Posted: 9/29/07

Texas Baptist Forum

Faith is central

Faith is whatever you center your life around. If it’s making money, then money is your faith. If you center your life on God and living his way, then God is your faith.

The first faith is idolatrous and leads to self-destruction. The second faith is true, for it is creative and builds life. Both are faith, for each is the organizing principle in someone’s life.

• Jump to online-only letters below

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“It amazes me that Jesus could call a Matthew and a Simon both to be his disciples. Matthew was a tax collector, a conservative of the conservatives. Simon was a zealot, the liberal of the liberals. … They were farther apart than Ted Kennedy and Rush Limbaugh could ever dream of being. … What’s amazing is that you don’t find Jesus whispering a word about which one he thought was better. … Jesus is the lord of a transpolitical kingdom.” Greg Boyd Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., speaking at a forum on ministers and politics sponsored by Christian Ethics Today (RNS) “In order to be an effective leader, you can’t just be president of the Christians. It insults our intelligence to assume that we would let difference separate us.” T.D. Jakes Dallas megachurch pastor, writing a letter to the editor in Time magazine in response to an article on Democrats and religion (RNS)

But even true faith contains doubt. Take biblical Abraham, for example. He was certain he experienced a call from God. But he struggled with doubt about whether he was getting the call of God right. Scripture says that after Abraham experienced God’s call, “he went out from his homeland, Babylonia, to he knew not where.”

So, we can be certain we are centered on God. But we never can be certain we have the details, doctrines and definitions of walking in God’s way all figured out. These will need to be worked on and worked at all our lives. New levels of understanding always should be evolving within us. At best, our understandings will be only partial truths of the Infinite.

This keeps us humble. Faith is not what doctrines we believe. It is what centers and governs our life. If this is understood and held to, it would stop so many wars, hatreds, divisions and ugly attitudes of arrogance.

Alvin Petty

Andrews

Reaching the unreached

It may not be at the level David D’Amico is praying for, but Texas Baptists are riding the “currents of internationalization,” actively developing a people group-focused missiology (Sept. 17). Four years ago, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and Dallas, Union, San Antonio, Austin and Tarrant associations provided startup grants to help fund the Texas Great Commission Initiative (www.txgci.org). Additional support has come from the International Mission Board.

The Great Commission Initiative provides intensive training and networking opportunities to equip Christians to identify, engage, evangelize and disciple unreached people groups.

In three years, we have trained more than 100 Texas pastors, church planters and strategists. More than 300 people groups have been identified, 100 of them engaged, and more than 75 churches started.

By studying what God is doing around the world, we have identified several key issues that must be addressed to make disciples of “panta ta ethne”—all the people groups:

• Detailed worldview analysis of individual ethnolinguistic people groups.

• Communication of the gospel in the people group’s heart language.

• Discipleship methods resulting in obedience to Jesus and healthy reproduction.

• Communication strategies appropriately placed on the orality-literacy continuum.

I agree with D’Amico: Unless Texas Baptists make discipleship of unreached people groups in Texas a major priority, Christ followers in Texas will become an increasingly marginalized minority. GCI doesn’t claim to have all the answers yet, but we are getting good at asking the right questions.

Tim Ahlen

Dallas

Limits of fall

In Letha Puett’s letter regarding home economics classes at Southwestern Seminary (Sept. 17), she states there is no higher calling for a woman than building a strong Christian home.  My reply is that there is no higher calling for a man, either!

Being educated in theology or any other field and serving in the ministry is not incompatible for any Christian of either gender.  All Christians are to respond to the call of God and to minister to the least of his children among us.

Limiting service to one gender is a phenomenon of the fall and not of the redeemed.  As the Apostle Paul said, in Christ there is neither male or female.  So, those who make distinctions contrary to that Scripture need to get into Christ and stop denying God’s ability to call and use any Christian for his purposes.

Ralph E. Cooper

Waco

What do you think? Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com.

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

Posted: 9/29/07

Volunteers from Ephesus Baptist Church in Jewett lead a worship service for nursing home residents.

Small church reaches nursing home residents

By George Henson

Staff Writer

EWETT—Worshippers tapped fingers and feet as they sang songs closest to their hearts—“I’ll Fly Away,” “I’ve Got a Mansion” and “I’m in the Gloryland Way.” A guitar, keyboard and tambourine accompanied a five-member choir.

The worship service filled with glory—and gusto—was in a nursing home.

Members of Ephesus Baptist Church in Jewett led services at Copper Creek Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Buffalo. They also lead worship at another nursing home in Longview.

Before the service started, volunteers hugged necks and kissed cheeks of the many residents they called by name.

Pastor Ray Payne was front-and-center in the activity, greeting residents with a contagious enthusiasm.

“Every time we come down here, I get encouraged,” he told his congregation of the day. “I just love to get together with the saints of God.”

Payne preaches, strums the guitar and leads the music, but the ministry really is one “I just show up for,” he said. “The rest of them are the ones who do all the work.”

