Stronger Churchers

ib2newseditor —  September 17, 2016

Mission Illinois Offering Week of Prayer Day 7

MIO-box-smallStrong ministry depends on strong churches. More than 20,000 times each year, IBSA trains leaders in worship, evangelism, discipleship, missions, and more. For pastors and leaders who find these to be especially challenging times for their churches, IBSA’s zone consultants are experts in church health and growth who are nearby and available to help. One example is Sylvan Knobloch who has led and lifted up pastors in his 35 years with IBSA. He urges churches to consider the needs of others first and to engage a process of rejuvenation.

Another team member is Brian McWethy, a church planter and pastor in Amboy who is serving as zone consultant in the northwest corner of Illinois. That region, including Rockford and the Quad Cities, has fewer churches than any other part of Illinois, and the few churches there need strength and encouragement.

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering

Pray for church health director Sylvan Knobloch, and for team leader Pat Pajak and IBSA’s consultants in ten zones who serve to build up pastors and churches across Illinois.

Watch IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams in “Our Frontier State.”

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Reaching unreached people in Illinois

ib2newseditor —  September 16, 2016

Mission Illinois Offering Week of Prayer Day 6

MIO-box-small75% of Illinois’ 13 million people don’t know Jesus Christ. Almost 2 million residents are from outside the U.S. and many more have not understood their need for salvation. In Chicagoland, for example, “every block is a different world, every community is a different community with different races, different beliefs,” said Kenyatta Smith, planter and pastor of Another Chance church in Chicago’s Inglewood neighborhood.

In an area filled with killing and violence, Smith is dedicated to bringing the hope of God back into this community and offering people “another chance” just like he got, through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And he’s planting a second congregation in nearby—but very different — Evergreen Park.

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering

Pray for spiritual awakening in Illinois, and the unreached people who live in our state.

Watch Kenyatta Smith’s story, “Reaching unreached people in Illinois.”

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IBSA conferences and camps

ib2newseditor —  September 15, 2016

Mission Illinois Offering Day 5

MIO-box-smallHundreds of children, teens, and church leaders visit IBSA’s camps at Streator and Lake Sallateeska. Whether for a quiet spiritual retreat, or a fun week filled with games and summertime activities, these sites are home to many fond memories. And many young people have come to know Christ and have committed to ministry. The missions camps challenge students to think about mission work locally and worldwide. And worship and leadership conferences held at Christian colleges train teens to be leaders in their own churches.

“People who might not be as receptive in another setting are open to hearing the gospel” in a camp or retreat setting, Mike Young said of the Streator camp.

Pray for expansion of our camp facilities and programs, Steve Hamrick who leads student music conferences, camp directors Philip Hall and Mike Young, and the staff and volunteer leaders of Super Summer and other life-changing experiences.

Watch this slideshow of students enjoying their camping experience at Streator and Lake Sallateeska Baptist Camps.

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Students on mission in Chicago

ib2newseditor —  September 14, 2016

Mission Illinois Offering Devotion Day 4

MIO-box-smallLily Ohl grew up thinking Chicago is a scary place. But the 17-year-old from Sherman found during ChicaGO Week that many people were open to hearing the Gospel. Each summer, teens travel to the city and assist church planters in reaching their communities. They learn firsthand how new churches are started and get practice sharing Christ. “It’s a big city, but people are willing to listen and you can really change a life,” said Ohl.

Showing students the value of planting new churches is just one way IBSA is leading efforts to reach America’s third largest city, where less than 10% of people are affiliated with an evangelical church.

Pray for the salvation of Chicago, and IBSA’s Chicagoland church planting team: Tim Bailey, Dennis Conner, Jorge Melendez, and John Yi.

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering at missionillinois.org.

Watch Lily Ohl’s story, “Students on mission in Chicago.”

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Briefing: Genocide of Middle East Christians, transgender bill applied to churches

ib2newseditor —  September 13, 2016

The BriefingGenocide of Middle East Christians ignored
Nearly six months after Secretary of State John Kerry declared the murder of Christians in the Middle East a “genocide,” Westerners are doing little to stop the killings, said activists gathered for a convention on the victims’ plight. Religious freedom advocate Katrina Lantos Swett called the crisis “perhaps the great moral challenge of our time right now.”

Transgender bill applied to churches
A Massachusetts government commission is claiming churches may be subject to the state’s transgender restroom bill. At issue is a document stating, “Even a church could be seen as a place of public accommodation if it holds a secular event, such as a spaghetti supper, that is open to the general public. All persons, regardless of gender identity, shall have the right to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of any place of public accommodation.”

Kaine predicts change in Catholic view of same-sex marriage
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine spoke about his evolution on the issue of same-sex marriage, and predicted that the Catholic Church would eventually change its views on the matter. “But I think that’s going to change, too … And I think it’s going to change because my church also teaches me about a creator in the first chapter of Genesis who surveys the entire world including mankind and said it is very good, it is very good,” he said.

