Posted: 1/05/07

DOWN HOME:
Are you too old to wear corduroys?

Joanna took me shopping, but she didn’t stay long enough to protect me from the sales clerk. Oh, the humiliation.

Like most guys I know, I’m a buyer, not a shopper. The difference is the agenda. A buyer’s agenda is short. He knows what he wants and goes looking for it. Nothing else matters. If he’s shopping for jeans, and the store is selling $65 dress shirts for a nickel, he’ll come home only with jeans. But a shopper’s agenda is open. She may need a blue sweater, but if she sees fuchsia pumps at a great price, she’ll come home with fuschia pumps. And the blue sweater.

As a hard-shell buyer, I prefer to “shop” on the Internet. The Internet eliminates all the challenges of shopping—huge malls, parking, crowds, distractions and sales clerks. You type the name of the item you need, look at the options, make your pick, pay, and you’re done.

But my wife of lo these many years knows that, while I’m pretty good at buying dress shirts online, my wardrobe would look like a uniform if that’s the only way I bought clothes.

So, she took me to the mall.

I “needed” a pair of brown dress slacks, and found them right away and was pretty much ready to leave when she informed me the men’s store had a “buy one pair, get the second pair half off” sale going on. She convinced me if I thought hard enough about my closet, I could come up with another pair of pants that, if I didn’t actually “need,” I could at least wear regularly. And that’s how I came to own a new pair of tan corduroys.

(Oh, yeah, and while I was trying on the pants, Joanna found two sweaters and a shirt. Has she got an eye, or what?)

Once she stacked my new clothes on the sales counter, Jo figured I could take it from there. She announced she was going to run down to one of her favorite women’s stores, and she told me where to meet her.

The sales clerk, Justin, and I got along great while I paid for all the new duds. But when he started packing it all up, he asked: “Where will you wear these corduroys? Around the house?”

What kind of a question is that? I stammered for a second and said something like: “Naw, I usually wear jeans around the house. I’ll wear cords when we go out to eat, and sometimes I’ll wear them to work.”

Sensing my defensiveness, Justin tried to smooth things over. “I’ve always wanted to know, and you seemed like someone I could ask,” he said.

I must’ve looked mystified. Justin explained, “I’m too young to wear cords.”

OK, the kid is half my age, but he didn’t have to make an issue of it. The only reason I didn’t cancel the sale and bust his commission was I feared facing Jo empty-handed. (Plus I really liked those brown slacks.)

Some people think of God like Justin thinks about corduroys. Do you wear your faith only around the house or only at church?

This year, may we possess everyday faith—a durable, active relationship with God that goes wherever we go.

–Marv Knox

Posted: 1/05/07

EDITORIAL:
Prophecies needed for coming year

A few years ago, (Actually, exactly seven years ago, January 2000. Remember Y2K?) our Sunday school quarterly focused on apocalyptic literature—mystical passages from the Old Testament books of Zechariah and Daniel, as well as mesmerizing passages from the New Testament book of Revelation. The first Sunday, our classroom nearly burst. We started the lesson several minutes late because we had to haul in chairs for all the folks who came to hear the teacher predict The End of the World as We Know It.

Within 30 minutes, I conducted the most effective ensmallment campaign in the history of Sunday school. The majority of our first-time visitors weren’t impressed when I told them: “Every passage in the Bible meant something to the people who first heard or read it. Sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit, it meant something to each succeeding generation. Thank God, it also means something for us today. But we would be indescribably arrogant to assume biblical prophecy meant nothing to all the believers in all the years up until now and was written only for people alive today.” Most of the newcomers never came back. If you can’t get the inside scoop on what the Mark of the Beast really looks like and determine the true identity of the Antichrist, why bother with Bible study?

This episode returned to memory Jan. 2, when televangelist Pat Robertson predicted a terrorist attack would produce “mass killing” in the United States this year. Oh, really. This from the TV preacher who predicted the U.S. coast would be “lashed by storms” and the Pacific Northwest would be smashed by “something as bad as a tsunami,” both of which could happen randomly but both of which have not come true.

