Posted: 7/23/04

Future of Baylor 2012–and possibly
the school's president–in hands of regents

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

WACO–Baylor University regents met July 21-23 for a three-day retreat to discuss Baylor 2012–the school's long-range vision–and possibly determine the future of embattled President Robert Sloan.

Baylor 2012 is a plan championed by Sloan to make Baylor a top-tier university by expanding the school's facilities, reducing class sizes and recruiting professors committed to academic excellence, scholarly research and Christian values.

Critics claim the plan has increased debt, pushed tuition to levels unaffordable by students from middle-income families and forced instructors to meet narrow and rigid religious tests.

Former regent Chairman Drayton McLane predicted in May the board might have to extend the long-range plan beyond 2012 because of economic conditions.

Twice in the last year, the university's Faculty Senate passed votes of no confidence in Sloan as president.

Regents responded last September by affirming Sloan by a 31-4 vote.

But at the board's May meeting, he came within one vote of losing his job. During a closed-door session, a motion to ask for Sloan's resignation failed by an 18-17 secret ballot.

At that same meeting, John Baugh, a major Baylor benefactor from Houston, warned he would ask the university to repay loans and return financial gifts he made if the board failed to rescue Baylor from “the paralyzing quagmire in which it currently is ensnared.”

The Committee to Restore Integrity to Baylor–a group critical of Sloan's leadership–issued a public statement prior to the July 21-23 regents meeting predicting the president would lose his job.

No vote on Sloan was on the agenda for the regent's July 23 business meeting.

However, some regents contacted prior to the meeting expected some kind of vote regarding his presidency. They declined to speculate about the possible outcome.

Baylor regent business meetings are closed to the media. At press time, the board had made no announcement about any actions taken.

Posted: 7/23/04

Baptist Briefs

Clingenpeel returns to pastorate. Mike Cling-enpeel, editor of Virginia Baptists' newspaper for the past 12 years, will be the next pastor of River Road Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. Clingenpeel will assume the pulpit of one of the most prominent moderate Baptist churches on the East Coast Sept. 7. He left a Franklin, Va., pastorate in 1992 to edit the 176-year-old Religious Herald, newsjournal of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.

Auction benefits CBF missions. A violin and a collectible C.S. Lewis book were sold to the highest bidders at a silent auction during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Birmingham, Ala., this summer. The auction raised $18,200 to support ministry projects of CBF Global Missions field personnel around the world. The auction's most valued items were a violin and a 1947 autographed edition of C.S. Lewis' "Miracles: A Preliminary Study." Three other highly-sought items were a painting and two pieces of embroidery by Chinese Christian artist He Qi. He donated his work for the auction as well as a painting to the Fellowship to be displayed in the Atlanta Resource Center.

KCBI, FamilyNet team up. Dallas Christian radio station KCBI and the Southern Baptist Convention's Fort Worth-based FamilyNet television network have formed an alliance to share audio portions of their newscasts. KCBI has won the National Religious Broadcasters' Best News award, several SCRIBE awards for best news on a Christian radio station, and numerous Dallas Press Club Katie awards and Texas Associated Press awards. FamilyNet News is a blend of headlines and stories that affect families. Both news outlets bill themselves safe for children to watch and include "good news" stories with positive endings.

GuideStone offers health screenings. The Southern Baptist Convention's GuideStone Financial Resources (formerly Annuity Board) has joined with Life Line Screening to make convenient health screenings available to Southern Baptist church and denominational workers at an affordable rate. The mission of Life Line Screenings is to make people aware of undetected health problems and encourage them to seek follow-up care with their physicians. Screenings scan for potential health problems related to bone density, blocked arteries that can lead to stroke, aortic aneurysms that can lead to a ruptured aorta and hardening of the arteries in the legs, a predictor of heart disease. For information, call Life Line Screenings at (800) 403-7417.

"Purpose-Driven …" stays on top. Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life" has received the Book of the Year Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for the second year in a row. The book by Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., has spent more than 70 weeks on The New York Times' best-seller list. "The Prayer of Jabez" by Bruce H. Wilkinson also was a two-time Book of the Year winner, in 2001 and 2002. "The fact that books like these have won in consecutive years is a true testimony of the lasting impact a Christian book can have on one's life," ECPA President Doug Ross said. "These titles are mere examples of the power of God working through his people to convey the message of hope. I pray they continue to impact lives for Jesus Christ for many years, driving people to discover the many other resources our industry offers for growth and encouragement."

