Posted: 8/03/07

On the Move

• Neil Adams has resigned as pastor of Bethlehem Church in Douglassville.

• Zachary Ailshie to Glen Cove Church in Coleman as pastor.

• Charles Ashley to First Church in Aubrey as minister of music.

• Craig Bermender to Pond Springs Church in Austin as pastor.

• Chris Bottoms to Friendship Church in Groves as pastor.

• Don Cole to First Church in Murphy as pastor.

• Dustin Creech has resigned as pastor of College View Church in Abilene.

• Gary Downey to Heights Church in Liberty as interim worship leader.

• Brian Durr to Congress Avenue Church in Austin as minister of youth and education.

• Michael Eaton has resigned as pastor of Holiday Hills Church in Abilene.

• Mike Gann to First Church in Luella as music minister.

• Sue Garland has resigned as minister of youth and children at Calvary Church in Harlingen.

• Paul Guthrie to First Church in Canton as interim student minister.

• Bruce Hickman to Marystown Church in Burleson as interim pastor.

• James Howard has resigned as pastor of Cass Church in Atlanta.

• Ben Lagasse to First Church in Dimmitt as interim youth minister.

• Jason Lane to Potosi Church in Abilene as youth minister.

• Clayton Ledbetter has resigned as minister of music at Grace Temple Church in Denton.

• Dwight and Rachel Merrell to Trinity Church in Lytle as music and youth leaders.

• Jeremy Moore to First Church in Luella as youth minister.

• Shawn Paschal to South Burleson Church in Burleson as pastor.

• Nick Reeves has resigned as minister of youth at Crescent Heights Church in Abilene.

• Jim Rust to Antioch Church in Atlanta as pastor.

• Scotty Sanders to Valley Creek Church in Flower Mound as executive pastor.

• Larry Strandberg has resigned as pastor of First Church in Cresson.

• Brad Sutton has resigned as minister of music at CrossRidge Church in Little Elm.

• Burlie Taylor has completed an interim pastorate at Glen Cove Church in Coleman.

• John Waller to First Church of Sherwood Shores in Gordonville as music and youth minister.

• Cody Whitfill to River Valley Christian Fellowship in Bastrop as pastor from Broadview Church in Abilene, where he was youth pastor.

• Terry Wilkins has resigned as pastor of First Church in Chappell Hill.

• Kyle Wilson to University Church in Houston as director of student ministries from First Church in Corsicana, where he was student pastor.

• Daryl Woerz has resigned as associate pastor at First Church in Whitesboro.

• Jeremy Woods to Fairview Church in Sherman as associate pastor.

• Walter Wright to First Church in Tulia as minister of music, where he had been interim.

Posted: 8/03/07

Battling Baptists kissing
cousins to peace churches

By Jennifer Harris

Word &Way

aptists are known for being theologically diverse. And that diversity extends to Baptists’ relationships with their theological cousins, the Quakers, Mennonites and Brethren—the historical peace churches.

“Although a few Baptists have opted for pacifism on occasion, most fit better into the category known as pacificism, by which is meant they regard war as a horrible option for resolving disputes between nations, but still concede its inevitability on occasion. Sometimes, human beings must pay the supreme price to preserve freedom, eliminate oppression and injustice or end other evils,” wrote Glenn Hinson in a 2004 Baptist History and Heritage article, “Baptist attitudes toward war and peace since 1914.”

While historians disagree on the role of Anabaptists in influencing Baptist origins, Hinson, senior professor of church history and spirituality at the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, says there is clear evidence of a connection between the Waterlander Mennonites and the General Baptists, the earliest group of Baptists in England.

“A group of English refugees who became Baptists lived in a bakery owned by a Mennonite,” he said in an interview.

“There is some evidence, too, of Anabaptist influence on the other group of Baptists, called Particular Baptists. In addition, I think we can safely say that Baptists and Quakers in England came out of the same womb, Puritan Separatism, even though they didn’t get along very well.”

Bill Leonard, dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University, points out that as early at the 17th century, Baptists had several points where they distinguished themselves from Anabaptist groups.

“Baptists would take an oath,” he said, pointing out one distinction. Anabaptist groups, on the other hand, do not. Baptists also have a loyalty to the state, Leonard said. In times of hostility, that loyalty has led Baptists to move to a just-war theory.

World War II in particular led many Baptists to step away from pacifism.

