Posted: 6/09/06

Texas Baptist Forum

Revelation of chaos

Regarding the Marriage Protection Amendment: Nature, theology, history, reason and common sense demonstrate marriage is between one man and one woman. Also, a myriad of scientific studies support the need of a child for both father and mother.

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

“Prayer is a foundation of our relationship to God. We don’t spend enough time listening to God because we do too much talking.” John Verciglio Pastor of Cahaba Heights United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Ala. (The Birmingham News/RNS) “If (Dan) Brown makes us worry about people falling away from Christianity, perhaps instead we should address the deeper systemic issues in our churches and homes that leave our children malnourished in their spiritual formation and ill-equipped to engage their world with the claims of Christianity.” Gary Long Pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, critiquing some Christians’ fear that The Da Vinci Code would prevent people from placing their faith in Christ (Not a Sermon—Just a Thought weblog) “Quite frankly, I'm more interested in seeing our Hispanic friends afforded citizenship in heaven than I am seeing them become Americans. Having their souls redeemed by the red blood of Christ is more important than having their worker status confirmed by the green card of Uncle Sam.” Wiley Drake SBC gadfly and pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif. (BP)

The attempt to redefine marriage is an argument based on emotion that is contrary to truth and to a stable society.  It is a selfish argument willing to deform the basic institution of civilization—marriage—in order to legitimize an immoral lifestyle—homosexuality.  Those who love God and people must speak this truth in this love at this time. 

How insane and what an appalling revelation of cultural chaos that the definition of marriage has come to a vote.  Our forefathers would have wept over such an outrageous sign of moral implosion and decay. 

Still, with lawsuits threatening to undermine every U.S. marriage law, the need for a constitutional amendment protecting marriage from lawsuits and agendas has become apparent.  Now is the crucial time when our elected representatives ought to be hearing from everyone who values the sanctity of marriage as only and properly between one man and one woman.  Much more importantly, now is the time when our hearts must break before the throne of God in prayer—prayer from an agony of spirit that refuses to let this country go to hell while there is still opportunity to intercede.

Joe Goodson

Rosebud

Battling Baptists

The Wade Burlesons, Paige Pattersons, Tom Hatleys and all the other ultra-conservatives are battling each other now over International Mission Board policies. Guess they can’t find any moderates left to chew on, so they’re going after each other. 

I’m sure I’ll be around to see the Southern Baptist Convention come back to its more moderate base.

Mick Tahaney

Port Arthur

Women in ministry

Concerning “Baptist women in ministry face ongoing challenges” (May 15): Thankfully, women were involved in ministry from the beginning of the church. They are to be cherished and highly esteemed because they are created in God’s image and his blessing. Nowhere are they described in Scripture as less able than men.

However, God’s word is our authority (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21), and the article fails to use any biblical reasoning when the need for women pastors was expressed. These are incredibly important positions of authority for teaching and preaching God’s word (2 Timothy 4:1-5; Titus 2:15; 1 Peter 5:2 compare with John 17:17).

A woman pastor takes authority over her husband and the men in the church. This contradicts God’s instruction (Ephesians 5:22-25; 1 Peter 3:1-5; Colossians 3:18-19). There is no biblical reason that God’s structure for the family changes in the local church. 1 Timothy 2:12 says, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.” The command is based on Genesis 1 (1 Timothy 2:13-14), not Paul’s own culture or opinion.

We should believe what God tells us. He calls men to lead by knowing, teaching and living out God’s word. It’s a matter of “what does God say?” not “what do we feel?” If this is wrong, please show me from God’s word and not from emotional or human reasoning apart from the Scriptures.

Brian Thompson

Duncanville

Not a good role model

I read about Ronnie Floyd’s forthcoming nomination by Johnny Hunt for president of the Southern Baptist Convention and Floyd’s wonderful accomplishments for the kingdom. However, I also read that Floyd’s church, First Baptist in Springdale, Ark., gave a paltry 0.27 percent of its budget last year through the SBC Cooperative Program.

The church gave an additional $189,000 (1.6 percent) to the SBC allocation budget, bypassing the cooperative effort of the state convention budget along with its vital ministries. I do not see that as a good role model.

If Southern Baptists follow Floyd’s example of such dismal CP support, our seminaries and their students would be in a crisis, to say the least.

Ironically, the 2006 convention that will hear Floyd’s nomination will also hear a report from the Ad Hoc Cooperative Program Committee that will encourage “the election of state and national convention officers whose churches give at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program.”

I have no doubt Floyd and his supporters are people of integrity and conviction. That is not the issue. The issue is Floyd’s ability to lead our denomination by example. One good way to judge his ability is this: Let him show us how to take a megachurch currently giving 0.27 percent through the CP and lead that church to a more substantive level of support. At that point, he will have my vote.

Robert Davis

Jesup, Ga.

