An association delegation demonstrated how a prayer walk works recently when they congregated at Ina Missionary Baptist Church.

After prayer, they walked through the streets of Ina in pairs, praying for the southern Illinois village and its residents.

When seeing a community member on the streets, the pastors stopped walking and praying, told them what they were doing and asked if they had any needs in their life for which they wanted prayer for.

Walkers also had copies of a pamphlet outlining the plan of salvation for distribution to those they saw on the walk.

Matt Frizzell, Franklin Baptist Association director of missions, explained that for several years the ministers met each Wednesday morning at the association office in Benton for prayer.

However, he said, the group decided in April “to go beyond these walls” and begin praying for the communities they serve while walking through their communities. The meeting time was shifted to Thursday.

“We have had good success,” Frizzell said. “God has blessed it. The Lord has done a lot of things that we can't see this side of heaven.”

During one walk a man in Valier was led to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

“This is what it's all about, the Great Commission - go into all the world telling them about the Savior,” Bert Mitchell, pastor of First Baptist Church of West City, said.

Most of those on the prayer walk are association pastors. However, Frizzell said the walk is not limited to pastors - anyone who is willing to walk through a community and pray is welcome.

Roland Fisher of Christopher is a layman who has been a regular on the walks.

“It’s a way of reaching the lost,” Fisher said.

The prayer walk has blessed an entire congregation. Frizzell said First Baptist Church of Sesser had a difficult time in calling a pastor. However, during a prayer walk some church members came to ask for prayer in finding the right man for their congregation. The next Sunday, they called their new pastor on a 76-0 vote.

“We should not be surprised when God answers prayer,” Frizzell said.

Dale Burzynski, pastor of Ina Missionary Baptist Church, said the walk gives pastors “an opportunity to meet people they’ve never met before.”

“I believe it pleases God,” is why Ron Knox, pastor of Royalton First Baptist Church, said he participates in the walk. “God says you don’t have because you don’t ask and He tells us we are to pray without ceasing.”

He said the prayer walkers are planting seeds and may never see the fruit of their prayers in this life. “We’re obedient and God takes over.”

“I enjoy the expectation that God is going to honor these prayers and souls are going to be saved,” Jim Ebbs, a retired minster from Royalton, said.

Ebbs pointed out another benefit of the prayer walk is that it helps encourage those praying to be “in unity in the Holy Spirit. We need unity as much as we need souls to be saved. These churches have a real unity of purpose.”

The three to four minute long videos are part of the IMO promotion kits that were mailed to churches in early August. They are designed to be easily shown during the announcement or offertory time of a worship service.

Churches may also schedule them during a special prayer meeting or study, or show them to individual Sunday School classes or mission groups.  The videos are also available for preview and download at IBSA.org.

The suggested dates for this year’s IMO emphasis are September 13-20 although churches need to plan prayer and offering dates that fit their own schedules.  The goal of the Offering is $390,000.

Following are brief descriptions of each video.

Starting Hispanics Churches in Illinois
Bob Evaul served as a missionary in Bolivia for 18 years.  When he moved back to the U.S., he found Southern Illinois a mission field wide open for reaching Hispanics with the gospel.  Listen to how three associations and IBSA work together to start churches among a people group hungry for a relationship with the Savior.

Reaching Illinois College Students
Zach Weihrach isn’t reaching thousands of students at Blackburn College in Carlinville, but he is sharing Christ and ministering to the 500 students on this central Illinois campus.  Hear Zach’s heart for reaching “the next generation” in this video about the importance of this unreached people group throughout Illinois.

Overwhelming Need in North Illinois
Many areas of Illinois with the largest populations of lost people have the smallest number of SBC churches to share the gospel.  That’s why the Illinois Missions Offering is used to support associational directors of missions like J. Hail in Rockford. See and hear how he helps the churches in North Central Association witness and minister among overwhelming need.

Missions in Illinois
IBSA executive director Nate Adams expresses appreciation for gifts to the IMO, explains the four main ways IBSA uses the Offering, and suggests a simple way to pray for missions in Illinois.

For additional copies of the DVD call (217) 391-3116 or e-mail IllinoisMissionsOffering@IBSA.org. The videos can also
be downloaded from the IBSA website at IBSA.org.

However, submission is an essential ingredient for someone who is “living like a missionary.” Priscilla Lindsay, wife of pastor Steve Lindsay of Calvary Baptist Church, has made her life a practice of submission as she serves her Lord, her family, and her community.

“In and of myself, I am an unworthy vessel, but as I submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, He makes me pure and holy and able to be and do all that I ought,” she says.

Lindsay began to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 8, when she accepted Him as her Savior at a Good News Club, an evangelistic after-school program hosted by Child Evangelism Fellowship. Her life has been an effort of submission since that time. She has served the Lord in Illinois, Missouri, and South Dakota.

