Storylist for week of 2/18/08

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



• BCFS given lead role in emergency care for medical special needs



• Team-based ministry changing church culture


• Team-based ministry changing church culture

• Board to honor Wade, vote on Everett for Executive Director

• At Northeast Texas therapeutic ranch, ‘We see a miracle just about every day'

• Family Place helps mother leave fear behind

• BCFS given lead role in emergency care for medical special needs

• Around the State

• Texas Tidbits


• Love leaves no room for ‘us and them,' Dallas pastor says

• Sexual exploitation alive in America; churches can end it

• See complete coverage of the New Baptist Covenant meeting here.

• Baptist Briefs


• Shared meals at church take on a different flavor to meet changing needs

• Faith Digest


• Book Reviews


• Classified Ads

• Cartoon

• Texas Baptist Forum

• Around the State


• EDITORIAL: Candles alight for new Baptist unity

• DOWN HOME: A part of my heart now beats in Europe

• In Between: New Reformation: Shared ministry

• 2nd Opinion: Touch others: Healing & helping

• RIGHT or WRONG? Preventing scandal

• Texas Baptist Forum



• BaptistWay Bible Series for February 17: Not Me

• Explore the Bible Series for February 17: Do you seek the Lord's guidance

• Bible Studies for Life Series for February 17: The Messenger

• Explore the Bible Series for February 24: Do you help or exploit?

• Bible Studies for Life Series for February 24: The model


Previously Posted
• BCFS given lead role in emergency care for medical special needs

• Human Rights Watch blasts U.S. on Kenya violence

• Baptists focus on relief after deadly storms hit Mid-South

• Renewed violence forces Buckner to cancel mission trips to Kenya through May

• Panhandle Pastor's and Laymen's Conference slated

• Tornado strikes Union University

• More than 1,600 Hispanic Baptists gather for evangelism conference

• As Hispanic population grows, so do ministry opportunities

• Inmates at Mexican women's prison find escape in music

• Blogger Burleson resigns from International Mission Board

• Evangelism requires commitment–even if it means holding church under a tree


• See articles from the previous 2/04/08 issue here.

Posted: 2/29/08

Anne Rice explores Jesus’
public ministry in new novel

By Benedicta Cipolla

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Don’t ask novelist Anne Rice about The Da Vinci Code unless you want an earful. Rice, who returned to the Catholic Church in 1998 and soon abandoned vampires, her former stock in trade, calls it a “load of nonsense.”

Her latest novel, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, is in many ways an orthodox response to the popular thriller that imagined Jesus and Mary Magdalene married.

Firing a direct salvo at Da Vinci, Rice states in her author’s note, “It is more than ever important to affirm our belief in Christ as sinless and unmarried because that is the way the Gospels present him.”

Novelist Anne Rice’s latest work, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, explores the early days of Jesus’ ministry. (PHOTO/RNS)

The Road to Cana follows Rice’s bestselling 2005 religious fiction debut, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. While the first installment in the series limned Jesus’ childhood, the second focuses on the beginning of his ministry, taking readers from the baptism in the Jordan River through the miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana.

“I can draw a valid portrait of him according to Scripture as a sinless, celibate man,” Rice said in an interview. “Not some feminized pious image floating off the ground, but a real, virile man subject to noticing the beauty of the girls of Nazareth.”

Jesus may notice beauty and even be tempted by the idea of marriage with a local young woman, but in keeping with Rice’s beliefs and her Gospel source material, there are no lustful thoughts as in The Last Temptation of Christ, and definitely no wedding vows.

Jonathan Cordero, chair of the sociology department at California Lutheran University, sees Rice’s work as part of a larger cultural trend emphasizing Christ’s humanity.

“For most of Christian religious history, Christ has been depicted in images and literature primarily as divine. But biblically speaking, Christ is both fully God and fully human,” he said.

Thousands of readers wrote to Rice after reading the first Christ the Lord book, many confessing that the blend of Gospel, history and imagination had personally affected them.

“What people say more than anything is that they didn’t think about the humanity of Jesus before,” she said. “There’s also a relief that it’s scripturally correct. Often people start a letter by saying, ‘I didn’t want to read your book because I thought it would be a wild and crazy version of Jesus. But it wasn’t.’”

Contemporary depictions have tended toward the contentious. The Last Temptation, for example, garnered author Nikos Kazantzakis’ ex-communication from the Greek Orthodox Church.

Far from pushing boundaries, or the church’s buttons, Rice’s portrayal of Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of humankind is theologically sound. At the same time, he’s also very human, with needs and cares readers can relate to.

