Posted: 6/20/03

BGCT calls Christians 'back home'
to transform Texas city centers

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is calling Christians to transform city cores–diverse, largely unchurched areas in the hearts of urban areas–by “coming back home.”

The BGCT Church Missions & Evangelism section recently launched the Texas City Core Initiative, an effort to develop strategies and models that enable spiritual, social and economic transformation in urban areas abandoned by many traditional Baptist churches.

These areas have transitioned several times to become a hodgepodge of cultures, lifestyles, ethnicities and income levels, according to E.B. Brooks, director of the BGCT Church Missions & Evangelism section. In many cases, high-priced loft apartments sit blocks from crime-ridden neighborhoods. Different cultures continuously engage each other.

“People from our churches drive into the inner city to work, but they see freeways, not neighborhoods,” Brooks said. “They miss places where crime, poverty and hopelessness exhibit themselves. They also miss the places where regentrification is happening and where people are moving back to the city core.”

Although many people are aware that Texas' largest cities–Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin–have large unchurched areas in city cores, they may overlook relatively smaller Texas cities similarly affected.

Census statistics indicate 50 Texas cities have more than 50,000 residents, including Port Arthur, McAllen, Killeen and Amarillo. Twenty-three of those cities have more than 100,000 people. All 50 have a city core, according to Brooks.

Statistics indicate an influx of people into these “inner city” regions, Brooks explained. Although people have surged into the area, few traditional churches are there to serve them because most relocated to the suburbs in conjunction with the “white flight” and regional industrialization of the 1940s and '50s.

Brooks hopes to change that phenomenon by calling “the churches back home” to impact the communities. In addition to raising interest in city core development, Brooks hopes to harness the outreaches of house and organic churches that can rapidly multiply in such areas.

“The need and opportunity is mind-boggling, but we need to understand God is not threatened by the need or the opportunity, and everything we accomplish will reduce the overwhelming need,” he said.

“I do believe we have tremendous untouched resources in the churches of Texas to do this task. I believe our people will be challenged by it.”

While the challenge is great, the initiative is not starting from scratch, organizers reminded. Project leaders hope to network existing ministries cross-denominationally and facilitate new ministries to fill needs.

“We're not starting from ground zero. We think of all the problems that are present in the city core. For every problem, there is a Christian response,” said Tommy Goode, who has been contracted to help with the project.

“The timing of this is remarkable in that there are so many things going that make the Texas City Core Initiative fit in with the work of Baptists and other evangelicals,” Goode added.

The Lord's Prayer inspires Goode's effort. He views the prayer as an active call to make God's “kingdom come, his will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.”

Posted: 6/20/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
Pastors should prohibit proselytizing others' members

By Ron Sisk

Most ministerial codes of ethics forbid “proselytizing.”

By that, they mean seeking to increase your church membership by recruiting members from other Christian churches.

But the practice is perhaps more common than ever. Evangelicals love to convert Catholics. Catholics take quiet satisfaction from the flow their way of disillusioned evangelicals. And, of course, the consumer mentality among churchgoers means folk regularly shift congregations or denominations in order to meet their preferences.

Megachurches unabashedly market to all comers. And mainline ministers faced with declining membership rolls are just glad to see any new faces come through the door.

The result is a kind of ongoing degradation of ministerial courtesy that, like the biblical Jubilee, may have been more theory than practice in any case.

The idea was twofold. First, a minister should never actively seek to recruit members from another church. The underlying assumption is the unity of the kingdom of God. This was always ignored by groups who believed they held an exclusive corner on the truth.

If you were a Baptist who believed Catholics had no knowledge of personal salvation, it became your duty to convert Catholics.

The early Assembly of God and Church of Christ movements came largely from Baptists who became convinced that either the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Assembly of God) or baptismal regeneration (Church of Christ) were necessary for salvation.

They proselytized with impunity and glee. Little can be done to alter such practices without first altering the assumptions that fuel them.

The second part of the prohibition of proselytizing is more interesting, though.

It suggests that no Christian should jump from church to church for trivial or unhealthy reasons and that no minister should willingly assist such a change.

In my own years in the pastorate, I seldom saw this idea addressed well.

One colleague from a sister church in town did make a point of telling me he would always notify me if someone from the congregation I served began considering joining his. He never actually did so though.

A second colleague urged a disgruntled couple from our church to talk with me before moving their membership. But he allowed them to do so without following through.

Nor was my own record much better.

Shouldn't there be a better way? What if we developed in advance a clear protocol for dealing with visitors from neighboring churches? What would happen if every minister visited by those from another congregation began asking three simple questions:

Why do you want to leave the other church?

Have you discussed your feelings with your pastor?

May I call to suggest that your pastor call you?

