Posted: 12/17/04

Church guides visitors through
interactive journey to Bethlehem

By Michael Leathers

Associated Baptist Press

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (ABP)–With just a portable heater as defense against the cool night, Kendra Jackson waits for the next group of Christmas celebrants to arrive. The 30-something mother of two daughters is portraying Anna in the interactive Christmas drama produced by Western Oaks Baptist Church.

Jackson has never acted before, unless you count bit parts in her high school's production of “Li'l Abner.” But she's been involved in the Western Oaks production, “Journey to Bethlehem,” for the past three years because it “attracts people to church and helps them celebrate the season better.”

The walk-through drama, told in nine scenes, has been performed by Western Oaks for the last five Decembers. Some 300 church members are involved in every aspect of the drama–from construction of outdoor and indoor sets in the fall to baking thousands of cookies for visitors. Even the script is locally written, tailored for the layout of the church.

While many churches stage living nativities and choir cantatas for Christmas, Western Oaks Pastor Jeff Blevins wanted the church to try a different approach–something unique that would be a gift to the community.

Melodee Blevins, a member of Western Oaks Baptist Church of Springfield, Ill., is one of two actresses who portrays Anna in the church's interactive Christmas drama on alternating nights. Audience members travel through the drama's nine scenes in and around the church as they search for the newborn Messiah.

The answer was an interactive play. Visitors are taken through a tour of the Christmas story, led by a wise man searching for the location of the birth of the Christ child. The traveling audience follows their guide through the journey's nine scenes in and around the church. The audience interacts with different characters, each one revealing a little information they need to find the birthplace of Jesus.

“By making it an interactive journey, people feel like they participate in the story and in the journey,” said D.J. Shultz, director of worship and music at Western Oaks.

That's important, because visitors are reminded in the final scene that “we're all on a journey” to find Christ–a journey that continues after they leave the church, he added.

This season, Western Oaks transformed its lobby into Herod's court, complete with a running fountain. Visitors are greeted and then sent through the drama in groups of 15 to 25 each. On busy nights, groups are dispatched every four minutes. Actors like Jackson may perform their scenes up to two dozen times in one evening.

Other characters include Zechariah, an excitable priest delighted to have visitors after losing and regaining his speech when his son, John the Baptist, was born. They meet Herod, who assigns a skeptical servant to tour with the group as they search for Jesus. They find help from a beggar child in a bustling marketplace. A merchant tells them about a star another caravan of travelers had been following.

The tour ends with a reflective stop at the Bethlehem manger. There, Herod's servant tells the travelers she cannot return to Herod because she has been changed by the story of the newborn Messiah.

About 120 church members serve as cast and crew each night during the six-night production over two weekends. Last year, more than 4,200 people attended, the highest attendance of the five-year run. The church rewrites the story each year, adding new scenes and retiring some characters to keep the drama fresh for return visitors.

The interactive drama has been spreading to other churches. Calvary Baptist Church of Alton, Ill., planned a three-night performance of its own version of “Journey to Bethlehem.” The church sent about a dozen members to Western Oaks last year to attend a production. “Having the opportunity to see it done was so much more helpful than just reading it on paper,” said Rick Patrick, the church's minister of education. The church is incorporating a living nativity into its production.

Blevins said one strength of the drama is that it brings families together to slow down for a few moments and reflect “in a world where we're racing toward Christmas.”

Another strength, he said, is the drama's life-changing potential.

One 19-year-old man, who was halfway through a drug rehab program, talked to Blevins after the drama because he was having serious questions about his life and purpose. He later made a decision to commit his life to following Jesus Christ.

The drama strengthens church members as well.

“I see our people coming alive and serving,” Blevins said.

“That's what we're designed to do.”

Posted: 12/17/04

Governance committee named to draft new
bylaws for Baptist General Convention of Texas

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–Twenty-one Texas Baptists have agreed to serve on a governance committee to develop new bylaws for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

The committee, selected by Executive Board Chairman John Ogletree and BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade, will review current bylaws for both the convention and its Executive Board and then propose one new set of bylaws.

“We are working to bring that all together, make it more concise and comprehensive,” Wade said

The new bylaws also will deal with issues that are in the current BGCT constitution, but are not part of a proposed new constitution, he said.

Messengers to the BGCT annual meeting last month in San Antonio approved a sweeping revision of the convention's primary governance piece, its constitution. It must now be approved on a second reading during the 2005 annual meeting in Austin in order to take affect.

