A Southern Baptist missionary in Southeast Asia asks for volunteers to dig wells and instantaneously 600 churches are mobilized to meet the request. That is just one of the things the Global Missions Center of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla. does to support Southern Baptist missionaries around the world. A Southern Baptist missionary in Southeast Asia asks for volunteers to dig wells and instantaneously 600 churches are mobilized to meet the request. That is just one of the things the Global Missions Center of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla. does to support Southern Baptist missionaries around the world. The Bell Shoals missions center was started in 1998 and is the first of its kind among Southern Baptist churches. More than 200 volunteer and paid staffers work in its various ministries. Two other missions centers have become operational this year, in Hampton, Va., and Louisville, Ky. The Southern Baptist International Mission Board hopes to have 20 such centers throughout the United States to give firsthand, front-line support to missionaries. Three years ago, board leaders put together the Global Missions Center idea to make missions more visible and doable for the local church. The … [Read more...]

Last week’s column reflected on God’s will as something of supreme importance for the Christian that encompasses all of life and that we can readily know 99 percent of the time. Last week’s column reflected on God’s will as something of supreme importance for the Christian that encompasses all of life and that we can readily know 99 percent of the time.   Amazingly, however, the vast amount of conversation about God’s will focuses upon the one percent of the time when God’s will may be difficult to discern because it is intangible, multifaceted in opportunities and directions and uncertainty. These times usually relate to decisions toward the future: Should I move? Should I take this job? Who should be elected to . . . ? Should the church do this? Should an agency of the denomination do that?   Discerning God’s will during these times can be difficult because there are numerous "morally right" directions that can be taken. It can also be difficult because such decisions are usually far more personal and intuitive and subjective. We make the decisions not only out of trying to discern what God would have, but out of who we are and how we feel and what we want. Such thoughts and feelings blend … [Read more...]

I read in the August 3 issue a letter from a pastor in our state praising the past moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. I read in the August 3 issue a letter from a pastor in our state praising the past moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. While, as the letter stated, the past moderator may have served the CBF with grace, dignity, and humor, she also presided over the approval of a CBF budget for the coming year that includes money for the "Baptist Peace Fellowship." This group openly supports homosexuals, including promoting ordaining homosexual ministers and performing unions between homosexuals as marriage. An article in the July 20, 2000 "Baptist Message" chronicled this action.   Is this an example of interpreting the Bible in the light of Jesus? If it is, then the moderates just lost that argument. I call on the CBF and its past moderator to take a biblical stand against the Baptist Peace Fellowship, and anyone who distorts Scripture concerning homosexuality. Can you imagine the Southern Baptist Convention supporting such a group? The differences between the SBC and the CBF continue to be revealed. Leviticus 18:22 commands us, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with … [Read more...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) would have Louisiana believe that our newest Prestige Plate is really anti-choice. How ironic that the "champions of free speech" and "reproductive choice" are faced with opposing their own core beliefs. License plates case The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) would have Louisiana believe that our newest Prestige Plate is really anti-choice. How ironic that the "champions of free speech" and "reproductive choice" are faced with opposing their own core beliefs. Perhaps this opposition demonstrates that for these two liberal litigation tanks. They really have only one desirable outcome in an unexpected pregnancy, and it’s not the one expressed on the plate in question. The bogus argument of state administrative cost might be more appropriately applied to the unnecessary cost of litigating this perfectly legal, routinely-practiced Prestige Plate promotion. The argument that the state has no interest or benefit in soliciting and funding religious organizations to provide community services has been dealt with on a national level. The 1996 Welfare Reform law … [Read more...]

I had to reread and reread it (the article on page 8, Baptist Message, July 10), "Women’s Group voices frustration ..." I had to reread and reread it (the article on page 8, Baptist Message, July 10), "Women’s Group voices frustration ..."   A group of people whose seared consciences have caused them to lose all discernment and to reject God’s Word. Then, I reminded myself of some of God’s warnings found in His Word (II Tim. 4:1-4; II Peter 2:1-3, 17-21).   Jesus paid the penalty for their rebellion, and He will forgive them if they repent. Antha E. Powell Carencro … [Read more...]

