The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-11/17/2015 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM THE SEMINARIES: At NOBTS, Platt amplifies 'blank check'; 'Not On Our Watch' T-shirts support IMB by NOBTS & IMB Staff Date: November 17, 2015 - Tuesday EDITOR'S NOTE: "From the Seminaries" includes news releases of interest from Southern Baptist seminaries. Today's From the Seminaries includes two items from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary: -- IMB President David Platt amplifies "blank check" commitment to God during Global Missions Week -- "Not On Our Watch" T-shirts proclaim NOBTS students' resolve to support IMB missionaries 'Blank check' is 'elementary' commitment to God, Platt says By Marilyn Stewart NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Giving one's life as a "blank check" to God may seem like extraordinary devotion, IMB President David Platt said, but a commitment to go wherever God leads is the "elementary essence of what it means to follow Christ." Platt spoke in the opening chapel service of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's annual Global Missions Week Nov. 2-5, which coincided with an IMB trustee meeting in New Orleans and a missionary commissioning service. Before Platt spoke, NOBTS students, faculty and staff gave more than $10,000 in special offerings collected in light of recent IMB financial/personnel cutbacks. During the seminary's missions emphasis, IMB personnel spoke in chapel, classes and breakout sessions and met with students over coffee or lunch. Underscoring his meaning of a "blank check," Platt cited flooding in Yemen, fighting in Iraq and persecution of Christians in Pakistan from the day's headlines. "To be clear," he said, "when you say 'wherever' to God, you're saying I'll go and take my family to Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan. I'll go into the heart of ISIS. I'll go into Boko Haram territory of West Africa. I'll go wherever You want me to go.'" Platt said calling believers to give God a "blank check" is not a responsibility he takes lightly. "My perspective on these things totally changed a year ago when I stepped into this role and I realized that whenever I see news headlines like these on a daily basis, people I'm responsible for are living in or near most all these places," Platt said. Platt described the moment years ago as an NOBTS student when the weight of his theological studies and a world without Christ came together in a "massive collision" that shook him to the core. "Casual, nominal, cultural Christianity makes no sense if this Word is true and this is the world I live in," he said. Recognizing that a blank check commitment can be frightening, Platt urged the chapel audience to understand who the "Me" is in Jesus' "follow Me" commandment. Drawing the initial chapters of Matthew's Gospel, Platt said Jesus is Savior; Messiah; Son of David; Son of Abraham; the center of all history; fully human; fully divine; light of the World; and a dozen other descriptors of His divinity. "When you realize who He is, you realize the utter foolishness of putting any conditions on obedience to this King.... Followers of Jesus don't always know where they're going, but they always know who they're with," Platt said. Pray like it matters Gordon Fort, IMB vice president for prayer mobilization and training, urged listeners in chapel Nov. 8 to "pray like it matters." Fort told of his ache for America and his observation that the church has become people of God without the power and the presence of God. "Brothers and sisters, the world in which we live doesn't need a mediocre Christianity," Fort said. "They are desperate to know that you have a faith that works. They are desperate to know that you have a belief that makes a difference." Fort showed a photograph of a baptism in a frozen lake in western Siberia and told of the pastor who left home with his family to share the Gospel in the barren land. Fort said he once shared the photograph at a speaking engagement and a woman came up to him, crying. The woman, a retired state WMU executive, told Fort she had once prayerwalked in western Siberia and had developed a deep burden for the region. "She said she'd been praying for 15 years that God would send someone to take the Gospel into that area and then said, 'Until you shared your report, I had no idea how God had answered that prayer,'" Fort said, relating the woman's story. "Friends, when you make a petition, an entreaty of God, when you care about the soul of a lost person to the extent that you will pray for 15 years without an answer, then you are praying like it matters." Prayer unleashes the power of the Gospel to break the shackles of sin so the Gospel can be effective, Fort said. "So, if you're going to pray, pray like it matters." 