SBCLIFE JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
Published by the SBC Executive Committee
SUMMER 2018 TWO DOLLARS FIFTY CENTS
Encouraging Cooperation . . . for a Great Commission Advance! What are some lessons you’ve learned during your time as SBC president? Gaines: I’ve learned that God loves Southern Baptists and He is using many of us in unique ways to fulfill the Great Commission. I admire every pastor of every Southern Baptist church that leads his congregation week in and week out, preaching the Word, evangelizing the lost, and equipping the saints to carry out various ministries. I love the directors of missions in our associations that rally the local churches to share the Gospel with lost people and disciple those who become believers in Christ. I also thank God for the state convention executives. I believe our state conventions are the backbone of the Southern Baptist Convention. The state convention executives are the champions when it comes to supporting the Cooperative Program and missions, as well as local evangelism. I am also grateful for the amazing work by our national entities and their leaders. I anticipate good things to come in the years ahead, especially as the pastors, the local churches, the associations, the state conventions, and the national entities genuinely unite to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. photo courtesy of bellevue baptist church
SBC President Steve Gaines Reflects on His Presidency by Shawn Hendricks Leading up to this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Dallas, SBC president Steve Gaines answered questions from Baptist Press regarding this year’s gathering and lessons and rewarding moments he’s encountered during the past two years. Nearing the end of his second and final one-year term as SBC president, the pastor of Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee, specifically addressed some of the challenges the Convention faces in the months ahead. Share your thoughts on this year’s SBC meeting, the theme, and why it was chosen. Steve Gaines: I’m looking forward to gathering with thousands of Southern Baptists in Dallas in June. Our theme for the 2018 annual meeting is: Testify! Go. Stand. Speak. This theme is based on Acts 5:20: Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life (NASB). The artwork has a definite Texas flare. I want to challenge all Southern Baptists to boldly testify of the saving work that Jesus Christ has accomplished for all of us. I challenge all Southern Baptists to be willing to go wherever God tells you to go, stand for the truth of the Gospel of Christ, regardless of how countercultural it becomes, and to open your mouths and speak the words of the Gospel with lost people in a persuasive manner for the purpose of winning them to faith in Jesus. A real Gospel
conversation must include a Gospel presentation and a Gospel invitation. As my former evangelism professor, Roy Fish, always said, “You can’t serve Jesus with a zipped lip.” Southern Baptists must verbally share the Gospel with lost people and win them to Christ. How can Southern Baptists pray for this year’s meeting in Dallas and for the SBC as a whole? And share what you’d like to see happen during the meeting. Gaines: Pray for the Lord’s manifest presence to envelop all of us, from the first prayer on Tuesday morning to the closing prayer on Wednesday afternoon. • Pray that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts will be acceptable in God’s sight (Psalm 19:14). • Pray that God will set a guard over our mouths
and keep watch over the door of our lips (Psalm 141:3). • Pray that Jesus alone will be glorified and exalted. • Pray for everyone who preaches and for everyone who presents a report to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. • Pray that every messenger will be considerate and Christlike in all interactions with others. • Pray that all of us will be Godly examples to a lost world that will be watching and listening. • Pray that we will conduct the Lord’s business properly and in an orderly manner (1 Corinthians 14:40). • Pray that during our meetings we will discuss issues in a united, civil, Spirit-filled way. • Pray that when we leave Dallas, we will do so with a genuine unity of spirit and purpose— to reach lost people throughout the world with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Share some challenges and rewarding moments during your time as president. Gaines: Obviously, we face the challenge of seeking new leaders to fill two of our most important leadership roles—the president of the International Mission Board and the president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee. We must have godly, spirit-filled leaders in those positions. We all know that everything rises and falls on leadership. We need to pray that the Lord will place the exact people He wants in these two vital positions. As far as rewarding moments during my time as president, there are too many to count. I committed to Bellevue that I would not miss a Sunday for the Southern Baptist Convention except for the annual meetings, and I have kept that commitment. As a result, our church has actually grown during the last two years. However, I have traveled a lot during the week. I have enjoyed preaching in five of our six seminaries. I have attended the board meetings of the IMB, NAMB, and GuideStone. I have also preached at multiple state convention gatherings, and other Southern Baptist meetings. I am amazed at the strength of the Lord’s work among Southern Baptists. What is happening among us is a “God-thing.” We are planting and watering, but He is the One giving the increase. I am praying and believing that in the days to come the Lord will pour out His Spirit in a fresh way on Southern Baptists, and we will see more people saved and baptized than ever before. I pray that God will open the heavens and come down afresh on all of our pastors, churches and entities, and that the latter glory of the SBC will be greater than the former. I pray that we will be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and that we will be the salt of the earth and the light of the world as we penetrate the culture with the Gospel and proclaim it to the ends of the earth. Shawn Hendricks, editor of Baptist Press and a member of First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, conducted this interview with SBC President Steve Gaines. This interview is excerpted from a previously-published Baptist Press article.
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BAPTIST COALITION FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
State Baptist convention children’s homes leaders fellowship during the Baptist Coalition for Children and Families annual meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, April 10–11, 2018. photos by kyle luke
State convention children’s and family ministry leaders network with one another and SBC entity leaders during the annual meeting of the BCCF. This year’s annual meeting was hosted by the Baptist Homes for Children of North Carolina.
BCCF—Serving Children and Families for Seventy Years
by Kyle Luke
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s host of the annual gathering of Baptist Coalition for Children and Families (BCCF), Michael Blackwell shared lessons he’s learned from thirty-five years of leadership as president and CEO of the Baptist Homes for Children of North Carolina. Leadership requires “patient persistence,” “being confident,” “having the courage of conviction,” and “understanding early the power of relationships,” Blackwell told leaders from nineteen of BCCF’s twenty-one member organizations at its seventieth anniversary meeting in the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina. Blackwell urged his fellow children’s and family ministry leaders to connect “exceptionally well” with people, involve all kinds of people in their ministry circles, show compassion, be open and transparent, and understand what motivates
SBCLIFE SBC LIFE is published by the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention 901 Commerce Street Nashville, Tennessee 37203 615-244-2355 E-mail: sbclife@SBC.net D. August Boto Interim President
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Communications Specialist SBC LIFE is published three times per year: PreConvention, Summer, and Winter. It is distributed to pastors, ministers of education, ministers of music, full-time denominational workers, chaplains, missionaries, and vocational evangelists of the Southern Baptist Convention. Workers retiring from any of these groups may continue to receive the magazine upon request. Subscriptions are free of charge. Bulk subscriptions are available at reduced prices. For SBC LIFE subscriptions, call 866-722-5433 (toll-free). * All Scripture is from the Christian Standard Bible unless noted otherwise. * Any article without attribution is by SBC LIFE staff.
SBC LIFE (ISSN 1081-8189) Volume 26, Number 3 ©2018 Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee Encouraging Cooperation . . . for a Great Commission Advance!
people during the April 11–12, 2018, meeting. Other leaders shared a variety of “lessons from the trenches,” including David Perry, executive director for Arkansas Baptist Children’s Homes, who shared lessons about ups and downs in ministry he has learned during the thirty-nine years he has served his organization. During the meeting, the children’s and family ministry leaders celebrated reports of families served and individuals saved. Affirming that Christ-centered services are key to the success of each organization, the presidents reported that 662,830 families were positively impacted by BCCF’s member organizations. Noting that meeting both physical needs and spiritual needs are what define their ministries, they celebrated reports of 1,174 professions of faith in Christ by individuals served through their respective ministries. This year’s meeting included presentations by Southern Baptist Convention leaders sharing how BCCF can come alongside churches as Kingdom partners in foster care, orphan care, story-telling, and advocacy. Each speaker shared ways to connect resources, share vision and mission, and partner together with churches, associations, state conventions, and SBC entities to serve the least of these in all areas of ministry, regardless of geography. Speakers included Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director for Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU); Roger S. “Sing” Oldham, vice president for Convention communications and relations for the SBC Executive Committee; David Melber, president of Send Relief, the North American Mission Board’s compassion ministries arm; and Josh Wester, director of strategic initiatives for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. BCCF’s purpose is to strengthen members and their respective organizations through leadership development, dynamic relationships, education, and advocacy. Formed in 1949 as Baptist Child Care Executives, the organization of child and family care leaders changed its name in 2015 to reflect the many changes in how children’s homes provide ministry to children and families in a rapidly-changing world. Today, the services offered by Baptist child and family ministries are varied. Although many still provide residential care to children, there are also major emphases on foster care, family care for mothers and their children, individual and family counseling,
care for the frail aging, and even outreaches to children in other countries. Ministries which continue to provide residential care have adapted to societal changes, creating home-style settings that easily fit in with any neighborhood in the country. Old-style “institutional matrons” who cared for as many as forty to sixty children have long been replaced by married couples who become surrogate parents caring for six to eight children, including their own. Through Christ-centered ministries spread across the United States, BCCF members promote and advocate for children, families, and the aging while championing the sanctity of life at every point. Members represent twenty-one organizations located in nineteen states from Florida to Alaska, impacting lives in the United States and around the world. The majority of these ministries to children and families have multiple campuses and ministry centers scattered across their respective states. During the annual BCCF conference, the host organization invites participants to visit a local campus in its state for a meal and entertainment. This year’s meal was served at the Broyhill Home Campus in western North
Carolina. Picturesque cottages nestled on the side of the mountain overlooking a beautiful sunset was just one of the many highlights of visiting the campus. The children sang and provided a beautiful picture of how God is rewriting so many of their life stories. They concluded the evening by singing the Gospel song, “Jesus Saves.” As they sang, various children held up signs with the word “SAVED,” signifying their decision to trust Christ for salvation since being in the care of the North Carolina home. Randy Rankin, executive director of New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries, was honored for serving a two-year term as president of the group. Rod Marshall, president and CEO of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries, was elected president of BCCF, and Greg McNeese, president and CEO of Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children, was elected vice president. To learn about Baptist Coalition for Children and Families, visit www.bccfamilies.org. Kyle Luke is secretary and treasurer for Baptist Coalition for Children and Families, is vice president of development and communications for STCH Ministries, and is a member of First Baptist Church, Beeville, Texas.
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21 The number of Baptist Children’s and Family Care ministries that relate directly to nineteen state Baptist conventions.
248
The number of service sites where children and family services are offered by the twenty-one child care ministries.
1,174 The number of professions of faith recorded in 2017 through Baptist child and family care ministries affiliated with BCCF.
7,866 The number of children served through residential care ministry by members of BCCF in 2017.
654,964
The total number of people served in 2017 through professional counseling services, foster care, adoption assistance, residential care homes, physical and sexual abuse prevention training, pregnancy care, single mother and children shelter and training, senior care, emergency shelters, and other services provided through the twenty-one Baptist Children’s and Family Care organizations that are part of the Baptist Coalition for Children and Families.
Countless The number of volunteers and volunteer hours individuals from Southern Baptist churches provided in 2017 to serve the needs of children and families ministered to by members of BCCF.
Priceless The value of each child and family member saved and served through the ministries of the twenty-one childcare organizations funded, assisted, and otherwise supported by Southern Baptists across the United States.
Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes served a total of seventy-three foster children in 2017 and completed twenty-three adoptions during the same year. photo courtesy of tennessee baptist children’s homes
Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes: Assisting Families in Crisis through Foster Care by Charlie Wetherington
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lizabeth Aldrich received a late-evening call from a Department of Children’s Services case worker. DCS needed to place a seventeen-year-old girl in a safe haven that night. Aldrich, a case manager for Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes, thought of a family that had been certified for foster care placement, but wasn’t sure they’d be available on such short notice. Something told her to try anyway, and sure enough the family immediately responded. Elizabeth set out for their home in nearby Murfreesboro, Tennessee. An hour later, Aldrich was finishing up the paperwork with DCS and the new foster family. “Did I see someone out in your car?” Aldrich asked the DCS case worker. Discovering that the occupant was another case worker Aldrich knew, she went out to say hello. When she reached the car, she saw that her friend was not alone—she had a baby in the car with her. “Where are you taking this chubby little cutie?” Aldrich asked. “We don’t know,” the case worker replied. “We’ve been looking to place him with a family all day and no one has responded.” Baby Max (not his real name) was a fourmonth-old boy. Neither of Max’s parents was able to care for him. He had been living with a family member who had gotten into trouble, and now he had nowhere else to go. “Give me five minutes,” Aldrich said. She had a family in mind who had expressed interest for over a year in fostering a baby. Though it was past nine in the evening, once again Aldrich took a chance and made the call. Once again, the family expressed their immediate willingness to
take in the child. Aldrich made the hour-plus drive from Murfreesboro to Clarksville, Tennessee, that night, and Max had a comfortable night’s sleep in the safe environs of a loving home for maybe the first time in his short life. Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes (TBCH), one of twenty-one children’s and family ministries associated with nineteen Baptist state conventions, believes every child should experience the stable, nurturing love of a family. These vital ministries believe the most crucial thing they can share with a child is the love and hope found through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Holding this conviction, they provide Christ-centered homes for children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in difficult situations—children whose families have come to a place where they are unable to provide the day-to-day care their children need. TBCH has been caring for children since 1891. Following several years of dormancy in its foster care ministry, TBCH relaunched its foster care program at the end of 2013. The relaunched foster care ministry is called “The George Shinn Foster Care Program,” named after the man whose donation provided significant funding to bring the ministry to sustainability. George Shinn, the former owner of the Charlotte Hornets basketball team, recently moved to middle Tennessee and began looking for a way to give back to the community. He learned of TBCH through his pastor at West Franklin Baptist Church (now a campus of Brentwood Baptist Church). After visiting one of the TBCH campuses, he said he decided to make
a “business decision and a heart decision” to help the TBCH ministry. In January of 2015, the George Shinn Foundation made a commitment of one million dollars (one hundred thousand dollars annually for ten years) toward the ministry’s foster care program. TBCH recruits, trains, and certifies foster care families to meet the needs of Tennessee’s at-risk children. Once a new foster family is certified, TBCH provides ongoing support, checking on the family on a bimonthly basis. Foster families live in their own homes. The parents are trained and vetted to state and TBCH standards to assure that children placed in their care will receive the best possible care in a Christ-centered environment. In 2017, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam recognized TBCH for the services it provides the state through the state’s TN Fosters program. TN Fosters is a collaboration that seeks to unite state government, faith groups, nonprofit organizations, and businesses in recruiting foster parents and supporting foster families. Haslam’s office produced a video for TBCH in which he voiced gratitude that “Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes has taken the initiative to bring community churches together to meet the increasing need for high-quality homes to serve children in Tennessee foster care.” The video and quote have been used by TBCH at an event, online, and in its quarterly magazine. So far in the current year, TBCH has served fifty-one children statewide in foster care. The ministry served a total of seventy-three foster children in 2017 and completed twenty-three adoptions during the same year.
TBCH is engaged in two different sides of ministry—residential care on three different campuses and foster care. But it has only one mission: to follow Christ’s command to care for the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40). Each person in the organization, from foster care case managers to houseparents to the accounting staff, works toward that same goal. While TBCH accepts children referred from the state, it receives no state funding. Its goal is to assist the Department of Children’s Services by helping select and certify safe, Christ-centered homes for Tennessee’s neglected and endangered children. To that end, TBCH foster care case managers strive to develop friendly working relationships with the state’s DCS case workers. One of those relationships paid off in the lives of two children in crisis last year, when Aldrich received the referral for a seventeen-yearold girl who needed a foster family. “What a remarkable set of circumstances that God orchestrated,” Greg McCoy, TBCH president, said. “If Elizabeth hadn’t taken a chance on a family to place a teenager; if she hadn’t struck up a friendship with a couple of DCS case workers; if she hadn’t decided to go out to that car to say hello, then Max and this precious teen girl might still be in need of homes. “This is a great example of not just the surprising ways in which God works, but also of the church and state working together for the benefit of our children in crisis,” he said. Charlie Wetherington is communications specialist with the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes in Brentwood, Tennessee, and is a member of Village Church in Nashville, Tennessee.
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FOSTER CARE
David Melber, president of Send Relief, which encompasses the North American Mission Board’s compassion ministries (photo on right), addressed participants about Send Relief’s growing emphasis on foster care and adoption during the annual meeting of the Baptist Coalition of Children and Families in Asheville, North Carolina, April 10–11, 2018. photos by kyle luke
Vulnerable Children, Foster Care, and What You Can Do by David Melber
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hirteen-year-old Mary wakes up early on a Monday morning. Entering the kitchen, she begins making lunches for her tenyear-old brother and her five-year-old sister. Peanut butter again. Stale bread. She brushes her sister’s hair, grabs book bags, and heads out the door. Mom didn’t come home again last night. It’s the third night in a row. “Keep moving forward,” she says to herself. Mary is doing the best she can. The opioid crisis is her reality. When Mom does come home, she sleeps a lot. Like a carousel, their home has a revolving door of strangers. Mary tries to stay in the background with her siblings hoping not to be noticed. Being noticed never turns out well. Her teachers don’t know what is going on at home. She’s learned to divert attention from
her family. She’s trained her siblings to do the same. If they speak up, Mom will get in trouble. They could be separated. As bad as life is, being separated from them would be worse. Mary and her siblings are voiceless. This is a typical scenario for over 430,000 children who have been placed in foster care in the United States. Children in unsafe, vulnerable, voiceless situations are on the rise. Sadly, the opioid crisis is showing up in nearly every neighborhood. The statistics can be daunting. How can Southern Baptists make a difference with so many children in need? Stop, and think about your own community. Consider this scenario. Every day, on average, the local child welfare agency has 260 children in care in your county. These children attend school with yours. They play
with your children on the playground. They are neighbors in your communities. If your county is typical, only thirty-four families have stepped up to say they will care for the vulnerable and be foster or respite parents. Christ tells us to love our neighbors. These voiceless children are your neighbors. How can you help? May is Foster Care Awareness Month. Everyone from preschoolers to senior saints can join to make a difference in the lives of children on the mission field called “my hometown.” Collect diapers. Provide meals. Babysit. Lend a helping hand. Teach their Sunday School classes, and don’t be offended if they behave like children who have been through real trauma. Most importantly, pray! Ask the Lord to raise up believers who will be the hands and feet of Christ to care for vulnerable children. And don’t
be afraid to say “Yes, Lord!” if He calls you to be a foster parent. The bottom line is that Christ is the answer to this epidemic. He is able to save birth parents from a life of addiction, restore traumatized children, and heal families. Are you willing to love your neighbor? The problem is not going away. Rise up, Church. Be a voice for the voiceless. As Scripture instructs us: Speak out on behalf of the voiceless, and for the rights of all who are vulnerable (Proverbs 31:8). Learn more about how you and your church can become part of the foster care solution by visiting sendrelief.org/foster-care-adoption. David Melber is president of NAMB’s Send Relief and is a member of First Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. This story was originally published in Baptist Press.
SBC LIFE Launches ‘Web-First’ Design B eginning with the April 2018 PreConvention issue, SBC LIFE, now in its twenty-sixth year of production, has transitioned from a print-first, web-second news journal to a web-first publication featuring stories about churches working in cooperation with other churches, associations, state conventions, numerous ethnic minority fellowships that cooperate with the SBC, and Southern Baptist Convention entities. SBC LIFE’s purpose of Encouraging Cooperation . . . for a Great Commission Advance! remains unchanged. The new format will allow for more frequent posting of feature stories highlighting the many wonderful works the Lord is doing through the network of churches that comprise the SBC. Drawing from an interactive database, the web-first design will allow users to select “pages” to display specialized collections such as women’s ministry, Black church ministry, associational features, refugee and immigrant ministry, bivocational/smaller church ministry, and a host of other specialized areas of ministry. The website houses all previous digital articles and issues of SBC LIFE and contains multiple search options—by issue, by date, and by keyword and subject.
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SOUTHERN BAPTIST FELLOWSHIPS Semihan’s ministries include special needs, refugee, American Indian, Bangladeshi, and Korean people groups. New this fall: outreach to English-speaking Americans, the friends, neighbors, and coworkers of the 1,600 post-highschool age Koreans who worship each week at Semihan.
About 1,600 post-high-school-age adults gather for worship each Sunday at Semihan Church in Carrollton, a Dallas, Texas, suburb. Byeong Rack “Lloyd” Choi is senior pastor. At the same time, five departments of children’s and youth ministry take place elsewhere on the expansive campus. photo courtesy of semihan church
Semihan Church Aims to Develop Global Leaders by Karen L. Willoughby
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he world is the common denominator that links all the ministries of Semihan Church, site of this summer’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist fellowship group known informally as the “Korean Council.” Even the church’s name reflects this linkage: “Se” is part of a Korean word for world. “Mi,” part of a word for the United States. And “Han” is part of a word for Korea. Semihan’s ministries include special needs, refugee, American Indian, Bangladeshi, and Korean people groups. New this fall: outreach to English-speaking Americans, the friends, neighbors, and coworkers of the 1,600 post-highschool age Koreans who worship each week at Semihan. Children, not counted in attendance figures, are considered a part of the church’s missions outreach, even as youngsters as young as Kindergarten are taught to start ministering in age-appropriate ways. “We would like to grow our kids to be global leaders, 100 percent world-aware, American and Korean,” Executive Pastor Jun S. Choi told SBC LIFE. “When they have lessons about missions when they are young, more than likely they will continue doing that as they grow up.” The executive pastor is not related to Senior Pastor Byeong Rack “Lloyd” Choi, who was on a mission trip when SBC LIFE contacted the church after learning it was to be the host church for the annual meeting of the Council of Korean Southern Baptist Churches in America. Informally known as the “Korean Council,” the Southern Baptist fellowship group of about 850 Korean-language churches meets each June in conjunction with the SBC annual meeting. Semihan has five ministry pillars, Choi explained, that together are represented by
the acronym WORLD: to be a Worshipping church, Oikos small-groups church, Reachingout church, Life-giving church, and Discipling church. Each year, the church rotates through one of the pillars. “This year is ‘life-giving,’ so this year we focus on missions and evangelism,” Choi said. One example of how this is done: Over the course of nine weeks this fall, church members will invite people they know to a variety of Semihan-sponsored sport and fun activities, such as golf, bowling, soccer, ping pong, and jokgu (a Korean foot game) tournaments; a fall festival; and the like. “We share the Gospel every time,” Choi said. “We are trying to expose them to the Gospel as much as we can. . . . That’s our mission, our purpose.” Worship services at Semihan are in Korean, with smartphone app audio translation to English. Semihan Church started in 2000. Lloyd Choi became pastor in 2002, though he had been a member of the church when it started, as a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. This is his first pastorate. The church has grown to include five children’s departments, which start with expectant parents, and nine branches of seventy-one community groups for adults, plus a half-dozen senior groups and singles and college groups. Having learned to share their faith through Sunday School, Team Kid, and age-appropriate missions projects, by the time Semihan youngsters are in the sixth grade, they’re allowed to participate in the church’s monthly ministry to the homeless in south Dallas, which involves providing a meal and worship service for about one hundred people.
