The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-02/24/2015 DISCLAIMER: Baptist Press should be credited for any reprinted stories that originate with BP. Suggested credit line: Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. Please note that Baptist Press periodically carries stories from other sources by permission. Individuals interested in reprinting non-BP stories should contact the entity where the story originated to seek reprint permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Boston Marathon bomb amputee: 'blessed' by Todd Deaton/Kentucky Western Recorder Date: February 24, 2015 - Tuesday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Rebekah DiMartino was at the Boston Marathon in April 2013, standing just three feet from where a bomb exploded at the finish line. "Here was me," she said, pointing to a spot on the floor at a Kentucky church where she was speaking. "Right here was a bomb!" she exclaimed. "Three [feet]! And I'm alive, and I'm standing here to tell you about it," she marveled. DiMartino, at St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, recounted her experience at the marathon -- when three people were killed and more than 250 were injured -- and how her faith has been a key part of her months-long recovery. Jury selection has been underway in Boston since January for the trial of Dzhokar Tsarnaev, one of two alleged bombers -- his older brother Tamerian being the other, who was killed during the post-bombing manhunt. "It was my birthday weekend," said DiMartino, who lives in Texas. In Boston for her first time, she was there to watch her now-mother-in-law in the race. "No, I was not the runner," she quipped. "I was actually the one on the sidelines eating chocolate-covered pretzels and watching everybody else [pass by]." DiMartino noted that the "most miraculous part of my story" is how her legs shielded her then-5-year-old son Noah and spared his life -- and how she has gained an array of opportunities to share her faith in churches and in media appearances such as the syndicated medical show "The Doctors" on Feb. 17. "Whatever you are going through in your life, don't give up because God has got a plan for everything," DiMartino said. "And everything that we go through, it ultimately works together for your good." On the screen behind her was one of the most iconic pictures of the Boston Marathon bombing: Her little boy being rushed away in a wheelchair by first responders. When the bomb went off, Noah was sitting at DiMartino's feet, playing with some small rocks. Had he been standing, she was told, he likely would have died instantly. "I took everything in the back of the legs so that Noah would be saved," she said. "That is God's purpose [for me]," she nodded. "I cannot feel sorry for myself in the least bit because I know my son is running around like normal today. ... I thank God every day for my little boy still being here." DiMartino was hospitalized for 56 days. In the past 18 months, she endured 30 surgeries -- more than half on her left leg, which was nearly destroyed from the knee down. Doctors told her it may never function again. "I was miserable. It was weighing on my heart for me to have to endure the pain and frustration of a leg that didn't work," DiMartino said, so she decided to have the leg amputated. In a bit of moribund humor, she wrote a breakup letter to her leg. "It was like a bad boyfriend to me," she said. "There are things that hold you back, and this was one of them that I realized ... where I could make a change. "And God's glory shines through better when things don't hold you back," she asserted. "My leg is not my life," DiMartino said. "I'm so thankful that I get to be here. A leg is just a leg. Cut it off and give me a new one." She introduced her new prosthetic as though it were a baby: "On Jan. 7, Felicia was born. She weighs 4 pounds, 8 ounces -- 18 inches long. She's absolutely beautiful. I just love her; she's a doll. She's so high-maintenance, but we're working it out." Across her new leg is the word "blessed" in embroidery. Learning to walk with a prosthetic leg, however, is painful and "one of the hardest things I've ever had to do," DiMartino noted in a Facebook post Jan. 14. "[S]ometimes I find myself wanting to throw 'Felicia' across the room. But today I feel so thankful. In a week's time I can already see so much progression in myself, and in the words of my prosthetist ... I am WAY ahead of schedule. So I guess you could say I'm ending tonight feeling pretty stinkin' awesome." When facing tough decisions, DiMartino said in her Jan. 25 testimony at St. Matthews Baptist Church, it ultimately leads to a greater purpose. "I believe with all of my heart that my purpose in life is to inspire and encourage other people," she said. "I don't feel I have it figured out at all. But I know that I have such a passion to help other people, based on the struggles that I've been through ... and that's what I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing. "It's a scary world; change it!" she urged. "I try very hard every day when I wake up to say, 'God, let me have that open heart to where whoever talks to me, whoever comes in my path, sees that I radiate some type of light for You.'" Rather than let adversity destroy her, "it's gonna make me stronger," she declared. She hopes to run the Boston Marathon. "I'm going to climb mountains. I'm going to dance. I'm going to run. I'm going to do anything and everything that I can because it's my life and I'm not going to waste a second of it." