Posted: 9/19/03

IMB will require career candidates
to serve three-year apprenticeships

AUSTIN–All new candidates for long-term missionary service with the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board will be required to complete a three-year apprenticeship before achieving career or associate status.

The new policy was enacted by IMB trustees during a Sept. 8-10 meeting in Austin.

Tom Hatley, chairman of the IMB mission personnel committee, told trustees research shows that missionaries who serve short-term overseas assignments before serving as career missionaries suffer fewer transition problems, become effective more quickly and serve longer than workers without previous experience.

Trustees learned the budget that will be recommended for 2004 will reflect a $20 million reduction from the current budget.

The change will not affect personnel currently serving in the board's short-term programs or candidates already in the approval process, Hatley said.

Trustees also learned the budget that will be recommended for 2004 will reflect a $20 million reduction from the current budget.

Half that reduction reflects a lowered income projection, while the other half represents $10 million in capital expenditures that will not be made until the operating budget is met, said John Hatch, chairman of the trustees' finance committee.

The proposed budget would reduce missionary operating budgets by 7 percent and plans no salary increases for missionary personnel or stateside employees.

The budget assumes Southern Baptists will reach the $133 million goal for this year's Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions. That goal is 15 percent larger than last year's goal, which was not met and contributed to a financial crisis that forced staff layoffs and a reduction in missionary appointments.

IMB President Jerry Rankin discussed with trustees concerns that “church-planting movements” implemented by missionaries may not accurately be described as Baptist.

“That is a valid question, and the answer is shaded by one's perception,” Rankin said. “Are they Baptist in terms of their strict adherence to the pattern and teaching of the New Testament? Probably so. Are they Baptist in terms of replicating the traditions and forms of what we know as Baptist in America? Not necessarily. Are they identified as 'Baptist' churches? Not always.”

Southern Baptist workers and their overseas partners reported 8,369 churches organized in 2002. Nearly 3,535 of them were started in one church-planting movement in Asia.

Because those churches are autonomous, missionaries do not control what those churches will believe and practice, Rankin said. And in some places, denominational labels are illegal or may cause persecution, he added.

IMB missionaries use the Southern Baptist Convention's 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement to explain who Southern Baptists are and what they believe, Rankin said. Sometimes churches even adopt the Baptist Faith & Message as their own faith statement, he added.

“The main issue is to understand the nature and the power of the gospel,” Rankin said. “Many have identified a church-planting movement as a movement that is out of control as churches plant churches. Is that not what we want to happen?”

Posted: 9/19/03

Woodland members Warren Blanchard, Kay Nolan and Martha Morse join in a class discussion.

Laity Institute classes 'go deep' at local churches

By Craig Bird

Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO–Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio is as sports-minded as the next congregation. But when folks there talk about “going deep,” it may not have anything to do with football, or even fishing.

It could have everything to do with Woodland's enthusiastic involvement with the Texas Baptist Laity Institute. In that case, digging has to do with mining the riches of Scripture, delving into Baptist history, mastering methods of ministry or understanding the complexities of other religions.

Woodland Baptist Church member Mary Johns (above) participates in a Texas Baptist Laity Institute class held at her church.

Certified mentors/instructors lead small-group studies in college- and seminary-level courses. Students commit to 12 two-hour class meetings. They also pay $100 per course and purchase required textbooks.

“Many long-time Christians have been around the block so many times–same songs, same sermons, same Sunday School lessons–they may have lost some of the excitement,” Pastor Jud Edwards said. “Those who take these classes will learn new things that will excite them and renew their commitment.”

Ann Bell, former associate pastor at Woodland, suggested that the church consider the program, believing it would be a good fit for the 500-member congregation. But she and Edwards both were surprised at the strength of the positive response.

Bell, who now serves as a pastoral resident at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, contacted about 20 Woodland members who are seminary-trained, hoping two or three would be interested in undergoing the required Laity Institute training to become mentors.

Instead, she got nine “I'd love to” responses, and eight were certified. One withdrew for health reasons.

“That overwhelming response points to a perceived need to bridge the gap between theological education in our seminaries and local churches,” she said.

Last March, four mentors team-taught a free, four-week sample class on “Baptist Faith and Distinctives.”

Regular classes started with “Introduction to the New Testament,” and now Woodland has two classes meeting–a second New Testament survey in addition to an introduction to the Old Testament. Future classes are planned in pastoral care for lay ministry, introduction to Christian ethics, introduction to theology and church history.

