Texas religious leaders unite to stand against legalized video slot machines_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Texas religious leaders unite to stand
against legalized video slot machines

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–Leaders of the Texas religious community are standing together against a proposal that would link the funding of public education in the state to video slot machines.

Bishop Mark Herbener, interim director of the Texas Conference of Churches, said he does not know of any religious leader in the state who “thinks this is good for the moral character” of the people of Texas.

“We know of no faith group that supports this,” said Phil Strickland, director of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Herbener, Strickland and others held a news conference at the Greater Dallas Community of Churches headquarters to voice opposition to video lottery terminals. The machines are similar to slot machines, but they allow the player to access electronic versions of various casino-type games.

For every dollar gambling generates for the state, it creates $3 in costs for local communities.
–CLC Director Phil Strickland

Gov. Rick Perry has called a special session of the state legislature to craft a new way of funding public schools. His plan and others call for the addition of up to 40,000 video slot machines at racetracks and on Native American tribal lands.

“We want a solid future” for children in Texas, said BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade, “We do not want to build it on the backs of those who are most vulnerable.”

Various speakers pointed to the addictive nature of video slot machines and the resulting personal, family, economic and societal costs that follow.

“The more addicts we create,” the greater the “human toll,” said Ken Hall, president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences and the BGCT. “What does this do to our whole human services network?”

Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling in Rockford, Ill., said gambling addiction rates double within a 50-mile radius of casinos. As a result, he said, counties with casinos have a 14 percent higher bankruptcy rate and an 8 percent higher crime rate.

The proposed expansion of gambling in Texas would bring some benefits in terms of revenue generated, Strickland said, "but there are tremendous costs." For every dollar gambling generates for the state, it creates $3 in costs for local communities, he noted. "This will be a disaster for communities."

A constitutional amendment would be required to introduce video lottery terminals to Texas, and that would require a referendum on the November general election ballot.

Speakers expressed confidence Texas voters would reject such a proposal on the ballot, but they said it would not be a fair fight.

“There's no way you can begin to match the dollars” that would be used by the gambling industry, Strickland said. “They can dump literally millions and millions of dollars to tell their side of the story.”

Grey sees a danger in all of those dollars. “You can sell lies on television commercials,” he said.

Hall called on legislators to “make the hard choices” and vote against the gambling proposal. “I can't imagine any Texas Baptist looking favorably” on a politician who pushes this proposal, he said.

A Republican governor is doing much of the pushing, but Grey said the Republican Party platform is against gambling. "This has less to do with revenue (for schools) than with campaign contributions," he said.

Gambling opponents feel like they are getting “a fast shuffle off a stacked deck,” said Weston Ware, legislative director for Texans Against Gambling.

Perry not only is violating the anti-gambling platform on which he ran for office, but also is pressuring legislators to pass an omnibus bill that includes gambling expansion, he said.

Ware derided the governor's proposal as a “slots for tots plan” that uses Texas schoolchildren as pawns in a ploy to expand gambling in the state.

Managing Editor Ken Camp contributed to this report.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Iorg named Golden Gate Theological Seminary president_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Iorg named Golden Gate Theological Seminary president

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)–Trustees of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary elected Jeff Iorg as the seminary's seventh president.

Iorg will assume his new position Aug. 1, succeeding Bill Crews, who retired after leading the seminary from 1986 until 2003.

Iorg has served as executive director-treasurer of the Northwest Baptist Convention since 1995. He was the founding pastor of Greater Gresham Baptist Church in Gresham, Ore., and also has served as a pastor in Missouri and Texas.

Since 1990, he has taught as an adjunct preaching, evangelism and leadership instructor at the seminary's Pacific Northwest Campus. Golden Gate Seminary operates five campuses in Northern California, Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona and Colorado.

Iorg is a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Now it is time to move forward together,” Iorg told trustees. “You have agreed with God, and we have agreed together with God that I am to be your president. How humbling and exciting, all at the same time.”

The election, on a 30-3 vote by trustees, followed an extensive search initiated at the board's October 2003 meeting. The 10-member search committee nominated Iorg to the full trustee board in March.

“Dr. Iorg is just the right person for this key leadership position,” said Crews, who is now serving as the seminary's chancellor. “His superb leadership at the Northwest Baptist Convention and experience at the local church along with his teaching experience uniquely qualifies him to lead this seminary.

“I am looking forward to working with him, not only in an orderly and smooth transition, but as a partner as we continue to shape effective leaders for the churches of tomorrow. I congratulate the presidential search committee on a job well done and I pledge my unqualified support to Dr. Iorg as he assumes the leadership of this great seminary.”

