May 19, 1999
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM
Being Baptist
___"I'm not sure I want to be Baptist." That is the line I hear over and over. It comes from young pastors and young adults now tired of their traditional Baptist church.
___I know their feeling. They are not satisfied with church as it has been. They are disinterested in Baptist politics and convention infighting. They want something different.
___"Tell me what you want," I say. This is the repeated answer: "We just want to be Christ-centered. We want to be people of the Book. We want evangelism to grow out of meeting the needs of people, these hundreds of young unchurched families.
___"We want worship to be free, loose, spontaneous, even emotional. We want to put our missions dollars where we choose. And we do not want to be controlled by any outsidegroup."
e-mail marvknox@flash.net
___Read my lines: You have described a Baptist church--a real, live, contemporary, honest-to-goodness Baptist church. It may not resemble the church in which you grew up or the church where you now hold membership. But it is a Baptist church.
___You can call it a community church, an independent church, a Bible church, a non-denominational church--but everything you have mentioned fits the definition of a Baptist church.
___Yes, there are doctrinal matters and cooperation with others in missions--but you did not even mention these things. You just said what you wanted in a church, and what you want is a Baptist church.
___So, go start one. We'll help.
___ Don Brown, Missions director
___ Collin Baptist Association
___ McKinney
Friend of family
___As a native Texan in the Washington, D.C., area, where I serve as the associate pastor of a congregation, I enjoyed the article about Rep. Chet Edwards receiving a religious liberty award (March 31) and was dismayed to see a letter to the editor labeling Congress man Edwards "no friend of family values" (April 28).
___I have worked for and visited with Congressman Edwards.
___By all accounts, Rep. Edwards is a devoted husband and proud father. He is a courteous employer. He is a thoughtful, respected, committed, productive member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves his constituents with diligence and fairness.
___I far prefer these values in our officials over the arbitrary, inflammatory litmus test imposed on him by the letter writer.
___ Timothy Tutt
___ Bethesda, Md.
Total confusion
___After reading the article covering the fifth Cooperative Program giving option (May 5), it is obvious Texas Baptists are in a state of total confusion.
___How could anyone not see we are spending endless hours and large amounts of Coopera-tive Program money debating over and over again these same issues? Surely, our elected elders can do a better job of determining these matters.
___ Kent Dill
___ Gainesville
Not far enough
___The proposal to modify the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Cooperative Program does not go far enough.
___Texas Baptists continue to drain millions of dollars from worthwhile state causes for the sake of continuing a relationship with seminaries that openly defy the positions of the BGCT. By modifying the giving plan to include only a "fifth option," we continue to sow the seeds of our own destruction and ignore the needs of our own institutions and mission agencies.
___Imagine the difference Texas Baptists could make if we were to use the money currently earmarked for Midwestern, Southeastern, Southern and Golden Gate to train ministers at Truett and Logsdon. Why could Texas Baptists not fully support the committed Christians of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship?
___The budget should be amended to reflect a new generation of Texas Baptists. We want the major giving option, the default plan, to reflect Texas' concerns and the causes of all Baptists worldwide.
___ Bill Shiell
___ McGregor
Gifts of music
___The May 12 editorial on the current worship music controversy should be required reading for every member of a Baptist church. The exhortation to "find a win-win solution" for both parties is dead on.
___Unfortunately, this is yet another example of us emulating the Pharisees rather than Christ. Those religious leaders of old focused on minor, subjective issues about which there often was no "right" answer, ignoring the major issues such as justice, mercy and faithfulness. In Jesus' own words, they strained out gnats but swallowed camels.
___Let's admit that both hymns and choruses are gifts from God that enable diverse people to genuinely worship and then work together on our real problems: How to reach lost people in Jesus' name.
___ Jeff Berger
___ Stockdale
Two decades later
___Next month marks a sad milepost in the history of our Southern Baptist Convention. In June 1979, a group of power-hungry pastors and a layman or two torpedoed Bold Mission Thrust amidship. Only a few of us old barnacles can remember what it was all about.
___Bold Mission Thrust was introduced to us in 1976. In 1977, we voted to do it officially. We told Satan and his demons we Southern Baptists would take this world for Jesus, the Christ of God, by the year 2000!
___We should have known what would happen. It did in 1979. Bold Mission Thrust is just a memory. No, it was just an old barnacle on the SBC ship. It has been given a watery funeral. Satan rejoices.
___I have been saddened in recent days as secular newspapers have placed us on their front pages. One headline about us said, "Membership slips 1% for Baptist group." This article detailed how our membership slipped backward by 1 percent in 1998. It stated, "Convention observers cite many factors that may be behind the drop."
___Since none were offered by "convention observers," I will not, either. Pray for reconciliation. Laymen, demand your pastor and church become involved in reconciliation.
___ Dan Bates
___ Millican
Called or sent?
___Somewhere down the road, we Baptists took it upon ourselves to redefine the word "called" and to stop seeking God's provision to "send" our ministers.
___God called Ezekiel to himself. Then God sent Ezekiel to his people (Ezekiel 2:1,3).
___Then the Apostle Paul confirms, "but in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be" (1 Corinthians 12:18).
___What is our part? First, we repent and return to God's authority. Then we must "ask the Lord of the harvest ... to send out workers into his harvest field" (Matthew 9:38). Then we patiently wait and listen for God's answer.
___We will continue to be powerless using our current system of selecting search committees, then instructing them to seek out the best theological professional--executive director, preacher/pastor, youth minister, music director--available.
___If we find leaders we like by requesting resumes, going to listen to his best sermons, inquiring about past positions and experience, and praying that God will bless this process, and this "leader" is not readily available, then we can entice him by upping the ante and making the perks better.
___This same "system" will "call" someone else or get him fired! How can we presume that God blesses a system like this?
___Our Father promised that he would supply all our needs, especially our shepherds. Our man-made systems have failed. Isn't it time we ask him to do what only he can do?
___ Buck Westbrook
___ Wimberly
Study polity
___With all due respect to George Sassano's convictions against the ordination of women deacons (May 12), he would do well not only to re-examine the service of women as deacons in the early church, but also to consider historical and convictional Baptist polity.
___Individual churches have the right to elect their deacons and pastors according to their convictions, as led by the Holy Spirit, without the approval of any external influences, namely local associations and state and national conventions. Texas Baptists continue to respect the integrity of local-church autonomy by welcoming all Baptist churches to the table, regardless of whether they have women or men as deacons and pastors.
___Sassano wants us to put aside our "nit-picky differences." We might start by recognizing that the issue of a deacon's or a pastor's gender is secondary to the priority of reaching the lost for the sake of the kingdom.
___ John Petty
___ Uvalde
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