Posted: 8/17/07

Rich pastors not common,
but not endangered species

By Matt Kennedy

Associated Baptist Press

DALLAS (ABP)—Success in many professions is expected to bring riches. With pastors, however, luxurious lifestyles traditionally are frowned upon. Some people have a hard time listening to sermons against greed and false idols from a pastor wearing a Rolex and a new Armani suit.

Nonetheless, the wealthy pastor is not an endangered species. The growth of megachurches, big book deals and media stardom have increased their number in recent years.

Joel Osteen discontinued receiving his $200,000 salary from Lakewood Church in Houston after his first book, Your Best Life Now, sold more than 4 million copies. Some sources have reported he could earn up to $13 million on the contract for his second book. (RNS photo/courtesy of Lakewood Church)

“Church size translates directly into market power,” said a Duke University study on the topic. “To attract entrepreneurial clergy, some very large churches are paying entrepreneurial salaries.”

The Compensation Handbook for Church Staff annually calculates average senior-pastor salaries by including base salary, housing, life and health insurance and educational benefits. While the national average salary of pastors is $77,096, according to the 2006 handbook, a select few pastors are earning much more.

An increase in worship attendance is the biggest factor to heightened pastoral and staff compensation, according to the 2007 handbook. Excluding insurance and educational benefits, senior pastors with a worship attendance of more than 1,000 people made an average of $111,052. That’s 73 percent more than the $64,266 paid to pastors with a worship attendance of 300 people or fewer.

And some megachurch pastors make more—much more. Mostly, the millionaire preachers make megamoney from the extracurriculars—national television ministries or profit from successful book sales.

The New York Times reported in 2006 that Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, could earn as much as $13 million on the contract he signed to write his second book, Become a Better You. His first book, Your Best Life Now, remained on the Times bestseller list for two years and sold more than 4 million copies. Seven million Americans view Osteen’s weekly sermons on television, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Shortly after the success of Your Best Life Now, Osteen appeased many critics by discontinuing the $200,000 annual salary he received from Lakewood in order to live off the book revenues and worldwide tours run through Joel Osteen Ministries.

Alternative salary systems

At the other end of the salary spectrum is Antioch Community Church in Waco. Since its formation, the church has paid all of its staff members the same annual salary, which is currently $26,400. The only difference in pay is compensation for dependents—$400 a month for a spouse and $275 a month per child for up to four kids.

“Our view is that God doesn’t value the work of the pastor more than he does the secretary because God called us all to use our spiritual gifts,” Jeff Abshire, Antioch’s administrative pastor, said. “Aren’t we all called to fulfill the Great Commission? Aren’t we all called to preach the gospel?”

Abshire said Antioch pays low salaries because it wants to preserve its ministers’ calling from God.

“We believe that we’ll have greater integrity with our people if we’re living off a salary that is similar to what most of the people in our church earn,” Abshire said. “It’s easier to preach about finances when the pastor has as much faith-need for God to provide as the congregation does.”

Abshire acknowledged that many might perceive Antioch’s payment system as unusual. “We’re not saying this is for everybody,” he said. “We felt called to set up salaries this way, but we’re not saying that some other church is doing it the wrong way.”

Tithing in many forms

Many Christian traditions teach the importance of tithing. Traditionally, 10 percent of one’s income is given to church and charity purposes. Rarer still is the practice of “reverse tithing”—giving back 90 percent of one’s income and living off the remaining 10 percent.

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., became a reverse tither after the success of his Purpose Driven Life books. He detailed the motive for his decision in a 2006 interview with Beliefnet. Warren said he told God: “OK, God, I don’t need this money. … What are you doing with this? I don’t need this. I’m a pastor.”

Warren said he and wife, Kay, looked to Scripture for answers. Like Osteen, Warren decided not to take a salary from the church. But he didn’t stop there. He added up all the money the church had paid him over the past 25 years and gave it all back. So the 10 percent the Warrens now live on is 10 percent of the income Warren earns from book royalties and additional ventures.

The Warrens have vowed never to change their lifestyle. They have lived in the same house for 16 years. Warren drives the same Ford truck he had before the book came out. And he owns the same two suits.

Warren told Beliefnet he’s aware of the stigma that pastors are in it for the money, but he said every pastor he knows would serve for free if possible.

“There are so many easier ways to make money,” Warren said in the interview. “Believe me, if you want to make money, don’t be a pastor.”

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

Posted: 8/17/07

Volunteers (left to right) Crystal Moody, Morgan McNew, Natalie Bagley and Victoria Waugh help paint a house as part of Nehemiah’s Vision.

Two years after Hurricane Rita,
Southeast Texas still rebuilds

By Whitney Farr

Communications Intern

VIDOR—It sounds like a story from two years ago—victims of hurricane Rita receiving help from total strangers—but this is not an old newspaper.

For most Americans, the horrors of Rita have become a distant memory. But many Southeast Texas residents still live in the same nightmare as in the day the storm struck.

Students from First Baptist Church in Henderson have seen the persistent devastation of Hurricane Rita.

Mission volunteers Maddie Phenix, Adam Head, Donnie Powers and Kolby Buckner work on a home as part of Nehemiah’s Vision. To volunteer or donate to the efforts of Nehemiah’s Vision, call (409) 769-1616, e-mail nehemiahsvision@sbcglobal.net or visit their website at www.nehemiahsvision.com.

“It is amazing that almost two years after the hurricane, folks are still feeling the impact in the lives they live and the homes they live in,” Student Minister Frank Teat said.

