Posted: 1/05/07

Apostle’s grave may be beneath Rome church

By Stacy Meichtry

Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS)— Vatican officials have identified a marble sarcophagus embedded in the foundations of a Rome basilica as the coffin believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul.

The announcement marked the latest chapter of an excavation campaign under way since 2002, when Vatican archaeologists set out to locate the sarcophagus.

The actual contents of the coffin, however, remain unknown, because it has not been fully unearthed. Instead, it remains buried beneath the main altar of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, the archpriest of the basilica, said he had no reason to doubt the sarcophagus contained the apostle’s remains, because the coffin appeared to have gone untouched since the 4th century, when an early Christian temple was erected over it.

The sarcophagus was discovered directly be-neath a marble slab with the engraving “St. Paul apostle” in Latin.

Archaeologists burrowed through more than three feet of plaster, mortar and brick to reach the fourth century foundations of the basilica. That hole is covered with glass now, providing visitors with a tunnel view of the sarcophagus’ marble surface.

The project’s goal, Vatican archaeologist Giorgio Filippi said, was to bring the sarcophagus to light for Christian pilgrims rather than probe the contents for proof of the apostle. But he said his research team was “studying the possibility” of exploring the coffin’s interior.

According to the early Christian writer Eusebius of Caesarea, Paul was taken to Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero and beheaded.

Tradition holds Paul was buried with the Apostle Peter in the Christian catacombs along Rome’s Via Appia. His remains later were moved to a site outside the city’s ancient walls, where Roman Emporor Theodosius erected a church in the 4th century to honor the martyr.

That church burned down in 1823, and the current basilica was built above its foundations, with a new altar directly over the site of the tomb.

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

Posted: 1/05/07

By removing barriers,
church reclaims families

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

ALICE—Six years ago, Frank Espinoza returned with high hopes to the church he attended when he was married. He wanted to be a vital part of growing Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana in Alice.

Four months later, he came to a crossroads where he had to choose between his church and his family. His daughters didn’t speak Spanish and weren’t learning anything about Christianity at a Spanish-speaking church because of the language barrier. Soon, they didn’t want to go to church.

So, Espinoza did what he felt was best for his family. The Espinozas moved their membership to another church, but his love for Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana never faded.

God honored that passion, Espinoza said, by bringing him and his family back to the church.

Noe Trevino, a Baptist General Convention of Texas congregational strategist, was leading the church through a process to rediscover its vision and reach out in ways it never had before.

The church reviewed its history. Members studied the demographics of their community and discovered many young families who preferred speaking English but had no church home. The congregation also found people believed the church was only for Mexicans because of its name.

So, the church started an English service to reach young families and saw it quickly surpass the Spanish service in attendance. The congregation poured more resources into its youth program.

Last summer, the church’s longtime pastor retired, but the growth continued because people were empowered to minister, said Sylvia Torres, who leads the church’s children’s ministry. Church members are following God’s call to serve in a variety of ways, she reported.

“Everybody has to be active,” she said. “There’s a place for everybody.”

The church also removed a cultural barrier by changing its name to Emmanuel Baptist Church.

“We wanted a name that would be certainly Baptist, but one that would imply all cultures were welcome, not just Mexicanos,” Espinoza said.

God continues to grow the church, he said. The congregation averages more than 160 people each week in its worship services. People are making professions of faith in Christ and growing in their faith, which pleases Espinoza.

“It’s not about the numbers,” he said. “It’s about the hearts of people.”

Families who left the church to find ministries in English have returned to be part of the growing congregation. Old friends are reconnecting and encouraging each other in their faith.

As for the Espinozas, Emmanuel Baptist Church has become a second home. They are excited about being a part of a growing congregation where God’s word is preached.

“I’m pleased to say today my girls are absolutely thrilled about going to church,” Espinoza 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: 1/05/07

Prize-winning biologist issues plea
for religion, science to save creation

By Bob Abernathy

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist E.O. Wilson fears for creation—for many of the 10 million or more species of plants and animals he believes are in mortal peril.

Wilson, a biologist who recently retired from Harvard University, has written a new book, The Creation, that is a plea for science and religion to work together to save the species.

“Pastor, we need your help,” he writes. “The creation is the glory of the earth. Let’s see if we can’t get together on saving it, because science and religion are the most powerful social forces on Earth.”

In an interview with Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Wilson said his mission is to protect all of the earth’s species. And the greatest threat to biodiversity, he said, is humankind’s appetite for more—more lumber, more food, more minerals and more space—to support a population of 6.5 billion people that soon will swell to 9 billion.

“We are threatened by the immense loss of future scientific knowledge, of future products that could enrich humanity and give us a higher quality of life,” he said. “But the loss that I care about most is in our … spiritual enrichment … in living in the magnificent original environment in which humanity was born.”

The natural world, Wilson said, provides humanity with untold gifts. It cleans water, pollinates plants and provides pharmaceuticals, he noted.

“Thirty trillion dollars worth of services, scot-free to humanity, every year,” he said.

Scientists have identified 25 so-called “hotspots”—covering about 2.5 percent of Earth’s surface—in which nearly half of all the plant and animal species have been found. Wilson wants the world to spend $30 billion to protect those ecosystems—“to throw an umbrella over them.” The same species in other places might be endangered, but those in the hotspots would survive.

Wilson	Land

Wilson, long an outspoken secular humanist, was raised a Southern Baptist in Alabama, and his book, The Creation, is addressed to an imaginary Southern Baptist pastor. That imaginary pastor could be Richard Land, who heads Southern Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and is a major spokesman for conservative religious viewpoints. Land has written his own book on the environment, The Earth is the Lord’s.

Land argues that in the first chapter of Genesis, “God put man in charge (of creation) under his headship. Human beings have dominion and are given dominion.”

But that’s tempered by the next chapter in Genesis, where man is put into the Garden (of Eden) to till it and keep it, he noted.

“We’re not to just worship nature in its pristine form,” Land said. “We have a divinely mandated responsibility to both develop the earth for human betterment and to protect it and to guard it and keep it and exercise creation care.”

Land accuses Wilson of being too concerned about wildlife and not enough about humanity.

“He looks upon human beings as an alien species to the habitat of nature, and that we are the ones that are destructive and that we have been a catastrophic event. Nature would have been far better off without human beings,” Land said.

“As a Christian, we believe that God created the creation for humankind. So, while we are to give respect to all life, we must treat human life with reverence. And there is in Christian theology a hierarchy of species. And there is a firebreak between humans and the rest of creation. It is human beings that God gave soul.”

Land said humans need to do what they can to protect other species “without causing grievous harm to human beings. There’s the difference—without causing grievous harm to human beings.”

Millions of people, especially the very poor, would be devastated by some proposals for protecting the environment, Land asserted.

But Wilson insists biodiversity could be protected without hurting humans.

“It would increase our standard of living if we did it sensibly with less material and energy consumption and conservation of the rest of life.” Wilson said. “We can actually increase the productivity of the world while saving all of the—or most of the—remaining species.”

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

Posted: 1/05/07

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

Posted: 1/05/07

Texas Tidbits

CLC hires staff attorney. The Baptist General Convention of Texas has named Stephen Reeves staff attorney for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission. Reeves previously worked with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, where he served as counsel- in-residence and then staff attorney. He also served as a CLC legislative aide from October 2003 to August 2004. He also has served as youth minister at Ravensworth Baptist Church in Annandale, Va. Reeves earned his law degree at Texas Tech University after completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Austin.

African-American ministries director named. Charles Singleton, founding pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth, has been named director of African-American ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He assumed his new post Jan. 1. During Singleton’s 22-year tenure at First Missionary Baptist, the congregation started Southeast Hispanic Baptist Church, fostered an extensive youth outreach ministry and founded Miller Avenue Christian Academy, an academic and spiritual ministry to children 2 years old through second grade. Before he founded First Missionary Baptist, Singleton was pastor of Antioch Baptist Church of Fort Worth from 1981 to 1984. Singleton is president of the Tarrant Baptist Association Pastor’s Conference, and he has held numerous other offices with that organization, including moderator in 2004. He was a founding member of the African American Fellowship, and he served on the BGCT Executive Board from 2002 to 2006, the BGCT mission funding committee since 2001 and as a BGCT field representative in Tarrant County for African-American ministries since 1998. Singleton is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

UMHB Sanderford addition opens. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will hold a grand opening ceremony 1:30 p.m. Jan. 12 for the newly completed addition to the Sanderford Administration Complex. The 16,500-square-foot addition was completed in November. Since it was originally built in 1978, the T.E. and Nellie Ruth Sanderford Complex has been two separate buildings with a center courtyard. These two buildings have been joined on the north end, providing room for the executive offices. The first floor includes a reception area for visitors to the campus, as well as the offices for business and finance and human resources. The second floor includes a presidential suite, conference rooms and offices for the executive vice president and the provost.

Young leaders retreat slated for Austin. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will host its annual Current retreat for young Baptist leaders Feb. 7-10 at First Baptist Church in Austin, focusing on the theme “Let Justice Roll.” Keynote speakers are Suzii Paynter, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, and Adam Russell Taylor, senior director of campaigns and organizing at Sojourners/Call to Renewal. Breakout session topics include world hunger, HIV/AIDS, poverty, ecology, consumerism and reconciliation. The cost, which includes two evening meals, is $110 for ministers and lay leaders and $55 for seminary students. For more information or to register, visit www.thefellowship.info/current/retreat2007.icm.   

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

Posted: 1/05/07

TOGETHER:
2007: The emphasis is on missions

As followers of Jesus Christ, we face an important question: How do we build a disciple in the 21st century?

One way you build a disciple today is by involving him or her in missions. There was a time not too long ago when missions meant sending out a person with an extraordinary call to serve across the seas in some isolated setting. Today, missions is for all of us.

Career missionaries still are important, but thanks to advances in technology and communications, more believers can be involved in missions at home and abroad.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

The Atlantic and Pacific oceans are no longer great barriers. We no longer are isolated. Everything is global. Every country touches every other country, and every culture rubs up against every other culture. Missions is at the door of every church, and members in every church are connected daily with points around the world.

