Posted: 11/17/06

City Reach meets needs

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Sharing an 18-wheeler of donated chicken and Christian love, the Baptist General Convention of Texas City Reach 2006 missions project connected with hundreds of families across the Dallas-Fort Worth area during a “Day of Sharing” partnership with Lift Up America.

The BGCT City Reach collaboration with Lift Up America—a corporate partnership that included Tyson, Interstate Batteries, FC Dallas and Ty Beanie Babies—was the first initiative of its kind for the Texas Baptist convention.

The City Reach 2006 alliance will put food on the tables for many less fortunate families in the Thanksgiving season. Volunteers distributed more than 20,000 donated chickens to needy people through Baptist churches or affiliated agencies during the missions effort, scheduled in conjunction with the BGCT annual meeting.

• See complete list of convention articles

“We had 23 Baptist churches and relief agencies pick up the bulk of their Tyson chicken distribution this morning,” said Gerald Davis, BGCT community missions specialist and coordinator of City Reach 2006.

Texas Baptist Men volunteers loaded trucks and vans at the Baptist Building parking lot, including one headed for Valley View Baptist Church in Farmers Branch.

“This will help us tremendously,” said Ernie Boren, pastor of Valley View Baptist Church. “We are seeing an increase in the numbers of families needing food this year.”

Distributing chicken and a message of hope through Christ, Valley View aided at least 35 needy families in one day, and church leaders expected to help another 35 families before Thanksgiving.

“We had a 30-year-old lady who was saved in the parking lot,” Boren said. “She became a Christian during a block party last weekend. We also gave the names of 35 prospective Hispanic church members to our mission church.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Fellowship of Cowboy Churches
points to continued growth

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

WAXAHACHIE—Pastors and western-heritage church leaders who believe God must be a cowboy at heart voted to ramp up the growth of the cowboy church movement at the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches 2006 Annual Cowboy Gathering, prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

Fellowship members voted to increase their current budget of $120,000 to $290,500, hire two staff members, double church planting school funds from $4,800 to $10,000, double ranch house school funding to $8,000 and quadruple event funding.

The BGCT 2007 budget, approved by messengers to the annual meeting, increased funding for the fellowship fourfold—earmarking $25,500 for western-heritage churches.

“The BGCT has been there for me as a pastor,” said Charles Higgs, director of BGCT western-heritage ministries. “They realize we’re reaching lost souls for Christ and want to be a part of that. God has given me the privilege of walking with men I admire.” Higgs leads Erath County Cowboy Church in Stephenville, where he is founding pastor.

The fellowship hired 2006 President Greg Horn to expand the cowboy church outreach in East Texas and Shannon Morgan, pastor of Palo Duro Cowboy Church in Canyon, to expand the westernheritage movement in West Texas and the Panhandle, including Midland-Odessa, Lubbock and South Plains, as well as South Texas. Members also voted to almost triple the chuck wagon and western hauler outreach efforts.

“Sometimes God uses nobodies like me to do his work,” Horn said. “I’ve been honored to serve as your president and look forward to working for you to reach others for Christ. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in a year.”

“The western-heritage church movement continues to gain strength as numbers of new cowboy churches started by the Baptist General Convention of Texas have almost doubled from 51 to 82 in 2006 alone,” said Ron Nolen, director of the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches. “The amazing thing is we baptized more than 3,000 Christians this year so far.

“We know there is a need for the western-heritage church. Seventy-five percent of these people will be adult men and women never before targeted. We’ve got work to do. We’ve got to put boots to the ground and cross the state to meet this unreached segment of Texas.”

Fellowship members also elected 2007 officers, including President Pat Traxler, pastor of Brush Country Cowboy Church in George West, Vice President Paul Howie, pastor of Leon River Cowboy Church in Eastland, and Secretary Jamey Burrus, pastor of Cowboy Church of Young County in Graham.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

DaVinci Code DVD dialogue a starting place

By Jenny Pope

Buckner International

DALLAS—With the upcoming release of the DaVinci Code on DVD, Dallas pastor Jim Denison believes the best-selling book remains relevant because “it’s an opportunity to have a conversation with culture.”

