TIJUANA, Mexico (BP)—David Slabodenko speaks with urgency, running on about three hours of sleep each night as he organizes church volunteers to greet hundreds of Ukrainian refugees a day in Tijuana, Mexico, and get them to safety in the U.S.

Once in California, Russian Baptist Church in West Sacramento will spearhead sheltering the refugees, welcoming as many as possible into family homes, and then in temporary shelters in buildings at the church that draws about 2,700 Russian and Ukrainian worshippers on Sundays.

“We’re not able. It’s not enough,” Slabodenko said. “In Sacramento, we have around 200,000 Slavic people who speak Russian and Ukrainian, but we’re not going to be able to take all these people in. So, we’re trying to get American churches also involved. I just want to tell you guys, this is the time to open our hearts, to open our minds and just help these people.

“One man called me (from Ukraine) crying. He said: ‘David, please help me. Today, my son just got killed, and all I have left from him is his hand and feet. And I don’t want to be here anymore. Please help me. Help me to get to U.S.’”

Russian Baptist Church is working with increasing urgency as President Joe Biden opens the U.S. border to as many as 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, as Biden announced March 24.

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission began urging the U.S. government two weeks ago to receive Ukrainian refugees. In a March 11 letter, the ERLC asked the Biden administration to work to secure religious freedoms in Ukraine, to support other countries in resettling displaced Ukrainians and to rebuild the U.S. refugee resettlement program.

“We welcome this action by the president, as it is something we have directly advocated for with the administration,” Leatherwood told Baptist Press. “It is a solid initial step toward aiding Ukrainian refugees who are fleeing from the terror being inflicted on their country by Vladimir Putin. Our hope is that this will lead to further action, including increased funding and support to rebuild our nation’s ailing refugee programs.”

Some church members open homes

Some members of Russian Baptist Church already have received refugees into their homes, Senior Pastor Mikhail Avramenko said. He’ll assess how many refugees are already being sheltered among congregants and provide a registration process March 27 for congregants to indicate how many refugees they can house.

“We’re going to accept them in our families first,” he said. “And then we’ll open our gym and our second building and our classrooms to convert them to temporary living facilities. We can (house) maybe 200 people. But we don’t have this plan settled, because we think maybe end of March, there’s going to be influx of people coming to Sacramento.

“Many, many people are going to come from Ukraine. And we have formed a committee, a Fast Response Help Committee. So, they are taking all kinds of requests from emails, texts, phone calls from Ukraine about material help, financial help and spiritual help definitely, maybe settlement help.”

At least 3.4 million Ukrainians have fled the country in the past month, the United Nations said March 25, and millions more are displaced internally.

“It brings awareness that we are children of one God,” Avramenko said. “We are all under one God, no matter what ethnicity you are. In our church, we have like 26 different nationalities. The majority, I would say, they are Russian speaking,” he said, with many coming from former Soviet republics.

bout 300 refugees, overwhelmingly Ukrainians but a few Russians, are arriving in Tijuana daily, sometimes hoping to rest before crossing the Mexico-U.S. border, Slabodenko estimated.

“We’re receiving around 300 people every day in Tijuana. We’re trying to find volunteers to go to Tijuana airport and just meet people,” he said. “Right now, these families, they’re coming with kids—five, 12, nine kids—which we’re trying to find volunteers, send them to Tijuana, and literally bring them from the airport to the border line.

“The first thing we need to do with these people is to greet them and calm them down. We just need to tell them that everything is fine. ‘In a few hours you’re going to be in U.S. Don’t worry,’” Slabodenko said. “Because there’s also a lot of bad people meeting people. They’re charging them money (for help). They’re trying to do evil stuff.”

Many of the families are intact, having left in the days before the Russian invasion when men under 60 were free to leave the country.

Iglesia Bautista, a congregation in Rosarita, Mexico, is helping the California church respond to refugees in Tijuana through a longstanding church-planting and missions partnership. Several smaller Slavic churches are also helping Russian Baptist Church resettle refugees, Slabodenko said, but his group of volunteers in Mexico was only six people and a few cars strong March 25.

Russian Baptist Church will send a shipment of supplies to Europe March 26 to aid Ukrainian refugees, has sent 100 Russian-language Bibles to Mexico for refugees and before the invasion, launched an English as a Second Language class in West Sacramento.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP)—Former International Mission Board missionary Wade Akins has announced he intends to nominate fellow former IMB missionary Robin Hadaway for Southern Baptist Convention president at the upcoming 2022 SBC annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

Hadaway becomes the third announced candidate for the office. Florida pastors Willy Rice and Tom Ascol already have been announced as candidates.

Hadaway began his ministry career as pastor of churches in California and Arizona before serving with the IMB on the field in Africa and South America.

While on the field, he was involved in church planting in Tanzania, starting churches among unreached peoples in Northern Africa and directing church planting efforts in Eastern South America.

During his stint in South America, Hadaway served as a regional leader for the IMB leading more than 300 missionaries in the region.

“Robin Hadaway has a passion for missions, evangelism and church planting,” Akins told Baptist Press. “He believes thousands of Southern Baptists—men and women, pastors and laypersons—need to drop what they are doing and seek a career in home and foreign missions.”

