Posted: 11/11/05

Religious Right suffers setbacks at polls

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–With a handful of exceptions, candidates and causes backed by religious conservatives went down to defeat in unusually prominent off-year elections Nov. 8.

Other than Texas voters' passage of a state constitutional amendment banning marriage and similar legal arrangements for gays, progressive candidates and causes prevailed over conservative ones on ballots in Virginia, New Jersey, Kansas, Maine and California.

In Virginia, a Catholic Democrat who talked regularly about his faith on the campaign trail defeated a conservative Republican Baptist who had attacked the Democrat for his personal belief that the death penalty is wrong.

According to exit polls of voters, the tactic apparently backfired for the Virginia's former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (R). He lost to Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine 52 percent to 46 percent. Kaine had said that, while his Catholic beliefs led him to personally oppose both the death penalty and abortion, he would separate that belief from his duty to enforce the legality of both.

In New Jersey, U.S. Sen. John Corzine (D), who is a member of a congregation dually aligned with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ, handily defeated his Republican opponent, fellow multimillionaire Douglas Forrester.

Maine voters solidly defeated an attempt to repeal the state's new gay-rights law, which its legislature passed earlier this year. According to the Portland Press-Herald, with 88 percent of precincts reporting, voters embraced the law by a 55-45 percent margin. It bars discrimination in employment and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation. The law makes Maine the last New England state to include sexual orientation as one of the protected categories in its anti-discrimination laws.

Gay-rights groups pointed to the Maine results as a counterbalance to Texas, which overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state's charter that bans same-sex marriage or other marriage-like legal arrangements for gays.

California voters, meanwhile, rejected all of the eight ballot initiatives placed before them–including an attempt to require minor girls to notify their parents before obtaining an abortion. With all precincts reporting Nov. 9, Proposition 73 lost 53-47 percent, according to the California secretary of state's website.

In Dover, Pa., voters ejected all eight members of the school board, who had stoked national fires of controversy last year by voting to require the district's biology teachers to mention a controversial theory about the origins of life. The theory, called “intelligent design,” posits that Darwinian evolution cannot by itself explain some complexities of life on earth, which point to the guiding hand of some intelligent force.

The eight Republican board members who supported the policy were roundly defeated by a slate of Democrats. Some of them said that they do not oppose intelligent design but do oppose teaching it in a science class. Their view reflects that of most mainstream scientific and educational organizations, who say that intelligent design is a matter of faith that cannot be scientifically tested, and thus it does not belong in a public-school science class.

Despite the day's outcomes, one observer of the national political scene cautioned against seeing a nationwide anti-conservative trend.

“I think it's very hard to take a sort of a national lesson from elections that are widely scattered; we recognize that many elections are influenced by local considerations,” said Jack Fleer, professor emeritus of political science at Wake Forest University.

Fleer noted the two gubernatorial contests featured very different kinds of Democrats and Republi-cans. In Virginia, Democrat Kaine is widely viewed as a moderate, like his Democratic predecessor, Mark Warner. Meanwhile, Kilgore is a conservative Republican strongly supported by the Religious Right.

But in New Jersey, Corzine is more toward the liberal end of the spectrum, and Forrester is a moderate.

Fleer also pointed to the use of faith in the Virginia election and said Kaine's open and regular discussion of his religious faith on the campaign trail pointed to a lesson Democrats learned from the 2004 national elections.

“In Virginia, you had a very strong use of 'moral values' as a kind of Democratic candidate appeal, which might suggest that this is a sort of area where Republicans have gotten a lot of mileage,” he said.

“I think this whole issue of … 'moral values' continues to be a very prominent part of the political landscape. And insofar as it continues to be a prominent part of the political landscape, I think you have to give some credit to Republicans for injecting it into the debate.”

Posted: 11/11/05

Sex ed ruling reviled

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Conservative groups expressed outrage at a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals involving parents' rights and sex education.

The court dismissed a lawsuit by six parents who had sued the Palmdale, Calif., school district, near Los Angeles. The parents sued the district for submitting their elementary-aged children to a survey that included some questions about sex.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt, writing the ruling for a unanimous three-judge panel, upheld a lower federal court's determination that “there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children” and that “parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students.”

