Across the nation thousands of students gathered around flagpoles to pray for such things as their schools, their families and the government Sept. 24, marking the annual observance of See You at the Pole, a student-initiated prayer movement. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Across the nation thousands of students gathered around flagpoles to pray for such things as their schools, their families and the government Sept. 24, marking the annual observance of See You at the Pole, a student-initiated prayer movement. At Downey High School in Modesto, Calif., about 50 students met in front of the building for small group prayer and then formed a large circle to sing songs and intercede collectively. “I do it because I love Jesus with all my heart,” Colin Horne, a senior, told The Modesto Beenewspaper. “We want people to see that God loves them.” The reporter asked what he would say to people who object to religion on campus, and Horne replied, “God’s in our lives all the time. We can separate Him from our curriculum, but He’s still in our hearts.” Meaghan Jones, a sophomore, told The Bee she took her spot at the flagpole because she wanted to change the way people at her school think about Jesus, and Jonathan Beckman, another … [Read more...]

To help families reduce their financial debt, LifeWay Christian Resources and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee hope to see a New Testament become a valuable resource. If so, churches will benefit.  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – To help families reduce their financial debt, LifeWay Christian Resources and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee hope to see a New Testament become a valuable resource. If so, churches will benefit. The Executive Committee worked with LifeWay’s Holman Bible Outreach International to develop a copy of the New Testament that includes 30 daily devotions written by Crown Financial Ministries to be used by churches with the “It’s a New Day” curriculum series. It’s a New Day curriculum includes a 10-week Bible study that leads individuals through the biblical principles of money management. Churches that implement a four-week emphasis on financial freedom also may use sermons provided on a DVD that teach foundational principles for handling money God’s way. “This is more than simply a New Testament,” Phill Burgess, executive director of HBOI, said of HBOI’s New Day New Testament. “This edition contains 30 daily devotions that were developed for every member of a … [Read more...]

Do you ever stop to think about how the 21st Century has affected youth ministry? Technology alone has altered the role of the youth leader – making him or her accessible almost 24 hours a day via telephone, cell phone, pager, e-mail and even instant messenging. Do you ever stop to think about how the 21st Century has affected youth ministry? Technology alone has altered the role of the youth leader – making him or her accessible almost 24 hours a day via telephone, cell phone, pager, e-mail and even instant messenging. Changing youth culture continues to force youth ministers to rethink their approaches to youth ministry. Student Spiritual Gift Inventory Youth are being raised by “virtual parents” who check on their teens via e-mail, cell phones and beepers. Teenagers are being bombarded with so much information that they are placing more value on knowing how to access information they need than on actually memorizing it. Media and technology have profoundly influenced teenagers, whether it is the inundation of professional wrestling shows or the ability to “virtually” do anything. As a result, many teenagers are losing the concept of permanence or the sense that actions have real and lasting consequences. To reach … [Read more...]

A single light bulb hangs from a roof beam, dimly illuminating the main room in Maria’s home in Floresta, a working-class neighborhood in Buenos Aires.  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (BP) – A single light bulb hangs from a roof beam, dimly illuminating the main room in Maria’s home in Floresta, a working-class neighborhood in Buenos Aires. There’s nothing fancy about the place – a wooden table and some chairs, a cramped kitchen area, a smoky brazier that doesn’t quite take the chill off the night air. But it’s all Maria, an elderly widow, can afford, and she welcomes the home group each Saturday evening for Bible stories and conversation. They sit around the table chatting, laughing and drinking hot tea out of steaming cups. The group includes several of Maria’s adult children, some friends – and Jason and Kelli Frealy, young Southern Baptist missionaries from Longview, Texas. The Frealys’ 2-year-old daughter, Daniela, explores the room while the adults talk. Tonight’s topic: Jesus’ parables of the wide and narrow roads (leading to destruction or salvation) and the two foundations of a home (sand or rock). After Frealy tells the stories, everyone jumps in to discuss, debate and argue their meaning. Roberto, who introduced … [Read more...]

David, a young Jewish businessman, was walking down a busy street in Buenos Aires one day when he spotted a book lying atop an overflowing trash can.   BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (BP) – David, a young Jewish businessman, was walking down a busy street in Buenos Aires one day when he spotted a book lying atop an overflowing trash can. It was open. It seemed to beckon to him. Out of the corner of his eye, he read the chapter title on the open page: “Jesus Found in Old Testament Scriptures.” “What are the Christians trying to do now, saying Jesus is in our Scriptures?” David indignantly asked himself. He knew the holy books well; he had studied Judaism and Hebrew in Israel. He snatched the book out of the trash and took it home, intending to study it and disprove its claims. He read the book. Then he read the New Testament. Through his own quest for truth, he became a believer in Jesus the Messiah. Later he encountered Andrew, a Southern Baptist worker, at a Messianic Jewish meeting. “I want to talk to you,” David told Andrew. “I have some Bible questions.” They met at a restaurant for dinner and conversation. When Andrew arrived, he found David with the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament), the New Testament … [Read more...]

