Updated: 1/19/07

Young adults will leave church
if they’re overlooked, study says

By Libby Lovelace

LifeWay Christian Resources

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—More young adults are falling away from church and finding church irrelevant to their lives because their needs are not being met, new statistics released by LifeWay Christian Resources revealed.

In 1980, more than 100,000 people age 18 to 34 were baptized in Southern Baptist churches. But in 2005, that number fell to 60,000—a drastic drop considering the United States population has climbed above 300 million.

What’s the problem? Why are young adults not finding church relevant for their lives? LifeWay Research sought to find answers by conducting an eight-month research project that included interviews with unchurched adults, regular church attenders and church leaders from geographical regions throughout the United States.

Churchgoers or not, the study results indicate young adults are longing for community and fellowship with peers, looking for ways to reach people in need and circling the church but not always finding a home in it.

Seventy-three percent of church members and 47 percent of nonaffiliated young adults indicated community with other young adults is extremely important in their lives.

The lack of opportunity for connection within the church proves to be a frustration point for young adults. One study participant said, “After graduation, they give you a pat on the back and say, ‘When you start a family, we’ll be here for you.’”

Another respondent said: “Young adults are in the middle—not married, not old enough, not in high school. (We’re) in this ‘ugh’ stage.”

The second-most -mportant thing for young adult churchgoers is participation in small-group meetings to discuss life application of Scripture, according to 71 percent of the respondents. Both churchgoers and those not affiliated said they want to participate in Bible study that minimizes finding pat answers in the exploration of Scripture.

One study respondent indicated it’s not always about one person with all the answers because there is value in the combined knowledge and experiences of others. Another study participant put the importance of small-group meetings this way: “What draws people is a climate of honesty. We don’t come and say we’re going to hide from each other … and give Sunday school answers.”

The small-group atmosphere also is where this generation can find “advice from individuals with similar experiences,” the respondent said, which is one of the top five most important things to both churched and unchurched young adults, with 68 percent and 45 percent, respectively, saying it’s very important.

Some young adults are finding such advice through connection with adults in their 50s, 60s and 70s.

Another high-ranking priority of today’s young adult population is the opportunity to meet the needs of others through social action on a regular basis. Sixty-six percent of churchgoers rated this as extremely important in their lives, and 47 percent of non-churchgoers said the same.

The study indicates social action is a big entryway to the church for young adults. In fact, social action is cited as the major reason unchurched young adults would consider being part of a church.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Updated: 1/19/07

Texas Baptist leaders applaud
call for inclusive convocation

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

ATLANTA—Texas Baptist leaders affirmed former President Jimmy Carter’s call for an inclusive convocation of North American Baptists next year.

Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade joined Carter and more than 80 leaders of about 40 Baptist groups in announcing plans for convocation, tentatively slated for Jan. 30-Feb.1, 2008, in Atlanta.

Some BGCT leaders joined representatives from the Baptist World Alliance, American Baptist Churches, National Baptist Convention USA, Canadian Baptist Ministries, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and other groups last April in signing the North American Baptist Covenant, a document that reaffirms traditional Baptist values and calls for cooperation.

“There was a time when Baptists in America worked together across the nation,” Wade said. “That unity was lost in the middle 19th century. It was a thrilling experience to see Baptists of every race and ethnicity in North America working together and affirming a Baptist covenant to speak biblically and prophetically to our cultures. This is a call for Baptists to address the needs of the world.”

BGCT President Steve Vernon also voiced his support for the new Baptist alliance, which unifies Baptists across racial, geographical and theological lines into a network to address social ills and share the gospel.

“It excites me. I see it as a positive thing that will help the cause of Baptists and of Christ across the nation,” Vernon said. “I think what has happened is that across the nation the voice of Baptists has been perceived as the Southern Baptist Convention. The new national alliance will broaden the voice of Baptists and be more inclusive of all strains of Baptists. This alliance is more reflective of who Baptists are.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Updated: 1/19/07

Baptist leaders insist covenant
offers chance to heal racial wounds

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

ATLANTA (ABP)—Advocates of the New Baptist Covenant championed by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton predicted it will help heal the racial divide that has separated Baptists in America since before the Civil War.

Speaking on behalf of 40 Baptist denominations and organizations in the United States and Canada Jan. 9, Carter and Clinton—two of the world’s most famous Baptist laymen—announced the groups had committed to put aside more than a century and a half of social and theological differences to unite behind an agenda of compassionate ministry.

The effort will begin with a Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant, a gathering set for late January 2008, which Carter called “one of the most historic events at least in the history of Baptists in this country, maybe Christianity.”

Baptist harmony was broken, at least in the United States, in the mid-1800s. That’s when divisions between Baptists in the North and South overwhelmed the missionary spirit that previously brought them together.

“Probably not since 1845 has this kind of effort been made to bring together Baptists black and white … and of diverse theological and regional backgrounds,” said Bill Leonard, a Baptist historian and dean of the Wake Forest Divinity School. “And that means it is terribly historic.”

Most Baptists in the United States came together in 1814 to form a missionary society known as the Triennial Convention. Southern Baptists broke away over the slavery issue in 1845. Since then, Baptists have splintered even further.