Gary Black, chairman of the search committee and the board of trustees, said: “I am confident in the decision by the board and the process undertaken to discover God's leader for this seminary. Dr. Iorg will be a great leader not only for Golden Gate but as representative for Southern Baptists throughout the West for decades to come.”

Dwight Honeycutt, Golden Gate's William Carleton professor of church history and member of the advisory committee that helped select Iorg, said: “Jeff Iorg is respected and appreciated by those of our faculty who know him. I can't begin to tell you how enthusiastic I am that we will have a servant-leader of such amazing gifts and integrity as Dr. Iorg to lead us in fulfilling the Golden Gate vision.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Hispanic Preaching Conference_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Hispanic Preaching Conference

About 300 Hispanic Baptists gathered at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary for times of fellowship, instruction and inspiration at the recent Hispanic Preaching Conference. Seminar leaders included pastors and teachers from around the state, as well as Gilberto Gutierrez, president of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico. The conference was sponsored jointly by Truett Seminary and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Texas hunger offering gifts rising; $750,000 goal set for 2005_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

A woman weaves on a loom in Chaing Mai, Thailand. Texas Baptist hunger funds helped her and others learn trades that provide income for families. For 2005, $19,000 has been budgeted for the Thailand project.

Texas hunger offering gifts
rising; $750,000 goal set for 2005

By John Hall & Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

MOUNT LEBANON–World hunger gifts by Texas Baptist churches have increased 24.7 percent so far this year, and the Baptist General Convention of Texas has set a $750,000 hunger offering budget for 2005.

Funds for the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger are collected each year from October through the following September. From October 2003 to March this year, Texas Baptists gave $539,193. During the same period the previous year, $432,273 had been given. That 2003 offering ended with $648,841.

The 2005 budget will support a record 92 projects. The budget calls for 60 percent of funds, or $450,000, to go toward worldwide efforts, primarily through the Baptist World Alliance, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Texas Partnerships.

CLC leaders emphasized Mexican ministries in the budget reflect the BGCT's partnership with the National Baptist Convention of Mexico. The budget earmarks $32,000 for Mexico.

Two young men in the Palaung people group tend a garden in Thailand. Texas Baptist hunger funds help Thai families establish community gardens.

One-fourth of the allotted money, $187,000, is for Texas causes. Funds will be used statewide, including ministries in Amarillo, Austin, Brownwood, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Midland and the Rio Grande Valley.

The remaining 15 percent, $112,500, will go to causes within the United States. These ministries include work in New York, Wyoming, Arizona, California, the District of Columbia and Florida.

“The Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger is a remarkable light with people around the world,” said Joe Haag, associate director of the CLC. “We go way beyond feeding people.”

CLC leaders lauded the expanding offering but insisted many needs still must be met. The budget will fund one-quarter of the requests received.

In other business, the board brainstormed ways to better connect with Texas Baptist churches. CLC Director Phil Strickland indicated three to four churches call him daily looking for help. The CLC has the programs to help, but often lacks the staff to do so., he said.

Commissioners discussed building a network of trained volunteers that would help carry out the work but indicated the CLC would need another paid staff person to coordinate those workers.

Carol Bowman, Hope for Home consultant within the CLC, noted the commission recently trained 100 ministers in marriage counseling techniques. Hope for Home is educating ministers in how to help at-risk youth.

The board adopted Christian citizenship as the topic for the 2005 statewide Christian life conference and health care as the topic for the 2006 meeting.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Nearly two-thirds of wired American adults surf Net for spiritual reasons_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Nearly two-thirds of wired American
adults surf Net for spiritual reasons

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Nearly two-thirds of American adults with Internet access have used it for spiritual or faith-related reasons, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life project.

The 82 million Americans who use the Internet for religious activities represent 64 percent of all wired adults in the United States.

The study found one-third of U.S. Internet users have sent or received e-mail with religious content or spiritual greeting cards, or go online to read current religion news. Others look for information about religious services and holidays.

The trend is about the same across different denominations, pollsters said.

“These practices are appealing to people across all of our categories of religion and spirituality, and across all levels of Internet use,” the report said.

Half of the online faithful said they attend church at least once a week and 33 percent describe themselves as evangelicals. Most–69 percent–said they use the Internet for personal spiritual growth, not for work related to their places of worship. Only 14 percent said they use the Internet to plan church-related meetings, which the report called surprising.

