Posted: 5/03/06

Explore the Bible Series for May 14

Everyone needs hope, encouragement

• Isaiah 54:1-57:21

By James Adair

Baptist University of the Americas, San Antonio

The chapters in Isaiah under consideration this week are set in the late exilic and early postexilic period, during the last half of the sixth century B.C. It was a time of great excitement and great disappointment, a period of high hopes and harsh realities. The Jews in exile heard a message of deliverance, but the situation in the land of their ancestors was not quite what they had expected.

How can we as believers reconcile the great confidence we have in God with the mundane or even discouraging aspects of life in the real world? How can we explain why our daily experiences don’t live up to our high expectations? These are some of the questions the oracles from these chapters of Isaiah attempt to address.

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Isaiah 54:1-17

After Hurricane Katrina drove the population of New Orleans from their homes last summer, politicians and community leaders, began making plans for cleanup and return. “It will take hard work,” they told displaced New Orleanians, “but we will rebuild the city.” However, despite these optimistic predictions, only about half the people have returned. The city that was loved by its inhabitants is no more, and many have abandoned the idea of moving back. For others, though, hope remains, and a rebuilt, re-imagined city is something to strive for.

Isaiah 54 paints an idealized picture of Jerusalem, one whose population growth would require the city to be enlarged. The disaster that had overtaken it at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar was past, and a great future lay ahead. Jerusalem would be so wealthy its foundations, towers and gates would be made of precious stones. The reality at the time, of course, was Jerusalem was a ruin, without protecting walls or settled inhabitants. Would the people return from exile and see the current reality, or would they see the potential the prophet described?

Isaiah 55:1-5

Several times a day, if I have my e-mail filters turned off, I get messages from people I don’t know offering to let me in on a secret means of making fabulous amounts of money. If I will just transfer some money from my bank account, or contact an exiled African leader, or invest in the latest scheme, I can get rich in no time. Get rich quick schemes are nothing new, but they continue to attract people who long to live a life of ease, where all their needs are met.

The prophet offers the people something for nothing, but in this case it is not material gain but perpetual security. He lets the people in on a secret: God has not forgotten the covenant with David, and God has not abandoned Judah. Temporal wealth comes and goes, but God’s covenant faithfulness lasts forever.

Isaiah 55:6-9

From time to time, I find myself wishing I were in charge of the world. I would right all wrongs, alleviate poverty, clean up the environment and make sure every child had an equal opportunity to succeed in life. Of course, I would also take care of myself, and my family and friends.

Fortunately for all concerned, including myself, I am not God. I am not remotely qualified for even a portion of the job, not just because I don’t have the power, but because I don’t have the wisdom. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. It is not just that God is smarter than we are, God’s understanding of the universe is qualitatively different from our own. There are many things in the world that humans can and should change, but in the end we must remember the saying, “Man proposes, but God disposes.”

Isaiah 56:1-8

A popular political comedy show ends every episode with a segment called “New Rules,” and that is exactly what these verses from Isaiah 56 propose. Some people in the postexilic community believed the Jewish people could survive only by adopting restrictive membership policies, requiring citizens to trace their ancestry back to one of the Israelite tribes. Others believed in more of a big tent policy.

This passage clearly puts the prophet in the big tent camp. Whereas some people interpreted the restrictions in Deuteronomy 23:1-8 as permanently excluding eunuchs or Ammonites, for example, from the community, the prophet says God welcomes all who are willing to adopt the community’s standards and worship the Lord. God’s kingdom is inclusive, not exclusive, and God may be found by all who seek him, regardless of their background.

Discussion questions

• How do we personally reconcile our high hopes with the harsh realities of life that we face? Do we see our difficulties as God’s punishment or simply as challenges to be overcome through faith?

• How can we overcome the persistent drive of our Western society toward the accumulation of wealth? What values do we possess as Christians that would lead us to have different goals from many of those around us?

• How do we strike a balance between wanting to change the world on the one hand, and being complacent in the face of evil and problems on the other hand? What are the respective roles that God and humans play?

• Are there certain groups of people who should be permanently excluded from the church on the basis of either background, belief system or lifestyle? How do we minister to people in need when we disapprove of some aspect of their life?

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: 4/28/06

Homegrown churches make
gospel readily accessible

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO—Steeple-crested church buildings dot San Antonio’s west side, but Pastor Manuel Rodriguez isn’t concerned about them. He’s focused on structures that aren’t adorned with crosses.

Working closely with San Antonio Baptist Association staff, Rodriguez spreads the gospel by starting churches in homes throughout the city’s west side. He began with a church in his living room. When that space was full, he started another service in his den. Eventually, he and his wife had filled their home.

