By Baptist Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- A Louisiana director of missions has urged pastors in the Baptist association he leads to raise questions about new personnel policies of the International Mission Board during the IMB's report at the June 16-17 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, according to a June 10 report by the Southern Baptist TEXAN newsjournal. Lonnie Wascom, a former IMB trustee and director of missions and ministries for the Northshore Baptist Association in Hammond, wrote in a June 2 email to the nearly 100 pastors in the association that he has major concerns" related to the missionary qualifications policy adopted by IMB trustees during their May 12-13 meeting in Louisville, Ky. Wascom told the Baptist Message that he has nothing personal against anyone at or affiliated with the IMB but just wants people to ask questions. “I love the IMB,” Wascom said. “I pray that God will continue to use the missionaries that Southern Baptists affirm and support to push back the darkness to the ends of the earth. But I’m about the gospel the New Testament teaches, not the one we make up.” SBC President Ronnie Floyd told the TEXAN he hopes any questions posed by messengers during the IMB's report … [Read more...]
The future of the Southern Baptist Convention
By Doug Munton, pastor and author I’m neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. That’s a bad start for confidence in my predictive powers. But let me speculate on the future of the Southern Baptist Convention with whom I have been associated my entire life. In many ways I am describing what is more than what will be. Perhaps this is more of where we are than where we are headed. While it seems likely we will have more of what we currently have, God can change things dramatically. Perhaps we will have a great revival. Perhaps we will have ruin. But here is where it seems we are and where we are headed. (Keep in mind the “neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet” part.) 1. We will be less evangelistic. It is hard to imagine a denomination being much more evangelistic than the SBC was for several decades. While not all churches were evangelistic, and certainly many individual members weren’t, the denomination as a whole was focused on reaching people. For a variety of reasons, we are less so now. Focusing on those reasons is for another blog. (Is it theological, cultural, because evangelism is so hard, etc.?) But it seems obvious we are less likely to be involved in evangelistic activities. We even talk about … [Read more...]
Reflections from a Chinese orphanage
By Josh Owens, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission YUNNAN PROVINCE, China (BP) - In China's Yunnan Province, there is an ancient temple made of copper that crowns Jindian Park. In English it is literally "Golden Temple Park," reflecting the Daoist religion that it serves. Here on Jan. 14, 1994, a police officer noticed a five-day-old orphan, took him up and delivered him to the nearby orphanage. Josh Owens and his sisters Mary (left) and Grace return to China with their adoptive parents, Waylan and Betsy Owens. Nine months and three days later, that orphan was the first boy ever adopted from Kunming Municipal Children's Home. I visited that Chinese orphanage a few weeks ago, and for the first time in two decades I entered Jindian Park. As I wandered among the rooms of the orphanage and up the temple trail in that wooded park, thoughts and questions muddled my mind. Why would I, in a nation of a billion, be left alone in Jindian Park? Why did someone notice me and bother to act? Why would all this happen right after China opened itself to foreign adoptions in 1992? And why would I be adopted into this family, my family? I am now 21 years old and even if my existence could be explained, … [Read more...]
Abedini beating intensifies calls for release
By David Roach, Baptist Press TEHRAN, Iran (BP) - American pastor Saeed Abedini has been "viciously" beaten in the Iranian prison where he is being held for his Christian faith, the American Center for Law and Justice reported June 10, prompting renewed calls for Abedini's release as a condition of any nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran. "It is crucial to speak out for Saeed as we approach the June 30th deadline between the United States and Iran," Abedini's wife Naghmeh said in a June 10 Facebook post. She added June 30 "is also Saeed and I's 11th year anniversary." Naghmeh Abedini is scheduled to address the Pastors' Wives Conference in Columbus, Ohio, June 15 preceding the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 16-17. She will also briefly address the SBC Pastors' Conference June 15, delivering an update on her husband. Pastors' Conference attendees will then pray for her and Saeed. Fellow prisoners attacked Saeed Abedini June 3 as he attempted to leave his cell, punching him in the face and demolishing a table he used while studying and reading, the ACLJ reported. Prison guards stopped the attack and a prison doctor determined Abedini did not have any broken bones. Naghmeh Abedini explained in a … [Read more...]
Kendrick brothers’ latest film an option for messengers, others after SBC Pastors Conference
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Messengers and others looking for a way to spend their time after the Monday evening session of the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference can watching the next film from the Kendrick brothers. War Room, the fifth film from Alex and Stephen Kendrick, will be screened at 9 pm in the Battelle Ballroom. An exclusive Q&A with the Kendricks will follow. Scheduled for an Aug. 28 release by Sony Picture Entertainment’s TriStar Pictures, War Room is a drama “with humor and heart that explores the power that prayer can have on marriages, parenting, careers, friendships, and every other area of our lives,” according to a press release. The main characters, Tony and Elizabeth Jordan, seem to have it all – great jobs, a beautiful daughter and a dream house. However, their marriage is failing. Elizabeth meets a client of hers, who challenges her to establish a war room and battle plan for prayer for the family. Meanwhile, Tony struggles surface and he must decide whether he will make amends for his family. The Kendrick brothers previously made Courageous, Fireproof, Facing the Giants and Flywheel. … [Read more...]
