Posted: 7/20/07

Urban population crunch
prompts crowds in church

By Jennifer Koons

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Predictions that increased urbanization around the world would lead to a more secularized society are un-founded, and in fact the opposite may be true, according to a new report from the United Nations Population Fund.

“Rapid urbanization was expected to mean the triumph of rationality, secular values and the demystification of the world, as well as the relegation of religion to a secondary role,” the report said. “Instead, there has been a renewal in religious interest in many countries.”

George Martine, a demographer and the chief author of the report, said the renewed religious fervor has been spurred by the increasing waves of immigrants flooding major cities around the globe.

“It’s a noticeable fact that people in cities nowadays tend to find in religion a new form of belonging,” he said, pointing to the immigrant experience in European cities as an example.

“In Europe, urbanization was initially marked by a growing labor movement,” he said. “The labor movement gave (new immigrants) solidarity and promise. But since the labor movement has basically been eroded by globalization … religion is fulfilling much the same kind of role.”

The report found that 3.3 billion people—more than half the world’s population—live in urban areas. That figure is expected to grow to 5 billion by 2030.

The growth particularly is sharp in the Third World, which also is the fastest-growing segment of global Christianity. By 2030, Asia’s urban population will nearly double, to 2.64 billion. Africa’s will grow from 294 million to 742 million, and Latin America and the Caribbean will grow from 394 million to 609 million.

But the growth is not centered in the so-called “mega-cities” such as Mexico City. In fact, more than half of the world’s urban population lives in cities of 500,000 or less—about the size of Washington, D.C.

Not everyone, however, agrees with the report’s findings on religion. Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, said cities serve more as a connecting point than an origin.

“I think the revivals tend to be rural and in smaller cities,” Johnson said. “But the way in which these revivals are connecting with the rest of the world is through the global cities.”

Johnson objected to the report’s use of “resurgence,” which he characterized as a “sound bite” to describe what he said was a much more nuanced issue.

“The term ‘resurgence’ is a way for secular people to talk about the rest of the world,” Johnson said. “Many reports that came out in 1960s and 1970s argued that religion wasn’t going to exist in the year 2000. And that’s the resurgence that everyone’s talking about.”

Johnson did point to one part of the world where he said “resurgence” would be an appropriate descriptor—Eastern Europe.

“The collapse of the Soviet Union has caused a true resurgence of religion,” he said. “There are many more Christians, Muslims and other religionists in Eastern Europe as a result of the fall of communism. And many more nonreligionists and atheists in China, where communism still exists today.”

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

Posted: 7/20/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Above, where Christ is

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, wondering where the summer has gone. Here in Texas, August beckons. Gerard Manley Hopkins, the poet, once quipped, “Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.” I have been away from the church for a sabbatical of sorts, rest, finding pleasure in reading and writing and resting and longing to return to my post as pastor to be with the people of God. The Lord is sending my dry roots rain. I feel refreshed.

I find myself thinking of the future, climbing Jacob’s ladder to peer in to what God has in store; gazing at Jeremiah’s future and a hope; scoping Paul’s letter to the Colossians (3:1) from prison where from the deep and dark he declares, “Keep seeking those things above, where Christ is… .” I think of the future, one with no land phones and digital, of green cars in an eco-friendly society and HD TV where at least we yearn to see the Dallas Cowboys or Dallas Mavericks in multi-color championships on crystal-clear screens. I think of the future, cancer walks and cancer research and cancer cures on the horizon. I think of the future, political speeches winding down and electronic election polls minus the chads; of hyped cars with powerhouse engines advertised with mega “horsepower”; of outsourcing in business and televised conference calls in HD TV with clear sound like talking to the neighbor next door; and of churches with digitized sound and big screens and bands like the Beatles echoing praise choruses and rhythmically blasting hymns high to the heavens. The future is wide screen and wide open. Yes, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is.

Still my mind drifts to the gospel. For all the technological wizardry, the gospel still impacts people one person at a time by river sides, in the marketplace, over coffee or a meal, at grave sites, and in homes where people pray for the light to shine in dark places. Henri Nouwen once declared of “Christian leadership in the future,” “It is not a leadership of power and control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus, is made manifest.” Nouwen invites leaders to humble themselves as Christ to be servant leaders.

All told, humility is a difficult thing. C.S. Lewis once noted that his “school life was a life almost totally dominated by the social struggle, to get on, to arrive, or, having reached the top, to remain there, was the absorbing preoccupation.” Come to think of it, the climb to the top in business or an organization to which you belong or, dare I say it, in the church, as often happens, and the drive to get ahead, control and dominate, seems to me, to be one of life’s ongoing struggles. We never really outgrow school life—the jockeying for position, the jokes, the jealousy, the envy, the bullying that goes on and the cliques. Still, getting to the top and a preoccupation with “the top,” is different from, “Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is.”

Getting to the top might find you preoccupied, but prideful. After all, Lewis adds, “Pride leads to very other vice … and is an anti-God state of mind.” Now I doubt that any of us ever think of ourselves as anti-God in any state of mind. On the other hand, though, I guess most of us have demonstrated pride, to a co-worker, toward a spouse, or even a church member. This, of course, is why we seek the things above, where Christ is, so that it rids us of pride and leads us to serve Christ in our present and future. Still, yet, to seek the things above we must first fall down before Christ in humility.

It is complex in principle, but maybe a picture helps. I am thinking under this old oak tree on this hot Texas summer day of two people. Last spring on the same Saturday I was privileged to preach both their funerals. They were different, but alike, saints on the journey of struggle, but humble in their hearts to the core and to the end.