Struck dead for lying

A recent editorial reminds us there is more to morality than sex (May 1). I don’t know of a single reference in the New Testament where anyone was struck dead because of sexual misbehavior. Of course, we know this behavior is sin and should be avoided.

On the other hand, in Acts 5, we read of a man and his wife who were struck dead for lying. Could this be a message that God isn’t pleased with this act of immorality?

What if Americans, particularly folks who call themselves Christians, had taken lying seriously for the past 30 years and not tolerated it in our religious and political leaders? The landscape in our political institutions and churches would be changed, and a lot of folks would be in another line of work. Our $8 trillion national debt would be significantly less, and we wouldn’t be bogged down in a war in Iraq with few real supporters. Our religious institutions would gain credibility and be a real influence again.

I believe our acceptance of the practice of lying may be the most significant act of immorality being practiced in our nation today.

Carl L. Hess

Ozark, Ala.

Thanks to Wade, Gunter

I would like to publically thank BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade and Chief Operating Officer Ron Gunter for their vision and leadership in transforming the BGCT into what is rapidly becoming one of the most flexible and responsive denominational structures to be found anywhere.

As a leader in the Cowboy church movement—one of the fastest-growing church movements ever witnessed by Texas Baptists—I have had to make some unprecedented requests to the convention to help resource this great outpouring of God’s Spirit. In every case, these men have received me warmly, listened attentively and responded in such a way to ensure the continued advancement and success of the movement, always putting the Kingdom of God ahead of politics, personalities or even bureaucratic structure.

As a result, there will be 80 rapidly growing Cowboy churches affiliated with Texas Baptists by the end of this year—each of them giving 6 percent to 8 percent to the Cooperative Program and baptizing dozens of new believers each year.

Experiencing God teaches that we should seek to discover where God is work and join him there. It seems this is precisely what Charles Wade and Ron Gunter are positioning our convention to do. Texas Baptists should be thankful for their vision and leadership. We should also pray for them daily, because change does not come easily to such a large organization. Yet never has the BGCT been better positioned to accomplish meaningful ministry at the grassroots level.

Gary Morgan

Waxahachie

Many will believe Da Vinci Code

I agreed with your editorial, “Is it Code or evangelistic opportunity?” (May 15) about 98 percent.

The book or movie The Da Vinci Code does not concern me at all, and I don’t feel threatned by it. But I disagree with your quote: “Will movie patrons believe it?  Only the ones who believe giant gorillas actually hang from the Empire State Building.” 

There are people who believe Charleston Heston is Moses and Elvis is still alive. There will be many, many people who will walk away from the movie convinced it is absolutely true.

I heard a remark about the book and movie but cannot remember who made it or the exact wording but it goes something like this: “Dan Brown is not concerned about the bibical scholars or the well-versed Christian. He knows they won’t believe his book. But, the unversed Christian and non-Christian, those are the ones he will convince his book is the truth.”

F.A. Taylor

Kempner

Stay away from divisive political issues

I was startled to see that a Baptist General Convention of Texas task force has called for a fair (its word) public policy regarding citizenship for illegal immigrants. Is this déjà vu? 

One of our other conventions has inserted itself into the political process and has alienated many people.  Its witness for Christ has suffered.  We should not step onto that path. 

Illegal immigration appears to be the most contentious hot-button political issue in our nation today. We need to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of these people, and we do, and we will.  We should not involve ourselves in what many people view as matters of law enforcement and amnesty. 

There are many differing and contradictory views on what is a fair resolution of this matter.  

William Wood

Houston

Posted: 6/09/06

Mentor tells young offenders: ‘I’ve been there’

By Laura Frase

Communications Intern

DUNCANVILLE—When Carless Talton talks with young offenders in juvenile detention centers, they recognize she speaks with the authority of firsthand knowledge.

Talton relates her personal experiences as a former drug addict and prostitute and tells about her rebirth as a Christian. Now she serves as regional director for Ring of Champions, a program sponsored by Bill Glass Champions for Life Ministries.

Talton was introduced to Christ in 1989 after she was arrested for drug possession and then admitted to a hospital to treat gangrene in her leg. At the hospital, a nurse told her how much Jesus loved her and about his desire for her to have a better life.

At that point, Talton said, her attitude was, “I don’t get into God’s business, and he don’t get into mine.”

After another arrest, a judge gave Talton a final chance to clean up, sentencing her to 10 years probation and admitting her into a rehabilitation center.

During the process, Talton promised God she would serve him if he helped her.

But she soon forgot about it, until she passed through an area in East Dallas where she used to turn tricks as a prostitute and saw a sign for a Bible college. Talton wanted to attend college and serve God, but she was afraid they wouldn’t accept an ex-con.

To her surprise, she said, “they were all excited that God sent me here.”

Talton didn’t forget her promise to God and gave her testimony at a church one morning. That testimony made an impact on Jim Lang, then vice president of prison ministries for Bill Glass Ministries. He immediately asked her to be a platform speaker at Champions for Life events, and she has been with the organization ever since.

