Mainstream Network looks to future, honors Wade

February 17, 2003

Mainstream Network looks to future, honors Wade
___BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--Participants at the second national convocation of the Mainstream Baptist Network looked beyond a quarter century of Baptist theological and political strife to a vision for missions networking in the 21st century.
___They also honored 10 new inductees into to the Mainstream Baptist Network Hall of Fame and elected layman Bob Stephenson of Norman, Okla., as national co-chair.
___Hall of Fame inductees included Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade, who also addressed the gathering, and Phil Strickland, who directs the BGCT Christian Life Commission.
___The Feb. 8-9 meeting was held in Birmingham, Ala.
___Stephenson succeeds Phil Lineberger, a pastor from Sugar Land, and joins Bill Wilson, a pastor from Waynesboro, Va., who was re-elected as the other national co-chair. Tony Woodell of Little Rock, Ark., remains as secretary-treasurer.
___Convocation speakers spun out a theme focusing on missions networks around the world that have emerged from years of turbulence as the Southern Baptist Convention moved strongly toward the right.
___"We at this meeting are familiar with pain," said Fred Loper of Oklahoma City, a medical doctor and former missionary with the SBC's North American Mission Board.
___But not all the pain about what has happened among Southern Baptists may be bad, said Loper, now associate executive director of the Baptist Medical-Dental Fellowship. "Pain serves as a warning of danger and has caused us to change for the better."
___Conference participants gave a standing ovation of approval for Loper, who left NAMB with help from the Texas Baptist transition fund for missionaries who cannot in good conscience sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement. They also extended that ovation to include Clay and Debbie Porter, now missionaries in residence at Samford University in Birmingham, who resigned from the International Mission Board for the same reason after 12 years service in Macao and Hong Kong.
___"We realized that we can't fear God and man at the same time," Porter said in an interview at the conference. "The IMB didn't fire us. We fired them."
___Two state Baptist executive directors, Wade and John Upton of Richmond, Va., outlined approaches to missions in their two states which they said will include any Baptists who want to network in the cause of spreading the gospel.
___The new Texas Baptist worldwide missions network "is not just for Texas Baptists," Wade said. "We will network with Virginia Baptists, (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship) global missions, or any others (including the SBC) who want to help people come to Jesus."
___"It's easy to camp out where we've been and nurse our hurts," Wade added. "The future is where God is calling us, and we can't allow our critics to define our future."
___Two missions veterans, Keith Parks of Richardson and William R. (Bill) O'Brien of Birmingham opened and closed the convocation with addresses on the priority of missions and a vision for future missions.
___"The Bible is not a book that just includes missions; it is missions," Parks said.
___Other inductees into the Hall of Fame include Sarah Frances Anders, retired professor at Louisiana Baptist College, Pineville, La.; Patrick and Carolyn Anderson of Lakeland, Fla., who were instrumental in development of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; James Slatton, recently retired pastor of River Road Church, Richmond, Va.; Gene Puckett of Raleigh, N.C., retired editor of the Biblical Recorder; W.C. Fields, retired vice president for public relations and director of Baptist Press at the SBC Executive Committee; Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, Norman, Okla.; and Bill Wilson, MBN national co-chair and pastor of First Baptist Church, Waynesboro, Va.

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