First there was Phyllis. Phyllis worked at the local Texaco gas station. That is where I first met her, paying the fare, discussing rising gas prices, and taking her prayer requests as she offered them because she knew I was a pastor. She lived from 1939 to 2007 and lived in California, Arkansas, Tennessee and Granbury, Texas. She lived a quiet, humble life with her cats and a dog named Stormy. She liked to listen to Elvis, who, by the way, does not live in Granbury and has never appeared here as far as I know, but Granbury once had an Elvis impersonator named Care Dyer who sang at a hangout on the local town square, “the man of a thousand voices,” who could sing to the rafters like Elvis and look like him and shake his leg just the way Elvis did. Phyllis liked listening to Elvis, and at her funeral Elvis sang “Amazing Grace, “ music off of one his old albums, of course.

Phyllis had humble beginnings, born to sharecroppers in a shack in Earle, Ark., loved to watch western movies, and spent most of her days scanning gas credit cards, discussing the price of gas, stocking gas station shelves with sugary sodas, and talking to Stormy when she got home from work.

Phyllis assured me she knew Christ, a “recovering Methodist,” as I think she once named herself. She never came to our church because she worked on Sundays, but always requested prayer and accepted her simple plight in life without complaint or desired fanfare. She lived humbly in the shadows of life and in the sunshine. And the Light of her life was Christ. She quietly kept seeking the things above, where Christ is.

Then there was Raymond Croy. Phyllis died after 67 years of age. Raymond died after 93 years. Raymond was born in 1913 in Arcadia, La. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed a “new deal” for the American people back in the 1930’s and formed the WPA (Worker’s Progress Administration) and his grandfather, brother-in-law, and father-in-law all worked for the WPA for $1.50 an hour. Raymond’s first job was in the Ringgold Saw Mill for 15 cents an hour. He later moved to Shreveport, then to Fort Worth, where he enrolled in the seminary. Raymond worked a full-time job and attended seminary for three years until his health deteriorated. His family physician instructed him to quit seminary, but Raymond never stopped serving Christ nor seeking the things above. He served in small churches, served as a deacon at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth as well as a deacon here in Granbury at Lakeside Baptist for 14 years.  

Bother Raymond lived in the same house on James Avenue for 43 years and drove the same car for 28 years, a 1948 Chevrolet. Who lives in the same house and drives a car that long any more? Raymond worked for Bell Helicopter until 1978, and then retired. He never retired from serving, preaching, teaching and praying. I loved to hear Raymond pray. He prayed with words a southern drawl, his voice deep and resonating as a man who knew God personally. He prayed one-syllable words with two syllables, words like “our” and “God” with a humming intonation, “Our-a God-a.” He prayed sweet prayers, deep ones, from the depths of his soul, calling out light to Light, begging for Light to penetrate the darkness and for the peace God’s wondrous grace to sweeten the soul of a world in chaos. Raymond for all his long life sought the things above, where Christ is.

P.T Forsythe once spoke of shutting the chamber door, praying quietly, audibly, humbly to the Lord. “Write prayers and burn them,” he wrote in 1913. Brother Raymond’s prayers intimately rattled heaven’s throne and touched the heart of God, and his prayers burned in his heart as though the only two people present were him and God. He kept seeking the things above, where Christ is.

Oh, humility is challenging. Those who possess it, however, know God and understand themselves and serve quietly, humbly, find a way to be salt and light in the world that is dull and dark, and simply going about living life seeking Christ daily.

So here I am under this old oak tree, feeling refreshed, longing for the future and enjoying Christ’s grace in the present. James, the half-brother of our Lord, once wrote (James 4:10), “He who humbles himself will be lifted up.” He sounded exactly like Jesus, who once said in Luke 4:11, “He who humbles himself shall be exalted and he who exalts himself will be humbled.” I am praying, “Mine, Oh Lord, send my roots more rain. Lord, send my roots more of your reign.” And I am watching, praying, ever aiming to walk humbly in the glow of his grace and anticipating the future that stands wide screen and wide open to the possibility of God’s glorious and humble future work. I keep seeking the things above, where Christ is.

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 Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 7/20/07

Pope’s assertion finds
parallels in Baptist successionism

By Robert Dilday

Virginia Religious Herald

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—Pope Benedict XVI’s recent reaffirmation that the “true church” lies in an unbroken line of succession from Christ and his apostles might resonate in an unlikely place—conservative Baptists who trace the roots of their denomination back to Jesus—and sometimes beyond, to John the Baptist.

Baptist successionism—a theory which emerged on the 19th-century American frontier—claims to find a line of historical continuity in doctrine and practice from Jesus himself to today’s Baptist churches. True Christian churches, goes the theory, are marked by distinctive baptistic characteristics, such as autonomous government, closed communion and baptism by immersion. Such churches have existed since New Testament times and can be traced through history in dissenting groups such as the Donatists, Albigenses, Cathari, Waldenses and Anabaptists.

Though generally discredited by church historians, the theory still holds sway among some fundamentalist and conservative Baptists, including some affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

“Baptist Landmarkists—who were fighting Catholics, Cambellites and other denominations in the mid-19th century—concocted the theory of a succession of churches from the New Testament that were Baptist in everything but name and had kept New Testament Christianity alive amid the corruption of Rome and the false ‘societies’ like the Methodists, Presbyterians and others,” said Bill Leonard, dean and professor of church history Wake Forest University divinity school in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“Since all other churches were false, so was their baptism, so all who joined the Baptist fold had to be rebaptized, even those who had received ‘alien immersion’ in false churches,” said Leonard.

Successionism was popularized in a 1931 pamphlet, “The Trail of Blood,” written by Texas Baptist leader J. M. Carroll and occasionally reprinted by fundamentalist churches today. Copies are widely available on the Internet.

The 56-page booklet alleges that the Roman Catholic Church persecuted true baptistic churches throughout history and drove them underground. It includes a detailed chart “illustrating the history of the Baptist churches from the time of their founder, the Lord Jesus Christ, until the 20th century.” The chart identifies Baptist churches with a number of dissenting groups, tracing them with a series of red dots representing the blood of those who have suffered for the true faith—thus the “trail of blood.”

