Posted: 7/25/03

DOWN HOME:
OK, so the officer didn't laugh, too

Except for an encounter with one of Krotz Springs' finest, we had a perfect vacation.

Joanna, Lindsay, Molly and I spent a week at the beach, the favored summer retreat of our teenage girls. The other day, I tried to count; this was the ninth or 10th trip we've taken to the beach. I hope the girls remember these trips as fondly as I remember the vacations my family took when I was a kid.

Back in the “old days,” we lived in the Panhandle, where Daddy was a pastor. The beach seemed a million miles away, so we went camping in the mountains of New Mexico or Colorado. I still favor a mountain vacation–the sound of wind rushing through the pines; the pungent smell of the woods; the sting of icy water when you wade in the streams; the cold nights that induce great sleep.

Jo and I have taken Lindsay and Molly to the mountains a couple of times, but the girls prefer a trip to the Gulf of Mexico. It's probably the terrific routine–sleep until you wake up; eat breakfast on the porch, listening to the waves; slather on sunscreen and mosey down to the beach; play in the water when you get hot and sit and read when you're not; jump in the pool to rinse off the sand and sweat; clean up; eat dinner; spend the evening walking on the beach or watching movies or just talking.

Even as a fan of mountain grandeur, I've got to admit a beach vacation is a wonderful retreat from the “real world.” I particularly like the sound of a peculiar form of silence–no telephone calls–and the most beautiful range of music–my wife's and daughters' laughter. We laugh quite a bit at our house, but the laughter of vacation has a free, easy sound that's tangibly different from home laughter.

Unfortunately, I became the object of some of that laughter about halfway home on the last day of vacation. You know, when you're heading home, you just want to get there.

That's not a good emotion in parts of rural Louisiana, where the speed limit on long stretches of Highway 190 has been reduced to 45 miles per hour, thanks to road construction that is not visible to the naked eye.

Well, I tried to be good, honest. But when we reached a seven-mile-long narrow viaduct over the swamp, I opened back up to the speed limit God intended, just a notch or two above 70. The viaduct went great. It has no shoulder, so the state troopers can't stake it out.

At the end of the swamp, a beautiful arching bridge spans the Atchafalaya River. At the bottom of the other side of that bridge sits a Krotz Springs, La., police officer, toting up city revenue.

“Sir, I clocked you going 73 in a 55-mile-per-hour zone,” he told me, writing my first speeding ticket in 30 years. At least Jo and the girls waited to laugh until he walked away.

Now, I'm $90 poorer. But I still thank God for relaxing vacations and family laughter.

Posted: 7/25/03

EDITORIAL:
Speak the truth or show love? Why can't we do both?

The folks in Chama, N.M., won't forget Ben Martinez's funeral mass any time soon.

About 200 mourners gathered in the sanctuary of St. Patrick Catholic Church after Martinez died at age 80 last summer. Chances are, they expected to hear the priest, Scott Mansfield, eulogize Martinez as a lifelong Catholic who served his community as a town councilman.

Instead, according to members of the Martinez family, Mansfield stamped their recently departed loved one's passport to hell.

Once they got over their shock, the Martinezes did what millions of Americans of many faiths would do in this day and age.

They sued.

They claim Mansfield described Martinez as “lukewarm in his faith” and “living in sin,” according to Religion News Service. Most graphically, the priest reportedly added, “The Lord vomited people like Ben out of his mouth to hell.”

Family members have defended Martinez, saying illness prevented the practicing Catholic from attending church the last year of his life. Nine of them also claim the priest and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sante Fe owe them money for severe emotional and physical suffering.

Both the archdiocese and the priest have denied the accusations. Sometime soon, a court will decide (a) if the American legal system can penalize a priest or preacher for calling them as he sees them, spiritually speaking, and (b) the punitive price of hellfire and damnation.

This issue raises a question of propriety. What should a minister say over the coffin of a scallywag? Dwight Moody, chaplain at Georgetown College in Kentucky and a former pastor, considered Mansfield's funeral sermon in a recent column: “There is a time and place, I suppose, to talk about sin and damnation. Jesus himself had a few choice words on these matters. But I doubt a funeral is that time and place. I myself have officiated at funerals of people widely held to be scoundrels, but even such people have a few redeeming qualities that can be the focus of a eulogy.”

So, when is the time for hellfire and the place for damnation? That question reminds me of an e-mail sent by a friend in my Sunday School class:

The Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches in a small Texas village were overrun by squirrels. Each group decided to handle the situation according to its faith and order.

The Presbyterians called a council and determined the squirrels were predestined to be there, and the church shouldn't interfere with God's sovereign will.

