Posted: 9/06/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for September 16

Facing the fiery furnace

• Daniel 3:1-2,4-6,8,12-14,16-18,24-26a,28

By Steve Dominy

First Baptist Church, Gatesville

This story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is one of the best known in all the Bible. Any time you have a song written to tell your story, you can pretty well guarantee the story is well known. There is good reason this story is so popular; it is a great story! It has everything a good story needs; a good plot, intrigue, conflict and a miraculous rescue—what more could you need?

There are three primary themes in this story. The first theme deals with idolatry. Nebuchadnezzar built a statue of gold, 90 feet high and nine feet wide and commanded everyone to fall down and worship before the statue or be thrown into a blazing furnace.

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It was easy for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to recognize the threat here. They are being told to demote their God by not worshipping him alone. They are told to worship the statue of a god they know does not exist and recognize this nonexistent god as an equal to the living God of Israel.

For the people of Babylon, worshipping this idol would not have been a problem; they recognized many gods and would not have had a problem adding one more god to their repertoire. But for people who have been raised on the Shema, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), bowing before a supposed god would have been the height of treason.

It is easy for us to recognize this as idolatry, it doesn’t get much more blatant than this story. Our temptation towards idolatry is much more subtle than the story of the fiery furnace and is much more dangerous. None of us will be threatened with death if we do not bow before an idol, but we will be tempted to put our trust in something other than the crucified and risen Christ.

Some of the things that can vie for our loyalty and love are the things God has given us. One of the most obvious is family. You probably have heard it said in a wedding ceremony, “Even before the foundation of the church, God formed the family,” and it is an accurate statement. Family can become an idol when we separate it from subjection to the lordship of Christ. It happens when we compartmentalize our lives so that God takes care of our “spiritual” life, but we believe we can handle our marriage and children. Family then becomes more important than God, and we miss the blessing God has for our family by not committing our family to him.

The same is true of the church. When the church becomes more important than what God does in and through the church we have made it an idol and have taken its leadership out of God’s hands. When we are more proud of the programs, buildings, budgets and attendance than we are of God’s presence in our midst, then the church has taken the place of the God who has made us a part of it and become an idol.

The second important theme is courage. While it would have been easy for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to recognize the threat of idolatry, it would have been another thing altogether to refuse to fall down before it in the face of the threat of death.

The manner in which they exhibited their courage is a great model for us to follow. Nebuchadnezzar had no idea anyone was refusing to obey his command until some of his astrologers told him. There was no false bravado; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego simply lived their lives as they always had—worshipping the one true God and not an idol. They did not go to the town square or stand on the feet of the idol and proclaim its falsehood. They did not threaten the Babylonians with the consequences of their worship of a false god; they lived their lives as they always had.

Even before Nebuchadnezzar, their courage is displayed in a dignified manner. They did not threaten the king, they simply stated that their faith was in God and not in the king or any of the idols he had made. They did not challenge Nebuchadnezzar to a contest to see whose God was greater. They simply stated that their God was able to rescue them, but even if God did not, they would not bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol. The three friends would live their lives in a manner that honored God. We will see the manner in which they displayed their courage was important to the final result.

The third theme is God’s faithfulness and redemption. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were convinced of God’s faithfulness regardless of the outcome. This theme has been revealed previously in the book of Daniel; God’s faithfulness is not contingent on the circumstances of life. This time God’s faithfulness is revealed in the friend’s redemption from the fiery furnace. The result is that Nebuchadnezzar again recognizes that, “no other god can save in this way.”

The manner in which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego displayed their courage and faithfulness is similar to the way Jesus displayed his faithfulness. Jesus did not call down fire from heaven on those who condemned him but humbled himself to the point of death on a cross.

Living a Christian life with courage and faithfulness does not mean we have to stand on the mountain to proclaim his greatness against all others. God chose the way of the cross to redeem the world, a way of shame and humiliation, not bravado and boisterousness. God calls his people to do the same, living a life totally dependent upon his grace and mercy, trusting in no other than him.

Discussion questions

• In what ways are Christians apt to make their church into an idol?

• Why do courage and humility seldom go together?

• Have you sometimes questioned God’s faithfulness in the midst of the storms of life?

Posted: 9/06/07

Campus minister shared story of Jesus,
kept his own wartime story to himself

Retired Baptist Student Union Director Donnal Timmons described his experiences as a World War II prisoner of war in vivid detail to his family and a few close friends.

Sixty captive soldiers were crammed into a single boxcar after marching days without food. Using a Gideon Bible, Timmons shared the New Testament plan of salvation with another frightened GI. His attempt at personal evangelism was interrupted by bullets that pierced the railway car and splinters that flew everywhere when fighter planes strafed the train.

At a reunion in Irving, Donnal Timmons accepts a crystal 'praying hands' award from former students whose lives he touched during his service as a Baptist Student Union director.

Timmons’ select audience was mesmerized by his stories. But former college students who knew Timmons five decades earlier as their spiritual mentor were surprised to learn about his wartime trauma, which they learned about only in the last few years.

