September 1, 2023 Illinois Baptist

The power of sticking around

builders

Willie McLaurin resigns after falsified resume revealed

Temporary leader named as CEO search starts over

Nashville, Tenn. | The Interim President and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee (EC) was poised to take the position permanently, until vetting eliminated him from leadership entirely.

Willie McLaurin resigned Aug. 17 after the search committee reviewing his resume found that he had not graduated from three schools as he claimed—North Carolina Central University, Duke University Divinity School, and Hood Theological Seminary.

The discovery produced a speedy departure, shock across the convention, and a return to square one for the second search committee

charged with finding a permanent replacement for Ronnie Floyd who resigned in October 2021.

“Today has been an incredibly hard day for our Southern Baptist family,” tweeted Jonathan Howe, the last remaining full vice president who oversees Convention communications. Howe will hold the reigns until the full trustee board can appoint an interim at their meeting September 18-19 in Nashville.

“The SBC Executive Committee’s bylaws require that the Executive Committee officers appoint an existing SBC Executive Committee Vice President to serve temporarily,

SBC Executive Committee

The Illinois Baptist staff

Editor - Eric Reed

Graphic Designer - Kris Kell

Contributing Editor - Lisa Misner

Comm. Coordinator - Nic Cook

Graphics Assistant - Makayla Proctor

Team Leader - Ben Jones

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The BIG Baptist family album

Our Illinois mission field

Wael Dawahir was a pastor in Jordan for more than 25 years. With his wife, Jackleen, he is planting a church serving the Arabic community across south Chicagoland from Bridgeview City, Oak Lawn, Orland Park and Tinley Park, and Indiana. Most are Muslim people from 22 nations where Christians are only 3%. He asks prayer for salvations and for new ministry partners.

Pray the news: DR in Maui

Recovery from the devastating wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui will be a long time coming. As Southern Baptists join other relief agencies in a longterm response, pray for those who will go. Pray especially for chaplains who will see much grief, both in survivors and first responders.

Cooperative Program at work: ERLC

As students return to school, issues of religious freedom arise. Many schools clamp down on faith-oriented speech and biblical values. The SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission educates churches and leaders about First Amendment Rights as part of their work in the public square. Pray for students to have boldness in their witness in your local schools, and for ERLC to speak well on behalf of Southern Baptist beliefs.

Total giving by IBSA churches as of 7/31/23 $3,176,819

2023 Budget Goal to date: $3,448,135

2023 Goal: $6 Million

NATE ADAMS

Positive purpose

Without question, more of my time and passion is invested in encouraging churches to give to missions through the Cooperative Program than through any designated offering, including our own state missions offering. I believe that’s as it should be. Yet both the CP and designated offerings have vital, important purposes.

My conviction is that the Cooperative Program should be the strong foundation of both missions giving and missions strategy in every Southern Baptist church. Where else can every dollar support thousands of international missionaries around the world, thousands of North American church planters and compassion ministries, the strengthening and starting of missionary churches in one’s home state, and do all of this all year round?

Your church’s foundational CP giving also supports six top class seminaries in preparing pastors, missionaries, church staff members, and other church leaders, all from a conservative, biblical worldview and an unwavering commitment to The Baptist Faith and Message. The CP empowers other important ministries as well, such as the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and the SBC Executive Committee, that play vital roles in our cooperative ecosystem.

In today’s climate, there may be times when churches develop questions or concerns about one or more of the ministries that receive CP support. When those grow serious enough, they should certainly be expressed, directly to the entity or its elected trustees.

But designated offerings are not primarily intended to be expressions of protest or concern, but rather positive opportunities for churches, and for each of us who give, to go above and beyond the year-round foundation of the Cooperative Program, and to express our heart for those specific Acts 1:8 mission fields. We do so by doubling down and giving sacrificially there.

In fact, many churches draw upon Acts 1:8 to structure their missions praying, giving, and going. They see their local association as their Jerusalem, their state or region as their Judea, their nation or our North American continent as their Samaria, and of course the ends of the earth as the vast international mission field.

That’s why at this time of year I also passionately urge churches to focus on and give generously to the needs of their state mission field. Much like Judea in the New Testament, this is where the believers in local churches are the primary resident witness, as well as the launching pad for missionaries to other fields. Our churches are our missionaries! And those churches’ sending power is dependent on their own health, growth, and missionary zeal.

We often refer to “tithes and offerings” in our churches, with tithes being the baseline of weekly giving and special offerings being above-and-beyond expressions of passion for ministry and mission. In a similar way, CP is the baseline that sustains your church’s state missions strategy year round.

Now, at this time of year, is when you are invited to express your passion for the eight million-plus lost people in our state, and for strengthening the hundreds of churches and church plants that are seeking to reach them.

In addition to starting new Baptist churches each year, your state missions offering enables your state staff and other leaders to provide a network of valuable ministries for your church and hundreds of others, ministries that include church revitalization, consulting, leader development, training, evangelism, missions, pastor search help, and many more.

Designated offerings like the Mission Illinois Offering give each of us opportunities to be generous above and beyond the baseline giving our church provides to all these ministries through the Cooperative Program. So if the vast lostness of Illinois still tugs at your heart, as it does mine, now is the time to give.

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

There’s a good reason for designated offerings.

From the front: EC search goes back to square one

Continued from page 1

pending full trustee board approval,” EC Chair Phil Robertson said in a statement. “At that trustee meeting the full board of trustees will elect, without restrictions, a continuing interim president/CEO.”

The seasons of tumult date back to 2018, when Floyd’s predecessor, Frank Page resigned after revelations of an inappropriate relationship and the publication of numerous claims that EC leadership mishandled sexual abuse allegations in SBC churches.

McLaurin was the leading candidate to be nominated for the position permanently. McLaurin’s popularity as Interim President and CEO was discussed publicly when the first search team brought Texas pastor Jared Wellman for a vote that failed 50-31. The second search team announced in July that they had again interviewed McLaurin.

“The Search Team had a positive interview with Willie and his wife, Antonia, on Friday, July 14, followed by an extensive face-to-face discussion with fellow search team members,” chair Neal Hughes said in a letter to EC members on Aug. 17 that was shared with Baptist Press. Then the inflated credentials came to light. Three members of the search team confirmed with each of the three schools that McLaurin did not attend or did not complete the degree program.

McLaurin came to the EC as Vice President of Great Commission Relations and Mobilization in 2020. He was previously special assistant to the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board starting in 2005. If elected to the post, he would have become the first permanent African American leader of any of the SBC’s 12 entities.

“To the Southern Baptists who have placed their confidence in me and have encouraged me to pursue the role of President & CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, including pastors, state partners, entity servants, colleagues, and SBC African American friends, I offer my deepest apologies,” McLaurin wrote in his resignation letter.

“Forgive me for the harm or hurt that this has caused,” he asked.

SBC president Bart Barber later posted that day through X (Twitter): “Biblical Christianity offers you one and only response to that plea, fellow Southern Baptists. Yes, Willie, I forgive you.” But expressions of shock and disappointment sounded across the convention.

“Like a tsunami whose destructive surge will recede slowly, it is way too soon and too impossible to calculate the colossal amount of damage his actions have caused a beleaguered denomination already staggering from various issues and in-fighting,” wrote Chris Turner and Lonnie Wilkie of the Tennessee Baptist & Reflector, former colleagues of McLaurin at their state convention.

When the previous search committee skipped over McLaurin in favor of Wellman, they wrote an editorial in May still advocating for their friend and the advancements in the SBC his election would have represented.

Now they are expressing devastation. “McLaurin…brought calm to a battered organization in the wake of former President Ronnie Floyd’s resignation and to

Pastor dismissed as investigation continues

Marion | Tivo McCrary was dismissed from his position as executive pastor at Cornerstone Church in Marion Aug. 21 after church elders learned of allegations from several teens in the church that McCrary had engaged in inappropriate behaviors and communications with them. Church leaders said they were fully cooperating with an investigation by local law enforcement.

Cornerstone leaders said McCrary had been vetted by a reputable employment firm and passed a criminal background check at the time he was hired.

Before being named to the executive pastor role in 2021, McCrary served as Next Generation Pastor at Cornerstone starting in 2019. He also spoke at two IBSA student events in 2022. Church leaders with students attending those events have been contacted regarding McCrary’s dismissal.

He previously served a church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Arrest in Wisconsin

Kenosha, Wisc. | The bivocational pastor of a church in Lake County, Illinois was arrested Aug. 10 in Somers, Wisconsin, and charged with two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and lewd and lascivious actions. Thomas Bartmer, 57, was taken into custody in the parking lot of Walmart in the village just north of Kenosha. He was booked at the Kenosha County jail, posted bond, and was released.

