Posted: 6/11/04

Volunteers with Texas ties launch
Coast Guard Academy student ministry

By Janelle Bagci

Staff Writer

NEW LONDON, Conn.–Two Mission Service Corps volunteers with Texas ties are launching a student ministry in one of the nation's most spiritually needy areas.

Randy and Sally Bond–graduates of Dallas Baptist University–will serve in New London, Conn., a town of 90,000 with five colleges and only one Southern Baptist church.

The schools include the United States Coast Guard Academy, one of the country's five federal service academies, which trains 850 students yearly for leadership positions.

“Almost everyone who serves in a leadership position will pass through the gates of the academy for training,” Bond said.

“Our ministry at the academy has the potential to touch a significant portion of the Coast Guard with the gospel. We were amazed to learn that one of our nation's military academies did not have an evangelical ministry trying to reach its cadets.”

The Bonds will arrive in New London June 19 and eagerly await the new cadets who will come to the academy June 28. They will direct New London Campus Ministry, a Baptist collegiate ministry that will seek to reach the cadets and students in the area.

“Campus ministry may be the key to reaching New England with the gospel. Studies show that 90 percent of all believers made their decision to follow Christ by age 21,” said John Ramirez, director of collegiate ministry for the Baptist Convention of New England.

Although the Baptist Convention of New England long has recognized the strategic nature of having a ministry in New London, the convention could not afford to fund such a position. By serving as volunteers, the Bonds fill the gap in a key ministry where mission funding is not available.

“It's scary, but we know the Lord will provide. We are called to live by faith and not by sight,” Bond said.

So far, the Bonds have accounted for 65 percent of their living expenses. They are trusting God to provide the remaining balance after they move.

The Bonds are seeking the names of incoming cadets so they can make contact with them before they arrive for Swab Summer, a “boot camp” experience beginning July 1.

The Bonds can be contacted at (318) 793-8857 or thebondfam@yahoo.com.

They also are looking for churches interested in taking a mission trip to New England.

“It could be as simple as a senior adult group who wants to come see the fall colors of New England and cook a meal for a bunch of hungry cadets,” Bond said. “It would be a simple trip that would have a significant impact on our work for the kingdom.”

Posted: 6/11/04

ANOTHER VIEW:
Distorted lenses show false division

By Jimmy Dorrell

All Christians wear glasses of sorts. The lens of one's worldview, often shaped by the culture a person grows up in, impacts how faith and mission are seen. The lens of Western thinking has distorted several biblical, historical, and practical factors and caused an unfortunate myopia about the relationship between evangelism and social ministries.

Biblical lapses.

The wrong lens distorts how we read and understand the Bible. In the Hebrew worldview of the Scripture, no dualism divided spiritual and physical. Meeting the needs of others was integrated into obedience to Yahweh. God's Law provided ways to help the stranger, the hungry and the sick. Yet, as the 8th century prophets pointed out, the Lord became unhappy with Israel in their efforts to worship him while simultaneously overlooking the poor and oppressed in the cities. The fall of Israel and Judah was tied to this critical distortion of God's shalom.

Jimmy Dorrell

Jesus' messiahship also was affirmed by his fulfillment of Isaiah's claim that he would bring “good news to the poor.” His ministry always included preaching the kingdom of God, which brings salvation, healing and hope. As part of the gospel, he advocated for justice among the marginalized and sacrificial responsibility to the poor, naked, sick, hungry and oppressed. It is no mistake that the Greek word for salvation includes the same root as the word for healing. Jesus' lens included evangelism and human development as inseparable.

The early church faced human need. The Book of Acts recounts the power of the gospel as the newly empowered Christians met in homes for prayer, fellowship, teaching and sharing possessions. “There were no needy persons among them” (Acts 2:42-45; 4:32-35). As the church spread, new believers were challenged to take offerings for poor Christians. And out of all that could have been asked of Paul as he met with the Jerusalem Council in his request to go to preach to the Gentiles, “all they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do” (Galatians 2:10). Biblically, it was clear one could not be “spiritual” and ignore the needs of others.

