Posted: 9/15/06

Georgia minister produces
movie as tool for ministry

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

ALBANY, Ga. (RNS)—When Alex Kendrick thinks about sharing his faith, he thinks about movie screens, not evangelistic tracts.

Kendrick, associate pastor of media ministries at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., has co-produced Facing the Giants with the help of hundreds of volunteers—on screen and behind the scenes—from his Southern Baptist congregation and local community.

On Sept. 29, the movie about a Christian high school football team will premiere on 400 movie screens in 86 markets. In addition to co-writing the script with his brother Stephen, Kendrick plays the lead character of the movie, Coach Grant Taylor.

“This is a ministry tool,” said Kendrick, who handles the television and video productions at the 3,000-member church. “I think churches are waking up to the fact that this is a valid avenue of ministry. … People still love a good story.”

Movies and ministry have been combined for decades, with organizations like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association producing films, and pastors sprinkling their sermons with movie clips. Evangelical churches played a big role in getting audiences to The Passion of the Christ, and Christian bookstores offer family-friendly film fare. Now, this congregation has decided to become involved in moviemaking itself with its own company, Sherwood Pictures.

Research by the California-based Barna Group reveals 66 percent of adults say they talk with friends and associates about movies and TV shows they’ve seen recently. But, founder George Barna said, “The majority of people who have attended a church service cannot even remember the theme of the sermon within two hours of leaving the building.”

Those types of figures fueled the church’s interest in making movies as an expression of faith, said Pastor Michael Catt of Sherwood Baptist Church. “Rather than waiting for people to come to us, let’s go to them.”

Facing the Giants is built around the struggling Eagles football team at the fictional Shiloh Christian Academy. A local layman walks down a hallway of lockers praying for the student body. The coach turns to the Bible as his wife falls to her knees in a battle against infertility.

Unlike a typical Hollywood production, Facing the Giants was made with hardly any paid professionals. More than 500 people helped in a variety of ways, from babysitting to donating meals and serving as extras. The credits give the sense of the grassroots effort—listing everyone from the “prayer coordinator” to the local restaurants and supermarkets that provided food.

Church members donated $100,000 for the film, and Provident Films and Sherwood Pictures worked together on enhancing the color of the low-budget movie. A soundtrack includes Provident Music Group artists such as Third Day and Casting Crowns. Sony Pictures is distributing it through Samuel Goldwyn Films.

On screen and off, Kendrick opts for a direct message about his beliefs.

The coach sparks a turnaround on his team—which eventually faces the formidable Giants—when he urges players to not think of their own glory but glorifying God instead.

In real life, he hopes the movie will draw people closer to God, whether they’re already believers or not.

“Everybody faces giants,” said Kendrick. “It may be fear. It may be failure. It may be inferiority or something else. And one of the messages in this movie … is that you can’t always face your giants on your own. … And that’s where you have to rely on the Lord.”

Barna’s company has hosted screenings of Facing the Giants for secular and religious groups, and Barna himself has launched a new Christian entertainment company, Good News Holdings, to produce its own version of faith-related movies. Barna’s first project is an adaptation of author Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

“We realize there are some people who are open to and even appreciative of a very direct faith-oriented message,” Barna said. “Some people who, because they’re coming to be entertained, aren’t looking for something that always leads back to faith. From my perspective, you’ve got to have different approaches, where sometimes it’s direct, sometimes it’s indirect but it’s theologically correct.”

But any movie that has a blatant message about needing Jesus in your life—as Facing the Giants does—could end up with a narrower audience than its producers hope.

Sherwood Baptist Church’s senior pastor, and others involved in the movie’s production hope it will present a picture of everyday lives of Christians and encourage others to start or renew a Christian commitment.

“We’d like to see people’s lives changed,” Catt 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: 9/15/06

Program offers training for
Rio Grande Valley families

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

DEL RIO—Many parents say raising children is the toughest job you can get with zero experience, skills, know-how or good role models. But it’s getting easier for parents along the Rio Grande, thanks to Families for a Future.

Convinced that the key to reducing drug/ alcohol use, teen suicide, juvenile delinquency, gang involvement, child abuse and domestic violence is strengthening families, Baptist Child & Family Services launched the pilot program last March in five counties surrounding Del Rio.

“Families for a Future gave me ideas on how to be a better parent,” said program graduate Virginia Garza. “Being a single parent, it is sometimes hard to apply what I’ve learned. But I believe, by following through, my boys and I will become a more healthy and respectful family. My sons are all boy, but this helps me always remember what blessings they are, too.”