'Jesus for the hard places' Another speaker, Nik Ripken, author of two books on the persecuted church, "The Insanity of God" and "The Insanity of Obedience," recounted that personal sorrow while serving in Somalia put him on a journey to find out if "Jesus was for the hard places" of life. Ripken said he decided that the way to find out was to go to Christians suffering persecution. After hundreds of interviews, Ripken said he learned what those who are persecuted know: Jesus; the power of prayer and fasting; Scripture; songs of faith committed to memory; that others are praying for them; that they are suffering for Jesus; and that persecution is normal. "What they taught me is that persecution is like the sun coming up in the east; it's normal," Ripken said. Interviewing persecuted Christians, he said, was like "walking with Simon Peter or Lydia." "You should hear them talk about Jesus. You should hear them pray." T-shirt sales at NOBTS raise funds for IMB By Marc Ira Hooks NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- "When I first heard the news I felt bad, but my heart did not break," Keith Taylor, a Ph.D. student in preaching, said of the 600-800 International Mission Board missionaries preparing to leave their place of service due to budget shortfalls. "I was not broken for these folks who had given their lives for the work of spreading the Gospel around the world. And now their part of that work was coming to an end." Taylor's attitude changed, however, after a chapel message by NOBTS professor Blake Newsom several weeks ago. "It was not even a missions message," Taylor said. "It was about stewardship." Taylor and others challenged by Newsom's message created a T-shirt emblazoned with "Not On Our Watch -– Support The International Mission Board" to be sold on campus. After only four days of sales, more than $1,200 was raised for the IMB's Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The T-shirts reflect a rhetorical answer to the question: "Are we okay with the fact that Jesus told us we are to pray for workers to be sent into the harvest field, and on our watch we are bringing workers in from the fields?" IMB President Platt expressed his appreciation for the Not On Our Watch theme during his visit to campus for Global Missions Week. There is a growing sense of ownership among the SBC family, Platt said. "This is not just an IMB thing, it is I something that we can all be a part of." Students and faculty are being encouraged to wear the Not On Our Watch shirts as they serve in their churches across the region. "We have perhaps the best missions-sending organization that has been created in the history of the world and we have the means to support that through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program," Taylor said of the yearly offering and the year-round CP gifts from churches to support Southern Baptist missions and ministry. "Our goal is to embrace those and give in a way that maybe we haven't done before." One master's degree student in counseling was sporting his new shirt as he looked through the various IMB displays in the student center during the missions emphasis. "I may not be able to write a check for $21 million, but I can buy a T-shirt," he said. "I want to do my part in supporting the IMB and international missions." Many of the IMB personnel on campus stopped by the Not On Our Watch table to give encouragement. One IMB worker in the office of global engagement said, "This is the first, I hope, of many creative grassroots efforts to really stir the hearts of God's people. "They are not outsourcing the missions problem to someone else. They are taking an active part in trying to find solutions together." Taylor said he has received numerous requests from churches and other individuals about getting behind the effort and ordering shirts. While no formal mechanism for sales has been established, people interested in supporting the Not On Our Watch initiative can send an email to Taylor at cooperateformissions@gmail.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST-PERSON: Always loving by David Jeremiah Date: November 17, 2015 - Tuesday EL CAJON, Calif. (BP) -- More than a half-century ago a Chinese man named Liu Guojiang, 19, fell in love with Xu Chaoqin, 29, a widow with children. When Liu announced his intention to marry an older woman who already had children, he was rejected by friends and family. Liu and Xu married in secret and took up residence in a mountain cave in Jiangjin County. The couple nearly starved. Over time, Liu carved 6,000 steps up the mountainside for his wife, and the couple lived in seclusion for over 50 years. One day Liu came in from his daily work and collapsed. Xu was devastated. "You promised me you'd take care of me," she said, "and would always be with me until the day I died." Note the word: Always ... That's a hard promise to keep. Fifty years is a long time, but it's not forever. Without Christ, there is never an always. Without Him there's no lasting hope, and even the greatest love stories come to an end. But with the Lord, there is always an always. The psalmist said, "I have set the LORD always before me," and Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always" (Psalm 16:8; Matthew 28:20). The apostle Paul said, "We are always confident ..." (2 Corinthians 5:6), and "thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Human love is a powerful force, but it's a pale reflection of God's love. God has always loved you and always will. Four dimensional love In Ephesians 3:18-19 the apostle Paul prays for his readers to "comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height -- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge." How interesting that Paul describes the love of God in terms of a cube. It is perfect in its symmetry. When C.S. Lewis wrote "The Chronicles of Narnia," he presented the concept of something being larger on the inside than on the outside. For example, the children entered a wardrobe through the door and found a whole new world on the inside. It was much bigger inside than outside. We can apply that principle to the cube-shaped love of God. Seen from without, it is flawlessly proportioned. Seen from within, it surpasses knowledge. God's love is always wide