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Archives For November 30, 1999

SBC pre-registration urged for messengers and guests

ib2newseditor —  June 3, 2016

Messengers, exhibitors, and guests to the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis must be registered and properly badged for entrance into the general sessions June 14-15. Messengers and guests can register online by clicking on the Messengers/Guest tab at
sbcannualmeeting.net.

The SBC constitution and bylaws were amended last year to broaden messenger representation. Each cooperating church that contributes to convention causes during the preceding fiscal year now automatically qualifies for two messengers; previous rules allowed for one messenger.

Additionally, the convention will recognize 10 additional messengers from a cooperating church under one of the following options:

  • One additional messenger for each full percent of the church’s undesignated receipts contributed during the fiscal year preceding through the Cooperative Program, and/or through the Executive Committee for convention causes, and/or to any convention entity.
  • One additional messenger for each $6,000 the church contributes in the preceding year through the normative combination of the Cooperative Program, designated gifts through the Executive Committee for convention causes, or to any SBC entity.
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Encouragement is the aim at SBC women’s meetings

ib2newseditor —  June 2, 2016
AnitaRenfroeCopy

Anita Renfroe

Christian comedian and communicator Anita Renfroe, will be the keynote speaker for two events for ministers’ wives at the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis.

Based on the theme, “Be Encouraged,” women’s events will include a Ministers’ Wives Luncheon, a Pastors’ Wives Conference, and a Women’s Expo that will be open prior to both events.

“A lot of churches are smaller churches, and ministers’ wives may not receive the encouragement they deserve,” said Vickie Munton, president of this year’s Ministers’ Wives Luncheon and the wife of FBC O’Fallon pastor Doug Munton.

“We hope this luncheon will help them feel encouraged and that they are not alone.”

Renfroe has been featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “Dr. Phil,” CBS’s “The Early Show,” Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” and many other media outlets. Millions of people have viewed her YouTube video of her singing everything a mother says to her children in a single day to the tune of “The William Tell Overture” in just two minutes and 55 seconds.

She is also the author of “DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU: Kids, Carbs, and the Coming Hormonal Apocalypse.”

The luncheon is Tuesday, June 14, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Marriott St. Louis Grand-Majestic Ballroom. Luncheon tickets are $15 and can be purchased at www.lifeway.com/n/Product-Family/Ministers-Wives-Luncheon or by contacting Munton at dougmunton@gmail.com.

Renfroe also will speak during the Pastors’ Wives Conference, held during the morning session of the Pastors’ Conference on Monday, June 13, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Other speakers include:

• Selma Wilson, executive leader of organizational development at LifeWay Christian Resources, on “Owning Your Development”
• Trillia Newbell, director of community outreach at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, on “Leaning Into Our Changing Culture”
• Missionary Reese Ripken, on “Missional Matters in the Persecuted Church”
• Anne Graham Lotz, a speaker and author who is the daughter of evangelist Billy Graham, will lead in a prayer time based on her book, “The Daniel Prayer.”

The conference will be hosted in the Marriott St. Louis Grand-Majestic Ballroom. There is no cost for the event and registration is not required. Women who serve in any facet of local church leadership, missions and denominational work are invited to attend.

Pastors’ Wives Conference organizer Susie Hawkins emphasized her hope that Southern Baptist wives can get to know each other better.

“Southern Baptist men always know each other, but women not so much,” she said. “We want to pray and worship together, and to really encourage women in their roles as ministers’ wives.”

WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting

Sharing Christ by all means is the focus of this year’s Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting, June 12–13. The meeting’s theme — By All Means — is also WMU’s emphasis for 2016–2018. The impetus for this theme is found in 1 Corinthians 9:22b–23: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

“This new emphasis in WMU challenges us to follow Jesus’ example … to step into the world around us, cultivate relationships, and create opportunities to demonstrate the love of Christ,” Wanda S. Lee, executive director of national WMU said. “Then, by all means, let’s share Christ with those waiting to hear.”

On Sunday there will be a reception in honor of Lee as she retires later this year following 20 years of service through national WMU — 16 years as executive director and four years as president.

