Posted: 7/16/04

Barna: Few became Christians from 'Passion' film

By Kevin Eckstrom

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A new poll says 11 million people changed their religious beliefs after seeing Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” but only a tiny fraction of movie-goers became Christians because of the film.

The survey discovered the film about the death of Jesus was remarkably effective at drawing attention to the Christian Savior, even if it persuaded few to make a profession of faith. The Barna Group of Ventura, Calif., conducted the poll

“More than any other movie in recent years, ‘The Passion’ focused people on the person and purpose of Jesus Christ,” reported George Barna, the director of research.

“In a society that revolves on relativism, spiritual diversity, tolerance and independence, galvanizing such intense consideration of Jesus Christ is a major achievement in itself.”

The controversial film, which was denounced by Jewish groups for its portrayal of Jews, is the year’s top-grossing film, at $609 million worldwide. About 67 million adults—about one-third of all adults in the United States— have seen the movie, Barna said.

The survey found that 13 million adults (18 percent of those who saw it) altered their religious behavior, and 11 million (16 percent) changed their religious beliefs after seeing the movie.

Changed behavior involved increased church attendance, praying more often or involvement in church-related activities, Barna said. Changed beliefs involved becoming more concerned for others, implications of “life choices or personal behavior” and an increased “appreciation” for Jesus’ death.

Still, less than 1/10th of 1 percent of movie-goers (about 67,000) became Christians after seeing the film, and less than 1/2 of 1 percent (335,000) were motivated to share their Christian faith, according to Barna’s research.

“Major transformation is not likely to result from one-time exposure to a specific media product,” Barna said.

The overall survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points, and 3.9 percentage points for the 646 adults surveyed who saw the movie.

At the same time, research by Nielsen EDI Inc., which tracks movie sales, found “The Passion” was the most popular in suburbs and a wide swath of the Sun Belt, from Orange County, Calif., and New Mexico through Texas, Florida and up into Ohio, Detroit and New York City.

Michael Moore’s documentary, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” meanwhile, has generated similar passions but has been most popular in urban centers in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and the Washington-New York-Boston corridor, according to The New York Times.

Posted: 7/16/04

Bill opposing gay marriage passes House

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—The same day a gay-marriage ban failed to move forward in the Senate, a different approach to opposing same-sex nuptials passed a House committee.

The House Judiciary Committee voted July 14 to send the Marriage Protection Act of 2004 to the House floor. The act is a so-called “court-stripping” provision. If enacted and signed into law, it would prevent federal courts—including the Supreme Court—from deciding on the legality or constitutionality of cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act.

That 1996 law—passed by a wide margin in Congress and signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton—defines marriage in exclusively heterosexual terms for federal purposes. It also says that states cannot be forced, under the Constitution’s “full faith and credit” clause, to recognize same-sex marriages performed by other states.

The Marriage Protection Act, introduced by Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), passed the committee on a party-line, 21-13 vote. Republican leaders said they would bring the bill to the House floor the week of July 19.

The act would limit the courts’ jurisdiction only over claims against the Defense of Marriage Act’s full-faith-and-credit provisions. Hostettler’s bill originally would have stripped courts of authority to decide cases regarding both aspects of the law. But the committee set that aside for the narrower substitute, offered by Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).

The recent legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, coupled with Supreme Court rulings on gay rights, has caused many lawmakers to seek ways to limit what they consider a runaway federal judiciary in the area of marriage law. The bill’s proponents feared a federal court could strike down the Defense of Marriage Act unless prevented by law.

“The threat posed to traditional marriage by a handful of federal judges whose decisions can have an impact across state boundaries has renewed concern over the abuse of power by federal judges,” Sensenbrenner told his colleagues in committee debate on the bill.

“No branch of the federal government can be entrusted with absolute power—and certainly not a handful of tenured federal judges who are appointed for life,” he added.

But Democrats on the committee said enacting such a court-limiting provision regarding basic civil rights would set a dangerous precedent and that the bill would almost certainly prove to be unconstitutional anyway.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the committee’s ranking Democratic member, compared previous court-stripping bills threatened by members of Congress in reaction to unpopular court decisions.

“No less a liberal icon than Barry Goldwater battled court-stripping bills on school prayer, busing and abortion, which were the big issues in those days,” Nadler said. “I trust that, decades from now, these debates will find their way into the textbooks next to the segregationist backlash of the 1950s, the court-packing plan of the 1930s and other attacks on our system of government.”

Posted: 7/16/04

Crossover Indianapolis gleaned 1,932 professions of faith

By Lee Weeks

Baptist Press

INDIANAPOLIS (BP)—A year of planning and praying by Indiana Southern Baptists combined with volunteer support from across the country resulted in 1,932 professions of faith in Christ during Crossover Indiana, an evangelistic blitz accompanying the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis.

John Rogers, director of evangelism and prayer for the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana, said the professions of faith were recorded through revival crusades, evangelistic block parties, prayerwalking, street evangelism, door-to-door spiritual opinion surveys and other initiatives.

“Only heaven will reveal how many more will get saved out of Crossover because of the burden these new Christians have to see their family and friends come to Christ,” Rogers said.

