Posted: 5/25/07

Cadets learn Islam as part of ‘winning the peace’

By Wayne Woolley

Religion News Service

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (RNS)—The lights in a Jersey City mosque flickered at dawn, and more than a dozen West Point cadets stirred in sleeping bags scattered across the prayer room.

As Imam Hussein Wahdan began the melodious call to prayer in Arabic, bearded men filed past the cadets, kneeled and then bowed to the floor to begin their morning worship.

The cadets came to Jersey City for three days to be immersed in the religious and cultural life of one of the most ethnically diverse cities in America, the highlight of a semester-long course called “Winning the Peace.”

They met imams and observed prayers at mosques, a Hindu temple and an African-American church. They met leaders and young people from the city’s Indian, Pakistani and Egyptian Coptic Christian communities. They heard from Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who talked about the challenges of governing a city where 50 languages are spoken.

The aim of the course and field trip is to give future Army lieutenants insight into cultures and religions that may be unfamiliar to them. It is part of a broad recognition by the U.S. military that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated that troops in the field must win the trust of the local people to have any hope of defeating an enemy hiding among them.

The elective course first was offered in 2003. Although the launch of “Winning the Peace” coincided with the beginning of the Iraq war, the idea came from a West Point instructor who had just returned from a humanitarian exercise in Haiti and saw a vast culture gap between the soldiers and the people they were trying to help.

Col. Cindy Jebb, the deputy head of West Point’s department of social sciences, said the Army is trying to send a message to its future officers that they will lead troops into many kinds of battles. All West Point cadets receive commissions as Army 2nd lieutenants upon graduation.

“In the 1990s, we as an Army went through a kind of schizophrenia. Are we war fighters? Or are we peacekeepers?” Jebb said. “It’s clear right now that we’re both.”

Posted: 5/25/07

Chaplain strives to be the
presence of Christ in war zone

By Bob Perkins Jr.

Associated Baptist Press

L ANBAR, Iraq (ABP)—Chaplain Alan Rogers has baptized a Marine in an Iraqi river under armed protection. Needless to say, it was a quick job.

A Marine Corps corporal asked Rogers to baptize in the Euphrates River in Iraq, near the Syrian border.

“He courageously made a public proclamation of his faith in front of his squad as they crouched in the bushes on the riverbank, providing security for us,” Rogers recalled. “When he emerged from the water, I said, ‘God bless you, my brother.’ He replied, ‘God bless you too, Chaps. Now, let’s get out of here before we get shot!’”

Rogers was commissioned in the Navy Chaplains Corps in 2004 and is assigned to the Third Battalion, Fourth Marines in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. His role is to facilitate the exercise of religion and accommodate the religious needs and practices of Marines, sailors and their families.

“I strive to bring both a ministry of presence and a ministry of purpose through actions that deliberately provide proactive and responsive ministry support to every member of the force,” said Rogers, a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology and a Cooperative Bap-tist Fellowship-endorsed chaplain.

He provides pastoral care to all members of the unit and their families, regardless of their faith or lack thereof.

“In this context, it’s perhaps the most religiously pluralistic ministry setting anywhere,” Rogers said. “I am the ‘Chaps’ not only for the Baptist, Protestant or Christian Marine or sailor, but equally serve those of many faith groups who are afforded the same religious freedoms they serve here to defend.”

Rogers called his situation a “microcosm of the best of the religious liberty of America,” and he called himself “blessed to serve these who are truly among America’s best, brightest and most dedicated guardians of freedom.”

He routinely goes into the battlefield, accompanying armed personnel on patrols, in convoys, or just being there to share a conversation or a meal.

“This setting provides the best opportunity for me to listen as these men express concerns that would not be so readily discussed in another context,” Rogers said.

“Although I only share a small fraction of the hardship and danger they experience, through my presence I develop credibility and earn trust by simply being with them where they are, sharing with them some of their burdens and helping them shoulder some of their emotional and spiritual loads.”

Rogers offers field worship services at battlefield locations.

“I regularly offer short devotionals, prayers and quick words of encouragement,” Rogers said. “It’s a humbling experience to pray with these young men as they do a final check of their gear prior to embarking on a combat patrol.”

As with any military operation, casualties are a way of life. Rogers said ministering to the wounded and dying is the least desirable but arguably most meaningful of his duties.

“While I always strive to offer ministry respecting the distinctive faith group of the individual within the scope of my own endorsement, it is most often a calm presence and reassuring touch and tone they most value,” Rogers said.

“As difficult as this aspect of ministry is, it is also a sacred responsibility and privilege to hold the hand, pray with and offer encouragement to these who are hurting,” he said.