Any church member can benefit from scholarly, in-depth study through Texas Baptist Laity Institute, Bell stressed, but there are direct benefits for deacons, Sunday School teachers and other ministry volunteers.

As they apply their new knowledge and understanding, “Woodland's entire congregation will become more aware of Christian history, theology and Scripture and thus become more committed, practicing their faith with renewed energy and passion,” she said.

Martha Morse, a medical doctor who grew up in Colombia where her parents were Southern Baptist missionaries, was pleasantly surprised by the almost immediate impact the New Testament class had on her spiritual walk.

“Sermons and Bible studies and personal devotions now have a deeper, more connected meaning when I bring the additional understanding to the experience,” she explained. She thinks everyone would benefit but warns, “People may have their faith threatened if it is dependent on pre-conceived notions and not a relationship with the Lord.”

Woodland Baptist Church member Mary Johns (above) participates in a Texas Baptist Laity Institute class held at her church. At left, Woodland members Warren Blanchard, Kay Nolan and Martha Morse join in a class discussion. The relatively new Baptist General Convention of Texas model takes intensive studies of the Scriptures to local congregations.

Posted: 9/19/03

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Poor strategy

The Baptist General Convention of Texas' decision to conduit funds so fired/resigned International Mission Board personnel can continue in their former places of service has a pleasant ring to traditional Southern Baptists.

But it is poor missions strategy.

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

In its early days, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was swamped with inquiries from missionaries about switching their appointment to CBF. Our early missions leaders (Keith Parks and Harlan Spurgeon) wisely counseled those under FMB appointment they would need to resign from their current appointment, apply to the Fellowship and importantly, if appointed, they would not serve where they had previously. Parks and Spurgeon made wise decisions then. They are wise practices for the BGCT now. The great risk is exporting the Southern Baptist Convention mess to areas of the world where the Baptist witness is fragile at best. It breeds local confusion and prolongs turmoil.

Traditional Southern Baptists long for days that are gone and will never return. The proactive way to face the future is to simply face the future. There are more than 2 billion who have yet to hear the name of Jesus.

The wise counsel for fired/resigned IMB personnel is to pray the good work they started will carry on. Trust it to those who chose to remain. Live in confidence that God is opening new doors to share the gospel. Continue their God-given call but in a fresh setting among those who have yet to hear. And pray God prospers groups that facilitate the holy calling to missions service.

Harold A. Phillips

Liberty, Mo.

Dispensationalism & peace

One member of our extended family purchased a home and for religious reasons installed a second dishwasher. It seems that just keeping two sets of dishes (one to be used for foods containing meat and another for those with milk) is not enough; the dishes also must be washed separately.

To most of us, this seems like a rather ridiculous practice, especially since it is apparently based very loosely on just a single verse in the Bible, Exodus 23:19, which states, “Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.”

Was this sort of strained interpretation part of what Jesus was warning his disciples against when he told them to be on their guard against “the yeast of the Pharisees”?

Much of what is known as dispensational theology looks suspiciously like the product of similar human speculations except that its Talmud is called the Scofield Reference Bible.

Until recently, I had regarded most of those speculations as a sort of harmless hobby; however, it is becoming evident that some on the Far Right are needlessly complicating the Middle East peace process with their beliefs. They may even outdo the Israelis themselves in arguing that the Palestinians have no rights whatsoever to any part of Palestine.

I beseech thee therefore, brethren, to read through the whole Bible at least once without using the dispensational spectacles and consider whether some other conclusions about Israel's place in the plan of God might possibly be correct.

James O. Morse

McGregor

Proud of fundamentalism

I have been a fundamentalist for 53 years and proud of it. My fundamentalism is defined by a dear friend, Herschel Hobbs, as set forth in his book, “The Fundamentals of Our Faith,” which I have taught in Bible classes in a very respected university and Bible institute.

I also agree with a well-respected author, Leon Morris, who states fundamentalism is a wonderful, God-honoring position, and it is not, as he states, “bibliolatry,” as some would have us to believe.

May God help us to be this type of fundamentalist and respect the Bible as the “fundamentals of our faith.”

R.T. Ware

El Paso

Separation of church & state

Judge Roy Moore in essence says he has the right to place any monument he wants in the courthouse. If Moore were a Buddhist, almost every American would say placing a statue of Buddha in a courthouse would be illegal.

