Posted: 7/11/07

BGCT seeks to open doors for women’s ministry

By Whitney Farr

Communications Intern

It has happened to almost everyone. A hurried person tries to open a door clearly labeled “push” and slams into an entry that won’t open.

Sometimes, women’s ministry feels the same way, said Debra Hochgraber, women’s ministry specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Women’s ministry leaders may have excellent goals and dreams for the women of their church, but they don’t always know which doors to push. Hochgraber believes her role is to hold the door open for them.

Whether a ministry is blooming or booming, there are many open doors for women in the church to fit individual needs, according to Hochgraber.

“They may comfortably walk through the doors of leadership, missions or evangelism. Or they may need to walk through the doors of fellowship, friendship or even salvation,” Hochgraber said. “Each door should lead them to the same place – knowing Christ better and serving as he leads.”

Hochgraber’s position as women’s ministry coordinator was created by the BGCT as a direct response to a survey in which churches expressed the desire to have a resource for their women’s ministry.

The majority of the responders specifically requested an online speaker’s bureau for women’s events, leadership development and consultations.

The survey also inquired which types of responses from the BGCT would assist women’s leadership most. The top three responses were downloadable resources, regional training events and group training for leadership held for an individual women’s ministry.

Hochgraber offers many of the resources online through an e-letter, a speaker’s registry, a question-and-answer forum and a place for women to share ideas with other women about what worked in their ministries.

There is also a place on the website being developed for Christian women who are gifted in speaking, singing, drama and leading worship who are wanting to minister through special women’s ministry events at churches throughout the state.

“We really just want to be a resource,” Hochgraber said. “When Beth Moore was doing simulcasts and no one knew where they could go see them, we got word of where they were and put it on the website. Hundreds of women were able to go because of that.”

Hochgraber recognizes that sometimes e-mail and online communication is not enough.

“I will go and meet with a group of women who are birthing the women’s ministry in their church, train a leadership team, or meet one-on-one with a person,” Hochgraber said. “I also speak at events, retreats, banquets …wherever the need is, I am there.”

Hochgraber recently led a retreat for 25 women from First Baptist in Navasota, assisting them in creating their women’s ministry.

A few of the husbands said that their wives came home so excited from the retreat that they wanted to send them back, said Stacey Larrabee of First Baptist Church in Navasota.

“She helped us dream and showed us ways to put our dreams into action,” Larrabee said. “We are now building for the future.”

Hochgraber challenges women to think about what God would want their ministry to look like. She also helps them look at their current ministry and see what works and what doesn’t.

However large or small the women’s ministry is in a church, it should be an entry point to build relationships with other women, grow as leaders, discover and develop spiritual gifts and to become more like Christ, Hochgraber insisted.

“It’s exciting to be a part of helping women’s ministries ignite,” she said.

For more information, contact Hochgraber at 888-244-9400 or visit www.bgct.org/women.

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

Posted: 7/11/07

Cromartie, Land again officers
for religious-freedom panel

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—An independent federal panel charged with monitoring global conditions for religious liberty has once again elevated an evangelical scholar and leader as its chairman.

The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom also elected a Southern Baptist agency head and a prominent human-rights lawyer as vice-chairs for 2007-2008.

Michael Cromartie will serve for the next year as chairman of the bipartisan panel. Cromartie, who was appointed to the commission by President Bush, is vice president of the Washington-based Ethics & Public Policy Center, where he heads programs on religion, media and evangelicals in civic life.

Cromartie, a graduate of Covenant College and American University, has spoken and written frequently for Christian and secular news outlets including Christianity Today, National Public Radio and the Washington Times. He also served as the commission’s chairman and vice-chair.

The commissioners elect a new chairperson annually and follow a tradition of alternating between Democratic and Republican appointees. Cromartie replaces Felice Gaer, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee. She was appointed to the panel by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The incoming and outgoing chairs traded compliments, according to an announcement from the panel.

“In his three years on the commission, as well as throughout his professional life, Michael Cromartie has manifested a strong and continuing commitment to advancing the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief,” Gaer said. “The challenges to these and related freedoms of expression and association are more virulent than ever.”

Cromartie praised his predecessor’s work over the past year, which included official commission visits to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, special reports on Russia and Bangladesh, and an increasingly urgent focus on the perilous status of religious freedom in Iraq.

“Her unique insights and leadership helped keep the Commission’s work front and center in the vital effort to end repression worldwide —and particularly to end severe violations of human rights targeted at religious minorities or in the name of religion,” Cromartie said of Gaer.

The panel also elected as vice chairs Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Preeta Bansal, a New York attorney now in private practice who once served as that state’s solicitor general.

The commission, established as a result of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, is charged with auditing the status of religious freedom around the world and making recommendations to U.S. policy-makers when it finds violations.

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

Posted: 7/10/07

BWA leaders at Ghana gathering
call for repentance, forgiveness for slavery

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

ACCRA, Ghana (ABP)—Gathered in the courtyard of Ghana’s Cape Coast Slave Castle, members of Baptist World Alliance held a somber service of memory and reconciliation July 5.

The British built the slave castle, perched on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, in 1665. The fortress housed dark, dank dungeons for thousands of male and female slaves and a “door of no return,” where they were crammed into ships headed for the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe. An estimated 20 million Africans were uprooted and enslaved during the trans-Atlantic slave trade that stretched from the 15th to 19th centuries.