Unhappy members in one church frequently make unhappy or marginal members in the next. Pastors have an obligation both to their colleagues and to their own congregations to make certain that the body of Christ stays as healthy and as unpolluted by unresolved conflict as possible.

As much as possible, people should work out their conflicts within their own community of faith. It won't always work, and people do have legitimate reasons for changing congregations. But pastors who make it too easy contribute little to the spiritual welfare of those they accept.

This, it seems to me, is the essential genius of the proselytizing prohibition.

I wish our seminaries, conventions and ministerial associations did a better job of pushing us all in this direction.

Ron Sisk is professor of homiletics and Christian ministry at North American Baptist Seminary in Sioux Falls, S.D. His column is distributed by EthicsDai-ly.com, a ministry of the Baptist Center for Ethics

Posted: 6/20/03

Patriots pitcher Jeff Gilmore (left) aims a pitch at the plate, but pitching isn't the only area the university teaches him to keep a true aim in. DBU's athletic programs combine an intensive faith focus along with athletic excellence. "I want something to challenge me besides baseball," said Patriots pitcher Justin Orozco (inset below). Players often find fulfillment in ministry projects such as preparing Christmas gifts for needy children. Pictured (right) are Lance Bina and Diamond Belle Kaylee Reynolds.

DBU BASEBALL: Faith's on first

By Kambry Bickings

Staff Writer

DALLAS–A day in the life of a Dallas Baptist University baseball player consists of more than running, weight lifting, pitching and batting. DBU's coaches not only equip players for the next inning but for the game of life.

The Patriots took their first title in the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association this year. But that alone does not describe their distinction among the nation's universities.

DBU considers its baseball program unique because of the way coaches interact with team members, the activities the team undergoes together on and off the field and the spiritual support provided for all student athletes.

In addition to academic and athletic training, the university boasts that it is “committed to every athlete growing toward spiritual maturity.” A discipleship program provides four areas for players to grow, learn and mature in Christian faith, as well as excel in athletic abilities.

The first form of discipleship comes through the university's Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. FCA meets once a month for praise and worship and a message from a guest speaker, such as recent appearance by Woody Dantzler, special teams player for the Dallas Cowboys. Logan Stout, assistant baseball coach, leads the worship.

Second, each DBU athletic team also meets together weekly for a team Bible study, often led by one of the coaches. Last spring, for example, the baseball team studied 1 Peter.

“Not only does the mentoring take place within a Bible study setting, but there are spiritual ties and connections made on bus rides, walking to and from practice, and through other routines the baseball team undergoes together,” said Wayne Poague, athletics director

Third, the teams also participate in small-group discussions led by and made up of their peers. This spring, the baseball team went through a small-group study of Thessalonians.

Finally, DBU athletes also are encouraged to put their faith into action. Last year, the baseball team participated in a weekly reading program with the Grand Prairie school district, reading to at-risk children in the classroom, as well as at the Boys & Girls Club.

“The kids are so receptive to the baseball players,” Poague said. “I think they believe they are major-league players. We have them wear their jerseys when the go into the classrooms.”

Baseball players also were active in raising support for Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse ministry. Their gifts aided Operation Christmas Child.

The baseball team also switched sports for a weekend this spring to play basketball with inner-city youth at the Beautiful Feet Church in Fort Worth.

Such experiences contribute to developing spiritually as a team and an individual, Poague said. “There's more to life than baseball. These guys have to get a degree; someday they'll be husbands and dads. Being a spiritual leader for a family is important too.”

Dallas Baptist also consistently sends several of its baseball players each summer to be part of Athletes in Action. This summer, eight DBU players are participating in the Campus Crusade for Christ program, which consists of all-star teams that travel around the world playing baseball and sharing their faith in Christ. At the end of each game or between a double-header, one player from each team gives his testimony, and several people often are led to faith in Jesus Christ. Each player must raise his own support for the May-to-August mission. The leagues range in location from Missouri or New York, to the Netherlands, Germany, England and beyond.

DBU's student players report satisfaction with the extra attention they get from coaches and staff.

“Our coaches know us on the field but off the field as well,” said Justin Orozco, pitcher for the DBU Patriots and a junior from Mesquite. “They are there to support us in all areas of life.”

Although he didn't originally plan on playing at DBU, he thinks he knows now why God brought him there.

“I want something to challenge me besides baseball,” he explained. “It's easy to get distracted by baseball alone, especially during the season. Having coaches who care to challenge us to excel in all areas of life makes all the difference.”

Posted: 6/20/03

DOWN HOME:
Dogs get all the mosquito breaks

Here's a scientific breakthrough I can't figure out: If veterinarians can prepare a pill that protects dogs from all kinds of flying bugs, why can't doctors make medicine to keep mosquitoes, say, 10 feet from people?