Through a nonprofit organization called Nehemiah’s Vision, teenagers from the Henderson congregation joined forces with church youth groups from all over the state, including Ridgecrest Baptist in Greenville, United Baptist in Cleveland, First Baptist in Daingerfield, Eagle Mountain Baptist in Fort Worth and First Baptist in Edgewood, to demolish, rebuild and paint homes damaged by Hurricane Rita in the Beaumont/Port Arthur area.

“In total, there were 97 of us working on 14 homes,” Teat said.

Andy Narramore, director of Nehemiah’s Vision, reported the group provided about $50,000 worth of free labor.

Teenagers from Ridgecrest were assigned to work on two homes. Volunteers were inspired to “give it all they had” after they saw how serious the damage still was after two years, youth worker Laura Williams said.

“One home was so wrecked by the storm that the insurance company was about to take away the family’s homeowner’s insurance. Our youth were determined to change that,” Williams said.

After scraping paint, reconstructing a deck that had been swept away, repairing plumbing, and taping, bedding and hanging sheetrock to the formerly gutted walls, the homeowner’s insurance was saved.

Williams also said that even after two years, more and more people are finding out about the help Nehemiah’s Vision provides and are applying for assistance.

Since the hurricane, more than 1,400 homes in the Golden Triangle Area needed major repairs. Since the project is dependent on volunteer work, half the needs remain unmet.

Five businessmen from Southeast Texas formed Nehemiah’s Vision to share the love of God in practical ways. Their goal was to assist in recovery efforts in Southeast Texas and in future crises elsewhere. They focus on helping uninsured and underinsured homeowners and churches.

They selected the company’s name based on the similarity of its mission to the command God gave Nehe-miah to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. Organizers draw inspiration from Nehemiah 2:20: “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding.”

The week before these youth groups arrived, First Baptist Church in Plains partnered with Nehemiah’s Vision to build a home in just four days for Betty Hanks.

“It’s my little mansion,” Hanks said. “And I have a bigger mansion in heaven!”

First Baptist Plains found out about Nehemiah’s Vision after members met Narramore at Texas Baptist Men training event for disaster relief volunteers. A year before building the house for Hanks, church volunteers poured the foundation and raised a home in four and a half days for a family whose home had been completely washed away in the storm.

“We are blessed to have some members with construction knowledge, but most of our crew is made up of everyday people—teachers, farmers, administrators,” volunteer and church secretary Zanna Traweek said. “People are still displaced, and there is so much left to do. We just got back, and we are already planning our next trip.”

Volunteers who have served there stress the need for Texas Baptist churches to remember their neighbors in Southeast Texas who still face challenges.

“People have lost hope. They don’t think help will ever come,” said Williams. “But they feel so blessed when help finally does arrive.”

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

Austrian students have Super
Summer of service in Texas

By Jessica Dooley

Communications Intern

ABILENE—For the first time all day, students are quiet. They are clean and groomed, with only trace amounts of colored paint on their faces giving away an eventful afternoon. They stand and lift their hands as they sing praises to God.

Hours earlier, the high school and junior high students were playing in bird seed, marshmallows, syrup and a variety of sticky, slimy stuff.

East Texas Baptist University was a host campus for Super Summer, a school of evangelism conducted by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Super Summer offers training opportunities for Christian young people interested in advancing their personal spiritual growth and learning more about how to share Christ with others.

The games at Hardin-Simmons University were part of Super Summer, Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored camps held on the campuses of several Texas Baptist universities to develop youth leadership across the state.

“The games are designed to promote unity in schools. They are not competitive, and you don’t have to be athletic to play.” said Sandra Ruiz, BGCT summer events coordinator. “Each of the wild and crazy games has a spiritual application.”

The students were taught to “cultivate the earth” as disciples of Christ. Leaders helped equip students with the necessary tools through family groups, nightly worship and games.

“Our camp is very different. It is not evangelistic but leadership- oriented,” Ruiz said.

The last session of Super Summer reached beyond Texas. Students from New Mexico, Ohio and other Baptist churches around the nation participated, but youth from other parts of the world also participated.

“There were 981 people this session with 770 of those being students. Overall, we have had 3,550 students attend Super Summer,” Ruiz said. “This year, we also have a team from Austria and missionary kids from Cyprus and Spain.”

The Austrian group, made up of 11 youth and three adults, arrived in Texas July 11 to begin a summer of mission work. They worked with Mission Arlington before coming to Super Summer and in the Austin area afterward.

One of the Austrian students, Connie Klimt, 16, said he witnessed Christ work through the Austrian group’s efforts at Mission Arlington even though most of the people they served spoke Spanish.

“We had a translator, and the language barrier was not a problem for Christ’s work,” Klimt said. “Four of the people ended up receiving Christ!”

After working in Arlington, the students were glad to be spending time with other young people their age. A university student from Austria, Martina Schlager, said a prayer in her native language, German, during a worship service. She loved worship because she loved seeing “1,000 people praising God and burning for him.”

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 Tidbits

Memorials committee seeks names. The Baptist General Convention of Texas at its annual meeting honors Texas Baptists who have died during the preceding year. The memorial committee invites Texas Baptists to identify individuals whose lives made a contribution to their churches and to the state. Call (214) 828-5348 or email debbie.moody@bgct.org before Oct. 1.

BGCT leadership leader takes seminary post. Reggie Thomas, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas congregational leadership team, is leaving the Texas convention to head the Southern California campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. BGCT Chief Operating Officer Ron Gunter will serve as interim director of the congregational leadership team until a new director is named. In other staff moves, Josue Valerio, director of the BGCT missions team, was named interim director of BGCT Border/Mexico Missions, filling the vacancy left when Dexton Shores moved to Buckner International.

