Posted: 11/02/07

Israel claims artifacts found
date to first Jewish temple

By Michele Chabin

Religion News Service

JERUSALEM (RNS)—Israeli archaeologists who have been inspecting maintenance work done by Muslims on the Temple Mount have discovered what they believe are artifacts dating back to the time of the first Jewish temple.

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority said workers from the Wakf Islamic Trust had uncovered “an apparently sealed archaeological level dated to the first temple period” near the Dome of the Rock, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Finds included fragments of ceramic tableware and animal bones. The finds are dated from the eighth to the sixth centuries B.C.

The discovery marks the first time Israeli archaeologists have been able to examine Temple Mount artifacts still in the ground. The Wakf, which maintains the mount, has for several decades denied excavation requests by international archaeologists.

In an ongoing project, archaeologists and volunteers have been salvaging thousands of Temple Mount artifacts found in tons of debris removed—illegally, Israelis say—by the Wakf during renovations on a mosque in 1999. Archaeologists strive to discover artifacts in their original position in the ground in order to gain valuable context.

The first temple, built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. The second temple was finished around 516 B.C, expanded by King Herod beginning in 20 B.C. and destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.

Israeli archaeologists said the characteristics and location of the finds may aid scholars in reconstructing the dimensions and boundaries of the Temple Mount during the first temple period.

Finds include fragments of bowls, the base of a juglet used for ladling oil, the handle of a small juglet and the rim of a storage jar. The bowl shards were decorated with wheel burnishing lines characteristic of the first temple period.

Gabriel Barkay, director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, called the Temple Mount “the most delicate and important and sensitive site in this country; and not counting the destructive acts of the Wakf, it’s hardly been excavated.”

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

Posted: 11/02/07

Texas Baptist Forum

Synergy of the Spirit

As Baptists, we have long believed and relied on the fact that the Lord speaks through the votes of his people.

• Jump to online-only letters below

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside.” Albert Snyder Father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who sued Wesboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., after the church protested his son’s 2006 funeral. The church pickets soldiers’ funerals, claiming God is killing troops as punishment for homosexuality in America. (AP/RNS) “Faced with a world lacerated by conflicts, where violence is still justified in the name of God, it is important to reassert that religions must never become vehicles of hate. On the contrary, religions can and should offer precious resources for constructing a pacific humanity.” Pope Benedict XVI Speaking at a peace conference (RNS) “He never made me feel that my faith and my intellect were at war with one another. He always made me believe that God gave you a brain, and he expects you to use it.” Condoleezza Rice U.S. secretary of state, discussing her faith and her father, a late Presbyterian minister (Larry King Live/RNS)

In Amarillo during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, I believe God spoke to us in two profound ways. The Lord affirmed Joy Fenner and the significant role of women in ministry. He knows if we are going to claim our future, women must continue to play a vital role in helping us to wrap our arms around Texas and the world.

I also believe the Lord called on us to lay aside political maneuverings and to pull together as one people on one mission to reach Texas and the world for the sake of his kingdom.

We must embrace the reality of who we really are. Our presidential election did not reveal that we are a divided convention. It revealed we are a people who want to come together. We cannot make the mistake of interpreting this election through the eyes of a “win/lose” attitude. We must continue to seek the synergy of the Spirit that can only come as we approach our struggles with a “win/win” attitude.

There will be no losers in Texas if we heed his voice and choose to face the future together.

David Lowrie

Canyon

Generous spirits

Thank you, Texas Baptists, for your contributions of food and financial donations to the food drive segment of City Reach West Texas, held immediately prior to the BGCT annual meeting. And thanks to Marla Bearden and Gerald Davis for coordinating this event.

As one of the agency recipients of the food donated, we are grateful to you for sharing your bounty with those who, on the front lines of meeting needs and sharing Christ, are in a position to pass it on to hungry families and individuals across West Texas. 

To say that the need for help in our communities has grown in the last few years—indeed, the last few months—would be an understatement. 

Your gifts will help us all stretch our food supplies a little further. We are grateful.