So, several members of the church started churches in their homes. Every six months, Rodriguez encourages those churches to start another church in another home. Now 15 churches meet in various locations throughout the community, serving about 300 people. Home churches reach a variety of ethnicities, including Puerto Ricans, African-Americans and Mexicans. They are serving English and Spanish speakers.

• Watch a video clip here.

Families gather for Bible study and worship outside the mobile home park where they live.

Most of these people never would come to traditional churches services, Rodriguez contends, but they will come to a gathering at a friend’s home. They are willing to pray and study the Bible with people they know.

“People in these days, they don’t go to buildings or traditional churches for different problems,” he said. “Right now, when you start a home church, you don’t invite people to a church, you invite them into a home. It works much better.”

Home churches have the additional advantage of not having to pay for facilities or staff members’ salaries. Each one has a leader, not a pastor, Rodriguez noted.

Laypeople are trained to start and lead home churches.

These congregations may not be traditional, but they meet needs. Jose Acosta, who leads a group of about 30 people who meet beneath a tree in a mobile home park, was one of the first people to comfort a mother when her 18-year-old son was gunned down.

Acosta’s church gathers around a table each week to pray and sing praises to God. Acosta preaches the gospel. People in attendance give an offering and testify to how God is working in their lives. Bread and vegetables are given to those who need it.

Individuals are committing their lives to Christ, and God is transforming lives, said Acosta, a Baptist University of the Americas student.

“The community is changing,” he said. “Children are coming. Adults are coming. They are coming to know Christ.”

Acosta is pleased to have an opportunity to minister, saying he simply is doing what Christ asked of him. “It is the mandate of Christ to go to take the church to the people.”

This concept is central to home churches, Rodriguez said. Members focus on sharing the Christian message with their non-Christian friends and relatives.

“This is a missionary church,” Rodriguez said. “That’s why we have so many churches.”

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: 4/28/06

CHURCH WITHOUT WALLS:
Authentic worship outside

By George Henson

Staff Writer

AMARILLO—Sometimes church-starting dreams bog down in the details of where the church can meet and how to pay for that space.

Avoid those issues by starting a church outdoors, advised Lindsay Cofield, creative church consultant with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Not having to fund the construction or rental of a building can be positive in several ways, Cofield told participants in a multihousing church start seminar in Amarillo.

“When you take money out of the equation, more churches can do it, and when you take the money out, that gets rid of the fussing about how the money’s spent,” he said.

Another positive aspect of not having a building is that often people will feel more comfortable about approaching the service. If there is no door, they more readily sidle up to listen. Also without walls to hem them in, some may find it easier to make an approach when an exit can be made just as easily, Cofield said.

One of the most important aspects of starting a church of any kind is identifying where it will meet, he continued. Prayer offers the only effective means of making that determination, he stressed.

“Begin praying about what group God wants you to reach,” Cofield said. “Where do they live, play and hang out … apartments, mobile homes, RV park, public housing, halfway house? Ask God to guide you to them and believe that he will. Drive around, and pray and try to see through his eyes.”

If the identified location has a manager, start there, he said. Ask for permission to prayer walk the area, informing the manager of plans to start a church that meets in an apartment, at a picnic table or under a tree. Pledge to respect each resident’s privacy and not knock on doors unsolicited. Then, even more importantly, keep all commitments.

Prayer walk the area and meet people, he suggested. Look for the person of peace—someone who can open doors to relationships to others in the vicinity. Pray as you go with those who share needs.

After a core group of only a few people has been established, agree on a day and time to begin meeting. Cofield pointed out that it need not be Sunday morning. “Any time is OK if you make it God’s time in your midst.”

Then choose a location. “It might be around a truck, on a mobile home porch, in an apartment, at a park or playground area, or under a public pavilion,” he said.

Cofield leads a congregation that meets in a public park each week. A group of middle-aged motorcyclists meets under a carport for worship and Bible study.

While the setting is informal, it is important the congregation function as a church, he said.

“Encourage them to truly make it a little body of Christ that helps and touches people’s lives. Seek to be a fully functioning church,” Cofield instructed.

That can be done if the people who attend experience:

• Supportive friendships. That comes through sharing with one another, he said. They should take turns sharing what “the world has dumped on them” during the week, and also what God has been doing in their lives. Help lead them to be there for one another.

• Authentic worship. Focus on God’s greatness through the use of any combination of music, art, silence, nature or Scripture. “Help them tap into God’s greatness,” he said.

• Obedience-based discipleship. Apply a Bible verse to life, Cofield said. Dialogue about what each verse says about God, self, others and life. “You lead, but let them talk too,” he counseled.