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Texas Supreme Court issues stay on gay marriage by Bonnie Pritchett/Southern Baptist TEXAN Date: February 24, 2015 - Tuesday AUSTIN (BP) -- The Texas Supreme Court issued a stay halting the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Feb. 20, less than 24 hours after a Travis County Clerk issued a license to a lesbian couple in Austin. As far as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is concerned, the marriage license issued to the couple Feb. 19 is null and void. However, although the court issued the stay, it did not immediately rule to void the license. Theresa Farfan, deputy press secretary for the attorney general, told the TEXAN that Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir issued the marriage license for Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant of Austin in violation of Texas law and statutes. Those violations alone void the license, but Paxton asked the Texas Supreme Court for an expedited ruling on the case. Additionally he asked the high court to reaffirm the existing stay on the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples and hold rogue judges to account. Texas' marriage law is presently under review by the U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit. In two unrelated cases last week, Travis County judges ruled in favor of lesbian appellants asking for relief from the Texas marriage restrictions. On Tuesday, Feb. 17, a probate judge declared the Texas marriage law unconstitutional. Two days later Judge David Wahlberg of the 167th District Court in Travis County delivered a similar ruling and issued a temporary restraining order on the enforcement of the law so Goodfriend and Bryant could marry. Wahlberg ordered county clerk DeBeauvoir to ignore Texas' "unconstitutional" law prohibiting same-sex marriage and to immediately issue the marriage license, waiving the requisite 72-hour waiting period. According to Austin news reports DeBeauvoir gladly accommodated the court order. In his Feb. 19 order, Wahlberg wrote, "The Court finds that unless the Court immediately issues a Temporary Restraining Order, the unconstitutional denial of a marriage license to Plaintiffs will cause immediate and irreparable damage to Plaintiffs, based solely on their status as a same-sex couple." Paxton said both judges acted without authority in unilaterally declaring the Texas definition of marriage unconstitutional. Additionally, Texas statute requires judges contesting the constitutionality of a law to notify the attorney general's office and allow for a response. The judges did neither. Those violations rendered the marriage license void at its issuance despite the couple's very public nuptial ceremony in front of the Travis County Clerk's office located on a busy Austin thoroughfare. Paxton also reminded all state judges the Texas marriage law is still in force even as it is being challenged in appellate courts. "The law of Texas has not changed, and will not change due to the whims of any individual judge or county clerk operating on their own capacity anywhere in Texas," Paxton said in a Feb. 19 statement. "Activist judges don't change Texas law, and we will continue to aggressively defend the laws of our state and will ensure that any licenses issued contrary to law are invalid." In his request to the Texas Supreme Court, Paxton called the judges' actions "an abuse of discretion" and called on the high court to "declare void any invalid marriage licenses issued in reliance on the trial court's improper order." -------------------------------------------------------------------- ERLC joins brief at 8th Circuit defending marriage by Staff Date: February 24, 2015 - Tuesday WASHINGTON (BP) -- A state law that restricts marriage to a man and a woman does not express hostility toward same-sex couples, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and four other religious organizations say in a new brief filed with a federal appeals court. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and four other members of a diverse coalition called Feb. 23 for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis to uphold the right of the citizens of Missouri to define marriage as only a heterosexual institution. In November, a federal judge struck down a state constitutional amendment limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman. ERLC and the other religious organizations "are standing together for a truth as old as human civilization itself," Russell Moore, the entity's president, said. "The state did not create the family, and cannot re-create it," he said in an ERLC news release. "We appeal to the court to recognize and to stay within the limits of its authority." Marriage is important, Moore said, "because marriage is about more than registering relationships at a courthouse. Marriage is about the common good and flourishing of society." In addition, as a Christian, Moore believes "with Jesus and the apostles that marriage points beyond creation to the Gospel union of Christ and his church." In the friend-of-the-court brief, the ERLC and the other organizations say the frequent accusation that defenders of the biblical, traditional definition of marriage "are motivated by 'anti-gay animus'" is "false and offensive." This charge by advocates of same-sex marriage "is intended to suppress rational dialogue and civil conversation, to win by insult and intimidation rather than by persuasion, experience, and fact," they say in