Posted: 7/11/03

TOGETHER:
Needs-based ministries emulate Jesus

The Baptist General Convention of Texas wants to work with all our related churches to help them be healthy and missional. Eleven characteristics of a healthy church have been identified, and our staff provides resources and links to help any church in Texas be all it can be for the sake of the gospel and our Savior.

One characteristic of a healthy church is that it has a “needs-based ministry” strategy. Churches that are Jesus kind of churches seek to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of individuals and communities. When John the Baptist sent his disciples to question the authenticity of Jesus, our Lord chose to validate his life and ministry not by the crowds that came to hear him preach, but by the people he touched. “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Luke 7:22).

The BGCT Center for Community Ministries works closely with churches and associations to identify and meet physical, spiritual and emotional needs of people across Texas. This may be through one of the 14 hospitality houses and visitor centers that minister to the needs of inmate families as they visit their incarcerated loved one. It may be by providing training and resources to the more than 1,000 Texas Baptist churches that lead Bible studies and worship services in the jails and prisons across our state, recording 1,445 professions of faith.

The Texas Baptist Children's Weekday Education Association helps churches minister to children and families through Parent's Day Out, preschool, after-school ministries and all-day child-development centers available at more than 1,600 churches . Through these ministries, the “mission field” walks through the doors of our churches Monday through Friday, seeking help with family needs.

With Texas being the eighth poorest state in the country, there is a crisis among families. Community ministries to the poor fed and clothed 359,076 people and recorded 4,035 professions of faith. Through the Baptist Literacy Mission Center at Baylor, 257 teachers at 33 workshops have received certified training in adult reading and writing, ESL and tutoring children and youth. Churches are beginning health-care ministries for “working poor” families, offering nutrition and cooking classes or serving as host sites to provide immunizations for children. Help may come from churches that partner with other churches to develop a medical or dental clinic.

There are 1.4 million hearing-impaired people in Texas, of which 436,000 are deaf. Texas Baptists seek to reach and minister to the deaf through 17 deaf churches and missions and interpreted services at numerous churches across our state. Deaf churches and missions minister to the unique needs of the deaf and their families through the Deaf Youth Camp, Texas Baptist Conference of the Deaf, Deaf Pastor's Retreat and Interpreter's Training Program.

All of these ministries are provided by your BGCT Cooperative Program gifts, along with the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions. Together, Texas Baptists are meeting needs, touching lives and sharing Christ!

We are loved.

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

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: 10/17/03

TOGETHER:
Healthy churches prepare for crisis

All of us have been praying for our brothers and sisters at First Baptist Church of Eldorado in their sorrow. We pray for these dear people who have lost family and friends. We pray with thanksgiving for God's salvation and his mercies. We pray for those who are still in the hospitals recuperating.

Bus accidents are sudden and can be devastating. Pastors and deacons who serve in times like these receive extra grace by the Holy Spirit so they have compassion and wisdom, stamina and courage.

CHARLES WADE Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Disasters come in many shapes, and they arrive suddenly and unexpectedly in all parts of Texas. We need one another in times like these. Thankfully, God has knitted our hearts, skills and energies together with one another so that wherever someone needs us, Texas Baptists have a way of showing up. Representatives from Concho Valley Baptist Association and our BGCT staff quickly responded to needs in Eldorado and will continue to be available. Any time there is a disaster in our world and you want to help, you can send contributions through the BGCT, and we can use them to help people wherever there is a need.

By making disciples day-in and day-out, healthy churches prepare for ministry in crisis. The Great Commission reminds us to teach in the way that Jesus taught. In that familiar passage in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus used the word “observe.” That means putting the teachings of Jesus into practice.

Sunday School becomes “Great Commission Bible study” when the teacher accepts the role of discipler and the student becomes a disciple. It results in the disciple gaining an understanding of a Bible passage and the life application the Scripture calls for. The disciple also becomes willing to remain accountable to the Bible study group during the process of application. At the same time, the teacher understands his or her role includes much more than what takes place during the Bible study session. It includes being with the disciple through the week and equipping students to share the Good News and minister to each other.

The Holy Spirit implemented the Great Commission through the church as recorded in Acts 2:37-47. It is imperative that each church be involved in both aspects of the Great Commission–teaching the gospel and teaching disciples to observe the teachings of Jesus. Some churches use discipleship groups as an extension of the Sunday School to help members with additional study and applications related to truths discovered during Bible study. These groups continue to relate to their “parent” Sunday School class, but they meet at other times during the week.

Bible-based discipleship is a key characteristic of a healthy church. The BGCT Bible Study/Discipleship Center can help churches improve this essential characteristic. The center can provide resources and training to develop Great Commission teachers and effective discipleship groups. Contact the BGCT Bible Study/Discipleship Center toll-free at (800) 355-5285.

Healthy churches equip members for effective service and winsome Christian living at home, at work, at school and in all relationships of life. Small-group Bible studies provide a “safe place” where believers can grow together. And as they grow, their love and energy will flow out in ministry to others. Discipleship is a process, not a destination. Join the journey.

We are loved.

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: 10/31/03

TOGETHER: God's blessings flow through worship

To serve God faithfully in ministry to people over a lifetime, you must have an active worship life. You cannot give what you do not have. In worship, our hearts are renewed, and our faith is kept alive and active.

My son, Mark, recently told me what it means to him to worship with fellow believers: “To see them standing around me singing and worshipping God, and knowing some of the achievements and some of the heartaches they feel, brings an enormous sense of awe and gratitude to God to me.”

