Updated: 12/15/06

Federal authorities receive Valley report

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade has turned over to federal authorities the full report—including supporting evidence—compiled by a team that investigated misappropriated church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.

Wade notified members of the BGCT Executive Board by e-mail Dec. 11.

“We submitted this to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas after we determined federal statutes of limitations and other factors made it the most appropriate starting point for consideration of possible criminal law violations.  This does not rule out future efforts with local authorities, but legal counsel informs us it would not be appropriate to pursue both federal and local action at the same time,” he wrote.

In turning over the evidence, Wade noted he also included a letter pledging the BGCT’s willingness to “cooperate fully in any investigation of this matter.”

Wade declined to elaborate further on the criminal investigation, saying, “I want the board and our convention to be kept abreast of these matters as they develop, but the best way for us to help the authorities do their proper work is to give them time and not interfere in their processes.” 

At its Nov. 13 meeting, immediately prior to the BGCT annual meeting in Dallas, the board approved a motion instructing Wade to “evaluate the advisability of referring the findings of the Oct. 31, 2006, report to any appropriate government investigatory agency.”

At the same time, the board directed him to “consider on an expedited basis the feasibility of and the full range of methods for recovery of funds.”

To that end, Wade noted in his letter to the board, he met personally with the three pastors in the Rio Grande Valley named in the report—Otto Arango, Aaron de la Torre and Armando Vera—to “pursue restitution of misappropriated and misused funds.” The investigators reported the three received at least $1.3 million in church-starting funds from the BGCT, but the majority of the churches they supposedly started no longer exist—and some never did.

“These meetings provided the pastors an opportunity to respond to the allegations and to share their side of the story.  In each situation, I asked them to return funds they used in ways not consistent with their stated purpose,” Wade wrote. “If this effort is unsuccessful, we will consider further options—including mediation, arbitration and a civil lawsuit—and I will keep you informed.”

In a related development, BGCT Executive Board Chairman Bob Fowler of Houston assigned Robert Cepeda, chairman of the board’s Church Missions and Ministry Committee, to name an ad hoc group of directors to monitor staff implementation of the motions passed at the board’s November meeting.

Former Executive Board Vice Chairman Jim Nelson will chair the group. Members are Anna Marie Edgemon, member of First Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs; John Nguyen, pastor of Vietnamese Baptist Church in Garland; Doug Evans, pastor of First Baptist Church in Laguna Park; Virginia Bowers, member of First Baptist Church in Muleshoe; Cepeda, pastor of First Baptist Church in Los Fresnos; Fred Roach, member of The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson; and Richard Muir, member of First Baptist Church in Sanger.

Progress already is being made on many of the investigators’ recommendations, Fowler noted, but the ad hoc group will continue to monitor how changes are implemented, including creation of an internal audit function and revamping the church-starting guidelines.

“It is important to realize that some of the actions called for in the resolutions of the Nov. 13 board meeting were already in process by that time,” he said. “Dr. Wade assembled staff leaders immediately after the convention and continued to assign responsibilities for fully implementing all of the board's resolutions and the investigation's recommendations. Good progress is already being made, and I expect that all of the recommendations will be fully implemented by the time of the February regular board meeting.”

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: 12/15/06

Around the State

• Registration for spring classes at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will be held Jan. 8 and 9. Classes begin Jan. 10. Registration time is based on students’ last names. For more information, call (254) 295-4510.

• The B.H. Carroll Theological Institute will hold its winter colloquy Jan. 15-16 at First Church in Arlington. The theme will be “The Moral Maze.” David Cook of Wheaton College will be the keynote speaker. For more information, call (817) 274-4284.

• A statewide senior adult camp will be held April 23-26 at Alto Frio Encampment in Leakey. Paul Powell will be the preacher, D.L. Lowrie will lead the Bible study, and Dale Durham and Ginger McKay will lead the music. Call (830) 232-5271 to make reservations or to receive more information.

• Students from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin-Simmons University and Howard Payne University competed with students from 18 universities in an ethics match held in Dallas. Four students from UMHB—Lauren Graber, Danny Jeanes, Elaine Lipscomb and Ray Wilson—won first place in their division. The HSU squad—Samuel Argumaniz, Robert Hatcher and Sarah Osborn—earned a fourth place standing. The HPU students—Amanda Whisler, Shanna McCalum, Ronald Duvall and Brett Campbell—ranked in the top half of the schools competing. The competition consisted of five rounds in which two teams met before a moderator and three judges—all of whom are business leaders. The questions in the final round were about a CEO who lied on his resume about college degrees and outsourcing business and closing U.S. facilities because of rising costs. Students from UMHB received the first place trophy and a $1,000 grant to continue discussions of ethics with business leaders in their local community. Members of the HSU team received a $500 grant.

Anniversaries

• Greenvine Church in Burton, 145th, Oct. 15. Bob Gregory is pastor.

