Fulfilling God’s Mission for Your Family
People today don't want to watch life happen — they want to experience it. This hands-on trend can be seen in the fields of education and entertainment. Even in the church, people are looking for practical ways to experience authentic faith. John Lewis, a forty-five-year-old lawyer and real estate investor from Jackson, Mississippi, says he wants to be among Christian families who are "raising a generation of people who know what it is to minister, to get up out of the pew and go meet people where they are."
Annie Armstrong missions offering sets record; up 8.5%, nearly reaching $54M goal
ATLANTA, Ga. (BP)--Southern Baptists gave a record $53,845,989 to last year’s Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, exceeding the previous year’s offering by 8.5 percent and nearly reaching the national goal of $54 million.
Robert E. “Bob” Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board, described Southern Baptists’ “sacrificial generosity” in 2004 as a “significant breakthrough” in North American missions giving.
“Southern Baptists have proven themselves faithful to the cause of missions and reaching North America for Christ,” Reccord said. “Never before has funding been more critical to the mission of ensuring that every person in the United States, Canada and their territories has the opportunity to hear the Gospel, respond with faith in Christ, and participate in a New Testament fellowship of believers.
Unemployment, poverty gripped their hearts for Appalachia
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| Appalachia honorees Lonnie and Belinda Riley, who lead a multifaceted ministry in Appalachia, have been named 2004 “Mission Service Corps (MSC) Missionaries of the Year” by the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board. MSC missionaries serve a minimum of 20 hours per week for four months or longer in ministries that support NAMB’s church planting and evangelism efforts throughout North America. |
The area, located in central Appalachia, was the most economically depressed region in Kentucky. The coal mining industry went bust about 30 years earlier, and unemployment and poverty rates soared well beyond national averages. The high school dropout rate approached 50 percent.
The Rileys, meanwhile, were enjoying their “dream home” in Southaven, Miss., where Lonnie, a former engineer, was senior pastor of a thriving Southern Baptist church.
“They bought us Cadillacs and cell phones; whatever we needed, the church provided,” Riley said. “Our income was approaching a six-digit income, and so the Lord was blessing us real well. We just thought we would retire there and that would be it.”
Cleveland picked as next site for Strategic Focus Cities effort
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Cleveland was chosen for the North American Mission Board’s 2006-07 Strategic Focus City church planting and evangelistic outreach initiative.
Post-hurricane relief to shift from meals to long-term ministry
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--After more than two months of operation, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief meal preparations for hurricane victims in the eastern United States will shut down by the end of October, but long-term recovery and rebuild efforts remain, according to officials coordinating the unprecedented national response.
SBC relief effort prepares near-record 2.1 million meals
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Since mid-August, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have prepared more than 2.1 million meals in the wake of four hurricanes that have battered Florida and neighboring states along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Seaboard.
SBC relief efforts mount in wake of Hurricanes Ivan, Jeanne
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--After preparing nearly 1 million meals over the past two weeks in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, Southern Baptist mobile kitchens will be closing their disaster relief feeding operations Oct. 2 in Alabama’s Gulf Shores region while several mobile kitchens are expected to continue operation in the Florida Panhandle for another week.
Key disaster relief worker Joel Phillips dies at 52
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Joel W. Phillips, one of Southern Baptist’s national disaster relief coordinators, died from an apparent heart attack at his home Sept. 29 after returning from attending Wednesday evening services at First Baptist Church in Conyers, Ga., where he was a member.
S. Baptists launch 4th disaster relief response to Fla. in 6 weeks
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--About 600 Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers from 10 states were in various stages of deployment to Florida’s east coast Sept. 27 in the wake of Hurricane Jeanne –- the fourth hurricane to hit the Sunshine State in the past six weeks.
1,000-plus Southern Baptist volunteers help hurricane victims
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| Impromptu drive-through In fast-food fashion, residents of the Flomaton, Ala., area receive meals prepared by Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers at Little Escambia Baptist Church. Photo by Stanley Leary |
Jim Burton, director of the North American Mission Board's volunteer mobilization team, said NAMB's Disaster Relief Operations Center near Atlanta has received reports of people standing in lines extending five blocks from a mobile kitchen unit stationed at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.
