 5, and 6 area. That very afternoon the neurologist’s office secured an appointment with the neurosurgeon. The surgeon explained how the stenosis was putting severe pressure on the spinal cord and that surgery was necessary to relieve that pressure.

He did not promise that it would correct any of her existing problems, but he said the surgery needed to be done to prevent much more crippling effects.

Jeanette had surgery on February 15. The surgery went well. Later that day the physician’s assistant was visiting with Jeanette. “When was the last time you fell?” he asked.

She replied that it had been three or four months.

He said they could tell by the bruising on the spinal cord that she had endured a blunt force impact that likely had been caused by a fall. “One more fall and you would have been in serious trouble,” he told her.

When my wife relayed that story to me, my soul cried and rejoiced at the same time. The Lord had been gracious. She had been spared from severe physical injury.

Jeanette is recovering from the surgery, we have seen some positive results, and we await to see what the next steps of the journey might be. But the words of the physician’s assistant keep ringing in my heart and mind: “One more fall and you would have been in serious trouble.”

There is a spiritual lesson in our doctor’s words for us as missionary people. Everyday we encounter people who physically and spiritually are on the edge of death and hell. They are one fall from an irreversible eternal destiny.

You and I stand before them with the healing gospel of the Great Physician. The saving power of the gospel is the only hope they have. We are the ones who must confront them with the truth about the severity of their predicament. We are the ones who must deliver the crucial plea for them to believe the gospel and come to faith in Christ.

The gospel may sound like foolishness to them, but they can’t risk one more fall.

– Brian Kenney Assistant Pastor, Lincoln Avenue Church, Jacksonville

– Katie Kimbrough Member, New Beginnings Church, Streator

A doctor’s warning still rings in my heart

Brent Cloyd is Associational Mission Strategist for Greater Wabash Baptist Association.

“There’s a spiritual lesson in our doctor’s words for us as missionary people.”

“This might explain this morning’s ‘Bear Each Other’s Burdens’ sermon.”

History repeating

Dr. A. E. Prince, formerly of this state, who was elected president of Hannibal-LaGrange College in 1941, was recently inaugurated as president in a special program…. Dr. Prince declared,

There is positively no excuse for attempting to maintain Christian Colleges, unless these schools are decidedly Christian.

He led during the summer months in a debt paying campaign which raised sufficient money a few minutes before the bank closed that saved the college from being permanently closed.

– from the Illinois Baptist (January 1942)

Calling ‘The Rescuers’

Ayellowed copy of the Illinois Baptist unearthed in the recent renovation of the IBSA Archives Room revealed another interesting story from January 1942. Front page news was the first-person account of the attack on Pearl Harbor witnessed by the head of the Foreign Mission Board who was in Hawaii to meet with 15 SBC missionaries. But there was also a small item tucked into the paper on the installation of A. E. Prince as the new president of Hannibal-LaGrange College.

The item caught my eye for several reasons.

Prince was the pastor of First Baptist Church of Eldorado, Illinois, when the deadly Spanish Influenza hit in 1919. With the town’s doctor down with the illness, Prince became pastor, medic, and funeral director. We were encouraged by his account in the IBSA history “We Were There,” how they survived the pandemic that eventually subsided after three years.

Also fascinating from Prince’s chapter in the book was his work trying to save Ewing College. A graduate of the small Christian school named for the southern Illinois town where it was located, Prince was named president in 1924. He led a campaign to save the struggling college that had produced and deployed two generations of preachers to the prairie mission fields. His best efforts failed. Ewing College closed in 1926.

The news item, adjacent the “missionaries endure bombing” story, was about Prince’s installation. A single sentence said Price had led a summer campaign to save Hannibal-LaGrange College from closure, with a payment “a few minutes before the bank closed.” That was 15 years after his failed attempt in Ewing.

History is repeating itself—almost.

Next to our April 2022 story on SBC missionaries’ ministry during the attack on Ukraine is the report of efforts to save HGLU again. This time the price tag is $2.2 million, and the work is up to Interim President Rodney Harrison He has until July to pull it off.

A. E. Prince was a rescuer—the leader who must make hard decisions and rally troops to battle, while preserving the purpose and integrity of the cause. Harrison has the same responsibility today. But he’s not the only one. This is a season for rescuers.

Willie McLaurin is Interim President and CEO of the SBC’s Executive Committee, charged with leading through a season called “chaos” for reasons that don’t need repeating here. Brent Leatherwood is Acting President of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. And the next president of SBC, to be elected in Anaheim in June, may be called to a similar work following an unexpectedly quick turnover of the office.

I have respect for all these leaders serving in the “rescuer” mode. In 25 years in Illinois, I’ve served almost a dozen interim pastorates, usually in troubled situations that required rescue, repair, revitalization, and redeployment. It’s a unique type of leadership. And as we see with the good Dr. Prince, some people are called to it.

