Posted: 12/19/03

On the Move

Byron Ayres to Mildred Church in Corsicana as interim youth minister.

Chris Baggett has resigned as minister of youth at New Hope Community Church in Venus.

Bob Baldwin has resigned as pastor at Oletha Church in Thornton.

Matt Bernard to Higher Ground Church in Whitesboro as youth minister.

Carl Bilderback to Hyde Park Church in Denison as interim pastor.

Joe Brady to First Church in Centerville as minister of music and education.

Michael and Sandy Brooks to First Church in Coolidge as youth ministers.

Mike Cariker to First Church in O'Fallon, Ill., as minister to students from First Church in Grapevine.

Jess Cooke to Pilgrim's Way Church in Sanger as interim pastor.

Jeff Cramer to Grace Temple Church in Denton as pastor.

Andrew Crosby to First Church in Lampasas as youth minister.

Ray Crumpton has resigned as pastor of England Grove Church in Commerce.

Greg Darley to Gardendale Church in Corpus Christi as Next Generation minister.

Karl Fickling to First Church in Waxahachie as interim pastor.

Eddie Frazier to New Zion Church in Bonham as pastor.

Carey Gable to Levita Church in Gatesville as interim pastor.

Van Gladden has resigned as pastor of Spring Creek Church in Meridian.

Phillip Golden to First Church in Denver City as pastor from First Church in Lockney.

Don Guy to Hyde Park Church in Denison as interim minister of music.

Wes Havard has resigned as associate education minister at Prestonwood Church in Plano.

Jose Miguel Hernandez to Iglesia Emanuel in Hillsboro as pastor.

Morris Holcomb has resigned as pastor of Powell Church in Powell.

Matthew Homeyer to First Church in Hubbard as youth minister.

Gary Hughes to First Church in Desdemona as pastor.

Rob Kessler to Texas Baptist Encampment in Palacios as administrator.

Jan Lafon to First Church in Melissa as minister to children from Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen.

Stanley Lohse to Woodbury Church in Hillsboro as interim pastor.

Randy Marsh has resigned as pastor of Vista Ridge Church in Carrollton.

David McPherson to Coryell Community Church in Gatesville as minister of music.

Jeff Miller to New Hope Church in Aubrey as minister of music.

Kyle Miller to Great Hills Church in Austin as minister of lay ministries and pastoral care.

Harry Monroe to Shady Shores Church in Denton as interim music minister.

Ken Moore to Union Grove Church in Gladewater as pastor.

Kelly Overcash to First Church in Melissa as minister of missions and women's ministries from Parkway Hills Church in Plano.

John Owens to Broadway Church in Fort Worth as assistant youth minister.

Enrique Quevedo to Iglesia Jerusalem in Corpus Christi as pastor.

Pat Riley to First Church in Cisco as pastor from Calvary Church in Abilene.

Jana Roan to First Church in Buffalo as music minister.

Joseph Savanhak to Living Word Laotian Mission in Venus as pastor.

Scott Shaw to First Church in Hillsboro as minister of music.

Ron Smith has resigned as music minister at First Church in Wortham.

Eric Spano has resigned as pastor of First Church in Slidell.

Wayne Spoonts to McKinney Street Church in Denton as minister of music.

Bounthot Sysavath has resigned as pastor of Living Word Laotian Mission in Venus.

Lain Teel to Emmanuel Church in Corsicana as pastor from Timber Crest Church in Waco.

Mike Tieman to Roganville Church in Kirbyville as pastor.

Mike Trickett has resigned as minister of youth at First Church in Argyle.

Matthew Vandagriff to Turnersville Church in Gatesville as pastor.

Steve Walvoord has resigned as minister of music of The Church at Wichita Creek in Flower Mound.

Brian Whitney to New Hope Church in Cedar Park as pastor from Central Church in Hillsboro.

Terry Williams to First Church in Childress as youth minister from First Church in Teague.

Wes Willie to New Zion Church in Bonham as associate pastor and youth minister.

Posted: 12/19/03

Pornography snares women as well as men today

By Mark O'Keefe

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–After putting her daughter to bed, Maggie, 42, routinely sat at her computer for hours, mesmerized by an online world of erotic stories and real-time sexual discussions.