“The DaVinci Code is so popular because it reinforces what this culture already wants to believe,” said Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church, noting more than 50 million people claim to have read the book and 10 million say it has influenced their faith.

The novel, which claims to be based on historical fact, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. The book claims Jesus Christ was elevated to false deity by third-century Roman emperor Constantine the Great. It also claims Jesus married Mary Magdalene, who gave birth to a daughter who holds the bloodline of Christ.

• See complete list of convention articles

“If the conversation about this book is based solely on facts, we’d win,” Denison said, adding that the Christian New Testament and numerous documents that proclaim Jesus as deity date hundreds of years prior to Constantine’s proposed third-century trickery.

Denison suggested the best way to handle cultural conflicts is to “engage the culture where the culture is” and have conversations.

“Become the salt and the light to the world. Salt dies, and light diffuses,” he said. “When salt flavors food, it stops being itself to become something greater. In the same way, you have to die to yourself to become the salt of the earth.”

Denison also encouraged Baptists to see where God is giving them influence and evaluate where they can engage others for the kingdom, even if it means taking a stand politically and running for public office.

“We cannot stand for a world where Christians cannot speak with a biblical world view,” he said. “Every Christian should ask that question: Should I run for office? I can’t wait for a day where Christians can stand unabashedly and state their beliefs.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Steps already taken to
implement recommendations

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—All of the recommendations made by an investigative team regarding misuse of church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley will be implemented—and some were initiated long before the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board mandated them, Executive Director Charles Wade said.

At a closed-door meeting Nov. 13, the board voted to implement the recommendations “expeditiously and in full.” The board also instructed Chairman Bob Fowler to name an ad hoc committee to monitor implementation and report to the Executive Board at its February meeting.

“Now we’re going to sit down with key staff, identify everything in the Executive Board motions, break the items down and develop plans, assign responsibility and set timelines,” Wade said. “We are prepared to give an accounting. We’re going to work on that.”

• See complete list of convention articles

Wade once again stressed his commitment to leading the BGCT Executive Board staff through the process, dismissing rumors of any imminent retirement announcement.

In an interview immediately following the BGCT annual meeting, Wade outlined his plans for carrying out the seven recommendations presented to the board by the investigators who uncovered mismanagement and misuse of church starting funds in the Valley.

• Church starting guidelines should be reviewed and revised.

The process review began in February—before the investigative team even started to work, Wade noted. Chief Operating Officer Ron Gunter worked with Tim Randolph—former associational director of missions and now a BGCT congregational strategist—in the review process. (See related story on page 16.)

At its Nov. 13 meeting, the Executive Board approved a motion that the guidelines be elevated to “policy” status and be incorporated into the BGCT policy manual. Policies are mandatory provisions established by the Executive Board that can be modified only by the board. Guidelines are developed by staff and can be revised by the chief executive officer.

• Develop more accurate and accessible mortality rates for new churches.

Personal contacts by congregational strategists around the state and calls by service center personnel will help verify whether church starts survive and thrive, Wade noted.

• Integrate and coordinate record keeping.

The BGCT Executive Board staff already has adopted two software programs—one related to finances and the other designed to help track church relations, Wade said.

• See complete list of Valley funds scandal articles

Staff also is “making headway” toward consolidating more than 80 databases previously maintained by individual offices in the Baptist Building, he noted. The largest ones have been completed, and staff continues to work on eliminating duplications and errors.

• Develop better internal controls over disbursements.

“We’re going to make sure there’s adequate oversight over checking” and related accounting issues, Wade said. “We don’t have to wait for the board to do that.”

• Control and design of BGCT reporting systems should be performed by the accounting department.

The specifics of how to implement that recommendation have not been determined yet, Wade noted.

However, he pointed out a related matter—implementing an internal audit function—already was in process long before the investigators brought their report. The Executive Board’s audit committee introduced the idea at the board’s May meeting.

• Response to allegations must be immediate.