• Life-involvement evangelism. “Include not-yet Christians fully and naturally, and allow them to hear and see how Christ is working in the lives of those believers present,” he said. “Nurture everyone toward expressing their own journey with God as friendships deepen. Let people be drawn to God by all they experience in the gathering.”

• Servanthood caring. “Seek opportunities to help others like Christ would. Take an offering, and let the group decide on how to use it all in meeting someone’s need. Let them decide how to take an offering, and let them deliver it, if possible,” he said.

• Baptism. Baptize anyone who professes faith in Christ as Lord of their life, Cofield instructed. “Anyone OK’d by the church can baptize as part of gathered worship, and any place is OK.”

“Two key factors will make a huge impact—your passion and your dependability,” he pointed out. “There is no building or elected organization to give stability here.”

It is especially important to have church each week regardless of the weather. Don’t make worshippers try to figure out if you’re going to be there or not, he said.

“When you are faithful to be present, prayed-up and prepared for every weekly gathering, they won’t wonder if church is going to happen that day but will be drawn to its true friendships and God-sized mission,” he said.

On bad-weather days, the church is most likely to draw the notice of people in the area who are not yet a part of the congregation.

This past year, 207 churches of this type with BGCT ties were started across the state, he noted.

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: 5/02/06

Sam Currin indicted in tax fraud case

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP)—One of the men instrumental in the Southern Baptist Convention’s 1990 move to defund its historic public-affairs agency faces federal charges.

Sam Currin, who served as a member of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty’s board of directors for eight years in the 1980s and early ’90s, reportedly was indicted by a North Carolina federal grand jury April 18. The Raleigh lawyer has been charged with being part of a conspiracy to help clients avoid federal taxes by setting up trusts, bank accounts and credit cards in various foreign locales in the Caribbean Ocean.

Currin served on the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina’s board of directors prior to the indictment. State convention spokesman Norman Jameson said April 28 that Currin had resigned from that post. Convention records list him as being a member of Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh.

Currin also has served as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, a federal prosecutor, a judge and a staffer for retired Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.).

He played a lead role in one of the main skirmishes of the decade-long war between fundamentalists and moderates in the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980s. James Dunn, retired executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, Currin as one of several board members sent by SBC fundamentalists to try to move the public-affairs agency to the right.

Unable to win other members of the BJC’s board—made up of representatives from most of the nation’s Baptist denominations—to their cause, SBC conservatives eventually decided to yank the denomination’s funding for the agency. The convention began removing BJC funding from the SBC budget in 1990, cutting it out completely the next year.

“It is absolutely true and indisputable that they (Currin and others) were put on the Baptist Joint Committee to turn it from its historic position—or destroy it,” Dunn said.

Currin and other SBC conservatives complained that the agency, which historically had advocated for strict separation of church and state and religious freedom, leaned too far to the political left. They attempted to get the BJC to support causes popular among political conservatives.

“They were trying to get us to approve (government-sanctioned) school prayer—an amendment that would approve school prayer,” Dunn said.

Currin and his ideological allies tried to get the organization to endorse Robert Bork when President Ronald Reagan nominated him for a seat on the Supreme Court in 1987, Dunn added. The Senate defeated the nomination after opposition groups highlighted Bork’s controversial views on abortion rights, civil rights, church-state separation and other issues.

More recently, Currin played a role in supporting conservatives in another organization in which he is active—the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The Raleigh Independent reported Currin was appointed in 2004 as the Confederate group’s chief legal officer after a group opposed to modernizing the organization solidified their control over it.

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: 5/02/06

Nash nominated as CBF missions coordinator

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

ATLANTA (ABP)—Robert Nash has received the nomination for the global missions coordinator position at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. CBF council members will vote to approve the nomination at their annual meeting June 21 in Atlanta.

The nomination comes after a year of interim service by Jack Snell, who held the position since the resignation of Barbra Baldridge. Baldridge resigned May 31 of last year amid unspecified personal reasons. She and her husband, Gary, had served in the top position for five years until Gary Baldridge retired in 2004 to pursue a writing career.

“I am humbled by the confidence that the search committee has placed in me as its nominee for this position and awed by the prospect of ministry alongside CBF’s field personnel and staff in the U.S. and around the world,” Nash said.

Search committee Chair Tim Brendle said the committee received input for the nomination process from staff, missionaries and church members. Nash stood out from the others, he said.

“We were blessed with the opportunity to review many strong resumes and to consider multiple candidates who were qualified to do this job,” Tim Brendle, the search committee chair, said in a CBF release. “Rob Nash truly has a heart for missions and the capacity to express our shared missions calling in fresh and challenging ways. I believe he can kindle new excitement in our churches and among our field personnel.”

