Posted: 6/24/05

NCAA places Baylor on probation

By Analiz Gonzalez

Associated Baptist Press

WACO (ABP)–Baylor University's men's basketball team is banned from non-conference play for one year and the school is under five years of probation for NCAA infractions discovered after the murder of former basketball player Patrick Dennehy in 2003.

Four staff members and three students committed NCAA infractions, including drug use, not reporting drug test results and paying athletes scholarship money or granting them other benefits, such as meals and merchandise, the National Collegiate Athletic Association said June 23.

The infractions surfaced during investigations into the murder of Dennehy by another player, who has since pleaded guilty to the crime. But according to Gene Marsh, chair of the NCAA Division I committee on infractions, the murder of Dennehy did not factor into the penalties imposed on Baylor.

Marsh said former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss is on a 10-year probation for helping to pay tuition for two basketball players and failing to supervise staff members, among other infractions.

According to an NCAA press release, “The committee found that the former head coach solicited donations from boosters and funneled more than $87,000 to the Houston Superstars Foundation, a Texas Amateur Athletic Union; $1,050 to the Columbus Avenue Baptist Church, a Waco, Texas-based summer basketball team; and $28,600 to five additional AAU teams. The donations were impermissible because prospective student-athletes were members of those teams. The donations were not disclosed as required on the NCAA financial disclosure forms and should have been reported by a former assistant coach.”

If Bliss seeks employment in any NCAA school within 10 years, he and the hiring university will have to come before the NCAA before he is employed, Marsh said.

Although the probation period for Bliss is a severe and sufficient punishment, Marsh said, it could have been more severe if Bliss had not shown so much remorse.

Marsh said the penalties against the school likewise could have been tougher– including the “death penalty,” which would have closed the basketball program–if not for the school's “very blunt self-assessment” and earlier self-imposed penalties.

Baylor voluntarily limited player recruitment and scholarships, withdrew from post-season play last year, and imposed a three-year probation, among other self-imposed penalties.

“You have to give some credit to a school that cooperates,” Marsh said. “This … allows Baylor fans to have at least part of a basketball season.”

Baylor Interim President Bill Underwood said: “Baylor supports the committee's conclusion that additional sanctions are an appropriate message that this kind of behavior cannot and will not be tolerated. We appreciate the committee's recognition that Baylor University acted in good faith, has exhibited genuine remorse and has responded to the violations in a decisive and meaningful fashion.”

Baylor had a choice of playing a shortened conference-only season either next year or the following year and chose the coming year.

Scott Drew, Baylor men's basketball coach, said the team is ready to bring closure to the episode. “Right now my heart goes out to our players, who are obviously very disappointed,” he said. “In the Good Book it says, 'He will bring it to pass.' Our program continues to focus on the future, and we know that it is bright.”

Posted: 6/24/05

ETBU students bring hope to rough neighborhood

By Meghan Merchant

Communications Intern

MARSHALL–In a place where most people only see hopelessness, two East Texas Baptist University students see an opportunity and a mission.

The Belaire Manor Apartments in Marshall have a bad reputation, closely linked with the words “violence,” “drugs” and “gangs.” But Curtis McMinn, Joel Heflin and others at the university see beyond that.

For a year and a half, students have formed relationships with the residents there and tried to set up a church and community center in the government-subsidized housing complex.

“The people there need love, and we are trying to provide it,” said Heflin, a Marshall senior.

Heflin and McMinn said many of the 300 residents are third- and fourth-generation tenants who never have known life outside the rough neighborhood of Belaire.

“My hope is that we'll have an indigenous church in the complex and that the people will develop relationships with each other and serve each other,” McMinn said, adding he wanted to reach out to the residents and help create a safer community.

McMinn, Heflin and several other students conducted Bible studies and connected with Belaire residents through the Luke 10 Project at ETBU, a program led by Vice President of Spiritual Development Dane Fowlkes that guides ministry students into understanding their calling. But they needed a central and neutral place to meet because many of the tenants were reluctant to open up their homes to other tenants.

After plans fell through for a Boys and Girls Club to set up a community center in one of the apartments in the complex, McMinn and Heflin decided to ask the government for the apartment themselves, not believing anything would come of the request.

