Posted: 12/21/07

Blogging pastor lauded for defending
fired female seminary professor

By John Pierce

Baptists Today

MINNEAPOLIS (ABP)—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., and former president of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, recently received the Priscilla and Aquila Award from Christians for Biblical Equality.

The award honors people who, like early church leaders Priscilla and Aquila, faced persecution for the sake of the gospel. With the award, CBE honors those who have “risked their necks for the sake of biblical equality,” the organization’s website says.

The non-profit organization, which promotes gift-based—rather than gender-based—Christian service for men and women, 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 earlier in 2007 for holding a “position reserved for a man.”

Klouda, a graduate of Criswell College and Southwestern, said school administrators had previously told her she would not be fired when Patterson came to the post in 2003. After the dismissal, Southwestern trustee Chairman Van McClain described her earlier hiring to the position as “a momentary lax of the parameters.”

Southern Baptists’ 200 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal calls on women to “submit graciously” to their husband’s leadership and says they are “unqualified by Scripture” to serve as pastors. The statement does not address women in other leadership roles.

Some Southern Baptists, like Burleson, feel 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.

Burleson, who has gained notoriety in recent years for calling for a stop to the ever-narrowing circle of participation in the SBC, is a trustee of the International Mission Board. He has claimed that fellow trustees loyal to Patterson are implementing policies that exclude many missionary candidates and undermine the leadership of IMB President Jerry Rankin.

Burleson’s blogging about issues related to the IMB and the SBC has troubled some trustees. Last year they approved, and then withdrew, a motion asking SBC messengers to remove Burleson. But in November they accomplished much the same by censuring and effectively barring him from carrying out the duties of his office.

While Burleson said he maintains his view that women should not serve as senior pastors, he said such decisions should rest with autonomous congregations rather than Baptist conventions. Women’s roles, he said, should not be considered a primary and divisive theological issue.

In a posting at his website, Burleson even suggested that he might be wrong about his current view on women’s roles.

“I wonder if dogmatism against women in ministry might one day be viewed the same as we now view Southern Baptists’ former dogmatism in defending slavery. I don’t know. I’m just asking,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons I refuse to be dogmatic on my complementarian beliefs and will listen to my friends who are egalitarian.”

Egalitarians believe men and women should be treated equally, while complementarians believe women are limited to roles that “complement” male leadership. Both groups claim biblical support for their positions.

“This does not mean I doubt the word of God,” Burleson added. “I fully trust God’s word. It means I fully comprehend my own fallibility in properly interpreting the word of God.

“Let’s dialogue about the issue. Let’s debate the issue. Let’s disagree over the issue. But we should never divide over the issue. There are far more important doctrines that unite us.”

CBE also honored Mary Lambert, who was asked by the pastor of Watertown Baptist Church, an American Baptist Church in New York state, to forego her position as a Sunday school teacher to adults. He asked her to leave on the grounds that he believes the Bible prohibits women to teach men. Lambert had taught Sunday school more than 60 years.

Posted: 12/21/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for December 30

Jesus and hopeless situations

• Mark 4:35-5:43

By Andrew Daugherty

Christ Church, Rockwall

During a political campaign season, presidential candidates running for elected office are examined under the microscope of the American public. Amidst the many storms of scrutiny, they must respond to questions raised about their personal and professional lives. While their public records are visible for all to see, their private worlds are exposed through both facts and rumors that wash up on the shores of newspaper headlines and tabloid magazines. When it finally comes to who gets elected, we can hope it is a person who possesses those rare qualities of experience, character and self-knowledge; one who is not so whipped by the shifting winds of popularity that they do or say whatever it takes to deny public failure or prevent personal humiliation.

One New York Times columnist recently wrote the American presidency is a bacterium. David Brooks comments: “It finds the open wounds in the people who hold it. It infects them, and the resulting scandals infect the presidency and the country. The person with the fewest wounds usually does best in the White House and is best for the country.”

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What the presidency does to a politician is what life can do to a person. Life can be a bacterium that finds the wounds of a person or even helps create the conditions that make those wounds possible. Situations and circumstances make people vulnerable to fear and physical and psychic illnesses and even death. At one time or another and to one degree or another, life presents itself as an experience of suffering.

It can be claimed that Jesus is for all times the leader of the free world (the whole world he came to set free). Yet, like his followers, even Jesus would not be able to boast about being the person with the fewest wounds.

While there were political dimensions to his ministry, Jesus never was purely a political personality. He never seemed to care about his public personae as much as a savvy politician does. He cared so little about his public reputation, he ate and drank openly with sinners and risked religious ridicule by violating ritual purity laws such as touching the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years.

