Posted: 11/02/07

On the Move

• Seth Austin to Texas Baptist Children’s Home in Round Rock as minister of youth and recreation.

• Jeff Berger to Westbury Church in Houston as pastor.

• Cari Cockrell to First Church Denton-East in Denton as preschool director.

• Jason Daniels to First Church in Haskell as youth and music minister from First Church in Seagraves.

• John Duncan to First Church in Georgetown as pastor from Lakeside Church in Granbury.

• Gary Hearon to First Church in Canton as pastor.

• Rod Jones to Hillcrest Church in Cedar Hill as minister to singles.

• Benny Mayo to Hillcrest Church in Cedar Hill as minister to senior adults.

• Ray McCoy to Lake Victor Church in Lampasas as pastor.

• Kaleb Moore to First Church Denton-East in Denton as worship leader.

• Chris Searcy to First Church Denton-East in Denton as technical director.

• Ross Shelton to First Church in Woodville as pastor from First Church in Castroville.

• Larry Willis to Morse Street Church in Denton as pastor from Westside Church in Lewisville, where he was associate pastor.

• J.B. Word to First Church in Fort Davis as intentional interim pastor.

Posted: 11/02/07

Americans don’t want religious pitches
from presidential candidates, poll says

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Even though thousands of evangelicals flocked to Washington for the recent Values Voter Summit, more than two-thirds of Americans think presidential candidates should not use their religious beliefs to sway voters, a new poll shows.

The poll, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the Interfaith Alliance in October, asked 1,000 adults to agree or disagree with the following statement: “Presidential candidates should not use their religion or faith to influence voters to support them.”

Sixty-eight percent said they agreed.

Even regular churchgoers think presidential hopefuls should not use their faith as a campaign tool. Almost 60 percent of survey respondents who regularly attend religious services agreed with the statement.

Candidates went “too far” at the Value Voters summit as they tried to “out-Christian” each other, said Baptist minister Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance.

“We’re not electing a pastor-in-chief. We’re electing a commander-in-chief,” Gaddy said.

Candidates certainly can speak about their religion and beliefs as “points of identification for who they are,” Gaddy said, but they push the limits when they imply voters should support them because of their religion.

“We are not electing a person on the basis of their theology or on the basis of their personal spirituality,” he said. Instead, the American people should be looking for a candidate who can support democracy and help the United States be a “good citizen of the world community.”

The poll also showed about 58 percent of Americans think religious leaders should have little influence on voters’ decisions, and 78 percent believe it is important the next president nominate Supreme Court justices who will maintain the separation of church and state.

The poll of 1,000 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Posted: 11/02/07

Court rules for teacher
in private/public school dispute

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

GREENVILLE (RNS)—A federal appeals court has ruled for a Texas public school teacher who was denied the chance for a promotion after she refused to withdraw her children from a private religious school.

In 1998, Karen Jo Barrow was denied an interview for an assistant principal’s job with the Greenville Independent School District after she refused to take her children out of Greenville Christian School and enroll them in a public school.

Two years later, Barrow filed suit against the Greenville Independent School District and former Superintendent Herman Smith. While the courts did not find the district liable, Barrow won a judgment against Smith, which the appeals court upheld.

“Parental rights do not become null and void just because the parent is a teacher,” said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Legal Institute, which represented Barrow in the recent proceedings. “The decision of whether or not to consider an employee for a job should never be based on where the applicant chooses to educate her own children.”

In its Oct. 23 ruling, which upheld a lower court’s decision in Barrow’s favor, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said, “a rule requiring public school employees to enroll their children in public schools is simply more invasive of parental rights and less clearly tied to the public school’s management of its students and educational program” than the law allowed.

In a public statement, the Greenville school district noted a jury found in its favor, the Fifth Circuit Court confirmed it, and Barrow lost her petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The district was “vindicated by three courts including the highest court in the land,” a Greenville ISD spokesman said. “The courts have held that the Greenville Independent School District did not violate the law.”

The district characterized the suit against its former superintendent and his appeal as “a personal matter between Ms. Barrow and Dr. Smith.”

