Posted: 7/02/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
Free to question, blessed to grow

By Jeanie Miley

My life as a seeker began, appropriately, with my first religion course in college. I was so awestruck at the new information and ideas that I laboriously copied my class notes and mailed them to my parents, asking, “What do you think about this?”

For the first time, I was invited to examine my own beliefs and opinions—all of which I had absorbed from my religious culture and my home—and form a belief system and faith of my own. In that religion course, I encountered my childhood, too-small God-image.

My father, a Texas Baptist pastor, was conservative and careful, but he had sent me to college to learn. “You’re on your own now,” he told me, pushing me out of the nest of security and dependence, even as he stood in the background, supportive and watchful until I could use my own wings.

Up against the challenge to my childhood belief system, I wanted to know what my dad thought about what I was learning, and after giving him enough time to read my class notes, I asked, “What do you believe about the beginning of the world?”

My father gave me an invaluable gift when he laughed gently and said, ‘Ah, that is Mystery!” In that one statement and the conversation that followed, I was given permission to explore and discover, to question and challenge and to struggle in that sometimes-scary space between belief and doubt.

Looking back, I’m pretty amazed at the gift I was given, and I know that from that time until this, I’ve been free to question not only because I was given permission from the most important authority figure of my life, but also because he was confident that I had a solid foundation from which to question.

“You’re free to use your accelerator,” he said, “if you know your brakes work.” I don’t know if he told me that about life, in general, or about driving a car, but in either case, the principle works.

I was free to question because I was shown that Mystery is to be respected and honored and that some things are outside the realm of human understanding and, more importantly, control. I learned early that human beings, in our frailty, insist on having things all worked out and neatly tied up in concepts and ideas because it gives us some sense of relief from the anxieties of everyday life. Sadly, we often confine God in a box of our limited understanding just so we can be comfortable and relieve our fears.

I was free to question and push the boundaries of my knowledge and understanding because my father knew that there would come a day when the faith of my parents would not be enough to sustain me in the hard places of my own life, and that unless I had pushed and probed and strained and struggled on my own, my own faith would falter under the difficulties of life.

Inherited faith is one of my greatest treasures. I call on the memories and the stories of the people who have gone before me to teach, inspire and encourage me, but when I am in the trenches of my own life crises, I need to be able to rely on my own experience with the living God who operates always in the eternal now.

“We don’t know about the beginning or the ending,” my dad finally told me, “and you need to question anyone who tells you that he does know. What we do know is the One who started it all and who will complete it.”

Amen. And amen.

Jeanie Miley is an author and columnist and a retreat and workshop leader. She is married to Martus Miley, pastor of River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston, and they have three adult daughters. Got feedback? Write her at Writer2530@aol.com.

Posted: 7/01/04

Joel Gregory urges Baptists to exercise freedom

By Marv Knox

Editor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)—Baptists must exercise their precious freedom in order to accomplish God's work in the world, Joel Gregory insisted at the annual Associated Baptist Press banquet.

"When you walk the way I've walked over the last decade, you come to recognize the significance of free Baptists," Gregory told the crowd on the eve of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Birmingham, Ala.

Gregory became a star in the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s and early '90s, until he abruptly quit the pastorate of one of the SBC's flagship congregations, First Baptist Church in Dallas, 12 years ago.

He sold funeral arrangements for two years and has been a magazine publisher in Fort Worth for a decade. In the past couple of years, he has preached again, mostly in African-American and moderate Baptist churches—a contrast to his affiliation with SBC fundamentalists during his heyday.

Freedom dominated the Associated Baptist Press program. Gregory expounded on the theme, and three Baptist organizations—Associated Baptist Press, the Baptist Joint Committee and Baptists Today—introduced the First Freedoms Project, a joint educational and development venture focusing on the First Amendment.

Gregory highlighted freedom by focusing on "the original free Baptist," John the Baptist. Gregory's sermon, "Memos to Ministers from a Bizarre Baptist," emphasized several facets of freedom:

— "Knock the props out of other people's pretenses."

Gregory called for prophetic voices, an exhortation appropriate for the evening. Associated Baptist Press is a news service created to provide reporting that is not controlled by denominational bureaucracy. Baptists Today is a magazine founded to provide a similar outlet for "free" expression of Baptist news and opinion. And the Baptist Joint Committee is an agency based in Washington, D.C., that has championed the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

One of Jesus' defining characteristics was that he "was no respecter of persons," Gregory reminded, noting how Jesus told the truth in the face of formidable religious and political power.