Talton reaches out to young people with “I’ve been there” stories, making it easier to build their trust. Ring of Champions needs volunteers like Talton—or anyone willing to help save a child’s future by becoming a mentor, she said.

Mentors commit to 12 weeks with a child, spending one hour a week with them. In the first three to four weeks, the young people are testing the mentor to see if he or she will stick around, Talton said, and it takes about two months to form a relationship.

Twelve weeks is the minimum requirement, but mentors may continue with the juvenile as long as they like.

Most mentors decide they want to do it for the rest of their life after their first experience, said Louis Korom, communications coordinator of Bill Glass Ministries.

Talton wishes a group like this had touched her life when she was struggling.

When she was on the streets of East Dallas, she encountered Christians who preached the gospel to people in need. But afterward, they would leave the people to whom they witnessed on the street, confused and not knowing what to do, she said.

“When we leave, we give our contact information and leave teammates in the area that can help,” she added.

Unfortunately, hundreds of children are left without a mentor, she continued.

“We are always getting new kids, and the crime rate for kids is escalating,” Talton said.

Diane Perkins, chair of the board of Dallas/Fort Worth Ring of Champions, was fearful before her first youth prison facility experience.

“I was nervous about going, and after I went, I said I would never go back again,” she said. She described the young people as hard and their faces blank.

“But I watched Carless grow through her experiences, and I felt God’s call. This fall, I will be a mentor for kids,” she said.

Finding volunteers to mentor troubled children is difficult, Talton said.

“Nobody wants to step up, because there is no glory in what we do,” she said. “We’re just trying to keep kids from spending 20 years on the streets like I did.”

Korom believes people choose not to volunteer because “they think they don’t relate to that particular background, if they’ve grown up as a Christian all their life. Just showing up is all youth want.”

Champions for Life Founder Bill Glass agreed volunteers seldom are assigned children who are a perfect fit for them.

“The most unlikely people are totally effective with them,” Glass said.

The foundation continues to look for help in any way possible.

“As a ministry, we are looking for partnering churches, so when we open a new unit or have new kids, we are going to need more mentors, and we need somewhere to turn where they are prepared,” said George Huey, director of evangelism at Bill Glass Champions for Life. “We need lots of prayers.”

Perkins insists hundreds of children in the United States need mentors, but churches focus on sending missionaries to other countries.

“We need to look right here. We don’t have to go to a foreign country, and you don’t need a visa to be a mentor,” she said. “We just need people to share the love of Jesus to those who have never known that love. Just mentor a child.”

Glass believes Ring of Champions has been a success since its start in 2000, but the program needs more volunteers.

“We give them the Lord, substitute fathers, counseling and mentoring,” he said.

Ring of Champions is growing nationwide, and volunteers are needed in all areas.

“The most important thing we can give them is hope,” Talton said.

The lack of volunteers affects future generations everywhere, Perkins added.

“The Lord has shown me we have to invest in these kids. They are our future,” she said.

For more information on volunteering as a mentor, contact Carless Talton at (972) 298-1101, ext. 305.

Posted: 6/09/06

On the move

• Steve Aylor to The Heights Church in Richardson as minister to students from Fellowship of The Woodlands, where he was associate youth pastor.

• Trent Blackley to The Heights Church in Richardson as worship leader from First Church in Sunnyvale.

• Richard Covington to The Heights Church in Richardson as college and community minister, where he had been minister to students.

• Tim Franks to First Church in Leedey, Okla., as pastor from Faith Church in Iowa Park, where he was associate pastor/student minister.

• Jerry Shields to First Church in Colorado City as pastor from Eastside Church in Comanche.

• Scott Venable to First Church in Denton as university minister.

Posted: 6/09/06

Missionary benefits from recycled tech trash

By Mark Cook

Special to the Baptist Standard

TAHOE CITY, Calif.—For home missionary Debbie Wohler, one person’s trash is her treasure.

Wohler, who serves in Tahoe City, Calif., developed a creative way to raise money for her mission that involves churches and used electronics.

Wohler hopes churches around the nation will help her by collecting used ink jets, cell phones and laser toners and sending them to a third-party company, Empties4Cash, which then sends Wohler a check for the collected amount.

The idea benefits both parties, and that is why Wohler is excited about the possibilities.

“People want to dispose of old ink jets and cell phones in an environmentally friendly way, and this way they can also help out a home missionary,” she commented.

It is a “win-win situation for everyone.”

“Our mission collects valuable money, and churches can safely dispose of used technological items.”

While it’s a bit out of the ordinary, Wohler believes this is the best way for her to raise money for the mission.

“We need a new 15-passenger van, and we need additional housing for more workers,” Wohler said.

Her mission works with local children and adults, and it provides transportation to their facilities so they can hear about Jesus Christ.

Wohler, who has served in the area 26 years, said “80 percent of the people in my town do not know Christ.”