Posted: 11/02/07

Tennessee Baptists gear up
for struggle over trustees

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (ABP)— Tennessee Baptists are gearing up for a conflict most Southern Baptist state conventions settled a decade ago. Many of the state’s moderates say they feel it is no longer worth fighting.

Nonetheless, Baptists on both sides of the issues are making plans to show up in force during the Tennessee Baptist Convention annual meeting, scheduled Nov. 13-14 in Kingsport.

At stake is the election of trustees who will control convention institutions, including moderate-led Carson-Newman College.

Fundamentalists hope to give the convention president—an office presently occupied by one of their own—greater power to appoint members of the convention’s powerful committee on committees.

They also may challenge some nominees to open positions on the convention’s various boards and committees because they don’t affirm the controversial 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement.

At last year’s convention meeting in suburban Memphis, fundamentalists pushed through a statement endorsing the confession. They also passed a new rule requiring nominating committees to ask proposed nominees whether they affirm the document and to publish the answers as part of a report.

The report, which convention policies require to be published several weeks prior to the meeting, reveals 17 nominees for this year’s convention declined to endorse the confession.

Marvin Cameron, pastor of First Baptist Church in Kingsport, said he is concerned fundamentalists will use those answers to institute “a litmus test” for trustee and committee positions in Tennessee Baptist life.

“If that is true, then that is new, and it’s … an unwelcome day in Tennessee Baptist life for me, because we’ve never had litmus tests applied to persons who were going to serve Tennessee Baptists,” he said.

“The only question asked of potential leaders in Tennessee Baptist life in the past was, ‘Do you love the Lord, and will you help accomplish the Lord’s work in Tennessee?’” Cameron said.

Kevin Shrum, pastor of Inglewood Baptist Church in Nashville, said he doesn’t see what the big deal is about asking whether nominees affirm the confession.

“The issue at hand is, the convention voted to utilize the latest (Baptist Faith & Message) document for people to declare how they stood on that issue,” said Shrum, president of the fundamentalist group Concerned Tennessee Baptists.

“And it passed by an overwhelming majority, and so I don’t know that people are raising individual issues so much as they are a general fidelity to the things that Baptists have held dear and the things that a majority of Southern Baptists and Tennessee Baptists have voted to affirm. …

“Now, the convention cannot dictate to any church who they call, who they employ or any of that. That is a local, autonomous issue. What I think that is being looked for is: Can you affirm this, and if you can’t, why not? And there may be some question from the body as a convention as to whether they want that person to serve or not.”

Shrum insisted his group does not plan to offer an alternate slate of nominees on the convention floor to replace those who do not affirm the document. His group will not offer a motion requiring convention to affirm the document, he said.

However, he cautioned, he could not predict what other conservatives and individual members of Con-cerned Tennessee Baptists might attempt during the meeting’s business sessions.

Unlike many other state Baptist bodies, the convention presidency in Tennessee holds little appointive power. While fundamentalist takeovers of the Southern Baptist Convention and other state conventions quickly trickled down to board and agency trustees, several victories by conservatives in Tennessee Baptist Convention officer elections in recent years have not had the same effect.

Concerned Tennessee Baptists leaders long have complained that their state’s system—with the committee on boards and committee on committees nominating each other—has caused inbreeding in convention leadership. They claim it creates a system where moderate churches are disproportionately represented.

“What has happened is, it has given the appearance that the leadership—trustees, committee persons—have ended up coming from a small number of churches,” Shrum said.

But moderate leaders counter that the existing system actually creates better representation.

“I think, unlike other states, allowing the committees to do their work gives a broader representation of the state,” said Gene Wilder, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Tenn.

“I don’t think it attempts to exclude anyone. I do think allowing the president power to make nominees gives that office more control than it ought to have, regardless of whether the office is held by a moderate or a fundamentalist. It tends to foster special-interest nominations, whereas if you’re dealing with a nominee from a full committee, it tends to be better balanced.”

Wilder’s congregation is home to many faculty and administrators at nearby Carson-Newman College, a Tennessee Baptist school that has been a sticking point in the arguments between fundamentalists and moderates.

