By Tobin Perry, NAMB communications ST. LOUIS (BP) - Southern Baptist volunteers reported more than 350 professions of faith in Jesus Christ during Crossover events throughout metro St. Louis this year. One man who made a decision for Christ had been considering suicide just a few days earlier, said Eloy Rodriquez. Rodriquez, a longtime Crossover volunteer, serves as Hispanic pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Fla. Rodriquez said his team knocked on the door of the man's house and asked if they could pray with him. The man told the team about a friend who was struggling with cancer. As they were preparing to pray, the man then opened up about his own struggles. "Last Sunday, he closed his eyes while driving," said Rodriquez, who has been bringing teams of volunteers to share Christ during Crossover since 1999. "He was willing to have whatever happen to him, happen -- suicide basically. Then he opened his eyes, he was in the other lane, but there was no one else there. He pulled over and just cried -- not because he was about to kill himself but because he realized he could have killed someone else." Rodriquez then prayed with the man to receive Christ. That was one of more than 50 Gospel conversations that took place … [Read more...]

By Kathie Chute, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary communications ST. LOUIS (BP) - About 500 Southern Baptists gathered June 12 for the opening sessions of WMU's 2016 Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Mo. With a theme of "By All Means," the two Sunday programs recognized current and retired missionaries, as well as International Mission Board staff, and celebrated Wanda Lee's service as she retires as executive director of WMU. "I believe just as strongly today as I did 16 years ago that WMU is important to the Kingdom," she said. "We have the opportunity to make a difference. Our charge first and foremost is to be a light to the nations. There is strength in our union. There is strength in our collective purpose of missions. May our song truly be a song for the nations." Lee said she was working as a nurse when God called her to missions. When she returned home to serve in the U.S., her call to missions did not end. "My calling was to go wherever God leads," she said. "My call has not changed, only the place. No other ministry in Baptist life devotes itself exclusively to missions. What we do matters because we are shining a light." Jeff Iorg, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, … [Read more...]

By Julie Walters, WMU communications ST. LOUIS (BP) - Approximately 150 Southern Baptist leaders, family members and friends from across the country gathered in St. Louis on June 11 to honor Wanda Lee and her leadership of national WMU over the past 20 years - 16 as executive director and four as president. Frank S. Page said he got to know Lee in 2010 when assumed his current role as president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee. Page recited Micah 6:8, "What does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? "I believe Wanda Lee has exhibited that great trio of imperatives from our Lord," Page said. "I believe she has done what is right, what is just. She is merciful, and many of you are the recipients of her mercy and ministry in your own life. She is a strategist, an organizational genius, yet is always humble and gives credit to those around her. I am honored to call her my friend, and I thank God for her." The three women who served with Lee as president of national WMU - Debby Akerman of Myrtle Beach, S.C. (2010-2015); Kaye Miller of Little Rock, Ark. (2005-2010), and Janet Hoffman of Farmerville, (2000-2005) - each reflected on their years … [Read more...]