Moore broke the law by openly defying a court order from a higher court. In America, what is illegal for one is illegal for all.

I wonder how many lost souls have been attracted to Christianity by these recent events? I suspect more are repulsed than are attracted by these demonstrations and rhetoric. Rather than unthinkingly following a pied piper, we should rejoin our Baptist forefathers who had the foresight to insist on separation of church and state.

Charles McFatter

Semmes, Ala.

Pick & choose

I cannot comprehend the ongoing controversy concerning the removal of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama courthouse when the majority of Christians totally ignore the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”

Can we pick and choose any one to disregard?

Consider Deuteronomy 12:32: “See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.”

Ted K. Bailey

Carrollton

Single parents

Running short of copy at the Baptist Standard? In finding it for the most part informative of Texas Baptists and the progress made to counter otherwise overbearing conservatives, I happened upon “Seven in 10 U.S. children still live with two parents” (Sept. 8). This is information I really need to know as a Baptist?

Really! What does that say to the otherwise forgotten three children who don't live in a two-parent environment and to single parents? They don't fit the mold as the traditional Baptist family unit?

Try to convince my two children we are not a family. Come on guys, you are beginning to teeter into the land of the apocalypse.

As a single mother of two who has contributed greatly to singles and Texas Baptists steering away from this mindset, I view this as a non-eventful article for a broad-based informational tool of Texas Baptists. Next time you need an additional article, I'd be glad to contribute by telling the challenges that “singles” face with rearing our children alone, juggling between job and a Christian family lifestyle, overcoming the affirmation that married adults are overall more wholesome than single adults. In many cases, I think not.

I'd go a step further to comment on the success of having met those challenges, the inspiration that children contribute to the single parent in their faith walk and how those children encourage and motivate us to capacities that we didn't know were present when suffocated by a non-contributing marital partner.

Sandra Magee Womack

Pasadena

God's 'glory'

John Piper and those who follow him would do well to study the biblical meaning of God's “glory,” as well as the dictionary definition (Sept. 8).

Exodus and 2 Corinthians give the clearest explanation. Note these verses:

“Moses said to God, 'Show me your glory, I pray'” (Exodus 33:18). “God answered, 'You cannot see my face; … while my glory passes by … I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen'” (Exodus 33:20, 22-23).

Here, God directly equates his glory with his face, the revelation of his true nature.

In 2 Corinthians 4:6, we have the same identification: “It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

We bring glory to God by helping people see what God is like, by introducing them to Jesus Christ. God wants no other glory.

Velma Stevens

Fort Worth

Word of God

Which Bible is the true word of God?

We have hundreds of “new,” “revised” and “improved” versions to choose from.

Now, the Southern Baptist Convention's LifeWay Christian Resources has come up with another version, the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

I care not what Bible other Baptists may choose, but as for me, I will continue to use my old King James Version.

I am convinced it is God's preserved word. …

Also, the Ten Commandments are God's word, and he expects us to obey them.

We were told in John 14:15: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Like Ted Koppel said, “They are the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions.”

If our U.S. Supreme Court outlaws the Ten Commandments and the Holy Bible, this nation will be in danger of God's judgment.

We were warned in Psalm 9:17: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

Elsie Graham

Olmito

What do you think? Submit letters for Texas Baptist Forum to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267.

Posted: 9/19/03

LifeWay anticipates
$14 million surplus for fiscal year

GLORIETA, N.M. (BP)–LifeWay Christian Resources should record a $14 million surplus of income over expenses for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, trustees were told at their fall meeting.

The Southern Baptist Convention publisher expects to post 2003 revenues of nearly $421 million, $6.3 million more than last year.

“LifeWay has demonstrated good stability in a weak economy,” Chief Operating Officer Ted Warren told trustees during their semi-annual meeting at LifeWay's conference center at Glorieta, N.M. He credited the introduction of new books, Bibles and literature, sound operations and tight expense control for LifeWay's success.

Funds provided from operations–money for reinvestment in ministry expansion after all expenses are paid–should be $14 million, or 3.3 percent of revenue, Warren said.

Trustees adopted a record 2004 operating budget of $445.4 million, a 5.8 percent increase over projected 2003 revenues, along with capital expenditures of $14.7 million.

