Abbey Brakeall, member of Second Church, Cumberland, Md., helps with the 2010 Iditarod race in Nome, Al.

By Sharon Mager, BCM/D Correspondent

NOME, Ak.—The Iditerod could provide a pastor with an unlimited number of winter sermon ideas—the “last great race” over 1,100 miles across tundra, frozen rivers, forests and mountain ranges to the finish line; the mushers’ endurance and the history and legends that surround the race. There’s mysteriousness to Alaska, romanticism. The reality is that Alaska is a ripe mission field. It leads the nation in incest, rape and suicide. The darkness that covers the region for most of the day in the winter is ravaging the souls of many in that state; but God has a presence in Alaska and His light is shining in spiritual darkness.

One hundred sixty Christians volunteered at the 2010 Iditarod race, providing seriously needed helping hands and a Holy presence to the small town of Nome. Brenda Crimm, a North American Mission Board (NAMB) missionary and mission strategist leads mission teams to help at the Iditarod each year. Crimm, who serves as a collegiate minister at University of Alaska-Anchorage, is passionately driven to reach the people of Alaska for Jesus. She pours herself into her chosen ministry. Marylander Abbey Brakeall was one of the 160 who worked alongside Crimm this year.

Brakeall, a member of Second Church, Cumberland, is no stranger to mission trips, but she was surprised when God led her to minister at the Iditarod. While watching a video about the North American Missions offering last year, she was intrigued by Crimm’s testimony and ministry. Brakeall, the associational WMU director for the Western Association, really enjoys being around dogs and she had followed the Iditarod for years. The excitement of helping with the race combined with doing ministry in Alaska drew her in. She prayed about the possibility and she felt God leading her to make the contact. In March, Brakeall was meeting mushers, working at an after-the-race banquet and giving away buckets of Bibles.

She ministered in Nome, where the mushers with their faithful dogs dash to the finish line. “Nome is a very old town, very much like it was in 1925 when the original serum was taken into the town,” Brakeall observed, referring to a dog sled race to Nome in 1925 to deliver medicine during a severe diphtheria epidemic. Now there are modern amenities, but outside of the town, people still live in old fashioned villages.

Crimm’s Iditerod volunteers filled an astonishing number of capacities. They answered phones, transported Iditarod officials by snowmobiles to the final checkpoint, manned the lots where race dogs are kept under secure watch, delivered dog food (a three hour trip on the frozen river), updated the leader boards to keep folks up to date on the race and prepared and served food at the Iditarod banquet. One group of volunteers helped with security. The bars don’t close in Nome until 5 a.m. These brave volunteers headed out into the wee hours of the frozen morning looking for intoxicated people in danger of falling asleep in the snow. Volunteers have done such a great job and are so well received that they’ve been essential to the process.

Crimm is now included in the Iditarod planning meetings. Officials were reluctant to have the volunteers at first, Crimm explained, but she assured the leaders that she and her mission volunteers were not going to be “slamming” people with Christianity. “I told them, ‘We’re going to volunteer. We’ll act right.’ And we were great. We were organized, we were serving, we weren’t drinking and we were showing up on time.

“The Lord has given us favor,” Crimm, a native Texan said. It’s incongruous to see her in a heavy fur parka speaking in that southern drawl. “We have assumed leadership positions at the Iditarod and the church gets infused into the world. That’s the whole point. It’s not to say that ‘we did the Iditerod,’” Crimm stressed.

“Some people don’t get that. They think we’re not doing evangelism, but we’re putting mission teams right in the middle of non-Christians. We have a reason to be authentic and natural and to bring Christianity to the world in a natural way so it overflows and is not staged and facetious. The world bristles at that.”

The town of Nome has a Mardi Gras atmosphere during the Iditarod, Crimm explained. Immorality is rampant. Satan’s footprints are on the tundra, she said. But as the little army of mission team volunteers prayer walk and works side-by side with native Alaskans and allow God’s Spirit to overflow, God is being glorified and people are being changed.

Crimm works with Nome Community Church, which is very supportive of the ministry and happily opens their doors to the volunteers. Crimm helped supply the church with extra shower facilities and a new stove. It’s a good partnership, Crimm said. The church gets tremendous exposure and the team has a place to stay.

In addition to working with logistics, mission team volunteers do kids’ clubs and senior events. And they served at a concession stand during a huge basketball program. In fact, Crimm runs the concession stand for officials and volunteers man it. In addition to selling food, they offer Bibles.

Brakeall helped with a “Bibles in Buckets” outreach. Crimm asked the townspeople what they needed and they told her—buckets. These buckets had Scripture on the outside and Bibles, tracts and information about Nome Community Church on the inside.

“Native Alaskans use buckets for everything!” Brakeall said, explaining that the Alaskans use them to carry meat and fish and those that live in remote areas even use them in their outhouses. “We had good weather. It was only -1 degrees when we did the distribution,” Brakeall said with a chuckle. “We got a good response from most people,” she added.

Crimm recorded 65 confessions of faith this year. And, as they packed up, she even thought she could see Christ’s footprints on the tundra.

BALTIMORE, Md.–Nearly 200 volunteers from Keller Williams Realty and its partners opted to not make money for a day. Instead, they spent the day cleaning, building and moving the new offices for Open Door Community Development Corporation in Baltimore, Md.

RED (Renew, Energize and Donate) Day is a Keller Williams Realty service initiative dedicated to improving the local communities.

“Giving where they live,” these volunteers from at least four local offices wore their red shirts as they transported office furniture and supplies into Open Door’s new location, only two doors down from their previous space, on Fayette Street.

The new space allows Open Door to consolidate all their operations, including food and clothing distribution as well as their client management, into one building.

Formed in 2006, Open Door is located in lower East Baltimore serving seven contiguous neighborhoods near Johns Hopkins Hospital. There staff and volunteers, led by a Board of Directors, seek to stimulate economic revitalization and community development in distressed neighborhoods in Baltimore.

