Month: July 2021

ERLC backs brief, urges court to reverse Roe v. Wade

WASHINGTON (BP)—The Southern Baptist Convention’s ethics entity has joined other religious organizations in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its decisions that support a right to abortion.

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief filed Tuesday (July 27) that calls for the reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey opinion that affirmed the Roe decision but permitted some state regulation of the procedure. The ERLC and five other organizations joined in a brief filed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) regarding a case involving Mississippi’s ban on abortions of unborn children whose gestational age is more than 15 weeks.

The high court’s rule in the Roe and Casey opinions that prohibited states from banning abortions before an unborn child is viable “is deeply flawed,” the brief said. “These decisions, insofar as they impede the ability of states to prohibit abortion before viability, should be overruled.”

The Supreme Court, which announced in May it would rule in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, has yet to schedule arguments for the case in its next term, which begins in October. The court is expected to issue an opinion in the case before it adjourns next summer.

“For too long, the Roe and Casey decisions have allowed our nation to turn a blind eye to the plight of those who have no voice,” said Chelsea Sobolik, the ERLC’s acting director of public policy. “Our brief asks the Court to overturn those two cases and set a new precedent that respects every life.

“With each passing day, more and more people recognize preborn lives are worthy of protection,” she told Baptist Press in written comments. “The Dobbs case provides another chance for the Court to come to that same conclusion and affirm the fundamental right to life.”

Brent Leatherwood, the ERLC’s vice president of external affairs and chief of staff, said, “Government has many responsibilities. Chief among them is protecting innocent life. How much more important is that responsibility when it comes to protecting preborn lives that cannot speak for themselves?

“Christians have long pleaded the case for America to recognize the inherent dignity of our most vulnerable neighbors,” he said in a written statement. “This case gives us another opportunity to do so. Until that happens, our nation will not be able to fully achieve that lofty goal of being a land that preserves life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for every individual.”

By accepting Mississippi’s appeal, the Supreme Court has the chance to rein in a legal regime inaugurated nearly 50 years ago that has made the United States one of the most permissive countries in the world regarding abortion rights. A study released July 27 by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute showed 47 of 50 European nations do not permit elective abortions or restrict them to 15 weeks or earlier.

In their May order in response to Mississippi’s appeal of a lower-court opinion, the justices said they would limit their ruling to whether, as the state told the court, “all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.” Viability for an unborn child, or the ability to survive outside the womb, is typically considered to be several weeks after the limit set by Mississippi’s 2018 Gestational Age Act.

The ERLC-endorsed brief requested the high court uphold the Mississippi ban and said the U.S. Constitution “does not create a right to an abortion of an unborn child before viability or at any other stage of pregnancy. An asserted right to abortion has no basis in constitutional text or in American history and tradition.”

The Roe decision’s reliance on the due process clause of the 14th Amendment was misplaced, according to the brief. “There is no evidence that the framers of the [14th] Amendment thought they were creating a right to abortion at any stage of pregnancy,” the brief said. By the close of 1868, when that amendment was ratified, 30 of the then-37 states had prohibited abortion, according to the brief.

The justices’ decision in Roe to establish viability as the time before which a state may not ban abortion “creates two classes of unborn children whose legal status depends on the ability of then-current medical technology to keep them alive, a distinction that is constitutionally irrelevant,” the brief said.

The viability rule is “entirely arbitrary,” according to the brief. Neither Roe nor Casey nor another opinion has offered a “principled justification” for the court’s rule regarding viability, the brief said.

States have an interest in protecting human life, as well as medical ethics and integrity, according to the brief. “Abortion involves the purposeful taking of an innocent human life and, like the homicide of a born person, it is a proper subject of prohibition by the state,” the brief said. “It does not offend the Constitution for the state to forbid the healing professions to cause or assist in causing an intentional killing.”

The high court’s Roe and Casey opinions mean “no finality is ever attained as to the permissibility” of state abortion regulations, according to the brief. The abortion issue should be returned to the states, the brief said.

The Roe ruling struck down abortion restrictions in all states and, combined with the Doe v. Bolton companion decision, had the effect of legalizing abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason. If Roe were reversed, states would once again decide abortion policy.

In addition to the ERLC, other organizations signing onto the USCCB brief were the National Association of Evangelicals, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Catholic dioceses of Biloxi and Jackson, Miss., and the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA.

A federal judge ruled in 2018 the Mississippi law is unconstitutional because it prohibits pre-viability abortions. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans affirmed the ruling the following year.

The confirmation during the Trump administration of three justices considered to be conservatives has given pro-life advocates hope the high court is ready to use a state law as the vehicle to overturn Roe and Casey. Some state legislatures with pro-life majorities have passed prohibitions that take effect even earlier than that enacted by Mississippi.

Mississippi’s ban permits an exception for threats to the life or “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” of the mother. It also allows an exception for a “severe fetal abnormality” that “is incompatible with life outside the womb.”

The brief is available at https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1392/185030/20210727130348783_13-1932.Dobbs.final.pdf.

Lifeline remains rooted to the Bible as adoption, pregnancy care culture shifts

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) – Churches are called to uphold justice for the marginalized and vulnerable, but must include the motivation for such actions. It begins with a relationship with Christ.

