Posted: 3/19/04

More 'Buster' pastors, Barna research says

By Erin Curry

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE (BP)–The number of senior pastors ages 20-38 in Protestant churches has doubled in just two years from about 22,000 to more than 45,000, according to a report by the Barna Research Group.

And those young pastors are making significant changes in their ministry approaches when compared to those before them, the study concludes.

The latest Barna study refers to the young pastors as part of the “Buster” generation that has typically lived in the shadow of “Boomers” but is now emerging to form its own identity in the church.

Compared with older pastors, Barna said, Buster pastors are more likely to use drama; more likely to show movies, videos and DVDs; and more likely to tell stories when presenting biblical truths.

They also are bigger fans of using art, music and interactive dialogue to convey messages.

“These multi-media and experience-laden forms of communication appeal to younger, often postmodern people, who tend to reject external sources of authority in favor of relying on their own experiences and feelings to interpret reality,” the report said.

Young pastors' perspectives about their churches and their ministry skills differ from their predecessors.

Forty-five percent of young pastors describe their churches as seeker-driven, compared to 33 percent of older pastors. And 93 percent of Busters classify their congregations as theologically conservative, compared to 80 percent of older pastors.

Leadership, administration and management were the skills young pastors rated themselves highest on, according to the study, while pastoring, shepherding and counseling were weaker areas.

Though a large number of Buster pastors describe their churches as theologically conservative, young pastors are less likely to pursue a traditional seminary education.

Fewer than half of Buster pastors have a seminary degree, compared to two-thirds of Boomers.

Part of the gap stems from the fact that some pastors obtain seminary degrees later in life, Barna noted.

As an alternative to seminary, Barna said past studies indicate a growing number of large churches are training members for full-time ministry from within through apprenticeships. Many times the leaders will be trained within the mother church to be sent off-campus to plant a church.

Buster pastors were significantly more likely to affirm that children are more influenced by magazines, peers, television (including specifically MTV) and politics than by the church, the study revealed.

Barna also found that Buster pastors are more likely than Boomer pastors to prioritize ministry to families, youth and children, placing a greater emphasis on spiritual growth, discipleship and Bible study.

“Young pastors are basically cutting and pasting from fresh ideas as well as from established wisdom to form a new, era-appropriate portrait of church leadership,” David Kinnaman, vice president of Barna Research and director of the study, said in the report.

“A handful of the young leaders are making huge changes in their ministry approaches when compared to older pastors, but most Buster pastors are simply tinkering with the style–not the substance–of ministry.”

The Barna study was based on a national sample of 3,005 senior pastors from Protestant churches conducted from 2001 through 2003.

Posted: 3/19/04

Park Service opposes funding to preserve Spanish missions

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Bush administration has opposed at least one bill that would provide federal financial assistance to churches.

An official from the National Park Service testified recently against a bill that would provide $10 million in federal funds to an organization that preserves and restores California's historic Spanish Catholic missions and their attendant artwork and artifacts.

Daniel Smith, a special assistant with the park service, testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on National Parks. He said the department opposed the bill because it would divert funds “at a time when we are trying to focus our available resources on taking care of existing National Park Service responsibilities.”

The bill, S. 1306, would provide the funds over a five-year period to the California Missions Foundation–a group dedicated to preserving the 21 missions from the 1700s and 1800s, when the state was under Spanish and Mexican control. Many of the adobe structures are crumbling from neglect, erosion and repeated earthquake damage.

“We are in danger of losing our history in California today, and that's why we are here,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), testifying on behalf of the bill.

However, the Roman Catholic church still owns 19 of the 21 missions, and many still serve as the primary worship spaces for active Catholic parishes.

The bill contains language providing the secretary of the interior would ensure the purpose of any grant to a mission under it “is secular, does not promote religion, and seeks to protect those qualities (of the mission) that are historically significant.”

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the subcommittee there were significant difficulties with such a requirement.

“It is impossible to segregate the historical from the spiritual and expect that government funds only go to the former,” he said. “Any funds that end up maintaining or restoring religious icons associated with devotion and worship will be viewed as an endorsement of religion at taxpayer expense.”

But Boxer, who characterized herself as a strong supporter of church-state separation, said she thought the bill's protections were adequate.

“It was put together in a very careful way–the funding goes to a foundation, not to a religious organization,” she testified.

Passing money through a non-religious foundation would not be sufficient to avoid a violation of the Constitution's ban on government support for religion, Lynn argued.

He cited a trio of Supreme Court decisions banning any government support for construction or maintenance of buildings whose primary purpose is religious worship or instruction.

“That seminal line of cases is unaffected by any subsequent church-state decision,” he said. “Supporters of the mission grants contemplated by this bill would be skating on constitutional thin ice to believe that this long-standing principle has been altered, much less nullified.”

The Bush administration has pushed for government funding for religious groups–including a controversial decision last year to provide historic-preservation grants for projects at an Episcopal church in Boston and a Jewish synagogue in Newport, R.I.

