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Archives For November 30, 1999

The people in our new neighborhood

ib2newseditor —  July 28, 2016
South Loop of Chicago

South Loop of Chicago.

My wife, Cindy, and I have moved to a new home in a mid-rise building in Chicago’s South Loop. Relocating from the Uptown neighborhood where we lived the past two years, this feels like a new mission field. We’re approaching the community as missionaries.

Our seven-year old Australian Shepherd, Yabbo, has proven an effective missionary in his own right. He provides the opportunity to initiate conversations easily. In keeping with the breed, Yabbo is well mannered, charming, and appreciates attention. With Yabbo’s help, Cindy and I have begun to meet the wide variety of people in our mission field and to engage them in conversation. We’re learning what is important to them, how they think, and who they are.

Among our new neighbors are a 60-something couple who moved in a week after we did from a nearby condo. They waited two years for the right place in this building to hit the market. We’ve met a cautious 60-something mother and her hard-charging adult daughter who live together. One woman is single-again in her 40s and has an energetic, vocal small dog. Another couple, in their early 30s, has daughters who are ages three years and four months.

“Who are the people in the neighborhood?” Engage them in conversations. Common ground becomes an opening for the gospel.

If the condo association permits us, we’ll host monthly Sunday brunches as a means of getting to know our neighbors and develop relationships with them. Our objective is to bless our neighbors. We believe, deeply, that the place we live should be better because Jesus-followers are here. We seek to add value to their lives.

The relationships we develop will provide conduits for the gospel and opportunities for disciple making. We’re confident that some will hear the gospel for the first time. Others may have heard the gospel, but have never understood how it applies to their daily lives.
Our hope is that a new community of believers—a church—will emerge from the new believers and those who seek to grow in Christ-likeness.

Regardless of whether we’ve lived in the same place for decades or just moved some place new, we all have the opportunity to listen and learn. Ask as they do on Sesame Street, “Who are the people in the neighborhood?” Engage them in conversations. Common ground becomes an opening for the gospel. And we can begin to make disciples while going about our daily lives.

– Dennis Conner is IBSA’s Church Planting Director for the Northeast Region.

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MIO Devotions: Day 7 People Groups

Lisa Misner —  September 19, 2015

This is the Week of Prayer for the Mission Illinois Offering. Pray for our missionaries and that we will reach the $475,000 statewide offering goal.

Nearly one out of every seven Illinois residents is an immigrant to the United States. Nowhere is cultural diversity more evident than in Chicagoland: 53% Anglo, 22% Hispanic, 18% African American and 7% Asian/ Pacific Islander.

The metro area is also home to a large number of second-generation churches and church plants—congregations reaching out to the children of immigrants.

Pray: For John Yi, an IBSA church planting catalyst in Chicago, as he works with second generation churches who are doing the challenging work of sharing the gospel across cultural boundaries.

Pray also for church planters working to start congregations to reach the state’s numerous people groups, from Effingham, where Tony Munoz helps start new churches among the Hispanic population, to Chicagoland, where planters including Eric Aidoo (Bolingbrook), Cody Lorance (Aurora) and Zhenjun Wang (Clarendon Hills) seek to reach West Africans and East Asians.

Take time to pray today

Mission Illinois Offering – Real Church, Real Faith

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering at IBSA.org/mio. #mio2015

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MIO Devotions: Day 6 IBSA Staff

Lisa Misner —  September 18, 2015

This is the Week of Prayer for the Mission Illinois Offering. Pray for our missionaries and that we will reach the $475,000 statewide offering goal.

Whether they travel the state for conferences and training events, or specialize in behind-the-scenes work from Springfield, IBSA staff members are called to one mission: helping equip church leaders for missions and evangelism.

Pray: For IBSA executive director Nate Adams and IBSA’s five teams: Church Communications, Church Consulting, Church Cooperation, Church Planting and Church Resources.

Pray for staff members who are often on the road: for Sylvan Knobloch as he helps improve the spiritual health of churches; for Steve Hamrick as he guides church leaders in the areas of worship and technology; and for Rex Alexander as he leads the state’s 1,600 Disaster Relief volunteers.