Akins also said, if elected, Hadaway would strive to “see 1,000 new WMU chapters started,” saying “WMU has the backs of our missionaries by providing what’s often lacking—prayer and financial support.”

Nearly two decades at seminary

Following his time with IMB, Hadaway spent nearly two decades at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as a professor of missions and serving in a variety of administrative roles including interim president, dean of students, vice president for institutional initiatives, interim CFO and interim administrative vice president.

Prior to his call to ministry, Hadaway served four years in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot attaining the rank of captain, worked as military air traffic controller and finished his career as an administrative officer.

Hadaway previously served on the 2000 SBC credentials committee, the 2005 and 2006 SBC resolutions committees, the 1981 local arrangements committee and the planning committee for the 1984 Baptist World Alliance meeting in Los Angeles.

Hadaway and his wife, Kathy, returned to California after he retired from residential teaching a year ago. He now serves as Midwestern Seminary’s senior professor of missions and resides in Oceanside, Calif.

The Hadaways are members of New Song Community Church in Oceanside. According to its Annual Church Profile statistics, New Song reported 26 baptisms in 2021, undesignated receipts of $1,648,176.96 and giving through the Cooperative Program of $16,750.02 (1.02 percent of undesignated receipts).

Hadaway is a graduate of the University of Memphis, has a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gateway Seminary as well as a Doctor of Theology degree from the University of South Africa. He and Kathy have three children and two grandchildren.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Two preachers known for their claims that the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is becoming too liberal will be nominated for top roles in the Southern Baptist Convention.

In a statement that blasted SBC leaders for abandoning biblical truth and embracing “radical feminism” and “Race Marxism,” a group of Baptist pastors and professors announced plans to nominate Tom Ascol, president of Founders Ministries and pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., for SBC president.

The same group also plans to nominate best-selling author Voddie Baucham, a former pastor and dean at African Christian University in Zambia, to lead the SBC Pastors’ Conference.

The statement, posted on the conservative website Capstone Report, said Ascol and Baucham will help turn the SBC away from “wokeness” and back to the Bible and criticized Baptist leaders who worry that the “world is watching” how Baptists behave.

“But we believe that God is watching, that he alone defines our terms and sets our agenda,” the statement read. “And God is not woke.”

A number of signatures on the statement belong to leaders of the Conservative Baptist Network, which has been critical of current SBC leadership. Among the CBN leaders signing the statement are Lee Brand, the current first vice president of the SBC and a seminary professor; Mark Coppenger, a retired SBC theology professor; Brad Jurkovich, pastor of First Baptist Church in Bossier City, La.; Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor and defeated SBC presidential candidate; and Ronnie Rogers, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Norman, Okla.

Carol Swain, a retired professor and conservative commentator, and East Texas pastor Tom Buck of Lindale, a conservative social media agitator, also signed the statement.

Ascol joins Florida Baptist pastor Willy Rice as potential candidates for SBC president. Candidates for SBC president are nominated during the denomination’s annual meeting.

Current SBC President Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor, announced earlier this month he will not seek a second one-year term in office—the first time an SBC president has not served a second term in 40 years.

Baucham a critic of social justice

The nominations of Baucham, author of Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, and Ascol, who has produced videos critical of the SBC, are the latest salvo in the “woke wars” being waged in the SBC and other evangelical groups.

A group of vocal critics in the SBC sees attempts to address racial injustice or other social ills as antithetical to the Christian gospel—in messaging that parallels that of Republican leaders and former President Donald Trump.

Ascol told The Daily Wire, a conservative media company co-founded by Ben Shapiro, his concerns and the concerns of his church about the SBC long have been ignored.

“We’re told, you know, there’s nothing to see here. You’re meddling in business that doesn’t pertain to you,” he said.

Ascol has gained a higher profile in the SBC for his opposition to a resolution on critical race theory that passed during the SBC’s 2019 annual meeting. Ascol’s 2021 campaign to rescind that resolution failed.

‘Liberal drift’ in conservative SBC?

Stone, who narrowly lost the 2021 election for SBC president to Litton, posted a note on social media endorsing Ascol.

Since losing the election, Stone has missed a number of high-profile meetings of the SBC’s Executive Committee, where he is a trustee and former chairman. He also blamed Russell Moore, former head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, for his loss and sued Moore for libel. That lawsuit later was withdrawn.

Like Ascol, Stone has long been critical of what he sees as a liberal drift in the SBC.

“Tom is a pastor, a preacher, a writer and a staunch advocate for conservative Bible principles,” Stone wrote on Twitter.

Ascol told Religion News Service in an interview last year he believes SBC churches have been shaped more by pragmatism than by the Bible in recent decades. As a result, he said, SBC churches are filled with people who think they are Christians but really aren’t.

“We still have churches filled with unregenerate people,” said Ascol, whose ministry produced a documentary that criticized former SBC Bible teacher Beth Moore and former SBC President James Merritt of bringing the “Trojan horse of social justice” into the denomination.

Baucham not member of SBC church

In recent weeks, rumors that Baucham would be nominated for SBC president circulated on social media. Baucham has confirmed those rumors but said he was not likely eligible to be SBC president because he is not technically a member of an SBC church.

Though he is the former pastor of an SBC church and was sent as a missionary by that church, Baucham is a member of a church in Zambia.

