By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer NEW YORK CITY –Donald Trump unveiled his Evangelical Executive Advisory Board June 21 and its membership has a strong Southern Baptist presence. Nearly one-third of the board membership is made up of individuals who affiliate with the SBC. Among those serving are Jack Graham and Ronnie Floyd, who served as SBC president in 2003-2004 and 2014-2015 respectively; Jay Strack, president of Student Leadership University and the guest speaker during Louisiana College’s May commencement; David Jeremiah, pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif.; Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas;  Richard Land, former president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and Jerry Fallwell Jr., president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. In a news release published on the campaign website as well as in an e-mail to his supporters, Trump said the 26-member Evangelical Executive Advisory Board will lead a much larger Faith and Cultural Advisory Committee that will be announced later this month. He added that those selected were not asked to endorse Trump for president as a prerequisite for serving on the team that includes a mix of … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer NEW YORK CITY – Donald Trump displayed a tremendous amount of humility while coming across as pro-life, pro-Israel and pro-traditional marriage during a meeting today with more than 1,000 social conservatives, one Louisiana Baptist pastor who attended told the Baptist Message. “He was the most humble I have seen him,” said Louisiana Baptist Convention President Gevan Spinney. “He was responding rather than reacting. When [former Gov.] Mike Huckabee led the discussion time with Trump, he seemed really humble just to be there.” Spinney, who is pastor of First Baptist Church in Haughton, said while Trump did reference time spent attending Sunday school as a child he did not come across as overtly religious. “You try to look for things he said to give you hope he’s a believer but he didn’t give us any indication he was,” he said. Spinney said Trump mentioned he potentially could name between three and five Supreme Court appointees as president and that Trump emphasized he leaned pro-life and emphasized religious freedom was a main concern of his. “He said he was tired of Christians being attacked in courts,” Spinney said. “He made a statement that when he became president he was going to … [Read more...]

By Michael Foust, Christian Examiner OAKLAND, Calif. (Christian Examiner) – LeBron James had just helped deliver Cleveland its first major sports championship in more than 50 years Sunday night, but he didn't want to talk only about basketball. He had a bigger picture in mind, and it included God. "I gave everything that I had. I put my heart, my blood, my sweat and my tears into this game, and against all odds, .." James said on national TV afterwards, not finishing the sentence but clearly referencing the Cavaliers' historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA championship. No team had ever bounced back from a 3-1 margin to win the title. "I don't know why we want to take the hardest road. I don't know why the Man above gives me the hardest road, but ... the Man above don't put you in situations that you can't handle. And I just kept that same positive attitude, like, instead of saying, 'Why me?,' just saying, 'This is what He wants me to do.'" It was James' third NBA championship but his first one at Cleveland, where he returned to play after winning two titles with the Miami Heat. In the last three games against the Warriors, James delivered an NBA Finals performance for the ages, … [Read more...]

By Jim Burton ATLANTA (BP) -- On a Thursday night in May 1944, my father, James "Jimmy" Warren Burton, delivered the valedictorian address on the topic of citizenship at the Owensboro High School commencement in Kentucky. "However grave the crises of the future may be," he said, "our country will pass safely through them if at all times it has the support of citizens who are loyal and intelligent and who are skilled in the arts of democratic citizenship." The next day, like scores of other 18-year-olds, he practiced his citizenship by boarding a train for basic training in the Army Air Corps. His destination eventually was Burma, via India, and China where he would serve as a cryptographer encoding and decoding messages for air base commanders. This only child was soon living in tents surrounded by mosquito nets in a land where he knew no one from home. When he eventually returned to Owensboro, the bus arrived early one morning and he took a taxi home without calling his parents. As he looked through the front door, he could see his mother stirring around. After knocking, she asked who was there. "It's me," Dad said, at which point she slung open the front door and ran through the screen door to hug him. My family's stories … [Read more...]

By Charles Billingsley, LYNCHBURG, Va. (BP) -- I'm one of the lucky ones. I was privileged enough to be raised in the home of a father who loves me and who has stayed faithful to my mom all these years. I have never known the pain of growing up in a broken home, and for that I feel very blessed. My dad is my hero. He's 75 now, and as I reflect on his life, there is one word that describes him better than any other: faithfulness. I'm reminded of his compassion as a father, his power as a preacher, his gentleness as a husband and his integrity as a man. In all things, he has remained faithful. It inspires me to do the same. But not only has my dad been faithful, he's also just "been there." Whether it was a football game to see me play running back in high school, or my first concert as a Christian artist, or my marriage to Shae, or the birth of my children, Dad has been there. I could always trust him and always had a certain level of comfort and confidence just knowing he was present. In 1976, I was 6 years old and my family lived on the road because my dad was a full-time evangelist. We were in the middle of Wyoming when we arrived at a small church for my dad to start a revival meeting. We got there and noticed the church … [Read more...]

By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner HOLLYWOOD (Christian Examiner) – If Mel Gibson is able to deliver a sequel to The Passion of the Christ, more than one resurrection may be depicted – one of Jesus on film and, the second, the director's career. Gibson's film about the crucifixion of Jesus in 2004 was a box office smash, earning $612 million worldwide, or 2,000 percent over and above the cost of the film ($30 million). It spawned a series of faith-based films, tapping into an audience that Hollywood knew was there, but neglected in favor of what studios believed was a larger audience who didn't want to see religious content. Now, Randall Wallace, who penned Braveheart for Gibson – a good, but historically less-than-accurate film – is set to write the sequel about the ministry of Christ after the resurrection. There is no word yet on what the focus of the film will be (the early days of the church in Jerusalem, the mission to the Gentiles or Roman persecution of Christians).  Wallace, who also wrote Heaven is for Real, is a logical choice for the script. He studied religion at Duke University and is fascinated by the history of the church. He told the Hollywood Reporter that he always wanted to tell the story. To read the … [Read more...]

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention proposed 22 motions, the most since 2010. Ten motions were referred to convention entities for further study and for a report at the 2017 SBC meeting in Phoenix. The Committee on Order of Business automatically referred three motions to SBC entities and/or the Executive Committee:   -- A motion by Lonnie Wilkey of Tulip Grove Baptist Church, Old Hickory, Tenn., to ask trustees of all SBC entities to consider examining their media policies, and if they do not have clearly defined guidelines, to consider establishing a policy that trustee and committee meetings be open to the public. The motion was referred to the Executive Committee and all SBC entities. -- A motion by Victoria Gurgone of Peace Church, Wilson, N.C., for the Executive Committee to consider adding a "veteran" and/or "active duty" option on the online registration form, as well as adding "veteran" and/or "active duty" to SBC name badges. The motion was referred to the Executive Committee. -- A motion by Graham Weaver of Lenexa Baptist Church, Lenexa, Kan., to encourage SBC presidents past and present through LifeWay Christian Resources to write their memoirs. The motion was referred to LifeWay … [Read more...]

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- Messengers to the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention, in addition to repudiating the display of the Confederate battle flag, approved 11 other resolutions on a variety of culture and ministry concerns. Messengers voted on the proposals over both days of the annual meeting, adopting resolutions that expressed compassion for those devastated by the Orlando mass shooting, urged consistent evangelism of unbelievers and encouraged care for refugees. They also passed measures that included calling for the federal government not to discriminate against people who support only the biblical, traditional view of marriage and opposing an effort to require women to register for the military draft. For Stephen Rummage, chairman of the Resolutions Committee, the call for Southern Baptists to evangelize was central to the 10-member panel's deliberations in presenting the 12 measures to the messengers. The resolution on evangelism "might just seem like a standard resolution for an evangelical body such as Southern Baptists to pass," Rummage said at a news conference Wednesday morning (June 15), "but really that is at the heart of everything that we talked about, including what we had to say about the Confederate flag. … [Read more...]

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- At times they raised their hands. At times they gathered together in groups of two to three. And at times thousands of messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention knelt at their chairs on Tuesday night (June 14) as they pleaded with God to bring national revival and spiritual awakening to America. In one of his final acts as SBC president, Ronnie Floyd led the convention in an evening of prayer during its annual meeting in St. Louis. "From this moment on, it will not be about personalities on the stage. It will be about Jesus, all the way," said Floyd, who has focused much of his two-year presidency on urging Southern Baptists to pray for spiritual awakening. "We're about to give Him praise. And from this moment on, I'm going to ask you to give Him your all. What if this were your last night on this earth? Wouldn't you want to give it all to Jesus and be ready?" Floyd noted that Southern Baptists had thousands at First Baptist Church of Orlando who were, at that time, praying desperately for their city. "Orlando is a lot more desperate tonight than they were before this tragedy," Floyd said. "But why should it take a tragedy to make us desperate for God?" Praying for spiritual leaders Matt Chandler, … [Read more...]