If you’ve never had the privilege of spending a couple of days at one of our six Southern Baptist Seminaries, you’ve missed a blessing!  God is working in a miraculous way in the lives of young men and women who are preparing for ministry at those campuses. 

Last year, my husband, Steve, spoke in chapel at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Fort Worth; his alma mater), at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville) and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest NC). As we traveled to each of them, I marvelled at the uniqueness of each one, and the quality and commitment of their faculty and students. 

We’ve also had the privilege of visiting at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (New Orleans) and Golden Gate Theological Seminary (San Francisco) in the past.

The only SBC seminary we’d never seen–until last week–was Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City MO.  The MBTS campus is beautifully situated on a hill overlooking Kansas City, and the students and faculty on that campus are amazing. It is obvious that God is at work there, and the atmosphere is charged with an enthusiasm about sharing Jesus. The school had invited several state executive directors for informational meetings about the school, and Steve was invited to share a word about Indiana Baptists during their chapel service. President Dr. Philip Roberts and his wife, Anya, were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed hearing their heart for preparing future Christian leaders.

If you’ve been following the path of Hurricane Gustav, you may know that New Orleans seminary was evacuated. Their preparation for such an event is extraordinary, however, and seminary classes continue via Internet until students return later this week.  God’s work must go on!  An email from Dr. Rhonda Kelley, President’s wife, says “Thank you very much for your prayers. We feel them. God has been faithful to protect us.” Check their website for updates, and keep on praying for NOBTS.

Our Cooperative Program dollars are well-invested in these six academic training institutions dedicated to teaching future ministers.

I also had the privilege of visiting the campus of the Cuba Baptist Seminary in Cuba this spring, where training has exploded off the campus. We heard personal testimonies of men who spent many years of their lives in prison because they were seminary students. I was on Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary’s campus last month to take a graduate class, and observed a beautiful campus with an enormous commitment to God. Steve and I were at Kiev Theological Seminary last year and were enthralled with our IMB missionaries teaching church planting to Ukrainian pastors. God is raising up many committed young people to vocational Christian ministry across our globe, and He is using seminaries across our world to train and inspire them for service to God.

Pray for our seminary leaders and students! Encourage them. I’ve pasted a chapter of ways to encourage seminarians from my book, Fresh Ideas-1000 Ways to Grow a Thriving and Energetic Church. (pasted below)

RECENT PUBLISHED ARTICLES:

“Fresh Ideas” articles were published this week in the Illinois Baptist and The Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Witness.

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SEMINARY STUDENTS

“I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

God’s called them. We’ll encourage them. Need fresh ideas to lift up seminary students from your church?

Recognize Them

Encourage the church to faithfully pray for church members who are called to fulltime ministry by occasionally printing a list of seminary (more…)

Chad Bresson, CDR Radio “The Path” - did an interview about Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry.

I believe this will link you to the interview: 

http://www.cedarville.edu/sbc/convention/media/audio/dianadavis.mp3

It was a highlight of the year!  We attended the Commissioning Service for International Mission Board missionaries on Friday. The ceremony was held in Oklahoma City at Southern Hills Baptist Church.  As each person shared his or her journey and preparation and calling to missions across the world, there was a true sense of awe.  God truly calls out his best to serve Him!

Two of the missionaries being commissioned were Joel and Mary Ellen Ragains from Graceland Baptist Church in New Albany Indiana. They serve at the Kiev Theological Seminary in Ukraine, preparing Ukrainian church planters to share Christ with their country.  Their work as ISC (shorter-term) missionaries has been exemplary. They just graduated their first seminary class of young men who went through the entire church planting degree and graduated. Each has begun at least one church in the Kiev vicinity.

Steve and I have been to Kiev to assist them on a couple of trips, and I’ve got to say these are some of the best missionaries alive!  Please check out their website and pray for Joel and Mary Ellen as they commit to vocational missions and continue the work that God has started through them in Kiev. 

And, as God tends to orchestrate, there was another bonus! When my husband, Steve, was pastor of First Baptist Church of Humble (1988-ish?), we loved serving there with Randy and Susan Lind. Randy was the minister of music there, and–you guessed it!–he’s recently been called from Humble to Southern Hills Baptist in OKC.  We loved seeing our dear friends, and hearing their choir and orchestra, and visiting in their home.  Double blessing!

Links to a few recent articles:

The Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist 

LifeWay Pastors Today

The Indiana Baptist

South Carolina Baptist Courier

Let’s Worship Magazine

Deacon Magazine

See that handsome man in the photo? That’s my husband, Steve. Since the Southern Baptist Convention met in Indianapolis this week, he had the privilege of offering a formal “welcome to Indy” to the convention attenders.  The photo is from Baptist Press (baptistpress.org) and you can read lots of reports from the SBC convention there.    

