2016 SBC Annual Meeting

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Professionals -- people with experience in business, education, sales, medicine and more -- can help start and grow churches in places career missionaries cannot go by using their skills to network with other professionals in cities around the globe, a panel of Baptist leaders determined June 13 in St. Louis. "We want to encourage any professional and soon-to-retire professional to consider this," said Sebastian Traeger, executive vice president at the International Mission Board in Richmond, Va. Traeger was part of one of 18 Cooperative Program panels held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting. "They'll be in the context of the city they're in, and could be most effective.... We're talking cities of 5 to 25 million people or more."

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- The "moral formation" and unity of the church are two vital considerations for a pastor in guiding God's people during a disturbing presidential election season, attendees were told at the first of two 9Marks panel discussions held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in St. Louis. SBC entity heads and a pastor assessed the convention and its proceedings during a second 9Marks discussion the following evening. The sessions were sponsored by 9Marks, a church health ministry based in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission June 13 and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary June 14.

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Cooperation among Southern Baptists with diverse theological views, the definition of "Gospel" and the extent of the atonement were among the topics addressed at the Connect316 banquet June 14 in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in St. Louis. Connect316 -- a coalition of Southern Baptists who advocate what they call a "traditionalist" understanding of the doctrine of salvation and disagree with some points of so-called "New Calvinism" -- also presented Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson with the Jerry Vines Award for the Promotion of Whosoever Will Doctrine in Southern Baptist Life.

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Finishing the first year of a five-year initiative to plant 100 new churches, the Filipino Southern Baptist Fellowship of North America reported progress on their goal. Filipino Baptist churches across North America have planted more than 20 new churches, Peter Yanes, FSBFNA president, reported during the fellowship's June 14 meeting in St. Louis.

ST.LOUIS (BP) -- The lack of evangelism among Southern Baptists is at its heart a discipleship issue according to panelists at the Replicate Ministries breakfast. "I think the challenge we have in our convention and our churches is that we have seen discipleship and evangelism as pitted against each other," said Robby Gallaty, president of Replicate Ministries, during the June 14 gathering at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- There is one core imperative -- one command -- in the Great Commission: to make disciples. In light of that, "What does it mean to make disciples?" Zane Pratt, IMB vice president of training, asked during the Fellowship of Baptist World Ministries' annual breakfast June 13. Many people have memorized the King James rendering of the Great Commission, which reads, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations," which Pratt said has led to the idea that discipleship is primarily conveying information, a method that fits with the way the American education system works.

Southern Baptists' decline in baptisms prompts evangelism professor Ernest Easley to suggest: "It's time we get back to inviting people to come to Jesus." Describing invitations to faith as biblical, Easley notes, "The God who initiates a relationship with us and then invites us into that relationship has commissioned us to become the inviters, as we invite the lost to Christ."

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Nik Ripken almost abandoned hope when he first arrived in Somalia 25 years ago. Ripken, then a young International Mission Board (IMB) missionary, had caught a ride with the Red Cross in a small plane carrying relief supplies across the border between Kenya and its war-ravaged neighbor. What he saw shook him to the core. He met parents who asked for burial cloths for the children they'd lost rather than food and water for themselves and saw soldiers passing out narcotics rather than relief supplies to those in need.

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Mindy Jamison, co-director of Friendship Baptist Center in Des Moines, Iowa, for the past 17 years along with her husband Jon, is this year's recipient of the Dellanna West O'Brien Award for Women's Leadership Development. "Mindy pours her life into people living in the inner city of Des Moines, and at the same time invites and encourages others to minister alongside her," said Joni Wilkinson, executive director of Iowa WMU and volunteer at the Friendship Center, who recommended Jamison for the award. "She is a mentor to women of all ages and backgrounds and continues to teach about her passion -- living out her faith in her community and seeing people living in poverty come to know Christ."

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (BP) -- Southern Baptists must sacrifice traditions that hinder biblical unity and intentionally seek new ways to approach missions and evangelism, said panelists at the eighth annual Baptist 21 luncheon June 14, during the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in St. Louis, Mo. J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church of Raleigh-Durham, N.C., told moderator Jon Akin that he attributed the denominational decline in baptisms to a "loss of evangelistic intentionality," in addition to the lack of reporting churches.