Herbie Newell

That focus, says Herbie Newell of Lifeline Children’s Services, is the difference in doing good for its own sake and doing good that addresses the root issues. “The Church needs to see that God has called us to do justice. But, doing justice is only part of our Gospel proclamation. Lifeline goes into the hard places for ministry while staying rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Lifeline grew out of Sav-a-Life crisis pregnancy center to address the needs of vulnerable children and families through adoption, family restoration, orphan care, education and counseling. Co-founders Wales Goebel and John Carr wanted to show the Gospel to those clients, Newell said. In addition to educating pregnant women about their options and sharing the Gospel, Christian families were also available to adopt the child should the birth mother make the choice to carry the baby to term.

“The secret sauce of what we do is found in the discipleship aspect of our ministry,” added Newell, Lifeline’s president and executive director. “It creates a generational ripple effect. When you work with one young person and provide Christian families for a child, then you provide healing for the future.

“It’s never been just about the child, but discipleship. If we took that out of our statement of faith, then we change everything about our ministry.”

Like other Christian adoption agencies, Lifeline has felt the pressure as culture has shifted on sexuality and marriage. When Bethany Christian Services, one of the nation’s largest evangelical adoption providers, declared earlier this year it would now serve gay parents, the announcement sparked phone calls to Lifeline’s offices.

“A lot of people wanted to know where we stood,” Newell said. “People who knew us already knew the answer, but I was asked if Lifeline was going to stay biblically-minded as opposed to adapting to the culture.”

Lifeline will remain rooted to its biblical convictions regarding the family, he said. And adopting such a change would be difficult to say the least. For any change in Lifeline’s statement of faith to take place, it was first need to be unanimously approved and submitted by its executive team. It would then be put before its national board, which also requires a unanimous vote for approval.

“If one person objects, it doesn’t change,” Newell stated.

In 2015, Lifeline also made the decision to never accept government funding on any level – local, state or federal. Last year the organization’s board did vote to accept funding from the Payroll Protection Program, Newell said, after a lengthy discussion that included legal and pastoral advice. The final decision came after establishing that the funds went toward the organization’s staff, not its mission, and also be for one time rather than ongoing funding. It was paid back by the end of the summer, Newell said, and in the end the funds were not really necessary to continue operating as normal.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Lifeline’s ministry in other ways. An online tutoring ministry for foster children that Lifeline established in 2018 came into high demand last year after practically all schooling went digital. Although most schools have gone back to meeting in person, the online tutoring program remains popular and the need for tutors has increased.

Just as the ministry’s roots go back to discipleship and the Gospel, they also go back to educating clients on the sanctity of life. According to Lifeline, the first child placed for adoption through the agency went on to be a Journeyman missionary through the International Mission Board and eventually became a business owner in Birmingham. In another case, a young woman suffering through domestic violence made the decision for her baby to be adopted by an IMB family serving in India. That young woman became a believer and, after marrying a Christian man, would choose to adopt a child as well.

That generational impact of the Gospel drives Lifeline and likeminded ministries, Newell maintained.

“We follow the Great Commandment and Great Commission. As we serve others, we make the Gospel known and if we ever took that out, it would change our whole ministry model,” he said.

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

I’m a fan of the SBC’s moral concerns agency. The ways in which we are salt and light in our communities are more important than we often think, particularly in a context where we are privileged to elect our leaders and can even hold office.

These rights are too rare in our day and even more rare in history. The influence of Christians on the moral condition of our towns and cities can be like salt—preservative and healing. A national moral concerns entity that speaks prophetically to our churches and to our elected leaders has great potential for good. Our ERLC has been a helpful voice since its start after World War II on issues like race, the holiness of human life, immigration, adoption and religious liberty. It has also been a lightening rod in the convention for most of its existence.

Other entities have a prophetic role among our churches. Our mission boards talk about missions and evangelism, calling out the called, and generosity. SBC seminary presidents talk about everything a church does, in addition to the key themes of our mission boards. Although the boards and seminaries have walked some rocky roads in recent decades, the efforts of the ERLC to speak prophetically have been more controversial. There are some political aspects to the traditional message for the ERLC (named the Christian Life Commission before that, and the Social Service Commission before that) that are not present when a mission board president calls us to be more evangelistic than we are. By “political,” I mean things more nuanced in our minds than the call to send missionaries to every tribe. We may affirm “liberty and justice for all” but not appreciate being told exactly what that means in terms of taxation, entitlement programs or criminal justice reform. We bridle at being told that this solution to an objectively significant problem is the biblical one—thus compelling us to agree, to vote for it.

We need the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. I believe we need its president to be humble but edgy, pushing us toward more perfect expressions of the second commandment (Matthew 22:39). Doing this, the Commission needs to clearly speak for and to Southern Baptists above all others. We should always know that the prophetic word comes from a heart of love, a heart that is one of us. There have been times when the entity joined coalitions and sounded as though they’d started speaking for them rather than for us. An early example was when Hugh Alexander Brimm, the Commission’s first executive director, led the Southern Baptist Social Service Commission to join a multi-denominational body that would become the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. The Commission, influenced by T.B. Maston, thereby grew to disagree with most Southern Baptists about separation of church and state—adopting a strict separationist viewpoint that caused them to think of Southern Baptists as “them” rather than “us.” One observer called this “elitism.” It was. My prophet, like my pastor, will be ineffective in the role if I believe he looks down on me.

