Posted: 3/05/04

BGCT to end LifeWay relationship

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS–The Baptist General Convention of Texas will end its longstanding formal relationship with LifeWay Christian Resources later this year.

The BGCT's current cooperative agreement with LifeWay, through its ministry investment plan, expires Sept. 30, and it will not be renewed, Lynn Eckeberger, coordinator of the BGCT church health and growth section, reported at a Texas Independence Day meeting of the Executive Board.

The ministry investment plan is the current version of an agreement used by LifeWay, and the Baptist Sunday School Board before it, to gain a marketing presence through Baptist state conventions. The agreement is reviewed each October by the executive officer of each cooperating state convention.

“This agreement achieves for LifeWay a prominence of position directly related to product sales and for the state convention a revenue source,” Eckeberger explained.

The most recent agreement requires state conventions to submit Annual Church Profile information to LifeWay; to grant LifeWay a visible presence at state convention-sponsored events; to participate in LifeWay conference centers and various meetings; to showcase only LifeWay products at state training events that LifeWay helps sponsor; and to submit quarterly reports to LifeWay.

In return, LifeWay provides financial assistance to cooperating state conventions. Last year, the BGCT received about $105,000 from LifeWay. Anticipated income this year is $102,000.

While sales of the BGCT's BaptistWay Press materials have increased significantly, Eckeberger said, they will not generate enough funds to offset the loss of LifeWay revenue.

Even so, the BGCT considered it should follow the lead of its churches in ending its exclusive relationship with LifeWay, he noted.

“When the Sunday School Board existed and most Baptist churches and associations made use of Sunday School standard organizational models, assistance to Texas Baptist churches could be adequately addressed by agreements between the Sunday School Board and state conventions. That day no longer describes the most common experience for Baptist churches,” Eckeberger said.

“No longer do most Texas Baptist churches use one line of curriculum. Almost none of our affiliate churches use only one exclusive supplier of Christian literature products.”

When asked, BGCT-related churches identified about a dozen publishers of Bible study and discipleship materials they use frequently, he added.

“The Baptist General Convention of Texas would act contrary to the demonstrated product preferences of churches if we were to renew LifeWay's exclusive position of privilege assured by its ministry investment plan,” Eckeberger said. “It would be contrary to the practice of churches to promote an exclusive relationship with a Christian product provider.

“We will not renew the LifeWay ministry investment plan. We will serve the churches of Texas with an ever-increasing diligence, unhindered by product sales fostered by an agreement to provide exclusive privilege that is no longer representative by the choices of Texas Baptists.”

Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay, said he was “surprised and saddened by the decision,” but added, “I respect the BGCT's right to make it.”

In a prepared statement, Draper said: “LifeWay has enjoyed a long relationship with the convention, and I fully expect this will continue through the many Southern Baptist churches and associations in Texas that will keep using our resources.

“Our challenge at LifeWay is to keep providing the very best resources and the very best service to our Texas customers.

“We understand that we are now in a competitive situation with the BGCT for curriculum sales to Texas churches, but that does not change our commitment to provide biblically sound, relevant and value-priced resources to help people and churches know Christ and seek his kingdom.

“We continue to share with BGCT leaders a desire that people everywhere would know Christ and make him known.”

Increased sales of BaptistWay Press materials will help enable the BGCT to provide some of the resources and services previously provided by LifeWay, such as Vacation Bible School, Youth Bible Drill and Baptist doctrine clinics, Eckeberger noted.

BaptistWay, the BGCT publishing imprint, doubled its sales between 2002 and 2003 and increased its customer base by one-third, Eckeberger reported. Currently, about 1,000 BGCT-related churches use the materials.

“By all indications of the first two months of 2004, we are on track to be self-supporting by year's end, and this includes being able to provide at no cost to users a fully graded, two-year curriculum for preschool and children, downloaded from the Internet,” he said.

Specifically, he noted:

2004 Vacation Bible School materials produced by the BGCT will be available online at no cost by April 1, providing an alternative to existing products, such as the controversial LifeWay “Rickshaw Rally” curriculum.

Texas Youth Bible Drill and Speakers Tournament winners will be able to compete beyond the state level through a consortium the BGCT has formed with several other state conventions.

In 2005, the BGCT will offer its own Baptist Doctrine Clinics, Vacation Bible School training and curriculum, and Youth Bible Drill competitions.

Several Executive Board members asked whether LifeWay would operate a bookstore and be a part of exhibits at the BGCT annual session in November.

BGCT President Ken Hall responded the arrangements and order of business committees would make that decision.

“I anticipate LifeWay being encouraged to be one of many participants in our bookstore,” Hall said. “We're not being exclusive. … We're being inclusive.”

Posted: 3/05/04

Lariat editorial sparks controversy

By Marv Knox

Editor

WACO–A Baylor University student newspaper editorial supporting gay marriage has been condemned by Baylor President Robert Sloan and ruled a violation of school policy by the university's Student Publications Board.

An editorial in the Feb. 27 Baylor Lariat affirms a lawsuit brought by the city of San Francisco, which seeks to declare unconstitutional the California Family Code's definition of marriage–a union between a man and a woman.

A tagline at the end of the column indicates the Lariat editorial board voted 5-2 in favor of the position.

More than 3,200 gay couples have been married since Feb. 12, when Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the city would provide them with marriage licenses, the editorial notes.

The editorial outlines response to that event, including California Gov. Arnold Schwar-zenegger's attempt to prevent the city from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples and the city's legal challenge to the definition of marriage.

“San Francisco officials believe barring gay marriages violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the state constitution,” the editorial says. “The editorial board supports San Francisco's lawsuit against the state.”

The editorial also offers the board's rationale for gay marriage.

“Taking into account equal protection under the law, gay couples should be granted the same equal rights to legal marriage as heterosexual couples,” the editorial stresses. “Without such recognition, gay couples, even those who have cohabitated long enough to qualify as common-law spouses under many state laws, often aren't granted the same protection when it comes to shared finances, health insurance and other employee benefits, and property and power-of-attorney rights.

“Like many heterosexual couples, many gay couples share deep bonds of love, some so strong they've persevered years of discrimination for their choice to cohabitate with and date one another. Just as it isn't fair to discriminate against someone for their skin color, heritage or religious beliefs, it isn't fair to discriminate against someone for their sexual orientation.

“Shouldn't gay couples be allowed to enjoy the benefits and happiness of marriage, too?”

Sloan refuted the newspaper's assertion.