He served as Baptist Student Union director at the Texas College of Arts and Industries—now Texas A&M University-Kingsville—from 1949 to 1961.

When asked why he never shared his experiences as a POW with students during their college years, Timmons, now age 85, replied: “It wasn’t important anymore. What was happening in your lives was what mattered.”

Rather than focusing on stories about wartime exploits, Timmons never tired of telling students a different story—about what Jesus Christ had done in his life and what he could do for them.

“My parents were sharecroppers. They spent their last 50 cents to buy gas for the neighbor’s car so we could all attend a revival in Brownfield,” Timmons said.

“I don’t remember exactly what the minister said that night. I just accepted the Lord as my personal savior and made my decision public. Lying in the bed of the Model T Coupe on the bumpy road home, I wouldn’t say a word. It was too sacred. I felt a deep peace that has been with me all of my life.”

Timmons focused his ministry on mentoring before it was in vogue, former students noted.

Unknown to nearly all the students he mentored during his time as a BSU director, Timmons was a POW during World War II. He earned three battle stars, a combat infantry badge and a Purple Heart.

“One-on-one, he was a great listener. More often he asked questions and directed us to Scripture and prayer instead of answering,” said Janis Hudson of Keller. “He ministered. He helped lost souls find Christ. He taught Bible. He had a truly personal touch making everyone feel special. He delegated. It gave him time with his wife and four children. Students were empowered.”

Many students left the Kingsville campus to become pastors, missionaries, deacons, music directors, and Bible teachers, she noted.

Former students recalled Timmons’ wry sense of humor and how he used it to keep them accountable.

Phillip Hudson—now a deacon at First Baptist Church in Richardson—served as a BSU council member, song leader at vesper services and part-time janitor at the campus student ministry center.

When Hudson failed to adequately clean the facility on one occasion, he remembered the message Timmons left him on a chalkboard: “Phil, this room if philthy!” Hudson promptly cleaned the room.

At a recent event in Devine, at the home Bobby and Barbara Killough, many of Timmons’ former students gathered from across the United States to honor him.

“He never urged, ‘Follow me.’ He always taught, ‘Follow Christ,’” one former student said in a testimonial to Timmons’ lasting influence “Faith, commitment, sacrifice, and God’s peace have endured.”

—Based on reporting by Janis Hudson

Posted: 9/06/07

James Kennedy, elder statesman
of Religious Right, dead at 76

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ABP)—Presbyterian minister James Kennedy died Sept. 5, little more than a week after he retired from the pulpit that helped him launch both evangelistic and political ministries.

Kennedy, who was 76, had served for nearly half a century as pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But he was also one of the pioneers of television ministry, a seminary founder and the head of an activist empire devoted to what he believed was the restoration of the United States as a “Christian nation.”

According to Coral Ridge Ministries, the umbrella group for his ministry efforts, his death resulted from complications following a heart attack he suffered late last year. He had stepped down from his day-to-day role as head of the church and ministry while undergoing rehabilitation, but worshipers at the church learned Aug. 26 that he would be unable to return to his duties.

Kennedy’s death comes just months after that of his better-known contemporary, Jerry Falwell, and at a time when some commentators have also pronounced the demise of the Religious Right movement they helped birth.

Nonetheless, his supporters praised Kennedy’s understated leadership in a movement where fierier orators often overshadowed the erudite and highly educated Presbyterian.

“He ‘walked the walk’ and ‘practiced what he preached,’” his daughter, Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy, said in a statement posted Sept. 5 on Coral Ridge Ministries’ website. “His work for Christ is lasting—it will go on and on and make a difference for eternity.”

Kennedy, who was born in Georgia but raised in Chicago, became a Christian in his early 20s. He entered Columbia Theological Seminary, now a Presbyterian Church USA school, and went to pastor Coral Ridge, then a tiny mission church, in 1959. The congregation later joined the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, formed mainly by Southerners who broke with the mainstream Presbyterian denomination over the ordination of women and other issues.

After training the church’s members in effective means of personal evangelism, the church began to grow explosively. His method, called “Evangelism Explosion,” became popular in the Southern Baptist Convention and across evangelicalism. By the 1970s, Kennedy had written several books and built a congregation thousands strong. He began television broadcasts of his sermons from Coral Ridge, which built a massive facility with a 30-story-tall steeple and one of the nation’s largest pipe organs.

Kennedy’s work soon moved from evangelizing individuals to evangelizing the culture for what he considered Christian values on policy issues. He served on the initial board of Falwell’s Moral Majority, which aimed to mobilize conservative evangelical voters who had previously shunned politics. He later founded the Center for Reclaiming America, which brought Christian activists to Fort Lauderdale for training on effective issue advocacy.

Kennedy advocated staunchly in opposition to abortion and in favor of government endorsements of Christianity. He was a strong supporter of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who lost his job after defying a court order to remove monument to the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the court’s building. In 2001, a crew from Coral Ridge filmed the clandestine installation of the two-ton granite monolith—inscribed with the Protestant King James translation of the biblical commandments—although Moore’s fellow justices were not even aware it was being placed in the building.

