Posted: 12/07/05

Family Bible Series for Dec. 18

All Christians are to help share the gospel

• Romans 15:14-32

By Donald Raney

Westlake Chapel, Graham

As we come to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we certainly come thankful for all the peace, hope, love and joy that came into our world through that single unique birth.

Yet as we approach the Bethlehem manger, we also hear the child calling each of us to a mission task. We all are divinely commissioned to spread the news of Immanuel, God has come to live among us.

We likely can agree that the moral and spiritual climate of the world increasingly is falling away from God and is in desperate need to hear this news of God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.

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Yet many see the tremendous size of the mission field and are intimidated into thinking that they lack the ability to make any significant difference. Others may be willing to try, but do not know where to begin or how to proceed. Because of these factors, they fail to be involved in advancing the gospel.

Yet, as we learned last week, every believer is called to active involvement in proclaiming the message throughout the world. At the end of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul provides the reader with insight into how each of us might go about making a significant different in helping to spread the gospel.

Romans 15:14-16

Paul is writing to a group of fellow believers he has never met. Yet he has clearly heard good reports concerning this young church. In verse 14, he states he has heard enough to be convinced they have received good instruction in the gospel message. They need not feel that they lack the ability to teach, but should instead be working to instruct one another in strengthening the body and sharing the message.

Paul explains he has written this letter to reaffirm and possibly clarify those things they already had learned. Paul refers to his mission as a “priestly duty” into which God had called him to deliver the message to the gentiles.

Paul seems to be suggesting it is into this same role as a “minister of Christ Jesus” that God had called each of them. He is thus writing to encourage them to join him in this effort.

This also is the same calling each believer has today. We each are called to be priests in proclaiming God’s message to those around us. This is not some special calling reserved for a few, nor does it require any special training or knowledge. All it requires is a willingness to serve in telling others what you know about God’s offer of salvation.

Romans 15:17-19

The power to step forward and do this comes not from our own strength but from God. Paul clearly states he takes no credit for his service. It simply is Christ working through him to accomplish his purpose. Verse 18 affirms the fact that Paul did not rely on any special training, ability or knowledge. He simply spoke concerning those things which Jesus had done through him.

Indeed, as we look at the speeches which Paul made for his actions in the book of Acts, we see he did not base his defense on his knowledge of Scripture or ability to recite lengthy theological arguments. The vast majority of his defense simply was based on his encounter with Jesus and the things that God had revealed to him personally.

While this should in no way be seen as diminishing the importance of personal Bible study and memorizing Scripture, it should encourage us and remind us the most important thing we can share with people is the difference knowing Jesus has made in our life and the difference that it can make in theirs.

Romans 15:20-32

While Paul did have a special calling to go to those places where the message had never been proclaimed before, he also seems to have understood his mission as including sharing the message wherever he happened to be. While Paul’s ultimate goal was to preach in Spain, that did not mean he waited until he got there to begin to share the message. Paul understood that he was called to proclaim the good news everywhere he went.

Paul also understood the importance of churches and individuals working together to accomplish the goal of spreading the gospel. He shares with the Romans the story of how the various churches in Macedonia and Achaia had voluntarily made monetary contributions to support other churches and encourages the Roman church to do likewise.

Paul tells them he plans on visiting them on his journey to Spain and expresses a desire that they assist him on that journey.

Most of us are not called to travel to far lands as pioneer missionaries, but we all can still be actively involved by sharing the gospel in our own areas and as we travel. We also can participate by financially supporting those who are called to distant lands. Southern Baptists always have believed in cooperation and pooling of resources in accomplishing the Great Commission. At Christmas, we especially are reminded to support those serving as missionaries on foreign fields.

As Paul reminded the Romans in verses 30-32, as important as the tangible support is, there is great power as God’s people pray for those in God’s service. Paul asks that they pray not only for his physical safety from his enemies, but also that he would be faithful to his calling and that his service would be found acceptable.

We have a great message to share and the call to share it. As we are willing to share that message with our neighbors, give to support mission causes and pray for the faithful spread of the gospel, we participate in fulfilling God’s call.

Discussion questions

• What are the main factors that hinder or limit you from sharing your story with those around you?

• How are you staying informed about specific needs on the foreign mission field?

• To what degree do you personally financially support and pray for specific mission causes?

Posted: 12/07/05

Explore the Bible Series for Dec. 18

Sending Jesus showed God’s love and concern

• Romans 11:1-32

By Trey Turner

Canyon Creek Baptist Church, Temple

My family and I went to a fast-food restaurant for a quick bite, placed our order and put the car in drive as I said, “Thank you.” The answer came back, “My pleasure.”

I do not know why the phrase caught my attention except it seemed so gracious. It reflected the concern of the company. When we received our food, I listened for the response when to another person I said, “Thank you.” The person who handed us our food said, “My pleasure, sir.” Now it was verified in my mind, this wasn’t simply a person’s values shining through, it was the the company’s customer concern.