“For the healing of the nation and the healing of the world, we as Baptists have to experience our own healing,” said Daniel Vestal, national coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “And I think this represents a step, an effort, a commitment to bring healing between us, renewal between us—black and white Baptists, North and South Baptists, and, frankly, conservative and moderate Baptists. There is great power in that healing.”

In recent years, the four largest of the predominantly African-American Baptist conventions began meeting jointly. They plan to do so again in 2008 in Atlanta, then join with Baptists of many stripes a few days later for the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.

“We could not do this in this way without the kind of commitment that the African-American Baptist groups have brought to the table,” said Leonard, one of the participants in the Carter Center planning meeting. “That’s what makes this historic.”

“There is a cry for healing,” said Roy Medley, general secretary of the American Baptist Churches USA. The vision of Baptists coming together could encourage American Baptists soured by their denomination’s fragmentation over homosexuality, Medley said.

“For a lot of our young people, they are very disenchanted at the church breaking apart and splintering,” he said. “This is a chance for us to reach out to them and say this ideal of love that Christ has given us is something that we really want to be operative in the life of the church as well. And that can help us bridge differences that are genuine differences.”

No one expects the convocation to produce a merger of the myriad Baptist groups in North America. But the prospect of collaboration around evangelism and social causes—as described by Jesus in Luke 4: 18-19—left many Baptists assembled in Atlanta Jan. 9 euphoric.

“This is an exciting time for us to be Baptist,” said David Goatley, current president of the North American Baptist Fellowship—a regional affiliate of the Baptist World Alliance. Goatley is also executive secretary of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society, a historic African-American Baptist ministry. “We stand at the threshold of something unprecedented.”

“What you are seeing here today at the Carter Center is a historic demonstration of Baptist unity,” said Mercer University President Bill Underwood who, with Carter, spearheaded the initiative. “Baptists made an important decision here today, a decision to focus on issues that bind us together as followers of Christ rather than dwell on the differences that surely exist among us.”

Clinton told reporters that those who “did not have both the privilege and the burden to be raised in the Baptist church cannot possibly appreciate” how unique such cooperation is. “This is an attempt to bring people together and say, “What would our Christian witness require of us in the 21st century?’” he said.

“We will be addressing issues in nonpartisan ways but in prophetic ways,” said William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, one of the largest African-American denominations.

“We are looking for ways to put feet to our faith,” said Dewitt Smith, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the African-American body founded by Martin Luther King and others.

“It is possible to be together and to differ on our opinions. When it comes to the things that will help humanity, we must take a prophetic stance—we must take a strong social-action agenda and make it work. I believe what is happening here today is an indication that this will work.”

“I was just glad to see Baptists do something together in a unified way and especially to set a positive image for who Baptists are,” said Emmanuel McCall, an African-American pastor from Atlanta and BWA officer who currently serves as moderator of the mostly white Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Daniel Vestal, national coordinator of the CBF, said the Carter initiative fills a need for “a broader Baptist witness that is committed to social justice as well as evangelism.”

The 2008 convocation will connect participants with ministries and resources on such topics as prophetic preaching, ecology, sexual trafficking, racism, religious liberty, poverty, HIV/AIDS, religious diversity, public policy, youth issues, evangelism with integrity, stewardship and the spiritual disciplines.

Leonard, the historian, said such collaboration for ministry “mirrors those (19th century) societies that the Baptists founded, where they chose to work not so much on the basis of how much they agreed but on what they wanted to do.”

While the Baptists who came together in Atlanta Jan. 9 were thrilled to have the support of two former presidents—both Democrats—they also recognized their movement will be limited if only moderate and progressive Baptists, and only Democrats, get on board.

Mercer’s Underwood told reporters at the Atlanta announcement that Carter and Clinton “are not here in their capacity as political leaders, they are not here in their capacity as Democrats. They are here today in their capacity as Baptists. We anticipate that there will be many other Baptists participating in this endeavor who also happen to be public officials that happen to be Republican.”

McCall agreed: “I think it’s very important so that it doesn’t come off as a political thing. It would be easy to interpret, with the two Democratic presidents, that it was a political thing. I think it’s important to find other Republican Baptists and bring them into it.”

“If this is seen as a Democratic agenda, that won’t benefit any of us,” said ABC’s Medley. “And if it doesn’t do the pan-Baptist thing, then it will have failed. I hope we do have conservative folk there, as well as progressive and moderate folk. Regardless of where we may be in political parties and things like that, these are things that we’re committed to as the body of Christ, and that agenda is larger than a political agenda.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Updated: 1/19/07

Reyes sees move to Buckner as natural progression

By Marv Knox

Editor

Although Albert Reyes’ recent career change caught many Texas Baptists by surprise, he sees it as the next step in God’s plan for his life: An opportunity to minister to millions of orphans whose lives may make an impact on the world.

Nearly eight years ago, Reyes became president of Baptist University of the Americas, a multi-cultural training school for ministers in San Antonio. Under his leadership, BUA multiplied its enrollment, gained certification to grant academic degrees, earned national accreditation and launched a campaign to construct a new campus.

Reyes, 48, soon became one of Texas Baptists’ most visible leaders. He served as the first Hispanic president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Then he landed on almost anyone’s short list of candidates to succeed Charles Wade as BGCT executive director when Wade retires.

So, many people expressed shock when Reyes decided to join Buckner International as president of Buckner Children & Family Services Jan. 1.

