WATCH! IS THE HISTORIC NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION HEADED FOR A MAJOR SPLIT AFTER 144 YEARS?

PICTURED: Delegates meet for the 144th annual session of the National Baptist Convention, USA Inc., Sept. 3, 2024, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks) … Read More

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WATCH! IS THE HISTORIC NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION HEADED FOR A MAJOR SPLIT AFTER 144 YEARS?

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PICTURED: Delegates meet for the 144th annual session of the National Baptist Convention, USA Inc., Sept. 3, 2024, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)

DANIEL WHYTE III, PRESIDENT OF GOSPEL LIGHT SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL, URGES NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION PRESIDENT PASTOR JERRY YOUNG, CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION ELECTION SUPERVISORY COMMISSION PASTOR THOMAS MORRIS SR., LEAD PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OF THE NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION PASTOR BOISE KIMBER TO RESPECTFULLY AND LOVINGLY WORK WITH PASTOR CLAYBON LEA JR., PASTOR JAMES B. SAMPSON, PASTOR ALVIN LOVE, AND PASTOR TELLIS CHAPMAN OR THE NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION AS WE KNOW IT WILL EVENTUALLY EXPERIENCE AN EARTHQUAKE SEPARATION! WHYTE SAYS IN THE WORDS OF SPIKE LEE: “DO THE RIGHT THING,” AND HE TELLS BOISE KIMBER TO MAN UP AND SAY ‘I DO NOT WANT IT LIKE THIS!’

As the annual session of the National Baptist Convention, USA, the historically Black denomination, opened on Tuesday in Baltimore, Maryland, the biggest question that loomed is how the meeting will end:

The Rev. Jerry Young speaks during the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. annual session, Sept. 3, 2024, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore. To his left are his wife, Helen Young, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)

Will it have a new president or not?

In the months leading up to the gathering at the Baltimore Convention Center, members of the National Baptist Convention have witnessed a contentious battle over who will be next to lead the group that traces its roots to 1880.

The Rev. Jerry Young, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, has been president for two five-year terms and cannot run for a consecutive third term under the denomination’s bylaws.

Of the five candidates vying to replace Young, only one — the Rev. Boise Kimber, senior pastor of First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven, Connecticut — was found to have received the necessary 100 endorsements from member churches and other NBCUSA entities to qualify to run for president.

Pastor Thomas Morris Sr., chairman of the NBCUSA’s Election Supervisory Commission, said that while other candidates may have gotten a sufficient number of endorsements, some of the endorsements may have come from entities that had not met their financial obligations to the denomination in recent years and are not considered in good standing.

PASTOR THOMAS MORRIS SR.

Morris said some churches have been unable to afford their annual registration with the denomination due to lack of funds, consolidation or closure.

“Many of them did not meet that 100-vote threshold,” said Morris, who also is a member of the NBCUSA board of directors. “Dr. Boise Kimber did.”

PASTOR BOISE KIMBER

A new president is chosen by a simple-majority vote and is not elected by acclamation even if there is a sole candidate, said Morris, a Mississippi pastor.

“If no, then we go back to square one,” said Morris of the election set for Thursday. “But, if yes, then Dr. Kimber becomes the next president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Incorporated.”

The election was briefly mentioned at the opening session in a prayer by the Rev. Rodney McFarland Sr. of Louisiana, who sought divine intervention for harmony.

“God, we realize and recognize that we will elect a new leader,” he said. “Father, we know that you already have preordained this individual and we ask right now, God, whoever it might be that, God, that you will touch your people to follow leadership. Please have mercy. Keep our convention now as one.”

The opening session included welcome messages from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, both of whom quoted Scripture in their remarks.

Scott mentioned the other presidential election on many members’ minds and voiced his support for Vice President Kamala Harris. “Black women have saved this country from itself time and time and time and time again and it’s high time that we elect one of them to lead us,” Scott said, drawing applause from some attendees.

On his campaign website, Kimber lists his goals for the denomination, describing his vision as “A Convention where Everyone is loved, united, and committed to living out God’s Word through: global missions, evangelism, discipleship development, Christian Education, and social justice.”

His opponents have mounted a unified campaign to challenge the process that eliminated them.

“Each of us as candidates in this presidential election cycle have united for a cause that surpasses our individual aspirations,” said the Rev. Tellis Chapman, a Detroit pastor, in a four-and-a-half-minute video produced in May by the disqualified challengers. “We stand together and ask to stand with us in this fight for the soul of our convention.”

Added the Rev. Claybon Lea, a San Francisco-area pastor: “We’re here because member churches have followed the membership process and are being denied the right to have their recommendation letters counted and the right to cast their vote in the upcoming election.”

The Rev. James B. Sampson, a Florida pastor, also participated in the video and continued to voice his concerns in an August Facebook post addressed to Young and NBCUSA members.

“There is no way that any candidate selected under these circumstances can legitimately govern this august body,” Sampson wrote. “How can we as a convention talk about politicians when we have lost our moral compass and spiritual high ground? How can we criticize or critique anything that any secular political party is doing when it comes to voter suppression?”