May our Father honor your generosity and willingness to give by multiplying his blessings both to you and to those we serve.

Susan Edwards, director

Midland Baptist CRISIS Center

Midland

‘Texas Baptists’

Please tell the BGCT staff and the Baptist Standard staff to stop referring to the BGCT as “Texas Baptists.”

There are more Baptists in Texas that are not part of the BGCT than are part of it. You are misrepresenting who you are and who other Baptists are in our state.

The BGCT does not speak for all Baptists in the state of Texas and needs to quit insinuating that it does.

Micah Meurer

Amarillo

Children need adoption

Howard Batson’s sermon at the BGCT annual meeting was a moving reminder of our status as believers. I found myself deeply touched by the pictures of the two children who were adopted.

Texas Baptists need to be reminded there are over 1,000 children in the care of Texas Child Protective Services who need homes and would like to have the experience of their own “mama” and “papa.” If not adopted, these children will age out of a tragically strained foster care system.

Michael Chancellor

Abilene

CP roots

It is my understanding that the BGCT in the early 1970s recommended that the institutions create development programs since the feeling then was that the Cooperative Program would not keep up with growth.

That recommendation was heard by our ministry, and we have been working hard on development since. Our own analysis shows that in 1979 income from CP was 52 percent of our budget. Currently, it is around 9 percent.

We too have expanded services while knowing that there is no possibility of asking for increased CP funding. We are grateful for every CP dollar we receive and more importantly the relationship that is behind the funding.

God has blessed us with other income sources, but our CP roots are so vital to the fruit desired by Texas Baptists.

Jerry Bradley, president

Children At Heart Ministries

Round Rock

What do you think? Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com. Due to space considerations, maximum length is 250 words.

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

Posted: 11/02/07

Memphis church gives new
meaning to ‘I Surrender All’

By Lucky Severson

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (RNS)—Nineteen-year-old Edacious recently came to New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, to surrender—and not just to Jesus.

There was a warrant for her arrest on marijuana charges, and she had come to church to turn herself in. Hundreds of others with outstanding warrants also showed up.

Called Fugitive Safe Surrender, the program is coordinated by the U.S. Justice Department and is the brainchild of Pete Elliott, a member of the U.S. Marshals Service.

“People have asked me why a church, and it’s simple,” Elliott said. “Churches give hope.”

“I’ve been in law enforcement going on 25 years now,” he said. “I feel the most comfort in my life when I’m at church. I feel the most peace when I’m at church. And I felt that individuals in the community that were wanted were basically no different than me.”

A week before the surrenders, Memphis religious leaders and law enforcement officials announced that for four days, fugitives—people wanted by the law for whatever reason—would be allowed to turn themselves in at a well-known church. The church was staffed with prosecutors, judges and court personnel.

“And most importantly, volunteers from New Salem (were on hand) … to greet people and to welcome them as they come in, so that they come in to an environment that is nonhostile,” said U.S. Attorney David Kustoff.

Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell said the program would be able to clear up several warrants, “which will make them law-abiding citizens and return them to the community in a productive way and will certainly assist us in law enforcement in clearing up this huge backlog.”

Officials estimate there are 37,000 outstanding warrants in Memphis alone. About 1,500 turned themselves in during the four days of the Memphis event—far more than the sheriff’s department could have rounded up over a similar period.

Fugitive Safe Surrender began in Cleveland two years ago. Memphis is the sixth city to try it, and in each case the program has exceeded expectations. At least five other cities hope to offer the surrender program.

But the program has sparked controversy. A plan to introduce it in New Jersey was blocked because of concerns it would violate church-state separation.

Felony suspects who showed up at New Salem were taken into custody, but most of those turning themselves in were wanted for minor offenses.

A surprising number said that until the event at church, they felt they had no place to surrender. They were wary of the police and sheriff’s department and were afraid of going to jail. Many fugitives view the Memphis Justice Building—201 Poplar Street—as a place where people get lost in the criminal justice maze.

