Posted: 11/11/05

Hurricane response funds put to use

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas continues to distribute funds to support Texas Baptists' response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Texas Baptists gave nearly $3.5 million to the Baptist General Convention of Texas for hurricane response ministries. The state convention set aside another $1 million specifically to help Louisiana congregations.

Texas Baptist churches, associations and individuals have received more than $500,000 to reimburse their shelter and recovery efforts. Much of those funds have been used in Southeast Texas, the region hit hardest by Hurricane Rita.

Nearly 14,000 people were housed in 113 Texas Baptist churches following Katrina and Rita. Baptists continue ministering to those evacuees who have chosen to stay in Texas by finding them housing and jobs.

“The response of Texas Baptists to the disasters of 2005 has been nothing short of miraculous,” said BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade.

“We have given more, more people have gone to help, more ministries have been given in Christ's name than ever in our history. God bless Texas Baptists.”

More than $500,000 was used by Texas Baptist Men feeding, childcare, chainsaw and clean-out crews in Texas and Louisiana.

TBM has provided more than 500,000 meals in Texas alone and continues serving in both states.

BGCT-affiliated institutions provided key ministry following the storms, said Keith Bruce, who leads the BGCT institutional ministries team.

They reacted quickly to meet the needs of people around them.

“All of our institutions stood by and were ready to assist with hurricane relief needs,” he said. “Each one found a way to serve people in their time of need.”

The convention allocated $350,000 to Baptist Child & Family Services to help cover the cost of church-based shelters in San Antonio for special-needs evacuees. Six shelters sponsored by the agency ministered to about 600 special-needs individuals.

Buckner Baptist Benevolences received $200,000 for its efforts in providing supplies to those affected by Katrina and Rita.

The Dallas-based organization supplied more than 12,000 shoes to Katrina victims and vast amounts of clothing, hygiene products and nonperishable food to evacuees from both storms.

Posted: 11/11/05

Even intelligent design advocates
see problems with policy

By Bill Sulon

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–The Discovery Institute, a leading proponent of intelligent design, warned a Pennsylvania school district now in court that it shouldn't institute a policy on the controversial concept because it could be found unconstitutional.

Mark Ryland, director of the Discovery Institute's Washing-ton, D.C., office, said he met with Dover Area School District representatives before the district implemented a curriculum change on intelligent design. He “advised them not to institute the policy,” but they “didn't listen to me,” according to a transcript of a forum he recently attended in Washington.

Ryland's appearance at the American Enterprise Institute event occurred the same day Dover Superintendent Richard Nilsen testified in Harrisburg, Pa., at a landmark federal trial on the district's policy.

It requires that a four-paragraph statement on intelligent design be read to ninth-grade students at the start of a science unit on evolution.

With Nilsen on the stand, lawyers representing parents opposed to the policy unveiled an e-mail the superintendent received last August from the district's lawyer, Stephen Russell. The district would have a difficult time winning a case because of the appearance that the policy “was initiated for religious reasons,” Russell said.

So far, the plaintiffs' legal fees exceed $1 million, said Witold Walczak, a lawyer for the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is helping to present the case against the district.

At the forum, called “Science Wars,” Ryland said he met with the Dover officials and with Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian firm the district hired to defend it in the federal trial on the policy.

“From the start, we just disagreed that this was a good place, a good time and place to have this battle, which is risky, in the sense that there's a potential for rulings that this is somehow unconstitutional,” Ryland said.

In his e-mail to Nilsen, Russell voiced similar reservations: “My concern for Dover is that in the last several years, there has been a lot of discussion, newsprint, etc., for putting religion back in the schools. In my mind, this would add weight to a lawsuit seeking to enjoin whatever the practice might be.”

The Dover trial in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg is the first federal case concerning intelligent design in a public school science curriculum.

Posted: 11/11/05

Movie explores dark days of 'Man in Black'

By Dave Urbanski

Religion News Service

HOLLYWOOD (RNS)–Walk the Line, the much-anticipated biopic on Johnny Cash, truthfully records his turbulent early career and his initial romance with wife June Carter Cash.

But since it depicts Cash's life only through the late 1960s, moviegoers will not get a glimpse of the intense spiritual revival Cash experienced soon after their marriage–a turnaround of the soul that informed and sustained him in significant ways for the rest of his life.

