Posted: 10/26/07

CYBER COLUMN:
All my strength

By Berry Simpson

Since last spring, I’ve been walking every day for an hour, instead of running, hoping to let my left knee heal a bit more. My goal was to keep walking until I got my weight down to 190 pounds, and then start running again as a new, lighter, more nimble Berry. Through the hot summer months, I put in lots of miles walking in the neighborhoods around Cowden Park.

I did drop about 10 pounds during the summer, putting me consistently in the “1’s” instead of the “2’s,” so that was good. But my knee felt the same all summer long: it never got better, and it never got worse.

During a Labor Day backpacking trip into the Guadalupes, I was confronted with the flaw in my plan. Walking had kept my legs strong, and lifting weights kept my upper body strong enough to carry a 68-pound pack up to Pine Top, but walking didn’t do anything for my lungs. On the hike up to Pine Top, I had to stop too often to catch my breath. I was surprised how short-winded I’d become.

So why was I walking so much was the question I couldn’t’ answer. My knee felt the same, and I was losing fitness.

I decided to change strategies and follow marathon coach Jeff Galloway’s advice—mix running with walking breaks to see if I could increase my fitness. What surprised me was how awkward I felt. My legs felt stiff and gangly, as if I hadn’t run since 1978, as if I were starting over. What happened to all the muscle memory? Where did all my training go? I was surprised how hard it’s been to get my groove back.

It reminded me of some thoughts I had while reading a weekly devotional book published by my church. One of the featured verses was Deuteronomy 6:5: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

I don’t know whether the author of Deuteronomy was talking about physical strength, or emotional strength, or intellectual strength. He may have been talking about spiritual gifts and talents as strengths.

I thought I had a grip on loving God with all my heart and all my soul, although I’m not sure I understand the difference between the two, but loving him with all my strength was something I hadn’t thought much about.

Some people are born very strong and stay strong their entire lives. All the rest of us have to work out if we want to be strong. And not only do we have to work out, we have to keep working out if we want to stay strong. Strength fades away if left unattended. I had lost a lot more running strength last summer than I expected. I knew I would lose speed, but I didn’t think I’d lose strength.

To stay strong at anything requires constant attention. And so, maybe loving the Lord with all my strength implies working out to keep my strength up.

Then there are other kinds of strengths—our skills and talents, our intellect, our speaking ability, our social skills, our musical talent, our visions, our tenderness, our compassions, our creativity. It’s the same thing. If we intend to love the Lord our God with all these strengths, we can’t let them die away from disuse or lack of training. We have to keep training to get strong and stay strong. It’s part of loving God.

How sad for someone to spend years serving God in their strengths and loving God with all their strengths, only to reach a point when they slow down and start walking to ease some discomfort, only to find their strength has frittered away. Taking a rest break is OK; lay off too long, and we get stiff and gangly. Is that how we want to love God?

My friend David wrote in the devotional book: “This verse tells us our faith is to be life-oriented, not information-oriented.” We can’t grow our strengths by merely studying and learning more information. We have to work out to get stronger. It does me very little good to read a lot of weight-lifting magazines if I’m not willing to go to the gym and lift weights. It doesn’t help to read marathon-training books if I won’t do any long runs myself. To love the Lord our God with all our strengths means to keep building our strengths stronger and stronger.

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

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

Posted: 10/26/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for November 04

Christ’s love extends to all

• Romans 9:1-7; 10:1-13; 11:1-2, 25-32

By Andrew Daugherty

Christ Church, Rockwall

Perhaps you have noticed so far that the weight of the Apostle Paul’s argument in Romans extends the ever-widening circle of God’s salvation story beyond the particular story of Israel. A longer shadow is cast on the notion that God’s righteousness is tailored exclusively to the people of Israel.

Paul repeatedly makes the case for universal salvation in Christ, meaning that God’s righteousness is available to the whole world regardless of ethnic distinctions or nominal association with specific religious practices. Even the physical practice of circumcision, a distinctive religious rite of the Jews, is rendered of no enduring significance if it is not accompanied by faithfulness to Torah.

For a printer-friendly version, click on the printer icon at bottom of page.

Paul stresses that circumcision is a spiritual matter of the heart based on whether a person keeps the law’s requirements, not based on whether a person is a Jew or Gentile: “For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal” (2:28-29).

Again, when it comes to keeping the commands of God’s covenant, Paul is radically redefining the notions of inclusion and exclusion, insiders and outsiders. To interpret his view as many commentators have is to at least question the theological significance of their no longer being any distinctions between Jews and gentiles. If these distinctions are truly leveled, then what of the Jewish identity and practice remains in light of the revelation of Christ?

It is no wonder why the question was posed, “What advantage is there to being a Jew” (3:1)? All along, Paul reiterates the reasoning that not all those who are called “children of Abraham” are actually the “seed” of Abraham. This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants (9:8). All people of “Abraham’s seed” then are “the children of God,” not based on the accidents of biology but based on the promise of God’s choice to deliver salvation to the world through Israel.

Notice how passionate Paul becomes now about his relationship to his fellow Jews. At times, he almost sounds defensive. Perhaps he is aware of his growing reputation as a renegade among his people who may be questioning the credibility of his witness. He wants to demonstrate to them his message is trustworthy.