The people’s desperate times called for Jesus’ dramatic gestures of healing and renewal. In the episodes of this passage, Jesus tends mercifully to the “walking wounded” of his time. It is a tender foreshadowing of a time when Jesus would have no one to tend his wounds.

Mark’s Gospel again portrays the power of Jesus to respond to the troubles and crises of the people he encountered. As these miracle stories show, Jesus created peace out of chaos, ordering the storm to stand still. He restored the sanity and peace of the mentally disturbed man by banishing the spirit that had possessed him. He healed the woman who had suffered hemorrhaging 12 years. He revived the life a 12-year-old girl, who everyone else believed to be dead.

Just as Mark before had disclosed the kingdom of God through the stories Jesus told, he now discloses the identity of Jesus as Christ through the acts Jesus performs. These miracles accompany Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God. While his message about the kingdom of God was his primary mission, the miracles provided signs the message he came proclaiming was indeed the truth and power of God.

This is where the contemporary reader must ask an important question about these miracle stories. Rather than interpret these stories in “scientific” categories, it may be more faithful to Mark’s Gospel to interpret these stories in “religious” categories.

If Jesus is to be a living reality that makes a difference in the hopeless experiences of our lives, the question is not, “Did Jesus perform these miracles” The more enduring question becomes: “What do these miracle stories mean for our lives today?” If there is enduring truth to be told, then the calming of the storm is not an occasional event that happened only once upon a time. It must be a living experience with the Spirit of Christ that can happen for us today.

Consider two stories from this passage. Mark’s first storm story helps us understand that riding in the eye of a hurricane is more than just a boat ride on a stormy day. For some of us, storm stories don’t have anything to do with the weather. Scientifically, Doppler radars and 7-day forecasts may tell us to bring an umbrella to work, evacuate a city or take cover. But they don’t provide much help when the biopsy test results come back positive or our marital relationship is on the rocks or when the storms we feel are inside of us rather than around us. To say Jesus calmed this storm on the Sea of Galilee doesn’t give us much comfort until we come to know that Jesus has the power to calm the storms of our lives.

Mark’s second story about the demoniac deserves considerable attention with regard to the men in charge of the pigs that were driven in to the sea. The meaning of this miracle story affects us in the way Christ tends to affect change in the status quo. Obviously a man was healed in this story, yet the owners of the pigs had a different perspective, because their herd had been destroyed. This meant economic loss to them.

How are we like the owners and keepers of the pigs? What are the ways in which we don’t want to be disturbed? Maybe we don’t want our comforts, our money, our beliefs or our relationships to be different or disturbed by Christ’s call to us. Maybe our fear makes us cling to life as we know it rather than life as God wants it to be.

Whatever it is, this story makes a claim on our lives that goes beyond us making a claim about the scientific aspects of this miracle story. The words Jesus spoke to the wind and the waves are the same ones he spoke to the demon-possessed man in Mark 1:25. Perhaps they are words we need him to speak to us, too: “Peace! Be still!” (4:39).

Posted: 12/20/07

Board voting on Daehnert
as interim executive director

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Jan Daehnert, a retired Baptist Building employee who led the state convention’s intentional interim pastor program several years, has been recommended as interim executive director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

Board directors are casting e-mail ballots beginning today. If elected, Daehnert will start work in January, meeting with Executive Board staff. He will begin service as interim executive director when Charles Wade retires Jan. 31 and will continue in that role until a new executive director assumes duties.

The interim executive director will assume leadership of a staff that went through a round of layoffs in recent months and has experienced significant changes in key executive staff posts.

In early October, 29 full-time employees—12 program staff and 19 in support and clerical positions—received notice their positions were being eliminated at the end of that month. Several part-time staff positions also were cut.

Then Ron Gunter—chief operating officer for the BGCT and the person most responsible for implementing Executive Board staff reorganization over the last two years—resigned effective Nov. 30.

If elected as interim, Daehnert said he hopes to “begin the healing,” encourage and affirm staff, ensure fiscal responsibility and “plow the ground to make sure the transition for the new executive director is as smooth as possible.”

Daehnert expects his time as interim to be relatively brief, but he hopes during his short tenure to model inclusiveness and listen to Texas Baptists.

He noted particularly the contested presidential race—and close vote—at the BGCT annual meeting and the need to be attentive to all churches that related to the state convention.

“I’d like to make sure nobody feels left out,” he said.

Daehnert, 66, headed the BGCT Executive Board staff’s leadership team before he retired in March 2006. Previously, he was director of the minister/church relations office and director of the bivocational/smaller church development department.

Daehnert joined the BGCT Executive Board staff in 1967 as a director of student ministries at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Later, he served at the University of North Texas. From 1975 to 1983, he was associate director of student ministries and from 1983 to 1993 was director of personnel administration.

He served two years with Drug Prevention Resources in Irving. He has been a pastor and has served as interim pastor for more than 50 Texas churches.

