Posted: 7/08/05

Book Reviews

Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism and Redemption by M. Scott Peck (Free Press)

I have read several of Scott Peck's books over the years. This is his latest, and may be his last. He has retired from his practice and is dealing with health issues. I was intrigued by the title and by several reviews I had read of this book.

I found Glimpses of the Devil to be put together well, as usual. The book features two formats, based upon which account of demon possession Peck is dissecting. In the first, he discusses the exorcism and then reflects upon the person and events. In the second, he intersperses his reflections with the actual account of the exorcism. The events are separated by several years.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

Peck's conclusions: The devil or a demonic world does exist. There are degrees of demon possession. An exorcism can be curative or beneficial beyond the normal work of psychiatry. The study of demon possession is inextricably interwoven with the study of exorcism since it is only during the process of exorcism that the demonic possession is fully revealed.

Chaplain Thomas C. Condry

1st Signal Brigade

Yongsan, South Korea

Whatsoever Things are Lovely by Foy Valentine (Christian Ethics Today Publications)

In 1995, Foy Valentine founded Christian Ethics Today. A vital part of this esteemed magazine on Christian ethics has been his personal column. This delightful book is a prized collection of them. What emerges from these pages is almost an autobiography of one of the finest and most expressive Christian ethicists.

Valentine writes persuasively and humorously about his East Texas heritage. He is a product of that humble Baptist farm home near Edgewood with parents who taught him the basics of life. His columns about Christmas at home, the lessons from Texas trees and cemeteries alone make the book worthwhile in a delightful reminder of things that are lovely. Add to this numerous references to his family, which constitute still a major part of this creative life. Imagine a column about rocks that is hilarious! Mix in with these his love of those northern New Mexico mountains, and you quickly conclude this is a man of varied interests whose skill with words and images is memorable.

The book is guaranteed to bring pleasure, insight and a graphic reminder of “lovely things.” It is replete with a healthy optimism and a basic Christian faith, which will bless and encourage everyone. When you review the life of this octogenarian–from his beginning on that farm, through college and seminary, into the swirling waters of denominational leadership and now into retirement–Foy Valentine's optimism and faith shine brighter than ever.

Darold Morgan, retired president

SBC Annuity Board

Richardson

Unstoppable Women: Achieve Any Breakthrough Goal in 30 Days by Cynthia Kersey (Rodale)

I confess. I read this book because my wife, Leticia, keeps referring to it. It is filled with 30 daily planning actions, thoughts and testimonials of people who have overcome challenges to reach goals. The eye-catcher is a section titled “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters.” I'm sure that it will be used in future sermons. Here it is:

Chapter 1. I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place. But it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it there. I still fall in. It's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Chapter 4. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter 5. I walk down another street.

The rest of the book has suggestions and principles that can be helpful to anyone wanting to overcome life's challenges. I've got to get the book back to my wife.

Gus Reyes, ethnic evangelism director

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Dallas

The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. (Hendrickson)

The authors call for Christians to change their way of “doing and being” the church. Churches that will reach their world for Christ must abandon an institutionally defensive mindset in order to become missional. Missional churches actively and courageously engage their culture with the gospel of Christ. Some will find this book provocative and perhaps too far over the edge. Others will find encouragement for their journey. Either way, it is well worth the read.

Jim Burgin

Mission Arlington

Arlington

Crisis Ministry: A Handbook by Daniel Bagby (Smyth & Helwys)

This is one of Smyth & Helwys' HELP! Books. Bagby teaches pastoral care at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. He is a former pastor, counselor and chaplain, but I remember him best as a son of veteran missionaries to Brazil and favorite teacher with our training program for missionary Journeymen headed overseas. Pastors, deacons and other church members will discover in this book helpful, right-to-the-point suggestions about a variety of crisis situations and how best to respond. I find it biblically based, down-to-earth and practical. No surprise, this excellent resource book has been selected for use in our Texas Baptist Laity Institute course in pastoral care.