First, he expresses the inward anguish he feels in his heart concerning his own people’s relationship to Jesus the messiah as the fulfillment of Torah. Listen to his dramatic lament again: “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh” (9:3). This is an interesting twist in Paul’s presentation, given he has just proclaimed “absolutely nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:39).

Paul is beside himself that his own people, who had been bearers of the covenants, the giving of the law, the promises and the patriarchs, and the Messiah according to the flesh (9:4-5), could not make these connections to the coming of Jesus, who Paul considered the fulfillment of Torah. What he desires to make known is that Jesus is the new and promised gift of God within the overall salvation story God initiated through the people of Israel.

Without the understanding of the Jewish story, Jesus as messiah is incomprehensible. Paul no more can give up Christ in order to save his people than his people can give up the Torah in order to embrace Jesus as Christ. To be clear, Christ can only be appreciated within the Jewish scheme of salvation and the context of Torah. Perhaps to understand Paul rightly, Jesus is the living, breathing embodiment of the Torah. The goal of the Torah is accomplished in Christ. The righteousness that proceeds from both is God’s righteousness. For Paul, to know Christ is to comprehend the goal of the Torah.

Paul’s personal conflict about the relationship between the coming of Jesus and his fellow Jews is one inherited by the church across time. A partial summary of this conflict is found in the writings of essayist Michael Wyschogrod.

Kendall Soulen summarizes: “Wyschogrod makes clear that Christian claims on behalf of Jesus of Nazareth are problematic from the perspective of Jewish faith. The claim that Jesus was the Messiah is difficult for Jews to accept because Jesus did not perform a key messianic function: he did not usher in the messianic kingdom. More difficult by far, however, is the Christian claim that God was incarnate in Jesus. For a Jew to subscribe to this belief would mean a grave violation of the prohibition against idolatry.”

Nevertheless, Wyschogrod does not think Jews are entitled to dismiss the Christian claim about God’s incarnation in Jesus out of hand. “To reject the incarnation on purportedly a priori grounds would be to impose external constraints on God’s freedom, a notion fundamentally foreign to Judaism.”

Sadly, the Jewish “no” to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Torah has generated devastating historical consequences. The Jewish people have been victimized by anti-Semitism that has resulted in incalculable deaths and the threats of millions of others. Especially troubling is the various ways the Christian story has been used as a weapon of mass destruction against the Jews, including the Nazi’s infamous use of Christian tradition during the Holocaust to murder millions of Jews.

Christians who are eager to be faithful to Christ must learn to be faithful to the history from which Christ came. This at least means engaging our Jewish brothers and sisters in dialogue about our shared holy history, not the least of which are the writings we both deem to be sacred. At the same time, we must help each other honestly understand the distinctions of what makes us different.

If Israel is God’s first love, and if God chose Israel in the mystery of God’s love to be a blessing to the entire world, then we Christians must be vigilant about falling into any traps of a spiritual superiority complex. It wasn’t because Israel was superior to all other peoples that God chose them. God’s divine election of Israel was an unconditional election, rooted in God’s love. Even Paul asks: “Has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham … God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” (11:1-2)

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

Bible Studies for Life Series for November 4

Seeking your Father’s approval

• Matthew 6:1-18

By Steve Dominy

First Baptist Church, Gatesville

Each of us has Scripture passages that are more meaningful to us than others. It should be that way; there are passages that are more pointed in their meaning and application. This is one of those passages.

None of us would deny all Scripture is meaningful, but the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord’s Prayer in particular might be called peaks of Scripture. Entire books have been written on both the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord’s Prayer, so how do we do justice to them in the space we have?

We need to look at Jesus’ focus in all of these sections and find the point Jesus was trying to get across. As we get that point, we can then look deeper in our own study into the implications of Jesus’ focus.

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus says our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. In the section of the sermon we study this week, Jesus shows some of what that will mean.

Giving, prayer and fasting were three traditional practices of righteousness in Judaism. These are the most prominent requirements for personal piety in Judaism. Jesus accepted these as central to the life of his disciples, and Jesus does not repudiate them but points us to the correct motivation and attitude in their practice.

Notice that in the beginning of each section, Jesus makes a comparison with “the hypocrites.” Each time, he condemns the method in which they conduct these practices. Concerning giving, he says not to give in order “to be honored by men.” Concerning prayer, Jesus says not to pray in order “to be seen by men.” And concerning fasting, he says not to fast to “show men they are fasting.” In each instance, the motivation for religious action is to be noticed by men. Their observance of religious practice has nothing to do with God and has everything to do with their own egos.

Some have argued Jesus contradicts himself at this point in the Sermon. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus says, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Yet in Matthew 6:1, Jesus says, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them.”

If we read these passages in their entirety and in their contexts, there is no contradiction, and we are pointed directly to the point Jesus was making. The righteousness that Jesus calls us to is the righteousness that points people to glorify the Father and not glorify us—the motivation and the purpose are completely different. There may be times when people misplace their focus because of our deeds or giving.

That was the case with Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. When Peter entered the house, Cornelius fell at his feet, but Peter responded, “Stand up; I am only a man.” Peter went on to point them to Christ and not himself.