However, Lynn noted regulations issued in September by the Department of Housing and Urban Development say department funds “may not be used for acquisition, construction or rehabilitation of sanctuaries, chapels or any other rooms that a religious congregation … uses as its principal place of worship.”

But Boxer noted there was contrary federal precedent. She said four Catholic missions in San Antonio have received federal funding through the National Park Service every year since 1978, even though they still host worship services.

“We don't have time to debate the nuances of doing this, because we are losing our missions,” she said.

The House passed the bill.

Posted: 3/19/04

CBF enters partnership with African Baptists

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

KUMASI, Ghana (ABP)–The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has signed a partnership agreement to do ministry with the All Africa Baptist Fellowship, an umbrella organization of Baptists in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The three-year, renewable agreement will deploy CBF resources and volunteers to conduct mission and ministry projects with Baptists in those countries as well as help All Africa Baptist Fellowship work for reconciliation among various African nations and groups.

CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal and Global Missions Co-coordinator Barbara Baldridge signed the agreement during a recent 10-day tour of ministry locations in Africa, with stops in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. For the signing ceremony, Frank Adams, All Africa Baptist Fellowship general secretary, represented the African Baptist group, which is one of six regional fellowships that comprise the Baptist World Alliance.

“God has called us as a Fellowship to be the presence of Christ in the world,” Vestal said in a statement. “One of the ways in which we can answer that call is to walk alongside our African brothers and sisters.”

The CBF and the All Africa Baptist Fellowship will coordinate the work of American volunteers and selection of ministry projects.

Also included in the partnership will be conferences on peacemaking, holistic development and theological education, which will benefit from CBF grants of $5,000 for three years, the leaders said.

“Our mission is to collaborate with churches and other groups to engage in holistic missions among the most neglected people in the world,” Baldridge said. “This partnership furthers that mission and will help us learn more effective ways to be the presence of Christ in Africa.”

The CBF also will help the All Africa Baptist Fellowship strengthen its organization and improve relationships between its member Baptist conventions. Although the African group has been in existence for some time, regional and national tensions have interfered with relationships between Baptist conventions.

The CBF currently has six missionaries serving in three countries in Africa.

Posted: 3/19/04

NAMB chaplain numbers appear on the rise

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The total number of chaplains endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board dropped from 2000 to 2003 but is on the rise this year, according to an agency spokesman.

Total NAMB-endorsed chaplains in active service dropped about 7 percent–from 2,590 in 2000 to 2,406 in 2003, according to spokesman Marty King. Healthcare endorsements dropped most.

The 3,287 recorded in last year's SBC Annual was a reporting anomaly, King noted. Unlike the other numbers cited, that total included retirees and chaplains holding multiple endorsements, such as an individual who serves as a chaplain both in a hospital and with a fire department.

It appears that most of those who wanted to transfer already have done it, King said. NAMB year-to-date endorsement numbers are up; the board endorsed about 50 chaplains in its first two meetings this year.

Most chaplain employers, including the military, require endorsement. The process certifies a person is prepared to be a spiritual counselor. NAMB is the endorsing agency of the SBC.

The drop in NAMB-endorsed chaplains coincides with other Baptist groups starting to endorse chaplains. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship began endorsing chaplains in 1998. The Baptist General Convention of Texas started endorsing chaplains in 2002.

Clearly, some chaplains transferred their endorsements from NAMB to the more recent endorsers because they felt “more closely aligned” with those groups, King said.

In recent years, NAMB has stopped endorsing ordained female chaplains and even more recently decided to stop ordaining female military chaplains, angering some of the chaplains the board had endorsed.

The departure of Bob Vickers, former director of NAMB chaplaincy evangelism, also infuriated some ministers.

Bobby Smith, director of the BGCT chaplaincy relations office, said chaplains are transferring for more than theological reasons.

The BGCT chaplaincy effort goes beyond endorsement to focus on fellowship. Smith routinely visits chaplains in the field and calls them together for an annual retreat.

“People are transferring across because they like our ministry of relationship and support,” he said.

Posted: 3/19/04

Evangelicals make mark on society
as they bring faith into marketplace, author says

DALLAS–Evangelical Christians are making a mark on American society as they bring their faith into the marketplace, author Michael Lindsay told students and faculty at Dallas Baptist University.

Lindsay, a Baylor University graduate who is completing his doctorate in sociology at Princeton University, recently delivered the second annual George Gallup Jr. Distinguished Lectures Series at DBU.

At one point in American history, faith was deemed private and not appropriate for discussion in the public sphere, he told a DBU chapel audience.

But a new generation of evangelical Christians is breaking out of that mold, said Lindsay, who co-wrote two books with Gallup.

Research among self-identified evangelical Christians throughout the United States identified a growing group of leaders in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, New York City and Washington, D.C. These individuals have become convinced Christianity is not a private faith, Lindsay noted.

“Evangelicals are rising to positions of influence and power in this country, and they are working to bring their faith to bear on their vocations,” he said.

“These committed believers, in turn, have begun to change their world in big ways.”

Lindsay challenged the DBU student body to catch this vision of cultural renewal.