“Today, every disciple is a missionary,” says Bill Tinsley, leader of the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ WorldconneX missions network. The BGCT formed WorldconneX three years ago to help churches engage in missions. It is helping churches “turn the world upside down by doing missions from the inside out,” Tinsley says. That means missions commitment starts in hearts and minds and then finds outward expression.

WorldconneX helps a church “discover its unique DNA” and then connects that uniqueness with what God is doing in the world. This recognizes the unique giftedness and calling of each congregation. One church may have a deep burden to start Spanish-speaking churches in Texas and beyond, while another may have gained a heartfelt concern for a village in Africa where a church member had grown up. The possibilities are endless.

Texas Baptists needed a new kind of missions organization to help churches fulfill their callings. WorldconneX does this by doing a number of things:

• It provides “activation services” through which it works with a congregation to discover the distinctives of that church’s vision, people and resources; then WorldconneX creates a plan that leverages those distinctives.

• It provides “front-line services” that deal with logistical details such as insurance, visas, cross-cultural training, learning other languages and travel plans. It short, it connects a church with the best resources and practices.

• It provides “international connections” in the form of individuals and resources a church might never find on its own. WorldconneX is networked with the leading missions practitioners throughout the world.

Missions is never far from the minds of Baptists. People of every age group are sensing the prompting of God to be involved in mission ministry in a personal, “hands-on” manner. Churches are looking for ways to maximize this new reality.

I am grateful for the increasing creativity and determination on the part of many of our churches to be active in thoughtful, strategic and effective response to the mission mandate of God.

This is my heart and the heart of our convention’s new president, Steve Vernon. We are committed to making 2007 a year of emphasis on getting our Texas Baptist churches more personally involved in missions than ever before. You will be hearing more about this, but right now you can contact WorldconneX, and they will help you assess where your church is and what needs to happen next.

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: 1/05/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Grandmother’s simple faith

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, anticipating the year to come. I announced to my youngest daughter on the first of January: “No New Year’s resolutions this year! I am not making any New Year’s resolutions!” I am not sure why I spoke such words. Maybe because I am weary of resolutions. Maybe because I fear I might break a resolution. Maybe because I am bored with the same old resolutions that people make—the diet, debt and discipline resolutions people set as goals every year.

Did you know 41.3 million Americans belong to health clubs and that number increases with the resolve to diet and lose weight in a new year? Did you know the average American has credit card debt of approximately $5,000 and a new year yields a pledge to dig out of debt? Did you know Americans aim for discipline with their new resolutions? They shoot for better education or to stop drinking alcohol or to stop smoking or overeating or consuming caffeine. All in all, I think all such resolutions are wise, often necessary, especially if the diet, digging out of debt and adding discipline contribute to a higher quality of life. However, one life coach, whatever that is, noted, “Most people abandon their goals in the first 30 days.”

All of this leads to why I am not making any New Year’s resolutions this year. I find myself thinking I aim to keep a resolution of old, but to keep it fresh and firm. Jesus talked about diets, if you will, when he mentioned fasting. He talked about money, its joys (giving) and dangers (greed), more than any other subject. While telling us to pay our taxes and tithes (“And Jesus answering said unto them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marveled at him.”), Jesus encouraged a discipline of keeping our hands to the plow and not looking back, the discipline of losing your life to find it, and the discipline of sacrifice that leads to service. In a nutshell, I aim to return to the roots of old, the roots of the gospel of Christ in its simplicity and humility.

I am thinking of the year ahead. I make no predictions about disasters in the world. I do not worry about UFOs showing up at airports. I cannot even predict whether the Dallas Cowboys or Dallas Mavericks or the Granbury High School Pirates will win championships. I can, however, think of the year ahead in simplicity.

My grandmother, Ruth Easter Duncan, lived well into her nineties. Her middle name was Easter because she was born on Easter. Her roots trace back to Scotland, to faith in Christ in the simplicity of the cross and to prayer. She lived in the mountains of North Carolina, a town named Spruce Pine that to this day sprinkles the mountain landscape with spruce pine trees. I can tell you she lived a simple life. As far as I know, she rarely left the mountains. She rarely left her home as she aged. She went to church, took care of her family and friends, was good at washing dishes, baking homemade chocolate pie, and an excellent hanger of clothes on the clothesline. To this day, there is for me no greater smell than that smell of clothes freshly dried in the sunshine and mountain air.

My grandmother also had a garden. I remember visiting her on those summer vacations our family would take. I remember the happiness of playing in the creek behind her white house, the taste of her fresh corn from the garden, the excitement of catching fireflies and putting them in Mason jars with holes punched on the lid, and the exhilaration of sliding down the rail of the stairs in that old house that my grandfather built in the 1930s.

My mind travels back to that garden. My grandmother, bless her heart, would tie a bonnet around her head to protect her from the sun, grab a hoe, and walk through and work the garden slowly, quietly, simply, humbly.