Urging Baptists to follow Jesus' example, he said: "Even the world knows when we pander to power rather than preach the truth to power, we forfeit our birthright. … Free Baptists need to speak the truth to power."

— "You need a free message and not the right situation or location."

Acknowledging many Cooperative Baptist Fellowship participants may feel "expatriated from a denomination we used to know," since most of them left the SBC after fundamentalists gained control in 1990, he noted John the Baptist also ministered in "a desolate place," the wilderness of Judah.

"John the Baptist was not concerned about his situation but his proclamation," he said, noting John called listeners to change their minds and follow Christ. "Be more concerned about what you say than where you say it," he advised.

— "You may need to be odd for God."

Even today, Christians still make fun of John the Baptist, who ate locusts and wore wild, rough clothes, Gregory said. "We make fun of him because he makes us uncomfortable, … but he lived his sermon."

People today are looking for authenticity, which stands out from conformity to religious trends and can clash with the messages of people who claim to be "spokespersons for God," he said.

— "Discount early, quick success in ministry."

"I drew huge crowds early," said Gregory, who preached in some of America's most prominent pulpits and became pastor of one of Baptists' most famous churches as a young man.

"There is in every generation a siren song for proclaimers—early, quick success," he warned. "Gifts can push you into early, quick success where the absence of other gifts will not keep you."

— "Free Baptists should get specific about all sins."

Noting John the Baptist "spoke to collective wrong in social justice," Gregory added, "When we speak truth to power, we're willing to get out of vague, general banalities."

For example, as long as Enron executives still play golf at a Houston country club while the government doesn't have enough money for school lunches, free Baptists need to address corporate sin, he said.

— "Set a limit on what you can do as a minister."

Rather than conform to his followers' expectations, John the Baptist urged them to follow Jesus, Gregory said, but many ministers succumb to similar expectations of greatness.

"As a minister today, there's a temptation to be Dr. Phil in the pulpit," he noted, adding many ministers try to tell people "how to live in every phase of their life."

"It's not our role to do people's lives for them," he advised, suggesting the role is to point them to Jesus Christ.

— "Acknowledge we need (Jesus) far more than he needs us."

"I fell off the back of the Baptist bandwagon about 12 years ago," Gregory said, recalling that for a decade prior to that time, he spoke at Baptist gatherings far and wide. But in the meantime, "I found out the kingdom of God has gone on just fine. I found out I needed a lot more of what the grace of God can do for me rather than what I can do for God.

"Let the people know you need the gospel as much or more than they do."

Baptists must work together to protect and preserve freedom, according to leaders of the groups involved in the First Freedoms Project.

Johnny Pierce, editor of Baptists Today; Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee; and Greg Warner, executive editor of Associated Baptist Press, described the project. It will involve educational programs about religious liberty and freedom of the press in Baptist churches, as well as an annual fund-raising campaign to support the three agencies.

Freedom protection is vital, declared Jimmy Allen, a retired denominational executive and a founder of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, who endorsed the First Freedoms Project.

"We're in a great crisis in this country," Allen said. "We're seeing an erosion of freedom. … I never thought I'd see the day when some Baptists would say, 'There's no such thing as separation of church and state.' But some are."

America's guarantee of religious freedom, in which church and state each have a role but they do not rule each other, has produced "the strongest religious life in the world," Allen said.

"We need to be the freedom folks—champions of religious liberty," he urged. "We're needing to recover our voices. How do you do that? The people who talk about championing religious freedom are joining together."

The First Freedoms Project is a "demonstration opportunity" that will show how groups can work together to promote freedom, he predicted.

Posted: 7/01/04

First Freedoms Project introduced to work for religious liberty

By John Pierce

Baptists Today

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)—Celebrating and supporting the "founding freedoms" guaranteed in the First Amendment is the emphasis of a new project launched by three Baptist organizations, organizers say.

The First Freedoms Project is an educational and fund-raising collaboration between Associated Baptist Press, the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and Baptists Today news journal.

The three groups will provide churches with resource materials to promote religious liberty and freedom of the press, while encouraging churches to fund the three organizations with an annual offering or budget gift. Contributions will be divided evenly between the three organizations.

