Posted: 4/02/04

Fellowship of Christian Athletes marks
50 years of campus Jesus huddles

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (RNS)–Standing on the balcony of the headquarters of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, former pro-football player Harry Flaherty relished the view directly across Interstate 70 of the huge stadiums for the baseball and football teams of this Midwestern city.

On a tour of the renovated home office during a 50th anniversary weekend for the sports ministry, the 42-year-old recalled the 16-millimeter film he watched in his first year of college, when he first heard legendary coach Tom Landry promote the fellowship.

Years later, after Flaherty eventually played under Landry as a Dallas Cowboy in the 1980s, he now directs the sports ministry's activities in New York City and New Jersey. He oversees the “huddles” that meet in that area's schools, which have grown from 20 in 1995 to 120 today.

“There are huddle coaches now who were FCA kids in junior high and high school,” he said. “They're coaching. They're saying, 'Hey I want to be involved.'”

The ministry, which harnessed the popularity of sports celebrities to its particular interest in Christian conversion, now grows through the influence of student leaders on campuses and former athletes who advise them.

More than 50 years ago, Oklahoma college student Don McClanen started collecting newspaper clippings of professional athletes who spoke publicly about their Christian faith. He later contacted some of those featured to help him start his ministry.

“I was just young enough, foolish enough and adventurous enough to do it and I think God honored that,” McClanen said.

Carl Erskine, a Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher, was one of those athletes McClanen contacted who became a speaker for the organization McClanen founded in 1954.

On a stage decorated with balls, racquets and other standard sports equipment, the former pitcher stood before many former coaches and athletes at a recent anniversary dinner and congratulated the organization's leaders for following Jesus' example by speaking in parables, albeit ones tinged with sports.

“FCA is right where we live,” Erskine said. “That's, I think, why FCA has tapped into so many young people, coaches and families.”

Sports terminology is rife throughout the evangelical Christian organization. “God's Playbook” is the title of the ministry's New International Version edition of the Bible. Camps long have been known as “a week of inspiration and perspiration.”

Part of the group's “Competitor's Creed” reads: “My sweat is an offering to my Master. My soreness is a sacrifice to my Savior.”

The ministry, which began in the same year as Sports Illustrated, grew from citywide rallies to summer camps to weekly and biweekly gatherings on campuses. Those “huddles,” mostly on high school and college campuses, range from groups of about five at a rural school to gatherings of hundreds on campuses like the University of Florida and Clemson University.

One of the ministry's almost 8,000 huddles meets weekly in the portable classroom of Gaithersburg High School in Maryland that otherwise is used for an English class. Over a recent Wednesday lunch–two slices of pizza and a soda for two bucks–about 35 students listened to guest speaker Mark Haug, the high school pastor of a church from nearby Germantown, encourage them to inspire their school community.

Citing a statistic that most people become Christians by age 18, Haug said: “You guys on the high school campus are the last bastion of influence. … This is the last great mission field.”

Christine Pettit, a sophomore tennis player who helps lead the huddle, said she chose this group over other student leadership roles because she wants to have that kind of effect on her peers.

“I'm just really interested in having everyone know the peace that I feel because of Christ and salvation,” said Pettit, who attends a non-denominational church.

Pettit's pleased with the numbers who attend, an increase from the dozen or so who took part last year.

“I think that the pizza has been a good way for kids to come,” she said.

The food offered by FCA on a different level was part of the initial attraction for the group's current president. Dal Shealy recalled as a young high school coach how he saw a sign for a free FCA breakfast at a meeting of the American Football Coaches Association.

“I didn't understand anything about FCA but I understood 'breakfast' and 'free,” he told the anniversary dinner crowd.

The breakfast in the 1960s led to an FCA camp experience, which helped him improve his personal faith life with prayer and Bible study.

After leaving his job as head football coach at the University of Richmond in Virginia, he's led the organization for 12 years, presiding over a staff that now numbers more than 600.

Despite the current growth, the ministry has had challenges over the years. Shealy acknowledges that the group once had more of a competitive spirit with other sports ministries. Now, he says, he meets biannually with leaders of other evangelical ministries so they can all be on “team Jesus Christ.”

James Mathisen, co-author of “Muscular Christianity: Evangelical Protestants and the Development of American Sport,” said the group was less successful in the late 1980s and early 1990s but has rebounded since then.

“They took on issues of delinquency and drugs,” said Mathisen, a sociology professor at Wheaton College in Illinois. “They project now a somewhat more high-profile social consciousness. Their commitments are not just conversion and evangelism but they're into … a little bit more holistic sense of involvement.”

Beyond the weekly Bible-based huddles, the ministry has brought speakers into schools for more secular talks under the “One Way 2 Play Drug Free” program, which seeks written commitments from students to abstain from drugs and alcohol.

In its early years, the ministry shunned an offer for significant financial support if it changed “Christian” in its name to “Religious.” More recently, Shealy said, the group declined $100,000 from a major beer company that wanted it to focus on responsible drinking rather than total abstention.

“I say this: The Fellowship of Christian Athletes. If you take Christ out, what do you have? Fellowship of I-A-N athletes–I am nothing,” he said. “We don't want to be nothing. We want to be something because we are Christ-centered.”

As the group sticks to its strict Christian principles, its leaders remain interested in finding new ways to expand their efforts.

“We're going to have to change with society,” said Nelson Price, president of FCA's board of trustees. “So much of sports now is outside of schools. … We're diversifying, going into such things as motocross, lacrosse, skiing, soccer.”

Among the 600 or so coaches, regional representatives and alumni gathered for the anniversary weekend–part family reunion, part pep rally for the future–were representatives of more than one generation of involvement with the ministry.

Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of evangelist Billy Graham, met her husband at an FCA camp and her daughter, in turn, met her husband at a Baylor University FCA group. The younger family members help lead FCA-sponsored activities at a Raleigh, N.C., high school.

“I wouldn't be Anne Graham Lotz if it wasn't for FCA,” said Lotz, whose husband Danny is an FCA trustee board member.

Lotz continues to admire the way the ministry delivers a Christian message to the nation's youth.

“They don't hear about it at home,” she said. “They don't hear about it on the street and FCA is right there in the schools and using their peers that they look up to to tell them about Jesus.”

Posted: 4/02/04

Good Sports league offers haven from profanity, pressure

By Bruce Nolan

Religion News Service

NEW ORLEANS–Jarvis Martin, a Witness, started off wobbly, walking the Prophets' lead-off man, Dustin Rigsby, then letting Rigsby take second on a wild pitch.

A drizzle pattered on a few umbrellas as darkness began to creep over Lafreniere Park in Metairie, La.

Parents shouted encouragement to their 10- and 11-year-olds. So did the coaches, each wearing an identical yellow shirt, no matter his team affiliation, to signal his allegiance to all the kids equally.

The teams have names like the Prophets, Witnesses, Disciples, Believers and Overcomers. They're part of the Good Sports Christian Baseball League, a private baseball organization of more than 100 evangelical Christian families.

Born of a low-grade dissatisfaction with competitiveness, rough language and the occasional beer-in-hand of some parents, the Good Sports Christian League offers a godly alternative, its members say.

It is baseball with its competitive fires well tamped, lots of cross-dugout encouragement, pre- and post-game prayer and baseball skills taught by dads who have passed muster by securing letters of recommendation from their pastors.

That's a credential that counts in this group.

The league is made up exclusively of parents who have signed a statement of faith professing belief in the infallibility of the Bible, the lordship of Jesus Christ, salvation by faith alone and a few other basic tenets familiar to any evangelical Christian.

For some charter members of the league, it is a haven of sorts.

Many are home-schoolers, deeply devout parents who opted out of public education to teach their children in home environments tailored to their religious beliefs.

“The parents, the coaches, the environment, it's all God-based,” said Rebecca Cotton, who hauls three children from Westwego, La., three times a week.

“The coaches pray with the kids before and after the game. I'm very happy with it.”

Good Sports is nothing if not supportive. Praise is lavish, awards frequent and pressure forbidden.

Indeed, during some of the youngest children's games, it's not even clear if score is being kept.

Because of its non-competitive nature, Good Sports has attracted a whole league of relatively inexperienced players whose parents had held them out of public playgrounds.

Teaching the strike zone often comes with little Christian homilies that coaches offer off little blue cards distributed to the kids.

“The word of God, the Bible, is as necessary to life as bats are to baseball,” said one. “We should read it often and live it by faith.”

Good Sports was born when Chris and Lisa Arceri became increasingly concerned about their eldest son's football experience at a local playground.

A handful of parents–no more–seemed a little over the top at the playground, a little too fiery in their bleacher exhortations for Lisa Arceri's taste. Then there was the beer. It wasn't sold at playgrounds, but some families tailgated nearby and would bring a can into the stands, and that made the Arceris uncomfortable.

But what tore it for the Arceris was the coaches' language–just one coach, really, they said.

It wasn't blistering, Lisa Arceri said. But it contained a solid dose of middle- and lower-level profanity uttered not in anger, but as ordinary locker room discourse he told them felt as appropriate to football as helmets.

As a result, the idea of an alternative league began to form, especially with Chris Arceri, a long-time coach and self-professed baseball nut.

The Arceris reached out first to other families in their network of home-school acquaintances.

Those people began telling other people, particularly at local churches.

By spring, they had a league with 14 teams, 30 coaches and 150 players ready to be formed in Christian character and the art of the bunt.

With the evening's play done, parents folded up their chairs and shepherded uniformed kids back toward their vans.

"I like this," said Doug Greengard, father of two Good Sports and a former television sportcaster who has just made a leap into full-time Christian ministry. "They learn to play, there's no pressure, and when the game's over, the coaches gather them around to pray. That comforts me."

Posted: 4/02/04

Sports: Idolatrous or just good clean fun for Christians?

By David Briggs

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Professional sports as Greek tragedy? Spending a few hours on the couch eating pizza and nachos and watching a ballgame as contributing to something more than the extended adolescence of the American male?

It hardly sounds possible to those who would rather go to a movie, read a book, watch the History, HGTV or Food networks–heck, even the Cartoon Network–and celebrate their moral superiority over the Neanderthals who consider professional gladiators pounding one another into submission a noble pursuit.

But as critics and fans of spectator sports persist in their troglodyte-elitist name-calling, a theology of sport is developing that suggests the passions so many invest in sports might not be such a bad thing.

Sports can be an outlet for male-pattern aggression, one theory goes.

Like a Greek tragedy, sport offers the opportunity for emotional catharsis, to experience the highs and lows of the human condition and emerge feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

And the best part is, despite the seemingly disproportionate emotional investments fans make in their teams during the game, there is also recognition that life goes on.

Unlike real tragedies, such as war or assaults, no one dies in the end.

Hey, it's a shame–as the song goes–if the home team doesn't win, but regardless, the fan takes something from being part of the event, says poet John Savant, professor emeritus at Dominican University of California.

“Vicariously, we have risked, we have dared, we have struggled, we have won and lost. Imaginatively we are authenticated: warriors, generals, strategists, acrobats, contenders, victorious (even fallen) heroes,” he wrote in a recent theological reflection in the independent Catholic magazine Commonweal.