Semihan Church also hosts a “Destination Korea” week-long camp each summer that introduces the Korean language and culture to the Korean-born children of adoptive American families. Ministry to refugees is another major missions initiative, now in its third year at Semihan church, where members visit refugees, help them get settled in the United States, and share the Gospel with them. “At the beginning we have individual contacts, fifty-six the first year,” Choi said. “If they need we help go to the market and other things, and our team regularly visit their houses. We start helping them out and can naturally share the Gospel with them. There’s no guards up. “We realized there are small refugee churches and now we are backing up their churches,” Choi continued. “We are working closely with African, Myanmar, Iranian, and Pakistani churches.” One of Semihan’s three current church plants is the Pakistani church. Another major local initiative is Beanyard Coffee, a coffee shop open six days a week that is housed in a corner of the expansive church’s facilities. Special needs Koreans are the baristas. Semihan Church donates the space to the Texas Milal Mission, a Christian nonprofit, which runs Beanyard Coffee as a way of providing work for the graduates of its job-training programs. “We are trying to balance all three fields of our goals,” Choi said, referring to local, national, and international missions. “We know the sharing of the Gospel is our purpose.” Semihan’s Church Planting Institute started within the last year. Choi, working with the North American Mission Board, translated NAMB materials into Korean to better aid Korean
seminary students become NAMB-endorsed church planters. “We like to train and equip them for two years, and send them to a SEND City where NAMB is targeting,” Choi said. “What we are hoping for is we can pump out church planters on a regular basis. . . . Our senior pastor got the vision we can do this. I think we are the first Korean church trying to do this in a systematic way.” Semihan Church can provide students with the experience needed—twice in each department over the two-year training period— to expand on their seminary training, including preaching in front of the senior pastor. “He will coach their sermons; he will talk about how to be a senior pastor,” Choi explained. For missions outside the local area, Semihan Church has focused on American Indians in Arizona and New Mexico. Six trips to reservations are planned for this summer, in the continuation of a ten-year commitment to minister among people who “need to be healed in Christ,” Choi said. “We kind of share the same feelings of abandonment and the hurts and wounds of previous generations.” In Banglade sh, Sem ih an’s m ain international thrust, the church for the last five years has operated a school considered to adhere to the highest standards of education in the South Asian nation. “It’s for the kids,” Choi said. “We want them to be the next leaders in Bangladesh who love Jesus Christ. We send one of our missionaries there as the principal, and send books in English. This year we are sending a layman team to share the Gospel, help expand classrooms, and teach computer skills, Tae Kwon Do, and Korean culture.” Prayer is an essential component to Semihan Church, Senior Pastor Choi said upon his return from an international vision tour. “Prayer is embedded in our church’s DNA, and is a driving force of our church,” Senior Pastor Choi said. “Starting with Friday night prayer service, where the whole church prays together, it is also focused on our early morning prayer service, small group gatherings, and our meetings even for kids. So we know it is not us to make decisions and live our life, but we only do what God told us to do.” Karen L. Willoughby is a national correspondent for SBC LIFE and Baptist Press and is a member of First Baptist Church in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
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2017–2018 NATIONAL COOPERATIVE PROGRAM MID-YEAR REPORT
State Conventions Lead Out in National Cooperative Program Mid-Year Increase
T
he national portion of Cooperative Program Allocation gifts topped $100 million at the mid-point of the 2017–2018 SBC fiscal year for the first time in almost a decade (see charts B and C). The national CP increase is largely attributable to CP gifts forwarded by cooperating state Baptist conventions (see chart A). The 41.49 percent to SBC causes is the highest in history and only the fourth time since 1925 the division has topped 40 percent. Two state conventions forwarded special CP gifts in addition to their convention-approved budgeted amounts mid-way through the SBC’s fiscal year. In May, the Dakota Baptist Convention forwarded $25,000 above its budgeted monthly giving as an additional gift to CP. In March, the Montana Southern Baptist Convention forwarded an additional $11,000 from its 2017 income overage to the SBC’s portion of CP. These special gifts are in addition to budget plans to forward larger percentages to SBC causes adopted by twenty state Baptist conventions during their fall annual meetings. At its 2017 annual meeting, MinnesotaWisconsin Baptists voted to increase its portion of CP gifts to 32 percent for distribution to Southern Baptist missions and ministries while retaining 68 percent for in-state use, a shift of ten percentage points from the previous year’s 22/78 split. Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware messengers increased its CP funding allocation for SBC causes, from 43.5 percent to 48 percent, with plans to reach a goal of 51 percent by 2020. In Alabama, a major adjustment of the convention’s stateside ministries budget allowed messengers to reach the convention’s long-term goal of 50 percent to SBC causes two years earlier than its “parity plan” of 50/50 by 2020 called for. The Alabama Baptist State Convention joined five other conventions—Southern Baptists of Texas (55/45), Florida (51/49), and Iowa, Nevada, and Ohio (50/50 each)—that forward half or more to the Southern Baptist Convention with no “shared ministry” calculations. Michigan and Missouri joined Alabama in eliminating shared ministry expenses in their budgets. Ten state conventions retained the category, ranging from 1.19 percent in Maryland/ Delaware to 18.89 percent in Wyoming. Others keeping priority items in their budgets are Alaska, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. Seven other state conventions voted to increase national CP gifts for SBC causes by more
A
than 1 percent. These include Arizona, Arkansas, Dakota, Kansas-Nebraska, New England, Pennsylvania/South Jersey, and Tennessee. State conventions in California, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Utah/Idaho, Baptist General Association of Virginia, and West Virginia voted to increase the SBC portion in amounts ranging from .10 to 1 percent. A few state conventions reported greater increases to the SBC portion of their budgets. Those hikes, however, have little effect once adjustments are made for prioritized “shared ministries” items and/or reductions to the respective state convention’s overall budget goal. Thirteen state conventions made no change in the percentage amount forwarded to SBC causes; the remainder decreased the percentage. Based on the state convention budgets adopted in 2017, the amount projected to be sent to the Executive Committee for SBC causes is $193,500,000 according to William Townes, vice president for Convention finance at the SBC Executive Committee. Growth in total CP giving will depend on whether Southern Baptist churches prioritize their missions giving through the Cooperative Program. Total CP gifts from churches in 2017 continued a multi-year decline, hitting the lowest amount since 1999 (see chart A). Despite the almost twenty-year downward trend in church gifts through the Cooperative Program, this mid-year report indicates the SBC is on track to receive its budgeted CP goal for 2017– 2018 through state convention allocations.
B
Mid-Year SBC CP Allocation Budget Gifts 2007–2008 through 2017–2018 Year
Mid-Year National CP Gifts from All Sources
2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17
104,513,493 100,625,647 99,404,879 98,501,244 97,764,591 95,352,055 94,359,024 96,337,084 99,315,836 98,348,238
2017–18
100,706,827
Total Cooperative Program, with Division between State Convention and Southern Baptist Convention Missions and Ministries Fiscal 2007–08 through Fiscal 2016–2017
Year
Undesignated Gifts to the Churches, LifeWay Report
2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17
9,013,807,646 8,961,684,260 8,911,796,522 9,023,216,896 8,891,673,582 8,769,026,657 8,748,114,744 9,154,427,472 9,216,198,700 not yet available
Total CP from the Churches, EC Report 541,898,661 520,355,537 495,168,022 487,884,065 481,409,006 482,279,059 478,700,850 474,272,984 475,212,293 462,662,332
Percent Undesignated Gifts to CP 6.01% 5.81% 5.56% 5.41% 5.41% 5.50% 5.47% 5.18% 5.16% n/a
State National National Share of CP, Share of CP, % of EC Report EC Report Total CP 343,819,507 326,044,905 308,647,362 301,498,029 294,768,525 298,859,256 297,729,271 290,501,682 284,743,512 270,713,506
198,079,154 194,310,632 186,520,660 186,386,036 186,640,481 183,419,803 180,971,579 183,771,302 190,468,781 191,948,826
36.55% 37.34% 37.67% 38.20% 38.77% 38.03% 37.80% 38.75% 40.08% 41.49%
C
Cooperative Program Allocation Budget/Designated Contributions Received from State Baptist Conventions and Other Sources MID-YEAR REPORT October 1, 2017, through March 31, 2018 Cooperative Program Allocation Budget
Change from Prior Year
Contribution Sources
2017–2018
2016–2017
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Dakota DC Florida Georgia Hawaii Pacific Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas-Nebraska Kentucky Louisiana Maryland-Delaware Michigan Minnesota-Wisconsin Mississippi Missouri Montana Nevada New England New Mexico New York North Carolina Northwest Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania-South Jersey Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands South Carolina Tennessee Texas (BGCT) Texas (SBTC) Utah-Idaho Virginia (BGAV) Virginia (SBCV) West Virginia Wyoming
9,204,378.65 111,146.44 515,993.76 4,768,090.09 1,119,802.30 319,015.40 77,230.25 9,510.64 7,380,504.51 9,381,211.68 146,072.51 1,178,840.19 503,630.35 224,458.08 409,873.67 5,284,151.29 3,588,994.87 814,821.64 154,229.17 77,255.47 5,854,417.03 3,144,428.28 90,813.23 299,566.50 70,605.91 462,155.81 116,517.22 5,996,951.10 390,001.82 1,119,590.92 5,221,157.11 140,075.06 1,070.92 5,572,103.25 7,858,857.40 5,019,312.79 7,619,058.79 100,732.91 446,226.31 2,258,859.75 249,345.07 55,205.21
8,760,821.11 109,963.29 455,760.15 4,647,310.49 1,075,331.21 313,644.71 46,257.32 1,722.87 7,345,620.13 8,577,743.10 283,717.83 1,138,746.73 314,128.32 149,227.37 356,032.38 4,962,980.02 3,754,002.38 799,199.01 164,358.14 53,177.62 6,002,464.52 2,994,514.27 74,516.25 284,050.49 74,203.25 355,967.42 126,270.57 5,852,958.60 390,007.75 1,120,730.73 5,145,971.48 108,847.70 1,868.14 5,608,649.45 7,680,875.05 5,396,130.70 8,006,258.93 89,755.46 496,579.31 2,246,478.38 236,652.17 53,807.14
443,557.54 1,183.15 60,233.61 120,779.60 44,471.09 5,370.69 30,972.93 7,787.77 34,884.38 803,468.58 (137,645.32) 40,093.46 189,502.03 75,230.71 53,841.29 321,171.27 (165,007.51) 15,622.63 (10,128.97) 24,077.85 (148,047.49) 149,914.01 16,296.98 15,516.01 (3,597.34) 106,188.39 (9,753.35) 143,992.50 (5.93) (1,139.81) 75,185.63 31,227.36 (797.22) (36,546.20) 177,982.35 (376,817.91) (387,200.14) 10,977.45 (50,353.00) 12,381.37 12,692.90 1,398.07
5.06 1.08 13.22 2.60 4.14 1.71 66.96 452.02 0.47 9.37 (48.51) 3.52 60.33 50.41 15.12 6.47 (4.40) 1.95 (6.16) 45.28 (2.47) 5.01 21.87 5.46 (4.85) 29.83 (7.72) 2.46 (0.00) (0.10) 1.46 28.69 (42.67) (0.65) 2.32 (6.98) (4.84) 12.23 (10.14) 0.55 5.36 2.60
97,356,263.35
95,657,301.94
1,698,961.41
1.78
3,350,563.28
2,690,936.40
659,626.88
24.51
$100,706,826.63 $98,348,238.34
$2,358,588.29
2.40
Subtotal Churches & Individuals Grand Total
Dollar Change Percent Change
HELP WHERE THEY’RE HURTING. 78% y e n o M
OF AMERICANS LIVE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK.1
IS THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE MARRIED COUPLES ARGUE ABOUT.2
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1. CareerBuilder, 2017 | 2. Ramsey Research, 2016
Is this the norm for your congregation?
SBCLIFE
SUMMER 2018
PAGE 10
SOUTHERN BAPTIST EVANGELISTS
Fifteen vocational evangelists gathered at Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, Tennessee, on March 2–3, 2018, for Evangelists’ Summit ’18, to discuss the state of evangelism across the Southern Baptist Convention and the strategize about ways they can assist Southern Baptist churches that need evangelistic help in reaching their communities with the Gospel. photos by roger s. oldham
Mass evangelism is not a thing of the past, but refocusing its expressions will call for new methods. Together, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we can once again hear voices who have been cut to the heart cry out as on the Day of Pentecost with the question, “Brothers, what must we do?”