“This position held by five students does not reflect the views of the administration, faculty, staff, board of regents or Student Publications Board, which oversees the Lariat,” Sloan said in a statement distributed to media March 1. “Nor do I believe this stance on gay marriage is shared by the vast majority of Baylor's 14,000 students and 100,000 alumni.”

The editorial touched off a torrent of response, Sloan acknowledged.

“We have already heard from a number of students, alumni and parents who are, as am I, justifiably outraged over this editorial,” he said.

Sloan sought to draw a line between free expression and inappropriate advocacy.

“While we respect the rights of students to hold and express divergent viewpoints, we do not support the use of publications such as the Lariat, which is published by the university, to advocate positions that undermine the foundational Christian principles upon which this institution was founded and currently operates.”

The Student Publications Board, comprised of Baylor administrators and faculty who oversee three professional staff members who supervise the Lariat's student staff, concurred with Sloan.

The board “has determined that the editorial published in the Lariat on Feb. 27 … violates university policy as defined in the student handbook, as well as student publications policy,” the board reported in a statement released after it met March 1.

“The student publications policy states that 'since Baylor University was established and is still supported by Texas Baptists to conduct a program of higher education in a Christian context, no editorial stance of student publications should attack the basic tenets of Christian theology or Christian morality,'” the statement continued.

“Clearly, the editorial published on Feb. 27 is inconsistent with this policy. The guidelines have been reviewed with the Lariat staff, so that they will be able to avoid this error in the future.”

Ricky George, a Baylor staff member and news director of the Lariat, accepted blame for the editorial.

“I made an error in judgment,” he conceded in a prepared statement. “It is my responsibility to ensure the students have a strong editorial voice within the parameters of Baylor's mission.”

Wallace Daniel, chairman of the Student Publications Board, said George has “done a very competent job” of supervising the Lariat's news staff, “but he missed this.”

“He was contrite. He said he saw this (the editorial's position) as a legal issue,” said Daniel, dean of Baylor's College of Arts and Sciences. “The publications board took a different view. We didn't appreciate it.”

Lacy Elwood, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, issued a statement on behalf of the Lariat editorial board.

“We … stand by our decision to address an issue at the forefront of national public debate,” she said. “The editorial board's opinions reflect the views of the majority of its members, not necessarily those of the Baylor community, as stated in a disclaimer on the editorial page.”

Daniel said the Student Publications Board feels it has resolved the issue without retribution.

“We see this as a learning opportunity in which some people made a serious mistake,” he said. “We didn't retaliate or remove anybody. … We have gone over again very strictly our policy regulations. I doubt we'll see it happen again.”

Speaking to the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board March 2, BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade stressed the editorial does not represent the opinion of the state convention.

“We are disappointed that this small group of students chose to editorialize in support of gay marriage,” Wade said, reading from a prepared statement. “We do respect the students' right to discuss the issue openly and to voice their opinion, but to do so in an official Baylor publication lends more seriousness than their opinions merit.

“They do not express the opinion of the university, its leadership, of the student body, or of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. They represent only themselves.”

Wade also commended Sloan's response to the situation and affirmed a longstanding Texas Baptist position.

“Baylor University and the Baptist General Convention of Texas have been consistent about our stance that homosexual behavior is sinful,” Wade said. “The BGCT's guide is always Scripture on every issue, and the biblical model only allows for marriage between a man and a woman.”

Posted: 3/05/04

Baylor regents urge president to mend fences with faculty

By Marv Knox

Editor

WACO–Baylor University's board of regents has urged President Robert Sloan to take aggressive steps to heal the fragmented academic community.

They also have called for significant changes in the university's financial plan and the sale of a controversial jet airplane.

Baylor alumni, faculty and administrators have divided over Baylor 2012–a 10-year plan to lead the Texas Baptist school into the top tier of America's colleges and universities. They also have disagreed about Sloan's implementation of that plan.

Supporters insist Baylor, among all U.S. universities, is in prime position to integrate orthodox faith and academic excellence. They contend Baylor can excel simultaneously in classroom teaching and cutting-edge research. They predict Baylor 2012 will catapult the university to elite status. And they claim opponents resist the plan because it represents change.

Detractors counter the goals are too costly and imperil Baylor's longstanding reputation for excellent classroom instruction. They express fear 2012's changes will alter the essential character of the university and move it theologically and culturally to the right. They also assert that Sloan's implementation of the vision has been authoritarian and unfair.

While both sides boast broad backing, neither has documented the depth of support for or opposition to either Baylor 2012 or the Sloan administration. However, the presence of ad hoc alumni groups and faculty factions illustrates what close observers describe as deep divisions within the “Baylor family.”

Those divisions seemed to widen when school resumed last fall. In early September, five members of the board of regents, three former board chairmen, the Faculty Senate and the editorial board of the campus newspaper called for Sloan's removal.

But other faculty and student groups rallied in support of the president, and an alumni group ran ads supporting his administration. Regents capped a show of support by reaffirming Sloan's leadership in a 31-4 vote Sept. 12.

At that meeting, regents created three committees to study academic/relational, financial and legal issues raised by critics and called for reports at their Feb. 26-27 meeting in Waco. The university released reports from the academic/relational and financial committees after that meeting.

The regents' review committee, which examined faculty concerns, the alumni and academic issues, called for Sloan to work on healing the Baylor rift.

In a section labeled “faculty collegiality,” the report states: “The committee interviews of faculty confirmed … the existing divisions within the faculty. The committee recommends that the administration immediately initiate major efforts to build reciprocal trust, respect and confidence among faculty colleagues, administrators, regents and the university.”

Citing the negative effects of these divisions, the report adds: “We strongly recommend that the administration, led by the president, immediately initiate an aggressive program to heal the divisions at Baylor and seek to communicate more regularly with all faculty and staff members, and in a manner most conducive to building goodwill, trust and respect.”

The committee's report provides suggestions for re-establishing harmony at Baylor.

For example, faculty hiring and tenure have been contentious issues. Some critics have accused the administration of running roughshod over faculty and ignoring their well-grounded views for selecting and granting tenure to their colleagues.

Administration supporters have contended the president and provost have been well within their range of responsibilities to guide the university in this process.

The committee's report acknowledges both perspectives: “The deans, provost and president should endeavor to follow the hiring recommendations of the faculty, but always with the authority to select a different candidate based on sound and justifiable reasons, with explanation to the department.”

The regents suggest similar processes for granting tenure and appointing departmental chairs, recognizing the value of faculty recommendations while affirming the validity of administrative decisions. But the report also recommends an appeals process for faculty who are denied tenure.

Some administration critics have claimed the administration has been overbearing in applying religious requirements for faculty employment.