According to the SBC’s constitution, “Officers of the convention, all officers and members of all boards, trustees of institutions, directors, all committee members, and all missionaries of the convention appointed by its boards shall be members of Baptist churches cooperating with this convention.”

“I have indeed been asked to accept a nomination for SBC president. While I am honored to have been asked, I am not sure I am eligible,” Baucham said in March, according to Christianleaders.com.

Elections for the SBC Pastors’ Conference, which features a series on sermons held the two days before the convention’s annual meeting begins, are not subject to the same rules as the president of the denomination. The vote usually is held during the conference and in the past has been done by voice vote.

Baucham said if nominated as president of the Pastors’ Conference, he would focus the conference on “biblical preaching” and support Ascol.

“I would love to see a revival of great biblical preaching in the SBC,” Baucham said. “The Pastors’ Conference has the potential to play a significant part in that, especially if it is part of a larger movement that brings a man like Tom Ascol into the SBC presidency.”

Despite the success of the self-described Conservative Resurgence, which ousted more-moderate Baptists from the convention in the 1980s and 1990s and promised a golden age of evangelism and growth, the SBC has seen significant decline in recent years. The denomination lost more than 2 million members since 2006, with no turnaround in sight.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Richard Ross has decades of experience when it comes to student ministry. And today, he’s observing a troubling trend.

“My church celebrated and supported me in that decision” to enter student ministry, said Richard Ross. “I see that same dynamic happen rarely today.”

“I often hear from churches searching for student pastors,” said Ross, senior professor of student ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. “It would be a joy to provide them with names of potential candidates. But the vast percentage of the time, I have no name to share.

“From my perspective, there are far more churches searching for student pastors than there are leaders available to serve. At any given moment, I expect that the total number of churches with funded positions exceeds the total number of student pastors by several thousand.”

Shane Pruitt speaks to thousands of students and their leaders in his role as National Next Gen director for the North American Mission Board. He agrees with Ross and went so far as to address it in a video last year.

“Almost every week I get phone calls from three to five local churches looking for youth pastors or college pastors,” he said. It’s always followed by asking if there is a shortage.

“I think the easy answer is ‘yes,’” he said.

Not limited to the United States

The subject isn’t relegated to the United States. “Churches are desperate for youth workers. So why can’t they find any?” asked a headline in Premiere Christianity magazine, based in the United Kingdom.

Various reasons arise. They aren’t paid nor appreciated enough. They don’t receive adequate training. They get tired of being asked when they’re going to move up to “real ministry.”

A common one is that there simply aren’t enough in the pipeline.

The church-planting emphasis over the last 12 years or so almost certainly led many young pastors to pursue that avenue who otherwise would have entered student ministry.

Ross believes many seasoned student ministers remain in their calling, but in the role of next generation or family pastor. Those titles typically expand responsibilities beyond middle and high school to include children and college students.

“Student pastors entering midlife may see family ministry or next-gen ministry as a better fit for them.” Ross said.

Russell Jackson is family pastor at Holly Creek Baptist Church in Chatsworth, Ga., transitioning to that position two years ago after serving as student pastor. He and others recently responded to questions on the topic in a private Facebook group for the Georgia Student Ministry Network. All gave permission for their comments to be used.

Jackson oversees kindergarten through college ministries at Holly Creek. Teams of volunteers work the children’s and student ministries, with Jackson focusing on collegians.

“Yes, it is a lot of areas to oversee, but I have great help and wonderful families,” he said.

Need for salary support

Several factors could lead to student ministers moving to other roles, said Jonathan Brantley, who has been a student minister in Virginia and Georgia. He currently hosts student groups at a camp in North Carolina.

Salaries can make it difficult to provide for your family, he said, “especially if they are moving into an area where houses are 60 percent more than what the average church member paid 30 years ago.”

Ross agreed. “We need to recognize that student pastors taking on new and even more important roles will need salary support,” he said. “They should not have to change jobs only because they cannot afford braces and trombones for their growing families.”

A perspective that student ministry is the “junior league” can also wear you down, Brantley said.

“Well-meaning people asked me all the time when I was going to be a ‘real’ pastor or made comments like it must be the life to play video games and go to schools and theme parks for a living,” he said.

“Guys and other staff often got forgotten during pastor appreciation month, staff anniversaries, etc. It’s usually the senior pastor who’s remembered.”

Southern Baptist seminaries offer instruction that, even if it doesn’t explicitly say “student,” nevertheless includes training in church leadership or other areas that can be extended to student ministry. Ross still sees a problem, though.

“A growing number of SBC colleges no longer offer degrees or even specific courses in student ministry,” he said. “The majority of SBC seminaries no longer have fulltime faculty teaching student ministry. Almost all state conventions have reduced the number of staff that are out training future and current student pastors. The same is true in the SBC agencies.”

‘Muted focus’ on calling out the called

He also pointed to “a muted focus” on calling teens and collegians to vocational ministry, citing what he admitted was anecdotal evidence of fewer sermons, altar calls and Bible sessions dedicated to such callings.

“My church celebrated and supported me in that decision,” he said. “I see that same dynamic happen rarely today.”

There is evidence for a return to identifying and training the next crop of student pastors.

“I am so thankful that the messengers to the 2021 SBC annual meeting affirmed a Vision 2025 goal in this direction,” Ross said. Strategic Action 3 in Vision 2025 specifies “calling out the called” and increasing the total number of workers in the field.