More than 120 of Indiana’s 430 Southern Baptist churches and missions participated in the Crossover effort, which included 70 evangelistic block parties and 97 weekend revivals statewide.

And nearly 1,000 volunteers—about half from out of state—joined the Crossover outreach conducted largely on June 12.

Eighty professions of faith were recorded during the weekend revivals held across the state before and following the SBC annual meeting. About 50 Florida pastors and evangelists led the revivals as part of the Florida Baptist Convention’s ongoing partnership with Indiana Baptists.

Jon Beck, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, located about an hour south of Indianapolis in North Vernon, said the Crossover efforts have brought a renewed sense of purpose to his congregation of nearly 300 people—the only SBC church in a county of 20,000 residents.

About 20 people from Beck’s church volunteered at two inner-city block parties in Indianapolis June 12. Since then, Beck has baptized about 20 new Christians at Bethel Baptist.

Crossover “was the first time some people in our church had done ministry outside the four walls of our church outside our community,” Beck said.

Rogers said he hopes ongoing follow-up efforts by Indiana churches with prospects and new believers will result in record baptisms for the state in 2004-05.

An estimated 70 percent of Indiana’s 6.2 million people don’t profess to be Christians, while Southern Baptists across the state number nearly 100,000.

Dick Church, manager of personal evangelism for the North American Mission Board, which sponsors the annual Crossover effort nationally, said local churches are encouraged to connect with new Christians 10 times over the next four weeks following their decision for Christ. The plan is to begin discipling them in the faith and involve them in the church.

“Follow-up is always a top priority for Crossover,” Church said.

Several ethnic churches were bolstered by the Crossover outreach, Rogers said. For example, 75 professions of faith were recorded at one block party and revival crusade in a Hispanic neighborhood in Seymour, Ind. “Crossover really gave a shot in the arm to some of our Hispanic works,” he said.

Work of NAMB’s Inner City Evangelism teams in African-American communities resulted in more than 850 professions of faith.

Victor Benavides, a NAMB personal evangelism associate and coordinator of the street evangelism teams, shared the gospel east of downtown Indianapolis on New York Street near Fellowship Baptist Church, an area known for gang violence, drugs and prostitution.

Benavides talked with two men in a car parked in an alley beside a two-story house while several young women stood on the sidewalk.

“They trusted Jesus as Savior,” Benavides said. “As I finished …, the next car pulled up behind them.”

A few minutes later, that driver professed his faith in Christ, Benavides said.

Then a 17-year-old boy who said he had just gotten out of jail walked toward the two-story house. Benavides and the boy talked about “The Passion of The Christ” movie before the youth prayed to receive Christ as his Savior.

“We just don’t know the real impact of our co-laboring with God,” Benavides said. “Only in eternity will we really know the fruits of our efforts.”

Rogers also reported that 1,499 phone calls from across the state were received by NAMB’s Evangelism Response Center in response to an evangelistic television advertising campaign. Thirty-seven professions of faith were recorded by phone, and about 1,000 requests were taken for a free DVD of the film, “The Hope,” which outlines the gospel. The DVDs will be hand-delivered as part of the local church follow-up response.

Posted: 7/16/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
You’re at church now

By Brett Younger

The rain started before we left Fort Worth and continued almost all the way. At Texarkana, I optimistically switched to “intermittent,” but we spent most of the day on the fast end of the wiper speed dial. I announced several times—to no one’s amusement—“The last time it rained like this Noah built himself a boat.”

At Hope, Ark., the wiper blade on the passenger’s side decided it had had enough and started unraveling. By the time we got to my parents’ house, the wiper was almost completely gone.

The next morning we drove through the rain to the Texaco in Mantachie, Miss. They only had one blade in stock (it was for a pick-up), but they helpfully pointed us to Jerry Pitts’ Auto Parts.

Lines in Mississippi are short, but move slowly. The person in front of us talked to Betty Pitts about the weather (“wet enough for you?”), somebody’s cousin (it was never clear whose) and a lively debate over who fries the best catfish (the consensus is “the place in Centerville, but it’s overpriced at $6 a dinner”). I don’t think the person in front of us bought any parts.

When it was our turn, Betty and my father discussed at length how good Amy, Betty’s daughter, was in the Tupelo Community Theater presentation of “Annie, Get Your Gun.” When we finally got to the reason for our visit, Betty suggested we replace just the wiper blade rather than the whole assembly, because “that will be cheaper.” I took the thin piece of plastic and a borrowed pair of pliers, and promptly broke the thingamajig that holds the wiper. (I use non-technical terms so as not to confuse lay readers.)

Betty then gave me a metal dilly that she assured us “would snap right on.” The rain was coming down hard. I held a borrowed umbrella as my father tried to get the assembly to “snap right on.” After awhile, he held the umbrella, and I tried. Finally, we sheepishly asked Betty for help. She knew far more than we did, but—and this made me feel better—she couldn’t get it on either.

Betty summoned an innocent bystander who had the misfortune to be in the area. I tried to keep the umbrella over as much of him as I could, but Douglas is big, and it was pouring. By the time he announced, “I got it,” the stranger who replaced my wiper was soaked.