She is more passionate than ever to “provide an opportunity for children and adults to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.”

With such a need for funds, Wohler is relying on faith.

She believes “nothing is too big for God” and is eager for many Baptist churches to get involved in supporting missions through the recycling effort.

For more information, visit www.tahoeministries.com, or e-mail debbiewohler@sbcglobal.net.

Posted: 6/09/06

Blogs draw attention to
anticipated showdown at SBC

By Hannah Elliott, Greg Warner & Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) —Blogs already have revolutionized secular politics, and whether a subset of it has revolutionized Baptist politics will be seen at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting June 13-14 in Greensboro, N.C.

The meeting will feature the first seriously contested SBC presidential election in a decade and several other controversial business items. The combination likely will produce the most contentious convention meeting since 1991, when moderates left after a long and bitter struggle with fundamentalists over control of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

But this time, the struggle is between young conservatives and fundamentalists loyal to the convention establishment. Internal tensions have been thrust into the SBC spotlight mainly by bloggers—the ever-expanding network of ideological entrepreneurs who analyze and elaborate on their own websites.

In the year since the SBC last met, reform-minded bloggers in the denomination have begun to form their own community on the Internet—and they have had a lot to discuss.

Since 2005’s annual meeting, Southern Baptists have witnessed:

• The top executives at one of their mission boards resign amid scandal.

• The president of another SBC mission board embroiled in conflict with trustees.

• An unprecedented attempt by those trustees to remove one of their colleagues.

• A decline in the number of baptisms among the denomination’s churches.

Presidential race

For the first time since 1994, a candidate for SBC president other than one anointed by the denomination’s leadership elite has a serious chance at being elected SBC president.

The first announced nominee, Ronnie Floyd, apparently has the support of many of the denomination’s most powerful leaders—including one of the architects of the fundamentalists’ SBC takeover.

Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., has received endorsements from three seminary presidents—a move SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman publicly deemed inappropriate. Some critics have said the unusual moves could signal desperation on the part of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson and other fundamentalist leaders, who are accustomed to their friends and allies being elected to denominational leadership positions without challenge.

Many of the bloggers have criticized Floyd’s weak support of the Cooperative Program, the SBC’s unified budget for supporting denominational ministries at the national and state levels.

In 2005, Floyd’s church gave 0.27 percent of its $12 million in undesignated funds to the Cooperative Program.

Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., was courted as a candidate by prominent SBC blogger Wade Burleson and other reform-minded conservatives. Last year, Page’s church gave 12.1 percent of its $4.4 million in undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program.

Jerry Sutton, pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., also is running for president. He has been endorsed by three fundamentalist activists—Bill Streich of the Texas Baptist Laymen’s Association, Roger Moran of the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association and Larry Reagan of Concerned Tennessee Baptists. William Maxwell, administrative director for the Tennessee Baptist Con-vention, reported Two Rivers gave $73,627.87 to the Tennessee Cooperative Program—1.7 percent of undesignated receipts. Baptist Press reported the church gave $183,482—4.5 percent—to state and national Cooperative Program missions.

Baptism decline

During his tenure, SBC Presi-dent Bobby Welch emphasized revitalization of SBC evangelism, challenging Southern Baptists to convert and baptize 1 million new Christians from October 2005 through September 2006—a program called “Everyone Can.”

Despite the grassroots effort, statistics from the SBC’s 2005 survey of member congregations reveal a decline in baptisms for the fifth time in six years. The annual statistics show baptisms last year dropped from 387,947 to 371,850—a 4.15 percent drop.

The decrease of more than 16,000 baptisms came after a gain of 10,000-plus baptisms the previous year. But that gain was preceded by four consecutive years of baptism declines, decreasing from more than 419,000 baptisms in 1998-99.

More importantly, the baptism figures reflect little change over the past 50 years, with the numbers of baptisms holding relatively steady while the denomination’s overall membership figure has continued to rise. This is despite the fact that one of fundamentalists’ main rallying cries in gaining control of the SBC was that the moderates who previously ran the denomination were insufficiently evangelistic.

Vice-presidential races

The first vice presidential contest could be a four-way race that pits a neo-Calvinist against an evangelist and two pastors.

Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washing-ton, D.C., and a popular leader among SBC Calvinists, acknowledged he would allow himself to be nominated for the VP post.

Keith Fordham, an evangelist from Fayetteville, Ga., also will run for the slot. Fordham is the former president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists. Baptist Press reported June 2 that Jimmy Jackson, pastor of Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., also will be nominated for the post. He is a trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theolog-ical Seminary, a former SBC Executive Committee member and has served as an SBC parliamentarian. Four days later, Kelly Burris, pastor of Kempsville Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, Va., announced he will be nominated for the position by Terry Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan. Burris serves on the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia.

Messengers also will have a choice in the race for second vice president. North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear, California pastor Wiley Drake and Louisiana pastor Jay Adkins have said they will be nominated for the position of second vice president.

