Southeastern student pens declaration on climate change

by Baptist Press and Southeastern Seminary staff

Jonathan Merritt, a 25-year-old Southeastern student, captured widespread media attention earlier this week in releasing a statement titled “A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change.”

The student’s project was signed by a number of high-profile Southern Baptist leaders including his father, James Merritt, pastor of Cross Pointe, the Church at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Ga.; a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Southeastern president Daniel Akin. Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., and the current SBC president, and Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, and a past president of the SBC, also signed the document.

While the statement is supported by many Southern Baptists, the declaration has not been considered as an official position of the Southern Baptist Convention.

In a teleconference with media March 10, Merritt said the idea for the initiative came to him during a theology class.

“In the lecture,” he said, “my professor made the statement that when we destroy creation, which is God’s revelation, it is no different than tearing a page out of the Bible. At that moment, God began to work in my heart and call me to do something. [This document] is the product of that nudge from God that day.” Merritt has been identified as the project director of the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative, which is behind the document.

The comment came about during a systematic theology class taught by professor John Hammett, professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. As he was discussing the topic of universal revelation, that is, God being revealed in all things including nature, Hammett said he made the comparison which sparked Merritt’s declaration.

Akin delivers chapel message to Brewton-Parker college

by Kayla Oliver; Brewton-Parker College marketing staff writer

MOUNT VERNON— Chapel at Brewton-Parker College is always meant to be a time of inspiration, fellowship, and the journey towards the fulfillment of God’s word. However, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, BPC students were addressed by a speaker who challenged them to take God’s word to those who have never heard it before.

Dr. Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), delivered a message primarily focusing on the importance of mission work as followers of Christ. Dr. Akin’s lecture was part of a larger series known as the Horton Lectures, which was offered last week on BPC’s Mount Vernon campus.

Dr. Akin and his wife, Charlotte, have four sons who are all involved in the ministry. Their sons, Nathan, John and Paul, attend seminary and their son, Tim, is involved in missionary work.

Worship through song was provided by BPC faculty and staff, Dr. Don Wallace, professor of communication, and Karl Hay, chief information officer.

Brewton-Parker College is the only four-year accredited Christian college in south Georgia.

God receives praise through life and death of Jim Elliot

Jim Elliot said he was just a nobody trying to exalt Somebody.

Fifty-two years after his death, the well-known missionary to the Huaorani tribe of Ecuador continues to make the Lord’s name great in the Earth as his efforts and story affects people even today.

“The Lord who is great and greatly to be praised is praised more tonight because of men like Jim Elliot,” said Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Akin’s message detailing the life and ministry of Elliot was given as the second message of Southeastern’s annual “20/20 Collegiate Conference.”

Akin says God’s work is done in weakness, not stardom

“Christian rock star syndrome” is a serious sickness infiltrating the church and gutting the body of Christ, Daniel Akin said.

Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivered the school’s convocation address January 29 in Binkley Chapel. In his opening message, he noted the Apostle Paul’s example from 2 Corinthians 12 of not boasting in one’s own “superstardom” but rather learning from the weakness of “thorns in the flesh.”