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The Apostle Paul clearly wants to challenge believers to have a sympathetic view of the Jewish people. They are chosen and God is not yet finished with them. Christians today also are challenged to follow God’s patient attitude toward the Jewish people and all people who seem closed and may initially reject the gospel message.

None are rejected (Romans 11:1-2)

Christians would have much more patience if they heard God’s favor was based on God’s love and not behavior. One man said, “It is the ones who deserve love least who need it most.” God is steadfast in his love for his people. They are not immediately rejected, even though they reject him.

This does not mean God gives universal salvation to everyone even when they reject him. It simply means God is patient with people. Christians would be a much more magnetic group if they showed God’s concern for people—the same concern Jesus showed while he was walking this earth.

Remember, Jesus was labeled as one who gallivanted with sinners; he was their friend (Matthew 11:19). His friendship to sinners was sometimes misrepresented. The Pharisees were happy to play the “guilt by association” game as is done between churches, groups and in convention politics.

Some are saved (Romans 11:5-6)

As people show God’s compassion, they experience grace and may be saved because of that compassion. Paul must be grateful for his own encounter with God’s compassion on the road to Damascus when Jesus called him to service. Jesus could have judged his actions and struck him down. Instead, from his love, God redeemed Paul. Paul speaks as one of those who initially rejected the gospel—one from a closed group of Jews.

How many more people are won because others love them to Christ rather than cast judgment from a distance?

Some are jealous (Romans 11:11-15, 25-26)

Paul seems to envision a time when, as if blinders were removed, a greater number of Jewish people come to faith. This is exemplified in the tremendous phrase, “all Israel” as it relates to salvation (v. 26). This hardening (v. 25) will only be for a time, then God will finish with the Gentiles.

The jealousy he speaks of may be that God will use the witness of the Gentiles to bring the Jewish people to faith. Nonetheless, the great promise from Isaiah 59:20-21 is anticipation of the great fulfillment Paul cannot even imagine. Today, believers hope that by looking at the difference God makes in the their lives, those who are not Christians will, in a sense, be jealous and want to be saved themselves.

All can be saved (Romans 11:28-32)

By saying “God’s call is irrevocable,” Paul reminds his readers of God’s love for his people. He has chosen them and will stand by them until the end. He will continue to extend his mercy waiting for them to receive salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. People everywhere have the chance to receive Christ. The emphasis in verse 32 on “all men” shows that God is faithful with all people. He is not showing favorites for salvation. He does not give favoritism to anyone.

The Jewish people have the same chance for salvation as do the Gentiles because God wants to show favor to all. Paul writes, “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom” (v. 33). Let Christians show God’s concern. As with the fast food example from the first paragraph, workers put on the values of the company.

May Christ’s church show God’s love and concern to people who are lost. Since God is not quick to give up on anyone, I do not protect my reputation by being quick to judge my friend or neighbor. On the other hand, I do show God’s mercy when I extend the gospel to people who have already rejected it.

Discussion questions

• What is the most difficult part of being kind and showing mercy to people who are put off by your Christianity? What kind of feelings does it raise? How does it harm you or your relationship?

• What are other ways to build bridges to people who have been soured by Christians “shoving Christ down their throats?” What are some reasons for giving up? What are some reasons for finding new bridges and opportunities?

• Is there someone you can pray for and build bridges toward?

Posted: 12/05/05

Kyle Lake: A tribute

I met Kyle Lake twenty years ago while on a church youth choir tour. His hometown of Tyler, Texas was the second stop for us. The Lakes with their 3 boys and one girl had offered to be a host family and my best friend, Colleen and I were thrilled at our good fortune of winding up in a house with three good looking boys. That was the epic stuff that teenage girls dreams are made of.

I met my husband, John, through them. They were all hunting buddies and attended church every time the doors were even slightly open.

The last time John and I saw Kyle was a Christmas Eve service a few years ago in Tyler. He told us all about his church in Waco with a thrilled look in his eye, unusual for a pastor in the throes of Christmastime. His church was for people who didn’t fit in at other churches, he explained.

Out of every pore, Kyle communicated to people the hope that God actually liked them. What a concept. Approachable, funny and friendly, Kyle was a shining manifestation of God’s acceptance. He was a personalized invitation to God’s grace.

When we got word this Sunday that a freak accident had snuffed out his life it was very hard to believe. About to baptize a young woman, he was electrocuted by a microphone; a bizarre incident which in 15 years of my being in ministry I had never heard of happening. Here was this incredibly vibrant man with three small children and a loving wife, taken in a second.

We arrived at the funeral in Waco and when I rounded the corner, hot tears shot down my cheeks. There were pictures as far as the eye could see of Kyle and his children, his wife, his friends, his family. It suddenly hit me that this man would never walk on earth again. What a senseless tragedy.

