Posted: 1/07/08

Huckabee, Obama early victories
spotlight religion in 2008 campaign

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Come-from-behind wins by overtly Christian presidential candidates in the Iowa caucuses put even more of the spotlight on faith issues in the 2008 election cycle, according to two experts on religion and politics.

Baptist minister Mike Huckabee played David to Mitt Romney’s Goliath on the Republican side, with the former Arkansas governor walloping the former Massachusetts governor’s better-funded and -staffed campaign.

Huckabee	Obama

For Democrats, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama—whose campaign has long devoted resources to appealing to moderate and progressive Christians—soundly defeated Hillary Clinton. Just weeks before, the New York senator and former first lady had seemed to many observers like the inevitable nominee and establishment candidate of the party once led by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

“The obvious story … is that tons and tons of evangelical caucus voters turned out for Huckabee,” said Laura Olson, a Clemson University political-science professor and expert on the Religious Right. Exit polls cited by the major television networks showed 60 percent of GOP caucus-goers considered themselves evangelical or “born-again” Christians. Of those, 46 percent voted for Huckabee.

“I think the sub-story, too, is that … there’s been a lot of talk in the months leading up to this that maybe the Religious Right is a little bit more fractioned than it used to be,” Olson continued. “But … rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated, as the results show.”

Prior to his surge in Iowa, Huckabee has gotten little support from prominent evangelical conservatives on the national level. But a grassroots campaign among pastors, evangelical home-school families and conservative Christians in Iowa seems to have paid significant dividends for the Huckabee campaign.

“He’s really captured the imagination of evangelicals,” said Barry Hankins, a Baylor University professor and expert on conservative evangelicalism.

While the prominent leaders of the Evangelical Right have not united behind a candidate, Olson and Hankins noted, they may do so if Huckabee’s momentum carries him beyond Iowa into other early-voting states.

“I think that there are some Christian Right figures that would get behind him if he was viable,” Hankins said. “I think they’re holding their cards” until the picture becomes clearer.

Olson said Huckabee’s resounding victory in spite of lacking support from the GOP establishment means that the most influential surviving leaders of the Religious Right— such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Southern Baptist ethics guru Richard Land—could be moving toward irrelevancy when it comes to elections.

“The power of the Religious Right movement … is increasingly about what happens on the ground and not about what Dobson says or what Richard Land says or what any of these other dons say,” she said.

Meanwhile, more centrist and progressive evangelicals—particularly younger ones—may be more open than their fellow believers to an Obama presidency. Obama has written and spoken repeatedly about his adult conversion experience at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He even took his campaign autobiography’s title, The Audacity of Hope, from that of a favorite sermon his pastor delivered there.

“Obama has more appeal to moderate-to-liberal people of faith than either certainly Hillary Clinton or even, to a lesser extent, (former North Carolina Sen.) John Edwards,” Olson said. That owes to the fact, she added, that Obama “has done, I think, of the three the best job of bringing the discussion of faith and values to the race.”

Conservative Christians for whom abortion rights and gay rights are the most important issues are still unlikely to back Obama.

“Is he going to get fundamentalists to vote for him? Certainly he’s not,” Olson said. “But there’s maybe as many as 20 percent of evangelicals (who) are enough in play (for a Democrat). Can he get them? Absolutely.”

Huckabee, meanwhile, still faces significant hurdles on his path to the nomination.

“Can he raise money? Because he desperately, desperately needs money,” Olson said. “He also needs organization in terms of numbers on the ground. He can’t just be the candidate of one faction; he has to be the candidate of the whole party.”

Posted: 1/04/08

Kenya violence affects Wayland students

By Jonathan Petty

Wayland Baptist University

LIMURU, Kenya—Students attending the Wayland Baptist University campus near Nairobi have had family members killed in the violence that has erupted following a disputed election. Administrators are monitoring the situation to determine whether to postpone the start of a new semester.

Wayland’s campus, sponsored in conjunction with the Kenya Baptist Theological College, is about 24 kilometers from Nairobi where some of the worst violence has occurred.

No classes are meeting now, but they are scheduled to resume on Jan. 14. Don Ashley, associate professor of religion at Wayland’s campus in Anchorage, journeyed to Kenya with his family prior to Christmas and is scheduled to teach a course beginning later this month.