“I saw that this would be a natural progression of what I have been doing—doing something with the life I have left and giving aid to the poorest of the poor,” he reflected.

Actually, Reyes’ new job clearly complements his life mission statement: “To develop kingdom leaders from my circle of influence to the ends of the earth.”

When he was a young church planter in El Paso, Reyes sought to fulfill that mission by leading people to faith in Christ, discipling them and training them to lead others.

At the time, he thought he would retire there, in Texas’ fourth-largest city and a vast Hispanic mission field. “I said, ‘We can do this for the rest of our lives,’” he recalled.

But the presidential search committee from Hispanic Baptist Theological Seminary, as BUA then was called, challenged that notion. Reyes eventually concluded he could fulfill his mission more rapidly by heading the school for Christian leaders. Rather than starting with non-Christians, he would be working with Christians who already knew God wanted them to be ministers.

Reyes hit the ground running in San Antonio. He guided the school through a name change, accreditation, faculty and student expansion, and the first steps of a move to a new, larger campus.

“I was prepared to do whatever I could to ensure our Hispanic community had the opportunity every Baptist has in Texas,” he said. “We had provided non-accredited, non-degreed education (to Hispanics) for 60 years. Why not provide accredited theological education at the undergraduate level focused on cross-cultural Christian leadership? Our students’ challenge never has been intelligence, but opportunity. I went fast because we needed to catch up. We need wave after wave of leaders to come forward.”

Once again, Reyes thought he was set for life. Once again, he thought again.

The process began during his term as BGCT president, when he preached to the convention’s Executive Board about a “Jesus agenda”—ministry to the poor, the children, the widows, the world’s disenfranchised.

But during a BUA chapel service, Reyes acknowledged to himself, “I don’t know if I even know any poor people.” He concluded his ministry at BUA provided new bridges for under-served young people with dreams for higher education and leadership … for those who were economically challenged. 

“For most of my ministry, I had been focusing on the seeds of the gospel—on faith—but not on the deeds of the gospel,” he conceded. “But when I learned of the Buckner opportunity, I felt this was doing Jesus’ mission full-throttle, personally impacting the poorest of the poor, children who don’t even have parents.”

That meant turning loose of his leadership at BUA—leadership many of the school’s supporters have felt is vital to its academic and financial success. But Reyes believes this is his time to go.

“God is the one who makes things grow,” Reyes said of the school’s recent transformation and potential for training cross-cultural leadership. He sees his own gifts as being a “catalytic person” who lays the foundation for change. “I’m in my best zone when I’m reformatting, re-engineering, reorganizing a ministry.”

That process has been completed at BUA, he added. “We don’t need a new vision. We pretty well have a pattern set. I feel like I’m finished; I’m done. It’s time to get out of the way” and allow someone with other gifts to fulfill the vision.

Some of Reyes’ friends and admirers have questioned his sense of timing, wondering why he wouldn’t stay at BUA a bit longer, opening the possibility that he could become the BGCT executive director, staff leader of the state convention.

“I’m extremely flattered,” Reyes said of that idea. “Maybe I’m just a bit naïve, but I respond to the opportunities that are there and to the sense of God leading me at the time. I’m not being asked to lead the BGCT; I’m being asked to lead Buckner.”

“The BGCT has tremendous potential,” he noted. “We are going through a transition, a change of identity as a denomination at this critical time in missions history. The future will require a leader who can present a compelling vision of how we can thrive in a postmodern, postdenominational, post-Christian world.”

At this juncture, Reyes interprets his new Buckner responsibility as an opportunity to fulfill his life mission statement all the way “to the ends of the earth.”

He will serve alongside Ken Hall, president of Buckner International, the parent organization that includes Buckner Foundation, the fund-raising component; Buckner Retirement Services, a ministry to senior adults and their families; and Buckner Children & Family Services, which includes a range of ministries to children and their families, including adoption, foster care, emergency and relief care, support for overseas orphanages, and ministry to at-risk children and their families.

“My unique assignment will be to transform Buckner from a Texas-based, Baptist-related institution with national and international ministries, to be a nationally based ministry to children and families with a global reach,” Reyes said.

“Right now, Buckner ministers in cities across the United States and in many cities around the world. The difference will be that we will broaden our base of support and participation across the nation. We will mobilize Christians, churches, colleges and universities, and raise up Christians to say, ‘Let’s bless the nations.’”

Quoting missions researcher Phillip Jenkins, Reyes stressed: “The Third World doesn’t need the gospel. They have the gospel. They need the incarnational gospel. They need our resources, so the presence of Christ can impact their societies.”

Reyes’ eyes light up when he talks about the presence of Christ impacting global societies.

“Think about the leadership potential of 143 million orphans in the world,” he commanded. Buckner doesn’t touch them all, but it touches many.

“We take care of their needs. They are fed, given shoes and, to the best of our ability, provided clothes and foster families,” he said. “I want to push the envelope a bit more and say: ‘What if we were to focus on the leadership potential of those children in those countries? What about their educational opportunities, with nine (Baptist) universities in Texas and others across the country?’ What if we were to say, ‘We will do something about the educational threshhold of these children?’”

