Issuu

October emphasis: Cooperative Program works! • New handout for new Baptists, pages 9-10

Volume 108, No. 14

IB Insider

Fond farewell to retiring friend page 8 Mommy, I’m hungry page 5 See seven baptized at Ten Mile page 3

NFL teaches churches hard lessons page 5

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

Praying for ‘what only God can do’

Annual Meeting to focus on awakening and revival Springfield | “I believe we need to cry out to God for spiritual awakening in our state, and for revival in our churches,” said IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams. “So at the Wednesday evening session of this year’s Annual Meeting, we are choosing to focus less on what we have been doing, and more on asking God to do what only He can.” The 2014 IBSA Annual Meeting is Nov. 5-6 at the Springfield Crowne Plaza Hotel. The meeting, including Wednesday’s “concert of prayer,” will continue to unpack the Mission Illinois theme unveiled last year. To prepare for the concert, attenders are encouraged to use a series of devotionals by O’Fallon pastor Doug

Munton. (See page 5 of section B.) Church members planning to serve as messengers should contact their church office to get information for online pre-registration, which will close at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 27. Messengers also may register at the Annual Meeting with a signed messenger card from their church. Churches may e-mail CaroleDoom@ IBSA.org or call (217) 391-3113 to request blank messenger cards or for registration assistance. The IBSA Pastors’ Conference will precede the meeting, beginning at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4. For more on that and other meetings, see the special section in this issue, or go to www.IBSA.org/IBSA2014.

Campers on Mission hit the road again

What is ‘extraordinary prayer’? Section B

News and updates Throughout the week:

Nonprofit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Peoria, Illinois Permit No. 325

and Pastors’ Conference November 4-6 Crowne Plaza Hotel Springfield, Illinois

Preview in

Section B

Final marriage ruling in sight

SCOTUS likely to untangle mixed state judgments

Dave Ramsey: Weddings cost what? page 11

facebook.com/IllinoisBaptist twitter.com/IllinoisBaptist pinterest.com/IllinoisBaptist vimeo.com/IBSA www.IBSA.org

IBSA Annual Meeting

CHURCH IMPROVEMENT – Gary Watson works on a carpentry project outside Light of

Christ in East St. Louis, where a group of Illinois Campers on Mission served for a week in August. See page 7 for the full story and more photos.

IBSA board approves 2015 goals

New staff structure, hiring standard affirmed By Lisa Sergent

Springfield | A new structure for IBSA staff will put more employees closer to Illinois churches, Executive Director Nate Adams told the IBSA Board of Directors at their Sept. 16 meeting. Calling it both “high tech and high touch,” Adams said the reorganization results from the desire to make IBSA and its 2015 goals more “church-centric.” “Reductions in funding from the North American Mission Board, first for associational Directors of Missions and now for statewide missions staff, led us to look at a modified structure,” Adams said. “We needed a plan that required fewer resources, but that also allowed DISCUSSION – Roger Marshall, pastor of us to be more responsive to churches First Baptist Church of Effingham, and the who no longer have associational staff. IBSA Board of Directors consider a motion at Continued on page 2

their meeting Sept. 16 in Springfield.

After a Louisiana judge upheld the traditional definition of marriage in a September ruling, advocates on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate are calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to make a final, nationwide ruling, once and for all. Indications are, they will. Thirty-two states filed briefs this month asking the Supreme Court to decide the marriage issue. The appeal made by the states—15 that allow same-sex marriage and 17 that don’t—came the day after a federal judge in Louisiana this month became the first judge to uphold a state’s ban on same-sex marriage since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act last summer. Judge Martin Feldman ruled Sept. 3 that same-sex marriage “is not a fundamental right that states must uphold despite constitutional or legislative bans,” reported USA Today. Continued on page 3

Elevate Marriage set for October 16

Now that same-sex unions are legal in Illinois, what’s the local church to do? Elevate Marriage, a one-day conference for pastors and church leaders, is designed to help your church navigate the shifting marriage culture. IBSA Building, Springfield 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (lunch provided)

Registration required www.IBSA.org/Marriage