CHARLES WADE Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

True worship always connects us to people as well as to God. One of the classic passages on worship is Deuteronomy 10:12ff. “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. … He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Fear the Lord your God and serve him.”

Jesus told his disciples there were two great commandments: “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'” (Matthew 22:37-39).

There is a growing recognition in Baptist life that we must consciously focus on God in worship. Surrounded by so many we love, aware of the needs of so many outside, we need to find a place in our souls where we, for awhile, think only of God.

Tim Studstill, director of the Center for Music and Worship for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, wrote recently: “It is worship that separates the church from every other worthwhile organization. While there are organizations that provide valuable community service or encouragement and fellowship for its members, the church has been called to a higher purpose–worship.”

When you prepare to worship, come into God's presence with thanksgiving. But if your heart is cold and thanksgiving seems so far away, come into his presence anyway. Be willing to let God examine your life and express sorrow for sin and your desire for him to cleanse and renew your life (Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 51:1-17). Worship leads us away from haughtiness to humility.

Worship brings joy and pleasure to the heart of God (Psalm 147:1-11). We are called to worship God regularly and continually (Hebrews 10:19-25; 13:15-16). Worship is about God, about knowing Jesus, more than any preference or commitment we may have to a particular style of worship, music form or familiar traditions (Philippians 3:7-10). Remember, too, that rich corporate worship flows best from a heart that faithfully worships in a personal quiet time (Matthew 6:6).

One of the 11 characteristics of a healthy church is God-centered worship. Our Center for Music and Worship is available to help your church. Explore its resources by going to www.churchmusicintexas.com or calling (888) 447-5163.

My prayer for our churches is that they will grow in their experience of God in worship. The rich blessings of God flow fully when his people praise and celebrate his goodness.

We are loved.

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: 11/11/05

Around the State

Abilene physician Carl Trusler, Houston-based missionary Betsy Brown and information management consultant Larry English were named Hardin-Simmons Uni-versity's 2005 Alumni of the Year.

Howard Payne University has inducted four people into its Sports Hall of Fame. Barney Hale coached at HPU from 1933 to 1935 and 1941 to 1947, with his 1942 football team not giving up a single point. When the football program was suspended during World War II, he became the basketball coach, leading the team to its first undefeated season. Billie Hamrick was a four-year starter on the football team and went on to become a successful high school coach for 26 years. Melvin White was an outstanding athlete for HPU in football, basketball and golf. Ray Jacobs played football at the school and went on to a career in the National Football League.

Yoo Yoon, pastor of Glory Korean Church in Dallas, recently returned from his 10th trip to North Korea, each time taking food donations for orphans and elderly people. Yoon was the point person for a $30,000 donation: $10,000 from Texas Baptist Men, $15,000 from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and $5,000 from individuals and the Korean-American Sharing Movement of Dallas. TBM receives the donations and sends them to China, where a trading company purchases the food and ships it by train to the city of Dan-Dong. Here, Yoon helps a child-care worker lead children at an orphanage in a song.

Debra Berry, associate professor of nursing, and David Capes, professor in Christianity, have received Houston Baptist University's Opal Goolsby Award for Outstanding Teaching.

The Baylor Alumni Association has honored five recipients with the W.R. White Meritorious Service Award. They are Jackie Birdwell, Vince Clark, William Long, Kent Newsom and Jim Patton.

The Bells, the newspaper of Mary Hardin-Baylor University, won awards in writing, photography and design at the Baptist Press Excellence in Journalism conference. The paper won first place overall in its division. Natalie Kaspar is the newspaper's editor.

Anniversaries

Iglesia El Buen Pastor in Katy, 10th, Oct. 16. Pastor Roberto Garay founded the church and celebrated his 10th anniversary as the church's pastor.

Robert Garcia, 15th, as pastor of Primera Iglesia in Louise.

Kenny Eiben, 15th, as pastor of Calvary Church in Corpus Christi.

Danny Sutton, 15th, as youth minister at Padre Island Church in Corpus Christi.

Death

Dana Jones, 40, Nov. 1 in Dallas, after a brief struggle with cancer. She spent her childhood and early adult years at Casa View Church in Dallas before moving to Park Cities Church in Dallas. She was an employee of Buckner Orphan Care International since 2002. She led the organization's missions department in coordinating trips to Russia, Romania, China, Kenya, Guatemala, Botswana, Bulgar-ia, Latvia and Peru. Through-out the last five years, she traveled on her personal vacations to Cuba with Park Cities Church and to Kenya, Russia and Guatemala with Buckner. She also was a longtime volunteer with Buckner's Shoes for Orphan Souls drive. She is survived by her parents, Janice and Richard Jones; sisters, Christy Tomlinson and Renee Anderson; and grandfather, Buck Chitty.

Ordained

Debbie Potter to the ministry at Trinity Church in San Antonio.

Josh Vaughan to the minsitry at South Oaks Church in Arlington.

Jackie Barnett, Paul Campbell, Shad Schlueter and Harry Weidhaas as deacons at South Oaks Church in Arlington.

Paul Hill and Raymond Booker as deacons at Cedar Lane Church in Cedar Lane.

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: 9/29/06

Prayer opened doors for Rio Grande Valley church

By Scott Collins

Buckner Benevolences

PENITAS—If seeing is believing, Omar Chavarria has 20/20 vision.

When Chavarria became pastor of Iglesia Bautista Manan-tial de Vida in Penitas three years ago, the 15-member congregation met in a garage and prayed for the day when they could buy a little piece of land.

But Chavarria, who also serves as a missions coordinator for Buckner Border Mini-stries in the Rio Grande Valley, had another vision. Where church members saw a small parcel of land and limited growth, their new pastor saw five acres and unlimited possibilities.