He is a graduate of Howard Payne University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and earned a doctor of ministries degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Posted: 12/19/07

Executive director interim
candidate to be announced

Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board directors will be polled Thursday afternoon, Dec. 20, by e-mail ballot regarding a prospective interim executive director. The Baptist Standard has interviewed the candidate and will post an article about his nomination at 1 p.m. on Dec. 20, after board members have received information about the nominee.

The board received the required three-day notice Dec. 17, informing them a candidate would be nominated Dec. 20 and that they would vote by e-mail.

Charles Wade retires as executive director Jan. 31.

Ken Hugghins, chairman of the BGCT executive director search committee, said his committee is completing the first round of interviews and has begun the second round with some candidates for executive director.

If a nominee is brought forward and approved in January, it is unlikely the person would assume the position before Wade’s retirement date. The nominee likely would need to give a current employer several weeks notice and take a couple of weeks to relocate, Hugghins noted. The interim will serve until a new executive director assumes the post.

Posted: 12/18/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for December 30

Bowing before the Savior

• Matthew 2:1-12

By Steve Dominy

First Baptist Church, Gatesville

This story is particular to Matthew, we do not find it in any of the other Christmas narratives. Some take that to mean it is an artificial construction, a later addition and not a valid part of the Christmas story. But the early church found itself in serious conflict with the astrology cults around it, so it is not likely to have invented a story in which those who could be construed as astrologers are shown in a favorable light.

The primary theme of this story comes in its contrast. In particular, there are two kings and two kingdoms contrasted. The “three kings” who come from the east are not technically kings and are better understood as magi. “Magi” is originally a term for a Persian priestly class but later became used for magicians and astrologers.

Matthew presents Jesus as the true king of the Jews in contrast to the unworthy king Herod. Herod hardly was a popular leader among the Jews, at least in part due to his ethnicity. It was not uncommon for the Romans to allow native rulers in the territory and that is the case with Herod. Herod was an Edomite, and it was but one of many reasons the Jews despised him.

Herod was absolutely paranoid. His power was held tenuously and he feared anyone who might take his kingdom. You did not want to get on the wrong side of Herod the Great. Herod’s power corrupted him, and the more power he had, the more he wanted.

One of Herod’s first acts was to have 46 members of the Sanhedrin, or the Jewish ruling party, executed. He killed at least two of his wives, all of their extended families and three of his sons. Caesar Augustus said of Herod that it was better to be his pig than his son. Prior to his death, he decreed that 300 prominent Jews be killed as soon as he died. He determined that if there would be no mourning over his death at least there would be mourning at the time of his death. Fortunately for those who might have been on his list it does not seem that this decree was carried out.

Herod also embarked on a building program as fantastic as any before or after. He built hippodromes, amphitheaters and the port of Caesarea where the Roman administration in Palestine was housed.

But the greatest contribution to Jewish society was the restoration of the temple. It was by no means an expression of his faith, rather it was an attempt to soothe his subjects. The temple was decorated with white marble, gold and jewels. It was said of the temple, “Whoever has not seen the temple of Herod has seen nothing beautiful.”

What a powerful contrast to the opulence of Herod is the birthplace of Jesus. If you were going to look for a king, the palace would be the logical place to start. It should not be surprising that the magi started in a royal setting surrounded by the finest things and the most important people. But the magi did not find him there; they found him in a stable. The son of God, the king of kings, born in a manger intended as a feed trough. No royalty was anywhere to be found. The first visitors were not kings or Pharisees, they were shepherds, unwelcome members of first century society. Not a single priest showed up. What a contrast in kingdoms.

The magi were faced with a choice; to which king would they bow? The could stay with the would-be king or they could find the real king. The could be a part of a kingdom of tyranny or follow the king who says come unto me all you who are weary, and I will give you rest. They could follow the king who kills to keep his power or the king who by his power invites all into his kingdom. It is a contrast that forced the magi to choose and calls us to choose as well. This contrast also introduces two other themes in the story.

Jesus’ own people were absolutely indifferent to his birth. Herod calls together some of the Jewish religious leadership to inquire of this new king, and they are absolutely clueless as to what has happened. It takes three Gentiles looking for the king to even cause them to think about what might have happened. Although the high priests would have believed in stars as signs of births and things to come, they were not even looking for the coming of the Messiah.

Matthew begins and ends his Gospel with worship. He begins with Gentiles coming to pay homage to the king and ends with Jesus’ disciples worshipping him on the mountain. This is a consistent theme throughout Matthew; that Jesus is worthy of our reverence. Not only is Jesus worthy of the reverence of a king, he is worthy of our worship as Lord.