The Methodists prayed about the situation and felt led to refrain from harming any of God's creatures. They humanely captured the squirrels and released them a few miles down the road. The squirrels came back three days later.

Only the Baptists came up with an effective solution. They baptized the squirrels and registered them as church members. Now, they only see the squirrels at Christmas and Easter.

This little joke would be funnier if it didn't point to a truth. Our churches fill up on Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday. They brim with people who show up acting like they're doing God a favor. This hit home a year and a half ago, as I waited while one of my daughters got her hair cut. The stylist and client chit-chatted about their holidays. “Of course, on Christmas Eve, we did the church thing,” the stylist reported. Her family's attendance at a candlelight Lord's Supper service had no more apparent meaning than a trip to the park to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Many Christmases and Easters, I've admired my pastors' warmth and grace. They've welcomed these awkward occasional worshippers with joy and dignity. They've attempted to help these twice-a-year congregants feel welcome and wanted.

But I've always wondered if we've done the right thing by making these holy days services all sweetness and light. Do we inoculate people with just enough religion to trick them into thinking they can get by, when what really happens is they miss out on the chance to create an authentic relationship with the Christ whose birth and resurrection we celebate?

Talk about the right time and place: About the only time we get some people into our place of worship is at Christmas, Easter, funerals and weddings. Members of a Texas Baptist church recently left a funeral broken-hearted, because the presiding minister, from another denomination, refused to preach the gospel during the service. They instinctively understood this would have been a wonderful opportunity to share the good news of sin's redemption to people who wouldn't cross another church threshold until the next time somebody died.

Here is a message for the Christmas/Easter/ wedding/funeral crowd: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. … The wages of sin is death. … But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. … The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. … If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. … For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The Apostle Paul admonished followers of Christ to “speak the truth in love.” Some of us are so eager to speak the truth that we're not very loving. One of my daughters' friends spent her lunchtime telling classmates they were “going to hell” because they didn't know Jesus. She made a big impact, scaring elementary schoolchildren almost speechless. She didn't convert any of them. They felt judgment, not love. But more of us are so afraid we won't seem loving that we refuse to speak the truth. What could be more loving than to help someone understand that a relationship with God's Son, Jesus Christ, offers the promise of eternal life?

The court has not determined what Mansfield said at the funeral. But if the priest had spoken lovingly to Martinez before his death, maybe he wouldn't have felt compelled to speak so truthfully afterward.
–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted: 7/29/03

Police identify body of Dennehy;
Baylor teammate Dotson held

By Hannah Lodwick

Associated Baptist Press

WACO, Texas (ABP)—Authorities have positively identified the body of missing Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy.

Searchers found the body in a Waco-area field July 25. A medical examiner in Dallas confirmed a positive identification for Dennehy two days later. Officials did not specify a cause of death.

After finding the decomposed body, investigators continued to search through high weeds in the rural area roughly five miles south of Waco. They found a head the morning of July 27.

Carlton Dotson, Dennehy’s former teammate, reportedly told FBI agents he shot Dennehy after the player tried to shoot him, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The two had been shooting guns in a country field. On July 21, police in Maryland arrested Dotson for murder. Dotson denies he confessed to murdered.

Dotson’s attorney, Grady Irvin, told CNN he feels concerned about the mental well-being of his client. Dotson reportedly called 911 before his arrest and complained about hearing voices.

"Any statements that were given by Mr. Dotson, if any, couldn’t have been given freely, couldn’t have been voluntary, and couldn’t have been done when he was coherent in any way, shape or form," Irvin told CNN.

Dennehy’s family reported him missing June 19, about a week after he was last seen on the Baylor campus in Waco. His mother and stepfather, Valorie and Brian Brabazon, had traveled to Waco to gather their son’s belongings but left for their home in Nevada the morning of July 27.

Baylor President Robert Sloan expressed shock and asked for prayer in a July 28 e-mail addressed to the entire "Baylor family."

"Baylor has endured the heart-wrenching loss of students before, but never in such a startling and perplexing manner," Sloan wrote. "We grieve the loss of Patrick and the impact of that loss on the Baylor community."

In response to alleged impropriety on the men’s basketball team, Sloan’s letter also described an investigative committee he formed to "perform a full and credible review of our basketball program." Sloan said he has no reason to believe the accusations but takes NCAA rules seriously.

"Integrity is the cornerstone on which our entire athletics program is built," Sloan wrote. "We will spare no effort to determine if that commitment was compromised in any way."

The committee includes three Baylor law school professors and the former mayor of Austin—a Baylor alum—as outside counsel.

Both Dotson and Dennehy had transferred to Baylor on basketball scholarships, Dotson from Paris Junior College and Dennehy from the University of New Mexico.