Payne gives credit to Ginger and Blago Kovacevich for organizing the ministry. About a dozen volunters from Ephesus help lead worship at the nursing homes.

“I’ve been blessed with a good bunch,” said Payne, who has been pastor at the Jewett church since 1987. “We’ve done a lot of ministry through the years, and they’re always ready to do something new.”

In addition to the nursing home ministry, the church also has been involved in prison ministry since 1991, including working closely with a foundation that raises money to buy electronics for the prison chapel and toiletry items for prisoners who don’t have anyone to help them.

The church also has a food pantry for families in need in the community and is in the process of building a gym they hope will be a place for the community to gather.

“I’ve been amazed at the way God has worked in our bunch,” Payne said. “But it’s who we are; it’s what we do. We just want to minister in Jesus’ name.”

But he confesses when the nursing home ministry started almost 10 years ago, he wasn’t eager to take part.

“When I first started doing nursing home ministry, it was a chore, but now it’s a joy,” Payne said. The nursing home residents have become a second and third congregation for him.

He has baptized several people from the nursing homes, and he also has performed several funerals.

The Ephesus ministry team also has brought to the residents what they can no longer go to.

“Sometimes we go down there and do the Lord’s Supper because they don’t get to services anymore and we also have memorial services from time to time because so many of them lose friends and they never get to attend the funeral service.”

While many churches minister in nursing homes, the fact Ephesus Baptist Church can do it shows the ministry is possible for any church, regardless of size, Payne said.

“If we can do it, it can be done anywhere. We’re just a dirt-road country church.”

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

Posted: 9/29/07

Students sign petition
for freedom and justice

More than 1,000 Texas Baptist college students signed a Baptist World Alliance petition in support of freedom and justice worldwide during the Focus conference in Arlington.

By signing the petition, the students stated their agreement with the BWA Centenary Congress goal of religious freedom and justice for all people: “We oppose all forms of slavery, racism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing and so will do all in our power to address and confront these sins.”

The students also pledged to “urge all Christians to pray, to unite and to speak out to protect the rights of every person to worship God without fear of death, torture, imprisonment or economic exclusion.”

The BWA seeks to have 10,000 signatures for the petition that ultimately will be presented to the North American Baptist Fellowship, the BWA Freedom and Justice Commis-sion and the BWA representative to the United Nations.

Bruce McGowan, director of BGCT Collegiate Ministry, said he was pleased Texas Baptists could be the initial group to sign the petition.

“We’re thrilled as a state Baptist Student Ministry to be at the beginning of the petition opposing slavery, racism and ethnic cleansing,” he said. “We look forward to being actively involved in sharing the gospel that frees people from spiritual and physical captivity around the world.”

Individuals can sign the petition on the BWA website at www.bwanet.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: 9/29/07

Texas Tidbits

Historical Society meeting set. The Texas Baptist Historical Society will hold its fall meeting at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 29, immediately prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting. The society’s lunch meeting will be held in the Gilliland Education Center at the Globe-News Performing Arts Center, directly across from the Amarillo Convention Center. The agenda includes the election of officers, recognition of the history award winners, and a presentation by Terrell Blodgett from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas about Pat Neff, former governor of Texas, president of Baylor University and prominent Baptist layman. Cost is $10 per person, payable at the door. The reservation deadline is Oct. 22. To make reservations, contact the Texas Baptist Historical Society at (972) 331-2235 or Autumn.Hendon@bgct.org.

BGCT hotel block full; more housing options added. The block of 700 hotel rooms reserved by the Baptist General Convention of Texas for the BGCT annual meeting is full, but the convention has added additional housing options to the annual meeting website, www.bgct.org/annualmeeting.

Baylor regents approve tuition hike. Baylor University’s board of regents voted to increase tuition by 6.5 percent next year to $23,644 for 12 hours or more for the fall 2008 and spring 2009 academic year. The general student fee will increase 6.61 percent to $2,420 for next year. Room and board rates for undergraduates will increase by 5.99 percent and 2.75 percent, respectively. In total, a freshman entering Baylor in fall 2008 will pay 6.09 percent more in tuition, fees, room and board than a freshman entering this year. George W. Truett Theological Seminary students will experience a 6.43 percent increase.

Howard Payne receives grant. The Meadows Foundation of Dallas has awarded a $100,000 grant to Howard Payne University to help renovate the historic Coca-Cola complex on the university campus into an art program facility. The lecture hall in the renovated building will be named in memory of Dallas lawyer J. Waddy Bullion, a 1936 Howard Payne graduate. In 1948, Bullion helped Algur and Virginia Meadows create The Meadows Foundation, and he worked as a trustee and director for the foundation until his death in January 2004.

