ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – Moving forward to shift more Southern Baptist resources to areas of North America with the most widespread lostness, North American Mission Board (NAMB) President Kevin Ezell has announced new missionary placements for several states in the northeast United States that have not had a full-time missionary fully funded by NAMB.
 
“Every state should have at least one full-time missionary before any state has 20,” Ezell told NAMB trustees during their May 15-16 in Alpharetta, Ga. The new missionaries will serve as church planting catalysts with a goal of assisting with the starting of four churches a year in their states and helping nearby existing churches with evangelism efforts.
 
The new missionary roles – located in Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, South New Jersey and Vermont – will be the first full-time missionaries fully funded by NAMB serving in those states. A part-time role, fully funded by NAMB, is being added to New Hampshire.
 
Since coming to NAMB as president in September 2010, Ezell has championed new budget and personnel priorities for the entity, determinedly cutting budgets and staff at NAMB’s offices in Alpharetta. He is shifting the funds into NAMB’s Send North America strategy, which is focused on church planting and evangelism efforts in North America’s largest cities and in areas where Southern Baptist churches are scarce.
 

North American Mission Board trustees and staff gather around bivocational pastor Eddie Willis and his wife, Frances, during the NAMB trustee banquet celebrating bivocational pastors. Eddie is pastor of CrossConnect Church in Atlanta.

“You have heard about NAMB’s cuts,” Ezell said. “We have told people so often we are not cutting money, we are shifting money from one state to another. We have up to 23 or 30 and in some states up to 60 and 70 jointly funded missionaries all over North America. We are downsizing some of those numbers because quite honestly some of the states have too many.”
 
Ezell shared the plans against the backdrop of a stated goal to see a net gain of 5,000 Southern Baptist congregations in the next decade. If achieved, the gain would be the largest seen by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) since 1900, representing a 3 percent gain in the congregation-to-population ratio for Southern Baptists. Recent decades have seen a steady drop in the ratio as the North American population has exploded while SBC church starts have failed to keep pace and church deaths have stayed stubbornly high at an average of 880 a year in the last decade.
 
Ezell told trustees one of his biggest surprises after coming to NAMB was to learn of the high number of bivocational pastors serving the SBC. These pastors, he said, are key to gaining ground on lostness in North America.
 
“We really believe the only way for us to have a true church planting movement is to really garnish the efforts of bivocational pastors and to train our young people that they, too, can be bivocational,” Ezell said.
 
With that in mind, Ezell said NAMB will begin celebrating and encouraging bivocational pastors and church planters through a variety of means. He announced NAMB is partnering with Union University to offer bivocational pastors a 33-hour online master of arts in theological studies degree. NAMB will provide a limited number of scholarships for the program each year. Ezell said NAMB also is hosting a luncheon for bivocational pastors at the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans and will feature the work of bivocational pastors in its presentation there.
 
Ezell also highlighted several NAMB evangelism initiatives, including GPS: God’s Plan for Sharing, the national evangelism emphasis in partnership with state conventions through the year 2020. In addition, NAMB’s new LoveLoud ministry will connect needs ministries with evangelism and discipleship through local churches and church plants. A new church revitalization effort will engage healthy SBC churches with those that need assistance and give churches on the verge of dying an opportunity to be re-planted with new resources and a new vision for impacting lostness in their communities.
 
Ezell introduced Douglas Carver to NAMB trustees. Carver, the two-star major general who led chaplaincy for the Army before retiring in 2011, now serves as executive director of NAMB’s chaplaincy team. Ezell said Carver’s vision will help connect SBC churches to chaplains of all kinds and assist churches that want to start ministries to members of the military.
 
NAMB trustees voted to approve a 2012-13 budget of $114.5 million and a 2013-14 budget of $116.8 million. NAMB is shifting from a calendar budget to a fiscal October-September budget beginning this October. Approving two years’ worth of budgets at one time will help state convention partners in their budget planning. NAMB provides $42 million in funding to state conventions for missionary personnel, church planting and evangelism efforts.
 
Also during the meeting:
 
– Trustees voted unanimously to elect Douglas Dieterly as trustee chairman. Dieterly, executive pastor of Plymouth Baptist Church in Plymouth, Ind., has served as first vice chairman of NAMB’s trustees since 2010. He replaces Timothy Dowdy, whose term of service is ending in June. Trustees elected Rickey Camp, pastor of First Baptist Church Florence, Ala., as first vice chairman and Chuck Herring, pastor of Collierville First Baptist Church in Collierville, Tenn., as second vice chairman.
 
– NAMB Chief Financial Officer and Missions Support Vice President Carlos Ferrer reported that NAMB’s 2012 year-to-date income through the Cooperative Program is running 3.88 percent above budget and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions is 15.4 percent ahead of budget. Ferrer emphasized that it is too early in the year to predict if the offerings will remain above anticipated levels.
 
– Trustees approved guidelines for NAMB church planters in relationship to other church planting networks.
 
– Trustees adopted a policy stating that NAMB’s definition of what constitutes a state Baptist convention will follow the policy of the SBC Executive Committee. The move will not affect NAMB’s relationship with or funding to existing state conventions.
 