“We need senior pastors to articulate from the pulpit how strategic and valuable the calling to be a student pastor is today,” Ross said. “We need parents sensing pride when a child of theirs hears God’s leadership in that direction.”

That responsibility also rests on those who should have the strongest clarity on the need for student ministers.

“Those leading our seminaries, colleges, state conventions and agencies are becoming aware that the future of our churches, and even the denomination, depends on our ability to evangelize, baptize, disciple and send out the next generation,” he said.

“That sobering realization should lead to increasing, rather than decreasing, those who are training and supporting student pastors.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—Guidepost Solutions is drafting its final report based on an investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse complaints.

“Of note, Guidepost has begun drafting its final report, including its independent recommendations, in preparation for the publication of the full report and recommendations prior to the SBC Convention in Anaheim in June 2022,” the Sexual Abuse Task Force said in the March 11 update.

Guidepost investigators have met with Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission leaders and are reviewing archived ERLC documents, the task force said.

The ERLC interviews and document reviews were “within the scope of the EC investigation process,” Task Force Chairman Bruce Frank, pastor of Asheville, N.C.-area Biltmore Church, told Baptist Press.

An additional 12 interviews are scheduled with Executive Committee current or former trustees, and Guidepost is in the process of contacting 22 additional trustees, according to the update. The research will add to information received in 133 interviews already conducted with trustees.

Guidepost already interviewed about 170 current and former Executive Committee trustees and employees.

“These interviews are essential in conducting a full, fair, and comprehensive investigation and assessment,” the task force said. “The interviews also provide an opportunity for interviewees to offer recommendations and provide feedback as to how the SBC EC can create a safer community going forward.”

With more than five terabytes of data collected, Guidepost has continued to meet with survivors who contacted Guidepost to provide information, has received remaining documents requested from former Executive Committee external legal counsel Guenther, Jordan & Price law firm and has reviewed Executive Committee presidential papers and ERLC documents on file at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, the task force reported.

Guidepost had received approximately 4,230 documents from Guenther, Jordan & Price as of its Feb. 8 update. The law firm, which held a long-term role as legal counsel for the SBC EC, severed its relationship with Southern Baptists shortly after the EC voted to waive attorney-client privilege in the investigation.

“Additional updates will be forthcoming as the investigation proceeds,” the task force said in its update.

As messengers to the 2021 SBC annual meeting voted, Guidepost must submit its report to the task force at least a month before the 2022 SBC annual meeting. The task force will review it and release it publicly in advance of the 2022 meeting in June.

PARMA, Ohio (BP) – No es necesario tener una conexión personal con el país de Ucrania para orar por él. Pero para muchos bautistas del sur, la invasión y los combates en curso en ese país lo han convertido en algo personal.

Esas oraciones se elevaron en las afueras de Cleveland en la Capilla Mercy Hill, una congregación bautista del sur que ofrece sermones en ucraniano e inglés. El mensaje del pastor Oleh Zhakunets del 27 de febrero se basó en el libro de Mateo y no se refirió directamente a su país natal. Pero es evidente, dijo, que la situación en Ucrania nunca está lejos de la mente de los congregantes.

“Yo lo describiría como una atmósfera ‘pesada’ en la iglesia ahora mismo. Y aunque lo que prediqué ayer no era especialmente sombrío, había un lenguaje o unos términos que afectaban a la gente y la hacían pensar en Ucrania,” dijo.

Zhakunets tenía cuatro años en 1988 cuando él, su hermano y sus padres escaparon de la antigua Unión Soviética en una pequeña camioneta, y se dirigieron a Austria y luego a Italia. Su padre ayudó después a escapar a otros miembros de la familia. Finalmente se unieron a otros que se establecieron en Cleveland.

Tiene familiares en Ucrania, pero pasa la mayor parte del tiempo en contacto con sus colaboradores. La confusión contribuye a la tensión, ya que los diferentes informes de los medios de comunicación pueden ofrecer distintas imágenes de la situación.

“Están tratando de saber qué creer, y lo que crees afecta la forma en que reaccionas,” dijo. “Algunos se van con sus familias, pero otros debaten sobre si deben quedarse. Otros luchan por saber cómo debe involucrarse la iglesia. ¿Deben tomar las armas? Todo eso se está procesando.”

Frank y Suzanne Bennett se vincularon a Ucrania cuando adoptaron a dos hermanos y una hermana de un orfanato de ese país en 2012. Bennett es pastor de la Lake Pointe Church en Emerson, Georgia.

“Se nos rompe el corazón por todo lo que está pasando,” dijo. “Amamos el pueblo ucraniano. Son muy ricos en familia y cultura, y muy decididos”.

Mientras predicaba en un viaje misionero al campo, recordó a un grupo de señoras mayores que habían caminado ocho kilómetros para asistir. Le impresionó su determinación y su hambre de la Palabra de Dios.

“No me sorprende en absoluto la determinación de él [Presidente ucraniano Volodymyr Zelenskyy] y del pueblo”, señaló Bennett. “Aman a su país y el mundo lo está viendo”.

Ese amor a la patria tiene un doble significado para los Bennett, que tuvieron tres hijos biológicos antes de la adopción. Uno de sus hijos ucranianos se alistó recientemente en los Marines de Estados Unidos y se hizo un nuevo tatuaje que refleja la frase “quién contra nosotros” de Romanos 8:31.

