Posted: 9/15/06

BUA breaks ground for major expansion

SAN ANTONIO—Baptist University of the Americas broke ground Aug. 29 on a new 78-acre campus in southwest San Antonio that school President Albert Reyes called the institution’s “field of dreams.”

The new Baugh Family Campus will include a $4 million student housing complex, the 60,000-square-feet Piper Student Village, opening for the fall 2007 semester.

BUA purchased the 78-acre tract in early 2006 with the assistance of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The new campus is directly across the Pan American Expressway from the current campus and is accessible by a walkover bridge.

Infrastructure development and the housing complex are Phase 1 of the project and represent a $6 million investment, according to university sources. The university hopes to begin Phase 2 within the next three years, and it will include an additional $5 million to $10 million investment for a student services building that will include a learning resource center, dining facilities, a student center and student development offices.

Phase 3 is planned to include administrative and classroom space, a chapel and additional student housing with plans to invest about $50 million in campus development during the next 25 years.

“The generosity of the John and Eula Mae Baugh family and Katie and the late Paul Piper Sr. helps us fulfill our vision for bridging cultures and building lives beginning with the life of each student and ultimately including the countless lives they will enhance during a lifetime of Christian service,” Reyes said. “These visionary supporters recognize that BUA’s personal approach to student development helps many fulfill their potential who might be left behind in larger institutions. We are so grateful to them for this wonderful kickoff to our capital campaign.”

Baugh is founder and chief executive officer of Sysco Foods Corp., headquartered in Houston. Daughter, Babs Baugh, and granddaughter, Jackie Moore, are residents of San Antonio, while Julie Ortiz, another granddaughter, included in the family foundation, resides in Austin. Katy and the late Paul Piper Sr. are founders of the Christ is Our Salvation Foundation headquartered in Waco. Katy Piper lives in Austin, while son Paul Piper Jr. and wife, Shirley, reside in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

The groundbreaking also marked the beginning of a capital fundraising campaign—Crossing Over Together. The campaign, co-chaired by Bill Thornton and Debbie Ferrier, will support a 10-year plan with the ultimate goal to serve 1,000 students on campus with unlimited off-site and online expansion.

Posted: 9/15/06

Buckner brings hope to orphans in Guatemala

By Jenny Pope

Buckner Benevolences

Four-year-old Juan Pablo was severely burned as an infant when his mother poured scalding water over his face and body as punishment and then abandoned him. Two surgeries and two orphanages later, he finally has broken away from the once-distant little boy who shuddered at human touch.

Now, with his arms tightly clasped around his caregiver as she swings him around the room, he closes his eyes and parts his lips into a beautiful, if twisted, grin and sways his head back and forth to the music.

Juan Pablo is a changed boy.

A young girl at the Manchen Girls’ Home in Antigua, Guatemala, gets her face painted by a group of mothers and daughters traveling with Buckner Orphan Care International.

With an estimated 22,000 orphans living in Guatemala, Buckner Orphan Care International has worked since 2002 to provide abandoned children like Juan Pablo hope for the future by providing for their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

What began with a few mission trips has evolved into a full-blown ministry—providing humanitarian aid, such as new shoes, clothing and equipment; building schools and dorms and digging wells; opening two Buckner-run baby orphanages and a girl’s transitional home; and ministering to the hurts and needs of hundreds of children, including many who have come to trust Christ as Lord and Savior.

Because of the unique relationship Buckner has developed with the Guatemalan government, it is the only agency allowed to work in government orphanages and community centers.

“The only reason we’ve been able to grow so much is because each staff member has a great relationship with the Lord and is really dedicated to doing what is best for the children,” said Leslie Chace, director of Latin American ministries for Buckner Orphan Care International.

Buckner employs 12 full-time staff members in areas of adoption, humanitarian aid and special projects, mission team coordination, case management and ministry follow-up.

Juan Pablo, 4, receives special self-esteem building therapy at the newly-opened Buckner Esperanza Baby Home in Guatemala City.

Currently, they work in 12 private and government-run orphanages in Guatemala City, Antigua, Zacapa, Xela and Huehuetenango. They also send aid to many others, including the government-run community centers overseen by Secretary of Orphan Protection Carmen Alicia de Weiner.

Buckner delivered more than 9,000 pairs of new shoes from the Shoes for Orphan Souls project to needy children in the government daycare centers in 2006.

“We value not just the economic help, which I would say is very important, but most importantly how our children feel the love of the people who come and visit them,” Weiner said. “You can see the difference when the group is from Buckner and when the group is another type of volunteers. … Our kids really feel the love and concern.”

Buckner celebrated the opening of its transitional girls’ home in Guatemala City earlier this year through a partnership with entrepreneur Isabel de Bosch, owner of a restaurant chain in Guatemala.