I can't turn on the TV without seeing a commercial about a new pill of some color and purpose. Most of the time, the announcer doesn't explain what the pill's for, only that you should “call your doctor.” (Don't you know doctors love that? Every time a new pill premieres, all the hypochondriacs call up asking if the brand-new Zynthrax would be right for them.)

Forget human pharmacology. I've been intrigued by the commercial with the dog who trit-trots down the sidewalk, encapsuled in canine bliss because his owner fed him an anti-mosquito, flea and tick pill.

With West Nile Virus steadily advancing across the continent, wouldn't logic suggest every man, woman, boy and girl in America would be better off if he or she could swallow an anti-mosquito pill?

I've thought about this and figured out the trick is in the dosage. If my 7-pound dog, Betsy, is good to go with one pill, do I need to take 22 pills? And if I take 22 pills of dog medicine, will I develop irresistible urges to chase rabbits and eat grass?

So far, I'm too big of a chicken to try anti-mosquito dog medicine. But the whole issue is more than rhetorical at our house.

Our next-door neighbors, who never got the hang of keeping their above-ground pool clean, have moved away. Their house sits empty. Worse, the oh-so-still water in their pool is dark yellow and turning pea green.

A guy from the health department said empty tires, clogged rain gutters and old tin cans–just about all things that hold stagnant water–are dangerous breeding grounds for killer mosquitoes. And if a tin can can breed enough mosquitoes to present a health hazard, that slimy pool next door might morph into a mosquito megalopolis. Maybe if I feed Betsy her pills and carry her every time I go into our backyard, she'll keep the mosquitoes off both of us. Another reason why a dog can be man's best friend.

When “the roll is called up yonder,” I'm planning to ask the Lord about mosquitoes. Of course, God's will is perfect, but I haven't exactly figured out the divine plan for mosquitoes. Ditto for wasps. (If wasps were as big as chihuahuas, they're so mean they'd rule the world.) Some parts of creation don't seem exactly necessary.

Of course, biology tells us birds need bugs for food. Besides pitying the birds that have to eat wasps, I've always wondered why birds couldn't be vegetarians.

Just think of a place where birds eat weeds and nobody ever heard of mosquitoes, crickets and cockroaches. We'll probably call it heaven.

Posted: 6/20/03

EDITORIAL:
SBC & BWA illustrate alternative approaches to unity

Credit Denton Lotz with the most ironic-yet-gracious line of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 17-18 in Phoenix.

Messengers had just voted overwhelmingly not to reconsider the SBC's 2004 budget. Their decision clearly ensured the convention would cut its allocation to the Baptist World Alliance, which Lotz leads, from $425,000 to $300,000.

Following the set agenda, SBC President Jack Graham immediately introduced Lotz, who stepped to the podium to present the BWA report.

“Good morning,” Lotz said, smiling although $125,000 poorer. “The Lord has a wonderful sense of humor, doesn't he?”

Some messengers laughed nervously, but Lotz went on to deliver a wonderfully generous message. “We Baptists … want to stick together,” he said, not a trace of sarcasm or bitterness in his voice. “We stick together because we belong to Jesus Christ.”

The BWA embraces 206 Baptist unions and conventions whose membership numbers 46 million baptized believers around the globe, Lotz noted. They worship in 193,000 churches and minister in more than 200 countries.

The SBC is the largest and wealthiest affiliated convention in the BWA. Its 30 percent cutback in funding reflects strong disapproval of the BWA's openness to consider accepting the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as a member.

The Fellowship left the SBC 12 years ago, its members disenfranchised by the increasingly fundamentalist nature of the convention. Now, the Fellowship has petitioned to join the BWA, whose membership committee has slated the request for consideration this summer. SBC leaders claim they are pulling money from the BWA because they aren't being “heard adequately” and because they disagree with the process the BWA membership committee used in considering the Fellowship's petition. The bottom line, however, is SBC leaders despise the Fellowship and are furious the BWA might allow the upstart organization to join.

This rift between the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist World Alliance reflects two worldviews. Those perspectives illustrate the difference between the leading approaches to Baptist unity. The SBC seeks unity based on doctrine, requiring adherence to well-defined, strictly interpreted adherence to a set of beliefs. The BWA seeks unity missionally, finding ground for relationship through a common purpose.

The SBC hasn't always utilized doctrine as its litmus test for unity. When the SBC began in 1845, affiliates checked doctrinal differences at the door. Calvinists and Arminians sat down together, as did worshippers who loved the high-church liturgy of Charleston and others who roused to the fiery evangelism of Sandy Creek. They joined together because they needed each others' strength to do missions. For years, their only institutions were foreign and home mission boards. For eight decades, they never felt they needed to write a statement of faith.