Rick Shaw, dean of the Kenya campus, reported Ashley and his family are in no danger at this time. If the situation becomes too dangerous, they will return to the United States, and classes at the Kenya campus will be postponed.

Shaw, director of the Wayland Missions Center, currently is in Plainview but is scheduled to leave for Kenya Jan. 11.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” Shaw said. “I will watch it probably until Monday or Tuesday, then I’ll make a decision.”

Lack of supplies presents the biggest challenge at this time, Ashley said. The school is running low on food and other necessities. Fuel also is at a premium, making transportation to and from the campus difficult for students.

Posted: 1/04/08

Christians killed, churches burned in India

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BWA)—Ten Christians were killed, and about 90 churches and 600 homes torched by Hindu militants in eastern India around Christmas, a Baptist official there reported to the Baptist World Alliance.

“Fifty to 70 Hindu radicals pulled out Pastor Junas Digal from a parked bus, paraded him on the road, all the way beating him with sticks and hands, and finally shaved his head to claim him a Hindu,” said Swarupananda Patra, general secretary of the All Orissa Baptist Churches Federation.

In Bamunigham, in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, two Christians were shot and injured, shops operated by Christians destroyed, 20 churches damaged, and three churches razed on Christmas Eve, Patra reported.

On Christmas, Christians were terrorized, Christmas worship services disrupted and churches forced to close, while Christians hid in “forests to evade attacks from these Hindus,” Patra continued.

The attacks affected about 5,000 Christians, leaving most homeless. They were allegedly the work of Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the World Hindu Council.

BWA General Secretary Neville Callam condemned the attacks and urged Christians, especially Baptists, to remember “our Christian brothers and sisters in Orissa state in our prayers.”

Callam further indicated that the BWA “will respond meaningfully to the needs and concerns of those who have suffered and will make the appropriate representations to make the case for respect for religious freedom in India.”

Already, Baptists in other parts of India have responded to aid those who suffered from the violence. Bonny Resu, general secretary for the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation and BWA regional secretary for Asia, reported local Indian churches are being mobilized to provide blankets and other assistance.

The level and speed of assistance is being tempered by the sensitivity of the situation as overt assistance from Christian organizations, even from within India, could spark further violence, Resu said.

“Orissa is a place where a Baptist community of about 500,000 live, and most of them are in these areas where persecution is most intense. They are also among the poorest of the poor of India, which is why they are often voiceless,” said Resu, who is from Nagaland in northeast India.

Violent anti-Christian attacks are not new to Orissa. In January 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned to death as they slept in their car in Manoharpur village, Keonjhar district, in rural Orissa.

India’s Christian population is estimated at 3.5 percent of a total 1.12 billion people. There are several Baptist conventions and unions in Orissa state that are member bodies of the BWA, with total membership in Orissa of nearly 500,000 baptized believers and about 3,500 churches.

Posted: 1/04/08

Around the State

• Don Lane, founder of CityChurch Ministries in Amarillo, was named Man of the Year for 2007 by the Amarillo Globe-News.

• Brady-Coleman-Runnels Baptist Area is now Lake Ivie Baptist Association. Barry Taylor, who had been pastor of First Church in Winters, has been elected ministry director.

• The LifeWay Christian Resources store in Lubbock is relocating. Beginning Jan. 15, its 6,000-square-foot facility will be at the interchange of Loop 289 and Marsha Sharp Freeway at the Canyon West Shopping Center. The grand opening celebration will be held Jan. 26-Feb. 2.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor granted degrees to 183 students during winter commencement ceremonies, including 170 undergraduate degrees and 13 master’s degrees. Stephen Alston of Temple, Kayla Carr of Brenham and Audra Musser of Hewitt won awards for the highest grade-point average.

• Dan Griffin, pastor emeritus of Cliff Temple Church in Dallas, was awarded an honorary doctor of humanities degree by Dallas Baptist University during winter commencement ceremonies. The school also granted 266 undergraduate degrees and 227 graduate degrees.

• Janna Kim, a former member of Gaston Oaks Church in Dallas, and Matthew Kissing, a former member of Lake Arlington Church in Arlington, both received degrees from Golden Gate Seminary during winter commencement.