Adriana Bonilla graduates from the Families for a Future program in the Rio Grande Valley.

Parents even volunteer to go into local schools and preach the value of the training program and have formed ongoing support groups to continue to help each other be better parents.

The program came at a point when funding cuts forced the closing of all mentoring and parent training programs in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as the Boys and Girls’ Club. That left the BCFS STAR program—Services To At-Risk youth—as the only structured effort to help troubled families.

“The arrest rate for family violence in Val Verde County is 29 percent higher than the state average, and we are experiencing a clear rise in juvenile delinquency—and the surrounding counties have similar statistics,” explained Jackie Hanson, BCFS program director in Del Rio.

“We looked at all the possible solutions we could think of and developed this approach based on the Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities curriculum.

“Families for a Future is a good fit for STAR because of the expertise and networks our staff already has. The past five months, serving 80 families and 67 youth ages 10-and-up has been an awesome experience.”

A high point of the initial training was a family retreat at Alto Frio Baptist Encampment.

“Our program is unique in that it includes the concluding retreat,” explained Janie Cook, executive director of the BCFS teen and youth services division that includes STAR and Families for a Future.

“That not only allows any spouses who didn’t take the course to sit in on the final 15 hours of training, but also gives the family an enjoyable mini-vacation together in a setting that reinforces their love for each other and lets them put into practice the things they’ve learned in a supportive atmosphere.”

Even though BCFS pays for the retreat, the response shows the value the families put on the program.

“What would make parents go week after week to long classes where they had homework and tests, then go to all the trouble to drive to Leakey from the Valley the weekend before school starts like this first group did?” Cook asked. “It’s because they love their families so much.”

“We (BCFS staff) have a vision of what family life can be in South Texas, and the parents do, too,” Raquel Frausto, one of the lead trainers, pointed out.

“We’re planting seed for something that is going to grow—not because of the staff but because of these parents. They learn the building blocks for success, and the changed way they parent will change how their friends and neighbors parent—and how their children parent when they become parents.”

The remaining families, who were unable to make the retreat, had a second graduation ceremony in Del Rio that made front page news in the local paper.

The three-hour long weekly meetings last three months and address violence against self (drug/alcohol abuse, depression and suicide), violence against family (child abuse and domestic violence) and violence against the community (juvenile delinquency, crime and gangs). At the same time, children 12 and older received their own training in the value of healthy families. Child care was provided for younger children.

Every three months, graduates will be offered a three-hour “booster training.”

“Seeing the pride 17-year-old boys and 13-year-old girls showed as they hugged their parents after they received their graduation certificate was wonderful,” Cook said. “That is a reflection of the good things they already have seen in just 12 weeks and the mutual respect and improved communication they’ve developed for each other.”

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: 9/15/06

Texas Baptist Forum

Losing focus

I am responding to the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board action to cut three positions from the missions, evangelism and ministry area (Sept. 4). It seems these positions would be the last to be cut, since they have an intentional focus on the community outside the church.

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; or by mail to P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; 250 words maximum.

“One of our biggest challenges as Christians living in the 21st century is to learn how to talk about the things that are important to us, like prayer and hearing from God, without scaring our neighbors. Not that we have to backpedal what we believe; we just have to learn how to communicate better.” Berry Simpson Baptist Standard cybercolumnist “What struck me most is when one of them said to me: ‘You know we’re really no different than your society. We’re just honest about our affairs, and we take care of our babies and our girlfriends.’” Loraine Sundquist Recalling a conversation with a wife of polygamist Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ (Washington Post / RNS) “If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.” Katherine Harris Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Florida, describing separation of church and state as “so wrong, because God is the one who chooses our rulers” (Florida Baptist Witness)

It does not seem OK just to reassign their duties to other people, such as the congregational strategists, because their focus is not the community outside the established church. With only a small percentage of people in Texas attending church on any given Sunday, we ought to double the positions that focus outside the church. We as Texas Baptists have been very critical of others who have tended to run the same course.

I hope the BGCT in its new reorganization is not losing its focus on the people outside the church who need love and mercy from those who will intentionally seek them out.

I hope we are not on the path of being inwardly—instead of outwardly—focused.

Walter Norris

Plano

Sunday football

Is it just me, or was the NCAA scheduling the Baylor/TCU football game on a Sunday afternoon ironic? I know we live in a time when Sunday is really “just another day,” but I cannot help but think of the message it sends, seeing two “Christian” universities squaring off on a Sunday afternoon.