Some Baptist successionists have found their denominational beginnings earlier than Christ, in the Jordan River baptisms of John the Baptist and, in the case of one zealous advocate of the theory, even back to Adam.

Commitment to successionism among many 19th century Southern Baptists was fervent enough to topple a seminary president who questioned its veracity. William Whitsitt, a church historian who became president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1895, wrote that it wasn’t until the 17th century that Baptists began baptizing by immersion and that Roger Williams’ church in Rhode Island did not initially immerse.

“For many Southern Baptists, Whitsitt’s findings were tantamount to heresy,” said Fred Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society. “He was hounded out of office.”

After resigning in 1899, Whitsitt moved to Virginia, where successionism had made little headway among Baptist churches. He taught philosophy at the University of Richmond—then closely aligned with Baptists—from 1901 until his death in 1911.

Anderson said successionism is “fanciful history without factual basis.”

“With succession theories comes other baggage,” he said: “infant baptism versus believer’s baptism with impassioned defenses against ‘pedobaptists’; ‘alien immersion,’ or baptism performed by someone other than a Baptist; ‘closed communion,’ or the limiting of participation in the Lord’s Supper only to those who have been immersed or who belong to a particular Baptist church; and an anti-ecumenicalism which lies just under the surface of many Baptists.”

And, he said, it has led some conservative Baptists to reject the label “Protestant” since successionists can’t accept the view that Baptists emerged out of the Protestant Reformation of the 17th century.

Most Baptist today would reject a successionism of churches, said Anderson, opting instead for a “spiritual succession.”

“W.W. Barnes, the Southern Baptist historian, described a true historical succession as consisting of a succession of genuine followers of Christ, a succession of Christian experience,” he said.

As the Roman Catholic Church loses influence in Western Europe and North America, “it’s not surprising that they assert their hegemony as the only real church,” said Leonard. “But Baptists have their own forms of successionism, some based on local church purity, other on theological purity, others on dogmatic assertion. So it goes.”

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

Posted: 7/20/07

Baptists, other Christians
push for reform in farm bill

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP) —Baptists and other Christian groups are asking Congress to seize an opportunity to reform the way the government relates to farmers—for the sake of the poor in the United States and around the globe, they say.

A group of Christian leaders have urged House members dealing with the 2007 Farm Bill to consider re-prioritizing how the government doles out support for farm subsidies, food stamps, rural development and foreign aid.

“Our nation’s farm policy needs to be guided by a strong moral compass,” said David Beckmann, president of the anti-hunger group Bread for the World, at a Capitol Hill news conference. “An equitable system would not pour federal dollars into the largest farms in America without addressing the needs of those who need help the most.”

The leaders called for more equity in the distribution of the millions of dollars a year in subsidies the government pays to farmers growing many of the nation’s largest crops. The current farm bill, in place since 2002, is up for renewal. But groups such as Bread for the World, the United Methodist Church and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship note that much of the money is no longer helping those for whom the subsidy programs were initially intended.

For example, according to the anti-hunger group Oxfam America, the wealthiest 5 percent of U.S. farm owners get more than half of all the “commodity payments,” or federal subsidies.

For decades, the government has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to farmers in an attempt to stabilize the price markets for the nation’s largest crops. But the program, according to Fritz Gutwein of the Presbyterian Church USA, is having unintended consequences. Gutwein, a Baptist who works in the PCUSA’s hunger office, noted that the largest farms often get the biggest payments, and smaller farms around them can’t compete.

As a result, small-scale farmers are often being forced to sell the land their families have owned for decades to their more successful neighbors, concentrating even more land and crops in the hands of large, corporate farms.

In turn, the exodus of such farmers from small towns in the nation’s heartland has devastated local economies, creating an economic ripple effect, the leaders said. Baptists have begun to notice that problem due to their increasing involvement in rural economic-development efforts, such as CBF’s Rural Poverty Initiative.

“We know in Baptist life … that we’ve focused a lot on rural development and what’s happening in our rural communities, and we’re seeing that people are fleeing rural communities because they can’t afford to stay on the farms any more because small farms are being bought out,” he said.

Gutwein also noted that the subsidies also have an international effect. For example, cotton growers in sub-Saharan Africa and rice growers in Haiti can’t compete with subsidized American imports.

“We’re seeing that we are inviting people in countries all over the world to come and be part of the global economy, and yet the subsidies of the agricultural products here in the U.S. create an unlevel playing field for them,” he said.

The bill also authorizes federal food-stamp programs. Currently, such programs offer an average of only about $1 per meal per recipient. The religious leaders are calling for moving funding away from large-farm subsidies and toward enhancing food stamps, rural development, international aid and eco-friendly farming.

“The current system should be changed in ways that would strengthen communities in rural America, ensure all Americans an adequate, nutritious diet, provide better and more targeted support for U.S. farm families of modest means, and conserve the land for present and future generations,” said a statement from the Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill, whose leaders were represented at the press conference. “In addition, such changes are necessary to unlock the ability of small-holder farmers in developing countries, who comprise the majority of the world’s hungry people, to improve their livelihoods and escape poverty.”

Among the group’s other members are the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Church USA, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sojourners/Call to Renewal and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The Farm Bill is H.R. 2419. The House Agriculture Committee began considering it July 17, and the full House may consider it before adjourning for their August recess.

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

Posted: 7/20/07

Harry Potter, move aside:
Christian fantasy has arrived.

By Juli Cragg Hilliard

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Whether their books feature dragons, firefish or sword-wielding soccer moms, writers of Christian fantasy fiction are clamoring for a spot in the marketplace.

Fantasy fiction in general commands a large following and copious real estate in bookstores. But while websites and Christian writing conferences brim with writers working on Christian fantasy, most publishers are just starting to be open to these new books.