A few months later, government officials said “yes.” The three-bedroom apartment was theirs, rent- and utilities-free, to turn into a church and community center.

That was the easy part. The apartment was filthy and had holes in the walls, rotting cabinets and cement layers covering parts of the floor. The students didn't have money to renovate the apartment and began approaching local churches for help with the project. The assistance did not come as expected, which Heflin called “disheartening.”

The students attributed the lack of help to fear, while Fowlkes noted even the police would not go to the apartment complex at night.

“It's the roughest part of Mar-shall, without a doubt,” Fowlkes said. “Yet these students go in there multiple times a week.” He also called the Belaire effort the Luke 10 Project's “most successful and creative ef-fort” with multifamily housing and church planting.

Still, they enlisted donations from Central and Bel Air Baptist churches. The Baptist General Convention of Texas also provided an internship through its multihousing ministry for Tommy Moreland, a Longview sophomore who remains in Marshall over the summer to continue the project. Fowlkes hopes to find a church or community partner to provide ongoing sponsorship for the effort and offer a “stabilizing force” to Belaire residents and to the future of the church and community center.

Renovations have progressed slowly. The apartment still needs kitchen cabinets, and the ministry operates without a regular source of ongoing income. The students hope the apartment will open its doors for the community by the fall.

McMinn and Heflin have full support from the Belaire managers and residents, who are excited at the prospects the community center will bring to their complex. Several outside groups have expressed desires to set up programs for the residents, but they need a location to hold them. The students hope to provide parenting classes, AIDS testing, self-defense classes for wo-men, job training, GED classes and children's programs through the center. All the programs–even fliers advertising a dominoes tournament–will point back to God and the church, McMinn said.

“We're going to try to learn from them what they want,” Hef-lin said. “We want them to feel like it's their project.”

The residents at Belaire “eat up” the attention and treat the students with respect, McMinn said. They developed relationships with the tenants by going door to door, meeting and talking with the people, slowly crossing what McMinn called “ethnic barriers.”

The students said they've become “like family” to many and even have attended a wedding of one of the residents.

More than half of the Belaire residents are children, Heflin said, noting, “We have the chance to influence a whole generation of kids.”

“It's been awesome to see the relationships we have built and to be accepted by them,” he said. “We see the similarities we have with them rather than the differences.”

Posted: 6/24/05

Book Reviews

Gentle Mercies by Hal Haralson (Cook Communica-tions)

Hal Haralson writes refreshingly of ordinary life lived in an extraordinary manner. Calling himself a country lawyer, he recounts his days of departing from a pastoral ministry and coping with the darkness of mental illness while managing to walk in faith. He does so with wry humor and warmth.

Along the way, we are introduced to cowboys struggling for faith, bag ladies leaving fortunes for mental patients, bankers hearing voices and pickup trucks taking on personalities of their own. We discover smiles of shared memories and solemn moments of remembered struggles. We experience a fresh touch of the reality of authentic faith.

It is a book that can find its place on a nightstand. Good stories can stand rereading. It makes a great gift to a friend. It offers a treasury of truths gently told. They are told in the spirit and style of the One who came as truth and responded to many a perplexing question with a gentle story.

We call them parables.

Jimmy Allen, retired president

SBC Radio & Television Commission

Big Canoe, Ga.

The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg (Zondervan)

The Life You've Always Wanted is an excellent book in a variety of ways. First of all, it is part of the growing body of literature that seeks to help evangelical Christians re-appropriate some long neglected spiritual disciplines. Some of that literature is written only with ministers or passionate devotees of the disciplines in mind, but not this book. Ortberg is a former teaching pastor at Willow Creek, and he brings an accessibility to the topic that makes the book engaging and easily readable.

Second, this book is a treasure trove of fantastic stories that will, no doubt, be popping up in pulpits everywhere. Ortberg has that rare gift of combining excellent story-telling with in-depth analysis, which makes the book not only accessible but insightful as well.

Ministers looking for an introduction to spiritual formation for themselves or for people in their churches will find this book highly useful. And anyone who likes some spiritual nourishment served up in page-turning read will find this book very delightful.

Matt Cook, pastor

First Baptist Church

Rosebud

Shaped by God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches by Milfred Minatrea (Jossey-Bass)

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is in transition. Its churches, too. But how do we decide what to jettison and what to keep? How do we help churches be multiplication-oriented? How do we build confidence? Encourage principled flexibility?

