Shoes for Souls breaks record

From Bob Allen of the Associated Baptist Press

A Baptist church in Texas braved near-100 degree heat Aug. 21 to set the new Guinness world record for the longest chain of shoes.

South Main Baptist Church in Houston lined up 20,110 shoes side-by-side in a pattern on the church parking lot to draw attention to Buckner International's Shoes for Orphan Souls shoe drive that provides footwear to orphans around the world. The previous record of 19,856 was set in 2008.

To mark the 10th year of its participation in the drive, the congregation set a goal of collecting 10,000 pairs of shoes. After a "drive-through drop off" Thursday, Aug. 19, church members showed up for a final celebration called "Sole Chain."

Jennifer Gribble, the church's marketing coordinator, said 150 volunteers worked four hours and 15 minutes to build the chain. Participants then spent the next hour and 15 minutes packing and loading the shoes onto an 18-wheeler truck to be shipped to Dallas where they will be distributed to orphans worldwide.

To certify the chain as a Guinness record, Gribble said the congregation submitted a packet with photos, videos, news articles and reports from official unbiased witnesses on site to verify the shoe count.

Buckner International, a global Baptist organization dedicated to caring for children, families and senior adults, assumed responsibility for Shoes for Orphan Souls in 1999. The program, which began in 1995 by a Dallas radio station, has distributed more than 2 million pairs of shoes and socks to children in 68 countries.

2010 Christian Education Sabbath

Promote the Christian Education opportunities in your local church with Christian Education Sabbath, the Sabbath after Labor Day (U.S)—September 11, 2010. If that Sabbath doesn't work for you, please choose another Sabbath.

Packets of material to help your church plan a Christian Education Sabbath have been mailed. You can also download the package from the BCE Website.

This material is coming to you much later than we had planned. We understand that it is arriving too close to the suggested date of use and that it would have been more helpful a month or more ago. We'd planned to send Christian Education Sabbath materials to you in June this year. However, our production schedule was disrupted by a minor flood in the office in late May. Then, other scheduled events pre-empted the timely production of this material. For 2011, it is our intent to mail Christian Education Sabbath material in June (the theme for 2011 will be Evangelism).

Biggest Losers revealed!

I guess you didn't have to wait THAT long to see that the group in Boulder, Colorado won the "Biggest SDB Loser" competition.

Oh yeah, and the rest of the September Sabbath Recorder is on-line here.

Hope you enjoy the photos and wrap-up from General Conference 2010, held at Evangel University in Springfield, Mo. Also included is the obituary for long-time pastor and SDB Missionary Society Executive Leon Lawton. We also welcome new Conference President Stephen Rogers (Salem, WV) as he kicks off his theme, "Living in the Fruit of the Spirit." Conference next year will be at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, July 31-August 6.

Biggest Loser preview

Just okayed the final proof of the September Sabbath Recorder. As promised at Conference, the front cover displays the happy faces of the winning team among the 10 churches that participated in this year’s “Biggest SDB Loser” friendly competition.

Now, you’ll need to wait a little while longer to see that front cover (we’ll post here when the issue is on-line). In the meantime, I’m happy to announce the individual “Biggest Loser” who lost the highest percentage of body weight.


Tiffany Crowder from Boulder, Colo., trimmed 18.4% of her weight during the timeframe of October through June. Congrats, Tiffany!! You’re a winner!!

Truth for Youth for fall

The next issue of Truth For Youth (Sept. - Nov. 2010) is available as a free download on the Board of Christian Education website (www.educatingchristians.org). Click on "Truth For Youth."

Truth For Youth is Sabbath School material for youth and young adults. It is written by Seventh Day Baptists for Seventh Day Baptists and follows the International Bible Lesson series (the outline of Scripture passages also used by The Helping Hand.

Please send any comments, concerns and/or questions for the writers to Pastor David Taylor at sdbtaylor@verizon.net.

Conference votes to restructure

While preparing the September issue of the Sabbath Recorder, it dawned on me that we had not written here about the biggest issue facing Conference delegates this year. What happened with the Ad Hoc Committee proposal to restructure? Here's what will appear in the September SR, thanks to Nick Kersten:

Conference Votes for
Denominational Restructuring

This year’s delegates to General Conference were asked to take action on the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Denominational Restructuring. The report was circulated prior to Conference in the Sabbath Recorder (July/August issue, pages 9-11), the SDB Exec Blog through the General Conference website, as well as by the SDB E-mail Network.

After their presentation on Monday of Conference, the Committee’s report and its recommendations were referred to the Reference and Counsel Interest Committee. The five members of the Ad Hoc Committee then spent much of the week answering questions from Reference and Counsel and other interested Seventh Day Baptists.