Louis Cobbs, former missionary personnel selection director

International Mission Board

Tyler

The Inner Voice of Love by Henri J. M. Nouwen (Image Books)

During Nouwen's darkest days as he peered deep into his “own nothingness” and wondered whether he would be able to hold onto his own life, he kept a secret journal in which he wrote spiritual imperatives to himself. Simple daily entries to move forward in life just one truth at a time, and that was enough to not only keep him going, but to open his eyes to God's healing touch. I have been living with this book for several months now, tasting just a few entries a day and allowing the insights from his pain to linger on my palette as I move in and through the pain in my own life and in the life of the community I serve.

Erin Conaway, associate pastor

South Main Baptist Church

Houston

Posted: 7/08/05

Baptist Briefs

Allen receives Whitsitt Courage Award. Jimmy Allen, former president of the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission and a leader in ethical concerns and causes, received the 2005 Whitsitt Courage Award at a meeting in conjunction with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly. Allen, 78, received the award for his courage in speaking out about a family tragedy to push for more understanding and support for those with AIDS and their families, said John Pierce, president of the Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society. Burden of a Secret, published in 1995, tells of his family's struggles after his daughter-in-law was infected with HIV from a blood transfusion. She and her two sons subsequently died of AIDS. Allen is a former Baptist General Convention of Texas president, Christian Life Commission director and pastor of First Baptist Church in San Antonio. Currently Allen is a consultant to news media for religion, ethics and spirituality coverage, serves as chaplain emeritus of Big Canoe Chapel in Big Canoe, Ga., where he lives, and teaches ethics as an adjunct professor at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology.

CBF donates $45,000 to Carter Offering. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly participants gave $45,000 to the new Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Religious Liberty and Human Rights Offering. Two-thirds of the offering will be designated for the Fellowship's religious liberty and human rights ministries, and one-third will go to the Baptist World Alliance for similar work. Naming the offering in honor of the Carters was approved by the CBF Coordinating Council in February. "We are pleased to lend our names to this offering which has the potential of affecting lives as together we advocate, educate and build friendships around the world," Carter said in a video presentation to the assembly. "Rosalynn and I extend to you our deepest appreciation for the manner in which you continue to follow Christ's example of walking alongside the oppressed and hurting. … Your involvement will be vital to transforming systems, policies and practices that prevent religious liberty among some of the most neglected people of the world. We cannot forget the faces of those whose lives will be changed forever."

Dunns endow Moyers Scholar program. James and Marilyn Dunn donated $100,000 to establish a scholar program at Wake Forest University Divinity School in honor of their longtime friends, broadcast journalist Bill Moyers and his executive producer wife, Judith. Beginning in the spring of 2006, graduate students at Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C., may apply for the Moyers Scholar program, which entitles one recipient per year to a semester internship at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., where Dunn was executive director from 1980 to 1999. Dunn is resident professor of Christianity and public policy at Wake Forest Divinity School.

LifeWay names director of network partnerships. LifeWay Christian Resources named Bill Henry director of network partnerships. He replaces Bill Taylor who retired July 1 from the Southern Baptist publishing house. Henry has been at LifeWay since 1984. The last three years, he has been managing director of network partnerships, working directly with Taylor. Before that, he was director of LifeWay's national collegiate ministry. Before coming to LifeWay, Henry was associate director of the department of student work for the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Network partnership is the LifeWay component that has responsibility for developing strategic partnerships with local Baptist associations and state Baptist conventions to serve churches.

Texas Baptists top attenders at CBF General Assembly. Nearly half of the 2,823 registered participants at the Cooperative Baptist General Assembly in Grapevine, June 30-July 1, came from Texas Baptist churches. Texans numbered 1,388–by far the largest state group represented at the meeting. In comparison, Texas sent only 519 of the 11,641 registered messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville two weeks earlier. Messengers to the SBC are elected by churches, and representation is based on financial contributions. The CBF places no limit on the number of participants from any church.

Posted: 7/08/05

Posted: 7/08/05

Families live out faith through
service, research shows

By Jocelyn Delgado

Communications Intern

GRAPEVINE–Surveyed families rank serving others as one of the top five things they do to live out their faith, Diana Garland of Baylor University told a workshop at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly.

Families involved in serving the community together are more likely to be involved in the church, said Garland, dean of the university's School of Social Work, who spent 15 years researching what it means to people to involve themselves in their community.

“There ought to be some impact on faith, if your motivation is faith,” she said. To find the answer, she worked on three research projects–church censuses, a study on families and faith, and research about service in faith.

