Posted: 11/30/07

Musical couple begins new
phase of ministry in Australia

By Jonathan Petty

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW—After three years in Australia performing Christian concerts, Clint and Jennifer Staj are spending the holidays state-side this year before starting work in January as youth ministers at an Australian Baptist church.

Three years ago, the Stajes—along with band members and fellow Wayland Baptist University alumni Greg and Sara Howle and Salem Posey—moved to Australia where they performed Christian concerts under the name Zuigia. About a year ago, the group members decided to go their separate ways.

Staj continues to travel and bring the gospel message to Australia’s young people through music. New doors of opportunity have opened since the band downsized.

“It has freed me up, and I get to travel more places because I can fly with the acoustic (guitar) now, and I don’t have to travel with the sound system and trailer,” he said.

With his newfound freedom, Staj has traveled farther inland, sung in maximum-security prisons and visited the island state of Tazmania. What he sees in these places is a lot of people hurting and searching for answers that he believes can only be answered through a personal relationship with Christ.

“Unfortunately, teenagers in Australia really relate to my background, being an atheist, a self-harmer and suicidal, and being hopeless,” Staj said.

“I get to see things that are pretty miraculous—people coming up to me and asking me if they can accept Christ because their life is where mine used to be, and they want their life to be where mine is now.”

Staj and his wife have started out on a new adventure of their own with the birth of their first child, Makarios—a Greek name meaning “happy and blessed.”

At 9 months old, she already has been an important part of her parents’ ministry.

“I have a picture of her that I take around a lot and show it at schools and the prisons,” he said.

“And the toughest, most hurting people who try to have this tough exterior—I guess a shell or a mask—just melt and even break when they see her picture. Then I play a song I have written about her and my own life, not having a dad, and it just breaks them in a good way.”

While the last three years have seen Zuigia’s ministry bless many lives around Australia, the unsure nature of what they do also has been a growing experience. While living in Australia on a religious worker’s visa, the group was not allowed to raise funds or work at paying jobs.

Jennifer Staj, who played on Wayland’s Flying Queens women’s basketball team in college, has played basketball for the national team and Sydney’s semi-professional basketball team, but for no pay. She and her husband both say living on faith has been a blessing.

“We have had to trust God,” she said. “When we don’t have the money or there is an issue that might arise, it is easy for us to say we’ll pray about this and God will give us direction, as opposed to stressing and worrying because we can’t do it on our own anyway.”

As their ministry and lives continue to evolve, the Stajes will start a new job after the first of the year as youth ministers at Cooma Baptist Church. He will continue his concert travel, as well as serve as chaplain for the local school. It is an opportunity that is wide open for the couple to share the gospel with people who have never heard, they agreed.

The Stajes hope to change their visa status in the near future. They will switch from religious worker visas that have to be renewed regularly, to permanent resident visas that will allow them to stay and work in Australia without restriction for the long term.

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

Posted: 11/30/07

Baptist bell-ringer tolls for
Episcopal weddings, funerals

By Roy Hoffman

Religion News Service

OBILE, Ala. (RNS)—Solemn and intent, Irene Raymond stands in the vestibule of All Saints Episcopal Church and clutches the rope that leads through a hole in the ceiling to a 1,500-pound bell.

Slowly, methodically, she puts the whole weight of her body into the first pull—gong. Then, as the bell swings the other way high above, she pulls down again, harder. Gong!

For more than 35 years, at ceremonies joyful or sad, it has been the task of Raymond, a Baptist, to send the clang of this giant bell through the sanctuary of this nearly century-old Episcopal church.

“It’s a great honor to ring the bell,” said Raymond, 68.

On Sundays, an All Saints usher rings the bell. But for weddings and funerals, Raymond, a great-grandmother, repeats her decades-long ritual of tugging the rope until the 40-inch-diameter bell resounds through the neighborhood.

“You can ring it real light, or you can ring it real hard,” she explained.

“At a wedding, I’m clanging, and they’re coming out joyful. They’re waving at me, and the lady’s in her wedding gown. I pull it a little harder. People tell me, ‘Irene, ring it good!’”

Raymond was taught to ring her bell by a master, she said. In 1966, when she was in her 20s, she found custodial work at All Saints, and was under the guidance of the sexton of that time, Carter Smith.

“I’d see him ring the bell,” she said. “I’d see him put on his white jacket.”