The contrast of kings and kingdoms forces us into the same position the magi were in: Which king will we follow? Whether we will admit it or not, being confronted by the incarnate God forces us to deal with that revelation. We can be indifferent as were the Jewish leaders Herod called together or we can respond with our worship and our lives as the magi.

Posted: 12/18/07

Board to vote on interim executive director

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board will vote later this week on a nominee for interim executive director.

BGCT Executive Board directors learned Dec. 17 they would receive background information on a candidate for interim executive director, as well as information about how the e-mail balloting would take place. Voting begins Dec. 20 and will continue until a decision is made.

If elected, the interim will serve until a new executive director of the BGCT Executive Board assumes the post.

BGCT Executive Board Chairman John Petty called the interim executive director candidate “a worthy choice.”

“The executive committee (of the board) is unanimous in its recommendation of this candidate,” he said.

Ken Hugghins, chairman of the BGCT executive director search committee, said his committee is completing the first round of interviews and has begun the second round with some candidates.

In the event a nominee is brought forward and approved in January, it is unlikely the person would assume the position before current Executive Director Charles Wade retires Jan. 31. The nominee likely would need to give a current employer several weeks notice and take a couple of weeks to relocate, Hugghins noted.

Posted: 12/14/07

TBM seeks coats for children in North Korea

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Global Resource Services will send 10 containers filled with medical supplies to 10 rural hospitals in North Korea soon, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of its humanitarian work there. And Texas Baptist Men wants to include 10,000 winter coats for children with the shipments.

John LaNoue of Lindale, whose initial work in North Korea gave birth to Texas Baptist Men’s partnership with Global Resource Services there 10 years ago, recently returned from another trip to North Korea with TBM volunteer Jim Pinkston of Edgewood.

LaNoue and Pinkston worked with Global Resource Services to complete the installation of a soybean processing plant that provides oil, tofu and soymilk for children in the Haepo Ri area.

Texas Baptist Men and Global Resource Services began its partnership in North Korea in 1998 by distributing 100,000 coats. The Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board collected the coats at LaNoue’s request after he spent three months in North Korea delivering and monitoring the distribution of food provided by American humanitarian aid organizations.

During that time—when he monitored the distribution of 60,000 metric tons of corn from the United States—he saw the needs in North Korea’s rural areas, where children went without coats in unheated school rooms during freezing winter months.

“It seems fitting for the 10th anniversary shipment of medical supplies to include a shipment of children’s winter coats,” LaNoue said. “TBM would like to put 1,000 coats in each container. Each container will be sent to a different rural hospital. The coats can then be distributed to the neediest children in that area.”

The coats should be primary colors, without logos and with American manufacturing labels, he explained.

As an alternative to sending coats, Global Resource Services has an arrangement to provide a six-piece winter outfit for $25. It includes a hat, coat, gloves, socks, sweater and insulated underwear. Checks should be made payable to Texas Baptist Men Coats for Korea and directed to the attention of Mickey Lenamon.

Checks or coats may be sent to Texas Baptist Men at 5351 Catron, Dallas 75227.

Posted: 12/14/07

Fair-trade items offer
Christmas gifts with a conscience

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—What’s the perfect revenge for the flannel-lined hot-water bottle Aunt Sharon gave you last year? Or the Michael Bolton CD from your brother-in-law?

Maybe a toilet. Or an ox. A bag of seeds would work, for that matter.

This year, as the world continues to grow more interconnected, increasing numbers of Christians are giving gifts with global economics and ethical sensibilities in mind. That’s where an ox—donated to a farmer in the name of someone on your gift-giving list—comes in handy. It’s part of a greater movement toward supporting fair trade—a way of doing business that promotes equal, sustainable relationships between local communities and consumers.

Advent: Red Letter Days • Happy New Year? For Christians it began with Advent • Christian motorcyclists and mudders bring Christmas cheer in Beaumont • Churches push Advent Conspiracy to teach real giving • Fair-trade items offer Christmas gifts with a conscience • Christmas brighter for children of military families, thanks to UMHB student project • For some, happy holidays means no gifts • International students share Christmas joy • Who were those “wise men from the East” bearing gifts? • 2nd Opinion: The two sides of advent • What if Christmas had not come? • Finding the ‘spirit of Christmas'

And as department stores bulge to overflowing, there may be a need for just such an attitude adjustment.

Fair-trade strategies mandate paying fair wages in local regions and using environmentally friendly methods, all the while maintaining healthy working conditions. Trade partners focus on capitalizing on returns by investing them in health clinics, education and child care. Put most simply, the relationships are based on mutual respect, not necessarily the bottom line.

Andrea Mullins, director of World Crafts, said her organization aims to help people away from poverty and toward spiritual and social health.

“Our focus is holistic,” Mullins said. “Our focus is to bring people to and help provide income for people who have great skills, great marketable products, but they have no markets.”

