Posted: 9/29/06

Texas Baptist schools
recognized in national rankings

U.S. News & World Report recognized eight universities affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas in its annual ranking of colleges across the country.

Baylor University, Dallas Baptist University, East Texas Baptist University, Hardin-Simmons University, Houston Baptist University, Howard Payne University, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Wayland Baptist University recently were recognized by the publication.

ETBU was ranked 11th in the category “Best Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelor’s” category in the western portion of the nation. It also was named second-best “Great School, Great Prices” in that category.

“To be ranked No. 2 in the ‘Great Schools, Great Prices’ category is a tremendous honor,” ETBU President Bob Riley said. “This demonstrates that we are offering excellent academic programs at an affordable price. We are also proud of the No. 11 position in the ‘comprehensive colleges’ category. To be recognized by peer institutions as a quality university is always significant, and I am so proud of our university and the progress we are making.”

Howard Payne ranked 16th in the “Best Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelor’s” category in the West. The school was named the 16th “Top School” and ninth “Best Value” for the same category.

“We are very pleased Howard Payne continues to be recognized as a ‘Top School,’” HPU President Lanny Hall said. “We are especially proud to be viewed within the top 10 institutions of the ‘Best Value’ category of comprehensive bachelor’s degree-granting institutions in the West.”

Hardin-Simmons was selected as the 38th best master’s degree-granting schools in the West, a jump from 42nd a year ago.

“We are extremely pleased to be so highly rated by U.S. News,” Hardin-Simmons President Craig Turner said. “Peer institutions see the continued successes and innovations at HSU—ATS accreditation of our seminary, endowment of our honors program, funding of the magnet school, record enrollment, surpassing our university endowment goal a year early—and they recognize that great things are happening at our school.”

Houston Baptist was named the 49th best master’s degree-granting university in the West. The school also placed 11th among colleges and universities in its category.

Mary Hardin-Baylor was named 58th best master’s degree-granting university in the West. Dallas Baptist was selected the 61st best school in the same category. Wayland Baptist was ranked in the third tier of this category. Wayland ranked No. 6 in the West for master’s universities in the magazine’s “Great Values” listing.

The magazine ranked Baylor 81st out of 248 top doctorate-granting universities, and its undergraduate engineering program ranked 20 nationally. Baylor’s business undergraduate program was named 60th best in the country, and the entrepreneurship undergraduate program ranked 14th best in the nation.

“It’s quite gratifying for Baylor Engineering and Computer Science faculty and students to be recognized by their peers as a national Top 20 program,” said Benjamin Kelley, dean of Baylor’s School of Engineering and Computer Science. “This ranking is quite an achievement. Our aspirations are to move well into the top 10, and we are anxious to continue taking the steps to get there.” 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

Board examines total expected
BGCT 2007 expenditures

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board not only recommended a $50.6 million 2007 budget proposal, but also looked at total anticipated expenditures from all sources during a Sept. 25-26 meeting in Dallas.

For the first time, the Executive Board examined all expected expenditures for the coming year, including allocated funds from investments and interest income from designated wills and trusts—a responsibility performed by the Administrative Committee prior to changes in the convention’s governance.

“The $50.6 million budget recommendation is based on our best projection of sustainable, expected receipts,” Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer David Nabors explained.

The recommended budget grew out of a “modified zero-based budget” proposal process developed by the BGCT research and development office, he said. Excluding personnel expenses, that meant “building the budget from the ground up,” he said.

All line items in the budget not related to personnel began at zero. Staff submitted 404 proposals justifying each program area, and the BGCT executive leadership team evaluated each in light of anticipated revenue and the convention’s vision, values and priority statements, Nabors said.

Beyond the expected $50.6 million in receipts, Nabors explained the reorganization and revamped budgeting process made necessary additional “bridge funding” for the next year.

In addition to the budget, about $1.16 million in designated and discretionary funds will help fund operations in 2007, bringing the sub-total to $51.76 million, he said.

“In 2008, we should not require those kinds of supplements,” he said.

Nabors also showed the board total anticipated funds his office expects to process in the next year. Add another anticipated $5 million from the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions, $2.96 million in investment earnings and $33.6 million in worldwide gifts that pass through the BGCT, and the anticipated 2007 total exceeds $93.4 million.

Of the $5 million anticipated from the Mary Hill Davis Offering, about $3.68 million would be spent by the BGCT according to allocations approved by the Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas board, and $1.1 million would provide the Texas WMU budget. The rest would go to BGCT-affiliated institutions for approved missions causes.

Messengers to the BGCT annual meeting, Nov. 13-14 in Dallas, will consider the $50.6 million budget that includes:

• $23.98 million (47.4 percent of the budget) for institutional ministries, theological education and collegiate work, compared to $23.58 million (47.7 percent) in 2006.

• $6.26 million (12.4 percent) for financial management, including finance and accounting, human resources, information technology and facilities services, compared to $6.06 million (12.3 percent) in 2006.

• $4.9 million (9.7 percent) for missions, evangelism and ministry, compared to $5.6 million (11.4 percent) in 2006.

• $4.9 million (9.7 percent) for congregational strategists, church starters and affinity group strategists, compared to $4.7 million (9.5 percent) in 2006.

• $2.19 million (4.3 percent) for communications, including annual meeting planning, compared to $1.76 million (3.6 percent) in 2006.