Dotson remains jailed without bond in Maryland while he fights extradition to Texas.

Posted 7/29/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
From a rock house

By John Duncan

I am sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering an old rock house. An old rock house sits in Pilot Point. The old rock house might be down some dirt road or out in the country or on an asphalt road near the center of town. I know not where that house sits. I do know that on Sept. 14, 1940, Aunt Essie delivered her nephew, Cordell. Cordell had a last name—Parker. That rock house served as conduit of education, values and spiritual roots.

Not long ago, a speech teacher named Cordell Parker died. Cordell taught at Tarrant County College and served as an educator for over 40 years. Today people change jobs faster than a lightning strike. Forty years at the same task and purpose occurs to me as a remarkable feat. In the Summer of 1980, Cordell served as my speech teacher. He loved talking about life’s most basic commodity—communication. Communication makes the world go around. Today S-P-E-E-C-H is on my mind.

S-Story. Life swells with laughter and drips with tears. Cordell could laugh. He loved stories, a part of the ever-flowing river of communication that puts characters and life into the drama and context of the flow of life. The ancient Greek thinker Heraclitus once said, "You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you." Stepping into the same rivers twice is one thing, but telling a story twice is always permitted. Eugene Peterson once announced stories as a pastoral care, understanding the people, places and powers that influence people’s lives. He called his visits with people "occasions for original research on the stories being shaped in their lives by the living Christ." Stories shape life. Telling stories influences lives.

Stories flow like a river—of tree houses; of wedding plans; of the church parking lot where Cordell met Irene, his wife; of swimming pools where a father tosses his daughter, Kippy, in the water, clothes and all; of wrestling matches where Cordell once dressed as a sumo wrestler, baring his body and soul to raise money for the United Way; of cars and Cadillacs and trucks spray painted on a dark night; of life’s No. 1 fear, public speaking; of Artem and monster trucks and hip-hop music with words like, "It’s time to go"; of an interest in the funeral home business and mortuary science; and of a rock house. Stories refresh and connect life like people gathering on a porch to talk while drinking cool cups of water from a mountain river.

P-People. In more recent days, I have concluded that life is really about people—the wired and weird; the stable and unstable; the happy and sad; the big and small; those wilting under the heat of life’s pressure and those blooming in the sunshine of life; the healers and hurt; the non-communicative and the communicative; the thinkers and feelers. People influence, often with stories.

Cordell loved to meet people. He always seemed to have a knack for researching their stories and delivering the news of people’s lives. If you will live joyfully, two necessary relationships lay a happy foundation—a relationship with the Person of Christ; relationships with people. Cordell himself spoke of people—his father in the grocery business; Irene and Kippy; Mrs. Hall, his teacher in high school; Jack Schmidt, whom he worked for in his younger years in the funeral business; his friend Michael; and colleagues like Jane Harper. The circle of life surrounds with a circus of joy when relationships with Christ and people form an unbreakable bond. Did Cordell learn about those bonds in a rock house?

E-Encouragement. Encouragement, of all qualities, is the one thing that everybody needs. Cordell’s booming voice (for after all, he was a communicator himself) asked two questions: "What can I do for you today?" and, "Can I pray for you?" P.T. Forsyth once noted: "Prayer is the highest use to which speech can be put. It is the highest meaning that can be put into words." Cordell constantly inquired about my wife, Judy, during her tumultuous bout with cancer. His "today" question and his prayerful spirit in the circle of life’s stories remind me of two vital keys to genuine communication—care and prayer. Richard Foster once said, "Intercession is a way of loving others." Before his death, Cordell shared with his good friend Michael that he was going to retire and intercede daily for others. That was Dr. Parker, an encourager in the stories of life.

E-Education. Cordell graduated from Denton High Scholl and North Texas State University, and he loved education, students and speech-communication. He once threatened to quit school in the real pressures of education, its costs, and its challenges. He relented, though. "I promise I’ll finish," he told his mother. He did finish, completing his doctorate in education and surrendering his life not to his beloved interest of mortuary science, but to education. Life takes unexpected twists and turns. Stories wind and bend with surprise.

One lady called him a "giant of a man." He won awards for teaching in 2001—the prestigious Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award; the Golden Apple Award; and the Humanities Distinguished Award. It served as my privilege to introduce whim when he won the Golden Apple Award. Afterward he thanked me, adding, "Thanks for taking the time to drive this far to introduce me. I never knew that speech class meant that much." He once told me, based on my speech class experience, that he thought I would be a man of letters (an educator), but not a public speaker. We laughed about that. Who knows what God will do to shape and surprise in the story of life?