Multihousing conference set for Fort Worth. The Emerging Multihousing Church conference will train Baptists interested in helping start churches. The national meeting will be held at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth Aug. 26-27. The conference is designed to develop a strategy to help bring residents of multihousing communities to faith in Christ. For more information, and to register online, visit www.experiencemultihousing.org. The cost is $100, and the registration deadline is Aug. 15.

Posted: 7/23/04

Missions offering helps Buckner Border
Ministries touch lives along Rio Grande

By Mary Crouch

BGCT Summer Intern

PROGRESO–Jorge Zapata knows Texas is a big state. But he believes Texas Baptists from every corner of the state can touch lives in the name of Jesus, even if they never leave home.

Zapata, coordinator of Border Ministries for Buckner Children & Family Services, sees firsthand the impact Texas Baptists are having through the annual Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions. Buckner receives just over $17,000 for its border ministries from the offering.

With that money, Zapata, along with nearly 1,000 mission volunteers, provide home repairs, basic medical assistance, groceries and a long list of other support for people living in colonias along the border with Mexico.

Kayla Cope of First Baptist Church in College Station tars the roof of a home during a missions trip coordinated by Buckner Border Ministries and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Buckner also uses the funds to provide Vacation Bible Schools, bilingual Bibles and other spiritual support.

Buckner tries to “help families in need,” Zapata said. “They come here with nothing.”

Zapata recalled a young couple in desperate need of medical care. The wife had been raped, and aside from the emotional scars, she was sick as well.

Through the local community center, Buckner found a doctor to provide her with medical attention. After the initial check-up and twice-monthly visits, the doctor discovered the woman had a bladder infection and needed medicine. Since the couple could not afford to pay for their prescriptions or hospital bills, Buckner again stepped in to help them.

After checking the wife in the local hospital in Edinburg, Zapata and others from Buckner asked if they could tell the couple about Jesus. They soon decided they wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior.

The Mary Hill Davis Offering provides assistance in other ways as well. In impoverished colonias, families live in houses made of cardboard and plastic, and they often have little to no basic amenities.

Buckner Border Ministries uses Mary Hill Davis Offering funds to give these families medical care, food, clothing, education and, if they own a house, home repairs.

Buckner tries to only give to families who are “truly in need,” reported Tommy Speed, administrator of the Rio Grande Children's Home. “We look at the situation to improve long-term.”

Buckner works in the Rio Grande Valley with local community centers, whose responsibility is to tell needy families about Buckner.

Once the families have come to a community center, they are referred to Buckner Border Ministries, which steps in to offer appropriate service, financial or otherwise.

Many families end up being so touched by the work Buckner has done for them that they accept Christ as Savior.

“The Mary Hill Davis Offering is making it possible for people to come to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,” said Ken Hall, president of Buckner and current president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. “That's the best investment we can possibly have when we give sacrificially.”

Posted: 7/23/04

JIMMY CARTER:
Sunday school teacher

By Shalynn Ford Harvey

Religion News Service

PLAINS, Ga. (RNS)–A little more than 100 miles and several light-years southwest of Atlanta lies a bucolic hamlet surrounded by pine trees, pecan groves and peanut farms.

A row of turn-of-the-century buildings and a modern post office form the downtown. Across the silent railroad tracks and a little ways down the road sits a small Baptist church where a faith-driven man is about to begin teaching his weekly Sunday school lesson.

As soon as a battery of somber but stylishly dressed Secret Service agents signal the room is secure, the class commences.

Welcome to Plains, Ga., idyllic home of the world's most famous Sunday school teacher–former President Jimmy Carter.

“We had 12,739 visitors last year,” says Dan Ariail, pastor of the 131-member Maranatha Baptist Church. The volume of visitors could be daunting for some, but not to Ariail, who simply says of the crowds, “Blessed are the flexible, for they never get bent out of shape.”