Nash’s bid is slightly unusual in that he has not worked full-time on the mission field, nor has he held previous employment by CBF. Snell was a former pastor who led CBF missions efforts in Asia, and the Baldridges worked as missionaries for 17 years in Africa. Keith Parks, the first missions coordinator of CBF, was previously head of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board and a revered missionary worker.

Nash grew up with missionary parents in the Philippines. Since then, the 47-year-old religion professor has traveled and studied in more than 30 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South America. He received a masters of divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and serves as dean and associate professor of religion and international studies at Shorter College in Rome, Ga. He has also held various pastorates in Kentucky and Georgia.

Nash, his wife, Guyeth, and their two children are members of First Baptist Church in Rome, Ga.

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: 5/02/06

Playboy visits Baylor despite warnings

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

WACO (ABP)—Playboy photographers held an open casting call April 18 at Baylor University, despite the university’s discipline and suspension in recent years of students who posed in the magazine.

The magazine’s photographers traveled to Baylor to solicit women for its “Girls of the Big 12” spread, set to appear in the October issue. Spreads featuring women from schools in prominent athletic conferences posing nude are annual features in Playboy.

The visit is nothing new for Baylor officials, who have dealt with the controversy off-and-on since 1981, when the editors of the student newspaper were fired after an editorial column questioned Baylor’s policy against students posing for the magazine.

The return of the publication marks the first in four years. Playboy visits to Baylor in 1996 and 2002 caused problems, too.

A reported 15 Baylor women attended individual interviews in 2002, and 50 members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and four women were disciplined for posing clothed on an off-campus volleyball court. The punishment consisted of community service and essay writing. One woman who posed separately—wearing less—was suspended.

This year, Baylor officials preempted the issue, sending a university-wide e-mail that opposed the interviews, which were held at an undisclosed location and closed to the media.

“Associating with a magazine that is clearly antithetical to Baylor’s mission would be considered a violation of the code of conduct as outlined in the Student Policies and Procedures,” the email said. It also said punishment could involve everything from verbal reprimands to expulsion, depending on each case.

Bethany McCraw, associate dean for Judicial and Legal Student Services, told The Lariat student newspaper that the school’s student policies and procedures outline Baylor’s alignment with the “Christian principals as commonly perceived by Texas Baptists.” Even off-campus, she said, a failure to uphold such principles “detracts from the Christian witness Baylor strives to present to the world.”

Playboy has released a response, saying since Baylor belongs to the Big 12, “informed and consenting female Baylor students” should be included in a Big 12 spread.

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: 4/28/06

Expert explores myths
of multihousing ministry

By George Henson

Staff Writer

AMARILLO—Churches interested in reaching multitudes who do not know Christ as Savior should engage in multihousing ministry but do it with their eyes open, said Jeff Parsons, multihousing director for Amarillo Area Baptist Association.

Parsons pointed out the need for multihousing ministries to transform into church starts on the properties by describing eight myths of multihousing ministry:

• Myth No. 1: We’ll reach the parents through the kids. “By and large, this doesn’t work. It has worked to an extent, but not consistently or persistently,” Parsons said.

Two factors play into traditional multihousing ministries not reaching adults, the first of which is that adults are not the primary targets. “Parents are not being reached because we have no intentionality to reach adults,” he said.

A second part of the equation is that the workers involved generally are doing so because they have a heart and gift for ministering to children. “Often these same people feel very inadequate in reaching adults,” Parsons explained.

• Myth No. 2: We do acts of kindness to build relationships. Enticing someone to become a Christian through acts of kindness, indicates a wrong motivation for doing good works, he said. “Our good works aren’t bait. If our goal is to glorify Jesus, then there is sense of fulfillment that is contagious,” Parsons explained.

“It rarely works that someone sees your good works and asks why you are doing them and becomes a Christian. Our motivation is a key factor. If our goal is to glorify God, people will recognize that and be drawn to him.”

• Myth No. 3: Residents will eventually come to our church. This is the hardest thing for many churches to grips with, Parsons said. Primarily due to feelings of intimidation and inadequacy, apartment dwellers won’t come, and if they do, they won’t stay, he said.

Parsons cited a study that said if apartment dwellers join a traditional church, the retention rate is 24 percent. For those who attend a church started on site at the apartment complex, the retention rate is 70 percent.

“Integration into existing churches is an unnecessary stumbling block. The solution is to plant churches where they live,” he said.

• Myth No. 4: Starting a church on a property is too complicated. Just the opposite is true, Parsons said. The plan he advocates involves reading a passage of Scripture and asking six questions about that passage: What in these verses encourages you? What in these verses challenges you? What would the world look like if everyone did what this passage says? What could you do to live out this Scripture this week? What is God saying to you through this Scripture? How can we pray for you to live out this Scripture this week?