New bylaws are being developed now so Texas Baptists can know more about how the new governance structure will work and so the bylaws will be ready for convention consideration if the new constitution is approved, Wade said.

“Everyone on the committee is passionate about the work of the BGCT,” said Ogletree, pastor of First Metropolitan Baptist Church in Houston. “When we all get together and put our heads together, God's going to get some glory out of it.”

Everyone who was asked to be on the committee agreed to serve, Wade said.

There are four women, five laymen, four denominational leaders and eight pastors. In regard to ethnic diversity, the committee includes four Hispanics, three African Americans and one Asian American.

“This is a diverse group of Texas Baptists,” Ogletree said. “All segments of our state are represented. There is diversity not just in geography but in viewpoint, as well.”

“We want to demonstrate that this convention wants to reach all the peoples of Texas,” Wade said. The diversity of the committee “also recognizes that across the last several years the ministry among Hispanic, African-American and other ethnic groups has exploded as we have started more churches and churches have become more multicultural.

“This committee is representative of every area of Texas because the Baptist General Convention of Texas has strength in its churches in all areas of our state,” Wade said. “We celebrate that, and we want to recognize that in our governance.”

Wesley Shotwell, pastor of Ash Creek Baptist Church in Azle, will chair the committee. The three top BGCT officers–President Albert Reyes of San Antonio, First Vice President Michael Bell of Fort Worth and Second Vice President Stacy Conner of Muleshoe–will serve on the committee.

Ken Hall, immediate past president of the BGCT and president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences, BGCT Administrative Committee Chair Bob Fowler of Houston, BGCT Executive Board Vice Chair Jim Nelson of Austin and Ogletree also will serve.

Pastors on the committee are Mike Barrera of United Baptist Church in Laredo, Charles Davenport of First Baptist Church in Tulia, David Massey of First Baptist Church in Hallsville and Mitch Wilson of First Baptist Church in Shallowater.

Laypersons on the committee are Rudy Camacho from Iglesia Bautista Genesis in Fort Worth, Willie DuBose from First Baptist Church in Midland, Elizabeth Hannah from Calder Baptist Church in Beaumont, Frankie Harvey from Nacogdoches Bible Fellowship, Ly Klassen from Richardson Vietnamese Baptist Church, Linda Masten from First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi and Tommy Thompson from Conway Avenue Baptist Church in Mission.

BGCT Executive Board staff on the committee are David Nabors, treasurer and chief financial officer, and Lorenzo Peña, coordinator of associational missions and administration.

The committee will develop a proposal during the next couple of months then seek feedback during the regular March 1 meeting of the BGCT Executive Board, Wade said. A final recommendation will be presented the Executive Board at its May 24 meeting.

“I ask people to pray for us,” Wade said. “I'm very grateful for the strong affirmation of the constitution in its first reading. I hope this continuing process will strengthen understanding and improve the ability of this convention to serve the churches of Texas.”

Posted: 12/17/04

Baptist Briefs

Mercer president announces retirement plans. Kirby Godsey, Mercer University's longest-serving president, announced he will retire in 18 months, and trustees expect to start the search for his successor as early as spring. At a recent trustee meeting, Godsey, 68, revealed his plans to step down June 30, 2006. Mercer trustee and Augusta attorney David Hudson will head the search committee, which will begin work in the spring. Godsey went to work for the historically Baptist university in 1977 as executive vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Previously he was vice president and dean of the college at Averett College in Danville, Va. When Godsey became president in 1979, Mercer had an enrollment of 3,800 students, an endowment of $16.5 million and a budget of $21.3 million. It grew under his leadership to become Georgia's second-largest private university, with an enrollment of 7,300 students, an endowment of more than $176 million, a budget of $173.8 million and 665 faculty members.

BGCT president to address CBF assembly. Baptist General Convention of Texas President Albert Reyes has been added to the list of keynote speakers at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly, June 29-July 2 at Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine. Reyes, who also is president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, will speak during the Thursday evening session. Online registration and hotel reservations for the general assembly can be made at the Fellowship's website, www.thefellowship.info.

Baptist chaplain honored. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains recently presented its Legion of Honor award to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-endorsed chaplain Keith Ethridge. Ethridge is acting deputy director for the National Chaplains Center for the Department of Veterans Affairs. A former U.S. Navy chaplain, Ethridge has been a clinical pastoral education supervisor 17 years. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, a national nonprofit organization established to encourage cooperation and promote unity without uniformity, annually recognizes individuals from all walks of life who render selfless service. Dedicated by President Truman in 1951, the chapel was inspired by the courageous acts of four U.S. Army chaplains serving aboard the U.S. troop carrier Dorchester, which was sunk by a torpedo off the coast of Greenland in 1943. The chaplains–Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Jewish and Methodist–went down with the ship after surrendering their own lifejackets to servicemen aboard.

