Posted: 7/09/04

Networking, collaborating fellowships
on rise, speaker tells congregational leaders

By Kirsten Pasha

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala (ABP)– “Lord, help us to become more of what you have already made us to be.”

Several hundred church leaders from around the United States gathered to explore what this prayer means for congregations in a time when mainline denominational churches are dying and independent evangelical churches are experiencing a surge.

Craig Van Gelder, professor at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., uttered that prayer five times during the five-hour seminar he led at the Congregational Leadership Institute during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly.

“The church is a marvelous creation, both holy and human,” Van Gelder said. “What the church does flows out of what it is. … You have to go back to nature. What has God created?”

Van Gelder, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the average age of ELCA members is in the 50s, and other Christian denominations, like Presbyterians, also are following that pattern.

Denominations with fellowships that network, share resources, collaborate and inspire each other will overtake mainline denominations that follow traditional models, he predicted.

Van Gelder said congregations often follow flawed models that take the focus off the only necessary points–creation and the cross.

The New Testament presents 96 images and analogies of God's people as a church, but the idea of community prevails, he said. "You can only know who you are when you're in community. Christians gather; they want to be in each other's presence. You cannot be a mature Christian alone," he said.

God blesses diversity, and the church brings unity, Van Gelder said.

But for Loren Pinkney of Raleigh, N.C., a recent graduate of Campbell University Divinity School, racial diversity within churches has not been welcomed.

Pinkney, who is black, told the CBF seminar that during his search for a job, many opportunities at Anglo churches have closed because of his color.

“If the Spirit of God crosses all boundaries, obviously we're not listening to the Spirit,” Pinkney said.

The Spirit, which came upon 120 people at Pentecost, allowed the glory of God to take up residence on earth through God's people, Van Gelder said. The Spirit of God is “restless” and takes the gospel to “everyone, everywhere and addresses everything.”

Surprisingly, “takes” is the most important word of that sentence, according to Van Gelder.

Fewer than 5 percent of Christian congregations use God as an acting subject–he's usually used as an object, he noted.

But “every square inch of creation belongs to God,” and it's his Spirit that drives the church, Van Gelder said.

Recent trends of the evangelical church help predict the church's future, he added.

Forty percent of Generation X pastors have no formal theological education, he reported. Although God has provided spiritual leaders, most of them are not coming from Christian colleges.

Seminaries must stop thinking traditionally as they recruit students, he insisted.

Also among the younger generation, Van Gelder said, people between the ages of 18 and 28 are very spiritual, but are the “most disaffected from institutional religion.”

Michael Kellett, a youth minister and student at Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., said he has witnessed the regression of young people in his church.

“The church does a poor job educating youth and engaging them in the congregation,” Kellett said.

“When they go off to college, churches don't keep up with them. And when they come back, single-adult ministries are (rare). They have no place to be.”

The future of the church depends on the limitations Christians put on God and the imagination they have for God's plan for them, Van Gelder said.

“God is not going to grant us any more power than we already possess,” he said.

“We have not looked fully into what God has already created.”

Posted: 7/09/04

Jesus the foundation for fellowship in CBF, coordinator says

By Marv Knox

Editor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–“Fellowship” is a defining principle for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal declared at the organization's general assembly.

Although CBF participants are separated by geography and involved in autonomous churches, they're organized as a fellowship, a collection of Christian friends “unlike a convention structure,” Vestal said.

He cited four principles of the CBF's fellowship:

“The foundation of our fellowship is Jesus Christ,” he insisted, noting each individual who affiliates with the CBF has responded to the call of Christ upon her or his life.

CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal and Linda Davis-Mitchum, a CBF Leadership Scholar, pray during a session of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Birmingham, Ala. (Stanley Leary)

“We are Christian. This is the tie that binds our hearts together,” he said.

“But don't we need something else?” he asked, referencing creedal statements and authoritative structures that provide the stack-poles for other Christian groups.

“The answer is it is our common experience of faith and relationship to Jesus as Lord that is the basis of our Fellowship,” he responded. “Is that enough? I contend that it is. … We find our center unapologetically in Jesus the Christ.”

'”Our vision is to be the presence of Christ to one another and the world,” he added.

“This vision calls forth a kind of self-sacrifice and surrender to God that is not easy,” he acknowledged, citing several challenges to that goal.

“Can we be the presence of Christ to those with whom we differ? This seems to be the acid test of fellowship,” he said, noting CBF people differ over such topics as the war in Iraq, homosexuality and abortion, Demo-cratic and Republican politics, and embryonic stem-cell research.

"Can we be the presence of Christ to one another and this world when we are different from one another?" he added. "We devalue those who are different," but God blends their differences together to make "a symphony" that would not be possible if all Christians were alike.

“Can we be the presence of Christ to those who are difficult?” he queried, pointing out Jesus said his followers do not do well if they love only those who love them.

He urged CBF people to refrain from controlling and manipulating others, as well as to open themselves to others, intently focusing on each other as they relate.

'”Our mission is to serve,” he said, asking God to help the CBF never to become a hierarchical structure that uses others for its own gain.

“We exist to serve,” he charged. “We are a fellowship whose mission is to serve one another, to serve churches, to serve the poor.”

Admitting the CBF is not perfect, Vestal said the call to service transcends weaknesses and demands involvement for the sake of others.

