NAMB/states to continue joint funding
In spite of the Great Commission Resurgence report that many expected would end jointly funded missionaries with state Baptist conventions, North American Mission Board president Kevin Ezell says “strategically placed mobilizers” in southern states are necessary to accomplish NAMB’s church-planting goals in the rest of North America. Ezell, who was elected NAMB’s third president in September, spoke with the Florida Baptist Witness March 20. Ezell said NAMB and the states would continue to have “jointly funded missionaries in every state. We’re not going to totally reduce all those.” The GCR report, adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention last year in Orlando, he said, “calls for allowing NAMB to decide” what to do about the historical practice of jointly funding missionaries with the states.
GuideStone offers Healthcare Tax Credit resources
Online resources to help small churches evaluate whether to pursue the Small Business Healthcare Tax Credit under the health care reform law are now available from GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. These resources can be accessed free of charge on GuideStone’s Healthcare Reform website, www.GuideStoneInsurance.org/Healthreform. The resource page includes a comprehensive Q&A about the tax credit; definitions and step-by-step guide for determining eligibility and amount of the credit; and necessary government forms. The resource also includes a webinar with Danny Miller, a noted attorney with Connor & Winters who specializes in benefits issues for ministers.
Child sex trafficking is growing, even in U.S.
Commercial sexual exploitation remains a major problem among the young in the United States, with an estimated 100,000 U.S. children trafficked annually, experts say. “The majority of the victims that we’re finding who are child sex-trafficking victims are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents,” said Sarah Vardaman, senior director of Shared Hope International. Vardaman’s comment came at a live webcast hosted by Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. The event focused on the reasons minors and young adults are sexually exploited in the U.S. in such great numbers. The webcast and downloadable audio can be found online at www.frc.org/traffic. More information on battling the exploitation of children in the U.S. can be found at www.missingkids.com.
Kelley: Theological education is ‘being redefined’
New Orleans Seminary is facing a critical moment in its history, president Chuck Kelley said in his annual State of the Seminary address to students, faculty and staff April 14. “Here we are at a moment of profound significance for New Orleans Seminary and for our future,” Kelley said. “The seminary experience is being redefined for the 21st century.” Kelley identified four areas of sweeping change facing the seminary: the decreasing role of geography; the relationship of people to information; the rise of social media; and the cafeteria approach to ministerial training. These changing dynamics, Kelley said, will redefine how NOBTS trains ministers for the local church and missionaries for the ends of the earth.