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Articles by Lisa Misner
Journey Church Kankakee severely damaged by tornado
Kankakee, IL | Journey Church in Kankakee suffered severe damage from a tornado that tore through the community on Tuesday evening (March 10). The church, located on the south side of town near the Aroma Park area, lost two thirds of its roof, with the remaining portion receiving significant damage. The church building is constructed with an A-frame in the center and wings on either side, each with a flat roof.
Tutoring center in South Asia becomes bridge to faith
Tutoring centers are ubiquitous in South Asia, according to Crawford Kaiser, International Mission Board missionary. Kaiser and his team of national partners are taking advantage of these teaching opportunities for the sake of the Gospel. They offer a low-cost learning hub for Muslim families in a low-income apartment block. Though it may appear to be locals tutoring, the center he oversees also functions as a discreet doorway to the Gospel.
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Illinois church severely damaged by tornado
Strong winds tore the roof off Journey Church's education wing. Metadata: Topic(s): Disaster ReliefFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: KANKAKEE, Ill. – Journey Church in Kankakee suffered severe damage from a tornado that tore through the community on Tuesday evening (March 10). The church, located on the south side of town, lost two thirds of its roof, with the remaining portion receiving significant damage.
Chatham Baptist ministers to community following tragedy
Chatham | The church just across the street stepped up to minister to families when an SUV drove through the site of an afterschool program Monday afternoon, first through a fence, then through the building. Four children were killed, and six others were injured in the village of Chatham at the YNOT Outdoor Kids Camp. The church — Chatham Baptist Church — served as the reunification site for families.
Illinois church springs into action when tragedy strikes across the street
CHATHAM, Ill. — A woman drove her SUV through the site of an afterschool program on Monday afternoon (April 28), killing three children and one young adult and injuring six others. Chatham Baptist Church, which sits across the street from the Youth Needing Other Things (YNOT) Outdoor Kids Camp, served as a reunification site for families.
FIRST-PERSON: 100 years of faithful guardrails in the BF&M
Metadata: Series: First PersonTopic(s): Baptist Faith & MessageFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: Editor’s note: Randy C. Davis is executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. Yale University was founded because Harvard University was deemed too liberal. How ironic that is, considering both universities are lightyears away from their founding principles.
‘In the Word’ encourages women to pursue godly wisdom
WEST CHICAGO, Ill. – “I’ve always looked at the book of Proverbs as a rule book,” Gina Caithamer mused during a break at Lifeway’s In the Word event, April 25-26. “If you follow these, you’re going to live a pretty good life.” But as Bible teacher Jen Wilkin reminded nearly 1,400 women in Chicagoland, wisdom isn’t transactional. It’s not a set of good choices that yields positive outcomes. In fact, wisdom isn’t nearly as concerned with decision-making as we often think it is.
Illinois church springs into action when tragedy strikes across the street | Baptist Press - Crossmap News
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Illinois church springs into action when tragedy strikes across the street
CHATHAM, Ill. –A woman drove her SUV through the site of an afterschool program Monday afternoon (April 28), killing three children and one young adult and injuring six others. Chatham Baptist Church, which sits across the street from the YNOT Outdoor Kids Camp, served as a reunification site for families. “It was amazing to see how the Chatham Baptist church family and community rallied together to show love and compassion in such a terrible situation,” said Pastor Ahron Cooney.
Greenway responds to follow-up statement from SWBTS
FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – The day after a settlement was announced in a dispute between Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and its former president Adam Greenway, Greenway released a statement taking issue with the seminary’s “characterizations of the motivations” behind his overture toward a settlement. On Monday (Sept.
ERLC urges Congress to consider Southern Baptist priorities as funding deadline approaches
NASHVILLE (BP) – The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has sent a letter urging Congress to consider the priorities of Southern Baptists as funding negotiations for the 2025 fiscal year continue. The letter, released Monday (Sept. 9), highlights several of the entity’s priorities for the upcoming 2025 appropriations bills (the 12 bills which annually fund the government).