Walk the Line focuses on a specific portion of Cash's life. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon have been getting high marks for their portrayals as Johnny and June.

But unless one reads carefully between the lines–or in this case, watches carefully between the frames–Walk the Line viewers can miss the spirituality that affected Cash even during his early career, even in the midst of his family problems, road fever and life-threatening struggles with substance abuse. All of the latter are elements the film depicts with a no-holds-barred attitude.

“I had the advantage of making a movie about a man who was an artist himself, and an artist of the shadows, in the sense that he understood life's lonelinesses and life's mistakes, and that people make them. In that sense, he wasn't interested in hiding them,” director James Mangold told the Associated Press.

“He was much more concerned about protecting others than himself. The thing he would always say to me was, 'I don't care if I look bad. Just don't make other innocent people look bad, because they were my mistakes.'”

Viewers of Walk the Line may find it helpful to keep several things in mind.

First, the influence of Cash's Christian upbringing cannot be minimized. His family was dirt poor, but his house was filled with the sounds of gospel music and spirituals. In fact, it was Cash's original intent to break into music by singing gospel, and while Sam Phillips wouldn't let him, Cash recorded several gospel/hymn records shortly after leaving Sun Records.

Second, Cash's older brother Jack–who died after a grisly table saw accident–had a profound spiritual influence on Johnny. Jack was Johnny's all-time hero, a stronger, more spiritually mature Cash, in every way a protector. “When we were kids, he tried to turn me from the way of death to the way of life, to steer me toward the light, and since he died, his words and his example have been like signposts for me,” Cash wrote in his autobiography. “The most important question in many of the conundrums and crises of my life has been, 'Which is Jack's way? Which direction would he have taken?'”

Even during his lowest moments of drug abuse and failing health, Cash believed his brother's voice was always audible in his soul–a kind of virtuous fly in the ruinous ointment Cash continually spread on himself during his early career.

Third, while life on the road–and the substances that artificially sustain its hectic pace–almost killed Cash, the “Man in Black” still struggled with his professional choices in relation to his spiritual center.

During Cash's notorious wildcat early days, he saw a show by Sonny James–a musician and a Christian. After the gig, Cash asked for some direction. “Sonny, I know you're a Christian, and so am I. I know I was meant to be in the music and entertainment world, but how do you live a Christian life in this business?” Cash recalled in his autobiography.

James told him: “John, the way I do it is by being what I am. I am not just an entertainer who became a Christian. I am a Christian who chose to be an entertainer. I am first a Christian.”

Clearly, Cash struggled as a Christian and an entertainer early in his career. But the ties of a deep-down, core faith in God and the love that June expressed to Johnny in his darkest moments ultimately pulled Cash from the clutches of an early death and into the light of renewed spirit, life and career.

Dave Urbanski is the author of The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash. He is senior developmental editor for Youth Specialties, an El Cajon, Calif., organization that assists workers in youth ministries.

Posted: 11/11/05

'Painter of light' offers warm
and welcoming images

By David Dunkle

Religion News Service

MORGAN HILL, Calif. (RNS)–Thomas Kinkade laughs at people who think he doesn't paint much anymore or who believe he doesn't do his own work.

“I love this mythology that I have a huge studio with all these artists hidden away, doing my work for me,” Kinkade said during a telephone interview from his studio in Morgan Hill, Calif.

“I would like to know where all those artists are. I could use them.”

Kinkade is called the “painter of light” for his trademark paintings of warmly glowing cottages and lighthouses. In the interview, he discussed the work that has made him one of this country's most popular Christian artists.

Q: Are you working as we speak?

A: Yes, I'm working on a painting called “Lamplight Sunset.” I did a series of paintings based on when I lived in England, a little village there. It was very romantic. This is the last piece in that series. It's gone on for 10 years.

Q: Do you paint every day?

A: Yes, I'm a studio hermit. The only meetings I ever take are while I'm working. I'm a traditional oil painter. Although I've come up with some techniques for speeding the drying process, it's still very time-consuming. I have about 70 paintings going at any given time. I finish 10 to 15 a year.

Q: What is your process while painting?

