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IS THE COOPERATIVE

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“You Lost Me”Book

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Baptist BEACON

Newsjournal of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan Volume 56, Number 2 February 2012 www.MichiganBaptists.org

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA Today

WASHINGTON (RNS) —When Ben Helton signed up for an online dating service, under “re-ligion” he called himself “spiritually apathetic.” And on Sunday mornings, when Bill Dohm turns his eyes toward heaven, he’s just checking the weath-er so he can fly his 1946 Aeronca Champ two-seat-

See So What? Page 6n Top Stories ........................ 1-3n Comics ................................. 4n Opinion ................................ 4n Bobby’s Bits ....................... 5

n Changing The Name ............. 5n Does Religion Matter? .......... 6 n Evangelism & Facebook .... 7n Technology & Religion ........ 7

n Camps & Retreats ............... 8n Vacation Bible School .......... 9n Dave Says ........................ 9n Happenings .................... 10

n Classifieds ......................... 11n Camps ...............................12n Book Report ......................13 n Tentmakers Today ..............14

n Happenings .......................14n State .................................15n IS CP WORTH IT? ........... 16-17n CP Giving Report ........... 17-19 INSIDE

More Americans respond to religion by saying, ‘So what?’

Texas Baptists Making A DifferenceHuman Trafficking

See SLAVERY page 2

By John Hall SAN ANTONIO—Small details in the lives of the troubled students Tyler Shoesmith works with tell more than they would like him to know. It’s the words they use, the clothes they wear—even the age of the people they spend time with or whom they connect with on Face-book. There’s a reason behind all of it, said the di-rector of family support services in San Antonio’s North East Inde-pendent School District. Thanks to attending a training session held by Traffick911—an anti-traf-ficking effort that grew out of Southside City Church

in Fort Worth, Shoesmith is better equipped to under-stand the details. Some of the glimpses he sees now point to dark stories of pros-titution and human traffick-

ing. As a result of the knowledge he gained during the training, Shoesmith has been able to identify traf-ficked children in San An-

See INTERNET page 7

The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering gives Mich-igan Baptists an opportu-nity to partner with other churches and pastors in advancing the Gospel of Je-sus Christ. As you plan and prepare for Easter services this year, pray about your involvement in the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. The national missions offering was established in 1895 by Woman’s Mission-ary Union to support South-ern Baptist Convention missionaries in the United States. In 1934, the offer-ing was named in honor of Annie Armstrong, WMU’s founder and tireless cham-pion of missions. The primary focus of the North American Mis-sion Board is to start new

churches. The restructure of the North American Mis-sion Board has given South-ern Baptists the ability to be directly involved in the starting of new churches all across North America. Send North America, the new intiative of South-ern Baptists, was designed to reach America with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Your participation in the Annie Armstrong Easter Of-fering will allow mission-aries across our nation to share the Good News of Je-sus in areas that desperately need to have a relationship with Jesus. Annie Arm-strong’s legacy continues to provide funds for reaching people for Jesus Christ.

See ANNIE page 3

Annie Armstrong Missions

CAN FACEBOOK BE USED FOR

EVANGELISM?

2 February 2012Top STorieS

tonio. The tips are small but consistent—a young woman who refers to someone other than her father as “daddy,” dressing provocatively and spending time with older men. The victims he’s discovered? Two girls—a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old. “You have to under-stand the language,” Shoe-smith said. “Language is the No. 1 thing. You have to understand what someone is saying.” They’re isolated examples—and ones that admittedly have not resulted in being able to free the girls from their traffickers at this point. But they’re symbolic of a shift taking place in the anti-trafficking movement, leaders say. Anti-traf-ficking organiza-tions continue trying to raise awareness about the atrocities of what they call “modern-day slav-ery,” but they’re increasingly mak-ing practical dif-ferences in the lives of victims and in legislation, said Tomi Grover, director of TraffickStop, a ministry supported by Texas Baptist gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions. Faith-based and other organizations are using a va-riety of methods to discover and “rescue” trafficking victims. By using a private investigator, Traffick911 re-cently rescued two girls from traffickers, including one who was sold as “Thanks-giving dessert.” Groups like Traffick911 and TraffickStop are training individuals to recognize signs that indicate a person is being trafficked. Next, groups like Ref-uge of Light and Traffick911 are attempting to build safe houses where rescued indi-viduals can recover, a costly process that requires a safe environment. Safe houses are rare across the country.

For a group like Traffick911 that discovers trafficking victims each month, that must change. “We need to get a safe house here in North Texas,” said Deena Graves, direc-tor of Traffick911. “We are discovering so many victims in North Texas. That’s the primary way churches can help.” Refuge of Light, an anti-traficking ministry that has grown out of First Bap-tist Church in Palestine, is seeking to open such a safe house this year. The facility will be available to traffick-ing victims as early as the end of this year, providing the attention and care they need. The Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission has pushed for legislation

designed to curb trafficking and defend victims’ rights. Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, in conjunction with national WMU, has sought to raise awareness of traf-ficking issues. Groups are building safe homes where rescued victims can receive the psychological, emotion-al, physical and spiritual at-tention they need to recover. Traffick911 attempts preemptive measures, pro-viding ministry to at-risk youth in an effort to keep them away from bad influ-ences, including traffickers. Grover describes the process of anti-slavery groups’ actions—many of which are not networked with other abolitionist or-ganizations—as putting drops in a bucket. Each action is another drop into a pail. With enough action by

enough groups, the pail may eventually tip. The new abolition-ist movement is “picking up steam, and it’s picking up presence,” Grover said. “I don’t know that we’ve reached a tipping point until we address govern-ment responsibility, personal responsibility, corporate responsibility.” Nadezda Shapkina, associate professor of sociol-ogy at Kansas State Univer-sity, said the anti-trafficking movement is making a dif-ference globally. Trafficking has been made illegal. More people are aware of the atrocity, its causes and ef-fects on people. Victims also are receiving more services as a result of the work of new abolitionists. But Shapkina cautions

that progress does not mean victory is inevitable for the anti-slavery movement. When dealing with issues like this, situations may be improving. Then they may get worse. Because there are so many people involved, the environment changes regularly.

Historically, when a form of slavery has been stamped out, another arises, further complicating the situation. “Focusing on stages of social movement ... is one way, but thinking in terms of stages often presupposes that there is some final—’ideal’ or most developed—stage,” she said in response to a question about anti-traffick-ing progress. “The assumption is that there is a continuous progress in history, that we are moving towards a bet-ter stage—in this case, a stage without slavery. We have seen slavery abolished, but then it comes back in new forms. So, I would say that my position is that anything can happen in his-tory—progress, regression, degradation, etc. There is no predestination. History is

open-ended.” The primary differ-ence between past slave industries and modern trad-ers also is what makes con-temporary abolitionist efforts so difficult, Shapkina said. Past slave trade was open and legalized. By changing the laws of a nation, slavery was ended. That’s not the case with trafficking, creat-ing the challenge of ending something with a hidden structure. “Contemporary move-ments face a different reality. Slavery as a legal system is outlawed, but slavery-like practices still happen,” she said. “This ‘new’ slavery is disorganized, highly mobile, and global in scope. It ex-ists in the so-called shadow/informal sector of economy, outside of the state-regulated sector of economy.” It is a difficult battle, Grover admits. But it’s one she sees an increasing num-ber of people stepping up to fight. They make a differ-ence however they can. Like those who helped William Wilberforce end the Afri-can slave trade in England, modern day abolitionists continue seeking justice and advocating for victims with-out knowing how close the end may be. “I think part of the problem is we’re in the middle of the forest, and all we can see are the trees and not the entire forest. There’s so much going on. There are pockets of hope around the world,” she said. Time is running out for victims of trafficking; this atrocity must end now, Graves said. “The average life ex-pectancy of a child sold into this is just seven years. We don’t have time to wait.” For more informa-tion about TraffickStop, visit www.traffickstop.com. For more information about Traffick911, visit www.traffick911.com. For more information about Reguge of Light, visit www.refugeofli-ght.org.

