Posted: 11/21/05

Family Bible Series for Dec. 4

Manger and Mission: Why Care?

• Jonah 4:1-11

By Donald Raney

Westlake Chapel, Graham

How big is your world? While we all know that the world is getting smaller thanks to technology, many individuals and churches seem to live in a world that does not extend much beyond their immediate area. They spend all of their time and resources on the local congregation and community, perhaps occasionally sending money to national or international mission causes. Yet while we should never neglect touching those closest to us, God has also called all believers to be actively participating in reaching all nations and peoples with the Gospel. Apart from the book of Acts, there is perhaps no better portrait of God’s heart for missions in the Bible than that in the book of Jonah. One might even think of Jonah as God’s first foreign missionary. In these four short chapters we see not only God’s heart for missions, but also the reason and motivation for each believer’s involvement in missions.

Jonah 4:1-3

The story of Jonah as recorded in the first three chapters of the book is well-known. God called a man named Jonah to be a messenger. Specifically God called him to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and preach against the sin in the city. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh and decided to run away from God and His calling by going to Tarshish. During the voyage, God sent a storm that threatened the ship and all on board. In an attempt to appease God, the crew threw Jonah into the sea where he was swallowed by a great fish. For three days Jonah cried out to God for help. He confessed his sin of disobedience to God. God responded by rescuing Jonah from the fish and renewing His call for Jonah to go to Nineveh. This time Jonah went to Nineveh and proclaimed God’s message of judgment on the city. The people accepted the message and repented of their sins. The king declared that all citizens should fast and wear sackcloth as a sign of repentance and mourning over their sin. God heard their cries and spared the city of the destruction He had planned for them.

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Jonah, however, became very upset with God. He did not think that God should spare the lives of the Assyrians. After all, they were enemies of Israel. They had invaded and attacked God’s chosen people several times. They did not deserve mercy. Jonah states that, in fact, this was exactly why he had avoided going initially. He knew that God was above all else merciful and compassionate. He knew that if the Assyrians repented of their sin, God would forgive and spare them. For Jonah, this was simply not fair. This so upset Jonah, that he calls on God to kill him because he would rather die than live in a world where the Assyrians are shown mercy.

Jonah 4:4-8

Although he was angry that God had spared the city, Jonah may have felt that their repentance was either insincere or would be short-lived. According to verse 5, Jonah went to the top of a hill to the east of the city and sat down to see what might happen to the city. Was Jonah hoping that God may yet decide to destroy the city? If so, he apparently wanted to have a good seat to watch it happen. He built himself a small shelter and sat down under it. God decided to teach Jonah a lesson. He caused a plant to grow which added shade to Jonah’s shelter and kept Jonah out of the heat. Jonah was very grateful for the unexpected blessing. Jonah may have even felt that this was a sign of God’s favor upon him. Yet God next sent a worm which destroyed the plant. God then intensified the heat and wind which Jonah felt to the point that Jonah began to feel faint. Again Jonah became very upset with God. His comfort had been taken away and he again thought that death would be preferable to continuing to live in this condition.

Jonah 4:9-11

God confronts Jonah concerning his anger. God points out that Jonah is angry over the death of a plant which he did not plant or nurture, but which had been a blessing freely given to him. If Jonah had taken such pity on the plant, why should not God take pity on a city of 120,000 people? Why did Jonah not feel such pity for the city? God’s ways may at times seem strange to us. Often that is because God is above all merciful and compassionate to all people equally, while this is contrary to our own fallen human perspective. We indeed want God to show mercy and compassion, but only on those whom we would do likewise for. Notice that this book ends with a question. Neither God nor Jonah provides an answer. The writer wants the reader to be left contemplating how they would answer the question. How does your answer stand in relation to the compassion and mercy which God calls us to show to all peoples of the world in taking the good news of God’s love to them?

Discussion questions

• What are you doing to actively participate in spreading the Gospel to the world?

• Putting yourself in Jonah’s place, who would be the “Assyrians” that you would not wish to go to with God’s message?

• What is your answer to the final question in the book of Jonah?

