By Tobin Perry
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) — From foreign battlefields to American corporate board rooms to hospital bedsides to the front seats of police cars and more, Southern Baptists minister through their chaplains in some of the most hard-to-reach locations of North America.
Southern Baptists continue to see the need to send chaplains to places where the church may not have access, said Doug Carver, the North American Mission Board’s executive director for Southern Baptist chaplaincy and retired chief of chaplains for the U.S. Army.
“They provide the ministry of presence, provide the good news of Jesus Christ, opportunities to evangelize and witness — and sustain the faith of Southern Baptists who are in those places,” he said.
Carver notes that Southern Baptist chaplains — serving in military, institutional, counseling, disaster relief, corporate and public safety roles — extend the evangelistic reach of SBC churches throughout North America and around the world.
Chaplaincy is one of six areas of focus for NAMB’s evangelism group. While evangelism at times happens differently in the military and organizational contexts where chaplains serve, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a critical part of any chaplain’s ministry environment, Carver said. In 2013 SBC chaplains presented the Gospel to more than 125,000 people and baptized more than 3,700.
Read more at http://www.baptistpress.com/BPnews.asp?id=42206