Bartmer is a Bristol, Wisconsin resident. He has served as pastor of Lighthouse Church in nearby Antioch, Illinois since 1997.

the EC’s handling of sexual abuse claims related to SBC churches. However, the calm is now a tempest, blowing away more of the SBC’s credibility…. It wasn’t supposed to end this way,” they summarized.

With McLaurin out of the running, the search committee is receiving resumes again. “We will continue on to our next phase in the search process with the goal of attracting a strong pool of potential candidates,” Hughes said. The portal at SBC.net will be open until September 30.

“Obviously, our hearts are broken and disheartened so we’re spending a lot of time praying together,” Hughes said of the search committee.

“Our team is united.”

—IB Staff, with reporting from Baptist Press and The Baptist Paper

NAMB suit dismissed

Aberdeen, Miss. | A lawsuit by former Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware (BCMD) Executive Director Will McRaney against the North American Mission Board (NAMB) was dismissed a second time by a U.S. District Court in Mississippi, because the case was out of its “subject matter jurisdiction.” McRaney claims defamatory statements were made about him by NAMB personnel that cost him speaking engagements and income after he was dismissed from the state convention.

“This lawsuit will clearly require the Court to inquire into religious matters and decision-making to a degree that is simply impermissible under the Constitution and the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine,” the judgment favoring NAMB stated.

McRaney has 30 days to file an appeal.

IB Staff, Baptist Press

ROBERTSON

HUGHES HOWE

MCLAURIN

Recovery becomes Relief

Teams move into Maui after wildfires

Maui, Hawaii | As wildfires raged out of control in Lahaina, local churches on the Hawaiian island of Maui that were outside the burn area immediately began grappling how they would respond.

“We’re not going back to normal,” Pastor Jay Haynes of Kahului Baptist Church said. “There’s not really ‘going back to normal.’ There’s no way to move forward acting like nothing happened, that everything’s fine.”

Haynes preached on grief in the weeks immediately after the fire that claimed 115 lives officially so far. In the immediate aftermath, Haynes,

along with fellow pastor Rocky Komatsu of Waiehu Community Church in Wailuku, helped deliver supplies on trucks down into Lahaina to help meet the most pressing physical needs of those displaced by the wildfire that consumed nearly the entire town of Lahaina.

Valley Isle Fellowship in Wailuku became a staging ground for relief ministries that needed a base of operations. Its pastor Nick Love has been serving in his role as a chaplain to support the efforts of the Hawaii National Guard and U.S. Air Force as they maintain order and utilize cadaver dogs to identify human remains.

The process of searching for bodies is highly specialized and very time-consuming, meaning those carrying out the task have been putting in extremely long hours.

“Hearing their stories has finally started catching up to me,” Love said, “hearing what they’re seeing and what they’re going through. They’re professional, but it’s difficult on them.”

SENDING RELIEF—At the Ashland, Ky. Send Relief warehouse, a volunteer loads fire recovery supplies, including Tyvek suits, goggles, N-95 masks, and work gloves, for a shiment that left for Maui on Aug. 21.

–NAMB photo

“Many of the pastors we’ve been meeting with have been young pastors,” said Send Relief President Bryant Wright. He met with pastors and other ministry leaders on the island of Maui.

“They’re in the midst of leading

Illinois couple leads Maui’s DR response

John and Gay Williams anticipate a very long response by Disaster Relief teams after wildfires decimated Lahaina, Hawaii. Beyond the immediate needs of those who lost everything in the conflagration, the Williams are thinking about spiritual ministry to those who are combing the ashes looking for evidence of victims.

“The islands are a small community, Gay said. “Everyone knows everyone, so there’s no one who hasn’t been touched.”

Maui is a long way from Colorado where they lived and worked for 19 years. And even farther from Granite City, Illinois, where they met in high school, attended Grace Baptist Church together, and married.

“We raised our children all over the world,” Gay said, then in a prolonged period in Colorado, they began serving with that state’s Disaster Relief. “John wanted to retire early, so we could move to Hawaii,” Gay said. “When the opportunity came to lead Disaster Relief for [Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention], it was obviously God working.”

“For such a time as this,” John quoted, “God has led us, first as yellow hat volunteers, we had a good experience and exposure to DR.”

Gay said, “I never dreamed we would have wildfires in Hawaii or that our work after wildfires in Colorado would prepare us for this, but it did.”

For Gay, a growing heart for missions started

churches to engage their communities in the fallout of one of the most historic tragedies, not only in Hawaii’s history but in the history of the United States,” Wright said.

Long-term response needed

Gay Williams and her husband John have been leading disaster relief efforts for the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention (HPBC) as Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers from around the Hawaiian Islands have joined the effort.

“Here on the ground in Maui, we have been working with some of the first responders and other partners in response with their housing,” Williams said. “We are preparing to bring in our teams who will eventually do personal property recovery, or ash sifting, for the homeowners when they are allowed into their properties.”

Williams anticipates that there will be opportunities for SBDR

teams from the continental U.S. to serve in the efforts to help residents recover their belongings, such as jewelry or other items, that may have endured the inferno.

Wright, along with Robert Miller, director of regional ministries for the HPBC, began exploring ways to connect churches on the mainland with those on Maui.

“The recovery here will take years as there are thousands of people who have lost loved ones and their homes,” Wright said. “Beyond that, even though Maui and Hawaii remain open for people to visit, there has been an impact on the tourism industry and some have also lost the ability to earn a living.

“And there will be needs for these churches in Hawaii to meet for weeks, months and years to come, and we want to see mainland churches explore ways to empower the local church for ministry.”

– Baptist Press

when she was a girl at her home church, engaging in all the training activities of the time. She was greatly influenced by Illinois’ renown WMU Director. “Evelyn Tully has an incredible legacy, that she led us as campers and then as camp staff, we are now all over the world,” Gay said.

“The years I spent as an Acteens camper at Lake Sallateeska (Baptist Camp) introduced me to international missions,” Gay said, “and with Sandy Wisdom-Martin who was my age and now leads national WMU. I felt at that time God calling me to serve him. I didn’t know when or where or how, but here we are today.”

Her voice brightened with the memories as she described Wisdom-Martin and another Illinois friend from their Acteen days, Cindy Bradley, who is now WMU Director for the Florida Baptist Convention.

The Williamses have served as HPBC Disaster

Relief directors for two years. “This is the largest Baptist state convention geographically,” John said. “If there’s a Baptist church between the Hawaiian Islands and Thailand, it’s probably part of our convention.” Working from Maui, the Williamses were simultaneously dispatching teams to Guam following a deadly typhoon.

DR teams from the U.S. mainland will be scheduled for work on Maui later. “For a very long time, we are going to be recovering and the Lord will be opening doors.,” said Gay, who specializes in chaplaincy ministry.

“The long-term hope we can bring,” John said, “is hope in Jesus Christ.”

Eric Reed

MISSION FRIENDS—At Streator Baptist Camp, Acteens Gay Wright Williams (right) with Tammy Page Knipp (left) and Sandy Wisdom-Martin (center). Today, Gay and John Williams lead Disaster Relief for the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention.

Statewide award winners

Pleasant Hill FBC takes the Cup for feeding ministry

Springfield | They faced some big competition. Pleasant Hill First Baptist Church’s summer food program was one of four finalists for the Governor’s Hometown Awards awarded annually at the Illinois State Fair.

The church, with an average attendance up to 150, faced three other volunteer organizations from Chicagoland—Flossmoor, Joliet, and Plainfield.

In the Illinois Building at the fairgrounds on a warm Wednesday afternoon, the organizations gave their presentations. Then judges for the Serve Illinois Commission announced the church took the prize. They were awarded the Governor’s Cup for feeding lunch to food insecure children during the summer break.

Beginning when school lets out in June, volunteers serve hot lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays and include a cold sack lunch for the kids to take with them for the next day. The program, which began in 2018, ends when school starts again in mid-August.

Living in a county that local health officials describe as 50% food insecure, Pastor Don Hannel declared, “We’re a small church, in a small town, with a big need.”

Located in an isolated section of Pike County, the village of 996 residents is bordered by the Mississippi River and is about 90 miles west of Springfield. As Kathy Hart, church member and village clerk described, “The nearest McDonalds is 25 minutes away, and the nearest Super Walmart 45 minutes.”

Hannel, who has served the church for 18 years, said the congregation saw children going hungry in the summer. They knew they had to do something “and began to pray about filling that gap and meeting the need.”

