The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-03/06/2017 DISCLAIMER: Baptist Press should be credited for any reprinted stories that originate with BP. Suggested credit line: Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. Please note that Baptist Press periodically carries stories from other sources by permission. Individuals interested in reprinting non-BP stories should contact the entity where the story originated to seek reprint permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST-PERSON: Fresh perspective by Jeff Iorg Date: March 06, 2017 - Monday ONTARIO, Calif. (BP) -- I met a young woman at a recent event who told me her story which left me in awe of her courage. Here's what she has packed into the past few years. She grew up in an Asian country, the daughter of working-class parents who did menial jobs to provide for their family. She showed academic promise, so her parents sacrificed to keep her in school -- all the way through graduate school. As a college student, she became a Christian and started attending a church. Soon, she was picked up by the authorities and given an option -- spy for them on other Christians or be expelled from the country. She refused and prepared to be exiled. While in the university, she had fallen in love with a young missionary from the United States -- an Asian (but different ethnicity) who had been adopted by an American family. They decided to get married and moved to the United States (a very complicated process). After they had been in the U.S. for a few months, her husband was diagnosed with cancer and died after a short illness. Now in her late 20s, she is a widow, living in a new country, far from her family and going back to school to earn American educational credentials. When she finished telling me her story, she concluded, "God has been so good to me." Seriously, that's what she said. Compared to this young woman, my life has been a walk in the park down a primrose path paved with hundred dollar bills. Her story jolted me to a new level of gratitude and appreciation for God's blessings. What about you? Got a poor me attitude? Get over it by focusing on how good God has been to you. Let my new friend's story give you fresh perspective on what it means to trust God and celebrate His blessings. -------------------------------------------------------------------- WEEK OF PRAYER: Canadian pastor finds new flock with The Gathering by Jim Burton Date: March 06, 2017 - Monday EDITOR'S NOTE: The annual Week of Prayer for North American Missions, March 5-12, and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering provide support for missionaries who serve on behalf of Southern Baptists across North America. With a goal of $70 million, this year's offering theme is "Together for His Kingdom." Garth and Patty Leno are Week of Prayer missionaries for the North American Mission Board. For more information, visit anniearmstrong.com . To read about other 2017 featured missionaries, visit anniearmstrong.com/missionaries-overview. WINDSOR, Ontario (BP) -- John D'Antonio's family knew that his four-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's Disease, would soon be over. Many of his Italian-Canadian family and friends had gathered in his Windsor hospital room to say goodbye to the 30-year-old father and husband. Just before John's diagnosis four years earlier, his family had moved next door to Garth and Patty Leno. Leno was the pastor of one of Windsor's largest churches, and John's mother, Italian immigrant Elena, was a faithful member. On this most difficult of days, the family called Leno. Leno arrived at the Windsor hospital around 11 p.m. and entered a packed hospital room. The family had requested a reduction in morphine so that John could communicate with them. John's wife Mary Anne gave permission for Leno to be alone with her husband. "Could I just have the room with John for a few minutes, please," Leno had asked. John couldn't talk and he was having trouble breathing. "John, if you can hear me just squeeze my fingers," Leno said, then felt pressure from John's weakened hands. "John, I'm not going to waste any time because there is no time to waste. I just want to talk to you about heaven." Leno then explained the Gospel, God's grace toward us, the plan of salvation, and that it's available to any man or woman at any stage of life. "Do you believe this?" John squeezed Leno's hand. "Can I pray with you and for you to trust in Christ alone for your salvation?" John again squeezed Leno's hand. When Leno said "Amen," the room was full again. One by one, family and friends had slipped quietly back into the room, standing behind him. They heard John's declaration of faith through the prayer. As the senior pastor of a large church in the city, Leno could have dispatched any one of his 20 staff members to the hospital that night. Now the pastor of a Canadian National Baptist Convention church plant called The Gathering, he has only two additional staff. "One of the most delightful things that has happened to me is that I've rediscovered what shepherding is all about," Leno said of The Gathering. "When you are planting a church and making disciples, you get to see life-change happen up close. I wouldn't change that for anything. Church planting has helped me rediscover what it means to be a shepherd and really take care of the flock." A shepherd without a flock Garth and his wife Patty spent more than 30 years serving churches in a denomination that began to alter important doctrinal positions and has seen no net gains in Canadian churches in many years. Then, during a three-month sabbatical, struggles within the church erupted that eventually led to Leno's departure. He could have turned in any number of directions. The child of an alcoholic mother and a "weekend drunk" father, he grew up feeling rejected and lonely. Despite his genetic predisposition for alcoholism, he joined other teenagers as a high school student and began getting drunk on weekends. "The shadows grew very long and I lost my way," Leno said. After high school, he met a girl from a Christian home. As he spent time with the family, he saw parents who were "rock-solid believers in Jesus," and he knew they had something he wanted. After 13 months, the girl's mother explained the plan of salvation. "That afternoon I trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior," Leno said of his 1976 decision. More than 35 years later, he found himself in yet another lonely place. He never expected that church planting would be so difficult and isolating. With his wife, Garth started a Saturday night Bible study mostly with people who were "disillusioned with church." What started in their home in September 2013 soon moved to a local golf clubhouse, and before long they had outgrown the place. "Maybe we should start a church," Leno joked one evening. He did not expect the overwhelming response. Everyone agreed they should. Someone said, "Whenever you are ready, we are ready." When their close friends made that offer, Patty began sobbing as wounds from their last church were still fresh. "Seriously -- planting a church was the last thing we wanted to do," Garth said. "But it was obviously the first thing that God had in mind for us." Leno had no job leads -- secular or ministerial -- when he met Wayne Parker, pastor of Merriman Road Baptist Church in Garden City, Mich., just across the Detroit River from Windsor, the southernmost city in Canada. Parker is the North American Mission Board (NAMB) Send Detroit City Missionary, and he was collaborating with a Plant Midwest seminar. Parker knew about Leno's Bible study, and had one question, "How can we help you?" Leno wasn't sure what help Parker could offer, but he was quite sure he didn't want to associate with another denomination. Yet Leno also connected with Andrew Lamme, the Canadian National Baptist Convention's lead church planting catalyst for Southern Ontario. Multiple telephone calls of encouragement to the Leno's soon followed, along with emails, and offers of help, something they rarely received in more than 30 years with the other denomination. He also began to receive valuable resources, training and mentoring through the NAMB's Send North America initiative and other Southern Baptist church planters. With counsel from Parker, Lamme and others, and an affiliate with Canadian convention, Annie Armstrong Easter Offering funds soon helped Leno and his following of "disengaged and disenfranchised" people secure and renovate a warehouse for The Gathering. The Gathering is also part of Send Detroit, NAMB's church planting strategy for the metro area surrounding the city. An atypical church plant Leno now knows that The Gathering was an atypical church plant as the core group had already gathered. Though he has a lifetime of pastoral experience, he's now an enthusiastic student of church planting, even working toward a master's degree in church planting at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. "I'm learning as much as I can about church planting," Leno said. "I'm like a sponge." He's learning about creating an invitational culture, sparking evangelism, transformational discipleship, hosting summer camps and mobilizing mission teams to help The Gathering conduct the camps. "We're talking about intentionally engaging this city with the Gospel," Leno said. God is doing something so special among his weekly 220 attendees that one senior pastor from a large sending church in Tennessee said, "I'd like to take some of The Gathering back home." Garth and Patty modeled hospitality with the Bible studies that started in their home, and that value shows at The Gathering. With Elena Sorrentino taking the lead, The Gathering Place is the church's coffee and snack area at the back of the warehouse-turned-worship center where people hang out after services and talk, which delights Leno's shepherding heart. Starting a Baptist church may have been foreign to Leno several years ago, but his church is on board now, particularly with missions giving. In its first year, The Gathering collected $9,350 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions. The second year resulted in more than $13,000 given through the offering. The Gathering is now assisting other church plants and plans to sponsor one soon in a nearby town. "I have become much more kingdom-focused," said Leno, who desires for his congregation to become a church planting church. "I've become much more Gospel centered. Discipleship is key. Prayer has become more valuable to me. It's a more important tool in the toolkit than it has ever been before." -------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Preppers' event equips for catastrophe, eternity by Morgan Collier/Southern Baptist TEXAN Date: March 06, 2017 - Monday ORANGE, Texas (BP) -- Many may think of "preppers" as doomsday prophets who live off the grid with gas masks and a three-year supply of food rations waiting for the apocalypse. However, one Southeast Texas church sees value in emergency preparedness while using this niche as a mission field among the "preppers" community. Little Cypress Baptist Church in Orange, Texas, hosted their seventh annual "Crisis Preparation and Sustainable Living Expo" Feb. 18 to train members of the community on planning for natural disasters or major catastrophes, while also sharing the Gospel with attendees. The idea for the ministry stemmed from the church's participation in disaster relief, pastor David Turner told the TEXAN. Due to previous natural disasters around the country -- including severe flooding last year in southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana -- several LCBC members started volunteering with the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams to help revitalize the affected communities.  "We have guys who are a part of these teams and come back saying, 'we get there, and nobody was prepared. Nobody had any food or water, or anything to sustain themselves,'" Turner said.  Although natural disasters are prevalent, Turner says the event is also designed to prepare for other catastrophic threats such as economic collapse, a terrorist invasion, electromagnetic pulse attack or nuclear destruction.  "People want to take care of their family," he said. "People need to know what to do to survive in these types of events. … The most incredible spiritual awakening could happen after any major catastrophe."  Classes offered at the event included beekeeping (for beginners to advanced), getting started with chickens, basic homesteading, soap making, planting, growing medical herbs, why to prepare and how to get started, low cost radio communication, and more. Church members not only teach skills, but they also use the event as an opportunity to share their faith. "A lot of people who are involved with this aren't Christians," Turner said. "That is why several of the people teaching are members of the church [who] share their testimony during their class time." Outside of the various classes to attend, an expo hall was set up with vendor booths that ranged from radio communication to growing a garden, and making wax, hand scrubs, soap and honey. "One gentleman that joined our church, who is a prepper, is here doing a wheat grinding display in the expo hall," Turner said. Turner said the event is completely free to the public, vendors and teachers. "It is all grassroots volunteer work," he said. "Anybody anywhere can do this. It is a matter of asking God if this is something He wants you to do and be a part of." In the case of a hurricane or a tornado, Turner pushes the Federal Emergency Management Agency's statement: "Everyone should have enough food and water for themselves to last at least a month." The hope for the future is for "Preppers" to grow in numbers with more vendors, classes offered and attendees, Turner said. The event is held every year on the third Saturday of February. For more information visit www.LittleCypressBaptist.org. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack B. Johnson, last RTVC president, dies at 82 by Art Toalston Date: March 06, 2017 - Monday HENDERSON, Nev. (BP) -- Jack B. Johnson, the last president of the former SBC Radio and Television Commission, died Sunday (March 5) in Henderson, Nev. He was 82. Johnson was the RTVC's president from 1990-97, when the broadcast ministry became part the new North American Mission Board in a restructuring of the SBC. Before his election as RTVC president, Johnson had been executive director/treasurer of the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention for 11 years. David Johnson, the Arizona convention's current executive director, said, "Arizona Southern Baptists are grateful for the leadership of Jack Johnson during a time of rapid growth in evangelism and church planting in Arizona. Dr. Johnson was also instrumental in extending Baptist work beyond Arizona in the western United States. Many people were reached with the Gospel through his influence." Johnson, prior to leading Arizona Baptists, served as a pastor nearly 25 years in nine churches, in California, where he was elected as president of the state convention in 1975, and in Oklahoma. Johnson was instrumental in the mid-1990s SBC reorganization process, serving as chairman of a nine-member Logistics Transition Team. After NAMB's formation, he served as special assistant to the president for development and special projects until his retirement in September 2000. His 45 years of service in Southern Baptist life, Johnson said in retiring, had been "a truly wonderful experience. I am so indebted to the denomination and to Southern Baptists for their kindness." When elected to lead the RTVC, reportedly in a vote in which conservatives prevailed in a split vote over moderate trustees, Johnson said it was difficult to leave his post in Arizona -- "something so dear that had been so enjoyable" -- yet he believed "God has called me to one of the most exciting ministries in Southern Baptist life." Johnson led the RTVC in purchasing the FamilyNet television network from Liberty University during his seven years as president. FamilyNet later became the central ministry arm of NAMB's broadcast communication group until the network was sold in 2007 to In Touch Ministries led by Charles Stanley. Johnson's accomplishments as RTVC president also included the near-elimination of a $10 million debt and a focus on technology, leading to engagements as a featured speaker at several international conferences on emerging technology and the church, according to a Baptist Press report in 2000 on Johnson's retirement announcement. The history of the RTVC dates back to the formation of a Radio Committee at the 1938 SBC annual meeting. Later called the Radio Commission, it became the Radio and Television