In the Witness this week

Florida Baptists urged to ‘closely monitor’ Legislature Published February 26, 2009: TALLAHASSEE (FBW)—With a looming budget deficit anticipated to dictate much of the action of the annual state legislative session, Florida Baptist Convention legislative consultant Bill Bunkley is urging Florida Baptists to evaluate budget priorities “through the lens of God’s principles and His priorities”—and to urge the Legislature to do the same.

HALEIGH CUMMINGS

Vigil for missing Haleigh reminder of ‘hope in Christ’ Published February 26, 2009: SAN MATEO (FBW)—Just after he dropped his own kids off at school Feb. 10, Terry Wright got a riveting call from the Putnam Co. Sheriff’s Office where he serves as a chaplain.
Florida Baptist volunteers restore Kentucky’s ice-mangled communities Published February 26, 2009: CLINTON, Ky. (FBC)—”No one is here except for the Southern Baptists. The National Guard came one day but left the next. Then we saw 20, 40, 60 men and women coming down the road with all their disaster relief vehicles ready to help.
State Board slashes budget another $2 million Published February 26, 2009: LEESBURG (FBC)—Taking proactive steps to continue God’s work in recessionary times, the State Board of Missions trimmed $2 million from the 2009 Cooperative Program budget, closed Blue Springs Conference Center for three months each year and consolidated Florida Baptist Convention staff positions during its Jan. 13 meeting at Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center.

Opinion

Editorial

The family of God JAMES A. SMITH SR. Executive Editor: “Are you sitting down?”

Point of View

Greatest church problem is ‘apathy and fear,’ not ‘change’ JOHN SULLIVAN Executive Director-Treasurer

Ours is an era marked with rapid and often spastic change. With change, problems become more complex—even in the church and especially in the church as we wed theology and methodology. Information and management of information tend to become less effective in direct proportion to the rapidity of change.

I was nearly an abortion statistic
DREW NICHTER
Baptist Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)-As you may know, churches across the Southern Baptist Convention are urged to recognize "Sanctity of Human Life" on a specific Sunday each January.

Dave Says
DAVE RAMSEY

Shocking: Conscience and cruelty
CHARLES COLSON
BreakPoint

In 1961, shortly after Israel put Adolf Eichmann on trial—”the architect of the Holocaust”—Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram began a series of psychological experiments. The goal was to “test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was “ordered to” by an authority figure.

Florida

Florida News

Vigil for missing Haleigh reminder of ‘hope in Christ’: SAN MATEO (FBW)—Just after he dropped his own kids off at school Feb. 10, Terry Wright got a riveting call from the Putnam Co. Sheriff’s Office where he serves as a chaplain.
Florida Baptist volunteers restore Kentucky’s ice-mangled communities: CLINTON, Ky. (FBC)—”No one is here except for the Southern Baptists. The National Guard came one day but left the next. Then we saw 20, 40, 60 men and women coming down the road with all their disaster relief vehicles ready to help.
State Board slashes budget another $2 million: LEESBURG (FBC)—Taking proactive steps to continue God’s work in recessionary times, the State Board of Missions trimmed $2 million from the 2009 Cooperative Program budget, closed Blue Springs Conference Center for three months each year and consolidated Florida Baptist Convention staff positions during its Jan. 13 meeting at Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center.
BCF welcomes 80 new students to campus for spring, plans preview day March 20: GRACEVILLE (BCF)—The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville welcomed over 80 new students to campus Jan. 15 with the Baptist Collegiate Ministries team providing a “Fun on the Move” activity exposing the new arrivals to the Graceville area.
FBC Orlando’s Uth says praying at Daytona 500 was ‘surreal’
After two decades of service, Sullivan championed as ‘pastor’s pastor’ and statesman: LEESBURG (FBC)—Twenty years ago during its January Board meeting, the State Board of Missions unanimously elected John Sullivan as the ninth executive director of the Florida Baptist Convention. During its Feb. 12-13, 2009, meeting at Lake Yale Conference Center, the Board paid tribute to the man who has surpassed all but one in service to Florida Baptists in this role.
New Works Report: JACKSONVILLE (FBC)—According to a report released by the Florida Baptist Convention’s Church Planting Department, Florida Baptists started 11 new churches in January, 2009. The following is a listing of new churches by association:
Reaching more children aim of Children’s Homes in 2009: LAKELAND (FBCH)—The board of trustees of the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes met for its quarterly business meeting in Lakeland Jan. 29.
Volunteers make their home on campus at FBCH: LAKELAND (FBCH)—Roving Volunteers in Christ’s Service, better known as RVICS, made the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes’ Lakeland campus their home for January and February.
Caylee Anthony remembered at FBC Orlando: ORLANDO (FBW)—Despite fears of protests and disruptions, the memorial for Caylee Marie Anthony turned out to be a calm respite in contrast to the storm that has engulfed the Anthony family.
BCF Professors Published in Illustrator
Pilot’s family grieves, understands ‘God is sovereign’: LUTZ (FBW)—Marvin Renslow, 47, the pilot of a commuter plane that fell out of the sky Feb. 12, left a “wonderful legacy” as the spiritual leader of his family, according to Alan Burner, an associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Lutz.
Colson’s Centurions program inspires Floridians to become cultural ‘change-agents’: Jacksonville (FBW)—Florida Baptists are among the graduates of a program designed by Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, to equip men and women to understand and express a biblical worldview. According to a recent BreakPoint commentary, Colson hopes Centurion graduates become “a veritable movement of cultural change-agents.”