Slavery FROM PAGE ONE

embrace. Pray for the spot-lighted missionaries who represent the dedicated work of thousands like them and give generously so that your missionaries can continue doing whatever it takes to reach North America for Christ. Prayer guides, posters and offering envelopes can be ordered by downloading the Resources Order Form at www.bscm.org or by con-tacting [email protected]. Pastors should have already received the “What-ever It Takes” Planning Guide with DVD. If you did not received the plan-ning guide please contact [email protected] to request one.

to stop those friends. De-termined and having great faith, they had complete hope and trust in who Jesus was and what He could do – what He would do for their beloved friend. Jesus saw their faith, and He respond-ed with grace-filled healing and love. Southern Baptist missionaries are like those friends holding the para-lytic’s mat, carrying those who need healing to Jesus, and doing whatever it takes to get them to Him. During the Week of Prayer for North American Missions, consider how you are doing “whatever it takes” to impact the King-dom of God through your continued prayers, giving, and going in the task God has called us to passionately

www.MichiganBaptists.org 3Top STorieS

Annie Armstrong Emphasis The suggested dates for the annual Week of Prayer for North American Missions is March 4-11, 2012. This year, five mis-sionaries representing thou-sands of missionaries serv-ing throughout the United States, Canada, and their territories are spotlighted. The other three days focus on ways Southern Baptists are reaching the lost in North America. The Annie Arm-strong Easter Offering® is much more than an offer-ing envelope and an annual missions-giving emphasis. When people give to the of-fering, 100 percent of their gift will be transformed into missionary salaries and ministry supplies. Those missionaries and supplies

will help others hear the message of Christ and re-spond in faith to His offer of salvation. Time and again our missionaries relate how the offering is their lifeblood. They know that behind each penny given, there is a Southern Baptist who believes in what they do and are affirming the need to equip them to share the gospel with those who need a Savior. As you can see from the graphic, this year’s theme for the North Ameri-can Missions Emphasis is “Whatever It Takes.” The theme scripture passage is Mark 2:2-5. This is the passage where Jesus heals the paralytic man who was brought to Him by four friends. Nothing was going

mailto:cindy%40bscm.org?subject=Prayer%20Guides%20and%20posters

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4 February 2012opinion

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www.MichiganBaptists.org 5for professionally designed materials for the emphasis of “HOPE: Find It Here!” The GPS emphasis is on an every two-year cycle with a goal of “Every be-liever sharing, every person hearing by 2020.” The 2012 cycle is the second emphasis leading up to 2020.

FIND A CHURCH As a part of this national and state evangelis-tic emphasis, every church needs to update their “Find

a Church” informa-tion online by going to www.sbc.net/church-update/modchurch.asp. This will ensure that

if someone is looking for a church in your area, they will find the most current information on your congre-gation. Will you join me in “Sharing the Hope of the Good News” this year? I pray you will. .

GOD’S PLAN FOR SHARING (GPS) 2012 I was encouraged this week after hearing from one of our pastors about their proposal for the “God’s Plan for Sharing” emphasis be-fore Easter. I am confident God will bless their plans to join Him in reaching their community. Make your plans NOW and get great re-sources at www.GPS2020.net. Additional banners and lawn signs will soon be available through the convention offices to supplement and support your efforts prior to Eas-ter 2012. In partnership with our North American Mission Board’s national evange-lism initiative, God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS), these resources will help churches have a strong evangelis-tic emphasis leading up to Easter 2012. Pastors and churches have already re-ceived ordering information from www.GPS2020.net

Is there any value in changing the name of the Southern Baptist Conven-tion? That debate has been raging in recent months across the convention since SBC President Bryant Wright appointed a special committee to study and report back to him regard-ing the issue. I would personally be supportive of a name change, as I have repeated-ly seen the negative impact of the convention’s name in our northern context. However, that is not the issue that most concerns me at this juncture. My concern is about the heart issues that lie much deeper. Over the years, I have watched as numerous churches change their name in an effort to be more effective in reaching their commu-nity. A notable motive. What has made a name change effective? I have discov-ered that it is not as much about the actual name as it is about the heart and focus of the congregation. If the church changes it’s name yet maintains the same attitudes and approach

to ministry as before, the name change will be of little to no value. But, if the church has refocused and transformed itself to have new attitudes and direction prior to a name change, it will often find a new level

of effectiveness. My question for our convention is what is our heart condition? If our heart condition remains the same,

a new name will make very little differ-ence. How-ever,

if we are seeing a revival of evangelism, missions and the things that God has commanded in His Word, we will see His blessing on a new name.

Changing The Name

BoBBy’S BiTS

Bobby Gilstrap

“I was encouraged this week after hearing from one of our pastors about

their proposal for the “God’s Plan for Sharing” emphasis before Easter. I

am confident God will bless their plans to join Him in

reaching their community.”“My question for our convention is what is our heart condition? If our heart condition remains the same, a new name will make

very little difference.”

Every Number Has a Story

http://baptistbeacon.net

http://MichiganBaptists.org

6 February 2012DoeS religion MaTTer?

er plane. Helton, 28, and Dohm,

54, aren’t atheists. They sim-ply shrug off God, religion, heaven or the ever-trendy search-for-meaning and/or purpose. Their attitude could be summed up as “So what?”

“The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America is that there are so many peo-ple for whom spiritual inter-est, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal,” said Mark Silk, professor of reli-gion and public life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Clergy and religion ex-perts are dismayed, fearing for souls’ salvation and for the common threads of faith snapping in society.

Others see no such dire consequences to a more openly secular America as people not only fess up to being faithless but admit they’re skipping out on spiri-tuality altogether.

Only now, however, are they turning up in the sta-tistical stream. Researchers have begun asking the kind of nuanced questions that reveal just how big the “So What” set might be:

• 44 percent told the 2011 Baylor University Religion Survey they spend no time seeking “eternal wisdom,” and 19 percent said, “It’s useless to search for mean-ing.”

• 46 percent told a 2011 survey by Nashville, Tenn.-based LifeWay Research that they never wonder whether they will go to heaven.

• 28 percent told LifeWay, “It’s not a major priority in my life to find my deeper purpose.” And 18 percent scoffed at the idea that God has a purpose or plan for ev-eryone.

• 6.3 percent of Americans

turned up on Pew Forum’s 2007 Religious Landscape Survey as totally secular—unconnected to God or a higher power or any reli-gious identity and willing to say religion is not important in their lives.

Hemant Mehta, who blogs as the Friendly Atheist, calls them the “apatheists,” while Mariann Edgar Budde, the new Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., calls them honest.

“We live in a society today where it is acceptable now to say that they have no spiri-tual curiosity. At almost any other time in history, that would have been unaccept-able,” Budde said.

She finds this “very sad, because the whole purpose of faith is to be a source of guidance, strength and per-spective in difficult times. To be human is to have a sense of purpose, an awareness that

our life is an utterly unique expression of creation and we want to live it with mean-ing, grace and beauty.”

But Helton, a high school band teacher in Chicago, insists he only goes to the Roman Catholic Church of his youth to hear his mother sing in the choir.

Study of psychology led him away. The more Helton read evolutionary psychol-ogy and neuropsychology, he said, the more it seemed to him: “We might as well be cars. That, to me, makes more sense than believing what you can’t see.”

Ashley Gerst, 27, a 3-D

So What? FROM PAGE ONEThe real dirty little secret

animator and filmmaker in New York, shifts between “leaning to the atheist and leaning toward apathy.”

“I would just like to see more people admit they don’t believe. The only thing I’m pushy about is I don’t want to be pushed. I don’t want to change others, and I don’t want to debate my view,” she said.

Most “So Whats” are like Gerst, said David Kinna-man, a Christian researcher and author of You Lost Me, a book on young adults drift-ing away from church.

They’re uninterested in trying to talk a diverse set of friends into a shared view-point in a culture that cele-brates an idea that all truths are equally valid, he said.

Personal experience and personal authority matter most, and as a result, Scrip-

ture and tradition are quaint, irrelevant artifacts.

“’Spiritual’ is the hipster way of saying they’re con-cerned with social injustice. But if you strip away the hip-ster factor,” said Kinnaman, “I’d estimate seven in 10 young adults would say they don’t see much influence of God or religion in their lives at all.”

The hot religion statistical trend of recent decades was the rise of the “Nones”—the people who checked “no reli-gious identity” on the Ameri-can Relig-ious Identification Survey—who leapt from 8 percent in 1990 to 15 percent

in 2008.The “So Whats” appear to

be a growing secular subset. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s Landscape Survey dug in to the Nones to discover nearly half said they believed “nothing in particular.”

Neither raging atheist sci-entist Richard Dawkins, au-thor of numerous best-sellers such as The God Delusion, nor religious broadcaster Pat Robertson would understand this fuzzy stance, said Barry Kosmin, co-author of the ARIS and director of the In-stitute for the Study of Secu-larism at Trinity College.

“But a lot of these people are concerned more with the tangible, the real stuff like mortgages or their favorite football team or the everyday world,” Kosmin said.

When church historian Diana Butler Bass re-searched her upcoming book, Christianity After Religion, she found the “So Whats” are a growing category.

“We can’t underestimate the power of the collapse of institutional religion in the first 10 years of this century,” she said.

“It’s freed so many peo-ple to say they don’t really care. They don’t miss ritu-als or traditions they may

never have had anyway.”

http://www.baptistbeacon.net

www.MichiganBaptists.org 7Technology & religion

INTERNET FROM PAGE ONEchurch is people, not build-ings; the Web is essentially relationships, not computer screens. People want ‘con-nectedness’, the opportu-nity to share in a two-way conversation, to feel they belong, to share their lives. This is often called a sense of community, and is a key part of Web 2.0. Traditionally, web

evangelism has been seen as the creation of evange-listic web-pages, and that is certain to remain a strategic part of web outreach. If we can liken differ-ent aspects of web evange-lism to the physical world, then normal outreach web-pages have similarities with both a reference library and an inquiry service, as shown in the ‘broadcast ministry’ diagram. Chat room out-reach by contrast is similar to street evangelism – a di-rect way of up-front discus-sion with anyone who will listen. And social network-ing is more like hanging out in a cafe with friends.