Evangelists Offer Hope, Help for Churches by Tim Ellsworth
S
outhern Baptist evangelists who are concerned about the evangelism and baptism trends they see in the Southern Baptist Convention want to partner with pastors and local churches in efforts to reach the lost. Members of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists, who met in Jackson, Tennessee, for a summit in March, produced a white paper entitled “Southern Baptist Evangelists Offer Hope in the Face of Declining Baptisms.” Jerry Drace, who helped convene the summit and who is one of the past presidents of this group of Southern Baptist evangelists, said the purpose of the paper is to express concern over the decline of reported baptisms and to let pastors know “that we really, truly want to come alongside them and serve them.” “The methods of evangelism may change, and they have, but the message never changes,” Drace said. “We as evangelists are very capable of delivering the message, even if we have to change methods.” Several evangelists are using the internet to reach both Christian gatherings and unreached people in the US and in other countries. Sammy Tippit, one of the group’s evangelists, recently conducted a series of Skype crusades from his home in Texas to the Punjab region of India. About 120,000 people attended in various locations with about 35,000 making public professions of faith in Christ. Locally trained pastors follow up with those who make decisions for further discipleship training . Vocational evangelists and pastors in the SBC have for more than seventy years shared a common goal of reaching the lost and discipling the saved, the paper says. “Thousands of our churches have experienced the blessings and reaped the rewards of having experienced the preaching of God-called evangelists gifted with ‘drawing the net’ and ‘gathering the harvest,’” the paper continues. “The pastor and the evangelist have always been partners in obeying our Lord’s instructions found in Matthew 28:19–20.” But the denomination is facing a crisis, the paper says, as seen in the decline of baptisms. The paper cites statistics compiled by LifeWay Christian Resources indicating that the SBC lost more than two hundred thousand members last year and baptized fewer than three hundred thousand new converts for the first time in sixtyeight years.
Overall, SBC membership is more than a million fewer than it was in 2006, while the paper notes that the number of SBC churches has grown for each of the last seventeen years. In a day of social media and rapid changes in how people relate and communicate with one another, the challenge of evangelism is connecting the claims of Christ “to a culture where information is altered at best and erased at worst,” the paper says. In response to these trends, evangelists want pastors to know of their availability to help churches in a variety of ways. The evangelists argue in the paper that public evangelistic gatherings still have a place in the church and that individual personal evangelism, media evangelism, and public proclamation have been present in every spiritual awakening for the past two thousand years. This is where vocational evangelists, the paper says, can assist and support pastors in their evangelistic efforts. While these vocational evangelists are entrusted with the proclamation of the Gospel, many of them have expertise in financial, medical, and family issues, in addition to other topics that are relevant to the church today. They also have members who are qualified to lead special events, such as men’s events, women’s events, and other gatherings for different “affinity” groups. “Most of the evangelists are not just guys who can [just] go in and preach,” Drace said. “They can come in and address special groups in the church.” The paper emphasizes the willingness of vocational evangelists “to serve any pastor, anywhere, at any time.” “Mass evangelism is not a thing of the past, but refocusing its expressions will call for new methods,” the paper says. “Together, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we can once again hear voices who have been cut to the heart cry out as on the Day of Pentecost with the question, ‘Brothers, what must we do?’” A full version of the white paper developed from the Evangelists’ Summit ’18 meeting is available at www.sbcevangelist.org. Tim Ellsworth is associate vice president for university communications at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and is a member of Cornerstone Community Church in Jackson.
Glenn Sheppard (center) leads a devotional during the March 2–3, 2018, Evangelists’ Summit ’18 meeting at Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, Tennessee, as Sammy Tippitt (left) and Marion Warren look on.
David Burton (center), joined by Gary Bowlin (left) and Richard Hamlet, enters ideas discussed during a small-group break-out session during the Evangelists’ Summit ’18 meeting in Jackson, Tennessee.
Home screen capture from The Darkest Hour web site, an internet-based evangelism tool developed by evangelist Jay Lowder and his Harvest Ministries. Lowder is seated in the right foreground in the group image at the top of this page.
SBCLIFE
SUMMER 2018
PAGE 12
ASSOCIATIONAL MISSIONS EMPHASIS WEEK, MAY 21–28 “Revival is ultimately a way that a church can seek the Lord and come together with the purpose of hearing the Word, asking God to come and move in them in a special way.” Kyle Walker vice president for student services Southwestern Seminary Fort Worth, Texas Pastor Jim Gregory (center) welcomes participants arriving for prayer as part of the Revive This Nation/Harvest North America revival at First Southern Baptist Church in Mountain Home, Idaho. Prayer teams “held up every meeting in prayer, as well as the Harvest Teams that were sharing their testimonies,” Gregory said. photos courtesy of southwestern baptist theological seminary
Annual ‘Revive This Nation’ Effort Yields Countrywide Harvest by Alex Sibley
E
ach year during spring break, Southwestern Seminary deploys preachers across the country to preach revivals in local churches and impact their surrounding communities with the Gospel through a program called “Revive This Nation” (RTN). This year, March 11–14, eighty-seven students and faculty preached from New York to Hawaii, and they collectively saw ninety professions of faith, thirty-one baptisms, and 307 other commitments. Vice President for Student Services Kyle Walker said RTN offers an opportunity for churches to connect with Southwestern as they bring in a preacher for the week to help them reach their community and to edify their church as they preach the Word of God. He said he is encouraged each year to see how God blesses these revival gatherings. “Revival is ultimately a way that a church can seek the Lord and come together with the purpose of hearing the Word, asking God to come and move in them in a special way,” Walker said. One unique aspect of this year’s RTN was a partnership between Southwestern and Harvest North America (HNA). HNA is an evangelistic ministry that partners with local churches and equips them to share their personal testimonies in face-to-face evangelism. Thanks to this partnership, when churches signed up with Southwestern to host a revival, they could select the “Harvest” option and benefit from this unique training for intentional evangelism. Twenty churches did so this year, and God brought a great harvest. Among the partnership’s many benefits, it allowed for a greater utilization of the preachers deployed from Southwestern, as it established
within these twenty churches an intentional means of evangelism. HNA trained “Harvest teams” within these churches to share their testimonies so they could evangelize alongside the RTN preachers, and it provided instruction to church members on making appointments with nonbelievers in which testimonies could be shared. In short, church members spoke with lost friends, neighbors, and coworkers, informing them that they might appreciate hearing the testimony of someone on the Harvest team (including the RTN preacher). This led to the scheduling of an appointment at a home, coffee shop, etc., in which the church member and Harvest team member met with the lost person, shared a testimony, presented the Gospel, and invited a response. Pastor Jim Gregory, who serves on HNA’s board of directors and utilized the “Harvest” option for his own church—First Southern Baptist Church in Mountain Home, Idaho—said, “God has used this ministry to do marvelous things in bringing people to Christ, in restoring relationships, and in bringing folks back to church who had long since walked away from church. So what I teach the team is, ‘Once you introduce the person [from the Harvest team], step back and trust God for the results.’” Southwestern PhD student Bryan Bogue served as the RTN preacher for Gregory’s church this year. Collectively, the church had fifteen appointments in which testimonies were shared. Bogue personally had four. In one of these appointments, Bogue met with a man named Alex, who had a three-yearold son and a history of drug use. Bogue was accompanied by Eric, a member of the church
First Southern Baptist Church in Mountain Home, Idaho, is one of 134 Southern Baptist churches and forty-four missions that comprise the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor Jim Gregory has served the church for the past ten and one-half years.
who also had a history of drug use. “Eric was able to speak with Alex about his history of drug use and how the Lord changed his life, which really impacted Alex, who was going through [similar problems at that time],” Bogue said. “My testimony was able to come in because I grew up with Christian parents who taught me about the Lord from a very young age, and I came to Christ at a young age and was spared from a lot of that lifestyle—a lot of the issues that people who didn’t grow up in Christian homes deal with.
“So what I was able to do is encourage Alex that, if he can trust Christ to deliver him from his current way of life, then he can provide a testimony for his son the way my parents did for me.” Encouraged by these two testimonies, Alex placed his faith in Christ that day. “Number one, he wanted to be delivered from that type of lifestyle, and Eric’s testimony helped in that,” Bogue explained. “Number two, because he didn’t want his son to go through that, and my testimony encouraged him in that way. So it was really neat how God worked it out.”
“God has used this ministry to do marvelous things in bringing people to Christ, in restoring relationships, and in bringing folks back to church who had long since walked away from church.” Jim Gregory, pastor First Southern Baptist Church Mountain Home, Idaho
SBCLIFE
PAGE 13 SUMMER 2018
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Student Brian Bogue preaches at First Southern Baptist Church in Mountain Home, Idaho, as part of the seminary’s annual “Revive This Nation” evangelistic emphasis.
Brian Bogue and Pastor Jim Gregory (center) praying with Daniel to receive Christ, one of eight persons to receive Christ during the Revive This Nation/Harvest North America revival.
In addition to making good use of Bogue’s time during his weeklong stay in Idaho, he said the HNA partnership also effectively mobilized the members of the church. “This was a way to utilize the church members in the evangelism effort as opposed to just me and the pastor,” he said. “And that, in turn, gave the church members more buy-in for the week, because they had
touched individuals, churches, and entire communities, drawing them closer to Himself. During a time of sharing some of these testimonies following RTN’s conclusion, Walker praised God for what He had done. “Thank you for the wonderful fruit that, by Your power and by Your Spirit, You produced as a harvest through the efforts of these men to preach
a stake in what was happening. They weren’t just showing up and listening to sermons, but they were actually participating in the Harvest teams, sharing their faith during the week, and then that, in turn, made them more invested in what was going on during the evening services.” Bogue’s testimony stands alongside numerous others from the week of how God powerfully
Your Word,” he said. “This was accomplished, Father, only because Your Word is powerful and points people to Jesus and always comes and achieves its effect when it goes forth.” Alex Sibley is associate director of news and information at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and is a member of North Richland Hills Baptist Church in North Richland Hills, Texas.
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SBCLIFE
SUMMER 2018
PAGE 14
RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE “I am grateful for the ethnic diversity we have on the Resolutions Committee. It is predominantly non-Anglo and is probably one of the most ethnically diverse committees in the history of the SBC.” Steve Gaines, president Southern Baptist Convention; pastor, Bellevue Baptist Church Memphis, Tennessee
2018 SBC Resolutions Committee Members Jason Duesing, provost and associate professor of historical theology, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, and member of Antioch Bible Baptist Church in Gladstone, Missouri. An author and coauthor of numerous books, Duesing is one of two members from the previous year’s Committee on Resolutions as stipulated by SBC Bylaw 20.
