LACHISH, Israel (BP) — A written inscription spelling the biblical name “Jerubbaal” or “Yeruba’al,” has been found during an archaeological dig in a Southern District of Israel, according to media reports.

The five-letter inscription, written on a jug and dated around the 12th or 11th century BCE, was found by researchers at “Khirbat er-Ra‘I”, an archaeological site in Israel that has been excavated since 2015, according to The Jerusalem Post. Researchers cited by The Times Israel claim the inscription most likely reads as the biblical name “Jerubbaal” or “Yeruba’al.”

This name is traditionally understood to be an alternative name or nickname for the biblical judge Gideon who was known for leading 300 Israelites in a battle against the Midianites in Judges 6-8.

This artifact is understood to be the only hard evidence of a name inscription from the book of Judges contemporary to that time period that has been discovered.

The discovery was announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority on Monday (July 12), and published the same day in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology (JJAR), which is edited by Bar-Ilan professor Avraham Faust, Hebrew University professor Yossef Garfinkel and Hebrew University researcher Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu.

Garfinkel told The Times of Israel that the dating of the inscription was done through a combination of methods including carbon dating, and the it yielded a result around 1050 BCE, making it over 3,000 years old.

He told the The Times that the discovery would have been “very important even if was just letters without meaning. But in this case, we also have a name from the biblical period.”

Dr. Jim Parker, professor of Biblical Interpretation at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as the executive director of the Michael and Sara Moskau Institute of Archaeology at New Orleans, is a personal friend of Garfinkel. Parker told Baptist Press the language of the found inscription is either ancient Canaanite language, or early Hebrew letters.

While these language matters are a subject of debate among some theologians and archeologists, Parker said “we can for sure say this attests to the Hebrew name Jerubbaal to that period.”

“Origin of the language does not matter one way or the other, but this could be the oldest discovered inscription of the Hebrew or Canaanite type writing that we have.”

Parker agreed with media reports that it is impossible to know whether or not the inscription comes directly from Gideon himself as a sort of “autograph,” but as of evidence for a biblical name from Judges that had never been found before, it is significant.

“I don’t think anybody is going to question the age of this inscription, which is extremely early, and we haven’t seen anything like this before,” Parker said.

The archaeological site where the inscription was found, “Khirbat er-Ra‘I,” is actually located near where the biblical city of Lachish.

Lachish is referenced in the book of Joshua as an area where Israel conquered while overtaking the Canaanites. Parker explained the city is actually toward Southern Israel, while most of the events of Gideon’s life took place in Northern Israel. Lachish also near the Philistine city of Gath, the home city of Goliath.

Parker said he has gone on many archaeological digs himself, many through New Orleans, and even took a dig near the biblical city of Gath.

“I don’t even know how to describe the excitement you feel when you’re digging and you know particular things about a site and suddenly you find something that you see that confirms the culture that the Bible speaks about,” Parker said. “It is a faith building thing.”

He continued to state the discovery of this inscription is one of many discoveries in the last 20 years that have confirmed biblical events, and these can serve as both an apologetical tool and a way to put the full story of the Bible in context.

“We don’t do digs necessarily to prove the Bible,” Parker said. “Our purpose is to go there and really enlighten ourselves about what we do know about the Bible. When we do find things that connect back to Scripture, that really is a wonderful thing, but our purpose is really to bring light to what we already know.

“This discovery is a part of larger context almost like building a puzzle helping us see not only is the Bible accurate in its details, but these discoveries help us shape and map out the biblical stories that are told. We as Christians believe everything in the Bible to be true. Archaeology—as part of apologetics—can help us better tell and bring light to the narrative of the Bible. This brings another part of the biblical narrative to life for us.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The vast majority of pastors say they feel support from other ministers in their communities, but that encouragement is less prevalent in some places.

According to a study from Nashville-based Lifeway Research, 82% of U.S. Protestant pastors say they feel supported by other local pastors in their area, with 44% strongly agreeing. Few (14%) disagree, while 4% aren’t sure.

“Nobody can identify with a pastor like another pastor. That’s why relationships between pastors are so vital,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “It’s one thing to be aware and know the names of other pastors who are sharing the same Gospel message in your community. It’s another to invest in supporting and encouraging each other.”

Large church pastors, those with weekly worship service attendance of more than 250, are the most likely to say they feel supported by other local pastors (89%).

In the Northeast, where there are traditionally fewer Protestant churches, pastors are less likely to agree they feel supported by other pastors (75%) than pastors in the Midwest (84%).