• Five Texans received degrees from New Orleans Seminary during winter commencement ceremonies. They were Dallas native Richard Blanton; Keith Manning, pastor of Central Church in Hillsboro; Danny Warbington, pastor of Mulberry Springs Church in Hallsville; Timothy Yin, pastor of First Chinese Church in San Antonio; and Byron McWilliams, pastor of First Church in Odessa.

• Four international students graduated from San Marcos Baptist Academy Dec. 12. They included two graduates from Mexico, and one each from Hong Kong and Vietnam.

• The mock trial team of Houston Baptist University finished fourth at the Green & Gold Invitational Mock Trial Tourn-ament held at Baylor University after notching nine wins. Debbie Whiteside, a junior from Houston, finished as second-best witness at the tournament.

• Tommy Young has been named director of financial aid at East Texas Baptist University.

Anniversaries

• Keith Wilkerson, 20th, as minister of music at First Church of Liberty City in Kilgore, Jan. 2.

• First Church in White Settlement, 140th, Feb. 10. A brunch will begin at 9 a.m., followed by the morning worship service. Featured speakers will be Paul Miller, Jim Gatliff and Al Fasol. For more information, call (817) 246-2171. David Hixon is pastor.

Deaths

• Curtis Morton, 86, Dec. 14, in Brownwood. Pastor of Second Church in Winters, he had been in ministry 56 years, preaching in and around Runnels County. He was instrumental in starting several churches in the area. He was preceded in death by his wife of 43 years, Patricia; and his second wife of 10 years, Margaret. He is survived by his sons, Curtis, Sherman, Farion and David; daughter, Patricia Batla; 18 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; stepdaughters, Betty Dawkins and Amanda Dawkins; three step-grandchildren; and one step-great-grandchild.

• Lucile Manning, Dec. 16, one day short of her 97th birthday, in Waxahachie. She was the wife of pastor Jack Manning, and they served in more than 20 countries. They retired to Waxahachie, where she was active in mentoring others in Scripture memory. She memorized hundreds of verses. She was preceded in death by her husband. She is survived by her daughter, Ruth Turpin; son, Jack; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

• Boyd Hunt, 91, Dec. 20 in Fort Worth. He was a distinguished professor of theology emeritus at Southwestern Seminary. He was pastor of First Church in Houston from 1946 until 1953, when he began teaching at Southwestern Seminary. He retired in 1987, but continued to teach as an adjunct professor until 1999. He served on the executive committees of both the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention. He was preceded in death by his wife, Connie; sister, Carolyn Finke; and brother, Roland. He is survived by his daughters, Beth Harrington and Anne Barker; son, Bill; seven grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Ordained

• Chad Smith, to the ministry at Georgetown Church in Pottsboro.

Posted: 1/04/08

High-tech audio Bibles bring
Scriptures to life, users say

By Kat Glass

Religion News Service

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (RNS) —Often when Mike Sheppard listens to the stories of the Crucifixion or Mary’s discovery of the empty tomb, he gets so distracted he almost forgets he’s behind the wheel.

“There are points in the New Testament where you’ll be brought to tears while you’re driving down the road,” said Sheppard, 56, a computer software technician in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Sheppard, a Southern Baptist, said he’s read the sacred text many times, but listening to The Word of Promise audio Bible really transports him to the first century.

Christian publishers are increasingly catching up with their multimedia-savvy consumers and offering Bibles beyond the traditional book format. Eager listeners like Sheppard can buy the story on tapes, CDs, MP3 downloads, iTunes and in other formats.

Andrew Block, founder and president of the audio Bible company GoBible, started his company after noticing technology wasn’t reaching the faith-based niche.

“I just didn’t see anyone using new technology to bring people of faith content that’s important to them in an easy and affordable manner,” Block said.

GoBible’s The Listener’s Bible looks like it’s cut out for Gen-Y listeners, with an iPod-like screen and buttons made in the image of the popular portable music device. The entire Old and New Testaments are available, with 70 hours of 31,000 verses individually marked so listeners can scroll through.

A study conducted by the company in the spring of 2007 showed their listeners landed all over the demographic map—from tech-savvy youngsters to gray-bearded Methuselahs.

Similarly, the makers of the celebrated audio recording Inspired by … The Bible Experience were pleasantly surprised that people of all ages are buying their New and Old Testament audio Bibles. The recording features actors Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington, along with Pentecostal pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes.

“The concern was that this would just be a trendy thing—that people would purchase it because of the star power—but then not really get engaged in the Bible. But just the opposite has been happening,” said Paul Caminiti, vice president and publisher of Bibles for Zondervan, which produced The Bible Experience.

Some users have reported they use the GoBible device to listen along while they’re reading and help with some of the trickier name pronunciations, Block said.

“We never created GoBible to replace the reading of the (written) word,” Block said. “Rather, we see it as a supplement. It’s for people who don’t always have the time.”

Listening to the Bible on audio can bring new meaning into the text for some.

“When you listen to it, the readers bring from their experience,” Sheppard said. “Sometimes the voices bring out a nuance that may bring insight that you hadn’t thought of before.”

Pointing to the Bible’s history as an oral text, Caminiti said, “The Bible was really written to be listened to.”

Jim Lahman, 48, a native of Brunswick, Ohio, uses the Bible Experience recording when he teaches his adult Bible study class. He encourages his students to read along as they listen to the actors, who are complemented by sound effects like bleating sheep and barking dogs.

“It really adds depth to the Bible study,” Lahman said. “It’s just not sitting there reading the Bible.”

Posted: 1/04/08

Baptist Briefs

Kentucky editor accepts post at Ouachita. Trennis Henderson, editor of the Kentucky Baptist Western Recorder newspaper, has accepted a position as vice president for communications at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. Henderson, who has edited the Recorder since 1999, has served more than 25 years in Baptist journalism. He previously was editor of the Arkansas Baptist News and managing editor of Missouri’s Word & Way. Henderson, a 1983 graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, also graduated from the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. Henderson and his wife, Pam, are members of Crestwood (Ky.) Baptist Church, where he is a deacon and she directs the church’s weekday preschool ministry. Their two daughters are students at Taylor University in Upland, Ind.

Novelist Grisham joins New Baptist Covenant lineup. Best-selling author John Grisham, whose recent novels have revealed his Christian faith, will deliver a rare public speech at the New Baptist Covenant meeting in late January. The 53-year-old Grisham, a lifelong Baptist, has taught Sunday school to young couples and 4-year-olds and regularly goes with fellow church members on mission-service trips. Grisham, a member of University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va., joins a lineup of Baptists who will address the three-day interracial meeting in Atlanta, including former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and Republican senators Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Charles Grassley (Iowa). “The Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant,” organized by Carter, will seek to unite an estimated 20 million Baptists Jan. 30-Feb. 1 around an agenda of Christ-centered social ministry. Forty Baptist organizations in the United States and Canada are participating, including the four main black Baptist conventions and most of the other Baptist denominations except the Southern Baptist Convention.

Missouri Baptist Convention board approves relocation. The Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board voted at their December meeting to move the state convention’s office building to a small town west of the state capital, but the effort may run into trouble due to complications over a tenant formerly affiliated with the convention. The board approved a committee’s recommendation to accept a developer’s donation of six acres of land in California, Mo., about 20 miles west of Jefferson City, where the convention has been headquartered for decades. A possible hindrance to that sale could be the Missouri Baptist Foundation’s 20-year lease of the Baptist Building’s fifth floor. The foundation negotiated the lease in 1999 in exchange for extensive improvements to the building. Foundation President James Smith reported his board has not yet dealt with its options in the situation. The foundation is one of five formerly affiliated agencies currently involved in litigation with the convention. State convention officials filed suit against the foundation; Missouri Baptist University near St. Louis; Windermere Baptist Conference Center; The Baptist Home, which provides retirement and care facilities; and the news journal Word & Way, after each of those agencies removed themselves from the convention’s control. The first jury trial in the 5-year-old litigation is set for Feb. 1, 2008. It will deal with the Windermere case.