He should know. He literally wrote the book–a 197-page doctoral dissertation–on how to maintain hospitality and normality under arguably bizarre circumstances, including armed guards and huge crowds regularly attending Sunday worship service.

“We're a small church with a worldwide outreach,” said Ariail.

He is, of course, referring to the global draw of his most famous yet eminently accessible member, 79-year-old Jimmy Carter. Despite a grueling travel and work schedule, he somehow manages to teach Sunday school at the small country church 35 to 40 weeks out of the year.

A few minutes before 10 a.m., Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, arrive without fanfare and enter the packed sanctuary via a noisy and frigid waiting room jammed with “overflow” guests seated on metal folding chairs.

They will have to settle for hearing the former president deliver his lesson via closed-circuit television. Only those who arrive at daybreak have a prayer of being seated in the sanctuary. Aware of this inconvenience, Carter lingers behind in the waiting room almost 10 minutes, chatting with the audience and answering a few questions.

On this day, Carter sports a bolo tie with turquoise accents, dark blue wool jacket and slacks, and burgundy loafers. Although the air conditioner has been cranked up high, observers note the aura of the room grows noticeably warmer with the presence of Carter–a peanut farmer-turned-president-turned-peacemaker.

Perhaps it is his altruism-in-action for the poor and disenfranchised. Or his revered “elder statesman” title. But whatever “it” is, it keeps people from California to Calcutta and everywhere between coming in droves to see how a man who once led the free world now leads a Sunday school class at a small church whose name means “Come, Lord.”

Carter begins this Sunday's lesson, titled “The Lord's Supper,” with a humorous anecdote about viewing Mel Gibson's movie “The Passion of the Christ” at a local theater.

“Rosalynn and I went (on a) Tuesday, thinking there wouldn't be a big crowd since it was a weekday, … but the Secret Service had to use their influence just to get us two seats together,” he said.

The crowd laughs at the hominess of it all. Then Carter gets serious and the lesson officially begins.

Gibson did an “outstanding job,” in Carter's opinion, of “accurately depicting Scripture.” But, he adds, “the violence was excessive” and he was “disappointed with the last scene” because he thought the Resurrection was not given its full due, nor was it explained sufficiently enough for non-Christians to understand.

The lesson continues with a mix of Scripture, an interpretive narrative about the symbolism and significance of the Lord's Supper, and personal anecdotes. One personal story included Carter's confession that, although a born-and-bred Baptist, he routinely attended early morning Catholic services during his Navy days. He said it freed up the rest of the day to spend with his family.

All too soon, the lesson concludes and the teacher quietly departs the podium to take his place next to his wife, and along with the rest of the congregation, prepares to worship.

Later, offertory plates, hand-crafted from Philippine mahogany by Carter (also an accomplished carpenter) and hand-lined with green felt by his wife, Rosalynn, are passed around the room.

A little over an hour later, the service concludes with the choir singing, “Christ Receiveth Sinful Men,” while the Carters quietly exit the sanctuary.

Once outside, they begin the tedious process of becoming photo opportunities for nearly 500 people who have trekked to Plains and endured security checks to have their 15 seconds with the world's most-recognizable Sunday school teacher.

Posted: 7/23/04

Posted: 7/23/04

Churches must intentionally give
priority to planning, ministers maintain

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–Warning “inertia is against planning,” Mark Wingfield said churches must make an intentional effort to achieve effective long-range planning.

Wingfield, associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, and Jerry Bryant, retired executive vice president of Baylor Health Care Systems in Dallas, led a workshop on “Grassroots Congregational Planning” during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Birmingham, Ala.

“If you don't intentionally set out to plan, you won't plan because you won't find the time,” Wingfield said.

Wilshire leaders have “introduced some new concepts into the congregation” such as an intentional focus on pursuing spiritual formation, mobilizing members for ministry and communicating with the congregation.

Bryant, who served as a consultant throughout the church's planning process, said grassroots congregational planning includes a succinct mission statement that leads to key priorities, strategies and tactics.

“The mission defines what the calling or the purpose of the organization is,” Bryant explained.

“It needs to be simple enough that people can remember it. If the folks understand what we are here to do, there are some amazing things that can be accomplished.