Was there even a “peep” of protest anywhere? I realize the shrinking significance of Sunday night to most Baptist churches, but I had hoped for at least a half-hearted statement from somebody. If I’m the only one, that’s fine.

The Cowboys, Rangers, etc. have no spiritual message to bring, nor does anyone look to them for one, so let them play on Sunday without comment. I thought maybe our own church-supported universities might be different.

Bruce Parsons

Roscoe

Controlling prayer

Regarding Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson’s censorship of chapel speaker Dwight McKissic (Sept. 4): Should the heartfelt expressions of McKissic be unlimited? Would his unlimited freedom to preach from his heart do more good or bad to our society? Would limited freedom of expressing his groaning for God impact a student body and therefore threaten Baptist foundations? 

What has happened to us as Baptists? Is there a new fascism among Baptists? Are we now controlling how people pray? Are we so fearful that we must control a pastor discussing his heartfelt conversation with God? Have we begun to shut people down if they do not line up exactly according to our viewpoint?

Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Waring: “In every country where man is free to think and to speak, differences of opinion will arise from difference of perception, and the imperfection of reason; but these differences when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds overspreading our land transiently and leaving our horizon more bright and serene.” Jefferson had it right. Let free discussion, not censorship, purify differences.

Jerry Rogers

Lewisville

New Israel

We appreciate your “End Times” editorial, “Sooner or later, one day will be final” (Aug. 7).

It seems to us that most of those who claim God has a special interest in Israel as a land and/or a nation have not read Deuteronomy 28-29 or Matthew 21:42-43.

The Apostle Paul certainly believed believers are the new Israel—the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16).

David & Maxine King

Marshall

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: 9/15/06

Who’s Who in Islam: major groups

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—For American Christians who don’t know a Shiite from a Sunni or an Alawi from a Wahhabi, divisions within Islam can be daunting to decipher.

Here’s a simple Who’s Who of a few major groups—either religious or political—that claim the Islamic label.

• Sunni. About 85 percent of Muslims worldwide identify themselves as Sunni, which means “tradition.” Sunnis consider themselves followers of the traditions established by Muhammad and the first two generations that followed him.

• Shiite. Followers of Shi’a constitute the second-largest group within Islam. The schism between the Sunni and Shiites originated over questions of who should succeed Muhammad’s immediate group of handpicked caliphs. The Shiites favored Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, as the legitimate successor and believe descendents of Muhammad should rule the Islamic community. (Some political leaders—both Shiite and Sunni—have used their supposed descent from Muhammad to shore up their resume, including Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Jordan’s King Hussein and Sheikh Muhammed Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon’s Hezbollah party.)

• Sufi. The Sufis are part of a mystical movement that stresses personal, intimate knowledge of God. Most Sufis are Sunni, but some Shiite Muslims embrace Sufi principles. Some extreme Sufi mystics are considered outside Muslim orthodoxy.

• Wahhabi. Ironically, the Wahhabis have been compared both to Unitarians and Puritans. They stress the unity of God and reject traditions not found in the Quran. The movement, focused on purifying Islam, originated in Arabia under the leadership of al-Wahhab in the 1700s. Literal interpretation of the Quran has led Wahhabis to administer the cutting off of hands as a penalty for some crimes.

• Alawi. The Alawites generally have been considered a heretical sect within Shiite Islam, but it has moved closer to acceptance in the last 30 years. It has ties to some political leaders in Syria and its Baath party.

• Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad founded this African-American movement in the 1930s. It is not regarded as orthodox by mainstream Islam. Louis Farrakhan became the Nation of Islam’s leader after the founder’s death—particularly after Muhammad’s son, Wallace D. Muhammad, moved toward orthodox Islam.

(Adapted in part from Islam: Its Prophet, People, Politics and Power by George W. Braswell Jr., published by Broadman & Holman, 1996)

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: 9/15/06

Christian presence in Holy
Land small and getting smaller

By Steve Chambers

Religion News Service

BETHLEHEM, West Bank—Nakla Qaber, whose Greek Orthodox roots stretch back generations in a West Bank Christian enclave, runs a successful restaurant at a time when most Palestinians are struggling.

But when it came time for his son and three daughters to make their own way in the world, they went off to college in the United States and Canada and never came back.

“Every time I go to services, I look around and see the number of worshippers declining, Sunday after Sunday,” said Qaber, 63, who lives in Beit Jala, alongside the major Christian city of Bethlehem. “No one wants to leave his country, so this is a miserable thing, but if my sons and daughters stay overseas, someday I will follow them.”