Coral Ridge Ministries later raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for Moore’s legal defense, but he lost all of his appeals and was removed from office in 2003. At the time, Kennedy characterized the judge as a legal martyr.

“Moore is being punished for upholding the rule of law, for following the will of the voters, for faithfully upholding his oath of office, and for refusing to bow to tyranny,” he said. “For too long, too many elected officials have bowed in submission to lawless federal court edicts that set aside life and liberty. They have stood by as, case by case, God and biblical morality have been removed from public life. At some point, the representatives of the people must defend the rule of law and oppose tyranny.”

His views on such issues made him a frequent adversary of those who support strong church-state separation, such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Barry Lynn, the group’s director, called Kennedy a “key architect” of the Religious Right who “played a huge role in building the religious conservative movement” even though Falwell and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson are better known.

“His many books were quite important, because they offered the theological underpinnings for the Religious Right’s political stances,” Lynn said in an e-mail interview.

“Rev. Kennedy often drew a good bit of fire from critics of the Religious Right, because they would accuse him of having theocratic ideas because he had a more sophisticated set of theories and ideas about why conservative Christians should be involved in politics,” said John Green, an expert on conservative evangelicals at Washington’s non-partisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

But Green said he didn’t think Kennedy was a true theocrat, even though he sometimes left himself open to the charge.

“I would say, though, that he often talked in the kinds of terms that led his critics to label him that way,” he said. Green also noted that Kennedy sometimes associated with true theocrats, such as Rousas Rushdoony of the Christian Reconstructionism movement. The movement advocates Christians taking “dominion” over government and seeks to reinstate Old Testament law, including capital punishment for crimes such as adultery and homosexuality.

The death of Kennedy and Falwell mark a changing of the guard among politically-oriented evangelicals, Green said. A new generation of evangelical leaders have, while continuing to express opposition to abortion and homosexuality, also expressed a desire to broaden the movement’s agenda to encompass fighting global poverty and protecting the environment.

That doesn’t mark an ideological difference so much as a natural historical progression, he said, because of the fact that people like Kennedy got conservative evangelicals to engage in political activism. “There’s also a little bit of a different style—(Kennedy and Falwell) were hard-edged, they were confrontational in their politics. They didn’t compromise,” Green said.

“Part of that is, I think, the difference in time,” he continued. “When the Rev. Kennedy came into politics, there weren’t very many people to compromise with, because conservative Christians weren’t involved in politics.”

Besides his daughter, Kennedy is survived by his wife, Anne, of 51 years.

Posted: 9/05/07

Missionaries from Texas
ride out Hurricane Felix

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua— Southern Baptist missionaries Jim and Viola Palmer of Athens and a team of volunteers from a Florida church rode out the brunt of Hurricane Felix Tuesday morning in Puerto Cabezas, a port city of about 25,000 in Nicaragua.

“We got smacked pretty hard,” said Jim Palmer. But most of their house and the Baptist churches in Puerto Cabezas survived the storm.

Felix marks the third hurricane the Palmers have lived through in their eight years as Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionaries in Nicaragua.

A 13-person mission team from Salem Baptist Church in Perry, Fla., stayed with the Palmers through onslaught by Hurricane Felix.

The three Baptist churches in Puerto Cabezas survived the storm, Palmer said via telephone Tuesday evening.

“Our churches were packed (with people) through the night” Monday, and every church withstood the storm,” he said. “These were churches built by Southern Baptist volunteers, and a lot of times the churches we build are the strongest buildings in the town.”

A five-acre experimental farm is part of the mission, and Felix “knocked down pretty much every tree” on the farm, Palmer said.

The mission house where the Palmers live lost its roof and a “good portion” of the second floor, but the walls and ceiling of the bottom floor are built with reinforced concrete in order to survive such storms, Palmer said. “We never contemplate leaving.”

The front edge of the storm hit Puerto Cabezas at about 5 a.m. Tuesday, he said. The back edge came through at about 9 a.m. and “really walloped the town.” By about 11 a.m., Palmer and others were able to emerge from hiding and evaluate the damage.

The Florida team was in Puerto Cabezas to do repair work on the local mission center and to use some heavy equipment owned by the mission to improve local roads. After the storm, those services were especially needed.

Using chainsaws and tractors, a portion of the team started clearing the main roads in the city, while the rest of the team began to work at the mission.

Puerto Cabezas was without electricity Tuesday evening, but the mission has its own generator to provide electricity, which also keeps the water flowing.

The IMB approved $5,000 in immediate disaster relief, and the Palmers already were using that to provide food for people Tuesday.

“We're grateful we were safe,” Palmer said, but he is concerned for the Meskito people with whom he and his wife work. “They live from day to day,” and that means no food in a disaster situation.

“Pray that this will be an opportunity to minister to people in their physical needs and to provide for their spiritual comfort,” he said. “Right now the most important thing is to find ways to minister to people.”