 

Women in Ministry meeting slated. “Working Together” is the theme of a Women in Ministry Conference, Oct. 16 at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary, sponsored by Logsdon and by the Baptist General Convention of Texas congregational leadership team and vocational theological education office. The conference is open to undergraduate and graduate ministry students at Texas Baptist universities and seminaries, as well as other Texas Baptists—male and female—interested in women in ministry. The meeting is designed to encourage, support and connect women who sense a call to vocational ministry and to offer a venue for women and men to learn more about working together in ministry. Conference leaders include Dorisanne Cooper, pastor of Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco, and Rosalie Beck from Baylor University. Registration deadline is Oct. 9. For more information, e-mail Royce.rose@bgct.org or Julie.oteter@bgct.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: 9/29/07

TOGETHER:
Board made the responsible decision

The BGCT Executive Board faced the challenge this past week of dealing with a decrease in funds available next year to support our work together. To meet our 2008 budget, changes in benefits, spending and staff reductions must be addressed. The board did not want to approve a budget where 25 to 30 staff positions would be affected by those reductions. But after a great deal of very open discussion, they reluctantly—but responsibly—voted to recommend the budget to the annual meeting in Amarillo.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

The finance subcommittee had been working with and examining options since August, and the Administration Support Committee met prior to the full board meeting. Both groups believe the way in which the budget addresses the reduction is the most appropriate option.

Some staff responsibilities will be reassigned, some tasks and roles combined and some jobs eliminated. Some employees will be eligible to retire, and some will be eligible for various benefit payouts per current policies. Everyone affected will receive a severance. As some begin searching for new opportunities, our human resources department will provide outplacement services to assist with resumes, Internet and job search access, and search strategies. The transition assistance being provided still does not make this task any easier for anyone involved, but it allows us to show how much we care and how much we appreciate their service.

We believe the end result of the changes will make us even move effective in using the missions and ministry dollars given by the churches which support the critical work of our staff with churches and the amazing work of our ministry and educational institutions.

The Executive Board acted to make the best decisions they could in providing for the urgent needs of all of our work together. I felt for them as they struggled to find the best solution, and I was proud for and of them as they made their way, painfully and prayerfully, to the decision to approve the budget. You will receive in the next Baptist Standard a report of the personnel decisions made and a careful explanation of the proposed budget.

I appeal to all of you and to all of our churches to realize that it makes a difference for time and eternity what you do about your Cooperative Program giving. Our giving system is totally voluntary; there are no assessments. Many churches will be making decisions soon about their Cooperative Program giving for 2008. You’re touching Texas and the world in ways you cannot do alone when you give generously through the BGCT Cooperative Program.

I appreciate Bob Fowler, whose term as chairman of the Executive Board will end at the conclusion of the annual meeting. He has provided wise, strong and respected guidance to the board for these past two years.

Texas Baptists are blessed by the availability of wonderful women and men who serve us on behalf of kingdom advance.

I am blessed to be part of all this. We are loved.

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

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

Posted: 9/29/07

Members of Church at Brooks Hills in Birmingham, Ala., support the Venezuela mobile medical clinic with volunteers, games and food. The clinic is one of many ministries Texas Baptists can support in Venezuela. It is in need of food medical professionals, medicine and Christians to run games and build relationships with children. (Photos by John Hall/BGCT)

Venezuelan Baptists hit their stride,
enter partnership with BGCT

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

CARACAS, Venezuela—By age 50 or so, some people have become mired in mid-life crisis or start downshifting into pre-retirement gear. But Venezuelan Baptists are just hitting their stride.

The National Baptist Convention of Venezuela, which was started in 1951, is experiencing unprecedented growth. Last year, the nearly 500-church convention launched a strategic plan to double the number of churches in the convention by 2010. Venezuelan Baptists started 70 churches during the first year, and they hope to start another 70 by the end of 2007.

For more information about mission opportunities in Venezuela, call BGCT Texas Partnerships at (888) 244-9400. View a slideshow of photos from Venezuela.

Many existing congregations either are starting or are in the midst of construction projects in an effort to keep pace with growth. Often, the increase in membership is so rapid, Sunday school classes are forced to meet in half-constructed facilities.

Where land is too expensive for a church to buy, Baptists are meeting in homes while they save money.

Baptists are starting schools and medical and sports clinics. They are holding Vacation Bible Schools. Enrollment in the seminary and Bible institutes is growing. Though they remain less than 1 percent of the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation, Baptists are seeing Christ change lives and communities.

Individuals are professing Christ as Lord and being invigorated by a relationship with him, Venezuelan Baptist leaders said.

“When Jesus Christ changes people, nothing remains the same,” said Alexander Montero, general secretary of the Venezuelan Baptist convention. “A personal transformation leads to the transformation of families, which can lead to the transformation of a country.”

Venezuelan Baptist churches have been particularly effective in ministering to children.

Venezuelan Baptists would like help to continue expanding God’s kingdom. The Baptist General Convention of Texas is entering a partnership with the Venezuelan Baptist convention in missions, ministry and evangelism. The relationship continues extended ties between Texas and Venezuela Baptists, as many of the early Venezuelan Baptist churches were started by Texans.

