Posted: 7/20/07

EDITORIAL:
At least the pope cleared the air

“Is the pope Catholic?”

That’s got to be one of the world’s oldest one-line jokes. It’s also probably the world’s most-used non-scatological rejoinder to an obvious question. For example, this discussion about Texas weather in July:

“Is it going to be hot tomorrow?” your neighbor asks.

“Is the pope Catholic?” you reply.

Everybody knows the pope is Catholic. That’s why reaction to Pope Benedict XVI, who recently acted Catholic, has been baffling.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Pope Benedict headed when he was Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, declared the church established by Jesus Christ exists completely and fully only in the Roman Catholic Church. Although the document affirms other Christian denominations can be “instruments of salvation,” the statement insists on the primacy of the Catholic Church. It contends Protestant denominations are not really churches “in the proper sense”; they’re only “ecclesial communities.”

The theological thinking behind the Vatican’s assertion is fairly straightforward. Basically, it goes like this: Catholics believe in apostolic succession, or the idea that the pope’s spiritual authority has been handed down, in unbroken succession, from the Apostle Peter, whom they believe was the first pope, all the way to Benedict XVI. The pope—the bishop of Rome—is authoritative over all the church, its “universal monarch.” The pope’s authority extends through archbishops and bishops down to priests, who are empowered to administer sacraments and, in effect, connect Christ to people. Since God’s grace must be mediated to people, and since pastors and ministers of other denominations are outside the authority of apostolic succession and cannot appropriately mediate grace, they’re not part of the true church.

Ironically, some other Christian leaders seemed surprised by the pope’s assertion. The Vatican’s “exclusive claim … goes against the spirit of our Christian calling toward oneness in Christ,” responded Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. Those claims “caused pain,” added Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

So, what’s this really mean for Baptists and other non-Catholic Christians?

Well, Baptists shouldn’t be surprised, nor should we be bothered by the pope’s claims. For almost 400 years, Baptists have held fast to doctrine entirely counter to papal authority and apostolic succession. We’ve championed “the priesthood of all believers”—the notion that each individual is a priest before God, both privileged to approach God directly and individually and responsible for the stewardship of such a blessed privilege. We believe each soul is competent to stand directly before God, so we don’t need a priest, or even a pope, to intercede for us. We shouldn’t feel perturbed knowing the pope thinks we’re wrong, especially since we believe he’s wrong.

But we also owe the pope a measure of admiration. He sees himself as the shepherd of the Roman Catholic flock, and one way he seeks to protect them is to clarify spiritual issues for them. (Perhaps he even believes he needs to care for non-Catholics by clarifying issues for them too.) So, he seems to be taking his pastoral duty seriously, and that is commendable.

Also commendable is his effort to clearly state his church’s position as contrasted to Orthodox, Protestants and other Christians. We live in a talk-radio world, where shouting and anger seem to be the norms of disagreement. Yet here we have a forthright yet calm presentation of belief. Yes, it provides ground for disagreement, but also opportunity for honest dialogue.

Posted: 7/20/07

Faith Digest

Muslims, evangelicals not so apart. Muslim Americans and white evangelicals have more in common than other religious groups when it comes to religious fervor, scriptural literalism and social morality, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. They consistently scored closer than other groups, including black and mainline Protestants and Catholics. For example, on the question of religious vs. national identity, 47 percent of Muslims saw themselves as Muslims first and Americans second, while 62 percent of evangelicals said they were Christians first and Americans second. Similar scores were 55 percent for black Protestants, 31 percent for Catholics and 22 percent for mainline Protestants.

Accident stills Marlette’s pen. Doug Marlette, 57, whose editorial cartoons often lampooned fundamentalist religion but whose folksy comic strip celebrated a rural Southern Baptist pastor, died in an automobile accident July 10. He was 57. The Pulitzer Prize winner , who recently joined the staff of the Tulsa World, died near Holly Springs, Miss., after a truck in which he was a passenger careened off a rain-slicked highway. “The Creator endowed him with such creativity that he was literally one of a kind—and a real Baptist,” said James Dunn, former executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. “He could see the ironies and the contradictions (in political or religious life) so clearly and then reduce them to just a few strokes in a cartoon.” Dunn and another famous Baptist preacher, Will Campbell, reportedly were the inspiration for one of the lead characters in “Kudzu,” a small-town Baptist preacher named Will B. Dunn.

Christian sales ring register bells. Sales of Christian products increased to $4.6 billion last year, according to reports by the major trade association for Christian retailing. The $4.63 billion in 2006 sales, through a range of religious and secular distribution channels, is up from $4.3 billion in 2004, $4.2 billion in 2002 and $4 billion in 2000, reports CBA, a trade association formerly known as the Christian Booksellers Association. A new CBA study shows Christian retailers sold 52 percent of Christian products, while general-market retailers—including stores such as Wal-Mart and Borders—sold 33 percent. The remaining 15 percent of sales included direct-to-consumer and nonprofit ministry sales.