Eventually Raymond succeeded Smith as sexton, a position that entails opening and closing the church, keeping it clean, readying it for events and helping organize receptions.

On one occasion while Smith was still sexton, a church member died when Smith was scheduled to go out of town. She asked who would ring the bell.

“You,” Smith told her.

“I was very nervous about it,” she said.

When she saw the casket appear on that first occasion, she felt deeply stirred at taking part in her small way in the ceremony. She still feels that way when a funeral procession begins, she said.

“When they bring … (the casket) in, I ring it two or three times to let them know their loved one is coming up through the church,” she said.

She rings slowly—clong, clong, clong—counting five beats between each ring to keep it reverent. At the end of the funeral, as the family walks behind the casket, and outside to the hearse, “I start ringing the bell again. It’s the last time they’ll be coming out of the church.”

She rings the bell at least once for every year of the departed person’s life, but she will keep ringing, she explained, no matter how long the life span, until the mourners have driven away.

Mary Robert, assistant rector at All Saints, noted Raymond brings her own sense of spirituality to the ritual.

“Irene’s got everything to do with making it solemn for funerals,” she said.

For funerals, Raymond pulls on one rope, for weddings, another. Both coil up through the ceiling to the tower, one rope moving the bell’s clapper, the other rocking the entire bell. Moving only the clapper allows for a somber, shadowed tone that sets the mood for funerals. Moving the whole bell until it is swinging enables the clapper to bang against both sides, making for a brighter, faster peel that’s good for weddings.

For all the gravity of the funeral bell—“It’s a sad thing, a moaning sound,” Raymond said—the wedding bell, by contrast, is so joyous.

“I ring the bell when the bride is getting ready to come down the aisle. I ring ‘clanga, clanga, clanga’ for the wedding.”

Raymond, who plays no other musical instrument, rings the bell from the heart.

“I have rung for people’s weddings, and then their children’s weddings,” she said.

It will sound, she knows, for many more generations to come.

“Somebody,” she said philosophically, “is going to ring it after me.”

Roy Hoffman writes for The Press-Register in Mobile, Ala.

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

Posted: 11/30/07

Book Reviews

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

Conflict is inevitable in any relationship. Unfortunately, most Christians are ill prepared to handle conflict in a Christ-like manner.

Russell Dilday provides an insightful option to how conflict can be addressed. He uses his personal experience in the Southern Baptist Convention controversy of the 1980s to call Christians to higher ground during times of conflict.

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

The conflict and methods of conflict that occurred in the convention easily could have names changed and possible tactics changed, but the results and motives would remain the same as the conflicts that occur within local congregations. This book is a somber reminder that by taking the name of Christ as our own, we are called to a different standard.

Conflict cannot be avoided in life. This reality is faced, but the ways in which Christians engage in conflict will determine both the outcome of the conflict and the witness of Christ. It is against this standard that we are called neither to win the war at all costs nor to ask whether “the end justify the means”; instead, we are called to seek a resolution for our conflict based upon biblical standards and Christ’s example.

This great book is a must read that will challenge any reader in the standard of conflict that has been perpetuated in most Baptist churches. The reality is that we must take the words of Dilday and not only seek to comprehend them but seek to go to the “higher ground” ourselves through the application of the principles in this book.

Jeremy Johnston, pastor

Preston Highlands Baptist Church, Dallas

The Baptist River: Essays on Many Tributaries of a Diverse Tradition, edited by Glenn Jonas (Mercer University Press)

Glenn Jonas gives us a Baptist history book looking through the lens of the denominations growing out of early Baptist teachings. Different authors have sketched the history of their people and the core theological values guiding them—past, present and future.

Jonas begins his book of essays with the observation, “I would contend that over four centuries of Baptist history, the essential quality that identifies Baptists is diversity through dissent. … Baptists have always been a contentious, restless group of Christians.”

For those of us who sometimes despair at our inability to get along, Jonas believes contentiousness and dissent are core values from which we will not easily move away. With this formulation, I would wonder if we will always be a reflexive and reactionary people instead of pioneers and innovators.

The essays are well written and readable. They are informative without be-ing tedious. For those who wonder about the “other Baptists out there,” this book is a good place to begin.

Michael Chancellor, pastor

Crescent Heights Baptist Church, Abilene

Directionally Challenged: How to Find and Follow God’s Course for Your Life by Travis Collins (New Hope Publishers)

Travis Collins’ Directionally Challenged offers a compass of guidance mapped to finding and following God’s direction on the Christian journey. He shares stories from his life and ministry that illustrate broad principles related to finding and following God’s course.