“201 Poplar is a threat to most of them,” said Frank Ray, pastor of New Salem. “And the reason is that you can go there, and what they did here (at church) in 30 minutes or an hour, two hours, it may take three days. That you can go there and surrender yourself—it may be three days before they’ll even hear your case, and you’re going to be stuck in prison for that many days and some people have even got lost in the system.”

Offenders who turned themselves in had outstanding warrants for traffic offenses or probation violation, and many said they were doing it to start over—“to get my life back,” as one person put it. Jobs, food stamps, education often are out of reach for people with outstanding warrants.

New Salem was chosen as the surrender point because its pastor is active in the community and fugitives apparently trust the church more than they trust the police.

“There’s been somewhat of a division between the justice system and the community, especially the religious community,” Ray said. Of the fugitives who surrendered at the church, many said they came in precisely because it was a church.

After the warrants are verified, those surrendering were fingerprinted and photographed. Most cases were heard on the same day, and the outcomes may be more lenient than they would be at 201 Poplar.

“We try to fashion a settlement that will let these people get this over with today and go home with their cases disposed of,” said Mary Thorsberg, assistant district attorney.

Elliott’s idea for the program sprang from an incident in Cleveland when a police officer, a friend of his, was shot and killed making a routine traffic stop. The officer didn’t know the driver was wanted under a fugitive warrant.

“There’s always the possibility of a violent confrontation, for whatever reason, even on the smallest warrants,” said David Jolley of the U.S. Marshals Service. “It may be that the person just didn’t want to go to jail that day, or they had something in their possession they didn’t want the officer to find.”

Elliot observed, “For every fugitive that peacefully and voluntarily surrenders, that’s one less dangerous confrontation our law enforcement officers have to have on the streets.”

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

Posted: 11/02/07

Kinder, gentler Moses pictured
in new Ten Commandments movie

By David Briggs

Religion News Service

HOLLYWOOD (RNS)—The image of Charlton Heston as Moses has been carved into the minds of generations.

Few who have seen the Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster can forget Heston’s majestic, commanding presence as he comes down from Mount Sinai and thunders to a wayward people, “Those who will not live by the law shall die by the law.”

Now there is a new Moses for a new generation.

Christian Slater is the voice of Moses in a new animated film, The Ten Commandments.

The new, animated version of The Ten Commandments features a more compassionate Moses with the voice of Christian Slater, urging people to be faithful because, “God loves you.”

The love story in this movie is not the romantic triangle of Rameses, Moses and Princess Nefertiri that DeMille added to widen the audience for his 1956 movie. It is the love between God and God’s people, a side of Jehovah that often has been missing in biblical epics.

“God is not just this angry ogre,” Executive Producer Brad Cummings said. The film, he stressed, tries to “highlight his desire for a relationship with us.”

The decision to depict the God of Exodus as a loving parent who cares for his children is a welcome addition to popular portrayals of Old Testament stories where God is shown as judgmental, legalistic and wrathful, some observers say.

Those earlier portrayals often reflected the misinterpretation that Jesus reveals God as compassionate and loving, but the Old Testament shows nothing but a God of wrath, they insist.

But modern biblical scholars increasingly assert that there is a lot of language of human and divine love in Hebrew Scriptures, said Ronald Brauner, a professor of Judaic studies at the Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Beachwood, Ohio.

The eternal, steadfast love of God is spoken of throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, he noted. Even the suffering Job says to God, “You have given me love and constant care.”

What is clear throughout the texts is “the love of the Divine Being to those people the Divine Being has created,” Brauner said.

In the Book of Exodus, the covenant between God and the Israelites—“my treasured possession among all the peoples”—described in chapter 19 also is a “manifestation of love,” Brauner said.

A goal of the new movie is to counter the stereotype that “God is angry in the Old Testament and thank God for Jesus in the New” Testament, Cummings said.

In the film, God speaks in the soothing tones of Elliott Gould.

Slater (Moses) avoids the stentorian speech of Heston’s character for a more casual tone, speaking at various points in the film about God’s love and desire to care for the people under His protection.

The idea of God’s love “is really there. It’s in the Bible,” said screenwriter Ed Naha. “You just have to look for it.”

