Darrell Green has built a reputation as "Mr. Redskin" - he is fast, he is loyal and he has staying power. Darrell Green has built a reputation as "Mr. Redskin" - he is fast, he is loyal and he has staying power.   Green also has a reputation as an absolute hands-down believer who is not afraid to be obedient to Christ - even if it means losing millions of dollars.   Now retired, Green wowed Washington Redskins fans for 19 years as the team’s cornerback. He was known best as the National Football League’s fastest man. He held that title for a decade, lost it, then regained it a year later with a 4.24 time in the 40 yard dash.   He was a football Pro-Bowler seven times and played in the Super Bowl three times. He had at least one interception in 18 consecutive seasons and compiled 53 interceptions through the course of his career. At 41, he was the oldest player to hold his position.   Through it all, Green has kept football secondary to his relationship with Jesus.   "I’ve done a lot, but there’s nothing that makes me rejoice more than knowing that, by his grace, I could live to advance his kingdom and still today have a voice to the nation on some level as to … [Read more...]

Leaders are not better than other people - but they are different, Andy Stanley insisted recently.   And they must take care to honor that God-given difference, added Stanley, an author and pastor at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga. Leaders are not better than other people - but they are different, Andy Stanley insisted recently.   And they must take care to honor that God-given difference, added Stanley, an author and pastor at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga.   After all, what is at stake are unreached people who will not go to a status quo church, Stanley emphasized. What is at stake is building a church intent on attracting people rather than keeping people.   "Leaders hate the status quo, ..." Stanley said during the "Whatever It Takes" conference at First Baptist Church of West Monroe in late August.   "Leaders love forward progress."   Stanley was one of several speakers during the conference, which attracted hundreds of participants from several states.   "Nothing strikes terror in a leader’s heart more than the prospect of being stuck, ..." Stanley said. "God made you that way. ... God designed you to be … [Read more...]

Reaching the unchurched: Research shows there is a key to reaching the lost - and for many, it is as simple as inviting and bringing them to church, a Baptist prof insists Reaching the unchurched: Research shows there is a key to reaching the lost - and for many, it is as simple as inviting and bringing them to church, a Baptist prof insists Thom Rainer contends he has some insights about what unchurched people think about the church and about how they can be reached. That is not surprising. He and fellow researchers have spent some 5,000 hours interviewing a group they call the "formerly unchurched" - those who had no church experience and yet found their way to faith and involvement in a local congregation. Rainer wanted to know the answer to a simple question - what happened to bring these individuals to church. The resulting responses offered important words to churches about how they must present the gospel to reach the lost. "Some of the insights they provided us were incredible," said Rainer, an author and professor of evangelism and dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Rainer presented an overview of those … [Read more...]

Reaching the unchurched: Research shows there is a key to reaching the lost - and for many, it is as simple as inviting and bringing them to church, a Baptist prof insists Reaching the unchurched: Research shows there is a key to reaching the lost - and for many, it is as simple as inviting and bringing them to church, a Baptist prof insists Southern Baptist seminary professor Thom Rainer re-members the day all of his research and preaching about reaching the unchurched came home to roost. He was having a conversation with his neighbor, a nominal, uninvolved Catholic. Just a few days earlier, he had given the man a copy of his latest book as a thank-you for picking up his mail for a few days. It was a book on reaching the unchurched. In the course of the conversation, the neighbor told Rainer he had read the book and had a question. "Why haven’t you ever invited me to church?" the man asked. "You talk about it all in that book, but you’ve never invited me to your church. Don’t you like your church?" Ouch. But the man was right, Rainer indicated during a conference held earlier this summer at First Baptist Church of Covington. Even Rainer had failed to follow through on what he maintained is the key to … [Read more...]