I invited Christ into my life at 10 years of age. I remember the circumstances, the moment, the tears, the joy, my baptism in an angelic white baptismal robe at the First Baptist Church of Hurst, Texas, and my first witness about Christ to my friend Matt, who, as it was, turned out to be Catholic, which led to my first real theological discussion. But when I think of yesterday and today and tomorrow and the New Year ahead, I think of that garden my grandmother tilled slowly, quietly, simply, humbly. Her potatoes, green beans that I as forced to eat but did not like, and the sweet corn on the cob that tasted delightful, all which came from her garden, came because she kept her garden daily. She toiled, she weeded, she watered and she nurtured her crop until the harvest.

When it comes to my relationship with Christ in the year ahead, I resolve to return to the simplicity of faith like a garden. I aim to toil, weed, water and nurture my faith in Christ daily.

When I visited my grandmother, each night while a cool mountain breeze wafted through the open window into the room, my grandmother would ease into the room, sit on the edge of the bed and whisper in my ear the same prayer (“Now I lay me down to sleep …”) and entrust my life in simplicity to God in Christ by his Holy Spirit.

I aim in a new year to keep to the garden of prayer. Of prayer, George Marshall said, “We must stop setting our sights by the light of each passing ship; instead we must set our course by the stars.” After my grandmother’s whispered prayer, I would lie in bed, feel the cool breeze, watch the curtains ruffle in the wind, look through the window on moonlit nights, and stare at the stars. I aim to set my course in the stars in the simplicity of the Maker of the stars.

Simplicity for one in a New Year and humility for two. Peter never dreamed of a basilica named after him or the pomp and circumstance surrounding his final resting place. The rugged fishermen turned fisher of men was brash, bold, boisterous and impulsive, quite likely to impulse shop if he were waiting in the checkout line at Wal-Mart while striking up a conversation with the other people waiting in line while handing out his opinions on any subject. As he learned and grew in Christ, his soul nurtured like a garden, he gave instruction on the importance of humility, “…and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

I saw the movie Rocky Balboa recently. I like quotes from movies. As I approach a new year, I think of Rocky’s words in the struggle of life, in the force of a fight, in the fight for life, or, as a Christian, in the battle for abundant life. Again, I think back to that garden and my grandmother as a young woman living through the Great Depression of the 1930s. I think of humility. Be clothed with humility.

At one point in the movie, Rocky says:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place, and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.”

I can hear my grandmother’s prayer, her whisper while the wind sneaks through the window as the mountain breeze waltzes into the room, and I can imagine her wrinkled face tilling the garden and how she lived life in simple faith and humility, no neon signs, no me and my, no “Here I am,” no song and tune of “It’s all about me!” but the simplicity of tilling the garden of her soul in sunshine and rainbows, in clouds and storms, and life punching her in the gut and her life moving forward for some 90 years and then upward when she died as she lived—slowly, quietly, simply, humbly.

It’s a New Year, soulful saint. I have no new year’s resolutions. I have no predictions.

I simply aim to till the garden of the soul and learn the sacrifice of service in the soulful song of mountain faith in Christ and to put on the clothes of humility.

I aim to pull daily on the rope of grace in the hope of clouds that roll back and to bask daily in the sun that shines and wait for the windows of heaven to pour forth showers of blessing in the dark whispers of prayer.

I set my course by the stars.

I pray in the cool breeze of God’s grace for grace to keep moving forward.

Maybe that is a New Year’s resolution after all. Maybe so. Maybe so.

Happy New Year in simplicity and humility!

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

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

Posted: 1/05/07

Seminary president urges
neighboring pastor to resign

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

CORDOVA, Tenn. (ABP)—The president of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary called for the senior pastor at one of the largest Southern Baptist congregations in the United States to resign.

Michael Spradlin, who leads the seminary situated across the street from Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, said Steve Gaines should relinquish the church’s pastorate because of his deliberate silence about sex-abuse allegations against a Bellevue minister.

On Dec. 18, Gaines announced to the 25,000-member Bellevue congregation Paul Williams, a 34-year employee at Bellevue, had gone on paid leave pending a church investigation regarding “moral failure.”

Specific details of the case have not been released to the public, but claims of sexual abuse of an underage male 17 years ago have been posted on the Internet. Williams, who was unavailable for comment, has not been officially charged with any criminal activity.

Spradlin called for the resignation after Gaines admitted he knew about the sexual abuse at least six months ago but took no action against Williams. The seminary has close ties with the school.

Gaines defended his action by telling the church he thought “the issue was settled.”

“Some people have questioned why I waited for several months. It’s simply this: I acted out of a heartfelt concern and compassion for this minister because the event occurred many years ago, he was receiving professional counseling, and I was concerned about confidentiality,” Gaines said in a statement. “In light of the events that have unfolded, I realize now that I should have discussed it further with this minister and brought it to the attention of our church leadership immediately.”

Gaines has been under pressure from some church members since he took over Bellevue after the retirement of famed conservative stalwart Adrian Rogers, who has since died. Rogers’ widow said her husband had no knowledge of the abuse allegations, although they occurred during his tenure.

Gaines also told the church the personnel committee would conduct an investigation of the situation and issue a statement after the inquiry. Williams will continue to receive Christian counseling and financial support from Bellevue. He will not be allowed on the church campus during the investigation.

Spradlin told the Commercial Appeal of Memphis Gaines has “spent all his credibility, and people are losing trust in him.” Gaines was unavailable for comment.

