Posted: 8/17/07

BUA inauguration focuses
on leadership development

“Forging New Leaders for a New World” will be the theme as Baptist University of the Americas installs its seventh president, René Maciel, former assistant dean of Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary.

Truett Professor Hulitt Gloer will deliver the inaugural address during the public inauguration and installation ceremony, 10 a.m. Sept. 28 at Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana in San Antonio.

“While in 2007 the university is celebrating its 60-year history of developing Hispanic church leaders for Texas, the inauguration provides a visionary vantage point to look into the future and define the kind of Christian leaders that the next generations will need,” Maciel said.

The inaugural theme was selected to emphasize the school’s commitment to leadership development for undergraduates who seek to be equipped to fulfill their Christian calling in a world marked by multiculturalism, globalism, emerging church structures and innovative mission methodologies, organizers noted.

The theme showcases new university programs and degrees such as the recently created Latina Leadership Institute and its newly accredited bachelor’s degree in cross-cultural business leadership.

A Sept. 27 campuswide celebration includes a pre-chapel outdoor fellowship event with music by the school’s Rondalla de las Americas; an extended chapel with Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas; and a formal president’s inaugural dinner that evening.

Student council leaders also will organize community ministry projects during the weeks surrounding the inauguration, and every student and staff member will be encouraged to volunteer one hour in honor of the university’s 60th anniversary and the presidential inauguration.

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

Posted: 8/17/07

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

Posted: 8/17/07

Church starters learn the ropes;
BGCT & CBF establish covenant

By Whitney Farr

Communications Intern

WACO—While 36 future church planters learned with Legos inside Truett Seminary, two Baptist leaders sat in the courtyard discussing the power behind the recent partnership of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“It’s not a legal contract. It’s more of a spiritual covenant partnering between BGCT and CBF in terms of starting new churches,” said Phil Hester, CBF church starts specialist. “In the covenant, we both agree to bring certain resources, and the church planter agrees to have a mutual responsibility to both organisms.”

Phil Hester (left), church starting specialist with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and Charles Higgs (right), Baptist General Convention of Texas coordinator for western-heritage churches, visits with church planter Rocky Louthan and his wife, Amy. The cowboy church the Louthans are planting in Santa Fe, near Galveston, is the first product of a new church-starting partnership covenant between the BGCT and CBF.

Charles Higgs, BGCT coordinator for western-heritage churches, and Hester agreed BGCT and CBF are not in competition with one another, but just two parts of the body of Christ, both with individual resour-ces, combining forces.

A western-heritage church in Santa Fe, near Galveston, will be the first fruit of the new partnership. CBF decided on the Galveston area after noticing the small number of BGCT and CBF churches in the region. After partnering with the BGCT, the funds were raised for Gulf Coast Cowboy Church, and a planter was chosen, Rocky Louthan.

Louthan and his wife, Amy, were two of the 36 leaders who came to the CBF Church Planting Boot Camp at Truett Seminary July 29-Aug. 3. Participants came from North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Oklahoma, and they attended sessions aimed to develop and strengthen leaders for future church plants.

“The sessions are giving them the nuts and bolts of church planting—working with directors of missions, using media, financial planning, writing a business plan, understanding yourself and building a team,” said Judy Battles, Truett coordinator for pastoral ministries.

Not all lessons were learned in the confines of Truett Seminary. On Monday, the group took on the challenge of Baylor University’s ropes course. And on Wednesday, they engaged in HALT, Horse Assisted Leadership Training, a ministry that incorporates horses to teach leaders about themselves and how to work with those around them.

“We can learn so much about ourselves, our relationship with others and our relationship with God through these four-legged creatures,” HALT co-founder Debbie Bahr said.

The conference included daily worship services and opportunities for the group to fellowship, over meals and a dessert gathering.

CBF started the church-planting conferences four years ago, and each year the conference is held at a different seminary around the country. God has used the leaders trained at the conferences to do big things, and each of the churches planted in the past has reproduced itself within six years, Higgs said.