The home cares for seven teenaged girls—three from the Manchen Girl’s Home and four from Fundaninas Girl’s Home, owned by de Bosch—as they transition out of the orphanage and prepare for life on their own. Each attends private school and receives help from specialized tutors in the afternoons.

Linda Williams, a Buckner mission trip participant, consoles a Guatemalan orphan at the Fundaninos orphanage outside Guatemala City.

In addition to the transitional home, Buckner opened its two baby orphanages—Esperanza in Guatemala City and a small home in Xela. Esperanza—which means “hope”—currently cares for four children, each with special needs, which can be best attended to in a private home than in the government baby orphanages, according to the baby home director Abigail de Bauer.

“It is no coincidence that we have children with many emotional and physical needs,” she said. “It wasn’t on purpose, but it was God who prepared our home to be a place for them.”

The children, including Juan Pablo, have experienced tragic circumstances in their few years which has led to many emotional and developmental problems, such as delayed speech, Bauer said. They each receive individualized attention and therapy—such as speech therapy and exercises to increase both dexterity and self-esteem.

Guatemala has the third-highest number of adoptions in the world because many of the children are acquired through illegal means and baby trafficking. It is not uncommon for women to make a business out of having babies and selling them, earning as much as 10,000 quetzals ($1,000) for each child, said Buckner adoptions coordinator Paula Anleu.

In Guatemala—with its 12 million population—officials declared more than 5,000 adoptions completed in 2005. The United States in comparison, with a population of 300 million, completed about 1,000, Anleu noted.

“The system is very corrupt,” she said. “It’s hard when lawyers are doing adoptions much faster than us, in just two to three months, when it takes about six to eight months to do it legally. They are just further promoting families to make a business out of selling their babies.”

Since adoptions began in 2005, Buckner has placed five children into Christian families in the United States. Eight more children are in the process of being adopted.

Buckner first began ministry in Guatemala by sending a few mission teams to work in the orphanages. In 2006, 32 teams will travel to orphanages and community centers in Guatemala to share the gospel, provide humanitarian aid, host sports camps and Vacation Bible Schools, and unabashedly deliver kisses and hugs. Many have developed lasting friendships, sending notes and cards throughout the years to show the children they haven’t been forgotten.

“Without the work of these mission teams, we couldn’t do what we do,” said Chiqui de Mollinedo, executive director of Buckner’s ministry in Guatemala. “The teams just fall in love with the children and then go back to the United States with each child in their hearts.”

“Many of the girls here struggle with low self-esteem,” said Eva de Garcia, director of the Manchen Girl’s Home where most girls have been physically or sexually abused. “When someone from the United States comes to hug them and kiss them, they start to think, ‘I am a really special person.’ You can see the difference. They start having more and more self confidence and learn to value themselves.”

A recent mission trip by 121 Community Church in Grapevine proved fruitful at Manchen when 26 girls professed faith in Christ as their Savior.

“It’s a rough place, and the girls realize that the only way they’ll be able to get through their lives and the hard times is having the Lord in their hearts,” said Ada Ramirez, Buckner follow-up staff member.

“We all get really happy when we hear a group is coming,” said Debora, 17, a former gang member who lives at Manchen. “Otherwise, we have nothing to do. They bring gifts and activities for us; it’s a fun time. It’s very encouraging to hear about God.”

Orphanage improvements and renovations are a large part of Buckner’s work in Guatemala, because “showing the children we care about where they live helps them know we care about them, too,” Chace said.

Last spring, Buckner completed work on the water well at the San Gabriel boy’s orphanage outside of Guatemala City. The $30,000 project provides clean water for a group of boys who at one time collected rain water in buckets and slept on concrete beds, she said.

Other ongoing projects include renovations to the girls’ dorm and kitchen at Manchen, and restructuring the former on-site baby home into a five-room schoolhouse. Buckner also will build a new bakery and computer lab to encourage and support vocational skills for the girl’s future.

“My greatest hope for these girls is to give them all the benefits I can while they are here, especially the attention and love,” Garcia said. “If even just one of the girls that I took care of can have a great future, a family, a successful career, it will all be worth it.”

“Mother Theresa once said that there is no greater disease than being unwanted,” said Amy Norton, director of Shoes for Orphan Souls, to a mother/daughter mission team before they departed to love on orphans.

“I’ve been to orphanages all over the world … but I’ve never, ever been so overwhelmed or shocked than when I came to Guatemala and heard some of the stories about the children who are abused, sold and prostituted out by their families. They wake up every day feeling alone and unwanted.”

But they are not unloved. Due to Buckner’s partnership with the Guatemalan government and several private orphanages, thousands of children receive hope—through a laugh, a toy, new shoes or a gentle hug—and know they are loved.

