NIV to be revised; TNIV to be discontinued
A revision of the New International Version of the Bible will be available in 2011, according to a joint announcement Sept. 1 by Zondervan, Biblica and the Committee on Bible Translation. The revision will mark the first complete update of the NIV since 1984. Zondervan also said the new translation’s publication will mark the end of the TNIV, the controversial version released in full in 2005 with gender-neutral language. The first version of the NIV was released in 1978, and since then it has become the most popular modern English Bible translation in the world, with more than 300 million copies printed.
CP down 2.32%; off ’09 budget by 1.86%
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 2.32 percent below the same time frame last year and 1.86 percent off budget for 2009. As of Aug. 31, the year-to-date total of $185,069,196 for Cooperative Program missions is $4,389,206 below the $189,458,403 received at the end of August 2008. Designated giving of $188,927,802 for the same year-to-date period is 4.93 percent, or $9,805,460, below gifts of $198,733,262 received at this point last year.
Astronaut takes missions history into orbit
Astronaut Patrick Forrester, a specialist on the space shuttle Discovery crew, carried with him a piece of the battery box from martyred missionary pilot Nate Saint’s Piper PA-14 airplane. Forrester, a deacon at University Baptist Church in Houston, has been interested in the work of Mission Aviation Fellowship and wrote to them to see if they had anything he could take on the flight, which launched Aug. 29. Saint was among the five missionaries to Ecuador, including Jim Elliot, who were murdered on a sandbar in 1956 by a tribe of Waodani Indians. Forrester first learned about the story during a Steven Curtis Chapman concert.
Adoption & gospel go together, Moore says
What does the adoption of children have to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the local church? Everything, says Southern Baptist Seminary’s Russell Moore. Moore – who together with his wife Maria adopted two sons from a Russian orphanage several years ago – argues in his new book, “Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches,” that the church should view the adoption of orphans as a crucial part of its mission precisely because God has adopted helpless sinners to be his sons. Moore serves as dean of the school of theology and senior vice president for academic administration at Southern.
Campaign asks ‘Who’s in Your Wallet?’
Spinning off the slogan of a well-known credit card’s TV ad campaign, “Who’s in Your Wallet?” will again be the theme of Soul-Winning Commitment Day, observed throughout the Southern Baptist Convention on Sunday, Oct. 4. The annual day is sponsored by the North American Mission Board and is part of NAMB’s national evangelism initiative – “God’s Plan for Sharing.” The board has developed a “3-1-6” prayer card on which Southern Baptists can write the names of three friends or relatives who need Christ. Keeping the card in their wallets or purses as a reminder, Baptists are asked to pray for these three people once a day for six days. To order prayer cards, call 866-407-NAMB (6262). Cards come in packets of 100 and cost $9.
Oct. 11 is World Hunger Sunday for SBC
On Oct. 11, Southern Baptist churches will focus on a staggering worldwide problem: more than 800 million people who suffer each day from hunger, according to recent statistics. In the United States alone, the Department of Agriculture estimates 23 million adults and 12 million children receive less than the 2,100 calories an average person needs each day to be healthy.
Daniel Akin resting after colon surgery
Southeastern Baptist Seminary president Daniel Akin underwent successful surgery on his colon Sept. 4 and is now resting. Akin had the scheduled surgery at the advice of doctors to head off complications associated with diverticulitis, a digestive disorder of the colon with which he has struggled for some time. While Akin’s condition was not life-threatening, if left unchecked it could have led to more severe problems, doctors said.
World Changers plans 2010 schedule
The North American Mission Board’s World Changers will mark 20 years of ministry in 2010. Since 1990, some 288,000 students and their adult leaders have participated in the missions initiative to repair and rehabilitate some of the poorer neighborhoods of America. Registration for 2010 projects is now under way. World Changers is offering an incentive for groups to register and pay their initial deposits and first payments on time. For groups that meet those guidelines, there will be a $20 per person discount off the listed project price. Registration and other information can be obtained at www.world-changers.net or by calling 1-800-462-8657, option 2.