Posted: 4/14/06

Reccord mulls resignation from NAMB
while some trustees warn of firing

By Greg Warner

ATLANTA (ABP) –As embattled Southern Baptist leader Bob Reccord met with prominent pastors April 13 seeking advice about his future, several of his own trustees at the North American Mission Board urged him to resign as the agency's president.

Reccord took the brunt of a scathing report issued by NAMB trustees March 23, which faulted the missions leader for poor management, autocratic decision-making, extravagant spending on failed ministry projects, apparent conflicts of interest in no-bid contracts for a friend, and creating a "culture of fear" that prevented staffers from questioning the abuses.

After meeting all day behind closed doors March 23 to weigh the results of the investigation, trustees stopped short of forcing Reccord to resign the post he has held eight years. Several told Associated Baptist Press the board offered not to release the critical 19-page report if Reccord resigned at the time.

Reccord didn't resign, and the trustees voted overwhelmingly to make the findings public — over Reccord's objections.

Several trustees told ABP they expected the disclosure of the report, which is still posted on the NAMB website, to persuade the former Virginia pastor to step down and spare the agency further turmoil and embarrassment. So far the "hint" hasn't worked, said one trustee leader.

"There is an outcome that we all believe is necessary," said the trustee, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. "Everybody gets it except Bob Reccord."

According to NAMB employees, Reccord told his management staff in the last week he may resign. He said some trustees are telling him to step down and others are telling him to ride out the controversy.

But he may not have much longer to think about it. If he doesn't resign in the next few weeks, the trustees may force him out when they meet May 2, several told Associated Baptist Press.

"If he's still here at the May meeting, it's very possible that somebody may make that motion," said former trustee chairman Terry Fox, a pastor from Kansas, who was on the investigation committee. "I may have some of the trustees mad at me for saying that."

"I hope he does resign," said another trustee. "I'm ready to fire him. If I had [an investigation] report that my leadership wrote like that, I'd be looking for a place to go."

Among those who could help him find another job are the prominent Southern Baptist megachurch pastors who quietly met with Reccord near the Atlanta airport April 13, offering support and counsel. Reccord could not be reached for comment by ABP after that meeting.

"I hope they advise him it's time to step down for the good of Southern Baptists," said one trustee leader.

Several trustees said they do not want to have the issue hanging over the agency when Southern Baptists gather for their annual meeting in June. Some fear a motion opposing or favoring Reccord could disrupt the meeting and damage the agency, which directs and coordinates Southern Baptist mission work in the United States and Canada.

"I don't want to see it go to the SBC, because I don't want people to get discouraged about giving to missions," one trustee said.

Fox, the former chairman, agreed the issue would be disruptive if it were debated at the convention, which already is expected to air grievances with another SBC agency, the International Mission Board. "I'd like to have it taken care of by then," said Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan.

Two trustees said they have been disappointed in Reccord's response since taken to the woodshed by the board. "I don’t see or hear of any improvements," one concluded. "He just hasn't done things to try to make amends and change things," the other said.

"I only know two trustees who don't want him to leave," said one trustee leader.

At the time of the March trustee meeting, the board reportedly was about evenly divided on whether Reccord should resign. With no clear consensus, it never came to a vote.

Now, some trustees say, resignation is the only solution. "For the love of God and your agency, and for the good of the Kingdom, this is the course of action," one leader told ABP.

Some trustees have stiffened their resolve in the weeks since their tumultuous meeting — but for different reasons. Some are most upset about the extravagant spending on failed projects. Others are worried about no-bid contracts to InovaOne, a communications firm owned by one of Reccord's friends. Others cite Reccord's blurring of the line between NAMB and personal interests.

"The trip to London ticked people off the most," said one trustee, referring to the $3,800 NAMB paid for Reccord and his wife to attend the premiere of the Chronicles of Narnia movie. "But the real issue," he continued, "is InovaOne and the perceived conflict of interest. I think we'll take more action on that.

"The fact that disturbed me the most," said another, "was there were so many things that the trustees were not involved in. I don’t think the trustees would have minded who NAMB did business with, if NAMB had bid it out."

If Reccord decides to stay, he will face unprecedented strictures designed to prevent further abuses, trustees said. They are drafting "executive-level controls" that will require trustee oversight for all major NAMB decisions.

Trustee investigators said Reccord "participated in or presided over some poor management decisions on a number of levels," emphasized events on the periphery of NAMB’s mission, and was absent so much he couldn't provide consistent, day-to-day oversight "to properly manage the agency."

As a result, the trustee report said, a task force will make sure specific rules will now govern the president's travel, speaking engagements, and office time. A system of competitive bidding for outside contracts will be established. And new initiatives will require "appropriate oversight and approval by the board."