“We are going to create a culture of accountability,” Wade said. “When we hear anybody complain, we’re not going to just dismiss those complaints out of hand.”

• Trust, but verify.

The internal audit function will help the BGCT Executive Board staff verify not only financial information but all quantifiable data, Wade noted.

Rebuilding trust and correcting problems demands high priority, and Wade pledged to give it the deserved attention. However, the problems revealed by the investigators’ report cannot become an all-consuming passion, he stressed.

“As grievous as this matter is and as committed as I am to resolving these issues, this cannot be the focus of all our energies,” Wade said. “We have ministry to do, churches to encourage and a missions vision to implement.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Church not immune from family violence

By Mike Midkiff

East Texas Baptist University

DALLAS—Domestic violence is the “elephant in the room that nobody wants to see,” Joanna Berry, director of counseling and family ministry at South Texas Children’s Home told a Texas Baptist workshop.

“I am positive that in my church, there are victims of family violence sitting in the pews on Sunday morning,” Berry said during a Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting workshop.

“Family violence occurs across all religions, races, cultures and socio-economic levels.”

Berry, who deals with victims of family violence frequently, encourages churches to discuss and develop a crisis intervention plan for domestic violence.

“The church is uniquely positioned to make a difference. The church can speak to the spiritual applications, because the church has resources and the trust and respect of victims who will come seeking help,” she said.

Many women stay in a marriage because they have been taught “God hates divorce” and have said vows, “for better or worse.”

“I encourage preachers to preach on the second part of Malachi 2:16,” Berry said. “The second part of the verse states, ‘I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment, says the Lord Almighty.’”

Suggestions Berry, a li-censed counselor, offered were:

• Train church staff members and leaders to help the abused.

• Provide literature on do-mestic abuse and available resources.

• Place information about family violence in the women’s restroom or a women’s Bible study classroom.

• Offer pre-marital counseling in which abuse is defined and condemned.

• Protect the children. “If children are involved, it is imperative for the mother to leave the abusive situation,” she said. “I see in counseling the damage that is done when the child becomes an adult.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Preaching must change to
communicate with culture

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

DALLAS—Culture is changing and, consequently, preaching must change as well, pulpiteer Joel Gregory told a Texas Baptist gathering.

Gregory, professor of preaching at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary, reminded participants at his workshop during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting that they had a tool never available to preachers before this generation.

He urged them to use Internet search engines as they strive to preach life-changing sermons amid a “seismic cultural shift” from the rational and linear modern age to the postmodern era.

“Nobody seems to be able to agree on a single definition of what postmodernism is, but overwhelmingly there is consensus that we are past the modern age where there were rules that applied to everybody,” Gregory pointed out.

“The way people think and process information and evaluate truth claims has changed. For the first time in 1,600 years, every level of authority in culture is under challenge—and that includes the authority of the pastor.”

Preaching to younger generations requires pastors to take a different approach than they may have in the past, Gregory said.

“People who study such things say that the typical adult today cannot follow a sustained thought or argument for more than three or four minutes, and I concur from my own experiences,” he said.

“When I preach, the over-40 crowds pretty much stay with me. But the 20-somethings tune out pretty quickly. They are text messaging each other there in the pews.

“Most of us come to the pulpit to get something said, but the reality today is that we must concentrate on getting something heard. And those are two different things. We can wind up throwing theological Frisbees over the heads of the congregation.

“If we don’t connect with them emotionally, as well as intellectually, we won’t be heard.”

Gregory insisted the solution is not, as some suggest, to abandon preaching “truth directly related to specific biblical themes” or deny that “a great number of things have changed dramatically in the lives of the people we preach to that makes the former methods of preaching unsuccessful.”

That’s where Internet search engines come in.

“At the touch of a computer keyboard, you have millions of pieces of lived experiences at your command that you can use to point out how the scriptural truth makes sense today,” Gregory said.

“Learn to use it, and if you don’t know how, announce that you want someone to teach you, and you’ll get plenty of volunteers.”

Gregory said for most of his 42-year career as a preacher, he agreed with John Stott’s position that “the proclaimer” should stand precisely halfway between the “then-ness of the text and the relevance of that text to those hearing it.”