The books may carry overt references to Jesus and Scripture—or simply an understated Christian perspective with clean content, positive role models and unambiguous depictions of good and evil in the style of C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien.

Writers use the term “Christian speculative fiction” to include fantasy, science fiction or anything other-worldly.

To raise awareness of Christian fantasy and promote his books, Bryan Davis has spoken to 30,000 kids in the last year—including 112 talks in two months, and 12 in one day.

Davis, a father of seven, writes the Oracles of Fire, Dragons in Our Midst and forthcoming Echoes from the Edge series, all for youth audiences.

This month, he and three other authors will try to jump-start interest in Christian fantasy with a nine-day road trip—the Fantastic 4 Fantasy Fiction Tour.

“There’s probably a lot of the Christian community that doesn’t even trust us,” said Davis, who disputes associations with satanic or shadowy influences. He also offers guidelines for choosing fantasy books.

“One of the main things to look for is whether or not the author has a clear delineation of good and evil,” he said.

Another obstacle for Christian fantasy writers, said Jeff Gerke, who writes novels under the pseudonym Jefferson Scott, is that the Christian publishing industry has yet to get behind the genre.

Gerke says plenty of readers and writers of Christian speculative fiction are out there, but the Christian presses mostly target evangelical white women—who don’t tend to be fantasy enthusiasts.

Popular Christian fiction stars Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye (co-authors of the Left Behind series), Frank Peretti (This Present Darkness) and Ted Dekker (Thr3e) command front-table display in bookstores, but their success has created little demand from Christian publishers for writers working on similar themes, Gerke said.

For Christian writers who think mainstream presses might be an option, “it’s a very crowded area, and there’s debate about whether if you write for a secular publisher are you able to be as Christian as you want to be.”

Still, a few new releases include notable offerings.

From Harvest House, George Bryan Polivka’s The Legend of the Firefish and The Hand That Bears the Sword contain overt Christian themes; its hero is a failed seminarian struggling with his faith.

Polivka said his work is not typical fantasy. “In fact, there’s no magic in it. There are lots of movements of God—miracles that happen at just the right moment.”

Sharon Hinck’s The Restorer, first in a Sword of Lyric series aimed at women, is told through the voice of Susan Mitchell, a mother of four who is disenchanted with her ordinary life and wants to be like the biblical Deborah. Then Mitchell is dropped into an alternate world where people think she might be a Restorer, someone “with gifts to defeat our enemies and turn the people’s hearts back to the Verses,” the books says.

The same publisher, Nav-Press, also released Tosca Lee’s Demon: A Memoir. And this months brings DragonFire, the latest in Donita K. Paul’s DragonKeeper Chronicles series.

Ginia Hairston, a vice president for Random House’s WaterBrook division, said, “There is a God-type figure (in Paul’s books) but he is not referred to as God.

“There are evil characters that certainly are not referred to as demons.”

In September, WaterBrook plans to release Auralia’s Colors, first in Jeffrey Overstreet’s The Auralia Thread series.

Davis, the Oracles of Fire author, believes the proliferation of writers working on Christian fantasy serves as a barometer of the supply of readers hungry for it. The power of the fantasy genre, he said, is its ability to create situations for heroism.

“Fantasy opens up the kind of vision,” he said, “to be able to see beyond where we are.”

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

Posted: 7/20/07

RIGHT or WRONG?
No-smoking ordinances

Cities and towns across the country are debating no-smoking ordinances. This seems imbalanced—the wants of some citizens are overruling the rights of others. Where should a Christian come down?

Balancing the rights of individuals against the health and welfare of the public has been hotly contested. Should a veteran who has risked life to defend freedom have the right to smoke in a public place? Increasingly, local governments are saying “No” and writing strict ordinances that prohibit or limit smoking in public spaces. Is this an infringement on freedom that Christians should resist?

The answer is “No.” Smoking bans are reasonable restrictions on individual rights to protect public health. The scientific evidence is clear and unanimous—secondhand smoke can be a killer if an individual is regularly exposed to it. In June 2006, Surgeon General Richard Carmona stated secondhand smoke dramatically increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmokers and can be controlled only by making indoor spaces smoke-free.

“The health effects of secondhand smoke exposure are more pervasive than we previously thought,” Carmona said in the Washington Post. “The scientific evidence is now indisputable: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance. It is a serious health hazard that can lead to disease and premature death in children and nonsmoking adults.”

The surgeon general’s report notes exposure to smoke at home or work increases nonsmokers’ risk of developing heart disease by 25 percent to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 percent to 30 percent. It especially is dangerous for children living with smokers and causes sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory problems, ear infections and asthma attacks. Because mechanical filtration does not eliminate these risks, the report concludes, “Nonsmokers need protection through the restriction of smoking in public places and workplaces and by a voluntary adherence to policies at home.”

Individuals have the legal right to harm their own health by over-eating, drinking excessively or smoking. But an individual does not have the right to endanger others’ health and safety. A person’s right to free speech is reasonably limited by ordinances that make it illegal to shout “Fire” falsely in a crowded public place where the ensuing stampede could cause injury or death. Smoking bans are based on the same principle. For the waitresses and other employees, and for the public, it is reasonable to limit the rights of an individual to smoke to protect others’ right to healthy public spaces.

For Christians who are called to put the good of others first, as Christ did, and to consider their own bodies the temple of the Holy Spirit, limiting smoking in public places (and voluntarily in the home) is clearly the right thing to do.

Alan Stanford, director of mission advancement

Baptist World Alliance

Falls Church, Va.

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.

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

Updated: 7/20/07

Special teachers minister to special
friends at West Texas church

By George Henson

Staff Writer

CISCO—Corinth Baptist Church sits almost exactly halfway between Cisco and Eastland on an unpaved road. While it’s quite a way from any town, distance has not stopped the church from reaching arms of love to developmentally challenged adults throughout the region.

