Posted: 1/07/05

Book Reviews

Safe Haven Marriage: Building a Relationship You Want to Come Home To
by Archibald D. Hart and Sharon Hart Morris (W Publishing Group)

This father-daughter team presents a readable guide to deepening intimacy in marriage and repairing emotional wounds that struggling marriages often create.

“Safe Haven marriages” describes relationships built on trust, emotional availability and sensitive responsiveness. Hart and Morris provide a helpful exposition of these qualities, enabling couples to understand how we emotionally connect with others (attachment theory) and how these emotional connections can be nurtured, strained or broken in marriage. The ideas and suggestions are clearly and simply, helping professionals and nonprofessionals understand the concepts and how they relate to building emotional connections. Enriched with case studies, readers can identify with the struggles of the couples featured in each section of the book.

This book offers practical steps for fostering emotional closeness and healing hurts of the heart. It is a good resource for couples who want to deepen their emotional closeness. It also can be a great supplement for couples repairing a strained or broken marriage relationship.

Michael R. Chancellor, pastor

Crescent Heights Baptist Church

Abilene

Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
by Anonymous (Brassey's)

This book is a “must read” for every American citizen eligible to vote! Nationally elected officials as well as all those who wish to join the informed conversation regarding U.S. policies in response to terrorism will find a shocking expose´ of mishandled intelligence, misunderstood issues and misguided policies by our American government.

The author, a senior U.S. intelligence official who for nearly 20 years focused on terrorism, militant Islam and Afghanistan, insists Osama bin Laden is leading a defensive Jihad, or Islamic war, against America. Contrary to the robotic rhetoric which claims Muslims hate us because we are free, the author argues we are hated as a consequence of our policies and actions in the Muslim world.

The author identifies six U.S. policies bin Laden consistently refers to as anti-Muslim, which constitute an attack on Muslim faith, land and brethren. The author concludes by offering a way forward with some serious suggestions for debate.

J. Randall O'Brien, professor and chair

Department of Religion

Baylor University

Never Mind the Joneses: Building Core Christian Values in a Way That Fits Your Family
by Tim Stafford (InterVarsity Press)

You can always depend on Tim Stafford for well-written and practical Christian books. This one on parenting and family issues now tops the list.

Stafford gives us a treasure chest of application for passing on core Christian values through the particular habits and attitudes, routines and rituals of our families. His familiarity with real family life gives the book a tone of flexibility and grace. Urgency is here, but it's not too preachy. Conviction, but it's not too legalistic.

The author's life with the Bible generates a wise and solid set of 14 biblical core values. He devotes a chapter to each one, reflecting on its importance and suggesting many options for building it into your family's culture. The chapter on truthfulness alone is worth the price of the book.

While American culture stumbles over the popularity of shaky morals, this book offers parents a solid grip.

Rick Willis, pastor

First Baptist Church

Lampasas

Heart Shift: The 2 Degree Difference That Will Change Your Heart, Your Home, and Your Health
by John Trent

“I am reading this book for two reasons. First, during this time of the year, I enjoy reading that will help me reflect and consider changes for the new year. Second, as part of a research project, I am learning about the theology of change and how it might be applied to organizational transformation.”

Albert Reyes

BGCT president

San Antonio

Christ And Culture
by H. Richard Niebuhr

“I'm currently rereading this classic because I'm interested in the seductive dance that's occurring between the Christian faith community and culture–and the long-term effect it will have on the church's prophetic speech. I think Niebuhr's typology merits examination through a different set of lenses.”

Michael Bell

BGCT first vice president

Fort Worth

Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship
by Jon Meacham

“I enjoyed Meacham's discussion of personal relationships as they pertain to international diplomacy. We understand that in our personal lives we work better with people we enjoy. We forget that the same goes for those who lead us.”

Stacy Conner

BGCT second vice president

Muleshoe

Posted: 1/10/05
LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Jan. 16

There is a place for everyone in God’s family

By Pakon Chan

Chinese Baptist Church, Arlington

In our society, many people are helpless and lonely. Many of them are under the bondage of poverty, addictions, bad communal or peer influences, and discrimination. This group of people sometimes gets less attention from churches and Christians, even though we provide various social services for them. A big, beautiful middle-class church will donate a lot of food and clothing to the poor but may not welcome poor people into their fellowship and church.

Show concern (Luke 4:17-21)

Jesus had established his status as a popular itinerant rabbi very soon after he entered into his ministry and was preaching in many places and synagogues (vv. 14-15). It was not unusual for a person in a synagogue gathering to stand and read Scripture. When Jesus stood, he knew what he was going to read. After he had received the book of Isaiah, he turned to a passage and proclaimed the prophecy was fulfilled in him (v. 21).

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This proclamation was his mission on earth. From this passage that Jesus used to proclaim his mission, we know God loves the poor and the helpless. We should read this paragraph literally even though it does have rich spiritual implications. From what Jesus did in his three years of earthly ministry, we can see him reaching out to the poor and helpless people of society. He deliberately went to the people of lower class or even social outcasts to minister to them and bring them the good news of God’s salvation. Jesus showed his concern for them by meeting their needs, talking to them, touching them, and even eating and staying with them.

There are many people in our society who are captured by spiritual and sinful bondages, or who are poor and oppressed by many injustice social situations. Some are mistreated mentally and physically. Others suffer many diseases and sicknesses. They are the most ignored group, but God loves them and tells them this is the reason he sent his only begotten Son to save them from their helpless situations.

Provide assistance (Luke 6:17-21)

Again, in this event, Jesus showed his mercy to the poor and helpless. People came to Jesus to hear him and to be healed of their diseases (v. 18). This crowd came from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and other places, because they knew their needs would be met by Jesus. With this expectation, they were attracted to listen to his message. When we help meet people’s needs, we should not forget to share with them the good news of our Lord Jesus, for that is the biggest blessing we can give them.