The conference’s overall goal was to “prepare these candidates to successfully plant new Baptist congregations,” Hester said.

The conference also equipped each person with $200 worth of books on topics including leadership, church planting and how to be a missions-minded church, according to Battles.

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

Posted: 8/17/07

2nd Opinion: Stats tell tale not good for Texas

By Karen Wood

Start talking statistics, and my eyes glaze over. I’m already yawning, just thinking about percentages and number signs.

But smack dab in the middle of some great reading recently, out popped some statistics. For once, I didn’t snooze. I got scared—the kind of scared with goose bumps and shivers running up and down the spine.

Right there, plain as day: “Texas, at 23.8 percent, had a higher percentage of (health) uninsured citizens than any other state in 2006.”

Might as well round that up to 24 percent. I do better with whole numbers.

That compares to 14.6 percent nationally, or 43.6 million who didn’t have health insurance last year from sea to shining sea.

Shorthand: Nation, 15 percent uninsured. Texas, 24 percent uninsured. Not good, Texas.

Understand I’m a native Texan, so I’m not one to knock the Great State.

Indeed, when I saw those stats comparing us to the rest of the country, I was sure it couldn’t be right. After all, we are bigger, better, stronger, higher, deeper, wider.

Well, pretty much nobody has anything on us. Especially attitude.

Except health insurance. What happened?

As I looked further, the stats got worse. Like the one on uninsured kids. From Pacific to Atlantic: 9.3 percent. In Texas? 19 percent. Not good, Texas.

Just who are these people trying to trash the GreatStateofTexas (Always one word. Just listen to the politicians)? Why, it’s none other than the people at the National Center for Health Statistics.

Its website (www.cdc.gov/nchs) breaks down all of the gory details—pie charts and graphs and footnotes and sub-sections and details too spooky for me to handle without digging out my whiffle dust to ward off the nightmares.

I was prepared to challenge the National Center for Health Statistics. Surely it was relying on too small a sample. But, no. This survey was based on 100,000 interviews.

As for the ranks of Texas’ uninsured: Even larger numbers were uninsured at some time or another during the last 12 months prior to the survey. And a portion of those surveyed had gone without health insurance for more than a year at the time the survey was done.

Why, shucks. 100,000. That’s a pretty big number, even for a native Texan. No matter how big I yawn, I can’t get 100,000 in my mouth. No matter how much my eyes glaze over, I can’t get 24 percent and 19 percent out of my mind’s eye.

The GreatStateofTexas has people smart enough to fix the problem. The GreatStateofTexas has the resources to fix the problem.

We just need to hitch up our britches, tighten our Lone Star belt buckles and do it.

Karen Wood is a freelance writer living in Waco. She formerly worked for Woman’s Missionary Union and Baylor University.

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

Posted: 8/17/07

Cybercolumn: Forgiveness

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, looking for a quote. We live in the age of the sound bite, the dazzling quote, the striking quotation. We are a shorthand society that wants life minimized, shrunk down and sometimes summarized in a few short words or sentences. For these reasons. a quote helps once in a while. and I find myself looking for quotes.

I guess I could quote Hank Aaron, who after Barry Bonds hit his record-breaking home run, said, “My hope today… is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams.” Chase your dreams! Or I could quote a Crandall Canyon, Utah, miner who felt guilty and wondered if he should have turned back to help his fellow miners: “I think I did everything I could. It was like having your brights on in a fog.” Or I could quote, C. S. Lewis. After all, I just returned from Cambridge, England, where he once taught English. He said, “It is astonishing that sometimes we believe that we believe what, really, in our heart we do not believe.” He spoke of forgiveness and stated that for a long time he believed in forgiveness, but did not really believe it until he practiced forgiveness, finally forgiving a cruel school teacher from his youth.

The old oak tree here has lived through storms and hard Texas summers and winters, days when limbs have been chopped off. and days when the storms puts stress on the tree’s roots, days when life under this old tree delivers pain in the form of broken relationships and small sins under the seismic universe that grow into big battles. C.S. Lewis states the obvious, to live, to heal, and to grow, to enjoy the joy of life and of Christ; forgiveness in its simplest form requires surrender and humility, two of our most difficult human traits. Philip Yancey calls forgiveness a most “unnatural act.”