World Crafts, a nonprofit company based in Birmingham, Ala., holds more than 1,000 parties each year to introduce Christians in the United States to the men and women who create fair trade products. Next spring, it’ll join an ebay store, stores.ebay.com/World-of-Good, dedicated to selling fair-trade-only items on the auction website.

Hundreds of products have been certified for sale in the United States and bear the Fairtrade Certified logo, with more than 3,000 approved for sale in the United Kingdom, according to leaders from London’s Fairtrade Foundation. Products include everything from bananas, spices, flowers and juices to cotton, jewelry, sporting equipment and tree ornaments—some of World Crafts’ most popular sellers, Mullins said.

Worldwide, 17 countries carry the Fairtrade Mark—the trademark of the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International that ensures standardized levels of pay and working conditions. The nonprofit, multi-stakeholder group has more than 20 member organizations, plus traders and external experts who develop and review trade standards. Those countries work with 452 companies sourced through 36 production countries, which hold 4.5 million growers and their families.

Baptists in the United Kingdom in particular are far ahead of their American counterparts in this area, Jeanie McGowan said. McGowan, pastor of equipping at First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Mo., first became interested in fair trade agreements after friends from England told her about their own efforts to buy goods in a deliberate and ethical manner.

“So many Christians in the U.K. are so focused on this,” she said. “I just thought what a wonderful thing. It’s really a simple thing if you make it a priority to do. It really ought to be.”

Indeed, a Google search for Baptist churches promoting holiday fair-trade events reveals far more churches in England than in any other country. Eastleigh Baptist Church in Eastleigh holds a fair-trade shopping morning every holiday season. Carshalton Beeches Baptist Free Church in Surrey buys and serves fair-trade tea and coffee during worship services and sells fair-trade fruit and nuts during “Fairtrade Fortnight.”

The Fortnight event is an annual promotional campaign that combines producers, campaigners, retailers, licensees and NGOs in an effort to promote products carrying the Fairtrade Mark.

It’s part of a substantial trend. Fair-trade sales in the United Kingdom have been running at growth rates of 40 percent over the past five years, according to the Fairtrade Foundation.

Harriet Lamb, executive director of the independent foundation, said the fair-trade movement is vital.

“Far too many companies are burying their heads in the sand and ignoring the mounting calls from consumers who want to understand more about the origins of the food they eat and the clothes they wear,” she said. “These companies still buy blind as cheap as they can and then make gestures of charity to farmers on whose work their annual profit mountains are built. Those companies are out of step with the nation’s mood.”

The British made an impression on McGowan, who regularly buys fair-trade coffee and is encouraging her church to “become more focused about it.”

Brits “seem to incorporate it into their daily lives I think in some really wonderful ways,” she said. “I’m so impressed. They go to great lengths to try to do it.”

And besides buying goods to use stateside, fair trade also encompasses gifts that are bought in a loved-one’s name and given to a family or community overseas.

Oxfam, World Vision and ChristianAid provide even more options for Christmastide shoppers. By visiting www.oxfam.org, choosing a price range and selecting a fitting gift, families in Africa and Asia can receive a pig, chickens or sheep, for example. The charity then sends a descriptive and appreciative card to the “recipient.”

True, children may not be overly enthusiastic if they get a gift certificate for an apple tree this year instead of an iPod. But for adults, it could be the way to go.

Maybe this year, revenge is best served warm—with a higher good in mind.

Posted: 12/14/07

Happy New Year?
For Christians it began with Advent

By Jennifer Harris

Missouri Word & Way

When does the New Year begin? For Christians observing the church calendar, the new year began Dec. 2, with the start of the Advent season.

The liturgical church year is an “or-derly way to look at the full scope of Christ-ian themes in a year-long fashion,” said John Baker, pastor of First Baptist Church in Columbia, Mo.

The year begins with Advent, which starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent is a time of preparation or anticipation of the birth of Christ.

Advent: Red Letter Days • Happy New Year? For Christians it began with Advent • Christian motorcyclists and mudders bring Christmas cheer in Beaumont • Churches push Advent Conspiracy to teach real giving • Fair-trade items offer Christmas gifts with a conscience • Christmas brighter for children of military families, thanks to UMHB student project • For some, happy holidays means no gifts • International students share Christmas joy • Who were those “wise men from the East” bearing gifts? • 2nd Opinion: The two sides of advent • What if Christmas had not come? • Finding the ‘spirit of Christmas'

“If you’re going to have a party, you don’t just decide that day,” said Greg Lundberg, associate pastor of music and worship at Kirkwood Baptist Church in Kirkwood, Mo. “You put a lot of energy into the event. You prepare food, activities, decorations and gifts or favors for the guests. You want to make it special. That’s what’s so special about Advent. It’s a time set aside to prepare.”

