Posted: 1/08/08

Baptist Children’s Home runaway
killed on San Antonio highway

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

SAN ANTONIO—A 15-year-old resident of San Antonio Baptist Children’s Home was killed by a car Jan. 4 as she ran across U.S. Hwy 90.

She was attempting to cross the highway, which borders the campus, with four other youth. None of the others were injured.

Baptist Children’s Home is an entity of Baptist Child & Family Services, an agency of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“The kids we deal with are not in prison, so there are no bars or fences,” said Asennett Segura, executive director of the facility.

“They have not done anything wrong except be born into a bad situation. Being a teenager is a tough job and striving to overcome a deeply troubled past makes it even more difficult. This young girl’s life was tragic from beginning to end. While I cannot speak to the specifics in her case, I can say that the children referred to us by authorities often have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse and neglect.”

Teenagers need space and privacy, and that carries the attendant risk that they can act out just like teenagers in traditional homes, she added.

All the staff members at the children’s home were saddened by the teen’s death, Segura said.

“In the five months since she came to us she touched the hearts of almost everyone who knew her,” she said.

“Over the past 63 years of service, this residential care facility has helped more than 10,000 children overcome significant challenges in their lives—and this is our first experience with this type of heartbreak. That does not provide us any comfort, however. This teen lost her life. We are devastated.”

Every indication is that staff followed proper protocol and procedures at all times as required by state licensing standards, she noted.

“It is illegal for counselors to restrain residents older than 15 with any kind of fence or locked door, and we are not allowed to physically restrain children older than 15 unless they pose an immediate danger to themselves or others,” Segura said.

“Residential Child Care Licensing (the State authority regulating residential programs) does not consider that a threat to run or the act of running are actions that meet the criteria for the use of restraints.”

Although the teen knew she was not permitted to leave the facility unsupervised, she went outside the house and refused to come back inside despite repeated attempts by staff to convince her to do so—an approach that had always been successful with her in the past, Segura said. Even when she left the yard, there was no indication she was going to leave the campus.

She met the four other teens from another part of the campus who apparently had decided they wanted to leave the facility for the evening and accepted their invitation to join them. When it became apparent they were trying to leave the premises, staff did all they could to stop them, and the San Antonio Police Department was immediately notified of the runaways, Segura said.

“We also promptly alerted Child Protective Services and have been cooperating with the state licensing representatives to ensure nothing within the scope of the regulations could have been done to prevent the teens from running,” she added.

“We will continue to do so, and hope that together we can review the standards for dealing with situations such as this not only to protect our children, but to create a best practice that will protect staff and children at other shelters around the state.”

Posted: 1/07/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for January 13

There are none so blind

• Mark 8:11-26

By Andrew Daugherty

Christ Church, Rockwall

Earth’s crammed with heaven/ And every common bush afire with God/But only he who sees, takes off his shoes/The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

This verse from English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning captures well the essence of Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God. Through his teaching and his very presence, Jesus introduced the kingdom of God to the world. Those with ears to hear and eyes to see perceived his identity as the Son of God. Everywhere Jesus walked and talked, the atmosphere was charged with the consecrated presence of God through the often controversial practices of Jesus.

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To the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus’ unorthodox methods were at odds with the message of the law as they understood it. Though they claimed to be enlightened by the law, they were in the dark about the true light that enlightened everyone; the Christ who was coming into the world. Their die-hard commitment to the letter of the law blinded them to the spirit of the law embodied in Jesus. They could not perceive that to be in the presence of Jesus was to be in the presence of God. Heaven was crammed into a human.

God’s sign from heaven was Jesus himself, but still the scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign. Their preoccupation with signs and wonders actually prevented them from seeing the sign standing right in front of them.

According to Mark, it wasn’t for any lack of evidence. They had watched as he healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (3:1-6). They saw him restore to health and wholeness a paralyzed man (2:1-12). Surely they heard how he had just fed a big, hungry crowd with little loaves of bread and a few fish and had so many leftovers the people were asking for to-go boxes (8:1-10).

After all they had seen and heard, the scribes and Pharisees still aimed to put Jesus to the test by asking for a sign. No wonder Jesus sighed deeply. By now, nothing would persuade these guys that Jesus was who Mark already has told his readers he is—the Christ, the Son of God. To echo Browning’s verse, they were doing the theological equivalent of plucking blackberries.