Beth, 33, usually clicked on the most visually graphic sites, disproving the theory that only men are enticed by pornography.

“A lot of people don't realize this happens with women too,” said Beth, who, along with Maggie, asked that their last names not be revealed.

The myth began long ago, perhaps because women rarely were seen walking into seedy adult bookstores or asking for plastic-wrapped magazines kept behind convenience store counters.

But in recent years, the accessibility, affordability and anonymity of the Internet has made pornography undeniably attractive to millions of women. While some women simply find it exciting, others have battled addictions.

Nearly one in three visitors to adult websites is a woman, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, the industry standard for measuring online audiences. From a study of the Internet use of 40,000 panelists at home and work, Nielsen estimated 9.4 million women in the United States accessed such sites in September.

Julie Neff, 29, of Mukwonago, Wis., sees nothing but benefits. Internet pornography “is pretty much an adjunct to my regular sex life,” she said. She estimates she views it less than an hour a week, and is open about it with her boyfriend.

Others think it can lead to problems. There is some evidence Internet pornography is luring even women whose values oppose it. Some speculate a forbidden-fruit factor can make it tantalizing for religious women in particular.

The editors of Today's Christian Woman, an evangelical magazine, had heard anecdotes of churchgoing women getting hooked on pornography, so they conducted a survey asking readers of their online newsletter if they had intentionally visited porn sites. Thirty-four percent said they had.

“Apparently online sex addiction isn't just a male problem anymore,” the magazine's editors wrote in the October issue, which suggested Internet filters and other pornography-avoiding tips.

While the frequency of female pornography “addiction” is difficult to measure, psychologists agree that some women, as well as men, do engage in destructively compulsive behavior fueled by the Internet.

Maggie said she began exploring pornography to try to understand what it was that captivated her ex-husband. Soon, she was spending up to 30 hours a week surfing the Internet for arousal.

She realized she had a serious problem when she couldn't wait for her daughter to go to sleep so she could get on the computer. “The light went on that I preferred porn to spending time with my child.”

Marnie Ferree, a Nashville, Tenn., marriage and family therapist, calls Internet pornography “the crack cocaine” of sexual addiction.

“On the Internet, I can be whoever I want to be. I can look however I want to look. It's a totally false environment that's about objectification and deception, and that's not going to be satisfying in the long term,” said Ferree, author of “No Stones: Women Redeemed From Sexual Shame.”

The interactivity of the Internet makes it especially appealing to some women, said Al Cooper, a staff psychologist at Stanford University and the author of “Sex and the Internet: A Guidebook for Clinicians.”

“We see women all the time who may not feel that attractive, but they get 20 guys going after them at a time in a chat room, e-mailing them instantly. That's affirming to a woman, and it's hard to match when your husband is in the next room drinking a beer, maybe asking you if you're going to exercise next week” because he thinks you're overweight, Cooper said.

Posted: 12/19/03

Pastors encouraged to be shepherds rather than executives

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The pastor is no longer the chief executive officer of the church, but a minister who serves as the shepherd of his members, gathering them and moving with them toward a goal, according to Texas Baptist leadership experts.

Gone are the days of the administrative pastor who hands down orders that his staff and membership carry out, argued Bob Cavin, director of Texas Baptist Leadership Center, and Lewis Timberlake, a leadership consultant who works primarily in the business realm.

While the CEO style of pastoral leadership is needed in some situations, it can easily get a pastor fired, Cavin noted. The average tenure of a Baptist pastor is notoriously short, and about 95 percent of terminations are due to leadership issues.

“Often the issue is people running over people,” Cavin said. “It's the pastors not bringing people along with them.”

Following a trend that is happening in the business world, church leadership is slowly moving toward a team-management and consensus-building style, said Timberlake, a deacon at Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin whose clients have included AT&T, American Airlines and McLane Group.

People are accustomed to having input in work-related decisions and want the same in their church life, Timberlake said. Members want to share their passions and ideas for the church. They want to be consulted. Therefore, ministers must work by influencing the congregation, not telling them what to do.

By trying to build agreement, a pastor ensures congregational support for his efforts and knows when the church is not prepared to take a particular action, Cavin and Timberlake said.

