Posted: 6/20/03

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
No compulsory creeds

A recent letter suggested B.H. Carroll, James P. Boyce, John Broaddus and E.Y. Mullins all used confessions of faith in a creedal manner (June 2). I beg to differ.

In the “Centennial Story of Texas Baptists,” published in 1939, the editor summarizes 12 Baptist distinctives that have generally characterized Baptists since our beginnings.

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Articles 7 and 8 state:

“The right of every believer to read and interpret the Scriptures for himself versus authoritative creeds and dogmas, officially decreed and to be accepted and believed without doubt or denial.

“The religious efficiency and sole authority of the Bible versus the Bible as supplemented and interpreted by ecclesiastical decisions and dogmas.”

Baptists have long had statements of faith. They have never been compulsory or authoritative creeds.

Paul Powell, Dean

Truett Theological Seminary

Waco

Crystal-clear Calvinism

In his article titled “Baptists urged to 'reframe' their discussion about Calvinism” (June 2), it sounds as if Dan Stiver wants to reframe the debate on Calvinism in terms of attractiveness of the concepts rather than biblical soundness.

The primary objection to Calvinism–I prefer the term “sovereign election”–raised by most people is that essentially it is not fair. No one would protest the concept of God's looking down the corridor of time to see who will make the right decision to receive his Son in faith as being fundamentally unfair.

But if this is the concept the Apostle Paul was describing in Romans 8, as most people assume, why did he anticipate and then refute the “that's not fair” argument in Romans 9? The only reason I can think of is that he knew he was describing an unpopular concept–that ultimately it is God who determines who will receive mercy and who will receive justice.

No, the doctrine of sovereign election is not very popular. I don't know anyone who was born a Calvinist. I struggled with the doctrine for a long time, testing it against one passage of Scripture after another, until I finally began to understand that all things are from God and through him and to him–not me.

It is all about God's glory, not mine. Then the beauty of this doctrine became crystal clear. And now, like John Piper, I can delight in it, because I delight in God.

Roger Holtzclaw

Houston

All Scripture inspired

I notice that a new interpretation of the Scriptures has seemingly been expressed by some in our convention regarding the fact that we are to adhere to the teachings of Jesus more than the teachings of Paul.

The Bible is the word of God–all of it. Second Peter 1:20-21 states, “First of all, no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will … but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” This means that the Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible. The whole Bible.

The four Gospels were written by the Spirit. The same author gave us the epistles of the New Testament. Several books, but one Author.

In 2 Timothy 3:16, we read, “All Scripture is inspired by God.” Not just the Gospels, but all Scriptures. We must accept them all as valid–and inspired of God.

Ewell J. Humphreys

Fort Worth

Biblical worldview

George Barna can report and interpret his polls and research, but I challenge his definition of what one must believe and promote in order to have a Christian or a biblical worldview (June 2).

When I read his eight principles he uses to define a biblical worldview, I found no mention of eight other principles he needed to include–exclusive monotheism (though he does mention God as Creator); spirit and life as the basis for mind and soul; the reality of the created world (the Logos did become flesh, not soul or mind); time as linear, not circular; the reality of faith and repentance; effective witness, ministry and mission; the centrality of resurrection in eschatology and hope; and the basic necessity of personal relationship holding one's worldview together into a coherent whole.

I can only hope Barna is not just parroting the latest popular theological correctness on one narrow view of what constitutes a biblical worldview.

Cyrus B. Fletcher

Baytown Posted: 6/20/03

Mongrelized worship

It sounds as if Rick Stone's rebuttal (May 12) to Mindy Foti's letter (April 14)–“It isn't what we like; it's what God likes; not where we are comfortable, but where God is worshipped”–is saying, in effect, “God doesn't like what you like, but he does like what I like.”

This refrain is heard repeatedly–“not what we like, but what pleases God.”

Who decides?

If we do not find an atmosphere reverent, then our worship is compromised by boredom or distraction.

If we are turned off, either by the still, small voice or the joyful noise, there is a thin line between compromising and being compromised.

Both voices are valid, but must every congregation mongrelize?

In our eagerness to “grab market share,” we try to mix oil and water.

Why can't “alternative” for traditional churches mean “alternative” to what everyone else is doing, not “alternative” to what we are already doing so well?

Jim Cymbala, Rick Warren and other contemporary proponents and pioneers urge caution in forcing a viable fellowship to uproot. Rather, new areas, new congregations–a point largely missed in the amateurs' rush to clone.

“Blended worship” suggests “blended families,” by definition something lost, through death or divorce–a substitute for the ideal, requiring more effort, too often resulting in more a “suspension” than a “solution.”

Respect, on the one hand, seems to mean tolerance, on the other, forced conformity.

Harriet Kelley

Dallas

Missing the mark

I take issue with the following statement Marv Knox makes in “Christians must not block path to Middle East peace” (June 2): “Still others point to the Palestinians' long occupation of the land and conclude Palestinians hold at least as much right to the land as Jews.”

This statement seems to indicate he too has succumbed to the false notion that there was once a Palestinian nation, or even a large number of Arab-Palestinian people located within the present-day boundaries of Israel. This is “the big lie” the present-day Arab-Palestinian people, most of whom were originally from the country of Jordan within about the last 70 years, have been trying to convince the rest of the world.

If Hitler were alive today, he would be proud of their methods and efforts to legitimize such a lie–and laugh at the ignorance of history, naivete and gullibility of the rest of the world.

However, let me quickly and fervently state, I think the Baptist Standard is the best Southern Baptist state denomination paper in existence, and the one that best tells it like it is! Also, I think Marv Knox is still “on the mark” 99 percent of the time–he just took his aiming eye off the target a second this time before he pulled the trigger.

Joe W. Telford

Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

What do you think? Submit letters via e-mail to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words. They may be edited to accommodate space.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

Toombs' 'Little Tommy'
character headed to Texas camps

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Standard

Wearing red overalls and a yellow baseball hat, Tom Toombs looks like a big kid.

And he quickly lets anyone who cares know that he still is one–at heart.

It's all part of his unique way of captivating youth audiences as he shares messages of Christ's love.

Toombs' ministry and trademark “Little Tommy” character were created to provide “love, laughter and lessons.”

