Posted: 6/26/06

CYBER COLUMN:
Parables

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering the parables of Jesus. Jesus had a way of giving the good news in ways his hearers could understand.

Parables might be found in everyday life.

The Dallas Mavericks’ playoff run serves as a parable that not all dreams come true, so you have to rebuild your dreams.

My flower bed in front of my house serves as a parable that in spite of the flowers planted and the hard work I give to the flower bed, weeds still have a way of sneaking in and trying to choke the flowers. Weeds show up in life in the prettiest places and have to be rooted out.

My closet serves as a parable. It possesses clothes, shoes, ties and all my diplomas stored in a bag on the top shelf. Life, no matter how hard or wonderful, with new clothes of shining apparel and loaded with framed diplomas educational success, life requires constant refreshment and renewing, and there is always more to learn.

Jesus spoke parables. He spoke of seeds being planted in the ground. He spoke of tares growing among the wheat, stuff that looked like wheat but was really not wheat. Fake, if you will. He spoke of a servant who unmercifully choked his debtor in spite of the fact the servant had himself been forgiven a vast debt. He spoke of a Samaritan who stopped beside the road and cared for a Jew who had been mugged near Jericho. He spoke of using and investing the gifts God gives while not burying the gifts. He spoke of wineskins and lamps and vineyards and the blind leading the blind, which happens every day, and of fruit and mustard seeds and the great supper and weddings and treasure and lost coins, lost sheep and lost sons. Life happens in the day-to-day, in the hour-to-hour, and the gospel shows up minute-by-minute as God speaks in mysterious ways. Are we alert to his voice?

Jesus spoke the parable of the laborers in the vineyard who received pay at the end of the day, regardless of how long they worked.

In 1982, I graduated from college with diploma in hand, the same diploma that is now in the top of my closet in a brown bag. I searched for a job. I knew of God’s call to preach and surrendered to it. I knew that seminary started for me in September. I knew that on that May day as I turned my tassel, tossed my graduation cap in the air, received my college degree, that I needed a job to make a living. I called Forrest, a man for whom I had worked before and a gruff man with a no-nonsense attitude toward work.

“Boy, you do what I tell ya, and you’ll be just fine,” clanged as his motto. He owned a fence business, and that summer of 1982 I learned to use a rock bar to bust the rock, to dig post holes, to use an auger to drill, to set fence posts, to carry eight-foot wooden panels on my back, to mix concrete and to nail the fence to the post. I also learned about chain-link fence and a come-along and twist ties that twist on chain-link posts to hold the fence like twist ties that help keep the bread fresh in your cupboard.

Forrest told stories, took a nap every day after lunch—including the short nap that he once took when he laid down under a tree in a pile of giant red ants, then screamed—and he also yelled at high pitch at any dear soul who did not do exactly what he wanted when he wanted it just the way he wanted it. After all, time was money, and there was no time to waste, and wasting time wasted money, or something like that.

Forrest knew I was a preacher-in-training, but that did not keep him from telling preacher jokes and off-color jokes and from laughing his guts to glory even when he shared a story that did not make me laugh.

I well remember Forrest and his overalls and his red truck and the whole nine yards, if you will, of the fence business. I recall the summer of 1982 as one of the hottest on record in the state of Texas. Hot enough, as they say, whoever “they” is, that you could fry an egg on the sidewalk in the 100-plus-degree heat. Forest helped me understand some things about life, some I wish to forget and some I wish to remember.

Occasionally, on those hot summer days, work would pile up, and we would need an extra laborer for the day. Forrest would drive his red truck to downtown Fort Worth to Taylor Street and the Texas Employment Commission. I do not know if it is still there, but in 1982 a line formed, even around the corner of the building, as people waited to see a clerk to fill out paperwork in hopes of finding a job. I guess jobs were scarce. Anyway, Forrest would pull up in front of the building and holler through the window, “Any of you boys want to work today?” I should tell you women were in the line, too, but Forrest chose his words carefully. Fencing was a man’s job, and a woman had her place, if you know what I mean. I am not saying that is true, but that’s just the way Forrest thought. When Forrest hollered, some times a man would come over to the truck and sometimes there was no movement. Some days no dear soul wanted to work, I guess. I never understood it.

When a man came over to the truck, though, Forrest explained the job, and I scooted over to the middle of the seat in the truck, and off we went to work. We worked our tails off, and some of the extras worked, but some did not. Forrest paid us on Fridays, and I must tell you, I worked for Forrest for a long time, but when payday came, I always wondered, “Did those extras, those laborers, receive the same pay as I did?” After all, I worked from 6 a.m. until about 7 p.m. every day, and some of those guys did not start work until after 8 a.m., and some did not work nearly as hard as I worked. At least that’s the way I saw it.

Jesus told a parable of laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). An owner of a vineyard employed laborers. He employed most of his laborers for 12 hours. He employed other laborers for nine hours, six hours, three hours and one hour. The owner promised each a wage. He gave to each more than they deserved. Scholar Joachim Jeremias says the parables of Jesus use “dramatic machinery” for the telling of one truth about a central idea of the kingdom of God and his gospel. In the parable about the laborers in the vineyard, the owner, like God, shares his goodness and it overflows. Still, we must welcome God’s goodness with joy.

The parable that Jesus tells of the laborers in the vineyard ends with payday. Never mind that the brash disciple Peter, before the telling of the parable, had asked Jesus, in essence, “What will our reward be in the end since we have sacrificed all to follow you?” Peter’s mind was never far from the gold of glory, a glittering crown, a chief seat, purple robes, golden chariots, and a host of servants at his every call in the kingdom. Peter’s mind was never far from a big haul of rewards for service to Christ. Peter’s mind was never far from a big payday at the end of the day because he worked so hard for Jesus, so much harder than the average guy. I run into a lot of guys like Peter in the church, dare I say.