Relationships There are many web approaches which are the online equiva-lent of the ongo-ing networking relationships we build with neighbors, friends in school

or college, or workmates. This is not the sort of direct preachy evangelism typified by street evangelism – you would lose all your friends within a week that way. It is

the living out of a Christian life, being salt in your com-munity, building up rela-tionships with no ulterior motive, and taking oppor-tunities to ask thought-pro-voking questions or share your faith when appropriate. Most people who come to faith do so through an ongoing relationship with a praying Christian. And those whose spiritual journey starts through an outreach site usually need an email relationship with a mentor, before coming to commitment. This is just the same as in a non-web situ-ation. It is unusual for ex-ample, that someone comes to faith through reading a tract alone, without previous or subsequent relationships with Christians. Likewise, websites do not usually hook non-seekers off the Internet, lead them through a gospel presentation and prayer of commitment, and see them march off to

the nearest church the next Sunday. The most effective outreach sites offer faithful, consistent, ongoing email mentoring to inquirers, as these stories demonstrate. God can work sovereignly without human intervention, but it is the exception.

Social networkingThere has been a huge growth in this ‘relational web’, with blogging and social networking sites be-ing hugely popular. We can illustrate the webs of rela-tionships with the diagram to the right. The attraction of blogs is that they are usu-ally friendly and intimate.

The readers of a personal blog will quickly feel they ‘know’ the writer, and will frequently share their re-actions and ideas on the blog (if it is set up to allow readers’ comments). Social networking sites, especially Facebook, are among the most visited sites on the planet. They are a virtual meeting place at a whole range of levels. Users can contact other people, post blogs, videos, and pictures, or discuss issues and inter-act in many other ways. Of course, it has long been possible to do these things online – but a social networking site combines them together in an easy co-herent whole. See this map of social networking sites usage in different countries, and this map of Facebook users worldwide.Thus we can meet people online in a variety of ways, and as we build relation-ships, we can share our

hearts with them. In addition, there are many ways to make our Face-Book page into a non-preachy but question-posing en-vironment, by adding

links to appropriate outreach sites, blogs or video-clips.Sharing faith on FacebookCommunication expert, Cynthia Ware shares strate-gies for using Facebook and other networking sites to share your faith: People who don’t un-derstand the value of social media see no point in ‘wast-ing time’ connecting with others online. However, we have an opportunity to en-courage believers to spread out and focus on sharing our faith with those who may need it most. All too often we’ve got too many ‘fel-

InternetEvangelismDay.com The Web as a me-dium is so broad that for any person it can be ‘what you want it to be’. For some, it is merely best way of keep-ing in touch with friends and family by email. For oth-ers, it can be any or all of: finding new friends, seek-ing information and doing research, hearing news, playing online games, net-working with others about a hobby or inter-est, sharing opinions, ask-ing questions, making choices about purchas-ing, publishing their writing, photographs or videos, and much more. And so the opportunities for online evangelism are equal-ly wide. And note, many of them need no technical skill. And it is, in many ways, an ideal mission field. If Face-book was a country, it would be the third largest (by popu-lation) in the world.

Web 2.0 Each new medium that is invented takes time to develop and mature. When TV started, it was perceived as ‘radio with pictures’. But it quickly transformed into a different medium, as its strengths, advantages, and limitations became under-stood. The Web has been with us as a mainstream medium since the mid-90s. Over that time, it has developed from merely static ‘pages on a screen’ to some-thing far more. This ‘grown-up Internet‘ is sometimes called Web 2.0. Although the ‘2.0’ concept includes best-practice design standards for webpage appearance and easy intuitive navigation, it embraces much more – a whole philosophy of com-munication. Just as the See INTERNET page 12

8 February 2012

2012 2012 VBS VBS

ClinicsClinics Saturdays 9:00—3:00

April 28 at Merriman Road Baptist Church, Garden City

May 5 at Bambil Lake Retreat and Conference Center

Basic VBS

training for all VBS leaders.

Electives to

enhance your VBS.

Giving to the Annie Armstrong Easter offering en-ables missionaries to obediently follow God’s call and share the Gospel with all people.

www.MichiganBaptists.org VacaTion BiBle School 9

www.BaptistBeacon.netDear Dave,

My wife and I bought some furniture a while back on what we thought was a 24-months-same-as-cash plan. The original purchase price was $1,600. The other day, I got a call from a col-lector saying that it was ac-tually a 12-month plan, and the balance is now $2,800. We looked at the contract, and it was our mistake on the length of the plan. Still, that makes the interest rate about 30 percent. Is there anything we can do about this?

Robert

Dear Robert,

This is one of the reasons I tell people to stay away from “same as cash” agreements. You may not have agreed to a specific percentage rate, and I’ll bet it’s something less when you factor in the time be-fore and after the 12-month period ended. Still, I’m pretty sure that when you

signed the contract you did agree to have this thing convert to a financed con-tract if you didn’t pay it off in 12 months. These kinds of deals are really scum-my. Not only have they charged you interest since the 12-month period ended, they’ve also back-charged you interest for the entire length of the contract!These same-as-cash con-tracts are a bear trap. They’re designed to mess you over big time. You can try to dispute it, but I’ve got a feeling you’ll lose and have to pay about $1,200 in stupid tax on this one.Lots of people think they can pull one over on a company with the “same as cash” deal, but stuff almost always comes up—even if you don’t misread the con-tract. I’ve said it a million times, Robert. If you play with snakes, you will be bitten!

—Dave

DAVE SAYS . . .

Dear Dave,

I’ve heard you talk about something you call the Legacy Drawer. What exactly is this, and what goes into it?

Lisa

Dear Lisa,

One of the best ways I know to tell your family how much you love them is by having your financial act together and organized in a central location. The Leg-acy Drawer is a collection of your essential financial

documents in a safe place where they can find them when you die, or if you’re sick or disabled. All of the pieces of your financial life should be in this drawer. I’m talk-ing about your will, living will, estate plan, investment statements, insurance poli-cies, and property deeds. You should also include stuff like power of attorney statements, access informa-tion to lock boxes, and other instructions to family and loved ones. Make sure it’s re-ally well-organized, too. It should be laid out simply enough that anyone who can read could open it up and find exactly what’s needed in just a few minutes. The stress of having a loved one die or become seriously ill is bad enough. You don’t want to make it any harder on them by leaving your finances in a mess!

—Dave

* For more financial help, please visit daveramsey.com.

Twelve VBS leaders from Michigan attended the 2012 Vacation Bible School Institute at Ridgecrest Conference Center on January 4-7. They received training to lead work- shops at two VBS Clinics in Michigan. Michigan VBS Institutes will be April 28 at Merriman Road Baptist Church, Garden City and May 5 at Bambi Lake Retreat and Conference Center. VBS Institutes are on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. More information is available at michiganbaptists. org/church-strengthening.

VBS Institute at Ridgecrest The VBS Clinic team members are Darren Greer, Carla Saun-ders, Jeff Glover, Evon Sims,

Ruth Zarbaugh, Shar Durbin, Jimmy Jones, Karen Villalpando, Sharon Wood, Jessica Turner, Bob Wood, and Maureen Col-lins. Contact any of the team

members for VBS information or assistance. The 2012 VBS theme is Amazing Wonders Aviation. Boys and girls will experience God’s amazing power as they

visit the natural wonders only God could have made. Vacation Bible School continues to be one of our most effective outreach and evangelism tools and trained workers can help your church reach more people through VBS.

VBS Training Goes Well

VBS Institute at Ridgecrest

Twelve VBS leaders from Michigan attended the 2012 Vacation Bible School Institute at Ridgecrest Conference Center on January 4-7. They received training to lead work-shops at two VBS Clinics in Michigan. Michigan VBS Institutes will be April 28 at Merriman Road Baptist Church, Garden City and May 5 at Bambi Lake Retreat and Conference Center. VBS Institutes are on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. More information is available at michiganbaptists. org/church-strengthening. The VBS Clinic team members are Darren Greer, Carla Saunders, Jeff Glover, Evon Sims, Ruth Zarbaugh, Shar Durbin, Jimmy Jones, Karen Villalpando, Sharon Wood, Jessica Turner, Bob Wood, and Maureen Collins. Contact any of the team members for VBS information or assistance. The 2012 VBS theme is Amazing Wonders Aviation. Boys and girls will experience God’s amazing power as they visit the natural wonders only God could have made. Vacation Bible School continues to be one of our most effective out-reach and evangelism tools and trained workers can help your church reach more people through VBS.


http://daveramsey.com

10 February 2012happeningS

a Winter Missions Retreat for Women February 17-19, 2012

Bambi Lake Retreat & Conference Center

God is searching the earth for

believers who will join Him on

mission to their neighbors and

the nations. Are you ready to be

someone He finds ready and

willing to change your world?

Are you ready to live like a

missionary? Want to know

more? Come to the retreat and

discover how God is ready to use

you.

Featuring: Ginger Smith Executive Director of the

Mission Centers of Houston, Texas.