Foundation benefits disaster relief. The Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio disaster relief committee is providing $50,000 to assist flood victims in D’Hanis, near Hondo, with half of the amount directed to the Baptist General Convention of Texas for Texas Baptist Men to help rebuild homes in the community.

Foundation grants scholarships.The Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio granted $73,800 to the Baptist Health System School of Health Professions to provide summer school scholarships for 87 students enrolled in the school’s nursing and allied health educational programs.

BUA reaches matching gift goal. Baptist University of the Américas reached a $3 million fundraising goal for its new campus development campaign—and doubled its money in the process. The family of John Baugh will match the gift, in keeping with a pledge made by the late Houston philanthropist two years ago.

Estate gift benefits Baylor ministry guidance program. Baylor University received a $4 million gift from the estate of Allene Hubler that will establish the endowed Raymond O. Hubler chair of ministry guidance, the endowed David Slover professorship of ministry guidance and the Raymond and Allene Breech Hubler endowed scholarship fund to benefit ministry guidance students within Baylor’s department of religion.

 

Wayland nursing program receives state approval. Wayland Baptist University recently received state approval for its new nursing program, enabling the school to provide a complete bachelor of nursing degree from its San Antonio campus. This will be the third bachelor degree program for nurses in San Antonio. The new nursing program will begin with about 15 students in the fall semester, and 15 more will be accepted in the spring of 2008. Local capacity for the program when all the classes are full will be up to 400.

 

 

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

TOGETHER:
Missions requires balanced approach

Missions has changed. Churches no longer see missions as simply something a select few do while the churches provide the money and prayers. More and more church members are getting involved in missions themselves, and this is a powerful engine for kingdom advance, which I applaud.

I want our churches to do more direct missions, but I also want every church to remain committed to cooperative missions through the BGCT. There is a temptation for a church to lower its support for cooperative missions in order to fund efforts they know on a more personal basis. When churches do this, it can create a serious lack of support for cooperative missions.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Ironically, the motivation and encouragement for the increased emphasis on local and global efforts by a congregation often has come about because of the efforts of our convention. For example, our efforts to develop key mission churches by helping them call ministers of missions and to expose our churches to Partnership Missions opportunities in countries around the globe has created an unbelievable explosion of local-church involvement in missions.

In Texas, we can see the power of cooperative effort. Through the BGCT Cooperative Program, you support missionaries around the world, theological training for our future pastors and leaders, and church starting in Texas and throughout the United States. Last year, we started 204 churches in Texas. And we now have 103 cowboy churches—80 of them started since October 2004.

Our BGCT staff provides a wide variety of services to churches—evangelism support, Bible study development, disaster response, leadership development, intentional interim ministries, church facility planning, church loans, stewardship and music ministry. Our Missions, Evangelism and Ministry Team alone helped churches 11,563 times last year; that’s an average of about two touches per BGCT church.

We have 131 Baptist student ministers serving more than 120 college campuses touching more than 80,000 students, involving more than 16,000 students and making more than 27,000 evangelistic contacts this past year.

Additionally, the BGCT has 23 institutions, which touch almost 2.5 million people each year. That is 10 percent of the Texas population. Our institutions are spreading their mission wings as well and now are working in many countries.

Our BGCT strategy is to encourage local churches to be more involved in mission outreach than ever before. WorldconneX is now ready to help a church or a group of churches even put missionaries on the field.

The challenge we face is twofold. One, that we remain strong denominationally while working with other Christians. Second, that we continue to support with our giving the broad and far-reaching ministries we do together through the BGCT Cooperative Program while raising additional mission dollars for local-church missions.

Can we do both? I believe we can and we will.

We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

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

Posted: 8/17/07

Collaboration essential
part of effective mentoring

By Mark Wingfield

Special to the Baptist Standard

DALLAS—It’s not coincidental that the pastoral residency program at Wilshire Baptist Church occurs in a group context.

Wilshire employs four pastoral residents with help from the Lilly Endowment and supports a music ministry resident out of the church budget. The five young ministers work out of a shared office space and collaborate on many of their weekly tasks.

They also serve on the church’s ministerial staff and often are paired with staff ministers for duties such as hospital visitation and specialized seminars.

See related articles: • PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard? • Collaboration essential part of effective mentoring • The church has a new pastor. When will it start to feel normal? • Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers • Students want to serve God's kingdom' not necessarily in the church

“True mentoring moves beyond simply a relationship of supervision and leads both parties to a mutual support of one another,” said David King, a former pastoral resident who now is working on a doctorate in church history at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. “The shared labor and interaction between mentor and pupil is evidence that ministers need not—and should not—work in isolation.”

This lesson is designed to combat one of the main reasons ministers leave the pastorate—a long-term sense of loneliness and isolation. “Mentoring (at Wilshire) teaches residents from the outset that ministry is best undertaken in the company and support of others,” said Ann Bell Worley, a Truett Seminary graduate who completed Wilshire’s residency two years ago.

For King, the collegial nature of what he had learned at Wilshire didn’t dawn on him until the day of his ordination council. At that interview, Wilshire Pastor George Mason asked: “How will your ministry look different than mine? What will you do differently?”

At first, the question took King by surprise. “During the past two years, I had reflected long and hard about what it meant to be a pastor. What is the minister’s role at the bedside, in the pulpit, behind the Lord’s table? These were questions the council already had asked and I had answered. But George’s question was asking me to dig deeper. …

“Once I realized what George was asking, the question made perfect sense. … As much as I may have wanted to emulate my mentor, I couldn’t completely. We were different people with different gifts and abilities. … As a mentor, George was not interested in producing a mass of carbon-copy preachers. He understood that mentors are, instead, shapers and refiners of each individual’s gifts—of the inherent statue contained within the marble.