Despite the often-contentious relationship between religion and sports, with sermons inveighing against turning football into a national religion and rebukes for those who would skip church or synagogue for youth soccer or the golf course, some clergy say there is a place for fandom in a balanced life.

Marvin McMickle, a longtime civil rights activist and pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, says he never apologizes for taking the time to watch a game.

“For me, it's like a movie, theater, television or a good meal. It's a wonderful diversion,” he said. “Nobody can go at this thing 24/7. You have to step back and have something to step back to.”

Of course, sports passion can be carried too far. One only has to listen for a while to the sports talk shows to hear examples of individuals who have substituted the exploits of others for their real lives.

Savant, a poet-theologian who never breaks 100 on the golf course and can be found watching a ballgame on the couch on Saturday afternoon, is careful not to make too much of the value of sports.

Unlike religious ritual or great literature, which takes participants and readers to great moral and intellectual depths, sports belong more to the realm of amusement, he said.

But, like a compelling mystery or popular entertainment, sports do have value. Much of life–from the potential for excellence to the physical breakdown at the end of a career, from unexpected victory to bitter defeat–is reflected in the world of sports, according to Savant.

For those who watch it, it can be a way to experience great emotional moments that can prepare one for the more difficult realities of life.

Along with sometimes experiencing the thrill of victory, Savant said, fans also are allowed to feel a sense of loss, to enjoy a sense of life as a struggle even when their team loses.

“The true fan … enjoys sport as the creative diversion it is: a temporary departure from ordinary reality, not in the long run to escape it, but to return to it refreshed, entertained and even a bit encouraged, as the Irish say, to keep on keeping on,” Savant said.

Some clergy who were former athletes see signs of God in the excellence of athletic performances.

Auxiliary Bishop Roger W. Gries of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland was captain of the Benedictine High School football team that went to the city championship game in 1953.

He still enjoys going to high school and college football games.

Gries said the talent of an athlete glorifies the beauty of God's creation and provides a sense of hope that people can use the talents they have in other parts of life to make this a better world.

Rick Duncan of Cuyahoga Valley Community Church in Broadview Heights played professional baseball for five years in the minor leagues before finding his life calling.

Duncan said the danger of enjoying anything to an extreme is that you risk idolatry.

However, if kept in proper perspective, Duncan said, one can appreciate the gifts God has given to athletes the way one appreciates the beauty of the music played by an orchestra, or dancers at a ballet.

For his part, Duncan enjoys sitting down with some chips, watching a football game with the guys.

“You know what, if something pleases me, and it's not out of balance … God made me to be pleased by this thing, and I might as well celebrate that,” Duncan said. “I'm not going to fight my humanity.”

Posted: 4/02/04

Texas Baptist disaster relief volunteers say
they want to serve where God is working

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

LATHAM SPRINGS–Seeing God work through Texas Baptist Men disaster relief inspires volunteers to continue the ministry, relief leaders testified at a recent training event.

Rain from a tropical storm flooded the home of Skip Holman, pastor of First Baptist Church in Boling and a regional TBM leader. TBM retiree builders replaced the carpet and molding in his home. The organization has helped many people near him.

That experience inspired Holman to want to help people in other parts of Texas like the people in his community have been helped by TBM. He is leading the effort to start a disaster relief unit in Coastal Bend Baptist Area.

“We have had a tremendous amount of help from people around the state,” Holman said. “It's payback time for our area.”

Steve Payne of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio worked in a field kitchen during the 2002 Central Texas floods. As volunteers met physical needs, they discovered spiritual needs, he recalled. Witnessing opportunities were common.

More than 40 people made professions of faith in Christ at New Braunfels alone, and 32 rededicated their lives to God, Payne said.

Acting out of faith serves as a powerful testimony, he remarked. “People can preach all day long (and see no results). All you have to do is step out.”

For years, Erna Pattillo of First Baptist Church in Nixon has watched TBM volunteers, including her husband, meet physical and spiritual needs through disaster relief. She volunteered to become a unit supervisor when she saw the necessity for child care assistance.

Someone should care for children as adults assess damage and look for assistance, Pattillo said. TBM can protect the youngsters in the wake of disasters.

“I see the need we have for child care,” she said. “We've focused on food and chainsaw (units). We need to emphasize child care. The children need to be cared for.”

The commitment to disaster relief ministries grows out of faith, volunteers said. Each spoke of feeling God calling them to serve in a specific way.

“People say good works don't save you,” Payne said. “I say, once you're saved, it's time to get to work.”

The workers said they look forward to God continuing to touch lives through TBM disaster relief.

“The main thing I enjoy is serving the Lord, doing what we're here to do,” Pattillo said.

Posted: 4/02/04

Texas Tidbits

Estrada named BGCT project manager. Job Estrada, 24, has been named project manager in the Baptist General Convention of Texas Communications Center. He will help various BGCT ministries plan and execute marketing and promotions campaigns. Communications Director Becky Bridges described him as "an ideal staff person for the future of the BGCT … bright, young and bilingual." Prior to joining the BGCT staff, Estrada worked in sales and marketing positions with Starbucks Coffee, Cingular Wireless/Navstar Communications and Compaq Computer in the Houston area. He has been a member of South Main Baptist Church in Houston and holds a bachelor's degree in business marketing and speech communications from Houston Baptist University.

Fletcher to receive honorary doctorate. Jesse Fletcher will receive an honorary doctorate from Hardin-Simmons University at spring commencement May 8. Fletcher, who currently serves as president emeritus of Hardin-Simmons University, was president of the university from 1977 to 1991 and chancellor from 1991 to 2001.