Realizing, then, that we can't measure God's immeasurable love, let's look at its four sides. The first thing to see about the love of God is its breadth. God's love is broad enough for anyone who will respond to it. The Bible says, "He died for all" (2 Corinthians 5:15). His love knows no limits, has no boundaries, allows no prejudices, and excludes no sinners when they come to Him in repentance and faith. God's love is always long What about the length of God's love? How long has He loved us? He has always loved us and He always will. He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). God knew and loved you before time began (2 Timothy 1:9), before you were born (Jeremiah 1:5), and before you were able to love Him in return (1 John 4:19). And His love has no expiration date; it cannot decrease, diminish, fluctuate, or fail. Since God is self-existent and endless, His attributes are eternal and infinite. God's love is always deep That brings us to the next dimension. How deep is His love? It's deep enough to get to the bottom of all our sins and sorrows. Jesus came down from heaven into the sufferings of Calvary for us. Romans 8:39 (NIV 1984) says "neither height nor depth … will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." No matter how far we fall or how low we go, God's love is deeper still. God's love is always high There's also the height of His love. His love is as high as the heaven of heavens. No wonder Paul's great prayer for the Ephesians was for them to comprehend and to know this love which passes knowledge, that they may be filled with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19). Remind yourself today: He Loves Me. Always! -------------------------------------------------------------------- IMB: Globalization, urbanization & biblical priorities by IMB staff Date: November 17, 2015 - Tuesday EDITOR'S NOTE: This analysis was submitted by the International Mission Board leading up to this year's Week of Prayer for International Missions Nov. 29-Dec. 6. The theme is "Because of Who He Is" from Psalm 96:3 (HCSB). See related column by Ronnie Floyd below this article. RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- God deserves the worship of all people, and the Gospel is the only hope for the billions of people who have yet to hear. This is why we go to unreached peoples and places: to share with those who live in hard places -- sprawling cities, arid deserts, dense jungles and war-torn villages -- where very few or no disciples are proclaiming the truth about Jesus in a way that can be understood. Global missions is not a compartmentalized program of the church for a select few people; it is the purpose for which we all exist. Every church and every believer has a part to play in fulfilling Christ's commission. Today, globalization and urbanization present new opportunities for more men, women, singles and families to be active in international missions than ever before. As the International Mission Board equips churches to send ordinary Christians as missionaries to unreached people and places, it also partners with churches to send limitless missionary teams of business and medical professionals, students, retirees, teachers and others to work together in global cities. Five biblical priorities fuel this partnership: -- Exalting Christ: Relying on the Word of God as the guidebook, both for the message proclaimed and the strategies utilized. -- Mobilizing Christians: Every church member has gifts, skills and opportunities for fulfilling Christ's commission. -- Equipping churches: The New Testament teaches us that God uses the local church to send missionaries. -- Facilitating church planting: Jesus established His church as the community for making disciples. -- Fulfilling the commission: Jesus commissioned His followers to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that He had commanded them (Matt. 28:19-20). We as Christians must be faithful to live out our missionary identity, faithful to pray, give, go and send to multiply churches around the world for the glory of God. How do you fit into God's creative global plan? How does your church fit in? During this season of prayer and giving, seek the Lord's guidance for what He would have you give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Your gifts and your prayers enable more Christians to be sent to make disciples and multiply churches among unreached peoples for the glory of God -- because of Who He is. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonderful works among all peoples (Psalm 96:3, HCSB). The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions in tandem with Cooperative Program gifts from Southern Baptist churches support international workers in seeking to fulfill the Great Commission. Gifts to the Lottie Moon offering are received through local Southern Baptist churches or online at imb.org/offering, where there are resources to promote the offering. This year's goal is $175 million. ************* FIRST-PERSON: Our purpose is to declare who God is to all nations By Ronnie Floyd EDITOR'S NOTE: Ronnie Floyd is president of the Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas. SPRINGDALE, Ark. (BP) -- Reaching the world for Christ is the vision and passion of our Southern Baptist Convention. Our grand task to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and make disciples of all the nations is what our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is all about. This is why each one of us -- personally and in our churches collectively -- must pray diligently and ask God what He wants us to give to reach the world for Christ. The need has never been greater. The call is clear to advance the Gospel, whether it is through planting churches, ministries of compassion or equipping the next generation. Now is the time to come together and give more than ever before to sending missionaries around the globe. Because of who He is, we must find a way together to declare His name to all the nations. Let's rise up in this critical hour and give in an unprecedented way to our 2015 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. Now is the time to reach the world for Christ. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM THE STATES: Okla., Calif., Mo. evangelism/missions news; '... [T]urn phone time into Gospel time' by Staff Date: November 17, 2015 - Tuesday Today's From the States features items from:The Baptist Messenger (Oklahoma) California Southern Baptist The Pathway (Missouri) ********** BGCO offers free evangelism app By Staff OKLAHOMA CITY (The Baptist Messenger) -- In September, the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma's (BGCO) Evangelism Office introduced a smartphone application ("app") designed to help people share the Gospel. The "EvangelismOK" app, available for the iPhone and Android devices, has a wide array of features. Mike Napier, BGCO evangelism specialist, said, "People may not always have Gospel tracts in their pockets, but they do almost always have their phone with them. This free app is a fresh way to share the Gospel personally." The "EvangelismOK" app is free to download. On your smartphone or mobile device, go to the iTunes or Google store and search for "EvangelismOK." 'EvangelismOK' app features include: -- An interactive Gospel tract -- Audio and image-based tutorials on how to share the Gospel -- A "My Mission Field" tracking tool that allows the user to keep an ongoing record of personal evangelistic conversations -- Website links to various BGCO evangelism resources -- A church locator that allows the user to do a zip code search for a Southern Baptist church in the area -- Information about the annual State Evangelism Conference, including the ability to register -- Bible verse memory aides -- Customizable text and email templates and messages to help the user easily create an opportunity for conversations about the Gospel, and much more! "We live in a fast-paced, high tech world," said Napier. "We often think about the negative aspects of our cell-phone-obsessed culture, but this app offers a way to turn phone time into Gospel time." The "EvangelismOK" app was made possible through generous donations through the Cooperative Program, according to Napier. "Not every church by itself would be able to commission and promote an app, but through our shared work as Oklahoma Baptists, we are able to make this free app. We pray it supercharges personal evangelism efforts across the state," he said. For more information about BGCO evangelism resources and upcoming events, visit www.bgco.org/sec. --30-- This article appeared in The Baptist Messenger (baptistmessenger.com), newsjournal of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. ********** Calif. immigrant population provides big opportunities for ministry By Karen L. Willoughby FRESNO, Calif. (California Southern Baptist) -- In greater Miami, 38.8 percent of the population is foreign-born. That's more than any other metropolitan area in the United States. But Miami is the only Florida city to make that "top ten" list. California, with its population of almost 39 million, has five: San Jose, in second place with 37.5 percent; Los Angeles, third with 33.2 percent; San Francisco, fourth with 29.7 percent; San Diego, sixth with 23.7 percent; and Riverside/San Bernardino in tenth place with 22.2 percent. "(Anglos are) a minority now, maybe 47 percent in Los Angeles city," said Don Overstreet, church planting catalyst for Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Baptist Associations. "We're doing a lot of praying that God will raise up people to reach their culture." Overstreet, Howard Burkhart, church planting catalyst in Northern California, and Brenda (name changed for security), a church planting catalyst in the Bay Area, talked with the California Southern Baptist about immigrants, their needs and how churches in California Southern Baptist Convention are reaching out to them. "We have a team that has done some research and found more than 400 people groups in the L.A. area," Overstreet said. "The people speak 200 to 250 languages." California Southern Baptists have work among 75 people groups in the L.A./Long Beach area, he noted, where about 50 churches a year are started. Half of those are predominantly ethnic; the others are "English-speaking" with people from many cultures and ethnicities. "The world is here in Los Angeles," Overstreet declared. "My goal is to help churches understand that. We're trying to reach everybody." Anglo churches that minister only to Anglos probably aren't as effective as they could be in reaching their community, Burkhart added, because though there are enclaves of people from a single culture, most areas in any urban setting are a mix of people from many cultures. "I know the prayer is that we have work among all these groups," Brenda said. "We're reaching out in several ways." The largest number of Afghans outside Afghanistan lives in the Bay Area, she noted. The team she works with has identified three tasks requiring different skill sets to reach people: research, caring