And so Jesus ended the parable and answers the question: Every one in the parable received the same pay at the end of the day. Each received one day’s wage in spite of the fact some worked a 12-hour days and others nine, six, three and even one hour. They all got paid the same. Even the one-hour laborer received a day’s wage! That’s the answer to Peter’s question and the end of the story.

The 12-hour laborer was hot to trot. As one guy who quit working for Forrest in anger because he did not like his yelling once said about Forrest, “I ain’t never workin’ fo’ him again!” I can imagine the angry laborer in Jesus’s parable angrily stomping off, saying the same thing. Forrest was bound to give guys like that a piece of his mind! “That boy’s gonna have to learn that life ain’t always fair!” And it’s not.

So summer is here under the old oak tree, hot and dry and stuffy like 1982. The sun forms sweat beads on my forehead, and the old story lingers: Life is not always fair. But I am still wondering, “Did Forrest pay those other laborers the same as me?” After all, he once told me I was one of his best workers who stuck with it, whatever that meant. When I read Jesus’s parable, life makes sense. It’s not what you get paid in the end but Who pays you. It’s not how much you make but how much you have to give. And that God’s greatest good is the gift he gives to all who serve him in his vineyard, a gift the same for all who serve—grace. I am sitting here thinking that’s all I need in the end—and even now that I think about it, grace and more grace.

I preached this parable once, and an angry lady said to me at the door, “That ain’t right! That just ain’t right! That’s just not fair.” I wanted to say, “Lady, I don’t write it; I just report it!” But I smiled, and gave her what God has given me for years—grace. I sure miss old Forrest. And right now, all I can say, is that I am getting ready for payday.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines. You can respond to his column by e-mailing him at jduncan@lakesidebc.org.

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: 6/23/06

WMU emphasizes God’s call to missions

By Charlie Warren, Bill Webb & David Sanders

Arkansas Baptist & Missouri Word & Way

GREENSBORO, N.C.—Christians need to hear, understand, embrace and live God’s call, program personalities reminded Baptist women during the 2006 Woman’s Missionary Union celebration.

“How can you hear God’s call when those around you want you to mimic the call of someone else?” asked Paige Chargois of Richmond, Va., who interpreted the missions celebration theme throughout the meeting, June 11-12 in Greensboro, N.C.

Christians should discover the authenticity of God’s unique call upon each believer’s life to follow and obey, she stressed.

Archie and Caroline Jones, former missionaries to Chile, reflected on their lifetime commitment to missions. Since retiring as career missionaries, they have served as short-term volunteers in South Africa, Venezuela, Armenia and China, and they are ready to go again “wherever God sends us and whenever he provides the plane tickets.”

They related their experiences in Chile, where they served an 800-mile-long association, starting churches and seeing them grow.

While in South America, they adopted a Chilean baby and were surprised by the reaction of the Chilean people. “You must really love us,” they often heard people say. “You adopted one of us.”

An International Mission Board representative, identified only as Pam for security reasons, described the ministry she and her husband, Ben, started at the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center in the Philippines.

The ministry started when representatives from some of the 14 Muslim tribes in the region contacted the center and asked for agricultural assistance. As a result, missionaries train local Christians to go into Muslim villages, providing Christian ministry and establishing house churches, she said.

Mississippi WMU President Donna Swarts described how she discovered she could balance WMU involvement with work in a ministry typically led by Baptist men—disaster relief.

She provided emergency childcare in the wake of flooding in Georgia in 1993 and then coordinated eight childcare units that responded to floods in North Dakota in 1997. She also joined relief efforts in New York City in the wake of 9/11.

“The experience of the years and the call of God have enabled me to be a small part of the army that is the church of Jesus Christ,” she said.

John and Terri Forrester, North American Mission Board church planting strategist missionaries to Kotzebue, Alaska, testified that early in their marriage, they felt God’s call and sought appointment as international missionaries. But their son was born with a birth defect, which ultimately blocked their appointment to overseas service. They served churches in their native Georgia and participated in short-term mission opportunities. Forrester served as a pastor in Montana and a director of missions in Georgia.

Then came the unexpected call to serve in Alaska in an area where snowmobiles provide the main mode of transportation, temperatures drop to 60 degrees below zero and the nearest Wal-Mart is 350 miles away. The cost of living is out of sight, with gas costing $7 a gallon and milk costing $8 a gallon, they noted.

“Nobody wanted to go, but we answered God’s call and said, ‘We will go,’” Forrester said. “I know that I know that I know God called us there.”

National WMU President Kaye Miller of Little Rock, Ark., presiding at her first meeting, presented the Martha Myers Girls in Action Alumna of Distinction Award to Jacqueline Draughon of Grace-ville, Fla. Draughon, now in her 80s, began serving as a Girls in Action leader at a young age, and girls from her mission groups have gone on to be missionaries and church leaders.

WMU Executive Director Wanda Lee presented the Dellanna West O’Brien Award for fostering Christian leadership in women to Eileen Mullins of Inez, Ky. Mullins started Haven of Rest, a ministry providing shelter and ministry to families visiting inmates. 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: 6/23/06

Patterson, Mohler discuss Calvinism

By Tony W. Cartledge

N.C. Biblical Recorder

GREENSBORO, N.C.—Baptist seminary presidents Paige Patterson and Albert Mohler may have philosophical differences on the subject of divine election as interpreted by Calvinism but little that has practical effect, an hour-long dialogue revealed.