A: No one way. I'm always experimenting. People think I use a lot of high-tech equipment, but I don't even own a computer. I hold a brush, not a mouse. Sometimes I work with an underdrawing, and I have been an advocate of plein air (“open air”) painting. I keep my easel handy when I travel. I take a little sketchbook with me wherever I go. But for the most part, my work is imaginative. I just start with an idea in my head.

Q: How important is faith in your work?

A: Art is kind of a faith activity. You are taking a blind leap of faith when you paint, trying to create a world that speaks to you or to other people. I believe that God gives us our talent for a reason. I'm always praying that simple one-word prayer: “Help.”

Q: What do you hope to accomplish as ambassador of light for the Points of Light Foundation?

A: The first President Bush gave that speech about a thousand points of light, in which he encouraged people to volunteer. But this idea has been championed by a number of statesmen and public figures, probably going all the way back to George Washington. When John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you,” he was talking about the same thing.

Q: Are you doing anything specific for victims of Katrina?

A: Yes, we are creating a “Light in the Storm” candle with a company called Home Interiors. It will sell for about $6, and all the money will go to the relief effort. We hope to sell a million of them.

Q: Why do you think you are such a lightning rod in the art community?

A: There are artists who set fire to themselves or urinate on the canvas, but they aren't as controversial as me! I've only done one thing, and I've done it well. I create romantic images that are warm and welcoming. What I paint provides comfort and hope to some people, and that's why I do it.

Q: What's ahead for you?

A: Now that I'm in my mid-40s, I see my role shifting. I'd like to continue to be a spokesman for certain core values, especially as it relates to kids. I can't stand to see children who aren't well cared for.

Q: How would that play out?

A: We just did a drawing project with the Orange County Children's Hospital, and with Disney. I'd like to see that expanded to provide art materials to kids in children's hospitals worldwide. I could do a video presentation to go with it. It would help kids take their minds off the troubles they are going through.

David Dunkle writes for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.

Posted: 11/11/05

Texas Baptist Forum

Interesting omission

I found it interesting looking at the list of exhibitors for the upcoming Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

What I found even more interesting is who was not listed.

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

"Jesus tells us not to fear those who can destroy the body, but those who can destroy body and soul. And part of the sickness of spirit we feel when confronted with terrorism is that we face people whose souls are damaged, almost destroyed." Rowan Williams Archbishop of Canterbury (RNS) "You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He wanted you alive and created you for a purpose. … Only in God do we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny." Rick Warren Pastor and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, quoted on a Starbucks coffee cup (RNS/ USA Today) "Ooh, it was so much fun. I think I'm alive." Thomas Rice Pastor of First Baptist Church in Agawam, Mass., after skydiving to illustrate a sermon on trusting God and overcoming fear (RNS) "We actually went through two cloud layers. He was closer to God than ever before." David Strickland Rice's skydiving instructor (RNS)

Under the listing for schools, universities and seminaries, Baptist University of the Americas was listed, Baylor University and Truett Seminary were listed, Logsdon School of Theology was listed, but Southwestern Baptist Theo-logical Seminary was noticeably absent, not to mention their new The College at Southwestern was missing too.

Why is that?

Isn't Southwestern one of the pre-eminent theological seminaries in the United States and Texas? As a Southwestern alum (class of 2001) and as a pastor of a Texas Baptist church, it is shocking to see that my alma mater, and the alma mater of many Texas pastors and BGCT leadership, was left out of the loop.

It is discouraging to see other SBC entities included as exhibitors to the convention but Southwestern Semi-nary excluded because of a so-called lack of contribution to Texas Baptist work.

I think that the contribution of training pastors, student ministers, education ministers, music ministers and others who serve on church staffs in Texas is contribution enough. I guess there is always next year.

Troy Allen

Florence

Disingenuous request

I applaud the decision to not allow Southwestern Seminary space at the BGCT annual meeting to set up their exhibit. It was the absolute right thing to do.

It is disingenuous for Southwestern Seminary to act like they have no clue why the committee took the steps they took by not allowing them space in Austin this year.

If Southwestern where really interested in mending fences and moving on, then the very first thing that (President) Paige Patterson should do is on behalf of Southwestern Seminary publicly apologize to Russell Dilday, (the president who was fired by fundamentalist trustees in 1994).