“World War II became a kind of watershed for Baptists—a recognition that there are certain times when evil is so awesome that there is no other response to be made,” Leonard said.

Baptists didn’t want to let other conflicts rise to the level of Nazi Germany, Leonard said. “They didn’t want to let … (the Holocaust) happen again.”

Hinson said Baptists have typically started peace movements just before wars, but joined the fight once hostilities began.

“I think Baptists read Scriptures, especially the Gospels, enough to recognize that war is contrary to God’s purpose,” he said. “If it can be avoided, we should do so. Consequently, as questioning goes on about entering a war, Baptists have often joined those who oppose it.”

He also pointed out that Baptists participated with other Puritans in the English Civil War from 1642 to 1646 and have fought in most wars since.

Both Hinson and Leonard acknowledged there have been noted Baptists who are pacifists, including Walter Raushenbusch and Harry Emerson Fosdick.

In Leonard’s book Baptist Ways: A History, he points out that conservative preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon spoke out against war.

“Although apparently not a member of the Peace Society, Charles Haddon Spurgeon condemned militarism in general and the Crimean War in particular. In a well-known sermon, ‘War and the Spread of the Gospel,’ he declared, ‘And I do firmly hold that the slaughter of men, that bayonets, and swords and guns, have never yet been, and never can be promoters of the gospel.’”

The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America has provided opportunities for pacifist Baptists to work together since the early 1980s. Hinson says the Baptist Peace Fellowship has been slowly growing in recent years.

The Southern Baptist Convention makes what appears to be a strong peace statement in its Baptist Faith & Message 2000. Still, the SBC is the only religious body that backed the invasion of Iraq, Hinson said.

“Part of the reason for that is that the South has always been more militant that the rest of the country, and most of the military installations in the U.S. are located in the South,” he explained.

“Apart from Southern Baptists, however, you can see a strong peace emphasis in the American Baptist Churches, among Conservative Baptists and in some of the smaller Baptists bodies. That echoes what is happening in other denominations.”

Posted: 8/03/07

Churches keep peace within by
focusing on troops—not on the war

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Many Christians with deeply held opinions on an increasingly unpopular war find themselves worshipping with fellow believers on the opposite side of the political divide.

Feelings particularly run high in communities near military installations. And some leaders of churches in those areas have adopted an unofficial policy for keeping the peace in their congregations—pray for the troops, and “don’t ask, don’t tell” opinions about the war in Iraq.

“We just don’t talk about it,” said David Morgan, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Harker Heights, near Fort Hood.

Trinity Baptist regularly prays for the troops and seeks to minister to military personnel and their families. As the conflict in Iraq has continued, Morgan said, he has begun to hear some spouses of soldiers raising questions about the war. But generally, active-duty military personnel and their families are reluctant to voice opinions about policy, he noted.

“If you’re a soldier, it is understood that you do not question the commander-in-chief—even at church,” he said.

Similarly, attention at Central Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., has focused on concern for troops and their families rather than on political discussions regarding the war.

“It hasn’t caused a conflict here. We’ve got a strong military crowd—lots of veterans in the congregation,” Pastor David Turner said. “There’s a recognition among them that things (with the war) aren’t always going the way they want to. Their support is often for the troops and not for the way the war is conducted.”

Turner insisted his congregation has plenty of other pressing issues to handle, and it has chosen not to “get sidetracked” by debates over the war in Iraq.

“Unless you have a good reason to make this an issue, I can’t imagine doing it. There are always so many potential conflicts in churches, most people don’t need another one.”

In El Paso—home to Fort Bliss—members of First Baptist Church have steered clear of divisive political discussions. Instead, the church has focused on supporting the troops and praying both for them and for the elected officials who make decisions about their future, said Pastor Richard Rush.

“We believe we have a responsibility to pray for those who are in authority over us and to seek God’s guidance on their behalf,” Rush said.

Prayer also has been the focus at Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio—home city to Fort Sam Houston, Randolph Air Force Base and Lackland Air Force Base, among other installations.

“I’m sure we have a wide variety of opinions in our congregation about the war, but it’s just not something we’ve made a point of conflict or controversy,” said Pastor Judson Edwards.

Instead of debating the merits of the war or the way it is being carried out, Woodland has directed its attention to praying for the troops, for their families and for injured military personnel at Brooke Army Medical Center, Edwards said.

