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Archives For February 28, 2013

IBSA Board affirms sending additional 2012 funds for national CP ministries

Meredith Flynn —  March 5, 2013
The IBSA Board of Directors votes to affirm sending an additional $31,392 for national Cooperative Program ministries.

The IBSA Board of Directors votes to affirm sending an additional $31,392 for national Cooperative Program ministries.

SPRINGFIELD | By Lisa Sergent

On Tuesday, the IBSA Board of Directors affirmed Executive Director Nate Adams’ decision to send an additional $31,392 to the SBC Executive Committee for national Cooperative Program ministries. The funds come from IBSA’s 2012 income over expenses, and bring the amount sent from 2012 CP receipts to the equivalent of 43.75%, the highest percentage in IBSA’s history.

IBSA currently sends 43.25% of its receipts through the SBC Executive Committee for Cooperative Program, the fifth highest among state conventions. Just prior to the affirmation vote, the Board voted to keep the Association’s 56.75%/43.25% split at the same level in 2014.

In his report to the Board, Adams said that, prior to the recent Great Commission Resurgence actions of the national SBC, Illinois had already begun gradually increasing its percentage of Cooperative Program funds sent on to national CP ministries. The down economy, combined with reductions in funding from the North American Mission Board, have led IBSA to hold its CP percentage steady.

“This gift from our year-end income over expenses gives us a way to continue that heart of giving more through CP to national and international SBC ministries,” said Adams. “It brings our total CP gifts for the year to the equivalent of 43.75%, a higher percentage than Illinois Baptists have ever sent beyond our state to national CP ministries.  We feel this is a creative way to help us manage reduced resources and still be generous as God provides.

“It will be my pleasure to send [SBC Executive Committee President] Frank Page a letter and a check, saying we are grateful to be able to do more this year.”

Board Chairman Duncan Locke said Adams was acting in the scope of his responsibilities in his decision to forward the extra 2012 funds, but had asked for “the full board’s affirmation.” Locke shared, “This is a testimony to the way our executive director is being used by the Holy Spirit to make decisions to do something that’s often unheard of, to give a little more.”

IBSA churches gave nearly $6.3 million to the Cooperative Program in 2012.

Look for additional coverage of the March 5 IBSA Board Meeting at the IBSA Building in Springfield in the March 25 issue of the Illinois Baptist.

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Week of Prayer for North American Missions: Day 3

Meredith Flynn —  March 5, 2013

Many Southern Baptist churches will mark the Week of Prayer for North American Missions this week. For more information about the week of prayer or the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, contact IBSA’s Missions team at (217) 391-3138.

NAMB WOP Missionary Peter YanesDay 3 – Peter and Irene Yanes
If anyone understands the impact church planting and evangelism can have on someone, it’s Peter Yanes. Born and raised in the islands of the Philippines, Yanes was in high school when a friend invited him to a Bible study hosted by a church plant. “That’s where I came to know Jesus Christ in a personal way,” he said. “Since then, there’s been no turning back.”

Yanes has a heart for church planting, which makes him the perfect fit for his role as a mobilization missionary for the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania/South Jersey. Based in Philadelphia, Yanes identifies and support planters and partners as they start and grow new churches, and works specifically to catalyze ethnic church planters to reach the growing number of people groups in the area.

Pray for more established churches to partner with ethnic church planters, reaching all nations for Christ.

Go to www.anniearmstrong.com/peteryanes to watch “Returning a Favor,” a video about a new Filipino church in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

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One year later, Harrisburg remembers tornado victims

Meredith Flynn —  March 5, 2013

Tuesday_BriefingTHE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

People filled the gym bleachers at Harrisburg High School Sunday evening, March 3, to honor eight victims of last year’s devastating tornado. WSIL-TV’s news cameras were there to capture the images: Local church leaders prayed and led in worship, and attenders sang “Bless the Lord, O My Soul,” a song that speaks of “10,000 reasons” to praise God.

Earlier that day, Pastor Chris Winkleman began his sermon at First Baptist, Harrisburg, with a few words about the storm. After his congregation sang “It is Well with My Soul,” Winkleman said, “I remember a year ago, we sang that song. I talked to you then about how it being well with your soul is really all that matters.”

Winkleman’s church lost one member – 22-year-old Jaylynn Ferrell – during the storm. Her mother Patty shared Jaylynn’s story during the service at Harrisburg High School. Two other members of IBSA churches, Lynda Hull of FBC Raleigh and Mary Osman of Walnut Grove Baptist, also were killed during the tornado.

“It might not be well with your home, it might not be well with your body, but I hope it’s well with your soul,” Winkleman told his church Sunday morning. “And that doesn’t change a year after a story, does it? That’s still our desire, isn’t it?