While conducting research for the service in faith project, she traveled to six states and 35 congregations. After conducting 7,540 surveys, she discovered 940 families were working as volunteers in some kind of community ministry.

Families are saying, 'Help us make our lives meaningful and purposeful,'” Garland said. One family in Ohio, typical of many interviewed, responded to needs they see in the community on a daily basis. A son helps neighbors who need extra help by mowing their lawns for free. The father helps a neighbor pay bills on occasion.

“We felt like sharing our money was one of our various gifts,” the husband said in a transposed session with Garland. “I think as far as our Christian living, what we practice on Sunday we try to do Monday through Saturday too.”

The problem is that families don't talk about their faith together and the churches don't promote it, she said.

A Gallup poll revealed husbands and wives volunteer together without their children 60 percent of time, she noted.

Garland suggests churches find out what families are already doing and support them.

“What motivates people … is our relationship with God and a personal sense of calling,” she said.

Posted: 7/08/05

Gallup says time right for leaders

By Jocelyn Delgado

Communications Intern

GRAPEVINE–The time is right for “an explosion of biblical leaders,” Pollster George Gallup Jr. told a Texas audience.

Gallup received the John Newport Foundation Annual Leadership Award for his years of research. The award, named in honor of a longtime administrator and scholar at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was presented by the foundation during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Grapevine.

Gallup–an author, researcher, scholar and public speaker–served as president of the Gallup Poll 50 years before retiring in June 2004. As a graduate of Princeton University, he opened the Princeton Religion Research Center in 1977.

The world of polling is a great opportunity to explore what's beneath the surface of life and see how people respond to God, he said. Polls indicate many Americans are on a spiritual quest, he said.

“We so desperately need leaders that will exercise leadership with a biblical view,” he said. “We need to move quickly because, as somebody said, 'Church is only a generation away from extinction.'”

Gallup suggested introducing the Bible as literature in schools to help keep the church alive and promote leadership. Recent research indicates many teachers think students cannot be properly educated without a working knowledge of the Bible, Gallup said. Familiarity with God leads to a more productive life, he said.

As a student, Gallup questioned his faith, but he viewed it as a necessary process. “It has been rightly said, 'The strongest faith is a challenged faith,'” he said.

Gallup is an Episcopalian but prefers not to argue about differences in faith practice.

“Why don't we all lift up all faiths and tell our stories as Christians?” he said. “That's the way to reach people.”

Leaders should be aware of demographics, he added. Likewise, technology can be a great ally to faith, because it allows a child in Afghanistan to share faith stories with a child in the United States, he said.

“God wants and longs for a deep and resounding response from the American people,” he said.

Posted: 7/08/05

Uncivil religion contrary to
Christ's kingdom, Texas pastor insists

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

GRAPEVINE–American Christendom has become infected with a disease, and free and faithful Baptists hold the cure, Pastor Charlie Johnson of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio told a group of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty supporters.

Johnson addressed the annual meeting of the agency's Religious Liberty Council during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Grapevine.

Proponents of a creeping “uncivil religion” are trying to politicize churches and sanctify politicians, but such tactics are at odds with the principles of Christ's kingdom, Johnson said.

“The goal of uncivil religion is not to recognize God in our civil life but to represent God,” he said. “God has been kidnapped, co-opted for political ambitions. Houses of worship have been turned into precincts of partisanship, and the goal of uncivil religion is for government to make converts, not citizens.”

Johnson pointed to a news article from earlier in the week in which a coalition of conservative Christian activists–including former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore–announced plans to try to get 100 new displays of the Ten Commandments posted in government buildings across the country. The campaign is in response to a recent Supreme Court decision, which ruled some such displays violate the First Amendment's religious-liberty provisions.

“We are all for the display of the Ten Command-ments–far more displays and postings of God's law than the misdirected mind of an Alabama judge can possibly conceive,” Johnson said.

“We just want them put where God says to put them–on human hearts that cannot be corrupted by powers and principalities, not on the courthouse lawns.”

Johnson also criticized the close identification of many conservative Christian leaders with one political party.

“You can't give your lives whole-hog to Caesar like those folks are doing and put up with Jesus at the same time,” he said. “Can somebody please tell me where it says in the canon that we have to get our guy elected to office before we can advance the kingdom of God?”