“The online faithful seem more interested in augmenting their traditional faith practices and experiences by personally expressing their own faith and spirituality, as opposed to seeking something new or different in the online environment,” the report said. “This is interesting, because many analysts have assumed that the Internet would make it more likely for people to leave churches in favor of more flexible options.”

Half of those who use the Internet for spiritual purposes are women, 83 percent are white and half are college-educated. They also are likely to be wealthy and between 30 and 49 years old.

A quarter of respondents said they look for information about other religious faiths online out of curiosity, with Catholics the least likely to go online for religious information.

The report said the study's results were surprising and its implications unclear.

“It is possible that those currently affiliated with religious institutions will maintain a foothold in both the online and offline worlds,” the report said. “On the other hand, we may see an integration occur between the two.”

The study surveyed 1,358 U.S. Internet users in November and December 2003. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Texas Baptist Forum_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Ten Commandments

Phil Strickland asserts, “We undercut the profound truths … and the moral instruction of the Ten Commandments when we give responsibility of teaching to the government and don't embrace that responsibility in the churches” (April 19).

The Ten Commandments were given by God to a chosen Hebrew leader, Moses, to teach all people how to behave themselves. God wanted to establish a nation–not a church–and this is how he commanded people should conduct themselves and their affairs.

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

The Founding Fathers established a great nation–these United States–because they feared God. And the Ten Commandments were guiding principles in establishing the Constitution, a task made more difficult because now there were more “religions.”

I am not Jewish, but because I was created by God, the Ten Commandments tell me how God expects me to act.

I also noticed Strickland is a Texas Baptist ethics leader and director of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Shouldn't Strickland be leading and directing “this responsibility to the churches”?

I.P. Ruiz

Dallas

Love, not division

Roger Olson's column, “Baptist & Pentecostals stand stronger on common ground” (April 5) deserves a big thank you, thank you, thank you.

Professor Olson presented a fair, balanced and accurate assessment observed by one who was raised Assemblies of God.

When we learn from each other, the head of the church, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is exalted.

The world will know us by our love, not our division.

Stan Lewis

Uvalde

Salvation by grace

As a Presbyterian elder and Pentecostal, I welcome the opportunity to reply to C.T. McGuire's letter (April 19).

I agree salvation is by grace–all who will may receive it. The letter intimates Baptists believe the hard-line Calvinist doctrine of predestination, roughly stated, “The chosen can't refuse the grace, and those not chosen can go to hell.”

“They (Pentecostals) teach sinless perfection.” I have heard such teaching from folks calling themselves Pentecostal, usually on TV. However, such doctrine is far from prevalent among true Pentecostals, who make up the vast majority of people calling themselves Pentecostal.

“The doctrine of the Holy Spirit misses the mark of Bible truth.” This statement mystifies me. Over the past 42 years, I have come in contact with countless persons from all Christian denominations who have received the fullness of God's Spirit. They are better, more dedicated, more useful in the kingdom than they were before, being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Notice: Not better than others; better than they were before.

I have sat under teaching from Presbyterian ministers who echo some of the charges brought against Pentecostals. When any of them agrees to discuss the matter, it turns out that a seminary professor started them in that direction. Since then they have tended to look for examples to bolster their belief.

Thank you for allowing me to respond. I try to remember Paul told the Corinthians, “We are given the ministry of reconciliation,” and as I say to my Bible class, “not of condemnation.”

Dick Carter

Amarillo

Classroom witnesses

The letter by Dick Ellis (April 5) has two major fallacies related to vouchers.

His argument that “many schools with highly performing students spend considerably less per student than the majority of public schools where performance is poor” may have some validity, but it is oversimplification. Student performance is the result of many factors, including class size. Voucher schools traditionally have smaller classes than public schools; therefore, school-to-school comparisons are misleading.

Many voucher schools–unlike public schools–are not required to report how students do on assessments.

However, his most damaging statement is the classification of voucher opponents as discriminating and predatory.

Using his logic, voucher supporters are discriminatory because they don't want their children in the same public schools with “those” children. They could be considered predatory because they support pulling children out of public schools, thereby taking jobs of good teachers, some of whom are Christians. Using race as an argument for vouchers is just wrong.

There is a solution–build effective public schools for all children.

In my 20 years of classroom service, I was often the only Christian example for many students. … A Christian teacher can be called to the classroom just as a pastor is called to the pulpit.

The future of public schools is in jeopardy. Do Christians not have some responsibility for children?

Public schools are a field ready for the harvest. Children need Christian models, and you can be a mentor, tutor or Christian example during lunch or recess.

Freida Golden

Manhattan, Kan.