Jesus, the man and the message, sometimes was lost on the disciples, too. Not even they always could see, hear or understand all that was happening in the person and proclamation of Jesus. Though they had witnessed the wonder of Jesus’ power and presence, they are worried now about forgetting to bring bread. They had forgotten to pack up the leftovers. What would they possibly do?

The disciples’ learning curve apparently was steep. After all Jesus taught and explained to them, they still had trouble understanding exactly who he was. Their knowledge of what Jesus had done to feed the crowds did not translate to faith that Jesus would take care of them, too.

When Jesus says, “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod,” Jesus is not talking about the same thing the disciples are (8:15). While the disciples are literally worried about eating, Jesus tries to tell them there is an even more serious concern—the traditions, attitudes and short-sighted agendas of those who are so obsessed with the sensationalism of signs and wonders that they can’t see the divine agenda being set and met by Jesus’ life and ministry. The disciples’ preoccupation with bread prevents them from recognizing the Bread of Life already in their presence.

Even so, contrasted with the total blindness of the scribes and Pharisees, the disciples possess only partial blindness about who Jesus is. Jesus asks the disciples, “Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? Do you not yet understand?” (8:18; 21). The gradual healing of the blind man leaves Mark’s readers with the hope that soon the disciples’ sight will be restored fully to a 20/20 vision of the kingdom of God introduced by Jesus.

Jesus came to train our eyes to see the places where God’s presence is coming into the world. Keeping our eyes peeled for signs of God’s presence involves seeing ordinary things, like water, as revelations of Christ.

A few years ago Marilynne Robinson wrote about the real purpose of water in her novel Gilead, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize. In it the central character, Rev. John Ames, describes a young couple walking down a street in his little Iowa town: “The sun had come up brilliantly after a heavy rain, and the trees were glistening and very wet. On some impulse, plain exuberance, I suppose, the fellow jumped up and caught hold of a branch, and a storm of luminous water came pouring down on the two of them, and they laughed and took off running, the girl sweeping water off her hair and her dress as if she were a little bit disgusted, but she wasn’t. It was a beautiful thing to see, like something from a myth. I don’t know why I thought of that now, except perhaps because it is easy to believe in such moments that water was made primarily for blessing, and only secondarily for growing vegetables or doing the wash. I wish I had paid more attention to it.”

Attention to those places where God’s presence is breaking in to the world is the gift for seeing things like water as blessing before they are used for anything else. To see Christ clearly is to see signs of the grace of God in ordinary things— giving bread to a beggar, listening to the lonely, talking to friends, caring for a child and walking with someone you love down the street.

Signs from heaven are all around us. You can tell who sees Christ clearly. They are the ones walking around barefooted and wondering why everyone else is plucking blackberries.

Posted: 1/07/08

Southern Baptists respond
to critical hunger needs in Kenya

NASHVILLE—Southern Baptists are responding to critical hunger needs in Kenya, where an estimated 250,000 people have been driven from their homes by violence that broke out after the controversial results of December’s presidential elections were announced.

Food packets containing rice, wheat flour, maize meal, beans, vegetable cooking oil and salt will be distributed in seven cities, with the International Mission Board’s Baptist Mission of Kenya coordinating the project. Baptist Global Response, a Southern Baptist international relief and development organization, has approved the release of $25,000 from the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund to fund the relief effort.

“Many displaced people have congregated at safe locations like police stations, Bible schools, Catholic missions and evangelical churches,” said Mark Hatfield, director of Baptist Global Response work in sub-Sahara Africa. “This project will assist 2,500 families in seven cities where Baptists have access to centers of refuge.”

The turmoil has made travel difficult, so Southern Baptists have worked through Baptist Convention of Kenya leaders to assess the situation on the ground, Hatfield said.

“The goal is to provide families basic food for five to seven days while they search for new places to live,” he said. “A long-term follow-up response will be considered after this initial response is carried out. We’re grateful that Southern Baptists are a people who care so we can reach out in emergencies like this to people in need.”

Churches in Kenya called for a national day of prayer on Jan. 6, and Southern Baptists across the United States joined in asking God to bring peace to the country, which previously has been a model of stability and democracy in the region.

The need for prayer will continue until the election controversy is resolved, Hatfield said.