The exodus of Christians from the Holy Land troubles the faithful worldwide. With tensions rising the past five years and economic conditions worsening, some have begun to whisper about a day when the native Christian population disappears entirely.

Now, with armed conflict—or at best an uneasy peace—between Muslims and Jews, Christians once again find themselves caught in the crossfire. The vast majority are Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank and suffering the same frustrations and dangers as their Muslim neighbors.

Many of them blame the United States for failing to bring peace and stability to the region—thereby allowing a rise in religious fundamentalism that has increased tensions for the descendants of the first Christians.

“Radical Islam does not even like moderate Muslims, so how can it be good for Christians?” said Jack Khazmo, a Syrian Orthodox Christian who edits a pro-Palestinian political magazine called al Bayader Assiyasi. “We Christians belong to this land and to our country, but the rise of radicalism will affect our presence.”

Experts say the Christian population in Israel and the Palestinian territories has fallen steeply in recent years and may number only about 50,000. Since 1948, when Christians were estimated at 20 percent of all Palestinians in the region, their numbers have dropped to roughly 2 percent, according to the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, a group based in Bethesda, Md.

“There is a concern about losing the Christian presence in the Holy Land,” said Antonios Kireopoulos, associate general secretary for International Affairs and Peace for the New York-based National Council of Churches. “We do not want only to be the caretakers of monuments. But we realize that the tensions and ongoing violence are real.”

Local Christian leaders argue it would be disastrous if the native Christian population disappeared—not just for a people so rooted in the land they are often referred to as “the living stones,” but also for regional stability. Wealthier, better educated and more closely tied to the West than most Palestinian Arabs, these Christians have long been a moderating force in the West Bank.

Still, members of the 15 denominations of Palestinian Christians often complain they feel invisible, even if they are part of much larger churches in the United States and Europe. Conservative Christians in America tend to support Israel, and many pilgrims visit holy sites in Jerusalem without realizing a native Christian population remains.

Even as they struggle, many Christians in the West Bank strive for influence within the Palestinian Authority. A Christian holds one Cabinet post in the Hamas-led government, seven are members of Parliament and others lead cities like Bethlehem and neighboring Beit Jala, which together comprise a historic Christian enclave.

George Sa’adeh, deputy mayor of Bethlehem, said despite occasional tensions between Christians and Muslims, the groups generally are united in calling for more freedom of movement for Palestinians and a reduction in tensions with the Israelis.

“All the people want peace, even Hamas,” he said. “The people are frustrated. We must stop the killing, and I believe the United States has the power to make peace if it wants to make peace.”

Peace and war are not abstract concepts for Sa’adeh, a Greek Orthodox Christian. One day in March 2003, when he was out shopping with his wife and two daughters, Israeli soldiers mistook his car for one carrying two fugitive terrorists.

They riddled it with machine-gun fire, wounding him and his 15-year-old daughter and killing his 12-year-old daughter, Christine.

Sitting in his office overlooking the Basilica of the Nativity, built 17 centuries ago on the site where tradition says Christ was born, Sa’adeh took out a wallet photograph of a smiling Christine and recalled how an Israeli group of bereaved families reached out to comfort him.

“Talking about peace and ending the war takes a lot of faith and courage,” he said. “As Jesus taught us, we must forgive. But when I call for peace, I also call for justice and an end to the (Israeli) occupation.”

Sa’adeh and other Christians need a special pass from the Israeli government to leave the West Bank and visit their churches in Jerusalem.

Nisreen Kunkar, who handles public relations for Beit Jala, has been unable to visit the home of her in-laws in Jerusalem, although she has been married for years.

Such obstructions, a number of Christians said, inflame tensions in the West Bank and help persuade many of their religious brethren to emigrate.

Raji Zeidan, mayor of Beit Jala and a Christian, said one of the most confounding and frustrating things that has happened to his one-square-mile city in decades was the recent construction of a barrier separating Israel from Palestinian-controlled territory in the West Bank.

The 20-foot concrete wall, which the Israeli government began building in 2002 to keep out suicide bombers, snakes through the town, isolating stores, separating children from playgrounds and, most important in Zeidan’s eyes, denying Christians access to their own land.

“Beit Jala is a small town, mostly Christian, and we own most of the undeveloped land,” he said. “That is our only chance to flourish and develop, but now it is under confiscation because of the wall. If you lose all opportunities, what will happen? You will go.”