Posted: 11/21/05

Explore the Bible Series for Dec. 4

Need for Mercy

• Romans 9:1-6,14-24

By Trey Turner

Canyon Creek Baptist Church, Temple

Sometimes it would be great to get ‘this patience thing’ finally worked out. Most of the people this minister knows are impatient. That would include the he himself. The clock is always ticking, there are too many things to do to be patient. Sometimes the prayer is, “Lord, help me not get behind this week so that I can keep up next week.” After some defeats November 8th, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his supporters how he is expecting too much too soon in California politics. The unsigned little rhyme says:

Patience is a virtue,

Possess it if you can.

Found seldom in a woman,

Never in a man.

Patience may be a virtue, but impatience drives the American psyche, not to mention its economy.

What if God was intolerant with Christians’ impatience? Maybe he is, after all a part of Christian fruitfulness is ‘patience.” Christians are much more accepting of impatience than other Christian failures. Why does it get a free pass? Does it give the illusion of seriousness— people who are ready for business?

The earliest Gentile Christians were at various stages of frustration with the Jewish Christians and vice versa. Ironically, while personally taking an offering from the Gentile Christians to the Christians who live in Jerusalem, Paul takes the occasion in his letter to the Romans to talk about God’s patience with all people. Today it seems Christians try to have patience with people who are not Christian. They will try to have patience with ignorance, but that patience comes in small quantities and only in short-lived bursts. Some may ask about a person who commits the same crime multiple times, “Why does God allow him to live?” Or if a person has had multiple opportunities to respond to the gospel but does not, “He does not deserve another chance.” But, God’s longsuffering is perplexing. It is also an example which calls believers to patience.

Reflect God’s Concern (Romans 9:1-5)

Paul lets the believers in Rome inside his thinking about the Jewish people. He could be frustrated with his people, after having been rejected and the attempted murders on his life. His expression of belief shows his great emotions for them as well. Paul loves the Jewish people. He has great compassion on them, going so far as to say that he wishes he could somehow take their blinders off so they could see his Lord, Jesus Christ. As it stands, they only have a great heritage. It seems their advantage of having received the covenants, the temple, the law have not served to make receiving Christ easier, but harder.

This is to Paul’s credit. The Lord’s compassion toward his people beats now within Paul’s chest. Paul reflects God’s concern for them too.

Remember God’s Mercy (Romans 9:6, 14-18)

The reason for Paul’s concern is nothing less that the hope he sees in scripture. Israel’s history demonstrates God’s patience. God’s word reflects it too. God is sovereign. He will decide when to close the book on each person. Paul sees God’s mercy toward his people and is content to wait in eager expectation for God’s plan to be fulfilled. These same Jews who are rejecting the message of Christ now, will find their ultimate purpose in Jesus Christ making them “true Israel” (6) Paul holds out expectation that God will complete his people as they receive Christ. Paul helps his readers to remember God’s mercy.

Recognize God’s Patience (Romans 9:19-24)

Paul anticipates that when he says “he [God] hardens” their hearts (18) there are those who say, “Aha!” God hardens people hearts, then who can blame them when they reject God? God’s sovereignty does not do away with human responsibility. Paul answers this question with four of his own questions. (1) Who has the right to question God? (2) Who can ask, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ (3) Who can ask, ‘Why are you doing this with me?’ (4) What if he did this to make himself known to others too? God does not use his sovereignty for judgment, but demonstrates his love and patience with people. If God’s purpose for hardening Jewish hearts is to allow time for Gentiles all over this world to receive Christ, then he has demonstrated his patience. He could have judged Jewish unbelief, but he chooses instead to show mercy and salvation to Gentiles and Jews. Paul helps his hearers to anticipate the result of his plan through his patience. That is Paul’s hope, it is biblical hope, watching God’s plan unfold in an awe inspiring future of fulfillment.

Christians show patient expectation in hope of God’s continued work—without pronouncing judgment that God is finished with people. Jonah saw that God had a plan for Nineveh; he wrote the people of Nineveh off before God was done with them. People show they are children of God when they believe with hope and love people expectantly.

Discussion questions

• Describe God’s patience with you. Does your patience look similar? How do you show mercy while holding convictions?

• What is difficult about letting God have his time with people who are not living toward God’s standards?

• What are some possible ways to respond to them? What do you pray while responding to them?