Bloggers and the mission board

The advent of the SBC blogo-sphere has brought pre-existing internal tensions in the denomination to the surface. Many of the bloggers are under 50—young by the standards of Baptist leadership—and there is a generational aspect to the conflict in the denomination.

In recent years, SBC officials have worked to cultivate younger pastors and other leaders, and to bring them into service on denominational boards and offices. But the plan may have backfired to some extent, since some of the new recruits are leading the revolution against the old-guard establishment.

The small but influential group has attacked everything from controversial new restrictions on missionaries to perceived cronyism among trustees.

Burleson probably is the most widely read of the new SBC bloggers, whose ranks also include Georgia pastor Marty Duren and Texas pastor Benjamin Cole. He started his blog as a way to criticize actions taken by a majority of his fellow trustees at the International Mission Board. Trustees attempted to remove the Enid, Okla., pastor after he refused to stop discussing controversial new board policies online.

The move—had it been approved by SBC messengers—reportedly would have been the first time an SBC agency trustee was forced out of office in the middle of a term. After a firestorm of Internet and newspaper controversy over the move, trustees backed down, instead barring Burleson from serving on any IMB committees and adopting rules prohibiting trustees and staff from dissenting publicly from any board decisions.

Burleson agreed to live under those restrictions, but during a subsequent trustee meeting, Chairman Tom Hatley an-nounced Burleson again had violated the secrecy of a closed-door trustee session May 22 by blogging about a proposed task force that would study doctrinal qualifications for IMB missionaries.

As punishment for Burleson’s “breach of confidentiality,” the board’s executive committee barred him from attending any future closed-door sessions of the board and recommended that its newly elected chairman continue that prohibition. Burleson said he will refuse to abide by those restrictions unless they are ratified by the SBC.

Burleson has promised to present a motion during the annual meeting calling for a denominational ad hoc committee to investigate various allegations of improper conduct by his fellow IMB trustees, Patterson and other SBC leaders. While many such motions are made annually at SBC meetings, they almost always are ruled out of order or referred to the agency they concern, with a report expected by the following annual meeting. However, Burleson has said he may invoke a rule that will force the convention to vote on the motion at that meeting—although it requires a supermajority for approval.

North American Mission Board woes

As for the SBC’s other missionary agency, the North American Mission Board, President Bob Reccord resigned April 17 after a trustee investigation produced a scathing report of numerous examples of poor management. Allegations of massive waste, cronyism and other troubles under Reccord’s leadership first surfaced in a February expose by Georgia Baptists’ newspaper, The Christian Index.

The investigation faulted Reccord for autocratic decision-making, extravagant spending on failed projects, apparent conflicts of interest and creating a “culture of fear” that prevented staffers from questioning the abuses. It also said Reccord spent resources on projects unrelated to NAMB’s mission and was gone so much he couldn’t adequately manage the agency, which directs and coordinates Southern Baptist mission work in the United States and Canada.

Public schools

In addition to the internal unrest, messengers attending the meeting—the Greensboro Con-vention and Visitor’s Bureau expects more than 12,000 of them—may address a resolution on staging a mass exodus from public schools.

For the third SBC annual meeting in a row, Texas attorney Bruce Shortt will attempt to place the denomination on record calling for Christians to remove their children from public schools. His previous resolutions have been quashed or heavily altered by the SBC Resolutions Committee. At last year’s meeting, the committee stopped short of including Shortt’s call for a public-school boycott. In 2004, SBC messengers rejected a Shortt proposal urging Southern Baptists to remove their children from “godless” and “anti-Christian” public schools.

Posted: 6/09/06

Church seeks to reach mobile
home park with the gospel

By Elizabeth Staples

Communications Intern

DENTON—Shady Shores Baptist Church wants to change the world, and it’s starting with the neighborhood around the church.

The congregation on the outskirts of Denton, which once was struggling to maintain 20 to 30 people, is seeking to share the gospel with as many people as it can in hopes of having a worldwide impact.

“We believe in supporting the work of missionaries all over the world by cooperating with other Southern Baptist churches to provide for their support,” Pastor Bob Joyce said. “But our mission mandate also includes reaching those in our own Jerusalem.”

The congregation’s first steps toward achieving its mission started when a member of the church told Joyce about a damaged and dangerous mobile home park and asked if Shady Shores Baptist could help. Joyce looked into the situation, and the church began raising money to bring a positive environment to the mobile home community.

Shady Shores Baptist brought in a new mobile home and developed a children’s outreach center in the park. The church used it to help children with homework and English-as-a-Second-Language classes. As more families came to the outreach center, the church decided it was time to start a congregation for the new believers in the area.

The church started Centro Christiana Vida Nueva for residents of the mobile home park, which now meets at Shady Shores Baptist’s facilities and serves 60 to 70 people each Sunday.

