Posted: 2/15/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
"Yes" of the heart

By Jeanie Miley

“Yes, I agree with you.”

The words were right, and so, I took the words at face value and made my plans, based on what I thought was an agreement.

Only later, I found out that while the person said “yes,” everything else within that other person was screaming “no,” and I didn’t have the life experience to hear the real message that was underneath the words.

If I had paid attention, or if I had been more astute at reading tone of voice and facial gestures, I would have seen the signs and could have saved myself a lot of trouble. As it was, I had to pay, big time, for the behavior of another person whose “yes” meant “no.”

Reflecting on Jesus’ invitation to “believe and receive,” it strikes me that Jesus knew well the duplicitous ways of human beings, and so he made it clear that it isn’t enough just to give mental or verbal assent to a proposition. Instead, if you really want to be transformed and live the abundant life that is available through the mystery and miracle of the living Christ, then you really do have to welcome that transforming Presence into every single nook and cranny of your life.

When a stranger comes to my front door and rings the doorbell, I open my door, but he doesn’t get to come in and join my family at the dinner table. We take care of business, and then he goes on his way, and I go back to my life, as usual, before he interrupted me.

The bookcases in my study are lined with books about the life of Jesus, for the facts and interpretations about him have been a source of ongoing fascination to me for my entire adult life. My hunger to know the historical Jesus and to learn his teachings is never fully satisfied.

Intellectual assent to the facts of Jesus’ life, however, as good as it is, isn’t enough. Just “saying yes” to the facts isn’t enough. As long as Jesus remains a doctrine to be argued, a theory to be explored, a set of facts to be memorized or a concept to be analyzed, I can keep that Change Agent in the book cases, neat and manageable, or on the front porch of my life, closing the door and going back to business when I am ready.

When someone I love comes to my house, on the other hand, I prepare my home and turn on the porch light. I throw open the door and embrace the person with gladness and open arms, receiving him with celebration and bringing him into my home and give him a seat at my table. And if the person arriving happens to be one of my children or a precious friend, I may even meet that person on the driveway, I’m so happy to see him!

The One who calls us “friend” doesn’t want to be boxed up in a theory or a doctrine. The living Christ wants us to open our minds and hearts to receive the fullness of all that he is into the innermost rooms of our lives. It is in the welcoming embrace that a relationship with Christ really does begin to heal us, liberate us and empower us to be and become all that a human being, made in the image of God, can be.

Saying “yes” in a verbal agreement is a beginning. If there is really going to be a transformation, however, that “yes” must be accompanied by a welcoming “yes” of the heart.

Jeanie Miley is an author and columnist and a retreat and workshop leader. She is married to Martus Miley, pastor of River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston, and they have three adult daughters.

Posted: 2/06/04

'The Passion of The Christ' more than a movie

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DENTON–“The Passion of the Christ” will spark a stampede from theater seats to church pews, and Christians need to be ready to answer the questions the movie raises, Steve Pate believes.

Pate, associate director of missions for Denton Baptist Association, predicts a pilgrimage to America's churches not unlike what happened after terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.

“People came to our churches in droves after 9/11, and they didn't get the answers to their questions, and they're not there now,” Pate pointed out. “If we don't get them this time, we may not get another chance, because they are going to stop thinking of the church as a place where answers to life's hard questions can be found.”

Pate urged pastors in his association to prepare for the film's Feb. 25 Ash Wednesday opening: “Whatever you've got planned for preaching, you'd better jettison that and answer the questions that people are going to be coming with.”

Pate suggested pastors cover subjects such as the accuracy of the Bible, the humanity of Jesus, the necessity of Christ's painful death by crucifixion and evidence of the resurrection.

“This film brings up a lot more questions than it answers, but I don't see how anyone can see it and not think of it as a tool for evangelism. True, this is not the altar call, but it can be the start of a spiritual journey whereby people turn their lives to faith in Jesus Christ,” Pate said.

“It really does raise more questions than it answers, but they will know the death that Jesus went through was really brutal. It's up to the church to tell them the beatings and the death on the cross were for them,” Pate said.

“The film shows what Jesus suffered, but there's no transference that this was for me. There's nothing in the film like that. The church has to do that.”

Denton Association has contracted with the United Artists theater at Vista Ridge Mall in Lewisville for two early showings of the movie.

While the movie will not be shown there during its release on Feb. 25, the movie will be shown one time on both Feb. 23 and 24 in a 300-seat theater. Pate is certain that churches within the association will buy those 600 seats well before those dates arrive.

“As soon as the e-mail goes out to the churches, those seats are gone,” he said.

This is simply an opportunity that can't be missed, Pate said. Outreach Inc. has called the film “perhaps the best outreach opportunity in 2,000 years.”

In addition to changing sermon topics, Pate also has suggested churches in his association prepare special seeker Sunday school classes so visitors can ask questions rather than just sit through a standard lesson.

In short, he believes churches should depart from their regular routine in order to accommodate people who are drawn by the film.

Jesus, portrayed by Jim Caviezal, carries the cross in a scene from "The Passion of the Christ," a film by Mel Gibson. (c) 2003 New Icon Distribution Inc. A Newmarket Films Release.(Philippe Antonello Photo)

“I'm a huge planning person, but to quote (Henry) Blackaby, 'Our job is to see what God is doing in the world and to get on board.' It's obvious looking at newspapers, the Internet and television that this is something God is active in,” Pate said.

“If churches deal with the questions these people who come are asking, there could be a huge harvest. If they don't, there will not be any.”

Pate, who has seen the film, warns Christians not to see the film alone. Instead, he urges Christians to take non-Christian friends or family members with them.

“This movie is so hard to sit through that if someone says, 'I'll go and check it out, and then I'll take someone,' they won't go back,” he said.

Pate said he would see the movie again, but he would do it only with a non-Christian and only because “evangelism is what makes my heart beat fast.”

Pate also is cautioning youth ministers who take their youth groups to make sure all have signed permission slips in hand, because the film is rated R for the violence of the crucifixion. He also advised youth ministers to provide time for discussion after young people view the film.

“They are going to need to talk about what they have seen,” he said.

The film has affected him greatly, he acknowledged.

“To see this film is a life-changing event. I will never approach the cross the same way. See this film, and you will never approach the Lord's Supper the same way. You can't. It's impossible,” he said.

“But if you want it to be a life-transforming event, take a lost person to see it with you. Don't go without taking a lost person with you.”

While he believes the movie is a great opportunity for the church to show itself relevant to society, Pate is concerned about what will happen if churches fail to take advantage of the opportunity.

“If we don't have answers to society's questions, there is a real danger that the culture will reinvent itself and leave the church right out of it.

“We can't blow this. This is the greatest chance for the churches to show their relevance since 9/11. My worry is that 9/11 was easy, and we blew it. This is hard.”