“Rather than becoming a divisive issue, it’s been more of a rallying point—a unifying thing for our church—as we’ve focused on prayer. We’ve been united in our concern for the troops and in our prayers for getting them home safely,” he said.

Another San Antonio congregation—Covenant Baptist Church—likewise has concentrated on praying “for everyone whose lives are being disrupted by the war—our soldiers, along with the Iraqi people and the people of Afghanistan,” said Pastor Gordon Atkinson.

But unlike many other congregations, Atkinson reports a general consensus of opinion in his church about the conflict in Iraq—and a willingness to discuss it.

“Most of our folks think this war is terribly wrong,” he said.

“We talk about it a lot informally. …There’s quite a bit of grousing about it around the tables.”

With additional reporting by Robert Dilday of the Virginia Religious Herald.

Posted: 8/03/07

Have Baptists lost their prophetic voice?

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

Beginning with the ancient Christians martyred by the Roman Empire and running through Thomas Becket and to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and beyond, church leaders often have spoken truth courageously to the secular powers-that-be — regardless of the consequences.

But, in the months leading up to the increasingly unpopular Iraq war, did the United States’ powerful conservative evangelical community step away from its responsibility to convey hard truths to the government? The answer, it seems, varies depending on one’s views on the war—both past and present.

“I think (conservative evangelicals) abdicated or relinquished their prophetic role from the beginning” of President Bush’s administration, said Adam Taylor, senior political director for Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a progressive evangelical group that opposed the war from the start.

But Richard Land, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public-policy agency, said he thinks he and other conservative evangelicals who supported the war vocally were fulfilling their roles properly.

“I think that most of the evangelicals I think of—the majority that supported liberating Iraq and the minority who didn’t support liberating Iraq by military force—both spoke truth as they saw it to power,” he said. “And if they do that, they’re certainly speaking prophetically.”

Land led a group of five prominent evangelical leaders who, in the run-up to the war in the fall of 2002, signed an open letter declaring that Bush’s designs on Iraq satisfied the criteria of Christian just-war theory.

Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s then-dictator, “attacked his neighbors, used weapons of mass destruction against his own people, and harbored terrorists from the al-Qaeda terrorist network that attacked our nation so viciously and violently on Sept. 11, 2001,” the letter said.

Its signers included Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson. In a Dec. 2002 article for Christianity Today magazine, Colson argued that the classic definition of Christian just-war theory should be “stretched” to accommodate a new age in which terrorism and warfare are intertwined.

He concluded that “out of love of neighbor, then, Christians can and should support a preemptive strike” on Iraq to prevent Iraqi-based or Iraqi-funded attacks on the United States or its allies.

Charles Stanley, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and a former Southern Baptist Convention president, even argued from the pulpit that war sometimes may be divinely justified.

“Throughout Scripture, there is evidence that God favors war for divine reasons and sometimes uses it to accomplish his will. He has also given governments and their citizens very specific responsibilities in regards to this matter,” Stanley said, in a sermon broadcast internationally on his television program.

Polls at the time and later on showed white evangelical Christians were among the war’s strongest supporters. But along with the rest of the public, evangelical support for involvement in Iraq has slipped considerably in polls taken over the last year.

Nonetheless, Land said he continues to believe the decision to attack was right at the time, even if the war itself has been mishandled.

“I still think that the liberation of Iraq was a noble cause, and it also was in the self-interest of our country and the other countries in the region,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “And it certainly caused the fall of one of the more dastardly personages of the 20th century in Saddam Hussein.”

But, with a sizable number of Americans now saying the war was a mistake for America, Sojourners’ Taylor said the fact some of the evangelical community’s most prominent leaders seemed to endorse Bush’s agenda whole-heartedly makes the war a mistake for evangelicalism itself.

“In terms of the credibility of the evangelical voice and community, certainly it’s had an impact,” he said.

Evangelicalism has “become something of an appendage of the Republican Party” to many non-evangelical Americans, Taylor said.

“Even if we may disagree on how those Christian values should be applied to public-policy issues, we think we could agree … on the importance of maintaining your prophetic integrity. And having an uncritical view of the war really compromised that prophetic integrity.”

To Baptist historian Bill Leonard, there are precedents for Christian leaders being burned for cozying up to presidents. He noted many of the same conservative evangelicals who have defended the war previously criticized progressive evangelical sociologist Tony Campolo for serving as one of President Clinton’s spiritual confidants during his adultery-and-impeachment scandal.