When you think about it, you can understand why religionists like Robertson stir up a following. People are curious. They want to know the future, whether it’s the next terrorist attack, or a wave the size of Mount Rushmore, or the date when Jesus returns. That’s why pastors who put on “biblical prophecy” seminars make money. Problem is, people confuse prophecy with prediction or, as Beth Newman of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond calls it, fortunetelling. But prophecy is something entirely different. “In Scripture, the prophets deliver a word from the Lord that always carries with it a self-judgmental call to repent, to turn to God, to be God's people,” Newman explains.

Instead of glitzy, scary or phantasmagoric predictions, we need true biblical prophecy—application of God’s word, the Bible, for our times. This is incredibly hard to do. For starters, prophecy requires courage. When you read the Old Testament, you realize prophets told people what they didn’t want to hear and got in trouble for it. Prophecy also demands humility. A true prophet stands under the prophecy delivered to others; a prophet delivers a call for everybody to repent. Finally, prophecy requires hope. In the short run, prophecy always sounds like bad news. But the prophet believes that if God’s people hear and heed, God will heal.

Prophecy isn’t nearly as fun as prediction. Still, it’s much more important. In 2007, we need to hear prophetic words on many subjects. Some of them include:

• Immigration and education. These are the two greatest public challenges facing Texas. They won’t be resolved as long as the governor and legislators treat them as wedge issues to create political leverage.

• Darfur. Genocide in Sudan—fueled by ethnic hatred and justified by religion—is an indictment against all humanity. We must not look away.

• Clergy sexual abuse. Although the vast majority of pastors and priests are upright and moral, clergy who prey on women and children threaten the cause of Christ and could cripple the church.

• Taxes versus children. We want government to be responsible with our money. But where did so many citizens get the notion all taxation is evil? Something is wrong with our morals when we cut services to poor children in order to provide tax breaks to the rich. (Don’t just say, “It’s the church’s job.” No church does its share to provide all the human services for all the poor in its community. Besides, why should the heathen get a pass on helping others?)

• Iraq. We’re for democracy. We love and respect our troops. Most of us care about Iraqis. But we need divine guidance out of this quagmire.

• Faith and life. The religious right’s political attempt to force its worldview upon others failed, as it should. Faith isn’t about coercion, but persuasion. To be authentic, faith must be free.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.

Posted: 1/05/07

Graham named among
most-admired in poll for 50th time

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Evangelist Billy Graham has been named in the Gallup Poll’s top 10 “most-admired” men list for a record 50th time.

In a poll taken in mid-December, the 88-year-old evangelist came in fifth.

Ranked before him, in order, were President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

The men ranking behind Graham, in order, were former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Pope Benedict XVI, former South African President Nelson Mandela, former President George H.W. Bush and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Graham has been ranked in the poll almost every year the question was asked by the Gallup Organization since 1955.

The only two years when he didn’t rank were in 1976, when the polling firm didn’t ask the question, and in 1962, said Jeffrey Jones, managing editor of the Gallup Poll.

Other frequent top 10 poll finishers are Carter (25 times), George H.W. Bush (17), Clinton (15), Powell (15) and Mandela (15).

Posted: 1/05/07

After 52 years at one church,
pastor has no plans to quit

By George Henson

Staff Writer

SPRING—Earl Hahn, age 84, has served as pastor at Faith Temple Baptist Church in Spring 52 years, and he has no intention of stopping now.

“As long as the Lord lets me, I’m going to keep preaching. I just continue to feel that’s his will for my life,” he said.

When Hahn arrived at Faith Temple from Rural Shade Baptist Church in Cleveland on Dec. 15, 1954, the church was in Hou-ston. Hahn remembers it as a vibrant congregation, active in the life of the community.

The demographics of the community changed, and as membership dwindled, Faith Temple moved about eight miles away. At this second location, in the Scenic Woods section of Houston, Faith Temple enjoyed its heyday, with more than 1,800 members and regular attendance topping 500.

Hahn led the church to sell bonds to enlarge the facility to accommodate the growth. But again, the community began to change, and longtime residents moved away.

“People told me I should just move on and get out of there, but I couldn’t. We still had more than $100,000 in bonds that people had bought, and I couldn’t walk away without those people getting their money back. I had sold those bonds, and I couldn’t see those people lose their money,” Hahn recalled.

Numbers continued to dwindle, but Hahn stayed. His commitment to the people who had supported the church in its building effort was rewarded when the school district bought the property for a sum that allowed all the bonds to be redeemed and left about $100,000.

That money allowed Faith Temple to find new life once more in Spring more than 20 years ago. It has yet to regain its glory years, however.