Becky Brannan coordinates the ministry. She was part of the group of seven representing the church at the state fair. She said they usually serve 70 hot meals a day, plus the sack lunches. “This year our numbers have doubled,” Brannan said. She estimated they served over 2,300 meals this summer.

Church members and local volunteers do all the work at the church. FBC moved from its historic location into its new building with a commercial kitchen a few years ago.

Funding is supplied by local businesses, private donations, and grants. Local vendors also provide discounts on food. Hannel said no government funding is involved. “Too many strings are attached with government aid. It’s something God was calling us to do.”

Community members have expressed their thankfulness for the ministry, with parents and grandparents noting how it helps stretch their already tight grocery budgets. “It’s important for the community know the church cares,” Hannel said. “We want to make sure their physical needs are taken care of, as well as their spiritual needs.”

There were 37 nominees in the awards competition. The Governor’s Hometown Awards recognizes projects that improved their community’s quality of life, “that had strong volunteer support, met a need, and made a definitive impact, thereby generating a positive outcome in the community and by extension, the state,” according to the award criteria.

The program is administered by the Serve Illinois Commission, the Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service.

18 teams hold faith events

The Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals are among the 60% of Major League Baseball teams that hold faith-oriented events for fans during the season. Most are concerts or worship time with player testimonies in their stadiums following a game. Many are now part of the “He Gets Us” Christian media campaign. Of 30 teams, 18 have faith events.

Inter-Faith Nights emerged in Baltimore in the 1950s as a response to the Cold War. Then the first specifically Christian event was held in 1991 when a Cards fan, Judy Boen, organized Christian Family Night in the old Busch Stadium.

Court weighs ‘Pride Puppy’

Parents in Montgomery County, Maryland have asked a federal judge to allow their elementary-age children to opt out of reading pro-LGBTQ books. Among them is Pride Puppy about kids who chase their dog through a gay pride parade. Prince and Knight is an all-male romance. “There’s no question that the school board is trying to enforce a certain viewpoint,” Eric Baxter of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty told the judge. A ruling is expected soon.

OVERFLOWING—The summer feeding ministry team from FBC Pleasant Hill took first place among 37 entries in the Governor’s Hometown Awards. The recognition was announced at the Illinois State Fair Aug. 16. Representing the church were (back row, l-r) J.T. Smith, Terry Brannan, Kathy Hart, Pastor Don Hannel, (front row, l-r) Dianne Johnson, Jennifer Bienemann, and Becky Brannan.

Last year’s winner was the O’Fallon Police Department for its Law Enforcement Torch Run for the Illinois Special Olympics.

While the judges deliberated the top four projects, finalists waited together outside the auditorium.

One contestant from Plainfield told the Pleasant Hill delegation how moved he’d been by their presentation. He gave them $100 that his mother had given him recently for his birthday.

“What a blessing!” Jennifer Bienemann said with tears in her eyes as the man walked away from the amazed group.

It was like Hannel said, “Anytime there has been a need God has provided.” With the award of the large silver cup, lots of other people know it too.

– Lisa Misner

Illinois joins trans suit

California’s Attorney General is leading a 20-state coalition fighting laws in Kentucky and Tennessee that prevent gender-altering drugs or procedures for minors. The suit says the laws “single out transgender minors for discrimination.” The suit was filed in May. Illinois is one of the states in the coalition.

Meanwhile, the North Carolina legislature voted Aug. 18 to override the governor’s veto of bills involving transgender treatments for minors—so the treatments are banned. And the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Aug. 22 that Alabama can outlaw surgeries and experimental drugs for kids confused about their identities.

—CBN, USA Today, The Center Square

‘But not here’

Illinois’ cry one year after Roe ended

“A new and vibrant culture of life is being established in our nation after decades of death caused by Roe v. Wade,” the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s Brent Leatherwood said at the one-year anniversary of overturning Roe in June. “That is worth celebrating.”

Culture of life? In other states perhaps, but not here. Not in Illinois.

Our state government continues to position Illinois as a haven for “reproductive health,” which is in reality a culture of death.

In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court ended national abortion regulation as we knew it since 1971, 25 states have halted or severely limited abortion access. Some others, such as ours, expanded abortion access. And the result is an onslaught of new abortion clinics, state funding to end pregnancies, and mass migration of out-of-state residents for the procedures. They call it “abortion tourism.” And in the middle of the nation, Illinois is the destination.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois reports 54% more women coming to the state for abortions, from 34 states where abortion is banned or limited. And small cities such as Carbondale are prime examples where multiple providers have relocated near state lines and interstate highways. Carbondale now has three abortion clinics, where there were none until recently. Women come from 11 pro-life, mostly Southern states to the downstate Illinois town to terminate their pregnancies.

But it’s happening all over Illinois. With 29 to 40 abortion facilities in 2020, depending on who’s counting, there are many untallied new providers here who market Illinois as a “sanctuary state” for

pro-life

“abortion refugees.”

While Brentwood talks about a culture of life, he recognizes that “important work remains as abortion providers and the drug manufacturing industry prey upon vulnerable mothers and families in abortion destinations.”

He pointed out Illinois as one of the states that “have tragically chosen to go in the opposite direction.” In the last year, not only has Illinois strengthened its abortion laws, but so have Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Vermont, and Washington. And in August, Ohio joined the legislative moves to “enshrine” the now defunct Roe.

In this new environment, what are pro-life advocates to do, besides lament?

Nikki Tibbetts is executive director of Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford in northern Illinois, and the wife of Heath, pastor at First Baptist Machesney Park. One new medical abortion clinic recently opened in Rockford and a surgical clinic will be opening soon in the city near Iowa, Wisconsin, and western states which have limited abortions.

This is the environment where Illinois’ more than 100 pro-life pregnancy resource clinics minister life to women making critical choices. “Those of us working at Pregnancy Care Centers cannot do this work alone,” Tibbetts said. “We desperately need

Court blocks ‘deceptive law’

Rockford | A federal judge blocked implemention of a new Illinois law designed to force pro-life pregnancy resource ministries to provide clients with abortion information, in violation of their religious beliefs.

After hearing four hours of testimony in an emergency hearing Aug. 3, U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston called the new law “painfully and blatantly a violation of the First Amendment.” The judgment shut down the law enacted on July 27 amending the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act because it targets ministries solely because of their prolife message.

“Free Speech won today in the Land of Lincoln—pro-life advocates across Illinois can breathe a sigh of relief they won’t be pursued for ‘misinformation’ by Attorney General Kwame Raoul,” stated Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation for the Thomas More Society. The religious freedom advocacy group led the lawsuit, National Institute of Family Life Advocates et al. v. Raoul Raoul’s office drafted the law and is charged with enforcing it. If allowed to stand, the new law could result in fines of up to $50,000 on pro-life

centers for providing what abortion advocates deemed “deceptive” information.

Governor J. B. Pritzker favors the law. “This law is constitutional,” Pritzker said, “and I am confident that the law will ultimately be found constitutional, and we’ll continue to work alongside Attorney General Raoul to ensure Illinois patients are protected from misinformation.”

Breen celebrated the win in a state where the pro-life cause rarely sees outcomes in its favor. “Across the nation, pregnancy help ministries are being discriminated against by laws that target their life-affirming work,” said Breen.

“The injunction granted today sends a strong, clear message to the country that the First Amendment protects pro-life speech.”

If the injunction is overturned, the “deceptive practices” act would govern information provided by more than 100 pro-life centers in the state. That includes GraceHaven Pregnancy Resource Clinic in Mt. Vernon, a ministry operated by the Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS).

the Church because lives are counting on us to stay faithful.”

Tibbetts said her center offers mentoring programs, but she tells many of their clients “what they truly need is a connection with a local church…. Centers desperately need more individuals and churches to come alongside and support families who need help and hope by not only supporting centers financially, but also a willingness to invest in people’s lives.”

Kevin Carrothers, executive director of the Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS), says the sanctity of life is a gospel issue and abortion can be addressed biblically. At the same time, he asks Baptists to pray for Illinois and its leadership, saying we live in a time like that of the Apostle Paul. “Those ancient societies did not value life nor protect the life of the defenseless and vulnerable,” said Carrothers, “yet God wanted his people to pray for them.”

“As Southern Baptists living in a state as dark as Illinois, we have a massive opportunity to make a huge impact on the abortion debate,” said Molly Malone Rumley of Illinois Right to Life. “Talk about the issues in the church context,” she pressed. “Let women know that they have access to the resources they need, but also that for the Christian, being anti-abortion is non-negotiable.”

Read a full report and learn what your church can do to assist a crisis pregnancy center at Illinois-

$23 M in new abortion funds

Chicago | Illinois Governor J.B.

Pritzker announced $23 million in new spending on abortion services in Illinois at the same time a federal court was considering the validity of the “deceptive practices” law aimed at prolife crisis pregnancy centers. Pritzker called a press conference July 31 to explain how the state is continuing to “double down on our commitment” to abortion.

One program is a hotline to assist women in scheduling appointments at hospitals. It’s a partnership of two state agencies, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Rush University Medical Center, and the Chicago Abortion Fund (CFA). The CFA will fund procedures, transportation, lodging, and childcare.

Another program dedicates funds to cover the travel expenses for the 1,600 state workers and their families who do not live in Illinois but may travel to the state to obtain an abortion. Medic-

aid recipients will be eligible for annual preventative exams, abortions, contraceptives, and infertility counseling, along with other services and procedures.

The programs will be paid for by

a mix of federal Medicaid and Title X funding. Plus, some state agencies already had funds in their budgets to provide for the start-up costs of the new programs.

Pritzker and other speakers continued calling Illinois a “safe haven” for what they called abortion “refugees” from surrounding states that regulate or ban the procedure.

news makers

SBC President Bart Barber

Bart Barber’s impact on the Southern Baptist Convention may not be tallied for some years, but after one year as SBC President, it can be said that he changed the way we did business at the Annual Meeting, bringing record numbers of people to the microphones to make motions like the church business meetings at home. He guided sessions that upheld dismissal of two churches with women pastors, and passed the first reading of a constitutional amendment limiting pastors to men. The Farmersville, Texas pastor and rancher also renewed the task force implementing sex abuse reform, after appointing the group last year.

Illinois Baptist media editor Eric Reed inter-

Q: Let’s start with the convention in New Orleans. You’ve talked about having meetings where everybody is heard and everybody has opportunity to speak. Did the convention produce what you hoped for in tenor and participation?

A: Yes. You’ve accurately picked up on something there. It’s probably by this point, at 53 years old, it’s less the matter of being a conscious goal and more the matter of just being my nature. We have monthly business meetings here at Farmersville. Even before that, I was on a parliamentary procedure team in the FFA (Future Farmers of America) when I was in high school, and so I did this competitively. And I believe in our polity. I’m a congregationalist by conviction, by way of biblical exposition, I think. I remember when we were coming into the last opportunity to introduce new motions. I was working so hard to let everybody who wanted to make a motion make a motion. I don’t know how to be any different than that coming into Indianapolis next year.

Q: Trevin Wax has written recently that the SBC is “comfortably complementarian,” given the first passage of the Law amendment limiting “pastor” to men, and about 90% of messengers voting to uphold the dismissal Saddleback and Fern Creek churches for having women pastors. Have we reached a point where it’s settled?

A: I find that I’m most likely to get in trouble when I adopt other people’s terminology, so I think the best thing is to talk about underlying questions here. The Southern Baptist Convention is a complementarian convention. And I think the data that I can point to are clear on that matter. The votes that we had in New Orleans, 90% to 10% on the appeals about disfellowshipping, that’s pretty resounding as far as outcomes go.

And I do want to say that I’m proud of the messengers in that for years, there’s been hand wringing about the idea of celebrity culture in the SBC. And yet the margins were nearly identical across all of those questions. It seemed to me that our messengers were voting not on the basis of personalities, not on the basis

viewed Barber the week before Interim CEO of the Executive Committee Willie McLauren resigned, so that event wasn’t covered. The conversation addressed women in ministry, and possible broadening of “friendly cooperation” as grounds for disfellowshipping churches. He’s concerned about that.

The hour-long interview, here condensed for length, started with an update on his cattle that include Bully Graham and Lottie Moooon (pictured on page 1). And there was brief discussion of baseball: He’s a diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan and recently added Yadier Moooolina to the herd. Then the talk turned to the issues.

of either admiration or any kind of antipathy or animosity toward individual people, but instead, they were just expressing their convictions with their ballots. And so I think those votes are good data that point toward the settled complementarian conviction of the SBC.

Q: How does that impact the question of women in pastoral roles?

A: What we really find at this moment is people who have embraced kind of a plural elder understanding of the ecclesiology of the church. And they would look and say, The Baptist Faith and Message talks about the office of pastor and limits it to men. Maybe we’ve got five or six people in our church who are in that office of pastor, elder, or overseer, and none of them are women.

And then you had some other churches in the SBC that are saying, We believe also in the office of pastor, and we believe the office of pastor is limited to men and not women. We don’t have a lot of people in our church who are in that office. It’s just that we feel free to use the label pastor to describe people who are not in the office of pastor.

The question here really is, can you use the word pastor to refer to someone who’s not in the office of pastor as described in The Baptist Faith and Message? That’s a question we need to discuss further. It’s not really a mature question for us.

Q: Well, just for clarification, the word pastor applies to an office, but it also describes a set of nurturing and shepherding gifts.

A: And that’s where the difference of opinion is. Here’s the thing: Our church at Farmersville does not use the word pastor beyond people who occupy the office of elder, pastor, overseer. If a church is doing that, then I would love the opportunity to persuade them why they should think about not doing that. But I think that by delivering ultimatums at the Convention level, we’re shutting down the opportunity for persuasion.

This question about using the title

“pastor” outside of the office is a question that we haven’t even really started talking to each other about. Where are the books about that, or the conferences to discuss different points of view, or the journal articles? If we prematurely boot people out of the Convention, we lose the opportunity to persuade people who might be persuadable.

Q: The NAAF raised the question—

A: Yes, the National African American Fellowship asked for prayer and dialogue, and I’m working to facilitate both of those things, not just dialogue with me, but dialogue with one another. And what could possibly be wrong with doing that? I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to come up with good conversation and good solutions by which we can continue to cooperate with one another to pursue the Great Commission.

Q: Five former presidents stood when the motion was made for you to appoint a study group about defining “friendly cooperation.” Do you think they were right in their evident concern?

A: I am concerned about the way that we’re defining friendly cooperation. I think that with increasing frequency, we’re adding items to Article 3 to create more and more clearly defined rigid bases for excluding churches from Southern Baptist Convention’s cooperation. And I think that that’s really bad for the health of the convention.

My ambition for this task force is beyond that, really. It’s beyond cleaning up Article 3. It’s beyond cleaning up Bylaw 8. The fact of the matter is we have ongoing concern about the future of the Cooperative Program.

Q: How do you see the CP related to that?

A: We’re on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program. I have heard from people wondering whether we have to plan for a future of the SBC that outlives the role the Cooperative Program has had up to this point. I’m resolved to say that the Cooperative Program may die, but I’m going to die first.

Q: Back to the Law amendment. Could you see the possibility that a second vote on the amendment in Indianapolis might fail, resulting in time for a more thoughtful process going forward?

A: I think we’re going to have conversation no matter what happens. The passage of that amendment does not remove a single church from friendly cooperation with the SBC. It does provide the basis for people who wish to do so to report churches to the Credentials Committee. But then the Credentials Committee has to take action. Then it goes to the Executive Committee….The Credentials Committee is going to have conversation about it. The Executive Committee is going to have conversation about it. We’re going to have this conversation for several years, I think, whatever the outcome of the amendment is.

I want to rally Southern Baptists around a vision for cooperation that we had in 1925 that’s still good in 2025. If there are ways that we need to tweak our governing documents or to figure out a pathway forward to have that same idea, then I want our task force to do it. But the primary thing that I want us to accomplish—I want to get our hearts and our spirit back into the idea of cooperating with one another, to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, starting here at home and going to every corner of the globe.

Q: What you’re talking about is more than a name change or a campaign.

A: I tell you, I heard people 15-20 years ago say, well, that name is an old name. The youngsters don’t like the word program. And cooperative is an old word too. But I tell you,

I want to rally around a vision for cooperation that we had in 1925 that’s still good in 2025.

more than ever, I think the name is perfect. I think it says what it is. I think we need to bring people to the idea that we value cooperation more than we value individuality, that we value cooperation so much that we’re comfortable saying I’m going to take my money and I’m going to give it to our plan.

Q: Some churches especially in larger Southern states have escrowed their CP giving, or have given directly to particular SBC entities instead. How do we address that?

A: More and more people are trying to use that as a lever to move the Convention. They’re trying to use that as a lever to say, this is my protest, this is how I’m going to make things different. The Cooperative Program ceases to be a political manipulation tool if you have fair votes at the meetings. Because the church down the street from yours is probably not going to change what they’re doing just because you did something about your Cooperative Program funding.

