God is alive and well in North America, but the clock of eternity ticks away for those who don’t know God through faith in Jesus Christ, Bob Reccord told messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting June 17.
“What will we do with the time we have left? Will we take [Satan] on, and step out into enemy land and reach out to the lost?” asked Reccord, president of the SBC’s North American Mission Board (NAMB).
He reported that lives are being changed for eternity across the United States and Canada as Southern Baptists faithfully share the gospel of Christ. As examples, he cited student-led FISH clubs, World Changers missions projects and the ministries of Southern Baptist chaplains.
Last year, Reccord said, NAMB sent out the largest number of missionaries in North America of any missionary sending agency in history. They are telling the story of Christ from the inner city to the United Nations, he added.
Reccord also fielded questions from two messengers.
Marine Corps Chaplain Ralph Gibson of Paris Island, S.C., asked Reccord to “encourage” NAMB trustees to reconsider the policy in chaplaincy endorsements and make ordination mandatory.
Female chaplains
NAMB trustees recently amended their policy to declare they will not endorse females who have been ordained as chaplains.
The U.S. military, like many other employers of chaplains, requires those chaplains both to be endorsed by their religious body and ordained within their religious tradition.
NAMB officials have said they will fight for any female chaplain who is denied employment because she is not ordained.
NAMB officials declared ordination relates to pastoral functions that the Bible assigns to men only.
Some Southern Baptist- endorsed chaplains, however, have countered that both male and female chaplains perform pastoral functions and therefore should be ordained. Reccord pledged to study the issue further.
Jamal Bishara, pastor of First Arabic Baptist Church in Phoenix, asked that NAMB consider adding a staff member to work with Middle Easterners.
Reccord responded that NAMB works with 24 ethnic and African American fellowships, has a staff member who is a converted Muslim and will continue to focus on Arabs and other ethnic groups.
Tribute to Iraqi soldiers
Prior to the NAMB report, messengers paid tribute to the “fallen heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
The names, ranks, ages and hometowns of the U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraqi conflict were shown as a bugle played taps. Then, video and film clips of previous conflicts and wars interspersed with the words of the “Gettysburg Address” were shown on the convention’s giant screens.
The video presentation was followed by “America the Beautiful,” and retired Army Gen. T.C. Pickney closed the presentation with prayer.
(Stella Prather)
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