C-Communication. I hear an echo in my ear, "You have verbal and non-verbal communication." If you will have a happy marriage, a successful business or serve as a good employee, you need good skills of communication. If you walk through life’s valleys or stand on life’s mountains, you will need to communicate to endure or to celebrate. If you raise kids or raise corn, you will need communication. If you live life with laughter, love and abundant life, communication will serve as your most basic tool. I wonder what Aunt Essie communicated on the day Cordell was born in that rock house?

H-Hope. Cordell loved gospel music, especially the Florida Boys. He researched stories of people and church and Christ at home in the heart. As a boy, he sold newspapers. I liked to think he liked the news, but more than that loved the Good News of Jesus. I see him in my imagination—throwing newspapers at dawn; sitting on a riding lawn mower on a hot summer’s day at the funeral home; making a body-run with the funeral home director; driving an ambulance through a busy street; standing in a church parking lot; laughing, side-splitting laughter, while standing beside a splashy pool; standing in front of a speech class talking; giving a speech; smiling as he receives an award; promising his mother; sitting in church while I preach ("A-," he said that day); loading his office in a box; telling stories, and crying in a rock house while Aunt Essie holds him close to her chest in love.

Most of us never get too far from where life begins—its education, values and spiritual roots in places like a rock house. Jesus asks us not to get too far from him. He tells us about life and death, the stories and the story: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you." I am here under the old oak tree pondering a rock house in heaven and a wooden porch where a guy in a cowboy hat sits in a rocking chair near a pond in a circle of people. By the way, if you listen real close, he’s telling stories.

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

Posted:8/4/03

Dennehy services set

A funeral service for Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy will be held at 11 a.m. Pacific Time Thursday, Aug. 7, at the Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose, Calif.

Cards may be sent to: Family of Patrick Dennehy, c/o Jubilee Christian Center, 175 Nortech Parkway, San Jose, Calif. 95134.

The university will hold a campus memorial service for Dennehy at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, in the Truett Seminary Chapel on the Waco campus.

For more information, contact Baylor's university ministries office at (254) 710-3517.

Posted 8/5/03

Commentary:
God's man for two seminaries

By Ted Stone

Eleven years ago, area media accounts of the election of Paige Patterson to the presidency of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary carried the prediction by the more ardent detractors that his coming would result in the death of the Southern Baptist seminary, located in Wake Forest, N.C.

Many denominational loyalists wondered if the hard-driving Texan, who had earned his spurs as a leader in the conservative resurgence, would be a good fit for the more traditional East Coast seminary. After all, he was fresh from the presidency of Criswell College, and some feared that such a background ill-prepared him for the educational challenges of higher education.

Friends and enemies were greatly surprised at the disarming, friendly demeanor of the Baptist leader who had been falsely heralded as a bully and administrator of an inquisition. By God’s grace, and blessed with the visionary leadership of Patterson, the struggling campus began to rise from the ashes of despair to the pinnacles of Christian service it enjoys today. Some faculty members retired, while others chose to teach at other schools, but not one single faculty member was fired during the days of changeover.

Patterson’s passion for evangelism and missions became evident during the early days of his tenure. Church planting became a priority, and students were encouraged to discover the meaning of missions firsthand by active involvement across the world. The seminary president and his wife, Dorothy, often traveled to foreign lands to offer encouragement to their dedicated young students. An outstanding Ph.D. program was instituted for the first time at Southeastern, and a thriving liberal arts college was founded. The student body grew by leaps and bounds.

Paige Patterson always has been accessible to students, faculty and others who love the seminary. His office is crammed with mementos from mission trips and safaris. That he is an avid hunter is no secret to his admirers. And the presence of his loyal dog in his office or the front seat of his car is an everyday event. Those who have been fortunate (and there are many) to enjoy the hospitality of Magnolia Hill, the presidential residence, know that the president and his much-respected wife are renowned as top-notch hosts. They love people!

When I returned home from the trustee meeting at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth in April, at which Southwestern’s beloved President Ken Hemphill announced his resignation to pursue another area of denominational service, I was sad at his departure and frustrated with challenging problems that still needed to be resolved at the institution long considered the flagship seminary of our denomination.

The rumor mill was active, and the media speculated that Paige Patterson might be a leading candidate for the presidency of the largest evangelical seminary in the world. Because of my deep concerns for the future of Southwestern and the ties that had been developed with the Southeastern president during my tenure as a member of the Southeastern board of visitors, I scheduled a meeting with Patterson in his office at Wake Forest.

I poured out my soul, discussing each of the pressing needs at Southwestern. I knew already that this man of God shared my enthusiasm for evangelism, and I carefully told him of the dream that I shared with Southwestern professors Roy Fish and Malcolm McDow to see a school of evangelism established on the Fort Worth campus. And then he added to the conversation, "I believe there is a great need also to see a chapel erected in the heart of the campus!" I shouted "amen!" loud enough to be heard on the second floor of the administration building, for I had discussed only a few months prior that same vision with Southwestern Vice President Jack Terry.