It has made me think. Funerals always do, I guess. Here was this beautiful person so full of love for God and mankind taken in an instant.

I think I do a decent job of seizing the day but admit I am often too preoccupied to truly live. I get caught up in the hamster wheel of paying bills, getting everyone to activities on time and ensuring that we all have clean socks and signed permission slips. In constant motion, yet getting no where.

If I have been impacted by anything it is Kyle’s legacy of living each day to the fullest. It’s a tired cliche which is often said, rarely attempted and almost never incarnated. We are warned to stop and smell the roses but unless they’re being distributed in a Chick-Fil-A Kids Meal, it’s just not going to happen.

How often with my faux-listening skills do I nod at my own children while being barraged by 38 additional bits of stimuli and then wonder why the cat got placed in the dryer? I zip through bored board games of "Sorry!" fighting back the urge to swiftly move everyone’s pawns to hasten the end of the game, rushing my kids along instead of watching them. How I needed this reminder to, as Robin William’s character often quoted in Dead Poet’s Society, “to suck the marrow out of life,” not just give it a listless lick now and then.

Overwhelmed by time demands, I wonder how my Heavenly Father does it. He’s never in a hurry and he has way more children than I do. Yet, he is always available. I know that he wouldn’t ask if He could move my pieces or draw a card for me to hasten the game’s end and get to the important stuff. His word says that you and I, as his creation, are the important stuff.

If the Tsunami, Katrina, Bird Flu threat on the horizon and now the loss of our very young friend in the act of loving others has taught me anything it is to live in the moment with the sunroof down and the wind blowing through the smiles of my children. To reach out in love as I am loved, to soak in the sun and revel in the grasp of my daughter’s hand while she’ll still hold mine and give band aides to my son while he’s still young enough to want one.

Many others knew Kyle far better than I did but you certainly didn’t have to know him well to be inspired by him.

Nov. 1, when Kyle was buried, was All Saints Day. As all saints do, he lived a life of love to God and service to man. That, I have to believe, was no accident.

Posted: 12/05/05

COMMENTARY: A lesson from Leroy

The last spoon of cornbread dressing and giblet gravy sat on my plate, and I realized Thanksgiving was almost gone. So soon, the sights, sounds and smells of another beautiful Christmas season will be upon us. Before we move on to candy canes and cinnamon pinecones and honey-glazed spiraled hams, I still want to cherish my Thanksgiving. I want to live that attitude of gratitude for God’s many blessings of life.

Recently, my wife, Andrea, and I traveled to Austin for the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting. This was going to be an unusually hectic year for us, with added meetings both before and after the convention. So, with the help of Internet specials, we decided to fly to Austin.

When we arrived, we hailed a taxi to get to our hotel, and that’s when we met Leroy.

Leroy seemed upbeat and jovial, and he had a big smile on his face. Once we settled into his cab, I decided to discover the deeper meaning of Leroy’s smile. I just knew he had to be a believer. So, I jumped right in and asked, “Leroy, has the Lord been good to you this year?”

Wow, did I miss it by a thousand light years. I’d never be a good palm reader!

“I guess it all depends on how you look at it,” Leroy said. Then he added: “I’m still here. I’m still breathing. I’m still pushing this sorry machine down the road another day.”

Well, there it was hanging in the air—thicker than grandma’s giblet gravy! I searched for a quick seminary answer, but none was at the ready. I just tried to think like Leroy for a minute. What deep hurt had come to Leroy today, or how had it added up day after day until this day?

Someone has said, “If you scratch anyone deep enough, you will discover great pain.” By now, I realized Leroy was in a bigger hurry to get us to our hotel than we were to get there ourselves. But my heart hurt for a man I barely knew, who was just days away from Thanksgiving with no one to thank.

I did all I knew to do. As Andrea and I observed Texas’ beautiful hill country, we thanked God for it. As we thought of our church family back home, we thanked God for their love and encouragement. We thanked God for an amazing crop here at harvest time in West Texas. We thanked God for our three daughters, and we named them and thought of each special blessing they have brought to our family this year. We recounted the daily blessings of our faithful Father and “gave thanks with a grateful heart.”

When we arrived at our hotel, I remembered reading Gordon McDonald’s line: “The older I get, the more I realize my single mission in life is to bring people to Jesus and leave them there.”

Leroy taught me a valuable lesson just days away from Thanksgiving—be thankful, but also stay thankful. Every day is a precious and priceless gift from God.

David Harp is pastor of First Baptist Church in Stanton

Posted: 11/18/05

On the Move

Drew Allen to Calvary Church in Mexia as student minister, where he was interim.

Bill Blackburn to First Church in Junction as interim pastor.

David Bristow to New Life Church in Covington as interim pastor.

Cody Burris to First Church in Bay City as minister of students/outreach.

F.M. Byford to Temple Church in Hereford as interim pastor.

