By Paul F. South, NOBTS Communications NEW OLREANS – Two of the world’s best-known religious scholars will dialog at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary on a question that has sparked debate for some 2,000 years: What did Jesus really teach? John Dominic Crossan and Ben Witherington III will be the featured speakers at the  2010 Greer-Heard  Point-Counterpoint  Forum, Feb. 26 and 27 at Leavell Chapel. The event marks the seminary’s sixth Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum. The Forum is designed to provide a venue in which a respected evangelical scholar and a respected non-evangelical scholar discuss critical issues in religion, science, philosophy, or culture. “Too often, public discourse on the sort of issues that Greer-Heard deals with is shrill in tone and piecemeal in content,” said  Robert Stewart, Ph.D, who occupies the Greer-Heard chair of Faith and Culture and of the seminary’s Institute for Christian Apologetics. “Our goal therefore is to give these issues legitimate expression and to do so in a public forum on a level playing field.” Crossan, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at DePaul University in Chicago, is the former co-chairman of the Jesus Seminar. Regarded internationally as one of … [Read more...]

By Michael Foust, Baptist Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Conservative groups are urging the Obama administration and Democratic leaders to take a second look at abstinence education after a federally funded landmark study showed that such programs were more successful than comprehensive sex education in stopping teen sex. The study, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health and published in the February journal of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, should be a game-changer in the debate over teens and sex. It followed 662 African American sixth and seventh graders in urban middle schools over two years and found that 33.5 percent of those in programs promoting only abstinence had had sex by the end of the 24 months, compared to 48.5 percent of teens in a control group. The other two programs studied – one focusing only on safer sex and the other mixing an abstinence message with a safer sex message – did about as well as the control group in stopping teen sex. President Obama axed Bush-era abstinence programs from his budget submitted last year and conservatives now are encouraging him to place such funding back in the budget. “If we are serious about reaching teens with the skills they … [Read more...]

By Mickey Noah, Baptist Press [img_assist|nid=6090|title=North American Mission Board missionaries Jim and Myrtle Ballard serve in Idaho assisting new churches|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=67|height=100]BLACKFOOT, Idaho – North American Mission Board missionary Jim Ballard – all 243 lbs. of him – lay sprawled in agonizing pain on a snow-covered dirt trail high in the mountains of the Salmon National Forest in eastern Idaho. Four of his ribs and a vertebra were fractured, and his sternum was cracked.  His lung punctured, Ballard was spitting up pink, foamy blood, which dotted his full salt-and-pepper beard. Ballard prayed to God and thought of Myrtle, his new wife, who was back at their RV campsite some 10 miles away.  The nearest main road was a mile or two away.  Panic was creeping in like the big black crow that perched only 10 feet away, cawing and waiting for what it thought would be its inevitable Ballard “buffet.” “You’re not getting my eyeballs just yet,” Ballard yelled at the crow while whipping out his .45/.410 revolver and two boxes of shells.  At least neither the crows nor the wolves would get ‘ol Jim that day without a fight. Several hours earlier that day – Oct. 17, 2008 – Ballard’s final day of … [Read more...]

ALEXANDRIA – March 4 is the deadline for the LBC evangelism department to turn in its order to the printer for localized materials for Sharing the Peace of Jesus in Louisiana. This means the deadline for churches to submit their requests is even earlier: Tuesday, March 1, for red door hangers that say, “This home has been prayed over,” and the Sharing the Peace of Jesus witnessing piece. “This is an unprecedented opportunity for us to build on the good name established by Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams over the last five years,” said Wayne Jenkins, director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Evangelism and Church Growth team. “With all the problems facing people in America now, there is an openness for the Gospel. “Sharing the Peace of Jesus is Louisiana Baptists praying for the people who live in their neighborhoods and leaving a door knob hanger,” Jenkins continued. “Then, coming back a week later and leaving a witnessing piece and an invitation to Easter Sunday.  It’s as simple as that.” A $115,000 statewide media campaign is to take place during the same time frame that church members are out praying in their neighborhoods and inviting people to church on Easter Sunday. This includes television ads … [Read more...]