• $1.5 million (3 percent) for congregational leadership, compared to $1.27 million (2.6 percent) in 2006.

• $1.24 million (2.5 percent) for the executive director’s office, including $382,758 for the WorldconneX missions network, compared to $1.46 million (3 percent) in 2006.

• $1.1 million (2.2 percent) for a service center, compared to $1 million (2 percent) in 2006.

It also includes $987,520 for the Christian Life Commission, $876,980 for Texas Baptist Men, $764,076 for research and development, $672,293 for the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation, $618,751 for associational missions and $550,560 for the chief operating officer’s office.

The $50.6 million budget represents about a 2.3 percent increase over 2006. The board approved $306,000 for merit salary increases and benefits increases for BGCT Executive Board staff. That does not include the executive leadership team, who declined any raises this year, or personnel who were promoted to administrative posts in the reorganization and consequently received salary increases in 2006.

Texas Baptist Cooperative Program giving would provide the bulk of the budget—$42.4 million. Another 7.26 million is expected from interest on invested assets, wills and trusts.

In addition, $802,428 would come from the North American Mission Board, in keeping with cooperative agreements between the BGCT and the mission board, to help fund church starting, missions, evangelism and some theological education initiatives.

Another $81,634 would come from fees, and $12,488 would come from the Mary Hill Davis Offering for missions-related items as approved by the Texas WMU board.

The proposed budget reflects a comprehensive staff reorganization that took place this year, which makes it difficult to compare the 2007 spending plan with the previous year, Nabors noted.

However, a look at the total funds available—$49.4 from the budget and a board-approved $1.77 million advance from interest on wills and trusts in 2006, compared to $50.6 million from the proposed budget and about $1.16 million from non-budget sources in 2007—shows a $546,919 increase in 2007.

For example, the adjusted figures—adding in non-budget money that includes board-allocated funds from previous years, Mary Hill Davis Offering allocations for specific missions items and investment earnings—show estimated 2007 expenses of:

• $24.21 million for institutional ministries and collegiate ministries.

• $7.72 million for congregational strategists, church starters and affinity group strategists.

• $6.92 million for missions, evangelism and ministry.

• $1.53 million for congregational leadership.

• $1.12 million for the service center.

• $1.04 million for the Christian Life Commission.

Looking only at the budget, mission, evangelism and ministry shows a $700,667 decline from 2006. Combine it with another missions-oriented program area—congregational strategists, church starters and affinity group strategists—and the 2007 totals still fall $492,412 short of 2006.

But compare the adjusted 2006 figures with the adjusted 2007 proposed expenditures—including allocated funds and assuming the Mary Hill Davis Offering goal is met—and the two areas combined gain $108,648.

David Cooke of First Baptist Church in Devine asked about personnel reductions, particularly singling out the elimination of posts held by Missional Church Director Milfred Minatrea, Community Missions Director Jim Young and City Core Initiative Specialist Tommy Goode.

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade called the cuts “painful, difficult decisions.” While the elimination of three high-profile posts at one time captured attention around the state, they were not the only positions cut during the process of reorganization, he noted.

Community ministry tasks are being reassigned to other personnel, the missional church assignment will become one portion of another employee’s job description and the City Core Initiative was a two-year pilot plan—later extended to a third year—that leaders decided to discontinue, he explained.

Wade acknowledged he and others are “still trying to figure out the best way” to handle personnel transitions, and he pledged to strive for continued improvement. “I still feel we made the best decision in each case,” he said.

Several directors on the Executive Board raised questions about the budget development process, board input into the process and the flow of information to the board. Some directors specifically expressed concern that they first learned about the budget from articles in the Baptist Standard.

Debbie Ferrier of San Antonio, chair of the board’s Administration Support Committee, noted beginning next year, the finance sub-committee will meet at least one month prior to the board, rather than on the morning immediately preceding the board meeting.

That will allow the sub-committee time to review staff recommendations, make any changes members consider necessary and then send its budget proposal—not just the staff’s recommendations—to directors in advance of the board meeting.

In his report to the board, Wade noted changes in BGCT governance, staff structure and budget-making processes have been a challenging period of “growing pains” and transition.

“It has not been easy to negotiate this time of change, and it is still not comfortable for everyone. But it is getting better as outlines begin to take on more definition and the results begin to be visible,” he said.

Looking ahead Wade pledged the staff would “work hard to make the new organization function effectively … (to) … encourage, facilitate and connect churches in their work to fulfill God’s mission of reconciling the world to himself.” Starting churches and strengthening churches will be top priority, he promised.

Texas Baptists also “must develop a comprehensive mission vision that has as its theme ‘To Texas and beyond,’” he added. “From Texas, we can, and we must, touch the world.”

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

Veteran missions leader
Fenner to be nominated for VP

By Marv Knox

Editor

DALLAS—Veteran missions leader Joy Fenner will be nominated for first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas when the BGCT holds its annual meeting in Dallas Nov. 13-14.

Fenner, a former missionary to Japan who later served 20 years as executive director-treasurer of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, will be nominated by Ed Hogan, pastor of Jersey Village Baptist Church in Houston.

“I’m nominating Joy Fenner for first vice president because I’ve known her for a long time, and the issues that unite Baptists the most are evangelism and missions,” Hogan said.

“It’s imperative that we set missions and evangelism as our priority, and Joy clearly represents that emphasis.

