Posted: 10/19/07

CBF council OKs UN anti-poverty goals,
hears of year-end budget shortfall

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

DECATUR, Ga. (ABP)—The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s governing board, at its mid-October meeting, endorsed the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, joining many governmental and religious bodies in the global fight against extreme poverty, hunger and disease.

Jack Glosgow, moderator-elect of the Fellowship and a pastor from Zebulon, N.C., said CBF will “demonstrate tremendous responsiveness” to the decision by its annual general assembly last June to pursue the UN goals.”

Colleen Burroughs, executive vice president of Passport Camps in Birmingham, Ala., made the motion at the June general assembly urging CBF to adopt the Millennium Development Goals as a framework for fighting urgent global issues. That motion asked the council to study the issue. The council’s endorsement, approved without opposition, will be presented to the general assembly for approval in June.

The Coordinating Council, meeting at First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga., also heard a report on sluggish contributions to CBF, which reached only 86 percent of the amount budgeted for the recently concluded fiscal year and ended the year with a shortfall.

The council was briefed on the global development goals, as well as work already underway by CBF missionaries that addresses the social needs targeted by the UN in 2000. The eight goals, which have been targeted for completion by 2015, are detailed on the UN’s website (www.un.org/millenniumgoals):

• Reduce by half extreme poverty and hunger.

• Achieve universal primary education.

• Promote gender equality and empower women.

• Reduce child mortality by two-thirds.

• Reduce maternal mortality by three-fourths.

• Reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

• Ensure environmental sustainability.

• Develop a global partnership for development.

“For the first time in history, we have the technology, the resources and the knowledge to get this done,” said Erin Tunney, senior international policy analyst for Washington-based Bread for the World, who briefed the Coordinating Council on the goals. “All we lack is the will. As Christians, we have the opportunity to get involved and help achieve these goals.”

In budget matters, CBF leaders reported the Fellowship received $19,103,539 in total revenue, including $14.8 million in undesignated gifts, for the 2006-07 fiscal year, which concluded June 30. Expenses for the year totaled $21,619,206.

According to financial reports presented to the council, much of the drop in revenue was in undesignated receipts, the category that includes contributions from churches and which accounts for about 56 percent of the organization’s revenue.

“I really don’t know why” undesignated gifts are down, CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal said. The $8.2 million in undesignated receipts for 2006-07 was about $700,000 less than the previous year, continuing a three-year downturn, according to financial data.

Vestal estimated about $100,000 of the drop represents a trend of state CBF organizations passing less of the money they receive from churches on to the national CBF. Additionally, he suggested, donations to churches themselves are down. “My hunch is, if church budgets are down, we suffer.”

The Fellowship’s financial report indicated the organization finished the fiscal year 2006-2007 on June 30 with a shortfall of $649,974 in unrestricted funds and $2.5 million total.

The Fellowship funds its own missions work in the United States and abroad and provides funding to partner organizations, such as CBF-related seminaries. Individuals and churches donated $5.7 million in support of CBF’s global missions offering in 2006-07. Another $3.7 million from a previous designated gift also supported missions.

The mission funds, coupled with undesignated gifts and other income, allowed CBF to spend $21.6 million during the year for all ministries.

“That’s a remarkable figure to me—$21 million went to the work of Christ,” Vestal said. “I think that $21 million is a victory.”

This year the Fellowship is shifting its fiscal year to October-September. During the three-month transition period, July to September, giving rose to 91 percent of budget, CBF leaders said.

This article includes information from Lance Wallace of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

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

2nd Opinion:
Prioritize equipping & edifying

By Woody Hambrick

The ‘‘Great Deception’’ within the church is the prevailing belief that evangelism itself is the answer to the unchurched state of our nation and the cure for the anti-Christian social agenda. Christians have institutionally neglected equipping and edifying the saints.

This is not to say no churches value discipleship. But you cannot deny our primary initiatives center on evangelism. We have mission boards that are well worth funding, but what about a discipleship board? We have some very well-prepared discipleship tools—but no real discipleship initiatives. Christians have focused the lion’s share of our energies, time and finances on the wrong impetus—outreach. Not that outreach is wrong in itself, but it should not be our first priority.

Most churches need to refocus on inreach rather than outreach. Yes, I am painting with a broad brush. But I am looking honestly at a nation that is no longer “one nation under God.” America is one nation under “self.” This change in emphasis from biblical values to moral relativism has been made possible by the failure of the local church. We must admit we collectively have failed as a church at the local level. This has not been a failure to evangelize. We often hear of salvations in large numbers. It is a failure to develop pure faith through equipping and edifying the saints.

Evangelism is the job of every Christian. With that in mind, it is impossible then to expect to have any grouping of Christians, such as a church, that does not have some intent in evangelism. The problem is that the church, the association, the state convention and the national convention have had an almost-exclusive evangelism focus to the detriment of the health of the church.

The purpose of the local church is to equip and to edify the saints, not the lost. The lost can neither be equipped nor edified in Christ. The Apostle Paul makes that clear in 1 Corinthians. Only after the saints are equipped and edified, and the local body is healthy, should the purpose of evangelism have a distant third place in the church. Outside the church, each individual Christian should have evangelism as their primary focus.

