Posted: 8/05/05

Texas Baptists care for
Hurricane Emily's victims

SAN FERNANDO, Mexico–Buckner Children and Family Services joined Texas Baptist Men and the Baptist General Convention of Texas River Ministry to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Emily recently in northern Mexico.

Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers served more than 45,000 meals, a River Ministry health care team cared for more than 100 patients and distributed rice and beans and Buckner Border Ministries provided shoes, clothes, hygiene kits and food for 5,000 people.

Although Buckner is not a disaster relief organization, the organization received a desperate call from Barbara Gutierrez of the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville.

“She called Buckner Border Ministries for assistance for the disaster victims in San Fernando and its surroundings. She said that there were more than 3,500 homeless families with no food, no water and without shelter,” said Monica Skrzypinski, Buckner regional community relations coordinator.

“We then contacted Dexton Shores from the River Ministry and Gary Smith from Texas Baptist Men. We got an immediate response, and things started to roll. Juan Lambarria from the Northern Tamaulipas Mexican Association helped coordinate the process with the Mexican government.”

Buckner Border Ministries Coordinator Jorge Zapata said San Fernando was hurt badlly by Emily's winds and rains because of poor construction of homes.

“It is a small agricultural town, 85 miles away from Matamoros,” he said. “The majority of the families of San Fernando live in poor conditions. Their houses are made out of old wood or metal sheets. The lucky ones have a house made out of cement blocks, but some other families live under plain cardboard roofs.”

In Baltazar, Tamaulipas, 1,500 families are living in shelters, and local authorities have asked River Ministry for help.

River Ministry is appealing to churches to provide funds for building materials, food and water, as well as construction teams to give of their time to help rebuild homes for these families, Shores noted.

“It would be better for groups to help local residents build cinder block structures that the people know how to maintain and will have a better chance of surviving future floods,” he said.

“In order to help the greatest number of families, we are proposing that churches consider providing materials to build a simple 6-by-6 meter–about 20-by 20-feet–concrete block structure with a tin roof.

“The cost for such a structure is about $1,300, which would provide a concrete footing, cinder blocks, framing lumber and tin for the roof. With this plan, more families could be aided, and each one can later pour their own concrete floor and add on to the structure, as they are able.”

Funds designated for rebuilding homes for Mexico hurricane victims can be sent to River Ministry, 45 NE Loop 410, Suite 400, San Antonio 78216. All receipts will be used to rebuild homes for the families of the Las Tigerias Islands and San Fernando.

Posted: 8/05/05

Texas Tidbits

Noted missiologist Guy dead at 88. Cal Guy, longtime missions professor at Southwestern Seminary and one of Southern Baptists' most influential and innovative missiologists, died July 25 at age 88. From 1946 until his retirement in 1982, Guy served as a professor at Southwestern Seminary, and he was serving as chairman of the school's missions department when he retired. Long after his retirement, Guy continued teaching and preaching. He continued to teach part-time at Southwestern, but also served stints at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and at Criswell College in Dallas. As recently as 2004, he organized and led a conference for Baptist pastors in Bangladesh. He was part-time pastor of Retta Baptist Church near Fort Worth from 1951 to 1969. He still was a member of that church at the time of his death. A native of Jackson, Tenn., Guy received his undergraduate degree at Union University and master's and doctoral degrees from Southwestern. He was preceded in death in 1994 by his wife, the former Terrye Maddox. He is survived by two children, two siblings and several nieces and nephews.

Truett taps Gregory to teach. Pulpiteer Joel Gregory has been appointed professor of homiletics at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary. Gregory, 57, is a former president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Former pastor of Gambrell Street and Travis Avenue Baptist churches in Fort Worth, he was tapped to succeed the legendary W.A. Criswell as pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. However, Gregory soon resigned from his pulpit, succumbing to pressures he later described in a memoir about the experience, Too Great a Temptation. Since leaving the pastorate, Gregory has held several positions, including publisher of Chile Pepper magazine and traveling preacher. Gregory is a member of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth. He has two grown sons.