Illinois Baptists lose religious freedom case, expect to appeal
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A circuit judge in Springfield has ruled against the Illinois Baptist State Association in a suit to protect IBSA from requirements to provide employees with insurance benefits that cover abortion. The ruling, saying the Illinois Reproductive Health Act did not violate IBSA’s religious freedom, came more than four years after IBSA filed suit.
Illinois Baptists lose religious freedom case, expect to appeal
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A circuit judge in Springfield has ruled against the Illinois Baptist State Association in a suit to protect IBSA from requirements to provide employees with insurance benefits that cover abortion. The ruling, saying the Illinois Reproductive Health Act did not violate IBSA’s religious freedom, came more than four years after IBSA filed suit.
Illinois Baptists lose religious freedom case, expect to appeal
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A circuit judge in Springfield has ruled against the Illinois Baptist State Association (IBSA) in a suit to protect IBSA from requirements to provide employees with insurance benefits that cover abortion. The ruling, saying the Illinois Reproductive Health Act did not violate IBSA’s religious freedom, came more than four years after IBSA filed suit.
New Illinois Abortion Laws Could Be Trouble For Churches And Ministries
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois General Assembly continues to find new ways to further enshrine abortion into law. Within the last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed one bill requiring insurance companies to provide full coverage for abortions and another making abortions a protected human rights issue.
DR DIGEST: Teams from across the country helping those affected by Beryl
Texans on Mission providing relief for Beryl victims By FERRELL FOSTER/Texans on Mission HOUSTON (BP) —Texans on Mission has deployed two mass feeding units to meet needs in the shadow of the vast power outage caused by Hurricane Beryl in recent days. The missions organization formerly known as Texas Baptist Men also has three chainsaw teams working to remove trees from homes and cars, as well as to give people access to their houses.
Purdy relevant: testimony of 49ers quarterback to get Super Bowl stage
Metadata: Topic(s): SportsFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (BP) — For all the San Francisco 49ers’ historical success, Joshua Pizarro is among those adult fans who have experienced more frustration than anything. It’s a case of not-quite the right place in not-quite the right time. Joe Montana had led the 49ers to two Super Bowl wins in 1982 and ’85 before Pizarro was born. As a toddler, he wouldn’t remember The Drive that secured a third Super Bowl win in 1989.
The deacons every pastor (should) love
Metadata: Format(s): Text Articles Share this post: In a lot of churches, deacons get a bad rap. If they do too much, people believe they’re trying to take over the church. If they do too little, then people call them lazy. I hear and read a lot about controlling deacons and apathetic deacons. The reality is most deacons in most churches do good work.
Ohio legislature overrides governor’s veto of transgender bill
Metadata: Topic(s): CultureFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has banned gender transitions for minors and restricted biological males from participation on female sports teams . The state’s Senate followed the House in overriding Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of the bill designed to protect minors from harmful medications and surgeries. The Republican-dominated Senate voted to override the veto Wednesday (Jan. 26).
FIRST-PERSON: | Baptist Press
Metadata: Series: First PersonTopic(s): Mental HealthFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: Editor’s note: Danny Forshee is president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin. Mental health and wholeness are important topics to me. God has helped me so much and used people in my life to lift me from anxiety and depression, and I love to help others come out of their doldrums. So many in our world are depressed and in desperate need of hope.
Regular Biblical intake makes a big difference in our lives
Metadata: Share this post: Recently, our young adults spent their Winter Retreat focusing on reading the Bible together aloud. No special speaker, no DVD teaching. They simply gathered and read as much of the New Testament as possible over the weekend. They read through I Corinthians, completing 149 chapters. They have 111 to go. Good for them, for Bible engagement makes a difference in our lives.
In times of anger, choose joy, says author and radio host Brant Hansen
JUPITER, Fla. (BP) – The beginning of what promises to be a contentious political season isn’t very reassuring for those concerned with a rise in anxiety. Ninety percent of the public feels there is a mental health crisis, as shown by the need to bring in reserves to meet the demand for mental health care. Author, podcaster and radio host Brant Hansen understands the concern, but also the need to acknowledge the role of a growing relationship with Christ as the solution.