Let’s pray for the rescuers.

BEST WEEK ALL SUMMER!

June 13-17

Streator Baptist Camp • Grades 3-12

June 19-23

Lake Sallateeska Baptist Camp • Grades 3-6

June 20-24

Streator • Grades 3-12

June 27-July 1

Lake Sallateeska • Grades 3-6

July 5-9

Lake Sallateeska • Grades 6-12

July 18-22

Lake Sallateeska • Grades 7-12

July 18-22

Streator Baptist Camp • Grades 3-12

McLAURIN

LEATHERWOOD

HARRISON

– Eric Reed

Banding together for Bibles

Pastor’s album benefits new believers

Woodlawn | “Everyone agreed—it was worth the time and effort to make Bibles available to anyone who needed or wanted one,” Pastor Brian Fuller said.

Fuller spent much of the 1980’s and 90’s as a Contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist. Now as pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodlawn, Fuller recently picked up a mic again for a different reason—for Bibles.

“I’m not concerned about radio play, record labels, or concerts,” Fuller said.

“My church has been involved in purchasing Bibles to give to local organizations who are leading the lost to Christ. So, my idea was to record a new album and have all the proceeds go toward purchasing Bibles.”

Fuller pitched his vision to musician friends. Old colleagues like CCM artist Bryan Duncan and newer friends like saxophonist Chris Gregg of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Decatur joined the project. The album, titled “Covered,”

features new versions of seven classic CCM songs originally recorded between 1977 and 1985. “Being a fan of 70’s and 80’s music, I wanted the album to have the overall look and feel of vinyl,” Fuller said. “There’s a warmth to the analog music of that era that I wanted to capture, and I think, I hope, we accomplished that.”

Because he wanted to focus on the Bibles, Fuller is promoting the purchase of the Bibles, not the CD. “I can buy a case of 40 full-sized Bibles for $2.00 per Bible. So for $8.00, we can purchase four Bibles and I’ll give you a CD. The Bibles are going to local and regional organizations who are actively reaching the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Fuller said.

“The most important thing you can give a new believer in Jesus is God’s word, so they can learn and grow in their new journey of faith.”

The CD is available at brianfuller. covered@outlook.com or through fbcwoodlawn.org.

neTworking

Find more information on ministry positions at IBSA.org/connect Send NetworkiNg items to IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org

Calvary Baptist in Hillsboro seeks pastor. Send resumé to Calvary Search2022@gmail.com or 1001 Rountree Street, Hillsboro, IL 62049. For more information, contact Mike Whitten at (217)273-4803.

FBC LeRoy seeks bivocational pastor Submit resumé to 611 W. North Street, Le Roy, IL 61752. Contact Ann Malcom for info at (309) 532-1576.

Grace Baptist Church in Palmyra seeks bivocational pastor. The church was founded in 2000 in a community of 750. Send resumé to jallen@frontier.com or Jim Allen, 1309 Chesterfield Blacktop Road, Rockbridge IL 62081.

New Life Baptist Church of Waverly seeks bivocational pastor. Submit resumé to 341 East Elm, Waverly, IL 62692. Contact Gloria Henning for info at (217) 414-5849.

Rome Baptist Church, Chillicothe seeks bivocational pastor. The church is going through the IBSA revitalization process and desires a strong leader to help them grow God’s kingdom. Send resumé to Pastor Search Committee, 5104 Stevenson Drive, Chillicothe, IL 16523 or e-mail lsgoody53@gmail.com.

Summit Avenue Baptist of Decatur seeks bivocational senior pastor for a small, loving church. Compensation is $25,600 and includes parsonage. Send resumé to Chris at office@ cbadecatur.com.

Whitelaw Avenue Baptist Church in Wood River seeks a pastor. Send resumé to Search Committee, 800 Whitelaw Avenue, Wood River, IL 62095, or email WABCjob@yahoo.com. Call Brad Gaines at (618) 531-6634 for info. whitelawbaptist.com.

CLASSIFIED AD

Star Hope Baptist Church, Elsberry, Mo., is looking for a full-time pastor. Candidate must embrace the tenets of the BF&M, support the Cooperative Program, and be aligned with Missouri Baptist Convention and the SBC. Candidates should submit resumés to shbc@starhope.org.

Voter Guides will be available in May. You can pre-order them in bulk now so you’ll be the first to get them.

These non-partisan voter guides meet IRS guidelines for churches to distribute. They reveal where candidates stand on a number of issues that are of importance to voters. Order them in any amount to distribute in your church, neighbors and friends.

Small seasons BRIGHTER DAY

My family will soon celebrate the end of an era for our youngest daughter. Molly and her classmates will walk across the stage and receive their diplomas, marking the end of preschool and the beginning of their elementary years.