DBU receives grant. Dallas Baptist University has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the Hillcrest Foundation for the construction of the new International Student Center, scheduled to open later this year. DBU has about 300 international students on campus. Since 1968, DBU has received more than $2 million from the Hillcrest Foundation for projects such as the Landry Welcome Center, the Mahler Student Center and a library automation system.

Lecture series set at HBU. Business ethics is the focus of the Prince-Chavanne Distinguished Lecture Series April 22 at Houston Baptist University. O.C. Ferrell, marketing professor at Colorado State University and co-director of the Center for Business Ethics and Social Issues, will speak on "Why do we make bad choices in business ethics?"

Mayors back Baylor bid for Bush library. Four hundred Texas mayors–from Texarkana to Del Rio–have endorsed Baylor University's proposal for the George W. Bush Presidential Library to locate on the school's campus. Representing communities in 127 counties, the mayors noted that more than 80 percent of the state's population live within a 200-mile radius of the Baylor campus in Waco, making the site readily accessible. The mayors also emphasized the cultural and educational importance of having three presidential libraries in the state–the George H.W. Bush Library in College Station and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, as well as the new Bush library. Baylor currently houses the papers of 12 members of Congress and former Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock.

Wayland trustees increase budget, tuition. Wayland Baptist University trustees have approved a $36 million budget for 2004-2005, a 4.7 percent increase. Trustees also approved raising tuition on the Plainview campus by $25 per hour at the undergraduate level and $20 per hour at the graduate level, resulting in a flat $295 per semester hour tuition rate. The tuition increase is the first in two years.

UMHB nursing chapter joins honor society. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor's nursing honor society recently has been approved for chapter status by Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society for nursing.

Scholarship endowed at HSU. The Prichard Endowed Education Scholarship has been established at Hardin-Simmons University to benefit students working toward teaching certification. Alumni Milford and Rosa Lee Prichard of Abilene set up the perpetually endowed scholarship fund in honor of their daughter, Lou Ann Prichard-Draper. Recipients will be full-time students pursuing teaching careers. They must have at least 30 semester hours of credit and at least a 3.0 grade point average. Student recipients must reapply annually.

HBU grants honorary degrees to lawmakers. Houston Baptist University recently awarded honorary doctorates to Texas representatives Talmadge Heflin and Scott Hochberg. A citation read at the commencement ceremony recognized both Heflin and Hochberg for their commitment to higher education and their support for the Tuition Equalization Grant. Heflin (R-Houston) was named chairman of the House of Appropriations Committee at the beginning of the 78th Legislature. He also is a member of the Legislative Budget Board, the Legislative Audit Committee and the Select Committee on Public School Finance. He is a deacon at First Baptist Church of Alief. Hochberg (R-Houston) serves on the House Committee on Public Education. He is a former chairman of the education subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations and was a member of the Select Committee on Public School Finance.

Baylor names Davis vice provost. Baylor University has named Elizabeth Davis vice provost for academic relations, effective Aug. 1. She has been associate professor of accounting and associate dean for undergraduate business programs in the Hankamer School of Business. In her new position, Davis will focus on improving faculty relations and general communication in the academic sector. In addition, she will take a special interest in student academic life and serve as liaison between the provost's office and Baylor's admissions and recruitment personnel, said David Jeffrey, provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Kranz to speak at Hardin-Simmons. Gene Kranz, a former NASA flight director and leader of the "Tiger Team" who brought the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft safely back to earth in 1970, will speak to a Hardin-Simmons University chapel April 22. He also will address a leadership banquet for area students at the Abilene Civic Center that same day. For more information about banquet reservations, call (325) 670-1375.

UMHB updates website. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor recently launched its updated website at www.umhb.edu. A new link for prospective students has been added to the front page. Future plans include on-line registration, a new alumni site and additional features for prospective students.

'Jesus" video now in DVD. An edited version of the "Jesus" video, developed by Campus Crusade for Christ, was released recently in a digitally remastered and expanded-content DVD format. The DVD is a 94-minute U.S. edition of the two-hour film about the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The movie is offered in seven languages and four subtitle languages, and it includes a scene-by-scene commentary. It also includes the story of Jesus for children, as well as other features. The Jesus Texas organization is seeking to mail the film to every Texas residence and enlist churches in evangelistic outreach. To date, more than 3,000 churches and 30,000 volunteers have worked on this project, and Jesus Texas has facilitated mailing about 2.5 million videos since 2000. For more information, visit the Texas website at www.TexasDVD.org.

Nursing student named Miss ETBU. Pamela Gant, a senior nursing major from Seagoville, recently was crowned Miss East Texas Baptist University 2004. She was selected from a field of 14 young women who were judged on personal interview, beauty, talent, student and faculty vote, and question and answer. The school has held the pageant annually since 1957.

UMHB yell leaders win. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor yell leaders won first place in their division at the recent Christian Cheerleaders of America college nationals in Winston-Salem, N.C. More than 80 teams competed in various divisions at the national event.

Posted: 4/02/04

TOGETHER:
Journey to Georgia 'unforgettable'

A Global Village in Americus, Ga., demonstrates the poverty in which much of the world lives. After walking through narrow streets, stepping into dirt-floored shacks and imagining what it would be like to live where everyone is vulnerable to crime, violence, disease and despair, visitors step into a sunny area of new houses built by Habitat for Humanity.

They are small houses, built with materials indigenous to their regions and designed to please the senses of those who live there. They are sturdy houses, built to last. After a recent hurricane in South Florida, only the houses built by Habitat builders remained standing. Every house is built with the help of the owner family. They earn “sweat equity” by their labor. No-interest loans make the working poor able to afford a proper home for their families.