Mennonite ducks ‘mark of the Beast.’ A Mennonite farmer from Pennsylvania does not have to comply with a state animal identification program after arguing that numbering his ducks would bring about his eternal damnation. Pennsylvania officials now say the identification program, designed to protect against disease outbreaks among fowl, is not mandatory. James Landis had argued the program’s requirements would force him to violate his religious beliefs. Amish dairy farmers in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania objected to programs that would have forced them to number their cows, insisting the biblical book of Revelation warns of a numbering system from the Antichrist. Landis is a member of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church, a small, conservative spin-off from the more mainstream Mennonite Church and theological cousins of the Amish.

Posted: 7/20/07

Texas Baptist Forum

Long-term missionaries

Ken Hall’s suggestion that long-term missionaries have a minimal place in the future of missions (July 9) concerned me.

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

“We have to demand full religious liberty here at home for non-Christians. That sounds kind of like the Golden Rule. … You can’t be for separation of mosque and state abroad and come home and oppose separation of church and state here at home. Let's be consistent.” Melissa Rogers Visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University, at a forum on ministers and politics sponsored by Christian Ethics Today (RNS) “I would absolutely reject any idea that God sends suffering our way. The issue for me is not, ‘Why me?’ It is, ‘Why not me?’ I’m not exempt from the difficulties that come to everyone else.” Tom Graves Former president of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Va., who departed his post because issues related to multiple sclerosis (Baptists Today) “Faith and reason are knitted together in the human soul. So don’t leave home without either one.” Tony Snow White House press secretary (The Washington Post/RNS)

Some of the Apostle Paul’s missionary endeavors were brief, but strategic distinctions exist between his context and ours. He probably didn’t learn new languages for his ministry, and his upbringing prepared him for bicultural missionary life. These differences enabled Paul to engage immediately at a level of culturally sensitive ministry that demands a lengthier period of adaptation for us.

Whatever we emulate from Paul’s example, we should adopt his clear ambition not only to preach Christ, but to proclaim him where he has not yet been named (Romans 15:20-21).

In contrast, Hall proposes that we focus on partnerships with national churches. Many of these churches exist only because of God’s work through the faithful ministries of long-term missionaries.

Exclusively partnering with national churches virtually ensures we will ignore 1.5 billion people in unreached groups with no realistic access to the gospel. One-quarter of our world’s population does not have a local church that worships in their language. Missions to these peoples will demand more than occasional, short-term engagement, but rather the continuous investment of our churches’ best resources—their sons and daughters.

Rather than seeing short-term missions as a replacement for career missions, let’s see it as an opportunity for vocational discernment, character formation and strategic mentoring. Let’s not allow partnerships to completely substitute for pioneering work among the world’s 6,000-plus unreached people groups.

Silas Bishop

Houston

Global warming

The Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution on global warming (June 25) rejects government-mandated limits on carbon dioxide and other emissions because “it might not make much difference” and could lead to “major economic hardship.”

The majority of scientists all over the world say addressing carbon dioxide emissions is our only hope of averting disaster. The window of opportunity to avert this is limited. Some scientists say we have about 10 years. The most optimistic say no more than 50.

Concerning “major economic hardship,” what is going on right now in Africa, due to carbon dioxide emissions from our SUVs, coal-fired power plants, etc.? If we do not attempt to control our emissions, this will do far more damage to our  economy, not to mention the whole world. China is said to have lost about 750,000 people last year due to air pollution. That is more than stem-cell research.

Global warming is the most critical situation mankind has ever faced. God gave us brains; we are supposed to use them.

We can do it, but it is going to take all of us.

Leon Logan

Tucumcari, N.M.

Posted: 7/20/07

On the Move

• Bill Austin to Park Lake Drive Church in Waco as interim pastor.

• Thomas Barber to Prairie Hill Church in Prairie Hill as minister of outreach.

• Tim Berg to Meadowbrook Church in Rockdale as youth director.

• Cory Brand to First Church in Edna as youth minister.

• Colin Colburn to Tabernacle Church in Ennis as minister of worship.

• Fred Culbertson has resigned as music and youth minister at First Church in Taft.

• Shannon Cunningham to Crestmont Church in Burleson as interim minister of youth.

• Brian Dunks to Columbus Avenue Church in Waco as pastor from First Church in Salado.

• Philip Garvin to Midway Church in Ferris as interim pastor.

• Craig Golden to Park Lake Drive Church in Waco as interim youth minister.

• Ricky Guenther to First Church in Burnet as pastor from First Church in Henrietta.

• David Heath to Lakeview Church in San Angelo as minister of music and worship from First Church in Merkel.

• Wes Henson to First Church in Merkel as youth/education minister.

• Brian Holt has resigned as pastor of Little River Church in Cameron.

• Tom Ledbetter has resigned as pastor of Temple Church in Waco.

• Jeff Lee has resigned as minister of youth at Cherry Heights Church in Clyde.