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

Posted: 11/02/07

On the Move

• Seth Austin to Texas Baptist Children’s Home in Round Rock as minister of youth and recreation.

• Jeff Berger to Westbury Church in Houston as pastor.

• Cari Cockrell to First Church Denton-East in Denton as preschool director.

• Jason Daniels to First Church in Haskell as youth and music minister from First Church in Seagraves.

• John Duncan to First Church in Georgetown as pastor from Lakeside Church in Granbury.

• Gary Hearon to First Church in Canton as pastor.

• Rod Jones to Hillcrest Church in Cedar Hill as minister to singles.

• Benny Mayo to Hillcrest Church in Cedar Hill as minister to senior adults.

• Ray McCoy to Lake Victor Church in Lampasas as pastor.

• Kaleb Moore to First Church Denton-East in Denton as worship leader.

• Chris Searcy to First Church Denton-East in Denton as technical director.

• Ross Shelton to First Church in Woodville as pastor from First Church in Castroville.

• Larry Willis to Morse Street Church in Denton as pastor from Westside Church in Lewisville, where he was associate pastor.

• J.B. Word to First Church in Fort Davis as intentional interim pastor.

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

Posted: 11/02/07

Americans don’t want religious pitches
from presidential candidates, poll says

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Even though thousands of evangelicals flocked to Washington for the recent Values Voter Summit, more than two-thirds of Americans think presidential candidates should not use their religious beliefs to sway voters, a new poll shows.

The poll, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the Interfaith Alliance in October, asked 1,000 adults to agree or disagree with the following statement: “Presidential candidates should not use their religion or faith to influence voters to support them.”

Sixty-eight percent said they agreed.

Even regular churchgoers think presidential hopefuls should not use their faith as a campaign tool. Almost 60 percent of survey respondents who regularly attend religious services agreed with the statement.

Candidates went “too far” at the Value Voters summit as they tried to “out-Christian” each other, said Baptist minister Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance.

“We’re not electing a pastor-in-chief. We’re electing a commander-in-chief,” Gaddy said.

Candidates certainly can speak about their religion and beliefs as “points of identification for who they are,” Gaddy said, but they push the limits when they imply voters should support them because of their religion.

“We are not electing a person on the basis of their theology or on the basis of their personal spirituality,” he said. Instead, the American people should be looking for a candidate who can support democracy and help the United States be a “good citizen of the world community.”

The poll also showed about 58 percent of Americans think religious leaders should have little influence on voters’ decisions, and 78 percent believe it is important the next president nominate Supreme Court justices who will maintain the separation of church and state.

The poll of 1,000 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

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

Posted: 11/02/07

Court rules for teacher
in private/public school dispute

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

GREENVILLE (RNS)—A federal appeals court has ruled for a Texas public school teacher who was denied the chance for a promotion after she refused to withdraw her children from a private religious school.

In 1998, Karen Jo Barrow was denied an interview for an assistant principal’s job with the Greenville Independent School District after she refused to take her children out of Greenville Christian School and enroll them in a public school.

Two years later, Barrow filed suit against the Greenville Independent School District and former Superintendent Herman Smith. While the courts did not find the district liable, Barrow won a judgment against Smith, which the appeals court upheld.

“Parental rights do not become null and void just because the parent is a teacher,” said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Legal Institute, which represented Barrow in the recent proceedings. “The decision of whether or not to consider an employee for a job should never be based on where the applicant chooses to educate her own children.”

In its Oct. 23 ruling, which upheld a lower court’s decision in Barrow’s favor, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said, “a rule requiring public school employees to enroll their children in public schools is simply more invasive of parental rights and less clearly tied to the public school’s management of its students and educational program” than the law allowed.

In a public statement, the Greenville school district noted a jury found in its favor, the Fifth Circuit Court confirmed it, and Barrow lost her petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The district was “vindicated by three courts including the highest court in the land,” a Greenville ISD spokesman said. “The courts have held that the Greenville Independent School District did not violate the law.”

The district characterized the suit against its former superintendent and his appeal as “a personal matter between Ms. Barrow and Dr. Smith.”

