Illinois Baptist
Will I see you in St. Louis? Nate Adams on the upcoming Convention P. 2
mission Workplace Mission Field
DIANA DAVIS P. 13
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
So this is normal Discoveries on a college campus
LISA SERGENT P. 6
TABLE TALK
Is our tent too big? Or our circle too small. NATHAN CARTER P. 13
Get frequent updates
Holding Out Hope
Illinois team aids impoverished women in South Asia
Get news and commentary online. See page 3 for addresses. News journal of the Illinois Baptist State Association
APRIL 18, 2016 Nonprofit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Peoria, Illinois Permit No. 325
Vol. 110 No. 06
A special report from the scene begins on P. 7
It’s a 3-way race for SBC President As another candidate declares, a new issue arises: CP support St. Louis | It’s a three-man race for president of the Southern Baptist Convention. David Crosby, pastor of New Orleans’ First Baptist Church, has joined Steve Gaines and J.D. Greear in a trio of candidates messengers will consider when the Convention convenes in St. Louis June 13-14. Fellow New Orleans pastor and former SBC president Fred Luter will nominate Crosby in St. Louis. “I have watched David the last 10 years here in New Orleans as he has taken the leadership of all the churches and pastors of our city in helping to rebuild New Orleans, which everybody knows was totally destroyed
[in 2005] in Hurricane Katrina,” Luter told Baptist Press. “I saw how he was able to get a lot of things done to get the city back up and running,” Luter said, noting Crosby’s “passion for the Body of Christ and for our convention....I can see that same passion he had for our city leading the Southern Baptist Convention.” Crosby’s fellow candidates are also southern pastors: Gaines leads Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., and Greear pastors The Summit Church in Raleigh-Dur-
ham, N.C. Each candidate’s ministry was profiled in separate Baptist Press articles including their churches’ missions giving. Giving through the Cooperative Program— Southern Baptists’ unified program of supporting North American and global missions and ministries—is a key issue for Baptists as they elect leaders to the denomination’s top post. The number most often reported is the percentage of its undesignated offerings that a church gives through CP. FBC New Orleans currently forwards 7% of undesignated receipts P. 4