http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=rss description http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=138 We are in need of two mud-out teams for next Monday, May 20, 2013 to go to Kokomo. Further details will follow later this week. If you can volunteer, please contact Bill Crane at 812-483-6762 or John Rogers at 317-685-5447. http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=135 Disaster Relief volunteers are needed in New York state for these weeks: May 5-11; May 12-18; May 19-25; and May 26-June 1 Please contact John Rogers or your region's DR Coordinator if you are available to go. Following is the request with more specific information: Dear Bill, The North American Mission Board is working with the Baptist Convention of New York, North Carolina Baptist Men, Metropolitan New York Baptist Association and local churches to provide ministry in the wake of Super Storm Sandy. In addition to these partners we are working with the Village of Freeport, Robin Hood Foundation and The Salvation Army. Our goal is to have a Base Camp operational by June 1.  In the meantime we need help to set up the Base Camp and begin assessing the construction needs for homes that are in the case management process provided by The Salvation Army. Starting May 5 we need teams of up to thirty (30) volunteers, who will travel at the own expense, to assist in the repair and rebuild process. Some of the volunteers need to have basic construction skills to help build out the Base Camp and/or work in the homes of those affected by Sandy that have already been assessed and moved through the case management process. In addition to these volunteers with construction skills we need a few volunteers that can prepare meals for 30 to 50 volunteers and keep the facilities clean. Housing for the volunteers will be in a church on Long Island. We are seeking teams that can serve during the following weeks. May 5-11; May 12-18; May 19-25; and May 26-June 1 If you can not provide all thirty volunteers needed during a week we will work with other states to provide the additional volunteers to fill out the team. Please contact us as soon as possible about your interest in providing volunteers during this critical start up time. God is doing some awesome things here in New York and we are very excited about the level of commitment the local folks are giving to the massive follow-up needs that are here. I encourage you to pray about the great open door of opportunity God has provided Southern Baptists in New York. Please contact Donna Johnson, Sandy Recovery Office Manager, at 606.225.0068 or djohnson@namb.net to let us know how you might help us seize this opportunity through the deployment of your volunteers during this strategic time. Your fellow laborer, Mickey Caison Recovery Coordinator, Disaster Relief North American Mission Board http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=136 DR teams deploy for Midwest floods BP News The state has declared 44 counties disaster areas. The State Convention of Baptists in Indiana also is assessing flood recovery needs. Read full BP News story. http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=137 A 30-Second Celebration by Diana Davis I’ve noticed an interesting common denominator in vibrant, growing churches: They always seem to be celebrating something God’s doing there. Your church can do that! Use these two simple steps to add a mini-celebration during weekly church announcements. Step One: Be vigilantly observant to see what God’s doing in His church. He is at work! Keep an ongoing list, and select at least one current praise to mention each Sunday. Step Two: Plan the best way to brag on God. Use varying methods to praise Him for that specific blessing during Sunday worship’s announcements. Here are some ideas and examples, each requiring less than thirty seconds: Show it. “The Fire Department sent this thank you note for our church’s prayer and the Fireman’s Bibles we gave them!” Numbers. Create giant numbers, and use them to announce camp enrollment, baptism numbers, cans of food collected, etc. Tour instructions. “After worship, follow the yellow arrows to see our remodeled nursery!” Assignment. “God’s blessing our new singles class! They are distributing invitation cards for you to give a single adult you know.” Tradition. Play four musical bars of “Jesus Loves the Little Children” then announce “God’s newest blessing at our church—Ian Key, born to Hal and Jan on Monday.” Reminder. “We exceeded our Annie Armstrong offering goal! Take the bookmark in your chair to remind you to pray for our North American Mission Board missionaries.” PowerPoint slide. Add praises into pre- and post-service audiovisuals. “73 stopped here to pray on National Day of Prayer!” Facebook. “Ann, who is being baptized today, wrote her testimony as a Facebook post! Share it on your page today.” Wall graphic. After every baptism, our pastor refers to the wall visual tallying God’s blessing of new believers. Applause. “God has answered our church’s prayers for new small group leaders. Let’s all applaud Him for His blessing!” Raise hands. “Our men’s Bible class is the fastest-growing in the church. If you’re in that class, raise your hand.” Certificates. “Everyone on the front row has completed our Discipleship 101 class! Each received a beautiful certificate like this one." Visible results. “Our youth garage sale raised $800 to buy these 40 Bibles and 100 witness bracelets for their Mexico mission trip!” Stand up. “Our 5th grade Bible class set a record attendance of __! Stand up, 5th graders!” Photo. Use supersized or PowerPoint photo. “Here’s the property our church plant, Soma Church, has purchased!” Ask for action. “Let’s use our vehicles