NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)  – A new study of attendance at Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings shows the percentage of messengers in the 18-39 age group steadily declining since 1980 – the early days of the SBC’s Conservative Resurgence – and dropping sharply since 2004. The percentage of messengers in the 60-plus age group, however, has increased dramatically. Conducted by LifeWay Research, the study analyzed messenger registration survey data for every annual meeting since 1980 for three major age groups: 18-39, 40-59 and 60-plus. The findings include: n Messengers ages 18-39 represented 33.6 percent of the total in 1980 but dropped to 13.1 percent by 2007. n The 40-59 group stayed fairly constant: 49.9 percent in 1980, compared to 51.6 percent in 2007. n Registrants age 60 and above accounted for 12.9 percent of the messengers in 1980, but 35.4 percent in 2007. “This sample represents all messengers, and historically 40 percent of the messengers have been senior pastors,” said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research. “The percentage of senior pastors attending the annual meeting has remained relatively constant, but the age of attendees has risen dramatically,” he said. “Simply put, the … [Read more...]

Proclaiming God’s word while challenging women to use their gifts to bolster the body of Christ is the goal of the Women’s Leadership Consultation, set for Feb. 7-9 at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. NEW ORLEANS – Proclaiming God’s word while challenging women to use their gifts to bolster the body of Christ is the goal of the Women’s Leadership Consultation, set for Feb. 7-9 at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  The theme of this year’s event is “Beyond Hearing.” Open to all women, the three-day seminar opens with a free rally on Thursday night. Featured speakers on Friday and Saturday include Priscilla Shirer, Dorothy Patterson and Jackie Kendall, with worship leader Diane Machen.  For over twenty years, Machen and her husband, Chris, have served the Lord in full-time music ministry. Traveling throughout the country, they have performed at concerts, led worship, and ministered in ladies retreats and marriage conferences.  Rhonda Kelley, professor of women’s ministry at NOBTS, outlined the vision for the conference. “It is the prayer of the steering committee that God who reveals Himself through His Word will challenge women leaders to also teach and live the Word,” Kelley said.  This year … [Read more...]

There’s a link between a church’s relevance and the Cooperative Program, as pastor Daniel E. (Danny) Crosby sees it.  CLEBURNE, Texas (BP) –There’s a link between a church’s relevance and the Cooperative Program, as pastor Daniel E. (Danny) Crosby sees it. “We must continually force ourselves to be relevant in a culture that always seeks to push us toward irrelevance,” said Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in Cleburne, Texas. “I think this culture doesn’t think it needs us. They don’t think we have anything they need or anything to do with their lives.” One reason First Baptist continues its commitment year after year to reaching people through the Cooperative Program is that it keeps the church relevant in global missions while its members reach out locally, the pastor said. The “DNA” of First Baptist, he noted, encompasses helping missions and ministries around the world and supporting churches and starting churches closer to home. “I’ve seen the Cooperative Program work overseas through the missionaries my wife and I worked with for a year in Monterey, Mexico, as well as on many short-term overseas trips,” Crosby said. “I’ve seen it work in the U.S. in pioneer areas and in areas where the work would not be … [Read more...]

When it comes to Roe v. Wade, Americans are, at best, inconsistent, and at worst, confused. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – When it comes to Roe v. Wade, Americans are, at best, inconsistent, and at worst, confused. Polls show that a majority of U.S. adults support the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide while at the same time also backing greater restrictions – restrictions that Roe, as the courts have interpreted it, prohibits. To coincide with the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s controversial decision a number of pro-family groups have joined together to launch a website to test America’s Roe knowledge. The site – RoeIQTest.com, asks 12 simple questions to see how much the nation knows about the ruling that has led to the killing of nearly 50 million unborn babies. “We really believe that a lot of Americans have been misinformed,” Mike Johnson, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, told Baptist Press. “Nearly 80 percent of Americans want restrictions on abortion which Roe essentially forbids, but about half of America claims to support Roe. The idea is, when Americans have all the facts, their support for Roe decreases dramatically.” Here’s a sample from the test, … [Read more...]

Youngsters from Rachel Sims Baptist Mission in New Orleans sent hand-drawn cards and letters to Geoff Hammond last summer, shortly after he was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. SLIDELL/NEW ORLEANS – Youngsters from Rachel Sims Baptist Mission in New Orleans sent hand-drawn cards and letters to Geoff Hammond last summer, shortly after he was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. They were messages of welcome to Hammond, and thanks for all that NAMB has done in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina keelhauled the region in August 2005 and Rita ravaged it again less than a month later, in September 2005. “Thank you for your kind words,” Hammond said to the youngsters clustered around him on Saturday, Jan. 12. “They made me very happy.” Returning to Greater New Orleans was something he had been looking forward to, Hammond said later. Less than three weeks after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, he and media missionary Brandon Pickett served side-by-side with disaster relief volunteers from the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, where Hammond was senior associate director. “We went down to tell the story of how God was … [Read more...]