“Pray that the internally displaced peoples of Kenya will be able to return to their homes or will be able to re-settle their families soon,” he said. “Pray that this food will be a blessing to each family who receives it. Pray for the safety of those who will distribute the food and that spiritual needs will be met as well physical needs. Pray for peace and calm to return to Kenya.”

Posted: 1/07/08

CBF field personnel safe
as violence continues in Kenya

By Carla Wynn Davis

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

ATLANTA—The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s two Kenya-based field personnel are safe despite violent unrest in the East African country following recent controversial presidential elections.

Melody and Sam Harrell, who have served in Kenya with CBF since 1999, are based in Nairobi.

Much of the violence is occurring in large slum settlements that are home to about half the city’s population, said Sam Harrell.

“Over the years, we have become accustomed to occasional flare-ups of violence,” Harrell said. “This, however, is on a scale we have not witnessed before. The turmoil is tearing at the fabric of the country. It will be a long time in recovery, especially the social fabric.”

Violence erupted throughout the country Dec. 30 after the official—but controversial—results of a hotly-contested presidential election were announced. So far, an estimated 300 people have been killed and 100,000 displaced, according to Associated Press reports.

“The loss of life is far greater than what is being reported in the media,” Harrell said. “Other than emergency airlifts, there is no way for those stranded upcountry to escape the current situation. Scores of people in Nairobi are choosing to sleep outside and in fields rather than risk being burned inside their houses in the slums.” 

The Harrells have ministry projects throughout the country, including one area heavily affected by recent violence. Initial reports indicated one ministry partner was missing, but the rest of the program staff were safe, Harrell said.

The situation changes daily, Harrell stressed, but he and his family plan to remain in country as long as they are safe and their ministry is still effective. When the situation stabilizes and in-country travel is possible, the Harrells will assess how they can minister in the aftermath. 

“This is our home, and our greatest desire is to continue to serve fellow Kenyans in their hour of need,” Harrell said. “Please continue to pray for real peace in Kenya. Peace is not only a lack of violence, but the result of justice.”

Posted: 1/07/08

Huckabee, Obama early victories
spotlight religion in 2008 campaign

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Come-from-behind wins by overtly Christian presidential candidates in the Iowa caucuses put even more of the spotlight on faith issues in the 2008 election cycle, according to two experts on religion and politics.

Baptist minister Mike Huckabee played David to Mitt Romney’s Goliath on the Republican side, with the former Arkansas governor walloping the former Massachusetts governor’s better-funded and -staffed campaign.

Huckabee	Obama

For Democrats, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama—whose campaign has long devoted resources to appealing to moderate and progressive Christians—soundly defeated Hillary Clinton. Just weeks before, the New York senator and former first lady had seemed to many observers like the inevitable nominee and establishment candidate of the party once led by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

“The obvious story … is that tons and tons of evangelical caucus voters turned out for Huckabee,” said Laura Olson, a Clemson University political-science professor and expert on the Religious Right. Exit polls cited by the major television networks showed 60 percent of GOP caucus-goers considered themselves evangelical or “born-again” Christians. Of those, 46 percent voted for Huckabee.

“I think the sub-story, too, is that … there’s been a lot of talk in the months leading up to this that maybe the Religious Right is a little bit more fractioned than it used to be,” Olson continued. “But … rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated, as the results show.”

Prior to his surge in Iowa, Huckabee has gotten little support from prominent evangelical conservatives on the national level. But a grassroots campaign among pastors, evangelical home-school families and conservative Christians in Iowa seems to have paid significant dividends for the Huckabee campaign.

“He’s really captured the imagination of evangelicals,” said Barry Hankins, a Baylor University professor and expert on conservative evangelicalism.

While the prominent leaders of the Evangelical Right have not united behind a candidate, Olson and Hankins noted, they may do so if Huckabee’s momentum carries him beyond Iowa into other early-voting states.

“I think that there are some Christian Right figures that would get behind him if he was viable,” Hankins said. “I think they’re holding their cards” until the picture becomes clearer.

Olson said Huckabee’s resounding victory in spite of lacking support from the GOP establishment means that the most influential surviving leaders of the Religious Right— such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Southern Baptist ethics guru Richard Land—could be moving toward irrelevancy when it comes to elections.