The country provides a wide array of settings for service—wealthy, poor, beach, urban, rural and mountainous. It also offers a variety of projects—construction, evangelism, teaching, Vacation Bible Schools and leadership development—for participation.

Venezuelan Baptists hope churches in their country can partner with Texas congregations and develop a relationship. They would like to assist Texans as much as they would like Texans to help them.

Venezuelan Baptist ministry with children has been particularly effective, leaders there noted. A significant number of poorer families have one parent present, and that person has to work to support the children. Congregations have been able to step in to help provide the attention children need.

Iglesia Evangelica Bautista la Trinidad in eastern Venezuela regularly provides recreation activities for 50 to 60 children who otherwise would roam the streets during the day. The events give church members an opportunity to show the children that people care for them and share the gospel.

Children run into a pond at a Venezuelan Baptist camp. The camp has several construction projects that Texas Baptists can help with.

The Baptist church in Mucuchies, located in the Andes Mountains, has developed a relationship with children who have special needs. The congregation provides special programs and Christmas gifts for them.

“The children need attention,” said Tomas Hudson, pastor of Iglesia Evangelica Bautista la Trinidad. “The church gives them attention. We’re open to the children coming to church.”

One of the first efforts Venezuelans would like help with is Caracas 2008, a city-wide evangelistic outreach in January 2008. This effort is being led by more than 60 Baptist congregations from across the greater-Caracas region that want to share the gospel with a large portion of the city, believing that could have a larger effect on the country. Texas Baptists who want to participate in this effort can learn more at www.bgct.org/txpart/caracas2008.

“People are concentrated in Caracas,” said Manuel Castillo, pastor of Iglesia Bautista de Catia in Caracas. “They come from across the country to be in Caracas. If they know Jesus Christ, they will share Christ with friends and family members outside the city.”

The approach to the crusade mirrors the Venezuelan Baptist approach to ministry in their country. They understand they make up a small portion of the nation’s population but believe God can use them to have a great impact.

“The future is great for Baptists,” said Guillermo Silva, a missionary in the Andes Mountains.

 

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

Posted: 9/29/07

WorldconneX fund helps churches
send and support their missionaries

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

WorldconneX, the missions network launched by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is establishing a fund to help churches send out their own missionaries.

The WorldconneX board of directors voted to establish a church-sending mission fund. WorldconneX will receive designated contributions from churches and individuals that it will direct according to the donors’ instructions to support missions personnel deployed by missions-sending churches.

The board defined “sending churches” as congregations that “formally agree to accept strategic, financial, spiritual and relational support of mission personnel.”

No specific level of financial support is prescribed for a sending church, but churches and the individuals they deploy enter a covenant agreement pledging their long-term commitment.

The board also approved four guiding principles regarding the fund—church-based accountability, donor-directed funds, financial accountability and communication driven by the church.

The church-sending mission fund represents an expansion of frontline services WorldconneX offers to churches to help them deploy their own members in missions around the world, said Bill Tinsley, leader of the missions network.

WorldconneX has helped 17 churches send 23 people since it started offering frontline services one year ago.

“Churches are starting to seek ways to send those God is calling out of their congregations to serve anywhere in the world. This is biblical, and in the 21st century, it is possible,” Tinsley said.

“WorldconneX can help churches do this. We can connect churches to an array of missions organizations with whom they can partner, or we can help them send their own people on their own. The church-sending mission fund will greatly enhance this process by enabling churches and individuals who want to support missions to financially assist those churches God is raising up to send missionaries.”

Churches send missionaries, he emphasized. WorldconneX serves as a broker, helping put needs and resources together.

“We are not the deployment organization. That is the role of the church,” he said.

The fund offers the best possible balance between autonomy and cooperation for churches that want to invest in missions, said Tom Billings, newly elected chairman of the WorldconneX board and executive director of Union Baptist Association.

“The church has significant autonomy in who they send to the mission field, where they go, what work they do, what strategy they follow. And others—individuals and congregations—can cooperate with them in this if they choose by helping support a missionary that shares the vision, values and strategy.”

Billings acknowledged the approach “has limitations and drawbacks.” But he characterized it as “a valid additional option” for churches, including congregations that also choose to support established missions agencies.

The church-sending mission fund is designed to support long-term missions workers—not volunteers on two-week or month-long trips, said Walter Justl, leader of frontline services for WorldconneX. But WorldconneX does not prescribe a strict definition of what constitutes a long-term missions worker.

“It’s ‘long-term’ as a church defines it,” he said.

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

Storylist for week of 10/01/07

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





• It's not easy being green


• Venezuelan Baptists hit their stride, enter partnership with BGCT

• WorldconneX fund helps churches send and support their missionaries

• Couple brings joy to nursing home, children's hospital patients

• BSM director arrested, accused of wife’s death

• Small church reaches nursing home residents

• Students sign petition for freedom and justice

• Around the State

• Texas Tidbits

Special Report: It's not easy being green
• It's not easy being green

• Use ‘moral imagination' in addressing global warming, expert says

• Energy-efficient green churches have more money for ministry

• Some evangelicals go green, but skepticism lingers

• 10 steps to help save the world

• Providing clean water is life-giving work, biologist says


• Baptist Briefs


• Move over She-Hulk. Make room for Samson.