"This Fellowship is worthy of your love and your care. It needs your love and your care," he said. "CBF needs pastors and laypeople … who want to serve" the poor, the disadvantaged, the people across the nation and around the world who do not have Christ in their lives.

“Our commitment is together,” he reported.

“We want to be and do all this together,” he said. “I believe the time is right for some new convergences. God is a god of convergences.”

He pointed to two significant “convergences” for the CBF–its recent membership in the Baptist World Alliance, a grouping of 211 Baptist denominations around the world, and a proposal to become a founding member of Christian Churches Together in the USA, a new ecumenical movement.

“It is time for Christians to converge together in the public square,” he said.

“We want to care about the poor, and we want to care for the poor. The time is right for people to converge, … to work for peace and prosperity, for justice and reconciliation.

“There has never been an hour when there was a greater need for Christian convergence.”

Christian unity will express Christian love, which “is able to bring permanent hope and peace to this world,” he said.

In another address, CBF Moderator Cynthia Holmes described how she is thankful for the organization.

Holmes, an attorney and member of Overland Baptist Church in St. Louis, has been the CBF's top elected leader the past year.

“I'm thankful to claim the label 'Baptist,'” Holmes said, noting CBF has the opportunity to champion endangered Baptist principles, such as soul competence, local church autonomy, religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

Holmes said she is thankful 226 churches joined the ranks of CBF congregations this past year, and that individuals felt God's leadership to make special gifts of $2 million and $5 million to the organization.

She expressed thanks that CBF not only helped provide support for about a dozen seminaries but also provided leadership scholarships to 77 students, and that the organization received a grant to create leadership networks that involve 350 ministers.

Other topics of gratitude included the Fellowship's partnerships with news organizations and ethics agencies, as well as ecumenical coalitions.

Holmes noted she is grateful the CBF has endorsed 414 chaplains, sent 151 career missionaries, involved 2,500 volunteers in its Rural Poverty Initiative to minister in the nation's poorest counties.

She also expressed gratitude that CBF partners with other Baptist groups, such as the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, the Baptist Medical-Dental Fellowship, the All-Africa Baptist Fellowship, the Protestant Hour, the hunger- and poverty-fighting groups World Vision and Call to Renewal, the Baptist World Alliance and Christian Churches Together.

Posted: 7/09/04

Baptist Women in Ministry affirm
continuing need for organization

By Sandi Villarreal

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., (ABP)–Baptist Women in Ministry has affirmed the need for its existence, despite concerns brought up last year that the group is outdated.

This year's theme, “Rooted in the Past, Grounded for the Future,” emphasized the need for women ministers to mentor other women who are called into the ministry. The group met prior to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's annual general assembly.

“The need is more than clear for some kind of organization for things like public advocacy and helping make the connections for women” in ministry, said Eileen Campbell-Reed, a member of the group's transition team.

The transition team was established last year to determine, among other things, whether the group should continue to exist.

The team reached its findings through surveys sent out to male and female clergy and laity asking the questions: What are three urgent needs of Baptist women ministers? What is one important thing Baptist Women in Ministry has done for you? And what are the two most helpful things Baptist Women in Ministry could do for you?

The initial results of the survey found the most important need among women ministers is to find places to follow their call and have a networking organization to aid their efforts.

“A top need is that women get jobs,” Campbell-Reed said. “And another high need is for mentors who have jobs.”

In response to the survey question of what are the most significant needs of Baptist women in ministry, Campbell-Reed read one answer that she said expressed the feelings of many of the respondents: “To reach a place where we don't need to be designated, that is, that women ministers would be so common in Baptist life that there wouldn't need to be a special designation. Churches need to hire women pastors, not just say they support women in ministry.”

Suzanah Raffield, coordinator for the Birmingham-based Global Women, also emphasized the need for mentors. She preached at the Baptist Women in Ministry worship service and spoke of her experiences as she was mentored early in her career.

“It is our job to position others to see farther,” she said. “God has not given us the choice to remain silent.”

She told of her disappointment with certain groups that encourage women not to speak up. “What good is it to the kingdom of God when part of the body is encouraged to be silent?”

She also spoke of her difficulty remaining true to her self rather than adapting to her idea of what a minister should be. “One of the biggest lessons I learned (from being mentored) was that who I was as a woman was who I needed to be as a minister,” she said.

Posted: 7/09/04

Patterson reaffirms allegations that BWA
too open to gays, too anti-American in tone

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)–A Southern Baptist Convention leader reacted to charges that he slandered the Baptist World Alliance in a speech by affirming his complaints against the worldwide Baptist body–and issuing more.

Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and a member of a study committee that recommended the SBC break ties with the BWA, issued a statement on the controversy surrounding a speech he gave at the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis urging messengers to vote in favor of leaving the alliance.

In it, Patterson cited “a continual leftward drift” in BWA as justification for the SBC's breaking ties. As an example of the alleged drift, Patterson noted that BWA continues to be affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, which has accepted a new regional association in the Pacific Northwest that contains some gay-friendly churches.

Although American Baptists' general board is officially on record as opposing homosexuality, Patterson accused the ABC of being too open to gay-friendly churches. The ABC defers to local churches' decisions on sexual-orientation issues. The SBC expels churches it views as “affirming” or “promoting” homosexuality.

BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz–who is a Southern Baptist–released a statement saying Patterson's charges “slandered” the alliance. BWA spokesperson Wendy Ryan said Southern Baptist leaders never had raised the homosexuality issue as a criticism of BWA prior to Patterson's speech.

But Patterson said it was one of many important issues leading to the recommendation to break ties.

“Southern Baptists have not said that the BWA promotes gay marriage or homosexuality,” Patterson said. “We have said, based on a press release from one of (BWA's denominational member) unions, that some unions now tolerate churches which welcome practitioners of homosexual behavior.

“We have also said that if the BWA tolerates a convention or union which is accepting of churches with this anti-biblical agenda, then we can no longer lend our name or resources to that alliance,” Patterson said.

Lotz also dismissed as “ridiculous” SBC leaders' charges that the BWA has given a platform to “anti-American” sentiments expressed by international Baptists without allowing Americans to respond.

“We are citizens of the kingdom of God and loyal citizens of our own nations. As Baptists who believe in the authority of the word of God, we believe that all of us must be open to the prophetic voice from God as it applies to our nations and to the world,” Lotz said.

“We believe that Baptists should be good and patriotic citizens of their countries, but patriotism must always be limited to and judged by the Bible's call for ultimate loyalty to Christ who is above all!”

Patterson said his criticism was that BWA leaders provided insufficient opportunity for Americans to respond to what he perceived as anti-American sentiments at BWA meetings.

“No charge has been made that the BWA is anti-American or anti-Southern Baptist,” he said. “Those sentiments are not infrequently stated, but we are all big boys here and can handle criticism. That to which we have objected is that when these charges come, no effort has been made in those same forums for participants to hear the other side or receive an answer that might put matters in a different light.”

Patterson also raised the issue of BWA tolerating member bodies that support women as pastors. He said that refuted Lotz's claim that BWA was a “conservative, evangelical” fellowship.

“The BWA says that it does not advocate the role of female pastors,” he said. “But neither does it call for a biblical position on the matter. In ways sometimes subtle, sometimes overt, some leadership in the BWA has, in fact, sanctioned such practices. Again, that is their right and privilege–just as it is our right and mandate to hold to a biblical position and not lend name and resources to the promotion of views that we honestly view as antithetical to biblical truth.”

Patterson also said BWA had repeatedly provided a platform at its events for “liberal and neo-orthodox presenters” such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and American Baptist sociologist Tony Campolo.

“Southern Baptists have no intention of engaging in any further tit for tat with BWA leadership,” Patterson concluded. “There is a world to reach for Christ. Southern Baptists shall now turn our attention to that. We would risk the suggestion that the BWA do the same.”

Posted: 7/09/04

Delivering smiles at Texas Baptist Children's Home

By Miranda Bradley

Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services

ROUND ROCK–Mary Rey-nolds watches her husband, Mac, smell some flowers, fascinated by their texture and shape. Holding the arrangement is a child from the Family Care program at Texas Baptist Children's Home during one of their weekly visits to The Cottages, an Alzheimer's care facility in Round Rock.

“Seeing the kids here puts a smile on his face,” Mrs. Reynolds says of her husband. “He won't remember this tomorrow, but it does him good for the time being.”

Moments like the ones provided by the youth from the children's home are just what patients like Reynolds need, said Kelli Hooten, executive director of The Cottages.

“Stimulation is key,” she said. “If it weren't for volunteers like these and the interaction they provide, the success of the patients to deal with this illness would be diminished quite a bit.”

Aside from the care provided by staff at The Cottages, people living with Alzheimer's need consistent prompting of the senses, she explained. By smell, touch and feel, they are able to sometimes recall childhood memories and connect with the world around them.

“Volunteers create moments of joy,” Hooten said.

Before interacting with Cottages residents, Texas Baptist Children's Home youth must complete an Alzheimer's awareness training program, which is repeated when a new volunteer is added to the mix.

The relationship between the children's home and The Cottages has spanned more than six years.

Susan Lee, TBCH Family Care supervisor, is well known for using props and music during visits to the facility to spark interest.

“I love to see those little light bulbs go off,” she said.

Her tactics work. As soon as the children walk in, armed with a large red ball and fruit, energy levels heighten. When a pianist begins playing music, residents clap and sing along.

“It's so humbling to know they can't remember their name, but they can remember the words to church hymns,” Lee said.

The children volunteering can't help but be affected by Cottages residents.

“It's pretty cool to watch them connect,” said Trevor, a 10-year-old TBCH resident. “I want them to have fun with the time they have left.”

One Cottages resident, a former registered nurse who served on the front lines in World War II, is very special to Travis.

“She is always so excited when we come,” he said. “It's fun to talk to her.”

Many Cottages residents led exciting lives until Alzheimer's robbed them of their memories. Patients have included a judge, a Broadway pianist and a University of Texas coach, none able to recall their glory days.

It's much the same for Reynolds, a former CIA information officer who worked across the country during the Cold War and kept company with people like former President George Bush.

Now, he spends his time with much different companionship. So, today, he will smell flowers as if it were his first time, with a child as his teacher.

Posted: 7/09/04

Around the State

Kathy Hillman, president of Texas Woman's Missionary Union since 2000, was elected recording secretary for national WMU during the organization's missions celebration and annual meeting, held June 13-14 in Indianapolis. She is a member of Columbus Avenue Church in Waco.

