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| 10/12/07 ARCHIVE
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October ideal time to educate members about CP missions
By Martin King, editor |
SPRINGFIELD | Since its inception in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has always had one mission—the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). To fulfill its assigned part of this divine mandate, each SBC entity, including the state, national and foreign mission agencies, made special offering appeals to the churches. This method was referred to as the “societal” approach to missions and resulted in competition among agencies, overlapping pledge campaigns, and frequent emergency appeals. Some entities took out loans to cover operating costs until pledges or special offerings were received.
In 1919, the leaders of the SBC proposed the 75 Million Campaign, a five-year pledge campaign that, for the first time, included everything — the missions and ministries of all the state conventions as well as that of the Southern Baptist Convention. Though falling short of its goals, a God-given partnership of missions support was conceived — The Cooperative Program. Since its launch in 1925, the effectiveness of CP has been dependent upon individuals, churches, state conventions, and SBC entities cooperating, working toward a common goal of sharing the gospel with every person on the planet.
Cooperative Program (CP) Missions — How it works
Simply put, it begins with every Southern Baptist who gives themselves first to God (2 Cor. 5:8). Next, out of gratitude and obedience to God for what He has done for each person commits to give back to Him, through their local church, a portion of what He provides. This is commonly called a tithe and represents ten percent of income (Lev. 27:30, Mal. 3:10).
Each SBC church decides the next step. Every year cooperating churches prayerfully decide how much of their undesignated gifts will be committed to reaching people in their state and around the world through CP Missions. This amount is then forwarded to the state baptist convention – in Illinois, the Illinois Baptist State Association.
During IBSA’s annual meeting each November, messengers from cooperating churches decide what percentage of CP Missions gifts contributed by local congregations stays in Illinois to support church starting, church strengthening and mission sending within our state. The percentage to be forwarded to the SBC for North American and international missions and ministries is also determined at this time.
Even though 20 state Baptist conventions are larger than the IBSA, only four send a larger percent of Cooperative Program gifts to the SBC than Illinois’ 42.25 percent. And, if the proposed 2008 IBSA budget is approved at the annual meeting Nov. 6-8, IBSA will increase that amount to 43 percent – which could make Illinois third among the 41 state conventions in SBC percentage!
At the SBC Annual Meeting in June, messengers from across the country decide how those gifts received from the states will be distributed among SBC entities. These gifts are used by the North American and International Mission Boards to send and support missionaries; by six SBC seminaries to train pastors and other church leaders; and address social, moral, and ethical concerns relating to our faith and families.
Fifty percent of all SBC CP gifts are sent to the International Mission Board, 23 percent is sent to the North American Mission Board, another 22 percent is divided among the six seminaries, 1.5 percent funds the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and the remaining 3.5 percent supports the operation of the SBC.
The bottom line – people around the world hear the Gospel and receive Christ.
Cooperative Program (CP) Missions — What it does
In Illinois, CP gifts are used for virtually every service we provide to our churches including lots of training in Bible teaching, evangelism, music and student ministry. It also funds 30-40 new churches every years, continues the support of 60-80 churches started in previous years, and makes possible ministry on more than 20 college campuses across the state. CP also funds mission education activities, support for mission teams, and about one-third of Illinois’ directors of missions.
Through the International Mission Board (imb.org), Southern Baptists support approximately 5,100 missionaries who are engaging more than 1,170 different people groups around the world.
New churches numbering over 1,458 are planted through the efforts of more than 5,153 North American Missionaries, whose efforts are coordinated through your North American Mission Board (namb.net) and individual state conventions.
Working together, Southern Baptists saw 836,898 new believers baptized last year!
Six Southern Baptist seminaries (Southern, Southeastern, Midwestern, Southwestern, Golden Gate, and New Orleans) educate in excess of 16,000 pastors, missionaries, and future church leaders each year.
The ERLC is dedicated to addressing social, moral, and
ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families and their faith. They also provide print resources that offer scriptural responses to the moral and ethical problems of our culture.
Although they receive no CP Missions support, LifeWay Christian Resources and the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) actively promote CP Missions in publications and missions resources.
For more information about the Cooperative Program, IBSA churches may contact Marty King at (217) 391-3109 or e-mail him at martyking@IBSA.org.
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Celebrate Pastor Appreciation Month all year
By Lisa Sergent, assistant editor |
SPRINGFIELD | Pastors are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their busy schedules include hospital visits, funerals, weddings, church visitation, community outreach, counseling members, church business meetings – in addition to giving the Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday evening sermons and many other things church members do not see. The month of October has been set aside as a time for church members to show their pastors how much they appreciate him and his work.