“As a lifetime missionary and Woman’s Missionary Union leader, she represents the very best of what it means to be involved in missions.” Fenner also possesses leadership qualities required to guide the BGCT in a “post-conflict era,” Hogan said, noting the convention has set its course toward missions, evangelism, church-starting and other ministries in the wake of a bruising split almost a decade ago.

“Increasingly, it’s important for officers to understand the convention—how it functions—and Joy understands very well the convention and how to effectively get things done,” he noted. “Joy also has a great deal of maturity. She has earned trust and respect of Texas Baptists through decades of work.”

With Fenner’s track record for leadership, Texas Baptists will know exactly what they’re getting when they elect her first vice president, Hogan added.

“The best indicator of future behavior is previous behavior,” he said. “Joy always has been a leader. She’s currently a leader, so I have confidence she will lead well in the future.”

In addition to her convention leadership, Fenner also is committed to the local church, Hogan stressed. “She has been very involved in her church, Gaston Oaks in Dallas. And even though she’s been very involved in denominational work, she’s never lost sight of the importance of church at the local level.”

Reflecting on her nomination, Fenner said she resonates with Texas Baptists’ missions spirit.

“I have never sought any nomination for anything. Yet I am willing to serve, should Texas Baptists so choose,” she said. “I’m very grateful to Texas Baptists (for) their support of missions, and basically, that’s why I am willing to serve.”

Through her influence as a convention officer, Fenner said, she would seek to strengthen the BGCT’s missions involvement.

“My passion is for our churches to reach beyond themselves in missions and ministry, globally and locally. Ministry validates our witness,” she said. “Today, there are so many ways churches can be intimately involved in missions—to touch the world. I don’t have an agenda, but that’s my passion.”

At one level, Texas Baptists’ commitment to missions reflects good stewardship, she added.

“Texas Baptists have been blessed, very blessed, with personnel, finances and the giftedness of our people. I want to see these used beyond ourselves. That is not to say we’re not doing this, but we need more intensity and intentionality.”

The task of convention leaders is to “lift the challenge,” she said. “Texas Baptists need to see something that’s bigger than we are, something we can get excited about.”

As a convention officer, Fenner would seek to involve the diversity of Texas Baptists—representing “gender, culture and persuasions of theology”—in their common tasks and commitments, she noted.

Such an emphasis would complement the missions agenda outlined by Steve Vernon, the only announced candidate for BGCT president, she said.

Vernon, the convention’s current first vice president and pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland, has said he wants to focus Texas Baptists’ vision on missions, she recalled.

The BGCT’s recent reorganization, which has captivated the attention of convention officers for about the past three years, will have the net impact of strengthening missions, Fenner predicted, noting, “The restructuring emphasis will enable us to do this greater thing.”

Fenner led Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas from 1981 to 2001, when she became executive director emeritus.

Previously, she and her husband, Charlie, were Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board missionaries to Japan from 1967 through 1980. Before that, she was Girls Auxiliary director of Texas WMU and secretary at First Baptist Church in Marshall. In retirement, she was interim executive director-treasurer of Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union.

Fenner was the BGCT’s second vice president in 2000-01.

She is a member of the Baylor University School of Social Work board of advocates, Woman’s Missionary Union Foundation board of trustees, East Texas Baptist University board of trustees, Seinan Gakuin 4-L Foundation board of directors and Helping Hands Ministries board of directors.

Fenner is a native of Avinger in Cass County and attended Paris Junior College and East Texas Baptist College. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and was named an honorary alumnus of Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. She served on the president’s advisory council at Baptist University of the Americas.

She is WMU director at Gaston Oaks Baptist Church. The church’s resident membership last year was 551, and it baptized seven new Christians. Total receipts were $659,109, and the church contributed $61,598 to the Cooperative Program unified budget. Its total missions allocation was $107,875.

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

Gardner Taylor still preaching with power at age 88

By Kim Lawton

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS)—He’s 88 years old and technically retired. But Gardner Taylor still shows the preaching skills that place him on virtually every list of America’s greatest contemporary preachers.

As a guest preacher in pulpits across the nation, Taylor continues to charm—and enlighten—worshippers as he has for more than six decades. But he says preaching always is a tenuous endeavor.

“It is quickly lost,” he recently told the PBS show Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

“It’s uttered, heard and sometimes lost. But it is the mystery of preaching that it survives and that it has survived so much of our bad preaching.”

By most accounts, little bad preaching can be traced to Taylor. “He almost single-handedly has elevated and made visible great preaching,” said Richard Lischer, who teaches preaching at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C.

In addition, Lischer said, Taylor “is one of the first (African-American preachers) whose influence crossed over into the realm of white homiletics and white preaching.”

Taylor was born in Baton Rouge, La., in 1918. Growing up, he didn’t want to follow in his minister-father’s footsteps.

“I wanted to be a lawyer, but no person of color had been admitted to the Louisiana bar, ever,” he recounted. “And when I told an old family friend … that I wanted to be a lawyer, he said, ‘Where you gonna practice, the middle of the Mississippi River?’”

Taylor ended up at Oberlin College’s School of Theology in Ohio, where he discovered he had his father’s gift for speaking.

“Both of my grandparents were slaves, and neither could read nor write,” he said.

“But somehow he (his father) had this feeling for the melody of the English language, and I inherited it.”