In 1976, Toombs began incorporating the arts of illusion, comedy, drama, mime, balloons and storytelling with the message of salvation. In 1985, Toombs felt called into a vocational ministry.

The innovative performer has accumulated many credits, ranging from performing at the Dollywood theme park to the Rebecca St. James national tour.

By engaging audiences in his performances, Toombs “speaks truth through the arts,” he said. And his routines are designed for all ages to enjoy.

“The laughter breaks down barriers, thus deep lessons can be learned while people are having fun,” he explained. “Drama is a powerful tool to reach people with the gospel. It leaves the audience with a vivid picture of what was being said.”

Toombs makes more than 250 appearances each year, including school assemblies, church services, camps, retreats and revivals.

Throughout the summer, Toombs will perform for Texas youth groups at Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment. He also will participate in Super Summer at Hardin-Simmons University July 14-18.

During his first week at Mount Lebanon, Toombs performed for about 900 children attending preteen camp and said he was thrilled to see God moving in the lives of the children and youth.

“My favorite part of what I do is meeting the best people and seeing how God is working as I travel across the country,” he said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

On the Move

Kimberly Case to Windsor Park Church in DeSoto as children's ministries director.

Michael Carter to North Naples Church in Naples, Fla., as associate pastor and youth director from River Road Church in Amarillo, where he was pastor.

Jamie Curry to First Church in Floresville as youth minister.

Jay Davis to Windsor Park Church in DeSoto as student minister.

Hollas Hoffman to First Church in Smithville as interim pastor.

Matt Jones to First Church in Sanderson as interim pastor.

Donovan Martin to Highland Church in Lubbock as minister of students and recreation from University Church in Arlington, where he was minister to students.

Todd Melton to River Bend Church in Fulshear as minister of music and education.

George Mosier to Pleasant Terrace Church in Pleasant Grove as interim pastor.

Ernie Nelson to Greggton First Church in Longview as minister of music.

Susan Pisarra to Southern Hills Church in Oklahoma City as director of childhood ministries from First Church in Wichita Falls, where she was associate director of preschool and children's ministries.

Neal Todd to New Beginnings Church in Cedar Creek as pastor.

Scott Venable has resigned as university minister at First Church in Brownwood.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

Particpants in this year's Opportunity Camp play a baseball game in the open spaces of East Texas Baptist Encampment, where they find open arms and open hearts as well.

Opportunity knocks at this camp
for Texas' hard-knocks teenagers

By George Henson

Staff Writer

NEWTON–With boys everywhere, at first glance this could be a Royal Ambassador camp. Boys are playing basketball, talking to counselors, wondering how much longer until dinner.

There's a difference not obvious on the surface, however. More than half these boys have had run-ins with the police and are on juvenile probation. More than 80 percent of them have no previous association with church. All of them need to see a Christ-like example.

For almost 40 years, churches of Golden Triangle Baptist Association have provided a means for troubled adolescents to learn about Jesus, many for the first time.

The program is called Opportunity Camp, and it is offered in separate sessions for boys and girls.

Dion Ainsworth, associate director of missions for the association, has provided leadership for the camp for 23 years. During that time, he said, he's seen almost everything from fist fights to a youth going berserk and threatening others with a pitchfork. But he's also seen many lives changed for eternity.

Ainsworth recalled a school counselor who had referred a boy to Opportunity Camp.

“We had a guidance counselor tell us that when school started up after the summer, that boy looked her up. He told her, 'I found Christ, and my whole life has changed.'

“She told me, 'You just have them for that one week, but we get to see the difference you make.' She had tears in her eyes when she told me that boy was killed in a car accident last December, but he will spend eternity in heaven now because of Opportunity Camp,” Ainsworth said.

First priority in enrollment for the camp goes to youth on juvenile probation in Jefferson and Orange counties. Last year, more than 75 percent of the youth who attended were on probation.

If space still is available, registration opens to adolescents referred by Child Protective Services and school counselors.

A few years ago, Ainsworth had to have a heart-to-heart talk with some to the juvenile probation officers–they weren't sending him kids with serious problems anymore.

“I had to tell them: 'If you're not sending us kids who have lots of problems, there's no reason for us to have Opportunity Camp. They could go to a regular church camp and just have a church scholarship them,'” he recalled.

Opportunity Camp is different than a regular church camp.

“This is for kids who are at high risk, kids who wouldn't make it through a regular camp,” he explained. “They would be sent home the first day for fighting or for some other thing.”

At Opportunity Camp, one counselor is assigned to every four campers, and the small groups always stay together. The added supervision makes it less likely something bad will happen.

“They also like getting a lot of attention,” Ainsworth said. “They may not act like it, but most of them like it.”

That means dorms built to hold 20 or 30 people have only four or five occupants, which creates higher operating expenses for East Texas Baptist Encampment, where Opportunity Camp is held.

“It's hard for them to break even on Opportunity Camp,” Ainsworth admitted. “They have to see it as a ministry.”

Campers also don't pay anything to attend because churches in the association pick up the tab. That includes transportation, T-shirts, Bibles and a nurse, among other things.

“Some of kids just show up with the clothes on their back, but we take care of them. We just make a trip to Wal-Mart,” he said.

The camp is highly structured and includes little free time. Campers are supervised at all times. Spiritual themes are interwoven with fun activities. On the rifle range, for example, campers are taught not only about safety but also about how sin is missing the mark of God's plan for their lives.

Small-group times also include communicating with God, weightlifting, how to be secure and numerous other topics.

The days are long–sometimes not ending until midnight or after. “We know they're not going to sleep until about 1 a.m. anyway, so we use that energy,” Ainsworth said.

Opportunity Camp is segregated, with boys there Monday through Wednesday afternoon and girls arriving Wednesday evening and leaving Saturday morning.

Twenty-five campers made professions of faith in Jesus Christ at this year's camp, and 10 more made rededications.

That is what brings back most of the counselors year after year.

“This is one of the hardest camps to be a counselor in,” Ainsworth admitted. “In church camp, they have at least seen the kids they are with before. Here, they don't know any of the kids until they get on the bus. … It's tough, but the rewards are great.”

Lionel Vandergriff, 64, has been a counselor four years.