Amarillo business leader endows Hardin-Simmons scholarship. Dean Christy of Amarillo has endowed a scholarship to benefit students in the Kelley College of Business at Hardin-Simmons University. Christy, who earned three degrees at Hardin-Simmons, was a vice president at Western National Life Insurance Company and is the founder of a holding company that manages personal real estate assets and investments. He is a member of Coulter Road Baptist Church in Amarillo.

Baylor alumni honor Tyler couple. The Baylor Alumni Association will present the Abner McCall Humanitarian Award to Dick and Jesmarie Hurst from First Baptist Church in Tyler during Baylor University's commencement exercises Aug. 13. The Hursts are 1954 Baylor graduates. He has made about two dozen medical mission trips in the past several years to countries such as Thailand, Brazil, Russia, Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Iraq. She has accompanied him on about half of those trips, and they have joined local missionaries in addressing medical, educational, nutritional and spiritual needs.

UMHB opens community counseling center. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor's psychology and counseling department will open a community counseling center Aug. 18 at 717 College Street in Belton, just south of the main campus. The center will allow the university to serve the community by providing affordable counseling to children, adolescents, adults and families. Individual and family counseling will address all mental-health disorders, as well as everyday problems. Christian family counseling also will be offered to address faith-based issues for families. Group counseling will include parenting, co-parenting, grieving, anger management, body image and eating disorders, employment and work issues, drug and alcohol addiction and battered women. The hours of operation will be Monday through Thursday, 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more information about the Community Life Center, contact Ty Leonard at (254) 295-5512.

Posted: 8/05/05

TOGETHER:
BWA celebration exceeds expectations

Baptist World Alliance President Billy Kim, a Korean pastor, called the vast audience from around the world to worship. And worship we did. The theme of the BWA's centennial celebration in England was “Jesus Christ Living Water.”

Jesus said of himself, “I am living water” (John 4:14). He is necessary. He nourishes, calms, cleanses, produces a good harvest, and provides sustaining power and energy for the life of the soul. We find our home in him.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

As people of the whole earth streamed into the arena, we joined in singing “All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name.” I thought, “How rich the blessing to know the mission work Christians have done through the years really does make a clear and life-changing difference.”

For example, a Nagaland choir sang. Their area of India is 95 percent Christian; 85 percent Baptist. When missionaries arrived 100 years ago, the people were cannibals. Now, Nagas praise God for the difference that has come because someone told them about Jesus.

When the BWA began in 1905, primarily western Europeans and North Americans gathered in London. About 25 countries were represented. Now, Baptists number 100 million, and the BWA includes 213 Baptist bodies.

The mission field has moved. In 1905, about 85 percent of all Christians lived in Europe and North America. Now, 60 percent live in the Southern Hemisphere. What a visible, stunning answer to the question many people have asked when preparing their mission offerings or voting on the Cooperative Program goal for their church. “Yes! It makes a difference when we pray, give and go!”

The style of mission participation also is changing. Local churches can be more involved in direct mission ministries than ever before. I'll address this more in my next column.

A Texas Baptist asked, “Did the week meet your expectations?” My answer was: “Yes, and yes, and yes, again.”

Yes, because we worshipped with a great family of fellow Baptists. Our hearts were stirred. Our souls rejoiced. Our Baptist family, we discovered, is much bigger than we knew.

Yes, because we communicated that Texas Baptists and Virginia Baptists, who were welcomed into full BWA membership, stand with Baptists around the world. Many of them live in poverty. Many live with the daily reality of persecution and even death. Most are a small minority of believers in their communities.

But where Baptists are strong in numbers and wealth, we do not forget them. Indeed, we tried to say how much their courage inspires us, how much their faith and perseverance encourages us, how blessed we feel to be in their company. The BGCT's BaptistWay Press provided without charge Bible study booklets on the “Living Water” theme for all BWA delegates. You would have been proud to see Texas Baptists serving, interacting, getting acquainted with Baptists of the world.

Yes, because our Baptist witness is faithful to Jesus Christ and to the Scriptures. We need one another. And the world needs our united testimony. The larger Christian family needs to hear the witness of Baptists. At our best, we proclaim the great gospel of Jesus Christ with urgency and stand for justice and peace, religious liberty and the priesthood of each and all believers.

