IMB reports 500,000 baptisms in 2008
The International Mission Board recorded 506,000 baptisms in 2008 – an average of one baptism per minute. Southern Baptist missionaries and their partners also reported starting more than 24,650 new churches last year. (Baptisms were 10.6 percent below the 2007 total; new churches, 8.6 percent below.) Meanwhile, the total number of overseas churches topped 204,000, up from 111,000 just five years ago. The IMB also reported engaging 93 new people groups with the gospel for the first time.
CP giving slightly ahead of 2008 pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 0.18 percent ahead of the same time frame in 2008. As of Nov. 30, the year-to-date total of $33,244,504 for Cooperative Program gifts is $60,306 ahead of the $33,184,197 received at the same point in 2008. During the last fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2008-Sept. 30, 2009), Cooperative Program receipts for the year declined 2.23 percent and combined CP and designated giving for the year declined 3.65 percent.
Johnny Hunt diagnosed with cancer
Southern Baptist Convention president Johnny Hunt has announced that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and will undergo initial treatment in January. Hunt is the third SBC leader this year to disclose a prostate cancer diagnosis, following O.S. Hawkins in August and Jack Graham in June. Hawkins is president of GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Graham, a former SBC president, is pastor of the Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.
Lutheran body splitting after gay pastor vote
The nation’s largest Lutheran denomination is splitting following a controversial decision at its August conference to allow non-celibate homosexuals to serve as pastors. A conservative group of Lutherans calling themselves Lutheran CORE is calling for the more orthodox churches to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA). Lutheran CORE leaders voted Nov. 18 to form a new Lutheran body, and churches nationwide are now taking sides in the dispute. It takes a two-thirds vote for a church to leave the ELCA and join Lutheran CORE, which has formed a committee that will draft a proposal for how the new church body will function. The committee’s recommendations will be released in February and voted on in August. The ELCA claims 4.8 million members and 10,500 churches.
Naylor named BGR medical consultant
Former South Carolina resident Rebekah Naylor, an emeritus Southern Baptist missionary physician who served for 35 years at Bangalore Baptist Hospital in India, has joined the staff of Baptist Global Response as a U.S.-based health care consultant. Naylor will play a key role in connecting health care personnel with people in need around the world, said Jeff Palmer, executive director of the international relief and development organization. Naylor’s father, Robert Naylor, was pastor of First Baptist Church, Columbia, from 1947-52.
3rd MVP lifts Pujols to Musial’s level
The narratives of Albert “El Hombre” Pujols and Stan “The Man” Musial continue to be woven together in St. Louis Cardinals history with the Nov. 24 announcement that Pujols had matched Musial with his third National League Most Valuable Player award. Pujols, this year’s unanimous selection, now has won in 2005, 2008 and 2009; Musial won in 1943, 1946 and 1948. Pujols, 29, is one of America’s more prominent Christian athletes. He and his wife Deidre run the Pujols Family Foundation, which seeks to honor God by strengthening families. The couple and their three children attend West County Community Church, a Missouri Baptist Convention-affiliated congregation.
Welch returns to Vietnam, thankful for wounds
Bobby Welch addressed a crowd of nearly 725 Vietnamese believers, former missionaries and government officials celebrating 50 years of Baptist work in Vietnam. Welch, strategist for global evangelical relations for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, recounted his story of being shot at point-blank range on a jungle trail by a Viet Cong soldier. Thinking he would die, Welch prayed a simple prayer and miraculously survived his life-threatening injuries. That experience led him to recommit his life to Christ and embark on a life of service to God. “I have often told my wife that if I could find that soldier who shot me, I would bring him to my house, give him the best room, feed him the best meal and embrace him like a brother because of how God used him to change my life,” Welch told the crowd.