Martha Thompson and her husband, Benny, had taught a class of young couples for several years before they started a special friends class for developmentally challenged people five years ago.

A young man with learning disabilities began attending the Sunday school. Since there was no other place for him to go, he was directed to the Thompson’s class. Soon, a couple of more adults with similar difficulties began attending, and they also were brought to the class.

Howard White (standing) helps lead the Sunday school class for the mentally challenged at Corinth Baptist Church near Cisco. He works alongside Martha and Benny Thompson, who started the ministry. (Martha Thompson photos)

Mrs. Thompson began to struggle with the newcomers being in the class, because she knew they did not comprehend the Bible-reading or the discussion. She prayed, “God, I’m trying to teach them, but I don’t know what I’m doing.”

The number of couples in the class continued a decline until it was the Thompsons and one other couple. Mrs. Thompson continued to pray until she said God told her clearly, “You’re trying to teach the wrong people.”

It was at that point that she went to Pastor Benny Hagan and told him she wanted to start a special friends class. Hagan, who has a grandson with special needs, was very receptive to the idea.

“I knew there were a lot of people out there whose needs were not being met,” he said.

Since then, the church has bought a mobile home that was placed behind the church for use by the special friends class. Now the class averages seven and has had as many as 16 in attendance. In addition to the Thompsons, Howard and Letty White lead the class.

Class members range in age from 28 to 74, but their understanding is more basic than that.

“Our bunch, not matter what their age is, except for one, all are about kindergarten or first grade developmentally. We do have one who can read a little bit and is probably at about a third-grade level,” Thompson said.

Because of that, the teachers tell the story each week rather than reading them straight from the Bible, because some of the words are too hard for class members to understand.

The class has been studying the “ABCs of Bible People,” starting with Adam and Eve and ending with Zacchaeus. Each person’s work is being compiled into a book they will take home at the end of the series.

On a typical Sunday, one of the teachers tells the story, using a flannelgraph board or video as a visual aid, followed by a solving a puzzle, coloring a picture or making a craft. Prizes are awarded each month for perfect attendance.

Each class member also has a box of crayons with his or her name on it. “That way they know that each one has something that ties them here,” Thompson said.

Once a month, the flannelgraph board is used to demonstrate the plan of salvation. Thompson said most of the class has heard the presentation enough that they say the words along with the teacher.

To date, seven members of the class have made professions of faith, and three have been baptized, including one person who was 70 years old. The others want to be baptized, but a fear of water has kept them from following through with that desire.

The success of the class rests primarily with the Thompsons and Whites, Hagan said.

“We teach special people, but it takes special teachers, not just anyone could lead this class,” he said. In addition to teaching the class on Sundays, the Thompsons visit Northview Development Center in Eastland, where most of the class lives, each Wednesday.

“Our main purpose is to meet needs, and these people have a lot of needs. It’s a blessing to see these people ministered to, especially when you have a relative that’s been affected by it. It makes it that much more special,” he continued.

He is quick to point out that the class members are accepted and ministered to by the entire church.

“Our people just consider them to be part of the family,” Hagan said.

Members of the congregation buy Christmas gifts for members of the class, and two cookouts are held each year. Also, class members’ birthdays are recognized during Sunday morning worship services.

“We’re giving recognition to them as human beings and persons of worth,” Hagan said.

Benny Thompson said he enjoys his part of the ministry a great deal.

“I know that God don’t make junk, and he loves them just as much as I do,” he said. “And besides, we’re all handicapped in one way or another.”

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

Updated: 7/20/07

BWA celebrates freedom,
promotes reconciliation

By Tony Cartledge

N.C. Biblical Recorder

ACCRA, Ghana (ABP)—The twin themes of freedom in Christ and reconciliation that leads to unity echoed throughout the July 2-7 annual gathering of the Baptist World Alliance.

With more than 110 million members, the Alliance is the world’s largest Baptist umbrella organization. Meeting in West Africa, delegates elected Neville Callam—a Jamaican whose ancestors were slaves from West Africa—as the body’s new general secretary. Denton Lotz, who has been general secretary since 1988, will retire later this year.

Callam is the 102-year-old organization’s first non-white general secretary, as well as the first from somewhere other than the United States or Europe.

Callam said his election shows the alliance has become a worldwide body with a global reach.

“God is working to make out of our cultural plurality as Baptists a wonderful mosaic that models the diversity that enriches and builds up unity, rather than diluting or diminishing it,” he declared.

“There is a home for all Baptists in the BWA. There is no turning back now. Christ our Lord goes before us. He leads the way. … Let us be content to be servants among the servants of God.”

Callam was among several other descendants of slaves who assisted in leading a service of memorial and reconciliation at the Cape Coast Castle, formerly a major center for the slave trade.

BWA’s general council also approved seven resolutions, several of which touched on freedom and reconciliation. In commemorating the 200th anniversary of the first act to officially abolish slavery, delegates acknowledged that as many as 27 million people remain enslaved through human trafficking and pledged to “stand against this ongoing and pervasive evil institution” and “compassionately minister to those trapped by it.”

Baptist World Alliance participants from around the globe gathered this summer in the courtyard of Ghana’s Cape Coast Slave Castle for a service of memory and reconcilation. (Photos/Trennis Henderson of the Western Recorder)

A resolution on Darfur expressed concern about ongoing human rights violations in Sudan, affirmed efforts of the Sudan Interior Church to remain united, and encouraged the development of partnerships with Sudanese Baptists.

A resolution on “Detention and Due Process” urged all governments and non-state actors “to enforce and abide by the basic tenets of human rights as represented in international laws and conventions in the investigation, arrest, interrogation, detention, due process, trial, sentencing, and incarceration of all persons.”

BWA leaders also expressed concern about corruption worldwide and affirmed the work of Baptist World Aid. Delegates passed a recommendation expressing concern “for nations and peoples who are caught in a terrible circle of hatred, violence, injustice, and suffering.” The recommendation encouraged prayer “for justice and mercy upon these troubled nations and peoples.”