In particular, they have said some candidates in fields whose disciplines do not involve overt religious connections have been made to feel uncomfortable–and perhaps have even been eliminated from consideration–by questions that link their studies to doctrinal issues.

Supporters have countered that questions only were intended to assess the integration of faith and learning and were not meant to be invasive or overbearing.

As with other issues, the review committee struck a balance, affirming the process but asking that it be tempered.

“The interview process of candidates is appropriate and necessary in acquiring the highest possible caliber of academically prepared Christian faculty members for Baylor, and the interviews should be continued,” the report states.

“Every effort should be made, however, to make the candidate feel comfortable in the interview process with only appropriate questions being asked.”

The committee took a similar tone regarding the role of the Faculty Senate, which has overwhelmingly opposed Sloan's leadership.

“In accordance with Baylor policies, … the Faculty Senate's primary role is consultative,” the report notes. “But it has every right to expect that its role established by Baylor policy … be acknowledged and respected.”

The review committee addressed alumni issues only briefly but conveyed a tone similar to its focus on faculty.

“Support by all Baylor alumni is essential to the success of Baylor's mission,” the report states. “A cooperative and supportive relationship between the university administration, led by the president, and the Baylor Alumni Association is critical to the strong and unified support of Baylor by its worldwide alumni.”

In another report, the audit review committee, which studied Baylor's financial situation, called for changes in two areas that have driven a wedge within the community.

“The financial plans of Baylor University have been impacted by the severe economic conditions of the last three years,” the audit committee's report states.

The report calls for the administration to present a revised long-term financial plan at the regents' next meeting, May 14.

Critics of Baylor 2012 and the Sloan administration have claimed the escalating costs of numerous construction projects and rapidly enlarging the faculty with high-paid research professors is too expensive.

They also have said it has forced tuition to rise too rapidly, changing the demographics of the student body and changing the essential nature of the university.

Supporters have said indebtedness remains below 5 percent of Baylor's annual budget and well within acceptable limits. They also have pointed to increases in financial aid and insisted the demographics of the student body do not have to change.

The committee's report calls for the regents to consider extending the deadline for achieving Baylor 2012's goals by three years. It also would allow regents to reassess the university's capital expenditure and borrowing plans.

“The board is aware that with this direction the achievement of some parts of (Baylor) 2012 will be delayed beyond 2012,” the report says. “This delay will provide time to overcome present economic circumstances.”

While affirming support for Baylor 2012, the report adds, “The mission of Baylor University can be best served by an extension of time to allow recovery from the economic conditions of the last few years.”

In another cost-saving move, the report directed the administration to sell “the jet aircraft currently owned by the university.”

Purchase of the $2.3 million jet created controversy. Critics said the university did not need such an expensive airplane and contended Sloan acted outside board guidelines in its purchase. Supporters said it is a good investment and contended appropriate procedures were followed.

After the board meeting, Chairman Drayton McLane and Sloan gave the regents high marks for their work.

“Prudent financial management mandates that we adjust our plans as appropriate to take into account economic factors affecting not only the business world but all of higher education as well,” McLane said. “This is a hallmark of well-managed organizations. I am pleased with how this process is being managed.

“The board is looking forward to continued pursuit of the aspirations outlined in Baylor 2012 under the capable leadership of this administration. We are making necessary adjustments to a plan that will keep Baylor moving forward.”

Affirming the regents' actions, McLane noted, “I was gratified to get a unanimous motion reflecting a desire by the board of regents that we encourage the entire Baylor family to put aside our differences of opinion, adopt a spirit of forgiveness and love for each other, join hands and move forward in our pursuit of educating young men and women within a Christian environment.”

Sloan expressed gratitude for the work of the committees and pledged to follow up.

“I've listened carefully to the recommendations they have produced and look forward to implementing these recommendations in the continuing effort to realize all the promise of Baylor 2012,” he said.

Joe Cox, president of Baylor's Faculty Senate, voiced appreciation for the regents' review committee.

“I was most impressed by how hard the regents' committee worked,” said Cox, a professor of management in the Hankamer School of Business.

“They came repeatedly to campus and spent days here listening to the faculty.

“I appreciate the untold hours the regents put into trying to get a better feel for what's going on here at Baylor. … It's good for the regents and faculty to speak to each other, to come together.”

Cox noted he had not received a copy of the regents' report, but he added, “From what I've seen … in the paper, it's indicative of the issue.”

While that's a good sign, it doesn't mean the situation is settled, he said.

“I'm not sure any of the issues have been resolved or changed,” he said. “We're still in the process of getting that going. I'm not sure what the future holds right now. It's still a difficult time. …

“Maybe we're in the process of unfreezing our positions, and there could be a coming together in the future. I don't see anything of that yet.”

Susie Jaynes, president of the Baylor Alumni Association, expressed hope for the future.

“I am in total agreement as to how important it is that we heal the rift that occurred in the past,” she said. “We are moving in the right direction. We are not there yet, but we definitely are making progress.”

Jaynes praised the regents' review committee for meeting with Alumni Association representatives twice and for listening to alumni concerns.

She noted the university has taken some “positive steps” toward the Alumni Association, such as taking the word “alumni” out of the name of the university's alumni department, moving that organization out of the Alumni Association's building and drafting a service agreement that gives the Alumni Association contracts to operate selected university events.

“I'm just hopeful we can focus on what's best for Baylor,” she said.

“There's a difference of opinion there, but that happens any time there's a large group. Otherwise, you've just got robots.”

Posted: 3/05/04

Around the State

Seven people were endorsed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship at a Feb. 18 meeting to work as chaplains at Texas facilities. Timothy Hunter was endorsed as a correctional facility chaplain; Patricia Baldwin, Charles Edmondson, Peggy Johnson, Brent Peery and Dora Saul as hospital chaplains; and Cameron Gunnin as a military chaplain.

Events

Southland Church in San Angelo commissioned 12 people as Stephen ministers Feb. 29. They were Elizabeth Benton, Sindee Davis, Dwain Dodson, Kayde Farquhar, Marvin Hall, Virginia Lester, Kay Leifeste, Frances Newman, Carla Presley, Cathy Rogers, Teri Rogers and Howard Ward.

Carol Kelly, left, and Carole Harrell have been commissioned as Mission Service Corps volunteers in the mental health industry by Park Central Church in Dallas, where Philip Washburn is pastor. Cecil Deadman, associate director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas' MSC program, spoke at the commissioning service. Jana Whitworth, director of church and community ministries with Dallas Baptist Association, has worked with the women to develop the new ministry to promote church awareness, understanding and vision for mission action to mentally ill persons and their families.

