By Roy Hayhurst, GuideStone Financial Resources DALLAS, Texas - Continued uncertainty in the health care marketplace with the repeal of the individual mandate coming in 2019 and reductions in the number of individuals served by the health care exchanges has some pastors and ministry workers wondering about health care options this year. Further, the Affordable Care Act continues to drive up costs for consumers nationwide. GuideStone recognizes that affordability is the issue for most all of us, and while, like others, we are not immune from the financial pressures caused by the 2010 law, we are working diligently every day to develop options that reflect the values of our participants and keep costs extremely competitive in the marketplace. GuideStone’s Personal Plans health plans may be options for churches with a single staff member, usually the pastor. “We take seriously our ministry assignment from Southern Baptists to make ‘available life and health coverage,’ to our churches and ministry organizations, especially those pastors serving out at the crossroads,” GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said. “We’d encourage any pastor of a single staff-member church to call GuideStone and see if we may be able to serve him … [Read more...]

By Roy Hayhurst, GuideStone Financial Resources DALLAS, Texas - GuideStone Financial Resources, LifeWay Research and Baptist state conventions have teamed up again in 2018 for the biennial SBC Church Compensation Survey. Pastors and church employees are invited to participate in the survey, a resource used by churches of all sizes to determine fair wages and benefits. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete; it is available on the GuideStone website. Survey respondents can enter to win an iPad. The survey’s results will be made available in the early fall, in time for many churches considering their 2019 budgets. The survey is the largest, free, church compensation study available in the United States. These surveys are a valuable tool for churches to benchmark their own salary and benefits against churches of similar size within Southern Baptist life. Through GuideStone’s compensation planning materials, GuideStone offers materials to help churches structure their compensation to make proper use of tax laws. Individual survey results can be contributed anonymously: Survey results are not reported individually. Once the survey closes May 31, LifeWay Research will work on compiling results. Survey respondents … [Read more...]

By Julie McGowan, IMB Communications RICHMOND, Virginia (IMB) —International Mission Board President David Platt has asked the mission agency’s trustees to begin searching for his successor. Platt announced his decision to IMB field personnel and staff early Monday morning, Feb. 12, in person and via email to those not in Richmond. While requesting that the search for the IMB’s next president begin immediately, Platt will continue as president at IMB until a new president is elected. A presidential search committee will be comprised of IMB trustees selected by trustee chairman Rick Dunbar, a member of First Baptist Church Madison, Mississippi.  Platt told trustees, missionaries and staff that during his nearly four-year tenure at the IMB, he has been “burdened to continue preaching and leading in the local church,” which led to assuming a teaching pastor role at McLean Bible Church in Northern Virginia, alongside his leadership of the IMB. Check back as this story develops. … [Read more...]

You By Will Hall, Message Editor ALEXANDRIA (LBM)—Southern Baptist history is complicated. Slavery is most often cited as the cause for the split from Northern Baptists that led to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, and it was a decisive factor. However, Southern Baptists also strongly disagreed with Northern Baptists regarding how they were organized as the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions (also known as the Triennial Convention). In general, Southern members preferred a more centralized structure of operating while Northern members favored the formation of independent societies for home missions, foreign missions and the publication of tracts, according to historian Robert A. Baker. Likewise, Baptists in the South felt they were not being treated equitably in the appointment of home missionaries to the region. But, the records of the first SBC annual meeting indicate the final straw was the approval by the Board of the Triennial Convention, in a Boston meeting, of a new rule that prohibited slave owners from serving as foreign missionaries. W.B. Johnson, the first SBC president, perceived the action not in terms of … [Read more...]