In committee, concerns were raised and discussed, including the relatively short amount of time some had to consider the proposal. The report was sent to the Conference floor with a recommendation that it be adopted with its recommendations. Reference and Counsel also suggested that if any of the recommendations from the report passed, that the Ad Hoc Committee be requested to draft any necessary bylaw changes.

Both the report and the subsequent recommendation to refer the writing of bylaws back to the Ad Hoc Committee were adopted without discussion. We now await the proposed bylaws, which will be presented as a first reading at the 2011 General Conference session.

Scripture Memory Program 2010-2011

The Scripture Memorization Program for 2010-2011 Conference Year will focus on Conference President Steven Rogers’ theme: “Living in the Fruit of the Spirit” For those who prefer to memorize contiguous sections of Scripture, this year's long text is 1 Corinthians 13.

The brochures were mailed today, August 19. So, your church should see them in the next week. If you don't want to wait, want the alternative September - May format, or would like a text file with the verses, they are available on the Board of Christian Education site.

Women’s Board unveils new logo

During the Women’s Banquet at this year’s General Conference (held at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri), SDB Women’s Board President Althea Rood unveiled a new logo.

Centered on the purposes of the Women’s Society—study, sharing, service—the new logo depicts many hands responding to needs around the world.

Althea and daughter Kristin Camenga presented a series of creative vignettes during the Women’s Banquet. The skit followed the history and activities of the Society through the years. An overview of their presentation will appear in the September Sabbath Recorder. For more information about the Women's Society, go to sdbwomen.org.

The new logo was designed by Patricia Cruzan.

Wednesdays to be special

From Katie Brown and Ginny Burdick:

Jesus said, “Go into all nations and make disciples.” Are we reaching even our own nation?

This year, delegates to General Conference passed an important recommendation. In response to the continuing interest and passion in church planting throughout the denomination, each Wednesday of the coming Conference year should be a day of fasting and prayer to seek God's guidance in this matter.

This day will focus on:

• Prayer that the Holy Spirit would reveal to individuals His calling to plant churches in the United States and Canada, and for a willingness to respond to the call.

• Prayer that a training program for church planting and missions reveal itself, and for the funds and manpower to be raised to establish the program.

• Prayer for the Holy Spirit to reveal locations where church plants and missions are needed.

Let’s unify in prayer. Contact Katie Brown at cb159520@reddies.hsu.edu to commit 15 minutes of your day to prayer. Let’s pray from 6:00 am Eastern time to 6:00 pm Pacific time for a renewed vision for our denomination in national missions!

Houston Spanish Church video

At Conference this year there was a video shown just before the Executive Director's speech. This video was put together by Adrianna Leiva of the Iglesia Bautista del Septimo Dia church in Houston, Texas. This church has grown from 4 people in 2008 to attendance of 70 this year. They have had to change their location for their service four times in the past two years to keep up with their growth.

On Wednesday, August 11, 2010, they will begin another chapter in their outreach into the greater Houston area...they will begin a 3o minute TV show! With the help from the SDB Memorial Fund they will be able to produce a show each week for the next 26 weeks to get things started.

Look for more churches and bigger things to come from Pastor Miguel Leiva and his partner in ministry, his wife Adrianna.

John Upton is new BWA President

Honolulu (BWA) -- John Upton, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV) and of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board (VBMB) in the United States, has been elected president of the Baptist World Alliance during the 20th Baptist World Congress held in Honolulu, Hawaii, from July 28 to August 1.

Upton succeeds David Coffey of the United Kingdom and will serve as BWA president for the period 2010-2015.

The new president of the global Baptist organization has had a long association with the BWA. He is a member of the BWA General Council and the Executive Committee, the two governing bodies of the BWA. He has also served on the Baptist World Aid Committee, the Commission on Christian Ethics, and the Executive Committee of the North American Baptist Fellowship, one of six regional fellowships of the BWA. For the past five years, he was chair of the Congress Program Committee, which played a significant role in planning the Baptist World Congress in Honolulu.

BWA General Secretary Neville Callam gave his full endorsement of Upton's election. "God has prepared John for this role, having led Virginia Baptists since 2001, a period during which Virginia Baptists have been on the cutting edge of Christian witness and mission," Callam said. "Without a doubt, he is eminently suited to fill the position as BWA president."

Prior to being elected as executive director of the BGAV and the VBMB in 2001, Upton served as group leader of the Mission Mobilization Group of the BGAV, beginning in 1995. Earlier, he was pastor of Urbanna Baptist Church in Urbanna, Virginia, from 1984-1986 and 1991-1995. Between 1986 and 1991 he and his wife, Deborah, served as missionaries in Taiwan through the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.