Who will go for us? • Annie Armstrong Offering & Week of Prayer guide, page 6
Volume 109, No. 3
IB Insider
Rebuilding in the Philippines page 3
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
New Awakening IBSA State Evangelism Conference
Renew, refresh, replenish
March 27-28
Pastor combats ‘present darkness’ over the phone page 5 Higher learning, higher calling Special Section, pages 7-11 B-101: Social order or societal chaos? page 14
Miss Annie’s gingersnaps page 16
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Tabernacle Baptist Church in Decatur
‘We need a God intervention’
“We need a move of God’s spirit; Springfield | The New Awakening we need another awakening, and I’m Evangelism Conference will bring praying that it starts here, in us.” three of the Southern Baptist ConvenThe conference comes at a time tion’s foremost teachers and revival when leaders are calling Baptists in preachers to Decatur March 27-28. Illinois and across the country to Johnny Hunt, Alvin Reid, and Joel heightened prayer for spiritual awakSoutherland will speak during the ening and revival. Several factors conference at Tabernacle Baptist have brought on the recent focus on Church, which also includes 14 evanawakening, Reid told the Illinois Bapgelism-themed breakout sessions. “New Awakening” is the first statewide evangelism conference hosted by the Illinois Baptist State Association in several years. The theme came out of a season of personal study on the first and second Great Hunt Reid Southerland Awakenings and other historic revivals, said Tim tist: Baptists are aware they’ve lost the Sadler, IBSA’s director of evangel“home field advantage;” numbers are ism. declining and we don’t have the influ“I was just convinced that our probence we once had. lem is not going to be fixed by a pro“A lot of leaders are realizing we’re gram; declining baptisms are not just not smart enough to build a going to be fixed by another thing in a program to fix this,” Reid said. box,” Sadler said. Continued on page 3
Christian leaders mourn martyred Egyptians
Persecution of Christians in the Middle East continues with frightening ferocity, as a video released Feb. 15 shows the apparent mass beheading of Egyptian Christians. The chilling video shows blackclad captors leading hostages in orange jumpsuits down a beach in Libya, where at least a dozen are eventually beheaded. Twenty-one Coptic Christians reportedly kidnapped in eastern Libya in December and January are believed dead. “These are my brothers, faithful unto Christ even unto death,” Russell Moore posted on Instagram with an image from the video released by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). “King Jesus puts heads back on, and puts worlds back together. Maranatha,” wrote the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Coptic Christians are under the umbrella of Orthodox Christianity and represent 8-11% of the population in Egypt, CNN reported. “The video released today once again demonstrates the incredible evil that is being perpetrated by militants loyal to the Islamic State,” International Christian Concern’s Todd Daniels told The Christian Post. In a guest post on The Gospel Coalition blog, Southern Seminary professor Tom Schreiner offered a Scripture-filled biblical meditation: “In dying for Christ’s sake, in not loving our ‘lives even unto death,’ we are not losers but winners; we are not overcome by evil,” he wrote. “Instead, we are ‘more than conquerors’ (Rom. 8:37; Rev. 12:11). Those who are slain for Christ’s sake come to life and reign with Jesus Christ” (Rev. 20:4).
Illinois churches join national SBC call to prayer
Illinois | First Baptist Church of Paxton has a newfound calling as prayer intercessors. “Christ’s church in America is in desperate need of spiritual revival and renewal,” said Pastor Bob Stilwell. “We need to be awakened from our comfort and complacency in our salvation. We need to be shaken from our evangelistic lethargy.” In January, Stilwell led his congregation in a concert of prayer similar to the prayer for spiritual awakening at the IBSA Annual Meeting in November. The Paxton church is one of many in Illinois joining a national call to prayer, including more than 30 in metro Chicago. “As I prayed in preparation of God’s message to our congregation for the week focusing on interceding, the Continued on page 2
AT THE ALTAR – Chicago leaders convened a one-day prayer meeting and equipping conference in January at Lighthouse Fellowship Baptist Church in Frankfort.