“It’s been a slow process,” Hahn acknowledged. “When we came here, it was just a country church, but now they’ve started building out here quite a bit now.”

Hahn has remained faithful in visiting people moving into the area, but admits it’s “a slow go.”

But that doesn’t mean he is ready to retire. His love for sharing God’s word and his love for his congregation are as great as they have ever been, he said.

“I love to preach, to open God’s word for the people,” he said. “I believe in getting to the point—no chasing rabbits.”

The greatest part of ministry is obvious, he said. “It’s always a joy to see people come to know the Lord.”

He recalled preach-ing a revival at Pleasant Grove Church in North Zulch years ago when 42 people accepted Christ. “There were a couple of kids, two men in their 80s and all in between. It was great.”

While a student at Sam Houston State College in the ’40s, he was pastor of three small country churches at the same time, he said. “I’ve baptized people in rivers, creeks, stock ponds—whatever was available,” Hahn said.

The 50 to 60 people who attend services each week at Faith Temple are some of God’s best, Hahn said, adding, “I have a wonderful bunch of people here.”

The church has remained committed to missions, he added. The congregation takes a single mission offering with half going to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, one-fourth to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions and the other one-fourth for home missions. The church also contributes regularly to Union Baptist Association, where Hahn is the longest tenured pastor.

Hahn’s son, Johnny, has led the church’s music ministry more than 30 years, and another son, Wayne, is an active member along with his family. His daughter, Debbie, misses many services taking care of Hahn’s wife of 62 years, Joy. Mrs. Hahn was discovered to have blood on her brain on New Year’s Eve, 1995. She never fully recovered from brain surgery, and for about the last five years, she has been almost completely disabled.

Recently, she had to be admitted to the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital, and Hahn is at her bedside for hours each day.

Hahn recalls how she was a large part of his ministry through the years, especially in children’s work and Woman’s Missionary Union. “She was just so smart, she could do anything,” he said.

His health, he said, has been a blessing from God. “I’ve never had to take any medicines or anything, and I’ve always been healthy.”

And because his health allows it, Hahn said, he is going to remain committed to the one who called him so many years ago.

“I guess I’ll just keep preaching until God tells me otherwise. I can’t do anything but be faithful to him.”

Posted: 1/05/07

Texas Legislature faces critical issues

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

AUSTIN—Texas legislators appear poised to tackle issues that need critical attention, including medical insurance and criminal justice, as the legislature convenes Jan. 9, said Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission Director Suzii Paynter.

“Texas is really at a turning point for its future,” she said. “Unfortunately, we are at sort of the last leg in some very critical areas. Unfortunately, we’re leading the nation in uninsured. Unfortunately, we’re leading the nation in pollution rates. Unfortunately, we’re leading the nation in the dropout rate. These are very critical issues for our state.”

Legislators will examine how to enable more Texans to have medical insurance. Small-business owners have difficulty providing medical insurance for their employees because of the high costs involved. Reductions to Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid in 2003 cut back medical benefits for many economically challenged families.

Pre-session discussions have included the possibility of expanding CHIP, ironing out wrinkles in Medicaid and helping small businesses come together to form larger groups that would qualify for lower insurance rates. Some have proposed expanding gambling in Texas to offset the costs of helping Texans gain medical insurance.

Legislators also are facing a prison system with more inmates than it can manage, and officials argue there is a need for three new prisons. Some legislators have said they would like to move some of the many inmates who are addicted to alcohol and drugs into treatment programs, thereby creating room for other convicts.

A proposal to build coal power plants throughout the state also is generating legislative discussion. Opponents and proponents of the plants are debating the environmental impact the power-generating units will have. Paynter said this is the latest battle in a state that is becoming increasingly polluted.

“Texas, unfortunately, is a battleground right now,” she said. “We used to have a clean-air state. Now we’re one of the most polluted states.”

Paynter said the health insurance, criminal justice and environmental issues will affect many aspects of Texas Baptist life. Decisions made will alter the quality of air Texas Baptists breathe, how Texas Baptist hospitals deliver healthcare and how Texas Baptist churches connect people with social services.

Many of these legislative decisions will directly impact the most underprivileged Texans, most of whom have little voice in the state’s legislature, Paynter said. The CLC helps provide these people a place of influence.