Open Door also seeks to be a source of hope and encouragement for people who need a new start.

But on this day, it was Open Door that was the recipient of the blessing.

“With Keller Williams’ assistance, we were able to quickly move our operations,” shared Bill Simpson, executive director at Open Door. More than that, many of the realtors realized ongoing opportunities to serve and otherwise give back to the communities in which they work, he said.

Chip Macgil with Keller Williams Select in Ellicott City, Md., shared, “It’s kind of really in the spirit of just giving back, and it’s just a great opportunity. We had a great day here and got a little bit accomplished—no, I think, a lot accomplished.”

“What a day it’s been,” agreed John Hallis, of Keller Williams Ellicott City, who organized the day’s events.

“One of the things that have been so powerful to me is how intentional these folks have been. These folks are all small business owners.  The day down here working and giving a day of volunteerism is a day that they weren’t able to make money…They all said, ‘You know what, it is more important to go down and be together and to make an impact in a place that desparately needs hope.’”

Hallis continued, “So, today we were hope-pushers, street to street, place to place, letting people know that we care about them. The folks who do this every single day and dedicate their lives to make a difference in a very tough place, they know we care about them; and the folks that they serve and the ones who were able to meet and ultimately would be the beneficiaries of some of our work, they know we care about them.”

Hallis shared that he personally is very passionate about the disenfranchised and about helping people who don’t have a voice.

“I believe that it speaks very powerfully to my knowledge of who Jesus is and to the power of what He is able to do in lives. He was drawn to the disenfranchised. This, for me, is a natural day. It’s a day of giving, yes, but at the same time, it is a day of receiving, because we get many blessings from just being down here.

“At the end of the day, if we didn’t come down here and passionately serve the people, who don’t have advocates and who don’t have the basic necessities of life, then we have accomplished nothing. So the fact that we have accomplished both of those things is a very cool thing, and I am glad I am a part of it.”

To learn more about volunteer opportunities, contact Wendy Mindte, Open Door’s director of volunteer services, at www.opendoorbaltimore.org/volunteering.html.  Corporate sponsors may contact Bill Simpson at (410) 522-0044 or bsimpson@opendoorbaltimore.org.

Team member Danny Beasley was excited to share the story of Jesus using a storying cloth, which chronologically tells the story of Creation to the story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, from the IMB.

By Shannon Baker, BCM/D National Correspondent

BELCAMP, Md.—During their fourth trip to West Africa, members from Susquehanna Association and The Church at Riverside in Belcamp, Md., finally got what they were yearning for—the very first Christian convert in the Muslim-dominated village they adopted five years ago.

In 2006, members from the Association ventured into Guinea, traveling hours across rough terrain into deep mountain villages to build relationships with the villagers and ultimately to share the Gospel with them.

Since this time, in three previous trips, the Association has built a well for clean water in the village; provided electronic devices with Old and New Testament books in the village’s native Pular language; and otherwise has patiently built a reputation with the village’s leaders.

Calling this “the climatic year,” team leader Dan Sheffield, the director of missions for the Susquehanna Association, shared that the 2010 team went to the adopted village with a deepened commitment to expose the villagers to the Gospel.

And their faith was met with great success!

A sole convert, accepting Christ in secret so as not to be endangered, agreed that Jesus Christ was the only way to God.

“I want to believe,” the person said. “I want to accept Jesus Christ.”

An International Mission Board (IMB) missionary, on a family mission trip and vacation from working with another African mission group, helped with translation in the village.

He was astounded by the continued openness of the villagers to the words of Christ. The convert was the first profession of faith that he had seen in five years.
“His whole family said it was the best weekend that they have had in ten years,” Sheffield said.

Team member Danny Beasley was excited to share the story of Jesus using a storying cloth from the IMB, which chronologically tells the story of creation to the story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

It wasn’t until the end of the week that he actually had the opportunity. He started telling the story with a handful of children. Before he was finished, over 40 adults gathered to hear the story.

“It made him nervous, but since it was Friday, the Muslim day of worship, Danny ended up presenting the Gospel to more people than he originally planned,” Sheffield shared.

“God has his plans planned. It was a perfect set-up—the perfect day, the perfect place!”

Even with these tremendous occasions, Sheffield was saddened by what he saw at the village this year.

He could hardly recognize some of the villagers from past years because they had lost so much weight. Many looked like they were slowly starving to death.

Even Mamadou, the newest tribal leader, seemed overwhelmed under the weight of the struggling villages he oversaw.

“We think about us having a hard economy, “ Sheffield noted, “but it is affecting the whole globe.”

When Sheffield and his team learned that the villagers only had rice to eat for the past year, they purchased spices and other food items to offset some of their struggles.

The team even left money, intended for food, but most likely will be used to build a new school for the children.

In a very moving speech on the team’s last day, Mamadou expressed his gratitude to the team for their many expressions of love.

“There was no doubt that he knew that we loved him. He felt we were the only people from the outside world who showed interest and wanted to help them,” Sheffield shared.

“Where it goes from here, I have no idea. It’s so exciting,” he added. “When it finally sinks in that God is in control, and we’re just along for the ride, it’s a great sense of relief.”

More than 11,000 messengers from across the nation attended the 153rd annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla. Photo by Van Payne.

By Baptist Press Staff

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP)–After months of debate, Southern Baptist Convention messengers meeting June 15-16 easily adopted an amended version of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report and also elected a new president, Bryant Wright.

It was the first time Southern Baptists had gathered in Orlando since 2000, the same year they debated and passed another significant document, the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.

The 23-member GCR Task Force, formed during the 2009 meeting by then-SBC President Johnny Hunt, released a preliminary report in February and a lengthy final report in May. Discussion on the report in newspapers, Internet blogs and social media led to the largest messenger total at an annual meeting — just over 11,000 — since 2006.