Patterson and Mohler discussed “Reaching Today’s World Through Differing Views of Election” in two breakout sessions of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference June 11. Both sessions, in a cavernous space occupying three hotel ballrooms, drew standing-room-only crowds.

Mohler, a self-described Calvinist and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and Patterson, president of South-western Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, gently sparred while emphasizing their mutual love and respect for each other.

Patterson said he didn’t like the “flawed logic” that if one isn’t a Calvinist, he or she must be an Arminian, insisting, “I am neither.”

The claim that non-Calvinists don’t accept the doctrines of grace or the sovereignty of God also is flawed, Patterson said.

Patterson listed several reasons why he is not “a Dortist Calvinist,” referring to the Synod of Dort in 1618-19. The synod produced five cardinal tenets of Calvinism—total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.

“I do not find in Scripture any case for irresistible grace,” Patterson said, arguing salvation would be coercive if humans have no choice and citing Scriptures that suggest humans have the ability to reject God.

Likewise, Patterson said he could find no biblical support for a belief in limited atonement, citing multiple texts supporting a belief that Christ died for all and God wants all people to be saved.

Patterson quoted Scriptures that he said link predestination to divine foreknowledge, indicating that God knows in advance who will accept Christ but does not predestine some to salvation and some to condemnation. That would put God in the position of creating people just so he could condemn them, Patterson said.

“I believe too often Calvinism is the death-knell for evangelism for many people,” Patterson said. He acknowledged many Calvinists—including Mohler—remain evangelistic, and said, “It is my conviction that as an evangelist for Christ, we are compelled to persuade men.”

Mohler affirmed, “I believe in all five points of Calvinism,” before offering his interpretations of several points.

Mohler said he prefers to speak of “effectual calling” rather than “irresistible grace.” God’s effectual calling does not draw someone to Christ against his will, but once the work of salvation begins, one cannot resist, he explained.

“We all believe in limited atonement,” Mohler said. “The question is by whom. I do believe before the creation of the world, God determined to save sinners who would come to accept Christ through the electing purpose of God.”

But, Mohler said, “God is a choosing God.” God chose Israel as a special people and has called out the church, he added.

Mohler said every person attending was probably a Calvinist to some degree. Belief in inerrancy, substitutionary atonement, divine omniscience and the perseverance of those who accept Christ all owe something to Calvinism, he said.

Evangelism is essential, Mohler said. “I don’t believe anyone who appeals to Christ will be denied.”

“We must be as eager as the apostle Paul to persuade others to follow Christ, knowing that only God can effectually bring about the internal call,”

Mohler concluded. “We do not know who is elect; we just know there are sinners in need of the gospel, and we believe that God does save sinners.” 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: 6/23/06

CP standard, WMU ‘invitation’ nixed

By Robert Marus & Steve DeVane

Associated Baptist Press & N.C. Biblical Recorder

GREENSBORO, N.C.—Southern Baptist Convention messengers turned back a grassroots attempt to strengthen language encouraging the convention to elect leaders from churches that give generously to the denomination’s budget, but they rebuffed an attempt by the convention’s leadership to rein in the SBC women’s auxiliary.

Mike Stone, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Ga., attempted to amend a recommendation from the SBC Executive Committee regarding an ad hoc committee’s report on promotion of the Cooperative Program, the denomination’s unified giving plan.

The ad hoc committee originally recommended that churches be encouraged to give 10 percent of their annual undesignated receipts to the program, and it urged the election of state and national convention officers whose churches give at least 10 percent to the Cooperative Program.

But on the eve of the convention, the larger Executive Committee revised the report to remove explicit references to a 10 percent standard. Stone’s amendment attempted to restore that language, but it failed by about a 2-1 margin on a show-of-ballots vote.

In the 27 years since fundamentalists began gaining control of the SBC, the denomination’s giving to the Cooperative Program as a percentage of overall revenue has plummeted. Anthony Jordan, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and a member of the ad hoc committee, said the committee recognized a problem when they studied the history of CP giving.

“In 1980, the Southern Baptist Convention gave (an average of) 10.7 percent per church in undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program. Today, that is 6.6 percent,” he said.

But Executive Committee officials backed off after the report was publicized. Critics feared the 10 percent standard would be used as a de facto litmus test for denominational service—something fundamentalists criticized moderates for during the denomination's struggles in the 1980s.

Rob Zinn, outgoing chairman of the Executive Committee, said his body decided it wanted to be careful not to appear that it was intruding on the autonomy of local churches to give to the denomination as they feel called.

“We believe by putting a percentage there, it will be misconstrued that we are mandating what to give,” he said.

After Stone’s attempt to amend it failed, the recommendation to approve the report passed with little opposition.

Convention messengers turned back an attempt, however, to assert more control over the SBC’s independent women’s auxiliary.

Messengers defeated an Executive Committee recommendation to “extend an invitation to” the Woman’s Missionary Union to tighten its ties with the SBC by becoming an official convention agency.

For its 118-year history, the organization—which promotes the denomination's missionary efforts and provides hands-on ministry opportunities—has elected its own leadership. It receives no funds from the SBC budget.

The measure also offered WMU the option of affirming in its governing documents its “historic, unique and exclusive promotion of Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries,” and asked the organization to explain to the Executive Committee its response to the invitation.

WMU Executive Director Wanda Lee told messengers becoming a convention agency— and thus no longer self-governing—would remove the agency from the grassroots missions supporters who animate it.