Patterson, soon after arriving in Wake Forest 11 years ago, had turned his attention to developing an exciting and challenging chapel service as the core of the daily activities. Those attending this service at Southeastern are always impressed by a full house in attendance, and in recent years Southwestern chapel service, held in a less worshipful atmosphere, an auditorium, rather that a chapel with a steeple like the worship center at Southeastern, has lagged far behind with less than 200 often in attendance.

I asked my friend to join me in prayer for God’s will to be done. We both knelt on our knees and prayed without ceasing, seeking God’s plan for the two seminaries, both of which had special places in our hearts. When we returned to our chairs, I asked the seminary president for permission to recommend him to our search committee at Southwestern. I could feel his inward pain, because he and his wife have both come to love Southeastern so much. I knew, too, that those of us who love Southeastern would be grateful to retain the services of Patterson until the Lord calls or until he comes. But because this faithful servant seeks nothing except to do God’s will, he honored my request, and I mailed the recommendation letter to each search committee member. Many of these men were already praying that God would call a leader in the mold of Patterson.

My fellow trustees agreed with me that at Southwestern we need a president of great strength and fortitude, a team player, who will be emboldened by the knowledge that he daily seeks to walk in the steps of Jesus. Paige Patterson is such a leader. For weeks he and his wife prayerfully sought for evidence of God’s clear call in the proposed move, and once they had found peace in God’s leadership, the trustees of Southwestern on June 24, under God’s direction, formally and unanimously extended the invitation.

When the trustees agreed to pray daily that Patterson follow in the steps of Christ in leading the seminary and asked him to, in return, pray for God’s leadership for the trustees, the newly elected Southwestern president added, "Please pray always that God will grant me wisdom for the decisions that I must make." Remembering the human tendency to rush important matters, he reminded us that he was keenly aware that his every decision would greatly impact individuals and their ministries.

Certainly there will be some who will expect and others who will wish for the new president to come bearing a sword of change or a broom to sweep clean the institution’s past history of service. Just as the fortunetellers were mistaken in their dire predictions 11 years ago, so will these current prognosticators be greatly surprised at the heart and spirit of this dedicated servant of God.

Patterson has a great appreciation for the legacy of the heroes of the faith who have helped develop Southwestern. There is no question that he will remain faithful to the charge of B.H. Carroll, the first president of Southwestern, who urged his successor, "See to it that every day and hour, every month in every year, every year in the long future, this seminary is kept lashed to the Redeemer."

On July 31, with heavy hearts at leaving behind the magnolia-laden campus where God had used them in such a special way, yet buoyed by the sure knowledge that their move was directed by God, the Pattersons headed westward for a brief weekend visit in Arkansas with daughter Carmen, her husband Mark Howell, pastor of Little Rock’s First Baptist Church, and the grandchildren. Then they continued on to Fort Worth and the exciting challenge that lies before them. They have already named their new residence "Hacienda del Pastor." Early Monday morning, Aug. 4, Dr. Patterson and his loyal dog, Noche, headed for the office and the mountain of seminary business that has been awaiting the new president’s arrival.

Paige Patterson has been God’s man for the 11 years spent in the town of Wake Forest, and by God’s grace, he will occupy that same special designation at Fort Worth, "God’s man for this special time!"

Ted Stone is president of Ted Stone Ministries, a member of Southwestern Seminary’s board of trustees and Southeastern Seminary’s board of visitors.

Posted 8/5/03

Commentary:
Other Baptists and bossy preachers

By Curtis W. Freeman

Back in 2001, when I still was unpacking boxes from my move to North Carolina from Texas, I received a phone call from the chair of a pulpit committee. "Can you send us a pastor?" asked the voice on the line. "We had a bossy preacher from the seminary, but we want a Duke preacher like the one down the road at Hickory Rock." It was a quick lesson on Baptist politics in the North Carolina Piedmont, put in cornbread language.

Twenty years ago, things were different. In the Southeast, there was pretty much only one theological school Baptist churches turned to when it came to finding a preacher–Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. But that was before the "conservative resurgence" of the Southern Baptist Convention, also known by moderate Baptists as the "fundamentalist takeover."

The initial effect of this Baptist Civil War was an exodus of faculty, staff and students from Southeastern. When the first "conservative" president stepped down after failing to turn things around, trustees made a surprising choice. They tapped Paige Patterson, who had become both famous and infamous as a key leader of the Southern Baptist re-formation.