MVP Curry credits God, family for success
By Daniel Woodman, Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) -- At four minutes left in the first half, the camera catches a blur moving in the corner of the screen. Enter Stephen Curry, who receives a pass from his teammate and drains a 3-point shot over a lunging defender on the biggest stage of the NBA, game one of the Finals. After his shot, the camera also picks up Curry making a quick fist pump to his chest and then pointing a finger toward the rafters of Oakland's Oracle Arena. It's Curry's way of thanking God for his success and eventual victory that night over the Cleveland Cavaliers. While Curry put on a dazzling display in the spotlight, the young star had an even more impressive regular season campaign. The number of 3-pointers made by Curry this season (286), was good enough to break the previous record of 272, which Curry notched just two years ago. Combined with a 67-win season by his Golden State Warriors and the number one seed in the Western Conference Playoffs, Curry's ability as a dynamic shooter garnered him the NBA's Most Valuable Player award. Lebron James and James Harden were just a couple of the superstars Curry edged out for his first MVP award in his six-year career. Unlike many superstars, Curry … [Read more...]
Public apologies spur church discipline warnings
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Public apologies by two U.S. megachurches for a lack of compassion in the exercise of church discipline have prompted some Baptist pastors to underscore the need for humility and congregational polity during the attempted restoration of wayward members. Most American churches have not exercised biblical church discipline for a century, Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, told Baptist Press. "Because we have so little practice with it, along the way, as we seek to restore it, people are going to make mistakes. This kind of humility required to apologize for making a mistake, I think, is going to be needed and needed in large quantities in order to be successful in getting to a healthy place with regard to what church membership is." Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, a Southern Baptist multisite congregation, apologized during worship services May 30-31 for a domineering approach by elders in some church discipline cases, the church confirmed to BP. Christianity Today reported on one case in which the church's leaders initiated the discipline process when a woman ended her marriage after discovering her husband had viewed child pornography for years. She … [Read more...]
Religious liberty wins hiring case at Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in favor of a Muslim job applicant provided what religious freedom advocates hailed as a wider victory for people of faith. In an 8-1 decision, the high court ruled June 1 an employer cannot make religious exercise an element in hiring decisions. The justices' opinion favored a federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), over a clothing retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch, in a case involving the refusal of a store in the chain to hire a young Muslim woman who wears a headscarf. The court's seven-page decision -- brief by the standards of the justices' majority opinions –- said the federal law in question "does not demand mere neutrality with regard to religious practices -- that they be treated no worse than other practices. Rather, it gives them favored treatment, affirmatively obligating employers not 'to fail or refuse to hire or discharge any individual ... because of such individual's'" religious exercise. The Supreme Court "got this one right," said Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). "The court recognized an important truth: People should not be discriminated against because … [Read more...]
Pastor protection bill passes Texas House, Senate
AUSTIN, Texas (BP) -- Passage of the only surviving religious liberty bill in the 84th session of the Texas Legislature gives pastors some legal protection against litigation should they refuse to preside over a same-sex marriage. Senate Bill 2065, the Pastor Protection bill, passed overwhelmingly May 21. With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule by the end of June on whether states must recognize same-sex marriage as a constitutionally protected right, conservative Texas legislators filed bills that would, if passed, provide legal standing for citizens, businesses and clergy against an anticipated wave of legal action. But the lack of support from state leadership and the legislators' self-imposed censorship in the wake of protests at Indiana's capitol in April left stymied all other legislation that would have given a legal defense for those opposed, on religious grounds, to same-sex marriage. The lone religious liberty bill to be debated, SB 2065, passed the House of Representatives 141-2 on its second reading, garnering even the support of two gay representatives. The next day it passed unanimously, 142-0, earning the votes of its two earlier opponents. On May 25 it was sent to Gov. Greg Abbott who has said he would … [Read more...]
2016 VBS to ‘submerge’ kids in God’s Word
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Next summer, kids will have the opportunity to dive past the surface and go deeper into God's Word with "Submerged," the 2016 Vacation Bible School theme from LifeWay Christian Resources. The theme helps challenge a culture consumed with celebrity -- one marked by the image of beauty and popularity, LifeWay VBS specialist Jerry Wooley said. "It's a value system that's unrealistic and an impossibility to achieve or maintain," he said. "During Submerged, kids will discover it's not what's on the surface that matters, but the internal truth that only God can see." Each day of next year's VBS, students will explore the way Jesus saw people and examine the truth of the key verse,Psalm 139:23-24: "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way." "This is an adventure that will take us not only to the depths of the ocean," Wooley said, "but to the depths of our hearts as well. We will be challenged to let God not only search our hearts, but reveal the truths of our hearts as well." VBS remains one of the most effective evangelistic events for churches. Using the most recent statistics available, Wooley said nearly 3 … [Read more...]