Michael Carter to Hillcrest Church in Amarillo as pastor.

Adam Crawford has resigned as associate music minister/instrumental at First Church in Longview to serve as worship pastor of a new church in Keller.

Dee Ann Doherty to Victory Church in Groesbeck as children's minister.

James Evans has resigned as pastor at Forest Glade Church in Mexia.

Patrick Faircloth to Memorial Church in Corsicana as co-worship leader.

Jonathan Forse to First Church in Palacios as minister of youth.

M.J. Gallop to First Church in Valley Mills as minister of music.

Wes Hinote to First Church in Bastrop as minister of youth from Leona Church in Leona, where he was minister of music/ youth.

Pete Houtt to Trinity Church in Pleas-anton as pastor.

Joe Kendrick to Central Church in Luling as youth minister.

Mark Lasater to Greggton First Church in Longview as minister of education and music from Calvary Church in Gladewater.

Peter Marshall to Calvary Church in Harlingen as pastor from Bella Vista Community Church in Bella Vista, Ark.

Donnie McCarter has resigned as pastor of First Church in Big Wells.

Julie McClure to Cana Church in Burleson as minister of children/preschoolers.

Dale Moore to Mambrino Church in Granbury as music director.

John Parker to Immanuel Church in Odessa as youth minister from Tolar Church in Tolar.

Malvin Patterson to New Bible Fellowship in Texarkana as pastor.

Matt Reynolds to First Church in Texarkana as minister of students.

Jonathan Richie to Great Oaks Church in Richmond as minister of music.

Taylor Rogers to Harris Creek Church in McGregor as minister of youth.

Gene Russell to Central Church in Bellaire as pastor, where he had been interim.

Bobby Starling to Genesis Church in Hereford as assistant pastor.

John Swedlund has completed an intentional interim pastorate at Calvary Church in Harlingen.

Benito Villareal to Genesis Church in Hereford as pastor.

Nathan Wade to First Church in Hubbard as music minister, where he had been interim.

Posted: 12/02/05

Kentucky approves Georgetown partnership

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

FRANKFORT, Ky. (ABP)–Kentucky Baptist Convention messengers voted overwhelmingly to approve a new ministry partnership with Georgetown College.

In other action, messengers meeting in Frankfort, Ky., elected conservative pastors to the convention's top three posts, including President Paul Chitwood, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mount Washington. The new officers defeated three moderate pastors endorsed by Mainstream Baptists of Kentucky.

The Georgetown agreement, which will be implemented over four years, came in response to Georgetown's decision in September to establish a self-perpetuating board.

A detailed “memorandum of understanding” about the new relationship was produced by a 14-member joint workgroup of convention and Georgetown representatives.

Major provisions of the agreement specify Georgetown will elect its own trustees beginning in 2006, and the convention will phase out Georgetown's $1.3 million Cooperative Program allocation over the next four years.

The plan also specifies 75 percent of Georgetown's trustees will be Kentucky Baptists, Georgetown students will remain eligible for state convention-funded scholarships and the convention and Georgetown will continue to jointly fund a campus minister position.

The action comes one year after messengers rejected a proposal to allow all four Kentucky Baptist college boards to include up to 25 percent of trustees not affiliated KBC churches. That was among recent decisions that prompted Georgetown's board to revert to its pre-1942 status of naming its own trustees.

Georgetown President Bill Crouch emphasized that during dialogue with convention leaders, “the Spirit of God was felt in our meetings together and prevails even today.”

While “some may view this agreement and proposal as a divorce,” Crouch said convention leaders “join me in viewing it as a relationship of love and respect going forward.”

In other business, messengers adopted resolutions opposing gambling and addressing the role of Christian parents in public education.

Posted: 12/02/05

Ellis Association sends
missionaries to Central America

By George Henson

Staff Writer

WAXAHACHIE–In an effort to follow God wherever he leads, Ellis Baptist Association has sent its own missionary family to Central America.

Officially deemed the association's international associate, Ariel Murillo and his wife, Jazmin, will serve as facilitators for the association's churches as they attempt to evangelize the Lenca people.

The Lencas live in a mountainous, rugged part of Honduras, and census efforts have proven difficult, but at least 100,000–maybe 125,000–Lencas live scattered across a broad swath of hard-to-reach country.

Missionaries have tried to make inroads to the Lenca people, but they still are considered an unreached people group because less than 1 percent of the population can be counted as Christians.

Ellis Association Executive Director Larry Johnson acknowledges it's unusual for an association of churches to send its own missionary. But he insists it is a strategy born directly out of the association's mission statement. It says, in part, “Ellis Baptist Association is a partnership of autonomous churches cooperatively networking to expand God's kingdom locally and globally … .”

“We had done the local part, but we hadn't done the global part as well,” he said.

