Posted: 1/19/07

Global peace a growing
priority for Christian groups

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

DALLAS (ABP)—Worldwide, about 1.6 million people each year die due directly to violence. Violence is responsible for 14 percent of deaths among males aged 15 to 44 and 7 percent of deaths for females of the same age, the World Health Organi-zation reports. And it’s up to Christians to stop it, several groups working to promote peace around the world insist.

Steve Bostian, U.S. director of Hope Unlimited, said his group’s focus on investing in children in a Christ-centered way separates it from other attempts to eradicate violence among Brazil’s 10 million street children. That investment in individuals rather than broad social change is a model for peace that Bostian—a former American Baptist missionary—hopes to spread.

Now in its 15th year, Hope Unlimited has provided education, medical attention, housing, counseling and job opportunities for 1,000 children. Located near Sao Paulo, it currently has more than 600 children in three locations.

Only 18 percent of Brazil’s street children are biological orphans, Bostian explained. Most are children who have run away from home to escape violent or neglectful parents. But once the runaways hit the streets, their average lifespan there is less than four years, with most children meeting a violent end. In 2006, the United Nations discovered 16 children are reported murdered every day in Brazil. Many more murders go unreported.

The situation got so bad in the late 1980s and early 1990s that Brazil faced international condemnation after news emerged about death squads killing thousands of “street urchins” pestering local vendors. During those years, Amnesty International listed “street execution” as the third- leading cause of death for Brazilian children.

“The death squad situation was really the impetus for Hope Unlimited,” Bostian said.

The squads consisted of off-duty police officers hired by merchants to get rid of the “nuisance.” Bostian called the underpaid and hardly educated police force “a formula for corruption.” Death squad-type murder still happens in Brazil today, he added.

Short of radical social change, making progress with individual children in Brazil comes down to realizing their worth and potential in Christ—and taking the time to instill that knowledge in themselves, Smith said.

“That’s where the Christian mission comes in,” he said. “It’s really about good, solid biblical parenting. (The children) need discipline. They need instruction.”

Much of Brazil’s violence is exacerbated by the disparity between the rich and the poor. The majority of people there live in abject poverty. And as “haves” and “have-nots” try to coexist in dense urban areas, it becomes a recipe for violence, Bostian said.

According to the World Health Organization, violent death rates vary according to country income levels. Rates of violent death in low- to middle-income countries are more than twice as high as those in high-income countries—32 per 100,000 versus 14 per 100,000, respectively.

That link between violence and poverty is a key component of Rick Warren’s PEACE Plan, a five-point program to eradicate the “giant problems” of poverty, disease, corruption, spiritual emptiness and ignorance that oppress billions of people around the world. The only entity big enough to solve those problems is the church, Warren said.

“The Scripture shows us that Jesus shared the good news, trained leaders, helped the poor, cared for the sick and taught the children,” Warren said. “Our PEACE plan will just do the five things Jesus did while he was here on earth.”

PEACE stands for planting churches, equipping servant leaders, assisting the poor, caring for the sick and educating the next generation. The plan involves a network of small groups that each adopt a village in which to act out the plan. Warren’s ultimate goal for the project is to mobilize 10 million churches, 100 million small groups and 1 billion Christians.

“Why do we do this?” Warren asked. “Why should I care about the sick and the poor and the uneducated and the spiritually empty? Because of what Jesus has done for us. We do it out of gratitude.”

That Christian mandate drives members of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, a Charlotte, N.C., group that provides resources and support to Baptists building “a culture of peace rooted in justice.” Evelyn Hanneman, interim coordinating director of the fellowship, said peace is essential to living the Christian life—including Baptist life—because it’s what Jesus embodied.

“The whole issue of peace is important, given that Jesus is the Prince of Peace,” she said. “Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ Peace is what Jesus was about in so many ways.”

Baptist Peace Fellowship emphasizes the concept of shalom as justice. Shalom is a Hebrew word that means inner peace, safety, healing and well-being. Like shalom implies, the simple absence of war doesn’t bring total peace, Hanneman said. Public policy, laws and governments must protect all people so they can live freely in the pursuit of happiness, she said.

“We are very clear that peace is rooted in justice because without justice, you won’t have peace,” she said. “There has to be justice, and that will bring true peace.”

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

Time to call a mediator when focus
turns from problems to personalities

DALLAS—When church members who disagree stop looking for solutions to problems and start focusing on personalities, it’s probably time to call a mediator, said Sonny Spurger, a church mediation specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Spurger points to five levels of conflict, identified by Speed Leas of the Alban Institute, as helpful markers for identifying how problems escalate to church fights.