Restorationist movement pastors (68%) are less likely to feel local pastor support than Lutheran (88%), Pentecostal (87%), Baptist (83%), or Presbyterian/Reformed pastors (83%). A Lifeway Research study on denominations found Restorationist movement pastors are also the least likely to say they or their congregation considers it vital to be part of a denomination or denomination-like group, while Lutheran pastors are the most likely to see such denominational connections as important.

A 2015 Lifeway Research study on pastors leaving the ministry found about 1% leave the pastorate prior to retirement each year, but more than 1 in 3 (35%) agree they feel isolated as a pastor.

Personal pastor connections

While a large majority of pastors say they feel supported by other local ministers, most are getting that support from only a handful of area pastors. Slightly more than half of U.S. Protestant pastors (54%) say they personally know and spend time with fewer than 10 other local pastors.

One in 20 pastors (5%) aren’t connected with any area pastors, while 8% only have relationships with one to two other ministers. A quarter of pastors (24%) say they know three to five, and 18% spend time with six to nine other pastors.

The remaining 46% of pastors enjoy personal connections with 10 or more pastors, including 27% who say they personally know 10-15 and 19% who spend time with 16 or more.

“When it comes to pastors encouraging other pastors, there is strength in numbers,” McConnell said. “Knowing 10 or more local pastors increases the likelihood pastors can connect beyond the similarities in their role and makes them less vulnerable when a pastor friend leaves the area.”

Pastors’ perceptions of support from other local pastors are related to how many other local ministers they know and spend time with multiple times a year. Pastors who strongly agree they feel supported know and spend time with an average of 17 other local pastors. This decreases to 10 for those who somewhat agree they are supported. Pastors who somewhat disagree they feel supported by pastors in their area know and spend time with an average of eight other pastors, and those who strongly disagree know only five other pastors.

As with local support, smaller church pastors and those in areas with fewer Protestant churches are more likely to miss out on large numbers of pastoral friends. Protestant pastors in the South (23%) and Midwest (19%) are more likely than those in the Northeast (10%) to say they personally know 16 or more other area pastors. Small church pastors, those with fewer than 50 in attendance, are more likely to say they only know one to two other local pastors (12%) than those with worship attendance of 100-249 (6%) and 250 or more (5%).

Non-denominational (8 personal connections) and Restorationist Movement pastors (8) average fewer local pastor relationships than Pentecostal (17), Methodist (16), and Baptist pastors (12).

“While denominational connections may limit the variety of the types of relationships a pastor may have with neighboring pastors, belonging to a denomination does appear to aid in building relationships between pastors,” McConnell said.

Methodology

The mixed mode survey of 1,007 Protestant pastors was conducted Sept. 2–Oct. 1, 2020, using both phone and online interviews. Phone: The calling list was a stratified random sample, drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Quotas were used for church size. Online: Invitations were emailed to the Lifeway Research Pastor Panel followed by three reminders. This probability sample of Protestant churches was created by phone recruiting by Lifeway Research using random samples selected from all Protestant churches. Pastors who agree to be contacted by email for future surveys make up this Lifeway Research Pastor Panel.

Each survey was completed by the senior or sole pastor or a minister at the church. Responses were weighted by region and church size to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,007 surveys (502 by phone, 505 online). The sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.4%. This margin of error accounts for the effect of weighting. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups. Comparisons are made to a Lifeway Research phone survey of 932 pastors conducted March 1-9, 2010 using random sampling.

For more information, view the complete report or visit LifewayResearch.com.

Editor’s Note: Jeff Iorg is president of Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention.

ONTARIO, Calif. (BP) – Southern Baptist churches, based on our baptism reports, are less and less effective at sharing the Gospel in such a way people receive it and become Christians. The reasons for this vary from church to church, but there are some common problems which span geography, culture and ministry style. A very personal problem limiting evangelistic effectiveness is embarrassment about being a Christian.

These feelings have several sources. One of the most frustrating is reprehensible behavior by prominent Christians. When a well-known pastor, teacher or priest publicly confesses to sexual sin or fiscal irresponsibility, all Christians suffer a loss of credibility. The denomination or religious system of the offender doesn’t really matter to most unbelievers. They lump us all together and broad brush the entire church with the failures of the few. It’s disheartening to build relationships with unbelievers and then have them ridicule our faith when a prominent leader is revealed as a charlatan or criminal.

Sometimes, however, the problem is closer to home. When you are known as a follower of Jesus, people expect you to live up to His standards. They are often watching you, most wanting to see how faith is lived out in everyday life, a few hoping to catch you in some inconsistency they can use to justify rejection of the Gospel. Because you are still a sin-tainted human, you will make mistakes, occasionally compromising your faith and failing to live out the Gospel consistently. This can be embarrassing, particularly if your failures are public. Cursing a coworker or gossiping about a neighbor contradicts your spiritual commitments and undermines your reputation as a Christian. The result can be reluctance to share your faith.