LifeWay to offer seminars after 2005 SBC. LifeWay Christian Resources will offer intensive ministry training sessions immediately following the 2005 Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tenn. "Fast 50: 50 Seminars for Growing Leaders" will be held June 23-24. Seminars will cover evangelism, discipleship, Sunday school, general church leadership, age-group specific leadership and mission leadership. "Fast 50" participants will have the opportunity to attend four seminars each day. Online registration is available beginning Feb. 1 at sbc.net. Registration fee is $50 per day per person or $80 for both days.

CBF partners to provide consulting services. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has launched a three-year partnership with the Center for Congregational Health, a consulting and training center in Winston-Salem, N.C., to provide a number of consulting services free to churches. The center will provide consultation to Fellowship churches in strategic planning, interim ministry, conflict management, staff relationships and leadership. Bo Prosser, the Fellowship's coordinator for congregational life, said the partnership also will allow for the creation of a network of CBF-trained intentional interim pastors available for churches. The partnership, which will run until June 2007, will provide free on-site consultation for up to 75 hours, with the churches paying only travel costs for the consultants.

Posted: 12/17/04

Pastor launches support network for other military families

By George Henson

Staff Writer

BROADDUS–Aaron Barth always has had his dream firmly in sight. From his earliest days, his mother and father can remember Aaron and his brother, William, playing army with sticks they found in the yard.

Aaron joined the U.S. Army on his 18th birthday, and now he is in Iraq doing what he always wanted to do–serving his country. And William, 21, is training for deployment to Afghanistan.

They are living their dream, but that doesn't make it any easier on their parents.

Their father, Wayne Barth, is pastor of First Baptist Church in Broaddus. But a strong faith doesn't make him immune from fear.

“There are moments when I get worried and afraid–fearful more than anything,” Barth said.

There also are moments when tears roll down his cheeks. While being a pastor does not insulate Barth from the worries and pain of fatherhood, he does find solace in God's word and his overarching faith that both he and his son are firmly in God's hand.

“God has really been gracious in lifting me out of my gloom and dispair,” he says, his unforced smile adding to the veracity of his testimony.

Each day, sometimes several times a day, Barth looks to Scripture for comfort. More often than not, he turns to the passage he highlighted in bright yellow the day he was told Aaron would be going to Iraq–2 Samuel 22, particularly the first seven verses.

King David's song of praise found there is often just the balm Barth needs to soothe his frayed emotions.

“Knowing that God hears me when I get afraid, fearful and emotional makes all the difference,” he said.

He and his wife, Diana, also have found support in their church, especially from more than a dozen veterans in the membership. Those men also spoke to their sons about what to expect in combat.

Broaddus, population 218, and nearby Zavalla, where Mrs. Barth teaches kindergarten, also have been supportive. The bank, various restaurants and the school have Aaron's picture on the wall.

“We've had the support of God, church, the community, our family. I don't know how we would make it without all the support,” Barth said.

One particularly trying day, Barth even sent an e-mail to President Bush.

“I know he probably didn't get it, but I had to send it. It simply said: 'Dear President, Please take care of my son.'”

He said he and his wife don't hide their concerns from their children still living at home–Sarah, 17, and Bryant, 15.

“They know we hurt, and they hurt right along with us. They get angry. We don't hide our feelings from one another,” Barth said.

While Mrs. Barth also shares her husband's concerns for her sons, she also finds comfort that Aaron in particular is living his dream. She says some people tell her they don't see how she can cope.

“It could be difficult, and some days it is, but this is what he loves to do. How many kids know at 19 or 20 what it is that they want to do and are actually getting to do it?” she pointed out.

That doesn't mean she didn't steer him away from a military career path. Aaron was salutatorian of his 2002 graduating class, and his mother wanted him to go to college. She filled out applications for universities and scholarships, but he was steadfast in his desire to serve his country.

His intellectual skills led the Army to try to steer him toward work with computers, but he requested a combat role instead.

“One of the hardest things is day to day not knowing what is going on–not knowing what he is doing,” Barth said.

He said his sons knew exactly what they were signing up for. While they had military aspirations from a young age, he said the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, angered them and solidified their resolve to serve their country.

Barth recalls telling them that they were enlisting during a time of conflict and that “it was possible they might be called on to make the ultimate sacrifice.”