• ‘In God We Trust' motto still mints controversy after 50 years

• State Department reports Iraqi insurgency hurts religious freedom

• Faith Digest


• Book reviews


• Classified Ads

• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cartoon

• Around the State


• EDITORIAL: If we don't change, this is just Round 1

• DOWN HOME: Fox-in-a-bottle outwits squirrel

• TOGETHER: Board made the responsible decision

• 2nd Opinion: A better way to find pastors

• Texas Baptist Forum



• BaptistWay Bible Series for September 30: Faith is the way

• Bible Studies for Life Series for Sept. 30: Reading the handwriting on the wall

• Explore the Bible Series for September 30: Take part in missions

• Bible Studies for Life Series for October 7: Quality is Job #1

• Explore the Bible Series for Oct. 7: Watch your words

• BaptistWay Bible Series for October 7: It's a wonderful life



Previously Posted
• BGCT Executive Board OKs reduced budget, staff reduction

• BGCT launches internal audit regarding more alleged improprieties in the Valley

• Rap tells story of foster child's forgiveness of mother

• College students ‘Focus' on sharing gospel

• Church offers motorists bargain gas and full service

• Trustees question Roberts' leadership after VP resigns from Midwestern Seminary

• Enrollment, student test scores up at many Texas Baptist schools

• Students see dramatic difference at Sul Ross

• Baylor students take ‘First Step' into community service

• Missouri Baptist conference center wins latest round in legal battle

• Official confirms church-starting fund probe in U.S. Attorney's Office


• See articles from the previous 9/03/07 issue here.

Posted: 9/27/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for October 7

It’s a wonderful life

• Romans 5:1-11

By Andrew Daugherty

Christ Church, Rockwall

It might strain our credulity to compare the Christian life to a Jimmy Stewart movie. However, consider the connection between the iconic American film, It’s a Wonderful Life, and the Apostle Paul’s theological account of justification by faith, including themes of suffering and hope.

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Set on Christmas Eve, the film features the main character, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart), who is faced with the certain bankruptcy of his family business. He is liable for an $8,000 deficit at his family’s savings and loan association, which would result in jail time; not to mention the shame it would bring on his family while leaving the town to the greedy devices of the spiteful banker, Mr. Potter.

George’s panic leads him to think the citizens of Bedford Falls and his wife and children would be better off without him. Overwhelmed by his own (distorted) sense of personal failure, George contemplates suicide. But thanks to the prayers of the people of Bedford Falls and even the prayers of his own household, a guardian angel named Clarence comes to rescue George by persuading him of his goodness.

Through flashbacks of his life, Clarence shows George how much worse off the town would be without him. He convinces him his life was deeply meaningful and his caring for the working-class people of the town had affected them in powerful and positive ways. Despite the despair and disillusionment George felt, Clarence helped him understand that his life truly was a gift.

The life choices he made to sacrifice his personal ambition for the benefit of others made him an agent of redemption. His life was wonderful, because his life was redemptive.

The Christ figure in this film is the angel, Clarence, who leaves the luxuries of heaven to come to earth to persuade George his life was filled with goodness and wonder. Rather than being anyone else’s enemy, though, George was an enemy of himself. Whatever hatred and ill-will this righteous man possessed, George aimed it squarely at himself.

Have you ever considered that God sent us the gift of Christ to persuade us of our own goodness? If our goodness derives from our positive relationship to God, Jesus’ life reveals the dramatic measures God takes to re-establish diplomatic relations with humanity.

Just as we did nothing to earn the right to be born, Paul says we are justified through no act of our own. It literally took an act of God in order for us to have standing in God’s grace. Therefore, we cannot boast about our justification arrogantly as if we are self-made. We only can boast in what God has accomplished through the person of Jesus who used divine diplomacy to negotiate a peace treaty on our behalf to ensure our good standing as God’s people. Christ redeems human beings in order that human beings might be redemptive.

Paul wastes no time transitioning from his preceding remarks about justification. Just as Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness, so all are people credited with righteousness who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. “Therefore,” Paul says, peace is the product of being justified by faith.

Notice this peace is a present reality even in the midst of unfavorable circumstances. Often preachers and church leaders talk about peace as if it were the result of our knowing we are going to heaven one day when we die. The thinking goes that if we can only survive this life, we’ll be rewarded in the life to come.

Such other-worldly optimism is lost on Paul, here. Perhaps a more faithful rendering of Paul’s words would be to contemplate how the effects of God’s gift to us through Christ make a difference in this life before considering its impact for the next. Since justification and peace are present realities, how might this make a practical difference in our lives now?

Certainly there is a “real-time” dimension to the effects of Christ’s work. This is most evident in Paul’s understanding of suffering that produces endurances, and endurance that produces character, and the character that produces hope (5:3-4).