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

Posted: 11/02/07

Tennessee Baptists gear up
for struggle over trustees

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (ABP)— Tennessee Baptists are gearing up for a conflict most Southern Baptist state conventions settled a decade ago. Many of the state’s moderates say they feel it is no longer worth fighting.

Nonetheless, Baptists on both sides of the issues are making plans to show up in force during the Tennessee Baptist Convention annual meeting, scheduled Nov. 13-14 in Kingsport.

At stake is the election of trustees who will control convention institutions, including moderate-led Carson-Newman College.

Fundamentalists hope to give the convention president—an office presently occupied by one of their own—greater power to appoint members of the convention’s powerful committee on committees.

They also may challenge some nominees to open positions on the convention’s various boards and committees because they don’t affirm the controversial 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement.

At last year’s convention meeting in suburban Memphis, fundamentalists pushed through a statement endorsing the confession. They also passed a new rule requiring nominating committees to ask proposed nominees whether they affirm the document and to publish the answers as part of a report.

The report, which convention policies require to be published several weeks prior to the meeting, reveals 17 nominees for this year’s convention declined to endorse the confession.

Marvin Cameron, pastor of First Baptist Church in Kingsport, said he is concerned fundamentalists will use those answers to institute “a litmus test” for trustee and committee positions in Tennessee Baptist life.

“If that is true, then that is new, and it’s … an unwelcome day in Tennessee Baptist life for me, because we’ve never had litmus tests applied to persons who were going to serve Tennessee Baptists,” he said.

“The only question asked of potential leaders in Tennessee Baptist life in the past was, ‘Do you love the Lord, and will you help accomplish the Lord’s work in Tennessee?’” Cameron said.

Kevin Shrum, pastor of Inglewood Baptist Church in Nashville, said he doesn’t see what the big deal is about asking whether nominees affirm the confession.

“The issue at hand is, the convention voted to utilize the latest (Baptist Faith & Message) document for people to declare how they stood on that issue,” said Shrum, president of the fundamentalist group Concerned Tennessee Baptists.

“And it passed by an overwhelming majority, and so I don’t know that people are raising individual issues so much as they are a general fidelity to the things that Baptists have held dear and the things that a majority of Southern Baptists and Tennessee Baptists have voted to affirm. …

“Now, the convention cannot dictate to any church who they call, who they employ or any of that. That is a local, autonomous issue. What I think that is being looked for is: Can you affirm this, and if you can’t, why not? And there may be some question from the body as a convention as to whether they want that person to serve or not.”

Shrum insisted his group does not plan to offer an alternate slate of nominees on the convention floor to replace those who do not affirm the document. His group will not offer a motion requiring convention to affirm the document, he said.

However, he cautioned, he could not predict what other conservatives and individual members of Con-cerned Tennessee Baptists might attempt during the meeting’s business sessions.

Unlike many other state Baptist bodies, the convention presidency in Tennessee holds little appointive power. While fundamentalist takeovers of the Southern Baptist Convention and other state conventions quickly trickled down to board and agency trustees, several victories by conservatives in Tennessee Baptist Convention officer elections in recent years have not had the same effect.

Concerned Tennessee Baptists leaders long have complained that their state’s system—with the committee on boards and committee on committees nominating each other—has caused inbreeding in convention leadership. They claim it creates a system where moderate churches are disproportionately represented.

“What has happened is, it has given the appearance that the leadership—trustees, committee persons—have ended up coming from a small number of churches,” Shrum said.

But moderate leaders counter that the existing system actually creates better representation.

“I think, unlike other states, allowing the committees to do their work gives a broader representation of the state,” said Gene Wilder, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Tenn.

“I don’t think it attempts to exclude anyone. I do think allowing the president power to make nominees gives that office more control than it ought to have, regardless of whether the office is held by a moderate or a fundamentalist. It tends to foster special-interest nominations, whereas if you’re dealing with a nominee from a full committee, it tends to be better balanced.”