“It’s an attempt to get close to him and what he experienced, to make it historically exciting and historically correct,” she said.

As with Out of Egypt, Rice peppers her novel with references based on historical research—the Roman appointment of Jewish high priests, the separatist Jewish community of the Essenes, Judah the Galilean’s tax revolt.

She inserts historical events into her story the Gospel writers never mentioned but which she imagines as shaping Jesus’ outlook, such as Pontius Pilate’s violation of Jewish law when he brought military standards bearing the emperor’s name into Jerusalem.

For Rice, Jesus’ mission of peace springs forth amid a violent milieu. Brigands roam the countryside, Roman troops seemingly are around every corner and periodic bloodshed is the norm. Several characters in The Road to Cana needle Jesus about his lack of action, reflecting their hope for a messiah to overthrow Rome and restore Israel.

Rice plans two more books in the series—the first a continuation of Jesus’ ministry, the second an account of the last week of his life. Movie versions may materialize once the series is complete. Viggo Mortensen and Johnny Depp are two actors Rice can envision in the lead roles.

Writing the books “has made me conscious of what (Jesus) suffered in the way of derision and dismissal,” she said. “Just like today—people go around making jokes about him. But he goes right on winning souls no matter what anybody does. We’ve come 2,000 years, and you can still sit at his feet and hear him speak and feel his hand, maybe, touch your shoulder. He survives it all.”

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

Posted: 2/29/08

Around the State

• Howard Payne University will hold the fourth annual HPU Woman’s Club Yellow Rose Scholarship luncheon March 4. Humorist and author Rose-Mary Rumbley will be the featured speaker. The 2008 Yellow Rose scholarship also will be presented to a female junior student who has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills and scholastic accomplishments. Tickets are $15 and available at the HPU Harrison House or by calling (325) 649-8006.

• Houston Baptist University will unveil its new museum complex in the Joella and Stewart Morris Cultural Arts Center at 3 p.m. March 25. Three museums are included in the space: the Dunham Bible Museum, the Museum of American Architecture and Decorative Arts, and the Museum of Southern History. The Dunham Bible Museum houses one of the most extensive collections of rare American Bibles available to the public, including the only existing copy of one of oldest New Testaments in America, the Francis Bailey New Testament printed in 1780, and the 1782 Aitken Bible, the first English Bible printed in America.

Wildwood Church in Village Mills has broken ground for a family life center. The 13,310-square-foot building is being planned not only to minister to the congregation but the community as well. Participating in the groundbreaking were, from left, MaKayla Linn, representing the future generation; Pastor Jimmy Linn; Barry Johnson, president of the board of the Wildwood property owners association; Calvin Cryer; Jerry Redkey, director of missions of Sabine Neches Area; Ben Worthy; Ken Mercer; Ron Huffpauir; Sibyl Allen; Marvin Fannin; and Frances Dismukes, a charter member of the church.

• Dallas Baptist University has announced a $1 million donation in land and building costs by DBU trustee Patsy Smith. The land, located in Hurst, will be home to the Herman and Patsy Smith Center, which is soon to be under construction and will be the future location of DBU’s new academic center in Tarrant County, known as DBU-Tarrant.

• Dallas Baptist University, Houston Baptist University and Howard Payne University have been named by the Corporation for National and Community Service to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth. DBU was given the additional honor of being one of three Texas universities to recieve the honor roll with distinction designation.

• B.H. Carroll Theological Institute has added two staff members. Larry Ashlock has been named a fellow, professor of pastoral leadership and ethics, and director of the advanced studies in church ministry program. Don Day has been named a fellow, lecturer in library science and director of library and information systems.

• San Marcos Baptist Academy senior Michelle Deschner of Wimberley was presented the Sportsmanship Award at the National Girls and Women in Sports banquet. She was one of five high school- and college-aged athletes who received awards.

Anniversaries

• Jeff Reid, 15th, as associate pastor at Pioneer Drive Church in Abilene, Feb. 1.

• Butch Pesch, 20th, as pastor of Priddy Church in Priddy, Feb. 10.

• David Michael, fifth, as pastor of Wynnewood Church in Dallas, Feb. 15.

• Butch Smith, 1oth, as pastor of Living Hope Church in College Station, Feb. 22.

• Nancy Conlin, 15th, as minister of childhood education at First Church in Bryan, Feb. 17.

• Toby Snowden, 20th, as pastor of High Pointe Church in Cedar Hill, Feb. 24.

• Carlton Church in Carlton, 130th, March 16. Charles Wade, retired exective director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, will be the guest preacher. Former pastors and members also have been invited to attend. A meal will follow the service. Dave Keith is pastor.