Historical distortions.

Epochs of history also have shown how our lens gets distorted. Prior to the 1900s, the conservative church in America had a record of significant ministries that met human need. Hospitals and orphanages were built, the poor were fed and housed, and “conservative Christians” were recognized for their acts of compassion to the needy.

But as liberal Christians began to identify in the early 20th century with a homeless ministry in New York's Hell's Kitchen, fear of being misrepresented with the growing Social Gospel movement reshaped established patterns of mercy ministries.

The “great reversal” occurred during the early 1900s, when many well-meaning Christians abandoned God's call to meet human need as an integrated part of the good news. In its place, a heightened emphasis on evangelism took precedence. Growing revival and crusade movements across America began to emphasize personal salvation, with no seeming connection to the needs of one's local community. Even soup kitchens and rescue missions became mere methods to preach to the poor when they came for food or shelter.

Consequently, many Bible-believing Christians have continued this over-reaction to prioritize evangelism at the expense of a more adequate scriptural understanding of a whole gospel. Neither can be abandoned, since they are intrinsically interconnected.

Practical challenges.

There is no cultureless gospel, but God's lens of truth helps us read the distortions in our own society. In light of growing postmodernism, many of the younger and unchurched generation are minimizing the church's role in society as self-centered and uncaring. Church budgets continue to reflect decreasing dollars and value of community ministries, while often spending more on themselves.

One effect is that thousands are leaving the churches in Europe and America every week. To this generation, churches that do not seem to care about their communities have little appeal to a growing culture that rejects absolutes yet recognizes compassion.

Many churches are rediscovering a healthy, holistic missiology that recognizes God is a sending God, calling the church to be missional, not to reduce missions to a program.

These churches are blessing the gifts of their membership to go to their communities and feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, heal the sick and share the good news of salvation. They are finding that when basic needs of the unchurched are met, when economic and racial reconciliation occurs and when advocacy for those who are oppressed in the culture is expressed, there is new freshness to really hear the good news of our Lord.

Today, many churches are evaluating their own lenses that have caused some of the previous distortions and exchanging them for the corrective glasses shaped by God's Spirit.

Jimmy Dorrell is executive director of Mission Waco

Posted: 6/11/04

Lawmakers introduce bill to provide
debt relief to world's poorest nations

By Daniel Burke

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced the Jubilee Act in the House of Representatives–a bill that would cancel debts the world's poorest countries owe the International Monetary Fund.

The measure would “bring the simple biblical concept of debt forgiveness into the complicated worlds of politics and finance,” one lawmaker said.

“Five years ago,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., one of the bill's co-sponsors, “the worldwide Jubilee movement reminded Congress that the Lord instructed the people of Israel to celebrate a Jubilee, or year of the Lord, every 50 years.”

According to Leviticus 25, God enjoined Moses to free slaves and forgive debts during a Jubilee year.

The bill was co-sponsored by Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Spencer Bacchus, R-Ala.; Jim Leach, R-Iowa; and Barbara Lee, D-Calif. The lawmakers said debt cancellation was a “moral issue,” and money saved by countries by eliminating their debt could be used for education and the eradication of disease and hunger.

“President George W. Bush often reminds us of the importance that religion plays in his life,” Waters said.

And he “should bring the biblical principals of justice and charity into the boardroom of the IMF,” Waters added.

Members of the Jubilee USA network, a national coalition of religious and secular social-justice groups, welcomed the bill's introduction.

The network “applauded the prophetic action of these five congresspeople who have demonstrated the political, spiritual and moral courage to call for the IMF to do their fair share for debt cancellation,” said Marie Clarke, the national coordinator for the Jubilee USA Network.

Clarke said the group planned to deliver a letter endorsed by hundreds of religious leaders from across the world to the G-8 countries' heads of state. The letter would emphasize the "moral imperative" of debt cancellation, she said.

With Congress' summer recess approaching, it is unclear how far the bill will get in the House, but the Jubilee coalition is excited, nonetheless.