Posted: 2/06/04

Shuttle Columbia widows'
grief gives gospel global platform

By Bonnie Pritchett

Baptist Press

HOUSTON (BP)–Sandy Anderson and Evelyn Husband endured the most horrific year of their lives, but they insist they have not grieved as ones who have no hope.

Theirs has been a public grief following the tragedy that took the lives of their husbands Feb. 1, 2003, and left a mark on millions of people around the world.

The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia–just 16 minutes from touchdown in Florida after a 16-day mission in space–gave the two women a global platform for spreading the gospel.

It is not a platform they stepped upon voluntarily. But they are determined to honor the memories of their husbands and set an example for their children by proclaiming the faith in Jesus Christ their husbands shared.

During a Jan. 25 tribute to the lives and testimonies of Columbia Shuttle Commander Rick Husband and Payload Commander Mike Anderson, the widows of the two astronauts testified of God's provision during the past year.

Grace Community Church, where the Husband and Anderson families attend, hosted the memorial concert featuring recording artist Steve Green and the church choir.

Green had become friends with the Husband family years earlier, making his tribute more than a professional overture.

“It has been such a blessing to celebrate Mike's and Rick's lives,” Husband told the crowd. “We have grieved so horribly, but not without hope.”

“It's (God's) strength that gives us the power to stand,” Anderson added. “He gives us a future and a hope.”

Anderson said she was so proud both men knew Jesus Christ as Savior and had answered life's deepest question.

Noting the uncertainty of life and its end, she said, “It doesn't matter how many days we have. It's the content of our days.”

The days of Mike Anderson and Rick Husband were filled with their faith in Christ. And it is that faith that sustains the families left behind and steels their determination to make something good of something gone terribly wrong, the women testified.

Commander Rick Husband

Fielding questions during a news conference prior to the concert, Anderson and Husband mentioned their faith in almost every answer. When asked how they have dealt with their losses, Husband said, “It's been the most difficult year I've ever been through, … (but) in the midst of absolute anguish you can have joy” because of faith in Jesus.

What has been painful, Husband said, is thinking of “all of the lasts”­the last prayers with Rick or the last time he came through the door of their home.

Anderson said time has helped in the healing process, but ultimately, “What helps the most is my relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ.”

Anderson added she appreciated the support and prayers from the community.

Husband laughed and said she believes the children are dealing with the situation better than the two mothers. Laura, 13, and Matthew, 8, are the Husbands' children. The Anderson girls are Kaycee, 10, and Sydney, 12.

“My kids are doing much better,” Anderson said. God has made so many provisions for them, she added.

Both men were tremendous fathers, Husband said. They had their priorities straight­God, family, career.

The influence of the men on the lives of their children­even in such a relatively short time­is evident in how the children are dealing, in faith, with the loss of their dads. They hold no bitterness, no anger, she said.

When asked if they saw their husbands as “larger than life” as the world does with its heroes, Anderson laughed and said: “He was just a real person. … He was a very kind man. He was a good dad, a good husband. I miss talking to him.”

She misses all the things about him as a husband, she said.

Less than two weeks before the launch, Mike Anderson had a specific prayer request for his church family.

Husband recorded the statement in her book, “High Calling,” released Jan. 13: “Rick and I have prayed for a successful mission,” he said, “but also that somehow God would allow everyone to see our faith in him. We'd like to ask for your prayers as we get ready to go on this 16-day mission. And not only prayers for a safe flight but also that in some small way we can use this platform to really let people know what we believe and let God's message get out there.”

Rick Husband was equally prophetic on the night before the launch.

In the book, his wife recalled him saying, “I still have such a sense that God is up to something special with this mission.”

God has used the Columbia tragedy to touch countless lives, Evelyn Husband said.

Her husband requested that his funeral services tell of the reality of Jesus Christ.

“I do believe that God has had his hand in this,” she said. “God did not have an off day” on Feb. 1, 2003.

Husband said she could talk for hours and still not tell all the ways God has worked in the lives of people since the Columbia disaster. When she feels tempted to indulge in self-pity, Husband said, “I'm encouraged by a life that has been touched.”

And lives continued to be touched during the Sunday evening memorial concert.

One poignant moment occurred when a video was shown of Rick Husband singing during an Easter production at the church.

The live choir on stage joined their voices with their former choir member as he sang, “Were it Not for Grace.”

Tears flowed freely more than once during the course of the evening.

One such moment was when Green sang “Evelyn's Song,” a song he wrote for Husband, never intending to release it or sing it in public.

But with her permission, he shared his personal tribute with the audience.

At the end of the concert, Husband and Anderson thanked Green for his friendship and dedication.

The women presented the singer with a photo montage of the Columbia crew and flight. Some of the photos were from a roll of film recovered from the shuttle debris.

Both women signed the gift, which, Husband joked, significantly increased its value.

But the gift that drew an emotionally visible response from Green was a gift from Husband.

She said her husband had listened to Green's music during workouts on the Columbia mission.

Among his few personal effects found and returned to his wife was Green's CD.

“All the other CDs were fragments,” she told Green. “Yours wasn't.”

She presented the CD to Green, who was obviously moved by the story and the significance of the gift.

Husband and Anderson said they knew more emotional turmoil awaited them, especially as they prepared to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Columbia tragedy, including the dedication of a Columbia monument in Washington.

But Husband said she has learned to deal, in part, with her grief simply by worshipping God.

When she is involved in “the intimacy of worship, the grieving goes away. I don't know how, but (God) does,” she said.

Posted: 2/06/04

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Liberal un-Christian stance

Marv Knox just can't seem to get it. He continually takes every opportunity to malign the Southern Baptist Convention, as in his Jan. 12 editorial about the SBC's proposal to defund the Baptist World Alliance.

He ignores the fact that many people take time to be informed about what the SBC does stand for, which are our basic Christian principles, in spite of the liberal thinking of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Everything was fine with him back when the liberals were in control, but now he attempts to poison people's minds toward the SBC. This is such an un-Christian stance for him to take.

Helen Watson

Winnie

Christian worldview

John King worries that “Christian worldview” may be a dangerous concept; he believes it opens the door to theocracy and is therefore contrary to Baptist sensibilities (Jan. 12).

I've never viewed it as an ideological Trojan Horse for theocracy. Rather, the Christian worldview–in my understanding and that of most evangelical philosophers and theologians–is simply the Christian answers to life's ultimate questions. It is simply basic, foundational theology.

Everyone has a worldview; a person's worldview is his or her perspective on the meaning of life–why there is something rather than nothing and why humanity and human persons exist.

The Christian worldview begins with the idea that, in the words of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's lecturer-at-large James Sire, “God is God, and I am not.” We take that for granted, but it starkly contrasts with other worldviews that view the self as a spark of the divine or deny the very existence of a personal God.