He also offered a strong critique of those who would support President Bush's “faith-based initiative” of providing government funds directly to churches and other houses of worship to perform social services. He compared churches' decision to take the money to Jesus' temptation while he wandered in the wilderness.

“The devil offered Jesus a voucher system, and he didn't take it. If Jesus had wanted us to build his kingdom with the government's support, he would have taken the devil's option,” Johnson said. “Jesus knew that you can't take the blessings of God and the buy-out of government at the same time.”

While the news about religious liberty–including the announcement that Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor resigned–may seem discouraging, Johnson said, he sensed “great power” in the room waiting to storm the gates of hell with a gospel of freedom.

“The gates of hell are shaking because of you, you powerful men and women,” he told the luncheon crowd of about 500.

“God has claimed you to build his kingdom of love, and no high priests and false prophets of demagoguery can deter you from that.”

Posted: 7/08/05

KidsHeart Africa offers care for AIDS orphans

By Tony Cartledge

North Carolina Biblical Recorder

GRAPEVINE–The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Buckner Orphan Care International began a partnership to help combat the growing AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa.

The partnership was announced during the CBF General Assembly in Grapevine.

The Fellowship and Buckner previously have partnered in a program to assist children in five of the poorest counties in the United States, clustered in the Rio Grande Valley.

The program, called KidsHeart, facilitates church mission trips and other benevolent projects in more than a dozen crowded colonias.

By 2003, 15 million children worldwide were orphaned by AIDS, with 12 million of those in sub-Saharan Africa, said Buckner President Ken Hall. That number is expected to rise to 18 million by 2010.

The CBF/Buckner partnership, to be called “KidsHeart Africa,” will target nations in sub-Saharan Africa, beginning with pilot projects in Kenya and South Africa, where the organizations already have some infrastructure in place.

The program will focus on establishing new child-development centers and supplement existing ones to serve as a community resource for relatives and older children who are caring for younger orphans.

The total cost for constructing and staffing one unit–which consists of a child development center and five church-operated nursery schools–is about $70,000, Hall said. That figure includes start-up costs and staffing for three years.

Ideally, each integrated child development center will be linked to five church-operated nursery schools. Providing preschool education will give orphaned children a head start on school, while offering respite or work opportunities to those who normally care for the children, Hall said.

The centers will provide some medical and humanitarian services, but also will focus on education in hopes of guiding children away from the risky behaviors that lead to contracting the virus that causes AIDS.

For those interested in the project, Hall said the most important thing they can do is go to Africa and see the vast need for themselves. He also encouraged churches and individuals to adopt specific projects in the program.

Projects will be field-generated, he said, as CBF and Buckner personnel work together with representatives of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship and national Baptist unions in the region.

Posted: 7/08/05

Historian urges Baptists to reclaim rituals

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

GRAPEVINE–The popular “generic Christianity” represented by the rise of nondenominational churches holds promise for Baptists if they reclaim the importance of rituals, recapture the individual and communal aspects of church life and respond to the challenges of secularism and religious establishmentarianism, church historian Bill Leonard said.

Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C., led a workshop on the “nondenominationalizing” of American churches during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Grapevine.

Nondenominational Christianity “bubbled up out of reaction against denominationalism,” he asserted. In part, it reflects a rejection of the corporate model of church life that became prominent in the United States after World War II.

“Scratch out 'IBM' and write in 'Jesus,'” Leonard said to describe the approach.

The younger generation's rejection of centralized authority in favor of local control has contributed to the growth of independent churches and the decline of denominational loyalty, he added.

“People think of themselves belonging to a local congregation rather than a national denomination,” he said.

Some nondenominational churches–and networks of such churches–have grown up around commitments to ideology, Leonard noted. He cited as examples churches on the political left being “welcoming and affirming” of homosexuals or on the political right engaged in a culture war opposed to same-sex marriage and abortion.

But he pointed to Joel Osteen's fast-growing Lakewood Church in Houston as characteristic of a new paradigm in nondenominational churches, embracing a “less argumentative kind of Christianity.”

Osteen and his multiracial charismatic church represent a bridge between the megachurch and the postmodern emerging church, Leonard asserted.

Megachurches that bill themselves as “full-service, one-stop-shopping” centers offering many of the same services and resources that denominations once provided have contributed to the decline of denominations, he noted.