“The mission statement should not define how it is going to be achieved,” he noted. “If you do that, you're actually putting yourself in a box.”

How a church accomplishes its mission “will change as the world changes and as our congregation and resources change.”

Once a church has produced a clear, concise mission statement, Bryant said, the next step is to establish a few key priorities that call for specific action.

The priorities should lead to strategies that “define the direction or course of action into the future,” he said. “A strategy is nothing in the world except a definition of work that needs to be accomplished in order for something to be done.”

Bryant described the next step–tactics–as “the to-do list” in accomplishing the church's priorities.

“Why would we want to do planning?” he asked. “If we're not watching changes and addressing those changes with a good plan, we may find ourselves unable to keep up.

“This process starts with a rich review of data. If we don't look at the data, we have absolutely no idea where we are and it's hard to tell where we want to go.”

The data should include an accurate evaluation of key church statistics, such as baptisms and attendance trends as well as community demographics.

“The planning part is the easy part,” Bryant noted. “The tough part is the implementation process. Enlisting the right person to take responsibility for a strategy has everything to do with whether that strategy goes anywhere.”

Bryant encouraged church leaders to review and revise ministry strategies every three months.

“I don't believe a plan ought to go in a book and stay on a shelf,” he said. “Review: What did we achieve in the last quarter? What are we going to try to achieve in the next three months? What's working and what's not?”

Both the planning and implementation process should involve evaluating “what are some of the things we do really well and some of the things we don't do really well?” Bryant said.

He encouraged church leaders to “make a note of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats” the congregation faces and use that information to help determine ongoing strategies.

Describing effective strategy planning as “a living tool,” Bryant said such efforts can help “create a shared consensus of what we believe God wants the congregation to become during the approaching five years.”

Posted: 7/23/04

ANOTHER VIEW:
A pastor/dad's advice on ministering to military families

By Lee Brewer

Our son Daniel is a Marine in Fallujah, Iraq. As you might imagine, these past five months have been difficult for our family.

Here are some ideas that would help Christians minister to families with troops in harm's way. Because of our family's context, I will address a Marine, but you can apply the branch that fits your situation:

Nothing encourages families like hearing that you are praying for their Marine. So every now and then, drop them a card or e-mail and just say, “Hey, we prayed for your troop today.”

Nothing demonstrates true concern like sending a card, letter or package to their Marine. When the occasion permits, ask them what you can send. We have been so encouraged to hear from our Marine about all the people who have mailed him letters, cards and packages.

Sometimes, the families want to talk and will talk nonstop about their Marine. Be courteous and just let them talk. Sometimes, they don't want to talk. The key is to let them decide.

Don't tell them you just heard on the news that five Marines were killed. There are two kinds of families–families who watch and read the news nonstop and families who never watch or read the news. The point is those who can't stay away from the news already know five Marines have been killed. Those who don't watch or read the news don't want to know. It's their way of coping.

Avoid asking every time you see them if they have heard from their Marine. Odds are, if they have heard, they will let you know. It is painful to be asked time and time again if they have heard, when weeks pass by without hearing anything.

At times, family members of Marines may appear to lack faith or to be losing their minds or having a nervous breakdown. Each family member struggles with how he or she is perceived in handling the fact that the Marine is in harm's way.

Be careful not to make a judgment. Let them have days of being down. It's not a sign of a lack of faith. Every family member with a Marine in harm's way is growing in faith by leaps and bounds. Some days, it may not seem like that to you. Let them make mistakes. Let them say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Let them fail in handling things from time to time. Their decision-making abilities are not in top form.

Allow them to have times when they don't seem to be present. They struggle with being preoccupied. At work or at church, they may seem to be somewhere else. The truth of the matter is they are. Give them some freedom to not be like they used to be at times.

If you don't support the war, keep that to yourself. You can still be friends with them and not share your politics. It is really painful for families to hear that, in your opinion, their loved one is in danger for an unjust cause.

If you're going to drop by their house for a visit, call in advance. Every time their front doorbell rings, their hearts stop. Bad news comes through the front door.

Think about how you would want to be treated if the shoe were on the other foot. That's what Jesus said to do.