Betty said, “I’m real sorry that the assembly costs more than just the wiper.” She explained with concern that my bill would be $5.44 rather than the original $3.74.

I asked, “How much do I owe for installation?”

Betty smiled as she said, “I don’t know where you’re from young man, but you’re in Mantachie, Mississippi.”

Wouldn’t that be a great line for us to use in our churches?

When a poor person says, “I was surprised that people made me feel so welcome,” we can reply, “I don’t know where you’re from, but you’re at church now.”

When a hurting person says, “I’m not used to people caring for me,” we can respond, “I don’t know where you’re from, but you’re at church now.”

When anyone says, “The people here seem to be having such fun,” we can smile when we say, “I don’t know where you’re from, but you’re at church now.”

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of “Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life,” available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016.

Posted: 7/16/04

Hall warns Texas Baptists Committed
to avoid mistakes of failed corporate CEOs

By Marv Knox

Editor

HOUSTON—Lessons learned from failed businesses can spur the Baptist General Convention of Texas to success, BGCT President Ken Hall insisted.

“We must change the way we carry out our stewardship of ministry for the Lord,” he warned at the Texas Baptists Committed annual convocation in Houston.

Hall, president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences in Dallas, based his challenge on research presented in “Why Smart Executives Fail,” a book by Dartmouth College professor Sidney Finkelstein.

Hall pointed to seven “spectacularly unsuccessful” habits of these business leaders, as well as implications for Texas Baptists:

The illusion of personal pre-eminence.

In failed businesses, the executives often think they’re “more important than the product,” Hall said. Such thinking is absurd, since consumers buy the product, regardless of who heads the company.

The seduction of personal pre-eminence can cause Texas Baptists, and particularly their leaders, to forget God calls them to lead by serving others, not by dominating the spotlight of fame and recognition, he said.

“What we do is not about us,” Hall added, acknowledging, “As Baptists and as Texans, that goes against our pathology. … But we’re to be servants of the Lord and of others.”

The company is mine.

Some CEOs begin to view their companies as extensions of themselves and lose their sense of accountability to others, he pointed out.

Similarly, Texas Baptists can be tempted to see their cause as their own, and even if their cause is worthy, their perspective is skewed, he said.

“Texas Baptists are workers in the field of the Lord,” he explained. “The work of Texas Baptists doesn’t belong to the churches, the denomination, the Baptist Building or to Texas Baptists Committed. It belongs to the Lord.”

We have all the answers.

“No one has all the answers,” Hall said of business leaders as well as Texas Baptists.

“We believe in the principles of our movement, such as religious liberty, soul competency, the authority of the Bible and the separation of church and state,” he reported. “But that didn’t prevent Baptists from supporting slavery, segregation, male supremacy and other such sins. …

“Baptists thought they had all the answers. That’s how fundamentalism gained root in our lives. Christian humility demands we seek the Lord for our strategy and our methods.”

My way or the highway.

Execs who take this approach to business not only eliminate dissent, but they also “cut off their best chance for survival,” Hall said.

“My greatest fear for Texas Baptists has its roots in this habit,” Hall admitted. “It is a kind of reverse fundamentalism that says every church must take the same action, every institution must follow the same course.

“We must allow dissent … on practical issues. Our tent must be larger if we’re going to win this world to Christ.”

Obsessed with image.

Company heads who obsess about their image try to “spin” every issue to make them look good but fail to deal with substantive challenges to real success, Hall explained.

This is a condition that afflicts Texas Baptists and is illustrated by how they report their size, he claimed. “We say we have 2 million constituents. But we can’t find half of them.”

He affirmed the ministry of the Baptist Standard. “We need the Baptist Standard. We need somebody to tell us the truth—that we have warts as well as roses.”

While Texas Baptists love to trumpet their successes, “the truth is every day we’re losing this state to the devil,” he said.

Underestimating major obstacles.

Too many business leaders overlook challenges and refuse to admit failure, while they need to recognize reality, he said.

“Texas Baptists need to admit some obstacles are bigger than our intellects and our ability to overcome,” he urged. “But the difference between us and the business world is that Jesus is our advocate.

“Some problems are out there … that only God can overcome. It’s time to fall on our knees and ask God to rain down his power.”

Stubbornly relying on what worked in the past.

This habit is so seductive, because it tempts CEOs to trust in the methods, products and programs that gave them success before, Hall reported.

And it’s seductive for Texas Baptists, because the temptation to look back on their era of booming growth and productivity is strong, he said, insisting such an approach would be disastrous.

“We’re at the defining moment of this generation,” he said. “We can’t keep score the way we did in the 1950s and ’60s. The world is changing. It is beyond time for us to change.”

Issues of aging leadership, changing ethnic demographics, gender inclusiveness, missions support and methods of theological education “are just some of the questions we have to ask ourselves,” Hall urged. “Right now, we are not fulfilling Jesus’ commission to reach the world.”

Consequently, a process designed to reorganize the Baptist General Convention of Texas and focus the convention’s strategy for doing its work is vitally important, he added.