Gambling & schools

I find Gov. Perry's school finance reform proposals inane. I had rather be taxed for going to church and the money be used for educating our children than to depend upon the lottery, other forms of gambling and other sin taxes to do the job of public education. Public education is the public's job.

Taxing for going to church would probably improve the quality of some of our worship, and it would cause church people to become involved in and supportive of the public education of America's children, which we should have been deeply involved with all along.

“Important projects should be paid for with important money.” Educating our children is one of our most important projects. Sin-tax money is derived from socially destructive forms. That cannot be important money. Important money can only come from people who care.

A state income tax to fund what is needed for the good of Texas' future is quite acceptable to me. It would not be the end of the world.

I pray for all Texans to attain the social and political courage to consider this or some other responsible solution for providing a good future for Texas. Ethical behavior is acting now to provide a great state for our great-grandchildren.

As a citizen, I call for someone in authority to initiate an investigation into Gov. Perry's relationship with gambling interests. I think it imperative to fully know what all that relationship is.

Alvin Petty

Friona

Depressed & angry

After reading the articles on positions taken by evangelicals (April 19), I was left feeling pretty depressed and angry.

Angry that so many so-called evangelicals seem to have no foresight, wisdom or discernment on social issues that are specifically spelled out in Scripture–gay marriage, abortion, etc.–and depressed that we evangelicals have obviously made ourselves irrelevant in our own culture because we have melted in so well in our values, beliefs and behavior. Divorce rates, porn addictions, etc. are about the same as non-evangelicals.

This is bad news for the outlook of our country. The salt has lost its saltiness and therefore is useless.

May we see the error of our ways and repent and turn from our wicked ways so that God will hear our prayers and heal our land–before we morally destroy it.

Jean Whitmore

Altus, Okla.

Worship freedom

I support the contemporary worship style because it gives the greatest amount of freedom for worship.

Many of us ministers of music really prefer to say that we believe in the use of “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” as the style preferred in the music part of worship. Those terms are biblical. The other terms seem to be so divisive.

The real need is not style of worship but to “worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth.”

Tim Holder

Port Neches

What do you think? Submit letters for Texas Baptist Forum via e-mail to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words. They may be edited to accommodate space.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Annuity Board staff member joins BGCT as director of information technology office_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Annuity Board staff member joins
BGCT as director of information technology office

DALLAS–Dave Lyons has joined the Baptist General Convention of Texas staff as director of information technology.

Lyons will serve in a new position that is the direct result of a technology review pursued by the BGCT in 2002, said David Nabors, chief financial officer and treasurer of the convention.

Lyons comes to the BGCT from the Southern Baptist Annuity Board in Dallas, where he was a business systems development and support team leader. He had been with the Annuity Board since 1995.

Previously, he was a systems manager for Colotone-Riverside in Dallas.

Titles have been changed for two other positions in BGCT's information systems area.

Jeannie Bordovsky is now associate director of technical operations. Clay Price is associate director of research information

The addition of Lyons to the staff helps the BGCT in implementing recommendations of the review, which was led by Gartner Inc., Nabors said.

“The review determined that we needed additional resource support in regard to project management, change management, solutions development and integration management,” he said.

“Dave Lyons' experience and expertise match well with those needs and make him an excellent addition to our information systems staff.”

Lyons holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from Texas A&M University in College Station.

He is a member of The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson.

He and his wife, Darla, have two children, Lauren, 19, and Drew, 17.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Growing churches have deep roots, clearly defined purpose_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Growing churches have deep roots, clearly defined purpose

By Kari Hawkins

Religion News Service

ATLANTA (RNS)–Why does one church grow and another just down the street fall stagnant?

Does it have something to do with the type of denomination, the vision of the church and the people sitting in its pews? Or is growth caused or not caused by traffic patterns, economic ties and cultural expectations?

Several factors influence a church's growth, experts say. A friendly atmosphere, community involvement, multiple programs for all age groups and evangelism are obvious.

But other reasons for growth can be harder to pinpoint.

Calvin Miller

“Growth is a fruit, to use a biblical metaphor. It's an outgrowth,” said Thomas Frank, director of Methodist studies and a professor of church administration at Emory University in Atlanta.

“But fruit comes from trees that are deeply rooted. The fruit of growth in the church is drawn on things of tradition. The key here is not just growth, but also a faithfulness to a church's own identity and tradition.”

A survey by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research (www.fact.hartsem.edu) found churches with specific definitions and goals for their members and high standards for personal morality and communal justice have greater vitality as well as growth in membership and financial giving.

