The apostle Paul made an impact on an escaped criminal’s life by the name of Onesimus.  Paul then urged Philemon to accept Onesimus as a Brother in Christ and to come alongside him upon his return home.  The apostle wrote:

“I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains.  Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and me.”   (Philemon 1:10-11 )

Satan continues to shackle untold multitudes.  Consider these facts:

• In the United States, approximately 1600 people will leave state and federal prisons each day according to correctional data.
• Nearly two out of three will return to the greater Louisville area in Kentucky.
• More than four out of ten of these released will be back in the prison system within three years.
• Less than one out of five of these being released will have participated in any kind of pre-release program that prepares them to re-enter society.
• Almost all prisoners eventually get out.
• Children of prisoners are seven times more likely to end up in a state correctional institution.
• Children of prisoners are nine times more likely to drop out of school and ten times more likely to abuse chemical substances.

Tragically, this vicious cycle repeats itself day after day all across Kentucky. It touches the families and neighbors of Kentucky Baptist churches from Ashland to Paducah as the Enemy continues to destroy lives. 

But, there is good news; God is stirring a life-changing ministry inside the fences of correctional institutions in Kentucky and opening doors in other correctional facilities through the Malachi Dad and Rubies For Life Programs.  These relational Discipleship/Mentoring programs are transforming the lives of prisoners and their families by helping them to enter a relationship with Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal of the programs is  to enable men and women to live transformed lives.  Through the Kentucky Baptist R-6 Mentoring program this life transformation continues upon release from prison.

Listen to one testimony from a graduate of the Rubies For Life Program:

“I have struggled a lot with guilt – guilt over crime…guilt over not being a mother to my son…guilt for breaking my parent’s heart.  How could a perfect and judgemental God love me? I can’t forgive myself… All my life I knew about God…but I didn’t know God. Through Rubies I have come to know who God really is-He’s my loving father and I am important to Him.  He does forgive me and remembers my sin no more….I am a better Mom, a better daughter..I see things now.  I’m a Ruby!”

God is changing lives, but the workers are few.  There is a great need for volunteers or churches that would be willing to break the cycle by serving as a leader, team member, or mentor in the Malachi Dads, Rubies For Life, or R-6 Mentoring Program.  Is God calling you?  Would you make a difference for Christ’s sake for a forgotten Onesimus today?

Contact the R-6 Mentoring Program at the Baptist Men on Mission Department  at (502) 489-3527 or randy.foster@kybaptist.org, and allow God to use you to become a Paul to a forgotten Onesimus. 

The R-6 Mentoring Program is a work of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and supported by gifts to the Cooperative Program and the Eliza Broadus Offering for State Missions.

The Kentucky Baptist Convention has recently released a video about the ministry of missionaries Greg and Alice Whitetree at the Freeda Harris Baptist Center in Easter Kentucky. I had the opportunity to visit the center earlier this summer. Greg and Alice are truly examples of people who are giving more for Christ. Although they were initially trained in and called to children’s ministry in urban areas, they have given the past 28 years of their lives now to ministering in Kentucky’s coal country.

Life can be hard in this area of the state as high rates of unemployment, poverty and drug abuse are prevalent. Greg and Alice live humbly and minister generously to share the love of Christ and meet the needs of the people. They are the Great Commission in action!

Click here to download this video. It’s a great piece to help your church understand how Cooperative Program, Eliza Broadus Offering for State Missions and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering gifts are being used to minister in Kentucky.

With Dr. Paul Chitwood preparing to start as the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s new executive director on July 1, I thought this would be a great time and place to let him share his testimony.

The video comes from the special meeting of the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board on June 2 where he was presented by the Search Committee and formally introduced to the board. The full Mission Board elected him to the position later in that meeting.

Dr. Paul Chitwood

Kentucky pastor and former International Misson Board Trustees Chairman Paul Chitwood has been nominated to become executive director-treasurer of the Kentucky Baptist Convention to succeed Bill Mackey who is retiring at the end of May. A special meeting of the Mission Board has been called for June 2 in Louisville to consider the recommendation from the Search Committee.