For almost a decade, the association has made church starting a primary emphasis, but those efforts have been within Ellis County. Now, the association is ready to start churches in Honduras, but it has been a long time in coming.

In 2002, the association seriously began looking at making the global part of its mission statement a reality. While the details weren't in place, “we knew we wanted to do something significant, something long-term, that would impact the kingdom,” Johnson said. “We were interested in making a difference.”

About that time, he read the Southern Baptist International Mission Board booklet The Church Planting Movement. It describes a strategy of starting “rapidly multiplicative indigenous churches,” and Johnson thought it was the process he had been looking for.

“It helped me see what we needed to be doing in our church planting–not only here, but wherever we went,” Johnson said.

As he began looking for a location to concentrate the association's global mission efforts, Honduras was not the first place he looked, but Keith Stamps, an IMB representative for Central and Middle America, suggested the Lenca people of Honduras.

Most people groups in Central America have a trade language they use in dealing with other people groups, plus their native language, Stamps explained. The Lenca language was lost more than 100 years ago; so, a missionary to the Lencas would have only one language to learn.

While the IMB sends missionaries to the Lencas, they have made limited headway into the culture in which most nominally consider themselves to be Catholic.

Lenca communities are isolated, agricultural and primitive. Homes are made from a mixture of mud and bamboo, with roofs of clay tile or nylon. A home typically is 20 square meters, and eight people usually occupy one bed.

“Most of these villages are very remote,” Murillo said. “There are not roads to some of the places we'll be going.”

Murillo, though not a Lenca, is a native of Honduras. His father started churches there until 1983, when the family moved to first to Illinois and then in 1994 to Louisiana to start churches.

During his teenage years, his relationship with God and his father became estranged, Murillo acknowledged.

The change came through a storm–Hurricane Mitch–which struck Honduras in 1998.

While it had been years since he had been to Honduras, Murillo said something within him was drawing him back there to help with relief efforts.

“I remember asking my father, 'I know we have family there; isn't there something we can do?'” he recalled.

His father put together funds and a team to help with the relief efforts. “I'm not living for the Lord at the time, but for some reason, I've got to go,” Murillo said.

During the day, the team rebuilt houses and provided medical treatment; at night, they led revival services. The last night, Murillo rededicated his life to Christ.

That trip was a turning point for yet another reason. During that trip, he met his wife, also a native Honduran. They were married in 2000.

“From the moment we married, we knew we would be involved in missions. And it would be in Honduras; that's where my heart is,” he said.

The Murillos and two young daughters now are in Honduras as the international associate for Ellis Association. He will act as the strategy coordinator of a church-planting movement among the Lencas.

The strategy calls for no church buildings. Instead, they will help start house churches with native pastors.

Murillo knows from personal experience the work will be hard.

“My father worked there for about six months,” he recalled, “It was the one place he couldn't start a church.”

Even so, Murillo can't wait to get started. “When the Lord gives you something, you've got a peace about it,” he explained.

Murillo will begin by meeting the Lenca people and assessing the needs. He then will help Ellis Association churches decide how they can be a part of the ministry.

“There will be teams going down, probably several times a year, but what they will be doing will be strategic and according to a master plan,” Johnson said.

The exact nature of what will be done may be uncertain at this point, but it will not be the sort of thing that has a short-term impact without thought of how it impacts the ministry to the Lencas long-term, he said.

“It may be digging a ditch, but it will go toward our mission of planting churches, not feel-good stuff, ” Johnson said.

Murillo and Johnson see God's hand in their finding one another. At a Christmas party last year at First Baptist Church in Lafayette, La., Pastor Perry Sanders said Murillo needed to meet Mike Helton.

Murillo did not know Helton, and a meeting would have meant a drive to Lake Charles, so he dismissed it. Before Murillo left the party, Sanders again brought up the meeting with Helton, so Murillo agreed.

Helton had been surfing the Internet and came across Ellis Association's website and noticed their interest in Honduras.

After meeting with Murillo, he called Johnson to see if the association still was interested in the Lencas because he had a man to recommend.

Johnson said that while nothing had been happening with the desire to start the work in Central America for some time, four other resumes also arrived that week, confirming for him that it was indeed God's timing that the association again pursue the ministry.

A man neither Johnson nor Murillo knew had put them together. And that affirms for both of them that God has been present throughout the process.

Because Ellis Association is one of few associations to send a missionary, some may look to Johnson as a trailblazer, but he said that would be incorrect.

“Sometime people will say, 'Larry, you're a cutting-edge thinker,' but I'm really not. I'm just trying to go where God leads.”

Posted: 12/02/05

Wayland offers international
students home away from home

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW–Wayland Baptist Uni-versity became temporary home this year to two freshmen from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates–probably the first representatives from that country to attend the Texas Baptist school.

The incoming freshmen responded to a recruiting trip just a few months earlier by Debra Sherley, Wayland's international student adviser.