But in the past quarter-century, the SBC shifted its focus to doctrinal-based unity. In fact, the convention's “conservative resurgence” or “takeover” revolved around conformity to a narrowing set of beliefs. This trajectory reached its apex in 2000 with the adoption of the new Baptist Faith & Message statement. It describes itself as an “instrument of doctrinal accountability,” or what some observers have called a creed.

The language used by speakers on the SBC platform in Phoenix illustrates their desire for firm doctrinal parameters. They described–with strong justification–the moral decay that pervades American society. But they also repeatedly talked about how Southern Baptists are oft-persecuted and much-maligned. This is ironic, since the SBC enjoys unparalleled and unprecedented access to the White House and Congress, and SBC leaders appear frequently as commentators on talk TV and other media. Their language illustrates how they feel attacked by a hostile culture. So, a rigid doctrinal emphasis creates a protective fence around the faithful, defining who can and cannot come inside. However, they have diminished the diameter of that fence and may, in time, declare the BWA, with its 205 other member bodies, outside their fold.

The BWA, on the other hand, embraces many of the poorest and most persecuted Baptists on the planet. Lotz described baptisms in bathtubs in Afghanistan, performed in secret so the pastors and new converts would not be executed. He told about ministers imprisoned in Turkmenistan and harsh sanctions around the globe. Baptists worldwide hail from many cultures and articulate some doctrinal distinctions differently. They uniformly affirm the lordship of Christ, believer's baptism, the authority of Scripture and a regenerate church. But in the BWA, they rally around mission. They sacrifice to spread the gospel across the globe, to strengthen and encourage churches, to fight for religious liberty in the face of totalitarian regimes. BWA members include some of the world's most oppressed people, yet they persevere for fellowship and common purpose.

Leaders of both groups clearly articulate their rationale for Baptist unity. While the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's possible membership in the BWA is the focal point of current conflict, it really is beside the point in the larger picture. For its own reasons, the SBC will continue to delineate doctrinal demands for unity. Likewise, the BWA will rally under the common Lordship of Christ and a shared heritage. This may mean the SBC drops out of and defunds the BWA (a possibility presaged by SBC Vice President Paul Pressler, who twice referred to the BWA as the Baptist Joint Committee, a religious liberty group the SBC defunded a decade ago).

If you affirm the SBC's doctrinal unity, you will approve the departure. If you support the BWA's missional unity, you will want to help make up the financial shortfall by leading your congregation to become a BWA Global Impact Church, which provides at least $1,000 annually to the BWA budget.

What's your basis for Baptist unity?

For informa- tion about the Baptist World Alliance's Global Impact Church program, contact Global Impact De-partment, Baptist World Alliance, 405 N. Washington St., Falls Church, Va. 22046; globalimpact@bwanet.org; (703) 790-8980, ext. 129.
–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted 6/23/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Mowing & praying

By John Duncan

I am sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering the lazy days of summer and working up the energy to mow my yard. The desert monks coined a word for laziness, "acedia," which means listlessness. "Acedia" has Greek roots, meaning "an absence of care." Today I am listless, but the yard must be mowed.

The poet Langston Hughes once lamented, "Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair." When it comes to my yard, the grass grows, the flowers fade and the yard must be mowed. My yard ain’t no crystal stair. I guess I will jolt myself out of this listless state and start mowing.

When I mow, I pray. "Everything that one turns in the direction of God is prayer," Ignatius of Loyola commented. I mow the tall weeds, and I trim my grass, and I turn stuff in God’s direction.

I am mowing and praying–for the world; for the church, God’s church; for kids on drugs; for soldiers in war; for families in grief; for a friend’s son whose choices have catapulted his life into a whirlpool of descending trouble. I am mowing and praying and recalling that Langston Hughes also said, "Descent is quick; to rise again is slow." I am praying for my friend’s son to rise again in the power of the Almighty. I mow and pray. The lawn mower throws grass in the direction of the ground, and I toss words in God’s direction. The sunshine falls. Prayer rises.

I am mowing and pushing–grimace, grunt, groan. I agreed to mow my neighbor’s yard. His yard takes longer to mow and challenges my body. I push the mower uphill, around trees while ducking under limbs, back and forth in ankle-thick grass freshly watered by dripping drops of rain splashed into mother earth. Life ain’t no crystal stair.

I am sweating and praying for my neighbor Bill, that his company will renew his job. Companies lay people off, the economy sags, and I am praying that God in his economy will allow Bill to keep his job. The grass shortens. Prayer lengthens my soul. Jesus hears.

I am praying and dreaming because every time I turn a corner in Bill’s backyard, I see the lake and his jet ski. Think of me as no saint. Mowing Bill’s yard also means I receive the privilege of using his jet ski.