• Terry Smith, 25th, as minister of music at First Church in Floresville, Nov. 17.

• Friendship Church in Beeville, 100th, Dec. 3. Vernon Helgren is pastor.

• Kokomo Church in Gor-man, 100th, Dec. 10. The church was organized June 9, 1906, but due to the church building burning on Jan. 1, the celebration was postponed until the congregation’s new facility was completed.

• First Church in Devine, 125th, Jan. 19-21. The congregation is seeking the addresses or telephone numbers of former pastors, staff and members. For more information, call (830) 663-4408. Glenn Young is pastor.

• Jean Church in Jean, 100th, July 19-21. The congregation is seeking addresses of former staff and members, as well as any memorabilia from the church’s history. A scrapbook of memories also is being prepared. Send all correspondence to Route 3, Box 53, Olney 76374. Gary Riley is pastor.

• First Church in Mineral Wells, 125th, Sept. 15-16. Addresses of former pastors, staff and members are being sought. For more information, call (940) 325-2523. Mark Bumpus is pastor.

Retiring

• Carl Clinton, as pastor of Walnut Creek Church in Azle, Nov. 12. He served the church on two occassions for a total of 13 years. During more than 30 years of ministry, he also was a pastor in Tennessee and at several Texas congregations, including Immanuel Church in Mineral Wells and First Church in Santo. He is available for supply at (817) 599-8144.

• Cecil Harper, after more than 16 years as pastor of First Church in Breckenridge and 43 years in ministry, Dec. 31. Other churches he served include Fort Griffin Church in Albany, Avoca Church in Avoca, Walnut Springs Church in Walnut Springs, First Church in Gordon, First Church in Bronte and First Church in De Leon. He will be available for supply preaching and interim pastorates, and can be contacted at (254) 559-6145.

• Bill Funderburk, after more than 15 years as minister of music, media and senior adults at First Church in Center and 35 years in ministry, Dec. 31. He previously served at Immanuel Church in Odessa, First Church in Palestine and in Kentucky and Wyoming. He will be available for music interims and can be contacted at (936) 248-2224.

Deaths

• Jimmy Holloway, 65, Nov. 11 in Follett. He was pastor of Oak Ridge Church in Marietta. He was preceded in death by his wife, Charlotte, less than a month before. He is survived by his daughter, Cheryl Dulaney; sons, Leslie, Lance and Lyndale; brother, Arnold; and 10 grandchildren.

• Stephen Maness, 44, Nov. 11 in Lewisville. He had fought a lengthy battle with cancer. He was a professor of New Testament Greek for the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, instructing at three of the institute’s teaching churches, First Church in Bryan, The Heights Church in Richardson and First Church in Lewisville. He also was a member of the Lewisville church. He is survived by his parents, Dale and Evelyn Maness.

Events

• Graceview Church in Tomball will hold a conference on working with people with disabilities March 8-10. The conference will focus on the impact churches make on the lives of families impacted by disabilities. Conference topics will include starting a special- needs class, taking ministry to the next level, teaching tools and helping families of the disabled. The conference is designed for church leaders, parents and volunteers. Child care will not be provided. The Isaacs will sing in concert Friday night. For more information, call (281) 351-4979, or see www.thejoyministry.org. Bryan Donahoo is pastor.

• A historical marker was dedicated at First Church in Salado, Dec. 10 to recognize Addie Barton, pioneer missionary to Mexico. She taught school in Saltillo, Mexico, from 1883 until 1910, when the Mexican Revolution forced her home. After returning to Salado, she worked with Mexican refugees until her death in 1921. The marker will be placed next the to church’s historic bell, crafted in 1879. The bell was rung as a part of the ceremony. After the ceremony, a fajita lunch was served by the Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief feeding team. Brian Dunks is pastor.

• Immanuel Church in Mineral Wells honored Church Secretary Peggy Boyanton for 25 years of service with a plaque and gift certificate Dec. 3. A cake and ice cream fellowship followed. David Wilkins is pastor.

• First Church in Devers will hold a New Year’s Eve watchnight service at 7:30 p.m. Preachers will be Rick Edwards, Shawn Vickers and Doyle Perryman. Musicians will be the New Psalms Quartet from Houston and The Original McDaniels from Devers. Homemade soup, blackeyed peas, cabbage and cornbread also will be on hand. For more information, call (936) 549-7653. Harry McDaniel is pastor.

• Trinity Church in San Antonio will hold a candlelight Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m.

Ordained

• David Cecil to the ministry at Richards Church in Richards.

• Ross Jarvis to the ministry at First Church in Navasota.

• Sue Northrup and Phil Keith as deacons at Royal Lane Church in Dallas.