Here’s the release about the nomination from the KBC:

Chitwood Recommended To Lead Kentucky Baptists

LOUISVILLE – Dr. Paul Chitwood, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Mount Washington, is being recommended to serve as the next executive director-treasurer of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Chitwood will be presented to the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board for approval at a special called meeting at the Kentucky Baptist Building here on June 2. A 15-member search committee that has been working since October following Dr. Bill Mackey’s announcement that he will retire on May 31 will make the recommendation.

If approved, Chitwood will start effective July 1.

Chitwood, 41, has served the Mt. Washington church since November 2003 having previously served pastorates at the First Baptist Church of Somerset (1999-2003), the First Baptist Church of Owenton (1995-99) and South Fork Baptist Church in Owenton (1993-95).

The First Baptist Church of Mount Washington reported on the 2010 Annual Church Profile that is has 1,890 resident members with an average weekly primary worship attendance of 852. The church received $1,307,928 in undesignated gifts and gave $107,029 (8.18 percent) to support missions through the Cooperative Program for that reporting year.

Chitwood served as KBC president in 2005-06 after having served as first vice president in 2003-04. He served as president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference in 2002.

Chitwood was also a member of the special study committee that led to the development of the KBC’s Kentucky Baptist Connect goals in 2002-03 and then served on the Mission Advisory Committee related to those goals from 2004-09.

He was chairman of the board for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2008-10 as the IMB launched a major global reorganization.

He currently serves as a trustee and adjunct professor of missions and evangelism at the University of the Cumberlands, a Kentucky Baptist university in Williamsburg where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. Chitwood also serves as assistant professor of evangelism and church growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville from which he holds a Master of Divinity and Ph.D. degrees.

He and his wife Michelle are natives of Tennessee, and have three children, Daniel, Anna and Cai.

Paul Badgett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Pikeville, chairs the search committee. Also, on the committee are: Charles Barnes, a member of Hurstbourne Baptist Church in Louisville; Debbie Cook, children’s associate at Central Baptist Church in Corbin; Alan Dodson, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Lexington; and Richard Gaines, pastor of Consolidated Baptist Church in Lexington.

Also serving are: Linda Polley, administrator at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown; Ronny Raines, pastor of First Baptist Church of Cold Springs; Pat Reaves, a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Louisville; Steve Rice, pastor of First Baptist Church of Shelbyville; Nick Sandefur, pastor of Edgewood Baptist Church in Hopkinsville; Ben Stratton, pastor of Farmington Baptist Church; Jerry Tooley, director of missions for Daviess-McLean Baptist Association and member of First Baptist Church of Owensboro; and Ray Woodie, pastor of Coral Hill Baptist Church in Glasgow.

Also serving are Don Mathis, a member at Eastwood Baptist Church in Bowling Green and president of the KBC when the committee was appointed and current KBC President Floyd Paris, pastor of the Unity Baptist Church in Ashland.

Chitwood himself was also a member of the search committee.

The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more.

For more information, visit the KBC website at www.kybaptist.org, find “Kentucky Baptist Convention” on Facebook or follow “kentuckybaptist” on Twitter.

“He must increase but I must decrease.” — John 3:30

If you are a regular reader of this blog you may have noticed that we’ve not been active of late. That’s primarily because of work that’s been under way to prepare for the More for Christ emphasis approved by messengers at this past year’s annual meeting. That planning is beginning to take shape now, however, so watch for lots more activity here in the weeks ahead.

More for Christ is a bit different than most emphases in Baptist life in that the name is really an attempt to recognize and capture in words a movement that is already taking place among many Kentucky Baptists to more fully dedicate themselves to the Lord’s service. If we are to ever be successful in reaching our local communities, state, nation and world for Christ, we must see individual Kentucky Baptists and churches move beyond a cultural Christianity based on our history and family upbringing. We must realize that seeing the Great Commission fulfilled and truly following Jesus’ command will mean total commitment and sacrifice on our part. We will have to sell out as individuals and churches. We will have to give more of our time, our talent, our family life, our physical and financial resources and our hearts.

Where are you in examining your own life to determine if you are truly willing to do More for Christ? Are you just going through the motions? Is this just going to be another phrase or theme that goes in one ear and out the other because you’ve heard so many before? Or will it be a rallying cry for you, me and other Kentucky Baptists to allow God to work through us as He never has before?