Let me illustrate it this way: If you had a church whose sole purpose is evangelism with no attempt at discipleship, it would flourish with new growth. The reason is obvious. It flourishes because we all would rather focus on other peoples’ spiritual needs than our own. But there will be little, if any, spontaneous discipleship.

Take another church and have it solely purpose on equipping and edifying the saints. Let there be no evangelistic motor within the corporate mechanism. This church may atrophy initially, due to the discomfort many will feel from the inward focus, but spontaneous independent evangelism will be the product. We can have church growth without evangelism. But there can be no spiritual growth without discipleship.

We have failed in keeping our nation as “one nation under God.” That failure is a product of not properly equipping and edifying the saints. It is not a product of not having enough evangelism initiatives. Each generation has seen a decline in how their children view the importance of a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. A faith that is a constant work-in-progress looking inward daily is a faith that will cross generational boundaries. A faith that is focused on personal spiritual growth is a faith that infects. It no longer becomes the faith that we tell our children about. It becomes the faith our children witness in us. And that is a faith they will more likely take with them from the homes of their parents.

Woody Hambrick is pastor of First Baptist Church in Markham.

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

Struggling Corpus Christi church
finds new lease on life, new purpose

By George Henson

Staff Writer

CORPUS CHRISTI—Even though at one time the church appeared so dead that it needed to post a “not for sale” sign, the faith of a core group has made a resurgence at Windsor Park Baptist Church possible.

Windsor Park was struggling when Pastor Grover Pinson and his wife, Jana, arrived last year. Only about 20 names remained on the membership rolls, and attendance averaged about a dozen. Even so, Pinson was excited about being the church’s pastor.

Pastor Grover Pinson holds a fish cookie at Vacation Bible School at Windsor Park Baptist Church, Corpus Christi.

“We could sense God was present. Rather than seeing the downside, we sensed God had been present here, had moved here and that he would again,” Pinson said. “Of the congregation that remained, you could sense they still were very interested in doing God’s will.”

Ella Prichard, a longtime Corpus Christi resident but recent addition to the church, pointed out the church never lost its passion for Christ and missions. Based on membership, the church was entitled to two messengers to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, but its giving raised that number to six.

“Windsor Park was one of the most faithful givers to missions even during the down times,” she said.

An eye to reaching non-Christians rather than a constant focus on their own circumstances was a strength of the congregation, Pinson noted.

“You got the feeling from the congregation that, ‘Yeah, we’re down, but we’re not out,’” he said. “Because of their heritage and faithfulness, they were assured God was not through with them yet.”

But times got tough. Before Pinson came as pastor, so many people came by to see if the property were for sale, the interim pastor felt compelled to put on the marquee “Church Not For Sale.”

One thing that helped the congregation survive especially trying days was the support of First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, the congregation that started Windsor Park more than half a century ago.

Kathaleen Rodman tells stories to children at Vacation Bible School.

“First Baptist remained supportive throughout, and has continued to give financially and been supportive in many ways, not the least of which is through prayer,” Pinson asserted.

“That has been a real shot in the arm. You don’t feel like you’ve been left alone on an island by yourself.”

Some people help at Windsor Park who are in the pews of other churches on Sunday morning.

“They have taken this sleepy little corner and turned it into a beehive of activity, and they include everyone. Even me, and I don’t even go to church here, but I’m here more than I am at my own church,” said Sheri Hunt, who attends Yorktown Baptist Church.

With that behind-the-scenes support, Pinson began rebuilding the vision of a vibrant family.

“My prayer was, ‘God, when people come here, give them a sense of what it means to be a part of the body of Christ.’”

They seem also to have found what it means to be a part of the family of God.

“We have a lot of older people and a lot of younger people, and they all just get along so well,” Pinson said. “There is a feeling of family, and that’s been one of the greatest joys here.”

That feeling spans generations, Prichard noted. “I think the young people who come here have been glad to find grandparents here. They are really enjoying the relationships they have found here,” she said.

The Pinsons have worked hard to instill that feeling of family. In fact, Jana Pinson cooks lunch for the congregation every Sunday.

“We thought, ‘How can we start being more of a family?’ People staying together and eating together has really helped in that,” Pinson said.

Saturday workdays also have helped strengthen bonds within the congregation, as long-neglected parts of the facility have been readied for use. The church also has formed a women’s Bible study and men’s basketball team.

A big boon to the church’s visibility in the community has been Vacation Bible School, but Pinson admits it wouldn’t have happened if his wife hadn’t insisted.

“I thought it was too much too soon, but she was right,” he said.

And older members of the congregation led the way, Prichard noted.

“It was the older people who were a model for the younger people,” she said. She pointed to 82-year-old Kathaleen Rodman, the missions story leader for VBS.

“At the end of the day, she was so tired … and so thrilled,” Prichard said. Senior adults served refreshments and provided the bulk of the 100 dozen cookies needed for the week.

Last year, Bay Shore Bible Church brought their VBS to Windsor Park and had about 70 children, many of whom they brought with them. This year, Windsor Park put on its own VBS.

“We had about 70 kids again, but it was a different 70. Last year, there were a lot of church kids, but this year, it was kids from the neighborhood,” Jana Pinson explained.