“The power of the Religious Right movement … is increasingly about what happens on the ground and not about what Dobson says or what Richard Land says or what any of these other dons say,” she said.

Meanwhile, more centrist and progressive evangelicals—particularly younger ones—may be more open than their fellow believers to an Obama presidency. Obama has written and spoken repeatedly about his adult conversion experience at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He even took his campaign autobiography’s title, The Audacity of Hope, from that of a favorite sermon his pastor delivered there.

“Obama has more appeal to moderate-to-liberal people of faith than either certainly Hillary Clinton or even, to a lesser extent, (former North Carolina Sen.) John Edwards,” Olson said. That owes to the fact, she added, that Obama “has done, I think, of the three the best job of bringing the discussion of faith and values to the race.”

Conservative Christians for whom abortion rights and gay rights are the most important issues are still unlikely to back Obama.

“Is he going to get fundamentalists to vote for him? Certainly he’s not,” Olson said. “But there’s maybe as many as 20 percent of evangelicals (who) are enough in play (for a Democrat). Can he get them? Absolutely.”

Huckabee, meanwhile, still faces significant hurdles on his path to the nomination.

“Can he raise money? Because he desperately, desperately needs money,” Olson said. “He also needs organization in terms of numbers on the ground. He can’t just be the candidate of one faction; he has to be the candidate of the whole party.”

Posted: 1/04/08

Kenya violence affects Wayland students

By Jonathan Petty

Wayland Baptist University

LIMURU, Kenya—Students attending the Wayland Baptist University campus near Nairobi have had family members killed in the violence that has erupted following a disputed election. Administrators are monitoring the situation to determine whether to postpone the start of a new semester.

Wayland’s campus, sponsored in conjunction with the Kenya Baptist Theological College, is about 24 kilometers from Nairobi where some of the worst violence has occurred.

No classes are meeting now, but they are scheduled to resume on Jan. 14. Don Ashley, associate professor of religion at Wayland’s campus in Anchorage, journeyed to Kenya with his family prior to Christmas and is scheduled to teach a course beginning later this month.

Rick Shaw, dean of the Kenya campus, reported Ashley and his family are in no danger at this time. If the situation becomes too dangerous, they will return to the United States, and classes at the Kenya campus will be postponed.

Shaw, director of the Wayland Missions Center, currently is in Plainview but is scheduled to leave for Kenya Jan. 11.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” Shaw said. “I will watch it probably until Monday or Tuesday, then I’ll make a decision.”

Lack of supplies presents the biggest challenge at this time, Ashley said. The school is running low on food and other necessities. Fuel also is at a premium, making transportation to and from the campus difficult for students.

Posted: 1/04/08

Christians killed, churches burned in India

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BWA)—Ten Christians were killed, and about 90 churches and 600 homes torched by Hindu militants in eastern India around Christmas, a Baptist official there reported to the Baptist World Alliance.

“Fifty to 70 Hindu radicals pulled out Pastor Junas Digal from a parked bus, paraded him on the road, all the way beating him with sticks and hands, and finally shaved his head to claim him a Hindu,” said Swarupananda Patra, general secretary of the All Orissa Baptist Churches Federation.

In Bamunigham, in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, two Christians were shot and injured, shops operated by Christians destroyed, 20 churches damaged, and three churches razed on Christmas Eve, Patra reported.

On Christmas, Christians were terrorized, Christmas worship services disrupted and churches forced to close, while Christians hid in “forests to evade attacks from these Hindus,” Patra continued.

The attacks affected about 5,000 Christians, leaving most homeless. They were allegedly the work of Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the World Hindu Council.

BWA General Secretary Neville Callam condemned the attacks and urged Christians, especially Baptists, to remember “our Christian brothers and sisters in Orissa state in our prayers.”

Callam further indicated that the BWA “will respond meaningfully to the needs and concerns of those who have suffered and will make the appropriate representations to make the case for respect for religious freedom in India.”

Already, Baptists in other parts of India have responded to aid those who suffered from the violence. Bonny Resu, general secretary for the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation and BWA regional secretary for Asia, reported local Indian churches are being mobilized to provide blankets and other assistance.

The level and speed of assistance is being tempered by the sensitivity of the situation as overt assistance from Christian organizations, even from within India, could spark further violence, Resu said.