“As the council concluded, I left the study empowered with a tremendous sense of freedom. Whether consciously aware or not, these past two years had shaped me to be the distinctive minister I am called to be. I left thankful that I had people around me eager to help me discover that minister. And I left resolute to remain true to my gifts.”

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

The church has a new pastor.
When will it start to feel normal?

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—When a beloved pastor leaves a church, the replacement often faces an uphill battle in winning the trust and respect of the congregation. Sometimes, the newcomer faces a challenge simply in getting people to remember his name.

Winfred Moore, pastor of First Baptist Church in Amarillo for more than 30 years, said long after his arrival, members would mistakenly call him by the name of his predecessor—who had retired years earlier.

George Mason, who followed the 30-year tenure of Bruce McIver at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, knows the feeling.

“It’s very important to realize that just because you hold the title doesn’t mean you hold the trust of people.” –George Mason

At a celebration of his first 10 years at Wilshire, all but two of the people who spoke began their remarks by talking about McIver.

See related articles: • PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard? • Collaboration essential part of effective mentoring • The church has a new pastor. When will it start to feel normal? • Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers • Students want to serve God's kingdom' not necessarily in the church

“It was a little difficult for me,” Mason said, adding that it reminded him of how much they loved McIver. “That was a little bit of a wake-up call for me that I still wasn’t completely there yet.”

The day of McIver’s funeral—12 years after Mason became pastor—another member told Mason, “Now you can be my pastor.”

Mason understood.

“She wasn’t being mean about that, but she was being honest,” he said. He has led Wilshire 18 years.

“You have to stay long enough in those circumstances to be able to experience those transitions.”

Apparently, patience is a virtue for an incoming pastor.

Mike Clingenpeel, pastor of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, Va., said there’s no specific length of time that must elapse before a new pastor is accepted. It all depends on the personality and characteristics of the congregation. Some families might accept the newcomer the first week. In other cases, it may be years before a bond happens, he said.

“I think you earn the right to be a pastor over time by a series of decisions and acts of pastoral fidelity,” he said. “It’s a process that you feel. There can be a defining moment in pastoral ministry that in retrospect you say, ‘Wow, that’s the place where I really became pastor of that church.’ It may be around a building program. It may be around a new long-range or strategy plan for the church. It may be a significant event. It may be that you perform a funeral for a patriarch or a matriarch of the church.”

More often than not, that realization comes with perspective, Clingenpeel said. He has led River Road three years, and while he said some significant bonding already has taken place, “I’m not sure I have the perspective yet that allows me to look back and say that was the moment.”

The congregation also has specific roles in accepting the new pastor without shunning the former pastor.

In 2001, the Center for Congregational Health released an essay that said pastoral search committees are the “most important leadership group in the congregation. … This whole experience is a delicate dance between God’s will and our perceptions about what is best. Even after the most extensive and carefully executed search, no one knows the true success of the project until the new senior pastor has been in place for a year.”

Many pastors who have gone through such a transition agree that the congregation, with the help of the predecessor, must allow the new pastor to fully be the pastor. If that doesn’t happen, the successor doesn’t have a chance, Clingenpeel said.

The first order of business for a new pastor is establishing relationships in the congregation, he added.

“The first year of a new pastor’s work is principally establishing relationships. And eventually those can become pastoral relationships,” Clingenpeel said.

Sunday school socials, family birthday parties and rites of passage are all events in which church members can include a new pastor.

“Participate in life as a church. Let the new pastor be successful. And then give the new pastor an opportunity to do some things that are new and different and don’t require that everything that he or she does be identical to the predecessor,” Clingenpeel said.

Somtimes, the new pastor may push too hard for change or lack support from outgoing leadership. Especially when retiring pastors choose to stay within or near the church, the roles of communication, cooperation and support are essential for success, pastors say.

Mason said he “blessed” the church by “blessing” his predecessor, and it paid off. Newer pastors should consider asking their predecessor, if he or she is still affiliated with the church, to help with weddings and funerals. And inviting them back to preach, teach or have lunch seems to go a long way. The main thing is to keep communication lines open, Mason said.

“It’s very important to realize that just because you hold the title doesn’t mean you hold the trust of people,” Mason said. “You can’t rush people by demanding that they follow you. The church has to believe that you respect their history from before you arrived.”

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

Young ministers who have been through the pastoral residency program at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas include (left to right) Jay Hogewood, Sean Allen, Amy Grizzle, Brad Jernberg, Ann Bell Worley, David King, Jake Hall and Andrew Daugherty. Not pictured is second-year resident Anne Jernberg.

Pastoral residency offers
mentoring for young ministers

By Mark Wingfield

Special to the Baptist Standard

ALLAS—When a Baptist minister graduates from seminary or divinity school, what factors predict whether that person will succeed or fail in local church ministry?

Educational training plays a part, as does the personality of the congregation the minister serves. But according to data gathered by the Lilly Endowment, other intangibles play perhaps an even greater role in predicting whether that minister will remain in ministry five, 10 or 15 years down the road.

A good theological education is essential, but it may not be enough to help a young minister survive a first pastorate or a challenging pastorate, noted George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas for 18 years. Establishing a healthy pastoral identity, gaining confidence in ministry skills, finding a sense of community—all these play a key role in preparation for the pastorate that spans beyond traditional theological education.

In short, the intangible factor might be called mentoring.