“As a parent, you want to say, 'Are you out of your mind?' But we've raised them the best we knew how, and they're grown. You just have to let them go and support and respect their decisions,” he said.

Aaron left for Iraq days after Thanksgiving with the 3rd Infantry Division. William has been issued his desert fatigues and expects to deploy to Afghanistan within months with the 82nd Airborne.

“They were both here for Thanksgiving and came to church in their uniforms. I don't think my chest could have swelled any more,” their father admitted.

Still, when he looked at the soldiers, he saw his boys.

“These are typical 19-, 20-, 21-year-old kids. They still like hanging out with their friends. They love to play video games. I don't want to give the impression that they are immature by any means, however. These are boys in a man's world, doing a man's job. These are real men; more men than their father will ever be,” he said.

Barth's personal struggles have inspired him to start a support group for soldiers' families throughout the state.

He said military bases have excellent support systems, but parents, spouses, grandparents and siblings living away from a base may feel like no one else can identify with their fears and struggles.

He hopes to form a telephone and e-mail support system. Military families can use it on days when they are struggling, allowing them to communicate with someone who knows exactly what they are feeling.

“I know there are a lot of people who are hurting out there. I want to offer them someone to turn to,” he said. “As families of military personnel, we have a common bond with these folks.”

He says he is making himself available out of obedience to God.

“You never know where God is going to bring support from. God has seen those times when we have personally been struggling and he's always prepared someone to be there for us,” Barth said.

“If there's anything I can do with what God has placed in my hands, that's what I want to do,” he added.

The Barths can be contacted at (936) 872-3751, (936) 872-3508 or WmWBarth@aol.com.

Posted: 12/17/04

Buckner seeks hosts for 'angels from abroad'

DALLAS–Angels from Abroad, a Buckner International Adoption program to expose American families to international adoption, will be offered again in 2005.

The program allows adoption-minded families to host orphan children ages 7 to 14 when they visit the United States during their summer vacation June 4-20.

“Angels from Abroad offers host families the opportunity to make a difference in the life of a Russian child visiting the United States,” said Mary Ann Hamby, community relations coordinator for Buckner International Adoption. “Hosting is a great way for potentially adoptive families to participate in the experience of having a child from Russia living in their home as they consider international adoption as an option for parenting.”

The Russian children will stay in host family homes during their visit and participate in several Buckner-organized events, including a family picnic, Vacation Bible School program, child-centered activities and a swim party. In addition, host families will have the opportunity to plan their own family activities around the schedule of events.

Hamby, who noted that all of the children have been identified as available for international adoption, emphasized the need for host volunteers who are “willing and capable Christian families and single women who can successfully parent these precious children.”

Debbie Wynne, clinical director for Buckner International Adoption, said participating families will be able to call on her agency's staff to make their time with the Angels as positive as possible.

“The Buckner clinical team will be connected with each approved host family and will be checking on the family during the course of the child's visit to lend support and guidance as needed,” Wynne said. “In addition, Buckner will have interpreters available to assist families with translation and regular communication.”

While Buckner is working with churches and donors to help offset a portion of the costs of travel, visas and other expenses, host families must pay a host program fee to help with remaining program, home study and travel costs.

Potential host families must attend a workshop Jan. 11 at the Buckner International Adoption office, 4830 Samuell Blvd. in Dallas or call (214) 381-1552 to view the meeting on VHS. Christian couples and single women at least 25 years old who live in North Texas and are active church members are eligible to be considered as host families. Each family must pass a criminal background check and home study.

Buckner also is seeking volunteers to support the Angels from Abroad program financially as well as prior to and during the visit to assist with some of the events and activities. “We need assistance with playgroups, babysitting, carpools and a carnival for the children,” Hamby said.

Buckner International Adoption is officially accredited by the Russian Federation to place children for international adoption. Buckner has placed more than 150 Russian children in adoptive families in the United States since 1995.

For more information or to host or volunteer, contact Mary Ann Hamby at Buckner International Adoption at (214)381-1552 or mhamby@buckner.org

Posted: 12/17/04

Advocates for BWA look for ways
to rebuild group's financial support

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

ATLANTA (ABP)–About 20 former Southern Baptist leaders met in Atlanta this month to seek ways to rebuild financial support for the Baptist World Alliance, which lost its largest member and funding source in October.

The leaders–including several former Southern Baptist Convention agency heads and state convention executives–called themselves “Advocates of the Baptist World Alliance,” but no formal organization has been created.