“Buckner has given me an injection of energy,” Weiner said. “It’s good to know we have friends who are willing to help us fight for what we believe in, because this is a battle we fight everyday. I know we are not alone.”

For more information on Buckner’s work in Guatemala, visit www.helporphans .org.

Posted: 9/15/06

BGCT budget proposal reflects
reorganization, other changes

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

The 2007 Baptist General Convention of Texas budget proposal the Executive Board will consider Sept. 25-26 not only reflects a comprehensive staff reorganization that occurred this year, but also includes incremental steps toward bringing into the budget items previously covered by discretionary funds and designated gifts.

The $50.6 million recommended budget represents about a 2 percent increase over the $49,437,000 budget for 2006. Of the total proposed budget, $42,441,000 would come from Texas Cooperative Program receipts.

But on top of the $50.6 million budget proposal, BGCT Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer David Nabors also will show the finance committee and then the full Executive Board how an additional $1.1 million from wills, trusts, interest income and some designated gifts will be used to fund operations in the coming year.

“We are trying to move as much into the budget as possible in the interests of transparency and accountability,” said BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade.

But the 2007 budget could not absorb the full amount needed to fund ministries, and it will take at least one more year to complete that process, he added.

Since the new organizational structure did not exist when messengers to last year’s BGCT annual meeting approved the 2006 budget, it makes simple side-by-side comparisons of the two budgets difficult.

Further complicating the picture, this year’s budget incorporates more—but still not all—of the programs funded by wills, trusts, interest income and some designated gifts that had, in the past, been allocated at the discretion of the treasurer’s office.

For instance, based on the budget proposal mailed to Executive Board directors, the recommended operations budget—excluding the executive director’s office, financial management and Texas Baptist Men—totals $42,218,838, a $1,122,393 increase over 2006.

It shows decreases for three areas in the operations segment of the proposed budget: missions, evangelism and ministry, down $700,667; institutional ministries, down $205,138; and the chief operating officer’s office, down $205,352.

But in terms of actual dollars available from other sources—and considering the shifting of staff and program assignments within the staff structure—missions, evangelism and ministry’s net loss actually is closer to $130,000 than $700,000, and institutional ministries will receive an amount roughly equal to the 2006 budget, Wade explained.

About $200,000 previously earmarked for church starters moved from the missions, evangelism and ministry area into the category with congregational strategists, he said.

An additional $370,000 in anticipated funding will come from discretionary and designated funds.

Within the recommended operations budget, the communications office shows the largest single increase in the comparative budget summary mailed to the Executive Board—up $437,389.

That apparent increase reflects the movement of most budgeted funds for publicity and promotion from individual program areas into the communications office, Wade explained. It also brings into the budget many expenses for the BGCT annual meeting previously funded through other sources. But the second-largest single increase shown in the proposal—$407,591 for theological education—represents a real funding increase, he added.

Based on the information mailed to the Executive Board and not considering additional funding from non-budget sources, other areas showing significant increases with the operations category include Christian ethics and public policy, up $282,217; the leadership team, up $245,124; research and development, up $242,153; congregational strategists, up $208,255; collegiate ministries, up $199,109; and the service center, up $115,053.

In other areas of the proposed budget, the executive director’s office shows a $216,673 decrease, most of it attributable to the elimination of a $199,644 line item for the Minnesota/Wisconsin Baptist Convention.

“Minnesota/Wisconsin is being moved out of the budget and will be funded in a decreasing manner over the next few years of our partnership agreement,” Wade said.

The formal partnership ends in 2010, but Texas Baptist Men and Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas will continue to relate to the Minnesota/Wisconsin convention, he added. Financial support for the convention for the remaining years of the partnership will be allocated from designated missions offerings.

The executive director’s office also shows a $69,988 reduction in recommended budget allocation for WorldconneX.

Financial management receives a $202,314 increase over 2006, according to the recommended budget, and Texas Baptist Men’s proposed budget increases by $54,966.

Posted: 9/15/06

Posted: 9/15/06

2nd Opinion:
A ‘giant’ who cared for all children

By Jerry Haag

Editor’s Note: Jess Lunsford, the founding administrator of South Texas Children’s Home, died Aug. 28 at age 96. STCH is one of four childcare agencies affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Jess Lunsford was a giant. If you only knew Jess by his physical stature, you would wonder why anyone would characterize him as a giant. But if you knew Jess by his character, wisdom, relationship with Christ, heart or dreams, “giant” does not do him justice. Giant is too small for Jess Lunsford.

I have enjoyed reading his journals and want to share some of them with you. Some of the early struggles Jess faced occurred because people did not know the function of a children’s home. During Christmas of 1955, Jess wrote about the strange request he received one night at South Texas Children’s Home. He wrote: “Three oilfield workers at the door last night wanting to meet some of our girls—imagine; we never saw this before. They were shown the shortest route out of the grounds.”