“Ellos están muy orgullosos [de su herencia ucraniana]. Son estadounidenses, pero tienen doble nacionalidad”, dijo Bennett. El pastor Bogdan Kipko, de la Forward Church de Irvine (California), dirigió a su congregación en una oración por fuerza, valor y perseverancia en Ucrania, así como por seguridad en medio de las amenazas y el conflicto inminente.

“Creemos que cuando las naciones se enfurecen y los pueblos conspiran en vano, Dios, sabemos que tú tienes el control”, oró Kipkin, que emigró a Estados Unidos con sus padres – al igual que su esposa, Victoria, con los suyos – desde la antigua Unión Soviética a principios de los años 90.

“Dios, no tenemos que entenderlo todo, para confiarte todo a ti. Y por eso…te traemos al país de Ucrania en nuestras oraciones”, pidió.

El apoyo se mostró ayer no sólo en la oración, sino en el canto. En la Forest Hills Baptist Church de Nashville, Andrew Causey cantó una estrofa de “Eres mi Todo” en ucraniano, antes de que su padre, Wayne, que sirve a la iglesia como pastor asociado de música y adoración, se uniera a él en inglés. Andrew Causey es miembro de la Rocky Valley Baptist Church en Lebanon, Tennessee.

Forest Hills se ha unido al país a través del trabajo misionero y la adopción de niños de Ucrania, explicó Wayne Causey. Andrew habló de su amigo Bogdan, a quien conoció mientras hacía teatro de calle allí. A través de una aplicación de mensajes, Bogdan dijo que vería el servicio de Forest Hills.

“Quiero que Bogdan sepa que estamos orando por él mientras espera poder evacuar a su esposa”, dijo Andrew. “No ha podido volver con ella, y esta es la historia de miles [de personas]”.

“Cantarlo juntos conectó a los creyentes no sólo a través de las distancias, sino también a través de los tiempos”, añadió.

“Lo cantamos con nuestros hermanos y hermanas que han cantado y cantarán este canto”, afirmó.

Gary Chadwick, ex-alumno del Seminario Southwestern y ministro de Life.Church en Norman, Oklahoma, voló a Polonia el fin de semana para casarse con su prometida, Oksana, que salió de Ucrania en tren. Los dos se conocieron en 2019 cuando él estaba en el país haciendo trabajo misionero, algo en lo que ha estado involucrado desde 2010.

Como la embajada estadounidense en Ucrania ha sido cerrada, Chadwick dijo a BP que puede utilizar los servicios de la embajada de un país vecino, en este caso, Polonia.

Los ancianos padres y el hermano de Oksana permanecen en Ucrania, dijo Chadwick. En su ciudad, Yuzhnoukrains’k, aún no se han producido combates, pero se espera que se produzcan en cualquier momento, por ser la sede de la central nuclear del sur de Ucrania.

“La ciudad está muy tensa”, dijo Chadwick. “Su padre fue militar durante gran parte de su vida, y carpintero”.

“Estoy dolida y triste”, añadió Oksana. “Estoy enfadada, viendo cómo le pasan estas cosas a mi país”.

Zhakunets coincidió en que, si bien existe la creencia de que Dios tiene el control, también hay frustración entre los ucranianos estadounidenses.

“Ellos intentan descubrir cómo ser cristianos fieles a pesar de la ira que sienten. El sentimiento más frecuente es la impotencia. La gente va a las concentraciones e intenta hacer cosas para mostrar su apoyo, pero luego llaman a sus seres queridos y se enteran de que están escondidos en sus sótanos”.

“No hay mucho que podamos hacer por nuestra cuenta”, dijo, “pero esto nos lleva al Señor y a la oración”.

Publicado el 2 de marzo de 2022 en https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/espanol/cerca-del-conflicto-los-bautistas-del-sur-se-movilizan-en-oracion-por-ucrania/

NASHVILLE (BP)—For the first time in its 130-year history, Lifeway Christian Resources will have a Black woman as trustee chair.

Lifeway trustees elected Missie Branch, assistant dean of students to women and director of graduate life at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, as chair during a special called meeting on March 8.

A member of Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, N.C., Branch began her service on the board in 2017.

“Missie’s character, commitment to the local church, and investment in tomorrow’s ministry leaders give me confidence that she’s the person to lead our board,” said Lifeway CEO Ben Mandrell. “I’m excited and thankful for her historic appointment as the first African American female to chair our board.

“Missie is a bright person with a tremendous amount of insight and an inner strength from the Lord. I believe she will be a strong, unifying leader. She is a great friend to Lifeway, and I look forward to our deepened partnership.”

Branch expressed her appreciation for the board and their trust in her to lead them well.

“I am humbled by the confidence of my fellow board members,” she said. “Leading alongside a group like ours is an honor. When asked to join the board a few years ago, I never anticipated an opportunity like this.

“I love serving an organization whose mission is directly linked to the ministry and mission of the local church. I’m determined to work with my fellow board members as we seek to honor the Lord and serve our convention.”

Branch was elected vice chair during the trustee meeting held Jan. 25. She now will fill the role vacated by Greg Kannady, who stepped down as chair due to a recent health issue. While Kannady plans to continue his service as a board member, he told trustees via email he felt it would be wise to replace him as board chair.