Nothing in the Christian worldview encourages theocracy; many Baptists and other free-church Protestants who eschew theocracy are in the forefront of the development and communication of the Christian worldview. The Christian worldview is simply shorthand for a Christian philosophy of reality that is God-centered.

Roger E. Olson

Waco

Illegal aliens

I want to give another view to the article on ministry to illegal aliens (Jan. 26).

There is nothing wrong helping those in need who enter our country legally.

I do have a problem with aiding and facilitating undocumented persons who are found here. Any undocumented person should be given basic needs and turned in to U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. To do any less is facilitating and aiding someone who does not have a legal standing to be here.

To act according to the ideas presented by David Guel is to undermine the legal guidelines of immigration set up by the U.S. government. This is a case where we must have a balance between law and grace, not blatant civil disobedience.

Guel's example of the Hebrew midwives disobeying Pharaoh is at best an apple-and-oranges comparison. The Old Testament example is a case of not committing murder. This is a case of being in America without legal status.

Michael L. Simons

Cleburne

Political churches

The coming months will demand strong faith if members are to survive in their political churches. The questions: “Do I love my Savior and my church enough to stay, or shall I leave? Can I survive in my church when its leaders are constantly downing my choice of politics and preaching the opposite political party?”

Pastor, go ahead and promote your preferences for voting! But how many members and lost people will part company with you?

Many born-again Christians belong to both political parties, even though some pastors deny it.

Most of the voting adults I have known have the intelligence and knowledge to make up their own minds as to which candidates they sincerely believe to be the best ones. They don't need the prejudices of dominating clergy to constantly ignore their wisdom.

The “priesthood of the believer” ought to include all believers in their political choices as well as their religious decisions. Some of us have the “right to be wrong” in the eyes of others.

Our judgment and/or approval by God is between each one of us and his Lord, and not by church-elected leaders.

Gilbert Thornton

Longview

Strange world

You know it's a strange world when France and Willie Nelson stand up for the Prince of Peace and religious leaders applaud the apostles of war.

Robert Flynn

San Antonio

Memorial & grace

In the year since the tragic bus wreck Feb. 14, 2003, Memorial Baptist Church in Temple has become a stronger, more loving and unified church.

The church has sold the location it occupied since 1913 to an African-American congregation and meets in an elementary school and at Meadow Oaks Baptist Church.

Groundbreaking for a $4 million, 34,000-square-foot facility will be Feb. 15 at 4 p.m. on 10 acres. Construction should be completed by June 2005.

Sunday school has increased 38 percent since moving out of the old building in November. Sunday evening attendance is up 50 percent. And a mid-week service has increased 35 percent. Giving has increased 10 percent.

More than $1 million from the estate of member Johnnie Punchard added to money from the sale of the property and donations from members totals more than $2 million in the building fund. A “re-pledge” campaign gave members an opportunity to reassess pledges made 18 months ago, since some lost spouses in the wreck and others had been affected by medical bills. Nearly $400,000 was pledged for the next 18 months.

Memorial is evidence of God's grace.

Robert Mattson

Temple

BWA: Noble cause

How sad I was to read the comment made by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Jack Graham, referring to the Baptist World Alliance. In Baptist Press, he said the BWA is “becoming a marginalized organization which is having a smaller and smaller influence for the gospel.”

I have known the BWA for 44 years.

When I was a teenager, they met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My father was the coordinator of that congress and an eyewitness of many miracles God performed. The impact of that congress opened the country for an incredible expansion of the gospel that continues to this day.

Of this continued impact, I am an eyewitness, since I served from 1988 to 2003 in Brazil as a missionary. The BWA influences the world in which we live on a daily basis. The gospel permeates the world thanks to this great organization.

It is a noble cause to be involved with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ around the globe by being partners with the Baptist World Alliance. May we Southern Baptists reject the report that will be brought to the Southern Baptist Convention this year, recommending that we defund and separate ourselves from the BWA.

Eddy Hallock

Carrollton

Henry was not a Southern Baptist

In announcing the death of Carl F.H. Henry, you stated he was a Southern Baptist (Dec. 22).

Carl Henry was not a Southern Baptist and in fact was fairly critical of Southern Baptists most of his career. He wrote of Southern Baptists that their serious theological writing had ended with E.Y. Miullins and/or W.T. Conner.

For the time he was in Washington as editor of Christianity Today, he was a member of Capitol Hill Metropolitan Baptist Church. That congregation was SBC-oriented and dually aligned with the American Baptist Churches, through its relationship with the District of Columbia Baptist Convention.

Henry previously was a member of American Baptist churches and taught at two American Baptist seminaries, Eastern and Northern. Later, in a second Washington sojourn, Henry was connected with Cherrydale Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., an independent Baptist congregation closely related to Washington Bible College and Capital Bible Seminary.

Bill Brackney

Waco

Humility a key to evangelism

Concerning the Jan. 26 page 1 article on evangelism, I can only say that some evangelists’ understanding of the great commission is about as shallow as rain on a stone.

I had a vision once of a vast field that was covered with foundations for churches but no churches. One of the things that prompted me to enter the ministry was the failure of the church to live out Ephesians 4, bringing people to maturity on the meat of the word. Being born again and Spirit-filled does not equate to sanity, much less being an affective human being.

As a counselor having ministered to pastors’ wives and children, I can tell you that a man can preach “love” in theory and be completely inept in application. Our church wars are proof enough. The gospel of the kingdom of God is perfectly thorough, providing a great deal more than salvation. Spiritual maturity is not proven in endless scholarship or excellence in baptistism. Neither is it the making of human facsimiles of Jesus for the world to see.

Spiritual maturity is a humility that facilitates Christ’s manifest presence through us. Let the world see the real deal. We don’t need more 20 percent Christians having been brought up by evangelists only. We also need the teachings and ministry of the apostle, prophet, pastor and teacher.

Stan Foy

Mount Vernon

Challenge to support the BWA

Considering the critical times in which we live, in a world where Christians are severely challenged in many countries, it seems a very inopportune time for Baptists in the United States to withdraw support from the Baptist World Alliance. Many struggling unions and associations look to it for spiritual guidance and resources.

I, therefore, as a concerned Christian layman, challenge 425 churches (including the one of which I am a member) to place $1,000 in their 2004 and subsequent budgets to be sent directly to the Baptist World Alliance to replace lost revenue and show Christians around the world our support for their work.

For so many years, this network has provided spiritual support for struggling peoples in times of crisis. It would be unconscionable for us to turn our backs on them at this time.

In the furthering of the cause of Christ and fellow Baptists of various nationalities and cultures, won’t you join me in this undertaking?

Howard E. Gregory

Fredericksburg, Va.