My very first preaching assignment was in a nursing home. I arrived on my first Sunday, sermon in hand, the gospel ready to be delivered in the context of the world as I knew it in 1979. Billy Graham once said something like, “When you prepare to preach, prepare with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” John Stott said that the preacher delivers the gospel “between two worlds,” so we must learn to know God’s word and know the times in which we live. Billy Graham aside and John Stott aside, I had my ready, aim, fire sermon ready to launch. I arrived, led the wheel-chaired crowd in a few hymns and launched my rocket of a sermon in their direction, a sermon from the Bible fitting for the times and the news of that day. It was my first encounter with preaching realities—people falling asleep, people looking around, faces smiling as if tuned in, and eyebrows furled as if to communicate, “I am not too sure I agree with this.” I cut my sermon short. My sermon on the gospel and the forgiveness of the cross seemed too heavy. I had not taken into account the preacher’s first rule of order—to consider the audience to whom you will speak. I launched a rocket when what the nursing home captives needed was the water of mercy, bandages to sustain life’s weariness, and comforting words for the life long battle through which most of them had lived.

After I realized my mistake and finished the sermon, I walked around and greeted the people. One lady latched to my arm and pleaded. Her gray hair and weather-wrinkled faced gloomily looked up at me from her wheel chair. She gritted her teeth and begged: “Will God forgive me? Will God forgive me? Will God forgive me?”

“Yes, God will forgive you,” I told her as she asked the question in repetitious rhythm. Each time I went to the nursing home, no matter what I preached, she asked me the same question after the short sermon. I can hear the echo of her words in my ear to this very day. I wondered if maybe, sometime, somewhere in her life, if maybe her subconscious had remembered a sin and the guilt associated with it and kept recalling it in association with the preaching of God’s word, triggering the repetitious words, “Will God forgive me?”

It took me years to realize she probably had a case of dementia. Still, I have often wondered if unforgiveness had hardened her heart or if some event, sin or broken relationship had never joined hands with the healing balm of Christ’s forgiveness.

While in Cambridge, I walked into the city. While walking, I passed Queen’s College by the River Cam. I walked over that bridge many times with no excitement, just the usual picture takers, the boaters below the bridge in the river, and the bikers whizzing by. On this day, a crowd had stopped and all eyes were fixed on a bicycle and a potential rider atop the bridge’s five-inch rail. A college student challenged his buddy: “Come on! Ride!”

“I am not sure I can,” the scared teenager replied while the crowd looked on. Had the young man been a bike rider on the bridge’s rail. he risked falling onto the stone street or falling headfirst into the river 15 feet below.

“OK, chicken, get down,” the challenger yelled. He took the bike from the fearful teenager, climbed aboard, held his hands up for the crowd, placed his hands on the handlebars, and proudly and promptly rode the bike across the thin rail. He did not fall and when to the other side of the bridge, still balanced with the bike’s pedals, the cheering crowd applauded as he jumped down to the pavement. He took the bike back to the other end of the rail and looked at the fearful teenage rider and exclaimed again, “Now ride!”

I left the scene unwilling to watch the fearful rider lest he fall. The metaphor for forgiveness here conjures up the same emotions—fear, risk and a longing to get past the present moment and to the other side. Genuine forgiveness may incite fear (“Why should I forgive? They do not deserve this!” Or “He will have to come to me crawling before I forgive him!”), but, ultimately, requires the risk of waltzing a thin rail called the cross of grace if we are to bridge the gap between friends and also between God.

If you are looking for another metaphor, the Apostle Paul says that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to some, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). The gospel, to some, may seem as foolish as riding a bike across a rail, but it has the power to transform those who live under the glory of the cross and practice forgiveness in their daily lives.

The cross of Jesus honors forgiveness. Practicing it may be hard, but necessary and vital to life in relationship with God, your spouse or your enemy.