“The first year was probably the hardest,” he admitted. “It was a new experience, and I didn't know what to expect. I was the only counselor who lost all his boys five minutes after they got off the bus; they scattered like a covey of quail. But I struggled to remember their names and got them all back. I really struggled with coming back the next year.”

But he was drawn back by the memory of what happened at the end of the camp.

“Those boys shared about their home life, and when we got back to that church parking lot, they went back to that same home life,” he said. “I was there being met by my wife and grandchildren. I just thought, 'I'm so blessed, how can I not go back and try to give back?'”

Sherry Thompson, director of this year's girls' camp, has been involved for 18 years.

“At church, you see God's working in kids' lives gradually, but I'd never seen a dramatic change of girls getting on a bus cussing each other, spitting and trying to fight, and then accepting Jesus Christ and being totally different,” she said.

“You can see Jesus at work at Opportunity Camp, and it has increased my faith because I have seen miracles, real miracles. I've seen girls come in spitting and snarling and going out as gentle as lambs.”

She admits Opportunity Camp is not for the faint-hearted.

“The girls we deal with have a real hard shell around their hearts, and it's for protection,” she explained. “You have to love them through that hard shell to get to the soft part.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

Hawkins reports on
Annuity Board options, urges fitness

By Tony Martin

Mississippi Baptist Record

PHOENIX–In a climate of uncertain financial stability, O.S. Hawkins gave a glimmer of hope to participants in the Annuity Board's investment programs.

Addressing 7,000 messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix June 18, Hawkins said: “In this past year, America has seen something that hasn't been seen in the past 70 years, and that is three consecutive years of decline in the equity market. I don't think I have to tell any of us that who watch our retirement accounts.”

O.S. Hawkins (left) introduces first-time marathon runner Byron McWilliams, pastor of First Baptist Church in Buna, during the Annuity Board's annual report to the SBC. McWilliams talked about listening to Hawkins' report last year and being convicted that he needed to lose weight and cultivate better eating and exercise habits. Over the year, he lost nearly 60 pounds and ran his first marathon. (Kent Harvill/BP Photo)

However, there is good news, he added: “Since the trough of that market back in October of 2002, every retirement equity fund we have is up over 25 percent. We're having one of the greatest years in investments we've had in a long, long time.”

Hawkins cited the benefits of the protection section of the Annuity Board's retirement program, stating that all participants in the retirement program automatically receive a $100,000 survivor benefit and a $500 per month disability benefit.

He rebuffed the assessment that churches might do better buying programs on the open market.

“Insurance continues to be our biggest challenge,” Hawkins acknowledge. “We're in a national crisis. We have been giving strategic focus to these insurance issues.”

Since moving administration of health insurance claims to the Principal Life Insurance Co., more than 90 percent of claims have been processed within 10 days, he reported.

He outlined three steps the Annuity Board is taking to address health insurance issues.

“First, we're taking responsibility,” he said. “We've totally revamped our program for 2004. Since we get no money to subsidize our program, it becomes a matter of claims paid out versus premiums received. Some people couldn't get in because of underwriting issues. Unfolding in 2004, we hope to provide a limited benefits program to get those folks in as well as their families.”

Second, a wider range of deductibles and plans will be available, Hawkins said, with options to move from plan to plan.

“The deductibles will make a big difference in the premiums,” he explained. “People who are paying a thousand dollars a month in premiums can choose a higher deductible and have their premiums decline by 40 to 50 percent. We've got a real attack going on the affordability issue.”

Hawkins admonished Baptist ministers to take responsibility for the health insurance crisis by taking better care of themselves.

“Forty percent of the claims we paid out last year were due to preventable diseases,” he said. “If we would get ourselves in physical shape by exercising and eating properly, it would be astronomical how we could reduce the rate of medical insurance.”

Third, Hawkins said he has written letters to deacons in SBC churches, telling them the church needs to take responsibility for providing the best staff benefits they can. Churches also should provide benefits such as annuity and insurance separately from the minister's pay, he advised.

Churches that fail to provide adequately for their ministers leave those ministers to struggle in old age, he warned, noting that “our biggest heartbeat is our relief effort.”

He showed a video about the plight of retired ministers and their spouses who don't have sufficient funds to retire.

“We have over 9,000 pastors and sometimes their widows living on $200 or less a month in benefits,” he explained. With help from the Adopt an Annuitant program, “we've been able to move our annuitant benefits from $75 a month to $200 a month for a single widow and $260 a month for a couple,” he reported.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

Appeal on chaplains policy tops SBC business

By Bob Terry

Alabama Baptist

PHOENIX–Should Southern Baptist military chaplains be ordained ministers?

Navy Capt. Al Hill thinks so. During the opening session of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix June 17, Hill offered a motion requiring that ordination to pastoral ministry be required for all people endorsed for military chaplaincy by the convention's North American Mission Board.

Hill's motion was one of 12 presented during the two-day meeting. Nine, including Hill's, were referred to SBC entities, and three were ruled out of order. No miscellaneous business item, including Hill's, was debated by the 7,070 messengers gathered in the Phoenix Civic Center.

Hill, a messenger from First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Va., said he was satisfied with the decision to refer. “At least we have the issue back on the agenda,” he said in an interview. “Prior to this meeting, it seemed the door was closed to further consideration.”

Hill and other military chaplains contend the current NAMB policy of not requiring ordination for military chaplaincy service reduces Southern Baptist chaplains to “religious social workers.”

“It is like sending our troops into battle with defective rounds,” said Army Chaplain Capt. Randy Moore, currently stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. “Southern Baptist chaplains need the best equipment possible. That means ordination to me.”

NAMB changed its policy on chaplains in order to avoid endorsing female chaplains who have been ordained. Although the U.S. military requires all chaplains to be ordained in their faith traditions, NAMB officials contend they will find a way for women to continue serving as chaplains without ordination.

SBC conservatives, including those among NAMB's trustees, believe the Bible forbids ordination of women, but they are open to women serving in chaplaincy roles.

A NAMB spokesman said he is confident the concern of military chaplains will be seriously considered by the agency, including additional conversation with senior military chaplains.

A motion instructing the SBC Executive Committee and other SBC entities to accept funds from Baptist individuals, churches, associations, conventions and organizations originally was ruled out of order because it called on messengers to “exercise authority given to the trustees of the various entities.”