“There are so many paid people at the legislature to represent special interests. It’s important to have credible, reasonable voices there to speak for people who don’t have a paid lobbyist to represent them.”

Posted: 1/05/07

Texas Baptist Forum

‘Fixing’ immigration

The recent well-publicized immigration raid on the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Cactus, in the Texas Panhandle, serves as a troubling reminder that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed.

• Jump to online-only letters below

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

“Being in the position I am today, I do feel like a looking glass, where people living in the West can view Islam, and Muslims can view another culture. I feel comfortable looking at both and living in these two distinct zones.” Yusuf Islam The singer/songwriter formerly known as Cat Stevens, speaking about how his 1978 conversion to Islam allows him to live in two different realms (USA Today/RNS) “I’m not in the ‘Who’s Who’ of Baptists. I’m in the ‘Who’s He?’ of Baptists.” Frank Page Dark-horse candidate who won election as president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006 (RNS) “Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain, Britain. So conform to it—or don’t come here. We don’t want the hatemongers, whatever their race, religion or creed.” Tony Blair British prime minister (AP/RNS) “You meet the Lord in prayer every day. The idea of meeting him is, while disquieting, not something I think I am afraid of.” Francis George Chicago Roman Catholic cardinal, who was facing surgery for bladder cancer (Chicago Tribune/RNS)

Texas businesses want and need to follow the law. Unfortunately, they lack a sensible and reliable system to verify an employee’s legal status.

Employers are forced to navigate tricky waters each time they make a hire. Texas businesses must deal with complex immigration regulations; a glut of seemingly valid, but sometimes counterfeit, worker identification documents; and the threat of discrimination lawsuits if they ask the “wrong” questions about employees’ documents.

Enforcement alone will not fix our immigration system, and it has failed in the past. We can’t just build walls around a broken system. We need to fix the system to make sure we achieve real security, restore law and order, and have enough workers to continue growing our economy.

It is time for a serious solution to this serious challenge. It is time for Congress to act.

Bill Hammond, president

Texas Association of Business

Austin

Christians & unbelievers

Regarding your editorial, “Wanted: More compelling Christians. How and with whom should Christians cooperate?” (Dec. 4.)

Yes, there are times we must cooperate with Christians of other views and nonbelievers. But Scripture does warn us not to be unequally yoked. I agree with you in that I have a greater problem with Rick Warren associating with the likes of Bill Gates, even though Barak Obama and I are lightyears apart on political views.

I remember a quote by Bob Harrington made many years ago in which he stated, “Jesus associated with the hogs, but he didn’t get in the mud and wallow with them.” That’s where we as Christians (including Warren) must be very careful in our endeavors with those outside our faith. It may get to the point we’re so covered with mud no one can tell us apart.

F.A. Taylor

Kempner

Bigger picture

I am no ostrich hiding my head in the sand. I am as disappointed as many others in light of what has happened to our church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley. How important it is for us to look at what our denomination is all about at this time. Associations and conventions enable us to do things as a group that individual churches cannot accomplish on their own. This has not changed.

Over 5,000 overseas missionaries are depending on our support. As one who spent 32 years in another country, I know what it means to be completely free to dedicate oneself totally to the Lord’s work with no worries, knowing that salary, housing, medical needs, and car and its upkeep would be there, regardless. Our missionaries are counting on us—a significant percentage coming through the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

We should never forget that every penny contributed to denominational causes is the Lord’s money and should be handled with reverence. These will, however, always be handled by human beings—sometimes the wrong human beings. But one misstep is dwarfed in comparison to what has been accomplished and will be accomplished with the remaining monies.

Now, more than ever, we must look at the bigger picture. To let up on our giving at this time would simply harm other causes. We know the Lord will multiply our gifts many times over.

Helen Nixon

San Angelo

Right thing

Congratulations to Charles Wade for doing the right thing concerning the Rio Grande Valley probe (Dec. 18).

By turning over the evidence to government officials, this will remove any perceived coverup or protection of supposed friends of anyone working for the convention.  

While this is a step in the right direction, I would like to see him renounce the statements made by the chair upon the advice of the parliamentarians to thwart the will of the convention in session!

This would go even further in healing the division this situation has caused.

Michael Simons

Cleburne

The message of the Baby Jesus

I love it when a brother or sister causes so much scriptural thought as David Page’s letter on “Baby Jesus” (Dec. 18).