Milfred Minatrea's answer is “missional” churches, by which he means, more or less, “good ones for our time.” Missional churches are good churches because they've enslaved themselves to following God on his mission. This Henry Blackabyesque idea means all inreach activities (worship, discipleship) are conducted with a constant consciousness of their function in supporting outreach (evangelism, service, etc.). What happens inside the church is always done with an eye to what's going on outside.

There is a useful diagram for thinking “missionally,” surveys and suggestions to help figure out where you are and how to “get to missional,” and exemplary stories from churches.

The book's great strength is that it does not scold you for not yet being cutting edge or hip, but neither will it let you wallow in your hectic yet unchanging, directionless church-as-it-is. It is a book for churches who are in, or who need to be in, transition, and in that sense, it's a book for most of us.

Mark Thames, pastor

Lower Greenville Community Church

Dallas

The Hornet's Nest by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster)

Add novelist to President Carter's already-lengthy resume. This novel chronicles the struggle of the southern states during the revolutionary war. Carter weaves historical events and fictional characters, producing a work that is both enjoyable and informative. I appreciated that Carter's characters were neither sugar-coated nor vilified. They were ordinary people caught up in a extraordinary event.

David Morgan, pastor

Trinity Baptist Church, Harker Heights

A User's Guide to Bible Translations: Making the Most of the Different Versions by David Dewey (InterVarsity)

This book offers some helpful guidance through the maze of various Bible translations available today. It also helps the reader understand why there are so many different translations and what each attempts to accomplish.

Michael R. Chancellor, pastor

Crescent Heights Baptist Church, Abilene

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller (Nelson Books)

Some books remind you that God pursues people in messy settings–messy because “while we were sinners, Christ died for us.” Blue Like Jazz lays out Donald Miller's personal walk and struggles like he is reading excerpts from his journal over morning coffee. Sometimes, you may appreciate his honesty about his struggles. Other times, you remember God might not be as offended as you initially could be. Throughout the book, Miller's relationships are ostensibly postmodern. In that context, resolving life challenges takes patience and a growing understanding of God's methods. Miller seems to rejoice at each new point of growth. If you want to better understand this approach to Christian spirituality, or if you know a person who struggles less with Jesus than she or he does with church, read and then pass along Miller's paperback.

Trey Turner, pastor

Canyon Creek Baptist Church, Temple

Posted: 6/24/05

Dream comes true

By Charles Richardson

Special to the Baptist Standard

For more than 40 years, Julian Bridges' dream was to teach at a Baptist seminary in Mexico. This summer, that dream came true.

Bridges, sociology professor emeritus at Hardin-Simmons University, and his wife, Charlotte, led a volunteer team from First Baptist Church of Abilene on a Texas Partnerships mission trip to Guadalajara, Mexico.

Team members completed a 55-yard-long sidewalk at Emmanuel Baptist Seminary, painted and updated the child-care area at Iglesia Bautista Christiana-Getsemani and painted the front of the student nurses' dormitory near the Baptist hospital. Some of the group also traveled to nearby Tecuelia to visit a Baptist congregation and lead a prayer walk.

In the 1960s, the Bridgeses were appointed by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board to teach in a seminary in Mexico, but they ended up working with university students and young professionals in Mexico City.

Bridges taught sociology at Hardin-Simmons 31 years. He finally satisfied his desire to teach seminary students this summer when he taught a weeklong seminar on the pastoral psychology of family life at the seminary in Guadalajara.

He also preached at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Guadalajara, where his longtime friend, Jorge Angel Rodriguez, is pastor.

Posted: 6/24/05

Baptist Briefs

ABP dinner slated at CBF meeting. Wilmer C. Fields, a pioneer in Baptist journalism, will be the featured speaker at the annual Associated Baptist Press dinner at the CBF General Assembly, 5:15 p.m. on June 30 at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott, three miles from the headquarters hotel for the CBF meeting. Fields served from 1959 to 1987 as vice president for public relations of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and editor of Baptist Press, the SBC's news service. As part of its "Dateline: Tomorrow" development campaign, ABP is raising money to endow a staff editorship in Field's name to honor his legacy. Cost is $25 for the barbecue buffet dinner, and transportation is provided. Mail payment to Associated Baptist Press, P.O. Box 23769, Jacksonville, FL 32241-3769 or call (800) 340-6626.