• A problem develops that needs to be solved.

See Related Articles: • MAKING PEACE: Creating a congregational culture of peacemaking takes time • Time to call a mediator when focus turns from problems to personalities • Global peace a growing priority for Christian groups • Do conservative evangelicals regret justifying Iraq war?

Some people may have conflicting goals or values, and interaction may be uncomfortable. But at this point, the conflict still is problem-oriented, rather than personality-centered. If the problem is not solved at this level, it likely will escalate to the next level where it becomes personal.

• Differences of opinion become personal disagreements.

Issues become identified with the people who hold conflicting opinions, and participants in the conflict become more concerned about protecting themselves than in solving problems.

• Disagreements become contests with winners and losers.

“This is when people start taking sides,” Spurger said. Factions form around personalities, and the emphasis becomes winning the conflict rather than solving the original problem.

• Fight or flight.

At level four, factions are solidified, and participants in the conflict believe the church isn’t big enough for the two parties to coexist.

“If I don’t win, I’m out of here,” characterizes the attitude at this level, Spurger said.

• Conflict becomes in-tractable.

“At level five, people no longer even understand the issues. Personalities have become the issue,” Spurger said. “The focus moves from getting rid of people to their absolute elimination or destruction.”

At this point, church members are not content with driving away people in the opposing faction. They want to ruin their reputations.

Instead of allowing conflict to escalate to that level, Spurger believes, churches should enlist a third-party mediator when any dispute stops being about issues and becomes focused on personalities. A mediator can help church members work through root causes of conflict and deal with real issues.

Better yet, Spurger said, churches should head off destructive conflict by developing workable problem statements. The statements provide clear, agreed-upon guideposts for discussion and problem solving.

“Early on at the beginning of an issue, when a committee or a task force meets, members sit down and write a statement of ‘why we are here,’” he explained. “Everybody agrees to it. It doesn’t blame anybody for anything. It doesn’t deal with old history. It deals with the issue at hand, and they all sign it.

“A group that can adopt this kind of workable problem statement—and that has a chairman who can remind them of it when needed and bring them back to task—can in large measure circumvent conflict before it becomes destructive.”

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

MAKING PEACE:
Creating a congregational
culture of peacemaking takes time

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

NACOGDOCHES—Helping a church become a peaceable fellowship is a never-ending battle, Pastor Kyle Childress acknowledged. But as Christians wage peace within church, they learn skills that help them build bridges in a divided world, he added.

“It’s a round-the-clock, long-term thing,” said Childress, pastor of Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches. “In the 17 years I’ve been here, one of the major challenges I consistently have had is helping people learn and practice reconciliation with one another.”

Peacemaking skills don’t come naturally, he noted. Reconciliation must be learned.

“A lot of people don’t know how to do that. It’s hard. I spend a lot of time taking people by the hand—almost literally—and telling them, ‘We’re going to see so-and-so and work this thing out,’” he said.

“I help them work through the conflict. After they’ve done it and seen it done, and they see the sky doesn’t fall in on them, they’re able to do it again and model it for others.”

Childress views peacemaking and reconciliation within a church—particularly a small church in a relatively small town where “everybody sees one another all the time”—as essential.

“In the body of Christ, we are connected. So, when there’s conflict, the body is broken,” he said. “Because we’re connected in the church, when we’re broken, it affects the whole congregation.”

Christians also can learn to be peacemakers beyond their own congregations the same way—by investing the necessary time and energy to build relationships that bridge dividing lines, Childress said.

For instance, he noted he and some other members of his church have been “able to have some frank conversations” about delicate subjects with some members of an African-American church in their town. But that’s because Austin Heights has built a relationship with that congregation over 30 years, conducting Vacation Bible School together and developing friendships, he added.

“Probably some of the biggest divisions in communities today are the divisions of class and economics. The only way to overcome those divisions is to be a congregation that actually works with people who are in poverty,” Childress said. “Building relationships is key to overcoming barriers.”

Unfortunately, many people consider themselves “too busy” to invest the necessary time to build the kind of relationships in which people deal with tough and sometimes divisive issues, he noted.

“It takes time and patience,” he said. “It’s hard.”

Jon Singletary, director of the Center for Family and Community Ministries at Baylor University, agrees.

“Peacemaking is costly,” he said. “It demands our life and our all.”

Singletary gained firsthand experience in church-based community peacemaking while he was working on his doctorate in Richmond, Va.

“I was a member of a Baptist church there, but I was called by a Mennonite church, initially as a supply preacher. That developed into an interim position, and then I ended up as a Baptist in a Mennonite pastorate for four years,” he recalled.