God's valentine

Hebrews 13:5-6 contains God’s Valentine to all of us. There God tells us to not give ourselves to the love of money but be content with what we have, for we will always have God with us.

And we should not fear the possible abuse or rejection of people with power to hurt us for “never will God leave us; never will God forsake us.” We can experience the power of this Valentine by accepting it.

The assurance that comes from in-depth believing in God’s promise that we are not alone is a sound basis from which we can work to solve all our problems. Everything that opposes our growing human development pales in comparison to the knowledge that we are not alone. God accepts us by grace in spite of our sins as if we were already a perfect children of God. We are not alone. We need only to affirm this with our hearts to begin experiencing the power of it.

Of this positive Valentine from God, Romans 8:31 says, “What then shall we say in response to this, if God be for us who can be against us?” Receiving this Valentine of God’s presence with us, in spite of our sins, means we can no longer use our weakness as an excuse for our laziness.

We must obey the prophetic voice that says, “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong’” (Joel 3:10). And then get involved in the battle for the good in life.

Alvin Petty

Friona

Harbor all lawbreakers?

I read with interest and dismay “Does biblical command to care for aliens depend on their legal status?” (Jan. 26).

First of all, they are “illegal” aliens, not undocumented. They are here illegally. I believe with all my heart we need to present the gospel to all that we can and help those hurting and in need, but as Christians we are also to obey our laws as long as it is not contrary to God’s laws.

The article cited a very poor example, comparing the midwives sparing the male Jewish newborns and disobeying the king’s orders. I don’t believe our government is killing captured illegals. I ask, “Is the church to harbor and give sanctuary to all breakers of the law?

F.A. Taylor

Kempner

Posted: 2/06/04

Around the State

The Baylor Alumni Association honored four graduates during its annual Distinguished Alumni banquet. Honored were Joel Allison, president and CEO of Baylor Health Care System; Carroll Dawson, general manager of the Houston Rockets and the Houston Comets; Kent Gilbreath, professor of economics at Baylor; and Betty Welch, a linguist and translator for Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Youth With a Mission, an interdenominational missions and relief organization, will host a three-day celebration of missions past, present and future Feb. 27-29. The weekend of music, teaching, celebration and thanksgiving will be held at the Twin Oaks Ranch, located six miles west of Lindale. For more information or to register, call (800) 641-1245.

Volunteers from First Baptist Church in Georgetown not only presented two single mothers, Rene Marshall and Adela Padilla, with new Habitat for Humanity homes, but also gave them a kitchen shower to stock their new homes with all they would need to sit down to a feast. The items were donated through the church's AWANAs and their Friday Folks ministry group. The church sponsored building both homes.

Edwin Twitty, a member of Sagemont Church in Houston, has received the bachelor of arts in Christian ministry degree in psychology and counseling at Leavell College of New Orleans Seminary. Dawn West, a member of Tallowood Church in Houston, received the master of arts in Christian education degree from the seminary.

Anniversaries

Ty Morris, 30th, as minister of music at Crestview Church in Midland, Jan. 13.

Harry Williams, 20th, as pastor of Mount Zion Church in Corpus Christi, Jan. 25.

Northview Church in Floresville, 20th, Jan. 25. Chuck Jennings is pastor.

Danny Quintanilla, fifth as minister of education/students at First Church in Portland, Feb. 1.

Larry Johnson, 20th, as director of missions of Ellis Association, Feb. 1.

Edward Terry, fifth, as pastor of Mount Carmel Church in Corpus Christi, Feb. 7.

First Church in Golinda, 100th, Feb. 8. Ralph Powers is pastor.

Williams Creek Church in Axtell, 25th, Feb. 15. Former pastor Duane Brooks will preach. A lunch will follow the morning service. Tommy Rosenblad is pastor.

Singing Hills Church in Dallas, 20th, Feb. 22. A special celebration service will take place at 3:30 p.m. Howard Anderson is pastor.

Roy Ford, 20th, as pastor of First Church in Hooks, Feb. 22.

Thomas Murray, 10th, as pastor of New Life Church in Missouri City.

Mario Vasquez, 10th, as pastor of Iglesia Getsemani in Eagle Lake.

John Self, 25th, as pastor of Trinity Church in Cameron.

Retiring

Charles Jones, as pastor of Second Church in Amarillo, after 32 years.

Barbara Kirkland, left, was honored with the Gaskin Church History award by the Oklahoma Baptist Historical Commission for her history of Duncan Fair Church. Mary Harmon, chairman of the award committee, made the presentation. Kirkland is a member of Woodland Heights Church in Bedford.

James Seigler, as pastor of Myrtle Springs Church in Hooks, Feb 1. He has moved to Savoy and is available for supply or interims.

Jim Lane, as pastor of Memorial Church in El Campo, Feb. 1. He is available for interims, supply or leading music at (979) 532-5263.

C.H. Murphy, as director of missions for Tryon-Evergreen Association, effective Sept. 30. He will have completed 11 years at the post and served more than 30 years as a pastor. He was pastor of First churches in Irving, Lamesa, Friona, Memphis, Silverton and Hedley, as well as Calvary Church in Weatherford and Soda Springs Church in Parker County. During his present tenure, the association has grown from 98 to 125 churches and assets of the association have grown from $240,000 to more than $1 million. Resumes for the position may by sent to Jay Gross, West Conroe Baptist Church, 1855 Longmire Road, Conroe 77304-3576.

Deaths

Arland Ames, 68, Dec. 29 in San Antonio. A postal service worker 33 years, he was a 10-year Mission Service Corps volunteer. He is survived by his wife, Ethel; sons, Michael and Alan; daughter, Carolyn Pachecano; brothers, Gerald Ames, Carl McCrillis and Harry McCrillis; sister, Norma Schmelzer; and eight grandsons.

Paul Piper, 86, Jan. 17 in Apollo Beach, Fla. Piper borrowed $17 from his parents when he dropped out of college in 1937 and from that investment built a diversified company with 1,000 employees in 15 manufacturing plants. The philanthropist later sold his shares in Piper Industries and started four charitable foundations. His contributions to Texas Baptist causes ranged from buying a tool trailer for Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders to helping new churches pay their pastors' salaries. His gifts helped start more than 300 churches and supported apartment ministries in San Antonio, Fort Worth, Arlington and Austin. He also established a low-interest loan fund to help Texas Baptist churches finance their first buildings. He contributed to various River Ministry programs along the Rio Grande, helped build a hospital in Paraguay, supported the True Love Waits sexual purity campaign and provided scholarships for Baptist university students. He is survived by his wife, Katy; one son, Paul Jr.; sister, Elizabeth Sammons; six grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

Dickson Ayers, 44, Jan. 20 in Sulphur Springs. He was pastor of Calvary Church in Wolfe City. Because he was uninsured, Hunt Association is collecting donations to offset medical and funeral expenses. He is survived by his wife of 13 years, Laura; sons, Walter, Will, Lincoln, Christian and Joseph; mother, Janice Ayers; and sisters, Angel Thomas and Melody Walker.

