Church members and pastors often receive requests from parachurch ministries asking for financial and volunteer help. Churches and individuals must practice diligent stewardship for any group they support. 

Churches need to confirm the requester’s biblical theology, church polity, financial integrity and personal accountability.  

Often, it is a disadvantage to choose parachurch ministries instead of denominational ministries. Parachurch ministries rely on churches but are NOT accountable to those churches who support them. Avoid parachurch ministries led by entrepreneurs who reject external guidelines from a church, denomination or their board. They often provide ministries that are less efficient and effective than ministries done cooperatively by denominations and churches. 

Here are seven essential guidelines before supporting a parachurch ministry or individual:

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Click on the link below for some helpful resource for Sexual Abuse Prevention:

http://www.sbc.net/churchresources/sexabuseprevention.asp

The recent documentation of extensive sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches is shocking. For more than 20 years, the Mobile Baptist Association (MBA) has encouraged churches to perform a background check on every ministerial candidate and every worker. Consultation also advises never to have just one worker in children’s classrooms or just two from the same family.

Our MBA office makes it easier for churches by providing background checks for our churches at a nominal fee for the check. A form from the MBA would need to be submitted for the background check to be done. Lifeway also has a streamlined background check process. Visit https://www.lifeway.com/en/services/church-administration/background-checks?intcmp=SRDR-background-checks. One recent background check discovered a candidate on the Sex Offender Registry in Florida. He was immediately disqualified. The sin was forgiven, but the legal consequences remain. Another consideration for small churches is some information about juveniles under age 19 may be sealed. So past offenses may not be reported. A form for anyone under 19 would have to have parental permission and signature.  

Church leaders need to recognize the scope of the problem and take immediate steps to protect every person in the ministries of the church. This upcoming training is particularly advisable: Protecting the Children, February 26, 6:30 p.m. at the MBA office.  Click here to for more information and to register.

Visit the following link to additional resources and recommendations: https://alsbom.org/safe/.  

Dr. Ronnie Floyd, CEO and President of the SBC Executive Committee, has written a resource that will assist churches in advancing biblical stewardship. Ten Percent: A Call to Biblical Stewardship is a bible-based, theologically sound stewardship emphasis which is designed to include two resources every church can use regardless of size or location:

*   A six-week sermon series
*   A six-week curriculum for Sunday school or small groups

While the pastor preaches in the worship service that “God Is the Owner of Everything,” each of your small groups, Bible study classes and Sunday school classes teach the same. Your team of laypersons or staff can easily transfer these principles so they can be simultaneously taught to all of your students, children, and preschoolers. If you do not teach them, no one will. Everyone, at all stages of life, needs to be called to biblical stewardship.

Six Biblical Principles:

The six principles are proven. They are biblical, strategic and practical.

1.  God Is the Owner of Everything
2.  We Own Absolutely Nothing
3.  Honor God with at Least the First Ten Percent
4.  Bring the Full Ten Percent to the Church
5.  Practice Over and Above Giving
6.  Focus on the Great Commission Always

These six principles are steps to give your church members a biblical way to look at their entire lives, including the finances that God alone has entrusted to them. Each church can and should do the same.

A digital church kit is now available for FREE.

To enable congregations and pastors to better utilize this resource in the local church, we have created a digital church kit. This kit includes:

*   A pdf copy of the book which you can distribute to all in your church
*   Promotional graphics for use in your church
*   Bulletin inserts for use in your church
*   PowerPoint slides for your sermon series
*   Social media graphics to use

There is no cost to you or your church for this resource. Everything is downloadable at: SBC.net/stewardship.

“Southern Baptists responded with an overwhelming majority in favor of adopting the two recommendations presented by the Sexual Abuse Task Force presented June 14 at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting.” https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/in-its-kairos-moment-southern-baptists-approve-satf-recommendations/?fbclid=IwAR2RJdxZC7g27fR2is4EZDcO-VXRbd913agTnWcj2XXmq32siPinc0-izBQ

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Authorized and assigned by action of the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention, the Sexual Abuse Task Force now reports to the 2022 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention the following requests and recommendations for action. On behalf of the Task Force, I move the adoption of these requests to our broader SBC family: First, with respect to Baptist polity, the Task Force addresses the following suggestions and requests to cooperating state conventions, SBC entities, and other related Baptist bodies:

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Click here for Alabama’s Mandatory Reporting Law: Learning your legal obligations to reporting the signs of suspected child abuse.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 15, 2022
For interview requests contact: David Roach; droach229@gmail.com; 502-751-0237

Religious liberty & LGBTQ agenda draw
focus at Baptists’ meeting with Mobile mayor

MOBILE, Ala.—Mobile Southern Baptist leaders have urged Mayor Sandy Stimpson to protect religious liberty as he considers policies related to the LGBTQ community.

Six representatives from the Mobile Baptist Association (MBA) Executive Committee met with Stimpson Aug. 15, presenting him a resolution “on the LGBTQ+ agenda and religious liberty” adopted by the Executive Committee Aug. 1.

The resolution notes that Stimpson “recently appointed two individuals as LGBTQ+ liaisons” to the city, citing an AL.com article. “Liaisons who were appointed to advise officials in other cities later were given the authority to enforce ordinances and levy fines on any groups who refused to celebrate pro-LGBTQ+ ordinances and activity,” according to the resolution.

The resolution “implores” public officials “to protect religious liberty by rejecting any attempts to compromise the longstanding Judeo-Christian and biblical convictions of the majority of our citizens.”

MBA Moderator Scott Griffith, pastor of Cypress Shores Baptist Church, was among the leaders who met with Stimpson. “Our ethnically diverse group of pastors had a cordial meeting with the mayor,” he said. “We assured him of our support for any efforts to protect Mobile residents’ liberty to hold and live out biblical convictions regarding human sexuality.”

The MBA representatives who met with Stimpson were Griffith; Vice Moderator Kevin Cobb, pastor of West Mobile Baptist Church; former moderator Mack Morris, retired pastor of Woodridge Baptist Church; former moderator Charlie York, pastor of Highpoint Baptist Church in Eight Mile; MBA executive director Thomas Wright; and David Roach, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Saraland.

The Mobile Baptist leaders also proposed to Stimpson a city ordinance that would prohibit “any adverse action” against individuals who have “acted in accordance with a religious, moral, scientific, or philosophical belief” that marriage is “the union of one man and one woman.”

The MBA comprises 114 churches in Mobile County that cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The SBC’s confession of faith defines marriage as “the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.” It adds that Christians should oppose “all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography.”

The full text of the resolution is linked here: 

https://mobilebaptists.org/images/stories/Resolution%20on%20Mobile%20LGBTQ%2B%208.1%20%28003%29.pdf

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Register here: https://mobilebaptists.org/register-for-training-opportunities/