Wilder said his church intends to send its full complement of 10 messengers to the Kingsport meeting.

Convention leaders also noted Tennessee Baptist Convention rules require the committee on boards to consult with agency administrators for suggestions when filling open slots.

Concerned Tennessee Baptists has endorsed a full slate of officer candidates, including Nashville-area pastor Tom McCoy for president.

But Brent Beasley, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Memphis, said his church will not make any effort to send messengers to the state’s opposite corner to fight old battles.

“I—and I think I can speak for most of the people at Second—have really disengaged from these types of Baptist political conflicts,” he wrote.

“It’s not that the issues are not important, and I do understand and respect those moderates who are trying to protect important TBC institutions. But I feel like we at Second have worked so hard over the years to come to terms with our theological and denominational identity as a more progressive-minded kind of Baptist church. …

“Our church rejected the BF&M 2000 seven years ago, and it almost feels like going backward to get back into all that again.”

Posted: 11/02/07

Texas Tidbits

Recordings of Warren message available. Audio and video recordings of Rick Warren’s message during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting are available on CD for $5 and DVD for $20. To order, write in the order on the order form on page 42 of the annual meeting program or on the last page of the Oct. 30 Bulletin. The requests also can be made by visiting www.bgct.org/annualmeeting and downloading an order form.

BGCT annual meeting raises $12,000 for offerings. Messengers and visitors to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Amarillo contributed $6,000 to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions and $6,000 for the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. The funds were collected during a session of the annual meeting.

Texas pastor meets Secretary of State. Texas Baptist pastor Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church in Keller joined a small group of evangelical leaders who met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently to support a two-state solution to achieve peace in the Middle East. Religion News Service reported the meeting followed a July 27 letter a larger coalition of evangelical leaders sent to President Bush to “correct a serious misperception” that all evangelicals oppose creating a Palestinian state. Other participants in the meeting included Ron Sider from Evangelicals for Social Action, David Neff from Christianity Today and several megachurch pastors.

Wayland board approves new degree. Trustees of Wayland Baptist University approved a recommendation that the music department add a bachelor of music degree in performance. The department already offered a bachelor of music in music education and church music and a bachelor of arts degree in music. Trustees also approved a measure that will align Wayland’s academic program more with current higher educational practices. Effective in July 2008, Wayland’s eight current academic divisions will be replaced by eight schools.

Posted: 11/02/07

TOGETHER:
God answered prayers in Amarillo

Occasionally, you will hear people say: “People can’t be moved by preaching anymore. Drama, music and video are the way to go.” While I acknowledge the power and value of music, drama and visual images and the blessing and benefit they bring to worship and presentations, I have never believed preaching has lost its power to move people.

Sure there are times when a spoken message can cause my eyes to glaze over and my mind to check out. But when it is done right, when the Scripture draws a passionate, intelligent, spiritually sensitive and honest presentation out of the preacher, it captivates hearers and changes lives. Of course, when you add great music to open the hearts, and stand a family with a beautiful baby before the congregation and show visual images of people in whom God is working, you add to the power of a message.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Michael Evans preached at the African American Fellowship’s preconvention meeting on Sunday evening and had us on our feet in happy testimony to the truth and joy of his message. Carlos Navarro challenged the Hispanic rally to get outside the walls of their churches and do evangelism where people are hurting. Steve Vernon, David Coffey, Rick Warren and Howard Batson all moved BGCT messengers and visitors forward spiritually, calling for a greater commitment to missions (Vernon), to our world (Coffey) and Warren’s liberating news that God’s purpose is to reconcile the world to himself. The joy the Father feels when he adopts his children was caught in the tears of the mother and father who stood beside Howard Batson with their smiling baby boy.

Excerpts from the messages will be reported elsewhere in this paper, and you can get the full texts, audio or video, by completing the order form at www.bgct.org/annualmeeting.

God answered the prayers of our Committee on Convention Business, led by Philip Wise. They had prepared faithfully for this meeting, and as the time for the sessions to begin arrived, we all prayed that God would do a special thing for us as we focused on the mission vision of our convention.