Encouraged by the success of the ministry in the mobile home park, Shady Shores Baptist hopes to start other churches. The core of what the church envisions as a multi-cultural congregation meets now in a Shady Shores church member’s home. Church leaders hope the congregation eventually will move to Lewisville.

Shady Shores Baptist also is supporting a new church called The Studio, which is trying to reach students in North Texas.

This diverse approach to ministry is helping Shady Shores Baptist Church reach more people for Christ. Joyce hopes this pattern will continue.

“My goal is to start a new church every year,” he said. “We are always looking for ways to get outside of our walls and grow at the same time. My vision is to one day have a building for multiple churches to all be worshipping out of.

“We exist to fulfill the Great Commission by living out the Great Commandment resulting in building great congregations.”

Posted: 6/09/06

Photographer captures heart
of African-American worship

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Alarmed by the rash of church fires that struck the South a decade ago, photographer Jason Miccolo Johnson felt driven to help preserve the vibrancy and history of the nation’s black churches.

His 10-year project resulted in Soul Sanctuary, a hardcover book filled with images he photographed across the country of African-American congregational life. From baptisms to funerals, traditional to contemporary services, communion to church suppers, he finds commonalities despite the range of denominations and locations of these churches.

Johnson hopes his book of black-and-white photos will be a window into a world unseen by some—and a reminder to others who live out the black worship experience every week.

Edward Jackson prepares to baptize a young convert at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va.

“What we do as a black church is so unique, so mesmerizing and yet so spiritual that very few people outside of the ethnic group can fully appreciate it,” the 49-year-old freelance photographer said. “Yet we on the inside take it for granted, and that’s a real shame.”

The book follows the order of service found in church bulletins each weekend—a choir marching down the aisle, soloists singing, the offering taken and the sermon preached. Sandwiched between the sets of photos are essays by prominent African-American ministers and theologians that further explain the rituals and celebrations of the black church.

The book’s early pages feature those who help prepare the sanctuary, such as stewardesses dressed in white preparing the altar, and a dimpled little girl passing out church fans.

Those ubiquitous paper fans with cardboard handles to cool warm worshippers demonstrate how some traditions endure for decades in the black church.

“There’ll always be church fans,” Johnson said. “I don’t care how great the air conditioning system or how expensive. Everybody wants their personal air.”

But even as traditions continue, his photos also captured the range of contemporary touches, including step dancers and mimes.

“Refreshingly, there are so many more ministries that take advantage of the talent of the members and put it to good use,” he said, citing drama, mentoring and transportation ministries. “That was a pleasant discovery.”

Later pages depict the post-service handshakes with the pastor and members picking out audiotapes or waiting for rides once the sermon has concluded.

The “day in the life” portrait Johnson has painted in his book began with 30 days of travel in which he arrived unannounced in Southeastern towns.

“I just drove into town, knew no one there, and started looking around for churches,” he recalled. “Most cities, I was only there for two days, a Saturday to scout locations and a Sunday to shoot.”

In the 200 churches he visited, Johnson said, three elements inevitably surfaced—good preaching, good singing and good food.

“In the black church, no matter what the label is or the denomination on the outside, the service is pretty much the same on the inside,” he said. “The style of worship service embodies our Africanness, our soulfulness and our orderliness.”

Though his project initially intended to merely capture black worship life through his camera’s lens, Johnson has greater aims now. Photos from the book—and those that didn’t make it in—are featured in a traveling exhibit that premiered in Boston in conjunction with the release of the book.

Johnson hopes to start workshops on preserving artifacts within black churches. And he’d like to spearhead what he calls “National Church Visitation Day,” during which members of churches attended mostly by a particular racial or ethnic group make intentional appearances at other congregations whose pews usually are filled with people who don’t look like them.

“I want to integrate the churches one day of the year,” Johnson said. “We can learn from them and they can learn from us.”

Posted: 6/09/06

Texas Tidbits

Baptist Health Foundation grants scholarships. Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio has awarded $125,470 in scholarship grants to Bap-tist Health System’s School of Health Professions and Wayland Baptist University-San Antonio. The foundation’s scholarship committee granted 57 scholarships totaling $75,470 to 58 summer school students enrolled in the School of Health Professions’ nursing and allied health educational programs. Earlier, the foundation approved $50,000 to fund 10 nursing scholarships at Wayland’s San Antonio campus next fall.

Baylor center receives $1.7 million Templeton grant. The John M. Templeton Foundation has awarded $1.7 million to Baylor University’s Center for Religious Inquiry Across Disciplines to conduct an empirical study on spiritual beliefs and practices in China. The cornerstone of the study will be a nationwide survey, conducted by the Gallup Organization.

Three summer interns on the job. Baptist Stan-dard articles this summer will carry the bylines of three Baylor University journalism students serving as interns in a 12-week cooperative venture involving the Baptist Standard, the Baptist General Convention of Texas communications office and Buckner Baptist Benevolences. Serving four weeks at each agency are Laura Frase, a journalism and professional writing major from Longview; Angela Best, a public relations major and marketing minor from Granbury; and Elisabeth Staples, a public relations major and marketing minor from Branson, Mo.