However, the order of business committee offered to meet with Brian Kaylor of Union Mound Baptist Church in Elkland, Mo., to reword the motion in a way that would make it acceptable. After the motion was reworded, it was referred to all SBC entities impacted by the proposed action.

The motion appeared aimed at the decision by the SBC Executive Committee not to accept funds from a recently formed state convention in Missouri. The new convention was formed after changes in leadership of the traditional state convention, the Missouri Baptist Convention.

Five motions were referred to the SBC Executive Committee. Two messengers moved that the SBC annual meeting be held in their respective areas. Bob Mackey of Parma Baptist Church in Ohio asked that the annual meeting be held in Cleveland by 2010 or as soon as possible. Ben Brazal of King of Kings Christian Fellowship in Bronx, N.Y., moved that the convention meet in New York City.

Bobby Greene of Beulah Baptist Church in Kents Stone, Va., asked that the convention calendar include an annual emphasis on God's creation being done in six 24-hour days and on the worldwide flood.

The Executive Committee also will consider a motion requesting a special offering to be collected in July for the International Mission Board to help make up shortfalls in the mission agency's budget. The motion was offered by Greg Hyland of River Valley Community Church in Lebanon, N.H.

Messengers also voted to refer to the Executive Committee a request that proposed resolutions be distributed to the messengers at least one session prior to their consideration.

In addition to the motion by Chaplain Hill, NAMB received two motions dealing with efforts to reach internationals in the United States. Jamal Buhara of Phoenix asked for increased “attention and funding” for ministries to Middle Eastern immigrants. Lawson Lau of Illinois asked for cooperation between NAMB and the IMB to reach 2 million international students and scholars studying in the United States.

Two motions by Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif., were ruled out of order. Drake's first motion sought to amend the annual meeting's order of business to allow a five-minute report from Crusade Radio, a program which he directs, about its support for President Bush. Drake's second motion sought to suspend SBC Bylaw 20 to allow presentation of resolutions from the floor. Bylaw 20 requires advance submission of all proposed resolutions. Earlier, the resolutions committee declined to accept resolutions from Drake because they were not submitted prior to the meeting.

Also ruled out of order was a motion by Roy Davis of North Shreveport Baptist Church in Louisiana asking that the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention be declared host of the SBC annual meeting in Phoenix. In declaring the motion out of order, the order of business committee reminded messengers that state conventions are autonomous bodies and cannot be instructed by the SBC.

A motion to reconsider the reduced budget allocation to the Baptist World Alliance was offered by Jim Stroud of Third Creek Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn. After determining that Stroud had voted for the budget the previous day, the motion was introduced and soundly defeated.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

SBC appeals to homosexuals to become heterosexual

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

PHOENIX (ABP)–The Southern Baptist Convention wants its churches to begin “ministries of compassion” to homosexuals to encourage them to abandon the gay lifestyle.

The SBC's Task Force on Ministry to Homosexuals, which reported its findings to the annual convention in Phoenix, said it identified 40 to 50 Southern Baptist churches that already have “intentional” ministries to homosexuals and speculated that perhaps thousands of other SBC churches minister to gays and lesbians in informal ways.

Richard Land (left), president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, listens as Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, explains a new SBC initiative to encourage homosexuals to become heterosexual. (Kent Harville/BP Photo)

Likewise, many resources already exist to help homosexuals and churches that want to minister to them, task force members said. Several websites have been established to link interested Baptists to resources.

Jimmy Draper, a task force member, said the initiative is a first step.

“We have not strategized a new program,” said Draper, president of Lifeway Christian Resources. “We are trying to get churches to get a heart for this, and the resources are there if they will do that.”

Although the task force is encouraging Southern Baptists to reach out to homosexuals with compassion and grace, members concede the new initiative will not likely silence critics who accuse the SBC of gay bashing because of its insistence that homosexuality is a sin. Protesters from Soulforce, a pro-gay group, rallied outside the Phoenix Civic Center earlier during the convention, as they have in past years.

“My guess is they will continue to say we are anti-gay because we … say that the lifestyle they are living is inconsistent with the gospel,” said Richard Land, a task force member and president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

“I know that some of the critics have said … you have to accept their lifestyle to accept them,” Land added. “That's intolerant of them. That's intolerance. They're saying we have to deny our faith in order to meet their standard of acceptance. We can accept them and not accept their lifestyle, in the same way we accept alcoholics … and heterosexual philanderers.”

Task force members insist gays can abandon homosexuality by the power of God. Messengers to the convention agreed, adopting a resolution emphasizing the power of God to “transform” homosexuals.

Task force member Bob Stith said Mel White, Soulforce leader and former Southern Baptist, “doesn't want to allow people to choose” to leave homosexuality. “We believe people should have the right to chose to change,” said Stith, pastor of Carroll Baptist Church in Southlake.

But Brenda Moulton, coordinator of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, responded in an interview that programs to help homosexuals leave the lifestyle “are hurtful to the gay individual.”

“If one believes that sexual orientation or gender orientation is part of the diversity of God's creation, then to try to change that would be hurtful,” she said. “To change that would be comparable to trying to change eye color or skin color.”

According to Moulton, the American Psychological Association says “ex-gay reparative therapies,” such as those proposed by the task force, not only can be harmful but don't work. Moulton said she herself tried to change her homosexual orientation.

“I didn't feel as close to God as I did when I finally came to terms with my sexuality and accepted it as part of God's creation,” she said. “I felt like a whole person instead of a person who had been trying to split myself into two pieces.”

Land, who served as pastor of a church near the French Quarter in New Orleans in the 1970s, said “a third to a half” of the church's members were former homosexuals, indicating the switch can be made.

“It is hard to leave this lifestyle,” he acknowledged. “I became aware it is much more difficult to do outside of Christ.

“I can think of no crueler joke that has been played by the devil than to have this lifestyle described as a 'gay' lifestyle,” he added, “because I have found it to be one of the loneliest, one of the saddest, lifestyles that I've had the misfortune to observe. I felt nothing but compassion and sadness for people who found themselves in this lifestyle.”

Tim Wilkins, another task force member, is a former homosexual who said God's power enabled him to abandon homosexuality. “I did not consciously choose to have same-sex attraction, but I did choose to give in to it,” said Wilkins, founding director of Cross Ministry, a North Carolina-based Christian ministry to homosexuals.