Posted: 11/18/05

Texas Baptist Men involved in 'God's activity'

By Emily Row

AUSTIN–God has placed Texas Baptist Men squarely in the middle of his activity in the world, TBM Executive Director Leo Smith told a rally prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Volunteers at the Nov. 13 event shared stories of ministering around the globe through TBM, focusing particularly on encounters with the victims of hurricanes Emily, Katrina, Rita and Stan. The vast needs spread disaster relief teams thin, leaders said.

When the need for more help became apparent, Tommy Dulin of First Baptist Church in Harlingen built a new unit to serve the influx of people coming to San Antonio. In less than 72 hours, a kitchen was serving 22,000 meals a day.

TBM volunteers also served members of the Mexican Army who came to assist in San Antonio. About 60 members of the army accepted Christ while serving in San Antonio, missions leaders reported.

Texas Baptists provided disaster relief in Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. In all, TBM volunteers served more than 2 million meals in 2005 through their disaster relief ministry.

Rally testimonies went beyond hurricane victims and disaster relief. Bill Pigott of Livingston reported TBM Retiree Builders completed 68 building projects this year.

Retiree Builders consider their projects a beginning place for God's work to continue after they leave a construction site, he said, adding that certainly is the case at My Father's House in Lubbock.

One resident of My Father's House–a residential job-training program for low-income women–said in a video testimony. “I didn't know that there was a God who cared about me. I didn't know that there are people who could love me unconditionally. … My goal is to show other women that God has a plan for them.”

Posted: 11/18/05

WMU board cancels Texas Leadership Conference

By Teresa Young

AUSTIN–After more than a half-century, Woman's Missionary Union of Texas has held its last annual statewide Texas Leadership Conference in Waco.

The Texas WMU board of directors voted Nov. 12 to cancel the conference–originally known as the WMU House Party at Baylor University–along with the WMU Associational Summit for 2006 and 2007 in favor of conducting regional training events around the state.

WMU staff members recommended the change to the board. WMU Executive Director-Treasurer Carolyn Porterfield reported the annual events meant to reach mission leaders across the state simply had ceased being effective.

“In 2004, 188 churches attended TLC, which was 7.8 percent of the churches reporting WMU,” Porterfield said. “In 2005, 202 churches attended, which is 8.4 percent.”

Porterfield said missions leaders cited distance and cost as two deterrents to attendance. Texas WMU staff feel shifting leadership efforts to the regional level would alleviate both factors significantly.

The board also cancelled IMPACT, an Acteens training event, moving that effort to the regional level as well. Traditionally held during spring break each year, Porterfield said attendance at the event has been waning due to other activities at that time.

She emphasized state staff will provide resources for the planning teams, including personnel help, planning checklists and promotional templates. Porterfield distributed a sheet showing a logo created for the new leadership training events, called “Awakening.”

The decisions were made as WMU leaders focused heavily on the future of the organization on the state and national levels. Kaye Miller, national WMU president, shared five basic goals the national vision team has set, with each state vision team charged with applying those to their own needs.

WMU should pursue relationships and partnerships with other Christians to create diverse communities; provide missions experiences for churches that are intergenerational and relevant; communicate through cutting edge methods and technology; produce premiere resources to reach varied audiences; and be financially sound at all levels, Miller said.

“We want people, when they think missions, to think WMU,” Miller said. “It's so exciting to think about implementing these things. God is going to work through WMU like we haven't seen in a long time.”

Texas WMU President Nelda Taylor-Thiede also spoke of the future of the organization, expressing her excitement at what the state vision team will do when it begins to meet.

“God has brought the mission field to our doorstep. We are accepting the call to do missions in new ways,” Taylor-Thiede said.

“WMU of Texas is about educating, equipping and empowering. The next mile ahead is filled with challenges and the unknown, but I anticipate joy in seeing what God has for us.”

In other business, the board approved two new members filling the unexpired terms of others–Barbara Helms of Clarendon and Anna Zimmer of Kingwood­ and pay increases for the state staff.

Porterfield reported several opportunities the state WMU staff had to make a difference in the lives of others, most notably in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The organization helped connect evacuees with vacant missionary houses in the state and made a monetary donation to the Louisiana WMU.