With 110 million members, Baptist World Alliance is the world’s largest umbrella organization for Baptists. Its annual gathering July 2-7 featured repeated references to the slave trade and calls for repentance and reconciliation; along with the service at the slave castle, the gathering included discussion sessions on “Slave Trade and the Unholy Triangle” of Europe, Africa and the Americas; “Human Dignity and Slavery;” and the ongoing crisis of slave trafficking today.

BWA members also adopted a resolution on “The 200th Anniversary of the Passing of the Act to Abolish the Slave Trade in British Colonies” that called for:

• “Freedom for the 27 million still trapped in modern-day slavery across the world.”

• “Freedom from the global systems of economic injustice and exploitation that create the circumstances that foster slavery.”

• “Freedom from all forms of racism.”

• “Freedom from our silence in the face of the above realities.”

It also called on “Baptists worldwide to stand against this ongoing and pervasive evil institution, support endeavors to eradicate it … and compassionately minister to those trapped by it.”

In a historic action, assembly members elected Neville Callam of Jamaica, a descendent of ancestors sold into slavery, as BWA’s first non-white general secretary.

During the service of memory and reconciliation, BWA leaders issued calls for remembrance, confession and pardon among the descendants of slaves, slave traders and slave owners.

Kojo Amo, general secretary of the Ghana Baptist Convention, told participants, “We ask forgiveness on behalf of our ancestors, those chiefs who reigned centuries ago and accepted guns and promises in exchange for men, women and children from their villages.”

Anne de Vries, speaking on behalf of the Dutch Baptist Union, stated, “I want to apologize because of the bitter history our country was involved in, trading African people as slaves. In fact, part of the wealth in which we are living in our country originates from that trade. … May God bless your noble nation and cure the effects of our unjust practices.”

Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, added, “We repent and repudiate this historic evil. … We ask for divine mercy and grace to cleanse us from all the vestiges of racism and bigotry that still exist in American culture and even in American churches.”

The service’s printed program included thoughts for meditation during several moments of silence. The meditations featured quotes from such leaders as William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King Jr. and Billy Graham. It also featured the Southern Baptist Convention’s 1995 resolution on slavery and racism, which declared: “We lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest, and … we apologize to all African-Americans for condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systematic racism in our lifetime.”

Also speaking near the slave site, a Jamaican Baptist pastor discussed the possibility of compensating descendants of the enslaved men and women.

Cawley Bolt, pastor of Ebony Vale Baptist Church in Spanish Town, Jamaica, asked listeners whether descendants of slaves “have a right to be compensated.”

“I’m not begging for anything but demanding what is ours,” he said. “One way to compensate is to put money into educational institutions.”

In a workshop July 4, Bolt also told participants, “A finger is pointed at those in the North (Europeans and Americans) … but Africans were also part of the trade. That can’t be denied.”

Bolt characterized the European slave trade as immoral and “unholy, for they defrauded the Africans by exploiting their innocence.”

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

Posted: 7/10/07

Baptist alliance celebrates global freedom

By Tony Cartledge

N.C. Biblical Recorder

ACCRA, Ghana (ABP)—Representatives attending the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering in Accra, Ghana, celebrated freedom during a plenary session July 4.

BWA President David Coffey of England noted the near-concurrence of America’s Independence Day, Ghana’s Republic Day (July 1), and the July 4 release of a British journalist who had been held hostage in Palestine.

Drawing on a text from Galatians 5, Coffey said the apostle Paul had written to the Galatian church in a “thunder-and-lightning tone” due to the seriousness of a heresy that faced believers there.

That heresy was legalism, Coffey said, brought on by misleading teachers who came after Paul and convinced many that they must follow Jewish laws to be truly Christian. Paul stressed that all who trust in Jesus are made free and “clothed with Christ,” so there was no more distinction between rich and poor, slave and free.

Being free in Christ does not mean believers live without any boundaries, for “to be truly free is to be truly yoked to Christ and serving one another,” Coffey said.

Christians must resist the temptation to impose legalistic requirements as a test of fellowship, Coffey said. He asked participants to imagine what it would be like if the alliance required members to give the correct answers to a series of questions before they could have a seat at the table.

Coffey suggested that the questions might be like:

“What version of the Bible do you prefer?”

“Explain briefly just how you believe the world began, and how you think it will end.”

“What is your preferred worship style?”

“Do you dance?”

“What do you drink?”

“What do you think about the Holy Spirit?”

“When you pray, do you ever speak in a private prayer language?”

Legalistic answers should not be required for full participation in Baptist life, Coffey said. Rather, Christians should remember that “in Christ, they are free indeed.”

Earlier, Asha Sanchu spoke about how women who are exploited by the sex trade need ministries that can lead them to freedom.

Originally from the Nagaland region of India, Sanchu lives in Bangkok, Thailand. She works with an organization that provides counseling, job training, and employment opportunities to help exploited women gain freedom from the sex trade and find a better life. Many of the women also come to know Christ.

The work is demanding, risky, and tiring but “worth it all for the joyful experience of seeing the fruits of one’s labors,” Sanchu 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: 7/10/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for July 22

All for nothing

• Ecclesiastes 1:12—2:17, 22-23

By Emily Burrows

Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene

Have you ever tried to excel at one thing in particular? Have you ever endeavored to be the one with the most money, the nicest car, the best job or the highest status?

Competition is a way of life for many people. Take for instance reality and competitive television shows. “The Bachelor,” “Survivor,” “The Amazing Race,” “Grease: You’re The One That I Want” and “American Idol” all are shows based on winning and competing to be the best; and for what?