Trustees elected Luther McDaniel, CFO at Empirical Capital Partners, to serve as vice chair. McDaniel, who has served on the board since 2016, is a member of First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn. Ben Posey, pastor of First Baptist Church in Leroy, Ala., will continue to serve as recording secretary.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP)—John Yeats’ 25th term as recording secretary for the Southern Baptist Convention will be his last, he told Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board members at the group’s meeting March 7.

Yeats, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, was unopposed for 22 of those 25 years he was nominated for recording secretary.

As recording secretary, Yeats also served in an ex officio role on the SBC Executive Committee.

In 2011 and 2017, Yeats served at the annual meeting both as recording secretary and registration secretary in place of Jim Wells, who was absent those years due to health issues.

Yeats served 20 years as a pastor in Texas and Kansas before he became director of communications for the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana and editor of the Indiana Baptist newspaper.

From 1997 to 2005, he was editor for the Oklahoma state paper, the Baptist Messenger.

He also was director of communications and public policy for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, which included Cooperative Program promotion and working alongside state legislators.

]WASHINGTON (RNS)—On the first day of March, Ed Litton announced he will not run for a second term as president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Then he got back to work.

“I am definitely not quitting,” said Litton, an Alabama pastor who was elected for a one-year term as Southern Baptist Convention president in June 2021.

Litton plans to spend the next few months getting Southern Baptists ready for their next annual meeting, to be held June 14-15 in Anaheim, Calif.

At the meeting, Litton said, he will present what he calls a “gospel-centered” plan for racial reconciliation in the United States, based in part on work he has done in Mobile, Ala., as pastor of Redemption Church.

Southern Baptists also will learn the results of an investigation into how denominational leaders have handled sexual abuse allegations over the past 20 years. Litton did not discuss any details of that report but believes it will be a “challenge for Southern Baptists” and reveal some hard truths about how the SBC responded to abuse allegations.

During the 2021 annual convention, SBC messengers authorized the investigation and requested a report during the 2022 meeting. As he travels the country, Litton has asked his fellow Southern Baptists to pray for the investigators working on the report and to be ready to act on the report’s recommendations.

He worries some Southern Baptists will see the report, say “that’s horrible,” and then move on rather than taking action to change how the SBC responds to abuse and abuse allegations.

“Don’t brace for impact,” Litton said. “Brace yourself for action. We need to be people who say, ‘Let’s do what is right.’”

Hopes dampened early

Litton’s 2021 election came during a contentious SBC meeting that drew more than 20,000 people to Nashville, Tenn., and featured four candidates for president. Litton prevailed in a runoff over Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor allied with the Conservative Baptist Network, which argues the SBC is becoming liberal.

Litton had hoped to rally Southern Baptists around the issues of racial reconciliation and church planting. However, those hopes were quickly dampened by continued divisions within the SBC and by a controversy over sermons Litton gave that included material from another pastor without attribution. He has apologized for failing to give attribution and told Religion News Service in a video interview that in the end, the controversy turned out for the good.

“I consider it a blessing to have been exposed in a way that, even though it’s humiliating and shameful, I can repent,” he said. “I know who I am in Christ Jesus.”

Litton’s announcement was met on social media with messages of thanks for his time as president and well wishes.

“I love Ed Litton and am thankful to call him a great friend,” tweeted Florida pastor Dean Inserra, a member of the SBC’s Executive Committee. “I’m also grateful for his service as President.”

Opposition from Conservative Baptist Network

Some Southern Baptists with ties to the Conservative Baptist Network—which has been critical of Litton and other SBC leaders—wondered why Litton did not step down right away. Memphis theologian and professor Lee Brand, a member of the CBN’s steering council, is the denomination’s first vice president and would likely become president if Litton left office early.

According to the SBC’s bylaws, the first vice president would become president in the “case of death or disability of the president.” No mention is made of what would happen if a president were to resign.

The last SBC president to serve only one term was famed Memphis megachurch pastor and radio preacher Adrian Rogers. One candidate to succeed Litton already has emerged. News broke after Litton’s announcement that Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Fla., will be nominated as a candidate for SBC president. More nominations will likely follow.

Litton said he felt a sense of freedom knowing he would not be running for president again.

Instead, as he noted in the video announcing the decision, Litton said he can focus on the issue of racial reconciliation, which has long been close to his heart and an issue Southern Baptists have historically struggled with.

More work on race needed

He said the SBC has made strides to deal with racism and racial divisions in the past, but more work is needed. The strategy he will present in Anaheim is being fine-tuned with the help of experts and pastors who have been involved in the issue of reconciliation.

Earlier this year, Litton said, Redemption Church hosted a summit on reconciliation that included leaders such as Dallas pastor Tony Evans, a leading Black evangelical radio preacher and author.

Litton said racial reconciliation is tied to the SBC’s larger mission of spreading the good news about Jesus. As the United States has become more diverse, he said, so has the SBC. And the SBC will need Black leaders and Black churches to help reach the nation for Jesus, he said.

He pointed to Mobile, where his church is located and where half the population is Black.

“How do we strategically reach people with the gospel without our African American brothers and sisters?” he said. “This is something we want to do together.”