Wilder’s congregation is home to many faculty and administrators at nearby Carson-Newman College, a Tennessee Baptist school that has been a sticking point in the arguments between fundamentalists and moderates.

Wilder said his church intends to send its full complement of 10 messengers to the Kingsport meeting.

Convention leaders also noted Tennessee Baptist Convention rules require the committee on boards to consult with agency administrators for suggestions when filling open slots.

Concerned Tennessee Baptists has endorsed a full slate of officer candidates, including Nashville-area pastor Tom McCoy for president.

But Brent Beasley, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Memphis, said his church will not make any effort to send messengers to the state’s opposite corner to fight old battles.

“I—and I think I can speak for most of the people at Second—have really disengaged from these types of Baptist political conflicts,” he wrote.

“It’s not that the issues are not important, and I do understand and respect those moderates who are trying to protect important TBC institutions. But I feel like we at Second have worked so hard over the years to come to terms with our theological and denominational identity as a more progressive-minded kind of Baptist church. …

“Our church rejected the BF&M 2000 seven years ago, and it almost feels like going backward to get back into all that again.”

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

Posted: 11/02/07

Texas Tidbits

Recordings of Warren message available. Audio and video recordings of Rick Warren’s message during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting are available on CD for $5 and DVD for $20. To order, write in the order on the order form on page 42 of the annual meeting program or on the last page of the Oct. 30 Bulletin. The requests also can be made by visiting www.bgct.org/annualmeeting and downloading an order form.

BGCT annual meeting raises $12,000 for offerings. Messengers and visitors to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Amarillo contributed $6,000 to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions and $6,000 for the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. The funds were collected during a session of the annual meeting.

Texas pastor meets Secretary of State. Texas Baptist pastor Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church in Keller joined a small group of evangelical leaders who met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently to support a two-state solution to achieve peace in the Middle East. Religion News Service reported the meeting followed a July 27 letter a larger coalition of evangelical leaders sent to President Bush to “correct a serious misperception” that all evangelicals oppose creating a Palestinian state. Other participants in the meeting included Ron Sider from Evangelicals for Social Action, David Neff from Christianity Today and several megachurch pastors.

Wayland board approves new degree. Trustees of Wayland Baptist University approved a recommendation that the music department add a bachelor of music degree in performance. The department already offered a bachelor of music in music education and church music and a bachelor of arts degree in music. Trustees also approved a measure that will align Wayland’s academic program more with current higher educational practices. Effective in July 2008, Wayland’s eight current academic divisions will be replaced by eight schools.

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

Posted: 11/02/07

TOGETHER:
God answered prayers in Amarillo

Occasionally, you will hear people say: “People can’t be moved by preaching anymore. Drama, music and video are the way to go.” While I acknowledge the power and value of music, drama and visual images and the blessing and benefit they bring to worship and presentations, I have never believed preaching has lost its power to move people.

Sure there are times when a spoken message can cause my eyes to glaze over and my mind to check out. But when it is done right, when the Scripture draws a passionate, intelligent, spiritually sensitive and honest presentation out of the preacher, it captivates hearers and changes lives. Of course, when you add great music to open the hearts, and stand a family with a beautiful baby before the congregation and show visual images of people in whom God is working, you add to the power of a message.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Michael Evans preached at the African American Fellowship’s preconvention meeting on Sunday evening and had us on our feet in happy testimony to the truth and joy of his message. Carlos Navarro challenged the Hispanic rally to get outside the walls of their churches and do evangelism where people are hurting. Steve Vernon, David Coffey, Rick Warren and Howard Batson all moved BGCT messengers and visitors forward spiritually, calling for a greater commitment to missions (Vernon), to our world (Coffey) and Warren’s liberating news that God’s purpose is to reconcile the world to himself. The joy the Father feels when he adopts his children was caught in the tears of the mother and father who stood beside Howard Batson with their smiling baby boy.

Excerpts from the messages will be reported elsewhere in this paper, and you can get the full texts, audio or video, by completing the order form at www.bgct.org/annualmeeting.