Brentwood Church in Houston will hold a Celebration and Praise Explosion and Praise Dance Workshop March 12-13. The praise portion of the program will begin at 6 p.m. Friday and is free. The dance workshop will be held from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and will cost $25 per person. For details or to register, call Baretta Duke at (713) 789-1799.

Pastor Jim Denison and Gary Cogill, movie critic for WFAA-TV, will have a discussion based on the movie “The Passion of the Christ” on March 21 at 6 p.m. at Park Cities Church in Dallas. For more information, call (214) 860-3903.

First Church in Seguin will present a Christian country music concert featuring Clifton Jansky March 27 at 7 p.m. The concert is a fundraiser for the church's school. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children under age 12. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Tickets purchased by March 21 will include a chicken-fried steak dinner beginning at 5 p.m. For more information, call (830) 372-3779. Brice Mandaville is pastor.

Westside Church in Seguin will hold a constituting service March 28. It has been a mission of First Church in Seguin. Sam Rodriguez is pastor.

Anniversaries

First Church in Golinda, 100th, Feb. 8. Ralph Powers is pastor.

Greg Tanner, 20th, as minister of music at First Church in Vernon, Feb. 15.

Robert Underhill, fifth, as pastor of Windsor Park Church in Corpus Christi, March 7.

David Moore, 20th, as pastor of Saint James Church in Honey Grove.

Norman Lance, 10th, as pastor of Mision Hispana in Bonham.

Ralph Howell, fifth, as pastor of Pleasant Grove Church in Rosebud.

Bill Louthan, 25th, as associate pastor and minister of music at First Church in Midlothian, March 25.

Primera Iglesia in Austin, 105th, March 28. Carlos Alsina is pastor.

Bill Cleveland, 10th, as pastor of First Church in Alvord.

Riverside Church in Fort Worth, 100th, April 25. Stanley Hughes, a former pastor, will be the guest speaker in the morning worship service. A lunch will follow. Stephen Patton is pastor.

First Church in Ranger recently named four men as emeritus deacons. They accounted for 159 years of service as deacons. Pictured are, front row, Juanita and O.C. Warden, ordained in 1971; and Dovie Hunt; second row, Evangelist Charles Massegee, who preached the morning service; Ileane Beck; Nancy Fambro; J.R. Hunt, ordained in 1953; and top row, Corvis Beck, ordained in 1954; Luther Fambro, ordained in 1974; and Pastor David Cash

Southcrest Church in Lubbock, 50th, June 26-27. Former pastors and staff members will attend. Charter members also will be recognized. For more information, call (806) 797-9000. Brad Jurkovich is pastor.

Deaths

Joseph MacNamee, 97, Jan. 15 in San Antonio. He was pastor of Hot Wells Church in Hot Wells 14 years, and for almost 30 years preached on an AM radio station. On three separate occassions, he was named interim pastor of the Chinese Church in San Antonio. He was a member of Grace Point Church in San Antonio. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Katharine; son, Paul; daughter, Susan Olson; three grandsons; and six great-grand children.

Clayton Day, 83, Feb. 11 in Fort Worth. He was a retired U.S. Army chaplain, attaining the rank of colonel. Ordained at First Church in Palestine, he was pastor of several churches, including Long Lake Church in Palestine, Dixie Church in Tyler and First churches in Friona, Devers and McLean before entering the chaplaincy in 1949. He served in the military 21 years. Following his military retirement, he held several positions, including director of institutional resources at Southwestern Seminary from 1971 to 1979 and vice president of administrative affairs at Dallas Baptist University from 1980 to 1987. He then moved to New York to become pastor of Clinton Road Church in New Hartford. He later became director of evangelism and assistant to the executive director-treasurer for the Baptist Convention of New York from 1990 to 1995. In 1996, he was named special assistant to the president at DBU, a position he held until 1998. DBU bestowed an honorary doctor of divinity degree on him in 1989. At the time of his death, he was a member of Travis Avenue Church in Fort Worth. He was preceded in death by his wife of 48 years, Junita. He is survived by his wife of 10 years, Maxine; sons, Clayton Jr. and Robert; brother, Buddy; step-daughter, Jeannine Stump; three grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; and six step-great-grandchildren.

Kyle Thompson, 81, Feb. 27 in Austin. A long-time journalist, he also served as press secretary for Gov. John Connally and Sen. John Tower. A World War II POW and a a part of the Lost Battalion ordered to construct the “Lost Railway” in the Burmese jungles, he wrote a book on his experiences following retirement. He received 11 medals for military service. A long-time member of Hyde Park Church in Austin, he was honored last year for 50 years of service as a Royal Ambassador counselor. He is survived by his wife, Vivian; daughters, Linda Montgomery, Kay Thompson and Janis Thompson; brothers, James and George; sisters, Vera Carey and Nita Smith; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Billy Ray Parmer, 78, Feb. 28 in Lubbock after a car accident outside Abernathy. He was president of Gloria al Padre and former two-time Baptist General Convention of Texas second vice president. His wife, Joan, also was seriously injured in the accident. He served as pastor of Dyess Grove Church in Temple, San Gabriel Church in San Gabriel, Golinda Church in Golinda and First Church in Valley Mills. He was honored as rural pastor of the year four times and received the 1995 George W. Truett Churchman of the Year award, presented by the Baylor University Alumni Association. He served the BGCT in many capacities, including committee positions. He also was co-chairman of Texas Baptists Committed. His passion for mission work in Mexico led him to found and direct Gloria al Padre, an organization that seeks to spread and gospel and medical treatment to residents of the Chihuahua Desert. He was a member of First Church in Lorenzo. He was preceded in death by a sister, Joyce Parmer. He is survived by his wife of 55 years; daughters, Kay Alley, Joan Barrett, Donna Stauber and Mary Cooper; son, Billy Jr.; 15 grandchildren; brother, Dean; and sisters, Marie Parmer and Dottie Sayler.

Retiring

Julian Bridges, as professor of sociology at Hardin-Simmons University. His retirement will begin at the end of the spring semester. He will be honored at the HSU Faculty and Staff Appreciation Dinner sponsored by the Alumni Association May 1. He will close out a 31-year career at the school, serving as department chair 29 years. Prior to joining the HSU faculty in 1973, he and his wife, Charlotte, served in Costa Rica and Mexico as Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board representatives 14 years. During sabbatical leaves, he also taught in Madrid, Hong Kong and Tanzania. He is a deacon at First Church in Abilene.

Licensed

Sergio Salazar to the ministry at Primera Iglesia Mexicana in El Paso.