Steve Chambers writes for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.

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: 9/15/06

Poll shows some
prejudice against Muslims

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Four Americans out of 10 acknowledge having some prejudice against Muslims, but those with Muslim acquaintances are more likely to show favorable attitudes, a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll shows.

Thirty-nine percent of Americans asked to honestly assess themselves said they have at least some feelings of prejudice against Muslims while 59 percent said they did not.

Respondents were divided fairly evenly about whether Muslims are respectful of other religions, with 47 percent agreeing and 40 percent disagreeing. There was clear disagreement about whether Muslims are too extreme in their religious beliefs, with 44 percent saying yes and 46 percent saying no.

A substantial minority—39 percent—of Americans favors more strict security measures for Muslims than other U.S. citizens, such as requiring Muslims to carry a special ID; 59 percent said they would oppose such a requirement. Forty-one percent favored Muslims undergoing more intensive security checks at U.S. airports, while 57 percent opposed such action.

When comparing feelings based on whether respondents personally know a Muslim, pollsters found dramatic differences. Forty-one percent said they personally knew a Muslim.

Nearly a quarter of those who said they know a Muslim—24 percent—favored a special ID for Muslims; 50 percent who do not know someone of that faith favored the special ID. Ten percent of those who know a Muslim said they would not want a Muslim as a neighbor, compared to 31 percent of those who did not know one.

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: 9/15/06

Group critiques prosperity gospel

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

DALLAS (ABP)— Media promotion of a so-called prosperity gospel is deluging modern-day churches—and driving them into error, former Southern Baptist Convention President Jimmy Allen told the nation’s largest African-American Baptist group.

“Prosperity gospel is now a problem because we’ve learned to study the market, and now the marketplace is dictating the message,” said Allen, who led in the formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Allen spoke as part of the National Baptist Convention USA’s 126th annual meeting, in a forum designed to answer the question, “What do we preach?” Claiming more than 7.5 million members, the convention is the nation’s largest historically African-Ameri-can denomination.

As part of a panel including social activist James Earl Massey and several prominent pastors, Allen set the tone for the discussion, referencing the prevalence and persistence of Christian media in contributing to the creation of so-called “seeker-sensitive” mega-churches. “The marketing studies are so precise and so constant that they figure out what you want,” Allen said. “We have folks who are looking at that and saying, ‘Now if this is what they want, then I’ll give it to them.’ And so we find ourselves with seeker churches. The fact is that we build to match the market.”

William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention USA since 1999, also broached the subject of churches tailoring themselves to match demographics. He prefaced Allen’s remarks by correlating the prosperity gospel with the development of seeker churches.

Shaw defined prosperity gospel as a belief system focused on health, wealth and faith—“a contemporary form of uplift theology” and “a capitalistic devotion to personal privilege.”

Shaw disparaged the consumer-centric message of the movement, saying television preachers increasingly have established themselves as religious persuaders across lines of color, race and class. The theological message of the gospel must be founded in biblical truth, not emotional experiences, he said. Shaw is the pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Penn.

“The devil has long since concluded that he’s not really going to be able to defeat the Lord in open matters of conflict … so he infiltrates from the inside,” he said. “Our people have been misfed and misled.”

Massey, who spoke after Allen, related the exponential numerical growth of many seeker churches to a lack of biblical doctrine or “a great neglect of the centralities of the Christian faith,” he said.

The neglect comes from forgetting the apostolic doctrines taught in the Bible, Massey said. And when doctrines are slighted, he said, “emotion becomes a primary concern and a controlling force.”

“There is a proper, biblical pattern for church growth,” Massey said. “We should preach what the apostles preached and taught. And the basis for their apostolic teaching is the New Testament.”

Massey also said African-American religious life is faced with several challenges, including a rise in using pop music for worship, a rejection of church tradition and a diminishing interest in “doctrinal constraints.”

But the Bible shows Christians how they can overcome the struggle, he said. To that end, he added, every congregation should be a place of “prescribed learning” to monitor personal experience so that each person is “text-anchored.” When the truth is not preached, the Holy Spirit has no ally to serve its interest, he said.

“Don’t forget Acts 2:24: ‘They continued strongly in the apostles’ doctrine,’” he urged delegates. “That is what we preach.”

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: 9/15/06

National Baptist leader asserts
nation, church abandoning ideals

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—Two esteemed institutions—the United States and the church—appear in danger of abandoning the high ideals of their founding documents, the president of the nation’s largest African-American Baptist group said.