The Richmond, Va., pastor and former missionary acknowledges finding God’s will perplexes young and mature Christians alike. Using the acrostic C-O-M-P-A-S-S, Collins explores seven “directional indicators” to help find “your calling.” He illustrates Constancy, Observation by others, Motive, Peculiar passions, Aptitudes, Seasoning and Sensible decision-making with Scripture and anecdotes.

Throughout the book, Collins manages to engage the reader with illustrations that evoke emotions ranging from lavish laughter and trembling tears to nods of affirmation.

Whether a seasoned veteran or a rookie Christian, the football official’s quick read provides a practical playbook for those like me who find themselves directionally challenged and need reassurance from time to time in how to find and follow God’s course for your life.

Kathy Robinson Hillman, former president

Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, Waco

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

Posted: 11/30/07

Baptist Briefs

Florida Baptists adopt alcohol abstinence policy. Messengers to the Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting overwhelmingly approved a bylaw revision requiring all trustee nominees to sign a pledge that they will abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages and using any other recreational drugs. The bylaw revision on alcohol abstention—proposed by the Florida State Board of Missions—passed with few dissenting votes. The abstinence provision resulted from a pledge announced by Executive Director John Sullivan at the Florida convention’s 2006 annual meeting. Reacting to a prolonged debate at the 2006 Southern Baptist Convention over the use of beverage alcohol, Sullivan said he was “embarrassed” by the protracted discussion and wanted to clarify Florida Baptists’ position on the issue. Messengers to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention annual meeting passed a similar measure binding on its staff and elected officials.

Kentucky Baptists hear ‘troubling’ report on spiritual maturity. Messengers to the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s annual meeting heard a sobering report on the theological views of average Kentucky Baptists. Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Christian Resources’ research department, presented findings from a study on the level of spiritual maturity and discipleship among Kentucky Baptists. Describing some of the findings as “troubling,” McConnell said only 49 percent of respondents disagreed with the “heretical statement” that “Christians must continually work toward their salvation or risk losing it” and only 45 percent disagreed with the statement that “if a person is sincerely seeking God, he or she can obtain eternal life through religions other than Christianity.”

Alabama Baptists adopt record budget. In a quiet annual meeting, messengers to the Alabama Baptist State adopted a record budget and re-elected their officers. Messengers adopted a base budget of $44,585,000 for next year. The total is a 1.5 percent increase over this year’s budget, with a challenge budget of $1 million more.

Administrator of Baptist communicators Association dies. Keith Beene, 40-year-old administrator of a professional society for Baptist communications professionals, died unexpectedly Nov. 16. The cause of death had not been determined. Beene worked part-time as the association’s only paid employee. The body is a professional-development organization for public-relations professionals, journalists and designers who work for Baptist organizations. Beene is survived by his wife, Ellen; a son, Erik, 9; and daughter, Miranda, 5.

Former SBC President Dehoney dies. Wayne Dehoney, president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1964 to 1966, died Nov. 15 at a health and rehabilitation center in Louisville, Ky. He was 89. He was pastor of Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., from 1967 to 1985. In addition to the SBC’s presidency, Dehoney served as a member of the SBC Executive Committee and the former Christian Life Commission; and as a trustee chairman at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. He also served as a professor of evangelism and preaching at Southern Seminary. Dehoney was preceded in death by his wife, Lealice, on Oct. 23 of this year. He is survived by two daughters and a son, Rebecca Richardson, Katherine Evitts and William Dehoney; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

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

Posted: 11/30/07

South Texas church helps hunters feel at home

COTULLA—Hunting means big business in South Texas, worth tens of thousands of dollars each year to ranchers and the overall local economy. First Baptist Church of Cotulla decided to capitalize on the annual influx of visiting hunters—not for the benefit of their church, but for God’s kingdom.

Pastor Steve Parker recognized what happens every hunting season. The town fills with visitors from all over the world. The county continues to lengthen its airport runway to accommodate ever-larger corporate jets.

After observing this for a couple of years, Parker and other church leaders asked what they could do to minister to local residents who work on the ranches 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as to visiting hunters who might be interested in attending an informal worship service.