Jesus cried on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Paul charged the church at Ephesus to forgive even as Christ has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32). And forgiveness hails as the one redeeming quality in us that cleanses us inside-out while replacing tears with smiles and the dark agony of sin with the glorious light of joy.

So here I am under the old oak tree. Chase your dreams and beware of earth-shattering events that blind you like lights on in the fog and circumstances that shock you on life’s journey, but to walk across life’s bridge of peace and joy and reconciliation and happiness, life’s most unnatural act, forgiveness, requires life’s most supernatural act, Christ’s forgiveness in you forgiving others as Christ has forgiven you.

C.S. Lewis recalls the day he forgave his old teacher after carrying the bitterness and a grudge for years: “But this time I feel it (forgiveness) is the real thing. And (like learning to swim or ride a bike) the moment it (forgiveness) does happen it seems so easy and you wonder why on earth you didn’t do it years ago.” Forgiveness sets us free. It frees us to swim in the joy, to glory in the peace of Jesus Christ, and to ride triumphantly on the thin rail of grace.

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

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

Posted: 8/17/07

DOWN HOME:
Puppies & daughters follow their passion

Have you digested any good books this summer?

Our dog, Topanga, has. Literally. Unfortunately, she’s not any smarter or more learned. But she did look sort of full there for awhile.

Every now and then, I read a really good book that gives me plenty to “chew” on. And I totally ingest the very best books. Absorb them. They become part of me.

Somehow, I think Topanga is more shallow than I. She only chewed on the cover and the corners of a few pages. Also, she hasn’t given any indication the book affected her life substantially.

Well, now, I take that back. She can’t go into Molly’s bedroom anymore.

That’s where Topanga’s involvement with the book occurred.

Molly’s a bookaholic. Since she learned to read, she’s kept her nose in a book at least part of almost every day. She’s focusing on literature at Baylor University. In fact, one program in her major field of study requires her to read about a gazillion volumes from a list of the greatest books ever written. And she loves it.

So, when Molly headed off to work at Pine Cove, a Christian camp in East Texas, this summer, her room looked like a book bomb went off. Books were everywhere—strewn on the bed and dresser, stacked on the night stand and bookcase. And, of course, all over the floor.

That’s where Topanga found her book, a novel Molly first read in high school. Personally, I’ll always believe she went in there looking for shoelaces, her current chomping fetish of choice. But she apparently enjoyed Molly’s book, if you can tell a canine’s book-appreciation by a cover.

Topanga isn’t the first dog in our household to bite her way into Molly’s domain. Her predecessor, Betsy, once infamously chewed some fingers off of Molly’s favorite doll, Pink Baby, who remains a family treasure, though eternally maimed.

Fortuitously, nobody’s assigning blame. Although we’re working on Topanga’s penchant for chewing things, we realize a puppy is a puppy, and puppies explore the world first with their teeth and tongue. And we’re actually encouraging Molly (at least the reading, if not the leaving-everything-on-the-bedroom-floor part). She’s a curious young woman, and she explores the world with her eyes, through the pages of books and newspapers and magazines and Internet websites. That’s one of the things I’ve always admired about her—insatiable curiousity.

Even though it sometimes puts them at odds, small dogs and young women tend to do what comes naturally. They’re likely to devour books, either with their teeth or their eyes.

So, what do you devour, digest, explore? Passion defines a person. What you find irresistable says much about who you are.

–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: 8/17/07

SBC activist pastor wants God
to zap Americans United officials

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

BUENA PARK, Calif. (ABP)—An early candidate for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention has called on Baptists to pray for misfortune to befall employees of a church-state watchdog group.

Wiley Drake, a pastor and radio crusader who spearheaded the SBC boycott of Disney several years ago, issued an Aug. 14 statement calling for “imprecatory prayer” from his supporters against two communications staffers for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

One day earlier, Drake—who served as the SBC’s second vice president in 2006-2007—also became the first person publicly announced as a nominee for the SBC presidency. Robert Bosworth, a member of Drake’s church, announced his intention to nominate his pastor for the SBC presidency at the denomination’s next annual meeting, in June in Indianapolis.