When he was gay, Wilkins said, if someone had suggested he would one day be married, he would have laughed. After deciding to leave the homosexual lifestyle as a matter of Christian obedience, he said, he later experienced “a dramatic change” at age 33 and developed an attraction to women. He now has a wife and two daughters.

“There is no such thing as a gay Christian,” Wilkins said.

However, at least one task force member disagreed with that assertion.

“Neither I nor the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission believe it is impossible to be a homosexual and a Christian,” Land said. But as with Christian racists, Land said, it is impossible to be gay and live a life consistent with the gospel.

Task force members tried to distance Southern Baptists from anti-gay groups that preach hate. “That is nauseating to me,” said Draper, who suggested Southern Baptists should apologize to gays who have been the targets of hate.

Wilkins said loving homosexuals does not require affirming their practices. “I love homosexuals more now than when I was one,” he said, but he added, “The highest form of love does not withhold the truth.”

Task force members said Southern Baptists will have to overcome much fear and misunderstanding of gays in order to minister to them. They should treat gays just like other people in need of salvation, members advised.

“What we're really calling our churches to do is practice lifestyle-blind evangelism … to homosexuals, to any group,” Land said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

Rankin: 'Break down wall of Islam'

By Jennifer Davis Rash

Alabama Baptist

PHOENIX–International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin sent out an urgent plea to help “break down the wall” of Islam during the closing session of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 18.

Using video presentations and interviews with IMB representatives, volunteers and friends, Rankin told how missionaries and missions volunteers are needed to reach the Muslim world for Christ.

“It is God's time for the gospel to penetrate those barriers in the Muslim world,” Rankin said. “It is the providence and power of God, moving to fulfill his purpose that he will be exalted among all nations and people and tongues. The only question is: Will we be found faithful?”

Jerry Rankin calls Southern Baptists to take the gospel to the Muslim world.”We have 5,545 doctrinally sound missionaries who are fully responsible to the churches that support them.”

At the same time, Rankin reported the IMB will appoint only 100 long-term missionaries for the rest of the year due to financial constraints. The 100 will be chosen from among 308 applicants, he said.

“The $115.1 million given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering last year was the most ever given, but the increase in giving (has) not kept pace with the numbers God is calling from our churches,” Rankin said. “Southern Baptists gave $9.4 billion (to their churches) last year, but less than 2.5 percent was channeled into overseas missions through the International Mission Board.

“How will we give an account to God for our failure to send those called out of our churches for such a time as this?” Rankin asked.

Noting the recent termination of missionaries for not affirming the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, Rankin said: “Much has been published about missionaries being terminated, but the largest number of missions personnel to serve is right now. We have 5,545 doctrinally sound missionaries who are fully responsible to the churches that support them.”

Those missionaries are engaged in successful ministries, he added.

“Last year, your missionaries gained access to 146 new people groups who had the opportunity to hear the gospel for first time and planted congregations of indigenous believers as an ongoing witness and ministry,” he reported.

Rankin also noted that through the ministry of IMB workers and their ministry partners, 421,436 new believers were baptized in 2002, and 8,369 churches were started in Eastern Europe.

During a question-and-answer time, Tom Higginbotham of Judson Baptist Church in Walker, La., asked for clarification about whether Scripture was included on the food boxes recently collected for distribution in Iraq. During the convention sermon, O.S. Hawkins had referenced “liberals” protesting Scripture citations in the boxes.

“Dr. Hawkins said the liberals did not want Scripture in them,” Rankin responded. “He did not say we did not accompany them with Scripture. Scripture is on the box, and there are wonderful opportunities to share the gospel.”

Bob Arthur of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., also talked about the Iraqi food boxes live via satellite from Baghdad. With a group of 30 volunteers in Iraq, Arthur asked Southern Baptists to send teams to Iraq during the next 120 days.

“Food cartons are going to arrive in late July or early August,” Arthur said. “We need Southern Baptist teams there to distribute those boxes in Baghdad and surrounding communities.”

Arthur cited needs for volunteers to help with cell-church training, structural repairs and water filtration systems.

“There are 100,000 people living without an operating sewer system in one area,” he said.

The pastor of the Protestant Evangelical Church of Baghdad told Arthur there are 2,500 born-again believers in Baghdad, he said.

“The military liberated Iraq externally, but only Christ can liberate it internally,” Arthur said. “The needs are phenomenal. We cannot fail at this point in history. We must respond as God leads us as individuals and churches.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

SBC resolves families need help, decries gay unions

By Marv Knox

Editor

PHOENIX–Southern Baptists punctuated key themes of their annual gathering with statements affirming “kingdom families” and condemning homosexual unions.

Those topics highlighted a slate of eight resolutions approved by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 18 in Phoenix.

Messengers also condemned abortion, declared the recent war in Iraq “just,” affirmed religious liberty, denounced anti-Semitism, called for a response to the global AIDS crisis and thanked the local hosts.

They zipped through the resolutions, pausing only briefly to defeat two amendments made by Wiley Drake, a perennial fixture at SBC microphones, known for offering a spate of motions and resolutions.

A key focal point of the Phoenix meeting actually occurred the evening before the convention started, when the annual Pastors' Conference turned its final session into a Kingdom Family Rally.

The rally capped three years of preparation by the SBC's Council on Family Life. The council unveiled principles called “The Seven Pillars of a Kingdom Family.”

That emphasis telegraphed the SBC's first resolution, “On Kingdom Families.” It cited divorce, attempts to redefine the family, infidelity and abandonment as factors undermining the “biblical model of the family.”

Even the church is not immune, the resolution conceded, noting, “a disproportionately large number of children reared in evangelical churches are growing up to leave the 'faith of their fathers.'”

Through the resolution, messengers agreed to “renew our commitment to build kingdom families by the recovery of the biblical understanding of family and the acknowledgement of the permanence and responsibilities of the marriage covenant.”

The resolution also urged parents to “assume their responsibility as the primary protectors and instructors of their children” and called on churches to strengthen families and marriages, as well as to minister to single-parent families.

The resolution denouncing “same-sex marriage” tied in closely with a new initiative, announced by Jimmy Draper, president of the SBC's LifeWay Christian Resources. The convention created the Task Force on Ministry to Homosexuals. It will encourage churches to provide ministries to help people leave the homosexual lifestyle.