“Orissa is a place where a Baptist community of about 500,000 live, and most of them are in these areas where persecution is most intense. They are also among the poorest of the poor of India, which is why they are often voiceless,” said Resu, who is from Nagaland in northeast India.

Violent anti-Christian attacks are not new to Orissa. In January 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned to death as they slept in their car in Manoharpur village, Keonjhar district, in rural Orissa.

India’s Christian population is estimated at 3.5 percent of a total 1.12 billion people. There are several Baptist conventions and unions in Orissa state that are member bodies of the BWA, with total membership in Orissa of nearly 500,000 baptized believers and about 3,500 churches.

Posted: 1/04/08

Around the State

• Don Lane, founder of CityChurch Ministries in Amarillo, was named Man of the Year for 2007 by the Amarillo Globe-News.

• Brady-Coleman-Runnels Baptist Area is now Lake Ivie Baptist Association. Barry Taylor, who had been pastor of First Church in Winters, has been elected ministry director.

• The LifeWay Christian Resources store in Lubbock is relocating. Beginning Jan. 15, its 6,000-square-foot facility will be at the interchange of Loop 289 and Marsha Sharp Freeway at the Canyon West Shopping Center. The grand opening celebration will be held Jan. 26-Feb. 2.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor granted degrees to 183 students during winter commencement ceremonies, including 170 undergraduate degrees and 13 master’s degrees. Stephen Alston of Temple, Kayla Carr of Brenham and Audra Musser of Hewitt won awards for the highest grade-point average.

• Dan Griffin, pastor emeritus of Cliff Temple Church in Dallas, was awarded an honorary doctor of humanities degree by Dallas Baptist University during winter commencement ceremonies. The school also granted 266 undergraduate degrees and 227 graduate degrees.

• Janna Kim, a former member of Gaston Oaks Church in Dallas, and Matthew Kissing, a former member of Lake Arlington Church in Arlington, both received degrees from Golden Gate Seminary during winter commencement.

• Five Texans received degrees from New Orleans Seminary during winter commencement ceremonies. They were Dallas native Richard Blanton; Keith Manning, pastor of Central Church in Hillsboro; Danny Warbington, pastor of Mulberry Springs Church in Hallsville; Timothy Yin, pastor of First Chinese Church in San Antonio; and Byron McWilliams, pastor of First Church in Odessa.

• Four international students graduated from San Marcos Baptist Academy Dec. 12. They included two graduates from Mexico, and one each from Hong Kong and Vietnam.

• The mock trial team of Houston Baptist University finished fourth at the Green & Gold Invitational Mock Trial Tourn-ament held at Baylor University after notching nine wins. Debbie Whiteside, a junior from Houston, finished as second-best witness at the tournament.

• Tommy Young has been named director of financial aid at East Texas Baptist University.

Anniversaries

• Keith Wilkerson, 20th, as minister of music at First Church of Liberty City in Kilgore, Jan. 2.

• First Church in White Settlement, 140th, Feb. 10. A brunch will begin at 9 a.m., followed by the morning worship service. Featured speakers will be Paul Miller, Jim Gatliff and Al Fasol. For more information, call (817) 246-2171. David Hixon is pastor.

Deaths

• Curtis Morton, 86, Dec. 14, in Brownwood. Pastor of Second Church in Winters, he had been in ministry 56 years, preaching in and around Runnels County. He was instrumental in starting several churches in the area. He was preceded in death by his wife of 43 years, Patricia; and his second wife of 10 years, Margaret. He is survived by his sons, Curtis, Sherman, Farion and David; daughter, Patricia Batla; 18 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; stepdaughters, Betty Dawkins and Amanda Dawkins; three step-grandchildren; and one step-great-grandchild.

• Lucile Manning, Dec. 16, one day short of her 97th birthday, in Waxahachie. She was the wife of pastor Jack Manning, and they served in more than 20 countries. They retired to Waxahachie, where she was active in mentoring others in Scripture memory. She memorized hundreds of verses. She was preceded in death by her husband. She is survived by her daughter, Ruth Turpin; son, Jack; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

• Boyd Hunt, 91, Dec. 20 in Fort Worth. He was a distinguished professor of theology emeritus at Southwestern Seminary. He was pastor of First Church in Houston from 1946 until 1953, when he began teaching at Southwestern Seminary. He retired in 1987, but continued to teach as an adjunct professor until 1999. He served on the executive committees of both the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention. He was preceded in death by his wife, Connie; sister, Carolyn Finke; and brother, Roland. He is survived by his daughters, Beth Harrington and Anne Barker; son, Bill; seven grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Ordained

• Chad Smith, to the ministry at Georgetown Church in Pottsboro.

