Panhandle conference exclaims vitality of church

February 24, 2003

Panhandle conference exclaims vitality of church
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___PLAINVIEW--The church took center stage at the 82nd annual Panhandle-Plains Pastors' and Laymen's Conference.
___"Christ Alive! Through the Church!" provided the theme for the event, held Feb. 17-18 at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview.
___The importance and vitality of the church is a dominant theme of the Apostle Paul's writings, noted Bruce Corley, professor of New Testament at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, who presented a verse-by-verse study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
___"In Christ" is the dominant phrase in the apostle's writings, and 182 out of 183 times, it has a plural meaning, Corley said.
___"Did you know it's hard to have church

CHARLES Bassett (left) is secretary-treasurer of the Panhandle Pastors and Layman's Conference, and Charles Davenport is next year's president. (Teresa Young/Wayland Photo)

with just you? It's us," he stressed. "I see Ephesians as an 'us'ns' letter."
___The sense of Christ's loving presence experienced through the church dominates the last part of Ephesians 3, which underscored the conference theme, Corley said.
___The only way to know the wide, long, high and deep love of Christ is "with all the saints," he observed, citing the Scripture.
___"This is a church experience," he said. "It is not an individual event. It is not private understanding; it is corporate understanding."
___Christians should beware individual "mountaintop" experiences that do not involve fellow Christians in the church, he warned.
___To illustrate, he cited the experience of Beck Wethers, a Dallas-area physician who participated in an expedition up Mount Everest, on which several people died. Wethers' goal to climb the world's tallest mountain had been a solitary pursuit, isolating him from family and friends as he committed himself to preparation. But the tragic endeavor changed Wethers' life, Corley said, noting the former climber has dedicated himself to promoting togetherness.
___"Mountaintop spiritual experiences tend to be individualistic," Corley noted. "It's just 'Jesus and me.'
___"But when you walk through life's valleys, it's 'Jesus and us.' When you encounter life's difficulties, you need other people," and the church fulfills that function.
___The togetherness of the church also enables Christians to experience Christ's glory, he added.
___"In the body of Christ (the church), that's where the glory of Christ redounds," he said. "We're not to apologize for being part of the church. ... It's there God blesses us in a unique way. ... God can do more than we ever thought about, far more than we ever asked or imagined."
___The church is the manifestation of the "family of God," insisted Paul Powell, dean of Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, who preached five sermons throughout the conference.
___"Some people talk about a 'churchless Christianity,'" Powell reported. "This is like mentioning a 'homeless person.' That's just not the way it's supposed to be.
___"Jesus identified himself so much with the church, that if we are to be identified with Christ, we have to identify with the church."
___The Bible uses many analogies to describe the church, from "body of Christ" to "bride of Christ" to "building of God," but Powell said his favorite is "family or the household of God."
___"The church is not a building, an organization or even an audience," he said. "It's the living family of the living God."
___The first Baptist articles of faith drafted in Texas were approved by Union Baptist Association in 1840, Powell reported. They did not include an article on the church, but among the document's list of "inalienable rights" was the statement, "The church should be free as the household of God," Powell said.
___From the outset, Texas Baptists expressed "common commitment to God as Father of the Christian faith and trust in Jesus Christ that brought the church together," he said.
___"Only under the Fatherhood of God is there brotherhood of man," he added. "The horizontal relationship of the church is dependent upon the vertical relationship to God."
___"Family of God" means three things for the church, Powell told the conference audience:
___ The church is related through Christ.
___"If God is your Father and my Father through faith in Jesus Christ, then we are brothers and sisters in Christ," he explained.
___Noting early Texas Baptists uniformly called each other "brother" or "sister," he said, "I don't particularly advocate we reclaim that practice, but I do wish we would reclaim that spirit of family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we ought to act like it."
___That means serving, understanding, forgiving, praying for and bearing burdens for each other, he said. It also means speaking truthfully and lovingly to each other and seeking repentance, restoration and revival.
___"We need that desperately in our churches today."
___ The church is responsible to Christ.
___The church is Christ's family, Powell reported. "He is the Lord--the head of his family. The church is not responsible to the pastor, the deacons, committees or the denomination. The church is responsible to Christ."
___More than a century and a half ago, Texas Baptists disavowed any authority over the local church, saying it belonged to Christ alone, he said.
___Consequently, Texas Baptists have valued the autonomy of the local church, he said, noting that autonomy often has been misunderstood.
___"The church is not free to do anything it wants to do. It is free to do what Christ wants it to do. We are responsible to Christ and to Christ alone."
___ The church is representative of Christ.
___Churches often fail in this challenge by falling for two distinct dangers, Powell said.
___First is neglect for missions and evangelism, the tasks Christ set before the church, he noted, observing, "A lot of churches today are abandoning their missions mandate."
___And second, many other churches are focusing only on their "own kind," failing to share the gospel message with all people, he warned.
___"Somebody's got to preach the gospel to the poor, the minorities," not simply the people with whom church members instinctively feel comfortable, he said.
___"The great need of the church today is to realize it represents Jesus Christ," Powell charged. "And if we are to win this world, we've got to get out in it."
___Conference President Bill Wright, pastor of First Baptist Church in Plains, called for an offering to support the families of Gordon Benson and Karen Mason, staff members at First Baptist Church in Halfway, who died in an automobile accident Feb. 8. Participants provided almost $1,400.
___In addition to Wright, other officers this year were Vice President Bruce Julian, a layman from First Baptist Church in Perryton; President-elect Charles Davenport, pastor of First Baptist Church in Tulia; and Secretary-Treasurer Charles Bassett, vice president emeritus at Wayland.
___Newly elected officers for 2004 are President Davenport; President-elect Jackie Gestes, pastor of New Horizon Baptist Church in Lubbock; First Vice President Leon Dulin, a layman from First Baptist Church in Midland; Second Vice President Tommy Culwell, pastor of Colonial Hill Baptist Church in Snyder; and Secretary-treasurer Bassett
___

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