CP 3.19% below previous year’s pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 3.19 percent below the same time frame last year. As of Jan. 31, the year-to-date total of $65,652,460 for Cooperative Program (CP) missions is $2,163,875 behind the $67,816,336 received at the end of January 2010. Designated giving of $37,461,636 for the same year-to-date period is 9.94 percent, or $4,135,447, below gifts of $41,597,083 received at this point last year. The SBC operates on an Oct. 1-Sept. 30 fiscal year.
Nearly 1 million Africans commit to abstinence
The number of commitments by African youth to biblical purity through True Love Waits International stands at more than 959,000 since LifeWay Christian Resources launched its strategic initiative there in the summer of 2007. “We are very close to having 1 million young people in Africa make documented commitments to biblical purity through this initiative, which will be an incredible milestone,” said Jimmy Hester, co-founder of True Love Waits.
Morris Ashcraft, moderate Baptist educator, dies
Morris Ashcraft, a longtime seminary professor and administrator who after retiring helped establish a seminary for Southern Baptist moderates, died Jan. 29 after a long illness. He was 88. Ashcraft taught five years at Southern Seminary and 22 years at Midwestern Seminary before moving to Southeastern Seminary as a professor and dean in 1981. Seven years later, he resigned his deanship, along with seminary president Randall Lolley and six other administrators, to protest policies adopted by a new conservative majority on the board of trustees intended to ensure the hiring of only professors who affirmed biblical inerrancy. In 1989, he helped establish the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, which opened in the fall of 1991, and held the post of acting president for one year.
Drew Brees honored with Bart Starr Award
New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees won the Bart Starr Award Feb. 5, selected by sports ministry leader Athletes in Action. Brees was the MVP of the 2010 Super Bowl as the Saints won their first NFL title, but he was honored for his strong community involvement and his personal faith. Brees’ story of injury in San Diego, his move to New Orleans and his personal recovery, which mirrored the region’s comeback from Hurricane Katrina, has been told many times, but Brees said it would not have been possible without God.