Sylvan Knobloch, Illinois Baptist State Association’s director of Church Staff Development, urges church members to show their appreciation and love for their pastors and ministerial staff year around, not just in October.
“One scriptural teaching is to demonstrate gratitude. The example of Jesus and the ten lepers comes to mind,” Knobloch said. In Luke 17:12-17, ten lepers were healed by Jesus and just one returned to show Him gratitude. “This month gives us as a church the opportunity to demonstrate a heart of gratitude to our pastors and staff.”
Knobloch encourages churches to provide their pastors and ministerial staff with adequate compensation for their work. This includes sabbaticals, vacations and retreats continuing education opportunities, health insurance and retirement benefits.
“The scripture teaches us to give those who serve us double honor. As we celebrate Pastor Appreciation Month many churches will be working on next year’s budget. This is a good time for us to re-evaluate our compensation packages at the church to determine if they are adequate to meet needs of those who serve us,” he said.
He also stressed the need for church members to pray for their pastors and staff. “Prayer is the most important asset we have as Christians outside of Gods word. To pray for his servant to keep him safe and put hedge of protection around him is a good practice for all of us who are followers of Christ.”
Knobloch has written a brochure sharing ways church members can honor their pastors and staff during Pastor Appreciation Month and throughout the year. He has also put together a prayer guide for church members to use when praying for their pastors.
The brochure and prayer guide are available at IBSA.org or by calling (217) 391-3126. There is no charge for either item.
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More ways to show appreciation for your pastor
By Lisa Sergent, assistant editor |
SPRINGFIELD | There are many ways church members can show their appreciation for their pastor and staff. Don’t be afraid to include his wife and family when you are making plans. They sacrifice a lot so he can be available to minister to you.
Some of those ways are monetary. Gift cards for gasoline, bookstores, restaurants and other places can help pastors on a tight budget. Long distance calling cards are great if loved ones live far away. Does he have favorite newspapers or magazines he likes to read? If so, renew his subscriptions for him.
Does your pastor have a hobby? If he likes to golf, treat him to a few rounds on the course. Does he bowl with your church league? Notice if he needs a new bag, ball or shoes. Arrangements can be made with the pro shop to purchase replacements. Whatever his hobby might be, look for ways to help him enjoy it.
Your pastor may want to attend a conference or the Southern Baptist Convention held each year in June. The 2008 convention will be close by in Indianapolis. Your congregation could work together to pay his travel, hotel, food and other conference fees.
If your church can afford to, send your pastor and his family on a vacation. It doesn’t have to be a week at Disney World – a weekend get-away to a ball game or fall festival would be great. You might also arrange for your pastor and his wife to go on a marriage retreat or cruise.
There are many ways to show your appreciation that are not monetary, but give something even more precious – church members’ time.
Members can baby sit so he can go out on a “date” with his wife. They can do lawn maintenance such as mowing the grass, trimming the shrubs and raking and bagging leaves. This winter when it snows, surprise him and shovel his driveway and sidewalk.
Offer to do household repairs, paint a room or provide appliance maintenance depending on your skill level. If you don’t have those skills, you can wash his car.
Church members might want to hold a special recognition service and dinner to honor their pastor. If members decide to do this, plan something else in addition to it. While the church is his place of worship, it is also his workplace and some time away can be a good thing.
Show your pastor how much you appreciate him all year around. Don’t wait for Pastor Appreciation Month to show him how much you value him as pastor.
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Illinois missionary: Decide to decide right
By Katherine Kipp |
HARTSWATER, South Africa | Lyndee Joe opens a bag of doughnut-like pastries and asks: “Who wants a Fat Cake?” All the Tswana middle school students raise their hands.
The International Mission Board journeyman from Chatham Baptist Church in Chatham, Ill., then shows the youngsters a syringe filled with water – but she tells them it contains deadly poison. She injects four of the Fat Cakes and says, “As soon as you eat one, you will die. Who wants a Fat Cake now?” All the children yell, “Not me, not me!”
Joe has used this object lesson to teach students in South Africa about HIV/AIDS during her two years of international cross-cultural missionary service as a journeyman. She explains to the students that while a person may look healthy, you cannot know if he or she is infected with the deadly virus. The children nod with understanding.