Baptists believe every Baptist is called to be a missionary. We are privileged to be part of a great Baptist family. We wanted them to know we love and admire them. They made it clear that they love and appreciate Texas Baptists as well.

Thanks be to God! We all are loved.

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

Posted: 8/05/05

CYBER COLUMN:
Balancing act

By Berry D. Simpson

I should go ahead and say right up front: I’m the type of guy that reads articles about how to prevent the effects of aging, and I often incorporate the suggestions into my life. There are some I won’t do, however. I won’t take more vitamins than I’m currently taking, especially if they taste like alfalfa, which most mega-vitamins do. I won’t stop eating red meat just to live a little longer. And I won’t start going to bed earlier. Every anti-aging list says to get more sleep, but I prefer to read another chapter. I’d rather die young and well-read than old and well-rested.

But there are a few things I will try.

For example, over the past several months, I’ve tried to be better balanced, which is to say I’ve been trying to improve my sense of balance. I read an article that suggested standing on one foot while brushing my teeth would help discipline the muscles in my feet and legs and torso. It also said to try doing right-handed activities with my left hand in order to stimulate new brain patterns. So I’ve been standing on one foot while brushing my teeth with my left hand.

It’s more than slowing the aging process. I wanted more balance in my life. I wanted serenity like those models in magazine photos that show off their advanced yoga poses. They always appear to be so at-peace with themselves, which is something I’m not, and I wanted to be perfectly balanced like them. I realize their particular peace may have come from the money they were paid to pose for the photo, but it also may come because they live in balance with themselves. So, I decided to look for moments in my life when I could practice standing on one foot, and brushing my teeth was the most logical possibility.

It turned out to be harder than I thought. The side-to-side motion of brushing my teeth overwhelmed the small balancing impulses in my feet, and I kept falling over. Using my left hand to brush just made it worse. I was about to give up on the whole idea until Cyndi came home with a Phillips Sonicare electric toothbrush (“brushing reaches a new level—one that can make a dynamic difference to your oral health”). Now, electric toothbrushes have always been a mystery to me. I wonder why we automate and complicate one of the simplest activities of life? But Cyndi used her charms to convince me the new toothbrush was a smart idea, and I decided to agree with her.

So, now I stand on one foot and brush my teeth (electrically) with my left hand for two minutes: thirty-seconds on one foot, then the other. And I am getting better at it. I hardly wobble at all anymore, and I haven’t fallen down in months. (Crashing into the bathroom counter is not a good anti-aging technique.) I don’t know if my new balancing skills will carry over to the rest of my life, but I know the exercise has made my teeth brushing more interesting to Cyndi since she smiles every time she sees me doing it.

And I’ve learned that balancing really is a learned skill.

I know I need to live a more balanced life, but it’s a constant struggle. I keep thinking I will find a perfect balance in my life between family and engineering and church and spirituality and running and reading and writing and government and music and charity. Between self-sufficiency and open vulnerability, between strong leadership and tender compassion. And I will be a public picture of grace and serenity like those yoga masters. I keep thinking balance is almost upon me until I crash into the counter once again.

Cyndi and I share the same tendency to over-commit. We don’t like to sit around watching other people do stuff. We enjoy doing so many things ourselves, and we want to give back more than we take (which means we intend to influence the world around us through our talents and personalities). The price we pay for living like that is we always seem to have too much to do. We constantly feel like we’re skimming the surface and never going down deep into a particular issue or project. And we share the nagging fear that we’re overlooking something important. The real price is the permanent feeling of living off-balanced.

My prayer is for God to show us which activities to keep and which to drop, which foot to keep on the ground and which to raise up. I’m hoping it’ll get easier with age, but I’m not sure.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland. You can contact him through e-mail at berry@stonefoot.org.

Posted: 8/05/05

Court turns down motion
to rehear Missouri case

By Vicki Brown

Word & Way

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (ABP)—In a single sentence, the Missouri Court of Appeals turned down a motion for a rehearing in the continuing legal struggle between the Missouri Baptist Convention and five related institutions.

The order, issued Aug. 2, overruled the motion for a rehearing and denied the agencies’ motion for the case to be transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court. Lawyers for the entities have until Aug. 17 to directly petition the Supreme Court to consider the case. Missouri Baptist Convention attorneys would have 10 days in which to respond to the agencies’ request.