The church developed strategies to meet both needs. It declared the first Sunday of whitetail deer season this year “Camo Sunday” and advertised it on a sign in front of the church, located on the main thoroughfare through town. Members were encouraged to attend church wearing camouflaged clothing, and about two-thirds did—enough to make any hunter in his or her gear feel welcome.

A couple of out-of-town hunters took advantage and attended the morning worship. To promote the event, the church sent more than 125 invitations to area landowners who live away from Cotulla most of the year.

“Most of these folks are, in one way or another, impacted by the hunting trade. And though they may not have participated in this particular event, they now have a document in their hands that lets them know where First Baptist is and that this church welcomes and appreciates hunters,” Parker said.

During the worship service, Parker told visitors and members, “Every Sunday can be Camo Sunday at First Baptist in Cotulla, because this church loves people, desires for people to worship the Lord, and isn’t so concerned with how people might be dressed when they come to worship.”

As another outreach strategy, the church hosts an informal lunch and Bible study for men every-other Tuesday during hunting season. While it is open to any men, it is scheduled at a time when many who work on local ranches can participate.

Five attended the first Bible study lunch meeting, and Parker shared the gospel and prayed with the men, some of whom had not attended church in a long time because they were unavailable for Sunday services held at traditional times.

“Reaching people impacted by the hunting trade is an uphill climb, and the church will probably not see many tangible results for awhile,” said Jimmy Smith, director of missions in Frio River Baptist Association. “But its members are convinced that God wants them to reach out to the people who live in and visit Cotulla.

“Only God knows where these efforts may lead, but the church seems to be on the right track and is excited about going along for the ride.”

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

Posted: 11/30/07

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

Posted: 11/30/07

Conservative Christians show
growing acceptance of divorce

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When Pentecostal power couple Randy and Paula White recently announced they were headed to divorce court, the most remarkable part of the reaction was that there wasn’t much reaction at all among their supporters.

For increasing numbers of clergy, a divorce no longer generates the kind of career-killing hue and cry of decades ago, in part because plenty of people in the pews have experienced divorce themselves.

The shifting views on divorced clergy reflect a growing concession among rank-and-file conservative Christians that a failed marriage is no longer viewed as an unforgivable sin.

For many evangelical Christians, the line seems to have shifted from a single acceptable reason for divorce—adultery—to a wider range of reasons that some say can be justified biblically.

“I am probably one of those evangelicals who would say it would be three A’s for me—abuse, abandonment and adultery,” said Chris Bounds, a theologian at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind.

With the Whites’ breakup, Randy White now leads the Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla., and Paula White remains prominent in Christian broadcasting. Not long after they announced their divorce, Atlanta evangelist Juanita Bynum filed for divorce from her husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks III, after he allegedly assaulted her in a hotel parking lot.

Former Southern Baptist Convention President Charles Stanley and his wife of 40 years, Anna, divorced in 2000 after several years of on-again, off-again separation. He remained pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, and continued his In Touch media ministry.

Beyond the church, polls by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicate the divorce records of GOP presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and John McCain have not hindered their popularity among white evangelical voters.

Christianity Today, a magazine that often serves as a barometer of evangelical culture, published an October cover story called “When to Separate What God Has Joined.” In the article, David Instone-Brewer, a senior research fellow at Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, concluded adultery, physical and emotional neglect, abuse and abandonment are all biblically justified reasons for divorce.

Mark Galli, the magazine’s managing editor, said conservative Christians reject divorce in principle but accept it in practice, in part because almost everyone knows someone who’s been there.

“I think conservative Christians are becoming more liberalized in the sense of, I guess, making more room for the acceptance of divorce and remarriage,” he said. “You’ll see a lot of churches that plunge right in and have divorce ministries. … Marriage is a really difficult thing in our culture right now.”

But the reaction to Instone-Brewer’s article reflected a lingering discomfort with divorce. Galli estimated 60 percent of responding readers registered a negative reaction. Prominent author John Piper responded that he found Instone-Brewer’s reasoning “tragic” and an “astonishing extension of the divorce license.”

Statistics bear out that divorce affects conservative Christians just as much as anyone else. A study this year by the Barna Group, a California research firm, showed 27 percent of “born-again” Christians have been divorced, compared to 25 percent of non-born-again Americans. In 2005, Phoenix-based Ellison Research found 14 percent of clergy have been divorced, and the vast majority of those have remarried.

