Posted: 10/15/04

Habitat leadership transition agreement
reached; founder Fuller retires as CEO

By John Pierce

Baptists Today

AMERICUS, Ga.–Millard Fuller, the Baptist layman who founded Habitat for Humanity International with his wife, Linda, in 1976, will relinquish the title of chief executive officer but continue as “founding president” of the housing ministry.

Fuller has been in dispute for several months with Habitat's board of directors that appointed a new managing director in June and called for Fuller to retire as president in January, 2005. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Habitat's best-known volunteer, has intervened on two occasions to seek a compromise.

A press release from Habitat's headquarters in Americus, Ga., states the Fullers will serve as ambassadors for the ecumenical Christian housing movement that will dedicate its 200,000th house this year. Fuller said earlier he wanted to be in a leadership role when that milestone is reached.

“Now as I approach my 70th birthday, it is time for a change,” said Fuller, according to the release. “I will remain very engaged in the ministry as a spokesperson and strategist, and will help in every other way I can to strengthen and expand the work of Habitat for Humanity throughout the United States and around the world.”

Board Chairman Rey Ramsey announced that Paul Leonard, managing director since June, will serve as Habitat's CEO until a permanent replacement is named. David Williams will remain in charge of day-to-day management as chief operating officer, a job he has held for several years.

“With today's actions,” said Ramsey, an attorney in Baltimore, “everyone involved in the organization can keep their focus firmly on the future.”

Posted: 10/15/04

Dawn Larley (left) of Handley Baptist Church in Fort Worth cleans the kitchen of fellow church member Geneva Moore (middle). Handley Pastor Robert Bennett (right) rakes the yard

Fort Worth church shows love by 'sweating for Jesus'

By George Henson

Staff Writer

FORT WORTH–Sixty members of Handley Baptist Church recently converged to turn a house back into a home.

Geneva Moore has lived in the house many years–so long it had fallen into disrepair.

The first time Pastor Robert Bennett visited this faithful church member, he knew something had to be done.

“I was crushed by the fact that this lady could hardly get around in her own home with her walker because the floors weren't level. There were multiple other problems, because her husband had died years ago, and she had just gotten older and couldn't handle the house's problems,” he said.

The city threatened to condemn the structure.

Volunteer Chris Hamilton (left) hangs a window screen.

But her church family came to her rescue. A small crew of workmen spent three weeks repairing the roof and raising the home's foundation to level the floors. Then on one Saturday morning, 60 people wearing bright yellow “Sweating for Jesus–We are His Hands” T-shirts gathered to give the home a good going-over, inside and out.

They painted the exterior and interior, cleaned the kitchen, garage and yard, repaired a gaping hole in the front porch, installed new telephone wiring, and replaced the windows, including the frames. The home received the finishing touches of new carpet and draperies a few days later.

All of that took a lot of hands.

“We had kids, grandmas, students–all kinds of people,” Bennett said.

Bob Taylor, a retired layman charged with crew leadership for structural and exterior projects, said they all were drawn to the house by the same motivations.

“People are actually hungry to serve–they just don't always know it until the try it,” he said. “The Lord has always given me a hunger for helping widows.”

Bennett said the project goes well with the church's emphasis for the year. “Our whole theme has been 'Love God, Love People,'” he said. “We're just trying to put our hand into God's hand and see where he leads us.”

In addition to fixing up the house, the church also passed out flyers in the neighborhood, encouraging people in the area to come to the worksite, have a doughnut and meet church members.

Bennett expressed surprise at the number of people who answered that invitation.

The project encouraged several other residents in the area to clean up around their homes, he added.

The project also encouraged the people who took part, Bennett said. A celebration meal with photographs capped the evening and added to the enthusiasm.

“They're ready to tackle another one,” Bennett said.

“We've found four or five people with smaller things that need doing, and the church is ready to take them on.”

Posted: 10/15/04

Historical Society explores roles
of associations in doctrinal diversity

The Texas Baptist Historical Society at its fall meeting in San Antonio will examine how Baptist associations have handled issues of doctrinal diversity.