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: 12/15/06

Baptist Briefs

Arizona Baptists take steps to split gifts 50/50 with SBC. Messengers to the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention’s Nov. 14-15 annual meeting unanimously adopted a missions funding growth plan to increase the percentage of Cooperative Program gifts forwarded to the SBC for national and international missions and ministries. The eventual goal is to divide undesignated Cooperative Program mission gifts 50/50 with SBC causes. Currently, 75 percent of the undesignated receipts are used in Arizona and 25 percent forwarded to the SBC. Arizona messengers adopted a $3.4 million Cooperative Program budget and a $3.8 million state convention operating budget for 2007. Next year’s Cooperative Program budget is a 1.8 percent increase over the present budget, and the operating budget is down from $4 million.

BWA mission advancement director named. Alan Stanford, Baptist World Alliance regional secretary for North America, has been appointed BWA director of mission advancement. He succeeds Ron Harris, who now works as a consultant with BWA. Stanford is pastor of First Baptist Church Clarendon in Arlington, Va., and previously served the BWA as director of promotion and development.

CBF receives second Lilly grant. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has received a second major grant from the Lilly Endowment to continue and expand a program designed to help nurture and sustain ministers in local congregations. The Fellowship received a grant of almost $1 million to support its Initiative for Ministerial Excellence—a plan that includes support for teaching congregations, creation of peer-learning groups and grants for sabbaticals. The $997,874 gift also will fund a new full-time CBF staff position to administer the program. The grant is the second such gift from Lilly to support the work of the program, which began in 2003. The first three years of the program have resulted in 75 peer-learning groups with more than 500 ministers meeting monthly. The ministerial residency program has placed 10 seminary graduates as interns in teaching congregations and has provided 95 sabbatical grants of $2,500 apiece.

Florida exec wants teetotaler trustees. Citing embarrassment over having spent more than 30 minutes at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting debating whether trustees of SBC entities should be limited to people who abstain from alcohol, John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, said he intends future action in his state convention on the issue. “We are not going to have people on our boards of trustees that do not believe in total abstinence,” Sullivan told messengers to the Florida convention’s annual meeting.

Sonicflood mission tour ends. Sonicflood, a contemporary Christian band, wrapped up a 57-city missions-focused tour in Hampton, Va. More than 26,000 students and young people attended concerts during the 11-week national tour, which included stops in 23 states and Canada. The band partnered with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board in the concerts, which featured student missions testimonies and multimedia presentations about missions.

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: 12/15/06

2nd Opinion:
Getting lost in Christmas

By BO Baker

Most of you know Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Of course, I know that scores and scores of you find the season harsh, upsetting, stressed and tear-stained, making it easy to get lost in Christmas.

Consider the truly poor who tuck their pride away long enough to accept a basket of Christmas love so their wide-eyed children can have a taste of what most of us have as normal daily fare. O yes, one can get lost in Christmas!

Face those who carry grownup grief into Christmas morning or watch with eyes of compassion as more and more of our young soldiers darken by their deaths the hearts of their parents, marriage partners and their little children—children too young to understand why those around them are crying, wondering who and what is in that flag-draped case. Indeed, one can get lost in Christmas!

Add the mockery of seasonal faith that has grown less dependable when tested by war and worry. We dare not forget the damaging result of borrowed trust, the kind that, when appropriated, is worn like merit badges—point makers of sorts. I insist one can get lost in Christmas!

Many of those who hold tight the rein of their denominational preference often are found hiding behind the coattail of some strong, courageous Christian believer too faithful to bow—too called to quit.

Yes, one can get lost in Christmas!

Lost, that is, if Christmas is only a holiday wrapped in a Santa suit, a selection of days set aside for feasting and gaming or a time untouched by the holy winds of the Spirit’s coming.

Be mindful you are reading the lines of an old man who refuses to retreat the battlefield, who can still hear “the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees” (2 Samuel 5:24) and who has chosen to say to the family of our spiritual land of battle: “Let us dig in the for the long haul; show courage again as in yesteryears, by building a fresh biblical readiness, and by standing tall for those things we believe to be important and right. And please, God, may we go with the capability we have until we can rest by the river, here to be caught up in the air to meet our fellow believers in the “house of many mansions.”

May God help us not to grow weary in well doing; and especially during the days of Christmas; to be loyal to the royal Son of God who has provided our one absolute hope for life everlasting—“Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.”

BO Baker, a longtime Texas Baptist pastor and evangelist, has written a Christmas reflection for the Baptist Standard for 31 consecutive years.

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: 12/15/06

COMMENTARY:
What if Jesus had not come?

By Marcus Norris

At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ. However, when you have been doing something for over 2,000 years there is a risk of losing the reason for and vibrancy of the celebration. So, in an effort to remind us “why” we celebrate his birth, consider what life would be like if there had been no babe in a Bethlehem manger.

An empty manger would mean:

• No angelic announcements.

• No invitation to humble shepherds as representatives of the less fortunate.