– Trustees voted to remove travel limits and quarterly evaluation reports that had been placed on the NAMB president during previous administrations.
 
– In addition to Dowdy, trustees recognized Keith Fordham, an evangelist and member of Harps Crossing Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga., and Robert Parker, a member of Liberty Baptist Church in Hampton, Va., for their years of service on NAMB’s trustee board. Not attending the meeting but also recognized for their service were trustees Todd Garren of Lincolnton, N.C., and Doug Jones of Woodland Park, Colo.
 
In comments after his election as chairman, Dieterly thanked Dowdy for his service. “He has worked tirelessly on behalf of the North American Mission Board,” Dieterly said.
 
Dieterly thanked Ezell for his leadership and said, “It’s nice to be on the upward path, but we’re just starting. There is such a bright future for the North American Mission Board.”
 
(EDITOR’S NOTE —Mike Ebert serves as vice president of the Communications Group for the North American Mission Board.)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – He looked like the ideal youth minister – recommended by a friend of the pastor, personable, and leading a thriving ministry to teens at Wayside Baptist Church in Miami.

But looks were deceiving.

For months, he had been sexually abusing boys during sleepovers at his home. When the offense came to light, the church had its very existence jeopardized by a $6 million civil judgment in favor of the victims. Eventually the case was settled for an undisclosed amount, and Wayside determined to do everything it could to protect children in the future.

“Now we do criminal background checks on anyone who is volunteering, and they put glass in all the doors [of children’s and youth classrooms],” said Carrel Youmans, a longtime member at Wayside who taught youth when the abuse occurred in the 1970s.

Wayside is not an isolated case, said Patrick Moreland, vice president of marketing at Church Mutual Insurance Company. Church Mutual averages four to five reports of child sexual abuse each week from its approximately 100,000 clients, the vast majority of which are churches. That includes roughly 9,000 Southern Baptist congregations.

Every church needs to have policies in place to protect its children, Moreland told SBC LIFE, journal of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee.

“It is common for a congregation to think, ‘It can’t happen here. We’re small and everyone knows everyone,’” Moreland said. “That is not sound thinking when it comes to child sexual abuse. Most abusers are known to the child and trusted by the congregation. Child sexual abuse occurs in churches of all sizes and denominations and in all parts of the country – urban and rural.”

Reporting suspected abuse
If abuse is ever suspected, Moreland urges churches to contact the proper government reporting agency immediately and to suspend the alleged offender (with pay for employees until the situation is resolved). They also should contact their attorney and insurance company.

Representatives of the church, accompanied by a reporting agency official, should meet with the child’s parents and, in their presence with their permission, the child.

“Reassure the child that he or she has done nothing wrong and that it was right to report the incident,” Moreland said. “Allow the child to speak freely. Do not coach responses from them and do not become defensive. You want the truth and you want to protect the child’s wellbeing.”

Abuse prevention policies
Among the policies Church Mutual recommends to prevent child sexual abuse:

– Have all potential children’s and youth workers (employees and volunteers) complete an application form. Look for irregularities. Ask for and check references. Conduct interviews.

– Perform background screening on all employees and volunteers who will have access to children. The screenings should be national in scope since it is common for offenders to move from state to state. The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender public website can be accessed at through the SBC website at SBC.net at sbc.net/localchurches/ministryhelp.asp.

– Never allow anyone to be involved in children’s or youth ministry who has not been active in the church for at least six months.

– Implement and enforce a two-adult rule. Never allow one adult to be alone with a minor. The two adults should not be spouses.

– Install windows in classrooms and keep doors open. Have a hall monitor circulate through the building during children’s and youth activities.

“Most incidents of child sexual abuse can be prevented by following these simple steps,” Moreland said. “The primary facilitators of child sexual abuse are failure to screen and supervise those who will be in contact with your youth and children.”

For Wayside, which averages 800-900 each week in worship, prevention stems from “good people with good training, and … good policies to back that up,” said Leigh Byers, director of preschool and children’s ministries at the church for the past decade.

Today anyone seeking to work with children in the congregation must fill out volunteer forms, including a confidential questionnaire, a background check permission form and an affidavit of good moral character. Volunteers also are required to provide references, and Wayside follows the six-month rule.

Though hardly any potential workers have been turned away, some have declined to go through the application process, Byers said. She added that domestic violence and sex crimes would disqualify a member from working with children.

“If someone is a potential abuser, they’re not looking for the hardest place to accomplish their goal,” Byers said. “They’re probably looking for a place that’s a little easier. So we try to put some things in place that would make somebody think twice before they would necessarily say, ‘This is easy. I don’t have to work too hard to get access.’”

Prevention at small churches
Child abuse prevention is not just for large churches, noted Jonathan Ruth, minister of music and children at Springdale Baptist Church in West Columbia, S.C., which averages approximately 230 in worship.

Before his church instituted mandatory background checks for all children’s workers, one parent asked if volunteers were screened. Ruth said no, and the parent withdrew her children from an after-school program.