Pray for leaders who work alongside IBSA staff to equip individuals and churches in areas including chaplaincy (Dan Lovin) and prayer (Phil Miglioratti). Pray also for Philip Hall (Lake Sallateeska) and Nick Candler (Streator) as they direct ministries at IBSA’s two camp facilities.

Take time to pray today

MIO: Reaching College Students

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering at IBSA.org/mio. #mio2015

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MIO Devotions: Day 5 Across the State

Lisa Misner —  September 17, 2015

This is the Week of Prayer for the Mission Illinois Offering. Pray for our missionaries and that we will reach the $475,000 statewide offering goal.

Chicago isn’t the only place in need of more churches. New churches are effective at reaching new people, but the work is challenging: Muslims now outnumber Southern Baptists in Illinois.

Nearly 1 million people live in Metro East St. Louis, but in the region there’s only one Southern Baptist church for every 7,889 residents. The state’s northern region has 10 counties with no IBSA church.

Pray: Ask God to call more Illinois leaders into church planting, and surround them with partnering churches to encourage and support their work.

Pray for Van Kicklighter as he leads IBSA’s Church Planting Team, and for church planting facilitators Charles Campbell (Southern Illinois), Eddie Pullen (Metro East) and John Mattingly (Northwest Illinois).

Take time to pray today

Mission Illinois Offering – Against All Odds

Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering at IBSA.org/mio. #mio2015

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MIO Devotions Day 3: Our Big Mission Field

Lisa Misner —  September 15, 2015

This is the Week of Prayer for the Mission Illinois Offering. Pray for our missionaries and that we will reach the $475,000 statewide offering goal.

Our Illinois mission field is broad, diverse, exciting…and sometimes daunting. The state is a temporary home to 925,000 college students, some who have never heard the gospel. Pray for campus ministers and their volunteer teams as they work to make a difference in the lives of students.

Pray: For Chet Cantrell as he influences elementary and high school students at the Christian Activity Center in East St. Louis, where more than 50% of households are below the poverty level and the CAC’s after-school program serves as a safe haven for hundreds of kids.

IBSA staff members help churches realize their missions potential, even when it takes them outside the state. Remember Carmen Halsey as she works with congregations on women’s ministry and missions, and Bob Elmore as he facilitates short-term mission trips to countries like Haiti, Jamaica and Guatemala.

Take time to pray today


Mission Illinois Offering – Our Big Mission Field


Learn more about the Mission Illinois Offering at IBSA.org/mio. #mio2015

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Why Mission Illinois?

Lisa Misner —  September 7, 2015

COMMENTARY | As a state association of almost a thousand churches, we challenge one another every year to give a special offering in support of the Great Commission task we share here in Illinois. While September is the focused time for emphasizing the Mission Illinois Offering, churches or individuals can give at any time during the year.

But if you’re like me, someone appeals to you every month, perhaps every day, to give to a different need or cause. How do you decide what to prioritize in your giving? What deserves your most loyal and generous support? Let me share what I try to communicate consistently about why I give generously to the Mission Illinois Offering, and why I urge others to do the same.

  • First, I want my giving to be focused on delivering the Gospel.
  • Second, I want my giving to prioritize the work of local churches.
  • Third, I want my giving to partner with those who believe and teach Baptist doctrine.
  • Fourth, I want my giving to be entrusted to people and organizations that are both effective and accountable.

Nate Adams

Frankly, the Mission Illinois Offering gives me one of the best, most trustworthy channels available for meeting all four of those criteria. Here’s why I prioritize it in my own personal stewardship:

The MIO is focused on delivering the Gospel. Each year, more than 300 IBSA churches receive customized training in evangelism, and many others receive resources or financial assistance with evangelistic events. In addition, more than 80 evangelistic church plants are currently underway in Illinois, about 25 being started each year, each one pressing the Gospel into urban neighborhoods or unreached communities and seeing new people come to faith in Christ. Our shared missionary efforts on college campuses or through urban ministries like the Christian Activity Center all deliver the Gospel as their top priority.