“The church has got to get back to the type of leadership that reaches out and brings people in,” Timberlake added.

The process helps leaders gain the trust of the congregation, Cavin added. Members will see their pastor cares about their concerns and will know their leader has their best interests in mind.

This style of servant leadership does not mean a minister is weak in his beliefs or stances, Cavin said. To the contrary, ministers can survive taking a stand on an issue because they have built the trust of the congregation.

The duo believes the servant model follows the example Jesus set. Christ chose his words and actions carefully, moving the disciples along as he could. But when appropriate, he took a stand.

“Jesus was a strong leader,” Cavin said. “There were times he was very decisive in his action.”

This style of management relies heavily on personal relations skills, Timberlake added. Leadership is mostly communication, especially non-verbal. It relies on a consistent example of being a Christian shepherd.

Timberlake encouraged pastors to ponder this: “What are you preaching outside the pulpit?”

Not everyone is born with the gifts that lend to this style, Timberlake acknowledged. But he insisted the skills can be learned.

In January, the Texas Baptist Leadership Center will launch a program Timberlake tailored for church leaders. The 16-hour curriculum will include personality profiling and concrete pointers on how to improve leadership skills.

For more information, contact Texas Baptist Leadership Center at cavin@bgct.org or (888) 447-5143.

Posted: 12/19/03

Texas Tidbits

HSU graduates 198. Tommy Brisco and Pam Williford were keynote speakers at winter commencement ceremonies at Hardin-Simmons University Dec. 13. Brisco is dean of HSU's Logsdon School of Theology. Williford is dean of the Irvin School of Education. Aileen Culpepper, retired residence hall director, received the honorary doctor of humanities degree. Bachelor's and master's degrees were awarded to 198 students.

Spanish course offered. The Baptist University of the Americas will offer a Spanish-language immersion course Feb. 9-13. Participants will learn conversational Spanish through a variety of classroom and practical experiences during a week of training on the San Antonio campus. Tuition is $100, but members of churches and missions affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas receive a full-tuition scholarship provided through the Mary Hill Davis Offering. For more information, contact Mary Ranjel at (210) 924-4338 or mranjel@bua.edu.

Potter receives UMHB honor. Clark Potter of Belton received the honorary doctor of humanities degree during the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor's winter commencement Dec. 13. Potter served on the university board of trustees 27 years and twice was elected chairman of the board. He also served twice as the mayor of the Belton. Degrees were awarded to 279 students.

HSU students create profit for charity. As part of the requirements for the Hardin-Simmons University introduction to business course, groups of students conducted business projects on the HSU campus and in the community. These projects included producing and selling pens, key chains, afghans, foam spirit hands, seat cushions, shirts and golf towels. Other groups sponsored video game tournaments and one provided laundry services to HSU students. These student enterprises began with $3,100 in venture capital and returned nearly $4,900 at the end of the semester. Three checks for $600 each were given to Toys for Tots, Food Bank of Abilene and Abilene Baptist Association Social Ministries.

DBU gives big to Christmas Child. Dallas Baptist University students, faculty and staff contributed 2,677 gift boxes to Operation Christmas Child this fall. Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse. Shoe boxes are filled with toys, school supplies, hygiene items, candy and other gifts for either a boy or a girl. Among the creative means of generating student involvement, Laura Stafford, a DBU resident assistant, organized an Operation Christmas Child dinner party for the women on her hall to meet and put their boxes together. Other campus organizations held wrapping parties. DBU started participating in Operation Christmas Child in 1996 with a total of 194 boxes. The university used to transport the boxes to the drop-off location in a van. Now it rents a 25-foot moving truck.

UMHB gets Hillcrest grant. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor received a $100,000 grant from the Dallas-based Hillcrest Foundation. The grant is designated for construction of and equipment for the Mayborn Campus Center Exercise and Physiology Laboratory. The equipment will be used for the degree programs in exercise and sport science.