Joao and Nora Matwawana, natives of Angola who live in Canada, received the 2007 “Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights Award.” BWA president David Coffey said the Matwawanas have worked, suffered, and toiled together through many years of promoting reconciliation efforts in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Canada, where they are involved in prison ministry.

Plenary worship speakers through the week also promoted the themes of freedom and unity.

Steve Asante, pastor of the Asukwa Baptist Church in Kumasi and president of the Ghana Baptist Convention, called for participants to work for oneness in Christ. “The testimony of unity is powerful,” he said.

Asante noted that government leaders from all over Africa were meeting in the same city to work toward greater unity and cooperation among African nations. The conjunction of the meetings was prophetic, Asante said.

“When Baptists work together, we show what we can do,” he said. “If we have a voice, it will only come through our unity, through our oneness.”

Coffey of England drew from Galatians 5 to declare that Christians are free of binding legalism. Being free in Christ does not mean believers live without any boundaries, he said, for “to be truly free is to be truly yoked to Christ and serving one another.”

Legalistic beliefs about worship style, eschatology, or matters such as prayer languages should not be required for full participation in Baptist life, Coffey said.

Paul Msiza of South Africa, president of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship, said God offers “a freedom equal to none other because it brings us all equal before God,” in whom “there is no Jew, Gentile, male or female.”

But Christians are tempted to add to God’s free offer, he said.

“What I see as human nature is that we are uncomfortable about the things we cannot control,” Msiza said. “We want things we can fiddle with. We want to open the free gifts from God and fiddle with them, and we change the gospel by adding and subtracting so many things.”

Sometimes it is a “tendency to prescribe and describe what is good for us,” he said, resulting in a freedom that only men or the powerful can enjoy.

In his closing message, Lotz emphasized reconciliation by recalling the story of Jacob and Esau’s reunion in Genesis 33. Jacob feared that Esau would still bear hatred toward him, but instead, Esau embraced him.

Jacob responded, “To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”

“That’s real reconciliation—when you can look at your neighbor and see the face of God,” Lotz said.

Such reconciliation comes through spending time in prayer and looking into the face of Jesus, he said.

The meeting included a number of forums and workgroups, several of which dealt with poverty, HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, and other issues of freedom and justice.

In business matters, the BWA adopted a 2008 budget of $2.8 million, an increase of nine percent over 2007. Budget officials said growing income from churches and individuals made the increase possible.

Delegates also voted to approve the membership application of the Community of Christian Churches in Africa, which consists mostly of churches in Rwanda, with some also in Uganda and Burundi.

On July 7, participants feted Denton and Janice Lotz with a tribute-laden farewell celebration.

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

Updated: 7/20/07

Jamaican pastor elected BWA
general secretary in historic vote

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

ACCRA, Ghana (ABP)—Neville Callam, a Jamaican pastor, theologian and author, was unanimously elected July 6 as the first non-white general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. He is also the 102-year-old alliance’s first leader not from the United States or Europe.

Callam, senior pastor of two congregations in Jamaica, is a former BWA vice president and former president of the Jamaica Baptist Union. Active in BWA for more than 20 years, he currently serves on its implementation task force, which restructures the organization’s work for the future.

Denton Lotz, the retiring general secretary, affirmed his “100-percent support” of Callam’s election.

“I think God has blessed you in a wonderful way and has prepared you for this,” Lotz told his successor.

Search committee Chairman John Sundquist said the 13-member committee included representatives from eight nations. He also described Callam as “an articulate Baptist statesman with a global reputation … and a faithful follower of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

Citing Callam’s “unusual depth of theological knowledge,” Sundquist said he “is the most seminal theological thinker I have ever met.”

Burchell Taylor, president of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship, described Callam’s nomination as “part of the mysterious unfolding of God’s own purpose.”

Callam’s election would add a “new, creative dimension … to Baptist world history,” he added.

Responding to his election by the organization’s general council, Callam told council members that the “Baptist world family joyfully declares that the BWA has become a worldwide body with a truly global reach. In this alliance, every member is God’s gift to the membership as a whole. We all belong together.”

Callam also said that God is working “to make a wonderful mosaic that models the diversity that enriches and builds up unity, rather than diluting or diminishing it.”

Callam’s election at the BWA annual gathering in Accra, Ghana, came one day after participants held a service of memory and reconciliation at Ghana’s Cape Coast Slave Castle. The service included moments of remembrance, confession and pardon in honor of the Africans sold into slavery during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Noting that “my ancestors were born somewhere on this great continent of Africa,” Callam said, “They were rounded up and shipped to the West Indies, where they endured many years of enslavement. Then God emancipated both them and their oppressors.”

Declaring that his forefathers “encountered God who revealed to them the truth about their humanity and also God’s great love for them,” Callam said “they found full freedom by the grace of the God revealed to us in our lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

Following Callam’s election, BWA President David Coffey led a brief commissioning service.

“When leadership changes, the ministry continues,” Coffey said, comparing the leadership transition from Lotz to Callam with that of Moses and Joshua.

Callam, a specialist in Christian ethics, is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and Harvard Divinity School. He and his wife, Dulcie, are the parents of two adult children.

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

Updated: 7/20/07

Floods pour in; Baptist love pours out

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

WICHITA FALLS—As Texas Baptist Men volunteers cut out soaked sheetrock and carried out a ruined piano, organ and other debris from inside Primera Iglesia Bautista, members continued to worship—at a nearby funeral home.

The temporary church sanctuary has not stopped God from saving lives. Pastor Simon Flores believes holding worship services at the funeral home actually led two mothers to Christ.

A recent drive-by shooting claimed the life of one mother’s son. After Flores delivered the eulogy at the funeral service, the mother attended the church’s Sunday worship services at the funeral home and accepted Christ as Savior.