Still, Litton and other SBC leaders working on racial reconciliation face steep challenges. In recent years, critics have labeled any discussion of racism as a sign of liberalism and have claimed that critical race theory—a legal theory about institutional racism now commonly used in conservative circles as a rallying cry against perceived liberalism—is corrupting the SBC.

Gap in perceptions about race

There’s also a wide gap in how white Christians and Black Christians see the issue of race in America, according to data from University of Chicago sociologist Michael Emerson, co-author of Divided by Faith, an influential book about race and religion in the United States.

In the summer of 2020, Emerson and fellow researchers asked Americans if they thought the country had a race problem. Most practicing Black Christians (87 percent) said the country had a race problem, while a minority of practicing white Christians (30 percent) said the same.

During the interview, Litton also talked about the ongoing decline in the SBC, where membership has dropped by more than 2 million since 2006. Because of the nation’s ongoing polarization, he said, Southern Baptists have begun to see themselves as being at odds with people outside the church.

“For several years now, we have divorced ourselves from the lost culture,” he said. “We’ve seen them as the enemy instead of seeing them as people that Jesus Christ died for and dearly loves.”

Litton said he also worries the SBC has become too much of a middle-class and upper-class church and is out of touch with those of lesser economic means. According to data from the General Social Survey, people who identify as lower income and working class are more likely to say they never go to church than those who identify as upper or middle class.

‘Our success is ultimately what is killing us’

Litton worries the prosperity of Southern Baptist has resulted in church members’ being out of touch with people who are poorer than they are.

“Our success is ultimately what is killing us,” he said.

Litton returned again to racial reconciliation, insisting that work has to be a central part of the mission of the SBC, pointing to a set of verses in the New Testament about being “ambassadors for Christ.” Those verses, he said, talk about people being reconciled to God and to each other.

He also pointed to a saying of Jesus in the Gospel of John: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

“That means working out our issues in love—not the rancor that is so prevalent today,” he said.

Despite some of the challenges of the past eight months, Litton is grateful for his time as president. He said his love for Southern Baptists has been “renewed and refreshed” while traveling the country seeing SBC ministries in action.

“Most people are not sitting at a keyboard fighting battles,” he said. “I see people who are the doers—who are out doing disaster relief or feeding people at the border or rescuing kids from sex traffickers or planting churches.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP)—Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Fla., will be nominated by North Carolina pastor Clint Pressley, for the president of the Southern Baptist Convention this summer at the 2022 SBC annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

The announcement came one day after current SBC President Ed Litton of Saraland, Ala., announced he will not seek a second term.

‘A man who understands the times’

Rice, who has served Calvary Church as pastor since 2004, was a member of the church during high school, was called to ministry there, and met and married his wife, Cheryl, at the church.

“Willy Rice represents who Southern Baptists are at their best,” said Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist in Charlotte, N.C.

“He loves Southern Baptists, believes in Southern Baptists, and has demonstrated at every level of our convention his ability to lead Southern Baptists.”

Rice, a current trustee for the North American Mission Board, served as president of the Florida Baptist Convention from 2006 to 2008, served as president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 2015, chaired the 2010 SBC Committee on Committees and chaired the 2016 SBC Committee on Nominations. He also delivered the convention sermon at the 2021 SBC annual meeting where Litton was elected.

“In his convention sermon at the 2021 SBC annual meeting, Willy Rice issued a prophetic call to our convention, warning us of the dual threats of theological drift and of a pharisaical spirit of pugilism and condescension,” Pressley said.

“He is more than a statesman—he’s a man who understands the times, sees the challenges before us clearly, and has the vision, wisdom and courage to lead us. I can say with all confidence that he is the man to meet the challenges of this moment.”

Rice’s “Great Commission passion” and “fierce dedication to Scripture” were also noted by Pressley.

Active in church planting and revitalization

During his tenure as pastor, Calvary has grown to include three campuses, and in 2016—the church’s sesquicentennial—the church adopted goals that included partnering through church planting and revitalization with 150 congregations across the country and around the world by 2025, as well as seeing members support 150 children through adoption or foster care.

To date, Calvary has been part of more than 90 church plants or revitalization efforts, and more than 50 families and 120 volunteers are involved with adoption and foster care.

In addition, there are seven missionary units from Calvary on the field or in the appointment process with the International Mission Board.

According to its Annual Church Profile statistics, Calvary reported 218 baptisms in 2021 and giving through the Cooperative Program of $532,533.41, approximately 7.5 percent of its annual budget, along with Annie Armstrong Easter Offering giving of $27,902.62 and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering giving of $52,023.01 in 2020. Giving totals for 2021 have not yet been reported.

Prior to the pandemic, the church averaged more than 3,600 people in weekly worship attendance across its three campuses.

Before coming to Calvary, Rice pastored churches in Florida and Alabama. He is a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., and has a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He and Cheryl have three children and six grandchildren.

SARALAND, Ala. (BP)—Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton said he has a growing desire to develop a strategy to “bring about a gospel-driven unity and reconciliation”—and he needs to lead it as a “pastor rather than from the office of president.”

Litton announced March 1 he will not seek a second term as SBC president at the SBC annual meeting June 12-15 in Anaheim, Calif.

Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in the Mobile, Ala., area, made the announcement in a video released by the church saying he believes “God is calling [him] to devote the next five to 10 years of [his] life” to pursuing racial reconciliation through the local church.