“This is our visionary bill,” said Adam Taylor, executive director of Global Justice and an associate Baptist minister in Washington.

“This is what God's kingdom should look like.”

Posted: 6/11/04

Disney boycott thrust SBC
leaders into national spotlight

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

ORLANDO (ABP)–Southern Baptists' much-publicized boycott of the Walt Disney Co. had little effect on the media conglomerate, but it established the Southern Baptist Convention as the dominant denominational voice for conservative values, says the author of a forthcoming book.

In “The Gospel According to Disney,” Mark Pinsky, religion writer for the Orlando Sentinel, offers an assessment of the Southern Baptist boycott, which targeted the entertainment giant for gay-friendly policies and “anti-Christian” messages in its movies.

Pinsky said the boycott of Disney products did not have the intended effect of curtailing sales or changing the company's practices, but it did bolster the reputation of Southern Baptists as cultural crusaders.

“Despite fears that the boycott would make them look like backwoods, knuckle-scraping yokels–as some feared when the boycott was first proposed–Southern Baptist leaders found that this publicity helped them,” Pinsky wrote.

“In the domestic religious marketplace, at least, their controversial stands established and burnished their own brand as the conservative, family values denomination.”

The book, subtitled “Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust,” is a sequel to Pinsky's 2001 “The Gospel According to the Simpsons.”

The new book, due out in August, offers a broad, chronological analysis of the religious and social messages in Disney's feature films from 1937 to 2003. Separate chapters are devoted to Disney's theme parks and the “cultural clash” presented by the Baptist boycott.

June marks the seven-year anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention boycott. After challenging Disney to change its ways in a 1996 resolution, the SBC joined several smaller Christian groups to boycott Disney in 1997, complaining that Disney–through its feature films and a myriad of subsidiaries–had abandoned the family-friendly image cultivated by founder Walt Disney.

“In the months and years following the boycott vote and ensuing controversy, essentially nothing happened,” wrote Pinsky, who is Jewish.

“The denomination, as some within it feared–and warned–appeared to be an economic paper tiger.”

Disney's financial fortunes “did decline dramatically” during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Pinsky noted, and Southern Baptists justifiably took some credit.

But no research validated their claim, he added. Financial analysts instead blamed recession, terrorism, sluggish retail sales and the low ratings of Disney-owned ABC-TV.

Meanwhile, only 30 percent of Southern Baptists complied with the boycott, according to a poll taken a year after it began. The New York Times last year called the boycott an “utter flop” and noted no media company would fear the wrath of Southern Baptists, Pinsky said.

However, publicity for the boycott brought “considerable exposure” to Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, landing him on the news media's “Golden Rolodex” and helping establish his daily syndicated radio show on 600 stations, Pinsky wrote.

Likewise, the media attention elevated the stature of Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Land's “telegenic rival in the denomination.”

However, Dwayne Hastings, an ERLC vice president and spokesperson, said Land and Mohler were not products of the boycott.

“They were rising stars anyway,” he said. “The times demanded that they be there and that their voices be heard.”

Land and Mohler “were somewhat prophetic in their own right” by taking on the Disney juggernaut publicly, Hastings said. But there was a downside–they and other Christian leaders were “typecast” by their opposition, he said.

About Pinsky, who has written extensively about the boycott for the Orlando Sentinel and other publications, Hastings said: “The Disney boycott helped him too. It put his name out there. All three of them benefited from it somewhat.”

Hastings disputed the conclusion of Pinsky and others that the boycott was ineffectual. “It had to have an impact,” he said.

“I would not take credit for a down-tick in their stock,” he noted, adding, “It's very, very difficult to extract out and say 'we did this' or 'we did that.'” But there were too many boycotters not to have some effect, he said.

“Too many people in my circle made decisions (to avoid Disney products) that it had to have an impact, because my family isn't that unique,” Hastings reasoned.