In other reports, trustees learned:

More than 20,000 churches used LifeWay's “Great Kingdom Caper” resources for Vacation Bible School this summer.

The LifeWay Christian Stores division completed 12 store openings or acquisitions in the last year, bringing the total number of stores to 119. No new stores are planned for 2004.

LifeWay Christian Stores plans to launch a “Christian Classics” section featuring more than 100 titles “every Christian should read.”

The complete Bible in the Holman Christian Standard translation will be available for purchase by next spring. LifeWay's translation may be viewed in its entirety now on www.lifeway.com in the online Bible reference library.

Some of Broadman & Holman's top-selling products in 2003 included “Faith in God and Generals,” a Civil War book that complemented a major motion picture; “Praying God's Word” by Beth Moore; a revised edition of “Experiencing God” by Henry Blackaby and Claude King; and “Brothers, We are Not Professionals,” by John Piper.

The corporate affairs division is leading a companywide initiative to “connect seminary students to LifeWay for life.”

At Glorieta, Holcomb Auditorium and classrooms have been remodeled, along with the Chuck Wagon and Holy Grounds Cafe, Chaparral Hall and the Texas Main A & B hotels. The lake also has been improved and stocked with fish for catch-and-release sport fishing. LifeWay is studying the feasibility of an 18-hole golf course at Glorieta.

LifeWay International is establishing a presence in key “economically viable and financially self-sustaining” global markets. The strongest of these, administrators reported, currently are for Spanish products in the United States, Central America, the Caribbean, Spain and Mexico. English products were reported to be strong in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa.

Posted: 9/19/03

Volunteers needed in Lubbock

Texas Baptist Men Builders completed more than half the work on a new residential facility for My Father's House in Lubbock, but additional volunteers are needed to finish the massive construction project, according to Shirley Madden, executive director of the ministry.

Volunteers from each of the Texas Baptist Men Builders groups–crews that specialize in building churches, encampment facilities, furniture or cabinets–teamed up to spend three months on the Living and Learning Center project.

My Father's House of Lubbock currently is located at Iglesia Bautista Templo, where it offers Christian Women's Job Corps training, teaching job skills and life skills to women in need. Texas Baptists help support Christian Women's Job Corps, a ministry originated and sponsored by Woman's Missionary Union, through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.

The Living and Learning Center–being built on 4.3 donated acres near Lubbock's Lowrey Field–will add a residential component to Christian Women's Job Corps. The center will include 18 two-bedroom apartments, classrooms, a commercial kitchen and day-care and laundry facilities where women can gain hands-on job experience.

Recently, students in the Lubbock Independent School District's building trades classes started working on the project, and some local church groups and individuals also have volunteered. But many more volunteer builders and "prayer warriors" are needed, Madden said.

Volunteers with any experience in drywall hanging, taping and bedding, bricklaying, landscape sprinkler system installation, painting, tile setting, carpet laying or exterior siding installation are needed.

The ministry also needs financial assistance and donated supplies such as carpet, tile and paint, Madden added. In time, the center will need equipment for its kitchen, laundry and daycare center.

“We also are praying for a missionary couple to come and live free in the center and be our on-site grandparents, to serve as godly role models for our women,” Madden said.

Contact (806) 799-0990 or srmadde@attg.net.

Posted: 9/19/03

BGCT-supported pastor in Moldova
offers only evangelical presence

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Romeo Gindea serves as pastor of the only evangelical church in his town. In fact, it's the only evangelical presence in a region of seven cities.

Gindea lives in the small town of Suruceni in the Eastern European nation of Moldova. He set out to establish an evangelical presence in the town after graduating from the Technical University of Chisinau in 1999.

He serves as an indigenous missionary of the European Baptist Federation. The Baptist General Convention of Texas Partnerships Resource Center helps support 13 such ministers through its partnership with the federation.

Upon arriving in Suruceni, Gindea and his wife, Antonina, met two evangelical Christians and their children and began building a congregation. The small group holds Wednesday Bible studies and Sunday worship and prayer services in his home.

Soon after Gindea arrived, he and the other believers determined to show a movie about the life story of Jesus twice in two days. They were encouraged when a group of youth watched the video intently the first night.

But their hopes were dashed when the mayor and an Orthodox priest prohibited the presentation.