as mobile church invitations! Take a church window sticker. Volunteers in the parking lot can help you with installation.” God is at work in His church. Will you be constantly on watch, and use praise announcements during worship to intentionally, joyfully celebrate what He’s doing? © Diana Davis is author of Deacon Wives and Fresh Ideas (B&H Publishing). www.dianadavis.org http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=130 1-29-13 The Feb. 2 departure to New York had to be cancelled as there were not enough volunteers to make a team. Please see the information below about Teams 2, 3 and 4. Contact Bill Crane to volunteer or find out more. 1-25-13 We do not have enough volunteers to make up team to deploy to New York from Feb 2 to Feb 9. If we do not get more by noon Monday Jan 28 we will have to cancel that week and try to form a team for departure on Feb 9. Information for Indiana Disaster Relief Volunteers 1-15-13 Many days have come and gone since Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Northern New Jersey and we no longer are seeing the devastation this "Super Storm" left behind on our daily newscasts. In the very early days of this disaster Southern Baptist Disaster Relief  volunteers made a committment to provide recovery crews as long as they were needed. The need in the New York boroughs of Staten Island and Long Island and areas of Northern New Jersey is still there today and we are being asked to provide more Indiana Disaster Relief Volunteers so the committment will not falter. The trip is long and tiring and the work is hard, but experience has taught us that the "God Moments" will quickly overshadow all of that. SCBI Disaster Relief is organizing mud-out teams for the month of February. ****With you seriously praying and asking God if He will make a way for you to be a part of one of the teams below we will complete the following schedule. Please contact your Unit Leader or Bill Crane if you can answer the call.**** TEAM #1: Depart Indiana Saturday, February 2, and return Saturday, February 9. Unit Leader will be George Fox. TEAM #2: Depart Indiana Saturday, February 9, and return Saturday, February 16. Unit Leader to be determined later TEAM #3: Depart Indiana Saturday, February 16, and return Saturday, February 23. Unit Leader to be determined later Team #4: Depart Indiana Saturday, February 23, and return Saturday, March 2. Unit Leader to be determined later 11-16-12 I want to thank the Indiana Disaster Relief volunteers that endured the long drive, long days, and short nights we experienced while serving the citizens of Edison, Keansburg, Union, and other communities in northern New Jersey. I believe we were successful in our mission of taking the Good News to those who didn't know about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You made 43 ministry contacts with 1 making a profession of faith. You completed 25 requests for chain saw work and 10 for flood clean up. Satan put a few bumps in the road to try and detour us but you stayed focused on the One who sent us and He made the mission successful.  Bill Crane, SCBI Disaster Relief Volunteer Coordinator (White Hat) 11-13-12 We have been asked by Illinois to try and send some of our Indiana volunteers with a feeding crew leaving for the New York City area on Saturday November 17. Could you please get the word out to as many as possible. They can contact George Fox @ 502-552-6106. Click here to view a video of one of our Blue Hats from Evansville, Tom Luttrull, and a homeowner in Keansburg, NJ. Great item to share with everyone. 11-12-12  Bill Crane called to report how the DR operation is going in Edison, New Jersey, as a result of Hurricane Sandy. The operation is going well. The chaplains have done a great job and continue to follow-up on those they are reaching. There has been one salvation! There are currently three mud-out crews and one chain saw crew working to help individuals get back some form or normalcy to their lives. They have made some good contacts in the field and the people have welcomed them with open arms!  If you are interested in assisting and you have been through the Disaster Relief training, please contact Bill Crane at 812-483-6762.  Thank you!  To God be the glory! 11-8-12 Hurricane "Sandy" has probably become a distant memory for most people living in Indiana. However, let me share what Indiana Disaster Relief volunteers have done and what we are planning to do in the near future to take the Gospel message to the millions of people that are still hurting and will continue to struggle for a long with the situation the storm placed them in. They didn't ask for it, didn't plan on it and were poorly prepared to deal with it. Some good news for them is that God is still alive, still on His throne and knows and cares about them because he created them. Indiana Disaster Relief volunteers have been given the opportunity to be obedient to God's call to go and share that Good News as often as He gives us opportunity. We have 27 faithful servants showing the love of God by helping residents clean up their property from flooding and wind damage in Northern New Jersey across from New York City. We plan to continue to work in this area through November 14 then return home to Indiana for the Thanksgiving holiday. Anyone interested in standing in the gap during the thanksgiving holiday, or later, need to be prepared to be away from home 9 or 10 days.  