Texas Baptist Children's Home in Round Rock will hold its biannual alumni reunion July 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the campus. For more information, call (512) 255-3668, ext. 339.

Jesse Fletcher, Hardin-Simmons University president emeritus, received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the school at the spring commencement. He served as the university's 12th president from 1977 to 1991. He previously earned a doctorate at Southwestern Seminary.

The Alumni Association of Buckner Orphan's Home will hold its 101st homecoming Oct. 1-3. A buffet dinner Friday evening will begin the festivities, with activities scheduled throughout the day and into the evening Saturday, and through the afternoon on Sunday. A dinner theater production “Home at Last” will be presented at Lakeside Church in Dallas and will chronicle the life of R.C. Buck-ner and the ministry he founded. Tickets to the production are $25 and will benefit Buckner Children's Home. For more information, call (214) 758-8000.

Melissa Higgins of Hurst has been selected president of Hardin-Simmons University's Board of Young Associates for 2004-2005. The Board of Young Associates is a group of HSU alumni younger than 40 who assist the school in public relations, leadership, financial development, student affairs and student recruitment.

Receiving promotions at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor are Carolyn Allemand, associate professor of education; Suzanne Belz, professor of nursing; Sarah Brown, associate professor of English; Teresa Buck, professor of library; Peter Chen, professor of math; David Chrisman, associate professor of history; and Helen Kwiatkowski, associate professor of art.

The Guild of Houston Baptist University recently installed new officers. Carolyn Little was named president; Candace Turner, secretary; Dorothy Gaze, chaplain, Meredith Pinson-Creasey, historian; Anne Roper, treasurer; and Betty Beard, parliamentarian. The guild raises funds for graduate education for career classroom teachers.

Lynn Humeniuk, assistant professor of sociology, was named Outstanding Faculty Member of 2003-2004 during Howard Payne University's faculty/staff awards luncheon. Betty Broome, executive assistant to the president, received the Outstanding Staff Member award. Recognized for excellence in teaching were Chuck Gartman, Stephen Goacher, Gary Gramling and Evelyn Romig. Staff members receiving excellence in service awards were Randy Weehunt and Terrie Wells. Wallace Roark and Lana Wagner were recognized for 30 years of service; Robert Sartain, 25 years; George Huseman and Robert Smith, 20 years; Pat Bicknell, Robert Bicknell, Mike Daub, Don Gunter, Judy Kelley, Frankie Rainey and Jeff Turner, 15 years; and Marjorie Bird, David Helton, Humeniuk, Nancy Lee, Wendy McNeeley, Diane Owens, Louise Sharp and Juanita Sypert, 10 years. Receiving promotions were Jerry DeHay, Amy Dodson, Kathy Hagood, McNeeley and Lester Towell. Retiring were Fred Boshers, Anne Cox and Linda Daugherty.

Mark Bateman has been named associate provost at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. He had been executive associate dean of the Baylor School of Education since 2001 and a member of the Baylor education school faculty and administration since 1997.

Nodell Dennis, former pastor of Crestview Church in San Antonio and First Church in Quanah, was elected president of the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Directors of Missions at their at meeting in Indianapolis June 13-14. He is executive director of the Blue River-Kansas City Baptist Association.

Jay Mabrey has been selected chief of orthopedic surgery at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas.

Anniversaries

Trinity Church in San Antonio, 55th, June 27. Charles Johnson is pastor.

Patty Lane, 20th, as director of the office of intercultural initiatives of the Baptist General Convention of Texas July 1.

Billy Reed, fifth, as pastor of Higher Ground Church in Whitesboro July 4.

Jason Anderson, fifth, as youth minister at Trinity Church in Sherman July 5.

Harold Bailey, 15th, as senior adult minister at Calvary Church in Garland July 11.

Second Church in Corpus Christi, 90th, July 17-18. The celebration will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday with a variety of children's and family activities. A barbecue dinner will begin at 4 p.m., followed by a worship service at 5:30 p.m. Special services also will be held Sunday morning. Doug Jackson is pastor.

Converse Church in San Antonio, 50th, July 25. Founding Pastor Leslie Hill will preach in the morning service. A catered meal and a gospel concert with the Pearson Family will follow. For more information or to make luncheon reservations, call (210) 658-2891. Bill Sanders is pastor.

Dave Renfrow, 25th, as minister of music and senior adults at First Church in Bonham.

Philip Barnes, fifth, as pastor at Allen's Point Church in Honey Grove.

Harmony Church in San Antonio, 50th, Aug. 1. A luncheon will follow the morning service. A celebration program will begin at 2 p.m.

Big Springs Church in Garland, 130th, Aug. 14-15. Greg Oppenhuis is pastor.

First Church in McLean, 100th, Aug. 15. A continental breakfast will begin at 9:30 a.m. A catered lunch will follow the morning service. Special music, congregational singing, a church history presentation and a time of testimony will begin at 2 p.m. Former pastors also will be recognized. For more information and to make reservations for the meal, call (806) 779-2175. Kelly Raymond is pastor.

First Church in Gorman, 120th, Aug. 22. Activities will begin at 9 a.m. For more information, call (254) 734-2420. Bill Campbell is pastor.

Colonial Hills Church in Cedar Hill, 20th, Aug. 22. Gary Hearon, director of missions for Dallas Association, will be the guest speaker. A catered meal and special music service will follow the morning service. To make reservations for the meal by Aug. 1 or childcare arrangements for the afternoon service, call (972) 291-0066. Billy Johnson is pastor.