In other top annual meeting news:

– messengers passed a resolution calling divorce a “scandal that has become all too commonplace in our own churches” and an oil spill resolution asserting that “our God-given dominion over the creation is not unlimited, as though we were gods and not creatures.”

– the convention voted in its first presidential runoff since 1982.

– the Executive Committee elected Frank Page its next president.

But the GCR report dominated messengers’ attention. It had seven components, none of which drew more floor discussion during the Tuesday afternoon session than the third component’s call for a new category, “Great Commission Giving,” that would encompass not only Cooperative Program giving but also designated giving to all SBC causes.

Critics argued the new category would de-emphasize CP giving, and when messenger John Waters (Ga.) offered an amendment striking the new category from the report, a vote via a show of ballots appeared too close to call. Rather than putting the amendment to a ballot vote that possibly would push discussion of the report into the evening, task force members offered two compromise amendments that strengthened the report’s CP language. Both were amendments to Component No. 3 and both passed overwhelmingly.

The first amendment said Southern Baptists “continue to honor and affirm the Cooperative Program as the most effective means of mobilizing our churches and extending our outreach.” The second amendment — which was written during a discussion on stage between task force members and Waters — said Southern Baptists affirm “that designated giving to special causes is to be given as a supplement to the Cooperative Program and not as a substitute for Cooperative Program giving.”

Waters, pastor of First Church in Statesboro, Ga., spoke from the podium and said the compromise amendment was offered by him and task force members “in the spirit of unity and togetherness” so as “to find some common ground on which we can stand for the sake of” the Great Commission.

After the final amendment passed, the report itself passed via a show of ballots by an estimated 3-to-1 margin.

Following the historic vote, task force chairman Ronnie Floyd recalled the statement issued by northern and southern Baptists after the 1845 founding of the Southern Baptist Convention. He told messengers: “Following the pattern of our leaders of old, we also would say to the watching world that the differences between those who support the Great Commission Resurgence report and recommendations and those who do not should not be exaggerated. We are still brothers and sisters in Christ. We differ on no article of faith.

“We are guided by our shared commitment to the Gospel itself and to the articles of faith identified in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000,” he added. “The Southern Baptist Convention is a convention of churches that is committed to a missional vision of presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations. We are a Great Commission people.”

Task force members said the amendments strengthened the report.

“The bottom line is that in an inelegant way we have a superior recommendation,” task force member R. Albert Mohler Jr. said of the amendment process. “I think it’s, in one sense, Southern Baptists at their very best — sometimes a bit clumsy but determined to get to the same place together. And I appreciated the spirit of the messengers.”

Said Floyd: “We just thank all of Southern Baptists for believing in the Great Commission. And now we move forward.”

Bryant Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Church in Marietta, Ga., was elected in a runoff for SBC president, winning 55 percent to 44 percent for Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Church in Pensacola, Fla. Speaking to reporters shortly after he was elected, Wright emphasized his church’s spotlight on missions and said he would like to see more churches and pastors take mission trips.

“The pastor needs to experience what it’s like to be out there in another culture, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ,” Wright said.

Wright supported the task force’s report.

“The task force leadership has led the convention in taking a very courageous step, but it is really just a beginning,” Wright said. “If we’re going to be radically serious about reaching this world for Christ, we as individuals and we as churches are going to have to really be prayerfully committed to fulfilling what God has called us to do with the Great Commission.”

Wright also talked about how he and his church, frustrated with the amount of Cooperative Program dollars that remain in the United States, lowered their CP giving in order to raise contributions to the International Mission Board.

“We would very much prefer that all those funds go straight through CP,” Wright said, “but there needs to be a radical reprioritization of that money.”

Asked about a column he wrote urging state conventions to retain only 25 percent to 30 percent of undesignated CP gifts from churches, Wright said, “I’d love to see states move in that direction, knowing it will be a long, long process.” Even a goal of splitting receipts 50/50 between state and SBC causes would allow funding for many more missionaries, he said.

Wright said state convention leaders “can be the real heroes in carrying out the Great Commission” since they control budgets and decide how much goes out of state for distribution to Southern Baptist causes.

RESOLUTIONS

The divorce resolution, which passed with what appeared to be a unanimous vote, says the “acceleration in rates of divorce in Southern Baptist churches has not come through a shift in theological conviction about scriptural teaching on divorce but rather through cultural accommodation.” It urges churches to “to proclaim the Word of God on the permanence of marriage” and for “Southern Baptists in troubled or faltering marriages to seek godly assistance and, where possible, reconciliation.” It further calls on churches “to proclaim God’s mercy and grace to all people — including those who have been divorced without biblical grounds.” Resolutions Committee Chairman Russell Moore said it was the convention’s first resolution since 1904 directly to address divorce.

The resolution on the Gulf oil spill, which passed nearly unanimously, calls on Southern Baptists to help those in the region who are hurting and to pray for an end to the tragedy. It also acknowledges that “this tragedy should remind us to testify to the love of God in His creation and to the hope through the blood of Christ, of a fully restored creation in which the reign of God is seen ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matthew 6:10).”

Messengers also passed resolutions:

– calling for reaffirmation of the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus.

– supporting family worship.

– opposing the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the overturning of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

PAGE ELECTED

Frank Page, vice president of evangelization for the North American Mission Board, was elected the next Executive Committee president during a closed executive session of the EC meeting June 14, the day prior to the annual meeting. He said he hopes to be a unifying voice in the convention.

“There’s great division amongst the brethren and to pull us together is going to be a God-ordained task that I shall deal with as best I can,” he said. “One of my goals is to be a unifier. We’ve got to, based on John 17:21. It is imperative for our evangelistic efforts that we be unified.”

In other matters:

– More than 1,500 people accepted Christ during the pre-convention Crossover evangelism emphasis, which had 1,900-plus volunteers.

– International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin delivered his final report to messengers, applauding Southern Baptists for giving nearly $149 million to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering but saying it still was not enough to send all the Southern Baptists waiting for missionary appointment. “What will we sacrifice?” he asked. “What will we be willing to change in order for the missionaries that God is calling from our churches to go and touch the lost nations and peoples who are dying without Christ? I pray that that question will be implanted in our minds and stir our conscience with conviction.”