• No star to beckon the wealthy and wise.

• No model of obedience in Joseph fleeing with his family to Egypt.

• No miraculous healings or feedings.

• No Sermon on the Mount to correct our understanding of God’s law.

• No washed feet, no cross, no empty tomb.

• No church.

• No New Testament.

Let that reality soak in for a moment. Now consider the implications that would ripple through all the ages and to every corner of our planet:

• As Gentiles, most of us would now be engaged in some form of pagan religion.

• For those who might find their way to the God of Israel, you would discover a legalistic covenant under Old Testament law. You would depend upon the blood of animals for atonement and, in despair, await some prophet to bring us a word from the Lord—or better yet, the appearing of the Messiah would usher in a new age.

• There would be no Christian orphanages, and the orphanages that might exist probably would resemble the godless warehouses of the old Soviet Union.

• There would be no church-sponsored hospitals to relieve human suffering.

• There would be no Salvation Army or myriad other Christian welfare agencies/missions.

• There would be no Christmas carols or grand hymns such as “Amazing Grace,” “What A Friend We Have in Jesus” or “It is Well With My Soul.”

• The other major religions largely are ethnocentric. Neither Judaism, Buddhism, nor Hinduism have aggressively reached out to other nations to offer them food, medicine or other ministry. Islam still would go about conquering lands and imposing the fascism of sharia law.

• Cemeteries would echo with wails of ultimate despair and loss.

• Concepts that enrich our society, such as the quality, dignity and worth of all people, would not exist because no other religion has embraced those concepts as much as Christianity.

Our world would be starkly different if there had never been a babe in a manger. But, praise God, he did send his Son to that manger! God chose to establish a new covenant of grace through faith that is available to all people. Because of that single event, our world has been positively changed in so many ways, and we have salvation and hope. Merry Christmas, indeed!

Marcus Norris is an attorney and lay member of First Baptist Church in Amarillo. (Copyright; all rights reserved.)

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: 12/15/06

DOWN HOME:
Wanted: Yard-art Christmas Chicken

The nightly news stirred a strong sense of deja vu a couple of weeks ago. A correspondent stood in front of a local hospital, droning in somber sincerity about two unfortunate men who lay similarly incapacitated in similar rooms.

They’re both paralyzed after falling off extension ladders as they strung Christmas lights on the roofs of two-story houses.

I sympathized with those men and hoped for their healing.

But I also empathized with their plight.

A few years ago, shamed by the exuberant Christmas-lighting extravagance of a couple of my neighbors, I decided to string lights on the roof of our two-story house.

So, I calculated the perimeter of the front half of our roof. Then I took my figures to the nearest hardware megastore and bought strings and strings of lights, extension cords and those little clips you can use to hook the lights to your shingles.

When I got home, Joanna and our daughters were gone shopping. Thinking I would surprise them, I brought my old extension ladder around to the front of the house and decided to get started.

Ten minutes later, after realizing the pitch of our roof is a lot steeper than it looks from the ground and confronting the rickety nature of our ladder, I put the ladder back in the garage and packed up the lights to return to the hardware store.

The shame induced by my neighbors’ yuletide exhibitions paled in comparison to my fear of heights, which had been extended significantly by the way the ladder shook when I tried to step over the top of it onto the roof.

“A guy could get seriously injured stringing Christmas lights,” I reasoned.

Really, I never believed that. When I would see a beautiful red-and-green-lighted roofline, I’d think, “Marv, you’re the Christmas Chicken. Too scared of falling off your roof to decorate your house according to the standards your neighbors have come to expect.”

And I was right.

But now I also know being scared of a rickety ladder up against a second-story roofline isn’t such a bad thing. Because, as viewers of the local news now know, a guy could get seriously injured stringing Christmas lights.

This year, we moved into a one-story house. So now, I really don’t have a good excuse for not putting lights on the roof. Except I spent so much time stringing new red and white lights around the perimeter of our newly expanded flower beds and trying to get most of the leaves out of our yard. And now, it’s almost Christmas, and I really don’t have time to decorate the roof.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Maybe next year, I’ll buy some lights. Our roof is red, so white lights would look festive. And I can string them from a tall stepladder, so I won’t fear falling.

Or maybe, by next year, I’ll buy a lighted blow-up yard-art version of the Christmas Chicken.

It’ll look a lot like me.

–Marv Knox

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: 12/15/06

EDITORIAL:
A peace-full gift for a war-weary world

Let us celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.

Do we ever need peace now.

If you doubt it, fly on an airplane. You’ll ponder peace—or the possibility of its polar opposite, violence—as you fulfill all the requirements to board a plane in safety: From double- and triple-checked identification, to X-ray machines, to metal-detectors, to drug-scanners, to pat-downs and delays, such is the time-consuming price of peace in the airways.

