Rebuild Haiti on target to build 2,500 homes
Rebuild Haiti, the joint Southern Baptist disaster relief initiative launched in the aftermath of the massive Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, will have built 1,982 houses by the end of November and has 560 more in the pipeline before the scheduled exit date in March 2012. “Rebuild Haiti” is a cooperative venture that also involves Haitian Baptists, the International Mission Board, the Florida Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. In the past 18 months, Southern Baptists have invested more than $4.5 million in assisting survivors of the earthquake. Besides building houses, the disaster response effort has included feeding programs, medical clinics, school assistance, beds for 2,200 orphans and prosthetics fabrication, as well as many other projects.
Texas convention gives $1M to Lottie Moon
The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Executive Board has granted $1 million from reserve funds to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and encouraged Southern Baptist churches in Texas to “embrace” 1,000 of the 3,800 unengaged people groups identified by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The unanimous actions of the SBTC board came in response to the challenge of IMB president Tom Elliff at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Phoenix to “embrace” the ends of the earth. Concern over the reduction in missionary deployments due to shortages of funds led SBTC executive director Jim Richards to suggest sharing a portion of reserve funds.
Luter leans toward SBC presidential nomination
Ever since his election as first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Fred Luter has heard the same question repeatedly: “Will you allow yourself to be nominated as president of the convention next year?” Luter, senior pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, heard the question once again in early August prior to speaking at a summer Bible conference at First Baptist Church in Rockwood, Tenn. During the course of an interview with the Baptist and Reflector, Luter acknowledged he is about “80 percent” leaning toward the idea. Luter would be the SBC’s first African-American president.
CP 1.02% 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 1.02 percent below the same time frame last year. As of July 31, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program allocation budget totaled $160,098,309.08, or $1,641,906.24 behind the $161,740,215.32 received at the end of July 2010. Designated giving of $180,442,075.59 for the same year-to-date period is .82 percent, or $1,492,704.46, below gifts of $181,934,780.05 received at this point last year.
NAMB role seeks to boost ethnic involvement
A new role created by the North American Mission Board will help the entity maintain a strong focus on minority ministry needs and facilitate leadership opportunities for minorities throughout SBC life. NAMB president Kevin Ezell created the role of presidential ambassador for ethnic church relations shortly after messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix voted to approve a recommendation citing the “need to be proactive and intentional in the inclusion of individuals from all ethnic and racial identities within Southern Baptist life.” Ezell has named Ken Weathersby to fill the role.
Kids see sex on TV, not the web
A new study has a bit of good news and lots of bad news for parents worried that their children are being exposed to sex online. The good news? Most kids say they aren’t exposed to a lot of sexual material on the Internet. The bad news? Most kids say the opposite about television and music. As reported in USA Today, between 16 and 25 percent of children say they are exposed to sexual material on the Internet, while 75 percent say they are exposed to it on TV and 69 percent in their music. The data is from a study that will be published in the journal Pediatrics.
Revell, SBC Life editor, accepts pastorate
John Revell, editor of SBC Life, is resigning to become pastor of a church in Connecticut. Revell, associate editor of SBC Life from 1996 through September 2005 and editor thereafter, will leave his position effective Sept. 15 to become pastor of Stamford Baptist Church in Stamford. Prior to his work at SBC Life, he pastored churches in Florida and New York. The Connecticut church’s interest in Revell began because of his passion for discipling Christians. He has led a discipleship workshop with a group of about 25 teenagers, and his focus on discipleship opened up opportunities for him to speak at men’s conferences and seminars on the subject. SBC Life is published six times a year by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee.
Study: Education doesn’t breed atheism
Atheism is not the norm for people with higher education, new research shows. Education does not push people away from God, it just makes them more likely to accept a liberal attitude toward religion, reported USA Today. Philip Schwadel, associate professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said that for each year of education beyond 7th grade, people are actually 15 percent more likely to attend some sort of religious service. However, his article in Review of Religious Research said people are also 15 percent more likely to believe that truth can be found in more than one religion.