Americans United, based in Washington, advocates for a strict interpretation of the Constitution’s ban on government support for religion. The organization asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax-exempt status of Drake’s congregation, First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif., after Drake used church letterhead and a church-supported radio show to endorse Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential candidate.

The federal revenue code prevents churches and other nonprofits organized under certain sections of the law from endorsing political candidates or parties. However, they are allowed to speak out on ballot issues.

“Federal tax law is clear,” Americans United Executive Director Barry Lynn said. “Churches and other nonprofits may not endorse candidates, if they want to keep their tax exemption. I am confident that the vast majority of Americans do not want to see their houses of worship politicized.”

In Drake’s written endorsement, he said that of all the candidates running for president, “Mike Huckabee will listen to God.” Before serving as governor, Huckabee was pastor of several prominent Arkansas Baptist churches and served as president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

“After very serious prayer and consideration, I announce today that I am going to personally endorse Mike Huckabee,” Drake wrote.

“I ask all of my Southern Baptist brothers and sisters to consider getting behind Mike and helping him all you can. First of all, pray and then ask God, ‘What should I do to put feet to my prayers?’ Do what God tells you to do.”

Lynn wrote that Drake may express personal views on political candidates but said federal tax law prohibits such endorsements by religious leaders acting as officials of nonprofit religious groups.

“Use of church letterhead to endorse a candidate for public office appears to violate the provisions of federal tax law that prohibit nonprofit intervention in political campaigns,” Lynn said. “Drake’s endorsement of a candidate on a church-based radio show raises the same concerns.”

In the past, churches that faced similar charges have lost their tax-exempt status, although often the IRS simply warns tax-exempt organizations against further violations.

The letterhead Drake used for the Huckabee endorsement also lists his SBC vice-presidential office. The fact that he formerly served as an SBC officer also is noted on the press release calling for God’s wrath on Americans United.

In the statement, Drake asks supporters to “specifically target” the group’s communications director, Joe Conn, and his associate, Jeremy Leaming. Their names usually appear as the return address or contact line on press releases.

Drake’s call to arms said Conn and Leaming “are those who lead the attack” on him.

The statement justifies its call to arms by citing statements from Jesus, the Apostle Paul, John Calvin, Martin Luther and the book of Psalms. It quotes extensively from Psalm 109, in which the Psalmist asks God that his enemy’s “children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

With additional reporting by Robert Marus

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

Posted: 8/17/07

EDITORIAL:
Three surveys & some good news

The “whoosh” you hear is another crop of young adults leaving church. Many of them won’t be back.

Their departure has been documented by a disturbing—but not surprising—national survey. The LifeWay Research study revealed:

• More than two-thirds of young adults stop attending U.S. Protestant churches for at least a year from age 18 to 22.

• Seventy percent of 23- to 30-year-olds drop out of church.

• Eighty percent of the dropouts didn’t plan to quit attending; they just quit.

• Of the dropouts, only about 35 percent return and attend church regularly, defined as at least twice a month.

The departed blamed their absence on several reasons: 26 percent cited hypocrisy or judgmentalism in the church, 25 percent quit when they moved to college, 22 percent moved “too far away” from their home church and didn’t find one closer and 20 percent said they no longer feel “connected” to their church.

Meanwhile, another national poll helps explain why children who grow up in Christian homes reach adulthood without a sustaining faith foundation. The Barna Group surveyed Christian parents of children between the ages of 3 and 18. What those parents said is both disturbing and surprising.

When asked to list their “spiritual challenges”—the tasks they see as sacred duties—only one out of every seven Christian parents (14 percent) mentioned raising moral children with a strong faith. If guiding their children to faith in Christ and building a strong moral foundation is not Christian parents’ No. 1 task, what is?

About twice as many parents could pick that duty out of a lineup, but that’s small comfort. When given a list of six parental duties, 30 percent of Christian parents said helping their children “become more spiritual” was a major task. Researcher George Barna said the gap between the two items is significant. A gap occurs when people are not conscious of such parental challenges and consequently are not seriously engaged in addressing them.

