By Tristan Tayor, IMB Communications Chile recently observed the anniversary of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the coastal nation in 2010. While concern following such a disaster is often given to immediate physical needs, emotional needs are sometimes overlooked. But International Mission Board missionary Dick Price didn’t miss them. After serving 20 years as a U.S. Air Force psychologist and more than 10 years as a missionary to Chile, Price was uniquely qualified to counsel Chileans following the quake. In the six months afterward, Price made 14 trips to Chile’s most damaged areas to deliver educational and preventive presentations about processing stress after traumatic events. “These two-hour interactive talks stressed the importance of talking about our experiences, our thoughts, our feelings and the impact in our lives of emotionally traumatic events,” Price said. “In every talk, a clear statement was made about God’s promise in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing, not even death, can separate us from His love in Christ Jesus.” The training reached about 3,000 people, including 37 medical professionals and nearly 500 military, police and … [Read more...]
Executive Committee addresses GCR report
By Mark Kelly, Baptist Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – The percentage of SBC missions dollars going to overseas work will increase and a category of “Great Commission Giving” will be added to annual statistical reports if two recommendations from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee are adopted during the June 14-15 SBC annual meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. Also during the Feb. 22 meeting in Nashville, Tenn., EC President Frank Page reported that state convention executive directors unanimously agreed to affirm a 50/50 division of Cooperative Program (CP) receipts – after consideration for shared ministry funds – between state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention, as suggested in a portion of the Great Commission Resurgence report. That affirmation was adopted during the annual meeting of the Fellowship of State Executive Directors on Feb. 14-17 in Williamsburg, Va. During the Nashville meeting, Executive Committee members voted unanimously to recommend increasing the International Mission Board’s percentage of budget receipts from 50 percent to 50.2 percent and decreasing the Executive Committee’s percentage by the same amount. The committee … [Read more...]
Small church gives big to God’s work
By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor DUBACH, La. (BP) – The forests and farmland surrounding Sharon Baptist Church don’t block its global vision. [img_assist|nid=7197|title=Pastor Carroll Holmes|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=72|height=100]Church members – with perhaps 40 in worship on Sunday mornings – still give 48.6 percent of their offerings to missions. “We just simply try to give what the Lord is doing for us to somebody else,” said Caroll Holmes, pastor of the Dubach church since 2004. “We don’t see ourselves as a money-making church, but we put the money that comes in to work for the Lord.” The congregation in the northeast rural part of the state is older and mostly living on fixed incomes. Their missions giving does what they can’t by going where they can’t, the pastor said. “The Cooperative Program is such a tremendous program,” Holmes said. “We see it as one of the most beneficial ways we as a church can participate in supporting seminaries, missionaries and all the areas covered by the Cooperative Program. It gives us the opportunity to support so many different ministries, which is why it was founded.” The Cooperative Program supports … [Read more...]
Japanese Laymen evacuates 31 from danger
By Susie Rains SOMA, Japan (BP)--Just 30 miles from Fukushima Daiichi's troubled nuclear plant, anyone in the town of Soma who could evacuate did. But thousands still remain, squeezed into a high school gymnasium serving as a makeshift shelter. Children try to play but there's not much room. Some people sit and stare off into the distance in a state of shock. Others talk in low murmurs, reliving the horrors since March 11: a massive earthquake that buckled highways, a tsunami that left a carpet of debris -- shattered buildings, wrecked cars and washed-up boats -- a food shortage, a snow storm, and no electricity or gas. Then, of course, there's the nuclear crisis. [img_assist|nid=7200|title=Japanese Disaster|desc=Baptists are finding a variety of ways to minister in Japan. In the photo above, Baptists from North Carolina and Hungary unload boxes of food at an evacuation shelter in Japan.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=68]Everyone wonders what is going on when an empty bus pulls up outside the shelter and a young, energetic Japanese man jumps out and bounds into the packed gym. The stench of 2,000 people living for days in a confined space startles Koji Imanishi, but it doesn't deter him from his task … [Read more...]
Southern Baptist missionaries call for prayer as nuclear power plants deteriorate
By Jennifer Rogers Spinola TOKYO—After a devastating tsunami and the worst earthquake in Japan’s recorded history, four nuclear power plants in Fukushima continue to deteriorate and release rising levels of radioactive emissions. According to Lana Oue, International Mission Board missionary in Shibuya, Tokyo, “all efforts to get water into the cooling tanks have failed.” “This (nuclear disaster) has the potential to directly affect a large part of the nation, if reactors continue the meltdown process and emissions blow directly over the land,” says Carlton Walker, an International Mission Board missionary in Narashino City, Chiba. “If the emissions rise to the jet stream, they will be carried as far away as Europe.” Walker, a Richmond, Va. native, believes an east wind that stays low and out of the jet stream—toward the Pacific Ocean and away from Japan’s land mass--may limit the damage from high radiation. Not only is prayer for an east wind critical to containing the damage, but Walker says the idea of wind is an intrinsic part of Japanese culture. While best known for suicide attacks on Allied forces during World War II, the Japanese term “kamikaze” … [Read more...]