“I’m not saying that’s why they left, but she seemed concerned that our volunteers were not checked,” Ruth said. “And if it’s going to be a hindrance to a parent to bring their child to a church where volunteers are not background checked, I think it’s worth it to make sure you have those assurances in place for parents.”

In addition to background screening, Springdale has an unwritten policy of always having two adults in a room where there are children. The congregation is in the process of developing official, written policies, Ruth said.

“I think every church needs to have protection in place for their children so that there’s not going to be abuse taking place,” he said.

With proper screening and an attitude of transparency though, churches stand a better chance of never having an incident to report, according to Byers.

Church members should be “watching and helping each other,” she said. No one should ever think, “There’s somebody watching the kids … let’s not worry about it,” she added. “There needs to be working together.”

For additional information about preventing child sexual abuse, visit www.sbc.net and click on the “Sex Abuse Prevention” tab on the left side of the page in the “Resources For” box.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – David Roach is pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Shelbyville, Ky. This article first appeared in SBC LIFE, journal of the SBC Executive Committee.)

Related story
Background checks are on the rise, LifeWay reports
A former social worker’s perspective

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — More than 25,000 background checks conducted by churches or organizations on prospective workers in the past three years have turned up more than 1,600 felony offenses, with the number of organizations conducting background checks having risen 27 percent in the past year, according to LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Since launching LifeWay.com/backgroundchecks in 2008, more than 1,656 different churches or organizations have conducted 25,470 background checks. Of those, more than 45 percent (11,656) returned a criminal hit. A “hit” is any kind of incident, ranging from minor traffic violations to felony convictions, explained Jennie Taylor, marketing coordinator in LifeWay’s direct marketing department.

Excluding traffic and non-traffic infractions (jay-walking, noise pollution, etc.,) more than 20 percent (5,107 searches) returned records with misdemeanor or felony results. More than 1,600 of those 5,107 searches returned felony offenses.

In 2008, LifeWay Christian Resources endorsed backgroundchecks.com to offer background screenings for churches and religious organizations at discounted prices. Through LifeWay’s OneSource program — encompassing products and services for churches and religious organizations that LifeWay has endorsed — all churches and religious organizations can receive discounts on background screenings for their camp counselors, bus drivers, staff, volunteers and others.

“Churches are realizing that this is something they need to be doing,” Taylor said. “With the OneSource program we’ve made it more affordable.”

Backgroundchecks.com works with customers based on their specific needs and will consult with churches one-on-one to help select the best screening process for their particular situation, Taylor said.

“We’ve had tremendous feedback from churches and individuals who have used this service,” she said. “Already we’ve seen more than a 27 percent increase in participation this year over last year. That just goes to show how important this service is to churches.”

Churches can conduct due diligence, Taylor said, by utilizing backgroundchecks.com as a step in their security and safety policy. With a database of over 400 million criminal records, backgroundchecks.com has an extensive collection of public record sources, delivering reports in a concise and user-friendly format.

Fairview Baptist Church in Columbus, Miss., started using backgroundchecks.com in 2010.

“Our mission is to tell others about Jesus Christ,” said Aubrey Adair, volunteer security team chairman at Fairview. “We have a lot of young people and children and we want to provide a safe environment for them and for other worshippers. For any worker who will be working with children 17 years and younger and for our security volunteers, we ask them to submit to a background check.

“This is not a foolproof process, but it’s a stronger method than doing nothing at all,” Adair said, adding that the church also uses the service for its Vacation Bible School.

Fairview has been very pleased with the service from backgroundchecks.com, including the turnaround time, which gives results within minutes, Adair said.

“They helped us set the program up and they gave us some great information,” he said. “We were facing a generational change at church with a lot of younger families coming in — this level of safety and precaution really appealed to them.”

Country Oaks Baptist Church in Elk Grove, Calif., used backgroundchecks.com in their process of interviewing pastoral candidates.

“We were able to get an overall view of our new pastor candidate,” said Arnold Dallas, a deacon at Country Oaks. “[Backgroundchecks.com] verified his degrees from college and seminary and had everything electronic, so we could print everything out and could talk by phone whenever we had questions.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Erin Freshwater is a writer in Nashville, Tenn. For more information, visit LifeWay.com/backgroundchecks or call 1-800-464-2799. For additional resources to help churches prevent the devastating effects of sexual abuse and other moral failures by staff members or volunteers, visit www.sbc.net/localchurches/ministryhelp.asp and http://sbclife.net/pdf/ProtectingOurChildren.pdf. Statistics reported in this article are not derived from a representative sample but reflect clients who purchased background check services through LifeWay without regard to organizational type, denomination, region, demographic makeup or other factors.

For churches intent on enhancing their protection of children, a background checks service through LifeWay Christian Resources can be a key facet of their security policy. With a database of over 400 million criminal records, [URL=http://www.LifeWay.com/backgroundchecks]the website[/URL] has an extensive collection of public record sources, delivering reports in a concise and user-friendly format.)