“We try not to get to the birth too soon,” Baker said. “It is hard, but it builds the anticipation.”

First Baptist in Columbia accomplishes this, in part, with careful selection of Christmas hymns and carols. During the weeks of Advent, the songs focus more on the coming of Christ.

First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., celebrates in a similar way.

“Advent begins in darkness, with the flame of hope sputtering on its charred wick,” Pastor Jim Somerville wrote in the church newsletter.

“We sing out hymns in minor keys. We drape the church in purple. But as the other candles are lit in the weeks that follow—peace and joy and love—the sense of expectancy is heightened, and when the Christ candle is lit on Christmas Eve, the mood shifts suddenly and dramatically.

“The house lights come up. Deep purple is replaced by dazzling white and gold. The minor key modulates into the major, and suddenly it is nothing but joy to the world, for the Lord is come!”

The 12 days of Christmas begin Dec. 25 and are followed by Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus to humanity, specifically in the visit of the Magi.

After Epiphany is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day time of preparation for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, culminating in Holy Week and, finally, Easter Sunday.

“Easter is the high holy day of the Christian year,” Baker said. “It far supercedes Christmas in importance.”

Christmas would be meaningless if not for Easter, he explains. Had Christ not risen from the dead, his birth would not be as important.

After Easter comes Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit and birthday of the church.

The remainder of the year is made up of what is called ordinary time, which lasts until the next Advent. Ordinary does not mean the time is common or plain, but refers to “ordinal” or numbered.

The season of ordinary time does have some special emphasis days, such as Trinity Sunday and All Saints Day.

Another part of the liturgical year is the use of the lectionary, a three-year cycle through most passages of the Bible. Baker likes the lectionary because it helps ensure the entire Bible is covered. “We tend to get caught in the things we like most,” he said. “The lectionary helps make sure I don’t preach my own canon.”

Somerville said the lectionary makes sure there is a lot of Scripture in each service. Each week has an Old Testament passage, a Psalm, a gospel reading and an epistle. “We try to read all four passages out loud each week,” he said. “If a person has been at the church for three years, they have heard most of the Bible.”

“Baptists are known as ‘people of the Book,’” he said. “Yet we can attend a service and hear one half of one verse. With the lectionary, the people hear four complete passages from Scripture.”

Why follow the church year? For Robin Sandbothe of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan., incorporating the church year in worship is profoundly meaningful.

“I did not grow up observing (the church year)—other than Christmas and Easter,” she said. “I was first exposed to its fullness in seminary. The connection it provides to both the Church around the world and the Church historically has an almost mystical significance for me—no ‘almost’ about it, really. I’m drawn to the contemplative nature of the seasons’ observances.”

Somerville began implementing the church calendar into worship during an earlier pastorate. He had been following the Southern Baptist Convention’s denominational calendar. When he saw Palm Sunday labeled as “start a church commitment Sunday,” he felt it was wrong.

“Not that there is anything wrong with starting a church,” he emphasized. “It just shouldn’t be the theme of Palm Sunday.”

He began looking to the church calendar and was glad First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., had been following the calendar for “years and years.”

Somerville admitted keeping the symbols and traditions fresh can be a struggle, but he added that is a struggle regardless whether the church year is being followed.

“People know what I’m going to say on Easter,” he said. “‘Christ is risen.’ Finding new ways to say that is hard. But then, it’s hard to have a bad Easter.”

Somerville said the church year can be special and meaningful because of the layers upon layers of meaning that are applied each year.

Ultimately, it comes down to how you plan worship, he said.

“Do you plan sermons based on a denominational emphasis, the life in your community at that point or how the Spirit moves on Saturday night? The church year is at least as legitimate as those methods, and perhaps more intentional than some. I’d find it hard to go back to another method.”

Lundberg agrees.

“We follow calendars, whether we like it or not,” he said. “Most follow a Hallmark calendar. We celebrate a lot of things that we should. We should remember the important things—the incarnation of Jesus as God in this world, the resurrection.”

Posted: 12/17/07

Missouri Baptist rift widens when leaders
restrict funding for church starts

By Vicki Brown

Associated Baptist Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP)—A decision by Missouri Baptist Convention leaders to cut off funding for certain new church starts has set off a firestorm of protest and further widened a rift among conservative Baptists in the state.

Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board members approved a measure at their December meeting to withdraw funding and other assistance to church plants affiliated with the Acts 29 Network. The regularly scheduled board meeting was truncated due to an impending ice storm.

As presented, the motion directed convention staffers to stop working with, supporting, or endorsing the church-planting network “in any manner at any time,” effective Jan. 1. An amendment added the provision to direct “the (state convention’s) church planting department and other ministry departments to not provide Cooperative Program dollars toward those affiliated with the Acts 29 Network.” The amended motion passed 28-10.