ESV becomes ‘unchanging’ Word of God
The English Standard Version (ESV) received its final update this summer, 17 years after it was first authorized by Crossway, its publisher. The translation oversight committee changed just 52 words across 29 verses—out of more than 775,000 words across more than 31,000 verses—for the final “permanent text” edition. The board then voted, unanimously, to make the text “unchanged forever, in perpetuity.

Cross Point’s Pete Wilson resigns
Citing his exhaustion and personal brokenness, Pete Wilson, senior pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, and author of Plan B, shocked his congregation when he announced his resignation from the church he founded. As the church celebrated its 14th anniversary and America remembered the terror attacks of September 11, Wilson told his congregation that he was no longer fit to lead.

Sources: Religion News, Baptist Press, NBC News, Christianity Today, Christian Post

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Mobilizing volunteers worldwide

ib2newseditor —  September 13, 2016

Mission Illinois Offering Devotion Day 3

MIO-box-smallThis spring seven Illinois women set aside their daily responsibilities for a week and said “yes” to a call to South Asia. There they worked with Muslim women. Team member Lindsay McDonald said it was a very dark and oppressed place, “but I think in the darkness, we were also allowed to see hope.” Even in a place of persecution, women raised their hands wanting to become followers of Christ.

“We went expecting to see certain things and then God delivers the unexpected!” said Carmen Halsey.

IBSA aids churches in sending more than 22,000 people each year to serve on mission teams, in their communities and around the world.

Pray for IBSA’s Carmen Halsey and Dwayne Doyle and the teams they help train. And pray for your church’s involvement in missions.

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering

Watch Lindsay McDonald’s story, “Mobilizing volunteers worldwide.”

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Ministering to Students

ib2newseditor —  September 12, 2016

Mission Illinois Offering Week of Prayer Devotion Day 2

MIO-box-smallTeens and college students today are seeking an authentic faith that leads to real life change. Through discipling events and campus ministry, IBSA missionaries and churches are doing their part to help kids understand that they are loved by God.

The biggest IBSA evangelism effort each year is Youth Encounter, held simultaneously at three locations on Columbus Day weekend. Junior high and high school students listen to well known bands, hear the gospel presented by dynamic speakers, and have the opportunity to respond to Christ. At YE 2015, more than 1,500 students attended, with 109 salvation decisions at the Decatur location alone. “My hope is that next year we would be able to have even more people,” said Erin Willis at the Chicago location.

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering

Pray for Mark Emerson and the Church Resources team who lead this work. Pray for the salvation of young people in your church and statewide.

Youth Encounter 2016 is Sunday, October 9, 2016 from  3 – 9 p.m. in Chicago, Decatur and Marion. Find out more at www.IBSA.org/ye2016.

Watch the slideshow below to see photos from YE 2015.

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The Midwest Takeover

ib2newseditor —  September 8, 2016

The Midwest has been big this summer. Big enough that we in our office coined the phrase, “The Midwest Takeover,” as a way to describe how Baptist leaders from our region have been significantly more visible than in recent years.

The takeover started with the new slate of officers elected at the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis: An Illinois pastor and three Missourians were chosen to fill national SBC posts, while an Iowan will head up next year’s Pastors’ Conference.

Then, Sandy Wisdom-Martin, who led Illinois Woman’s Missionary Union before moving to Texas, was chosen to lead National WMU.

There’s even evidence of a Midwestern swing in the national election, as Indiana Governor Mike Pence works to bring solid, traditional values to Donald Trump’s controversial campaign.

Our region isn’t the buckle of the Bible Belt…but God can do things people say can’t be done, like growing a church in the Midwest.

The national election has crystallized the need for “Midwestern values,” as the culture shifts in ways most thought it never would, and as leadership we can be proud of seems hard to come by.

In the SBC, the election of Midwestern leaders may well represent a new day for the denomination. One with the understanding that Baptist thought and doctrine isn’t just rooted in the Deep South, and that while traditionally SBC-strong states have much to offer in the way of ministry innovation, so do “pioneer” regions.

Like Illinois, where FBC O’Fallon pastor and newly elected SBC First Vice President Doug Munton has served for more than 20 years. He is strong in his support for the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ chief method for funding ministry and missions. But he’s also honest about the challenges of pastoring in a suburban community made even more transient by its proximity to Scott Air Force Base.

Midwestern leaders understand the challenges Baptists face in a changing world, because they’ve met those challenges as workers in regions with few evangelical churches. Our region isn’t the buckle of the Bible Belt, Munton told the Illinois Baptist in May, but God can do things people say can’t be done, like growing a church in the Midwest.

We usually think of pioneers as starters, people who are willing to do hard, unheard-of things—impossible even—for the sake of a better future.

As the work of sharing the gospel and making disciples gets more difficult, this influx of the “pioneer spirit” could be just what the SBC needs.

