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Volume 109, No. 5
APRIL 06, 2015
IB Insider
Professor walks Ferguson streets page 5 Is Sunday good for you? page 6
1,100 pint-size missionaries stage gospel blitz page 11
4 things we didn’t know about religious freedom page 13
Diana Davis: Fresh ideas on first-timer follow-up page 15
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IN AMERICA
A SOUTHERN BAPTIST RESPONSE
Reconciliation & the gospel
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Jesus makes Christians right with God and with one another. Why, then, is it so difficult to overcome our differences? Special report, pages 7-9
State Evangelism Conference ‘Desperation is needed for revival’
Decatur | “I wonder what it’s going to take to get people desperate for God,” lamented Alvin Reid, Professor of Evangelism at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. “We take ourselves too seriously, but we don’t take the gospel seriously enough.” If we want to see change in the world, we have to ask God to bring revival. That was message of the IBSA State Evangelism Conference held at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Decatur. When revival does occur, it can be surprising, Reid shared. “We may plan for it and pray for it, but it usually catches us by surprise.” Georgia pastor Johnny Hunt cited desperation as a need in bringing revival: “We haven’t experienced revival because the church is not even close to desperate,” said Hunt, former Southern Baptist Convention President. “Why should heaven scurry around to send revival when we don’t want it?” Hunt called on pastors to preach the gospel and not moralism, saying, “I’ve never lived in a generation of preachers that, over the last 10 years, has done a better job of defining the gospel…but is so slow to preach the gospel.”
PLEADING – Former SBC President Johnny Hunt asks pastors to get “desperate” for revival while speaking at the IBSA State Evangelism Conference.
Like Reid, Hunt stressed that revival comes from God. “You can’t revive yourself,” he said. To reach people, Hunt said Christians need to spend time with those who don’t know Christ as their savior. “The longer you’re part of God’s family, the further removed you are from those Christ died for. You have to ask yourself, ‘When am I going to carve out time to rub shoulders with those that don’t know the Lord?’” Joel Southerland of the North American Mission board and Dennis Nunn, founder of Every Believer A Witness Ministries, were also presenters at the March 27-28 conference. Look for complete coverage in the April 27 issue of the Illinois Baptist.
Women’s meeting to make ‘priority’ of leadership
Springfield | Living a life with intention is the theme of this year’s IBSA Women’s Resource Conference April 24-25 at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Decatur. The two-day Priority Conference is designed to equip leaders serving in the local church. The conference will include worship and large group sessions led by nationally known speakers, 40 breakout offerings on a variety of topics, a luncheon for ministers’ wives, exhibit area with ministry resources, and a 5K walk/run. A screening of “War Room,” a new film from the creators of “Fireproof” and “Courageous,” will follow the Friday evening session. Priority begins Friday at 1 p.m. with a missions celebration featuring North American and International Mission Board missionaries and Tajuan McCarty, founder of The WellHouse ministry that seeks to rescue victims of human trafficking. Clella Lee, a leadership consultant for National Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), will also speak during the opening session. Lee directs WMU’s Christian Women’s Leadership Center, which Continued on page 2