The messengers then defeated the measure on a show-of-ballots vote. 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: 6/23/06

Page elected SBC president
in upset of establishment

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

GREENSBORO, S.C. (ABP)—In a major populist upset, Frank Page of South Carolina was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention over two candidates closely tied to the SBC’s fundamentalist power structure.

Page, who described his election as a victory for grassroots Baptists, was elected with 50.48 percent of the vote on a first ballot over two high-profile leaders in the fundamentalist-dominated SBC.

Jerry Sutton, pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., received 2,168 votes, or 24.08 percent. Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark., received 2,247 votes, or 24.95 percent. Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., and former pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, received 4,546 votes—just 65 more than necessary for a first-ballot victory.

Page’s election signaled a defeat for the SBC’s powerbrokers, who have hand-picked all but one president since 1979. Only Jim Henry of Orlando—elected in 1994 and 1995—lacked the endorsement of the SBC’s leaders.

Floyd lost despite the endorsement of three SBC seminary presidents, including Paige Patterson, the SBC’s most powerful leader. Sutton reportedly had the support of Paul Pressler, another SBC fundamentalist architect.

The surprise election also reflected grassroots dissatisfaction with officers who direct the SBC’s work but offer little financial support to its central missions budget, the Cooperative Program. Page’s church contributes 12.1 percent of its 2005 undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program. Floyd’s church gave 0.27 percent of undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program in 2005 and an additional 1.6 percent to other SBC causes. Sutton’s church gave nothing to the CP in 2005 but sent 2.7 percent to SBC causes.

After his election, Page, 53, said he would seek to create a more open Southern Baptist Convention, but added: “I’m not trying to undo a conservative movement that I have supported all these years.”

He said he would continue the trend of appointing leaders who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible but who also have “a sweet spirit.”

“I’m an inerrantist. I believe in the word of God. I’m just not mad about it,” Page said in a post-election news conference.

Page’s supporters said their candidate benefited from the participation of messengers previously uninvolved in convention life. “This election is about the people being heard,” said Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla.

“It’s no longer kingmakers; it’s the people,” he said.

Burleson, a trustee of the International Mission Board who has argued against exclusivistic tactics of that agency, was himself considered a possible candidate for president. But his influence, plus that of other Southern Baptist bloggers, was credited with energizing support for Page and for a broadening of SBC leadership.

Page agreed the bloggers, a new phenomenon in SBC politics, made a difference. While the bloggers are few in number, he said: “I think there are a large number of leaders who do read those blogs. I think they played a role beyond their number—perhaps an inordinant amount of influence given their number—but they are a growing phenomenon in Southern Baptist life.”

Page is a graduate of Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Other officers elected were first vice president, Jimmy Jackson of Huntsville, Ala.; second vice president, Wiley Drake of Buena Park, Calif.; recording secretary John Yeats of Monroe, La.; and registration secretary, Jim Well, of Nixa, Mo.

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: 6/23/06

Rice urges SBC to support
U.S. efforts to spread freedom

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP)—In an address received like a campaign stump speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, exhorting her listeners to support the United States in spreading freedom around the globe.

After a standing ovation upon being introduced—during which one man on the convention floor yelled, “You’ve got my vote!”—Rice touched briefly on her faith background as the daughter and granddaughter of Presbyterian ministers.

She then thanked Southern Baptists for their faith-motivated social work and disaster relief, saying, “Whenever tragedy brings people to their knees, Southern Baptists have been there to help people get back on their feet.”

Rice spent most of the remainder of her remarks casting a missionary-like vision of the United States’ role on the world stage—as a liberator and spreader of freedom and justice.

“President Bush and I share your conviction that America can, and must, be a force for good in the world,” she said. “Human dignity is not the grant of governments. … It is God’s endowment to all humanity.”

Some people throughout the world are denied that dignity regularly by poverty, by the lack of political and religious freedom, and by human trafficking and other forms of subjugation—and those situations are ultimately in America’s best interest to ameliorate, she said.

“These are tragedies, but they are also threats in the making,” Rice said.

The United States has a keen interest in promoting religious freedom abroad, stopping oppression in places like Darfur, fighting AIDS and poverty and ending human trafficking worldwide, be-cause oppression, poverty, and suffering produce instability, she asserted.

“If America does not serve great purposes—if we do not rally other nations to fight intolerance and to support peace and to defend freedom … then our world will drift towards tragedy,” she said.

“The strong will do what they please, the weak will suffer most of all. And inevitably—inevitably—sooner or later, the threats of the world” will come to U.S. shores as they did on Sept. 11, 2001, she said.

America has both the moral authority and the ability to lead the world, Rice insisted.

“Let us resolve to deal with the world as it is, but never to accept that we are powerless to make it better than it is—not perfect, but better,” she said.

“America will lead the cause of freedom in our world not because we think ourselves perfect. To the contrary, we cherish democracy and champion its ideals because we know we are not perfect.”

Rice acknowledged the United States has a history of not living up to its own ideals of freedom.

“After all, when our Founding Fathers said, ‘We the people,’ they didn’t mean me,” she said. “My ancestors in Mr. Jefferson’s Con-stitution were only 3/5 of a man.”

But times have changed, said Rice, whose predecessors in office were an African-Ame-rican man and a white woman.

“If I serve to the end of my term as secretary, it will be 12 years since a white man was secretary of state,” she quip-ped to loud applause.