Chavarria works alongside a volunteer from First Baptist Church in Garland.

Today, a brand-new building sits on five acres, and more than 230 people are involved in the church’s ministries every week. Working with Buckner, church members are reaching out to a nearby colonia where thousands of low-income residents live.

But between the garage and the five acres was a journey of faith and belief for Chavarria and the congregation.

It started when Chavarria located a vacant piece of property to which he believed God led him. He discovered an oil company owned it, so he called the oil company to ask about purchasing the land. A month later, Chavarria got a return call from the president’s assistant saying the company was not interested in selling the land.

“I told her: ‘My Lord that I am serving wants that land, and he needs that land to reach out to this community. Tell him (the company president) I’m going to be praying for him,’” Chavarria said. The assistant told Chavarria he should write a letter to the company president, which he did.

On May 10, 2004, the assistant called Chavarria and said the oil company president had changed his mind and was willing to sell the land to the church. Chavarria set out immediately trying to find financing for the $100,000 the church needed. But banks and the Baptist General Convention of Texas told him it was too much money for the small congregation.

And while members of the congregation wanted to buy the land, they expressed doubt and fear about the money. “I told them we needed a bigger vision,” Chavarria said.

In the meantime, before the church could find funding, Chavarria received a call from the oil company saying 15 percent of the land was owned by another individual, and everything was on hold four to five months. The individual wanted to know who was going to buy the land and how it would be used.

“I prayed for that man, too,” Chavarria said.

Finally, on Sept. 30, 2004, everything was finalized. The land owners had decided to give the land to the church—but with a catch.

“They told me we had only two years to begin building, or we would have to return the land,” Chavarria said.

That’s when Chavarria literally took the first step in getting a building built. He started prayer-walking around the five acres—every day for three hours; he walked from one end of the property to other praying that God would provide a building. He put four stones on each corner of the lot and walked inside the stones.

“I thanked God for giving us this place,” Chavarria said.

For three months, Monday through Friday, Chavarria walked the lot, three hours every day. At the same time, he was also putting his faith to work by seeking help from the local Baptist association and other resources.

That’s when he met Jorge Zapata, director of Buckner Border Ministries. Zapata explained Buckner’s colonia work in the Valley and learned Iglesia Bautista Manantial de Vida also was working in the colonias. The church and Buckner began working together.

Chavarria explained the church’s predicament—needing to start construction on a building or return the land. Zapata said Buckner could help by recruiting church groups wanting to do mission work in the Valley.

By spring break 2005, Living Hope Baptist Church in College Station showed up with 60 volunteers to lay the foundation for the building and erect the frame. First Baptist Church in Madisonville followed in June with a team and $16,000 to finish the framing.

Unknown to Chavarria, the oil company had sent a worker to watch the church’s progress. The man took photos of the volunteers working on the building. Three weeks later, a check for $50,000 arrived in the mail with a letter from the people who owned the land, stating they wanted “to support the ministry because we can see that you are serious about your work.”

Six months later, in December 2005, a second $50,000 check arrived bringing the donation to $100,000 cash in addition to the five acres. To this day, the benefactors remain ano-nymous to Chavarria and the church.

“The Lord was talking to them every day because of our prayers,” Chavarria said. “We didn’t do anything. We just asked, and we received it from the Lord. I don’t know the person, but the Lord knows them, and their hearts belong to the Lord. People like these God uses for the enlargement of his kingdom.”

With the money in hand, the church was able to continue work on the building. And when other needs arose, Chavarria said, finances always seemed to arrive just in time—$7,000 for concrete, $5,000 for architectural work and $5,000 for a septic system.

For the past several months, Chavarria has been working with Buckner, first in a part-time position funded by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and now in a full-time role as a mission coordinator, working with groups coming to the Valley from all over the United States.

The dual responsibilities as pastor and Buckner employee enable Chavarria to continue as pastor of the church because of the income he earns from Buckner.

“It’s a blessing, because the church income was too low,” he said. Between his work with Buckner and the ministries of the church in the colonia, Chavarria has become known throughout the neighborhood as the “colonia’s pastor,” a role he gladly accepts.

Along with providing mission teams to perform light construction on dilapidated homes, Buckner also offers food, clothing and other help to families living in poverty. With the growth of Iglesia Bautista Manantial de Vida, much of Buckner’s ministry is funneled through the congregation.

“The church and Buckner are working together, and we are seeing many more blessings,” he said.

“It’s a great blessing for me to be working with Buckner, and it’s a big blessing for Buckner to be involved with the church.”

Clarification, added 10/13/06: Our original article in the Oct. 2 issue of the Baptist Standard stated Iglesia Bautista Manantial de Vida in Penitas applied for a $100,000 loan to the Baptist General Convention of Texas and was turned down. The BGCT loaned the church $50,000 on July 21, 2005. Also, the BGCT Church Starting office has approved $18,000 in program support money to help the church with early payments on the loan. 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: 10/13/06

Pro-SBC young leaders' group emerges

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WINTER PARK, Fla. (ABP)—A group of young Southern Baptist conservatives has issued a statement to counter the influence of a rival conservative group that has been critical of the use of power by recent Southern Baptist Convention leaders.

According to some observers, the dueling groups may be harbingers of more intramural disputes to come within the Southern Baptist Convention’s fundamentalist ranks.

Meeting near Orlando Sept. 25-26, about 40 pastors and seminary professors calling themselves the Joshua Convergence presented a set of seven “Principles of Affirmation” and heard several speakers well connected in Southern Baptist life.