Posted: 8/31/07

Bivocational church leader
Ray plans to retire this fall

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Baptist General Convention of Texas bivocational/small church affinity group director Bob Ray will retire this fall.

Ray, who helped start the Bivocational/Smaller Membership Ministers and Spouses Association in 1993, will retire some time this fall and move to Fairy, where he has served Fairy Baptist Church more than 40 years as pastor. He will be the first congregation’s first pastor to live in Fairy in the church’s 125-year history.

“The Lord has laid on Rosalind's heart and mine that now is the time to retire as director of the office of the bivocational/smaller church ministries and focus on our church family at Fairy,” he said. 

“Our plans are to continue to be supportive of the ministries of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and will continue to take an active part in the Texas Baptist Bivocational and Smaller Membership Ministers and Spouses Association.”

Ray said “serving and helping bivocational and smaller membership churches through the BGCT has enabled us to fulfill a dream.” 

“Smaller membership churches are a real passion of mine and will continue to be,” he said. ”This office gave me the opportunity to develop training events and opportunities to affirm and encourage the leaders of our smaller membership churches.  I was able to raise the level of awareness of the needs of our bivocational/smaller membership churches throughout the convention.”

Randy Rather, president of the bivocational/smaller church ministers’ association and pastor of Tidwell Baptist Church near Greenville, praised Ray’s commitment to small-church ministry.

“There is no one I have ever met who has been a greater advocate and has a bigger heart for small church and bivocational work,” he said.

“His passion for small church has shown in the years of support, service and ministry that he and Rosalind have brought to the Bivocational/Smaller Membership Ministers and Spouses Association. He’s brought a level of expertise and drawn out from those around him excellent ministry and a passion for that kind of work. He’s helped us lay the groundwork for the continued development and future of the association. Without his leadership, the association would not be what it is today.”

David Keith, former president of the association and pastor of Carlton Baptist Church in Carlton, thanked Ray for his service and his expertise.

“He’s forgotten more about bivocational work than most of us will ever learn,” Keith said. “Even before he was on staff, he and Rosalind were dedicated to bivocational work and spent thousands upon thousands of hours on it.”

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade remembers meeting Bob Ray when Wade served as BGCT president. He was struck by Ray’s leadership ability and heart for small church ministry.

“When the opportunity came to expand our ministry to bivocational ministers, I was glad we could call Bob Ray, a life-long bivocational minister to lead that effort,” Wade said. “He and his wife Rosalind have been remarkable leaders and the work has grown. Bob has laid a foundation that demands that we find the very best person possible to take the baton and lead our bivocational ministry to the future. Bob’s greatest strengths as I have observed are his steady and unwavering commitment to serve everyone. No one and no ministry is unimportant to Bob Ray.”

Posted: 9/04/07

TBM volunteers respond to Minnesota floods

WINONA, Minn.—Texas Baptist Men volunteers are in Minnesota helping with clean-out efforts following severe flooding—and more are on the way, according to Ernie Rice of First Baptist Church in Stockdale.

Eight Texans were on the ground in Winona Sept. 4 by early afternoon, and six more were scheduled to arrive later in the day, said Rice, the coordinator for the TBM disaster relief effort. Thirty-five Texans were expected by the end of the week.

The Texans and volunteers from 10 other state Baptist convention were called out by the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board Sept. 1. The Texans were led by Gambrell Association, and Second Baptist Church of LaGrange cleanout units responded.

Southeastern Minnesota was flooded Aug. 18-19, with 15 inches of rain following in four hours in Winona, Rice said. The area has been declared a federal disaster area.

About 1,500 homes in Winona were affected, and 240 have requested help with the cleanup, he said. As of Tuesday afternoon, about half of the homes had been cleaned.

“These homes have full basements,” Rice said. The volunteers have to remove the wet stuff, then pressure wash and sanitize the house before homeowners can let the house dry and begin repairs.

“This is my favorite ministry because you have such close relationship” with the victims, Rice said. “You have time to minister and to give the hope of God to them.”

Winona “doesn’t have much Baptist work going on in it,” he noted.

The Texas volunteers expect to be in Minnesota 10 days, plus two days of travel at the beginning and end.

Posted: 8/31/07

Combined youth choirs
‘converge’ on San Marcos

By George Henson

Staff Writer

SAN MARCOS—Youth choirs from six churches around Texas met in San Marcos to sound a note for unity.

Converge ’07 involved more than 150 teenagers from Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena, First Baptist Church in Abilene, Central Baptist Church in Marshall, First Baptist Church in Valley Mills and the host church, First Baptist Church in San Marcos.

“We see about 20 to 25 students in my choir, and my hope was to see them in a larger choir where they could learn more difficult and complicated music, exposing them to music we could never pull off with the limited number of voices on our own,” said Tim Lyles, minister of music and administration at the San Marcos church.

“It also gave them the opportunity to meet some other youth from like-minded churches around the state and really served as a good back-to-school event for churches involved.”

The gathering also provided First Baptist Church in San Marcos with a major event in its new worship facility. The church had met at San Marcos Baptist Academy the past two years until the church moved its present facility July 8.