Postmodernism–with its emphasis on relationships and experience over reason–leads to a new church model that embraces diversity in practice and thought.

Whereas megachurches stripped their meeting places of religious images, emerging churches blend ancient and modern worship practices and revel in multisensory images, rituals and symbols.

The emerging church offers hope for Baptists, Leonard insisted. “I'd rather be Baptist in the postmodern period than anything else.”

Baptists should reassert ritual, particularly the “danger and decisiveness” inherent in the ordinances of believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, Leonard said.

With their emphasis on religious liberty and a believer's church grounded in uncoerced faith, Baptists uniquely are positioned to respond to secularism, pluralism and religious establishmentarianism, he asserted.

“We should affirm and accept pluralism without running to syncretism,” he said.

Posted: 7/08/05

CBF elects Asian woman pastor,
African-American as top officers

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

GRAPEVINE–The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship elected a female pastor from San Francisco and an African-American retired pastor and denominational leader as top officers during their annual General Assembly in Grapevine.

General Assembly participants approved the slate of officers presented by nominating committee chair Cynthia Holmes of St. Louis, Mo.

They elected Joy Yee, pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church in San Francisco, Calif., as moderator and Emmanuel McCall, retired pastor of Christian Fellowship Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., as moderator-elect.

McCall, who served 25 years with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board, is vice president of the Baptist World Alliance. He will be the first African-American to hold the Fellowship's chief elected office.

Susan Crumpler of Mason, Ohio, was re-elected recorder and Bob Setzer, pastor of First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Ga., as moderator-elect.

Elizabeth Barnes of First Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., was elected as the Fellowship's representative to the Baptist World Alliance, filling the post left open when McCall was elected as BWA vice president.

Pam Durso of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., and Kay Shurden of First Baptist Church in Macon, Ga., were elected as CBF representatives on the Baptist Joint Committee board of directors.

Assembly participants also affirmed Coordinating Council members elected by CBF regional fellowships.

Posted: 7/08/05

Christians frozen by fear cannot
love neighbors, Reyes tells CBF

By Sue Poss

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

GRAPEVINE–Before Christians can obey Christ's command to love their neighbors, they must move beyond being frozen by fear of people who are different, Baptist General Convention of Texas President Albert Reyes told the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly.

Some Christians “are frozen and don't know what to do” when they are confronted by a changing world, said Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio.

“We haven't changed neighborhoods, but the neighborhood around us has changed,” he said. “How do we be the presence of Christ in the world that has come next door?”

The answer is “no more complex than the teaching of Jesus who told us to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself,” he stressed.

Reyes said he thinks most Christians do well with the first commandment to love God.

“But after you love God and you begin to love people, it gets a little bit messy,” he said.

“In the 21st century, our neighbors are anyone we encounter in daily life–the bus driver, the teacher, the sales clerk, the prostitute, the mayor,” he said. “And that neighbor might be Arab, African-American, Asian, Indian. Whoever you encounter is your neighbor–the hopeless, the helpless, the one who doesn't have anything to eat in the favelas of Brazil or the one dying of AIDS in Africa.”

Followers of Christ must open their homes and hearts to people who are different, he insisted.

“The idea of love that Jesus is talking about is opening your life and heart to another person and to what God is doing in the life of your neighbor,” Reyes said. “To do that we have to have accurate cultural knowledge, and you can't get that apart from friendship.”

Posted: 7/08/05

Global poverty the chief moral
issue today, Vestal asserts

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

GRAPEVINE–Global poverty is “the moral issue of our day,” and how Christians respond is “the acid test of our faith,” Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinator Daniel Vestal told participants at the CBF General Assembly.

“Statistics do not tell all the truth, but we simply can't ignore the fact that 1 billion people in this world live on less than $1 a day,” Vestal said.

“We can't close our eyes to the fact that 8 million people around the world die each year simply because they are too poor to stay alive. That's 20,000 a day.”

“Entering into that suffering,” Vestal said, and making personal and governmental changes to solve it, are part of what it means to be “the presence of Christ in all the world”–the title of Vestal's sermon and the theme for the two-day annual meeting, which drew 2,823 registered participants and about 400 others.

Vestal said doing nothing in the face of global poverty is unconscionable for Christians.