Jess wrote about the heartaches that grew out of where the children had come from and what they had experienced. As I read these stories, I was struck how many of them are the same tragic stories of our children today at South Texas Children’s Home.

He also wrote about what touched his heart. At Christmas in 1955, the children and staff went together to buy him a two-piece suitcase set, something he badly needed. On Dec. 26, 1955, he wrote: “Joe, 13, leaned on the car door last evening in back of cottage and said, ‘Brother Lunsford, you know how much I put in on your gift, (the two-piece suitcase)? All my allowance, I did it because I love you so much.’ If my eyes were wet, I’m not ashamed.”

Through God’s wisdom and leadership, Jess established the principles that still guide us today. Jess established in our bylaws that South Texas Children’s Home never would be in debt and never would take state and federal funding. It was his firm belief that if God wanted this work done, then God would provide the funding through his people. Jess believed, as we still do today, that meeting the physical and emotional needs of the children is not enough. The greatest gift we can give the children is a relationship with their heavenly Father through his Son, Jesus Christ.

I spoke to Jess by phone just a few days before his death. He always asked me how things were going and for an update. Our last face-to-face visit was in an Austin hospital, after he broke his hip. We talked about how he was doing and what was taking place at South Texas Children’s Home. As I was getting ready to leave, he said something I never will forget. Jess looked up at me and said, “I’m proud of you, son.” In those very few words, he said so much.

Lil Abshier, who first came to know her future father, Jess, when she still was called Lillie May Dworaczyk, said in an interview: “J.M. Lunsford will always be the giant and the one in my life. For me, he was it—the one who made the difference.”

Jess Lunsford always will be a giant to thousands upon thousands of children, to generations of children in need. He was the one who made the difference to Lillie May. He was the one to make the difference to thousands of children during his time at South Texas Children’s Home. It was his God-given dream that made it possible for South Texas Children’s Home to help more than 5,400 children and families this past year. It is his enduring dream that will care for countless children for generations to come.

What we see happen in the lives of children today, tomorrow, next year, even 50 years from now is a testimony to Jess Lunsford’s dreams, his dedicated work and his consuming passion.

I close with one last entry from his journal for Feb. 7, 1955. “The prayer of the day: O, Lord, help me to know that I do not know much, and give me the grace to use what I do know and lean on thee for the rest.”

“Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Mathew 25:21).

Jerry Haag is president of South Texas Children’s Home, near Beeville.

Posted: 9/15/06

Volunteers share gospel with
children in Dominican Republic

By Joanna Berry

South Texas Children's Home

VILLA MELLA, Dominican Republic—Eleven volunteers and staff from South Texas Children’s Home helped lead Vacation Bible School for children in the Dominican Republic.

The Texans worked in Villa Mella, a rapidly growing community north of the capital city of Santo Domingo.

They took part in Vacation Bible Schools at 15 locations in four days—teaching stories and songs to children in small wooden portable chapels, under trees in vacant lots and in empty school buildings. Some packed small homes, spilling out onto patios and surrounding alleyways.

South Texas Children’s Home worked in partnership with Quisqueyana Baptist Church and Time Ministries. Together, 135 workers shared the gospel message with 2,200 children—including 421 older children and youth who made professions of faith in Christ.

“It was the kingdom of heaven coming down, and we were blessed participants,” said Sandra Downs, a member of First Baptist Church in Beeville.

Dominicans and Americans met first for worship and orientation, then organized into five teams for the morning locations and regrouped into 10 teams for the afternoon classes.

Working with the Dominican Christians had an unforgettable impact on team members.

“I wish I could bottle their enthusiasm and their faith. It would send a wave of revival across the United States that has not been seen in decades,” said Donald Wilkinson, a member of First Baptist Church in Sinton. “They have such a love for God and for the children.”

The children—and their physical needs—touched the hearts of the volunteers, said Jerry Haag, president and chief executive officer of South Texas Children’s Home. “Beyond their tattered clothes and dirty faces, they are exactly like our children—longing to be held, loving to laugh and in desperate need of a Savior. How grateful we were to be God’s hands of love.”

The volunteers delivered clothing and blankets to a family caring for 35 children of prostitutes who had been living on the streets before they took them into their home.

Printed on the blankets were, “Jesus Loves You” and “Jesús Me Ama.” The children at South Texas Children’s Home and the children of First Baptist Church in Beeville assembled and tied the blankets for the children of the Dominican Republic.

Posted: 9/15/06

DOWN HOME:
Not just a house, this was a home

It’s only a house.