Since Cain murdered Abel in the first case of religion gone wrong, the world has experienced precious little peace. The prophets railed against heart-wickedness that produced cold malice and perversity, and they predicted military annihilation as divine punishment. I just read a fascinating article about the revolt of the Jews against Antiochus Epiphanes, a vile dictator who sought to impose Greek religion on the whole world and sacrificed a pig in the Temple in Jerusalem. Led by the brilliant general Judas Maccabeus, the Jews rose up and won a measure of victory. It was one of their finest hours. And it was bloody.

So, we are not surprised to look back and realize that, as in millennia gone before, the most significant pages of world history during the last century were written in blood. From World Wars, to Holocaust, to guerrilla skirmishes, to genocide and ethnic cleansing, to suicide bombings, to Five-Year Plans and Cultural Revolutions. The mind goes numb contemplating the pain and anguish. From Stalin, to Hitler, to Pinochet, to Mao, to Pol Pot, to Amin, and Bull Connor and on and on. The capacity for individuals to embody evil defies human imagination.

And yet, for all the violence of the past century, the world seems even less peaceful today. Witness security shakedowns in every airport. And that’s nothing compared to what a mother must feel in Baghdad, or a child in Palestine, or a father in Afghanistan, or just about everyone in Darfur.

Those are the most egregious examples of systemic violence—un-peace. But the world is a pretty peace-less place, even closer to home. Pick up the paper, and you’ll read about domestic violence, rape, arson, road rage, suicide and fisticuffs on youth football fields. Think about your friends and neighbors, maybe even family and church members. You’ll see the tell-tale signs of people searching for peace in all the wrong places—possession of things, out-of-marriage sex, alcohol abuse, over-the-top busy-ness, narcissism, worry, out-of-control debt, sleeplessness. Even secure in rural villages and upscale suburbs, locked behind bolted doors and alarm systems, we are a people without peace.

So, at Christmas, we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Does this mean anything to us and for us this December 2006?

First, we must accept Christ’s offer of peace for ourselves. Peace is the quiet equivalent of joy. Like joy, peace exists independent of circumstances. It arrives in the presence of Christ, when we realize he alone is sufficient, enough, all. Possessions come and go. Health fails. Friends and family disappoint. Jobs fade. Yet in Christ, we discover peace. And through Christ, peace remains. I can’t explain it. If you don’t understand, you don’t have it. But you can; accept Christ not only as Savior, but as Lord over all you have and all you are.

Second, we must fight for peace for others. Walker Knight, the great Baptist journalist and civil rights advocate, issued the call years ago: Wage peace.

As long as other people of any race or creed endure injustice, discrimination or persecution, we must wage peace on their behalf. We must be the voices calling for justice when theirs are silent. We must be the ones who stoop down to pick up a load when their backs are breaking. We must be the ones who look power in the face when they cannot lift their heads. We must demand peace when others lust for violence and war. We must be the open arms, moving feet and loving voices who demonstrate peace when elsewhere around them they see, feel and hear ample evidence of anything but peace.

Of course, this is hard to do. Our materialistic and political culture urges us to look out for No. 1. Nationalism claims we’re better and more deserving. Fanatical religion declares we’re right and denigrates others for believing differently. Peacemaking is counter-intuitive, counter-cultural. It reminds us of someone. Oh, yeah, Jesus. Prince of Peace.

A popular Christmas song poses a good question: What can I bring Jesus for Christmas?

The Prince of Peace beckons his followers to be bearers of peace.

–Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.

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: 12/15/06

Evangelicals apply the ‘good news’ in diverse ways

By Charles Honey

Religion News Service

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—If you want to serve me, Dave and Veronica Commire heard God saying, paint this guy’s house.

So, the couple rounded up about 15 of their church friends and beautified the home of a neighbor who had lost a son and was angry at God. Telling him about Jesus had not worked; painting his house did.

“It unfolded to be this incredible moment where God met us there,” said Dave Commire. “He was at church the next week.”

The Commires are evangelicals, proudly so. They believe in what the word means—good news—and believe God calls them to share it in every facet of their lives—his job, her home-schooling their three children, and their sleeves-rolled-up ministry to their neighbors in Lowell, Mich.

“It’s not about handing out Bible tracts,” said Commire, 37-year-old co-owner of an auto-repair business. “The best way to someone’s heart is to be in their life through service. We want to model Christ-like behavior.”

Living out their faith in a modest home and at a booming megachurch, the Commires typify in many ways the 60 million or so Americans who call themselves evangelicals. They are part of a powerful religious movement that has become a potent political and cultural force in American society.

But don’t dismiss them as the Bible-thumping, pushy cultural warriors of the popular stereotype. Evangelicals share core beliefs but span a wide sweep of denominations and apply the gospel in sometimes surprising ways.

