Posted: 10/26/07

‘I love to see people come together to worship’

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Baptist Standard

GRAPEVINE—When Chris Clayton leads worship services at student events, he wants young people to do more than enjoy the experience. He wants them to learn about the meaning of worship and embrace worship as a lifestyle.

“My prayer is that people will be reminded that we serve and worship a holy God who is more than we can ever fathom,” Clayton said. “Sometimes I feel that we often tip our hat to God and go about our week without ever encountering him and recognizing him for the holy and righteous God that he is.

“For me, it isn’t about going out and pounding a Bible over a person’s head, but instead, striving to reflect God in everything I do. Worship is more about a lifestyle than any song written or any service on a Sunday morning.”

While he was in high school, Clayton began leading worship for his youth group on Wednesday nights. That’s when Clayton sensed God calling him into music ministry. 

“I felt God tugging at my heart, through an overwhelming passion to use music for his glory,” Clayton said. “Although I had no idea what that involved at the time or where he was going to take me, … I just knew that God was leading and I needed to be obedient to his calling.”

During his collegiate years, Clayton led worship for a campuswide Bible study at Dallas Baptist University. 

“Even in college at DBU, as God began to open doors for me to lead worship, the yearning to serve God with my gifts grew,” he said. “It is amazing to look back and see God’s fingerprints all over the path we have taken thus far to get where we are today.”

After graduation, Clayton began his full-time itinerant ministry—leading worship in various youth, college and young adult capacities at events around the United States. In addition, Clayton opened his own recording studio, the Bedington House, and began working as an independent producer and engineer as a way to assist fellow worship leaders and bands.

“My ministry is really made up of two parts,” he explained. “First, I travel all over the country with a great group of guys in my band, leading worship for various youth and college events.

“Second, I love to invest in worship leaders and bands and help transform a simple idea into a beautiful song. I love to hear the stories from the artists I have worked with about how their songs are impacting people. I can even recall a time of hearing how a project I was a part of a few years back had reached soldiers in Iraq. That was a cool thing to hear.

“All around, my favorite part of what I do is building relationships and encouraging individuals to develop a relationship with Christ. I love to hear the stories of God changing people. I am encouraged when a song we lead during an event really impacted someone and they let us know about it. It’s cool to get home and read the e-mails and MySpace messages from students about how God broke through and stirred something in them. I love to see people come together to worship. When they come from all walks of life, but are all striving to lead a life of worship pleasing to God, it’s a beautiful picture.”

Clayton keeps a busy schedule leading worship at Disciple Now weekends, youth rallies, retreats, conferences, worship services and camps. This summer, he led worship at Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment in Cedar Hill, and he also leads worship for the student ministry at his home church, 121 Community Church in Grapevine. 

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

Posted: 10/26/07

2nd Opinion:
A lifelong friend & the Messiah

By James Leo Garrett Jr.

He and I became friends in third grade in a public school more than 70 years ago. He was from a Jewish family of the Reform faith. I was from a Southern Baptist family. As a youth, I tried to live as a Christian before my friend but made no overt effort to lead my friend to Christ. Through elementary school, junior high and senior high, our friendship continued. In adulthood, despite living in separate locations, that friendship endured.

My friend turned from the career of his distinguished lawyer father to farming and ranching, becoming a major statewide leader in that field. He was not devoted to Reform Judaism and married a Gentile. He became more accurately a secular man with a high sense of integrity and honesty but believed that death brings the end of existence.

During my friend’s later years, as Parkinson’s disease began to inhibit his mobility, I visited him more frequently. I gave him selected Messianic passages from the Old Testament, but with little effect, for he was not familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. But when I gave him Lee Strobel’s The Case for Easter, he eagerly read it.

A Christian nurse was employed to assist in my friend’s home. She later married a student in Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. This devoted couple ministered to my friend and his wife, both physically and spiritually. They prayed for and with my friend and shared the gospel of grace and the promise of eternal life. A lady who has a Christian ministry to Jewish people prayed daily for my friend. The pastor of my friend’s farm manager came regularly to pray and to give testimony.

As the disease became increasingly debilitating, my friend was less able to speak. But on a crucial Sunday when two people offered my friend an opportunity to surrender to and believe on Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah and Son of God, he responded affirmatively by uttering the single word “Christ.”