The heat withers my body, blades of grass stick to my legs, dust flies in my face and I dream of zipping across the lake at break-neck speeds with the wind blowing through my thinning hair. Life ain’t no crystal stair, but you cannot spend your whole life mowing the yard. A man needs jet-ski flair every once and awhile. I have a dream.

I am jet skiing and praying. Now I zip across the lake and pray. Karl Barth once noted, "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."

I zigzag across a crystal lake as the evening sun glistens off the water as if a mirror lay beneath my path. I watch for approaching watercraft and enjoy the aura of God’s creation. The heavens declare God’s glory, not to mention the beauty of the lake. My hands tightly grip the handlebars on the jet ski, and my heart grips prayer.

I pray for an uprising against the disorder of the world–for grief amid pain in Israel where bus bombers create disorder; for soldiers in Iraq wincing in the chaos of ambushes and confusion; for peace in homes where Satan hurls missiles of disorder into homes; for joy to return to those who lost jobs as God in his economy provides new jobs and stable incomes again for struggling souls; for those climbing life’s stairs and finding the uphill climb difficult like hiking Mount Everest.

Life ain’t no crystal stair, but the yard must be mowed, jet skis need to come off the rack, and prayer needs to rise up against the disorder of the world.

Are you praying?

So now here I am, back under the old oak tree, drinking bottled water purified by mountain springs and praising my Lord the yard got mowed. Life ain’t no crystal stair, but prayer makes life crystal clear! And Jesus hears.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines.

Posted: 6/27/03

Tight budget taps out church funds

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas Church Starting Center cannot fund any more church starts for the rest of the year.

The center has committed all budgeted monies to support recent church starts. The BGCT funds up to 50 percent of new churches' budgets for a maximum of three years.

BGCT consultants are looking for new avenues of funding church starts through associations and sponsoring churches for the rest of the year. More funds will be available to the center in January.

Funding for this year has been stretched particularly tight for several reasons, explained Abe Zabaneh, director of the center.

BGCT Cooperative Program funds, Mary Hill Davis Offering gifts and income from the New Church Fund all have declined, he noted. These are the primary sources for church-starting funds.

Last year, the staff budgeted for 150 new churches but actually helped launch 264. The ongoing financial commitment to these recent starts takes the bulk of the budget, Zabaneh said.

The center typically commits its entire new church budget before the end of the year, but this is the earliest a shortfall has occurred, Zabaneh said. Last year, the center committed the budget by October.

BGCT staff members have helped facilitate 94 church starts this year, well below their goal of 259 churches. Despite the drop, Zabaneh remains optimistic. He hopes the center will start 150 churches with the help of partners by the end of the year.

Zabaneh encouraged Texas Baptists to give faithfully to the BGCT Cooperative Program, Mary Hill Davis Offering and the New Church Fund.

“Our new churches are very effective at reaching people for Christ,” Zabaneh said. “They're very evangelistic. New churches are a good investment, because not only do they reach people, they give back. The more churches we start, the more churches we have that give to BGCT Cooperative Program ministries.”

Posted: 6/27/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
Parents must reinforce messages

By David Gushee

Imagine you are trying to get into the mind of someone. Your goal is to communicate some kind of message to that person so that he or she will not forget it. What will your strategy be?

The answer is repetition.

You will put your message in front of your target as many times as possible, in as many venues as possible, in as attractive and unforgettable a manner as possible.

You will “flood the zone,” so your target will encounter your message everywhere.

Now, imagine that you are someone attempting to block the transmission of this message. You have more limited resources, but you do exert some control over the activities of the target. What will your strategy be?

As parents of a teenager and two pre-teens, this is our life. My wife and I are trying to block the transmission of messages that are being sent to our three children by the mass media. What an uphill struggle!

Take an average day: When my oldest daughter gets up in the morning, she is awakened by a clock radio tuned to her favorite radio station. There are two main stations that are popular with most teenagers we know. They offer two primary messages. One says, “I am a hormone-crazed young person who wants to party and have sex.” The other says, “I am a depressed young person who wants to jump off a bridge.” About 20 minutes an hour, both say, “Come to this or that club and party with other hormone-crazed and depressed young people.”

Let's say I employ my message-blocking role to demand that these two radio stations be turned off, as at times I have. This might reduce the message-sender's target penetration by some small percentage.

But my daughter has other options.

She can always go down the hall and listen to the same music on the Internet or through file-swapping programs. Or if we tell her there are certain songs or “artists” she cannot listen to, she can turn on the TV and see them featured on various programs and commercials there–even if she isn't looking for them.

If we tell her she cannot watch the TV, or at least certain shows on the TV, she can then go out with her friends and listen to the same music in the car or over at a friend's house.

