Posted 11/14/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Gentle breath of the wounded healer

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, remembering my Uncle Faye.

I’m not sure why we called her “Uncle Faye.” She was more correctly titled an aunt, a relative once or twice removed on the family tree, as they often say in the mountains of North Carolina. We called her “uncle” for some reason unknown to me. Maybe she just spoke it once, and it kind of caught on.

John Duncan

Uncle Faye lived in Spruce Pine, N.C., on Pine Branch Road, just below the Baptist church. She had a black fluffy dog, always had a shawl draped over her chair, watched the television with the volume turned up loud, liked to sit on her porch swing and watch the cars pass by or eyeball the rain dripping from her roof, and never missed church.

She loved the Lord and the church and sat close to the pulpit, near what must have been at one time in that mountain church the amen corner. She often called on special occasions like my wedding day or at the birth of one of my children. Prayer and easing pain were her passions.

Uncle Faye lived near the Toe River. Every day at noon, like many of the local mountain folks, she listened to radio station WTOE to hear the news and to listen intently to the public reading of the obituaries.

Not many subjects stir interest like news of death, funerals and “visitation” at the local funeral home. Uncle Faye listened with ears anxious to drink down the sound of news so that it could be discussed later with friends. News discussed for Uncle Faye meant words of care, concern and prayer for the hurting as they battled the wounds of life.

I never really knew that much about Uncle Faye, except she had lived during the Depression, worked once at the local knitting mill, always visited us at my grandmother’s house when we vacationed in the mountains and possessed an unusual gift of blowing with lips puckered, a cool breeze of breath that eased the pain of the moment and put a person back into the path of the joyous present.

Henri Nouwen says, “For the minister is called to recognize the sufferings of his time in his own heart and make that recognition the starting point of his service.” He further states that Christ’s servants are wounded healers, “the one who must look after his own wounds but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.”

I think of Uncle Faye as a sweet lady whose hard life softened her to make her a wounded healer. In life, you will need people to heal your wounds.

I could not have been more than the age of 10 or 11 the summer we traveled to Spruce Pine to visit my grandmother and two aunts. My grandfather built the two-story white house that had inside a great set of stairs and a stairwell for sliding down. Sliding down the rail served as an exciting event. Fireflies buzzed at night so that you capture them and put them in jars. You slept on a feather mattress with the window open so that you could hear the chirp of crickets, a car passing by or the rustling of leaves on the trees as the breeze sailed through he mountains.

My brother and I loved to toss a baseball in the front yard of the old white house. We often threw the baseball over the boxwoods, big bushes sprouting green leaves that rose waste high. If you were adventurous, you could attempt to jump over the boxwoods, which I did many times. Running around the boxwoods once, I slipped, fell hard on the sloped and rocky grass and skinned my knee. Injured, I tearfully and slowly eased up from my fall, hopped and limped along while noticing blood on my skinned leg.

I sat down in a chair on the front porch and moaned and grimaced, only to be greeted by a smiling Uncle Faye.

“Settle down. Calm down,” she whispered. “Let Uncle Faye blow on it,” she softly spoke in hushed tones while looking into my eyes. And blow she did—a cool, gentle breeze of breath that took the sting away just long enough to stop the tears and calm the racing heart and relax the tension of that painful moment.

And so here I am under the old oak tree, remembering Uncle Faye and missing the mountains and a cool breeze of breath in life’s painful moments and thinking for all that life delivers sometimes you need a wounded healer who can understand life’s pain and blow a breeze to take away the sting.

And I am reminded when I think of Uncle Faye that God is like that—the Wounded Healer, a sympathizing priest who blows a breeze fresh and cool on the aches and pains of heart, life and soul (Hebrews 4:12).

Everyone needs an Uncle Faye, a wounded healer who blows breath so cool it sends chills up the spine, and the Wounded Healer. I feel a breeze even now, and I feel great joy!

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines

Posted: 10/31/03

Hispanic laymen challenged to set pace

By Orville Scott

Texas Baptist Communications

About 250 Baptist laymen from across Texas were challenged at the Hispanic Baptist Convocation of the Laity to be the vanguard in reaching the state's 7 million Hispanics for Christ.

Sponsored by Varones Bautistas (Hispanic Baptist Men), the convocation at Highland Lakes Camp and Conference Center near Austin was designed to rally laity to reach the state with the gospel of Jesus Christ, said Eli Rodriguez of Dallas, state coordinator of the convocation.

Hector Gamboa of Primera Bautista Iglesia in Ingleside ties a witnessing bracelet during a training session for Royal Ambassadors.

One of the key speakers, Alfonso Flores, pastor of First Mexican Baptist Church of San Antonio, called on participants to remember the vision of the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road.

“It has to begin with a vision that will shake our lives,” Flores said. Christ “commands you to stand on your feet and become a vessel he can use for the glory of his name.”