Born two years after Martin Luther King Jr., E. Edward Jones Sr. lived through the birth of the Civil Rights movement. PINEVILLE – Born two years after Martin Luther King Jr., E. Edward Jones Sr. lived through the birth of the Civil Rights  movement. Jones, pastor of Galilee Baptist Shreveport, was to share some of his experiences during the Martin Luther King Jr. luncheon that opened the 2008 Louisiana Evangelism Conference. “I am well familiar with the scene and the climate of his time; they were my times too,” Jones said in a telephone interview last week. Nationally renowned as a religious, social, and civil rights activist, Jones has worked for more than 40 years to improve the lives of the black community and his parishioners. “I will be talking about sharing what we have; that might make it personal,” Jones said. “This is an evangelism conference and also on the day of the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. “I’m going to be dealing with the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles,” Jones continued, “and of course I will be interspersing in and out with some of the things Dr. King shared and more than that, what Peter and John shared, and then what we must share.” Read the Feb.7 issue of the Message … [Read more...]

For the past 47 years, the sprawling grounds of Harris Baptist Conference & Retreat Center – owned by the Bienville, Concord-Union and Webster-Claiborne associations – has provided retreats, camps, conferences and seminars for churches, organizations, and individuals. Since 1960, Harris Baptist Conference & Retreat Center has been an oasis of tranquility in today’s busy world.  Thousands of people are drawn to “Camp Harris” to experience God in a safe and secure Christian environment. A description of the facility on the Camp Harris website. MINDEN – For the past 47 years, the sprawling grounds of Harris Baptist Conference & Retreat Center – owned by the Bienville, Concord-Union and Webster-Claiborne associations – has provided retreats, camps, conferences and seminars for churches, organizations, and individuals. Featuring four modern dormitories, 36 motel rooms, a cottage, conference center, gymnasium, auditorium, outdoor amphitheater and a large swimming pool, the facility annually draws more than 700 children to its summer camps, and countless others for retreats, conferences and seminars. After last year, there is another service the facility can add to its list – the setting for a Hollywood … [Read more...]

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution says, “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this constitution, but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States” (emphasis added). Article VI of the U.S. Constitution says, “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this constitution, but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States” (emphasis added). Our Founding Fathers prohibited that a person be a person of any particular faith or of no faith to hold public office or public trust in the United States. Instead, we are to select public officials based upon their character, their public policy record, their policy positions and their vision for our country. In the famous speech delivered almost 50 … [Read more...]

What drives Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal? By all accounts it’s his Christian faith, his wife Supriya and their three children, and the calling of God for him to serve in the public realm. BATON ROUGE – What drives Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal? By all accounts it’s his Christian faith, his wife Supriya and their three children, and the calling of God for him to serve in the public realm. Born six months after his parents immigrated to Louisiana, he converted from his parent’s Hindu faith as a college student after a Southern Baptist friend “intent on converting the world, first introduced me to Christianity by telling me ‘you and your parents are going to hell,’” Jindal wrote in a 1993 article in America magazine, a Catholic publication. “I was hardly convinced,” Jindal wrote, but he began to examine Hinduism and its teachings. “I began reading the Bible to disprove the Christian faith I was learning both to admire and despise. … I saw myself in many of the parables and felt as if the Bible had been written especially for me. … I realized that if the Gospel stories were true, if Christ really was the Son of God, it was arrogant of me to reject Him and question the gift of salvation. … It was Truth and Love that … [Read more...]

Was it by chance that the contrails of intersecting airplanes formed the sign of the cross in a brilliant blue sky during Bobby Jindal’s inauguration as Louisiana’s governor last Monday, Jan. 14? BATON ROUGE – Was it by chance that the contrails of intersecting airplanes formed the sign of the cross in a brilliant blue sky during Bobby Jindal’s inauguration as Louisiana’s governor last Monday, Jan. 14? Was it by chance that on this picture-perfect day, a solitary white bird (too large to be a dove) swirled in the near-cloudless sky above the 3,000 or more people come to be part of the history-making event? Maybe these symbols of God’s blessings were in response to the blanket of prayer that shrouded inaugural activities. “I am very hopeful about the future of our state,” said Waylon Bailey, pastor of First Baptist Covington, who attended two inaugural prayer events, the inaugural ceremony and the inaugural ball. “I want Gov Jindal to be undergirded in prayer,” Bailey said to explain the time he took from his busy pastorate to be involved in inaugural activities. “We have high expectations for the governor and want him to know he has the support of praying people.” An “official” inaugural prayer service, which … [Read more...]