For that matter, if she goes to the mall, she will hear some of the same music in various stores. If she goes to a restaurant, she often will receive the message piped in through the sound system. If she goes to a movie, she will receive similar messages, often accompanied by the same music and the same artists.

Our nation's children have been and will continue to be masterfully inundated by the messages being sent by the mass media.

One could hardly imagine a more comprehensive strategy for teaching someone something.

On the other hand, only so many strategies are available to parents seeking to be message-blockers in this culture.

Some parents opt for an attempt at total prevention. They remove all radios, televisions, video cassette recorders, compact disk players and Internet providers from the home. Even this radical strategy cannot prevent out-of-home transmission of unwanted messages.

While such a total home media blackout has its benefits, it is not the path we have chosen in our household.

We have believed there are valuable resources available through the mass media if it is used selectively and supervised carefully. Thus we embark on the screening process: There are television stations we do not watch, types of movies we ban, songs we refuse to hear, Internet sites we block and so on.

It is a war, and it sometimes feels like we are on the losing side. The struggle itself is just plain wearisome. But it is one we cannot abandon.

One final dimension impacts this struggle. Parents must be more than message-blockers. We must be message-senders as well.

A merely defensive strategy never will be adequate. We must have our own message to send, and we must send it with just as much energy as we can.

For our family, it is a message about the good, the true and the beautiful. And the God who is the author of all three.

This is a message we send repeatedly, with our involvement in church, with our moral teaching, with the books we read, and–we pray–with our lives. It is a message we hope our children will make their own as they leave us and make their way in the world.

What are you doing to win the battle for your child's mind?

David Gushee is the Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. His column is distributed by Religion News Service

Posted: 6/27/03

Oklahomans give Texas church a lift

By George Henson

Staff Writer

CRESSON–A group of Christians on mission from Oklahoma sees Cresson as more than “just a stoplight on the way to Granbury.”

To them, it's a place to make an investment in the kingdom of God.

Thirty-five workers from Trinity Baptist Church in Ada, Okla., arrived June 9 to begin making First Baptist Church in Cresson more closely resemble the finely crafted structure it was when constructed in 1910.

Located just off Highway 377 between Benbrook and Granbury, the church had been deteriorating for some time, Pastor Clark Frailey said.

“We wanted to maintain the look of the outside–it's just such a unique building–but we wanted to protect it too,” Frailey said. “The paint was peeling all over it really bad. It had really become an eyesore.”

The church building had received so many coats of paint over the years that sanding it down to the wood would have been impossible. So the Oklahoma crew attached insulation to those exterior walls, then attached siding to that, giving the aging edifice a fresh new look.

The Oklahomans also placed ceramic tile throughout the church's fellowship hall and Sunday School rooms, which had been covered with an indoor/outdoor carpet of varying hues.

The Oklahoma handymen and women were led by Sid Green. “We do this each year as a mission project,” Green said. “We just do what we can to help.”

In addition to projects in their home state, the church also has come to the aid of churches in Louisiana and Colorado.

The Cresson congregation also plans to build a sand volleyball court, a pavilion and children's playground, as well as place cushions on the original hand-crafted, custom-made pews.

“We are a historic church, as are the pews we sit on. However, they also are sometimes a sore subject,” the pastor quipped.

Removable seat cushions and back cushions are being crafted to fit the pews. The pews currently sport seat cushions, but the cushions were added in the 1950s, and “they've lost their cush,” Frailey pointed out.

Upgrading the facilities to be more child-friendly is important in Cresson, the pastor said. “Even though we are a small church, we had 65 kids enrolled last year in VBS. There's not a whole lot else for kids to do around here except for church activities, so the kids really turn out.”

All this is possible for the congregation of about 40 only through the donated sweat, labor and skills of the Oklahoma church and a small-church loan from the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the pastor said.

Even though the older members of the Cresson church can't do all the manual labor required for the renovation, they have made important contributions.

“I told them … to bring extra food because so many were coming to help us with this project, and they really brought a lot,” Frailey said. “We might not be able to do construction, but we can cook.”

Martha Manuel, a member since 1961, said the food was just a token of the appreciation the Texans feel for their neighbors.

“There's no way we could repay them for all they've done, but we can pray for them and thank them,” she said. “We're trying to fatten them up before they go back to Oklahoma.”

Mildred Milburn has been a member of the Cresson church 58 years, and she, too, is grateful.

“When they get ready to leave, I'm going to line them all up and hug every last one of them,” she said. “They'll never know how grateful we are.”

Frailey said the women speak for his whole congregation.

“It's the first time anybody's really stepped up to help them in a big way in at least the last 50 years,” he noted. “I've been seeing a lot of smiles around here.”