I’m praying that More for Christ will be the beginning of another great Christian awakening in Kentucky. Will you join me?

–Robert Reeves

The Kentucky Baptist Convention announced position cuts among its Mission Board staff today as it shifts funds to national and international missions as part of the Great Commission Task Force plan approved by messengers to the annual meeting in November.

Here’s the Convention’s official release:

KBC Announces Staff Reductions for FY 11-12

LOUISVILLE – The Kentucky Baptist Convention Mission Board will eliminate five full-time and 19 part-time positions in its next budget in order to send a larger percentage of church gifts to Southern Baptist Convention causes throughout the nation and around the world.

The reductions are being made in response to a Great Commission Task Force report approved by KBC messengers at the 2010 annual meeting in November. The report recommended changing the formula for allocating Cooperative Program gifts to an even 50 percent-50 percent split between the state convention and SBC over 10 years with the bulk of that shift occurring in the 2011-12 fiscal year.

Three of the five full-time positions being eliminated are already currently unfilled while the other two positions will become vacant due to retirements on Aug. 31. The 19 part-time positions are a mix of filled and unfilled contract positions. Seven other part-time contract positions will be reduced.

The staffing adjustments go into effect with the start of the new fiscal year on Sept. 1.

KBC Executive Director Bill Mackey told the Mission Board’s Administrative Committee Thursday that the part-time position reductions will come largely from two areas – the elimination of seven part-time campus ministry positions and the elimination of funding for the part-time consultant positions from the Worship and Music Department.

Mackey said ministry in these areas would continue.

“We regret having to give up these positions and the ministry that takes place through them,” Mackey said. “But we will do our best to meet these ministry needs through effective and faithful volunteers and assignments to current personnel.”

Evangelism Growth Team Leader Ross Bauscher said that in the case of several of the seven campus ministry position reductions, the persons currently serving will continue their work as volunteers. The college campuses affected are Ashland Community College, Berea College, Centre College, Elizabethtown Community College, Hopkinsville Community College, Mid-Continent University and the University of Kentucky.

The UK position eliminated is a vacant intern position. That school will continue to have a full-time campus minister. Ministry at Berea College will continue through the work of a ministry intern based at Eastern Kentucky University, Bauscher said.

In regard to the Worship and Music Department positions, Mackey said that the five consultant positions being affected will actually continue at least temporarily into the new fiscal year. The department director position is currently unfilled but will remain in the inventory to give the KBC’s next executive director flexibility in making decisions about the department. In the mean time, the funds from that unfilled position will be used to support the consultants’ work.

Mackey is retiring in May and a search committee is currently seeking his replacement.

Employees who will be retiring at the end of the fiscal year are Baptist Men on Mission Department Director Randy Foster and Missions Growth Team Ministry Assistant Linda George. Disaster Relief Associate Coy Webb will be recommended to the full Mission Board to fill the department director position while his associate’s position will be eliminated.

Following retirement, Foster is expected to continue serving in a part-time contract position to support the department’s R6 mentoring ministry for ex-offenders, and Kentucky Changers, a popular ministry that engages high school students in repairing homes during the summer.

The department will lose Greta Wilson, part-time children’s missions consultant, and Gary King, a missions consultant who works with the R6 ministry. The Missions Growth Team previously eliminated its Mississippi River Ministry and cooperative ministries consultants.

Mackey said the staffing adjustments will result in a net savings of approximately $486,000. There will be a total of 90 full and part-time positions in the Mission Board’s job inventory at the start of the 2011-12 fiscal year.

Lowell Ashby, the KBC’s Business Services Team leader, said salaries of current staff will also be frozen for the new fiscal year at 2010-11 levels.

The CP allocation change is one of several funding challenges facing the Mission Board.

Additionally, the nation’s recession is now taking a toll on church giving. Ashby reported that CP giving for the current year is running just over 9 percent behind pace for reaching this year’s $23.5 million CP budget.

The convention is also absorbing a shift in the funding received for missions and ministries through the North American Mission Board of the SBC. Cooperative agreements with state conventions are currently used to share costs for some positions but NAMB has announced plans to end those agreements over the next seven years.

