50,000 participate in 6-hour ‘Secret Church’
On Good Friday, more than 50,000 people across the world participated in Secret Church, six intensive hours of biblical teaching and prayer for the persecuted church led by author and pastor David Platt of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala. The event – held at the church but simulcast into 42 states and 11 countries – was designed to call the church to greater awareness to biblical fidelity and to build unity with the persecuted church worldwide. It was the 10th Secret Church event but the first one simulcast. It was simulcast by LifeWay Christian Resources and Disciple-Making International (DMI), a nonprofit, Christian-equipping organization founded by Platt.
David Wilkerson dies in wreck
David Wilkerson, author of the book “The Cross and the Switchblade” and the founding pastor of Times Square Church in New York City, died in a car wreck April 27 at the age of 79. His wife Gwen was injured in the accident and is in the hospital. Wilkerson also was the founder of Teen Challenge, a ministry for drug addicts. His “Cross and the Switchblade” book was once rated No. 32 on Christianity Today’s list of the “Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals.”
CP 1.45 percent below previous year’s pace
Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are 1.45 percent below the same time frame last year. As of April 30, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program allocation budget totaled $114,378,059.49, or $1,686,671.03 behind the $116,064,730.52 received at the end of April 2010. Designated giving of $130,973,699.90 for the same year-to-date period is 2.54 percent, or $3,416,309.04, below gifts of $134,390,008.94 received at this point last year.
Allan Blume elected editor in N.C.
Allan Blume, pastor of Mount Vernon Church in Boone, N.C., has been named editor/president of the Biblical Recorder, newsjournal of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. The Biblical Recorder board of directors selected Blume on April 18. Blume, who will start at the Biblical Recorder May 25, has been Mount Vernon’s pastor for 16 years. Born in Charlotte, Blume holds undergraduate degrees from Wingate University in North Carolina and Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn., and a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary.
Stam, music prof, dies after cancer battle
Southern Seminary’s Carl “Chip” L. Stam, professor of church music and worship and the founding director of the seminary’s Institute for Christian Worship, died May 1 after a four-year battle with an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 58. “Chip Stam was such a great gift to Southern Seminary and to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ,” said Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr.
No night sessions at 2011 SBC annual meeting
“A Great Commission People with a Great Commandment Heart” will provide the focus for a June 14-15 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix that will be more compact and offer more opportunities for fellowship. Baptist Press has published the program for the annual meeting, available online at http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=35182.