He did not provide specifics of the initiative other than that it “is not a top-down program but a locally based strategy inviting local churches to take the lead in their communities.”

Related to his term as SBC president, Litton noted “that it’s been a difficult year,” and took responsibility “for mistakes [he] made in the preparation and delivery of particular sermons”—an acknowledgement of the plagiarism accusations Litton addressed and apologized for early in his presidency.

Litton’s presidency has been marked by his involvement in appointing a task force to oversee an investigation of the SBC Executive Committee as it faced accusations of not appropriately handling claims of sex abuse in the SBC. That task force is expected to report its findings later in the spring.

In closing his video, Litton noted that “in a time of increased division and polarization,” Southern Baptists “must be united in our pursuit of that one sacred effort of reaching the nations for Christ,” pointing Southern Baptists to the 2022 SBC annual meeting theme of “Jesus, the center of it all.”

PUERTO RICO— La Junta de Misiones Norteamericanas, o NAMB por sus siglas en inglés, ha llamado a Félix Cabrera a liderar la iniciativa Send Network Español (SNE) como director principal de la misma.

Send Network Español es un medio que asiste a las iglesias a identificar, desarrollar y enviar hombres llamados que aspiran a iniciar iglesias en Norteamérica. El propósito principal es simplificar y contextualizar el proceso de cómo plantar iglesias en Norteamérica y proporcionar acceso a nuestras iglesias a los recursos que Send Network provee.

Como director principal, Cabrera guiará a SNE a identificar iglesias y candidatos para el programa de residencia y reclutará a iglesias para dar comienzo a las residencias. Actualmente SNE tiene residencias en Oklahoma, Utah, Houston, Washington D.C., Miami y Puerto Rico.

El programa de residencia esta diseñado para ser una incubadora de plantación de iglesias en la cual hombres con el llamado para plantar serán descubiertos, equipados, enviados y sostenidos mientras llevan el Evangelio de Jesús a toda su ciudad.

Durante la residencia los plantadores recibirán equipamiento teológico al igual que refuerzos en las áreas espirituales, ministeriales y administrativas.

Cabrera asume su nuevo rol después de servir tres años como Director Ejecutivo de la Convención de Iglesias Bautistas de Sur de Puerto Rico (CIBSPR). En esa posición, Cabrera guio a la CIBSPR a niveles históricos de ofrendas al Programa Cooperativo y las ofrendas misioneras Lottie Moon y Annie Armstrong.

Cabrera es conocido por su corazón para las misiones y plantación de iglesias además de su extensiva experiencia en las mismas.

“Félix tiene un corazón para movilizar y equipar a plantadores que hablan español y lo ha estado haciendo muy bien por muchos años,” dijo el presidente de NAMB, Kevin Ezell.

“Su rol liderando Send Network Español nos permitirá traer nuestros mejores recursos de asesoramiento al igual que de equipamiento, entrenamiento, y cuidado a los plantadores que hablan español, en su idioma”.

“El tiempo no puede ser mejor ya que la población hispana en Norte América seguirá creciendo por las próximas décadas y los Bautistas de Sur debemos empezar miles de iglesias para suplir esa necesidad.”

Scott McConnell, director de Lifeway Christian Resources, ha trabajado junto a Cabrera y dice que el “tiene un fuerte antecedente en la inversión en las cosas que ayudan a que las iglesias y sus plantadores prosperen.”

“El es un plantador de iglesias y ha entrenado a otros plantadores dándole la experiencia práctica que los prepara para el ministerio. Mientras hace todo eso,  modela un ministerio Cristocéntrico y de enseñanza bíblica. Los Bautistas del Sur nos beneficiaremos de su servicio como líder de Send Network Español”.

En tanto Ed Litton, presidente de la Convención Bautista del Sur, agrega: “En mis cuatro décadas de ministerio, yo creo que Félix Cabrera es quizás el mejor ejemplo que he visto de una vida comprometida a estar en misión. Félix tiene una mente estratégica, un corazón evangelístico, y una pasión de ver vidas cambiadas por el poder del Evangelio”.

“Él es, sin duda, uno de los mejores soldados que los Bautistas de la Gran Comisión han enviado al campo de misiones. Estoy agradecido a Dios porque continúa ampliado el alcance del ministerio de Félix”.

Bajo el liderazgo de Cabrera, las iglesias Bautistas de Puerto Rico crecieron de 35 a 52, lanzaron tres nuevos ministerios y se unieron a la Junta de Misiones Internacionales (IMB por sus siglas en ingles) para enviar a tres misioneros a servir entre los no alcanzados del Norte de África y el Medio Oriente.

“La pasión de Félix de ver a más hispanos llevando el evangelio alrededor del mundo y haciendo discípulos de todas las naciones lo llevó a él y a los Bautistas de Puerto Rico a unirse a IMB para movilizar más iglesias a las naciones,” dijo Paul Chitwood, presidente de IMB. “Esperamos con interés ver como ayuda a las iglesias Hispanas en toda la Convención Bautista del Sur a enviar más misioneros a las naciones a través de IMB”.

Publicado por Keila Diaz  el 14 de febrero 2022 en https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/espanol/cabrera-nombrado-director-senior-de-send-network-espanol/