Events

Primera Iglesia Mexicana in El Paso held a homecoming celebration to commemorate the congregation's 112 years of service to the community July 10-11. Former Pastor Hiram Reyes preached in the morning service. Mario Alberto Gonzalez is pastor.

A group of Dallas-area churches will meet Aug. 20-22 at Colonial Church in Dallas for a time of concentrated prayer for fall revivals. Sponsored by the Allied Baptist Church Network, the Baptist General Convention of Texas Center for Strategic Evangelism and Dallas Association, the event is open to anyone. Sessions will begin at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call (214) 337-4729.

Revivals

Brentwood Church, Houston; July 19-21; evangelist, Donald Parson; pastor, Joe Ratliff.

First Church, Matador; July 25; evangelist, Rick Ingle; pastor, Jack Boggs.

Posted: 7/09/04

Bequest to institution for mentally
disabled benefits Breckenridge Village

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

TYLER–When a 1997 study projected future expenses for operating the new Breckenridge Village of Tyler, no one anticipated changes in state laws and other factors would push expenses upward so drastically at the residential facility for adults with mild to moderate mental disabilities.

But neither did anyone anticipate that an elderly single woman who had never heard of Breckenridge would die in 2002 and leave a portion of her estate to “an institution for retarded children or adults” of her executer's choice.

Both happened.

The gift from Mildred Yeager's estate received this year is one of several that have helped Breckenridge make “significant” progress toward retirement of its capital debt, which has dropped from $4.5 million a year ago to less than $3.5 million now, said Kevin Dinnin, president of Baptist Child & Family Services, which owns and operates Breckenridge.

Her bequest also will fund scholarships for residents.

Her gift to Breckenridge will total almost $400,000, said Roy Lee Williams, longtime Texas Baptist minister and executer of Yeager's will.

While the gift from the Yeager estate is not the largest commitment made to Breckenridge Village, it represents the God-fearing life of the benefactor, Dinnin said.

Her concern for the mentally disabled grew out of her love and care for her younger sister, Ruth, who suffered from such a disability.

Mildred Yeager's life was “given to her family,” Williams said. A native of Putnam and longtime resident of Dallas and Tyler, Yeager provided care through the years for her ailing parents; another sister, Mary; a brother-in-law; and Ruth.

She also worked outside the home in a variety of jobs–teacher, newspaper publisher, congressional secretary and U.S. Department of Agriculture employee.

Yeager always was a “very wise woman with her money,” Williams said. “She was very frugal and wouldn't spend money on herself.”

As a result, adults with mental disabilities living at Breckenridge will continue to benefit from Yeager's care and compassion long after her death.

“It's a significant testimony to the life of a Christian lady who had compassion for all people but especially for those with special needs,” Dinnin said. “Her estate gift will enable us to provide scholarships and to work toward the retirement of the bond debt.”

Breckenridge can house 48 residents and provides in-day programs for another 20, Dinnin said. Eighty percent to 90 percent of the residents receive some form of scholarship.

“Miss Yeager is a wonderful example of someone who wanted to see her possessions help someone who couldn't help themselves,” said Bill Arnold, president of the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation. “The way she has done it means her influence will live on for generations.”

The foundation works with people who seek to have an impact on Texas missions and ministries through financial gifts and bequests.

Foundation staff encouraged Yeager's executor and the attorney representing her estate to consider Breckenridge Village as a beneficiary under the terms of her will.

“A lot of folks have good intentions like Miss Yeager, but they never get around to it or know where to start,” Arnold said. “Two-thirds of the people who die do not have a will. We have to overcome that and get them to think about missions.

“It's impossible to overstate the importance of everyone having a will,” he continued. “One of the greatest joys a person can have is knowing that, after their family is taken care of, they have provided something for the Lord's work and they have left behind a legacy that can speak for them for generations to come.”

The foundation helps people plan financially for a sequence of needs–self, spouse, family and the Lord's work, in that order, Arnold said. “We want everyone to make the Lord a partner with them in the estate planning process.”

Yeager did not know about Breckenridge Village when she made out her will.

She spelled out several disbursements of her estate–including $50,000 for Logsdon School of Theology, $50,000 for the Hardin-Simmons University music school, $50,000 for the First Baptist Academy in Dallas and an unspecified amount to an institution for the mentally disabled.

Williams had known Yeager since his childhood in Putnam, where she was his Baptist Young People's Union leader.

“As kids, we just thought she was an old maid, but she loved us, and we loved her,” he said. “She was a lady who walked with the Lord in every experience of life and sought to do his will.”

All of these years later, Williams and others are helping Yeager continue to show her love. And Breckenridge Village is one of the places where it will be most evident.

Posted: 7/09/04

Thrift store volunteers see
work as ministry to terminally ill

By Jo Gray

Special to the Baptist Standard

BOWIE–Volunteers at a thrift store in Bowie see their work as more than a job. They view it as a ministry to the terminally ill.

Hospice of Rural Texas, a division of Bowie Memorial Hospital, depends heavily on the proceeds from the thrift store in providing financial aid to hospice patients who need it.

Thrift store Manager Agnes Matthews, a resident of nearby Ringgold, became a volunteer with hospice about three years ago, shortly after the death of her husband. She accepted the manager's position a year later.