As God gives me strength to do so, I’m going to moderate the meeting in such a way that everybody gets a fair bite at the apple. I want everybody who’s there to leave with confidence that they’re fairly included in this process, even if they lose on one thing that they would like to change. They can go home and say most of our sister churches just don’t agree

with me about this, but we still ought to support what we’re doing cooperatively within the SBC. We still ought to be giving through the Cooperative Program.

Q: After the failure of Jared Wellman’s nomination to be CEO of the Executive Committee, there was discussion about the tendency of people to adhere to their own narrative instead of listening to the larger conversation. How do we rebuild the trust between the leadership and the pew?

A: Our fundamental problem with that is the advent of social media, which is really sort of in its adolescence. I think we’re still trying to figure out how to use it. There’s a fine line to walk there. I’m probably more engaged on social media than some of my predecessors in the office of president.

Frankly, there are people who have criticized that and have said, man, you ought to just stay off of social media entirely, or just post cow pictures. But the thing is, if you cede the battlefield completely to the worst actors then that doesn’t help anybody getting healthier.

And I think that some of the pressure for transparency that’s found in social media is healthy for us.

Southern Baptists gossiped for sure before there was social media. And social media has amplified that sometimes in some of the worst

Wellman tapped again

To lead SBC examination of “friendly cooperation”

Nashville, Tenn. | Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber named fellow Texas pastor Jared Wellman to chair the group studying “friendly cooperation” as a standard for church membership in the denomination.

“I am concerned about the way that we’re defining friendly cooperation.” Barber said in an exclusive interview with the Illinois Baptist. “The fact of the matter is we have ongoing concern this is a multi-decadal situation” that affects cooperation more broadly.

He hopes the cooperation study group will help draw Southern Baptists together around missions and the historic central funding stream for our shared work.

Messengers at the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans authorized the SBC President to appoint the study group after five former SBC Presidents stood together on the floor urging clarification of cooperation used as reason for five church dismissals in 2022.

J.D. Greear, who preceded Barber as SBC President, said that passage of an amendment to the SBC Constitution, approved in New Orleans at the first of two required votes, will cause the Credentials Committee to go on “a national hunt” for churches who apply the title pastor to women.

While Greear stated unequivocally that the office of pastor is reserved for men, he told the Baptist Press This Week podcast, “… Southern Baptists have a long history of agreeing on primary and secondary things, even as they allow freedom in tertiary things or how we apply things.”

Using “pastor” to describe associate or staff positions would be one of those third-level issues, along with predestination, limited atonement, and irresistible grace, Greear said.

Wellman chaired the SBC Executive Committee (EC) during part of the turbulent period involving claims of mishandling sex abuse claims by earlier EC staff and leaders. His nomination as EC CEO failed in a May meeting of the EC trustees.

ways. But social media is also an amazing blessing and you don’t hear enough about that.

This December, get on Twitter and tweet something about your church meeting your Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal. Odds are good that an IMB missionary will reply and say thank you. Yeah, that’s happening a lot in the last couple of years. And that kind of immediate connection and feedback is unprecedented and beautifully healthy.

Q: With 21,000 Twitter (X) followers, you appear to be making it work.

A: This is one of those corny things I do: I made a video with my cow, Lottie Moooon, promoting the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. I made the Lottie Moooon Seal of Approval. And every time the church said that they met their goal, I tweeted that back out.

PASTURE, BARBER—“My sister snapped this picture,” the SBC President posted on his X (Twitter) account, “and I’m just not going to try to explain it to you.”

We need that kind of positive encouragement about what we’re doing to cooperate with one another. I think there’s tremendous potential for good through social media.

Q: Are you thinking about what you will do after the convention in Indianapolis?

A: I have a powerful love for the Southern Baptist Convention and a very strong sense of ambition. The people of the Southern Baptist Convention have given me the task of presiding well in the preceding year and this year. And my ambition is to do my duty. My ambition is to be able to look Southern Baptists in the eye when the final gavel falls in Indianapolis and to know that with integrity and honesty and fairness to everyone, I served our family of churches the way I was asked to serve.

And I am content to do that and fade back into obscurity.

Q: And tend to the herd.

A: And tend to the herd.

3 quit abuse reform team

Barber names replacements, including chair

Nashville, Tenn. | Three members of the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) resigned two months after the panel was renewed for a second one-year term and charged with finishing the abuse tracking and prevention they started in 2022. The resignations include chair Marshall Blalock. Members Cyndi Lott and Jarrett Stevens also resigned.

SBC President Bart Barber appointed replacements. The chair is Josh Wester, Greensboro, NC.

Barber thanked all three for their service. He said Blalock “deserves the gratitude and affection of all Southern Baptists. His leadership of the Task Force as chair for the past year has been exemplary.”

Messengers to the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting voted to give the task force another year to complete its work. At the convention, the panel unveiled the Ministry Check website which will track convictions and “credible claims” of sex abuse in SBC churches. The website was activated, but information from an existing database of abuse claims had not been uploaded because the content had not been vetted.

The ARITF did not bring a motion to use a subsidiary of Guidepost Solutions to vet the content and operate the site in the future, after criticisms arose for possible continued involvement of the SBC with the New Yorkbased firm.

Guidepost Solutions was criticized for its public statements in support of LGBTQ issues which were in direct opposition to SBC theology.

Guidepost later created a separate organization to service faith-based clients. The new company was under consideration by ARITF to run the Ministry Check website. More public complaints shut down that plan.

Blalock said he hoped the database work and permanent funding for its operation would be finished by the 2024 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. Now it will be up to Wester and his revised team to get the job done.

—IB Staff

WELLMAN BLALOCK

MISSION

Home again

“It was such a joy to partner with Chicagoland Baptists and IBSA,” said Sammy Simmons, National Project Director for Send Relief, a ministry of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Formerly pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Benton, Simmons returned to Illinois in August to join the event he helped coordinate in his new capacity.

A total of 973 volunteer participants from 11 states and 67 SBC churches partnered with church planters and pastors in the city and suburbs for two days of hard work. The plan was to open doors for the gospel. It worked.

Teams from the churches worked on 47 projects, from feeding homeless people to block parties, to renovation for church plant facilities. NAMB reported 1,030 gospel conversations, with 4,108 people served; 2,703 meals were distributed, and Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) packed 1,477 lunches for the volunteers. At the construction sites, 154 hours of work were completed.

Most important, the teams reported 62 salvations—and lots of good will.

“I love the fact that churches across Chicago formed relationships and made commitments to serve again, and people from Southern Illinois are making commitments to return,” said Simmons, pictured above with his wife, Michelle. “I believe leaning into compassion ministry creates many open doors for having gospel conversations.

“I pray for a day when God moves and there are no longer nine million lost people in Illinois.”

At your service

Baptists bless city as Serve Tour comes to Chicagoland

od is doing a gospel work here,” said Jorge Rodriguez, pastor and planter of Grace Family Church in Rogers Park. “And having the crews come in just brings more light to what God is doing.”

The crews were Southern Baptists from across the region who heard the Chicago version of the Macedonian call—at least for a weekend. Serve Tour deployed workers and their witness to churches and schools and parks all over Chicagoland to bring helping hands, compassion ministry, and the gospel.

“Chicagoland is our state’s largest, and in many ways most daunting mission field, and many of the pastors and churches there are doing truly heroic work,” IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams said. Serve Tour brought them some back up.

“In just these two days, I personally saw churches feeding the desperately hungry, teaching job and language skills in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, serving and befriending local law enforcement, improving church properties to make

them more attractive and useful, caring for exhausted and grateful migrants, and in all these compassion ministries, faithfully sharing the gospel and making disciples.”

In Rogers Park, members of Rodriguez’ multi-ethnic congregation teamed up with crews from Cornerstone Church in downstate Marion and a Kentucky church that has partnered with Rodriguez for several years, Bloomfield Baptist Church. They spent Friday preparing New Field School for opening day, assembling furniture, and cleaning the cafeteria, which is also the space where Grace Family Church holds Sunday worship services.

Maria Oke from Nigeria has been a member of the church plant for two years. “Our folks here in the church are just like the folks in Rogers Park—the most diverse group in Chicago.”

She was giving instructions to the work crews and passing out trash bags after lunch. “The people came to help us clean the grounds and wipe the walls and sweep;

ILLINOIS BAPTIST TEAM REPORT

FIELD DAY—New partners from downstate (in light blue) team up with local church members (in red) to clean at New Field School in Rogers Park, where the church plant meets on Sundays.

Continued from P. 9

it is inspiring. We met the principal and the administrators of the school, and it encourages the relationship with the church and the school,” Oke said.