the brief. The ERLC joined the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Association of Evangelicals, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on the brief. The same organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief last February with the 10th Circuit Court in defense of laws in Oklahoma and Utah restricting marriage to heterosexual couples. In June, however, the 10th Circuit upheld lower court rulings invalidating the measures. The Eighth Circuit has scheduled oral arguments May 11 in Omaha, Neb., to rule on the marriage laws of Missouri, Arkansas and South Dakota, according to the Associated Press. The ERLC-endorsed brief for the Eighth Circuit was filed as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in the appeal of a similar case from the Sixth Circuit. In November, the Sixth Circuit became the first federal appeals court to rule states could limit marriage to the union of a man and a woman. Four other appeals courts had previously invalidated state laws that prohibited gay marriage. The Sixth Circuit opinion came in challenges to laws in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in April and issue a decision before it adjourns in the summer. If the justices release a decision this term, gay marriage could be legal throughout the country by the end of June or states could maintain their authority to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Rather than hostility or ignorance, their motivation for defending male-female marriage is "because we believe it is right and good for children, families, and society," the ERLC and the others say in the brief. Their religious traditions teach this truth, but "so do reason, long experience, and social fact," they say. They also recognize marriage has "spiritual significance" and is even "sacred," their brief says. "We make no apologies for these sincerely held religious beliefs." Their support for the biblical, traditional definition of marriage is not concentrated on opposition toward homosexuals, the ERLC and their allies say in the brief. "As our faith communities seek to sustain and transmit the virtues of husband-wife marriage and family life, our teachings seldom focus on sexual orientation or homosexuality," they say. The diverse groups say in the brief, "Our theological perspectives, though often differing, converge on a critical point: that marriage between a man and a woman is vital to the welfare of children, families and society." Same-sex marriage is now legal in 37 states, nearly tripling the 13 states where it was legal in mid-2013. It also is legal in the District of Columbia. The expansion of same-sex marriage has resulted in a growing clash between the rights of gay couples and the religious freedom of individuals and organizations. Photographers, florists, bakers and other business owners who oppose serving in support of same-sex wedding ceremonies have been penalized or are facing penalties for their refusal. The case at the Eighth Circuit is Lawson v. Missouri. -------------------------------------------------------------------- WORLDVIEW: Counter culture with Gospel, Platt says by Erich Bridges Date: February 24, 2015 - Tuesday RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- It's hard not to offend people these days, especially if you actually believe what the Bible says about right, wrong, sin and salvation. Fearing the loss of friends, being dismissed as irrelevant -- or worse, being called intolerant -- many evangelicals jump on the bandwagon of popular social-justice causes, but lapse into uncomfortable silence on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. Some quietly abandon biblical positions on controversial issues altogether. Giving in to contemporary culture on moral issues eventually leads to a deeper surrender, however. Because the entire foundation of biblical morality, not to mention the biblical basis of Christian missions, rests on the most "offensive" claim of all: the Gospel itself. "[T]he most offensive and countercultural claim in Christianity is not what Christians believe about homosexuality or abortion, marriage or religious liberty," writes IMB President David Platt in his new book, "Counter Culture: A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Persecution, Abortion, Orphans and Pornography." "Instead, the most offensive claim in Christianity is that God is the Creator, Owner, and Judge of every person on the planet. Every one of us stands before Him guilty of sin, and the only way to be reconciled to Him is through faith in Jesus, the crucified Savior and risen King. All who trust in His love will experience everlasting life while all who turn from His lordship will suffer everlasting death." That claim -- and the idea that God became a man, died on a cross and rose again -- is foolishness at best, anathema at worst to postmodernists, atheists, secularists, Muslims and other subsets of humanity comprising billions of people. It is increasingly costly, even dangerous in certain places, to proclaim it. Some cultures consider it blasphemy; others call it hate speech. That's really nothing new if you peruse church history. The main question for self-proclaimed Christians, Platt suggests, is this: Do we believe this Gospel? If we don't, we should reconsider whether we really follow the Christ revealed in the Bible. If we do, everything else we believe and do must flow from it. We don't get a pass on the toughest issues engulfing culture today, nor do we get to pick which ones to address. We must counter