Beyond the economic effect, he continued, the boycott “shined a spotlight” on Disney that CEO Michael Eisner did not welcome, highlighting the company's moral inconsistencies. The boycott “definitely sensitized a lot of Americans to what Disney was,” Hastings concluded.

Before and after the boycott, Baptist critics complained Disney allowed large-scale “Gay Days” promotions in its theme parks and offered health benefits for partners of gay employees, who by one insider estimate number 40 percent of Disney's workforce of 100,000.

Land and other critics say Disney was singled out from among even more offensive entertainment companies because it cultivates a clean-cut image, while at the same time pandering to non-Christian and anti-family influences.

But, Pinsky argued in his book, Disney has always been more a reflection of America's moral direction than a shaper of it, gradually changing over the years as the predominant culture changed.

Under the leadership of Walt Disney, who scrupulously avoided offending his customers, the early Disney movies touted a vague Judeo-Christian moral consensus and good-over-evil theme, Pinsky said–“a nondenominational, nonsectarian faith, with an undergirding of unconquerable optimism.”

In the Michael Eisner years (after 1984), as America became more religiously diverse, Disney movies became multicultural, adding Eastern, Islamic, Native American and feminist viewpoints.

More importantly, Pinsky said, Disney's bottom line was always about making money, not advancing religion.

“As the country's attitudes toward religion, values and culture shifted, Disney's animated features–its historic corporate center of gravity–have shifted to accommodate them,” he concluded. “It's just business.”

While boycotters argued Disney's legacy of producing “uplifting, family-friendly fare” obligated the company to ignore customer wishes and market forces, Pinsky said, “This is a sentimental notion–naïve at best and disingenuous at worst.

“If people's tastes in entertainment are becoming more depraved … whose responsibility is that?” he wrote. “Singling out Disney for blame is like blaming one brand of thermometer for causing a raging fever.

“Although they are still loath to admit it, the conservative Christian critics who took up their cudgels against Disney were really complaining about what made America what it is today–global capitalism and the market economy.”

In one sense, Pinsky said, the showdown between the SBC and Disney reflects the increasing polarization within American society.

“The collision of these two titans was a dispute deeply rooted in the disconnect of politics, culture and geography,” he said. Southern Baptists are generally “theologically fundamentalist, politically conservative and increasingly amenable to closer involvement between church and state,” while Disney's corporate culture is “urban, West Coast, secular and, at least on lifestyle issues, liberal.”

Hastings of the ERLC conceded the Disney-Baptist conflict mirrors cultural shifts, and Disney is a reflection of a changing America.

“There's more than a fair measure of truth in that,” he said. “But (Disney executives) haven't been willing to go very far beyond the culture,” he added. To justify its family-friendly image, he said, Disney should be more willing to challenge cultural assumptions and stereotypes.

For instance, Disney films “have done a lot of children a gross disservice” by stereotyping heroes as “attractive white men,” he said. And Disney is hypocritical to champion equality while selling merchandise produced by underage, underpaid Third World workers, he said.

After seven years, Hastings said, he doesn't see an imminent end to the Baptist boycott. “When it gets beyond a certain point, you'd look for a little movement on both sides to call an end. But we haven't seen that.”

He said Southern Baptist attention hasn't waned–the ERLC still gets “one or two calls a week” for information about the boycott. But, he conceded, “We have no idea how many families are observing it.

“Being Southern Baptists, it's up to individual families to do what they want to do with it.”

Posted: 6/11/04

EDITORIAL:
Represent God for $29.95

Here's the latest from the this-would-be-funny-if-it-weren't-so-pathetic department: You can become a “legally ordained minister” within 48 hours.

At least that's what a new e-mail spam offers.

Yes, brothers and sisters, for only $29.95, anyone with a credit card and access to e-mail can get ordained. This is a value “easily worth $100,” according to IIS Ministries, the spammer behind this eternity-changing opportunity.

“As a minister, you will be authorized to perform the rites and ceremonies of the church!!” the e-mail promises. After you receive your ordination certificate “in color, with gold seal … professionally printed by an ink press,” you will possess authority to perform weddings, funerals and baptisms, as well as power to forgive sins and credentials to visit correctional facilities.