Last June, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to withdraw its membership and final $300,000 in funding from the BWA, an international umbrella organization representing 211 Baptist bodies. The convention's leaders said BWA harbors theological liberalism, a charge denied by BWA and many of its member groups worldwide.

The Atlanta meeting was organized by Duke McCall, retired president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and former president of BWA.

“Our purpose is to retain Southern Baptist participation in and support of the Baptist World Alliance,” said McCall, who also was president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and chief executive of the SBC before fundamentalists rose to power.

“We function within Baptist freedom and the autonomy of every Christian church,” McCall said. “The BWA has inspired and instructed world Baptists in their intention to be biblical Christian witnesses to our Savior Jesus Christ.”

Other participants included Grady Cothen and Lloyd Elder, both former presidents of the SBC Sunday School Board–now called Lifeway Christian Resources–and three former chief executives of the SBC Woman's Missionary Union–Alma Hunt, Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler and Dellanna O'Brien.

Two BWA staff members were present–Denton Lotz, executive director, and Ian Chapman, development director.

The group did not establish a strategy or fund-raising goal in support of the BWA but agreed to encourage churches and individuals to support the international organization, based in Falls Church, Va.

McCall said a formal organization was a possibility going into the meeting “but it never crystalized. I didn't hear this crowd wanting an ongoing organization.” Nonetheless, he said he was “impressed with the vigor of the support” for the BWA.

The best hope for raising money for the BWA is from churches and individuals, McCall said.

Most support for the Baptist World Alliance traditionally has come from member Baptist bodies around the world, but the BWA recently added categories of associate membership for churches and individuals. Supporters are hoping to replace the money lost from the SBC–$425,000 annually until recent years–from churches and individuals who disagree with the SBC's action.

State conventions in Texas, Virginia, North Carolina and Missouri provide avenues of support for the BWA.

Proposals that could have resulted in more funding for BWA recently were defeated in the Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia Baptist conventions.

Catherine Allen, former president of the BWA Women's Department, said many “rank-and-file” Baptist churches have quit participating in the SBC and state conventions but still want to support BWA.

“There are a lot of churches that are SBC-identified who are going to have to make a decision about BWA,” said Allen, who also participated in the meeting. Encouragement from those former Southern Baptist leaders can be a persuasive factor, said Allen, former WMU associate executive director and now treasurer of Global Women.

Other participants included former chief executives of state conventions: Jere Allen, District of Columbia; Charles Barnes, Maryland; Bill Causey, Mississippi; James Griffith, Georgia; Jack Lowndes, New York; and Don Widemon, Missouri. Other state executives who expressed support but were not able to attend included Earl Kelly, Mississippi; Ken Lyle, New England; Reggie McDonough, Virginia; Bill Pinson, Texas; and Roy Smith, North Carolina.

Also attending were Emmanuel McCall, former director of black church relations for the Home Mission Board; Bill O'Brien, former vice president of the Foreign Mission Board; Truett Gannon, professor at Mercer's McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta; and three Georgia pastors–David Sapp of Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta, Bill Self of Johns Creek Baptist Church in Alpharetta, and Craig Sherouse of First Baptist Church of Griffin.

Posted: 12/17/04

Texas Baptist students devote
Christmas break to missions, ministries

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communication

Texas Baptist college students are not just going home for the holidays; they're spreading out around the world to tell others about Christ.

Some students already have left on holiday mission trips, and still more will depart after Christmas. It's all part of Baptist Student Ministry, associated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

For example:

Twenty-six students from Tarleton State University will go to Pensecola, Fla., to help repair a church building “pretty well torn up” by a hurricane this past summer, said Darrell Samuelson, BSM director at Tarleton. The students will do repairs, as well as sing Christmas carols and participate in outreach. Nine students will head to Portland State University in Portland, Ore., to prayer walk the campus and assist in outreach.

Twelve students from Texas State University will travel to Washington state to help with campus evangelism and lead a youth discipleship weekend, said Abe Jaquez, BSM director. Another TSU student will work with Go Now Missions in Dallas.

Forty students from Texas A&M University in Commerce will do remodeling and repair work at an orphanage in Matamoras, Mexico, said Joe Schmidt, BSM director. They also will assist new congregations with door-to-door evangelism.

At least five students from Laredo Community College and Texas A&M International University in Laredo will do light construction and “friendship evangelism” for Emmanuel Baptist Church in Charlotte, southeast of San Antonio, said Lamuel Lara, BSM director for both campuses.

Six University of Mary Hardin-Baylor students will minister in Scotland. Other students will go to Japan, China, Fort Worth and South Texas for a variety of ministries.