“The principal told me, ‘I don’t know much

Armitage serves as homebase

In Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, more than 40 ethnicities and nationalities call Armitage Baptist Church home. The church hosts services in English and Spanish. On Serve Tour weekend it served as a base for 67 Disaster Relief volunteers who prepared sack lunches for event participants, then fed dinner to 500 at the Saturday evening celebration.

Lisa Harbaugh, a member of First Baptist Litchfield and an IBSA staffer, was there on her first callout. She called it “a great bonding experience with the volunteers I talk to and work with over the phone and email.” She said, “It was great getting to see them serving in action” and “hearing them tell their stories about sharing the gospel.”

IBDR Chaplain Coordinator Jennifer Smith had been collecting notes of encouragement just for the event by students from Sandy Creek Association Camp and WMU Kids Camp in South Carolina.

“It was so much fun to make those sandwiches and sack lunches, sticking those notes in with them,” Harbaugh said, “knowing the workers were going to get those notes of encouragement.”

about Southern Baptists, but I like what you guys are doing,’” Rodriguez said.

For high school student Madison Lee from Marion, her first visit to Chicago was eye opening. “The city is a lot bigger than I thought, and there’s a lot more people than I thought—but I really like it.

“Earlier this summer I had a calling at church camp” to a mission project, she said. “We learned how God is going to call you out of your comfort zone, but it’s all for a reason.” As Madison and the Cornerstone crew scrubbed walls in the cafeteria, their concern for this community at the opposite end of the state from their own was clear.

The teams gathered each morning at one of four ministry hubs: Ashburn Baptist Church Chicago, Chicago West Bible Church, Starting Point Community Church, and Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church. On Saturday evening, they assembled at Armitage Baptist Church for worship and to share reports on ministry.

“I don’t know which encouraged me more—that more than half of the churches participating in the Serve Tour weekend were from Illinois, or that almost half of them were from other states,” Adams said.

He and his wife, Beth, manned a mobile grill and served burgers on the first day. On the second day, they led NAMB Director Sammy Simmons on a tour of work sites.

“I also gratefully watched hundreds of sacrificial Baptist volunteers who, while they were serving, were also able to see up close and personal the ongoing needs and great opportunities of their fellow churches in Chicago,” Adams said.

The Chicago event was one of six in the 2023 schedule, including international outreach in Athens, Greece; Nairobi, Kenya; and Bangkok, Thailand. Planning began more than a year ago as NAMB and its Send City leadership team in Chicago partnered with IBSA and Chicagoland Baptist Association to identify the sites—and facilitate what they hope will be long-term relationships with local churches and church planters.

“I believe we’re going to see long lasting impact from this weekend in Chicago during the Serve Tour,” IBSA Missions Director Shannon Ford said.

Adams agreed. “I believe this weekend will be the beginning of some great future partnerships and ministries.”

DR volunteers painted the church’s gym and staffed a shower trailer for those staying at the church, including more than three dozen volunteers from Marion.

Mobile medical clinics

“Having access to fully outfitted medical and dental trailers was an amazing blessing!” said Nathan Carter, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in downtown Chicago. NAMB brought two fully outfitted medical units. “I told people in our church that this is one of the benefits of being part of something bigger like the SBC. They were impressed.”

The church is located near hospitals and medical schools. “We staffed the mobile medical unit with doctors from our church,” he said, while the dental office was staffed by people from other churches. “It was packed both days and we had to turn some people away. One Venezuelan migrant that arrived at the local police station the night before was able to get needed dental work.”

Carter, who also leads the Chicagoland Baptist Association, said Serve Tour was a great success for local churches. “One person who was served has come to our church the last two Sundays and even midweek service! It was great for people from our church and met a real need in the community.”

PARTNERS—Mornings began with teams meeting for prayer and assignments in one of four hubs across Chicago. At Starting Point Church, IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams and pastor Jonathan de la O welcomed the teams and prayed with them before they hit the streets.

Ashburn leads 12 projects

Along the streets of the Ashburn neighborhood, about four miles southeast of Midway Airport, volunteers scraped paint on the graffiti-laden, exhaust-stained viaducts. By the end of Saturday, several gleamed brightly with a fresh coat of white paint. This was just one of 12 hub projects that provided a boost of encouragement for local pastors and a wave of goodwill within their local communities.

The following Sunday morning, Tommy Thompson, lead pastor of Ashburn Baptist Church, shared the impact of the weekend. “We had almost 200 people serving at our Ashburn Church hub. This was a wonderful reminder of what we can do together,

when we all have a hand in (the work) and we all chip in to help.”

One of those local church projects served by the Ashburn hub was in nearby McKinley Park. Volunteers helped with needed building renovations then served tacos in the park in partnership with Iglesia Ciudad de Gracia, a young church plant.

The wave of partners meant much to Pastor Victor Loera, “We are so grateful for their partnership. We pray God would bless them everywhere they go.”

Many languages, many people at Elmwood Empowerment Church brings food and hope

At Elmwood Park Community Church, a line had formed outside the building long before the food bank opened. Volunteers inside assisted by restocking shelves and helping people in need with their free shopping. “The joy of those who receive, coupled with the enthusiasm of those who came to serve, was wonderful to see,” said Shannon Ford, IBSA Mission Director.

Serve Tour volunteers spent most of the day laying landscaping fabric and mulch at the church, which sits near the center of this diverse village connected on its eastern border to the city of Chicago. For volunteers like Aubrey Shelby, member at Rochester First and an IBSA staffer, it was a taste of an international missions experience close to home.

“I had never been on a mission trip before, so I took Shannon’s advice that this was a great place to start,” Shelby said. “We had gospel conversations with some of the residents who were wait-

ing for the food pantry to open. Once the residents started coming through the lines for food, I honestly felt like I wasn’t even in Chicago anymore. I heard Russian, Spanish, Polish, and Ukrainian all being spoken! It opened my eyes to the people who immigrate into the United States every day. It was a privilege to work alongside the church.”

The Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side is known for broken homes, drug addiction, and spiritual darkness, and no one knows this better than Pastor Maurice Gaiter, of Empowerment Community Church.

Gaiter grew up in Austin and spent years as one of the most prominent drug dealers there before becoming a follower of Jesus. “I used to ruin families in my neighborhood, but now I get to show them that Jesus Christ is a life raft in a dark place,” Gaiter said.

During the outreach, volunteers prepared burgers and tacos for residents who often don’t know where their next meal will come from. As teams took food door-to-door, they discovered opportunities to share the gospel.

In an encounter with Gaiter, one young man said that his cousin was brutally killed in gang violence, and he said that he really needs God. The pastor shared his testimony and prayed.

“We believe and trust that the Lord will make a way,” Gaiter said.

“And I know that the Lord will make a way because I was in their shoes thirty years ago. And if God can save me with two broken hands, addicted to heroin, nowhere to go, lost and terrified, I know he can do it for them.”

Austin report by Daryn Sinclair, Send Relief

FIRED UP—On loan from Baptists in Oklahoma, the Mobile Grill was a hot spot to serve, as Beth Adams (right) and volunteers distributed fresh cooked burgers.

BREAD OF LIFE—Serve Tour volunteers knocked on doors in Austin, delivering meals in an area with food insecurity. This team met Clara and her best friend who came to the U.S. from Central America four months ago. Both women asked to receive Christ with team members who knelt in prayer on their front porch.

illinois voices All year long

What personal missions commitment looks like

“Your partnership is needed now.” That sentence jumped out as I looked over this year’s Mission Illinois Offering materials. This time of year always reminds me of the things that unite Illinois Baptists: the shared prayer that more people will come to know Jesus; the shared burden for our communities in need of transformation; and the shared mission to engage with how God is working in our state.

My partnership is needed now. So is yours. We’re accustomed to hearing about needs around our country and around the world, but the stories happening closer to home are sometimes easier to overlook. That’s why I’m grateful every year for the Mission Illinois Offering. It’s a critical reminder that our Illinois mission field is full of vibrant stories and servant-hearted leaders. It’s a call to action.

What would it look like for me, a regular member of an IBSA-member church, to partner with people like me across our state to really engage our shared mission field? Here are a few ideas to consider:

Pray every day. During the week of September 17-24, dedicate a few minutes every day to pray for Illinois missions.

If it’s helpful, choose a time with significance—2:17 or 6:18, for example, or the area code where you live. Pray on your own, with your family, or with prayer partners over the phone. At the end of the week, consider praying intentionally for Illinois missions throughout the year. Go to missionillinois.org/prayer-guide for specific ways to pray.

Make connections. The needs in our towns are different, but many of the big themes are universal: changing communities, the need for strong leadership, neighbors with deep physical and spiritual needs. As you watch this year’s missions stories, think about your own neighbors,

your church, your town or city. What commonalities do you see between your community and the ones on screen?