Speakers will include Jeff Iorg, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary; Sebastian and Erin Vazquez, international church planters; Goldie Francis, an International Mission Board worker; Travis Kerns, a missionary serving with the North American Mission Board in Salt Lake City; and Katie Orr, author and pastor’s wife. Iorg’s book, “Unscripted: Sharing the Gospel as Life Happens,” will be the emphasis book for WMU in 2016–2017.

Get additional information about the meeting at wmu.com/missouri.

With reporting from Baptist Press

 

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‘Live this’ way

ib2newseditor —  June 2, 2016

Pastors_Conference_Speakers

Pastors’ Conference to focus on evangelism

The 2016 SBC Pastors’ Conference will explore a charge given by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:5-6:

“But as for you, be serious about everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close.”

“I don’t think anybody can deny that we are at an all-time low in evangelism,” said Pastors’ Conference President John Meador, who chose “Live This” as the conference theme. “I don’t think anyone can deny that no one is going to change this unless that pastor does. And because of those truths, I think this Pastors’ Conference is critical and crucial.”

The conference, which begins the evening of Sunday, June 12, features eight speakers preaching on the key Scripture passage (left to right, above):

• Jack Graham, pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas
• Greg Laurie, pastor, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Riverside, Ca.
• James MacDonald, pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel, Chicagoland
• Byron McWilliams, pastor, First Baptist Church, Odessa, Texas
• Noah Oldham, pastor, August Gate Church, St. Louis
• David Platt, president, International Mission Board
• Jimmy Scroggins, pastor, Family Church, West Palm Beach, Fla.
• Ed Stetzer, executive director, LifeWay Research

During the Monday afternoon session, pastors are invited to breakout sessions with conference speakers and other leaders on how to equip and encourage church members in evangelism.

The Pastors’ Conference, June 12-13 at the America’s Center in St. Louis, is free and requires no advance registration. Childcare for children ages birth through 12 years will be offered during all conference sessions. Kids ages 4-12 may register for a conference provided by Children’s Conferences International at childrensconferences.com. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers also will offer childcare for newborns through age 5.

For more information about the Pastors’ Conference, schedule, speakers and worship leaders, go to sbcpc.net.

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Meet us in St. Louis: Everything you need to know (mostly)

ib2newseditor —  May 23, 2016

Meet_us_in_St._Louis

Online registration by messengers urged; big prayer meeting Tuesday night

Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd has clear objectives in mind for Baptists meeting June 14-15 in the Gateway City. When they depart from St. Louis, he told Baptist Press, he’s praying they will do so with a “deep burden for our nation, a new commitment to racial unity and an extraordinary commitment to evangelize America.”

Floyd, completing his second one-year term as SBC President, is planning the second-annual Convention-wide prayer meeting for the Tuesday evening session in St. Louis. “A National Call to Prayer for Spiritual Leadership, Revived Churches, Nationwide and Global Awakening” will feature SBC leaders and pastors, with music by Keith and Kristyn Getty, the composers of modern hymns including “In Christ Alone.”

“Here is what I know: If we do not plan to pray, we will not pray!” Floyd blogged in April.

“It is past time for us to prioritize prayer, both personally and in the church, as well as in our Southern Baptist Convention. For far too long, we have seen what we can do; it is time for us to see what God can do. This can only happen when we pray.”

The 2015 prayer meeting highlighted the need for racial unity and diversity in the SBC. In St. Louis, African American pastor Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., will participate in the prayer meeting and also in a Tuesday morning session titled “A National Conversation on Racial Unity in America.” Marshall Blalock, pastor of First Baptist Church in Charleston, S.C., also will join the conversation.

“With the racial unrest in St. Louis due to what happened in Ferguson in August of 2014, Southern Baptists will have a strong opportunity to represent Christ through Crossover ministry in the city,” Floyd said, noting the evangelistic effort prior to the Convention.

“I believe we will leave St. Louis with a powerful, strong, clear and encouraging testimony of the need for loving one another, regardless of the color of one’s skin.”