She also shared about a missions opportunity to impoverished Moldova. Money from Texas WMU assisted a team from the Baylor University social work program to visit the eastern European nation and study the possibility of a partnership there.

The state office also discovered an agency that provided $10,000 to build transitional housing hoping to prevent young women in Moldova from entering the sex trade. Plans already are underway to send a team of WMU leaders there in November 2006.

“What we do really makes a difference,” Porterfield said. “But our first loyalty is not to WMU. Our first loyalty is to Jesus Christ, and if we're not committed to him, our work will fail.”

Posted: 11/18/05

BGCT officer elections
reflect convention's diversity

By Miranda Bradley

AUSTIN–The Baptist General Convention of Texas elected Michael Bell, pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, as president–the first African-Amer-ican to hold the position.

Bell defeated Rick Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brownwood, 1,278-310 in a ballot vote. Annual meeting messengers responded to the result with a round of applause.

Bell moved into the position after serving as BGCT first vice president for the past year.

David Currie of San Angelo, executive director of Texas Baptists Committed, nominated Bell. He praised Bell's credentials and encouraged voters to make a historical decision by electing the first African-American BGCT president.

“Electing Michael Bell would send a message around the state and throughout the nation that Texas Baptists are inclusive,” Currie said. “Make history today and elect my good friend Michael Bell as president.”

David Montoya, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Mineral Wells, nominated Davis, saying Texas Baptists deserve choices.

“We can once again come together and have a choice of leadership,” he said to the crowd gathered at the Austin Convention Center.

Prior to the election, both Montoya and Davis said the move was not racially motivated and they respect Bell.

Steve Vernon, pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland, was elected BGCT first vice president by acclamation, and Dan Wooldridge, pastor of Crestview Baptist Church in Georgetown, was elected BGCT second vice president by general consent.

Other officers elected in Austin were David Nabors of Duncanville as recording secretary, Mark Cook of Fort Worth as registration secretary and Bernie Spooner of Coppell as secretary of the corporation.

Posted: 11/18/05

BGCT approves sweeping
change in governance structure

By Teresa Young

AUSTIN–Messengers to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting overwhelmingly approved a revised constitution and set of bylaws that streamline its governance structure and make the convention's Executive Board more directly involved in the decision-making process.

The decisions set in motion “the most sweeping changes in BGCT governance since 1959,” said Wesley Shotwell, pastor of Ash Creek Baptist Church in Azle and chair of the Executive Board's Governance Commit-tee.

The previous constitution provided for an Executive Board of 230 members, making governance difficult, he said. The structure also created “a disconnect” between the Executive Board and the committees that did much of the convention work.

“The problem with this is that legally, the Executive Board is responsible for all the decisions that are made, and none of our 230 members now have a part in shaping those decisions,” Shotwell said. “There is also a lack of accountability.”

The approved new constitution will restructure the board as a 90-member entity composed of three people each from 30 different sectors across the state, based on county lines and determined by a formula of resident church membership, number of churches and amount of Cooperative Program giving.

The revised bylaws combine what were two individual sets of bylaws and essentially provide greater detail for the formation of the Executive Board. At least 30 percent of the board membership will be non-Anglo, which Shotwell said “represents an intentional strategy of diversity in the convention governance.”

In addition, Shotwell said, the board will reflect gender diversity as well, with purposeful inclusion of women in the group.

The board will meet three times a year, with the BGCT assuming travel expenses, a move Shotwell said will help members from smaller churches with limited budgets.

The 90 members will be assigned to serve on various committees, including the executive committee, the church missions and ministries committee, the institutional relations committee, the administrative support committee and the audit committee.

The revised governing document dissolves the Christian Education Coordinating Board and the Human Welfare Coordinating Board, with their duties falling under the institutional relations committee of the board.

The board is expected to transition to 90 members in less than two years, since current board members cannot be asked to resign or be “fired” under Texas nonprofit law.

Shotwell noted several Executive Board members declared their intent to resign if the constitution passed, but some had elected to complete their terms.

Posted: 11/18/05

Rogers kept SBC's steering
wheel turned to the right

By Bob Allen

EthicsDaily.com

MEMPHIS, Tenn.–Three-time Southern Baptist Conven-tion President Adrian Rogers, whose 1979 election sparked a revolutionary leadership change in America's largest Protestant denomination, died Nov. 15.