Suffering can produce endurance, but sometimes human suffering can be so severe that to boast about it may sound as illogical as praying for the opportunity to suffer in order that character can be developed. To quote Paul elsewhere in his writings, “God forbid!”

Many experiences of suffering appear grossly disproportionate to the kind of character produced by it. Perhaps you have known people who have been through such trying times that you have said, “Lord, maybe there’s meaning in their suffering, but don’t you think that is a little too much!?”

Surely a person disillusioned by clinical depression has felt the distant otherness of God. National tragedies like 9/11 reveal a deep dissonance between the present experience of human pain and Paul’s talk of hope that does not let us down (5:4). Anyone who grieves the atrocities of war must despair over the continuing deaths of U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and the 1.1 million Iraqi refugees that have been driven from their homes and country. The enduring conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and the constant global threat of nuclear war wears thin our political patience and spiritual stamina.

When we consider Paul’s words to the Romans about boasting in our sufferings, we must likewise acknowledge the various manifestations of human suffering that challenge our understandings of spiritual hope. These sufferings are both personal and communal. They are felt in our world, our communities, and even within ourselves. What Christ did about them is the basis of our hope. What we do about them is the expression of our love. And it is a wonderful life, because it is the redemptive life.

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

Posted: 9/24/07

Bible Studies for Life for October 7

Quality is Job #1

• Matthew 5:1-12

By Steve Dominy

First Baptist Church, Gatesville

Matthew 5 begins: “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down, his disciples came to him, and he began to teach them … .”

The crowds eventually followed, and at the end of the sermon, we see the crowds were once again amazed at one who taught with such authority. But the primary point of the sermon was to teach the disciples. The Sermon on the Mount is not concerned so much with ethics in general, but with discipleship, with our obedience to God.

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If we understand the Sermon on the Mount as a set of rules or ideals to live by, we have missed the point. The ideals are too high, and we never could achieve them by ourselves; the demands of Jesus are just too great. This approach has caused many to dismiss the Sermon on the Mount as something completely impractical and irrelevant to daily living.

A better approach is to understand the Sermon on the Mount as the ethic of the kingdom of God. Matthew 4:17 says, “From that time on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’” Other than calling Peter and Andrew to follow him, the very next words Jesus utters are the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon then is Jesus’ declaration of what it means, and what it looks like, to live in this world as people committed to God’s kingdom.

When we understand the sermon as the ethic of the kingdom we gain a greater understanding of the word “blessed.” Our society tends to understand blessing as a reward for a service rendered or a state of character we have achieved. But the word for blessing here carries with it the idea of a condition of life. The word “happy” often is substituted for “blessed,” but we associate that with a state of mind more than a condition of life. Joyful might be the best word for us to use in understanding blessing. There is an abiding joy in our lives as we follow Jesus in every area of our life.

Joy is listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit and is evidence of God at work in our lives. The same is true of the beatitudes, all of the characteristics Jesus mentions are evidence of God at work in our lives. Just as we cannot pick and choose between the fruit of the Spirit, neither can we pick and choose between the beatitudes. All eight of the beatitudes serve as evidence of the work of God in our lives. They are eight qualities of the same people who are meek and merciful, poor in spirit and pure in heart, mourning and hungry, peacemakers and persecuted.

When we focus on the blessing as a result, we miss the blessing altogether. The second half of each beatitude tells us what the blessing is and why there is joy. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven and they are comforted. They inherit the earth and are filled. They are shown mercy, they see God and are called sons of God. Their heavenly reward is great.

The characteristics of the kingdom that Jesus lists in the beatitudes can’t be achieved in and of our own power, they are the results of following Christ. In the same way, the blessings and joy Christ lists are gifts of God. They cannot be attained in and of ourselves, they are pure gift.

To say these characteristics and blessings are gifts does not mean that we do not pursue these gifts, it does say something about how we pursue them. The Christian life always is a life lived in the real world. One of the greatest barriers to people who are not followers of Christ are people who claim to be Christian but bear no evidence of it in the way that they live. The more we grow to be like Christ the more evident these characteristics become in our lives. We don’t pursue these characteristics so we can be blessed, but because they are pleasing to God, and we already have tasted the blessing of his salvation and presence. We seek to live out these character traits because they are pleasing to God.

All of these characteristics, which are so valued in the kingdom of God, have little value in the rest of the world. Our society does not place great value on meekness, or poverty of spirit. We do not know what to do with those who mourn or those who are peacemakers. Because the value system of the kingdom stands in such stark contrast to the values of the world we open ourselves to at least misunderstanding and more likely scorn and ridicule. Jesus says to rejoice when this happens because it is due to our following him.

Jesus brings the beatitudes into a coherent whole in the last verses of this section. When Jesus says, “because of me,” he gives us the reason for applying the beatitudes to our lives now. It is because of Jesus that we work to develop those character traits that are his character traits. Exhibiting the traits Jesus lists in the beatitudes strengthens his work in our lives and in his world, and that is blessing in and of itself.