Frank Patterson, 96, Jan. 20 in San Angelo. A pastor in Oklahoma and Arkansas in his early years, Patterson and his wife, Pauline, were appointed in 1939 by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to serve at the Baptist Spanish Publishing House in El Paso, where he served as general director until 1970. He continued to serve as a field representative of the mission board until his retirement in 1972. After his official retirement, he became acting general director of Casa Publicadora Batista in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and later served as a professor at the Mexican Baptist Seminary in Mexico City and Lacy Baptist Seminary in Oaxaco, Mexico. After retirement, he continued to preach in New Mexico and San Angelo, where he was a member of Harris Avenue Church. He was preceded in death by his wife in 2000. He is survived by his sons, Burton Patterson and Donald Aldridge; six grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

Don Warden, 74, Jan. 25 in Austin. Warden was a Texas pastor 25 years before becoming a regional consultant for the church extension department of the Baptist General Convention of Texas in 1979. In 1980, he and his wife, Laverne, were appointed missionaries by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to jointly support their church-starting efforts. He also participated in evangelistic and church growth efforts in many parts of the world, including Jamaica, Brazil, Australia, Moldova, Russia and the Czech Republic. After retiring in 1995, he served 16 Austin-area churches as interim pastor. He also was interim executive director of missions for Austin Association. He is survived by his wife of 54 years; sons, Gary and Michael; daughter, Stephanie Meadows; and three grandsons.

Dolores Nelson, 72, Jan. 25 in Fort Worth. She was the wife of retired Texas pastor and professor Jimmie Nelson. A graduate of Southwestern Seminary, she earned the Elizabeth Price Award for being the valedictorian of the women's graduating class. Churches she served alongside her husband included Oak Grove Church in Fort Worth, Colonial Hill Church in Snyder, First Church in Deer Park and churches in The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. She was a member of First Church in Burleson more than 30 years. She also wrote curriculum, teaching materials and devotionals for the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board. She is survived by her husband; sons, Stephen and Alan; daughter, Julie Couch; brothers, Dempsey and Michael Cate; sister, Louise Eatmon; and five grandchildren.

Events

First Church in Pasadena held an open house Jan. 25 to mark the opening of its expanded worship center and fellowship hall, an additional serving kitchen, a bridal parlor, conference room and orchestra suite. Also included were two education wings with facilities for all ages. Two hundred fifty parking spaces also were added. The 75,000-square-foot addition doubles the size of the church plant, and is phase two of a five part plan. Charles Redmond is pastor.

Tarrytown Church in Austin began a multicultural, multisensory and multifaith study of the beatitudes Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. Discussion, visual arts, movies and music will be used to examine the eight beatitudes. A number of leaders will lead the study. Ragan and Cynthia Courtney are co-pastors.

The Heights Church in Richardson will present a dinner theater production, “Peril on the High Seas,” Feb. 20-22 and Feb. 27-28. All shows are at 7:30 except the 2:30 p.m. production on Feb. 22, which does not include a meal. Call (972) 231-6047, ext. 292 for ticket information.

Wooster Church in Baytown will present a creation versus evolution seminar Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. Mack Jones is pastor.

A Joy Seekers conference for women will be held March 5-6 at First Church in Center. Rose-Mary Rumbley is the featured speaker, and Kim West will lead the music. The conference begins at 6 p.m. Friday and 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Prior to Feb. 15, the cost is $20 with Saturday lunch provided. After Feb. 15, registration is $25. Childcare will be provided for children under five for a fee. A sack lunch will be provided for the children on Saturday. For more information, call (936) 598-5605.

Posted: 1/27/04

Friends of Jaclyn Robison (left) brought teddy bears to donate to the Irving Police Department to help children in crisis situations. At right, Jaclyn gets her hair cut to donate to Locks of Love.

Girl's birthday 'wish list' taught her friends:
'It's more blessed to give than to receive'

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Standard

IRVING–Instead of handing her parents a list of things she wanted for her eighth birthday, Jaclyn Robison from Oak View Baptist Church in Irving gave them a different kind of "wish list."

Her request this year was to find out how she could help others. When she heard about Locks of Love, which provides hairpieces for children who have hair loss because of medical treatments, she had her parents take her to get 12 inches of her long, golden locks snipped off.

But the giving didn't stop there. She still wanted to do more to help others in need.

Her mother, Rhonda, who teaches a 12th grade girls' Sunday school class at Oak View, suggested donating teddy bears to the Irving Police Department for children in crisis situations.

Jaclyn liked the idea, and the theme of her birthday party soon became a "giving party." On the invitations, her friends were instructed to bring teddy bears instead of shopping for presents. She ended up receiving 54 bears that went to the Irving Police Department.

"Jaclyn is a very giving little girl, and she wanted to help other people less fortunate," her mother explained. "Jaclyn thinks about what other people want, not so much what she needs or wants."

Mrs. Robison also believes that being part of a missions-minded church attributed to her daughter's desire to help others.

"I feel really great helping those kids," Jaclyn Robison said. "My friends were amazed at what I did. I think other kids could do this, too."

Posted: 2/06/04

SBC pull-out from BWA would harm
global Baptist witness, leaders say

By Ken Camp & Marv Knox

Baptist Standard

DALLAS–Southern Baptist Convention withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance would mean not only the loss of one-fourth of the international organization's income, but also the loss of a unified Baptist witness worldwide, BWA officials told Texas Baptists.

“We belong together because we belong to Christ,” BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz repeated at every opportunity during his Texas tour.

Denton Lotz

Lotz and BWA President Billy Kim spoke to a dinner at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, a luncheon at Dallas Baptist University, a news conference and staff meeting at the Baptist General Convention of Texas office building and a rally at First Baptist Church of Plano.

Infighting among Baptists in the United States creates “confusion” among Third World Christians who do not understand denominational politics and distinctions between various Baptist groups in the United States, Kim said.

“We need to stick together,” he said.

Softening hearts

Kim and Lotz traveled with the 60-member Korean Children's Choir, representing Kim's Far East Broadcasting Company, who performed at Texas Baptist venues and at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Dorothy Patterson, wife of seminary president Paige Patterson, hosted the seminary reception. Paige Patterson is the author of the SBC study committee proposal to cut ties with the BWA.

Kim told reporters he had talked with Patterson on the phone, but they merely exchanged pleasantries. However, Kim said he invited Patterson to preach at his church, near Seoul, South Korea, and he hoped at that time to have a conversation of “more substance” regarding strained relations between Southern Baptist leaders and the BWA.

“He is a wonderful friend, but we see things a little differently,” he said.