Related stories
Protect your church’s children against sexual abuse nightmare
A former social worker’s perspective

WASHINGTON (BP) – When President Obama told the Justice Department in February 2011 to stop defending a key federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman, it was widely assumed the department would take a neutral position and sit on the sidelines.

But with little fanfare since that announcement, the Justice Department has actually started filing legal briefs arguing that the law in question – the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – should be overturned because, the department says, it is unconstitutional.

It is a remarkable turn of events for a Justice Department that just 15 months ago was defending the law in court. Many of those same attorneys who were defending it now are urging courts to strike it down.

“Everybody thought they were taking a neutral stance. They did not indicate they were going to actively attack its constitutionality,” Dale Schowengerdt, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), told Baptist Press. ADF, a Christian legal group, has worked to defend the law.

It is no small legal matter. Passed by bipartisan support in 1996 and signed into law by President Clinton, the Defense of Marriage Act prevents the federal government from recognizing gay “marriage” and also gives states protection from being forced to recognize another state’s gay “marriages.” In the 16 years since it became law, 30 states – North Carolina being the latest – have passed constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Another dozen or so states have passed similar statutes.

Gay groups view DOMA as one of the remaining obstacles to legalizing gay “marriage” nationwide, and they now have an ally in the Justice Department.

Technically, the Justice Department is involved only in lawsuits that challenge Section 3 of DOMA – the section that prevents the federal government from recognizing gay “marriage.” But the legal arguments the Justice Department is making easily could be applied to all of DOMA, including the section that protects states, Schowengerdt said. President Obama, meanwhile, is supporting a bill in Congress that would overturn all of DOMA.

As an example of the Justice Department’s new stance, it argued in a December 2011 brief at a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania that passage of the Defense of Marriage Act “was motivated in significant part by animus towards gays and lesbians” – i.e., prejudice and hostility toward homosexuals. The brief asserted that gays and lesbians have suffered discrimination throughout history and – like minorities – “exhibit obvious, immutable, or distinguishing characteristics.” Significantly, the Justice Department also said DOMA should be reviewed under “heightened scrutiny” – a standard normally applied to laws that impact, for instance, race and sex.

Supporters of DOMA argue that the law should be subject to what is called “rational basis,” which holds that as long as Congress had a rational reason for passing the law, it should stand. Under rational basis, the court begins with a presumption that the law is valid. Generally, under “heightened scrutiny,” the opposite is true.

The Justice Department’s argument could lead to a landmark ruling: Every appeals court that has considered the issue has declined to apply heightened scrutiny to sexual orientation, Schowengerdt said. Under heightened scrutiny, every law nationwide defining marriage in the traditional sense could be reversed.

The Justice Department legal briefs even have rejected the notion that children need moms and dads – an issue that Congress cited in 1996 as a reason for passage of the Defense of Marriage Act.

“There is no sound basis for concluding that same-sex couples who have committed to marriages recognized by state law are anything other than fully capable of responsible parenting and child-rearing,” the Justice Department attorneys wrote.

DOMA, the Justice Department argued, “unconstitutionally discriminates.”

The Justice Department’s position on the law, Schowengerdt said, is important because courts weigh heavily what the department says.

“When it comes to defending a law that Congress has passed, that usually falls to the Department of Justice, and the courts rely on the Department of Justice to give those laws their best defense,” he said. “That’s how the system works. A system has to have advocates on both sides.”

The “silver lining,” Schowengerdt said, is that attorneys for the House of Representatives are doing a “fantastic” job defending the law. Republican leaders in the House last year voted to start defending the law after the Justice Department stopped defending it. A former solicitor general, Paul Clement, is leading the House team.

Last year in a brief defending DOMA, Clement’s team quoted research stating that “the optimal situation for the child is to have both an involved mother and an involved father.”

“[T]he experience of a child raised by a man and a woman may differ from that of a child raised by same-sex caregivers,” the House brief said. “The federal courts that have upheld DOMA all have recognized that encouraging child-rearing by a married mother and father is a legitimate governmental interest, and that DOMA furthers that interest.... Congress rationally could conclude that each child will benefit from having a role model of his or her own sex as a parent, and from being exposed within the family to how that parent relates to an adult of the opposite sex.”

The DOMA cases are different from the high-profile California Proposition 8 case, although each pertains to the issue of gay “marriage.” It is not clear which will be appealed first to the Supreme Court. The First Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a DOMA case in April but has yet to issue an opinion; the lower court had struck down Section 3 of DOMA. A panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Prop 8 in February, although supporters are appealing that decision to the full circuit for an “en banc” review. The Justice Department is not involved in the Prop 8 case. Prop 8 is a California constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press.)

MONTREAT, N.C. – Billy Graham remains passionate for the Kingdom, Frank Page observed during a May 12 visit with the 93-year-old evangelist.

“His focus is singular as it has always been on winning the lost for Christ,” Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, said after meeting with Graham at the evangelist’s home in Montreat, N.C. “He is [physically] weak. But his mind is sharp as ever.”

Page visited Graham as the guest of Don Wilton, pastor of First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, S.C., where Graham is a member. Page described the meeting as a gift from God.