“A haunting shade hangs over both our country and the church,” said William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, in his message to the group’s annual meeting in Dallas.

Each seems captured by forces that “threaten to abandon its core defining and anchoring documents,” he continued. “For our country, it is the Constitution, and for our church, it is the Bible.”

How the U.S. responds to the racial and economic division brought to light by Hurricane Katrina and how it carries out its war on terrorism—particularly conflict in Iraq—either will summon the nation back to the lofty ideals on which it was founded or will drive a wedge that divides its people, said Shaw, who was born in Marshall and has been pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Penn., 50 years.

“Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq both have within them the possibility of poisoning or purging,” he said.

Shaw commended members of churches in the National Baptist Convention USA for contributing more than $1 million to Katrina relief through the convention—as well as volunteering in rebuilding projects and giving to other relief organizations.

“While much has been done, much remains to be done,” he said. Katrina revealed a deep division in New Orleans based on race and socio-economic status, he said. “The spotlight turned to focus on the gap between the affluent and the poor,” he said.

The mostly low-income 9th Ward needs to be rebuilt with the same urgency—and funding—directed toward rebuilding the city’s business district, Shaw insisted.

“Rehabilitation must not become a tool for removal of the poor from New Orleans—an instrument to reduce the population and thus reduce the political power potential of the poor,” he said. Slow response to urgent needs in southern Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina revealed a distracted government with depleted manpower and dissipated resources, all due to the war in Iraq, Shaw asserted.

“It showed we couldn’t fight a war in Iraq and at the same time handle an emergency at home,” he said. The war was “initiated on false premises of imminent threat and the existence of weapons of mass destruction,” he insisted.

Both the conflict in Iraq and the larger war on terrorism have been waged in ways that violate the Constitution, Shaw asserted.

“We are less secure today, from without and from within,” he said. “We are in danger of giving up the freedoms we say others want to destroy and take away from us.”

Similarly, Shaw said, the church stands dangerously close to giving away its transformational power by abandoning biblical principles.

Churches risk losing their prophetic power when they become beholden to the government for funding programs, he said, referring to faith-based initiatives. “If a source funds you, then the source can control you,” he said.

Shaw particularly warned against preaching a compromised gospel of promised prosperity rather than issuing a call to follow Christ in the self-sacrificial way of the cross.

“Material goods may satisfy, but they do not fulfill,” he said. Shaw labeled as “blasphemy” sermons that entice Christians with “mammon”—material wealth and physical wellbeing—rather than preaching the crucified Christ as both the way of salvation and the example for righteous living.

“Calvary is the way of life to which God summons us,” 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: 9/15/06

On the Move

• Mark Barefield has resigned as youth minister at First Church in Plains.

• Bryan Brunson to Calvary Church in Rosenberg as director of young adult ministries.

• Travis Cardwell has resigned as associate pastor of First Church in Liberty to become pastor of a new church in Sugar Land.

• Fernando Charles II to Central Church in San Antonio as pastor from Kingsbrough Ridge Church in San Antonio, where he was associate pastor.

• Zeke Cruz to Calvary Church in Rosenberg as director of student ministries and outreach.

• Nick Demitae to First Church in Eula as minister of youth.

• Jeff Fitzhugh to First Church in Corsicana as minister to children.

• Omar Garcia to Calvary Church in Rosenberg as assistant director of student ministries.

• Jeffrey Lee to Cherry Heights Church in Clyde as youth/ music minister.

• Mark Moore to Lawn Church in Lawn as associate pastor.

• Danny Ortiz to Central Church in San Antonio as associate pastor.

• Paul Saylors to Lakeside Church in Dallas as pastor.

• Bob Sharp to Conway Avenue Church in Mission as pastor.

• William Tollett has resigned as minister of education/ administration at Northside Church in Corsicana.

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: 9/15/06

Scrapbooking enables women
to pass along their values

By Rachel Stallard

Special to the Baptist Standard

LONGVIEW—Jodie Hilburn found a distinctive way to tell her husband she was expecting their third child—through a scrapbook project for his office. Carol Weiss is preparing for her family’s first holiday season without her father this year, after borrowing her mother’s Christmas album. Wendy Jones found a hobby on which she knew her family would not mind her spending time and money.

All three women are proud to call scrapbooking—or cropping—an art form. And many more women consider it a ministry of Christian encouragement and outreach.