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,” Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)

Each participant will receive a tote bag filled with missions resources and other goodies.

$20 Deposit Fee due by February 6 See Registration form for Event costs.

Go to http://bscm.org/#/missions/ministries to download a Registration form.

This event is sponsored by the Missions Ministries/WMU/Women’s Ministries Department of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan and is provided through gifts to the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. Contact 810-714-1907 or [email protected] for more information.

Child Safe Zone Hotel Project Human Exploitation Interactive Walk-

Through Display Minister’s Wives Track More Beautiful than Diamonds Boutique Mission Projects Make It, Take It and more There will be free time to enjoy fellowshipping by the fire with a shake from JB’s, tubing down Monster Hill, playing games with friends, enjoy-ing the winter beauty of Bambi on foot & more.

Hispanic Fellowship of Michigan

Pat Regalado

La Iglesia Tranformacional Iglesia Bautista

Getsemani 1000 Lincoln Lansing, MI

31 de Marzo, 2012 9:30 a.m. — 3:30 p.m. Si desea participar con un canto, favor de contactar a su Pastor

www.MichiganBaptists.org 11claSSiFieDS

ON Mission ID BandsID bands for people going

on Disaster Relief or Mission Trips

www.ONmissionID.com

YOUR ADGOES HERE

Full-Time Music Pastor

Praise Baptist Church in PlymouthPlan music for all worship servicesCoordinate and/or lead all music groups (Praise

Team, Children’s/Youth/Adult/Senior Choirs, Hand Bell Choir, Sound Equipment Team, Drama)Direct musical presentations during various times of

the yearPlease email resumes to: [email protected].


OR HERE

The Baptist Beacon and the Great Commission Ministries of the Baptist

State Convention of Michigan are provided from the gifts of our

churches through the Cooperative Program.





Church Van For Sale

1997 Ford E350 12 Passenger Van.

Great Cndition. Well cared for.

Contact Rev. Mike Pittman 734-389-4273.



www.ONmissionID.com

YOUR ADGOES HERE






OR HERE








SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH SEEKING BI-VOCATIONAL PASTOR.

We are looking for an individual to lead our small but growing congregation with the support of a strong deacon/leadership team. We are a bible-based, Christ-centered church who enjoys contemporary praise band style worship. Please Send your resume to: [email protected]



www.ONmissionID.com

YOUR ADGOES HERE






OR HERE








Full-Time Volunteer NeededAt

Bambi Lake Retreat and Conference Center

This position is for an onsite (housing provided) volunteer, who’s responsibilities would include but are not limited to: Registration,

Bookkeeping, Billing, Guest Services

Computer and customer service skills are a must. This is a service oriented position. We are looking for and individual with a servant’s heart who feels

called to serve the Lord and His people in a Camp/Retreat setting.

For more information contact [email protected]

mailto:beacon%40bscm.org?subject=Advertising

http://bscm.e-quip.net

mailto:mpst%40pbcplymouth.org?subject=Pastor%20Search

http://www.onmissionid.com

www.michiganbaptists.org

mailto:beacon%40bscm.org?subject=Place%20an%20AD

http://imb.org

http://namb.net

www.michiganbaptists.org

http://www.baptistbeacon.net

mailto:dan%40bscm.org?subject=Full-Time%20Volunteer%20

12 February 2012

Mom and Me is a special time for mothers and daughters to share together at Bambi Lake Retreat & Conference Center. Participants will have an opportunity to meet and spend time with missionaries as well as participate in a variety of activities including worship, crafts, swimming and more. Registration begins at 4:00 pm on Friday, July 13 with dinner being served at 6:00 pm. The overnight retreat will conclude by 4:00 pm on Saturday, July 14.

Cost: $50 per person ($55 after the Registration Deadline) Age: 4 to ??? Registration Deadline: June 22nd A $20 per person deposit should be received at Bambi Lake by the

Registration Deadline. (We will need to have received at least 20 registrations by June 22nd

or we will have to cancel this retreat.)

lows in the same ship’ if you know what I mean. Online communication is really a modern-day parallel for getting to know your neighbors. Since the Good News is meant to be shared, it will only serve the Kingdom if we use online means to augment our physical world relationships. Facebook is a perfect ex-ample of an easy free way to connect with others and share your faith. If you think it’s costly in terms of time, you’re mistaken. It’s an investment. In fact, using online communication is the fastest, cheapest way to connect with large groups of people who you might never have a chance to keep in regular contact with were it not for your electronic link. This is old news to many people but sometimes Chris-

tians clump together instead of looking for inventive

ways to spread out. If you’ve avoid-ed Facebook based on MySpace’s reputation, here are 10 simple steps to get you started:

1 - Repent! Realize you’ve been apathetic or cynical about social media because, well mainly because, people put down what they don’t understand. Rethink; go another way.2 - Join Facebook. Signing

up is easy and free. All you need is an email address and

a desire to build relation-ships.3 - Create your personal profile. This can be as simple or complex as you like. It can take as little as 5 minutes or you can get wordy.4 - Invite your friends to add you. Searching for your friends is very easy, especially if someone you know has already added many of your ac-quaintances.5 - Join groups that reflect parts of you, your

interests, profession, educa-tion, geographic area, etc. Anything you find interest-ing will connect you with others.6 - Feed your page. If you also blog, make sure you syndicate your content with RSS which for Facebook is easy to use. Try Blog RSS Feed Reader.7 - Mingle on purpose. Remember you want to connect with friends but also stretch out beyond the

familiar.8 - Add events that you think others might be in-terested in hearing about or attending. Anything counts, seminars, financial classes, scrapbooking parties, etc.9 - Create a group. The op-tions are endless. I’ve seen unique examples including genealogy groups, reunion groups, memorial groups, etc.10 - Check your page at regular intervals. Use it or lose it. If you don’t check in and respond, people will loose interest in their ability to connect with you. Plus, your home page is where the news feed lives. It’s how you get current information on all the people you want to be connected with.

Read more: http://www.InternetEvangelismDay.com/social-networking.php#ixzz1lodKxkFP at Internet Evangelism Day Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

INTERNET FROM PAGE SEVEN

www.MichiganBaptists.org 13Book reporT

You Lost MeBY AARON ARMSTRONG For quite a while now,

people have been talking about the “dropout prob-lem”—the grim reality that young professing Christians are leaving their faith be-hind in droves. Some cata-strophize the issue and pro-claim it the death of Chris-tianity in America. Others minimize it, shrugging it off and retorting, “They’ll be back when they settle down and have kids.”

David Kinnaman, presi-dent of the Barna Research Group and author of You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church…and Rethink-ing Faith, doesn’t believe the problem is so simple. Through his research and analysis of the Mosaic (or Millennial) generation,1 Kinnaman shows that the problem far more serious than some think—but far more hopeful than we might expect.

You Lost Me, like many books on the Mosaics, is quick to point out an im-portant reality: every story matters. It is exceptional-ly easy to make sweeping judgments about this gen-eration (even in acknowl-edging its peculiar “Let’s change the world—look at me!” ideology), so much so that it becomes easy to overlook the reality that these are the experiences of real people. And the expe-rience they share, both in the testimonies peppered throughout the book as well as in the research itself, is troubling.

You Lost Me‘s greatest strength is Kinnaman’s as-sessment of the real reason behind the dropout prob-lem—it’s a discipleship issue. “The church is not adequately preparing the next generation to follow Christ faithfully in a rap-idly changing culture,” he explains (p. 21). This bears itself out as he details the frustrations of the Mosaics

participating in the study, who find that the church is:

Overprotective—they see the church “as a creativity killer where risk taking and being involved in culture are anathema” (p. 92).

Shallow—having been fed a steady diet of “easy platitudes, proof texting and formulaic slogans,” they don’t see how their faith connects to every facet of life and how their passions, gifts and ab i l i t i e s can be used for G o d ’ s glory.

A n t i -science—they see faith and s c i e n c e are in-c o m p a t -ible, even f i n d i n g that “sci-ence ap-pears to welcome questions and skep-t i c i s m , while matters of faith seem impenetrable” (p. 93).

Repressive—”Religious rules—particularly sexual mores—feel stifling to the individualist mindset of young adults,” Kinnaman writes. “Consequently they perceive the church as re-pressive.”

Exclusive—Christian-ity’s claim to exclusivity is a hard sell, simply because of how this generation has been shaped by “a culture that esteems open-minded-ness, tolerance, and accep-tance.”

Doubtless—they don’t believe the church is a safe place to express doubts or admit that their faith doesn’t always make sense. “[M]any feel that the church’s response to doubt is trivi-al and fact focused, as if

people can be talked out of doubting.”

These areas of discon-nection have direct implica-tions for making disciples. Shallow platitudes don’t build a robust faith, nor does cultural withdrawal assist in connecting with those outside the Christian community. An antiscien-tific mindset doesn’t help those who are genuinely

interested in the sci-ences feel like they “ b e l o n g ” in the faith. An envi-r o n m e n t where gen-uine ques-tions aren’t w e l c o m e d o e s n ’ t allow us to “have mercy on those who d o u b t ” (Jude 22).