Ordained

Scott Killingsworth, Pat Lavergne, Lawrence Mayer, Brady Pyle and Roy Saunders as deacons at University Church in Houston.

David Kyle and Gannon Harris as deacons at Eastwood Church in Gatesville.

Revivals

First Church, Rogers; March 7-10; evangelists, The Cherrys; pastor, Will Passmore.

Braeburn Valley Church, Houston; evangelist, Step Martin; music, The Goldens; pastor, Preston Dupré.

Enon Church, Doddridge; March 7-12; evangelist, Tim Ellis; pastor, Vernon Lummus.

First Church, Devers; March 14-17; evangelist, Malcolm Ellis; music, The Willis Family; pastor, Harry McDaniel.

Emmanuel Church, Denison; March 14-17; evangelists, The Cherrys; pastor, Earl Oglesbee.

First Church, Throckmorton; March 17-21; evangelist, Michael Gabbert; interim pastor, Edgar Jones.

Pawnee Church, Pawnee; March 19-21; evangelists, The Pearsons; pastor, Mike Smith.

Oakwood Church, Mauriceville; March 21-24; evangelists, The Cherrys; pastor, Wesley Blanton.

Primera Iglesia, La Joya; March 21-24; evangelists, Roberto Rodriguez and Wilson Campoverde; pastor, Fidencio Vasquez.

Hyde Park Church, Denison; March 21-24; evangelist, Tim Johnson; music, Johnnie Smith; interim pastor, Carl Bilderback.

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Posted: 3/05/04

Christian Leadership Institute for
high school youth slated at Baylor

“Influencing Your World” is the theme of the High School Christian Leadership Institute June 24-27 at Baylor University. The four-day conference is open to high school sophomores and juniors from across the country.

The conference includes small-group discussions, team challenges, experiential exercises and individual coaching sessions. Throughout the weekend, participants are mentored by Baylor student leaders.

“Evaluations for the inaugural program were very positive,” said Scott Wade, director of student union. “The students not only mentioned the impact that the institute had on their lives, but also the warm, inviting Baylor community that many hoped they would become a part of in the years ahead.”

Applicants are selected by a committee of student life staff. The $350 registration fee includes lodging, meals and conference materials. Applications and a $50 registration deposit for the 2004 Christian Leadership Institute are due May 1. A limited number of scholarships are available to students with financial need.

“Our candidates are young people who have demonstrated leadership skills and abilities and are committed to using their God-given strengths to invest in and influence the arenas of leadership that they find themselves in,” said Wade. “We're not looking exclusively for the team captains or student government presidents. Above all else, we're looking for that initiative to serve and create positive change.”

Students are challenged to strive for and attain personal goals through several team-building exercises, including rock climbing at the McLane Student Life Center and participating in the Eastland Lakes ropes course.

The conference also will feature a keynote address and seminars by Dave Stone, associate pastor for Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky.

More information about the 2004 High School Christian Leadership Institute is available online at www.baylor.edu/christianleadership or by calling (254) 710-7611.

Posted: 3/05/04

Baptist Briefs

Welch to be SBC presidential nominee. Bobby Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., will be nominated as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the June 15-16 annual meeting in Indianapolis. Johnny Hunt, pastor of the Atlanta-area First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., announced his intention to nominate Welch. Welch has been pastor of the Daytona Beach congregation since 1974 and is the co-creator of the FAITH Sunday school evangelism strategy. He is a former president of the Florida Baptist Convention and a former SBC vice president. Welch is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Jacksonville (Ala.) State University.

Past SBC presidents pick Davidson for VP. Gerald Davidson, pastor of the St. Louis-area First Baptist Church in Arnold, Mo., for 27 years and a past president of the Missouri Baptist Convention, will be nominated for first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. "The former presidents (of the SBC) have decided that Gerald Davidson should be first vice president, and Dr. Adrian Rogers has been asked to nominate him," Bailey Smith, president of the SBC from 1980 to 1982, announced Feb. 19 at a Real Evangelism Conference hosted by Davidson and First Baptist Arnold.

Compensation study under way. The 2004 church staff compensation study is being compiled by 41 Baptist state conventions in cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention Annuity Board. In January, state conventions began mailing surveys to churches to be completed and returned by April 15. After the April deadline, the statistical information will be compiled, and the survey results, with customized salary and benefit information for different church staff positions, will be available in June. If a church did not receive a survey, it can be accessed at www.absbc.org.

History & Heritage Society meeting set. "Baptist Footprints in the Northwest" is the theme for the 2005 annual meeting of the Baptist History & Heritage Society, May 27-29 in Vancouver, Wash. Featured speakers are Walter B. Shurden, executive director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University, and Wayne Flynt from Auburn University. For more information, see the society's website at www.baptisthistory.org or call (800) 966-2278.

Medical Dental Fellowship meeting slated. "Unto the Least of These" is the theme of the 2004 national meeting of the Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship, April 1-4 at Callaway Gardens, Ga. An emphasis on ministry to medically indigent people in the inner cities focuses on the San Antonio Christian Dental Clinic and the medical/dental clinics of Mission Arlington. Medical ethicist Stewart Sprague is a featured speaker, along with Jerry Rankin, president of the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board, and Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Continuing Medical Education hours will be available for several presentations. For more information, call (888) 275-8485 or visit www.bmdf.org.

New Glorieta manager named. Steve Grassfield is the new general manager of Glorieta Conference Center, near Santa Fe, N.M. Grassfield, 54, worked 17 years for ClubCorp, most recently as a vice president. ClubCorp has more than a billion dollars in sales and internationally operates 200 golf courses, country clubs, private business and sports clubs, and resorts.

SBC partners with volunteer pilot network. The North American Mission Board has signed a partnership agreement with Mercy Medical Airlift, part of Angel Flight America, to help with disaster relief. Mercy Medical Airlift works with a network of 6,000 private pilots who volunteer their time and expenses to transport individuals needing medical care.

Posted: 3/05/04

BWA denied exhibit space at SBC meeting

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP)–A Southern Baptist Convention official has denied exhibition space to the Baptist World Alliance at this June's SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis, even though the convention has not yet approved a recommendation to separate from the international Baptist fellowship.

Convention messengers will vote on a recommendation–approved in February by the SBC Executive Committee–to break all ties with the 99-year-old BWA. The SBC is the group's largest member body and largest contributor.

If messengers approve the recommendation, the BWA will stand to lose $300,000 in funding next year.

BWA officials in Falls Church, Va., received a letter informing them of the decision from John Wilkerson, the Executive Committee's vice president for business and finance.