Attorneys for The Baptist Home, Windermere Baptist Conference Center, Missouri Baptist University, Word &Way and the Missouri Baptist Foundation filed a request for rehearing with the Appeals Court June 15 in response to a preliminary opinion the court issued May 31.

In that opinion, the three-judge appellate panel reversed Cole County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Brown’s March 2004 decision to dismiss legal action against the five institutions.

In 2000 and 2001, the five institutions changed their charters to allow each entity to elect its own trustees. The Executive Board and six affiliated churches filed legal action against the five agencies on the convention’s behalf in August 2002.

Judge Brown had ruled the plaintiffs did not have the legal right to file the action on the convention’s behalf. The appellate judges agreed that the Executive Board as a corporation and the six churches did not have standing. Both Judge Brown and the appellate court recognized messengers as members.

However, the court held the Executive Board has the legal right to sue as a representative of the convention because the board is composed of members, and members elect its officers.

Entity attorneys are considering requesting the Supreme Court to review the case, because even if a “membership link” exists, the Appeals Court did not identify which “members” have legal standing to file a lawsuit.

Missouri Baptist Convention attorneys have indicated that if the case is returned to Cole County, they would seek to combine it with a second lawsuit the convention and five individuals filed in Oct. 2004.

That case is pending before Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan until the appeals process in the first lawsuit is completed.

Posted: 8/05/05

Roberts donated legal work to gay rights group

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, donated legal work on behalf of gay-rights groups that helped them win a landmark 1996 case before that panel, according to the Los Angeles Times.

While he was a private attorney, Roberts did several different kinds of legal work to help prepare the attorneys arguing on the side of gay-rights groups in Romer vs. Evans. That decision overturned a Colorado law that struck down all local gay-rights provisions. Justices in the 6-3 majority said the law violated gay and lesbian Coloradoans’ constitutional right to equal protection.

Romer vs. Evans was widely considered the most important legal victory for the gay-rights movement up to that point. It provided some of the legal basis for the Supreme Court’s landmark 2003 Lawrence vs. Texas decision, which invalidated laws that banned gay sex nationwide.

According to the Times, Roberts helped prepare the attorneys who argued for the gay Coloradoans who protested the law. He contributed help on legal briefs, and held moot-court sessions to ready the attorneys for oral arguments before the high court.

At the time, Roberts was an attorney with the Washington firm Hogan & Hartson. He had successfully argued several cases before the justices, and the firm expected its lawyers to perform pro bono, or charity, work for various causes.

The lawyer who headed the firm’s pro bono department at the time said Roberts did not hesitate when asked to help on the case.

“He said, ‘Let’s do it.’ And it’s illustrative of his open-mindedness, his fair-mindedness,” Walter Smith told the newspaper. “He did a brilliant job.”

The lead attorney for the case, who worked with Roberts, told the paper that people directed her toward the nominee on the case.

“Everybody said Roberts was one of the people I should talk to,” said Jean Dubofsky, who was a former Colorado Supreme Court justice. “He has a better idea on how to make an effective argument to a court that is pretty conservative and hasn’t been very receptive to gay rights.”

Ironically, the three justices who dissented from the majority in Romer vs. Evans are the ones to whom social conservatives have favorably compared Roberts.

In a minority opinion, authored by Justice Antonin Scalia and joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Scalia excoriated the very legal reasoning that Roberts reportedly recommended.

“Coloradans are entitled to be hostile toward homosexual conduct.” Scalia wrote, adding that the majority opinion had “no foundation in American constitutional law, and barely pretends to.”

Posted: 8/05/05

New BWA president preparing
for a marathon challenge

By Alan O’Sullivan

Baptists Times

BIRMINGHAM, England (ABP) — Having served as general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain since 1991, David Coffey is facing a new challenge—the presidency of the Baptist World Alliance.

Listening to Coffey, it’s clear he has benefited enormously from his wide experience in Baptist life. He speaks in clear, well-constructed sentences, showing a deep knowledge of his subject. But the man known affectionately in the British Union’s head office as D.C. falls into more relaxed banter at the mention of his wife and family.