R e a d -ing the overviews and the i n - d e p t h a n a l y s i s

featured throughout the chapters devoted to each issue, I often found myself agreeing with a hearty “yes and amen.” But I also found myself carefully examining the experiences depicted and asking, “How much of this is a genuine problem of the church and how much is a problem with the person’s actions and attitudes?” This again points to the diagno-sis that there is a disciple-making problem at the heart of the dropout problem.

For some, it’s because they legitimately haven’t been equipped—so those who believe the sexual mores of biblical Christi-anity are repressive should read the Puritans2 to com-pletely shatter that image. But “repressive” or “exclu-sive” can often be used as

excuses for “presumptuous sins” (Psalm 19:13)—you know something is wrong, you know it’s bad for you, but you’re going to do it anyway.

While some might strug-gle with the widely ecu-menical view of Christian-ity displayed, perhaps the weakest element of You Lost Me is its lack of gos-pel application particularly in terms of the questions being asked (at least as far as what was shown in the book was concerned). I can’t help but wonder what the results might have been had the surveys included a question such as “What is the gospel?” My suspicion is that it would only have further illustrated the gap-ing hole in our disciple-ship methodology, but it might have also been an opportunity to drive home the reality that the gospel is not something that you accept once and move on, but something you delve deeper into. The only place I recall this playing out at all is in all too fleeting men-tions in the final chapter of the book, “Fifty Ideas to Find a Generation” (which carries on the ecumenism displayed by including voices from all across the spectrum such as Francis Chan, Britt Merrick, Drew Dyck—whose quote is per-haps the best in the entire chapter—Shane Claiborne and Rachel Held Evans).

Despite this weakness, You Lost Me is an ex-tremely helpful and reveal-ing look at what is causing young Christians to leave the Church, one that I hope will serva as a wake-up call to those who have become complacent and an encour-agement to those who are pressing on in the hard work of making disciples. Read it carefully, give it due con-sideration and allow Kin-naman’s findings to help address any changes that might need to be made.


14 February 2012

George FountainBi-Vocational Ministry Consultant

This month I’m thinking about the roles that God, by His grace, assigned me as a member of His Kingdom and al-lowed me as a Tentmaker to enjoy while being em-ployed by Ford Motor Company. I was dually em-ployed, that is, I was em-ployed by the Ford Motor Company and I was also employed by a local church. As an employee of the Ford Motor Com-pany, I served as an elec-trician. As an employee of a local church, I served as their Pastor. I was “dually employed.” I was a Tent-maker, a Bi-vocational Church Planter then a Bi-

vocational Pastor. As a Tentmaker, a Bi-vocational Minister, I went to work at Ford Motor Company every day as an electrician and also as an “Ambassador for Christ”; a “Servant of Christ”; and a “Witness for Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:20 (HCSB) Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ… 1 Timothy 4:6 (HCSB) … you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus… Acts 1 :8 (HCSB) … you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” My Samaria includ-ed my secular employ-ment with the Ford Motor Company. I reported to work striving to do my absolute best in being an electrician and also doing my absolute best in “REP-RESENTING” the Lord Jesus. I went in His name, striving to apply my skills as an electrician and also striving to represent His person and project His character and spirit, as

though it “was not I that lived but Christ living in me.” I was an ambassador for Christ. I also strived to do my absolute best in “SERVING the Lord Jesus through the way I performed my duties as an electrician. Colossians 3:23 (HCSB) Whatever you do, do it enthusiasti-

cally, as s o m e -t h i n g d o n e for the L o r d a n d not for m e n … An em-p l o y -

ee’s method of perform-ing his assignment may be debated but his motive for excelling at his as-signment cannot be ques-tioned. Being there as an “Ambassador for Christ”, and a “Servant of Christ”, often times provided op-portunities for me to be a “Witness for Christ.” Words of appreciation often led to opportuni-ties for me to explain my motive and heart’s desire. Being respectful of those

I may share with and care-ful to avoid sounding like some religious kook I sought to represent the Lord Jesus, serve the Lord Jesus, and point to the Lord Jesus. I was a wit-ness. My secular job was a real joy for me. As I think about and pray for the “Tentmakers” across our state today, I am hop-ing that every situation is similar to if not greater than what mine was dur-ing those years in that wonderful role. I wouldn’t trade anything for those days that are now glori-ous memories. It was an absolute honor to report to work, and ultimately rep-resent the King of Kings, serve a great company, and have the opportunity to share the greatest mes-sage ever told, pointing to the greatest person one could ever know. God bless you as you serve your employer, represent our Savior, and witness to all those around you, in work, in word, and indeed. His Kingdom will be expanded and you will be blessed.

TenTmakers Today

“My Samaria included my secular employment with

the Ford Motor Company. I reported to work striving to do my absolute best in being an electrician and

also doing my absolute best in “REPRESENTING” the

Lord Jesus.”

www.BaptistBeacon.net

More Info at:http://michiganbaptists.org/leadership/bivocational


http://michiganbaptists.org/leadership/bivocational

www.MichiganBaptists.org 15STaTe

The Quest Kid’s Camp

July 23-27, 2012

At The Quest Camp, older children , grades four through six, will grow in their faith and their walk with Jesus through worship, Bible study, missions, and a variety of ex-periences.

Metamorphosis Youth Camp June 18-22, 2012

Metamorphosis Youth Camp provides six through twelfth grade student opportunities for Christian growth and fellow-ship.In addition to the worship time, students are divided into age-grouped teams forintensive Bible study, fun competition, and team building activities.

You are Invited to CampNow is the time to register your children and youth for camp this year.Cost for either camp is $145 per person. (There is a $5.00 late fee for regis-tration within the last two weeks before camp.)

Watch for registration informa-tion in the mail or go to www.bscm.org.We would love to see you at camp.

The Quest Kid’s Camp July 23-27, 2012

At The Quest Camp, older children , grades four through six, will grow in their faith and their walk with Jesus through worship, Bible study, missions, and a variety of experiences.

You are Invited to Camp Now is the time to register your children and youth for camp this year. Cost for either camp is $145 per person. (There is a $5.00 late fee for registration within the last two weeks before camp.) Watch for registration information in the mail or go to www.bscm.org.

We would love to see you at camp.


Metamorphosis Youth Camp provides six through twelfth grade student opportunities for Christian growth and fellowship. In addition to the worship time, students are divided into age-grouped teams for intensive Bible study, fun competition, and team building activities.

Youth & Kids Summer Camps At Bambi Lake Retreat & Conference Center






















March 17, 2012

Heritage Baptist Church 5199 Hill Road, Grand Blanc, MI

“Put your love into action” (1 John 3:18)

MI (Michigan) Girls Missions & Ministry Day is a great way to get the girls in your church motivated and engaged in ministering to people with the love of Jesus through community missions and ministries.

Girls in grades 1-6 (and their leaders) will participate in various missions and ministries activities — from feed-ing hungry people to visiting shut-ins — all in the name of Jesus.

Cost: $15 (includes lunch) Registration Deadline: March 5, 2012

Event begins at 10:00 am and will conclude by 4:00 pm

Go to http://bscm.org/#/missions/mission-education to download a registration form. For more information contact [email protected].

Saturday

MI Girls Missions &

Ministry Day


http://MichiganBaptists.org

16 February 2012cooperaTiVe prograM

By Nathan Finn and Micah Fries We are concerned. As we look across our beloved Southern Baptist Conven-tion, we see a problem that is significant, and is grow-ing. Sadly, statistics inform us that this is an issue across the entire spectrum of SBC life, regardless of location or age and type of congregation. This issue is no respecter of per-sons. Our shared commitment to the Cooperative Program (CP) is on a precipi-tous decline. We believe this is a great tragedy that bodes ill for our Conven-tion’s future. Lest you think we’re simply writing to stump for the CP, please understand that we believe there are vital modifications which need to be made to the CP. Micah has started to address some of those concerns here and here. However, despite our views concerning needed reforms, we absolutely remain convinced of the viability, even more so , the continued centrality of the CP as a means of partnering together for mission. Which brings us to what concerns us.This summer, at the SBC Annual Meeting in Phoe-nix, Executive Committee President Frank Page is-sued a challenge to South-ern Baptists. After noting that CP giving has steadily decreased over the previ-ous generation, Dr. Page urged every Southern Bap-tist pastor and local church to consider increasing their CP giving by one percent. He argued that this seem-ingly small increase would lead to a significant influx of money that could be used for kingdom purposes. An article in the December 2011 issue of

SBC Life elaborates a bit on the effects a one percent increase in CP giving would have on our denomina-tional ministries. Assuming tithes and offerings to lo-cal churches remain close to 2010 numbers, about $89 million more dollars would be given through the CP. According to present