“After a short analysis, we have seen that many youth and children were interested in that movie,” Gindea wrote. “As a conclusion, the people and the oldest part of the village are against the gospel. They consider themselves very religious people and proud. It is hard to work with such people.

“Nevertheless I do believe in this village are many people in which God will change their minds and hearts.”

Down but not defeated, the group pushed onward. The church uses Christian holidays and birthdays as avenues to invite people to their group to hear the gospel. During the Christmas season, church members sing carols announcing Jesus' birth throughout the city.

Still, people were hesitant to enter the church, Gindea said.

“People are very reserved. They hardly respond to our invitations,” he explained. “Some of them kept coming for a while and then quit. Why they stopped, we don't know. Maybe because the age difference. I am young, and they are much older than me.”

Then the congregation made a concerted effort to reach the children who appear more open to the gospel. The church helped several youth attend Christian camps, and other children want to go to a camp. The church would like to hold an event for local youth.

The pastor also works as a part-time computer science teacher to help him meet more children and parents in the town of 3,000.

Now, the church is growing. Six adult believers and several teenagers are regulars at the church. People are becoming more comfortable with visiting the church.

“Our vision is through evangelism to make more groups of fellowship and Bible studies,” Gindea reported. “Later, we will get all those groups together, and we will pray that the final of all this will be a little living church of Jesus Christ.”

Posted: 9/19/03

Officials must testify in Navy chaplains' suit

WASHINGTON (RNS)–A U.S. district court judge has ruled that members and staffers of the U.S. Navy's chaplain selection boards must give testimony in lawsuits charging the military service with religious discrimination.

The opinion by Judge Ricardo Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejects the Navy's defense that the boards' proceedings should be kept private. Plaintiffs in two cases, including one that is a class-action suit, sought the testimony, saying it was relevant.

In both cases, current and former Navy chaplains have sued the Navy, alleging it favors liturgical Christians over non-liturgical Christians when promoting its chaplains.

“Without addressing the merits of the plaintiffs' claims, the court concludes that the plaintiffs have provided an adequate factual basis for their belief that the requested testimony will provide evidence of government misconduct,” Urbina wrote.

“The various reports and statistics cited by the plaintiffs are adequate at this stage to support a belief that the Navy engaged in discrimination against non-liturgical chaplains.”

Posted: 9/19/03

On the move

Frank Baker to Proctor Church in Proctor as minister of youth.

Tommy Billings to Guadalupe Association as executive director.

David Boncler to Vista Grande Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., as youth pastor from Parkside Church in Denison.

John Boubel to Rolling Oaks Church in San Antonio as pastor from Mayfield Park Church in San Antonio.

Bob Brooks to Dallas Baptist University as chairman of the music department and associate dean of Fine Arts from Wilshire Church in Dallas, where he was minister of music.

Joseph Cano to Coulter Road Church in Amarillo as associate pastor of student ministries.

Joe DeLeon to First Church in Jasper, Ind., as minister of youth/children from Primera Iglesia in Arlington, where he was associate pastor for youth/praise and worship.

David Dinkins to Highlands Church in LaMarque as pastor.

Adam Espurvoa to Iglesia Emanuel in Bastrop as pastor.

John Garcia to Iglesia Cristo El Rey in Robstown as pastor.

Bob Joyce to Shady Shores Church in Shady Shores as pastor.

Jess Little to First Church in Claude as pastor.

Dick Maples has completed an interim at First Church in El Paso and been named pastor emeritus for serving the church both as pastor and interim.

Ezy Martinez to Central Church in Luling as children's ministry intern.

John Noblett has resigned as youth pastor at Sadler Church in Sadler.

Kenneth Noles has resigned as minister of music and youth at Calvary Hills Church in San Antonio.

Ben Ondrak to Second Church in Lubbock as associate pastor for student ministries from First Church in Dothan, Ala.

Jearl Petree has resigned as pastor of Baptist Temple Church in San Benito.

Larry Phenneger to Trinity Church in Royse City as pastor from Twin Cities Church in Sherman, where he was youth/music minister.

Grover Pinson to Anchor Fellowship in Ingleside as pastor.

Debbie Potter to Trinity Church in San Antonio as minister to children.

Richard Rush to First Church in El Paso as senior pastor from First Church in O'Donnell.

Liz Sanders has resigned as minister to preschool at First Church in Waco.

Kevin Stacy has resigned as interim minister of music at First Church in Cameron.