– Richard Harris, interim president of the North American Mission Board, told messengers that three out of every four people in North America have no personal relationship with Christ. Yet Harris recounted several reasons for optimism, including a church in Painter, Ala., that saw its Easter attendance double by using the God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS) evangelism strategy. Harris also said that 85,000 Haitians have accepted Christ since the earthquake. “I have never been more excited than this day to move forward to penetrate lostness in North America, and the North American Mission Board is going to help you do it,” he said.

– Executive Committee President Morris H. Chapman delivered his final report to messengers. “As you may know, I do differ with the last five recommendations that shall be recommended by the Great Commission Task Force,” Chapman said minutes prior to debate on the report. “My heart is heavy because these recommendations do not challenge us spiritually and shall never bring us to our knees, much less take us to the ends of the earth. We can accomplish all of these recommendations without the power of God and the moving of God’s Holy Spirit.” A resurgence, Chapman said, “must be ignited by the Holy Spirit of God and stoked by faithful people in the pulpits and pews of this land.”

– Messengers elected Tennessee evangelist Ron Herrod as first vice president and Eric Moffett, pastor of First Church in Sparkman, Ark., as second vice president. Earlier in the convention Moffett’s church received the Executive Committee’s M.E. Dodd Award for its commitment to the Cooperative Program. Over the past 30 years the 100-member church has given an average of 32 percent to CP. By acclamation, messengers elected John Yeats, director of communications for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, as SBC recording secretary, and Jim Wells, director of missions for the Tri-County Association in Nixa, Mo., as registration secretary. Messengers also elected David Platt, pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala., to preach the convention sermon at the 2011 annual meeting in Phoenix.

– The SBC Pastors’ Conference spotlighted adoption and used the surplus from the conference offerings to fund a series of $2,000 scholarships for adopting couples. (Information is available at SBCAdoption.com). “Adoption is not God’s Plan B ever. Adoption is always God’s Plan A, if that’s what He’s called the family to,” Cissy McNickle said during a short video that told her family’s adoption story. She and her husband, Buff, received the first scholarship.

Story based on reporting by Tammi Reed Ledbetter, news editor of the Southern Baptist TEXAN; Michael Foust, an assistant editor of Baptist Press; Mark Kelly, an assistant editor of Baptist Press; Erin Roach, staff writer for Baptist Press; Tom Strode, Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press; and Norm Miller, a freelance writer based in Richmond, Va.

Ronnie Floyd, center, chairman of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., answers questions during a press conference June 15 after the recommendations by the task force were passed by messengers to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Fla. Photo by Matt Miller.

By David Roach

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP)–Amendments to the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force’s final report strengthened one of its recommendations and caused it to better reflect the priorities of Southern Baptists, task force members said at a news conference June 15.

“The bottom line is that in an inelegant way we have a superior recommendation,” task force member R. Albert Mohler Jr. said of the amendment process. “I think it’s, in one sense, Southern Baptists at their very best — sometimes a bit clumsy but determined to get to the same place together. And I appreciated the spirit of the messengers.”

The two amendments Mohler referenced state that Southern Baptists “continue to honor and affirm the Cooperative Program as the most effective means of mobilizing our churches and extending our outreach” and that “We affirm that designated giving to special causes is to be given as a supplement to the Cooperative Program and not as a substitute for Cooperative Program giving.”

According to Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., debate on the amendments did not reflect any serious division in the convention.

“I especially appreciated the intent and tenacity of Dr. John Waters  to come and actually get to our attention what further he wanted to say,” Mohler said. “Everything he wanted said this task force unanimously wanted to say. In one sense, if we had received that word prior to the formulation of the final report, I can basically assure you it would have been in there because we resonated with that language.”

Task force chairman Ronnie Floyd agreed that the entire discussion reflected a spirit of unity and love, estimating that between 75 and 80 percent of messengers supported the final report. Other observers estimated the final vote at closer to 60 percent.

“We just thank all of Southern Baptists for believing in the Great Commission,” Floyd said. “And now we move forward.”

As members of the Executive Committee and trustees of SBC entities consider how to implement the recommendations, Mohler said he expects them to defer to the will of the messengers and not resist the task force’s vision.

“Now the boards of trustees will consider this,” Mohler said. “The convention has spoken overwhelmingly, and now it is the incumbent duty of various boards to respond to the convention’s action while doing their implementation in the way they are assigned.”

Because the recommendations already took into account input from the entities, any opposition from boards would be unexpected, Mohler said.

“Our sincere hope was that this moves in a direction that would encourage them to do what they may have been looking for some encouragement to do,” he said. “So I really don’t foresee any entities turning back to the convention and saying, ‘These things are basically bad, erroneous ideas.’”

However, Roger Spradlin, a task force member and newly elected chairman of the Executive Committee, said the full EC did not have input into the GCRTF deliberations. He acknowledged that implementing recommendation seven would result in deep budget cuts at the EC but said transferring a nearly a third of the EC’s budget to the International Mission Board would make an eternal impact for Christ.

“It represents roughly 46 missionaries,” he said of the funds the GCRTF wants transferred from the EC: “46 different people groups — some primitive tribe in the Amazon or somewhere in the world, one of these people groups that have not heard the Gospel, that not a single one of their ancestors had heard the name of Jesus. Not one of their descendants will hear the name of Jesus for maybe another generation or two unless a missionary goes to that people group. Then you multiply that times 46 different missionaries sent around the world, and all of a sudden it becomes very significant.”

Floyd said he does not expect lingering hard feelings regarding the recommendations and expressed appreciation for EC President Morris H. Chapman, who publicly opposed parts of the task force’s report.

