Southern Baptist International Mission Board trustees updated the board’s strategic goals and objectives recently, taking solid aim at reaching key people groups around the world. Southern Baptist International Mission Board trustees updated the board’s strategic goals and objectives recently, taking solid aim at reaching key people groups around the world. The new strategy plan reflects major commitments the board has made to fulfill its primary ministry assignments. “God’s at work in the world, and this is what it will take to keep up with what he is doing,” mission board President Jerry Rankin said. “These are God-sized goals, and we’re challenging Southern Baptists to be on mission with him.” Key goals discussed and adopted by trustees include: • Engage all unreached people groups (i.e., begin reaching them with the gospel directly or through mission partners) with a population of more than 100,000 by the end of 2008. • Provide access to the gospel among all people groups by the end of 2010. • Increase the number of overseas baptisms – and the number of new believers and church members being discipled – by 20 percent annually. • Increase by 20 percent annually the number of new churches … [Read more...]
It was a one-week trip 30 years ago – but look what it started
Thirty years ago, a group of Samford University students drove 900 miles in two days from Birmingham, Ala., to New York City to renovate an abandoned storefront that would serve as a Southern Baptist community center on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Thirty years ago, a group of Samford University students drove 900 miles in two days from Birmingham, Ala., to New York City to renovate an abandoned storefront that would serve as a Southern Baptist community center on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They did not know they were working on the ministry that would revolutionize a neighborhood. “It was something we did when we were foolish college kids and didn’t know what we were biting off, but it’s had such a lasting impact for Christ in this neighborhood,” says Karon Bowdre, one of the 19 students who served at what would become the headquarters of Graffiti Community Ministries. This summer, 12 of the 19 students reunited at Graffiti, the umbrella ministry that also served as the beginning of East 7th Street Baptist Church and has been the subject of countless news stories, a book, and the center of Christian outreach to an inner-city neighborhood. The original student group came to New York in 1975 as part of … [Read more...]
Weekly announcements
Week of July 25, 2005 Potpourri DEVILLE – Philadelphia church: Ridgecrest at Philly Sunday School Leadership Conference; Aug. 7, 6 p.m. with ice cream fellowship to follow; 5 p.m. worship service; Cliff Jenkins, guest speaker; for information, call (318) 442-0754; Philip Robertson, pastor. ALEXANDRIA – Horseshoe Drive church: Karen Peck and New River in concert; Aug. 4, 7 p.m.; love offering accepted; Aubrey Whitlock, pastor. ZACHARY – First church: Community Praise Celebration featuring Danny Wolfe, vocalist/trumpeter; Aug. 7, 6 p.m.; Billy Causey, minister of worship; Reggie Ogea, interim pastor. DEQUINCY – First church: Leslie Abdalla, missionary to Africa, guest speaker; July 31, 11 a.m.; men’s bakeoff at 5:30 p.m. followed by singing and dessert fellowship; for information, call (337) 786-7072. DEQUINCY – First church: Sandi Lewis in concert; Aug. 7, 6:30 p.m.; love offering accepted. Youth LAFAYETTE – First church: “God’s Creation Praise” summer music activity for kids program; Aug. 8-11, 9 a.m. - noon; for children having completed grades 1-6; $20 per child/includes t-shirt and materials; for information, call the music department at (337) 233-1774 ext. 3258; Perry Sanders, senior pastor; Steve … [Read more...]
Prof offers steps to reverse SBC evangelistic slide
Evangelistically, the Southern Baptist Convention is “on the path of slow but discernable deterioration,” a leading church growth expert said recently. Evangelistically, the Southern Baptist Convention is “on the path of slow but discernable deterioration,” a leading church growth expert said recently. However, he has a “modest proposal” designed to change that. The conservative resurgence has not yet reversed an “evangelistic crisis” in the Southern Baptist Convention, said Thom Rainer, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. (See Page One article) In articles related to a recent study, Rainer offers six possible hypotheses for the current condition of evangelism in the convention and five suggestions that may result in positive change. Rainer’s six possible hypotheses to explain the state of Southern Baptist Convention soul-winning are: • The evangelistic fields in the United States are much less receptive than they were in past years. Although the hypothesis seems plausible on the surface, Rainer argued that most non-Christian Americans remain receptive to the gospel. He cited research that finds that only 8 million of … [Read more...]