SBC Executive Committee president granted honorary doctorate. Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, joined Chief Justice William Reinquist and Laura Schlessinger, host of the popular "Dr. Laura" radio program, in receiving an honorary doctorate from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. Chapman is a graduate of Mississippi College and earned the master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. He has received two other honorary doctorates–one from Mississippi College and the other from Southwest Baptist University in Missouri. Others receiving honorary doctorates from Grand Canyon University included Sam Moore, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers; Gerald Cramer, co-founder of a Wall Street financial firm; Stephen Douglass, president of Campus Crusade for Christ; Rufus Glasper, chancellor of Maricopa Community Colleges; Naomi Judd, a retired country music entertainer; Bryan Lee, an attorney; Joyce Meyer, a speaker and author; and Stanley Moger, an entertainment industry pioneer.

Moderate Missouri Baptists approve strategic plan. The Baptist General Convention of Missouri approved a strategic plan and elected Jim Hill as executive director during the convention's annual meeting. Hill, named interim executive director at last year's meeting, will become permanent but continue to serve part-time. He formerly was executive director of the larger and older Missouri Baptist Convention. The five-year strategic plan, called First Priority, includes initiatives in leadership development, congregational health, church planting and missions mobilization. Messengers also adopted a 2005-06 budget of $500,000, which earmarks 60 percent for its own ministries and 40 percent to Missouri ministries, such as Word&Way newspaper, Windermere Baptist Conference Center, Missouri Baptist University, William Jewell College, Missouri Baptist Foundation and Missouri Baptist Children's Home. World-missions funds will benefit the Baptist World Alliance, North American Baptist Fellowship and WorldconneX, the missions network launched by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

N.J. lawmaker has no sympathy for the devils. A Baptist state legislator from New Jersey is taking issue with the New Jersey Devils and its mascot–a red, cartoonish figure with a goatee and horns. Assemblyman Craig Stanley, a Baptist deacon, plans to introduce a resolution to rename the hockey team when New Jersey's legislators meet next month. Under his plan, a new name would be chosen in a statewide competition. Devils management opposes the proposed changes.

Rockwall pastor honored at SBC. Steve Swofford, pastor of First Baptist Church in Rockwall, received the M.E. Dodd Award at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Nashville for his church's longstanding missions support through the Cooperative Program giving plan. First Baptist Church in Rockwall gives 18 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program. The award was named for the chairman of the committee that proposed the giving plan that became the Cooperative Program in 1925.

WMU helps launch social work network. Woman's Missionary Union is helping launch a network for seminary graduates who majored in Christian social ministries and church social work. In partnership with Baptist educational institutions such as Baylor University, the Church Social Work Network will provide social workers with opportunities for continuing education credit, conferences, professional development and networking, fellowship and reunions. To become part of the new network, send an e-mail to churchsocialwork@wmu.org. For specific questions, contact Diana Garland, dean of Baylor University's School of Social Work at (254) 710-6223 or (877) 445-0102, toll-free.

Posted: 6/24/05

BUA graduate marks
milestone, but wife's visa denied

By Craig Bird

Special to the Baptist Standard

SAN ANTONIO–Joel Gomez-Bossio has no doubt God called him to prepare for ministry and led him into marriage. He even has faith that someday he can be involved in both simultaneously.

But for most of the past three years, he has pursued a degree in pastoral ministries at Baptist University of the Americas while his bride stayed behind in Colombia.

Because of tighter guidelines spawned by the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Gabriella Gomez-Bossio repeatedly has been denied a student visa to join her husband in San Antonio. Last month, she even was turned down for a tourist visa to attend her husband's graduation ceremony.

The U.S. consulate said she was a risk to stay in the country illegally, so she wasn't on hand to see him receive one of the 26 bachelor's degrees the BGCT school awarded along with 45 two-year diplomas, he explained.

And while none of the other graduates had to suffer the marital separation that has marked Gomez-Bossio's academic trek, all have stirring stories of call and commitment, BUA President Albert Reyes said.