them all with the revolutionary, uncompromising love of the Gospel. Hence the title of Platt's book. And the Gospel is an equal-opportunity offender, as Platt has discovered in his personal spiritual life. He says God convicted him of his own silence about racism and abortion, among other issues. That's why he's speaking to other believers now. "I sense a trend in the church among evangelical Christians -- particularly younger evangelicals, but really broader," he observes. "We have this tendency to pick and choose which cultural issues we're going to stand up and speak out on and which we're going to sit down and be quiet on, usually based on those issues that are most comfortable and least costly for us to speak out on. It is right for us to speak out against poverty and sex trafficking, and I'm thankful for increased awareness of issues like that and the way people are speaking out on those issues. "The danger, though, is if we speak boldly on issues like that, but then when it comes to issues like abortion or so-called same-sex marriage -- issues that are much more likely to bring us into contention with the culture around us -- we're much more likely to be quiet. Before we know it, our supposed social justice actually becomes a selective social injustice. ... The same Gospel that compels us to combat poverty compels us to defend marriage. The same Gospel that compels us to war against sex trafficking compels us to war against sexual immorality in all of its forms." (Hear Platt on "picking and choosing.") That kind of consistency won't win us many popularity contests, but if we back up our words with lives of grace, truth and loving action, we will change culture rather than surrendering to it. (Hear Platt on whether addressing cultural issues hurts our witness.) Why court controversy so early in his tenure as IMB leader? Platt began writing the book several years ago, while he was pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala. He submitted it to his publisher well before his election by IMB trustees last year. But he remains convinced the time is right for its message to an American church facing fundamental challenges. "I trust that the Lord led me to write this and knew exactly where I would be when it came out," he told IMB missionaries and staff in a recent message. "Further, I am completely convinced that these issues are not just American issues ... these are global issues.... I want to use any platform the Lord has given to me to strengthen the church in this culture in order that we might send out and support brothers and sisters into other cultures with rock-solid confidence in God's Word and with wisdom to apply the Gospel to these pressing social issues." Only servants with that kind of confidence can make a real impact on the world's lost, who suffer from the worst injustice of all. "The greatest injustice in the world is the fact that a couple of billion people still don't have access to the Gospel," Platt says. It is the Gospel alone "that has the power not only to change cultures on this earth but to transform lives for eternity." -------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST-PERSON: The church & social media by Darrel Girardier Date: February 24, 2015 - Tuesday BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (BP) -- I've worked in social media on a church staff for nearly two years and am having a lot of fun. The more time I spend with our staff and other churches, the more I get excited about the future. Over these last two years, my opinions and assumptions have changed about social media. What hasn't changed is my belief that the church can be a force for good on social media. I think the church is in a position for God to use social networking for some amazing things. Here are some additional beliefs, opinions and observations: 1. We need to stop tweeting that our worship band "rocks." Unless U2 is your worship band, I don't think it rocks. Saying your worship band rocks on Sunday morning has become cliché. I think we can stop doing that. 2. We can speak truth in love in national moments. We can be the voice of hope and truth when our world seems to be falling apart. 3. We shouldn't be negative. Pastors, if you don't like your sandwich at Subway, don't tweet about it. Why? Because there might be a chance that the kid working behind the counter at Subway goes to your church and will read the tweet. One bad sandwich, airline flight or customer service experience doesn't warrant airing your grievances online. 4. Being online doesn't mean you have to be everywhere. Don't feel comfortable being on Snapchat? Don't. Do you prefer Facebook over Twitter? Then use Facebook. Be online where you feel comfortable and where you'll think you'll succeed. Don't chase something that isn't you. 5. Tweeting Scripture isn't always a good idea -- it can be an easy way to get likes or retweets, but does it make a lot of sense to post a Scripture then moments later post about a church event? Especially when the two aren't related? If you're posting Scripture, make sure you provide context as well (e.g. the Scripture you're tweeting is tied to Sunday's sermon). 6. You can buy Facebook likes and Twitter followers but you can't buy influence. Influence is earned, not bought. Always has been, always will be. 7. The church should take the lead on how to use social media. We should be the standard bearers of how to use social media. When someone asks, "How should I conduct myself online?" I hope they look at our church staff and see how to do it right. 