Tommy Stogner to Oakville Church in Oakville as pastor.

David Tatum to Coulter Road Church in Amarillo as associate pastor of music.

Bob Wimberly to New Baden Church in New Baden as interim pastor.

Posted: 9/19/03

Visiting family means missions for Mesquite teens

By George Henson

Staff Writer

Some youth spent their summer doing missions, while others visited relatives. Some may have done both. A Mesquite pair, however, accomplished both at the same time.

Jonathan and Katherine Palmer, members of Lakeside Baptist Church in Dallas, spent six weeks in northern Nicaragua assisting their aunt and uncle, International Mission Board missionaries Jim and Viola Palmer, with a variety of mission projects.

The teens are the children of Brenda and Joel Palmer of Mesquite.

The brother and sister took flight from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport June 28 and returned Aug. 9, but the rustic conditions they lived in during the interim kept them well-grounded.

Katherine, 15, was to work at a Bible institute for lay pastors, evaluating their vision and matching them up with used eyeglasses donated by American congregations, but that plan changed rapidly.

Katherine Palmer (left) helped teach English in a Christian academy in Managua.

Her aunt contracted a viral lung infection and had to be transported to Managua on the other side of the country. Katherine accompanied her from the ministry center in Puerto Cabezas, but although her plans changed the overarching goal of ministry did not.

In Managua, she worked at a Christian academy started by her missionary aunt and uncle years before. She taught preschoolers English.

Even after her aunt was able to return to Puerto Cabezas, she still was weak, so Katherine helped out by making pig food, feeding the pigs and caring for a pregnant goat.

Jonathan, 16, meanwhile had been making the living conditions for pigs in a distant village more comfortable. Comfort was not what he was feeling, however.

The 90-mile trip to the village of Ulwas traversed roads so rough that the trip took more than eight hours. While his view of the rainforest may have been good, his seat was not–he made the day-long trip perched high atop the load of materials needed for the project.

Working with a volunteer group from Americus, Ga., he helped build a pig pen and a storage facility for beans and rice. The “Seeds of Hope” program is important because the villagers in the area do not have the means of building structures for storing grain for use as seed. Typically, because any saved grain would be eaten by the many weevils native to the rain forest before the next planting season, everything is sold with nothing kept for seed.

Because no banks exist, all the money typically is used to buy goods until no money is left. Then, when planting times arises, everything must be sold at a lower price so seed can be bought in a vicious downward cycle.

Katherine with a parrot in Nicaragua.

The project also brought sealed wells to the village. Villages in this region typically get drinking water from the river, where washing and bathing also are done, or from an uncovered well that all manner of things fall into, leading to many diseases.

Jim and Viola Palmer work mainly with the Miskito tribe, but they also work with the Sumu people. The Sumu live deep within the rain forest, where no Baptist presence exists. In an effort to rectify this, Jonathan, his uncle and a group from Texas Baptist Men surveyed a number of tribes during a six-day excursion into unspoiled territory.

The first stop for the group was in the village of Sakalwas to meet with the tribal council and gain approval for trekking into tribal lands. More than 90 minutes passed before permission was gained, but they later learned it was time well spent. A Moravian pastor in one of the villages told them a small Pentecostal group entered without permission and was bound by villagers and kept in a small, dark hut until morning, when they were released with instructions never to return.

When the missionaries arrived in the village of Suniwas, they showed the “Jesus” film in the Moskito language, since it has not yet been translated into Sumu.

The villagers were mesmerized by the movie, Palmer said. “These are people who have never seen a car or a light bulb. The 'Jesus' film will impact their lives in ways we can only imagine.”

Each day, the group traveled deeper into the rain forest, sometimes traversing wet and muddy trails and sometimes floating down almost unnavigable rivers. The deeper they went into the jungle, the more excited was their reception.

“The villagers here in Kibnusa can't remember the last time white people came into their village. No one can believe the team would come so far to show the 'Jesus' film and talk about Jesus,” Palmer reported to those praying for the group about the fourth day of the hike.

Jonathan preparing for a rough ride.

The next day, they trekked deeper still into the rain forest. “The canopy was so thick it was dark on the trail,” Palmer wrote.

Jonathan remembers that day vividly. “We heard this loud, strange sound all around us and couldn't figure out what it was. So we just kept walking. After about five minutes, the rain finally began to hit us. We had been hearing the downpour on the canopy of the rain forest, but it was so thick the rain wasn't hitting the ground.”