• Jim Lemons to Dallas Baptist University as assistant professor of biblical studies and leadership from River Oaks Church in Fort Worth, where he was pastor.

• Kevin Martin has resigned as minister of music of Crestmont Church in Burleson to serve a church in Florida.

• Joe Merritt to First Church in Gainesville as interim high school minister.

• Eric Moore to First Church in Marlin as pastor.

• Jason Moore to First Church in Longview as minister to students.

• Edward Olivarez to Ranchland Heights Church in Midland as pastor.

• Jesus Reyes has resigned as pastor of Primera Iglesia in Rockdale.

• Roland Robles to Ranchland Heights Church in Midland as minister of music.

• Dean Savage to First Church in Wichita Falls as minister of instrumental music.

• Joseph Schaloff has resigned as pastor of Lebanon Church in Cleburne to become pastor of a church in Virginia Beach, Va.

• Travis Seekins to First Church in Clyde as minister of youth.

• Shawn Siemers has resigned as student pastor at Wylie Church in Abilene.

• Jonathan Smith to First Church in La Grange as pastor from First Church in Richmond, where he was associate pastor.

• Larry Smith has resigned as pastor of Sublime Church in Hallettsville.

• Paul Vickers to Hillcrest Church in Marshall as pastor.

• Ken Williams to Sunset Canyon Church in Dripping Springs as minister to youth.

• J.J. Young has resigned as youth pastor at Alamo Heights Church in Port Lavaca.

Posted: 7/20/07

Shores to lead Buckner ministry to Mexico, Border

DALLAS—Dexton Shores, who has led Border/Mexico Missions and the Rio Grande River Ministry for the Baptist General Convention of Texas since 1999, has been named director of ministry development for Mexico and the Border for Buckner International, effective Aug.1.

As director of ministry development, Shores will lead Buckner International’s existing ministries along the United States-Mexico border as well as develop new ministries in the Mexican interior.

Shores will “immediately bring years of relationship-building, kingdom-building legitimacy to our work in Mexico,” said Randy Daniels, director of Global Initiatives for Buckner. “We’ve been seeking ways to provide ministry, but had not, until Dexton, found the right person to carry that through. Dexton is the person to take us into Mexico.”

Shores’ abilities and passion for Mexico and the border region is a “natural next step” for Buckner Border Ministries, added Albert Reyes, president of Buckner Children and Family Services.

“Buckner has provided ministry along the border many years, and we have enjoyed a good working relationship with Dexton and the River Ministry,” Reyes noted. “Over the past few years, we have received an increasing number of requests to provide support to children in the interior of Mexico as well. Dexton’s focus on indigenous people groups in Mexico and the mobilization of border churches to engage this focus has uncovered a vast array of needs that could be met by Buckner Children and Family Services in collaboration with American and Mexican congregations.”

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade praised Shores’ ministry with the convention and believes he is an ideal fit for his new position at Buckner.

“Dexton Shores has given remarkable leadership to our River Ministry, helping us make the transition from ministry only along the border to a strategy of cooperation with the National Baptist Convention of Mexico,” Wade said. “I can think of no one more qualified to do what Buckner wants to do to care for the needs of children in Mexico than Dexton Shores.

“We will continue to make Border/Mexico Missions one of the high commitments of Texas Baptists, advancing God’s kingdom in amazing ways.”

The push into Mexico is part of Buckner’s larger  initiative to serve orphans and at-risk children globally, Reyes said. “Mexico is part of a new initiative to develop ministry throughout the Americas. Since we have ministry presence in Guatemala and Peru, starting with Mexico and moving toward Argentina, we are providing the kind of reach I envision for the Americas.”

Along the border, he added, Buckner is also in a position to extend Buckner Border Ministries “to impact the entire U.S.-Mexico Border, from San Diego to Brownsville and Tijuana to Matamoros. We have the expertise, the resources, and the passion to bring hope to ‘the least of these’ along this international boundary and we have ministries like ISAAC—Immigration Service and Aid Center—to complement this kind of reach.”

Shores will develop ministries by focusing on the four primary ministry goals Buckner applies when working in the United States and in other countries—developing and supporting foster care ministries, supporting children’s homes, establishing ongoing transitional programming for children and families, and helping churches develop effective community ministries, Daniels said.

“We want to take those same ministries into Mexico and work with the churches in Mexico to develop ministries,” he said, “And we want to wrap all that up in a supportive, missional relationship where churches can go and give to help children and families, including connection through mission trips.”

Shores said his decision to move was emotional. “I grew up on the River Ministry. Both my parents …poured their lives into it,” he noted.

But despite leaving the BGCT position he has held for eight years, he said he sees his move to Buckner “as a win-win” for ministry in Mexico.

“The BGCT has had a strong background in planting churches and equipping leaders, and I see the new Buckner position as being on a parallel track with the River Ministry,” he said. “With Buckner’s vision for targeting Mexico, the BGCT can continue to strengthen churches and equip leadership, while at the same time Buckner can develop community and children’s ministries and the result is a lot of people come to Christ and they’re going to need to be churched. We’ll work with the BGCT to help them find those churches.”

The BGCT will continue its mission work along the Texas-Mexico border and throughout Mexico, including its efforts to evangelize unreached people groups, Wade said.

Individuals can continue to find information about BGCT Border/Mexico Missions by calling (888) 333-2363

Shores estimated there are “a million-plus children on the streets of Mexico City, and in many villages, dads have immigrated and left mom and kids to fend for themselves. There are so many needs, we’re going to have to figure out where to start, but they are needs no one has met.”

A native of Winters, Shores is a graduate of Baylor University and completed his classwork for the master of arts degree in missiology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to his service with the BGCT’s Border/Mexico Missions, he served as a church extension coordinator for the San Antonio Baptist Association, associate director of missions for Dogwood Trails Baptist Area, and as pastor and interim pastor of several English- and Spanish-language churches in Texas. He and his wife, Deborah, have three children.

Shores’ office will be located on the campus of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio. He can be reached at dshores@buckner.org .

Posted: 7/20/07

Court affirms religious obligation
in case pitting sacred vs. secular

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

AUSTIN (RNS)—The Texas Supreme Court unanimously dismissed a suit brought by a former member of a Fort Worth church who accused her pastor of violating her confidentiality.

The case centered on questions of what roles civil courts should have when asked to resolve matters related to church discipline.

C.L. “Buddy” Westbook, pastor of CrossLand Community Bible Church and a licensed professional counselor, had ordered his congregation to shun Peggy Lee Penley, a former parishioner, because she had engaged in a “biblically inappropriate” relationship with a man who was not her husband.

Penley sued Westbrook, claiming he learned the information he disclosed in a “secular” counseling session.

“A church’s decision to discipline members for conduct considered outside of the church’s moral code is an inherently religious function with which civil courts should not generally interfere,” Justice Harriet O’Neill wrote in the court ruling.

O’Neill said Penley’s two roles had to be considered.

“In his dual capacity, Westbrook owed Penley conflicting duties,” she wrote. “As Penley’s counselor, he owed her a duty of confidentiality, and as her pastor, he owed Penley and the church an obligation to disclose her conduct.”

The judge determined that “parsing those roles” for a civil case—when safety or health was not an issue—would be an unconstitutional entanglement of the court in the governance of a church.

Penley initially had alleged that the church and its elders had defamed her and caused her emotional distress. The pastor filed counter claims saying the matter was outside the court’s jurisdiction because it dealt with a church dispute.

Posted: 7/20/07

Texas Tidbits

Hendrick named ‘Great Workplace.’ Hendrick Health System in Abilene has receive the Gallup Great Workplace Award, given to the world’s 12 most productive workforces. The Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated hospital system ranked alongside such companies as Starbucks and Wells Fargo. Hendrick President Tim Lancaster credits the system’s employees: “Hendrick is based in the idea of Christian service, with values like integrity, quality, teamwork and compassion. We are very blessed to have the majority of our employees dedicated to those values. When those employees believe in those values, and they live those values, they inspire those around them to do the same every day.”

Baylor hospital ranks among best. For the 15th consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report has designated Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas among the nation’s top 50. Baylor Dallas ranked with the nation’s best hospitals in seven of 16 specialty areas—digestive disorders, endocrinology, gynecology, kidney disease, orthopedics, respiratory disorders and urology. Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation also ranked 15th among the nation’s top rehabilitation facilities.

Sadler aids DBU chapel. Jeannette Sadler of Dallas has donated $1 million to support the $16 million campaign to build the first chapel on the Dallas Baptist University campus. Sadler’s gift supplements an $8 million gift from Bo Pilgrim to construct the Patty and Bo Pilgrim Chapel. Her gift will fund Cletys and Jeannette Sadler Hall, named for Sadler and her late husband. She is a longtime member of Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas and recently began working with Buckner International and her church to fund a community outreach center in the congregation’s multi-racial neighborhood.

Baugh family advances BJC. The Baugh family of Texas gave a boost—and a challenge—to the campaign to create a permanent home for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. BJC Executive Director Brent Walker announced the Baugh family contributed $500,000 to support the campaign to build the Center for Religious Liberty on Capitol Hill in Washington. Babs Baugh of San Antonio then said her family would match any other pledges or gifts made to the campaign between June 29 and July 15. The center would help purchase, renovate and endow a row house on Capitol Hill that would hold offices. Babs Baugh, a member of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, is the daughter of Eula Mae and John Baugh, who founded the SYSCO Corporation. The Baughs have provided financial support to many Baptist causes. This year, the Baugh family received the BJC’s J.M. Dawson Religious Liberty Award.

Immigration training offered. The Baptist Immigration Center will conduct an immigration skills training conference Aug. 6-7 in Plano. The event will focus on a range of legal issues, particularly based on the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Code of Federal Regulations. Registration is $375 and covers lodging at the Southfork Hotel, a manual and meals. To register before July 30 or for information, contact Alex Camacho at (972) 562-4561 or camacho@justice.com.

Posted: 7/20/07

TOGETHER:
Ministers need time for rest & renewal

Years ago, a church member criticized my father because he announced he would a take vacation. She said: “How can you take a vacation with so much to be done? The devil never takes a vacation.” He replied, “Yes, and that’s why he’s so mean.”

Rosemary and I just got back from a week in the Creede area of Colorado. All four of our children and their spouses plus nine of our 10 grandchildren gathered for a fabulous week. When our children were young, we tried to take a vacation every year and go somewhere. Sometimes, we had to borrow some money to make the modest trips, but we always said we were “buying memories.”

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Sure enough, the memories that live on often are about those excursions. Several times, we could take these trips because members of our church who had cabins/houses somewhere would invite us to use their place for a few days. The kind generosity of our church and our members in making vacations possible blessed us.

When I got back from vacation, I had an e-mail from a BGCT congregational strategist.

He wrote: “I am deeply concerned and frustrated. Several pastors I am working with are the only staff person their church has. They work so hard, and they are doing good jobs, but some are awfully close to breaking down. I know some pastors who have preached in their pulpit every Sunday for three years without one break.

“Why don’t they take a vacation? Often, they feel there is just so much work to do, especially in the summer when so much is happening for children and youth in the church. Sometimes, they feel that if anything goes wrong while they are gone some will be critical. Many times, it is simply that they can’t afford to go. I love getting to be a pastor’s friend, but it hurts to see my friends hurting.”

Now is a good time for some of you to encourage your pastor (and other ministers) to take a vacation as soon as possible. If finding the time is the problem, encourage your pastor to find the time. If money is the problem, perhaps there is someone in the church who has a place where the minister and his family can go and be alone for a week. If having a supply preacher is a problem, perhaps the deacons could choose one of their own, or our congregational strategist could come without charge or find someone, or the director of missions in your association would love to help.

You may wonder if vacations are biblical or necessary for faithful Christian servants. Remember what God did when he finished his work in six days. He rested. He set aside the Sabbath, which is to be a day of rest. All of us need to rest. Indeed, God insisted on it in the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8).

Furthermore, note how often Jesus would get away from the crowds to pray, be alone and spend some time fishing, I expect.

Serving Jesus well includes taking time to rest and pray, finding time to be alone and making time to be an attentive and interesting husband or wife and parent to your children.

Let’s encourage each other to find time for rest and renewal.

We are loved.

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

Posted: 7/20/07

Urban population crunch
prompts crowds in church

By Jennifer Koons

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Predictions that increased urbanization around the world would lead to a more secularized society are un-founded, and in fact the opposite may be true, according to a new report from the United Nations Population Fund.

“Rapid urbanization was expected to mean the triumph of rationality, secular values and the demystification of the world, as well as the relegation of religion to a secondary role,” the report said. “Instead, there has been a renewal in religious interest in many countries.”

George Martine, a demographer and the chief author of the report, said the renewed religious fervor has been spurred by the increasing waves of immigrants flooding major cities around the globe.

“It’s a noticeable fact that people in cities nowadays tend to find in religion a new form of belonging,” he said, pointing to the immigrant experience in European cities as an example.

“In Europe, urbanization was initially marked by a growing labor movement,” he said. “The labor movement gave (new immigrants) solidarity and promise. But since the labor movement has basically been eroded by globalization … religion is fulfilling much the same kind of role.”

The report found that 3.3 billion people—more than half the world’s population—live in urban areas. That figure is expected to grow to 5 billion by 2030.

The growth particularly is sharp in the Third World, which also is the fastest-growing segment of global Christianity. By 2030, Asia’s urban population will nearly double, to 2.64 billion. Africa’s will grow from 294 million to 742 million, and Latin America and the Caribbean will grow from 394 million to 609 million.

But the growth is not centered in the so-called “mega-cities” such as Mexico City. In fact, more than half of the world’s urban population lives in cities of 500,000 or less—about the size of Washington, D.C.

Not everyone, however, agrees with the report’s findings on religion. Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, said cities serve more as a connecting point than an origin.

“I think the revivals tend to be rural and in smaller cities,” Johnson said. “But the way in which these revivals are connecting with the rest of the world is through the global cities.”

Johnson objected to the report’s use of “resurgence,” which he characterized as a “sound bite” to describe what he said was a much more nuanced issue.

“The term ‘resurgence’ is a way for secular people to talk about the rest of the world,” Johnson said. “Many reports that came out in 1960s and 1970s argued that religion wasn’t going to exist in the year 2000. And that’s the resurgence that everyone’s talking about.”

Johnson did point to one part of the world where he said “resurgence” would be an appropriate descriptor—Eastern Europe.

“The collapse of the Soviet Union has caused a true resurgence of religion,” he said. “There are many more Christians, Muslims and other religionists in Eastern Europe as a result of the fall of communism. And many more nonreligionists and atheists in China, where communism still exists today.”

Posted: 7/20/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Above, where Christ is

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, wondering where the summer has gone. Here in Texas, August beckons. Gerard Manley Hopkins, the poet, once quipped, “Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.” I have been away from the church for a sabbatical of sorts, rest, finding pleasure in reading and writing and resting and longing to return to my post as pastor to be with the people of God. The Lord is sending my dry roots rain. I feel refreshed.

I find myself thinking of the future, climbing Jacob’s ladder to peer in to what God has in store; gazing at Jeremiah’s future and a hope; scoping Paul’s letter to the Colossians (3:1) from prison where from the deep and dark he declares, “Keep seeking those things above, where Christ is… .” I think of the future, one with no land phones and digital, of green cars in an eco-friendly society and HD TV where at least we yearn to see the Dallas Cowboys or Dallas Mavericks in multi-color championships on crystal-clear screens. I think of the future, cancer walks and cancer research and cancer cures on the horizon. I think of the future, political speeches winding down and electronic election polls minus the chads; of hyped cars with powerhouse engines advertised with mega “horsepower”; of outsourcing in business and televised conference calls in HD TV with clear sound like talking to the neighbor next door; and of churches with digitized sound and big screens and bands like the Beatles echoing praise choruses and rhythmically blasting hymns high to the heavens. The future is wide screen and wide open. Yes, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is.

Still my mind drifts to the gospel. For all the technological wizardry, the gospel still impacts people one person at a time by river sides, in the marketplace, over coffee or a meal, at grave sites, and in homes where people pray for the light to shine in dark places. Henri Nouwen once declared of “Christian leadership in the future,” “It is not a leadership of power and control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus, is made manifest.” Nouwen invites leaders to humble themselves as Christ to be servant leaders.

All told, humility is a difficult thing. C.S. Lewis once noted that his “school life was a life almost totally dominated by the social struggle, to get on, to arrive, or, having reached the top, to remain there, was the absorbing preoccupation.” Come to think of it, the climb to the top in business or an organization to which you belong or, dare I say it, in the church, as often happens, and the drive to get ahead, control and dominate, seems to me, to be one of life’s ongoing struggles. We never really outgrow school life—the jockeying for position, the jokes, the jealousy, the envy, the bullying that goes on and the cliques. Still, getting to the top and a preoccupation with “the top,” is different from, “Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is.”

Getting to the top might find you preoccupied, but prideful. After all, Lewis adds, “Pride leads to very other vice … and is an anti-God state of mind.” Now I doubt that any of us ever think of ourselves as anti-God in any state of mind. On the other hand, though, I guess most of us have demonstrated pride, to a co-worker, toward a spouse, or even a church member. This, of course, is why we seek the things above, where Christ is, so that it rids us of pride and leads us to serve Christ in our present and future. Still, yet, to seek the things above we must first fall down before Christ in humility.

It is complex in principle, but maybe a picture helps. I am thinking under this old oak tree on this hot Texas summer day of two people. Last spring on the same Saturday I was privileged to preach both their funerals. They were different, but alike, saints on the journey of struggle, but humble in their hearts to the core and to the end.

First there was Phyllis. Phyllis worked at the local Texaco gas station. That is where I first met her, paying the fare, discussing rising gas prices, and taking her prayer requests as she offered them because she knew I was a pastor. She lived from 1939 to 2007 and lived in California, Arkansas, Tennessee and Granbury, Texas. She lived a quiet, humble life with her cats and a dog named Stormy. She liked to listen to Elvis, who, by the way, does not live in Granbury and has never appeared here as far as I know, but Granbury once had an Elvis impersonator named Care Dyer who sang at a hangout on the local town square, “the man of a thousand voices,” who could sing to the rafters like Elvis and look like him and shake his leg just the way Elvis did. Phyllis liked listening to Elvis, and at her funeral Elvis sang “Amazing Grace, “ music off of one his old albums, of course.

Phyllis had humble beginnings, born to sharecroppers in a shack in Earle, Ark., loved to watch western movies, and spent most of her days scanning gas credit cards, discussing the price of gas, stocking gas station shelves with sugary sodas, and talking to Stormy when she got home from work.

Phyllis assured me she knew Christ, a “recovering Methodist,” as I think she once named herself. She never came to our church because she worked on Sundays, but always requested prayer and accepted her simple plight in life without complaint or desired fanfare. She lived humbly in the shadows of life and in the sunshine. And the Light of her life was Christ. She quietly kept seeking the things above, where Christ is.

Then there was Raymond Croy. Phyllis died after 67 years of age. Raymond died after 93 years. Raymond was born in 1913 in Arcadia, La. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed a “new deal” for the American people back in the 1930’s and formed the WPA (Worker’s Progress Administration) and his grandfather, brother-in-law, and father-in-law all worked for the WPA for $1.50 an hour. Raymond’s first job was in the Ringgold Saw Mill for 15 cents an hour. He later moved to Shreveport, then to Fort Worth, where he enrolled in the seminary. Raymond worked a full-time job and attended seminary for three years until his health deteriorated. His family physician instructed him to quit seminary, but Raymond never stopped serving Christ nor seeking the things above. He served in small churches, served as a deacon at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth as well as a deacon here in Granbury at Lakeside Baptist for 14 years.  

Bother Raymond lived in the same house on James Avenue for 43 years and drove the same car for 28 years, a 1948 Chevrolet. Who lives in the same house and drives a car that long any more? Raymond worked for Bell Helicopter until 1978, and then retired. He never retired from serving, preaching, teaching and praying. I loved to hear Raymond pray. He prayed with words a southern drawl, his voice deep and resonating as a man who knew God personally. He prayed one-syllable words with two syllables, words like “our” and “God” with a humming intonation, “Our-a God-a.” He prayed sweet prayers, deep ones, from the depths of his soul, calling out light to Light, begging for Light to penetrate the darkness and for the peace God’s wondrous grace to sweeten the soul of a world in chaos. Raymond for all his long life sought the things above, where Christ is.

P.T Forsythe once spoke of shutting the chamber door, praying quietly, audibly, humbly to the Lord. “Write prayers and burn them,” he wrote in 1913. Brother Raymond’s prayers intimately rattled heaven’s throne and touched the heart of God, and his prayers burned in his heart as though the only two people present were him and God. He kept seeking the things above, where Christ is.

Oh, humility is challenging. Those who possess it, however, know God and understand themselves and serve quietly, humbly, find a way to be salt and light in the world that is dull and dark, and simply going about living life seeking Christ daily.

So here I am under this old oak tree, feeling refreshed, longing for the future and enjoying Christ’s grace in the present. James, the half-brother of our Lord, once wrote (James 4:10), “He who humbles himself will be lifted up.” He sounded exactly like Jesus, who once said in Luke 4:11, “He who humbles himself shall be exalted and he who exalts himself will be humbled.” I am praying, “Mine, Oh Lord, send my roots more rain. Lord, send my roots more of your reign.” And I am watching, praying, ever aiming to walk humbly in the glow of his grace and anticipating the future that stands wide screen and wide open to the possibility of God’s glorious and humble future work. I keep seeking the things above, where Christ is.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines. You can respond to his column by e-mailing him at jduncan@lakesidebc.org.

Posted: 7/20/07

Pope’s assertion finds
parallels in Baptist successionism

By Robert Dilday

Virginia Religious Herald

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—Pope Benedict XVI’s recent reaffirmation that the “true church” lies in an unbroken line of succession from Christ and his apostles might resonate in an unlikely place—conservative Baptists who trace the roots of their denomination back to Jesus—and sometimes beyond, to John the Baptist.

Baptist successionism—a theory which emerged on the 19th-century American frontier—claims to find a line of historical continuity in doctrine and practice from Jesus himself to today’s Baptist churches. True Christian churches, goes the theory, are marked by distinctive baptistic characteristics, such as autonomous government, closed communion and baptism by immersion. Such churches have existed since New Testament times and can be traced through history in dissenting groups such as the Donatists, Albigenses, Cathari, Waldenses and Anabaptists.

Though generally discredited by church historians, the theory still holds sway among some fundamentalist and conservative Baptists, including some affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

“Baptist Landmarkists—who were fighting Catholics, Cambellites and other denominations in the mid-19th century—concocted the theory of a succession of churches from the New Testament that were Baptist in everything but name and had kept New Testament Christianity alive amid the corruption of Rome and the false ‘societies’ like the Methodists, Presbyterians and others,” said Bill Leonard, dean and professor of church history Wake Forest University divinity school in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“Since all other churches were false, so was their baptism, so all who joined the Baptist fold had to be rebaptized, even those who had received ‘alien immersion’ in false churches,” said Leonard.

Successionism was popularized in a 1931 pamphlet, “The Trail of Blood,” written by Texas Baptist leader J. M. Carroll and occasionally reprinted by fundamentalist churches today. Copies are widely available on the Internet.

The 56-page booklet alleges that the Roman Catholic Church persecuted true baptistic churches throughout history and drove them underground. It includes a detailed chart “illustrating the history of the Baptist churches from the time of their founder, the Lord Jesus Christ, until the 20th century.” The chart identifies Baptist churches with a number of dissenting groups, tracing them with a series of red dots representing the blood of those who have suffered for the true faith—thus the “trail of blood.”

Some Baptist successionists have found their denominational beginnings earlier than Christ, in the Jordan River baptisms of John the Baptist and, in the case of one zealous advocate of the theory, even back to Adam.

Commitment to successionism among many 19th century Southern Baptists was fervent enough to topple a seminary president who questioned its veracity. William Whitsitt, a church historian who became president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1895, wrote that it wasn’t until the 17th century that Baptists began baptizing by immersion and that Roger Williams’ church in Rhode Island did not initially immerse.