Lee Brewer is pastor of First Baptist Church in Aledo

Posted: 7/23/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
The one that got away

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, thinking about fishing. Jesus called fishermen to follow him.

The orange sun rose over the bay in Key West, Fla. The humidity of the morning and the coming day excited me. I watched the sunrise while the glassy waters mirrored the life of the sun. I ate breakfast, a feast of watermelon, sausage, scrambled eggs and orange juice. I walked off the ramp of the cruise ship on that summer morning and boarded a smaller vessel for fishing in the Florida Gulf Coast. The Duncan men—my father, George Sr.; my brother, George Jr.; my nephew, Graham; and I greeted that morning as we ventured on a fishing expedition. Sal and Brian, the crew of the ship, greeted us. Brian explained where the ice water was, where we were going, and our task for the day—to catch fish.

He exuded confidence that we, the Duncan men, would, no doubt, catch fish. Captain Brian opined along the way: “Fish with the best and not the rest.”

I am a disciple of Jesus. He loved fishermen. He loves me. I am no fisherman, but I do like to fish occasionally. Does that make sense? We rode out to our fishing spot on the boat named “Bullbuster.” I could not help but think of Key West, Ernest Hemingway, and his books, “The Sun Also Rises” about bullfights in Spain and “The Old Man and the Sea.” In Hemingway’s book about the old man and the sea, he tells the story of an old man battling a shark on a fishing excursion.

Hemingway describes with fabulous lines the fish: “Then the fish came alive, with his death in him, and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beauty. He seemed to hang in the air above the old man in the skiff. Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over all of the skiff.”

Would today be the day when I would battle a fish and splash of the ocean would spray mist on my face?

Brian drove us in the “Bullbuster” 10 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. We fished over a World War II vessel named “Alexander.” Sailors guided the vessel in WW II, but later it became a target for bombers practicing air raids. I guess the sunken ship “Alexander” was name after Alexander the Great, Aristotolean pupil, military general, 4th century B.C. military strategist, and the great one who once tamed a defiant colt. The sunken “Alexander” was our fishing spot. Would today be the day to tame a wild fish? Brian instructed us that we were fishing for “yellow snapper.” I asked Sal, whose cackling laugh kept me entertained, if it helped to talk, “Does if help to talk to the fish?”

“Yeah, oh, yeah,” he cackled and laughed and laughed and cackled.

The Duncan men caught yellow snapper, enjoyed the Gulf, and bonded in the life of the sun and the spraying mist of the ocean waters. Then it happened.

As I reeled in hook, line and sinker, a small yellow snapper, a larger fish zoomed quickly across the top of the water. “What do I do?” I asked Sal. “Leave it there,” he replied, instructing me.

Before I could say, “Howdy,” or whatever a Texan fishing in Florida should say, a kingfish grabbed the yellow snapper, the hook and took my fishing line fast and furious a hundred yards into the Gulf. Laughing and crying out, I said to Brian and Sal: “What do I do? What do I do? Tell me, what do I do?”

Anne Lamott in her book “Traveling Mercies” speaks of the two best prayers she knows: “Help me, help me,” and “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I cried out help me with words, “What do I do?”

“Just hang on,” Sal said as he cackled, “he’ll get tired,”

The fish tired. Sal and Brian explained to me how to reel in the kingfish. I struggled and battled and fought for 20 minutes. My hand felt tremendous pain, but I kept reeling.

Hemingway has a couple of sentences about pain: “I must hold his pain where it is, he thought. Mine does not matter. I can control mine. But his pain could drive him mad.”

The pain in my hand did matter. Was the pain of a hook in the kingfish driving him mad?

The fish and I fought and struggled, struggled and fought until I had the fish within 10 feet of the boat.

Then suddenly, with a spin on top of the water, the fish whipped his tail like a sword and cut the line. It is my fisherman’s story of the big one that got away.

So here I am under the old oak tree, thinking. Life is cackling laughter and struggle and days where men bond together in the life of the sun and the spray mist of the ocean.