Coffey, the sole nominee for BWA president, was elected July 30 to that wider international ministry during the Baptist World Centenary Congress in Birmingham, England. But the fact his family was there to watch “means the world” to him.

He will continue as general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain until 2006 and will end his BWA presidency in 2010, he punctuates these dates with personal landmarks of his own. He will celebrate both his 65th birthday and 40th wedding anniversary to his wife, Janet, in 2006.

“And if I feel that I can keep going, there might be a veteran’s egg-and-spoon race at the Olympics in 2012,” which will be held in London.

But the next few years will be a marathon of sorts. Coffey has clear ideas as to where the BWA should go. His vision is based on an adherence to the gospel essentials and “living in tolerance with one another.”

His first assignment involves traveling to Australia in August, then Prague in September and Russia in October with “one or two other things” in between. It’s not as if Coffey is new to acting as an international delegate. He first went abroad in an official capacity to Russia as president of Baptist Union of Great Britain in 1986, a month after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

“That was an eye-opening experience, what you call a baptism of fire, in terms of experiencing the fast track,” he says.

Since then, he has visited more than 40 countries, including his travels when president of the European Baptist Federation from 1997-99.

“So travel doesn’t hold any romance for me. When you’ve gone via Geneva to Helsinki and your luggage is still in Stockholm, it’s not much fun,” he says. “But I give thanks for the joy and the privilege of bringing encouragement to the Baptist family in all parts of the globe. That’s a huge privilege.”

Privilege is a word Coffey uses often and he sees part of the privilege of the presidency as following in the footsteps of “a great leader and encourager, a wonderful Christian statesman” like Billy Kim from South Korea, who completed his five-year term as president at the BWA Congress in Birmingham.

And although Coffey admits that he needs to work on spreading his extensive knowledge of Baptists in Britain and Europe to the global community of 34 million baptized members, with a community strength of many millions more, it is obvious that “motivation” is another important word in his vocabulary.

For him, motivating Baptists to be truly evangelical is fundamental. For instance, while he’ll happily talk about whether Christianity in Britain is post-denominational, he prefers to focus on how churches can reach out to those Christians who are unsure about their faith.

“The key I think is to say that, however ancient the institution, is it flexible enough to be open to the winds of the Holy Spirit?”

Similarly, when we talk about whether the flow of mission workers from the developing world to traditional centers of Christianity will continue, he focuses on migration in general and the challenges of an increasingly multifaith society.

Everything is seen from the perspective of opportunities for the local church, the British Union and the global Baptist family. As Coffey has worked as a pastor of local churches, as well as the general secretary of a national union, it is the skills gleaned from these roles that he plans to use in his future ministry.

For instance, he wants to find ways of making sure the “legacy of leadership” is passed on to the next generation. “Hopefully we have done that in our own Baptist family, we have certainly done that in our European family. And I think it’s urgent that we do that within the BWA.

“We’ve been led for a number of decades by gifted leaders … but we need to nurture a newer leadership, quite young like that in Eastern Europe. I think to empower them and in many other parts of the world, to empower the new leadership generation, that would be one of my visions of the BWA for the 21st century.”

In order to make this vision a reality, Coffey is currently working on a global academy for emerging leaders within the Baptist family.

Along with this, he hopes that the BWA will continue to be a voice for the voiceless and for the powerless.

“There has been a wonderful movement within the Baptist family to support the Make Poverty History campaign,” he says. “That technically comes to an end on Dec. 31, but the long walk to justice for the world’s poor will go on.”

One of the disappointments of 2004, for many Baptists, was the departure of the Southern Baptist Convention from the Baptist World Alliance. Reflecting on this, Coffey says: “There is a key need for unity in the family. We have sustained some deep disappointments in a major member body departing from the Alliance, and I think that in a fractured world you need a united Baptist family.

“Jesus expects us to be united in order to bear a good witness,” he adds. “We’re a very diverse family. And unless we ground our unity in Jesus Christ, we can’t ground it anywhere else, because there is no other safe place.”

Reflecting on the SBC-BWA rift, he recalls an old saying: “‘In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. In all things charity.’ I think we need to be able to distinguish between essential gospel truths and non-essentials which belong to being part of the Baptist family. Then we’re allowing one another liberty in certain non-essential areas, and in all of that a willingness to disagree charitably.”