UMHB offers writers' festival. The 2004 University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Texas Writers' Festival, Jan. 8-10, will feature keynote speakers Marie Chapian Jordan, a poet, playwright and novelist, and fiction writer Debra Monroe. Many workshops also will be offered, including one by acclaimed poet Barbara Crooker and another by novelist Greg Garrett. For more information or to register, contact Audell Shelburne at (254) 295-4561 or ashelburne@umhb.edu.

DBU honors Reyes. Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Dallas Baptist University during commencement ceremonies Dec. 19. Reyes already holds one earned doctorate and is working on another.

Posted: 12/19/03

TOGETHER: True joy follows obedience to God

Happiness is now an academic discipline, complete with a scholarly publication, The Journal of Happiness Studies.

Studying happiness, joy and pleasure is becoming a big business. It has implications for people who sell insurance, market entertainment, hire a lot of people, develop drugs or try to move merchandise out the door. Someone already may be lurking behind the Christmas tree to study what we really mean when we say, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”

What makes you happy? What brings you joy? As you celebrate Christmas and contemplate the New Year ahead, are you excited and grateful? Or are you depressed and frustrated?

Here is the word I have shared with people this year, “A blessed Christmas and a New Year full of grace.” If you can get your mind and heart around that greeting, you will be on your way to both joy and happiness.

CHARLES WADE Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

I know people who are happy in the midst of the most trying circumstances. They have a debilitating, long-term illness, but happiness is still a friend to them. They have lost a job or experienced deep sorrow and grief, but they still experience joy. Joy is the deep satisfaction that all is well even though the circumstances are painful or even tragic.

Two hymns come immediately to mind: “It is Well With My Soul,” and “Now, Thank We All Our God.” Both of these hymns were written after great tragedy in the lives of their authors.

Sometimes we say happiness can be taken away, but not joy, because it is the fruit of the indwelling Spirit of God. But most Christians can testify that there have been times when they feel they have been robbed of joy. They discover they must wait for joy to come back to their soul.

Our bedrock joy, the kind that rescues us from despair and keeps us going in the midst of failure or loss, is the joy we sing about: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”

Jesus said to his disciples as he faced the cross: “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again, and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy” (John 16:22).

Happiness is not a destination. It is what happens to you on the way to doing something worthwhile.

If you try to measure it with a happiness thermometer, you lose it right away. Happiness is a tantalizing but ultimately unsatisfying goal. The very things you thought would make you happy leave you feeling empty.

But when you do the good thing, the right thing, happiness shows up. If you want to be happy, go do the right thing. When you only do what you feel like doing, you invite frustration and disappointment. But when you act out your best intentions, happiness joins you on the journey.

Jesus said: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:10-11).

Joy follows obedience. We would like it to be the other way around, and sometimes by the grace of God he does give us joy before we have been fully obedient.

But the joy that brings long-term happiness grows from obeying his commands.

We are loved.

Posted: 12/19/03

Powell stays on as Truett Seminary dean

WACO–Although he had intended to retire at the end of the current academic year, Paul Powell will stay on as dean of Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary.

Baylor President Robert Sloan announced Powell's decision Dec. 5.

Powell came to the post in February 2001 with a commitment to serve up to three years.

“It had been my intention to retire this spring, but President Sloan requested that I continue as dean, and I have agreed to do so because of the importance of Truett to Baylor's mission and to traditional Baptists everywhere,” Powell said.

Powell has given “extraordinary leadership” for the seminary, Sloan said. “He has been particularly effective at strengthening the seminary's relationship with Texas Baptist churches, resulting in significant increases in enrollment and expanded financial support for Truett.”

Under Powell's leadership, Truett's enrollment has grown from 247 to 380 students, new joint master of divinity/master of music and master of divinity/master of education in counseling degrees have been approved, and more than 200 endowed scholarships have been established.

“Truett is a traditional Baptist seminary committed to our historic Baptist principles, and it is our mission to train the next generation of ministers and missionaries,” Powell said. “Our vision is to be the premier Baptist theological institution in the world.”

Prior to joining the seminary in 1991, Powell served on the Baylor board of regents and was president of the Rogers Foundation. He retired in 1998 as president of the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

He was a longtime Texas Baptist pastor, serving 17 years at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler. He has written numerous books and continues to preach regularly at churches throughout Texas.

