Nashville, Tenn. | An advisory teamtasked with studying and respondingto Reformed theology in the South-ern Baptist Convention met for thefirst time in late August.Frank Page, president of the SBC

Executive Committee, selected theteam of leaders to help him “developa strategy whereby people of varioustheological persuasions can pur-posely work together in missionsand evangelism,” he told BaptistPress.

“It was a very positive meeting,”said Leo Endel, executive director

WhenKathy Brown moved to Car-bondale two years ago, she wonderedwhat she would do in her new home,how she would get to know people. “Ithought, ‘How will God use me there?I don’t want to just go and sit aroundthe house and, um, relax,’” she said.

“Every time I would pray about it Ijust felt this urging like, you knowthere’s gonna be international studentsthere with the university in town. ButI thought, how will I find them?

Reaching international students isjust one way the Illinois Mission Of-fering (IMO) supports missions and

missionaries in Illinois. Manychurches will observe the IMO andSeason of Prayer starting September16. The goal this year is a record$475,000, needed to support a varietyof IBSA ministries to students and im-migrants, camps and outreach, and

East St. Louis | In the middleof what some say are theseven most dangerous mileson the planet sits a sanctuary– a somewhat noisy one. Inthis place, an 8-year-old maygreet you at the door of herclassroom wearing asparkling evening gown over herschool uniform and ask if you’d likesome tea. Boys play basketball or

foosball or piano,whichever they choose.And kid-created, good-natured chaos in thehallways meets thequiet, studious environ-ment of a computer lab.

It’s all in the sameplace, on the corner of N. Sixth Streetand Summit Avenue in East St. Louis,where Southern Baptists have minis-

tered since 1950. Known as the Chris-tian Activity Center (CAC) since1980, the school-like facility (outfittedwith a gym, small cafeteria, class-rooms and offices) is a familiar placefor Baptist volunteers, and for 670kids who attend the center’s after-school program on a regular basis.

“Hope is often hard to find in theinner city. The CAC brings the hope of

Continued on page 6

Volume 106, No. 17 SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

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What your IMO dollars do • page 5 | Season of Prayer for Illinois Missions begins Sept. 16

IB Insider

By Meredith Flynn

By Eric Reed

2012 IBSA Annual Meetingdetails page 2

Why you (andmillions ofyour friends)should vote this fall page 3

Surprise VP choice worksfor Southern Baptist unitypage 8

Are you a church revitalizer?page 10

When ‘training up a child’doesn’t seem to workpage 11

IMO: Opportunity KnockingWith the nations at our doorstep, who will answer?

Continued on page 2

Check out our blog atiB2news.org

twitter.com/IllinoisBaptist

We’re online

facebook.com/IllinoisBaptist

In East St. Louis, a haven on earth

SBC Calvinism advisory teamholds first meeting

The CAC offers hope and health in the inner city

LEARNING CENTER – Hundreds of kids benefit from the CAC’s after-school program each week, which features small group discussions, Bible study,computer classes, homework help, and a chance just to play. Here, students take a break from make-believe and board games to pose for a photo.

Continued on page 5

6ILLINOIS BAPTISTIBSA.org

CHRISTIAN ACTIVITY CENTER

Jesus Christ and practical solutions to real lifeproblems of children, teens, and their fami-lies,” said Rex Alexander, IBSA’s liaison tothe center.

On a recent visit to the CAC, North Ameri-can Mission Board President Kevin Ezell andAl Gilbert, head of the organization’s LoveLoud effort, also recognized the center’s longhistory of success and aggressive approach tobettering the lives of people in East St. Louis.They presented the center with a $300,000grant to further its ministry.

“They were looking for a ministry center thatcould serve as a role model for other metro-politan locations,” Alexander said, “and theywere encouraged with what they saw at theCAC.”

When kids walk into the center, they’re en-tering a very different place than the world out-side. East St. Louis has sky-high crime rates,dilapidated buildings, and residents who don’tsee much of a way out.

Afternoons at the CAC usually start with ahot meal, prepared in part by Miss Phoebe,who’s been volunteering at the center for 60years. Then, it’s playtime or homework timeor Kids 4 Christ club or a special class, likekarate or drama.

Chet Cantrell has served as the center’s di-rector for 23 years. In his small office, he ex-plained the CAC’s approach and its place inEast St. Louis, during the calm before thestorm set to arrive at 3:30, when school busesbegin to rumble down the street.

I B : How do you describe the CAC to people whoaren’t familiar with it?Cantrell: We try to reach kids in a holistic way,because kids basically need what kids need.And so we try to give them stuff for their bod-ies and their minds and their souls, and raisethem all at the same time, and help them withtheir emotions, and deal with trauma, and dealwith success and deal with failures, and justhelp them engage life in a healthy way.