Twenty days later, my friend passed through the portal of death. He was not baptized; he was not a member of any Christian congregation. But neither was the repentant thief on the cross, who asked Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” and was told, “Today, you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).

Our Jewish friends need our continued witness, and, short of death, it is never too late.

James Leo Garrett Jr. is a retired professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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

Posted: 10/26/07

God-sized vision drives Corpus
Christi church to plant churches

By George Henson

Staff Writer

CORPUS CHRISTI—Pastor Bil Cornelius and members of Bay Area Fellowship have a dream—commit $ 1 million a year to plant 10 churches a year for 10 years.

“If I heard that from most people, I would think it was a nice plan, but with Bil Cornelius involved, it’s going to happen,” said Ed Jump, director of missions for Corpus Christi Baptist Association.

Bay Area Fellowship started with five people gathered in Cornelius’ apartment living room on Sept. 15, 1997. At that first meeting, he told that handful of people, “We’re going to be a church of thousands some day.”

Ten years later, more than 4,600 gather the church’s new building for one of four services most weekends—one on Saturday, three on Sunday.

Cornelius’ route to Corpus Christi was circuitous. After growing up in First Baptist Church in Friendswood—“a great church,” Cornelius said—he began looking more closely at God’s calling on his life.

“I didn’t feel called to the pastorate, youth or anything but to reach my generation for Christ,” he recalled.

Convinced the best way to accomplish that goal was to start a church from scratch, he took a map of the United States and started praying for the place God had in mind for him and his family.

Eventually, Cornelius believed God made it clear Corpus Christi was the place where he should invest his life.

While the Apostle Paul traveled to many places starting churches, Cor-nelius doesn’t believe the New Testament teaches that the people who led those churches moved from one congregation to another.

“I don’t see in Scripture where you see pastors move from place to place. Find the place where you’re really called, and park it,” he encourages young pastors.

“Some pastors are always dreaming of the next great church and never realize that next great church can be the one where they’re already serving.”

His plan for starting 100 churches in 10 years is simple. “If you have the right leaders, you invest the capital and let them do it,” he said.

And there’s no need to go searching for those leaders, either. “What we’ve found out is that when leaders find out you’re interested, they’ll find you.”

Not everyone who thinks he is ready to start a church really is, however. It is important to find leaders who not only can start a church, but also sustain and grow a church.

Because of that, he looks for certain things when people come to him with the idea of starting a new church.

“Why do you want to start a church?” he asks each potential church planter.

“God did not call us to be creative and innovative of itself. We are called to be creative and innovative in order to reach the lost. If I can’t see a real passion for the lost, and often that means tears, they’re not who we’re looking for,” he explained.

“Who is coming with you?” is his second question.

“One of the first indicators of a good leader is if anybody is following them,” Cornelius said. “If their friends and family aren’t interested in following them, that’s a pretty good indicator they may have trouble finding other people who will also.”

How long the person plans to stay with the church is another important question.

“I realize that God sometimes calls someone for a season, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be the norm,” he said.

Cornelius’ church-starting vision is to “to reach Rick Warren’s kids”—to evangelize the generation coming to maturity after the Baby Boomers.

To do that, he felt it important to build a church that would be relevant to them, and for him that wasn’t a particularly traditional-looking church. He is quick to add, however, that he respects the people and pastors of traditional churches.

“Guys like me, in their zeal, they can get so excited about what we’re doing, that we somehow knock what has gone before and don’t realize that they were the innovators of their day,” he stressed.

“One reason I wouldn’t want to go to pastor an existing church somewhere else is because I respect the ministry of those churches. They generally don’t call someone to come in and change their church.”

Cornelius believes in the importance of constantly evaluating a church’s ministries.

“We’re good at strategically starting, but we’re not so good at strategically stopping. We have to watch closely to determine when a ministry has run its course,” he said. While tradition is important to congregations, it can’t be allowed to control the future, he said.

“The danger of just holding on to traditions is in losing our children who are looking for new things,” Cornelius said.

But if a church can’t change or won’t change, starting new churches is a way for it to keep its traditions and continue to minister to new generations—or even people who are the same age but aren’t a part of those traditions, he said.

“Is your goal to see who you can keep or who you can reach? Our focus is on who we can reach. Some people come here and because of that (focus on outreach, they eventually) leave, and it hurts. The only thing that would be worse is vision hijackers,” Cornelius said.