Paul Stripling, director of missions emeritus of Waco Baptist Association, will present the program, focusing on ways associations have dealt with topics such as charismatic worship, alien immersion and the ordination of women.

The society's lunch meeting will be at 10:45 a.m., Nov. 8 in San Antonio's Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center, prior to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

The business session will include election of officers and recognition of history award winners.

Cost is $15 per person, payable at the door, but the deadline for reservations is Nov. 2. To make a reservation, call (972) 331-2235 or e-mail tbhc@bgct.org.

Posted: 10/15/04

Texas hunger offering helps support
development projects around the world

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptists Communications

BANGALORE, India–A 4-year-old boy in Bangalore, India, who was born with his feet turned backwards can walk today because of a ministry supported through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger.

That boy no longer faces a future as a man with useless legs, unable to support himself and subject to poverty and hunger, said Joe Haag of the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Christian Life Commission.

ProVision Asia, a ministry to handicapped and hungry people in India, provided the boy's surgery for $300.

The ministry in Bangalore, led by Chip and Jean Kingery, is set to receive $5,000 next year from the Texas offering. ProVision Asia, however, will receive only a percentage of that if Texas Baptists fail to achieve the $750,000 offering goal.

Texas Baptists churches are encouraged to set aside the four Sundays prior to Thanksgiving each year to emphasize the hunger offering, Haag noted. Many churches collect the offering throughout the year, but 40 percent of the funds is given in the final three months of the year.

Funds for the offering are collected during a fiscal year that begins in October each year. They are distributed during the calendar year that lags three months behind.

In the fiscal year that ended in September, Texas Baptists gave $774,344 through the offering. That is an increase of 19 percent above the $648,841 given the previous year. But it still fell short of the $800,000 goal. Consequently, ministries did not receive 100 percent of the planned funding.

The CLC changed the way it handled hunger relief beginning in 1996, moving away from lump-sum contributions going to other agencies and toward a system that provides more accountability, Haag said. Now, the CLC spells out which specific ministries the offering supports before Texas Baptists ever begin giving to it.

Five percent of the offering goes to administrative costs, Haag said. The rest is divided generally: 60 percent international, 25 percent Texas and 15 percent the United States beyond Texas.

As in the India ministry, the Texas offering “doesn't only feed people, but it helps people to feed themselves by attending to the long-term causes of hunger and poverty,” he noted.

The international funding requests come primarily through three sources–the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, national member bodies of the Baptist World Alliance and BGCT's Texas Partnerships Resource Center, Haag said.

In the United States, the number of states receiving hunger funds from Texas has grown to 10, plus the District of Columbia. “The states are applying to us because they're getting less funding” from the Southern Baptist Convention, Haag said.

Ministries seeking funding through the offering must reapply each year, and the CLC receives four times as many funding requests as it has money to support, Haag said. “And we hardly ever fund at the level people ask for.”

But Haag sees the potential for much greater giving. If one in 20 Texas Baptists gave $10 to hunger relief each month, the result would be 15 times greater than what is now being given.

Ministries supported by the offering are varied and wide-ranging. In Texas alone, $187,500 is earmarked for hunger relief efforts in Amarillo, Austin, Brownwood, Conroe, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Decatur, Del Rio-Uvalde, El Paso, Fort Worth, Freeport, Houston, Midland, Mineral Wells, Odessa, the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio and Weatherford.

In other states, $112,500 will be spent. The ministries vary greatly, because the needs vary greatly.

In Iowa, for example, there is food distribution, literacy training and job skills developing in the growing Hispanic community of Denison.

There is food distribution, after-school tutoring, job and life skills classes, parenting training and crisis counseling in a part of Des Moines with an increasing number of refugee immigrants and the accompanying high crime, poverty, school dropouts, unemployment and drug abuse. In eight rural areas, the offering helps support crisis hunger relief, after-school projects and job training.

Overseas, the hunger offering reaches to ministries in Puerto Rico, Brazil, Romania, Congo, Malawi, Israel, China, Thailand and many other places.

For complete 2004 and 2005 lists of supported ministries, see www.bgct.org/hunger.