Posted: 5/25/07

Southern Baptist tapped
as Army chief of chaplains

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Chaplain Douglas Carver has been nominated to serve as the next U.S. Army chief of chaplains—the first Southern Baptist to lead the Army’s chaplain corps in more than 50 years.

Carver, 55, also has been recommended for promotion in rank from brigadier general to major general. Pending Senate confirmation, he will be promoted to his new position at a July 12 ceremony at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Carver is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., as well as the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

He has served as pastor of Baptist churches in Kentucky, Colorado and Virginia, and he is endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board.

“Any position of responsibility in life that comes to us comes from the Lord, and I know God is the one who has done this,” he said.

Carver expressed appreciation to the “Sunday school teachers, Royal Ambassador directors and others within my community of faith who have shaped me since childhood.”

He served as a chaplain with the 101st Airborne. He also was director of training at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School in Fort Jackson, S.C., before becoming deputy chief of chaplains for the Army in 2005.

Chaplains serving in the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan not only face the stresses common to all military chaplains, but also some unique challenges, Carver noted.

“Many of the chaplains in my generation missed Vietnam. They have served in a series of relatively short-term military interventions, but nothing of the duration or scale of the current engagement,” he said.

All military chaplains prepare for ministry to wounded personnel and to bereaved families, but medical advances and the extensive use of improvised explosive devices combine to make the current ministry setting somewhat different, he noted.

“The good news is that advances in medicine have extended the lives of soldiers with extensive injuries,” he said. At the same time, he acknowledged, “because of the IEDs, we’re dealing with more traumatic brain injuries, as well as acute traumatic stress.”

Posted: 5/25/07

Family collects tributes to
fallen soldier as ‘sacred relics’

By Wayne Woolley

Religion News Service

OUTH AMBOY, N.J. (RNS)—It happens every time a U.S. soldier or Marine dies in Iraq. The bad news immediately spreads across the base like wildfire, and in the troop recreation centers, Internet connections are shut down.

Commanders don’t want word of the death to reach the soldier’s family before military officials personally deliver the news. Once the knock at the family door comes between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., the electronic blockade back in Iraq is lifted and a torrent of e-mails flows from the battlefield to the dead soldier’s family in America.

The practice of military commanders sending personal letters to the families of fallen troops dates at least to the Civil War. But in an era when deployed soldiers can maintain MySpace pages, families have immediate access to a digital community of former comrades offering condolences, stories and even glimpses into a loved one’s final hours.

This is exactly what happened after Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Sebban, a senior combat medic in the 82nd Airborne Division who grew up in South Amboy, N.J., was killed by an explosion while tending to wounded paratroopers in Iraq.

Sebban, 29, died March 17 in Baquba. By 6 p.m. in New Jersey, the phone rang in the casualty assistance office at Fort Monmouth.

Three hours later, a chaplain and two officers arrived at Sebban’s mother’s home in Neshanic Station. Then, almost immediately after the visit, came a tide of personal e-mails offering condolences and testimonials to Sebban’s life.

Among the first was one from Sgt. John Gilbert, a fellow medic. “He risked his life to make sure others were not harmed,” Gilbert wrote. “That’s the type of person he was.”

The missives sent from the field to Sebban’s family paint a portrait of a young man who could be funny, generous and uncompromising in performing his duties—all at the same time. The e-mails describe a practical joker, a confidant who lent $600 to a fellow soldier who really needed it, and someone who was at work saving lives the day he died.

Messages from the combat zone become a central part of the shrine many families eventually erect in their home, said Joanne Steen, a grief counselor and author who advises the Pentagon on how to help military families cope with loss.

“People have a tendency of collecting and saving those things that belong to the deceased; they’re sacred relics,” said Steen, who lost her husband, a naval aviator, in a training accident. “You can never get enough information about your loved one. Each time they hear a story or get an e-mail, that’s another piece of the puzzle they didn’t have.”

Besides his mother, Barbara Walsh, a nurse who was working as a missionary in Africa when he was born, Sebban is survived by two younger brothers, Daniel, 28, and David, 27. Both are Army veterans.

Daniel Sebban said the family decided to share the e-mails about his brother soon after they began arriving from Iraq and then from other military outposts around the globe. Messages also arrived from sources as varied as the owner of a pizza parlor in South Amboy, former classmates at a Bible college in New York and a Navy physician who urged Benjamin Sebban to consider a career in medicine.

“These e-mails say more about who my brother really was than I can,” Daniel Sebban said.

The e-mails written by the men and women who served with Sebban return to many of the same themes—his skills as a medic, his generosity, his sense of humor and his love for the Army. Many make references to Sebban’s deep Christian faith.

