John Avant

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--I have always loved the early chapters of the book of Acts. The picture we see there of the newborn church is so powerful.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--It's been eight months now since I left the pastorate and came to be the vice-president for evangelization at the North American Mission Board. I did it because I sensed that God was beginning to do a new thing -- that Southern Baptists were ready to move into an evangelistic resurgence that could lead to the next Great Awakening in America and across the world.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--The hurricanes keep coming. And they always will until Jesus comes. This is the fallen world we live in. But that has always been an opportunity for God’s people.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--I have just returned from the Gulf Coast. I am overwhelmed by what I have seen -- the devastating destruction, yes, but more than that. I am overwhelmed by the work of God in His people. It will take more than one article to share my heart about the heroic, New Testament Christ-followers I met and the hurting people they are reaching.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Good news continues to invade the darkness of wind, flood and death and bring hope to all of us of a mighty movement of God in this nation. God's people are rising from spiritual slumber and running to follow Jesus into the lives and the pain of people.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--We need some good news today, don’t we? We may be facing the worst disaster our nation has ever encountered. Thousands may be dead, and hundreds of thousands homeless, financially ruined and emotionally broken.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--It's a day I’ll never forget. I began the day the way I seek to begin every day.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--There are days that help keep life in perspective, that remind us of how blessed we really are.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--As you read this, I am celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary. Don’t call to congratulate me, as I am far away –- with my sweetheart –- and I’m not telling you where.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--The more I think about our convention in Nashville this year, the better I feel about our future. I have heard many people say that we seem to have “turned the corner.” I believe we have and that we are now ready to go full speed down the highway paved with the Good News of Jesus!