I believe the ERLC has a unique challenge among our national agencies. In my lifetime, every president of the SBC moral concerns entity has been called a liberal—sometimes unfairly. Foy Valentine was called liberal because he was pro-abortion. Richard Land was called liberal because he favored comprehensive immigration reform. Russell Moore was called liberal because he spoke harshly against those who supported Donald Trump for president. It was prior to Foy Valentine’s presidency, 1957, when the Commission was first threatened with dissolution by the SBC Executive Committee. Southwestern Seminary professor T.B. Maston, a consistent supporter of the Commission in that day, suggested that the pushback in the 1950s was due to “… the moral weakness of Southern Baptists.” Maston described this weakness as tied to our “aversion” to the social gospel and that we “early identified the social gospel with liberal theology.”

The bitter fruit of the social gospel has proved Dr. Maston wrong, but it’s not yet clear if Southern Baptists are even willing to be spoken to prophetically about timely cultural issues.

This has been a decade of tumultuous transitions at our entities. My friend Bart asked in social media, speaking of one of these transitions, “Would you like to work for you?” It should be a convicting question. People have joked that “leading” Southern Baptists is like herding cats. I think it’s harder than that these days. I’m not saying that every leadership transition is a tragedy; I am saying that we, corporately, can be hard to get along with. That reality bears on the success of anyone who tries to lead us.

This is an especially crucial transition for an SBC entity that has been on the firing line for most of its history. The next president of the ERLC will be an inerrantist like the last two and he will be intelligent like his predecessors; that doesn’t guarantee he’ll be effective. Pray for him, for the ERLC and for their search committee as they seek a uniquely gifted leader for perhaps the hardest job in the SBC.

Explainer: What’s going on in Cuba with protests and new sanctions?

Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui, Getty Contributor

Thousands of Cubans are taking to the streets in an historic anti-government protest, demanding change after 62 years of communist rule, says NBC News. As the Financial Times, adds, the communist government is facing a major challenge to its authority for the first time without a member of the Castro family in charge.

According to international observers, there are three main drivers behind the protest: the COVID-19 pandemic, Internet access, and the economic crisis.

COVID-19

Last year, Cuba was able to keep the coronavirus infections largely under control. But the country now has the highest infection rate per person in Latin America. Over the last week the country has reported nearly 4,000 cases per million people. That is nine times higher than the world average and more than any other country in the Americas for its size.

The sharp rise in new infections is putting a strain on their medical system. Doctors are reporting a lack of oxygen and other medical supplies — including aspirin — while some citizens say their relatives died at home without receiving sufficient medical care. This trend is not expected to change anytime soon, as less than 20% of Cuba’s population has been fully vaccinated.

Internet access

Government authorities have also blocked social media sites in an apparent effort to stop the flow of information. Citizens across the tiny island nation have been using social media to criticize the government and organize protests. But the Cuban government says social networks are used by “enemies of the revolution” to create “destabilisation strategies” that follow CIA manuals.

“The government has created a very sophisticated disinformation process,” says Cuban dissident Tania Bruguera. “They start by saying the people who protested were revolutionaries who were confused. Later, they said [the protesters] were delinquents. Now, they say [the protesters] are people who want the U.S. government to invade Cuba.”

Economic crisis

Cubans are also facing the country’s worst economic crisis in decades. Cuba’s communist controlled economy has been stagnant since the Soviet Union stopped propping up the local government. But recent actions by the government have deepened the problem. For example, recent economic reforms attempted to raise wages, but have also resulted in price increases. Economists predict prices in Cuba will rise between 500% and 900% in the next few months.

As the BBC reports, Cubans have to wait in long lines to buy goods such as oil, soaps, or chicken. Many provinces have run out of wheat flour and are having to make pumpkin-based bread. “Cubans are doing eight hours in line just to get a piece of bread,” add Bruguera. “And at the same time, the housing situation is worse. People said, ‘Enough.’”

Cubans also rely heavily on remittances, money transfers from citizens or relatives living abroad. Western Union annually transfers approximately one billion to Cuban citizens from U.S. citizens. Last month, though, the Cuban government said it would temporarily stop banks accepting cash deposits in dollars, the main currency that Cubans receive in remittances from abroad. The move was seen by some economists, notes the BBC, as the most severe restriction imposed on the U.S. currency since the government of the late president, Fidel Castro.

“The American left needs to understand that Cuba is no longer the paradise of social justice. It’s a dictatorship,” says Bruguera. “And the U.S. government should be on the side of the Cuban people. I would say to the American politicians, to be on the side of the people and to not believe the fake news and the stories the government is creating.”

Global Magnitsky sanctions

U.S. President Joe Biden labeled Cuba a “failed state” that is “repressing their citizens” during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 15.

On July 22, the Biden administration sanctioned one Cuban individual and one Cuban entity for serious human rights abuse, pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world. This action targets the Cuban Minister of Defense and the Brigada Especial Nacional del Ministerio del Interior of the Cuban Ministry of the Interior for their role in facilitating the repression of peaceful, pro-democratic protests in Cuba that began on July 11.

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, passed by Congress in 2016, authorized the executive branch to impose visa bans and blocking sanctions against any foreign person or entity “responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals in any foreign country seeking to expose illegal activity carried out by government officials, or to obtain, exercise, or promote human rights and freedoms.” In 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption” that significantly broadens the scope of the Global Magnitsky Act by authorizing sanctions targeting a broader range of persons associated with serious human rights abuse.

Global Magnitsky sanctions are a powerful tool to promote human rights abroad. By allowing the U.S. to apply targeted sanctions, these sanctions can pressure foreign government leaders and entities to change their behavior. The ERLC has been supportive of the use of the Global Magnitsky Act to counter repressive regimes, most recently against China due to the ongoing genocide taking place against the Uyghur people.