Abundant life is about being a disciple of Jesus, a fisherman whom Jesus loves. It is about saying to our Lord God in Jesus Christ, “Help me, help me, help me!” and “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Life is about the story: fishing, the big one that got away, and the gospel story of Jesus’ love. Feel the sun. Feel the mist of ocean spray. Feel the love – of Jesus. “Come unto me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines

Posted: 7/23/04

DOWN HOME:
Dad has to scrub his fashion sense

Our youngest daughter, Molly, is too iconoclastic to be a slave to designer-label fashion.

For example, no matter how “cool” Abercrombie & Fitch clothes may be with the “popular” crowd, she'd wear my worn-out khakis and baggy sweatshirts before she'd shop in their stores. She deplores the exploitive, pornographic slant of their marketing.

Once, when I bought some underwear produced by a designer on her black list, I thought she was going to boycott me. And she probably would have, except I convinced her they were on sale and less expensive than my generic traditional boxers.

Nevertheless, the kid's got an eye for what looks good. At least according to her tastes. You probably won't be surprised that we don't always agree.

Take her newest pair of jeans. Please.

She came home with new bell-bottoms. She hates it when I call them “bell-bottoms,” because that's what we called them when I was her age, not to mention what the Navy's called them for generations. She adored them, probably because (a) she looks terrific in them and (b) they're “stretch,” which means they're comfortable. (Just wait. Someday, she'll like clothes because they're comfortable, whatever they look like.)

“Molly, something's wrong with your jeans,” I told her.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, they're dirty.”

“No, Daddy, that's what they're supposed to look like.”

“Let me get this straight: You bought brand-new clean jeans that already look like they're stained–dirty?”

“Yeah. That's the style.”

Hmmm. I should've seen this coming. For several years, boys have spent hours primping to make their hair look like they just got out of bed. But since I'm a dirt-scrubbing, clean-clothes neatnik from way back, this new-dirty fashion phase doesn't quite make sense.

Still, I can see how similar applications might be quite practical.

Like cars that are supposed to look dirty, so you never have to wash them. (But if we stopped washing our cars, it never would rain. And where would birds, well, you-know-what?)

Or lawns that look like they need to be mowed, so you never have to tend them.

Maybe dishes that look like … . OK, that's gross and pushing things a bit too far.

You get the idea. Sort of reverse-psychology for the hygienically challenged.

Thinking about clean-but-dirty-looking jeans brought to mind Jesus' warning: “Woe to you. … On the outside, you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Fashion jeans are one thing. But Jesus expects our lives to be clean from the inside out.

Posted: 7/23/04

EDITORIAL:
Texas Baptists haven't had a (real) shootout in 100 years

Texas Baptists got a bang out of the Baptist Standard 100 years ago. Literally.

In 1904, the Texas Supreme Court closed the legal books on a 12-year feud between James Britton Cranfill, editor of the Standard, and S.A. Hayden, rival editor of the Texas Baptist and Herald.

Personal animosity between the editors fueled the feud. But denominational discord stoked the flames. Cranfill's Baptist Standard resonated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Hayden and his paper affiliated with the Baptist Missionary Association, which sought to undermine the BGCT, particularly in East Texas.

So, when the BGCT refused to seat Hayden at its annual meeting in 1897 (an action repeated in 1898, 1899 and 1900) for what historians have called his “persistent vitriolic sniping,” he sued for $100,000. And he put Cranfill at the top of the list of defendants.

The Texas high court ruled in Cranfill and the BGCT's favor. Unfortunately, the feud spilled out of the courtroom and onto the public square.

The Wild West still cast its long shadow over Texas in 1904. And Cranfill, a former cowboy on the Chisholm Trail, walked in that sometimes-violent shade. He once wrote, “The fact was that I put my revolver in my pocket every morning when I put on my trousers. Indeed, I would have felt more comfortable going up the street without trousers than I would without a gun. It would have been somewhat more conspicuous and far more dangerous.”

So, we should not be surprised to learn that Cranfill packed more than his Bible as he boarded a train bound for the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in 1904. The Sword of the Lord might be useful for converting sinners, but when he confronted scalawags, the cowboy editor also carried his revolver.

Cranfill wasn't the only Baptist editor aboard that train. Although Hayden no longer participated in the BGCT, he was a Southern Baptist, and he journeyed to the Nashville meeting.