In addition to racial unity, the convention will include a panel discussion on pastors, churches and politics, and a Q&A session with SBC entity leaders, who will answer questions from messengers.

Meeting highlights

The North American and International Mission Boards will host a Sending Celebration to conclude the Convention Wednesday afternoon. NAMB also will launch “Send Relief,” an initiative to train church members to engage their communities with gospel-centered compassion ministries.

Prior to the convention, NAMB will host several ministry opportunities in the St. Louis area, including a partnership with First Baptist Church, Ferguson, Mo., to give away Backpacks of Hope and host a carnival for Ferguson children. Southern Baptist volunteers, in partnership with the Red Cross, will also go door-to-door to install free smoke detectors for Ferguson residents.

“We hope Southern Baptists can walk away from the convention this year knowing that there is a very attainable ministry that they can be involved with that will help them engage with and reach their community,” said David Melber, NAMB’s vice president for Send Relief.

The mission board also will operate mobile dental and medical clinics in St. Louis, and plans to make the units available to churches desiring to do similar ministry in their communities.

LifeWay Christian Resources will screen two movies during the Convention, including “The Insanity of God,” a documentary featuring real-life stories of persecuted Christians around the world. The film, produced by the International Mission Board, is based on the book of the same name by Nik Ripken.

“The Insanity of God” will be shown free of charge in Ferrara Theatre at America’s Center Monday, June 13, at 9 p.m. Tickets are not required, but seating will be limited. LifeWay Films will screen an additional movie following the Tuesday evening session.

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission will release the first three books in its “Gospel for Life” series in St. Louis. The 9-book series “aims to help the church in navigating through ethical and cultural issues,” said ERLC President Russell Moore. The first three books in the series focus on religious liberty, racial reconciliation, and same-sex marriage.

The SBC Exhibit Hall will once again include a Wellness Center hosted by GuideStone Financial Resources. The center will offer cholesterol and glucose screenings, as well as data to determine body mass index. Participants will receive a personalized report that is suitable to take to their family doctors, and on-site medical professionals will be available to discuss results.

GuideStone also will offer three seminars aimed at various audiences: “Retirement Income Solutions,” “Health Care Reform Impacts Your Church, Too,” and “The Struggle is Real: The Solution is Simple,” a seminar for younger investors. All seminars are free, space is limited. Visit GuideStone.org/SBC16 to register.

Business notes

In addition to the three candidates for SBC President (see page B-3), Illinois pastor Doug Munton has announced he will be nominated for the office of First Vice President. John Yeats, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, will be nominated for a 20th term as SBC Recording Secretary.

John Avant, pastor of First Baptist Concord in Knoxville, Tenn., will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference.

Several Baptists from Illinois have been selected for committees meeting during the Convention: Munton and Michael Allen, pastor of Uptown Baptist Church in Chicago, will serve on the Committee on Committees, which nominates members of the Committee on Nominations who, in turn, nominate trustees for the boards of SBC entities.

Dan Eddington, director of missions for Three Rivers Baptist Association, and Ric Worshill, a member of Crossroads Community Church in Port Barrington, will serve on the SBC Credentials Committee.

Online registration tools

Convention messengers can register online at sbcannualmeeting.net under the Messengers/Guests tab. To help ensure the orderly flow of attendees and enhance security of the convention hall, this year each messenger, exhibitor, and guest must be registered and properly badged for entrance into the general sessions June 14-15.

After completing online registration, each individual will receive an eight-digit registration code to present at the express registration lane. There, the code can be entered into a computer and a nametag will be printed.

Registration is also open for preschool child care, Giant Cow Children’s Ministries, Children in Action Missions Camp, and Youth on Mission in conjunction with annual meeting. All activities for children and youth will be housed at America’s Center. Youth who have completed grades 7-12 will begin their days at the convention center with worship before going into the community for hands-on mission projects.

Pre-registration is required and is available online at sbcannualmeeting.net under the Children/Youth tab.