God answered the prayers of our Committee on Convention Business, led by Philip Wise. They had prepared faithfully for this meeting, and as the time for the sessions to begin arrived, we all prayed that God would do a special thing for us as we focused on the mission vision of our convention.

Vernon, who served us magnificently as president, had announced his goal that we make this year a mission-emphasis year. In my judgment, God answered those prayers, and I believe a vision of the world and Texas Baptists’ part in evangelism, missions, church planting and touching a hurting world all came into clearer focus for all who were there.

The new missions website, www.beonmission.org, was introduced as a part of helping to connect churches and individuals to mission opportunities in Texas and around the world. If you want information about how you can pray, give, go and/or partner, go to this site and check in with us about how you can be involved.

It was my last annual meeting as executive director, and I was grateful that it was one of the best meetings we have had. We are looking to the future and what God has before the BGCT and the churches and institutions that partner together in this great adventure.

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: 11/02/07

Women challenged to ‘live the joy of missions’

By Julie Walters

Woman’s Missionary Union

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Women experience the joy God wants for them when they learn to love him with all their being, speakers told participants at the Live the Joy of Missions Conference, sponsored by national Woman’s Missionary Union.

More than 825 women from 35 states and Puerto Rico attended the national event at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.

Lorraine Powers, president of Missouri WMU, gets hugs from elementary school students after reading to them as one of the ministry options offered in Little Rock during a national WMU missions conference. (Photo/Charity Gardner)

Andrea Mullins, New Hope publisher, interpreted the theme in each general session by citing a person in the Bible who demonstrated what it means to love God with all of one’s heart, soul, strength and mind and to love one’s neighbor.

Edna Ellison, speaker and author of Deeper Still: A Woman’s Guide to a Closer Walk with God, challenged participants to examine their hearts and delve deeper into prayer.

“God calls us to go deeper” in communion with him, Ellison said. She also challenged participants to let revival start with each one them.

“Be prayer warriors, not problem worriers,” she stressed. “Won’t you dare to let God change the world through you?”

Geoff Hammond, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board continued the focus on prayer.

“God chooses im-possible situations to demonstrate his power through the prayers of his people,” Hammond asserted.

Reaching the 300 million people in the United States for Christ may seem daunting, he acknowledged.

Shelda Reeves of Texas WMU scrubs bathrooms at The Promise House, a ministry to teen girls with unplanned pregnancies, as one of the ministry options in Little Rock during the national WMU missions conference. (Photo/Bob Fielding)

Not keeping up with population growth, greater ethnic diversity and a climate that is increasingly religiously pluralistic all pose challenges in reaching the nation for Christ, he said.

“Will God allow us to reach the world but not minister to our own neighbor? No,” Hammond asserted. “North America desperately needs a group of powerful pray-ers to pray for our nation. We must undergird our work with devout prayer and align ourselves with the principles of God to reach North America.

“I’m praying for a spiritual-awakening and church-planting movement. Nobody knows how to love and pray like godly women. I pray you will leave this meeting praying more.”

Hammond also thanked WMU for helping raise funds in 2007 for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions—a record $58 million.

Norman Blackaby, co-author of Called and Accountable: Discovering Your Place in God’s Eternal Purpose, focused on loving God with all one’s strength. Blackaby stressed the importance of being faithful with all God has entrusted to each person so God’s purposes are fulfilled.

Citing the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30, Blackaby encouraged the women to consider those things entrusted to them—not only financial resources, but also their place of service, burdens on their heart, talents, gifts and relationships.

“God is not only entrusting you with these things, but holding you accountable,” Blackaby said.

“Have you been faithful in the smaller things, like ministering to your community, so that God can entrust you with more, such as giving you a burden for a people group?

“The true joy of missions comes not from our satisfaction, but because we walk with him and allow him to love others through our life. The challenges in missions are always overcome by joy that comes with living the mission.”

Other keynote speakers included Jill Baughan, author of Born to Be Wild: Rediscover the Freedom of Fun; Montira Siengsukon, NAMB field personnel; Diana Garland, dean of the School of Social Work at Baylor University; and additional missions speakers.