None of us is innocent of desiring recognition, even if we are uncomfortable when we receive it. The problem arises when our motivation becomes our own recognition and not God’s. We put ourselves in God’s place and take what is rightfully God’s. Peter had it right when he said, “I am just a man.” Like him, we are human and not God and are not the rightful recipients of honor due God.

In each teaching, Jesus gives us the alternative to inflating our egos—to give in secret, to pray in secret and to fast in secret. It is quite a contrast to the hypocrites who do everything in a very public manner, calling attention to themselves.

This does not mean we should never pray in public. The New Testament makes it very clear that the church prayed together, but it certainly does question our motivation. It is hard to seek the applause and praise of others when we are alone. It is in that solitude that God can deliver us from our desire to impress others, and it is in that solitude that God can deal with us, working to transform us into his people.

In each of the practices Jesus mentions, right motivation and practice honor God and as such are reciprocated by God. Notice that when Jesus speaks of giving and fasting, he repeats the same line, “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” That statement shows the disciples’ actions are diametrically opposed to the actions of the hypocrites. All of the Lord’s Prayer deals with our dependence on God and our recognition of that dependence. It brings us into a relationship of dependence on God, and an honoring of God and not ourselves. The purpose in our giving, praying and fasting is to please and honor God.

One of the passages God consistently reminds me of in the course of my ministry comes from Galatians 1:10. It follows the same theme of the Sermon on the Mount: “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Jesus’ primary point in all of this is that in our religious practice God be honored. We have heard more than once that “it is not about us.” Our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees when we seek to honor God in all of our practices.

Discussion questions

• How do we ensure that we are putting God’s honor before our own?

• How should we respond to people who obviously are seeking their own recognition?

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

Explore the Bible Series for November 4

A caring community

• Matthew 18:1-35

By Travis Frampton

Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene

Forgiveness is essential for any relationship. Without it, genuine reconciliation is impossible; and without mercy and grace, genuine forgiveness is impossible. Much of our lives are spent either granting forgiveness or asking for it. What is your response to others when they wrong you?

In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus offers guidance regarding how one should bring a case against a wrongdoer: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”

This instruction seems fairly clear and straightforward. According to these verses, we must be patient with those people have sinned. If those who have wronged us are persistent in their waywardness and stubbornness, refusing to listen, and nonresponsive to disciplinary measure, then we should treat them as pagans and tax collectors, just like Jesus says.

Unfortunately, this simplistic, reductionist reading of these verses falls short of Matthew’s message. Does Jesus really require his followers to treat wrongdoers as “pagans and tax collectors”? If so, this perspective seems foreign to Jesus’ own ministry.

Doesn’t Jesus say: “Why look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye” (Matthew 7:3-4)? Jesus goes on to tell his followers that the way they judge others will be the way they will be judged. In other words, the measure of judgment one uses for others will be the same measure that will be used against him.

When the Pharisees asked him why he ate with tax collectors and sinners, he said: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Go and learn what this text means, ‘I require mercy, not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9:9-12).

Matthew, a tax collector by profession, certainly is not treated in a rude or offensive way by Jesus. In fact, he is among the 12 disciples. So what was Jesus intimating when he said wrongdoers that do not acknowledge their sin should be treated like tax collectors and sinners? Certainly he does not mean alienating or shunning the wrongdoer from the community. Based on the way Jesus treats tax collectors and sinners, one might imagine the community inviting them over for a meal and fellowship.

Only by reading passages from the biblical witness out of context do we contrive awkward—even distorted—interpretations of Jesus’ teachings. If we were to continue reading after the account about bringing wrongdoers to justice, we would find the stories that follow elucidate our passage. Jesus states that whatever one binds on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever one looses on earth will be loosed in heaven. To bind means to declare an action unlawful; to loose means to declare an action lawful. This is another way of making the same point he made earlier. The measure you use to judge others on earth will be the same measure used against you in heaven.

In the next passage, Jesus mentions that whenever two or more people “agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:19-20).

This passage if read separately, independent of its narrative context, would suggest that whenever two or more people come together, Jesus is present, and God the Father will grant them whatever they ask for. It, however, should not be read as a proof-text for receiving material blessings from God.

Jesus’ statement is made within a narrative about wrongdoing, broken relationships and need for reconciliation. Remember that previously Jesus stated the case about the wrongdoer should be brought before “two or three witnesses.” These verses continue that line of reasoning, for whenever two or more are gathered in Jesus name, he is there among them. One who is without sin is present before sinners, which include both defendant and prosecutor. If two or more people on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be granted by God in heaven.

This passage ultimately is about people seeking reconciliation with one another. If justice is what is demanded on earth, then justice will be brought to both parties in heaven. If grace is demanded by both parties on earth, then mercy is granted heaven. These verses, like the story of the plank in one’s eye, are more concerned with the one wronged rather than with the wrongdoer.

Again, what is your response to others when they wrong you? Do you place them under judgment and demand justice from them? Or are you merciful? To bring the illustration closer to home, when Jesus is present, do we demand justice for our wrongdoing, or do we ask for his grace and mercy? Typically, in our dealings with others, we act like Pharisees. We look at others through eyes of judgment, while at the same time ask God for mercy upon our souls. Others should get what is coming to them. We, however, prefer grace when judgment comes our way.