– MDF

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Briefing: Pro-family champion Phyllis Schlafly dies, missionary arrested under Russian anti-evangelism law

ib2newseditor —  September 6, 2016

The BriefingPhyllis Schlafly, ‘Founding mother’ of the modern conservative movement, dies at 92
Phyllis Schlafly, best known for her tireless work to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment, has died at the age of 92. “Phyllis Schlafly courageously and single-handedly took on the issue of the Equal Rights Amendment when no one else in the country was opposing it,” said James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. “In so doing, she essentially launched the pro-family, pro-life movement.”

SBC leaders grieve court’s expansion of parenthood
The decision by New York’s highest court to expand custody and visitation rights to “de facto parents” serves as evidence same-sex marriage advocates desire to overthrow humanity’s oldest institution and as part of “a major turning point in human history,” Southern Baptist leaders said.

Chicago homicides in 2016 reach 500
Chicago’s 500th homicide of the year happened over Labor Day weekend, according to the Chicago Tribune. That number carries a lot of weight for the city — not just in quantity, but in meaning: 2016 is now the deadliest year in two decades.

‘Sad’ Russian anti-evangelism law ends a ministry
Independent Baptist missionaries Donald and Ruth Ossewaarde always suspected their Gospel ministry in Oryol, Russia, wouldn’t last when they began in 2002. But they did not expect Donald to be among the first people arrested under Russia’s new law prohibiting organizations from evangelizing outside church walls and without a government permit.

Missouri sends first openly lesbian to Miss America Pageant
Miss Missouri, Erin O’ Flaherty, will compete for the Miss America crown this weekend as the first openly lesbian contestant. “Behind the scenes, we’ve been well-represented, but I’m the first openly gay title holder, so I’m very excited,” she told The Associated Press. “I knew going in that I had the opportunity to make history. Now I get to be more visible to the community and meet more people.”

Sources: Baptist Press, Religion News Service, CNN, Baptist Press, Time Magazine

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Investing in churches

ib2newseditor —  September 5, 2016

MIO-box-smallNow is the time of year when most Illinois Baptist churches are preparing to promote and receive the annual “Mission Illinois Offering,” which is devoted to advancing the gospel among more than eight million lost people, right here in our state.

Most of the time when we describe our mission priorities here in Illinois, we talk about the desperate need for new churches, especially in northern Illinois, and in large, lost cities like Chicago. And indeed, the MIO is helping start about 25 new churches every year.

And many times we talk about the vast and strategic mission field of Illinois college campuses, where thousands and thousands of tomorrow’s American and international leaders are being trained, often with little or no exposure to the gospel. The MIO supports collegiate ministries too, on more than two dozen campuses.

MIO supports our greatest missionary asset: the local church.

Your gift through the Mission Illinois Offering also helps support the Christian Activity Center in East St. Louis, and human need ministries like disaster and hunger relief, and IBSA-coordinated mission trips from Illinois to the ends of the earth.

But I received a promotional e-mail the other day that reminded me we often don’t talk enough about one of the most important ministries that the MIO makes possible—the ongoing investment of our missionaries and staff in the health and evangelistic growth of IBSA churches. Local churches are our greatest missionary asset as Illinois Baptists, and our investment in their health, growth, and leaders is as important as planting new churches, reaching college campuses, or meeting human and spiritual needs.

Watch the video, “Turn on the Light,” to learn more about why Nate Adams supports the Mission Illinois Offering.

The e-mail was from a church consulting firm. It offered training over a 3-day period on topics like church health models, conflict resolution, overcoming barriers to church growth, and individual church leader development. I thought to myself, ‘That’s what our staff does all the time!”

IBSA carefully measures our staff’s time investment in training and consulting with local churches. Consistently we have had direct consultation with 750-800 churches each year. Considering that ministry is delivered primarily by about 20 traveling staff, that means each staff member is serving an average of 40 churches, all year long!

But what really caught my attention about the church consulting firm’s letter was the cost of its 3-day training—$950 per student, with a minimum of 15 students. That would be over $14,000 for three days of help. To do that for 800 churches would cost more than $11 million. Our Mission Illinois Offering goal this year is $475,000.

I realize that’s not a precise apples-to-apples comparison, since Cooperative Program giving also funds our state mission work, and since IBSA does far more than training and consulting. But I hope it makes the point for you that it made for me. Every IBSA church has a staff of church health and growth consultants at its disposal, and their help is valuable! Your church’s gifts through the MIO and CP enable that staff to be available for your and hundreds of other IBSA churches—week in and week out.

Sometimes it’s awkward to ask for financial support. And maybe it’s a little easier to ask churches to support church planting and missions than to point to the “return on investment” that churches also receive through training and consulting. But if you stop and think about the value of what your church both receives and provides for other churches through your state missions giving, I hope it will make you want to give a truly generous gift through the Mission Illinois Offering this year.

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering and Week of Prayer September 11-18 at MissionIllinois.org.

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

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