Posted: 12/19/03

Texas Baptist volunteers help spur Baptist growth in Vermont

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Working hand-in-hand with Texas Baptists, Vermont Baptists witnessed record membership and baptisms during the past year.

Resident membership numbers topped 1,000 people for the first time in the history of Green Mountain Baptist Association, which serves all Vermont. The 25 churches in the association baptized 104 people, another record.

The increase represents about one baptism for every 10 church members, well above the average for Southern Baptist Convention church, which typically record one baptism annually for every 42 members.

The statistics show a small portion of a year filled with growth. Sunday School enrollment totaled 884, an increase of 30 percent. Average Sunday School attendance jumped by 100 individuals to 574 people. A record 791 people went to Vacation Bible Schools.

The growth can be attributed to a strong emphasis on following up evangelistic efforts throughout Vermont Baptist churches, according to Terry Dorsett, associational missionary for Green Mountain Association.

Evangelistic efforts proved fruitful in the past, but churches often failed to disciple new converts, Dorsett found. During the last year, the association has trained church leaders in discipleship methods.

Along with the associational push came a record number of mission teams to the second least-churched state in the nation. The teams encouraged Vermont Baptists and helped residents share the gospel, Dorsett said.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas, Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, Mississippi Baptist Convention, Alabama Baptist Convention, Tennessee Baptist Convention and the Baptist General Association of Virginia are all involved in the Impact Northeast partnership to work in New England.

Additional workers came from South Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia.

Texas Baptists played a significant role in the work, according to Johnnie Loar, a mission mobilization coordinator for Green Mountain Association.

More than 200 Texas Baptists traveled to the state through the Northeast Impact Partnership, facilitated by the BGCT's Texas Partnerships Resource Center.

Texas Baptist volunteers from many cities, including Midland, Temple and Waco, helped with evangelism and Vacation Bible Schools throughout the state. Several groups of Texas Baptists prayerwalked the state, while three others served as summer missionaries.

“Everywhere they've been, they've been a blessing,” Loar said.

For more information about mission opportunities through the Texas Partnership Resource Center, visit www.bgct.org/ Texas_partnerships.

Posted: 12/19/03

WorldConneX adds staff and adopts budget

DALLAS–The WorldconneX administrative committee has added two part-time staff to the new missions network, adopted a preliminary budget for 2004 and agreed to secure office space near downtown Dallas.

Meeting in Dallas Dec. 9, the committee selected Frank Dang of Keller to join the network's staff as part-time ethnic and emerging church associate.

Dang is a first-generation Vietnamese-American who has been an associate pastor at NorthWood Church in Keller for three years. In January, he will begin serving as bivocational pastor of the Vietnamese Church of Fort Worth, a mission of Travis Avenue Baptist Church.

Carol Childress of Rockwall will join the WorldconneX staff as part-time information and evangelical networking associate. Childress will resign from the WorldconneX board to assume the staff position. She will continue to work part time with Leadership Network, a Dallas-based organization that works with innovative church leaders.

Dang and Childress will join Bill Tinsley, network leader, and his associate, Stan Parks, on the WorldconneX staff.

The committee adopted a basic operating budget of $594,450, with an additional $100,000 earmarked for reserves. The budget is based on $702,688 in anticipated funds. These include $317,829 in unspent funds from 2003 and $252,743 from the Baptist General Convention of Texas Cooperative Program.

In 2003, WorldconneX also received nearly $114,000 from Texas Baptist churches through the “Texas missions initiatives” worldwide giving option offered on the BGCT giving form and about $18,000 in designated gifts.

The administrative committee authorized Chairman MikeStroope of Dublin and Tinsley to lease office space in Dallas. The offfices will be located at South Side on Lamar, a historic property that for many years was a Sears catalogue center but has been converted into lofts and office space.

The new WorldconneX office address is 1409 South Lamar No. 905, Dallas 75215.

The committee also agreed to recommend as a new board member missions strategist Bill O'Brien of Frisco. Pending confirmation by the board of trustees, he will replace Keith Parks, who resigned from the WorldconneX board after his son joined the network's staff.