Vernon, who served us magnificently as president, had announced his goal that we make this year a mission-emphasis year. In my judgment, God answered those prayers, and I believe a vision of the world and Texas Baptists’ part in evangelism, missions, church planting and touching a hurting world all came into clearer focus for all who were there.

The new missions website, www.beonmission.org, was introduced as a part of helping to connect churches and individuals to mission opportunities in Texas and around the world. If you want information about how you can pray, give, go and/or partner, go to this site and check in with us about how you can be involved.

It was my last annual meeting as executive director, and I was grateful that it was one of the best meetings we have had. We are looking to the future and what God has before the BGCT and the churches and institutions that partner together in this great adventure.

We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

Posted: 11/02/07

Women challenged to ‘live the joy of missions’

By Julie Walters

Woman’s Missionary Union

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Women experience the joy God wants for them when they learn to love him with all their being, speakers told participants at the Live the Joy of Missions Conference, sponsored by national Woman’s Missionary Union.

More than 825 women from 35 states and Puerto Rico attended the national event at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.

Lorraine Powers, president of Missouri WMU, gets hugs from elementary school students after reading to them as one of the ministry options offered in Little Rock during a national WMU missions conference. (Photo/Charity Gardner)

Andrea Mullins, New Hope publisher, interpreted the theme in each general session by citing a person in the Bible who demonstrated what it means to love God with all of one’s heart, soul, strength and mind and to love one’s neighbor.

Edna Ellison, speaker and author of Deeper Still: A Woman’s Guide to a Closer Walk with God, challenged participants to examine their hearts and delve deeper into prayer.

“God calls us to go deeper” in communion with him, Ellison said. She also challenged participants to let revival start with each one them.

“Be prayer warriors, not problem worriers,” she stressed. “Won’t you dare to let God change the world through you?”

Geoff Hammond, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board continued the focus on prayer.

“God chooses im-possible situations to demonstrate his power through the prayers of his people,” Hammond asserted.

Reaching the 300 million people in the United States for Christ may seem daunting, he acknowledged.

Shelda Reeves of Texas WMU scrubs bathrooms at The Promise House, a ministry to teen girls with unplanned pregnancies, as one of the ministry options in Little Rock during the national WMU missions conference. (Photo/Bob Fielding)

Not keeping up with population growth, greater ethnic diversity and a climate that is increasingly religiously pluralistic all pose challenges in reaching the nation for Christ, he said.

“Will God allow us to reach the world but not minister to our own neighbor? No,” Hammond asserted. “North America desperately needs a group of powerful pray-ers to pray for our nation. We must undergird our work with devout prayer and align ourselves with the principles of God to reach North America.

“I’m praying for a spiritual-awakening and church-planting movement. Nobody knows how to love and pray like godly women. I pray you will leave this meeting praying more.”

Hammond also thanked WMU for helping raise funds in 2007 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions—a record $58 million.

Norman Blackaby, co-author of Called and Accountable: Discovering Your Place in God’s Eternal Purpose, focused on loving God with all one’s strength. Blackaby stressed the importance of being faithful with all God has entrusted to each person so God’s purposes are fulfilled.

Citing the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30, Blackaby encouraged the women to consider those things entrusted to them—not only financial resources, but also their place of service, burdens on their heart, talents, gifts and relationships.

“God is not only entrusting you with these things, but holding you accountable,” Blackaby said.

“Have you been faithful in the smaller things, like ministering to your community, so that God can entrust you with more, such as giving you a burden for a people group?

“The true joy of missions comes not from our satisfaction, but because we walk with him and allow him to love others through our life. The challenges in missions are always overcome by joy that comes with living the mission.”

Other keynote speakers included Jill Baughan, author of Born to Be Wild: Rediscover the Freedom of Fun; Montira Siengsukon, NAMB field personnel; Diana Garland, dean of the School of Social Work at Baylor University; and additional missions speakers.

Conference participants spent one afternoon serving in missions and ministries throughout the host city.