Vision hijackers are people who would deter the church from its vision, he explained. Starting a new church with people with little church background frees a church starter to lead with the vision God has given with a minimum of interference, he said.

“The church has to give the pastor the ability to lead. We have sheep trying to shear shepherds. I’m not talking about some kind of power trip, but a structure that allows pastors to follow the vision God has given them.”

“I tell church planters, you typically don’t want to start a church with a large core group from an existing church,” he said, because they will subconsciously or even consciously try to make it a clone of their former church.

“Our instinct is to say our weakness is that we don’t have enough Christians, but we just turned that on its head,” he said.

A key ingredient is to start with a small group that is interested in telling others about Christ.

“My opinion is that there are more people looking for Jesus than there are people making the introduction,” he said.

Currently the church plans to start churches in San Antonio, New York City, McAllen and Bryan/College Station, as well as six in India.

The vision for planting 100 churches came in a concentrated 100 hours in prayer, he said.

“For the first 10 hours, I had the audacity to try to convince the God of the universe to do something big. For the next 90 hours, I listened to God say he wanted to do something bigger.”

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

Posted: 10/26/07

Campaign for debt relief
brings unlikely allies together

By Mary Orndorff

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—An Alabama congressman is promoting another round of international debt relief because previous loan forgiveness has improved health care, education and security in developing countries.

Rep. Spencer Bachus is the lead Republican sponsor on the latest attempt to cancel more longstanding international debt, this time for up to 67 countries where even interest payments can be crushing. His motivation is a mix of religious conviction and concern for human rights and national security, and it dates to 2000 when the first of two debt relief measures was approved.

“Tens of millions of schoolchildren in Africa alone are attending class that weren’t seven years ago,” said Bachus, a Baptist. “The fact that their future prospects are so much greater and poverty will begin to fall with education, the benefits of that to our country and to the world are unimaginable.”

An expanded debt relief bill backed by religious groups, known in shorthand as the Jubilee Act of 2007, is sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, a liberal Democrat from California who acknowledged the unusual partnership she’s had with the Alabama conservative. She called their friendship, developed over the debt relief bill, a “miracle.”

“We worked together in a way that I never thought we would,” Waters said. “We were up early in the morning at meetings, and it has been one of the most delightful experiences I’ve had in Congress.”

The legislation cites some recent examples of what countries have done with the money that otherwise would have been spent paying back loans. Zambia, for instance, in 2006 used its savings of $23.8 million for agricultural and health care projects. In Uganda that same year, almost $60 million was spent addressing electricity shortages, primary education, malaria control, health care and water infrastructure.

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

Posted: 10/26/07

DOWN HOME:
Abundant blessings in a chicken joint

Every now and then, life blossoms with an unexpected-yet-perfect moment. You don’t see it coming; you may not even notice when it arrives. But there it is, resplendent in beauty and simplicity and loveliness.

We experienced one of those moments the other night. It was so sacred and special, I’m still savoring it.

To tell you the truth, it was better than I had dreamed. Then again, I don’t recall dreaming about eating dinner with my family in a home-cooked fried-chicken joint.

But there we were—Joanna and I, with our daughters, Lindsay and Molly, along with Jo’s middle sister, Janis, her dad, Jim, and Molly’s friend Katherine.

One of the great things about this night was the serendipity of it all.

It started when Jo volunteered to host a baby shower for one of Lindsay’s best friends, Lindsey. (OK, from here on out, you’ll need a chart, with “Lindsay” and “Lindsey” in the middle.)

Lindsay and Lindsey grew up in Lewisville, went to church together at First Baptist, graduated from Lewisville High and roomed together at Hardin-Simmons University. Lindsey’s mother-in-law, Susan, is one of Jo’s best friends. Naturally, with all this shared history, Jo wanted to help throw a shower for Lindsey’s baby, the much-anticipated/yet-to-arrive Avery.

So, Lindsey and her husband, Matt, planned to fly down from Chicago, where Matt attends graduate school. Then Lindsay and Lindsey’s good friend Jaimee decided to drive up from Houston. Unfortunately, the only weekend Lindsey and Matt could come coincided with the birthday of Aaron, Lindsay’s husband. She felt she couldn’t leave him alone in Orlando, where he attends seminary, on his birthday. And all of us were sad.