Rogers, 74, suffered from colon cancer and pneumonia.

Rogers was the first of a string of SBC presidents elected in what supporters called the “conservative resurgence” and hailed as a return to the denomination's historical, conservative roots.

Progressive and mainstream Baptists described a fundamentalist takeover, marked by a decade of character assassination and political dirty tricks.

In a 1979 sermon, Rogers outlined an ideal of all Southern Baptist churches as having a pastor “who believes in the inerrant, infallible word of God.” He cited an appeal to cast out the “liberal rattlesnakes and termites” in the convention.

Rogers' SBC election set up a string of presidential wins by fundamentalist pulpiteers, who for 15 years energized the conservative movement with sermons defending the Bible as “inerrant”–meaning literally true in every word–and denouncing those who disagreed as “liberals.”

In their 1999 book, In the Name of the Father, Carl Kell and Raymond Camp, both communications professors and lifelong Baptists, said moderates failed to come up with a counter-rhetoric to the theme of an “error-free” Bible trumpeted by charismatic SBC presidents such as Rogers, Bailey Smith and Jerry Vines.

“From a rhetorical perspective, the victory of the battle was won on national rostrums in the sermons of the presidents,” they wrote. “For 15 years, the leaders of the Southern Baptist Conven-tion produced the finest defense of pulpit sermons on a single theme that had ever been seen or heard in the 150-year history of the denomination.”

In 1980, Rogers set the tone for future leaders in the first president's address of the inerrantist movement. In a sermon titled “The Decade of Decision and the Doors of Destiny,” Rogers quoted Bible verses describing Scripture as the word of God, God-breathed, God-given, eternal and, therefore, perfect.

“So, when we speak of the Bible as 'truth, without any mixture of error' (from the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message) we are referring to the original manuscripts,” he said. “The Holy Spirit guarded the original writers from error.”

Rogers' rhetoric went far beyond the spotlight of the annual convention, however.

He once told ministers in a discussion of academic freedom that professors at Southern Baptist seminaries should be required to teach “whatever they are told to teach. And if we tell them to teach that pickles have souls, then they must teach that pickles have souls.”

Rogers made his voice heard on the SBC Peace Committee, appointed in 1985 to determine the sources and solutions to the SBC controversy. Among findings reported to the convention in 1987 was that most Southern Baptists believed Adam and Eve were real people, that the books of the Bible were written by the authors they are attributed to, that miracles described in Scripture actually occurred and that history in the Bible is accurate and reliable.

“We call upon Southern Baptist institutions to recognize the great number of Southern Baptists who believe this interpretation of our confessional statement and, in the future, to build their professional staffs and faculties from those who clearly reflect such dominant convictions and beliefs held by Southern Baptists at large,” the committee recommended.

Rogers chaired another committee charged with revising the Baptist Faith & Message in 2000. Revisions included altering a statement from the 1963 version on Scripture that read, “The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted in Jesus Christ” and adding a sentence on the church that says, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

In addition to shifting SBC theology, Rogers' presidency also started a trend toward political alliances with the far right.

During a visit to the White House in 1979, Rogers told President Jimmy Carter, a lifelong Baptist whose 1976 campaign introduced the term “born again” into America's political lexicon, “Mr. President, I hope you will give up your secular humanism and return back to Christianity.”

Rogers stressed a pastor's duty is to influence his church members' political decisions, but it can be done without endorsing a specific candidate, which under IRS regulations a church cannot do without losing its tax-exempt status. If a pastor “has done his job,” Rogers wrote, “his members will prayerfully and correctly use the standard of God's word to select the right candidate.”

Rogers opposed the rise of Calvinism, which has been embraced by a number of younger SBC leaders. He argued the Bible says nothing about God picking only a selected few to go to heaven while willing for the rest of the world to perish.

A native of Florida, Rogers was pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in the Memphis, Tenn., area from 1972 until March 2005. During his tenure, membership grew from 9,000 to 29,000, and the church relocated to the suburbs.

Posted: 11/18/05

Texas WMU celebrates
125 years of missions service

By Teresa Young

AUSTIN ­ Woman's Missionary Union of Texas celebrated the mission organization's 125th anniversary with a program weaving history and service.