Sherley sees the two students as the first fruits of what likely is to be a positive endeavor for Wayland as the university explores recruiting possibilities overseas.

“In 2004, the Mar Thoma church in Lubbock approached Wayland about a partnership,” she explained. Mar Thoma is a Christian church with roots in India and the Middle East.

“A doctor there knew of families who wanted to send their kids to a Christian school, and he thought we should visit the United Arab Emirates,” she continued.

Wayland representatives met with the Lubbock physician, John Lincoln, to talk about the possibilities of an overseas visit, discussing the similarities in the culture there and in the United States.

Wayland President Paul Armes then handed Sherley information about an upcoming American education conference scheduled in Dubai.

“We saw this as a call from God to walk through the doors he had opened for us during the meetings with Dr. Lincoln,” Sherley recalled, adding that plans immediately began for travel to the conference and visits with churches there.

A few weeks before Sherley left for Dubai, the second-highest-ranking official in the Mar Thoma church, Joseph Mar Irenaeus Suffragan Metropolitan, visited the Wayland campus in Plainview at Lincoln's urging.

The visit with Wayland officials provided additional information on the Mar Thoma church and its theology, and Metropolitan learned more about Wayland's commitment to academic excellence in a Christian atmosphere.

The partnership thrived as Wayland and the Lubbock church made connections with pastors in Mar Thoma churches across the United Arab Emirates.

The two-week trip took shape, with plans not only to attend the conference, but also to speak in churches in several cities and visit with families about Wayland.

While in the United Arab Emirates, Sherley contacted pastors at Indian, Syrian and Orthodox churches, as well as a Baptist church whose pastor was a Texas native, and the Indian Cultural Center in Doha, Qatar.

“The pastors were excited that a Christian school was reaching out to their students. None ever had,” she said. “In one church, they even let me speak to the congregation from the pulpit, and I later learned that they rarely ever allow a layperson to speak to the church. The response was overwhelming, and we were inundated with questions, words of appreciation for our visit and requests for business cards and brochures. … God's hand was in everything we did there.”

Although the country claims a population that is 96 percent Muslim, Sherley met many Christians who were interested in the university.

Although there are several universities in Dubai's Knowledge Village–a large state-of-the-art campus set aside by the government for universities to offer programs–none are American or Christian. While students there often travel out of the country for an education, most go to the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia, all of whom heavily recruit in the United Arab Emirates.

Sherley discovered many parents want their students in a safe environment where they can grow spiritually as well as intellectually, and they are not aware of many options.

Students typically leave the United Arab Emirates for their education. So, the country is experiencing a “brain drain,” Sherley said, since those students often do not return. Non-nationals must leave the country at the age of 18 unless their parents are paying for their education in the country.

Because of turmoil in the Middle East, U.S. visas have been difficult to obtain. However, Sherley said the embassy in the United Arab Emirates has promised to be more accommodating for students wishing to study at Wayland.

Wayland's international student population has, in large part, traditionally been athletes. But in order to be a truly international university, Wayland must recruit both academically driven and athletic students in order to grow in diversity and retain these international students, Sherley said.

She dreams about creating an international programs office that would recruit international students and promote exchange study programs for American students, as well as provide services and immigration referrals for local resident aliens.

Sherley plans another recruiting trip to the area in the spring of 2006. She also is considering visits to India to make contacts with Mar Thoma churches there.

“Was this a call from God to take an international step of faith or just an interesting experience for me?” she asks hypothetically.

“Wayland has always been known as a trailblazer. Look at the bold move the school made in the early 1950s when it opened its doors to black students. Did that move cause it to lose status or money? Not in the long run … and that's what we're about–the long run to eternity.”

Posted: 12/02/05

Wreck gives 'invincible' athlete a new perspective

By Michael Stephens

ETBU Sports Information Intern

MARSHALL–“Invincible” is how Micah Huckaby described himself, and “indestructible” was the way his teammates on the East Texas Baptist University football team viewed him prior to Aug. 14, 2004–a day that would change his life forever.

Huckaby was coming off of an All-American Southwest Confe-rence season in 2003 and was expected to take over leadership duties on a defending conference champion Tiger football team.

He had trained hard that summer and was “bigger, faster and stronger” than ever, he recalled. He expected 2004 to be his big season.

But on Highway 80, halfway between his hometown of Hallsville and Marshall, Huckaby's truck collided head-on with another vehicle. The accident instantly killed the young woman driving the other vehicle.

Thrown from his truck by the impact, Huckaby landed on the pavement and sustained knee and shoulder injuries that still trouble him.

The accident forced Huckaby to miss the entire 2004 season as he recovered from his physical injuries. But the emotional scars presented the greatest challenge.

He found the healing began when he met the husband of the woman who was killed in the wreck.

“I was nervous at first, but when I met him at (his wife's) funeral, he spoke to me,” Huckaby recalled. “He hugged me and said, 'If the death of my wife changed–strengthened–your relationship with Christ, then she didn't die in vain.'