In 1948, Taylor and his wife, Laura, moved to Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, where he spent the next 42 years until his retirement in 1990. His eloquence and intelligence led to national prominence.

“He manages to keep an enormous range of rhetorical skill under tight, disciplined control, so that when you’re listening to a Gardner Taylor sermon, you feel like something is about to break out or explode,” Lischer said.

During the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, Taylor played a key role in raising money in the North to support the Southern churches’ efforts. Together with Martin Luther King Jr., he pushed the black Baptist establishment to get more involved in the movement. That conflict led to founding a new denomination, the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

Taylor and King were close friends and often spent their vacations together. But King never talked about his personal struggles, Taylor said.

“I did not realize the pressures this man was under,” Taylor said. “There were threats on his life constantly. He lived under that shadow day by day, and as I look back upon his years, I wonder how he managed.”

Taylor was King’s “role model of how one employs the Scripture in order to use its great themes to preach the gospel of freedom for all humanity,” Lischer said.

Even after the great civil rights struggle waned, Taylor remained active in social issues and the political process. Looking back, he admits he at times may have been too involved with partisan politics. But Taylor also worries many contemporary churches have lost their prophetic edge, focusing more on personal prosperity than on issues like poverty and injustice.

“I think the church today in America partakes of the contemporary disease of ‘let me alone, I want to get along, and I don’t want to be bothered with too many things,’ and I think that’s in the churches,” he said. “When the pulpit becomes an echo of the pew, it loses, I think, almost all of its reasons for existence.”

Taylor believes that as he’s aged, his preaching has begun to reflect more about the frailty of human life. That was tragically brought home in 1995, when Laura, his wife of 55 years, died after being hit by a truck. He has since remarried and settled in Raleigh.

This past spring, Taylor taught a preaching class at nearby Shaw University, telling the students: “You do not want to be known as a great preacher. You do want to strive for people to feel when you have tried to preach what a great gospel it is.”

Taylor keeps busy, but in recent years he’s also begun to practice what 19th-century British pastor Alexander Maclaren called “sitting silent before God.”

“This is not praying. It is not reading. It is just opening oneself,” he said. “It’s a mystic kind of thing. But we do so little of it, and we who preach are likely to engage ourselves in so many things and neglect that aspect of being open to what God has to say. I wish to heaven I had practiced this more early on in my ministry.”

The older he gets, he said, the more he relies on God’s promise of eternal life.

“I’m 88, and I lean much more upon the promises, because I need them” he said. “I guess I always needed them, … but I feel the need of them more.” 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

Female ex-offenders find ‘Grace’

By Lauren Kirk

Special to the Baptist Standard

SAN ANTONIO—Billy and Jacqueline Thornton may be retired, but their lives have been far from leisurely since they founded Grace House—a transitional residence for previously incarcerated women.

The Thorntons have taught Bible classes at Bexar County Adult Detention Center 15 years. Mrs. Thornton realized the women in her class needed help once they left the facility. Women made professions of faith in Christ and left thinking they had their lives together, but within six months, they would be back in the class because they lacked support, stability and spiritual guidance.

Jacqueline Thornton (right) offers guidance to female ex-offenders at Grace House.

“Some of the women in my class have never entered a church. These are women who have been on the street. They have made bad choices because they don’t know any other way of life,” she said.

The needs they observed inspired the Thorntons to launch Grace House, a faith-based transitional home that helps recently released women overcome their addictive and destructive lifestyles. The Thorntons’ goal is to prepare these women to re-enter everyday life productively and confidently.

The Thorntons’ responsibilities at Grace House include interviewing prospective residents, feeding and clothing them, raising funds and meeting regularly with the ministry’s board of directors.

The women selected for Grace House receive 24-hour supervised care, as well as lodging, meals and clothing. They get formal training in anger management, substance abuse, and job and college preparation.

The women learn life-skills through parenting, nutrition and health classes. They are taught how to handle basic responsibilities such as balancing a checkbook, household shopping and housekeeping.

The women also receive spiritual training. They begin and end each day with devotions, and they participate in Bible studies and discipleship programs such as 40 Days of Purpose, based on The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Three times a week, they also attend Celebrate Recovery, a Bible-based, Christ-centered recovery ministry.

The women live at Grace House anywhere from six months to a year. The Thorntons have seen women’s lives change dramatically. Many have alcohol or drug addictions, but every one of those women have “made a commitment to the Lord, and they are trying to get their life together,” Mrs. Thornton said.

All of the current Grace House residents are mothers—separated from their children because the children are not allowed to stay in the facility. One resident, who has two children currently living with her parents, told Mrs. Thornton, “I want to be the mother that God intends for me to be.”

The women who have graduated from Grace House are staying off drugs, doing mission work, enrolling in college and earning a living, Mrs. Thornton noted.

One Grace House graduate is going on a mission trip to Brazil with a prison ministry. Another graduate is back in college making a 3.8 grade-point average.

“Our girls’ lives are changed. They tell us they are so grateful for a second chance at life,” Mrs. Thornton said, noting the biblical inspiration for Grace House is Philippians 1:6, “Being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

“All of these women have had a good work started in them, and they’re hungry for more. Grace House is helping them complete their stability in the Lord.” 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

Texas Baptist Forum

College football on Sunday

Regarding Bruce Parsons’ protest of the recent Sunday evening football contest between Baylor and TCU (Sept. 18): My alma mater, Baylor, and many other church-affiliated institutions nationwide have competed regularly on Sundays for decades in a variety of other intercollegiate sports, including baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, and tennis, among others.