In the Feb. 25 letter, Wilkerson said, “Because of the controversy surrounding this issue currently and the pending recommendation of the Executive Committee to the Southern Baptist Convention, it would be inappropriate to exhibit under these circumstances,” Wilkerson said in his Feb. 25 letter.

Alan Stanford, BWA director of promotion and development, said he and other BWA officials were “surprised and disappointed” at the decision.

“Our assumption was that we would be allowed to exhibit until the SBC voted to discontinue funding the BWA,” he said.

“To us, it seems to be premature for the staff of the Executive Committee to deny messengers to the SBC the opportunity to look at materials and ask questions of the BWA representatives when the messengers are being asked to vote on severing an almost 100-year relationship.”

Wilkerson maintained his office had the right to decide to deny exhibit space to the BWA.

“Funding and exhibiting is not connected,” he said, noting that SBC-funded agencies “don't gain a right (to exhibit) because you're sent money–that's another privilege that's extended to them.”

Wilkerson made the decision to deny the space, in part, he said, because of the BWA's responses to SBC leaders' recommendation that the denominations cut ties.

“Let me just say that the comments that have been voiced by the BWA in the press articles and in person … certainly are not supportive of the Southern Baptist Convention position,” he told Associated Baptist Press.

The BWA's press releases on the situation “are mean-spirited, they're unfactual, they're just harsh,” he said, accusing the BWA leaders of attempting to publicize the story.

“They want this public,” he said. “This is the rhetoric and the dialogue we've tried to avoid the whole way.”

Executive Committee policy allows Wilkerson to make exhibitor decisions, and that “it doesn't require convention approval,” he said.

Stanford said BWA still plans to host a breakfast during the SBC annual meeting. It will be held June 15 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Indianapolis.

Posted: 3/05/04

Carroll Institute offers new approach to theological training

By Marv Knox

Editor

ARLINGTON–Swirling shifts in churches, education and society demand a new approach to training ministers, founders of the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute stressed during ceremonies that marked the school's opening.

“We live in a world of great change, and that change is the reason the Carroll Institute has been formed,” President Bruce Corley said in a video presentation Feb. 28 at First Baptist Church in Arlington, near the institute's headquarters.

Needs of churches and church leaders have been changing rapidly, Corley said, adding he and several colleagues have been researching how to meet those needs for about a decade. The majority of U.S. churches have plateaued in their membership and participation, 40 percent of baptisms in Baptist churches are rebaptisms of Christians who were members of other denominations, and only 15 percent of U.S. Christian leaders live in cities, which are home to a huge majority of people, he noted.

“Churches need a vast number of new church starts,” he said. “But many don't survive one generation because of a lack of leadership training. Many leaders have no access to training.”

However, a change in education–the trend toward teaching with the Internet and other electronic resources–can make affordable ministry training available, he added.

“The Carroll Institute intends to be on the cutting edge” of preparing Christians for ministry, using the Internet to supplement education, he said.

That approach will work in today's society, he added. For example, 80 percent of the U.S. population lives in cities; more people are exercising “deferred choices” and entering second and third careers, such as ministry, later in life; and diversity of backgrounds is becoming the norm.

The Carroll Institute will begin classes this fall, Corley said. It will function through “teaching churches,” where church staff and others from the area are qualified to train and mentor ministers. Classroom courses will be supplemented with online training over the Internet. And some courses also may feature Internet broadcast of lectures from a central teacher to students in various locations, who also will be guided by a local teacher at each site.

“Theological education ought to move in this direction,” said Russell Dilday, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and retired professor at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary, who serves as the institute's chancellor.

Such an institute can provide the “right and adequate training of a great host of spiritual leaders,” Dilday said, quoting Carroll, the institute's namesake and founder of Southwestern Seminary almost a century ago.

Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas and a member of the Carroll Institute's board of governors, praised its church-based approach to training ministers.

“Theological education is done best in the context of a local church,” Denison said on the video. Such training, guided by mentors who are involved in ministry themselves, enables students to “integrate spiritual formation and theological education,” he said.

Carroll Institute administrators are talking seriously to a dozen churches about opening their doors to classes as early as the fall, Corley said in a live presentation to supporters who gathered from across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and as far away as Houston and San Antonio to launch the school.

Sites currently are being negotiated in Bryan-College Station, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Corley said. The institute also will offer classes in West Texas, and leaders are talking to churches in Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

“In these sites, we'll have face-to-face classes, plus online delivery resources,” he said.

Carroll Institute leaders will seek certification from three agencies–the Association of Theological Schools, which accredits ministry-training schools in the United States and Canada; the National Association of Schools of Music; and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the primary regional accrediting agency for higher education.

“We will seek certification within a two-year period,” Corley said. Operating costs are about $40,000 per month, he reported, and the institute is seeking to raise $157,000 in order to open classes in the fall.

In an interview, Stan Moore, one of the institute's senior fellows, said the school is likely to train an average of 15 to 20 students at each teaching church.

The founders tout teaching churches as an asset for several reasons:

Because the training sites will be based in local churches, their focus will help students ground themselves in the practical aspects of ministry.

The training sites will be scattered broadly, so most students will not have to relocate and disrupt their families to study for ministry.

Most classes will be taught by teacher-mentors who are not full-time professors but practicing ministers, whose work is grounded in the church.

Students at each site will be able to build community by studying with a core group of fellow learners, who are sharing common classroom and ministry experiences.

The institute will not invest in “bricks and mortar”–an expensive campus–so the training should be affordable, “comparable but less than other institutions,” Moore said.

The curriculum will be designed to meet students' ministry needs and will be relevant for their work in churches.

The Carroll Institute will offer three levels of study, Moore said.

Lay studies will be geared toward helping laity improve their leadership skills in their local churches. A master's-level course of study will offer what will be the equivalent of a master's degree when the institute receives accreditation. And the institute also plans to offer three doctoral degrees–doctor of ministry, doctor of musical arts and doctor of philosophy.

“The only thing we're not going to offer is a bachelor's degree,” Moore said. “We do not want to compete with our Baptist colleges and universities.”

But the institute may offer a diploma program, which would enable students in their 30s or older to earn a diploma and then a master's degree without going back to college, where typical students would be much younger.

The Carroll Institute's educational programs will be similar in structure to other non-residential professional degrees, such as executive MBA programs or the diversity of master's and doctoral degrees offered nationwide by the University of Phoenix, Moore said.

In addition to Corley, Moore and Dilday, the Carroll Institute's staff includes Budd Smith and Jim Spivey, both senior fellows; Scotty Gray, assistant to the president for institutional effectiveness; and Michael Wright, director of church life and technology.