Posted: 10/15/04

Christians from Iraq flee
rising Islamic fundamentalism

By Dale Gavlak

Religion News Service

AMMAN, Jordan (RNS)–Iraqi Christians flocked to the Latin Catholic church in the Hashmi district of the Jordanian capital, a drab working-class area, where they celebrated Mass in the ancient Chaldean language.

On a recent Sunday, some 200 worshippers packed the sanctuary, adorned with a simple wooden cross and a picture of the Virgin Mary and Christ. Here, away from their native country, these Iraqi Christians felt safe.

Fearing lawlessness and rising Islamic fundamentalism in their own country, large numbers of Iraqi Christians are fleeing to neighboring Jordan and Syria.

No one knows for certain how many of Iraq's 750,000 Christians have left the country since the removal of Saddam Hussein, but estimates are in the tens of thousands.

Most of Iraq's Christians are Chaldean Eastern rite Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but who recognize the pope's authority.

Other Christian groups include Roman and Syriac Catholics; Assyrians; Greek, Syriac and Armenian Orthodox; Presbyterians; Anglicans and evangelicals.

The level of mistreatment Christians face in Iraq is disputed, even among Christians themselves, but no one can deny the fear, which is palpable among those crossing the border. Church bombings in Baghdad and Mosul only fuel that fear, but so do individual stories, even though few can be substantiated outside of Iraq.

One Christian attending the Mass, Samir, requested that his full name not be used because of fear of reprisals against his family. A businessman from Baghdad, he recounted how militants linked to renegade Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al Sadr recently kidnapped and tortured him until his family paid ransom money.

“A gang came to my shop with machine guns and forced me into a car, where I remained for nine days,” Samir said. “They wanted $200,000 from me.

“They repeatedly hit me and poured boiling water all over my body. I was held hostage until my family paid them $50,000 to finally get me released.”

The man, in his mid-fifties, now walks with a cane, and burn marks are visible on his body. He says he and his family fled to Jordan but hope to find permanent refuge in Australia because he cannot find legal work here.

Samir and other recently arrived refugees said militants are targeting Christians in Iraq because they perceive the Christians have money. They also say Islamists have attacked predominately Christian-owned liquor, fashion and music shops, demanding their businesses be shut down because they are deemed offensive.

Another fresh arrival in Amman, Bernadette Hikmat, says all this is unwarranted because Iraqi Christians are peaceful and have had a low-key presence in Iraq for 2,000 years.

“Christians in Iraq do not instigate violent acts,” Hikmat said. “But unlike the Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities, we have no big tribes to support or protect us against harm, so that makes us vulnerable.”

The 29-year-old former government employee says she and her two younger brothers escaped with a few of their worldly possessions in a couple of suitcases.

“I believe we are also being targeted as Christians because we are viewed as suspected collaborators with U.S. and Western forces amid a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism,” she said. “Of course, this is not true, but this perception only increases our problems.”

The synchronized bombings of five churches in recent weeks and another car bombing at a Baghdad church Sept. 10 have sent further shock waves into the Christian community.

The blasts killed 11 people and wounded more than 50 in Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul.

They were the first significant strike on Iraq's Christians, who make up about 3 percent of the country's 25 million people.

A previously obscure group, the Committee of Planning and Follow-up in Iraq, claimed responsibility and warned more attacks would follow.

But Iraqi officials blame Al-Qaida ally and Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for the assaults.

As a result of continued instability, many Christians are choosing to leave Iraq rather than return to their church pews.

Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, has condemned the attacks on the churches as “hideous crimes” but the country's migration minister says the exodus of Christians continues.

Pascale Isho Warda, herself a Chaldean Catholic Christian, estimates that 40,000 Christians have left Iraq because of a lack of security and organized attacks on their churches.

But the U.N. refugee agency disputes the figure. A spokesperson for the Iraq program of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees based in Amman said the estimate is unsubstantiated.

He said reliable numbers are hard to come by because many refugees have gone directly to foreign embassies, such as the Australian or Canadian embassies, to make their claim and have bypassed the United Nations in the belief that a claim of religious persecution will provide a chance for quicker asylum.

The refugee coordinator for the Middle East Council of Churches in Jordan, Wafa Goussous, said no Iraqi Christians have sought assistance directly from the organization.

