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  • November 30, 1999

Archives For November 30, 1999

Leaders to address multi-cultural challenges

ib2newseditor —  October 28, 2016

Missions opportunities to highlight gathering in Metro Chicago

Final preparations are under way for the 110th IBSA Annual Meeting November 2-3. The event at Broadview Missionary Baptist Church in metro Chicago will focus on cross-culture ministry opportunities in Illinois. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Jeff Iorg, president of Gateway Seminary of the SBC, called Golden Gate Seminary prior to its relocation from the San Francisco Bay Area to metro Los Angeles this year.

“Dr. Iorg is among the most compelling, thoughtful, and missional voices in Southern Baptist life today, especially when it comes to understanding post-Christian culture in America,” said IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams. “I’m so grateful that he is leading our West Coast seminary into the future, where pastors and leaders will engage values and cultures that are already very different from those of the past century.”

I hope this year’s Annual Meeting will bring to all of us a new vision and higher level of commitment to ‘cross culture’ with the gospel.

Iorg is a former church planter and state convention executive director in the Pacific Northwest. As a leader of Southern Baptist work on the West Coast, Iorg has addressed many of the cultural challenges now facing evangelicals in the Midwest. He has written frequently on theological and biblical perspectives on marriage, sexuality, and gender. His book “Building Antioch” shows from the New Testament how an ordinary believing congregation can become a transformational community.

“Illinois Baptists will come away from Dr. Iorg’s messages challenged and transformed, I’m sure,” Adams said.

The Wednesday evening session, including Iorg, will focus on a four-phase process for engaging ministry across cultural barriers. Adams will outline the plan and share testimonies and videos of Illinois churches carrying the gospel to people unlike themselves.

“My own recent trips to Chicago have reminded me again how diverse our churches are, and even more so how varied and challenging are the cultures that our churches need to reach,” Adams said. “I hope this year’s Annual Meeting will bring to all of us a new vision and higher level of commitment to ‘cross culture’ with the gospel.”

IBSA President Kevin Carrothers, pastor of Rochester First Baptist Church and Vice President Adron Robinson, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Country Club Hills, will also bring messages.

In addition to the session on the variety of ministry opportunities in Illinois, the meeting will include two business sessions on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. Vision tours of Chicago-area ministry opportunities are available. Seating is limited, so online registration is encouraged.

Visit www.IBSAAnnualMeeting.org to learn more.

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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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Cubs v. Cardinals and underdogs

Lisa Misner —  November 2, 2015

Nate AdamsHEARTLAND | As I visit churches from one end of the state to the other, I’ve learned that there is one question that can divide a congregation into camps faster than any question of theology or worship style or even politics. “Are you all Cardinals fans or Cubs fans?”

Now I owe a nod of respect to White Sox fans too. But while the Cubs and the Sox are constant cross-town rivals, the competitive focus this year has definitely been the division race between the Cardinals, the Cubs, and yes, the Pirates, as these NL Central teams ended the regular season with the three best records in baseball. And once the Cubs dispensed with the Pirates in their one-game, wildcard playoff, the stage was set for something that, unbelievably, had never happened before, a Cardinals/Cubs playoff series.

Who was I cheering for? Well, I’m one of those unusual guys that likes both teams. During my baseball-card-collecting boyhood years in Southern Illinois, Cardinal stars like Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, and Orlando Cepeda were my heroes. When we later moved to the northwest suburbs of Chicago, WGN drew me in to the wonderful Wrigley world of Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, and Harry Caray. We have two great National League teams to cheer for here in Illinois!

But when it came to the historic 2015 Division Series, I had to pull for the Cubs. You see, the Cardinals win a lot. Over the past twenty years, the Cards have only missed the postseason seven times. The Cubs have only made it to the postseason four times. The Cubs haven’t been in a World Series since 1945, and haven’t won it since 1908. That’s the longest championship drought of any North American professional sports team. IBSA was a year old when the Cubs last won the World Series.

Call them “lovable losers” if you must, but I simply call the Cubs perennial underdogs, that I believe one day will win. While I enjoy the Cardinals’ success, there’s this part of me that identifies strongly with the underdog Cubbies.

You see, as a Christian in today’s culture, and even as a Baptist in Illinois, I often feel like an underdog. I often feel that my message, the Gospel, and my life’s values, anchored in the Bible, are not “winning” in the culture these days, no matter how hard I try or how deeply I believe. I often feel like I’m playing on a team for whom winning is always postponed into the future.

Now let me hasten to say that feeling that way doesn’t discourage me, really. And it doesn’t ever truly threaten my commitment to God, to His Kingdom, to the fulfillment of the Great Commission, and yes, to the Baptist family.

It doesn’t matter if the world or the culture considers me a winner. But every now and then, when a worship service is especially powerful, or a mission trip is especially helpful, or I see someone respond to the Gospel and enter eternity—I realize that we are winning. And I remember that being true to the team, the Kingdom, that ultimately wins is so much more important than any measure of temporal success.

I guess that’s why I enjoyed seeing the Cubs win a postseason series, even over the Cardinals, and even though they were dismissed by the Mets in four straight games shortly thereafter. It gave me just a taste of the victory that has always been promised for “next year.” And it encouraged me to keep playing hard and staying faithful to teams that sometimes get labeled lovable losers, but that one day will be truly and eternally victorious.