“We just thought it would be a marvelous way to baptize the building,” said Bobby Miller, minister of music at South Main Baptist Church in Pasadena. “This will certainly be the largest group of voices in choir loft that building has seen.”

The choirs met and worked on five anthems for the Sunday morning service. Miller said the number of voices would expand all the individual choirs’ capabilities.

“All of these anthems are probably accessible to the individual choirs, but there is a confidence in numbers that should make it really great,” he said.

The germ of the idea for the gathering began to take shape in January when Lyles and Miller were together at an educational meeting.

The event that resulted from that conversation was received so well, plans already are forming to do it again next year.

Other churches that would like to join the experience can contact Lyles at tlyles@sanmarcosfbc.org.

Posted: 8/31/07

EDITORIAL:
We can bridge the chasm of race

Every parent eventually encounters moments that send a clear signal: Your children are growing up in a world far removed from the little sphere of your childhood.

One of those transcendental times occurred when Lindsay and Molly, our daughters, were young—kindergarten- or early elementary-school age. Joanna and I sat in the school cafetorium as the principal read off the names of students who earned special recognition. I tried not to doze so I wouldn’t miss my own daughter’s name as she droned through the list of typical names of kids their age: Caitlin, Katy, Sara, Courtney, Dustin, Justin, Michael, Mohammad.

Mohammad? Now, there’s a name never mentioned when roll was called in the schoolrooms of my youth. Sure enough, a beautiful child with jet-black hair, olive skin and deep-brown eyes walked up to receive his certificate. He bore the look, and his parents spoke the soft accent, of a place far, far away.

That was the first of our family’s innumerable experiences with our public school systems’ amazing multi-culturalism. Through the years, our girls made friends with children whose families originated on six continents. They were called by a symphony of names, most of which I no longer can spell, that always sounded exotic and melodic, especially when pronounced by their parents.

One of our family’s great blessings was the good fortune to buy a home in the zone for our district’s most multi-racial, multi-ethnic public high school. Lindsay and Molly learned—through experience and the role models of great teachers and administrators—about the dignity and worth of all people, no matter their skin color or preferred language. They learned how to cooperate with people whose culture and expectations are very different from their own. They learned how to see the world through others’ eyes.

How I wish our churches would do as well as our schools when we approach racial and ethnic barriers.

More than 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke words that still ring true and sadly echo in our hearts: “I am … appalled that 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in Christian America.”

This paper includes a package of articles we’ve been calling “Race: The Final Frontier.” We’re taking a long, hard look at why race is such a difficult chasm for Christians to bridge. Don’t just read these articles; pray them. In the coming decades, how Christians handle race relations will either validate or negate our claims regarding the gospel. We can’t afford to get this wrong.

Christians of goodwill from many races openly and honestly discuss and disagree about whether truly multi-racial congregations are viable and/or preferable. And multitudes of Christians who have tried to create multi-cultural congregations—people whose hearts beat for unity—testify that it is extraordinarily difficult, for myriad reasons. Perhaps in time, our congregations will look more like heaven, not to mention our own state.

In the meantime, let us take steps to bridge the chasm between our churches of different races and ethnicities. Many congregations participate in joint worship services, which are good but which are easy and, frankly, not very demanding. Let’s try some other approaches. Here are some starters:

• Multi-racial fellowships or socials. Instead of pulling entire congregations together, arrange informal social times in which Sunday school classes of about the same age range meet to get to know each other and enjoy one another’s company.

• Joint ministries. Bring churches together to minister in their community. Nothing like shared sweat and accomplishment to produce shared vision.

• Dinner conversations. Bring groups of no more than six or eight people together for an evening of good food and heart-to-heart discussion of faith, life and race.

Posted: 8/31/07

For 10 years, Christian Women’s
Job Corps has been changing lives

By Jessica Dooley

Communications Intern

Supporting a family can be hard when a person is unemployed, but it can be even harder to find the skills necessary for a decent-paying job. And without money to receive higher education or specialized training, learning those skills becomes almost impossible.

But Christian Women’s Job Corps and Christian Men’s Job Corps, make the process easier—teaching not only job skills, but also life skills in a Christian context.

The ministry started 10 years ago with an idea and a dream. After hearing disturbing facts and real life stories about women in poverty, national Woman’s Missionary Union took action.

San Antonio soon became a pilot program for Christian Women’s Job Corps, along with Chicago and South Carolina. Soon, other cities across Texas joined.

“I stand back in awe watching God’s people at work as they offer a gift of hope to those desiring to change their lives,” said Christine Hockin-Boyd, missions consultant for missions and ministry for Texas WMU. “I’m thankful for the leadership that serves and lives out God’s call to this exciting ministry. They truly are serving as missionaries throughout Texas.”

For 10 years, Christian Women’s Job Corps has helped women across the nation receive training for not just a job, but a new lease on life. In 2004, Christian Men’s Job Corps was launched to help men receive training as well.

The mission exists “to provide a Christian context in which women and men in need are equipped for life and employment; and a missions context in which women can help women and men can help men.”