Posted: 12/19/03

CYBERCOLUMN
Pondering

By Berry D, Simpson

This morning at my weekly McDonald’s Power Breakfast (hotcakes and large Diet Coke), my friend Bear was talking about a phrase from Sunday morning’s sermon, that “Mary pondered these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

There was no one closer to the person of Jesus or the circumstances of his origin than Mary, yet she still did not understand the meaning of it all. The one who was closest still had some things to ponder. And even in her pondering, she was obedient at every step. Without knowing all the answers, she still did everything God asked of her in spite of the fact that it caused her great discomfort and public humiliation and a lifetime of being misunderstood. She not only obeyed, but she also praised God with her life and her words. She said, “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

Berry D. Simpson

Sometimes the Bible is almost too understated. Of course, Mary had thoughts to ponder in her heart. After the visits from the shepherds, and later from the wise men, she must have had a moment’s pause at the turn her life was taking. She had to have wondered and worried at what her Son was getting into and at what she was getting into.

The thing is, Bear and I are both ponderers too; it’s one of the reasons we are such good friends. We both struggle to understand and live out exactly what God’s way means. In fact, I would say that not only are we ponderers, but without speaking too much for Bear, I would say we both prefer people like us over those who always know the answers and don’t appear to think about issues once they’ve made up their minds.

Our breakfast discussion reminded me of my journey this year through the four books written by John Eldredge (“Sacred Romance,” “Journey of Desire,” “Wild at Heart” and “Waking the Dead”). More than once. I started to lay them down thinking this was way too much psychobabble and parapsychology; not enough analytic handles I could grab on to. Yet my heart kept drawing me back in. Even when I didn’t understand or relate, my heart kept pulling me back in. I had to relax, stop trying to analyze every page I read, learn to dwell in the books and let them work on my heart. I had to ponder the meaning and relevance to my life, and I had to be patient that understanding would come if I only stayed inside the thought. I could sense that the pull to stay engaged with these books was from God—a pull to deepen and expand and open up my walk with him. I remember telling Cyndi: “I don’t understand all I’m reading, but I am not going to lay it down. The pull on my heart is too strong.”

As Bear and I were talking about Mary’s pondering, I said: “My goal as a writer and a teacher, my mission from God, I believe, is to open the eyes of my people to the bigger and wider world God has for them. To pull back the curtain to show how much bigger God’s story is than the small story we live in when left on our own.” And then I added: “Even as I say that, I have to say I’ve stepped through a curtain of my own these past few months into another layer of God’s big story, and learned once again how much bigger it is than I’d thought. And how much deeper and better than I’d thought.”

Another of my pondering friends, Keith, soon joined Bear and me for breakfast. For several years it has been a regular Tuesday morning date for the three of us, and I look forward to these encounters all week. I like hanging out with people smarter than me.

I can’t count how many times Keith has helped me work through a sticky government issue or listened patiently as I worked and reworked my position on some controversial matter. My friendship with him has been one of the best parts of my time in city government because I never feel I have to have my ideas fully formed before I share them with him. Keith is a ponderer himself, a reader and a thinker, and he leaves me plenty of time and space to ponder my own way through the issues.

I am blessed to have friends in my life like Bear and Keith and Cyndi who let me stir through my half-baked ideas, who encourage me to ponder my way through life.

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: 12/19/03

Mother, heaven and Christmas

By Debbi Davies

Unbelievably, 2003 is almost over, and we’re into the eye of the holiday storm.

To me, the first thing that comes to my mind is that it has been two full years since my mother unexpectedly died, and praise God, waits for me in Heaven. Even two years later, everything to me is either before my mother died or after my mother died. It has that impact on me.

My mother’s death gave a more personal meaning to me regarding the way all time is measured or referred to B.C. and A.D., which indicates time before and after Christ was born. That gives me a glimpse of how the whole world was impacted by Christ’s life.

Similarly, I have been impacted by my mother’s death. But, of course, Christ’s life was multiplied by how many people were on the earth. I’m sure that sounds trivial to many people, particularly those who have not lost their mother or other immediate family loved ones.

Christmas is a time to praise God and thank God for his gift to us. However, for a Christian with a loved one in heaven, it means even more.

