Author: Baptist Press

Missouri church wins settlement in case over COVID restrictions

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. (BP) – Eighteen months after raising objections to restrictions related to COVID-19, Abundant Life Baptist Church reached a settlement Oct. 18 to the tune of $146,750 with the Jackson County, Mo., legislature.

Government leaders voted in favor of the settlement in exchange for the church dropping its lawsuit that claimed the county’s measures amounted to discrimination. Abundant Life, which sees weekly attendance in excess of 4,500 across three campuses, was placed in a group during the lockdown that restricted gatherings to no more than 10 people.

“Abundant Life always asked to be treated by the same rules as similar, secular activities,” attorney Jonathan Whitehead, who is also a member of the church, told Baptist Press. “Abundant Life complied with orders requiring everyone to stay home in March 2020. But Jackson County ‘reopened’ by calling big-box stores essential, while limiting any worship gathering to 10 people.

“At one point, it asked churches to get permission to meet. After trying to work with county officials, Abundant Life decided to ask a court to decide what the law required.”

The decision is the latest in a series of rulings favoring churches when it comes to COVID restrictions. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of churches and those wanting to attend religious services in New York as well as Colorado and New Jersey. In February, California leaders were told they couldn’t ban indoor church services. The Court followed that up in April, siding with Californians who wanted to worship unimpeded in their homes.

Jackson County legislators told the Kansas City Star that the 6-2 decision to settle came in light of the outcome to those earlier court cases. The county no longer restricts gatherings.

“I think that is a result of churches like Abundant Life standing up,” Whitehead said. “While churches support government efforts to improve public health, that burden can’t fall unfairly on religious worshippers, no matter their faith.”

In addition to Abundant Life dropping its lawsuit, the county also agreed that in the future, health restrictions “would be no more onerous on churches than secular gatherings.”

As churches experience the winning streak for the right to gather, Whitehead points to the ongoing debate over vaccines.

“Baptists have long called for government to accomplish what it needs, where it can, while minimizing burdens on religious conscience,” he said. “There will be many opportunities to stand up for that principle in the near future.

“Even though many Baptists are convinced the vaccine is safe and ethically acceptable, sincere religious objections should continue to be respected.”

32 conversions catalyze new work in ‘Nazareth of Europe’

Lamar Schubert* entered a house in the Moldovan countryside and found a grandmother who was exhausted from dealing with her unruly granddaughter. She was raising the teen alone and said she was a “handful.”

When the granddaughter came in, Schubert shared the Gospel with her. With tears in her eyes, she said, “Why have I never heard this?” The grandmother began to weep, and they wrapped their arms around each other and prayed to receive Jesus.

They asked for someone to come back and teach them more about following Christ.

Schubert, a missionary leader in Eastern Europe, said occasions like this were unheard of in Moldova – a tiny, land-locked country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine. As one of Europe’s newest and poorest countries, it doesn’t demand a lot of attention. In fact, Schubert used to refer to the country as the “Nazareth of Europe,” thinking that nothing good would come from there. Boy, was he wrong, he confessed.

On his first trip to Moldova, Schubert helped train pastors in evangelism. During that training, he and other leaders modeled entering a new village and going door to door to share Christ. Schubert admits he wasn’t expecting much. He and his wife, Audrey*, have been church planters in Europe for 10 years, and they’ve learned how long it can take to see fruit.

“After so many years of doing this type of ministry in Europe, where you see maybe one out of 100 people respond to the message, my expectations were low,” Schubert said. “But, in spite of my lack of faith, God had prepared a harvest.”

In just two-and-a-half days of sharing, 32 people came to Christ.

“I didn’t take Jesus at His word. The field was ripe unto harvest and people were ready to hear and respond,” Schubert said, referring to John 4:35.

Schubert wasn’t the only one who was blown away. The pastor he was training, Mihai, wasn’t expecting such openness either. Eight people in one village repented and began following Jesus.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Mihai said. “I am not sure what I’m going to do with all of these people.”

Although that’s a good problem to have, it is a problem. For that reason, Lamar and Audrey will hold a second training this fall that focuses on discipleship, church formation, and helping Moldovan pastors develop skills for training their own people.

God prepares the workers for the harvest

The obvious movement of God in this tiny country sparked a desire in Schubert to see IMB workers on the ground help facilitate further training and discipleship.

Moldova has 2.8 million people and 622 Baptist churches, making it one of the most reached countries in Europe. But this trip led Schubert to believe that having an IMB worker there, even for just a short time, could help in mentoring and training pastors to lead the Indigenous work.

As only God could orchestrate, just one day after the trip, Schubert got a phone call from a former IMB colleague, now a pastor, who had a couple in his church that wanted to move to Europe to plant churches for a couple of years. He wanted to know if Schubert knew of any immediate needs.

A week later, another American couple called Schubert and said that God was moving them to go and live in Moldova for a couple of years to continue helping the church grow. Both families will be moving to Moldova to serve with IMB by March 2022.

COVID-19 conversions

All of this is happening during Europe’s prayer, fasting and bold Gospel-sharing emphasis this fall. IMB leaders believe God has been at work, and now is the time to reap a harvest.

“I’m convinced that COVID has changed the soil, changed the culture, and changed the context where we work,” Schubert said. “People are perhaps more ready to hear than we are to share.”

As an example, Schubert shared about one village where the opposition against the Baptist church is strong. The local pastor, Victor, had been beaten nearly to death by members of the Orthodox church – the Moldovan state church.

Schubert and Pastor Victor expected only hostile receptions, but they started knocking on doors anyway. Although the first two houses turned him away, the third one was a different story.