The SBC Annual Meetings app is again available to Convention-goers, including a listing of speakers for the SBC Pastors’ Conference and SBC annual meeting, as well as the daily program schedule, daily events, exhibitor listing, convention center maps, 2016 Book of Reports and more.

For more information on the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention and the SBC Pastors’ Conference in St. Louis, as well as other meetings and events, go to sbcannualmeeting.net.

– From Baptist Press reports

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Listen to 1VP nominee Doug Munton’s interview with SBC This Week

ib2newseditor —  May 20, 2016
Dr. Doug Munton, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, Illinois

Doug Munton

Doug Munton, expected Southern Baptist Convention First Vice President nominee, is a featured guest on SBC This Week’s May 20 podcast. You can listen to the interview and learn more about his vision for the SBC and the Cooperative Program at sbcthisweek.com.

Munton, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, O’Fallon, Ill., announced April 26 he will be nominated for First Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The nomination will be made by John Marshall, pastor of Second Baptist Church, Springfield, Mo., during the SBC’s annual meeting in St. Louis June 14-15.

Munton, 56, has pastored FBC O’Fallon for more than 20 years, during which time the church has grown from 550 to over 1,600 people in average attendance and has baptized about 2,000 people. In the 2014-15 reporting year, the church gave just over 8% of budget receipts through the Cooperative Program—Southern Baptists unified method of supporting missions and ministry.

He served as president of the Illinois Baptist State Association for two years, and is currently on the SBC’s Committee on Committees. His wife, Vickie, is the president of the Ministers’ Wives Conference this year at the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis. The Muntons have four adult children and will soon have their seventh grandchild.

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Ready with a reason

ib2newseditor —  May 19, 2016

Crossover volunteers prepare for St. Louis

Steven_Glover[2]

Stephen Glover

Last summer, Steven and Robin Glover went home again—kind of. The Chicago couple and their children traveled to Columbus, Ohio, for the Southern Baptist Convention and Crossover, the annual evangelistic outreach held prior to the SBC.

Steven Glover, born and raised in Columbus, is an IBSA zone consultant in Chicagoland. His wife, Robin, is a writer and homeschool teacher to their four daughters. The Glovers lived in Ohio before moving to Chicago in January 2015, where Steven began a church planting internship at Uptown Baptist Church.

Each year before the SBC’s annual meeting, Uptown sends a team to work with a church in the convention host city. In Columbus, Uptown’s volunteers led a practicum on prayer, evangelism and discipleship at United Faith International Church. They gathered for training, then went out into the community to put into practice what they’d learned.

“Two groups comprised of 8-10 people targeted a neighborhood near the church for prayer walking as well as evangelism,” Steven said. “Upon arrival, the evangelism team had an immediate opportunity to share the gospel with young men hanging out in a local park who happened to be Muslims from Ethiopia.”

Glover and a man from the partnering church launched into an apologetics discussion with one of the young men who was interested in talking about his faith. They talked about Jesus, discussing the places where Islamic and Christian scriptures differed. “[We] took the opportunity to explain the purpose of Christ coming and the importance of his death, burial, and resurrection,” Glover said.

Nearby, his wife, Robin, and others on the team prayed for the conversation, even asking God for a break from the heat. “We were very hot and the sun was beaming down, so we prayed for a breeze,” she remembered. “Soon thereafter, there was a nice breeze and some light rain. The sun then returned to its work of warming.

“God was with us in Columbus. I was blessed to have joined him while he worked.”
Their Columbus experience gave the Glovers some advice for volunteers who will serve through Crossover in St. Louis.

“It is important that mission teams participating in Crossover 2016 be familiar with the demographic make-up of St. Louis,” Steven advised. “Through prior research, our mission team discovered that Columbus is known to have a large Islamic population, therefore, I brought with me a Quran (in English) to use in a witnessing conversation in order to establish the true identity and ministry of Jesus Christ.”

He referenced 1 Peter 3:15: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (KJV).

For a list of Crossover projects in Illinois, go to meba.org/crossover-st-louis-2016. Watch the Crossover St. Louis video at namb.net/crossover.