“Graduation was a wonderful testimony of dreams fulfilled,” Reyes said. “Our students are already taking key leadership roles in cross-cultural settings in Texas and across the nation. The joy seen on the faces of our graduates and their families is the blessing we look forward to each year.”

Now the Gomez-Bossios are watching the clock tick as they decide what happens next.

His student visa expires at the end of June. He has been offered a scholarship to do graduate work at Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene, but if he applies for another student visa, Gomez-Bossio feels his wife will continue to be turned down for her own.

If he can obtain a religious worker's visa, then any dependents automatically are issued visas too. But that will require him working full time for a church. Logsdon officials are seeking churches in the Abilene area that need a well-educated, highly motivated Hispanic staff member, and he also has been contacted by churches in Indiana and Kentucky.

But he'd rather attend Logsdon–which would require a church near Abi-lene–since his ultimate educational goal is a doctorate in systematic theology.

“We never expected to have to be apart this much. So, whatever we do next, we intend–if it's God's will–to do it together,” he said. “So, I'll go home when my visa expires and see where he will lead us. We'll have to make some decisions in the next couple of months.”

Gomez-Bossio was studying to be a civil engineer when he felt God calling him to full-time ministry in 1999. The evangelical Christian seminary in Cali, Colombia was not accredited and very expensive, so he was interested when a cousin who was attending BUA told him about the San Antonio school. But then he found out it wasn't accredited at that time, either. And while it was inexpensive by American standards, it still was beyond his economic means.

“But my mom reminded me that if it was from the Lord, then he would make it possible,” he recalled. Sure enough, he received a full scholarship for two years at BUA. And in December 2003, the school was accredited to offer bachelor's degrees.

Meanwhile, he met his future wife in church, and they fell in love. When he received his student visa two weeks after 9/11, they felt everything was lining up the way they wanted.

“I thought because of the terrorist attacks, I wouldn't get in, but all they asked me was to name the first five books of the Bible” to demonstrate the truth of his claim that he was studying for the ministry, he said. “When I did, they gave me the visa.”

Gomez-Bossio started school in spring 2002, and that summer, he returned to Colombia for their wedding.

Although his wife also received a BUA scholarship–and knows the first five books of the Bible–she repeatedly has been denied entry, even though her husband legally studied in the United States. She even moved back to her home country of Venezuela and unsuccessfully tried to get a tourist visa to attend graduation.

Despite the enforced separation, Gomez-Bossio has nothing but praise for BUA. “I don't know where all God will lead us, but I have no doubt that someday he will allow me to return here to teach,” he explained. “BUA gave me the opportunity to get a great start on my education, and I want to be part of helping others. I love this place.”

Posted: 6/24/05

Children of HIV-positive
mothers need adoptive homes

By Felicia Fuller

Buckner Baptist Benevolences

DALLAS–A toffee-skinned bundle with coal-black hair stretches and wriggles, then poses with one finger against her dimpled cheek. Not yet a month old, Baby Cassidy already is charming on-lookers.

She is one of about 80 Dallas infants born annually to mothers infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Despite her prenatal exposure, pediatric AIDS specialists insist Cassidy has a less than 5 percent chance of contracting HIV. That's because her birthmother was compliant with her HIV medication, maintained an undetectable viral load and delivered by Caesarean section.

“We have had only one exposed child test positive in the past four years,” said Mary Mallory, nurse practitioner at the ARMS Clinic at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, where 95 percent of HIV-exposed infants are referred.

To potential adoptive parents, she adds that Cassidy “is at low risk for having acquired HIV” and is “no risk to have in their home.”

Officials at Buckner Domestic Adoption hope that by dispelling misconceptions about prenatal exposure to HIV, Cassidy soon will be permanently placed in a loving, Christian home.

“Buckner's commitment to Cassidy and to her birthmother is to find a family who will bring her up to know the Lord; who will recognize and help Cassidy recognize the depth of her birthmother's love; and who will be able to help her refute all the misperceptions about prenatal exposure to HIV,” said Adela Jones, director of Buckner Adoption & Maternity Services.

Caseworkers say Cassidy, who weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces at birth and measured 20 and one-half inches, is an apparently healthy baby who will require no special care other than traditional well-baby visits and vaccinations. Her HIV tests at two days and two weeks after her birth were negative, and she has completed the six-week round of oral HIV-preventative medicine given to exposed infants.