Wright formerly was a technology leader for the Southern Baptist Radio & Television Commission. All the others previously were professors at Southwestern Seminary.

The board of governors is comprised of Tom Coston, a businessman and member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth; Denison; Tom Hill, a businessman and member of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio; Bill Howard, a retired physician and member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth; Joan Trew, a real estate agent and member of University Baptist Church in Fort Worth; and Jerry Yowell, a businessman and member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

For more information, contact the institute at 120 E. Abram, Arlington 76010; (817) 274-4284; e-mail:admin@bhcti.org; website: www.bhcti.org.

Posted: 3/05/04

Cartoon

Posted: 3/05/04

Temple volunteers cook 'casseroles for Christ'

By George Henson

Staff Writer

TEMPLE–Churches looking for new recipes for ministry can come to First Baptist Church in Temple. The women there have one they'd like to share.

About four years ago, women's ministry leaders at the church brainstormed ideas about how to expand their outreach. One leader, Martha Pope, told about a friend in Arkansas whose church used casseroles as a ministry tool. After garnering more information, the women launched their “Comfort Casseroles” ministry.

“We tweaked what the group in Arkansas was doing to make it do what we wanted it do, but we can't take credit for the idea,” said Kathy Cox, who oversees the ministry.

The Temple group can take credit, however, for making it a long-term outreach and benevolence ministry with continuing vitality.

Each week, one of four groups works for about an hour preparing either chicken spaghetti, chicken and wild rice, beef stroganoff or a soup. Each group also prepares cookies while getting the main dish together.

The ingredients already are available when they arrive. The church hostess knows which group is scheduled for each week and has their recipe, so she buys the ingredients in bulk to keep costs down. Costs are about $150 a month for the ministry.

The women then mix the ingredients and divide them into 10 to 15 casseroles each week. They come in three sizes–an individual-sized pan, one that will feed from two to four people and a large one that will feed four to six people–with leftovers.

“When you come to our freezer, you not only have a choice as to what casserole you will take, but also what size,” Cox said.

After the meals are prepared, three things go on the top cover of the casserole–a rendering of Psalm 28:7, instructions on how to prepare the meal and a list of ingredients to alert anyone with food allergies.

Casseroles are wheeled from the kitchen to a special freezer that is accessible to the entire church. A sign-out sheet enables members to list what has been taken and to whom.

Jenni Zimmerman and Elizabeth Bandy bake cookies for outreach and benevolence at First Baptist Church of Temple.

“The primary purpose of the sign-out sheet is so that we won't have duplication,” Cox said. “That way we won't have two or three people taking the same thing to the same person on the same day.”

Members use the food for a variety of ministries, she said. Sometimes deacons take it to first-time guests of the church. Others go to shut-ins or people moving to the area, as well as those experiencing illness or the death of a family member.

“Sometimes someone will take one to someone because there is something to celebrate,” Cox said. “We have a lot of people who are part of the medical community living around here, and there could be a young couple that completes their residency requirement. Someone might take them a casserole and say: 'Congratulations. Just stick this in the oven, light some candles for a romantic dinner and take a night off.'”

As the ministry flourished, the women felt the time arrived for a name change.

“We were calling it 'Comfort Casseroles,' but we soon realized that not everyone we were taking them too was in need of comfort,” Cox said. The ministry now is called “Casseroles for Christ.”

She cautions, however, that the ministry does not attempt to relieve the church's Sunday school classes of their ministry responsibilities.

“This ministry is not to take the place of what the Sunday school classes do in case of an illness or the birth of a baby, but to supplement that,” Cox said. The casseroles sometimes give a class an extra day to organize its ministry efforts.

Kathy Cox of First Baptist Church in Temple makes sure the freezer is stocked with casseroles church members deliver as an outreach and benevolence ministry.

Most all of the women who began the ministry four years ago still are participating, she said. About 30 women give an hour each month to prepare the casseroles.

“We still love doing this. We love being able to give something back and love being together for that fellowship time,” Cox said.

“Also, we get notes, letters and all kinds of things for people who have been touched by the ministry. It's just wonderful to give back to the church and the community and to know we are meeting a need in so many families.

“And so far, we've never had one refused. If we ever have anyone refuse a casserole, I think we'd all fall over.”

The supply of casseroles in the church's freezer continually needs to be replenished, she noted.

“In four years, we've never had so many in the freezer that we've had to say: 'Stop. We don't need you to cook this week,'” she said. “In a church our size–we have about 650 in Sunday school–there are a lot of people who have needs and things to celebrate.”

Several other churches heard about the ministry and have come to the Temple group for more information, which they have gladly passed on.

Most have made some changes to fit their goals, just like the Temple women did when the ministry crossed over from Arkansas.

But the end result is a ministry that nourishes body and spirit.

Posted: 3/05/04

Health care chaplains maintain they serve in pastoral role

By Craig Bird

Associated Baptist Press

FORT WORTH (ABP)–If military and prison chaplains serve in “pastoral roles,” then so do chaplains in hospitals, hospices and nursing homes. So say a number of medical chaplains and the professional organizations that oversee their work.

There are parallels between the homesick soldier in Iraq who turns to her chaplain for spiritual answers and the unchurched patient in the cardiac-care unit who asks to see the hospital chaplain because she can't sleep, the chaplains say.

Likewise, the Death Row inmate who wants help in praying for his salvation so he can be baptized is much the same, the chaplains say, as the nursing home resident who has outlived all the pastors he has ever known and who asks his chaplain to let him take the Lord's Supper one last time.

And like military and prison chaplains, their counterparts in the medical world are expected to minister to spiritual needs all along the spectrum of belief systems–not just those of the chaplains' theological and denominational preference.

“I am the only pastor many of these children and their families ever know,” said Ann Miller, director of chaplains at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, and a member of Broadway Baptist Church. “I bury more children in a year than most traditional pastors do in a lifetime.”

But that understanding is at odds with the position recently taken by the North American Mission Board, the chaplain-endorsing agency for the Southern Baptist Convention, which is opposed to women serving in pastoral roles. NAMB said in February it will no longer endorse female chaplains for military or prison settings but will endorse female chaplains for medical settings because their function is not pastoral.

The NAMB trustees were responding to a motion at the SBC's annual meeting last June asking them to reconsider their 2002 decision to stop endorsing ordained women in any area of chaplaincy, while still endorsing women in all categories who are not ordained.

The motion was spearheaded by Southern Baptist military chaplains who argued that endorsing female military chaplains who are not ordained would seriously undermine the spiritual effectiveness of all ordained military chaplains. So NAMB trustees voted last month to cease endorsement of any females to chaplaincy positions “where the role and function of the chaplain would be seen the same as that of a pastor.”