One of the greatest things to watch over Pinson’s tenure as pastor of the congregation has been the way God leads people to the church, he said

“From the beginning, someone has walked in almost every week and has been God’s gift to provide just what was needed at the time,” Pinson said.

Prichard is just one of many who have come to the church after years of active involvement in Baptist life.

Of more than 70 people who now regularly attend, about 20 either are preparing for ministry, are active in ministry or are retired from ministry.

And the newcomers were needed. By the time Pinson arrived, there were no deacons left, and only two of the church’s committees still were functioning.

“The bylaws called for 21 committees, and we didn’t even have 21 people,” Pinson said with grin.

All the good things that are happening are a tribute to the handful of people who maintained a steadfast faith through trying times, Pinson said.

“Thank God that the people here continued to be faithful and didn’t give up. They are seeing things happen here and seeing that faithfulness rewarded,” he said.

“I thank them regularly for maintaining that faithfulness so that God is able to do what he’s doing here now.”

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

DBU team hits home run
with Guatemalan children

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS—The Dallas Baptist University baseball team and 40 other students recently returned from a four-day mission trip to Guatemala, and the picture etched in most of their minds is a child with a beaming smile.

The two groups embarked on several mission opportunities around Guatemala City, including visiting several orphanages, conducting baseball clinics for Guatemala’s Little League teams, and wrapping up each day with a game versus the Guatemalan national team as part of the university’s missions partnership with Buckner International.

Clay Kelly offers encouragement to a Guatemalan boy during a base-running drill.

But the games were not the focus of the trip, Head Coach Dan Heefner said.

“I think every player would agree that the highlight of our trip was not the three games we played, but the time we spent with the boys of the San Gabriel Orphanage and the baseball clinics we were able to have each afternoon.”

Plans for the trip began formulating last spring, and players, coaches and other students making the trip began securing passports and other necessities for the trip. But when students returned to school in the fall, preparation shifted into high gear, Heefner said.

“Every day at practice, we prayed for some aspect of the trip —the financial support necessary, safety, the hearts of the people we would be ministering to and our own hearts, as well,” he said. “It was really neat to pray for that month and then to see God answer every one of those prayers.”

For Heefner and the vast majority of the players, this was their first mission trip.

“As college baseball players, you’re playing all summer, all fall, all spring—you never have the time to do things like this, and we finally got the opportunity to do it, and it was a great thing,” he said.

“I wish I had done it sooner. When you’re a ball player, you think it is so urgent that you don’t miss a game, but you can’t take a trip like this without it impacting you.”

The team and the Diamond Belles, a group of female supporters for the team, particularly enjoyed visiting the orphanages, Heefner said. The DBU students interacted with the children, as players organized activities and a Bible study, and the girls led in crafts.

Diamond Belle Lindsay Beahm interacts with some of the Guatemalan children attending the camp put on by the DBU nine.

Their coach was very proud of the way his players ministered to the children in the orphanages.

“The thing that impacted me most was going to the orphanages and seeing our players and the way they were interacting with those kids. I’ve never seen a group of college baseball players have more joy than when we were there. That was probably most impactful for me—to see our players realize that it really is greater to give than to receive.

Junior Evan Bigley from Lancaster agreed the children made the trip special. The afternoon camps also were a special time for him.

“It was probably the best experience I have ever had. We put smiles on kids faces just by showing up,” he said.

One child who attached himself to Bigley from the beginning gave him a bracelet he had made. “That really affected me, to know that I had helped him,” he recalled.

Austin Knight, a junior shortstop, had grown up at First Baptist Church in Denton, a church that regularly scheduled mission trips, but baseball always kept him from participating.

“I had never gotten to go on a mission trip before, but I had always heard how life-changing they were, and I was excited to be a part of it,” he said.

The main thing Knight said he will take away from the trip was the demeanor of the children he worked with.

“I think I expected them to be sad and not too welcoming, but they were smiling and hugging us and giving us high fives from the minute we walked in,” he said.

For Knight, a big part of the blessing grew out of the opportunity to mix his love for baseball with sharing the message of Christ.

“It was neat to get to teach the game of baseball, but at the same time getting to share the gospel,” he said.

After the third game with the Guatemalan national team—all of which DBU won—students from the Texas Baptist school presented the gospel to their athletic opponents, Knight reported.

Senior Brett Lester led a Bible study at the baseball camp.

“I could not have asked for a better way to start off my senior year than teaching kids my love for baseball and, most importantly, how much God loves them. It was a huge blessing being able to share a little of my testimony with the kids, and I am so thankful the Lord allowed us as a team to be able to take part in such a special event,” he said.

Andrea Adams, a DBU cheerleader and early childhood education major from Crowley, said the trip confirmed for her a desire to work with children.

“Just to see their smiles was breathtaking,” she said. She recalled the joy in the faces of the little girls as the students painted their fingernails. “They were so excited by little things like that. It made you think of how much you have and how much we take for granted.”

Memories of a child with a heart defect at a baby orphanage will stay with her for a long time, she noted.

“She was a year and seven months, but she was so tiny, she looked like a newborn. I would have held her forever if I didn’t have to share. It just broke my heart. She was so beautiful,” Adams recalled.