Cassidy will undergo HIV tests using DNA amplification at 2 months and 6 months old, after which she officially can be declared HIV-free, and “no further testing will be needed,” Mallory said.

Maternal HIV antibodies may be present in an HIV-negative baby for up to 15 months, after which the baby loses its mother's antibodies and begins to build its own, she added.

“We do not do HIV-antibody testing on exposed infants for this reason,” she explained. “The DNA amplification test looks for the virus itself, not antibodies to the virus. “Because HIV is all that we do, we are able to offer education and support to our families as well as medical care,” she continued. “We have a multidisciplinary team, including a social worker, developmental specialist and bilingual client advocate.”

Buckner will provide extensive medical information to potential adoptive parents, including the birthmother's prenatal report, hospital records, and social and genetic background information, Jones said.

In addition to Cassidy, Buckner has three other clients due to have children this summer.

“All of these children are reported to be biracial, and one of these children has had exposure to drugs, alcohol and HIV. We are looking for families for all of these children,” Jones said.

“Pray for Cassidy and other children needing permanent families,” she urged. “We firmly believe God has the right family for them, and we ask you to pray for that end.”

For more information about Cassidy or Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services, visit www.buckneradoption.org or write domesticadoption@buckner.org. Interested families outside Texas can contact Adela Jones directly at ajones@buckner.org.

Posted: 6/24/05

Posted: 6/24/05

2nd Opinion:
Several things Charlie didn't know

By Buckner Fanning

I wish you could have known my father, Charles A. Fanning. No son could have had a better dad. Everyone who knew Charlie loved and appreciated him. I, too, when I was very young, began calling him “Charlie”–occasionally “Dad” but mostly “Charlie.”

He grew up on a farm near Greenville, accepted Christ and joined the Methodist church. He finished high school, then attended and graduated from Baylor University, where he met and married my mother, Beryl Buckner. After he returned from France in 1918 following World War I, they moved to southeastern Colorado, where veterans could receive 1,000 acres if they would farm and raise wheat. Charlie knew how to farm, but not in the middle of the Dust Bowl. Those were tough times. Not only were there no crops, there was no school in Branson, Colo.

Since my folks were the only two college graduates in the whole area, they opened the school, which had been closed for years–a two-room schoolhouse–and they started teaching. Many children began coming back to school, and they all came on horseback. Mother taught the younger grades, and Charlie taught the upper grades. In two years, they didn't raise any wheat, but they raised some kids to learn how to read, write and understand arithmetic.

Later, they moved to Dallas, where Charlie went to work in business and Mother co-taught a large Sunday school class with Mrs. Truett during the pastorate of George W. Truett at First Baptist Church.

To this day, I never picture Charlie in my mind without his cigar in his mouth, either smoking it or chewing it. Also, I see him and my mother on their knees between my brother Bob's and my beds, praying every night. Charlie was not a public speaker. He just could not stand up and pray in public, but every night, he would pray out loud on his knees. You know, if I had to choose, I'd take him on his knees between our beds rather than on his feet in public.

Charlie went with me on my 17th birthday in 1943 to join the U.S. Marine Corps. During the three and one-half years I was in the Marines, Charlie regularly wrote me letters of about four lines in length. They all ended, “With love, Dad.”

When I came home in 1946, I enrolled in Baylor and was greatly influenced by professors and students alike. I came home to talk to my folks. I shared with my mother and dad that I was feeling a strong internal impression that the Lord was leading me to preach. My mother cried with joy, and Charlie said: “That's wonderful. I'm proud of you.”

Then in private, Charlie talked with me. With a cigar in his mouth, Charlie said he had a couple of things he wanted to share with me about the ministry from a businessman's standpoint. I was eager to listen.

First, he said: “Pay your own way. Never ask for a financial discount because you are a preacher. Get over-charged before you compromise your character and calling.” He then took the cigar out, looked at me, smiled big (as he often did) and said, “Just don't make a damn fool out of yourself.”

What a man! What a father! What character!

Charlie's credos were: “Always play fair.” “Keep the rules.” “Tell the truth.” “Never quit.” He then said: “I can't give you any advice on 'how' to preach. My suggestions are perhaps on the more practical side.”