But how many times should we forgive others who wrong us? There must be a limit, right? Peter asks this very question in the succeeding verses. Jesus responds to his query saying: “Seventy-times seven!” The question is not so much how many times must we forgive others on earth, but how many times would we like to be forgiven in heaven.

The parable of the unmerciful servant concludes Matthew’s section on forgiving wrongdoers. The parable is about a servant who owes his master a great debt. The servant asks for his master’s patience; and the master, in return, “took pity on him, (and) cancelled the debt and let him go” (Matthew 18:27). But the servant, however, released from his bondage goes home and requires his own servant to repay a debt owed to him, a debt considerably less than what he previously owed to his master. The servant had the man thrown into prison.

When the master heard what had happened, he called the servant in: “You wicked servant, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” The master had his servant thrown into prison. The servant, though initially granted mercy, is judged in the same fashion as he judged others.

Jesus concludes by saying: “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:35). We should extend the same grace and mercy to others as has been shown to us.

Forgiveness is the key. Whenever Christ is present, we’re all tax collectors and sinners.

Discussion questions

• How often should we forgive others who have wronged us? Seven? Seventy-times seven?

• How should we treat those who have wronged us?

• How do you want to be treated by those whom you have wronged?

• What is your response to others when they wrong you?

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

Posted: 10/19/07

Motion calls for committee with 2020 vision

By Marv Knox

Editor

Messengers to the 2007 Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting will be asked to create a committee to define the BGCT’s “shared vision” for the coming 12 years.

Ed Jackson, a member of the convention’s Executive Board and a layman from First Baptist Church in Garland, has announced he will present the proposal during the annual meeting in Amarillo Oct. 29-30.

Jackson’s motion calls for the BGCT president and Executive Board chairman to “appoint a committee of no more than 25 members to consider our shared vision of the Baptist General Convention of Texas for the year 2020.”

If approved, the committee will report to the Executive Board at its February, May and September meetings next year and present a formal report to the convention at its 2008 November session.

The motion instructs the committee to:

• Study, analyze and project income from all sources for the BGCT between 2008 and 2020, including factors that influence cooperative giving.

• Address the relationship between the BGCT and its institutions, as well as set priorities for programs supplied by the Executive Board staff.

• Study the changing missions strategy of the BGCT’s congregations and how that strategy connects with programs operated by Executive Board staff.

• Analyze the impact of innovation on Texas Baptist ministries and the sustainability of convention programs.

“The purpose of this committee is to use our resources in the best possible way to win Texas and the world to Jesus Christ as Savior and to encourage and support the ministries he has called us to do,” the motion states.

Jackson began to develop the idea for a comprehensive convention strategy study as he listened to the Executive Board discuss the convention’s 2008 budget during its fall meeting in late September. He recalled the last BGCT study of this magnitude launched in 1995, when messengers authorized the Effectiveness & Efficiency Committee.

“It dawned on me it has been 12 years since we made a detailed examination of what we are doing. That’s too long,” he said in an interview. “It’s amazing how much the world has changed in the past 12 years—and how much it will change in the next 12 years.”

The Executive Board cannot effectively conduct such a study, primarily because the 90-member board doesn’t have time to take on this task amid its other assignments, said Jackson, a retired electronics industry executive. He spent eight years working in the Baptist Building as a Mission Service Corps volunteer providing leadership to the Continuous Quality Improvement organizational effectiveness program.

The time for this study also is right because the convention is seeking a new executive director to replace Charles Wade, who retires Jan. 31, Jackson said.

“The new executive director will have ideas of his own, but he will be someone who listens to a diverse group of voices. And we need to hear what they’re saying,” he explained. “So, what better time? We’ll have a new executive director coming on board. The committee will hear him, and he will hear them, and we will march forward.”

An analysis of BGCT income and resources is vital for the convention’s future, Jackson said.

“We must use our resources in the best way possible. That’s the whole object,” he said. “We always know our resources are limited. Let’s use them for the best possible impact.”

Likewise, a study of the relationship between the convention and its institutions is overdue, he added.

“Our Baptist institutions are the part of the convention most Baptists identify with,” he said, noting ministries such as universities and children’s homes touch the hearts of Texas Baptists.

“That’s what keeps us together. We identify with these institutions. We also identify with Texas Baptist Men when they’re out on disaster relief. They are important to every Baptist. So, we need to highlight them.”

Jackson hopes the committee will lead the BGCT to increase the percentage of its receipts allocated to the institutions each year through 2020. Similarly, the convention has a vested interest in understanding and collaborating with local churches’ developing missions strategy, Jackson insisted.

“I am convinced that actual missions giving has gone up appreciably in the last few years. It’s just not being channeled through our cooperative giving plan,” he said.

Illustrating how Texas Baptists’ involvement in missions is increasing even as Cooperative Program receipts decline, Jackson cited his own church.

“Our church participated in a mission trip to Brazil (organized) by local churches in Dallas. But that never will be reported as cooperative giving,” he said. “Our church also built two houses for a church on the Texas/Mexico border, but that was not reported, either.