So, only one in seven American Christian parents regularly considers spiritual formation of children a parent’s job. Worse, even when prompted, fewer than one in three of those parents owns up to the task. Small wonder the kids skip out of church as soon as they get the chance. If they never see that a relationship with Christ is important to Mom and Dad—except, possibly, as a cosmic Genie when things go wrong—why should faith abide and sustain them?

Fortunately, a third study reveals a postive way forward. The Baylor University School of Social Work conducted a nationwide survey of U.S. teenagers from various Protestant denominations. The results are both logical and encouraging.

The Baylor research shows teenagers who express their faith through ministry in their communities are significantly more mature in their faith and more involved in daily faith practices than their uninvolved counterparts. The teens who showed the most mature and vibrant faith regularly participated directly in ministry that meets human needs, received opportunities to reflect upon their faith in the context of serving others, and worked alongside adults who explain their ministry involvement as an expression of their faith.

An obvious corollary to the study speaks to the two dispiriting surveys: Meaningful hands-on ministry to human need translates into strong faith, which in turn will strengthen and sustain teenagers when they become young adults.

And this life-transforming opportunity is available to every church. Notes Diana Garland, dean of the Baylor School of Social Work: “The opportunities to help our youth grow in their faith literally are as close as the neighborhoods outside the church’s door.”

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.

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

Posted: 8/17/07

Faith Digest

Belief in afterlife ages well. As Americans get older, their confidence in the afterlife increases, according to a recent survey of people over 50 conducted by AARP, the advocacy group for seniors. Seventy-three percent of older people believe in life after death, and two-thirds of those believers say that confidence has grown with age, according to the survey. While 86 percent of the people who responded say there is a heaven, and nine in 10 of them believe they will go there, they are less sure about other people. People who believe in heaven say an average of 64 percent of others will get there, too. Among those who say they believe in heaven, 29 percent believe admittance is based on faith in Jesus Christ, 25 percent believe “good people” go to heaven, and 10 percent think everyone will go there.

Committee recommends Haggard’s successor. New Life Church, the Colorado megachurch that lost its senior pastor, Ted Haggard, to a sex and drug scandal last fall, expects to have a new leader soon. Brady Boyd, an associate senior pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, near Fort Worth, has been chosen by the pastoral selection committee as their nominee to lead the Colorado Springs church. Boyd, 40, previously was senior pastor of Trinity Fellowship Church in Hereford. Boyd was slated to begin spending three Sundays, starting Aug. 12, with the congregation, during which time they will have opportunities to get acquainted with him before they vote Aug. 27 on whether to accept him as pastor.

Lutherans defer bid to change clergy standards. Efforts to eliminate a celibacy requirement for gay Lutheran ministers failed at a recent churchwide assembly, but delegates urged bishops to refrain from disciplining sexually active homosexual pastors. After five days of debate among delegates from the 5-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, voting members deferred any changes in clergy standards until a special task force on sexuality releases its report just prior to the next assembly, in 2009.

No sanctuary from cyberspace. According to a new 20-city survey on “e-mail addiction” released by AOL, Washington, D.C, is the most afflicted city in the nation. But Atlanta led the way in checking e-mail in church, with 22 percent confessing to peeking at their portable device during services, according to the survey. Houston and Denver tied for second in the checking-e-mail-in-church category, with 19 percent in both cities confessing to the deed. Washington placed third with 18 percent, followed closely by Los Angeles (17 percent), Sacramento and Phoenix (15 percent) and Tampa (13 percent). AOL says the survey, which was conducted online, included 4,025 respondents 13 and older from 20 cities around the country. They measured a city’s number of e-mail addicts by the percentage of residents who have more than one e-mail account; how many times they check their e-mail each day; how often people check personal e-mails while at work; the percentage of people who e-mail more than once a day while on vacation; the time spent writing or reading e-mail; and the percentage who admit to an e-mail addiction.