8. The church shouldn't be afraid to try new platforms. We can't let fear of a new platform stop us from reaching people. Sure, people use Snapchat for the wrong reasons, but that doesn't mean you should shy away from reaching people there. 9. Don't argue online. No one wins and we all lose when we argue online. 10. Small is the new big. If you're a small church, I think you have an advantage on social media. You can take your time to interact with your people online since you're dealing with a smaller congregation. Large churches may have more resources, but you can be quicker and nimbler, which is a big advantage on social media. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM THE STATES: Ga., Ala., Ore. evangelism/missions news; 'The Lord told us just to start with Him and trust Him' by Staff Date: February 24, 2015 - Tuesday Today's From the States features items from: The Christian Index (Georgia) The Alabama Baptist Northwest Baptist Witness Father-and-son church-planting team By Jim Burton GRATIS, Ga. (The Christian Index) -- Mike Peavy felt troubled the day he realized he didn't know the neighbors who lived near his home in Walton County. Though he was an associate pastor just down the road at Bethlehem First Baptist Church, God redirected Mike through a dream to the unincorporated community of Gratis. "I dreamt that we were having a baby," Mike said. "We already had four children and weren't expecting any more. My wife, Angie, also had a dream that she was holding our baby." A friend soon offered them an interpretation of their dreams. "Having that baby is about birthing a new ministry," said Linda Blechinger, mayor of Auburn. Meanwhile, Mike's oldest son, Caleb, had been leading worship in Virginia and Tennessee churches in congregations of up to 3,000 attendees. Just out of college, life was good for Caleb and his wife, Ana. But God interrupted their secure life and called them to church planting. A father-and-son team was soon partnering to plant Gratis Church. Starting in Mike and Angie's home in 2011, attendance grew to between 40 and 50. Today, Gratis Church has hosted nearly 200 attendees at Walker Park Elementary School near Monroe. "The Lord told us just to start with Him and trust Him," Mike said. Bethlehem Church supported them financially for the first two years. The Georgia Baptist Convention issued an initial $5,000 grant. The church is now part of the North American Mission Board's Send Atlanta initiative. In 2015 the Stone Mountain Baptist Association New Work Foundation is providing monthly support. Initially, NAMB provided a monthly stipend for a staff intern who is now the church's family minister. Creativity as a core value A creative approach to church ministry is central to this new church plant, whose name means "free" and offers a double meaning. God's grace is free as are many of the services the church offers to the community. Caleb thrives on the creativity Gratis Church offers and often leads those efforts. He writes original music and involves the congregation in interactive worship. "We meet in a cafeteria with white chairs, white floors, and white ceilings," Caleb said. "That's the pallet we work in." Creativity extends beyond their Sunday-morning services. During the recent Christmas season, Gratis Church played music at a local Walmart and attracted up to 30 people to their table. At a community fall festival last year, Caleb, who is also a professional photographer, did free portraits. Many who responded had never had a family portrait. They have done gas giveaways and sponsored a golf tournament to raise funds for Walker Park Elementary School. "Creativity is just a way we can express more who God is," Caleb said. Their creative approach serves their community well. The Peavys refer to their church as having "high-tech rednecks," educated folks who live in the country and enjoy technology. Most are either unchurched or de-churched, Caleb said. Their creativity is not without levity. Along with their family pastor, Joseph Brown, who is also Caleb's brother-in-law, the church produced a Bubba Dynasty video in 2014. Bethlehem Church had labeled Mike as the Bubba pastor. Caleb said his dad ran with the moniker and made it an evangelism tool. To Mike, Bubba means believe and u (can) be born again. Healthy cooperation When Caleb left a mega-church position to join Gratis, he figured that being in a smaller church would reduce opportunities for influence. Then he got a call from the Georgia Baptist Convention, which commissioned him to write a song titled "Bridges to Missions" for the 2015 missions emphasis. Now he sees the Cooperative Program (CP) as another tool of creativity. "I don't think we realize the depth of how far CP goes," said Caleb about its direct and indirect impact worldwide. Father-and-son church-planting teams are rare. But for the Peavys, the ministry relationship is working. "The Lord has blessed me with a great son," Mike said, who likens their relationship to iron sharpening iron. "The blessing within our church is that Caleb is able to take the technical part and the worship part. "I've been around the Word for quite a long time, so we have a good blend of what is needed to reach the young people with a timeless message that never changes." --30-- This article appeared in The Christian Index (christianindex.org), newsjournal of the Georgia Baptist Convention. Jim Burton is a photojournalist based in Cumming. ********** Alabama Baptist prepares to take gospel to Montana service-industry workers