“As the first mother came up to be saved, another mother also stepped forward,” Flores said. Later, he learned “one mother’s son was responsible for the other mother’s son’s death.”

“Both mothers reconciled. God had his hand in this, and he is putting everything together for us,” Flores said.

Arrangements have been made to move the congregation’s worship services to a chapel at First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls. The Baptist General Convention of Texas Disaster Response Team also has surveyed the damaged church structure and is working to help the church with a grant.

For now, TBM clean-out units from the Lubbock Baptist Association, Collin Baptist Association and Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo have wrapped up their efforts in the Wichita Falls area. They assisted almost 50 families in recovery efforts from flood damage. Volunteers from the Wichita-Archer-Clay Baptist Association feeding unit provided more than 4,000 meals to victims and volunteers.

Responding to other flooding, the BGCT Disaster Response Team delivered small grants for five Gainesville families. Texas Baptist Men volunteers provided more than 13,000 meals before shutting down the feeding unit there.

But TBM volunteers, Baptist churches and BGCT disaster relief teams wrapped their arms around flood-ravaged communities statewide.

When James and Rita Bruton of Leon River Cowboy Church in Eastland saw how heavy floods at Lake Leon devastated their neighbors, they were moved to seek help. The couple turned to their pastor, Paul Howie, who invited the congregation to reach out to neighbors in need.

The response was overwhelming; with about one-third of the congregation getting involved. Thirty-three members helped families pack up their belongings and clean out flood debris.

“God opens doors through relationships,” Howie said. “It was an opportunity for our church to grow in faith—Christians aren’t only in the church but reaching out in the community.”

Church volunteers also worked to help two members whose homes were so badly damaged they will have to be demolished, another church family and dozens of neighbors.

Lyn Hagen had 55 inches of water in his home and initially was discouraged by the recovery job before him. That turned to astonishment as he watched 10 Texas Baptist Men volunteers and church members go to work.   

“God didn’t turn his back on me, even though I’ve turned mine on him before,” Hagen said.

Cisco Baptist Association Director of Missions Genoa Goad worked side-by-side with volunteer teams in Eastland neighborhoods, and then several days later moved the association’s offices because of rain damage. The new office temporarily is located at East Cisco Baptist Church.

Another couple hit hard by the floods, Jenelle and Fred Coyle of Duncanville, were amazed at how quickly TBM volunteers removed water-soaked paneling, swept out water and carried out appliances before sanitizing their home.

“I have always been the one helping others, and I had not needed any help until now,” she said. “I thought TBM volunteers only showed up to cook food after disasters. I never knew they helped clean up after floods. This is overwhelming.”

Recovery could take awhile for many of the Lake Leon victims. Water rose more than 10 feet in Carol Brittain’s Leon Lake home. As her life returns to normal, she said she was “blessed to have the help of TBM volunteers” and the BGCT.

BGCT Congregational Strategist Tim Randolph met with Goad and with Baptist leaders in Eastland from First Baptist Church and Leon River Cowboy Church, assessing damages and providing applications for disaster-response funds.

Brittain, a single mother of two teenagers, applied for the funds and TBM volunteers removed flood damaged walls and floors.

Leading TBM’s Eastland teams, Ernie Rice, directed 20 volunteers from the Second Baptist Church in La Grange and the Gambrell Baptist Association clean-out units. Ellis Baptist Association volunteers delivered 1,500 boxes to Lake Leon Baptist Church and helped homeowners pack their belongings so TBM crews could move in to remove damage and sanitize.

Rice also spent much time training local volunteers for nearly two weeks, including a massive effort July 7 which illustrated how a community of faith comes together to help in a disaster.

“It was a special day for the disaster relief effort in Eastland,” Rice said. “It was fabulous. TBM trained and directed 150 volunteers, including local Baptists, members of other area churches and 25 volunteers from Dyess Air Force Base. … God is good.”

To support the BGCT Disaster Response Team, go to www.bgct.org/disaster, or to help TBM efforts, go to www.texasbaptistmen.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: 7/19/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for July 29

Toward a more meaningful life

• Ecclesiastes 9:7-10; 12:1-8, 13-14

By Andy Rodgers

Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene

What is the meaning of life? It is a popular question among people of all faiths, cultures and ages. The question has been asked in countless forms of media including everything from movies to comic strips.

Charlie Brown and Lucy even had the discussion once. Lucy asks, “Why do you think we’re put here on earth Charlie Brown?” He replies, “To make others happy.” Lucy responds, “I don’t think I’m making anyone very happy. Of course nobody’s making me very happy either. Somebody’s not doing his job!”

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We as Christians ask the same question. However, we are not the first ones to inquire about the meaning of life here on earth. Solomon sought the answer to that same question throughout his prosperous life and writes to us about the answer he discovered.

Some might try to interpret Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 as an excuse to pursue all the pleasures of this world. However, they seem to be missing the recurring theme present throughout the entire book. Solomon constantly reminds us in Ecclesiastes that earthly pleasures do not last and do not satisfy. We often call these “temporal,” because they last only last a time.

Instead, Christians find in this passage the urgency both to be satisfied with what joy God has given us here on Earth and to be diligent with the work we need to do before leaving this life. The passage is both a call to simplicity and a call to service, both of which bring joy and meaning to our life.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 declares, “Everything is meaningless!” We all have had those same thoughts at different times in our life. Something happens to us in life, and we understand the futility of pursuing earthly gain and worldly delights. It is in these moments when we choose to simply survive this time on earth, living day to day, or we choose to pursue heavenly rewards and seek the will of God, not man.

When reading this passage of Ecclesiastes, do not forget that Solomon is unaware of the life of Jesus Christ who came speaking of eternal life. Despite this fact, both Solomon and Jesus arrive at the same conclusion—the things of God are far greater than the things of this world.