Amy Patrick, a senior Diamond Belle, had a similar experience.

“I didn’t want to leave. I made a little friend at the orphanage—Jose—and I didn’t want to leave him.”

The trip falls into DBU’s overall plan for its athletic program, Athletic Director Ryan Erwin said.

“Part of the whole athletic program is to teach these young men and women to become servant leaders,” he said. The NCAA allows universities to take a foreign tour such as this once every four years, but Erwin felt certain this was a different sort of trip than most teams take.

“I’m sure we’re the only Division I team who took a trip like this. Some teams went out of the country, but their first priority was winning and getting better as a baseball team. We also want to do that, but our first priority is sharing Christ,” he said.

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

Posted: 10/19/07

DOWN HOME:
About time for a technology sabbath

My buddy Greg had a really bad day.

He woke up in a hotel far from home, with a slate of activities stretching out before him. He got busy, checked out of the hotel and took off.

Unfortunately, he left his briefcase in the parking lot. Worse still, by the time he realized what had happened and returned to the hotel, somebody else had driven over his briefcase, crushing his cell phone and laptop computer.

He called around asking for phone numbers because, like me, he doesn’t memorize or write them down anymore. His cell phone stored them all. Until his phone went to the big cellular relay station in the sky.

My pal Ken had an almost-as-bad day.

His cell phone still worked, but his computer crashed. I was there. It went mouse-up dead.

He’s a conscientious guy and did a pretty good job of backing up material. But weeks later, he’s still backtracking, trying to round up bits and pieces of information that floated off to oblivion when that blasted computer recorded its last data entry.

My wife, Joanna, had a bad morning.

The power went off in her office. And, you guessed it, her computer stopped working. The whole place practically shut down.

She ran errands and got an early lunch while the folks from the power company got the electricity flowing again. But her incapacitated computer blew a big hole in her day.

In a few weeks, I’m heading to Guatemala on a mission trip with some other members of my church. At least for most of every day, I won’t have computer access and cell-phone coverage.

To tell you the truth, I haven’t figured out if that’s good or bad. Just like I’m not sure if I love or hate technology.

On the up side: Communication keeps Jo and me connected to our daughters. Lindsay lives in Florida, and Molly is a student at Baylor. But one or the other of us communicates with them almost every day—at least several times a week. We don’t feel nearly as distant as the miles that separate us.

Also, work is more accessible. Like right now: I’m writing a column while somebody fixes my flat tire. No months-old magazines for me; I’m doin’ bidness.

But laptops and cell phones also keep us so connected to work and other urgent distractions that we can lose track of the truly important.

You know one definition of anything that ends with “-holic” is that you sneak off to enjoy it, and you hope nobody catches you. That includes folks who check e-mail during church and call the office to check voicemails between dinner and dessert.

Maybe we’d all be better off if we took a “technology sabbath.” How about leaving the laptop in the briefcase and quit checking voicemail?

Maybe we’d find time to hear the voice of God and the voices of the people we love.

–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: 10/19/07

EDITORIAL:
Look to horizon for BGCT perspective

“Just keep your eyes on the horizon,” my friend Brent advised me the first time I went deep-sea fishing. “If you start feeling queasy, look at a fixed point—like trees on the tip of a peninsula or the top of a condo on the beach. That will help you keep your equilibrium, and you’ll be OK.”

Brent gave good advice for a breezy outing off the Florida coast. We didn’t catch many fish, but we had a great day.

That’s good advice for Texas Baptists these days, too. Our Baptist boat is bouncing on a sea of controversy. Folks are looking a little green around the gills. They’re responding in various ways. Some feel sick; others are mutinous.

So, we’d all benefit by looking to the horizon. Here are some fixed points on which to gaze. They’ll help us ride out the stormy seas:

• The Baptist General Convention of Texas is more than the BGCT Executive Board.

A huge part of our problem is an identity crisis. For ages, we’ve said “BGCT” when we meant the convention’s Executive Board and the staff who administer its programs—the Baptist Building. They’re not the same thing. The BGCT includes the Executive Board, but it also includes almost 5,700 churches, more than 100 associations, 27 institutions and agencies, and Lord-knows-how-many Baptist people. All together, that’s the BGCT.

Unfortunately, our shorthand language has stuck, and when people talk about the Executive Board, they say “BGCT.” Worse, the Executive Board is the weakest part of the BGCT right now. It’s the part that’s making so many Texas Baptists heartsick, if not seasick. So, we tend to think the convention is much worse off than it actually is.

Fortunately, the other components of the BGCT are resilient and vital. Sure, they’re not perfect. But we have enormous human, material and spiritual resources. And the Executive Board can be repaired. The “BGCT” is much stronger than we’ve been letting on.

• The BGCT political process is opening up.

For years, when Southern Baptist Convention-style fundamentalism threatened to gain control of the state convention, Texas Baptists Committed provided a valuable service by galvanizing so-called moderate Texans around one slate of candidates for BGCT leadership. In recent years, that political threat has diminished. Consequently, some among us have chafed at the specter of one relatively small group choosing the convention’s officers in advance of the annual meeting. This year, messengers will pick from at least two strong candidates for president. And Texas Baptists Committed has indicated it will discontinue the recent practice of nominating a first vice presidential candidate to become the next year’s presidential nominee. So, all messengers have an equal voice in selecting officers.