Along with learning necessary skills such as computer training and parenting, participants also are encouraged spiritually.

“I came to get job training skills, but I think Bible study is part of what impacted my life the most,” a participant from Kerrville said.

Currently, there are more than 55 sites around Texas. The Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions makes Christian Women’s Job Corps and Christian Men’s Job Corps possible.

Each site includes a trained coordinator, and volunteers from local churches help with lunches, mentoring and other needs. Although each site runs differently, there are similarities.

The ministry revolves around eight key elements—certification training, advisory council, needs assessments, networking, covenants, evaluation, Bible study and a mentor for every participant.

The mentorship is an important element in the job-readiness program, and it is what gives the ministry its uniqueness.

“Each participant in the program is paired with a mentor—a mature Christian woman who agrees to keep close contact with her for at least a year,” Texas City Site Coordinator Lena Hair said. “I think that and the power of prayer are what make our program so different.”

Since most of the men and women have children, the sites also offer health classes that teach proper nutrition and exercise.

Through the past 10 years, participants’ lives have been changed. They have discovered self-worth, and they are encouraged daily by Christian women or men from their community. Many have gone on to earn their college degrees.

Christian Women’s Job Corps is seeking to broaden its national scope, and workers have trained potential site coordinators in Moldova, Mexico and Liberia.

But no matter where the location, the results are the same—women and men are experiencing Christ and learning a better approach for life.

“There is so much more to CWJC than equipping a woman with much- needed life and work skills,” said Jeane Law, former president of Texas WMU. “There is the presence of Christ’s love, embodied in all those who serve the participants. Lives are touched and changed for the better, and there is hope for the future.”

Posted: 8/31/07

Baptists active on both sides in
the Little Rock integration battle

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP)—The story of Lakeshore Drive Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., encapsulates the little-recounted role that white Baptists played during the Civil Rights Movement—on both sides.

The church owes its existence to the 1957-59 struggle to integrate Little Rock Central High School, when pro-integration members were kicked out of another congregation pastored by an outspoken segregationist. Dignitaries will gather in Little Rock Sept. 25 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Central High’s desegregation.

“It’s a unique church,” said Doyne Elder, Lakeshore Drive’s church historian. Ousted members founded University Baptist Church, located across the street from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The church later changed its name to Lakeshore Drive.

White citizens rally at the Arkansas state capitol, protesting the integration of Central High School in Little Rock. (U.S. News & World Report Photo/Library of Congress)

Wesley Pruden was pastor of the congregation —Broadmoor Baptist—that ejected University Baptist’s founding members. He became one of the most vocal segregationist leaders in Little Rock during the month-long integration crisis in 1957. Pruden remained in the news through the ensuing turmoil of the 1958-59 school year, when Gov. Orval Faubus—a Baptist—ordered the city’s high schools closed in order to prevent them from operating on an integrated basis.

Ironically, Pruden’s church eventually folded. The University Baptist congregation then took over the old Broadmoor Baptist building. It continues to use the same property today.

Unlike many other desegregation battles of the era, the Little Rock crisis didn’t prominently feature African-American Baptist ministers.

The pastors of the Little Rock’s wealthiest and most prominent and churches and synagogues—including two of the city’s three largest Southern Baptist congregations—spoke out in favor of obeying federal court orders and maintaining law and order. But many pastors of smaller Southern Baptist churches and independent, fundamentalist Baptist congregations were far more outspoken in their defense of segregation.

The segregationists’ rhetoric was suffused with evangelical jargon. In archival news photos from a pro-segregation demonstration on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol, protesters hold signs that say things like, “Stop the race-mixing march of the Anti-Christ!”

Historians and Baptists who were in Little Rock at the time agree courage in the face of committed segregationists was hard to find among many white leaders, including Christian ministers.

“There were segregationist preachers and they were very outspoken and in the press, and in the news often. Unfortunately, on the other side, I don’t think I could point to that many examples of strong, courageous white pastoral leadership, at least in Baptist circles,” said Larry Taylor, who recently retired as pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Alexandria, La.

Troops from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division disperse a crowd in front of Little Rock’s Central High School. (Library of Congress)

Taylor was a junior at Central during the 1957-58 school year. He was there when nine African-American students—shepherded by local civil-rights activist Daisy Bates—successfully integrated the campus on Sept. 25, 1957.

“I have immense respect for the Little Rock Nine and for Daisy Bates—I think they were courageous, courageous people made of cactus and steel—otherwise they couldn’t have gotten through that,” Taylor said. “I wish I could have pointed to equally courageous people in the white community.”

But Taylor as well as historians pointed to a handful of Baptist leaders as prominent exceptions. One as Dale Cowling, pastor of Little Rock’s Second Baptist Church.

“The three largest Southern Baptist churches were within a couple of miles of the Central High area,” said Fred Williams, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor and a longtime member of Calvary Baptist Church in Little Rock. “But of those three churches, only Second made an effort … to get the congregation to go along with the idea” of integration.