“Dr. Chapman is a great Baptist,” Floyd said. “Baptists have spoken. Baptists get their lives in line and their hearts and their opinions. And I believe Dr. Chapman will do that. We love Morris. We thank God for the time that he has given to the Executive Committee.”

In a matter slated for debate June 16, the task force expressed its opposition to a motion requesting that recordings of the task force’s deliberations be opened immediately rather than remaining sealed 15 years, as the GCRTF previously decided. Making the recordings public right away would discourage future Southern Baptist committees from keeping any audio records of their meetings for fear of similar immediate unsealing, Mohler said.

“The issues being discussed are so close,” he said. “I think if the motion on this were to pass, there simply will be no more recordings made, which would rob us of the historical memory that could one day be available because that simply would shut down any ability to have a deliberation totally honest and open.”

Reflecting on the convention’s vote, task force member Daniel Akin said it is only the first step toward a denominational commitment to reach the nations for Christ.

“We need to be looking forward with an aggressive agenda, as the report says, to penetrate the lostness around the world and in North America,” said Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. “I pray with all of my heart that Southern Baptists will indeed experience revival and resurgence.”

David Roach is a writer and pastor in Shelbyville, Ky.

Richard D. Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, gives a report June 15 during the evening session of the annual meeting of the two-day Southern Baptist Convention June 15-16 in Orlando, Fla. Photo by Adam Covington.

By Dwayne Hastings

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP)–Ungodly views of human life as well as dangerous social experiments are threatening America’s future and clouding the legacy of the Gospel handed down from giants of the faith, Richard Land told messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 15 in Orlando, Fla.

In the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s (ERLC) report to the convention, Land said the ERLC seeks to call Southern Baptists and other people of faith to where the commission believes they should be based on “God’s holy and inerrant Word” on moral issues and public policy matters.

Land, the commission’s president, said the ERLC is faithful to share Southern Baptists’ concerns on the issues with those in authority in Washington, D.C.

He lamented the continuing slaughter of the country’s unborn citizens through abortion and the impact the mindset behind the killing of the innocent has had on the nation.

“I can’t think of a deeper and more basic ethical issue that any society can face than who and what is a human being,” Land said.

It is not news for Bible-believing Christians that life begins at conception, he said, citing Scripture passages as evidence of God’s personal involvement in the creation of each human being. He noted that among the early civilizations in the Mediterranean basin, only the Jews did not practice abortion and infanticide, a position stemming from their belief in the teachings of the one true God.

He said church leaders early in the second century A.D., who were overwhelmingly Gentile and had come out of the Greco-Roman societies where abortion was commonplace, abhorred the “killing of human life in the womb.”

“They bore eloquent testimony against abortion and eventually caused abortion to be put into the dark corners of the Roman Empire and there it stayed in Western civilization until the fall of the Christian consensus in Europe in the first half of the 20th century and in North America in the second half of the 20th century,” Land said.

“There is no question where God is on this issue; God is, has been and will forever be pro-life,” he said to sustained applause.

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has packaged an extensive array of resources for pastors and others at its Issue at a Glance webpage on the life issue (erlc.com/life).

THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE

Land sought to correct misconceptions about his views on the contentious issue of immigration reform, emphasizing that he does not support amnesty.

“I support immigration reform policy that secures the border first. Everything must be predicated upon securing our borders. A sovereign nation has to have control of its borders,” he said, adding that it is well within the means of the U.S. government to do if it desires.

Land said that under both Democratic and Republican administrations for the past 24 years, it has been as if there were two signs up at the nation’s southern border: “No Trespassing” and “Help Wanted.” He said that explains in part why there are an estimated 12 to 14 million undocumented workers in the U.S.

“Yet they have broken the law. They should be punished,” Land said, outlining a rigorous and extended path to citizenship for such individuals, noting it is not realistic to expect the government to deport each undocumented worker and their family.

In remarks to the National Hispanic Fellowship of Southern Baptist Churches June 13, Land said immigration is an issue that has reached a “critical phase,” noting the issue is “rending the social fabric of the country.” Land met with President Obama’s advisers at the White House on the topic earlier in the month.

Land emphasized to the messengers that his plan to address the immigration crisis is not amnesty, pointing out that it was amnesty that President Carter extended to draft dodgers in January 1977. Carter imposed no fine, no penalty and no alternative service on those returning to the U.S. after fleeing the country to avoid the military draft, Land said.

He said he did not want to see a day when the Southern Baptist Convention determines it must apologize to Hispanics for its maltreatment of them, as the SBC did to African Americans in asking for such forgiveness 15 years ago.

“I don’t want our convention to come back 15 years from now and apologize to Hispanic Americans because we drove them away  and treated them as less than brothers and sisters,” Land said.

He indicated he has been told that 30 to 40 percent of Hispanic Southern Baptists are in the country illegally. More information on Land’s position on illegal immigration is available at erlc.com/immigration.

MARRIAGE ISSUES

Land said the ERLC filed an amicus brief in a California federal district court case on the same-sex “marriage” issue, explaining that those looking to expand the biblical definition of marriage are attempting to use the courts to undo the “clear word of the people of California.”

While the commission does not typically involve itself in a state level matter, Land said the ERLC made an exception in this case because Southern Baptist writings were expected to be a part of the deliberations.

On the case’s opening day, those seeking to overturn the will of California voters that marriage is between only one man and one woman read into evidence text from the Baptist Faith & Message section on marriage. Land said the plaintiffs’ attorneys ascribed the Southern Baptists’ position as the “product of centuries of hatred and prejudice.”

Land said the ERLC sought to correct the record, noting instead that the Baptist perspective on marriage was the “product of people of God being faithful to God’s Word and God’s definition of His institution of holy matrimony.”

Every civilization in world history has severely regulated marriage, Land said, noting that “marriage is the fundamental building block of human society and that it has an enormous impact on the next generation of citizens, namely children.”

Land said American society has conducted the equivalent of a 40-year experiment on whether fathers are optional in the rearing of healthy and productive children, and the nation appears to be expanding the “study” to determine if mothers are optional, citing the growing number of homosexual couples who are seeking to “have” children through adoption or other means.