One scholarship and a couple of invitations to speak during a chapel service do not begin to address the difficulties Southwestern has created between themselves and the BGCT. It is unfortunate that Southwestern and the BGCT don't have a better working relationship, but lest we forget, it is Southwestern and not the BGCT who has changed who they are and what they stand for.

So, spare us all the hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth over not being able to pass out pens and notepads at this year's annual meeting. It's childish and only breeds further discord among Texas Baptists.

Gerald Bastin

Tilden

Sin selection

If you live in Texas, you were bombarded with appeals to vote for a constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage. And while I so voted, I am alarmed that many Christians came out of the voting booth feeling very righteous.

It amazes me how so many Christians can focus on so few sins–the ones they would never be guilty of–and ignore other sins they commit regularly.

Consider Jesus' words in Matthew 7: “How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”

One of the “planks” in Christian eyes is divorce. The divorce rate among Christians matches or even exceeds that of nonbelievers. Are Christians really concerned about protecting marriage? Or are we just concerned about judging others and making ourselves feel righteous?

Consider these words of Jesus: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1).

I'm concerned that a lot of Christians today are turning into modern-day Pharisees. Jesus didn't have very many nice things to say about them. If we are to win the world to Christ, we need to be more Christ-like, and less Pharisee-like.

Larry Burner

McKinney

What do you think? The Baptist Standard values letters to the editor, for they reflect Baptists' traditional affirmation of the priesthood of believers. Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com. Letters are limited to 250 words.

Posted: 11/11/05

Mystery of God only answer
for serious evangelicals

By Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service

WACO (RNS)–As a Baptist preacher, Randall O'Brien knows the Bible says natural disasters can be signs of God's judgment. But he's not preaching anything of the sort, not even in a year marked by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes.

Instead, he's joining other evangelical Protestant leaders in offering an answer that would have been almost unthinkable for a Bible-believing preacher even one generation ago. Despite all he knows from Scripture, O'Brien proclaims God to be a mystery, at least when calamity occurs.

“I don't know why bad things happen to innocent people,” said O'Brien, interim pastor at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church and interim provost and chair of the religion department at Baylor University. “There's something very worshipful about saying that God is God, and I'm not.”

What O'Brien illustrates is a growing admittance of puzzlement in evangelical circles. That has prompted some religion scholars to wonder if understandings of God–and religious authority–might be undergoing some subtle but significant revisions among one of this country's largest and most influential religious groups.

Across the country, evangelical leaders are finding themselves challenged to explain what insurers eerily call “acts of God.” Sunday sermons reflect on hurricanes hitting the Gulf Coast, mudslides in Guatemala, floods in New England and an epic earthquake in Pakistan.

Evangelicalism “is a movement that vests people with authority when they can convince (others) that they have something strong and powerful and effective to say,” said Joel Carpenter, provost of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and a historian of American religion.

“So, yeah, you're giving up something when you say, 'Look, folks, this is just mysterious. And yes, as a careful student of the Scripture, I search and search, and I find the biblical writer is pointing to mystery as well, pointing to trust as the answer, (rather than) relying on my own understanding.'”

For at least 250 years, Carpenter said, evangelicals have placed a premium on understanding things of God as a crucial sign of an individual's salvation. Carpenter says anyone unsure of personal righteousness, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, would likely hear from an evangelist: “If you can't be more certain than that, then maybe you ought to doubt your salvation, and you can settle that today” by surrendering to Jesus Christ.

Floodwaters deluge the neighborhood around New Orleans' Edgewater Baptist Church on Paris Avenue following Hurricane Rita.

The point, Carpenter emphasized, was that “God really is going to make things clear to you, all kinds of things.”

Through the decades, scholars say, this notion of the saved as knowledgeable in all things godly has allowed little room for divine mystery.

But evangelical leaders today increasingly are admitting a lack of answers.

Jerry Falwell recently wrote in his newsletter, Falwell Confidential: “What is the biblical significance of all these global disasters which have befallen us recently? The honest answer is, I do not know.”

Falwell's open befuddlement is a shift for a fundamentalist Baptist preacher who infamously said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were divine judgment for “throwing God out of the public square.”