“It was a great encouragement to me spiritually. When I left I wept with tears of joy because I felt I was in the presence of spiritual greatness,” Page said. “It is one of the things I’ve wanted my whole life. That was a great gift from God for me to visit this great man.”

SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page, after a personal meeting with Billy Graham at the evangelist’s home in Montreat, N.C., described the 93-year-old as ever fervent in his mission.

Page described Graham as a humble man who has led a life of “unquestionable integrity” and a mentor since Page’s earliest years in ministry.

“He really from a distance became a spiritual mentor to me; I told him that Saturday. He helped mentor me and shape me in ways he had no idea,” Page said. “He quickly said all praise goes to the Lord.”

Graham’s “piercing blue eyes” came alive when the two discussed ministry, Page said. Particularly, Page assured Graham of the Southern Baptist Convention’s support of the “My Hope with Billy Graham” initiative scheduled in November 2013 to commemorate the evangelist’s 95th birthday.

“Several times I saw those eyes come alive,” Page said. “I was able to tell him Southern Baptists will be a major part of that emphasis.” North American Mission Board leaders are exploring ways to support the outreach, Page said.

My Hope will encourage laypeople across America to host a meal for a few neighbors during a special Billy Graham television broadcast featuring music, testimonies and short messages from Graham’s international ministry over the years. The broadcast will give laypeople opportunities to share their personal testimonies and to encourage their neighbors to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Resources for the event are available at myhope2013.org.

Graham blessed Page, telling him that God has placed the SBC executive “in this position … for the cause of Christ.”

“This was on my bucket list,” Page said of the visit with Graham. “I’ve attended meetings with him and seen him at a distance, but [I had] never ever met the man.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ staff writer.)

WASHINGTON – Predictably, the news cycles these days have been largely consumed with the unpredictable – the outcome of the 2012 presidential election and the future of the institution of marriage. This follows days of media showcasing the sensational – Secret Service prostitution scandals in Colombia and General Services Administration spending scandals in Las Vegas.

But almost entirely absent from media mention is a brewing scandal that combines aspects of these unfolding sagas.
 
Reeling from slowed business and smaller coffers in the wake of a 2006 law to clamp down on the illegal practice of online gambling, the gambling lobby is roaring back in an effort to convince the government to license and regulate betting on the niche game of Internet poker; all online games involving wagering are currently illegal.

Their renewed inspiration is a recent Justice Department opinion arguing that a major federal law on Internet gambling applies only to sports betting. Their rallying point is legislation introduced last summer by Rep. Joe Barton (R.-Texas). Cosponsored by 30 representatives, the “Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2011” (H.R. 2366) would legalize online wagering of poker and place the cyber activities under government regulation.

While some might think the idea offers a winning hand, it’s a bad bet for America. The measure’s name itself is misleading. Contrary to its suggestive title, the Barton bill would not “strengthen UIGEA” – short for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which President Bush signed into law in 2006 – but instead weaken it.

The purpose of UIGEA, passed as part of a broader bill without objection in the Senate and with only two dissenters in the House, was to clarify that Internet gambling is illegal, reinforcing a 1961 law that banned gambling via wireless communication. It also went a step further: to put enforcement teeth to the law by requiring banks and financial institutions to block transactions between U.S.-based customer accounts and offshore gambling merchants, the biggest profiteers of the industry.

The effect of UIGEA on the online gambling industry’s bottom line was immediate and pronounced. Stocks in online gambling websites plummeted almost overnight. Some sites shut down altogether. Last year, others still in operation offshore suffered yet another blow. In an April 2011 raid that has been dubbed “Black Friday,” the government indicted the three biggest online poker profiteers – PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker – for bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling, freezing more than 75 bank accounts in 14 countries.

The pro-gambling lobby, however, remains undeterred. As one example, the Poker Players Alliance spent $1.4 million last year lobbying Washington power brokers in support of Internet gambling initiatives such as Rep. Barton’s bill, the Roll Call newspaper reported. This alliance, along with multiplied other gambling special interest groups, shows no intention of stepping away from the table this year, either.

No doubt there is money to be made in legalized online poker gambling. The gambling purveyors would rake in additional billions each year. According to the Barton bill, the government would collect “substantial revenue.” And a relative few players among millions would survive in the black, at least for a time.

But is there a greater price to be paid? The losers would far outnumber the winners. The most visible victims would include the countless people ensnared by the game one click at a time, unsatisfied with versions that offer no prospect of profit. Their addiction to the high stakes game in hopes of quick riches will devastate savings and divide marriages. Any revenue the government generates will be more than offset as we as a society have to step in and help pick up the pieces.

“God has given Christians principles for living in a proper relationship with Him and with each other,” says Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land. “They require us to worship God alone, remind us that He owns everything, warn us against greed, prompt us to love our neighbor, command us to work, admonish us to exercise our freedom in light of our witness, and instruct us in the proper role of civil government.”

“Gambling and its promotion violate these principles,” he adds. “It is my prayer that Christians will run from gambling in every form, for there is scarcely no greater act of disobedience and faithlessness than to cast your lot at the feet of some false idol, in this case, the gambling industry.”