But now he is convinced preaching must be much closer to the present—near to how the truth of Scripture is applicable to the listeners’ situation.

“The authority of a preacher begins with the exegesis of the text. If you don’t understand what it meant the day it was written, you have no chance of understanding what it means today. But we can’t stop there,” he said.

“The ‘bridge’ is telling vivid, crisp, fresh and credible narrative experiences of living people whose experiences illustrate the truth of our text.

“What we must accept is that there is no such thing as a meta-narrative anymore, which is a fancy way of saying everyone isn’t living the same story. When I grew up, everybody around me understood the world the same way. But that is no longer true.”

To that end, he encouraged “making a journey of discovery through the text with the congregation to a definite point.”

Gregory made eight suggestions about biblical preaching today:

• Get over the idea that authority is ceded on a preacher because of education, ordination, reputation or position.

• Remember that truth is proclaimed in community, not to a gaggle of Lone Ranger independents.

• Preaching needs to be more than verb parsing, noun declining and theological-term spouting pontification.

• Preaching needs to be transformative in addition to being informative.

• Preaching needs to include more lived experiences of faith.

• Preaching may be less linear but not non-linear or without form.

• Preaching still needs unity—preaching about one big idea.

• Inductive and narrative does not mean disunified and incoherent.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Texas Baptists urged to
launch world missions offering

By Marv Knox

Editor

DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas must take five significant steps, which include launching its own world missions offering, if it hopes to preserve Baptist identity and advance God’s kingdom, Ken Hall told participants at the Texas Baptists Committed breakfast during the BGCT annual meeting Nov. 14.

“We stand today in a decision time for what it means to be Baptist,” insisted Hall, president of Buckner International and a former BGCT president.

Hall’s solutions for charting Texas Baptists’ course into the future clustered around expanding missions and ministries, cooperating with a broader range of Christians and taking specific steps to sustain the endeavors.

Texas Baptists’ problem does not originate in the battle with fundamentalism, which dominated their convention for the past 30 years and split the convention eight years ago, Hall said. Rather, the problem stems from lack of vision, which has produced uncertainty among “our best and brightest” and diminished enthusiasm among pastors.

“Those who fought back the fundamentalist terrorists of the past 30 years don’t seem to have a clear vision of what Baptists should be at the dawn of this new millennium,” he said.

Five “distractions and complicators” cloud vision and impede progress, he said. They include:

• Success orientation. The problem is not so much with the so-called prosperity gospel promoted by TV preachers, but “Baptists seem to believe that something must be successful to be of God,” he observed. “We see it in our church structures and in the denomination itself, with numbers often times taking precedence over doing things the right way. …

“One of the reasons we have a hard time helping people see that our work is meaningful is because we want them to see us as successful, rather than faithful.”

• Party affiliation. Baptists divide over everything from political parties, to hot-button issues such as faith-based initiatives, to worship styles, Hall said.

“Perhaps one of the reasons we have a hard time identifying what it means to be a Baptist is because we’ve blurred the lines on those kinds of issues and have forgotten what our basic principles are as free-minded followers of Christ,” he lamented. “Conformity has never been a standard for what it means to be a Baptist.”

• American nationalistic orientation. U.S. Baptists promote their viewpoints “as if Americans were the choice people of God,” he said. “It is arrogant beyond all measure to assume because we are an American and a Texan, that God must love us more than he loves other people.

“It is nonbiblical to believe that God blesses people based on their nationalistic viewpoints. … One of the reasons it is hard to recruit thinking people to be a part of us in this era is because we have decided that we are right and the rest of the world is just trying to catch up with us.”

• Media mentality. Baptists often worry about how secular and religious media will interpret them, and they take their identity cues from pollsters, Hall declared.

“Jesus gave us the standard for who we are when he stated unequivocally that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness before anything can be added to us,” he said. “The media mindset causes us to focus on public opinion rather than the scriptural admonition to seek the mind of Christ.”

