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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

REPORT: SBC portion of CP surges, states’ part shrinks

By Message Staff DALLAS (LBM) – D. August Boto, interim president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, gave a sobering report to messengers regarding the state of the health of all of Southern Baptist life. Boto, who was named to leadership after a moral failing caused Frank Page to step down, reviewed the numbers for seminary students, missionaries on the field, baptisms, churches and Southern Baptist members. But it was his assessment of giving through the Cooperative Program that likely caused messengers to pause during his report. Citing various sources, Boto said although membership had dropped, “the number of Southern Baptists is still very high and significant (just over 15 million)” and that the “number of cooperating churches seems large and healthy (more than 47,500).” Also, he offered that “the number of baptisms, while still declining, was slightly more than a quarter of a million. He also highlighted a sign of some recovery, noting worship attendance had recouped about 120,000 from the 377,000 lost the previous year. “With regard to the number of missionaries,” he said, “NAMB has reported 5,200 missionaries, and the IMB reports having more than 3,500 missionaries serving … [Read more...]

4,229 professions of faith in Dallas

By Will Hall, Message Editor DALLAS (LBM) — Organizers said 3,214 new believers committed their lives to Jesus during a June 10 crusade by Greg Laurie in Dallas, held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. Meanwhile, 175 seminary students spent the week in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, knocking on more than 20,000 doors, holding 3,180 Gospel conversations, and witnessing 340 professions of faith. Additionally, 400 churches took part in door-to-door evangelism that resulted in 675 salvation decisions. Combined, the multiple outreach efforts produced a total of 4,229 new believers who made commitments to live for Christ. HARVEST DALLAS Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, which has campuses in California and Hawaii, has been leading Harvest Crusades since 1990, with the large-scale public evangelistic events renamed Harvest America in 2012. Laurie is a member of the board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and models his Gospel outreaches after the now-deceased evangelist’s crusades. This is the second year that Laurie’s ministry had been linked to the SBC. Next year a three-day crusade is planned to coincide with the Southern Baptists’ meeting in Birmingham, … [Read more...]

Georgia church’s GA group is small but powerful for Mission: Dignity

By Joe Westbury, Georgia Christian Index BLACKSHEAR, Georgia – When the South Gate Baptist Church Girls in Action (GA) group in Blackshear, Georgia, decided to focus on Mission:Dignity for their Christmas in August project, most of the members had never heard of the ministry that helps retired SBC ministers, workers, and their wives or widows. South Gate is located in rural southeast Georgia where small churches dot the landscape. Congregations were historically held together with part-time or even quarter-time pastors who worked for little to nothing to fulfill their sacred calling. Now in their sunset years, these pastors struggle to pay the bills while maintaining that calling, even as their health fades. “I remember pastors from my younger days who struggled to get by and feed their family, but they never complained. They always believed the Lord would supply their needs, and He did,” Carol Colley, South Gate’s pastor’s wife, remembers. “But that [Mission:Dignity] DVD told their story in stark yet caring terms that pulled at our heartstrings. It brought back so many memories to many of us, and it educated our GAs of the struggles of faithful servants.” That’s how the small church — which averages only about … [Read more...]