His last couple of weeks of summer missions work weren't so exotic, however. He helped with two medical missions with the highly exalted position of “grunt worker.”

“We put up tents, hauled water, did whatever else was needed like playing with the kids while their parents were busy and in the evening took down the tents so we could start all over again the next morning.”

Katherine returned to her job of fitting adults with eyeglasses. Using a hand-drawn eye chart using combinations of letters, numbers and symbols, she sought to determine the strength of corrective lenses needed and match it with the eyeglasses on hand.

The job was made much harder, however, because many villagers want eyeglasses with interesting frames rather than the eyeglasses they needed.

Jonathan found working with his aunt and uncle made the mission experience fuller than it might have been otherwise. He enjoyed spending time with a relative he doesn't get to see as often as he would like.

He also gained more insight into the life of a missionary than other volunteers might.

Katherine took home a similar lesson.

“When you think of missionaries, you think, 'They're perfect.' But when it's your aunt and uncle, you know they're not perfect and you realize that real people can be missionaries.”

Posted: 9/19/03

Everyone's the praise team at this church

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

NEW BRAUNFELS–First Baptist Church may have the largest praise team in the world. At least the music minister thinks that way when planning worship services.

Wally Black views his full 35-person choir as the praise team and the congregation as the choir when planning worship services.

The notion has nothing to do with worship styles. Bringing several members of the choir forward to sing with microphones does not match Black's theology, he said. The sounds of praise are depicted biblically as a multitude of voices pointed toward heaven, not a couple of people singing in front, Black noted.

Praise teams can hurt a choir psychologically, he argued. They can make non-members of the praise team feel they are less important than those at the front. Black works to accomplish the opposite effect.

“I want every one of my choir members to feel important,” he explained. “I want every one of them to feel like leaders of worship.”

His image of a corporation of worship leaders is apparently making a mark on the choir members. Diana Clendenin, a choir member, pictures worship as “people who are so enraptured with God that they forget who they are and give themselves to God.” The choir is key in achieving that at First Baptist Church, she said.

“They believe what they are singing. They believe the words coming out of their mouths,” Clendenin said of the choir members. “They're ministers.”

The worship service is directed toward God, Black said. If God is the only one to hear the voices of the congregation, that is sufficient, he added.

“That's what worship is. It's singing to an audience of one,” he said. “It's us in front of the Lord.”

God-centered worship is one of the 11 characteristics of healthy churches adopted by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

At First Baptist, church leaders use a variety of musical pieces to serve a congregation that runs the age gamut. Black writes or arranges all the music he uses in the services. Music includes a wide range of hymns and praise choruses. Occasionally he weaves a hymn and a chorus into one piece.

While he enjoys newer material, he believes the stories behind hymns add depth to the songs, and the lyrics provide theological information that believers need. Songs remain with people longer than a sermon, he said.

“I'm not one of those guys that's stuck in the past. At the same time, I'm not going to be divorced from the past,” Black said. “You always have to go to lyrics. As worship leader, I have a responsibility that for 20 or 30 minutes people are going to focus on 200 to 300 words of my choice.”

Black ties the music together thematically and connects it to Pastor Regan Miller's sermon when there is a long-term topic schedule.

Posted: 9/19/03

'Purpose Drive Life' named
top evangelical book of the year

ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS)–“The Purpose-Driven Life” by Baptist pastor Rick Warren has been named the 2003 Jordon Christian Book of the Year by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.

Zondervan published the popular book by Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, a megachurch in Lake Forest, Calif. The book offers advice on spiritual transformation and Christian living.

The book was honored during the 26th Annual Gold Medallion Book Awards Banquet at the CBA International Convention.

At the same ceremony, evangelical leader Joni Eareckson Tada was honored with a lifetime achievement award. Tada, who became a quadriplegic as the result of a 1967 diving accident, founded a disability outreach organization called Joni and Friends and has authored more than 30 books.

Gold Medallion winners are:

Bibles: “The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language” by Eugene Peterson.

Bible Study: “My Heart's Cry” by Anne Graham Lotz.

Biography/Autobiography: “Let's Roll!” by Lisa Beamer with Ken Abraham.

Christian Education: “When God Weeps Groupware” by Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes.

Christian Living: “Authentic Faith” by Gary Thomas.