• Myth No. 5: Attendance numbers should increase quickly. It is important to remember that small numbers are not a bad thing and have some advantages, he noted. Also, up to 95 percent of people who hear the gospel in a multihousing community would not have heard it through any other means, he said. That makes each individual who hears vitally important.

• Myth No. 6: My work will look like what I do at my church. “Simple or organic churches are valid, attainable and reproducible,” he said, with an emphasis on being reproducible. He said while the piano, choir and other things a traditional church offers are hard to reproduce in an apartment setting, a simple church easily is reproduced, and needs to be. “Jesus didn’t say, ‘Y’all come,’ he said, ‘You go,’” Parsons pointed out.

• Myth No. 7: I can fully have the American dream and fully be in God’s will. Pursuit of the American dream can leave little time for investing in the lives of others, he said. “We want to do the church thing, but we want to have all the possessions everyone else has—the nice vacation, the big house, the kids involved in all the sports activities,” but then “we don’t have time in our schedules to invest our lives in people who need to know Christ.”

“Prioritize your life to bring joy and fulfillment, not stress and frustration,” Parsons counseled. “If there is an overabundance of stress and frustration instead of joy and fulfillment, that may be a sign your focus is on the American dream and not on Jesus Christ.”

• Myth No. 8: A relationship with the lost isn’t necessary to reach them. “Going up and knocking on doors and sharing Christ is by and large not going to work, largely because there is such a negative picture of the church prevalent in the world today,” Parsons said. There is no substitute for becoming involved in people’s lives, he stressed. 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: 4/28/06

RIGHT OR WRONG?
Responding to the poor

The hurricanes along the Gulf of Mexico revealed a demographic identified as the “new poor.” What does that mean? What about the “old poor”? How do Christians respond to this theologically?

Although the devastation wreaked along the Gulf Coast by the hurricanes of 2005 is a long way from being repaired, many of us who do not live in that region largely have forgotten those whose lives were so drastically altered. The threat of even more hurricanes in 2006 than in 2005 has caused many people to shift their focus from helping those hurt by last year’s hurricanes to protecting themselves and their property from the next hurricane. In a speech to the International Radio and Television Society, television journalist Ted Koppel put his finger on our problem:

“What is largely missing in American life today is a sense of context, of saying or doing anything that is intended or even expected to live beyond the moment. There is no culture in the world that is so obsessed as ours with immediacy. In our journalism, the trivial displaces the momentous because we tend to measure the importance of events by how recently they happened.”

One of the realities of the hurricane’s devastation has been the shift in economic status that many Gulf Coast residents have experienced. Thousands lost their jobs, their homes and their most prized possessions in the storms. Since most Americans are only a paycheck or two away from financial disaster, it is easy to identify with these folks who have been referred to as the “new poor.”

The flood waters that swept over the levees into the city of New Orleans exposed another segment of society that had been largely ignored—the “old poor.” Having lived in New Orleans five years, it was no surprise to me that the people who would be most affected by a storm surge would be the poorest citizens of that city. Like many cities in the South, New Orleans has a large African-American population that lives on the margins of society. The poor in New Orleans, most of whom are African-American, have lived in the lowest sections of the city for a long time. Federal housing projects were constructed on the cheapest land, which was below sea level. The poorest homeowners lived on reclaimed land that is always the first to flood. These folks were unable to flee the storm and had no resources to call upon when disaster struck.

How should Christians respond to this theologically? The answer is simple: We should respond by helping. Fortunately, many churches—especially Baptist churches—have responded to the enormous need along the Gulf Coast. It is vital that we continue to be informed about what we can do to help. News articles in the Baptist Standard and mission efforts spearheaded by the Baptist General Convention of Texas especially have been helpful.

Because it will take years to restore what has been destroyed, every Texas Baptist should be asking, “What can my church do to help?” Every Texas Baptist can be a part of this effort. You can give money for hurricane relief. You can organize work groups to partner with other groups in rebuilding homes. You can continue to pray for those who have been affected. When we do these things, we should be reminded of the words of Jesus, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Philip Wise, senior pastor

Second Baptist Church

Lubbock

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu. 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: 4/28/06

Reccord resigns as NAMB president
after trustee investigation

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

ATLANTA (ABP)—After a trustee investigation produced a scathing report of numerous examples of poor management, Bob Reccord resigned as president of the North American Mission Board, effective immediately.

“I regret that events of recent weeks have created an environment which makes it difficult to lead the organization and to stay on mission,” Reccord, 54, said in a statement April 17.