“These new trends are exciting, and a cause for great hope,” he said.

“And the most exciting things are occurring among your generation.”

Lindsay, who served previously as special assistant to the president at DBU, told faculty and staff to remember the mentoring role teachers at Christian schools perform.

“Mentors help us find our way,” he said.

“And as mentors to DBU students, you are helping these young people find their way and become all that God has called them to be.”

Posted: 3/19/04

Hearing held on same-sex marriage

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing recently to discuss the advisability of amending the Constitution to ban gay marriages.

This was the second such discussion convened by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the subcommittee's chairman. The subcommittee sponsored a similar hearing Sept. 4. Since then, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court twice has affirmed that state's Constitution requires equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

The Federal Marriage Amendment, currently making its way through both houses of Congress, would ban marriage and “the legal incidents thereof” for same-sex couples nationwide. Although polls show the amendment has some support from the general public, most political observers say it has little chance of passing.

At the latest hearing, Cornyn said banning gay marriage should be “a bipartisan issue.” But Democrats on the panel balked at that suggestion.

In his opening statement, Cornyn said the amendment was necessary because “activist judges like those in Massachusetts, California and elsewhere” are presenting “a clear and present danger to traditional marriage laws across the nation.”

But Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, said an amendment wasn't necessary and called Bush's support for one “an attempt to salvage his faltering re-election campaign.”

Kennedy added: “President Bush will go down in history as the first president to try to write bias back into the Constitution.”

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) also announced the Senate will vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment before the year is over. “If we allow activist judges to redefine marriage, we are gambling with our future,” he said at a pre-hearing press conference with FMA supporters. The Senate, he added, “can't let that happen.”

Proponents of the amendment argue that once gay marriages are legally recognized in one state, the courts will force other states to recognize them.

But an expert in the portion of the U.S. Constitution that requires states to recognize legal acts of other states said there is no legal precedent for states being forced to recognize marriages performed in other states when such marriages violate the second state's public policy. “The (Constitution's) full faith and credit clause has never been read to reach that result,” said Lea Brilmayer, a professor at Yale Law School.

States that ban marriages between first cousins, for instance, have not been required to recognize first-cousin marriages from other states.

“There's always been vast differences in marriage laws between one state and another,” she said.

Under questioning by senators, Brilmayer did concede that federal courts may eventually overturn all state bans on same-sex marriage under a challenge based on a different part of the Constitution–its equal-protection provisions.

Dick Richardson, a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and head of an inner-city children's social-service agency in Boston, testified in favor of a gay-marriage ban.

“The dilution of the ideal–of procreation and child-rearing within the marriage of one man and one woman–has already had a devastating effect on our community,” he said.

“We need to be strengthening the institution of marriage, not diluting it. … This discussion about marriage is not about adult love. It is about finding the best arrangement for raising children, and as history, tradition, biology, sociology and just plain common sense tell us, children are raised best by their biological father and mother.”

The hearing room was packed with same-sex couples–many of them accompanied by their young children–who had been encouraged to attend by gay-rights groups.

The proposed amendment would be the first since Prohibition designed to curtail rights rather than expand them. A reporter asked Richardson, an African-American, if that fact gave him pause in casting his support behind the FMA.

“This is about children. If you want to talk about discrimination, maybe children are being discriminated against,” he responded.

Posted: 3/19/04

RANGE WRITER:
Western author Elmer Kelton

Elmer Kelton is the author of more than 40 novels, including his latest, “Texas Vendetta,” now on bookstore shelves. He is the winner of seven Spur awards from the Western Writers of America and has had three of his novels appear in Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Four have won Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. He has been honored by the Texas Institute of Letters, the Western Literature Association, the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock and the Larry McMurtry Center for Arts and Humanities at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. He received honorary doctorates from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

A native of Crane, Kelton attended the University of Texas, earning a bachelor's degree in journalism. He spent 15 years as farm and ranch writer-editor for the San Angelo Standard-Times, five years as editor of Sheep and Goat Raiser Magazine and 22 years as associate editor of Livestock Weekly, from which he retired in 1990.

He and his wife, Ann, have two grown sons and a daughter, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. They live in San Angelo.

Q.

Did you read much as a young boy?

I read everything I could get my hands on as a kid. I was a worry to my dad because every time he looked around I was reading something. I read everything, no matter what it was about. I loved books and magazines. I loved stories–western stories, adventure stories, anything like that. I remember reading “The Wizard of Oz” when I was in about the third grade, but I particularly loved stories about cowboys and horses. I was a voracious reader.

Elmer Kelton

Q.

Who were your favorite authors?

As a youngster, the ones who influenced me toward what I do now, at that period of my life, were J. Frank Dobie, Will James and Zane Grey. Each of them had different but somewhat the same basic material. But then I read western pulp magazines and got to know by name some of the old western pulp writers and got to meet some of them as I grew older. Those three, Dobie, James and Grey, were probably No. 1, but I read the adventure novels by Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling.

Q.

When did you first think about becoming a writer?