Looking back, some will no doubt argue that Patterson was "the right man for Southeastern," pointing to increased enrollment, new buildings and balanced budgets. Clearly, his 11-year tenure has made an impact on theological education in the Piedmont, but not exactly in the way that some might expect. Today in North Carolina and Virginia alone, disaffected Southern Baptists have established six new theological schools and programs with a combined enrollment approaching 1,000. Together, they are now graduating as many potential Baptist preachers as Southeastern Seminary.

The Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School was the first. It began in 1988 with 25 students. Now, just under 100 Baptists are at Duke preparing for ministry. Others quickly followed–Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, divinity schools at Wake Forest, Gardner Webb and Campbell universities, and more recently the John Leland Center.

The Association of Theological Schools reported that in the three-year period from 1997 to 2000, the number of students attending "other Baptist" schools (defined as those outside the Southern Baptist Convention and neither American nor National Baptist) grew an incredible 200 percent, from 400 students to more than 1,200–a growth rate far outpacing that of mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist theological schools.

There are good reasons to believe this growth curve will continue rising in the current decade, as the demand for an alternative to bossy preachers continues.

But this spike in students at "other Baptist" schools doesn’t give the full picture. During the same three-year period, the number of theological schools serving "other Baptists" nearly doubled, from 52 schools to 84 schools. What this suggests is that after over a century of uniformity and homogeneity, things are changing dramatically.

Theological education for Baptists is becoming more institutionally diverse. Baptists of all types, with the exception of Southern Baptists, are attending more schools for theological education, resulting in greater institutional diversity than ever before. They are being trained for ministry in a variety of settings–freestanding Baptist seminaries, divinity schools in Baptist universities and programs within theological schools of other denominations, such as the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School. Clearly, a growing number of Baptist pastors and other church leaders will come from this new type of theological school.

To what can the growth and diversity of Baptist theological education be attributed? It may be too much to say that Paige Patterson alone is the cause. Yet there can be little doubt that he possesses a unique ability to galvanize support from conservative loyalists and polarize opposition of "other Baptists" with whom he disagrees. Now that he is leaving to take the reins of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, I can say to my fellow Baptists in the Lone Star State: If Patterson does for theological education in Texas what he did in North Carolina, you can expect to see more bossy preachers and "other Baptists" in the days ahead.

Curtis W. Freeman is research professor of theology and director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C.

Posted: 8/8/03

Cobb leaving CBF leadership

ATLANTA (ABP)–Reba Cobb, chief operating officer of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, will leave CBF Sept. 1 to become religious action director for the Children's Defense Fund in Washington, D.C.

Founded in 1973, the Children's Defense Fund is a private non-profit organization that advocates for children's issues.

Cobb, 60, has been with the CBF since 2001. She serves as coordinator for the organization's Resource Center in Atlanta and supervises the 52-person staff.

She was recommended for the new position by a friend and was contacted in May, she said.

Cobb has “a passion” for the work of Children's Defense Fund, she said. In her new position, she will enlist support from religious groups for issues that affect children, such as providing health care and education and preventing violence.

“Our goal is to provide the best possible start for children,” she explained. “I will be working with all the faith groups.”

Cobb is experienced in interfaith work. She was executive director for Kentuckiana Interfaith Community in Louisville, Ky., when she was hired by CBF.

CBF has not announced whether it will fill Cobb's position or restructure it. She was hired for the new position two years ago to free Daniel Vestal, CBF's national coordinator, to focus on external relations.

Posted: 8/8/03

Baylor chaplains honor volunteer for service

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–Baylor University Medical Center chaplains honored a volunteer for completing the Baptist General Convention of Texas Hands-On Ministry training classes with praise and a certificate.

A group of about 20 chaplains gave a rousing round of applause as Chaplain Mike Mullender presented volunteer chaplain Dan Steerman with the certificate.

Steerman, who has volunteered for almost a year at the hospital, is an exemplary worker, Mullender said.

“Dan's the kind of guy who wants to help everyone,” said Mullender, a BGCT-endorsed chaplain. “He wants to please everyone. He is the perfect volunteer.”

Steerman credits the Hands-On courses, a 42-hour BGCT program that teaches the basics of the ministry, with helping him in the work. In addition to learning useful lessons, the courses inspired Steerman to continue the ministry.

“They were so interesting,” said Steerman, who works for the city of Dallas. “The speakers really brought the information and presented it in such a way that you wanted to do the work.”

God worked to enable him to attend the classes, said Steerman, who attends New World United Methodist Church in Garland. A friend invited him to take the training. His discipleship class voted to move their meetings from Thursday to Tuesday to allow him to get trained.

