Sunday, July 28, is a special day on the calendar of the Alabama Baptist State Convention. It is the day set aside to emphasize the ministry of the state Baptist paper. Many churches will share bulletin inserts stressing the important contributions of The Alabama Baptist. Other churches will call attention to the role of the state Baptist paper in various ways.
All will have in common the recognition that the state Baptist paper is important to Baptist families, to Baptist churches and to the state Baptist convention. That is why about three-fourths of all Alabama Baptist churches have the state paper in their church budgets in some way.
Readers — individual members of Baptist churches — are the paper’s primary focus. The vision statement of the state Baptist paper makes that clear. “The Alabama Baptist will help empower Baptists … to live out their Christian discipleship in their personal lives, their professional lives and their lives within the community of faith.”
Each week the paper offers resources for daily living. Some of those resources relate to family life with stories such as “Steps to a Successful Marriage,” “Passing Faith to Your Children” and “Parental Attention Keeps Kids Out of Trouble.”
Some of the stories help readers consider moral and ethical issues from a biblical perspective. In the last month articles have dealt with topics such as gambling, vouchers for church-sponsored schools, cloning and various Supreme Court decisions.
Always there is encouragement through inspiration. Readers learn what God is doing in other places and in other people. Recent stories shared how a group of women went into strip clubs to share Christ with dancers, how disaster relief volunteers ministered to the firefighters in Colorado and Arizona, how Alabama Baptists are working with Palestinians in Israel and national Christians in Niger.
By helping individual readers, The Alabama Baptist also helps build up local churches. What do Baptists believe? Each week readers receive two Bible study lessons written by professors of religion in our Baptist colleges. In addition, stories regularly examine Baptists beliefs and their implications of how Baptists do church.
What Baptists believe and how Baptists do church are important whether one was reared in a Baptist church, is a new believer or is coming from another denomination. Sometimes stories share how things have been done successfully. Sometimes readers learn what not to do by the mistakes of others.
The state Baptist paper remains the primary source of missions information for church members. Regular reading produces a missions vision that encompasses the world, not just the boundaries of one’s local community. Vision, in turn, impacts participation, prayer and pocketbook support.
The Alabama Baptist also helps the denomination. Each week the paper goes into about 115,000 homes representing more than 2,500 churches. The paper reports the news of the denomination. It promotes all that Alabama Baptists do together — our institutions, the programs of the State Board of Missions and Southern Baptist Convention emphases. The Alabama Baptist provides a contact, a face, a personality between church members and those who lead the many cooperative ministries done in the name of Alabama Baptists.
If one were to visit a different church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday, it would take more than 20 years to attend one service in all Alabama Baptist churches. But your state Baptist paper reaches more than 75 percent of those churches each week.
And the paper does more. It tells what is happening to Christians around the world, especially in areas where the church is persecuted. Events in the lives of other Christian denominations are reported. Stories from sister churches are shared. The latest resources for church service are reviewed. The paper really is vital for individual Baptists, for local churches and for the denomination.
The staff of The Alabama Baptist seeks to make the paper a Christ-centered publication. All staff members are Christians. Ministering through the paper is a calling, not a job. Before entering religious journalism, this writer served as a Baptist pastor. Another staff member served two years overseas with the International Mission Board.
To the calling of religious journalism, staff members bring the professional training necessary for their task. All the writing staff hold journalism degrees. Others are equally trained for their work whether it be handling the business aspects or keeping the computers functioning.
Staff members are committed to professional excellence. Fifty-seven national awards line the first floor hallway of our office. The names of a variety of people appear on them. Two years ago the paper was named the outstanding regional religious newspaper by two of the three national church press bodies. The third placed the paper second.
Those of us privileged to minister through the state Baptist paper believe in our readers. We know it is best to “tell the truth and trust the people.” Whether the news is good or bad, Baptists do have a right to know so they can make whatever decision they deem necessary under the leadership of God’s Holy Spirit.
To deliberately withhold information is to distrust one’s fellow Baptists.
At The Alabama Baptist, we are grateful for this week’s special emphasis on the ministry of the state Baptist paper. Please pray for us and pray for the ministry of the paper.
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