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Responding to the Historic Flooding in Montana
RED LODGE, MT – When the waters of Rock Creek began to surge across its banks into homes and businesses in Red Lodge, Montana, the members of the Church of the Rockies began to respond. At first, it was neighbor helping neighbor, checking on one another and offering aid. Then, the Red Cross arrived. The church family quickly began to volunteer to be the hands and feet for this relief organization. They began preparing and delivering meals, distributing supplies and helping coordinate the response. The church also has a benevolence fund and they too began to meet immediate needs.
Pastor Justin Carter said, “I’m so proud of the way our church has responded. Every day, I’m hearing new stories of how church members have served the people of Red Lodge. It’s amazing. The church immediately reached out to community leaders to offer our facility to be an emergency shelter. We made a few meals, but quickly realized that coordinating with the Red Cross was our niche. Working together, we have had the greatest impact.”
In the next few days, coordination with the Disaster Relief Unit of the Utah Idaho Convention and our Missouri Baptist partners began to take place. A Missouri shower unit that had been assigned to Lee Merck for summer ministry in Bozeman was redeployed. Then, a team from Utah Idaho arrived to coordinate “mud out” crews. As basements have been cleaned out, the team offers to spray them with “Shockwave” to kill bacteria and mitigate against mold forming. As these homes dry out, they will be ready to rebuild. The team has had opportunity to pray with flood victims, exchange stories, and be a source of hope and encouragement.
This is excerpted from a longer article by Darren Hales, Church Strengthening Team Leader for the Montana Southern Baptist Convention. Here is the link to the complete article published 6/30/2022
Candidates for next SBC President share their vision for the future
Three candidates for next SBC President are hosted in a discussion forum at FBC Keller, TX
KELLER, TX- First Baptist Church of Keller, TX hosted a presidential forum on May 4th. Three of the candidates who will be nominated for SBC president at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention when it gathers in Anaheim in June made themselves available on the platform. This forum was livestreamed on ACTS2 Network via their app, but you can also view it here by clicking the link to FBC Keller’s website.
https://fbckeller.org/events/sbcam-conference
Hear the candidates’ answers on how to encourage evangelism and missions, what they would prioritize, and how best to navigate denominational and cultural challenges in coming months. This event was hosted by Joe Wooddell and Tony Richmond of First Baptist Church Keller.
In addition to the on-demand option to view this forum, Baptist Press published three articles (linked below) that contain specific interviews with each candidate. The order these articles were published were alphabetical and are not, in any way an endorsement or priority ranking of each candidate. Neither Baptist Press, nor Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention, nor any member of their respective staffs will take a position on any of the men who have made their names available to be nominated for president of the SBC or any other leadership office within the convention. We make these resources available simply to educate and inform churches and leaders in our convention to help them make the most informed decision they can when it comes time to vote at our 2022 Annual Meeting in Anaheim.
Tom Ascol, senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/an-interview-with-tom-ascol/
Bart Barber, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/an-interview-with-bart-barber/
Robin Hadaway, senior professor of missions at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/an-interview-with-robin-hadaway/
SBC EC Presidential Search Team issues Call to Prayer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—The team tasked with searching for a new president & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee (SBC EC) is asking for prayer.
The group also has launched a 21-day prayer initiative and created a day-by-day guide to encourage specific prayers for each day the rest of the month.
“As Christians we understand that prayer is essential in our walk with Christ, and as a committee we felt it was essential to start our process with a season of prayer,” said search team Chairman Adron Robinson. “In John 15:5 Jesus says without Him we can do nothing, so to begin this assignment without seeking God’s direction would be a huge mistake.”
In addition to Robinson, the seven-member search team, appointed by the EC at its Feb. 22 meeting, includes Mollie Duddleston (Springdale, Ark.), Mike Keahbone (pastor of Lawton, First), Jeremy Morton (Woodstock, Ga.), Philip Robertson (Pineville, La.) and David Sons (Lexington, S.C.). Current EC Chairman Rolland Slade will serve in an ex officio capacity until June, when he will be replaced by a newly elected EC chair.
The prayer guide is broken into three sections—personnel, priorities and president. Keahbone stressed the importance of prayer to the team’s mission.
“I was looking through the timelines of the previous hiring processes and did not see a specific and strategic plan to call our convention to pray,” he said. “I brought it up in our first meeting and the entire team was excited to let prayer be the cornerstone of our search process. God knows the shepherd He is calling to lead us. Prayer tunes our hearts to His.”
Morton agreed that the team was united in the idea.
“We all agreed an intentional season of prayer was essential,” he said “We do not assume we can get this search ‘correct’ without God’s gracious touch. In fact, we enter this process humbly and with a sober sense of desperation. Without God’s grace, we know we won’t get it right.
“Prayer isn’t something extra we are doing. It’s the driving force of the entire process. I actually believe the more we pray, the simpler and things will be.”
The group is asking for people to people to pray for the EC trustees, staff, interim President/CEO Willie McLaurin, Vice President for Communication Jonathan Howe, the Sexual Abuse Task Force and SBC President Ed Litton.
“Every believer in our convention is impacted by this hire; therefore, all of us must join together in prayer,” Keahbone said. “My prayer is that God would unify us as a convention. There is no better unifying agent than God’s people seeking their Father’s heart.”
The group is asking Southern Baptists for help in seeking God’s provision of unity, wisdom, patience, discernment, integrity, faithfulness and accountability for the team.
“We hope that God would sanctify our hearts as a committee and as a convention,” Robinson said. “There are many things trying to divide us as a convention, but seeking God will sanctify and unify us. We want to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and work together to fulfill God’s will.
“The entire Southern Baptist Convention should join in this prayer initiative, and we hope our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world will also join this effort.”
While the team has not begun to receive applications for the position, they are asking Southern Baptists to pray the candidate is:
- Prepared to the lead the EC
- Humble
- A strong, relational and unifying leader
- Someone with Christ-like character
- A leader with compassion for the hurting and lost
- Deeply rooted in biblical conviction
- A leader committed to the Cooperative Program, the Baptist Faith and Message, SBC entities, the Great Commission and the Great Commandment
“We hope that prayer will help us walk together in unity and clarity,” Morton said. “We hope our season of prayer will encourage all Southern Baptists to join us and participate.
“We are excited and believe by faith that God has a bright future for our search process, that He has the right leader on the horizon for Southern Baptists, and that our convention will move forward and make more disciples for Jesus until He comes again. I’m praying Luke 11:13 that the Holy Spirit will fill us and help us.”
The team has encouraged people to pray from March 11-31, but anytime is a great time to start. If you plan to start on Sunday, March 20, your prayer season will conclude on April 10, Palm Sunday.
This article was republished from The Oklahoma Baptist Messenger online newspaper, with portions from SBC.net. Article originally Posted by Brandon Porter