According to a “purpose statement” on the Joshua Convergence website, the event’s organizers convened “to give a voice to younger leaders across the Southern Baptist Convention who are strongly committed to biblical inerrancy, who support the goals and leadership of the conservative resurgence, and who unashamedly embrace biblical standards of separation and morality.”

“Conservative resurgence” is the term that the inerrantists who control the Southern Baptist Convention use to describe their efforts, culminating in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to wrest control from the moderates who had led the SBC for decades.

While virtually all of the moderates have left Southern Baptist life for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship or other groups since then, conservatives have begun to argue among themselves. In the months prior to the June SBC annual meeting, debates surfaced about how tightly SBC leaders need to hold control of the denomination.

Much of the debate was fueled by younger SBC bloggers. Several dozen of them gathered in Memphis, Tenn., last May to issue a declaration repenting for Southern Baptists’ “triumphalism” and “narcissism” and promising to be more attentive to holding denominational leaders accountable.

Their support of South Carolina pastor Frank Page helped elect him as SBC president over two other candidates, even though Page was opposed by the SBC power structure.

In the Florida meeting, the participants heard speakers who praised the small group of leaders who have controlled much of the denomination’s direction since ridding it of moderates.

The principles participants in the Joshua Convergence affirmed were:

–Truth.

The group affirmed “the inerrancy of Scripture” and asserted the “battle for the Bible must be renewed in every generation. We take our stand to continue in that battle.”

–Gratitude.

They expressed “deep thankfulness for those who have taken our convention back to its theological and spiritual moorings.”

–Service.

Participants noted they “are aware that—as with any human organization—the mechanisms of the Southern Baptist Convention can be manipulated. We commit to refrain from such practices.”

–Holiness.

They affirmed “personal purity and separation from worldliness” and singling out “the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.” The affirmation said the denomination “has stood against the evils of alcohol. The present generation can in good conscience do no other.”

At least one leader of the “Memphis Declaration,” Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson, has been criticized for not enforcing total abstinence on his congregation. The Orlando group also said it is “unequivocally opposed to the antinomian attitude in some Christian circles concerning unwholesome and immoral language, cynicism and profanity. We feel strongly that the Bible condemns such actions.”

–Unity.

They noted that within the group there are diverse positions on Calvinism, eschatology, worship, and outreach, “we reject all attitudes of mean-spiritedness, personal attacks, or intellectual and spiritual arrogance in these debates.”

–Identity.

The group affirmed Baptist ecclesiology and “the fundamental principles which constitute a Baptist church are the very ones which made up a New Testament church.” Among those principles listed was the separation of church and state.

–Mission.

They voiced support for the denomination’s unified budget.

Among the speakers at the conference, held at Aloma Baptist Church in Winter Park, Fla., were several with close ties to Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and often acknowledged as the center of power in modern SBC life.

The conference’s organizers and speakers included professors and other employees from the three educational institutions Patterson has led, such as North Carolina pastor Stephen Rummage, who was a protégé of Patterson’s at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

One popular moderate Baptist blog, written by Baylor graduate student Aaron Weaver (bigdaddyweave.blogspot.com), said the meeting was a sign that fundamentalists in the SBC have finally begun to turn on each other in earnest.

“It’s rally-the-troops time,” Weaver wrote in a Sept. 25 post. “Patterson’s minions are putting on their war paint, digging the trenches and preparing for guerilla warfare…. The SBC wars won’t stop until the ‘other side’ is in a body bag. Rather, the SBC wars won’t stop until the Fundamentalists stomp out all dissent and the ‘other side’ ceases to exist.”

An anonymous blog written by a Southwestern Seminary student, identified only as “SWBTS Underground” (swbtsunderground.blogspot.com), similarly interpreted the rival meetings as the beginnings of another battle.

“No one has been inactive in this battle over leadership and authority in the SBC. It is about to flesh out into an all-out war,” he wrote Sept. 24. “It is going to be a rehash of the conservative resurgence, but with one key distinction—both sides feel like they are taking the true conservative position, both sides feel God is on their side, and both sides now have vendettas and past wounds to avenge. This is a scary time in the SBC.”

But a Joshua Convergence participant named “Steve,” who describes himself as a layman from the meeting’s host church, said in a Sept. 26 entry on his Kerussopolis blog (www.kerussopolis.com) the group was not seeking to make war.

“I can say with absolute certainty that the Joshua Convergence is not a war-like, combative, forceful movement,” he wrote. “But while it is not combative, it is reactionary…. They are concerned that those who do not share their beliefs are speaking for them, and they want to be identified apart from these ‘other young leaders.’“

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: 10/13/06

‘Blue like Jazz' buzz continues

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

DALLAS (ABP)—Reactions among evangelical Christians to Donald Miller’s best-selling book Blue Like Jazz are about as diverse as reactions to the idea of postmodern Christianity itself.

Although the book debuted three years ago, its steadily growing popularity has made it a bona fide phenomenon in evangelical circles and spurred debates about the direction of Christianity as a whole.

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality, Miller’s second book, uses the medium of a spiritual memoir to deconstruct and analyze much of what many evangelicals take for granted about the Christian lifestyle.

Miller—who grew up as a Southern Baptist in Texas—uses the book to chart his own spiritual journey alongside Texas Baptists, Oregon hippies, atheists, folk singers, liberal college students and even penguins.

According to Scott Wenig, a Denver pastor, author and seminary professor, it’s Miller’s honesty about his sometimes-awkward growth toward spiritual maturity that attracts readers. The “experiential” approach Miller uses resonates with people who need exposure to faith not defined by analytical study or obscure points of theology, he said.