One of the most prominent members of Second Baptist at the time was the late Rep. Brooks Hays, who had represented Little Rock for eight terms in the House of Representatives. In the early days of the crisis, he had worked as a mediator to try to end the standoff between Faubus and Eisenhower. After Faubus closed the schools, he continued to work to re-open them on an integrated basis.

Hays’ support for integration eventually cost him his job. In the 1958 election, a segregationist write-in candidate—Dale Alford—barely beat Hays in his bid for a ninth term in Congress.

During the crisis, Hays also served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. In his address to the SBC annual meeting in 1959, Hays noted his recently unemployed status and asked his fellow Southern Baptists to consider living up to the denomination’s publicly expressed commitment to supporting integration. He said it especially was important for SBC missionaries to demonstrate that they represent a denomination that believes all people are created equal by God.

“We cannot export what we do not have, and if our Christian devotions here are not adequate, our missionaries cannot transmit the Christian message to unsaved masses abroad,” he said.

Other Baptists played less public—but crucial—roles in the crisis. Margaret Kolb, a longtime member of Pulaski Heights Baptist Church in Little Rock, served with the Women’s Emergency Committee to Open our Schools. In 1958, the women’s group stepped in when many white male business leaders would not, working to re-open Little Rock’s high schools on an integrated basis after the Faubus-ordered shutdown.

One place the Women’s Emergency Committee held meetings was in the Baptist Student Center at the University of Arkansas Medical School—a safe meeting place because Tom Logue, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention’s campus-ministry director, was an ardent integrationist.

In the fall of 1957, Logue led the students who came to the state’s Baptist Student Union annual convention to pass a resolution favoring integration—a subject the Arkansas Baptist convention conspicuously had avoided during its annual meeting a few weeks prior.

Lakeshore Drive Baptist Church continued to be a pacesetter congregation after the crisis that birthed it. It disbanded as University Baptist and reorganized as Lakeshore Drive in 1970 in a bid to regain membership in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. The group had previously voted to unseat University Baptist’s messengers to a convention meeting because the church practiced open communion.

But congregations like Lakeshore and leaders like Hays and Cowling were the exceptions in white Baptist life during the civil-rights era rather than the rule.

“I have found myself for 50 years wishing that Baptists could get in on the front end of something significant instead of the back end,” said Taylor, the retired pastor and Central High graduate. “I’m still hoping and wishing for it.”

Posted: 8/31/07

Aging minister recalls price paid for
recognizing God’s image in all people

By Bill Webb

Word & Way

CHILLICOTHE, Mo.—When Norman Shands made a vow to God 65 years ago, he couldn’t have imagined that it would thrust him into the center of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta.

The vow—that he would view and treat every person as someone created in the image of God—contradicted the south Georgia native’s upbringing.

“The process was a work of the grace of God because the only thing that can change prejudice that is ingrained from birth would be the grace of God,” Shands said in a recent interview at the Baptist Home in Chillicothe, Mo., where at 91 he occupies an independent-living apartment and is chaplain to aging Baptists.

The young minister’s concern over the matter culminated a year after graduation from Mercer University, where Shands was the part-time Baptist Student Union director. He was particularly moved during a spiritual focus week when Clarence Jordan of Koinonia Farms in Americus, Ga., told his own story and described his ministry.

Koinonia Farms ministered to the poor and reached across racial lines, and it drew considerable opposition—some of it violent—from people and groups with a racist bent.

Shands was deeply moved by what he heard from Jordan.

“I made a vow in private prayer with God that with God’s help I would spend the rest of my life, to the best of my ability and knowledge, treating every person, regardless of race or sex or class or whatever, as a person made in the image of God,” he recalled.

Following short stints as director of religious activities at Mercer and president of Limestone College in Gaffney, Ga., and five years as pastor of First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, S.C., Shands was called in 1953 as pastor of West End Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Like much of the South, Atlanta was being forced to deal with the race issue. Shands didn’t go out of his way to address it at first, but he didn’t shy away from it in his preaching and teaching either.

That all changed during the Georgia Baptist Convention annual meeting in the fall of 1956. Shands was a member of the convention’s four-man Social Service Commission, which brought a controversial report to messengers.

The report addressed the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka decision in 1954 and the court’s order in 1955 to desegregate public schools. The commission called for Georgia Baptists to obey the court order and serve as agents to help make the transition to integration of the schools a peaceful one. It called for Christians and churches to proclaim that God intended the gospel for every person.

The convention rejected the report by a 3-1 margin after one of the four commission members brought a minority report and “Mr. Baptist”—Atlanta pastor Louie B. Newton— spoke against it.

Shands’ picture and a quote appeared in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution’s convention report the next day. The pastor’s stand and the resulting notoriety caused a stir among West End’s deacons and other members.

Deacon Chairman John Still visited Shands at home a few days later and asked how he should reply to other deacons who ask him what he thought about Shands and his stand on integration.

Shands responded, ‘Well, what have you been saying to them?’”

“I’ve been saying I don’t agree with him, but he’s my pastor, and I’m loyal to him as my pastor,” Still said.