“Earlier than that, Billy Graham himself had to come to terms with his close friendship with Richard Nixon after Watergate. And that was one of the cases where even Graham himself talked about his own sense of having been compromised,” said Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School.

But Leonard also noted disillusionment over the war has created a “teachable moment” among evangelicals and contributed to a growing discontent with the Religious Right among some younger evangelical leaders.

“There is evidence among certain … emerging-church leaders who look over the fence, in a way, and who see where identification with one political party has taken some of their counterparts and their mentors and have pulled back from that,” Leonard said.

“Because they see where this can take you when the government goes sour or when particular things go in directions that are religiously compromised or questionable.”

Land, however, said such an understanding of evangelicalism’s current dynamics assumes he and other leaders viewed Bush’s desire to go to war uncritically—and the war itself has been an unmitigated disaster.

“I don’t know any evangelicals personally who I had any suspicion” were mincing their words to Bush over the gravity of his decision to go to war, Land said. He noted he has long been an advocate of American military action to liberate the oppressed.

“You understand I’m someone who argued for (the first President) Bush … to intervene in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and one who argued for President Clinton to intervene in Kosovo and praised him when he did so,” he said. “I’m a pretty strong advocate for intervening when we can to stop human-rights atrocities.”

Land also noted that, whether he and other U.S. evangelical leaders wrongly paved the way to Iraq or not, the U.S. military is there now.

“To me, the discussion about whether or not we should have gone into Iraq militarily is an interesting discussion, … but it’s also an abstract one,” he said.

“And the question is, now, what is the best way to win this war in a way that will benefit the Iraqi people and the people of the region and the United States?”

Posted: 8/03/07

Faith changes little over a lifetime, research reveals

By Shona Crabtree

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Michele Dillon and Paul Wink have interviewed scores of septuagenarians about their faith—or lack thereof—and compared their answers to those they gave during their teens and middle age.

What did they discover? People really don’t change much over time—religiosity in early adulthood is comparable to that in late adulthood, with a dip in middle age.

Other data include: religiosity peaks during teenage years; “spiritual seekers” (those who remain interested in religion while not being tied to one particular faith or tradition) and more church-oriented people are equally altruistic; and religion serves as a psychological buffer only for the elderly in poor health.

Dillon, professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, and Wink, professor of psychology at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, are the husband and wife co-authors of In the Course of a Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, and Change. The book uses statistical analysis and personal narratives to tell the story of religion in everyday lives.

The study is unusual, in part, because of the interdisciplinary collaboration of its authors but also because of its longevity, which enabled the authors to examine religion over time, and its breadth, with extensive interviews and detailed narratives.

Beginning in the 1920s, the University of California-Berkeley social science study interviewed more than 400 people, many of whom were subsequently interviewed about a range of topics, including religion, during their adolescence and again in the 1950s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.

The last round of interviews in the late 1990s included almost 200 people.

The data had not been mined in detail for its religious content, Dillon said. When she and Wink started going through the reams of research, they realized they had a treasure trove.

“I was really taken with this data, by the richness of their individual lives rather than just looking at the aggregate patterns,” she said.

The study lacked racial, geographic and religious diversity. It consisted primarily of white people in Northern California’s Bay Area who were predominantly Protestant and Catholic. But it was socio-economically diverse, Wink said.

Wink was surprised by the stability of religion in individuals over time.

“There are changes, but the changes are … more like a gentle ebb and flow rather than drastic changes,” he noted.

The findings challenge the dominant theory that older people become more religious when faced with death and health issues. The study also shed some light on middle age, which typically suffers from a paucity of psychological re-search, Wink said.

Previous studies examining people from their 50s to their 70s indicated a significant increase in religiosity. Taking a longer view showed that people actually return to levels of religiosity experienced in early adulthood.

Having school-age children tended to increase religious involvement, but it decreased, according to the study, when people reached their 40s and 50s and their children left home.

Religious participants fared better psychologically than nonreligious people, Wink and Dillon said. Precisely why being religious helps is difficult to determine, they said, but it may provide a sense of meaning in the face of adversity.

“I think religion does really give people what you might call a deeper sense of meaning, a deeper way or a frame by which to interpret some of the stuff that happens in life,” says Dillon.