Perhaps the days are fading, Carpenter suggested, when evangelicals “think they have power to convince and persuade (only) as long as they have power to explain.”

Meanwhile, hunger for the mysterious seems to be growing, scholars say, especially among young adult evangelicals. They flock to the simple chanting of Taize-style services and inhale incense in the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican churches they've joined.

And they welcome books pondering God's mysterious side from writers such as Donald Miller and James Emery White, according to Jana Riess, religion book review editor at Publishers Weekly magazine.

“I certainly think,” said Riess, “some of the younger generation (of evangelicals) are interested in letting God be mysterious and are comfortable with that.”

As they ponder life's uncertainty in a post-Sept. 11, disaster-prone world, evangelical leaders are daring to speak of mystery even beyond the weather.

“All evangelical leaders today are dealing with much more sophisticated clienteles and are themselves theologically more nuanced” than in decades past, said David Edwin Harrell, professor emeritus of history at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., and an expert on evangelical leaders of the 20th century.

“Neither for their own personal theologies nor for their customers are they going to offer the old-time, one-dimensional view of God and of truth. … There is something afoot, clearly, and that is that these are people who are looking in a broader and different way at God and his working from what many early evangelicals (in the 1940s and '50s) would have.”

In prior times, evangelicals wouldn't have hesitated to interpret a hurricane as God's judgment on sin or God's last-chance call to repentance, Harrell said. By contrast, leaders who have made such comments beyond the walls of their churches this year have generated headlines and unwanted publicity.

Those who desire a better way, therefore, must either rethink their beliefs or embrace the mystery of a loving God who somehow allows the innocent to suffer, said Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

“There's an embarrassment over the glibness of the past in which some of our leaders were so sure, you know, why 9/11 hit or so sure New Orleans got it because of its decadence and lifestyle,” Mouw said. “In many ways, these leaders, in order to really have the respect of the rank and file, need to not sound so glib and sound wiser in their willingness to encourage people to live with the mystery.”

For O'Brien, the irony of doing so has been sweet. By admitting he lacks answers to certain questions, he says, his authority as a trustworthy source in the eyes of church members actually seems to grow.

In this, he gets rewarded for forgoing the posture of “father who knows best” and instead embracing his role as an equal, that is, as “brother, sister, fellow struggler … pilgrim on the way.”

Still, Carpenter expects resistance to the doctrine that God is vastly mysterious, especially from the worlds of Christian commerce and para-church ministries. That's because quick answers attract more of an audience than those who marvel without immediate clarity, he commented.

“There's less market for that kind of expression out there in the world of religious consumption,” Carpenter said. “American culture isn't wired for that. It's wired for self-help.”

Mouw expects December's The Chronicles of Narnia film, marketed to Christians by Disney, to further fuel the still-burgeoning evangelical affair with wonder. But, he predicts, some will grow uneasy along the way.

“Insofar as the attraction of evangelicalism is that we've provided easy answers and allowed people to feel very comfortable in a universe where they have things pretty well figured out, it takes a much more mature faith (to live with mystery) and fewer probably will be able to handle it,” Mouw said.

Posted: 11/11/05

On the Move

Kent Battenfield to Eastside Church in Ranger as pastor.

Matt Butler to Littleville Church in Hamilton as pastor.

Eddie Castaneda to Immanuel Church in Abilene as pastor, where he had been associate pastor.

Charles Chamberlain to Union Center Church in Rising Star as pastor.

Kyle Clayton to First Church in Farwell as youth minister.

Brandon Cook to First Church in Throckmorton as youth minister.

Michael Cosgrove to Red River Valley Association as director of missions.

Rick Davis to First Church in Brownwood as pastor.

Jose DeLeon to Primera Iglesia in Dripping Springs as pastor.

Jerry Eckhart has resigned as pastor of Union Center Church in Rising Star and is interim pastor of Shelton Avenue Church in Breckenridge.

Glyndle Feagin to First Church in Matador as interim pastor.

Dan Gilmore to Second Church in La Grange as interim music minister.

Dallas Goff to Rolling Acres Church in Bangs as pastor.

Scott Herrington to First Church in Olton as music minister.

Debbie Koberlein to First Church in Buda as youth director.

Matt Koen to First Church in Mart as minister of music.