and evangelism. "We need to know what we don't know, so we're doing mapping to see where different language and people group live," Brenda said. "We're further behind Southern California in doing this. "Second, we're trying to serve the under-served, maybe with another group such as the International Rescue Committee, who has single moms from Afghanistan in Fremont, whose husbands were killed by the Taliban. That takes people with a caring skill set. "Third, we're looking for people under-represented in the Kingdom of God. That's evangelism." Her team visits non-Christian places of worship to build relationships, goes on "chapel tours" to get to know and better understand various people groups, and attends cultural parades and festivals to interact with people they might not encounter otherwise. "There's a very large illegal population; we serve them differently," Brenda explained. "San Francisco is a refuge city, a haven for Mexican and Central Americans." Spanish-speaking pastors are needed statewide because of the influx of people who speak only Spanish, Burkhart said. The US Census Bureau in June released a report that said as of July 1, 2014, about 14.99 million Hispanics live legally in California, topping the 14.92 million non-Hispanic Caucasians who live here. "The Hollywood of today is Hispanic and low-income," Overstreet said. "Chinatown is now half Hispanic. South/South Central L.A. is at least 50 percent Hispanic." That being said, with 10 million or more people living in the Los Angeles and Long Beach Association areas, a strong need exists for more than the 50 churches being planted there each year, which join the maybe 250 Southern Baptist churches already established in both associations, Overstreet said. "There are more Cambodians in Long Beach than anywhere but Cambodia," he noted. "Our city here has at least a million Koreans and a large number of Filipinos. In East Hollywood is a large population of Armenians. One of the ever-growing groups is East Indians, professionals. "We take a very grassroots approach," Overstreet continued. "We reach them where they're at and help them understand the gospel in a context they understand." Immigrants gravitate to the Los Angeles area because it's sunny and warm, with many jobs available, and because others of their culture are already there, Overstreet said. "America is a country of immigrants," he added. "Immigrants are hard workers. They work jobs most Americans wouldn't do. "We need to see (immigration) as a missionary opportunity." --30-- This article appeared in the California Southern Baptist (csbc.com/csb), newsjournal of the California Southern Baptist Convention. Karen Willoughby is a freelance writer in Mapleton, Utah. ********** Mo. church reaches out to 2,000 in Kansas City By Vicki Stamps KANSAS CITY, Mo. (The Pathway) -- Tower View Baptist Church in Kansas City found a way to make going back to school fun for students as well as giving parents a little breathing room. Since 2011, Tower View serves the community with a "Back to School Bonanza." "We are located in a working class neighborhood," Darin Smith, pastor, said. "We want to provide help as these families get their children ready for school. We use the North Kansas City school supply list for elementary and middle/high school students and prepare 1,000 bags of school supplies. Our event is like a block party for the community and we had 2,000 people attend." "We make it a carnival atmosphere," Judy Braden, event organizer, said. "We have a bounce house, popcorn, hot dogs and games. The prizes for the carnival games are the small items like erasers, rulers and children just love it." Both Braden and Smith emphasized the spiritual sharing during the event. "In addition to the school supplies," Smith said, "we share the gospel in several ways. Since we are a diverse neighborhood with pockets of Arabic, French, Spanish and some different African languages, we are in partnership with Midwestern seminary to provide gospel tracts in different languages." Tower View also built the gospel into the online registration. "We always require registration for the event," Smith said, "but this is the first year that we offered an online registration. When they register, the gospel is a direct link. The gospel page hits were through the roof, so they are reading it before they come." According to Braden, an evangelism team is set up to share during the event. "As part of our volunteers," she said, "we set up a group to just visit with the people in the community. We want them to know we are here and we care about them. They sit with parents and it is the opportunity to plant seeds." Braden said the planning for this event began early in the year. "We start as early as possible," she said. "We have a planning team of about ten, but for the day, we have about 80-90 members of the church volunteering. We also have volunteers from some of the area schools, because they know how important this is." "We hear every year about how critical this is for the neighborhood," Braden said. "We serve a lot of blended families with five to 10 children. They depend on us to supplement what the children need for schools." Volunteers work all year to gather the correct items for the children. "We must contact the schools each year to find out what the need is," Braden said. "We send out letters for donations and identify contacts to help us," she said, "but, 90% of the school supplies and hygiene items come from our members and our outreach budget." "We've learned to be thrifty shoppers," she