The Southern Baptists saved their most enthusiastic ovation for a section of the speech where Rice discussed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The SBC was one of the few denominations whose leaders publicly supported the Iraq war. The day before Rice spoke, the denomination’s resolutions committee quashed a South Carolina messenger’s proposed resolution “on the Southern Baptist Convention’s support for the unjust war in Iraq.”

Rice acknowledged the war has ended up being “far more difficult than many of us expected it would be.” But she said the price was worth it—to fight terrorism and to give Iraqis and Afghans “a chance—not a guarantee” of freedom with security.

“When possible, we are bringing terrorists to justice, and when necessary, we are bringing justice to the terrorists,” she said, to an enthusiastic standing ovation.

After her speech, SBC President Bobby Welch led the messengers in prayer for Rice.

“We thank you now for this sweet lady whom you have protected and guided and blessed,” Welch prayed. “You know how we have longed and yearned for such leadership as this, and we are grateful, Lord.”

At the end of a final standing ovation, a group of messengers broke into a spontaneous chorus of “God Bless America,” which quickly spread around the Greensboro Coliseum. As Rice exited the building, Welch led attendees in repeating the song’s first verse.

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: 6/23/06

SBC gives IMB first crack
at solving its own problems

By Marv Knox

Editor

GREENSBORO, N.C.—The Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board will get a chance to resolve its own trustee dispute, despite a plea for outside arbitration.

Trustee Wade Burleson asked SBC messengers to authorize the convention’s Executive Committee to create a special committee to study conflict at the mission board. The panel would have been charged with reporting its findings and proposing steps to “effect reconciliation” among IMB trustees.

But messengers instead affirmed the SBC order-of-business committee’s proposal to refer the issue to the board’s trustees themselves.

The conflict surfaced last fall, when IMB trustees narrowed the qualification for appointment as missionaries. They disallowed candidates who practice “private prayer language” and candidates who have not received “biblical baptism.”

Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., protested, claiming the board shouldn’t impose requirements more stringent than the SBC’s 2000 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement.

On his Internet blog, he also criticized some IMB trustees for conducting secret caucuses to orchestrate the board’s formal sessions. Other trustees accused him of violating confidentiality rules.

Subsequently, the trustees suggested Burleson be removed from the board. To take effect, messengers to the SBC annual meeting in Greensboro would have had to concur. The action would have been the first such impeachment of a trustee in the SBC’s 161-year history.

Later, trustees backed down and decided not to ask for Burleson’s ouster. But they placed limitations on his involvement with the board, barring him from executive sessions and committee meetings.

As he announced prior to the annual meeting, Burleson called for the Executive Committee to create an ad hoc committee to report back to the convention in 2007.

He asked the committee to investigate several concerns. They included manipulation of the IMB trustee-appointment process, attempts by heads of other SBC agencies to “influence and/or coerce IMB trustees, staff and administration,” secret trustee actions, implementation of narrow doctrinal requirements for missionary service, and suppression of dissent by trustees who take a minority position on board matters.

The order-of-business committee countered that traditional convention practice indicates an entity impacted by a motion has “first authority” to respond, noted Allan Blume, the committee’s chairman and pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Boone, N.C.

Burleson told SBC messengers the convention needed to call for the ad hoc study committee in order to break an IMB stalemate over the issue.

“The only reason we are at this point is there was an impasse over selection of (an IMB) committee” that would seek resolution to the dispute, Burleson said.

He and outgoing IMB Chairman Tom Hatley were to have appointed the mission board’s study committee, but they could not agree on how it should be composed.

“I offered suggestions; the chairman declined,” he said.

Messengers lined up on both sides of the issue as they debated how the study committee should be created.

Steve Jacobson of Jonesboro, Ark., stressed outside help is needed to achieve reconciliation.

“It’s clear that, regardless of motives, the trustees have had six months to deal with this, and they have not,” Jacobson observed. “It does not seem that they have been particularly forthcoming.”

But Robin Hadaway, a missions professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., contended the new policies Burleson protested are necessary and proper.

“International Mission Board trustees deserve commendation, not investigation,” he said.

In a related motion, Clif Cummings, pastor of First Baptist Church in Duncan, Okla., proposed that messengers request new IMB Chairman John Floyd restore to Burleson the “full duties and responsibilities of a duly elected trustee of the International Mission Board.”

Cummings’ motion was ruled out of order, since the IMB study committee is expected to address Burleson’s involvement in the trustee board.

The IMB is to report its actions on the issue at the 2007 SBC annual 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: 6/23/06

Multiple motions referred
to SBC Executive Committee

By Marv Knox

Editor

GREENSBORO, N.C.—Taking aim at issues ranging from convention executives’ perks, to Calvinism, to pandemics, to what homosexuals should be called, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting presented a flurry of motions.

In fact, 29 motions proposed during the June 13-14 meeting in Greensboro, N.C., constituted an SBC record, reported Allan Blume, chairman of the convention’s order-of-business committee.

Messengers’ motions most significantly impacted the Executive Committee, which received 15 referrals during the two-day meeting.

The referred motions called for:

• An “administrative expense analysis” of all SBC agencies and institutions. The motion seeks examination of agency presidents’ travel, housing, office and residential expenses.

• Examination of the impact of Calvinism on Southern Baptist life. Calvinism is a theological system named for 16th century Swiss reformer John Calvin. Most notably, it emphasizes the sovereignty of God over human free will.

• Development of contingency plans if the SBC annual meeting could not be held due to an influenza pandemic or some other disaster.

