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  • November 30, 1999

Archives For November 30, 1999

Imprisoned pastor’s wife accepts ERLC award in his place

Lisa Misner —  June 11, 2014
Naghmeh Abedini receives a standing ovation after accepting the Richard Land Award for Distinguished Service from the ERLC on behalf of her imprisoned husband, Saeed.

Naghmeh Abedini receives a standing ovation after accepting the Richard Land Award for Distinguished Service from the ERLC on behalf of her imprisoned husband, Saeed.

Baltimore | During the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission presentation, President Russell Moore presented awards to a woman whose husband is a pastor imprisoned for his Christian faith in Iran.

Saeed Abedini received the Richard Land Award for Distinguished Service for “faithfully serving the Lord Jesus Christ … despite the risk that was involved.” His wife Naghmeh accepted the award on his behalf and received a standing ovation from messengers.

“If Saeed Abedini can proclaim good news in the darkest Iran prison, surely American churches can mobilize for the nations,” Moore said.

Abedini was converted to Christianity from Islam and led house churches in Iran before moving to the United States. During a trip to Iran in 2012, he was arrested and sentenced to prison, subject to beatings and solitary confinement.

Later in his report, Moore drew attention to the ever changing American culture in which Southern Baptists are living. “Most basic principles of Christianity are going to sound increasingly strange and freakish to the culture around us,” said Moore.

He shared that the ERLC is working in government to defend Christian moral standards on issues like marriage and abortion. But “the primary vehicle for hope” is local churches who “seek the Kingdom in such a time as this,” Moore said, noting that churches should teach the culture how to think biblically about every issue. As they engage the culture though, churches should also issue a Gospel invitation to “whosoever will believe,” Moore said.

Moore also presented another award, the John Leland Award for Religious Liberty to the Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby stores.

The Green family is fighting in court the Obama administration’s abortion/contraception mandate requiring employers to provide health insurance covering medical technologies that can cause the death of an unborn child. The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on their case later this month.

With additional reporting from Baptist Press

In Baltimore 2014, SBC, Southern Baptist Convention
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Floyd edges past two others for SBC pres, no run-off

Lisa Misner —  June 10, 2014

Ronnie_Floyd_PCBaltimore | Messengers to the SBC Annual Meeting have elected Dr. Ronnie Floyd to serve as President of the Southern Baptist Convention. He received 51.62% of the vote in a three candidate race.

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY, nominated Floyd. Mohler said, “When Southern Baptists have needed Ronnie Floyd, he has always been there.”

Molher called Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, where Floyd is pastor, “evangelistic, faithful and innovative” and added that it is among the SBC’s top contributors to the Cooperative Program. Floyd has served in numerous SBC leadership posts, including chairman of the Great Commission Task Force, Mohler noted.

Floyd was one of the keynote speakers at the SBC Pastors’ Conference June 8-9 also at the Baltimore Convention Center. The only thing Southern Baptists should be known for is the “power and the glory of God,” Floyd said, urging preachers to make a commitment not to preach unless His glory is on them and they have heard from God.

In addition, he cautioned pastors about trying to be too “cool.” “Some of us have a heart to be so real with people that we just think if we’re cool enough, we’re going to get [the numbers],” he said. “We’re never going to be cool enough to win our towns, our rural settings, to win our cities, to win the nation, to win the world, to win the nations. We’re never going to be cool enough; the only thing that’s going to bring that is a binding movement of the spirit of God that comes only when we are going up to be with God.”

The two other candidates for SBC President, Dr. Dennis Kim and Pastor Jared Moore, received 40.70% and 5.91% each of the vote. 1.77% of the ballots were disallowed.

Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist in Arlington, TX, nominated Kim. “Could it be that God has sovereignly brought Dr. Kim into the life and legacy of the Southern Baptist Convention … for such a time as this?” McKissic asked. Global Mission Church in Silver Spring, MD., where Kim, a Korean American, is pastor, is thoroughly multicultural, McKissic said, adding that Kim would be the first SBC president not from the South. He called on messengers to vote for the candidate stating, “The election of Dr. Kim will signal our future.”

Bennie Smith, a deacon at New Salem Baptist in Hustonville, KY., where Moore is pastor, nominated Moore. “We are a small Baptist church, but I’m trying to speak for smaller churches,” Smith said. “The voice of an average person in our SBC would be valuable.”

Clint Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist in Charlotte, NC, was elected first Vice President of the SBC by acclimation — there were no other nominees.

Pressley was nominated by Pastor Ted Traylor of Olive Baptist in Pensacola, FL who said he was a “team player.”

Traylor also called the younger man, Pressley a “weight-lifting, Bible-preaching, sharp-dressing Southern Baptist.”

Pressley is known to wear a seersucker suit on at least one day of the convention each year.

5,001 messengers were registered when the vote for president took place, but only 3,553 messengers voted.

With additional reporting from Baptist Press.

 

In Baltimore 2014, SBC, Southern Baptist Convention
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