Of course, you're thinking: “Becoming an ordained minister would be great! How do I begin?” Don't worry. For just $79, IIS Ministries will send you “Ministry in a Box,” your ministry starter kit. Among other items, it includes an ordination credential with your name imprinted, a wallet ID card, a “wedding and ceremonies workbook” on CD, 15 ceremony certificates for everything from baptisms to house blessings, and (the clincher) a “laminated parking placard with embossed gold seal.”

Who could turn down a deal like that? Everybody, one prays.

Vocational ministry originates with a call from God, not a spammed e-mail. Ordination generates from spiritual wisdom of a church, not an Internet opportunist. And ministry culminates in service to others in Jesus' name, not flashing a parking pass.

Before you dismiss this ecclesiastical e-mail opportunity as tawdry and cheap, think about how congregations often look at vocational ministry. More and more churches see pastors as CEOs, to be fired when the return on investment fails to meet expectations. Many churches handle staff ministers like bit players, to be traded the way the sports franchises shuffle lineups.

Beware of e-mail ordinations, but also of treating ministers like hired hands. God's call to ministry is sacred and holy. And it's not for sale–at any price.
–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted: 6/11/04

EDITORIAL:
Catholics, Kerry & church discipline

Pity Catholics in this election year. They're divided over whether politicians who support abortion rights and/or gay marriage should receive Communion (what most Baptists call the Lord's Supper). And for Catholics, it's not just a ceremony tacked onto the end of worship service once a quarter. Taking Communion is understood as central to being Catholic–and obtaining salvation.

If a bishop were to deny the “body and blood of Christ” to John Kerry due to his support for abortion rights, the results would reverberate spiritually and politically. Imagine the anguish of rejection by your own church. Imagine the fallout if Catholic voters feared a similar fate for supporting a fallen candidate.

Such censure does not await George Bush. One reason is because he agrees with the Catholic hierarchy on those issues. Another is because he's beyond their reach. Protestants don't believe the Roman Catholic Church can dispense or withhold God's grace. So, while the Catholic bishops' implied support may be politically comforting, the threat of their disapproval (he does counter their teaching on capital punishment) is not spiritually daunting.

Beyond politics, the Catholic/Kerry issue raises a question not discussed much anymore: What about church discipline?

Some observers claim the Roman Catholic Church has no business casting judgments on politicians' positions. Similarly, many people today insist a congregation does not have the right to judge its members' behavior, or certainly not to take public action regarding that behavior.

But that's not what Jesus said. He provided a four-part plan for disciplining a sinner (Matthew 18). “Reprove him in private,” counsel with him in the company of two or three believers, take him before the entire church and, if he remains unrepentant, “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax gatherer.”

In generations past, church discipline–often known as “churching”–gained a horrible reputation. At least to outsiders, it appeared harsh and unfeeling, bent on vengeance and retribution. It seemed more about law than grace, more about judgment than redemption.

But if we accept the broad counsel of Jesus' teaching, we would do well to return to some form of accountability to the fellowship of faith.

To begin, we must look at Jesus' purpose–to redeem the sinner and return the person to fellowship. Jesus said the one without sin should throw the first stone of punishment (John 8). None of us is sinless, so we must approach each other humbly, with pure hearts. And then he said an unrepentant sinner should “be to you as a Gentile and a tax gatherer.” Imagine how a Jew in Jesus' day would feel if he were treated like that. He would want desperately to rejoin the family, to feel accepted again. Jesus' way does not seek humiliation; it provides “tough love” incentive for repenting and returning home.

Let's be honest. Huge business scandals revolve around church folks. Our divorce rates and incidents of extramarital affairs are virtually identical to society's. Other moral and ethical lapses abound, even if they don't make the evening news.