After meeting the needs of the crowd, Jesus turned to his disciples and told them God loved and cared about these people. The poor may not have a place in society, but in the kingdom of God there is a place for them. All they need to do is to come to Jesus and to seek for his forgiveness and saving grace.

We, as disciples of Jesus, need to share the gospel with them so they may enjoy happiness in God’s kingdom. We also are responsible to feed them and comfort them. We should not only meet their physical needs, but also should meet their emotional and spiritual needs.

We may see churches provide food and services for the poor and homeless, but we are not sure if they have a place for them within the fellowship. We will feed them, but we may not share their feelings and frustrations. This is not just a special calling for some special Christians, it is the calling and responsibility of every disciple of our Lord Jesus. Jesus wants us to extend our perimeter of love and care to include the poor and helpless in our fellowship and church life.

Minister to children (Luke 9:46-48; 18:15-17)

Children in ancient Jewish society did not have any rights. They were seen as the property of adults. Children also are weak and cannot protect themselves. They are another group of helpless people. People feel great if they can serve the greatest person and have a closer relationship with him (v. 46). Jesus, however, has a very different definition for greatness. Those who are willing to serve the helpless and the least are the greatest (v. 48).

Jesus told his disciples if they wanted to serve him and have a closer relationship with him, they should serve the weak and the helpless. Going to the poor and the helpless to have fellowship with them and serve them is one of the spiritual disciplines. By doing that, we welcome our Lord Jesus and the Father (v. 48).

One thing that will bother us when we serve the poor and the helpless is our pride and the sense of superiority. We should not go to the poor and the helpless as if we are the savior and giver. We go to share and to serve, and through serving them, we have fellowship with them. From their poverty, we learn to live a simple life. From their helplessness, we learn to rely on God. Unless we can appreciate the simplicity of a child and live a simple life, and be humble enough to realize we also are helpless like a child, we cannot enter the kingdom of God (v. 17). Jesus does not come for those who think they are powerful and rich, but he comes for those who are humble and seek help from him.

Discussion questions

Why does Jesus want us to minister to the poor and the helpless?

How can you help your fellowship to minister to the poor and the helpless?

What is your definition of greatness?

What should you do if you think that you are stronger in faith?

Posted: 1/12/05

Rubble left by the tsunamis is all that remains in many areas near Batticaloa in east Sri Lanka. Texas Baptist Men volunteers are feeding and purifying water in the area. (Photos by Rex Campbell)
Kevin Dinnin and other Texas Baptist Men examine ways to help in a refugee camp housing 1,000 refugees of the tsunami near Batticaloa in east Sri Lanka. This camp is expected to swell to many times that number by the end of January.
Workers with Baptist Child & Family Services sort donated medication that will be distributed in the Batticaloa region of east Sri Lanka. The team is in the nation to provide emergency shelters for orphans and train residents to care for children who lost their families when a series of tsunamis hit.
Bill Gresso of Northlake Baptist Church in Garland and Dick Talley test a well on the east coast of Sri Lanka near Batticaloa. Texas Baptist Men workers are assessing where they can use water puririfiers.
Texas Baptist Men volunteers and team from Baptist Child & Family Services worship with a group of believers near Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.
	See Related Stories: Texas Baptists join worldwide Tsunami relief response How to give to tsunami relief Tsunami Summit planned for Epicenter conference

Posted: 1/12/05

Louisiana College trustees pick
new president amid controversy

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)—Trustees of embattled Louisiana College will meet Jan. 17 to try again to elect a president, but they likely will be sued to prevent him from taking office.

Joe Aguillard, 47, a conservative professor and chair of the education division at the Louisiana Baptist school, will be nominated as president Jan. 17, trustee chair Timothy Johnson announced Jan. 6.

Critics say Aguillard's nomination—and likely election—are in violation of the school's bylaws because the search committee was illegally appointed. A group of school alumni and supporters plan to file a lawsuit Jan. 11 to stop the election.

The school has been in turmoil for more than a year after fundamentalists gained control of the trustee board. After a dispute over textbook and faculty-election policies, the college's president, chief academic administrator and trustee chairman resigned.

In December the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the college on probation—one step short of withdrawing accreditation—for violating the association's standards for academic freedom and proper governance, saying trustees were unduly influenced by the Louisiana Inerrancy Fellowship.

The crisis deepened after Texas educator Malcolm Yarnell suddenly withdrew as president Nov. 23—two months after his election but before taking office—citing “governance issues.”

The search committee then wanted to nominate as president Stan Norman, a professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, who had been the committee’s second choice. But trustee officers, who reportedly preferred Aguillard, responded by trying to expand the search committee to add more conservatives or dismiss the original committee.

Aguillard supporters say the original committee's power expired when Yarnell was elected president. But members of the original committee insist no contract was ever signed with Yarnell and the bylaws require them to remain in place until a president is hired.

Trustee leaders held a press conference Jan. 6 to announce the trustee board will vote on Aguillard, an LC education professor for the past four years and former school board superintendent.

“The board has placed his name for nomination and it was referred to a special committee charged with bringing his name back before the board for a full up or down vote,” trustee chair Johnson said in a prepared statement. “This is not a circumvention of the process but rather a part of the process afforded the board in our bylaws.”

Johnson said he sought an opinion from the parliamentarian of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, which appoints trustees. “In his opinion, and according to Robert's Rules (of Order), this (special) committee is valid, was duly formed, and is appropriately charged with bringing Dr. Aguillard's name before the board—with or without recommendation,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been prepared and a temporary restraining will be requested to block the Jan. 17 election, said Stan Lott of Pineville, a retiring professor at Louisiana College.