The Washington-based Family Research Council called the ruling “one more horrible example of what happens to parents' rights when liberal judicial activists are unchecked.”

Posted: 11/11/05

South Texas School president elected

Trustees of the South Texas School of Christian Studies–formerly the Baptist Learning Center–in Corpus Christi elected Tony Celelli (right) as the institution's new president. Celelli follows Linn Self (left), who has been president since 1996. Self announced his retirement plans in April. He will serve the school until the end of December. Celelli's official tenure with the school begins Nov. 15. Celelli has served as minister of spiritual formation at Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi since 1998. He also has led an inner-city ministry called “The Station” since 1999, served as a trustee of the school five years, and taught as an adjunct for Howard Payne University in the South Texas program four years. Celelli is a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University and Logsdon Seminary, and he currently is pursuing a doctorate in leadership studies at Dallas Baptist University.

Posted: 11/11/05

San Antonio church seeks
to transform its community

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

SAN ANTONIO–South San Filadelfia Baptist Church members understand the importance of meeting human needs in the low-income area surrounding their congregation, but they want to do more. They want to transform their community and impact its future.

"We believe the biblical model is to feed people physical and spiritual food," said Pastor Victor Rodriquez. "Through the personal touch and personal contact with them, we're seeing lives changed. We want to transform the community from within."

The church–created from the merger of the historically Anglo South San Antonio Baptist Church and the Hispanic Iglesia Bautista Filadelfia–sponsors a food pantry involving 20 workers who give 3,000 volunteer hours a year.

Annie and Cecil Suarez (left) work with Esperanza and Eusebio Reyna on the evangelism team at South San Filadelfia Baptist Church's food pantry.

Each Monday, volunteers sack about 60 bags of groceries. Many are delivered to elderly shut-ins. The rest are distributed to families that come asking for help.

In August, for instance, the ministry served 220 families and 657 individuals. In September, when the pantry closed one week for a funeral, volunteers still served 153 families and more than 500 individuals.

Texas Baptists provide ongoing support for the ministry through their gifts to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger.

South San Filadelfia wants to do more than just give away food. The community ministry also serves as a learning laboratory for students from Baptist University of the Americas.

Enrique Cruz, who grew up in Puerto Rico, and Martha Tobias, a native of Mexico, earn credit for a community ministries class by working at the pantry and being mentored by its director, Lois Angel. Tobias wants to learn how to serve more effectively alongside her husband, a church planter and pastor. Cruz hopes to gain skills he can use in international missions.

“BUA is an integral part of our ministry here,” Rodriguez said. “The students here at our church are learning the basics of ministry by being around people.”

Angel, 78, teaches the students by example.

“My mother al-ways told me your daily walk speaks louder than all the words you utter,” she said.

But she also instructs through im-promptu lectures a-round the break-room table.

“Never, ever turn somebody away without giving them something,” she told workers one recent morning. “We fully serve seven ZIP codes, but we don't ever turn anybody away empty-handed, no matter where they're from. Kind-ness to other people is what makes all the difference.”

Pastor Victor Rodriguez (right) persuaded Lois Angel to direct the church's food pantry.

Angel is the first to admit she initially refused Rodriguez's invitation to revive the dormant food pantry ministry.

“I told him 'no,' but the Lord prevailed,” she said.

Angel tried to sidestep the matter by placing conditions on her willingness to serve. She told Rodriguez she would not direct the food pantry unless the church provided adequate equipment and space, a secure area, dependable volunteers to staff the pantry, interpreters so the Spanish-speaking clientele could be served and a mission team to follow up with every recipient.

“I'm not going to be part of it if we're just a grocery store. But this can be a real ministry if it's done right,” she said.

To her surprise, Rodriguez met every demand she made. He particularly was pleased to meet one requirement Angel set–that the church pray for the food pantry and dedicate it to God.

“It was important for the church to say, 'Lord, it's all yours,'” she said. “There are two reasons this pantry runs smoothly. One is that we dedicated it all to the Lord before anything was even on the premises. The other is that we have good paperwork.”