The Assemblies of God recently changed its rules to say a marriage crisis should not permanently disqualify someone from ministry. The church voted this summer to permit remarried ministers if their divorce occurred because their spouse was unfaithful or was an unbeliever who abandoned them. Still, the church does not allow divorced ministers to serve under all circumstances.

“I think that in Christian circles, people are more relaxed about the reasons,” said Bill Jones, a divorced Pentecostal pastor and spokesman for an online Christian dating service. “I still think that divorce is pretty much a difficult subject for anybody—and rightfully so, but … we allow more rules, more worldly concepts to prevail.”

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

Posted: 11/30/07

DOWN HOME:
Children of Zacapa: God bless them all

Pichi grabbed my attention. Alex fired my imagination. Manuel warmed and broke my heart.

They live in an orphanage in Zacapa, Guatemala. I met them when a group from my church, First Baptist in Lewisville, spent most of a week there. We’ll send three mission teams per year for at least three years to Zacapa, working in cooperation with Buckner International.

Pichi came up to me as we entered the compound. She didn’t say a word, but she spoke with the biggest, brownest 4-year-old eyes I’ve ever seen. She smiled; I got weak in the knees.

Later, Pichi nestled into my lap as we listened to a Bible story delivered in English and translated into Spanish. She didn’t squirm, but leaned into my chest and traced the outline of my fingers with her own. If the laws of two countries didn’t prohibit it, I’m sure I could’ve been convinced to buy an airline ticket and bring her home to Texas.

Alex amazed me two minutes after I met him. My friend Jamie pulled out a parachute, and Alex immediately realized the possibilities for fun and how to lead the other children—even before Jamie could give instructions.

“Una casita!” Alex screamed, and all the children flipped the parachute up, ran underneath and pulled it down behind them, giggling uncontrollably. When Jamie and I threw whiffle balls onto the parachute for the children to bounce, Alex figured out how to time their motions so the balls would fly high, and he called out instructions, which the others followed with gusto.

I couldn’t help but wonder how far Alex will fly—if the uncertainty of life in an orphanage doesn’t zap him of his zest for life.

Manuel appears to have been zapped already. He’s part of a trio identified as “the bullies,” not so much because they prey on smaller children, but because they project callous indifference. A scar down the back of his head indicates Manuel is acquainted with pain and possibly violence, in addition to neglect.

Manuel attracted my attention early and often. The more I watched him, the more I saw new dimensions to his personality. Like how he always said “thank you”—in English—for kindnesses, and the way he and William and Jefrey looked after each other, and how he made eye contact when he talked. I saw a lonely little boy underneath that tough-guy façade.

“Manuel,” I called to him one afternoon. “Habla Ingles?”

“Poquito,” he replied, holding his thumb and forefinger close and smiling for the first time.

We stood there, discussing English words he knows and Spanish words I know. I noticed his arm around my waist, and I put mine over his shoulders. No more Mr. Tough Guy; no more Gringo Americano. Just a little boy and an older friend whose heart remains in that orphanage.

I can’t pray without recalling the children of Zacapa.

–Marv Knox

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

Posted: 11/30/07

EDITORIAL:
A view from both sides of the pulpit

Preaching is a lot like playing shortstop.

When I was a young man, Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith mesmerized me with the way he played shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals. With Ozzie, grace defied gravity. He turned baseball into ballet, equal parts beauty and power. Most amazingly, he made it all look so simple and easy. I wanted to be like Ozzie; I wanted to play shortstop.

Then, just once, the manager of our church-league softball team moved me from right field to short. I was thrilled. Then humiliated. When I tried to field grounders, somebody in the stands wondered why I wore cinder blocks instead of cleats. And when I tried to throw a runner out at first, the second baseman ducked. It was a long night.

Like playing shortstop, preaching is a lot harder than it looks. In this issue, we’re examining this divine craft. Preaching, not shortstop. I spend most Sundays in a pew, listening to someone else preach a sermon. So, I resonate with Baptist laypeople the world over. But my job sometimes affords me the opportunity to stand behind a pulpit and seek to deliver a message from God. So, I empathize with preachers. From that vantage point, I’d like to offer a few words to both groups.

First, to my friends in the pews:

• Give your preacher a break. If you think it’s easy, try writing a 20- to 30-minute presentation that’s interesting, compelling, relevant and based on a complex and challenging ancient book. Then imagine doing that up to three times a week for 50 weeks a year, year after year. Don’t forget that you’ve got to work that preparation in among a zillion other tasks, like visiting the sick, comforting the afflicted, mending marriages, burying the dead, marrying the in love, seeking the lost, and planning and running a business. Oh, and every time you stand to deliver, you’ve got a room full of critics.