Walsh recalled how her son begged her to let him transfer from a parochial high school to a vocational school for a new health technology program. She knew there was a future for her son in medicine, but something was pulling him toward the military. He almost joined the Navy after high school. His mother steered him on another path.

“Benjamin, just give God one year of your life,” she said. He went to a school in upstate New York that prepares young Christians for missionary life. He liked it enough that he finished a second year, then moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., to finish a degree at a Bible college.

His younger brother had joined the Army and was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. The brothers talked about military life, and Barbara Walsh soon got a phone call from her oldest son.

“Mom, I just met an Army recruiter, and they’ve got one slot open for a medic,” Benjamin told her.

Walsh’s youngest son, David, soon followed his brothers into the Army. Even after his brothers left the military, Benjamin Sebban stayed in, rising quickly through the enlisted ranks.

Walsh had protested the Vietnam War and never imagined any of her sons would join the military. “They could be pastors, they could be missionaries,” she remembered thinking when they were young. But she learned to accept their decisions, especially Benjamin’s.

The last time Walsh heard from Sebban, he had good news. He had been promoted from staff sergeant to sergeant first class. That meant he was within two ranks of the highest enlisted position, sergeant major. He talked of making a career of the Army.

“Two days later,” she said, “he was dead.”

In one of the dozens of e-mails that have come from Iraq, Staff Sgt. Brian Merry wrote that Sebban had talked often about a visit he made to Arlington National Cemetery before shipping out. He had insisted Merry do the same.

Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin L. Sebban was buried at Arlington. Meanwhile, the e-mails from Iraq keep coming.

Posted: 5/25/07

Chaplains prep West Point
cadets for spiritual warfare

By Gregory Tomlin

Baptist Press

EST POINT, N.Y. (BP)—Southern Baptist chaplains Col. John Cook and Lt. Col. Darrell Thomsen, along with other chaplains at West Point, mourn the loss of 51 academy graduates since the war began.

Still, new cadets keep coming with a desire to serve. Among the cadets are Cook’s twin sons, both “plebes”—first-year students. Despite the risks involved with service, Cook said he is proud his sons, Jonathan and Joshua, have chosen to attend West Point.

“This is the only place they applied,” he said. “It was the only place they wanted to be.”

Each West Point cadet is mindful of the burdens of duty to their nation in wartime, and they are aware the path of service they’ve chosen may even cost them their lives, the Baptist chaplains noted.

“The cadets here know that,” said Cook, the academy’s senior chaplain and adviser to the superintendent on religious affairs. “In fact, all of our cadets who are currently students here made the decision to come to West Point after Sept. 11, 2001. So, they knew when they came here that there is a significant possibility that they will be going into combat.”

“We help them work through the fear that goes along with combat,” said Thomsen, the academy’s Protestant cadet chaplain. “There is a lot of power in fear, but there’s more power in faith.”

Chaplains at West Point are involved in a “ministry of preparation,” Cook said.

The chaplains work with students who have questions about war, killing and about what will happen to them if they die in combat. They attempt to resolve these issues within the cadets’ first two years at the academy, before they must commit to a term of service as an officer in the Army and face possible deployments overseas.

“They know they need to be prepared,” Cook said. “We don’t want them blindly graduating from here. We have a responsibility to see that they work through this whether they ask about it or not. If they don’t ask, we put it on the table for them. They’ve got to resolve it.”

It helps the cadets at West Point to know the chaplains themselves have dealt with many of the same issues they will face. Both Cook and Thomsen served in combat, Thomsen in Panama with the 82nd Airborne Division in 1989 and both men in Desert Storm in 1991.

Cook was a battalion chaplain with the 18th Airborne Corps and lost one soldier during the 100-hour ground war in 1991. He saw rocket launchers and helicopters engage Iraqi troops and tanks in his area. Thomsen also lost some of his troops in a minefield.

From 2004 to 2005, just prior to his most recent duty station at West Point, Cook also was chaplain to the Coalition Land Forces Component in Kuwait. Being with the soldiers in the theater of combat operations is what he and other chaplains call the “ministry of presence,” an indispensable service to troops under fire.

“We weren’t there with weapons. We weren’t there to take lives. We were there to care for our soldiers on the battlefield,” Cook said.

Caring for soldiers meant treating them after they had been wounded, writing a letter to family members for them, and even relaying messages to wounded comrades.

It meant sharing the gospel when the opportunity presented itself. Cook led 27 soldiers to Christ during Operation Desert Storm and baptized 15.