Priscilla was born into a Christian home, and her family attended church every week in her hometown of Elgin, Ill. So, when she accepted Christ at the age of 8, she was a ‘seed in fertile soil,’ she said. She lived in her hometown of Elgin until she met and married Steve Lindsay, who was attending Bible college after being called by God into full-time ministry.

“I considered long and hard the fact that I would become a pastor’s wife, and I didn’t even know what that entailed then,” says Lindsay, “But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

The Lindsays served the Lord in Illinois at Grace Southern Baptist Church in Virden, Ill. and Fellowship Baptist Church in Vienna, Ill., except for the four years they spent in Missouri, where Steve pastored while attending Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City. Priscilla Lindsay also took a year of seminary classes while being a wife and mother of three.

God’s call to Rapid City, S.D., was somewhat of a surprise, Lindsay said. After 25 years of marriage and watching all three children grow up and leave home, Priscilla submitted to God’s will for her husband and herself and agreed to the move. God gave Priscilla a verse of scripture as they made the move from Illinois to South Dakota:

So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done’ – Luke 17:10.

“This verse was one of many given me by God in our journey to South Dakota,” says Lindsay. “I am not to be doing what I think is right, but I must continually evaluate my thoughts, actions, and words through the filter of God’s Word, and readjust my life to His ways and will, knowing that when I fail, His love and grace covers.”

Steve Lindsay is now the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Rapid City, and Priscilla serves the Lord as pastor’s wife. She also serves as children’s Sunday School director, fifth- and sixth-grade Sunday school teacher, mission team member and women’s enrichment team member at Calvary.

She also is a “Surrendering the Secret” Bible study facilitator, which is a Bible study for women who have experienced the trauma of abortion to find the healing and love of Jesus Christ. One more: Priscilla is recording secretary for the Dakota Baptist Convention’s Women’s Missionary Union – WMU.

“The ‘jobs’ I have at church do not define who I am, but my relationship to Christ gives me the power to be a witness,” she explains.

Henry Blackaby’s study, Experiencing God, has had a tremendous impact on the way Priscilla relates to God and others, she said. She tries to live by the biblical principles taught in that Bible study, she explained.

“To me, living like a missionary means to be completely surrendered to Christ, allowing Him to have full access to my life every day,” Priscilla said. “It also means that I am a sinner saved by grace. I am mindful that I am weak, but as Psalm 73:26 says, ‘My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’”

God has strengthened Lindsay to submit her life totally to Him, Priscilla said. She and her husband, Steve, recently celebrated 27 years of marriage. Their daughters, Rachel and Naarah, serve the Lord with their husbands in their local churches. Their son, Ethan, is a junior in college, majoring in landscape design. The Lindsays have one grandson, Caden, who is eight months old.

Reprinted with permission from the Dakota Baptist newspaper.

Through the Christmas in August mission project Southern Baptists send North American missionaries like Lau gifts they need to assist in their ministries. The North American Mission Board chooses the Christmas in August missionaries, and the missionaries list the items they wish to receive. Information and lists of the missionaries are carried in WMU magazines.

The first Christmas in August was a project of the Sunbeam Band of the First Baptist Church of Charlottesville, Va. in 1927.  The Sunbeams embarked on the project after hearing a missionary to China share her desire for the children she ministered to know the joy of Christmas.  The focus shifted to North American missionaries in the late 1930s.

All Nations Baptist Church ministers to international students, scholars and their children at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

According to Lau, “Our children’s program team of teachers shows their love for the international children, and therefore touches many lives through Bible stories, songs, and crafts. Many children come from their countries to our church without speaking English. Several months later, when they have to return to their home countries, some are in tears with having to leave their beloved teachers.”

Lau’s gift list includes: beads and bead plates and stencils; children’s scissors; colored construction paper; foam cutouts: flowers, animals, etc.; folders; juice boxes; large lunch bags; markers (washable and permanent); miscellaneous craft materials: goggle eyes, buttons, pompom balls, etc.; napkins; origami papers; paper clips; paper cups/plates; paper: assorted colors (bond and card stock); pencils; plastic tape; ribbons; snacks; staplers/staples; stickers and achievement stars stickers; tablets (white and college rule); white cloth bags with handles; white glue/glue sticks; $10 gift cards from Wal-Mart.

Unwrapped gifts should be sent to: Pastor Lawson Lau, All Nations Baptist Church, 600 East Pennsylvania Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801. Lau may be contacted at llau@parkland.edu or (217) 367-5924.

For more information about Christmas in August and its history, visit wmu.org.

Arkansas pastor Ronnie W. Floyd, task force chairman, released a statement August 1 to three state Baptist newspapers including The Illinois Baptist “calling upon all Southern Baptist Christ followers to visit Pray4GCR.com to pray for a Great Commission Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention.

On this website, you can join us in becoming a Prayer Partner.”