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Why you need to come to the SBC in St. Louis

ib2newseditor —  May 16, 2016

My history attending the annual Southern Baptist Convention is not as long or as deep as many. Occasionally I meet someone who will tell me, “This is my 40th SBC,” or “I haven’t missed a convention in 25 years.”

Though my father was a pastor and then director of missions, I didn’t attend my first SBC until 1992. That year the convention came to Indianapolis, as close as it had been in many years to the Chicago suburbs where we lived. A friend from church suggested going, “because it’s rarely so close.” Indeed, the SBC would not come within 500 miles of Chicago for another 10 years. So we went and took my dad along with us.

Little did I know that only five years later I would be flying to only my second SBC in Dallas, to be voted on as a vice president with the newly formed North American Mission Board. I haven’t missed an annual SBC meeting since then. This year, Lord willing, will be 20 in a row.

If you haven’t been to the convention before, or can’t go often, this is the year.

I share this personal history to say that I really do understand why the average person may not regularly attend the annual SBC. Unless there’s a controversy or crisis of some kind, the SBC is often left primarily to professionals who have travel budgets, and pastors who may direct part of their family vacation time there. Perhaps that’s why attendance at the SBC has only topped 10,000 three times in the last 15 years. Peak attendance during the conservative resurgence of the mid-1980’s was over 40,000.

But now, let me challenge you to attend the June 14-15 SBC in St. Louis this year. As my friend said, it will be years before it’s this close to Illinois churches again. If you haven’t been before, or can’t go often, this is the year.

More importantly, this year’s elections and other actions will be significant. It was announced just last week that Illinois’ own Doug Munton, pastor of First Baptist, O’Fallon, will be nominated as First Vice President. I’m really excited about that. I hope hundreds and hundreds of Illinois Baptists will be there to support this outstanding Illinois pastor for this national role.

The election for president this year also presents a significant choice between pastors with notable differences, not just in ministry experience, but in the areas of doctrinal conviction and missions cooperation. Illinois messengers will want to study these in advance of the convention, and arrive prepared to support the nominee who best represents not only their own churches’ practices and convictions, but also the direction that they feel is best for our Great Commission cooperation as Baptist churches in the future.

Normally Illinois ranks about 15th of 42 state conventions in the number of messengers it sends to the national SBC. But the last time the convention was in St. Louis (2002), Illinois ranked 5th, with 611 messengers from 193 churches. And in 1987, the previous time the SBC was in St. Louis, Illinois churches sent 1,373 messengers. Yet last year only 139 messengers from Illinois churches attended the SBC in nearby Columbus.

To encourage messengers to turn out in record numbers this year, IBSA will be hosting a reception for Illinois Baptists at the St. Louis convention center, on the Monday night following the Pastors’ Conference and just prior to the convention’s start on Tuesday morning.

Whether this year is your 40th SBC, or your very first, I hope you will make the SBC in nearby St. Louis a priority this year. What happens at the SBC is really up to folks like you and me.

Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.

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No ordinary election: What these SBC candidacies represent

ib2newseditor —  May 12, 2016

SBC_VotingWith another call to prayer for the redemption of America, another missionary commissioning, and another bunch of resolutions on national politics and the precipitous slide in our national moral values, this might appear to be another fairly predictable meeting when the Southern Baptist Convention convenes in St. Louis June 14-15.

It isn’t.

The more significant news from the convention is not likely to come from its political statements or from protests by cultural liberals outside the hall. What can be said about the run for the White House, same-sex marriage, or sexual identity that hasn’t already been said? It will be in the election of an SBC president to succeed outgoing Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd that messengers will signal a turn.

Floyd has issued a “national call to prayer for spiritual leadership” in the Tuesday evening session. Floyd is using the mid-America location to address issues at the spiritual heart of America, in particular the need for evangelism and spiritual awakening, and renewed efforts at racial reconciliation. (See “What are the three greatest challenges facing the SBC?”)

By the time of the prayer gathering, messengers will already have selected a new president—and perhaps a new direction. At this crossroads, signs point to missions funding, evangelism and theology, and the age of denominational leaders.