To be sure, destroyed lives, broken families and financial ruin are all too often the unmasked face of Internet gambling. That’s why uncaging this shackled beast, even if restrained by government leash, is a losing wager for America. Too bad the media haven’t picked up on this scandal.

(EDITOR’S NOTE ­– Doug Carlson is manager for administration and policy communications for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s Washington D.C. office.)

DHAKA, Bangladesh – As youths, Qahir Hamad* and his Bangladeshi friends beat a group selling Bibles and Christian literature and threw the wares into a pond.
 
Consumed with guilt over what he’d done, Hamad hardly slept that night. Having secretly saved four books to read later, he found someone after weeks of searching to tell him what the books meant.

He learned about how Jesus would save him.

Now, Hamad is the pastor of a house church in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with a vision to see Muslims in the city find lasting peace like he has found in Christ. Bangladesh, he believes, should be a Christian nation.

This is also the vision of Travis and Madison Strauder*, International Mission Board workers who minister among Muslims and Muslim background believers in Dhaka.

“Our vision is a vast multitude from Dhaka city knowing and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ,” Strauder says.

Strauder sees Dhaka as a strategic place for outreach. Thousands of Bangladeshis move to the city of 15 million people looking for jobs, education and a better life.

“We’d like to see people from all over the country coming into Dhaka and hearing the gospel and then being able to take it back to the villages with them,” Strauder says.

Bangladesh, with roughly 158 million people, is one of the world’s most densely populated countries. It’d be the same as if roughly half of the population of the U.S. lived in Arkansas.

Strauder is helping equip Hamad’s house church to reach Muslims more effectively.

Hamad’s house church started with three people: Hamad, his wife and his daughter. Now, 35 people gather to sit on the floor of Hamad’s house to worship and learn more about God.

Two Christians express their heart with raised hands during prayer in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Christians face threats and persecution but continue to worship openly in homes and buildings throughout the city.

These 35 believers are taking part in a church planting and discipleship training widely used throughout southern Asia.

In the training, believers are challenged to write down the names of people they can share what they learned that week. Many of the believers invite these friends to come to a house church with them.

“Our desire is that churches would start in their homes and that everything they learn through these trainings they would pass on to others and there’d be multiplication and that, soon, Dhaka would be filled with churches full of believers worshipping God,” Strauder says.

Their desire is being fulfilled. In December, Hamad baptized some 20 new believers in his bathtub – 19 of whom came to faith through the training Strauder and Hamad hosted.

“If we want to see the growing of Christianity, we have to build the leadership and delegate the leadership,” Hamad says. “If you don’t do this, Christianity will not grow.”

Recent statistics list Christians as 0.05 percent of the population of Bangladesh.

Investing in leaders and sharing the gospel has its consequences. Hamad and the new believers expect persecution.

“I am always ready for persecution because Jesus was also persecuted,” Hamad says. “When I took baptism, persecution came into my life.”

Hamad’s family has ostracized him. He was beaten and tied to the pillars of a mosque for selling Christian literature.

“If they [his friends] found me, they would kill me,” Hamad says.

Many Christians, however, are afraid to acknowledge their faith for fear of the repercussions from their Muslim communities, Hamad says.

As Bangladesh celebrates the 40-year anniversary of its liberation from Pakistan in 1971, Hamad and Straider are praying for Bangladesh’s next 40 years.

“In the next 40 years, you can pray for our nation,” Hamad says. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. You can pray for workers.”

God already is answering that prayer, with a volunteer team venturing in December from the couple’s home church in Tennessee as part of a partnership with them and the city of Dhaka. The volunteers hosted Christmas parties and ministered alongside the Strauders, Hamad and other Bangladeshi partners.

From the Strauders’ and Hamad’s prayer list:

– Pray for the gospel to spread among Bangladesh’s growing population.

– Pray that God would call out national believers in Dhaka who have a vision for the city.

– Pray for unity among believers.

– Pray that the Strauders would see God’s purpose and plan and act in His strength.

– Pray for wisdom as the Strauders and Hamad train others to spread the gospel.

– Pray for boldness for Hamad’s house church members in their witness for Christ.

– Pray for courage for Muslim background believers to share their faith.

– Pray for more godly leaders.

*Names changed.
 
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Caroline Anderson is a writer based in Southeast Asia.)

NEW ORLEANS – Appointments to the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Committee on Committees have been announced by SBC President Bryant Wright. Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., announced the appointments.

The Committee on Committees will assemble in New Orleans just prior to the SBC annual meeting, June 19-20, to nominate members of the Committee on Nominations who, in turn, nominate trustees to serve on boards of the various entities of the SBC.

The Committee on Committees has 70 members, two from each of the 35 state or regional conventions qualified for representation on boards of SBC entities.

North Carolina will be represented by Joel Stephens of Westfield Baptist Church and Aaron Wallace of Hephzibah Baptist Church, Wendell.