The process began early this year, led by BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade and the convention’s officers. Four teams worked throughout the spring to provide ideas for how the convention arrange its priorities and shape its strategy.

Now, a special committee is working on specific suggestions for reorganizing so that the convention’s structure will match its priorities and strategy. The committee will present its report to the BGCT Administrative Committee Sept. 2-3 and the BGCT Executive Board Sept. 28.

The committee’s proposals will “radically, dramatically change the way we do business as Texas Baptists,” Hall predicted. They will start with how the BGCT is governed and emphasize accountability and efficiency. They also will help the convention emphasize missions, church starting, Christian education and welfare, he added.

Hall told the group he has a prayer for his convention presidency: “I want to have set a stage for change, but my selfish prayer is I want our Texas Baptist family to be ahead of addressing these vital issues.”

Posted: 7/09/04

Baptists, Jews break bread together, build relationship

By Kirsten Pasha

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)–Members of Jewish and Baptist communities met for lunch during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly to share stories and encourage an interfaith relationship.

Just in time, according to some Jewish and Baptist leaders.

The relationship between Jews and Baptists began “to atrophy” in the 1980s, said Jonathan Levine, national director of community services for the American Jewish Committee. Since then, Baptists and Jews have been like strangers to each other, he observed.

Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, which sponsored the luncheon, said the relationship between Southern Baptists and Jews hit “rock-bottom” in the last 25 years.

Southern Baptist leaders have injured the relationship by refusing to participate with Jews in interfaith services after the Sept. 11 attacks, prioritizing conversion of Jews on their high holy days, not acknowledging any anti-Semitism in the movie “The Passion of the Christ” and comparing Judaism to a deadly tumor, Parham asserted.

Scott Hausman-Weiss, a rabbi at Temple Emmanu-el in Birmingham, said he came to recognize the “evil menace” as Baptist at rabbinic school as a result of the Southern Baptist attempts to proselytize Jews.

However, soon after Hausman-Weiss became a rabbi, his congregation's need for a place of worship led them to Southside Baptist Church in Birmingham. He said the church's building–which he may have considered to be the enemy's headquarters–became his own synagogue.

“When I saw the huge, purple banner above the door that said, 'A house of prayer for all peoples,' I truly thought, 'Oh, my God,'” Hausman-Weiss said. During the time of worship with the Baptists, he said, he considered the experience “truly a godly moment.”

Steve Jones, pastor of Southside Baptist Church, said his congregation received criticism from Christians for opening its doors to the Jews.

“We're not going to change (the Jews), but we will be changed by our relationship with them, and they will not change us, but they will be changed by their relationship with us,” Jones said. Hausman-Weiss “has said to me, 'You have been a Christian witness to us.' And Temple Emmanu-el has been a Jewish witness to us as well.”

The presence of two religions in one building has created situations that provoked both laughter and distress. Jones chuckled as he recalled the time he found a yarmulke in the baptistery. For the Jews, however, the cross was a painful reminder that they chose to cover during their services for their first couple of months at the church.

“It wasn't out of a need to defy or deface the Baptist church,” Hausman-Weiss said. “The problem with the cross … is it has historically represented the opposite of salvation and life eternal (for the Jews). … It's mayhem, murder and institutional hatred.”

Considering the deeply opposite sentiments tied to the cross for Jews and Christians, a bond between the two religions is “a relationship to be celebrated based on history, common humanity and good neighborliness,” said Arnold Belzer, a rabbi of Congregation Mickve Israel in Savannah, Ga.

The interfaith movement, according to Belzer, began with Congregation Mickve Israel's establishment in Savannah in 1733. The congregation has a special relationship with First Baptist Church in Savannah that, Belzer said, is a wonderful example of interfaith dialogue.

Levine, of the American Jewish Committee, said an interfaith movement will take work on the part of Jewish and Baptist congregations, but he insisted it is necessary for both groups.

“For those of us who look outward, coalitions are crucial,” he said. “The only way to break down stereotypes is ongoing dialogues. … My organization is absolutely committed to re-engaging with moderate Baptists. We really want to, and it's important for both of us.”

The Baptist Center for Ethics luncheon, though not officially part of the CBF assembly, was one of several CBF-related events involving Jewish relations. The CBF's ecumenical task force met with Huntsville, Ala., rabbi Jeff Ballon prior to the general assembly. And a CBF breakout session June 24 dealt with “developing a healthy and productive Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Posted: 7/09/04

CBF votes to help launch national ecumenical organization

By Marv Knox

Editor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship voted to help start a national ecumenical organization, approved a $16 million budget and elected new leaders during its annual general assembly in Birmingham, Ala.

During the business portion of the three-day meeting, CBF participants agreed without debate or dissent to become a founding member of Christian Churches Together in the USA, a new organization expected to encompass denominations from across the spectrum of Christianity.

The movement to create Christian Churches Together began in 1991, as leaders of various groups began to “explore the need to expand fellowship and unity among all expressions of Christian faith,” noted John Finley, pastor of First Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga., and co-chair of the CBF's ecumenical task force.