Posted: 8/03/07

Sometimes you want to go where
everybody knows your name

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

ELTON—When Randy Rather walks into Tidwell Baptist Church near Greenville, he’s knows everyone—their names, their likes and dislikes and their families. And they know nearly everything about Rather, their pastor.

It’s this atmosphere that makes people feel welcome in small-membership churches, according to pastors who serve in them. Small numbers of people create an environment where people can foster deep relationships with the entire congregation.

“I think one of the things that draws people is there’s a chance things can be really personal, whether you’re talking about being in a Bible study, choir or worship,” said Dwayne Wheat, pastor of Berea Baptist Church in Big Spring. “There’s an obvious hole when someone’s missing.”

The same camaraderie exists among small-church pastors, who recently gathered for their annual meeting, supported by the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.

This year, the Texas Baptist Bivocational/Small Church Ministers and Spouses Association elected Rather as president, Baptist General Convention of Texas Congregational Strategist Robert Cepeda as vice president, Rosalind Ray of Fairy Baptist Church in Fairy as second vice president, Ellen Goodson of Memorial Baptist Church in Denton as secretary and Danny Rogers of Field Street Baptist Church in Cleburne as treasurer.

About 70 percent of more than 5,600 congregations affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas average fewer than 100 people each week in Bible study.

Pastors indicated the same factor that draws people to small churches —relationships—keeps them there, as well.

“Pastoring a small church is one of the most rewarding things you can do because you have a relationship with every person,” Rather said.

Small churches are like family businesses, he said. Members know each other, and each has a role. Small churches often require a high degree of commitment from their members, because each person is vital to the congregation’s ministry, he explained.

“A smaller membership church is never a second-class church,” Wheat said. “It holds great opportunities for people who want to find a place to minister, who want a place of service, who want a place to grow.”

David Keith, pastor of Carlton Baptist Church in Hamilton Association, said it’s important to remember members of small churches are trying to serve God like members of larger churches. They sense God moving in their lives and respond. People, many of whom would never attend a larger congregation, come to know Christ as Savior through small churches.

“We’re serving the Lord as effectively as churches with 9,000 or 10,000,” Keith said. “There are needs in rural areas, too.”

Rather echoed Keith’s thoughts. “The ministry of the small church is reaching hearts in a large way, one at a time.”

Posted: 8/03/07

Posted: 8/03/07

Ministry to orphans still changing
lives amid turmoil of Sri Lanka

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

ATTICALOA, Sri Lanka —Out of sight doesn’t mean out of danger for Sri Lanka’s orphans. Even though the world’s interest in the Indian Ocean island country waned rapidly after the December 2004 tsunami, many survivors of that disaster still are caught in the decades-old civil war that pockmarks the northeastern part of the nation.

The tsunami caused 35,000 deaths in Sri Lanka on Dec. 26, 2004, while the civil war is believed to have resulted in 70,000 casualties in 20 years—including 5,000 in the last 20 months.

Many Texas Baptists became well acquainted with Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, in the aftermath of the tsunami when Baptist Child & Family Services’ overseas division, Children’s Emergency Relief International, and Texas Baptist Men responded to pleas for help and were assigned to the coastal town.

BCFS/CERI established a long-term presence in Batticaloa, on the border between the government-controlled area and the region controlled by the secessionist Tamil Tigers. At the request of the Sri Lankan government, the agency created a prototype foster care program. Almost three years later, about 200 children are receiving health care, education and hope for the future through that program.

And despite ongoing fighting and dwindling resources, the family service agency recently opened a pilot program on the southwestern coast and plans to double the number of children in care over the next 12 months.

Government records list 2,560 children nationwide who lost both parents in the tsunami, including 700 in Batticaloa and another 275 at CERI’s new program site. The 200 boys and girls being cared for represent the starting point to address the situation.

Each child receives about $30 monthly, which foster parents must account for in detailed reports. In a first for the country, CERI caseworkers make regular in-home visits to monitor care and provide guidance. Monthly training sessions also are offered for the foster parents.

“Attendance is around 95 percent, even though many of them have to walk several miles to the meetings,” said Basil Fonseka, a Sri Lankan who is CERI’s program director. “We require that a minimum of 10 percent of the monthly stipend go into a savings account the child can access at the age of 18 for higher education or to establish a suitable micro-enterprise program. And some foster parents are putting more than 30 percent, $10, in the accounts each month.”

Program participants re-flect the religious makeup of the country with Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and Chris-tians all represented in the foster homes.

