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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

LifeWay’s Mandrell indicates trustees unaware of sweetheart deal for Rainer

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor Modified, Oct.11, to combine old paragraphs 10 and 11, adding new information in italics, and to combine old paragraphs 12 and 13. Corrected, Oct. 12, to indicate a change in church membership for J.D. Perry. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LBM)—A recording made by an unknown LifeWay employee purports to contain remarks by Ben Mandrell, LifeWay’s president and CEO, claiming that the lucrative deal given his predecessor Thom Rainer was negotiated without the input, oversight or knowledge of the board of trustees elected by the Southern Baptist Convention. The alleged Oct. 7 exchange with LifeWay employees was in response to the recent whirlwind of controversy surrounding a LifeWay lawsuit against Rainer for breaking terms of his severance agreement which included at least $1 million and a non-compete clause that was to run until October 2021. BACKGROUND In this 2006 Baptist Press photo at Lifeway’s former Glorieta Conference Center (sold in 2013 for $1) CEO Thom Rainer is shown telling trustees “Being a Christian resource provider is a tough business. I don’t like to talk about competition, but we’ve got to do something different if we are going to be an effective, viable ministry in the … [Read more...]

Alaska Baptists mark 75th anniversary with historic vote by internet

By Randy Covington, ABRN executive director, treasurer ANCHORAGE, Alaska (ABRN)--First Baptist Church, Anchorage, led by Pastor Gary Moats hosted the 75th anniversary gathering of the Alaska Baptist Resource Network with messengers from 50 churches coming together to celebrate statewide cooperative efforts in evangelism and church planting. Organized in March 1946, the Alaska Baptist Convention, now known as the Alaska Baptist Resource Network, began with three churches in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, and today has 116 affiliated churches, missions or preaching points in its network. “With Endurance” was the theme based on Hebrews 12:1. Special recognition was extended to Earl and Shannon Midkiff who came to Alaska in 1966. Having started their ministry in Soldotna, they moved to southeast Alaska where they served for over half a century as pastor, director of missions, interim pastor of several churches and now as pastor emeritus in Petersburg. History was made with the first gathering of Southern Baptists in America that offered electronic participation of messengers -- 19 registered messengers from remote places in Alaska joined a zoom gallery in which they had opportunity to comment, make motions, join … [Read more...]