Retiring

• Rodney Williams, as director of missions of Hunt Association, April 30. An April 10 reception is planned for Highland Terrace Church in Greenville at 6:30 p.m. He served the association 13 years and has been in ministry 52 years. Among the churches he served as pastor are Emory Church in Emory, South Garland Church in Garland, First Church in Dalhart, Mimosa Lane Church in Mesquite, Smyrna Church in Atlanta, Gray Church in Gray and Beulah Church in Mansfield, La.

Deaths

• Marvin Loeb, 68, Feb. 11 in Dallas. He was treasurer of the Texas Baptist Conference for the Deaf and was a deacon at Silent Friends Chapel 33 years. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Dianne; daughters, Allison Randolph and Laura Hill; and four grandchildren.

• Russell Ware, 87, Feb. 17 in Denton. He and his wife, Loraine, were married during the same service in which he was ordained to the ministry in 1941. A graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Seminary, he was pastor of churches in Texas and New Mexico and was a denominational worker in Texas and California. He taught Bible courses for college and seminary credit and ministered to students at four state universities in Texas, including more than 20 years at the University of North Texas. Known for his gracious manner, his frequent response to people who helped him in any way was, “Thank you for your excellent service.” He was preceded in death by his wife in 2000. He is survived by his daughters, Patricia Borden and Peggy Stahl; son, Paul Ware; sister, Maribel Bost; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

• Charlie Segrest, 83, Feb. 20 in Corpus Christi. He was a member of Caribbean Church and Brighton Park Church, both in Corpus Christi, and did work for Church Without Walls, Harborview, Morgan Avenue Church, Good News, Good Samaritan and many other organizations. He was preceded in death by his brother, Allen. He is survived by his wife, Allene; son, David; daughters, Robbi Coffman and Carrie Carey; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Events

• Karol Joseph, a missionary with Jews for Jesus, will present an informational talk on “Christ in the Passover” at First Church in Bellmead March 4 at 7 p.m. For more information, call (254) 799-2451. Frank Brown is pastor.

• The Andersons will present a concert at First Church in Devers March 9 at 10:45 a.m. For more information, call (936) 549-7653. Harry McDaniel is pastor.

• First Church in Alvin will hold homecoming services for everyone who has ever attended the church April 12 from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Heights Church in Alvin on County Road 144. The fellowship time has been given the theme “A Gathering of the Generations.” A fried chicken and barbecue lunch will be served. Those attending are asked to bring two side dishes. Cost for the meal is $10 for people 12 years old and older and $5 for children 6 to 11. Call (281) 331-4827 to make reservations.

Ordained

• Jason Horine to the ministry at First Church in Iredell.

• John Womble to the ministry at First Church in Duncanville.

• Todd Ferguson to the ministry at Willow Meadows Church in Houston.

• Jason Boyd and Tom Sanders as deacons at First Church in Paris.

• Eric Richardson and Johnny Welborn as deacons at Faith Church in Princeton.

• Fran Wilson as a deacon at Gambrell Street Church in Fort Worth.

Revivals

• Veribest Baptist Church, Veribest; March 2-5, evangelist, Robert M. Barge; music, Denbigh Cherry; pastor, Mike Dorman.

• Village Community Church, Wake Village; March 16-19; evangelist, Kevin Smead; music, Philip Spiras; pastor, David Taylor.

• First Church, Hale Center; March 23-26; evangelist, Justin Peters; music, Rodney Simmons; pastor, Carrol Green.

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

Posted: 2/29/08

Book reviews

How to Talk to Your Doctor: Getting the Answers and Care You Need, by Patricia Agnew (Quill Driver Books)

On a recent Sunday, I visited a church where a surgeon is one of the deacons. He operated on me more than 30 years ago when I was in pain, and he solved the problem. I never had talked with him since, and this gave me a chance to say “thank you.”

Patricia Agnew is almost my age. She has written this how-to book of less than 100 pages to focus on the awkward patient-to-physician position. Witty but clear, its thoroughness almost guarantees your next appointment will be better than the last one.

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

So, I’m going to write down some questions. Take a list of my medications. Ask somebody to go with me so that I don’t misunderstand. Bring up first the main reason I came. Make the most of my 15 minutes with the doctor. And if I still need details, use the computer or the public library for follow-up.

Dealing with the pharmacy. Undergoing a battery of tests. Options about surgery. Reading the bill. All those things are covered, with an emphasis on needs of those of us who are in the last half of life.

Bob Beck

Intentional interim pastor

Fort Worth

The Ten–Second Prayer Principle, by Mark Littleton (Howard Books)

The Ten–Second Prayer Principle is a great encouragement to those of us who feel we need to pray more.