The MIO prioritizes the work of local churches. There are many good parachurch organizations and charities that are doing many good things, and I personally support some of those. But I believe that God’s primary, enduring channel for delivering the Gospel and making disciples is the body of Christ expressed in local, New Testament churches. The MIO helps deliver direct assistance and encouragement to local churches through training, consultation, conflict resolution, and countless other resources designed to strengthen local churches into greater effectiveness.

The MIO partners with those who believe and teach Baptist doctrine. In addition to parachurch groups, I believe there are many other churches, especially evangelicals, who are also advancing the Gospel and making disciples. If resources were unlimited, I would probably support them all!  But I want to reserve my most generous missions giving for the efforts of missionaries and church planters and pastors and churches who understand and teach the Bible and at least its broad doctrines consistently with Southern Baptists around the world and across the generations.

And finally, the MIO is entrusted to those who are both effective and accountable. Every year Illinois Baptist churches elect boards and committees that oversee the work of IBSA. Devoted staff members are employed to work hard at the above priorities, and to deliver detailed, public reports of the results, the finances, and the continued needs of our cooperative work advancing the Gospel. I can always know how my MIO dollar is invested and what results it is producing.

Illinois is a flat state geographically, but the task of advancing the Gospel and establishing effective Baptist churches here is often a steep, uphill climb. It’s only possible through the sacrificial, cooperative giving of Baptist people in Baptist churches. I hope the above answers to the question, “Why Mission Illinois?” will give you the same strong motivation I have again this year to give generously through the Mission Illinois Offering.

(If your church does not collect a formal Mission Illinois Offering, you can still contribute directly by going to www.ibsa.org and clicking on the “donate” tab. Or mail your gift labeled “MIO” directly to IBSA at 3085 Stevenson Dr., Springfield, IL 62703.)

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

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Mission Illinois Offering: Give

Lisa Misner —  August 31, 2015

Q. Why should I give to the Mission Illinois Offering? My church already gives to missions through the Cooperative Program. And we give to Annie and Lottie. Should I give to Mission Illinois too?

MIO: GiveA. Good question. The Mission Illinois Offering is the most direct channel Illinois Baptists have to support the missions in our state that are really important to us here. 

While Cooperative Program is the most balanced method of supporting national and international missions, planting churches in the US and Canada, and preparing missionaries and ministers, it is special offerings like Annie, Lottie, and Mission Illinois that encourage special mission work that touches our hearts.

The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions helps the North American Mission Board (NAMB) focus on church planting, especially in the 32 metropolitan “SEND Cities” largely unreached with the gospel. And the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering gives International Mission Board (IMB) workers tools they need on foreign mission fields.

But it’s the Mission Illinois Offering that funds mission work close to home. Our denominational partners have their responsibilities, and we have ours. Illinois is our mission field. And Illinois’ 8 million (or more) lost and unreached people are our responsibility.

They’re our neighbors, and they need Jesus.

Through the Mission Illinois Offering, we are guaranteed that our giving to missions will reach our mission field with the gospel. As IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams has pointed out, there are many good missions works we can support, but through MIO, we can be certain that—

  • Mission Illinois encourages the work of local congregations. Through equipping and mobilization, IBSA is a partner with your church.
  • Mission Illinois carries the gospel with all its mission work. Not only is there the compassion ministry in downtrodden communities, children’s ministry, collegiate outreach, church planting among unreached people, and aid after disaster, Mission Illinois shares Christ in every setting where IBSA missionaries serve.
  • Mission Illinois is built on solid Baptist doctrine. We gladly work in the larger evangelical world, but we are Baptists and we hold to sound Baptist beliefs. Mission Illinois is the outward expression of our Baptistic commitment to the Great Commission, starting right here in Illinois.

Will you encourage your church to give generously to state missions through the Mission Illinois Offering? Our neighbors are counting on it.

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What Jonathan Edwards meant by ‘extraordinary prayer’

Meredith Flynn —  October 27, 2014

And why it matters to Baptists now

HEARTLAND | Eric Reed

After his election as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd has called Southern Baptists to prayer, but not just any prayer—extraordinary prayer. The phrase is not original to Floyd, as he stated from the start. It’s almost 300 years old.

