February 23, 2000
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
True Love Waits
___Once again on Valentine's Day, young people expressed their commitment to remain sexually abstinent until marriage.
___True Love Waits signs were displayed throughout the nation to remind the world there are students who hold to God's intent for sexual purity.
___True Love Waits has been a leader in the sexual abstinence movement and has involved 86 other ministries.
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
___The results have been significant. Dramatic changes have been documented in national trends in teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual activity.
___Young people are looking to God's word for solutions and finding ways to transform their culture.
___Southern Baptists can continue to encourage our youth at this year's Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando. The first True Love Waits commitment cards were displayed in the summer of 1994 at the Orlando Convention Center. On June 13, True Love Waits yard signs will be displayed at the convention center.
___The goal is to display a yard sign from every church that has participated in True Love Waits. The signs will include signatures of students who have made a commitment to sexual purity.
___Order your yard sign from LifeWay Christian Resources--call (800) 458-2772--and obtain signatures of students participating in True Love Waits.
___Mail your sign to David Flatt, Minister of Youth, Parkway Baptist Church; 9000 Lake Underhill Road; Orlando, Fla. 32825 to arrive by June 1.
___Let's show our young people we believe in the stand they are taking for sexual abstinence until marriage.
___ Jimmy Draper, President
___ LifeWay Christian Resources
___ Nashville, Tenn.
Why this?
___Why should a group of Baptists spend $17 million for a building called Truett Seminary, when up the highway a few miles is a well-established seminary that has served God's ministerial students for many glorious years (Feb. 9)? What is wrong with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary?
___Why don't they invest that money into a great soul-winning project and feed the poor and hungry around the world? That is what I believe Jesus would do.
___I don't understand this reasoning. I believe God would ask them, "Why are you doing this?"
___When will we learn?
___ Dick Tillman
___ El Paso
Church & culture
___I appreciated Jim Cymbala's emphasis upon prayer and dependence upon the Holy Spirit (Feb. 9). But his attributing the homogeneous unit church-growth principle to race or class prejudice represents an unfortunate misunderstanding of this principle.
___No church-growth movement leader would favor the exclusion of anyone from any church. Rather, they emphasize the incarnation of the body of Christ in each cultural unit in order that believers might not have to abandon their cultural identity in order to participate in the church. Numerous studies have demonstrated that homogeneous unit churches tend to grow better, both numerically and spiritually, than heterogeneous churches.
___The adaptation of the church to its cultural context has firm biblical support. Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). How was Jesus sent? "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law" (Galatians 4:4). Jesus was born a Jew in order to bring redemption to the Jews first by proclaiming the gospel and forming the nucleus of the church in Palestine. His ministry was well adapted to Palestinian Jewish culture.
___Then Jesus sent the apostles to establish churches that fit the cultures of other ethnic nations. The Apostle Paul referred to this incarnational principle when he said, "I have become all things to all men so that by all means I might save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22).
___ Albert W. Gammage Jr.
___ Arlington
Wrong thinking
___My anger over William Sprague's letter about "wrong thinking" (Feb.16) turned to sadness as I realized this sort of ignorance still exists in the community of believers, where compassion should hold sway.
___The author's assertion that "at the root of anxiety is wrong thinking" is a misguided notion that was contradicted by Jesus himself (John 9:1-3).
___There is no doubt that anti-anxiety medications too often are used to mask symptoms that should be dealt with by prayer and competent professional help. In many cases, however, the medication may help to correct an organic illness and restore the patient to a normal life.
___If a person wishes to cite 2 Peter 1:3 and decline medical treatment for his own ills, that is certainly his right. If, however, that person takes an aspirin to rid himself of a headache and uses that Scripture to deny another person medical relief from a mental illness, he is the worst sort of hypocrite.
___ Jack Phelps
___ Bedford
Modern Barnabas
___I would like to nominate a modern-day Barnabas. His name is Jerry Privette from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
___The humility and spirit he exhibits in working with students is like a breath of fresh air.
___Encouragement and kindness are qualities he demonstrates in his class "Foundations of Ministry."
___He always listens to each student attentively and encourages them as a student and in their ministry. He makes everyone feel important.
___His personal life also is an example of this theme. He and his wife consistently have served food at the local Salvation Army on Thanksgiving Day for a number of years.
___I have benefited from his teaching and encouragement as a student and as a pastor. The encouragement that Barnabas displayed in the book of Acts as well as the encouragement of Paul to Timothy are very indicative of him.
___ Walter Norris
___ Lancaster
Inane attempts
___Pete Freeman mentioned in his interview (Jan. 26) that he and others want to motivate reconciliation among Texas Baptists and perhaps overcome the divisions created by the controversy over the last 20 years.
___Since Freeman brought the issue into the public forum and is desiring the Executive Board to hear his plea for reconciliation, I feel I have the right to ask some pertinent questions concerning this situation.
___What is the basis for this reconciliation?
___If there is to be an honest attempt to strive for such hope, then the parties need to have a basis for cooperation. If one group is being put down constantly because they do not jump when the Southern Baptist Convention leadership shouts "attention," if that group does not even get mainstream Texas Baptist leadership on SBC boards and commissions when they give tremendous monetary, emotional and spiritual support, and finally, if that group tires of leadership that is nothing short of buffoonery, then no basis for reconciliation exists.
___Since no common ground exists between the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the SBC, then attempts at reconciliation are inane and ridiculous
___ Steve Watkins
___ Arlington
Divorced Christians
___Our "real world" of church members includes many divorced couples and children of divorce (Jan. 12).
___We older traditional members are fortunate sometimes to be part of non-divorced families, but we are not a majority anymore.
___It hurts very much to be part of a divorce.
___I thank the Lord for bringing his peace into the lives of Christians who have been victimized by divorce. I thank him for using them to introduce many others to the healing love of God.
___Some of the greatest Christians and the greatest Christian witnesses I have known in the past 50 years have been involved in divorces. If they were removed from our church rolls, our churches would suffer.
___Most divorced Christians have magnificent appreciation for what God has done for them, and they want others to share in his love.
___We can hope and pray that things would be different, but every one of us has sinned and come short of what God would want in our lives.
___This is today's real world.
___ Gilbert Thornton
___ Longview
___What do you think? Submit letters via e-mail to marvknox@ baptiststandard.com or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words; letters may be edited for length. Only one letter per writer in a three-month period.
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