Christian Churches Together will involve evangelical, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, historical Protestant, and racial and ethnic Christian churches in America, added Sonja Phillips, the other chair of the task force and co-pastor of Central Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Membership will include churches that “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior” according to the Scriptures, who embrace the historic understanding of God as Trinity, and who “seek ways to work together to present a credible Christian witness” to society, Phillips said.

Lindsey McClintock of Calvary Baptist Church in Tyler, one of the new CBF Global Missions field personnel, is commissioned during the CBF general assembly in Birmingham, Ala. She will minister among youth in Berlin, Germany.

The idea of helping to start a broad ecumenical group is biblically sound, Finley reported.

Christian ecumenism flows from Jesus' prayer that his followers would be unified, Phillips stressed, noting, “this is a visible manifestation of Christ's presence in unity.

Participation in Christian Churches Together also is consistent with the CBF's identity as ecumenical Baptists who “embrace other Christians,” Finley said.

Already, the American Baptist Churches-USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church have affirmed the new organization.

It will be launched when 25 denominations and religious organizations vote to join, Finley said. That is expected to happen by May 2005.

The CBF's $16 million 2004-05 budget will begin July 1 and gained approval without discussion or negative votes.

The budget total is almost the same as the current budget, which was cut back last year after the CBF failed to meet its 2002-03 budget, said Philip Wise, chair of the CBF finance committee and pastor of Second Baptist Church in Lubbock.

Noting the end of the 2003-04 fiscal year was only days away, Wise told general assembly participants, “We're on track to finish in the black.”

The new $16,008,123 budget is $46 more than the 2003-04 budget. It is divided into four program sections and a fifth section of support.

The goal for the “faith formation” section is $509,782. It will fund evangelism and outreach, spiritual growth ministries and the “CBF Store,” which provides products and materials.

The “building community/ networking” section is targeted to receive $923,924.

Those funds will finance efforts to support congregational health, reconciliation and justice, marriage and families, and community-building, as well as grants to help build Baptist identity and relationships.

A total of $1,939,211 is earmarked for “leadership development.” It will include funds allocated to affiliated seminaries, divinity schools and Baptist studies programs.

Portions of that amount also will help support congregational leadership development networks, collegiate ministry and other leadership development programs.

The largest component of the budget, $9,044,566, will be allocated to “global missions and ministries.”

It will fund about 150 career missionaries, church-planting and missionary-training efforts, missions education and promotion, curriculum to support the missions endeavors, and “church mobilization.”

The support section, $3,550,640, underwrites the annual general assembly, communications and marketing, administration and the work of the CBF Coordinating Council.

Posted: 7/09/04

Vestal tells Coordinating Council it's time
for CBF to 'step up' and be good BWA member

By John Pierce & Greg Warner

Baptists Today & Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)–Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, said the Baptist World Alliance “is going to find a new vision and new life” in the next few months and years, even though it recently lost its largest member and donor.

Speaking to the CBF Coordinating Council for the first time since February, Vestal urged the Fellowship and its members to support BWA, a worldwide network of 210 Baptist bodies.

“It's time for us to step up and step out and say we are good members” of BWA, Vestal said.

The Southern Baptist Convention, which helped form the Baptist World Alliance 99 years ago, voted June 15 to withdraw its membership and funding from BWA over allegations of theological liberalism. The international organization denies those charges, saying the major factor in the SBC's departure was BWA's decision last year to accept the Fellowship as a member.

BWA will celebrate its centennial next year in Birmingham, England. “I think it is very important for CBFers to go,” Vestal said of the 2005 meeting.

Vestal also told of his 10-day tour of four African nations earlier this year that convinced him of the need for greater CBF mission involvement, particularly in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis there.

“HIV/AIDS is a moral problem, a medical problem, a social problem and a political problem–and it is our problem,” Vestal told council members.

The Coordinating Council heard about a new partnership between CBF and Call to Renewal, an anti-poverty advocacy group comprised largely of Christian evangelicals.

The Fellowship already fights poverty on a practical, local level through Partners in Hope, the Fellowship's rural poverty initiative, Vestal said. The anti-poverty partnership with Call to Renewal allows CBF “to make our voice heard in the public-policy arena,” Vestal said.

Yonce Shelton, national coordinator and policy director for the Washington-based group fielded questions from council members. “Poverty is the one issue with a biblical imperative that churches can agree on,” he told the council.

“This represents a step for us,” Vestal said of the new partnership, “and this body needs to get comfortable or uncomfortable with this.”

One council member said she was uncomfortable with Call to Renewal's support for President Bush's faith-based initiatives, which channel government money to religious social-ministry groups, including churches. Critics say the initiatives constitute government support or establishment of religion.

Shelton said Call to Renewal supported faith-based initiatives at the outset in order to take a positive approach and because they were supposed to be matched by public-policy changes and funding.

“We supported faith-based initiatives with the understanding … you can't just rely on churches,” he said. “You have to have the commitment to programs as well.”

Call to Renewal “took a lot of heat for that,” he added. The “rhetoric” from the Bush administration always was good on faith-based initiatives, but without the policy changes on poverty to back it up, Call to Renewal decided last year “we don't think we can support” the program, Shelton said. “We see it as crumbs from the table to churches that are already overworked.”