said. "We also partner with other groups and people to come in to provide community resources. If it benefits the children and it is a family-centered program, we will use it. We want it to be a positive event for all of the students." --30-- This story appeared in The Pathway (mbcpathway.com), newsjournal of the Missouri Baptist Convention. Vicki Stamps is a contributing writer for The Pathway. ********** 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal evangelism S.C. Baptists' focus by Butch Blume and Scott Vaughan Date: November 17, 2015 - Tuesday SPARTANBURG, S.C. (BP) -- South Carolina Baptists focused heavily on personal evangelism at its 195th annual meeting themed "Tell the Story," held Nov. 10-11 at Spartanburg First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, S.C. Speakers reiterated the compelling need for all believers to share the Gospel, with Tommy Kelly, pastor of First Baptist Church of Varnville, urging messengers to ensure that every person in the state hears the Gospel by the group's 200th annual meeting in 2020. Messengers adopted a new convention vision statement, "Helping Churches Fulfill the Great Commission," as recommended by the South Carolina Baptist Convention (SCBC) Executive Board Future Vision Committee. In a business session, the convention unanimously voted to end fellowship with Augusta Heights Baptist Church of Greenville because the church performed a same-sex marriage ceremony. But messengers left the door open for the church to regain fellowship by expressing a "corporate repentance and return to a biblical view of marriage and sexuality that is in agreement with the principles of God's word as summarized in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000." The Oct. 10 same-sex marriage ceremony did not take place at the church, but Augusta Heights' pastor Greg Dover performed the ceremony with the approval of his deacons, messengers learned. The Greenville Baptist Association had already dismissed the church Oct. 22. In motioning for the SCBC disaffiliation, SCBC Executive Board Chairman Dwight Easler expressed a "burdened and heavy heart" and said the convention "must lovingly and without apology stand together for the word of God in order to call sinners to repentance." Easler told messengers he contacted Dover about the issue and said the church cited the absence of a marriage policy and soul freedom as reasons not to reverse its actions. "We believe this action by the pastor and the subsequent inaction of the church to correct this policy through an expression of repentance and returning to a biblical view of marriage and sexuality is evidence that they are sadly and tragically no longer in friendly cooperation with this convention," Easler told messengers. "We believe that the Gospel is for the gay person and the straight person, the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the young and the old. However, we believe that no man can come to the Gospel without the acknowledgment of sin and confession and faith in Christ." Augusta Heights is the second Baptist church in Greenville to endorse gay marriage. In September, Greenville First Baptist Church withdrew from the SCBC after receiving a letter from Easler asking the church to reverse its policy of allowing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people to be married and ordained. Greenville First Baptist ended its affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention in 1999. In other business, messengers approved a $28.6 million budget, adopted a new vision statement, elected officers, and endorsed resolutions addressing moral and social concerns. The attendance of 965 messengers from 440 of the state convention's 2,138 churches marked an increase from the 941 who attended in 2014. The 2015 budget anticipates $28.5 million in Cooperative Program gifts -- $100,000 in other gifts -- and is unchanged from last year. Messengers voted to forward 41 percent of Cooperative Program receipts, or $11.69 million, to Southern Baptist Convention national and international causes, including a $1.13 million supplemental gift directly to the International Mission Board. The 59/41 ratio has remained steady for several years; however, with the adoption of a state Great Commission Resurgence initiative in 2011, the convention began forwarding a portion of budget receipts directly to the IMB, meant to compensate the entity at the same level as if the SCBC split its CP receipts equally between the SCBC and the SBC. Newly elected officers are president Tom Tucker, pastor of Sisk Memorial Baptist Church in Fort Mill; first vice president Bart Kelley, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Westminster; second vice president Bryant Sims, pastor of First Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Greenwood; recording secretary Kathy Hall, a member of First Baptist Church of Camden; and registration secretary Naveen Balakrishnan, pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church in Adams Run. Keith Shorter, pastor of Mt. Airy Baptist Church in Easley, was elected to the newly created office of president-elect, and will assume the office of president after serving one year. Guest speakers included Don Wilton, pastor of First Baptist Church of Spartanburg; Frank S. Page, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee; and Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research. Videos included messages from South Carolina Baptist Bobby Richardson, former second baseman for the New York Yankees; Clemson University