CP distribution, that would equal about $55 million more for state conventions and $34 million more for SBC agencies. The Interna-tional Mission Board would receive an extra $17 million, while the North American Mission Board would see an increase of almost $8 mil-lion. Our seminaries would receive about $7.5 million more, the Ethics and Reli-gious Liberty Commission would see an increase of $500,000, and the Executive Committee would gain an extra $1 million. These dollar increases would have a dramatic ef-fect on our Convention’s ministries. According to SBC Life, “This [in-crease] would allow the IMB immediately to appoint 375 new missionaries, NAMB to expand church planting support, and the seminar-ies and ERLC to address numerous maintenance, capital, and moral advocacy needs.” While the article didn’t directly address state

conventions (SBC Life is published by the Executive Committee), a one percent increase would have a simi-lar effect on state ministries. We appreciate the heart of Dr. Page’s call for a one per-cent increase to CP giving and we hope that thousands of churches will consider how they might give more generously to the CP. Having said that, we want to highlight a theme that is often neglected in current discussions about the Cooperative Program: shared sacrifice. We are increasingly concerned with Southern Baptist pastors and churches who are di-minishing their commitment to doing mission together primarily through the CP. We believe a recovery of a sense of shared sacrifice among our churches could lead to an increased com-mitment to CP giving that, Lord willing, would eventu-ally amount to much more than one percent. For many years, it was common to hear South-ern Baptist leaders talk about the need for churches to sacrificially give to the Cooperative Program. While this language hasn’t totally disappeared, it’s not nearly as common as it used to be. We believe that it is a priority which Southern Baptists need to recover. In fact, we believe that a major reason—perhaps the major reason—CP giving is down is because most churches give to the Cooperative Program conveniently rather than sacrificially. They give

to the CP, but only insofar as that support doesn’t dras-tically affect their budget or their giving to other minis-try priorities. We want to issue our own Cooperative Program challenge. We want to urge churches to consider giving

sacrificially to the CP, to be willing to stretch themselves for the sake of gospel ad-vance. Giving sacrificially can easily be neglected when we use phrases that diminish the reality that the CP is an ingenious means of financially partnering for the sake of mission. When we use phrases like “denomina-tional machine” or “bureau-cracy” in reference to the CP, it becomes far too easy to dismiss the CP. When we treat the Cooperative Pro-gram as a mere program, we neglect the fact that the CP is, in fact, a tremendous method through which we channel funding to take the gospel to the nations.We recognize that the sac-rifice we’re calling for will look different in each con-gregation. Some churches will forego renovations or building programs, or at least consider spending less money on such projects. We think this would be an ap-propriately countercultural move in an affluent society. Others will consider train-ing more volunteers to serve in the place of paid staff. We think churches should be doing this anyway (see Ephesians 4:11–12). Still others will consider cut-ting some of the money they budget for their own ministries. We think most churches have at least one or two projects or programs that, when placed under a microscope, aren’t vital to that church’s wellbeing or gospel advance. Understand that these are just ideas—the sacrifice will be contextual

to each con-gregation. As younger lead-ers in our 30s, we want

to take a minute to speak frankly to our generational contemporaries. To be candid, some of you have reaped the benefits of the Cooperative Program but you refuse to give gener-ously, let alone sacrificially, to the CP. Like us, many of

Is The Cooperative Program Worthy of Sacrifice?

www.MichiganBaptists.org 17cooperaTiVe prograM

you have received a college and/or seminary education that was substantially sub-sidized by the CP. Some of you have served as short-term foreign missionar-ies with IMB or received NAMB funds to plant a church. You have gladly accepted these moneys, but now you refuse to invest in the very system that has provided you with so much. When we see this attitude, we are grieved. This appears to be, in a best case scenar-io, the result of ignorance; in the worst case scenario, it could be outright hypocrisy. In recent conversations with state convention staff and others, we’ve been shocked at the number of churches led by younger pastors who give little or nothing to the work of Southern Baptists through the CP. We want to urge younger Southern Baptist

pastors and church plant-ers to lead their churches to give sacrificially to the Cooperative Program. We want to plead with you to educate your congregations as to how the CP works. We want to implore you to become Great Com-mission champions in part by becoming Cooperative Program advocates. We want to encourage you to join all Southern Baptists in those ministries we all have deemed important. We want you to take ownership of the shared mission strategy that, by God’s grace, helped en-able so many of you to get to where you are today. We know that many of you have concerns about the stewardship of some CP funds. We know you are concerned the CP is too im-personal. We know you fear the bureaucratic inflation that tempts almost all large

organizations, including the SBC. We know you want more money going to evan-gelism and church planting and less going to salaries and overhead. Hear us say that we share your concerns. But we also believe that those who give are those who earn the right to offer friendly suggestions about ways to improve the Coop-erative Program. And while there is room for improve-ment, we remain convinced the CP is a wise strategy for cooperating together for the sake of the gospel. The fact is, the Coop-erative Program is a signifi-cant part of who we are as Southern Baptists. The CP isn’t our only distinctive, or even our most important distinctive, but it is most certainly a defining distinc-tive of the Southern Baptist Convention and has been so for nearly a century. In

light of this, if we may be so bold, we want to call upon our fellow Southern Bap-tists, and especially younger Southern Baptists, to not be afraid of linking arms with all Southern Baptists as we partner together in this man-ner of doing mission. This is the Southern Baptist way, and while it may not be a perfect way, we’re convinced it remains the best way. Southern Baptists are committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the full inerrancy and suf-ficiency of Scripture, the primacy of the local Baptist church, and the importance of cooperation for the sake of the gospel. This is who we are. Let’s recommit to partnering together, espe-cially through the Coopera-tive Program, to advance Christ’s gospel across North America and to the utter-most parts of the earth.

CP FROM PAGE SIXTEEN

The Cooperative Program is the plan Southern Baptists us

e

to fund missions causes. CP helps supp

ort international and

North American missionaries, state convention

mission

work, Baptist organizat

ions and more!

1. As people give their tithes

and

offerings intheir church

es, a

portion is sent to the Ken

tucky

Baptist Convention. (This

amount

is decided bythe church.)

2. Part of this money is t

hen

sent to the Southern Bap

tist

Convention to help fund

missions andministries

in North America and

around the world.

3. Another part is used fo

r state

missions andto help churc

hes

in Kentuckybe healthy.

4. A third part helps other Bap

tist

organizations in Kentuck

y such

as our colleges and childr

en's

homes.

1. As people give their

tithes and offerings in

their churches, a portion

is sent to the Baptist State

Convention of Michigan.

2. Part of this money

is then sent to the

Southern Baptist Con-

vention to help fund

missions and ministries

in North America and

around the world.

3. Another part is used

for state missions and to

help churches in Michigan

be healthy.

4. A third part helps

other Baptist organiza-

tions, such as colleges,

and new churches.

The Cooperative Program is the plan Southern Baptists use to

fund missions causes. CP helps support international and North

American missionaries, state convention mission work, Baptist

organizations and more!

http://michiganbaptists.org

18 February 2012cp giVingBAY ASSOCIATION Dec. CP Dec Des. 2011 YTD

BETHANY BAPTIST 80.10 0.00 1,533.95

BIRCH RUN BAPTIST 100.00 0.00 800.00

CARE MINISTRIES OUTREACH 0.00 0.00 0.00

COMMUNITY BAPTIST 0.00 0.00 2,722.00

CROSSWAY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 429.80 0.00 7,926.23