Defender of fired female seminary professor lauded. One of Southern Baptists’ most outspoken pastors has been recognized for his defense of women—even though he does not believe women should serve as pastors. Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., recently received the Priscilla and Aquila Award from Christians for Biblical Equality. The group lauded Burleson for using his blog to alert Baptists to the firing of Hebrew professor Sheri Klouda. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson fired Klouda for holding a “position reserved for a man.” Some Southern Baptists, like Burleson, felt Southwestern’s dismissal of Klouda was unethical, illegal and a far reach beyond the convention’s stated doctrinal positions. Through his website, Burleson raised thousands of dollars to assist Klouda during a period of financial hardship brought on by her dismissal and her husband’s health problems. Klouda, who now teaches at Taylor University in Indiana, is suing Southwestern and Patterson for fraud, breach of contract and defamation. An attempt by the seminary to have the lawsuit dismissed failed recently.

Baptist who warned of Islamic takeover hired for missions post. David Clippard, the former Missouri Baptist Convention executive who earned national headlines when he said Islam has a plan to “conquer and occupy” the United States, was hired by the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board to enlist Baptist churches to spread the gospel to non-Christians worldwide. Clippard will serve as managing director of the IMB’s church services team. Clippard won national attention in 2006 when he preached a sermon to the Missouri convention claiming the “real threat” to the United States is that “Islam has a strategic plan to conquer and occupy America.” He claimed the Saudi Arabian government paid for 15,000 Muslim college students to come to North America to study and funded scores of Islamic study centers and mosques here with the intention of taking the continent for Islam. “They are after our sons and daughters, our students,” he said.

Mississippi Baptists to sell Gulfshore property for $18 million. The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board has voted to move forward on a developer’s $18 million offer to purchase property that was the home of Gulfshore Baptist Assembly before it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Messengers to the 2006 Mississippi Baptist Convention annual meeting voted to accept a special committee’s recommendation to sell the property, with the stipulation that the new owners would not build a casino or any gambling-related businesses on the property. Developer Douglas Johnson of Mandeville, La., submitted a letter of intent on behalf of NewTrac East to purchase the property for a multi-use, multi-million-dollar project he plans to name Gulfshore Point. Johnson emphasized in a meeting with the convention board’s executive committee prior to the board’s December vote that he agreed with the no-gambling stipulation and said he planned to preserve the history of the property in special ways, including construction of a chapel to commemorate its time as Gulfshore Baptist Assembly.

Posted: 1/04/08

Posted: 1/04/08

Volunteer teachers needed in China

Volunteers for China has 10 service opportunities scheduled in 2008. Most involve teaching conversational English in high schools, colleges or universities.

Job assignments vary in length from one month to one year. A stipend, housing and some airfare assistance is provided in some cases. A valid U.S. passport is required for all assignments.

For more information, call (865) 983-9852, e-mail cen29529@centurytel.net or visit volunteersforchina.org.

Posted: 1/04/08

Study finds limits to
Willow Creek’s success model

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

CHICAGO (RNS)—Willow Creek Community Church, the suburban Chicago megachurch that has become a model for some of the nation’s largest churches, started more than a quarter-century ago by asking the question: Why don’t people go to church?

Now, church leaders are looking for new ways to keep them there after new research revealed that worshippers’ spiritual growth did not keep pace with their involvement in church activities.

The findings, based on research at Willow Creek and similar churches, showed involvement in church activities did not carry with it a boost in spiritual growth, defined as “increasing love for God and others.”

Pastor Bill Hybels said it was “almost unbearable” to learn that almost a quarter of people at his megachurch were either “stalled” in their spiritual growth or dissatisfied with the church, with many considering leaving.

“It is causing me to ask new questions,” Hybels acknowledged in the foreword to Reveal, the 110-page book that detailed the research results. “It is causing me to see clearly that the church and its myriad of programs have taken on too much of the responsibility for people’s spiritual growth.”

The initial study looked at Willow Creek and six other churches across the country; it was expanded to include 23 additional congregations. In response to the research, Willow Creek is retooling its programs and providing pointers to churches that belong to the Willow Creek Association.

Executive Pastor Greg Hawkins said the research showed Willow Creek was doing well in terms of evangelism, serving the poor and encouraging Bible reading.

“But what we found was our people were hungry for even more,” Hawkins said. “They wanted to go deeper with the Bible. They wanted to go deeper with personal spiritual practices.”