Moreover, permanent policy changes will ensure trustees are not caught off guard again, regardless of who is president, trustees told ABP.

"If Bob could work under the intensity of more trustee involvement, he could stay," one trustee said. "But is Bob willing to do it?"

Most trustees and employees who talked to ABP predicted Reccord, a former megachurch pastor who is used to free rein as an administrator, will choose not to live under those constraints.

"I would not be surprised if Bob would make that decision," agreed one trustee. There's "no question" such close scrutiny runs counter to Reccord's personality, he said.

Reccord alienated many state-level denominational leaders with his go-it-alone decision-making style, according to the NAMB investigation. Reccord declined to discuss the trustee report with ABP.

Trustees told ABP Reccord gave too much attention to his own public profile, seeking media exposure and speaking engagements that would bring him — and the agency — into the spotlight.

"Bob wanted someone to get him on CNN," explained one trustee leader. Reccord hired two outside public-relations firms — contracts totaling $12,000 a month; more than $75,000 to date — to get him "secular media placements" like other SBC leaders Al Mohler and Richard Land.

Reccord and his administrators developed a pattern of launching expensive, often innovative, ministry projects without specific approval from trustees, who found out only after million-dollar losses resulted. Questionable contracts, like the ones with Reccord's friend and neighbor Steve Sanford of InovaOne that brought charges of conflict of interest, weren't disclosed until reported by the Christian Index newspaper.

However, Reccord's innovations also brought some successes, his supporters say, pointing to high-profile urban-evangelism strategies as an example.

"He could have gotten approved, through the trustee board, anything he wanted in the way of ministry projects, but he tried to do it without approval," one trustee leader concluded.

While some trustees — particularly pastors following the same leadership model — could accept those lapses, others could not, the trustee said. In the end, the "megapastor" leadership style proved a poor fit for a denominational agency dependent on donations and collaboration from churches and conventions all across the spectrum, he concluded.

"We love the fact he's innovative. He's always flying at 40,000 feet," said one trustee who supported Reccord in the past. "The majority of trustees love Bob and would not disagree with his style. But his unwillingness to involve trustees more [was the biggest failure]. There was not a lot there that couldn't have been defended. The largest offense was we didn't know so much was going on."

Posted: 4/14/06

IMB may dismiss Africa missionaries
for starting non-Baptist congregation

By Robert Marus

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Another controversy is brewing at the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, which reportedly is set to dismiss two of its missionaries in West Africa for cooperating with non-Baptist colleagues to plant a church that isn't "Baptist" enough.

According to several news sources, blogs and the couple's pastor, IMB officials have given Wyman and Michelle Dobbs an April 15 ultimatum to resign or be fired. The Dobbses have been missionaries to an unnamed, unreached people group in the small nation of Guinea for eight years.

Tom Hatley, IMB trustee chairman, confirmed the Dobbses' case is under study by the trustees, but the board is waiting for the IMB staff to recommend action. Trustees have to approve all missionary terminations.

Jason Helmbacher, the Dobbses’ stateside pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Sallisaw, Okla., said the threatened termination is another example of IMB leaders narrowing doctrinal standards beyond what Southern Baptists have authorized in their confessional statements.

The missionary couple, Helmbacher said, is being targeted for founding a church — Baptist in doctrine and polity but not name — with another missionary couple in Guinea employed by the Christian and Missionary Alliance. CMA is an evangelical denomination with doctrinal standards and church governance very similar to those of Southern Baptists.

“This is an issue that’s already up for the convention, and there has been this undertow of what appears to be Landmarkism in the IMB,” he said, referring to a set of exclusivistic doctrines, dating from the turn of the 20th century, now largely dismissed by most Southern Baptists. “It seems to be, with the Dobbses, they are the example right now of what happens when we take that hard line.”

Landmarkism teaches that Baptist churches are descended directly from the early Christian church, and therefore are the only proper purveyors of Christian ordinances like baptism and communion.

The conservative trustees who run the International Mission Board have insisted on increasingly strict policies about acceptable theology and practice among missionaries — such as requiring that only Baptist churches be established overseas. Critics say the stricter IMB policies go too far, and some say they reflect Landmark theology rather than SBC doctrinal consensus.

The news of the potential firing comes on the heels of another controversy over new IMB policies designed to prevent missionaries from using private charismatic practices and to narrow the parameters of acceptable modes of baptism for missionary appointees.

The Dobbses’ situation has been the topic of several popular Southern Baptist blogs for more than a week and was the subject of an article on the EthicsDaily.com website April 12.