Allegations first surfaced in a February expose by the Christian Index newspaper. NAMB’s trustees, after their own investigation, put Reccord under strict “executive-level controls” March 23, which many observers thought would prompt his resignation.

The trustees’ investigation faulted the missions leader for poor management, autocratic decision-making, extravagant spending on failed ministry projects, apparent conflicts of interest in no-bid contracts for a friend, and creating a “culture of fear” that prevented staffers from questioning the abuses.

They also said Reccord spent time and money on events and projects on the periphery of NAMB’s mission and was absent so much he couldn’t provide consistent, day-to-day oversight “to properly manage the agency,” which directs and coordinates Southern Baptist mission work in the United States and Canada.

Yet some trustees were most upset by Reccord’s blurring of the line between NAMB and personal interests, such as his extensive non-NAMB speaking schedule and a trip to London for Reccord and his wife to attend the premiere of the Chronicles of Narnia movie, which cost NAMB $3,800.

As the dust settled from the investigation, calls for Reccord to resign grew louder.

“There is an outcome that we all believe is necessary,” one trustee, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said in an interview prior to Reccord’s resignation. “Everybody gets it except Bob Reccord.”

Reccord did finally get the message. He reportedly resigned to trustee Chairman Barry Holcomb over the weekend, then informed NAMB employees April 17 in a hastily called staff meeting. Holcomb, a pastor from Alabama, was on hand to read a statement praising Reccord’s accomplishments and integrity.

Holcomb said the trustees’ investigation and audit found “no evidence that Dr. Reccord had done anything unethical in his role as president,” adding Reccord’s “integrity is strong and solid today.”

“Contrary to some opinions, Dr. Reccord is in no way being asked to resign, let alone forced to resign,” Holcomb said.

“First, he is taking this step for what he feels is best for Christ’s kingdom. While others might have placed their own personal well-being ahead of what was best for NAMB, Dr. Reccord is doing just the opposite. I believe that this is one of the strongest evidences of his personal character and integrity. He has a strong love for our missionaries, for those who work within NAMB and for our trustees. And so taking the high road of leadership on behalf of our missionaries, our agency and our convention, he is resigning today as president.”

Carlos Ferrer, recently named interim chief operating officer, also will assume acting executive officer duties, Holcomb said. No interim president has been named.

Trustees are expected to continue with policy reforms to ensure they are not caught off guard again, regardless of who is president, several said. A task force will make sure specific rules now will govern the president’s travel, speaking engagements and office time. A system of competitive bidding for outside contracts will be established. And new initiatives will require “appropriate oversight and approval by the board.”

Reccord alienated many state-level denominational leaders with his go-it-alone decision-making style, according to the NAMB investigation. Trustees said Reccord gave too much attention to his own public profile, seeking media exposure and speaking engagements that would bring him—and the agency—into the spotlight.

“Bob wanted someone to get him on CNN,” one trustee leader explained. Reccord hired two outside public-relations firms—contracts totaling $12,000 a month; more than $75,000 to date—to get him secular media placements like other SBC leaders Al Mohler and Richard Land.

Reccord and his administrators developed a pattern of launching expensive, often innovative, ministry projects without specific approval from trustees, who found out only after million-dollar losses resulted. Questionable contracts, like the ones with Reccord’s friend and neighbor Steve Sanford of InovaOne that brought charges of conflict of interest, weren’t disclosed until reported by the Christian Index.

However, Reccord’s innovations also brought some successes, his supporters say, pointing to high-profile urban-evangelism strategies as an example.

“He could have gotten approved, through the trustee board, anything he wanted in the way of ministry projects, but he tried to do it without approval,” one trustee leader concluded.

While some trustees—particularly pastors following the same leadership model—could accept those lapses, others could not, the trustee said. In the end, Reccord’s leadership style proved a poor fit for a denominational agency dependent on donations and collaboration from churches and conventions all across the spectrum, he concluded.

“He’s always flying at 40,000 feet,” said one trustee who supported Reccord in the past.

“The majority of trustees love Bob and would not disagree with his style. But his unwillingness to involve trustees more (was the biggest failure). There was not a lot there that couldn’t have been defended. The largest offense was we didn’t know so much was going on.”

Chairman Holcomb, in his statement to employees, defended Reccord’s leadership style: “Dr. Reccord has aptly noted that in convention life, entrepreneurial leadership and denominational requirements may be at odds with one another. This is no one’s fault—it is simply a reality. There is no question God has some special things in store for the next chapter of this out-of-the-box thinker.”

Reccord told employees he is undecided about his future plans but has been contacted about several possibilities.