When Angel assumed responsibility for the food pantry, she developed a record-keeping system that not only helped the pantry maintain accountability, but also provided the church a valuable database of information about unchurched people in the community.

“It's a treasure,” Rodriquez said. Two home Bible studies that leaders hope to develop into mission congregations already have be started through contacts made through the food pantry. The church also used contact information gleaned through the food pantry to promote a Vacation Bible School that drew 600 children and youth and a T-ball league involving about 500 children and their parents.

“It has opened a lot of doors for us,” he said. “For instance, we're getting ready to start a bus ministry soon, and we'll tap into the information we've gathered.”

In 16 months, the ministry has resulted in more than100 professions of faith in Christ, and about 95 percent of those people have been baptized into South San Filadelfia Baptist Church.

Eusebio “Zeb” Reyna and his wife, Esperanza, work with interpreter Annie Suarez and her husband, Cecil, on the pantry's evangelism team.

The Reynas often share their testimony with people who have lost hope. Reyna, a Vietnam veteran, tells how his struggles with drug dependency destroyed his marriage. But after he came to faith in Christ, he eventually led his ex-wife also to become a Christian, and they remarried.

Now Reyna is an ordained minister, and all of the couple's children–including a son who had been in a notorious motorcycle gang–are serving God. “We serve a God of the second chance,” he said. “If I don't witness, if I don't share my testimony, I've wasted the experience.”

The food pantry reflects the vision of South San Filadelfia–reaching into the community not just to meet needs, but also to change lives, the church's pastor emphasized.

“We're impacting our community,” Rodriguez said. “Our passion is ministry out there in the community–outside these four walls of the church.”

Posted: 11/11/05

Texas Tidbits

UMHB alum killed after homecoming. Bill and Becky Zerbe were killed in a car accident on their way back to Albuquerque, N.M., following homecoming activities at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. She graduated from UMHB in 1975. The accident occurred about 4:40 p.m. Nov. 5 outside Mexia. Both died at the scene, and her parents–William and Norma Bueie of Mexia–who were in the back seat were taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, where they were listed in critical condition. "We are deeply saddened by the news of this accident," said UMHB President Jerry Bawcom. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the Zerbe family and friends."

SBTC elects Swofford president. Messengers to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention annual meeting approved a $19.3 million budget for 2006 and elected as president Steve Swofford, pastor of First Baptist Church in Rockwall. The meeting in Amarillo drew 910 registered messengers and guests. Messengers approved resolutions affirming traditional marriage, the sanctity of human life and the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention broke away from the Baptist General Convention of Texas in 1998.

Baylor awarded energy research grant. The United States Department of Energy awarded Baylor University's physics department a three-year, $360,000 grant for a project dedicated to research in high-energy physics.

Baylor law students clear high bar. Baylor Law School students posted the highest passing percentage in the latest Texas Bar Exam. Baylor law students achieved a 93.51 percent pass rate for the bar exam taken in July 2005, topping the pass rates of students from the eight other law schools in the state. Of the 77 Baylor law students who took the two-day examination, 72 passed. The overall state pass rate was 83.14 percent, with a total of 1,519 successful candidates among the 1,827 students who took the exam.

BUA names Oklahoman to board. Baptist University of the Americas trustees selected Bob Stephenson of Norman, Okla., as a non-Texas representative on the board. Stephenson, a petroleum geologist, is a member of the boards of Associated Baptist Press and Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists. He also has been on the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council. He and his wife, Norma, are members at Northhaven Baptist Church in Norman. They have two grown children and seven grandchildren. Michael Morgan, vice president for external affairs at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., was the first non-Texas resident on the BUA trustee board.

FOX News reporter addresses Howard Payne. Jim Angle, senior Washington correspondent for FOX News, will address the media's role in a free society after 9/11 at a Democracy-in-Action Lecture presented by Howard Payne University's Othal Brand Chair of Free Enterprise and Public Policy, Nov. 28 at the Brownwood Coliseum. Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m., followed by the presentation from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. Cost is $20 per person. Proceeds will benefit Howard Payne's Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom. Reservations are requested by Nov. 18. Call Howard Payne at (800) 950-8465 or (325) 649-8006.