When we lose focus and only see things through our own eyes, we cannot see this world as God does. We are unable to see things from the eternal and heavenly perspective, and we miss the great things God has for us here on Earth.

Finally, in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, Solomon dares to give us the answer to the question that has been asked so many times in so many different ways. What is the meaning of life? “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Perhaps our response is like so many of the responses we see in movies and television shows that have sought to answer the question in a simple way. “That’s it? That’s the answer?”

If we take a step back from our own personal perspective of life, and attempt to see our life with an eternal or heavenly perspective, we just might understand Solomon’s answer. It seems too simple an answer for such a difficult and complex question. After all, is not life complex and filled with difficulty and paradox? Yes, it is, but we do not have to understand all of life to find out its meaning.

Solomon, filled with wisdom and understanding, did not know everything about life. However, he knew the one who did know everything. So, Solomon does not tell us the difficult and complex answer to all of life’s secrets, but instead assures us we do not need all of life’s answers to find meaning in life. We only need to know the one who has all the answers, who can see everything with an eternal perspective, and we need to be obedient to him. Our obedience to his will is a direct response to how much we trust in God to bring us meaning, pleasure and fulfillment in life.

Discussion question

• In what areas of your life do you find meaning? Pleasure?

• Knowing our time here on earth is short, what are some things you need to be doing in life?

• Describe a time in your life when things seemed meaningless. Was your response to this time in life positive or negative?

• How does Jesus’ message about eternal life affect our perspective of life here on Earth?

• What actions do you need to take that will increase your sense of meaning in life?

Andy Rodgers is a master of arts in family ministry student at Hardin- Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary. He also is youth minister at First Baptist Church in Eastland.

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

Posted: 7/19/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for July 29

Agreeing on the basics

• Acts 15:1-2, 4-5, 12-15, 23-29

By David Harp

First Baptist Church, Stanton

C.S. Lewis, the great English author, wrote, “All the angels look upon you today to see which direction you will choose.”

The early church was exploding with new growth and soon had to meet to make some decisions that would impact all eternity. The year was around A.D. 48. The Jerusalem conference was called together because in the early days only Jews became believers. They were committed to the Jewish traditions and customs. They were Jews who had become Christians.

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Then, the Christian faith expanded and grew beyond the ranks of the Jews. In Acts 8, we read about Philip’s experience with the man from Ethiopia. In Acts 10, we read of Peter’s experience with Cornelius. In Acts 13, we learn of the emerging Christian church in Antioch, and the mission trip to Cyprus and Asia.

In each of these cases, not only Jews but also Gentiles were brought into the church. This rapid progress and growth of Gentile believers into the church presented the more conservative Jewish Christians with a serious problem. Before long, more Christians would be Gentiles than Jewish. The Jewish Christians were concerned so many new Gentiles in the church might lead to a weakening of the moral standards of the church. What would the church decide? What would they do? What do we do when we disagree at church?

Acknowledge the conflict (Acts 15:1-2, 4-5)

A serious debate arose in the church at Antioch. Some Jewish believers demanded Gentiles be circumcised in order to be saved. Paul and Barnabas vigorously disagreed, standing firm on the doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus. Since the disagreement could not be resolved, the church sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to ask for guidance.

At Jerusalem, they were welcomed and everyone was glad to hear what the Holy Spirit had done among the believers in Antioch. But the conflict grew when the Jewish believers added to their demands by requiring the Gentiles obey the law of Moses.

Conflicts are going to happen—even among believers! When a disagreement threatens a foundational belief such as salvation, the church must address the issue openly and honestly. A good leader will not be afraid to address an issue that threatens to divide the fellowship of the church body.

Evaluate in light of Scripture (Acts 15:12-15)

Peter testified to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Cornelius and the Gentiles. The work of the Holy Spirit in their lives mirrored the work at Pentecost. Next, the members of the assembly were captivated by the testimony of the Holy Spirit’s work in Antioch.

No one could deny the powerful work of God in the lives of Gentile believers. James, the brother of Jesus and a leader in the church in Jerusalem, led the church through the process. Based on the testimony of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and Scripture, James judged no Gentile should be kept from coming to God based on some Jewish traditions (Acts 15:19). Literally, “we should not make it difficult for (impose no irksome restrictions on.)” Men and women, boys and girls could come to Jesus all the same way.

The impact of this for our lives is undeniable. Our righteousness with God is through faith and not the compulsive fulfillment of our own idea of what he requires.

This does not mean there are no disciplines for the living out of our faith. What it does mean is that our faith brings us into fellowship with God, who lovingly provides for us all things. We often want others to know or hear our opinion. What we can know as reliable is God’s word.

Identify the non-negotiable truths (Acts 15:23-29)

To give the church in Antioch some reassurance, the council wrote a letter. The council agreed with James’ summary—salvation by faith in Christ alone was a non-negotiable truth. Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas are chosen to deliver the letter. The letter significantly disassociates the Jerusalem church from the legalistic teachers and confirms the gospel of grace they had originally heard (v. 28). The letter appeals to the unity of the faith of all the believers—the Jews and the Gentiles.

The letter included four commands, but they were not requirements for salvation. They were written to preserve the fellowship of the church body. They were written so that together the Jewish and the Gentile believers could sit down together in a worship setting and later in a fellowship setting over a meal and enjoy the partnership they shared together in Christ.

The church was experiencing growing pains. When God decides to move we are given the opportunity of partnering with him in the gospel. We must not allow our personal preferences or personalities to get in the way.

I’m glad to report that upon receiving this letter the Christians in Antioch “read it and were glad for its encouraging message” (v. 31).

Discussion questions

• How can we listen to one another and to the Holy Spirit?

• How can we seek to learn from Scripture its teaching on “difficult” subjects?

• What are the essentials of our faith?

• What are some non-essentials that often distract us in our faith walk?

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