On paper, a church ministering to refugees in Chicagoland may seem worlds away from yours. But there are people with the same kind of needs right where you are. When we connect the dots, engaging our shared mission field becomes a more accessible endeavor year-round.

Invite the next generation. Look no further than a Vacation Bible School offering for missions to see how quickly kids get on board. Like us, the next generation is motivated by compelling stories of how God is working. Consider how your church might use existing children’s ministry to introduce Illinois missions. Devote one morning of Sunday school to learning about one of the missionaries featured this year. Show the video; invite kids to pray. Putting a name and a face to a big concept like “missions” is invaluable for all of us, especially kids.

Plan a trip. As you watch and pray through this year’s missions stories, consider how you and your church might partner directly with other churches and leaders in Illinois. Even the most seasoned among us are stopped in their tracks when they witness gospel-fueled ministry that is actually changing a community. Where could a family or a team go to partner with another church in reaching their neighbors? Start planning now.

Our Illinois mission field is something we share all year, every year. Let this week be a jumping off point for a new level of engagement.

Trends

from nearby and around the world

drive past the Giant Cross at the intersection of Interstates 57 and 70 at Effingham every year.

134 four-year colleges

633,737

157,212

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– Collegesimply.com and Wikipedia

Illinois children (birth-age 5) speak English at home.

with 2.2 million students call Illinois home. A Baptist school founded in 1827 was first Rock Spring Seminary, then Alton Seminary, and operated as Shurtleff College until 1957, when it became part of SIU. McKendree University, founded by Methodists as Lebanon Seminary in 1828, is considered the oldest continually operating school. speak Spanish, the second most popular language.

– IECAM 2021

32 planters are starting new churches in partnership with Illinois Baptists.

America’s #1 iconic food

is the title given to Twinkies by Time magazine. Invented in the Chicago suburb of River Forest in 1930, Hostess first filled them with banana cream, then moved to vanilla during WW2.

Walmart started selling frozen deep-fried Twinkies in 2016.

220+ Abes

are members of the Association of Abraham Lincoln Presenters.

One of their mottos:

“Ready, willing, and Abe L.”

GROWING

MEET THE TEAM

Jeff Deasy Operations Team Leader

Home state: Tennessee

Family deets: Kathy and I have been married 43 years. We have two adult children and four grandchildren.

Higher ed: Master of Divinity in Church Music, Southern Seminary

Ministry area: Before joining IBSA in 2015, we were missionaries serving with IMB for 20 years, first in Brazil, then in Kenya.

I met Jesus: At a James Robison Crusade, I remember feeling under conviction. The lady standing beside me asked if I would like her to go down front with me, and I said yes. I later found out she was a retired missionary.

Life verse: Proverbs 3:5-6

Favorite NT person: Paul, because he was an example of a missionary.

Hobby: We are members of the Christian Motorcyclist Association. I’m amazed how often we are able to strike up gospel conversations while biking across the country.

Favorite ice cream: Butter pecan

Favorite movie: Star Wars, because our first date was to see the movie when it first came out

Little known fact: Kathy is a piano teacher, and at her recitals, we often sit together on the piano bench and play four-hand pieces.

A quote I find myself saying: “Just show up!”

Three lessons I’ve learned over and over table talk

The value of staying put

It’s been 20 years since my wife and I, and two couples from our mother church launched Love Fellowship Baptist Church in Romeoville. As we recently celebrated the church’s anniversary, I’ve been thinking about the lessons I’ve learned simply from sticking around. Here are three.

1. Focus on “how often and how well” rather than “how many.”

All four Gospels offer a version of the Great Commission. In each telling, Jesus emphasized actions rather than results. Taken with the promise in Matthew 16:18, “upon this rock I will build my church,” it is reasonable to conclude that our responsibility is to faithfully proclaim the gospel and disciple those whom we baptize; the Lord’s responsibility is to grow his church (Acts 2:47).

With this understanding, God’s word compels me to ensure we continuously press toward our mission, to reach people and help them to grow. This means encouraging every member to pray for and respond to gospel opportunities as they go about their daily rhythms of life. It also means making sure that we are consistently involved in outreach initiatives that create spaces for members to share their faith with unsaved and unchurched people. What is most important, however, is not the number of people that join our church as a result. That metric belongs to God. Our focus is gospel engagement. Did

we serve well? Did we meet new people? Did we start conversations? Did we have a plan for intentional follow-up? These are areas we can control.

2. Don’t go it alone. Have friends.

Pastors need friends of various sorts. Pastors need people in their church they can trust to be honest with them in their leadership, people who will offer support and hear their heart when it comes to ministry and family concerns.

Pastors need pastor friends outside of their church, men who are also running the race and can relate firsthand to the pressures and challenges of pastoral ministry. These men can pray with you with a unique sense of empathy. They can talk you out of quitting too soon and hold you accountable when you are wrong.

Pastors need mentor friends, men who have already finished the race or are ahead in the journey so they can offer wisdom that only comes with experience. Mentor friends can make you aware of potential pitfalls— ministry and moral—and help you navigate mistakes.

My pastor, William M. Rorer, planted Alpha Missionary Baptist Church in Bolingbrook in 1977. He pastored there for over 37 years, until his retirement. If you desire longevity, it may be important to have mentors who model longevity.

Pastors need friends who are

not pastors. A friend I met in college over 30 years ago lives in another state, but we are intentional about spending a few days on the lake fishing a couple of times a year, just being friends.

To him I am not Pastor Price or Dr. Price, I am Bryan; no pressure, no expectations other than seeing who can catch the most fish. Each relationship mentioned has been critical for my longevity.

3. Trust the Lord and remain faithful to the call.

Early in my pastorate, experienced pastors would stress to me that the church belongs to God. It sounded cliché. However, as I have seen the Lord work despite my shortcomings, I have become more certain of this truth.

When I tell new church planters that I still pastor the same church I planted twenty years ago, they seem surprised. When they ask for advice, I say, “Trust the Lord.” Make plans and develop strategies, but trust the Lord. Paul’s words are trustworthy: God alone gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6).

Love Fellowship has had its high seasons, but our church is small. Yet, if all the people who have made professions of faith and those who we have baptized over the years were still with us had they not moved away, passed away, or walked away our numbers would look more impressive. I could sulk over it, and sometimes I do. A few times I wanted to quit. But the Lord always reminds me, “I can move people as I see fit, they are mine. I called you to plant and pastor where you are, and until I call you somewhere else stay put and trust me!”

Being certain of God’s call has kept me during the dark nights and cold winters of pastoral ministry. That same calling, mixed with fresh vision from God has been my source of renewed strength—for 20 years.

Bryan Price is the founding pastor of Love Fellowship Baptist Church in Romeoville. He also serves as IBSA Zone 1 Consultant.

This Sunday Pastor Doug first questioned his decision to share the pulpit with the entire pastoral staff.

with the lord

Nicolas Slobodian, 96, died June 11. Born in Ukraine and raised in Argentina, he worked as a missionary with the Slavic Gospel Association.

He immigrated with his family to the United States, arriving in Chicago in 1976.

There he pastored at Iglesia Bautista Biblica and the Russian-Ukrainian Baptist Mission reaching Russian Jews for Christ.

Whoever he met he always asked, “Do you know where you will spend eternity?” also sharing the tract of the same name.

The pastor was preceded in death by a son and his wife. He is survived by two daughters and their families. Slobodian’s son-in-law, Gabriel Georgescu, is pastor of Iglesia Bautista Biblica under Uptown Baptist Church in Chicago.

Donald Jerome Stuckey, 88, died August 6. He was preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, Ruth; daughter, Melissa; brother, Bob; and sister Carol. The family suffered another loss as daughter Ericka

Uskali died Aug 11. He’s survived by two children: Richard and Cristie (wife of Tim Lewis, pastor of Bethel Church in Troy) and a total of 34 grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Stuckey attended SIU Carbondale and Loyola University Chicago earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees, plus a Superintendency certificate. He served as a teacher and administrator at Southwestern School District in Piasa for 34 years. After retiring he continued serving as assistant regional superintendent for Calhoun, Greene, Jersey, and Macoupin counties.

A deacon at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Medora, Stuckey served on 18 mission trips on 6 continents in 14 countries and was an Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief volunteer. Stuckey was an IBSA board member for eight years and a Midwestern Seminary trustee for 10.

Merle Fullerton, 86, died August 14. He married Beverly Lisenby who survives him in 1959. He is also survived by his sons Lendell and Glendell, daughters Daphna and LaVonda, 15 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a great-granddaughter, Hope Fullerton.