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If a woman is deemed the best on “The Bachelor,” she marries the bachelor, but will the marriage last? Past episodes have proven the marriages are easily dissolved. In “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” I cannot even tell you what the winner is awarded. “Grease” and “American Idol” are shows about climbing the ladder to fame and fortune, but several years after the fact, is the winner even remembered?

The underlying theme of these shows is winning affords no one complete happiness and meaning in life, but instead allows fame for a short time, a sum of money and the satisfaction of knowing that you have won.

Finding meaning

The writer of Ecclesiastes—commonly thought to be King Solomon, the wisest and most affluent king of Israel—noted this theme in his life as well. He evaluated his life and found everything to have been done in vain. The Preacher took it upon himself to search out all things done on earth by men (1:12-13). He set out to find what meaning these tasks might have, ending at the conclusion that “all is vanity and chasing after the wind” (v. 14).

The same elusive meaning in life is what we search for when we look to better our lives. The Preacher gained wisdom and knowledge, enjoyed every pleasure that wealth could afford, amassed great wealth and grew fantastic gardens and orchards, and to what end: a meaningless end (1:16-17; 2:1, 5, 8, 11). What the Preacher found was that even though these things can be good and pleasurable, they were not anything that could satisfy on a long-term basis.

In my own life, I compete for grades and knowledge, but in the end, obtaining an “A” in a class is a short-term satisfaction. I will not take that A to heaven with me, just as the Preacher could not take his wealth, pleasure, gardens and wisdom to heaven with him (2:16, 21).

Fools and wise men

The gravity of the situation only grows more dismal as you read through chapter 2. The king finds that in all his wisdom, he is no better than the fool, for he will die just as the fool will die (v. 16). He then concludes he hates life and the labor of life because it is vanity and that after all his work, he will die and someone else will take over his kingdom, and that person may be wise or may be foolish (vv. 17-19).

The immense despair felt here is not to be overlooked. His emotional response to this dark outlook on life leads him to discuss the meaninglessness of labor to the point that he proclaims it to be vain and evil (v. 21). If the same fate befalls the wise and the foolish, then what is the point? Should we then abstain from finding meaning in life? Do we despair at finding hope, and instead be content to go through life devoid of true fulfillment?

What it all means

In conclusion, we find the Preacher was correct—in all our searching and doing, we do not find lasting meaning or fulfillment. Rather, we find ourselves strangely empty and lacking that thing which makes us feel alive. He gives a partial solution to this emptiness in 2:24-26 in which he talks of eating, drinking and enjoying labor because that is from God. Next week more of the Preacher’s solutions will be uncovered.

But for now, the answer to the Preacher’s question, and indeed our own questions, lies in the hope of the New Testament. Taking into account Colossians 3:12-17, we find that Paul lists characteristics of a Christian, ending his account with the exhortation to the Colossians, and to us, to give thanks to God in all things done, serving God and thereby breathing meaning into all that is done.

Discussion question

• What activities, hobbies or pleasures do you engage in that leave you without lasting meaning?

• What activities allow you to see there is more than just the here and now—that there is a God who transcends our earthly endeavors and breathes meaning into what we do?

• Think back to a time when you despaired of all of life’s insignificant activities. Why did you despair? Why did your efforts for finding meaning seem to be worthless? What steps did you take that made a difference?

Emily Burrows is a master of arts in family ministry student at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Theological Seminary.

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

Posted: 7/10/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for July 22

Sharing Christ in All Places

• Acts 13:1-3; Acts 14:1-7; Acts 14:21-23

By David Harp

First Baptist Church, Stanton

Coach John Wooden is 95 years old and still going. His players still respect and revere him. But they still can recall those first practices when the legendary coach spent two practices teaching his players, some high school All-American’s, how to put on their socks correctly. The next practice was given on how to properly lace up the tennis shoe. Were they really in the right place? Had Coach Wooden lost his ability to coach today’s players? His record speaks for itself:

–Ten national championships in twelve years.

–88 consecutive wins. Over seven years a record of 205-5.

–38 consecutive wins in the NCAA tournament.

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Coach Wooden still had the stuff to coach young men of today.

Coach Wooden believed in his Pyramid of Success. Former NBA all-star Bill Walton says he still carries Coach Wooden’s “pyramid of success” in his wallet. When he experiences a bad day, he pulls it out, unfolds it and reads it again, and feels uplifted.

The key to Coach Wooden’s great success over so many seasons was his ability to bring individuals together to form a team and get the team to work together for a purpose – to win.

In the church we realize that we are many individuals who have come together to form a team. We have a goal in mind and that goal is to reach new people with the gospel.

We ask ourselves, “What does God want us to do with the Gospel?”

God calls local churches to be actively involved in the birth and the growth of other churches.

Go (Acts 13:1-3)

The church at Antioch was a worshipping, praying church. The Holy Spirit said to the Christians at Antioch, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (13:2). From the very beginning, this is the work to which the church has been called – to take the gospel to the world. We find this command in all four gospels as well.

If a church is not concerned with missions, they are ignoring the major task Jesus left with us in this world. A missions’ endeavor is not an isolated event, but it is to be done within the context of the church’s overall ministry and with the affirmation of the church body. Your church may be more involved in missions than you think.

Your church can give to missions to help financially. Your church can pray for missionaries and missions and this will help spiritually.

Your church can set apart many or few who are willing to go directly and this will help personally. Your church can develop share times and study groups which will encourage and develop young mission leaders for the future.

You can check out the IMB or NAMB or BGCT or other websites to gain ideas to share with your church of prayer needs about missions.