UMHB Chamber Winds schedules inaugural concert. The inaugural concert of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Chamber Winds will be at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 15 on the UMHB campus. Stephen Crawford, associate professor of music and director of bands, will conduct the ensemble. The concert is free and open to the public.

Posted: 11/11/05

TOGETHER:
Constitution, bylaws reflect hard work

Occasionally, someone asks, “What is it about Texas Baptists that makes you so eager to tackle big challenges?” Texas Baptists believe they can do anything God wants them to do. They love their churches, and they love being part of a cooperative effort that allows them to make a difference in Texas and touch the world.

This week, we gather in Austin for our annual meeting. I wish all who read this could be present for the fellowship, inspiration and information. As President Albert Reyes leads us, remember to pray for him, and don't forget to thank God for raising Albert up to be such a remarkable leader. The Baptist University of the Americas, where he serves as president, has seen amazing achievements since he arrived. He has given himself to building the strongest multicultural ministry training center anywhere in the Americas. He has focused us on the changing needs of Texas and how our Hispanic brothers and sisters constitute one of our greatest resources to advance the gospel throughout the world.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Michael Bell and Stacy Connor are serving as BGCT vice presidents, and these two pastors have brought wonderful dedication and experience to their roles. They have helped make the governance process work effectively, even though we were building a new airplane while we were flying it.

One of the most important things we will do in the annual meeting is vote on the proposed constitution and bylaws. These documents reflect the hard work of many people. Hundreds have had input as we met before, during and after they were drafted. Please allow me to name a few:

Dale Jones of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas was one of the driving forces to get us ready to consider rewriting the constitution and reducing the Executive Board's size to ensure accountability and enhance effectiveness. He died much too soon for us and did not get to see the final drafts, but his fingerprints are all over the documents.

Wesley Shotwell, pastor of Ash Creek Baptist Church in Azle, was vice chair of the Executive Board and chaired the committee that drafted the constitution and bylaws. He has been an extraordinary listener and leader, and he will make the presentations to the convention on behalf of the board.

Bob Banks helped us sort out all the issues regarding constitutional language and achieve our purposes of becoming more accountable to and more effective in responding to the needs of our churches and convention. In my growing-up years in Oklahoma, Bob was that state's Royal Ambassador director. His faith, his passion for serving God and his desire to introduce boys and young men to the needs of the whole world were contagious.

John Ogletree and Jim Nelson–two lawyers–led the Executive Board this past year as it went through the most significant changes in its history. They have been knowledgeable and steady throughout the entire process. John is pastor of First Metropolitan Baptist Church in Houston, and Jim is a member of Hyde Park Baptist in Austin.

As we come to vote on these matters, I pray for us all that there will be a clear sense of where God is leading us to go. And that we will step forward and go there.

We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Posted: 11/11/05

Baylor interim may be Mercer president

By Greg Warner & John Pierce

Associated Baptist Press & Baptists Today

MACON, Ga. (ABP)–Mercer University trustees appear poised to elect Baylor University Interim President Bill Underwood as the Georgia Baptist school's president.

Underwood, 49, met with some faculty and board members during a visit to Mercer Nov. 7-8, several faculty members reported. All trustees were invited to the meetings, but Underwood is not expected to be elected by trustees until their regularly scheduled meeting Dec. 2.

Mercer president Kirby Godsey, 68, is retiring June 30. The school has 7,084 students.

A law professor at Baylor, Underwood was considered a leading candidate for the presidency at that school before removing his name from consideration two months ago. Baylor trustees elected Nevada educator John Lilley as president Nov. 4.

Underwood has been in discussion with the Mercer search committee for some time. Although he has no formal ties to Mercer, he has been a friend of Godsey since both were panelists for a Baylor conference on Christian higher education in April.

The impending nomination of Underwood to lead Mercer is “not a big secret,” said one source close to the process. “They're all feeling very positive. … I think Bill would be a great fit for Mercer.”

This is at least the second trip Underwood has made to meet with Mercer officials, although this trip was more “focused” and included his wife, sources said. He reportedly met with Mercer deans and faculty representatives on the school's campuses in Macon and Atlanta, as well as major donors.