The answer to those questions lies in understanding God’s will for American Christians in a hurting world, Reyes observed. “How long is the God of redemptive history and justice going to allow us to have everything? Buckner can be a galvanizing tool to demonstrate what we can do with educational systems, economic strategies and congregational connections so we can fulfill our responsibility to those children.”

Similarly, Buckner’s responsibility is to help children live with families, he added, noting any design to build orphanages for all the world’s orphans is not a good business plan.

“Can we provide (foster and adopted) families for those children?” he asked. The best plan is to develop an economic strategy that will enable families in orphan children’s communities and regions to care for them, he explained.

In addition to education, economics and healthy families, Buckner must help provide churches that will enable all those children to experience the love of Christ, Reyes said.

“We need outposts for the kingdom of God,” he insisted. “Once you do the other (provide education, economic investment, care and families for the children), you’re not going to have any trouble starting churches.”

The key to fulifilling that global vision is working with churches, Reyes reported.

“What is happening in missions today is churches everywhere have said, ‘We have a local identity and a global identity, and we’re going to get on with it,’” he said. “Churches are already taking the lead on mission.”

So, the challenge for missions agencies such as Buckner is to catch up with the churches and enhance their ministries, he added. “It’s not just coming alongside the congregation, but tapping the potential of the members. Most churches only recognize the local half of their identity. The other half is global. Many laypeople already have global resources and connections. How can we connect those resources to what we’re doing?”

Collaboration with churches will produce an effective and efficient—and redemptive—model for bringing the presence of Christ into direct contact with the world’s poorest and most needy people, he predicted.

When Reyes thinks about how much God has blessed Texas Baptists and other U.S. Christians, he recalls Psalm 67. That Scripture says God is gracious to and blesses God’s people so God’s ways will be known on all the earth and so the nations may be glad.

“There is a reason we have what we have: So we can be a blessing to others,” he said. “The nations will be glad when God’s people bless them. We’ve been blessed; we’ve been forgiven; we’ve been given God’s favor. Why? So God’s ways will be known. And if God’s ways are known, then the nations will be glad. …

“Buckner is uniquely positioned to do what Psalm 67 says. And anybody who wants to join is welcome. We’re ready. We’re trying to catch up with what God’s doing.”

And for Reyes, that activity expands Buckner’s ministry all the way “to the ends of the earth.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Updated: 1/19/07

Hall: 'Still a lot for me to do’ at Buckner

By Marv Knox

Editor

The selection of Albert Reyes to lead Buckner Children & Family Services signals not only a decisive personnel change, but also a shift in vision and focus for Buckner International, Ken Hall insists.

Now, Buckner is poised to present Christ—not only spiritually, but also physically—to the world’s poorest children, said Hall, president of Buckner International, which encompasses not only ministry to children and their families, but also care for senior adults, as well as fund-raising support for the ministries.

“We were doing very well, and God was blessing us and giving us multiple opportunities to extend our outreach to hurting children,” Hall recalled. “But I began to sense the need was so great for the children of the world. And the vacuum in our Baptist world regarding ministries to the least of these in the world was profound.”

At the same time, Buckner possessed enough goodwill among Baptists to allocate the human and material resources for a tangible ministry worldwide, he added.

“It comes down to Jesus’ parable of the talents,” Hall explained. “We had an abundance of blessings, and I felt it was time to invest them in a way that is less regionalized and more kingdom-centered.”

Once that trajectory was set, Hall realized he needed help to accomplish the new mission. “I couldn’t manage the overall organization and give attention to the growth,” he conceded. “And after 13 years on the job, … I had to ask, ‘Am I the best person to lead the growth?’ I was going to have to force people to think of me differently.”

So, Buckner launched a search for the right person to lead its revamped children and family division. Reyes surfaced among a list of “magnificent names,” Hall said.

“Since I made the choice (to select Reyes) in October, I’ve had it affirmed hundreds of times,” he added. Specifically, he cited an early-January trip to Guatemala, where Reyes led an evening meeting of Guatemalan Buckner employees—entirely in Spanish.

“Where I have to struggle to be cross-cultural, Albert is in his element; he’s a natural,” Hall noted. “It was a wonderful thing to watch.”

For several months, some Texas Baptists have speculated Hall wants Reyes in place at Buckner so Hall can succeed Charles Wade as executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas when Wade retires.

But Hall stressed he’s staying put at Buckner. Much of his life and ministry points to child care: His wife, Linda, grew up in Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home. His doctoral studies focused on creating effective ministries for children. As a pastor, he worked on ministry to children and the poor. And he’s been at Buckner more than a dozen years.

“Just as I’m not the one to grow Buckner’s ministries to the next level, I am the right one to consolidate our victories … and to manage this $350 million ministry,” he said. “I’m still at a point where I can raise significant funds, and that frees Albert to focus on growing the ministry. Also, Buckner is larger than children and family services. Plus, I’m available to mentor and develop Albert. There’s still a lot for me to do.”

Besides, leading Buckner is more to his liking than leading the BGCT.

“I’m used to being a pastor and the CEO of a corporation, where you can do things quickly,” he explained. “I can get really frustrated with all the steps and processes you have to go through to be a denominational bureaucrat.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Updated: 1/19/07

Bloggers seek to launch movement

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

MESQUITE—Some participants called the meeting the start of a movement, and others labeled it the launch of an organization. Whatever form it may take, a small group of Texas Baptists met to discuss ways to fund some Baptist General Convention of Texas ministries to which their churches are committed—but not necessarily support a state convention in which they feel they have no voice.