2017 Resolutions Committee vice chairman Jason Duesing addresses messengers during the 2017 SBC annual meeting in Phoenix. Duesing was appointed chairman of the 2018 Committee. photo by jenna wachsmuth
Resolutions Committee May Be ‘Most Diverse in History’
S
outhern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines named members of the Southern Baptist Convention Committee on Resolutions for the June 12–13 SBC annual meeting in Dallas on March 29. Gaines, pastor of Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church, appointed the committee in keeping with the provision in SBC Bylaw 20 that its members be named seventy-five days prior to the start of the annual meeting. The committee is tasked by SBC Bylaw 20 with preparing and submitting resolutions to the Convention, recommending them for adoption. “I am grateful for the ethnic diversity we have on the Resolutions Committee,” Gaines said. “It is predominantly non-Anglo and is probably one of the most ethnically diverse committees in the history of the SBC.” Of the committee’s ten members, four are African American, four are Anglo, one is Hispanic, and one is Asian. Two members are female. Jason Duesing of Missouri was named as the committee’s chairman by Gaines. Duesing is provost and associate professor of historical theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City and is a member of Antioch Bible Baptist Church in Gladstone, Missouri. The committee’s composition, according to Bylaw 20, must include at least two members who served the previous year, with Duesing and Ken Alford, pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Valdosta, Georgia, meeting this requirement. Bylaw 20 also stipulates that the committee include at least three SBC Executive Committee members. This year they are Alford; Chris Metcalf, pastor of Lihue Baptist Church in Lihue, Hawaii; and Adron Robinson, senior pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Country Club Hills, Illinois. Other members are Byron Day, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Laurel, Maryland, and president of the National African American Fellowship of Southern Baptists; Candi Finch,
assistant professor of theology in women’s studies at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and member of Hope Church in Fort Worth; Willie McLaurin, special assistant to the executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board in Franklin, Tennessee, and member of Simeon Baptist Church in Antioch, Tennessee; Jason Paredes, lead pastor of Fielder Church in Arlington, Texas; Alicia Wong, associate professor of women’s ministry at Gateway Seminary in Ontario, California, and member of Rosena Church in San Bernardino, California; and Curtis Woods, associate executive director for convention relations with the Kentucky Baptist Convention, Louisville, Kentucky, and member of Watson Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville. In an op-ed piece he wrote for Baptist Press in late May, Duesing asked Southern Baptists to pray for this year’s Resolutions Committee, noting the committee “exists to serve the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention” by “preparing and submitting resolutions for adoption by the SBC at its annual meeting.” “Resolutions . . . are intended to express the collective opinion of the messengers at that particular annual meeting on pertinent moral, ethical, and public policy issues, often providing suggestions for cooperating churches and entities to speak with biblical clarity on a wide range of theological, social, and practical topics,” he wrote. In alignment with a set of encouragements adopted by the Executive Committee at its February 19–20 meeting in Nashville, Duesing pledged to include a “brief explanation” as part of the required disposition report for any properlysubmitted resolution the committee believes does not best serve this year’s annual meeting focus. If a properly submitted resolution is not forwarded by the Committee on Resolutions to the SBC annual meeting, a two-thirds vote of messengers is required to bring the proposed resolution to the convention floor.
Ken Alford, pastor, Crossroads Baptist Church in Valdosta, Georgia. Alford, who has served in numerous leadership roles in Baptist life, is one of two members from the previous year’s Committee on Resolutions as stipulated by SBC Bylaw 20 and one of three members of the SBC Executive Committee on the Resolutions Committee as also stipulated by Bylaw 20. Byron Day, pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Laurel, Maryland. Day is the current president of the National African American Fellowship of Southern Baptists, former president of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/ Delaware, and was a member of the SBC Executive Committee’s African American Advisory Council. Candi Finch, assistant professor of theology in women’s studies, Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and member of Hope Church in Fort Worth. Finch has contributed chapters and edited numerous books, has been on more than twenty overseas mission trips, and served as secretary of the SBC Executive Committee’s Women’s Advisory Council. Willie McLaurin, special assistant to the executive director, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board in Franklin, Tennessee, and member of Simeon Baptist Church, Antioch, Tennessee. McLaurin is a specialist in leadership development and is a much sought-after motivational speaker in both local church ministry and conference leadership. Chris Metcalf, pastor, Lihue Baptist Church in Lihue, Hawaii. Metcalf is one of three members of the SBC Executive Committee on the Resolutions Committee as stipulated by SBC Bylaw 20. Located on the island of Kauai, one way Lihue Baptist serves its community is by holding summer-long Vacation Bible Schools (see 2015 SBC LIFE story, sbclife.net/article/2397). Jason Paredes, lead pastor, Fielder Church in Arlington, Texas. Paredes, alongside retired pastor Gary Smith, transitioned Fielder Church from a monocultural to a multiethnic congregation actively engaging its neighborhood (see 2016 SBC LIFE story, sbclife.net/article/2489). Paredes is a frequent guest speaker on topics ranging from transtioning churches to parenting. Adron Robinson, senior pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church in Country Club Hills, Illinois. Robinson, who has a passion for discipling men to become who God has called them to be, is the current president of the Illinois Baptist State Association. He is one of three members of the SBC Executive Committee on the Resolutions Committee as stipulated by SBC Bylaw 20. Alicia Wong, associate professor of women’s ministry, Gateway Seminary in Ontario, California, and member of Rosena Church in San Bernardino, California, where she serves as Educational Ministry Coordinator. Fluent in English, Spanish, and Cantonese, Wong has served overseas with the IMB and as a national missionary focusing on women’s evangelism with NAMB. Curtis Woods, associate executive director for convention relations, Kentucky Baptist Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, and member of Watson Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville. He holds undergraduate and graduate level degrees in social work, urban studies, and pastoral theology. His research interests are in African American intellectual history.
SBCLIFE
PAGE 15 SUMMER 2018
Executive Committee Presidential Search Team Seeks Input
T
he Executive Committee presidential search committee announced on May 2, 2018, that it is accepting nominations for the next SBC Executive Committee president by email at ECPresidentSearch@SBC.net. The six-member search committee, elected from a field of eighteen nominees during a special called meeting of the Executive Committee April 17 in Nashville, convened immediately following its election to select officers and begin laying groundwork to receive recommendations. Steve Swofford, pastor of First Baptist Church in Rockwall, Texas, was elected chairman. Carol Yarber, from Athens, Texas, was elected secretary. The committee will be joined in an ex officio capacity by the next EC chairman when he or she is elected in June, as stipulated by EC bylaws. The new EC chair will be a voting member of the search committee. Current EC chairman Stephen Rummage was elected to the search committee and therefore is not serving in an ex officio capacity. He will continue serving on the search committee when his term as EC chairman ends. “I’m excited about the committee that was elected, and I commend the Executive Committee
for their choices,” Swofford said. “The committee is marked by racial and gender diversity as well as a mixture of clergy and laypeople. I also think it is worth noting that they are from all over our Convention—from Florida to California, and from Texas to Illinois. Add to that the varied ages and background experiences and you have a wellrounded committee. “We have all agreed to approach this responsibility with no agenda, simply and diligently trying to find the best person for the hour to fill this critical position for these challenging times,” Swofford said. The search team “pledged to devote its first week to a time of focused prayer,” Swofford said in the May 2 announcement. Following a week of prayer, he sent a letter to Executive Committee members, SBC entity presidents, executive director of Woman’s Missionary Union, and state Baptist Convention executive directors asking them what they considered the five most important characteristics of the next president. “We have received many prayerful and insightful responses that will help guide us as we take the next step in our search process,” Swofford said. “We also received many assurances of
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The EC presidential search committee comprises (clockwise from left) Stephen Rummage, Adron Robinson, Rolland Slade, Chairman Steve Swofford, Joe Knott, and Carol Yarber. photo by rebecca manry
“We have all agreed to approach this responsibility with no agenda, simply and diligently trying to find the best person for the hour to fill this critical position for these challenging times.” Steve Swofford, chairman Executive Committee presidential search committee; pastor, First Baptist Church Rockwall, Texas prayer. We are grateful for countless others who also are praying for us as we conduct this search.” In addition to Swofford, the six-member search committee includes Joe Knott, an attorney from Raleigh, North Carolina; Adron Robinson, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Country
Club Hills, Illinois; Stephen Rummage, Executive Committee chairman and pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida; Rolland Slade, pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, California; and Carol Yarber, a retired medical administrator from Athens, Texas.
Find your Place
your purpose your potential
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IN THE NEWS
Southern Baptist Ch by Karen L. Willoughby A new home for a thirty-three-year old church in New York, a replanted church in Idaho, and a five-year-old church in West Virginia all have in common the fact that articles about them recently appeared in their local newspapers. The stories on these pages are summaries from the respective local or state convention papers. Articles about churches regularly appear in the pages of state Baptist newspapers. One about a North Carolina church seeing a baptism after a five-year drought is a case in point. But the fact that secular newspapers see the newsworthiness of Southern Baptist churches brings to mind the scriptural admonition from Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem: I tell you, [Jesus said,] if they [people celebrating His arrival] were to keep silent, the stones would cry out (Luke 19:40, CSB).
The “stones” in this case start with the Watertown (New York) Daily Times, which on April 21 published an article titled “Long Falls Baptist Church moves into a new home in Carthage” 1.
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en years after selling its previous building, Long Falls Baptist Church, started in the early 1980s, moved into its “new” building in late April. A former 2,400 square-foot office building was renovated into a church— with fifty cushioned blue chairs—by the land developer who helped arrange the sale so he could purchase the church’s bare-land property. It’s a great story of a church’s faithfulness despite living “in transition” for the last ten years, and of a pastor’s commitment to shepherding his community and the church family despite no baptisms in the last nine years. “Many years ago, an association in South Carolina sent the money to the church to buy a piece of property, about six acres, where they always planned on at some point to build a building,” Thom Sherwood told SBC LIFE in early May. Sherwood has been pastor of Long Falls Baptist Church since 2007. “When I came here, the winter was very bad, and we have real winter here,” Sherwood continued. “The members decided the time was right, went into a capital fund-raising campaign
and sold the old building in 2008. But then in the middle of 2009, the economy tanked.” Through the next decade of moving first to a funeral home and then to an Episcopal church where pipes breaking this February led to severe building damage, the congregation fluctuated from a high of forty-five in 2010 to a low of eighteen in 2017. “We are a military community,” Sherwood said. “We’re just a few miles from the front gate of Fort Drum, home of the Army’s Tenth Mountain Division, and we’ve had a number of military families come and go through the years.” The article in the Watertown Daily Times generated new interest in Long Falls Baptist Church, the pastor said. “That article has given us some great publicity,” Sherwood said. “The first Sunday we had thirty people, and I’ve been working with an administrator to update our website [LongFallsBC.com], and also one of our young ladies just launched a Facebook page and Instagram account, so I’m hoping the Lord will bless and use those things.”
The second “stone”: Idaho Press Tribune, which on January 22 published “Nampa First Southern Baptist Church replants as Calvary Church” 2.
A
fter Nampa First Southern voted in May 2017 to relaunch, Anders Snyder was called last August from Calvary [Southern Baptist] Church in Englewood, Colorado, as lead pastor/elder. Calvary Englewood, which replanted itself after Mark Hallock was called to the dying church in 2009, has made planting and replanting churches a main emphasis. Today, eighteen planted, replanted, and adopted churches in four states affiliate with the Calvary family of churches, according to Erica Myeni, a church spokesperson. Most of the former First Southern Nampa members are still active at Calvary Nampa, where the most visible changes are in the outside signage and launching of a new website—
Nampa.TheCalvary.org—and Instagram and Facebook accounts. “But there also have been efforts to increase the relevance the church has in the city,” according to the article. “Members have visited more than two hundred homes in the last two months to get the word out.” Calvary Nampa built its core during a “soft launch” that took place between August and February 11, when the “public launch” took place that 140 people attended a couple of weeks after the newspaper article appeared in print. Today, Snyder said, about ninety regularly attend services in the building once called Nampa First Southern. That church’s best year in recent memory was 2009, when one hundred was the average
Long Falls Baptist Church in Carthage, New York, meets for worship in a renovated storefront, with the new addition of fifty blue cushioned chairs that feature tiny gold stars. photo courtesy of long falls baptist church
“That article has given us some great publicity. The first Sunday we had thirty people.” Thom Sherwood, pastor Long Falls Baptist Church Carthage, New York Long Falls Carthage gives 5 percent of undesignated income to missions through the Cooperative Program, and 3 percent to the Thousand Islands Baptist Association. Sherwood
worship attendance, according to Nampa First Southern’s ACP report. By 2017, fifty were attending and less than 1 percent of undesignated income went to missions through the Cooperative Program. Today, Calvary Nampa gives 6 percent through CP, 1 percent each to Treasure Valley Baptist Association, the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention, and the Calvary family of churches, plus 2.6 percent to various specific missions/ministries of Calvary Nampa. “It’s a neat story to brag on God,” Snyder told SBC LIFE. “As the Lord began to multiply [at Calvary Englewood], and they used that multiplication to have more Gospel representation in more places, we now [at Calvary Nampa] are able to take what God blesses us with, and use it from a Kingdom perspective.” As a result of its replanting, Calvary Nampa members experience “a certain buzz and excitement, a special joy, and now expectation as they see what God has done and ask what He is doing next,” the pastor continued. “We’re settling into our new identity,” Snyder said. “There’s a lot that lies ahead, but it’s been neat seeing the process develop.”
serves full time at the church with the added financial support of his wife Joan and pulpit supply at a Congregational church that meets earlier for worship Sunday mornings.