• Lack of justice. “It troubles me greatly to state that there are over 140 million orphans in the world, and Baptists are doing a woefully inadequate job of serving them,” he acknowledged. “At a time when millions upon millions of people are dying, we Baptists argue about things that are seldom going to extend the kingdom’s outreach to hurting people.”

Part of the problem is Baptists “study things so long that by the time we get through studying it and talking about it, thousands of more people have died. … People don’t have time for us to work out our issues.”

Also, Baptists spend billions of dollars on themselves but give a relative pittance to others.

“Maybe one of the reasons we are not growing and we are not attracting people is because God has taken his hand off of us,” he surmised. “God loves those who ‘do justice and love mercy.’”

Looking forward, Hall proposed five steps Texas Baptists must take if they hope to advance God’s kingdom:

• Intentional missions. Professing he believes in the “cooperative missions enterprise,” Hall charged: “We have allowed the idea of mission boards, missions think-tanks and mission-sending agencies to overshadow the simple role of going into the world and serving others in Jesus’ name.”

Often, Baptists have communicated that laypeople are only expected to support missionaries and support denominational mission activities, he said.

“We should be talking to people about how they can personally be invested in the mission enterprise,” he added. “We as Texas Baptists must decide the world needs what we have in Jesus Christ today. Rather than promote systems, strategies and plans, we need to actually be doing the work of Jesus.

“If we get focused on missions as a people, those who agree with our theology and polity but are having a hard time identifying with us will come along and be a part of the team as we engage the world for Jesus.”

• Associate with Christians driven by vision. This means disassociating from divisive, harmful and mean-spirited individuals or groups, as well as mediocre enterprises, Hall said.

“We need to look for leaders, churches and ministry outlets that believe they have been placed on this earth because God has a role for them to play in the lives of people—everywhere,” he noted. “Cooperation is a mutual effort where all parties involved give their best and are willing to sacrifice for the good of everyone involved in the effort.”

• Celebrate inclusion. Similarly, Baptists should work with and among other people “who are not just like us,” he said. “It is a God thing for us to be marked by inclusion of age, gender, ethnicity, perspective, resource and history.”

“If our beloved denomination is going to make a difference in the 21st century, we are going to have to reflect the world in which we live,” he added. “For us to be what God wants us to be, we are going to have to understand that there are people in our churches and in our fellowship we call Texas Baptists who are different. … Every one of the people who participate within the Baptist family has an equal voice.”

• Fund ministries that extend the kingdom. “We must fund ministries that ‘get it’ and do it,” Hall asserted. “In this time when people expect full disclosure, we cannot find ourselves funding programs or ministries that are mediocre at best.

“We must decide as we look at our budgets, as we look at our allocations within those budgets: What are we doing to make sure God’s work is marching forward at a rapid pace? We should prioritize our expenditures so that everyone in need of the gospel today can hear the message of Christ and receive the touch that comes from the family of God. We have to ask hard, difficult, piercing questions in our churches, as a denomination and of each of us who individually sit in the pew: Are we giving to things that matter?”

• Create sustainable systems. “If we are going to claim a kingdom moment as Texas Baptists, we need to create systems that can adapt to an ever-changing world,” he said.

“God has already given us all the resources we need to do anything we can dream of in extending the kingdom of God,” he added, citing the BGCT’s universities, hospitals and human welfare ministries.

But the BGCT must not only project a vision but also set high standards for itself, he insisted.

“The rest of the world recognizes Texas Baptists have great resources, and yet too often, we allow our own lack of vision to stymie our ability to impact society,” Hall said. “Our current denominational structure often finds itself having to average down to the lowest common denominator rather than toward the greatest expansion of opportunities that we have.

“Why? Internally, we create competition rather than cooperation. Too often, it’s an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality that keeps us from doing the things God wants us to do.” Texas Baptists can’t wait to resolve their problems and capitalize on their opportunities, Hall insisted, citing millions of people in need, exorbitant dropout rates among Hispanic youth, confusing immigration policies and 38,552 confirmed cases of child abuse in Texas last year.

