By Kathie Chute, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary communications ST. LOUIS (BP) - About 500 Southern Baptists gathered June 12 for the opening sessions of WMU's 2016 Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Mo. With a theme of "By All Means," the two Sunday programs recognized current and retired missionaries, as well as International Mission Board staff, and celebrated Wanda Lee's service as she retires as executive director of WMU. "I believe just as strongly today as I did 16 years ago that WMU is important to the Kingdom," she said. "We have the opportunity to make a difference. Our charge first and foremost is to be a light to the nations. There is strength in our union. There is strength in our collective purpose of missions. May our song truly be a song for the nations." Lee said she was working as a nurse when God called her to missions. When she returned home to serve in the U.S., her call to missions did not end. "My calling was to go wherever God leads," she said. "My call has not changed, only the place. No other ministry in Baptist life devotes itself exclusively to missions. What we do matters because we are shining a light." Jeff Iorg, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, … [Read more...]

By Julie Walters, WMU communications ST. LOUIS (BP) - Approximately 150 Southern Baptist leaders, family members and friends from across the country gathered in St. Louis on June 11 to honor Wanda Lee and her leadership of national WMU over the past 20 years - 16 as executive director and four as president. Frank S. Page said he got to know Lee in 2010 when assumed his current role as president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee. Page recited Micah 6:8, "What does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? "I believe Wanda Lee has exhibited that great trio of imperatives from our Lord," Page said. "I believe she has done what is right, what is just. She is merciful, and many of you are the recipients of her mercy and ministry in your own life. She is a strategist, an organizational genius, yet is always humble and gives credit to those around her. I am honored to call her my friend, and I thank God for her." The three women who served with Lee as president of national WMU - Debby Akerman of Myrtle Beach, S.C. (2010-2015); Kaye Miller of Little Rock, Ark. (2005-2010), and Janet Hoffman of Farmerville, (2000-2005) - each reflected on their years … [Read more...]

By Butch Blume, South Carolina Baptist Courier CLEMSON, S.C. -- When Father's Day rolls around this year, Dabo Swinney won't be able to pick up the phone and call his dad. But Clemson's head football coach still has a few voicemail messages from the man he calls "Big Erv," who passed away last August. Maybe he'll listen to them again, as he does from time to time. Last summer, in the months before he died, Ervil Swinney had been receiving treatments in Greenville for a recurrence of lung cancer. Still, he seemed to be doing pretty well. By August, he was back at his appliance shop at the M&M Hardware in Alabaster, Ala., where he enjoyed "holding court" with his buddies. He felt tired and sat down to take a nap. He never woke up. He was going to return to South Carolina the next day for a checkup and a week's stay with his son and his family. He was 70. "I think about him every day," Swinney said, pointing to a framed photograph among the scores of pictures covering the walls, shelves and desktop of his office. The photo shows his dad watching a game at Clemson's Death Valley, both arms raised in the air, celebrating a big play by the team coached by his youngest son. "I look at that picture all the time," Swinney said. … [Read more...]

By Joni B Hannigan, Christian Examiner ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Christian Examiner) – It has been nearly 20 years since the Southern Baptist Convention met for its annual meeting in St. Louis with 25,607 registered messengers in the midst of the Conservative Resurgence. It was there, at the Gateway City to the West, after years marked by passionate discussions over liberalism, neo-orthodoxy and inerrancy, the SBC approved a report from "The Peace Committee" formed in 1985 to determine the sources of controversy in the SBC and recommend how it could be resolved. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]

By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner ***This article was previously posted at the Christian Examiner and is used by permission. DES MOINES (Christian Examiner) – A Wisconsin-based atheist group has fired off an angry letter to the governor of Iowa after he issued a proclamation encouraging the citizens of his state to read the Bible. In the proclamation, Gov. Terry Branstad asked Iowans to join together in an historic Bible reading marathon in front of all 99 county courthouses across the state between June 30 and July 3, in preparation for the national Fourth of July holiday. Branstad said in the proclamation "all Scripture is essential to prepare us to be the people God wants us to be and to accomplish the purpose for which he created us." He also claimed, "the Bible is recognized as the one true revelation from God, showing the way of Salvation, Truth, Life" and "regular Bible reading renews the mind of men, thus transforming the life of the individual which ultimately affects the lives of those in the family, the local community, the state, and the Nation." The atheist Freedom from Religion Foundation, however, called the proclamation "problematic on a lot of different levels" and a violation of "Iowa's constitutional … [Read more...]

By Joni B Hannigan, Christian Examiner NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Christian Examiner) –  One of Roadside America's popular sights, a larger-than-life bronze statue of world-renown evangelist Billy Graham, was to be dismantled and removed on Wednesday from the corner of Rosa Parks Boulevard and Commerce Street, where it has stood for more than a decade. Graham's likeness "was secured by grout," however, according to the Nashville Tennessean, which means the statue will remain in place for now. The 9-feet-4 inch statue of Graham with its beckoning 17-foot cross  — perched at the edge of a parking lot owned by LifeWay Christian Resources, and across the street from the offices of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention — was slated for removal as part of the sale of the LifeWay's historic 15-acre campus in downtown Music City USA. To read the rest of the story, click here. … [Read more...]

By Todd Starnes, Fox News ***This article was previously posted at the Christian Examiner and is used by permission. PALMDALE (Calif.) — A public school in California ordered a 7-year-old boy to stop handing out Bible verses during lunch – and they dispatched a deputy sheriff to the child's home to enforce the directive. "This is a clear, gross violation of the rights of a child," said Horatio Mihet, a Liberty Counsel attorney representing the first-grader who attends Desert Rose Elementary School in Palmdale. They are also representing his parents, Christina and Jaime Zavala. Mrs. Zavala made it a practice of including a Bible verse and encouraging note in her son's lunch bag. The boy would tell his friends about the note and read them aloud at the lunch table. To read the full story, click here     … [Read more...]