Coffey defines essential gospel truths as those concerning the Trinity and the cardinal doctrines concerning the incarnation, the life, death, resurrection and coming again of Jesus Christ. Nonessentials are “areas of discipleship where we have to exercise liberty.”

“In terms of church order, there will be differences of opinion, (such as) how we worship the Lord, who has the authority to minister – male and female or just male. I particularly affirm the ministry of male and female, but I have to recognize that not everyone shares that opinion.”

Posted: 8/05/05

BWA unveils first 'identity statement' since 1923

By Robert Dilday

Virginia Religious Herald

BIRMINGHAM, England (ABP)—The Baptist World Alliance marked its 100th anniversary by unveiling a new identity statement that BWA leaders hope will be used to clarify Baptist beliefs for other Christians, as well as non-believers.

The “Message from the Centenary Congress” is the first statement of its kind created by world Baptist leaders since one adopted in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1923, said Keith Jones, who chaired a committee of Baptist theologians and scholars which formulated the statement.

“We, recognizing that this is a partial and incomplete confession of faith, boldly declare that we believe the truth is found in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Holy Scriptures,” the statement says. “Because we have faith and trust in him, so we resolve to proclaim and demonstrate that faith to all the world.”

“This is a strong message to send to our Baptist family in this (centennial) year,” said Jones, a Briton who is rector of the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, the Czech Republic. “We hope it will be used to declare to the world who we are.”

The statement is Christ-centered and “places the Trinity at its heart,” Jones said. It also is evangelistic, Baptist in ecclesiology, “puts the accent on mission and the coming reign of God” and stresses the need to be good stewards of creation and to take strong stands for the poor and needy, and for religious liberty.

The statement was adopted by the BWA’s General Council, the world fellowship’s decision-making body. It was “received” by the BWA’s Congress on July 30, when a printed copy of the statement was distributed to delegates as they entered Birmingham’s International Conference Center for morning Bible study. In keeping with the BWA’s procedural guidelines, delegates did not vote on or discuss the statement during a plenary session.

The statement is the result of work by theologians from around the world, and preliminary copies were sent to leaders of each Baptist union during the past year.

The statement is structured around eight categories, each one representing an affirmation of “those assembled.” The categories are eschatology, the Trinity, Scripture, the church and the kingdom, the work of Christ, stewardship of creation, mission, and religious freedom and justice

The statement describes Jesus Christ as “fully God and fully human,” confessing “the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross, dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, who by this love reconciles believers with our loving God.”

The Scriptures “have supreme authority as the written word of God and are fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.”

The statement also affirms believers' baptism by immersion as “the biblical way to publicly declare discipleship for those who have repented of sin and come to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.”

Although the statement comes not long after the withdrawal from the BWA of the Southern Baptist Convention, which charged the world organization with liberal theology, leaders said it should not be regarded as a response to allegations.

“This was on the stocks long before those recent events,” said David Coffey, a British Baptist leader who was elected BWA president at this congress. “The time to present it was always to be at this centenary meeting. … I think for historical reasons people felt this would be a good time to present it.”

“I’m glad it’s there,” he added. “If someone wants to join, we have this statement to help them understand us. We don’t ask people to sign up for every item, but as a summary of Baptists, it is a good statement.

BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz said it is “not a response to anyone.”

“This is not a creedal statement,” he said. “It’s a statement of who we are and where we are.”

Posted: 8/05/05

Blackaby warns that 'seeker-friendly'
may leave out nature of sin

By James White

Virginia Religious Herald

BIRMINGHAM, England—Baptists need renewed emphasis on repentance, Henry Blackaby told participants at the Baptist World Congress.

“I am disturbed in many circles that preaching is leaving out the radical nature of sin,” said Blackaby, author of Experiencing God.  “God dealt radically with sin on the cross.  We never again need to serve sin.  We are immersed in the Holy Spirit.” 

Using the image of Jesus’ baptism in water and the promise of baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire, Blackaby challenged his hearers to take sin—particularly their own—seriously. 