Three Baptist bloggers—Kevin Holmes, pastor of Edgemont Park Baptist Church in Mesquite; Rick Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brownwood; and David Montoya, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Mineral Wells—convened the group Jan. 16 in Mesquite.

“This is not a finished product. We’re not here to unveil a done-up plan. We need to seek God in this thing,” Davis told the 20 who attended, including several who publicly identified themselves as observers rather than participants.

Davis noted several people sent regrets that icy roads or last-minute church obligations prevented their attendance. About a half-dozen participated online.

Some speakers expressed continuing frustration with the BGCT over mismanaged church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley, but most participants focused on a ruling by the chair at the BGCT annual meeting.

When Montoya made a motion at the annual meeting that the convention itself—not just the BGCT Executive Board—ask for a criminal investigation by legal authorities of the Valley church-starting fund scandal, then-President Michael Bell ruled the motion out of order.

Reading from a statement prepared by the parliamentarian, Bell explained the Executive Board has sole authority to act in the interim between annual meetings of the convention. Board action at an executive session immediately prior to the annual meeting “pre-empted any action” by convention messengers, Bell said.

“If that ruling stands, it disenfranchises the messengers in terms of the day-to-day operations of the convention,” Holmes said. “That makes me real nervous. … It means churches are no longer cooperating partners (with the BGCT). We’re just there to feed the machine.”

Participants at the meeting agreed to send a letter to the Executive Board leaders prior to the board’s Feb. 26-27 meeting, asking the board to revisit the ruling and take steps to ensure changes are made in governing documents to protect the right of messengers to vote on substantive issues. They decided to circulate a proposed letter by e-mail to meeting participants and post it on several blogs so other people also can sign it.

The board already plans to deal with the issue and clarify decision-making authority, Executive Board Executive Director Charles Wade said in an interview.

“We want to make clear that the convention in session is the final authority. The Executive Board only has the authority the convention gives to it between annual meetings,” Wade said.

At the Mesquite meeting, Holmes asked whether disgruntled Texas Baptists should mobilize like-minded messengers to attend the 2007 annual meeting in Amarillo, Oct. 29-30.

“Messengers do still have recourse,” he said. “At this point, messengers can still go through proper channels to make changes.”

Montoya—who said he had defended the BGCT in the past—questioned whether the existing denominational bureaucracy had become irrelevant.

“Can we find a way to channel funds to ministries without the tremendous overhead of the palace in Dallas?” he asked regarding the traditional mechanism for distributing funds through the Executive Board staff.

Davis urged participants to “move on to the future by returning to the distant past,” to a time when churches made individual decisions about which missions causes and institutions they want to fund.

The group briefly talked about an idea Davis had proposed on his blog—allowing churches to work with a licensed and bonded third-party accountant who would distribute contributions to Baptist causes as directed by the church, without the overhead expenses of a Baptist Building.

“Let local churches under God make the determination about with whom they will choose to partner,” Davis said. “We have the technology. Do we have the will?”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 1/19/07

Pastor sees end of one
congregation as ‘New Beginning’

By Greg Garrison

Religion News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS)—Midfield First Baptist Church, which had dwindled to about 40 mostly elderly, white worshippers, recently held its last service in the church building it had called home for nearly 50 years.

A week later, it handed over the keys—and its $1.8 million property—to a predominantly African-American congregation—New Beginnings Baptist Church—in a property giveaway that gives new meaning to the church’s name.

“Somebody came up with the idea, why don’t we just give them the building,” said Eugene Nail, 78, pastor of Midfield First Baptist since 2000. “It was built with tithes and offerings, and it’s the Lord’s building anyway.”

As one church dies away and another is born, Nail called it an “old ending and a new beginning.”

“We’re going to turn it over to them—the church and everything in it,” Nail said. “Midfield First Baptist will cease to exist. … The town needs ministering to. Our people are too old. They had to kiss reality in the mouth.”

Midfield First Baptist no longer had a choir, but it had a praise ensemble made up of five women in their 70s.

“We wanted to close with dignity,” said Gene Hayes, Midfield’s minister of music. “Our people saw it was a good thing to continue our legacy through this group of people.”

Midfield Baptist was founded in 1952 as a mission of another nearby Baptist church. The congregation held tent services before the education building went up in 1958. The 600-seat sanctuary was built in 1966. Back then, Midfield Baptist was thriving.

“It’s always been blue collar, U.S. Steel people,” Hayes said. “It’s always been a generous and missions-minded church.”

In the late 1960s, the church had 900 members and attendance of about 600 in Sunday school classes, said Hayes’ wife, Gloria, who has played organ and piano at the church for nearly 40 years. “We had a vibrant church,” she said.

The Hayeses arrived at Midfield First Baptist with their 4-year-old daughter, Terri, in 1967. “She was baptized in the church, she was married in the church, her first baby was dedicated in the church,” Mrs. Hayes said.

Their daughter, and the children of other members, generally moved on when they reached adulthood. Many of the remaining elderly members come from a distance back to Midfield to attend services.

“They stay out of loyalty,” said Nail. “That brick and mortar is sacred to them. They joined the church there, their children were baptized there and married in the church.”