EMMANUEL BAPTIST 505.78 370.00 8,611.61

ISABELLA BAPTIST 109.56 0.00 1,614.71

LIBERTY BAPTIST 0.00 0.00 0.00

LIFEGATE BAPTIST 55.00 20.00 312.00

RIVERBEND BAPTIST 22.00 114.00 3,201.00

RIVERWALK BAPTIST 858.31 476.82 5,904.41

SAGINAW VALLEY BAPTIST 215.47 0.00 2,657.95

SANFORD FIRST BAPTIST 90.75 0.00 1,054.83

SUNRISE BAPTIST 0.00 0.00 36,663.00

Total: $2,466.77 $980.82 $73,001.69

BLUE WATER ASSOCIATION

ANTIOCH BAP 0.00 0.00 564.14

BEACONSFIELD BAP 250.00 0.00 2,500.00

BETHEL BAP 1,117.00 380.00 11,877.20

CENTRAL BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

CORNERSTONE BAP 540.00 0.00 2,160.00

FAITH OUTREACH FELLOWSHIP 0.00 0.00 0.00

FELLOWSHIP BIBLE 0.00 0.00 0.00

FIRST BAP - NEW BALTIMORE 3,154.04 150.00 27,828.67

FIRST HMONG BAP 0.00 0.00 684.00

GOLGOTHA ROMANIAN BAP 0.00 0.00 200.00

GRACE BIBLE 20.00 0.00 240.00

GRACEMONT BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

HARRISON METRO 0.00 0.00 1,805.24

HARVEST BAP - SHELBY TOWNSHIP 0.00 0.00 2,888.15

HMONG AMERICAN BAP 250.00 0.00 876.44

LAKEPOINTE BAP 0.00 0.00 9,635.00

LAKESIDE COMMUNITY 1,484.49 0.00 21,145.27

LAPEER COMMUNITY 0.00 0.00 0.00

LIFE OF PURPOSE CHRISTIAN 0.00 0.00 4,840.29

LIGHTHOUSE BAP 0.00 0.00 1,200.00

MEMORIAL BAP 2,229.68 1,606.09 18,862.53

NEW LIFE BAP 0.00 0.00 250.00

PHILIPPINE INTERNATIONAL 0.00 0.00 621.50

THE CONNECTION 0.00 0.00 3,381.47

UNIVERSAL CHRISTIAN 0.00 0.00 0.00

WARREN WOODS BAP 0.00 0.00 24,680.16

Total: $9,045.21 $2,136.09 $136,240.06

CENTRAL ASSOCIATION

BETHANY BAP - LANSING 332.20 0.00 4,673.49

CALVARY BAP 0.00 0.00 1,052.29

CAMPUS CORNERSTONE 24.24 0.00 168.14

CAMPUS TOWN LANSING 54.66 0.00 661.27

CEDAR STREET 6,555.00 4,343.98 95,113.00

CORNERSTONE COMMUNITY 31.73 0.00 380.76

FAITH FELLOWSHIP BAP 0.00 0.00 25.00

FIRST BAP - DEWITT 100.00 190.00 1,100.00

FIRST SPANISH AMERICAN BAP 0.00 0.00 25.00

GETSEMANI BAP 0.00 0.00 100.00

GOOD SHEPHERD BAP 141.00 280.00 1,501.39

GRACE 3,808.60 1,905.65 41,277.45

HARMONY BAP - JACKSON 530.32 0.00 6,008.88

IGLESIA BAUTISTA GETSEMANI 0.00 0.00 20.00

KALEO OF LANSING 346.01 0.00 2,396.94

KINGDOM LIFE MISSION 974.81 0.00 10,801.58

LEONI BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

NEW COVENANT BAP 0.00 0.00 890.75

NEW LIFE CHAPEL 59.32 0.00 546.97

PAGE AVENUE BAP 0.00 0.00 168.75

Total: $12,957.89 $6,719.63 $166,911.66

GENESEE ASSOCIATION

AINSWORTH BAP 736.64 1,043.00 9,971.44

BETHEL BAP 72.00 0.00 984.00

BRAY ROAD BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

CENTRAL BAP 571.08 577.00 3,994.50

CHAPEL EAST FLINT/WASHINGTON SCHOOL

0.00 0.00 0.00

GENESEE ASSOCIATION Dec. CP Dec Des. 2011 YTD

CHRIST COMMUNITY BAP 0.00 0.00 840.00

CORUNNA ROAD BAP 192.00 0.00 2,260.00

DAVISON MEADOWS BAP 50.00 0.00 550.00

EAGLE'S NEST BAP 0.00 0.00 250.00

EASTGATE BAP 1,726.47 2,253.32 22,606.18

FAITH BAP - DURAND 0.00 0.00 500.00

FAITH BAP - LINDEN 25.00 0.00 225.00

FELLOWSHIP BAP 188.71 0.00 3,973.22

FIRST BAP OF CLIO 0.00 0.00 0.00

FIRST BAP OF FLUSHING 0.00 0.00 210.00

FIRST BAP OF SWARTZ CREEK 0.00 0.00 30,317.64

GALILEAN BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

HANMAUM INTERNATIONAL BAP 100.00 0.00 1,000.00

HARMONY BAP 321.00 0.00 1,905.00

HERITAGE BAP 1,836.00 259.00 25,407.00

LaFAMILIA MULTI-CULTURAL COM-MUNITY

97.00 30.00 1,317.00

LIGHTHOUSE CHAPEL OF THE DEAF

0.00 0.00 548.00

LINCOLN PARK BAP 46.10 0.00 339.02

MOUNT CARMEL BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

NEW HAVEN BAP 0.00 0.00 100.00

NEW HAVEN FIELD HOUSE 0.00 0.00 100.00

NORTH END BAP 810.91 0.00 13,080.18

OUTREACH BAP 0.00 0.00 925.00

PARKWAY COMMUNITY 0.00 0.00 0.00

SHAWN BAP 0.00 0.00 3,000.00

THE POTTER'S WHEEL 0.00 0.00 2,363.61

VICTORY BAP 0.00 0.00 1,940.79

WESTSIDE 918.00 315.00 14,400.00

Total: $7,690.91 $4,477.32 $143,107.58

GREATER DETROIT ASSOCIATION

ANN ARBOR CHINESE CHRISTIAN 200.00 0.00 2,400.00

BETHLEHEM BAP 0.00 501.00 100.00

BREAHAA MISSIONARY 364.21 0.00 364.21

CANTON CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 200.00 0.00 1,250.00

CASS PARK BAP 0.00 0.00 430.00

CHAMPION'S 0.00 0.00 0.00

COMPASSION BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

CORNERSTONE CHRISTIAN 286.47 0.00 4,313.46

DEARBORN HEIGHTS BAP 89.73 0.00 5,136.24

DETROIT BAP TEMPLE 300.00 0.00 1,800.00

EASTSIDE COMMUNITY 0.00 0.00 1,785.00

EBER MEMORIAL BAP 0.00 0.00 40.00

EMMANUEL BAP 0.00 0.00 500.00

FIRST BAP OF RIVERVIEW 0.00 0.00 1,154.32

FIRST BAP OF TRENTON 715.24 0.00 7,384.15

FIRST SPANISH BAP 292.00 0.00 3,212.00

FRIENDSHIP BAP 163.03 0.00 2,829.12

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN FEL-LOWSHIP

60.00 0.00 540.00

JEFFRIES BAP 0.00 0.00 451.00

LIFE POINTE (NEW LIFE COM-MUNITY)