“Academics have the tendency to live out of their heads,” Wenig said. The average person, we live out of our hearts. That doesn’t mean we’re not using our heads, (but when we) happen to experience someone writing (from the heart), what happens is they’re touching something in people that most academics don’t touch.”

For instance, Miller recounts in the book how he often felt he couldn’t interact with God—or God’s people—freely. Then he read Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies, and his perspective changed.

“When I started writing, I just wanted to end up with something like Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies, because in Traveling Mercies it felt like she was free, free to be herself, to tell her story, to just vent, to rant, to speak as if she were talking to a friend,” Miller wrote.

That honesty is what has endeared Blue Like Jazz to its fans—an antidote to the syrupy facade many people associate with the Christian subculture.

Since the book’s release in 2003, it has sold more than 550,000 copies worldwide. Christian groups have tried to tap into that appeal, using the book in outreach efforts like Campus Crusade kits for college students. Wenig often reads from it during his sermons at Aspen Grove Community Church, located in suburban Denver. And seminary students nationwide are devouring Miller’s writing.

Some critics, however, wonder whether this literary marriage between a memoir and theology is ideal. Douglas Groothuis, a well-known Christian blogger and professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary, wrote in a Feb. 26 blog post that Miller’s habit of addressing “titanic issues” with little more than “a smirk and a shrug and a pose” belies the need for solid intellectual analysis when it comes to practicing Christianity.

“He finds no need to be serious intellectually or to pursue subtleties,” Groothuis wrote on theconstructivecurmudgeon.blogspot.com, adding that Miller’s desire to tell his personal story trumped all else in the book.

“Miller is cavalier and glib about the rational foundations for Christian faith,” Groothuis said in an interview. “This is ironic, given the tremendous renewal of Christian philosophy and apologetics in our day. True spirituality is a rational and biblical faith that tenaciously defends the objective, absolute, and universal truths of Christianity.”

In fact, Groothuis said, it’s important to analyze books like Blue Like Jazz not because of what they say, but because of what they indicate about the world. Unfortunately, he said, pop culture is dominated by image, style and glamour rather than character and truth.

“We must ‘attune’ our communication of Christian truth to diverse people but never compromise the truth and virtue of the faith by dumbing it down or making it flippant, as does Miller, to my mind,” he said. “People can handle far more biblical meat than they are given credit for.”

Nonetheless, conservative leaders have publicly deplored Miller’s social activism, occasional use of profanity and alternative style. Miller, who worked in campus ministry at liberal Reed College in Portland, posts links to groups like Greenpeace and the American Civil Liberties Union on the website www.bluelikejazz.com.

Other leaders simply can’t agree with his theology, especially the individualist approach iconoclastic authors like Miller and Lamott take to Christianity. For Groothuis, that doesn’t add up to biblical theology.

“It is all too easy to lob criticisms of the church when you are not part of it, not part of making the church better,” he said. “One must be a critic from within the church if one is to be a Christian.”

But Wenig countered that such fears are what cause “a lot of academics to really struggle” with authors like Miller and Lamott—because academics are paid to deal with the question of truth. Some Christians think that if people begin to “go off the road doctrinally,” they’ll become heretical and “go to hell,” he said.

“Sometimes we’re driven by fear because we’re afraid that certain things will send people off the deep end,” he said. Fortunately, though, Christianity has a “built-in self-correction mechanism” through the dual roles of the Bible and God’s grace, Wenig added.

“Eventually, I think most groups in Christianity self-correct,” he said. In fact, although Wenig himself disagrees with some parts of Blue Like Jazz, he said Miller is orthodox in much of his theology and would put him “clearly within the historic Christian camp.”

Miller, for his part, said in a Relevant magazine interview that he has not flourished in churches with “consumer-oriented Christianity” and “self-help, formulaic kind of stuff—the moralist and political angles on our faith tradition.” Yet he said he loves his Portland, Ore., church, Imago Dei, and believes the worldwide church reflects God’s presence.

That dichotomy—between the church universal and local churches—is how Miller differentiates between Christianity and spirituality. According to Wenig, Miller uses the word “Christianity” to mean the combination of Christian thinking with the practice of the church, culture and subculture over the centuries. When Miller talks about spirituality, Wenig said, he means the way of life that Jesus came to teach.

“See, the pressure to be a certain kind of person in the context of the church culture I was living in was intense,” Miller said in Relevant. “When the pressure was taken off, and I was surrounded by people who would describe themselves as pagans, there was suddenly no pressure for me to perform or be like anything. They didn’t care, and that allowed my faith to grow for real.”

That attitude is reflected in Miller’s book, which says institutionalized religion can inhibit true spirituality.

Wenig agrees, for the most part. “I wouldn’t say it’s primarily that, but sometimes (religion) … does get in the way of experiencing what we might call genuine spirituality,” he said. “Sometimes structures or institutional aspects … get in the way of really connecting with Jesus. Sometimes even Christian religion is the enemy of the gospel.”

Like him nor not, Miller’s work continues to attract many evangelical readers—even if they disagree with some of his doctrinal or political stances.

Michael Spencer, campus minister at Oneida Baptist Institute in Oneida, Ky., wrote on his blog, internetmonk.com, that Miller’s honesty about “depravity, evangelical nonsense, Christian excuse-making and the truth of the words of Jesus” challenges him.

“I don’t know what I was doing reading these books,” he wrote. “There were moments in Blue Like Jazz that … I would feel like anyone who knew I was reading such a book would laugh at me, like finding out that your pastor reads middle-school romance novels. And then I would come across one of those ‘wow’ paragraphs. Whatever the price to get to those paragraphs, they are worth the trouble.”