Steerman gets nervous before knocking on each door, he said. He is not sure how they are going to react to his presence, and several people have asked him to leave them alone.

But he compares it to playing golf. A person may make many bad shots, but one good shot motivates people to keep going. The same is true with chaplaincy, Steerman said. When he connects with people and meets spiritual needs, he feels he is doing God's work.

The chaplaincy skills he learned in the Hands-On courses have helped Steerman visit homebound people through a ministry in his church. This is a common result of the training, said Mullender, a speaker at the classes.

The classes have helped expand chaplaincy beyond the walls of the hospital, a need that has become increasingly in demand, according to Mullender.

“It helps to give a real solid base for training hospital and home visits,” he said. “Hands-On Ministry has been a way to enhance our volunteers. It's really helped.”

For more information about Hands-On Ministry, contact Reba Gram at (888) 311-3900 or rgram@bgct.org.

Posted: 8/8/03

Education journal studies Baptist governance

By John Pierce

Baptists Today

Tension that sometimes leads to separation between Baptist-related colleges and state Baptist conventions was the focus of a July 4 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The writer looked to Georgia and Missouri for the latest examples to support her notion that colleges and conventions are increasingly at odds over trustee control and academic freedom.

“More than a dozen colleges have either split entirely with their state conventions, by creating self-perpetuating boards of trustees, or significantly limited the convention's power over the trustee-election process,” Beth McMurtrie reported.

Shorter College, which legally separated from the Georgia Baptist Convention after overt efforts by convention leaders to influence composition of the trustee board, received the most ink. The liberal-arts school in Rome, Ga., is still entangled with the convention over frozen funds.

Shorter President Ed Schrader, a geologist and Baptist layman, told the Chronicle he was unaware of “Georgia Baptist politics” until pastor Mike Everson began questioning him about issues such as homosexuality, biblical literalism and the revised Baptist Faith & Message statement.

Schrader told the Chronicle he could tell Everson was not pleased with the president's responses although he “didn't say much and scowled a lot.”

Everson said he concluded from the meeting that Schrader “was not conservative in his values, and that the school would not be.”

Everson told the Chronicle that Schrader misrepresented their informal meeting. “The president has no character and is just a habitual liar,” he charged.

Everson said he questioned Schrader from the role of a pastor who recommends colleges to his members, not as a convention leader. However, the Douglasville, Ga., pastor chaired the GBC nominating committee that reported a slate of trustees for Shorter in November 2002 that contained none of the names suggested by the current college board. Shorter officials claimed that action to be unprecedented.

Shorter trustees responded by severing ties with the convention. Their reorganization to a new legal entity with self-perpetuating trustees was upheld by an April court decision.

College officials said the move was necessary to protect Shorter's accreditation. They cited an accreditation review team report asking them to demonstrate that trustees were independent and not under “undue pressure” from outside sources.

GBC Executive Director Bob White claimed the convention never sought control of Shorter's board and compared the separation to having a prize treasure stolen.

Current Shorter trustee Chairman Gary Eubanks, an attorney from Marietta, Ga., described a different agenda. “The convention really wants Bible colleges,” he told the Chronicle. “They don't want liberal-arts colleges.”

The Missouri Baptist Convention, now under fundamentalist control, has seen five of its entities including Missouri Baptist College create self-perpetuating boards to avoid takeovers similar to what has occurred at Southern Baptist Convention seminaries and agencies over the past two decades.

Like Shorter, courts likely will decide the future relationships between Missouri Baptist College and the state convention.

The Chronicle article also noted tensions between Missouri Baptists and William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., over concerns about homosexuality and other issues.

Posted: 8/8/03

House amendments called
political grandstanding

By Hannah Lodwick

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The U.S. House of Representatives has approved two amendments to a spending bill that are intended to protect the Ten Commandments and Pledge of Allegiance.

While the amendments were celebrated by sponsor Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., other lawmakers predicted they will have no practical effect.

One of Hostettler's amendments prohibits U.S. marshals from removing a two-ton monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building. The amendment passed 260-161.

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore placed the monument in the courthouse. A federal judge later ordered the monument removed, although the case has been appealed to the Supreme Court.

Hostettler said he does not trust the high court to do the right thing.

“The framers of the Constitution never intended for the fickle sentiments of as few as five people in black robes, unelected and unaccountable to the people, to have the power to make such fundamental decisions for society,” Hostettler said during House debate.

“That power was crafted and reserved for the legislature. We do not have to put our faith in the faint possibility that some day five people in black robes will wake up and see that they have usurped the authority to legislate and will constrain themselves from straying from their constitutional boundaries.”

