Report: Billy Graham wants to preach again
The Charlotte Observer reported May 19 that evangelist Billy Graham would like to preach one more sermon. The Observer story said mixed signals appear to be coming from Graham’s children. Graham’s youngest daughter, Ruth Graham, told a religion reporter for The Associated Press May 17 that her father was preparing a sermon and was thinking of delivering it sometime next year at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. The next day, a spokesman for the elder Graham and his son, Franklin Graham, said a more likely scenario would have Graham speak into a camera and then distribute the video. In an interview with the Observer last month, Franklin Graham said the once-globe-trotting evangelist even had his message: “He wants people to know that they can have forgiveness of sins and that they can be assured of the certainty of heaven.”
Minnesota-Wisconsin exec is 4th president nominee
Leo Endel, executive director of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention, will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the June 15-16 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. Speaking at a regional Kingdom Growth Conference in Milwaukee on May 13, Endel said a group of associational missionaries, pastors and laypeople from western Iowa and eastern Nebraska had asked him to consider allowing his name to be placed in nomination. Endel is the fourth announced nominee for SBC president, joining Georgia pastor Bryant Wright, Alabama pastor Jimmy Jackson and Florida pastor Ted Traylor. Endel compared his candidacy in a field of prominent pastors from southern states to David taking on Goliath.
Rankin leads final appointment services
Forty-six Southern Baptist missionaries were appointed by trustees of the International Mission Board in two services: May 5 at Broadview Missionary Baptist Church in Broadview, Ill., and May 6 at First Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss. The appointment services were the last for IMB president Jerry Rankin before his retirement July 31. The services marked a milestone for Rankin, bringing the number to 101 he’s been a part of during his 17 years as IMB president. In that time, Rankin has seen more than 10,000 men and women sent out as Southern Baptist career and short-term missionaries.
NAMB commissions 88 to serve
Seventy-one missionaries and 17 chaplains were commissioned by the North American Mission Board at Lenexa (Kan.) Baptist Church on May 16. Steve Dighton, senior pastor of the Kansas City-area church, welcomed about 1,000 people to the service. The newly commissioned missionaries and chaplains will serve in 32 states and two Canadian provinces. Richard Harris, NAMB’s interim president, who delivered the commissioning sermon, quoted the words of Jesus as recorded in John 14:12: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I’ve been doing. He will even do greater things than these because I’m going to the Father.”
IMB honors 60 retiring missionaries
Sixty retiring missionaries were honored May 15 at an emeritus recognition service at the International Mission Board’s Learning Center in Rockville, Va. Their time on the mission fields of the world represented a combined total of 1,730 years of service. They served across the globe as church planters and evangelists, in seminaries and universities, as medical practitioners, agriculturalists and relief workers, administrators and teachers. “What you have done with your lives will glorify the Lord for generations that follow,” IMB president Jerry Rankin said.
Land, others call for immigration reform
Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land has joined a coalition of evangelical leaders calling on Washington to enact comprehensive immigration reform that would begin with securing the country’s borders. Such a law also would enforce current immigration measures within the United States and require a series of standards that illegal immigrants must meet to earn citizenship, said Land, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Land and his fellow evangelicals denied they support amnesty. A pathway to citizenship should require an illegal immigrant “to undergo a criminal background check, pay a fine, agree to pay back taxes, learn to speak, write, and read English and get in line behind” legal migrants after a years-long probation, Land wrote in an article posted at erlc.com.
IRS offers reprieve for charities missing deadline
The Internal Revenue Service is offering a reprieve to more than 200,000 small charities that missed a tax filing deadline and are now in danger of losing their tax-exempt status. The Associated Press reported May 19 that a 2006 law required nonprofit organizations with receipts of less than $25,000 to file tax returns for the first time in 2007. If charities fail to file for three years, they lose their tax-exempt status. The law excludes churches. May 17 was the 2010 filing deadline, but IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said his agency will issue guidance soon on how charities that missed the deadline can keep their tax-exempt status. In the meantime, Shulman urged charities that missed the deadline to file as soon as possible.