Dislike of organized religion, maltreatment cited by many ‘Nones,’ Pew finds
Metadata: Topic(s): CultureFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: WASHINGTON (BP) – More than half of religiously unaffiliated Americans, identified as ‘Nones,” say they don’t like organized religion or have been mistreated by religious people, Pew Research said Jan. 24. Specifically, 55 percent of Nones cited one of the two factors in explaining their reason for being nonreligious.
Nearly 1,000 church leaders from 12 states attend Midwest summit
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Church leaders from the central states engaged in 12,000 hours of training, teaching, and worship at the three-day Midwest Leadership Summit meeting in Springfield this week. In multiple plenary sessions led by national SBC speakers and church planting practitioners, and in 80 breakout sessions, almost 1,000 leaders shared and received equipping for ministry in their unique Midwest settings. The biennial event brings together nine Baptist conventions covering 12 states.
Religious donors keep giving to houses of worship and beyond amid inflation
Metadata: Topic(s): StewardshipFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: (RNS) — Religious Americans are continuing to give to their houses of worship — and to other causes — with money and in-kind donations despite rising costs for daily living, a new report shows.
Summit offers 12,000 hours of training for church leaders
Metadata: Topic(s): SBC NewsFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (BP) – Church leaders from the central states engaged 12,000 hours of training, teaching and worship at the three-day Midwest Leadership Summit meeting in Springfield January 23-25. In multiple plenary sessions led by national SBC speakers and church-planting practitioners, and in 80 breakout sessions, almost 1,000 leaders shared and received equipping for ministry in their unique Midwest settings.
Chicago church takes prayer to the streets
CHICAGO (BP) — Phillip Griffin had an idea. Or what some might call more of an inspiration. The Men’s Sunday School teacher felt led by God to spend time outside of his church’s four walls on Sunday mornings. But not away from the church – on the church property itself.
Haitian Baptists struggle to worship, minister amid violence, kidnappings
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (BP) — Pastor Samson Doreliens ministers “right in the middle of the violence in Port Au Prince,” the site of the July 27th kidnapping of an American nurse and her daughter who remain missing. The 600 active congregants of the Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti (MEBSH) Church of Cote Plage are torn by the gang violence that has overtaken the city, Doreliens told Baptist Press.
LEGAL DIGEST: Wisconsin church loses childcare license as pastor is investigated for sexual abuse; Former Florida pastor arrested on sexual abuse charges | Baptist Press
Editor’s Note: In support of the sixth strategic action of Vision 2025 adopted by messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting, Baptist Press will continue to report every instance of sexual abuse related to Southern Baptist churches, entities, institutions or leaders of which we are made aware. Wisconsin church loses childcare license as pastor is investigated for sexual abuse By BRANDON PORTER MADISON, Wisc.
FIRST-PERSON: Bringing people to Jesus
Metadata: Series: First PersonFormat(s): Text Articles Share this post: In the Bible, there are many examples of anonymous believers bringing people to Jesus. One of the most dramatic stories involved four unnamed men who helped an invalid friend drop in on Jesus. The Lord was teaching in Capernaum when “so many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and he was speaking the word to them” (Mk. 2:2).
Final two months of fiscal year critical for national CP budget
NASHVILLE (BP) — With two months left in the 2023 fiscal year, the National Cooperative Program Allocation Budget remains ahead of the annual budget, but gifts reported in July were short of monthly budget projections. Gifts reported in July, which were collected in local churches in May, totaled just over $14.3 million bringing the annual total to just under $160.5 million, just 0.15 percent above budget with two months remaining.
Chicago church takes prayer to the streets
CHICAGO (BP) — Phillip Griffin had an idea. Or what some might call more of an inspiration. The Men’s Sunday School teacher felt led by God to spend time outside of his church’s four walls on Sunday mornings. But not away from the church – on the church property itself.
After tornado cancels Easter outreach, Illinois church shifts gears to serve
SHERMAN, Ill. (BP) – Living Faith Baptist Church had planned to host its annual Easter Palooza outreach event on April 1. Thousands of plastic Easter eggs had been filled with candy, cakes were baked for the cake walk, and church members had packed hundreds of grab-and-go sack lunches for the 300-500 kids who were expected to attend. But a tornado that struck the night before prompted a big change in plans. With tornado damage and no electricity, Easter Palooza could not go on.