• Jump to online-only letters below

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“I’m not the Christ. I’m just a donkey the Christ rides on.” T.D. Jakes Pastor of The Potter’s House in Dallas (Texas Monthly/RNS) “This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy. There is a word for that—baloney. It’s creating a false idol. You don’t measure your self-worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live in poverty. Why isn’t everyone in the church a millionaire?” Rick Warren Author and pastor of Saddleback Valley Church in California (Time magazine/RNS) “When we present Jesus as a pro-war, anti-poor, anti-homosexual, anti-environment, pro-nuclear weapons authority figure draped in an American flag, I think we are making a travesty of the portrait of Jesus we find in the gospels.” Brian McLaren Leader of the “emerging church” movement and pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Montgomery County, Md. (The Washington Post/RNS) “Amid a culture inundated with bigness and cellular technology, iPods and TiVo, the technologized megachurch is no longer impressive. In fact, many young Christians come to church to get asylum from this worldliness. Infinitely more than the megachurch’s ‘stuff,’ my generation wants religion. We want everything our parents didn’t, and that seems increasingly to be summed up in the word ‘meaning.’” Clint Rainey Student at the University of Texas at Austin “It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.” Winston Churchill British orator, author and prime minister during World War II (Thinkexist.com)

The fact a football game on Sunday draws objection says, I think, more about the exalted position football enjoys in our state than it suggests a recent cultural abandonment of a religious tradition surrounding Sunday nights.

Moreover, Baylor football on Sunday is neither recent nor unprecedented. Baylor played Sunday football games seven times between 1900 and 1933, including two games won over our fellow Texas Baptists at Howard Payne University.

Bart McKay

Waco

Islamic fascism

An article declares “Islamic fascist” is an inaccurate label (August 22). But the last paragraph admits the goal of Islamic fundamentalists is establishment of a political system based on rigid Islamic law similar to the nationalistic system established by fascists in the 1930s.

Their goal is establishment “of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.” This is exactly what the fascists did, only theirs was a government based on nationalism rather than religion.

The danger of such an article is it tends to look for the solution by changing who we are rather than appreciating the dangers of religious fanatics who have absolutely no moral equivalence to Christianity’s concept of an individual’s freedom to be responsible directly to God.

We need the awareness and understanding of all the aspects of Islam that the Baptist Standard provides in this issue, but we don’t need to couch our thinking in benign words.

R. Terry Campbell

Jasper, Ga.

Prayer language

First things first:  I have never experienced a Spirit-bestowed private prayer language, nor (to my knowledge) have any of my close Christian friends or associates.

Furthermore, this particular gift is not something that I actively seek to acquire or practice. That being said, I take seriously 1 Corinthians 14:39, which clearly and unequivocally states, “Do not forbid speaking in tongues.”

How ironic that the guardians of Baptist orthodoxy and champions of biblical inerrancy at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary are openly disobeying the very Scriptures they claim to hold in such high esteem (Sept. 4).

Louis Johnson

Abilene

First Amendment

The First Amendment establishes that our government shall “make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” Thus, as with all religious rituals and sacraments, government should stay out of the holy matrimony business and leave its celebration to religious organizations. 

Further, government should enforce the constitutional provision that restricts state law from impairing obligations of contract that establish relationships between consenting adults. In ensuring this guarantee, government can establish laws of civil union that protect citizens’ rights to form such relationships.

If gays and lesbians, or others, desire to extend their civil union into sacramental marriage, they can find a body of faith that is willing to sanctify their contractual relationship. If they cannot locate one, their freedom of religion entitles them to start a denomination of their very own. 

Sam Osborne

West Branch, Iowa

Comair Flight 5191

I was disturbed by your editorial about Co-pilot James Polehinke and Comair Flight 5191 (Sept. 18).

How can you judge a man who has suffered various life-threatening injuries for asking: “Why did God do this to me?” You are writing a Christian editorial, and you are judging someone who is barely coherent. These type of actions and judgments are why people are staying away from churches. Instead of judging this man, you should be praying for his recovery.

I flew as a flight attendant at Comair Airlines for three years. Comair is a very respectable airline with the finest training department and pilots in the regional airline industry. The truth in this incident will come out. And, no, I don’t believe God caused the crash. Please cut Polehinke some slack as he recovers from such a horrid incident.

Summer Ratcliffe

Huntington, W.Va.

Lacks Christian charity

Joyce Slaydon’s letter (Aug. 21) forms a different kind of “noxious sewage” of which perhaps she herself is not aware. Her letter lacks Christian charity and humility of spirit, and instead trumpets empty and judgmental emotionalism at the expense of scriptural exegesis and interaction. In short, her disagreeable opinion can simply be dismissed without much concern.

I, for one, appreciate the perspectives offered by Marv Knox. Though I may not always agree, I rejoice to claim him as my brother in Christ.

Byron Smith

Tyler

A new low

The anger and concern the media displayed over a portrayal of Bill Clinton in an ABC docudrama pertaining to 9/11 amazed me.

The second half of the docudrama portrayed President Bush in the same unfavorable manner. Of course, negative portrayals of President Bush are not only acceptable but encouraged by the media in my view.