As someone who now seeks to pass this baton to younger ministers, Mason himself draws upon a type of mentoring unusual in Baptist churches. When he became pastor at Wilshire in 1989, he followed in the footsteps of Bruce McIver, who had served the church 30 years.

See related articles: • PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard? • Collaboration essential part of effective mentoring • The church has a new pastor. When will it start to feel normal? • Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers • Students want to serve God's kingdom' not necessarily in the church

What could have been a death sentence for a young pastor—living in the shadow of a beloved long-term pastor who remained in the church—instead became a blessing that sparked a larger movement. McIver became a mentor to Mason, blessed him as pastor and made it his mission to help him succeed.

And so when McIver neared the end of his life, as he and Mason visited in a room at Baylor University Medical Center, they could model for others what they had learned working together. Their idea was to create a two-year program of mentoring for young ministers, allowing them to gain experience in a healthy large-church setting before setting out on their own.

That idea serendipitously collided with a new initiative of the Lilly Endowment, based in Indianapolis. Lilly leadership had taken note of the coming shortage of pastors in American churches and the high burnout rate of pastors already serving.

Wilshire became one of the first congregations in America—and one of the few Baptist congregations—to receive a grant from Lilly’s Transition-into-Ministry program. With this first $800,000 grant, Wilshire established a pastoral residency program.

The idea was drawn from the medical field, where newly educated doctors serve as residents in teaching hospitals to gain practical experience.

Wilshire employs four pastoral residents in two-year cycles. They serve as members of the ministerial staff, preach regularly, teach Bible studies and special classes, participate in worship planning, make hospital visits and have contact with prospective members. They also participate in weekly seminars on preaching and pastoral ministry.

“Learning in a residency paradigm, there’s nothing that compares to it,” said Amy Grizzle, a Duke Divinity School graduate who left Wilshire this summer to become minister to adults at South Main Baptist Church in Houston. “It does enable you to learn as you do. You are being a minister, you are preaching, you are teaching. But there’s also this critical evaluation component … that makes your preaching and teaching that much more valuable.”

The mentoring process at Wilshire takes many forms, some planned and others unplanned. Residents report that some of their most helpful insights come from sitting around a table dissecting events they have watched unfold in the natural life of the congregation—reflecting on committee meetings, staff meetings, deacons’ meetings, interpersonal relationships.

“We had this all-access pass to see a live congregation,” said Jake Hall, former pastoral resident at Wilshire and now pastor of Heritage Baptist Fellowship in Canton, Ga. “Doctors in medical school get to take apart a cadaver—not that Wilshire is an any way dead, but we got to take a look at this living, vibrant body and then go out from that experience and to see the points of life in a congregation. That was a great gift.”

A large part of mentoring is learning by doing, said Andrew Daugherty, a Wake Forest Divinity School graduate who left Wilshire’s residency last year to start a Baptist church in Rockwall.

“One of the skill sets I learned—putting other tools in the pastoral toolbox besides preaching—was how to lean on people who may be more gifted in some areas of ministry than I am, how to rely on people who are part of your leadership team,” he explained.

Through the residency, this hands-on learning occurs in a safer and less-threatening environment than a young minister might find in a first pastorate.

“Those two years of shaping were almost womb-like,” said Jay Hogewood, Wilshire’s first pastoral resident and now pastor of University Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La.

“There is a sense of maturation; you have that time and nobody’s pressing you. You’re not really so much in the thick of it that you feel like you can’t extract yourself. If I had not had that time at Wilshire, it would have taken me three or four years to ramp up to a situation like this at University Baptist.”

The end result is a strengthened calling to ministry and a quiver full of resources to sustain that calling, said Sean Allen, a Truett Seminary graduate who has just left Wilshire to become pastor of First Baptist Church of DeLand, Fla.

“The opportunity to come in and integrate what I had learned in seminary with what little experience I had had in ministry, to come into an environment this nurturing and loving and supporting, it’s essential,” Allen said.

“I have a lot of friends in ministry who chose a different path, and they are now spinning their wheels in the mud, questioning their calling. I, on the other hand, have had my calling affirmed.”

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

Randall Maurer, professor of psychology and family ministries at Hardin-Simmons University, leads a discussion forum of (clockwise from left) Amanda Cutbirth, Ramundo Silva, Meredith Stone and Daniel Dotson. (Photos/courtesy of Hardin-Simmons University)

Students want to serve God’s kingdom
– not necessarily in the church

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

College students who feel a calling into ministry passionately want to make a difference for God’s kingdom. But a significant number don’t believe the local-church setting is the place to do it, according to guidance directors for ministerial students at some Baptist schools.

“I think that for both positive and negative reasons, a lot of young people don’t see themselves settling into local-church ministry positions,” said Omer Hancock, professor of church ministry and director of in-service guidance at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. “An increasing number of our students are gravitating to other areas—other expressions of ministry.”

See related articles: • PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard? • Collaboration essential part of effective mentoring • The church has a new pastor. When will it start to feel normal? • Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers • Students want to serve God's kingdom' not necessarily in the church

To some degree, students are looking for other avenues of ministry beyond a local-church setting because of the controversy they have witnessed, Hancock said.

“The reality is that for the entire lifetime of these young people, they have grown up in a culture where there is a lot of church conflict and a lot of denominational conflict,” he said.

Many students know little about their denomination, but they know firsthand about forced termination of church staff, conflict within congregations and a perceived lack of respect for church leaders, said Micheal Summers, director of church services at Wayland Baptist University.

“I see a high level of disillusionment with the local church among students,” Summers said.