When a death occurs, notifying families of the loss of their loved becomes the focus of ministry. The death notification is the most unpleasant of the chaplains’ duties, they said. Both have been called on to be bearers of the grim news when soldiers from the area surrounding West Point have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Thomsen said the visits never are easy because every family is unsuspecting.

“I’d rather go to combat than I would make a death notification,” he said.

Posted: 5/25/07

San Antonio volunteers
serve wounded warriors

By George Henson

Staff Writer

SAN ANTONIO—Two teams of volunteers at First Baptist Church in San Antonio are working to minister to soldiers and families during some of their most trying times.

Tom and Nell Kolterman lead a team of volunteers who provide and serve a meal to soldiers and their families at Powless House, a residential facility at Fort Sam Houston for wounded soldiers who need long-term outpatient care provided by Brooke Army Medical Center.

The team prepares and serves meals to between 100 and 150 people every-other month.

But the ministry goes beyond filling people’s stomachs, Kolterman stressed.

“While we are serving, we have an opportunity to interact with these young people who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and also their families,” he said.

After the meal, volunteers lead a bingo game, and the team also provides gift cards to local businesses as prizes.

While the ministry is fulfilling, it also can be difficult, Kolterman acknowledged.

“It is quite a blessing, but it’s something you have to get used to because you see some awful stuff sometimes,” he said of the soldiers’ injuries. “But there’s not a one of us who doesn’t feel greatly more blessed than any we’ve given.”

An added bonus is that at least a few of the families each time accept an invitation to church the next Sunday.

A second team ministers to the soldiers and their families at Fisher House, a residential facility at Lackland Air Force Base. Families there usually are not casualties of war, but have illnesses that demand long-term care at Wilford Hall Medical Center.

Jim and Nita Peck lead a team that also serves a meal to up to 29 people staying at that facility. Peck agreed interaction is the key ingredient in the ministry.

“After we serve the meal, we get to sit and listen to their problems, and then we get to pray with and encourage them,” Peck said.

The facility seems to serve primarily very young families and older retired Air Force veterans, he noted. The variety in ailments he has encountered includes children and infants with leukemia, a mother who was hoping her leaking amniotic fluid would last long enough for her baby to form completely, and older people with a variety of cancers.

While not war casualties, their needs are as great, Peck said.

“We see a lot of young people who are in dire straits,” he said. “We don’t think much of military people struggling with this sort of thing—more of them getting shot up and stuff—but they go through these same trials that everyone else does. But most of these are young people who are away from home and family, so they only support and encouragement they get comes from places like Fisher House.”

Posted: 5/25/07

2nd Opinion:
Leave judgment in the parking lot

By Robert Tucker

The challenge of a classically trained musician to adapt to new worship styles without abandoning the old was both daunting and rewarding. My commitment to providing the finest in worship experiences led me to a crossroads in my musical journey. The desire to incorporate and become a part of the emerging church in a praise-and-worship setting meant that I needed to know something about it and to learn how to become a part of it. The old adage “if you can’t beat them, join them” has never been more true than in my case of trying to become a part of the praise-and-worship team—“team” in the broad sense of the term.

Specifically, our church had a team—a small group that included a few singers, a drummer, a bass player, a guitar player, and a pianist and organist. Perhaps out of default or due to my jazz background on the piano, suddenly it became my duty and obligation to provide leadership at the keyboard. I met this requirement with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Probably similar to a skydiver on his first dive or in my case a solo French horn player in an orchestra, I was confident of my basic skills but completely at a loss on how to use them. Can I fit in and learn this new system, and am I capable? Will I enhance the worship experience for the people, or will I ruin it? Is this good for the church?

As I played and sought to fit in with the team, I noticed the response of the people was not negative or bored but rather was worshipful and meaningful. In addition, the sounds emanating from the guitar were intriguing due to the added tones used for harmonic color and musical interest. Furthermore, the rhythm was multi-dimensioned, with a syncopated complexity that almost defied notation. The music was engaging, creative, spontaneous and emotionally charged.

In other words, my entire training and musical thought processing were altered, and I began to rethink some things.

Worship is not about musical rules or even musical or harmonic expectations. It is simply about expression and responses to expression and emotion. We, the trained and the untrained musicians, have a responsibility to provide worship experiences that may or may not be within the established academic framework of music. It is difficult, however, for those of us in academia to divorce the “rules” from the experience. For the academically trained musician, the experience is directly proportionate to the rules set forth according to history. To break the rules is to experience substandard quality in sound. It becomes unfathomable to a trained musician how the music with its substandard theoretical basis can be a satisfying experience.