BGCT seeks leaders for missions & evangelism. The Baptist General Convention of Texas is ac-cepting applications for two leading positions in its Missions, Evangelism and Ministry Team. The evangelism team lead will supervise staff members who strengthen churches’ work in the areas of local-church evangelism, Hispanic evangelism, multihousing/Key Church evangelism, resort and leisure evangelism, youth evangelism and prayer. The missions team leader will oversee staff members who serve in the areas of LifeCall Missions, missional church ministries, community missions, Texas partnerships and Borderland/Mexico missions. To recommend someone, apply for or discover more information about these positions, click on the employment link in the upper right corner of the BGCT website, www.bgct.org.

ETBU names provost, VP. Paul Sorrels, vice president for academic affairs at East Texas Baptist University, has been named university provost. ETBU trustees approved the move at the recommendation of President Bob Riley. Sorrells, who has served six years at ETBU, graduated from Howard Payne University. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Texas Women’s University and completed post-doctoral studies at Rice University and Texas Tech University. ETBU also has promoted Vince Blankenship, former dean of admissions and marketing, to vice president for enrollment management and marketing. He succeeds David Mohn, who is retiring after 29 years at the school. Blankenship is a graduate of ETBU and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served several Texas Baptist churches as a minister of youth, music and education.

Logsdon honors distinguished alum. Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theo-logy named Robert Lacewell its 2006 distinguished alumnus. During 45 years of ministry, Lacewell was pastor of Texas Baptist churches in Pleasant Valley, Hereford, Wichita Falls, Texline, Borger and Abilene, as well as Taos, N.M. He is a former Hardin-Simmons trustee and received the university’s John J. Keeter Alumni Service Award in 2003 in tandem with his wife, Martha.

Posted: 6/09/06

TOGETHER:
Center exists to serve Texas Baptists

The days of telephone switchboard operators sitting before a panel, moving wired plugs from one connection to another are long gone. In today’s world, we push buttons and depend on computers to connect our calls.

In all the improvements that technology has brought to us, however, we can sometimes feel a loss for the human touch. How many times have each of us been frustrated as a computerized “voice” tells us to punch “1” for this service, “2” for another and so on, only to give up after several minutes of frustrating menu choices?

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is trying to make telephoning easier. We have created one toll-free number for Texas Baptists to use in accessing all our many services, and we have staffed a Service Center with real people to take your calls and help you get the information you need.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

The Service Center is part of our new organization, and everything we have done during this time of change is designed to help the BGCT serve its churches better. We have put more staff “in the field” around Texas to be closer to you, and through the Service Center, we are making it easier for you to connect with ministry experts and resources.

Gus Reyes is leading our Service Center, and he has staffed it with a wonderful collection of Texas Baptists, many of them current or former church staff members who hold advanced education degrees. They are not just here to answer the phone; they are here to help.

While we call this our Service Center, we could also call it our prayer center. Texas Baptists believe in the power of prayer, and we have found that leaders from many of our churches appreciate the opportunity to pray with a fellow believer who understands that helping should always involve a spiritual element. Our Service Center staff has prayed with 1,066 church leaders in the past few months, and we value that relationship with our churches.

The Service Center also has called thousands of churches to make sure we have up-to-date information. They even search for churches no one knows much about.

We discovered one African-American church was down to one member. We finally located the woman and found that once a month an 80-year-old retired minister comes, sits in a chair and preaches to her.

On another occasion, the Service Center connected one of our congregational strategists to a church where the pastor had just resigned, and the circumstances were painful. The strategist went to the church immediately and met the pastor as he was leaving his office for the last time. The strategist was able to encourage the minister and reach out to the staff of the church.

The Service Center is a new innovation for us, but it is an expression of an old desire—that the BGCT be the partner of churches because, as we often say, we can do more together.

I believe in Texas Baptists. Our vision is large, and we’re doing everything we can to put God’s word to work in meeting these needs.

A telephone call center doesn’t get too many people excited, but a real Service Center should excite all of us. God called us to be servants, and the BGCT is taking that to heart. Call us at (888) 244-9400, and let us serve you.

You are loved.

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

Posted: 6/09/06

Chaplains benefit from new UMHB program

By Laura Frase

Communications Intern

BELTON—A new Pentagon-ap-proved program implemented by a Texas Baptist university will have lasting effects on the military—nationally and internationally.

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, near Fort Hood, created a master’s degree program in marriage and family Christian counseling, which has caught the military’s eye for their chaplains.

With 7,075 divorces reported among enlisted personnel in 2005, military marriages need as much help as they can get, family life experts in the armed forces insist.

“With the stresses put on military families during war, having well-trained chaplains who will provide effective and ethical counseling is crucial,” said David Scheider, director of the Family Life Training Center at Fort Hood.