I have always been convicted by the prayer lives of David Brainerd, John Hyde and Martin Luther. I could never measure up! But Mark Littleton has assembled and illustrated 16 ways to redeem those small segments of the day that seem lost and convert them into times to pray. I see these as “triggers” or reminders to pray without ceasing.

Walk with “Tom,” Littleton’s example of an ordinary man who learns to use simple techniques like the A-S-K principle, the Shift principle and others that enabled him to become a significant prayer warrior.

The Ten–Second Prayer Principle is a refreshing and practical way to enjoy small bits of time all day in prayer. This book is a good read.

Leo Smith, executive director

Texas Baptist Men

Dallas

The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary Into the Extraordinary, by Mark Sanborn (Currency/Doubleday)

The Fred Factor is a system of evaluating life and work through a comparison to the author’s mail carrier, Fred. Mark Sanborn views Fred as “a gold-plated example of what personalized service looks like and a role model for anyone who wants to make a difference in his or her work.”

Sanborn identifies four Fred principles—everyone makes a difference; success is built on relationships; you must continually create value for others, and it doesn’t have to cost a penny; and you can reinvent yourself regularly. He spends the majority of the book describing these principles and providing examples.

He concludes the most important thing about the Fred Factor is to love others, just as Fred does. In a sense, he urges us to ask, “What Would Fred Do?” While the book is enjoyable reading, a better book with a better role model is familiar to most Christians.

Van Christian, pastor

First Baptist Church

Comanche

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

Posted: 2/29/08

Books probe God factor in U.S. politics

By Daniel Burke

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—According to the old saying, there are two things a person never should discuss at a dinner party—religion and politics. But nothing says people can’t read about them. And as the presidential campaign season heats up, American publishers are releasing a flood of books on faith and public life.

Frank Lambert’s Religion in American Politics traces the tense interplay between pulpits and the public square through nearly two centuries of U.S. history. Some things, Lambert writes, never change.

For instance, pushes to proclaim the United States a “Christian nation,” stretch back to 1827, when the Calvinist minister Ezra Stiles Ely tried to mobilize a “Christian party in politics” to fight the delivery of mail on Sundays, among other causes.

Still, any group’s attempt to represent the nation’s religious heritage or claim to be its moral conscience is met with opposition, Lambert writes. The Purdue University professor’s book revisits some of those battles, from the nation’s founding to the possible re-emergence of the “religious left.”

E.J. Dionne, Souled Out.

Over the last few years, perhaps no one has worked harder to promote that liberal re-emergence than Jim Wallis, an evangelical author and founder of Sojourners/Call to Renewal in Washington, D.C.

Wallis’ 2004 book, God’s Politics, struck a nerve with liberals reeling from the re-election of President Bush on the strength of “values voting” conservative evangelicals. But Wallis says change is in the air, and his latest tome, The Great Awakening, hopes to “revive faith and politics in a post-Religious Right America.”

Wallis’ work runs through the history of progressive religious movements, lays out seven basic commitments (such as “God hates injustice”) for Christians engaged in politics, and attempts to ground those principles in biblical narratives and theology.

Like Wallis, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne says “the religious winds are changing.” Similarly, for Dionne, who writes from the liberal Catholic tradition, that means the political dominance of the Religious Right is over.

In Souled Out, the columnist explores the roots of American liberalism, diagnoses injuries caused by culture-war politics, reckons with the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI and points the way to a future when “Christianity’s liberal commitments will be seen as more relevant than its conservative impulses.”

But religious liberals and Democrats can’t “level the praying field” if they don’t acknowledge mistakes made in the recent past, writes Time magazine editor Amy Sullivan.

David Gushee, The Future of Faith in American Politics

Sullivan’s The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats are Closing the God Gap argues the party’s fall from grace was abetted by liberals who belittled religious voters and Democratic leaders who wrote them off.

“National polls consistently show that two-thirds of Democratic voters attend worship services regularly,” Sullivan writes. “Yet the people who run the Democratic Party largely believe that the ‘God gap’ is an immutable law of the political universe.”

Sullivan sees reasons for hope, however, with the rise of Democratic candidates such as Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who have made concerted efforts to reach people of faith in their presidential campaigns.

Both Obama and Clinton, in fact, have made a play for centrist evangelicals, who evangelical scholar David Gushee says are “emerging with growing confidence and impact these days.”

In The Future of Faith in American Politics, Gushee offers an “insider’s account” of evangelicals weary of the partisan politicking and “angry entitlement” of their brethren on the right and yet wary of wish-washy liberals.