True to their contentious character, Cranfill and Hayden got into an argument. True to their western heritage, they drew their guns and fired. Fortunately, nobody got hurt, much less killed.

But the shootout did inflict a mortal wound on Cranfill's editorial career. When he got back home, he “retired” from the Standard, apologizing for the “deplorably unfortunate occurrence” that “brought sorrow to God's people everywhere and which inevitably tends to bring reproach upon the Christian ministry in particular and the cause of religion in general.”

This story always makes me feel better for several reasons.

First, it lends perspective to current events. People complain that today's Standard contains too much controversy. They say the editorials are too cranky. By Cranfill's standards, I am a “tenderfoot.” At least, I can say I have not shot anybody. Yet. And the tone of current disagreement–reported on the Standard's news pages and evaluated in its editorials–has been milder than the fights of yesteryear.

Second, the Cranfill-Hayden and BGCT-BMA disputes provide a scale for measuring convention conflict. Yes, recent Baptist battles have been bruising. The division of the BGCT–culminating with a new convention splitting off from the older group–has been grievous. But the animosity of the past few years has been less personal than was the fight a century ago. Fortunately, the conflicted parties have not taken each other to court or brandished six-shooters.

Third, the failures of our predecessors illustrate the reach of grace. God intervened in both human life and convention activity to bring about wonderful results.

Although Cranfill later attempted to return to the Standard as editor and was rebuffed, he continued to enjoy a distinguished career. He had repented of his sin, and Baptists and the Lord forgave him. They also benefitted from his enormous talents during the remaining 38 years of his life. He served as a trustee of both Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Annuity Board. Shortly after his death, Texas Baptists dedicated the 1943 BGCT Annual to him.

Beyond that, the BGCT survived those dark days of conflict, not just between Cranfill and Hayden, but also between the BGCT and its rival convention. God blessed Texas Baptists in the following decades. They baptized new believers, started and strengthened churches and established missions and benevolence enterprises that carried the saving and sustaining good news of the gospel into every corner of Texas and around the globe. The BGCT went on to become the largest and strongest Baptist state convention, with almost 6,000 affiliated churches and more than 20 institutions. It pioneered a range of ministries and missions endeavors and raised up hundreds of Christians who served God on six continents.

Several factors lifted Texas Baptists beyond the battles and enabled them to advance the kingdom of God to unprecedented heights:

God is the God of Romans 8:28. God never abandons faithful followers, and God can deliver goodness out of the worst circumstances. God's greatness is stronger than people's sinfulness, and God provides a way to redeem even the most broken situations.

BGCT leaders presented a big vision of God's possibilities. As soon as they could and as often as they could, they shifted their attention away from the distractions of controversy. They focused on overwhelming spiritual, physical and emotional needs, first in Texas but also around the world. They lifted these challenges, raising them as a divine banner to guide Texas Baptists as they marched through a century of unparalleled progress.

Texas Baptists responded with faith, courage and optimism. A prominent pastor, newly arrived in our state, once said of Texas Baptists, “These people would take on hell with a water pistol.” Texas Baptists believed in the goodness and faithfulness of God. They believed God had a divine plan for their lives, individually and together, and that plan was to spread the gospel and meet people's needs in Jesus' name. And, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul, they believed, “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.”

In many ways, 2004 is quite a bit like 1904: No, the editor hasn't been in a shoot-out. But we are emerging from years of denominational discord. We are facing a new era. Texas is changing at a pace that is so rapid it could not have been imagined just a decade ago. We can hardly comprehend the needs of people all around us. Improvements in communication and transportation are shrinking the scale of our world, expanding the possibilities for involvement in missions and ministry. And fear of the future is a tangible enemy.

Right now, a special BGCT reorganization committee is at work, drafting a roadmap for progress. It will lead us to make significant changes in the way we function as a convention. It will challenge us to journey on new roads–traveling to new places in new ways so we can experience new opportunities for God's glory. We need to pray for the committee as it finishes its work, pray that we will have the courage and commitment to move forward and take up the challenge of tomorrow.