Instead, Iraqi refugees go to their church communities upon arrival in Jordan for needed aid, such as housing and food.

The priest of the Latin Catholic church in Amman's Hashimi district, Raymond Musili, has put the figure of recent arrivals from Iraq at about 7,000 at his church alone.

In Syria, the U.N. refugee agency operating in Damascus reports about 4,000 Iraqi Christians have sought refuge in the country.

But even with the growing climate of fear in Iraq, there are stalwart Christians who choose not to leave their homeland. A small group of Pentecostal Christians visited Amman recently from Baghdad and reported their church is growing, despite pressures.

They also refuted claims of intimidation from Muslim militants.

What is irrefutable is the fear and anxiety among many Christians, who see their future as uncertain, at best, in the new Iraq.

Posted: 10/15/04

Louisiana College selects assistant dean
at Southwestern Seminary as new president

PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)–Trustees of Louisiana College announced that Malcolm Yarnell of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will be the embattled school's eighth president.

Yarnell, assistant dean of theological studies and associate professor of systemic theology at Southwestern Seminary, was offered the job after a closed-door session of trustees.

“Today is a great day for the college,” emphasized Ed Tarpley of Pineville, La., who headed the presidential search committee.

“Malcolm Yarnell is an outstanding theologian and teacher. He has a love for students and faculty, and he is truly a man that all Louisiana Baptists can be proud of.”

The college's trustee board has been divided between the fundamentalist majority and a moderate minority, and the school is now under investigation by its accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Trustee Chair Joe Nesom resigned June 27 as fellow trustees prepared to remove him from office. Nesom denounced “unwise unilateral actions taken by certain board members.”

At a news conference announcing Yarnell's decision to accept the post, Tarpley was asked if he had confidence in the new president's ability to heal tensions at the school.

He called Yarnell “a peacemaker” and “a consensus builder … who's going to come in and listen to everyone and do what is best for the students, the faculty and the entire Louisiana College community,” he said.

“And I think, with all those characteristics, he'll be able to come in and start the healing process and move Louisiana College forward.”

Yarnell, a Louisiana native, previously was academic dean and vice president for academic affairs at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

He holds a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University, master's degrees from Southwestern and Duke University and a doctor of philosophy from Oxford University.

He has been pastor of churches in North Carolina and Louisiana.

Posted: 10/15/04

Jonathan Marin hugs Decisions for Life program director Christina Diaz in celebration of his selection to the advisory panel for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. He is the only Texan among the 22 youth named to the working group which will meet in Washington, D.C., three times during their 18-month service. They also will serve as national spokesmen for media outlets. (Craig Bird Photo)

Sexual abstinence program changes teen's life

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

SAN ANTONIO–Four years ago, Jonathan Marin didn't know what an abstinence program was. Today, he's a nationally recognized leader in the effort to lower the incidence of pregnancy among teenagers, and he credits a program of Baptist Child & Family Services with changing his life.

Last month, the high school senior was named to the 22-member Youth Leadership Team, an advisory body to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. He is the only student from Texas selected for the panel, which will meet in Washington, D.C., three times over the next 18 months to help develop policy, as well as serve as media spokesmen for the organization.

A few years ago, no one would have predicted such an outcome.

Not Marin. “I was a terrible little kid,” he said.

Not his mother. “I was telling him I didn't want to see him wind up in jail like his brother, or running with gangs, or dead in the streets, but he wouldn't listen,” she said.

Not even Christina Diaz, program director of Decisions for Life, a Baptist Child & Family Services-sponsored sexual abstinence program. “Let's just say Jonathan was one of our more challenging students,” she said, struggling to be diplomatic.

But Marin believes the Decisions for Life program and staff “saved my life and showed me I could reach my dreams.”

Antoinette Marin looks with pride at her son, Jonathan, and gives thanks for the influence the Decisions for Life program had on his life.

Those dreams include becoming the first college graduate in his family and a pursuing a career in the U.S. Army.

It's been quite a trip, from a trouble-prone eighth-grader to a role model who publicly states: “I promise to be sexually abstinent; to be drug- and alcohol-free; to promote unity to others. I am a leader. I will succeed.”