• The SBC to meet in New Orleans in 2008. David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans, issued the invitation. An attempt to require messengers to vote on the invitation failed after Jack Wilkerson, the convention’s business manager, explained the SBC already is committed to meet in Indianapolis in 2008, and changing now would mean breaking contracts, costing the convention thousands of dollars; he also noted the convention could not guarantee messengers’ safety in New Orleans.

• Amending SBC policies to require that convention officers be members of churches that give 10 percent of their budgets to the SBC Cooperative Program unified budget. This issue surfaced this year when the church of one candidate for president, Ronnie Floyd, contributes less than one-half of 1 percent, and the church of another presidential candidate, Jerry Sutton, contributes less than 5 percent.

• A study of the way SBC boards of trustees function. The study is to include the size, purpose, scope of responsibility and frequency of meetings, as well as the minimum qualifications for trustees.

• A new policy that would require the full convention to vote on “any doctrinal position or practical policy” of an SBC entity “which goes beyond or seeks to explain” the convention’s Baptist Faith & Message statement.

The policy would stipulate that any such statement approved by an SBC entity would be presented to messengers attending the convention’s next annual meeting, and if not approved, it would be rescinded.

• Amending SBC bylaws so that a simple majority of messengers at an annual meeting could force a vote on a motion that would deal with the internal operation or ministries of convention entities. Currently, bylaws require a two-thirds majority to force such a vote.

• Revising SBC bylaws so that a simple majority of convention messengers can decide to consider a resolution that is not proposed by the SBC Resolutions Committee. The present policy requires a two-thirds majority vote to consider such a resolution.

• Changing the rules governing the terms of SBC trustees, so that each trustee would serve one seven-year term. Current policies stipulate trustees can serve two consecutive terms. Seminary terms are five years, and other trustee terms are four years.

• Altering the policy that regulates when messengers may submit resolutions for consideration at annual meetings. Currently, proposals must be submitted to the Resolutions Committee at least 15 days prior to the annual meeting. The motion would allow presentations up to the beginning of the afternoon session of the first day of the meeting.

• Counting “any and all verifiable giving from a local Southern Baptist church to legitimate SBC causes” toward that church’s “total giving to Southern Baptist missions causes.” This would include funds spent on mission trips, church starts and disaster relief, as well as SBC Cooperative Program contributions.

• Instructing the SBC nominating committee to appoint at least one person under age 40 to each SBC committee and board.

• Improving accommodations to make the SBC annual meetings accessible to disabled messengers. A second part of this motion, which asked the SBC North American Mission Board to hire a disabled staff member to “accelerate disability awareness,” was referred to that board.

• Appointing a committee to research the “emergent-church movement” and its impact upon the SBC.

Other referred motions included:

• An external audit of all funds handled by the International Mission Board’s Central Asia region from 1999 through 2005. Ron McGowin of First Baptist Church in Fairfield claimed a 2002-03 IMB internal audit on work in the region “at best could only account for $372,831.62 of embezzled monies.” The motion was referred to the IMB.

The order-of-business committee declared several motions out of order. They included requests that the convention:

• Endorse the Missional Network, which includes “the next generation of leaders in the SBC,” and allow the network to report to the convention each year.

• Encourage all SBC presidential candidates and other elected officers to “demonstrate both verbally and financially a strong history of intentional commitment” to the Cooperative Program.

• Stop using the word “gay” when referring to homosexuals in sermons, publications and the media. The motion, presented by retired pastor William Gay of Washington, N.C., also asked other pastors to stop referring to homosexuals as “gay” in their sermons and publications. Blume explained this motion was not in order, because “it is beyond the scope of the convention’s authority to direct churches to use a specific vocabulary.”

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: 6/23/06

Baptists teetotally—but not
unanimously—against alcohol

By Trennis Henderson

Western Recorder

GREENSBORO, N.C.—Southern Baptist Convention messengers declared “total opposition to the … consuming of alcoholic beverages,” in a strongly worded resolution on the issue at their annual meeting.

Messengers adopted 15 resolutions presented by the SBC Resolutions Committee on issues ranging from genocide in Darfur, Sudan, to “human species-altering technologies.” But the resolution on alcohol was the only one to spark extended debate.

Benjamin Cole of Arlington cautioned that abstinence is “not an essential for unity and not an essential for the proclamation of the gospel.” Cole, one of the more prolific Internet bloggers among younger pastors, insisted abstinence “is not a matter to die on.” His views echoed previous online posts by fellow blogger Wade Burleson of Oklahoma.

In a June 14 blog entry after the resolution was adopted, Burleson wrote that “some of my blogging friends believe the resolution on alcohol use in America … is an attempt to embarrass me, or possibly remove me” as an International Mission Board trustee.

“I wholeheartedly support all believers who have an abstinence conviction,” Burleson noted, adding, “However, I believe the authoritative, inspired word of God forbids drunkenness, not necessarily the drinking of an alcoholic beverage.”

Committee member Dwayne Mercer insisted Southern Baptists “have always stood for total abstinence.”

Warning that some believers advocate drinking alcohol “under the guise of freedom in Christ,” Mercer added that committee members “feel that the SBC ought to address this and be aware of what is going on all across America.”

Jim Richards, executive director of the fundamentalist Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, proposed an amendment urging no one be elected as a Southern Baptist entity trustee or committee member who “is a user of alcoholic beverages.”

Citing the need to “stand for holiness and purity in our walk,” Richards said, “The use of alcohol as a beverage can and does impede our testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. Our leaders should take the high road in our walk with the Lord Jesus.”

Tom Ascol of Fort Myers, Fla., spoke against the amendment. “I do not think that we can be more holy than Jesus Christ,” he said, adding that “Christ turned water into wine.”

