Baptist Press Archive

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

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  • W.C. Fields, SBC public relations pioneer, dies at 96
    by Art Toalston, posted Tuesday, December 04, 2018 (12 days ago)

    BP file photo
    NASHVILLE (BP) -- W.C. Fields, a forerunner in denominational journalism as vice president for public relations for the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee from 1959-1987, died Sunday, Dec. 2, in Nashville at age 96.

    As an Executive Committee vice president, Fields was the SBC's press representative and director of Baptist Press, the convention's news service. He also was editor of the Executive Committee's former Baptist Program magazine from 1959-1972.

    He was first listed in Who's Who in America in 1976. Gratis, he wrote an article on Southern Baptists for Saturday Evening Post in 1983 that sold more than 1 million reprints. Read More

  • Nat'l CP 2.47% under YTD budget projection
    by Staff, posted Tuesday, December 04, 2018 (12 days ago)

    NASHVILLE (BP) -- Contributions to Southern Baptist national and international missions and ministries received by the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee in November were 2.47 percent below the projected budget for the first two months of the current fiscal year. And they were 4.47 percent above the amount received during the same period last year according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee Interim President and Executive Vice President D. August Boto. Read More

  • WEEK OF PRAYER: Hispanic church's 'miracle' partnership
    by IMB staff, posted Tuesday, December 04, 2018 (12 days ago)

    IMB photo
    JACKSON, Tenn. (BP) -- Daniel Tuchez remembers the day he got the call. The International Mission Board's director of Hispanic mobilization called and said, "I need you to pray about this city in Southeast Asia, because it is going to be opening up, and maybe there are opportunities,'" recalled Tuchez, who serves as pastor of Iglesia Bautista El Shaddai in Jackson, Tenn.

    It was a big deal. But the call itself wasn't a surprise. In the years before, Tuchez had accompanied IMB's Jason Carlisle on many trips.

    "The very big blessing is that Jason is not just challenging us to go to Latin America," said Tuchez, who is originally from Guatemala. "He wants us to be cross-cultural people who reach people in the last frontier." Read More

  • Open on Sunday? Churchgoers share views on Sabbath
    by Aaron Earls, posted Tuesday, December 04, 2018 (12 days ago)

    iStock
    NASHVILLE (BP) -- According to Genesis, God created everything in six days before resting on the seventh. But around a quarter of churchgoers say they don't follow His example, according to a study released today (Dec. 4).

    Seventy-seven percent of churchgoers say they take an intentional day of rest and most do so on Sunday, according to a new study of Protestants who attend church once a month or more from LifeWay Research. The survey was conducted Aug. 22-30, 2017.

    Seven in 10 churchgoers take their Sabbath on Sunday. Few take it on Saturday (5 percent), Friday (1 percent) or Monday (1 percent). For 23 percent, they don't take a day of rest. Read More

  • UPDATED: DR teams on site after EF-3 rips central Ill.

    by Illinois Baptist & BP Staff, posted Tuesday, December 04, 2018 (12 days ago)

    IBSA photo
    TAYLORVILLE, Ill. (BP) -- Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) volunteers were in Taylorville, Ill., one day after an EF-3 tornado damaged 500 structures there.

    Rare late-winter storms Nov. 30-Dec. 1 spawned tornadoes in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma, killing one person in Missouri, CBS News reported. Though no fatalities have been reported in Illinois, the most severe damage was in Taylorville, some 25 miles southeast of Springfield, Ill., where at least 26 people were injured.

    Several houses in Taylorville were "flattened," and others had their roofs ripped off or saw "gaping holes" torn in their roofs, according to CBS. Read More

  • CP undergirds church's vision for 'Living Beyond Us'
    by Karen L. Willoughby, posted Tuesday, December 04, 2018 (12 days ago)

    Submitted photo
    BOLIVAR, Mo. (BP) -- For seven decades, First Baptist Church in Bolivar, Mo., has given at least 10 percent of its undesignated offerings to missions through the Cooperative Program.

    "We believe in the vision of those 1925 Southern Baptists," pastor Billy Russell said of those who created the SBC's channel of cooperative missions and ministry more than 90 years ago.

    "We're better together. We can do more together in Gospel work around the world," said Russell, who has led First Baptist for 13 years and was on staff for the six years before that.

    First Baptist, with about 850 in four Sunday morning worship services, meanwhile has added four buildings to its original structure two blocks off the town square. Read More