Flores added: “We cannot imagine what God can do with a simple witness for Christ. Christ is not asking that we invent a new message but to be faithful in giving witness to the old, old message.”

Another speaker, Alcides Guajardo, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, also focused on Jesus' command to his disciples: “As the Father hath sent me, even so I send you.”

Guajardo, who lives at Mineral near Beeville, also noted that Jesus told his disciples: “You won't be able to do it alone. I will send the Holy Spirit.”

E.B. Brooks, coordinator of the Church Missions and Evangelism Section of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said the New Testament church was alive. He urged participants in the convocation to “refocus on what those people did in the day the church began to grow.”

In addition to Rodriguez, area coodinators for the statewide evangelistic effort included:

Tony Alcorta of Sur Zarzamora Bautista in San Antonio demonstrates disaster-relief equipment.

West Texas, Leo Samaniego, River Ministry coordinator for El Paso Baptist Association.

Top of Texas, Pedro Nevarez and Larry Naranjo of Lubbock.

North Texas, Ben Silva of Dallas, former president of Varones Bautistas, and Sonny Aguilar of Dallas, vice president of Varones Bautistas.

East Texas, Ray Carrillo and Juan Barroso of Tyler.

Coastal Plains, Jose Leal of Dickinson and Mike Tello of Edcouch.

South Texas, Noah Rodriguez and Abel Delgadillo of San Antonio and Domingo Quintanilla of Weslaco.

Central Texas, Ciro Garcia of Austin and Leo Guerra, director of Region 21 Children's Mission and Ministry.

Posted: 11/12/03

WMU board affirms core objectives

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

LUBBOCK–Texas Baptists' desire for more hands-on missions opportunities is a core objective of Texas Woman's Missionary Union, according to the organization's executive director. And it's a desire the new WorldconneX network holds the promise of helping them fulfill, she added.

The Texas WMU board of directors heard reports affirming the mission organization's core objectives during its Nov. 8 meeting in Lubbock. In her report to the board, Executive Director Carolyn Porterfield shared her excitement at seeing WMU's guiding objectives being met across the state.

"We reaffirmed our core values–the lordship of Christ, the Bible, prayer, personal involvement with missions and mission education," Porterfield said.

Four guiding objectives–providing mission opportunities, providing missions education, developing missions leadership and promoting missions support–constantly provide challenges and rewards across the state and around the world, she added.

Providing missions education through multiple methods of delivery is challenging, given the various languages needed, she reported. But technology is making those avenues easier, she added, touting four websites supported by Texas WMU that help provide missions education and resources in multiple languages.

Raising funds to support mission endeavors remains a challenge as well, she said.

The new WorldconneX missions network will help make some of these objectives easier to meet by connecting resources with needs worldwide, Porterfield predicted.

The board approved a recommendation from the Hispanic WMU Fellowship to form an official partnership with Baptist Women in Mexico, specifically in support of a retirement home supported solely by that country's WMU.

In other business, the WMU board approved three new area directors–Kay Stiles of Wheeler, Lois Robinette of Ennis and Yvonne Fansler of League City. A motion from the executive committee to amend the bylaws to include a board member from the Christian Women's Job Corps Advisory Council was approved as well. The board also recognized outgoing board members Earl Ann Bumpus of Mineral Wells and Deborah Henke of Fredericksburg.

Posted: 11/12/03

Missions options leave no excuse
for reisting call, messengers told

By Craig Bird

Texas Baptist Communications

LUBBOCK–It started with the slow, stirring wail of a single bagpipe. It ended with a pastor-wife team from a 17-member congregation that puts it money and its time where its heart is.

In between, the Nov. 10 evening crowd at the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual session heard about:

Handing out cold water and prayer at a fair.

Choral tours as evangelism in Spain.

Students testing well water in rural villages in Muslim Southeast Asia.

Hauling medical supplies via backpack into the interior of Costa Rica.

Wrapping Christ's love in Halloween candy.

Ministry via chainsaw.

A mission connection among Baptist churches in Duncanville, Lubbock and Rio Bravo.

It was missions night, and the single message was presented in numerous ways: All Texas Baptists are called by God to missions; the myriad options mean there are no valid excuses not to be faithful to that call.

The presentation mixed video clips, orchestral pieces, solos and congregational singing, skits, live interviews, letters and numerous personal testimonies to show the scope of how Texas Baptists are doing missions.

Student summer missionaries told of leading Bible studies in the parks of Vancouver, British Columbia, where Chinese immigrants made professions of faith in Christ and of a water safety project in Southeast Asia that distributed more than 3,000 copies of the Gospel of Luke in 130 villages.

Broadview Baptist Church in Lubbock reported on its Halloween ministry to a mobile-home park that involved church volunteers from youth to an 80-year-old woman. One resident, facing eviction after losing his job, met a Broadview member who was personnel director of a local company and who helped him get a new job. There were 12 professions of faith in Christ among the 300 residents who participated.