According to participants in the meetings, Underwood was not presented as the search committee's nominee, but the intention to nominate him was clear.

The search committee “is working diligently to identify and interview candidates,” said Mercer spokesperson Judith Lunsford. “We don't have any information to release at this point of the process. The earliest we might have an announcement would be at the regular December meeting of the board of trustees, but there has not even been a call for a vote at this time.”

Underwood, a popular figure within the Baylor faculty, immediately made his mark after becoming interim by shaking up the university's top administration, most notably replacing Provost David Lyle Jeffrey. Underwood's leadership as interim fueled speculation he might become Baylor's president.

According to a Mercer leader who met with Underwood Nov. 8, Underwood was asked if he might return to Baylor as president at a later time. Underwood reportedly declined interest, saying Mercer has more potential for growth than Baylor.

Baylor has been deeply divided in recent years over the school's direction and the leadership of former President Robert Sloan. “Who wants to take in that role, with a divided board, when you can go to Mercer and have a united board?” asked one school leader.

Last year, Underwood publicly debated Jeffrey on the proper role of academic freedom at a religious university. The former general counsel for Baylor, Underwood was a leader of the committee that investigated the death of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy.

Underwood, a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and the University of Illinois College of Law, practiced civil trial law in Dallas before joining the Baylor faculty in 1990. He and his wife, Leslie, have two children–Jessica, 16, and William, 11. They are members of Seventh & James Baptist Church in Waco.

Baylor faculty members recently adopted an affirmation of Underwood's leadership as interim.

Posted: 11/11/05

Faith motivates volunteers
engaged in community service

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

WACO–Christians who work in soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other community ministries want meaningful relationships with the people they serve. But their relationship with God motivates them more than any expectation of changing other people, a recent study revealed.

Dean Diana Garland and Associate Dean Dennis Myers from the Baylor University School of Social Work surveyed 7,403 members of 35 churches in six states–including 2,570 active volunteers– to explore the motivations of Christian volunteers in community service programs. They conducted additional surveys of 946 of the volunteers and in-depth interviews with 25 of the volunteers they surveyed.

Garland and Myers identified four categories of motivation–response to God, response to human need, relationship benefits and personal benefits.

Volunteers who serve primarily out of a response to God are motivated by a desire to obey God, to fulfill a sense of calling, and to use their gifts and the resources with which God blessed them, they discovered.

“Especially in those settings that can be very taxing for volunteers and can be difficult to set boundaries, being motivated by one's relationship with God and by a personal sense of calling are more likely to sustain a volunteer over the long term than any expectation for change in service recipients,” Garland and Myers concluded in their study.

Garland expected to see a close link between faith and commitment to service, but even she was surprised by the dedication of volunteers over the long haul and the depth of their faith.

“Service is integral to who we are as Christians. I was surprised by the long-term commitment people make to serve. It's powerful–more than I expected,” Garland acknowledged.

“We're not called to change people; we're called to be faithful. We're called of God to serve; we're not necessarily called to make a difference.”

Even so, while making a difference is not the prime motivation for Christian volunteers, it still is important, and they particularly value having a meaningful relationship with the people they serve–whether they see it as an opportunity for evangelism or for their own personal growth, the researchers discovered.

Politicians who see church-based volunteers as free labor to replace a downsized public network of social services need to understand that finding, Garland and Myers noted.

Dennis Myers

For instance, last year, the Texas Legislature closed one-third of the Health and Human Services community offices on the assumption that volunteers could provide more than 1 million additional hours to help needy people fill out applications and do government-required paperwork.

“There aren't a million volunteer hours in Texas to replace what's being dismantled on the professional service side. It's not good use of volunteers to have them sitting at a desk or computer filling out applications,” Myers said. “It's better to connect them to people.”

Garland and Myers discovered time is a challenge but not a barrier to committed Christian volunteers. Of the 25 volunteers interviewed, only five specifically mentioned time as a challenge, but they described it as something they successfully addressed.

“In short, some volunteers have the time; others consider it is worth sacrificing the time for what they value,” they concluded.