After approving Richards’ amendment on a show of ballots, messengers continued to debate the amended resolution. They approved the measure on a show of ballots.

Messengers also adopted resolutions that:

• Voiced concern about public schools and urged churches to solicit members to seek election to their local school boards and exert “their godly influence upon these school systems.”

• Urged the U.S. House of Representa-tives “to vote affirmatively on the Marriage Protection Amendment at the earliest possible moment and to represent the convictions of the vast majority of Americans, who believe that marriage should be only the union of one man and one woman.”

• Encouraged President Bush “to continue nominating strict constructionist judges” and called on the U.S. Senate “to vote without delay” on current and future judicial nominees.

• Decried China’s treatment of North Korean refugees. Chinese officials return the refugees to North Korea “where they face certain imprisonment, beatings and even death,” the resolution said.

• Affirmed the U.S. government for steadfastly pursing a resolution to a humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. It also urged the president and government of Sudan to disband the Janjaweed militia and allow the United Nations peacekeeping force unlimited access to the Darfur region.

• Urged the U.S. government to “enforce all immigration laws, including the laws directed at employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.” The resolution also called on Christians to “follow the biblical mandate of caring for the foreigners among us.” It also encourages churches to “meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of all immigrants.”

• Repudiated “in strongest possible terms human species-altering technologies.” The measure called on Congress “to pass as soon as possible a comprehensive ban on all human species-altering technologies.”

• Pledged to “resist alliances with extreme environmental groups whose positions contradict biblical principles.” The resolution urged “all Southern Baptists toward the conservation and preservation of our natural resources for future generations while respecting ownership and property rights.”

• Called on “all boards of education in all school districts to recognize and accommodate those parents, churches and faith-based organizations that wish to provide off-campus biblical education during the school day.”

• Affirmed bivocational or volunteer ministers as “servants (who) function faithfully in the model of Christ the carpenter and Paul the tentmaker.”

Messengers also adopted resolutions expressing appreciation for Southern Baptist disaster relief workers in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, pledging to pray for President Bush and the U.S. military, and recognizing LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center’s 100th anniversary next year.

In other action, messengers rejected an appeal by Tom Ascol to consider his proposed resolution on integrity in church membership. The vote came after the Resolutions Committee declined to act on his proposal, which affirmed the practice of church discipline.

Messengers also rejected a request to consider a resolution on prayer for and support of Israel.

The committee also declined to recommend proposed resolutions addressing Baptist dissent, support for “the unjust war in Iraq,” a call for an external financial audit of the International Mission Board’s Central Asia region, the IMB’s adopted policies on baptism and private prayer language, doctrinal parameters of cooperation, and the exercise of religious freedom and freedom of speech. 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: 6/23/06

Election could prove troubling to Calvinists in SBC

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

When Southern Baptist Convention messengers elected dark-horse candidate Frank Page of South Carolina as president, they not only sent a populist message to the powerbrokers who backed other candidates, but also—at least in the eyes of some observers—may have dealt a blow to resurgent Calvinism in SBC ranks.

Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., wrote a book published six years ago critiquing five-point Calvinism—belief in total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.

“It is most grievous to see a large number of individuals accept without question the doctrine of John Calvin in regards to salvation,” Page writes in Trouble with the Tulip: A Closer Examination of the Five Points of Calvinism. “This acceptance of his manmade system of logic has led many to say things about God which are simply unbelievable!”

Calvinism distorts the biblical picture of God as a loving Father who wants to see all people brought into relationship with him, he asserts.

“The true nature of God is not shown by a Calvinistic theology that presents a God who selects one to be saved and another to be lost,” Page writes.

Page calls for “a scripturally based understanding of salvation” rather than reliance on “manmade doctrines” such as Calvin’s systematic theology.

“Rather than accepting a belief system which is based upon a reformer’s beliefs or teachings, I propose that we adopt God’s teaching on salvation,” Page writes.

Page affirms the eternal security of believers—“perseverance of the saints” in Calvinist terms—and presents election as a biblical concept but refuses to categorize it as “unconditional.”

Furthermore, he argues grace can be resisted by a rebellious human free will and insists Christ’s atonement is unlimited.

Calvinism—at least when pressed to its logical conclusion—undercuts evangelism, he concludes.

“If one follows the logic of Calvinism, then a missionary or evangelistic spirit is unnecessary,” he writes. “If irresistible grace is truth, then there is no need to share Christ with anyone, since those persons whom God has elected are irresistibly going to be drawn into his kingdom anyway.”

Ironically, at many points, Page’s criticism of Calvinism align with positions presented by Paige Patterson during a Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference breakout session “dialogue” on the subject. Patterson—an architect of the fundamentalist movement in the SBC—publicly endorsed Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd in the contested SBC presidential race.

“I do not find in Scripture any case for irresistible grace,” said Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, who also argued against limited atonement. During the breakout session, Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., spoke in favor of five-point Calvinism.

Page’s call for a doctrine of salvation based solely on the Bible rather than a human system of logic also was echoed by former SBC President Ed Young of Houston at the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference.

“Our theology is biblical, it is not systematic. Therefore we as Baptists, we are not Calvinist; we are not Arminian; we are Baptists,” Young said. “That’s who we are, and we always come down somewhere in the middle.”

At his presidential news conference during the SBC annual meeting, Page seemed to express willingness to work with Southern Baptist Calvinists. When asked if he’d be willing to appoint someone to a denominational board who is an inerrantist but might otherwise differ theologically, Page said he’d have to decide such situations on a “case-by-case” basis.