Holiday mission trips are pursued “basically out of necessity,” said Tarleton's Samuelson, because the students “work so much” to pay for their education. Students going to Florida raised $100 each, while students headed to Oregon had to come up with $400 each.

But the spiritual and ministry payoff can be great.

Schmidt hopes A&M-Commerce students will get “a better vision of the world and its needs and how God can use them to meet those needs.” Through missions, “they have their eyes opened a little bit” in order to see “how blessed they are and to re-evaluate priorities.”

And some of the students “come back to campus with a renewed passion” for Christ and his work, Schmidt said.

Missions “seems to stoke the flames” in students lives, said Texas State's Jaquez. They start asking, “What could I do here on my own campus?”

There is, quite simply, something different about mission work. “I don't think they get the same experience in their hometowns,” said Laredo's Lara. On the mission field, “they have to rough it out so they're more in tune with what's going on in other people's lives.”

And Lara is looking farther down the road in his students' lives, as well.

“I am trying to get it into their heads that being a minister is very, very possible for today's youth,” he said. And for students who do not pursue vocational ministry, the experience will benefit the churches where they serve as laypersons.

Posted: 12/17/04

Colleyville church feeds 2,800, leads 138 to faith in Christ

By Gregory Tomlin

Baptist Press

COLLEYVILLE (BP)–It wasn't quite comparable to the New Testament feeding of the 5,000, but an army of volunteers served hot meals and passed out sacks of groceries to more than 2,800 people.

Even so, the real miracle occurred in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Colleyville, where 138 people came forward to accept salvation in Jesus Christ, ministers at the church insisted.

“At the end of the service tonight, we are going to give you good gifts. Your money is no good here. We are not taking up an offering, and we will not accept donations,” Pastor Frank Harber told the 800-plus families at the event. “The gift of eternal life is just like that. It is free, and you would offend God if you tried to buy it.”

The dinner, grocery distribution and gospel presentation were part of the church's third annual Mission Colleyville outreach. Attendance at the events has doubled in three years, since one of First Baptist's deacons conceived the idea of feeding and providing for the community's most-neglected residents.

Ron Cogburn, deacon chairman when the idea of the mission was developed, said people in the area have embraced the mission because they see in it true compassion.

“Compassion without action is nothing. True mercy is compassion with action,” Cogburn said. “We are not only telling the people here that Jesus loves them; we are showing them. Where else could they get a meal, groceries and toys for their children? This makes a lot of difference in their lives.”

This year, more than 400 volunteers from the church participated in the mission. Bilingual pastors and ministers from area Hispanic churches also took part.

Carlos Flores, a minister at Highland Meadows Church, strolled around inside the tent on the church grounds where dinner was being served, greeting the families that carpooled from as far away as Irving. Several school buses also transported community members to the church.

Flores, wearing a bright red shirt with the word “bilingual” in white, shook hands, prayed with families and encouraged them to listen closely to the gospel message they would hear in the church's sanctuary.

“The people here at the church are doing this because they have a heart for people. They have a heart for the lost in the Hispanic community,” Flores said.

Eric Vaughan, associate pastor at First Baptist Church, said he expects Mission Colleyville to continue its growth. And he expects his church to seek more assistance from Hispanic churches.

“Each year, we have an increase in the number of Hispanics involved in this outreach. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. As our population grows, we will need to partner with Hispanics to reach into their communities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them,” Vaughan said.

“We have a heart and a passion to reach out to our Jerusalem, or northeast Tarrant County. It all boils down to the fact that this church body at its core, at its heart, is evangelistic.”

Posted: 12/17/04

ANOTHER VIEW:
There'll always be a Christmas

As one grows older, the valuables of life become more treasured. Friendships are rooted more deeply in the soil of human need. Homes are marked within and without with meaningful “hand-me-downs,” pictures of the children and grandchildren, reminders of visits by joy-bringers, gracious serendipities that have added so much to the journey.

We would be hard-pressed to place pricetags on the presence of special individuals, who at trying times have felt voicemail was hardly sufficient. They knew that we needed broad shoulders to lean upon and how to adjust in the crowded world we live in.

There have been the constant pressures to downgrade our moral values; plus a mindset equipped to deal with the gray climate brought upon us by the terrorist who cannot have the priceless gift of peace, nor properly evaluate hope for international brothering.

Yes, and even the Christmas season, declaring the birth of the Savior, is badgered by hatemongers whose outspoken objective is to destroy every semblance of our thanksgiving for the reality of the virgin-born King!