Now Willow Creek is building an online “next-step tool” that will direct people to books, videos and other activities based on answers to questions about their spiritual path. Willow Creek’s midweek services for the first half of 2008 will focus on a chronological overview of the Bible.

In recent months, Willow Creek undertook a churchwide teaching series on the New Testament book of James. Commentaries were available for members who wanted to further study the text. Worshippers were encouraged to take a range of challenges—attending all of the related services, reading the biblical text on their own or joining small-group discussions.

Recently, Willow Creek Association completed additional research with 200 churches, 40 percent of them not specifically targeted at spiritual seekers. The network plans to spend $500,000 to use the research as the basis for a fee-based system that will funnel information to congregations.

Willow Creek’s findings didn’t surprise Diana Butler Bass, who has studied signs of vitality among smaller mainline Protestant churches. “I have interviewed dozens and dozens of people throughout the United States who used to belong to churches like Willow Creek but left them in order to become Presbyterians or Lutherans or Episcopalians,” she said.

Mainline churches and megachurches alike are rediscovering the importance of simple practices like prayer and Bible study, Bass said. “The littlest congregation in the world can do those kinds of things,” she said. “It’s through those pathways that those churches have actually found revitalization.”

Posted: 1/04/08

Raising the bar for membership

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—In a growing number of Baptist churches, new arrivals learn an important lesson early: Membership has its privileges, but it also has its responsibilities.

“We want to create a culture of discipleship here,” said John Wilson, minister of Christian education at Friendship-West Baptist Church, an African-American megachurch in southwest Dallas.

Candidates for membership understand when they respond to a public invitation at the end of a worship service, they will be required to attend two five-hour new-member orientation classes on consecutive Saturdays before they are accepted as members.

Once they complete the classes, where facilitators help them discover their spiritual gifts and match them to available ministries in the church, their graduation is noted in a “celebration service” at church. And at that point, the pastor announces the ministries in which the newly admitted members plan to serve.

About one-third of the people who walk the aisle during a public invitation at a Friendship-West Baptist Church worship service graduate from the orientation class, Wilson said.

Of those who complete the orientation class, most honor the commitment they make to service, he noted. And ministers on staff use a software program the church designed to keep in touch with people who have expressed a commitment to their specific areas of responsibility.

After graduating from the orientation class, many become involved in other discipleship training opportunities the church offers, such as teacher- certification classes required for anyone who leads a Bible study class, a church-sponsored Bible institute and a three-year program for ministers-in-training.

About 90 percent of the people who enroll in the teacher-certification classes complete the 35-hour training in biblical interpretation, theology and fundamentals of teaching. In the last eight years, the church has certified about 400 teachers.

“If you challenge your people to grow, most are going to respond to the challenge,” Wilson said. “We set the bar high because God’s word is high. If you set the bar of expectation too low, you do people a disservice.”

Similarly, Legacy Church in Plano invites anyone who wants to become a church member to attend a two-session “discover Legacy” class. In the class, prospective members learn about the church’s mission, beliefs and values.

First, facilitators help the inquirers—many previously unchurched—understand what it means to become a Christian.

Between the first and second sessions of the orientation class, prospective members are asked to write their Christian testimony and complete a spiritual gift inventory. At the end of the second session, after they learn more about how to apply their gifts within the context of Legacy Church, they have an opportunity to sign a covenant.

“When they sign the covenant, that’s when they become members,” Pastor Gene Wilkes explained.

Tying membership to a covenant pledge rather than a vote by the congregation and allowing people to make that commitment in a small-group orientation class rather than in a public invitation during a worship service proved difficult for some members at Legacy to accept at first, Wilkes acknowledged.

“Initially, some longtime Baptists said, ‘We don’t sign anything,’” he recalled. Pointing them to church covenants in the back of Baptist hymnals from the mid-20th century helped soften the blow somewhat.

The new-member orientation classes grew out of a genuine need at Legacy Church as the congregation reached unchurched people.

“When Baptists move from franchise to franchise, everybody gets it. But when we started reaching non-Southern Baptists and unchurched people, we realized we had to make it clear who we are and what we expect,” Wilkes said.

“We were growing so fast, and people were coming wanting to be members. We had an outreach program and had visited many of them, but others came whom we hadn’t met. I essentially had 30 seconds to decide whether to present them for membership.”