“It's not easy to do the right thing all the time,” he admitted. “That is one reason it is important to take the pledge in public and in a group. We can support each other. I know I've got younger kids looking to me for leadership, and that encourages me.”

Decisions for Life is a long-term program that focuses on preventing teen pregnancy through leadership development.

The program “encourages positive decision-making by creating in our young people a sense of hope and a belief in unlimited possibilities,” Diaz explained. “In a community that continually faces the challenges of high teen pregnancy rates, family breakdown, juvenile crime and school dropouts, our students are invested in making a difference not only for their futures but for the futures of others as well.”

Marin joined Decisions for Life in 2000.

“He was in the eighth grade, and we were just getting started,” recalled Diaz, who nominated Marin for the Youth Leadership Team. “Early on, we sometimes wondered if he'd ever come around, but he kept with it and has become one of our key leaders–not only out front but behind the scenes. He piles up more hours on community service projects than anyone.”

Marin has become a committed and vocal proponent of teenagers delaying sexual activity, she said.

“Jonathan hasn't been afforded the opportunities many other young people have had, but he believes in the power of his dreams. He believes he has the power to make a difference for himself and for others around him.”

Last year, Diaz was speaking at a school and used Marin as a success story, but she didn't identify him by last name. Afterward, a teacher asked if she were talking about Jonathan Marin.

“When I said yes, he didn't believe me,” she recalled. “He kept saying: 'It can't be the kid I'm talking about. There's no way that kid was going to amount to anything.' He's come so far. I'm just so proud of him.”

Antoinette Marin, Jonathan's mother, agrees.

Decisions for Life “kept my son off the streets,” she explains. “The staff has always been there for him, and they taught him things that he wouldn't listen to when I tried to tell him. I wish a program like this had been around for my older son, and maybe he wouldn't have gotten into drugs and been sent to prison. I wish there had been something like this for me when I was growing up!”

Both her sons have brought tears to her eyes–grief for the bad choices her elder son made and joy for the achievements of her younger boy.

At an award ceremony in 2001, Marin received his first “Leader of Leaders” recognition from Decisions for Life. After accepting the medal, he walked into the audience and hung it around his mother's neck.

“That's the first time I made my mother cry–at least for a happy reason,” he recounted.

Leaders of Decisions for Life share the sense of pride Marin's mother feels.

“If you only knew how far he's come to get to where he is now,” Diaz said. “I'll never forget the first time I saw him in his ROTC uniform. He came into my office and was standing in the door when I looked up. His shoulders were back and his chin was up, and he had the look of a winner in his eyes. ”

The image struck her so hard that she grabbed her camera and took a photograph.

“Sometimes when I'm putting in another 10-hour day and feeling overwhelmed by all the problems the kids in this community face, I get really tired,” she admitted. “But then I remember things Jonathan says and what his mom says, and I know I can keep going. Kids like Jonathan are what make it all worthwhile.”

Posted: 10/15/04

'Godfather' of Religious Right dead in Memphis at age 78

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–A Southern Baptist layman credited with being the “godfather” of the modern Religious Right is dead at age 78.

Ed McAteer died after a long battle with myeloma, a form of cancer, Oct. 5 at his home in Memphis, Tenn. His wife, Faye, was with him when he died.

In the late 1970s, McAteer became convinced the nation was on a declining moral trajectory. He left a successful career as a salesman and executive with Colgate-Palmolive to enter political advocacy.

He soon became one of the driving forces in convincing Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist Baptist television preacher, to enter politics in the late 1970s. McAteer–along with Religious Right activists Paul Weyrich, Paul Viguerie and Howard Phillips–helped Falwell found the Moral Majority in 1979.

Although the Moral Majority no longer exists, it was the first major organization encouraging fundamentalist Protestants to get involved in secular politics.

McAteer organized the first National Affairs Briefing, which brought about 15,000 pastors and other conservative Christian activists to Dallas in 1980. At that meeting, then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan cemented his ties to the Religious Right by famously declaring, “I know you can't endorse me, but I endorse you.”

McAteer–a member of Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis–devoted much of his time in recent years to building support among evangelical Christians for Israel.