Kris and Shelly Riggs, IMB missionaries in West Africa reported on their work via video.

Texas Baptist Men volunteer Bob Mayfield reported on 14 projects ranging from Royal Ambassador camps to work in Iraq, China and Nicaragua.

Sylvania and Richard Magallenas testified to their call to missions with a small church in Rio Bravo while they were members of First Baptist Church Duncanville, how a job transfer took them to Primera Inglesia Baptista in Lubbock and they connected their former church home to their new one in a partnership.

First Baptist Arlington reported on a trip to Costa Rica last summer involving 24 people, each hefting 35-pound backpacks and hiking three days to a remote area to do medical/dental missions.

Wayland Baptist University's choir tour in Spain provided numerous instances where "God arranged it so we could share our faith despite the language barrier," a speaker said.

Otis Cook, pastor of Cornelius Chapel Baptist Church in Lubbock and his wife, Christine, told how "the smallest church in the BGCT" with just 17 members makes significant contributions to the Texas Baptist Cooperative Program. Through cooperative giving, the small congregation helps start churches and do missions far beyond their community, he said. "You can't beat God in giving. Whenever we get more than $500 in offerings, we find somebody to give it to."

At the conclusion of the missions presentation, messengers and guests gave $12,022 to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.

Posted: 10/31/03

Missions prof critiques 'unbiblical practices' at IMB

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

The International Mission Board should rid itself of “unbiblical” practices and alliances with Christian mission groups that do not enforce strict theological parameters, a missions professor has urged.

Keith Eitel, professor of Christian missions at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., outlined his concerns about the theological framework employed by the Southern Baptist Convention mission board in an eight-page paper. The document, titled “Vision Assessment,” reportedly has been distributed to all IMB trustees.

Open the complete text of Eitel's paper as a pdf file here.

Eitel said he wrote the paper over the summer to summarize his perspective on the IMB's operation after being contacted by an IMB trustee who wanted to nominate him for a position there.

An IMB spokesman said the mission board has no comment on Eitel's paper.

In the paper, Eitel appeals for IMB trustees to “synchronize” the mission board “with the theological convictions of the SBC” and to “set the board's course directly back into the evangelical roots that were the convictions of the founders of the convention.”

For this to happen, he wrote, biblical and theological inquiry must not be minimized in importance.

While criticizing previous administrations of the SBC mission board prior to the fundamentalist campaign that began in 1979, Eitel also raises concerns about the current administration of IMB President Jerry Rankin.

He especially targets the IMB's participation in mission efforts with what the board calls Great Commission Christians–other Baptist and Christian groups working toward the same missionary goals.

Eitel charges that through these partnerships there are “no mechanisms in place to filter or check the entry of unbiblical practices other than the specific theological preparation of the individual missionary.”

And that link has been weakened, he said, because under Rankin's leadership, “there has been an obvious and apparently intentional move away from requiring seminary training for the key roles related to church planting and church development.”

Before the Rankin administration, such missionary candidates were required to have at least a master of divinity degree and two years of experience, he said. “Today, one may assume such roles with as little as 20-30 semester hours, and there is a spirit or culture within the board that downplays or undermines the need to even go to seminary at all.”

Eitel adds: “If it weren't for the trustees holding the line on this requirement, I am afraid that seminary requirements would be dropped completely.”

As a result of the change, he said, “I am concerned that evangelism, church planting and discipleship are in the hands of theological novices.”

Eitel also criticizes the IMB for allowing women in leadership roles–specifically in the role of regional strategy coordinators.

“Women, while certainly capable in numerous ways to do ministry, should not be placed in doctrinal or ethical authority over men, and the strategy coordinator role often causes this to happen,” he declared.

These same strategy coordinators–although he does not single out women alone as the culprits–because they are “theological novices,” he said, “frequently lead their teams to partner with theologically suspect organizations.”

The IMB's lack of stringency on theological and doctrinal training is a holdover from the previous administration of Keith Parks, Eitel charged. That's bad, he wrote, because Parks made clear his belief that Southern Baptists should be united around missions more than theological conformity.

Parks, he said, inherited and built upon a slippery slope toward liberalism that began in the SBC after World War I. This trend, he charged, placed increasingly more emphasis on personal experience than on a strict understanding of the Bible's edicts.

“Parks was saying that doctrine or theology divides us but missions unites us,” Eitel noted. In contrast, leaders of the fundamentalist movement within the SBC like Adrian Rogers “indicated that unless our theological convictions are solidly established squarely on an inerrant Bible, we will have no legitimate or reasonable basis for doing missions.”

Eitel concludes his paper with nine recommended actions for IMB trustees, beginning with an appeal to “recruit administrators committed to theological renewal of the board.”

He also asks trustees to “change the appointment criteria and procedures to encourage theological preparation” and to “change the entire curriculum and teaching staff” at the Missionary Learning Center, where missionaries go for specific training after appointment.

Posted 10/31/03

Article List for 11/3/03 issue