I started making up stories of my own by the time I was 8 or 9 years old, and I think from that point on, I knew pretty much, in some way or another, that is what I wanted to do.

Q.

You grew up on a ranch. What was your life like? What was your routine?

I don't know that we had a routine. At the time, my dad was the ranch foreman for the McElroy Ranch at Crane, I was the oldest of four boys.

We all went to school, but when school was out in the summer, Dad always had something for us to do. We spent a lot of time on horseback working cattle and spent a lot of time doing menial things such as digging postholes, fixing fence and pulling sucker rods out of windmills. That's the part of life that never gets in the books. It was just whatever dad wanted us to do, and he tried to keep us busy. He was a hard worker himself, and he wanted us to know how to work, and we grew up with a Christian work ethic. Even now, if I'm not doing anything, I've always got a little guilt feeling. I owe that to my dad, I guess. Anyway, it was a fun life in its way, although some of it was hard work. I was always a little ashamed of my cowboy abilities, because I just wasn't as good at it as some of them were. I compensated for it by reading and took a lot of vicarious pleasure out of the stories.

Q.

You have written more than 40 novels. What is the most difficult part of the job?

I guess the most difficult part is to make yourself sit down and work at it. Of course, you have to come up with a story, and often it's hard to come up with a good workable plot to build your story around. I try to tell my stories through the characters, but I have to have plot for them to work with–a problem or obstacle or whatever it is to be worked out to tell a story. You have to have some problem or obstacle or you don't have a story.

So working that out can be tough sometimes. I'm working on one now where I am going back to a character I've used before, and I'm already up to 100 pages, and I still don't know where I'm going with it yet. I don't have a clearly formulated plot outline in my head, but I trust the character to take care of me. He'll lead me through it.

Q.

What do you like most about writing novels?

Finishing one. It's not hard physical work, although you often feel physically drained after you've stayed with it for hours at a time. It's mostly mental work, but it certainly can sap your strength. Getting the feeling that you've done a good day's work, that you've gotten several good pages on paper, or, any more, on the computer. There's a lot of satisfaction after you're done, though it's hard work while you're doing it. Robert Louis Stevenson once said he hated to write but loved having written, and there's a lot of truth in that.

Q.

How do you deal with writer's block?

I usually try to analyze what is the matter with me. I think that most of the time writer's block is a subconscious thing that happens when you either haven't thought it out too well or you've tried to make something happen in the story that doesn't really quite fit. At some subconconscious level, I think that stops you, and when you finally trace it back and analyze where you've gone wrong and fix it, the block disappears.

Q.

How much time do you spend writing?

I don't know. I don't quantify it. On days when I am home, I try to spend the better part of the day at it, five or six hours, although I may be doing other things, too. … It's hard to try to do a specific number of pages a day, because some days it just flows and other days it's like pulling teeth, word by word, and you feel good if you get a couple of decent pages together. I don't set myself a quota, although I do set myself a deadline for finishing a project. Right now, I'm trying to do a book a year. As long as I feel I'm meeting that goal, I don't stress myself over it.

Q.

You are doing a book a year, and you said you had about 100 pages on another. Are you thinking about others as you write this new one?

Not at this moment. In the past I would be working on one and thinking about the next couple or three. Now, as I get older, I'm taking them a book at a time. And my family and my agent have been after me to do my memoirs, so I probably will do that next after I finish this book.

I'm getting up on 78 now, and I don't know how many more books are left.

Q.

Did you work for a newspaper to make a living so you could write novels, or did you write novels so you could afford to work for a newspaper?

I think either one applies to some degree. The newspaper work was for a living. I enjoyed it and specialized in agriculture for 42 years, but the biggest part of the time it subsidized my novel writing. It paid the freight, for the groceries, for the house, so I didn't have to depend on my books for a living. It freed me to write the kind of books I wanted to write because life didn't depend on whether I sold that book or not.

Having a steady job was a liberating influence for me as a writer, but my overall ambition was always to be a fiction writer. As it turned out, my journalism career gave me the background for a lot of the books I've written. … I've always felt the two careers complemented each other.

Q.

Where do you get the idea for a novel?

That's hard to answer. Sometimes it's from a story I hear or some story I've read out of history. I usually try to pick a period of history when there is change and a natural conflict because of that change. There's always a natural conflict when you come into a period of intense change, because you have people who are trying to promote the change and those who are trying to hold the status quo. I have tried to write about just about every major period of Texas history.

Q.

How many of the characters from your life on the ranch and later show up in your novels?

Quite a few. They may not come directly, but I try to borrow from people I've known and known about. Charlie Flagg in “The Time It Never Rained” was a composite of a bunch of ranchers I knew, including my father. Hewey Calloway in “The Good Old Boys” was a composite of a number of cowboys I knew when I was growing up. Those are probably my two strongest characters I've written about. Other characters come from various places. … I try not to take some real person and set him in a book as he is, but I borrow things from people and use them.

Q.

Why do you think books about the West have such broad appeal?

I think part of it is there is a mystique about that frontier period in our history. … That frontier experience, the westward movement goes back to something in a person's family history, some way or another, so there is a relationship, and you think in some sense this is about your forebears.