“It’s not that we’re not giving to missions. We’re giving in a new way, and it’s obviously a new strategy. I’m not saying that’s bad at all. But we can benefit by coordinating our efforts and connecting our missions commitment to missions needs.”

The call to analyze innovation and sustainability is a key to success for the endeavor, Jackson said. Technological innovation—particularly in communication and coordination—can make convention staff more productive, even in a downsized configuration, he predicted.

“Too often, as I look over past motions and recommendations, they resulted in increased population in the Baptist Building,” he said. “There are things we can streamline and do more effectively, if we study them carefully.

“And ‘sustainability’ is the key word. We can’t start something that’s not sustainable. We need to see where we are going and what we are doing with our programs.”

BGCT President Steve Vernon, who will preside at the Amarillo meeting, said Jackson’s motion is in order and will be presented to messengers for their consideration.

“We certainly welcome the motion,” said Vernon, pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland. “He’s certainly presenting something for the good of the convention.”

Executive Board Chairman Bob Fowler affirmed Jackson’s proposal. “It’s directionally where we ought to go,” said Fowler, a lay member of South Main Baptist Church in Houston.

The strategy committee will face a formidable task, he added.

“Not knowing how—or if—we are going to capture the imagination of the churches to see that we can accomplish more through cooperative giving, it will be hard to predict the resources we will have in coming years,” Fowler explained.

The stakes are high, he acknowledged. “If we can’t inspire more churches to see the benefits of cooperative giving—and there are many benefits—then we will face a significant challenge. …

“So, clearly, we have to be strategic in thinking about where we need to go and how we need to get there.”

John Petty, the Executive Board’s chair-elect, said he appreciates both the spirit and content of Jackson’s motion.

“It’s hard for me to imagine the convention not taking action on that sort of motion,” said Petty, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville. “We clearly have some budget challenges we’ve got to get over if we’re going to be effective as a convention.

“This study might take us to a place we don’t want to go but we need to go. Nevertheless, if we as a convention will decide to go there together, we’ll get where God wants us to be.”

Jackson conceded the year 2020 sounds like a long way off, but he noted now is the time to ensure the convention is where it needs to be in a dozen years.

“The BGCT is like a big battleship, and you’re not going to turn it around in just a few years,” he said. “Let’s do this as seamlessly as we can—and get to where we want to be in 12 years.”

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

Posted: 10/19/07

Whites participate quietly
in African-American Baptist body

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

AUSTIN (ABP)—Pastor Larry Bethune, an Anglo from Austin, recently became president of a mainly African-American Baptist group, and it didn’t make news, because it was nothing new.

Perhaps what is news to many Baptists is that the American Baptist Churches of the South has, since its beginning, included both white and black Baptists in its leadership and gone quietly about its business. Bethune is only the latest of several white pastors of Southern Baptist heritage who have served the majority African-American group.

“When I go to regional meetings, I’m the chip in the cookie. And it’s been remarkably good for me to be part of a predominantly African-American fellowship,” said Bethune, pastor of University Baptist Church in Austin.

“It’s interesting to experience that, because—being a white male who’s accustomed to being the majority in most settings—there are ways in which experiencing being a minority has … raised my consciousness to the ways we in the majority exclude people in the minority without even being conscious of it.”

The group Bethune was elected to lead is one of 32 regional bodies affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. It includes American Baptist congregations located in the former states of the Confederacy, as well as Oklahoma, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. While the ABC is historically a white, Northern denomination, it now has an increasingly sizable minority of African-American congregations—including many in the South.

Meanwhile, a handful of historically Anglo congregations have been affiliated with the region since its founding more than 30 years ago.

In recent years, however, increasing numbers of historically white churches that have left the Southern Baptist Convention have affiliated with American Baptists and the regional body.

“African-Americans have come to the American Baptist Churches, first of all to learn their system, to learn their agenda. And as we become more populous, as we become large, we now have an opportunity to help set the agenda. The same thing is true with Euro-Americans” who have joined the American Baptist regional body, said Ivan George, the group’s minister for missions development.

“You first come and learn of the culture and adapt yourself to the culture, and then within that culture, you can find your own self.”

Since University Baptist joined the American Baptists in 1993, Bethune said, he felt “welcomed into the fellowship” immediately and that his congregation received “nothing but support” from regional officials. Bethune has participated in leadership positions in the regional group for several years, serving as an officer and as chair of its ministers’ council.

That’s more welcomed than his church felt while involved in white Baptist life, Bethune said.

In the 1990s, the Austin Baptist Association withdrew fellowship from the congregation for ordaining a gay deacon and taking a “welcoming and affirming” position toward homosexuals. The Baptist General Convention of Texas responded by refusing to accept contributions from the church—essentially cutting off its official relationship with the congregation.

University Baptist was expelled from the Austin association once before, in the 1940s, for accepting African-Americans into membership decades before other Southern Baptist churches thought about doing so.

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

Posted: 10/19/07

Around the State

• East Texas Baptist University will hold homecoming activities Oct. 24-28. The theme for this year will be “Fiesta de la Familia—Celebrating the Family.” There will be a number of special events including Saturday’s homecoming parade at 10:30 a.m. and the 1 p.m. kickoff of the football game versus Mississippi College. For more information, call (903) 923-2041.