Anders Snyders is church planter/pastor of Calvary [Southern Baptist] Church in Nampa, Idaho. photo courtesy of calvary church
“It’s a neat story to brag on God.” Anders Snyder, lead pastor Calvary Church Nampa, Idaho
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hurches in the News Third “stone”: The Exponent Telegram/North Center West Virginia Media, which on April 22 published “Churches continue to see people participate each week, bring in new members” 3.
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his was an interesting article of three churches, leading with the Salt and Light Southern Baptist Church of Clarksburg, West Virginia, which shows a glaring difference between Southern Baptist churches and those that don’t reach out evangelistically. Founding pastor Don Knotts returned to his home town five years ago to start Salt and Light Southern Baptist Church, after sixteen years as the pastor of Wayside Southern Baptist Church in Buckhannon, West Virginia. “God orchestrated the plant and blessed me to come along and do it,” Knotts told SBC LIFE. “We began with life groups meeting in various places, homes, and restaurants, and now also are meeting [for Sunday worship] at the Days Inn in Bridgeport until God provides us with property and a building,” Knotts said. Bridgeport and Clarksburg are adjoining towns. “At present we have eight candidates for baptism,” the pastor continued. “We have to wait for the weather to be cooperative.” While the church could use the pool at Days Inn to baptize, that wouldn’t be as public an event as it should be, Knotts explained. He prefers an historic baptism site in Harrison County called Center Branch, “where everyone can see the baptisms taking place and each new believer’s declaration of new life in Christ,” Knotts said. “I love baptizing new believers and to date I’ve not lost any to the river.” Salt and Light Southern Baptist Church gives 10 percent of undesignated income to
missions through the Cooperative Program, and another 5 percent to Monongahela Baptist Association. “I’ve been a Southern Baptist for more than thirty years,” Knotts said. “I believe in tithing and being a good steward. It’s not just a Southern Baptist thing. It’s obedience to God. “Furthermore, I believe in the Cooperative Program and what it supports: missionaries both IMB and NAMB—and my wife Tammy and I are missionary church planters—plus church planting, our seminaries, Disaster Relief, and so much more. I believe we can accomplish so much more together than we can apart.” In addition to participating in women’s, church-wide, and youth “Boost” small groups, and the local missions projects each group undertakes, members in 2017 stuffed more than 240 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and sent several members to help at an OCC distribution center. “How can we accomplish all this? It’s by having 90 percent membership participation,” Knotts said. Salt and Light Church also has an ongoing partnership with Cedar Bay Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, with each church helping the other onsite every other year. “Our mission is to be salt and light wherever we go, preserving life and scattering darkness in the name of Jesus,” the pastor said. “We’re looking to engage our community by evangelizing this area and seeing the lost come
Members of the Salt and Light Southern Baptist Church in Clarksburg, West Virginia, meet in a conference room at the Days Inn in the next town, Bridgeport, West Virginia. The church is praying the Lord will provide property and a building according to Pastor Don Knotts. photo courtesy of salt and light southern baptist church
“Our mission is to be salt and light wherever we go, preserving life and scattering darkness in the name of Jesus. We’re looking to engage our community by evangelizing this area and seeing the lost come to Christ. Our goal is to love God, love people, and make disciples.” Don Knotts, founding pastor Salt and Light Southern Baptist Church Clarksburg, West Virginia to Christ. Our goal is to love God, love people, and make disciples.” Planting a church is different from pastoring a church, Knotts said he has learned. “This old dog has had to learn some new tricks, like ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff; God’s got this.’ God knows
N
the end from the beginning and is bringing both together to accomplish His will for His glory.” Salt and Light Southern Baptist Church is to be constituted from mission to full-church status at the annual meeting of the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists in November.
If secular newspapers are akin to “stones” shouting out about God’s glory, the state Baptist newspapers could be compared to the Old Testament prophets as together they build unity, point readers to God’s involvement in their lives, and herald the stories of what God is doing among them. Following is an example from one of forty state Baptist publications.
orth Carolina’s Biblical Recorder published a February 6 article, “Baptismal waters stir again at Cedar Rock” 4. Two people, both in their twenties, were baptized January 14 at the church, the first in nearly a decade, according to Pastor Nathaniel Williams. “Williams said the congregation was encouraged by the special occasion, calling it a sign of ‘God’s faithfulness to us and to the community,’” according to the article written by Seth Brown. In Williams’s first fulltime pastorate, he’s been preaching verse-by-verse through the New Testament book of Matthew. “I was learning how to preach, and there’s no better way to learn how to preach than letting Jesus preach,” Williams
was quoted in the article as saying. The congregation is committed to prayer, Williams added. A “steadfast” group meets on Wednesday nights to pray for the church. A number of elderly members unable to attend services also pray “persistently,” the pastor added. In a day when many Christian mission strategies focus on cities, Williams said, “God hasn’t forgotten the rural churches. . . . God loves and cares for these people. If we come to them with a posture of love, God can work through that.”
1 watertowndailytimes.com/news03/long-falls-
2 idahopress.com/news/local/2cscoop/
3 wvnews.com/theet/news/churches-continue-to-
4 brnow.org/News/February-2018/Baptismal-
baptist-church-moves-into-a-new-home-in carthage-20180421
nampa-first-southern-baptist-church-replants as-calvary-church/article/790fabec-6a51 54ca-82d0-14df14895f02
see-people-participate-each-week-bring-in/ article_b3e7e299-62ee-6474-90fa eb25037da9de.html
waters-stir-again-at-Cedar-Rock
Karen L. Willoughby is a national correspondent for SBC LIFE and Baptist Press and is a member at First Baptist Church of Pleasant Grove, Utah.
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REFUGEE MINISTRY “Journey Church is effectively making inroads in the community by offering English as a second language and going door-to-door to find out how the church can most effectively meet the spiritual needs of those in the community. Bowling Green has been growing with an open door for many different people groups from around the world who are coming here. Our uttermost parts that Jesus commanded us to go to are now coming to us in our Jerusalem.” John Mark Toby director of missions Warren Association of Baptists Bowling Green, Kentucky Matt Betts, founding pastor of Journey Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, hopes to see people from numerous countries and multiple language groups find community together in Christ. courtesy of kentucky today
| photo by roger alford
Church Plant Serves the Nations from College Town by Roger Alford
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ith a heart for immigrants, Pastor Matt Betts has planted a church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that is helping newcomers to America transition to new lives that he hopes will include serving Christ. Betts believes the early success of Journey Church, which held its inaugural service last fall with 197 people present, speaks to the need for a multi-cultural congregation in this university town that has become a magnet for immigrants from countries around the world. “There were eight different languages spoken at that first service,” he said. “It was awesome to see all these people groups come together.” Journey Church is being sponsored by Woodburn Baptist Church south of Bowling Green, where Betts had served as youth pastor until the new congregation was launched September 17, 2017. Partnering with Woodburn on the church plant are the Warren Association of Baptists, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and Hillvue Heights Church in Bowling Green. “This is a great example of a successful partnership,” said Todd Gray, head of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s evangelism
and church planting team. “We’re praying that what we’re seeing in the first weeks of this new congregation is only a glimpse of the great things to come.” Betts said Woodburn has been selfless in supporting the new congregation, giving up not only its youth pastor but also some of its strongest leaders to serve at Journey. Woodburn has also committed significant financial support to help the church as it begins to serve its community. Journey Church is meeting in the Warren Association of Baptists’ International Ministry Center, which also is home to two other congregations—Nueva Vida Hispanic Church and Zo Baptist Church, a Burmese congregation. “Journey Church is effectively making inroads in the community by offering English as a second language and going door-to-door to find out how the church can most effectively meet the spiritual needs of those in the community,” said John Mark Toby, director of missions for the Warren Association of Baptists. “Bowling Green has been growing with an open door for many different people groups from around the world who are coming here. Our uttermost parts that Jesus commanded us to go to are now coming to
Worship and prayer in Swahili during the Easter Service at Journey Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on April 1, 2018. courtesy of journey church
| photo by leah hamm
us in our Jerusalem.” Betts said the core group that came together with the vision for a multi-cultural congregation in Bowling Green has worked and prayed tirelessly to make it happen. “It has been great to see my team pour into the lives of the people, whether it is babysitting kids so that moms can go to English as a second language classes, whether it’s providing shoes for children, or having Gospel conversations with neighbors,” Betts said. Betts said he’s seeing signs that the new church is poised for continued growth. “We are having many from the community come who have never been to church before or
who haven’t been in a long time,” he said. “We continue to build relationships and pray that fruit will come of those.” Gray said Journey Church is the latest of a long list of new churches being planted across Kentucky. At any given time, Gray and his team are working with fifty to fifty-five church planters to get new congregations up and going. Besides training, KBC provides $20,000 over three years to help with some of the costs. Tyler Ayers, one of the charter members of Journey Church, said he, like so many others, has been impressed by the many languages spoken in the congregation. Screens in the sanctuary routinely display scripture in English,
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Face-painting and other activities were popular events at a May 2018 community block party hosted by Journey Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky. courtesy of journey church
Members and guests from Journey Church grilled, cooked, shared meal items, and enjoyed the day together at a May 2018 community block party hosted by the church.
| photos on this page by lucas hughes
Spanish, Urdu, Farsi, and Swahili. “We really want the culture of the church to accurately reflect the racial and socioeconomic culture of the neighborhoods that surround us,” Ayers said. However, Ayers said pulling together people from such varied cultures and backgrounds will likely present some challenges that will have to be overcome. “We’ll have to have God’s love and grace to
continue moving forward in unity,” he said. “It’s going to be so difficult that we will have to have God’s help.” Roger Alford is communications director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention and is a member of First Baptist Church in Owenton, Kentucky. This article was first published in Kentucky Today, an online news resource of the Kentucky Baptist Convention (kentuckytoday.com/stories/churchfeature,9661).
Childcare during English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at Journey Church.
Syrian Couple ‘Lost Everything,’ But Gained Jesus Christ by Lonnie Wilkey
A
lvaro and Haya Altaras* know what it’s like to be homeless and to lose everything they own. The Altaras family from Syria recently visited the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board (TBMB) offices in Franklin, Tennessee. The Syrian natives had to leave the country where they were born several years ago due to civil war. They went across the border and became refugees living in Jordan. But that was really a new beginning. “I lost everything, but I gained what I needed most—Jesus Christ,” Altaras shared during an April 5, 2018, chapel service for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board staff. While at the refugee camp, the couple met several people who began building relationships with them. They met Christians who were willing to pray with Altaras and his family “in the name of Jesus” and to give them other help. Through his new friends, Altaras had twelve surgeries on his leg without any cost to him or his family. During his recovery, he was given a
Bible and began to read the Word of God daily. “I accepted Christ and gave my life to Him and was baptized in the Jordan River,” Altaras shared. Fifteen days before he and his family were scheduled to leave Jordan, Altaras learned he had colon cancer. Christian friends once again prayed with him “in the name of Jesus.” A few days later he went to the doctor for a follow-up visit and the doctor told him the cancer was gone. “I did not believe him,” Altaras said. He went to another doctor who gave him the same diagnosis—no cancer. “I didn’t believe him either,” Altaras said with a laugh. At the same time, the couple learned they had been cleared to settle in the United States. They noted the process normally takes two years, but they did it in fifty-two days. Haya Altaras is convinced she knows the reason why. While in Jordan they had to live a “dual” life. As former Muslims they could not admit they were Christian or they faced being killed.