The “same-sex marriage” resolution cited recent advances made by advocates of homosexual rights–Vermont legalization of “civil unions” for same-sex couples, a California law giving registered partners the same rights as married couples, courts in Massachusetts and New Jersey considering legalization of same-sex unions, and the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which requires that marriages enacted in one state be recognized nationally.

These initiatives will result in more homosexual couples demanding their “marriages” be recognized in other states, the resolution predicted. Advocates of such unions also will challenge state laws and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, which declare marriage only exists between one man and one woman, it warned.

“Jesus states that marriage is a sacred, lifelong bond between one man and one woman,” and the Bible calls the homosexual lifestyle “sinful and dangerous both to the individuals involved and to society at large,” the resolution said.

“Legal and biblical marriage can only occur between one man and one woman,” messengers affirmed. They went on record opposing “all efforts by any court or state legislature to validate or legalize same-sex marriage or other equivalent unions.”

The resolution also called on churches to “guard our religious liberty to recognize and perform marriages as defined by Scripture.” It urged Southern Baptists to “demonstrate our love for those practicing homosexuality by sharing with them the forgiving and transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The other resolutions:

Condemned abortion.

“Scripture reveals that all human life is created in the image of God and therefore sacred to our Creator,” the resolution stated. “The Bible affirms that the unborn baby is a person bearing the image of God from the moment of conception” and “commands the people of God to plead for the protection for the innocent and justice for the fatherless.”

The resolution criticized 1970s-era SBC leaders and resolutions because they “endorsed and furthered the 'pro-choice' abortion-rights agenda.”

Messengers went on record stating the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision “was based on a fundamentally flawed understanding of the U.S. Constitution, human embryology and the basic principles of human rights.”

The resolution pledged Southern Baptists' prayers, love and advocacy for people abused by abortion and its aftermath. It called on churches to “remain vigilant in the protection of human life.” It also urged Southern Baptists to adopt unwanted children, support women in crisis pregnancies and encourage government officials to “protect the lives of women and children.”

The resolution affirmed Congress for passing the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 and applauded President Bush's promise to sign the bill. It also pledged Southern Baptists would work for repeal of Roe vs. Wade and “for the day when the act of abortion will not only be illegal, but also unthinkable.”

Affirmed the recent war that resulted in the “liberation of Iraq.”

“We believe Operation Iraqi Freedom was a warranted action based upon historic principles of just war,” the resolution said. It affirmed President Bush, Congress and the U.S. military for successfully executing the war.

The resolution exhorted Southern Baptists to pray for people who lost loved ones in the war, for troops and diplomatic leaders charged with rebuilding Iraq, and for peace and justice in Iraq.

Declared “absolute religious liberty” to be a basic human right that should be affirmed globally.

The religious liberty resolution portrayed Southern Baptists, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, as a maligned minority.

“Southern Baptists have been subject to intense criticism for our insistence that a faith which engenders or encourages religious persecution or interferes with the free exercise of religion is not consistent with the revelation of God,” the resolution said.

“Southern Baptists and other evangelical Christians have in recent months been increasingly portrayed by the media and by international government sources as intolerant and even dangerous because of our commitment to Christ as the only way of salvation.”

Such characterizations misrepresent the history of Baptists, who have been “determined advocates of freedom, especially religious liberty,” the resolution said.

It cited “a growing movement” that labels Christian preaching a “hate crime” and called on media, government and others “to recognize that Baptists have been and continue to be ardent advocates of religious freedom.”

Denounced “all forms of anti-Semitism as contrary to the teachings of our Messiah and an assault on the revelation of Holy Scripture.”

The anti-Semitism resolution noted Southern Baptists “deplore all forms of hatred or bigotry toward any person or people group” and pointed out the Bible describes God's love for the Jewish people, “through whom God has blessed the world with his word and his Messiah, our Lord Jesus.”

Anti-Semitism is increasing globally, including recent commissions and conferences sponsored by the United Nations, it said, adding anti-Semitism in some European countries has reached a level not experienced since World War II.

“We affirm to Jewish people around the world that we stand with them against any harassment that violates our historic commitments to religious liberty and human dignity,” the resolution said. “And … we call on governmental and religious leaders across the world to stand against all forms of bigotry, hatred or persecution.”

Supported humanitarian efforts to combat the AIDS crisis around the globe and urged prayer for and ministry to AIDS victims.

The resolution noted the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa and affirmed emergency relief, such as $15 billion allocated by President Bush and Congress to combat the disease in Africa during the next five years.

It pointed out AIDS has been combated most effectively by an abstinence-based strategy that calls for sexual relations to take place only within marriage.

AIDS victims are “a neighbor our Lord Jesus has commanded us to love as we love ourselves,” the resolution noted. It called on Southern Baptists to pray for AIDS victims and act on their behalf and urged churches to “model the reconciliation and mercy of the kingdom of God by showing compassion to those suffering with AIDS.”

Thanked all the people whom God used “to bring about a convention characterized by grace, evangelism, worship, encouragement, unity and purpose.”

This year, a new convention bylaw required messengers to submit proposed resolutions in advance of the annual meeting. Resolutions Committee Chairman Mike Hamlet, pastor of First Baptist Church of North Spartanburg, S.C., declared the procedure a success.

But Drake, whose amendments to the Iraq and religious liberty resolutions lost overwhelmingly, proposed a motion to suspend the submit-in-advance bylaw. Convention parliamentarians ruled his motion out of order, noting the bylaw could not be suspended.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

Texas pastor explains change of view

PHOENIX–The Texas pastor whose request launched the Southern Baptist Convention's new initiative on homosexuality said his views on the controversial topic have changed under conviction from God.

Bob Stith, pastor of Carroll Baptist Church in Southlake, told SBC messengers that in the past he had been “your typical hard-nosed, redneck pastor on the subject of homosexuality.”

“Everything I said in conversations and sermons was harsh,” he acknowledged. “Then I sensed God saying something to me one day, asking me if someone who was struggling with that heard me preach, would they come to me for help. I realized that they would not come to me, and if they did I would not have much to offer them.”