Commission in 1955, according to "The Southern Baptist Convention: A Sesquicentennial History" by Jesse C. Fletcher. Johnson held a Ph.D. from the California Graduate School of Theology, an M.Div. from then-Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention) and an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma Baptist University, enrolling there from a sense of call to the ministry in 1955. After graduating from OBU, Johnson and his wife Mary moved to Rialto, Calif., where he was a teacher and became involved in a church plant, later becoming pastor. He was a native of Clovis, N.M., who spent childhood years in eastern Oklahoma, becoming the first Christian in his family at age 10, followed by his parents' professions of faith in 1945. He is survived by his wife; the couple had two children, Joy and Jack. Funeral arrangements are incomplete. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Attack on religious liberty focus of NRB panel by Tom Strode Date: March 06, 2017 - Monday ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) -- Three clients of Alliance Defending Freedom described their battles for religious liberty March 2 at National Religious Broadcasters' convention, Proclaim 17, in Orlando. A wedding cinematographer, preschool director, and former fire chief shared about their legal efforts in a public policy session sponsored by ADF at the Orlando World Center Marriott. Their cases and others likely will determine the future of religious freedom in America, ADF Senior Counsel Erik Stanley told the audience. "I firmly believe that within the next decade or so how Christians are going to be treated in employment, in the public square, in churches [is] going to be decided in court cases, in the halls of Congress, in administrations," Stanley said. Christians must return to the understanding that religious liberty is an "unalienable right" that "should not turn on the whim of who is in office," he said. Joining Stanley in the discussion were: -- Carl Larsen, co-owner with his wife Angel of Telescope Media Group. The Larsens have filed a pre-enforcement challenge to a Minnesota law that would require them to make films of same-sex marriages if they create movies of weddings between a man and a woman. They could face up to $25,000 in fines and 90 days in jail. -- Annette Kiehne, director of the Trinity Lutheran Child Learning Center in Columbia, Mo. The state rejected Trinity Lutheran's application to be part of a program using recycled tires to provide safer, rubberized surfaces for children's playgrounds because, according to the state, including it in the program would abridge a Missouri law barring government funding of religion. Stanley will argue the case before the U.S. Supreme Court April 19. -- Kelvin Cochran, who was fired as Atlanta's fire chief for advocating the biblical view of marriage and sexuality in a men's devotional book he wrote. His challenge to his removal is prepared to go to court. Larsen Telescope, Larsen told NRB participants, "exists to glorify God through top quality media production." Because marriage is a "central theme" in the Larsens' lives, he said, "[W]e're excited to tell stories about the glory of God in marriage." At the core of their refusal to video non-biblical marriages "is a conviction that nobody should be forced to work or speak or say anything that's a violation of their deeply held beliefs," Larsen said. Kiehne Children in the neighborhood use Trinity Lutheran's playground outside school hours, Kiehne said. "It feels like a double standard, and we would just like the Supreme Court to do away with the double standard and rule in our favor" so children "can be just as safe on our playground as they could on any other neutral playground," she said. Trinity Lutheran's challenge, Stanley said, is a "sleeper case, but this kind of case will set the principles for the free exercise of religion moving forward for the next few decades." Cochran Atlanta officials fired Cochran even though an investigation showed he had not discriminated against employees based on his beliefs. When he experienced discrimination as a black firefighter in Shreveport, La., Cochran said he determined not to discriminate as a leader but to establish "a culture of compassion and equity and justice." His prayer is "that God would be glorified at the end of this legal process," Cochran told the audience. -------------------------------------------------------------------- High court vacates pro-transgender ruling by Tom Strode Date: March 06, 2017 - Monday WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court set aside Monday (March 6) a ruling in favor of a transgender high school student and returned it to a lower court for reconsideration in light of the Trump administration's recent withdrawal of a directive issued under President Obama. The justices issued the order returning the case to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., barely three weeks before they were to hear oral arguments in the matter. The arguments were scheduled for March 28. The high court's one-sentence order came after the Departments of Education and Justice issued a Feb. 22 guidance rescinding Obama administration policy. The Trump administration action reversed an Obama policy expressed in both 2015 and 2016 that determined the ban on sex discrimination in Title IX of the education amendments of 1972 encompasses gender identity. Trump's departments said in their Feb. 22 joint statement they would no longer depend upon the Obama administration perspective. With the change in administration guidance, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will have to weigh its April 2016 decision that the school board of an eastern Virginia county violated federal law by refusing to permit a transgender high school student -- who is a female biologically but identifies as a male -- to use the boys' restroom. Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore commended the high court's action, saying, "Transgender ideology is not something that the state should be enforcing on communities, and especially not on public schools. Children are not pawns of culture war experimentation. I'm glad that the Supreme Court will not be doing such a thing right now." The president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said he hopes the Fourth Circuit "will reverse its previous decision, founded as it was on President Obama's policy, which has now rightly been rescinded." "As it pertains to the church, this debate requires conviction about what the Bible teaches about God's creation of us as male and female as well as Gospel compassion for all those struggling with their identity," Moore said in written comments for Baptist Press. "More broadly, I pray that families, churches, schools and communities would be empowered to work through these issues, without the fear of government coercion." The ERLC and other religious organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief in January urging the Supreme Court to reverse the Fourth Circuit opinion. Ryan Anderson, senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, said the Trump administration "deserves much credit for following the law as written despite intense criticism from the LGBT left." The Fourth Circuit "should allow local schools to find solutions that benefit everyone's safety and privacy," he said in written comments. The Human Rights Campaign -- the country's largest political organization advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights -- expressed disappointment. "[W]hile this plays out in our courts, we are deeply concerned about the consequences this could have for transgender students, who may not be aware of their rights or be subject to increased discrimination by others who feel emboldened by the Trump Administration's recent actions," HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow said in a written statement. The Gloucester County (Va.) school district had provided a separate restroom for the student who brought suit, but she said being forced to use the alternative restroom further stigmatized her. The Obama administration backed her position. She underwent hormone therapy, legally changed her name to a male name -- Gavin Grimm -- and asked to be treated as a male before her sophomore year of high school in 2014. About a month after the Fourth Circuit's 2-1 decision, the Obama administration issued a sweeping directive on transgender rights. Officials with the Departments of Education and Justice told public school districts, as well as colleges and universities, to allow transgender students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their gender identity. The guidance was not legally binding, but it implied noncompliance could result in the loss of federal aid. In their friend-of-the-court brief, the ERLC and its allies told the Supreme Court that a refusal to reverse the appeals court opinion in the case "would unleash conflicts over religious liberty resembling the conflicts over same-sex marriage" and could even marginalize people of faith. The brief said the Obama administration's interpretation contradicts the belief of their faiths and other religious traditions that "a person's identity as male or female is created by God and immutable." "Not surprisingly, then, interpreting 'sex' to include gender identity would create thorny conflicts between federal civil rights law and widely held religious beliefs," according to the brief. The brief includes statements of belief on gender from nine different faith perspectives, including the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC section cites statements from the Baptist Faith and Message, the convention's confession of faith, and resolutions approved at the annual meeting in 2014 and 2016. The 2014 SBC resolution "affirm[ed] God's good design that gender identity is determined by biological sex and not by one's self-perception." The resolution "regard[ed] our transgender neighbors as image-bearers of Almighty God and therefore condemn[ed] acts of abuse or bullying committed against them." The resolution also said, "We invite all transgender persons to trust in Christ and to experience renewal in the Gospel." The case is Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. -------------------------------------------------------------------- CP escrow study set to begin by David Roach Date: March 06, 2017 - Monday NASHVILLE (BP) -- With an ad hoc committee of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee set to begin its study of churches' escrowing Cooperative Program money, EC chairman Stephen Rummage says the study was occasioned in part by the notable volume of contacts the EC has received regarding the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. ERLC President Russell Moore told Baptist Press the entity is "a servant of our churches" and "happy to work with the Executive Committee." Meanwhile, Jack Graham, pastor of Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church, told BP the congregation will conclude its internal study of giving to SBC causes before the convention's June annual meeting in Phoenix. Prestonwood announced last month