• Quit comparing. Sure, you can hear better sermons. But most of the preachers you hear on the radio, Internet and CD get to spend 20 to 40 hours working on a single sermon. And they pay researchers to look up all those amazing facts and sniff out all those heart-warming illustrations. Unless you pay your preacher just to preach and hire an assistant, it’s not fair to compare him to your evangelical icon.

• Pray for your preacher. Through the week, ask God to inspire and equip your preacher. During the sermon, ask God to help your preacher focus, with passion.

• Offer ideas. Some preachers may cringe, but most would appreciate your ideas about sermon topics.

Now, to my brothers (and a sister or two) behind the pulpit:

• Start and end with the Bible. It is our true, trustworthy and infallible guide. Its depth and breadth exceed human imagination. It is our source for godly thinking and living. It always leads us Home.

• Apply Bible truth to today. Laypeople are starving to know how to live their lives in the real world. Help them. Keep up with current events. Pay attention to what’s going on in your community. Listen to the stories of your people. And then bring the Bible to bear on all this. What happens on Sunday morning ought to help folks on Thursday afternoon or Saturday night.

• Don’t be afraid to preach your life. You are part of your church and community. Many of your fears and doubts and joys and aspirations resonate with everyone in the room. Have the courage to be open and honest; your transparency can encourage and bless your people.

• Steal ethically. You can’t possibly be smart enough to think up everything that needs to be said. Seek inspiration from others. And let folks know where you found it; they may want to go there, too.

• For God’s sake, don’t bore us. You’re telling the greatest story ever told. Lives hang in the balance; eternity is at stake. Preach with passion and conviction. To bore is to sin.

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

Posted: 11/30/07

Engage conferences designed
to inspire, equip for evangelism

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Engage and Radical Engage—conferences designed to inspire and equip Texas Baptists to evangelize the state—are scheduled Jan. 13-15 at LakePointe Church in Rockwall and feature speakers from around the nation.

The events continue a long tradition of bringing Texas Baptists together to focus on what God has called them to do—share the gospel, said Jon Randles, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Evangelism Team.

“Throughout the history of Baptist life, especially here in Texas, the evangelism conferences have been a major player for us to come together around what truly unites us, which is evangelism and missions,” Randles said. “People come together for practical seminars, inspiration and times of fellowship that refresh us to reach those who need Christ in our state.”

To help Christians reach urban, postmodern settings, the Jan. 13-14 Radical Engage conference includes Alex Himaya, senior pastor of The Church at Battle Creek in Tulsa, Okla., the top Oklahoma congregation in terms of baptisms in 2006, and Jose Zayas, international teen evangelism director for Focus on the Family. Shane and Shane also will be part of the program.

Himaya and Zayas also will participate in the Jan. 14-15 Engage, designed to help churches and leaders in more traditional settings.

Other featured speakers include Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, who will describe what is taking place in his congregation following Hurricane Katrina; Gary Dyer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Midland; Jerry Pipes, director of personal and event evangelism at the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board; Sammy Gilbreath, director of evangelism for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions; James Lankford, Falls Creek program director for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma; and Randles.

Many Texas Baptist churches are either plateaued or declining in membership, Randles noted. Engage and Radical Engage will provide practical ways for congregations to increase their evangelistic efforts, he said.

“I don’t see this conference as a fix-all,” Randles said. “This is the beginning.”

Additional evangelistic training and outreach sessions called Engage XP are scheduled Feb. 10-14 in El Paso, San Antonio, Belton, Midland and Kingwood.

“We’re going to go out to the areas where there will be training during the day and during the evenings hold evangelistic revivals,” he said. “We’re going to offer a relationship with Christ. People can bring their unsaved friends to these events and help them find a relationship with Christ.”

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

Posted: 11/30/07

Faith Digest

Christian groups commit to cooperation. More than 240 Christian leaders said they left an international summit in Kenya committed to building closer ties among the world’s Christian denominations. The Global Christian Forum, meeting near Nairobi, brought together Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Pentecostal and charismatic Christian leaders. It also assembled groups that had sometimes been at odds, including the World Council of Churches and the more conservative World Evangelical Alliance.