The project, which will kick off with a national conference in April 2005, was announced during a press conference and two auxiliary meetings held during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Birmingham, Ala.

The joint project, with a theme of "Free to Worship, Free to Know," was developed in consultation with local church ministers by the leaders of the three independent, national ministries, each with a historic link to the First Amendment.

Jimmy Allen, retired denominational leader and Baptists Today board member, said the project shows how Baptist groups can work together and addresses an urgent need.

"We're in a great crisis in this country," Allen said during the project's unveiling at an ABP dinner. "We're seeing an erosion of freedom. … I never thought I'd see the day when some Baptists would say, 'There's no such thing as separation of church and state.' But some are."

"We're needing to recover our voices," said Allen. "How do you do that? The people who talk about championing religious freedom are joining together."

Greg Warner, executive editor of ABP, Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, and John Pierce, editor of Baptists Today, announced a website for the First Freedoms Project (www.firstfreedoms.com), a board of advisors and a group of endorsing pastors.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which provides annual funding for all three sponsoring organizations, also endorsed the new venture.

"CBF is proud to be a part of the supporting base of the First Freedoms Project," said Bo Prosser, coordinator for congregational life. "We are excited about sharing with three of our strategic partners in taking this resource to our congregations. We look forward to seeing our churches engaged in the First Freedoms Project."

James Dunn, former BJC executive director and current professor at the Divinity School of Wake Forest University, urged support for the project during a Baptist Joint Committee luncheon.

Dunn said John Milton, who was "almost Baptist," was correct in noting that the relationship between freedom of the press and religious liberty is "indissoluble."

"If either freedom of the press or freedom of religion is lost, we go with it," Dunn said.

Dunn commended the cooperative effort of the three groups launching the First Freedoms Project. "We are moving to cooperation instead of competition … and a new level of concern," he said.

"If we're going to survive with the message of religious freedom, then it's going to be you in this room and the lives of the people you touch," he added.

Posted: 6/25/04

African-American Southern Baptists examine their history

INDIANAPOLIS (BP)–Citing progress in minority representation and optimism toward racial inclusiveness, speakers at the annual African American Southern Baptist History Project said God is continuing to work among Southern Baptists.

Chronicling the growth of racial inclusiveness in the 16-million-member denomination, several speakers pointed to new growth since Southern Baptists became proactive about seeking change. The meeting at Gabriel Missionary Baptist Church was held prior to the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Indianapolis.

“The SBC's racial image is becoming more Christian as churches increasingly reflect the values of Christ toward other people groups,” said Sid Smith, director of the Florida Baptist Convention's African American ministries division.

He spoke on “Southern Baptists Reaching African-Americans,” an article from the Journal of African American Southern Baptist History, which was released at the history gathering.

“The absence of major backlash along with increased acceptance of minorities in mainline leadership are significant factors pointing to the dawning of a bright day of progress,” Smith continued. “The modern SBC is bigger, better and more Christian because of embracing inclusiveness. … As the maturation process continues, the potential of doing even more is great.”

Vaughn Walker, professor of black church studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., spoke on cooperative ministries and racial reconciliation.

The second volume of the Journal of African American Southern Baptist History is available through the Black Southern Baptist Denominational Servant's Network. For more information, call (800) 226-8584.

“Life as a slave was a blend of labor exploitation, sexual exploitation, illiteracy, limited diet and primitive living conditions,” Walker said. “Only in their private time of leisure in the evening or on Sundays and holidays could slaves find respite from the relentless demands of bondage. … Essentially, slave culture revolved around three elements: family, music and religion.”

Walker described G.K. Offult, a 1948 Southern Seminary graduate who–because of a Kentucky law–was not allowed to sit in classrooms with white students nor participate in graduation ceremonies but was tutored by seminary professors in their offices. Later, J.V. Bottoms, B.J. Miller and Claude Taylor, 1952 Southern Seminary graduates, sat in hallways to listen to professors' lectures.

“It appears that certain Southern Seminary professors as well as other individuals affiliated with the convention became the leaders for the SBC in the area of racial reconciliation long before the convention proper assumed any significant leadership role,” Walker said.

“If the Christian community–black, white, brown, red–cannot model authentic racial reconciliation, there is little or no hope for our society's survival,” he said. “Racial reconciliation will be realized when each of us decides that racial bias and prejudice has no place in our walk with God, has no place in our individual congregations, and no place in our homes.”