The Rev. Alvin Love, a Chicago-area pastor who also appeared in the video, told The Tennessean in August that the turnout at the meeting would be a factor in the outcome of the vote.

“Our biggest challenge is not Boise Kimber. And at this point, it’s not even the shenanigans of the board,” Love told the paper. “Our challenge now is building up enough excitement among our people to even want to come to Baltimore.”

Asked to respond, Morris said: “People have different persuasions, different ways to reach a same point, and sometimes just don’t see eye to eye. And I think that’s just the way it is.”

Continue reading: https://julieroys.com/national-baptists-hold-annual-meeting-leadership-questions-continue/

IF YOU WERE TO DIE TODAY, WHERE WOULD YOU GO: HEAVEN OR HELL? IF YOU’RE NOT SURE, “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED” FOR JESUS CHRIST SAID THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS EVER SPOKEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD WHEN HE SAID, “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.” READ FURTHER RIGHT HERE:

THE BIG QUESTION
GOSPEL LIGHT MINUTE X #447 WITH DANIEL WHYTE III

This is the “Chief of sinners,” Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International, with the Gospel Light Minute X Podcast #447 titled, “The Big Question” I’m here to remind you of what the Bible says, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” like you and me.

“HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN?”
The question is not “Have you joined a church?” or “Are you trying to do your best?” or “Do you have religion?” but “Are you twice-born?” Jesus Christ said in John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.
We enter the physical world by birth. Spiritual life likewise is entered with a birth. We become members of a human family by birth; we become members of the family of God by birth, by being “born again.” There is no other way to get into the human family except by birth, and there is no other way to get into God’s family except by the new birth. Neither education, nor cultivation, nor reformation, nor “turning over a new leaf,” will accomplish this. What is needed is not a new “leaf” but a new “life”! “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

A New Nature Needed
By physical birth we become partakers of human nature; by being born again we become “partakers of the divine nature”. A Christian is the product of a divine “begetting”. The second birth is not an improvement of the old nature; it is the imparting of an entirely new nature. The old nature is hopelessly corrupt and incapable of ever being made fit for His presence. The new birth requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”.

Not “Trying” But “Trusting”

“Trying to follow Christ” is not Christianity. Christianity is not imitation of Christ, it is the indwelling of Christ. Christianity is not trying to do anything. It is trusting Christ Who has done it all! He has “finished the work” and there is nothing left to do but simply to receive and trust Him. He shed His precious blood on the cross and the work is all done once and forever! Cease trying and begin trusting! Believers will progressively become more and more like Christ, but by His power, not their own.

What Must I Do To Be Saved?
Simply “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”. The Bible says in 1 John 5:1, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”. The Bible states in John 1:12,13, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”.
You are born again, you become a Christian by trusting a Person—receiving a Person. The very moment you do this, the Lord Jesus Christ comes in and life begins!

What Is Meant By “Believe”?
To “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” means more than simply believing the historic facts concerning Him. Intellectual belief about Christ is not sufficient. The belief that brings salvation must be “with the heart,” that is, with the whole being. This belief also includes repentance: “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”. The Bible states in Acts 17:30, “God … now commandeth all men every where to repent”.

The faith which saves, then, includes the necessity to repent, and to receive Christ as Saviour and Lord, to rest upon Him alone for salvation. It means to trust Him so utterly and completely that, if He should fail, there would be no hope at all!

May I Know That I Am Born Again?
This is an important question. We know that we are born again by the testimony of God’s Word. God says in John 5:24, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”. Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as explained by God’s Word? If so, then you are saved, you are “born again,” you have “passed from death unto life.” God says so! Take God at His Word, and go on your way rejoicing!

One Final Word
You may “belong to a church,” you may be “trying to do the best you can,” you may be “striving to live right.” Your outward life may be the model of moral correctness, and you may be looked up to, honored, revered, and respected. Yet, if you have not been “born again” you are just as lost as if you had never heard of Christ. Yes, you may teach in the Sunday school, read the Bible, sing, shout, “feel happy,” and all the rest—but if you have never been “born again” you are still in your sins and a stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ!.

If you want to be saved from the wrath to come and from an eternity in Hell, and if you believe that Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead and you are willing to trust Jesus Christ with all of your heart so you can go to Heaven, please pray with me what is called the sinner’s prayer: Holy Father God, I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I admit that I have sinned against You and that I have broken Your Ten Commandments. I have lied before. I have stolen things before. I have lusted after people and things before. I have dishonored and disobeyed my parents. I have taken Your holy Name in vain. For Jesus Christ’s sake, please have mercy and grace upon my soul and forgive me of all of my sins, my failures, and my faults. As I now believe in Your Holy Son the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that He suffered, bled, and died on the cross for my sins, was buried and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and help me to repent of my sins past. Help me to turn from my old, evil life and follow You in the new life. For it is in Your Name I pray. Amen.

SUPPORT THIS GREAT MINISTRY BY PURCHASING THE BOOK LETTERS TO YOUNG BLACK MEN BY DANIEL WHYTE III. ORDER IT FOR AS MANY YOUNG BLACK MEN IN YOUR LIFE AS POSSIBLE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.

https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Young-Black-Men-Encouragement/dp/0976348799

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