“What is clear to me is that prosperity is on the rise for many. But what is equally clear is that there is a growing disparity between the 'haves' and the 'have nots.' There is a growing gulf between the rich and the poor and between the rich nations and the poor nations.

“I don't care what your politics are, or what economic theory you believe in. As followers of Christ, we must enter into this suffering,” Vestal said during his passionate sermon.

To do that, he continued, Christians and governments must be willing to make real changes.

“Our government must make changes in policy that give a greater priority to poor people,” he said. “Our churches must make changes in practice and programs so that more of our money and time is going to the poor, and less to ourselves. Our families must make some changes in spending habits, in what we do with leisure and holidays and possessions. And, most important of all, each of us as individuals must make changes in our lifestyle, in our giving and in our attitudes.”

Vestal mentioned a recent meeting of 25 religious leaders at the White House, where he told President Bush's representatives he knows Bush to be a man of “sincere and authentic” faith. “'I want to appeal to him as a man of faith to use his leadership–his moral leadership, his political leadership–to lead this country to address what I believe to be the moral issue of our day, and that is poverty,'” Vestal said he told the leaders. “'Please convey to him that we are praying for him and for all in leadership, and please know that we as a faith community want to do our part in collaboration in engaging poor people and advocating for poor people.”

Vestal urged Fellowship members to make specific changes to incarnate the presence of Christ–open their homes to strangers, learn a new language, use vacation time for a “missions immersion” experience, retire early to take on “a radical new ministry,” or invest in a micro-enterprise.

In addition to embracing suffering, Vestal said during his sermon, “being the presence of Christ” means developing a life of prayer, nurturing community, performing acts of compassion as “signs of the kingdom,” and proclaiming salvation in Jesus.

Sue Poss of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship contributed to this report.

Posted: 7/08/05

Fellowship affirms partner
proposal, revises constitution

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

GRAPEVINE–The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship affirmed a proposal for how the moderate group relates to its partner institutions and agencies, in spite of concern that the plan favors the strongest partners and harms the most vulnerable.

“We've adopted what seems to be a survival of the fittest mentality,” said David Hinson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Frankfort, Ky., in an interview after the vote.

The CBF General Assembly also approved revisions to the Fellowship's constitution and bylaws, turning aside a move to make explicit in the CBF purpose statement a commitment to Jesus Christ and evangelism.

Assembly participants affir-med the CBF Coordinating Council's approval of a report and recommendations from a partner study committee chaired by Charles Cantrell of Mountain View, Mo. Cantrell emphasized the guidelines for partners recommended by his committee are “only the beginning” and represent an ongoing and dynamic process.

Committee member Michael Duncan of Eminence, Ky., stressed that if the assembly rejected the recommended guidelines, the CBF would be left without any clear criteria for determining partner relationships.

“It's not etched in stone,” Duncan said. “This is a living document.”

The new plan caps funding for partners at 25 percent of an organization's previous year's receipts, and it establishes a three-tiered approach to relationships with theological schools–identity partners, leadership partners and global partners.

Current CBF partners–excluding educational institutions–include Associated Baptist Press, the Baptist Center for Ethics, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Baptists Today news journal and the Baptist World Alliance. Of those partners, Associated Baptist Press and the Baptist Center for Ethics will be impacted by the funding cap.

Based on 2003 receipts of $306,888–the last year for which definitive figures are available–the 25 percent cap would mean the Baptist Center for Ethics would lose $4,830 if applied to the 2005 CBF budget allocation.

Based on 2004 receipts of $455,528, Associated Baptist Press would lose $18,237 if applied to the 2005 CBF budget allocation.

Schools in each partner category will be eligible for scholarships and collaborative initiative funding, as well as “relational resources” such as references and referrals. But only identity partners will be eligible for ongoing institutional funding, and no more than six of the 14 theological education partner schools can be designated as identity partners.

“Criteria for defining of these institutions will include factors such as enrollment, the number of graduates in congregational ministry, level of support for CBF, geographic location, willingness to self-identify as a CBF-affiliated school and historical connection to CBF,” the report stated.

Critics claimed that by setting up loyalty to the CBF as criteria for institutional funding, the Fellowship establishes the same kind of coercive conformity moderates criticized in the Southern Baptist Convention.