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

Posted: 8/17/07

Texas Baptist Forum

Committee really listens

Four members of the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ executive director search committee came to Austin to “listen” to Texas Baptists in this area. 

• Jump to online-only letters below

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

“My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not-so-good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests. That would be a much better way to discuss it. That’s a personal discussion, and they have a much better sense of how good a Catholic I am or how bad a Catholic I am.” Rudy Giuliani Republican U.S. presidential candidate, and a Catholic (Associated Press/RNS) “My church says I can’t drink alcohol, right? OK, should I say as governor of Massachusetts, we are stopping alcohol sales? No. My religion is for me and how I live my life. So don’t confuse what I do, as a member of my faith, with what I think ought to be done by government.” Mitt Romney Republican U.S. presidential candidate, and a Mormon (ABCNews.go.com/RNS) “Every time I see my sweet girl Lisa, I believe in God. Every time I see Bart, I believe in the devil.” Homer Simpson Father in “The Simpsons,” when asked about his religious beliefs during an “interview” (USA Today/RNS)

Like many Texas Baptists, I was concerned that the committee had an agenda and came to talk rather than listen. I left the meeting invigorated by the conversation. They really did come to listen and ask some probing questions about what we thought should be the characteristics and attributes of the new director.  Yes, and they even took notes and listened to our concerns. 

I would like to tell you many Texas Baptists attended; unfortunately that was not the case. I encourage Texas Baptists to attend these sessions when they come to their area. 

The search committee wants to know what we think.

Bruce M. Murray

Austin

Pray for all troops

Baptists are generous; yet “most” nonmedical, nonveteran Baptists probably will be shunning American war veterans of other races and other faiths who have been seriously injured in the current wars—who have lost limbs, been otherwise maimed, been brain injured or become mentally ill.

Why? Because few Baptists in America are aware of how valuable the troops of other races and other faiths are to the troops Baptists care most about—those of our own race and faith.

The safety of every American troop on the front line of a war depends upon the skills and devotion to duty of American troops and American military officers of other races and of many other faiths—whether Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Caucasian, Black or Jew; whether Methodist, Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim or another faith, even atheist. Practically speaking, the only way we can rightfully expect God to keep “our own” safe is for us to ask God to keep safe all of our troops and their officers—of every race and faith.

Could we Baptists do that? Certainly! And as we value these who keep “our own” safe in war, we will come to value disabled American war veterans of every race and faith, dedicated men and women who have made some of the most precious sacrifices imaginable for America and for us.

Let’s start consciously praying for all of our troops and their officers.

Cherie Mills

San Antonio

Pope & the church

Regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s statement about the church of Jesus Christ existing fully only in the Roman Catholic Church (July 23), I have two comments:

• During the first four centuries, there were few, if any, references to the church at Rome as the head of the Christian church and no acceptance of the claim then or later by many churches, especially in the East.

• The pope appears to confuse the organic church—the corporate body of Christ made up of all regenerate believers as determined by God (John 6:56, Colossians 1:13)—with the organizational church, which always has been a mixed bag of regenerate and temporary “hangers on” believers (John 8:30, 1 Corinthians 11:18, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Galatians 3:4 and 4:11) and never an organizational unity.

Even the four apostolic missions—of James, John, Paul and Peter—that gave us our New Testament operated independently, although in cooperation (Galatians 1:15, 2:9).

Earle Ellis

Fort Worth

ATMs in church

I have been reading that a lot of churches are putting ATM machines in their buildings. I already was bothered that many houses of worship had security cameras inside, and no trespassing signs outside in their parking lots, and bingo nights, but using ATMs seems to be going too far.

Can’t ATM machines be considered money-changers? According to the Bible, Jesus got very upset when he visited the temple in Jerusalem and saw the animal sellers and money changers.

What would Jesus do if he walked into your church and saw an ATM?

Chuck Mann

Greensboro, N.C.

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

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

Posted: 8/17/07

On the Move

• Larry Atchley to Freedom Community Church in Midlothian as pastor.

• Cliff Cary to First Church in Amarillo as minister to children from First Church in Brownwood, where he was minister of education and children.