“God knows every Sri Lankan child by name, and God’s people can provide the funding we need to expand this ministry,” CERI Executive Director Dearing Garner points out.  “After visiting in the homes of our foster children with the national staff a few months back, I came away convinced that we have no choice. Too many lives are being touched by Jesus’ love for us to stop or even stay at the same level.”

Garner, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Kingwood before becoming executive director of the overseas agency, won’t have trouble finding motivation to raise funds and mission volunteers for the Sri Lanka program.

“Sri Lankans are such beautiful people who work hard and are generous even in the middle of poverty,” he explained. “In every home—without exception—I met foster parents deeply committed to providing the best possible care and children who are thriving after having their hope for a solid future restored.”

A CERI volunteer mission trip to Sri Lanka is being planned for no later than next spring, Garner noted. More information about BCFS/CERI is available by e-mail at dgarner@bcfs.net, by phone at (800) 830-2246 and on the internet at www.bcfs.net.

Posted: 8/03/07

Texas Tidbits

Scholarships awarded to two All-State musicians. The Baptist General Conven-tion of Texas recently awarded its first Texas Baptist All-State Choir and Band college scholarships to two students—Whitney Newman of Frisco and Camille Hurst of Midlothian. Newman will attend Baylor University this fall. At Frisco High School, she was a member of the varsity track, softball, wrestling and cheerleading teams. She also was a four-year member of the All-Region Band and Orchestra and was named first chair French horn player for the Texas All-State Band. Newman also served more than 200 community service hours, including work through First Baptist Church in Frisco. Hurst will attend Hardin-Simmons University this fall. At Midlothian High School, she was involved in the student council, a cappella choir, concert choir and was a National Merit Commended Scholar. She was a first chair member of the All Region Choir and was a member of the All-State Treble Choir. Hurst participated in numerous mission trips, served the homeless at Dallas Life Foundation and ministered through Project PROMISE (People Recognizing Others’ Misfortunes Thus Inspiring Social Equality).

Board nominating committee meeting set. The committee to nominate Executive Board directors for the Baptist General Convention of Texas will meet Aug. 16 at 10 a.m. in the Landes A Conference Room of the Baptist Building, 333 N. Washington, Dallas. Vice Chair, Dan Curry, pastor of South Oaks Baptist Church in Arlington will preside.

Stewardship specialist retiring; will continue fundraising. Baptist General Convention of Texas Stewardship Specialist Ivan Potter retired July 31, but he will continue assisting Texas Baptist churches’ fund-raising needs. Potter has served the BGCT more than 10 years and has more than 30 years experience helping churches with financial issues. He began working with the Tarrant Baptist Foundation Aug. 1, helping churches through an outsourcing agreement with the BGCT United We Build program. Churches can continue calling the BGCT at (888) 244-9400 for assistance with their stewardship and fund-raising needs for building programs and debt retirement.

Mission Waco founder’s book honored. Trolls & Truth: 14 Realities about Today’s Church that We Don’t Want to See by Jimmy Dorrell was named as a finalist among Outreach magazine’s resource of the year awards. Dorrell is founder of the Church Under the Bridge and Mission Waco. His book was recognized in the magazine’s outreach testimony/biography category.

HSU Cowgirls score high in classroom. Hardin-Simmons University’s women’s basketball team was named the No. 1 Division III team in the nation in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Academic Top 25. Varsity players during the 2006-2007 school year posted a team grade point average of 3.664. It marked the eighth time Hardin-Simmons has been in the top 25, but the first time it has been No. 1. The Cowgirls were the only team in the American Southwest Conference in the top 25.

Posted: 8/03/07

TOGETHER:
Jesus’ agenda still the answer today

When you go to church on Sunday morning, do you expect to hear from Jesus as to how he sees the world and what he plans to do about it?

On a Sabbath morning long ago, Jesus showed up for church in his hometown. The elders handed him the scroll, and he rolled it out to the place where Isaiah was celebrating Jubilee, rehearsing with his hearers, “that the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations” (61:11). “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them” (61:8).

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

But Jesus honed in on the opening lines, boldly applying them to himself, and revealed to those who eagerly listened how he understood himself and what he knew he had come to do.

Let’s take time to hear again: “The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

What is required of us is that we hold all this together as Jesus did. We are to preach the gospel so people can be saved, and we are to live the gospel because we have been saved. We are to love God with all our life, and we are to love our neighbor as though we are loving ourselves. It is not just about being saved from hell and going to heaven when we die; it is also about living life his way.