Kim acknowledged his hope that the sweet voices and smiling faces of the children would “soften the hearts” of Southern Baptist leaders and cause them to reconsider the proposed separation from BWA. He pointed out that his aides told him Mrs. Patterson “shed tears when the choir sang 'God Bless America.'”

No SBC response

Even so, Kim and Lotz said they were unaware of any positive response from members of the SBC study committee to an invitation they and the vice presidents of the BWA issued. BWA leaders urged the SBC Executive Committee to table the committee motion to withdraw funding and membership from the worldwide fellowship, and they offered to meet with SBC leaders “anytime, anywhere to discuss reconciliation.”

Billy Kim

Lotz again refuted charges of any “leftward drift” in the BWA, saying the organization affirms historic, biblical Christian doctrine and that the term “liberal” is relative.

“Russian Baptists think Southern Baptists are liberal because the women wear lipstick and makeup,” he said.

Signs of support

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade affirmed Texas Baptist support for the BWA at several venues during the two-day tour. Wade told the Plano rally, “No matter what others do, we as Texas Baptists shall, until Jesus comes, be partners together with Baptists around the world, and we will support the Baptist World Alliance.”

The BWA leaders acknowledged the affirmation not only from Wade, but from Texas Baptists wherever they went.

“I sense real support from you people,” Kim told a group of North Texas pastors and missions/ministry leaders at the Park Cities banquet.

“We need to support each other. … Let's be sweet and go on. God is bigger than any organization,” he said.

Kim called on Baptists to come together to take on a task with eternal consequences.

“I believe God has called us to a job as Baptists to fulfill the Great Commission in our generation,” he said of Jesus' command to spread the gospel “unto the ends of the earth.”

“I believe we can do it,” he said. “If we do our responsibility, God will do his work in his own time. … We're going to do things together.”

Speaking the next day at a luncheon at Dallas Baptist University, Kim acknowledged Baptists face “problems” of relationship.

“But where there are problems, we have opportunities,” he said. “And I believe the best days of the Baptist World Alliance are ahead. … We Baptists must band together, because we have the truth.”

Lotz picked up that same theme, urging Baptists to move beyond labeling each other.

“We've got to get over that and return to Scripture and what (the Apostle) Paul tells us about loving one another,” he urged.

Holding hands

Lotz illustrated the importance of exercising Baptist togetherness. In the Philippines, a young boy got lost, and searchers feverishly tried to find him but could not, he reported. Finally, someone suggested all the workers hold hands and comb the area. Soon they found the boy, but they were too late; he had died.

“Maybe if we had held hands earlier, this boy would not have died,” Lotz quoted one of the workers as saying.

“The Baptist World Alliance is Baptists all over the world holding hands so people will not die without Christ,” he insisted.

For example, the BWA supports churches in Muslim-dominated Turkmenistan, where preachers must wear hoods to protect their identities so they will not be thrown in prison. Otherwise, none of the churches would have leaders, he said.

“We defend religious freedom all over the world. That's what we do,” Lotz said. Baptists, of all people, should be champions of religious liberty because on many occasions throughout their history they have been victims of religious persecution, he said.

In Rwanda, the BWA brings Hutus and Tutsis–once-bitter ethnic rivals who slaughtered each other by the millions in the 1990s–together for worship because they are one in Christ, he said.

In Cuba, BWA leaders contacted dictator Fidel Castro and gained permission to import 50,000 Bibles and to support the house churches where many of the 200,000 Cuban Baptists worship, he added.

The BWA also is providing similar support to Baptists in such countries as China, Poland, Nepal, Russia, Cambodia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Nigeria, he said, adding that the BWA helped Baptists obtain 10 radio stations to proclaim the gospel in Romania.

Raising a cross or a sword

Noting the perilous world situation, Lotz cited the 20th century German theologian Martin Niemoeller, who called attention to how Jesus responded to persecution and unfairness.

Facing persecution, Jesus could have cursed his opponents and called for revenge at the point of a sword, he said. “But he raised his hands to the cross and said, 'Father, forgive them. …'

“Will we raise a sword or a cross?” he asked of Baptists facing persecution across the world. “We'd better not raise a sword, because if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. We must raise a cross.”

Christians around the globe understand this, and the Holy Spirit is causing them to multiply, even in harsh circumstances, Lotz said.

Dancer with the Korean Children's Choir.

For example, 60 percent of all Christians live in the Third World, he reported, and 400 million Christians live in Africa alone. “The center of Christianity has moved from pagan Europe to Africa,” he added, predicting, “Africa will send missionaries to re-evangelize Europe, and they may have to re-evangelize the United States.”

The explosion of the gospel is happening through the power of the Holy Spirit and not the presence of Western Christians, he said.

“The gospel is moving all over the world without white missionaries,” he acknowledged, noting Christ didn't give the Great Commission to white Westerners, but to the whole church.

To back his claim, he noted Third World Christians already have sent out 20,000 missionaries to other countries, and a new church is started every day in China, where, in some places, 5,000 young people gather on weeknights to read the Bible together.

'Get in the river'

Speaking to U.S. Baptists who think, “We're so big we don't need the BWA,” Lotz told a parable from Africa about a small elephant who couldn't cross a streaming river because of the strong currents. Soon, some larger elephants noticed the plight and stood in the river to form a “bridge” out of their backs, so the smaller elephant could cross safely over.

“Baptists need to get the big elephants off the bank and into the river–quit fighting and drinking coffee and eating donuts and get in the river.”

Touching on some of those same ideas at the Plano rally, Lotz pointed to the Korean Children's Choir as representative of the emerging Christian church.

“The church of the 21st century won't be white Americans,” he said, reiterating his appeal: “We need to stay together so we can be re-evangelized by one another.”

Marked as a praying church

In his message to the Plano rally, Kim noted that the largest Presbyterian, Methodist and Assembly of God churches in the world now are in South Korea. “What about the Baptists? Give us time. We'll get there,” he said.

Christians in South Korea grew in the last 50 years from fewer than 1 million people in 4,000 churches to 13 million Christians in 40,000, primarily because of prayer, Kim said.

“The Korean church has experienced revival because it has been marked as a praying church,” he said.

Kim urged Baptists in the United States not only to pray for revival in their own country, but also for unity in the worldwide Baptist fellowship.

“We love Southern Baptists, and we want to stick together,” he said. We want to pray together and reach the world together.

“Pray for us over the next two months that God somehow will turn around our situation.”

Appealing to individuals

Dallas Baptist University President Gary Cook, who helped arrange the BWA events in the region, urged Texas Baptists to support the worldwide organization.

“We are always going to support the BWA, even if our leaders take (the Southern Baptist Convention) out,” Cook said.

Now is the time for Baptists with a world vision to pray for and give to the BWA, Cook urged. Baptists around the world, many of whom are desperately poor and often persecuted, need the alliance's support and encouragement, he added.