He surrendered to the call of Christian service in 1957 at First Baptist Church in Woodlawn.

Fullerton pastored several Illinois Baptist churches and actively promoted gospel concerts throughout Southern Illinois bringing in The Kingsmen, The Florida Boys, The Cathedrals, The Rex Nelon Singers, and Gold City. He started the radio ministry, “Gospel Quartet Time,” on WMIX in 1972.

The name was later changed to “The Ole Time Gospel Singing” and it aired for many years.

A highlight of his ministry was the recording of Kingsmen “Live Naturally.” Fullerton received the Singing News Golden Mic Award in 2017. In March of this year, he was honored with a “Tribute to the Life and Ministry of Merle Fullerton.”

Russell Fay Drinnen, 90, died August 20. A graduate of CarsonNewman College, she earned a Master of Religious Education from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

From 1958-1970 she was the Woman’s Missionary Union Youth Director for Illinois where she organized and led camps for Girls in Action (GAs) and Acteens.

From 1970-1974 Drinnen served as Baptist Young Women’s Director for Florida WMU. She was then called to lead The Learning Tree Preschool Center of San Jose Baptist Church where she served as director until 1988.

As a church member, Drinnen served as Preschool Director, sang in the choir, co-lead Women on Mission meetings, taught preschool Sunday School, and went on several short-term mission trips.

After “retirement” she spent 5-6 months each year in Mesa, Ariz., leading Bible studies and cooking for the Christian Women’s group luncheons.

Street corner prayers in Chicago

Avalon Park | Phillip Griffin had an idea. Some might call it more of an inspiration. The men’s Sunday school teacher felt led by God to spend time outside of his church’s four walls on Sunday mornings. But not away from the church—on the church property itself.

For one hour every Sunday morning for the last three months, Griffin has sat in a lawn chair at the intersection of 82nd and Cornell on the lawn of Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church on Chicago’s southeast side, waving and praying for people as they drive by. Given the opportunity, he’ll even pray with them. Often, the drivers offer him a smile and a wave, or sometimes a honk as he holds up a sign reading, “Stop to Pray/Stop for Prayer.”

“I really wanted to let people know we [the church] were here for them,” Griffin explained. “Even if nobody comes it’s gratifying. I do a lot of waving, they wave back. Sometimes speak. I recently got the sign which has let them know what’s going on.” Before the sign was printed, curious drivers would sometimes lower their windows and ask him why he was sitting next to the street.

Chicago’s southeast side, like the rest of the city, has experienced a wave of crime and violence in recent years which has set some nerves on edge. When Griffin first broached the idea of teaching his Sunday school class outside, he said he received “a little pushback” from the class’s usual six to ten participants.

“Living in the city, people were skeptical about it,” said Griffin, who has been attending the church for a decade and teaching the class for eight months. “God sees us and loves us. We don’t have to worry.” But now class members will join him as they can for roadside fellowship and prayer.

The church’s pastor, Donald Sharp, said he’s

encouraged to see the men in his church reaching out to the community. “We tend to feel very comfortable within our own four walls,” Sharp shared. “We come to church expecting the service to meet our needs but do not expect to meet the needs outside the four walls.”

He believes it’s important for the local community to know the church is there for them and cares. “I sometimes ask, if we as the church were to disappear, would the neighborhood even miss us?”

In current church culture there’s a lack of male involvement. Sharp said his church is no different and that it’s “important to have male upfront involvement.” He noted that there can sometimes be a “reluctance for men to display or exhibit a sense of involvement with witnessing,” which is why he’s excited to see Griffin’s effort.

The entire church took their witness public on Sunday, August 6 . They erected a large tent to hold outdoor worship services. “Jesus commanded us to be out sharing and

Big baptism day for Overcup Church

TEAM EFFORT—Sunday school teacher Phillip Griffin took his lawn chair to the corner outside Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church. Soon the whole class joined him to study and pray for their Avalon Park neighborhood.

bringing the gospel to people,” Sharp said.

“We’re an older congregation,” noted Sharp, “but you don’t have to be super saints to share the gospel. Or, to ask someone to let you pray for them. It’s about daring to take a stand and putting your faith to practice.”

NeTworkiNg

Send items to IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org

Old DuQuoin Baptist Church seeks bi-vocational pastor. Please send resume to Pastor Search Committee, 8831 Old State Route 14, DuQuoin, IL 62832.

Bankston Fork Missionary Baptist Church seeks a bi-vocational pastor. Please submit resume to attorneyninabrown@gmail.com, or write to Pastor Search Committee, 5890 Highway 13 West, Harrisburg, IL 62946.

New Life Baptist Church of Waverly seeks highly motivated bi-vocational preacher. Must have knowledge of the Bible and be willing to share it with others. Send resumé to 341 East Elm, Waverly, IL 62692.

Search more church openings at IBSA.org/pastor-search or scan this code.

LAKESIDE CELEBRATION—It was a big event August 6 as Overcup Baptist Church baptized 11 people in rural Fayette County. “The exciting part to me is the young adults being baptized,” said Rehoboth Baptist Association Mission

Strategist Joe Lawson. Ten of the 11 are under age 40, and one is expecting twins, although that only counts as one baptism. The pastor of the church near Vandalia, Doug Wodtka, has served there for more than 20 years.

“I sometimes ask, if we as the church were to disappear, would the neighborhood even miss us?”

Pastor Don Sharp

Brighter day

My rooftop vision

If seasons had titles, this one would be “the summer of new roofs.” Hailstorms on consecutive Sundays last spring gave way to early morning hammering across our neighborhood this summer, as home after home received a brandnew roof.

We hadn’t given much thought to the hail or its fallout until we started seeing the “approved” signs dotting most of the yards on our street. Every home, it seemed, had suffered roof damage. Since we hadn’t noticed any interior damage, we hadn’t thought to check. But a quick inspection by an expert proved what the signs had already told us: we needed a new roof too.

As our family settles into this phase of parenting school-age kids, we’re on constant lookout for the comparison trap. We want to help our girls avoid the never-ending cycle of looking at others and wondering why they don’t look like or dress like or achieve like someone else. But our roofing journey reminded me comparison can be positive. If our neighbors hadn’t been on the lookout for warning signs and hadn’t taken corrective action, we probably wouldn’t have either. Our old roof would have continued to deteriorate, increasing the likelihood of major damage when the next storm comes.

It strikes me that godly compar-

ison happens often in the context of Christian community. I’ve long been on the record about coming to the concept of community later in life—it wasn’t part of my church experience growing up, and learning to live transparently in a smaller group of fellow Christians has been a challenge. But it is in the comparisons with those people that I’ve learned what it looks like to live a holy life in everyday circumstances.

It’s in the way they readily pray for one another, or how they speak so graciously or patiently to their children. It’s how they drop everything to rally around someone with an immediate need, adjusting their own busy schedules to make meals, visit the hospital, or babysit for a few hours.

I want to live like that, and I wouldn’t have nearly as clear a picture of that life if I hadn’t seen these believers in our community group living it. They are spurring each other—and me—“toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). We live under a new roof because others walked that road before us. We value, far more, the examples of people around us who are trying to live like Jesus.

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

EVENTS

September 8-9

DR Training: Group Crisis Intervention

Where: IBSA Building, Springfield

What: A fundamental of CISM Training

Cost: $100, Includes workbook, lunch, snacks

Info: 217-391-3126, LisaHarbaugh@IBSA.org

Register: IBSA.org/disaster-relief/training

Ignite Evangelism Conference

Where: FBC Herrin

When: 9/10-11

Sun. 6 p.m.; Mon. 8 a.m.-noon

Where: Lincoln Ave., Jacksonville

When: 9/24-25

Sun. 6 p.m.; Mon. 8 a.m.-noon

Register: IBSA.org/igniteconference

Ministry training events

Skills development for church leaders

9/12 – Twin Oaks, Sleepy Hollow

9/19 – Island City, Wilmington

9/26 – Chatham Church, Chatham

10/3 – First Baptist, Metropolis

10/10 – Metro Community, Edwardsville

FREE Register at IBSA.org/equip

September & october

Church Planting Hubs

Planters and pastors come together to encourage and train, multiplying everything from small group leaders, staff members, and church planters. Connect with other like-minded leaders. Be equipped with practical breakouts and leave with a game-plan for your next season of ministry.

Cost: Free

Info: IBSA.org/multiply-hubs/

9/20 – Together Church, Springfield

9/26 – Whittington Church

9/27 – Red Hill Church, Glen Carbon

9/30 – Brainard Ave. Church, Countryside

10/4 – Chicagoland Baptists Bldg.

MEREDITH FLYNN