The Baby: Scriptural both in the Old Testament and New Testament. I would say it is worthy to be taught. So prevalent at this time of year. Why?  It is the time we celebrate His birth. 

The first Christmas:  A humble Baby, in a humble manger, in a humble barn, with humble worshippers, in humble attire.  The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, born to be a humble servant to die a sinner’s death.  Brother, that’s meat.

As we enter our monuments of worship in our Sunday best, have we really forgotten the message of the “Baby Jesus” ?

Where is our humility?

Ross H. Hardwick

Devine

Posted: 1/05/07

Volunteers warm orphans’
hearts—and feet—in Moldova

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

Clay Palmer handed a thin, poorly dressed Moldovan child new white socks and got the typical excited smile. But what happened next was totally unexpected.

Instead of moving to the next station where volunteers were fitting children for insulated winter boots, the boy grinned broadly and headed back out the door.

“He was just thrilled to be getting a pair of socks. When I called to him and pointed to the volunteers fitting the boots, that grin got even bigger, and he literally started jumping up and down with joy,” Palmer remembered. “How can your heart not break for children who have so little and are so grateful for anything?”

The distribution included a copy of the Gospel of John in either Romanian or Russian donated by the Baptist Union of Moldova.

Palmer, a member of Bethel Baptist Church in New Caney, was one of 48 volunteers from six states who fitted new winter boots and socks on every resident of the 66 government “interstats” scattered throughout Moldova.

The government institutions are mostly orphanages, but they also include facilities housing mentally and physically disabled people, as well as one youth detention facility.

The project, Operation Knit Together, has supplied warm shoes and socks to some Moldovan orphanages since 2000. Last month, after it became part of Children’s Emergency Relief International, the overseas arm of Baptist Child & Family Services, the project took on the entire nation and signed formal contracts with the Moldovan government.

Volunteers returned home with intimate memories—a girl in a wheelchair reaching up to help carry the boxes of shoes and socks inside her orphanage, a remote interstat that has running water from a single faucet only three or four times a week, a 7-year-old giving a volunteer the only cookie he would get for weeks as a “thank you,” a mentally handicapped teenager beaming as a hand touched his face and clinging to the hand when the volunteer turned to leave.

“The volunteers worked tirelessly from 6 a.m. and often until 10 p.m. when they could have been home decorating and shopping for Christmas,” noted Dearing Garner, who headed the project. “They smiled at nervous children, tenderly held dirty and smelly feet, took pictures, hugged Moldovans by the hundreds and brought joy and the true spirit of Christmas.

Children in traditional Modovan dress help unload shoes and other supplies distributed by the team from Children’s Emergency Relief International, the overseas arm of Baptist Child & Family Services.

“When we started this six years ago after seeing children suffering from frostbite by going to just a handful of orphanages, we never could have dreamed we’d be sending seven teams over thousands of kilometers to successfully complete a project assigned, funded and enabled by our Lord. We jumped from 30 orphanages last year to 66 this time. The planning and logistics were a challenge. Amaz-ingly, we had shoes to fit each child.”

In addition to paying their own way and helping raise the funds to underwrite the project, the volunteers brought their own gifts—hand-knitted hats and scarves, stuffed animals and small toys that were handed out at the smaller orphanages.

Moldova’s Baptist churches provided the translators for the teams and often helped with the distributions, which included a copy of the Gospel of John in either Romanian or Russian donated by the Baptist Union of Moldova.

Children’s Emergency Relief International and Baptist Child & Family Services have been involved in Moldova since 1999, working primarily with the country’s two largest orphanages that house 500 to 700 children each. Currently, hundreds of youth are supported through sponsorship programs including children in interstats, youth involved in independent living and foster-care children.

Additionally, the agency sponsors camps for orphans in the summer and at Christmas, funds a doctor and provides medicines for the country’s largest orphanage and partners with a rehabilitation program for physically handicapped.

Operation Knit Together drew volunteers and financial support from churches in Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania and contributions from Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina.

Posted: 1/05/07

On the Move

• Mike Acker to Lebanon Church in Cleburne as minister of youth.

• John Allen to First Church in Godley as minister of youth.

• Gary Anthony to First Church in Temple as minister of music from Gaston Oaks Church in Dallas.

• C.E. Barnett to Mount Pleasant Church in Kosse as pastor.