By Doug Rogers RED LODGE, Mont. (The Alabama Baptist) -- Plow the snow off an elderly woman's sidewalk. Check. Help serve meals to 80-plus people on a cold November evening. Check. Drive a team of missions volunteers around town hoping to catch a glimpse of a moose. Check. The to-do list is quite different these days for Chris Baker and he absolutely loves it. After serving eight years as Clarke Baptist Association's director of missions (DOM), Baker and his family moved from Alabama to Red Lodge, Mont., in May 2014. He has been working as a church planting intern with the North American Mission Board and helped launch Church of the Rockies in September. "It's part of the process, coming to a place like this to spend six months to a year on the field without having the responsibilities of being a lead church planter," Baker said. "It's been great ... learning the Montana culture and understanding who it is we're ministering to." Baker knew the process would ultimately lead to the planting of a new church somewhere else in Montana but he didn't know where. After two months of praying and talking with Montana Southern Baptist Convention leadership, Baker visited the Kalispell-Whitefish-Columbia Falls area — 450 miles northwest of Red Lodge, near the Idaho and Canadian borders — and knew he had found the answer. "As we pulled in we sensed the Lord's leadership there," he said. "It's a resort kind of area much like Red Lodge with great opportunity." Their target audience is not tourists, however, but the people who live and work there, Baker said, noting the thousands of hotels and 40-plus restaurants represent a huge missions field made up of those who work in the service industry. About 110,000 people live in the Kalispell-Whitefish-Columbia Falls area but only 6 percent would be considered evangelical and only seven-tenths of 1 percent of the population is Southern Baptist, he said. "People come to this state because of its beauty ... but the lostness is also great and the opportunities are vast." Building relationships has been a key part of the strategy in Red Lodge and will continue to be in their new location. One of the ministries Baker has been involved with in Red Lodge that he hopes to continue in the Whitefish area is Common Ground, a weekly meal provided free of charge to anyone in the community. "There will be a millionaire sitting across the table from somebody on the verge of homelessness. There will be a senior adult couple that's just trying to make ends meet sitting across the table from a single mom with four children," he said. "A place like Common Ground gives a community atmosphere, a place to connect, since many don't have that church home they can connect with." Vital team members Baker is quick to point to his family as vital members of the team. His wife, Kim, and sons Andrew, 18, and Samuel, 17, are involved in a variety of ways from worship leadership to cooking to hosting volunteer teams to building relationships in the community. "I couldn't do this on my own," Baker said. "I couldn't do this if they were just 'okay' with it. They're not just okay with it, they're all in." The Bakers move to Whitefish in early January and will begin the process of building relationships and gearing up for a busy summer. The need for volunteer teams from Alabama will be great, helping with sports camps, cooking and serving meals, connecting with the community and prayerwalking. "One of the things I've learned here the last few months is that presence is so important," Baker said. "I just can't tell you what that does for a community to see volunteers coming and not taking but giving." Baker's roots in Alabama are deep. He was raised in First Baptist Church, Wetumpka, schooled at Samford University in Birmingham and served as pastor of two Alabama Baptist churches before his role as DOM. Being connected to Baptists in the state through the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions' Alabama Acts 1:8 Connections means a lot to him. "It's a source of encouragement to me," he said. "I'm humbled by it ... and I am grateful that Alabama Baptists would take on that Acts 1:8 challenge and partner with us in this Great Commission work." To learn how to partner with the Bakers or other Alabama-based missionaries around the world, visit www.a18c.org or call the office of global missions at 1-800-264-1225, ext. 239. --30-- This article appeared in The Alabama Baptist (thealabamabaptist.org), newsjournal of the Alabama Baptist Convention. Doug Rogers is director of communications for the Alabama Baptist Convention. ********** Church planter answers call to unreached city By Sheila Allen PORTLAND, Ore. (Northwest Baptist Witness) -- Josh Carter was enjoying his role on a church staff when he began feeling the first stirrings to plant a church in a place of great need. Thirty months later, he and his young family relocated to Portland's Bethany area on a journey of discovery and grace to follow God's leading. "I had a crazy life growing up and my parents split when I was a boy," Carter said. "But my grandfather was a bi-vocational pastor of a small Appalachian mountain church and he was a praying man. I remember him praying for an hour at a time on his knees in the corner of the living room – really talking to God. That made an impression on me and created a desire on my part for a relationship with God." Although his wife, Amy, first said "no way" to church planting, Carter took the process a step at a time, eventually traveling to Georgia for an assessment as a