Japanese hunger for hope on the horizon

IMB missionary Donn Broeker speaks with two Japanese women who stopped to practice speaking English. Missionaries in Japan are hitting the streets during the Olympics to offer opportunities for people to practice English for five minutes. Broeker and other IMB missionaries also share the gospel and hand out gospel materials to those who are interested. (IMB photo)

More people died by suicide in Japan in October of 2020 than died from COVID-19 in the previous months of 2020. In 2020, Japan reported 16.7 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

Concrete walls enclose home-like prisons where Japanese men and women suffer in silence. Already small apartments became prison cells because of COVID’s sentence of solitary confinement, with the hope of parole like an ever-setting sun on the horizon. Pandemics have no due process and exacerbate a long-standing problem of loneliness that has plagued Japanese people.

Before the pandemic, International Mission Board missionaries Carlton and Cornelia Walker and Daniel and Tara Rice prayed the Olympics would lead to an increase in an openness to the gospel. That hasn’t necessarily been the case, due to the strict restrictions on the Games and local disapproval of the Olympics not being canceled.

What is leading to an interest in faith is Japanese people’s desire for connection. IMB missionary Donn Broeker said he believes many Japanese are eager to connect with others, especially after 17 months of COVID restrictions.

“Frequent states of emergencies and a lot of isolation have left many folks lonely, and I would say they have an even greater hunger for hope,” Broeker said.

Broeker and his wife, Teresa, are from Michigan and South Carolina and are the regional leaders for Japan.

“Many Japanese do not feel like anyone truly knows them. In some cases, not even their spouses. The culture considers it honorable to suffer in silence. This means you do not bother others with your troubles, but instead, keep things to yourself,” Broeker explained.

“I have had friends express that everyone has their own problems, so they don’t want to bother others with theirs. This mindset provides challenges in the church when it comes to sharing weaknesses and struggles with other believers. This is very hard for most to do,” Broeker continued.

The Japanese view of suffering differs from the West.

“Suffering is not necessarily something to be questioned here. It’s considered pointless to ask, ‘Why did this happen?’ Rather, it is a noble thing to endure hardships,” Broeker said.

The nobleness of suffering has its root in the core value of honor. Japanese culture centers around honor and shame, and bearing one’s burdens is considered honorable, and revealing weakness and emotion are seen as signs of weakness and is met with criticism and shaming.

“The nail that sticks out gets hammered down” is a phrase used to describe the centrality of conformity in Japan, and aberrations from the norm and expressions of individuality that detract from the social symmetry are met with resistance.

COVID has led to a hammering of hearts.

In addition to lockdowns and states of emergency, high unemployment rates, loneliness, anxiety and working long hours contribute to the feeling of isolation and despair.

“I see isolation as a tool that Satan tries to use to keep Japanese from the gospel. The father of lies tells Japanese people that no one really knows them or truly cares about them. He also tells them that their worth and value are determined by how they perform. There is so much pressure here to be perfect,” Broeker said.

“As we know, these ideas are the exact opposite of the message that God would share and the message of the gospel that tells us about God’s love and mercy. His love is not based on who we are or what we can do but rather His own goodness, mercy and grace. This is the message that millions of Japanese people need to hear,” Broeker continued.

Japanese culture is infused with a strong sense of duty, and a person’s worth and dignity are determined by it. Walker, a veteran missionary who has served in Japan for more than 40 years, said it is effective when the gospel is framed as a broken relationship restored through Jesus’ suffering on our behalf.

Olympic outreach

Broeker and IMB missionaries Scott and Julie Bradford and Rick and Hiromi Price recently participated in an outreach near a heavily trafficked area of Tokyo.

The couples handed out gospel materials, including Christian manga, Japanese comic books, and Olympic trading pins their team designed as a tool to share the gospel. A booklet IMB missionaries are distributing about missionary and Olympian Eric Liddell has been well received, Scott said.

“As we go out each day, we’re asking that God prepare the hearts of those that He will place in our path, and we are also praying for boldness,” Scott said.

It has been a year and a half of suffering in silence. Join Broeker and IMB missionaries in praying for Japanese to reach out from their cells of isolation.

With the eyes of the world on the country during the Olympics, the nation is still in the throes of the states of emergency. However, hope is on the horizon in the country known as the land of the rising sun.

Caroline Anderson writes for the IMB from Southeast Asia.

Follow IMB on Instagram (@imbmissions), Facebook and Twitter (@IMB_SBC) for updates and prayer requests during the Olympics.

The post Japanese hunger for hope on the horizon appeared first on IMB.

El Paso migrant ministry

EL PASO—Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief volunteers answered the call to assist the El Paso Baptist Association at its new migrant relief shelter located at that city’s Scotsdale Baptist Church.

“The El Paso Migrant Center is a Christ-centered ministry to the migrants coming to the border,” Larry Floyd, the El Paso association’s executive director, told the TEXAN. “Humanitarian help is a given, but we want to be the hands and feet of Christ so that the migrants take that when they leave. The first thing we do when they are dropped off at the center by ICE and border patrol is pray with them.

“We are working hand in hand with ICE and border patrol,” Floyd said. “Our goal is to quickly determine their needs: shower, food, clothing, mask, hygiene kits, then connect them with their sponsors in the U.S. to move toward their destination. We are not paying for their airline or bus tickets. The sponsor is responsible for that part of it,” he added, explaining that the center’s work is to facilitate getting the migrants to their new destinations with dignity and “total respect.”

All donations support the center, which operates with no paid staff, Floyd added.