When Aaron got wind of all the hubbub, he insisted Lindsay fly back home to Texas for the shower. He’s a smart young man. Note to husbands: When your wife really, really wants to go somewhere at a time like this, here’s what you say: “Go ahead, dear. It’s only a birthday. I’ll have another one; same time next year.”

With Lindsay’s last-minute plans in place, Jo and I thought of the same thing: Can Molly make it home, too? We only had a narrow window of opportunity, since Lindsay wasn’t arriving until late Friday and had to leave Sunday afternoon. We dove through that window, and that’s how we landed in a restaurant in Burleson, halfway between our home and Molly’s apartment.

God only knows how many meals Jo, Lindsay, Molly and I have shared around a table. Now we rarely get to do that, and each time is precious.

Over dinner, I watched my daughters and their mother—laughing and talking and basking in each other’s presence. I started to count my blessings, but I stopped at three.

They’re far more than I deserve.

–Marv Knox

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

Posted: 10/26/07

EDITORIAL:
Good words for BGCT: ‘Oh, behave’

Cinema’s silly superspy, Austin Powers, doesn’t have much to offer Texas Baptists. But one of his taglines suggests sound advice as we convene for our annual meeting this year: “Oh, behave!”

The behavior of Baptist General Convention of Texas messengers isn’t typically open to serious speculation. We tend to be a rather sober lot. Actions at our annual meetings lean toward the predictable and humdrum. We would do well to pray for humdrum this year.

Speculation regarding behavior revolves around rumored motions and possible responses to those motions as BGCT messengers gather in Amarillo Oct. 29-30.

According to Baptist polity—arguably among the most democratic forms of governance anywhere—any registered messenger has the right to present motions on matters of concern to the convention. Since we affirm the twin doctrines of soul competency and the priesthood of all believers, we affirm the value of individual inspiration. Throughout our long history, Texas Baptists have benefitted from ideas individuals and small groups have placed before the full convention. And since we are composed of a collection of individuals who function together in community, we vote on those motions and let the group decide which ones merit adoption.

Sometimes, however, motions have a way of taking on lives of their own, no matter how they are disposed. Like last year in Dallas: A proposed motion would have called on the convention to ask legal authorities to investigate a church-starting scandal in the Rio Grande Valley. A parliamentary ruling declared the motion out of order, to the dismay of many messengers. This non-motion became the focal point of the annual meeting and a flash point of controversy that continues a year later.

This episode illustrates the importance and power of motions, even when they do not receive the messengers’ approval, much less when they don’t stand a ghost of a chance of passage. They enter into the BGCT consciousness and linger, long after the parliamentarians rule and the messengers vote and their makers go back home. Just like epithets shouted in a family fight, words spoken in anger at annual meetings inflict harm that cannot be undone.

That’s why concern has been heightened regarding behavior at this year’s annual meeting. Blogs and other conversations have fueled speculation that messengers may present motions that can only be characterized as vindictive. Take, for example, a possible motion to fire Charles Wade, the BGCT’s executive director. Some Texas Baptists are concerned about his handling of the Valley church-starting scandal, convention reorganization and recent staff layoffs. But he already has announced his retirement, effective in three months, which will conclude almost his entire adult lifetime of service to Texas Baptists, including not only eight years as executive director, but 23 years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Arlington, a stint as convention president and many other positions of trust and responsibility. Punitive action at this point is petty and vindictive and will harm and embarrass the convention much more than it will hurt Charles Wade.

Fortunately, Texas Baptists also can look forward to positive proposals in Amarillo. Ed Jackson, a layman and Executive Board member from Garland, intends to ask messengers to authorize a study of key convention strategies. This is exactly what we need to be doing during a time of churning change and leadership transition.

The key to how we will evaluate this year’s annual meeting—what we said as well as what we didn’t say, what we did as well as what we didn’t do—is how we behave while we are together.

Let’s pray we, as well as all of Texas, will see the reflection of Christ in the messengers in Amarillo.

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

Posted: 10/26/07

ETBU senior enjoys roaring-good
life as mascot, student-athlete

By David Weaver

East Texas Baptist University

MARSHALL—Spare time is a relative term for East Texas Baptist University senior Lia Frederick.

For the last two years, Frederick—a member of Calvary Baptist Church in West Orange who attends Central Baptist Church of Marshall during the school year—has participated in both the Lady Tiger cross-country and soccer teams. On the course, she has consistently been one of ETBU’s top two runners. And on the soccer field, she’s been a starter since about midway through the 2006 season.