The BGCT sends out many student missionaries every summer across the United States and beyond to share the gospel. For many years now our church has worked with BGCT in sending out students with the Music and Missions Ministry. (formerly Texas Baptist All-State Youth Choir and Band)

Evangelize (Acts 14:1-7)

When we have the opportunity to share the gospel in a new setting, we must keep in mind that many people will not readily accept the gospel because of their own ingrained religious beliefs.

In spite of opposition, the gospel is shared in the New Testament. Paul and Barnabas left a loving, worshipping church back home in Antioch and now went from city to city on a missionary journey. Frank Pollard used to say that everywhere Paul and Barnabas went either a riot or a revival broke out. This is especially true as we read Acts 14:1-7.

Paul and Barnabas did not immediately leave Iconium simply because they faced opposition. They continued to proclaim the truth and left only when their lives were threatened. Their mission of evangelizing and sharing the gospel did not change. They kept sharing as they went from town to town.

Strengthen (Acts 14:21-23)

On their return to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas went through the towns in which they previously shared the gospel and planted churches. In each town, they encouraged the believers, taught them, and appointed leaders.

Mission work involves evangelizing but it also involves teaching and discipling new believers. Paul and Barnabas strengthened the new work also by encouraging new leadership within the church. We sometimes think of encouragement as saying positive things, but Paul and Barnabas offered encouragement by reminding the believers that they would experience troubles. We can offer encouragement by not glossing over difficulties but by helping people prepare for them.

We are individuals, yet we make up a team called the church. God gives us a mission in the world to follow. We are to share His love and His message of hope with the rest of the world. We must work together to accomplish this goal for the good of the team. One day Bill Walton decided he was tired of Coach Wooden and his “rules.”

Walton was going to grow a beard, which broke a team rule. Coach Wooden didn’t get upset at Walton. Instead, he told him, “Bill, I admire a man who takes a stand for something he really believes in. We are really going to miss you on this team.” By next practice, a clean-shaven and apologetic Bill Walton was back for practice – with the team!

Discussion Questions

How can you help your church identify ways to “Go” and share the gospel?

How does your church “set apart” persons for missionary purposes?

In what ways can we encourage believers 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: 7/10/07

Explore the Bible Series for July 22

Zechariah calls us to dependence

• Zechariah 4:1-14

By Kathryn Aragon

First Baptist Church, Duncanville

In a world obsessed with power and authority, independence is the goal. Success is associated with being your own boss and having the last word.

On the other hand, in God’s kingdom, greatness is achieved through total dependence on God. To the worldly mindset, this can seem like regression, not spiritual growth. Is God really calling his children to be immature and weak?

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God’s ways are not man’s ways. What appears as weakness in the world is considered strength with God. Our tendency to bring the world’s wisdom into the church, to relate to God according to the world’s values, causes us to miss the mark. God isn’t impressed by our work value or the number of hours we spend at church. God didn’t call us to be busy. He called us to be still and lean on him.

If we really want to glorify God, we need to slow down and get to know God. And then, once we have learned to lean on him for our strength, wisdom and direction, we will please him through our dependence on him and our commitment to him.

Dependence begins with trust

Let’s face it—leaning on someone demands a great deal of trust in that person. If our goal is easy religion, a concert-going mentality or punch-card religion performed through tithes and small chores, we aren’t going to achieve it.

Trust is dependence. It means placing your life in God’s hands, depending on him to keep you safe and lead you through life’s ups and downs. It’s the belief that God’s words are entirely true and trustworthy.

Sometimes the idea of God is more comforting than God himself. We want to believe in him because we need to know there’s someone out there stronger and more knowledgeable than we are.

But the actual presence of God isn’t comfortable at all. His holiness and perfection undermine our confidence and demand a response. Our relationship with him, therefore, is often stifled. At the point we decide we cannot become more like him, we raise a barrier that keeps us from having to deal with him.

If we are going to trust God, we must fully grasp his nature. His holiness isn’t meant to shut us down, and becoming more like him isn’t meant to limit us. God is good. He is nothing but good. And he desires only good for his children:

• Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

• And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

• Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. (Psalm 107:8-9)

Dependence seeks God’s will

If we have tested God’s strength and faithfulness and found him trustworthy, we are much more able to depend on him. True dependence demands we also allow God to direct our lives to accomplish his goals rather than our own.

God created man to fellowship with him and to bring glory to himself. Each of us was created for a purpose. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). Outside the will of God, it is impossible for us to achieve that purpose.

Each of us is different, created for a distinct purpose and equipped with the temperament and skills to fulfill that purpose. But uniqueness is uncomfortable. It makes us stand out in a crowd. Our tendency is to fit in, to denigrate our differences and develop our similarities. To achieve the goal of fitting in, we must look to other people for guidance. We must read magazines and watch TV to see what is socially acceptable. Once again, we miss the big picture.

If all of us would depend on God to tell us what we are supposed to look like, the world would be a much more colorful place. Instead of a vase of identical flowers, we would be a rich bouquet—some flowers small, some big, some colorful, some fragrant.

But to be comfortable with such variety, we must trust God. Rather than depending on the world to tell us what is right for all of us, we must depend on God to show us what is right for each of us individually. “This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go’” (Isaiah 48:17).

God has a plan, and he wants each of us to have a part in that plan. However uncomfortable it may be to adapt our goals to God’s, there is a joy in knowing we are part of something bigger than ourselves. But it requires we take our focus off ourselves.