According to Lott, the trustees’ own attorney said the board violated its bylaws by dismissing the original committee. “Once (the board) specifies who is on the search committee, it is to stay in place until a president is found,” he said.

Lott said he met with a group of attorneys and other faculty members to discuss legal action. “We decided the only recourse left for people concerned about the college is through the courts.”

Lott said the group, which is enlisting other plaintiffs, hopes to file the suit by Jan. 11, alleging the trustees have caused “irreparable damage to the school.”

“Even conservatives [among Louisiana Baptists] are really disturbed by what these Taliban trustees are doing,” Lott said. “They are continuing to recklessly ignore accreditation, and if it continues, they will have accreditation withdrawn.”

Trustee chair Johnson defended the board's action and called Aguillard “a top-notch educator who is theologically sound.” He added the professor is “a man of integrity, internationally recognized scholarship, sterling character and unequaled leadership.”

Lott disagreed. “He has neither the education nor the experience to serve as president of Louisiana College. He is a fundamentalist to the core.”

Aguillard, a Louisiana native, received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana College, two master's degrees from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., and a doctorate of education from Nova University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

He held a number of administrative positions with the Beauregard Parish School Board between 1984 and 2000, rising eventually to superintendent, before taking his current position with Louisiana College.

Posted: 1/12/05

At 100, BWA rejoices in its unity, Lotz says

By Lindsay Bergstrom

Associated Baptist Press

MCLEAN, Va. (ABP) – Through 100 years that have seen some of the most dramatic changes in history, worldwide Baptists have emerged with a spirit of unity, according Denton Lotz, general secretary for Baptist World Alliance.

In an open letter ushering in BWA’s centennial celebration, Lotz said that in 1905, when BWA was founded in London, “there was excitement that this was going to be ‘the Christian Century.’“ But two world wars “doomed the so-called Christian West to extinction” in Europe, according to Lotz.

Disunity in the world has also expressed itself in disunity within the church, said Lotz, but the Baptist World Alliance, an international fellowship of Baptist organizations, is a notable exception.

“We rejoice at the great unity among Baptists worldwide as expressed in the Baptist World Alliance,” he said. “In spite of the recent Southern Baptist exodus, we rejoice at the tremendous support for the BWA from its 211 member bodies in every part of the globe.”

Baptist World Alliance will hold its centenary world congress July 27-31 in Birmingham, England. It will be the group’s first worldwide meeting without the Southern Baptist Convention, which withdrew its membership and funding in October in a dispute over BWA’s control and direction.

The past century saw a dramatic shift of Christianity southward, Lotz wrote. In 1905, more than 85 percent of Christians in the world were in Europe and North America. In 2005, 60 percent of Christians are in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Lotz said.

“While in 1905 Spurgeon’s Tabernacle was the largest Baptist church, with thousands of white, English worshippers, today the largest Baptist church in Britain is a Ghanaian/Nigerian Baptist church composed of African immigrants,” he said. “The former missionary-receiving countries have now become missionary-sending countries.”

Leadership of BWA also reflects that trend, he said.

The last century witnessed significant cultural changes, Lotz said, such as the end of colonialism in the 1960s, the end of segregation in the United States in 1965, the fall of communism in 1989, the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1991, the global war on terror beginning in 2001, and dramatic breakthroughs in technology.

“All these changes meant the church had to develop new strategies for mission, with new opportunities in Eastern Europe and Africa and hindrances in the Middle East,” he continued.

“The past 100 years saw great Baptist spiritual and political leaders: Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Graham and Jimmy Carter,” said Lotz finally. “These men represent three significant aspects of the gospel message for which most Baptists have stood for many years—social justice, evangelism and human rights.

“Who will be the new leaders in the next century of Baptist life? Let us pray that God will send men and women to the Baptist World Alliance with a prophetic and biblical word for bringing renewal, kingdom growth and advance for Christ and his kingdom.”

Posted: 1/07/05

How to give to tsunami relief

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

When it comes to disaster relief, Baptists are bargain shoppers. That's the driving thought behind Baptists seeking financial donations rather than supplies.

Money can be stretched if relief leaders buy supplies in South Asia rather than shipping materials around the globe, said Leo Smith, executive director of Texas Baptist Men.

All money donated through the Baptist General Convention of Texas will go toward the relief effort to buy items such as water purifiers, generators, cooking burners, pumps and transformers, he said.

Texas Baptist Men will buy food in Sri Lanka, as well as some cooking supplies. Buying within the region helps connect organizations to people inside the nation and helps boost the country's economy, Smith explained.

Update: H.R. 241, a bill awaiting President Bush's signature, would extend through Jan. 31 the time donors could claim a 2004 tax deduction for funds given for relief of tsunami victims.

The donation would have to be made in cash (donation of stocks would not qualify) and earmarked exclusively for tsunami disaster relief. Funds that provide relief for tsunami victims and for other disasters may not qualify.

Usually taxpayers must pay a tax-deductible expense by Dec. 31 to claim a deduction in that tax year.

These are avenues to support the Baptist disaster relief effort in South Asia:

The Baptist General Convention of Texas efforts, including Texas Baptist Men: Send checks designated "Tsunami relief" to the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation, 333 N. Washington Ave., Dallas 75246 or by credit card at (214) 828-5343.

Baptist World Aid: Send donations designated "Asian Tidal Wave Appeal" to Baptist World Aid, Baptist World Alliance, 405 N. Washington St., Falls Church, Va. 22046.

Texas Baptist Men only: Send checks designated "Sri Lanka relief" to Texas Baptist Men, 333 N. Washington Ave., Dallas 75246.

Baptist Child & Family Services: Send contributions designated "Children's International Relief Services" to Baptist Child & Family Services, 909 NE Loop 410 Ste. 800, San Antonio 78209.

