An Intersect Summer Reading List: Southern Baptist Convention, Missions

Center for Faith and Culture | June 05, 2018
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Summer is upon us, so now is the time to plan your summer reading. As you craft your reading list, Intersect contributors would like to recommend their favorite books. We’ll share their recommendations over the coming weeks. (Read list 1, list 2, list 3 and list 4.)

This week, given the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, our contributors highlight books on the Southern Baptist Convention and missions — from authors Keith Harper, Amy Whitfield, D. Scott Hildreth and Courtney Anderson.

Editor’s Note: You can download two Intersect-exclusive ebooks from Bruce Ashford for free. Details>>

Together on God’s Mission: How Southern Baptists Cooperate to Fulfill the Great Commission
by D. Scott Hildreth (B&H Academic, 2018)

Jayson RoweJayson Rowe: The Cooperative Program (CP) is probably not a household name, but it is the financial lifeblood of missions in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Launched in 1925, the CP is a unified plan of giving through which cooperating SBC churches give a percentage of their undesignated funds in order to support their respective state convention and the ministries and missions programs of the SBC.

In this book, Dr. Hildreth gives a history of the SBC and the CP and presents the importance of Southern Baptists coming together to re-kindle the power of this amazing program. This book is a great resource for getting your head around the CP and understanding our current challenges — and opportunities for growth and expansion if we Southern Baptists can get our act together and work together. The history of the SBC is built on cooperation, and we must continue to cooperate and work together to take the gospel to the nations—if we want to continue to reach people for King Jesus.

SBC FAQs: A Ready Reference
by Keith Harper and Amy Whitfield (B&H Academic, 2018)

Nathaniel Williams: Honest confession: I’ve never been that interested in the inner workings of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Concepts like bylaws and resolutions and “committee on comittees” and entities made my head hurt.

But then I became a pastor. I’ve seen first-hand the value of local churches working together for the mission of God. We are truly better together — locally and nationally.

Because of this conviction, I have made it a priority to become more involved in the my local assocation, state convention and the SBC. As a result, this highly recommended book from Keith Harper and Amy Whitfield is on my own personal summer reading list — so I can know how and why we work together as Southern Baptists.

To The Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson 
by Courtney Anderson (Judson Press, 1987)

Topher ThomasTopher Thomas: It’s by no means a short text, but it would be a summer well spent if you read To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson. In beautiful detail, Courtney Anderson captures the calling, the longing, the hope, the work and the suffering that the Judsons experienced as the first American missionaries.

The book serves as a reminder to Christians that God is sovereign in all things, the Christian life is filled with trials and we do well to excercise patience and hope in the Lord in the midst of the storm. Few experienced this like the Judsons, and hopefully reading about them gives you a longing to work for God’s Kingdom through the trials as they did—it certainly had that effect on me!

What books are you reading this summer?

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The L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture seeks to engage culture as salt and light, presenting the Christian faith and demonstrating its implications for all areas of human existence.

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