Floyd had visited with representatives of Send Relief at the SBC annual meeting in Nashville in June about the shelter, which was then soon to open. SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice and Floyd connected after the annual meeting.

By July 8, the first day the center received migrants, SBTC DR feeding volunteers were busily preparing and serving more than 60 meals per day for Haitian immigrants while another crew manned the shower unit brought from First Baptist Leonard.

Teams quickly witnessed transformational moments.

SBTC DR volunteer Linda Mitter of Rockwall noted a blessing on July 8, as a local Hispanic pastor held a time of devotion and prayer for the migrants. “Eight grown Haitian men were on their knees with their arms lifted to God and praying,” Mitter said.

"We are glad to respond to ‘strangers in the land’ as Leviticus 19:34 reminds us to do. We are pleased to partner with El Paso and Send Relief on this project."

Scottie Stice, SBTC DR Director Tweet

“There is no language barrier with God,” SBTC volunteer Debby Nichols said, describing a prayer time at the shelter in which three pastors presented John 3:16 to a group of Haitian men. “One pastor spoke in English; one pastor spoke in Spanish and a third spoke in French,” Nichols said. One migrant had brought his own French translation of the Bible, she noted, and all were pleased and “amazed” to hear the varied languages.

“We are glad to respond to ‘strangers in the land’ as Leviticus 19:34 reminds us to do,” Stice said. “We are pleased to partner with El Paso and Send Relief on this project.”

Stice said he expected SBTC DR support at the migrant center to continue for several weeks.

Promise Keepers returns to live events at AT&T Stadium

ARLINGTON The Promise Keepers organization returned to live events this summer, hosting large gatherings of men at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington July 16-17. Speakers included Dallas Cowboys chaplain Jonathan Evans, motivational speaker and disability advocate Nic Vujicic, and pastors Samuel Rodriguez and Robert Morris.

Founded in 1990 by Bill McCartney, who at the time was head football coach at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the organization began as a means of calling men to biblical leadership in the home and social sphere. Sporadic events at stadiums throughout the 1990s built to what was arguably the organization’s peak in fall 1997, when hundreds of thousands of men flocked to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for an event called “Stand in the Gap.”

The organization dwindled over the last two decades until it was resurrected in 2018 under the leadership of Ken Harrison, a former Los Angeles police officer who works as the CEO of WaterStone, a Christian donor-advised fund. Under Harrison, the relaunched Promise Keepers planned to hold their first in-person event in decades last year until the pandemic interrupted those plans and the event was moved online.

According to the “About Us” section of the Promise Keepers website, over seven million men have been reached through its national conferences.

“Today, we’re on the move again,” the website reads. “Under the new leadership of Ken Harrison, we’re praying for massive revival and transformation in our nation by 2025. You’re invited to join with us. More than ever, America needs a revival of godly men. Our nation faces problems that can only be overcome when men of integrity — promise-keeping men — fulfill their destinies as godly husbands, fathers, and leaders. Promise Keepers is here today to reunite, rebuild, re-imagine, and inspire the hearts of men.”

Harrison, chairman of the board of Promise Keepers, welcomed the nearly 30,000 men on Friday night and told them that teams had been praying over the stadium every Saturday for more than six months in preparation for the event.

“None of us deserve to be here, so let’s just behave like men who are saved by grace,” Harrison told the crowd. “No matter what you’ve done, no matter who you are, no matter how bad you’ve screwed up, we are not here to give you a five-step program to being a better you. We are here to give you the one-step program: believe in Jesus Christ and repent of your sins.”

In addition to the men present at AT&T Stadium, Harrison announced that 70,000 prisoners were watching the event livestream along with people from across the United States and 22 countries.

Jonathan Evans and Nic Vujicic

The first preacher Friday evening was Jonathan Evans, son of local pastor Tony Evans. A former NFL player, Evans also serves as the chaplain for both the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks.

“We live in a generation of boys that are being raised to be men just like their mothers, because 70 percent of them in the African-American community and 40 percent in the Anglo community don’t even have fathers,” Evans said.

“Jesus spent his whole life submitting to the will of his Father. So if we’re supposed to be men who are following Christ, we ought to submit as he did,” he added.

Evans particularly challenged men to be leaders in their homes, taking up the mantle of spiritual leadership and being present for their wives and children, even when it is inconvenient.

“Our culture is suffering because of the man’s unwillingness to suffer,” Evans added. “But when I look at Christ I see that he suffered, especially when he hung on the cross. So it seems to me that suffering is the job description given to man from the boss.”

Later Friday evening, Nick Vujicic encouraged the attendees to live lives of faith in a God who is the ultimate promise keeper.

“When I was a kid, I thought I’d never get married, never have kids,” Vujicic, who was born without arms or legs, told the crowd. “Can I just say that when you give your broken pieces to the Lord, he can do beautiful things with broken pieces much better than you?”

Vujicic challenged the notion that the greatest thing a father can do for his children is to provide for them the things that he never had growing up.

“Before you know it, you’re old. And you’re going to look back at your life and think, wow, I sacrificed my entire life so that my children can have the opportunities I never got, but I realize now as a grandpa that my kids needed me more than opportunity,” he said.

“When you read Philippians 4:13, it’s not about succeeding. It’s not about dreaming. It’s about enduring.

“I want you to know right now that in your life right now, God sees you. God hears you. He knows your tears, he knows your fears,” Vujicic said. “Don’t give up on God. God will not give up on you. He may not take a thorn from your side, but his grace is sufficient for you. That’s the promise of God, and my God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the promise keeper. Even when I fail, God is faithful.”