• Jamie Burkhart to Clearfork Church in Hawley as minister of music.

• David Campbell to First Church in Longview as interim minister of music.

• Jeremy Franks to First Church in Cleburne as minister of children.

• Blake Gearhart to First Church in Rockdale as youth minister.

• David Hartwig has resigned as pastor of First Church in Chillicothe and is available for interims and supply at (940) 838-8383.

• Randy Hatchett to Immanuel Church in Odessa as interim pastor.

• Forest Lowry to First Church in Lexington as interim pastor.

• Gary Lumpkin has resigned as pastor of Temple Church in New Boston.

• James McGlothlin to First Church in San Angelo as intentional interim pastor.

• Lynn McMasters to Texarkana College and Texas A&M University-Texarkana as Baptist Student Ministry director.

• Mark Nelson to Weatherford College as Baptist Student Ministry director from Bethel Church in Buffalo, where he was pastor.

• Randall O’Brien to Trinity Church in San Antonio as interim preacher.

• Mark Riley has resigned as pastor of Immanuel Church in Odessa.

• Paul Smith to Calvary Church in Colorado City as pastor from First Church in Westbrook.

• Josh Stowe to First Church in Monahans as pastor from First Church in Rule.

• Brad Taylor to First Church in Ranger as pastor.

• Laura Wheless to First Church in Farmers Branch as youth director.

• Josh Woodard to Southwest Park Church in Abilene as associate minister to students and media.

• J.J. Young to Alamo Heights Church in Port Lavaca as youth minister.

Posted: 1/05/07

Apostle’s grave may be beneath Rome church

By Stacy Meichtry

Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS)— Vatican officials have identified a marble sarcophagus embedded in the foundations of a Rome basilica as the coffin believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul.

The announcement marked the latest chapter of an excavation campaign under way since 2002, when Vatican archaeologists set out to locate the sarcophagus.

The actual contents of the coffin, however, remain unknown, because it has not been fully unearthed. Instead, it remains buried beneath the main altar of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, the archpriest of the basilica, said he had no reason to doubt the sarcophagus contained the apostle’s remains, because the coffin appeared to have gone untouched since the 4th century, when an early Christian temple was erected over it.

The sarcophagus was discovered directly be-neath a marble slab with the engraving “St. Paul apostle” in Latin.

Archaeologists burrowed through more than three feet of plaster, mortar and brick to reach the fourth century foundations of the basilica. That hole is covered with glass now, providing visitors with a tunnel view of the sarcophagus’ marble surface.

The project’s goal, Vatican archaeologist Giorgio Filippi said, was to bring the sarcophagus to light for Christian pilgrims rather than probe the contents for proof of the apostle. But he said his research team was “studying the possibility” of exploring the coffin’s interior.

According to the early Christian writer Eusebius of Caesarea, Paul was taken to Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero and beheaded.

Tradition holds Paul was buried with the Apostle Peter in the Christian catacombs along Rome’s Via Appia. His remains later were moved to a site outside the city’s ancient walls, where Roman Emporor Theodosius erected a church in the 4th century to honor the martyr.

That church burned down in 1823, and the current basilica was built above its foundations, with a new altar directly over the site of the tomb.

Posted: 1/05/07

By removing barriers,
church reclaims families

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

ALICE—Six years ago, Frank Espinoza returned with high hopes to the church he attended when he was married. He wanted to be a vital part of growing Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana in Alice.

Four months later, he came to a crossroads where he had to choose between his church and his family. His daughters didn’t speak Spanish and weren’t learning anything about Christianity at a Spanish-speaking church because of the language barrier. Soon, they didn’t want to go to church.

So, Espinoza did what he felt was best for his family. The Espinozas moved their membership to another church, but his love for Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana never faded.

God honored that passion, Espinoza said, by bringing him and his family back to the church.

Noe Trevino, a Baptist General Convention of Texas congregational strategist, was leading the church through a process to rediscover its vision and reach out in ways it never had before.

The church reviewed its history. Members studied the demographics of their community and discovered many young families who preferred speaking English but had no church home. The congregation also found people believed the church was only for Mexicans because of its name.

So, the church started an English service to reach young families and saw it quickly surpass the Spanish service in attendance. The congregation poured more resources into its youth program.