Tommy Pophin has resigned as pastor of Eastridge Church in Mineral Wells.

Andy Rodgers to First Church in Eastland as youth minister.

Barry Schahn to First Church in Gorman as interim pastor.

Lindsay Stephens to First Church in Smithville as youth minister.

Raul Tirado to Primera Iglesia Emanuel in Evant as pastor.

Jose Torres to Iglesia Parkview in Marshall as pastor from Iglesia Nueva Vida in Marshall.

Dan Turner to Central Church in Pampa as interim minister of music.

Craig Van Ryswyck has resigned as minister of youth at First Church in Canyon Lake.

Haril Walpole to Marcelina Church in Floresville as pastor.

G.J. Walton has resigned as minister of students at First Church in Paris.

Posted: 11/11/05

Piper Institute names Brooks executive director

The Piper Institute for Church Planting has named E.B. Brooks, who retired recently after 26 years with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, as the organization's executive director.

Brooks, who led the BGCT church missions and evangelism efforts, has served on the Piper Institute for Church Planting board since its beginning.

“I know of no one in Baptist life who is more qualified to lead the Piper Institute,” board Chairman Bill Nichols said. “Dr. Brooks is one of the nation's leading church-planting strategists, and the Piper Institute is assisting as churches are being started in record numbers throughout Latin America. What a great match.”

The institute, named for Christian philanthropists Paul and Katy Piper, focuses on planting churches in Latin America.

Veteran Texas Baptist church planter Otto Arango, president of the Union of Latin American Baptists, will continue to serve as president of the institute.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions recently signed a two-year partnership agreement with the Piper Foundation and the Union of Latin American Baptists to start churches in Central and South America.

“I am truly challenged by this task. It affords unique opportunities,” Brooks said. “The current ministries are only a beginning, a foundation, for what can be done. I look forward to seeing the work enlarged to include spiritual formation and leader training for the new churches. There is so much to do in Christian ministry to the nations. There is an open door to being involved in many helpful ways.”

“Many Baptist and other evangelical ministries are at work in Latin America. I look forward to networking and partnering with as many as are interested in doing so. And beyond Latin America is a world waiting for compassionate involvement by the people of God.”

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade praised the institute's choice of Brooks as its executive director.

“He is passionate about getting the gospel to the lost world, and he knows that new churches are the key to penetrating a dark world with the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Wade said.

“He helped us establish a unique partnership with Mexico Baptists, and this work will grow even stronger because of the new opportunity for partnership.”

Paul Powell, dean of Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary said, “E.B. Brooks is an excellent choice, because no person in our convention is more knowledgeable of our work, more loved and respected by our pastors and churches than he.”

Posted: 11/11/05

Girls of Grace promotes teen modesty, chastity

By Greg Garrison

Religion News Service

BIRIMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS)–Teenage girls–and their mothers–tend to get excited about Point of Grace, a fixture on America's Christian music scene for 15 years.

The four female singers hope to translate that excitement over their music into lessons about chastity and modesty. Across the country, they lead two-day Girls of Grace conferences. They blend concerts with a workshop for teen girls that tackles issues such as premarital sex and being fashionable without showing too much skin.

The conferences feature tips on cosmetics, fashion and shopping. The group brings along other music leaders, including Rebecca St. James, and speakers, including a cosmetics expert.

“We've always wanted to do something for teenage girls,” said Heather Payne, who co-founded Point of Grace 15 years ago with childhood friends Denise Jones and Terry Jones, and another singer, Shelley Breen, whom they met at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark.

The foursome began singing at churches in the early 1990s, and then won the grand prize at a competition for Christian groups in Estes Park, Colo.

They signed with Word Records in 1992 and were named new artist of the year by the Gospel Music Association in the 1994 Dove Awards.

Leigh Cappellinno, wife of their long-time guitar player, joined the group in 2003 after Terry Jones retired in 2002 to stay home with her three children.

“We want girls to show they are a Christian in the way they act and the way they dress,” Payne said. “There's so much pulling at them from the world. They think they need to have so much money, clothes and possessions. We have a lot of teenagers who suffer from depression because they realize they don't have all that.”

The format features a lot of music interspersed with heart-to-heart talks and beauty tips.