Matthews attends First Baptist Church of Terrell, Okla., where she serves as music director of the small congregation.

She feels she is where God wants her–both at the church and at the thrift store.

Hospice programs that provide supportive care for people in their final days need Christian volunteers, and that need is greatest in rural areas, where resources are least available, hospice leaders said.

Of the 2.8 million Texans who live in rural communities, most are older, have below-average financial resources and suffer more health problems than residents of urban areas.

Hospice of Rural Texas not only provides social, emotional and spiritual care to people facing death, it provides financial assistance to those needing it.

Volunteers make the program work. Some give patients' families breaks to run errands or just get away for a short time. Others pick up medication and deliver it to the patient.

Still others donate their time to sort, price, display and sell donated items at a hospice-sponsored thrift store.

“I am around good Christian people,” Matthews said of the volunteers she supervises at the thrift store. “You'd think they are making $10 to $15 per hour the way they work.”

Money isn't what motivates the volunteers to work.

“Helping others can help you,” one woman said as she lifted a box onto the work table.

Jo Ann Wood, a member of the First Baptist Church of Bowie, said she finds the time given to the thrift shop is more to her benefit than the customers who come through the front door in search of a bargain.

“What we do here helps those who may not have the funds to purchase items at full price,” she said. “They can always find a bargain here.”

Wood said she was working at the city library when her mother got sick.

“I had to quit my job to care for my mother. She died six weeks later,” she recalled.

The process of disposing of her mother's belongings took Wood to the thrift store on regular visits.

“Each time I brought in a bunch of her things, I was asked why I didn't come help out. I am so thankful to Agnes for asking me,” Wood said.

The hours Wood donates to the store fill her need to be with other people. And it gives her the satisfaction of knowing she is providing a service to the community.

Wood did not have personal experience with the services provided by hospice, but some of the volunteers find themselves trying to give back to a program that served their loved ones.

Pauline Thomas said hospice helped her brother and two nieces. She was slightly familiar with the program before she became a volunteer in 1997.

Thomas lives in Montague and drives about 15 miles from her home to the thrift store, where she works in the back room two or three days per week.

A retired nurse, Thomas attends First Baptist Church of Montague, along with another hospice volunteer, Janet Pribble.

Pribble directs the thrift store's children's department. She also enjoys changing the displays in the large front show windows.

“It is a lot of work,” she said. “But the customers like to see the new items, and it brings them in.”

With items constantly being dropped off at the back door, there is a steady flow of merchandise. Everything is inspected for flaws, priced and displayed. Clothing that is out of season will be boxed or hung, if room permits, and brought out later.

With 36 part-time volunteers, Matthews is well staffed, she said.

Ann Jones works for Bowie Memorial Hospital as the social worker for Hospice of Rural Texas. Part of her job is visiting the patients who have been referred to hospice care by a physician.

“Hospice care is an option for anyone considered by a doctor to be terminally ill with a prognosis of a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course,” she said.

Most hospice patients are elderly and have Medicare coverage, Jones said.

But when federal assistance runs out and the patient has no means of receiving nursing care or drugs for pain relief, Jones can request funds from the proceeds of the thrift store, she said.

“I don't use names, ages, addresses or the nature of the illness,” Jones said. “I try to keep it confidential when I make a request for funds.”

The volunteers, without knowing any more than the fact that there is a financial need, vote to distribute the requested funds.

These volunteers, mostly elderly women, some with health problems of their own, say they gain more than the recipient. They know they are making a difference.

And should they ever be faced with a terminal illness, someone will be there for them.

Posted: 7/09/04

Baptist Briefs

Anti-hunger group honors Texan. Bread for the World, a national Christian anti-hunger organization, honored Pat Ayres of Austin for her advocacy on behalf of poor people. Ayres–a former moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and deacon at First Baptist Church of Austin–was one of 30 "hunger heroes" honored at a banquet in Washington, D.C., celebrating Bread for the World's 30th anniversary. Ayres has been involved in the anti-hunger group from its beginning, serving six terms–more than any other person–on Bread for the World's board. She also has served four times as the board's chairperson. Her family's foundation also has repeatedly underwritten Bread for the World projects, including the organization's Hunger Report newsletter. Shawnda Eibl, a Bread for the World spokesperson, said Ayres' "activism on behalf of hungry people has galvanized the involvement of many others in Bread for the World's local group in the San Antonio-Austin area." Eibl also said Ayres and her husband, Bob, "have provided wise counsel about the endowments" of the organization and its educational arm, and they "have also hosted a number of luncheons and dinners to introduce prominent business and civic leaders to Bread for the World."

National Hispanic Baptists honor Texans. Moises Rodriguez, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Fort Worth, was elected first vice president of the National Fellowship of Hispanic Southern Baptist Churches during the group's annual meeting in Indianapolis. At a Hispanic church-planting celebration and leadership convocation, also in Indianapolis, Daniel Sanchez of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Eliseo Aldape, former Sunday school consultant with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, were honored.

WMU launches collegiate website. National Woman's Missionary Union is launching a new website specifically for collegiate-aged young women Aug. 1. The new site, www.missionsinterchange.com, will feature articles on current missions topics, missionary profiles, Bible studies, ministry project ideas and mission trip opportunities specifically for collegiate women, as well as topics such as dating, roommates and careers.