Buckner Orphan Care International: Call (214) 914-1676. To forward financial gifts to Buckner ministry partners in Southeast Asia, visit www.buckner.org.

Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board: Send checks designated "Asia Earthquake Disaster Relief" to the International Mission Board, P.O. Box 6767, Richmond, Va. 23230 or online at www.imb.org.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions: Send checks designated "Asian Response fund #17016" to P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, Ga. 30392; or give online at http://www.thefellowship.info/Landing/Giving.icm.

Thai Dallas Baptist Church, a mission of Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving, also is collecting funds specifically to aid the relief effort in Thailand. For more information, contact Sani Panya at (972) 986-1781 or (972) 333-6657 or write to Thai Dallas Baptist Church, 1714 N. Story Rd., Irving 75061.

Gospel for Asia, a Carrollton-based mission funding thousands of native missionaries and churches throughout Asia. Baptist relief volunteers are closely cooperating with GFA in Sri Lanka and elsewhere: Send checks for Tsunami relief to Gospel For Asia, 1800 Golden Trail Ct., Carrollton 75010; e-mail info@gfa.org; call 1 (800) 946-2742; or visit the website at www.gfa.org.

Posted: 1/11/05

No more volunteers needed for tsunami
relief, but be prepared, leaders say

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Volunteers are not needed to help yet with the relief effort in South Asia, but they need to be prepared for action.

Relief leaders, including Baptists from around the world, continue assessing needs in the countries affected by a series of seismic sea waves and are beginning to send teams into the region. Though these initial teams are full, more volunteers potentially could be needed.

Texas Baptist Men is sending seven teams to purify water and provide meals. Each team consists of 10 people who will be replaced every two weeks by fresh workers.

The American Red Cross—which also currently has no need for volunteers to work in South Asia—has medical and relief teams in South Asia. More workers will be sent to help in the area.

“At the present time, we are only sending trained and experienced volunteers in,” said Texas Baptist Men Executive Director Leo Smith. “This is essential in the early stages of a disaster, especially in a foreign country.”

But additional volunteers undoubtedly will be needed as both organizations have verbally committed to serving for an extended period of time.

“We don’t know how long it’s going to take,” said Claudia McWhorter, communications and marketing director for the Central Texas Chapter of the American Red Cross.

To be eligible for service, individuals should go through the respective organization’s training. Texas Baptist Men periodically has training workshops around the state, including a large annual event at Latham Springs Baptist Encampment near Aquilla. TBM is holding a special training session to enlist volunteers for this relief effort Jan. 22 at the Robert E. Dixon Mission Equipping Center.

A track also has been added to the Baptist General Convention of Texas evangelism and missions event Epicenter that will help churches understand how they can minister in the countries hit by the tsunamis. Epicenter takes place Jan. 28-29 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Representatives from TBM, WorldconneX and the BGCT Church Missions and Evangelism Section will lead seminars.

These events are where Baptists learn procedures and safety techniques of disaster relief. Training includes how to handle cultural, physical, emotion and spiritual difficulties. After a person is finished with the training, they are added to a list of available disaster relief volunteers.

To find regional TBM training events, call (214) 828-5352.

“The importance of the training is to help you not only in the midst of the disaster, but it also assists you with all the elements you will deal with,” Smith said.

The Red Cross holds training events through its local chapters, which can be found by visiting www.redcross.org/where/where.html. After completing the training, a person who is active in the local chapter becomes eligible for relief service. There are several levels of training before a person is eligible for international relief work.

“People want to do (international relief work),” McWhorter said. “I think it’s wonderful.”

Serving internationally requires updated immunizations and a current passport that is at least six months old. Not having either could prevent a person from action.

Completion of either program does not guarantee immediate service. Both evaluate each person’s skills and experience level and assign that individual to an effort that is deemed appropriate.

Texas Baptist Men tries to give each volunteer an initial experience without the stress of a disaster. Then that person is eligible for service anywhere.

If Texas Baptist Men runs out of available trained workers, it begins to use skilled volunteers who contact the organization. TBM staff members are building that list now in case it is needed for the South Asia relief effort.

Posted: 12/24/04

Baylor social work staff stitches gift for orphans

By Julie Carlson

Baylor University

WACO—Some babies and toddlers in the Ukraine soon will have some warm clothes for the winter, thanks to a group of women at Baylor University.

Rather than exchange Christmas presents with faculty in Baylor’s School of Social Work, department staff members put to use their own sewing skills to provide warm overalls to Ukrainian orphans through the program “Aid for Orphans.”

“Several of us struggled with what to give our faculty each year for Christmas,” said Linda Hardwick, administrative associate in the School of Social Work.

“As the faculty numbers grew, our business manager, Jeanie Fitzpatrick, came up with the idea of donating something to a non-profit service organization in honor of the social work faculty and let them know how much we appreciate them. Social workers have a passion for serving others and we felt they would probably appreciate an act of kindness rather than individually wrapped gifts.”

The staff made its first Christmas faculty tribute in 2000 with a donation to Meals on Wheels. Other projects have included purchasing books for Storybook Christmas, which provides books to underprivileged children; providing funds to a Baylor program that helps financially-strapped Baylor students purchase text books; and providing Angel Tree Christmas presents for underprivileged children.

But this was the first year the staff decided to tackle a “hands-on” project. Fitzpatrick recalled an e-mail faculty member Gaynor Yancey had sent earlier in the semester about the needs of orphans in the Ukraine.

“One of their needs was for people to sew little overalls for the babies to wear,” Hardwick said. “The staff got together and discussed about four or five options of what we wanted to do this year—sewing the overalls was one of them. We all voted by email and the Ukraine project was selected.”

“Aid for Orphans provides very specific construction details and the pattern for the overalls,” Fitzpatrick said. “When we got the hang of it, we could sew one overall in about an hour.”