At the graduate level, the desire to avoid the conflict that comes with accepting the pastor’s role seems to be steering a growing number of students into other staff positions, as well as to ministry roles beyond churches, said Dan Bagby, professor of pastoral ministry at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Stories of forced terminations and “dysfunctional churches” are scaring away some prospective young pastors, he said.

“Several prefer to follow a calling into associate pastor positions—some wanting more experience, some fearful or anxious from the wounding stories they are hearing from pastors about how congregations have dealt with them,” said Bagby, former pastor of Seventh & James Baptist Church in Waco.

“A number of our folks are following a call to chaplaincy—retirement homes, hospitals, prison and military,” he added. In part, that may be because BTSR offers dual degree programs in those areas, but Bagby also noted some students “sense those are safer institutions in which to work.”

In large part, educators who work with ministerial students agree that students understand their sense of calling in terms of those people and events that have made an impact on their lives—positively or negatively.

“A lot of these students are going on mission trips around the world, and that has a positive influence on them,” Hancock said. “They see the vast challenges on the mission field and the opportunity to work around the world.”

Unfortunately, he noted, many do not see that same opportunity to make a significant impact on lives through local-church ministry.

Summers noted among students in a missions class he teaches, about 80 percent have been on an international mission trip. Many have seen immediate results on the mission field, as human needs are met and people who have not heard the gospel respond to an invitation to follow Christ.

In contrast, most Wayland students who serve local churches find themselves in small, rural communities where they likely will not see significant numbers of people respond to an evangelistic appeal, and they probably work in churches steeped in tradition, he noted.

“They want to be on the frontlines of God’s kingdom work,” Summers said. And a majority of the ministerial students at Wayland interpret that as being involved in missions rather than serving on a church staff.

Among Baylor University undergraduates who express a calling to vocational Christian ministry, about one-fourth indicate a commitment to missions, said Jeter Basden, director of ministry guidance in Baylor’s religion department.

“Many of the students who say they want to prepare for missions service will be in what I would consider entrepreneurial ministries,” Basden said, noting their plans range from church-starting—either in the United States or globally—to inner-city ministries.

Many ministerial students at Baylor remain committed to service in local churches—provided those churches have a clear sense of mission and purpose, he noted.

“I attribute the growth in the number of students wanting to enter missions to the fact that more and more students want to make a real difference for the kingdom of God,” Basden said.

“They are not interested in just going to a church that has no sense of mission and helping them maintain the status quo. They have a passion to make a difference for the kingdom.”

Youth ministry remains one area where many students know from firsthand experience the potential to change lives, the guidance directors agreed.

In mid-sized to large multi-staff churches, the pastor often has less direct influence on shaping teenagers than does the youth minister, Hancock noted.

As a result, many undergraduate students immediately interpret their calling to ministry as a calling to youth ministry.

“That’s probably an indication the youth ministers in the churches where they grew up were good role models, and those are the ministers they are the closest to,” Basden observed.

But unlike previous generations of ministerial students who expected “eventually” to move from youth ministry to other areas of service—particularly the pastorate—a growing number of current students rule out that possibility, Summers noted.

“They say things like: ‘I don’t ever want to be a pastor. I’ll never be a pastor,’” he said.

In part, students have observed pastors dealing with conflict and pressure, and they want no part of it, Summers said.

“They don’t see any ‘fun factor’ in being a pastor,” he noted.

Other students—particularly at Hardin-Simmons, which offers a specialized program in family ministry—want to fulfill their ministry calling as a counselor or family therapist. Hancock believes that desire grows out of the personal experiences of students who grew up in single-parent, blended or sometimes dysfunctional homes.

Some students want to become a motivational speaker, youth communicator or worship leader rather than a local-church staff member, Hancock observed. He attributed the trend to the impact events such as youth camps and evangelistic rallies had on some teens.

“Being a Christian is exciting to them. But what they see at church itself doesn’t match up with what they have seen and experienced in a larger setting—camps, Super Sum-mer, a missions setting or whatever,” he said. “Those are the things that get their attention in a positive way.”

The growing number of ministerial students rejecting the pastorate as a place to fulfill their calling could lead to a pastor shortage, and Baptist institutions are doing what they can in response, said Royce Rose, director of vocational theological education with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“I think we can only respond to providing the best guidance and education we can to the people that God calls and the churches certify, listen to them, continue to understand our changing culture and trust God to make places,” he said.

But common Baptist practices have complicated the situation, he acknowledged.

“We have hindered that process with our Baptist culture of male-only ministers, so we haven’t had the full ferment that called women could bring to the table,” he said. “We have hindered that process with our Baptist culture that has made the pastorate the sacred profession rather than the valued service. And we have hindered that process when we have been slow to move from one way to do theological education and ministry mentoring through our ‘good old boy’ networking.”

Summers insists a future pastor shortage does not necessarily translate into a leadership void in churches.

“It will be a crisis only if our congregations are not equipped and ready to do the work of ministry themselves, rather than hire staff to do it for them,” 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: 8/17/07

PASSING THE TORCH:
Does pastoral transition have to be hard?

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

When a longtime pastor leaves, succession can be sticky

When the only pastor an entire generation at a church has known leaves, there’s no set model for ensuring a smooth transition, experts say. The right way to do it at one time in a church’s history may be wrong at another time. And orchestrating a succession at a mega-church is much different than easing into one in a smaller community.

See related articles: • PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard? • Collaboration essential part of effective mentoring • The church has a new pastor. When will it start to feel normal? • Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers • Students want to serve God's kingdom' not necessarily in the church

Examples abound. Three-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention Adrian Rogers retired in 2005 from Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis, Tenn., and the church has struggled to rebound. Critics said W.A. Criswell would not or could not let go of First Baptist Church of Dallas after Joel Gregory took over. And First Baptist Church of Atlanta tried unsuccessfully to facilitate a co-pastor for Charles Stanley, who was nearing retirement at the time.