Posted: 1/04/08

High-tech audio Bibles bring
Scriptures to life, users say

By Kat Glass

Religion News Service

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (RNS) —Often when Mike Sheppard listens to the stories of the Crucifixion or Mary’s discovery of the empty tomb, he gets so distracted he almost forgets he’s behind the wheel.

“There are points in the New Testament where you’ll be brought to tears while you’re driving down the road,” said Sheppard, 56, a computer software technician in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Sheppard, a Southern Baptist, said he’s read the sacred text many times, but listening to The Word of Promise audio Bible really transports him to the first century.

Christian publishers are increasingly catching up with their multimedia-savvy consumers and offering Bibles beyond the traditional book format. Eager listeners like Sheppard can buy the story on tapes, CDs, MP3 downloads, iTunes and in other formats.

Andrew Block, founder and president of the audio Bible company GoBible, started his company after noticing technology wasn’t reaching the faith-based niche.

“I just didn’t see anyone using new technology to bring people of faith content that’s important to them in an easy and affordable manner,” Block said.

GoBible’s The Listener’s Bible looks like it’s cut out for Gen-Y listeners, with an iPod-like screen and buttons made in the image of the popular portable music device. The entire Old and New Testaments are available, with 70 hours of 31,000 verses individually marked so listeners can scroll through.

A study conducted by the company in the spring of 2007 showed their listeners landed all over the demographic map—from tech-savvy youngsters to gray-bearded Methuselahs.

Similarly, the makers of the celebrated audio recording Inspired by … The Bible Experience were pleasantly surprised that people of all ages are buying their New and Old Testament audio Bibles. The recording features actors Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington, along with Pentecostal pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes.

“The concern was that this would just be a trendy thing—that people would purchase it because of the star power—but then not really get engaged in the Bible. But just the opposite has been happening,” said Paul Caminiti, vice president and publisher of Bibles for Zondervan, which produced The Bible Experience.

Some users have reported they use the GoBible device to listen along while they’re reading and help with some of the trickier name pronunciations, Block said.

“We never created GoBible to replace the reading of the (written) word,” Block said. “Rather, we see it as a supplement. It’s for people who don’t always have the time.”

Listening to the Bible on audio can bring new meaning into the text for some.

“When you listen to it, the readers bring from their experience,” Sheppard said. “Sometimes the voices bring out a nuance that may bring insight that you hadn’t thought of before.”

Pointing to the Bible’s history as an oral text, Caminiti said, “The Bible was really written to be listened to.”

Jim Lahman, 48, a native of Brunswick, Ohio, uses the Bible Experience recording when he teaches his adult Bible study class. He encourages his students to read along as they listen to the actors, who are complemented by sound effects like bleating sheep and barking dogs.

“It really adds depth to the Bible study,” Lahman said. “It’s just not sitting there reading the Bible.”

Posted: 1/04/08

Baptist Briefs

Kentucky editor accepts post at Ouachita. Trennis Henderson, editor of the Kentucky Baptist Western Recorder newspaper, has accepted a position as vice president for communications at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. Henderson, who has edited the Recorder since 1999, has served more than 25 years in Baptist journalism. He previously was editor of the Arkansas Baptist News and managing editor of Missouri’s Word & Way. Henderson, a 1983 graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, also graduated from the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. Henderson and his wife, Pam, are members of Crestwood (Ky.) Baptist Church, where he is a deacon and she directs the church’s weekday preschool ministry. Their two daughters are students at Taylor University in Upland, Ind.

Novelist Grisham joins New Baptist Covenant lineup. Best-selling author John Grisham, whose recent novels have revealed his Christian faith, will deliver a rare public speech at the New Baptist Covenant meeting in late January. The 53-year-old Grisham, a lifelong Baptist, has taught Sunday school to young couples and 4-year-olds and regularly goes with fellow church members on mission-service trips. Grisham, a member of University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va., joins a lineup of Baptists who will address the three-day interracial meeting in Atlanta, including former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and Republican senators Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Charles Grassley (Iowa). “The Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant,” organized by Carter, will seek to unite an estimated 20 million Baptists Jan. 30-Feb. 1 around an agenda of Christ-centered social ministry. Forty Baptist organizations in the United States and Canada are participating, including the four main black Baptist conventions and most of the other Baptist denominations except the Southern Baptist Convention.