These recent years have brought us the choice of denominational loyalties as well as a strong new call to affirm our commitment to world missions–and all the while, we have been stalked continuously by vile advocators of a world that has no time or place for Christmas!

It is here and it is now that Christian believers must “draw their line in the sand,” declaring faith and trust in the God of Christmas morning! Forbid it, Lord, should the lights of Christmas lose their glow! We need Christmas so desperately!

I ask forgiveness should these rhetoritics seem overly strained with deep wrinkles of concern. How I wish their humble gift of pen and promise might find a warm lodging in the hearts of believers everywhere.

Nevertheless, we have come again to Christmas to find it inundated with question marks. How long will it last, this glorious grace of Christmas? Should I be given the boldness for replication with all others who share the Christ of kind, I would stand strong to answer:

There'll always be a Christmas

So long as truth remains in trust,

Conceived with promise held inviolate;

So long as faith confirms the birth

Of Day Spring's glad arriving;

So long as Wise Men find the star,

And Shepherds know where angels are;

So long as gifts are bought with care,

And joyful laughter fills the air;

So long as hope responds in kind,

To share the breathless news divine;

So long as children dream their dreams,

Of lions and lambs in single ring;

So long as streets are free from hate,

Where young and old can congregate;

So long as fields awake to green,

Long Winter's wind still welcomes Spring,

So long as angels anthem sing,

And Virgin's Child is crowned the King–

There'll always be a Christmas.

BO Baker, a longtime Texas Baptist pastor and evangelist, has written a Christmas reflection for the Baptist Standard for 29 consecutive years.

Posted: 12/17/04

DBU offers master's-level credit for
participants at Epicenter conference

Dallas Baptist University is offering master's-level credit for participants in Epicenter, the Baptist General Convention of Texas' annual evangelism and missions conference.

DBU students in the Gary Cook Graduate School of Leadership and Christian Education can earn three hours of course credit for attending all Epicenter sessions, making reports and creating plans to implement ideas learned during the conference.

Students must enroll in the “Local Church on Mission” class and pay the standard DBU tuition. Matching grants for tuition assistance are available. Class assignments will be submitted online.

Bob Garrett, professor of missions in DBU's graduate school, said Epicenter provides a unique opportunity for students to interact with leaders on the cutting edge of ministry. DBU's class can help ministers apply what they learn at Epicenter to their congregations.

Epicenter features author Dallas Willard; Jeff Harris, pastor of Grace Point Church in San Antonio; Carol Davis, executive director of Global Spectrum; and Darrell Guder, Henry Winters Luce professor of missional and ecumenical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

The conference is free and is scheduled Jan. 28-29 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel near D/FW Airport. For more information on Epicenter, visit www.bgct.org/epicenter.

Posted: 12/17/04

DOWN HOME:
He's pathetic or just blessed

Every year about this time, I wind up in the same ol' doghouse. Or, considering the season, maybe it's the reindeer house.

That's because I never can come up with a Christmas wish-list of sufficient length to satisfy my wife.

“Marv,” she said the other day. (Come to think of it, about the only time Joanna calls me by my name is when I'm in trouble.) “You haven't given me a single idea about what to get you for Christmas.”

She's right, of course. I can't come up with a thing. Zip. Nada. Nil. Nothing.

At Christmastime, I realize I'm sort of pathetic. Guys with hobbies and varied interests always have an easy time with wish-lists. They need a golf club or a tackle box or a table saw. Or if they've got an exotic hobby, they have exotic wish-lists. Like the last piece of an antique wind-up train set or Grover Cleveland's signature or a postage stamp from Bimini.

Even my so-called hobbies don't lend themselves to wish-lists. I've got a good pair of running shoes, so that's covered. And between the books I pick up at work, the ones I buy with the occasional bookstore giftcard and the library, I've got enough to read until 2035 or the Rapture, whichever comes last.

And I can't even exactly describe the one thing I'd like for Christmas. An old friend named Lloyd used to have a small bookcase on rollers. It had four sides and spun around. Cool. But I've Googled and eBayed and never found anything remotely like it.

So, you might say I'm pathetic.

But I'd say I'm blessed. God has supplied beyond my needs, even beyond my dreams. While I know the blank piece of paper that could be my wish-list drives my wife and daughters crazy, it makes me, well, thankful.

Actually, I'd have to say I'd do better with a symbolic wish-list than the real thing. If I had a symbolic wish-list, I'd write “gas card” and “clock” on it. That would stand for the ability to travel to visit famiy and friends and plenty of time to spend with them.

