Planning a mission trip to Chicago? • Housing options, page 6
Volume 108, No. 1
JANUARY 01, 2014
Taking the light to the darkest corners
IB Insider Why cooperation is sweet page 4 Discipleship beyond the boxed set, page 5 The BIG Pic: Hope after the storm page 3 Holiday leftovers page 8 Potluck Blogger: Our salad days are back, page 11
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The next great awakening What is our role in America’s needed revival?
By Eric Reed
If renewal is a work of the Spirit, is there anything we can do beyond waiting for God to act in His providential timing? Pastors and leaders meeting in Atlanta in January certainly hope so. “We had a fabulous response to our Dallas prayer gathering,” Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd said. “We did not have any plans to do another gathering, but wanted only what God wanted…. After listening, prayer and discussion, we determined that God wanted us to open it up to all Southern Baptist senior pastors and Godcalled ministers.” Nearly 200 pastors attended the first meeting Sept. 30-Oct. 1. The second gathering is set for Jan. 13-14 at the Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel.
The meeting raises a question: What can believers do to bring spiritual awakening to a nation lulled to disinterest by its tolerance of sin? In his invitation, Floyd says the next meeting is for those who “are desperate for a move of God in our churches and in our nation.” “They realize to penetrate their towns, cities, and our nation, God will have to empower a mighty movement of revival in the church, so we can see spiritual awakening in our nation,” Floyd said. Or, as one pastor asserted at the Dallas gathering, “God, I’m not going to let go of You until You burst from the heavens and come down.” Continued on page 9
Springfield | “The reason I am here is because I don’t want to have to rescue you.” Tajuan McCarty stood in front of more than 100 teenage girls and their leaders, pulling no punches as she told her story. Speaking in short, unflinching sentences, she explained how she was pushed into prostitution at age 15, and trafficked into every state except Hawaii and Alaska over the next 11 years. “I am a survivor of trafficking.” McCarty is founder and director of The Wellhouse, a ministry that rescues women trapped in the same kind of life that once enslaved her. Headquartered in Birmingham, The Wellhouse is in a prime location to fight trafficking along I-20, known as the sex trafficking superhighway. She also helps raise awareness about the global problem that is deeply entrenched in the United States. McCarty has been a Christian for four years, so her message begins with this: All women are beautiful, because they’re made in God’s image. “If you walk away from here thinking prostitution is a choice and/or she’s doing it because she’s on drugs, I have not done my job,” McCarty told a captivated audience at AWSOM, an annual missions event for young women in Illinois. Drugs are only a symptom of the problem, she added. “At The Wellhouse, what we try to do is reach the core of the problem. And yes, we introduce them to Jesus because that is the only way to heal people.” McCarty is bold, about her past and about her testimony. She told the girls Continued on page 7
Pastor leads the way in tornado recovery Message of God's mercy is central to relief efforts
By Meredith Flynn
Washington, Ill. | Four weeks after the tornado, Josh Monda stood in the pulpit of First Baptist Church in Washington and preached the third sermon in his Christmas series on hope. “…When you think all things are hopeless, there’s hope,” Monda said, his voice urgent. “It’s not found in the things of this world, but it’s found in Jesus Christ. There’s hope.” Monda’s voice cracked on the last word. “In the middle of everything, there’s hope.” A month ago, no one knew how timely his message would be. Continued on page 2
HOPE PROCLAIMED – Pastor Josh Monda chose hope as the theme of his December sermon series well before a tornado destroyed parts of his town.