“We were secret believers in Jordan and this was difficult for us,” she said. “We taught the Word of God in our house but we could not say anything about Him outside our house. It was hard to live a dual life,” she acknowledged. “When I began to pray that I didn’t want to live as a secret believer, our trip to the United States opened quickly,” she said. “Our lives changed because of God’s love.” The family moved to the US with the aid of World Relief. When asked where they wanted to settle, “We left it to the Lord,” Altaras said. “The Lord brought us here [to the Nashville area] and gave us this wonderful field to work in,” he related. After arriving in Nashville, the couple connected with Fady Al-Hagal, a former West Tennessee pastor who is now a part-time church planting specialist with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. Al-Hagal is mentoring and discipling the couple who have been Christians for about five-and-a-half years. The couple also connected with City
Global Missions & Ministry
Church Network, a Baptist-affiliated group in Nashville led by David Kaufmann. Working through City Church Nashville, a Tennessee Baptist congregation, the couple hopes to plant a ministry, Al-Hagal said. They are ministering to families who share a similar cultural background, showing the love of Christ in word and deed, and conducting Bible studies with three of those families, he added. Lewis McMullen, church planting specialist with the TBMB, noted the TBMB has provided outreach resources to the couple through the state convention’s missions offering. Altaras asked Baptists “to pray for us so we can expand our circle of influence” and for “hearts to be open so they can receive the truth.” *Names changed Lonnie Wilkey is editor of the Tennessee Baptist and Reflector and is a member of Tulip Grove Baptist Church in Old Hickory, Tennessee. This article first appeared in Baptist and Reflector. Used by permission.
Areas of Study • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Biblical Languages Christian Ministry Contemporary Worship Ministry Cross Cultural Business Management Intercultural Studies/Missions Master of Music in Church Music Medical Missions Music Music Education (Bachelor & Master’s) Music Therapy Performance (Vocal, Instrumental) Philosophy Religion
www.wmcarey.edu
Hattiesburg, Mississippi | (601) 318-6115
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MILITARY CHAPLAINCY
“Chaplains pay their dues. The cloth we wear is the same cloth our fellow soldiers wear. It is earned with blood, sweat, and tears, and paid in the form of hard work for the purpose of ministering.” Major Philip Kramer, senior chaplain Airborne and Ranger Training Brigades Fort Benning, Georgia
Army chaplains not only complete all rigorous Army trainings with men and women in uniform but also offer spiritual counsel to Army members by putting people first, providing professional care, and focusing on the fruit that comes from sharing the Gospel. photo provided by the north american mission board
Chaplaincy at Fort Benning: It’s All about Presence W
hen Chaplain (Captain) Robert Boyles was in US Army Ranger School training, he met four strangers he later would baptize. But when the weather turned fifteen degrees that night, Boyles was simply another Ranger in training, stomping his feet in his Army boots to keep warm.
Rigorous Training
Boyles and the others were in the Mountain phase of an arduous sixty-one days in training at Fort Benning’s Ranger Brigade. They’d already endured a twelve-mile road march carrying thirty-five-pound rucksacks and weapons as well as intense military instruction, challenging patrols, and a grueling physical training (PT) test together. During their cold circuit in the mountains, Boyles and a few men talked. Unbeknownst to many soldiers, Boyles was a chaplain in training—sliding on his belly in the mud under a fence of barbed wire with the other trainees and running toward whirring helicopters in the middle of the night with his unit. Being a chaplain meant Boyles would be there at the end, earning his Ranger tab and graduating with the elite. Why? Because chaplaincy is all about being present.
The Ministry of Presence
“Chaplains pay their dues,” says Chaplain (Major) Philip Kramer, senior chaplain in the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigades at Fort Benning. “The cloth we wear is the same cloth our fellow soldiers wear. It is earned with blood, sweat, and tears, and paid in the form of hard work for the purpose of ministering.” That is why Chaplain (Captain) Robert Davis, an Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade
chaplain, continually jumps with young airborne trainees off 250-foot towers formerly built for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. “We want to be constantly available to our constituents, which means doing what they are doing in order to earn the respect to reach them,” Davis says. Currently thirty-seven chaplains and thirty-eight religious affairs specialists are serving the religious and pastoral needs of thousands of soldiers, families, and authorized civilian personnel at the military base. They are the Fort Benning Unit Ministry Team under the watchful eye of Chaplain (Colonel) Robert Hart, a Southern Baptist who heads the Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE)/Garrison Chaplain, Religious Support Office. They are in charge of twenty-five weekend services and forty weekday programs in fifteen facilities. “In the Army, many soldiers have spiritual experiences,” Boyles says. “Knowing a chaplain means knowing someone they can talk to.” In sleeting weather during Ranger training, for example, Boyles’s presence and proximity to his troops allowed him to reach them on another level and even pray with them upon request. After graduating, Boyles remains a chaplain at the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade. Boyles’s support comes from the MCoE in its role of providing safety, support, and services to all military and civilian organizations as well as comprehensive religious support. It is also a trusted advisory team to the commander and staff on matters pertaining to religious support, morals, pastoral care, and morale issues.
Philosophy of Care
Chaplain (Colonel) Bob Hart’s philosophy entails
by Josie Rabbitt Bingham
three steps: People first, professional care, and be purpose-driven. • “People first” is about being with soldiers when they train, deploy, and have problems they need someone to hear. Chaplains putting people first are compassionate and provide kind and understanding leadership to those far from home. • “Professional care” is about providing confidentiality to those in the Army. This requires integrity and respect from the chaplains. • “Purpose-driven” is about focusing on the Great Commission and about being fruitful. “There’s a lot of additional things easy to get wrapped up in, like status,” Kramer says. “But those things produce foliage, not fruit. We have to focus as chaplains on the fruit and on producing that fruit as part of the Great Commission. It’s a challenge, but we must have a greater commitment to what truly matters in life and live out that commitment.”
Deployed to Serve
Going on twenty-eight years of service, Shane Chapman, the 194th Brigade Command Sergeant Major, meets basic trainees at the starting lines of their military careers. “I saw the worst of what humans can do to each other,” Chapman says about his first deployment at age twenty to Somalia. “I tell the basic trainees that glory and war do not go together. We are patriots and we fight for our country because we believe in it, not because we want the glory. If that’s what they’re fighting for, they won’t find it in a war zone.”
Over the course of eight deployments, Chapman realized many find God on deployment. “We have about sixty thousand soldiers a year pass through Fort Benning,” he says. “My goal is to produce aspiring professionals to the force by developing disciplined, competent, professional, well-trained soldiers who are accountable for their actions. It’s hard work but I care because I love the troops and I know our chaplains do too.” The chaplaincy is there for soldiers when their “innocent view of the world is lost,” Chapman says. “We must rely on something greater than ourselves to get through it,” says Chaplain Jay Burke, currently serving the 2-58th infantry regiment at Fort Benning. “We can’t lose the sacredness of life. We are here to remind them there is a reason and purpose. Our commitments to the soldiers are not only about honoring the nation but also about connecting dots of moral absolutes not determined by man.
Prayer Warriors
“It’s tough but, as chaplains, we get on our knees and pray and then live with the soldiers,” Burke says. “We search for leaders among them to train up. We give our best and encourage personal relationships with Christ beyond theory and tradition. “We all need Jesus. Chaplains are here to remind everyone amidst the noise of what is important.” Josie Rabbitt Bingham writes for the North American Mission Board and is a member of First Baptist Church in Cumming, Georgia. This article was first published at NAMB.net/news/chaplaincy-at-fortbenning-its-all-about-presence.
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1,617 The number of Southern
Baptist military chaplains endorsed by the North American Mission Board currently serving in the military.
277
The number of Southern Baptist chaplains serving in the US Navy.
328
The number of Southern Baptist chaplains serving in the US Air Force.
1,012
The number of Southern Baptist chaplains serving in the US Army.
4,095 The total of all chaplains
endorsed by the North American Mission Board. These include chaplains serving in state and federal prisons, hospice, hospitals, disaster relief, as volunteers, and in other settings around the world. Left: Captain Jacques Albertyn, chaplain for the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. photo by major thomas cieslak
Right: The unique role of military chaplains is evident in this bronze statue in the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Center’s Chaplain Corps Prayer Garden at South Carolina’s Fort Jackson. photo by roger s. oldham
An Airborne Chaplain Found His Calling in the Classifieds by Thomas Cieslak
F
or one chaplain serving in the 82nd Airborne Division, his calling did not come in the form of a thunderous voice or dramatic event. It came when he opened the local classified section. Captain Jacques Albertyn, the battalion chaplain for the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, heard a soft voice while sitting in a church pew, third row from the front. He didn’t think about it much until getting home and reaching for the newspaper. “My calling happened March 10, 2002. Some people might have that big moment where God speaks to them in a thunderous voice or something dramatic happened in their lives that calls them to ministry,” said Albertyn. “For me, it was a quiet voice.” Albertyn was born in Pinelands, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, in a hospital that
was once a Catholic monastery. A Southern Baptist and endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention through its North American Mission Board, he attended New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Orlando Campus, before joining the Army. “Military Chaplaincy is about selfless service; it is about giving yourself to others with no expectation of receiving anything else in return,” said Albertyn about ministering to soldiers. “Army chaplaincy provided me with an opportunity to walk next to the young men and women that serve this country, to share God’s presence with them and support them in the midst of anxiety and fear.” Albertyn had just started a new career at a local company in Florida after immigrating to the United States when he heard that voice in First Baptist Church of Deland, Florida. “I am calling you for my people,” the voice
said, calling him by name. After getting home from church, Albertyn prayed to God to reveal the ministry He wanted Albertyn to serve in. “As I opened the newspaper, on the left page there was a quarter-page advertisement about the need for US Army chaplains to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Albertyn. “I looked at the ad, read it, and went onto the next page, thinking to myself, ‘that is not church.’ “Each time I served in a church since that day, my wife would say, ‘You do know this is not where God wants you to serve,’” continued Albertyn. “It might have taken me fourteen years to get into the Army, but every day I serve as a chaplain is a blessing as I fulfill my true and direct calling from God.” Albertyn Jacques was endorsed for active duty Army in 2015. Being a faith leader in an Airborne Infantry Brigade Combat Team requires not only steadfast courage to conduct static-line airborne
operations, but also empathy to understand the reservations some paratroopers have before jumping. Primarily, it demands a chaplain serve alongside those he ministers to. “Being Airborne is not just a job, it is a way of life. Airborne is not for everyone, but those who are here deserve a chaplain who will look after them,” said Albertyn. “Airborne operations provide an aspect of service that can challenge the toughest soldier. Being next to paratroopers through their challenges and hearing their opinions, fears, and joys about jumping is what military chaplaincy is all about.” Albertyn’s sending church is Stetson Baptist Church in Deland, Florida, where he and his wife Marlize maintain their permanent church membership. Major Thomas Cieslak is Public Affairs Officer, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, US Army.
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Resources to Help You Tell the Southern Baptist Story
Meet Southern Baptists is designed to introduce
The Southern Baptist Convention: A Closer Look is a wonderful resource to help your
newcomers to the common convictions and farreaching ministries of Southern Baptists. It explains: • Who Southern Baptists Are • What Southern Baptists Believe • What Southern Baptists Do • How Southern Baptists Advance the Gospel • Why Southern Baptists Do What They Do
church members better understand the organization, structure, and activity of the Southern Baptist Convention on local, state, and national levels, as well as how autonomous local Southern Baptist Convention churches partner together in ministry and mission.
Meet Southern Baptists is available for download in six languages at www.sbc.net/aboutus.