Gray brick with black shingles. A terrific “open” kitchen/den, laid out so a family can spend an entire evening together in the same room. Three bedrooms; two up and one down. A shower in the master bath that takes eons to get hot. Formal living and dining rooms that serve primarily as the shortcut between a small office and the kitchen. A two-car garage that doubles as a leaf magnet in the fall. And a yard that, despite my best intentions, always could use weed-pulling or flower-planting.

It’s only a house.

But for almost 11 years, it was our home.

We sold it last week.

Joanna and I talked about this for several years. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is a great place to live, with terrific restaurants, plenty of things to do and friends all over the place. The only really bad aspects of living here are ungodly hot summers and demonic commutes to work.

So, since we couldn’t do anything about the heat, we decided to improve our quality of life by shortening our commute. And since we didn’t move so far that we needed to change churches, this move seemed smart and easy.

Well, maybe smart. Over the course of a year, this move will save us the equivalent of days, if not weeks, of driving. Over the balance of our careers, that will add up to months, if not years. Plus, we’ll do our part to save the earth by burning less gas.

But this was anything but easy.

Our daughters, Lindsay and Molly, grew up in that house, our home. We woke up to 11 Christmas mornings there. We celebrated dozens of birthdays there. We ate innumerable evening dinners around the oak table in the kitchen. We read an infinite number of books and watched untold hours of TV together in the den.

In our home, we laughed and cried and talked and dreamed. We rejoiced in all the little victories of life and hugged each other through the little defeats, too. We got sick and recuperated. We danced on the kitchen floor and cried over by the fireplace. We marked milestones, like Lindsay and Molly’s graduations, Lindsay’s wedding, first dates, births of the next generation of our extended family, the death of our beloved dog, Betsy.

When I think about that house, I understand why, in the Bible, the Hebrew people placed such an emphasis on place. They understood that a space becomes sacred—not so much in and of itself, but in how the people experienced God there. And in our home, we saw, felt and heard the activity of God’s good and great blessing in our lives, day by day, year by year. If I were an Old Testament patriarch, I would have stacked stones into a monument in the backyard before we vacated the premises.

Now, Lindsay and Molly have grown up and moved away, so Jo and I have moved on. I’ll always think of 1365 Edmonton Drive as home. But I’ll also know home for me is wherever Jo is, and my heart will feel at home wherever our girls may roam.

—Marv Knox

Posted: 9/15/06

EDITORIAL:
Eternal lament: Why did God do this?

“Why did God do this to me?”

I don’t know how loudly James Polehinke asked that question, but his words reverberated around the globe.

Polehinke is the only survivor of Comair Flight 5191, which crashed in a private farm just past the end of Blue Grass Airport’s Runway 26 at 6:07 a.m., Aug. 27. Forty-nine other people died.

Polehinke, the co-pilot of Flight 5191, remained in serious condition in the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital in Lexington. The Louisville Courier-Journal, which reported Polehinke’s question, said he did not specifically mention the crash. Still, contemplating his pain and loss, he asked the question that has sprung from the lips of suffering souls for millennia: “Why did God do this to me?”

Polehinke asked the question of family friend Antonio Cruz, who responded: “It was not God. It was just an accident.”

The Courier-Journal cited human errors that led to the awful crash, the worst air disaster in the United States in almost five years:

• The air traffic controller who cleared Flight 5191 for takeoff had only two hours’ sleep between shifts. Immediately after giving the go-ahead, the controller turned to other administrative duties and did not visually monitor the airplane’s progress.

• The pilots had not taken off from the airport since the taxiway had been changed a week earlier. Although the flight recorder indicated they noticed their runway did not have working lights, they did not ask why.

• The plane’s compass should have indicated the aircraft was pointed in the wrong direction, yet the pilots continued.

• Ultimately, the plane took off from Runway 26, which is only 3,500 feet long—half the distance needed by commercial carriers that size. The pilots should have steered the plane the opposite direction down 7,000-foot Runway 22.

• The plane skidded on the grass at the end of the runway. Then it hit, in succession, a berm, the airport’s perimeter fence and the tops of trees before crashing in farmland.

The sole survivor asks: “Why did God do this to me?” A friend responds: “It was not God. It was an accident.”

Do you think God caused the crash of Flight 5191? Throughout time, people who have sought meaning in unspeakable horror have pondered God’s role in suffering. Devoted and thoughtful people of faith have offered answers that span a significant spectrum of possibility. On one end, people who defend God’s absolute sovereignty claim nothing happens aside from God’s design. So, whether we find this awe-inspiring or just plain awful, they believe God causes planes to crash and newlyweds, Habitat for Humanity volunteers, college professors and parents of small children to die. At the other end, people who defend God’s unconditional love insist such unjust suffering is contrary to God’s nature. So, as random and capricious as tragedy may be, they believe God has nothing to do with it.

No one fully knows or comprehends the infinite wisdom and logic of God. We who affirm God as Creator and Lord of all cannot fathom anything beyond God’s will and reach. We who affirm God’s limitless love as exhibited in the sacrificial death of his Son, Jesus, cannot imagine God would behave so willfully and destructively and take 49 lives just to make any kind of theological point.

Each of us who ponders God’s role in evil and suffering will come down somewhere along that spectrum. You must make your own evaluation. But count me as one who believes God would not propel a plane down a short runway and shove 49 people into eternity on a Sunday morning. God’s perfect will would not inflict such unspeakable suffering. God’s permissive will allowed it.

And why would God allow such horrible decisions? The same reason God has been allowing humanity to make bad decisions since the beginning: The Bible clearly indicates God created people so we could receive and reciprocate God’s love. In order to reciprocate, we must be free—free to love God, but also free not to love God. With that freedom comes the full scale of freedoms to make all kinds of choices—to drive drunk, abandon children, abuse our bodies, taxi the wrong way down a too-short runway.

The deaths of a planeload of people might seem like an awful price to pay for the freedom to make choices, including loving or not loving God. But it also ought to remind us how wild and furious and costly and precious is that freedom.

Lest we think God takes our freedom lightly, remember God sacrificed God’s only Son to redeem us from our wrong choice not to reciprocate divine love. God knows and bears our suffering.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.

Posted: 9/15/06

Georgia minister produces
movie as tool for ministry

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

ALBANY, Ga. (RNS)—When Alex Kendrick thinks about sharing his faith, he thinks about movie screens, not evangelistic tracts.

Kendrick, associate pastor of media ministries at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., has co-produced Facing the Giants with the help of hundreds of volunteers—on screen and behind the scenes—from his Southern Baptist congregation and local community.

On Sept. 29, the movie about a Christian high school football team will premiere on 400 movie screens in 86 markets. In addition to co-writing the script with his brother Stephen, Kendrick plays the lead character of the movie, Coach Grant Taylor.

“This is a ministry tool,” said Kendrick, who handles the television and video productions at the 3,000-member church. “I think churches are waking up to the fact that this is a valid avenue of ministry. … People still love a good story.”

Movies and ministry have been combined for decades, with organizations like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association producing films, and pastors sprinkling their sermons with movie clips. Evangelical churches played a big role in getting audiences to The Passion of the Christ, and Christian bookstores offer family-friendly film fare. Now, this congregation has decided to become involved in moviemaking itself with its own company, Sherwood Pictures.

Research by the California-based Barna Group reveals 66 percent of adults say they talk with friends and associates about movies and TV shows they’ve seen recently. But, founder George Barna said, “The majority of people who have attended a church service cannot even remember the theme of the sermon within two hours of leaving the building.”

Those types of figures fueled the church’s interest in making movies as an expression of faith, said Pastor Michael Catt of Sherwood Baptist Church. “Rather than waiting for people to come to us, let’s go to them.”

Facing the Giants is built around the struggling Eagles football team at the fictional Shiloh Christian Academy. A local layman walks down a hallway of lockers praying for the student body. The coach turns to the Bible as his wife falls to her knees in a battle against infertility.

Unlike a typical Hollywood production, Facing the Giants was made with hardly any paid professionals. More than 500 people helped in a variety of ways, from babysitting to donating meals and serving as extras. The credits give the sense of the grassroots effort—listing everyone from the “prayer coordinator” to the local restaurants and supermarkets that provided food.

Church members donated $100,000 for the film, and Provident Films and Sherwood Pictures worked together on enhancing the color of the low-budget movie. A soundtrack includes Provident Music Group artists such as Third Day and Casting Crowns. Sony Pictures is distributing it through Samuel Goldwyn Films.

On screen and off, Kendrick opts for a direct message about his beliefs.

The coach sparks a turnaround on his team—which eventually faces the formidable Giants—when he urges players to not think of their own glory but glorifying God instead.

In real life, he hopes the movie will draw people closer to God, whether they’re already believers or not.

“Everybody faces giants,” said Kendrick. “It may be fear. It may be failure. It may be inferiority or something else. And one of the messages in this movie … is that you can’t always face your giants on your own. … And that’s where you have to rely on the Lord.”

Barna’s company has hosted screenings of Facing the Giants for secular and religious groups, and Barna himself has launched a new Christian entertainment company, Good News Holdings, to produce its own version of faith-related movies. Barna’s first project is an adaptation of author Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

“We realize there are some people who are open to and even appreciative of a very direct faith-oriented message,” Barna said. “Some people who, because they’re coming to be entertained, aren’t looking for something that always leads back to faith. From my perspective, you’ve got to have different approaches, where sometimes it’s direct, sometimes it’s indirect but it’s theologically correct.”

But any movie that has a blatant message about needing Jesus in your life—as Facing the Giants does—could end up with a narrower audience than its producers hope.

Sherwood Baptist Church’s senior pastor, and others involved in the movie’s production hope it will present a picture of everyday lives of Christians and encourage others to start or renew a Christian commitment.

“We’d like to see people’s lives changed,” Catt said.

Posted: 9/15/06

Program offers training for
Rio Grande Valley families

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

DEL RIO—Many parents say raising children is the toughest job you can get with zero experience, skills, know-how or good role models. But it’s getting easier for parents along the Rio Grande, thanks to Families for a Future.

Convinced that the key to reducing drug/ alcohol use, teen suicide, juvenile delinquency, gang involvement, child abuse and domestic violence is strengthening families, Baptist Child & Family Services launched the pilot program last March in five counties surrounding Del Rio.

“Families for a Future gave me ideas on how to be a better parent,” said program graduate Virginia Garza. “Being a single parent, it is sometimes hard to apply what I’ve learned. But I believe, by following through, my boys and I will become a more healthy and respectful family. My sons are all boy, but this helps me always remember what blessings they are, too.”

Adriana Bonilla graduates from the Families for a Future program in the Rio Grande Valley.

Parents even volunteer to go into local schools and preach the value of the training program and have formed ongoing support groups to continue to help each other be better parents.

The program came at a point when funding cuts forced the closing of all mentoring and parent training programs in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as the Boys and Girls’ Club. That left the BCFS STAR program—Services To At-Risk youth—as the only structured effort to help troubled families.

“The arrest rate for family violence in Val Verde County is 29 percent higher than the state average, and we are experiencing a clear rise in juvenile delinquency—and the surrounding counties have similar statistics,” explained Jackie Hanson, BCFS program director in Del Rio.

“We looked at all the possible solutions we could think of and developed this approach based on the Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities curriculum.

“Families for a Future is a good fit for STAR because of the expertise and networks our staff already has. The past five months, serving 80 families and 67 youth ages 10-and-up has been an awesome experience.”

A high point of the initial training was a family retreat at Alto Frio Baptist Encampment.

“Our program is unique in that it includes the concluding retreat,” explained Janie Cook, executive director of the BCFS teen and youth services division that includes STAR and Families for a Future.

“That not only allows any spouses who didn’t take the course to sit in on the final 15 hours of training, but also gives the family an enjoyable mini-vacation together in a setting that reinforces their love for each other and lets them put into practice the things they’ve learned in a supportive atmosphere.”

Even though BCFS pays for the retreat, the response shows the value the families put on the program.

“What would make parents go week after week to long classes where they had homework and tests, then go to all the trouble to drive to Leakey from the Valley the weekend before school starts like this first group did?” Cook asked. “It’s because they love their families so much.”

“We (BCFS staff) have a vision of what family life can be in South Texas, and the parents do, too,” Raquel Frausto, one of the lead trainers, pointed out.

“We’re planting seed for something that is going to grow—not because of the staff but because of these parents. They learn the building blocks for success, and the changed way they parent will change how their friends and neighbors parent—and how their children parent when they become parents.”

The remaining families, who were unable to make the retreat, had a second graduation ceremony in Del Rio that made front page news in the local paper.

The three-hour long weekly meetings last three months and address violence against self (drug/alcohol abuse, depression and suicide), violence against family (child abuse and domestic violence) and violence against the community (juvenile delinquency, crime and gangs). At the same time, children 12 and older received their own training in the value of healthy families. Child care was provided for younger children.

Every three months, graduates will be offered a three-hour “booster training.”

“Seeing the pride 17-year-old boys and 13-year-old girls showed as they hugged their parents after they received their graduation certificate was wonderful,” Cook said. “That is a reflection of the good things they already have seen in just 12 weeks and the mutual respect and improved communication they’ve developed for each other.”

Posted: 9/15/06

Texas Baptist Forum

Losing focus

I am responding to the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board action to cut three positions from the missions, evangelism and ministry area (Sept. 4). It seems these positions would be the last to be cut, since they have an intentional focus on the community outside the church.

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; or by mail to P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; 250 words maximum.

“One of our biggest challenges as Christians living in the 21st century is to learn how to talk about the things that are important to us, like prayer and hearing from God, without scaring our neighbors. Not that we have to backpedal what we believe; we just have to learn how to communicate better.” Berry Simpson Baptist Standard cybercolumnist “What struck me most is when one of them said to me: ‘You know we’re really no different than your society. We’re just honest about our affairs, and we take care of our babies and our girlfriends.’” Loraine Sundquist Recalling a conversation with a wife of polygamist Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ (Washington Post / RNS) “If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.” Katherine Harris Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Florida, describing separation of church and state as “so wrong, because God is the one who chooses our rulers” (Florida Baptist Witness)

It does not seem OK just to reassign their duties to other people, such as the congregational strategists, because their focus is not the community outside the established church. With only a small percentage of people in Texas attending church on any given Sunday, we ought to double the positions that focus outside the church. We as Texas Baptists have been very critical of others who have tended to run the same course.

I hope the BGCT in its new reorganization is not losing its focus on the people outside the church who need love and mercy from those who will intentionally seek them out.

I hope we are not on the path of being inwardly—instead of outwardly—focused.

Walter Norris

Plano

Sunday football

Is it just me, or was the NCAA scheduling the Baylor/TCU football game on a Sunday afternoon ironic? I know we live in a time when Sunday is really “just another day,” but I cannot help but think of the message it sends, seeing two “Christian” universities squaring off on a Sunday afternoon.

Was there even a “peep” of protest anywhere? I realize the shrinking significance of Sunday night to most Baptist churches, but I had hoped for at least a half-hearted statement from somebody. If I’m the only one, that’s fine.

The Cowboys, Rangers, etc. have no spiritual message to bring, nor does anyone look to them for one, so let them play on Sunday without comment. I thought maybe our own church-supported universities might be different.

Bruce Parsons

Roscoe

Controlling prayer

Regarding Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson’s censorship of chapel speaker Dwight McKissic (Sept. 4): Should the heartfelt expressions of McKissic be unlimited? Would his unlimited freedom to preach from his heart do more good or bad to our society? Would limited freedom of expressing his groaning for God impact a student body and therefore threaten Baptist foundations? 

What has happened to us as Baptists? Is there a new fascism among Baptists? Are we now controlling how people pray? Are we so fearful that we must control a pastor discussing his heartfelt conversation with God? Have we begun to shut people down if they do not line up exactly according to our viewpoint?

Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Waring: “In every country where man is free to think and to speak, differences of opinion will arise from difference of perception, and the imperfection of reason; but these differences when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds overspreading our land transiently and leaving our horizon more bright and serene.” Jefferson had it right. Let free discussion, not censorship, purify differences.

Jerry Rogers

Lewisville

New Israel

We appreciate your “End Times” editorial, “Sooner or later, one day will be final” (Aug. 7).

It seems to us that most of those who claim God has a special interest in Israel as a land and/or a nation have not read Deuteronomy 28-29 or Matthew 21:42-43.

The Apostle Paul certainly believed believers are the new Israel—the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16).

David & Maxine King

Marshall

Posted: 9/15/06

Who’s Who in Islam: major groups

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—For American Christians who don’t know a Shiite from a Sunni or an Alawi from a Wahhabi, divisions within Islam can be daunting to decipher.

Here’s a simple Who’s Who of a few major groups—either religious or political—that claim the Islamic label.

• Sunni. About 85 percent of Muslims worldwide identify themselves as Sunni, which means “tradition.” Sunnis consider themselves followers of the traditions established by Muhammad and the first two generations that followed him.

• Shiite. Followers of Shi’a constitute the second-largest group within Islam. The schism between the Sunni and Shiites originated over questions of who should succeed Muhammad’s immediate group of handpicked caliphs. The Shiites favored Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, as the legitimate successor and believe descendents of Muhammad should rule the Islamic community. (Some political leaders—both Shiite and Sunni—have used their supposed descent from Muhammad to shore up their resume, including Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Jordan’s King Hussein and Sheikh Muhammed Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon’s Hezbollah party.)

• Sufi. The Sufis are part of a mystical movement that stresses personal, intimate knowledge of God. Most Sufis are Sunni, but some Shiite Muslims embrace Sufi principles. Some extreme Sufi mystics are considered outside Muslim orthodoxy.

• Wahhabi. Ironically, the Wahhabis have been compared both to Unitarians and Puritans. They stress the unity of God and reject traditions not found in the Quran. The movement, focused on purifying Islam, originated in Arabia under the leadership of al-Wahhab in the 1700s. Literal interpretation of the Quran has led Wahhabis to administer the cutting off of hands as a penalty for some crimes.

• Alawi. The Alawites generally have been considered a heretical sect within Shiite Islam, but it has moved closer to acceptance in the last 30 years. It has ties to some political leaders in Syria and its Baath party.

• Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad founded this African-American movement in the 1930s. It is not regarded as orthodox by mainstream Islam. Louis Farrakhan became the Nation of Islam’s leader after the founder’s death—particularly after Muhammad’s son, Wallace D. Muhammad, moved toward orthodox Islam.

(Adapted in part from Islam: Its Prophet, People, Politics and Power by George W. Braswell Jr., published by Broadman & Holman, 1996)