NY Times: Southern Baptists Bring New York Their Gospel [View All]

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Southern Baptists Bring New York Their Gospel

To the thousands of out-of-work actors milling through Backstage magazine's annual trade show in a Times Square hotel last November, Scott Rourk offered a little uplift.

"We are a spiritual group, reaching out to artists and actors in New York, to help people in practical ways," he told anyone who would listen, handing out 10-minute prepaid phone cards with the label "the 411" and a phone number. "We help you find meaning in life when the auditions aren't coming and the bills are," he said, as he later recalled.

The "spiritual group" Mr. Rourk has in mind is in fact a new Southern Baptist church, and "411" stands for I Peter 4:11, a verse about the glory of God. Born and raised in Fairburn, Ga., Mr. Rourk is a missionary, one of more than a dozen sent north to New York by the Southern Baptist Convention at the vanguard of a two-year campaign to bring the denomination's evangelical gospel to Gotham in 2004 and 2005.

And to reach jaded, materialistic New Yorkers, Mr. Rourk and his fellow missionaries are adapting to the local culture, by giving away free candy bars or doughnuts on wintry street corners, for example, or by applying fuzzy New Age lingo to a Sunday worship service.

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Southern Baptists Bring New York Their Gospel

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