Researchers interviewed leaders of 14,301 U.S. congregations of Protestants, Roman Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Muslims and other faith groups. The survey defined growth as an increase of at least 5 percent in Sunday-morning attendance (or Saturday for faith groups that observe the Sabbath on that day) for a five-year period from 1995 through 2000. Fifty-one percent of the congregations involved in the survey reported growth.

But throughout the country, Christianity is on the decline, with a loss of 12 percent in attendance since 1994, said Calvin Miller, professor of preaching and ministry studies at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

“It's a radical decline, and the more secular cities become, the harder it is to make churches grow,” he said.

“I believe the decline is a matter of attrition for most churches. It reflects a failure to be responsive to the people who we ought to be reaching. They may have gone to church with mom and dad as a child. But now they've grown up, and they just don't enjoy it, and they drift away.”

Growing an established church takes a lot of self-study, Miller said. Congregations must decide if they want to grow, what they need to change to grow and if they will welcome the change that comes along with growth.

Growing churches begins with a survey of the target audience so the church knows the people it wants to serve and understands what has kept these people from coming to the church, he said.

“You have to take away the things that keep a church from growing, because an old-style administration, old-style music, a pastor who isn't relational and a sermon style that no one likes will not make a church grow. Things that make churches grow are kind of edgy.”

While church leaders consider ways to increase the numbers of their church, Frank said, the only real concern is that churches help people in their relationship with God.

“Growth is not the objective of the church. The objective is to be a faithful, Christian community, and when you meet that objective, your church will grow in many ways,” he said.

“You will see growth in the spiritual life of your members, in the commitment of members to the well-being of the community and in the number of people who want to be part of your church.”

Some churches may, indeed, be meant to stay small to fulfill God's vision, Frank said.

“Smaller churches tend to be a face-to-face community,” he said. “Most people tend to know the face of everyone else in a small church.

“At a church where a few hundred people have become 8,000 or 9,000 people, you tend to lose the face-to-face community. People become surrounded by strangers, and they can start feeling overwhelmed by that.”

Some larger churches have taken steps to create small communities, such as weekly Bible study groups of about 15 members within their churches to offer the personal touch people desire in the Christian faith.

When churches grow large, there also is a change in the way decisions are made and in the relationships that longer-standing members have within the church, Frank said.

“It is no longer possible to make decisions in the same way,” he said.

“In a small group, people can make strategic decisions. In a church that has become a large church, people who have been around a long time find themselves at some point being excluded from those decisions.”

They also may find themselves excluded from the direction in which their church is growing–or growing away from–such as traditional songs and preaching styles, Frank said. They begin to wonder, “Who are we?”

In trying to please large numbers of eager new Christians, large churches may fall into the trap of trying to be so relevant in today's world that they forget to deliver the message of an afterlife.

“These churches major on the idea of relevance,” Miller said. “They aren't worried about telling you how to die but on telling you how to live while you are here. You lose a lot of transcendental values. There's a lot of 'how to' sermons–how to forgive your brother and how to build a family.”

In Atlanta, 35 of the congregations in the city's suburbs each have more than 5,000 members.

“The reason these churches thrive is because the suburbs are full of displaced people who have no roots in the community,” Frank said.

“For these people, the large church functions like a small town. It is a place of belonging that fits a wide range of needs. They offer recreation, social events, even credit unions.”

Large churches also provide that “big religious experience” some Americans are looking for in a church.

“They want their religion to be spectacle,” Frank said. But that is not for everyone, especially those “who want to know everybody and they have a personal relationship with the pastor.”

Some churches aren't meant to go on forever, Frank said. Older churches once in a vibrant neighborhood may now be in an area of town where people have moved out to make way for industrial and business sectors.

“Most (growing) churches are located in places where new people are moving in,” he said. “The healthiest churches are intergenerational with three generations, maybe four, actively involved in the church.”

New congregations grow more easily than long-standing traditional congregations because “they don't have to learn the traditional issues of a Christian faith,” Frank said.

New congregations don't have to sing older hymns or follow traditional liturgical styles if they don't want to. As a new church, they can start their own traditions–which can be attractive to newcomers.

Many of these new churches “have a pep rally feel about them,” Miller said. “They're exciting. The hymns are buoyant, the music is upbeat. The young megachurch connotes excitement.”

The key to growth is “not to adopt somebody else's culture, but to promote your own culture in a more effective way,” Frank said. “I've heard traditional congregations sing songs from 200 years ago, but in a way that is very dynamic and exciting for today.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Christian leaders should maximize abilities, pastor suggests_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Christian leaders should maximize abilities, pastor suggests

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

SALADO–Leadership is not telling people what to do, but working with and for others, a Rockwall pastor told the Baptist General Convention of Texas Ministers of Education Retreat.