Posted: 10/15/04

Micah Challenge sets goal of cutting
worldwide poverty in half by 2015

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)–Christian leaders from around the world are launching a major anti-poverty initiative this month in New York City with an ambitious goal–to cut worldwide poverty in half by 2015.

The campaign–named the Micah Challenge after the Old Testament prophet of justice–represents more than 3 million congregations worldwide and 260 Christian relief and development organizations, including the Baptist World Alliance and Baptist World Aid.

But those groups don't plan to fight poverty alone, said Michael Smitheram of England, international coordinator for the Micah Challenge.

Instead, they are “calling on their (political) leaders to live up to a promise they have already made,” Smitheram said.

He referred to the United Nations-approved Millennium Development Goals, adopted by the U.N.'s member countries in 2000. Those eight goals represent “kind of a benign framework (Christians) can get behind,” he said.

“We're not asking them to get into an argument” over which anti-poverty strategies are best, he added.

Central in the international strategy is canceling the debts of Third World countries and eliminating trade inequities, Smitheram said. But even that won't be enough to cut poverty in half, he said.

It will require commitment to all eight U.N.-adopted goals–eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development.

The Micah Challenge was initiated by the Micah Network, an association of 260 Christian relief and development organizations, which recognized the need to “become more involved at the political level to support what they are doing on the ground,” Smitheram said.

The network sought the help of the World Evangelical Alliance, the primary international network of evangelical churches.

The Micah Challenge was slated to make its international debut at a ceremony and press conference at the United Nations in New York Oct. 15–coinciding with the U.N. International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Smitheram said the objective is to get the attention of the international Christian media.

Scheduled participants included Njongonkulu Ndungane, archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa; Katherine Marshall of the World Bank; Salil Shetty of the United Nations Millennium Campaign; and Christian leaders from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Within days of the New York debut, national campaigns will be launched in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Peru and the United Kingdom. Campaigns are forming in nine other countries, including the United States, Smitheram said.

Progress in the United States has been slow, he acknowledged.

“What we tend to have in the United States is parts of the evangelical church that are well used to being involved in social action,” he said, naming several Baptist and Mennonite groups, “but then there is an enormous amount of evangelical Christians who are reticent to be involved in multinational (social) efforts.”

The Baptist World Alliance, through its General Council, endorsed the Micah Challenge in August, calling Christians to take “prayerful, practical action in their nations and communities” and to hold their nations and global leaders “accountable in securing a more just and merciful world.”

So far, however, the National Association of Evangelicals, the largest U.S. evangelical network, has declined to sign on to the Micah Challenge, although its humanitarian arm, World Relief, is involved.

The National Association of Evangelicals “is broadly supportive of the Micah Challenge, but they're not looking for a leadership role,” Smitheram said.

“There's lots and lots of interest in the United States,” he continued.

“We're just taking our time, trying to create the best campaign we can. It's just going slowly.”

The group is trying to enlist 25 million Christians worldwide to endorse the movement through its Web site, www.micahchallenge.org.

“If we can get something that grows from underneath, maybe the leaders will take a more active role,” Smitheram said.

Posted: 10/15/04

New NAMB church-starting guidelines
won't impact BGCT, officials maintain

DALLAS–Guidelines adopted by the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board that require members of new churches to affirm biblical inerrancy and male-only deacons will not impact church-starting efforts funded through the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Executive Director Charles Wade insists.

“Texas Baptists have their eyes firmly set on a path that leads to hundreds of new churches in coming years,” Wade said. “Our church starters will continue to help open congregation doors under the same standards and requirements that we have used for years.”

Mission board trustees voted Oct. 6 to approve a 34-page document titled “Ecclesiological Guidelines to Inform Southern Baptist Church Planters.”

As a detailed interpretation of Scripture and Baptist church polity, it adds a new layer of requirements beyond the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement.

“Church-planting strategies and endeavors must be conducted in such a way that they are obedient and submitted to the New Testament for faith and practice as well as committed to Baptist ecclesiology as stated in the Baptist Faith & Message 2000,” the guidelines state.