Knowing that a life best lived is one con-nected to their Creator, and so introducing kidsto a God that loves them, and has a plan fortheir life, and helping them to see that, andhave pieces of the plan right here.

I B : You talk about success and failure, and traumaand good things. At this point, do you run into moresuccesses than failures?Cantrell : As the years have passed, there aremany more successes that outweigh the tragic,I guess. And so even though the tragic is a partof our warp and woof, now there are manymore success stories than not.

I B : What do you attribute that to?Cantrell: ...Time. And growth. I mean, we’vebeen here long enough, we get to raise kids.And change their world. It’s time with kids thatimpacts their lives. And so I try to put peoplein front of kids that give time, but are also veryintentional about the kinds of time they give,the kind of messages that we send.

Kids are wired to hear what adults tell them,so it’s very important that as adults we choosewhat we want kids to know, and how we say it,and we say it over and over again.

I B : What are some of the main points of that mes-sage?Cantrell: Well, there are many, there are lots ofcategories of messages. But, you know, kidswant to know two things when they come into

the world: They want to be loved and cared for.And the other is who’s in charge (laughing).And so that’s kind of our umbrella.

Kids want to be loved and cared for, thatmeans kids want to be seen. In almost everyAfrican dialect, the word we translate as loveliterally means “I see you with my eyes.” Andwho does not want to be seen?

And so that’s what my staff is charged with:seeing kids. That means knowing their names,knowing what they like for lunch, you know,just knowing kids, seeing them and welcom-ing them. And so the staff, its message to kidsoverall is that you are loved, you are loved byGod, there’s a purpose for your life, just over,over again.

I B : Education is a big part of the CAC’s mission.How are you and your staff teaching kids the valueof school?Cantrell: Educationally, our mantra is “12 plustwo,” because a high school degree is nolonger good enough. So it’s 12 years plus twoof something else toward a degree program ofsome sort to be marketable.

And you say that to kids, and then you liveit out by having expectations about their per-formance in school, and then giving them theopportunities, too, to achieve and excel. Andto be at places that take them farther than highschool. We start getting kids on college cam-puses in sixth grade, and twice by eighth grade,

and they need to be in a lunchroom havingeaten lunch and gone to a class by tenthgrade…

We have a pretty intentional plan, and we tellkids this stuff, this is what we want you to do,and this is why. And kids buy it, kids buy whatadults sell, if adults sell something.

I B : How do you compete? Because someone isselling something else outside of here, so how doyou deal with that?Cantrell: You just be better, be better. And kidsknow. You give kids something good, they re-spond. And we sell it strong. Kids can see whatsquares, and what works, what doesn’t work.

I B : I know you’ve seen lives change here inside theCAC, but have you seen the city change, too?Cantrell: I’ve seen lots of changes in the city,some for better, some for worse. Our city is acity that experiences life in a very visceral kindof way … The economy has an immediate im-pact here (snaps fingers). And when the jobmarket’s down, people suffer here like youwould not believe, because we’re just a city ofsurplus labor.

During the 90s when the job market was bet-ter, crime was better. But when the economy’sbad, things get tough, get desperate. Rightnow, East St. Louis is the seven most danger-ous miles on the planet.

I B : Really?Cantrell : Yeah, passed El Salvador andAfghanistan. So that’s where we are. (Smiling)But you don’t need to tell anybody that be-cause they won’t come see us.

Now having said that, a neighborhood ofpeople not your color is one of the safest placesyou could be. There’s very little crossovercrime.

I B : Is that right?Cantrell: Absolutely, 93 percent of all crime isinternal … because if I don’t like who I am,who I attack is somebody who looks like me.So you’re in more danger at the shopping mallin Springfield than you are right here in thisneighborhood. You could walk out there andeverybody would say, ‘Hey what are you doinghere? You shouldn’t be walking around thisneighborhood by yourself…’ They’d look outfor you.

I B : So, for the kids that are here, what’s the biggestthreat outside of these walls?Cantrell: Without a vision, people perish. Andso you have to see something bigger than whatyou can see with your eyes, and believe insomething outside yourself. And the danger isnot being to do that because you’re hurting,you’re hungry, you’re scared. That’s thebiggest danger, that you lose yourself to thingschildren should not lose themselves to.

So our job is to minimize that, so kids canexperience life and God and themselves in adifferent way.

Visit the Christian Activity Center’s website,cacesl.org, for more about their ministry, andhow to get involved.

CAC: Serving kids and families in East St. LouisContinued from page 1

We’ve been here long enough that we get to raise kids, and change their world.

SCREEN TIME – Tawana Chairs (left), the CAC’s Computer Clubhouse coordinator, helps Onarion Wilson, 9, learn something new in the computer lab.