Stacy Pentecost of Macedonia Baptist Church in Longview participates in an Open Crop held once a month at Scrapbooks & Such in Longview. She is finishing a book from her children’s band trip to Disney World.

Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview recently held the first of three “Scrapbook and Craft Extravaganza” nights it has planned for the year. It allowed women to get away from the busyness of their home life, pull out their pictures and create for a couple of hours. But Lesa Floyd, women’s ministry coordinator at the church, saw it as another way for Mobberly to lead women to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

These kind of events “provide the opportunity for Christian women to get together, fellowship and encourage one another to grow in their relationship with Christ,” Floyd said. “It also gives them the opportunity to invite their unchurched friends who enjoy scrapbooking or other crafts, those who might not ever come to a worship service or Bible study and introduce them to other Christian women.”

Hilburn emphasized that theme during a devotional on “faithbooking” during the event at Mobberly. She explained faithbooking allows a scrapbook creator to document her faith, pass on family values to her children and testify to the praiseworthy deeds of God.

Hilburn also calls faith booking “an act of obedience,” citing Joel 1:3.

“The Bible tells us to ‘tell it to our children, and let our children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation,’” Hilburn quoted.

Tina Cooper (left), Lesa Floyd (center) and Carol Weiss (right) spread out at a work table during Mobberly’s Scrapbook and Craft Extravaganza night.

Christians who incorporate their faith into scrapbooking can serve as the family historian of faith, said Sandra Joseph, author of Scrapbooking Your Spiritual Journey and The Women’s Ministry Guide to Scrapbooking. She also is co-founder of Reminders of Faith, a Christian-based scrapbooking group.

Joseph said her calling is to inspire women to share their story.

“It really doesn’t matter if the books are beautiful,” she said, adding that the embellishments sometimes get in the way of the message. “It matters if they’re real.”

These “real” books may be humanly flawed, but they serve as an encouragement, Weiss agreed. After recently retiring as director of accounting for a Longview hospital, Weiss is eager to revisit her mother’s hobby, and she sees Mobberly’s meetings as “a good way to get back into it again.”

Taking on her mother’s book is “a way to preserve memories for everybody in the family to enjoy,” she said. “In times when a relative dies, it’s good to have the albums out and around when the family gathers. It helps ease things.”

Jones also had a mother who documented events photographically. However, Jones took on scrapbooking as a hobby as an act of posterity.

“Our mother took pictures of special events, and they ended up in a drawer in a folder,” she acknowledged.

Jones has gathered all the pictures of herself from birth to age 17 and plans to make a book one day. But she also has grander plans.

“I’m doing this so we will all have memories to look through,” she said concerning her husband and two children. “I feel like I’m accomplishing something worthwhile— for myself and for my family.”

Molly Norwood has made a home business out of scrapbooking by becoming a consultant with Close to My Heart, a stamping organization. But even with all of her training and materials, the mother of three boys has learned resourcefulness and stewardship in the face of what some may consider an expensive hobby.

“I keep lids, scraps of paper, clips, everything I can find,” she said. “I am always asking, ‘How can I alter this for scrapbooking?’”

She recently created a photo album out of a breath-mints tin.

Norwood also has found a fellowship of moms by joining Internet swaps, one where other mothers recently created alphabet pages for boys. Through this and her consultant group, she has bonded with other croppers who do not hesitate to share life’s problems through e-mail.

“We are not all Baptists, but we are definitely like-minded,” Norwood said. “It’s really like a sisterhood.”

And it’s a sisterhood Joseph said she foresaw the day she felt called to help women through scrapbooking.

“My desire was always to see small groups of women meeting around a photo,” Joseph said. “I see this as a time for sharing.

“As women, we can become very isolated in our life. We think everybody else has a perfect life, and we’re the only ones who are struggling. When we meet like this, we can see what God is really doing—in the bad times, as well as the good.”

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: 9/15/06

Texas Tidbits

Accreditation extended for UMHB program. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs has extended until 2012 accreditation of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s community counseling program. The program is part of the graduate psychology and counseling department at UMHB, which offers master’s degrees in professional counseling.

BUA provides mentoring program. Baptist University of the Americas has launched a higher-education mentoring program for Hispanic youth and their families living in San Antonio’s South Side. The Sigueme program uses Hispanic university students and BUA staff as mentors and role models for public school students. Key partners in the mentoring initiative include Buckner Baptist Benevolences and Communities in Schools, a national nonprofit group. The program also involves working with South Side churches to promote education through ongoing training for youth pastors, as well as providing seminars for families with prospective college students.