Fathers team with Compassion

Phillip, a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary who works on staff at a local DFW church, attended Promise Keepers with his 13-year-old son.

“My first Promise Keepers was in Miami, Florida. When I first went, Luis Palau was one of the speakers. I enjoyed it tonight because I resonated a lot with Jonathan and Tony Evans’ story as a first-generation Christian,” Philip said. “I didn’t grow up with a dad who was a believer, and we kind of grew up on the streets in Miami. Going to Promise Keepers is how I got firmly rooted into godly fatherhood, learning how to be a Christian as a young Chinese boy. So now that I’ve seen it and I know it, I wanted my son to experience it.

“I had such a connection with the men in my life that went to Promise Keepers, so now I want my son to experience what I’ve experienced. I want my son to see godly men.”

Promise Keepers partnered with the nonprofit organization Compassion, encouraging the men to not only step up within their own families and communities, but also to engage with Compassion to support children throughout the world through sponsorship opportunities. The July event focused on the nation of Kenya, giving those in attendance the opportunity to sponsor a Kenyan child over the weekend and provide educational and spiritual help to those who wouldn’t otherwise have it.

The organization plans to continue holding stadium events in the coming years while encouraging men to plug into smaller, more intimate groups for discipleship and accountability throughout the year.

Southern Baptists prepare and respond to wildfires on the West Coast

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. (BP) – Several wildfires burning across the U.S. West Coast are prompting some Southern Baptists to evacuate from their homes, while others are responding to practical needs.

Two large fires sparked by lightning strikes are still burning weeks later – one in Oregon and one in California that has now crossed over the border into Nevada, according to The Associated Press.

Reports say the fire in southern Oregon has expanded up to four miles a day but is now one-third contained. Evacuation orders were given for at least 2,000 homes during the course of the fire. Many buildings and homes were destroyed, but no deaths have been reported.

In addition, the Tamarack Fire originated near Lake Tahoe after a lightning strike July 4. The accumulation of fires in California and Nevada has forced the closing of parts of highway U.S. 395 in both states, AP reported.

A voluntary evacuation request from local law enforcement was issued this week for areas surrounding Douglas County, Nev.

Adam Barkley is pastor at Topaz Ranch Estates Church, a Southern Baptist church in Douglas County whose members have been asked to evacuate. Even today (July 23), Barkley learned of two families in the church who have lost their homes and belongings in the fire.

Barkley said the voluntary evacuation request represents the first stage of threat for a wildfire, and indicates it is wise for residents to get prepared as the next stage would be a mandatory evacuation.

Members are leaving with a few belongings and dispersing in several directions, including north toward Gardnerville, east toward Smith Valley or south via motor homes. Many are headed to stay with friends and family.

Barkley told Baptist Press wildfires have become annual events for the community over the past few years, and while it has taught church members to always be ready for a crisis, it has affected their faith as well.

“In any area of life where we face something that’s outside of our own control, it creates an orientation to look to God and ask for strength, guidance and protection,” Barkley said.

“Most of the church are up in years, and so their property is all that they own and have. One is more looking to depend on the Lord as a lifestyle and then act accordingly during these times. God is sovereign over all things, but wants me to do my best with the abilities and gifts that He has given me and trust him with the rest.”

This Sunday the church will meet virtually, which Barkley said should go off without a hitch because the church was doing that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when every member of the 35-member church would join together on an audio zoom call.

Barkley said the Nevada Baptist Convention has been in constant communication with the church and has been supportive throughout the crisis.

Additionally, the California Southern Baptist Convention is currently serving people who have been displaced by the Tamarack Fire in both rural California and Nevada.

Mike Bivins, CSBC director of Disaster Relief, is on deployment with state disaster relief volunteers who are helping meet practical needs by providing meals and building relationships with those displaced.

Bivins explained one of the most important roles of disaster relief ministry is building relationship. Southern Baptist DR volunteers are partnering with the local Salvation Army and area Southern Baptist churches.

“We’re building community disaster ministry and Southern Baptists have a seat at the table because of our local churches,” Bivins said.

One of the churches Bivins and the team are serving at is Smith Valley Baptist Church in Nevada, near one of the communities to which members of Topaz Ranch Estates Church evacuated.

Summer Walker, wife of Smith Valley pastor Travis Walker, said ultimately the goal in serving the community is sharing the Gospel of Christ, and she asked Southern Baptists to pray for opportunities for them to do so.

“Sharing the Gospel is the most important thing we can do,” Walker said. “Our physical needs and emotional needs are secondary to the Gospel. We pray that God will open the door to share, not only with these people who have been displayed but with all the local volunteers we are working with and just shine the light of Christ through serving.”

Trust is key to sharing the Gospel, Wyoming church planter says

COWLEY, Wyo. (BP) – To the outside observer, Johannes Slabbert has the perfect analogy for sharing the Gospel with the ranchers and cowboys near this Wyoming town eight miles from the Montana border. But his knowledge of and appreciation for the local ministry context tell him otherwise.

Before Water of Life Church, where Slabbert is pastor, held its first service in October 2017, he had to provide for his wife and children training horses – in particular, breaking mustangs. For $125, he could “adopt” one from the Bureau of Land Management and if within a year it was trained, he could keep it.

Water of Life Church recently broke ground for a building, but has been meeting in the Cowley Log Gym Community Center, originally built in 1936 through the Works Progress Administration.