Since then, Stith said, he has spent thousands of hours listening to people who struggle with homosexuality, over and over hearing from people “wounded by well-meaning Christians,” he said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted 6/20/03

SBC speakers promote kingdom, family

By Tony Cartledge

North Carolina Biblical Recorder

PHOENIX, Ariz.–Theme interpreters focused on the kingdom of God and crises facing the church during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 17-18.

“Jesus Christ is king,” Adrian Rogers told messengers in the opening message on Tuesday morning “We didn't vote him in; we will not vote him out.”

Rogers, a former SBC president and pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, Tenn., said Jesus Christ has been maligned and minimized in public education and public events in America, but Jesus remains King of kings.

Clayton Ross (right) of Lakewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, tries to collide with Adam Yarbrough of Warren Baptist Church in Indianapolis during the Southern Baptist Convention Student Conference, June 17. Youth volunteer Leslie Ledbetter referees the inflatable Sumo wrestling game set up on the plaza of the Phoenix Civic Center.

“You'll never really appreciate the kingdom until you see his king,” Rogers said, drawing on Revelation 1:12-18 to highlight 10 characteristics of Christ as king. Those include Christ's “undiminished humanity,” “unrivaled majesty” and “unblemished purity,” he said. Christ also reveals humans' hearts with “unhindered scrutiny,” Rogers said, with eyes that not only see, but see through.

Rogers described Christ as one who will judge with “untarnished integrity.”

The king cannot overlook sin, he said, explaining that sin either will be pardoned or punished. “If Jesus Christ were to let one half of one sin go unpunished, he would cease to be holy,” Rogers said.

Christ rules with “unchallenged authority” and with “unequalled mastery” as he wins an “unspoiled victory” with the sword that comes from his mouth, Rogers said.

“God spoke, and universes dripped from his fingers,” Rogers said.

Even though a day is coming when the antichrist and his hordes will fight against Christ with all their modern technology and weapons, Rogers said, Jesus will win the victory using only the sword of his mouth.

Finally, Rogers said, Christ rules with “undimmed glory” and with “undiluted deity” as the one who died and is alive forevermore.

Appreciating Christ as king should lead believers to respond with total submission and unquestioned obedience, Rogers said. Christians don't need to ask God for more money for missions, he said, but need to give God the money they already have.

Obedient Christians share their faith, Rogers also said. “If you're not interested in soul-winning, if you're not interested in bringing people to the Lord Jesus Christ, God sent me here to tell you you're not right with God. … To refuse his Great Commission is a clenched fist in the face of God; it is high treason against heaven's king.”

Christians should live in glad anticipation of Christ's return, Rogers said, explaining that the antichrist gives people a number, while Jesus gives a name

“When he comes, the big question is, will your name be called, or will your number be up?”

Danny Akin, vice president and academic dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, declared that men who want to be faithful to Christ must begin at home.

A Christian man surrendered to the lordship of Christ will be a different kind of man, he said, a man of conviction, commitment, character and commission.

Akin pointed to Ephesians 5:25-6:4 as a call for men to love their wives and bless their children.

Men should love their wives sacrificially, Akin said, not just emotionally, but volitionally, as an act of will, “even when she is not lovely.”

When Southern Baptists added the “family amendment” to the Baptist Faith & Message in 1998, the public media couldn't see anything but the statement calling for wives to be submissive to their husbands, he said.

“We don't apologize for that,” Akin said, but added that people should read the rest of the article, which says the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and “to provide for his family servant leadership.”

“We're not to be CEOs in our homes,” he said. “We're not to be frustrated drill sergeants, barking out orders,” but servant leaders, shepherd leaders, sacrificial leaders.

Husbands should “love sanctifyingly,” Akin said, encouraging their wives to walk more closely with Christ. “If there's anyone that you disciple in your life, you ought to begin with your wife and then your children,” he said.

Husbands should love their wives with sensitivity, as they cherish their own bodies, Akin said.

“God has made us equal but God has made us different,” he said. “God has called the man to be the leader. God has called the wife to be the helper. But God has wired men and women differently.”

After years of study, Akin said, he has concluded men are like dogs who want only to be fed, played with and praised. Women are more like cats, he said, friendly at times but moody and unpredictable.

A husband's love also should be specific, Akin said.

“Make a covenant with your eyes,” he said, quoting Job 31:1, not to “look intently” at other women, whether in person, in magazines, in movies or on the Internet.

Akin said men likewise should make a covenant never to be alone with any woman other than their wives. Pastors, in particular, should not counsel women alone, he said.

As fathers, men should bless their children, Akin said, educating them to obey their parents. It is not enough just to tell them what to do, he said, but why they should do it.

Fathers also are to encourage their children with focused attention and affirmation, he said.

It doesn't take a great mind to be a man of God, but a great heart, Akin said. “When it comes to winning the world for Christ, I'm going to make sure I start where I need to start;; I'm going to start with my home.”

Effective evangelism requires sharing both the words and the music of the gospel, Ed Young told messengers in the closing address Tuesday night.

Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston and a former SBC president, said many of today's churches focus on teaching or praying but don't emphasize evangelism.

The great evangelists from the first and second Great Awakenings attracted great crowds for only a few years because “they ran out of cities,” he noted. They then turned to establishing educational institutions to teach people to go out into the towns and hamlets and preach, he said.

But now America faces a crisis of faith, he said. “We have lost the cultural war.”

In America, 35 percent to 40 percent of the people attend church with some frequency, but few can explain what it means to follow Christ because “we've so watered down Christianity that it has lost any sense of a biblical definition in our day and in our age,” Young asserted.

Young offered an interpretation of the history of Western civilization from the 14th century, when he said most people accepted a biblical worldview, to the present. The church did not adequately respond to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and urbanization, he said, leaving the church frustrated and confused.

Even among Southern Baptists, he said, while the U.S. population virtually doubled in the past 50 years, the SBC has annually baptized about the same number of people.

The SBC now faces “an unbelievable crisis even greater than the theological crisis we came to conventions in great numbers to fight about,” he declared, noting that last year, more than 29,000 Southern Baptist churches baptized less than 10 people each.

Churches are lost in the 1950's, using methodologies that no longer work, he said, a practice he called “insane.”

The answer lies in a first-century strategy for evangelism, Young said. The Apostle Paul and other early evangelists faced ignorance and hostility, the same cultural conditions the church faces today, he said.

