3,000 attend NAMB commissioning
Before 3,000 people at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga. – one of the largest crowds to ever witness a North American Mission Board missionary commissioning service – NAMB introduced 79 new missionaries and 16 new chaplains on Sunday, March 28. The new missionaries and chaplains represented 24 states, two Canadian provinces and 23 state Baptist conventions. South Carolina alone accounted for 11 missionaries commissioned during the two-hour service.
WMU Foundation receives largest gift
Woman’s Missionary Union has received its largest gift to date, $1.7 million. Charles N. Burch, of Memphis, left the gift from his estate. Established this year, the Charles N. Burch International Missions Endowment will be used by WMU to fund international missions efforts. The WMU Foundation is guided by a 17-member board of trustees and was created in 1995 to support the mission and ministry of WMU.
CP lagging behind 2009 pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 1.21 percent below the same time frame last year. As of March 31, the year-to-date total of $99,404,879.36 for Cooperative Program (CP) missions is $1,220,767.53 behind the $100,625,646.89 received at the end of March 2009. Designated giving of $119,693,011.67 for the same year-to-date period is 3.12 percent, or $3,623,288.66, ahead of gifts of $116,069,723.01 received at this point last year.
Survey assesses scope of immigrant outreach
A North American Mission Board/LifeWay Research study found that while ministries across North America are reaching out to a significant portion of first-generation immigrants, much work remains to be done. The potential is promising, with immigrants from most countries considered somewhat receptive to the gospel. Participating organizations report having the highest number of first-generation immigrant believers from Mexico. The next highest numbers of believers, in descending order, are immigrants from Haiti (a distant second), South Korea, Cuba and China.
GCR Task Force members, state execs meet
Several members of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force met with eight executive directors of state conventions April 5 in what GCR Task Force chairman Ronnie Floyd called a “substantial conversation.” Floyd and six members of the task force met with executive directors of the Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Northwest, Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana and New York Baptist conventions. “We talked honestly, heard each other, and made some real progress,” Floyd said.
Silsby spends Easter in Haitian jail
The last remaining Baptist volunteer still in a Haitian jail spent Easter Sunday incarcerated but remains confident she will be released. Laura Silsby, imprisoned after she and nine others were arrested in late January on charges of child kidnapping, told NBC News her faith has sustained her. The nine other Americans have been released and are back in the United States.
Christians don’t invite others to church
A recent Barna Group survey found that those who celebrate Easter because of the resurrection of Christ are not particularly likely to invite non-churched friends to worship. “Realistically, if all of the people who said they would bring unchurched people with them on Easter were to follow through, America’s churches couldn’t handle the overflow,” said David Kinnaman, Barna’s president. “The statistics project to something like 40 million church regulars who claim they are likely to bring someone as their guest. If each of those people brought just one adult, that’d be the equivalent of adding 115 new people per Christian congregation. That would more than double the size of the average church,” Kinnaman said.
Internet gaming bill opposed by SBC’s Land
Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land has called on a congressional committee to oppose a bill he and others say would undermine current restrictions on Internet gambling. The bill would enable the U.S. Treasury Department to license and regulate Internet gambling firms but would permit states and Indian tribes to opt out of such wagering. Online gambling is effectively banned in the U.S. under a 2006 law that requires financial institutions to block credit card and other payments to Internet wagering businesses, which are primarily located overseas.
White House holds Easter prayer breakfast
President Obama recalled the resurrection of Christ at an April 6 Easter prayer breakfast for Christian leaders that included pastors from a wide range of denominations, including the Southern Baptist Convention. The president told guests that the resurrection of Jesus forever changed the world. “We are thankful for the sacrifice he gave for the sins of humanity,” Obama said. “And we glory in the promise of redemption in the resurrection.” SBC president Johnny Hunt was among the 90 leaders who attended.