February 11, 2002
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
No substitute
___I am writing in response to the article on Internet resources for sermons (Jan. 28).
___I subscribed to Shelton Cole's resource for about four months but never used any of it in the pulpit. I find it more difficult to use borrowed material than my own. It has to be real to me before it can be real to the congregation.
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
___We have to be experiencing revival in our own hearts before the congregation can. Maybe that's what is wrong with so many churches. Are some pastors trying to cut corners while telling their congregation to spend time in God's word daily? Nothing can substitute for daily study and good planning ahead in sermon preparation. If it is a canned outline, I think the people will sense it.
___ Jeff Simms
___ Hull
Helpful springboard
___"Internet resources driving some pastors to sermon borrowing" (Jan. 28) is rather disturbing.
___David Bartlett, professor of preaching and Christian communication at Yale Divinity School, says, "The practice of preaching anonymously inspirational stuff as if it were your own" amounts to plagiarism and "betrays the pastoral responsibility to the flock." I agree with Chris Baugh, who stated: "Sometimes the demands are just too much to prepare a sermon from scratch. Your (web) site has been a real blessing."
___I have been a bivocational pastor for the past four years, and sometimes the luxury is not there to spend 20-plus hours in preparation and study. I have found these Internet sites to be a helpful springboard as God develops ideas within me for the God-inspired word I bring to his people, not plagiarism.
___I would prayerfully advise anyone out there who would make these negative remarks concerning those helpful Internet sites to just walk in the shoes of a bivocational pastor for one week. I am sure we would see a rapid change of heart as well as a rush to obtain another pair of shoes.
___ Steve McCaslin
___ Lipan
Agonizing choice
___International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin has precipitated an agonizing choice for many missionaries: Give up their historic Baptist convictions that "we have no creed but the Bible" or give up their calling (Feb. 4).
___Veteran missionaries who have been on the field for years "signed on" with the IMB under different requirements. They voluntarily expressed their theological beliefs but were not forced to sign a man-made creed. Their beliefs have not changed--the rules have!
___A confession becomes a creed when others determine the beliefs one is forced to sign.
___It has never been clearer that the fundamentalist leaders have changed the very nature of the Southern Baptist Convention. Our charter states that the "purpose of the Southern Baptist Convention is to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of Southern Baptists for the propagation of the gospel at home and abroad." Their highest priority is not missions. It is doctrinal conformity.
___This is a determinative time for all authentic Baptists, including Texas Baptists. Those of us serving on the BGCT Missions Review and Initiative Committee (the follow-up of last years' mission study committee) need the prayers of faithful Texas Baptists to determine how we can support missionaries who represent our convictions without maintaining agencies that have departed from them.
___We must not lose the very heart of the gospel and the distinctive missions commitment of our heritage. We must find a way to be true to both. The IMB no longer provides that option.
___ R. Keith Parks
___ Richardson
Hue and cry
___The world is a dangerous place and getting more dangerous for Christians. With all the responsibilities and challenges facing the missionaries, it is unconscionable that the IMB would add one more.
___I am referring to their new move in regard to the Baptist Faith & Message.
___Is there a hue and cry of protest to be expected from the laity? How much of this should we have to tolerate?
___ Betty Westbrook
___ Plano
Being responsible
___After reading Marv Knox's editorial regarding IMB missionaries declaring where they stand in regard to the Baptist Faith & Message, I am at a loss to understand his point or Charles Wade's concerns.
___My wife and I served for several years in rural Mindanao, Philippines, with the IMB in the 1980s, serving in the midst of communist guerrillas and Muslim separatists.
___Two of our three children were born out there. I've learned two languages, had tuberculosis, amoebic dysentery more times than I can count and left most of a lower lumbar disk on the rough roads. I almost lost my wife once and probably lost a child due to an infection received on the field. I consider all of these sacrifices as nothing compared to the cross.
___But more than once, I felt my ministry was being undermined by a few more liberal missionaries who lived in cities and taught at institutions. Today we serve in modern Singapore, but the request to know where people are theologically is not crass creedalism; it is just being responsible.
___ David Packer
___ Singapore
Crass approach
___As retired SBC missionaries, my wife and I are appalled at the crass nature and approach of fundamentalism that's overtaken our beloved denomination.
___Toward the end of our missionary service in Europe, we had begun to feel the "squeeze" of the new regime, which sounded and felt most uncomfortable.
___Now Jerry Rankin has demanded all missionaries sign the latest version of the Baptist Faith & Message. That's the straw that broke the camel's back.
___We grieve for the parents of this young couple spoken of in the editorial and many more like them. We also grieve for older missionaries like ourselves who "feared" retaliation for "disobedience to the dictators" in various and sundry means to control our every move and thought.
___I hope more will speak out on this unwelcome attack on personal integrity! This serious and unnecessary controversy only furthers the agony of seeing our convention go down the drain in effectiveness and witness.
___ Ray W. Benfield
___ Winston-Salem, N.C.
Just 'nature'
___I could not believe my eyes.
___In Jerry Rankin's letter to IMB missionaries, he proclaims none of them will be forced to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, and then he proceeds to tell the missionaries they must sign.
___It reminds me of the old story about the frog and the scorpion.
___A scorpion came upon a swollen river that he desperately needed to cross. There on the bank was a large bullfrog that was just getting ready to leap into the river to swim to the other side.