“We do a concert, and we talk to girls about things in their own lives that we deal with,” Payne said. “We try to be vulnerable and talk about things we struggle with.”

They show how Christian girls can look pretty without appearing slutty.

“We show how jeans can look cute without being low-slung,” Payne said. “You have to be picky.

“We want to teach kids to dress in a classy but not trashy way. We have a fashion show with a makeover. It's such a fun time.”

Girls can go wrong by following the crowd on fashion choices such as prom dresses, Payne said.

“We've chosen prom dresses to show them how they can look good but not bare their entire body,” she said. “There's no reason to show your belly.”

Point of Grace also promotes chastity.

“I used to give my testimony that I was a virgin, and I was going to save myself for my husband,” Payne said. “It worked for me, and it would work for everybody. It's God's way.”

As for boyfriends: “It's hard to get it through to a girl that it's not the most important thing,” Payne said.

“I was 29 before I got married. There was never the right guy. I wondered if I would ever find him. When I put all that worry into my relationship with the Lord, my attitude and perspective changed. You will have relationships; some of them will last, some will not. The main thing you should look for in a boy is if he loves God with his whole heart. Our bodies are a temple, and we're not supposed to have sex before we get married.”

The singers also talk about body image.

“All of us struggle with our self-image,” Payne said. “Sometimes I don't like to look in the mirror. I have told myself that I hated myself. I have a 3-year-old girl. I would be devastated if I ever heard her say that about herself. God created us to be his image-bearers.”

Payne hopes mothers will bring their daughters and their daughters' friends to their conferences.

“We like the ratio to be more girls than moms,” Payne said. And no boys are allowed, she said. “Strictly girls.”

Greg Garrison writes for The Birmingham News in Birmingham, Ala.

Posted: 11/11/05

Most ministers dissatisfied
with their prayer lives

PHOENIX (BP)–Few Protestant ministers are satisfied with their personal prayer lives, a study by Ellison Research of Phoenix revealed.

The study conducted for LifeWay Christian Resources, publishing house of the Southern Baptist Convention, surveyed a nationally representative sample of 860 Protestant church pastors. The study reveals just 16 percent are very satisfied with their personal prayer lives. Forty-seven percent are somewhat satisfied, 30 percent somewhat dissatisfied and 7 percent very dissatisfied.

There was a substantial difference by age group. Just 9 percent of pastors under age 45 are very satisfied, compared to 13 percent among ministers age 45 to 59 and 30 percent among pastors 60 or older. The youngest pastors actually are more likely to be very dissatisfied with their own prayer lives than to be very satisfied.

Few differences by denomination or theology were noted.

Pastors also were asked how long they spend in prayer each day, and what they pray for. Time per day averaged 30 to 39 minutes. Although younger ministers are much less satisfied with their prayer lives, they spend about as much time in prayer per day as do older ministers.

How do ministers spend their prayer time? For the average minister, it looks like this: 32 percent in petition/requests, 20 percent in quiet time or listening to God, 18 percent in thanksgiving, 17 percent in praise and 14 percent in confession.

If these percentages are applied to the average amount of time ministers spend in prayer, the typical pastor spends 12 minutes per day with prayer requests, eight minutes in quiet time, seven minutes giving thanks, seven minutes in praise and five minutes confessing sin. Again, this does not differ substantially by the pastor's age or denomination.

Finally, pastors were asked what they had prayed for in the seven days preceding the survey. Most had a long list of topics. At least nine out of 10 had prayed for the needs of individual congregation members, the congregation's spiritual health, spiritual growth for their church and wisdom in leading their church.

Some of the things ministers were least likely to have prayed for included the financial health and numerical growth of the church, their own financial needs, persecuted Christians in other countries, individual Christian leaders and their denomination.

Throughout the study, Southern Baptist ministers were very similar to the average on most measures. One of the biggest differences was that just 24 percent of Southern Baptist ministers had prayed for their denomination in the last week, compared to an average of 39 percent for other denominational churches, including 49 percent among Methodists, 61 percent among Presbyterians and 67 percent among Lutherans. In general, mainline pastors are much more likely to pray for their denomination than are evangelical ministers (57 percent to 34 percent).