Other than the salvation we begin to celebrate as we observe Christmas, the thing I cherish most is the company of the people I love. I'd rather have a simple meal and a leisurely evening with my wife and almost-grown daughters than anything you could slide under the Christmas tree. I'd rather play a game of Hearts with Brent and Jackie than receive anything you can wrap in a bow. That list could go on for pages.

And that's just the beginning. Jesus is my Savior. God has blessed Jo and me with precious children, loving family and fantastic friends. We're healthy. We're productively employed. We live in a land where we're free to worship. And I'm married to my best friend.

No list could match the gifts God has given me already.

Posted: 12/17/04

EDITORIAL:
Avoid shepherds' temptation: Leaving baby in a manger

Whatever happened to the shepherds?

The Gospel of Luke describes how they became eyewitnesses to the birth of Jesus. The evening started like any other. They camped “out in the fields” of the Judean hillside, herding their flock. Then all heaven started breaking loose: An angel popped up, scaring them out of their sandals. Realizing their fear, the angel told them to calm down and announced that the long-awaited Messiah–“a Savior who is Christ the Lord”–had just been born in Bethlehem. As proof, the angel said, in effect: “If you don't believe me, go see for yourself. He's a baby, bundled up, bedded down in a feed trough.” Next, they heard the best concert ever, sung by an angel choir that proclaimed glory to God and promised peace. And then, when the angels sang their last note, the shepherds ran to Bethlehem, where everything the first angel told them came true. They hovered over the manger, ogling the Baby, amazed that the angel described everything to a T. After that, of course, they hurried back to their sheep, all the while “glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.”

That's it. The shepherds get 13 brief-but-beautiful verses in Luke 2. And then they pass off the scene as fast as fifth-grade “shepherds” sling off their bathrobes after a church Christmas pageant. We never hear from the shepherds again.

Don't you wonder whatever happened to the shepherds? The Gospel says Mary, Jesus' mother, “pondered” that night, remembering it over and over and over. But what of the shepherds?

Don't you suppose they, too, remembered? Every time lightning flashed across a midnight sky, one of them expected an angel to appear for a progress report on the young Messiah. Perhaps they thought about Jesus whenever they glimpsed a mother carrying a newborn baby. And maybe they were in the crowds, unnamed but watchful, in the scenes we know from Jesus' ministry: A guest smacking his lips at the best wine he's ever tasted at a wedding in Cana. A retired shepherd on a vacation trip to the Sea of Galilee, amazed at the stirring hillside sermon of a young rabbi. An old shepherd who hardly believes his ears when he hears about the teacher who raised a guy named Lazarus from the dead.

We'll never know exactly what the shepherds remembered. Nor will we know how they set that night in the context of their lives. Contemplating the shepherds' experience, Leroy Fenton observed in a recent Bible study lesson, “What they saw was not all there was to comprehend.” The shepherds saw angels, the Baby and a young mother. They heard a fantastic promise. But comprehension–full comprehension–would have carried them far beyond the manger. If they comprehended, they would have understood that Baby would grow up to be a man, Jesus–fully human yet fully divine–who would challenge the so-called spiritual leaders of the day, who would turn conventional expectations of a Messiah upside down, who would “preach good news to the poor, … freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind.” Comprehension would have carried them to the cross and beyond, to an empty tomb and to glory.

Of course, the shepherds could not comprehend the Incarnation, God-in-Flesh, in the face of that Baby. Memorable as the moment was, they went back to work. They basked in 13 verses of fame and then got on with their lives.

Every year at Christmas, we all become shepherds. Summoned by angels, we peer into the nativity. We gaze reverently upon the Holy Family. In the stillness, we can almost hear the Baby Jesus' soft, sweet breath.

But what we see in that manger is “not all there is to comprehend.” Unlike the shepherds, we know the rest of the story. Even in the Gospels, the sweetness of that moment soon passes. And then we see what that Baby arrived to become, the Suffering Servant Savior. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we comprehend that Christmas is about far more than warm feelings and glad tidings and goodwill to all. If we pay attention, we comprehend Christmas is about more than a virgin birth, but the arrival of God, who took on human flesh to communicate his love for us and to provide us with redemption from our sins.

If we comprehend, we will not succumb to the shepherds' temptation to leave Jesus in the manger. If we comprehend Christmas, we will worship at the foot of the cross.

The Baby in the manger was and is God-in-Flesh, who came not to warm our hearts or bring us cheer, but to save the world from sin.
–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com