By 1972, cooperative ministries was an official component of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board, Walker said. He cited the work of Sid Smith with the SBC Sunday School Board and Emmanuel McCall at the Home Mission Board as pivotal in the development of racial reconciliation in the SBC.

“Many in the SBC, black and white, reviewed the 1995 SBC statement of apology for the 'demonic' institution of American slavery as a significant step toward true racial reconciliation,” Walker said.

David Cornelius, mobilization specialist in church services at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, traced the history of African-American involvement in international missions.

George Liele, a freed slave and preacher from South Carolina, left the United States in 1783 under persecution and within a year had started the First Baptist Church of Kingston, Jamaica, Cornelius said.

Another freed slave from South Carolina, Prince Williams, was the first African American Baptist missionary to the Bahama Islands. In about 1790, he organized in Nassau what became Bethel Baptist Mission.

Lott Carey in 1815 led in organizing the African Baptist Foreign Missionary Society, the first organization for international missions founded by African Americans in the United States.

Despite the fact the SBC was founded in part over the issue of slavery, a year after the founding in 1845 of its Foreign Mission Board, the new SBC had appointed two African-Americans as missionaries, John Day and A.L. Jones, Cornelius reported. “Over the next 40 years, the board either appointed or gave support to more than 40 black missionaries.”

But in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves, coupled with Jim Crow laws that intensified discrimination, “the vision for world evangelization that many of the early black Christian leaders had exhibited became blurred,” Cornelius said.

“During the 19th century, African-American missionaries serving under appointment of white-administered missionary-sending agencies most often had to have white supervisors available before being sent to the field. It was well past the mid-20th century before most white-administered sending agencies, especially those that are denominationally based, would accept African-American candidates. These hindrances no longer exist.”

Bill Sumners, director of the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville, spoke on “Bridge Builders: Baptist Women and Race Relations at the Turn of the 20th Century.”

Annie Armstrong, memorialized in NAMB's annual Easter offering for North American missions, “more than any other Southern Baptist leader of her time, took action to cross racial barriers,” Sumners said. That was in the late 1800s.

“An immense amount of good can be done–not only in developing the colored women here at home, but in doing work in Africa–if we can get the colored women organized as missionary workers,” Armstrong wrote in 1897 to R.J. Willingham, then-secretary of the Foreign Mission Board.

Nannie Helen Burroughs, daughter of skilled slaves, was Armstrong's counterpart in the black community, Sumners said. She worked to develop summer training opportunities for black youth. Una Roberts, who wrote extensively in WMU and HMB publications in the early 1900s, “championed improved race relations among black and whites and was active in the Commission for Inter-racial Cooperation.

“The efforts of these three women spanned more than three decades of the early 20th century,” Sumners said. “Their cause was not primarily improved race relations, but … it was this spirit of cooperation and inclusiveness on behalf of the gospel that drove these women to challenge the racial code of America.”

Posted: 6/25/04

SBC ends 99-year relationship with Baptist World Alliance

By Trennis Henderson

(Kentucky) Western Recorder

INDIANAPOLIS–Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted overwhelmingly to end the denomination's 99-year relationship with the Baptist World Alliance.

The action during the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis follows several years of tension between the two organizations. SBC leaders repeatedly have accused BWA of affiliating with Baptist groups that espouse “aberrant theological views,” a charge denied by BWA officials.

Paige Patterson, speaking on behalf of the SBC's BWA study committee, told the 8,000 registered messengers that committee members “have noted with sorrow in our hearts a continual leftward drift in the Baptist World Alliance.”

Citing the example of BWA's affiliation with American Baptist Churches, Patterson said a group in that denomination is “committed to being a gay-friendly place for churches and people of that disposition.”

He apparently was referring to the Evergreen Baptist Association, a new ABC regional group in the Pacific Northwest that includes some churches that accept homosexuals as members. The issue of the Evergreen Association had not surfaced publicly before in the debate over BWA.

“What you give your name and your money to, you give your tacit approval to,” he added, insisting the SBC “can no longer afford to be aligned in any way” with gay-friendly groups.

In addition to Patterson, prominent SBC leaders on the study committee included Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee and a BWA vice president; Jimmy Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources; Oklahoma pastor Tom Elliff, a former SBC president; Paul Pressler, a key architect of the SBC's “conservative resurgence”; and Jerry Rankin, president of the SBC International Mission Board.