Joe wants to change attitudes and behaviors before another generation dies from AIDS. So the journeyman lives in Hartswater, five hours from the nearest IMB missionary, doing HIV/AIDS-prevention work. She ministers to schools in the Taung region and though initiatives of Christian Youth Outreach, started by South African Baptist worker Andrew Murray.
She partners with Murray and his wife, Ronel, in “club work,” where she does life-skills classes using Operation HIV (He Is Victorious) – patterned after True Love Waits – and Decide to Decide Right, another program that teaches abstinence. Classes deal with self-esteem, making good choices, relationships with family and friends, and how to relate to the opposite sex.
Spiritual Affliction
“There’s so much sexual immorality that happens here that these kids are affected at an early age,” Joe says. “I’m trying to get them to a better quality of life and not have to deal with the [HIV/AIDS] epidemic that has stricken this area.”
This part of Africa ranks No. 1 in AIDS-related deaths. Taung is an especially difficult area, where domestic and sexual abuse by family members is rampant. Spiritual warfare fills the region through satanic churches and traditional African ancestor worship.
But Joe pierces the darkness with God’s love. Her face lights up every time she teaches a lesson or tells a story. She loves building relationships but admits it was a struggle at first. A few months after she arrived, her journeyman partner returned to the United States, leaving Joe on her own in a country she barely knew.
“At first I was devastated that I was out in Africa by myself, and no one here knew what I [was] going through,” Joe says. “But it turned out to be a blessing. … God took that situation and turned it to glorify Him, allowing me to build relationships with people here on a deeper level.”
In August, another journeyman, Paul Weiblen, arrived in Hartswater to work with the Taung Operation HIV team.
Tswana Helpers
Joe now works with three Tswana believers and ministers through Sharon Baptist Church, a congregation in nearby Pampierstad.
“Tumelo is my big brother,” Joe says, referring to one of her work partners. “He’ll tell me, ‘You cannot do this Lyndee,’ or ‘You need to greet those people.’ Greeting is very important.
“Nonosi and Boitumelo are crazy fun – we have such a good time together. We’ll watch Nigerian movies, and I won’t understand a thing. They’ll be laughing and then they’ll start laughing at me because I don’t understand why they’re laughing.”
At St. Paul Primary School, Joe and her helpers pull students out of a classroom to play games. Afterward, they usher the excited students back inside for Joe’s Operation HIV lesson.
That afternoon, she repeats the presentation at Sebitloene Special School for special-needs students, where she leads students to act out “The Prodigal Son,” encouraging their efforts.
Joe and her team teach children biblically based sexual attitudes and provide HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention from a Christian perspective as an alternative to the promiscuity their society offers. She wants to start house churches but is still looking for that “person of peace” in Taung who will let her teach the Word of God in his or her home.
After Joe’s journeyman assignment ends in December, she says she will follow the motto her students recite daily: “You win or lose by the way you choose, so decide to decide right.”
Katherine Kipp is a student from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., who partnered with the International Mission Board to write this story. Printed courtesy of the International Mission Board’s Commission Magazine Fall 2007 issue.
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Pulling apart and pulling together
By Nate Adams, Executive Director, IBSA |
Even before I knew what the word meant, “denomination” was significantly shaping both my family and me. As a young boy, I remember my father driving to our state’s capitol for committee meetings, and eventually for responsibilities that had something to do with being a “recording secretary.” Though I didn’t understand how it all worked, I gradually learned that we embraced a certain label or brand called Southern Baptist, and that it had something to do with what we believed, and therefore the kind of church we attended.
Though I couldn’t have fully explained it then, and sometimes have trouble now, I came to understand that denomination wasn’t a negative “pushing away” like racism or bigotry, but a positive “pulling apart” into important shared beliefs. Those beliefs were compelling enough that many people wanted to protect and reinforce them. But they were unique enough that not everyone cared to do so.
What beliefs are that important? Some of my boyhood friends said it was as simple as dunking versus sprinkling. Adults would tell me there was more to denomination than that, but they rarely offered details other than to say, “Different people interpret the Bible different ways.”
Looking back, I think I understand why those simplistic answers were usually satisfactory to me. Our church spent relatively little time focusing on why we had pulled apart, and quite a bit of time focusing on why we were pulling together. If you asked me what being a Southern Baptist was about, my first answer wouldn’t have been about “interpretation.” It would have been about “cooperation.” Even that young boy could have told you that we work together with other churches to tell people all over the world about Jesus.