Christian Ministry: “Experiencing God Together” by Henry Blackaby and Melvin Blackaby.

Christianity and Society: “The Next Christendom” by Philip Jenkins.

Devotional: “Night Light for Parents” by James Dobson and Shirley Dobson.

Elementary Children: “All Is Well” by Frank Peretti.

Family and Parenting: “Blessing Your Children” by Jack Hayford.

Fiction: “Mission Compromised” by Oliver North.

Gift Book/Poetry: “A Family Christmas” by James Dobson and G. Harvey.

Inspirational: “My Heart's Desire” by David Jeremiah.

Marriage: “Divorce-Proof Your Marriage” by Gary Rosberg and Barb Rosberg.

Missions/Evangelism: “Unveiling Islam” by Ergun Caner and Emir Caner.

Preschool Children: “The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” by Ken Taylor.

Reference Works/Commentaries: “Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary” by Clinton Arnold, general editor.

Spanish: “Cristo Rey de reyes” by E.L. Carballosa.

Theology/Doctrine: “The Doctrine of God” by John Frame.

Youth: "Every Young Man's Battle" by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker with Mike Yorkey.

Posted: 9/19/03

Ministers' reading lists are diverse
but include few women or blacks

By David Briggs

Religion News Service

CHICAGO (RNS)–America's clergy are reading a broad range of theologians, Bible scholars and inspirational writers, at times crossing liberal-conservative and Protestant-Catholic divides to share spiritual writers from different traditions.

What they do not put at the top of their reading lists, according to a national survey, are women and black writers.

A survey of pastoral reading habits conducted for the Pulpit & Pew research project at Duke Divinity School showed Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest known for searing honesty and personal vulnerability, was the favorite author of both Catholic priests and mainline Protestant clergy.

C.S. Lewis, an Anglican layman who thrilled children with his “Chronicles of Narnia” series and generations of Christian thinkers with such works as “Mere Christianity,” was the top writer crossing over the favorite lists of all Christian clergy.

However, not a single woman or black writer made the Top 10 lists of Catholic, mainline Protestant or conservative Protestant clergy.

More than 800 clergy from 80 denominations responded to the 2001 random telephone survey conducted for the Duke research project by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago. The results are to be part of a book published next year.

Each cleric was asked, “Other than the Bible, what three authors do you read most often in your work as a pastor?”

Nouwen, Pope John Paul II, the biblical scholar Raymond Brown and spiritual writer William Bausch were the top four authors selected by Catholic clergy. Nouwen, United Methodist theologian William Willimon, spiritual writer Frederick Buechner and popular author Max Lucado were the top four of mainline Protestants.

Lucado, leadership author John Maxwell, theologian and devotional writer Charles Swindoll and biblical scholar John MacArthur led the list of those read by conservative clergy. In addition to Lucado, the popular inspirational writer Philip Yancey, Lewis and Maxwell were on the Top 10 lists of both mainline and conservative Protestants. Lewis was No. 11 on the Catholic list.

Overall, the results suggest clergy from the three main Christian groups live in distinct intellectual and cultural worlds, said Jackson Carroll, director of the Duke research project.

Sixteen percent of the clergy surveyed were black; 9 percent were women.

The Episcopal spiritual writer Barbara Brown Taylor was the first woman to show up on any list–No. 12 in the favorite authors of mainline Protestant clergy. The popular black Pentecostal writer T.D. Jakes was No. 11 on the list of writers conservative Protestants turn to in their work as pastors.

Who clergy are reading

More than 800 U.S. clergy were asked, “Other than the Bible, what three authors do you read most often in your work as a pastor?” Here are the Top 10 authors as picked by Catholic, mainline Protestant and conservative Protestant clergy in the 2001 telephone survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Catholic	Mainline Protestant	Conservative Protestant
Henri Nouwen Pope John Paul II Raymond Brown William Bausch Walter Burghardt Scott Hahn Anthony de Mello William Barclay Richard McBrien Karl Rahner	Henri Nouwen William Willimon Frederick Buechner Max Lucado Eugene Peterson C.S. Lewis Marcus Borg John Maxwell Lyle Schaller Philip Yancey	Max Lucado John Maxwell Charles Swindoll John MacArthur Warren Wiersbe Philip Yancey Rick Warren C.S. Lewis Matthew Henry Charles Spurgeon