Leaders understand when to take a stand, but they spend much of their time helping people through projects or following the advice of others, said Steve Stroope, pastor of Lake Pointe Church.

Pastors, ministers, Sunday school teachers or church project coordinators need to realize the ways God strategically blessed them and lead in a way that maximizes their unique abilities, he said.

Abilities typically align with a person's passions, he explained. Enthusiasm can drive people to accomplish much more than someone working on the same project without excitement.

“It's not about the power of positive thinking,” he said. “This is not a pep talk. This is not 'If you can dream it, you can do it.' It's 'If you can grab (God's) dreams, you can do them.'”

If leaders recognize how they are gifted, they can build a staff of workers around them to balance weaknesses, Stroope said. He added that ministries grow when Christians are working where they are passionate.

Where leaders are not gifted, they should work under the direction of another person in hopes of strengthening the ministry, he said.

Stroope encouraged the ministers of education to use trial periods to help volunteers find where they best fit.

Allow workers to try different positions for short periods until they and the minister find the proper place of ministry, he suggested.

“If you're doing something and you're not bearing fruit, you're doing the wrong thing,” he said.

When delegating work to others, volunteers need passion, but they also must have strong character and competence, he emphasized. Leaders must model their beliefs and work effectively.

Supervisors also need to share a vision with the people who work for them, and it helps if they like the people they oversee, Stroope said.

Those factors help the two enjoy working together toward a common goal. The relationship enables each party to strengthen where the other is weak, he noted.

These steps will help ministers and ministry, but they will not keep the work from wandering off track, he said.

Individuals, programs and churches run through typical five- to seven-year cycles that include stages of dreaming, doing, feeling something is wrong and a period of reinvention that can lead to dreaming again, he maintained.

In tough times, ministers must lean on God to carry them through, Stroope said.

“There are people who look at you and me and say, 'You can't,'” he said. “They don't know our Father.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Missouri convention appeals suit dismissal_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Missouri convention appeals suit dismissal

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP)–Attorneys for the Missouri Baptist Convention have appealed the dismissal of a lawsuit against five breakaway institutions, and state convention messengers will be asked to authorize the use of Cooperative Program funds to pay for the ongoing lawsuit.

Lawyers representing the convention and a group of convention-affiliated churches filed a notice of appeal to the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals in Kansas City. The appeal will challenge Cole County Circuit Judge Thomas Brown's March 11 dismissal of the suit against the agencies, as well as three related rulings.

In the March dismissal, Brown ruled the convention's Executive Board and the six churches had no standing to bring legal action against Missouri Baptist University, the Baptist Home retirement-home system, the Missouri Baptist Foundation, Windermere Baptist Conference Center or the Word & Way newspaper. Brown concluded the convention legally consisted only of individual messengers rather than churches or elected representatives.

Brown later re-affirmed that ruling and denied the convention the opportunity to amend its lawsuit to include a group of individual messengers as plaintiffs.

In 2000 and 2001, trustees of all five agencies changed the organizations' charters to begin electing their own successors. Previously, the institutions' trustees had been nominated by an MBC committee and elected by messengers to the convention's annual meeting.

The charter changes came after a successful campaign by fundamentalist leaders to gain control of the convention's nominating process and thereby steer institutions in a more conservative direction.

Leaders of the breakaway institutions cited the political issues, as well as liability concerns, in making the decision to switch to self-perpetuating boards.

Convention messengers voted in 2002 to sue the institutions, demanding the agencies' trustee boards be returned to convention control. Because the MBC itself is an unincorporated association under Missouri law, convention leaders decided to name the MBC Executive Board and six sympathetic MBC-affiliated churches as the plaintiffs.

Messengers removed funding for the agencies from the convention budget. However, the MBC Executive Board voted April 13 to place the five institutions back in the convention's Cooperative Program budget for 2005. The new budget proposal will be presented to convention messengers for final approval at their annual meeting in October.

According to a column posted on the convention website by Executive Director David Clippard, “These budget dollars will be given to them for operations needs only upon their return” to convention control.

And, despite previous promises from convention leaders that Cooperative Program receipts would not be used to fund the lawsuit, Clippard also said the money could be used in the interim “to fund (the agencies') return.”

The proposal, according to the convention-supported Pathway newsletter, would include $1.2 million in the first year.

The convention already has spent about $1 million on the lawsuit. Funding for the legal fees initially came from convention reserve funds.