According to NAMB, soldiers and prisoners look to their chaplains for counseling, weddings, funerals, preaching and baptism, but hospital chaplains are not called to perform many of those “pastoral duties.”

Terry Fox, NAMB trustee chairman, said since hospital chaplains are not expected to perform pastoral duties, particularly those involving the Lord's Supper and baptism, “We are happy with women being hospital chaplains.”

The rationale rests heavily on the fact that local, ordained and male pastors are just a phone call away from any hospital, hospice or nursing home in America, while the same is not true for military personnel and prisoners.

Indeed, according to the ethical standards for medical chaplains, the first option is to call in the patient's minister of choice. But what happens, they ask, when the patient has no connection to a local church or, because of an emergency situation, the local pastor is not available?

According to a 2002 study conducted by the five largest professional chaplain associations in North America, 58 percent of patients surveyed could not name “a spiritual counselor with whom they could identify.” And a significant number of patients who do indeed have pastors choose not to inform them of their medical situation, the study noted.

The same study, called “Professional Chaplaincy,” listed the job requirements of medical chaplains as designing and leading religious ceremonies of worship and ritual such as prayer, meditation and reading of holy texts; worship and observance of holy days; blessings and sacraments; memorial services and funerals; rituals at the time of birth or other significant times of life cycle transition; and holiday observances.

NAMB's own website calls hospital chaplains pastors. “They are ministers called by God and trained to serve in an environment of sickness, pain, birth, death and continuous learning experiences,” the website says. “They function as pastor, prophet, teacher, administrator, counselor and evangelist.”

All chaplains, not just those in the military and in prisons, “are often called on to administer the sacraments, preside at memorial services, funerals, etc.,” said Teresa Snorton, executive director of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education in Decatur, Ga. “In cases where ordination is not possible, a pastoral care department would have to make sure someone else were available to perform these functions,” she said in an e-mail interview.

“The SBC's recent decision (not to endorse ordained female chaplains) would seriously impede the function of any SBC female chaplain,” Snorton added. “In these perilous times, we need the presence of chaplains in so many sectors of public and community life. These chaplains, whether male or female, need to be equipped to respond fully to the needs of the people they are called or assigned to serve.”

When Jeffrey Funk of Placentia, Calif., was a full-time hospital chaplain, he said, he averaged 75 funerals a year–including some for patients who were members of a local church “but the family felt closer to me than their pastor.”

When a patient dies and the family doesn't have a church connection, they often turn to the hospital chaplain “because they have had a positive rapport” while the chaplain was ministering to the patient, explained Funk, now executive director of the Hospital Chaplain's Ministry of America.

“I'm a hospital chaplain, and I do everything a pastor would,” insists Colleen Martin, a member of Western Hills Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

“We minister not only to patients but to patients' families and to staff. I have preached memorial services, conducted funerals and administered communion. I have sat by the bedside of dying patients and read their favorite Bible passages to them. I have rocked a dying infant and wept with his grandmother. I have stood all night by the bedside of a young man who bled to death. His final request was to ask me to pray for him one last time. I have heard dying patients' final confession for salvation, as well as confessions of sins they had on their conscience. I refuse to close any doors to Christian witness.”

Martin's husband, Dan, also is a chaplain, working with numerous hospices and nursing homes.

They often work with aged men and women who, though “pillars of their congregations,” have been sick so long that “no one remembers them at church anymore.”

“Colleen and I did a joint baptismal service for a very ill man who requested it,” said Martin, former editor of Baptist Press, the SBC's news service. “I did a sprinkling because he was too frail to immerse. It was something he needed to do, and we were honored to do it.”

A few weeks later, the Martins did his memorial service.

“I feel I do more hands-on ministry as a hospice chaplain to patients, families, staff, co-workers than I ever did in my years as pastor of a church,” Martin insisted.

Posted: 3/05/04

Children need parents to listen carefully
to their questions about God, experts advise

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Children can begin to understand God if parents and churches will help them grasp him, according to ministry leaders.

Children and preschoolers struggle to comprehend many abstract aspects of God–his ability to know all, do all and be everywhere at once–because their minds can understand only concrete characteristics they have experienced, according to Catherine Stonehouse, professor of Christian education at Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Ky.

Parents and church leaders must actively try to make abstract concepts about God more concrete for children, Stonehouse said. For example, a parent who cares for his child helps the young one begin to understand how God cares.

Caring can be modeled in congregations, as well, Stonehouse said. Children need to be included in the larger church family to model love.

“As a child grows and comes to understand God, the most important thing they know is God's unconditional love,” Stonehouse said. “Those that most easily understand that are those who experience love.”

Bible stories play an important role in helping maturing children understand God, agreed Stonehouse and Diane Lane, preschool/children's consultant for the Baptist General Convention of Texas Bible Study/Discipleship Center. Young children who are learning to read still do not understand abstract concepts but can comprehend ideas in stories.

However, children reading stories or hearing someone read them is not enough, Lane and Stonehouse said. Adults need to discuss the story with them to make sure children understand the lesson. Activities such as dressing up and acting out biblical stories also help children understand lessons, Lane said.

Discussion of the story helps children internalize biblical lessons and prevents them from misinterpreting Scripture, the specialists commented. Memorizing and rewriting verses can help children learn about God.

“If they never open (the Bible) up, they won't be able to see there are spiritual truths that they can apply to their lives,” Lane said.

Adults should expect children to ask questions, Stonehouse and Lane said. Children may be aware of a “great other” as early as 18 months, Stonehouse noted. They are curious about what God is like and how the world works.

Questions will range from asking where the wind comes from to what will happen when they die, Stonehouse said. Parents must be prepared to give biblical responses and honestly admit when they do not know an answer. Parents and children can find answers together.

Typically, children's questions are not as deep as they come across, Stonehouse cautioned. Listening carefully and knowing the child can help adults provide helpful information.

“We need to find out what the child is asking,” Stonehouse said. “Often we go off on some deep theological tangent.”

In addition to dealing with specific questions and needs, churches should intentionally recognize children's accomplishments, Lane encouraged. Small actions such as displaying children's artwork and letting young people keep their baptism video and first Lord's Supper cup show children the church values them.

Churches need to prepare parents to answer their children's questions, Lane and Stonehouse agreed. They recommended congregations encourage parents to form small groups where they can help each other when issues arise.

“I think it's important for parents to realize they're not alone,” Stonehouse said. “If they desire to be a spiritually nurturing parent, God will work with them in beautiful ways.”