Dependence gives all the glory to God

When we take our eyes off God and his will, we can become obsessed with our own goals. We may continue to serve God, but without his guidance, we will serve him in ways that draw attention to ourselves rather than him. In our own strength, we can accomplish many great things for God. But all the glory goes to us.

Imagine what we could do if we allowed God to direct our efforts, depending on his Spirit as we strive—not to serve—but to glorify God. “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6). God’s will can only be accomplished when we operate in the Spirit. And that kind of dependence on God’s leadership brings the greatest glory to God.

As stated earlier, God doesn’t care about our work ethic or the number of hours we devote to him. He cares about our hearts and our eternity. That’s why he tries to keep the “work” of Christianity so simple. We are the ones who make it difficult. But we can simplify the matter if we will learn to keep our focus on God. By trusting him, allowing him to direct our lives and giving him the glory for everything we do, we accomplish everything God desires.

• “But let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord (Jeremiah 9:24).

• Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

Discussion questions

• It’s one thing to say a wobbly chair will hold you up; it’s another thing to trust your entire weight to the chair. Do you see God as a wobbly chair, pretty enough to keep in the room, but too weak to sit on?

• What’s the standard you use to measure your actions: approval from your peers, social expectations, popular magazines, TV or the Bible?

• How do you serve God, through busyness or stillness?

• Who gets the glory?

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

Posted: 7/08/07

CBF meets with American Baptists
for centennial celebration

By Patricia Heys

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—More than 2,500 Baptists gathered June 28-29 for the annual Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Washington. For the first time, it featured a joint gathering with the American Baptist Churches USA.

The service in Washington’s convention center marked the end of CBF’s annual general assembly and the beginning of ABC’s 100th anniversary celebration. Program organizers noted the joint ABC/CBF session had been five years in planning.

“This is an awesome God moment,” Roy Medley, ABC’s general secretary told the crowd of almost 4,000 participants, divided almost evenly between representatives of both groups.

The Baptists celebrated religious freedom and participated in workshops about congregational life, HIV/AIDS, immigration, women in ministry global poverty and hunger. They also took the first step toward joining the United Nations’ campaign against global poverty and disease, called the Millennium Development Goals.

In a break from business-as-usual during the national meeting, participants voted overwhelmingly to instruct their governing body to consider ways CBF can join other Christian groups to reach the United Nations Millennium Development goals.

CBF’s Coordinating Council will spend the next year investigating “the feasibility and means by which CBF might be involved” with other religious and non-governmental groups rallying behind the U.N.’s long-term and comprehensive campaign to eradicate hunger, poverty, AIDS, and crushing Third World debt.

The group also gave more than $22,000 to the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Offering for Religious Liberty and Human Rights. The Baptist World Alliance receives one-third of the proceeds. The other two-thirds are administered through partnering organizations with existing initiatives relating to human rights and religious liberty issues.

CBF’s portion this year will be shared with the European Baptist Federation, which works with governments and leaders to promote religious human rights. The federation consists of 51 member unions in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. The funds from the Fellowship’s offering will allow the federation members to travel to countries where religious freedom is threatened.

Emmanuel McCall, who ended his term as CBF moderator, introduced Harriet Harral of Fort Worth as the next moderator. He also spoke to the assembly about covenant relationships.

“How does CBF fulfill covenant with God?” McCall said. “We continue doing more of what we are doing. We are evangelizing by loving people into a relationship with God. We are evangelizing by dealing with the needs that people have, which if not addressed obscure our message. We are evangelizing by challenging unjust situations, the disparities and inequities of life.”

The cooperative event served as a predecessor to another gathering of Baptists—the New Baptist Covenant Celebration to be in 2008 in Atlanta. It will feature Baptists from more than 36 organizations.

“There’s a great deal of energy about the convergence of Baptists who are coming together to find fellowship, community and address great issues of our day, particularly around the issue of poverty,” Daniel Vestal, CBF’s executive coordinator, said. “I’ve never experienced anything like this in my lifetime.”

In his report to the Coordinating Council, Vestal cited the need for relationship covenants between national CBF and the state and regional CBF organizations, strategic prioritizing, improving interactive communications tools and creating a collaborative culture between staff, the council and CBF partners.

Revenue concerns prompted Vestal to name among the challenges “developing a culture of shared fundraising.”

“I think staff has done a good job trying to contain cost, minimize administration, reduce overlap, doing what we have to do and nothing more, but to you as a council in all candor, we have done all we can do,” Vestal said. “If we’re going to reduce costs any more, we have to ask ‘What are we really going to do?’”

In a Coordinating Council business session, a $16,481,000 budget was presented along with the nominating committee’s recommendations. Nominations included North Carolina pastor Jack Glasgow as moderator elect, Arkansas college professor Hal Bass as recorder, and individuals to serve on the national Coordinating Council, council on endorsement, and trustees for the CBF Foundation and Church Benefits Board. Also, an amendment to the bylaws was proposed that would recognize a CBF regional organization in the Midwest. All items were approved during the general session.

At the concluding general session, CBF and ABCUSA co-commissioned two couples to global missions service: Marcia and Duane Binkley, who will serve in the U.S. among Karen refugees, and Nancy and Steve James, who have been serving in Haiti as CBF affiliates.

“I am delighted that we are cooperating with American Baptists in joint appointments of the Binkleys and the Jameses to their respective places of ministry,” Rob Nash, CBF’s global missions coordinator, said. “These joint ventures send the signal that mission engagement in the 21st century is about collaboration for the good of God’s kingdom in the world.”