In another sense, readers perceive it as a simpler time when good was good, bad was bad, black was black, white was white, and you didn't have all these shades of gray to contend with. You have the feeling, although it probably isn't necessarily true, that people were more independent and not little cogs in a big wheel. It's sort of an escape for people. It serves a function, like the old myths in Europe served in their time. … I guess people need myths to tell them who they are.

Q.

What role has religious faith played in your life?

It hasn't been No. 1, but it has always been an underlying factor in my life and the way I view things. My people on both sides of my family over the years tended to be Baptists. My mother became a Methodist and brought us up Methodist. It's been a factor in guiding my outlook on life, right and wrong. … When I went off to service in World War II, I found myself at 18 in a front-line infantry company in Germany, and I thought about it a lot at that time. I kept a little Bible in my pack, and just before I shipped out for overseas, I was at Camp Howse in Gainesville and went to a little Methodist church. They gave me a prayer book, and in the back were a bunch of hymns. One that they sang was “Just as I Am.” I memorized it, and during the time I was on the front line with a knot of fear in my stomach, that hymn and prayer book pulled me through it.

Three or four years ago, I had a heart attack and was told I had to have bypass surgery. I felt real peaceful about it. I said whatever the Lord wants for me, that's what will be and went into it with total calm and peace. That faith was there.

Interview by Toby Druin

Posted: 3/19/04

Some ministers' children drawn to life of ministry

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Being a minister can be tough. Church members expect their ministers to be perfect while dynamically leading congregations to bring heaven to earth.

Ministers' concerns include finances, evangelism and Bible studies. And they regularly deal with people in times of crisis, such as illness or death.

The position also comes with little job security. Many ministers last only a few years with one church.

This setting would drive some people away from being a minister, but some Texas Baptist ministers' children see the experience as an education that prepared them to answer their own calling to ministry.

The pressures and struggles on a minister's family are difficult for maturing children to understand, but those issues can make people stronger in their faith, said Ridge Adams, pastor of Willow Grove Baptist Church in Moody, whose father, Tom, is pastor of Pendleton Community Church in Moody.

Hindsight allows Adams to see the sacrifices of his childhood as character-building experiences.

“Originally, I didn't want to become a pastor,” he said.

“I saw the struggles we went through to make ends meet.

“I think maybe I did not understand the nature of the adversity. Reflecting back on those experiences, there was growth, there was a display of grace.”

Dale Perkins Jr., music minister at First Baptist Church of Atlanta in East Texas, said it was helpful that his father intentionally projected a positive image of the church.

The older Perkins, music minister at Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview, did not mention any frustrations with his work or church members, his son said.

He encouraged children to get involved in congregational activities.

“We grew up thinking the church was a perfect place,” said Perkins, whose brothers also are ministers.

Parents who are ministers can help prepare their children for their calling, said Don Blackley, associate pastor of music and worship at First Baptist Church in Richardson.

His son, Trent, is minister of music and worship at First Baptist Church in Sunnyvale.

Mature ministers can help people who feel a call to the ministry understand the commitment they are making, Blackley said.

Beyond that, fathers serve as mentors for their grown children.

Perkins speaks to his father as often as five times a week. Adams' church sponsors his father's church.

Parents and children can encourage each other and discuss the ministry together. Blackley and his son have worked together through the Singing Men of Texas.

“We spend a lot of time talking about music, ministry, objectives, and now we can talk about the problems,” Perkins said.

“As far as I'm concerned, he's the best music minister that's ever been. Why would I go to anyone else for advice?”

Posted: 3/19/04

Panhandle preaching conference focuses on reconciliation

By Toby Druin

Editor Emeritus

PLAINVIEW–Reconciliation was the theme of the 83rd annual Panhandle Pastors' and Laymen's Conference, and before it was over, conference planners got a chance to apply it.

They reconciled themselves to the weather, a four-inch snowfall, and called off the final night session.

But in more than 11 hours of preaching, singing and testimonies in the other four sessions held at Wayland Baptist University, several hundred who braved the weather heard Chris Seay, Joel Gregory, four of their retired leaders and the Lowries–D.L. and his pastor sons John, Steve and David–exhort them to be reconciled to God, to their fellow Baptists and to non-Christians who see the church as more interested in making them behave than it is in sharing the grace that comes through belief.

Seay, pastor of Ecclesia, a ministry in the Montrose section of Houston, told the pastors he was there to provoke their thinking and challenged them to trust the gospel and use inroads provided by movies, television and music to talk to people about Christ.

A third-generation Baptist pastor, Seay said his is the first “post-Christian” generation, and every year an increasing number of people his age are walking away from the church, many of them doing so because their Internet-oriented worldview demands a bigger church than they are being presented.

One study, he said, showed evangelical Christians are the third-most despised people, behind pedophiles and serial killers.

“The perception is we are here to judge and condemn,” Seay said.

“We have become a people so concerned with morality we've forgotten the gospel. We should deal with morality after people come to Christ. Only in Christ do we have the power to change things.”

