Extending
the messiah’s kingdom Morris H. Chapman encouraged Executive Committee
members to lead Southern Baptists in the endeavor to
re-dig the wells. Photo by Morris Abernathy
Chapman
urges Southern Baptists to re-dig wells that refreshed previous
generations
Referencing Genesis 26:18 and Isaac's endeavor to dig again
the wells dug in the desert in the days of his father, Abraham,
Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President
Morris H. Chapman challenged Southern Baptists to return to
their heritage and rediscover what refreshed the generations
before them.
"Southern Baptists are on a quest to find a refreshing,
revolutionary experience with Jesus Christ," Chapman
said in his address to the Executive Committee Feb. 17. "The
vision, the pursuit has been named Empowering Kingdom Growth,
and the task force has begun to call upon all Southern Baptists
'to renew their passion for the Lord Jesus and the reign of
his Kingdom in their hearts, families and churches.'"
EKG
The EKG initiative was launched during the 2002 SBC
Annual Meeting in St. Louis.
Empowering
Kingdom Growth "But
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and
all these things shall be added unto you." (Mt. 6:33)
Empowering Kingdom Growth
is an all-out concentration on the Kingdom of God. This summary
spells out the details of the EKG initiative and the nature
of this new, spiritual emphasis. [Read
Full Summary]
Covenant
commitment
Then-SBC President James Merritt signs a covenant initiating
the Empowering Kingdom Growth thrust across the Southern
Baptist Convention during the June 11-12 annual meeting
in St. Louis. Also pictured, from right, are Fermin
Whittaker, executive director of the California Southern
Baptist Convention, and Carlisle Driggers, executive
director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
Covenant signees note commitment,
prayer for kingdom of God emphasis
COLUMBIA, S.C. (BP)--Five Southern Baptist
leaders -- representing the convention's mission boards, entities,
institutions and state conventions -- signed a covenant agreement
to launch an Empowering Kingdom Growth initiative throughout
the Southern Baptist Convention during the SBC's June 11-12
annual meeting in St. Louis.
The Baptist Courier recently interviewed
the five signees: Morris H. Chapman, president and chief executive
officer of the SBC Executive Committee; Chuck Kelley, president
of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of
the SBC Great Commission Council; Carlisle Driggers, executive
director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention
and co-chair of the EKG Task Force; and Fermin Whittaker of
California, president of the Southern Baptist Association
of Executive Directors. At the time of the interviews, James
Merritt, former SBC president and co-chair of the EKG Task
Force, was on a youth trip with First Baptist Church, Snellville,
Ga., where he is pastor and was unavailable for comment.
[Read
More]
'What
Jesus taught'
Empowering Kingdom Growth pioneer Carlisle Driggers
explains the vision for the new initiative during the
Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee's Feb.
18-19 meeting in Nashville, Tenn. Photo by Justin
Veneman
'Empowering Kingdom Growth'
gains momentum as key SBC initiative NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A vision
for what Jesus taught and called for -- "an all-out concentration
on the Kingdom of God" -- was endorsed by the Southern
Baptist Convention Executive Committee during its Feb. 18-19
meeting in Nashville, Tenn.
Executive Committee members approved
an "Empowering Kingdom Growth" initiative across
the Southern Baptist Convention as envisioned by an eight-member
Cooperation Task Force of state convention and SBC entity
leaders. [Read More]
New
Vision
Morris H. Chapman sounds a call for new vision, new
voices and new victories during the SBC Executive Committee
meeting in Nashville, Tenn. Photo by Justin Veneman
Chapman urges 'a new vision,
new voices, new victories'
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--"The time has
come to cast a new vision, hear new voices and get ready to
declare new victories in Jesus," Morris H. Chapman said
in an address to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive
Committee Feb. 18.
Chapman, the Executive Committee's president and chief executive
officer, observed of today's world: "Christians are under
increasing persecution. The secular world is attempting to
marginalize and demonize conservative evangelical Christianity.
Secularists accuse us of intolerance, while being intolerant
of our beliefs. They are systematically removing all reference
to God from public places, including our schools. Our faith
is beginning to be sorely tested, and the persecution is just
beginning in our nation. There is much more to come. [ Read
More ]
EKG
and the SBC
Don Kirkland is editor of The Baptist Courier, the
state newspaper of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
FIRST-PERSON: EKG and the
SBC: Putting first things first GREENVILLE,
S.C. (BP)--Southern Baptists, never short on vision or the ability
to put the hopes of our hearts into inspiring words, are taking
a huge step to move the kingdom of God forward, and the goals
-- at the least, the measurable results -- are not even laid
out in advance.
At the 2002 Southern
Baptist Convention meeting in St. Louis, messengers embraced
an initiative [don't call it a program; it is not] called
Empowering Kingdom Growth. EKG is immediately recognizable
to South Carolina Baptists, who a decade ago rallied behind
the state's version of a strategy to help build the kingdom
of God here in South Carolina by strengthening the churches
and the ministries they perform. And Southern Baptist leaders
began to see that what has been good for South Carolina can
be good for Southern Baptists everywhere. [ Read
More ]
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