But by all means, let's leave the six-shooters at home.
–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted: 7/23/04

Posted: 7/23/04

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Aug. 1

Conforming to the world's values will cost dearly

2 Kings 16-17

By David Morgan

Trinity Baptist Church, Harker Heights

People are seeking meaning in life. They pursue life's purpose in various ways. Many of the values and priorities which determine their actions are inconsistent with being committed to God. Folks mistakenly assume that power, popularity, possessions or pleasure are the keys that open the door to joy in living. They turn down dead-end paths. False gods reach out and snare them.

The one true God gives life–meaningful life to those who worship and serve him. Israel's history shows that worshipping false gods while rejecting the one true God leads to destruction.

Folks may not intentionally set out to reject God, but worldly values so entice them they gradually accept society's standards. Resisting those values becomes more difficult with each compromise. Reject sin when first tempted, or become entrapped by it.

The downfall: Bondage (17:5-6)

I suspect the kings of Judah and Israel had the best of intentions. I feel certain they were seeking to rule effectively and provide security for their kingdoms. The wide range of alternatives and options available to them certainly included Yahweh, the God who had delivered them from Egypt. Another option to unite the people was the pagan worship found among the people living in the land when the Israelites conquered Canaan.

The kings of Israel appear particularly susceptible to the temptation to water down worship of Yahweh by mixing it with worship of local deities. God's prophets repeatedly warned against worship of other gods, but it continued. During this time, the nation faced numerous foreign enemies. Each attack further weakened the bonds that held the nation together. 2 Kings never lets the reader forget this decline resulted more from disobedience to Yahweh than from military strength of the enemies. The nation forgot that God had promised to bless the people in their new land when they obeyed and worshipped the Lord (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).

Some of Judah's kings were godly, but the majority were only marginally better than those of Israel. Ahaz reigned 16 years, during which he failed to follow King David's example. Instead of relying upon God to deliver Judah, Ahaz pilfered the gold and silver from the temple to pay tribute money to Assyria. Ahaz actually commanded the priest to build an altar in the temple, modeled after one he saw while visiting Damascus. While the southern kingdom would survive longer than Israel, kings such as Ahaz were leading it toward destruction.

Israel fell in 722 B.C., about a century and a half before Jerusalem was captured. A series of wicked and ineffective kings ruled during the last decades of Israel's existence. None could stem the descent in sin toward destruction. The nation had rejected Yahweh for so long that the kings no longer sought the Lord's deliverance.

Assyria invaded the land and sacked the city of Samaria after a three-year siege. They exiled 27,000 survivors and resettled them in foreign lands. Forced deportation would have been especially harsh on a people who felt God had given them their land.

The reason: Disobedience (17:7-12; 16-20)

The narrator constantly reminded the reader the nation would fall “because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God.” They failed to honor the Lord God who had delivered them from Egypt. They worshipped the idols of Canaan. They followed the religious practices of the nations among whom they settled and with whom they had contact.

They knew what they were doing was wrong and “secretly” disobeyed by worshiping idols. They pretended to worship Yahweh publicly while offering real loyalty to other gods. They constructed altars to pagan gods and fashioned Asherah poles to whom they burned incense. And, among other things, they continued to worship the golden calves set up by their first king, Jeroboam. Without pure worship, the people could not resist the inroads of paganism and idolatry.

Their moral conduct mirrored their worship. The words “against the Lord their God” (v. 7) imply a covenant relationship between the people and God. This covenant included the responsibility of the nation to care for others. One prophet, Amos, railed against the rich and wealthy who exploited the poor. Israel failed to heed the message. Failing to care for the oppressed certainly contributed to the nation's fall. Obeying God in ethical concern for others and pure worship are necessary to experience moral and spiritual freedom.

The writer continued to catalog reasons for Israel's destruction. God had continued to reach out to them, but they rejected God's ways and crafted idols. Some sacrificed their children. Because they were not devoted exclusively to God and worshipped the Lord alone, Yahweh removed them from his presence. They had rejected the Lord who removed them from the land which they had been promised. They lost everything because of sinful disobedience to God. May we learn the lesson well–sin brings destruction. Worship God exclusively.

Question for discussion

What price do you see being paid for disobedience by individuals and nations?