Director of WMU product development center named. Andrea Mullins has been named director of the national Woman's Missionary Union product development center, effective July 12. Mullins was approved unanimously during a business session of the WMU executive board meeting in Indianapolis. Her responsibilities will include providing leadership to New Hope Publishers, WMU organizational products and WorldCrafts, a WMU ministry that imports handcrafts from different countries. Mullins served three years as WMU director with the Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention. She joined national WMU in 1987 and has served as the women's consultant, adult consultant and director of the consulting services department. Since 2001, she has served as a leader of the WMU leadership development team.

Posted: 7/09/04

Child care homes need houseparents
to show love to neglected children

By Janelle Bagci

BGCT Summer Intern

Children's homes affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas almost always need houseparents to care for abused, neglected or abandoned children.

Some have even closed due to a lack of volunteers.

Buckner Baptist Benevolences' cottage-style children's homes located in Beaumont, Dallas, the Rio Grande Valley, Lubbock and Midland always need houseparents, said Community Relations Director Amy Garms.

But the most urgent shortage is in Lubbock now, Garms noted.

“We are in need of relief and full-time houseparents,” she explained. Volunteers can call (806) 795-7151 for more information.

Parents willing to commit to nurturing wounded children often are in short supply.

One position at Baptist Child & Family Services in San Antonio was left unfilled 18 months.

Parents who volunteer must understand it's like being a missionary, said Bruce Thompson, executive director of the San Antonio campus.

Houseparents have all the responsibilities of other parents–emotional, spiritual and physical–except they serve up to eight children.

They sleep in a separate room attached to the cottage.

Texas Baptist Children's Home in Round Rock retains the majority of its houseparents.

When asked what it does differently from other children's homes, Kevin Dyer, executive director of the Round Rock campus, said: “I think we're just going through one of those periods where God is watching over us.”

Although it does not urgently need houseparents currently, Texas Baptist Children's Home has closed facilities in the past due to a lack of houseparents.

The home's recent retention of houseparents may be due to its new practices, Dyer said.

Texas Baptist Children's Home has a different staffing rotation and does not use male houseparents for maintenance or other activities during their time off.

“We encourage them to go play a round of golf to wind down if they need to, because when the kids get home at 4:30, they won't have any free time,” Dyer said.

“We love working with the kids,” said Marie Vaughn, who, along with her husband, has been working as a houseparent at Texas Baptist Children's Home since 1983.

“Although we don't always get to see the success stories, … we like to give a little bit and provide a home for those that don't have one,” she said.

“It gets in your blood. We really consider it a ministry.”

Posted: 7/09/04

Bush campaign solicits church membership rolls

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–Efforts by the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign to target churches–including soliciting church directories–have raised concerns from the leader of Texas Baptists' ethics commission.

Phil Strickland, director of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said the effort seeks to take churches where they shouldn't go.

“Politicians and political parties will inevitably be looking for ways to transform a place of worship to a place of partisan politics,” Strickland said. “When that happens, the churches move from worshipping to campaigning. And that is not the role of the church.

“God does not call us to be centers of political power. He calls us to be prophetic.”

When believers see injustice, mistreatment or corruption, they are called by God to confront it regardless of the political party involved, Strickland said. “This means that we will inevitably be critics of both political parties.”

From a Baptist perspective, there are things churches should and should not do. But from a legal perspective, there are things congregations can and cannot do if they are to remain tax-exempt, he explained.

“Churches are free to address issues as aggressively as they choose,” Strickland said. They also can urge people to vote, but “they are not free to support candidates while maintaining their tax exemption.”

The Bush-Cheney document sets forth a detailed plan of action for religious volunteers. One section lists 22 “coalition coordinator” duties and lays out a timeline.

By July 31, for example, the coordinator is to “send your church directory to your state Bush-Cheney '04 headquarters or give to a … (campaign) field representative.” By Aug. 15, the coordinator is to “talk to your church's seniors or 20- to 30-something group about Bush/Cheney '04.”

By Oct. 24, the volunteer should “distribute voter guides in your church” and “finish calling all pro-Bush members of your church and encourage them to vote.”

Strickland said, “It is not appropriate for a church to turn its membership list over to any campaign, whether it be local or national.”

As for a so-called “voter guide” that lists candidates' positions on various issues, Strickland said it is “appropriate if it is an honest attempt to look at how people stand on issues, not as a document seeking to promote one candidate or set of candidates over another.”

Terry Holt, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, told the Washington Post, “We strongly believe that our religious outreach program is well within in the framework of the law.”

But some religious leaders, including the head of the Southern Baptist Convention's ethics agency, have reacted strongly.

“I'm appalled that the Bush-Cheney campaign would intrude on a local congregation in this way,” said Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

In a statement on his agency's website, Land said: “It's one thing for the church to have a voter registration drive, to seek to inform church members on public policy issues, to encourage church members to fulfill their Christian duty to vote, and to encourage them to vote their values, beliefs and convictions. It's another thing entirely for a partisan campaign to ask church members to bring in church directories for use as contact lists by the campaign and to seek to come into the church and do a voter registration drive and distribute campaign literature.”

Land said he fears the Bush-Cheney effort “may provoke a backlash in which pastors will tell their churches that because of this intrusion the church is not going to do any voter registration or voter education. That would be tragic.

