By South Carolina Baptist Courier Staff COLUMBIA, S.C. (BP) - First Baptist is mourning yet, like so many other churches in Columbia, S.C., and across the state, engaging in ministry as flooding continues to grip Hurricane Joaquin survivors and first responders. Richard Milroy, 82, "died in his car sometime in the last couple of days due to devastating floods," minister of discipleship Wes Church wrote to First Baptist members, The Baptist Courier, newsjournal of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, reported Oct. 6. "How do we even begin to put into words all of the emotions we are experiencing?" Church said. "There is so much heartbreak and need in our community." Milroy was one of at least 17 drowning or auto accident fatalities from the hurricane's downpours in South and North Carolina. Some First Baptist members have lost homes or cars, and some have lost all their belongings. College and high school students and their leaders are helping clean up their flood-damaged homes. The church also is housing 13 South Carolina Baptist disaster relief volunteers who are feeding more than 1,000 first responders at a nearby city maintenance area. And volunteers are coordinating with a sister church to collect donations … [Read more...]
U.S. actions could benefit persecuted overseas
By Tom Strode, Baptist Press WASHINGTON (BP) - Oppressed Christians and other religious adherents around the world stand to benefit from recent actions by the United States government. The House of Representatives approved reauthorization of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in a voice vote Oct. 6. The Senate passed the same legislation without opposition Sept. 30. The measure, awaiting President Obama's signature, will extend the authority of a bipartisan panel that serves as a watchdog on global religious liberty conditions. Congressional action to renew USCIRF's mission came shortly after Obama selected one of the commission's own staffers as the first special advisor for religious minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia. David Saperstein, the U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, announced the appointment of Knox Thames to the new post Sept. 16. Thames, formerly USCIRF's director of policy and research, began work in the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom Sept. 28. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), applauded both developments. He expressed gratitude Congress … [Read more...]
Designated receipts top CP gifts: The SBC ship of state is in peril
By Will Hall, Message Editor Alexandria – For the first time in Southern Baptist Convention history, dating back to 1929 when a unified national budget was first proposed, designated receipts topped Cooperative Program gifts distributed by the SBC Executive Committee. Moreover, what was a historical precedent in 2013 was repeated in 2014, making it the second time for this phenomenon to occur since the Great Commission Resurgence reforms were approved in 2010. Now, the SBC Executive Committee has released the final numbers for 2015, indicating a third straight year of upended giving, with Baptist Press reporting Oct. 2 that gifts through the Cooperative Program amounted to more than $189 million, but designated giving exceeded $195 million. 12-YEAR TREND Although this apparent new norm has taken place since the GCR reforms were approved (including the creation of a new category for giving, “Great Commission Giving” to “celebrate every dollar given”), information published in the SBC Annual shows this phenomenon has been developing since 2004. That year the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering leapt by more than $20 million and the Annie Armstrong … [Read more...]
Cooperative Program nurtured, climbs in fiscal year
By Art Toalston, Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) - It's been an uplifting year for the Cooperative Program. The church led by SBC President Ronnie Floyd reached the $1-million mark during its 2014-15 budget year in giving to Southern Baptists' cornerstone channel for supporting missions and ministries -- state by state, nationally and internationally. "Increasing your church's support through the Cooperative Program is the greatest way you can forward the work of reaching the world for Christ," Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, wrote in a Sept. 21 column. Floyd's column preceded the annual Cooperative Program Emphasis Month in the SBC each October. For online CP resources, click here. Noting the Cooperative Program's comprehensiveness in advancing the Gospel during its 90-year history, Floyd wrote: "Not one of us can adequately support any one cause, but all of us together can pray, plan, give, cooperate and support every cause." For the 2014-15 fiscal year, Cooperative Program gifts by Southern Baptist churches -- $189,160,231.41 -- reached 100.62 of the convention's Cooperative Program Allocation Budget to support the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, the SBC's … [Read more...]