The council heard a report from CBF's Partnership Study Committee, which is examining the organization's funding of and relationships with other like-minded Baptist ministries and institutions. Committee Chair Charles Cantrell of Mountain Home, Mo., said the group will have its report ready before the council's October meeting.

Barbara Baldridge, co-coordinator for global missions, introduced new field personnel to the council. Two anonymous gifts totaling nearly $7 million, which were reported earlier, were credited with the expansion of CBF missionaries and mission projects.

Baldridge said CBF has 143 career missionaries on the field in addition to short-term workers and others holding secular employment.

Baldridge said morale remains high among field personnel despite continuing uncertainties throughout the world. "The level of difficulty varies greatly … ," she said. "We keep a close tab on the situation around the world. Most of our field personnel say, 'I'm staying right here no matter what.' Still, we keep in touch with them and keep their safety and best interest in mind."

Posted: 7/09/04

Being near the right Son opens doors, theologian preaches

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)– Being near the right Son can open doors for you, Virginia theologian John Kinney told participants at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's general assembly.

Speaking during the opening session of the moderate Baptist group's annual meeting in Birmingham, Kinney noted that his son, Erron, is a tight end for the NFL's Tennessee Titans. When visiting his son in Nashville, Kinney said, he often gets into places or gets the sort of treatment not available to most people.

That's taught him something: “Some of the promise and possibility in your life is not because of who you are, but because you're connected with the right Son,” Kinney said, making the application to Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Kinney is dean of the school of theology at Virginia Union University, a historically African-American Baptist school in Richmond. Addressing the meeting's theme of “Being the Presence of Christ: Today … Tomorrow … Together,” he drew from Luke's account of the encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus to note that being Christ's presence in the world first requires Christians to recognize Christ's presence among them.

That was difficult for the two people in Luke 24:30-34, whose world had just been upended by the death of their leader, Kinney said.

“Could that day be much of the character of today?” he asked, citing “wars and rumors of wars, trouble at every hand.”

But, Kinney said, despite the disciples' dejected condition and inability at first to recognize their Lord in his resurrected state, “he still drew near.”

And as soon the pair realized Christ was sitting with them, he disappeared, Kinney said.

That caused them to realize their hearts had been “burning within” them when Jesus was walking with them along the road, explaining the prophecies about his coming and resurrection, he continued.

“What was something I didn't know and could only hear facts about is now burning as a part of who I am,” Kinney said.

Once believers are in close contact with Christ and feel in that relationship a burning passion, they can be that presence in the world, Kinney said.

He noted the people in Emmaus immediately got up and returned to Jerusalem to tell the others of their experience.

“They do not respond with a doctrine or a formula. They do not come at you with a form to follow. They come at you with a life that has been transformed, and invite you to be transformed,” he said.

“They tell you, 'There's something that has gotten a hold of me, and my life has been changed!'”

Posted: 7/09/04

Split personality compels Baptists to fight, historian asserts

By Marv Knox

Editor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–Baptists fight because of centuries-old paradoxical tendencies in their nature, church historian Bill Leonard believes.

Competing characteristics–inclination toward individualism and craving for community–practically compel Baptists into conflict, noted Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University's divinity school, during a breakout seminar at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly.

“Baptist polity is terribly messy, even unruly,” Leonard said.

“It is predicated on an untenable tension between individualism and community. It is so untenable as to make conflict and schism not simply possible but probably, in many cases, essential.”

But that's not completely bad, he added, stressing, “It may be central to the future–in fact, the survival–of the church.”

From the start, Baptists practiced “radical congregationalism,” believing “Christ's authority was mediated not through bishop or king, but through the congregation of Christian believers,” he said. Consequently, Baptists have valued individualism and the free-standing autonomy of the local church.

Still, despite their individualistic intent, Baptists quickly began to band together in associations of churches, he added. They associated with other Baptist congregations “for fellowship, mutual encouragement, doctrinal solidarity and other connectional interactions,” which later included supporting missions.

Baptists appreciated the common values and strength in numbers, but tensions arose when the power of the larger group threatened the autonomy of the local congregations, he said.

Their polity embraces five sets of “distinctives,” which don't seem to relate but do so for Baptists, he reported. They are:

Biblical authority and liberty of conscience. Baptists believe the Bible is authoritative for both the church and individual believers, but they also believe individuals are free to interpret Scripture according to their own consciences, he said.

Regenerate church membership, open or closed. While Baptists insist church membership is limited to believers who profess faith in Christ, not all early Baptist churches required immersion for membership, Leonard said, noting they also did not agree whether local church membership was required for participation in the Lord's Supper.

Priesthood of laity and ordination of ministers. Even though Baptists affirm the “priesthood of all believers” and say all Christians are ministers, they also ordain selected members for specific leadership roles within the church, he said.

Local autonomy and associational cooperation. Leonard cited Baptists' tendencies to emphasize both the individual nature of each congregation and the value of cooperating “to accomplish ministries not possible for single churches.”