Posted: 6/27/03

BGCT to offer more curriculum online

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas Bible Study/ Discipleship Center plans to offer free online curriculum for children's Bible studies in September.

Downloadable material for children up to sixth grade will be available on the Baptistway Press website, www.baptistwaypress.org. Four age-specific materials specialized for preschoolers 5 years old and younger will be available. Curriculum for older children will be broken down into studies for grades one and two, three and four, and five and six.

The BGCT will post the curriculum in month-long blocks to give teachers more time to plan for the studies. The children's material will be a continuous study program.

Twelve topical studies for older youth also will be available.

The site also will provide a commentary to accompany the adult curriculum. That commentary will be written by Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.

Free downloadable Bible study material in different languages such as Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean will continue to be available.

Dennis Parrott, director of the center, said the online lessons represent a compromise the section had to make to further its ministry. Many people were asking Baptistway to publish the material, but funds became increasingly tight as the stock market fell, and distributing printed lessons was not economically feasible.

BGCT staff discovered they could minister to churches worldwide and stay within budget by offering the materials free online.

Online curriculum may be the most effective way of delivering Bible study materials, Parrott said, noting churches around the world are using online products from other publishers with a great degree of success. The material is cheaper and more convenient for many class leaders.

“We at first approached this as the next-best thing, but we're starting to wonder if it's not the best thing,” Parrott said.

He encouraged churches to continue supporting the printed Bible study to provide support for ministry in financially strapped congregations.

“When you buy adult materials, you allow the Baptist General Convention of Texas to provide curriculum for other churches,” Parrott said.

Churches throughout Texas, the United States and around the world already are using free Baptistway Press online materials, Parrott noted. He believes the upcoming materials will have a similarly strong impact on churches of all sizes, locations and budgets.

“It's a neat thing to know we can provide that kind of ministry to the churches that need that kind of financial assistance,” he said. “We can also provide it to churches who simply don't want to use anyone else.”

Posted 6/27/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Freedom

By Berry D. Simpson

In the movie "Braveheart," the last word out of William Wallace’s (Mel Gibson) mouth as the English torturer was literally ripping his body apart was "Freedom!" I don’t know if that was historically correct, but it was certainly the theme of the entire movie, and it is the justification for many of the things we do.

Freedom, however, is a dangerous thing. When you give someone true freedom they may not use it the way you wanted. They may not use it the right way.

For example, the United States just spent money and lives liberating Afghanistan and Iraq from oppressive dictatorial regimes that trampled on civil rights and fostered worldwide terrorism. But now that it is over, what will we do if the Afghans, votiing in free and open elections, elect the Taliban? We can’t go back in and overthrow a freely elected government. What if the Iraqis vote for a Shiite ayatollah as their leader, and they hate us? What will we do about that? Giving someone freedom is risky because a truly free person may not use that freedom as we wish.

One of the reasons Americans resent the recent stand by France against out president is because we think they should be more grateful for all the American lives sacrificed to give them freedom. We feel we’ve earned a little more respect from them. But instead of being forever grateful to us, the French government thinks it should have an equal position to the United States on the world stage, and to prove its independence and leadership, it has staked out a position opposite from their very liberators. "How dare they," we think, "after all we’ve done?" That’s the trouble with freedom; the freed are free to run away and turn their backs on their freedom givers.

As parents, one of our jobs is to pass along freedom to our children. As they get older, say 20 and 22, we feel obligated to let them make their own decisions and bask in their own freedom. However, we want them to make the same choices we would make, live the same way we live, go to bed the same time we go to bed and pay for their own way the same way we pay for our own way. (Sorry, that last one was about responsibility, not freedom, even though the two go hand-in-hand.) They cannot grow up without freedom, yet that very freedom allows them make choices we don’t like. Giving freedom is risky.

God took a great risk when He gave us freedom through the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. Galatians 5:1 says, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free." What God wants us to do with that freedom is to stand firm and don’t be a slave to sin. Instead, what we often do with our freedom is run away, stake out our own position, prove our position on life’s stage and establish our independence from God. We waste our freedom; we don’t use it the right way. God knew that might happen when he set us free, but he did it anyway, since it is only through freedom that we can truly love him.

In the movie "Bruce Almighty," God granted omnipotence to Bruce (Jim Carey) because Bruce thought he could handle situations better than God did. However, unfortunately for Bruce, he discovered he could not make his girlfriend, Grace (Jennifer Anniston), love him by using his powers. He couldn’t even manipulate her to love him by leaving clues and hints scattered all around her path. He could win her back only when he gave her the freedom to leave, hoping only for her happiness and peace.