Cook called on individuals and churches to make direct financial gifts to the BWA.

“Just because people in Nashville vote to remove money they've promised doesn't mean we can't give it directly,” he stressed.

Texas Baptist churches that give through the BGCT adopted budget can support the BWA by selecting that organization as a recipient of the worldwide portion of its Cooperative Program gifts.

Gifts to the Texas Baptist world hunger offering also benefit BWA by providing about one-third of the support for projects sponsored by Baptist World Aid, the BWA's relief and development agency.

The BWA also is enlisting Global Impact Churches that will support the worldwide fellowship with annual gifts of at least $1,000 and individual “Friends of the Baptist World Alliance” who will pledge a minimum of $100 a year.

For more information about direct giving to BWA, contact Alan Stanford at the BWA, 405 N. Washington St., Falls Church, Va. 22046; (703) 790-8980.

Posted: 2/06/04

Homeless coalition names Austin one of the 'meanest' cities in U.S.

WASHINGTON (ABP)–American cities are becoming increasingly hostile to the plight of the homeless, according to a report by an advocacy group that ranked Austin among the top 10 “meanest” cities.

Almost 70 percent of the cities studied by National Coalition for the Homeless have passed one or more laws since January 2002 specifically targeting homeless people. Las Vegas topped the group's list of cities that are “meanest” in their treatment of the homeless.

Not only do new laws make it harder to live on the streets, the group said, but many cities make it illegal for charities and other organizations to perform life-sustaining activities while refusing to allocate sufficient funds to address the causes of homelessness.

In Milwaukee, for instance, a church was declared a public nuisance for feeding homeless people and allowing them to sleep at the church, the coalition reported. In Gainesville, Fla., police threatened University of Florida students with arrest if they did not stop serving meals to homeless people in a public park.

The “meanest” cities, cited by the National Coalition for the Homeless, are: 1. Las Vegas, Nev.; 2. San Francisco, Calif.; 3. New York, N.Y; 4. Los Angeles, Calif.; 5. Atlanta, Ga.; 6. Cincinnati, Ohio; 7. Key West, Fla.; 8. Austin; 9. Orlando, Fla.; 10. New Orleans, La.; 11. Sacramento, Calif.; 12. Milwaukee, Wis.; 13. Santa Cruz, Calif.; 14. Miami Beach, Fla.; 15. Jacksonville Beach; Fla.; 16. Hollywood, Fla.; 17. Santa Monica, Calif.; 18. Nashville, Tenn.; 19. Honolulu, Hawaii; 20. Boulder, Colo.

Posted: 2/06/04

Baptist Briefs

Reccord to NRB board. Bob Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, has been appointed to the National Religious Broadcasters board of directors. He will complete the unexpired term of Campus Crusade's Bill Bright, who died last year. Other Southern Baptists serving on the NRB board include former SBC presidents James Merritt and Charles Stanley, Richard Land of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and "Left Behind" co-author Tim LaHaye.

Seminary Extension leader dead at 84. Ray Rigdon, who led the SBC's Seminary Extension ministry from 1969 to1988, died Jan. 16 in Nashville, Tenn., after a lengthy illness. He was 84. Prior to his Seminary Extension work, Rigdon worked for the Georgia Baptist Convention and served with the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board for two decades.

CBF studies partnerships. A seven-member committee of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Coordinating Council is studying how the fellowship funds and evaluates its partner entities, such as Truett Seminary and Logsdon School of Theology. Charles Cantrell, an attorney from Mountain View, Mo., is chairman of the committee, which includes Matt Cook of Rosebud.

Deans named at Southern Seminary. Russell Moore has been named dean of the school of theology and senior vice president of academic administration at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Moore, 32, succeeds former dean Daniel Akin, who recently was elected president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Previously Moore was assistant professor of theology at Southern and executive director of the seminary's Carl F.H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement. James Scroggins was named dean of Boyce College, Southern Seminary's undergraduate school. Before his appointment, Scroggins, 32, was minister to students at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville and assistant professor of youth ministry at Boyce College. He succeeds Jerry Johnson, who has been elected president of Criswell College in Dallas.

NAMB names new chaplaincy director. Pete Sharber has been named director of chaplaincy evangelism for the North American Mission Board. Sharber served nine years as an infantry officer in the United States Army, including two tours in Vietnam for which he was awarded the Bronze Star four times. After completing his studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a two-year pastorate in Texas, he returned to the Army to serve as a chaplain for 11 years at military posts in Georgia, New York and Germany. Sharber, 64, has been pastor of First Baptist Church in Hazlehurst, Ga., since 1989.

CBF chaplaincy leader receives COMISS Medal. The COMISS Network has awarded George Pickle, associate coordinator for chaplaincy and pastoral counseling at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, its highest honor, the COMISS Medal for outstanding service as a pastoral care leader. Previous recipients of the medal are psychoanalyst Erik Erikson and Catholic priest and noted author Henri Nouwen. Pickle, a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Seminary, has been a certified professional chaplain since 1989.

CBF chaplain receives Bronze Star. Mjr. Scott Sterling, ethics instructor at the U.S. Army Chaplain School in Fort Jackson, S.C., was awarded the Bronze Star in January for "exceptionally meritorious service while serving as a battalion chaplain" in Iraq. Sterling was deployed with the 260th Quartermaster Battalion from Hunter Army Air Field in Savannah, Ga., last February and remained with the battalion until its return in November. Endorsed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 2002, Sterling has 16 years of total military service.

Posted: 2/06/04

Coalition draws fire for Muslim connections

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)– Conservative evangelicals involved in an anti-gay-marriage coalition are drawing fire from some of their ideological and spiritual comrades over associations with a Muslim group.

A prominent Southern Baptist and other conservative evangelical leaders have denounced a coalition of groups that oppose gay marriage because it includes a Muslim group they believe supports terrorism.

A series of articles in the conservative Jewish World Review has raised allegations that a pro-terrorism Muslim group is a part of the Alliance for Marriage.

The alliance is an umbrella group pushing for passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban marriage and the “legal incidents thereof” for same-sex couples.

Many conservative evangelicals–including Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land–have endorsed the amendment effort.

The Jewish World Review repeated accusations–voiced first by a terrorism expert–that the Islamic Society of North America supports terrorism by conducting fund-raisers for Palestinians accused of terrorism and by hosting conference speakers who defend radical Islamic terrorists.

Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation has reportedly declined to serve on the advisory board of the Alliance for Marriage because of the group's connection with the Islamic group. The Jewish World Review also reported comments by evangelist and former Southern Baptist Convention president Bailey Smith critical of the AFM.

“Is there any group that is hurting the world more than radical Islam?” Smith asked, according to a column by Jewish World Review writer Evan Gahr. “You can't mix darkness with light.”