it would escrow CP funds over "various significant positions taken by the leadership of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission." Prestonwood plans to continue cooperating with the SBC in some form, Graham, a former convention president, said via text message. Other churches have taken or are considering similar action over concerns related to multiple SBC entities, according to reports received by the EC. Rolland Slade, chairman of the EC's CP Committee told BP today (March 6) the ad hoc study group will include 11 members : Slade, pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, Calif.; Rummage, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla.; EC vice chairman Shane Hall, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Oklahoma City; Dave Bryan, pastor of Chisholm Heights Baptist Church in Mustang, Okla.; Daniel Carr, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in St. Louis; B. Scott Davis, pastor of Pitts Baptist Church in Concord, N.C.; Dale Jenkins, pastor of Airway Heights (Wash.) Baptist Church; Mike Lawson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sherman, Texas; Glynn Rhinehart, a member of First Baptist Church in Youngsville, La.; Hoyt Savage, pastor of Foothills Baptist Church in Las Vegas; and Jared Wellman, pastor of Mission Dorado Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas. The group's initial meeting, Slade said, likely will occur via conference call. A date for the meeting will be calendared by March 18. According to a motion unanimously adopted by the CP Committee last month, the study committee will "study and recommend redemptive solutions to the current reality in Southern Baptist life of churches' either escrowing or discontinuing Cooperative Program funds, with the report being brought back to the September 2017 Executive Committee meeting." Slade said in an email the study committee "will discuss ways to discover whether escrowing CP funds is widespread and, if so, the reasons why; then we can begin to develop redemptive solutions to resolve the issues ... We'll likely look at this issue, share our findings with the [EC] officers and the CP Committee and then with the full EC." Slade said he will "stress with the group" that "this is first and foremost a Kingdom effort, not an effort to single out an individual, entity or point of view. What affects CP affects the work of Southern Baptists. We must be about sharing the Gospel to the world." Rummage told the SBC This Week podcast March 3 the ad hoc committee, and a separate study of SBC entities to be undertaken by the EC officers, is necessary because "a lot of ... churches" have "concerns about some of the things that are happening in certain SBC entities. Specifically, some of the actions of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission have caused a lot of churches to respond and register concerns." Rummage added, "In fact, our Executive Committee staff tells me that they have received more letters, more calls, more emails [from] people who are considering defunding or holding back CP monies" over "this issue" than "from any other issue in memory." The ad hoc committee's study will examine "the way our churches are responding" to all SBC entities, Rummage said, even though discussion of the ERLC "has surfaced most strongly" in recent months. Roger S. Oldham, EC vice president for convention communications and relations, told BP the EC office has processed dozens of requests over the past year from churches seeking to withdraw from the SBC. "Pastors seldom call or write the EC offices to express concerns about an entity, so when they do it is notable," Oldham said in written comments. "Our practice is to refer them to the entity's leaders or its trustees. In addition to numerous conversations with pastors expressing frustration or even threatening to withhold CP funds this past year, our office processed requests from 49 churches to withdraw from the convention, up from the half dozen or so we usually process in a given year. We grieve each time we send a notice to our entities that a church has voted to leave the convention." Moore told BP in written comments, "The ERLC could not do what it does without the sacrificial giving of churches, and there is hardly anything more foundational in our denomination than our Cooperative Program partnership, working together for the sake of Gospel advance. "As a servant of our churches, we are happy to work with the Executive Committee, and more broadly, grateful to be able to serve our churches daily, whether by answering their questions, providing resources and assistance or standing alongside them in the public square contending for the fundamental issues of life, family and religious liberty," Moore said. Rummage expressed hope that churches' concerns can be resolved. A decision by Prestonwood to resume CP giving could indicate resolution of "most of the concerns that have been raised by the [Executive] Committee" because Prestonwood appears representative of other concerned congregations, Rummage said. Graham told BP Prestonwood executive pastor Mike Buster "is chairing a study committee to evaluate our SBC giving" and the committee has "nothing to report" at present. According to data from the SBC's Annual Church Profile, Prestonwood has given $500,000 through CP each of the last three fiscal years for which data is available. The congregation has given approximately $500,000 each of those years through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $100,000 through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, according to ACP data.