With the Mennonite’s strong Anabaptist tradition of nonviolence, Singletary found himself leading a congregation ready to initiate peacemaking initiatives in its community.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the United States’ military response—as well as a racial reconciliation emphasis already under way in Richmond—gave focus to the initiative, but it also included issues like family violence.

“We invited churches to enter into a citywide dialogue about these issues,” he said. “We helped church leaders spend some time taking a look at these things, going back to the basis for shalom and what it means in our nation, the community and in families—its multiple expressions.

“Peace has to matter in the lives of individual Christians. We looked at what it means in our families and in our congregations. From there, we’re able to look at its implications nationally and internationally, even when we disagree about its expressions.”

Disagreements about the implications of peacemaking ironically can lead to conflict—particularly when people’s primary identity is tied up in their national pride or political party, Childress observed.

The starting place for Christian discussion of issues related to peace should not be what any political leader of any party says, he added.

“The first place we start should be by asking what Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, says, and then work from there. The good news is that in the body of Christ, when we are committed to each other over the long haul and we share that commitment to Jesus, we don’t have to solve it all today,” Childress said.

Life-changing ministry often takes place over a long time—more often over cups of coffee and long conversations than a single sermon, he noted.

Creating a culture of peace in a church can’t be rushed or coerced, Childress said.

“You can’t force it. That’s opposed to the very idea of building a people who are peaceable,” he said.

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

TBM chainsaw teams serve in Oklahoma

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Four Texas Baptist Men chainsaw teams headed to McAlester, Okla., to help residents hit hard by ice storms.

About three dozen volunteers from Harmony-Pittsburg Baptist Association, Collin Baptist Association, Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall and Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo made the trek to Oklahoma.

“Priorities for our volunteer teams will be first to remove trees that have fallen on homes and caused structural damage to them,” said Gary Smith, TBM disaster relief director.

“Then, crews will move trees from roads and driveways so that residents can travel where they need go.”

In McAlester, many residents sought overnight shelter at First Baptist Church. Most of the city’s 18,000 residents lacked power for at least four days.

At least 10 people have died from traffic accidents and hypothermia in Oklahoma since the winter storm began.

About 92,000 people in Oklahoma still had no electricity Jan. 17.

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

Texas Tidbits

Hispanic Mission Network to debut. Leaders of Hispanic Texas Baptist churches that are engaging members in missions—along with representatives from Baptist University of the Americas, WorldconneX and Buckner International—will launch a Hispanic Mission Network at the Hispanic Evangelism Conference, Feb. 2-3 in San Antonio. Participants plan to conduct a global/local mission project within the network’s first year that could provide a model for Hispanic church involvement. About 30 Hispanic leaders and missions practitioners met at Baptist University of the Americas recently for a Plaza Global two-day event to discuss the network and explore emerging trends in global missions.

Hardin-Simmons, ETBU athletic trainers honored. The athletic training staffs at Hardin-Simmons University and East Texas Baptist University each were named by their peers as division winners of the American Southwest Conference athletic training staff of the year awards for 2005-06. Hardin-Simmons was presented the west division award, and ETBU took the east division honor. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor won the west division honor the previous academic year.

Baylor receives gift for Brooks Village chapel. Brooks Village—a new residential community under construction at Baylor University—will have its own chapel, thanks to a gift from William and Mary Jo Robbins of Houston. The university did not disclose the amount of the gift in keeping with the donors’ wishes. At 252,000 square feet, Brooks Village will accommodate 700 students in two new residential quadrangles. University officials expect the $42.8 million Brooks Village project to be completed in the fall.

Land gift yields multiplied benefits for Wayland. A land gift originally valued at $65,000 recently yielded more than $535,000 for Wayland Baptist University’s endowment. In 1958, Burton and Annie Craig gave Wayland 653 acres in Sunray. The Craigs placed the land in a trust with the Baptist Foundation of Texas with the stipulation that it would provide monthly benefits for them until their deaths. The trust has remained in investments since it was deeded. Craig died in 1962, and his wife died last October. At that point, when the trust fund came to Wayland, it was valued at $535,129.

Christian student leaders to meet at Howard Payne. Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia Church in Houston, Bo Pilgrim of the Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation and Vicki Vaughn of the Richard Jackson Center for Evangelism in Brownwood will speak at the ninth annual Christian Association of Student Leaders conference, Jan. 25-27 at Howard Payne University. The event is expected to attract more than 200 students from Dallas Baptist University, East Texas Baptist University, Hardin-Simmons University, Houston Baptist University, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Wayland Baptist University, as well as Hannibal LaGrange College and Louisiana College.