The Cooperative Program is the unified giving plan used by Southern Baptists to support its missions and ministries. Gifts through individual churches are sent to state conventions and then allocated to various state and national ministries according to an agreed-upon formula.

Currently, 38 percent of CP gifts are sent to the SBC while 62 percent are used for missions and ministries in Kentucky (36.4 percent by the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board and 25.6 percent by KBC agencies and institutions).

The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Click this link to read coverage of the reductions in the Louisville Courier-Journal.

–Robert Reeves

2010 was a year of big decisions for Southern Baptists. In June, Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted to approve a report calling for a Great Commission Resurgence in the convention. That was followed by just a day a decision from the SBC Executive Committee to hire former SBC President Frank Page as its new leader to replace the retiring Morris Chapman. The North American Mission Board then selected Kentucky pastor Kevin Ezell as its new president.

Meanwhile in Kentucky, messengers to the Kentucky Baptist Convention voted to approve sweeping changes of their own to focus more resources on getting the Gospel to unreached people groups all around the world.

Whew! That was a lot but more is still to come. NAMB has begun a major transformation process that has caused it to shed about a third of its staff. The actual reorganization plan has yet to be revealed but will presumably come this year.

Meanwhile, the International Mission Board is still searching for a new leader to fill the shoes of the retiring Jerry Rankin. This search has been a drawn out process but will surely be resolved soon.

And here in Kentucky, a search committee is hard at work to find a replacement for Executive Director Bill Mackey who will retire in May. This new executive will have many challenges as he seeks to implement the plans approved in November.

With the volume and rapidity of the changes, it would be easy to just stand on the sidelines and gawk.

But with a new year now upon us, the real question isn’t about what is going to happen in one convention body or another but about what will be happening in our individual relationships with Christ. In the midst of all of the discussions about organizational change, there have been frequent allusions to the need for individuals and churches to rededicate themselves to a renewed passion for reaching lost family members, neighbors, friends, co-workers and acquaintances.

Kentucky’s focus on this call for revival is called “More for Christ.” In meetings, literature, blogs, videos and other communication vehicles, Kentucky Baptists will be emphasizing the need of all of us to direct more of our individual time, passion, talents and — yes, financial resources — toward fulfilling the Great Commission.

But while these reminders and encouragements are welcome and important, the key to success for any of this will really be what we commit to in our hearts. Will we, as Kentucky Baptists, say “ho hum, another emphasis,” or will we ask God to challenge us this year? Will we give lip service to the Great Commission or will we really share our faith on a daily basis? Will we risk being called a “nut”? A “religious radical”? Will we take on the responsibility of being salt and light in our world or will we push that responsibility over to “missionaries.”

This year we will be exploring what it really means to give “more” for Christ. I am praying seriously about what it will mean in my life. I hope you are too!

–Robert Reeves

KBC President Floyd Paris

New Kentucky Baptist Convention President Floyd Paris, in speaking to the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board last week, encouraged Kentucky Baptists to embrace the “More for Christ” campaign laid out by the Great Commission Task Force report approved by messengers to the Nov. 16 annual meeting.

The task force plan calls for the state convention to move to an equal distribution of Cooperative Program dollars between Kentucky Baptist ministries and Southern Baptist causes, including international and North American missions over the next 10 years. The largest single step up in the plan occurs next year.

In addition to the funding shift, however, the task force report also calls for Baptists to give more for Christ in terms of their own personal commitment of time, talents and financial resources. Paris said he wants to help Kentucky Baptists do that by providing practical opportunities to give more for Christ.

He outlined three giving emphases that will enable the local church to help all members become engaged in supporting missions at home, throughout the nation and around the world through the Cooperative Program.

“Three More for Christ” is “pew” for increased missions giving through the local church and the Cooperative Program, he said.  If 100,000 Kentucky Baptists were “to give three dollars more per week to their local offering … it will result in an additional $1.05 million to missions through the Cooperative Program,” he said.

The second proposal affirmed by mission board members is “Million More 4 Missions,” which is geared toward youth. Paris said church youth groups would be encouraged to set aside 15 weeks to raise funds for missions through the Cooperative Program. If youth groups in half of Kentucky Baptists’ 2,400 congregations participated and raised an average of $833 each, the effort would produce nearly $1 million, he said.