You will never live perfectly, no matter how hard you try. Christian leaders will also continue to sin, publicly embarrassing themselves and the church in general. These failures need not, however, stifle your witness. Authenticity demands frank admission of sin and apology for its negative results. The effectiveness of your witness is strengthened by honesty about your shortcomings and, when necessary, the failures of public figures. Hypocrisy is living one way while claiming another standard. It’s not hypocritical to admit weakness and take responsibility for it. Doing so demonstrates the genuineness of your commitment to Jesus and your willingness to admit your mistakes. Your honesty, more than glossing over reality, will be appreciated by your unsaved friends who already know you aren’t perfect.

Solution: Be honest. When your behavior is incongruent with your values, admit it and apologize. Most unbelievers will respect you more, not less, when you take responsibility for your shortcomings. Denial of your frailty, not its public display, is the death knell of your credibility as a witness. Part of living the Christian life is modeling how to confess sin, restore relationships, and serve others. Remember, denial is bad. Honesty is good.

NASHVILLE (BP) – John Blackmon’s father-in-law couldn’t hear the message, but its boldness and life-changing capability rang through loud and clear two weeks before he died.

Blackmon’s wife, Cheryl, had already been praying for and sharing the Gospel with her father before she and John married 12 years ago. Cheryl’s mother was a Christian, but her father had continued to reject Christ. John learned some American Sign Language (ASL) basics and joined the task with his wife, who could speak in ASL before she could talk. Ultimately, Cheryl’s father come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

Stacey Vancil watches a Deaf interpreter during Florida pastor Wily Rice’s convention sermon at the SBC annual meeting June 16. Vancil and her husband Joey, members of Sunfield Baptist Church in Du Quoin, Ill., were first-time attendees at the gathering. Photo courtesy of Joel Vancil

Blackmon, pastor of Meansville Baptist Church in Meansville, Ga., cited the personal connection as one of the reasons he introduced a motion at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting last month that more resources for Deaf ministry be made available for Southern Baptists.

“The amount of lost people in this country who are Deaf is abysmal,” he said. “It’s unacceptable. We need to be doing all we can not only to reach Deaf people but resource and equip others to reach them as well.”

Blackmon’s motion called on Lifeway Christian Resources and the North American Mission Board “to research and report on the feasibility of a partnership to produce and provide access to resources for existing Deaf ministries and future work among Deaf people in the United States.” Messengers accepted the motion, which came to include the International Mission Board as well as NAMB. The two entities will produce a report for the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim.

Julie Smith is among those excited about the motion. As Julie Balthrop, she was a missionary at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from 1983-85, jointly funded through the Home (now North American) Mission Board’s US-2 program, the Louisiana Baptist Convention and the New Orleans Baptist Association. At NOBTS, she served as an ASL interpreter for men studying to enter the ministry.

“There’s a great need within the Deaf community for access to the Bible,” said Smith, who met her future husband, Joey Smith, while he was an NOBTS student, though not one of the Deaf students she worked with. Joey is now pastor of East Thomaston Baptist Church in Thomaston, Ga.

Terry Garrison, seated, assists a woman who is Deaf and blind during worship services at Cave Spring Baptist Church in Cave Spring, Ga., on July 11. Leading worship at right is Leslie Jackson, a member of the church who is also the superintendent for Georgia School for the Deaf. Photo courtesy of Jarrod Kinsey

“This is a tremendous need and something worthy of pursuing,” Julie Smith said. “I work with a Deaf woman who is 65 years old and didn’t know about many of these Bible stories. She’s so excited to learn about them.”

Blackmon developed another friendship while waiting at microphone No. 5 to deliver his motion. His turn had finally arrived at the microphone during the Tuesday (June 15) morning session when time ran out. After lunch, he was first in line at the microphone yet was still the last in the afternoon session to present his motion.

During that time Blackmon became acquainted with Joel Vancil, pastor of Turkey Branch Baptist Church in Springfield, Ga., who was serving as a page at the microphone. Vancil grew excited upon hearing the motion as his own mother, who was also attending the meeting, is Deaf.

“As someone with a Deaf parent, I have a heart for this,” he said. “My mom thought it was awesome, so I made it a point to introduce her to John afterwards.”

The motion was made even more special for Vancil, as it was the first annual meeting attended by his parents, who began attending Sunfield Baptist Church in Du Quoin, Ill., a few years ago and were encouraged by their son to come to the annual meeting and learn more about the SBC.