Please contact me at this email if you wish. Bill Crane SCBI Disaster Relief Volunteer Coordinator (White Hat)   11-1-12 Indiana Disaster Relief is waiting for authorization from authorities in charge of the Hurricane Sandy response to begin sending teams to assist with clean up efforts. In this case waiting is a good thing because it gives us time to contact our volunteers and begin organizing teams. Our plan is to send at least one team ASAP when we get authorization to travel. We will then send relief teams at weekly intervals until the operation is shut down or we run out of volunteers. If you can travel with the first team or with a relief team please contact billcrane3032@yahoo.com or call 812-483-6762. Bill Crane SCBI Disaster ReliefVolunteer Coordinator (White Hat) Disaster Relief webpage http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=134 While I am thinking about it ... I posted some thoughts a few days ago related to the Factor of One, first introduced on my Facebook page. Let's look at networking for the Gospel's sake in order to see lostness penetrated in Indiana at a significant level. What would happen if each congregation studied the past five (5) years of their baptismal history, identify the year with the highest baptismal number and resolve under God to equal that year and engage His harvest, praying to see just one (1) more than the previous record come to faith in Christ, be baptized in obedience to His command? Gimmick? Numbers? Foolishness? Forgive me, but there is another side to this story. Jesus said the Harvest is ready, workers (harvesters) are few. At issue - harvesters. You and I cannot, in fact, do not save. Christ does, will, desires to bring dead people to life in Him. No gimmick here. It's the hard work of the Gospel. Just an idea for harvesting and harvesters who want to see Christ lifted up as our Hope, our Redemption. Reminder, it's Biblical, His call to the Harvest; Remember, Acts 1:8 - the mandate of Jesus, is at the heart of all this; Reflect, you are sharing your journey of redemption and new birth; Refocus, redemption is the sole responsibility of God our Maker and He gives us opportunity to be His witness while Holy Spirit of God "cross examines" every person, drawing them to decision - to obey or to disobey.  I am praying for harvesters. The Harvest is ready - or - so Jesus says! It's merely the Factor of One. I'm one, use me Father, use me in your Harvest!  Cecil W. Seagle http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=133 Streamlined Master of Arts in Worship degree breaks distance, language barriers FORT WORTH, Texas (SWBTS) – A revamped School of Church Music (SCM) degree program has entered the final stages of pilot course testing and is set to launch in fall 2013. The new, streamlined Master of Arts in Worship (MAW), which features online and hybrid course options, allows students to gain theological and musical training without having to physically relocate for Fort Worth. SCM Dean Stephen Johnson says the new degree will enable more people to seek further training without having to leave, neglect or postpone their current ministry service. Johnson also pointed out what he described as a “groundbreaking feature:” The degree will be offered in both Korean and English. Johnson said the degree’s redesign comes as a response to the desire from many to pursue further education without stepping away from ministry positions. “The Master of Arts in Worship was remade to become Southwestern's answer to worship education needs for those who must remain in their church assignment and cannot become resident students,” Johnson said. “The reformatted degree is now available through online and hybrid methods.” Johnson explained that students can take the required theology courses online and complete their worship training in a hybrid format. “For the worship studies, they have some initial reading, then come to campus for a special week of intensive classes [and] group worship sessions, and then they return home to complete the final project or paper,” Johnson said. “It is a wonderful way to have the best of both online and residential training.” John Simons, associate dean of the SCM, said that while the degree will certainly cater to those who cannot leave their stations of ministry to attend seminary, the degree will still welcome those students who wish to take classes on campus, instead of online. “Students in the program will come to campus each January and July for intensive worship hybrid classes, skills training, and group worship experiences,” Simons said. “Their theological studies can be completed online or in residence using our existing Southwestern resources.” The new MAW has been streamlined down to 36 credit hours, whereas the previous degree required 40. The degree offers an equivalent education by combining nine courses in the worship area into four hybrid classes and then rolling the existing required practica and applied study portions into three comprehensive practica. The core for the degree, which includes courses such as Spiritual Formation, Systematic Theology, Old and New Testament, and Baptist Heritage will remain the same with the exception that the new degree will not require two semesters of auditioned ensemble. Simons said the degree will include study of biblical foundations of worship and culture, worship leadership, worship design, congregational song, and philosophy. “The newly redesigned degree [also] includes practicum skills training in arts management, media, and leading small instrumental forces in worship,” Simons said. “The MAW degree concludes with an in-the-field worship ministry project and document designed and created by the student and supervised by one of the ministry department faculty members.” Simons described how the school will maneuver the multi-language feature. “While the academic and skills training courses will be taught in either English or Korean, both cohorts will gather together for worship sessions that enable the two groups to interact, share and worship God,” Simons