Floyd’s statement called on Southern Baptists to pray for the 23 members of the GCR Task Force and for “God’s leadership to be upon them mightily, making His direction clear for them.”

He also requested supporters to pray a “Great Commission Resurgence to occur in my life, my church, and through the 50,000 churches and missions in our Convention (and) in the leaders of and through the entities of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

The site includes a list of task force members and an ongoing list of those who have registered to pray, as well an avenue for Southern Baptists to share their “vision and encouragement to the GCR Task Force.”  Floyd said the task force will write a weekly blog, and can be followed on Facebook at Pray4GCR and on Twitter at pray4gcr.

“We cannot accomplish the task entrusted to us without a groundswell of prayer support.  Surely thousands will join in prayer together,” Floyd said.  “I know Southern Baptists love the Great Commission and will want to join us in praying for this resurgence.  The urgency of the hour calls us to pray.”

Floyd acknowledged the task force has been entrusted with a great responsibility saying, “I can assure all Southern Baptists that our final report will reflect the boldest visionary dreams of Southern Baptists to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“We are ready to get busy with bold thinking, hard questions, fervent prayer, and big dreams.  The world is waiting to see how serious we are.  I can tell you that this task force is ready to get to work.  This is why we are asking you to join us by signing the prayer partner list, and sharing it with your friends and family members across the world.”

This summer I’m reflecting on God’s goodness as I mark 35 years as pastor of the Armitage Baptist Church in this world-class city, Chicago. When I began, there was no path. I marvel at supernatural strength for every step. I ponder God’s grace for the race. My mind flits to my preacher father, 58 years the pastor of Ashburn Baptist here in the Chicago area. What an example!

Exodus 23 comes to mind. God gave me this passage in 1980 when we were trying to buy this big old Masonic Temple. We sealed the deal in '81, and are still sanctifying it. In verse 20, God is telling Moses and the people He will send an angel before them. Then He says He will bring them to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the termites ... you remember the passage. I understood the passage to say God would lead us to the enemy, to His enemies, in order to show His power over them.

God led us to face the gangs. In fact, we took over their headquarter corner when we bought this building. Every night 25 guys would be hanging out on our front steps. I spotted their former chief a couple of weeks ago, praising God on our front row. God led us to an eyeball-to-eyeball facedown with the Chicago political machine. We stood, they stumbled and backed away.

Oh yes, “through many dangers toils and snares ....”

I think of the days when my back problems wouldn’t even let me walk and then would only let me walk but not run. A ritual has evolved. As I begin my run, I think of the blessing of being able to run again. I lift my hands above my head, like a crazy man. You know, like the winner breaking the tape, only the passing traffic sees no tape and no other runners, just a skinny white man running down the parkway with his arms in the air and his lips moving. I’m thanking God for letting me run one more day, praising Him for His goodness and faithfulness, all these years – and miles – later.

Today I want to yell over my shoulder to all you servants behind me, running at the two-year mark, the eight-year mark, 17 years, 26 years, 34 years. God is good. He’s faithful. Oh, He will test you to grow you. He’ll turn up the fire to purify you. He’ll stretch you to within an inch of your life. But He will never, ever leave you. He’s running with you right now.

Many days when I thought I was trudging sluggishly, the fancy-shmancy sport tool my staff gave me told me I was running at a stronger, faster pace than it felt like. So many times, getting up to preach my third or fourth message of the day, I thought, “I’m not getting the job done.” A couple of months ago on a Sunday night, I asked all the men who were called to preach to come and sit in the front. About 20 guys came and filled the front row.

I’ve failed Him; He’s never failed me. I want to holler back to all those coming up behind me: “When you don’t think you can run one more mile, you can do all things through Christ. When you think you can’t go one more step, you don’t have one more sermon in you, one more service, one more counseling session, one more deacon’s meeting, not one more Bible study in you ... when you don’t have one more tear, when you just know one more family leaving will break you, remember they that wait upon the LORD will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not faint. The race is not given to the swift. Your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

He may not come when you want, but He’s always on time.

Charles Lyons is senior pastor of Armitage Baptist Church in Chicago.

Mullinax, a native of Georgia, told The Illinois Baptist, he did not seek the position with the Georgia Baptist Convention, but was contacted by the convention’s Vice President of Sunday School and Evangelism.  He and his wife, Jeanne, bathed the decision in prayer he said. “We wanted to make the only answer we could possibly give to the question of leaving IBSA to be one of obedience,” said Mullinax.

Mullinax came to IBSA in December 2006 from HighlandAvenueBaptistChurch in Robinson, Ill. where he had pastored since 2003.  Prior to that, he pastored FirstBaptistChurch in Mt. Carmel, Ill. for 11 years.  He also served on the IBSA Executive Board and as chairman of the Historical and Church Mobilization Committees.

His final day at IBSA will be August 31.