Credit Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan preacher with poor eyesight who often read from a manuscript his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

Floyd adopted the term “extraordinary prayer” from a book by Edwards called “An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People, in Extraordinary

Prayer, for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, Pursuant to Scripture Promises and Prophecies Concerning the Last Time.” (Titling was not their strong suit in the 18th century.)

But what did he mean by extraordinary prayer?

The 2014 IBSA Annual Meeting theme is Mission Illinois: A Concert of Prayer. For more information, go to IBSA.org/ibsa2014.

Mission Illinois: A Concert of Prayer is the theme of the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Illinois Baptist State Association. For more information, go to IBSA.org/ibsa2014.

From Zechariah, Edwards drew a picture of prayer that would result first in revival of the church, then awakening and regeneration of lost people. “God’s people will be given a spirit of prayer,” Edwards wrote, “inspiring them to come together and pray in an extraordinary manner, that He would help his Church, show mercy to mankind in general, pour out his Spirit, revive His work, and advance His kingdom in the world as He promised.

“Moreover, such prayer would gradually spread and increase more and more, ushering in a revival of religion.”

Edwards offered an example he had witnessed personally. In 1744, a group of ministers in Scotland called on believers to engage in prayer. “They desired a true revival in all parts of Christendom, and to see nations delivered from their great and many calamities, and to bless them with the unspeakable benefits of the Kingdom of our glorious Redeemer, and to fill the whole earth with His glory.”

The group pledged to pray every Saturday evening, Sunday morning, and all day on the first Tuesday of each quarter—for two years.

During that time, many churches were renewed. In one town alone, 30 groups of young people formed and committed themselves to prayer for revival. Buoyed by the results, the ministers sent 500 letters to pastors in New England urging their own two-year commitment.

Edwards noted: “Those ministers in Boston said of this proposal: ‘The motion seems to come from above, and to be wonderfully spreading in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and North America.’”

And they extended the two-year pledge to seven years of prayer.

Edwards, who with George Whitefield and others, was at the heart of the First Great Awakening, cited prayer as vital to the movement of God’s spirit in the colonies.

Extraordinary prayer sidebar

 

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Messengers called to pray at Springfield annual meeting

Meredith Flynn —  October 6, 2014

Revival in churches and spiritual awakening needed in Illinois

NEWS | Eric Reed

ConcertofPrayeropenartweb_edited-2“It is good for us to draw nigh unto God in prayer,” Charles Spurgeon urged his contemporaries 150 years ago. “Our minds are grieved to see so little attention given to united prayer by many churches.”

His words sound familiar today.

“I believe we need to cry out to God for spiritual awakening in our state, and for revival in our churches,” said Nate Adams, executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association, calling on messengers to the IBSA Annual Meeting to come prepared for a “Concert of Prayer.”

“I believe many pastors and church leaders across Illinois are working tirelessly every week, with Great Commission hearts and toward Kingdom purposes. I know our IBSA staff are,” Adams said. “Yet our impact is not keeping pace with the increasing lostness of Illinois.

“So at the Wednesday evening session of this year’s Annual Meeting, we are choosing to focus less on what we have been doing, and more on asking God to do what only He can.”

The call for prayer for revival and spiritual awakening in Illinois, in development over a period of months, appears to be part of a larger work God is doing among Southern Baptists. Seemingly independent of each other, special prayer meetings have arisen in several neighboring states.

And SBC President Ronnie Floyd called pastors together for prayer on several occasions prior to his election. “No great movement of God ever occurs without first being preceded by the extraordinary prayer of God’s people,” Floyd said.

“I really believe that the real key to the future of our entire nation and the church of Jesus Christ in America and beyond is if the United States, the church of the United States has a major spiritual awakening.”

The state of our state

The entire Annual Meeting will be permeated by prayer, leading to a special Concert of Prayer on Wednesday evening. Following the pattern in Isaiah 6:1-8, messengers will be guided through a cycle of prayer:

  • Lament
  • Repent
  • Intercede
  • Commit

“We don’t lament anymore,” Adams observed. It’s not characteristic of evangelical culture to identify our sins and wail over them as the Jews do, or to pound our chest as the Orthodox do. Given the grievous sins of our culture and our nation today, a period of lament will require that we identify them, then think about them for a while before rushing to repentance.