Typically, centrist evangelicals are strongly against abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia, but they also see room on a “broad and holistic agenda” for human rights, the plight of the poor and peacemaking, says Gushee, a Southern Baptist ethics professor at Mercer University.

Like Gushee, Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, in his book, A New Kind of Conservative, says it’s time for evangelicals to focus on issues beyond abortion and homosexuality.

Joel Hunter, A New Kind of Conservative.

Hunter offers seven reasons why “the current strategy of the Religious Right” fails to resonate with conservative Christians, including personal attacks, too much emphasis on “below the belt” issues, a focus on political wins rather than spiritual results and a lack of intellectual heft.

“Jesus didn’t teach us what political platform would best represent the faith; but he did teach us by example how to help those who are in need,” Hunter writes.

Finally, for the political neophyte, Wheaton College political scientist Amy E. Black offers a crash course in Beyond Left and Right: Helping Christians Make Sense of American Politics.

With chapters dedicated to the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers as well as the art of compromise and the application of faith to politics, Black navigates some of the trickier spheres of public life and brings them home to the kitchen table.

“At that proverbial dinner party, in our churches, or even in the comfort of our own homes, it won’t always be easy or comfortable to talk about religion and politics,” Black writes. “But the challenge is both worthy and worthwhile.”

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

Posted: 2/29/08

Baptist Briefs

Mohler faces surgery, bows out of SBC race. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and spokesman for conservative social causes, will bow out of the race for Southern Baptist Convention president. Mohler, 48, will undergo surgery for a pre-cancerous tumor in his colon, according to a release posted on the seminary website. Doctors discovered the tumor during a routine colonoscopy, and a subsequent biopsy revealed it was pre-cancerous. Three other candidates for the SBC presidency already have been announced—Georgia pastor Frank Cox and Californians Wiley Drake and Bill Wagner.

Tornado causes minimal damage to rare books. The Ryan Center for Biblical Studies at Union University lost about 10 percent of its holdings when a tornado swept through the Jackson, Tenn., campus last month. The center is located on the top floor of Jennings Hall, which had half its roof ripped off in the tornado. Most of the damage was caused by water, mildew or mold. A nearly 400-year-old Geneva Bible, the oldest book in the library’s possession, was untouched since it is kept in a glass case along with three other rare books—an English Hexapla, a Basal New Testament and a copy of the Wycliffe New Testament.

Graham released from hospital. Billy Graham was released from the hospital Feb. 19 and is resting at his mountain home in Montreat, N.C., where he is expected to continue working on a book about the joys and challenges of growing old. The 89-year-old evangelist was hospitalized in Asheville Feb. 13 for an elective procedure to replace a valve in a shunt designed to drain excess fluid from his brain. The new valve was an update to a shunt installed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in 2000 to alleviate the condition hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid within the brain that can cause symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. At a recent checkup at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., doctors found the shunt no longer was draining the fluid properly, and they proposed an operation.

Baptist worker in Asia dies from bus mishap injuries. Linda Lipscomb, an International Mission Board worker, died Feb. 14 in Bangkok, Thailand, from complications following a bus accident. She was 63. Lipscomb, a former nurse, and her husband, J.P., were spending their retirement years serving overseas. Four weeks before her death, in another part of Asia, Lipscomb stood just inside the door of a bus, preparing to step off and walk to a coffee shop. Without warning, the brakes released and the bus rolled forward, throwing her to the ground. The fall broke her left femur and wrist. She was medically evacuated to Bangkok the day after the accident.

Huckabee & Warren headline preaching conference. Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and best-selling author Rick Warren, both ordained Southern Baptist pastors, will speak about how to use the pulpit to address political, social and cultural issues at a preaching conference April 7-9 in Washington, D.C. They will top the bill at the 19th annual national conference on preaching hosted by Preaching Magazine and preaching.com. Other speakers at the event include Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship; William Willimon, bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church; and national columnist Cal Thomas.

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

Posted: 2/29/08

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

Posted: 2/29/08

Cash receipts and disbursements
present challenges for churches

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—Handling cash presents some of the greatest challenges—and potential problems—for churches in terms of finances, said Roger Hall, retired chief financial officer and treasurer for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“The biggest risk involves cash before it gets on the books,” said Hall, who works part-time as business administrator for First Baptist Church in Waxahachie and serves as a consultant with several nonprofit ministries.

See Related Articles: • Follow the Money • Cash receipts and disbursements present challenges for churches

He suggests when it comes to handling cash receipts, a good starting place for churches is to remember there’s safety in numbers. Two or more people should monitor offerings when they are taken from the church’s sanctuary or Sunday school classes to the church office, two or more should count the cash, and two or more should take locked moneybags to the bank for deposit, he said.