The program relayed much of Texas WMU history through dramatic vignettes presented by Janna Walker and her daughter, Caroline, of First Baptist Church in New Braunfels.

While looking through an attic trunk of family heirlooms, the pair shared WMU's history, from the organization's founding in October 1880 by Fannie Breedlove Davis to the present-day leadership.

Between historical vignettes, speakers described missions experiences. Minette Drumwright Pratt of Fort Worth told about helping to organize an international prayerwalking venture in 1994.

David and Laurel Fort, missionaries to West Africa, spoke about their work ministering to and encouraging other missionaries in their region.

“We have the privilege of visiting with families and seeing what God is doing,” said David Fort. “God is at work in the spiritual darkness of West Africa, and the light continues to shine.”

Charlotte Watson, minister of missions at First Baptist Church in Georgetown, shared a testimony about partnerships missions.

“Being missions-minded isn't enough today,” she said. “The challenge is being missions engaged and sending people to the frontlines of mission work.”

Lupe Koch of Fort Worth, president of the Texas Baptist Nursing Fellowship, described her recent experiences ministering to evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, working in San Antonio's First Baptist Church on a triage team. She spoke about the blessing of using her vocation to serve God and encouraged other nurses to get involved.

“Continue to share your light, so Christ can be seen in you,” Koch said.

Karen Hatley of Lorena, a board member for WorldconneX, spoke about how the information age is making missions easier for many. Connections to missionaries are available through e-mail and cellular phones, and solar-powered DVD players are available for showing gospel films in remote locations.

Texas WMU President Nelda Taylor-Thiede concluded the program with her vision for the organization, which she summarized as the “three stars” of prayer, preparation and people.

“WMU has been about relationships, and that is more important now than ever,” she said. “Go out and let your light shine for him.”

Posted: 11/18/05

Historic Texas Baptist church
'still alive and growing,' pastor reports

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

AUSTIN–Texas' oldest continuously active missionary Baptist church is “still alive and growing,” Butch Strickland told the Texas Baptist Historical Society.

Strickland, pastor of Independence Baptist Church, near Brenham, and curator of the Texas Baptist Historical Center Museum, presented a brief history of his church to the historical society's gathering prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Founded Aug. 31, 1839, Independence Baptist Church met in brush arbors and homes initially. Its first building–built in 1853–burned in 1872.

Among the items rescued from the fire was the pew occupied by its most famous member–Sam Houston, hero of the battle of San Jacinto and president of the Republic of Texas. Pastor Rufus Burleson baptized Houston in Little Rocky Creek, two miles south of the church, on Nov. 19, 1854.

Other Texas Baptist notables on the membership rolls of Independence Baptist Church include: George Washington Baines, Lyndon Johnson's great-grandfather; Henry McArdle, an art professor at Baylor University who painted pictures of the battle of the Alamo and battle of San Jacinto that hang in the state capitol; Fannie Breedlove Davis, president of the first consolidated women's missions group in Texas; and Anne Luther Bagby, pioneering Texas Baptist missionary to Brazil.

The early history of Independence Baptist Church became intertwined with the history of Baylor University and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Strickland noted. Both schools trace their beginnings to a charter granted by the Republic of Texas to Baylor at Independence.

Baylor's first president, Henry Lea Graves, was the first of Baylor's presidents to serve as the church's pastor.

An early pastor at the church, T.W. Cox, was instrumental in founding Union Baptist Association, the first association of churches in Texas. Cox later became a follower of Alexander Campbell's movement–which birthed the Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ denominations–and was ousted from Baptist life in 1841.

Independence Baptist Church “has stood against doctrine untrue to our biblical heritage and stood up for those who would proclaim the truth,” Strickland said. “It has stood against anti-missionary movements and even sent from its walls missionaries all over Texas, the United States and even to foreign fields.”

When railroads and major highways bypassed Independence, the community–and the church–dwindled. But in recent years, as city-dwellers have relocated to the rural area near Independence, the church has experienced a resurgence.

In the near future, Strickland reported, the church will relocate across the road from its historic location, and the Texas Baptist museum will occupy the entirety of the old church building.