When the opportunity presented itself, First Baptist Larose was quick to respond. LAROSE – When the opportunity presented itself, First Baptist Larose was quick to respond. Six days after Gustav made landfall with 115-mile-per-hour winds, and three days after the passage of Ike’s 15-foot storm surge, church members forgot about the damage to their church and homes to tend to their less fortunate neighbors to the south. Despite the storms causing        extensive damage to the church – an estimated $10,000 – Larose found itself to be one of only a few dry islands in a sea of muddy water and debris along U.S. Hwy 1. “Gustav made landfall on Monday, but we were not allowed back into the area until five days later [Saturday],” Pastor Gary Hanberry of First Baptist Larose said. “As soon as the storm had passed, I was getting calls from people, who knew me personally, like evangelist Randall Gill of Ambassadors For Christ Worldwide Missions in northwest Mississippi, and Sam Johnson of Woodhaven Baptist Church in Ocean Springs, Miss., wanting to know what was needed. “Randall actually didn’t wait until I got back as he came in with a truckload of supplies on that Friday,” Hanberry said. “I had some church members unload … [Read more...]

She is known simply as “Ms. Chocolate.” For 40 years, Gwen Williams has worked in youth ministry at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. NEW ORLEANS – She is known simply as “Ms. Chocolate.” For 40 years, Gwen Williams has worked in youth ministry at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. Wilson has a simple, yet powerful message for pastors when it comes to winning for Christ a generation poisoned by drugs, gangs, sex and violence. “We have to love this generation like Jesus did. We are challenged more and more to show this culture that the God we serve works,” she said. “It is a huge challenge,”  Jeff Wallace, youth pastor at Peace Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., told the group. In a generation in which 38 percent of all new babies are born into single-parent homes, where children spend three hours daily on the internet and the culture is being bombarded by a hip-hop culture, the old methods of doing church will not work. In fact, Wallace said, 60 percent of the youth he sees each Sunday morning are new faces. “If we think we can sit in holy huddles and reach these kids, we’re fooling ourselves,” Wallace said. The message of living out an unchanging, transparent and loving gospel was the … [Read more...]

“The battle for the Bible is never over,” James W. Richards Jr., executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention said during Louisiana College’s 102nd Founder’s Day observance last week. PINEVILLE – “The battle for the Bible is never over,” James W. Richards Jr., executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention said during Louisiana College’s 102nd Founder’s Day observance last week. Thirty-five years earlier, Richards, as an LC student who was answering a call to the ministry, became upset along with other students upon hearing the truths of the Bible challenged. “It was the first time I had ever heard the veracity of the Bible questioned,” Richards said. He did not like what he heard, and neither did many of his fellow students, who also objected. Their protests caused quite a stir on the tiny campus and eventually led to a chapel service where Richards heard a de-emphasis on the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. It led to his leaving the college. It also began an 11-year exodus among conservative Baptists that ended when Richards felt God’s call to fight for Biblical inerrancy. Their fight has led to a return to “a high view of Scripture” among the Louisiana and Southern Baptist … [Read more...]

“Opinion polls,” someone once said, “measures the public’s satisfaction with its ignorance.” While that assessment might seem somewhat cynical, it is probably not too far from the truth, which is why I have never understood the media’s obsession with polls as a primary source of news. “Opinion polls,” someone once said, “measures the public’s satisfaction with its ignorance.” While that assessment might seem somewhat cynical, it is probably not too far from the truth, which is why I have never understood the media’s obsession with polls as a primary source of news. Let me draw an analogy to football. I am an avid fan of NCAA Division III football. This level of NCAA football does not offer athletic scholarships. Hence, the players at D-III are student-athletes in the purest sense, which is one of the reasons I like this level of football. What does NCAA D-III football have to do with opinion polls? Unlike NCAA Division I – now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision – D-III has a playoff system to determine its national champion. And while there are a couple of D-III “Top 25” polls that are conducted each week, in the grand scheme of things, they are meaningless. Those who participate in the poll are fans of D-III and … [Read more...]

The American political season is in full gear. As has been the case the last several election cycles, the role of Christian values is being hotly discussed in many quarters. The American political season is in full gear. As has been the case the last several election cycles, the role of Christian values is being hotly discussed in many quarters. The questions center around the nature and content of Christian values, which person or party has them, and what difference does it make. Naysayers (those who reject the notion of Christian values or those who disapprove of the subject being interjected into politics) are very quick to point out any failures, inconsistencies, or hypocrisies among those who claim to be proponents of Christian values. So it was, when the unmarried teenage daughter of a conservative Christian national candidate revealed she was pregnant, some critics immediately began to point fingers and ballyhoo the cause of her family’s professed beliefs and practices. “So this is Christian values,” said they. “They are no different than everyone else except they claim to be better.”  Are the critics right? Does the failure of Christians (or their children) to faithfully uphold godly standards in personal … [Read more...]