Avenues for service included prayerwalking downtown North Little Rock, apartment complexes, fire and police stations, and the state capitol; surveying unchurched areas; visiting nursing homes to give manicures and pray with residents; reading to elementary school children; and helping out in local ministries such as the Ronald McDonald House and the Rice Depot, a food bank ministry.

“Thank you for loving our city,” said Kaye Miller, president of WMU and member of the host church, at the conclusion of the event.

“Missions isn’t an option. The Great Commission is a mandate. We pray that as you leave here, you will go back to your place of service—your mission fields—and love your neighbor.”

A key celebration at the event was the 10th anniversary of Christian Women’s Job Corps.

Since the inception of the program for women in 1997 and Christian men’s Job Corps in 2004, the job-training and life-skills development ministry has grown to more than 190 sites across the nation, with more than 15,000 volunteers who serve 2,100 men and women.

Posted: 11/02/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Jesus’ church

By Brett Younger

Twenty years ago, I was the pastor of a small Baptist church in Paoli, Ind. If you’ve heard of Paoli, it’s probably because of the furniture. Since 1926, Paoli Furniture, Inc. has made gorgeous furniture that the people who make it can’t afford. My salary as pastor was $14,000 a year, but the parsonage was filled with beautiful furniture.

About 1987, the Middle Adult Sunday school class—and isn’t that an attractive name for a class?—decided they didn’t want to sit on folding chairs anymore. They worked out a deal with one of the managers in the factory’s chair department. The 14 members of the class would spend $40 each to buy the material for chairs that would normally cost about $500. They would make the chairs on a Saturday when the factory was closed.

I thought it was a great idea. Jesus was a carpenter. How could he not love this? The craftsmanship on the chairs would be amazing—fine wood, deep finishes, exquisite details like brass trim. Any one of these chairs would class up the Palace of Versailles.

Then I found out they were making exactly 14 chairs and asked, “Couldn’t we make a few extra?”

The answer was: “The class only has 14 members. We’re the ones who are paying for the chairs and doing the work.”

I naively asked, “Well, what about when visitors come?”

I was told, “We still have the folding chairs, and if a member isn’t there they can use one of our chairs.”

I foolishly asked, “But won’t you feel funny sitting in these beautiful chairs while visitors sit in folding chairs?”

I was informed, “That’s not going to happen.”

They were right.

After the new chairs arrived, the teacher put a lock on the door. We’d never had a lock on any door. They explained that they wanted the chairs to stay in the room, and they didn’t want the kids to get in there on Wednesday nights.

Several years later, Carol and I went back for the church’s anniversary. They still had 14 chairs in the room, and they looked great, but most went unfilled most Sundays. The majority of the class was gone. The teacher had gotten mad and gone to another church. The young adult class was getting bigger. The older adult class was doing well, but the middle adults didn’t have anybody new.

What could be less surprising? That’s what happens when we decide that the church will always be who we are now. That’s what happens when we keep the best chairs for ourselves. That’s what happens when we want some people to stay out of our church.

But what would happen if we believed in Jesus’ vision for the church? What would happen if different kinds of people were part of the same church?

People who are different push us to be better. People who are hurting teach us to love. People who ask different questions help us find our way to better answers.

If our churches are going to look like Jesus’ church, we need more poor people to show us Christ in the least of these. We need more rich people with portfolios in need of a good cause. We need people who drive SUVs and people who don’t drive anything. We need PhDs and graduates of the school of hard knocks. We need people who kneel when they pray and people who put their hands in the air. We need African-Americans and Hispanics to teach us what their lives are like. We need conservative Christians who hold tenaciously to the central truths of our faith. We need liberal Christians who force us to think in new ways. We need young people to give us a sense of liveliness. We need old people who will give us a sense of liveliness. We need non-Baptists to expand our understanding of faith. We need Baptists who appreciate the good gifts of our heritage. We need people who’ve sinned mightily and people who seem to have only gold stars by their name.

Can you imagine how wonderful it would be if the church had a chair for everyone?

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life, available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016. You can e-mail him at byounger@broadwaybc.org.