Well, Charlie surely did know a lot–and yet there are some things he did not know, and these truly endear him to me. He did not know how totally unselfish he was. He did not know or even think for a moment what a tremendous Christian he was. But he did know how much we all loved him!

I wish everyone had a Charlie in their life. If you don't have one, be one. What great advice for preachers and other sinners!

Buckner Fanning is a retired Texas pastor who served for many years at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.

Posted: 6/24/05

CYBER COLUMN:
The presence of Christ

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, thinking about the presence of Christ. Jesus said, “I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father” (John 8:38).

The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins details Christ’s presence in his poem As Kingfishers Catch Fire:

He speaks of Christ who, in his presence, “plays in ten thousand places.”

Christ in his presence shows up in hospital rooms, in back alleys where indigents dig for scrap food in dumpsters, in the eyes of a father whose tears trickle down the cheek at graduation exercises, at funerals where widowers weep, in birthday celebrations, at church, in prayer meetings, but, mostly, Christ shows up in the human heart. Christ plays in the ten thousand places, but he plays a melody of joy when he resides in the human heart.

The other day, I heard a lady describe her airplane ride to another city. She got up out of her chair and went to the back of the airplane to the bathroom. While waiting in line, she looked through the window.

A man wearing a large cross around his neck saw her and asked, “Are you looking for someone?”

“No,” she replied, “I am simply looking at the stars.”

“Look closely, and you’ll see angels,” the cross-bearing man responded.

“All I see is stars,” the lady again replied.

“Look real close, and you can see Christ on the wing,” he chimed.

The whole discussion led them to talk about their common faith and witness to the living presence of Christ.

So, here I am on this hot Texas summer day, thinking about Christ’s presence.

Somehow, my mind drifts to North Carolina, in the mountains where my grandmother lived. She eases into the room on a cool night while the mountain winds blow the curtains. A car passes by. The stars shine brightly. A cricket chirps. A firefly glows. The floor creaks. And then my grandmother whispers in the quietness,

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

As the breezes blew and while my grandmother whispered her prayer, I sensed God’s presence. “Be still and know that he is God” (Psalm 46:10). Christ plays in ten thousand places; he makes a melody in the soul.

I believe in God’s presence. And next time I fly on an airplane, I’ll think of the cross, glance out the window for the stars, and look for Christ on the wing.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines.

Posted: 6/24/05

DOWN HOME:
My lunch with Lyle; an evaporating act

This seemed too good to be true: Lunch with Lyle Lovett.

Lyle's been one of my musical heroes since 1986, the first time I heard him sing “Front Porch Song,” which he wrote about Texas with his good friend Robert Earl Keen when they were students at A&M. At the time, I lived a long way from Texas, but every time I heard that record, it took me back home.

So, I began listening to Lyle. In almost 20 years, I've bought every one of his albums and/or CDs. They never disappoint.

At first, we talked–actually, I talked–about how much I enjoy his music. But that embarrassed him, so we moved on to other topics.

Like how much we love Texas. And how we appreciate the land, cattle and folks who raise cattle. How we remember friendly old men and two-lane country roads and clear evening skies from when we were boys growing up in the Lone Star State.

Then we got to talking about how much we were influenced by the church music of our youth. Mine came from the 1956 edition of the Baptist Hymnal. But Lyle, who grew up in East Texas, soaked up the influences of gospel music in African-American congregations that dot the Piney Woods. Maybe if I'd grown up hearing more Negro Spirituals, I'd be the famous singer, not Lyle.

I noticed a slight frown, like Lyle had a headache, and I asked what was wrong. He admitted he was concerned about remembering all the lyrics from some of his songs for his upcoming tour.

Joking, I told him to let me sing with him, since I probably recall more words to his songs than he does. We don't know each other all that well, but I'd guess the cloud that flickered across his smile indicated he didn't think that was as funny as I did.

For years, Lyle's been known for his wiry, unruly hairdo. But on this day, it was cropped closely and, to use a term that rarely applies to him, “normal.”

When I commented on this fact, he replied, “Not bad for a boy from Ellis County.”

That's when I knew something was wrong. I said: “Lyle, you're not from Ellis County. You're from Klein, down by Houston, in Harris County.”