Indeed, most evangelicals are “extraordinarily normal,” notes Jeffery Sheler, a longtime religion writer and author of a recent exploration of the evangelical movement.

“They are your neighbor, your doctor, the insurance salesman, the person who checks you out at the grocery store,” Sheler writes in Believers: A Journey Into Evangelical America. “Their distinctive faith aside, evangelicals are looking and acting more and more like the rest of America.”

Sheler’s book, which follows the evangelical movement from the 18th-century Great Awakening through Billy Graham’s crusades to Christian rock festivals, evangelicals’ affinity for President Bush and Rick Warren’s mega-best-seller, The Purpose Driven Life.

“They have a tremendous amount of influence on the culture,” said Sheler, a contributing editor for U.S. News & World Report magazine.

Sheler said he was prompted to write the book partly by his own upbringing. He became a Christian as a teenager and boldly told his parents he would no longer watch movies, go to school dances or play cards. He and his wife later joined Nazarene and Presbyterian churches.

Sheler’s book debunks stereotypes of evangelicals as a primarily political monolith, he said. Evangelicals range from conservative Baptists and tongues-speaking Pentecostals to pacifist Mennonites, Dutch Reformed Calvinists and countless nondenominational churches. They are united by belief in the authority of the Bible, salvation in Christ and an obligation to share the gospel.

“The difficulty arises in trying to apply those Scriptures to the contemporary needs of a changing society without changing the basic core of evangelical belief,” Sheler said.

While evangelicals vote overwhelmingly Republican and spawned the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition, the movement is more politically diverse than meets the eye, he adds.

“Evangelicals today are very much in tune with the world around them. They are not marching in lockstep behind some celebrity preacher.”

Sheler pointed to a recent full-page national newspaper ad calling for an end to genocide in Darfur signed by evangelicals across the spectrum. The ad exposes a “fault line” between evangelicals focused on a few issues such as abortion and gay marriage, and those whose faith compels them to tackle human rights and the environment, Sheler said.

“There is an increasing recognition within the evangelical movement that its agenda needs to be expanded beyond two or three hot-button issues if it’s going to continue to be relevant and effective as a voice in our culture.”

Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Mich., said he signed the ad because he believes Christians should respond to Darfur’s “crisis of epic proportions.” But he rejects the conservative political agenda advanced by the religious right.

“The first Christians would be so unbelievably offended that in our culture this word has come to mean those who are grasping for political power,” said Bell, who calls himself a “small e” evangelical. For him, it does not mean trying to impose Christian values via government. Rather, “Being an evangelical is about believing that God can use people through humble acts of compassion and service.”

The Commires call themselves conservative Republicans. Abortion, gay marriage and character education are key concerns. But politics are less important than serving Christ where they live.

“Showing Jesus to our neighborhood in tangible ways—that’s what (being evangelical) is to me,” Veronica Commire 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: 12/15/06

Report highlights legal wrangling
over Bush’s faith-based initiatives

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—In a year when President Bush’s “faith-based initiative” faced considerable public-relations challenges, it also continued to raise challenging legal and institutional questions, a new report from an independent group revealed.

Several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of various aspects of the faith-based program have moved forward in federal and state courts, producing a significant victory for the program’s opponents.

The report, from the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, highlighted the ruling, one of the most sweeping regarding the faith-based initiative.

“As a matter of substance, the year’s most striking developments involve the role of FBOs (faith-based organizations) in the prison setting,” wrote church-state law experts Chip Lupu and Bob Tuttle in the report on the state of the law regarding government funding of religious groups.

“At least four major cases involving faith-based rehabilitation programs are pending in the federal courts. One of them … has already led to a sweeping opinion against the constitutionality of such a program, as well as a court order that the money spent on that program be returned to the state.”

Lupu and Tuttle, who both teach at George Washington University Law School, track and analyze legal aspects of the faith-based program for the Roundtable. They presented the report to journalists, government officials and others involved in the faith-based initiative during the group’s annual conference in Washington.

Lupu pointed specifically to a June ruling by a federal judge in Iowa against a Christian prisoner-rehabilitation program. The judge in Americans United v. Prison Fellowship Ministries said the government-funded program at Iowa’s Newton Correctional Facility violated the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.

The judge found that participants were coerced with living-arrangement advantages unavailable to those who did not participate in the program, that the program and the prison had no sufficient way to monitor whether government funds given to it were spent on secular or sectarian purposes, and that the program was focused on Bible study and conversion to an evangelical form of Christianity.

“I must say that that case … is a poster child for how not to set up and run a faith-based prison program,” Lupu said. “The state violated virtually every relevant constitutional norm.”

Under the Constitution, religious groups may not use direct government grants to pay for proselytizing, worship services or other clearly religious activities.

The scholars also reiterated concerns they have raised repeatedly since 2002, when they began to monitor the faith-based program.