“I believe Baptists need a fresh immersion in fire.  I’m watching with a great deal of anguish our efforts at evangelism,” he said.

Church leaders bear special responsibility to repent and be cleansed of their sins, he said. Only then will they be able to hear from God, and only after they hear can they obey, he insisted.

“The refiner’s fire is designed to expose all the impurities so that when God looks into the silver and gold he sees the perfect reflection of his Son.”

By emphasizing a seeker-friendly approach to worship, pastors have diminished the message that sin separates people from a holy God, he asserted.

“The issue is not whether you accept Jesus, but whether he accepts you,” Blackaby said. “I’m afraid there will be people in hell who prayed to receive Christ, but who never allowed him to deal with their sin.”

Posted: 8/05/05

Spirit works best when we're weak, Fong says

By Laurena Zondo

Canadian Baptist Ministries

Birmingham, England—One of the greatest problems in churches is people with “correct beliefs but lame living,” said Pastor Kenneth Fong of Evergreen Church in Los Angeles, one of North America’s most multicultural, multigenerational, economically diverse congregations.

The climbing divorce rate in the United States is now higher among born-again evangelicals than the secular population, he noted.

This is just one sign Christians completely misunderstood the saint-making process, Fong suggested.  Part of the problem, he maintained, is that they don’t hang around the right people—people with whom they might feel uncomfortable.

Fong reflected on lessons he learns when he volunteered in a secular drug clinic to help connect with someone from his church who had a drug problem.

“I learned from drug addicts that if you keep acting like you’re strong, you’ll kill yourself and hurt everyone you love,” he said. “They have to admit weakness—learn to be weak.”

But real and lasting change demands empowered weakness, something rarely discussed in churches, he said. Growing up in a Baptist church, Fong always felt that there was a secret member whom he was not being told about—the Holy Spirit.

He described the significance and the power of the Holy Spirit during a Bible study at the Baptist World Alliance Centenary Congress.

“The Holy Spirit works best when we’re weak,” said Fong. Only the Holy Spirit can turn ordinary sinners into extraordinary saints, he insisted.

“There’s pressure in the church to look like you’re strong; it’s a false sense of what it’s like to be in Christ.”

Fong suggested Baptists need to resurrect the church as a place for the weak and wounded. “Right now it’s the last place people think to go. Here in England, they take you to the pub, in the US, a 12-step program.”

Christians need the Spirit who pours through human weaknesses to fill believers with God’s power, Fong said.  When it happens in a few people, he noted, it’s going to affect the whole church.

“Discipleship is waking up every day and saying how much am I going to let the Holy Spirit work in me,” he said.  “When it becomes as natural as breathing, that’s what brings God glory.”

Posted: 8/05/05

Minister remembers call to preach
during 1939 congress in Atlanta

By Robert O’Brien

Baptist General Association of Virginia

BIRMINGHAM, England—William Cumbie of Springfield, Va, sealed his call to preach in 1939 at a rally at the Seventh Baptist World Congress in Atlanta, Georgia.

It happened while the 16-year-old high school student sat on a pine bench astride second base of the old Atlanta Crackers baseball team and listened to George W. Truett preach. But his first oversees visit to a world congress, in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro, enlarged his world view beyond anything he could imagine.

Looking back on 12 congresses, the 82-year-old Baptist minister describes his “whole Baptist World Alliance participation as a series of mountain-top experiences of personal growth.” That’s why it dismays him that the Southern Baptist Convention has withdrawn from the BWA.

“Isolation from the Baptist world family can lead only to spiritual impoverishment and loss of a world vision,” he said. “The BWA can make up the financial shortfall. Those who withdraw are the losers.”

In 1976, Cumbie, now retired from a career as a pastor and director of missions in Virginia, was president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, admitted as a full BWA member at the 2005 congress in Birmingham, along with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

He shares the honor with his daughter, Beth Fogg, of Richmond, Va., who accompanied him to Birmingham, as the only father and daughter to serve as Virginia Baptist presidents. Fogg, a layperson, served in 2003.

Asked why they would travel to England in the wake of the recent terrorist bombings, Fogg declared, as her father nodded in agreement, “If you allow fear to rule your life, the terrorists have already won.”