The campus has a cemetery on the property that dates to the 1840s and includes the grave of Nail’s great-great-grandmother.

New Beginnings will take over the cemetery, the buildings and all the contents, including office equipment and the nine-foot Steinway concert grand piano.

“They are deeding over the property and its contents so their legacy of ministry can continue in this part of the city,” said Angulus Wilson, pastor of the 200-member New Beginnings congregation.

New Beginnings, started in 2003, had been holding services at two other local Baptist churches. “We outgrew those facilities,” Wilson said. “We continue to be ministry partners with both those churches.”

Wilson said the demographics of the neighborhood near the Midfield church campus are 60 percent black, 40 percent white.

“We can grow in a bigger facility and minister to a hurting community,” Wilson said.

The remaining Midfield First Baptist members likely will follow their children to other churches, Nail said.

“We are sad but excited for the new church and what it will mean for the community,” Gloria Hayes said.

Greg Garrison writes for The Birmingham News in Birmingham, Ala.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 1/19/07

Around the State

• J.B. Boren, current dean of the Wayland Baptist University campus in Albuquerque, N.M., has been named dean of the campus in Amarillo, effective in February. He has served in Albuquerque since 2003.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor awarded degrees to 156 undergraduate students and 19 master’s-degree students during winter commencement. Martha Farris, a 1942 graduate, presented the commencement address and received an honorary doctor of humanities degree for her contributions to her community and the university. The Alpha Chi Award for the highest grade-point average was shared by Catherine Chadwell, Lauren Graber, Michelle Hodges, Brandi Mordan, Jelle Scheepstra and Barbara Wright.

• Dallas Baptist University has added four faculty members. They are Debra Collins, assistant professor of library science and library cataloguer; Evelyn Daniels, assistant professor of management; June Elms, assistant professor of kinesiology; and Dionisio Flietas, assistant professor of mathematics.

• Karen Wiley has been named director of the office of institutional research and effectiveness at East Texas Baptist University. Wiley has served the school more than 20 years, most recently as assistant professor of computer science.

• Amanda Etter has been named director of marketing at Hardin-Simmons University. A 2005 graduate of the school, she has been an HSU admissions consultant.

• Three Baylor University students recently participated in a national fellowship of university leaders in Washington, D.C. They were Sara Sommers, Christine Lenihan and Nekpen Osuan.

• Two Texas pastors graduated with doctoral degrees from New Orleans Theological Seminary last month. Kris Segrest, pastor of First Church in Wylie, and Jeffrey Berger, pastor of South Avenue Church in Pasadena, both received doctor of ministry degrees.

Anniversaries

• Lynn Garrett, 10th, as minister to senior adults at First Church in Amarillo, Jan. 14.

• Jeff Raines, 10th, as associate pastor of missions at First Church in Amarillo, Jan. 14.

• Airway Church in Houston, 50th, Jan. 28. Former Pastor Will Passmore will preach in the morning service. A lunch and afternoon program will follow. For more information, call (713) 991-7677. Ed Parker is pastor.

• Danny Biddy, 30th, as pastor of Old River Church in Dayton, Feb. 4.

• First Church in Nederland, 100th, March 3-4. Saturday’s activities include an 8 a.m. golf tournament, a 9 a.m. prayer service at the congregation’s original location on Boston Avenue, a 10:30 a.m. women’s brunch; a 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. open house at the church; and a reception beginning at 5 p.m. that will feature former staff members. Sunday morning’s service will be followed by a luncheon. For more information, call (409) 722-0263. David Higgs is pastor.

Retiring

• Bud Lovell, after 35 years as minister of music at Cliff Temple Church in Dallas, Dec. 31. He and his wife, Elaine, will live in Somerville.

Deaths

• Timothy Veatch, 45, Nov. 29 in Texarkana. He was minister of music at Downtown First Church in Texarkana. He is survived by his wife, Evelyn; daughters, Candace and Lauren Veatch; parents, Johnny and Sue Veatch; and sister, Vicki Robinson.

• Ruth Marsh, Jan. 3 in Arab, Ala. She was the wife of longtime Southwestern Sem-inary professor Leon Marsh. She is survived by her husband of 53 years; brother, Wallace Shamburger; and sister, Mrs. W.E. Smith.

• Roy Sims, 86, Jan. 4 in Galveston. He was pastor of South Buckner First Church in Dallas 27 years before retiring to Galveston. He was preceded in death by his wife, Helen, and son, Dennis. He is survived by his sons, Steve and Michael; daughter, Sharon Svarplaitis; brother, James; 13 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

• Roger Maddox, 56, Jan. 12 in a car accident north of Mangum, Okla. He lost control of his vehicle on an icy highway returning from his mother’s funeral. His wife and daughter were in the vehicle but were not seriously injured. He was pastor of First Church in Haslet and a resident fellow of the B.H. Carroll Institute. He previously was pastor of churches in Colleyville and Arnett, Okla. He was preceded in death by an infant sister, Judy. He is survived by his wife, Judy; daughter, Deidra Ford; sister, Susan Wood; and three grandchildren.

Events

• First Church in Devers will hold a chili cookoff and gospel sing Jan. 27 at 5 p.m. For more information, call (936) 549-7653. Harry McDaniel is pastor.