HPU meets fundraising milepost. Howard Payne University has crossed the $20 million mark in its Sharing the Vision capital campaign, approaching its $25 million goal. The fundraising campaign already made possible many campus enhancements and has provided funding for endowments and scholarships. 

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

TOGETHER:
If Baptists were ‘too much like Jesus’

Baptists across North America are saying with a clear voice that it is time for a “Jesus agenda.”

What does it mean to pursue a Jesus agenda?

Look at what Jesus did when the synagogue leaders gave the scroll of Isaiah to him and asked him to read. He could have chosen any passage, but he picked this one:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19 and Isaiah 61:1-2).

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

A Jesus kind of church and a Jesus people will put the priorities and passion of Jesus at the heart of their lives and work. They will ask, “Where would Jesus go, to whom would Jesus minister, and what would he say if he came to our town?” When we answer that question, we know where we need to be this week.

Those verses in Luke and Isaiah speak of Jesus’ mission to the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed. You can easily see a spiritual meaning in each phrase, but Jesus also clearly cared about those who were physically poor, captive, blind and oppressed.

We have that same two-pronged work today, allowing Christ to meet the spiritual and physical needs of those in need through those of us who have pledged to be his disciples.

Baptists from across North America will gather in Atlanta Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2008, to say with a great voice, “We believe it is worth our lives to be Jesus people and for our churches to be Jesus kind of churches.”

We are ready to be about Jesus’ agenda:

• We want to be instruments of healing and liberty to the broken and frightened.

• We are willing to share with and advocate for the hungry, thirsty, homeless, sick and incarcerated.

• We have good news, and it is clearly a sin if we keep quiet.

There has never been a Baptist gathering like the one that will be held in Atlanta. Not since 1845 have the Baptists of America gathered in one place, in a unified spirit, to answer a call to be about missions and evangelism, justice and righteousness. But at that time, there were only a few black Americans represented, and no Canadian, Mexican or Asian Baptists.

Now, 163 years later, Baptists of every language, race, ethnicity, national background, men and women, from North, South, East and West will gather with hearts yearning to be united around Jesus’ agenda for the sake of a lost world. We will present to God an offering of praise that will give a new voice to our Baptist people and will draw people to Jesus because they see how these Christians love one another.

Right now, I ask you to begin praying for the Spirit of God to fall on this meeting and to circle those dates on your calendar and do all you can do to be there.

When Jesus read from Isaiah, he really kicked over a hornet’s nest in his hometown. Wouldn’t it be exciting if Baptists could stir up a hornet’s nest today for being too much like Jesus?

We are loved.

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

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

Posted: 1/19/07

BGCT intercultural mission
trip slated for Vancouver

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—When Yutaka Takarada flew to Vancouver, British Columbia, last year, he found ample salmon, Japanese restaurants and views of the harbor.

But what he didn’t see worried him. Even though Vancouver has a sizeable Japanese population, the president of the Japanese Southern Baptist Churches of America couldn’t find many Japanese Baptist churches.

“There are 10 times as many Japanese residents living in Vancouver as in Dallas,” said Takarada, pastor of Japanese Baptist Church of North Texas. “We have about 3,000 Japanese in the Dallas area, but there are 30,000 to 40,000 Japanese residents there. Yet there are few Japanese churches.”

Pastors and mission workers reflecting several ethnic groups gather to discuss ways to work together in sharing the gospel in Vancouver.

Many of the Baptist churches in Vancouver are young churches similar to the church Takarada started 23 years ago. Its first Japanese Baptist church was started only a year ago.

Those numbers have prompted Takarada to action. Most importantly, he wants to let Japanese Baptist leaders in Canada know they are not alone, he said.

“We want them to know we care,” Takarada said. “And that we are praying for them.”

A multicultural mission trip coordinated by the Baptist General Convention of Texas could help spread the message.

Patty Lane, BGCT intercultural ministry director, is planning a trip to Vancouver, along with Southwest Chinese Baptist in Houston, Ethiopian Baptist Evangelical Church in Garland, Laotian Baptist Church in Dallas, Japanese Baptist Church of North Texas in Dallas and Iranian Baptist Church in Dallas.

Once in Vancouver, the mission team will share the gospel, help equip church leaders, start new churches and work on college campuses. Lane expects to take 35 to 40 workers on the trip, slated for July. It will be the first BGCT-sponsored intercultural mission trip.

“The churches (in Vancou-ver) are extremely eager to partner with others in the States and want relationships,” Lane said.

Jair Campos, pastor of Central Brazilian Baptist Church in Dallas, is leading the Vancouver missions emphasis.