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: 10/13/06

Chinese pastor leads international mission

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

STAFFORD—When Peter Leong was a boy in Malaysia, he never imagined he would end up in Texas. Now, as pastor of a Houston-area church, he is leading a team of Baptists back to Asia to help 82 pastors and their families spread the gospel.

The international mission trip is the second in three months for Southwest Chinese Baptist Church in Stafford, and it highlights growth in the Asian Baptist global community. In September, the 300-member church and Cross Pointe Baptist of San Jose, Calif., partnered with sister churches in Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong on their third joint mission to Thailand.

This time, the church is partnering with Ching Mei Baptist Church in Taipei, Taiwan, to sponsor the first Northern Thailand Pastor Family Retreat for pastors, spouses and children. Members of the Stafford church collected funds to pay for travel, lodging, meals and books for the weeklong project.

“We were blessed by God’s provision,” Leong, 61, said. “This is the first-ever pastor retreat for these Thai ministers. Our classes will be held in a remote mountain area. Some of the pastors and their families will even have to make the trip on foot.”

The 36-member team has chosen to work in Thailand because Leong grew up in Malaysia and was pastor of a Hong Kong church before he moved to Texas. Four years ago he delivered the keynote speech at the Chinese Global Baptist Mission Conference in Thailand, and it changed his life, he said.

“God spoke to me, saying you must not only have a mission in China but also in Thailand, so I decided to invite church members to go there on a mission,” Leong said.

Ministering to the needs of the Thai people has opened doors to new relationships in a country where most residents practice Buddhism. The Chinese Baptist mission team has worked to train pastors, teach parents and help children develop new job skills, conduct vacation Bible schools, and run camps in Asia. They have reached hundreds who are non-Christians.

Focusing on youth evangelism has been another goal of the Thai mission, “including efforts to reach young girls and their families who believe their only means of survival is through human trafficking,” Leong said.

He uses Kung Fu demonstrations to help open doors for a Bible study on campus. One principal was so impressed that he invited the mission team to bring in a preacher and Bible study every week, Leong said.

The team’s understanding of the Thai culture, he added, has encouraged people to experience and learn about Christian love and beliefs. “We’ve found the Thailand people are more accepting of us because we’re of similar ethnic backgrounds. We can do this great thing because they view us as more accessible,” he said. “We’re doing God’s work through our own cultural understanding.”

One of the best parts of the work, Leong said, is the special joy in his heart when he hears about people who have received Jesus—a joy that can’t be squelched by politics or fear.

The mission team will return to Thailand just weeks after tanks rolled down the streets of Bangkok and a military coup ousted the prime minister. That turmoil doesn’t worry Leong, though. He’s just happy to be making the trip.

“I am totally committed to the Lord, and I don’t worry about going back there,” said Leong. “We’ve made a strong commitment to reach the Thai people, and this will not deter us.”

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: 10/13/06

High winds destroyed the framework for Pendleton Baptist Church. At right, Pendleton Baptist Church begins to rebuild.

Pendleton church rebounds from disaster

By George Henson

Staff Writer

PENDLETON—Pendleton Baptist Church has rebounded quickly after high winds recently blew down the framework of what would have been the congregation’s first building, but Pastor Tom Adams acknowledged the event took the wind out of his sails.

“It didn’t bother me on Saturday when I went out there to see it right after it happened, and it didn’t bother me on Sunday when we had a really good worship service. But on Monday, when we took it back down to the foundation—that bothered me a bit,” he admitted.

The 2,800-square-foot structure had the walls and trusses up before the winds brought it all crashing into a heap. Adams estimates the event cost the church about $16,000, and it was not insured.

“We have insurance now, but I guess the cow’s already out of the barn,” he said.

Still, Adams and his congregation are looking to the future with great expectation.

“It’s a trial and a speed bump, but we’re just going to get on with it,” he said, matter-of-factly.

One of the most gratifying aspects of the ordeal has been the way other churches and individuals have helped with the building project—both times.

The church building’s collapse also grabbed the attention of the community, even people not among the church’s 48 members.

“It’s pulled the whole community together,” Adams said. “They’ve been watching us all along, because this little community hasn’t had a church in 40 or 50 years, so this is the greatest thing for this little community since sliced bread.”

Adams came from Oregon in April 2003. Since starting the church, it has met in a three-bedroom home.

The congregation hopes to move into a new building by the end of the year—not for their own comfort, but because the education rooms and larger auditorium will enable them to reach more people in the community.

“I have a determination to make the church the center of the community like it was years ago,” Adams said.

Plans also include adding a basketball pavilion, a community center where groups can gather.

Adams also wants to be sure an underground shelter is incorporated so residents will have a place to escape the tornados prevalent in the area.

“I think if we make it available, people will use it. They can say ‘We’re meeting at the church,’ and everybody will know where it is.

“They can get comfortable there, and maybe it will lead to people coming to know Christ, which is the whole reason for us being here,” 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: 10/13/06

Community sees schoolhouse attack as ‘Amish 9/11’

By Daniel Burke

Religion News Service

WHITE HORSE, Pa. (RNS)—The boys walked home from their one-room schoolhouse just across the fields and groaned to their mother that a substitute teacher would be leading the next day’s lessons.

“Well, boys, I’m in no position to hear complaining about schools,” Mary R. told her four young sons.

Then the 42-year-old Amish woman told her boys that students at a nearby school needed their prayers. There had been a hostage-taking earlier that day at an Amish school 15 miles down the road in Nickel Mines, Mary said, and several children had been hurt.