The new church established in Guinea is one of the few Christian outposts in the country, a nation that is overwhelmingly Muslim, and the first congregation affiliated with IMB missionaries.

IMB spokesman Van Payne declined to discuss the topic with an Associated Baptist Press reporter April 13, citing personnel and privacy concerns.

However, trustee chairman Hatley confirmed a board subcommittee “did receive some information about this at our last meeting" in March, but “no actual action” has been taken.

Hatley, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Rogers, Ark., said IMB missionaries are permitted to plant churches in collaboration with non-Baptist missionaries who endorse the “Baptist Faith and Message,” and that such churches don’t have to have the word “Baptist” in their name. Those churches must “have Baptist doctrine at their core,” however, he said.

Helmbacher noted both the Dobbses have signed the controversial 2000 revision of the SBC’s “Baptist Faith and Message” confessional statement, a requirement of all IMB missionaries. The CMA missionaries have also stated they agree with that doctrinal standard.

Helmbacher noted a 2005 policy approved by IMB trustees that was designed to prevent partnerships on the mission field that could result in IMB personnel planting churches that espouse doctrines most Southern Baptists would find objectionable. The Dobbses’ partnership does not violate that policy, he said.

The policy “does not do away with partnerships — it says we do partner, and who the Dobbses are partnering with meet those criteria,” the pastor said. While the church is not explicitly “Baptist” in name, it is “baptistic” in its doctrine, he said.

Micah Fries, a Southern Baptist seminary student in Kansas City, Mo., decried the Dobbses’ predicament in an April 4 post on his blog, friesville.blogspot.com. Under the headline, “A doctrine that could lead to hell,” he suggested the IMB trustees would let people go to hell without accepting the gospel rather than associate with non-Baptists.

“For some time now, we've considered the struggle within the IMB board of trustees," Michael Fries wrote. "We've wondered about the potential ramifications of their recent decisions regarding doctrinal differences. Well, we're now seeing the horrible consequences of their actions, and we're finding that supposed 'doctrinal purity' could potentially lead people to hell.”

Posted: 4/13/06

Evangelical groups voice
support for immigration reform

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

WASHINGTON—More than 50 evangelical leaders and a dozen organizations—including the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission—wrote President Bush and members of Congress in favor of an immigration bill that supports guest worker programs and citizenship for undocumented aliens already in the United States.

Albert Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas and past president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, signed a letter urging President Bush and lawmakers to develop an immigration policy that reunites separated families faster, creates more responsive legal avenues for workers and their families who wish to immigrate to the United States legally and enables undocumented workers to become citizens.

The letter also calls for “border protection policies that are consistent with humanitarian values and with the need to treat all individuals with respect, while allowing the authorities to carry out the critical task of enforcing our laws.”

Groups that signed the letter include the World Evangelical Alliance, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Christian Reformed Church in North America, Jubilee Campaign USA, Sojourners and Latino Leadership Foundation.

The CLC-endorsed letter cites several biblical passages, including Deuteronomy 10:18-19 and Leviticus 19:33-34, which teach Christians to be compassionate toward “aliens.” The second passage reminds the Israelites they once were aliens in Egypt.

“We support comprehensive immigration reform, based on biblical mandates, our Christian faith and values, and our commitment to civil and human rights,” the letter reads. “We value immigrants as human beings, made in the image of God. We are aware of the obstacles that immigrants face, especially undocumented individuals, because they are vital members of our churches, our communities and our nation.”

Immigration issues have brought evangelicals together in unprecedented ways, Reyes said.

“In this one issue—perhaps the civil rights issue of the 21st century—we’re finding unity across cultural, denominational and ethnic lines,” he said.

Lawmakers have debated an immigration reform bill that addresses the presence of more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Bills have ranged from emphasizing border enforcement to stressing methods of allowing undocumented residents to become citizens.

The debate spurred a series of protests across the nation, with thousands of students walking out of high schools and hundreds of thousands filling downtown city streets.

The immigration issue especially is important in Texas, where more than 1 million undocumented people live, Reyes stressed.

Illegal immigrants live in Texas communities, attend Texas schools and minister in Texas Baptist churches, Reyes said. They are accepting the gospel and becoming Christians, sharing their faith and impacting lives in the name of Christ, he said.

The flood of immigrants into Texas is creating a large mission field for Texas Baptists to serve, he added. In 2003, the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and Baptist General Convention of Texas each passed resolutions encouraging ministry to illegal immigrants.

“We are in the middle of the most dramatic era of global migration in the world’s history,” he said. “What does it mean for God to allow 12 million undocumented workers from our southern borders to come into our communities, churches and schools?”