ETBU sponsors preview event. East Texas Baptist University will sponsor Tiger Day Oct. 7—a preview event for prospective high school and transfer students and their families. Sessions for the prospective students include an academic showcase, campus ministry opportunities, admissions information, financial aid options, and separate question-and-answer times for parents and students. The event also includes tours of the campus, lunch and free tickets to the Tiger football game against McMurry University. For more information, or to register, visit the website at www.etbu.edu and click on “Future Students-Visit Us” or call (800) 804-ETBU (3828).

Hearon Scholarship established at DBU. Dallas Baptist University recently established an endowed scholarship in honor of Gary and Paula Hearon. The scholarship will benefit students enrolled in the doctoral program in leadership studies and the master’s program in Christian education, both housed in the Gary Cook Graduate School of Leadership. Hearon served more than two decades as executive director of Dallas Baptist Association and was a DBU trustee nine years. Mrs. Cook has served on the DBU Women’s Auxiliary board. They are members of First Baptist Church in Garland.

Piper endowment established at HPU. Howard Payne University students from Brown and Mills counties will benefit from a new scholarship established in memory of Luther and Cassie Piper, longtime members of Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood. Scholarships awarded from Luther and Cassie Piper Endowed Presidential Scholarship are merit-based and will be awarded to outstanding students based on academic achievement, leadership in school or community activities and Christian service.

School Bible studies get failing grade. Roger Paynter, pastor of First Baptist Church in Austin, participated in a Texas Freedom Network news conference, raising concern that Bible classes in many public schools “are being used to promote an agenda rather than to enrich the education of our schoolchildren.” The Texas Freedom Network’s education fund released a report analyzing Bible classes in Texas public schools. The report concluded most Bible courses taught in Texas public schools fail to meet minimal standards for teacher qualifications and academic rigor, are taught as religious and devotional classes that promote one faith perspective over all others and advocate an ideological agenda hostile to religious freedom, science and public education. The report is available here.

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: 9/15/06

TOGETHER:
Problems can lead to divine opportunities

Problems can lead to special, unexpected moments. Rosemary broke her arm the other day; and, as we were getting this taken care of, a woman eyed Rosemary’s cast and said, “Oh, you broke your arm, too. I just got two casts off my arms. I broke them both this summer.”

We had a conversation with this woman and her husband that genuinely blessed us, and in a few moments, we discovered they were members of one of our Texas Baptist churches.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

They told us how much they were enjoying their intentional interim minister and the blessing his preaching and wise counsel were bringing to their fractured fellowship.

The husband is on the transition team charged by the church with helping them process their way to a new future for their congregation.

“It’s hard work, but it’s worth it,” he said.

With tears in her eyes, the woman reported that a mother and daughter sat in front of her one Sunday recently and after church told her that they almost had not come back.

“We came twice, and it seemed that no one in this church liked each other. But we feel a sense of love and fellowship today, and we will be back.” And they have attended the last two Sundays.

Two quick truths: First, it’s as important to love each other in a church as it is to love those who are visitors. People know somehow when they are in the presence of people who care about each other. Most people want to be part of that kind of fellowship.

Second, the intentional interim ministry sponsored by the BGCT Congregational Leadership Team is making a quiet but profound difference in churches across our state.

“I never thought I would see the day that the people in our church would agree on anything important,” the man said. “But I have!”

And, of course, you know what I said. “That ministry is your Cooperative Program dollars at work.” Our cooperative giving helps us to bless others and makes us open to receive blessing when we need it.

He replied, “You know, I don’t think I really understood that until what we are going through now.”

On another front, I was in a meeting the other day and a pastor from West Texas told of the blessing his young people received this summer on a mission trip to Mexico. They had spent the week building a house and helping with activities for the teenagers. The Mexican Baptist pastor showed the Jesus video and extended an invitation for people to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord. Several of the Mexican youth stepped forward to give their lives to Christ.

“Our kids were blown away,” my friend said. “They had never seen anything quite like that. They are different because now they see that they had a big part in helping some other young people be saved.”

Experiences like that happen when churches get involved in missions. The BGCT’s Texas Partnerships office, Texas Baptist Men, Woman’s Missionary Union and WorldconneX can help churches find strategic places to serve. These groups can help open doors for hands-on, participative mission ministries.

When we go where people are broken and lost, we see the “proof of the pudding” that Jesus saves. As we share our faith, we become part of first-hand testimonies of these people from around the world. We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

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.