“If Steve Gaines found out that a child had been sexually molested by one of his ministers, and if he did nothing to address it, then he needs to step down immediately,” Spradlin told the newspaper. “We cannot take chances with other people’s children. If he knew about this and kept quiet, then he’s put Bellevue in a very dangerous position and possibly put children and the emotionally vulnerable at risk.”

Michael Reagan, host of a conservative radio talk show by the same name, said in his Dec. 18 show that pastors like Gaines must be held accountable for not reporting sexual-abuse allegations.

“God forbid that, in fact, someone stands up in that church and says, ‘Oh by the way … my child was sexually molested by this pastor Williams,’ because that church, which is a 25,000 member church, is going to go bankrupt too,” Reagan said. “And well it should.”

Reagan also blamed Gaines for the current “turmoil” in the church.

“It should have been dealt with the moment he found out,” he said. “But instead, he waited six months.”

Gaines took the pulpit at Bellevue Sept. 11, 2005. As a pastor for 14 years at Gardendale First Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Ala., Gaines became one of the leading fundamentalist voices in the SBC.

A group of longtime church members, who run the website savingbellevue.com, say Gaines is receiving an inappropriately high salary, is pushing the church toward an elder-led system, and uses intimidation and arrogance to get his way. Gaines has denied those charges.

Mid-America Seminary sits on 51 acres donated by Bellevue Baptist. The school has 450 students and receives some funding from the church. Spradlin is also the interim pastor at Germantown Baptist Church in Memphis.

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

Posted: 1/03/07

Church's flexibility helps in
encounter with Hispanic seekers

By George Henson

Staff Writer

WAXAHACHIE—Encounter may not have had Spanish-speaking Hispanics as its target audience, but now that a couple of dozen attend, the congregation is excited at the opportunity God has given for ministry.

Encounter exists for three types of people. The church’s website, encounterthis.com, says: “Those who have walked away from church because they have been ‘burned’ in some way. Their hurts have driven them from church, but not necessarily from God. Two, those who have grown bored with other expressions of church. They have stopped experiencing the reality of Christ in the music, message format and hunger for something more. And, three, those who are far from God.”

Encounter started with about 40 people two years ago, meeting Saturday nights at Ovilla Road Baptist Church in Ovilla. About a year ago, the congregation had doubled in size and moved to the Waxahachie Civic Center, coinciding with a change in meeting times to the more conventional Sunday mornings.

The congregation has now grown to number about 200 in attendance—mostly 20- to 50-year-olds and their families.

But a few months ago, the church began to draw from a new demographic group—Hispanics, some who spoke limited English and others who spoke almost no English. And several of them older than most of Encounter’s Anglo worshippers.

A scheduled testimony by a young English-speaking Hispanic couple in the church sparked the Hispanic infusion, Pastor Brian Treadaway said. The couple’s family and friends came to hear them share how God had reclaimed their lives after sin had stripped away from them everything they held dear. That group continued to attend, and other family and friends also joined them.

Most were able to follow along with songs and Scripture on screens, but they missed other parts of the service. So, now they sit together where someone can translate the message into Spanish for them.

The next step is to incorporate a system where the translation will come through an earbud listening system, Treadaway said.

It has been exciting to see the spiritual hunger of the group, he added. While Sunday mornings are the only times the congregation meets together, small groups meet at various times in homes throughout the week. Several of the congregation’s new Hispanic members meet with several of the small groups instead of choosing just one like most members.

The need for the translation system is immediate because several worshippers have told Treadaway they have friends and family who are interested in hearing more about the gospel, but they speak no English.

“We think a translation system will help us to minister to this group better,” Treadaway said, “especially those who speak no English.”

The more veteran members of the congregation are excited about the new ministry, he added.

The outreach effort is just the church doing what it seeks to do with everyone who comes to Encounter, Treadaway said—meet needs, no matter what those needs might be.

Encounter encourages people to wear whatever is comfortable for them—jeans, shorts and slacks are all permissible, he said.

The church has a different look as well—there are no pews, or even chairs in rows.

“We have chairs sitting around small tables with a candle in the middle. It probably looks more like a nightclub than a church,” Treadaway said.

The band’s music might be a little edgier than in most churches as well, he said.

The church has received a great deal of help from those who organized the Western heritage churches. Encounter uses much the same approach—make people comfortable enough to come, but don’t change the message in any way.

“We are Baptists in our core—in what we believe we are Baptist through and through. But you won’t find ‘Baptist’ in our name, in our brochures or on our website, and we don’t have committees. Our doctrine is the same. We don’t compromise that.”

Another thing the church doesn’t compromise is the need to minister to others outside the church. A group has an “almost-weekly” outside the Austin Street homeless shelter in Dallas, and at Christmas, members collected foodstuffs and toys to deliver to needy Waxahachie families.

The congregation is seeing its efforts rewarded in people coming to know Christ. Fourteen have been baptized in the past year, and without a baptistry, the congregation has again borrowed from the cowboy church way of doing things—in a horse trough.

“We put it right out in the middle and everyone gathers round like they would if we were in a river baptizing somewhere,” Treadaway 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: 1/03/07

Students provide family
with extreme home makeover

By Jenny Pope

Buckner International

DALLAS—When Onequa Washington, 31, was laid off from her job of 13 years in early September, the first thing she thought about was Christmas.