“Have the counting committee members bonded as money handlers,” Hall suggested, adding that check signers and other financial personnel also should be bonded.

When it comes to disbursements, Hall offered several recommendations:

• Use only church-approved bank accounts.

• Have all checks signed by two approved parties, and designate back-up signers for times when the principle signers are unavailable.

• Use only pre-numbered checks.

• Do not sign blank checks or make checks payable to cash.

• Have approved invoices or documents available to review at the time checks are signed.

• Reconcile bank accounts monthly. That task should be performed by a person other than the individual who prepares the checks.

• Make sure checks are made out to approved budget or designated accounts from which authorized funds are available.

Hall recommends a division of labor regarding a church’s legal and financial matters. Trustees should sign legal documents on behalf of the church after congregational approval. The treasurer should provide financial reports to the church business meetings, work with the financial secretary on financial matters and oversee the conducting of an independent audit.

The financial secretary’s handling of money should be limited, Hall said.

Ideally, he sees the financial secretary’s job carrying a six-fold responsibility:

• Maintain accounting records.

• Prepare checks for signature by authorized individuals.

• Prepare financial statements.

• Maintain individual contribution records.

• Handle payroll and re-ports.

• Oversee petty cash.

As a church considers its policies about handling finances, Hall said, it should keep in mind a clear sense of purpose—“to see that resources are handled properly, ensure accountability and keep the church family informed.”

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

Posted: 2/29/08

Follow the Money

Churches’ budgets reveal something
about priorities – but what?

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Most observers of congregational life agree—a person can tell a lot about a church by looking at its budget. But exactly what conclusions can be drawn about a church’s priorities remains an open question.

“It's a question I’ve raised with students in my classes for years,” said Bill Tillman, who holds the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary.

“The whole matter of economic and financial stewardship is such a vital part of the practice of the Christian life, whether for an individual, a family or a congregation.”

A church’s budget reflects its priorities, he noted. How much a church spends on ministries inside its walls and how much it devotes to ministries beyond itself offers one measure, but Tillman warns against rushing to judgment.

See Related Articles: • Follow the Money • Cash receipts and disbursements present challenges for churches

“What happens always has to be held in tension and viewed in context,” he urged. “For instance, we can’t say a church never should build a new facility. A new building may be what is needed in a particular community.”

At the same time, a church should ask whether its financial decisions are shaped more by biblical teachings or by cultural values, he stressed.

“The larger culture says we should spend money to make things comfortable for us,” Tillman said.

Churches should ask what lessons are being taught to families as they look at the congregation’s budget, he said. And church leaders should not shy away from talking about money.

“That conversation is difficult,” Tillman acknowledged. “One of my basic assumptions is that the world of money is one of the last points where conversion and redemption happen.”

Each church not only needs to keep in mind the legitimate needs of its own members, but also extend its vision to include God’s work in the world at large, he urged.

“It all should be qualified by the question of whether what we are doing is kingdom work,” Tillman said.

Members of Cross Lanes Baptist Church, near Charleston, W. Va., decided five years ago the best way they could be involved in “kingdom work” was by devoting a larger percentage of undesignated offerings to missions causes.

When Seth Polk arrived as pastor, the church gave 7 percent of undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program unified budget and 3 percent to associational missions. Polk challenged the church to increase its missions giving incrementally each year.

Now, Cross Lanes Baptist Church gives one-fourth of its undesignated receipts to missions—11 percent to the Cooperative Program, 4 percent to associational missions and 10 percent to other missions causes. Those causes range from local benevolence ministries and church-starting initiatives to global initiatives such as Children’s Emergency Relief International’s work in Transnistria and Moldova. Children’s Emergency Relief International is the global arm of Baptist Child & Family Services.

“We believe that as a church becomes more outwardly focused, God will bless that church at home,” Polk said.

At the same time the church increased the percentage of budget offerings it devotes to missions and increased giving to seasonal missions offerings and world hunger relief, it also entered a $3.5 million building campaign.

Cross Lanes—which leads the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists in total missions giving—doubled in worship attendance and undesignated giving over the last five years.

“We want to focus on what really matters to God,” Polk said.

A clear focus and sense of purpose help a church make wise decisions when it develops its budget—and make adjustments when receipts don’t match the budget, said Roger Hall, retired chief financial officer and treasurer for the Baptist General Conven-tion of Texas.

“A church needs to know its purpose, its goals and what it wants to accomplish. The budget is a plan of action to get there,” said Hall, who serves part-time as business administrator at First Baptist Church in Waxahachie.