The previous evening, CBF commissioned 16 other missionaries to serve among the world’s most neglected people. Baptist World Alliance President David Coffey affirmed and challenged the new field personnel to continue to “face the world of spiritual lostness” by knowing the world and knowing the Bible.

“If you are going to be the presence of Christ in a broken world, it will not happen without risk-taking,” Coffey said. “These people you’ve seen commissioned here tonight are risk-takers.”

The 2008 CBF general assembly will be June 19-20 in Memphis, Tenn.

Hannah Elliott contributed to this article.

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

Posted: 7/06/07

Truett’s famed religious liberty
sermon recreated at D.C. event

By John Pierce

Baptists Today

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Eighty-seven years after George W. Truett thundered a call for separation of church and state to more than 10,000 Southern Baptists gathered in the nation’s capital, a smaller but more diverse group of Baptists paid tribute to the legendary pastor’s message and called for a renewed commitment to full religious liberty.

Sponsored by the Washington-based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the speeches took place near the Capitol building, where Truett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, gave his May 16, 1920, address.

While George Washington laid the physical cornerstone of the Capitol in 1793, “its true foundation is on the first freedom—freedom of religion,” Congressman Chet Edwards (D-Texas) said at the June 29 event..

Edwards said former Baylor University Chancellor Herb Reynolds gave him a copy of Truett’s sermon several years ago. The sermon “made an indelible imprint” on him and caused the defense of religious liberty to become his “political calling in life.”

“Our religious freedom must be protected by each generation,” Edwards said. “There are politicians in each generation, in the name of religion, who would do it great harm.”

Edwards and Congressman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) addressed the crowd, composed mostly of those attending meetings of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the American Baptist Churches, USA. Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director Brent Walker introduced Edwards and Scott as leading members of Congress committed to preserving religious liberty.

Scott spoke of current church-state challenges like President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives program that “allows discrimination with federal funds.” He urged Baptists committed to full religious liberty to “continue to make your voices heard.”

Alliance of Baptists leader Stan Hastey referenced the “sunny May day” in 1920 when Truett, influenced by John Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress and Baptist newspapers that came to his North Carolina home, gave his famed address.

“By every account, it was a remarkable occasion,” said Hastey, whose introduction was followed by nine Baptist leaders reading excerpts from Truett’s lengthy and influential sermon.

Readers included Amy Butler of Washington’s Calvary Baptist Church; Steven Case of First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Penn.; Quinton Dixie of Indiana University-Purdue University; Pamela Durso of the Baptist History and Heritage Society; Jeffrey Haggray of the D.C. Baptist Convention; Robert Marus of Associated Baptist Press; Julie Pennington-Russell of First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga.; Bill Underwood of Mercer University; and Daniel Vestal of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

“Toleration is a concession, while liberty is a right,” Vestal read from Truett’s sermon. “…God wants free worshippers or no other kind.” Haggray echoed Truett’s affirmation that religious liberty “was preeminently a Baptist achievement.”

Large sections of Truett’s address, not read at the Baptist Unity Rally for Religious Liberty, dealt with Baptist doctrines and even challenged Roman Catholic theology and practice. Yet Truett concluded that “a Baptist would rise at midnight to plead for absolute religious liberty for his Catholic neighbor, and for his Jewish neighbor, and for everybody else.”

At the rally’s conclusion, BJC general counsel Holly Hollman said the religious liberty enjoyed by Americans today is worth the efforts of Truett and others before and since.

“Religious liberty is our right, and its protection our responsibility,” Hollman 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: 7/06/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Reading all the way through

This morning, I read a long hammerfest by the prophet Amos against a collection of evil nations—the Syrians, Philistines, Tyre, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites … and so forth. I asked myself how this particular prophecy would speak to the rest of my day.

It was several years ago when I first decided I should try reading through the entire Bible in one year. I didn’t have a plan or a schedule. I just opened to Genesis and started reading, doing the same the next day, and the next. I stayed on task until Leviticus, where I ground to a halt about halfway through. I tried again a couple more times but never finished. I wondered why it was so hard to read through the entire Bible when I read a lot of books cover-to-cover every year, some of them way longer. Why was the Bible so different? Why was it so much harder?

A few years later, someone gave me a printed schedule for reading the entire Bible. It had a lot of little boxes, which were great fun to check after each day’s reading. The schedule helped solve the Leviticus problem by mixing passages from the New Testament and the Old Testament and from Psalms every day. It was a good plan, and I followed it for about six months, reading and flipping pages and checking boxes. Then I stopped out of exhaustion. Too much flipping.

I finally put myself in the camp of people who say, “Reading the entire Bible is OK for you, but I don’t need to do it.” I sat comfortably in that camp for years until my wife, Cyndi, bought a copy of “The Daily Bible” for me. It was a New International Version rearranged into chronological order and divided up into 365 dated readings. I didn’t want it at first. I already had a shelf of Bibles, and when you get a new Bible. you can’t throw the old ones away. (I think I could lose my church membership if they found out I threw away an old Bible.) So, they sit on my shelf. Forever. And now I had one more to worry about.

But Cyndi was so proud of this Bible I decided to give it a try. I started reading on Jan. 1 and kept reading and kept reading and stayed engaged all the way through Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and rolled through the summer and fall until I finally reached Revelation 22:21 on Dec. 31. I was so happy with my success I started at the beginning of that same Bible the next morning and read it all the way through again the next year. And now, thanks to Cyndi’s gift, I’ve successfully gone through it many more times, enough times that it has become an essential part of my day.