Rob Bell book ‘Love Wins’ stirs controversy, denies core Christian beliefs
by Michael Foust GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (BP)--Few events in recent memory have caused as much controversy and confusion among evangelicals as the latest book by well-known pastor Rob Bell, who in "Love Wins" denies hell and affirms universalism -- all the while claiming he has done neither. [img_assist|nid=7203|title=Love Wins|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=67|height=100]Bell's Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., is nondenominational, but his books, "Velvet Elvis" among them, are popular among young evangelicals of all denominations and his Nooma videos -- well-produced and thought-provoking -- are used in even the most conservative of churches. Bell -- a key figure in the emerging church movement -- often has flirted with controversy, such as the time in 2007 when he was asked about homosexuality and danced around the issue, refusing to take a historical biblical stand. Nothing that Bell has written or said, though, has been as controversial as Love Wins. The publisher, Harper Collins, intended to release it on March 29, but moved the date up two weeks after Justin Taylor, a blogger and executive at Crossway book publisher, wrote a critical review of the book's premise. Bell's … [Read more...]
Rob Bell: What SBC leaders are saying
By Staff, Baptist Press GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (BP) – Rob Bell's latest book, Love Wins, denies key doctrines essential to the Christian faith, Southern Baptist leaders say. Following are a sampling of what leaders at Southern Baptist seminaries are saying about the book: -- Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary: "The Bible is clear on the truths of the exclusivity of the Gospel and the eternal nature of both heaven and hell. Jesus, Himself, spoke clearly to these realities and so that should settle the question for all who call Him Lord. He was not ambiguous or opaque concerning the issues as some modern theologians seem to take delight. Further, if Hell is not real and Jesus is not the only Savior, then we have spent billions of dollars and sacrificed precious lives for nothing. Such theological nonsense empties the cross of its power and makes a mockery of the Great Commission text of Matthew 28:18-20, which constitute the final marching orders of our Commander-in-Chief. If I have to choose between the machinations of a modern theological gymnast and the words of Jesus on any issue, I will go with Jesus every time. He can always be trusted. [A] theological revisionist cannot!" -- … [Read more...]
New IMB president coming with a vision
By Erich Bridges, Baptist Press DALLAS (BP)—If you think Tom Elliff is slowing down, try keeping up with him. He’s got energy to burn. [img_assist|nid=7206|title=Tom Elliff|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]The new International Mission Board president sat down (briefly) for a wide-ranging interview before his March 16 election by IMB trustees. He smiled at questions about his age — he turned 67 in February — and whether he’ll be a “transitional” leader. “You gotta love Ronald Reagan,” Elliff said. “Of course, he was elected at 69 his first time around, so I find comfort in that. But I remember in his second election campaign, people were talking about his age and he said, ‘I promise not to use my maturity as an advantage against my opponent.’” Reagan wasn’t exactly a “transitional” president — and Elliff doesn’t intend to be one, either. “I’m not coming as an ‘interim,’” he vowed, recalling what he told the presidential search committee. “I’m coming with a vision — and I will serve as long as God gives me grace and energy.” The longtime pastor, Southern Baptist Convention leader and former missionary will lead one of the largest evangelical … [Read more...]
Missions leaders: Elliff is right man for a tough job
By Erich Bridges, Baptist Press DALLAS (BP)—Tom Elliff is the right person for the challenging task ahead, according to two men who know just how tough the job of International Mission Board president can be. Jerry Rankin served as IMB president for 17 years before his retirement in July 2010. Executive Vice President Clyde Meador, who oversees day-to-day operations of the global mission agency, took on the added responsibility of interim president when Rankin retired. Both think Elliff, who was elected IMB president March 16, has what it takes to mobilize Southern Baptists for international missions in the coming years. “Tom brings an amazing combination of qualities to the task,” said Rankin when contacted for comment. “He has a deep personal walk with the Lord that inspires and challenges others. His heart for missions grows out of a personal calling. His understanding of mission strategy comes from years of involvement as a missionary, pastor and IMB senior executive team member. He has great communication skills, genuine passion to reach a lost world, the favor and respect of missionaries and IMB staff, and he is well-connected with the churches and Southern Baptist … [Read more...]
CrossPoint Baptist ‘re-plants’ Grace Baptist
By Mark H. Hunter, Special to the Message BATON ROUGE – The sound of children’s laughter echoes in the large sanctuary of Grace Baptist Church located in mid-city Baton Rouge. It’s a sound that hasn’t been heard here for many years. [img_assist|nid=7209|title=Grace Baptist re-planted|desc=Grace Baptist Pastor Byron Townsend, formerly the missions pastor at CrossPoint Baptist, believes the inter-church friendship has been a ‘God thing.’|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=71]After booming in the 1950s and ‘60s to more than 400, the church slowly declined as several generations of its children grew up and moved away, until only a small handful of elderly members remained. Grace’s congregation asked for help last year and CrossPoint Baptist, a thriving church of about 300 on the southeast edge of Baton Rouge, answered with its missions pastor and about 60 of its adults and children. “This feels wonderful,” said lifelong Grace Baptist member and deacon George O’Neal, 74, as he smiled and looked across the once empty sanctuary – now half-filled with young couples and children on a recent Sunday morning. “This is the greatest feeling - to see all these … [Read more...]
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