Religious liberty and loyalty to the state. Baptists have been champions of religious freedom, but also loyal advocates of the government, he said.

These paradoxes aren't unusual for Baptists, who have seemed contradictory from their earliest years, Leonard recalled. He noted early groups of Baptists included both General Baptists, who believed Christ died so that all people might have an opportunity for salvation, and Particular Baptists, who believed Christ died for only the people God preordained to become Christians.

“Essentially, Baptists have a split personality,” he quipped. “But the thing they all agree on is they're congregationalists and the church should be comprised of believers.”

But they disagree on a range of issues, he added, citing ordination of women, ministerial authority, biblical inerrancy, homosexuality, abortion, baptism and denominational participation.

Baptists' ability to hold onto their paradoxical tensions comes in handy today, when they number 40 million adherents worldwide and the United States alone is home to at least 50 distinct Baptist groups, Leonard said.

"Congregational polity means all members have a voice–potentially–in church affairs and congregations can determine their own futures based on consensus of community," he said. "This polity means individual churches can make choices on either side of controversial issues without necessarily dividing the entire denomination."

In response to a question, he noted Baptists cannot appeal to history for an exclusive interpretation of what “real” Baptists believe.

For example, some contemporary Baptists may say women cannot be deacons, but he read a quote from 1611 referencing women Baptist deacons.

Others claim Baptists don't cling to creeds, but he cited early cases to the contrary.

Despite tensions and generations of conflict, Baptists' complicated polity offers strengths in the postmodern world, Leonard pointed out.

The “growing concern for and move toward localism” is a hallmark of postmodernism, in which people care deeply about their communities and neighborhoods, and “it is happening on the left and on the right,” he said. Baptists' emphasis on local autonomy provides them with congregational identity as people seek authenticity.

“Each community is intentional about its identity and ministry,” he said, adding, “A reassertion of community serves as a response to–even a corrective for–rabid individualism.”

Some churches have reinstituted an old Baptist practice of laying hands on new Christians at their baptism, a practice that “offers outward sign of common callings, informing identity as … people of God,” he said.

Baptists' “genius” is their affirmation that “people can be trusted to interpret Scripture aright–in the context of community, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit,” Leonard affirmed.

He noted this concept embraces Baptists' historical contradiction–individual liberty exercised responsibly in community and guided by God.

Baptists' greatest challenge remains their ability to manage their rudimentary tension, he said: “How to nurture community, diversity and voice and decide which convictions are non-negotiable and which might be negotiated together. What is worth schism and what is not?”

Posted: 7/09/04

Fellowship welcomes Baptist World Alliance with open arms

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)–One week after Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted to cut ties to the Baptist World Alliance, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship participants welcomed the global alliance with open arms.

During the CBF general assembly in Birmingham, Ala., participants contributed $47,670 in a special offering for BWA, and they adopted a new CBF budget that doubles the BWA's allocation from $20,000 to $40,000.

Emphasizing “with membership comes responsibility,” offering envelopes distributed at the meeting noted CBF “is proud to be a part of this worldwide family of Baptists.”

BWA's acceptance of the Fellowship last year as a member body has been cited as a primary reason for the SBC's decision to end its 99-year partnership with BWA.

A February report from an SBC study committee stated the BWA's vote to include CBF “merely served as a confirmation that we must, as a convention, allow the world to see us without having to look through a BWA lens–a lens which, for us, has become too cloudy.”

There was nothing cloudy, however, about the BWA leader's affirmation of one of their newest member bodies.

“Welcome, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, into the Baptist family,” BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz told the general assembly. “We belong together because we belong to Jesus Christ. … Let's move on and forget the past and move on to the glorious future in Jesus Christ.”

BWA's vote last year to accept the Fellowship “affirmed the Baptist principle of voluntary association,” Lotz said. “We want to embrace all Baptists.”

The Fellowship assembly received Lotz with a standing ovation, which he said he interpreted as “not for me but for Baptists of the world.”

CBF Moderator-Elect Bob Setzer, pastor of First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Ga., introduced Lotz and praised the organization's stance in the dispute with the SBC.

“False accusations and the threat of financial blackmail proved powerless to kowtow this (group of) … freedom-loving, Christ-centered Baptists,” he said.

Lotz, speaking earlier at a BWA breakfast, urged believers to tear down walls that hinder ministry efforts.

“We've got to overcome those terms of 'conservative' and 'liberal' and 'moderate', ” he said.

“I want to be a Baptist, a biblical Baptist. I want to be a Baptist who defends religious liberty and believes in the separation of church and state. I want to be a Baptist who is a drum major for justice like Martin Luther King. … I want to be a Baptist who believes in the priesthood of all believers.

“I want to be a Baptist who believes in freedom. Freedom does not come from Washington. It doesn't come from Beijing or from Moscow. Freedom comes from Jesus Christ, and Baptists better discover that again.”

Reflecting on BWA's 99-year history as a global Baptist fellowship, Lotz said: “In 1905, Baptists gathered together in London to show the essential oneness of the Baptist people in the Lord Jesus Christ. …

“We did not come together to tell you what to believe, but we came to affirm what we do believe and that is that Jesus Christ is our Lord and that he is our unity.”