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Posted: 9/24/07

Explore the Bible Series for October 7

Watch your words

• Matthew 11:1-12:50

By Travis Frampton

Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene

In Deuteronomy 5:12-14, Moses commands the Israelites to: “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.”

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God created the world. On the seventh day, he rested. Sabbath, which means “rest” in Hebrew, was set aside as a sacred time for creation to recuperate. In Matthew chapter 12, the Pharisees confronted Jesus on the issue of working on the Sabbath.

Before we look at their dispute, consider the verses which immediately precede their debate. Jesus told his followers: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).

Matthew’s narrative is arranged in such a way for readers to make associations between Jesus and the Sabbath. This passage implies Jesus is one in whom people can find rest. Two accounts on matters related to Jesus’ interpretation of Sabbath laws then follow.

Picking grain on the Sabbath

In the first account, the disciples were picking heads of grain to eat on the holy day. The Pharisees drew attention to Jesus’ followers doing what was unlawful. Harvesting one’s food on the Sabbath was a violation of the Mosaic law. When confronted on this issue, Jesus reminded his opponents that David had not done what was lawful by eating consecrated bread (see 1 Samuel 21:1-6), and he was not reprimanded. Jesus also contended that in Numbers 28:9-10 the priests prepared sacrifices on the Sabbath and also are not condemned for their actions. He went on to paraphrase Hosea 6:6, which states, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” Jesus proposed a new hermeneutic, a new way to read the Law.

The Pharisees prioritized the letter of the Law. With regards to the laws of Moses, there were no grey areas. Commandments were written in black and white. The Law said it, and they believed it. Jesus’ interpretation, radical for his day (and even for ours), was more fluid and not as concrete. Whereas for the Pharisees the Law may have been written in black and white, and whereas they insisted others live in a black-and-white world, Jesus rejected their model. Those more moderate may have seen shades of grey where the Pharisees saw only black and white, but Jesus saw the world differently. He saw the world as a place of vibrant color. He rejected a two-tone interpretation of Scripture.

Instead of prioritizing the needs and requirements of the Law before all else, Jesus placed the needs and requirements of people before the letter of the Law. How could he do this? Were not the Pharisees justified in bringing the disciples and Jesus before the scrutiny of the Law?

In the first century, “the Law and the Prophets” was the Bible of Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus provided examples from the Bible in his dispute with the Pharisees over picking grain on the Sabbath. He quoted two passages from the Law (1 Samuel and Numbers) and one from the Prophets (Hosea). He chastised his accusers for bringing charges against the innocent, and then gave them a warning they failed understand: “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8). To put it another way, Jesus was insisting that “the Son of Man is Lord of the Law.” To put it in 21st century vernacular, Jesus was essentially saying: “The Son of Man is Lord of the Bible.”

Jesus healing the man with a withered hand

After the dispute over picking grain, Jesus then strode audaciously right into the synagogue. The synagogue of all places. Pharisees instructed their students on matters of law there. It was a place for education and for worship. Jesus was on his opponents’ turf. As soon as he entered, the Pharisees asked him whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. The question posed to him was very direct and to the point: black and white.

A man with a shriveled hand was present. Jesus told the man to stretch it out his hand, and there in the midst of the Pharisees and beneath the roof of the synagogue, Jesus prioritized human suffering over strict observance of commandments in Deuteronomy. In so doing, he turned the law upside down. Which was more important: strict observance of the law or compassion for human beings? In this way, Jesus read “the Bible” in color. He colored over the black-and-white letters with the primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Fulfilling the Law took on new meaning. For Jesus, mercy came before obedience to the Law.

Matthew then records: “The Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus” (Matthew 12:14).

What then does this reflection have to do with watching one’s words? In Matthew 12:22-37, verses which follow the disputes over Sabbath laws, the Pharisees called Jesus “Beelzebub,”—the Prince of Demons. Jesus had driven a demon out of a man, and the “religious” had mistaken him for Satan. They had mistaken what was good for what was evil.

Is it possible for us to hinder the spread of the gospel with our tongues, even though we intend to honor God with our words? Television evangelists in the past have been quick to read natural disasters as the work of the hands of God. From their perspective, God sends disasters when people do not follows his law. They see human suffering as the result of God’s initiative.

In many ways, this type of interpretation of world events fails to understand how “the Son of Man is Lord of the Law.” In Christ, mercy is the work of God’s hands. Those who are quick to judge disasters as the work of an angry god miss the good news of God revealing himself in Christ, in mercy and in love.

Sitting back and being an armchair judge is much easier than being the hands and body of Christ helping the victims of natural disaster. Instead of preaching judgment when disasters strike, the church is commanded to be with those who have been knocked down, so that they also are there to help them stand up and walk again.