To confront ignorance, the church must proclaim the gospel–declaring, defining and defending the word of God, Young said.

To confront hostility, the church should serve through social ministries, he said, explaining that the church exploded numerically in the first few centuries because the early Christians gained a reputation as people who served the poor, the suffering, and the diseased.

In the final theme interpretation, the executive director of the five-year-old Southern Baptists of Texas Convention said Jesus offered insights into “kingdom living” through three encounters in Luke 9:57-62.

Jim Richards said kingdom living calls for believers to trust in the provisions of God's providence. To one who offered to follow Him, Jesus cautioned that “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Some Christians misinterpret the “prayer of Jabez” to think of God as “a cosmic bellboy waiting to grant our every wish,” he said, but Christians are bound to experience trials.

“God is not as concerned about our happiness as he is our holiness; he is not as concerned about our comfort as he is about our cross,” Richards said.

To deal with difficulties, believers should rely on the Holy Spirit and rest in God's promises, he said, and the provisions of God's providence will see them through.

Kingdom living calls for an appreciation of the pre-eminence of Christ's person, Richards said, urging that Christians should not be consumed by popular opinion or controlled by personal agendas.

Those who please Christ live in deference to Christ's call to preach the gospel and are willing to die to self, Richards said.

Finally, kingdom living involves following the priority of Christ's plan, he said.

Jesus said those who would follow him cannot take their hand from the plow, Richards noted, explaining that means one who follows Christ cannot look back or lapse into old lifestyles but must look forward to plow a straight row.

A Christian's purpose should include seeking holiness, he concluded. “We've lowered the bar of holiness, and we have allowed public culture to creep in to the point that we have lost our saltiness.”

Following Christ's priorities requires getting alone with God every day, he said, and doing God's will: “Kingdom living today is all about living for the King.”

Posted: 6/20/03

Women are 'jewels' of God's creation, humorist says

By Stacey Hamby

Midwestern Seminary

PHOENIX (BP)–Liz Curtis Higgs delivered her trademark humor to nearly 1,000 women at the Ministers' Wives Conference luncheon June 17 during the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Phoenix.

The popular author and speaker kept the women laughing while sharing a message of joy and beauty drawn from Christian faith.

Humorist Liz Curtis Higgs encourages Southern Baptist ministers' wives to look in the mirror every morning and say, "Tada!" (Matt Miller/BP Photo)

“Does it not thrill you that we are God's crown of creation?” Higgs asked, referencing the luncheon's “Jewels in the Desert” theme.

“We are the last thing he made, and he said we are very good,” Higgs said. “Women were not an afterthought; we were uniquely created and uniquely equipped. I love to encourage women to embrace that and run with it.”

She told every woman to jump in front of a mirror after she's ready for the day and say, “Tada!” “What happens is, we look in the mirror and find something wrong,” she said. “Most women don't stop in front of a mirror to say, 'Oh, baby.' We stop to look for a problem, and if you're looking for a problem, you will find a problem.”

Saying “tada” will change the way you think, she predicted. “You can't say it grumpy. It takes 5 pounds and five years off your face right off the bat. It will change how you think about you and how you think about God and trust that he knows what he was doing when he made you. I want you to see yourself as God sees you, and you are gorgeous.”

Higgs also encouraged the women to laugh more. “People sometimes say they don't have time to laugh,” she said. “Now that's too busy.

“We do carry a lot of burdens, and you may think it's your job as a minister's wife to carry people's burdens. We put it in a backpack and tell God, 'I got it.' But wouldn't it just be awesome if you could just lay your burdens down for 40 minutes? Why don't you just throw it at the foot of the cross? He says, 'Take my yoke upon you.' He's going to carry the weight of it; he's just asking you to walk with him.

“Now, when you're done here, somebody can help you put the backpack back on if you want it or, if you're like me and over 40, you won't remember where you left it anyway.”

Higgs said her third mission is to get women excited about the stories of women in the Bible. The author of “Bad Girls of the Bible” outlined some of her lessons learned from studying women such as Eve, Delilah and Jezebel.

There was only one commandment in the Garden of Eden, Higgs said. “And it was a diet–'Thou shalt not eat.' It was a food problem from the beginning. If that commandment had been, 'Thou shalt not drive around the garden more than 70 miles per hour,' Adam would have sinned first. And it wasn't an apple–how tempting would an apple be? It was Godiva chocolate.”

Nevertheless, Higgs said, Eve was without excuse. “Eve couldn't say, 'I had a dysfunctional childhood.' She is like all of us, and she is there to teach us how not to be a bad girl.”

Higgs said she enjoys studying the bad girls of the Bible because she once was a bad girl.

“In 1980, I was working at a radio station doing an afternoon show at the same place Howard Stern did a morning show,” she said. Stern “told me I needed to clean up my act–not my on-air act, my life. When Howard Stern tells you need to clean up your life, it's time to pay attention. But I didn't.”

Eventually, she met two people who “loved me into the kingdom,” she said. “They told me I was beautiful, loveable. I couldn't believe them.”

She went to church with them one day to see for herself if there were other people like them, and she said there were “pews and pews” full of funny, loving, friendly people. The first sermon she heard was from Ephesians 5.

“Here I was single and a feminist, and here's this message on wives submitting to their husbands,” she recounted. “But it goes on to say, 'Husbands, love your wives and die for them.' When I heard that, I said to my friends if a man would die for me, I'd marry him in a minute. They told me a man already died for me, and his name is Jesus.”

Seven weeks later, Higgs said she wanted a fresh start in life, and she got it through faith in Jesus.

“All of you have bad girls in your congregation,” she said. “Be patient with your bad girls; make sure they know what an invitation means. Show them your joy. Nothing will bring people like joy.”

New officers for the conference are Donna Gaines, president, wife of Steve Gaines, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gardendale, Ala.; Rana Smith, vice president, wife of Ron Smith, pastor of Sunnycrest Baptist Church in Marion, Ind.; Marilyn Foley, recording secretary/treasurer, wife of Mark Foley, president of the University of Mobile in Alabama; and Tammy Etheridge, corresponding secretary, wife of Grant Etheridge, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Lavaca, Ark.

Next year's featured speaker is Bible study author and speaker Beth Moore.

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