The network has been controversial since last year, when some conservatives accused an Acts 29-affiliated church start in St. Louis of endorsing alcohol consumption by holding a Bible study night in a local pub. They later accused the network of being riddled with similar churches. Acts 29 is a non-denominational association of so-called “new paradigm” congregations.

Micah Fries, pastor of Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church in St. Joseph, Mo., was “very upset” by the board’s decision. “This is further evidence that our lip service given to church planting is just that, lip service, and not representative of a significant commitment to the act of planting new congregations and pushing back lostness,” he wrote in his blog, Micahfries.com.

“We’re not talking about a liberal/conservative argument, either,” he continued. “This is a matter of differing opinions between theological conservatives. … This decision is more evidence that we, as a convention, are moving from simply being biblical and conservative to being legalistic and exclusionary over non-essential issues.”

Fries and other bloggers point out that several Southern Baptist Convention leaders participate in the Acts 29 Network, including Ed Stetzer, senior director of the North American Mission Board’s Center for Missional Research. Stetzer is a former Acts 29 Network board member.

Some bloggers are convinced the issue has more to do with the convention’s position on alcohol, a stand against its use confirmed at its recent annual meeting. But Missouri Baptist Convention President Gerald Davidson said he believes other issues are involved.

“Just to be real truthful, I don’t know much about Acts 29,” Davidson said in a phone interview. “Alcohol was made to be the issue. … That was one of the big issues, but I don’t know if that was the real issue.”

A report by a theological study committee appointed by the convention to study the issue may have played into the board’s decision as well, Davidson said. He emphasized the board did not vote to adopt that report, but simply to “receive” it.

The board did not receive a “minority report” prepared by committee member David McAlpin.

The theological study committee labeled the Acts 29 Network part of the emerging-church movement. But network participants disagree with that characterization.

The committee called the network “the relevants” or the “right-wing” section of the emergent movement, which seeks to integrate the Christian message into post-modern culture.

The report charges the emergent movement with de-emphasizing “systematic Christian doctrine and biblical theology,” “intentional reluctance” to deal with “social, moral, ethical and political issues,” “distrust of traditional values” and “levels of immaturity and even rebellion,” among several other accusations.

In his blog, Acts 29 Network Director Scott Thomas attributed the Missouri Baptist decision primarily to alcohol and emphasized the network is conservative and holds conservative views.

The organization’s website emphasizes its Reformed theological views and notes that planted churches are asked to follow the guidelines set by their sponsoring denominational groups. If a denomination requires a pledge to abstain from alcohol, the church is asked to sign a pledge.

The site emphasizes the network’s evangelical identity and lists its basic beliefs. It also lists 18 differences between the organization and those to which it has been compared, including liberal groups and fundamentalist groups.

Posted: 12/13/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for December 23

Celebrating the Savior’s Birth

• Luke 2:1-20

By Steve Dominy

First Baptist Church, Gatesville

What a motley crew! Well, motley might not be the best term, but certainly an unexpected crew. The people that God chose to bring the Messiah into the world and the people to whom God first announced his birth were an unlikely lot. Joseph and Mary were an unlikely couple, not even yet married they were chosen for this task. And why in the world would God choose to announce the coming of the Messiah to the shepherds? They rarely made it to town and certainly would not have been considered a group with any influence. But those are the characters of this story and a component of this story that we cannot overlook.

God uses ordinary people in his work and always has. We don’t usually compare ourselves to biblical heroes, but James says that, “Elijah was a man just like us.” So maybe the fact that the people in this story were people just like us should matter to us. It is through these people that some of our misconceptions about Christmas can be cleaned up. That was certainly the case with Mary and Joseph. They were planning a wedding, getting ready for the life that they would have together, we know their story, are familiar with it, it is not much different from ours until God intervenes. And when God steps in, everything changes.

One of the characters in the story that gets quite a bit of negative reaction this time of year is the innkeeper. The story of the innkeeper is largely fictitious, it comes to us from plays we have seen or books that we have read, but the innkeeper is not mentioned in the story at all. The only thing that Luke says is, “…there was no room for them in the inn.” One of the misconceptions that we have is that Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem the night of Jesus’ birth. We have this mental picture of Joseph leading the donkey on which Mary rides late at night, going from door to door trying to find a place for his wife who will give birth any minute. They go through Bethlehem valiantly and vainly searching in the cold night air, led only by the reflection of the moon and the light of the stars. But when we realize that Bethlehem was eighty or ninety miles from Nazareth it becomes questionable that they showed up at the last minute. In fact, Luke states, “While they were there.” And Matthew doesn’t mention the journey at all. All of it gives the impression that Joseph and Mary had been in Bethlehem for a while.

