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  • Messianic speaker underscores discipleship
    by David Roach, posted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (12 years ago)

    REVISED Monday, July 2, 2012.

    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Discipleship is the key to healthy, effective churches, Sam Nadler said June 16 during the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship's annual meeting at First Baptist Church in Kenner, La.

    "The undiscipled believer is a dysfunctional member of the body. Discipleship is what makes you functional in the body of Messiah," said Nadler, president of the North Carolina-based Word of Messiah Ministries. Church members who go through the motion... Read More

  • Bedouin tent at SBC inspires Great Commission prayer
    by Don Graham, posted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (12 years ago)

    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Jill Welton quickly discovered that the Bedouin tent inside the convention center wasn't a marketing gimmick. It was a place for prayer and reflection.

    Welton, a pastor's wife from Berryville, Va., had come to New Orleans for the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting and visited IMB's booth in the exhibit hall.

    "Some of the nicest people I've ever met are Muslims.... They're actually more open to talk about religious things than many Christians in the United States."

    --Luke Bray

    The prayer tent, which dominated IMB's display, was modeled after the desert dwellings of the nomadic Bedouin tribes of North Africa and the Middle East. It was created to inspire SBC messengers to deepen their commitment to be Jesus' heart, hands and voice, following Him in obedience to the Great Commission no matter the cost.

    It featured five stations that focused prayer on Jesus' commands in Matthew 16:24-25 for believers to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Him.

    Welton was overwhelmed by the words of Karen Watson, a Southern Baptist worker martyred in 2004 in Iraq. Before Watson went overseas, she penned a letter to be read by her pastor in the event of her death.

    Excerpts of the letter were displayed at one of the prayer stations: "When God calls there are no regrets.... To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected, His glory is my reward."

    "I wrote down every word," Welton said. "I'm going to print it up and post it in my cubicle at work because it is incredibly inspirational."

    Two years ago, Welton helped her husband Van start Apple Valley Baptist Church in Berryville. The congregation averages about 40 people on Sundays. She said the prayer tent was a good reminder that success isn't measured in numbers but in obedience.

    "It's so easy to get caught up in the world's idea of success, and when you don't think that you fit that mold, you may see yourself as a failure," Welton said. "And I think that's a good way for me to encourage my husband as pastor of a small, growing church." Read More

  • Chinese discuss outreach beyond their churches
    by Whitney Jones, posted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (12 years ago)

    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Chinese pastors are working to reach outside the traditional church setting to reach fellow Chinese in America and start new churches.

    "If you want to win a Chinese to be a Christian, the friendship is the most important," Peter Leong, president of the Chinese Baptist Fellowship, said during the group's June 19 meeting in New Orleans in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting.

    "When we're talking about a friendship," Leong also noted, "eati... Read More

  • Seminary luncheons draw alumni, guests
    by Staff, posted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (12 years ago)

    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Campus updates and award presentations highlighted the alumni luncheons hosted by Southern Baptist Convention seminaries June 20 during the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

    Following are reports from the luncheons:

    NEW ORLEANS -- Beautiful weather, good food, good music and Christian fellowship created a celebratory atmosphere during New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's Alumni and Friends Picnic held on the school's main campus. The event started with an out... Read More

  • Black network elects officers, gives awards
    by Diana Chandler, posted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (12 years ago)

    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- The Black Southern Baptist Denominational Servants Network installed officers and gave awards to four individuals during its meeting prior to the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

    The group discontinued the office of executive director, stating that the late Sid Smith, the network's founder, had established the group so well that there is no longer a need for the position.

    "He was able to put us in a position where we don't need an executive director now," said Wil... Read More

  • Filipinos look toward cross-cultural missions
    by Vicky Kaniaru & Emily Grooms, posted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (12 years ago)

    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Filipino Southern Baptist leaders focused on strategies for church planting and training disciples for cross-cultural international missions via tent-making during their June 19 meeting held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans.

    "If we want to do missions the same way we have been doing missions in the past, we can never reach the world with the Gospel," Nono Badoy, executive director of the Philippines Missions Mobilization M... Read More

  • Korean Council draws 800 to annual meeting
    by Sharon Mager, posted Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (12 years ago)

    LINTHICUM, Md. (BP) -- About 800 people from 600 Korean Baptist churches in 40 states including Alaska and Hawaii gathered for the Council of Korean Baptist Churches' annual meeting. Read More

  • Ezell: bivocational pastors are SBC's 'Iron Men'
    by Mickey Noah, posted Monday, June 25, 2012 (12 years ago)

    Photo by John Swain
    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Called the "Iron Men of the SBC," some 180 bivocational pastors and their wives from 17 states attended the third annual Bivocational Luncheon Wednesday, June 20, during the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans. The luncheon was sponsored by the North American Mission Board. Read More

  • NAMB, at SBC, spotlights spiritual need of North America
    by Adam Miller, posted Monday, June 25, 2012 (12 years ago)

    NEW ORLEANS, La. (BP) -- Last year at the 2011 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix, Matt Mowrey took the stage as a testimony to God's work in Norwich, Conn., through North American Mission Board (NAMB) missionary Shaun Pillay.

    This year Southern Baptists saw video of Matt's dad who, shortly after watching last year's presentation, became one of Norwich's newest believers. Recently, Matt's grandmother also accepted Christ.

    During the NAMB report and presentation at the 2012 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans, NAMB President Kevin Ezell highlighted the importance of ongoing and sustainable efforts, like those in Norwich, in penetrating lostness in North America.

    "We're not planting churches that will make a difference for a week or a month or a year," Ezell told messengers. "We're planting churches that will continue to reach people year after year after year."

    To highlight the need for more churches in North America, Ezell offered a historical glimpse into the SBC's nearly two centuries.

    "When we started back in 1845, we started churches at a great pace. By 1900 there was one church for every 3,800 people," Ezell said.

    He added: "Today there are two different North Americas. One very well churched and one that's not."

    Ezell shared that some Southern states have one SBC congregation for every 1,400 people. But in Canada there is one church for every 117,000 people. In the northeast United States, the numbers aren't much better. Read More