• A benefit for The Baptist Children’s Home, a ministry of Baptist Child and Family Services, will be held Feb. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at San Antonio College. A silent auction and performing artists will highlight the event.

Ground broken for Alzheimer's Center addition

Ground has been broken for The Green Houses at Sagecrest, the expansion project for Sagecrest Alzheimer's Care Center, a 52-bed dementia facility in San Angelo that remains full and has a growing waiting list.

The Green Houses facility is designed like a home inside and out, breaking away from the traditional hospital design and model of care.

Participating in the groundbreaking were, from right, Wes Wells, administrator of the Sagecrest Alzheimer's Care Center; Pat Crump, president and CEO of Baptist Memorials Ministries; Wayne Merrill, president emeritus of Baptist Memorials Ministries; and Kevin McSpadden, chaplain of Baptist Retirement Community.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 1/19/07

Born-again bikers running
full-throttle for Jesus

By Kay Campbell

Religion News Service

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (RNS)—The cruisers rumble into the parking lot in quick pairs. The riders dismount, shaking ponytails out of their helmets. They’ve got patches on their leather jackets, tattoos on their arms and eyes that have seen everything.

But these bikers have Jesus in their hearts and Bibles in their saddlebags.

“The Hellfighters are sold-out, 100 percent, foot-stomping, Bible-thumping Christians,” said Richard Headrick, a bike-riding sign painter from Laurel, Miss., who started the Hellfighters motorcycle ministry a few years ago. “Only the bold will qualify.”

Possum Pierce, with a crucifix mounted to his motorcycle, is a member of the Hellfighters bikers ministry in Huntsville, Ala.

Headrick and his wife, Gina, came to Huntsville to meet with a group of Hellfighters—one of their 10 national chapters—that meets at the International Worship Center, a nondenominational church led by mild-mannered Pastor Mark Beaird.

Beaird, who says his ride is a red Schwinn bicycle with a card stuck into the spokes for some extra noise, welcomes the group of unconventional Christians as part of the flock of about 100 at the church.

“I don’t care if they wear leather to church or not,” Beaird said. “Give me someone who wears leather and wins souls over someone who wears a suit and never talks to anybody about God.”

The Hellfighters aren’t shy about talking about God.

“Being aggressive is a must,” said James Caffery, an ex-con and a member of Hellfighters. “We kind of like you to be a born-again heathen. Sure, we ride and we eat, but our main concern is to tell people about Jesus. We’ll pretty well go in anywhere.”

The bikers have ridden to Sturgis, the infamous two-week rally that draws upwards of 500,000 bikers to South Dakota every August. It’s famous for scantily clad women, drunkenness, good bands and full-throttle hedonism.

“Sturgis is where Satan is,” Headrick said.

But it’s also where, the bikers say, Jesus would want them to be, handing out their bikers’ Bibles and tracts and sounding their relentless call to turn to Jesus.

They figure their past qualifies them for that ministry in a way no seminary ever could.

“Jesus Christ did not use Goody Two-Shoes to take his message,” said David Bates, a psychiatric nurse who’s come out the other side of drug addiction and mental illness. “He used people like in this room. We’re survivors.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 1/19/07

Book Reviews

The Way of the Wild Heart by John Eldredge (Nelson Books)

The premise of John Eldredge’s latest book is simple—“acting as a true Father, and you his true son, God is now raising you up as a son.” Intentional training and initiation is the mode presented by which boys are raised into men. Like every book on men, Eldredge bemoans what is lacking in our churches today. But different from most other books is his plan to correct what has been lost.

Having once been adamantly against Eldredge’s approach to men, I came to this book with my doubts. I still find his theological foundations to be weak at times but improved over Wild at Heart. God the risk taker of Wild at Heart gives way now to God the warrior in The Way of the Wild Heart. The constant hunt for a wound in need of healing also wears on me, but that may be because I am blessed with a great earthly father.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

This book probably was under many Christmas trees recently, and I believe that is a good thing. Eldredge’s clarity in describing his understanding of the stages of manhood is helpful and thought-provoking. His openness with his own life as a son and as a father is engaging. Many fathers will benefit from the chapters following the description of each man-stage, which detail how to intentionally raise your own son.

The strength of this book is in Eldredge’s faithfulness to point men to God as their Father. You may have grown up in a home and currently attend a church that is full of males but devoid of men. God is ready and able to love you and raise you as his son.

Unfortunately, the weakness is tied to the strength. Lacking,

aside from some quick references, is the role of Scripture in becoming a man. The reader gets the opinion that there is more to learn about being a man from movies like Lord of the Rings, The Kingdom of Heaven and The Lion King and mountain climbing than from God’s word. We need to be men, and we need to learn from others’ examples, but priority of place must be given to Scripture.

Paul Duncan, pastor

Mambrino Baptist Church

Granbury

Between Pacifism and Jihad: Just War and Christian Tradition by J. Daryl Charles (InterVarsity Press)

In these tumultuous times of terrorism, violence and warfare, how is the believer in Christ to think about such subjects? Does the Bible speak about war and peace and whether or not it is right to engage in military affairs? What about Jesus’ teaching to “turn the other cheek”? What have thoughtful and intelligent Christians generally believed about war and the use of force through the centuries that can inform our modern worldviews?