Missouri Baptist Convention board approves relocation. The Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board voted at their December meeting to move the state convention’s office building to a small town west of the state capital, but the effort may run into trouble due to complications over a tenant formerly affiliated with the convention. The board approved a committee’s recommendation to accept a developer’s donation of six acres of land in California, Mo., about 20 miles west of Jefferson City, where the convention has been headquartered for decades. A possible hindrance to that sale could be the Missouri Baptist Foundation’s 20-year lease of the Baptist Building’s fifth floor. The foundation negotiated the lease in 1999 in exchange for extensive improvements to the building. Foundation President James Smith reported his board has not yet dealt with its options in the situation. The foundation is one of five formerly affiliated agencies currently involved in litigation with the convention. State convention officials filed suit against the foundation; Missouri Baptist University near St. Louis; Windermere Baptist Conference Center; The Baptist Home, which provides retirement and care facilities; and the news journal Word & Way, after each of those agencies removed themselves from the convention’s control. The first jury trial in the 5-year-old litigation is set for Feb. 1, 2008. It will deal with the Windermere case.

Defender of fired female seminary professor lauded. One of Southern Baptists’ most outspoken pastors has been recognized for his defense of women—even though he does not believe women should serve as pastors. Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., recently received the Priscilla and Aquila Award from Christians for Biblical Equality. The group lauded Burleson for using his blog to alert Baptists to the firing of Hebrew professor Sheri Klouda. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson fired Klouda for holding a “position reserved for a man.” Some Southern Baptists, like Burleson, felt Southwestern’s dismissal of Klouda was unethical, illegal and a far reach beyond the convention’s stated doctrinal positions. Through his website, Burleson raised thousands of dollars to assist Klouda during a period of financial hardship brought on by her dismissal and her husband’s health problems. Klouda, who now teaches at Taylor University in Indiana, is suing Southwestern and Patterson for fraud, breach of contract and defamation. An attempt by the seminary to have the lawsuit dismissed failed recently.

Baptist who warned of Islamic takeover hired for missions post. David Clippard, the former Missouri Baptist Convention executive who earned national headlines when he said Islam has a plan to “conquer and occupy” the United States, was hired by the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board to enlist Baptist churches to spread the gospel to non-Christians worldwide. Clippard will serve as managing director of the IMB’s church services team. Clippard won national attention in 2006 when he preached a sermon to the Missouri convention claiming the “real threat” to the United States is that “Islam has a strategic plan to conquer and occupy America.” He claimed the Saudi Arabian government paid for 15,000 Muslim college students to come to North America to study and funded scores of Islamic study centers and mosques here with the intention of taking the continent for Islam. “They are after our sons and daughters, our students,” he said.

Mississippi Baptists to sell Gulfshore property for $18 million. The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board has voted to move forward on a developer’s $18 million offer to purchase property that was the home of Gulfshore Baptist Assembly before it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Messengers to the 2006 Mississippi Baptist Convention annual meeting voted to accept a special committee’s recommendation to sell the property, with the stipulation that the new owners would not build a casino or any gambling-related businesses on the property. Developer Douglas Johnson of Mandeville, La., submitted a letter of intent on behalf of NewTrac East to purchase the property for a multi-use, multi-million-dollar project he plans to name Gulfshore Point. Johnson emphasized in a meeting with the convention board’s executive committee prior to the board’s December vote that he agreed with the no-gambling stipulation and said he planned to preserve the history of the property in special ways, including construction of a chapel to commemorate its time as Gulfshore Baptist Assembly.

Posted: 1/04/08

Posted: 1/04/08

Volunteer teachers needed in China

Volunteers for China has 10 service opportunities scheduled in 2008. Most involve teaching conversational English in high schools, colleges or universities.

Job assignments vary in length from one month to one year. A stipend, housing and some airfare assistance is provided in some cases. A valid U.S. passport is required for all assignments.

For more information, call (865) 983-9852, e-mail cen29529@centurytel.net or visit volunteersforchina.org.