• Manuel Casso has resigned as pastor of Second Church in San Marcos.

• Megan Chadwick to First Church in Denton as media director.

• Brad Clark to First Church in Navasota as youth minister.

• Jack Craig to First Church in Devine as interim youth director.

• Jeff Dooley to First Church in Sanger as minister of education from First Church in Denton, where he was associate minister to students.

• Devin Fitch to Calvary Church in Friona as minister to students.

• Frank Flores to Primera Iglesia in Cotulla as interim pastor.

• Miguel Garcia to El Buen Pastor Church in Seguin as pastor, where he had been interim.

• Ross Githens has resigned as minister of music at Live Oak Church in Flower Mound.

• Jason Goings to First Church in Belton as assistant pastor and minister to college and missions from Community Church in Port Lavaca.

• Eddie Helms to Calvary Church in Tulia as pastor from Faith Church in Wellington.

• Jon Hollan to Blue Valley Church in Overland Park, Kan., as minister of worship from Hampton Road Church in DeSoto.

• Howard Hudiburg to First Church in Seguin as interim minister of music.

• Ernest Jones to Main Street Church in Georgetown as pastor from Christ’s Harbor Church in Laguna Vista.

• James Jones to Centrepointe Church of the Communities in Red Oak as pastor.

• Tom Jones to Central Church in Luling as interim pastor.

• Jennifer Madding has resigned as director of family life activities at First Church in Paris.

• Bo McCarty has resigned as pastor of First Church in Big Wells.

• Brad McLean to First Church in New Braunfels as pastor.

• Bruno Molina to Northwest Hispanic Church in San Antonio as pastor from Emmanuel Church in Nogales, Ariz.

• David Parks to Trailhead Cowboy Church in Goliad as pastor from First Church in Refugio.

• John Phillips to First Church in Meridian as minister to students.

• Jeff Pile to First Church in Hemphill as minister of music and education.

• Dave Purkey to First Church in Plainview as minister of music from Wylie Church in Abilene.

• Kris Raven to First Church in Wimberley as minister to young adults.

• Reed Redus has resigned as associate student minister at First Church in Amarillo.

• Rick Renshaw to Water Street Church in Waxahachie as pastor.

• Chris Rice has resigned as minister to students at First Church in Beeville.

• Philip Riegel to Calvary Church in Pilot Point as pastor.

• Kent Sparks to RockPointe Church in Flower Mound as associate pastor from Valley Creek Church in Flower Mound.

• Dan Tice has resigned as minister of education and youth at First Church in El Campo.

• Wiatt Warren to First Church in Wimberley as minister of education.

• Terry Wilkins has resigned as minister of music and education at First Church in Chappell Hill, not pastor as previously reported.

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

Posted: 8/17/07

Progressive Baptists protest hip-hop
lyrics, global warming & Iraq war

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Delegates to the annual meeting of the Progressive National Baptist Convention have called for protests of music lyrics demeaning to women and minorities.

“We are speaking out publicly against the denigration of women, minorities and the kind of self-hatred that is often perpetuated by bad language and bad music,” said DeWitt Smith Jr., president of the historically black denomination. “Our youth department, in particular, has asked us not to patronize the rappers that use language that denigrates our people and others.”

Otis Moss Jr., a Cleveland pastor and outgoing chair of the denomination’s Civil Rights Commission, said the concern about “inhumane communication” is not new for the denomination, but “it has reached a special kind of crescendo in recent times with Don Imus.”

Imus lost his job as a radio talk show host in the spring after using slurs about the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University.

The 2.5-million-member denomination also added its voice to other religious groups calling for a commitment to address climate change.

“The issue of global warming is a very serious one, and we know that we are to be good stewards of all of the Earth’s resources,” said Smith, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church of Metro Atlanta.

“We were placed here by God to be caretakers, and therefore we are concerned about global warming and will do all that we can to help in the situation rather than to hurt.”

Delegates also passed resolutions addressing issues such as support of gun control, fighting poverty and the denomination’s continued opposition to the Iraq war.

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