That shouldn’t really surprise us when we consider that Joseph wanted to shield Mary from the shame and scandal of an unexpected pregnancy. We know that Mary went to visit Elizabeth for three moths and it is certainly reasonable to believe that Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem for quite a while.

Luke says that there was no room for them in the inn. Our usual picture of that is of an early Palestinian version of a Motel Six. But the word used for inn is the same word used to describe the room that Jesus reserved for the Last Supper. The real difficulty did not come in finding a place to stay as much as it did in finding an undisturbed place for the birth of a child. When we take into consideration the fact that Mary would have been ceremonially unclean as well as the room in which she stayed the maybe the innkeeper wasn’t so bad after all. I would argue that the hallmarks of the innkeeper were thoughtfulness, kindness and hospitality. It is amazing whom God chooses to use in his work.

The same can be said of the shepherds. No one in Judea would ever have guessed that the angel would have made his proclamation to the shepherds. Sheep weren’t only the main source of meat, they were also the main source of fiber for clothing. Large numbers of lambs would be needed for the daily sacrifices at the Temple. In a day without fences and predator control, being a shepherd was more a lifestyle than a job. Not only did the nature of their work take a lot of time, it was one that made them ceremonially unclean. How interesting that ceremonial uncleanness should come up again in the same story. That God would use those ceremonially unclean to tell the Good News makes it even more interesting. It was to those shepherds, unclean and overlooked by their society that God announced the birth of his Son.

Luke records two responses to the birth of Jesus in this section. The first for us to look at is Mary’s response, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Mary was no different than any other parent, she loved it as much as we do when people brag on our children. But her situation was a little different, she knew who her child was and who he would be. It had to be a little overwhelming for her and definitely humbling. All that God had done in her life was worth treasuring.

The shepherds response was a little different, they went and told everyone they could find about what they had been told about the child. The praised and glorified God for what he had done and didn’t keep any of it a secret. When in comes down to it, the people in the Christmas story were no different from us. Paul says that we have this treasure in jars of clay, it is a treasure that we are to share and make known and not bury. Our response is to be the same as that of Mary and the shepherds, treasuring up all that God is and has done, and sharing the Good News of what God has done in Christ in his world.

Posted: 12/14/07

Christian motorcyclists and mudders
bring Christmas cheer in Beaumont

By Analiz González

Buckner International

EAUMONT—Santa Claus on a fire truck led a parade of bikers, 4X4s and hot rods to a crowd of waiting children in front of Buckner Children’s Village.

The crowd from the residential children’s home and the Buckner foster care program rode the vehicles, voted for their favorites and then went mudding on Buckner property hosed down by the fire department with 30,000 gallons of water.

Advent: Red Letter Days • Happy New Year? For Christians it began with Advent • Christian motorcyclists and mudders bring Christmas cheer in Beaumont • Churches push Advent Conspiracy to teach real giving • Fair-trade items offer Christmas gifts with a conscience • Christmas brighter for children of military families, thanks to UMHB student project • For some, happy holidays means no gifts • International students share Christmas joy • Who were those “wise men from the East” bearing gifts? • 2nd Opinion: The two sides of advent • What if Christmas had not come? • Finding the ‘spirit of Christmas'

It’s an experience Rhonda O’Neill, community affairs coordinator for Buckner in Beaumont, called unforgettable.

“The kids look forward to this event the entire year,” O’Neill said. “They start talking about it in August. And when a new child arrives, they’ll tell them all about it, saying: ‘Just wait ’til Christmastime. You’ll think it’s amazing.’”

And the day wasn’t over until the toys were handed out. Each resident at Buckner Children’s Village received a special gift from Santa.

Donations for the 17th annual party were put together by a number of individuals and organizations.

A Christian biker takes a Buckner child for a ride past the inflatable Christmas decorations.

“They come to our campus and provide an amazing Christmas party for our kids,” said Greg Eubanks, director of Buckner Children and Family Services of Southeast Texas.

“Their compassion is evident in all they do. It wouldn’t be Christmas at Buckner Children’s Village without the Toy Run. I’m so thankful for the generosity of these groups.”

In addition to the gifts for the children, the groups presented the residential facility with four 32-inch TVs for each of its houses, new plush towels and funding toward technology needs.

Santa readies himself to pas out toys at Buckner Children's Village.

Mary Young from the Trinity Travelers Chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association has been involved in the Toy Run since it was initiated 17 years ago.

“We let the children give us a list of things they want, and we select something—or some things—that are within the price range,” Young said.

“We just love the kids and enjoy doing it. We have as much fun as the children do.”

Young’s organization also hosted a present-wrapping party to get the gifts ready for the children before the event.