No one-size-fits-all rules of thumb apply for all churches in terms of establishing percentages for different areas of the budget. Just add a few of the often-cited maximum percentages for various categories—50 percent for personnel, 35 percent for debt service and 25 percent for administration—and the numbers already exceed 100 percent, he observed.

“Take that approach, and ministry is often what gets crowded out,” he noted. And if ministry and missions are the professed focus of the church, the problem becomes apparent.

Trouble develops when a church fails to define its purpose, deviates from its purpose or neglects to follow proper processes and procedures in making financial decisions, he said.

A church’s budget or finance committee should begin the budgeting process by reviewing historical records for past receipts and expenditures, he suggested. Then, the committee should look at other factors such as anticipated growth or decline as it considers what may be realistic giving goals for the upcoming year.

Next, Hall recommended, the committee that is working on the budget should announce its schedule of budget preparation to the church, solicit budget requests from staff and committee chairs and then set a budget hearing meeting to allow people who are making requests to present their rationale and prioritize their requests.

“The budget should not be a product of just one committee. It should not be the product of just the staff or pastor’s recommendations. It needs ownership by the entire congregation,” Hall said.

That sense of ownership grows out of communication each step of the way in the budget-preparation process, not just from an up-or-down annual vote in a church business meeting. And the congregation’s “buy-in” of the budget has both ethical and practical implications, he noted.

“When the budget is understood and owned by the congregation, members have a sense of rightness about it,” he said. “And if they feel like this is a good plan and they are confident in the processes, they are more apt to support it with their tithes and offerings.”

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

Posted: 2/29/08

2nd Opinion:
Sermons, storytelling & novels

Bill Moyers, the ol’ East Texas boy who did good, interviewed novelist John Grisham recently on his PBS program Bill Moyers’ Journal. After Grisham talked about his storytelling ability, Moyers asked if he had heard a lot of sermons.

Grisham said he had heard them all, “from the long sermon on Sunday morning to the revivalist, tent crusades … where the whole town turned up. It was kind of exciting at times and boring at times. But I’ve heard a lot of sermons.”

Then Moyers asked the question seldom asked on national television, “Were you born again?”

“Sure,” Grisham replied, “When I was 8 years old, I felt the call to become a Christian. I felt the need to. I talked to my parents. I talked to my pastor. And I accepted Christ when I was just a little small boy. That was very much a part of growing up.”

Moyers wanted to know how that experience or moment had played out in Grisham’s life and work.

“Once you make that conversion, you are and always will be something different,” Grisham explained.

His books are popular not only because they are well-written, but also because they are exceptionally clean. You can give his books to your 15-year-old son or your 80-year-old mother and not be embarrassed. Grisham shared this idea when I heard him speak in Waco years ago. (Grisham loves baseball, and the Baylor baseball coach knew him in Mississippi and promised he could sit on the bench for a Baylor game if he would come. He came, he spoke, but the game was rained out.)

“My books are exceptionally clean by today’s standards,” Grisham said. “I wrote a sex scene one time and showed it to my wife. And she burst out laughing. She said, ‘What do you know about sex?’”

Moyers, himself a Baptist, said, “Spoken like a true Baptist.”

Britt Towery is a retired missionary, teacher and pastor who lives in San Angelo. His weekly column appears in the Brownwood Bulletin.

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

Posted: 2/29/08

Students gather for prayer and support at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., after a tornado tore through campus. (RNS photo/Morris Abernathy/Union University)

Does God protect selected
disaster victims but not others?

By Brittani Hamm & Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

JACKSON, Tenn. (RNS)—As Kristen Fabrizio felt the vibrations preceding the tornado that ripped across the campus of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., last month, she clung to her friends, who in turn clung to their faith.

“You can definitely see God’s hands if you look at our campus,” said Fabrizio, a history major at the Baptist-affiliated school. “No one’s supposed to be alive.”

But many are. Those who made it through the storm thank God for protection. But what about the dozens of people across the South who died in the storms, who weren’t so lucky—or blessed? Did God not protect them?

It’s the kind of question often raised after a disaster, manmade or otherwise. Was God looking the other way when 32 died in a shooting massacre last April at Virginia Tech, or when the seas swallowed more than 200,000 souls in the 2004 tsunami?

Put another way: Does God protect some, but not all?

At Union’s devastated campus and across Tennessee, religion scholars and students alike say such a disaster raises more theological questions than answers.

“Sometimes you just have these weather events,” said Ron Lowery, a United Methodist district superintendent in central Tennessee. “And nobody would wish that upon you, and God would himself not have that come upon us.”