Syrian pastor won’t abandon his church, despite ISIS brutality
By Kelly Ledbetter, Christian Examiner SWEIDA, Syria (Christian Examiner) – After a car bomb went off in his city last month, a pastor is faced again with the choice to flee the encroaching reach of ISIS in Syria, but he doesn't want to leave his new church. In a report from Christian Aid Mission, the pastor, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, speaks out about his precarious situation, his fears for his family and church, and why he won't leave. "As ISIS pushes westward inside Syria, Christians are in the crosshairs," said the Middle East director of Christian Aid Mission. "They're running out of places where they can safely flee." To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Netanyahu demonstrates ‘deafening silence’ of world on Iran
By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood in front of the United Nations 70th General Assembly Oct. 1 and excoriated world leaders for their acceptance of the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the United States and other western powers. The deal, which will grant Iran the right to eventually resume the enrichment of uranium and develop its ballistic missile program after a period of seven years, is now a matter of record at the world body. It is in the United States, as well, as Republicans failed to muster the votes necessary to kill it in the Senate where, according to the Constitution, it should have been handled as a treaty. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Oregon pastor’s prediction of persecution comes true after shooter executes Christians at community college
By Tobin Perry, Christian Examiner ROSEBURG, Ore. (Christian Examiner) -- Just last Sunday Pastor Jerry Smart warned his church—increased persecution is coming. The Winston, Oregon, pastor had no idea just how close to fruition his prediction was. "I told our church, 'We're going to see more and more persecution in this world,'" said Smart, pastor of Foursquare Gospel Center in Winston. "I said, 'How many of you believe that?' Most of the people raised their hands. I said, 'I think it's coming.' Of course, I was thinking of Christians in the Middle East. I didn't think it would come to our back door the next Thursday." But of course, it did. On Thursday, a 26-year-old shooter entered Umpqua Community College in nearby Roseburg and killed nine people and injured nine more. A variety of media reports confirm the gunman asked his victims whether they were Christians or not. To read more of this article, click here. … [Read more...]
1% CP Challenge met by 4,422 churches
By Diana Chandler, Baptist Press EDITOR'S NOTE: October is Cooperative Program Emphasis Month in the Southern Baptist Convention. NASHVILLE (BP) - Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Frank S. Page has personally signed letters to more than 4,400 Southern Baptist churches that have met or exceeded the 1% Cooperative Program Challenge. Recognized for their contributions are 3,846 congregations that met the challenge for the first time during the 2013-14 fiscal year (Oct. 1-Sept. 30) and 576 that met the challenge for two consecutive years, said Ashley Clayton, SBC Executive Committee vice president for Cooperative Program and stewardship development. The 1% CP Challenge calls on churches to increase their Cooperative Program giving by at least 1 percentage point of their budgets from undesignated gifts by their members and visitors. CP gifts undergird both the work of the state Baptist conventions and the SBC's national and international missions and ministries. In the letters in advance of October's Cooperative Program Emphasis Month on the SBC calendar, Page reminded pastors that every Cooperative Program dollar given is an investment in Baptist outreach. The letters seek to express the … [Read more...]
Farrakhan to pastors: Young blacks will leave Christian churches and ‘turn on you’ — to follow him
By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner CHICAGO (Christian Examiner) – Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has issued a second forceful warning for black ministers in Christian churches who refuse to support his "Justice, or Else!" movement after he called for exercising the Quran's law of retaliation against whites and the government during an address at a Miami church in July. In a series of interview videos posted to his Facebook page, after which he solicits donations and support for his upcoming gathering on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Oct. 10, Farrakhan says the ministers who have closed their doors to him are failing their communities and him. "I have to say this. All of you know what you have done to me," Farrakhan says with his voice raised in the video. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]
Naghmeh Abedini says faith ‘more real’ than before
By Morning Star News ISTANBUL, Turkey, (BP) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Monday (Sept. 30) declined to meet with the wife of imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini during his trip to the United Nations, days after the Christian's wife learned her husband had recently been tortured. Rouhani instead said in a television interview that releasing Iranian criminals held in U.S. prisons would change the "atmosphere and environment," hinting that such a change would be necessary for possibly freeing prisoners such as Abedini. The Iranians in question were sentenced to prison for violating the international trade embargo placed on Iran for trying to develop nuclear weapons, Rouhani said. "There are a number of Iranians in the United States who are imprisoned, who went to prison as a result of activities related to the nuclear industry in Iran. Once these sanctions have been lifted, why keep those folks in American prisons? So they must be freed," he said Sept. 27 on CNN through an interpreter. "If the Americans take the appropriate actions vis-a-vis Iranian citizens who are being imprisoned here, then the right atmosphere and environment will be created for reciprocal action perhaps." Rouhani left New York Monday … [Read more...]
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