HOW TO USE THESE RESOURCES
Please send me the following quantities of brochures:
• New member classes
Meet Southern Baptists
• Distribution at your church • Budget planning • Associational meetings • Conventional emphases on the SBC Event Calendar
Church
+ Your Name
Total Quantity
=
Price Per Copy
x
$
Total Cost
=
$
.20
Phone
Billing Address
City
Cut out this form and mail it, along with your check, to Convention Relations, SBC Executive Committee, 901 Commerce Street, Nashville, TN 37203-3699.
Shipping Address
For faster service, call 1-866-722-5433.
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The SBC: A Closer Look
Please send brochures to:
SBCLIFE
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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE RESOURCES
Discover, Connect, Celebrate Telling the Story of Southern Baptists with EC Resources by Rebecca Manry
B
arry Fields wants to tell his congregation about the work of Southern Baptists every chance he gets. Fields, pastor of Hawesville Baptist Church in Hawesville, Kentucky, is one of many pastors, associational directors of missions, state convention leaders, and others who use print and digital resources from the SBC Executive Committee to inform their churches about the Southern Baptist Convention and its ministries. “The more that we can do to tell the story, to get the word out there, the better off that we’re going to be,” Fields said. The Executive Committee strives to assist churches by providing resources that help people discover what it means to be Southern Baptist, stay connected with the ministries of the SBC, and celebrate the many ways God is working through Southern Baptists.
SBC CALENDAR JULY 2018 CITIZENSHIP AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY SUNDAY July 1 LOVE LOUD SUNDAY (Proposed name change: Send Relief Sunday) July 22
Barry Fields, pastor of Hawesville Baptist Church in Hawesville, Kentucky, stands in front of an informational display case in the church where SBC brochures and resources are posted. photo courtesy of hawesville baptist church
Discover
Among the resources available are the brochures Meet Southern Baptists and The Southern Baptist Convention: A Closer Look. Meet Southern Baptists gives an overview of who Southern Baptists are, what they believe, and how they do ministry. A Closer Look describes the structure and function of the Southern Baptist family, including the SBC Executive Committee, the SBC annual meeting, funding through the Cooperative Program, and the SBC’s cooperative relationships with other Baptist organizations. Printed copies of both brochures are available in English and Spanish, and PDF downloads of Meet Southern Baptists are available in seven languages. Churches frequently report using the brochures in new member classes to introduce prospective members to the character and purposes of the SBC. Associations and state conventions distribute them to churches in their areas who might be interested in cooperating with the Convention, or who might just be curious about what Southern Baptists are all about. Hawesville Baptist posts the brochures on a prominent bulletin board, with each page of the brochures separated for easy viewing. Fields also makes copies available at the welcome centers of both church campuses—in Hawesville and in Tell City, Indiana.
The Tell City campus, just across the Ohio River, is in an area with a large Catholic presence. He has found the brochures to be useful in clearing up misconceptions about Baptists and breaking down barriers. “They have been helpful in reaching out into a world that really doesn’t know much about Southern Baptist life,” he said.
Connect
While the brochures can help facilitate connections with people and congregations who don’t know much about Southern Baptists, the Convention’s daily news service, Baptist Press (BP), and its news journal, SBC LIFE, offer opportunities to stay connected with what’s happening now in the SBC. The Executive Committee receives regular requests from pastors and associational leaders to use BP and SBC LIFE articles in newsletters, classes, and doctrinal studies. Baptist Press offers a daily email subscription providing news and commentary from a Christian worldview. SBC LIFE has a newly-designed online format in addition to its three print issues per year.
Celebrate
Fields believes in the cooperative work of Southern
Baptists—and feels a responsibility to promote it. “I’ve just felt convicted,” he said. ”We tell the story to let the church know what’s going on both here and around the world, and [the Executive Committee’s resources] are some of the tools we use to do that.” Fields is also a member of the Young Leaders Advisory Council. He said his work with the group has strengthened his conviction to inform his congregation and encourage younger leaders to engage. The Young Leaders Advisory Council was formed by the Executive Committee in 2017 to better understand the perspectives of young leaders and involve them in SBC life. “We have to understand that we can do more together than we can separately,” he said. “In a society that’s increasingly growing hostile to the Gospel, in a culture that’s quickly becoming anti-church, I think we need each other now more than ever. I think it would be foolish of us to neglect to do all that we can to see that the next generation is handed this baton of missions and ministry.”
Rebecca Manry is communications specialist with the SBC Executive Committee and is a member of Harvest Fields Baptist Church in Pegram, Tennessee.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES Meet Southern Baptists—A brochure that tells about who Southern Baptists are; what they believe; how they show the love of Christ through evangelism, church planting, compassion ministries, and missions; how they cooperate through Convention ministries and the Cooperative Program; and how Christ’s love motivates all that they do. Printed copies in English and Spanish are available for purchase. It is also available online in PDF form in English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, and Vietnamese. (SBC.net/AboutUs)
AUGUST 2018 SOCIAL ISSUES SUNDAY August 5 STUDENT EVANGELISM DAY August 12 WORSHIP MUSIC WEEK August 19–25
SEPTEMBER 2018 DISCIPLESHIP RALLY September 2 SINGLE ADULT SUNDAY September 2 ANTI-GAMBLING SUNDAY September 16
OCTOBER 2018 COOPERATIVE PROGRAM MONTH October 1–31 PERSONAL EVANGELISM COMMITMENT DAY October 7 GLOBAL HUNGER SUNDAY October 14
The Southern Baptist Convention: A Closer Look—Describes the Convention’s purpose; its annual meeting; its entities; its Executive Committee; its funding; the wider network of cooperative Baptist bodies within the Southern Baptist family, including state conventions, local associations, and ethnic and affinity groups; and its cooperative diversity. Printed copies in English and Spanish are available for purchase. It is also available online in PDF form in English and Spanish. (SBC.net/AboutUs/ACloserLook.asp) Fast Facts about the SBC—Provides statistics at a glance including general information about the SBC, its mission boards, its seminaries, the ethnic and racial diversity of its cooperating churches, GuideStone’s Mission:Dignity ministry, disaster relief, children’s and family ministries, Baptist collegiate ministries, giving through the Cooperative Program, and designated giving to special offerings. Fast Facts is available on SBC.net or as a PDF download. (SBC.net/FastFacts)
NOVEMBER 2018 DISASTER RELIEF APPRECIATION DAY November 4
Becoming Southern Baptist—A section of SBC.net with information for churches that are interested in cooperating with the Southern Baptist Convention, including information about its structure, the benefits of cooperating, frequently asked questions, and action steps to identify as a Southern Baptist church. (SBC.net/BecomingSouthernBaptist) In All Things Pray—A collection of prayer resources compiled in collaboration with PrayerLink, a group of prayer leaders from state conventions and SBC entities. It includes prayer guides, resources from state conventions and entities, an outline for the 10-20-30 Great Commission Prayer Experience, and the CrossRoads Prayer Evangelism leaflet (available for purchase or download). (SBC.net/InAllThingsPray) Baptist Press—The Convention’s daily news service, with news and commentary about the work God is doing through Southern Baptists as well as stories of interest to evangelicals. (BPNews.net) Forged by Faith—A video series that shows how committed individuals combined their efforts, talents, and ministries to forge the Southern Baptist Convention—an ongoing and effective cooperative mission effort built on a faith that “wears like iron.” (SBC.net/ForgedByFaith) For more information, visit booth 1623 in the exhibit hall of the 2018 SBC annual meeting.
DECEMBER 2018 WEEK OF PRAYER AND MISSION STUDY FOR INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS AND THE LOTTIE MOON CHRISTMAS OFFERING December 2–9
SBCLIFE
SUMMER 2018
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WOMAN TO WOMAN—FOR THE PASTOR’S WIFE
T he
N
Staple Seeking of
by Rhonda Rhea
obody knows the staples I’ve seen. In my last trip through my junk drawer, oh man. I found staples. And then more staples. Then some giant staples. Then tiny little baby staples. What could those baby ones possibly do? Attach tiny-baby papers to other tinybaby papers? The weird part was not so much the number of staples, though there were approximately eighty billion. The weird part wasn’t even the fact that there were so many sizes, shapes, and colors, though it was an eighty-billion-part rainbow assortment. No, the weird part was that I found no stapler. Not one. I searched diligently
for one—any size, any shape, any color. And then I searched again. Because it didn’t make sense that I would have ten tons of stapler-less staples. What was I even supposed to do with all those homeless, jobless staples? I wish I could tell you that only happens in my junk drawer. Or that it’s only about staples. But I just finished digging through my purse for about twenty minutes, desperately searching for a business card that I’d stuck in there a few days ago. Know what I found instead? Yeah, besides the candy bar of unknown origin. Or age. I found instead the list I spent twenty minutes searching for yesterday. I have proven once again that it’s not
just about the looking. It’s also about the overlooking. And, multi-tasker that I am, I can do both simultaneously. Even while eating a candy bar. (Don’t judge. It was chocolate. It’s not like I had a choice.) My husband doesn’t judge. He doesn’t tease me when I have a truckload of stapler-less staples in my junk drawer or when I can’t find something in my purse. One reason is that he’s a really nice guy. I’m pretty sure the other reason is that he knows I see his office at church on a regular basis. Not that I’m comparing Richie’s office to a junk drawer or to my purse or anything. Nevertheless, I have to say, if he added nail polish, some lip gloss, and a travel-sized can of hairspray, I could picture myself putting a shoulder strap on that office and hauling it to the mall to find shoes to match. We recently had to rummage through his office on a hunt for his keys. We searched high and low before we found those rascals. I was glad to make it out of there in one piece. And without tetanus.
Today I was also rummaging around in Scripture—though it was an entirely different kind of rummaging—and the word “seek” caught my attention. Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! (Psalm 105:4, ESV) I may look for a stapler, look for a business card, look for a list, look for the keys—even look for the candy bar I didn’t know I had. But no search is as vital as this one. It’s a three-pronged search that I never, ever want to overlook. We’re told to seek the Lord, seek His strength, and seek His presence. And we’re told to do this searching “continually.” It’s a high search. To seek the Lord is actively to desire a connection with Him. It happens through reading His Word, through talking and listening to Him in prayer, through giving Him attention through worship—and through keeping fervent our desire to know Him more and more (Philippians 3:10). These are the real and necessary staples of a victorious faith life. This is no junk search. This is about looking—and never overlooking. Not multi-tasking. Singularly focused. Seeking God’s strength is recognizing that all might is His and that there’s nothing we can do in this life without His empowering. Seeking His presence is understanding that He is in us and that He’s at work around us. It’s surrendering to Him, asking for His filling. It encompasses a stubbornly determined, unrelenting desire to love Him more completely and serve Him more passionately. Jeremiah 29:11–13 is a familiar passage that confirms the need for wholeheartedness in our search: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart (ESV). Guess what happens when we seek the Lord continually? All the other searches in life fall into perspective. Search for significance? Search for identity in the pastor’s wife role—and all the other roles? Search for calling and places of ministry? Searching for the Lord first, foremost, passionately, and continually brings joy into all those other searches. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! (Psalm 105:3, ESV) A heart that’s rightly seeking God is a heart that will rejoice. I want to glorify His holy name in the way that I seek. It really is a staple when it comes to walking out our faith fruitfully and joyfully. So I do want to be all about that looking. Never the overlooking. It’s definitely a key element in a life well-lived. Incidentally, on a whole different plane, any time you find a “key element,” you might want to make sure you don’t leave it in your husband’s office. Or your purse.
Rhonda Rhea is a pastor’s wife, mom, speaker, and author, and regular contributor to the Missouri Baptist Pathway. She and her husband serve at First Baptist Church in Troy, Missouri. Adapted from one of her chapters in Messy to Meaningful—Lessons from the Junk Drawer (Bold Vision Books, 2018), by Rhonda Rhea, Kaley Rhea, and Monica Schmelter.