So I ask myself: What changed? Why was I finally successful? I’m not sure, but I think it had more to do with changes in me than in that particular Bible. Henri Nouwen wrote: “The daily practice of sacred reading, over time, transforms our personal identity, our actions, and our common life of faith.” Somewhere down the line, my reasons for reading changed. I started out trying to read the entire Bible just so I could say I did. And so I could find a special verse for each day that would help me at work and play. And then one morning, I realized I was no longer reading to find good verses or to learn more facts about God, but I was reading because I loved it. I compared it to my life with Cyndi. When we were dating, most of my conversations were designed to learn more about her—more facts and data and history and dreams. But now, after almost 28 years of marriage, we talk more than ever, and very little of it is about facts or information. We talk all the time because that’s what people do who love each other. Somewhere, our motives shifted from information to relationship. I think in general, women make that transition much sooner then men—maybe by the second date—and it takes men a lot longer to understand the value of simply talking. But I eventually got there.

And so, my reading of the Bible moved from a system of information-gathering to relationship-building. It’s been easier to keep reading ever since. Even on days like this morning. Just as I’ve learned to anticipate my conversations with Cyndi, even when the topic is something as unromantic as wireless microphones, I also look forward to my conversations with God, even when it’s something as uninspiring as judgment against the Moabites.

And just like my lifetime of conversations with Cyndi have changed me—changed my thinking and my dreams and changed my heart—my reading of the Bible has changed me deeply. I’m not the same guy I used to be.

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

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

Posted: 7/06/07

Around the State

• Paisano Baptist Encampment will hold its 87th general encampment July 22-27. Morning worship will be held at 11 a.m. and evening worship at 8 p.m. Fellowship begins in the dining shed at 6 p.m., and choir practice starts at 7 p.m. Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Church in Houston, and Dennis Wiles, pastor of First Church in Arlington, will alternate preaching duties. Todd Still, a Truett Seminary professor, will be the Bible study leader. For more information, see www.paisanoencampment. org.

• Baptist Mission Centers has opened its newest facility. The Houston facility, named in honor of missionary Mildred McWhorter, will house up to 36 missionaries and will provide additional office space and parking for staff volunteers.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor played host to first seminar on Academic Leadership in Baptist Universities. Leaders from each of the eight Texas Baptist universities interacted with a panel of national leaders on Christian higher education administration. The event was sponsored by the Center for Ministry Effectiveness and Educational Leadership at Baylor University and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

• Howard Payne University has announced faculty promotions and awarded service pins in recognition of years of service. Mike Daub, accounting, and Tonya Horner, mathematics, both have achieved the rank of associate professor. Bobbie Price, administrative assistant to the registrar, received a pin marking her 35 years of service. Also recognized were Chuck Boland, Ann Smith and Beth Willingham, 25 years; Glen Hopp, Betty Lancaster and Sharon Riker, 20 years; Cherie Dail, Amy Dodson, Bill Fishback, Mary Hill, Wade Kinnin, Les Plagens and Groner Pitts, 15 years; and Bobby Anderson, Curly Cox, Marcie Drew, Millard Kimery, Dag Sewell, Vicki Vaughn and Terrie Wells, 10 years.

• Joni Irwin of San Angelo has received her master of arts in educational leadership from Golden Gate Theological Seminary.

• Keith Tekell of Beaumont has been endorsed as a hospital chaplain by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

• Houston Baptist University has hired David Shuster to lead its golf program. HBU will begin women’s golf this fall, and men’s golf will follow in the fall of 2008.

• San Marcos Baptist Academy’s history department is the beneficiary of a gift of audio-visual equipment given by former SMA student Pat Price. His gift has outfitted two classrooms with a multimedia cart complete with an LCD projector, DVD player and speakers. Two sets of social studies maps also were included in the donation.

Anniversaries

• Jay Fleming, 10th, as pastor of First Church in Karnes City, May 11.

• Ron Segers, 25th, as pastor of Victory Church in Marshall, June 25.

• Jimmy Tarrant, 20th, as pastor of First Church in Van Alstyne, June 21.

• Lowell Howard, 50th in ministry, June 24. He is pastor of Antioch Church in Bells.

• Larry Freeman, 10th, as pastor of Caribbean Church in Corpus Christi, June 26.

• Remigio Caballero, 10th, as pastor of Iglesia Nueva Esperanza in Corpus Christi.

• Sam Garrett, 15th, as pastor of First Church of Oakridge in Denison, July 5.

• Lamar Church in Beaumont, 60th, July 29. Steve Ford, who was ordained at the church, will preach in the morning service. A covered-dish luncheon and a look back at the church’s history will follow. Warren Wargo is pastor.

• Doole Church in Doole, 95th, Aug. 5. The worship service at 9:30 a.m. will incorporate the history of the church and participation by former pastors and members. A catered lunch will follow. Reservations for the lunch can be made until July 25 by sending an e-mail to pbrankin@verizon.net. Members unable to attend are asked to share a memory. Bob Gauer is pastor.

• First Church in Electra, 100th, Aug. 5. The celebration will begin at 9 a.m. with a time of fellowship. The worship service will begin at 10:45 a.m., with several former pastors and ministers expected to speak. A meal will follow. Paul Winegeart is pastor.

• Calvary Church in Bay City, 60th, Aug. 18-19. Former staff members Grayson Glass, Jeff Klutz and Aubrey Spears will speak. Chester Sassman is pastor.

Retiring

• Bill Chamblee, as minister of recreation at First Church in Denton, Aug. 15. He has served the church 35 years. A reception will be held in his honor from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 19. A brief program of thanks will be held at 4 p.m.