Daryl Charles, associate professor of religion and ethics at Union University, states that instead of starting with the unbiblical assumptions of peace being “the absence of war,” we must think with a more biblical foundation—peace is a state of justice and righteousness. When injustice is done, we must use biblical moral reasoning and love of neighbor to shun the ex-tremes of stand-back, isolationary pacifism and self-righteous, excessive militarism.

Charles also explores the differences in what the Bible teaches about dealing with personal conflicts and understanding the proper functions of governments and authorities.

“When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers” (Proverbs 21:15).

Greg Bowman

Minister to students

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

Spiritual Wisdom for Successful Retirement: Living Forward by C.W. Brister (Haworth Pastoral Press)

Upon retirement, my father moved to 50 acres and built his dream home. Two years later, we walked through his pasture, and I asked how he was enjoying his retirement. He stopped, looked me in the eyes, and confessed, “I feel … worthless.”

I wish I had this book then. It could have guided me to understand, and better help with, my father’s crises and issues of retirement. I also could have shared the book with him—and countless church members sharing his journey—for it is written not just for ministers/caregivers, but for retirees and their companions.

The book takes on important issues like the loss of one’s employment identity, signs of depression and the reality of death. Fortunately, it is not just descriptive, for it provides hope-filled suggestions concerning family, faith, friends and other sources of help.

At 158 pages, this book is a pleasurable journey through information, suggestions and anecdotes, but its greatest strength is that C.W. Brister walks in retirement himself and shares from his own experience and heart.

Karl Fickling, coordinator

Intentional Interim Ministry

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Dallas

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 1/19/07

Baptist Briefs

N.C. editor to join Campbell Divinity faculty. Tony Cartledge, editor of the Biblical Recorder, newsjournal of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, will join the faculty of Campbell University Divinity School. Cartledge will assume his new duties as associate professor of Old Testament Aug. 15. Cartledge earned degrees from the University of Georgia, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Duke University. Prior to joining the staff of the Biblical Recorder, Cartledge served 26 years as pastor of churches in Georgia and North Carolina. Cartledge and his wife, Jan, are the parents of three children—Russ, Bethany (who died in 1994 at the age of 7) and Samuel.

Southern Seminary president released from hospital. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler was discharged Jan. 10 from Louisville’s Baptist Hospital East following a two-week hospitalization that included extensive abdominal surgery and a four-day stay in the intensive care unit due to blood clots in the lungs. He was admitted to the hospital Dec. 27 complaining of intense abdominal pain and underwent surgery the following day. While physicians reported the procedure went well and Mohler’s abdominal issues were remedied, the development of blood clots led doctors to move Mohler to intensive care.

German Baptist theologian Popkes dies. Wiard Popkes, retired professor at the Baptist Seminary of Hamburg and long-time trustee chairman of the International Baptist Theological Seminary, died of a heart attack Jan. 3. He was 70. Popkes helped lead the European Baptist seminary through the Southern Baptist Convention’s decision to withdraw funding in 1991, when it was known as the Baptist Theological Seminary in Ruschlikon, Switzerland. As chairman of the seminary’s board, Popkes also oversaw the school’s purchase, renovation and move to Prague, Czech Republic. Popkes is survived by his wife, Irmgard, and a son.

International Baptist leader Merritt dies. John Merritt, general secretary emeritus of the International Baptist Convention, died of cancer Dec. 29. He was 76. Merritt served 34 years as a missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign Mission Board. In 1972, he became the general secretary of the European Baptist Convention, an association of English-speaking congregations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It changed its name to the International Baptist Convention in 2003. Merritt retired from his position in 1996, when he was given the emeritus title. Doctors diagnosed him with lymphoma in 1997 and then with leukemia in late 2006. Merritt is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; two sons, Michael Merritt of Alexandria, Va., and James Merritt of Purvis, Miss.; a sister, Cora Davis of Hattiesburg; a brother, J.P. Merritt of Hattiesburg; and two grandchildren.

BWA, ethics center offer online curriculum for Lent. The Baptist World Alliance and the Baptist Center for Ethics have produced a free Bible study curriculum unit to help Baptists worldwide observe Lent—40 days of spiritual preparation for Easter. Funding for the curriculum is made possible in part by a gift from Jersey Village Baptist Church in Houston. The eight-week Bible study, designed for use in Sunday school, will guide adults through Lent with special emphasis on the witness and work of global Baptists. Beginning with the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the weekly studies will challenge Baptists to reflect on God’s history of deliverance; repent from self-centered and self-sufficient living; reaffirm their dependence upon God; and recommit to walking the life of faith. Student and leader guides will be available online at www.ethicsdaily.com by Jan. 22. The first lesson is designed to use Feb. 18.

Warrens to teach PEACE to Virginia Baptists. Rick and Kay Warren, co-founders of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., will speak Feb. 2 at a Baptist General Association of Virginia conference. In addition to leading case studies and sharing “best practices,” the Warrens will teach participants how to implement the PEACE Plan in local churches. They developed the plan to help small groups address global spiritual and social problems by planting churches, equipping servant leaders, assisting the poor, caring for the sick and educating the next generation. Other leaders from Saddleback, including the church’s worship pastor and the director of its HIV/AIDS Initiative, also will lead sessions at the conference.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 1/19/07

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.