What we often do is tell the good news, ask God to bring about a conversion harvest, and trust that as people follow Jesus they will learn to care about people they don’t care about now. We don’t want to scare them away, so we fail to mention that if you really get saved, you can’t be the way you have been, because even though God loves you enough to begin with you where you are, he loves you too much to let you stay the way you are.

And it is not just about the sins that must fall away in your personal behavior; it is about how we will treat other people with respect and fairness, not willing to be party to oppression and prejudice, committed to loving the children and serving the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, stranger, sick and prisoner (Matthew 25:40).

We are talking about the true meaning of the gospel.

And this is why all who believe that the world needs to hear Baptists say this out loud will want to be in Atlanta Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2008, for the meeting of 20,000 Baptists from 40 Baptists bodies across North America. It is called the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.

We need to gather to gain strength and to be inspired for pursuing a “Jesus agenda.” Make your travel plans. And if you can’t attend, please pray for those of us who do. This world still needs what Jesus has to offer, and he’s called us to share it.

We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

Posted: 8/03/07

TV ministries not just for televangelists

By Deborah Potter

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

LAS VEGAS (RNS)—Television ministry used to be the province of a few prominent preachers like Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell. But the business—and it is big business—definitely has come of age.

At this year’s National Association of Broadcasters convention, the “technologies for worship” pavilion drew hundreds of religious broadcasters, and they are only part of the picture. Industry leaders say there are 10,000 TV ministries around the country, both big and small.

“If you turn on basic cable, and a public access channel, in communities all over—not only the United States—you’re going to find churches with a camcorder, a single camera shot, with an on-the-camera microphone, and a pastor who is sincere, who believes the word of God, and has a desire to teach that word and share it with other people,” said Rod Payne, media director at First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, who attended the NAB convention.

While many ministries start small, lots of others invest big money in television—from high-definition cameras to digital transmitters, not to mention the airtime. Costs vary depending on distribution.

“If you’re going to go … to a network or something like that, you’re going to be really sticker-shocked with the price that’s out there,” said Brent Kenyon of the Total Living Network.

Some churches, like Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Ala., keep their costs down by operating their own low-power stations and selling time to other TV ministries.

“It’s a compact little operation but very effective,” said John Rogers, director of Frazer’s TV ministry, which reaches 100,000 homes 24 hours a day. “It’s outreach we feel we can offer that enables folks to become familiar with what church is all about, serving Jesus Christ and to bring them in and be part of the family here.”

Like many churches, Frazer relies heavily on volunteers for its TV production crew. It started its operation 24 years ago with donations from local businesses and money from the church budget. Now it offers training to churches just starting out.

The TV ministry business is getting so big, many churches have full-time media directors. Some hire consultants to help them develop new programs.

“Most Christian television that you see is very low quality; it’s not very good, and a lot of people have issues with it,” said Phil Cooke, a consultant who wrote the book Successful Christian Television. “We want to bring the best of the production world and the best of the media world in with it, and help people do it more effectively and make more entertaining shows.”

Many TV ministries get a significant portion of their income from product sales, such as CDs, as opposed to direct appeals for money. They say they have to raise cash to stay on the air, just as public television does.

But that hasn’t always been the case. In the early days of religious broadcasting, stations would donate time for programs. One of the pioneers, Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and his Life Is Worth Living, eventually attracted a sponsor and drew 10 million viewers.

In the 1960s, under pressure from evangelicals who felt they didn’t have equal access, the government ruled that stations could sell time to religious broadcasters. Evangelicals started buying, and now they are the dominant religious presence on television.

The biggest “faith network,” Trinity Broadcasting, has more than 12,000 outlets worldwide and claims an audience of more than 100 million.

TV evangelist Joel Osteen’s program draws more than 7 million viewers a week, and his audio podcast made the Top 10 on iTunes earlier this year. The Hour of Power, from the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., estimates its worldwide audience at 20 million a week and its annual cost for airtime at more than $13 million.

“It’s an expensive proposition to be on television on Sunday morning, and obviously requires a lot of fundraising, a lot of $20 gifts and $30 gifts from people all over the country, to support that and make that happen,” said James Penner, producer of The Hour of Power.