Last summer, the church’s longtime pastor retired, but the growth continued because people were empowered to minister, said Sylvia Torres, who leads the church’s children’s ministry. Church members are following God’s call to serve in a variety of ways, she reported.

“Everybody has to be active,” she said. “There’s a place for everybody.”

The church also removed a cultural barrier by changing its name to Emmanuel Baptist Church.

“We wanted a name that would be certainly Baptist, but one that would imply all cultures were welcome, not just Mexicanos,” Espinoza said.

God continues to grow the church, he said. The congregation averages more than 160 people each week in its worship services. People are making professions of faith in Christ and growing in their faith, which pleases Espinoza.

“It’s not about the numbers,” he said. “It’s about the hearts of people.”

Families who left the church to find ministries in English have returned to be part of the growing congregation. Old friends are reconnecting and encouraging each other in their faith.

As for the Espinozas, Emmanuel Baptist Church has become a second home. They are excited about being a part of a growing congregation where God’s word is preached.

“I’m pleased to say today my girls are absolutely thrilled about going to church,” Espinoza said.

Posted: 1/05/07

Prize-winning biologist issues plea
for religion, science to save creation

By Bob Abernathy

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist E.O. Wilson fears for creation—for many of the 10 million or more species of plants and animals he believes are in mortal peril.

Wilson, a biologist who recently retired from Harvard University, has written a new book, The Creation, that is a plea for science and religion to work together to save the species.

“Pastor, we need your help,” he writes. “The creation is the glory of the earth. Let’s see if we can’t get together on saving it, because science and religion are the most powerful social forces on Earth.”

In an interview with Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Wilson said his mission is to protect all of the earth’s species. And the greatest threat to biodiversity, he said, is humankind’s appetite for more—more lumber, more food, more minerals and more space—to support a population of 6.5 billion people that soon will swell to 9 billion.

“We are threatened by the immense loss of future scientific knowledge, of future products that could enrich humanity and give us a higher quality of life,” he said. “But the loss that I care about most is in our … spiritual enrichment … in living in the magnificent original environment in which humanity was born.”

The natural world, Wilson said, provides humanity with untold gifts. It cleans water, pollinates plants and provides pharmaceuticals, he noted.

“Thirty trillion dollars worth of services, scot-free to humanity, every year,” he said.

Scientists have identified 25 so-called “hotspots”—covering about 2.5 percent of Earth’s surface—in which nearly half of all the plant and animal species have been found. Wilson wants the world to spend $30 billion to protect those ecosystems—“to throw an umbrella over them.” The same species in other places might be endangered, but those in the hotspots would survive.

Wilson	Land

Wilson, long an outspoken secular humanist, was raised a Southern Baptist in Alabama, and his book, The Creation, is addressed to an imaginary Southern Baptist pastor. That imaginary pastor could be Richard Land, who heads Southern Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and is a major spokesman for conservative religious viewpoints. Land has written his own book on the environment, The Earth is the Lord’s.

Land argues that in the first chapter of Genesis, “God put man in charge (of creation) under his headship. Human beings have dominion and are given dominion.”

But that’s tempered by the next chapter in Genesis, where man is put into the Garden (of Eden) to till it and keep it, he noted.

“We’re not to just worship nature in its pristine form,” Land said. “We have a divinely mandated responsibility to both develop the earth for human betterment and to protect it and to guard it and keep it and exercise creation care.”

Land accuses Wilson of being too concerned about wildlife and not enough about humanity.

“He looks upon human beings as an alien species to the habitat of nature, and that we are the ones that are destructive and that we have been a catastrophic event. Nature would have been far better off without human beings,” Land said.

“As a Christian, we believe that God created the creation for humankind. So, while we are to give respect to all life, we must treat human life with reverence. And there is in Christian theology a hierarchy of species. And there is a firebreak between humans and the rest of creation. It is human beings that God gave soul.”

Land said humans need to do what they can to protect other species “without causing grievous harm to human beings. There’s the difference—without causing grievous harm to human beings.”

Millions of people, especially the very poor, would be devastated by some proposals for protecting the environment, Land asserted.

But Wilson insists biodiversity could be protected without hurting humans.

“It would increase our standard of living if we did it sensibly with less material and energy consumption and conservation of the rest of life.” Wilson said. “We can actually increase the productivity of the world while saving all of the—or most of the—remaining species.”

Posted: 1/05/07