“I believe the partnerships here will energize passion in both groups and strengthen … relationships,” he said. “We encourage congregations of all ethnicities to consider this mission project. We already have some Anglo churches who are considering sending workers.”

For more information about the intercultural mission trip, call Campos at (817) 800-4604 or Lane at (214) 828-5372.

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

Childless young adults
want ministry, not sympathy

By David Briggs

Religion News Service

CLEVELAND (RNS)—Tina Barta and many of her evangelical peers do not like the term “single.” In church and in society, single implies a person who is not whole, not complete, they say.

“That’s such an awful way to look at it,” said Barta, 27, who believes fulfilling her spiritual destiny is not dependent on meeting a man. “I am in a relationship with Christ. Yes, I’m single, but I’m pursuing Christ, and he’s pursuing me.”

Barta and her friends at the Sevenoseven young adult ministry at Cuyahoga Valley Community Church in suburban Cleveland are not alone.

They are one segment of a demographic—men and women of childbearing age without children—that nearly doubled in 24 years, from 10 percent of the population in 1976 to 19 percent in 2000.

This generation has not abandoned organized religion, according to a new national study of 8,450 young adults by Michelle Fugate, a sociologist at Loyola University in Chicago.

Within Protestant churches, parents on average report attending services more than twice a month; childless young adults attend just less than twice a month.

What childless young adults struggle to find, however, are spiritual homes where they feel accepted and included. They don’t want to be harassed about their status in houses of worship that often emphasize families with children as the norm.

“Fitting in” is important to childless young adults, Fugate found.

They don’t want a childless ministry, she said. They want to serve in different roles in the church, and they want congregants to understand each individual has a vocation.

What drove some people away from churches, Fugate said, was the way women in particular were grilled about their childless status. One childless woman told Fugate that a pastor actually asked her, “What’s wrong with you?”

In a conversation before a recent Sevenoseven service, six young women said the study’s results reflected many of their experiences.

Barta, whose father is a pastor, grew up in a small church where she “did feel a definite pressure” to marry and begin a family at an early age.

But since graduating from college and becoming involved with the Sevenoseven ministry, Barta said, she has felt freer “to pursue my relationship with Christ and not my relationship with a guy” as a priority.

Jessica Harnegie, 27, said many singles in family-oriented churches find themselves wondering, “Where do I fit in? I have nowhere to go.” She said churches should recognize the growing generation of people in their 20s and 30s who are childless and welcome these people into ministries from readers to Sunday school teachers to leaders of Bible study groups and mission projects.

Being single “doesn’t mean we’re lepers,” she said. “Single women still need that affirmation.”

Many singles and childless couples gravitate toward larger churches, which offer a range of adult ministries and a less homogenous population where young adults without children feel more comfortable.

Ministries such as Sevenoseven, which offers contemporary services and small groups for young adults, are attractive. Here, young adults are the norm.

“God wants us to be relational, not just with men but with everything,” said Melissa Smith, 24.

“Female relationships build character and purpose.”

The women said they would like to find the right husband and have a family, but they also recognize “just being what God created you to be is all you need to be,” Smith said.

Churches should think in terms of integration, not segregation, Barta insisted.

“It’s not a singles ministry and a couples ministry,” she said. “It’s the body of Christ. We are one.”

David Briggs writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.

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

CYBER COLUMN:
Search for understanding

By Berry D. Simpson

I have a friend who has effectively separated himself and his family from the world, from their church and from their family.

They closely guard their children’s exposure to the outside world, which includes their own cousins. They won’t go to church, even the church he grew up in, but instead have home church. They won’t send their children to school, but instead home school. They most recently opted out of their larger family’s Christmas celebration; I’m not sure if it was to guard against commercialization and secularization of a holy day or simply to save money. Either way, they missed out on the joy that always surrounds this family at such an important time.

I’m sure he has reasons for doing all this, and I’m sure he thinks they’re wise and holy reasons, but it’s hard for me to understand.

My friend’s story reminded me of a scene from The Last Battle, the final book of C.S. Lewis’ seven-part Chronicles of Narnia. The world of Narnia is coming to its final days in a struggle of false worship and warfare and deception and intrigue. One by one, the inhabitants of Narnia are punished by being thrown into a small, dark shed that appears to contain an evil spirit. Once inside the shed, most discover it to be bigger on the inside than on the outside, for the inside opened up to Aslan’s world and led to, well, heaven itself.