Some TV ministries are organized as churches, some as not-for-profit organizations. Either way, they pay no taxes.

Rusty Leonard, who founded the watchdog group Ministry Watch to track the finances of televangelists, rates ministries on financial efficiency and transparency. Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, for example, gets an A for transparency and four out of five stars for financial efficiency.

But some of the biggest names in the TV ministry business—including the Trinity Broadcasting Network and Benny Hinn—are on Leonard’s watchlist.

“They won’t tell you how they’re spending the money they’re asking you to give,” he said. “It’s your hard-earned money, and they’re not going to tell you where it’s going. I just don’t see why I should give to a ministry like that.”

Posted: 8/06/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Small voice

The other Sunday morning, I told my adult Bible study class this story from ourrecent family reunion vacation to Northern New Mexico:

We drove into Camp Oro Quay, east of Albuquerque, late Friday night,only to discover one missing suitcase. I’d left Cyndi’s suitcase in Angel Fire earlier that morning. Cyndi was pretty upset about it, but I couldn’t tell whether she was more upset at me for not loading the suitcase, or at herself for not checking to make sure it was loaded, or at the fact it was so late at night and she wasn’t asleep yet and now she had this to worry about.

I knew I’d loaded everything that was outside in the driveway besidemy pickup, but I had no memory of seeing another suitcase anywhere.

When we went to bed, the communal thought was that Cyndi and I woulddrive back up to Angel Fire to get the suitcase Sunday morning afterputting Drew and Katie on the airplane in Albuquerque, then drive back to Midland by way of Clayton and Amarillo. It would add about five hours to our drive home.

So we went to bed. I slept well for the first two-thirds of the night, but about 4, I woke up, fretting about the missing suitcase. I was worried about Cyndi not having a good time with her family while wearing the same clothes over and over. Some people in her family are always leaving things behind: bags, important papers, money, bills, checkbooks, car keys; I knew Cyndi didn’t want to be included in that group. And I didn’t want people to think I was forgetful way, either. Of course, I had my clothes.

And I was feeling guilty because I hadn’t noticed the suitcase was missing when I loaded all our stuff. And I pride myself on my packing ability. In my defense, there were four of us traveling together, and we each had two or three bags, plus ice chest, golf clubs, a large box of family reunion T-shirts, and all our purchases from Taos and Albuquerque. One missing bag was easy to overlook.

Sometime during the early morning while staring up into the darkness, I remembered that the camp was located east of Albuquerque, and if I drove straight north, I could cut a big tangent and save hours and hours driving to Angel Fire. And, if I left early enough, I could be back at the camp by noon and not miss any of the reunion festivities.

Well, now I was too pleased with myself to sleep. I got up at 6, unable to stay in bed one minute longer now that I was energized by my plan. With a plan, I had clarity and hope. I had a grip and could not let go.

Cyndi was in “the girl’s room” next door, so I stuck my head in to say goodbye. She followed me outside and hugged and kissed me and told me not to go and tried to talk me out of it, but I was already on a mission. I was already gone.

I finally left the camp at 6:45, drove all the way to the house in Angel Fire without stopping, arriving at 9:15. I made good time,but my tangent-cutting didn’t cut as much driving time as I’d hoped. I found the suitcase standing in the door of our bedroom, waiting patiently to be picked up. I spent about 15 minutes in Angel Fire, left at 9:30, and was back having lunch with Cyndi and family by 12:30. Quite an adventure for someone such as me.

So, my question for the Bible study class was this: Was it God who spoke to me in my bunk at 4 that Saturday morning? Or was it my own brain in problem-solving mode? In fact, I don’t know.

Most of the time, when I think I hear from God, it isn’t very obvious; reasonable minds might argue that God had no part in it and I was tricking myself. I don’t know for a fact if God spoke to me that morning in my bunk. I believe God often speaks in subtle ways and in a quiet voice. I wish he would be more forceful and obvious, but if he spoke to me in all his God-ness, I would have no choice but to obey, and for some reason he wants to give me the opportunity to say no.

Another thing I believe. If I am honestly seeking God and listening intently for his voice, I must act immediately on whatever I hear. Yet many times I don’t recognize the voice as his until later, in retrospect, after I have some perspective on events of the day.

And here is one more thing I believe: Listening to the subtle voice of God is one of Cyndi’s greatest influences on me. I’ve learned it from her.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland. You can contact him through e-mail at berry@stonefoot.org.