Monday, September 21, 2015

• FIRST-PERSON: It's time to increase our Cooperative Program giving

  by Ronnie Floyd, posted Monday, September 21, 2015 (9 years ago)

  SPRINGDALE, Ark. (BP) -- SBC President Ronnie Floyd notes that each church's ministry budget is key to Southern Baptists' Cooperative Program missions and ministries in fulfilling the Great Commission. The Cooperative Program, he notes, "is something every church can support financially regardless of the size of their membership." Read More

• Prayer woven in NAMB's strategy to plant churches

  by Tobin Perry, posted Monday, September 21, 2015 (9 years ago)

  

  NEW YORK CITY (BP) -- A total of 1.6 million people call the New York City borough of Manhattan home. It's undoubtedly one of the most densely populated -- and most influential -- areas in the world. Just 25 years ago less than 1 percent of Manhattan's midtown population considered themselves evangelicals. In the late 1980s that led the borough's pastors to their knees in prayer. Read More

• WMU: More than ever, pray for IMB missionaries

  by Julie Walters, posted Monday, September 21, 2015 (9 years ago)

  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- As International Mission Board personnel who are eligible for the organization's voluntary retirement incentive prayerfully consider God's leading, Woman's Missionary Union leaders are calling for more intense prayer and support for Southern Baptist missionaries.

  "Ongoing, focused prayer for our missionaries has always been a foundational component of missions discipleship through WMU," said Wanda S. Lee, executive director of national WMU. Read More

• Scholars reflect on history of Christian persecution

  by S. Craig Sanders, posted Monday, September 21, 2015 (9 years ago)

  

  LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Scholars from around the world gathered at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to discuss the history of Christian persecution at the 9th annual conference for the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies.

  "As the church of Jesus Christ in the 21st century, we do not operate from a position of strength, but that's a good thing," said Andrew Fuller Center research associate Jeff Robinson in a concert of prayer for the persecuted church that culminated the Sept. 15-16 conference in Louisville, Ky. Read More

• Baptists 'not threatened' by pope's U.S. visit

  by David Roach, posted Monday, September 21, 2015 (9 years ago)

  

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- As Pope Francis visits the U.S., Southern Baptist leaders say they stand with his statements of biblical morality but urge Catholics to reject the Vatican's official teaching on salvation in favor of a personal relationship with Christ by faith alone.

  Russell Moore, president of Southern Baptists' Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, hopes Francis will speak to key moral concerns being debated in the public square during his Sept. 22-27 U.S. visit. Read More

• House OKs PPFA defunding, abortion survivors bills

  by Tom Strode, posted Monday, September 21, 2015 (9 years ago)

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. House of Representatives voted Sept. 18 to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of the release of undercover videos providing evidence the organization trades in baby body parts.

  On the same date, the House also approved legislation to protect babies who survive abortions. Read More