Detailing other reasons for the split, the study committee report adopted in February by the SBC Executive Committee noted: “Much has been made about the inclusion of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship into the BWA as having been the cause of our present recommendation to withdraw from the organization.”

Declaring “one soaked by a rain need not blame the last raindrop,” the report added, “The decision of the BWA to include the 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.”

BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz, who was not invited by SBC leaders to address the BWA recommendation, said in an interview after the vote: “We were shocked by Dr. Patterson bringing in the gay issue which was never on the table before. … To combine this with the whole question of gay marriage is really an insult to the rest of the Baptists of the world and particularly to the American Baptist Churches, which has taken a strong stand that homosexuality is incompatible with the Christian lifestyle.”

Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a former SBC president, also expressed concern that some denominations affiliated with BWA “do not believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture and regularly call it into question.”

Explaining that BWA is not a denomination, Lotz said in an interview, “There are 211 confessions or statements of faith” among BWA's 211 member bodies. “We certainly are not liberal,” he added. “We're all conservative evangelicals.”

During brief discussion on the floor of the convention, Larry Walker, a messenger from First Baptist Church of Dallas, urged messengers to support BWA as “a united, worldwide community of Baptists.”

Walker said he views BWA “not as a theological incubator but as a nursery” where the SBC and other groups can help small, struggling Baptist bodies around the world.

“We may not need them, but they desperately need us,” Walker said. “Is there something we can do to resolve and reconcile this relationship?”

Immediately after Walker's comments, messenger Wiley Drake of California called for the question, effectively cutting off further debate. Messengers then overwhelmingly voted by a show of hands for the SBC to withdraw its membership from BWA effective Oct. 1.

The action also will end the SBC's $300,000 annual contribution to BWA. That amount was reduced last year by $125,000 in anticipation of BWA accepting the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as a member body.

The SBC action specifies that the funds be earmarked for the convention “to develop and execute a new and innovative strategy for continuing to build strong relationships with conservative Christians around the world.”

Responding to the SBC vote, Lotz said: “Money is not the issue. Churches all across the Southern Baptist Convention are going to make up the difference. It really is a theological question of schism and unity: What does it mean to be the body of Christ?

“It's very sad for Baptists of the world,” he said. “We're going to love the Southern Baptists. We want them to come back in.”

Lotz told reporters that, despite SBC complaints about BWA's theology, “we have not left Southern Baptists; Southern Baptists have left us. … But we want them to come back”

He said world Baptists view the SBC dispute as “an inner conflict” among U.S. Baptist bodies.

“It was acceptance of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship into (BWA) membership that triggered this whole movement” to withdraw, he said.

In a public statement released after the SBC, Lotz said: “Baptists of the world, and the Baptist World Alliance in particular, were slandered by statements made to messengers at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. …

“The blast from Indianapolis was like a bombshell in a crowded building. Millions of Baptists have been spiritually hurt, their witness maimed and our good name besmirched.”

Lotz cited a 1994 BWA General Council resolution opposing same-sex marriage. “The BWA does not support homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle, believing it to be incompatible with the teachings of Scripture,” he said. “(The BWA) affirms without reservation that marriage is a holy state and only between a man and a woman forever.”

Morris Chapman, president of the Executive Committee, said regarding Lotz: “His scathing denunciation of the Southern Baptist Convention … revealed his long-term attitude toward our convention's leadership. He erupted with accusations … that could hardly have been created on the spur of the moment. What he said and the way he said it came from deep within.”

Rob Marus of Associated Baptist Press contributed.

Posted: 6/25/04

Crossover evangelism events
make impact on Indianapolis

By Lee Weeks

Baptist Press

INDIANAPOLIS (BP)–Blaring rap music, yellow crime scene tape, open-hooded vehicles on ramps and young children playfully running through the streets is an all-too-common scene throughout much of inner-city America.

A similar scenario played itself out at the Cloverleaf Terrace apartments in Indianapolis during the community's annual luau festivities. This year, however, Southern Baptist volunteers from across the Southeast joined the Cloverleaf celebration.

They hosted children's games and crafts and provided free car washes, oil changes and other maintenance. The rap music was of the Christian variety, and the yellow tape sectioned off part of the parking lot where groups of Baptist men serviced vehicles while sharing the gospel.

The Cloverleaf outreach was one of nearly 40 evangelistic block parties held this month throughout metropolitan Indianapolis as part of Crossover Indiana.