Representatives of the Alliance for Marriage have declined to discuss the issue but reportedly have distributed letters from their attorney, noting that ISNA is not considered a terrorist group by the State Department. The letters also cite other terrorism experts who do not consider it a radical group.

Meanwhile, a group of messianic Jews also is taking some of their fellow conservative evangelicals to task for their associations. In a Jan. 6 story, the Washington Times publicized a Jews for Jesus year-end fund-raising letter in which the group's president sharply criticized several Christian leaders for their participation in the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

Jews for Jesus President David Brickner said involvement in the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is questionable because the pro-Israel group's leader, Chicago rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, is an outspoken public opponent of Christian evangelism of Jews.

Posted: 2/06/04

ANOTHER VIEW:
Now is time to do unto the SBC as it's doing unto the BWA

By Charles Foster Johnson

The Southern Baptist Convention's recent decision to quit the Baptist World Alliance all but completes its 25-year rewrite of what it means to be Baptist.

George W. Truett, legendary Texas Baptist pastor and founding light of the BWA, wouldn't recognize the revision.

The time-honored and hard-fought values of individual priesthood, freedom of conscience, congregational self-determination and cooperative missions are distant echoes of the once-great denomination.

Truett knew the human soul was shaped with an inviolate freedom to embrace or reject its Shaper, each individual is competent and authorized to make this critical decision, and this voluntary principle lay at the heart of all true religion.

On this concept of freedom, Truett's generation built the Southern Baptist Convention. Thousands of Baptist churches throughout Texas and the American South freely dared to trust the Spirit to connect their varied congregations into a remarkably vital denominational community.

It was freedom that formed the Southern Baptist Convention, but the revised SBC no longer believes in freedom.

A denomination that believes in freedom doesn't require its theologians and missionaries to sign a creed and fire them if they refuse.

A denomination that believes in freedom doesn't dabble in partisan politics or advance a brazen political agenda.

A denomination that believes in freedom doesn't scapegoat women as the cause of Eden's fall or deny their right and responsibility to serve God as they are called.

A denomination that believes in freedom doesn't censor its press and censure its critics.

Violation of freedom has destroyed the Southern Baptist Convention that George W. Truett built and loved. The freedom and cooperation he so carefully cultivated has been replaced by fear, conformity and coercion.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is the one Baptist jewel that the SBC revisionists have not succeeded in reprogramming and is the last best hope for preserving the Baptist identity Truett worked so hard to create.

Make no mistake about it: The SBC is gunning for Texas Baptists. That's why they sent the chief architect of the denominational hostile takeover to preside over the seminary in Fort Worth.

Why shouldn't they? Baylor University, the Baylor Health Care system, Buckner Baptist Benevolences and 20 other fine Texas Baptist institutions would be a treasure trove for them to control.

BGCT churches continue to serve as collection agencies for the Southern Baptist revision of Baptist history, passing through millions of dollars annually to the SBC.

At present, 21 cents of every undesignated dollar the BGCT receives from the churches goes straight through to the SBC, thus underwriting their own demise.

Such a funding mechanism is sheer insanity. It confuses freedom's friends and empowers freedom's enemies.

All freedom-loving Baptists should advocate in their congregations the immediate defunding of all SBC causes.

Now is the time for the churches of our great Texas Baptist family to cease bankrolling the revision beyond all recognition of cherished Baptist freedoms.

Charles Foster Johnson is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio

Posted: 2/06/04

Cornerstone helps other ministries
along Rio Grande meet human needs

By George Henson

Staff Writer

QUEMADO–In the barren, sun-baked terrain between Eagle Pass and Del Rio, a mustard seed of faith grew into a ministry much larger than Steve and Lori Mercer ever imagined.

The couple came to Texas from Indiana with an eye to opening a children's home in South Texas. They had been foster parents for many years and wanted to expand their ministry by sharing their love with even more children.

After they joined First Baptist Church in Quemado, they initially wanted their new ministry, Cornerstone Children's Ranch, to be linked directly to the church. But Pastor Terry Simons counseled them to remain an independent organization so non-Baptists might be more likely to help.

Lori and Steve Mercer

State regulations soon quashed the couple's plans for a children's home. Mercer had earned an undergraduate degree in social services, but the state required a master's degree in the specialty to administer a children's home.

That stumbling block became a stepping-stone, however. Now, rather than ministering to a few dozen children, they are meeting the needs of more than 26,000 people of all ages. “My God had better ideas than we did,” Mrs. Mercer said.

They launched a relief ministry that helps to provide food, clothing, medical supplies, automobiles and other supplies to individuals and institutions on both sides of the Rio Grande, she said.

“We work with unwed mother homes, orphanages, medical clinics and churches. We take it to the churches, and they distribute it to the people they minister to in their communities. Also, some of it has to go to the pastors themselves because some of them give all they have just to keep their churches going,” Mrs. Mercer said.

They also help a ministry to illegal aliens who are being deported to Mexico. Most are far from home with no money and no food.

Many of these people, mostly men, receive Christ as they have reached rock bottom and are open to the possibility that something is missing from their lives, she said.

After listening to the message of the gospel, they are given food and encouraged to take the message they have heard back to their villages.

As the Cornerstone ministry has grown, so have its needs. Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association helped the ministry secure a 10-acre site for construction of a 6,000-foot warehouse.

It stores washing machines, dryers, food, clothing, medical supplies and even an optical machine that is being kept until construction is completed on an eye clinic in Mexico.

“Just about anything someone can put on a truck, we can find a home for,” Mrs. Mercer said.

The Mercers' ministry filled a niche in the region, said Jack Calk, retired director of missions for Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association.

“Bringing all these things together in one place and then distributing them is one of the things we needed to have done in the area, rather than trying to do it piecemeal,” he said.

While financial, food and medical donations always are needed, the ministry's most crucial needs are prayer and volunteers, Mrs. Mercer said.

“Prayer will always be our No. 1 need,” she said. “All of this depends on God's provision.”

The answer to some of those prayers would be in the form of more volunteers.

“Piedras Negras has a population of more than 1 million people. River Ministry does an awful lot of work down here, but there are still so many people whose needs are not being met,” she said.

The Mercers plan to build a new headquarters for Cornerstone Children's Ranch, complete with apartments for volunteers.

But finances dictate the construction be done by volunteers. Currently the camp has hook-ups for two RV campsites, and it is to be expanded.

Volunteers also are needed to install the camp's meat lockers so the ministry can store and distribute more meat.

None of that is anything like what the Mercers thought they were coming to Texas to do, but they say it's all right.

“I think the Lord sometimes uses your plans to gets you where he wants you until you realize what he wants you to do as he reveals his will for your life,” she said.

Cornerstone Children's Ranch can be contacted at (830) 757-1993.