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

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One pastor’s exit interview

Meredith Flynn —  February 6, 2014

Mark_Warnock_blog_calloutCOMMENTARY | Mark Warnock

I resigned in December from my church, First Baptist Columbia, to return to my home state of Florida. God has burdened me with the vast lostness of South Florida, and impressed upon me a duty to be closer to my aging parents. I’m moving down to join a church planting movement in South Florida, and to shine my little Gospel light in that darkness.

This move brings to a close 17 years of ministry in Illinois – six-and-a-half years in Chicagoland, and eleven years in the Metro East. I leave behind a host of people at my church and throughout the state that I love and respect. As I leave Illinois, I see both a lingering challenge and a great hope.

The primary challenge I see is the same one the church faces everywhere: selfishness. On a personal level, a church level, and a denominational level, we must fight constantly the Satanic gravity of our own selfishness that wants to make our lives all about us, our churches all about us, and our denomination all about us.  Jesus our Savior came not to be served, but to serve, and He calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and to follow Him.

God formed a church to be a light to the world, for His glory. He has graciously allowed us to cooperate as a denomination to pool our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission, for His glory. So to the leaders in Illinois: Do not stop calling us outward, to the lost. Remember Luke 15, and the priority of God our Father: “…there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

This fight to keep our eyes outward is not in vain, because there are signs of hope everywhere. Here are three I see:

Planting churches. I learned during my time at Columbia that one key to a healthy church is a steady stream of new converts. Like families, which continue to exist only if new babies are regularly born into them, churches begin to die without new spiritual life, and denominations begin to die without new churches.

I’m encouraged that God is calling men and women to devote their lives to starting new churches, and that IBSA is giving great priority to new church starts all across the state. Even more, I’m encouraged that increasingly, established IBSA churches are beginning to discover the joy and adventure of partnering with, supporting and working alongside church plants for the advancement of the Gospel.

Thinking students. I began teaching high school students at IBSA’s Super Summer in the late 90s. Many of the students I had in the early years are now pastoring or leading in churches across our state. I have been consistently impressed with the quality of the students in Illinois. They are passionate about the Gospel, hungry to be taught, and eager to love God with their minds. If our churches fail to equip our students with a clear understanding of the Gospel and the intellectual tools to be apologists in a hostile culture, we are in deep, deep trouble. The good news is that when presented with the challenge, our students – our future leaders – consistently rise to it.

A saving God. The real reason I have hope for the Gospel in Illinois and in South Florida? God keeps saving people. In my Monday night men’s group in Columbia, God kept saving some of the most unlikely men. In my first Sunday at my new church in West Palm Beach, I met a woman who came to church without an invitation, just stirred by the Spirit, and not knowing why she was there. She came to faith that week.

Consider Jesus’ answer to the scribes in Mark 2:17 who asked why He was eating with unlikely dinner guests – sinners and tax collectors. “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

No one is as passionate as our God to save sinners like us.

So to my colleagues in the Gospel across Illinois: Thank you for 17 years of friendship and love. Don’t lose heart. Let your light shine in the darkness. Keep speaking of Jesus. Keep fighting the good fight. Keep holding out the Gospel, because our God is willing and mighty to save.

Mark Warnock formerly served as associate pastor of First Baptist, Columbia.

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Disaster Relief response to storm expected to extend to December

Meredith Flynn —  November 13, 2012

Editor’s note: The IBSA Pastors’ Conference and Annual Meeting begins today, November 13, in Decatur, Ill. Check back here for updates, or follow along on Facebook.com/IBSA and Twitter.com/IBSA.

THE BRIEFING | Two teams of Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are serving now in the hurricane-ravaged Northeast U.S. IBSA’s Rex Alexander reported that a flood recovery team from Three Rivers Association is serving in the hard-hit North Oyster Bay area of Long Island, where they’ll assist with mudout and chainsaw projects.

A feeding team of 31 people from Illinois also is in New York this week, serving on Staten Island. The team, representing 21 Illinois churches and 14 local associations, will replace a Kentucky Baptist team and use that state’s kitchen trailer already in place.

“I was very encouraged that we put together such a large team in about two days when we were asked to replace the Kentucky volunteers,” Alexander said. He’s already received a request to be ready to replace the team with more volunteers next week.

The Illinois workers join a strong Disaster Relief response that’s been at work in New York and New Jersey since immediately after Hurricane Sandy devastated the area. Southern Baptist volunteers have provided 670,000 meals so far, and leaders are preparing for an extended, multi-faceted response, said national DR coordinator Fritz Wilson.

“Although we’ve been told by New York officials that some of our kitchen operations may consolidate in the state, they told us to expect to continue providing meals into December,” Wilson told Baptist Press.

Close to 900 Southern Baptist volunteers from 27 states and Canada continued to provide ministry with shower trailers, mud-out and clean-up crews, and home repairs. Wilson is providing leadership from the New York and New Jersey incident command centers hosted by Raritan Valley Baptist Church in Edison, N.J. A second NAMB mobile incident command center is in transit to the church.

The Sandy response will also include childcare provided by Disaster Relief volunteers, with units en route from Ohio and South Carolina. Planning continues to allow college students to use their holiday breaks to voluntarily serve in the affected areas.

For more on the Disaster Relief response to Hurricane Sandy, go to NAMB.net/dr.

-With information from Baptist Press

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