The orientation class allows inquirers to understand “what they’re getting into and what our expectations are,” he explained. “For us, it’s a matter of truth in advertising.”

After learning the demands of membership, some inquirers have opted to remain involved in worship services and in the church’s small-group Bible studies but not take the next step of commitment, Wilkes noted. Unless they agree to the terms of the covenant, they are not eligible to vote in church business conferences or become part of the church’s servant leadership network.

Numerical growth has slowed somewhat at Legacy Church since the congregation adopted the covenant approach to assimilating new members, Wilkes acknowledged, but the commitment level has increased.

“It has raised the value of membership,” he said.

Posted: 1/04/08

Time to revamp discipleship methods?

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

More than two decades after he helped many Baptist churches breathe new life into discipleship training, Roy Edgemon believes it’s time take a new look at how churches make disciples.

In the early 1980s, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sunday School Board asked Edgemon to revamp its approach to discipleship as attendance to Sunday night church training was on what seemed an irreversible decline.

Under his leadership, the organization that became LifeWay introduced interactive writing—an approach that engaged readers with discussion-oriented questions—and discovered hallmark writers such as Beth Moore and Henry Blackaby. In 2001, discipleship enrollment was at an all-time high, he noted.

But several years later, Edgemon believes it’s time for Baptists to take a fresh look at their approach to discipleship. If they don’t, churches are in danger of continuing to reach people but not turning them into devoted followers of Christ.

“They’re trying to be evangelistic and trying to be very missions-oriented,” said Edgemon, a member of First Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs. “I don’t think the people are getting the foundations of their faith. I don’t think they’re getting any depth.”

Edgemon’s concerns mirror those of the leaders of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, which has served as a model for churches nationwide in how to evangelize people through small groups. Despite reaching thousands, leaders acknowledged a recent study showed the church is doing a poor job of turning converts into growing followers of Christ.

The study found nearly 25 percent of the people at Willow Creek were stalled in their spiritual growth and dissatisfied with church. The conventional approach to discipleship that connected increased church activity to spiritual growth was flawed. While activity can lead to growth, the survey found at a certain point, people who were growing extremely deep in their faith actually were becoming less connected to Willow Creek.

“What you hold in your hands has revolutionized the way I look at the role of the local church,” Willow Creek Pastor Bill Hybels wrote in the forward of a book based on the study. “It is causing me to ask new questions. It is causing me to rethink how we coach Christ-followers. It is causing me to see clearly that the church and its myriad of programs have taken on too much of the responsibility for people’s spiritual growth.”

Willow Creek’s survey reveals what some Baptists have believed for years. Max Barnett, who led the Baptist Student Ministries at the University of Oklahoma for more than 37 years and now directs collegiate ministry for the Colorado Baptist General Convention, reminds people that the Great Commission does not emphasize sharing the gospel with large numbers of people. Rather, it stresses making disciples around the globe.

Many churches incorrectly rely on small-group Bible studies to develop people spiritually, Barnett said. Discipleship takes place in regular one-on-one meetings between two people who agree to keep each other accountable during an extended period. In a meeting between two friends, each person feels comfortable to share about themselves and be frank with the other person.

“This is where as Southern Baptists, I think we’ve lost it—the person-to-person,” he said. “I think most people are not going to grow to maturity without someone meeting with them.”

Baptist General Convention of Texas Evangelism Director Jon Randles agreed with Barnett. Spiritually mature Christians may be able to disciple three or four people a year in individual meetings. In these private gatherings, people can be held accountable for their Scripture memorization, prayer life, Bible study habits and sharing the gospel.

“Baptists have always been skeptical of exclusivism, and discipleship is a bit exclusive,” he said.

At CrossBridge Community Church in San Antonio, discipleship is at the heart of everything the congregation does because members view growing in faith as fundamental to all other expressions of belief, explained Pastor Kirk Freeman.

“When we say discipleship, we don’t limit the phrase to mean just Bible study,” he said. “We don’t separate missions from discipleship, because only a disciple can go to the ends of the earth to witness for Jesus.”