SBDR volunteers, storm survivors begin the long recovery in Arkansas
WYNNE, Ark. (BP) — Matt Dunavant, pastor of Wynne Baptist Church, was 10 miles outside of town when the tornado carved up his beloved community on Friday, March 31, as part of a system that ravaged much of the South and touched parts of the Midwest. “I could see the tornado going through Wynne from my driveway. Immediately after the storm, we drove into town,” Dunavant said.
Arkansas disaster relief after deadly storms evokes Patton’s WW2 strategy
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (BP) — Arkansas Baptist Disaster Relief Director Randy Garrett was responding to tornadoes in north Mississippi March 31 when he heard the news that storms were heading to his home state of Arkansas. “And so, what we’ve done, we did what Patton’s army did in World War II. We turned the whole army around out of Mississippi and came back to Arkansas to deal with this,” Garrett said, referencing Patton’s maneuver at the Battle of the Bulge.
China’s ‘Mayflower Church’ in Thailand not deported but fined, detained
Authorities in Thailand fined but did not immediately deport members of a persecuted Chinese church, but the Christians continue to be detained three days after their deportation hearing. Members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church – nicknamed the “Mayflower Church” for their commitment to religious freedom – were arrested March 30 and faced deportation hearings the next day. Fleeing persecution and harassment in their native country, the Chinese Christians first sought refuge in South Korea.
After tornado cancels Easter outreach, Illinois church shifts gears to serve
SHERMAN, Ill. (BP) – Living Faith Baptist Church had planned to host its annual Easter Palooza outreach event on April 1. Thousands of plastic Easter eggs had been filled with candy, cakes were baked for the cake walk, and church members had packed hundreds of grab-and-go sack lunches for the 300-500 kids who were expected to attend. But a tornado that struck the night before prompted a big change in plans. With tornado damage and no electricity, Easter Palooza could not go on.
The need to serve pregnant women on college campuses
College campuses are places full of big dreams for the future. Young men and women often go to university expectant of what doors their education will open for them. Yet, some of those women become pregnant and find themselves facing uncertainty and fear about what’s ahead. They feel as if they have to choose between life for their child or a completed college degree.
STATE MEETINGS: Illinois, New Mexico
Illinois Baptists celebrate churches thriving in challenging season By Lisa Misner/Illinois Baptist SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (BP) – Messengers to the Illinois Baptist State Association’s annual meeting approved resolutions dealing with the sufficiency of Scripture for racial reconciliation, the Equality Act, the church’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 50th anniversary of the IBSA’s move to Springfield.
Trafficking survivor begs ‘notify parents’
Brook Bello was raped at the age of 11, sex trafficked at 15, and forced to undergo multiple abortions by her trafficker. “Had my parents been notified, my mother would have [known] what city I was near.” Bello (right) believes law enforcement could have been alerted, and she may have been rescued sooner. That’s why she begged Illinois lawmakers to keep the parental notification requirement currently in the state’s abortion regulations. “I beg of you, Illinois.
Chicago pastor on a prayer walk to end violence
Pastor Edgar Rodriguez’s oldest son prays over Illinois in a street painting of a map of the U.S. in the Logan Square neighborhood in Chicago while on a prayer march. (The Baptist Press) August 6, 2020 Pastor Edgar Rodriguez’s son knelt in prayer on the colorful United States map painted near where 10-year-old Lena Nunez died June 29. Nunez was watching TV in her home when she was hit by a stray bullet that came through window.
High winds damage Illinois Baptist building's roof
Copyright (c) 2019 Baptist Press. Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. The original story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/52581/high-winds-damage-illinois-baptist-buildings-roof NEW - 4 hours ago SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (BP) –- No one was hurt, but the roof of the Illinois Baptist State Association building in Springfield was in poor condition after high winds blew part of it off on Thursday (March 14).
ERLC's Russell Moore Comments on U.S. Supreme Court Decision to Deny Cert in Elane Photography Case
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 7, 2014 The U.S. Supreme Court denied cert on Monday in the case of Elane Photography v. Willock, allowing a lower court ruling to stand in New Mexico regarding religious liberty and free speech.
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