Florida Baptist Associations

Around Lake Okeechobee pastors, churches cooperate in ministry: Baptist Associations in the United States celebrated their 300th anniversary in 2007. The Florida Baptist Witness is honoring Florida’s 49 associations in a series of articles that showcase each association and its ministries. This is the tenth installment.

Legislature Watch

Florida Baptists urged to ‘closely monitor’ Legislature: TALLAHASSEE (FBW)—With a looming budget deficit anticipated to dictate much of the action of the annual state legislative session, Florida Baptist Convention legislative consultant Bill Bunkley is urging Florida Baptists to evaluate budget priorities “through the lens of God’s principles and His priorities”—and to urge the Legislature to do the same.

Florida News Briefs

Florida Baptist mother & daughter retreat March 13-14
Student small group leadership training March 14
‘Fireproof My Marriage’ seminar March 27-28
Crist appoints Jerry Windsor to historical advisory board

Florida Focus

Florida Focus: A one-time announcement of special events is a free service provided by the Witness to Florida Baptist churches. Please send materials at least three weeks before the date of the event, to Florida Baptist Witness, 1230 Hendricks Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32207, fax 904-346-0696 or submitted using our online form. Items received after deadline may appear in our exclusive on-line version.

National

National News

Open letter to Southern Baptists from GCC members: In crisis, ‘dark day may be brightest day’: NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—Despite the nation’s financial upheaval, “the generosity of countless numbers of men and women in the pews of our churches” is evident, leaders of the SBC’s 11 entities and its women’s auxiliary noted in an open letter to Southern Baptists released Feb. 16.

400 Years of Baptists

Oldest Baptist church in the South was First Baptist Charleston, 1682: The oldest Baptist Church in the South was organized in Maine. It is not unusual for Baptists to define a local church as a body of baptized believers, and that describes this congregation very well. The church was organized September 25, 1682, and eventually became the First Baptist Church of Charleston, S.C. William Screven was the primary person who led this church start at Kittery and due to persecution, personal appeal and probably shipping interests, Screven and his congregation moved to Charleston.

National News Briefs

Ministers’ wives luncheon in Louisville June 23
GuideStone releases annual tax guide
Italy’s mercy killing recalls Schiavo case

Features

Gambling with Florida:

Bunkley urges legislators to reject gambling expansion Pari-mutuels ask for ‘level playing field’: TALLAHASSEE (FBW)—Florida Baptist Convention legislative consultant Bill Bunkley on Feb. 12 urged a committee studying the governor’s invalidated gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe to resist gambling expansion to ease the state’s financial pain at the expense of “increasingly deseperate” citizens.

Annie Armstrong Offering

Annie Armstrong Easter Offering
AAEO Fast Facts
Annie Armstrong Easter Offering Prayer Guide: In John 4:35–37, Jesus urges His disciples to look at the fields that are ready for harvest. Jesus’s followers needed to be reminded that the harvesting could not wait, and that reminder is just as valid today. Certainly North America is filled with fields ready for harvest and fields ready to be sown—or resown—with the eternal-life message of the Gospel. Can we afford to wait to move into those fields? Three out of four people in North America live without a personal relationship with Christ. Who is sowing the Gospel to reach them?

Media Montage

LifeWay explores connections through social media: NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LCR)—John Cade, Internet producer in the student ministry area of LifeWay Christian Resources, has a lot of friends—more than 700 of them, to be exact.
Book author says evidence won’t necessarily make atheists think: NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—Ray Comfort, co-host of the television program “The Way of the Master” and author of the new book You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can’t Make Him Think, discusses the challenge of atheism today with Baptist Press.

Bible Study

Bible Studies for Life

March 15: Don’t despair Nehemiah 2:19-20; 4:1-14: Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.
March 22: Clear the air Nehemiah 5:1-16: Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

Explore the Bible

March 15: Act on revealed truth Isaiah 7:1-14, 16: Mark Rathel is professor of theology at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.
March 22: Follow the Lord’s will Isaiah 29:13-16; 30:1-3, 15-18: Mark Rathel is professor of theology at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.