Deaths

• Jase Jones, 93, June 23 in Abilene. He was an Army chaplain in Europe during World War II, remaining in the Reserves until 1973 when he retired with the rank of colonel. After the war he attended Southwestern Seminary, and while completing his studies, he was pastor of churches in Fort Worth, Mansfield and Montague. In 1957, he was appointed by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to the Department of Jewish Evangelism, which later became a part of the Department of Interfaith Witness. From 1957 until 1962, he was based in Dallas, and his work was jointly supported by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Dallas Association and Tarrant Association. In 1962, he was transferred to Kansas City, Mo., where he stayed until 1974, when he returned to Texas, moving to Marble Falls. He retired in 1978, but stayed active as a consultant. He also was instrumental in founding the T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Foundation, named for his mentor and friend. He was chairman of the foundation 13 years. In 1992, at age 79, he went to Golden Gate Seminary as a visiting adjunct professor of Christian ethics, but stayed only one semester due to his wife’s declining health. He was preceded in death by his wife, Vivian, and sister, Beulah Geren. He is survived by his daughter, Patsy McCown; son, Bill; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

• Martha Gilmore, 71, June 24 in Dallas. In 1977, she was the first woman in Dallas, and the fourth in Texas to be ordained by a Southern Baptist church. She was ordained by Cliff Temple Church in Dallas so that she could serve as a hospital and jail chaplain. She later joined the United Methodist Church, and served on two Methodist church staffs. She is survived by her husband, Jerry; sons, Daniel and Charles; daughter, Susan Moore; and seven grandchildren.

• Sybil Armes, 93, June 29 in Dallas. An author and musician, she was known in Texas Baptist circles for her poems published in the Baptist Standard over a 40-year period. She wrote four books of religious poetry as well as hundreds of devotional poems for various church and denominational publications. She also wrote two books of religious meditations. A graduate of the Baylor College for Women, now the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, she became a schoolteacher and counted future Dallas Cowboy coach Tom Landry as one of her students. Her husband, Woodson, taught at Baylor University and then was a pastor 26 years, leading the congregations at Seventh & James Church in Waco, Polytechnic Church in Fort Worth and First Church in El Paso. She was the 1961 UMHB convocation speaker, and received an honorary doctorate of letters. She was a trustee of the school from 1972 until 1981. In 1976, she was named the school’s outstanding alumni. In 1987, she and her husband were honored with the Texas Baptist Elder Statesman Award. She was preceded in death by her husband of 61 years in 1999. She is survived by her sons, David and Paul; daughter, Nancy LeCroy; and two granddaughters.

Events

• Paul Powell will preach at 10:55 a.m. and 6 p.m. at First Church in Ropesville July 15. A reception will follow the evening service. Kyle Morton is pastor.

Revival

• Pawnee Church, Pawnee; July 22-25; evangelist Paul Cherry; interim pastor, Tommy Ingle.

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

Posted: 7/06/07

Book Reviews

Higher Ground: A Call for Christian Civility by Russell Dilday (Smyth & Helwys)

Russell Dilday’s latest book, Higher Ground: A Call for Christian Civility, is the best of his many good writings. It is an enlargement and powerful application of his prophetic message to the Southern Baptist Convention in 1984, calling for living out the gospel message in relationship to our fellow believers. It is filled with sound biblical interpretation and clear illustrations. It calls for “biblical obedience, not biblical defense.” Chapter two by that title is worth the price of the book alone.

Southern Baptists never were what we thought we were and will never be what we once were again. Had Dilday’s call to Christian civility been heeded, the slow decay that has been and continues to take place could have been avoided.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

Anyone desiring higher ground in our life together as Christian brothers would do well to read and heed this book. My biggest regret is that it came 20 years too late.

Paul W. Powell, special assistant to the dean

George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Waco

The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan (Simon & Schuster) (A Touchstone Book)

If you’re looking for light Christian fiction, look somewhere else. The Expected One is the dramatic re-telling of Kathleen McGowan’s own spiritual pilgrimage, one that will raise hairs on the necks of most Baptists.

To give you a taste of some of some of McGowan’s beliefs, let me begin by saying she believes she is the blood descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. She also believes John and Jesus were rivals for the position of Messiah and Judas did not really betray Jesus.

The Expected One will certainly challenge your belief system. McGowan is a skilled journalist and historian. Yet Jesus is portrayed as a self-made man who relies more on his own stratagems than on God’s leading. Jesus’ message of salvation and the miracle of his resurrection are reduced to a message that through love we can save ourselves and restore our world.

Honestly, I’m having difficulty understanding why McGowan’s book is being marketed as Christian fiction. Of course, its controversial subject matter may explain how it made the New York Times’ bestseller list. Nevertheless, this book is sure to confuse new believers and horrify staunch believers.

Read at your own risk.

Kathryn Aragon

Duncanville

The Dark and Bloody Ground by Roberta Webb (TurnKey Press)

The Dark and Bloody Ground is interesting fiction that covers a significant amount of Kentucky history. It lacks any clear central plot, but is written with vivid descriptions and engaging intrigue and excitement. 

Befitting its title, the book reveals a myriad of ways for generations of family members to die. Roberta Webb makes each primary character quite real. The intricate details of the book make it somewhat slow reading, but for those who enjoy historical fiction, this volume qualifies to be on the nightstand.

Pat McDanal, minister of education and discipleship

Woodland Heights Baptist Church, Bedford

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