Three staff members sewed, and the others cut patterns and pinned. The staff brought sewing machines to school so they could work during lunch breaks, and some took fabric home to work. All the staff journeyed to the fabric store to buy the needed material. The project was started the first week in December, with 35 overalls sewed by the week before Christmas.

At the department Christmas party, the staff presented the faculty with cards detailing the project and hung the overalls so they could show the fruits of their labor.

“I was overwhelmed with this gift. Nothing they could do would have brought more honor to us, than to know that babies will be cuddled in 35 flannel jumpers lovingly handmade by our staff,” said Diana Garland, professor and chair of the School of Social Work.

“Every time I have gone for a cup of coffee the last few days and ducked under the clothesline where they hung the jumpers for us to see near our little kitchen, I have grinned, seeing their love for us displayed in such a visible way. They spent hours sewing these jumpers, giving up lunch hours and evenings, catching us totally by surprise, and giving us a gift that means so much because it says they know our heart.”

“This has been a very rewarding project and a great shared experience,” Fitzpatrick said. “It was fun to go together to buy the fabric, and those who didn’t sew, still learned something. I think this will give us the courage to try more hands-on projects in future years.”

Aid for Orphans provides assistance to the Antoshka and Kherson orphanages located in the Ukraine cities of Kramatorsk and Kherson. These orphanages are home to about 200 poorly dressed and malnourished babies and toddlers ages newborn to 4 years.

The babies in these Ukraine orphanages are typically dressed in easy-to-change overalls made from flannel, heavy cotton or lightweight denim.

The overalls look like footed one-piece outfits with ties at the shoulders or behind the neck. The overalls are worn with a short or long-sleeve shirt underneath, dependant on the season. To learn more about the project or Aid for Orphans, visit www.aidfororphans.org .

Posted: 1/07/05

Texas Baptists join worldwide Tsunami relief response

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Texas Baptist Men volunteers are joining Baptist World Aid and other humanitarian agencies in what many observers have called the largest international disaster relief effort in history, after a series of earthquake-spawned waves struck 12 countries in South Asia and Northeast Africa the day after Christmas.

Texas Baptist Men became involved in the relief effort after David Beckett, a member of Currey Creek Baptist Church in Boerne who is serving as a missionary in Sri Lanka with Gospel for Asia, asked for help.

Texas Baptist Men planned to send 12 volunteers to Sri Lanka to do water purification. The volunteers will take two water purification units with them, along with parts to build eight more once they are on-site.

TBM also planned to send four 10-member emergency food service teams to South Asia—three to Sri Lanka and one to Thailand—as well as help set up a refugee camp in Sumatra, said TBM Executive Director Leo Smith.

Children’s Emergency Relief International—an agency of Baptist Child & Family Services—has been invited to set up child care centers and help establish foster care programs in Sri Lanka.

Gospel for Asia, whose headquarters is in Carrollton, contacted the San Antonio-based family services agency and asked its personnel to set up five child care shelters in eastern Sri Lanka and to help the Sri Lankan government develop foster care programs and train local people to manage them.

Each emergency care center will house up to 1,000 orphaned children. The tsunami victimized about 30,000 people living in the 60-mile stretch along Sri Lanka’s eastern coast where the centers will be located.

Baptist Child & Family Services initially is sending several children’s home administrators—including Kevin Dinnin, the agency’s president—a physician and a psychologist.

Buckner Baptist Benevolences is making its existing inventory of shoes, socks and other materials available to its ministry partners working in South Asia, including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist World Alliance, said Jeff Jones, operations director for Buckner Orphan Care International.

Buckner is working closely with its partnering organizations to assess needs and determine additional ways to be involved, he noted.

“We are waiting on a few reports in order to best assess what aid needs to be sent,” Jones said. “It is a given that we will be able to respond through clothing and some limited medical supplies. We will post other needs as they become apparent.”

Buckner also is collecting funds on behalf of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Baptist World Aid, the relief arm of the Baptist World Alliance.

“While our focus is not disaster relief ministry, our hearts were too moved by the scenes of destruction and the human suffering to not respond immediately,” said Buckner President Ken Hall. “Collecting funds for our partner ministries that do have disaster relief made the most sense and will let us coordinate efforts to offer aid to children over the long run.”

The Baptist World Alliance has sent a medical and relief team to South Asia through Baptist World Aid and Hungarian Baptist Aid.

Baptist World Aid allocated an initial $25,000 for relief work. The medical team is using $110,000 in donated medical supplies from Hungarian Baptist Aid.

Paul Montacute, director of Baptist World Aid, said the international body of Baptists grieves with those whose lives have been affected.

“What a tragedy,” he said. “On behalf of the Baptist World Alliance, I express our concern about the current situation in such a wide area of Asia. Be assured of the thoughts and prayers of the world family of Baptists at this time.”

Montacute particularly noted the response of Baptist World Alliance member bodies and their agencies in the affected region, such as the Thailand Baptist Missionary Fellowship and the Union of Indonesian Baptist Churches.

In Sri Lanka, many Baptists are working closely with the National Christian Evangelical Alliance and LEADS, an independent social service organization. Indian Baptists are working with the Evangelical Fellowship of India Committee on Relief.

In a pastoral letter to Baptists in South Asia, Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Denton Lotz and President Billy Kim—who recently retired as pastor of Suwon Central Baptist Church near Seoul, South Korea, after 45 years—expressed grief and long-term support for victims of the natural disaster.

“Your brothers and sisters around the world are in suffering and pain with you due to the destruction brought about by the tsunami earthquake,” the letter stated.

Baptist health workers help a victim of the tsunami that hit Sri Lanka and other Asian nations.