Blackmon gave two key motivations for his motion. The first had to do with the number of Deaf in the United States, which Gallaudet University places at 600,000. According to a 2011 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 11 million in the U.S. who consider themselves Deaf or have serious difficulty hearing.

The other regarded a lack of resources. Lifeway phased out its Explore the Bible: Deaf curriculum last November. In December 2019 NAMB honored longtime Southern Baptist Deaf ministry leader Carter Bearden, but since passage of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force Report in 2010 has focused primarily on church planting.

At this year’s annual meeting, IMB President Paul Chitwood spoke on the importance of Deaf ministry.

“Knowing that many Deaf around the world die lost every day, we know there is not a moment to spare,” Chitwood said at a June 15 gathering celebrating the work of Deaf Pathway Global, a ministry out of Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tenn. “We must press forward as quickly as we can, and to be able to do so in a project like this is unprecedented.”

Mark Sauter has worked alongside his wife Vesta with the IMB for the last 25 years in Deaf ministry. He credited the IMB’s work alongside those such as Brentwood Baptist and Union University in Jackson, Tenn., in providing more opportunities not only for Deaf Southern Baptists, but those wanting to reach the Deaf community.

“Pastor Blackmon affirmed those efforts … for international work,” Sauter said, “but his motion is timely in that it pushes forward a real need for access to training and resources by Deaf Americans, many of whom are seeking to follow God’s call on their lives to take the Gospel to the Deaf nations of the world.”

Another Georgia pastor, Jarrod Kinsey of First Baptist Church of Cave Spring, applauded the motion. Georgia School for the Deaf is located just a few miles from the church, and Kinsey sees the need for such resources on a consistent basis.

“With an average of 8-10 percent of our weekly attendance being from the Deaf community, I am keenly aware of this obstacle,” he said. “We have a tremendous team of translators, but actual tools for discipleship make cultivating Christian growth almost impossible. Our convention’s willingness to invest in significant ways in the Deaf community would serve as a great catalyst to the missionary cause in the unreached Deaf people groups around the world.

“Without a doubt, discipleship tools geared specifically to the Deaf community would help pastors like me make significant Great Commission inroads.”

Editor’s Note: This article is a condensed version of a longer article that originally appeared here on the website of WatersEdge.

When it came to tithing, Russell Graeter was a miser. But through the decades, God used the love of his life to transform his heart and radically impact ministry.

Thirteen is an unlucky number for some, but not 95-year-old Russell Graeter. To the Texas-born engineer, 13 represents the number of salvations celebrated by a Pittsburgh church plant that Graeter supported through a gift he made to the North American Mission Board in memory of his late wife, MaryAnn.

“That’s 13 more people that are going to heaven,” Graeter says through tears of joy. “It was worth it.”

Church-planting missionary, Rob Wilton, baptizes his daughter, McCall, outside Vintage Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Vintage is experiencing significant growth, celebrating 13 salvations and seven baptisms in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic.

Graeter hasn’t always felt so strongly about reaching the lost. For years, he avoided a relationship with God. Every time the doors to the couple’s church were open, MaryAnn attended but Graeter stayed home. MaryAnn’s passion for evangelism inspired her to hand out tracts and share the Gospel with anyone that would listen. She never gave up on winning her husband to Christ and prayed for him every day for decades.

“Every night she’d read me the Bible,” Graeter says. “She was a dear person and spent so much time trying to get me to become a Christian — time I wasted.”

ALMOST A CENTURY – Not many people live as long as Russell Graeter. Throughout his lifetime, Graeter served in the Navy, worked as an engineer for Boeing and attended medical school to practice optometry.

Eventually, the day came when Graeter was ready to surrender his life to Jesus, but he struggled to leave his former self behind.

“When I told the pastor I wanted to be a Christian, I didn’t give up some of the bad things that I did and instead rationalized them away,” he recalls. “It took me until 1985 to finally turn from that sin and walk the other way. I think God helped me, because I never looked back from that moment on.”

Through the years, Graeter became a more and more cheerful giver to ministries that furthered the spread of the gospel in North America and around the world through the International Mission Board.

Holly Blakey, WatersEdge director of donor relations, loves working with Graeter and seeing God change lives through his generosity.

“He traditionally gives large gifts, mostly directed to the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) church-planting efforts,” Blakey says. Graeter asked Blakey to work with NAMB to research the cities where the Gospel was most needed, which is where he directs his giving.

So far, Graeter has given to city funds in Pittsburgh, Denver, Boston and Salt Lake City. The funds are distributed widely to church-planting missionaries and their ministries and have resulted in hundreds of salvations and baptisms.

This story originally appeared on the website of WatersEdge Services, which supports hundreds of Christian causes in Oklahoma, across the United States and around the world. You can read the full article here.