Posted: 4/13/06

Jesus’ agenda demands
justice for immigrants, Reyes says

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

WASHINGTON—The current immigration reform debate should be informed for Christians primarily by one question: “Does Jesus still have a mission to the poor and the oppressed?” Albert Reyes, president of the Bap-tist University of the Ameri-cas and immediate past president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, believes.

Reyes, the grandson of an undocumented immigrant and migrant worker, believes ministry to the poor and oppressed was at the heart of what Christ stood for.

“The last time I checked my Bible, Jesus announced his agenda to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for those in prison, to give sight to the blind and liberty to the oppressed,” he stated in a paper released in conjunction with a Capitol Hill news conference on immigration reform.

“In fact, my Bible also tells me that Jesus was an international refugee within the first year of his life. His father and mother took him from Bethlehem to Egypt to flee infanticide as well as political and religious oppression.”

In recent years, the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and BGCT each have passed resolutions to encourage ministry to illegal immigrants.

A BGCT Hispanic Immigration Task Force is examining immigration issues and trying to raise awareness of the situation.

“The core issue at the center of the immigration reform debate is justice,” Reyes said.

“Where is our American sense of decency, the value of basic human rights, our love for children and families and fairness toward under-privileged newcomers?”

Reyes quoted statistics showing 417 notices of intent to fine were issued to businesses that employed undocumented workers in 1999.

That number fell to 100 in 2001, and was at three in 2004.

“Christians must ask the justice question: Is it right for the United States of America to continue to operate a dysfunctional border policy that criminalizes under-privileged and undocumented immigrants seeking to earn a living to provide basic subsistence to their family while allowing American businesses to employ these workers at lower wages?” he asked.

“We tend to enforce the law on those who may not break the law purposefully, and we have a track record of rewarding those who ignore the law to generate wider profit margins.”

The immigration issue requires Christians to study the topic logically and biblically, Reyes wrote. Then they can make an informed decision.

“We need to open our eyes to the reality of this situation, open our Bibles to read about Jesus’ agenda before we articulate our convictions and open our hearts to the Jesus that placed the poor, the prisoner, the blind and the oppressed at the center of his mission,” he concluded.

“To argue compliance with current U.S. immigration law while ignoring the agenda of Jesus is myopic, self-serving and legalistic. I love the United States of America and her laws. My question is to those with an eternal perspective: Isn’t it time our laws reflect the agenda of Jesus? Protect our borders? Absolutely! Mistreat the poor? Absolutely not!”

Posted: 4/13/06

Encampments shaped life of Sabine Creek manager

By George Henson

Staff Writer

ROYSE CITY—The depots on Eddie Walker’s spiritual journey have been Baptist encampments, and he’s thrilled to have added another potential stop for others.

As an 11-year-old at Jan-Kay Ranch near Paris, Walker made his profession of faith in Christ.

Then as a seventh grader at Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment, he accepted God’s calling into ministry.

“All the really impactful spiritual decisions of my life were made at camp,” he said.

God continued to use camps, especially Mount Lebanon, to confirm God’s call on Walker’s life as for 15 years, he led worship and spoke at children’s and youth camps and Super Summer events. Seven years ago, he joined the staff of Lake Pointe Baptist Church in Rockwall.

But through it all, he wanted to launch a camp that would have a lifelong impact on people’s lives in the same way his life had been influenced.

“On my dream’s list 20 years ago in college was ‘Start a camp,’” he said.

Two years ago, that dream became reality as he and his wife, Sarah, bought a working cattle ranch a few miles southeast of Royse City. The ranch’s previous owner also had operated equestrian camps for children and youth, something the Walkers have continued.

Last year, Sabine Creek Ranch, one of the few independently owned camps affiliated with the Texas Baptist Camp Managers Association, hosted its first summer youth campers.

“I wanted to build a camp that would have all the things that I liked about camp and fix the things I didn’t like. With camps, the first question is always, ‘Is the food good?’ Well, here the food is great,” he said with a grin.

The ranch not only is used for summer camps and equestrian training, but also weekend retreats for youth and adults, school field trips and outdoor education experiences.

Cross Creek Cowboy Church, started two years ago in the Walkers’ living room with eight people, meets at the ranch. Now a Lake Pointe satellite where Walker is pastor, the church attracts about 100 worshippers each Sunday evening.

The Walkers had been buying parcels of land in various parts of East Texas for years as investments, but they sold them all and plowed the proceeds into Sabine Creek Ranch.

“As of two weeks ago, we sold our last earthly investment in order to make a heavenly impact,” he said.

He is quick to say the purchase of the 330-acre ranch and start of the camp could not have been done alone.