“During this horrific period when the world is shocked and dazed at the great tragedy that has brought loss of life and suffering to millions, your Baptist brothers and sisters have been praying and working for your relief. Millions of people are continuing to pray for you, and in thousands of worship services worldwide, brothers and sisters are calling upon our gracious God to bring relief and comfort to those who have suffered.”

Lotz and Kim pledged Baptist World Aid would work with Baptist unions and conventions, secular organizations and governments to bring help to people in need, saying, “We will not stop until the job is completed.”

Officials continue surveying the massive human and economic casualties in the region, as casualty figures topped 150,000. Governments have pledged more than $2 billion to aid victims in the 12 affected countries, with $350 million coming from the United States. Private donations are pouring in as well. Former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton are spearheading a fund-raising effort in the United States.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas initially has set aside more than $40,000 to help finance relief efforts in South Asia. The BGCT is working in partnership with several entities also focusing on the region, including the Baptist World Alliance, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, Texas Baptist Men and North Carolina Baptist Men.

Both the Southern Baptist International Mission Board and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions reported their personnel in the region escaped immediate harm, but some families were displaced by flooding.

By Jan. 3, the International Mission Board had approved $300,000 in project requests from relief workers on the field, with two-thirds of it earmarked for Sumatra and its hard-hit Aceh province. Funds will pay for food, clean water and purification equipment, blankets, tents, medical supplies and body bags.

The through CBF Global Missions field personnel, the Fellowship has disbursed about $100,000 to the impacted region.

Individuals with ties to Texas Baptist institutions also are involved in the disaster relief effort. Sohani Cooray, a graduate of the Baylor University School of Social Work, was visiting her family in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. Cooray, who works in Waco, decided to prolong her stay in South Asia to coordinate the efforts of a group from Antioch Community Church in Waco.

The volunteer team, which includes a nurse and an emergency medical technician, will work with a Methodist in the port city of Galle to provide aid.

WorldconneX, the BGCT-related missions network, has turned the front page of its website—www.worldconnex.org— into a clearinghouse for tsunami response information.

“WorldconneX has identified and contacted credible, verified ministries doing wholistic, gospel-driven relief and development and included links to them on our website,” said network leader Bill Tinsley.

Stan Parks, international liaison for WorldconneX, was scheduled to leave Texas Jan. 7 for a nine-day trip to Indonesia to meet with business leaders, government leaders and Christian leaders. Parks served 10 years as a missionary in Indonesia. He will continue to network with other leaders in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives and Malaysia.

Parks emphasized the greatest needs in the impacted region may be two or three months from now “when most of the world has forgotten these areas, and there is a lot less money and many fewer volunteers, despite the much more expensive and time-consuming task of rebuilding homes, buildings, roads and other infrastructure and of re-economizing—job and business creation—which will be desperately needed.”

For more information, contact WorldconneX at tsunamirelief@worldconnex.org or (214) 421-7999.

Posted: 1/07/05

'20-somethings' follow own path to faith

By Nancy Haught

Religion News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS)–In Christianity, the image of the shepherd leading sheep is a powerful one. For generations, the same could be said of parents leading their children to their religion.

But for many young adults, that's beginning to change–and not in the way some might expect.

To be sure, here and across the country, people still practice religion, or don't practice it, the same as their parents. But pastors and scholars are noticing something else happening, too.

Many young adults are moving away from their parents' example, but not toward a more secular life, as was the case for so many baby boomers in the 1960s and 1970s. Instead, they are carving out their own faith, which often is more devout or more active than their parents'.

These young people, especially those from Christian backgrounds, are both joining mainline churches and founding their own new spiritual communities.

In part because their parents tend to be so secular, their impact is especially striking in the Pacific Northwest, the most unchurched part of the country, according to several academic studies.

They vote their consciences, which is not to say they all vote the same way, either as each other or as their parents. They may or may not take part in the “culture wars.” Some of them don't even want to be called Christian, a label they say is as loaded as they come.

Karin Rosain participates in a Bible study about prayer during a young adult Christian gathering.

So what is happening to 20-somethings that is making them turn away from their parents' religious background, or their lack thereof, and declare themselves a different kind of believer?

Ask them, and they're not sure. For starters, they often want a clear-cut idea of moral right and wrong, absolutes that weren't that important to their counterculture-era parents. Talk to pastors, scholars and other observers and you come up with cultural reasons that might be part of it–a turning away from an increasingly technological, anything-goes, consumer-driven society.

“They are longing for a connection to the past in an age where we think history started yesterday with 'me,'” says Paul Metzger, a professor at Multnomah Biblical Seminary, in Portland, Ore. He says young people are finding more comfort in old-style symbols and ceremony than modern mega-churches. “There are many who want to return to Christian roots.”

“They come looking for people of integrity,” says Melinda Wagner, co-pastor of First Immanuel Lutheran Church in Northwest Portland. “They believe that people they meet at work can't be trusted or that they have different values.”

Sometimes it's a mark that, as young adults, they are settling down, she adds. “As one person put it: 'I got engaged. I got a dentist. I joined a church.'”

Colleen Carroll Campbell, who wrote a book about the phenomenon, thinks it has to do with growing up in affluence and still feeling empty, a sort of early midlife crisis that has helped fuel the increasing religiosity in the country. Her book is “The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy.”

“A lot of them have seen the best that secular life has to offer,” she says. “Some have been raised without religion and indulged in a whole party lifestyle. Many have already done quite well in their careers and have more money than their parents had.”

Their question, she says, is: Now what?

“This generation wants an integrated Christian faith. They detest compartmentalization,” Campbell says. “They say: 'I don't want my faith to be something I do on Sunday. If it's not something that impacts every part of my life–my school work, my job, who I date, how I vote–if it doesn't transform my life, then it's not worth much.'”