Crossover is an annual Southern Baptist evangelistic effort held the weekend prior to the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in the host city.

Statewide, 100-plus churches were part of 75 Crossover events, including block parties, street evangelism, neighborhood prayerwalking, door-to-door spiritual opinion surveys and more than 40 revival crusades.

More than 1,100 professions of faith in Christ had been recorded as a result of the Crossover efforts, according to reports submitted to the Metropolitan Baptist Association office in Indianapolis.

Richard Leach (left) and Steve Tarpley (center) both of North Gwinnett Baptist Church, Atlanta, check oil and other automotive vital signs for a resident of Indianapolis' Cloverleaf Terrace Apartments during a Pit Stop ministry event at the apartment complex. This evangelism project was one of more than 75 events comprising Crossover Indiana. Pit Stop was coordinated by Baptist Men on Mission groups from Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia, and sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board. (Brittany Schultze Photo)

Nearly 1,000 volunteers–about half of them from out of state–participated in the outreach, reported Doug Simpson, director of missions for the Metropolitan Baptist Association and block party coordinator for Crossover Indiana.

And more than 900 phone calls had been received nationwide through the North American Mission Board's Evangelism Response Center requesting copies of the “The Hope” evangelistic video in response to a Southern Baptist television ad campaign under way throughout Indiana. More than 25 professions of faith also had been recorded through the media campaign.

Block parties featuring free food, children's games and prizes were held throughout Indianapolis in apartment complexes, city parks, shopping center parking lots, on street corners and in rural open fields.

Many of the events began around 11 a.m. as heavy rains and wind posed flood-watch conditions over some regions. But by early afternoon, the dark ominous clouds gave way to sunshine and comfortable spring-like temperatures.

John Yarbrough, NAMB's vice president of evangelization, described Crossover as an evangelistic laboratory unifying Southern Baptists across the country in a conventionwide effort.

“Crossover helps us focus as Southern Baptists on what we're all about,” Yarbrough said. “It encourages the churches locally and leaves a residue of equipped witnesses to further impact the area for eternity.”

At Fellowship Baptist Church east of downtown Indianapolis on New York Street, Pastor Gary Pitcock credited the success of the church's block party and door-to-door witnessing efforts to prayer.

The block party drew about 200 people from the neighborhood, and members of NAMB's Inner City Evangelism teams recorded more than 50 professions of faith of teens and adults who live near the church.

Weeks before the block party, Pitcock and about 15 others in the congregation walked about a dozen blocks near the church, praying for the homes that might be impacted by the evangelistic outreach.

Victor Benavides, a NAMB personal evangelism associate and coordinator of the inner city evangelism teams, said 20 team members recorded a total of 884 professions of faith while sharing the gospel door-to-door and with passersby on sidewalks and street corners throughout inner-city neighborhoods in Indianapolis.

Posted: 6/25/04

Graham urges Southern Baptists to gear up for culture wars

By Charlie Warren

Arkansas Baptist News

INDIANAPOLIS–The Southern Baptist Convention should “look up, step up, stand up, wise up and gear up” for America's cultural wars, said outgoing SBC President Jack Graham.

“The moral issues of our time are still on the table,” Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Church in Plano, told messengers during his president's address at the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis.

Graham urged Southern Baptists to fight for passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one husband and one wife.

“It must not be redefined,” he said. “To redefine marriage is an attempt to undermine the foundations of this nation. …

Jack Graham

“We believe in the family, therefore we must press for the federal marriage amendment and get this done.”

President George W. Bush has called for the added voices of the religious community on this issue, Graham said.

He challenged Southern Baptists to step up and gear up for the task.

"The priority for Southern Baptists is to fulfill the Great Commission," Graham said. "Sharing Jesus is God's agenda. Some say we should just share the gospel and shut up about the rest of this. …

“But if we don't stand up, speak out, and wise up on these issues, who will be left to deal with the issues of our times? If not us, Southern Baptists, then who? If not now, when? May God help us to do it now.”

Southern Baptists are failing in America's cultural war, Graham said, because they lack the power of God.

“We need preachers who are willing to stand up for truth, preach the truth and call sin by its name,” he said.

Noting this year's presidential election, he lauded the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission's “iVoteValues.com” program to register and inform voters and encourage them to vote on their biblical values and principles.