Too many Christians want to hold the people they are trying to lead to Christ at arm's length, he said. “We must live among these people who are consumed with sin and vice.”

Seay showed several films made by children and adults in Ecclesia to illustrate that even a very simple presentation of the gospel story is powerful.

Leonel Gonzales, president of the Hispanic Pastor's and Laymen's Conference, speaks with Alcides Guajardo, left, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention, and Glen Godsey.

Christians should follow the example of the Old Testament figure Daniel and his friends, Seay said. They lived among people who worshipped false gods, but they remained faithful to scriptural teachings. Likewise, Christians must “live in the world. If we are not the salt (that non-Christians need to experience) then no one will be,” he said.

Non-Christians are searching for family, as evidenced by the extreme popularity of the television series, “The Sopranos,” which depicts the family life as well as the criminal activity of a mafia family.

“People are striving for a sense of family and find it in a criminal family, not the family of God,” he said. “I urge you to interact with people. They will understand the beauty of the glory of God. That beauty is the most persuasive aspect of the gospel.”

Gregory made an emotional return to the conference after a 13-year absence following 13 consecutive years of leading the Bible study in the late 1970s and through the 1980s.

Invited by conference President Charles Davenport of First Baptist Church of Tulia, Gregory said the conference was a “place I didn't expect to be again.”

Giving his testimony, the one-time pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas noted he resigned that position 12 years ago this September, moving from a “mansion to a tiny apartment, from a large compensation to a job as a commissioned salesman selling funerals door-to-door.”

He didn't want to face people, he said. “Over two years, my life disintegrated. Some people on whom I called shut the door in my face; others burst into tears.”

He came to realize that most people “were just barely making it” in life, he said, and he found that when he was barely making it, he lacked the faith that he was still a preacher.

“I no longer believed I would ever say a word for God again,” he said.

But two or three people kept calling and saying God hadn't given up on him. And one, the late E.K. Bailey of Dallas, “called me week after week,” he recalled. In 1997, Bailey “dared to ask me to preach at a pastors' conference at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas. There were 1,000 preachers there.”

Gregory said he has disqualified himself from ever serving as a pastor again but felt that God had deposited something in him–a “treasure in an earthen vessel”–and he wanted to use it.

He talked to Stephen Olford, the longtime pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in New York City, and “the closest Baptists have to a pope,” he said, and Olford reminded him that God had given him the calling and gift of preaching.

“Let no one mistake the fact that I don't know the depth of my failures,” Gregory said. “We don't fall up; we fall down.”

Some people rejoice that he is preaching again, he said, while others wish he would never say another word.

“If there is anything left in the story of my life,” he added, “it is that the excellence of the power be of God and not of me. The only reason I have to stand anywhere is the excellence of the power of God.”

In other messages, Gregory said that what lasts in this world are things connected with the gospel and kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and that Christians should be “living stones” serving the “living Stone” that is Jesus Christ.

Grover Neal, pastor of St. John Baptist Church in Amarillo and a veteran in the battle for improved race relations, cited an “Issues and Answers” pamphlet on the subject produced by the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission in the early 1970s, saying the first place to address the problems of race relations is in churches.

“Only the church can address the sin of racism,” he said. “Wouldn't it be good if every church emphasized that I am my brother's keeper and we should love each other as Christ loved us?”

Alcides Guajardo, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, cited the need to reach Hispanics for Christ. Noting Hispanics will be the majority in Texas by 2013, he said: “We must reach Hispanic Texans. If we do not do much more than we are doing now, our future as Texas Baptists is not very bright.”

Guajardo also spoke at the 10th annual Conference of Hispanic Pastors and Laymen held in Brown Chapel at Wayland. More than 180 attended.

The sermons by D.L. Lowrie, retired pastor of First Baptist Church of Lubbock, and his three pastor sons, John of First Baptist Church of Abernathy, Steve of First Baptist Church of Dalhart and David of First Baptist Church of Canyon, were a first for the conference.

John, preaching from John 17:20-25, said it is God's will that brothers be reconciled, that such reconciliation will change the questions being asked from who killed Christ to why he died and because Christians are the “doxology” of God–“If the world is going to see Jesus Christ, it will see him in you.”

Steve, reading the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18, said reconciliation is connected to revival.

He recalled a revival meeting at one of his churches where revival came when people began to confess sins committed against others in the congregation.

“Jesus said that before we pray, we are to ask for forgiveness,” he said.

David noted the accounts in Acts of Paul and Barnabas coming together and then splitting over the use of Mark and then Paul later noting Mark's usefulness.

Conflict in families, including Baptists, is normal, he said, and God can use it to advance his cause.

“God won't give up because we can't get along,” he said. “God isn't finished with us yet. I'm praying for the day when we will come to our senses and admit we are helpful for each other.”

God wants Baptists to move past using labels to using names, he said. “Imagine all of us at the table and Jesus at the head of the table. It could happen if we stop using labels.”