Lupu and Tuttle have argued that the government agencies doling out grants to religious organizations are not providing sufficiently clear guidance on what sorts of activities the money may support.

Tuttle noted a report, issued in July by the independent Government Accountability Office, that identified significant weaknesses in the kind of guidance several federal agencies provide to religious grantees.

The GAO report also found deficiencies in federal agencies’ oversight of religious groups that already had received funds to ensure they did not violate constitutional standards.

Such problems, Tuttle noted, could lead to situations such as a recent case in which the Department of Health and Human Services terminated a grant to an abstinence-based sex-education program.

The program, called the Silver Ring Thing, inspired a lawsuit against HHS because the group did not adequately segregate the government funds it received from private moneys it said it used to pay for religious activities, such as school rallies where children were encouraged to follow Christ.

In a settlement HHS negotiated to end the lawsuit, the agency came up with a set of safeguards to ensure that the program would not use government funding in unconstitutional ways should it apply for, and receive, future grants.

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: 12/15/06

Green named interim president at BUA

By Brad Russell

Baptist University of the Americas

SAN ANTONIO—Baptist University of the Americas has named Jack Green—a veteran institutional leader and lifelong South Texan—interim president of San Antonio-based theological university.

Green served as president of South Texas Children’s Home in Beeville from 1973 to 1998. He assumes his duties Jan. 1, concurrent with the departure of President Albert Reyes, who is leaving BUA to become president of Buckner Children and Family Services.

BUA trustee Chair Debbie Ferrier of San Antonio appointed Green to the post.

Green brings to the position an “experienced leadership record and strong relationships among BUA’s diverse constituencies,” she noted. “With his background in the pastorate, Texas Baptist institutional ministry and familiarity with a number of our supporters, Dr. Green will be able to quickly step into the many roles and relationships of an interim presidency with great facility.

“As a lifelong resident of South Texas and a Christian leader serving the needs of South Texas children, Dr. Green is well-acquainted with cross-cultural ministry and the unique mission of BUA arising from a Hispanic context.”

Early in his career, when he was pastor of Shearer Hills Baptist Church in San Antonio, Green served as a trustee for BUA, then known as Mexican Baptist Bible Institute.

“I have marveled in recent years at how BUA has skyrocketed forward to become a tremendously effective school for training cross-cultural ministers and mission-spirited lay people,” Green said.

“I am humbled to serve with the highly capable and creative staff that has been leading their transformation. I ask all Texas Baptists to join us in praying that every resource will be provided so that their momentum can continue and another God-called leader will be found to build the next exciting chapter of BUA’s service to Texas Baptists and the world.”

As interim president, Green arrives at BUA at a critical time. Ground was broken earlier this fall on the new 80-acre Baugh Family Campus. On Nov. 15, trustees approved a $5.4 million construction contract for phase one of the Piper Student Village, slated to open in late fall 2007. The project will enable the school, which has a waiting list for on-campus housing, to triple its student housing capacity.

“I am thrilled with the energy we believe Dr. Green will bring to telling the story of BUA’s personal attention to students that has created a graduation and retention rate that is unrivaled by community colleges and most other higher education options available to our students,” trustee and presidential search committee Chair Teo Cisneros said.

“BUA’s strength, growth and effectiveness is such a great success story,” Green said. “I am looking forward to investing my energies in the students and staff so we can advance the visionary plans on their drawing 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.

Posted: 12/15/06

Dallas homeless choir hits all the right notes

By Marcia Davis-Seale

Religion News Service

DALLAS (RNS)—It’s Wednesday morning at the Austin Street Centre. The bell in the tower clatters harshly against the cold wind, beckoning people from the streets for a pious word or two, a prayer, perhaps a cracker crumb dipped in the Communion cup.

Up in the low-ceilinged chapel loft, Chris Snidow is shifting gears from psychiatric nurse to choirmaster as his proteges straggle in for a midweek worship service. Sun streams through beveled cuts of glass, splashing stains of hot color against the smooth white walls.

From the front row, Rufus Barnes clears his throat. He’s missing the other half of his duet, so he’ll go solo today. Other key vocalists are no-shows, so yesterday’s carefully planned repertoire is abandoned as if it had never been rehearsed.

Barnes grew up singing in the church, then spent years singing the blues in smoky night clubs, jive joints and now, on the streets. Diabetes took part of his foot and any prospects of steady work. He lost his family, his home and eventually most of his belongings.

He’s written a million lyrics before tearing them up. He never thought—homeless and older than 50—he would fulfill his lifelong dream of actually recording a song he’d written.

But that’s just what’s happening at the 400-bed shelter. Rising above the sour notes of hardship, the voices of the shelter’s transient homeless choir have found a permanent home on a professionally recorded CD of spiritual songs labeled The Seasons of Austin Street.