But when Frederick looks at her calendar, her role as a double-sport athlete takes second place to her duties as ETBU’s mascot, Toby the Tiger.

On a particularly hectic Saturday in the fall, Frederick may wake up early, run a cross-country meet in the morning, hustle back to Ornelas Stadium to assume her role as Toby on the football sidelines, then head over to Cornish Field for a grueling nighttime soccer match. She calls those experiences her “triathlon” weekends.

“The next day is always a drag. … I call the day after I mascot football games ‘mascot hangover,’” she said. Symptoms usually include a migraine and a sore jaw from Toby’s head strap.

“Sundays are always a test of discipline for me, but it’s more of a spiritual discipline test. Even though I did battle soccer, football and cross country competition that weekend, there is no excuse for me to miss an opportunity to worship at church. My relationship with God comes first, and everything else functions around that relationship.”

Physically, Frederick takes a pounding. Every muscle aches from running cross-country. She takes a lot of bumps and bruises from the pounding of a 90-minute soccer match. And spending hours underneath a stifling tiger costume, along with the physical activity of entertaining, can leave her on the verge of dehydration.

But Frederick loves the mascot’s role so much that when she agreed to play athletics, she took on the added responsibility last year with one stipulation—Toby comes first. Her mascot duties caused her to miss some meets and a few soccer games the past two years, but her coaches have been patient and understanding, she said.

“I like to think that Toby is more than just a college mascot, that’s he’s become a community icon,” Frederick said. And being mascot for a Baptist school has special benefits.

“I don’t get mugged by drunk or unruly game-watchers. I get to take postcard photographs with the president’s family,” she said. “And if another mascot ever messes with me, I have a mob of angry Baptists to back me up!”

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

Posted: 10/26/07

Evangelicals look overseas to global concerns

By Adelle Banks & Beckie Supiano

Religion News Service

RLINGTON, Va. (RNS)— When United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon recently addressed U.S. evangelical leaders in a historic forum, there was nervousness on all sides.

Some religious conservatives clung to long-held skepticism about the world body. Meanwhile, some evangelicals were ready to make a bold step in demonstrating their commitment to engage social justice issues on the foreign policy scene.

In the end, Ban called evangelicals “good allies,” and National Association of Evangelicals Vice President Richard Cizik dubbed the U.N. chief “a friend of evangelicals.”

The two-day conference of U.S. and overseas evangelicals demonstrated the challenges and possibilities ahead for evangelicals’ growing interest and influence on U.S. foreign policy.

“We’re going to be involved in conversations, (and) we’re going to be involved in dealing with issues that make us feel a little uncomfortable,” said Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director of the World Evangelical Alliance, who spoke of the nerves that accompanied the meeting. “We’re going to be going down some uncharted paths, and that’s OK.”

As religious leaders and foreign policymakers mark the halfway point in reaching U.N. goals to significantly reduce poverty by the year 2015, Ban said evangelicals play a key role in efforts to address the world’s poor and hungry.

“We cannot do it alone,” Ban told an audience of some 300 people. “We need good allies such as you here this evening.”

Evangelicals have long been known for their missions to the world, marked by evangelism and humanitarian aid, and in recent years, their growing clout in domestic politics. Now, their focus on international social justice matters is starting to gain them even more visibility.

“Evangelical Christians are much more inclined now than they were five or 10 years ago to get involved in the policy issues, the justice issues that affect poor and hungry people around the world,” said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a Washington-based anti-hunger group.

Those issues include combating sex trafficking and torture to protecting the poor in developing countries from the effects of climate change. All of that and more were discussed during the meeting, sponsored by the National Association of Evangelicals and Micah Challenge USA, a global Christian campaign against poverty.

Ban specifically mentioned the evangelical attention to global warming—an issue that continues to generate skepticism among some high-profile evangelical leaders like James Dobson and others.

“With faith and will, we can make a difference,” he said.

Opening the gathering, Cizik noted the “clout” Ban’s speech gave to evangelicals and said the invitation marked a change in the negative, one-world-government impression some conservatives have had about the international body.

“There are people who do have those negative ideas, and I think you have to address them with positive ideas,” Cizik said. “We are the evangelical Christians who invited a Christian man to come and talk about what we’re about.”

Osvaldo Munguia, co-founder of Mopawi, a Christian development and conservation organization in Honduras, said he is “inspired” by evangelical interest in his causes, which involve helping the poor affected by depleted forests.