Page noted that while he has spoken against what he called “hyper-Calvinism,” he “works wonderfully” with Calvinists and charismatics in his church.

Two leaders of Founders Ministries—a Baptist group devoted to promoting the “doctrines of grace” as expressed in Calvinism—expressed high regard for Page as a likeable person, but—predictably—took strong exception to his theological position.

Tom Nettles, professor of historical theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., praised Page as a “reasonable man” who showed “courage in a willingness to run in opposition to a candidate widely endorsed by convention leaders.” But he insisted Page’s book was based on “a flawed historiography and inadequate exegesis.”

Prior to the convention, Founders Ministries Executive Director Tom Ascol posted a review of Page’s book on his Internet blog. Ascol praised the “gracious” tone of Page’s book, but he questioned his expressed commitment to work with—and appoint to SBC committees—committed Calvinists. Kindness and civility are commendable, but theological convictions cannot be ignored, he insisted.

“Is Page saying that he is willing to work with people who follow ‘manmade doctrines,’ whose religion is ‘without biblical support,’ whose theological convictions mean ‘there is no need to share Christ with anyone’ and encourage ‘a slackening of the aggressive evangelistic and missionary heartbeat of the church?’” Ascol asked in his blog entry.

“I would not work with such people, and I would not want a president of the SBC who would either. … If Dr. Page genuinely believes what he has written about Calvinism, then no amount of kindness can justify his willingness to work with the kinds of people described in his book!”

After he met Page at the SBC annual meeting, Ascol said, “He strikes me as a humble, godly man,” whom he liked.

“I don’t think his election will have any sort of profound impact on the resurgence of reformed theology in the SBC. I would say that no matter who became president,” he concluded. “The kind of reformation that we need in the SBC cannot be attained by presidential elections or denominational politics.”

Nettles agreed, saying: “His election will make no difference in the resurgence of Baptist confessional Calvinism negatively. This resurgence has had little if any encouragement from denominational officers for 25 years, and continued opposition will make little if any difference. He could help by broadening participation as he has promised and give some notable leaders of the Calvinist resurgence responsible tasks through his appointive prerogatives.”

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: 6/23/06

Church’s sports camp scores
with Corsicana children

By Laura Frase

Communications Intern

CORSICANA—Instead of becoming couch potatoes this summer, Northside Baptist Church youth are teaching children the Bible between hoops and high kicks.

Mega Sports Camp offers children from first to sixth grade the opportunity to play a variety of sports and to learn about God at the same time.

This marks the first year the church has offered the camp. Unlike many summer camps, it only meets once a week, Wednesdays from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Northside Baptist created the camp as a replacement summer program for the Awana program, Youth Minister Gary Welch said.

Teenagers in the church’s student ministry, ranging from seventh grade through high school, teach the campers. “This is their mission project,” Welch said.

The teens were excited about the chance.

“The youth minister talked to us about it, and we all jumped at the opportunity,” said 16-year-old Britney Wigley, head of registration for the camp.

The camp offers football, soccer, basketball, cheerleading and music, led by one head coach and three assistant coaches. Campers register for a sport each week.

Along with sports drills and playing, the coaches lead Bible studies for the children. And at the end of the night, campers and coaches come together for music and a final Bible story.

“I thought this was a good way to use my athletic abilities to teach younger kids and to teach them about God,” said 17-year-old head basketball coach Mark Burns.

At a youth camp in Lufkin, the church’s student ministry tried out the Mega Sports Camp for children in a low-income housing development, Welch said. There were about 50 to 60 children each night, and seven professed faith in Christ during the camp, he said.

“This has been successful, because you’re doing sports,” Wigley said. “You’re more involved with them, so it builds relationships.”

Burns agreed, adding: “The kids are having fun, and the sports give them an incentive to come, and they learn about why they are here. It gives them something to look forward to.”

Mega Sports Camp has proven to be a success at the church, and Welch hopes to involve more children.

“We’re ecstatic with what’s going on here,” he said.

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

Posted: 6/23/06

Laredo church offers water

By Elizabeth Staples

Texas Baptist Communications

LAREDO—Not even 110-degree summer heat can stop United Baptist Church in Laredo from reaching its community.

“We’re always looking for other ways to reach people,” said Pastor Mike Barrera.

Each day, as thousands of people come into the United States via a walking bridge south of Laredo, members of United Baptist Church are present to greet them.

“Many mothers bring their dehydrated children across the bridge, and the first thing they do is buy them a Coke, which is the worst thing they could do,” Barrera said. “This is an incredible need for the people that we have been working to fill for the past four years.”

United Baptist Church’s Living Water Ministry not only hands out about 50,000 bottles of water to help keep the people healthy and hydrated; volunteers also hand out 50,000 tracts. This summer, church members also distributed thousands of extremely sought-after schedules of the World Cup soccer tournament, along with Spanish tracts to nearly 10,000 men.

Every summer, United Baptist Church holds one of the community’s largest Vacation Bible Schools, typically drawing about 250 children. Sixty-five adults from the congregation volunteer and help serve the children.

Laredo is 93 percent Hispanic, but many of the local college students speak Mandarin. To serve the entire community, United Baptist Church holds Sunday school classes in Chinese, Spanish and English, and it holds worship services in both Spanish and English.

“We are the only church in Laredo that has Mandarin, English and Spanish—the languages spoken by 60 percent of the world,” Barrera said.

The area needs new kinds of churches, Barrera said. And with the help of the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions, United Baptist Church is starting Gateway Community Church to reach more people in the area.

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