Reccord was the first president of NAMB, formed in 1997 as part of a restructuring of the Southern Baptist Convention. The mission board included remnants from three SBC agencies—the Home Mission Board, Radio & Television Commission and Brotherhood Commission. Reccord led the implementation task force that oversaw the SBC restructuring.

Prior to coming to NAMB, he was senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Norfolk, Va., and Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla.

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: 4/17/06

Proclamation for Immigration Reform

Hispanic Baptist Youth and Singles
Congreso Solemn Assembly, April 15, 2006

Whereas, our beloved United States of America, a nation of immigrants, is in the midst of the most dramatic immigration policy reform in the 21st century,

And whereas, 12 million undocumented immigrants are living and working in the United States today with 1.2 million undocumented immigrants living in Texas, And whereas, President George Bush has recommended that Congress considers comprehensive reform of U.S. Immigration Law,

And whereas, the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and the Baptist General Convention of Texas passed resolutions in 2003 affirming Jesus’ concern for ministry to the “alien” and “stranger” in the land and encouraged “proactive involvement of ministry activity among immigrants, documented and undocumented, through prayer and action,”

And whereas, the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas has advocated support for stronger border security, respect for the law, the creation of a guest worker program for those who desire to work in the United States, and a pathway of dignity and respect toward citizenship for undocumented immigrants in our nation,

And whereas, Jesus placed the poor and the oppressed at the center of his mission on earth,

Be it therefore resolved that Texas Baptist youth and singles at the 2006 Hispanic Youth and Singles Congreso representing over 1,200 Hispanic congregations encourage President Bush, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives to pass just and compassionate legislation that addresses stronger border security, respect for the law, and a process for citizenship with regard to U.S. undocumented immigrants.

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: 4/28/06

Missionaries refuse to resign under pressure

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—After receiving an April 15 ultimatum to resign or face termination, Wyman and Michelle Dobbs refused to resign as International Mission Board missionaries in Guinea, West Africa.

The couple was targeted for starting a church in Guinea that doesn’t meet the IMB guidelines and definition for a Baptist church. When the deadline passed, the Dobbses received a letter April 17 from an IMB regional director that said the missionaries will be terminated May 31.

The Dobbses, who have served an unreached people group in the mostly Muslim country eight years, started the church with the help of a missionary couple from the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical denomination with doctrinal standards and church governance very similar to those of Southern Baptists. The Dobbses have filed an appeal, which will be reviewed by a regional committee in May.

“I personally think this is an outrage,” said Jason Helmbacher, the Dobbses’ stateside pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Sallisaw, Okla. “I don’t believe it’s fair that they’ve been given an ultimatum based on misapplied policy. I just think it’s wrong.”

IMB Chairman Tom Hatley disagrees. Hatley said he must stand by IMB policy, which he said the Dobbses have violated. IMB policy states missionaries may plant churches in cooperation with non-Baptist missionaries who endorse the 2002 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement—as the CMA couple has—but those churches must have Baptist doctrine at their core.

It is unclear what doctrinal deviation is alleged in the Dobbses’ case, but it has been reported the Dobbses and the Christian and Missionary Alliance couple started a “baptistic” church—one Baptist in doctrine and polity but not in identity.

The new church established in Guinea is one of only a handful of Christian outposts in the predominantly Muslim country—and the first congregation affiliated with IMB missionaries.

Helmbacher, who said his church has sent three groups of people to work with the Dobbses in less than two years, said the action against the couple has created confusion for church members who have just begun to get excited about missions.

“Our church is struggling to understand this,” Helmbacher said. “They don’t understand the politics. They’ve been confused and upset.” Helmbacher said church members have written letters and made phone calls to IMB trustees, trying to gain support for the Dobbses. Helmbacher said he fears the appeal might not make it through the May committee meeting—or a subsequent trustee vote.

Trustee Chairman Hatley did not speculate on the appeal’s outcome. He said it is a “staff decision” about violated policies.

“It’s a work in progress,” Hatley said. “It could or it couldn’t go through.”

If the Dobbses’ firing is not reversed on appeal, the full trustee board will vote on the termination in a later plenary session.

The IMB staff does not discuss pending personnel issues. The trustees who run the International Mission Board have insisted on increasingly strict policies about acceptable theology and practice among missionaries—such as requiring that church-starts meet a stringent definition of what it means to be a Baptist church. Supporters say IMB missionaries must reflect the beliefs of the denomination that sends them. Critics say the stricter IMB policies go too far.

The news of the potential firing comes on the heels of another controversy over new IMB policies designed to prevent missionaries from using private charismatic practices and to narrow the parameters of acceptable modes of baptism for missionary appointees.