“We're on the verge of going the wrong way in theological education,” said Charles Yarbrough of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, who asserted divinity schools at non-Baptist universities will be disproportionately impacted. “Only those who do what we want done and say what we want them to say get funding.”

In an earlier breakout session devoted to discussing the partner proposal prior to the assembly vote, Hinson said: “I believe there are 12 stipulations for identity partners to fulfill. We're asking them to do everything except sing a CBF song at graduation.”

CBF partners with four free-standing seminaries–Baptist Seminary of Ken-tucky, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Kan., and International Baptist Semi-nary, in Prague, the Czech Republic–and six schools of theology or divinity schools associated with Baptist universities or schools with Baptist roots–Campbell University Divinity School, Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University, McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, Wake Forest Divinity School and White School of Divinity at Gardner-Webb University.

The Fellowship also partners with three Baptist studies programs at non-Baptist schools–Texas Christian University's Brite Divinity School, Emory University's Candler School of Theology and Duke Divinity School–and one theological university–Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio.

At the partner proposal breakout session, Mark Olson of Fayetteville, N.C., pointed out the much-larger Southern Baptist Convention financially supports only six seminaries, while the CBF has 14 partner schools.

The Fellowship–with its limited financial resources–runs the risk of “slicing the pie thinner and thinner” and losing the ability to make a substantive difference to any of its partners, he said.

The CBF also approved constitution and bylaws revisions, including a new mission statement that drew opposition from the floor of the assembly.

The old statement said, in part, the Fellowship's purpose is “to bring together Baptists who desire to call out God's gifts in each person in order that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the world in glad obedience to the Great Commission.”

The first sentence of the revised statement says the CBF's purpose is “to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.”

Jay Robison of Lexington, Ky., moved that the revised constitution and bylaws be sent back to committee, pointing specifically to the purpose statement.

Bob DeFoor of Harrodsburg, Ky., likewise criticized the purpose statement for failing to include a specific reference to Jesus Christ and evangelism. Alluding obliquely to the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, which was criticized by moderate Baptists for deleting a reference to Jesus Christ as the criterion for biblical interpretation, DeFoor said the CBF was in danger of a similar omission.

“I don't think we should ever leave out Jesus Christ,” he said.

Dick Allison of Hattiesburg, Miss., chairman of the CBF legal committee, said the intent was to bring the language in the Fellowship's governing documents in line with its publicized mission statement.

The motion to refer the entire constitution and bylaws back to committee failed. Consequently, DeFoor introduced another motion referring only the article about the organization's purpose back to committee.

“We need to make explicit our commitment to Christ and make explicit our commitment to evangelism,” he said.

The motion failed.

Southern Baptists such as Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and chair of the committee that revised the Baptist Faith & Message, criticized the action in Baptist Press, the communications arm of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee.

“My central concern is what this means about the true nature of the CBF and its commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Mohler said.

CBF Moderator Bob Setzer, pastor of First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Ga., said the criticism was misdirected.

“Jesus is present in all we think, do and say in CBF, and anybody who reads that mission statement otherwise is not being fair to (Jesus) or us,” he said. “It's hard to believe that a movement whose mission statement is 'being the presence of Christ' isn't committed to Jesus. We are.”

In other business, assembly participants approved a $16.47 million operating budget for 2005-2006. The current budget is $16,008,123. Total expenditures for 2005-2006–including more than $5.1 million in expenditures from designated gifts–approved by the assembly amount to $21,580,058.

Jack Snell, acting coordinator of CBF Global Missions, reported close to $2.5 million had been contributed to disaster relief in the wake of the tsunami that hit southeast Asia last December.

Relief is moving into the “transformational development stage” with plans through 2007 to build homes, schools, community centers and possibly churches in the region, Snell said.

Hardy Clemons of Greenville, S.C., vice chair of the Baptist World Alliance task force, reported on the growing relationship between the Fellowship and the worldwide Baptist group–a relationship that led the Southern Baptist Convention to withdraw its membership and funding from the BWA.

“We are world Baptists who believe in unity in diversity rather than coerced conformity,” Clemons said. “When others withdraw, we engage. When others defund, we fund. When others back up, we step up.”

With additional reporting by Greg Warner of Associated Baptist Press