From literature to art museums to movies, we respond individually to the artistic experience. When you add God to the equation, it becomes difficult, perhaps impossible, to predict emotional response. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the leaders to decipher prayerfully yet comprehensively what in fact is best for a congregation, and furthermore to commit himself to providing the finest worshipful experience possible and to reach a large amount of people. This experience may and should include hymns, choruses, choirs, solos, praise teams, instrumental ensembles, guitars, organs, pianos, drums and percussions, orchestral instruments and handbells. The list is limited only by human imagination. At the same time, we should honor God by worshipping with quality, responsibility and heart.

We live in a world of eclecticism that extends to the church and to worship. No longer is it wise or even fair to categorize yourself myopically as a modernist who only likes choruses or a traditionalist who only likes hymns. Instead, I urge you—the trained musician, the academician, the music lover, the congregation member, the deacon, the pastor, the layman, the old and the young—to categorize yourself as a Christian who chooses to worship corporately and individually without inhibiting the worship of other people. Lay your judgment, your prejudices and your selfishness down in the parking lot before you enter the house of worship. Allow God’s spirit to move within you, using whatever music is presented that day. You will find your experience to be both godly and satisfying. Most importantly, your accepting spirit may indeed find fruition in reaching someone else.

“Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music to the Lord in your heart” (Ephesians 5:19).

Robert Tucker is the dean of music, fine arts and extended education at Howard Payne University in Brownwood.

Posted: 5/25/07

When it comes to counting church
members, the devil’s in the details

By Amy Green

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The Southern Baptist Convention, with about 16.2 million members on the books, claims to be the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. But Tom Ascol believes the active membership really is a fraction of that.

Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., points to a church report showing that only 6 million Southern Baptists attend church on an average Sunday.

“The reality is, the FBI couldn’t find half of those (members) if they had to,” he said.

Ascol plans to bring a resolution to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in San Antonio, calling for “integrity in the way we regard our membership rolls in our churches and also in the way we report statistics.”

For religious organizations, membership figures are a lot like a position on the annual list of best colleges. A rise is trumpeted as a sign of vitality, strength and clout. And a drop probably means somebody somewhere checked the wrong box on some unimportant survey.

Vast differences in theology and accounting practices make it nearly impossible to know how many members a church body really has, whether active or occasional worshippers. That, in turn, makes side-by-side comparisons nearly impossible.

“Church membership is not as straightforward as it seems,” said Eileen Lindner, associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches.

Lindner, a Presbyterian, produces the NCC’s annual Yearbook of Canadian and American Churches, widely seen as an authoritative source for church membership statistics. But even she knows there are limits.

Here’s a quick look at some of the challenges that go into collecting church membership statistics:

• Self-reporting.

Numbers are only as reliable as the church officials who collect them.

“For some, very careful counts are made of members,” the 2007 Yearbook says. “Other groups only make estimates.”

For example, the National Baptist Convention of America Inc., a historically black denomination, has reported a steady 3.5 million members since 2000—no additions, no deletions. The National Missionary Baptist Convention’s numbers have been frozen at 2.5 million since 1992.

Dale Jones, chairman of the 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Study, which draws from 149 religious groups, said statisticians are wary of membership numbers ending in several zeros, though he declined to cite examples.

• Theology.

Often a church’s understanding of membership—how it is started, how it is maintained and how it can be revoked—influences counts.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), with 13 million members worldwide, often is reported to be one of the fastest-growing churches in the United States. Mormons start enrolling children as members through baptism at age 8.

Members stay on the rolls—even if they move to another church—unless they ask to be removed or are excommunicated.

“Baptism is a sacred covenant. We believe it has eternal consequences,” spokeswoman Kim Farah said. “Baptism is a very sacred thing, and it’s a very personal thing, and far be it for us to take someone off the church membership except if they have asked.”

Ascol takes issue with some churches that enroll people after they answer an altar call and commit themselves to following Jesus. He says it’s a superficial means of joining the church and requires no real commitment. Even after those members disappear, the denomination counts them, he said.

• Active membership.

Roman Catholics, the largest U.S. church with a reported 69 million members, start counting baptized infants as members and often don’t remove people until they die. Most membership surveys don’t actually count who’s in the pews on Sunday.

To be disenrolled, Catholics must write a bishop to ask that their baptisms be revoked, said Mary Gautier, senior research associate for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a research center affiliated with Georgetown University.

That means it is possible, for example, to be born Catholic, married Methodist, die Lutheran and still be listed as a member of the 1 billion-member Roman Catholic Church.

“The Catholic understanding of membership is that a person becomes a member upon baptism and remains a member for life,” Gautier said. “Whether you show up at church or not is not what determines whether you’re a member.”

• Institutional honesty.