“So many conflicts come over trivial matters,” said D.L., preaching from 1 Corinthians 8:1, where the issue was over whether to eat meat from pagan altars and Paul noted knowledge had led to strong opinions and a split.

“Knowledge leads to an inflated sense of importance; it's the nature of knowledge that it puffs up and leads to pride,” Lowrie said.

“Love edifies the lover and the person loved. … If you love your brother, you do nothing to hinder him or get in the way of him growing and being useful in the Lord. We have enough knowledge.”

The conference is sponsored by the associations and areas in the Panhandle and South Plains. Four retired directors of missions–Strauss Atkinson of Caprock-Plains Area, Chester O'Brien and B.L. Davis of Amarillo Association, and Floyd Bradley of Caprock-Plains Area–brought theme interpretations.

New officers for 2005 are Jackie Gestes, president, pastor of New Horizon Baptist Church of Lubbock; Steve Vernon, president-elect, pastor of First Baptist Church of Levelland; vice president, Danny Andrews, layman, First Baptist Church of Plainview; Kenneth Glidewell, second vice president, layman, First Baptist Church of Paducah; and Charles Bassett, secretary-treasurer, retired longtime Wayland Baptist University staff member, currently at First Baptist Church of Weatherford.

Posted: 3/19/04

Churches slow to acknowledge members
have problem with pornography

By Beau Black

Religion News Service

FORT WORTH (RNS)–Pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry and widely available via the Internet–no longer just a dirty little secret.

And evangelical churches, who over the past decades have led the public policy crusade against indecency, are slowly starting to admit to widespread use of pornography among men in their own pews.

Between 40 percent and 70 percent of evangelical Christian men admit they struggle with pornography, says Henry Rogers, a corporate chaplain who records his own experience in “The Silent War,” a book published by New Leaf Press.

Rogers and other like-minded experts say pornography addiction has become a problem of epidemic proportions, one that divides men from family and faith.

It is a tricky problem to address.

“The devil loves a secret,” says Al Meredith, pastor of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth. “You don't have to go down to an adult store now and risk being seen in the parking lot” when pornography is readily available on the Internet at the office or at home.

Unlike eating disorders or substance addiction, pornography and sexual addiction still bear a stigma that years of Oprah-ization have drained from other behaviors. Many pastors decline to preach on lust, much less pornography.

Now, because of the spread of Internet pornography and studies indicating the number of men who look at it, churches like Wedgwood and McLean (Va.) Bible Church near Washington, D.C., along with Promise Keepers and the college-targeted Passion ministry, are wading into battle, speaking out against pornography and launching counseling and support groups to help people who struggle with it.

Some experts question whether pornography is a problem at all. British attorney and ethicist Francis Bennion writes in “The Sex Code: Morals For Moderns” that “stimulative pornography” is helpful and should generally be treated as “not immoral.”

Not so for Christians, says Eddie Traughber, a counselor at Austin Street Church of Christ in Garland.

Scripture clearly condemns pornography, Traughber maintains. “According to what Jesus says, if you look lustfully at a woman, you've committed adultery in your heart.”

Viewing pornography can have the same addictive effect on brain chemistry that alcohol or drugs do, Rogers says. “It satisfies for a season, but you want more. It's the same with alcohol.”

Rogers has observed the effect of pornography on the marriages of men he's counseled.

“Your wife won't compete with pornography. The woman online will do whatever I want, and my wife won't do that,” he says. “Nothing cuts at the heart of a woman more than finding out her husband isn't satisfied with her.”

And men aren't the only ones falling into the trap. Shannon Ethridge, author of “Every Woman's Battle,” recalls a recent survey of Today's Christian Woman magazine readers. Of the conservative Christian respondents, 34 percent admitted to accessing visual porn on the Internet, she says. “I think women are finally saying, 'Hey, I'm not the only one.'”

How does viewing pornography turn into an addiction? Colorado Springs-based counselor Doug Weiss identifies some warning signs:

Thoughts preoccupied with pornography.

Spending more time with pornography than you want to.

Losing interest in other activities.

Promising to stop but repeatedly failing.

Finding someone to open up to is a crucial first step in overcoming pornography as an addiction, says Traughber. Whether it's a counselor, pastor or friend, confessing sins is a biblical and psychological imperative.

Next, he says, “you have to be willing to perform a 'radical amputation'–getting rid of the Internet, using a filter, getting rid of magazines, not going to certain parts of town” to begin to break the addictive cycle.

Weiss urges the church: “Get out of denial.” Pastors need to talk about pornography from the pulpit, admitting their own struggles. Rogers says he looks forward to the day when pastors don't call the “porn guy” to come speak but deal with it themselves.

Finally, Weiss encourages churches to “pick a leader and start a (support) group.”

Dave Brown, men's pastor at McLean Bible Church, says aside from offering counseling and encouraging accountability, his group's approach involves refocusing men on “what biblical manhood is” including “the unique responsibilities God has given them in their families, marriages, churches and communities.”

“All of us struggle with sin,” says Meredith. “The only one who gains from (keeping it secret) is the devil. All of us have the idea that 'if anyone knew what I struggle with, they'd throw me out of here.'”