Children born out of wedlock or whose parents are divorced are more likely to experience personal and social troubles than children who grew up in an intact family where their mother and father were in the home, Land said.

Despite these destructive ramifications, “Americans continue to practice this collective societal child abuse that we call divorce because we want to do what we think is best for us and it doesn’t matter what promises we have made to our spouses and to God,” Land said. “It is flat-out rebellion against God.”

Turning to the growing push to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Land said the effort is a sign of another misguided “social experiment,” promising messengers the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is doing all it can to forestall the policy’s repeal. He said if the policy was rescinded, it would “destroy the finest fighting force the world has ever known” — the American military.

On another front, Land said the ERLC exerted a great deal of effort in pushing back against the White House’s plans for health care over the past year, bemoaning the fact that Congress “ignored the wishes of the people” in passing reform that will, if left unchecked, “bankrupt the nation” and ensure that most people “will live a shorter life.” He cited the experiences of patients under both the Canadian and British health care systems, particularly those dealing with “diseases of maturity,” such as prostate cancer.

“If we don’t put this genie back in the bottle,” Land said, “the same thing is going to happen in the United States.” He said the window to repeal the law is small, adding, “It can be done, but it must be done quickly.”

In closing, Land said America faces a fork in the road, suggesting it is not a fork that goes left and right but up and down.

American believers are a privileged and blessed people, he said, for “we stand in the shadow of giants, men and women of faith who have bequeathed to us such a marvelous heritage of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the freedom to preach it, to live it and to fulfill the Great Commission.”

“If we do not have revival among our people that leads to a tremendous change in our nation, we will be condemned to walking the streets of our neighborhood and driving the streets of our cities as strangers in an alien land that knows nothing of the faith of our fathers,” he warned.

Dwayne Hastings writes for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Charles Stanley, left, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Ga., and founder of In Touch Ministries was honored June 14 during the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference evening session at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Kevin Ezell, president of the Pastors' Conference welcomed Stanley, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Photo by Bill Bangham.

By Norm Miller

ORLANDO (BP)–Charles Stanley — long-time pastor of First Church in Atlanta — and his son, Andy Stanley — pastor of the Atlanta-area North Point Community Church — appeared together on the platform of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference June 14.

Charles Stanley was honored on the 25th anniversary of his election to a second, one-year term as SBC president; Andy Stanley, who was introduced by his father, delivered a sermon titled “Some things I’ve been thinking about recently regarding local church leadership.”

In a video montage that included several Southern Baptist leaders and pastors, Charles Stanley reflected on the 1985 Southern Baptist convention in Dallas, saying, “It was a very tumultuous time. In fact, it was just warfare. A time of great strife, disagreement, hardship in everybody’s life.”

Reluctant to allow his name for nomination as president in 1984, Stanley recalled that he had prayed, fasted and enumerated the reasons he couldn’t do it — and cited the others who’d do a better job. But after encountering God in a way “that scared me to death,” Stanley relented.

“When there’s so much at stake, you don’t count the cost,” Stanley told the Pastors’ Conference audience regarding the Conservative Resurgence. “You just decide you’re going to obey God and leave all the consequences to Him. And one thing is for certain: you cannot fail obeying God; there’s no way.”

Stanley told the crowd he believes America “is in the most critical condition it has ever been, even including the Second World War.”

“We’re at the fork of the road,” he said. “And if there’s one group of people in America that can make a difference that’s lasting, it is God’s men, who stand in the pulpit, week after week.”

Shifting his attention to his son, Charles noted that the three campuses of North Point Community Church where Andy Stanley is pastor have a combined membership of 20,000 people, and that the church has started 20 congregations in other parts of the United States.

“As I look back through the years, and what’s happening in  life today,” Charles said, “I could not be more grateful than to say: I want to ask you to welcome my son, Andy Stanley.”

Andy called it “a real treat” to be with his father at the Pastors’ Conference before turning to the subject of church leadership. Andy recalled when, in the early 1990s, the Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A restaurant was facing stiff competition from the upstart Boston Market restaurant. Chick-fil-A leaders were trying to figure out how Chick-fil-A could get bigger, faster. Company founder Truett Cathy pounded on the table and said, “I am sick and tired of listening to you talk about how we can get bigger. If we get better, our customers will demand we get bigger.”

Applying Cathy’s prescription to church growth, Stanley said that getting better, and ultimately bigger, requires evaluation and clarification. “I think the local church should be the best-run organization in your town,” he said, because the church is “the vehicle through which the Gospel is fed to and communicated to the whole world.”

Stanley cited the Intel Corporation, whose ever-escalating battle with Japanese companies in manufacturing computer chips ultimately caused the company to diversify and stop making the component. Intel leaders realized they needed to abandon their emotional attachment to what they’d always done and if they didn’t, they’d soon be out of the computer chip business.

Stanley lamented that “we fall in love with the way we do ministry.”

“Are you going to continue to be in love with a model of ministry, and simply flirt with the Great Commission,” he asked. “Or are you willing to fall in love with the Great Commission and abandon a model of ministry that you know in your heart is not making a difference in your city?”

Too many churches are making it difficult for unchurched and unsaved people to attend church, Stanley said. “We’ve created church for church people,” he said. “And that reflects a desire more focused on keeping people in the church that reaching those outside of it.”

For North Point, Stanley said that if any program or project isn’t about “bringing people to faith … we don’t do it. … We want an organization that reflects the Great Commission.”

“Identify and remove unnecessary obstacles,” Stanley advised the pastors. Being careful not to discount the Gospel, he said it is offensive, but that neither the parking lot nor the children’s ministry should be offensive. “It’s OK to offend people with the Gospel, but, good grief, let’s don’t offend them with something else.”

Andy expressed his gratitude for his Christian heritage that “happened in Sunday School rooms with little tiny wooden chairs and little tiny wooden tables in Southern Baptist churches.”