The project started out to provide safe, affordable housing for every family in Sumter County, Ga. Along the way, the goal grew to include the whole world. Millard and Linda Fuller found a new vision from God through the ministry of Koinonia Farms and Clarence Jordan, author of “Cottonpatch Gospel.” To express their Christian commitment, they began building houses for the poor. When President Jimmy Carter returned from Washington to Plains, a village 10 miles west of Americus, he joined forces with the Fullers and put his carpentry skills into service for Christ and the mission of Habitat for Humanity, which is active in 3,000 communities in 92 countries and has built more than 150,000 homes.

As Rosemary and I recently stepped into the entrance of the Global Village, we were thrilled to see one of our Texas Baptist institutions is represented there. A large sculpted globe held up by the Bible welcomes visitors from around the world. The sculpture, designed by Kerrville artist Max Greiner, was given by Dallas Baptist University and its president, Gary Cook. The Scriptures inscribed on that sculpture represent the heart of Habitat. “Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain.” “Inasmuch as you have done this unto the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

Consider taking a vacation to the area and tour the Global Village. While you are there, plan to visit Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. You can hear President Carter teach his Sunday school class and Pastor Dan Ariail preach and then have your picture made with the Carters. Jimmy Carter is not only a former president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and distinguished author. He also is an active deacon and faithful teacher of God's word who is involved personally in visitation, ministry and witnessing at Maranatha. I could wish for every Baptist family the opportunity to introduce their children to this wonderful church and to the Carters. Church members will greet you warmly when the doors open at 8:30 a.m. For President Carter's teaching schedule, call (229) 824-7896 or visit the website, www.sowega.net/~alcrump/maranatha. For information about other sight-seeing attractions in the area, visit www.plainsgeorgia.com.

Maranatha has a unique ministry to hundreds of visitors every week, and they exhibit the spiritual gift of hospitality in an unforgettable way. Rosemary and I experienced it recently and have given thanks to God for our Baptist brothers and sisters beyond Texas.

We are loved.

Posted: 4/02/04

Church earmarks $10,000 of missions offering to BWA

SAN ANTONIO–Challenged by the head of the Baptist World Alliance to pray for their Baptist brothers and sisters around the world “as if they were physically sitting in the pew next to you,” members of San Antonio's Trinity Baptist Church did more than that recently.

The church launched its spring missions offering of $75,000 with $10,000 earmarked for the BWA. Of the remainder, $57,500 will go the Mary Hill Davis Offering of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and $7,500 to a Mainstream Baptists mission project.

Debbie Ferrier, past vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and missions leader at Trinity, said she hoped the church would grasp the opportunity to become more involved with and supportive of the BWA.

“Maybe we can inspire other churches to also increase their support for BWA,” she said.

The $10,000 contribution to the BWA is in addition to the $2,000 annual donation in Trinity's regular budget. Church leaders said the annual amount also will be reviewed and could be increased, too.

Denton Lotz, general secretary of the BWA, preached at two worship services and spoke to a Sunday school class at Trinity. He told a story about a Gypsy woman's who steadfastly repeated: “I forgive you in the name of Christ” as she was beaten unconscious. The woman's consistent testimony led one of her attackers to personal faith a few months later.

He also described 950 seminary students joining hands and singing hymns in an Asian country where Christians are persecuted, 10,000 people attending a Baptist church in a refugee camp of 100,000 and 5,000 house churches forming in Cuba in five years.

“If we as Baptists are going to reach our world with the gospel, it will be because people see how we love each other and how we love them in the name of Jesus,” he said.

He made no reference, direct or indirect, to a pending recommendation that the Southern Baptist Convention withdraw from the BWA, an action that could be voted on this June at the SBC annual convention.

But Trinity Pastor Charles Johnson did. After the Sunday school class discussion on how “doing missions” has changed from the 19th century to today, Johnson told the class Lotz “has been under tremendous stress and pressure for the past few weeks because of the situation with the SBC, and I want us to gather around him and pray for him.”

Lotz and other BWA leaders have one final meeting later this month with the SBC study group that has indicated it will recommend the SBC withdraw from BWA. That action, combined with a cutback of SBC support of BWA last year,would mean a loss of approximately $600,000 a year–one-fourth of the BWA budget.

Posted: 4/02/04

Court hears arguments for, against 'under God' in pledge

By Phillip Jordan and Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)–In hearing arguments on whether the Pledge of Allegiance's reference to God is constitutional, the justices of the Supreme Court seemed concerned not only with Michael Newdow's case, but also with his right to make it.

Newdow, the atheist father who successfully sued his daughter's California school district to stop its policy of teacher-led recitation of the pledge, represented himself before the court March 24. Justices peppered him with questions about his right to bring the lawsuit, since he does not have primary custody of his daughter.

In 2002, a divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the Elk Grove Unified School District's policy a violation of the Constitution's ban on government establishment of religion because the pledge contains the assertion that the United States is “under God.”

That panel's majority ruled that the suburban Sacramento district's policy violated Newdow's rights in raising his then-8-year-old daughter. A majority of the 9th Circuit's full 24-member panel later reaffirmed the decision.

But in the arguments before the high court, Newdow's opponents disputed his basis for even filing the suit.

Newdow had “no right to bring this case in his daughter's name,” said Solicitor General Ted Olson.

“He has his own rights,” Justice Anthony Kennedy countered. “He says he has the right as a father to influence” his child's education on religious matters without interference from the state, he continued. However, Kennedy also repeatedly asked Newdow pointed questions about his right to assert his legal claim.

