News
Mark Dever Joins SBFC Planning Committee
Mark Dever, pastor of the historic Capitol Hill Baptist Church in
Washington, D.C., has recently joined the planning committee of the
Southern Baptist Founders Conference. He received his Ph.D. in Puritan
studies from Cambridge and serves as an adjunct professor at Beeson
Divinity School.
1996 Founders Conference
The fourteenth Founders Conference convened once again on the campus of
Samford University in Birmingham, AL. Nearly 350 registrants gathered
to consider the theme, "The Doctrines of Grace." Despite some
difficulties with the accommodations, the conference proved to be full
of encouragement and warm fellowship. Geoff Thomas from Wales spoke
four times in a manner which not only clearly explained the historic
doctrines of Calvinism but also exemplified the character of expository
preaching. Six stories on the conference were released by Baptist Press
and are available from the Founders web site
(
http://www.founders.org). Cassette
tapes of the messages are available from Dick Cook at
Sound Word Associates,
P.O. Box 2035, Michigan City, Indiana, 46360; (219) 879-7753.
Would you like to see a collection of historic Southern Baptist works on
the World Wide Web? Efforts are currently underway to make some of the
Southern Baptist founders' works available on the Founders web site.
We are pleased to announce that John Dagg's
Autobiography and
Treatise on Church Order
are already online. As soon as possible,
we hope to add his
Manual of Theology. We also desire to put
online James Boyce's
Abstract of Systematic Theology, P. H. Mell's
A Southern Baptist Looks at Predestination, and
Southern
Baptist Sermons on Sovereignty and Responsibility. In order to move
forward aggressively with this project we need volunteers to help with the
following tasks: scanning/typing texts into a word processor, converting
to HTML, and proofreading. If you are able to help in any of these areas
please send an email note to Dr. Stan Reeves at
founders@founders.org.
International Outreach Books
The book publishing ministry of International Outreach is growing with
the addition of at least four new titles planned for 1996-1997. Currently
in progress is a modernization of
Spiritual Refining, a classic
work on true and false conversion by Westminster divine, Anthony Burgess.
Expected release date is November of 1996. Planned for 1997 is the
republication of two works by Thomas Hooker,
The Christian's Two Chief Lessons: Self-Denial and Self-Trial and
The Soul's Humiliation. International Outreach has also launched
a children's book series called, "Proverbs 22:6 Series" which is
designed to assist parents in training their children with sound,
biblical materials. The first book,
The Rich Man and Lazarus is
beautifully illustrated with 14 full-color illustrations by So-Hee Kim. It
teaches children about heaven and hell using Luke 16:19-31 as the text
and containing 4 songs from
Divine and Moral Songs for Children
by Issac Watts. Also included are a word to parents by William C. Nichols
and a message to children by James Janeway. The next book in the series
is scheduled for release in 1997 and is entitled
The True and the
False. For a price list of these and other available titles
(including evangelistic tracts) contact William Nichols at International
Outreach, 2903 Eisenhower, Ames, Iowa 50010.
More Drive-by Baptisms
According to recent AP news reports Baptist churches in Florida and
Massachusetts are now under investigation by police because of their
baptismal practices. The Florida church has evidently been baptizing
children who attend their Bible Schools without any parental
notification. After two children came home in tears, a police
investigation was launched. In Massachusetts, "A Baptist church used
promises of pizza and basketball games to attract hundreds of children,
and then gave them full-body baptisms into a faith that is foreign to
many of them, parents charge." According to the report, "Most of the
children are from public housing projects. 'Families around here are
lucky to get pizza once a month, so if they offer it to kids, they go,'"
said one mother whose three-year-old-son has been repeatedly approached
by church members. In defense of his church's practice, the pastor is
quoted as saying, "Jesus told us to go into the world to preach the
gospel. Baptism is doing more than just hearing what the man said and
it's in the Bible, who am I to say what is right?" Hopefully, he was misquoted.
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