potential church planter from his home in Johnson City, TN. "It was an incredible process to be that vulnerable in front of these people who are unbiased," Carter said. "I'm loyal to a fault and can worry about what others think of me, but God made this thing happen." After praying, the Carter family accepted the invitation from the North American Mission Board as church planting apprentices and initially moved to Las Vegas for a period of learning. "I struggled because I didn't know where I was going to go and my family and others were counting on me," Carter noted. "The definition of that year was to value Jesus in me rather than what I do for Jesus. That's where grace came in for a guy with identity issues." After two vision tours through the west, Carter and his wife couldn't escape the call to Portland. They arrived on the scene last fall and recently celebrated the birth a daughter, who joined another son and daughter at home. Two families from their home church in Tennessee have joined their efforts in Portland and God has blessed them with jobs and homes. Now laying the foundational elements of Remedy City Church under the sponsorship of Westport Church in Hillsboro, Carter is excited about the potential for God to work in the marketplace in the next 10 years. "Northwest planting is seeing some exciting times," Carter stated. "I believe we see more money and people coming here to see the kingdom expanded than ever before, but multiplication is the only way to push back the darkness for the long term. Northwest churches must work together to plant more Northwest churches. We are seriously on the front side of seeing the church mobilized in big ways here and some awesome church planter/pastors are moving into the area to get in on it." Carter realizes that to multiply at a more rapid pace to keep up with population growth will necessitate thinking differently about church. "There are many manifestations of church and we have to celebrate it all," Carter said. "Whether it is gathering at a school, a small meeting in a house, a businessman using his business to be the church, whatever it looks like. We need to celebrate 'normal' people that are allowing Jesus to live in them and start churches in their homes, businesses, neighborhoods and all domains of society. We must celebrate discipleship, not just conversion." Carter has enlisted partners to join the endeavor financially, while he also pursues a secondary career as a realtor to keep his faith connected to the marketplace. "We have got to be authentic and relational," Carter remarked. "It is a slow process but we must find out where God is working and jump in. It has been a process for our people to learn to walk with lost people and just go to their homes. Too often, Christians in the Northwest have had a foxhole mentality. We are looking for what people here need, so we can be an asset. Families make a good income in the Bethany area, so that is not their need." After he sent an email message to all school leaders in the area, one elementary school principal responded and mentioned a need for a greenhouse on campus. Carter recalled a landscape contractor who offered assistance upon their meeting in Las Vegas and he is working to make the project happen. "We hope to become a network of community churches that work together for Portland and the world," Carter said. "We have a multiplication strategy and must lower the platform from professional missionaries to disciple-makers in everyday streams of culture. If we just start a church, a gathering of people, and stop there by calling that success, population growth along will make us relevant no longer." Several families that attend Westport Church but live in the Bethany area have already expressed interest in joining the effort. "God brought me out of a large church and ministry to something else," Carter said. "There will come a day when Northwest churches are multiplying at a more rapid pace, but it will take us all working together to see this happen." This article appeared in the Northwest Baptist Witness (gonbw.org), newsjournal of the Northwest Baptist Convention. Sheila Allen is managing editor of the Northwest Baptist Witness. ********** EDITOR'S NOTE: From the States, published each Tuesday by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board's call to embrace the world's 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups also are included in From the States, along with reports about church, associational and state convention initiatives in conjunction with the North American Mission Board's call to Southern Baptist churches to broaden their efforts in starting new churches and satellite campuses. The items appear in Baptist Press as originally published. -------------------------------------------------------------------- LifeWay letter of intent narrows potential buyers by Art Toalston Date: February 24, 2015 - Tuesday NASHVILLE (BP) -- LifeWay Christian Resources, continuing to move toward selling its 14.5-acre downtown Nashville complex, signed a letter of intent Feb. 23 with "a firm that represents a group of local and national developers." A letter of intent, according to a LifeWay statement issued Feb. 24, is "a temporary legal arrangement allowing the seller and potential buyers time to concentrate their negotiations." The LifeWay statement, issued by Marty King, director of corporate communications, noted that talks are ongoing "so it would be premature for us to discuss any elements of the negotiations or the businesses and individuals