“I always had been active in church, but I did not believe that I had done anything special–no reason for the Lord to allow me to live in an accident where the other driver was killed. What had I done that was so special that the Lord would spare me?”

In time, Huckaby concluded it wasn't what he had done but what he would do for Christ that gave his life purpose.

“The accident opened my eyes to the love of Jesus Christ,” Huckaby said. “The Lord uses me, football and my experience to help change people's lives through my story.”

Huckaby has shared his message–about how God uses broken people, not invincible ones–with the ETBU Baptist Student Ministry, the high school football team in nearby Jefferson and with an ETBU alumni group.

This past summer, he and ETBU defensive end Chad Glover traveled to the Czech Republic with Christian Outreach International. There he played in an exhibition game, worked in a sports clinic for children and shared his faith with anyone who would listen. Huckaby's Chris-tian testimony contrasts his life before his wreck and after.

“Before, I be-lieved that I could go through anything. Now, I know that God will carry me through everything,” he said. “Before, I believed that I could train and rely on myself for many things. Now, I know to rely on him and not myself.”

Huckaby brings to his newfound passion for evangelism the same intensity he displayed on the gridiron.

“I only know one way on the football field, and that is all out,” he said. “I want to live my life for the Lord in the same way,” he said.

Posted: 12/02/05

Alabama appeals for racial harmony

By Jennifer Davis Rash

Alabama Baptist

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (BP)–Alabama Baptists at their annual meeting endorsed a call to use the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott, beginning this month, as a way to foster racial harmony.

Messengers at the Alabama Baptist State Convention sessions at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville also approved a record budget for 2006.

In presenting the resolutions to messengers, Jay Wolf, pastor of First Baptist Church in Montgomery and chairman of the resolutions committee, emphasized the importance of the resolution on racial reconciliation.

The world's attention will be focused on Alabama with the anniversary of the bus boycott, providing a stage for promoting unity and the progress made in race relations in Alabama, Wolf noted.

In the past, he acknowledged, Alabama Baptists sometimes have taken the wrong side of race, following the culture instead of taking a stand for what is right.

“God calls us to be reconcilers,” he said. “If we can get black and white churches working together, that will be massive.”

The resolution, which passed without debate, endorses “a call to use the season of the 381 days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott Commemoration to foster unity among the African-American and white churches.”

Messengers also adopted a record Cooperative Program base budget of $42,645,000, up slightly from the current year's $41,500,000; a 2006 CP state causes budget of $500,000; and a CP challenge budget of $43,650,000.

Messengers also approved resolutions affirming Alabama Baptists' historic opposition to gambling in any form and supporting the sanctity of marriage.

Henry Cox, pastor of First Baptist Church in Bay Minette, was re-elected to a second one-year term as president. Roger Willmore, pastor of Deerfoot Baptist Church in Trussville, was re-elected to a second one-year term as first vice president. Jimmy Jackson, pastor of Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, was elected as second vice president. Mary Sue Bennett of Montgomery was re-elected re-cording secretary. All were elected without opposition.

Posted: 12/02/05

Tennessee weathers stormy meeting

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)–Disaster served as a distraction from denominational politics for messengers to the Tennessee Baptist Convention's annual meeting.

Meeting at First Baptist Church in Clarksville, messengers had to seek shelter in the church's basement for more than an hour when a series of tornadoes struck the western and central parts of the state.

After they reconvened to finish the afternoon business, officials decided to cancel the evening service when weather reports predicted another round of severe storms would pass through the city.

Before adjourning, messengers elected a president by only 18 votes over his rival. Phil Jett, pastor of Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, edged Roger “Sing” Oldham, pastor of First Baptist Church in Martin, on a 468-450 vote.

They elected Ron Stewart, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Knoxville, first vice president and Larry Reagan, pastor of Adam's Chapel Baptist Church in Dresden, second vice president.

The two new vice presidents had the support of Concerned Tennessee Baptists, a group rallied around the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.

Tennessee Baptists delayed action on a proposed resolution of relationship with Belmont University in Nashville pending study of a document that contains a possible “reverter clause.”

Belmont had informed Tennessee Baptist leaders the school plans to begin electing its own trustees–up to 40 percent of whom could be non-Baptists. School officials also said Belmont does not anticipate receiving further funds from the convention.

Belmont leaders indicated a desire to continue a “fraternal” relationship with the convention, which messengers were scheduled to consider.

But just a week prior to the annual meeting, Executive Director James Porch learned about a contract–signed the year before convention officials established the school–that might affect the outcome of Belmont's move. It stipulates that the school's assets would revert back to the convention should Belmont fail or “pass from Baptist control.”

A search by convention officials did not produce the contract but did find minutes from an administrative committee, dated July 31, 1951, instructing the board's attorney to draw up such a contract.

