Church Perseveres to Embrace People Group
by Paige Turner SOUTHEAST ASIA (BP) -- They sat on the floor of a home in a "T" people fishing village with their eyes fixed on the pastor from North Carolina. The men and women appeared to listen intently as he shared from Genesis how God created the earth. The group...
The Math Behind NAMB’s Send North America Strategy
By Kevin Ezell Southern Baptists are blessed with many resources and we are grateful for every dollar churches send to us for missions and ministry in North America. But at the end of the day we receive a finite amount of funding and we must prioritize spending. When...
What Is a Church Planting Movement?
The following is taken from David Garrison's book, Church Planting Movements. What Is a Church Planting Movement? In 1998, the International Mission Board's Overseas Leadership Team adopted a vision statement: We will facilitate the lost coming to saving faith in...
Cuban Christians ready to take Gospel to ‘ends of the earth’
By Thiago Molina During the past 20 years, God has poured out His Spirit across the island nation of Cuba until there are no longer enough churches to hold all the believers. In fact, Cuba is seeing one of the most rapid rates of church growth in the world. This...
The Top Ten Attitudes of Healthy, Long-term Pastors
By Thom Rainer In an earlier post, I shared the top traits of pastors who had long-term and mostly joyous ministries at one church. Another key insight I learned from these pastors is how they think. The first article, therefore, dealt mostly with their actions. This...
BCI Women’s Retreat “How sweet He is”
By Joni Wilkinson, WMU Coordinator “You will make known to me the path of life; In your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Psalm 16:11 On October 3-4, 2014, fifty-nine ladies, representing seventeen Iowa Baptist churches...
Is independence a sign of maturity for a state convention?
By Tim Lubinus, BCI Executive Director/Treasurer You may have heard of the three self’s church indicator to show when a church has been fully established. The self’s are self-governing (not led by outside entities), self-supporting (not funded by outside entities),...
GuideStone rooted in Cooperative Program
EDITOR'S NOTE: O.S. Hawkins, president of GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, writes about the significance of the Cooperative Program to the viability of the SBC's financial services entity. October is Cooperative Program Emphasis Month...
Friendship Center Offers Ministry Coaching
Jon and Mindy Jamison of the Baptist Friendship Center are working toward developing an intentional coaching program to aid churches in developing or re-configuring their Community Ministries. The specifics are still in the works, but the skeleton will look something...
Budget values? Follow the money…
By Tim Lubinus, BCI Executive Director/Treasurer In our culture money is highly valued and often fall is budget time for churches and other organizations. In some cases rhetoric replaces reality in budget discussions. The advice to” follow the money” is helpful when...