Other N.C. Baptists will serve the SBC in a variety of ways if elected by the messengers to the annual meeting.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE – Ed Yount, pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Conover, will replace Al Gilbert, former pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, who resigned. Gilbert is currently working for the North American Mission Board. Nominated for term to expire in 2014 is Terry H. Montgomery, layperson and member of First Baptist Church, Charlotte, N.C., replacing Joan M. Mitchell, Durham, N.C., who resigned.

GUIDESTONE FINANCIAL RESOURCES – One of the nominees with term to expire in 2016 replacing members ineligible for re-election includes John R. Morris, layperson and member of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Boone, replacing Barry D. Hartis of Greensboro.

INTERNATIONAL MISSION BOARD – Nominated for term to expire in 2016 is Roberta N. (Bobbi) Ashford, layperson and member of Coats Baptist Church in Coats, replacing Elizabeth B. (Beth) Harris, Charlotte, N.C., who declined to serve a second term.

NORTH AMERICAN MISSION BOARD – Nominated for term to expire in 2014 is Cynthia E. (Cindy) Bush, layperson and member of Bay Leaf Baptist Church in Raleigh, replacing Todd W. Garren of Lincolnton, who resigned. Nominated for second term is Bruce L. Franklin of Henderson.
 
LIFEWAY CHRISTIAN RESOURCES – Nominated for second term is Jesse W. Messer, Asheville, N.C.

SOUTHWESTERN SEMINARY – Nominated for second term is Travis C. Tobin, Garner, N.C.

SOUTHEASTERN SEMINARY – Nominees with term to expire in 2017 replacing members ineligible for re-election include Thomas S. Mach, layperson and member of Dayton Avenue Baptist Church, Xenia, Ohio, replacing William J. (Jack) Homseley, Cornelius, N.C.; Charles H. Cranford, layperson and member of Carmel Baptist Church, Charlotte, N.C., replacing James David (Jim) Goldston III, Raleigh, N.C.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – This list only includes those representing N.C. Baptist churches. For a complete list, see the full story on the Committee on Committees and the full story on the other entities at Baptist Press.)

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Dean Sisk is bringing four men to Georgia in July from Belle Aire Baptist Church hoping they gain new vision and new connections for expanding their reach.

“We came to a conclusion that our primary focus in missions needed to be on planting churches,” said Sisk, who has led the Tennessee congregation in assisting a half-dozen church starts across North America.
 
Belle Aire began seeking out ways to engage its people in reaching out locally and globally a number of years ago. This led the Murfreesboro church into sponsoring new churches and sending out its people to start new works.

“I grew up in a generation whose concept of missions was giving and praying,” Sisk said. “The personalized concept of missions has caught on and we’ve had hundreds of people go on dozens of mission trips.

“But we also want to be strategic in sending people and resources long-term to the places with the greatest needs,” the pastor said.

Sisk and the other Belle Aire leaders will join hundreds of leaders in an effort to refine their strategy for the difficult, heavily populated areas of the continent.

This could mean sending members or it could mean supporting a missionary already working in a critical area.

“There are very few of us who are truly original thinkers, and often a mission strategy will be the result of putting together bits and pieces of lots of conversations,” Sisk said, noting what he sees as a key need to interact with leaders and planters. “I think the relationships are a big part of what makes the mission effort work.”

And relationships are a key ingredient to the Send North America Conference July 30-31.

Designed to draw leaders interested in partnering to reach North America, the North American Mission Board’s Send North America Conference at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., will feature leading practitioners in church planting and other key ministry areas.

Send North America is NAMB’s strategy to mobilize Southern Baptists to share Christ and start churches in 29 major cities and elsewhere throughout North America.

The Send North America Conference will provide a new focus for leaders who have attended the Church Planting Missionary Forum and Summer State Leadership Meeting in the past, and will engage a broader range of lay leaders.

“We hope this gathering will inspire and inform leaders who are seeking to plant healthy, evangelistic Southern Baptist churches,” said Aaron Coe, NAMB’s vice president of mobilization and equipping. “When you can get key people under one roof for a few days praying, learning and networking together, God can work in some pretty big ways. And not just for church planters but for anyone who wants to plug into this strategy.”

Among the keynote speakers at the conference: David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, Ala.; Vance Pitman, pastor of Hope Baptist Church, Las Vegas; Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock; Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research; Louis Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church, Atlanta; Matt Redman, Dove Award-winning songwriter and worship leader; and Kevin Ezell, president of NAMB.

A schedule of workshops will include breakout sessions on church planting, evangelism, leadership, effective partnerships and role-specific training.

“This year’s conference will also seek to involve people from all walks of SBC life, including pastors, churches, church planters, missionaries and denominational leaders,” Coe said. “If a church is thinking about planting a church or has already committed to doing so, this conference will provide the next steps in the church planting process.”

The Send North America Conference is the first in a series of gatherings planned for 2012-13 to train, equip and involve Southern Baptists in the Send North America church planting strategy.

For more information, visit namb.net/SNAconference.

(EDITOR’S NOTE  – Adam Miller is a writer for the North American Mission Board.)

Related story
Ezell introduces missionary development plan

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Having enough missionaries to support the Southern Baptist effort to impact lostness in North America will require intentional missionary development.

Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), addressed that need during his monthly webcast with Baptist directors of missions and church planter catalysts May 1.
 
Ezell signaled a missionary development system that will begin in 2013 to provide a way for high school, college and seminary students interested in ministry to gain experience through summer/semester missions, internships and apprenticeships for hands-on experience in North American missions.

“We’re re-doing the summer mission program so [summer missionaries] actually do missions activities,” Ezell said. “They’re not just answering phones.

“We had some tell us they typed pastors’ sermon notes the entire summer,” Ezell added. “That doesn’t give them a very good impression of missions or how they can help penetrate lostness themselves for a summer. We want them to have some mission experience so we can develop missionaries.”

After serving as a summer missionary, a student wanting to pursue ministry in missions could apply to become an intern. These would be one-year paid positions for more focused ministry experience working directly with a pastor, church or associational leader.

Internships could lead to an apprenticeship for those who qualify and want to move further toward planting a church. These would be one-year paid positions specific to a city in which the apprentice works directly with a church planter and gains hands-on church planting experience.

“The reason we’re doing that is to hopefully protect churches and associations and states as they invest in [church] planters,” Ezell said. “We would rather a planter be on the field, see if he’s actually going to fit and that it’s the right fit for him. Then the compensation for being a church planter and the investment churches might make would start the year later. This also means that the planter would get on the field without the worry that he has to start immediately developing something because time is running out.

“So we’re very excited about developing a farm team that will hopefully help produce hundreds and hundreds of missionaries every year,” Ezell said in the live webcast for the 1,200 directors of missions and church planter catalyst missionaries who serve throughout the United States and Canada. Participants have the opportunity to email or text questions in before or during the webcast. Afterward, an archive version of the program can be viewed online and shared.

Strategies
Responding to a question, Ezell said NAMB’s church planting strategy fits “very easily” with state or associational church planting strategies.

“In every one of our Send [North America] cities, we go to the association and the state and say, ‘What is your church planting strategy for this city?’ If they don’t have one, we ask them if [they] would come up with one overall master plan,” Ezell said.

Ezell stressed that these 10-year strategies place a greater emphasis on need than on available funding.

“In the past, typically, we look and say ‘Okay. How much money do we have? Now what can we do with this money?’“ Ezell said. “That’s a spending plan. What we want is a strategy of what really needs to be accomplished. Forget the resourcing. What needs to be accomplished? And then let’s prioritize.”

Missionary relocation
Ezell addressed another question regarding how NAMB plans to transition missionaries to under-reached and underserved areas of North America.

“I could go on and on about [places where] we do not have any – zero – full-time NAMB missionaries,” Ezell said. “So what we are trying to do is to ... move some of those positions.”

In some cases, that could mean relocating a missionary from a position in the South to a position in an under-reached region.

“If a missionary is in one particular area and ... meets the qualifications for what we’re seeking in, say, a Connecticut or a Maine, then they’ll have the opportunity to shift, to move and to be a church planter catalyst, say, in Maine,” Ezell said. “We’ll make those positions open, available and transition them where we can.”

Not every missionary would be qualified for a new role or necessarily fit with work in another state, Ezell acknowledged. “But obviously, we want to go to our missionaries and if they qualify and they really want to accomplish that task in that particular state, then we absolutely would love for them to do that and be a part of that process.”

Send North America
Responding to another question, Ezell said NAMB’s Send North America strategy is not only about church planting. While his first 18 months at NAMB were spent bringing more focus on church planting, he said the mission board also continues to assist Southern Baptists in other evangelistic efforts, including God’s Plan for Sharing, disaster relief and Love Loud ministries.

Ezell also emphasized the evangelistic nature of Southern Baptist church planting.

“When I say church planting, I’m saying evangelism. We’re not talking about church splitting here,” Ezell said. “We’re wanting to reach people. When you go to a Boston or you go to a Connecticut or a Rhode Island ... you’ve got to reach people, and when we say church planting that’s what we mean.

“Every mission effort we do in North America and internationally should ultimately be to reach someone so they come to know Christ,” Ezell continued. “It’s an evangelistic focus and strategy. You reach someone, they’re discipled and they become a part of a local body of believers.”

Bivocational pastors
The final question Ezell addressed involved NAMB’s support for bivocational pastors, whom Ezell described as key to the future of the church in North America.

“In order for the Southern Baptist Convention to see a real movement of church planting and a real movement of evangelism, we’re going to have to get out of the mindset that it’s going to have to be by a full-time church planter. It’s absolutely going to happen through bivocational ministers, bivocational pastors.”

Ezell said NAMB is working with some schools about a pilot program with educational opportunities for bivocational pastors that NAMB would help fund. He said he will share more detail about this and several other opportunities during the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans, where NAMB will spotlight bivocational work and the men who tirelessly reach their communities while leading a family and working in another career.

“We’re going to honor them because honor is due,” Ezell said. “These are the true iron men of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

A full version of the webcast and previous webcasts can be viewed namb.net/webcast.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Adam Miller is a writer for the North American Mission Board.)

Related story
NAMB to link churches and mission field