• A children’s gala will be held Oct. 27 from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Cameron County Fairgrounds in San Benito to benefit Valley children through a pediatric emergency department at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen and the renovation of the pediatric unit at Valley Baptist in Brownsville. The family event will include a mini-rodeo, pony rides, petting zoo, a mechanical bull, music by the Texas Drifters, a dinner, live auction and a raffle. For tickets or more information, call (956) 389-1614.

Counting the Texas World Hunger Offering for Adamsville Church in Lampasas are Janice Hartley, left, and Treasurer Wanda Lang. The congregation collected $1,157 in plastic rice bowls, surpassing the $800 goal set by the church’s Women on Mission group. The amount was the most ever collected by the church for the hunger offering. Glynn Tyson is pastor.

• Howard Payne University will induct three alumni into its sports hall of fame during homecoming activities Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. They include L.J. Clayton, a football player who went on to play in the Canadian Football League; David Gilger, who played both offense and defense for the 1956-60 football teams; and Dale Fisher, who played on the 1957-61 football teams.

• B.H. Carroll Theological Institute will hold its fall colloquy Nov. 26-27 at First Church in Arlington. Richard Swinburne will be the guest lecturer with “Is There a God?” as his theme. For registration costs and other information, call (817) 274-4284.

Anniversaries

• Highland Terrace Church in Greenville, 100th, Oct. 27-28. Festivities will begin at 4 p.m. with food and fellowship time, followed by a worship service at 6 p.m. James Weir and Charles Russell will be the speakers, and Duane McClure will lead worship. The Sunday services at 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. will have Bob Layman and Bobby Renfro as speakers and J.K. Weger as worship leader. A catered lunch will follow. There will be a history display, and prerecorded interviews with current and former staff will be available in a viewing room. A hymn-sing and and worship will begin at 1 p.m. with Robert Baldridge and Terry White speaking and Bob Mathews leading the music. Robert Webb is pastor.

• Freedom Home Church in Austin, 25th, Oct. 28. A special homecoming service will be held at 3:30 p.m. The founding pastor, Oscar Howard Jr., still retains that position.

• Gayle Hogg, 50th in ministry, Nov. 27. He was ordained at Hartburg Church in Deweyville. He is pastor of First Church in Clint, where he has served since 1995.

Event

• Forestburg Church in Forestburg honored four members who have remained active in the church more that 50 years during a Founder’s Day service. Ruth Eldridge was honored as charter member of the church for her 57 years of service, during which she has served as church clerk, Sunday school teacher and committee member. She also prepared the elements for the Lord’s Supper for almost 30 years. Olin and Claryce Merrett joined the church in 1954. He served as song leader more than 20 years and she as organist for almost 50 years. June Eldridge, who also joined the church in 1954, was recognized for her work in many capacities, but especially as chair of prayer for numerous revival meetings and events throughout the congregation’s history. To honor those members, the church will upgrade its pipe organ, installed in 2004. Stewart Holloway is pastor.

Revival

• Oakwood Church, Mauriceville; Oct. 28-31; evangelists, The Cherrys; pastor, Wesley Blanton.

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

Posted: 10/19/07

Revised version of book Baylor rejected
explores issues of faith and learning

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

An interpretive history of Baylor University’s recent years—originally slated for publication under the university’s name but rejected by the school’s administration last year—will be released next month by a conservative publisher in South Bend, Ind.

Some changes made at Baylor University in the last two decades—membership in the Big XII athletic conference, a new tuition structure, and expansive and expensive building projects—seem set in concrete for the immediate future.

But contributors to a revised edition of the previously rejected book insist the jury remains out on a pivotal question: “Can a Protestant university be a first-class research institution and preserve its soul?”

Editors Don Schmeltekopf, provost emeritus and director of Baylor’s Center for Ministry Effectiveness and Educational Leadership, and history professor Barry Hankins enlisted a dozen other contributing writers to explore the question from varied angles in The Baylor Project: Taking Christian Higher Education to the Next Level.

“Baylor seems to have moved beyond the crossroads. … What remains unsettled principally are the issues surrounding faith and learning, or how Christian belief and the Christian intellectual tradition are to engage our common academic life, and the question of Baylor’s identity as a university,” Hankins and Schmeltekopf wrote in the preface.

Those unsettled questions—along with allegiances to some strong personalities related to Baylor who have offered starkly different answers—contributed to the controversy that swirled around the book even before its publication.

Originally titled Baylor Beyond the Crossroads: An Interpretive History, 1985-2000, the manuscript was rejected last year first by Baylor University Press, the school’s academic publishing house, and later by the university itself.

The announcement by Baylor administrators to reverse their plans to publish the book came one week after former Baylor President Herbert Reynolds—now deceased—sent a sharply worded e-mail to the volume’s editors. However, university officials insisted their decision to withdraw support for the book predated the e-mail by several months and was based on “policy issues and legal issues associated with the university’s name.”

St. Augustine’s Press, a nonprofit, nondenominational press that specializes in books related to philosophy, theology, and cultural and intellectual history, will release the revised book Nov. 16.