But here’s another example: You remember how our nation felt when so many people were killed on 9/11? Remember how you felt? That day was a turning point in our lives. Things were either before 9/11 or after 9/11. It’s a benchmark, a notch in the kitchen door where your dad measured how tall you were at the end every summer. It’s a big, big deal.

When Christ came to earth and later died on the cross, it was an even bigger deal. Such a big deal they mark time by it. It’s been such a long time ago since it actually happened, and we’ve seen so many school and church Christmas pageants about this event we call Christmas that it’s easy for the season to take a fairy tale persona and be cloaked by commercialism.

The fact remains, though, that for anyone who is a born-again Christian, Christmas is a time to praise God and thank God for his gift to us.

However, for a Christian with a loved one in heaven, it means even more. Christmas is the reason to go on living. You go on living and sharing God’s love with others until you see his face in heaven and then, behind him patiently waiting, you see your mother’s face, your father, brother, sister or grandparent, the loved one who is there before you. Time won’t matter anymore after that moment.

Most people feel truly sorry for other people’s loss, but they feel even more sensitive to loss around the holidays. People say things like, “Oh, I know it will be especially difficult for you during the holidays; Christmas will never be the same.” Well, those people are wrong and right all at the same time. Christmas is an even more joyous occasion for me because if it weren’t for Christmas I would never see my mother again.

Christmas is a vivid reminder to me of God’s love and God’s promise to me as a Christian. Because of Christmas, because God sent his only son to earth as a newborn baby as prophesied in the Bible, to pay the penalty for my sins, my mother’s sins and your sins, we all have the opportunity for eternal life if we only believe on him.

They’re right—Christmas never will be the same. It’s even better now than it was before my mother died. It means so much more to me now.

Thanks to Christmas, my mother is waiting for me at our heavenly home, and I’ll be there in God’s good time. I just hope dinner’s ready when I get there and there’s a homemade cherry pie!

Debbi Davies, a member of First Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas, writes a column called “The Gospel According to Texas” for CMP Magazine

Posted 12/05/03

Article List for 12/08/03 issue

ARTICLES FROM OUR FRONT PAGE
• Even Baptists light a candle for Advent

• Raising an Ebenezer

• 'Nones' aren't the loneliest number when it comes to religion




• Raising an Ebenezer

• Houston flooding sweeps ministry's residents into sudden evacuation

• Baylor seeks to pamper president's papers

• Baylor Christmas program airing

• Grand Prairie sewing ministry mends broken hearts, covers fragile lives

• Friendly families sought to host international students at holidays

• Texas religious leaders convene to consider human needs

• El Paso Baptists surpass goals for church start

• ETBU students fall for intercultural ministry during break

• Bell Baptists send kids shopping for clothing

• On the Move

• Around the State

• Texas Tidbits




• Asians critical of LifeWay's 'Rickshaw Rally' VBS

• Conservatives fail to gain ground in Tennessee

• Virginia threatens Averett's funding

• Theological society won't oust two 'open theists'

• Missouri president bans newspaper from convention events

• Association removes Florida church

• Baptist Briefs




• 'Nones' aren't the loneliest number when it comes to religion

• Even Baptists light a candle for Advent

• Advent traditions



• Can tax-funded church schools discriminate?

• Marriage amendment proposed in U.S. Congress

• Must states recognize same-sex marriage?

• Court hears arguments in religious funding case

• Students don't know much of First Amendment




• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cartoon

• Classified Ads

• On the Move

• Around the State




• EDITORIAL: 'Biblical worldview' should prompt Christ-like actions

• DOWN HOME: Humble pie with side of broccoli

• TOGETHER: Advent transforms darkness to light

• ANOTHER VIEW: Nativity statuettes prompt questions of Christmas

• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cybercolumn for 12/15: Of Christmas and angels by John Duncan

• Cybercolumn for 12/8: The career plan by Donna Van Cleve

• LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Dec. 14: When God speaks, it would be wise to listen

• LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Dec. 21: This is a time to rejoice at the Savior's birth

• LifeWay Family Bible Series for Dec. 14: Finding delight in giving that honors God

• LifeWay Family Bible Series for Dec. 21: God's unexpected arrival on the world scene


See articles from previous issue 11/24/03 here.