House members also approved Hostettler's amendment to prohibit the use of federal funds to enforce a ruling by the 9th Circuit of Appeals that said California's school children cannot say the Pledge of Allegiance because it includes the words “under God.” The vote on the amendment passed 307-119.

Both amendments were part of the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary Spending Bill adopted this summer. To take effect, the amendments must be added to the Senate version of the bill and signed by President Bush.

Even then, the amendments won't carry the weight of law. While federal funds cannot be used to enforce the lower courts' rulings, legal scholars pointed out, the rulings are still in effect and can be enforced by local and state authorities.

Posted: 8/8/03

Commission magazine remembered for influence

By Craig Bird

Associated Baptist Press

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)–The Commission no longer goes to the ends of the earth–at least not the printed Southern Baptist version. What that means for Southern Baptists' efforts to carry out the Great Commission remains to be seen.

Citing a $10 million budget shortfall, the SBC International Mission Board in June cut 37 jobs and suspended publication of its 250,000-circulation magazine, The Commission.

Projected annual savings include $800,000 in printing and postage costs, in addition to an undisclosed amount for the salaries and benefits of terminated staff members.

The IMB's communications staff, which was responsible for the 65-year-old magazine, bore the brunt of the layoffs. By one count, 14 employees from the department were terminated, including several with more than 30 years of IMB experience. An on-line edition of The Commission will continue. Research repeatedly showed The Commission played a significant role in raising money for the IMB, recruiting career missionaries and informing church leaders about missions.

The Commission “has as her most lasting legacy the untold thousands of Christians who found their concern for missions heightened by what they found in her pages,” said longtime Editor Leland Webb, now retired. “Because of TC, many advocates of missions bowed their heads in prayer and reached into pocket or purse to give extra dollars.”

The Commission also “earned a hearing for the gospel and missions in the editorial offices of some major publications whose staffs respected quality wherever they saw it,” Webb said.

Former IMB photographer Charles Ledford was a new Christian when he applied for a job with National Geographic. “They didn't have any openings but encouraged me to contact The Commission, since it was doing great things visually,” said Ledford, who last year was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in photography for his work for USA Weekend.

The Commission was a training ground for many talented photographers, designers and writers, such as Pulitzer-nominated Joanna Pinneo, who left the mission board to become a photographer for U.S. News & World Report.

“These artisans, all the while maintaining professional quality in their work, kept as their primary goal to portray the rich and varied story of missions with honesty and passion,” said Webb, who retired in 1995 after 30 years with the publication, including the last 15 as editor.

The high cost of the glossy color publication always attracted the attention of budget cutters, Webb admitted, but until now the “value received” was judged to justify the expense.

According to Webb's research, 46 percent of career missionaries surveyed between 1986 and 1993 said the magazine played a part in their decision to seek missionary service. A 1993 report noted the IMB had received more than $10.5 million in trusts, wills or other types of gifts from contacts first made through The Commission.

Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention Woman's Missionary Union from 1974 to 1989, was one of the regular readers.

“Losing The Commission is almost like losing a family member,” she said. “I remember reading it even as a young person in my home church. … The stories from the fields, along with the pictures, brought missions home to me.”

Several terminated employees declined to discuss the IMB's decision on the record. The severance agreements signed by the former employees reportedly limit what they can say about the IMB and the magazine's demise.

IMB spokesman Mark Kelly told Associated Press, “Nothing has been said about whether the (print) magazine might resume publication.” The final regular issue of the magazine will be distributed in August.

The November issue, which supports the SBC annual mission offering, also will be produced, though possibly in a new format, according to IMB sources.

The move does not affect the IMB's overseas correspondent system, which employs journalists and photographers as career missionaries stationed overseas, Kelly said. The correspondents were frequent writers for the magazine. But Kelly noted, “We still have the on-line version as well as many other channels of communicating with Southern Baptists.”

The Commission “was not afraid to compete with the big boys from the secular world of journalism,” Webb recalled. The magazine frequently garnered national awards alongside National Geographic, Newsweek and Life. Staffers credit graphic designer Dan Beatty's “phenomenal talent” as the creative force behind the accomplishments.

In the annual Pictures of the Year International competition, The Commission was awarded first place in the national magazine category in 1986. First-place honors were earned in 1988 for best use of photography by a magazine and best editing of a feature story. Other national awards for photography followed in 1989, 1990 and 2001.

Former career missionary Kathy Wade, whose position as managing editor was cut, expressed more concern for the fate of the magazine than for her job. The demise of The Commission gives her pause, Wade said, “because I know the impact (the magazine) has had on individual lives, individual ministries and individual decisions to be stronger believers in Christ.”

“It's not just 56 pages of stories and photographs winning all types of journalism awards,” added Wade. “It's been a testament of how God is continually working through his people.”