The issue over Newdow's standing arose after the 9th Circuit's decision. Amid a nationwide uproar following the ruling, the child's mother told the press she and her daughter were practicing Christians and were not offended by the pledge.

Sandra Banning also said the fact that Newdow–to whom she was never married–did not have custody of the child at the time he filed the suit meant he lacked legal standing. She then sought to intervene in the case.

Some longtime Supreme Court observers have predicted the justices will use the standing issue to overturn the 9th Circuit's ruling without reaching the constitutional issue–essentially “punting” on the case's First Amendment merits.

Although the pledge has been around in forms similar to its present one since the late 1800s, the “under God” clause was not part of it until 1954. Congress added the words to the pledge then as a response to the perceived threat of atheistic communism.

In their opinions on several church-state cases since 1954, the justices have repeatedly referred to the pledge and other minor governmental references to God–such as the national motto, “In God we trust”–as belonging in a category of generalized government religious endorsements often termed “ceremonial deism.”

Olson seized on that argument in his presentation. The “under God” phrase “is not a religious invocation; it is not a prayer,” Olson said. Rather, he asserted, “It is an acknowledgement of the religious basis of the framers of the Constitution.

“The Pledge of Allegiance is not what this court has said the (First Amendment's) establishment clause protects against.”

In questioning Newdow, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor noted that a previous decision by the court established his daughter's right to opt out of reciting the pledge. She wondered why, therefore, he believed recitation of the pledge was unconstitutional.

In response, Newdow conceded his daughter was not required to say the pledge, but she was nonetheless coerced to do so. He cited the court's 1992 Lee vs. Weisman decision, in which they ruled that public school students could not be subjected to a religious exercise even if they didn't have to participate personally.

In comments after the arguments, Banning told reporters she is “happy the court will resolve this issue.” She said she believed public school teachers leading in recitation of the pledge is not an unconstitutional endorsement of religion, but rather a simple acknowledgement of “the values we hold dear” as Americans. She added that she's “never had any objection” to her daughter reciting the pledge.

On the plaza in front of the court building, atheists and conservative Christians squared off in dueling protests. But even as they rallied a few feet away, Newdow said his case was not trying to set up a war over religious beliefs.

“This isn't atheism versus theism; this isn't God versus no God,” he told reporters. “This is about the government staying out of the religion business.”

The court heard the arguments without participation from one of its most conservative members. Justice Antonin Scalia recused himself from the case, presumably because of questions about his impartiality. The questions stemmed from an incident last year in which he made public comments criticizing the 9th Circuit's ruling.

The justices will likely render a decision on Elk Grove Unified School District vs. Newdow shortly before they end their 2003-2004 session in June.

Posted: 4/02/04

Wayland and Kenyan college partner to train church leaders

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW–Bernard Kabaru has a vision for reaching Kenya with the gospel. And he believes Christian leaders in that country could do it, if they just had the training.

“Missions should be empowering the local church, with partners coming along to help in that mission rather than bringing in their own vision and expecting people to follow,” said Kabaru, principal of Kenya Baptist Theological College.

“What we are going to do with the present generation of Christians will determine what the church in Africa will be in the future.”

In 1999, Wayland Baptist University began a formal academic partnership with the Kenya Baptist Theological College with the goal of helping train ministers in the East African nation.

Five years later, Wayland has conferred 16 associate's degrees in theology to ministers who are now better equipped to disciple their church members and minister to unreached populations.

The university continues to send faculty for short visits to teach courses toward the associate's degree.

The first student group visited in the summer of 2002 as part of a three-week mission endeavor, and another group plans to visit in May 2004.

On a recent visit to Wayland's Plainview campus, Kabaru described strategic planning involving the Baptist Convention of Kenya and the theological college and the goals leaders set for increasing the educational level of Kenyan pastors.

Of the 3,000 pastors in Kenya, only seven hold a bachelor's degree in theology, and only five hold a higher degree, he said. About 100 have earned a diploma through the Baptist college, and another 90 have certificates of theology.

Only about 25 percent have received theological education by extension, Kabaru said, noting the college wants to reach 100 percent by 2010. Many of the most highly educated Baptist leaders in Kenya are serving as teachers at the college.

The challenge of educating Kenyan pastors is not a lack of willingness but a lack of resources, Kabaru noted. Ministers who attend the Baptist college often must travel days to get to the campus in Limuru, leaving family and churches behind while earning their education.

About 95 percent serve bivocationally. Most receive no financial compensation from the churches they serve, and attaining theological training often means leaving a paying job at least for a short time, he said.

Students at KBTC are required to be in ministry at the time of enrollment, and Kabaru said it is important for them to be learning while they are serving. But they're not just pastors or ministry leaders; many are businessmen, farmers, teachers or homemakers.

“Those who have been the recipients of western missions have experienced significant numerical growth in church starts and are urging to move forward into maturity, but the western (world) still has the resources,” Kabaru said.

“Kenyans have caught the vision, and the momentum is there. They are already working on church-planting strategies among the churches. The locals are doing the work, but they need trained leaders.”

Wayland's involvement brings great hope for the vision of leaders at the Baptist college in Kenya to be fulfilled in coming years. Kabaru said.

“You all have been a godsend. I really feel God has affirmed my role in this by bringing the partnership with Wayland,” he said, adding that the college had approached others about the possibilities of partnering but found little interest.

Vaughn Ross, professor of biological sciences and a former missionary to Kenya, brought Wayland and the Kenya Baptist college together after visiting with Kabaru and realizing the university's mission went hand-in-hand with KBTC's goals.

Members of Wayland's religion faculty are excited about the venture with Kenya, both for what it now represents academically and for what it may mean to missions.