Preaching from Ephesians 3:20-21, Graham noted that God's kingdom, Jesus the Savior, the Bible, God's mercy and salvation are forever.

“His reign as King of Kings and Lord or Lords is forever,” Graham said. “Thus, forever we love and serve him.”

The hope of eternal life must serve as a catalyst for dynamic living today, he added.

“Some say we are in the land of the living on the way to the land of the dying,” Graham said. “That is not true. We are in the land of the dying on our way to the land of the living.”

He said the worthy walk of believers demands their witness to the world­evangelism and missions.

"Only the Holy Spirit can empower our words and witness and break through the darkness of someone's life," Graham said. "If I know my Bible and believe my Bible and don't walk across the street to share the gospel, I have missed the point."

He urged pastors to “get over the idea of being CEOs of the church and remember we are called to be shepherds reaching sheep, especially lost sheep.”

He also urged Southern Baptists to reach America's great cities with the gospel.

“We must not relent. We must not retreat. We must not give up an inch of God's territory,” Graham concluded.

“I don't know if we are going to prevail in this cultural war or not. …

“The one thing I do know is his kingdom is forever.”

Posted: 6/25/04

Annuity Board-sponsored event prior
to SBC draws 600 walkers, runners

By Wendy Ashley

Annuity Board

INDIANAPOLIS (BP)–More than 600 Southern Baptist Convention messengers and guests–ranging in age from 3 to 84–participated in a pre-convention wellness walk sponsored by the SBC Annuity Board.

Participants gathered at 6:15 a.m. to walk or run either a one-mile or 5K course through White River State Park in downtown Indianapolis. Local volunteers helped Annuity Board staff organize walkers and runners, work the finish line and serve refreshments.

Annuity Board President O.S. Hawkins welcomed participants and offered an opening prayer.

“We are making a statement about the importance of wellness,” Hawkins said. “The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and we must be good stewards of the physical gifts of God.”

More than 600 Southern Baptists participated in a Wellness Walk through White River State Park in downtown Indianapolis, prior to the SBC annual meeting.

Before the walk, Hawkins introduced Jim Breeden, staff member of the St. Louis Metro Baptist Association and member of West Community Baptist Church in St. Louis. Breeden visited the Annuity Board's wellness booth at last year's convention and made a commitment to step up and take responsibility for his health.

Quoting the New Testament reference to the word of God being sharper than a two-edged sword, Breeden said: “I found out that the word of God is even sharp enough to cut off fat. I began running to train for a marathon, and as I ran, I memorized Scripture.”

Over the past year, Breeden lost about 70 pounds. He completed his first marathon in April in four hours and 19 minutes and planned to participate in a quarter Ironman Triathlon later this month.

Van Simmons of Lawrenceville, Ga., an employee of the North American Mission Board, was the first 5K runner to cross the finish line with a time of 22 minutes and 37 seconds.

Many of the walkers and runners have made commitments to wellness.

Bobby Copeland of Martinsville, Ind., reported losing 165 pounds during the last year.

“The Lord told me that if I wanted to live to see my grandkids grow up, I needed to lose some weight,” he said.

Posted: 6/25/04

WMU leaders at annual meeting challenged to follow Christ

By Bill Webb, John Loudat & Charlie Warren

Missouri Word & Way, Baptist New Mexican & Arkansas Baptist News

INDIANAPOLIS–Missionaries, Woman's Missionary Union leaders and others explored what it means to be Christ-followers during WMU's recent 2004 annual meeting in Indianapolis.

Through music, dramatic presentations, videos, testimonies and inspirational messages from North American and international missionaries, the 850 women registered were challenged to carry the message of Christ and disciple new believers in their communities, throughout the United States and around the world.

“All true followers of Christ desire more than anything else to be like Christ,” WMU President Janet Hoffman told attendees. “To imitate Christ, one must be intimate with Christ, and that is nourished through daily prayer and study of his word.”

Beth Ann Williams of Utah-Idaho Baptists asks Woman's Missionary Union to pray for volunteers who will minister at the Olympics in Athens.

Christian believers who are like Christ are more interested in being than doing, but those who love Christ intimately begin to serve him by serving others, she added.

“Following Christ is love in action,” she said. “In loving, we are most like him because Christ is love. Love for each other will prove to the world that we are his.”

She said loving as Christ loves means loving extravagantly and unconditionally. “Will our imitation of Christ inspire others to follow him?” she asked.