Conference participants spent one afternoon serving in missions and ministries throughout the host city.

Avenues for service included prayerwalking downtown North Little Rock, apartment complexes, fire and police stations, and the state capitol; surveying unchurched areas; visiting nursing homes to give manicures and pray with residents; reading to elementary school children; and helping out in local ministries such as the Ronald McDonald House and the Rice Depot, a food bank ministry.

“Thank you for loving our city,” said Kaye Miller, president of WMU and member of the host church, at the conclusion of the event.

“Missions isn’t an option. The Great Commission is a mandate. We pray that as you leave here, you will go back to your place of service—your mission fields—and love your neighbor.”

A key celebration at the event was the 10th anniversary of Christian Women’s Job Corps.

Since the inception of the program for women in 1997 and Christian men’s Job Corps in 2004, the job-training and life-skills development ministry has grown to more than 190 sites across the nation, with more than 15,000 volunteers who serve 2,100 men and women.

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

Posted: 11/02/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Jesus’ church

By Brett Younger

Twenty years ago, I was the pastor of a small Baptist church in Paoli, Ind. If you’ve heard of Paoli, it’s probably because of the furniture. Since 1926, Paoli Furniture, Inc. has made gorgeous furniture that the people who make it can’t afford. My salary as pastor was $14,000 a year, but the parsonage was filled with beautiful furniture.

About 1987, the Middle Adult Sunday school class—and isn’t that an attractive name for a class?—decided they didn’t want to sit on folding chairs anymore. They worked out a deal with one of the managers in the factory’s chair department. The 14 members of the class would spend $40 each to buy the material for chairs that would normally cost about $500. They would make the chairs on a Saturday when the factory was closed.

I thought it was a great idea. Jesus was a carpenter. How could he not love this? The craftsmanship on the chairs would be amazing—fine wood, deep finishes, exquisite details like brass trim. Any one of these chairs would class up the Palace of Versailles.

Then I found out they were making exactly 14 chairs and asked, “Couldn’t we make a few extra?”

The answer was: “The class only has 14 members. We’re the ones who are paying for the chairs and doing the work.”

I naively asked, “Well, what about when visitors come?”

I was told, “We still have the folding chairs, and if a member isn’t there they can use one of our chairs.”

I foolishly asked, “But won’t you feel funny sitting in these beautiful chairs while visitors sit in folding chairs?”

I was informed, “That’s not going to happen.”

They were right.

After the new chairs arrived, the teacher put a lock on the door. We’d never had a lock on any door. They explained that they wanted the chairs to stay in the room, and they didn’t want the kids to get in there on Wednesday nights.

Several years later, Carol and I went back for the church’s anniversary. They still had 14 chairs in the room, and they looked great, but most went unfilled most Sundays. The majority of the class was gone. The teacher had gotten mad and gone to another church. The young adult class was getting bigger. The older adult class was doing well, but the middle adults didn’t have anybody new.

What could be less surprising? That’s what happens when we decide that the church will always be who we are now. That’s what happens when we keep the best chairs for ourselves. That’s what happens when we want some people to stay out of our church.

But what would happen if we believed in Jesus’ vision for the church? What would happen if different kinds of people were part of the same church?

People who are different push us to be better. People who are hurting teach us to love. People who ask different questions help us find our way to better answers.

If our churches are going to look like Jesus’ church, we need more poor people to show us Christ in the least of these. We need more rich people with portfolios in need of a good cause. We need people who drive SUVs and people who don’t drive anything. We need PhDs and graduates of the school of hard knocks. We need people who kneel when they pray and people who put their hands in the air. We need African-Americans and Hispanics to teach us what their lives are like. We need conservative Christians who hold tenaciously to the central truths of our faith. We need liberal Christians who force us to think in new ways. We need young people to give us a sense of liveliness. We need old people who will give us a sense of liveliness. We need non-Baptists to expand our understanding of faith. We need Baptists who appreciate the good gifts of our heritage. We need people who’ve sinned mightily and people who seem to have only gold stars by their name.

Can you imagine how wonderful it would be if the church had a chair for everyone?

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.