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: 4/28/06

Resolution on Baptist dissent submitted

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

ARLINGTON (ABP)—In a sign of the controversy threatening to engulf the Southern Baptist Convention’s upcoming annual meeting, a Texas pastor has formally submitted a resolution that accuses SBC leaders of trying to “silence principled dissent.”

Benjamin Cole, a leading critic of recent actions by the SBC’s International Mission Board, has sent his resolution, titled “On Baptist Dissent,” to the SBC Resolutions Committee, according to a popular weblog run by an IMB trustee.

Wade Burleson’s blog—www.wadeburleson.com—reported the action and the proposal’s final text April 18. It says Southern Baptists recognize that “majorities are not always right, and that it is necessary for the voice of dissent … to be welcomed and heard if the dangers of authoritarian confessionalism or tyrannical governance are to be withstood both in our denomination and the world.”

It goes on to state, “we regard all attempts to silence principled dissent by fellow Baptists within our denomination, or of any religious minority, as a compromise of our cherished Baptist witness and an egregious disservice to the kingdom of God,” and that Southern Baptists “affirm dissenters both within our denomination and without who raise objection to articles of our confession, policies of our institutions and governance of our agencies when that dissent has been voiced in a manner consistent with the teaching of Jesus Christ.”

Cole, pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Arlington—a congregation uniquely aligned with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention—earlier wrote an open letter suggesting Southern Baptists should vote during their meeting June 13-14 in Greensboro, N.C., to dismiss all the trustees of the IMB.

Cole’s ire was raised by the board’s January decision to recommend the convention dismiss Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., from his trustee post.

At the time, IMB trustee leaders had accused Burleson of “gossip and slander” for blogging about his opposition to restrictive new policies approved for IMB missionaries. Trustees later voted to rescind their request to remove Burleson, but they also approved a new policy that bars trustees from criticizing actions of the board.

That policy has proven as controversial as the original move to dismiss Burleson, particularly among younger pastors and laypeople who populate the SBC-related “blogosphere.”

Cole said in an interview he is the author of the resolution, an earlier version of which Burleson had posted on his website April 14. It wasn’t necessarily aimed solely at the IMB but at SBC agencies and leaders in general, he insisted.

“I really do think the cherished principle of dissent has been subverted in certain quarters of our denomination,” he said.

Cole also said he had submitted it to several other SBC pastors and leaders and that other Southern Baptists had run proposals for similar resolutions and motions by him. Discussion of such moves has dominated SBC blogs for weeks.

Among them may be a motion to force the IMB to re-think its controversial policy changes. Normally, motions messengers make from the floor of SBC meetings are referred to the agency they concern, and the agency’s trustees report back at the following year’s annual meeting. A two-thirds majority of the convention, however, can vote to require the agency to report back on the motion before the meeting is over.

In an April 17 post on his blog, “12 Witnesses,” Kentucky minister Art Rogers suggested that might happen during the Greensboro meeting.

“So, if a motion concerning policies at the IMB were ‘in order’ and therefore referred to the IMB’s (board of trustees), the convention could then direct, by 2/3 vote, that the (trustees) answer back to the convention before we dismissed,” he said. “Now, this does not give the convention the right to tell the IMB what to do concerning any policy, but it does give the convention the opportunity to express its mind clearly to the IMB’s governing body.”

Under SBC governing documents, only trustees of an agency—not the convention as a whole—can set policy for the agency.

The moves could be part of the stormiest SBC annual meeting since the decades-long battle between moderates and fundamentalists for control of the denomination during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The moderates, who lost, largely stopped attending SBC meetings and went on to form their own missionary-sending agencies and other institutions.

Little controversy has erupted at SBC meetings since then. But that may change this summer. In another sign of a brewing controversy, supporters of the SBC’s current leadership say the newfound dissent is actually an attack on Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, who was one of the two architects of the rise of fundamentalists in the SBC.

Marty Duren, a Georgia pastor who owns the blog sbcoutpost.com, quoted letters April 14 from two conservative Texas leaders defending Patterson and targeting the IMB critics.

According to several IMB observers, Patterson is believed to be behind the controversial new IMB policies. Duren wrote that the letters defending Patterson are examples of how Patterson’s political machinery is retooling itself for a new fight—this time with fellow fundamentalists upset over the IMB’s moves.

“Yes, the signs are all in place and apparently the stars are aligned as the machine is belching forth black smoke while the carbon deposits are burned off the pistons and the framework is beginning to rock (and) sway,” Duren wrote.

“Do not be deceived, the SBC is resting between two visions: the past and the future, legalism and freedom, monument and movement, staidness and creativity, bureaucracy and restructure, law and Spirit, oligarchy and grass roots. … Apathy, this year, is capitulation to the status quo.”

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.