• $50 million still is a lot of money.

Although the proposed BGCT budget is diminished and should be larger, Texas Baptists still can do a powerful lot of ministry with $50 million. We should not belittle legitimate financial strength.

• BGCT institutions are vitally strong.

Our state convention provides the denominational home for 27 agencies and institutions—more than any other Baptist body and most other religious groups. What’s more, most of them are tremendously creative and effective. Yes, we need to support them better and collaborate more closely with them. But when you think “BGCT” and realize the convention includes our institutions, you begin to recognize its strength and relevance.

• We’re living in the middle of a mission field that calls for outstretched hands, not wringing hands.

Much of our malaise has been brought on by hand-wringing and navel-gazing. Those are hardly worthy endeavors for Baptists who live in a state with more than 10 million neighbors who make no claim to faith, plus millions who are hurting and needy.

Look to the horizon. We’ve got fish to catch.

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

Scholars say evangelicals
and their votes are shifting

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The face of evangelicalism is changing, two authors at the Pew Research Center said, and with that change comes uncertainty about who evangelicals will vote for in next year’s presidential election.

Using the AIDS crisis as an example, Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power, said the present generation of evangelicals has a broader, more international perspective than their forebears.

While many evangelical leaders in the 1980s denounced AIDS as “God’s scourge on the homosexual community,” evangelical Michael Gerson—President Bush’s former speechwriter—was the man who brought AIDS back to the forefront 20 years later, Lindsay said.

“That is a really big change in the evangelical community,” Lindsay said. “The amazing thing is that once that initiative was announced, some of the very same evangelical movement leaders who had denounced” the crisis “praised the White House for being bold and courageous.”

Hanna Rosin, author of God’s Harvard, a book about Patrick Henry College in Virginia, hopes that in 20 more years, evangelicals will have examined their traditional stance on the environment and made similar changes.

Lindsay and Rosin attributed part of this change to a heightened appreciation for Reformed theology, which recognizes the problems in the world while at the same time compelling people to do something about them.

Lindsay also sees the change as “a maturing of the evangelical movement.” As evangelicals have moved into positions of influence, they have become more optimistic about changing the world. He sees “the mantle of leadership” passing from evangelicals like Billy Graham—who focused primarily on saving souls—to people like megachurch pastor and author Rick Warren, who believes social justice and saving souls go hand in hand.

These shifting views cause Rosin and Lindsay to wonder who evangelicals will vote for in the coming presidential primaries and election. Gone is “the idea that evangelicals are in the back pockets of Republicans,” Rosin said.

Some of the “most extensive outreach” from evangelicals is directed at Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, not Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain, she said.

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

Posted: 10/19/07

Faith Digest

Religious references OK on flag certificates. Americans who ask for a flag to be flown over the U.S. Capitol now will be able to include religious references on the accompanying certificate under new guidelines. Some House members were angry after an Ohio Eagle Scout requested a flag be flown in honor of his grandfather’s “dedication and love of God, country, and family.” The accompanying certificate left out the word “God.” Acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers, who supervises the flag program, said guidelines from 2003 would be revised to allow whatever messages a member of Congress deems appropriate. After an internal review, Ayers determined the existing policies had been “inconsistently applied.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after initialing downplaying the dispute, later said Ayers’ office should not “be in the role of censoring what members want to say.” Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, who received the flag request that sparked the policy change, said he would pursue legislation that permanently allow flag certificates to acknowledge God.

Publisher offers environmentally friendly Scriptures. If the “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign aimed to get Jesus into a fuel-efficient hybrid, now there’s an answer to “What Would Jesus Read?” Publishing giant Thomas Nelson Inc. has released the first-ever “green” Bible. The Charles Stanley Life Principles Daily Bible uses paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and includes an FSC logo on its packaging that indicates it met the council’s standards in every stage of production, from the forest to the paper mill to the printer. The new Bible comes as part of a larger effort at Thomas Nelson to practice stewardship and implement environmentally friendly practices. “We are committed to trying to learn more about how we can reduce our carbon footprint as a company,” said Lindsey Nobles, director of corporate communications at Thomas Nelson.

ORU president faces charges. Oral Roberts University, which made headlines 20 years ago when its namesake founder said God would “call him home” unless he raised $8 million, finds itself embroiled in controversy again. A lawsuit filed by three former professors at the charismatic Christian university in Tulsa alleges illegal political activity and lavish, unchecked spending by President Richard Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, for personal purposes, including using the school’s jet for their daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas. Tim Brooker, who coordinated the university’s government program, alleges the university president pressured him to use ORU resources and students to campaign for a Tulsa mayoral candidate, despite laws prohibiting such activities by tax-exempt organizations. At a recent chapel service at the 5,300-student university, Roberts said God told him: “We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person, whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit … is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion.” Oral Roberts’ board of regents voted unanimously to hire an independent outside auditor to review the claims and the university’s financial statements. Roberts announced Oct. 17 he would take a temporary leave of absence.

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

Wayland nurse takes healthcare
expertise, servant’s heart to Brazil

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

LAINVIEW—Josie Gomez normally sees dozens of Wayland Baptist University students and employees in a typical week.