Charles Johnson, who teaches at Atlanta’s McAfee School of Theology, also is interim pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Nashville. In his role as a pastor, he followed long-term ministers twice—Hardy Clemmons at Second Baptist in Lubbock and Buckner Fanning at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.

Theology and ecclesiology play roles in how a successor is selected, Johnson said. The Apostle Paul recognized that “if this Jesus movement is going to get beyond the narrow confines of Judaism … then we’re going to really have to employ the diversity principle,” he said.

While some megachurches accept new pastors who are groomed by the exiting pastor or who are related to that pastor, many Baptist congregations avoid that route. Historically, Baptists have selected pastors after search committee recommendations and on the basis of congregational acceptance.

In Johnson’s opinion, Second Baptist had “a team concept of ministry,” while ministry at Trinity Baptist was “very personality centered.” That made all the difference, he said.

The first test for many megachurches in surviving multiple generations comes when the current pastor resigns.

“There has yet to be a really successful succession in a super church. Most are led by a patriarch-visionary founder or someone who reinvents a vision for a church,” Gregory said in a 1997 interview.

Five years earlier, he had resigned after two years at First Baptist in Dallas. He had taken the pulpit following a beloved pastor who led the prominent congregation for more than 50 years—and later wrote Too Great a Temptation about the obstacles he faced leading from such a position.

Most estimates show mega-churches comprise less than 1 percent of churches in the United States. According to Christian Century, the Hartford Institute for Religion Research found half of megachurch respondents compared their congregation to a “close-knit family” with “extensive use of small-group fellowship.” Megachurch supporters are hedging their bets that these “families” will help the church pull through when the Joel Osteens, Bill Hybelses and Robert Schullers retire.

But whether in churches mega-sized or smaller, the underlying question when a dynamic pastor steps down is how to manage the succession. Some pastors believe in mandatory interim periods. Some think the pastor should stay to mentor the newcomer. Others think the predecessor should get as far away from the church as possible—preferably out of town.

George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, said Wilshire was able to transition well. Bruce McIver had led it for 30 years before Mason arrived. He remained for another 12 years as pastor emeritus.

“Having known my predecessor a little bit and understanding that I was quite young when I was called to the church, I took it as an opportunity rather than a challenge or an obstacle,” Mason said. McIver had “immense wisdom to offer me and could be a mentor to me.”

Winfred Moore, the 30-year leader of First Baptist Church of Amarillo moved away from Amarillo after his retirement—simply to give the church some room. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have returned in recent years and have a good relationship with current pastor Howie Batson.

Mike Clingenpeel, pastor of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, Va., followed James Slaton, who had spent more than 30 years there. At a previous church, Clingenpeel’s predecessor had been there 32 years. Needless to say, he’s “comfortable” following those with staying power, but he offered a caveat.

“There are horror stories. Some-times there are predecessors who can’t let go, who don’t know how to stop being pastor, who have across the years developed the role of being pastor and it is so wrapped into their own identity that they can’t establish an identity apart from being a pastor,” Clingenpeel said. “When that happens, to lose one’s pastoral role is to lose one’s identity. And that is a great threat.”

Therein lies a major factor in the succession: The predecessor must support the replacement with affirmation and ensure ample freedom.

If a former pastor stays within the congregation, he or she loses the right to criticize the new guy, Moore said. Before he left, he told the church, “Now this person is going to want to change some things, and you not only let him; you help him.”

Often, a prescribed interim is healthy when a pastor leaves, some noted.

“I think some really wonderful things happen in the interim of our lives, and that can happen in an institution as well,” Clingenpeel said. “A time of transition allows a congregation to sort of grasp again their identity and their mission.”

Ultimately, people can’t just “turn it off and turn it on that fast,” 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.

Storylist for week of 8/20/07

TAKE ME TO: Top Story |  Texas |  Opinion |  Baptists |  Faith & Culture |  Book Reviews |  Classifieds  |  Departments  |  Bible Study





• PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard?


• Church starters learn the ropes; BGCT & CBF establish covenant

• BUA inauguration focuses on leadership development

• Open plains, open hearts welcome Austrian Baptists to Texas

• Two years after Hurricane Rita, Southeast Texas still rebuilds

• Austrian students have Super Summer of service in Texas

• Texas Tidbits

• On the Move

• Around the State

Passing the Torch: Pastoral transition
• PASSING THE TORCH: Does pastoral transition have to be hard?

• Collaboration essential part of effective mentoring

• The church has a new pastor. When will it start to feel normal?

• Pastoral residency offers mentoring for young ministers

• Students want to serve God's kingdom– not necessarily in the church


• SBC activist pastor wants God to zap Americans United officials

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

• Baptist Briefs


• Rich pastors not common, but not endangered species

• Black churches face challenges in maintaining musical tradition

• Faith Digest


• Book Reviews


• Classified Ads

• Cartoon

• Around the State

• On the Move

• Texas Baptist Forum


• EDITORIAL: Three surveys & some good news

• DOWN HOME: Puppies & daughters follow their passion

• TOGETHER: Missions requires balanced approach

• RIGHT or WRONG? Welcoming the disabled

• 2nd Opinion: Stats tell tale not good for Texas

• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cybercolumn by John Duncan: Forgiveness