‘Cool’ does not set one free – the gospel truth does
A word about faith from outside our religious bailiwick can be sobering. Take, for instance, these statements from Bob Jeffrey, chair and CEO of Worldwide JWT. These challenging statements are from an address the advertising guru gave in China. He was speaking about the influence of China and India – countries with the world’s two most massive populations – on the West, including the United States: A word about faith from outside our religious bailiwick can be sobering. Take, for instance, these statements from Bob Jeffrey, chair and CEO of Worldwide JWT. These challenging statements are from an address the advertising guru gave in China. He was speaking about the influence of China and India – countries with the world’s two most massive populations – on the West, including the United States: “It may sound strange to Chinese ears, but in the West, the spiritual traditions of the East have an increasingly large following,” Jeffrey noted. “Many of the people who rate themselves as spiritual rather than religious feel closer to Buddhism than to Christianity, Islam or Judaism. “Those three monotheistic religions that have shaped the history of the Middle East and the West now score pretty low on cool factor. In … [Read more...]
‘A change of heart’ – Jewish performer now embraces Christ
Jewish parody rap star 50 Shekel once was billed as “The World’s Most Kosher MC.” Now, he has shocked the Jewish world with two announcements on his Web site – he has accepted Jesus as his Messiah and wishes to be called by his birth name, Aviad Cohen. Jewish parody rap star 50 Shekel once was billed as “The World’s Most Kosher MC.” Now, he has shocked the Jewish world with two announcements on his Web site – he has accepted Jesus as his Messiah and wishes to be called by his birth name, Aviad Cohen. Cohen, 30, gained popularity with his hit “In da Shul,” a spoof on the gangster rap single “In da Club.” Cohen did gigs around New York in 2003. At the time, he said he wanted to rap about Judaism. Raised an observant Jew in Israel and Brooklyn, Cohen told Beliefnet in 2003 that he was in the process of becoming closer to the Torah and orthodoxy. “Judaism is what made me – all the values and ethics that the Torah teaches,” he said. But he said in early June that he has now chosen to lead a Messianic Jewish lifestyle. And on July 6, Cohen announced he has given up the name 50 Shekel and will now go solely by his given name. Like Christians, Messianic Jews believe that Jesus was the expected Messiah. Though … [Read more...]
‘I needed something supernatural. … I needed God’
It is one thing to meet one’s hero – and another thing to hear one’s hero talk about his. It is one thing to meet one’s hero – and another thing to hear one’s hero talk about his. But that is what happened when more than 500 people from all walks of life – churched and un-churched – got in line at the LifeWay Christian Store in Monroe, to meet Steve Borden, a.k.a. Sting, world champion wrestler. Borden signed copies of his book, “Sting: Moment of Truth,” which offers a testimony of how God changed his life and saved his marriage and family. Jeremy Pendergraft stood near the front of the line, wearing a black tee-shirt with the image of a skull on the front and sporting multiple earrings and several tattoos up and down his arms. “Sting is awesome,” Pendergraft said. “He’s a great wrestler with a great heart for wrestling. It took us everything we had to get here but we knew we had to come. I didn’t know about the book. It’s cool he found God and all.” As the line slowly got shorter, Jeffrey Housley, 23, patiently waited toward the end with his wife and several teenage boys. A Sunday School teacher at New Chapel Hill Baptist in West Monroe, Housley had been looking for a way to impact the boys who were … [Read more...]
‘They are good people doing really good work’
It is lunchtime, and folks have begun drifting into the Sheds’ modest home in Northwest Territories, Canada. (Note: Information for the following report on Baptist work in the far reaches of the Northwest Territories was gathered by Editor Lynn P. Clayton during a trip to the region earlier this year.) It is lunchtime, and folks have begun drifting into the Sheds’ modest home in Northwest Territories, Canada. Glenda Shed, the wife and mother, stands over the stove, dishing out spaghetti, caribou meat sauce and pleasant greetings to whomever arrives. Several children are eating around the table while other children and adults are scattered around the kitchen, enjoying the meal cooked from a Texas recipe. Laughter lightens the air, and a smile enhances each face as David, the husband and father, moves around the room. The setting is Rae-Edzo, a small town 3,300 miles north of Dallas, Texas, and just a couple of hundred miles from the Canadian Arctic Circle. Rae-Edzo sits six miles off Highway 3, which ends 70 miles away at Yellowknife, the last town headed north from civilization in south-central Northwest Territories. One has a difficult time finding the town on most maps of Canada. However, God … [Read more...]