But recently, her caseload increased significantly. Fortunately, Gomez didn’t have to meet the needs alone.

She took a week off from her job in Plainview as Wayland’s full-time registered nurse and traveled to Brazil for a medical mission trip with other area medical professionals.

Gomez, a member of First Baptist Church in Hale Center, found out about the coming trip through a presentation by Gene Meacham, director of missions for Caprock-Plains Baptist Area.

Josie Gomez (right) helps another patient into a boat for consultation and treatment during the team’s long days of running a medical clinic aboard the boat docked in remote areas of Brazil that normally lack medical care.

“I felt like this would be where I could use the talents God gave me for him,” said Gomez, who has been at Wayland nine years. Though international mission trips were nothing new to Gomez—she has been to Mexico and Brazil before—this trip held a new twist for the longtime nurse.

The mission was conducted almost exclusively aboard a boat as part of the Evangelistic Mission Assistance to Fishermen project. The team of 12 short-term missionaries included Lubbock physician Hugh Wilson, formerly of Hale Center; dentist Donna Winchester of Slaton; two other nurses; a speech therapist; a physical therapist and several others.

The group traveled each day from Isla Grande off the coast of central Brazil to remote villages where no medical assistance regularly is available. Luiz Alcantara, a physician from Brazil, traveled with them to provide translation and additional medical help.

Docked a short distance from the shore, the boat became a clinic for the villagers who traveled to wait for help. Lines formed quickly and stayed long for most of each day.

“It was very busy. People were in and out all day long for four days straight,” Gomez said. “We used every part of that boat to see people and treat them. We treated lots of intestinal worms, anemia and some scabies, and the dentist pulled teeth left and right because their dental hygiene was not good.”

Gomez noted that while the medical team stayed on board to run the clinic, others traveled into the villages to meet people and share the gospel message in various ways. Flexibility and creativity proved valuable for the team.

“One day the wind was too high, and we had to move the clinic into an elementary school on the island,” Gomez recalled. “When we heard that morning we might not get to stay on the boat, we prayed and prayed for God to calm the storm. But we ended up in the school anyway, and it was such a blessing. I think God had already planned this ahead for us.”

While the clinic continued on more solid ground, the rest of the team made good use of their time closer to the villagers. Ron Hanby, an accountant from Plainview, presented a paint talk for a group, using an illustration on large canvas to share the gospel story.

Gomez fondly re-called the blessings she gained from being able to use her medical expertise on the mission field.

“The biggest blessing for me came from giving a shot to one lady who could barely walk from painful arthritis and had been that way for eight months,” she noted. “She said through the interpreter that it was the first shot she’d had that didn’t hurt, and the next day she came up to me and was saying, ‘Thank you’ and hugging me and telling me how she didn’t hurt anymore.”

Gomez also recalled one woman who brought her 14-year-old daughter to see the speech therapist, saying she had never spoken. Within a few hours of therapy, the girl was making simple noises and moving toward speech for the first time.

The incident—and others like it—made an impact on Gomez.

“I think we just take it for granted here, that we can just go down to a clinic and get medicine for any little thing. They can’t do that there.”

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

Iraqi Christians face choice
– flee or live in fear

By James Palmer

Religion News Service

BAGHDAD, Iraq (RNS)—Nabil Comanny and his family endured the dead bodies left to decompose along the road in their southern Dora neighborhood. They accepted the criminal gangs that roamed the area, searching for targets to kidnap. And neither the utility failures nor the mountains of trash in the street could drive them away.

As Christians, the Comannys learned to keep a low profile. They even stayed in their house after many Muslim neighbors fled the daily chaos when sectarian bloodshed between Shiite and Sunni militants broke out in 2006, making this one of Baghdad’s most embattled districts.

But the hand-scrawled note at their door was the final straw. The message commanded the family to select one of these options: Convert to Islam, pay a fee of nearly $300 monthly for protection or leave the area.

Failure to comply with one of the three would result in death.

“We don’t have weapons, and the government doesn’t protect us. What else can we do?” said Comanny, a 37-year-old journalist whose family abandoned its modest home of 11 years.

Extreme Islamic militants increasingly are targeting Christians in Iraq, especially here in the capital.

The Apostle Thomas has been traditionally credited with taking Christianity to Mesopotamia.

As a result, Iraq’s Christian community—long the minority in a largely Muslim country—continues to dwindle.

While meaningful numbers are difficult to come by, the last Iraqi census, conducted in 1987, counted 1 million Christians, although many fled after the United Nations imposed sanctions in the 1990s. Today, national aid groups estimate that between 300,000 and 600,000 Christians remain among an estimated 25 million people.

The first sign of trouble for Commany’s family arrived last spring when Muslim militants imposed Islamic law over the area.

The proclamation came via an 18-point document posted along shops and blast walls. The decree listed stringent rules for all residents.

Among other things, women were required to wear burkahs, which are draped over the head, covering the face and entire body.

“It’s not our tradition,” Comanny said. “How can Christian women be expected to do this?”

In the end, most Christian families decided to pay a bribe, Comanny said, “because it gave them time to prepare to leave. But most can’t afford to keep paying.”