“You are the last, best hope for a group of churches in this country. I hope you know that,” he said. “You’ve got to get this right.”

Norm Miller is a freelance writer based in Richmond, Va.

Executive Director of the Woman's Missionary Union (WMU), Wanda Lee, gives a WMU report June 16 during the evening session on the last night of the two-day Southern Baptist Convention at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Photo by Baptist Press.By Julie Walters

By Julie Walters

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP)–Wanda S. Lee, executive director/treasurer of Woman’s Missionary Union, introduced Debby Akerman as the newly elected president of national WMU during her report at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention June 16 in Orlando, Fla.

Lee also announced changes in missions curriculum for preschoolers and teen girls.

Akerman, a member of Ocean View Church in Myrtle Beach, S.C., was unanimously elected president by members of the organization during the WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting June 14 in Orlando. Following her election, Akerman was introduced June 15 during the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering appreciation luncheon hosted by the North American Mission Board and during the Korean Baptist Fellowship later that evening.

A native of Massachusetts, Akerman has been involved in WMU leadership on local, associational, state and national levels. She is a graduate of New England Baptist School of Nursing in Boston and ministered to others through a 30-year career in nursing.

Akerman succeeds Kaye Miller, also a registered nurse, of Immanuel Church in Little Rock, Ark. Lee voiced appreciation for Miller’s “wonderful leadership and commitment to missions” as she served as national president over the past five years.

Lee said she first met Akerman in 1993 when they both were serving as vice presidents of national WMU. “At the time, she represented New England and I represented Georgia,” Lee reflected. “Debby’s heart for the world and passion for involving others in missions, particularly through Girls in Action and hands-on mission opportunities, has always been so evident.”

Following her introduction, Akerman said, “I am honored to put my feet on the same path where women of giant faith, deep prayer and extraordinary vision have served God in WMU. The WMU missions journey, begun in 1888, is the most fulfilling way I have found to serve our Lord and to see His Kingdom work accomplished.”

Lee also announced changes in missions education curriculum. “We have taken a serious look at the needs of our churches, especially small churches, in the area of missions education,” Lee said. “After a great deal of research and input, we have completely redesigned and will launch new curriculum for preschoolers and teenage girls at the start of the new church year.”

In addition to a new look and packaging, Mission Friends materials will have new names: Mission Friends Leader will replace Start as the resource for preschool leaders and Mission Friends at Home will replace Share as take-home missions activities for preschoolers. While the Acteens curriculum will not undergo any name changes, the member and leader pieces — The Mag and Acteens Leader — will be tied more closely together and are completely redesigned.

Julie Walters is communications specialist for Woman’s Missionary Union (www.wmu.com).

Executive Director of the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), Wanda Lee, gives a WMU report June 16 during the evening session on the last night of the two-day Southern Baptist Convention at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.  Photo by Baptist Press. Photo Terms of Use

Randall James, an assistant pastor at First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., and SBC Executive Committee presidential search committee chairman, speaks with Frank Page, newly elected to the position of president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. Page will replace Morris H. Chapman, who will retire Sept. 30 after 18 years in the position. Photo by Baptist Press.

By Erin Roach

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP)–Frank Page was elected as the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee June 14 in Orlando, Fla. A former SBC president, Page will succeed Morris H. Chapman, who is retiring after 18 years in the position.

Page, 57, most recently served as vice president of evangelization for the North American Mission Board and was pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., for nine years and SBC president from 2006-08.

Executive Committee members deliberated for nearly two hours in a closed session Monday afternoon before announcing a decision to call Page as president, and he accepted the role with “a great sense of destiny and awareness that God has a great future for Southern Baptists.”

Page told the Executive Committee his goal is that the group will be unified in its passion to see the world won to Jesus Christ, and he pledged to love the committee members and to work with all his might.

In comments to Baptist Press after the vote, Page said he is following the call of God and is excited about the future.

“I’m somewhat nervous because the task before me is one that’s bigger than any one person, and I am very cognizant of that. So there’s a level of nervousness, and I’m not a nervous person, but I realize the task ahead is great,” Page said. “There’s great division amongst the brethren and to pull us together is going to be a God-ordained task that I shall deal with as best I can.

“One of my goals is to be a unifier. We’ve got to, based on John 17:21,” he said. “It is imperative for our evangelistic efforts that we be unified, and that is extremely important to me.”

Page, who will work alongside Chapman as president-elect until Oct. 1, hinted at an emphasis he’ll unveil in the fall to support international missions, North American missions, the seminaries and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

“The EC is not a missions-sending agency, but I want to be the greatest supporter our agencies have ever seen,” Page said.

After Page emerged from the closed-door session with the Executive Committee members and while they were praying and taking the vote, he told reporters he answered some members’ questions regarding the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report.

As a member of the task force, Page said he voiced deep concerns about some of the recommendations both to the task force and to the Executive Committee.

“But I do want to join our president in a call for a Great Commission Resurgence,” Page said. “I believe that. I love Dr.  Hunt and love his heart and want to see us do more to reach the nations for Christ.

“Everyone knows I’m a strong Cooperative Program supporter. I’ve said many times, not just in there but everywhere, ‘Just look at the record,’” Page told reporters. “While a lot of people talk about the Cooperative Program, I’ve been raising millions through it because I do believe in it. I believe in what it does in the states. I believe in what it does in supporting missions.”

Page said the Cooperative Program plays a unique role that must never be overlooked.

“It alone pulls us together. It alone provides for the work of our state conventions that helps support so many hurting churches. I love that,” he said.

Having only been in the North American Mission Board role since October 2009, Page said he is puzzled somewhat by God moving him so quickly to the Executive Committee.

“I have asked the Lord how it could be because I’ve never been to a short ministry in my whole life,” he said, adding that he has identified three possible reasons for the short tenure at NAMB.