___"Frog," said the scorpion, "I desperately need to cross this river. Would you carry me on your back?"
___The frog, startled and frightened, jumped a safe distance away.
___"Do you think me mad?" he asked. "You are a scorpion with a deadly sting. It would be too dangerous to carry you on my back."
___"Oh, but don't you see," said the scorpion, "if I sting you while we are crossing the river, I will also lose my life."
___The frog thought for a moment and said: "You make a good point. Climb on my back, and I will carry you over."
___Halfway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog.
___As the frog realizes he has been mortally wounded, in disbelief he asks, "Why? Why? Now we are both doomed."
___"I'm sorry," said the scorpion. "It's just my nature."
___Some fundamentalists know they shouldn't. They just can't help it.
___ Jim Wade
___ Arlington
No creed
___The situation faced by IMB missionaries reminds me of the plight of 16th and 17th century Baptists.
___As Reformation sentiment spread to England, Baptists were among the earliest groups. They were first required to deny their new-found faith and pledge allegiance to the Catholic Church, then the Church of England, back to the Catholic Church, and back again to the Church of England. When Oliver Cromwell abolished the monarchy, allegiance needed to be pledged to the Puritans and finally back to the Church of England.
___The institutional church saw the Baptist brand of Christianity as heresy and felt it had to be eliminated. A few of our ancestors signed, but most were ex-communicated and fled (many to America), banished, hid, imprisoned or executed. These stubborn Baptists were labeled as the non-conformists.
___By the close of the 17th century, persecution of Baptists passed, but as a result of this experience, a concept of "no creed but the Bible" became ingrained in Baptist tradition and theology.
___Now, after nearly 500 years of tradition, the SBC has departed from this noble idea. But the majority of fiercely independent Texas Baptists still cry, "no creed but the Bible." We are being accused by the SBC as being heretics and non-conformists.
___I'll take that as a compliment.
___ Ray Atkinson
___ Dallas
Resolving the "Who" of worship
___I have just completed reading "Return to Worship" by Ron Owens. This is an excellent book that should be read by both ministerial staff and laypeople alike.
___Owens notes we have lost sight of who God is—his might, his majesty, his justice, his mercy, his holiness—and because of this, we have somehow managed to conceive of a god who is "one of us."
___Theworld does in fact try to bring God down to our level. We as a church must never allow this to happen. Although our Savior became a man, we must remember he never ceased being God. As Owens states, "He lived a sinless life and offered himself in sacrifice for someone just like me," but he was never just like me. We must develop and project a correct image of God, to one another as well as to the world.
___This book encourages us to resolve the fact God alone is God, and he has not changed. He is just as holy and majestic as he ever was. His standards have not changed. His requirements for approaching him have not changed.
___ "That is why the fundamental issue today is not the "how" of worship but is the "Who" of worship," Owens says.
___Once we have clearly resolved the "Who" of worship, we will have no struggle in the "how" of worship.
___ Paul Appleby
___ Paris
Denial of partisanship implausable
___An article titled "Land blasts Democrats for Taliban comments" (Jan 21) states that Richard Land "has strongly denied charges of partisanship." When some people choose to lie, they usually make it somewhat plausable.
___When Land denies his partisanship, it is akin to the pope denying the Catholic religion. Is Land ashamed of his party affiliation? What does his political party think of his denial? You would think the Southern Baptist Convention would be concerned about this display of blatant disregard for the truth.
___If some folks don't want to be compared to the Taliban, maybe they should consider changing their ways. A person who follows the Bible's teaching on Christian actions shouldn't be confused with the Taliban or any other fundamentalist organization.
___Carl L. Hess
___ Ozark
Editorial wrong on BF&M
___I disagree with the editorial that lists three problems with the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message (Feb. 4).
___"First, it defines itself as 'an instrument of accountability.'" The preamble to the 2000 BF&M states: "Confessions are only guides in interpretation, having no authority over the conscience." Americans are free to believe whatever they want, but Baptists are free to employ whomever they want.
___"Third, it denies a local church the right to choose whomever it believes God has called to be its pastor." The 2000 BF&M denies "the right of any secular or religious authority to impose a confession of faith upon a church." Local churches can call women as pastors, but Baptist associations can exclude churches that do so.
___Mike Morris
___Ulsan, South Korea
Where is Christian outcry over Enron?
___How sad that many of our nation's leaders can brush off the debacle of Enron as part of the process of "the genius of capitalism."
___Christians seem to have developed a very convenient set of hierarchical sins—adultery, of course, leading the way. The presidency of Bill Clinton allowed many Americans to stick their chests out and feel righteous, with the daily encouragement of the Christian Coalition and the media. Where are they now? There are many sins causing far more damage to the masses than adultery—such as greed, selfish ambition, injustice.
___The Prophet Amos warned the nation of Israel about the sins of their society—trampling the poor, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, injustice in their courts, wishing the new moon would soon be over so they could "get back to business as usual." He warned those who were complacent as well: "Will not the land tremble for this and all who live in it mourn?" (Amos 8:8). Turning a blind eye will receive its just reward as well.
___Just as without personal Where is Christian outcry over Enron?ible knowledge we have no basis for discernment in what is proselytized by religious leaders, without being informed citizens we have no ability to call for justice, as we will not recognize it.
___Deborah Straughan
___Jakarta, Indonesia
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