Comanny, who shared a small house in Dora with his mother, three brothers and four sisters, finally decided to move his family on the advice of someone he described as a “sympathetic” insurgent—a lifelong acquaintance.

Because militants in Dora frequently attack families returning home to fetch their belongings, Comanny paid his insurgent contact 1 million Iraqi dinars, or about $800, for safe passage from the neighborhood.

Today, the Comannys live in the New Baghdad section of the capital, where hundreds of Christian families relocated. The families move cautiously among a majority Shiite population who rely on the Mahdi army to protect the area.

In addition to the direct threats, Iraq’s Christians also must cope with subtle obstacles.

William Warda, the founder of Hamorabi, a Christian-led national human rights group in Iraq, said most Christians here no longer feel safe embracing the lifestyle they once enjoyed, such as wearing Western apparel.

Most Christians still in Iraq are Chaldean Catholics who acknowledge the pope’s authority but remain sovereign from the Vatican.

Other denominations include Syrian Catholics, Armenian Orthodox and Armenian Catholics. Small groups of Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholics also practice, as do Anglicans and evangelicals.

One common thread among most of the groups is a concern that church leaders have not spoken out to protect their rights.

“The church is not defending us,” said Bashar Jamil John, a 24-year-old engineering student at the Baghdad Technical Institute. “This is part of the problem.”

Mokhlous Shasha, 32, a first-year priest at the Lady of Our Salvation Syrian Catholic Church in central Baghdad, argued the clergy here are as equally threatened as the ones they serve.

Since 2006, militants have killed three priests and kidnapped 10 others, church officials said.

“Priests live in the same situations as their parishioners,” said Shasha, who added he never walks the streets of Baghdad in his collar.

The one thing most Christians agree on is their view of the future—bleak.

While at least a dozen churches here simply have closed, some seminaries and convents have shifted their bases to the north.

For those still open, such as the Chaldean Catholic Virgin Mary in central Baghdad, attendance at Mass is down by more than half, officials said.

For one, Hamorabi’s Warda predicts a mass exodus of Christians from Iraq if Western countries relax their immigration policies.

“If the U.S. and Europe open their doors, the Christians in Iraq will be finished,” Warda said. “They will all leave.”

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

Faith changed best-selling novelist’s world

By Nancy Haught

Religion News Service

VANCOUVER, Wash. (RNS)—Karen Kingsbury, the reigning queen of Christian fiction, lives on a hilltop just outside Vancouver in a spacious modern Tudor house, with a sweeping driveway and a large, landscaped pool.

This is the house that Life Changing Fiction built. That’s her trademark, says the winner of the 2007 Christian Book Award, because that’s how her fans describe her work.

She started writing inspirational fiction in 1998 and now has 6 million books in print. Last year alone, the 44-year-old sold 2 million copies and made from 25 cents to $2 for each one sold, she reported.

She earns enough that her husband, Don, a former high school Spanish teacher, volunteers as a freshman football coach at a nearby high school only because he wants to. Their six children—ages 10 to 18, with three boys adopted from Haiti—don’t need to worry about college tuition. Kingsbury’s payroll includes her only daughter, her mother and her two sisters. The money she earns for lectures, she donates to charity.

Some may dismiss her as a marvel of Christian marketing, but consider this: Kingsbury’s novel Just Beyond the Clouds ranked No. 17 on the New York Times best-seller list for paperback trade fiction for Oct. 7; Summer ranked 15th the previous week.

That’s the list that includes Water for Elephants (No. 1) and The Kite Runner (No. 3). Kingsbury, who claims her own shelf in religious and general bookstores—and at many big-box discount retail stores—is a crossover Christian author.

Clearly, religious publishing is thriving. A survey in August of Americans who read books found that two-thirds choose the Bible and other religious books—more than any other category. Last year, religious book sales increased 5.6 percent in net revenue, the largest increase in dollar sales of all the categories tracked by the Book Industry Study Group, a leading trade association.

In an industry in which publishers are delighted if a novelist finishes two manuscripts a year, Kingsbury hammers out five, mostly in the five hours a day at her home office while her children are in school.

She wrote Ever After, the story of two couples divided by the war in Iraq and winner of the Evangelical Christian Publishers award, in five days.

“Karen finds writing therapeutic,” said Rick Christian, founder of Alive Communications and Kingsbury’s agent for nine years. “A conversation on a soccer field can become a whole book. Her imagination is just like one of those magical gardens in a Dr. Seuss book.”

The prolific Kingsbury rules online and in person, too. Her website—www.karenkingsbury.com—got about 29,000 new hits in July. She receives about 500 letters and e-mails a week. She travels a couple of times a month to lecture and sign books. She insists on taking a digital photo with every reader who wants one. She spends a few minutes in conversation with everyone who stands in line to meet her. She listens to their stories. In her mind, her fans are important—the people she writes to—but on her working list of priorities, readers come after God and family.

“I have wanted to be an author since I was 5,” Kingsbury said. “I wanted to be the next Danielle Steel. But newspapers were my Plan B.”

As often happens, Plan B came first. In 1988, when Kingsbury was a young newspaper reporter in Los Angeles, she met her future husband at a health club.