It’s a process centered around getting the horse’s trust. “It’s hard to describe,” he said. “The horse is a herd animal and there is always a leader. You keep working with them and when they drop their head it shows they want to ‘talk’ with you. If they let you touch them, that’s huge.

“From that point you just love on them and show them you want to work with them.”

The comparison to submitting to Jesus and the lordship of Christ is easy to make. However, Slabbert prefers a different path to sharing the Gospel among ranchers and cowboys in this town of fewer than 800.

“These are hard-core guys,” he said. “You have to work alongside them to get that platform. I work with a lot of horses now and in that process get the chance to share the Gospel with a lot of people.”

The method works more like a campfire stove, not a microwave. A group of Mormon settlers arrived in the area in 1900 to establish a town, which would be named after one of their leaders, Matthias Cowley. Water of Life is the first evangelical, Bible-based church in Cowley’s history. Talking through the Gospel that Water of Life presents doesn’t happen without several conversations.

“It’s a slow bake, ya know,” Slabbert said. “It takes a while.”

Church planter Johannes Slabbert says his method for sharing the Gospel is slow, more like a campfire stove than a microwave.

That said, the church has seen 25 make professions of faith in Christ. Last year during COVID-19, its attendance doubled from 45 to 90, including approximately 30 children and 20 students.

Raised on a sheep and cattle ranch in the high desert of South Africa, Slabbert came to America as a 19-year-old with $1,000 in his pocket and a gym bag of clothes. The plan was to train horses and make a lot of money doing it.

Things happened that didn’t exactly derail the plan, but gave it a greater purpose. A blind date with a West Virginia preacher’s daughter went so well that he later married her. The couple moved to Boone, N.C., when Slabbert took a horse-training job and his wife, Mary Beth, was hired at Samaritan’s Purse.

For Slabbert, ministry had been a big part of his married life. However, he had grown well-adjusted at playing the part of a Christian.

“When I was 13, I said a prayer, but it didn’t mean anything,” he said. “I had people fooled that I was a Christian. I tell folks today that if you think you know somebody, you may not.”

His wife had her suspicions, and her job ended up being the difference.

In 2008 Samaritan’s Purse deployed its Disaster Assistance Rapid Response Team (DART) to historic flooding in Iowa. Slabbert joined the team as a short-term contract worker and saw something different in those believers.

“I saw the joy they had in their faces. They loved Jesus and it showed,” he said.

Slabbert ended up joining Samaritan’s Purse full-time after working amid the devastation of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. More important, he would make an earnest profession of faith in Christ, which led him to answer a call to the ministry.

By that time, he had all but dropped the idea of training horses for a living. That changed when his 3-year-old daughter, Vivian, asked him to borrow a neighbor’s horse to give her a ride.

“God told me He was going to use my horse-training abilities the second time around for Him,” Slabbert said. “I wrestled with it because I didn’t have the money for horses.”

The plan changed at a Christmas 2014 family dinner. Slabbert’s brother-in-law had heard about the need for evangelical churches in Wyoming.

“He shared with me the lostness of Wyoming from an evangelist who had attended cowboy camps out there,” Slabbert said. “He said they were looking for people who could relate to horses, sheep and cattle.”

Slabbert and Mary Beth went to SBC.net and did some research on Southern Baptist churches in the state. They originally felt called to the ranching town of Lovell, population 2,300. Someone suggested they take the short drive to Cowley as well.

“I saw cows grazing and farmers working,” Slabbert said. “It looked just like my home in South Africa. My family back there see pictures of Cowley and joke that they didn’t know I was home.”

The Slabberts were sent out of their home church, Bald Mountain Baptist in West Jefferson, N.C. Johannes then had a one-year internship with WindCity Church in Casper, Wyo., before moving to Cowley. Since then, he’s been a leader among pastors in the Wyoming Southern Baptist Mission Network, preaching the convention sermon at their annual meeting last year.

Water of Life received initial funding from the North American Mission Board and is part of its church planting network. Slabbert’s original goal after moving to the area in October 2016 was to start a Bible study over the next five years. The Bible study began in their home in March 2017. The schedule moved up considerably, with Water of Life holding its first service that October, one year after the Slabbert’s arrival.

“God blew our five-year plan out of the water,” he said. “But He’s put an incredible team together at Water of Life. MaryBeth and two amazing volunteers lead our children’s ministry. Mitch Lambeth moved from Florida and is leading our student ministry along with Chris Hoellwart while Katie Alvarez heads up our worship team.”

In addition to the inroads Slabbert has made among ranchers through training horses, the church has also hosted a rodeo.

“We want to show the community that we’re here to invest in them and live alongside them,” Slabbert said. “We work cattle with a lot of folks who don’t know Jesus. After five years we’ve gotten to share with them through many conversations.

“We will not reach the West unless folks come to places like Wyoming and are willing to live in and become part of small communities. People want to know that you care and are committed for the long haul.”

‘Game on’ for IMB Olympics ministry team

Pierce Hite, an IMB missionary serving in Tokyo, Japan, explains a gospel tract to a woman. Hite and missionary Julie Bradford took part in an outreach event called 5-Minute English that provides opportunities for people to practice conversational English on the street. (IMB photo)

You aren’t in Tokyo. Maybe you, like dozens of Southern Baptists across the 50 states, planned to travel to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics to serve alongside International Mission Board missionaries and Japanese Christians.

Your hope to travel may have lingered this summer; however, borders remain closed.