Ethridge points to the Bible for inspiration.

“There's always that feeling that no one will understand. But it goes back to Scripture that no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. There's nothing new under the sun,” she says.

Posted: 3/19/04

At 95, Bev Shea still awed by the wonder of it all

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

George Beverly Shea often wished he could preach like his father and grandfather, but he seemed to lack the “gift.”

Even so, when he was on staff at WMBI, the Moody Bible Institute's flagship radio station in Chicago, a professor advised him to “turn (his) eyes to the pulpit,” because he'd never be able to make a living singing sacred music.

Shea didn't listen. Instead, he began a career as a Christian singer that has spanned six decades, perhaps sharing the gospel in song with more people than anyone in history as featured vocalist with Billy Graham's evangelistic crusades.

“Bill Fasig, our team instrumentalist who went to be with the Lord soon after the 2002 Metroplex Mission in Dallas, said, 'God uses music to open the heart and the word of God to fill it,'” Shea said. “I just try to set things up for Mr. Graham to talk about the Lord.”

Shea recalled a time several years ago when he was invited to submit an entry to the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the person who has sung live to more people than anyone. He never bothered to fill out the paperwork.

While that record remains unconfirmed, other honors have come his way through the years–10 Grammy Award nominations and one Grammy Award, as well as induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Religious Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

His resonant bass-baritone voice has been heard on “The Hour of Decision” radio program more than 50 years, and he has recorded more than 70 sacred music albums and composed Christian standards such as “The Wonder of It All.”

But his greatest joy has come in traveling with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, singing gospel songs on every continent and in every state of the Union.

He shared recollections from many of those evangelistic crusades, as well as other personal reflections, in a recent book, “How Sweet the Sound,” published by Tyndale House.

In the book, which he refers to as “just a collection of stories glued together,” he identified more than 50 of his favorite hymns and gospel songs.

He told about being deeply moved when he visited the graves of John Newton, the former slave trader who penned “Amazing Grace,” and Fanny Crosby, the blind composer of more than 8,000 gospel songs, including “Blessed Assurance.”

And he recounted the story of a truck driver who said he was moved to tears every time he heard “Lord, I'm Coming Home” on the radio. Shea personally led the man to faith in Jesus Christ.

In addition to Shea's memories of hymns such as “Rock of Ages” and “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” the book also includes lesser-known family favorites, such as the blessing for food sung around the dinner table of his boyhood home in Canada.

He resisted the idea of singling out one favorite but acknowledged: “I never really get tired of 'How Great Thou Art.' It wears well. It still gets to your heart.”

While Shea speaks fondly of friends in contemporary Christian music, he admitted: “I probably would make a fool of myself if I tried (to sing contemporary music). I stick with the old ones. They have the ability to get to the heart so quickly.”

At the church Shea and his wife, Karlene, attend near their North Carolina home, the worship service every-other week follows a contemporary format.

“We stand for 15 minutes at a time, singing songs nobody will even think of tomorrow,” he said with disapproval. “But there are good songs being written. There always needs to be change.”

Shea pointed out his friends Kurt Kaiser and Ralph Carmichael were on the cutting edge of Christian music 25 years ago. He also voiced great respect for modern composers such as Michael W. Smith and performer Michael Tait of dc Talk, who have become a part of recent Billy Graham Missions, as the evangelistic crusades are now called.

At age 95, Shea already has committed to participate in upcoming evangelistic meetings in Kansas City and Los Angeles this year, in addition to Graham's return to Madison Square Garden in 2005.

“Madison Square Garden almost has to be the last one for him at his age, and I'm 10 years older than he is,” he said.

Shea knows his voice is not as strong as it once was, but he said: “I'll go along and do what I can. … I talked with Mr. Graham less than a year ago, asking if he wanted me to step down because of my age. He told me, 'If you lose all your teeth, just come whistle.'”

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Posted: 3/19/04

Emergency food shipment arrives in war-torn Haiti

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–A planeload of food sent by Texas Baptist Men arrived earlier this month in Haiti, a country recently ravaged by civil war.

More than 300 pounds of non-perishable food landed at the airport in Cap Haitien.

The food will be distributed through an agricultural training center that TBM has worked with in the past.

TBM is coordinating the relief project through a missionary to Haiti with whom the Texas volunteers have worked on earlier missions efforts. He temporarily relocated to Florida when civil unrest in Haiti began.

Organizers of the relief effort hope the food will ease the people's struggles, said TBM Executive Director Leo Smith.

Food is becoming scarce because shipments are difficult to get in the country.

“It's the innocents who suffer when they are in civil war like they are there,” Smith said.

“We aim to bring some relief to them.”

According to reports, the country remains in chaos. Armed gangs continue roaming the streets despite the presence of a multi-national peacekeeping force led by the United States.

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned as a rebel force sought to overthrow him Feb. 29. Gerard Latortue since has been named president.

Texas Baptists can contribute financially to the relief project by designating checks “Haitian relief” and sending them to Texas Baptist Men, 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246-1798.