AP

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS REJECT FORMAL BAN ON WOMEN PASTORS

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) on 11-06-2025 voted against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have barred churches with women pastors from affiliating with the denomination. The measure received 61 per cent support among delegates but failed to meet the two-thirds majority required for passage. The proposed amendment would have added a section to the SBC’s constitution stating that cooperating churches must “affirm, appoint, or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture”.
Supporters of the amendment argued it was necessary to reinforce the denomination’s theological commitment to male-only pastoral leadership. Opponents argued that the SBC already has sufficient mechanisms to address churches that do not adhere to its stance on pastoral leadership. They also warned that the amendment could disproportionately affect African American congregations, many of which include women in pastoral roles. In 2023, Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church was expelled from the SBC for installing women as senior leaders. The SBC said at the time that Saddleback “has a faith and practice” that does not align with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith that “while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture”.
The vote highlights ongoing tensions within the SBC over the role of women in church leadership. While the denomination’s official statement of faith affirms that the office of pastor is limited to men, interpretations vary, with some leaders allowing women to serve in non-senior pastoral roles. Despite the amendment’s failure, the SBC continues to uphold its doctrinal position on male-only pastoral leadership. The close vote suggests the issue will remain a subject of active debate in future conventions. [Source: Premier Christian News]

UKRAINIAN CHURCH LEADER SAYS THOUSANDS COMING TO FAITH IN TIME OF WAR
As war continues to devastate Ukraine, a powerful spiritual revival is unfolding amid the ruins, according to Ukrainian evangelist David Karcha, who told a gathering of European church leaders that the Gospel becomes unstoppable in a time of war. Speaking at the European Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, Germany, on May 29, Karcha described how churches across Ukraine have become beacons of hope, drawing thousands to Christ even as the country endures deep physical and emotional suffering.. “In a time of peace, the Gospel is powerful. But in a time of war, it is unstoppable,” said Karcha in his opening remarks in which he brought greetings from the Evangelical wider Church in Ukraine to the Berlin Congress delegates.
After Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Karcha said Ukrainian Evangelicals faced a critical choice: to fracture and flee, or to remain and share in the suffering of their fellow countrymen. The Church has woken up to the spiritual hunger in the country and stood up to the challenge of serving not just bodies but souls. In the last three years, Karcha testified that “hundreds of thousands of people have walked through the doors of Ukrainian churches and encountered the love and care of God. Many of them for the first time in their life,” he added. “Ukrainian churches are there on the front lines, ministering as chaplains in the trenches and grounds, at hospitals, bringing prayer and the hope of Christ to the soldiers in the fire of battle and places of hopelessness….to the widows of fallen soldiers and for the orphans whose mothers are never coming home, sharing the grief. We minister to those who have lost everything, homes reduced to rubble, families torn apart, bodies and souls scared by unspeakable fragments and torture brought to us by the Russian army.”
All of these ministries start with active listening. Karcha said, “We listen. We pray. We help. And then when we see how we can help and what can be done, we speak Jesus. Ukraine is a story of war. But in God’s eyes, it is a story of revival, a story that reminds us all that the Gospel … advances. That even when the rockets are exploding next to us, the foundation of Christ stands firm. That even in the darkest night, the light of his truth still breaks. Let history bow down to the cross.” Karcha concluded with an encouragement to boldly proclaim Jesus as Lord regardless of circumstance. [Source:  Christian Daily International]

PERSECUTION OF UYGHUR CHRISTIANS
China (MNN) — Uyghur Christians are a small minority within an already oppressed group. Many came to faith through foreign missionaries. These workers not only shared the gospel but also supported the local economy, composed Uyghur worship songs, and translated several Bible books. “They were not just doing evangelism, but they were helping the local people. [They] were taking care of the poor, the needy, the children,” says Fu,  a contact with Voice of the Martyrs Canada. After the deportation of missionaries from Xinjiang, China, Christian Uyghurs were left to face their persecutors alone.
Today, threats come both from two sources: Firstly from the Communist Party — for being both ethnically different and Christian.. “Secondly, from their own people,” Fu explains, referring to Muslim Uyghurs who reject their conversion to Christianity. Islam is the predominant religion among Uyghurs, and conversion is often viewed as a betrayal of ethnic identity. As a result, converts face discrimination, isolation, and even estrangement from family. One such believer, Pastor Alimujiang Yimiti, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. His crime?  Leaking a State secret, because he shared with an American missionary that he was being spied on by the Chinese State Security!
Between 2017 and 2019, the world was shaken by leaked reports of China’s modern re-education camps, where nearly 3 million ethnic Uyghurs were detained. Since then, global coverage has subsided — but what is happening to them now? Following international outcry, the Chinese Communist Party appeared to close many of these internment camps. However, some remain in operation. Bob Fu says:  “According to one report, there are over sixteen thousand still in the camps.” Although the official label for these facilities is “vocational education and training”. the reality is far more disturbing. Detainees face forced sinicization** — pressured to abandon their faith in Christ, and adopt Communist ideology. Uyghur culture and language are systematically suppressed. Inmates are forced into labor and punished for minor offenses, such as owning religious books — among them, the Bible.
PRAY for the freedom of imprisoned Uyghur believers and comfort for those still enduring hardship in the camps. [**being assimilated or acculturated into Chinese culture.]