During a Tennessee Baptist Executive Board meeting in November, Belmont President Robert Fisher acknowledged the contract's existence and said both internal and external counsel reviewed it. He described the document as “an irrelevant contract superseded by about five different actions.”

During the convention's opening session, messengers approved a motion from Tim McGeehee, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Tullahoma, which postponed action on the Belmont relationship until the Executive Board studied the contract.

After discussion, messengers approved the motion overwhelmingly.

Later in the convention, messengers adopted a substitute 2005 budget of $36,708,431, which reallocated the $2,330,304 that would have gone to Belmont. The Southern Baptist Convention received the largest amount of the reallocation ($825,940), while Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City and Union University in Jackson received an additional $500,000 each. The remainder was divided among Tennessee missions and ministries and various TBC entities.

Posted: 11/29/05

Family Bible Series for Dec. 11

No better time to be a missionary than Christmas

• Romans 1:1-7, 13-17

By Donald Raney

Westlake Chapel, Graham

We all like the Christmas season. With the special music, decorations and general feelings of good will, it easily is one of the most beloved times of year.

Yet how often do we think about our responsibility to the baby in the manger? How often do thoughts of being actively involved in spreading the news about Jesus through missions enter our thinking during this season?

Many churches have a special emphasis on missions and take up offerings for missionaries during the Christmas season. While this certainly is a wonderful tradition, it far too often is the only connection with missions many people have. Missions often is seen as something reserved for the specially called “professional missionaries” who leave home and live in distant lands. Many well-intentioned believers feel that since they are not called to that life, offering prayers for missionaries and giving money to mission causes is sufficient.

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Yet the baby born in a manger would later tell his followers to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). This Great Commission was given to all believers without any qualification concerning special calling. All believers are given the responsibility of active participation in drawing all people back to God.

Romans 1:1-7

Paul clearly understood the missionary call that comes with acceptance of Jesus as Lord. In his letter to the Romans, he begins by identifying himself as a “bond-servant of Christ Jesus.” While a bond-servant is not a slave (at least not in the modern sense of that word), he is duty-bound to carry out the plans and wishes of his master.

Paul also saw himself as merely one in a long line of such servants of God dating back to the great prophets of the Old Testament. What Paul brought to this lineage was the next step in the revelation. While the prophets of old looked forward to God’s great day of salvation, Paul proclaimed that that day had arrived through the person of Jesus.

Through a relationship with Jesus, believers receive not only grace, but also a call to be apostles. Elsewhere, Paul refers to this calling as that of an ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20). Such a call not only is to be a messenger who carries a particular message, but a representative who lives among the target audience and seeks to convey the message through both words and lifestyle in order to “bring about the obedience of faith” among the people.

Specifically, Paul saw his mission as being an apostle to the Gentiles; those who were not necessarily familiar with the beliefs, customs and practices of the Jews. The Christian church today, a predominantly gentile body, owes much of its existence to Paul’s fulfillment of that calling. That same mission was passed from Paul to those who he reached with the gospel. We are called not only to be recipients of God’s infinite grace, but also to be apostles of that grace to those who do not know him. Just as Paul, a Pharisaic Jew, was called to go to those who were different than himself, believers today are called to take the message to those who are different than us.

Romans 1:13-15

Not only did Paul see his mission to the gentiles as a calling, he also referred to it as an “obligation.” Yet for Paul, this was not burdensome. It was more of a driving force he could not ignore. Paul had a hunger that all of the people of the world should hear the gospel. This hunger compelled him to take long journeys that consumed years of his life and often put him in dangerous situations.

It was this drive that enabled him to persevere through persecutions. It was this “obligation” that led Paul to set his eyes on preaching the gospel in Rome and possibly Spain. Paul did not consider this call to be an apostle on mission to be a burden. The burden for Paul was the masses of people who never had heard the message.

During this season, many of us will spend hours searching for the “right gift” for people on our list. What motivates us to devote such time and effort? That is the feeling of “obligation” Paul felt for people he had never met. That is the zeal with which we are each called to proclaim the gospel to all people through words and actions. What better gift could we give?

Romans 1:16-17

Many today fail to proclaim the gospel to those around them because they do not want to appear as a religious fanatic or some type of “Jesus freak.”

Paul here reminds us the gospel never should be something we are ashamed of. The gospel encapsulated the very power of God to meet the deepest needs of the human condition. While there are many good things that we can and should do to meet physical needs, sharing the gospel is the only thing we can do that may result in the eternal salvation of the person to whom we are ministering.

We need not be concerned about any possible reactions or responses to sharing the gospel. We only need to be certain we are being faithful to our calling to share and leave the results up to God. “The righteous man shall live by faith (v. 17). We are called to live in full reliance on God, knowing he will take care of us as long as we are faithful to fulfill our calling to be apostles on mission.

Discussion question

• What does being an apostle mean to you?