At Shands’ suggestion, Still called a meeting to allow the deacons and their pastor to discuss the concerns.

“We had a meeting that wasn’t too harmonious,” Shands recalled with a smile. A former deacon chairman made a motion that they go on record before the congregation censuring the position their pastor had taken at the convention.

Tension in the room was high when Still told of his own preparation for the special called meeting. De-scribing himself as a Southerner in every way, Still said he had taken three days off work to study.

He picked up his Bible and read two passageshe had taught the boys in his Sunday school class. Shands vividly remembers what he said next: “Both of these passages say I’m not in accordance with the Scripture, so I want to resign my position as chairman of deacons.”

Amid calls of “no, no, you don’t need to resign,” Still broke down, turned the meeting over to someone else and went to another room. After Still composed himself and returned to the meeting, he had one more thing to say: “Now, you need to know that if you’re going to throw any rocks at this man, you throw them at me. I am going to be between you and him.”

Shands’ eyes reddened as he recalled the event and noted that Still’s stand defused the anger and likely kept him from being dismissed. The motion to censure was tabled.

The pastor discovered that while his stand at the convention brought opposition, it also drew interest and support from people who shared his concerns about human dignity and peaceful integration in Atlanta.

Shands encouraged dialogue and participated in meetings involving ministers and other leaders of various faith groups, and he participated in ongoing meetings between local white and black pastors, including one who would become a good friend, Martin Luther King Sr., pastor of Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and the father of the martyred civil rights leader.

Shands became one of the original 80 signers of the Atlanta Ministers Manifesto, a full-page ad published in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution in late 1957. It affirmed freedom of speech, obeying the law, preserving public education, eradication of hatred between races, communication and the importance of prayer.

The Interdenominational Ministers Alliance of Atlanta, representing virtually every black church in Atlanta, issued a favorable response. The next year, 315 ministered signed a revised version of the Mani-festo.

Shands completed 10 years at West End Baptist Church and was called in 1963 as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Kansas City, where he continued efforts at dialogue to help improve the racial climate. Later he returned to Southern Seminary, where he held various positions before retiring in 1980.

Shands doesn’t talk much about the intimidation he and his family experienced while in Atlanta. His son, Bob, recalls that when cars would slow or stop in front of their house, lights would be turned off, the children would be ordered away from the windows and told to crouch on the floor.

The Ku Klux Klan and other groups were active, and there was good reason to fear violence.

Hateful anonymous calls came to the house frequently. Very often, Shands’ wife, Catherine, answered them.

“I never felt that I was doing anything but preaching the gospel and standing for what Christ stood for with the universality of his invitation and affirming human dignity. That’s the way I feel about it today,” Shands maintains.

“To see changes in Christians who dared to go against the current have been satisfying to me, too.”

Posted: 8/31/07

TOGETHER:
Relevant denominations have a future

Many observers today raise serious questions about the future of denominations. Years ago, Baptists themselves were critical of denominations because they were so focused on autonomy of the local church that the idea of anything more than an association of churches seemed too cumbersome and restrictive. We began to work together, slowly and painfully, because of the birth of the modern missionary movement. William Carey went from England to India in 1793 under the conviction that God had called him to go preach and teach the gospel of Christ, and he depended on the churches for support. In the early 19th century, Luther Rice traveled on horseback up and down the Atlantic coast to raise support for missionaries Adoniram and Ann Judson. This awakened Baptists to the cause of missions. They began to see the need for cooperation in supporting the Judsons and calling out more missionaries.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

The Triennial Baptist Convention was the earliest attempt to bring Baptists together in a national body. But by 1845, this fragile cooperation ended when the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in Augusta, Ga. State conventions of Baptists began to develop to support missionaries, colleges, church planting, ministry to orphan children and other needs. And, in 1848, the first Texas state convention of Baptist churches was formed.

Through the years, denominations have provided an identity around valued biblical principles, common history and the opportunity for involvement in a network of sister congregations. They also encourage the flow of influence. The churches influence one another and the denomination, and the denomination influences the local churches and helps the influence of the local church to have broader impact.

The idea that we are moving into a “post-denominational” age is not so frightening to Texas Baptists as it might be to others. Lyle Schaller, who has worked with churches of all denominations as a pioneer church consultant, said only the denominations that figure out how to start new churches, train and equip effective leaders, and work together to meet human needs are going to survive. That, of course, is what the BGCT has been about since the beginning. But we do face enormous challenges because many of our churches have neglected to keep fully informed about the missions, evangelism, education and benevolent ministries of the BGCT. You can go to our website— www.bgct.org—and see for yourself the ways you are making a difference in people’s lives for Christ every week with the offerings you give through the BGCT Cooperative Program.

Some significant signs may point to a decrease in the influence of denominations in the Christian enterprise, but I believe our Texas Baptist churches are in an enviable place. Our churches know their convention cares for them, is committed to helping them be effective, provides a strong network of churches that encourages unity and makes possible the synergy of effective cooperation. We do more together than we could alone. We are loved.

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