0.00 0.00 0.00

LIGHTHOUSE BAP 0.00 0.00 1,080.81

LIVONIA BAP 0.00 0.00 20,906.74

MERRIMAN ROAD BAP 0.00 1,792.35 91,584.95

MIDDLEBELT BAP 0.00 0.00 9,500.00

MT. VERNON 0.00 0.00 6,670.96

OAK PARK MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 300.00

PALMER ROAD BAP 0.00 765.00 685.13

PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

PHILIPPINE INTERNATIONAL BAP 100.00 0.00 1,400.00

PHILIPPINE INT`L BAP - 0.00 0.00 400.00

PHILLIPPINE INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN

0.00 0.00 70.00

PRAISE BAP 600.00 3,482.00 7,832.00

SECOND LAOTIAN BAP CHAPEL 0.00 0.00 180.00

SOUTHFIELD ROAD BAP 100.00 0.00 429.00

SPRINGHILL MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

STRAIGHT STREET MISSIONARY BAP

0.00 0.00 10.00

TEMPLE OF FAITH BAP 0.00 700.00 0.00

TRENTON MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 2,777.33

TRINITY CHAPEL BAP 10.00 0.00 210.00

VICTORY FELLOWSHIP COMMUN-NITY

0.00 0.00 200.00

WOODHAVEN BAP 0.00 0.00 3,500.00

Total: $3,480.68 $7,240.35 $181,426.42

Dec. CP Dec Desig 2011 YTD

HURON ASSOCIATION

CAMPUS TOWN ANN ARBOR 0.00 0.00 0.00

CONNECTIONS COMMUNITY 0.00 0.00 784.98

CORNERSTONE BAP 0.00 0.00 43.00

CROSSROADS COMMUNITY BAP 4,226.01 7,465.35 37,701.32

FELLOWSHIP BAP OF SALINE 1,666.92 135.00 19,833.86

FIRST BAP OF BRIGHTON 80.00 0.00 880.00

FIRST BAP OF SOUTH LYON 2,969.40 0.00 32,005.66

GRACEWAY BAP 0.00 0.00 5,484.54

IGREJA BATISTA DELINGUA POR-TUGUESA

0.00 0.00 0.00

IMMANUEL BAP 155.00 0.00 1,649.00

LIVING WATER COMMUNITY 400.00 0.00 3,600.00

NORTH PROSPECT BAP 443.80 1,240.00 5,715.60

OAKWOOD 0.00 0.00 4,293.00

PLEASANT VALLEY BAP 0.00 0.00 400.00

VISION COMMUNITY 0.00 0.00 125.00

YPSILANTI MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 560.00

Total: $9,941.13 $8,840.35 $113,075.96

LENDALE ASSOCIATION

BETHEL BAP - ADRIAN 0.00 0.00 0.00

CALVARY BAP - ADRIAN 135.00 210.00 1,667.00

CLINTON BAP 179.53 0.00 2,310.15

FAITH BAP CHAPEL 0.00 0.00 10,365.00

FRONTIER BAP 402.20 85.00 2,427.92

HILLSDALE BAP 2,640.26 0.00 25,972.59

TECUMSEH MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 703.00 9,355.80

THORNHILL BAP 29.50 0.00 511.65

TRINITY BAP - ADRIAN 0.00 0.00 2,400.00

Total: $3,386.49 $998.00 $55,010.11

NORTHWEST ASSOCIATION

AGAPE BAP 25.00 0.00 300.00

CRYSTAL LAKE BAP 0.00 0.00 3,732.58

EVERGREEN BAP 0.00 0.00 1,764.12

GRACE COMMUNITY - PELLSTON 0.00 0.00 1,100.00

LAKE CITY BAP 116.38 0.00 963.82

LIBERTY BAP - MANTON 0.00 0.00 0.00

NORTHSHORE COMMUNITY 0.00 0.00 150.00

OUR FATHERS HOUSE COMMUNITY , SBC

0.00 0.00 150.00

SAFE HARBOR SOUTHERN BAP 38.99 0.00 533.52

SHILOH CHAPEL 0.00 0.00 0.00

THE ORCHARD 381.54 0.00 4,407.12

Total: $561.91 $0.00 $13,101.16

OAKLAND COUNTY ASSOCIATION

COLUMBIA AVENUE BAP 745.31 311.00 12,546.08

CROSSINGS 0.00 0.00 37.00

FAITH COMMUNITY , SBC 0.00 0.00 200.00

FIRST BAP OF DAVISBURG 0.00 0.00 0.00

FIRST ROMANIAN BAP 0.00 0.00 300.00

FIRST SPANISH-AMERICAN BAP 330.00 628.27 3,775.63

FOREST PARK BAP 1,294.51 0.00 13,468.01

HARVEST BAP 0.00 0.00 1,372.98

HIGHLAND COMMUNITY 1,468.76 0.00 10,217.81

HILTON OAKS BAP 137.69 0.00 1,724.29

HMONG PONTIAC BAP MISSION 0.00 0.00 434.00

KOREAN FIRST BAP 0.00 0.00 4,267.93

KOREAN NEW LIFE 582.00 0.00 3,135.00

MADISON HEIGHTS FELLOWSHIP 0.00 0.00 0.00

MICHIGAN GALILEE BAP 88.26 0.00 1,212.26

MT. ZION MISSIONARY BAP 25.00 0.00 75.00

NEW BEGINNINGS BAP 210.00 0.00 2,460.19

NEW COVENANT 266.53 0.00 3,873.19

NEW DAY HOUSE OF PRAISE - SBC 34.00 0.00 841.13

NEW LIFE BAP 0.00 0.00 1,480.60

NORTHFIELD HILLS BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

OAKLAND WOODS BAP 3,494.00 4,720.00 32,272.00

ORCHARD HILLS BAP 2,097.03 0.00 12,851.74

PATHWAY BAP 238.90 369.36 3,848.05

SHILOH BAP 50.00 0.00 550.00

SPRINGVIEW COMMUNITY 100.00 0.00 1,200.00

ST. STEPHEN MISSIONARY BAP 50.00 0.00 550.00

THE HILL 165.10 0.00 1,171.14

THE MASTERS BIBLE CHAPEL 0.00 0.00 0.00

THE SHEPHERD'S FOLD 0.00 0.00 465.00

www.MichiganBaptists.org 19cp giVingOAKLAND COUNTY ASSOCIATION Dec. CP Dec Desig 2011 YTD

TROY JAPANESE FELLOWSHIP 0.00 0.00 45.00

TOTAL $11,377.09 $6,028.63 $114,374.03

PINES ASSOCIATION

ALPINE VILLAGE BAP 223.28 0.00 3,423.27

COMMUNITY BAP 92.30 0.00 279.24

FIRST BAP - ATLANTA 0.00 0.00 1,345.99

GOODAR BIBLE 147.44 0.00 1,117.22

GRACE BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

GRAYLING BAP 0.00 0.00 1,248.42

HUBBARD LAKE BAP 204.83 0.00 2,256.70

HURON BAP 0.00 0.00 1,021.25

LAKE ST. HELEN BAP 169.32 0.00 2,284.42

LIGHTHOUSE BAP MISSION OF WEST BRANCH

0.00 0.00 200.00

NEW HOPE BAP 44.76 0.00 869.09

ONAWAY BAP 0.00 0.00 648.02

PATHWAY SOUTHERN BAP 110.00 0.00 1,122.00

PIGEON RIVER BAP 0.00 0.00 1,554.09

ROSCOMMON BAP 973.00 65.00 10,024.00

THE CONNECTION SBC 41.30 0.00 263.84

Total: $2,006.23 $65.00 $27,657.55

SOUTH CENTRAL ASSOCIATION

AMAZING GRACE BAP 0.00 0.00 1,283.87

CANAAN CHURCH 704.90 0.00 704.90

COMMUNITY BAP OF HASTINGS 388.65 0.00 4,231.10

EMMANUEL CHRISTIAN 376.09 0.00 4,768.08

FAITH BAP - BATTLE CREEK 0.00 0.00 34,313.08

FIRST BAP - PORTAGE 541.59 0.00 9,228.37

HARPER CREEK BAP 474.55 0.00 6,409.61

LAKESIDE BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

LEVEL PARK BAP 814.74 0.00 2,820.44

MESSIAH COMMUNITY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

MOUNT CALVARY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

PRAISE BAP 155.23 0.00 2,154.06

TEMPLE BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

SOUTHCENTRAL ASSOCIATION Dec. CP Dec Desig 2011 YTD

TRINITY 0.00 0.00 877.96

VICTORY BAP 0.00 0.00 845.40

Total: $3,455.75 $0.00 $67,636.87

SOUTHEASTERN ASSOCIATION

AMAZING GRACE BAP 271.92 90.64 2,934.54

CALVARY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

CORNERSTONE BAP 472.52 0.00 5,627.87

DUNDEE BAP 0.00 0.00 236.00

EVERGREEN ACRES MISSIONARY BAP

0.00 0.00 0.00

FAITH BAP 0.00 0.00 1,702.49

FRENCHTOWN MISSIONARY BAP 777.24 0.00 5,239.47

GRAPE MISSIONARY BAP 53.00 0.00 927.02

HOPE MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

KENTUCKY PARK MISSIONARY BAP 25.00 0.00 100.00

LAKESIDE MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 450.00

LIBERTY MISSIONARY BAP 469.20 0.00 5,768.36

MONROE MISSIONARY BAP 8,987.64 0.00 116,289.86

NORTHBROOK 0.00 0.00 100.00

PETERSBURG MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

RAISINVILLE BAP 1,381.37 0.00 17,550.93

ROCKWOOD MISSIONARY BAP 135.35 0.00 791.90

TRUE GOSPEL MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

UNION STREET MISSIONARY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

Total: $12,573.24 $90.64 $157,718.44

SOUTHWESTERN ASSOCIATION

BANGOR BAP 123.00 0.00 1,603.50

BEACON BAP 122.00 0.00 1,725.00

BETHEL BAP - NILES 0.00 0.00 5,672.55

FIRST BAP - BERRIEN SPRINGS 200.17 231.00 2,095.74

GLENDALE BAP 30.60 0.00 350.10

NILES AVENUE BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

ONTWA BAP 0.00 0.00 2,400.00

THE SANCTUARY 0.00 0.00 220.00

Total: $475.77 $231.00 $14,066.89

UPPER PENINSULA ASSOCIATION

ABUNDANT LIFE 192.26 0.00 1,182.39

UPPER PENINSULA ASSOCIATION Dec CP Dec Desig 2011 YTD

BAY AREA COMMUNITY 0.00 0.00 1,040.00

CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP SBC 85.00 0.00 883.00

FAITH BAP - DAFTER 100.78 0.00 1,438.54

FIRST BAP OF GWINN 439.65 0.00 5,113.37

GRACE BAP FELLOWSHIP 10.00 0.00 130.00

HOUGHTON BAP 614.00 0.00 11,335.00

NORTHPOINT BAP FELLOWSHIP 223.75 0.00 2,668.43

Total: $1,665.44 $0.00 $23,790.73

WOODLAND ASSOCIATION

ANCHOR BAP 0.00 0.00 3,234.56

CENTRO FAMILIAR BAUTISTA 0.00 0.00 0.00

CHARITY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

COMPASS POINT 0.00 0.00 120.00

FIRST BAP OF LUDINGTON 0.00 0.00 0.00

FIRST KOREAN 0.00 0.00 0.00

GRACE COMMUNITY BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

HOLLAND SOUTHERN BAP 502.11 0.00 5,127.92

IGLESIA BAUTISTA HISPANA 0.00 0.00 164.10

IGLESIA BAUTISTA HISPANA DE ALLENDALE

0.00 0.00 29.00

IGLESIA BAUTISTA HISPANIC de ST. JOHNS

0.00 0.00 20.00

IGLESIA BAUTISTA RECONCILI-ACION - GRAND RAPIDS

0.00 0.00 150.00

LIGHTHOUSE BAP 0.00 0.00 278.70

PULLMAN BAP MISSION 0.00 0.00 0.00

RIVERTOWN COMMUNITY 185.00 300.00 2,595.14

SONRISE BAP 0.00 0.00 0.00

TRINITY BAP 30.00 100.00 260.00

Total: $717.11 $400.00 $11,979.42

NON-ASSOCIATIONAL

CALVARY BAP 0.00 0.00 175.00

HARVEY BAP 121.11 563.33 422.61

HERITAGE BAP - MONROE 3,728.32 0.00 51,448.58

Total: $3,849.43 $563.33 $52,046.19

Grand Total: $85,651.05 $38,771.16 $1,351,144.76

Total Designated Gifts YTD: $430,445.85

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