A few short days from now, November 6-8, Southern Baptists from all over Illinois, and from all over the nation because of our many friends and partners, will “pull together” in Springfield to celebrate one hundred years of cooperation as the Illinois Baptist State Association. If you study our history, you’ll find that in 1907 IBSA was formed primarily to “pull apart” from less conservative Baptists in Illinois. Ironically, by the 1960’s those primary reasons for pulling apart were no longer considered critical. But I like to think that, even in 1907, the primary motivation for asking, “From whom must we pull apart?” was to answer the question, “with whom can we pull together to reach the world?”
I certainly don’t want to minimize the need to sometimes “pull apart” from clear theological error or to stand steadfastly for the most faithful interpretation of the Bible possible. But in this centennial year, gratefully, let me offer you another reason to come to Springfield and celebrate next month. It is to pull together in harmony of fellowship and unity of mission and say to the world and one another that we are wholeheartedly committed to the Great Commission.
Even if it’s been awhile since you attended an IBSA Annual Meeting, even if you don’t plan to come every year, may I urge you to do whatever it takes to come and be part of that celebration of cooperation? Tuesday night we will worship with passion, be inspired from God’s word by SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman, and with a procession of banners by local association’s IBSA churches will offer their Second Century commitments to sharing Christ, starting churches, sending Christians and sacrificing cooperatively for worldwide missions causes. Inspiring music from professional gospel group “This Hope” and the BroadviewBaptistChurch choir will encourage us along the way.
Wednesday night we will join the International Mission Board in commissioning almost 75 new missionaries to the ends of the earth. President Jerry Rankin called me this past week to express his excitement in anticipation of that event, the first one ever to be held in Illinois. For many this is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Please don’t miss it!
Yes, along the way we will hear reports and elect officers and conduct business – after all we’re Baptists. But even those activities celebrate cooperation, and enable us to do more for the Kingdom than any of us could do separately.
Of necessity, interpretation sometimes requires that we pull apart, as it did in 1907. But for the sake of the Gospel, 2007 is a year to pull together. Hide Article Printer Friendly
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IBSA has been faithful for 100 years, but our work is not through
By Fred Winters, IBSA President |
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
Nine miles east of where I went to college there is the little town of Halfway. In the center of Halfway is the Halfway Baptist Church. While I am sure that there were many good people who were members of the Halfway Baptist Church, their name reminds me of the commitment level of so many Christians. There are many who name the name of Christ that are not really committed to following our Lord.
This year the Illinois Baptist State Association celebrates 100 years of faithful ministry. We have much to be thankful for. Over the last 100 years God has used Illinois Baptists in mighty ways. We have supported missionaries, cared for the hurting, started new churches and seen hundreds of thousands baptized into our Lord's Kingdom. These works have been important and truly make a difference for eternity.
I believe that in no small part we have been blessed because of our faithfulness. Faithfulness opens the doors to God's best for our lives. When we fail to follow Him, we find ourselves outside of God's plans for our lives.
Our founders paid a price for their commitment. The commitment level of those who have gone before us has made us what we are today. They had a desire to be faithful to the word of God. When others in our state had fallen into Universalism and other false doctrines, they became resolved in their commitment to truth.
We as the Illinois Baptist State Association have a unique heritage among Southern Baptist State Conventions. Our forefathers' desire to hold firm to Biblical truths, united our association. While many other state conventions were SBC simply out of geography. We chose to be out of a conviction that Biblical truths mattered.
In the book of Hebrews it tells us there are a “great cloud of witnesses,” rooting us on as we fulfill our purposes in Christ. In the last few years we have seen several of our leaders pass on into eternity. These folks have left a positive mark on the Kingdom work here in Illinois. I take comfort in the fact that these, along with many other saints, are rooting us on in our faithful service for Christ.
For 100 years we have been faithful to our beliefs and to our purpose of sharing Christ. Most of all, however, I pray, that we have been faithful to our Lord. Our continued faithfulness provides the opportunity for the next generations to experience all that God desires for them.
However, our work is not through. Today more than ever we need the Good News to be shared with a lost world. With over 8 million unsaved people in the State of Illinois, it is more vital than ever before that we are a continual light for Christ. The good fight that we have been called to continues with even greater urgency.
It has been a good 100 years. But the race has only just begun. I hope that in the years to come, others will look back and see that we have been faithful and obedient as well.
Fred Winters is completing his second year as president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and has been pastor of First Baptist Church, Maryville, for 20 years.
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