“I can see that more and more the evangelical church is becoming interested in the poverty we face in our country and the environmental destruction we are facing,” said Munguia, a Baptist forester.

Foreign relations experts urged U.S evangelicals to continue to effect change in policy as American lawmakers make economic and trade decisions.

“In a sense,” said Carol Welch of the United Nations Millennium Campaign, “you’re ambassadors for the world’s poor in the halls of power.”

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

Posted: 10/26/07

Evangelicals debate how faith influences politics

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Jim Wallis and Richard Land agree faith should influence public policy. They just can’t agree on how.

The two evangelical leaders— one progressive, one conservative—locked horns in a debate at the recent Values Voters Summit in Washington. The event, organized by the Family Research Council, attracted conservative Christian voters looking for encouragement, advice and leadership going into the 2008 presidential elections.

Jim Wallis	Richard Land
Watch excerpts from their discussion here.

Wallis and Land exemplified two sides of the evangelical spectrum. Wallis, a best-selling author and head of Sojourners magazine and Call to Renewal, is known for his activism on environmental, poverty and human-rights issues. Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, is a well-known denominational leader and spokesman for social conservatives.

Wallis stressed his belief that common ground on critical issues among conservative and progressive Christians is possible. They just have to make sure their faith trumps their political ideology, he said.

“I am an evangelical Christian who tries to live under biblical authority,” he said. “A fundamental (biblical truth) is the dignity of human life. We are all created in the image of God.”

With that in mind, Wallis urged all evangelicals to work together to “dramatically reduce the number of abortions in America”—something at which politics has failed, he said.

“We simply must find common ground to actually save unborn lives,” Wallis said, adding that alternatives to abortion, like adoption, could become common ground for the two groups.

But the language of reduction wasn’t strong enough for Land.

“We are profoundly offended, and we are horrified that we allow 1.2 million citizens per year to be killed before they’ve had a chance to be born,” he said.

When asked about domestic and foreign policies of the Untied States, Wallis stressed the need to address poverty, especially the “deep connection between poverty and race.” The Bible has more than 2,000 verses that show God’s concern for the poor, but neither political party has adequately prioritized fighting poverty, he said.

“We need a new grand alliance where liberals take seriously the healing of families … and where conservatives agree to strategic public investments that actually produce results” for the poor, Wallis said.

Land agreed Christians should be concerned for poor people, but he stressed a different way to combat poverty.

“The best way, the one thing that would eliminate more poverty in the United States than anything else, is to reduce illegitimacy,” he said. “If mothers would marry the fathers of their children, that would eliminate more poverty” than any other single effort.

It all goes back to “the transcendent moral issue of our time,” which is the sanctity of human life, Land said. “I want to help poor children, but I can’t help them if they’re not born.”

Land also spoke about God’s “special claim” on the United States. America is not God’s chosen nation, he said, but the nation is “extraordinarily blessed.” God’s blessing means Americans have obligations to other countries, he added.

“The only reason under God’s sun that people have freedom and dignity anywhere in the world today is because of the armed might of the people in the United States military and (their) courage,” Land said, to loud applause.

In his response, Wallis said national security depends not only on military might but also on the well-being of others. Prosperity in the United States is tied to the health of the rest of the world, he said. The war in Iraq has undermined America’s image around the world and hurt the cause of Christ, he continued.

“We all admit the suffering and violence of Iraq,” Wallis said. “I believe it’s time to find a responsible way to end the war in Iraq that protects as many lives as possible.

“Christians should be among the hardest, not the easiest, to convince (to go to war) and we should require the highest burden of proof before military force is approved,” he added.

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

Posted: 10/26/07

Faith Digest

NAE names president. The National Association of Evangelicals board unanimously elected Leith Anderson as the organization’s president.

Anderson, pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn., was named interim president in November 2006 following the resignation of former Colorado megachurch pastor Ted Haggard, who was brought down in a sex and drug scandal. Anderson, 63, has been senior pastor of his church, affiliated with the Baptist General Conference, since 1977. The congregation has grown to 5,000 regular attenders during his tenure and is known for its outreach abroad, including to people suffering from HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Group warns Brits to leave clerical collars at home. A British church safety group is advising clergy—from the archbishop of Canterbury on down—to remove clerical collars when they are off duty to reduce the risk of being attacked. A new report issued by National Churchwatch says clergy are in danger from assailants who believe they have money or who bear some sort of “grudge against God.” National Churchwatch, an independent organization that provides clergy with personal safety advice, said priests are attacked more often than those of other professions because they are considered unlikely to fight back. In Britain, five vicars have been murdered in the past decade. In a survey of 90 ministers that Nick Tolson, who heads the safety group, said he conducted last year, nearly half reported they had been attacked in some form during the previous 12 months.