In an attack some in this tight-knit Christian community began calling “the Amish 9/11,” an armed man burst into an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County Oct. 2 and shot 10 young students before killing himself. Five students died and five others were critically wounded. The gunman, identified as Charles Carl Roberts IV, shot and killed himself at the scene.

“That’s exactly what this is—the Amish 9/11,” said Sam S., an Amish carpenter from Gordonville, a town about five miles from Nickel Mines.

“We’ve never experienced anything like this before here.” Like many Amish men and women, Sam and Mary asked that their full names not be printed because they didn’t want to stand out from other members of their community.

Among the Amish, who honor a humble lifestyle modeled on the Gospels, such provocative statements are rare. But as Lancaster County’s estimated 25,000-member Amish community struggled to make sense of the shooting—the shocking violence, the chaotic search for loved ones, the conflicting and confusing news reports—many said it carried unmistakable echoes of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Although they are friendly with outsiders—whom they call “English”—the Amish keep to themselves. Forgoing modern conveniences, such as electricity, cars and computers, they live in close settlements, where family and friends are seldom more than a buggy ride away.

The lessons of the shooting, always grounded in the understanding that earthly events are driven by a divine hand, will be imparted in the living rooms and kitchens of the large, inseparable Amish families.

After the evening’s chores were done—the horses fed and the barn swept—Mary R.’s family gathered for dinner around a large kitchen table at their farm in White Horse.

The conversation quickly turned to the shooting.

“This is our 9/11,” said Mary’s husband, Ben, 41, as his wife and their young sons picked at their hamburgers and soup. “Out here, this is just so uncommon.”

Mary’s pregnant cousin—the mother of the Nickel Mines teacher—was visiting the school and was taken hostage, but she was released before the shooting began.

As Mary and Ben explained the day’s violence to their sons, they emphasized the importance of forgiveness and trusting in God.

“I just feel bad for the gunman,” Ben said. “He had a mother and a wife and a soul, and now he’s standing before a just God.”

While outsiders might be surprised at the forgiveness immediately extended to Roberts, Donald Kraybill, an authority on Amish culture, said that reaction is typical of the nonviolent Christian community.

“That theme of forgiveness really comes from the example of Jesus, who carried that spirit even to the cross,” said Kraybill, a professor of Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County.

In Gospel lessons, hymns and prayer books written in German dialect, those teachings are passed down through generations in Amish settlements.

“I think the Amish are much better prepared to cope with something like this than most Americans,” Kraybill said. “They see things as having a higher purpose, there’s a higher good, so they are more able to absorb and accept things in a spirit of humility.”

But as their family gathered beneath a gas lamp in their living room after dinner, Ben and Mary struggled to explain why a gunman would want to hurt Amish children. They told their sons he had a “little problem in his head that made him do mean things.”

One of the boys stared at his plain black pants, fingered his suspenders and again asked, in a respectful tone: Why?

Settling her hands on her lap, Mary said: “Sometimes we don’t understand. I understand that the Lord does let this happen, but I do not know why.”

“Really, the only way to answer this is to toss it in the Lord’s lap and say, ‘You take care of it; I can’t,’” Ben said after turning to the boy.

“But you may ask him to please carry us through,” Mary said.

As the night grew long and the boys began to yawn, Ben pulled a little black prayer book from the shelf.

He pointed to a prayer often read at Amish funerals and provided an English translation.

“Glory Father, we thank thee for all the blessings which thou has bestowed upon the departed one, especially now that thou has redeemed him from this wicked world and brought his sorrows to an end, and as we trust, has taken his soul home to thee.”

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: 10/13/06

How will the Amish cope with school shooting?

By Tom Feeney

Religion News Service

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (RNS)—Five schoolgirls are murdered in their quaint, quiet hamlet. A community that shuns attention as a matter of religious principle suddenly finds itself in the media glare.

How will the Amish cope?

That question hangs in the air over Nickel Mines as the Amish take up the ritual of grieving the deaths of the five young girls and the process of forgiving the man who shot them, all while under the curious gaze of more than 100 print, TV, Internet and radio journalists.

“This is difficult,” said Jacob King, an Amish farmer, as he passed through the country crossroads just up the hill from the West Nickel Mines Amish School. King was on his way to pay respects to one of the families who had lost a daughter there. He nodded toward the satellite trucks and the power cords and the tripods. “This makes it more difficult.”

As difficult as it might be for the camera-shy Amish to have to stare down dozens of cameras at their darkest hour, they may be better equipped culturally and religiously than other communities to deal with the mayhem Charles Carl Roberts IV sowed in one of their one-room schoolhouses.

One thing that works in their favor is a long history of coming to the aid of families in need, said Donald Kraybill, a sociology professor at Elizabethtown College and an expert on the Lancaster Amish.

Another is their huge support system. The average Lancaster County Amishman has between 75 and 80 cousins, most of whom live very close by, Kraybill said.

“They will just surround them with love and care,” he said as he stood on Mine Road, just up the hill from the schoolhouse.

Furthermore, the Amish will find some comfort in their religious beliefs. They will see the murders as God’s providence, Kraybill said. They may not understand why the killings happened, but they will accept it was God’s will.

The first public signs of mourning rituals were found the day after the shooting on farms surrounding the country crossroads known as the village of Nickel Mines. Not far from the school, the family of Mary Liz and Lina Miller received callers. The sisters, 7 and 8, lived through the shooting but died overnight in the hospital.

Hours later, a flat, horse-drawn wagon arrived at the farm with chairs that would be used for a funeral service later in the week. Relatives, friends and neighbors drove out to comfort the girls’ parents. They lined up their horses and buggies on the front lawn and carried food down to where the family was gathered.