160 YEARS OF GOSPEL MISSION: HUDSON TAYLOR’S VISION CONTINUES 

160 years ago, on the 25th June 1865, James Hudson Taylor prayed on Brighton Beach in England for 24 ‘willing, skilful workers’ to take the good news of Jesus to those with the fewest opportunities to hear it in the inland provinces of China. That moment marked the founding of the China Inland Mission (CIM), which became OMF International. Today our mission continues, because as OMF General Director Dr Joseph Chang observes, ‘the task of sharing the fullness of the gospel to and from, through and with East Asia’s peoples remains unfinished. So many in this region have yet to know the Lord, and many churches are striving to serve him faithfully.’ He adds that we remain relevant as ‘we continue to discern God’s leading, seeking to remain faithful and holy, and prayerfully taking courage to advance the gospel’.

The China Inland Mission served the people of China for almost 90 years, starting churches, opening schools and hospitals as well as engaging with many of the nation’s social needs at that time. By 1939, the mission had over 1,300 missionaries from around seven countries and almost 200,000 Chinese and minority people had been baptized.
The rise of communism in China meant that in 1950-51, CIM workers had to leave the country. Yet rather than disband, the mission decided their work should expand into other areas to share the good news of Jesus in Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan. The organization became known as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship to reflect this new work of serving Chinese people overseas, though the ministry quickly grew to include other East Asian people groups too.
Today OMF continues this work as an increasingly diverse organization. In 1965, we welcomed our first Asian missionaries and over half our colleagues today are from the majority world. Patrick Fung comments: ‘What started off as a British mission to China has grown to become a truly international organization with brothers and sisters from different nations, regions, and ethnic backgrounds.
PRAY that the Lord will bless and preserve OMF’s aims to see brothers and sisters from both the Western world and the majority world in OMF joining hands in sharing the good news of Jesus. [Source: OMF International]

CALLS FOR THE WORLD TO INTERVENE IN GENOCIDE OF CHRISTIANS IN NIGERIA
After a scene of horror in which around 200 people were “brutally killed” in Yelwata, in Benue state, most of those killed in the recent tragic events were internally displaced persons (IDP) sheltered in various Christian camps. The advocacy group Save the Persecuted Christians said that overnight between June 13 and 14, “Muslim Fulani militants raided a predominantly Christian town killing hundreds”. The Group said that “infants, toddlers and the elderly are among the butchered and burnt bodies. Fleeing victims were shot and hacked with machetes and thrown back into the fire.”

Save the Persecuted Christians suggested the attacks were retaliation for the testimony given before the U.S. Congress and at the U.K. Parliament, by Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi in the Benue State. In the British Parliament in March, Bishop Anagbe talked about how his flock have seen their homes torched and been forced to flee to camps set up for people who are internally displaced. The bishop said that Benue state has been attacked by Islamist extremists and Fulani herders targeting Christian communities and has seen farmers driven from their land, churches burned, Church leaders and lay members killed. “They attack even those who have managed to escape into our IDP camps.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is experiencing deadly violence in several parts of the country — from internationally recognized terror groups such as Boko Haram, and from mainly Islamic Fulani herders, bandits or gangs. The groups have encroached on farmlands, threatening farm owners and forcing out Christians. Analysts have described this as slow, but silent persecution, which until now, authorities have not classified as terrorism.

[Sources: OSV News, Genocide Watch and Evangelical Voice for Today.) 

– compiled by Guido Kettniss