“Our mission is to offer exceptional works that draw from, exhibit and advance Western civilization and particularly the traditional Judeo-Christian roots of that civilization,” according to the mission statement posted on the publisher’s website. “Toward that end, we focus our attention on the timeless work over the timely, the classic over the atypical, the orthodox over the heterodox.”

That kind of language—with its emphasis on orthodoxy and social conservatism—typifies the way Baylor University under former President Robert Sloan looked for common ground with Roman Catholics and northern evangelicals while rejecting principles dear to historic Texas Baptists, according to economics professor Kent Gilbreath.

Gilbreath, a frequent critic of the Sloan administration, wrote a chapter for the original edition of the book that the editors rejected. At least two other writers withdrew their chapters.

Baylor 2012, the university’s 10-year strategic vision, became a vehicle for the Sloan administration to “reconstruct Baylor” into a different kind of institution than the school Texas Baptists had supported, Gilbreath insisted. He believes “a small group of faculty and administrators were seeking to move Baylor away from its Texas Baptist roots and toward a new theological base that reflected a combination of northern evangelicalism coupled with religious hierarchical structures.”

Gilbreath drew parallels between the “theological correctness” he and some others perceived as implicit in the implementation of Baylor 2012 and the tests of “theological purity” imposed by fundamentalists who took over the Southern Baptist Convention.

But several contributors to The Baylor Project insisted Baylor and other universities with religious roots are endangered more by secularism than fundamentalism. The mainstream Baptist emphasis on freedom had become quite thoroughly absorbed into the dominant American culture, Hunter Baker argued in his chapter, “The Struggle for Baylor’s Soul.”

“Freedom of conscience is arguably the single most powerful American value. … If anything, modern Americans might have too much freedom given the destructive choices many individuals make,” wrote Hunter, director of strategic planning at Houston Baptist University and doctoral fellow in Baylor’s Institute of Church-State Studies. “These facts lead one to wonder whether concerns about coercion are legitimate today, particularly at a university that tolerates a wide diversity of opinion within the confines of what Schmeltekopf calls ecumenical orthodoxy.”

Sloan himself, now president of Houston Baptist University, essentially made the same point in the concluding chapter of The Baylor Project.

“In our generation, the greatest enemy to the Christian vitality and Baptist heritage of Baylor is not fundamentalism,” Sloan wrote. “Though fundamentalism has been a threat to the religious identity of Baylor in times past and though fundamentalism can be, and often is, associated with factionalism, sectarianism and divisiveness and in those forms needs to be either earnestly avoided or corrected where possible, I believe the greatest threat to the continuation of Baylor’s academic excellence today as an institution committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is from the pervasive secularism and loss of traditional moral virtues which so characterize our present world.”

Baylor 2012 represented neither the fundamentalist model of Christian indoctrination nor the model of a religiously affiliated university that differs from a secular institution only in its Christian environment, Sloan noted.

“My not-so-radical claim (though often considered so by some in the Baylor community) is that the Christian faith has real intellectual content,” Sloan wrote. “It is relevant to our everyday lives and provides a vital frame of reference from which we might engage constructively with the larger culture. The ‘integration of faith and learning’ institutionalized and publicized at Baylor is not a mere slogan, but is in fact a legitimate and creative way of undertaking the scholarly enterprise.”

Sloan insisted controversy grew out of differences over substance of the Baylor 2012 vision—particularly its emphasis on the integration of faith and learning—and not his management style or the way he implemented the long-range plan.

“If the critics of my administration had been more agreeable to the substance of Baylor 2012’s spiritual, academic and theological vision for Baylor, controversies over management would have been of little longstanding consequence,” he wrote. “It is not really a question of how things were done; it is a question of what was done.”

Gilbreath strongly disagrees. He subscribes to the Baylor 2012 goal of a Christian university that offers academic excellence, but he saw “a slippery slope toward theological intolerance” within that vision as interpreted by the Sloan administration.

“It was not the hope embodied in the goals of Baylor 2012 that caused Baylor’s subsequent problems; it was in the vision’s implementation where things went wrong,” he wrote. “From the beginning, Baylor’s administration made a series of decisions that steered Baylor and Baylor 2012 straight onto the rocks.”

For his part, while he defended the Baylor 2012 vision and the goal of intentionally integrating Christian faith into the university learning environment, Sloan acknowledged imperfection.

“What all of us must remember with all of our investments of ego and partisanship in these matters, is that no period in Baylor’s history, no leader and no clique of faculty or alumni, has ever fully got it right,” Sloan wrote. “There is always more work to be done. There is never an adequate amount of either charity or passion to make any one generation or individual equal to the task of God’s calling.”

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

Posted: 10/19/07

BGCT offers seminar track for certification

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—For the first time, a series of seminars during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting can help ministers and laypeople gain foundational ministry principles on the way to earning a certificate of completion.

The first two of four Paraclete seminar tracks will be offered during the BGCT annual meeting Oct. 29-30 in Amarillo. Four seminars in leadership and four seminars in biblical/theological studies will be offered during the meeting. Seminars on Baptist distinctives and spiritual formation will be offered in future years.

In order to earn a Paraclete certificate, students must complete four seminars in each of the four tracks. Individuals may participate in as many as four seminars during each BGCT annual meeting.