Edgemon believes Freeman’s church understands the critical nature of discipleship. Baptists’ weakness in discipleship has weakened the denomination, including the wane in evangelistic zeal. Proper discipleship encourages people to pray for people they know who lack a relationship with Christ and to share the gospel with them.

Edgemon believes part of the solution lies in identifying and publishing a new wave of authors who can capture the attention of Baptists and encourage them to grow in their faith.

At CrossBridge, the solution is not about curriculum. CrossBridge does not feature many programs commonplace in most Baptist churches, but the church encourages members to be involved in the lives of their friends, family and people with whom they come in contact. Rather than classroom Bible study, the church has “Life Groups”—small gatherings where people can study the Bible, discuss their spiritual development and talk about how biblical principles intersect their lives.

The church also delves deep into the Bible during Sunday morning sermons. It recently spent 38 weeks in the brief New Testament book of Ephesians. A group of laypeople wrote corresponding week-long studies about Ephesians for each of the sermons. As much as a quarter of the congregation ministered in a foreign country last year. Many of the members ministered locally in one form or another.

“The difficulty with discipleship is it’s not a smooth step-by-step process. If there’s any formula for discipleship, it’s life-on-life,” Freeman said, as Christians invest their lives in ministering to each other. And ultimately, the responsibility for spiritual growth rests on the individual. One Sunday a year, each person at CrossBridge receives a spoon in worship, because as Freeman says, CrossBridge isn’t going to “spoon-feed” people. They are going to have to feed themselves.

Whether they follow a programmatic or organic approach, churches must help members grow in their faith, experts agree. Christians need to internalize their beliefs and let those beliefs affect actions.

“Once someone becomes a disciple, they never turn back. It becomes part of who they are,” Randles said.

Posted: 1/04/08

Faith Digest

Virginia Tech professor named ‘most inspiring.’ A Holocaust survivor who helped save students’ lives before dying during a shooting spree at Virginia Tech last April was named by Beliefnet.com as its most inspiring person of 2007. Liviu Librescu, 76, was one of 32 killed at the school in Blacksburg, Va., but is credited with preventing more deaths by barricading the door of his classroom and telling students to jump out of windows to avoid the gunman. Librescu is the eighth person to be so honored by Beliefnet. The previous year, residents of the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pa., were recognized for their forgiving reaction to the murder of five schoolgirls.

Egg-producing monks crack under PETA pressure. A Trappist abbey in South Carolina has announced it will end its egg production business after accusations of animal cruelty by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA accused the monks of mistreating chickens on their egg farm and sent an investigator, posing as a retreat participant at the abbey, who found evidence of “shocking cruelty” to the hens. Earlier, abbey officials said the monks had followed guidelines of the United Egg Producers to ensure the hens were treated well, and an audit found the abbey to be in compliance with the guidelines. Stan Gumula, abbot of Mepkin Abbey, said the monks will phase out egg production over the next 18 months and seek a new industry that will aid them in meeting their expenses. The monks follow a tradition of agricultural work as a basic component of monastic life.

Lutherans hope carbon credits offset frequent flying. While they can’t cut back on church business, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America leaders hope that buying carbon credits will make up for the heavy environmental cost of their transportation. The Washington, D.C., office of the ELCA decided to start purchasing carbon offsets a few months ago, after implementing more routine changes like printing double-sided, turning off lights and recycling. Using an online carbon calculator, the office tallied up its yearly air miles and decided to invest in methane energy harvesting through NativeEnergy, a renewable energy company based in Charlotte, Vt. NativeEnergy tabulated the carbon output for a roundtrip flight between New York City and Los Angeles at 1.97 tons, which would necessitate a $24 investment in renewable energy under their plan.

Blair moves spiritual allegiance from Canterbury to Rome. After months of speculation, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair converted to Roman Catholicism in a low-key ceremony at an archbishop’s chapel in London just before Christmas. During his 10 years as prime minister, Blair steadfastly sidestepped attempts to pin him down on questions of faith. But his resignation from power last summer appeared to open the way to the formal step into the Catholic Church. His wife, Cherie, is Catholic. Blair was baptized as an Anglican but has shown keen interest in Catholicism in recent years. He made no move toward joining the Catholic Church during his years in power, possibly because of political sensitivities in a nation that has never had a Catholic prime minister.