Lowery has been dealt a double blow after the tornado. Two days after the storm, Michael Welch of Lafayette (Tenn.) United Methodist Church was helping coordinate relief efforts when his car was hit by a truck. Welch and three family members died.

That prompts another question: Why was Welch protected from the storm but not the oncoming truck? Lowery says he isn’t spending much time trying to make sense out of the senseless.

“You begin to see there are just circumstances that just come our way,” he said. “These things just happen, and it’s not by some divine power that’s put upon you.”

For now, Union students say they are focusing on gratitude, not questions, as they set out on the long road toward recovery.

“We as humans will question why this is happening and why we were the target,” said Brittany Howerton, a senior public relations major. “Despite all of that, we have to rest assured that God’s plan is best. We are not called to understand things. We are called to trust him.”

Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of the best-selling book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, said he does not believe the tornado was an act of God—even though insurance companies categorize natural disasters that way.

“It was an act of nature,” he said. “Nature is morally blind. Nature can be beautiful, but it has no conscience. … I find God not in the tornado, but in the many responses to the tornado, whether it’s the courage to go on or the resilience to put your life back together or the impulse to help victims.”

Kushner, who lived through the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, said he is inspired by the biblical story of the prophet Elijah, who sought God in the wind, the fire and an earthquake, but ultimately found God in a “still, small voice.”

“When we ask, ‘Why did God let this happen?’ what I learned from that … is God responds not with an explanation but with an agenda,” said Kushner, whose most recent book is Overcoming Life’s Disappointments. “In other words, what you do about it is not make sense of it, but do something to help.”

David Gushee, professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta and a former professor at Union, has a daughter who’s a student at Union and is thankful for her protection.

But he also thinks of the story in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus’ disciples asked if a man was born blind because of his sin or the sins of his parents. Jesus responded that “the works of God” would be revealed in him.

“I think we almost always get in trouble when we then attempt to offer theological explanations of what happened to that other person,” Gushee said. “I’d rather not speculate on the why, as much as when Christians and others reach out to their neighbors and feed them and rebuild their houses … and do all the concrete things that are needed; then God is present.”

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

Posted: 2/29/08

DOWN HOME:
Coming in 1st place in a dog contest

“You’re better company than the dog,” Joanna told me the other night, shortly after I returned home from a three-day trip.

My wife really knows how to dish out the compliments. Jo went on to compare my behavior favorably to the habits of our puppy, Topanga. She listed several canine proclivities I won’t mention in a family newspaper. Thankfully, I’ve never attempted any of them.

Since Jo laughed, then kissed me and hugged me and treated me to a terrific home-cooked dinner, I assume she really enjoys my company.

But contrasting my company with Topanga’s wasn’t exactly high praise. At least not from my wife. She’s had this duty before, when our daughters were toddlers and I traveled and she couldn’t get a moment of privacy, much less peace and quiet, until way after bedtime.

Topanga’s 15 months old, and she’s kind of like a toddler, except without the diapers. She wants attention from the time she’s up in the morning until she goes to bed at night. You can’t even go to the bathroom without listening to her cry at the door. She leaves her toys everywhere in the house. If you walk toward another part of the house and stop quickly, she’ll run into the back of your leg. She’ll eat food off the floor. She really doesn’t want you to do “grown up” things, like washing dishes or reading books, because that takes your attention away from her. Oh, and did I mention she has some disgusting habits?

So, that’s why I think Jo has less patience for the dog than I do. Before we ever had a dog, she lived that life with two little girls. She’s ready for peace and quiet in the evening.

Now, I’ve wondered why I tolerate all this better than Jo.

The obvious reason is the same as why I look more fondly on our girls’ baby and toddler years than Jo does: I was Daddy in their world from about 5:30 in the afternoon until bedtime. Jo was Mama around the clock. For me, it was all fun and games. For her (and she enjoyed being a mom as much as any mother I know), it was nonstop work. So, she spent her quota of parental patience on parenthood, not dog ownership.

A secondary reason is my wife is a much more sane and secure person than I am. I’ve given this quite a bit of thought, and I’ve decided I like having a dog so much because I miss the attention that comes with having kids in the house.

Why else would a grown man allow a puppy to lick his ear and place dog toys on top of his head? Why would he look forward to the end of the day so he can get in the floor and wrestle and play fetch? Canine attention is good and fun.

And I hope you won’t think I’m being flippant when I say this, but the affection of my dog reminds me in a small way of God’s love: Absolute. Unmerited. Unconditional.

So, maybe being compared favorably to Topanga is a dog-gone fine compliment.

–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.