“I always try to teach my children that it’s just a blessing to be together at Christmas,” said Washington, a single mother of three boys. “But with the little ones, it’s so hard for them to understand.”

Washington, feeling really “down and out,” called Johnny Flowers, the site director for Buckner Community Services Center at the Parks at Wynnewood, to ask for help with Christmas gifts. She never expected to hear what he said next. She really didn’t even expect him to answer his phone, she said.

Onequa Washington, and her three sons Christopher, 4, Nicholas, 6, and V'Arion, 10, proudly show off their new apartment at the Parks at Wynnewood.

“It was a true blessing that I was able to speak with him directly. He’s always so busy, but he answered and told me to come in and see him in his office. He told me that my blessings were coming, and I believed him.”

Flowers told Washington about a group of high school students from Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas who provide one lucky family each Christmas with an extreme home makeover.

“When Mr. Johnny told me that, I just knew that there were angels in heaven,” she said. “I didn’t call asking for all this help. I’m just a single mom trying to do what’s best for me and my kids, and I don’t like to take handouts.

“I’ve changed my life a lot in the past few years; grown in my Christian walk … I knew that there was something better for me, that things would turn around.”

More than 100 students, teachers and parents caravanned into the community’s gates Dec. 15 to unload several U-Haul trucks and vans filled with about $20,000 worth of aid.

Led by Jason Smola, a biology teacher who has spearheaded the project for six years, the Jesuit ‘Elves in Disguise’ formed immediate assembly lines to unload furniture, gifts, books and food into the community center, which will benefit many of the families in the community. They also surprised Buckner with a new van.

“Every year, Jesuit goes above and beyond what they’ve done before,” Flowers said. “Once again, I am overwhelmed by their generosity and the number of people we will be able to help because of them. And Smola, well he’s a 10 in my book. He’s Jesus with skin on.”

“I give all the credit to the kids. All I do is share the need. I never ask for volunteers, not once, and yet there is still a fight to be able to come and do this. It’s really their giving spirit that makes this a success.”

One student in particular, he noted, was single-handedly responsible for obtaining the donation of the new van from a dealership to benefit the children and families at Wynnewood.

Tisha Blood said it was her son Max, 15, who was “really moved by the way the kids were living and wanted to help out” after watching Smola’s online video from last year’s home makeover.

Max, who could hardly break from cleaning to answer any questions, said he simply “wanted to help people. It’s hard to believe that people live like this. I just hope they like it and are able to enjoy it.”

After four long hours of work by more than 200 hands, Washington’s apartment was transformed. The two-bedroom dingy apartment became a home, complete with new couches and a dining room set, new beds, desks and dressers, clothing, a stocked pantry and plenty of toys and bicycles for the whole family to enjoy.

Washington and her family entered the apartment in tears, with the boys racing around to point out all the changes. And the most important change of all, the one that brought the most emotion to Washington, was the stocked pantry.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said, in tears. “I just can’t believe it; I feel light. Thank you Jesus.”

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

Posted: 10/6/03

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Change the subject

Enough about Baylor! There were at least six pages worth of “information” on the Baylor controversies in the Sept. 22 edition.

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

God is doing more in Texas than most people are aware. Please seek out and focus on successful ministries around the state instead of perpetuating the controversies by publicizing them, and publicizing them and publicizing them.

Ann Clark

Amarillo

Evangelical, not fundamentalist

I was pleased and relieved to learn of the strong vote of support for President Robert Sloan by the Baylor regents (Sept. 22).

Obviously, there are issues at my alma mater that need to be addressed and probably some apologies to be made from several sides. In addition, a further critical examination of Baylor 2012 is important.

But the goal of extending Baylor's history as an outstanding academic institution with a clear Christian identity is both desirable and difficult.

One point needs to be noted, however. Some of my fellow moderates have portrayed Sloan as a fundamentalist. This reflects, I believe, a failure of critical thinking. Just as many fundamentalists believe everyone to the left of them is a liberal, many Baptist moderates believe everyone to the right of them is a fundamentalist.

Robert Sloan, I believe, with his strong Baptist training and identity, stands squarely in the evangelical tradition, not the fundamentalist.

Bill Blackburn

Kerrville

Dawson family 'misused'

Someone at Baylor appears to be using–misusing–the Dawson family in trying to oust Francis Beckwith because of his association with Discovery Institute (Sept. 22). The letter the family members signed is factually incorrect and hence comes to gravely incorrect conclusions.

Discovery Institute is a think tank that works on issues ranging from transportation to bioethics. It certainly does not engage in “political activities that contravene the separation of church and state.” We don't believe in that and don't advocate it. In fact, in the past we have sponsored programs defending religious liberty.

Moreover, while we do support scientists who are developing the emerging scientific theory known as intelligent design, we are not working “to get the concept of intelligent design into public school textbooks.” For two years, our textbook effort in the institute's Center for Science and Culture has been to promote the availability to students of the scientific evidence against Darwin's theory of evolution, as well as the evidence for it. We have not requested the insertion of intelligent design into textbooks.