The most obvious turn could be generational. Only recently has the “greatest generation” of Southern Baptists handed off leadership to their children, the Baby Boomers born after World War II. The possible election of 43-year-old J.D. Greear over Steve Gaines, 58, or David Crosby, 63, would confirm the handoff to Generation X, or the Baby Busters. These younger leaders, born after 1964, have already assumed leadership of the Convention’s two missions boards.

Leaders have reported that the demographics of convention attenders have shifted younger over the past decade. The meeting isn’t as gray as it used to be, and that’s good news observers say. These younger Southern Baptists are making their presence known through Baptist 21, SEND conferences, and other venues aimed at Busters and their quickly advancing successors, the Millennials. Electing one of their own could hasten the transition.

“One of the things God has put on my heart is that my generation needs to take personal responsibility for the agencies and the mission boards of the SBC and not just think of them as the SBC’s, but think of them as ours,” said Greear in his nomination announcement.

A second turning point for the Convention is the future of the Cooperative Program. Implicit in the election of a president is endorsement of his view of CP funding for missions and Southern Baptist work, whether it is whole-hearted and longstanding, recently renewed as part of the Great Commission Resurgence, or newly embraced as one of many ways of funding missions. The three candidates for president all speak highly of the Cooperative Program, but their churches have notable differences in their historic support of CP and their current giving levels.

Crosby’s response to a question from the Illinois Baptist is enlightening: “As SBC president, I will not talk or act as if a return to the society method of supporting our cooperative work is progress.” (See “What are the three greatest challenges facing the SBC?”) At its foundation, this is what a church’s record of CP support demonstrates: Is missions giving through Cooperative Program the main way Southern Baptist churches fund missions, or rather one of many ways?

And third, simmering under the surface in this election is the role of election in salvation and the future commitment to evangelism in the SBC.

“Listen very carefully: We have criticized evangelism right out of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Floyd told the SBC Executive Committee in February. “Years ago, something happened where pastors and churches that reached and baptized people effectively came under the microscope of other Baptists who oftentimes did not have a heart for evangelism themselves. A culture of skepticism about evangelism began to creep into our Convention. Evangelism began to die.”

This culture shift was framed by some as evangelism versus discipleship. Evangelism was criticized as “easy believe-ism” while discipleship was elevated. Discussion of the “sinner’s prayer” at the 2012 Pastors’ Conference was followed by Executive Committee CEO Frank Page’s appointment of an ad hoc panel to address the rise of Reform Theology and whether Calvinists and “Traditionalists” as they were called at that time could peacefully coexist in the SBC tent.

Gaines was an outspoken supporter of the “sinner’s prayer” style of personal commitment at the time, while International Mission Board President David Platt, then pastor of Birmingham megachurch The Church at Brook Hills was critical of evangelism that emphasized acts of conversion, such as “walking the aisle” at church, over discipleship of new believers that emphasizes personal recognition of God’s call and sovereignty in their salvation.

This election brings up that question again. Gaines and Crosby have traditional views on evangelism and conversion, while Greear’s theology is Reform. The church Greear pastors is evangelistic, baptizing 928 in 2014, but it is also active in the Acts 29 Network of church planting, which expects its members to hold Reform views. And of the three candidates, Greear has the greatest support among the rising group of younger, Reformed pastors in the SBC.

These three issues—and the candidates holding different views on them—stand before Southern Baptists at the crossroads.

– Eric Reed is editor of the Illinois Baptist

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Illinois pastor to be nominated for SBC’s First VP

ib2newseditor —  April 26, 2016
Dr. Doug Munton, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, Illinois

Dr. Doug Munton, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, Illinois

Doug Munton, pastor of First Baptist Church, O’Fallon, Ill., announced April 26 he will be nominated for First Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Media release — Illinois Pastor Doug Munton to be Nominated for First Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention 

“I am excited to hear that Doug will be nominated for this national role, after experiencing his strong leadership here in Illinois as our state convention president and as longtime pastor of one of our leading churches,” said Illinois Baptist State Association Executive Director Nate Adams. “Doug has all the qualities I would hope for in SBC leadership. He is a conservative, cooperative, humble, thoughtful, missions-hearted pastor who will lead both as statesman and by personal example.”