“I live 12 miles from the Pentagon, bombed by terrorists in 2001,” Cumbie said. “I’m in as much danger riding the Metro line in Washington, D.C., as I am here.”

Fogg likens the congress to a “Christmas Family Reunion”— a time when family reassemble after an absence from each other. “We came to reunite with our world family,” she said.

“The BWA’s greatest asset is its people,” Cumbie added. “Unity and fellowship are a gift of God.”

Posted: 8/05/05

Groups asks BWA to focus on HIV/AIDS

By Esther Barnes

Canada Link & Visitor

BIRMINGHAM, England (ABP)—There are 39.4 million HIV-positive people in the world, about one for every Baptist.

With this fact in mind, a focus group at the Baptist World Congress called upon the Baptist World Alliance to make HIV/AIDS and related issues a priority in the next five years.

The group asked the BWA to support the initiation of a functional network of AIDS-related ministries, to facilitate a sharing of resources, and to collect and disseminate information about the best practices in HIV/AIDS work among Baptists.

The focus group heard from some of those practitioners.

“The key thing is in-reach; you have to talk about controversial issues in the church,” said Sally Smith, a former missionary to Nepal with the British Baptist Missionary Society. She now works in Geneva with the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, a UNAIDS initiative.

She urged Baptist churches to end three things—ignorance, stigmatization and isolation.

“We have to teach people how to be abstinent and faithful, and to protect themselves,” she said. “We have to create a loving welcome for everyone with AIDS—including the pastor. We have to care for people with AIDS and their families. Then we will have credibility to move out into our community with our outreach ministries. We have up to 40 million Baptists in the world. Think what an impact we can make.”

The group heard from six Baptists who already are making an impact in large and small ways.

Fletcher Kaiya, general secretary of the Malawi Baptist Convention, said he and his wife have taken 15 AIDS orphans, age 6 to 13, into their home. The Kaiyas, who have 6 children of their own age 14 and up, have received help from friends and members of their small church in Blantyre. “We have no privacy any more,” Kaiya admitted with a broad smile, “but we are young again.”

In Zimbabwe, churches have taken an approach that says: “No condemnation but compassion and counseling,” said C.H. Chiromo, president of the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe and the Association of Baptist Denominations in Zimbabwe. He reported that his convention has encouraged people in positions of influence, such as pastors, to take counseling instruction and to encourage people in their churches to be tested and seek treatment for HIV/AIDS.

In India, AIDS is treated like leprosy, said Leena Lavanya, founder of Serve Trust. “People think the disease is transmitted by touching AIDS patients.”

People with AIDS are cut off from their families and communities. Lavanya said she attempted to break this isolation by visiting people with AIDS. For the first year, no one from her church would go with her. Serve Trust now provides food and diet supplements to 177 people with AIDS and operates a hospice for four AIDS patients.

David Goatley, executive director of the Lott Carey International, explained how the mission organization works in partnership with indigenous communities around the world in grassroots-level projects. The goal is to engage in comprehensive, replicable and sustainable models of prevention and care for persons impacted by AIDS, he said. They educate communities, support widows and widowers, strengthen health workers and assist health-care facilities.

In Kenya, more teachers die of HIV/AIDS each year than graduate from teachers college, said Carla Nelson, educational facilitator for Canadian Baptist Ministries. At the same time, teachers are in a position to influence thousands of people. For this reason Canadian Baptist Ministries and Carey Theological College have added an HIV/AIDS component to their professional development courses for teachers in schools operated by one of CBM’s Kenyan partner churches. Acknowledging the difficulty, but absolute necessity, of teaching behavior change, the Kenyan teachers developed their own curriculum resource.

In South Africa, 90 percent of hospital in-patients have HIV/AIDS, said Credo Mangayi, director of development work for the Baptist Union of Southern Africa. He showed a video about how Baptist churches are providing holistic care for people affected by HIV/AIDS. He said he would like more congregations to make creative use of their space—to make each church a place where sick, hungry people receive practical help, and then seek spiritual help.

“Beyond relief and beyond reform, it’s about transformation,” he said. “Using the power of the word of God, trusting the Holy Spirit to work, so that if a person dies of AIDS, he or she has heard the word of God, and will die in peace.”