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BP Ledger, Sept. 8, 2014


Today’s BP Ledger contains items from: Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Fruitland Baptist Bible College Marketplace Chaplains

EDITOR’S NOTE: BP Ledger carries items for reader information each week from various Southern Baptist-related entities, and news releases of interest from other sources. The items are published as received.

Waggoner named lead brand strategist for Global Hunger Relief

NASHVILLE (Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission) — The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission announced today the appointment of Jill Waggoner as lead brand strategist for Global Hunger Relief, the Southern Baptist cooperative hunger effort.

Global Hunger Relief (GHR) is an initiative of Southern Baptists that was formerly known as the World Hunger Fund. GHR-funded projects combat hunger in North America and around the world.

Waggoner will oversee GHR promotional and social media strategy and continue to serve as deputy press secretary for the ERLC. A graduate of Union University, she has served with the ERLC since 2005 in various communications roles.

“Having served with Jill for nearly a decade, I know she is highly capable and understands Southern Baptist life, its cultures and generations,” said Bobby Reed, ERLC vice president for business and finance. “Through the tremendous inter-entity cooperation represented by Global Hunger Relief, Southern Baptists have a great opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people around the world, and Jill is perfectly equipped to coordinate these efforts.”

GHR is one of the most effective channels for donating toward the global hunger crisis. While most humanitarian organizations keep 30 to 70 percent for administrative overhead, GHR is able to devote resources directly to meeting hunger needs due to the extensive network of Southern Baptist partners supported by the Cooperative Program.

“Scripture tells us that our treatment of the poor is a good indication of the depth of our faith,” said Daniel Darling, vice president of communications. “With so many who go to bed hungry every night, the need is urgent. Jill has the creative gifts, the gospel passion and the experience to help the vulnerable.”

The national GHR partners are the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, Baptist Global Response, Woman’s Missionary Union, LifeWay Christian Resources and SBC Executive Committee.

More information about Global Hunger Relief is available at globalhungerrelief.com and on Twitter (@globalhunger) and Facebook.

The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest Protestant denomination with more than 15.8 million members in over 46,000 churches nationwide. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is the SBC’s ethics, religious liberty and public policy entity with offices in Nashville, Tenn. and Washington, D.C.
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Fruitland Baptist Bible College associate degree is now available online

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (Fruitland Baptist Bible College) — Students enrolling at Fruitland in the Fall of 2014 have the option of completing their entire Associate of Religion in Christian Ministries and Worldview degree online. President David Horton commented, “We are very excited to offer this program online, and we believe it will enable vast numbers of people to receive a Fruitland degree who are unable to attend the main campus in Hendersonville.” The online curriculum at Fruitland consists of 64 courses offered over 8 quarters, which will enable a full-time student to graduate in two years.

Fruitland Baptist Bible College began to expand its educational outreach four years ago with the addition of an initial satellite campus in Monroe. Satellite locations now include Monroe, Wilkesboro, Rocky Mount, and the Hispanic satellites in Sylva, Statesville, Charlotte, and Wilmington. Fruitland ventured into online education two years ago with its first online course. Ben Tackett, the Registrar/Librarian at Fruitland played a key role in getting the Fruitland curriculum online. “Before Ben Tackett came to Fruitland, we desired to have an online program, but lacked the technical expertise to do so,” explained Dr. Scott Thompson, Fruitland’s Vice President of Academic Affairs.

Fruitland uses an online educational delivery system referred to as “Moodle,” which is also used by numerous colleges and seminaries in their internet-based programs. Moodle is “student friendly” and offers professors an opportunity to use a “wide variety of educational techniques in the presentation of the course,” according to Tackett. Students from any location around the world can benefit from Fruitland’s online program. One of the current participants lives in Kenya and desires to train other pastors with the knowledge that he gains from his coursework at Fruitland.

Horton and Thompson always encourage prospective students to make the main campus in Hendersonville their first choice when working on a Fruitland degree. Thompson emphasized, “There is an experience on the Fruitland main campus that cannot be replicated elsewhere, no matter how hard we try.” If students cannot attend the main campus, we “encourage them to consider one of our satellite locations, and now they have the option getting a Fruitland degree online,” according to Horton.

The cost of each online course is $225 dollars (plus the cost of textbooks) which makes Fruitland’s online courses both affordable and accessible. Fruitland is a great educational choice for those preparing for ministerial careers as well as those who desire a Bible-based two-year degree that can be foundational to a secular vocation. “The curriculum at Fruitland gives those who serve in law enforcement, nursing, business, and other fields, the core knowledge in worldview, history, language, and critical thinking to evangelize and disciple the unchurched in a global and multicultural context,” noted Thompson.

To learn more about Fruitland’s online program, visit the website at www.fruitland.edu or call the Fruitland office at 1-800-696-2215.
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Rapid U.S. growth, bold international expansion mark a 30-year chaplain success story

DALLAS (Marketplace Chaplains) — Rapid growth in the U.S.A., bold new moves into South Korea and China, and the first written history of the unique, ground-breaking organization, highlights the 30th year celebration of Marketplace Chaplains, the largest and original workplace chaplaincy organization.

The Dallas, Texas, based organization, now serving in 46 states, 1,009 cities and 5 foreign countries and 1 commonwealth, will celebrate its 30 year anniversary with a celebration banquet at the Hilton Anatole hotel in Dallas on Thursday, September 11th, Patriot Day. Also at this occasion, it will release the three decades written history of the organization with the new book, “Chaplain.”

Since 1984, beginning with a single company and one chaplain, Gil A. Stricklin, Marketplace Chaplains now has nearly 3,000 chaplains working in 3,309 service locations, spanning 35 different industry types, caring for more than 564,000 client company employees and their family members.

In approximately 10,950 days since its founding, thousands of chaplains have provided hundreds of services in thousands of locations to uncounted happy or hurting employees across vast economic spectrums, races and religions.

“It’s constantly amazing to me and our entire Team, how hundreds of business leaders in the marketplace are increasingly more concerned about their top line — workers and their families — than their bottom line — profit and dividends,” said Gil A. Stricklin, Sr., Founder, Chairman and CEO of Marketplace Ministries Inc., the parent organization for five organizational subsidiaries.

Along with Marketplace Chaplains, the other subsidiaries include Railroad Chaplains, Marketplace Chaplains International, Senior Living Chaplains, and the Marketplace Ministries Foundation.

In 2013, Marketplace Chaplains’ clients increased by a record 110 companies, at a rate of almost one new company every three days. Growth in 2014 is on track to surpass that old mark with this unique Employee Care Program (ECP). This ECP is neutral from company management, confidential in nature, non-denominational, voluntary in use, and available 24/7/365.

Among the biggest changes in the 30 years of chaplain work is the recent expansion into the Far East with new companies in South Korea and the People’s Republic of China. Among the other countries which have companies with Marketplace Chaplains International are Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico.

“In these three decades of service, we are very gratified that visionary CEOs from around the world have recognized the need for committed, caring Marketplace Chaplains to support their most valuable company assets… employees and their family members,” said Marketplace Ministries Inc. Executive President and COO Richard S. De Witt.

Marketplace Chaplains client companies, ranging from Fortune 500 to family-owned enterprises, have won dozens of awards for best places to work to elite franchises. Voted the number one company benefit offered by many industries and companies where employees are increasingly being asked to do more work, thereby causing more stress with less help.

“To have our trained, dedicated chaplains go into thousands of worksites weekly to interface with hundreds of thousands of employees, shaking hands, drinking coffee, asking about family members, and making appointments to go into deeper issues in private, that’s the greatest blessing of these 30 years of service,” Stricklin added.
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