Unfortunately, whenever we preach the Bible is more important than people, we come dangerously close to being like the Pharisees. Whenever law becomes more important than grace, we fail to see how Jesus completed the law and the prophets. Whenever “sacrifice” is placed before “mercy,” we fail to live according to the word of Christ. Whenever “the Bible” becomes more about God’s laws and less about God’s love, we live—as Paul instructed us not to—under the letter of the Law instead of under the spirit of the Law. We too are prone to seeing only in black and white, color blind, unable to see Jesus as the Word incarnate.

Discussion questions

• In what ways do we turn the gospel into law?

• Can you think of examples of how we honor religious practices and customs more than we do people?

• Why is mercy more important than observance of the law?

• “People matter more than things.” Is this statement true about Jesus’ attitude in these stories?

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

Posted: 9/21/07

Trustees question Roberts’ leadership
after VP resigns from Midwestern Seminary

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (ABP)—The chief financial officer at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary resigned Sept. 20 in a dispute with President Philip Roberts over a financial analysis that raised questions about Roberts’ leadership, the school’s trustee chairman said.

David Hodge, vice president of business services, confirmed his resignation but declined to talk about the dispute or criticize the seminary.

However, according to trustee Chairman Gene Downing and other sources, Roberts placed Hodge on administrative leave Sept. 20 after Hodge declined to give Roberts a copy of the confidential analysis, which Hodge prepared at Downing’s request.

Phil Roberts and his trustees have been in a behind-the-scenes conflict in recent months over the president’s leadership and alleged financial “irregularities,” according to sources close to the seminary. Those issues, and Hodge’s resignation, are expected to be addressed by trustees at their mid-October meeting.

Chairman Downing, a businessman from Oklahoma City, said he requested the “professional business analysis” from Hodge, who was a banker for 26 years, with the understanding the document was confidential. Downing said he sent the document to the other members of the trustee executive committee.

When Roberts found out about the analysis, he asked Hodge for a copy, Downing said, but the vice president refused. “David Hodge, being the honorable and reputable guy he is, felt that was not ethical,” the chairman explained.

“I asked him, as COO, to give me his assessment of where we are at,” Downing said of the document he requested from Hodge, who is the seminary’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer. “Some of those things may not have been complimentary toward Dr. Roberts. … I thought it was a good, very professional review.”

The analysis included information that had been requested from Roberts “for quite some time” and that Roberts “had not responded to,” Downing said.

The VP’s resignation was “very unfortunate because David Hodge is one exceptional guy” who was “just trying to do his job,” Downing said. Asked if Hodge was put on leave because he provided the analysis to trustees or because he didn’t give Roberts a copy, Downing said “both.”

Roberts did not respond to two telephone requests for comment or a request for an e-mail interview.

Downing said he is arranging an “exit interview” in a week or two between Hodge and the trustee executive committee, acting on a recently adopted trustee policy to interview any departing vice president.

He insisted Midwestern is not in financial trouble and there are no financial issues. Instead, the dispute with Roberts is over his “leadership” and his dealings with trustees and staff, Downing said.

Eight years ago, trustees fired Roberts’ predecessor, Mark Coppenger, over his treatment of staff. “Expressions of anger admitted to by Dr. Coppenger had irreparably damaged his ability to lead the seminary,” said Carl Weiser, trustee chairman in 1999.

Downing, the current chairman, declined to say if the trustees are likely to fire Roberts, except to say “the majority always rules.” He added: “There’s a saying: ‘It takes hard work to get you to the top, but only character will keep you there.’“

Downing said the seminary remains strong despite the dispute over Roberts’ leadership. “These are some of the finest professors I’ve ever met,” he said of the Midwestern faculty. “The students don’t go there because of Phil Roberts.”

Roberts has drawn criticism recently for his handling of an $8 million sale of seminary land to a developer, plans to build new student housing, and the opening of an off-campus extension program reportedly without the approval of the seminary’s accrediting agency. The off-campus center is located at First Family Church in nearby Overland Park, Kan. The church’s pastor, Jerry Johnston, is under investigation by state law enforcement officials for his financial dealings.

Downing said some trustees are upset about Roberts’ friendship with Johnston. Roberts, who publicly supported Johnston against the allegations, recently awarded Johnston and three family members bachelor’s degrees.

Hodge declined to discuss his departure. “Obviously something happened or I’d still be sitting at my desk this afternoon,” he said by cell phone while driving home. But he said the exchange with Roberts that led to his placement on leave and resignation was confidential.

Hodge, who in February resigned as president of Central Bank and Trust in Hutchinson, Kan., to go to Midwestern, worked at the seminary only six months. When he was hired, after a quarter century in banking, Roberts called him “an extraordinarily gifted Christian financier.”

Hodge said he did not want to say anything that would reflect poorly on the seminary,and he repeatedly expressed his confidence in the seminary, adding he had nothing but praise for the students, faculty and staff. Hodge said there were no financial improprieties at the school and that Southern Baptists can have full confidence in the seminary.

Hodge added he would do “everything in his power” to support the school—including going back to work there if asked. “I would go back if the (management) team wanted me there,” he said, even if Roberts remains president.

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