The Isaiah cycle leads pray-ers to repent of their own sins and the sins of the nation, as Isaiah did when confessing the “unclean lips” of himself and his people.

A season of intercession for the lost will bring the needs of Illinois before God and His people, and ultimately, the need for God’s people to commit afresh to renewal of their service and seeking the salvation of lost people.

The musical group Veritas will help guide the phases in the Concert of Prayer, with seasons of worship at the beginning and end.

“Frankly, it’s uncomfortable for me personally to devote the core of our IBSA Annual Meeting to worship and prayer time where we simply gather and ask God to move in our hearts,” Adams said. “I’m a planner and a doer, and our Wednesday night sessions are usually well programmed. But this year our primary program is prayer. May the Lord honor our desire to hear specially from Him.”

For a complete preview of the IBSA Annual Meeting and Pastors’ Conference, go to www.IBSA.org.ibsa2014.

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Gifts that keep on giving

nateadamsibsa —  September 29, 2014

HEARTLAND | Nate Adams

Years ago when I worked in Christian magazine publishing, one of my jobs was to help write headlines for our subscription promotions. Almost every Christmas, we would go back to the tried and true headline, “Give the gift that keeps on giving.”

With one act of generosity you could send your gift recipients magazines several times throughout the coming year. It was a gift that allowed people to give over and over and over again.

In the days ahead, I believe that principle of year-round giving is something that we as Illinois Baptists need to apply more and more to the needs of our Illinois mission field. For one thing, those needs are now greater than ever.

Nate_Adams_blog_calloutAs I mentioned in my last column, North American Mission Board funding shifts have necessitated that IBSA absorb full responsibility for our state WMU and Women’s Ministry Director, for other missions positions and initiatives that are not specifically church planting, and for funding that assists local associations. We have also received notice that areas such as collegiate ministry, urban ministry centers, and disaster relief coordination will not be funded by NAMB in future budget years.

With Cooperative Program giving from churches currently about 4% lower than last year, it will be difficult to sustain many of these important ministries unless there is a substantial increase in gifts through the Mission Illinois Offering.

The “season of prayer” and emphasis on Illinois missions has traditionally been in September of each year. Thank you in advance for the gift you may have already given through your church this past month! But here are three additional ways that Illinois Baptists can think, pray and give through the Mission Illinois Offering, throughout the year.

1. Starting in 2015, IBSA will provide Mission Illinois Offering promotional materials starting in January, giving your church the option of promoting and receiving an offering for Illinois missions at any time during the year. This will also allow churches that have an annual missions conference to access videos and other information about Illinois missions at any time during the year.

2. Whether your church receives a formal Mission Illinois Offering or not (about half of IBSA churches do not), individuals can now give directly to the Mission Illinois Offering at any time during the year, though the IBSA website. Simply go to http://www.IBSA.org and choose “Give to MIO” from the Donate menu. This option will be especially helpful to those seeking to make an additional, tax-deductible gift before the end of the year.

3. Through the Baptist Foundation of Illinois, you can set up your own “Family Giving Fund,” sometimes referred to as a donor advised fund. It’s like a savings account for your or your family’s charitable giving. You can place money in the fund with BFI, and decide later the non-profit causes to which you want to disperse those funds.

Perhaps you want to save in order to help with the next disaster relief effort in the state. Or save to send Christmas gifts to students at the Christian Activity Center or the Baptist Children’s Home. Or maybe you want to invest in the statewide ministries of IBSA that I mentioned above, simply by directing your fund to the Mission Illinois Offering. For help setting up a
Family Giving Fund, simply contact Doug Morrow at the Baptist Foundation of Illinois (doug.morrow@baptistfoundationil.org or 217-391-3102).

Year-round giving isn’t for everyone, but if you are one of the Illinois Baptists whose heart God is stirring to give more than once a year, I hope one of these year-round options will help you do just that. Your gift to missions in Illinois is one that keeps on giving, even into eternity.

Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association.

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