But some who were thrown into the shed never saw Aslan (who represents God in the books) or the beautiful world. All they saw was darkness. To them, the inside remained nothing but a small, dark shed that smelled of barnyard animals. They rebuffed all attempts to open their eyes to the truth. Certain that they’d been deceived by false leaders who claimed to speak for Aslan, they were determined to never be deceived again. They decided never again to believe anyone but each other. “Dwarfs are for dwarfs,” they said, and would not listen to anyone else. Lewis wrote that even Aslan could not reach them because they had “traded cunning over belief.”

It’s so easy to be like those dwarfs. Ensuring that we won’t be taken in by the evils of the world, we trade cunning over belief.

There’s a danger in thinking we’re the ones who know it all. In fact, as an engineer, I must deal with the occupational hazard of assuming I’m the smartest person in the room. I’ve told my wife, Cyndi, that most engineers come by this opinion honestly, but she just rolls her eyes. And while I may be smart, I have to make it a point to keep my ears open and stay teachable. One of my favorite writers, Natalie Goldberg, wrote, “Don’t always expect to get full understanding from yourself.” We need help from each other.

I’m also at risk of self-delusion, being a guy who reads a lot of books and listens to a lot of sermons and does a lot of research. It’s easy to convince myself I’m the one who knows everything because I’ve done the work. What does anyone else have to offer me? I continually have to ask God to keep my eyes and ears open to new ideas and approaches. It’s one reason I intentionally read a variety of writers and listen to many speakers. I want to make sure I’m not isolating myself from a message God is trying to send.

The search for understanding isn’t a small thing. Jesus said, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many will try to enter and not be able to” (Luke 13:22-30). It’s important to get it right. It’s a scary thought that many will try but few will enter. Yet every day, we hear people talk about spiritual things but never mention Jesus. They’re walking down a spiritual path, but it isn’t the narrow path that leads to Jesus.

Our men’s group has hiked to the top of Guadalupe Peak several times, and there is a trail junction just after the Pine Springs trailhead that’s easy to miss. To the left leads up to the peak and to the right leads up the Tejas Trail. We’ve taken the wrong trail on more than one occasion, a whole string of guys stopping on the wrong trail and reversing our steps to rejoin the correct trail. We caught our mistake quickly; no harm done.

But if we’d continued on the wrong path, it would’ve taken us further and further from the direction we wanted to go. Finding the correct trail is crucial to a successful hike. And so, in our spiritual search for understanding, we must keep our ears open and listen to each other for advice and direction as we try to navigate the correct path to Jesus.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland. You can contact him through e-mail at berry@stonefoot.org.

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

RIGHT or WRONG?
Geneva conventions

Appeals have been made to the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war. What is the basis for such assertions? And what reference material is available?

A number of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have made appeals to the Geneva Conventions to be considered prisoners of war. Those making the appeals are being held by the United States, but they have not necessarily been afforded the rights given to prisoners of war in the Geneva Conventions. Some have claimed these individuals should not be considered POWs because the regime for which they fought did not uphold the “laws and customs of war,” which include cooperating with international authorities and refusing to harbor terrorists.

The Geneva Conventions outline specific care that should be given to prisoners, including food, shelter, medical care and sanitation, at the same level as the armed forces of the country in which a prisoner is being held. Specific rights are afforded to POWs in the Geneva Conventions, however. Some of the rights in question are related to being prosecuted for war crimes. A higher burden of proof is required for conviction that demonstrates personal involvement in the crime, not merely association with others involved. In addition, POWs may not be interrogated, and they must be allowed to go home when the conflict has ended.

Detainees who appeal to the Geneva Conventions for protection as prisoners of war might base their assertion on one particular clause from article 5. It states, “Should any doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.” Prisoners making appeal may ask for a tribunal to determine their status. This is particularly true for those who have been characterized as combatants but who were fighting as a part of or alongside armed forces of a regime no longer in control.

The Geneva Conventions are long and difficult to interpret, but a number of resources are available to simplify and explain the basic principles of the conventions. The International Committee of the Red Cross website provides not only the full text of the Geneva Conventions, but also fact sheets, answers to frequently asked questions and essential rules of the conventions. To access these resources, visit www.icrc.org. A number of free publications also are available. One of particular interest to this subject is the pamphlet “International Humanitarian Law: Answers to Your Questions,” which contains a new chapter on terrorism. Publications may be downloaded or ordered directly: International Committee of the Red Cross, Distribution Sector 19, Avenue de la Paix, CH 1202 Geneva, Switzerland.

Although your question is primarily educational in nature, as Christians, we must grapple with the question of what it means to love both our neighbor and our enemy. We must struggle both to “turn the other cheek” and to “do unto others as we would have done to us.” When seeking answers about the treatment of prisoners and civilians alike, we must ask ourselves not only what the law requires, but also what the love of Christ compels.