The Dawson family members may have been used. At least, that is the most charitable construction to be put upon their misleading letter. One wonders if they bothered to talk to Beckwith before signing a letter intended to cost him his job.

He is not proposing anything to contravene the separation of church and state. But his critics, by their own words, clearly seem to be intent on contravening his academic freedom.

Bruce Chapman

President, Discovery Institute

Seattle

Thanks for help

I would like to express my appreciation for the help the Baptist General Convention of Texas very graciously extended to me.

Thank you for sponsoring the transition retreat, where I could obtain rest and information as how to start life again in the United States after having to return to America as an International Mission Board missionary who refused to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.

Because of Texas Baptists' graciousness and generosity, I will be able to start life again in America.

Thank you.

Mary Swedenberg

Birmingham, Ala.

Multiple strategies

Harold Phillips has good insight and makes a much-needed emphasis on taking the gospel to the fourth of the world with little access to it (Sept. 22).

His description of what the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship did in its early global missions effort is correct. CBF focused on reaching the most neglected. I join him in praying that more missionaries, whether already serving or yet to be called, will focus on these peoples.

Earlier, if CBF had picked up support of International Mission Board missionaries where they served, it would have exported our convention controversy. But now in many cases the IMB is no longer working closely with local Baptist groups. This has caused a number of them to offer support to returning missionaries who have been fired or forced out of service by the IMB.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is serving as a channel to U.S. churches that also want to continue supporting them. This enables them to be more effective and efficient than if they had to receive and handle funds themselves from multiple sources.

BGCT is not another mission agency appointing and supporting missionaries as CBF is so this removes the potential of creating a rival mission organization.

In today's world, multiple missions strategies are needed. I believe the BGCT's approach is one such strategy.

R. Keith Parks

Richardson

Can't outlaw Ten

I just wanted to reassure Elsie Graham (Sept. 22) that, despite what the conservative media would have us believe, it does not lie in the power of the U.S. Supreme Court to “outlaw” the Ten Commandments.

Carolyn B. Edwards

Pipe Creek

Biblical tithing

I'm interested in hearing people's attitudes regarding biblical teaching about tithing:

The tithe was solely the produce of the land (Leviticus 27:30, 32; Deuteronomy 14:22,23; 26:12).

Since the tithe was solely the product of agriculture, those without land or herds could not pay the tithe. The poor, who were recipients of the tithe, didn't pay. Jesus could not have paid the tithe.

The Torah commands more than one tithe totaling up to 23.5 percent (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:21; Deuteronomy 12:1-19; 14:22-26; 14:28-29; 26:12-13).

There are only two New Testament passages that mention the tithe (Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:41-42), but these only affirm tithing under the old covenant. The Apostle Paul, however, says each person should give freely and not under compulsion (2 Corinthians 9:7).

There is little support from the pre-Nicene church fathers for any form of tithing. Christian clergy did not demand tithing until the Council of Tours in 567 A.D. and did not legally enforce it until 777 A.D.

Some will argue Jesus never demanded less of his disciples, but more. Therefore, the tithe ought to be the minimum. However, if Jesus demands more than 10 percent, then the minimum would have to be 11 percent. Didn't Jesus require 100 percent?

Should Baptists be promoting a biblically modified tithe, which is a burden for the poor but lets the rich off easily, or should we simply promote the New Covenant grace of generosity?

Matthew Van Hook

Abilene

Too Christian?

Kate Etue, managing editor of Revolve, says of Thor 5 One, the Bible/magazine's designers, “They're great because they don't make things look churchy or Christiany” (Sept. 8).

Are we now afraid of being thought too Christian?

Mick Tahaney

Port Arthur

Time for national unity

After 9/11, the country united under George Bush to rid the world of terrorism. As time goes on and we move farther and farther away from that date, we seem to be forgetting that we have made a commitment.

This is a time for national unity. With troops still over there, we should spend our time praying for them, rather than arguing. We need to support our president as long as he is in power and our troops as long as they are in harms way.

Think about that and where your priorities are. My priorities are toward my country and what’s best for it, and right now what we have to do is stick together, no matter what happens.

Ryan Burgett

Cedar Hill

You can't serve two masters

Baylor 2012 openly touts Christian principles, yet its practices and goals leave much to be desired. (For background, read the statement’s conclusion: http://www.baylor.edu/vision/index.php?id=212)

Jesus calls for good deeds to be done in secret (Matthew 6:1-4). Baylor encourages continued financial support based on the promise of public glorification of the giver, be it with a banquet, a plaque or a name on a building.

Jesus exhorts us to store up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). The conclusion evidences a desire to make Baylor better, to have better Baylor buildings and better Baylor athletics, and the list goes on. Baylor is not storing up treasures in heaven, but rather is looking for heaven on earth in the form of its own mega-churchesque sprawl.

Jesus warns of the impossibility of serving two masters (Matthew 6:22-24). Baylor is attempting to serve both God and U.S. News & World Reports. Any vision must be crafted caring only what God thinks, being glad if the world responds favorably, but not being sad if Baylor remains in Tier Two.