You aren’t in Tokyo, but IMB missionaries are. They’ve been in Japan since 1888. During this Olympic season, they are actively sharing the gospel in a country where 99% of the population doesn’t know Jesus. They are ready to serve because Southern Baptists have made a commitment to reach the nations – to have missionaries on the ground, ready to be used by God.

Your missionaries in East Asia are partnering with Japanese churches and Christians to share the gospel by riding on subways, trading English pins and evangelistic materials, prayer walking, and offering opportunities to practice English.

Mobile cart ministry

Using a mobile cart sporting an Olympic flag, IMB missionaries, in partnership with Japanese Christians, shared the gospel and passed out Christian material to 340 people in two days before the games.

In partnership with Tokyo Baptist Church and other Japanese Christians, missionaries planned to host a pop-up coffee house during the 2020 Olympics as a way of meeting people, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, this was no longer possible.

Instead, IMB missionaries Scott and Julie Bradford decided to try a mobile cart, similar to a food vendor stall, as a way to make connections. The Bradfords and several team members were invited to the city of Okayama to support a local believer and his church’s ministry efforts using the mobile cart.

Praise music played from speakers as footballs spiraled and frisbees sailed through the air, attracting the attention and interest of shoppers, commuters and others passing by. Several of the team members and partners from the local church rode an orange tricycle around the area, gathering attention and striking up conversation.

The IMB missionaries and Japanese Christians offered iced coffee, green tea and water while passing out tracts and materials stored in the cart’s drawers.

“We are praying that the people who received the materials, who engaged with us in communication, will take a look at those things that we shared with them,” Scott said.

The local church will follow up with the contacts they made during the two days.

5-Minute English

Near the entrances of busy subway stations and other highly trafficked areas, IMB missionaries are holding up signs that say, “Free English conversation.”

University students and young professionals flow past, some stopping to take advantage of the chance to practice their English for a few minutes before moving on to the busy streets or into the underground tunnels that connect the megacity.

Missionaries call this ministry “5-Minute English,” and it is one of the outreaches they are using during the Olympics.

“5-Minute English is a great way to connect with many different people in a short amount of time and begin to build relationships so that we can filter them down to those that are interested in the gospel,” IMB missionary Pierce Hite said.

The missionaries are exchanging contact information and making plans to meet up with those interested in connecting again.

On their first Olympic outreach day using 5-Minute English, Jeff Loomis, also an IMB missionary, shared they handed out 45 pieces of gospel material and talked with 29 people about the gospel.

Olympic pins and Christian manga

Amidst the masses in Shibuya, the world’s busiest intersection, with more than 2.4 million people crossing in a day and with as many as 3,000 people crossing at a time, the Bradfords and IMB missionaries Rick and Hiromi Price will be trading Olympic pins and Christian manga, wildly popular Japanese comic books and novels.

Virtual events

Though volunteers are not able to physically visit Japan, many are virtually visiting. In June and July, IMB missionaries hosted virtual mission trips that connected Southern Baptists directly with Japanese people via Zoom.

As the world’s collective eyes turn to follow the Olympic torch to the island nation, Christians from across the U.S. and the world will participate in a virtual Olympic kickoff where they will partner with IMB missionaries Pierce Hite, Kacie Kubosumi, Natalie Nation, Andrew Pina, Colton Dowdy and Carlton and Connie Walker. During the event, Japanese students will hear the gospel through personal testimonies and the story of Olympian Eric Liddell. An in-person meet-up will take place on August 7 with those interested in hearing more.

IMB missionaries who participated in a 5-Minute English Outreach event prior to the Tokyo Olympics pose for a photo. From the back, from left to right, Natalie Nation, Zach Jones, Pierce Hite, Hannah Miller, Aubrey Strickling, Kacie Kubosumi. Bottom, from left to right: Jeff Loomis, Lori Loomis, Julie Bradford, Scott Bradford. (IMB photo)

Prayerwalking

In the days to come, IMB missionaries, as part of a larger inter-denominational group, will board a train that makes 30 stops in a circular loop around the city and will pray for specific prayer requests that correspond to the neighborhoods at each stop.

Taking the streets on foot, during the Olympics your missionaries and Japanese Christians will pray for communities, businesses, universities and shopping malls.

Because you gave

Bradford said Southern Baptists have remained committed to partnering with them in the task of reaching the Japanese.

“Man would never have been able to predict what has unfolded during this worldwide pandemic and the impact it would have on the Olympics and the world, but because of the faithful giving and support of Southern Baptists, we are able to have boots on the ground to continue to carry out the work that God has called each of us to do,” Bradford said.

Because of the faithful giving and support of Southern Baptists, we are able to have boots on the ground to continue to carry out the work that God has called each of us to do.

Though you’re not in Tokyo right now, the IMB is counting on your presence – your presence before the Lord in prayer – and your physical presence in the future.

“They faithfully give to have us here and continue to support us through their fervent prayers. Thank you so much for being our rope holders. We need your continued support, encouragement and eventually, when the borders open, we will need your presence,” Bradford continued

For such a time as this

IMB missionaries and Japanese Christians are faithfully serving in such a time as this and are continuing to carry the torch that began making its journey to Japan in 1859 and finally made it 29 years later.

The IMB’s first missionaries to Japan perished when their ship was lost at sea in 1859. Missionaries made it to the island in 1888 and we’ve continued to have missionaries there to serve through two World Wars and now during a pandemic.

The gospel will not be deterred in the land known as the “land of the rising sun.”

It’s game on, and IMB missionaries will take every opportunity to continue carrying the torch bearing the good news of Christ.

Caroline Anderson writes for the IMB from Southeast Asia