Missionaries shared their testimonies, explaining how they've sought to follow Christ.

Native American Alpha Goombi shared how she wallowed in pain from abuse as a child and low self-esteem until one day she hit bottom. She decided to accept the invitation of a missionary who had invited her to attend a Baptist Indian mission.

When the service ended, “I ran forward and gave my heart to Jesus and I have never been the same,” she recalled. “In me, God saw a princess.”

Today, she serves as a missionary in Omaha, Neb. She concluded her presentation using Native American sign language to interpret the Lord's Prayer.

Harriet and Paul Lawrence, Southern Baptist missionaries to North Africa and the Middle East, told of the danger and unique challenges of serving in Gaza and the West Bank of Jordan. They spoke of near misses by both Israeli and Palestinian bombs.

“We love the Lord too much to fear following him,” she said.

“In spite of the hardship, it is worth it to follow him,” he added.

Barbara and Harry Bush, Southern Baptist missionaries to South Asia, told of “equipping God's leaders” by providing biblical training to Christian leaders in nine nations. About 1,600 people have received such leadership training, resulting in 16,000 baptisms and 285 new churches in the nine nations.

Milton and Mary Jane Allred, IMB missionaries to the Mixteca Indians in Mexico, described their ministry and their plan to pursue reaching the Mixteca stateside when they retire at the end of this month.

Beth Ann Williams, woman's ministry consultant for Utah-Idaho Baptists, encouraged participants to prayerfully support the efforts of WMU-sponsored volunteers and others who will minister during the summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

A self-described “Olympics junkie,” Williams coordinated 1,300 volunteers from 21 states who engaged in creative ministry during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

With small children at home, Williams will not participate in ministries at the Athens games, but she and a friend have rented a pavilion in Salt Lake City and are having Greek food catered there during the games as a way to use the Olympic theme to share Christ with others.

Dena McAnally, missionary to Peru, testified of her work among the Ashinica people group in the Peruvian jungle. She referred to them as “precious people who lead a simple life” as hunters and gatherers and live in fear of evil spirits.

She said there are now a growing number of Ashinica Christians, and she and her husband are discipling them and training them to share the gospel throughout the area.

“We are just making true disciples of Jesus Christ and planting new churches,” McAnally said. “Serving God in the jungle is not about my living conditions. It is not about my comfort. It is not about me. It is about serving my Lord. It is all about Jesus Christ and how he can be glorified.”

Margaret Johnson, director of Baptist Collegiate Ministries at Langston University in Langston, Okla., and adjunct professor of biblical studies, told of her pilgrimage from poverty and hopelessness to mission service.

In college, she met a Baptist Student Union missionary who encouraged her to pursue her call to missions, despite her objections of being black, overweight and needing theological training. “I'm amazed that God can use even me,” she said. “What's your excuse? … Missions is simply finding a need and filling it.”

The women were reminded by Randy Pool of Trenton, Tenn., of the importance of seeing people the way God sees them. Pool, coordinator of the Mississippi River Ministry of Tennessee and a North American Mission Board missionary, called attention to poverty, the new emphasis of a WMU program called Project Help.

“It is imperative we go overseas,” acknowledged the former IMB missionary to Honduras and Nicaragua, “but there is also a great need to touch lives impacted by poverty at home.”

Rebecca Carnell, literacy missions consultant for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, received the Dellanna O'Brien Award for Women's Leadership Development.

She recalled attending a life-changing WMU annual meeting in 1992. Deeply moved by the testimony of a man who called it “a miracle” that he had been taught to read as an adult, Carnell made a commitment to return home and use the training she already had received to teach others to read.

Since then, she said, God also has given her opportunities to teach literacy and English as a second language as well as training others to do so. For the past six years, Carnell has served part time as a Mission Service Corps volunteer and part time as literacy consultant for the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Participants at the annual meeting gave a $6,950 offering for the WMU Vision Fund.

Sara Ross Clayton of Georgia received the 2004 Martha Myers GA Alumnae of Distinction Award.

Meeting attendees learned that Lottie Moon Christmas Offering receipts reached a record $136 million for 2003, and that the 2004 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering is running 15.3 percent ahead of last year.

During the business session, Hoffman was re-elected as national WMU president. Kathy Hillman of Waco was elected to a first term as recording secretary, succeeding Yolanda Calderon of California.