CP 3.08% behind 2009 pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 3.08 percent below the same time frame last year. As of July 31, the year-to-date total of $161,740,215 for Cooperative Program (CP) missions is $5,143,27 behind the $166,883,487 received at the end of July 2009. Designated giving of $181,934,780 for the same year-to-date period is 0.34 percent, or $624,219, behind gifts of $182,558,999 received at this point last year.
Johnny Hunt extends leave of absence
Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., and immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has extended his leave of absence from the church through mid-September, citing physical and emotional exhaustion. Hunt had been expected to return to the Woodstock pulpit Aug. 8 following his annual July sabbatical. However, Jim Law, senior associate pastor and administrator of the church, announced Hunt and Hunt’s wife, Janet, will extend their leave by another six weeks. The decision came on the counsel of a professional who encouraged the couple to extend their time away from ministerial responsibilities, Law said.
House churches’ popularity growing
In what is called a throwback to the early Christian church, more Americans are choosing house churches over traditional worship centers. The Barna Group estimates that 6 to 12 million Americans attend house churches, and the Pew Forum says 9 percent of American Protestants attend only home services, the Associated Press reported July 21. House churches are part of what experts say is “a fundamental shift in the way U.S. Christians think about church. House church is about relationships forged in small faith communities,” AP said. Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research was quoted as saying part of the appeal of the house church movement is a desire to “return to a simpler expression of church,” and for many, “they just want to live like the Bible.” In the article, the group sang some worship songs, but “the majority seems averse to a regular offering, preferring to take up a collection only when a need or charitable cause arises.”
Ministers urged to get more rest
Research indicates that members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at higher rates than most Americans, according to The New York Times. Just in the past decade, the newspaper said, the clergy’s use of antidepressants has risen and their life expectancy has fallen. A simple solution, some say, is for ministers to take more time off. “We had a pastor in our study group who hadn’t taken a vacation in 18 years,” Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, an assistant professor of health research at Duke University, told The Times. “These people tend to be driven by a sense of duty to God to answer every call for help from anybody, and they are virtually called upon all the time, 24/7.” Cell phones and social media have added new levels of stress, The Times noted, and soaring health care costs have prompted some denominations to launch wellness campaigns urging ministers to get some rest.
Southern Baptists’ gifts helping in Pakistan
Gifts to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund and the General Relief Fund are helping survivors of the devastating floods in Pakistan: $1.29 serves a flood survivor a hot meal; $4.13 supplies a sleeping mat; $8.86 provides a two-week food packet; $18.41 offers a tent that will give a family temporary shelter; $25 rents a bulldozer for one hour to help redirect floodwaters; $103 endows a family of 10 with a large tent in which to live. In the future, funds may be used to help provide seed to replant crops that the flooding ruined and to help replace livestock that were killed. Gifts to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund (www.worldhungerfund.com) make effective disaster responses possible.
Mixed-faith marriages on the rise
The recent nuptials of former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and investment banker Marc Mezvinsky were a high-profile example of a growing trend in America: mixed-faith marriages. Clinton is a Methodist, but her new husband is Jewish, and their wedding included a pastor and a rabbi as well as the traditional Jewish “chuppah” and the breaking of a glass underfoot. The wedding prompted USA Today and other publications to cite statistics showing that religiously mixed marriages are growing rapidly among U.S. couples. In 1988, 15 percent of couples in the United States didn’t share the same faith, according to the General Social Survey, but by 2006 the number had grown to 25 percent.
Database aids study of ancient texts
A unique electronic database amassing a wealth of information for scholars regarding ancient biblical manuscripts is emerging from nine years of research at New Orleans Baptist Seminary. The highly searchable CNTTS apparatus is the most detailed and comprehensive electronic critical apparatus on the market. An electronic innovation with nearly 17,000 pages of compiled data, the project simply would not be feasible in a printed format. The CNTTS includes 10 times as much data as the critical apparatus printed in the United Bible Societies’ editions of the Greek New Testament. A video explanation of the database – called the Center for New Testament Textual Studies NT Critical Apparatus – can be accessed on the seminary’s YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/nobtspublications.