Stewardship

What does margin look like and what is your next move to get it?

Encountering a beggar, Jared Wilson writes, may point toward a larger realization of God's grace.

Tony Wolfe notes that churches, in partnering with other organizations, should ask "What do they believe about the Bible?" and "How does this partnership extend and enlarge our Great Commission footprint?"

Sixteen Baptist state conventions launched partnerships with Ramsey Solutions in an effort to help believers learn to manage their money.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- When portions of the federal government shut down, Southern Baptists ramped up their ministries to furloughed federal workers across the country. President Trump announced today (Jan. 25) he would sign a bill opening the government until Feb. 15 while lawmakers finalize legislation to increase border security. Still, some federal employees missed their second paycheck, and the partial shutdown stretched into a record-setting 35th day. Amid the shutdown, Southern Baptists also attempted to bring Christian principles to bear on the legislative impasse between Trump and Congress regarding federal spending.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BP) -- At an average of $8,300 per family, New Mexico leads the nation in credit card debt, according to media reports this month. New Mexico also has one of the highest poverty rates in the U.S., with 1 in 5 people living below the poverty line. Those realities are among factors that provoked Joseph Bunce, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico, to forge a partnership with Ramsey Solutions, an organization led by personal finance author and speaker Dave Ramsey. The BCNM is among 16 Baptist state conventions to launch such partnerships with Ramsey Solutions this year in an effort to help believers learn to manage their money. Additional state convention partnerships are in the works, according to Ramsey Solutions. From Arizona to Pennsylvania-South Jersey, state convention meetings this fall highlighted the partnerships.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- For Dave Ramsey, pastors have a special place in his heart. This summer at the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, the CEO of Ramsey Solutions and author of "Financial Peace University" (FPU) spoke to pastors and other Baptist leaders about stewardship and what the Bible teaches about debt. He offered FPU -- a 12-week financial planning program -- for free to pastors who attended the SBC meeting and offered the accompanying leader guides at a discounted rate. This fall, more than 15 state conventions are featuring the program at their fall annual meetings. In his Nashville-area radio studio, Ramsey sat down with Baptist Press to talk about helping pastors and their congregations navigate the daily financial challenges they face.

UNION CITY, Ten. (BP) -- The math is quite simple at Second Baptist Church: no debt = more resources for missions. For the first time in 15 years, Second Baptist is learning to live debt-free, pastor Justin Hiens said. In 2003, the church began a relocation process in Union City, Tenn., that eventually would cost more than $12 million. Hiens joined the church that same year, fresh out of college, as youth minister, serving there for nearly five years before moving on to become pastor of churches in Georgia and Mississippi. When Hiens returned to Second Baptist as senior pastor in 2015, the debt had been reduced to about $2.5 million. But it was still crippling the ministry of the church in the town of 10,000, 115 miles northeast of Memphis.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BP) -- A. Rudolph (Rudy) Fagan, who led the former Stewardship Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention for 20 years, died Wednesday (Oct. 3) in Murfreesboro, Tenn. He was 88. Fagan served as president of the Stewardship Commission from 1974 until his retirement in 1994. The Stewardship Commission, which was closed in the SBC's Covenant for a New Century restructuring in the mid-1990s, was the convention's primary advocate for the Cooperative Program channel of support for state, national and international missions and ministry. It also assisted churches in capital campaigns as they built new facilities. The commission's duties were moved to the SBC Executive Committee and LifeWay Christian Resources (then Sunday School Board) under the SBC restructuring.

DALLAS (BP) -- In early August of 1918, William Lunsford, the founding chief executive of what today is GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, received a letter from trustee Cullen F. Thomas. In it, Lunsford was advised that the state of Texas on July 31 had granted the charter for what was named the Board of Ministerial Relief and Annuities. The closing line of the letter simply said, "You are now a 'going concern.' May you continue to grow and go."