One answer is for the BGCT to promote a Texas Baptist Missions Offering that would “engage the world,” he said, noting last year Texas Baptist churches contributed more than $15.3 million to the Southern Baptist Conven-tion’s two missions offerings.

“My question for you and your church: Is that the best way you should have spent that money?” he asked. A broad-based Texas Baptist Missions Offering would benefit not only Texas but also the world, Hall added. And an offering to raise “a huge sum of money, let’s say $100 million” to ensure educating Texas youth, meeting human need and engaging culture in the midst of pain would fire the imagination and engage Texas Baptist churches, he predicted.

“I call our Texas Baptist family to be bold. Let’s create a Texas Baptist Missions Offering that storms the gates of hell,” he said. “Our Lord has given us resources in abundance, and for us to not boldly invest in his kingdom priorities is to be an unfaithful servant. I challenge you: Let’s do it.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Internet ministry can help
churches expand their reach

By Blake Killingsworth

Dallas Baptist University

DALLAS—Many churches’ publishing ministry gave way to tape ministry, which gave way to television ministry. Will it now give way to Internet ministry?

During the 2006 Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, the web broadcasting team from South Main Baptist Church in Houston gave a do-it-yourself workshop of how to build a “worship webcast.”

A pioneer in this new ministry delivery method, South Main provides live webcasting as well as archived services, Bible studies and special events such as youth retreats, baby dedications and conferences.

“Think about your potential audience,” suggested Wallie Kronzer, producer/director of the South Main broadcast ministry. From homebound church members to missionaries to families across the nation and the globe, the Internet provides an almost limitless ability to share a church’s ministry with the world.

Kronzer illustrated the potential of the medium by telling about the mother of a church pianist who tunes in once a month from thousands of miles away to hear her child play.

Churches that want to set up an Internet ministry would not have to sacrifice much to get something running, he said.

“You will need to spend some money, but you don’t need to spend Cadillac dollars,” Kronzer said.

In fact, a system can cost as little as $4,000. All that is needed is a standard video camera, a capable computer, an Internet connection and committed people to put the plan in place, he noted.

With a little trial and error, the whole service can be web-available, posing a new problem: If everyone watches it online, are they having church? As one audience member joked, “What about the offering?”

Not to worry, Kronzer replied. Online giving and stewardship programs provide a solution for this potentially tricky area.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Kids Hope USA mentors make a difference

By Jenny Pope

Buckner International

DALLAS—One child in five lives in poverty. One in three lacks a significant father figure, and children without a father figure are twice as likely to drop out of school, said Scott Waller, director of program development for Buckner Children & Family Services and Kids Hope USA liaison.

Poverty, poor education and lack of parental involvement clearly are linked to crime. In fact, two states currently look to third-grade reading-level scores to determine the future number of prison cells.

Kids Hope USA, in cooperation with Buckner Children and Family Services, is a church-based initiative where churches “can make a profound impact in the lives of at-risk children if they would mobilize their members to form one-on-one relationships with children in neighborhood schools,” he said.

The ministry model is based on church members spending one hour a week with one elementary school child for a year.

“The only way to a child’s brain is through the heart,” Waller said, noting children are “hard-wired to connect” and cannot learn when their brains are constantly in the fight-or-flight mode caused by an unstable home life.

“I know that nobody in here needs more programs,” he said during a Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting workshop. “But this isn’t about the BGCT or Buckner or Kids Hope USA. This is about the transcendent issue of children needing God’s love.”

Kids Hope USA began as a 1995 research project that proved schools were searching for help from mentors who in turn help reduce emotional, behavioral and academic problems in children and promote self-esteem. The greatest resource for this kind of love was the local church.

More than 400 churches participate in the Kids Hope USA program in 27 states.

What makes the Kids Hope model unique, Waller said, is that the church owns and operates the program and ultimately determines how successful it can be. Although the church must respect church/state separation issues on campus, they can invite the children and their families to participate in church events.

“Teachers say that they see a noticeable difference in the attitude and behavior of these children in two weeks,” he said. “That’s just two, one-hour visits. It’s almost hard to believe that it’s that simple.