‘Thou shalt donate organs.’ The Church of England says human organ donation is a Christian duty, in line with the giving of oneself and personal possessions voluntarily for the wellbeing of others. But at the same time, the church has sidestepped the question of whether to back a so-called “opt-out” system, in which everyone is considered a donor unless he or she specifically stipulates otherwise, or an “opt-in” approach that allows people to sign up as donors. The church’s statement on organ donation came during discussion in the House of Lords on whether a position on organ donation should be adopted across the 27-member European Union, of which Britain is a part. The Church of England made it clear that it remained firmly opposed to the sale of human organs, but it supports living donors giving organs when no commercial gain is involved.

Adventists see growth globally. Worldwide membership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church has increased to 15.4 million, according to statistics announced at a recent international gathering in Silver Spring, Md. Membership totaled 15,435,470, a net increase of 681,448, or 4.62 percent, as of mid-2007, said John Torres, media relations manager for the international church. Matthew Bediako, secretary of the international church, also provided figures that show how many members have departed. For every 100 members who joined the church between July 2006 and this past June, 24 left. He called this year’s retention rate of 76 percent “healthy.” Although statisticians found that more than 1 million people joined the church, when departures are factored in, the net growth is 681,448. In the fiscal year ending June 2006, the church lost 45 people for every 100 new members.

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

Posted: 10/26/07

TV news story helps make a family complete

By Rebekah Hardage

Communications Intern

WINNSBORO—Few parents can say the first time they saw their daughter was on TV, but the moment Geno and Lisa Hill saw Deidre’s smiling face on a local television news program, they knew she would be a part of their family.

KLTV News in Tyler features a foster child available for adoption on its monthly “Gift of Love” feature. As a result of seeing a story on Deidre, the Hills were introduced to their daughter one year ago this month.

It was unusual for the Hill family to be watching TV together, but on that Wednesday, even their ever-busy son, Collin, was home.

Deidre and her mom, Lisa Hill, have a special bond, even though their relationship is fairly new. “I can actually talk to you and you give me advice,” Deidre told her mother.

“Geno looked at me and said, ‘Call them,’” Mrs. Hill said. “And the love for her was birthed in his heart at that moment.”

The next morning, the Hills began the process to bring Deidre home. They didn’t know much about the foster system, but after making several calls to agencies, Buckner offered the necessary classes and met their schedule.

“Yesterday wasn’t soon enough,” Geno said. They entered a foster-to-adopt program, foster parenting Deidre for six months prior to the adoption.

Deidre won the hearts of her parents instantly, but she didn’t know it. And even though she desperately wanted to be adopted, for her protection the Hills couldn’t share their plans with her.

For the Hill family, having Deidre in their home “felt right,” the couple agreed. In 2001, they lost a daughter following a lengthy illness. The Hills knew then that they would want to add to the family again, but they wanted to wait on God’s timing.

Deirdre, too, had experienced a turbulent past. She had been removed from her birthparents’ home due to abuse and had changed foster homes several times.

After returning from a vacation with her foster family in June, Deidre got a surprise. She was going to meet the family who wanted to adopt her—the next morning.

“I was excited and nervous,” Deidre said. She wanted to live in the country, go to a small school and have Christian parents.

Thirty minutes prior to meeting the potential family, Buckner caseworkers shared a photo of the candidate family. It was the Hills, a Christian family living in a hand-built log cabin in the northeast Texas woods. Her wish had come true.

Callie Reneau, foster care supervisor for Buckner Children and Family Services in Longview, worked with the Hills through the process of becoming foster parents.

“It was a really good match from the beginning, a perfect fit for their family,” she said.

“We could identify, because we’ve had losses too,” Lisa said. “And we can all grow in this together.”

To Deidre, having a mother like Lisa Hill is a perfect match. “I can actually talk to you and you understand me and give me advice,” she said as she gave her mother a hug on the front porch.