Independence Baptist Church “has endured periods of heartbreaking decline and enjoyed the blessings of God in church growth,” he said.

The Texas Baptist Historical Society honored two authors with church history writing awards–Billye Freeman Pratt for Spreading the Light: First Baptist Church Kingsville, Texas 1904-2004 in the category of churches with resident membership 500 to 1,000 and Ron Ellison for Calvary Baptist Church Beaumont, Texas: A Centennial History 1904-2004 in the category of churches with membership greater than 1,000.

During its business meeting, The Historical Society elected President Van Christian of Comanche, Vice President Ellen Brown of Waco and Secretary-Treasurer Alan Lefever of Dallas. Emily Row of San Angelo and Mark Bumpus of Mineral Wells were elected to the society's executive committee.

Posted: 11/18/05

Ministers, layman honored at banquet

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

AUSTIN–A retired children's home administrator, a dentist involved in missions construction and a bivocational pastor committed to helping immigrants gain legal status in the United States received Texas Baptist Ministry Awards at a banquet held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

The Baptist Standard and Baylor University presented the awards to Jack Green, former president of South Texas Children's Home in Beeville; Butch Peters, a layman from University Baptist Church in Houston; and Alejandro Camacho, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Cristiana in McKinney. Honorees received their awards at a banquet sponsored by Baylor's Truett Theological Seminary.

Green, who served a quarter-century at South Texas Children's Home and 55 years in Christian ministry, received the Winfred Moore Award for lifetime ministry achievement.

Green served student pastorates at Hay Valley Baptist Church in Gatesville and Walnut Springs Baptist Church in Walnut Springs while he attended Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theolog-ical Seminary. After he completed his seminary studies, he accepted the pastorate of Baptist Temple in Uvalde and later became founding pastor of Shearer Hills Baptist Church in San Antonio.

In 1973, trustees of South Texas Children's Home in Beeville invited Green to become president and chief executive officer of their agency. During his tenure, the children's home's endowment grew from $1 million to more than $19 million. Under his direction, the Beeville-based agency grew into a multi-service organization that includes a second child-care program in Goliad and both emergency care and a family ministry centers in Corpus Christi.

Throughout his tenure at the children's home, Green served 27 churches as interim pastor and many others as a revival preacher. He also helped found Parkway Baptist Church in Victoria.

Peters, a dentist from Houston, received the Mary Mathis Award for lay ministry.

He first led a group of volunteer carpenters on a mission trip in 1980, the year he was baptized at University Baptist Church. For the decade that followed, he led a crew that worked on churches from Mexico to South Dakota and from Kentucky to Utah.

Along the way, he encountered Andrew Begaye, a Southern Baptist missionary to Native Americans, who shared his idea of building churches across the Navajo nation. Peters caught his vision, and over the next 16 years, he led a crew to build one church every year in some part of the reservation. The trips grew to include not only builders but also volunteers who conducted Vacation Bible Schools and sports evangelism camps. In 2004, about 300 volunteers from nine churches built two churches, and 31 people were baptized at the dedication services of those churches.

In the future, Peters plans to expand the volunteer building ministry to help small churches in Texas and surrounding states.

Camacho, a McKinney pastor, received the George W. Truett Award for ministerial excellence. As director of Immigration Services, a nonprofit organization accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals, he helps guide immigrants through the complex process of becoming a documented worker or United States citizen.

A native of Mexico, Camacho arrived in Texas and came to faith in Christ in 1972. Eight years later, he felt God's call into Christian ministry. He became a United States citizen in 1992 and began studies that led to his authorization to represent immigrants.

Camacho is the only Baptist minister in Texas accredited by the Department of Justice to practice immigration law in federal immigration courts. He provides free counsel to about 300 people each year who need help with immigration law. He also has helped lead conferences on immigration around the state, raising awareness about the needs of immigrants and the role churches can play in ministering to them.

In addition to devoting time to help undocumented immigrants become legal residents in the United States, Camacho also has served his denomination as an officer of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and as president of the Collin County Hispanic Baptist Fellowship.

Also at the dinner, the Truett Alumni Association presented Kyle Reese, pastor of First Baptist Church in San Angelo, its distinguished alumnus award.