“It's one thing for a church member motivated by exhortations to exercise his Christian citizenship to go out and decide to work on the Bush campaign or the Kerry campaign. It's another, and totally inappropriate for a political campaign to ask workers who may be church members to provide church member information through the use of directories to solicit partisan support.”

Posted: 7/09/04

Baptist World Congress to recite Apostle's Creed

By Steve DeVane

North Carolina Biblical Recorder

BUIES CREEK, N.C. (ABP)–A group of 28 theologians and educators has asked the Baptist World Alliance to recite the Apostles' Creed at the group's 100th anniversary meeting next year, which would replicate the first act of the BWA World Congress from 1905 and counter recent charges of liberalism.

John Sundquist of Valley Forge, Pa., chair of the program committee for the BWA congress, said the creed will be recited in the opening session.

BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz said he first made the suggestion four years ago that the Apostle's Creed be recited at the BWA World Congress.

“Baptists worldwide are always ready to affirm our orthodox and evangelical faith as expressed in the Apostle's Creed,” Lotz said.

The June 23 request was signed by 28 Baptist theologians and educators from 10 countries and sent to Keith Jones, chair of the BWA resolutions committee. Jones is rector of the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Praque, the Czech Republic.

Jones noted his committee, at the request of BWA officers, is also working on “a significant statement on Baptist identity for presentation to the Congress.”

The Baptist World Alliance has been under attack recently from the Southern Baptist Convention, which withdrew June 15 from the worldwide group, accusing BWA of tolerating liberalism among member bodies. Reciting the Apostles' Creed–though not binding on the group's 211 member bodies–would place BWA clearly within the mainstream of Christian orthodoxy.

Baptists have long been averse to creeds, famously claiming they need “no creed but the Bible.” Recitation of the Apostles' Creed at the BWA meeting would not be capitulation, according to a statement from four of the 28 signers, but only affirmation of Baptists' commonality with other Christians.

The BWA's first recitation of the Apostles' Creed in 1905 was a surprising act, according to the statement, called “Confessing the Faith,” which was sent with the request to Jones by four American professors–Steve Harmon of Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, N.C.; Curtis Freeman from Duke University's Baptist House of Studies in Durham, N.C.; Elizabeth Newman from the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (Va.); and Philip Thompson of the North American Baptist Theological Seminary in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“Many Baptists acquired an allergy to creeds because of the illegitimate ways they have been used to bind the individual conscience, to substitute for a personal confession of faith, or to underwrite an established church-state order,” the statement said.

“Creeds are misused whenever they become instruments of coercion, just as religious liberty is abused when it is invoked to legitimate deviation from the living witness of apostolic faith.”

In 1905, BWA president Alexander Maclaren called for members of the BWA's first congress to rise and confess the Apostles' Creed “not as a piece of coercion or discipline, but as a simple acknowledgement of where we stand and what we believe,” the statement said.

The explanation said staunch anti-creedalism has often led to “the faulty assumption that modern Christians can leapfrog from the primitive Christianity of the Bible to the contemporary situation with relative ease.”

“Ironically, in the wake of the Baptist encounter with modernity those from both ends of the theological spectrum employed the slogan 'No creed but the Bible' in their theological arguments,” it said. “Serious Bible readers will find much-needed hermeneutical guidance by returning to the ancient creeds of the church.”

The intention was to draw on the Southern Baptist Convention's recent withdrawal from BWA over charges of liberalism as a “teachable moment,” Harmon said. The educators hope to move the Baptist theological discourse “away from the worn-out labels of 'conservative' vs. 'liberal' that belong to a dying modernity,” he said.

“In other words, we believe that one of the most pressing issues on the Baptist agenda at the beginning of the second century of the Baptist World Alliance and its witness to the world is recovery of the connection of Baptists to the ancient tradition that they share in common with all other Christians,” he said.

“At the same time, we believe that one obstacle to such a recovery is a misunderstanding, widespread among non-fundamentalist Baptists, of the nature and function of such ancient ecumenical creeds as the Apostles' Creed and the 'Nicene' Creed, which summarize and communicate this ancient tradition that Baptists share in common with all other Christians.”

Harmon said the issue grew out of conversations during a regional meeting of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion in Washington, D.C., June 3-6.

Baylor University professors Barry Harvey, Daniel Williams and Ralph Wood were among the signers of the document.

Other signers and their schools are Mikael Broadway, Shaw University Divinity School, Raleigh, N.C.; Biju Chacko, India Baptist Theological Seminary, Kottayam, India; Christopher Ellis, Bristol Baptist College, Bristol, England; Rosalee Velloso Ewell, South American Theological Seminary, Londrina, Brazil; Paul Fiddes, Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, Oxford, England; James Gordon, Scottish Baptist College, Paisley, Scotland; Doug Harink, King's University College, Alberta, Canada.

Also, Stephen Holmes, King's College, London, England; Willie Jennings, Duke Divinity School; Barry Jones, Campbell University Divinity School; Roy Kearsley, South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff, Wales; Ken Manley, Whitley College, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Nathan Nettleton, Whitley College; Parush Parushev, International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic; Frank Rees, Whitley College; Luis Rivera, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J.; Deotis Roberts, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa.; Karen Smith, South Wales Baptist College; John Weaver, South Wales Baptist College; Jonathan Wilson, Acadia Divinity College, Wolfville, Nova Scotia; and Nigel Wright, Spurgeon's College, London, England.