The CD includes a few Christmas songs and a poem, “Homelessness,” written by a former shelter dweller no one’s seen for a while. Snidow hopes she’s still alive. He has “sent word out on the street to tell her to come in,” he said.

A small portion of the proceeds from the $20 CD cover recording costs; most money, Snidow said, goes to shelter operations. The 120 church groups that support the shelter are snapping them up.

Attendance at rehearsals was forever unpredictable, so Snidow decided that scheduling a group recording session was out of the question. Instead, he escorted the members of his choir, one by one, to his cramped and cluttered home sound studio to record their parts. A few friends chimed in to round out the sound.

Laying down each voice separately, adding music, track by track, it took him 18 months to painstakingly synthesize a cohesive group presence and performance, and send the finished CD to be reproduced.

“This choir has given many a spiritual reconnection and helped their self-esteem,” he said.

Austin Street opened in 1983. What started as a drafty soup kitchen has grown into a well-ventilated, security-mindful shelter that includes a chapel for worship, funerals and weddings; transitional housing; thrift shop; day program for the mentally ill; and drug and alcohol support groups—all backed by a professional staff.

“A lot of psychiatric programs don’t want to recognize the spiritual, and if they get government money, they can’t.” said Snidow, 57. “But no one can receive long-term deep healing unless the spiritual foundation is laid down. … You can find God, sense his presence, even more so, in a shelter.”

Snidow would like to find time to rehearse Christmas music. But the daily rhythm of shelter life—anger management classes, job interviews and doctor’s appointments—always seem to get in the way.

Ron Byrd has found his way back to choir. His thin frame is draped in a wool coat with padded shoulders, street stylish but too heavy for what will become an unseasonably warm day. He takes it off and settles in at the piano.

“You can’t practice on the streets. Someone is going to have a complaint,” he said.

Between the cigarette smoke and the barrel fires lit for warmth, the relentless damp and cold, and the constant need to speak loudly just to be heard above the cacophony of street noise—all that takes a toll on the homeless singer.

“A lot of people think we’re lazy,” said Byrd, 52. “God is working with us personally, and homeless or not, all of us still have to sometimes say a prayer alone.”

Nearby, Debbie Whiddon shakes her head and laughs at Byrd. She’s petite and blond, with fair skin and freckles. Somewhere in her 50s, her eyes reflect the pain of a shattered life tentatively glued back together, holding for now.

She remembers taking voice lessons. But music got lost in the struggle to raise two sons and survive 20 years at the backhand of an abusive husband. She escaped to the streets, where she drank in her fill of hardship and hard liquor.

“I started out as a client,” she said. “And now I work here and have a future.”

She said she draws comfort from the lyrics of a song on the CD.

“‘Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God’ … That one song means so much to me. It’s what my life’s about now. I hope it will mean as much to others—struggling—who hear it on the CD.”

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: 12/15/06

‘Low food security’ masks hunger in U.S.

By Rebecca U. Cho

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided Americans who go without food are no longer hungry. Instead, they possess “very low food security.”

In an annual report that measures Americans’ access to food, the word “hunger” was omitted in favor of what the department has decided is the more scientifically accurate term.

The president of Bread for the World, an ecumenical Christian anti-hunger group based in Washington, blasted the department’s move as an attempt by the Bush administration to play down the reality of U.S. hunger.

“This was a politically motivated resort to jargon in order to reduce the scandal of hunger in America,” David Beckmann said.

The department’s move was under the influence of an administration that does not like to acknowledge Americans are hungry, he said.

The Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies, an independent panel of scientific experts who made the recommendation, is defending the change in terminology, saying hunger is a term that describes the consequences rather than the state of food security.

Because hunger is “an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity,” it must be measured on a person-to-person basis that is beyond the scope of the annual report, the committee said on the department’s website.

The report measures the ability of Americans to put sufficient food on the table for a healthy lifestyle. In previous years, “hunger” had been used to describe Americans at the lowest end of the measure, least able to adequately feed themselves and their families.

Critics also accused the administration of playing politics by waiting until after the Nov. 7 elections to release the report instead of putting it out, as usual, in October.

Beckmann called the new term a “technical, bloodless word” that obscures reality, while “hunger” is a word that motivates people into action.

“These people who are being described as food insecure—these people are hungry,” he said. “‘Hunger’ has meaning to people. ‘Very low food security’ doesn’t mean anything.”

The Department of Agriculture said there were 35 million Ameri-cans in 2005—down from 38 million in 2004—who lived in households that at some point in the year were not able to put food on the table. The number of people threatened by “very low food security” was stable at 10 million after five consecutive years on the rise.

Bread for the World’s annual hunger report found that by the third week of each month, nearly 91 percent of food stamp recipients had depleted their benefits and didn’t have enough to make it through an entire month.

“It’s clear that God cares about hungry people,” Beckmann said. “There’s nothing in the Bible about very low food security.”

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.