[1]Kentucky pastors try to reach tough groups at protest
By Mark Maynard/Kentucky Today
GRAYSON, Ky. (BP) — Josh Schmidt looks forward to the Sunday afternoon when he can do some door-to-door evangelism again.
But for now, said the pastor of First Baptist Church in Grayson, God has another assignment.
For the second straight week, Schmidt, youth pastor Cory Jones and pastoral intern candidate Darin Phillips were “being the church” as a Black Lives Matter protest and a lot of counter-protesters collided in the downtown streets of the small northeastern Kentucky city.
The three men were armed with the cold bottles of water and the gospel although Schmidt said few were interested in hearing about God’s goodness.
“I’m on this evangelism (Gospel to Every Home) team for the state (Kentucky Baptist Convention),” said Schmidt, who will be part of a KBC webinar on the subject on Thursday. “This seemed like a God thing. We can’t go to every door, but God has brought it to our streets. He opened the doors for us right here.
[2]“If the church doesn’t have the answers to the brokenness in our society, no one does.”
Eyes opened through south Georgia food ministries
By Scott Barkley/Christian Index
COLUMBUS, Ga. (BP) — Jimmy Blanton has seen the impact of the Columbus Baptist Association’s food ministry, but never to the extent seen in this year.
The CBA, like many organizations, shut down its ministry center building in mid-March due to COVID-19. The ministry itself, though, continued.
“Since that time, we’ve been doing food giveaways in drive-up venues,” said Blanton, longtime CBA associational missionary. “Between March 15 and July 21, we’ve served more than 57.3 tons of food to 9,872 individuals representing 3,546 families.”
Those numbers during that span, he added, reflect 90 percent of the totals for all of 2019.
A “one day giveaway” in April brought the biggest crowd. “We had close to 700 vehicles passing through our parking lot,” Blanton said. “In total, 9,110 pounds of food, including fresh produce, were given away.”
Mark Maynard is managing editor of Kentucky Today. Scott Barkley is editor of The Christian Index.