The nomination will be made by John Marshall, pastor of Second Baptist Church, Springfield, Mo., during the SBC’s annual meeting in St. Louis June 14-15.

Munton, 56, has pastored FBC O’Fallon for more than 20 years, during which time the church has grown from 550 to over 1,600 people in average attendance and has baptized about 2,000 people. In the 2014-15 reporting year, the church gave just over 8% of budget receipts through the Cooperative Program—Southern Baptists unified method of supporting missions and ministry.

He served as president of the Illinois Baptist State Association for two years, and is currently on the SBC’s Committee on Committees. His wife, Vickie, is the president of the Ministers’ Wives Conference this year at the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis. The Muntons have four adult children and will soon have their seventh grandchild.

Asked about his reasons for allowing his name to be submitted in nomination, Munton said, “I want to see a continued move in our Convention towards racial diversity and unity. I want to encourage our churches to participate in missions through support of the Cooperative Program. I hope to encourage prayer for a spiritual awakening in our convention and nation.”

The 2016 Southern Baptist Convention will be held at the America’s Center in St. Louis June 14-15. The election for First Vice President is slated for the Wednesday afternoon business session.

Statements from and about Doug Munton, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, Illinois

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A National Call to Prayer for Spiritual Leadership, Revived Churches, and Nationwide & Global Awakening

ib2newseditor —  April 18, 2016

On June 14, the entire Tuesday evening session of the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention will be committed to praying for spiritual leaders, our churches, nation, and world. There, perhaps, has never been a time in our generation when we have needed to pray more than now.

The Greatest Night Ever

Testimonies poured in from across the nation after last year’s national call to prayer, where 7,000 Baptists cried out to the Lord together. A common testimony was, “This was the greatest moment I have ever experienced in a Southern Baptist Convention.” God was with us powerfully and everyone present knew He was!

2016AMLogo2016 National Call to Prayer

Last year was the first session, perhaps in our modern history, where an entire session of the Southern Baptist Convention was given to prayer. Due to the work of God among us last year, His present work today, the critical need of the hour in America, the state of our churches, the needs of our pastors, the status of our evangelism or lack of it, and the exponential lostness of the world while we are bringing home hundreds of our missionaries… it is time to pray.

Baptists need to pour into St. Louis by the thousands for this historic night of prayer. Those who can only attend this one night, please come. For the members of the 300 churches in the metro region of St. Louis, please come for this significant night.

Southern Baptists who are not able to come to St. Louis may join us as it is streamed live on the web at http://www.sbc.net.

3 Components of This National Prayer Gathering

1. Spiritual Leadership: We will pray for pastors and spiritual leaders in America… their lives, leadership, families, and ministries.

2. Revived Churches: We will pray for our churches in America… for racial unity in our churches and nation, and for the dry bones of spiritual life in our churches to come alive. Our God can turn any church around!

3. Nationwide & Global Awakening: We will pray for America… where we are in our nation spiritually, morally, politically, and for the next Great Spiritual Awakening in America as well as an explosion of the Gospel to bring about global awakening.

At the present time, the persons who will help me lead this gathering are listed below. Others may join us in leading as well. Pray for these persons by name, gather the people, and let’s come to St. Louis expecting God to move in our hearts so dynamically, people will say as they did in Acts 17:6, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”

2016-SBC-Call-to-Prayer.jpg

The above image is from the Pre-Convention issue of SBC LIFE, newsjournal of the Southern Baptist Convention. The print edition, published five times a year, is distributed free of charge to all pastors and will be mailed next week; the digital version is posted online and is accessible to everyone. Each issue contains vital information about our Southern Baptist ministries. If you do not receive SBC LIFE, click on the subscription tab at SBCLife.net to receive the print or access the digital version.

 – Ronnie Floyd is President Southern Baptist Convention. This article first appeared at RonnieFloyd.com.

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