said. Johnson said the change will affect all new students entering the Master of Arts in Worship degree program, from fall 2013 forward. “This program is open to our alumni, who want further training while in the field, to any person with a completed undergraduate degree in any major,” Johnson said. “The target for this degree is any person who has a desire to serve or is already serving in a local church and cannot get away to come to campus for two years.” Simons added that a small number of existing students will have the option to complete their degree under the current MAW degree or to switch to the new degree plan, but the new MAW will soon phase out the old and exist as the only degree of its kind. “The MAW can be an excellent path of study for worship leaders or for pastors seeking added preparation in worship studies,” Simons said. “It is a degree that will foster cross-pollination of pastors, worship leaders, and missionaries; and it provides an added element of cross-cultural pollination between those studying in English and those studying in Korean.” -- 30 -- http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=132 1/15/13 While its on my mind ... I posted a note on my Facebook page introducing THE FACTOR OF ONE. Allow me to unpack the idea and see if you have interest in personal investment as an SCBI pastor. Suggestions made - •    Start one new unit; •    Review the past five years of baptisms, take the best year and seek to introduce one more than the five year record to Jesus, following up with baptism; •    Pray specifically and personally about increasing by 1% your Cooperative Program support for the nations. What a potential impact on the nations for the Gospel's sake. Let's look at the suggestion of one new unit? •    Years ago I studied our small group attendance pattern for the year and was shocked. We worked hard but did not move the "attendance needle" at all. •    Why were we static, flat lined? I really wanted to know, and I found out why much to my chagrin. •    We did not add a single new unit, kept it the same and suffered the consequence. We know this - •    With called and equipped leadership new units reach new people; •    As the Gospel is shared, as ministry is experienced and as people network with those who have no relationship to Jesus Christ, He begins a new, fresh work in lives that is life transformational; •    Lostness is penetrated, disciples grow in Christ likeness and the Kingdom continues to expand. SCBI is willing to assist. Call me or Steve McNeil, we have a team available and willing to join you in this journey. Imagine it - 428 new units in 2013! What a potential impact on lostness. Cecil W. Seagle http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=131 News organizations during the Hurricane Sandy landfall and aftermath assisted in spreading the word about Southern Baptist Disaster Relief work in the Northeast. This was another opportunity to see others make known the invaluable work of faithful Southern Baptists sharing help and hope in time of crisis. Local charity assists with Hurricane Sandy relief effort (WSB Radio) PBS Religion and News Weekly, Nov. 2, 2012 (PBS) Family News In Focus (Nov. 1 episode. Story begins at 1 minute remaining) Texas Baptist Men driving relief to New York (NBCDFW Dallas) Southern Baptist relief effort begins efforts for Sandy (WSBTV Atlanta) Texas Baptist Men responding to Hurricane Sandy (CBS Dallas) Church group aids in Sandy Recovery (FOX 5 Atlanta) Local relief effort underway for victims of Sandy’s wrath (FOX 51 Gainesville, Fla.) Local charity assists with Hurricane Sandy relief effort (WSB Radio) Alpharetta group making 450K meals a day for Sandy victims (WSB Radio) Sandy's storm devastation 'unprecedented,' leader says in mobilizing Baptist volunteers (Baptist Press) 1 million meals to be offered in NYC (United Press International) Hurricane Sandy brings in multiple volunteers (Mission News Network) After Hurricane Sandy, Chaplains And Faith-Based Organizations Offer Aid And Tend To Spiritual Needs (Huffington Post) VIDEO: Volunteers head north to help with Sandy relief (WSBTV.com) East begins to clean-up after Superstorm Sandy (WSBTV.com) Superstorm Sandy: Christian Relief Organizations Ready for Massive Deployment (Christian Post) Southern Baptist Convention/North American Mission Board on VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) Link to original article on NAMB's site http://www.scbi.org/index.php?option=com_jb2&view=post&PostID=129 In times of wide-scale disaster, it is NAMB’s job to coordinate national Southern Baptist Disaster Relief responses. And it is such a great privilege to see Southern Baptists come together and serve in this way. We have the greatest volunteers in the world and I am so thankful for what your church and thousands of others do to help in times of need. In response to Hurricane Sandy, hundreds of volunteers are already in place, doing whatever it takes to help storm victims. That means preparing hot meals, removing trees and debris from houses and yards and cleaning out homes that have been flooded. Our volunteers will be on the ground helping for weeks to come, and that is why we need your help right now. First, please pray and lead your congregation to pray for the safety of our volunteers and that they would be able to share the Hope of Christ while they are meeting physical needs. Second, please consider giving to our disaster relief fund. Disaster responses carry a big price tag with them, and we simply do not have that kind of money budgeted. You can donate through SCBI - click on Electronic Giving or by visiting namb.net and making a direct donation, or your church can find information at our site about mailing in a donation.