“For the folks in this room, for the folks in this town, for the folks in this world, that it would be well in their souls. …Only Jesus makes it well with our souls.”

-With information from WSIL-TV Harrisburg and the website of FBC Harrisburg

Other news

Attorney: Church bylaws should define marriage
The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to take up same-sex marriage and potentially legalize it this summer. In advance of that decision, churches should examine their bylaws and shield themselves from the impact of possibly litigation, said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for religious liberty organization Alliance Defending Freedom. “I think we’re in a day where every church needs to have a statement in its bylaws of its doctrinal beliefs on marriage and sexuality,” Stanley told Baptist Press. Read more at www.IBSA.org/IBeXtra.

Barna studies young Catholics
According to a new study, the Catholic church is facing the same struggle – keep young people in church – that has recently plagued Protestant denominations. A Barna study of 18- 29-year-olds with Catholic backgrounds found 56% report dropping out of church after attending regularly at one point. Among young Protestants, the dropout rate is slightly higher at 61%, Barna reports. But fewer Protestants (58%) report they’re less religiously active than they were at 15, compared to 65% of Catholic-raised young adults. Read more at Barna.org.

 

Hillsong’s ‘Zion’ album tops iTunes bestsellers
The newest worship album from Australia’s Hillsong United rose to #1 on iTunes’ top 10 list on the day of its release, Feb. 26. The album’s content is glaringly different than some of the material surrounding it on the list. A sample lyric from “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)”: “Your grace abounds in deepest waters. Your sovereign hand will be my guide.” Go to hillsongunited.com to listen to songs from Zion.

 

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Week of Prayer for North American Missions: Day 2

Meredith Flynn —  March 4, 2013

Many Southern Baptist churches will mark the Week of Prayer for North American Missions this week. For more information about the week of prayer or the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, contact IBSA’s Missions team at (217) 391-3138.

12-21LornaBiusDay 2: Lorna Bius
As a child, Lorna Bius watched her dad deliver groceries to a family in need. “I realize now that was the first time I saw LoveLoud in action,” said Bius, who now works with churches in the western U.S. seeking to serve their communities through acts of service.

LoveLoud is the North American Mission Board’s emphasis on community ministries like food pantries, after-school programs, and outreaches in apartment complexes. In Denver and other parts of the West, Bius is working to discover what churches are doing that’s working, and how to replicate it in other neighborhoods.

Pray God will provide key people who can help develop LoveLoud ministries in the most effective places, and that churches and ministries will be motivated to reach out to their communities like never before.

Go to www.anniearmstrong.com/lornabius to watch “The Castaways,” a video about a LoveLoud ministry to families in Reno, Nevada.

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Photographer Rutledge leaves legacy of really seeing people

Meredith Flynn —  March 4, 2013

HEARTLAND | Meredith Flynn

Don_RutledgePhotojournalist Don Rutledge, who chronicled Southern Baptist missions efforts for 30 years, died Feb. 19 at the age of 82. Many who knew and worked with him have written beautiful eulogies about his life, and his commitment to tell people’s true stories is evident in his pictures, of a poverty-stricken couple in Mississippi, Alaskan Eskimos in the Arctic Circle, inmates in a Filipino prison, and many more. (See a gallery of Rutledge’s work at IMB.org).

I never met Mr. Rutledge, but I’ve heard about his work many times. His name was one that often popped up in conversation, as I got more interested in photography and how pictures could communicate spiritual needs. When I read Erich Bridges’ column about his life, I was amazed at the things he accomplished – as a Southern Baptist! Here was someone who did so many of the things photographers dream about: he shot for top magazines (like Life and Look), served as a staff photographer for Black Star photo agency, and, with with pictures, helped tell the story of the Civil Rights struggle in the United States.

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In Soviet-era Siberia, 30 new Christians walk resolutely down a hill to be baptized in a river. “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back” were more than words for them. Photo by Don Rutledge for the International Mission Board

 

And then, Bridges writes, “At the height of his potential as a globe-trotting photographer, Rutledge left Black Star in 1966 to shoot pictures for the then-Home Mission Board in Atlanta.” He worked there until 1980, when he joined the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board). There, Rutledge played a key role in establishing The Commission magazine as a top publication, especially in its use of photography. Bridges writes, “His images helped millions to understand, pray for and participate in missions.”

Rutledge saw his ministry clearly. In his own words, from Bridges’ article: “I love photojournalism and enjoy using it as a worldwide Christian ministry,” he once wrote. “It forces me to see, to look beyond what the average person observes, to search where few people care even to look, to glance over and beyond my backyard fence. … It gives my ‘seeing’ a newness and a freshness as I work to communicate the Christian messages I want to convey. It helps me translate the national and international ministries into human terms by telling the story through people rather than through statistics.”

-With information from IMB.org

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