Church leaders often fail to understand volunteer involvement by Christians–not just in church-based programs, but also in other community service–positively affects church members, the researchers noted.

“Some church leaders feel service in the community is something extra for those who feel called to do it, but it's for everyone. There's a false dichotomy between the work done within the congregation and that which is outside the congregation,” Garland said.

“Among leaders, the focus sometimes is on getting the job done, and volunteers may not be the most efficient or easy way. Sometimes the focus is on what is done for the congregation. But people want to be part of a community that makes a difference in the world.”

Volunteer service has the potential of enriching and deepening Christian faith, she added.

“We underestimate how important service is to churches and communities of faith. Service and learning feed one another. Volunteers' service has a profound impact on faith and on the richness of their faith,” she said.

In interviews, volunteers talked about answered prayers, lessons learned and faith strengthened, she noted.

“We saw a thicker description of evangelism. It included living their faith, struggle with community, having a meaningful relationship with others and communicating faith with others,” she said.

Pastors and other church leaders miss a great opportunity when they fail to help volunteers understand their volunteer service in light of their faith experience.

“Churches can help people make the connections back to their faith,” she said. “Teach with an intentional attitude of relating service to the whole life of faith.”

Posted: 11/11/05

Disinterested students discover
Christ in university classes

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

AIEA, Hawaii–Rob Lockridge understands spiritual transformation. In his six years of serving as adjunct instructor in religion at Wayland Baptist University's campus in Hawaii, Lockridge has seen plenty of students go from a total disinterest and disdain for the Bible to accepting Jesus as their Savior.

“On the first night of class, most people–quite frankly–don't want to be in a Bible class, and they don't know why they have to take a religion class to get their degree,” Lockridge said. “But by the last night of class, many of them realize there is something different about this book. It's so interesting to watch the transformation.”

Like many Christian universities, Wayland requires all students to take Old Testament and New Testament history as core courses. On many of Wayland's 12 campuses beyond Plainview, this requirement is difficult for some to swallow.

The primarily adult students at these campuses come from varied backgrounds, and many attend Wayland out of convenience or for its affordability. Military personnel especially like Wayland's programs because they help them pull their diverse credits into a degree and campuses are located on many military bases.

“Many of our students are not churched; many grew up in a Buddhist background and have never heard the gospel message,” Lockridge said. “They begin to find out that the preconceived notions about church and Christianity that they have are just not true.”

Lockridge's evangelism of his students is not what many might expect. He doesn't preach but simply presents the Scripture in the context of his classes and lets the Holy Spirit do the rest.

“I'm there to go through the Bible with them and the history. In the process of doing that, and looking over the historical accuracy of the document and relating it to today's events, the students themselves will start to wonder,” he said.

Sometimes during the term, students approach Lockridge for answers to more questions about the Bible or about Christianity, and he said he makes himself available by phone and e-mail for that purpose.

One man accepted Christ after a class period where the Ten Commandments were discussed and he felt guilt about an adulterous relationship. But the biggest harvest comes when the class is wrapping up.

“On the last night of class, I talk about what it means to be a Christian, using the Baptist Hymnal. I talk about how a Christian is someone that trusts in the Lord and tries to follow him and talk to him,” he said.

“I also give my testimony about being a former military person who was pretty anti-Christian, and a lot of them can relate to my story.”

Through the instruction, many have been exposed to Christian principles and have embraced the faith.

In his six years of teaching, Lockridge said, he's always had at least one person accept Christ.

“We have this university in Texas, on a military base in Hawaii, and people are coming to Jesus,” he said, marveling. “To me, it's just an awesome thing that things are coming together and that God is working in that way.

“We talk about the Great Commission, about going and making disciples, and that's happening. God's word is just as effective and convincing and convicting out here as it was in Jerusalem and there in Plainview.”

Posted: 11/11/05

Doubting seeker finds faith
at Wayland Baptist University

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

CLOVIS, N.M.–Raymond Atchley admits he was unsure of his faith when he enrolled at Wayland Baptist University's campus in Clovis, N.M., a few years ago.

