Illinois Baptist SBC Leadership
Floyd urges unity, vision
Decries ‘sound of war’
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Nashville, Tenn. | The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee met in Nashville Feb. 22-23 for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person gatherings. The meeting was marked by leaders’ calls for cooperation amid several public fractures in Baptist life: racial tensions, a dispute between six state conventions and the North American Mission Board, and a recently released report questioning the direction and activities of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd compared the current divisive discourse in the SBC to threats Joshua heard among the people of God in Exodus 32:17. He urged Southern Baptists to work in unity for the greater cause of the Great Commission. “This ‘sound of war in the camp’ of Southern Baptists is concerning to me and I know it is also concerning to many of you. While we hear and see how the American culture is so out of control, my friends, our own culture within the Southern Baptist family is also out of control,” Floyd said. “We are living downstream of this current culture in American life rather than living upstream against the currents.” P. 3
Starting over at Easter P. 10
Spring back
IllinoisBaptist.org News journal of the Illinois Baptist State Association
MARCH 1, 2021 Vol. 115 No. 3
TABLE TALK
The Way obscured? Evangelicals losing ground P. 14
NATE ADAMS
What we value
mission
How it drives what we do
New churches experience growth despite pandemic (or because of it) P. 7
P. 2
SBC PRESIDENT
Candidate Q&A On issues facing Baptists P. 4
in focus
2020 The year of the asterisk
What if Roger Maris filed your ACP? P. 11-12
NEW MEASURES FOR SUCCESS PAUL COOPER P. 13
IB