Posted: 11/18/05

Varied evangelism methods
can be effective, Shuffield says

By Emily Row

AUSTIN–When he was 8 years old, Wayne Shuffield thought becoming a Christian was all about going to heaven. He was ready for Christ to welcome him into heaven at that very moment. Only later did he realize that God leaves people on earth to help bring others to know Christ.

Shuffield, director of the missions, evangelism and ministry team of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, believes God creates divine appointments for Christians to share their faith with non-Christians.

In an overly scheduled, busy world, Christians can miss those divine appointments if they are not sensitive and ready to share, Shuffield told participants at a seminar held during the BGCT annual meeting.

“Our problem as Baptists is not knowing what to say or how to share Christ,” he said. “It's a listening problem. We are not ready to share or are not listening for opportunities.”

But many people become uncomfortable at the mention of evangelism, Shuffield continued. They think that it means door-to-door evangelism. For some Christians, this is a very natural way to share the message of Christ. Others find this prospect very uncomfortable, he noted.

Shuffield described six other ways to share Christ for people uncomfortable with this approach.

The first alternative is an intellectual approach, he said. The intellectual evangelist is prepared to talk to individuals of other faiths. Shuffield reasoned that this approach can be effective with others who have strong spiritual beliefs or with college students who are comfortable with intellectual arguments.

Other people may feel more comfortable with the style represented by the woman at the well, Shuffield said. The Samaritan woman simply told her story. She provided a testimony of the way Christ had touched her life.

The third type of evangelism Shuffield suggested is “storying.” Through telling both personal stories and Bible stories, Christians may have the opportunity to share the reality of Christ.

Relationship-building provides a fourth avenue for sharing Christ. Relational evangelism grows in the atmosphere of close relationships with friends and family members. In the context of those relationships, Christians have opportunities to share Christ.

The last two evangelism techniques Shuffield shared are inviting non-Christians to participate in an experience where they will be exposed to the gospel and ministering to other people in Christ's name to open doors for sharing Christ.

Posted: 11/18/05

Worship should unify,
not divide, educator insists

By Craig Bird

AUSTIN–The one thing that should be the most unifying feature of congregational life–worship–often becomes the most divisive element, because churches ask the wrong questions, an East Texas educator told participants at a seminar held during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Thomas Webster, dean of the school of fine arts at East Texas Baptist University, led a session on how to develop creative worship.

“You will never hear me say a particular style of worship is good or bad, because worship is not about style or the elements in the service,” he said.

“I know of contemporary services that work great at one church, but the same elements in another church totally fail, and the same is true of traditional or blended or any other style.”

When things go wrong, churches tend to focus on the elements of the service instead of determining the purpose of worship and the priorities of worship for a particular congregation, Webster said. Only when those issues are settled should anyone pay attention to the practices of worship, he insisted.

“We only get our people together for corporate worship for a very short time, maybe just an hour a week,” he pointed out. “So that time needs to do what God wants it to do. Worshipping together is intended to be the single most unifying thing we do, not something we fight over.”

The purpose of worship “is closely related to the purpose of life itself since we are created to know, honor, glorify and love God,” he said. “Worship is a response to that purpose, and worship is a means to that end.”

Each church needs to determine the priorities of the worship service in relationship to the overall church program.

“How do we reconcile the need to worship and still meet the needs of God's people, build God's kingdom and meet the needs of the church?” he asked.

By honestly evaluating what the church does well and what it does not, it will become clearer what the elements of the worship service should be, Webster continued. In the overall church program, worship is just part of the puzzle.

Worship should offer people the opportunity to seek forgiveness through repentance, offer thanksgiving, foster deeper understanding of God and his word, and challenge them to commit to obedience to God's will, he said.

Worship leaders should “talk with the people in your church who have the deepest and richest private devotional life and model that private worship in the public service” because the relational aspects toward God are the same, Webster said.

“True worship must be a way of living,” he said. “Those who truly worship in private live lives that bring honor and glory to God daily and have a deeply meaningful worship experience in the corporate setting. If we do worship right when we gather, it will change the way we live and worship the other days of the week too.

“Coming into the presence of an all-holy and all-powerful God in our private devotionals is wonderful, but it is uncomfortable, too, because he is all-holy and all-powerful,” he said. “Does our public worship reflect that experience?”