Most of the Amish kept away from the media. When a reporter and photographer stood out by Mine Road and watched the Millers’ guests arrive, a non-Amish friend was sent out to ask them to leave.

“By cultural understanding, they’re not inclined to speak,” Kraybill said. “Their grief is nobody else’s business. That would be their position.”

For all the efforts of the Amish to wall off the outside world, they have strong connections to the non-Amish towns that contain their communities. They are friends and neighbors to the non-Amish people whose homes line the streets around their farms.

They knew Charlie Roberts as the friendly-enough truck driver who came around every night to collect the milk from their cows.

“These children knew the man very well,” Jacob Fisher Jr., a 23-year-old dairy farmer, said through the screen door of his home across the street from where Roberts lived. “They knew who it was. It’s hard for us to believe he could do something like this.”

Those existing ties are likely to keep the shooting from causing fissures in the relationship between the Amish and the “English,” as the Amish tend to call non-Amish of all nationalities.

“We are a very close community,” said Douglas Hileman, pastor of the Middle Octorara Presbyterian Church, where Roberts’ wife was leading a prayer group Monday morning while her husband was making last-minute preparations for taking over the schoolhouse.

“We know our English and Amish neighbors. Many people know each other very well, and we share each other’s pain.”

Tom Feeney writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. Ralph Ortega contributed to this report.

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: 10/13/06

Amish remember gunman
as good neighbor, family man

By Carrie Cassidy & T.W. Burger

Religion News Service

BART, Pa. (RNS)—It’s difficult for many to imagine that the man who opened fire in a one-room Amish schoolhouse Oct. 2 is the same man who took his sons to soccer practice and his daughter shopping.

Marie Roberts, the wife of gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV, said it wasn’t the same man.

“The man that did this today was not the Charlie I’ve been married to for almost 10 years,” Marie Roberts said in a statement read to the media by a family friend. “My husband was loving, supportive and thoughtful—all the things you’d always want and more.”

State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said the rambling letters Roberts left for his children and his wife at their home just a mile or two from the schoolhouse show a side of him unknown to his family or friends.

In the days before the shooting, Miller said, Roberts became angry with his life, angry with God. Roberts apparently picked the Amish school because he wanted to molest and kill young girls as a way of “acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago,” Miller said.

As police surrounded the school house, Roberts called his wife and told her he had been tormented by dreams of two relatives he claimed he molested long ago.

“It’s very possible that he intended to victimize these children in many ways prior to executing them and killing himself,” Miller said. But Roberts “became disorganized when we arrived,” and shot himself in the head after shooting 10 school girls, five of them fatally.

At home after her husband’s call, Marie Roberts found rambling suicide notes, Miller said.

Roberts wrote in one of his suicide notes that he had been dreaming about the incidents of molestation and thought he would act again, Miller said.

He also wrote that he continued to be troubled by the death of the couple’s first daughter, Elise, who died about 20 minutes after she was born prematurely in 1997. She is buried not far from their home.

“He said he was angry with God for taking Elise,” Miller said. “He said it had changed his life forever.”

The revelations added more questions about the shooting rampage.

Authorities said Roberts backed a borrowed truck filled with the items he brought up to the West Nickel Mines Amish School. He entered the school with a gun and talked with the students, at times incoherently.

With the gun in his hand and a stun gun on his hip, Roberts separated the girls and the boys. He allowed the boys to leave, along with a female student, their teacher and three other women. He lined the remaining girls in front of the chalkboard before binding their feet with plastic ties.

Roberts had pieces of lumber with 10 eye-bolts inserted in them, which Miller theorized he planned to use to restrain the girls. The girls were never attached to the devices.

Authorities believe his plans were interrupted by the relatively quick response of police, summoned by the teacher from a nearby farm.

As the police were breaking into the barricaded schoolhouse, Miller said, Roberts shot all 10 girls, five of them fatally, before turning the gun on himself. Police found him face down with a gunshot wound to the head.

The Roberts family said the gunman wasn’t a vengeful man. He was a mild-mannered milk-tanker driver who lived in this tight-knit Amish community. Police said he had no prior record.

“He was never a problem. He was a family man,” said Roberts’ grandfather, speaking at the home of Roberts’ parents. “We’re shocked. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Overcome by emotion, Roberts’ grandmother seemed to gaze into the distance looking for answers. Then she let go of her emotions when reality set in. “He was a good son and a good father,” she said. “He did that. He killed kids.”

Although Roberts was a hunter, Jim Brubaker, his cousin by marriage, said Roberts never used a gun for anything but shooting game. Brubaker also never saw Roberts angry.

Roberts was the picture of the consummate family man to those who watched him take his children to the bus stop every morning.

An Amish woman who did not want to identify herself said it’s hard for her to reconcile the stories she’s heard about what Roberts did with her fond memories of him. “He was a good man,” she said, declining to say more.

A 23-year-old Amish man walked near Roberts’ home in the hours after the shooting. He characterized Roberts as “very dependable.”

Roberts picked up the milk at the man’s dairy farm, as he had done routinely for several years. The last time he saw Roberts was about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1. “He was a terrific milk-tanker driver,” the man said. “He was a very nice man,” he added. “I never thought any shooting out of him.”

Morgan Erb, a 15-year-old girl who baby-sat Roberts’ kids, said he was a quiet man, someone who “stuck to himself.”

“He never looked you in the eye when he talked to you,” she said. “He seemed nice enough.”

Carrie Cassidy and T.W. Burger write for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.

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