At their 2003 annual session, convention messengers approved a $1 million line of credit to continue funding the lawsuit, as well as establishment of a Missouri Baptist Agency Restoration Fund separate from the convention's budget.

The fund was intended as a place for individuals and churches to contribute designated gifts for waging the legal battle over and above their regular convention giving.

But according to a document distributed at the April board meeting, only $3,779 had been contributed to the fund in the first three months of 2004.

Also at the April 13 meeting, reporters representing Word & Way–which had been the official MBC newspaper for more than 100 years before it removed itself from convention control–were ejected from a second Executive Board meeting.

At a previous meeting, convention President David Tolliver excluded Word & Way from covering the open meeting, citing the fact that the paper and the convention were involved in litigation.

By the April 13 meeting, the convention's lawsuit had been dismissed and the convention had not yet filed its appeal.

According to Word & Way Editor Bill Webb, that meant, in his determination, that Tolliver's rule no longer applied.

Webb agreed to leave under protest.

Robert Cox, chairman of the newspaper's board, later sent a letter of complaint to convention officers.

“It would seem your rationale for exclusion was without merit for this meeting,” Cox wrote.

Cox also noted the Word & Way staffers are members of Missouri Baptist Convention churches and thus should never have been excluded from otherwise open Executive Board sessions.

“The governing documents of the Missouri Baptist Convention assure that Executive Board meetings are open to any Missouri Baptist who wishes to attend,” he wrote.

“If for no other reason than this, the Word & Way staff should be entitled to be present.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




Multicultural retreat_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

Multicultural retreat

Kate Leong of Southwest Chinese Baptist Church in Stafford and Delbert and Mary Lou Serratt of First Baptist Church in Amarillo enjoy a lighthearted moment while making pottery during the Baptist General Convention of Texas Multicultural Retreat. About 50 church leaders representing 10 cultures attended the event, where they discussed techniques for handling conflict within congregations and enjoyed times of fellowship and recreation.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.




New Orleans Seminary leaves sole member vote to SBC messengers_50304

Posted: 5/03/04

New Orleans Seminary leaves sole
member vote to SBC messengers

By Lacy Thompson & Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

NEW ORLEANS (ABP)–New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary trustees will leave up to Southern Baptist Convention messengers a final decision on how best to tie the institution to the denominational body–but in the process may have only deepened their dispute with the SBC's Executive Committee.

At their April meeting, the seminary's trustees approved a motion to present to convention messengers during the SBC's 2005 annual meeting two alternatives on how best to assert the convention's ownership of the seminary.

Trustees will ask messengers to decide between making the denomination the “sole member” of the institution's corporation or asserting the convention's ownership through another yet-to-be-determined legal means.

Trustees approved the motion by a 33-to-6 vote after a lengthy and often lively discussion in which several seminary leaders raised concerns about the Executive Committee's handling of the case.

It has been an issue since 1997, when the SBC's North American Mission Board became the first denominational institution to amend its legal charter to declare the SBC its sole member. SBC leaders and the Executive Committee have encouraged other denominational entities to make the same move. Their motivation has been to ensure that no entity could follow the lead of some state-convention-related institutions and choose to leave the control of the convention.

SBC leaders also have cited concerns with limiting the spread of liability to other entities if one institution or the denomination is sued.

The sole member approach makes the Southern Baptist Convention the single controlling legal member of an entity. So far, all convention entities have agreed to the sole membership structure except New Orleans Seminary.

Last fall, after extensive study, the school's trustees declined to adopt the sole membership model, citing legal and Baptist polity concerns.

Seminary leaders have argued sole membership could be used by the Executive Committee to exert undue authority over the seminary, violating historic Southern Baptist polity. Seminary leaders also have said adopting a sole membership clause would present special problems in Louisiana because of that state's unique system of state law, which has its origins in Napoleonic code rather than in English common law.

Attorneys for the seminary have said that such an arrangement under Louisiana law would give the denomination total control over the seminary, increasing its exposure to liability in lawsuits against the institution.

However, even in rejecting sole membership last fall, seminary trustees indicated their intent to find an acceptable alternative–one that would offer the same protections sought by convention leaders.

During the Executive Committee's February meeting, seminary President Chuck Kelley and committee members presented competing cases on the issue. Following discussion, committee members voted to request seminary trustees to amend the school's charter and adopt sole membership.

At the seminary trustee meeting, Kelley offered trustees a chance to “lament” and voice whatever frustrations they felt about the ongoing process.

Kelley acknowledged he was disappointed by it. He noted that seminary leaders previously had been assured their decision on the issue would be accepted no matter what, only to find that was not the case when the decision they reached was not the one the Executive Committee desired.