Bruce couldn’t force the free will of other people because of the limitations placed on him by God. In the real world, however, God can do whatever he wants, including trampling on our free will. Yet he has chosen to restrict himself and grant us free will as a gift. He has limited his own powers over our life in order to set us free with no guarantee that we will love him in return, with no promise that we will walk in his ways. Even though God knows that his ways are what’s best for us, they will protect us and make us wise, they will warn us away from harm, they will keep us close to him, he has granted us the freedom to live how we want.

Freedom is a dangerous thing, but I wouldn’t want to live any other way. I want my kids to be free to be adults. I want the people of the world to be free to elect their own leaders. And I want to be free before God to love him and serve him.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.

Posted: 6/27/03

Dobson returns to his roots
with video series on raising boys

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

At the apex of his career, James Dobson has returned to the communication medium that first made him one of the nation's foremost spokesmen for conservative Christian family values.

Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and host of a daily radio program of the same name, has produced a new 11-part video series to be shown in churches and other group settings.

The series, “Bringing Up Boys,” harkens back to the 1970s, before the advent of video, when Dobson's message was projected via film in churches around the nation. That instructional film series, titled “Focus on the Family,” put the child psychologist on the map and sparked the dawn of a different style of family ministry in many evangelical churches. More than 70 million people viewed that series in church fellowship halls, sanctuaries and Sunday School rooms.

The new video series is based on a book also titled “Bringing Up Boys,” a book Dobson labels the “fastest-selling” of his 19 published titles.

In promotional comments released by Focus on the Family, Dobson described his first film series as “the booster rocket that put Focus on the Family into orbit.”

The new video series has that same energy, he said, explaining, “I worked as hard on this project as anything I've ever done.”

Over the past 30 years, Dobson discovered radio to be a more effective means than film of getting his message out on a daily basis. His radio programs now are heard by 200 million people on 3,000 stations in North America and 3,300 overseas.

The video series, however, presents a medium suitable for group interaction and discussion, he said.

“The purpose for this is to get neighborhoods together that don't know these Christian principles,” he explained. “It's very soft-sell so it doesn't offend people who don't know these principles of the faith.”

More liberal-minded critics of Dobson and Focus on the Family aren't likely to find the videos soft-sell, however, as he places the blame for troubles raising boys today on feminists, liberals and homosexual activists.

The problem parents face in raising boys, Dobson said, is “they don't know what it means to be a boy, and they certainly don't know what it means to be a man. Everything masculine has been vilified.”

That vilification, he said, has come from feminists who hate men and from others who wrongly have taught that boys and girls should behave similarly.

“Masculinity was God's design,” Dobson explained in the publicity materials. “Males and females are different. They are intended to be different.”

In the publicity and in the video series, Dobson contends feminists have for the last 30 years attempted to make men “look like little boys, to make them look foolish.”

As evidence, he points to common themes in television commercials and TV sitcoms.

Christian parents, he contends, must hold up the model of masculinity as a worthy goal and stop trying to make boys behave like girls.

God has created boys to be more rambunctious and physical than girls, and nothing parents do can change that internal yearning, he said.

“In the late '60s, a really goofy idea came along, a really crazy idea, and it was the notion that males and females are identical except for the ability to bear children and that boys and girls are different only to the degree to which they've been raised differently,” Dobson says in the first video.

However, he adds, “The people who were behind this movement in telling parents how to raise their kids were not married, were not mothers, had never raised kids, didn't like men and had no academic training whatsoever and had no basis on which to tell parents how to raise kids.”

This philosophy permeated schools with the notion that “men are kind of goofy, so we need to fix boys while we can,” he says.

New medical technology, however, should end the argument forever, Dobson says, explaining that new imaging techniques demonstrate that “male brains are different from female brains” and testosterone makes the difference.

Christians must reclaim the uniqueness of maleness because men and boys are in serious trouble today, Dobson contends.

“When compared to girls, boys are three times more likely to be on drugs, four times more likely to be emotionally disturbed, six times more likely to have learning problems, 12 times more likely to murder someone,” Dobson reports on the video. “Four of five suicides are boys.”

Further, “boys are not linking in to life in quite the same way as girls,” he adds, reporting, for example, that 59 percent of graduate students are women.”

The causes of today's problems with boys are many, Dobson admits, but he finds the root of the evil in “the disintegration of the family.”

Two of the 11 videos deal with homosexuality, how it impacts males and how parents can inoculate their children from becoming homosexuals.

Dobson and three guest speakers on the homosexuality segments advocate that homosexuality is caused by nurture, not nature. The two most common ingredients in the backgrounds of homosexual men, they contend, are fathers who were either distant or critical.

Other segments of the video series leave behind controversial topics and engage in the bread-and-butter parenting advice format that has built Dobson's audience from the start.

Two of the 11 segments feature Dobson fielding questions from parents and grandparents in a studio audience. One segment includes humorous interviews with a sampling of young boys.