My absolute outrage is the media’s blind eye toward a movie to be shown in the United States depicting the assassination of a sitting United States president! I am disgusted, I am outraged by the silence regarding the fictional murder of President Bush. I am ashamed to be an American. I fear for what it suggests.

I am sure the terrorists love the movie and the silent approval from the American press. I should be used to this degradation, but this movie is a new low—a low I never believed I would see.

Roberta Larimore Colin

Athens

What do you think? The Baptist Standard values letters to the editor, for they reflect Baptists’ traditional affirmation of the priesthood of believers. Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com. Letters are limited to 250 words. Only one letter per writer in a three-month period.
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

Pastor’s wife finds her service
niche in literacy missions

By Carol Gene Graves

Baylor Center for Literacy

WACO—Despite growing up a pastor’s daughter and becoming a preacher’s wife, Judy Hughes of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Waco never found her niche for Christian service until she discovered literacy ministries.

She found literacy missions 14 years ago, but her passion to share Christ with others while teaching them English continues to grow, she insists.

Maurine Frost, former director and long-time volunteer at the Center for Literacy at Baylor University, challenged Hughes: “Do you know that within a one-mile radius of your church, there are 900 people who do not speak English? Do your own survey if you don’t believe me.”

Hughes and friends walked 36 blocks around the church to find 75 people who did not speak, write or understand any English, and a ministry soon was birthed.

Before long, the church’s programs were attracting Hispanic adults and internationals, along with their children and spouses. The church now offers English-as-a-Second-Language training, graduate equivalency degree preparation and the test of English as a foreign language, which an international student must pass to enroll in a college or university in the United States.

While parents receive ESL instruction, children enjoy 45 minutes of mission stories followed by 45 minutes of homework tutoring. Baylor students from Baptist Student Ministries volunteer to tutor younger students and forge relationships with children.

“It dawned on me that just putting a check in the offering plate is not missions,” Hughes said. “Through literacy missions, I can touch the world from Emmanuel and Waco. … When a student from another country accepts Christ during literacy classes, I am excited. When the student returns to his or her home country, I can know there is someone in that foreign country continuing to spread the gospel because of what I’ve done here.”

Hughes leads a 16-hour workshop to train ESL teachers in the Waco area. She serves as literacy consultant to the Waco Baptist Regional Network and trains ESL trainers throughout Texas and beyond. 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

Ministers battle feelings
of being alone in the crowd

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Worshippers come to hear them speak each Sunday. A steady stream of people visit them during the week. Families invite them to dinner and give them gifts. But for many pastors, ministry is a lonely life.

Even though their primary task is accomplished by relating to people, ministers commonly report difficulty in forming authentic relationships. Because of the nature of their position, many say they feel pressured to present an image of perfection and holiness—an ideal that no one can fulfill.

Ministers cite this expectation as one of the primary reasons many say they have as few as three or four friends, some studies show. They are reluctant to relax their guard to church members and non-members, fearful they might damage the congregation’s image.

Many ministers also express a similar feeling as the reason they don’t relate to other ministers as well—expressing difficulty or trouble could be as a sign of weakness. They fear being looked down upon by other pastors. Pastors also worry about political, theological and relational issues that may arise with their colleagues.

“I think our biggest fear as pastors is sharing who we are and expressing where we are,” said James Kinman, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Kirbyville.

Reggie Thomas, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas congregational leadership staff, said many ministers offer friendly smiles and conversation, but they have emotional walls behind their outgoing gestures to protect themselves. Although church members may feel they know their ministers, oftentimes few of them actually do.

Pastors are like other people, Thomas said. They have been hurt before and are afraid to let it happen again. They want to be liked by other people and may question whether a congregation will like them if they simply be themselves.

Pair these factors with a 60-hour-a- week work schedule, and ministers have a significant issue, said Paul Kenley, pastor of Grace Fellowship in Lampasas. In extreme cases, ministers can seek connection with others through adultery and pornography.

“It’s probably one of the most unaddressed and devastating problems pastors have,” he said. “It’s kind of like the elephant in the room. They can all see it, but no one wants to acknowledge it. It’s an indication of weakness to do so.”

Some groups have taken note of the situation and are trying to do something about it. BGCT congregational strategists attempt to cultivate relationships with pastors, but they also seek to connect ministers with their peers who have similar interests or personalities as they travel through their areas, expanding personal relationships.

“We take the initiative to build a relationship between us and them, but on a secondary level, we facilitate a relationship between a pastor and them,” said BGCT Congregational Strategist Tim Randolph.

The Coastal Bend Baptist Association has encouraged groups of pastors to meet for several years in learning and fellowship groups. They are facilitated by the pastors and may focus on fellowship, a book or a leadership skill. Ministers bond through the experience.

“They don’t want to miss,” said Mike O’Neil, Coastal Bend Baptist Association director of missions. “They know it’s OK to miss, but they don’t want to miss.”

Josue Valerio, El Paso Baptist Association director of missions, said peer groups have been helpful for his pastors. Some of them spend time together outside structured group meetings.

“The people have to be willing to make a commitment,” Valerio said. “You have to put politics aside. You have to have to put a program or agenda aside. You have to focus on relationships.”

Len Hartley, who leads a weekly meeting of pastors in San Angelo, said ministers can help churches by helping each other through peer groups. They can learn from each others mistakes and offer suggestions. Groups also lead to cooperative ministry.

