SBC 2015 | IBSA Reception, page 9 • Robin Glover: What you need to know about Columbus, page 5
Volume 109, no. 8
June 08, 2015
When war
IB Insider
Holy rollers tour Nashville page 2
comes home How can the church help?
Lawmakers wrap up spring session page 3 Archer the dog, and 4 other PTSD resources pages 6-7
A special report for the Illinois Baptist by Kayla Rinker
Reporter’s Notebook: Much ado about not much? page 4
Summer Reading: New books for disciples and groups page 10
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Sterling | The young soldier sat in the chair across from Army Chaplain Aaron Jackson and described the grisly scene that reoccurred in the private’s nightmares. But Jackson was only half listening. Instead, his own anxiety that he had spent years suppressing flooded his mind, and images of violence and death caused his hands to become clammy and his heart to race. “Until that point I had always felt stronger than it,” said Jackson. “No
way was it going to overtake me. In the military we are taught to improvise, adapt and overcome. You don’t want to be the one who’s hurting.” The more he counseled others, the more Jackson’s post-traumatic stress disorder came to the surface. PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or seeing a terrifying event. It’s closely connected to military service; the National Center for PTSD reports 11-20% of veterans who served in Operations Iraqi Free-
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2015 Southern Baptist Convention
Baptists bathe Ohio in prayer before SBC
Columbus, Ohio | Southern Baptists in Ohio prayed in each of the state’s 88 county seats the month before the Southern Baptist Convention was scheduled to hold its annual meeting there. “The short-term goal is that Ohio Baptists literally would be purified and unified as one, and cry out as one voice for Jesus to draw the lost to Him in every single county,” the effort’s organizer, Cathy Pound, told Baptist Press. The prayer focus couldn’t be more timely as far as the SBC’s Annual Meeting is concerned; President Ronnie Floyd has designated this year’s meeting, June 16-17, as a time for Baptists to cry out to God together for spiritual awakening in their churches,
communities, the nation, and the world. The Pray Ohio Call to Prayer started last year, with a special prayer emphasis every month. May was county seats, and June is the city of Columbus and Crossover, an annual pre-Convention evangelistic effort in the SBC host city. “This has been a long emphasis of ours,” said Jack Kwok, executive director/treasurer of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio. “We think it’s very providential Ronnie (Floyd) came along with a similar vision and heartbeat in praying for awakening, and it just fit real well.” The Tuesday evening session of the SBC Annual Meeting is a “Call to Continued on page 9
dom and Enduring Freedom have PTSD, as do 12% of veterans of the Gulf War. But it’s not only war-related. The Center says 7-8% of the U.S. population will have PTSD at some point, about 5.2 million adults in a given year. Churches and pastors can play a vital role in the healing process, said Kip Troeger, a National Guard chaplain based in Springfield and a member of Living Faith Baptist, Sherman. Continued on page 6
‘Revelation Song’ composer to lead summer workshop
Springfield | IBSA’s Summer Worship University for students will feature Dove Award-winning songwriter Jennie Lee Riddle. The author of “Revelation Song” will teach several classes in worship leadership and songwriting at the week-long training event for students July 13-17. “Jennie will start off each day teaching a class that will help all students write music and poetry from the book of Psalms,” said Steve Hamrick, IBSA’s director of Worship and Church Music Ministries. Continued on page 2