Kelley also said he did not find the seminary's appearance at the recent Executive Committee meeting to be “an entirely pleasant experience.”

However, he assured trustees he has a “very settled peace” in his heart about the way the seminary has handled the issue.

Trustee Chair Tommy French of Baton Rouge agreed the seminary “picked up a lot of heat” at the Executive Committee meeting and that he and Kelley were spoken to “very plainly” by committee leaders.

However, French said he is determined not to be adversarial. “Let us not, as a board, develop friction between us and the Executive Committee. They have one opinion, and we have another opinion,” French said.

“Let us do our work (and) let them do their work–and then the Southern Baptist Convention will settle the matter,” French continued. “And we'll still be friends, and we'll still work together for the kingdom of God and for this institution and for our great denomination.”

Trustee Don Taylor of Alameda, Calif., said he has been unable to get answers to questions directed to the Executive Committee. He said he came to the trustee meeting with a “heavy heart,” unable to support adoption of sole membership.

Kelley presented the board with several options for responding to the Executive Committee's ultimatum. He warned that delaying a decision until the SBC's 2005 meeting could expose the seminary to further attack on the issue. He said the school would have to spend the time educating Southern Baptists on the issue.

Kelley and some trustees noted that presenting the issue to convention messengers at their 2004 meeting–only two months away–would leave little time for educating them on the issues at stake. Historically, SBC messengers have almost always voted in favor of Executive Committee recommendations.

Kelley maintained the committee has violated convention bylaws by seeking to dictate a timetable for the seminary to act.

“My conscience tells me what is right is to give the Southern Baptist Convention an alternative to sole membership that accomplishes the same thing.” Kelley said. “I would love to do the very best alternative and to be able to get it evaluated, looked up one side and down the other.”

French agreed, urging seminary trustees to listen to Louisiana attorneys, none of whom have agreed with the Executive Committee's stance so far. Characterizing the school as a “seminary of innovation,” French suggested trustees could move in a direction that “could save us a lot of headache down the road.”

Taylor then proposed the motion that ultimately passed–that trustees set a deadline of resolving the issue by 2005. At that point, the seminary would “put two alternatives before the SBC, pre-approved by the board, and ask the convention to choose which it prefers,” Taylor noted. “Whichever one the convention (chooses) would be enacted immediately without further action by the board.”

Another trustee questioned if a misinformation campaign is likely regarding whatever alternative is developed.

Kelley said that was possible. He emphasized that it will fall to the seminary to make clear that sole membership “will be an option” and to publicize the alternative as well.

He also suggested that by setting a deadline and guaranteeing the convention a chance to vote on sole membership or an alternative, it will be difficult for people to say the seminary is trying to avoid the issue.

“They can try to put a negative spin on it,” he said. “They can say all kinds of things. But we are just going to make it plain and clear.”

Another trustee asked if the seminary simply was delaying the inevitable, since Executive Committee leaders have made it clear sole membership is the option they want. One trustee even said SBC President Jack Graham had suggested to him the convention could vote to remove the trustees en masse and replace them with a slate more open to giving the SBC sole membership.

That could be, Kelley said. “But we might convince them” (otherwise), he added. “We don't know because we haven't been able to get all the way through (the process). … That's my biggest frustration.”

Kelley also reminded trustees that the seminary must communicate its intentions clearly. “This is a good-faith effort,” he said. “We're not trying to sandbag anybody.”

Trustees also discussed Kelley's view that sole membership could give the Executive Committee too much control.

It is a step in the direction of allowing the committee to shut off a grassroots movement such as the conservative group that captured the SBC's leadership during the 1980s and 1990s, Kelley argued. “Whoever's at the top will have a much easier means of staying at the top … and shutting off a conservative resurgence,” he emphasized.

“My fear is that if it's me or somebody else at the top and something starts bubbling up from the grassroots, this could be used to stop it,” Kelley warned. (This) “makes whoever is at the top harder to dislodge.”

Executive Committee President Morris Chapman released a statement expressing strong dismay at the “spirit” of the seminary's trustee meeting.

“The unwarranted and unjustified characterizations that cast aspersions upon the integrity and credibility of the SBC Executive Committee is a sad day for Southern Baptists, one of the saddest since I have been at the Executive Committee,” he said, in a communication carried by the SBC Executive Committee's Baptist Press. “I am grieved for Southern Baptists and the Executive Committee and earnestly pray there will be no escalation of the spirit of confrontation evident in the New Orleans seminary trustee meeting.”

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