What defines pastors who are satisfied with their prayer lives versus those who aren't? According to the Ellison study, the factors include:

The amount of time spent in prayer. Pastors who are very satisfied spend an average of 56 minutes a day in prayer; those who are somewhat satisfied average 43 minutes; those who are somewhat dissatisfied average 29 minutes; and those who are very dissatisfied average 21 minutes.

How they divide their prayer time. Ministers who are very satisfied spend considerably less time than average making requests and considerably more time in quiet time or listening to God; other areas–confession, praise, thanksgiving–are about the same.

What they pray for. The more satisfied ministers are with their prayer lives, the more likely they are to spend time praying for "big issues" beyond their own lives and churches–overseas missions, persecuted Christians in other countries, local outreach and evangelism efforts, other local churches and pastors, global events, the country as a whole, individual Christian leaders, individual government leaders, and their denomination. Yet they are no less likely to pray for personal and church needs such as church growth or personal finances.

Posted: 11/11/05

Marriage amendment decisively approved

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

By a two-to-one margin, voters approved Proposition 2, which bolstered the state's ban on same-sex marriage by writing it into the constitution and prohibited Texas from “creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

Proponents maintained the constitutional amendment was needed to prevent homosexual couples who marry in another state and move to Texas from challenging the existing law.

Opponents insisted the language was too broad and could be used to invalidate agreements between gay partners regarding medical treatment and other personal matters.

“Although the amendment was not required to protect the historic definition of marriage, obviously Texas voters wanted to send a strong signal that they do not want anyone tampering with the makeup of marriage,” said Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade.

“Baptist people believe the Bible, and they want to do two things at the same time–love everyone, including those with whom they disagree, and defend the meaning of marriage as portrayed in the New Testament.”

The vote accomplished little, said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, a civil liberties group that opposed the constitutional amendment.

“This election really doesn't change much. Gay and lesbian Texans couldn't marry before Tuesday, they still can't marry, and not a single Texas family is better off,” she said. “The governor spent a lot of time and energy working to pass what was really an unnecessary and divisive amendment. It would be a good thing if he and our legislators finally focused as much on the issues working families care about, like strong public schools and health care for poor kids.”

But conservative activist Kelly Shackelford insisted the election results sent an important message from Texas to lawmakers both in Austin and Washington, D.C.

“Texans from every race and background spoke loudly that they want marriage to be between one man and one woman. They believe that children deserve mom and dad, and they don't want that tinkered with,” he said.

Shackelford, president of the Free Market Foundation and chief counsel for the Liberty Legal Institute, helped Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, draft the amendment.

“This is a loud message from Texas to Congress, following the 13 states from last year. As a politician, you stand against marriage amendments to your own peril,” Shackelford said. “A common saying around here is 'Don't mess with Texas.' Well, Texans have spoken and said, “Don't mess with marriage.”

Posted: 11/11/05

Eight nations cited for
religious liberty violations

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The State Department's annual report on the state of religious freedom around the globe stars the usual villains but also contains some new bright spots.

The State Department re-designated eight nations as “Countries of Particular Concern” under the terms of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act–Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.

The designation is reserved for the world's most egregious violators of religious liberty. The terms of the law require administration officials to take measures–such as imposing sanctions–on such nations to encourage them to mend their ways. The department recommended the same eight nations for that status last year.

The list includes totalitarian regimes–such as Iran and North Korea–with which the United States has little diplomatic leverage. But it also includes several U.S. allies in the war on terrorism or strong economic partners, such as China and Saudi Arabia. Both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom John Hanford noted Saudi Arabia, China and Vietnam have made progress over the past year in improving conditions for religious freedom. However, significant problems remain in even those three nations. The report chastised several other nations, including longtime allies, for insufficient respect for full religious freedom. Among those was France, which has exploded with violence among young citizens of Arab and African descent who feel discriminated against in French society. Many are Muslims, while France's government is aggressively secularist.

The report also omitted some issues that have been cited by international religious-freedom observers. For instance, department officials again declined to name Pakistan a country of particular concern, despite repeated recommendations to do so from the nonpartisan U.S. Commis-sion on International Religious Freedom.

The report also did not mention the status of religious freedom in Afghanistan.

The full report is available on the State Department's website at www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf.