Posted: 3/16/07

Texas Tidbits

Board OKs changes to scholarship program. The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board approved an increase in the amount of money given to each 2007 recipient of the Mary Hill Davis Ethnic/Minority Scholarship. Each full-time student will receive $800 a semester, double what was offered in 2006. Members of ethnic and minority congregations affiliated with the BGCT who are planning to attend a BGCT-affiliated university can apply for the scholarship by April 15. More information about the scholarship and an online application can be found at www.bgct.org. The application and information also can be obtained by calling Tom Ruane or Amber Young at (888) 244-9400. The scholarship is provided by funds through the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.

Numbers add up for ETBU math scholarship. The Rutledge McClaran Mathematics Scholarship now honors the longtime mathematics professor and administrator at East Texas Baptist University. McClaran retired from full-time responsibilities last August, but he still is a part-time consultant at the university. He is an ETBU graduate and served on the faculty more than 41 years. He has been professor of mathematics, chair of the department of mathematics and computer science, academic dean, dean of instruction and dean of liberal arts. In 1989, he became the director of institutional planning, assessment and research. Gifts can be made to the McClaran Mathematics Scholarship by calling the ETBU office of institutional advancement at (903) 923-2070.

Gift enables Baylor to launch center. A $5 million donation by Gary Keller, chairman of Keller Williams Realty, will enable the marketing department in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business to launch a real estate research center. The Keller Center will focus on factors that influence individual home buyers in their decisions, as well as marketing and management issues important to real estate agencies and small businesses.

HBU Guild creates Sloan Scholarship. The Guild of Houston Baptist University—a women’s service organization— has created the Robert B. Sloan Jr. Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship will be awarded to a career classroom teacher pursuing a graduate degree in education. It honors Sloan, who was inaugurated as HBU president Nov. 29, for his lifelong commitment to excellence in Christian higher education and the integration of faith and learning in the classroom as a scholar, teacher, author, theologian, pastor and university president. Before joining HBU, he served as professor, president and chancellor at Baylor University. He also has served as pastor and interim pastor at more than 20 churches throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

Hispanic Preaching Conference set at Truett. The 5th annual Hispanic Preaching Conference at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary will be held March 30-31. Mario Alberto Gonzalez, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista in El Paso, will be the featured speaker. Other conference leaders include Baldemar Borrego, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and pastor of Iglesia Nuevo Esperanza in Wichita Falls; Joel Weaver and Rady Roldan-Figueroa from Truett Seminary; Javier Elizondo from Baptist University of the Americas; Martin Ortega, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Emanuel in Midland; Rolando Rodriguez, director of Hispanic ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Texas; Victor Rodriguez, pastor of South San Filadelfia in San Antonio; Leslie Gomez, minister of music from Dallas; and Rhoda Gonzales, a pastor’s wife from North Dallas Family Church. Cost is $10. For more information, call (254) 710-3755 or visit www.truettseminary.net.

Posted: 3/16/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Reading habits and expanded horizons

By Berry D. Simpson

I read books all the time. When I was a kid, we would go to the library once a week as a class, and I always checked out a book. I remember one year—I don’t remember which grade, I think fourth or fifth, or which teacher, Morris or Henry, but I can picture the layout of the library in my mind—the librarian telling us boys to stick to Boys Life magazine and stop looking at the pictures in Seventeen. She also told me I should read something different. She thought I was reading too many books about war. She thought I should branch out a bit.

I remember thinking at the time, in my smart-alecky boy logic, that I was reading more books and thicker books than anyone else in class, certainly more books than any other boy, and shouldn’t my teacher have been satisfied with that? Why did she have to boss me around about which book I was reading, especially when this was leisure reading and not book-report reading?

I can remember the day when she made the suggestion; it was in front of the entire classroom. It’s not that she singled me out—she did, but she singled everyone out, making recommendations for everyone in class. While I wasn’t happy about someone telling me what to read (I still have a problem being told what to do by someone else), I didn’t want to get into trouble and lose my library privileges, and I was happy not to be the kid who was singled out with the challenge, “Why don’t you try to finish at least one book before the end of school?” I tried to find something else to read.

The first book I read after the challenge was about a family who escaped from East Germany during the Cold War. I didn’t think it counted as a war book. It was more of an espionage book, and besides, it was fiction. It was very exciting; each member of the family used a different route or method to find their way into West Germany.

The thing about reading books about war is that it is such a broad topic. In my elementary school, and in the Winkler County Library, there were rows of books about the American Revolution and the Civil War, about Hannibal and the Punic Wars, about the Spartans, about Alexander the Great, about Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. There weren’t many good books about World War I and World War II in the 1960s, so I hadn’t started that huge topic yet.

I told this story to Cyndi, my loving wife who also happens to be a very good fifth-grade teacher, and for some reason she immediately took the side of my old teacher. Cyndi said if I were in her class, she would’ve encouraged me to expand into more topics. She would’ve tried to expand my horizons, so to speak—which, come to think of it, is one of her projects for me even as we are married and I am a grown-up.

I told Cyndi about the time I checked out a book titled Man O’ War, expecting to read about an 18th-century British battleship, only to be disappointed to find out the book was about some silly horse who won a couple of big-name races. Who cared about that, is what I thought. But I finished the book anyway, and made sure my teacher knew I was expanding my horizons. I respectfully brought it to her attention that I had read about a horse, not war.

The teacher’s advice was correct, of course. I needed more variety in my life. But in those days, I was still too young to know good advice when I heard it, something I am still trying to outgrow.

It wasn’t that I was a budding warrior. I’m still not a gun guy, and I never aspired to be in the military. I’m not sure why I read all those books about war, or why I continue to read them today. I think it might be because I enjoy the strategy, the decision-making under combat conditions and the after-battle analysis. I think I am also drawn to the men, ordinary men, who make quick decisions in courage under fire that turn the tide of battle.

I don’t picture myself as a soldier in spite of my habit of reading books about war, but I do hope to be an ordinary guy who helps turn the tide at the critical moment.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland. You can contact him through e-mail at berry@stonefoot.org.

Posted: 3/16/07

NAE rebuffs Bush administration
in joining anti-torture statement

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (ABP)—The nation’s umbrella group for evangelicals has endorsed a statement that takes aim at the Bush administration’s alleged use of torture in the war on terrorism.

Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals have endorsed a document called “An Evangelical Declaration Against Torture: Protecting Human Rights in an Age of Terror.” The endorsement came at the board’s March 8-9 meeting in Minnesota.

The document was drafted 17 theologians, ethicists and activists calling themselves Evangelicals for Human Rights. Baptist drafters include Union University professor David Gushee, who writes a column for Associated Baptist Press, and Fuller Seminary ethicist Glen Stassen.

“From a Christian perspective, every human life is sacred. Recognition of this transcendent moral dignity is non-negotiable for us as evangelical Christians in every area of life, including our assessment of public policies,” the statement says. “We write this declaration to affirm our support for detainee human rights and opposition to any resort to torture.”

It also praises a revised U.S. Army field manual that bans several controversial methods of handling prisoners, such as beatings and sexual humiliation. The 2004 torture-and-sexual-abuse scandal at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad brought U.S. officials under global scrutiny for treatment of prisoners.

However, the document also takes direct aim at what it calls “loopholes” in some federal laws on terrorism-suspect treatment passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“Despite the military’s commendable efforts to remove itself from any involvement with torture, the current administration has decided to retain morally questionable interrogation techniques among the options available to our intelligence agencies. For some time it did so without any form of public disclosure or oversight,” the declaration says.

The document takes specific aim at the Military Commissions Act, which President Bush pushed through Congress and signed into law last October. The law prevents federal intelligence officials from being held to the same standards as military personnel in handling prisoners.

The NAE document faults the act for that position, as well as for preventing congressional or judicial oversight of CIA actions toward detainees: “This could prove to be a recipe for cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, without the Constitution’s checks and balances so crucial for American justice.”

The declaration also faults the act for denying prisoners suspected of terrorist involvement many of the constitutional rights that Americans take for granted. For example, it allows prisoners to be held indefinitely without being formally charged in some cases and relaxes trial rules to allow hearsay and other evidence against suspected terrorists that would never be admissible in any U.S. criminal court.

The provisions “violate basic principles of due process that have been developed in Western judicial systems, including our own, for centuries,” the document says. “We see this as fraught with danger to basic human rights.”

NAE is an alliance of several evangelical denominations and institutions, representing about 30 million individual members. It does not include the nation’s largest Protestant body, the Southern Baptist Convention, which claims 16 million members and historically has eschewed membership in ecumenical groups.

Richard Cizik, NAE’s Washington-based policy director, is among the statement’s signers. Just before the board meeting, a group of conservative evangelical leaders headed by James Dobson had asked NAE directors to chasten or fire Cizik for his public advocacy to reduce global warming. The board declined to take any action against Cizik.

Posted: 3/16/07

Gingrich, potential GOP ‘08 candidate,
admits affair while pursuing Clinton

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., chose one of the nation’s most popular evangelical radio programs to admit he had an extramarital affair while pursuing impeachment charges against former President Bill Clinton.

The admission came on James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family” broadcast. Some political observers surmised that Gingrich—by choosing Dobson’s show for his forum and making the admission early in the 2008 presidential election cycle—is fishing for GOP nomination support from conservative evangelical Christians.

“The honest answer is, ‘Yes,’” Gingrich said when Dobson asked him if he had the affair. Gingrich admitted he was cheating on his second wife even while he pushed Clinton’s impeachment during the 1998 sex-and-perjury scandal.

“There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There’s certainly times when I’ve fallen short of God’s standards and my neighbors’ standards,” he continued.

However, Gingrich drew a distinction between his affair—which ultimately led to the disintegration of his second marriage—and the acts for which the House impeached Clinton. The impeachment charges faulted Clinton for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky in testimony about a sexual-harassment lawsuit.

“The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge,” Gingrich said. “The challenge I was faced with wasn’t about judging Bill Clinton as a person. I’m not going to cast the first stone.”

But, he continued, “I drew a line in my mind that said, ‘Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed and … even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept felonies, and you cannot accept perjury in your highest officials.’”

While the House voted to impeach Clinton, the Senate acquitted him. In the 1998 mid-term congressional elections, Republicans lost several House seats. Polls at the time suggested that voters believed Gingrich and other Clinton antagonists had gone too far in trying to unseat a popular president.

Blame for the Republican losses and an ethical scandal forced Gingrich to step down as speaker.

Gingrich, who said he was raised Lutheran, became Southern Baptist while in graduate school. At the time of his affair, he belonged to a Southern Baptist congregation in suburban Atlanta.

During the interview, Dobson pointedly asked Gingrich if he had repented of his failings.

“I believe deeply that people fall short and that people have to recognize that they have to turn to God for forgiveness and to seek mercy,” the former speaker responded.

While Dobson referred to Gingrich’s “multiple marriages,” he did not press the politician on details of how his first two marriages ended. His marriage to his first wife, Jacqueline Battley, ended in 1981. She has said he discussed divorce details with her as she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. Gingrich has said he does not recall whether that happened.

Gingrich married his second wife, Marianne Gingrich, just months after his first marriage ended. That marriage ended in 2000, after he acknowledged an affair with Callista Bisek, a congressional aide who was more than 20 years his junior. He soon married Bisek.

Craig Crawford, a writer for Congressional Quarterly, said on the publication’s website that the admission is the strongest evidence that Gingrich is courting religious conservatives in a bid for the GOP nomination.

“When politicians confess embarrassing details of their personal lives when they really don’t have to do so, usually it means they are up to something,” he wrote. “Why do this now? A bit of early spring cleaning will help keep the issue off the front page once, as is widely expected, Gingrich officially unveils a White House bid in the fall.”

Franklin Graham’s son injured in Iraq

BOONE, N.C. (BP)—Capt. Edward Graham, the youngest son of evangelist Franklin Graham, has sustained shrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and back in Iraq.

Graham, a 27-year-old Army Ranger and West Point graduate, did not suffer life-threatening injuries and is recovering at an undisclosed hospital, according to news reports.

“We know that he is fine and has asked for prayers for his men,” Jeremy Blume, a spokesman for Franklin Graham, told the Citizen-Times newspaper in Asheville, N.C., adding he had no more details on the incident. “Rangers aren’t allowed to disclose much information—even where he is.”

Glenn Wilcox, a close friend of the Graham family, told the Citizen-Times Graham is serving his second tour in Iraq and that his father is extremely proud of him.

“He’s a very fine, outstanding young man, but very tough and very sure of himself,” Wilcox said. “I’ve never met anyone I was more impressed with than Edward. And he loves it—he’s really committed to the United States, to West Point and to doing his job the very best he can.”

Graham is one of four children of Franklin Graham and one of 19 grandchildren of evangelist Billy Graham.

Updated: 3/15/07

Terror victims receive relief for soles, hope for souls

By Russ Dilday

Buckner International

Thousands of children in war-torn regions of Beslan, Russia, and Grozny, Chechnya, recently received thousands of pairs of shoes donated through the Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls drive.

Russian Ministries, a Christian group that collaborates with Buckner for ministry, distributed the shoes as part of a larger evangelistic effort to reach children and their families in the mostly Muslim-populated areas with the message of Christ.

Children orphaned by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 1, 2004 in Beslan received new shoes last December thanks to the Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls shoe drive.

Beslan is the site of the Sept. 1, 2004, terrorist attack on School No. 1, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of children and parents on the first day of the school year.

Orphan and low-income children in Beslan received many of the donated shoes, which Vladimir Pliev, a deacon for Transfiguration Church there, said “provided a wonderful opportunity to build relationships with thousands of children from all of the daycare centers, preschools, schools and orphanages in the entire Beslan County.”

The shoes were gratefully received, and the effort opened doors for more ministry in the region, he said.

“The most touching and emotional meetings took place while we were distributing shoes on behalf of our loving brothers and sisters in the U.S. to those whose destiny was changed as a result of the terror attack at School No. 1 … when the evil hand of terrorists took the lives of many parents, brothers, sisters and friends,” Pliev said.

The shoes bolstered inroads Pliev and other Christians already had been making into the community. He noted that Alina Plieva was among the children taken hostage in the 2004 attack. When her parents arrived at the school that day, panicked over the plight of their only child, Pliev urged them to pray to God to save their daughter. “They immediately responded and now believe that prayer saved their daughter’s life.”

Alina escaped death with facial scarring from shrapnel but has since recovered and called Pliev at the beginning of the distribution of shoes.

She “asked if she could bring her two cousins,” he said. “They all came, along with hundreds of other families and received the wonderful blessing of this free gift.”

The tragedy at School No. 1 has affected the community for generations, casting a pall of sorrow over thousands. Oleg Aziev, a volunteer from Transfiguration Church, said he noticed a sad-faced girl in the line to receive shoes and inquired about her.

“I asked her caregivers about her, and they told me that Alana is a true orphan,” he said. “She lost her entire family, except her elderly grandmother at School No. 1 when it was attacked by terrorists.”

Aziev picked up the girl, and held her. “I felt sorrow overflow in my heart. In my culture, it is not acceptable for a man to cry, but I found it hard to hold back my tears.”

Marina Kairova, a Russian Ministries staff member, is a counselor for the organization’s Beslan Youth Center. She emphasized that the shoes will do more than reach the children’s hearts; they also will reach their minds.

“Ludmila, the director of School No. 6 in Beslan, where many of the children attend who survived … the terror attack, mentioned that many of her students do not attend class because they do not have warm winter shoes,” Kairova said.

A preschool director pointed out shoe recipients like David, a student who “is fatherless and his mother only receives a small paycheck for doing very hard work in Beslan in order to provide for her son,” Kairova noted.

Another boy, Khetag, who is 14, also received shoes. Khetag has no parents and five siblings.

“All of these children are being raised by their grandmother, who provides for them by sweeping the streets of Beslan,” Kairova said. “Khetag helps her with this. During the shoe distribution outreach, we gave all six children shoes, socks and a collection of children’s literature and cassettes.”

Another Youth Center worker, who asked not to be identified because of safety concerns, said local residents “haven’t seen much love in this war-torn area (and) were very pleasantly surprised by all of the kindness, care, warmth and attention shown to them.”

“The doors of preschools, schools and the hearts of their directors are now open to partnering with the Christian center in Beslan,” she added. “They are eager to make the school auditoriums available for Christian presentations.”

Gannady Terkun, a pastor and Russian Ministries’ regional director in Vladikavkaz, said the group distributed 12,000 pairs of shoes and socks to 28 schools, daycares and internats—boarding schools that include orphanages—near Grozny, Chechnya, an active war zone.

The humanitarian aid went to “thousands of children who have seen nothing except blood and violence during the past number of years,” he noted.

“After their children received shoes,” Terkun said, “many mothers came to us and tearfully hugged and kissed us as they thanked us for the shoes and repeatedly asked whether they were really a free gift.

“Our workers explained that this gift was given freely by our Christian brothers and sisters in the U.S. on behalf of the Almighty God in the name of Isa (Jesus), who many Muslims believe is another prophet of Allah.”

Terkun thanked Buckner “and all Christians in the U.S. who made this generous gift possible. … This evangelistic shoe distribution has opened many doors.”

Updated: 3/15/07

Evangelical leaders turn up heat
on Cizik for global-warming warning

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The National Association of Evangelicals has affirmed its stance on caring for the environment—indirectly rebuffing complaints that a staffer was too environmentally friendly—and endorsed a statement condemning torture.

Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson and two dozen other evangelical leaders had asked the board to consider ousting Richard Cizik, the NAE’s vice president for governmental affairs, because of his “relentless campaign” against global warming.

But NAE interim President Leith Anderson said no formal action was taken by the group’s board of directors on the request from Dobson and others, none of whom are members of the evangelical umbrella group.

“I affirmed him (Cizik), and I’ve done that publicly and in the board meeting and there was a lot of affirmation of Rich Cizik at the board meeting,” Anderson.

Instead of addressing the request related to Cizik, the board members reaffirmed an earlier document on “an evangelical call to public engagement,” which embraces care for the creation. They also affirmed a document titled “An Evangelical Decla-ration Against Torture: Protesting Human Rights in an Age of Terror.”

Cizik said he considered the board’s actions “a strong affirmation” of his role with the association.

“I think that support was … reflected in the vote we took on the torture and human rights document,” he said. “There was only one dissenting vote.”

The “public engagement” statement, first issued in 2003, notes the broad range of issues evangelicals should address, including religious freedom, sanctity of human life, care for the poor and protecting “God’s earth.” The torture document, developed by the Tennessee-based Evangelicals for Human Rights, is signed by Cizik, Christianity Today Editor David Neff and 20 other ministers and professors.

“When torture is employed by a state, that act communicates to the world and to one’s own people that human lives are not sacred, that they are not reflections of the Creator,” the statement said. “These are claims that no one who confesses Christ as Lord can accept.”

In a March 1 letter to NAE Board Chairman L. Roy Taylor, Dobson and other signatories had expressed concern that Cizik and others were moving the emphasis of evangelicals from the “great moral issues of our time,” including abortion and homosexuality.

Cizik said he doesn’t expect evangelicals—inside or outside the association—will always agree.

“I think we should view ourselves as a family that pulls together and unifies around basic principles and affords the opportunity to disagree without being fractious relatives who don’t talk to one another,” he said.

The meeting was held March 8-9 at Anderson’s Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn.

Updated: 3/15/07

BWA committee nominates
first non-white general secretary

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP)—Neville Callam will make history for Baptists around the world if elected general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance.

If elected in July, the 55-year-old Jamaican pastor will be the first non-white chief executive of the group, which represents about 110 million Baptists in national and regional bodies across the planet. He would also be the first general secretary in the group’s 101-year history to hail from somewhere other than the United States or Europe.

Callam, who would succeed Denton Lotz, the organization’s retiring general secretary, was announced as the nominee March 7 during a meeting of the BWA Executive Committee at the group’s Falls Church, Va., headquarters. The panel responded by giving the nominee a standing ovation and symbolically affirming the candidate.

John Sundquist, chairman of the search committee that recommended Callam, called him “a seminal theological thinker,” “an articulate statesman” and an ingenious “Renaissance man.”

Callam, in response, said he would offer only one sentence: “All I have to say is, if this is how the Lord is leading us, I am willing to follow.”

The position will not become formal until the organization’s larger governing body, the BWA General Council, votes on Callam’s nomination during its July meeting in Accra, Ghana—a location Sundquist views as significant.

“We will, in the providence of God, install Neville Callam into the office of general secretary when we are in Ghana,” he said. “Neville’s grandparents were shipped in slave ships from Ghana to Jamaica. And now he becomes, in Ghana, the leader of the Baptist World Alliance.”

Pastor of Tarrant Baptist Church in Kingston, Jamaica, Callam has been heavily involved in BWA life more than 20 years. He has served on BWA governing bodies and on several other committees and work groups for the organization. He currently belongs to BWA’s Implementation Task Force, which is charged with restructuring the organization for the future.

Callam has served two terms as president of the Jamaica Baptist Union and has, at other times, held every other office for that denomination, including acting general secretary. He also worked on the boards of several public and religious media organizations in Jamaica.

He also serves as a member of the World Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission. It is a theological discussion forum whose membership is not limited to denominations that cooperate with the ecumenical council. Southern Baptist Convention leader Timothy George is the only other Baptist who serves on the commission.

A Harvard Divinity School and University of the West Indies graduate, Callam is a specialist in Christian ethics. He and his wife, Dulcie, have two grown children.

Burchell Taylor, president of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship and a member of the Executive Committee, said Baptists in the West Indies are excited about Callam’s nomination and what it will signify for the global Baptist movement.

“We regard his elevation to this post as a great historic statement by this Baptist world family, and we do think that it will have consequences for the good as the unfolding future comes upon us,” he said.

The man Callam is slated to replace said the election of a non-white candidate who does not come from a First World nation signifies the radical changes global Christianity has undergone since the alliance’s founding.

“The fact is, the Christian faith has moved to the Southern Hemisphere. Neville represents that tradition of African Christianity that is winning the world” for Christ, said Lotz. “And maybe we in the West need to be re-missionized and re-evangelized by the (global) South.”

At the March meeting, BWA leaders also heard a financial report and expressed concern about strained relations with some Baptist unions in former Soviet-bloc countries.

Ellen Teague, BWA’s director of finance and administration, noted that the organization ended 2006 with nearly $500,000 more in net assets than it had at the end of 2005. She said BWA’s income from individual and church donations has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2003, for example, the group received approximately $315,000 directly from local churches. By 2006, the figure was more than $761,000.

The European Baptist Federation, comprised of BWA member unions from Europe, the Middle East and the former Soviet republics, reported that two Baptist denominations in small Central Asian republics had left BWA in the past year. Leaders of the Baptist unions in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan cited concerns similar to the Southern Baptists’ in deciding to leave the worldwide fellowship. The Southern Baptist Convention withdrew from the BWA, accusing the group of embracing liberalism and anti-Americanism.

In addition, Baptists in Romania are in the midst of a struggle over leadership that could decide the future of their relationship with BWA, said Tony Peck, European Baptist Federation Secretary.

An upcoming election for the Romanian Baptist Union’s presidency pits an anti-BWA candidate against Otniel Bunaciu, vice president of the Union’s seminary that supports continued BWA involvement.

“We need to pray for him (Bunaciu) and the Romanian Union for the future,” Peck said. “We really do need to pray for the situation. We don’t want a division and the split there; we want them to find a way forward in our Baptist world family.”

The committee also honored Lotz, whose retirement was announced a year ago. North American Baptists honored him with a banquet prior to the Executive Committee meeting; similar celebrations are set for Europe and the General Council meeting in Ghana.

Updated: 3/15/07

Baugh's witness, generosity recalled

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

HOUSTON (ABP)—“‘There was a man sent from God whose name was John,’” Daniel Vestal told about 800 people at a Houston memorial service for Baptist philanthropist John Baugh March 8.

Quoting the biblical description of John the Baptist from the Gospel of John, Vestal said the life of John Baugh had parallels to the New Testament prophet of the same name.

Like John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Christ, John Baugh humbly pointed others to Christ instead of himself, Vestal said.

Family and friends who were touched by Baugh’s generosity, humility and commitment to Christian freedom gathered at Tallowood Baptist Church, where he was a longtime member, to remember his life.

Baugh, who had been in declining health for several years, died unexpectedly March 5 in San Antonio. He and his wife, Eula Mae, had moved there just a week before to be near their daughter, Babs Baugh.

Although he co-founded the Sysco Corporation and built it into the world’s largest food-service company—with $30 billion in annual sales and 47,500 employees—Baugh often described himself simply as “a grocery salesman.”

Vestal, who was Baugh’s pastor from 1991 to 1996 at Tallowood, called him a man of vision, wisdom, generosity and “dogged determination.”

“He was passionate about what was right,” said Vestal, now national coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Baugh campaigned passionately against what he saw as a lack of integrity among fundamentalist leaders who took control of the Southern Baptist Convention from moderates during the 1980s and ’90s. He defended what he thought was right so fervently and tirelessly that some of his friends were uncomfortable and wished he would back off, Vestal said.

“Sometimes he was almost ‘like a voice crying in the wilderness,’” Vestal said—another allusion to John the Baptist.

Baugh also was instrumental in founding Texas Baptists Committed, an organization created to prevent a similar takeover of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which now works to preserve traditional Baptist principles in denominational life. He was author of The Battle for Baptist Integrity, a book examining the SBC takeover, and was a tireless critic of fundamentalist theology.

Born in Waco, Baugh was known for his support of Texas Baptists institutions. A regent of Baylor University from 1987 to 1996, Baugh and his wife gave the lead gift that helped establish Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary in 1994.

All told, they donated more than $25 million to Baylor, the world’s largest Baptist university—even though Baugh himself did not have a college degree. He also was a founding trustee of Houston Baptist University and a longtime director of the Baptist Foundation of Texas.

In addition, Baugh was a donor to moderate Baptist causes beyond his home state. Among his beneficiaries were Associated Baptist Press, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and CBF.

Baugh was a champion of Baptist principles, noted Herbert Reynolds, Baylor’s chancellor emeritus. “You know them, but he would want me to repeat them here—the priesthood of the believer, the sufficiency of Scripture, the autonomy of the local church, separation of church and state,” he said to the gathered mourners.

“Largely because of John Baugh” and his advocacy of those Baptist principles, “Texas Baptists have remained free” from the influence of fundamentalism, Reynolds said.

“I have never met or served with a finer, abler, more astute human being,” he said. Of his friend of 35 years, Reynolds added, “He stood with me at times when standing with me was not a very popular sport to be engaged in.”

Duane Brooks, current pastor of Tallowood, called Baugh “the epitome of a Christian gentleman.”

Vestal said Baugh’s life testified to the value of family, church and hard work; to honesty, truthfulness and integrity; and to the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

John and Eula Mae Baugh were generous “long before they had money,” Vestal said, referring to their early days in the food-delivery business. “If they hadn’t learned how to give when they had little, they wouldn’t have given when they had a lot.”

Baugh was 16 when he received his high school diploma. Shortly thereafter, his father died. Baugh hitchhiked from Waco to Houston to search for a job during the Great Depression. He worked his way up to become manager of an A&P grocery store.

And as families began living in a post-War World II environment, Baugh developed a vision.

“Baugh realized that women were not going to work back into the traditional ways of cooking, so he came up with the idea of frozen foods” and named his first company Zero Foods, Reynolds said.

The name denoted the freezing point on the Celsius temperature scale. John and Eula Mae Baugh started the company in their garage when he was 30.

In 1964, Baugh decided to bring together a dozen companies that had worked through Zero Foods in the frozen-food business, creating Sysco. Leaders of the 12 institutions elected Baugh chairman and asked him to divide their holdings.

“They accepted (his decision) because of his acumen for business and fairness,” Reynolds said.

“I asked him for $10 million—$1 million every year for 10 years,” Reynolds recalled in an interview prior to the funeral service. “We would not have Truett Seminary today without that initial commitment through the first decade.”

His legacy also lives on at Baylor through the John F. Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship for both practicing and potential entrepreneurs. The center extends an arm of support to the local and national business community to facilitate new business and further the goals of established businesses. It includes the Institute for Family Business, established in 1987, which is designed to support family-owned businesses.

Baylor dedicated the Baugh-Reynolds Campus of Truett Seminary, a 24,000-sqare-foot facility, in 2002.

Born on a Leap Year Day, Baugh had just turned 91 on Feb. 28.

Baugh is survived by his wife of 71 years, Eula Mae; their daughter, Babs Baugh, and her husband, John Jarrett, of San Antonio; granddaughters Jackie Moore and her husband, Kim Moore, of Fair Oaks Ranch, and Julie Ortiz and her husband, Carlos Ortiz, of Austin; and five great-grandchildren.

Barbara Bedrick of the Baptist General Convention of Texas contributed to this story.

Posted: 3/14/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for March 25

Ready to do ministry in a new way

• Acts 6:1-7

By Leroy Fenton

Baptist Standard, Dallas

A church prognosticator once asked his mother why she continued to go to the little church she attended. After a few moments of meditation, she responded, “I keep going there because it is the only thing in my life that doesn’t change.”

Someone said the only thing that is certain is change. Change is taking place everywhere in life. Why not the church? Had Jesus and the disciples listened to the Pharisees, we still would be practicing the traditions of sacrificing animals and making trips back to Jerusalem for ancient festivals.

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Not changing is most often a cop-out for convenience and selfishness. Change must include mindset as well as stale structures. Church simply cannot be about me and my desire, but rather must be about fulfilling the calling of the Great Commission, becoming all things to all men in order to win some. When programs and structures do not work and cannot be revitalized, change becomes necessary to give the church relevance and impact.

The past has a powerful hold on mind and heart and incorporates itself into traditions that can bind creativity and curtail ingenuity. Congregations are notorious for letting once-noble practices become etched in stone and the only way to function even though the people of the world have become unresponsive and jaded to congregational habits.

The dichotomy of change is the thirst to be different while resisting that which could make a difference. Someone said insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. The anticipation of a better spiritual future is to change into a better spiritual organization. God is in the business of changing people who then bend organizations to help encourage excitement and success. Structure and governance are only tools and not ends within themselves.

Churches tend to be 50 years behind the cultural and economic development of society. Playing catch-up puts the church at a major disadvantage. Challenging the mindset and attitudes of a contemporary world is like putting new wine in old wineskins. The result is disastrous.

Change for change’s sake may have its reward but change for ministry’s sake pays great dividends. Age-old truths that never change can be carried to the cutting edge of culture, pointing to the future, addressing needs and building relationships.

Jesus was a new teacher with new teachings and a new spiritual kingdom, not of this world. Jesus and the disciples were change agents who put God and his kingdom over tradition, ritual and comfort. To create new things to stimulate better results is a characteristic of Christ, the Lord of the church.

The church, changing in an unchanging culture

Acts 3:1-5:42 provides insight to the new church’s response to opposition. The Spirit of Christ fills the new church with power, courage, strength and insight, and many responded favorably while others resisted very strongly. As one might expect, the opposition came from the religious traditionalists. The priest, temple guards and Sadducees were “greatly disturbed” (4:2), captured Peter and John and “put them in jail” (v. 3). The following day, “the rulers, elders and teachers of the law,” “the high priest” and “other men of the high priest’s family” questioned the apostles (vv. 5-7) about whom they represented. In spite of opposition, the number of believers grew to about 5,000 (v. 4). Ordered out of the Sanhedrin, the apostles refused to stop preaching, “for we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (v. 20).

Unsuccessful in destroying the church from the outside, Satan attacks within. Barnabas sold a field and brought the money to the apostles (v. 36). Ananias and Sapphira, following that example, sold a piece of property but held back part of the money for themselves and brought the other part to the apostles, pretending to have given it all.

Accused of lying to the Holy Spirit, Ananias “fell down and died” (5:5). When Sapphira conspired and lied too, she “fell down at his feet and died” (v. 10) and was buried beside her husband. Death was the punishment for lying to God, for pretending with the utmost hypocrisy.

How pretentious and hypocritical churches can be, hiding behind the façade of big buildings, perky programs, skilled performers, wealthy budgets and prestigious positions. The affluent society and the affluent church may be in great danger of self-destruction. Perhaps the church has died but no one has noticed and called for its funeral.

The persecution intensified, and the apostles were again thrown into jail. Upon their miraculous release through an angel of the Lord, the apostles began again to teach and preach (vv. 19-21). Thanks to the wisdom of Gamaliel, the Pharisee (vv. 33-40) who addressed the court with a practical appeal, the apostles were “flogged” (v. 40) and released.

The apostles left “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (v. 41) and “from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ” (v. 41). This new faith, the work of the risen Christ, inspired by the filling of the Holy Spirit, was creating great success in an environment of opposition by the old guard who said, “We have never done it that way before.” Unashamedly, this group of new believers refused to bow down and courageously marched against the powers and authorities of this world, giving God the glory for turning the world upside down.

The church, changing to meet human need

The church continued to increase (6:1), and size always brings problems and a need for administrative creativity. New problems required new answers and new energy. Some ingenuity was needed to organize the masses into effective cohesive structures to maximize ministry effectiveness.

The key to understanding the servant role in this passage is to understand that organizing to serve was shaped by human need. Existing for others, the church constructed a plan to accomplish a specific task. Though there were thousands of believers, a simple plan was devised by the apostles with sufficient manpower to meet the need. The apostles had caught the vision of a Christ who cared and a crowd of people that needed care.

Luke records here the first organized ministry of the church, remembering that Christ said: “The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

From the immediate response, it may be concluded the neglect of the widows was not intentional. The apostles gathered the disciples together (6:2) to find a solution. The apostles had given their gifts and knowledge to the preaching and teaching ministry, a ministry to which they had been chosen and that must be continued (vv, 2,4). The apostles decided on the number. The gathered church made the selection of those who would serve, but they were to be individuals “full of the Spirit and wisdom” (6:3,5).

The apostles understood the magnitude of the need, while the congregation knew the individuals who had these proven qualities and capabilities. The seven chosen were not selected for honor or for a position but for serving the needs of the widows who felt neglected.

It seems that the church of today should take to heart this lesson. The shape of ministry should form around the need and those who serve should be equipped and capable of meeting that need. A general selection for no specific purpose usually means poor use of resources.

The laity that can serve should do so in order that those who proclaim the word can give of themselves to the ministry of reconciliation. Most churches today expect the pastor to do the ministry and the proclamation. It is very near impossible today to be a great preacher and a great pastor at the same time. The demands are too great.

The pastor’s family sits at home without father or husband while he is out administering the church, ministering to the community and struggling to find time to prepare himself for the hour of preaching.

Every Christian should see himself as a minister, a servant. Sharing respected responsibilities would do wonders to enable the church to impact its world. Find new ways and means to meet human needs and find those servant-minded folk to compassionately help touch lives and change hearts.

Discussion question

• Why do we get stuck in doing ministry the same old ways when new situations call for new approaches?

Posted: 3/14/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for March 25

Jesus restores our life

• John 11:1-44

By David Harp

First Baptist Church, Stanton

Professional golfer Paul Azinger was riding as high as anyone ever could in this life. He had reached his own American dream. Then Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at age 33. He had just won a PGA championship and had 10 tournament victories to his credit.

He wrote: “A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I’m going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or something else. It’s just a question of when. Everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live.”

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Then he remembered something that Larry Moody, who teaches a Bible study on the pro golf tour, had said to him: “Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living.”

What are we to do when faced with impossible situations? Where do we turn in life’s most desperate moments?

Our Bible study helps us answer one of life’s deepest questions: Who can help me through situations that seem hopeless?

The first section of our Bible study is John 11:1, 3, 6-7.

A man named Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus and was deathly ill. Mary and Martha are sisters to Lazarus, and they appeal to Jesus—“Lord, the one you love is sick” (John 11:3).

Jesus loved this family and stayed with them often. Friendship did not gain them some special privilege with the Son of Man. As Lazarus grew sicker with each passing day, these close friends of Jesus heard no word from him. Days went by, and still no word from Jesus. Jesus was directed by divine timing. Jesus did not come as a genie to be manipulated by friends or crisis. Jesus came to do the saving work his Father called him to do on this earth. Jesus knew in this situation all glory would go to God—no matter how desperate the situation.

The next section of our Bible study is John 11:20-27.

As Jesus approached the home of Mary and Martha, Martha ran to meet him. She told him if he had been there her brother would not have died. When Jesus said Lazarus would be raised from the dead, Martha understood Jesus to be referring to a future event. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Martha’s response is given, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world” (John 11:27).

We must remind ourselves we are not immune from the trials of this life—no one is. This passage shows us that some of the closest friends of Jesus faced the same harsh struggles of life we do. Jesus loved them greatly, but they were not exempt.

The presence of pain and suffering in the lives of faithful followers of Jesus can teach us that Christians do not have different experiences in life. Rather, they experience life differently. Our hope in Jesus does not insulate us from life’s difficulties, but it does provide a way through them and beyond them. God uses difficult experiences to make us more compassionate servants for him as we comfort others.

Our final section of Bible study is found in John 11:38-40, 43-44.

Jesus went to where Lazarus was buried and raised him to life, calling him forth from the tomb. Jesus commanded those standing there to unbind Lazarus and let him go. Jesus often tells us to do something in the situation. It may or may not make sense to us at the time, but we should trust Jesus and do what he tells us.

With the healing of Lazarus, John records for us a miracle with a message—Jesus Christ is God’s answer to death. God receives the glory for this miracle of life. People around this miracle proclaimed God’s glory and Jesus’ power over death.

I so wish we could have a Larry King kind of interview with Lazarus. We could ask a million questions. We might get them all answered, or we might not. We still would give God the glory and look to Jesus as the life giver. We also would come to realize that one day the grip of death would reach out again for Jesus’ friend Lazarus. The greatest claim on the life of Lazarus was from the testimony of Jesus himself.

“Whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die …” (John 11:26).

Discussion questions

• How do we trust Jesus when we feel helpless?

• Why doesn’t God’s timing fit ours?

• How do our trials glorify God?

Posted: 3/14/07

Explore the Bible Series for March 25

Submission: The sign of a well-ordered life

• 1 Peter 2:13-25

By Kathryn Aragon

First Baptist Church, Duncanville

Life is a dangerous proposition. For even the boldest among us, it is frightening to think we only have one chance to get it right. Of course, that’s where God comes into the picture. God, in his grace, has given us a guidebook telling us exactly how to get it right.

Yet having the guidebook isn’t always the comfort we imagine it will be. Quite the opposite; it can be very disturbing. After all, what do we do when the guidebook doesn’t line up with our daily experience? Where do we find the courage to risk doing things God’s way rather than our own way?

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These are questions we must consider this week as we discuss submission. Even when we wholeheartedly believe in it, submission is a difficult issue. It goes against the grain. It demands we lay ourselves down and allow others to treat us however they wish. If life without a guidebook seems frightening, the idea of radical submission is even worse.

Our plan: submission avoidance

Even the best of us must admit we’ve developed little tricks for avoiding obedience. Let’s be honest. Submission is difficult. Of course, as Christians, we don’t want to appear nonsubmissive, so we play little games with ourselves. We memorize a few pat answers, say the right words and then evaluate each situation to see if it warrants true submission.

We have learned, you see, that there can be varying levels of submission. We can submit outwardly while our hearts are rebelling. We can submit to only a part of the demand, hoping the rest will be forgotten. We can even agree with words and then do nothing. Our hope, of course, is that we will get by without having to submit completely.

So what do we do with the Apostle Peter’s mandate to “submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men” (v. 13)? We need a radical adjustment to our thinking. And we need to rethink the degree to which we trust God. Of course, this will not be an easy task. It takes real strength and courage to risk obeying God.

Henry Miller says it well: “True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.” If these words don’t ring true, it’s because our thinking has been too influenced by the world. Remember, the wisdom of God is foolishness to man.

The world’s plan: nonsubmission

The world teaches submission is the pathway to abuse. It is the way of cowards and weaklings. It also carries with it the idea we will be giving up our precious freedom, an idea particularly repugnant to Americans. The bottom line is this: Submission suggests a loss of dignity—something we’ll avoid at all costs.

But nothing could be further from the truth. According to Peter, submission is not a dirty word, but a calling by God. As we have discussed in previous weeks, God has a plan. If we choose to obey, we are privileged to join God in his work and will reap the rewards of doing so. You see, God is not asking us to be weak. He is asking us to silence “the ignorant talk of foolish men” through our commitment to doing good (v. 15).

God’s plan: a well-ordered life

Our confusion is a result of minds clouded by worldly ideas. Whereas the world believes submission is weakness and loss of freedom, to God it is the sign of a well-ordered life. Our choice to submit to earthly authorities evidences our acceptance of God’s order, choosing his plan for our lives rather than our own. It is the proof of our submission to him.

Of course, I’m not teaching anything new. We all desire to obey God. The question remains, however: How do we submit without appearing weak? Perhaps the answer lies in a slight adjustment to our thinking. We know submission is obedience. What we need to realize is that it isn’t blind obedience.

Verse 17 tells us to love the brotherhood, fear God and honor the ruling authority. It doesn’t tell us to follow them into sin. Nor does it tell us to give up our independence. God is not asking us to stop thinking. He merely is asking us to obey him at all costs. Obeying our earthly authorities is just good practice. It keeps us in the habit of doing right.

God also asks us to fear him. True fear of God springs from understanding we will stand before him on judgment day, answering for every word, every action and every attitude. It causes us to evaluate ourselves by a different standard, a higher standard than the one the world uses.

When God asks us to submit, he is telling us to make a choice. Far from requiring mindlessness, God is granting us the ultimate freedom—choice. He wants us to choose to do right in spite of what others think, in spite of how we are treated. It is the choice to stand alone, if necessary, to obey God. It is the choice to be great in the kingdom of heaven.

Honoring authority demands obedience and respect. It is the conscious choice to lay down our own desires so God will be honored. It is not an attitude of weakness, but of strength. Initially, the world may perceive our helpfulness, kindness and unselfishness as weakness. But over time, our strength and courage will become obvious. As we stand firm against opposition, our character will be revealed.

Sound difficult? Frightening even? Peter tells us we will be commended by God for submitting, especially under unjust circumstances (v. 20). But our calling is clear. We are to follow Jesus’ example, obeying God even if it hurts.

Accepting God’s plan

It doesn’t really matter what we think of God’s plan. Part of trusting God is accepting that he knows more than we do. In his wisdom, God has established an order. Those in authority will answer to God for their use and abuse of that power. Those who are under authority will answer to God for the way they submit to authority.

The question we raised was how to submit. Our answer is simply to do it. By submitting to God’s plan, we are placing ourselves in his hands, trusting him to take care of us. And there’s no better place we could be.

There is a peace that comes from accepting God’s will and refusing to argue with him about it. Let’s choose today to give up control to God. He will give us grace to make it through any difficulties we might face.

Discussion questions

• What are the authorities God has placed over you?

• In what areas do you find it easy to submit?

• In what areas is it hard to submit?

What is your greatest fear in submitting?

• Choose one of the areas you have difficulty submitting. How could you begin trusting God in this area today?