The family life counseling training program is offered at only two locations in the United States—Fort Hood and Fort Benning, Ga. Two schools offer this program near Fort Hood—UMHB and Tarleton State University.

Chaplains can choose between the two, but “the major aspect UMHB offers is the opportunity to ask faith questions in the classroom. This will facilitate better theological integration for the chaplains,” Scheider said.

Raylene Statz, psychology department chair at UMHB, is pleased with this new “blending of spiritual, religious and moral concepts with human development.” Because “many students wanting to become counselors have recognized a spiritual emptiness in the public with whom they hope to work,” the new program was formed where “a synergy has been created that benefits students and the public they will serve after becoming licensed practitioners,” she said.

Scheider believes the program is perfect for a chaplain’s mission because it “encourages theological integration for chaplains who specialize in counseling … and is designed with 100 percent of the courses applying directly to working with couples and families.”

Currently, seven military chaplains are enrolled in the intensive 16-month program at UMHB, and about 70 chaplains are waiting to enter the program. Each group begins and completes the program together.

“Students are excited about the chaplains coming into the program and look forward to a mutual sharing of knowledge, ideas and experiences,” Statz said.

While all chaplains already hold a master’s degree in religious studies, emphasis on counseling is needed as soldiers continue to be deployed, placing stress on families and military personnel alike. “Chaplains have no choice whether or not to counsel soldiers and families. The only choice is whether or not they will do it well,” Scheider said.

Based on reporting by Carol Woodward of UMHB Communications.

Posted: 6/09/06

NAMB hands off Vancouver Focus

By Jennifer Davis Rash

Alabama Baptist

VANCOUVER, B.C. (ABP)—American ministry strategies in a Canadian culture have proven to be an imperfect match, at least for the North American Mission Board’s Strategic Focus Cities effort.

But ministry leaders at NAMB and within the Canadian Conven-tion of Southern Baptists are encouraged by their decision to regroup and restructure the existing mission model in the multi-ethnic city of Vancouver.

On June 1, Vancouver Focus, NAMB’s first Strategic Focus City in Canada, officially made the transition from a NAMB-directed ministry to leadership by the Canadian convention and the local Baptist association. Strategic Focus Cities is NAMB’s emphasis on increasing evangelism and church-planting efforts in major metropolitan areas in North America.

Alan Au, city coordinator for Vancouver Focus, said NAMB’s “rapid investment and rapid outcome” philosophy does not work in Vancouver with the cultural and language barriers that exist. There are nine different languages in the churches supported by the association and Vancouver Focus.

The 8-year-old Strategic Focus Cities effort typically lands in one city for three years, one year for planning and two-to-three years for implementation. But Vancouver Focus will take closer to six years. Canadian officials are extending the emphasis to 2009, said Au, who left a missionary position with the International Mission Board two and one-half years ago to lead the effort.

The effort gradually will become 100 percent organized and implemented by Capilano Southern Baptist Association, Au said.

Posted: 6/09/06

Baptist delegation calls
for religious liberty in Vietnam

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Texas Baptists recently joined a Baptist World Alliance delegation to discuss religious freedom issues with the Vietnamese government.

Though conditions for religious groups have improved in recent years in Vietnam, some Christians continue reporting cases of persecution. Religious groups must be sanctioned by the Vietnamese government.

Hue Nguyen, president of the National Vietnamese Baptist Fellowship and pastor of Vietnamese Faith Baptist Church in Dallas, described the situation for Christians in Vietnam as like “a bird in a cage.”

In meetings with Vietnamese leaders, the Baptist delegation called for religious freedom—not simply recognition of the five Baptist groups in the Asian country.

“We recognize in the recent laws on religious liberty that there is greater respect for Protestant groups like Baptists,” said BWA President David Coffey. “What we asked for was that they would go beyond respect to granting freedom of worship without any restrictions. The delegation particularly pressed for a normalization of religious freedom which would include the right to open church buildings, Bible schools and compassionate ministries.”

Other members of the delegation included John Nguyen, pastor of Vietnamese Baptist Church in Garland; Daniel Tran, pastor of Vietnamese Baptist Church in Arlington; Charles Wade, Baptist General Convention of Texas executive director; Alan Stanford, BWA North American Baptist Fellowship regional secretary; and Patty Lane, BGCT intercultural ministries director.

The Baptist delegation’s journey to Vietnam was in response to a 2004 request from the National Vietnamese Baptist Fellowship in the United States to the BWA’s North American Baptist Fellowship. Former President Jimmy Carter also asked the Vietnamese government to welcome a Baptist delegation.

The trip included a BWA-sponsored dinner that gathered more than 500 Baptist leaders, the largest public gathering of Vietnamese Baptists since 1975. Baptist World Aid, the humanitarian arm of the BWA, also presented checks to Vietnamese Baptists to build homes for the poor.