head football coach Dabo Swinney; and Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga. Interim executive director-treasurer Richard Harris applauded the work of South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief in the wake of October's floods, reporting more than 80,000 meals have been served by volunteers and more than $338,000 has been given for Baptist relief efforts from 32 states. Harris updated messengers on the search for a new executive director-treasurer. He affirmed the leadership of North Greenville University, and said the SCBC will restore Cooperative Program funding to the school following former president Jimmy Epting's abrupt resignation. SCBC leaders were satisfied with the resignation after meeting with the school's leadership, Harris said. Messengers approved resolutions: -- expressing appreciation for the grace and forgiveness demonstrated by families of victims of the June massacre of nine worshippers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, and noting the "multiethnic and multicultural unity" that developed in the wake of the shooting and continues to grow; -- reaffirming the 2010 SBC action calling all Southern Baptists to "continue to honor and affirm the Cooperative Program as the most effective means of mobilizing our churches and extending our outreach," and encourages congregations to consider increasing their CP giving by 1 percent each year; -- noting cultural and legal challenges to religious freedom, and urging churches, pastors and individuals "to understand and exercise their right and responsibility to stand for biblical values and to influence the culture;" -- asking churches to embrace faith-based pregnancy care centers and community health care centers as alternatives for comprehensive healthcare centers that provide abortions, citing published accounts of "gruesome abortion procedures and the exchange of fetal body parts" by organizations that receive federal funding; -- encouraging churches to develop ministries that provide refuge and healing for victims of human trafficking, citing the annual trafficking of 27 million people worldwide and noting the existence of such acts in South Carolina; -- challenging churches to bolster awareness of foster-care opportunities, noting the 2,500 children and youth enrolled in South Carolina's foster care system. The full text of the resolutions can be found at scbaptist.org/2015-annual-meeting-resolutions. Messengers set the 2016 annual meeting for Nov. 15-16 at Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo. -------------------------------------------------------------------- W.Va. increases CP, decries Planned Parenthood by Staff/Baptist Press & West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists Date: November 17, 2015 - Tuesday CEREDO, W.Va. (BP) -- Messengers to the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists called for an end to public funding of Planned Parenthood and increased the percentage of Cooperative Program receipts they will forward to Southern Baptist Convention causes. Meeting Nov. 5-6 at First Baptist Church in Ceredo, W.Va., 163 messengers and 29 guests celebrated the convention's 45th annual meeting by welcoming executive director William Henard, who was elected Sept. 12 by the WVCSB executive board. The 2016 budget of $2.5 million marks a 4 percent increase from this year's budget. Some $1.2 million in anticipated CP receipts from churches will be supplemented by $1.1 million from the North American Mission Board and $55,000 from LifeWay Christian Resources. Forty percent of CP receipts will be forwarded to SBC missions and ministries in North America and across the globe, a .5-percentage-point increase from 2015. The remaining 60 percent will be used for West Virginia missions and ministries. The budget includes no shared ministry expenses. Under the theme "partnering together: from the mountains to the nations" based on 1 Chronicles 16:31, the convention heard a message from SBC President Ronnie Floyd on Thursday night. Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, challenged messengers to seek a movement of God through an unwavering commitment to prayer. Elected as officers were: president, Ron McCoy, director of missions for the Upper Ohio Valley Baptist Association in Moundsville; first vice president, Todd Hill, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Parkersburg; second vice president, Paul Harris, pastor of Abundant Hope Baptist Church in Barboursville; and recording secretary, Jim Messenger, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in West Union. All officer nominees ran unopposed except Harris, who defeated two other candidates for second vice president. Two resolutions were adopted. One addressed the escalating drug abuse problem in West Virginia, with messengers vowing to "dedicate ourselves to active involvement in the effort to rid our country of drug abuse" and calling for "our Christian leaders and entities of the Southern Baptist Convention to minister to those harmed by drug abuse." The second resolution called for "an end to any and all public funding for Planned Parenthood." Messengers heard sermons from Bobby Thomas, pastor of Indian Creek Baptist Church in Middlebourne, W.Va., and John Freeman, outgoing convention president and pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chapmanville, W.Va. Henard challenged messengers to reach the 1.3 million unchurched people in West Virginia for Christ, calling the convention to prioritize church evangelism, church revitalization and church planting. Drawing from Proverbs 29:18, Henard urged messengers to set a vision that welcomed biblical parameters, visualized new possibilities, cultivated effective partnerships, set clear priorities and built evaluative processes. The convention includes 223 cooperating churches with more than 20,000 total members. The 2016 annual meeting will occur Nov. 3-4 in Wheeling. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Moore: U.S. should not exclude Christians in genocide label by Tom Strode Date: November 17, 2015 - Tuesday WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. State Department should not exclude Christians as victims if it declares the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria guilty of genocide, Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore has told Secretary of State John Kerry. In a letter Monday (Nov. 16), Moore responded to a report the State Department is preparing to categorize the terrorist organization's campaign against Iraq's Yazidi sect as genocide but not to include Christians as targets of genocidal acts. The president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission urged Kerry not to distinguish between different groups suffering at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS). Moore said in his letter he supports a U.S. declaration that ISIS has committed, and continues to commit, genocide, but he called for Kerry "to recognize every victim of every community standing in the path of [ISIS]. Let us not be distracted by a quibbling over terminology that falsely distinguishes between victims of equally horrific atrocities." Iraqi and Syrian Christians "have faced mass beheadings, crucifixion, and other atrocities for the crime of following Jesus Christ," Moore wrote. "This is genocide and civilization must declare it so." A leading human rights advocate in the U.S. House of Representative and a former member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also spoke against the expected exclusion of Christians. Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J., said he is "shocked and dismayed" the Obama administration "would even think to exclude the present day genocide of Christians." "Ignoring Christians, and the full range of religious and ethnic groups who have been victims of the ISIS genocide, would continue [President Obama's] policy of silence and weak response," Smith said in a Nov. 13 written statement. Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom and a USCIRF commissioner from 1999 to 2012, described Christians' fate at the hands of ISIS forces in a Nov. 13 piece for National Review. "Christians have been executed by the thousands," Shea wrote. "Christian women and girls are vulnerable to sexual enslavement. Many of their clergy have been assassinated and their churches and ancient monasteries demolished or desecrated. They have been systematically stripped of all their wealth, and those too elderly or sick to flee ISIS-controlled territory" have been forced to convert to Islam or been killed. Moore, Smith and Shea responded to a Nov. 12 article by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News. Isikoff reported the State Department is preparing to label ISIS' onslaught against the Yazidis in Iraq as genocide. A 1948 United Nations treaty says genocide includes the commission of such acts as murder with the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." State Department officials contend attacks on Christians and minorities other than the Yazidis appear to fall short of the standard established in the genocide treaty, Isikoff reported. The naming of victims of genocide "is not an academic matter," Shea said. "A genocide designation would have significant policy implications for American efforts to restore property and lands taken from the minority groups and for offers of aid, asylum, and other protections to such victims." In addition, she wrote, it would mean the United States and other countries, under the genocide treaty, "would not be bound to act to suppress or even prevent the genocide of these Christians." Moore has joined others in urging Obama and Congress to designate ISIS in violation of the genocide treaty. A bipartisan House contingent is backing a measure, Concurrent Resolution 75, that expresses the view the "atrocities committed against Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities targeted specifically for religious reasons are crimes against humanity and genocide." The list of cosponsors of the resolution consists of 94 Republicans and 52 Democrats. A new report from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum helped motivate the State Department to move toward a designation of genocide for ISIS' actions against the Yazidis, according to Isikoff's report. That Nov. 12 report found ISIS "perpetrated crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes" in the cases of Christians, Yazidis, Turkmen, Sabean-Mandeans and others but concluded genocide has been committed only against the Yazidis, a sect with a patchwork of religious beliefs and practices. Crimes against Yazidis have included the execution of men and the enslavement of women and girls, according to the report. ISIS' campaign against the Yazidis definitely should be considered genocide, Shea said. However, she wrote, "To propose that Christians have been simply driven off their land but not suffered similar fates is deeply misinformed.... [Christians] are also being deliberately targeted for extinction through equally brutal measures."