That's where Emily Pearlman, 24, of Gresham, Ore., found herself three years ago. She'd grown up along the Sandy River, in a household where her dad did not welcome religion. She'd visit a church now and then with a friend, but it was in college, at the Catholic University of Portland, that she first studied theology. It opened up to her the work of Jesus.

She defines that work in terms of feeding the hungry, healing the sick, funding insurance coverage for the poor, striving to end war and all its casualties.

A wife, mom and medical receptionist, she is an active member of a church but doesn't like being called a Christian, believing the label has been ruined by those who don't live out their faith.

“I am somebody who follows the mission of Christ daily–and if that makes me a Christian, so be it,” she says. “But being a Christian is more than attending church on Sunday and having a fish decal on your car.”

Josh Butler, 27, had a similar experience. He grew up in Salem-Keizer, Ore., with a mom who took him to a church now and then and a dad who wasn't much interested in religion.

As a boy, Butler nurtured a fascination for the stories of J.R.R. Tolkien and the Bible. He saw God as vague and distant but still devoted to the outcast.

He tried an evangelical church in high school, but by college he thought the faith “closed him off” to others who didn't share it and to the culture at large.

These days, he's a graduate student in theology and a pastor of worship and the arts at Imago Dei Community, a 4-year-old Christian group that's grown from a core of 15 to almost 750 believers.

He says he's found a worshipping community that values art, beauty and even uncertainty. They don't agree on every political point, but they are committed to living in community, even in tension. His challenge, he says, is to “live the essence of the gospel,” realizing that his understanding of it may change over time.

He teaches a Saturday morning class on theology and culture, trying to convince his students the secular world–including popular entertainment–may have something relevant to say, even on religious topics.

For young adults, following their parents lead may still be the most common path to religious faith. But a group of religious free agents are finding their own way. Author Carroll thinks they may end up changing the Christian faith.

Only time will tell who is leading whom.

Nancy Haught writes about religion for The Oregonian in Portland.

Posted: 1/07/05

2004 left America seeing red, observers say

By Kevin Eckstrom

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Red, color experts say, is a serious color that denotes passion, heat, importance, even danger. Power ties, celebrity carpets and stop signs are all red. Red says, “Stop what you're doing and pay attention.”

So it was with 2004. From the red-state heartland that re-elected President Bush to Mel Gibson's blood-splattered “The Passion of the Christ,” 2004 was very red indeed. The long-suffering Boston Red Sox might even say God was feeling kind of red when he intervened to break the curse and allow them a World Series championship.

Bush's win in the country's crimson center, and Gibson's unexpected success with “The Passion,” were both fueled by conservative and evangelical Christians, who flexed their cultural and political muscles everywhere from the ballot box to the box office in 2004.

The term “values voters” gained prominence in the American political lexicon. It was, as the San Diego Union-Tribune put it, the year of the “'Passion of the Christ' vote.”

“Evangelicals didn't emerge this election, they arrived,” said Luis Lugo, executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “They were not on the outside looking in and being courted–they were on the inside in a very real sense.”

Religion played an unprecedented role in the 2004 elections as both camps vied for the hearts and minds of church-going voters. As Bush cemented support among his evangelical base, Sen. John Kerry and the Democrats stumbled to portray his campaign as Catholic faith and social justice in action.

At the same time, Kerry came under blistering criticism from a vocal minority of bishops who threatened to deny him Communion because of his support of abortion rights. Kerry, the first Catholic presidential nominee in 44 years, lost the Catholic vote to Bush, 52 percent to 47 percent.

While Democrats hoped so-called “527” political committees would help carry the race for Kerry, Lugo said ultimately it was the “316s”–evangelicals whose favorite Bible verse is John 3:16–who carried the election for Bush.

Exit polls showed that Bush increased his support among church-going Catholics, Jews, mainline Protestants and conservative blacks, and drew 78 percent of evangelicals, up from 72 percent four years ago.

“At both the grassroots level and the upper reaches of the party, I think you have the evangelical community being fully mainstreamed into American politics,” Lugo said.

What caught so many people off-guard was the prominence of the so-called “values voter,” the one-in-five voters who told exit pollsters that “moral values” were their chief concern, and who went overwhelmingly for Bush. Pollsters did not, however, define what “moral values” meant.

Religious conservatives immediately promised to cash in their electoral chips in Bush's second term, pressing for anti-abortion court nominations, a continued block on embryonic stem cell research and a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

In February, those same voters also showed up in record numbers for Gibson's “The Passion of the Christ,” a bloody, gut-wrenching account of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Protests from Jewish groups that the film was anti-Semitic did not stop churches from buying out entire theaters for Gibson's self-funded runaway hit, which finished the year grossing more than $600 million in global ticket sales.

“Evangelicals have historically been suspicious both of Hollywood and Roman Catholicism,” said Randall Balmer, an expert on American evangelicals at Barnard College in New York. “It was an odd sort of cultural alliance that made it such a popular film.”

Homosexuality issues roiled churches and society at large as Massachusetts became the first state in the country to allow gay civil marriage. Two lesbian ministers in the United Methodist Church faced trial for breaking rules that require celibacy–one, Karen Dammann, was acquitted in Washington state while the other, Beth Stroud, was defrocked in Philadelphia.

Conservatives' push for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage failed in both the House and Senate, but voters in 13 states adopted state-level amendments to prohibit gay marriage. At the same time, Canada's Supreme Court cleared the way for the government to allow nationwide gay marriage early in 2005.

At the U.S. Supreme Court, an atheist's challenge to the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was dismissed on a technicality. The court said Michael Newdow did not have proper parental standing to mount the challenge on behalf of his school-aged daughter. Newdow has vowed to press the case.

The high court also ruled 7-2 that states may not be forced to provide scholarships to theology students and agreed to take up in 2005 the fiery-hot question of government displays of the 10 Commandments.