Lyle gave me a funny, knowing look. And that's when the alarm clock went off. A moment later, I realized I'd never had lunch with Lyle Lovett, real as it seemed. I dreamed the whole thing. …

The other day in Sunday school, I asked if the Revelation had been given to the Apostle John in a dream or a vision. Tibby, who is consistently insightful, insisted John wasn't a dreamer–he received a vision from God.

Later, as I thought about my “dream” lunch with Lyle Lovett, I realized Tibby was correct.

When we dream, we think about us, about things we want. Like lunch with Lyle, a vacation in Hawaii, a plasma TV.

When we receive a vision, it's about what God wants. Like feeding the hungry, correcting injustice, sharing Jesus' love.

Dreams are great fun distractions. But this ol' world needs more visions.

–Marv Knox

Posted: 6/24/05

EDITORIAL:
Fear leads people to scary conclusions

Which possesses the potential for greater harm: Scary things, or the fear of scary things?

America is crawling with scary things, particularly for people with deeply held religious and moral values:

Pay attention, and you'll hear some people claim faith has no business in the public square. They downplay the central core of our being as illegitimate. They may only represent a fringe element, but they're noisy.

Surf the Internet, television or the radio, and you'll be assaulted by profane and obscene words and images you couldn't have imagined. It's as if our values are worthless.

Listen a little while, and you'll hear tales of sexual impropriety that would have seemed implausible not long ago. Couples–particularly famous couples–living together with no thought of marriage. Same-sex couples living together and calling it (or suing to call it) “marriage.” Women who claim their bodies have rights that supercede the rights of the young lives living within them. It's as if our morals are deemed quaint, repressive or illegal.

Read the papers, and you'll learn about public officials–ignorant of the law–who deny religious liberty to citizens. This particularly happens in school houses and other public buildings. It's as if our nation's rich heritage of religious liberty and toleration doesn't exist.

Liberty and toleration have come under attack by people who embrace another religion and a competing world view. They have labeled us “infidels” and called us evil. Some of their leaders have said our religion should be annihilated. It's as if we were the “enemy.”

Small wonder that so many Americans, particularly Christians, are scared. This world, even our own society, sometimes seems increasingly threatening.

But if America is going to hell in a handbasket, one end of it is being carried by scared Christians.

Like many of my fellow Christians, I don't like it when people imply faith should not have a voice in public discussion. I'm sick of violence and sexual promiscuity and blasphemy blasting from the popular media. I'm tired of alternative lifestyles being offered as normative. I'm frustrated by people who don't understand the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment, and deny the free exercise of religion. And Islamic extremists sometimes give me the shivers.

Still, I've got to admit it: When I think about America and our future, many of the people who scare me the most are the ones who wave the banner of Christ. They're so consumed by fear of the “other” that they deny their spiritual birthright. They would take away from others the liberty they desire for themselves. For example, I get scared, or at least a little bit nervous, when:

A politician holds a closed-door meeting with 500 ministers, with the apparent intent of using those ministers to convince their church members it's God's will that they vote for this politician. Of course, ministers and all Christians have the same political rights as everybody else. Their faith should inform their politics. But identification of one candidate or one party with God's way borders on blasphemy. (And, history will show, the politicians usually play the Christians for chumps.)

A self-styled historian goes around misleading good-hearted Christians, convincing them the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” His implication is that, if people of other faiths and no faith don't like it, they can leave. Yes, the majority of early Americans were Christians. But many of them valued variety of religious expression. Those Baptists understood the horrors of religious persecution. So, they helped found a nation that was neutral toward religion, that appropriately separated church and state. Given this fertile ground, religion flourished. It's heartbreaking to see Baptists, now sensing their majority status, forsake their heritage and willingly undermine the liberty of minorities today.

Baptists call or write to affirm that very thing. Like the person who recently advocated state support for his brand of faith: “Majority rules. I don't have to put up with their religion, and they can't tell me how to practice mine. If they don't like it, they better get used to it.”

Fear causes people to act out of character. I sympathize with my brothers and sisters whose fear of hostile secularism leads them to embrace hostile religion. But that is not the way–of Christ, or of Baptists. We can stand for faith, morality and values (and we should discuss the definition of “values” on another occasion). But we also must stand for religious freedom, liberty, and separation of church and state. They're vital to our Baptist heritage, as well as our future.