BWA offers “a home for everybody” in Baptist life, he added. “We do not want Baptists to feel excluded. We want to tell everybody this morning that you're all welcome.”

Lotz called on Baptists to help tear down such walls as materialism, tribalism, gender, racism, poverty, paganism and secularism.

“We've been called to be wall-breakers,” he explained. “The tragedy of the conflict in the church today is that there is a secular society that's hurting and has no hope. And what are we doing? We are fighting about who believes what more.”

Lotz said believers can help break down walls “through prayer, through the cross, through love and through joy.”

The gospel involves lifting up Christ alone–“not the Baptist cause, not America, not colonialism, not imperialism,” Lotz insisted.

Detailing BWA's role in lifting up Christ around the globe, he said: “Your brothers and sisters in many countries of the world are suffering today for lack of religious freedom. That's why the Baptist World Alliance is concerned about religious freedom–not only for ourselves, but we want religious freedom for everybody.

“We can't defend religious freedom for ourselves if we're not willing to give it to others of other traditions.

“We want our Hindu and Muslim and Buddhist brothers and sisters to have freedom. But we also want the freedom to tell them, 'If you want peace and if you want hope, you've got to come to Jesus Christ, because he is the source of all hope.'”

Issuing a call for Baptist unity, Lotz urged Baptists to “become a loving people.”

“How can a world hear the gospel when we're filled with hatred, bitterness and anger and we're not loving?” he asked.

“We need to love everyone as Baptists, whether we're on the right or the left, in the middle–all these dumb terms we've got. We've got to love people into the kingdom.

“We need the Baptist World Alliance so we can listen to our brothers and sisters overseas who are breaking down walls and suffering to teach us what it means to preach the gospel. Let's break down the walls.”

Greg Warner of Associated Baptist Press contributed to this story.

“We did not come together to tell you what to believe, but we came to affirm what we do believe, and that is that Jesus Christ is our Lord and that he is our unity.”

Posted: 7/09/04

Faithful can help media set the record straight

By Marv Knox

Editor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–Although the media often “miss the story” when religion and politics make the news, people of faith can respond to set the record straight, according to the editors of Associated Baptist Press.

The challenge will be acute this year, since so many stories mix religion and politics, ABP Executive Editor Greg Warner told participants in a seminar during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly.

Rob Marus, Washington bureau chief for the independent news service, cited three primary reasons why religion-and-politics stories are not reported adequately:

Journalists' inexperience or unfamiliarity with religious topics.

While critics often claim the secular media is less religious than the general population, surveys show 80 percent of journalists have a religious background, Marus said. But they still don't understand key details of religion stories, he added.

Ogburn leads workshop Tom Ogburn, Dallas-based associate coordinator for volunteer and partnership missions with CBF, leads a workshop at the CBF general assembly on developing a local-church missions strategy. The three key goals are to make strategy personal, priority and pervasive, he suggests.

For example, Judge Roy Moore made international news with his battle to retain a Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Supreme Court building.

The media seldom questioned Moore's assertion that the monument expressed statements “generally accepted by culture,” Marus said. However, Moore's monument contained only the Protestant King James Version of the Ten Commandments, leaving out Catholic and Jewish translations, which are different.

Secular newspapers have tended to report same-sex marriage as an issue that pits “all the Christians against crazy liberal secularists,” Marus noted. But only one story, in the Washington Post, reported on Christians who oppose same-sex marriage on theological grounds but differentiate that from their legal understanding of the situation, he said.

Journalists' laziness and/or deadline pressure.

Journalists, particularly broadcasters, often fall into the trap of looking for easy soundbytes rather than digging deep to understand a story, Marus charged.

The Roy Moore/Ten Commandments story typically has been cast as “Christians vs. atheists,” he said.

“Very few reported about other Christians who have theological and legal reasons for opposing Moore,” he added.

He pointed to a broadcast by an Alabama television station containing extensive charges that Moore was the victim of a “coup” and only one brief paraphrase of a judge calling the charge untrue.

Willful bias for or against a religious perspective.

“You see this particularly on talk radio and from pundits on TV news programs that have a strong agenda,” Marus said.

To illustrate, he cited a story that discussed how Assyrian Christians suffered under Saddam Hussein's regime without ever mentioning Christians experienced more religious freedom under Saddam than did Shiite Muslims or Muslim Kurds and Turkmen.

Warner urged believers to challenge the bias they see in the media. He offered four suggestions.

First, write letters to the editor, he suggested, noting almost all newspapers publish readers' letters, and some broadcast outlets also air letters.

Second, get to know the religion editors and writers at their newspapers, he said. Also link the editors and writers to pastors and other religious leaders who could provide balancing perspectives on much of the news.

Third, write an article for the opinion-editorial page. “If you're a good writer, pitch an op-ed piece to your local newspaper in response to a story you've read that you thought was inaccurately covered,” Warner added, noting this is a good way to provide specific, nuanced information to counter misleading or false reports.

Finally, “pitch stories to your local news sources about local religious believers who might have a surprising or different view on religion-and-politics issues,” he urged.