And a father like Geno Hill might be Deidre’s favorite part. “I like knowing there’s someone to protect me and he’s not going to leave me.”

For the first time in her life, Deidre feels like she has a real family.

“I just feel special and loved and like they were sent from God. I know they love me and they have boundaries and goals for me that they know I can reach,” she said.

Mrs. Hill hopes Deidre will be able to “rely on God for his call on her life and be successful in her relationship with him.”

Turning to Deidre and smiling, she added, “We’re all in it together—as a family.”

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

Posted: 10/26/07

For Southeast Texas foster
couple, 14 makes a family

By Jenny Pope

Buckner International

RANGE—At 7 a.m., the Forman residence looks like Grand Central Station. Teenagers of all ages and races—12 of them—race from room to room in search of backpacks, breakfast, clean laundry and medication. Kim Forman sits in a recliner in her living room and watches the chaos unfold.

“This is my chair,” she said while stroking the family’s two dogs on the back of their head. “I just stay out of the way until I’m needed.”

In the background, her husband, Bob, yells from one room to another, “I better hear that vacuum cleaner!”

Bob and Kim Forman raised their own family before they decided to foster.

The Orange foster family of 14 might seem chaotic to an onlooker, but it’s really a well-organized machine. With 10 bedrooms, 12 children, two dogs, and more than 15 loads of laundry a day, systems are more than necessary, Forman said.

“I’ll sometimes make as many as six trips a day to school and back,” he said. “But we love it. We’ll do anything for these kids.”

Kim and Bob Forman both quit their full-time jobs after raising their own family because they felt called to serve children as foster parents. The Bible mandates it, she said.

“James 1:27 tells us that pure and undefiled religion is to care for orphans. We do this for the Lord,” she said. “I know it seems unconventional, but we’re a family. We want the best for our children while they’re here, and we want to see them do well once they leave the house.”

One of their foster children, Clyde, looks ahead to high school graduation. After living with the Formans seven years, he considers them Mom and Dad.

“They’ve always believed in me,” he said, while pouring himself his morning cereal. “They’ve helped me keep my head up—told me I can do it. Even when I think I can’t, they tell me I can.”

The 18-year-old boy hopes to become a machinist one day, or maybe an inventor, he said. When he first came to the Formans, he thought he was mentally retarded because that’s what his parents had told him.

Bob Forman with former foster child Danny Allen, who still visits Formans’ house weekly for a home-cooked meal.

Watch Bob and Danny talk about Danny's foster family experience here.

“He worked hard,” Mrs. Forman said, “He’s got two jobs, and he can fix anything around the house. … I think it shows what some good encouragement can do.”

Kristy, 15, is another child living in the Forman home. When she first came to the Formans five years ago, she had terrible hygiene and was easily angered, throwing frequent temper tantrums.

“Now she’s our social butterfly,” Mrs. Forman said. “She’s a cheerleader, always on the phone. She’s overcoming some struggles with dyslexia. She’s just a normal teenage girl.”

“I’ve been through a lot with them,” Kristy said. “But I have more freedom and more love here than I did before. I like to talk to Ms. Kim and Mr. Bob. They sit and pray with me at night.”

Throughout the years, the Formans have fostered 60 children in their home, formerly a duplex now connected in the middle with a large family room. They typically care for teenagers, ages 12-19, anywhere from five to seven years.

Some of their foster children stay close even after they leave. Danny is one of those children. With an arm sleeve of tattoos and nickel-sized holes in his ears, “his looks can be deceiving,’ Mrs. Forman said. “He’s really easy to love.”

Danny, 21, works at a local auto body shop in Orange. He still comes back to the Formans’ house weekly for a good, home-cooked meal. Danny admits that when he came to the Formans, and even during his time with them, he was irresponsible. But he credits their caring, supportive relationship with helping him reach his goals—and come to know God.

“I wasn’t a normal teenager,” he said. “I was always getting into trouble. But Bob and Kim helped me have a relationship with God. A lot of people can talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. Bob and Kim are different, you know? Their actions speak louder than words. You can’t fake love.”

Forman agreed. “Danny has a heart of gold,” he said, giving him a pat on the back “God’s grace is upon him.”

“There is no greater thing you can do in your life than help a child,” his wife added. “I just think that anyone who’s interested in doing this has to make sure it’s what God has called you to do. It’s a ministry.”

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