Mainline Protestant churches—Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and others—are roundly criticized for hemorrhaging members for 40 years. And while membership has surely dropped, mainline churches often are the first to cleanse their rolls of the inactive to produce a more accurate figure.

The 15-million-member Seventh-day Adventists, for example, saw their U.S. numbers drop in recent years in part because a church audit found duplicates on membership rolls, said Kathleen Jones, an assistant for general statistics for the denomination. Those duplicates are being purged.

Often, new pastors want up-to-date numbers because they don’t want to be blamed for any drops, said Lindner of the NCC. And some denominations assess fees to congregations based on membership, so the smaller the numbers, the smaller the fees.

• Survey guilt.

When asked about voting habits, belief in God or their feelings toward race or gender, Americans are notorious for answering what they think pollsters want to hear. Church demographers say the same rings true for church attendance.

Some studies show more Americans consider themselves Southern Baptist than are accounted for by the denomination’s own numbers, said Roger Finke, director of the Association of Religion Data Archives at Penn State.

The same is true of Catholics and Presbyterians, Finke said. And while an estimated 53 percent of Americans consider themselves Protestant, surveys of denominational membership find only 35 percent of the general population are members of a local congregation.

“Many people who are not members of a local church still view themselves as being Protestant, Catholic or some other religion, even though they’re not actively involved in a church,” Finke said.

Posted: 5/25/07

DOWN HOME:
Adjustment needed in half-empty nest

Joanna and I are negotiating a phase of parenthood I’ve never seen written up in any book.

That’s amazing in and of itself. How could any aspect of parenthood go unexamined, unchronicled, unsold to desperate moms and dads frantic to figure out how to raise Junior and Bitsy to responsible adulthood?

Maybe this part got overlooked precisely because it’s so close to adulthood. Nobody thought to, well, think about it.

I’m talking about summer during college.

See, you raise this child as if her every breath for 18 years depends upon you. You start out walking her to sleep in the middle of the night. And then teaching her to talk (and sometimes praying she would forget … for just 15 minutes), and then how to read and to ride a bike. Later comes long division, and then driving a car, and also when not to get into a car driven by another kid who shouldn’t be driving. Eventually, you help her decide on a college.

Then she dumps you. Well, not really. But she goes off to college and has fun. From the sound of it, more fun than she had with you.

Along the way, you love every minute of all of it. Even sickness and fights. Especially bedtime stories and long talks late at night after movies. You realize that, in God’s great plan, whatever else you might have done—successes and failures, joys and sorrows, surprises and disappointments—all your life is worth the time and effort and protoplasm, just for the privilege of raising children.

But about the time you realize how good you have it, they go away.

Then comes the weird part: Sad as you are that you live in an “empty nest” with just your spouse and no kids, you really like that, too.

For one thing, for the first time in, oh, 21 or 23 years, you realize you still love that special someone who captured your heart when you were your kids’ age. For another, you realize life is simpler when you don’t have to think about curfews, when you no longer pull hairballs the size of chihuahuas out of the shower drain, when only two people have to decide what to eat for dinner tonight.

You feel guilty, but you admit this phase of parenthood, like all others, holds special delight.

And then comes summer. Like swallows to Capistrano, the chickees return to the nest.

Don’t get me wrong; I still love being a dad. The sound of Molly’s voice talking to her mother in the den puts Beethoven or even Norah Jones to shame. But still, summer means re-learning to live with “company” who share your gene pool. The untidy consolation is the kiddoes have to readjust to Mama and Daddy, too.

This summer, Molly’s only around for short, irregular stints. Just long enough to remind me that, while I enjoy the quiet of an empty nest, times with my kids are the “good ol’ days.”

Posted: 5/25/07

EDITORIAL:
The future of Texas depends on this

The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board made several far-reaching decisions during its spring meeting May 21-22. As significant as all of them were, the influence of one could extend well beyond the others.

First, the board approved a 15-member search committee to nominate the convention’s next executive director. This leader will help shape and focus the convention during the coming years, and the influence could extend for decades.

Second, the board accepted the suggestion of Stephen Wakefield, the convention’s attorney, not to file lawsuits to recover funds lost in the Rio Grande Valley church-starting scandal. “The likelihood of recovery of significant funds is speculative at best,” Wakefield told the board. Although many Texas Baptists are disappointed, his logic is solid. And while criminal charges still may be filed, this brings one portion of this sad saga to a close.

Third, the board allocated proceeds from a recent gift to help retire the debt on Breckenridge Village at Tyler. The ministry to special-needs adults has been strapped since it opened about a decade ago. By ensuring financial viability, the board can secure care for many of God’s children for generations.