“I can’t begin to tell you the way the Lord has provided—the people who have literally invested their lives here. A camp is never the result of one couple. It takes a large contingent of faithful servants, and God has provided us with some of the very best,” he said.

Campers at Sabine Creek have a number of recreational possibilities, but the spiritual aspect is most important to Walker.

“Our campers ride horses, play paintball, enjoy the swimming pond and most important, meet Christ,” he said.

To get ready for the campers, the ranch required a lot of construction.

“Since we founded Sabine Creek Ranch, we’ve been building. Bunk beds, cabins, bunkhouses, bathhouses, ponds, docks, stages, arena lights, parking, water system, RV sites, kitchens, classrooms. It makes my head hurt to think about it,” Walker said.

But all of that is for one reason—so that God might use a camp experience to speak to others the way he spoke to Walker all those years ago.

“During summer camp, somewhere around 10 percent of the campers who come to Sabine Creek Ranch or one of our other Baptist camps will make a life- changing decision for Christ.

“Imagine if in a church body of 80 people, eight people accepted Christ this Sunday. Or if in a congregation of 8,000, if 800 people accepted Christ this week—and the next and the next. As one bus leaves, another bus is pulling in, full of students who will encounter God in this special place,” Walker said.

He knows, however, it is God—not the place—that makes the difference in people’s lives.

“God does that work. All we really do is set a stage. … It is amazing how a simple hayride and campfire under the stars can return our focus to the God who created those stars,” Walker said.

“I’m an investor, and this is a heavenly investment. I’ve a short amount of time on earth, and this is how I’m going to make an impact on the kingdom.”

Posted: 4/13/06

Builder finds his life’s purpose at Camp Buckner

By George Henson

Staff Writer

BURNET—Jerry Ratliff loves Camp Buckner—not just because he built it, works there or lives there, but because he believes it fulfills Christ’s purpose for his life.

Ratliff began his relationship with the camp—nestled in the rolling landscape of the Texas Hill Country—as the contractor who oversaw its construction in 1985. But he was totally unprepared when Gary Caves, the camp’s first director, offered him a job as the camp’s operations director.

“I told him, ‘No, I’m a builder,’” Ratliff recalled, thinking there was no way his family could survive having his income cut in half. But God began working on him, he said.

He had been a deacon at First Baptist Church in Marble Falls for a decade at the time, but working with the people from Buckner had left him questioning his own spiritual maturity.

“Surrounded by the Buckner people during construction, I felt weak in my walk. I started to think the other people that I was working with were having too big an impact on me,” he said.

Within a few days, he told his wife he wanted to take the job as director of operations.

“I told her: ‘We’re going to starve to death. It’s a leap of faith, but maybe this is God’s way to have us struggle a bit to show us what’s important,’” he said.

“I’ve always felt like it was God’s plan for us to be here or we wouldn’t be. On paper financially, we couldn’t do it, but God has let us prosper and do very well. We did it, and we’ve never looked back.”

In 1988, he built the house where his family lives on the Camp Buckner property.

“It’s a perfect place to raise a family. I didn’t realize that going in, but it’s been perfect,” Ratliff said.

It also makes him very accessible when plumbing or air conditioning goes out during the night.

“I built this place, so I know where all the pipes and wires are, so I’ve also been the maintenance man,” he said.

As the camp has continued to expand, Ratliff supervised construction of five cabins, a lodge, a motel-type facility, a conference hall, dining hall, horse barn and other buildings.

While it’s difficult for him to choose a favorite building, when pressed he said it would probably be Faith Conference Hall, “for its curb appeal.”

But more than the aesthetic beauty of the buildings, it’s their function that really pleases Ratliff.

“I get as excited as the counselors do when summer camp starts,” he said. “It’s the best of both worlds—I built it, and I get to see it at work. That’s really very rewarding for me.

“I enjoy going to work. I can’t think of a day I’ve dreaded going to work at Camp Buckner. I’ve had some bad days like anybody else, but I’ve never dreaded going to work.”

The camp’s environment—insulated from secular influences—also has helped him grow spiritually, he added.

“I’ve got a long way to go, but my walk with the Lord is stronger. Every day is a challenge with life, but working here has kept me on track,” Ratliff said.

He makes a special effort to hire Christian subcontractors to work at the camp and on the homes he has started to build as a sideline to supplement his income.

As much as he loves the camp he built, worked and lived at for the past 20 years, he knows some day it will end.

“This is a special place. I’m 54 years old, and I’m going to have to retire one day, but it’s going to be hard,” he said. “It’s my work, my handiwork, my home—it’s going to be a hard day.”

But he knows he’ll be able to do it, as one carpenter who faithfully served another.