“It’s not just investing in a person,” he said. “It’s investing in a church.”

Kinman believes the solution to the problem ultimately lies with each pastor. He admitted feeling isolated as a pastor in the past but recently has taken steps to correct that. He meets with a group of about 30 men from his church once a week and shares openly with them as they share with him.

That kind of openness has created relationships, Kinman said. The men care for each other, pray for each other and spend time together outside church. Many of them call Kinman “Pastor Jamie” or simply “Jamie.” They are friends with the pastor, and it is making a difference in the church, he said.

“I believe the Lord is working in that to create a greater ministry through the pastor and the men for this whole community.” 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

On the Move

• Justin Gandy has resigned as youth minister at First Church in Breckenridge.

• Kris Knippa to First Church in Cranfills Gap as pastor.

• Craig Lloyd to Southlake Church in Waxahachie as pastor from North Mesquite Church in Mesquite, where he was youth pastor.

• Joshua Lockett to First Church in Valley Mills as youth minister.

• Mike Mathis to Brazos River Church in Granbury as pastor. 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

Most political rhetoric
keeps God-talk light & sunny

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As Campaign 2006 heats up, politicians are leveraging the power of religious rhetoric while adhering to what’s become the cardinal rule for public religious speech in the 21st century: Never say God gets angry.

After the emergence of so-called “values voters” in 2004, political figures on both the left and right haven’t been shy this year about invoking a Judeo-Christian deity.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has helped lead a Democratic recovery of spiritual language by describing, for instance, in a speech this summer how he felt while “kneeling beneath the cross” and explaining, “You need Christ precisely because you have sins to wash away.”

On the GOP side, Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell told a crowd: “Rights are not grants from government. They are gifts from God.”

Yet when describing their faiths and their gods, politicians of all stripes have apparently learned to leave prevalent biblical ideas about divine punishment inside the church or temple. The reason, according to journalism scholars, is simple: Journalists who used to ignore such remarks from public figures now deem them worthy of national coverage—and consequently, public shaming.

Reporters “are saying, ‘I’ve got to warn the public that there are people out there like that,’” said Judith Buddenbaum, a retired journalism professor and author of Reporting News About Religion: An Introduction for Journalists.

Stakes are high in elections, Buddenbaum says, in part because a theology of judgment “plays havoc on any kind of international relations, unless your goal is to get to Armageddon.”

As proven in recent years, one reference to an angry God can make an otherwise humdrum local story go national overnight. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin proved the point earlier this year, as he joined Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as public figures who have apologized under pressure for linking natural disasters with divine displeasure.

Even relative unknowns, like Alabama state Sen. Hank Erwin, manage to make the national news wires with public gaffes—soon after Hurricane Katrina hit, Erwin suggested sinful behavior “ultimately brings the judgment of God.”

Americans haven’t always been so offended by the idea of divine judgment. The first colonial settlers fasted on “Days of Humiliation” to appease a punitive God whom they thought sent drought in retribution for their sins.

Abraham Lincoln maintained the tradition with a proclamation on April 30, 1863, by asking, “May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins … ?”

Market forces help explain the shift, said Carol Pardun, a scholar of religion coverage and director of the journalism program at Middle Tennessee State University. She said reporters increasingly have seized on angry God references over the past 20 years, not because such remarks are more common, but because they trigger strong emotions that sell news.

“Public discourse has changed (in recent years as) the language in newspapers has become more polarizing” in order to keep readers engaged, Pardun said. “Religion, like politics, gets people up in arms,” and sound bytes referring to a “mean God” sell newspapers.

Editorial writers have taken a lead role in deeming certain theologies unacceptable. The Boston Globe, for instance, rapped Nagin for trying to hide behind God’s will.

“If God is intent on wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast, as Nagin suggested, who could blame the mayor if the response to the disaster was ineffective or if rebuilding plans haven’t advanced very far?” the Globe wrote in an editorial earlier this year. “God, it would seem, is being used as a shield for individual shortcomings. … Those who think they know the divine might better show it by their actions to help others, not by invoking his name as a punishment or excuse.”

Some in religious circles welcome how the secular press has stepped up to police the doctrinal boundaries of public discourse. Among the grateful is Fred Plummer, executive director of the Seattle-based Center for Progressive Christianity.

“It’s dangerous if we don’t ferret this (belief system) out” through widespread coverage when officials or candidates invoke a disapproving God, Plummer said. “Some of these outlandish public policy positions based on religious convictions need to be questioned.”

His example: If the press had revealed James Watt’s apocalyptic beliefs during his tenure as secretary of the interior in the 1980s, the public might have understood why, in Plummer’s opinion, he didn’t promote far-sighted environmental policies.

“His main job was to see that ecological protection was carried out,” Plummer said. “His Christian beliefs were that the world is coming to an end, so why worry about it?”

Some on the religious left, however, say the press as theological watchdog has gone too far. The press has no idea which theologies are dangerous because there is no forum in which they can take the public pulse, according to Madison Shockley, pastor of Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad, Calif., and a former candidate for Los Angeles city council.

“The question is this: Where is theology discussed in public?,” Shockley asks. “How do you measure public tolerance for diversity of theological views when there are no public theological exchanges? Most theological exchanges are quite private.”