“He was clean-cut, an athletic guy who didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs,” she said. He brought his Bible with him on their first date. That three-way relationship—Karen, Don and the Bible—had its ups and downs, but eventually she bought her own Bible and rethought her faith.

By 1991, the couple married, and when their first child came along, she wanted to work from home. She wrangled book deals for four true-crime novels. Her writing met with mixed reviews, but Kingsbury’s first book deal tripled her annual reporter’s salary.

But her work, the career she dreamed about, was depressing.

“I had to post Scripture on my computer screen to keep going,” she said. So, she tried something else.

By then the family lived in Arizona, and she wrote Where Yesterday Lives, about five adult siblings called home when their father dies. She wept when she wrote it. Years later, her books still strike at the heart—without happily-ever-after endings.

“I write tear-jerkers,” she said, “not romance novels.” Her writing includes “a layer of romance,” but her characters tackle real-life problems, from abuse to war. In her books, characters die. Loved ones walk away. Relationships don’t work out.

“But the endings are hopeful,” she said, “if you have faith.”

Kingsbury writes about redemption, reconciliation and forgiveness, said Sue Brower, her editor at Zondervan.

“She reaches into you, rips out your heart and helps mend it with stories,” Brower said.

Kingsbury targets her demographic—women ages 25 to 65, said Jana Riess, religion book review editor at Publishers Weekly. But Kingsbury’s editor sees a readership beyond that.

“The crowds at her book signings are old and young, white and black, urban and suburban,” Brower said. “If Karen writes for a demographic, it’s the Hallmark demographic, people like me who cry over Hallmark commercials—people coming through tragedy, distress, pain and hurt, coming through it with hope.”

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

Texas Baptist Forum

Spirit & pastor searches

After reading Roger Olson’s 2nd Opinion column on the pastor-search process (Oct. 1), I find it difficult to agree. Yes, I believe pastors as well as church members are led by a call of the Holy Spirit daily. I would hope his church’s pastor-search committee didn’t browbeat or bribe a pastor or member to join his church. We do not need to look to help-wanted ads of pastors wanting to leave a difficult situation.

• Jump to online-only letters below

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

“I believe there is a universal God. I believe the God that the Muslim prays to is the same God that I pray to. After all, we all came from Abraham. I believe in that universality.” George W. Bush U.S. president, (Al Arabiya television/The Washington Times/RNS) “When we started talking about the Holy Spirit, people said: ‘Oh, that’s kind of dangerous. You don’t know what may happen.’ I’m kind of hoping something unexpected does happen.” Cindy de Jong Coordinator of worship at Calvin College, about a worship series on the Holy Spirit (RNS) “Torture undermines victim and torturer alike. It corrodes the society that permits it. It overthrows the rule of law and then destroys the tyrannies that it spawns. Corrupting the soul, it eventually corrupts everything in its path. Torture is itself the ticking bomb.” George Hunsinger Founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (RNS)

Our church lost our pastor 18 months ago. Even though my heart cried, I could still praise God that he will continue to minister through that young man. I hope my church’s search committee is looking for someone who is going through the door that the Holy Spirit opens, not the door that is listed “Exit.” Praise God for pastor-search committees that bathe their work in prayer and listen to the Holy Spirit’s leadership.

Robert Dillard

San Angelo

Global warming

Exploitation of the one degree/100 years global warming (Oct. 1) was frightening. Not because of the minuscule temperature change but because of the wild assumption that humans could cause a temperature change.

Our sun gives us heat. Solar variations with spots and flares cause greater temperature differences than we could possibly accomplish with atom bombs, forest fires, coal fires or any carbon dioxide source.

The imagination of your Christian “environmental experts” is frightening. They would best serve the poor by promoting the decontamination of drinking water.

Harold Flynn

Houston

Art in church

I was encouraged to read about how congregations are using art and symbolism in the designs of their houses of worship (Oct. 15).

Growing up a Baptist and an artist, I was frustrated to learn of the God of creation and yet worship in sanctuaries void of creativity, beauty and art. What we create should be a reflection of the beauty of the message we teach and share.

Ken Parks

Mansfield

Model for ministry

The article about Red Springs Baptist Church (Sept. 17) was very interesting. I have been a member of First Baptist Church in Seymour since 1933 and have known most of the pastors of the Red Springs church. The earliest Red Springs pastor I remember was a good friend, Bob Barker, who was a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Red Springs pastor in the mid 1930s.

Years later, I asked Bob why the Red Springs pastors were so successful as missionaries, pastors, college presidents, etc. He said they used the laymen of the Red Springs church as an example and tried to be as good a man as they were. The result was the fine leaders mentioned in the article.

Thank the Lord for the fine people of Red Springs.

Jack Jones

Wichita Falls

‘Greatest strength’

The article on Bob Ray’s retirement included this quote: “Bob’s greatest strengths as I have observed are his steady and unwavering commitment to serve everyone.  No one and no ministry is unimportant to Bob Ray” (Sept. 3).

Bob Ray’s greatest strength is how he has loved his wife and three boys. He has often said his greatest achievement and joy was leading his three boys to Jesus Christ. Bob Ray’s greatest strength is loving his family unconditionally.  

Richard Ray

Wink

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