Kerboom! The camouflage form ruptures out of the partially-opened box like one of those snake deals that explodes out of a trick canister.   From a cardboard box approximately 24 inches square across and two inches thick, the tent sort of thing bursts to its 5’6" height. It sits on its 5’6" base and becomes a hunting blind. Kerboom! The camouflage form ruptures out of the partially-opened box like one of those snake deals that explodes out of a trick canister.   From a cardboard box approximately 24 inches square across and two inches thick, the tent sort of thing bursts to its 5’6" height. It sits on its 5’6" base and becomes a hunting blind.   Okay, so it is a toy. A grownup’s toy but still a toy. And I love it. I’ve wanted one since my eyes first fell upon this kind of contraption in the hunter’s wish book. Finally, the sporting goods store got a shipment of them, and I gladly laid down my monthly allowance for one.   The trip home seems unbearably long. The box begs to be opened.   Immediately upon arrival home, the box is taken outside and partially opened before it explodes.   Joy fills my heart. Not only do I have my toy, it works. It has neat … [Read more...]

In places of desperate need, Baptists can be found - offering physical and spiritual hope   When Romanian pastor Florin Vasiliu notified the mayors of Dancu and Tirgu Frumos villages that he would like to hold Christian meetings in their villages’ public parks, the officials all declined. In places of desperate need, Baptists can be found - offering physical and spiritual hope   When Romanian pastor Florin Vasiliu notified the mayors of Dancu and Tirgu Frumos villages that he would like to hold Christian meetings in their villages’ public parks, the officials all declined.   Undaunted by the fact that stray dogs seem to have more legal freedom than evangelicals, the pastor continued witnessing efforts with the hope of finding new sites for the meetings.   Remarkably, local businessmen in both villages offered their facilities, even though they were the most unlikely of places for the meetings - bars. However, not only were the bars private property, which made the meetings legitimate, they were strategically located in their communities.   "The locations were better than the ones we were originally targeting," says Vasiliu, pastor at Biserica Crestina Baptista … [Read more...]

New construction is everywhere. People are out and about going to work, shopping and enjoying each other’s company at sidewalk coffee shops. Children are full of laughter and life. Today’s Sarajevo is very different from three years ago when Southern Baptist Woman’s Missionary Union leaders made their first visit to the southeastern European city. New construction is everywhere. People are out and about going to work, shopping and enjoying each other’s company at sidewalk coffee shops. Children are full of laughter and life. Today’s Sarajevo is very different from three years ago when Southern Baptist Woman’s Missionary Union leaders made their first visit to the southeastern European city. The cease-fire in the country was only a few months old at that time. Destruction was everywhere. "Bosnians were very solemn," recalls Mary Jo Troughton of Kansas, a member of the Woman’s Missionary Union survey team that visited Sarajevo in 1997. "Nothing had been repaired except for new red tile roofs. Ninety-five percent of the deaths then were a result of suicide. There was no hope, no forgiveness." Troughton returned to Sarajevo this summer as a member of one of the last two Woman’s Missionary Union teams who will be … [Read more...]

Post-war miseries continue in bombing-devastated Serbia, a Baptist-based humanitarian ministry leader reports in a recent e-mail newsletter.   "The economic and political situation continues to cause much distress and uncertainty," writes Jasmina Tosic of the Bread of Life ministry in Belgrade, capital of the remaining nation of Yugoslavia. The area was the target of last year’s NATO bombing campaign to counter ethnic cleansing. Post-war miseries continue in bombing-devastated Serbia, a Baptist-based humanitarian ministry leader reports in a recent e-mail newsletter.   "The economic and political situation continues to cause much distress and uncertainty," writes Jasmina Tosic of the Bread of Life ministry in Belgrade, capital of the remaining nation of Yugoslavia. The area was the target of last year’s NATO bombing campaign to counter ethnic cleansing.   Tosic notes that statistics show continuing inflation, even as wages decline; that a severe drought has jeopardized food supplies for the coming winter; that hospitals are working without the most basic supplies; and that schools and kindergartens do not have adequate food or supplies for children.   "From many parts of … [Read more...]

The new Baptist Faith and Message Statement "brings needed clarity - but maybe at the cost of honest diversity," a Christianity Today editorial suggests. "We applaud most of the changes as they will discourage the liberal drift experienced by other large denominations," notes the two-page editorial in the August 7 issue of the national magazine, which is recognized by most as the foremost publication of evangelical Christianity. The new Baptist Faith and Message Statement "brings needed clarity - but maybe at the cost of honest diversity," a Christianity Today editorial suggests. "We applaud most of the changes as they will discourage the liberal drift experienced by other large denominations," notes the two-page editorial in the August 7 issue of the national magazine, which is recognized by most as the foremost publication of evangelical Christianity. "At the same time, we wonder if the (Southern Baptist Convention) has gone too far, both in seeming to eliminate discussion of some beliefs and in alienating opponents." The Baptist Faith and Message initially was adopted by Southern Baptists in 1925 in response to a Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy, the Christianity Today editorial notes. It was revised in … [Read more...]