Oral Roberts University president resigns. The embattled president of Oral Roberts University resigned amid intense scrutiny over allegations of financial, political and other wrongdoing at the charismatic Christian university in Tulsa, Okla. Richard Roberts, son of the university’s namesake founder, submitted a resignation letter to ORU’s board of regents Nov. 23. The resignation came just days before the board was scheduled to hear the results of an outside investigation of allegations against him and his wife, Lindsay. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Oral Roberts Ministries, had placed himself on an indefinite leave of absence Oct. 17 as university president. But he had said he expected to return to the post in “God’s timing.” He was the second president in the 42-year history of the 4,000-student university, succeeding his father, Oral Roberts, in 1993. The allegations that sparked the turmoil over Richard Roberts’ presidency were raised in a lawsuit filed Oct. 2 by three former ORU professors who claim efforts to act as whistleblowers cost them their jobs. The lawsuit in Tulsa County District Court alleges illegal political activity and lavish, unchecked spending by Richard Roberts and his family.

Family sues over snake-handling death. The family of a woman who died from a snakebite during a religious service last year has filed suit against a Kentucky hospital, alleging that poor care contributed to her death, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. Linda Long, who died Nov. 5, 2006, was rushed to Marymount Medical Center in London, Ky., after receiving a bite from a rattlesnake she was handling during a service at East London Holiness Church. The lawsuit states the hospital did not adhere to proper standards of care in Long’s case, which contributed to her death. The Herald-Leader also reported that “the complaint … says the unprofessional comments about Long’s religious beliefs were discriminatory and caused her and her family emotional pain and humiliation.”

Pope plans U.S. visit next year. Pope Benedict XVI will make his first papal visit to the United States next spring, stopping at the United Nations in New York and the White House in Washington. Vatican Ambassador Archbishop Pietro Sambi, addressing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Benedict’s visit is scheduled April 15-20. Benedict’s visit is timed to mark the establishment of the first dioceses in the United States nearly 200 years ago, Sambi said. In addition to celebrating Masses at New York’s Yankee Stadium and the Washington Nationals’ new ballpark, currently under construction, Benedict will visit Ground Zero in New York, with the families of people who were killed there Sept. 11, 2001.

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

Posted: 11/30/07

Ghana minister to Texans: ‘We need help’

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS—Yaw Ofori traveled from Ghana to Texas to communicate a very simple message: “We need your help.”

Christians in Ghana need people to provide training to help them plant new churches, said Ofori, director of missions for the Ghana Baptist Convention. Of the 75 people groups who live in Ghana, 15 are unreached with the gospel, he said.

Ofori’s main emphasis has been letting Texas Baptists know about ministry opportunities in Ghana, both short- and long-term hands-on missions, as well as the need for financial support.

“The field is white in Ghana, but we need help with the harvest,” Ofori said. “We need prayer support; we need financial support; we need the physical support of people coming to help us.”

The Ghana Baptist Convention includes 1,000 churches with more than 100,000 members, but most are very poor, he said.

“We are reaching many people and have many ministries, especially to the poor. All we need is a little push, a little help, and we could do so much more,” he said. “Through partnership, we can do more than we can do alone.

“There are many villages where there are no Baptist churches and many other villages with no church of any kind.”

More than 150 villages have been identified as having no church, he said, and each is home to more than 300 people.

Volunteers are needed to do medical evangelism, train potential pastors and other church leaders, and possibly teach in the national seminary.

A gift of $400 a month will support a home missionary in church planting efforts, and $100 a month will provide for a pastor, he noted. The stipend a pastor receives decreases each year, and by the fourth year, the church is expected to be self-supporting.

“We don’t want to develop a dependency syndrome,” Ofori said. “Some places it is difficult, because the people are so poor, but that is the challenge we put before them.”

Ministry in Ghana is accessible to American volunteers because English is the trade language of Ghana and is taught to children in schools, he added.

The Ghana Baptist Convention concentrates much of its ministry on children—particularly efforts to stop child trafficking. It is common for parents to sell their children as slaves to fishermen or caretakers of pagan shrines, some of which have up to 600 children working as shrine slaves. The convention is working to have child trafficking laws enforced and to provide an education for children rescued from these operations.

Many children also come to the city alone to find work because their families can no longer afford to feed them. These street children are forced to turn to crime and prostitution to survive. The convention is building a house to give some of these children a safe place to sleep and learn a trade.

“We have great opportunities, but we need help,” Ofori said.

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