DEEP IN THOUGHT – Latesha Deloach, 9, gets help with her home-work from one of the center’s education advocates.

DINNER CONVERSATION – Kamarius Epps (left), 14, and Tywonslee Davis, 11, enjoy a hot meal at the CAC.

CACSERVANT LEADER – Chet Cantrell, the CAC’s exec-utive director, leads a devotional for staff and volunteersbefore kids arrive for the after-school program.

7September 10, 2012ILLINOIS BAPTIST

CHRISTIAN ACTIVITY CENTER

Jesus Christ and practical solutions to real lifeproblems of children, teens, and their fami-lies,” said Rex Alexander, IBSA’s liaison tothe center.

On a recent visit to the CAC, North Ameri-can Mission Board President Kevin Ezell andAl Gilbert, head of the organization’s LoveLoud effort, also recognized the center’s longhistory of success and aggressive approach tobettering the lives of people in East St. Louis.They presented the center with a $300,000grant to further its ministry.

“They were looking for a ministry center thatcould serve as a role model for other metro-politan locations,” Alexander said, “and theywere encouraged with what they saw at theCAC.”

When kids walk into the center, they’re en-tering a very different place than the world out-side. East St. Louis has sky-high crime rates,dilapidated buildings, and residents who don’tsee much of a way out.

Afternoons at the CAC usually start with ahot meal, prepared in part by Miss Phoebe,who’s been volunteering at the center for 60years. Then, it’s playtime or homework timeor Kids 4 Christ club or a special class, likekarate or drama.

Chet Cantrell has served as the center’s di-rector for 23 years. In his small office, he ex-plained the CAC’s approach and its place inEast St. Louis, during the calm before thestorm set to arrive at 3:30, when school busesbegin to rumble down the street.

I B : How do you describe the CAC to people whoaren’t familiar with it?Cantrell: We try to reach kids in a holistic way,because kids basically need what kids need.And so we try to give them stuff for their bod-ies and their minds and their souls, and raisethem all at the same time, and help them withtheir emotions, and deal with trauma, and dealwith success and deal with failures, and justhelp them engage life in a healthy way.

Knowing that a life best lived is one con-nected to their Creator, and so introducing kidsto a God that loves them, and has a plan fortheir life, and helping them to see that, andhave pieces of the plan right here.

I B : You talk about success and failure, and traumaand good things. At this point, do you run into moresuccesses than failures?Cantrell : As the years have passed, there aremany more successes that outweigh the tragic,I guess. And so even though the tragic is a partof our warp and woof, now there are manymore success stories than not.

I B : What do you attribute that to?Cantrell: ...Time. And growth. I mean, we’vebeen here long enough, we get to raise kids.And change their world. It’s time with kids thatimpacts their lives. And so I try to put peoplein front of kids that give time, but are also veryintentional about the kinds of time they give,the kind of messages that we send.

Kids are wired to hear what adults tell them,so it’s very important that as adults we choosewhat we want kids to know, and how we say it,and we say it over and over again.

I B : What are some of the main points of that mes-sage?Cantrell: Well, there are many, there are lots ofcategories of messages. But, you know, kidswant to know two things when they come into

the world: They want to be loved and cared for.And the other is who’s in charge (laughing).And so that’s kind of our umbrella.

Kids want to be loved and cared for, thatmeans kids want to be seen. In almost everyAfrican dialect, the word we translate as loveliterally means “I see you with my eyes.” Andwho does not want to be seen?

And so that’s what my staff is charged with:seeing kids. That means knowing their names,knowing what they like for lunch, you know,just knowing kids, seeing them and welcom-ing them. And so the staff, its message to kidsoverall is that you are loved, you are loved byGod, there’s a purpose for your life, just over,over again.

I B : Education is a big part of the CAC’s mission.How are you and your staff teaching kids the valueof school?Cantrell: Educationally, our mantra is “12 plustwo,” because a high school degree is nolonger good enough. So it’s 12 years plus twoof something else toward a degree program ofsome sort to be marketable.

And you say that to kids, and then you liveit out by having expectations about their per-formance in school, and then giving them theopportunities, too, to achieve and excel. Andto be at places that take them farther than highschool. We start getting kids on college cam-puses in sixth grade, and twice by eighth grade,

and they need to be in a lunchroom havingeaten lunch and gone to a class by tenthgrade…

We have a pretty intentional plan, and we tellkids this stuff, this is what we want you to do,and this is why. And kids buy it, kids buy whatadults sell, if adults sell something.

I B : How do you compete? Because someone isselling something else outside of here, so how doyou deal with that?Cantrell: You just be better, be better. And kidsknow. You give kids something good, they re-spond. And we sell it strong. Kids can see whatsquares, and what works, what doesn’t work.