Emily Row-Prevost, team leader/coordinator leader

Communications/Spiritual Formation Specialist

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Dallas

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 Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 1/18/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for January 28

God prunes with a wise, loving hand

• John 15:1-17

By David Wilkinson

Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth

The first section of John 15 focuses on yet another in the series of “I am” statements from Jesus—this time, however, with a corresponding “you are” statement: “I am the true vine,” says Jesus, “and my Father is the vinegrower” (v. 1) and again “I am the vine, you are the branches (v. 5).

The vinegrower tends to the vineyard, and part of that care is to prune the plants. Notice that the gardener not only prunes the unhealthy branches but every branch that does not bear fruit. Further, the purpose of the pruning is to produce more fruit (v. 2). For that reason, both unproductive and productive branches may be pruned.

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Jesus’ metaphor can be difficult. I doubt plants, if they could speak, would stare at the pruning shears gleaming in the sun and say to the gardener, “Great, I just can’t wait for you to lop off a few branches!” If given the choice, we would probably say to God: “No thanks. I’ve got some branches that may be unproductive, and I’ve got others that are unhealthy or even dead or dying, but I think I’ll pass on the pruning.”

On the other hand, when the pruning is done, the wisdom of the process is clear in retrospect. The evidence comes in the form of new blossoms and the promise of more fruit.

A kind of paradox is at work here. We are the branches, connected to the vine or the trunk represented by Jesus who in turn is connected to God. We might well envision a plant with three, intertwined branches—the Holy Trinity—serving as the stem or trunk to which every limb is connected.

There is another helpful perspective on this Johannine figure of pruning. Pruning our lives seems difficult and harsh, but pruning can also be an act of repairing. Elaine Emeth says this pruning metaphor makes sense “when she thinks of God as a gardener who grieves while watching a violent storm rip through a prized garden. Afterward, the gardener tenderly prunes the injured plants to guarantee survival and to restore beauty and harmony. Pruning is clearing away the debris of our messy lives.”

Relationship as key

The key to this image is relationship. The relationship of the branch to the vine is expressed through Jesus’ repeated use of the word “abide.” Already in this Gospel this verb has become “a rich and full word to describe a relationship of trust, love, knowledge and that oneness characteristic of God and Christ. Here, however, the word reaches its peak in frequency of use and in intensity of meaning,” theologian Fred Craddock notes. “Abiding” in Jesus means being and staying intimately connected. Through this connection the life-giving sap, the nourishment of God’s love, flows into each limb, enabling it to produce fruit.

Returning to a frequent theme in these farewell addresses, Jesus emphasizes again that the nature of this relationship finds expression through obedience (vv. 10, 17; and also 13:34-35; 14:15, 21, 23). Obedience is rooted in love—first, in God’s love for us and then in our love for God. Indeed, all that describes our relationship with God through Jesus—abiding, obeying, bearing fruit—is tied inextricably to self-giving love (vv. 12-13).

Related as friends

Jesus further defines the quality of this relationship in his remarkable words encouraging the disciples to call him Friend (vv. 13-15). The Master who earlier in the evening had taken a basin of water and a towel and knelt as a slave to wash his disciples’ feet now “wipes away all distinctions, all self-abnegations, all false humility, and declares ‘friendship’ to be both the source and the goal of the divine intention for us,” Church of England priest Sarah Coakley noted in a sermon.

“I chose you,” Jesus reminds them (v. 16). Earlier he had promised he would not leave them orphaned (14:18). For an orphan, there is nothing like hearing the words from an adoptive parent, “I chose you.” Again, these are words for all Jesus’ disciples. We have not been abandoned. We have been chosen.

Further, we have been chosen for a purpose. Returning to the image of the vine and branches, Jesus reminds the disciples they have been “appointed” to “go and bear fruit—“indeed, fruit that will last.” And the Father, the vinegrower, will provide whatever is needed for that to happen (v. 16).

Abide in Christ

J. Hudson Taylor, the great 19th century missionary to China, captured the meaning of what it means to “abide” in Jesus’ love, just as a branch finds life in the intimate connection to the vine: “The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.”

No words could apply more fittingly to our study of this passage from John’s Gospel: “Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.”

Discussion questions

• What significance do Jesus’ words “abide in me” and “abide in my love” have for you?

• In what ways can we embrace Jesus’ meaningful image of “abiding”?

• Wallace Charles Smith comments on the image of pruning in John 15: “God will continue clipping until so-called Christians repent of racism and bigotry; until Skid Rows are replaced by avenues of compassion and streets of hope; until child neglect is replaced by child nurture. … God will keep on clipping until everyone who wants work will find it; until black, white, red or brown will have access to full, productive lives. … God will keep on clipping until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of God.” How do you respond to Smith’s commentary?