Lugo said 2004 will be remembered for shaking up the American religious landscape. It was a year in which traditional labels became less useful, when new and odd bedfellows kept company, when loyalty to one's “values” trumped church, partisan and sometimes racial lines.

In other words, 2005 should be interesting.

“The major fault lines no longer run along denominational lines; they're running through denominations and across denominational lines,” Lugo said. “It's one of those defining moments that tends to define allegiances for the long term.”

Posted: 1/07/05

Expressing faith through visual images

By G. Jeffrey Macdonald

Religion News Service

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (RNS)–As an evangelical preacher, Bruce Marcey belongs to a sermon-centered spiritual tradition that took root nearly 500 years ago with the Bible, the pulpit and the elimination of all distractions–including art.

Imagine how shocked his forebears might be to see what Marcey does with visual images each week at Warehouse 242, the loft-style church in Charlotte, N.C., where he is pastor. In his view, no worship service is complete until the congregation has pondered not just the word of God proclaimed but also the word of God illustrated through a homegrown photograph, painting or film clip.

“We believe the Reformers missed something big,” says Marcey, a doctoral candidate in visual rhetoric at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

“When we limit the gospel message to the written and spoken text, we short-circuit it. We truncate it. … The soul is moved by more things than the word.”

Marcey's church is not alone. Across the nation, visual images are fast becoming a part of religious life for millions of Reformed Protestant Christians whose tradition has for centuries regarded pictures with great suspicion.

Wariness of the image's power to become an idol or otherwise deceive a lost soul has largely given way to confidence in the power of images to reach souls for the good.

Claiming lineage in the Reformed tradition means tracing a spiritual ancestry through John Calvin, the 16th century Geneva theologian whose “Institutes of the Christian Religion” has endured for centuries as a guiding vision for a church purified Protestant-style.

Through the centuries, splinter groups have made Reformed Protestantism into a vast tent with such American incarnations as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, some Baptists and many nondenominational evangelicals.

Examples of a growing confidence in images span the spectrum of Reformed religious life:

In the seminary. At Andover Newton Theological School, which trains future Reformed pastors in Newton, Mass., enrollment in the worship, theology and the arts specialization track jumped from five in 1999 to 46 in 2004.

On the overseas mission field. Reformed Protestants and others who once relied on translated Bibles to convert indigenous peoples now routinely introduce Christianity through the "Jesus" film, which so far has seen translation into 858 languages.

In small-group ministries. The video-based Alpha Course has attracted more than 1 million North Americans over the past 10 years and currently is offered in more than 5,000 church and home settings, including some Reformed congregations.

Reformed Christians are examining what it means for them to seek God apart from the spoken and written word of Scripture. Answers vary, especially since the craze has touched both conservative evangelicals and liberal mainliners, who sometimes have different agendas for the use of images. But on at least one point, there is agreement: A longstanding hallmark of Reformed tradition is disappearing.

“Generally speaking, there has been a visual impoverishment of architecture and in terms of design across the Protestant spectrum in North America,” said Calvin Schultze, professor of communication at Calvin College and author of “High-Tech Worship? Using Presentational Technologies Wisely.”

“Now we're seeing a widespread acceptance of the visual in worship across the Protestant landscape … and the idea of an austere, pew-lined, wooden-floor sanctuary is disappearing.”

In Calvin's day, Reformers invoked the second commandment's prohibition against graven images as they stormed Roman Catholic churches, smashed statues and whitewashed the fine art on the walls. Among their concerns at the time, according to Schultze, was to thwart a widespread tendency to regard such images as idols or agents of supernatural force.

Although those concerns of the Reformation have faded, others have lingered. Schultze says a number of older Reformed pastors have denounced visuals in worship as “too emotional,” “too people-focused rather than God-focused” and a sign that “worship is becoming entertainment.”

Others hope images might actually enhance the Reformed method. Mike Laird, pastor of the North Shore Chapel, which meets in a Danvers, Mass. movie theater, keeps a library of several thousand images for display on the big screen during worship. And he's been known to play film clips from “When Harry Met Sally” or a Winnie the Pooh episode as a means to introduce his sermon.

“It's a channel for speeding up God's word to get into their hearts,” said Laird, an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. “Our idea is to allow different channels to be open to any person at the service.”

Mainline churches have seen their share of new images, often in the form of carefully crafted banners that bring vibrant color to white-walled sanctuary spaces. At Hope Church in Jamaica Plain, Mass., parishioners use images to tell stories as they create “prayer journals” with their own photographs. In worship, they're apt to soon see such fine art works as Rembrandt's depiction of John the Baptist.

“The sermon is providing commentary on the image, and the image is providing commentary on the sermon,” said Matthew Myer Boulton, assistant professor of preaching and worship at Andover Newton and an associate pastor at Hope Church. “It's not that the Reformed tradition is being lost, but it's being brought into dialogue with other traditions.”

Indeed, Reformed voices across the board have been careful to make sure visuals don't displace the sermon as worship's main event. Schultze takes heart in seeing today's developments occurring in sync with new emphasis on good preaching, which he deems “a resurrection of the visual in the midst of a renewal of presentation of the word.”

In the final analysis, some Reformed preachers argue, what mattered most to Reformers was to make the life-changing word of God as accessible as possible. In the 16th century, more rigorous analysis and fewer imprecise images might have helped convict the masses that what they believed was true. But today, many are willing to bet the opposite approach will be more effective.

“Some folks hear and say: 'OK, that may be true, but I don't care. It doesn't motivate me or encourage me. It's just a block of information,'” Marcey said. “We put up an image (in worship) when it communicates something we're having trouble saying with words. … The Reformers ought to be pleased, because their idea was to take it out of the hands of the elite and put it in the hands of the people. And that's what we're doing.”