You’ve watched the news this week and seen the devastation of the floods across Indiana. An awful sight!

But here’s a gorgeous sight:  Southern Baptists from across the state and the nation are pouring in to help.  Our state disaster relief team (State director is Allan Haynes), along with the North American Mission Board’s disaster relief units from many other states, are setting up feeding units and mud out teams and other plans for encouraging and helping and showing and sharing God’s love.

You can read current updates at www.scbi.org .  Please pray for each disaster relief volunteer–for safety and wisdom and strength. Pray that God will use each person to impact people eternally as they share Jesus.

Pictured: Dr. Geoff Hammond, President of North American Mission Board, interviewed during Crossover event at Brownsburg’s Hope Community Church last Saturday as the storms were brewing across Indiana.

It was a wet Saturday in Indiana last week! After many months of planning, many of the CrossOver Evangelistic events planned in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention were either post-poned, drenched, or relocated inside.  As much of our state was enduring horrific flooding, God continued to work through the efforts of hundreds of Christians from across the country who came to help with Crossover.

Here’s one idea that I loved:

Hull’s Grove Baptist Church in Vale, N.C. brought anvils and hammers and horseshoes all the way to Indy.  Wearing ten-gallon cowboy hats, their crew hammered out personalized horseshoes for hundreds of children at Hope Community Church and Eastside Community Church’s block parties.

The horseshoes had “John 3:16″ printed on them, and each child’s name was chiseled across the top.  As the cowboys chatted with kids and parents, they shared about God’s love and plan of salvation. 

Here’s what I really like about their gift:

- it’s personal

- kids will never throw it away

- it opens a door for talking personally about God

How unique! 

Such fun!  I got to do two book signings during the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis, and it was such a joy to chat with lots of women’s ministry leaders from across our nation.

Today is CrossOver - a wonderful evangelistic project that includes dozens of simultaneous block parties and evangelistic events across Indy. CrossOver preceeds the Southern Baptist Convention, and hundreds of Southern Baptists come from across the nation to help with these efforts.  Take a look at what’s happening today!

Block Parties map (double-check these locations with official list below)

List

Please pray for many eternity-changing results from these great efforts today. And pray for safe travel for Steve and I as we attempt to attend many of them! 

One hundred and five teenagers from across the nation are already in Indianapolis, working hard on housing projects in needy areas with our North American Mission Board’s “World Changers.” Sharing hope. We had dinner with their leaders last night.

There are TV ads and newspaper ads titled: “WE ARE SOUTHERN BAPTISTS. SHARING HOPE EVERY SINGLE DAY.”

And that’s just the beginning. 

Hundreds of Christians from across our nation will come in this weekend, working on thirty exciting CrossOver evangelistic events in Indy. Sharing hope. Sharing Jesus.

And THAT’s just the prelude.

Thousands will arrive at the Indianapolis Convention Center for Sunday and Monday’s Pastors’ Conference, WMU Missions Celebration, and a myriad of other wonderful pre-convention events. Every event is about sharing hope. Sharing Jesus.

And after all that,

the Southern Baptist Convention begins, with somewhere between ten and twenty thousand attenders. (I’ll let you know the final number next week!) Tuesday and Wednesday are packed full of reports and praise and presentations and special events–all telling the story of what’s going on across our nation and world with the SBC denomination.  42,000 churches in the U.S. with 16 million church members! In our state (Indiana), there are 430 Southern Baptist churches and missions. Every one of those churches are all about sharing hope. Sharing Jesus.

The amazing thing is that each church is totally autonomous, but voluntarily join together for our Cooperative Program, sending 5,000+ home missionaries and 5000+ foreign missionaries in 153 countries. There’s much more (check out  www.sbc.net, www.wearesouthernbaptists.org, www.namb.net, www.imb.org). Southern Baptists share a commitment to biblical truth and a commitment to sharing the hope of Jesus Christ with everyone everywhere. (Did you enjoy that Southern Baptist 101 lesson?)

Please pray for those leading our SBC convention. Pray for the hundreds of Indiana Baptists who are volunteering behind the scenes to make the details happen. Pray that each person coming from around the country will be encouraged and inspired as a Christian, and will take opportunities as they visit to share Jesus with the masses of people around downtown Indy who don’t know Him. 

That’s what it’s all about!  Sharing hope. Sharing Jesus.

P.S. Even if you’re not a Baptist, you’re welcome to come and enjoy the convention. The schedule is on the sbc.net website, and there’s no cost.  You’ll enjoy the crowds. You’ll learn a lot. And, if you don’t have a personal relationship with God, you’ll learn how to do that! See you there?