Jesus assures us that our concerns will fall into line when we seek God’s Kingdom first (Matthew 6:33). Baylor seeks God’s kingdom as a subordinate component of the vision, not as its governing principle.

The visionaries’ hope for Baylor would not be a shining example of Christian principles. Rather, their Baylor would be a monument to American materialism and largesse in which a diluted Christianity is only part of the bigger Baylor vision.

Daren Butler

Houston

Clearest reason to leave the SBC

The online articles by Jerry Rankin and Keith Parks reveal the problem within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Rankin, speaking demanding capitulation of any who receive paychecks from the convention, does so with the echo of his mission work in the field contrasting his references to worldly “postmodern” influences. Evidently, these influences drive the demand for “confessional” acquiescence.

The attempt to replace “creedal” with “confessional” is clearly a losing argument, and one can only conjure how a dedicated missionary could embrace a political ploy that severs his relationship with peers who have given their lives in this service.

This clear-cut statement, finally made yet tardy by 18 years, is the affirmation of one basic fact: If Southern Baptists pay you, you will say what we want to hear, or at the very least, you will not say what we don’t want to hear.

Either way, it has little to do with missions, teaching, preaching or administration. It has to do first, last and always with surrender to dogma, not doctrine. The only confession that will be acceptable is: “Yes, sir!” Seen in that light, God’s call for service is secondary to alignment with the “program.”

Rankin’s article provides the clearest reason for leaving the Southern Baptist Convention. These statements, leaving, at last, no doubt about the intent of those who sit in the chairs of control, form the bulwark of their intention to control, by the simple method of a paycheck, both the confession and the creed.

Edward Clark

Danville, Ky.

Glad for New Orleans Seminary's refusal

As I read the article about New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and its refusal to go with the rest of the Southern Baptist Convention agencies, I felt glad they didn’t.

The SBC has always been a convention and not a denomination. Denominations have power and control from the top down. In the SBC, the leaders are there to assist the people not to push them around.

I cannot think of a single denomination that has maintained its integrity in regards to biblical principles and correct interpretation. Can you? It is my belief that if the SBC turns into a denomination, we will be looking at the demise of the SBC it as we know it.

Gerald Polmateer

Atascadero, Calif.

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

Posted: 1/02/06

CYBER COLUMN:
Judgment Day

By Brett Younger

When I was 15 years old, my father was the pastor of the strictest church in the world. In Saltillo, Miss., pastor of the Baptist church was—next to coach of the high school football team—the most important job in town. My father preached loudly—a bit like John the Baptist. He is a kind and caring man, but when I was growing up, he frightened me.

That summer, I got a job in Tupelo eight miles away. At that time, you could get a driver’s license at 15. Now that seems about 10 years too soon. My father taught me how to drive the right way—hands at 10 and 2 o’clock, five miles below the speed limit, acting with utmost patience—“Don’t ever drive in a hurry.” As part of my teenage rebellion, I put my hands at 9 and 3 o’clock and went five miles above the speed limit.

One evening, I got into a hurry driving home. I was the fourth car following a tractor down a two-lane road when I inexplicably decided to pass them all. I ended up rolling my father’s car one and a half times and landing upside down in a ditch. As I began rolling, I thought, “I am dead.”

When the car stopped, I thought of my father. Once again, “I am dead.”

I totaled my father’s car. When the police officer asked who to call to come get me, I said, “Let me think about that.” My mother wasn’t home. My father was at the church, but I decided not to bother him right then. I would have the car towed to the garage. I could ride in the tow truck and then get a ride home. That would give me time to figure out how to tell him.

As I waited beside my father’s overturned car, I realized no amount of time would be enough to figure out how to tell him. How could I have been so stupid? The inevitable grounding, the taking of the keys and whatever corporeal punishment he would come up with were all less terrifying than the fury that he would undoubtedly, deservedly unleash.

I was thinking about the judgment to come when I saw my father walking toward me. A helpful church member had seen me standing in the ditch by my father’s overturned car and had called him. I decided to walk right up and tell him the whole truth so he could immediately bundle me off to hell. I would use the prodigal son’s speech: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”

I started the speech, but I didn’t get far. I was completely unprepared for what my father did. He broke me worse than anything I’d imagined. He did the most painful, wondrous thing he could have done. I wouldn’t have cried if he’d done anything I had expected, but he took me in his arms and hugged me. All he ever said was: “I’m so glad you’re OK. I’m so glad you’re OK.”

The fire of my father’s love melted me and cleansed me. I hadn’t expected such completely undeserved forgiveness. Judgment Day wasn’t anything like what I thought it would be.

On the ride home, the next day, and the next week, I waited for my father to get around to punishing me. I have been waiting for 30 years for the other shoe to drop, but my dad has never reprimanded me for wrecking his car. Maybe he thought forgiveness would be the best way to keep my hands at 10 and 2 o’clock and the accelerator at five miles below the speed limit. Maybe he didn’t think about it all. Maybe he was just glad I was OK.

Could that be the way judgment works? Could it be that God loves us, not out of strategic considerations, not because it will make us more of what we should be, though it may, but because that’s who God is? God who wants the best for us is forever coming to embrace us, God’s children.

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life, available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016. You can e-mail him at byounger@broadwaybc.org.

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