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

Posted: 1/18/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for January 28

Faith can conquer chaos

• Genesis 11:1-9: Proverbs 28:2-5; 29:2-4

By Kenneth Lyle

Logsdon School of Theology, Abilene

A glance at the nightly news or a brief reading of the morning newspaper may prompt the thinking, caring person to ask, “Is there really any hope for society?”

This week’s lesson completes the unit titled “Creation Faith: Living by God’s Design,” and places the emphasis on the relationship between God and society. As Christians, we should be vitally interested in how God seeks to relate to society and how society responds to God’s initiatives. Moreover, as Christians we should supplement the question “What hope is there for society?” with the further question “What hope do we offer society?”

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Genesis 11 provides one of the great transitions in the biblical narrative. To this point, the Bible story has focused on all of creation as seen through the eyes of key individuals. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and his sons have been the focal characters placed against the backdrop the whole of creation.

In chapter 10, the so-called Table of Nations gives an account of the descendants of Noah’s sons and offers an explanation for the differences among people and the populating of the entire earth (v. 32).

In chapter 12, the narrative begins to focus on one single man, Abram, and the story of his family. The story moves from a focus on all the people of the earth in chapter 10, to a focus on one man and his faithful response to God in chapter 12.

Between the Table of Nations and the call of Abram, the focal passage for today’s lesson tells the familiar story of the tower of Babel. Clearly, one of the main functions fulfilled by this story is a biblical explanation for the origin of different languages. However, the more important message seems to relate to the hubris and folly of humanity that sees itself as independent from God.

The facts of the story are well known. The story begins with the assertion that all people “had one language and a common speech (11:1). As people migrated east they settled on a “plain in Shinar,” learned to bake bricks and use mortar to build a city and a tower (vv. 3-4). Located within the Fertile Crescent near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, we know this plain of Shinar as Babylonia.

The building of a city and tower in and of itself does not seem to be the main cause of God’s judgment. Rather, the motivation of these people to “make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (v. 4) prompts God to observe and to act. It is hard to imagine that God finds the advancement of civilization troubling or that the cooperation between people goes against God’s interests; however, the motivation for this “civilized cooperation” is the elevation of human interests at the expense of God’s desires.

God’s undoing of this human enterprise involves the confusion of language and the scattering of people over the face the earth (vv. 6-9).

It is easy to imagine the cacophony of voices trying to communicate with each other as the human plans for glory and greatness fall to pieces. The Bible identifies the site of this undoing of language as Babel, which some commentators suggests sounds like the Hebrew word for “confused.” The attempt of humanity to control its environment and its destiny apart from God’s direction and guidance results in confusion and chaos. This principle is no less true today.

The cacophony of voices we hear in the world today about almost every issue imaginable comes primarily because of the inability of humans to consistently and correctly seek and discern God’s will for all of creation. Like-thinking, well-meaning people still have difficulty communicating with one another about all sorts of issues because there is no consensus about what God desires in every situation. To say nothing of the discord between people who do not believe in God or who worship other gods. Is this God’s intention? Is there any hope for society? The Christian response should be a resounding “Yes!”

Hope for society comes, as it does in the biblical story, when individuals and groups seek God’s will and act upon it. The biblical story does not end in the confusion and chaos of Babel but continues in a far away land, because Abram chose to exercise faith in what God had planned for him and his family.

The biblical story comes to its apex at the cross and empty tomb, because Jesus chose to exercise that same kind of faith in God’s plan to offer the hope of salvation to all humanity. The biblical story continues at Pentecost, because the church in the power of the Holy Spirit undid the confusion and chaos of Babel and offered a message of hope to all people everywhere, and “each one heard them speaking in his own language” (Acts 2:6).

It is easy to point out the towers of confusion and chaos that the secular world attempts to build. Society puts its confidence in political power, economic might and educational superiority. All of these “mighty towers” are demonstrably fleeting. Governments rise and fall, economies fail and rebound, knowledge changes and grows.

Perhaps the greater challenge comes when we seek to find those towers of confusion and chaos that exist in the church. Do we build our own towers of Babel when we attempt to rely on our own abilities rather than on God? Do we attempt to “make a name for ourselves” when we become overly competitive about what our church is doing versus what some other church is doing? Most importantly, when we become overly concerned with making a name for ourselves, do stop offering hope to the world around us?

Discussion questions

• What evidence can you cite of society’s need for a message of hope?

• How does God offer hope to society? What role does the church play in offering hope to society?

• How do we avoid building towers of confusion and chaos inside the church?

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