As Schubert spoke to the woman in the house about the hope that changed his life, she began weeping and said, “This is the only hope for me and my family, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Schubert said, “it is.”

Schubert is excited to see God work so evidently, and that gives him renewed anticipation of what God will do in the months to come. He asks for prayer as he and his colleagues step out in faith and expect the unexpected.

Please pray for Lamar and Audrey as they go to Moldova for the second training. Pray for many pastors to come and for them to catch a vision of reaching their country and beyond with the Gospel. Pray for the new believers in Moldova and for the pastors who will be discipling them. Pray for fertile soil. Pray for the two new couples who are preparing to move to Moldova in March.

*Names changed for security

Pruitt to young leaders: Preach the Bible, dump self-help ‘white noise’

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – In the face of a challenging, changing culture, young people often wrestle with how to process the pressures that face them as they grow up. Church youth leaders often are the ones there to help students apply the Bible and the gospel to the issues they encounter.

Shane Pruitt, national next gen director at the North American Mission Board (NAMB), and Clayton King, teaching pastor at NewSpring Church in Anderson, S.C., created the Youth Leader Coaching Network (YLCN) in 2020 out of a desire to equip those leaders as they minister to the next generation.

“Students are hungry for answers to the biggest questions, and they are searching for hope,” Pruitt said. “We started this network as a way to connect with and encourage people across the nation who are doing whatever it takes to reach the next generation with the hope of the gospel.”

The YLCN offers two, three-month semesters each year—one in the fall and one in the spring. Space in each cohort is limited, but there is no cost to join. There are three, virtual calls that take place once a month followed by an in-person gathering in Alpharetta.

On October 18-19, NAMB wrapped up the 2021 fall semester of the YLCN with the gathering of nearly 200 youth pastors and other leaders that featured talks from Pruitt, King and a host of others who served as coaches during the two-day event.

Sessions included discussion about what King, Pruitt and their wives had learned in ministry, about recruiting adult volunteers, some of the must haves in ministry and tips for sermon or teaching preparation.

In the lesson on teaching or sermon preparation, Pruitt and King both emphasized the need for utilizing text-driven sermons or lessons—whether preaching to the entire student ministry or teaching a small group of 10thgrade girls.

“You need to learn how to preach,” King said. “You need to learn how to open up the Bible and teach a passage of Scripture.”

Most student leaders ask the question about how to cut through the constant barrage of information that most students encounter in their day-to-day lives, and Pruitt emphasized how preaching and teaching the Bible stands out.

“If all they hear at your church is a bunch of self-help talk with some Bible verses thrown in, that’s white noise to Gen Z,” Pruitt said. “Self-help is what they hear everywhere they go. So, how do we cut through the noise? Preach the Bible. Teach the Bible. That’s something they won’t hear anywhere else.”

Participants in the YLCN ranged from pastors leading ministries of hundreds of students to bivociational leaders serving dozens of youth and students. Being a part of the network not only allowed them to connect with some well-known leaders but also to network with fellow pastors and ministry leaders from across the nation.

“One of the greatest takeaways of the youth leader network was how ministry should come out of an overflow of our relationship and our time with Jesus,” Nathan McCoy, next generation pastor at Peavine Baptist Church in Rock Spring, Ga. “It truly is about abiding in Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing, and that’s been a great takeaway for me.”

Wil Moore, lead student pastor at Longhollow Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., praised the intentionality of those leading the YLCN and described how it has provided the encouragement he needs to be intentional in his own ministry.

“One of the things I’ve regretted was not allowing people to be intentional in my life because of my pride,” said Moore. “What I love about the intentionality from Shane and Clayton and the others who are leading is they care about your soul. They care about longevity. They care about you being a gospel influencer to the generation that we are investing in now.”

Youth leaders looking to sign up or learn more about the Youth Leader Coaching Network can do so at YouthLeaderCoachingNetwork.com. Paul Worcester, NAMB’s national collegiate evangelism director, is in the process of developing a similar network for collegiate leaders as well.

Here’s why the church still matters

I’ve never seen the idea of the church so marginalized in all my lifetime. The secular world mocks the church and the Christian world devalues the church. The local church is seen, even by believers, as unnecessary and antiquated and optional.

You can kind of understand the issues perhaps. After all, churches are filled with imperfect people. Churches often have a well-earned reputation for being argumentative. They frequently get sidetracked by secondary issues. They sometimes lose sight of their purpose. Critics can accurately point out all the problems, failures and imperfections of the church.

But, with all of that said, the church still matters. There is great inherent value in the work of the local church. There is value and purpose and potential in this institution. Here are three reasons why the church still matters.

God made the church

If the church were man’s idea, we might rightfully ignore it. But it isn’t. God formed the church, and He did it for His own reasons. He knew that the church would be made up of imperfect people. He knew every pastor and every small group leader would be “frail as dust and feeble as frail,” as the hymn says. But He formed it anyway. We ought not easily turn our backs on something God created.

And, I note that God’s Word admonishes us that we ought not be in the habit of “neglecting to gather together” according to Hebrews. This isn’t the word of your pastor or your grandmother. God is the one who calls us to gather. God’s command is reason enough to connect with an imperfect church filled with imperfect people.

We might not understand why God formed the church, but we can’t escape the fact that He did. We may not see the value of the local church, but God apparently can. We need to remember this important truth: the church is a God idea.

We need each other

I don’t think every Christian believes that. I think many believe they can be just fine on their own – no need for fellowship or accountability or encouragement from other believers. But the longer I live, the more I see the importance of other believers in my life.