Some preschools even dress graduates in miniature caps and gowns. Ours does not, but Molly will wear her Sunday best and there will be refreshments after the ceremony. All in all, it’s a pretty big deal.

It’s also the kind of thing I wouldn’t have thought much about before we became parents. I might have even joined in my generation’s tendency to downplay small achievements in what I’ve always thought was a reaction against the “participation trophy” parents that raised us.

(Full disclosure: as a child who wouldn’t have won any trophies for actual athletic achievement, I remain in full support of these.)

Most of the time, an accomplishment or milestone needs to have obvious import for the future before we give it much mind. In our world, small seasons don’t get much recognition. But as my family prepares to celebrate the end of one, I’m giving them new consideration.

Summer is a relatively small season in our families and churches. It’s 8-10 weeks dotted with new activities and more relaxed schedules, but it also brings a “blink and you’ll miss it” energy. Summer’s impact, though, can be huge. Consider the millions of children who will attend Vacation Bible School this year. Lifeway estimates one week of VBS equals seven months of ministry to children and families. They also report 69% of parents will encourage their kids to attend VBS at a church they don’t go to, if they’re invited by a friend.

VBS isn’t the only way to lend big impact to our upcoming small season. Consider how looser schedules and fewer demands on our time might open up opportunities for new groups or classes. Summer offers families and churches more chances to engage our neighbors, to introduce ourselves for the first time or the first time in a while.

This small season is a big deal.

At the end of it, I hope to be able to look back and see that I often leaned into the opportunities it gave our family to engage with the people around us. I want to hold my participation trophy high in the air, better prepared by this small season for the next one.

Meredith Day Flynn is a wife and mother of two living in Springfield. She writes on the intersection of faith, family, and current culture.

Tracker

Trends from nearby and around the world.

Faith: Sermons on

Eschatology

were preached

6 times more often in 2021 than the year before.

– Lifeway Research

9 out of 10 pastors believe many current events are signs of the end times, including:

Rise of false prophets/teachings

83%

81% Christian love growing cold

79% Traditional morals less accepted

78% Wars and national conflicts

76% Earthquakes/natural disasters

75% Christians abandoning faith

– Lifeway Research (2020)

For too long many pastors have shied away from teaching on birth pains and events leading up to the Second Coming, but the current pandemic demonstrates the need for solid, non-sensational preaching done in a biblical manner.

Culture: Successful defense

A court in Finland dismissed charges against a member of Parliament and a bishop for teaching on traditional marriage. MP Paivi Rasanen and Evangelical Lutheran Juhana Pohjola were charged for using a pamphlet called “Male and Female He Created Them.” Alliance Defending Freedom International represented the pair. The three-judge panel ruled even if it offended the LGBTQ community, the teaching did not equal hate speech. However, the prosecutor has appealed the ruling.

– Christian Post

Moral Compass

72%

– Marist poll of U.S. adults (Jan. 2022)

EVENTS

June 4

Camps Opening Day

What: IBSA camps open to serve churches for the summer!

Where: Lake Sallateeska Baptist Camp

Info: IBSA.org/Lake-Sallateeska-Baptist-Camp.org

Contact: BrockVandever@IBSA.org

Where: Streator Baptist Camp

Info: IBSA.org/Streator-Baptist-Camp

Contact: JacobKimbrough@IBSA.org

June 6

What: With these online courses, receive a certificate in as little as 12 months in Christian, Deacon, Pastoral, or Women’s ministries.

Cost: $25 per class

Info: IBSA.org/Equip

Contact: LindaDarden@IBSA.org

June & July

Kids and Students Camps

Info: IBSA.org/2022Camps

Contact: JackLucas@IBSA.org

(See page 14)

June 12-13

SBC Pastors’ Conference

Where: Anaheim, CA Info: sbcpc.net

June 14-15

SBC Annual Meeting

Where: Anaheim, CA Info: sbcannualmeeting.net

July 9

What: Pastor plus one church leader develop a practical plan for disciple-making in their church.

July 9 Williamson Baptist Association, Marion;

Cost: $50 per church

Contact: FranTrascritti@IBSA.org

July 22-23

Rise-Up

Retreat for Men & Boys

What: A fun, worshipful overnight retreat for boys and a father, grandfather, or father figure.

Where: Streator Camp

Cost: $40 per camper

Info: www.IBSA.org/Growth

Contact: LindaDarden@IBSA.org

July 25-29

What: Youth mission trip for first-hand church planting experience. Includes neighborhood outreach, nightly speakers and more.

Cost: $250 per student (includes food, lodging)

Contact: KevinJones@IBSA.org

MEREDITH FLYNN

– author Joel Rosenberg

say it’s headed in the wrong direction.