“I'm not really sure that I'm a Christian, and I may be agnostic,” he told Carol Green, then dean of the Clovis campus, asking if he was allowed to attend a Baptist school.

“She just smiled and said that everyone was welcome here,” he recalled. “I felt confident that was where I was supposed to be.”

In 2003, after earning an associate's degree at Clovis Community College, Atchley enrolled in Wayland to pursue a bachelor of science in occupational education degree in human services.

Having spent a 32-year career in law enforcement as a police officer in several cities and on several military bases, Atchley, now 50, said he was looking for a fresh start and the fulfillment he had lacked for many years.

“I was looking for God, so it was good to go to a school where you can do that,” he said.

Atchley admits struggling with his faith and what he believed, wanting to be a bold Christian but not feeling worthy of that title. Some of the Christian concepts, like being “born again,” were void of meaning.

During the campus' Spiritual Emphasis Week, Atchley said the speaker's words hit home.

“He said, 'Sometimes you've got to get out of the boat,'” he recalled, referring to the story of Jesus and the Apostle Peter walking on the water by faith. “I guess I got out of the boat.”

At Wayland, Atchley said, he found acceptance, love and a Christian witness displayed in faculty and staff who didn't preach or condemn but encouraged him to seek out the truth and investigate God and the Bible.

“People are sometimes afraid they'll be preached at (attending a Christian university), but no one ever preached at me,” he said. “They allowed me to find God on my own, with the love and care of my professors. I found a home here.”

Through his Old Testament and New Testament classes at Wayland, Atchley said, “things started gelling; my faith started coming back to me.”

He credits his teachers, Glenn McCoy and Jesse Cantu, with providing answers and the openness to seek them.

In March, Atchley earned his bachelor's degree, starting work on the master of education degree the next term. He's found a new joy in teaching concurrent high school students at a community college, a vocation he never would have imagined since he didn't like teachers as a young student.

He hopes to teach history at Wayland some day.

“Wayland gave me an education, but it also brought me back to the Lord,” he said. “I just paddle the boat and let God work the rudder where he wants me to go.”

Posted: 11/11/05

CYBER COLUMN:
Life of a pastor

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, musing with laughter over the life of a pastor. The poet Langston Hughes has a line in one of his poems about the “circus of civilization.” I, from time to time, refer to myself as the ringmaster of the circus. As a pastor, I find myself in situations that God must deem painful, laughable or, at the least, enjoyable.

My mind drifts to the past—one July day years ago, when a teenager fell through the roof of a boat dock and splashed in the water, and his body lodged beneath a rock, and he drowned. The sadness of his mother holding him in the ambulance still haunts my memory. The blood and the grief and the collision of “shoulda, coulda, woulda,” or at worst, “if only I had … .” In grief, people think of everything that might have changed the situation that led to death. The horror of the boy’s death, the wailing of the mother, and the flashing red light of the ambulance still reverberate in my mind.

The bizarre funeral that took me to New Mexico seemed eerie and humorous—eerie because family members would not speak to each other and humorous because the minister with whom I shared the memorial service mistakenly announced at the beginning, “We are here today to remember J.D. Duncan.” Needless to say, I grabbed my arm to make sure I was alive. Was I dead or alive?

The ride to the funeral had been a whirlwind trip to West Texas, where a man whom I had never met before picked me up at the airport and took me to his house, where I slept in his bed (even though he admitted he had no clean bed sheets). Oh my!

The next morning, we left early for the funeral, a 150-mile drive through West Texas dust and oil wells and summer heat, the rays of the sun pounding your forehead and telling you it never rains here! Needless to say, the guy drove me to New Mexico in his Cadillac convertible. Before you think I rode in style, consider that the air conditioning in the car was broken, and so we rode with the top down, him smiling and me wearing a black suit and tie that blew with my hair in the wind.