“We are envisioning establishing a missions center here that would involve a faculty member in missions and would serve as a direct link to the Kenya campus, coordinating activities there such as students traveling there for courses or missions opportunities,” said Fred Meeks, chairman of the religion and philosophy division at Wayland.

“The missions center would also serve as a focal point for churches wanting to do missions and partnering with Wayland for endeavors. We would be the ones providing training and equipping them on how to do missions, perhaps even providing some language training,” Meeks added.

Meeks and his faculty have been instrumental in helping develop and deliver the associate's degree in religion at the Kenyan college, but they see this as just beginning in terms of Wayland's academic involvement.

“We are currently only able to offer the associate's degree, but our goal is to offer the baccalaureate degree, and, in the future, we would envision even offering graduate-level training on that campus,” Meeks said. “We have a long-range vision for this campus, with long-term opportunities for 'doing missions' in that area.”

The college continues to work through a lengthy and complicated accreditation process for the Kenyan government, Kabaru said. But that will eventually require better housing facilities for students and other upgrades.

Wayland has been offering the program to the theological college at no charge, adding the expense to the university's regular annual budget. Wayland would like to help the college make technological and library upgrades that will get it closer to eventually offering a bachelor's degree, but those efforts are costly.

Scholarships for students also are needed, Kabaru added.

Since Kenyan nationals have little income, the cost of attending the Baptist college–though reasonable for theological education–is still a financial hardship. Scholarships that help students cover cost of tuition, books and other requirements for school would help ensure more students are able to further their theological education.

Special gifts such as a $15,000 donation from First Baptist Church in Plainview are used directly in the cost of delivering the associate's degree to Kenya.

Ross hopes more churches in the area will see that through gifts like this, West Texas residents can be involved in missions on the other side of the globe, and the gospel will be spread.

“What KBTC needs is a full spiritual partnership where all participants prayerfully understand the challenge and each brings to the vision the resources God has given them stewardship over,” Ross said.

A very real part of that, he said, is prayer support and sending groups on mission trips.

The key, Ross added, is getting involved. “It's a full expression of what the body of Christ is: What gifts you have you bring to the body.”

For information on the Kenya partnership project, contact Wayland Baptist University at (806) 291-3427.

Posted: 4/02/04

Student worship leader followed circuitous route to ministry

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Baptist Standard

ABILENE–Earning an MBA and teaching international economics at a university might not be the typical career path for a worship leader, but Jeff Berry believes God used every step and misstep of his journey to prepare him for ministry.

Berry felt God leading him into vocational ministry when he was in high school. But as a student at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, he took a different route, earning his undergraduate degree in business administration.

He went on to receive his master's degree in business administration from Baylor University in Waco, where he was asked to join the faculty, teaching international economics and entrepreneurship and serving as the assistant director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

But at Baylor, he also attended Choice Bible study, led by Louie Giglio.

“It was during this time that God began to really speak to me about his plan for my life,” Berry said.

He soon realized his true calling was to connect students to Christ through music.

To him, it was a smooth transition from a college professor to full-time musician and worship leader. Looking back, Berry believes God used his sojourn into the classroom and business world to prepare him for ministry.

Soon after he committed to full-time ministry, founders of Grace Bible study in Abilene asked him to lead worship for their new collegiate ministry. They explained Grace was designed to help students encounter Jesus Christ and be deeply challenged by the Scriptures.

Ten years later, Grace draws about 1,000 students from three universities and area high schools to University Baptist Church in Abilene each Tuesday night. Many students and leaders have gone on to serve on church staffs, establish their own ministries and even plant new churches.

“I believe one of our great legacies will be that God used Grace Bible study to help equip students for ministry literally to the ends of the earth,” Berry said. “When I began leading worship at Grace, I was unsure of my future, but God used Grace to help secure my understanding of the calling on my life and to move me into the area of ministries that I'm in today.”

In 1995, Berry founded CrossWind Ministries as a platform for his worship ministry.

“When we began Grace Bible study and CrossWind Ministries, it was similar to beginning a new (business) venture,” he explained. “So I was able to utilize the knowledge that I had gathered while teaching and working with other new ventures. I am thankful for the business training that I received at Baylor because it helped me understand how to more effectively manage the ministry that the Lord has entrusted to me.”

CrossWind Ministries has developed into a multi-faceted organization comprised of Grace, Jeff Berry Worship Ministry, Curiously Strong Music Publishing, Stonewater Sound Production, Green Room Studios and Reality Weekends.

In the last two years, Berry and Baptist youth evangelist Wes Hamilton have led more than 25 Reality Weekends, which are like an “instant Disciple Now–just add students,” Hamilton said

“We provide the speaker, worship, sound, lights, video, T-shirts, curriculum, promotional materials and small-group leaders. Our desire is to create the excitement and teaching of a weekend conference but still provide the personal relationship that comes from small groups.”

The Reality Weekends are reaching students all over the world.

“Last Christmas, we had the opportunity to do a Reality Weekend in Germany for the children of missionaries who serve in Europe,” Berry explained. “These are kids who have typically lived their life away from American soil and away from the comforts we take for granted, including fellowship with other believers. Once a year, these students get to gather together to fellowship, worship and encourage each other.

“It was an incredible privilege to lead worship with them and to see how God has not just called their parents into the mission field, but he has put a calling on their lives as well. My thought initially was how much fun it would be to go to Germany and lead these kids, … but my thought returning was how much the Lord changed my understanding of life on the mission field and my role as a supporter of these servants.”

In addition to leading worship for Grace Bible study and Reality Weekends, Berry and his band have led worship at a variety of conferences for youth and college students, including Focus, Youth Evangelism Conference, Hot Hearts, Passion and Super Summer.

They have even performed at a coffee house in Istanbul, Turkey.

During his travels, Berry says, he loves spending time off the platform, interacting with people and hearing about what God is doing in their lives.

“Leading anyone into the throne room of the Lord is a privilege,” he said. “Music has always played an important role in every culture, and when music is combined with the truth of Scripture and the perfect focus, which is God, then the connection becomes even more powerful.”

Posted: 4/02/04

Modern CD reclaims ancient hymn

ATLANTA (RNS)–The latest CD from the popular “Passion” Christian student movement differs from most contemporary religious music. All the songs on it were composed more than 100 years ago, and the lyrics to at least one are 1,800 years old.

“Passion: Ancient and Modern Hymns–Live Songs of Our Faith,” was recorded at Northpoint Community Church in Atlanta when 1,300 campus pastors and community leaders gathered.

This collection was inspired by “Phos Hilaron,” perhaps the oldest surviving Christian hymn. Literally translated “hail gladdening light,” the hymn already was considered ancient by the fourth century.

In part, the hymn goes: “Hail, gladdening light, of his pure glory poured/Who is the immortal Father, heavenly, blest/Holiest of Holies, Jesus Christ our Lord/Now we are come to the sun's hour of rest/The lights of evening round us shine.”

Working with Chris Tomlin and the David Crowder Band, Passion director Louie Giglio saw the hymn as a musical connector to help believers bridge the past and the present. Written around A.D. 200, the melody of “Phos Hilaron” has been lost, but the words survive.

“It amazes me to think that we can participate in a song that's been sung for close to 2,000 years,” Tomlin said. He sings “No One More Worthy,” based on the ancient hymn, on the CD.

“Louie, David and I wanted to write something brand new from the core of this ancient hymn,” Tomlin says. “We don't pretend to think that it rivals the original but hope that it causes you to stop and marvel that you stand in a long line of followers of Christ.

“Somewhere along the way, tradition became a casualty in the explosion of contemporary worship that has swept the church around the globe in recent decades. Yet we would be fools to discard the rich treasures that have guided the church through the ages just because they are old.”

Posted: 4/02/04

Help youth succeed by focusing on strengths, speaker urges

By Marv Knox

Editor

DALLAS–Churches can help children and youth succeed by focusing more on relationships than programs and on strengths rather than problems, family ministry leader Eugene Roehlkepartain insisted.

Roehlkepartain delivered a keynote address at Hand in Hand 2004, a conference sponsored by Baylor University's Center for Family & Community Ministries and the North American Association of Christians in Social Work.

“What do children need to succeed?” asked Roehlkepartain, director of family and congregation initiatives for the Search Institute, a research and consulting organization that promotes healthy children, youth and communities.

The answer is at once incredibly complex and deceptively simple, he told social workers from across the nation who gathered in Dallas.

Based on interviews with more than 2 million youth, the Search Institute has identified 40 “developmental assets” that impact the degree to which children and adolescents develop positively, Roehlkepartain said.

These assets range from the kind of family support and parental involvement in schooling a child receives, to physical safety, involvement in a religious group, daily homework, personal integrity, decision-making skills and self-esteem, he explained.

The more “development assets” a young person has, the greater likelihood she or he will make wise decisions, avoid risky behavior and develop maturely, he said.

“Many people think this is just common sense,” that the value of the characteristics are obvious, he acknowledged, adding common sense sometimes is uncommon.

For example, Search Institute findings reveal the average U.S. youth possesses just 18 of the 40 assets, and 62 percent have fewer than 20 percent of the assets.

The typical youth who attends church at least one hour per week possesses 21 assets, which is “average but still too low,” Roehlkepartain said.

Pointing to a “widespread rupture in our developmental system,” Roehlkepartain said: “The challenge is not simply more programs (to help youngsters). The real challenge is to cultivate a society that is deeply sensitive to developing children and teens.”

Parents alone cannot develop youth adequately, he stressed, calling on churches to help. “If you breathe, you're on the team,” he said of the widespread need for church members to help children and teens.

A couple of factors are crucial to the success of such an endeavor, he said.

“First, we've got to shift away from over-reliance on programs and curriculum to a primary reliance on relationships,” he said.

This should be natural for Christians, since their faith is based on “a relational, incarnational understanding of how God functions,” he added, noting Christians ought to embody Christ's presence in the lives of youngsters.

“Our greatest gift ought to be our authentic presence with them,” he insisted.

“Second, we must shift from focusing on children's problems to lifting up their strengths,” he said.

“Some young people are dangerous and make very poor choices, but not all of them.”

For example, rather than bemoaning the number of youth who spend their spring break drunk at the beach, Christians can highlight teens who spend their spring break working on mission trips. Rather than focusing on fear of teen gangs, emphasize the strength of church youth groups.

“Focus more attention on what's right with young people, not just the problems,” he said.

Despite the complexities of both teens' problems and the Search Institute's analysis of their assets, helping them is surprisingly simple, Roehlkepartain said.

“Get involved with kids,” he urged, noting the efforts of both clergy and laity count toward strengthening the lives of youngsters.

“Strive to become asset-rich,” he said of churches. “Examine how we nurture children and youth. … Provide caring mentors, guides, friends and role models. The church's opportunity lies in developing a shared commitment to invest in the lives of young people.”

And churches should not desert the cause just because other social-service providers are present, he cautioned.

“We can't afford to pit ourselves against other people of goodwill. The faith community has to enter the public square. … We're there because we want to make a difference in the lives of kids.

“Is it easy? No. Is it messy? Yes. Is it worth it? Undoubtedly.”