“Number one, I think God gave me that time to see the inside of a denomination better than I would have as a pastor,” Page said. “I think He let me go to NAMB to let me see some of the inside, which I like some of it, some of it I don’t as I’ve looked on the inside of the denomination.

“Secondly, I think being a part of the GCR at the same time helped me provide a perspective to say NAMB has a unique missiological need, and I think that was an encouragement to some on the committee to see that NAMB does have a place separately than IMB,” Page said.

“Third, I would have to say the biggest reason I think God brought me to NAMB was to help legitimize and motivate and encourage people in the GPS strategy,” Page said, referring to the national God’s Plan for Sharing evangelistic initiative.

Page received the idea for GPS when he was president of the convention, and he was part of the official kickoff earlier this year when NAMB helped facilitate more than 15,000 Southern Baptist churches sharing the Gospel with nearly 38 million people by leaving literature on doorknobs of homes.

As Page accepted the Executive Committee’s call Monday afternoon, he expressed gratefulness for his wife Dayle and his daughters Laura and Allison, who were with him in Orlando.

“My family is dear and precious to me — my girls. As many people may know, I lost my oldest daughter just six months ago. It’s a very sensitive thing, but they are very precious to me, and I can always count on their support,” he told BP.

A native of Robbins, N.C., Page holds a Ph.D. in Christian ethics focusing on moral, social and ethical issues from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, along with a master of divinity degree from Southwestern. He earned a bachelor of science degree with honors from Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina, majoring in psychology with minors in sociology and Greek.

Page is the author of several books, including “Trouble with the Tulip,” an examination of the five points of Calvinism, and commentaries on the biblical books of Jonah and Mark. He also contributed as lead writer for the Advanced Continuing Witness Training material. Page was named to President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships in February 2009.

Erin Roach is a staff writer for Baptist Press.

SALISBURY, Md.—It is a devastating situation. Children, as young as three or four years old, work 16-19 hours a day, seven days a week, with only one meal a day. They work even if they are sick—all to pay off former debts from their parents and grandparents.

Many of these children die, shared Donna Brittingham, a member of Allen Memorial Church in Salisbury, Md., who recently became aware of the growing problem that the indentured poor face in Pakistan. She wants to do something about it.

And she has.  Already, she and other like-minded individuals have paid off the debt for 18 people. And it has only been two months.

But the goal is to rescue 1,000 people this year. At a cost of around $650-$700 per person, it is achievable—especially considering the cost of not rescuing them.

“Children are beaten, owned and treated as a possession instead of as a person,” Brittingham shared. “Not only are they exploited and mistreated by their employers, but also they are forced to endure unsanitary working places and sometimes eat unhealthy, spoiled food. The lack of clean drinking water and no medical care is often the cause of death among these children.”

Brittingham explained that although the Pakistani government forbids child slavery and “all forms of forced labor and traffic in human beings,” the children of Christian parents are not valuable enough to be protected by these laws.

“They aren’t citizens,” she explained. “They are lower than animals, especially because they are Christians—or their heritage is. It is like the Jews and the Samaritans—they are lower than dirt and the Muslims do not want to get near them. If a Christian touches the Qu’ran, they can receive the death penalty.”

According to a June 2009 U.S. State Dept. Trafficking in Persons Report, Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.

The country’s largest human trafficking problem is that of bonded labor, which is concentrated in Sindh and Punjab provinces, particularly in brick kilns, carpet making, agriculture, fishing, mining, leather tanning and production of glass bangles.

The report estimates that there are likely over one million Pakistani victims of bonded labor, including men, women, and children. Parents sell their daughters into domestic servitude, prostitution, or forced marriages, and women are traded between tribal groups to settle disputes or as payment for debts.

Brittingham became aware of the child slavery issue after her church adopted a pastor in Bhutan. She was added to his mailing list, where she learned about a Pakastani pastor’s efforts to rescue people from slavery in his country.

“In December, I found myself up in the middle of the night praying for this Pakastani pastor,” Brittingham shared.

She later learned the child slaves’ plight when the pastor came to the United States to escape persecution. Through him, she learned that Christian families, in desperation, sell a child into slavery to sustain the rest of the family.

“This child will grow up, marry and his children will also belong to the slave owner,” she shared, explaining the problem of generational debt and slavery.
Presently, Brittingham and her church are working on two types of rescue in one Pakastani city.

The first targets orphan slave children, who will be purchased from their owner and placed with a Christian family in the house church community or in the school/rescue center.

In addition, attempts will be made to rescue whole families by purchasing them back from slavery by paying the debt of the prior generation.

Long-range plans include the development of micro loans, small loans that will be provided to families for income-producing methods to escape severe poverty and start their new life in freedom. Some examples of purchase include sewing machines, rickshaws, and farm animals, such as water buffalo, chickens and goats.

Presently, rescued children and families attend the underground house church, where a pastor will help them assimilate into freedom. The ultimate goal is to raise enough funds to build a rescue center for the slaves and to develop a school where they can be educated and given life skills that will take them out of their current life situation.

“Each school will be open to Christian and Muslim children, but it will be a Christian-based education. Muslim children will gladly pay to attend a real school,” Brittingham explained.

“Education is mandatory for true freedom in any culture,” she added, noting that the education would be better than public schools, which teach only the Qu’ranand jihad.

“Young men will learn a skill; so becoming an extremist will not be their only option. Teenage boys will not be indoctrinated, but set free by the Gospel and the true Prince of Peace,” she said.

The cost of the land for the school is $45,000. To construct the building, which will enable 500 rescued children to study, will cost only $25,000. The school will also serve as a boarding school for up to 150 students without a home.

“Please pray with me that this will open the door for more churches to rescue children in this nation, which has NO help,” Brittingham pleaded. “We are forerunners in reaching a nation for Christ that is unsafe for missionaries. Our community (with the nationals) is there to do the work. They just need resources because of the poverty and persecution.”

If you’d like to participate in this ministry, call (410) 742-2659 with any questions.