For the week of October 30, 2003 Potpourri   • NEW ORLEANS - Oak Park church: Seminarians Concert; Nov. 12, 6:30 p.m.; free admission; Paul Brady, pastor.   • DENHAM SPRINGS - Dallas Holm in concert; Nov. 15, 7 p.m.; $5 per person; for tickets, call (225) 664-4102; Danny Henderson, pastor.   • LIVINGSTON - Colyell church: David Ring, guest speaker; Nov. 2, 7 p.m.; Sanford Sherman, pastor.   • PIONEER - New Prospect church: Gospel Preaching/Singing event; Nov. 1, 7 p.m.; Ken Evans, Kenny Duchesne and Lee Piercy, speakers; refreshments served; Walter Cloud, pastor.   • PINEVILLE - Louisiana College: Art exhibit reception featuring sculptures of Morris Taft Thomas; Nov. 4, 6 p.m.; exhibit on display Nov. 4-26; call (318) 487-7435 for information; Rory Lee, president.   • MINDEN - Harris Assembly camp: Senior adult retreat; Nov. 5, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Randy Hales, Darrell Washam, Linda Osborne, David Abernathy, Miguel Barrios, Stephanie Reeves and Genie Norman, guests; $10 per person, includes lunch, morning refreshments; reservation deadline is Nov. 3; call (318) 377-4434; William Shaw, camp manager.   • WESTLAKE - First church: "Satisfaction for … [Read more...]

Southern Baptists might have come to the table late, but they are pulling out all the stops to tend to the nation’s families, which are dying at a rate of 3,571 marriages a day, Tom Elliff said. Southern Baptists might have come to the table late, but they are pulling out all the stops to tend to the nation’s families, which are dying at a rate of 3,571 marriages a day, Tom Elliff said. "It’s terribly late; it’s tragically late," said Elliff, chair of the Southern Baptist Convention Council on Family Life. "I see the families in our convention, in our nation not as getting sick, but I see them as in the intensive care ward in need of immediate attention, or they die. "The answer to that is we must pull out the stops and be heroic in our efforts to do everything we can do to salvage the family." The 16-million-member convention seemingly has been caught unawares by a culture that has changed "at the speed of light," Elliff acknowledged. The result is what was considered obscene a year ago is now accepted on television, he said. In the same way, divorce statistics have skyrocketed. Now, leaders are "scrambling constantly" to respond to the crisis they finally have begun to understand, Elliff said. "We should … [Read more...]

Southern Baptists are one generation away from a situation in which graduating seminary students cannot go to the mission field or pastor small churches, Paige Patterson recently warned. Southern Baptists are one generation away from a situation in which graduating seminary students cannot go to the mission field or pastor small churches, Paige Patterson recently warned.   The reason the young ministers will not be able to pursue their callings is indebtedness, said Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.   "No mission-sending agency will appoint any student from your school who has existing indebtedness," Patterson recently told Southwestern trustees. "The average Southern Baptist church has less than 200 people in Sunday School. If students graduate with a large amount of debt, they will not be able to make enough money to climb out of debt ... and pastor those churches."   Patterson said students are paying four to five times as much as they used to in tuition and working more to pay for their education. Thus, they cannot take as many hours, which alters their fulltime status and affects the amount of Cooperative Program funds distributed to seminaries, … [Read more...]

A special seminary offering being proposed for Southern Baptist Convention seminaries runs counter to a recent report regarding the state and future of denominational finances. A special seminary offering being proposed for Southern Baptist Convention seminaries runs counter to a recent report regarding the state and future of denominational finances.   Just last month, an SBC Funding Study Committee recommended that the entire convention would be better served by educating Southern Baptists about the Cooperative Program and challenging them to follow the biblical model of tithing.   The report pointed to a steady decline in recent years in both individual giving and in the percentage of a church’s offerings passed on to Cooperative Program.   Its seven recommendations included one that said "creating any additional special annual offering be discouraged in favor of making Christian stewardship and the Cooperative Program a top priority in Southern Baptist life over the next several years."   The report found that the proliferation of special offerings weakens the unified approach of funding missions and detracts from the Cooperative Program and the existing mission … [Read more...]