But the most far-reaching consequence could flow from a report the board passed along for follow-up action.

About two years ago, the board formed a task force to help Hispanic youth finish high school and achieve higher education. The Hispanic Education Task Force created a paint-by-numbers portrait of poverty:

• Hispanics comprise 14 percent of the U.S. population, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority.

• More then 31 percent of Hispanic Texans age 25 and older received less than a ninth-grade education.

• Fifty-one percent of Hispanic Texas adults do not have a high-school diploma or GED.

• The teen pregnancy rate for Hispanic dropouts is more than 20 percent, far higher than the rate for Anglo dropouts.

• The average U.S.-born Hispanic dropout earns just $6,500 per year, compared to $7,300 for a white dropout.

• Nationally, Hispanic household wealth equals less than 10 percent of the wealth owned by Anglos.

• Because so many Hispanic parents are poorly educated, they are not equipped to help their children learn and stay in school, so the cycle of poverty spirals.

The Hispanic Education Task Force cited numerous reasons Texas Baptists should get involved. Reasons ranged from impact on the Texas economy and society, to the future of Texas Baptist universities, to “lack of leadership and limited financial support” for churches. But it also pointed to an ultimate reason for helping Hispanic youth get an education: “We are called as the Body of Christ to equip people to fulfill God’s purpose in their lives.”

The Executive Board authorized its Missions and Ministries Committee to lead in responding to recommendations to keep Hispanic children in school and help many of them earn college degrees. Bottom line: Churches of all ethnic backgrounds must open our arms and our hearts We will transform Texas—creating a bright future and a hope-filled eternity—when we become known as the people who refuse to let Hispanic kids fall through the cracks of the educational system.

Felipe Garza, the task force’s chairman and an executive with Buckner International, provided a poignant reminder of the proposals’ promise: He grew up in an alcohol-plagued, abusive, impoverished home. But a Baptist pastor knocked on his door and not only introduced Garza to Jesus, but also showed him how education could unlock the bonds of poverty and abuse.

And that’s why congregations will provide the key to the task force’s solutions, Garza said, stressing, “It can only be done through the local church.”

Posted: 5/25/07

Faith Digest

Many professors take dim view of evangelicals. About half of nonevangelical university faculty acknowledge they don’t have warm feelings about evangelical Christians, a new survey shows. A survey released by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research found 53 percent said they have “cool/unfavorable feelings” toward evangelical Christians. In comparison, 30 percent said they had favorable feelings toward them, 9 percent were neutral, 4 percent said they didn’t know and 4 percent refused to answer. One-third of non-Mormon faculty reported unfavorable views of Mormons. Views about other religious groups were more positive, with Muslims getting a 22 percent unfavorable rating, followed by atheists (18 percent), Catholics (13 percent), persons not practicing any religion (10 percent), nonevangelical Christians (9 percent), Buddhists (4 percent) and Jews (3 percent). Faculty from any particular group were excluded from rating other members of their faith. Results of the online survey were based on a sample of 1,269 faculty members at 712 four-year colleges and universities. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Archaeologists uncover Herod’s tomb. Israeli archaeologists believe they have discovered the tomb of King Herod. Professor Ehud Netzer from the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem said his team discovered the tomb during ongoing excavations at Herodium, a once-magnificent palace located nine miles south of Jerusalem, in what is now the West Bank. Pointing to intricately carved remains from the excavation, Netzer said his team discovered a grave, fragments from a sarcophagus and a mausoleum on Mount Herodium’s northeastern slope. “The location and the unique nature of the findings, as well as the historical record leave no doubt that this was Herod’s burial site,” Netzer said. Herod, who was appointed by the Romans, ruled Judea from 37 to 4 B.C. The New Testament says Jesus was born during Herod’s reign and Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt because the king planned to kill the infant Jesus.

Methodist bishops table gay policy change. United Methodist bishops have tabled a proposal that would have loosened restrictions in the church’s policies on homosexuality. The bishops, meeting near Myrtle Beach, S.C., decided to keep intact the church’s current policy, adopted in 1972, that calls homosexual activity “incompatible with Christian teaching.” A bishops’ subcommittee had proposed language saying the church does not condone sexual activity “outside the bonds of a faithful, loving and committed relationship between two persons; marriage, where legally possible.” The bishops’ administrative committee tabled the measure because it “would not have been for the betterment of the church at this time,” said Committee Chair Robert Hayes of Oklahoma, United Methodist News Service reported. Because the issue was tabled, it never received a full vote by the assembled bishops, and it will not be presented to the church’s General Conference meeting, set for summer 2008 in Fort Worth.