The guidelines indicate new congregations should have a covenant that members can agree upon as a condition for membership.

“Covenants are based upon and must reflect biblical principles,” the guidelines state. “Although they may state the various beliefs and convictions of the congregation, the covenant of a Baptist church must minimally affirm three things–the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the church and its members; the divine inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of the Bible; and the membership of the church consisting only of regenerate persons who have professed their faith in believer's baptism by immersion.”

Written by Stan Norman, associate professor of theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, the document was affirmed by the deans of the SBC's six seminaries and by two seminary presidents, Paige Patterson of Southwestern and Phil Roberts of Midwestern Baptist Theological seminaries.

Ken Hall, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, criticized the new guidelines.

“This act saddens me and further breaks my heart that Southern Baptist agencies and institutions are continuing to move away from historic Baptist positions,” said Hall, president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences in Dallas.

“I am thrilled that the BGCT and other free Baptists are focused on reaching a lost world and strengthening the work of local churches.”

The BGCT will not require adherence to the mission board's guidelines, Wade said.

“It is important to remember that churches start churches–not agencies or conventions. The BGCT works with established Bible-believing churches that maintain theological standards for the new churches they plant. We are committed to kingdom enterprises that will spread the good news of salvation through Christ to everyone.”

Each state Baptist convention requests funding from NAMB for church-starting projects. The BGCT will not request funds from NAMB that require church planters to compromise their convictions by affirming the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, said E.B. Brooks, coordinator of the BGCT's church missions and evangelism section.

Compiled from reports by Associated Baptist Press and Texas Baptist Communications

Posted: 10/15/04

On the Move

Dwight Foster has resigned as pastor of Primera Iglesia in Goliad.

Greg Horn to Bois D'Arc Creek Cowboy Church in Fannin County as interim pastor.

Jerry Hutchings has resigned as pastor of Oaklawn Church in Texarkana.

Josh Lockett to Independence Church in Brenham as youth director.

Bill Louthan has resigned as worship leader at First Church in Midlothian.

Patrick McCrory to Kingsland Church in Katy as minister to youth from First Church in Garland.

Daryl Mize has resigned as pastor of Mount Pleasant Church in Kosse.

Darrell Paulk to New Hebron Church in Waskom as pastor.

Enrique Perez has resigned as pastor of Primera Iglesia in Giddings.

Tim Ramsey to Tanglewood Church in Lexington as pastor.

Lupe Rando to New Life Church in Vernon as pastor from Primera Iglesia in Cameron.

Tim Reed to First Church in Bloomburg as pastor from First Church in Redwater, where he was minister of music/associate pastor.

Sonny Riley has resigned as pastor of Henry Prairie Church in Franklin.

Danny Simmons has resigned as minister of music/youth at Oaklawn Church in Texarkana.

Sean Taylor to First Church in Marlin as minister of youth and children.

Jose Torres to Second Church in Marshall as associate pastor of Hispanic ministry.

Phillip Vogelsang to Battetown Church in Cameron as minister of youth and music.

Posted: 10/15/04

Poll: Good news, bad news for U.S. Muslims

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–A new survey commissioned by an Islamic civil-rights group offers both good news and bad for American Muslims.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations released the nationwide poll of 1,000 respondents showing, among other things, nearly one-fourth of those surveyed held a negative stereotype of Muslims.

In addition, from 26 percent to 29 percent of people interviewed agreed with one or more of a set of negative assertions about Muslims, such as “Muslims teach their children to hate.”

And 32 percent of all interviewees, when asked what comes to mind when they hear the word “Muslim,” responded with a negative image. Only 2 percent responded with a positive image. The remaining 67 percent were neutral.

However, the council's poll also showed 67 percent of Americans believe Islamic terrorists are abusing the faith's teachings, and 47 percent agreed American Muslims were cooperating in the war against terrorism. Only 21 percent of respondents disagreed with that assertion. But half of the respondents said Muslims were not doing enough to condemn terrorism, while 46 percent disagreed with that statement.

Council officials said they commissioned the study–conducted between June 23 and July 2–after releasing a civil-rights report in May that showed hate crimes against Muslims increased nationwide each year since Sept. 11, 2001.