After the funeral, we rode back to that West Texas town the way we went—the roof down and my hair blowing in the wind. It was 106 degrees, and the sun pounded our foreheads, and I said, flippantly, “What would cap off this day would be rain storm.” About that time on this Texas summer day of heat, we drove through one dark cloud. Around the cloud, the baby blue sky shone and heat showered rays of sunshine that burned your exposed skin. But, low and behold, that one cloud moved over the Cadillac convertible and dumped rain, a “gulley-washer,” whatever that is. We had no time to raise the convertible roof, so for a few short minutes I knew what Noah felt like standing on the deck of the ark as rain fell from the heavens. All I could think of as my driver smiled and we laughed was, “God causes the rain to fall on the just and unjust,” or at least, “into each person’s life a little rain must fall.” And it does.

All this actually leads me to another, more recent, experience—a backyard wedding on a ranch where, as the bride described it, “We’re having a redneck wedding.” The groom talked on his cell phone explaining directions while he stood in front the crowd in his black tuxedo with tails. She came waltzing down the aisle with a big grin. The bride and groom stood while the wind popped the plastic decorations and while the crowd could not hear one word I spoke. Cows moved. A dog barked. And the sound of the music, Nora Jones singing Elvis’ old song, “Love me tender,” sounded muffled. I offered vows, and before I finished he grabbed her, kissed her, and shouted. I introduced them as husband and wife, watched them dance down the aisle, heard the bride’s father yell, “Now everyone move your chairs,” had my picture made with a digital camera, and left. I did sign the wedding certificate. I did not stay for barbecue.

All told, I find myself as a pastor between birth and death, between funerals and weddings, sandwiched between heaven and earth, pouring out the good news of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I laugh. Sometimes God cries. Sometimes God laughs. Sometimes the sun shines. Sometimes the rain falls. Sometimes the wind blows. And sometimes you skip the barbecue. Still, God gets his work done. Amazing grace, that’s what I’ll call it.

The circus of civilization keeps moving, and God is not just in the shadows but often in the sun and rain and wind and in the hearts of the people he loves. Amazing grace, that’s what I call it.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines. You can respond to his column by e-mailing him at jduncan@lakesidebc.org.

Posted: 11/11/05

Tennessee university to elect own trustees

By Lonnie Wilkey

Baptist and Reflector

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (ABP)—Belmont University has decided not to remain affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention, which helped found the school in 1952.

School officials informed convention leaders that Belmont intends to elect its own trustees—a move taken by many colleges nationwide seeking more freedom from sponsoring Baptist bodies.

Leaders from Belmont and the convention are not calling the move a severing of ties. In fact, Belmont expressed a desire to continue a “fraternal” relationship with the state convention. But after Nov. 1 the Nashville school does not expect to receive any further budget support from the convention.

A “Resolution of Relationship” defining the new arrangement is expected to be presented to the Tennessee Baptist Convention for approval during its annual meeting Nov 15-16. If messengers approve the resolution, it in effect ends all affiliate ties to Belmont, which has 4,000 students.

The proposal already has been approved by the convention’s education committee with some modifications and will be presented to its Executive Board soon. Belmont trustees will vote on the plan Nov. 10.

When asked to respond to the proposal, Belmont President Bob Fisher declined comment at the time.

Belmont’s proposal comes after the convention’s Executive Board voted in September not to accept a new covenant agreement with Belmont that would have allowed the college to elect up to 40 percent non-Baptist trustees.

Also, the state convention last year asked each of its three affiliated colleges to investigate whether its classroom instruction is consistent with Christian beliefs. Those reports are due during the Nov. 15-16 convention.

In light of Belmont’s departure, convention leaders drafted a new budget that reallocates the $2.3 million intended for Belmont University. The bulk of it will go to the Southern Baptist Convention ($825,940). The other two convention-affiliated colleges—Union University and Carson-Newman College—each will receive an additional $500,000. The remainder will be divided among other Tennessee Baptist institutions.

Roger Freeman, a Clarksville pastor who is president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, said it is appropriate that the largest portion to the Southern Baptist Convention.

“In 1952, Tennessee Baptists reduced giving to the SBC worldwide causes by 10 percent to begin a mission program called Belmont College,” he said.

Freeman also said it “is right and appropriate for a large portion of these mission funds to go to Union and Carson-Newman, Christian institutions which are seeking to strengthen their commitment to Baptist identity in biblical beliefs, Baptist leadership and Cooperative Program support.”