Don’t underestimate the enemy. He loves to divide and conquer. He wants you to be spiritually isolated. He knows the Bible says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). He tells you that you don’t need anyone else because he wants you to be vulnerable and ineffective.

But, the Spirit of the Living God reminds you of the value of other believers. We disciple others and are discipled by others. We benefit from the wisdom and zeal and encouragement that comes from worshiping and learning with others. Never have believers needed each other as we do now!

We are stronger together

I had a friend who lost his little finger in an accident. He told me how amazed he was at how much grip strength he lost just from that tiny digit.

The church is described as the body of Christ. We all have different gifts and backgrounds and personalities and perspectives. But we function best when we work together. We are stronger in missions, evangelism, discipleship and worship when we are connected.

The church separated is weak and ineffective. The church connected is powerful beyond the sum of her parts. The church can prevail against the very gates of hell. You will benefit from others and others will benefit from you. You need the church and the church needs you.

Don’t underestimate the importance of a healthy connection to a local church. God will use this institution made up of imperfect sinners who have found the perfect Savior to impact you and your world. Find a church, plug in fully and participate actively.

The church still matters.

Doug Munton is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, Ill.

This article was originally published in The Illinois Baptist.

Texas church honors retiring pastor with missions gift to IMB

As John McCullough commenced 52 years in ministry, the last 15 bivocationally at Berea Baptist Church in Big Spring, Texas, his church donated $30,000 to the IMB and $27,000 to Send Relief in his honor.

Berea Baptist has always been passionate about missions, giving over 15% of their undesignated receipts to missions work locally, statewide, nationally and globally. But when the church of around 25 members realized they had too much space for their mostly aging congregation, and a local church needed the facilities, they chose to sell and rent space at Crossroads Baptist Association’s offices for Berea Baptist to continue meeting.

Instead of putting all the profits into savings, they donated a substantial portion of those funds to various ministry and mission work in honor of their retiring pastor, who is an IMB trustee

McCullough, who also served as the associational missionary for Crossroads Baptist Association, retired from that position in April. While he’d moved 380 miles across the state, he has been making the drive weekly to continue pastoring the congregation. Sunday, Sept. 26 was his last Sunday before he retired from Berea Baptist.

During McCullough’s time as trustee, he’s been especially passionate about the work God is doing in Southeast Asia, his area of focus as a trustee. He’s been on trips to the region, and seen his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson accompany him and catch the same vision.

“We wanted to do what we could do there, knowing that there’s an incredible move of God in [that part] of the world,” McCullough shared. “We wanted to make that an emphasis.”

The IMB donation will go toward ongoing mission projects in Southeast Asia. The Send Relief donation will go to water well projects and other humanitarian aid work.

“When one of our board members, Pastor John McCullough, casually mentioned that he had a check to pass along to the IMB from his church, I had no idea of the significance of that gift,” said IMB President Paul Chitwood, “not only in terms of its amount but also in what it symbolized of a church family that wanted to honor its retiring pastor and steward its remaining resources well for the kingdom.”

Chitwood added, “When I heard the story, I was not only blessed by it, but I wanted others to hear it. I thank God for this incredibly generous act and know it will inspire others toward greater generosity.”

This was a fitting way to honor McCullough’s retirement, Bobby Scoggin, Berea Baptist’s trustee/treasurer, said.

“Bro. John’s been a big blessing in my life,” Scoggin said. “I was saved under Bro. John. He’s been my pastor since I was saved.” The donation was in line with the direction McCullough has led the church – to have a heart for the nations.

Because of generous gifts from churches like Berea Baptist Church, last year, IMB workers across the globe engaged 247 people groups, 769,494 individuals heard the gospel, 86,587 people were baptized, 18,380 new churches were planted, 127,155 pastors received training, and 144,322 people professed faith in Christ.

This article originally appeared on IMB.

Ministries ponder future after Haitian kidnappings

PORT-AU-PRINCE (BP) – Even the 2019 kidnapping and torture of two team members, the 2015 kidnapping and brutal beating of his wife Laurie and the 2018 murder of a base manager did not sway medical missionary David Vanderpool to close shop in Haiti.

But the escalating violence, including the weekend kidnapping of 17 Christian missionaries east of Port-au-Prince by a gang identified as the 400 Mawozo, threatens to end Vanderpool’s work there as the cofounder of LiveBeyond, a Gospel, medical and humanitarian group on the island since 2013.

“This episode is just the most recent in many, many, many hundreds of episodes that have been going on since the United Nations left in 2017. We’ve taken pretty stringent security precautions because we’ve been attacked ourselves many times,” Vanderpool said today (Oct. 18). “The problem is, this really represents an escalation, kidnapping this many Americans at one time is a departure from what they’ve done in the past.”

Southern Baptist missionary Roland Norris, who partners with the Georgia Baptist Convention, keeps a small staff of Haitian ministry workers on the island, but hasn’t led stateside mission groups there since 2019 as a Look to the Nations missionary with his wife Mary.

While Norris is stateside, a small staff of seven Haitians in Haiti provides supplies to families displaced by the August earthquake, works with a group of nine pastors to minister at an orphanage, and leads Vacation Bible Schools and similar ministry outreaches.

“The whole time that we were there, I’d always told our staff … there may be one day that we may not be able to come back,” Norris said. “And I said but now you have been trained for the same mission that we’ve been doing together all this time. Through that, praise the Lord, we’ve been able to train disciples to continue carrying on what we were doing by bringing in short-term teams.”

Keny Felix, a Haitian American pastor who has helped mobilize Christians, humanitarian and government groups to minister to Haitian migrants in the U.S., said the escalating violence underscores the plight of Haitian migrants.

“Unfortunately, the abduction of our brothers and sisters definitely shows the great instability that exists in Haiti as we speak, and the complete disregard for human life, including religious workers who are in the country trying to aide those in need,” said Felix, senior pastor of Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, Fla. “We’ve seen this over the past few weeks with the killing of a deacon in Port-au-Prince and the abduction of another minister a few Sundays ago. The situation in Haiti is quite dire.”

The 17 missionaries kidnapped included 16 U.S. nationals and a Canadian working for Christian Aid Ministries, among them five children, who were taken while visiting an orphanage. The Ohio-based group provides a worldwide ministry outreach for Amish, Mennonite, and other conservative Anabaptist groups, according to its website.

Conditions have deteriorated since the UN pulled peacekeeping forces out of Haiti in 2017, with violence escalating since the July murder of Haitian President Jovenel Moise and the August earthquake, both of which further shredded the economy.

Kidnappings and murders have increased 300 percent in the past month, Vanderpool said, with numerous gangs operating with heavy weaponry including machine guns. Thousands are being kidnapped.

“Haiti unfortunately is in complete chaos, and unless there’s some kind of foreign intervention, I don’t see that Haiti is going to survive this particular problem,” Vanderpool said. “It would just be complete anarchy, which is pretty much what we have now.”

Norris looks forward to a day when U.S. mission groups can return to Haiti in relative safety.

“Right now, with the civil and political unrest, and the kidnapping,” Norris said, “I would recommend that those that are there continue to be there, but work safely, as safely as possible. But we haven’t been able to take any others since then (February 2019). … My hopes are that things will settle down and we can start taking teams again.”

Prayer is the main weapon keeping missionaries safe now in Haiti, Norris said, as well as restrictions in travel and visibility.

“We as Americans, we stand out everywhere we go because of the color of our skin,” Norris said. “People can point to us a lot quicker than they can a Haitian staff member.”

The greatest tragedy Vanderpool sees is that children and the poor will suffer the most, not getting the education, food and medical care only available through volunteer missions.

“We need prayers. The answer to this is the love of Jesus Christ. He’s in control. The enemy is definitely exerting its power down here,” Vanderpool said, “but the power of Jesus is definitely what is needed here, and when that happens peace will reign.”

Study: Most self-proclaimed Christians don’t practice faith

PHILADELPHIA (BP) — Over half of self-identified Christians in the U.S. don’t actively practice their faith, the American Bible Society (ABS) said in its latest release from the 2021 State of the Bible.

“Across all traditions, the Church needs to recognize that there are a growing number of people who call themselves Christians but don’t actually know how to interact with the Bible or live a life dedicated to Christ” ABS Director of Ministry Intelligence John F. Plake said in releasing the findings. “The data show us a real opportunity to step into that gap to actively encourage and disciple believers to engage with God’s Word.”

Only 42% of evangelicals, 31% of historically Black Protestants, 28% of mainline Protestants and 22% of Catholics qualified as practicing Christians in the study conducted in January. The study defines practicing Christians as those who meet three criteria of identifying as a Christian, attending a religious service at least monthly and strongly agreeing that faith is important in their lives.

Among those who fit the description of practicing Christians, ABS found that two-thirds regularly engage with the Bible, thereby connecting to God and finding wisdom and comfort.

“When we deeply engage in Scripture, we find hope in Jesus and an invitation to be part of a vibrant Christian community that brings restoration to our world,” Plake said.

Generationally, Baby Boomers are more likely than Gen Z to practice their faith. Among practicing Christians, Baby Boomers comprise more than a third of historically Black Protestants (35%), evangelicals (34%) and Catholics (36%). About of quarter of millennials and Gen Xers are practicing Christians, outpacing the 15% of Gen Z Christians who practice their faith. Just 6% of practicing evangelicals are Gen Z.

Practicing Christians who regularly engage with the Bible cited several benefits of Scripture engagement, with feeling “closer to God” most often cited. Among evangelicals, 42% said Scripture engagement helps them feel closer to God, followed by 34% of mainline Protestants, 33% of historically Black Protestants and 38% of Catholics.

Experiencing various positive emotions, being encouraged to do positive things and an increased ability to forgive are also benefits of Scripture engagement practicing Christians cited. Among positive emotions cited, a third of practicing historically Black Protestants and 25% of Catholics cited comfort; 21% of mainline Protestants said they feel hopeful through Scripture engagement, and 25% of evangelicals said they feel encouraged through the practice.

Through Scripture engagement, 71% of practicing Christians in historically Black Protestant churches said they are led to welcome immigrants into their community, 63% of evangelicals and 60% of mainline Protestants feel compelled to prioritize friendships with people of other races and 59% of Catholics emphasized care for the environment, ABS reported.

Engaging with Scripture also helps practicing Christians forgive others, with 91% agreeing somewhat or strongly with the notion.

The findings are in Chapter 7 of the study, with previous chapters showing additional characteristics of practicing Christians. Specifically, practicing Christians are about twice as likely as non-practicing Christians to say the Bible encourages civic engagement, and 53% say the Bible encourages such self-care as living healthy lives, caring for mental and emotional health and managing their money.

Some practicing Christians said they didn’t have time for Scriptural engagement, including 22% of practicing evangelicals, 22% of Catholics and 20% of mainline Protestants. The fact that non-practicing Christians most often said they didn’t know where to begin in Scriptural engagement suggests they need encouragement or discipleship, ABS said.

The study divides Protestants into subcategories of evangelical, including Baptist and such groups as Pentecostal, Adventist and the Presbyterian Church in America; mainline, such as Episcopalian, Lutheran, Congregationalist and the Presbyterian Church USA; and historically Black Protestant, including Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal denominations.

The online study included 3,354 complete responses from a sample of adults representative of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The first seven chapters of the study are available at StateoftheBible.org (https://sotb.research.bible/), with additional chapters due for release in November and December.

9/11: Southern Baptist Disaster Relief left legacy at Ground Zero

NEW YORK CITY (BP) – Twenty years after spending weeks in what could only be called a war zone, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are reflecting on their experience working in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and how it affected their lives.

Sam Porter is the national director for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief for Send Relief with the North American Mission Board. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, Porter was serving as the disaster relief director for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. He said he remembers the events surrounding 9/11 “very vividly.”

Chaplains organize their shifts for work at the temporary morgue at Ground Zero. File photo by Bob Nigh

Even before the second World Trade Center tower collapsed, Porter was on the phone with NAMB’s national disaster relief director making plans to take a relief team to New York.

Because a majority of flights around the country were canceled after the day’s events, Porter and his team flew to New York on a private plane Sept. 12.

The pilot had to ask the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to fly. Permission was granted due to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief’s efforts after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, when Porter and his team had served in the days following the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Their service was remembered, and the government asked the team to fly to New York as soon as they could, something Porter said is just one example of God opening doors for them to be able to minister at Ground Zero.

Once the team arrived in New York the morning of Sept. 13, they steadily established a relationship with the head of security for the New York Police Department, who observed the way they were caring and praying for first responders. He gave them permission to minister any way they saw fit, despite their not having official clearance to be at Ground Zero.

From left, BGCO Chaplaincy Specialist Leslie Sias, BGCO Disaster Relief Director Sam Porter and Oklahoma City Police chaplain Jack Poe visit with firefighters near Ground Zero in New York City. File photo by Bob Nigh

Porter was eventually asked to be one of the leaders of the chaplaincy efforts at Ground Zero. Southern Baptist DR teams from around the country were slowly but surely given access to come volunteer, and Porter said teams were volunteering in the area until it was closed off in May of 2002.

SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Ronnie Floyd praised the way Southern Baptists around the country responded to the shocking and challenging time in the nation.

“9/11 sent shock waves across the nation and around the world,” Floyd said. “On this day, it seemed everything stopped as these horrific events unfolded before our eyes. Churches across the nation were moved to urgent and deep prayer for America.

“While fear gripped the nation and the world, pastors and churches joined a unified call, placing our faith and hope in the Lord. Attendance to local church worship services grew in the weeks following as America focused on the need to talk to God and depend on His power in this national time of spiritual need. Through our cooperative work as SBC churches, we did whatever was needed to be done at the time. I have not seen America more unified and resolved since 9/11 and the weeks and months following.”

A demolished firetruck is lifted out of the debris at Ground Zero by a crane. File photo by Bob Nigh

Porter said ministry at Ground Zero generally involved caring for and praying with first responders and serving food in partnership with The Salvation Army.

One of their main ministries was connecting with first responders and simply asking them to tell them their story. Often, a connection was made when volunteers said they were from Oklahoma and were acquainted with some of the trauma that can result from terrorist attacks.

Porter said the ministry work included many difficult things, such as praying over the remains of every person who was uncovered from the wreckage before the remains were moved on for attempted identification. Still, the team was grateful for the opportunity.

“We knew God had us there for a reason to make an impact. … It was a great honor for us to be there and tell people about the hope of Christ Jesus,” Porter said. “I’ve never prayed as much or cried as much in my whole life, but God made a big difference.”

While Porter was a DR veteran when he went to Ground Zero, Nancy Hubbard was not. In fact, it was her first assignment.

Hubbard, who was 62 at the time, first heard about Southern Baptist Disaster Relief from a presentation at her Georgia church. She later visited a DR effort going on in Florida and was immediately “hooked,” she said.

“Being a Christian, I always wanted to do things to help people, and this was ideal for me,” Hubbard said. “I like to be out working so this was perfect. I was able to meet new people and new Christians that you have something in common with. It was just God-sent for me.”

Hubbard has been on at least 50 DR deployments in the last 20 years, but 9/11 – her first – is fresh on her mind.

“I went not knowing a soul,” she said. “When we went up there, we didn’t know what we were going to do. We just said, ‘We’re here; where can you use us?’ It was devastating to watch what was left, and it was eye-opening.”

Hubbard, now 82, is retired, but has no plans to stop volunteering in disaster relief. Just this week, she was in Louisiana, helping clean up after Hurricane Ida.

“I hope the Lord will allow me at least a couple of more years of doing this work because I truly love it,” she said. “It seems like when I go on these trips, I forget my age and my energy just hits the top rung and I’m just ready to go.

“You just meet the most wonderful people with the best attitudes that you could ever even imagine, the people that run into just makes it worthwhile. You know you’ve helped somebody that really needs it.”

Porter said the impact SBDR teams made at Ground Zero is still felt today, as disaster relief efforts increased throughout the states over the next 20 years, and Southern Baptists now have “a seat at the table,” among national relief agencies.

He added that the unity displayed by the country in the aftermath of 9/11 is the type of unity that is now desperately needed for Southern Baptists as followers of Christ.

“We have to base our beliefs and our ministry on the Word of God, and realize that we serve God, not each other,” Porter said. “We serve because He’s called us, and there’s so much we can do now through Send Relief to bring help, hope and healing.

“For the Southern Baptist Convention to come together, we have to go back and see what the Bible says about us going forward. If we go (to fulfill the Great Commission) in any other power expect the name of Jesus Christ, we will not be together, and we will be divided.”

3 SBC leaders reflect on 9/11

As we approach the 20th anniversary of 9/11, three Southern Baptists leaders who held significant leadership roles on Sept. 11, 2001, help us to remember that infamous day in American history and consider its impact on the convention and our world.

At that time, Dr. Richard Land was the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Dr. James Merritt was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention; and Dr. Jerry Rankin was the president of the International Mission Board. Each man shared his experience and reflections with us. Their words remind us of the difficult decisions during that time, the preciousness of our religious liberty, the value of every human life, and our call to take the gospel to the nations.

Jill Waggoner: Where were you when you heard the news on Sept. 11, 2001?

Richard Land: We were in the middle of our trustee meeting. I was getting ready and listening to the news when I saw the first plane hit. I called Bobby Reed, our chief financial officer, and I said, “Have you heard? Call the rental companies and get every rental car you can find, because they are going to shut everything down.” We ended up carpooling some of our trustees home who were there from more distant states.

It was astonishing. It’s hard to describe how shell-shocked everyone was. I had flown out of LaGuardia Airport, right past the Twin Towers, back to Nashville, just the Friday before. So, it was surreal.

James Merritt: Amazingly, I was getting ready to go upstairs and work out before flying to speak at the ERLC! I got a call from Teresa, my wife, telling me that a pilot had flown a plane into the World Trade Center and I might want to turn on the TV. I went back downstairs, and the moment I turned on the TV, I never left my bedroom for eight hours. During that time, I called the church to dismiss everyone to go to their homes immediately.

Jerry Rankin: When I arrived at the IMB office on Sept. 11, there was a notice that Genessa Wells, a journeyman in the Middle had been killed the night before in a bus accident two weeks before the completion of her term. At 9 a.m., I assembled our executive team for the purpose of activating crisis action procedures of notifying and ministering to family, responding to the trauma of the team on the field, and managing the media response. One of our vice presidents came into the room and suggested we turn on the TV monitor. He had just passed the one in the communications office, and something was happening in New York.

We watched the live events unfold in horror and disbelief for the next two hours and realized this would have global ramifications. Out of that day-long crisis mode, we realized the U.S. would retaliate on any number of Muslim countries and that Muslim population groups all over the world would then reciprocate, not necessarily against missionaries, but any American in their country. Although we have a policy that the decision to evacuate a country was to be made by local missionaries and their field leadership, we realized this was a larger global issue, and there was no way they could have the overview of the situation.

The decision was made to immediately evacuate missionaries in the 20 most dominant Muslim countries, which entailed moving 400 personnel and their families, most of whom were resistant to leaving, already cognizant of the risk in serving in a hostile environment. This was a massive logistical challenge. Where do they go? Where could we immediately provide accommodations for such a large number on nearby fields, not knowing how long they may be displaced or if they could ever return? How do we arrange travel, and how much time should we allow for them to make arrangements for sustaining their ministries and protecting property?

JW: How did 9/11 affect your role at that time?

RL: On a personal level, it made travel permanently more difficult and arduous, as it still is to some degree. It’s hard for people who are younger to understand how much easier it was to travel before 9/11.

The difficulty of the moment was that you wanted to protect your country without infringing on religious liberty and how to navigate that along with the threat posed by terrorists. We had to constanly remind people that 90% of the victims of the jihadists were fellow Muslims who refused to accept this as sole interpretation of Islam. We spoke to these issues, and when there was consensus among Baptists, we relayed that to Congress and the courts. We argued for sunsetting (when specific provisions cease after a certain time) for some of the legislation that was passed so that they would be reviewed every 10 years. We had to recognize legitimate security concerns, but we didn’t want laws set in place that would violate constitutional liberties permanently.

I got a lot of flack for coming out against waterboarding. Congressmen would ask me in private why I was against it. The shorthand definition of torture is something that is likely to produce permanent pyschological or physical damage. Having viewed waterboarding on films used to train our special forces, it was hard for me to imagine that this would not produce permant pychological damage This would be torture. If we engage in torture, then we become no better than our enemies.

To us the big question was: How do you defend religious freedom, including the freedom of Muslims? We said we are all free to advocate for our different faiths and to proselytize . . .

We also said we disagree with everything Muslims say, but we defend to the death their right to say it. When we defend the rights of those of the Muslim faith, we are defending the rights to our faith.

JM: It was out of that terrible tragedy that I was actually invited to the White House along with 25 other religious leaders to draft an ecumenical statement on praying for the nation. Then, I was one of seven selected to meet with the president in the Oval Office. That led to one of the most fascinating conversations and historical moments I could ever have envisioned or experienced. It also helped to cement a nice personal relationship with President George W. Bush.

JR: Any time mission executives have to take authoritative action, contrary to the wishes and desires of the missionaries, a morale problem evolves as well as a mixture of criticism and praise from their stateside families and churches. The crisis put emerging strategies that grew out of “New Directions” in 1997 on hold in terms of redeploying personnel to engage unreached people groups, provide creative access strategies in countries restricted to missionaries, and maintaining the momentum of new missionaries being appointed. (2001 had the highest number of missionary appointments in the history of the IMB, with more than a thousand being commissioned!)

September 11 impacted international relations, the safety and security of missionaries around the world, and exacerbated the danger and reality of what it meant to give of one’s life for the sake of the gospel and obedience to the call. The next year, three veteran missionaries were assassinated at our Jibla Baptist Hospital in Yemen; Bill Hyde, a church planter in the Philippines, died in a terrorist bombing at the Davao City airport; and four pioneer missionaries seizing the opportunity to minister to the suffering in Iraq were gunned down by insurgents.

JW: How should Southern Baptists view 9/11 from this vantage point, 20 years later?

RL: Of first importance, we must defend our core values of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, particularly in times of great stress like that was. There’s the temptation to sacrifice those liberties on the altar of security, and that’s always a devil’s bargain. We need to practice and defend those “soul freedoms” for everyone at every opportunity.

September 11 told us — and our theology tells us this too — that we live in a world that is wracked by demonic and evil activity. The devil is a roaring lion “looking for someone to devour” as we read in 1 Peter. Paul tells us to redeem the time, “because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16). The word here for “evil” is the word for an active, aggressive evil. We need to understand that the devil and evil people are up to things that we need to be vigilant against, and we are involved in spiritual warfare. Sometimes in the United States that is easy to forget because we have been spared many of the trevails that have been common to the rest of the world.

Once again, 9/11 reminded all Americans of the transitory nature of life. Churches were full right after 9/11. Then, things went back to “normal.” A lot of Americans have been lulled into a sense of “semi-immortality.” Events like this intrude upon Americans’ false sense of security. Life is a fragile thing, and none of us are guaranteed any set number of years. We need to keep our minds on eternal things and help fellow Americans keep their minds on eternal things, as well.

JM: Like any tragedy, I believe that we should always look to a sovereign God who is in control of everything that happens in the universe and wants to use everything for his glory, for the good of his people, and to turn people toward his Son, Jesus Christ. I still believe that events like this should remind us of the fragility of life and the urgency of sharing the gospel to a world that desperately needs Christ.

JR: Amazingly, these events and 9/11 resulted in a burgeoning pool of missionary candidates volunteering to take the gospel to the Muslim world. Over the next two years, the IMB global strategy coalesced around a vision of Muslim evangelism, seeing the gospel as the only power to counter the rise in terrorism. This was met by criticism and resistance of some of our Southern Baptist constituency who insisted we were wasting resources, missionaries should not be allowed to go to dangerous places, and Muslims deserved to go to hell.

In the last decade of the 20th century when the former Soviet Union disintegrated, Russia and Eastern Europe opened to the gospel. Unprecedented church growth swept China in spite of persecution and restrictions. The Muslim world was the one remaining formidable barrier to global evangelization. After 9/11, personnel in Muslim countries reported people expressing disillusionment in the Muslim faith that would endorse terrorism; they asked questions reflecting a search for hope and security they could not find in their traditional religion. September 11 caused the barriers to begin to crumble. Now, 20 years later we should remember what’s at stake and redouble our efforts to call out more missionaries and pray Muslims into the kingdom; after all God loves them, Jesus died for them, and his power is able to save them!

The post 3 SBC leaders reflect on 9/11 appeared first on ERLC.

How the grace of Jesus enables us to say no to pornography

EDITOR’S NOTE: For a practical tool to begin a journey toward freedom, visit SBTC’s Crave Web site at cravefreedom.com.

We live in a pornified culture. From popular television shows to music, and even billboards along the highway, pornographic images and language are pervasive. As it becomes more normal and increasingly ubiquitous, we may wonder: is there any hope for unseating pornography from its cultural position of power and influence?

Ray Ortlund, with his signature optimism, answers with an emphatic, yes! In his new book, The Death of Porn: Men of Integrity Building a World of Nobility, Ortlund pens a letter to young men charging them to do just that — to take up the noble cause of dismantling the pornography industry by the power of the Spirit and with the grace of Jesus. The Death of Porn is unique from start to finish. I suspect it will be a spark that ignites a movement lasting for generations. Ortlund recently talked with us about this and more. Read more below.

Your latest book, The Death of Porn: Men of Integrity Building a World of Nobility, as the title suggests, tackles the topic of porn. What compelled you to write this book?

I wrote this book because so many of the magnificent young men I know are held back by this one thing: porn. I long to see this generation of men set free, men rediscovering their dignity and purpose, men perceiving women with the same God-given dignity and glorious purpose. And if enough men dare to believe in their true greatness, we will be at a turning point — the death of porn, the birth of revival.

It’s a unique book in that it’s written as a series of letters from you, “an older man” (your words), to your reader, presumably a younger man. What inspired you to take this approach?

I was inspired by a letter from way back in 1791. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, wrote a letter to a young politician named William Wilberforce. It was the last letter Wesley wrote before he died. He called Wilberforce and his friends to give their lives to bringing down the slave trade in the British Empire. And they did. It took a lot of courage and many years. But they succeeded. And now it’s time for the young men of this generation to fight for the freedom of everyone being exploited by the predatory porn industry.

The Death of Porn is a book that seeks to help liberate men and women from the chains of pornography, and it does that primarily by pointing to Jesus, our union with him, and the call he places on our lives. Why is remembering Jesus, and remembering who he’s made us to be, a more effective antidote against the pull of pornography as opposed to the “white-knuckling” approach that we often encounter?

No one is helped by being pressured, cornered, or shamed. The only way we really grow is the opposite — by being dignified, included, and lifted up. I believe that with all my heart. After all, the Bible says, “By grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:7). So let’s move all our chips over onto the square of God’s grace, and let’s find out what only he can do for us — and through us — in this desperate generation!

The tone of the book is overly optimistic. Considering the cultural behemoth that is the pornography industry, why should Christians share this optimism? Can we really bring about the death of porn?

Short answer: Yes! If the risen Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, then we have no right not to be wildly optimistic. I only hope that my book is optimistic enough, given what Jesus can do.

Longer answer: Our risen King loves to inspire social justice. For example, the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s launched schools, hospitals, libraries, orphanages, and labor unions. It awakened Christians who addressed prison reform and poverty and slum housing. They could have shrugged their shoulders and said, “Nothing ever changes in this world. Why even try?” But what cowardice that would be! What a betrayal of Christ himself! The fact is, those brave Christians did make their world a better place.

Now, in our time, our risen Lord is calling us to be his new resistance movement in a world of injustice, saying a loud no to the porn industry — stigmatizing it, marginalizing it, diminishing it — and saying a loud yes to the worth of every man and every woman. Let’s give our lives to the liberation of this generation, not because we can foresee our chances of success, but because we can see the worthiness of the cause. And we know that Jesus loves to flip impossibilities into actualities!

You talk a lot in the book about nobility. How would you define the term nobility, and what does nobility look like in practice?

Our God-given nobility is a major theme in the Bible. For example, “But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands” (Isa. 32:8). There is nothing second-rate in Jesus! All he is for us, all he brings to us, is noble, uplifting, worth reaching for.

Here is what the biblical word noble means: a heart that’s all-in. Not a perfect heart, but a generous heart that cares for others, including every victim of porn.

In practice, it looks like a Christian man reaching out to one other man — any man who wants his freedom back. And that Christian guy nobly shares his heart, his honesty, his vulnerability with that friend. And together those two men begin a journey into a new impact they’ve never dreamed could be theirs. It starts small, but it makes a big difference, because the risen Jesus is right there with those two men.

To that point, one of the practices that you advocate for in the latter half of the book is the act of confession. You say, “We don’t overcome our sins by heroic willpower. We confess them to death” (89). How does the act of confession diminish the power of sin and the shame that it brings?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer nailed it: “The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him.” We never do well, when we cover up our sins, hidden in the secrecy that shame demands.

But when we dare, by faith in Christ crucified, to confess our sins to a faithful brother, we are no longer alone. We step out of the shadows of denial and start walking in the light together (1 John 1:7). We can finally turn to God in prayer and find healing (James 5:16). Any man who lives in ongoing confession will never be alone again. It is so freeing!

As the book’s subtitle suggests, you are not just calling your reader to a life of personal purity, though that’s certainly included. You are trying to convince your reader that “we can make a world of difference.” You say, “Jesus is calling you to build a new world of nobility, to the furthest extent of your influence, for the rest of your life” (103). Can you talk about that?

Porn is a justice issue. Yes, our personal character is on the line. But even more, our social conscience is at stake. Jesus is not saving isolated individuals here and there. He is creating a new community of beauty in this world of brutality. We, in our life together, are his liberating counterculture, and his “holy city” will last forever (Rev. 21-22). He is calling every man in this generation to join with him in building his new world right here, right now.

Relatedly, in the final chapter you offer practical ideas on how to build this world of nobility. As a father of three boys, one of them really hit home for me. You tell the reader to “educate the rising generation in our history and our stories of nobility,” and then you say something striking: “if you don’t fill their imaginations with greatness, porn will fill their mind with ugliness. Our kids long for nobility. God has planted it deep within them. Teach them how to be at their best” (107)! For fathers and mothers and mentors helping raise children in our day, how important is this? Where’s a good place to start?

We grownups can and must invest in our children for their long-term future. How? For starters, let’s read to our children. Every evening after dinner, rather than watch TV or look at our phones, let’s cuddle on the sofa and read good books to our kids. Let’s read aloud the great stories of the Bible — even acting them out together! Wouldn’t that be fun? And let’s read to them The Chronicles of Narnia, the legendary tales of chivalrous knights, the heroic stories of valiant soldiers and sacrificial mothers and courageous reformers and brave explorers. Okay, there’s a time for silly books. But let’s make sure our kids fall in love with the inspiring stories! They’re going to need all the inspiration they can get, when they face the future as adults.

Undoubtedly, there may be some reading this interview who find themselves in the throes of pornography addiction, experiencing shame and wondering if they can put this addiction to death in their own life, much less the society at large. What would you say to that person? How would you encourage them to move forward?

Yes, some readers are thinking that very thing right now. I’m glad to say this: You are not alone. You are not beneath God’s grace. You are not such a spectacular sinner that you can defeat the risen Savior. But there is one hard step you must take. You must call a faithful friend right now and say, “Can we get together? I’m not doing well, and I need help.” And the two of you get together this week. And you pour your heart out. And with your faithful friend, you begin a new pattern of weekly get-togethers for honesty, prayer, and healing (James 5:16). Yes, it can be embarrassing. But your outpouring of confession and sorrow is where the Lord himself will visit you with his powerful grace. Your new beginning is just a phone call away. It’s how you can start a new life — in transparency, honesty, openness. Jesus himself awaits you. So, make the call?

Your book’s dedication page is one of the most beautiful and hopeful I have ever read. When you think about your grandchildren’s generation, knowing the culture they’ll encounter as they grow up, what are your hopes for them?

I hope, most of all, that my grandchildren will feel deep within how good God is, how glorious he created them to be, how bitterly distasteful all sin is, how life-giving Jesus is, how powerful Christian community is, and how they can advance the cause of Christ in their generation. What will matter far more than what they own is what they believe. If my grandchildren, and yours, will believe the gospel in its totality, they will not just cope; they will flourish. And the world they hand down to their children will be a better place, for the glory of God.