• BaptistWay Bible Series for August 19: Weeping in the night

• Bible Studies for Life Series for August 19: When sickness strikes

• Explore the Bible Series for August 19: Living in covenant relationship

• BaptistWay Bible Series for August 26: God's steadfast love

• Bible Studies for Life Series for August 26: When society abandons God's ways

• Explore the Bible Series for August 26: Trusting the God of justice


Previously Posted
• Taliban reportedly releases two Korean Christian hostages

• East Texas volunteer warms hearts—and heads—of Moldovan orphans

• Academy's centennial focuses on future

• Northeast Texas churches provide medical missions in Guatemala

• Summit at DBU offers help for children's ministers

• Cowboy church moves from horse trough to lake for baptism

• KidsHeart provides a new home for the Requenas

• KidsHeart builds relationships, grows churches

• Moment of silence case indicates importance of teacher training, CLC director says

• History conference draws wide array of Baptists to celebrate diversity

• Some Christian readers bewitched by Potter, wild about Harry

• BGCT presidential election will make history—regardless


• See articles from the previous 8/06/07 issue here.

Posted: 8/17/07

Pentagon investigation faults generals
for endorsing evangelical ministry

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—A group of high-ranking Pentagon officials improperly endorsed and aided an evangelical Christian ministry, according to a Defense Department investigation recently made public.

The Department of Defense inspector general’s report was dated July 20 and released to the public by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The watchdog group requested an investigation last year into a promotional video for Christian Embassy.

Christian Embassy is a Washington-area institution that serves high-level leaders in the federal government and the city’s diplomatic community. It is an outgrowth of Campus Crusade for Christ, an international evangelism and discipleship group for students.

The investigation concluded that seven current and former Pentagon officers—including four generals—who appeared in the video violated Defense Department regulations against endorsing political or religious organizations while in uniform. It also found that the Pentagon’s former top chaplain improperly “provided a selective benefit to Christian Embassy” by deceptively obtaining permission for the group to film inside the Pentagon.

The report cleared two civilian Defense Department employees who appeared in the video, saying their appearances did not create the impression that the Pentagon endorsed Christian Embassy.

The investigators faulted the chaplain, Col. Ralph Benson, for providing unrestricted access to the Pentagon to dozens of volunteers for Christian Embassy and other religious groups via identification badges normally given to military contractors.

The investigation “confirms the intentional dismantling of the constitutionally mandated wall separating church and state by some of the highest-ranking officials in the Bush administration and the U.S. military,” said Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. “Embarrassingly feeble excuses proffered by senior U.S. Army and Air Force generals and other senior officers reveal long and deep collusion with a fundamentalist, religious missionary organization.”

The video appeared on Christian Embassy’s website but was taken down after Weinstein’s group filed its initial complaint. At one point in the video, referring to the Pentagon’s 20,000-plus employees, the narrator states: “Through Bible studies, discipleship, prayer breakfasts and outreach events, Christian Embassy is mustering these men and women into an intentional relationship with Jesus Christ.”

According to the report, several officers had thought they were doing nothing wrong by appearing in the video because they believed the Pentagon did, in fact, endorse the organization.

Air Force Gen. John Catton, for instance, told the investigators he believed Christian Embassy was a “quasi-federal entity” because Pentagon officials had promoted its work to general officers for more than 20 years.

According to the report, Benson also contended, through legal counsel, that preventing his involvement in the video violated his First Amendment rights as a chaplain. But the investigators disagreed and noted that he had misled officials in his request for permission to film the video by claiming it was about the work of the Pentagon chaplain’s office.

Investigators took no action against former Texas congressman Pete Geren, who appeared in the video and currently serves as secretary of the Army. He is a member of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

It also did not mention Weinstein’s allegation that the Pentagon had provided office space and other logistical support to the Christian Embassy.

Weinstein and his organization have been criticized by some conservatives for their fire-breathing activism on the behalf of religious minorities in the armed forces. In 2005, Weinstein—an Air Force Academy graduate and former Reagan administration official—went public with claims that his sons had been religiously harassed at the academy by evangelical Christians. That led to a Pentagon investigation and to a lawsuit, which a federal judge dismissed last year.

In an Aug. 7 e-mail newsletter to supporters, Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council said the Pentagon investigation had not vindicated Weinstein’s claims that officers had violated the First Amendment.

“The report did not substantiate Weinstein’s biggest claim that these men violated the (First Amendment’s) establishment clause by lending their support to a religious entity,” Perkins wrote. “In fact, the report didn’t even touch on the nature of the video; it simply reiterated that officers cannot endorse a non-federal organization while in uniform at the Pentagon.”

But Weinstein has called for Congress to conduct oversight hearings into the matter to see if there is more systematic abuse of Defense Department regulations by evangelical Christians. He also said his organization would sue over the case: “MRFF intends to file expeditiously a comprehensive federal lawsuit that will rapaciously pursue legal remedies to the multitude of horrific constitutional violations this … report reveals.”

The video and Air Force Academy controversies are among several over religion’s role in the military that have plagued the Pentagon in recent years.

In September, a Navy court martial convicted Lt. Col. Gordon Klingenschmitt, a chaplain, for appearing in uniform at a protest outside the White House. The event was to decry a military policy on chaplains’ ability to offer sectarian prayers at multi-faith gatherings. Many conservative religious groups adopted Klingenschmitt as a cause célèbre, but mainstream military chaplain organizations denounced his views.

In 2003, Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin raised controversy after news stories about his appearances in uniform before evangelical groups— including Southern Baptist churches and pastors’ conferences. In one videotaped speech, he asserted that President Bush was “appointed by God” and declaring the United States “a Christian nation.” The inspector general’s office cleared him of any major rule violations.

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