“Faithful mentoring transforms lives, and that’s what we, as Christians, are all about.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Missions workshop offers tips

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

DALLAS—There is no shortage of mission trip opportunities for church groups; the difficulty is in determining where to go and why, a workshop leader told Texas Baptists.

Dearing Garner, executive director for Africa for Children’s Emergency Relief International, led a breakout session on “Give Your Congregation a Mission—Choose a Place in the World and Go” during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

“God is very specific that we are to share his word with everyone, everywhere,” Garner said. “But we all know that some mission trips leave folks with a bad taste for missions because they are poorly organized and poorly focused. We don’t want that to happen to your church.”

The first and most important issue is determining where God is calling, he said. While that involves praying and listening, it also includes matching the talents of the group members with the needs of the target country, he explained.

Garner urged churches to investigate carefully who is leading the trip they are considering and, if possible, send one or two people on an advance trip.

The three basic types of short-term mission trips—direct evangelism, humanitarian and prayer-walking—offer distinct styles of sharing God’s love and word, each valid but each being appropriate to different gifts, he said.

Even though Garner has led all three types of trips, he said he is drawn to a humanitarian effort “that allows us to stand beside our Christian brothers and sisters in that country and meet a basic need while telling people about Jesus.”

Garner leads Children’s Emergency Relief International—the overseas arm of Baptist Child & Family Services—in its work with orphanages in Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa.

He has used his experiences in Moldova to illustrate how the process can work.

“As we were loading up the van to return to the team house, one of the doctors mentioned how surprised he had been by the number of cases of frostbite,” Garner recalled.

“As I looked over his shoulder, I saw a young girl standing in the snow. Nudged by the Spirit of God, I walked over to her and asked to see her hands. She held them out, and they were frostbitten. Suddenly and quietly, there a group of children surrounded our group, holding out their hands, all frostbitten.

“Within minutes, every glove we had was pulled off and given to them. We rode in silence for several miles before someone voiced what all of us were thinking: ‘We’ve got to do something.’ That was the beginning of Operation Knit Together, and this December, 47 volunteers from nine states will personally fit every orphan in the 66 government orphanages, all 12,000 of them, with new socks and new, warm winter boots. God showed us a need, put a desire in hour hearts to meet that need and has blessed our efforts to be faithful to that call.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Restoration of trust is vital, BGCT leaders agree

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Baptist General Convention of Texas leaders agree: Restoring trust is a primary task in 2007.

“The wound is deep, and it’s still fresh,” said BGCT President Michael Bell, referring to misuse of BGCT church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.

“There are real people who are very hurt, and it is real important that the hurt is addressed. There’s major work to be done in the Valley, and the BGCT needs to do a lot of listening.”

Bell joined newly elected BGCT President Steve Vernon, Executive Director Charles Wade and Executive Board Chairman Bob Fowler at a news conference during the BGCT annual meeting in Dallas.

Stressing that the BGCT needs to find ways to partner with its affiliated churches in the Valley, Bell affirmed the Executive Board plan to put new procedures in place such as an internal audit and making church starting guidelines policy.

“There’s major work to be done in the Valley, and the BGCT needs to do a lot of listening,” Bell said. “We need to find out ways we can partner with them, because I know a lot of people are hurt in the Valley.”

Vernon, pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland, echoed Bell’s sentiments, saying he realizes how the BGCT responds to the Valley investigation will be important in his term.

“I have real confidence in the reorganization of the Executive Board and think they’re prepared to handle the investigation,” Vernon said. “It will demand we listen. A lot of people have been doing good work for a lot of years. We need to affirm those pastors.”

Bell said Vernon will make an excellent president because he has made a point to meet with Texas Baptists and attend countless meetings during his tenure as first vice president.

• See complete list of Valley funds scandal articles

“I’m excited about what’s ahead for us,” Vernon said. “West Texans have a heart for missions, the BGCT and giving.”

Strategic changes in the way the BGCT operates will be a significant step in placing the organization in a better position of restoring trust, Bell and Vernon agreed.

