CP: 1.25 percent ahead of 2007 pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 1.25 percent ahead of the same time frame in February 2007. The year-to-date total of $88,174,995 for CP missions is $1,089,443 ahead of the $87,085,551 received at the same point in 2007. For the month, receipts of $20,475,432 were 3.74 percent, or $738,638, ahead of the $19,736,793 received in February 2007. Designated giving of $99,327,891 for the same year-to-date period is 6.27 percent, or $5,861,061, above gifts of $93,466,830 received at this point last year. The $60,282,863 in designated gifts received last month is $3,852,299 above the $56,430,564 received in February 2007, an increase of 6.83 percent. For the allocation budget, the year-to-date total of $88,174,995 is 105.49 percent of the $83,583,973 budgeted to support Southern Baptist ministries.
News anchor becomes full-time pastor
After 12 years at WCNC-TV in Charlotte, N.C., Chris Justice is leaving his post as evening news anchor in order to devote his attention to pastoring Lee Park Baptist Church in Monroe, a Southern Baptist congregation he helped grow from 50 to more than 500 people while serving as the church’s part-time pastor for two years. “The demands of the church brought on by the miraculous growth at Lee Park require that I transition out of television and into full-time ministry,” Justice said, according to a release by WCNC. “Clearly, I have been blessed with the opportunity to work at WCNC, but my calling is in the ministry and the blessings there have been just as clear,” Justice said. “My family has made great sacrifices over the last two years, and as much as I will miss my WCNC family, I am excited about also being a full-time husband and father.” – BP
Most kids in two-parent homes
Overall, 7 in 10 American children live in two-parent homes, about two-thirds live with two married parents, and about 6 in 10 children live with both biological parents, according to a recent analysis of statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The report, based on data collected in 2004, can be compared to stats from 1970 that found 85 percent of children were living with two parents and 11 percent with their mother only, The New York Times noted, with stats from 1990 that said a little more than 70 percent of children lived with two parents and slightly more than 20 percent lived with their mother only. “The comparable figures in 2004 were about 70 percent and 23 percent. The figures suggest that the tumultuous shifts in family structure since the late 1960s have leveled off since 1990,” the Times said. “People realize the value of giving kids a mother and a father,” Glenn Stanton, director of global family formation studies at Focus on the Family, told CitizenLink Feb. 21. “We need to understand that this is the norm, that it’s the overwhelming majority and not the minority. That should give great encouragement to the majority of people out there who are trying to make their marriages work and their parenting relationships work.” – BP
Jehovah’s Witnesses fastest-growing churches
Jehovah’s Witnesses reported the largest growth rate – 2.25 percent – of all churches in the United States and Canada in the span of a year, according to the National Council of Churches, and the Episcopal Church reported the largest decrease at 4.15 percent. The NCC’s 2008 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches said Jehovah’s Witnesses claim just over 1 million members and are the smallest “church” in the council’s rankings of the 25 largest bodies. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew 1.56 percent to 5.7 million members, said the report, which was based on self-reported membership figures from 2006. Only four other denominations in the top 25 reported membership increases: the Southern Baptist Convention, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Assemblies of God. – BP