Posted: 5/25/07

Granbury church believes in old-time
religion—first-century Christianity

By George Henson

Staff Writer

GRANBURY—Pastor C.C. Risenhoover and worship leader David Humphrey of Gateway Community Church in Granbury have more than 100 years ministry experience between them, and they say they are tied to tradition. But the tradition they seek to follow is the first-century church, as illustrated in the second chapter of Acts.

Recently, the church ordained eight members to serve as pastors for the church’s various ministries—Chad Carroll for evangelism, Randa Carroll for administration, Terry King for discipleship, Joanne King for fellowship, Jackie Solomon for media and youth, Margie Solomon for youth, Johnnie Couch for children and Lindsay Luedeker for children and outreach.

“I grew up in an era when we really stressed people being called to ministry,” Risenhoover said. “And here, on one Sunday, we had eight people come down and surrender their lives to the gospel ministry—and three of them were couples.”

Risenhoover and Humphrey met with the eight and talked about the areas of their giftedness so they could decide how each could serve best.

The ordinations were an integral part of the church’s new structure that enhances five essential functions of a New Testament congregation—discipleship, evangelism, fellowship, ministry and worship, Humphrey explained.

“We need pastors in all five areas to accommodate our rapid growth,” he said. “Until we can build new facilities, we’ll be cramped for space. So, to meet the needs of a growing congregation, each of these new pastors will be responsible for helping find creative alternatives to meet the specific needs of those who seek to serve Christ at Gateway.”

Only 16 people attended the Easter worship service in 2006 at Waples Baptist Church—the former name of Gateway. This year, 165 gathered for worship on Easter morning.

The church called Risenhoover as pastor last September, and Humphrey joined the team in January after attending for several weeks.

They don’t attribute the growth to themselves but to God’s Spirit working in the hearts of people.

The growth has challenged the church to look toward building a larger sanctuary since the current one is at capacity.

“We’re in trouble about room,” Risenhoover acknowledged. “But it’s a good problem to have and one we’re going to solve.”

The growth also has brought the right people to the church in the present to make the future easier to picture, he continued.

“We’ve had all kinds of people come here with all kinds of talent,” he said. “Not just talent for use in worship, but God provides for your future needs. We’ve got concrete guys who have joined, a couple of builders, a man with a land grader. Everything we’re going to need in the future, God has sent us.”

God also has sent special moments where the congregation was keenly aware of his presence, like the ordination service for the eight new lay-ministers, Risenhoover and Humphrey agreed.

“We wanted to do something different than the typical ordination service,” Risenhoover said. “We thought being ordained was almost like a marriage, in a sense. So, our ordination service was a kind of marriage ceremony between them and the congregation.”

The service began with hymns of praise, followed by Scripture readings. Then those being ordained faced the congregation and responded “I will” or “I do” to a litany of vows regarding God, the church and the Bible using the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message as the guide.

Risenhoover then washed the feet of the people being ordained as Humphrey explained to the congregation it was being done to symbolically demonstrate that the role of all ministers, including those being ordained that day, is the role of a servant.

“I think the washing of the feet really affected people,” Humphrey said. “It wasn’t showmanship, but it was to remind people that they are servants—that ministry is servanthood. We are not to lord over anyone, but the Lord is over us.”

After the footwashing, each candidate then took communion. Every member then had the opportunity to lay hands on those being ordained and to offer a prayer. The congregation filed out after their opportunity, taking communion individually before leaving the building.

“People had a hard time controlling their emotions,” Humphrey said. “It’s had a profound difference on the church. It’s made us all much more aware of the Holy Spirit, that we don’t come to church to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit, but that each of us brings the Spirit with us. … We’re trying to concentrate not on what we want, but what God needs us to do. Instead of moving away from Ninevah, we’re trying to break it down and in the process make disciples.”

Risenhoover has been pastor of four churches, been a professor at six universities and served long tenures with the Southern Baptist Convention Radio & Television Commission and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Humphrey is a former minister of music at First Baptist Church in Dallas, minister of music and worship at Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, and co-author and executive producer of the popular Christian musical drama “The Promise.”

In spite of their years of service, the two ministers are not looking back over their shoulders at how they’ve done it before. Rather, they see the new opportunity for service at Gateway as a new lease on life—literally in Humphrey’s case. Gateway is the first church he has served since a liver transplant saved his life.

“I wasn’t called out of retirement. I was called out of death. After my liver transplant, I knew what death was—I was two weeks from it,” he said. “But in our maturity—between us we have more than 100 years in the ministry—we don’t want to live in the 1950s or the 1960s, but in Year 1 with the first-century church. We’ve got to get back to the basics of a life lived in Christ.”