February 24, 2003
TOGETHER:
Laity Institute teaches how to think
___A 12-member class gathers Sunday afternoon at a Baptist church. They are young adults and senior adults, married and single, men and women. They are responding to the animated teaching style of a college professor who, in her day job, teaches English literature at the University of Texas at Arlington. But today, she is a mentor for serious students of church history and Baptist distinctives.
___Peggy Kulesz is one of 110 Texas Baptist Laity Institute mentors. They lead graduate school-level seminars on a range of topics. Classes are designed to help ordinary Baptist laypeople who have been in Sunday School for many years build on their considerable knowledge of the Bible. Courses include NewTestament and Old Testament, church history, theology, Christian ethics, Baptist heritage and distinctives, and pastoral care for lay ministry.
CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
___Dan Williams and Linda Cross lead one of Texas Baptists' newest efforts. Some time ago, the BGCT Effectiveness & Efficiency Committee recommended our convention establish a new entity to help prepare Texas Baptist laity to better serve Christ and their churches. The committee's report stated: "Laypeople are the front-line troops of the churches. Every effort should be made to equip them to be strong in their beliefs and effective communicators of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
___TBLI received an e-mail recently in which a student at Houston's Tallowood Baptist Church wrote: "I've been in Bible Study Fellowship for about 20 years, and while I love studying the Bible, have felt that I was sorely lacking in knowledge and understanding of church history and the development of our doctrines, which should be at least as important to Christians as national or world history. ... Thank you so much for developing these quality classes and giving lay people an opportunity to study in this way."
___A young Asian woman in a class at First Baptist Church of Richardson studied these concepts and found them useful when she went to California for the wedding of a friend. There she met a young priest who was working on his doctorate in a nearby Catholic seminary. His dissertation prospectus was designed to show that ethnics moving into a new culture often assimilate to new religions in order to gain social acceptance.
___This lady assured him she did not become a Baptist because of a desire to assimilate to Texas culture. "Then, what do Baptists believe?" he asked.
___Her response was this: "We believe in the priesthood of every believer, which means we don't need special priests to pray for us or to offer forgiveness. And we believe in religious liberty, because we saw how much the church suffered in the Holy Roman Empire with the marriage of church and state. And we believe in believer's baptism, because we see that baptizing babies is not only unbiblical, it also does great harm to the faith of individuals, who never get to accept Christ as Savior and Lord."
___The priest, after about a two-hour conversation, asked: "I see that I need to add another chapter to my paper to include people like you. How did you know all that?" She said, "Because in Texas they teach us how to think and not just what to do."
___Well, amen and amen! I hope a TBLI course is in your future. Call (214) 820-3935 or e-mail tblaity@flash.net for more information on how to get started in your church.
___We are loved.
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook
