Wednesday, March 09, 2016

• WEEK OF PRAYER: Creativity meets church planting in Montreal

  by Jim Burton, posted Wednesday, March 09, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  Photo by Claudine Chausse/NAMB

  MONTREAL (BP) -- When Tony Silveira's family arrived in Montreal in 2006, the Portuguese native was not naive. After starting churches in Toronto for 12 years and assisting with efforts in Montreal, he knew challenges existed in cities where there was an apparent resistance to religion.

  "In general, churches don't have a good reputation," Silveira said. "Religious words are curse words." Read More

• Mo. Senate votes to put religious liberty on ballot

  by Ben Hawkins/Missouri Pathway, posted Wednesday, March 09, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  Photo courtesy of The Pathway

  JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP) -- Missourians would vote on protecting people from being penalized for their religious beliefs on marriage if a resolution passed by the Missouri Senate this morning (March 9) is next passed by the state's House of Representatives.

  President Pro Tem of the Senate Ron Richard broke a 39-hour filibuster of Senate Joint Resolution 39 (SJR 39), also called the Missouri Religious Freedom Amendment, by calling for the previous question. In accordance with Senate rules, members of the Senate then took a 7 a.m. roll call, and SJR 39 passed its first-round approval, 23-9. Read More

• ReFRESH conf. goes West, emboldens pastors, leaders

  by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Wednesday, March 09, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  Photo submitted

  LAS VEGAS (BP) -- Erosion starts when hard-baked earth is scuffed by a worn boot or perhaps a random gust of wind. In time the indentation can become a gully, ditch, channel and valley. Eventually, it could grow to a deep canyon, noted award-winning National Geographic photographer Ken Jenkins.

  "Destruction approaches slowly but it always leaves a trail," said Jenkins, who punctuated his presentation of spiritual erosion with some of his photography -- that included images of the Grand Canyon -- at the recent ReFRESH in the West Conference at Hope Church in Las Vegas. It was the first ReFRESH conference in the western U.S., an event expanding across the nation to come alongside pastors and church leaders, to help encourage them in their ministry. Read More

• Steve Gaines to be SBC president nominee

  by David Roach, posted Wednesday, March 09, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention, former SBC President Johnny Hunt announced today (March 9).

  "When Steve Gaines shared his prayer journey he and [his wife] Donna had travelled, I was touched by his clear call to allow himself to be nominated," Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., wrote in a news release stating his intention to nominate Gaines during the SBC annual meeting June 14-15 in St. Louis. Read More

• Montana exec Fred Hewett announces retirement

  by Art Toalston, posted Wednesday, March 09, 2016 (8 years ago)

  

  BILLINGS, Mont. (BP) -- Fred Hewett, executive director of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention, has announced he will retire after the convention's annual meeting in October.

  Hewett, 62, who has led Montana Baptists for nearly nine years, made the announcement March 4 in Billings during the two-day M-Pact Montana Conference for church ministry in today's culture. Read More

• ERLC conference to address cultural engagement

  by Tom Strode, posted Wednesday, March 09, 2016 (8 years ago)

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Gospel-centered cultural engagement will be the theme of the third national conference sponsored by the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

  "Onward," the ERLC's 2016 National Conference, will be held Aug. 25-26 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville. Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: Leaders wanted

  by Terry Dorsett, posted Wednesday, March 09, 2016 (8 years ago)

  Terry Dorsett, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New England, underscores the need for leadership in families, churches, organizations and government. Leaders willing to make courageous godly choices "can save families, churches and economies," Dorsett writes. Read More