Some journalism scholars contend the public does have some agreed-upon religious values that the press tries to reflect in coverage of religious remarks. For Ari Goldman, who teaches religion reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Americans generally agree “it’s an obscenity for anyone to say they know God’s will.”

In Pardun’s view, the “public conscience” expects a certain degree of safe, predictable and non-offensive values to be expressed in the public square. When it comes to politics and religion, that means a God of love and comfort, but never one of punishment.

That relatively new standard isn’t apt to change again anytime soon—at least not as long as the press is keeping a watchful eye.

People “think they can handle religious diversity” in public discourse, Pardun says. “But they really can’t.” 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

Technology links ministers to church members

By Angela Best

Communications Intern

MARSHALL—Technological innovations leave ministers without excuse for keeping church members informed, said Brian Pearce, minister of youth and recreation at First Baptist Church in Marshall.

Two years ago, Pearce attended a youth ministry conclave where he learned the impact e-mail can have on ministry and its potential for keeping parents and students informed.

“I got back to Marshall and began using my e-mail more than ever before,” Pearce said. “It created an opportunity for information to get out and parents to ask questions via e-mail that I can answer anytime. We no longer have to spend many phone calls missing each other and playing phone tag.”

Not only can e-mail be sent any time of day, but it also allows one to communicate the same message to multiple people at the same time, “meaning we have more time to minister and (spend) less time folding and stuffing envelopes and calling everyone on the Sunday school roll,” Pearce said.

Since many students check their e-mail at school, it also creates the opportunity for students involved in the youth ministry to talk with their school friends about upcoming activities at the church, he added.

But the possibilities do not end there.

Another outlet Pearce uses to reach his youth is through instant messaging. Pearce explained many students spend a lot of time online and often are available and willing to talk.

“Students will ask many questions, have casual conversation and seek counseling through instant messaging,” Pearce said. “Although it is not the best counseling environment, I have found that students will open up and share more with you through a computer than face-to-face.”

In addition to instant messaging, text messaging also has proven useful. With the proliferation of cell phones, text messaging often serves as an effective way to keep in touch with students and parents no matter where they are, as long as they have their cell phone with them, Pearce noted.

“You can also send the same message to many people at one time,” he said. “Students love it.”

Parents, too, have responded positively to text messaging, even though some who are not familiar with the technology have to get their teenager to show them how to see their messages, Pearce added.

“We can send reminders of important meetings or deposit due dates, and they get them quickly,” he said.

The only negative aspect of text messaging is users have to pay for the service. To overcome this problem, Pearce sent an e-mail to parents asking if they wanted to participate, and if so, to send their cell phone number.

With new technology developing every day, Pearce plans to extend his outreach.

“In the future we hope to get into pod casting announcements over iPods and possibly doing daily devotions via iPod or CD,” he said.

“The use of technology is a mighty tool that I would encourage any minister to take advantage of in reaching their congregation.” 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

Texas Tidbits

Committee seeks resolutions. Messengers to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting who wish to present resolutions for the consideration of the BGCT Committee on Resolutions are encouraged to submit resolutions in writing prior to the convention, according to Chairman Joseph Parker. The deadline for submitting resolutions at the convention is 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13, but to allow adequate consideration by the committee and because of printing deadlines to include the resolutions in Tuesday’s Annual Meeting Bulletin, Parker encourages early submission. Resolutions must be signed by an elected messenger, with church name included. Proposed resolutions may be submitted to Parker’s attention at David Chapel Baptist Church, 2211 E. Martin Luther King Jr., Austin 78702.

Foundation issues challenge grant. The Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., recently announced a $1 million challenge grant toward construction of the $16 million Patty and Bo Pilgrim Chapel on the Dallas Baptist University campus. The foundation will provide $1 million if DBU raises the remaining $15 million for chapel construction prior to July 12, 2007. So far, DBU has raised more than two-thirds of the amount needed.

HBU sets inauguration date. Robert Sloan formally will be inaugurated as president of Houston Baptist University at a 2 p.m. ceremony Nov. 28 on the Houston campus. A reception will follow at 4 p.m. HBU trustees elected Sloan Aug. 8 as the school’s third president, succeeding Doug Hodo. Sloan, former chancellor of Baylor University, stepped down as Baylor’s president after 10 years.

Memorials committee seeks names. Each year the Baptist General Convention of Texas recognizes by name at its annual meeting Texas Baptists who have died during the preceding year. The BGCT Memorials Committee asks Texas Baptists to submit the names of people who have died in the last year whose lives made a contribution to their churches and to Texas. Call (214) 828-5348 or e-mail debbie.moody@bgct.org.

Grant allows Baylor to explore economics of religion. Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion has received a $378,862 grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The grant will provide funds for four scholars to investigate the connection between religion and economic growth and the effects of government intervention in religious markets on the practice of religion. The grant also will fund workshops held jointly between the Baylor faculty members and faculty at George Mason University, as well as a survey regarding the religious, educational and financial practices of Americans.

BGCT board chair re-elected. The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board re-elected attorney Bob Fowler of Houston as chair. Directors elected John Petty, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville, as vice chair.

Correction: An article about the pillars of Islam on p. 10 of the Sept. 18 Baptist Standard print edition says that the Ramadan saum (fasting) goes daily from dusk until dawn. In fact, the fasting is from dawn until dusk throughout daylight hours, followed promptly by a full night of feasting. The error was corrected in the article's online version.

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.