“For many Southern Baptists, Whitsitt’s findings were tantamount to heresy,” said Fred Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society. “He was hounded out of office.”

After resigning in 1899, Whitsitt moved to Virginia, where successionism had made little headway among Baptist churches. He taught philosophy at the University of Richmond—then closely aligned with Baptists—from 1901 until his death in 1911.

Anderson said successionism is “fanciful history without factual basis.”

“With succession theories comes other baggage,” he said: “infant baptism versus believer’s baptism with impassioned defenses against ‘pedobaptists’; ‘alien immersion,’ or baptism performed by someone other than a Baptist; ‘closed communion,’ or the limiting of participation in the Lord’s Supper only to those who have been immersed or who belong to a particular Baptist church; and an anti-ecumenicalism which lies just under the surface of many Baptists.”

And, he said, it has led some conservative Baptists to reject the label “Protestant” since successionists can’t accept the view that Baptists emerged out of the Protestant Reformation of the 17th century.

Most Baptist today would reject a successionism of churches, said Anderson, opting instead for a “spiritual succession.”

“W.W. Barnes, the Southern Baptist historian, described a true historical succession as consisting of a succession of genuine followers of Christ, a succession of Christian experience,” he said.

As the Roman Catholic Church loses influence in Western Europe and North America, “it’s not surprising that they assert their hegemony as the only real church,” said Leonard. “But Baptists have their own forms of successionism, some based on local church purity, other on theological purity, others on dogmatic assertion. So it goes.”

Posted: 7/20/07

Baptists, other Christians
push for reform in farm bill

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP) —Baptists and other Christian groups are asking Congress to seize an opportunity to reform the way the government relates to farmers—for the sake of the poor in the United States and around the globe, they say.

A group of Christian leaders have urged House members dealing with the 2007 Farm Bill to consider re-prioritizing how the government doles out support for farm subsidies, food stamps, rural development and foreign aid.

“Our nation’s farm policy needs to be guided by a strong moral compass,” said David Beckmann, president of the anti-hunger group Bread for the World, at a Capitol Hill news conference. “An equitable system would not pour federal dollars into the largest farms in America without addressing the needs of those who need help the most.”

The leaders called for more equity in the distribution of the millions of dollars a year in subsidies the government pays to farmers growing many of the nation’s largest crops. The current farm bill, in place since 2002, is up for renewal. But groups such as Bread for the World, the United Methodist Church and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship note that much of the money is no longer helping those for whom the subsidy programs were initially intended.

For example, according to the anti-hunger group Oxfam America, the wealthiest 5 percent of U.S. farm owners get more than half of all the “commodity payments,” or federal subsidies.

For decades, the government has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to farmers in an attempt to stabilize the price markets for the nation’s largest crops. But the program, according to Fritz Gutwein of the Presbyterian Church USA, is having unintended consequences. Gutwein, a Baptist who works in the PCUSA’s hunger office, noted that the largest farms often get the biggest payments, and smaller farms around them can’t compete.

As a result, small-scale farmers are often being forced to sell the land their families have owned for decades to their more successful neighbors, concentrating even more land and crops in the hands of large, corporate farms.

In turn, the exodus of such farmers from small towns in the nation’s heartland has devastated local economies, creating an economic ripple effect, the leaders said. Baptists have begun to notice that problem due to their increasing involvement in rural economic-development efforts, such as CBF’s Rural Poverty Initiative.

“We know in Baptist life … that we’ve focused a lot on rural development and what’s happening in our rural communities, and we’re seeing that people are fleeing rural communities because they can’t afford to stay on the farms any more because small farms are being bought out,” he said.

Gutwein also noted that the subsidies also have an international effect. For example, cotton growers in sub-Saharan Africa and rice growers in Haiti can’t compete with subsidized American imports.

“We’re seeing that we are inviting people in countries all over the world to come and be part of the global economy, and yet the subsidies of the agricultural products here in the U.S. create an unlevel playing field for them,” he said.

The bill also authorizes federal food-stamp programs. Currently, such programs offer an average of only about $1 per meal per recipient. The religious leaders are calling for moving funding away from large-farm subsidies and toward enhancing food stamps, rural development, international aid and eco-friendly farming.

“The current system should be changed in ways that would strengthen communities in rural America, ensure all Americans an adequate, nutritious diet, provide better and more targeted support for U.S. farm families of modest means, and conserve the land for present and future generations,” said a statement from the Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill, whose leaders were represented at the press conference. “In addition, such changes are necessary to unlock the ability of small-holder farmers in developing countries, who comprise the majority of the world’s hungry people, to improve their livelihoods and escape poverty.”

Among the group’s other members are the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Church USA, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sojourners/Call to Renewal and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The Farm Bill is H.R. 2419. The House Agriculture Committee began considering it July 17, and the full House may consider it before adjourning for their August recess.