Texas Baptists are caring people, and the developments this year have made them more concerned about how the convention does business and how the convention ought to be, Bell noted.

“We have a lot of hurt feelings, and I am asking for a chance to get it done,” Wade said.

The Executive Board considered a vote of confidence in the executive director, but Wade told the board he considered any such vote premature, Fowler reported.

“If I get it fixed, then you can express your appreciation for that,” Wade said.

While leaders must give focused attention to problems revealed by the church starting fund investigation, Vernon said, the kingdom cannot be put on hold. He urged that the BGCT move ahead in missions.

“We have got to keep our eyes on the kingdom, and we have a world to work with,” he said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 11/17/06

Nontraditional approaches may be needed

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

DALLAS—In a “Dr. Phil and Oprah age,” the church doesn’t have to be traditional to be faithful, Ray Brown, pastor of Resurrection Baptist Church in Schertz, told a Texas Baptist group.

In fact, being traditional may result in being unfaithful to the command to “go and tell the world,” he asserted.

“People have choices; they don’t have to come to your church,” he reminded participants during a Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting workshop.

“You’ve got to keep the non-essentials, no matter how much you love them, where they belong—on the non-essentials list. Other-wise, you better tear “Just As I Am” out of every hymnal in your sanctuary,” he said.

“Our job is to save as many people as we can as fast as we can for the glory of God. But sometimes we tell people they are going to hell before we show them the beauty of heaven. We want them to look right and talk right and act right before they become part of our congregation. But that’s like trying to clean the fish before we catch it. We’ve got to start where people are—in our preaching, in our programs—and let them get to know us, so they will trust us when we talk about spiritual things.”

At his church, it has meant becoming “more visual than verbal” in worship services and offering “multiple exposures and presentations of the gospel,” Brown said.

Openness to new technology is important, he insisted. Warning against being a “cassette-tape church in a world where cars have CD-only audio systems,” he urged churches to use new communication methods people are familiar with.

Recently, he was unexpectedly unable to be in the pulpit, so he recorded a short video message.

“More people made more professions of faith that Sunday than they usually do when I preach in person,” he said. “People today can respond to that video image.”

Over the past decade, Resurrection Baptist Church has grown from 250 members to more than 3,000 after adopting a strategy Brown calls “expanding with intent.” It entails finding out what it takes to get people to seriously listen to “the truth that we have about God and being saved.”

That means being open to doing new things in new ways—and sometimes not doing things “the way we’ve always done them.”

Brown grew up in a church that wouldn’t allow women to come to church in pants, but now he leads a church that has a “dress down Sunday” once a month.

He grew up in Sunday school, and his church still has a strong Sunday school program. But he estimates 10 percent of the current members meet once a week in small groups, and “within five years, I think it will climb to 50 percent.”

“If Sunday school works, then use it. But we are finding that small groups are the key to two significant elements of evangelism,” he pointed out.

“First, the small group overcomes the danger of getting lost in a megachurch. If you worship with 3,000 other people and you miss a Sunday, you probably won’t be missed. But if you are in a group of 10 or 12 people, they know when you’re not there and will check on you.”

Brown preaches “lots of how-to sermons (because) on Monday morning those folks are going to deal with lots of stuff and they need to know what Jesus said about how to keep their joy when it’s tough,” he said.

Themed series also make it easier for members to invite non-Christian friends to hear a topic that interests visitors.

Resurrection also stresses doctrinal diversity. “We make sure we are theologically solid on the essentials, but in everything else we are open,” Brown said.

“We have folks who have been sprinkled, but instead of arguing about it, we teach about why immersion is the biblical method. We have charismatics, but instead of arguing about gifts, we make sure folks understand that Paul meant what he said when he wrote, ‘If I speak like the angels and don’t love people, I am nothing.’”

Churches fight “over institutional things, the non-essential things,” he concluded. “You don’t hear about churches fighting about how to help people get saved. We have the best message, the truth, so growth should be normal for our churches. When we aren’t growing, it’s not because the message is not powerful enough. It is because we are doing a poor job communicating it.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.