Through “Children Changing the World,” boys and girls would be encouraged to start collecting change each week, beginning April 10, 2011, which is Cooperative Program Sunday in Southern Baptist life, and conclude the collection at the close of vacation Bible school during the summer.

“We need a goal to teach children (about the) Cooperative Program,” Paris said, noting that the effort would help boys and girls connect their own actions to someone in another part of the world having the opportunity to learn about Jesus.

You can listen to Dr. Floyd’s presentation in its entirety using the player below:

–Robert Reeves

Dr. Hershael York presents the Great Commission Task Force report at the KBC annual meeting on Nov. 16.

Here’s a summary of the actions taken by the Kentucky Baptist Convention on Nov. 16 in adopting an amended Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report as reported by Baptist Press:

Ky. Baptists adopt missions plan
by Drew Nichter

LEXINGTON, Ky. (BP)–Messengers to the 173rd annual meeting of the Kentucky Baptist Convention adopted a plan to better reach the nations for Christ and honored an executive director nearing the end of his tenure.

Kentucky Baptists embarked on a new course that eventually will lead the convention to an equitable division of Cooperative Program funds between state and Southern Baptist causes.

After nearly an hour of discussion, the report of the Great Commission Task Force containing four key recommendations was passed by nearly two-thirds of messengers Nov. 16 at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky. — but not without some last-minute adjustments.

Delivering the report on behalf of the task force, chairman Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort and a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor, announced significant changes to the task force’s second proposal.

In it, the group originally called for the KBC to move to a reallocation of Cooperative Program funds to an even 50/50 allocation between Kentucky Baptist and Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministry causes within seven years.

That target date was extended by three years, aiming now for an even split by the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Click here to read the full story.

You can also watch the oral report of the committee to the annual meeting and the debate of messengers. Click here to see the report.

–Robert Reeves

Kentucky Baptist Convention Executive Director Bill Mackey used his column in this week’s Western Recorder to address some of the apprehensions being expressed regarding the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report to be presented at the KBC annual meeting next week.

Here’s his column:

Challenges and Opportunities

As we approach the upcoming vote on the Kentucky Great Commission Task Force report, I’ve picked up on a number of apprehensions people are feeling about the report. Let me share and comment about a few of these.

One of the biggest apprehensions is with the shift in allocations between Kentucky Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention causes. The plan calls for shifting from a 62/38 percent split between KBC and SBC causes this year to a 55.15/44.85 percent split next year on the way to an eventual 50/50 split. People want to increase support to reach the world for Christ but are concerned about the size of the shift in a single year. I think the big first year shift was recommended because the Task Force felt Kentucky Baptists should have the opportunity to respond to a big vision for missions.

Another concern is about whether our churches will be able to increase support of missions through the Cooperative Program during difficult economic times. This will certainly be a big challenge as it will require the immediate reversal of a trend of reduced CP giving that spans more than a decade. Overcoming this challenge will be vital, however, because SBC and KBC entities and the Mission Board programs of work are also dealing with the reduction of endowment and other income.

As the KBC staff has looked at possible budget adjustments, it is clear that programs of ministry will need to be reduced, in addition to personnel reductions. The KBC staff is being very innovative to keep missions funded, and I am very grateful for their efforts.

Some are also apprehensive about the defunding of our cooperative agreement with the North American Mission Board. We know that absorbing the funding of state missions currently shared with NAMB will be an additional challenge.

It is my prayer that the significant sacrifice by KBC missions and ministries will provide an example for all Kentucky Baptists. This report provides an opportunity for individuals to reevaluate their stewardship commitment through their local church and for leaders to be energized to support of missions through CP.  If each KBC church increases its CP percentage by just a quarter percent each year, the projected budget will be met and the objective of 50/50 can be achieved.

If the budget established by this plan is met, Kentucky Baptists will see an additional $1,926,860 go to SBC mission causes. Additional funding will also be available to NAMB as the cooperative agreement is phased out.

It is my prayer that Kentucky Baptists will remain unified in genuine support of the Cooperative Program regardless of how you may vote or how you may feel about the GCTF recommendation. Adjustments can be made as necessary in future years, but for now, let’s move forward together.