Each seminar is limited to 20 students. Preregistration is recommended.

In addition to the Paraclete seminars, a variety of workshops will be offered during the BGCT annual meeting that provide practical ministry help.

For more information on workshops offered during the BGCT annual meeting, visit www.bgct.org/annualmeeting or call (888) 244-9400.

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

Posted: 10/19/07

BGCT annual meeting slated to feature Rick Warren, historic presidential election

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting will feature Pastor Rick Warren and a historic presidential election as messengers elect either the first female BGCT president or the first second-generation BGCT president.

The meeting, themed “Together We Can Do More— Missions,” will be held Oct. 29-30 at the Amarillo Civic Center.

Warren, who will speak Oct. 29 and whose The Purpose Driven Life has sold more than 20 million copies, is pastor of the 22,000-member Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif. He has been called “one of the most influential pastors in America” by The Economist. Time magazine called him “America’s new people’s pastor” as it named him among the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.

The Purpose Driven Life and its predecessor, The Purpose Driven Church, spurred congregations across the country to undertake efforts dubbed “40 Days of Purpose” where members of congregations seek to find God’s calling upon their respective lives.

BGCT President Steve Vernon hopes the meeting will encourage Texas Baptists to become further involved in mission work.

“I hope this meeting stokes the fire of missions in the hearts of Texas Baptists,” he said. “We are doing so much in mission work locally, throughout the state and around the world. We want to gather to celebrate that and improve upon it.”

Current BGCT First Vice President Joy Fenner of Garland and David Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church in Canyon, will be nominated for convention president.

Fenner is a former missionary to Japan and retired executive director-treasurer of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas. Lowrie, who has been pastor of churches in both East Texas and West Texas, is the son of D.L. Lowrie, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Lubbock and former BGCT president.

If elected, Fenner has pledged to continue the missions emphasis set forth by Vernon.

“Through the various but limited spheres of influence of a president, I would hope my missions passion and experience would encourage churches and individuals to engage in missions and ministry beyond the needs of their own congregation,” she said. “I believe we are richly blessed with gifted lay men and women who can make a difference locally and globally.”

Lowrie has said he would like to bring the BGCT “back to the middle,” where he be-lieves the convention’s leadership would be more representative of its affiliated congregations.

“I believe our convention faces a critical crossroads, and as we go into the future, I believe we need to look at the future through fresh eyes and with a fresh voice calling us to action,” Lowrie said.

David Coffey, president of the Baptist World Alliance, also will speak Oct. 29, giving Texas Baptists a glimpse into how God is working around the world through the extended Baptist family.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is one of more than 200 conventions and unions that are part of the Baptist World Alliance. The BWA serves more than 110 million Baptists around the globe.

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

Posted: 10/19/07

Baptist Briefs

Baptist Joint Committee looks for new property. Directors of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty voted recently to engage a real-estate agent to identify property for the agency to purchase and renovate. The planned Center for Religious Liberty will provide offices, research space for visiting scholars, meeting space for legislative coalition partners and a training center. For decades, the Baptist Joint Committee has used a rented office suite on Capitol Hill in the Veterans of Foreign Wars building. Rent for the space has comprised more than 10 percent of the group’s annual budget in recent years.

Missouri Baptists join BJC. Directors of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty voted to accept the Baptist General Convention of Missouri as a member organization. The statewide body—formed in 2001 as an alternative to the fundamentalist-controlled Missouri Baptist Convention—joins 14 other national and regional Baptist groups that support the BJC, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas. BJC directors also approved a $1.2 million budget for 2008, a slight increase over the 2007 budget of $1.15 million.

Missouri Baptist Convention may move. The Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board will evaluate the sale of its downtown Jefferson City, Mo., offices and may accept a gift of property in a neighboring town. The board plans to consider the issue when it meets during the convention’s annual gathering Oct. 29 in Osage Beach, Mo. If the board approves the motion to accept six acres in nearby California, Mo., the convention will build its new offices on the land, regardless whether the motion to sell the current headquarters is approved. The recommendations came from a convention relocation committee and have been endorsed by the Executive Board’s administrative committee. In recent years, the convention has been trying to sell the Baptist Building—the former Missouri Hotel, which it acquired and renovated in 1969—because it has become too difficult to maintain.

Seminary honors veteran evangelism professor. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary designated Oct. 10 as Roy Fish Day and devoted both a chapel service and reception to honoring Fish, distinguished professor emeritus of evangelism. Fish served the seminary more than 40 years and held the L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism prior to his retirement. Two years ago, Southwestern Seminary’s division of evangelism and missions in the School of Theology was reorganized as the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions. In addition to serving the seminary, Fish has held several prominent leadership positions in the Southern Baptist Convention, including interim president of the North American Mission Board and SBC second vice president.

Veteran Baptist communicator to retire from NCC. Wesley “Pat” Pattillo, who served 29 years in Southern Baptist higher education, will retire from his current post with the National Council of Churches at the end of the year.  Pattillo, 67, has been associate general secretary of the ecumenical council and director of its communication commission seven years. Previously, he served from 1986 to 1994 as vice president for university relations at Samford University, and he had a 21-year career as vice president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., from 1965 to 1986. 

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

Posted: 10/19/07

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