involved." LifeWay, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, has analyzed "more than a dozen offers to purchase our property in downtown Nashville" and had eliminated several of the offers during the week of Feb. 17, King said. The SBC entity has "focused on a handful of possible buyers ... Several other potential buyers have been told their offers are on hold until current negotiations either move forward toward a contract or are dissolved." King said LifeWay anticipates "a final decision in a few weeks, as we continue to seek the arrangement that provides the best stewardship of the resources with which LifeWay has been entrusted for more than 100 years." LifeWay's downtown campus includes nine buildings with more than 1 million square feet of office, warehouse and parking space. About 1,100 of LifeWay's employees work in the downtown offices. The organization also oversees 186 stores and 4,300 employees in 29 states. King could not confirm a story in the Nashville Business Journal reporting that the "potential purchase price could be as high as $125 million, according to one source with knowledge of negotiations." The full text of the LifeWay statement follows this story. Last August, LifeWay began a preliminary feasibility study of selling its campus to relocate to facilities better suited to the ministry's future. The entity was founded in 1891 as the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Thom S. Rainer, LifeWay's president, said in a mid-January report that the results of the study by local design and consulting firm Gresham, Smith and Partners (GSP) "confirmed there was interest favorable enough for us to take another step." LifeWay had conversations with local, regional and national entities about selling the property and accepted offers through mid-January. Rainer said reasons to consider selling the property include: -- Changes over the last 50 years in how LifeWay does ministry have created a need for workspaces that support LifeWay's technologies, strategies and culture now and in the future. -- LifeWay uses only one-third of its current space. -- The opportunity to build a new facility designed specifically for the ministries LifeWay provides now and in the future. If the property is sold, Rainer voiced a "very strong preference" for LifeWay to remain in downtown Nashville, which has become a vibrant urban hub. Gresham, Smith and Partners will help determine the size and type of space LifeWay needs to serve churches more effectively and efficiently, Rainer said. Planners estimate construction of a new building would take at least two years. "Most of our current space was designed and built in the middle of the last century and for a much different work environment," Rainer said in January. "We need a workplace designed to support the technologies, collaboration, and culture needed for today's and tomorrow's successful national and international ministry." Last August, Rainer cited demand for property in the downtown area and fewer employees now working at its corporate offices as reasons for studying a possible sale. "... It would be poor stewardship for the organization not to explore the possibilities this situation could present for our ministry," Rainer said in an Aug. 1 letter to LifeWay's staff. LifeWay, he said, could choose to sell only a portion of its property; or sell all of its downtown campus and move outside the city, either into existing facilities or begin new construction. Rainer described the possibility of moving outside of middle Tennessee as "remote." In the letter, Rainer addressed changes in the publishing industry and noted that more of LifeWay's employees work outside Nashville than at its corporate offices. "Our needs have changed," he said. "We no longer print and package our resources on the first floor of the Operations Building and then put them on a conveyor belt running under Broadway to the U.S. Post Office. "That post office building is now an art center, our printing is done all over the country, our assembly and shipping is centered in new facilities in Lebanon, [Tenn.], and [the Operations Building] sits mostly empty. We have been unable to even lease the space." While LifeWay leases unused office space in its Frost Building along with the adjacent parking lot, Rainer said, hundreds of offices on its campus remain vacant. The full text of the LifeWay statement on signing a letter of intent follows: February 24, 2015 LifeWay signs letter of intent, negotiations continue LifeWay Christian Resources has analyzed more than a dozen offers to purchase our property in downtown Nashville. Last week LifeWay eliminated several of the offers and focused on a handful of possible buyers. Yesterday LifeWay signed a letter of intent with a firm that represents a group of local and national developers formed for this project. A letter of intent is a temporary legal arrangement allowing the seller and potential buyers time to concentrate their negotiations. Those talks are ongoing so it would be premature for us to discuss any elements of the negotiations or the businesses and individuals involved. Several other potential buyers have been told their offers are on hold until current negotiations either move forward toward a contract or are dissolved. We anticipate a final decision in a few weeks, as we continue to seek the arrangement that provides the best stewardship of the resources with which LifeWay has been entrusted for more than 100 years. Marty King LifeWay Spokesman Director of Corporate Communications