I B : I know you’ve seen lives change here inside theCAC, but have you seen the city change, too?Cantrell: I’ve seen lots of changes in the city,some for better, some for worse. Our city is acity that experiences life in a very visceral kindof way … The economy has an immediate im-pact here (snaps fingers). And when the jobmarket’s down, people suffer here like youwould not believe, because we’re just a city ofsurplus labor.

During the 90s when the job market was bet-ter, crime was better. But when the economy’sbad, things get tough, get desperate. Rightnow, East St. Louis is the seven most danger-ous miles on the planet.

I B : Really?Cantrell : Yeah, passed El Salvador andAfghanistan. So that’s where we are. (Smiling)But you don’t need to tell anybody that be-cause they won’t come see us.

Now having said that, a neighborhood ofpeople not your color is one of the safest placesyou could be. There’s very little crossovercrime.

I B : Is that right?Cantrell: Absolutely, 93 percent of all crime isinternal … because if I don’t like who I am,who I attack is somebody who looks like me.So you’re in more danger at the shopping mallin Springfield than you are right here in thisneighborhood. You could walk out there andeverybody would say, ‘Hey what are you doinghere? You shouldn’t be walking around thisneighborhood by yourself…’ They’d look outfor you.

I B : So, for the kids that are here, what’s the biggestthreat outside of these walls?Cantrell: Without a vision, people perish. Andso you have to see something bigger than whatyou can see with your eyes, and believe insomething outside yourself. And the danger isnot being to do that because you’re hurting,you’re hungry, you’re scared. That’s thebiggest danger, that you lose yourself to thingschildren should not lose themselves to.

So our job is to minimize that, so kids canexperience life and God and themselves in adifferent way.

Visit the Christian Activity Center’s website,cacesl.org, for more about their ministry, andhow to get involved.

Ministry in the city has always beenclosely connected to acts of mercy,mostly because the needs are so big andso basic. Hunger, poverty, crime, hope-lessness – in order to be effective, aGospel-centered ministry must addressthese things, especially in light of Jesus’example.

“Ministries that meet real and practicalneeds in urban settings have alwaysopened doors to share the Gospel ofChrist,” said IBSA’s Rex Alexander.“People don’t care what you know untilthey know that you care. Jesus modeledthis kind of ministry when He healed thesick, fed the hungry, and then shared themessage of the Kingdom of God.”

But there is something that tells us therehas to be a balance – that going “all in”on compassion ministries like a foodpantry or tutoring center might not leavethe resources and energy needed for evan-gelism and discipleship.Al Gilbert leads the North American

Mission Board’s LoveLoud emphasis, aninitiative to encourage churches to create,seek out or partner with compassion min-istries. In a recent Baptist Press column,he wrote about how he personally strug-gled with the issue.

“I had a conversation with a churchplanter in San Francisco recently. Theone-year-old church has been heavily in-volved in helping a local school. They aretutoring struggling kids, supporting teach-ers and their families, and have helpedwith repair work at the school. They alsoare providing practical help for anotherstruggling group in their community –young women overcoming addictions.Recently, they took up a $10,000 offeringto help the school and these strugglingwomen. Demonstrating God’s love inpractical ways is part of this church’sDNA.

“A few years ago I might have thoughtthis church planter was spending his en-ergy on the wrong things. No more.”

Gilbert admitted he had avoided a keyelement of ministry – the neglected. Seek-ing out ways to show compassion, whilesharing the Gospel, reflects God’s heartfor neglected people and communities.

“The same Gospel that moves us to seeevery tribe, tongue and nation also movesus to see those who live nearby – thosewith great need for food, shelter, medicalcare and education. The Gospel moves usto see the neglected neighbor.”

The LoveLoud website – namb.net/loveloud – points to dozens of wayschurches can engage compassion min-istries. IBSA’s Missions Team also is pre-pared to help churches in Illinois findways to meet immediate needs in theircommunities. For more information, call(217) 391-3134 or e-mail RexAlexander@IBSA.org.

Continued on page 8

Reaching

Part 3: Compassion

We’ve been here long enough that we get to raise kids, and change their world.

SCREEN TIME – Tawana Chairs (left), the CAC’s Computer Clubhouse coordinator, helps Onarion Wilson, 9, learn something new in the computer lab.

JOYFUL NOISE – Ali Sakas (left) directs Kids 4 Christ at theCAC, helping kids learn Christ-centered music and Bible stories.

READING BUDDIES – Jalicia Whitfield and Emmanuel Wil-son, both 10, enjoy Dr. Seuss in the homework room.

-Chet Cantrell