We need accountability and discipline in our churches. In an age of lawsuits and media hype, churchwide trials aren't the way. But our churches should emphasize caring, intentional small-group accountability, nurture and discipline.
–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted: 6/11/04

Moore honored with Texas
Baptist Elder Statesman Award

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

INDEPENDENCE–Winfred Moore served as a pastor in the Panhandle for more than 30 years. He was honored on a statewide platform June 8 as an “elder statesman” in recognition of a lifetime of ministry.

Independence Baptist Association and the Baptist Distinctives Committee/Texas Baptist Heritage Center made Moore the 52nd recipient of the Texas Baptist Elder Statesman Award in a special service at Independence Baptist Church, the oldest continuously active Baptist congregation in the state.

Moore was pastor of First Baptist Church in Amarillo from 1959 to 1989, and prior to that, he was pastor of First Baptist Church in Borger. He now is director of the Center for Ministry Effectiveness at Baylor University in Waco.

Howard Batson, current pastor at First Baptist in Amarillo, lauded Moore as a man of courage, following in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul.

Moore demonstrated courage as he “loved a congregation without reserve for three decades.” Some pastors lead a congregation “at a distance,” Batson said, but Moore “didn't do pastoring that way. He got in the boat with the people. He took the gloves off, and he bled with the people, and they bled with him. … It takes a lot of courage to pastor people with an open and a warm heart.”

The longtime pastor also had courage to “walk against the wind,” Batson said. “He's not a politician. He never tried to call attention to himself. … All Winfred Moore has ever done is what he thought was right.”

Bill Pinson, executive director emeritus of the BGCT, now provides leadership to the Baptist Distinctives Committee, which chose Moore as this year's elder statesman.

Moore was president of the BGCT when Pinson became executive director. Pinson said that when he approached Moore about the idea of launching Mission Texas, a concentrated effort to start churches, the president insisted the convention move ahead with it immediately rather than waiting a year.

“We're going to do it now,” Pinson recalled Moore saying. “And it was done.”

Glenn Hilburn, retired chairman of the religion department at Baylor, presented the award to Moore. He said the pastor is “loved around the globe” and is a statesman not just for Baptists but for those of other traditions, as well.

When Moore first went to the Panhandle, he was not an elder statesman, Hilburn said. He was a “young whippersnapper in his mid 30s.” Ministry in the Panhandle helped the young pastor grow, and “that maturing process makes it possible to use that term 'elder.'”

Hilburn noted two women have been important in Moore's life –his mother and his wife. Moore should share the elder statesman honor with his wife, Elizabeth, he added, noting, “This is an honor for both of you.”

Fred Moore of Chicago called his father his dearest friend, confidant and source of encouragement. The two of them start each weekday with a 7 a.m. telephone call that includes prayer and Scripture study.

“He has been in private exactly what he has seemed to be in public,” the younger Moore said.

Fred Moore said his dad believes “one studied … to learn God's will, … then did it.”

The son also spoke of his father's optimism. He told of when the Moore family was moving from Tupelo, Miss., to Borger. They stopped at a service station in Arkansas, and the men there guessed Moore was from Texas. “That's right–Borger, Texas,” he told them, adding, “It's a great place to live,” even though he had yet to live there.

Fred Moore thanked his dad for living a “life that overflows” to the family and to others.

In accepting the award, Moore said, “I do qualify for this award if age is the only criteria for it.”

“Some of you are almost as old as I am,” he said. And they ought to be saying to the younger people, “The Scriptures point to far more than what the Scriptures say.”

Moore also noted younger generations seem to have a “far better vision” of what God can do than did his own generation.

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade said Moore focused on church ministry and had no denominational ambitions. But when Texas Baptists needed him, “he said he would do what was needed.”

Wade did not mention specifics of Moore's denominational involvement, but the Amarillo pastor was active in keeping the BGCT on a course consistent with its past when the Southern Baptist Convention plotted a new course beginning in 1979.

Moore also was pushed by SBC moderates as a presidential nominee in 1985 and 1986, but he lost those votes, first to Charles Stanley, the incumbent president, and then to Adrian Rogers.

“How things would be different today if all Baptists had listened to him as well as Texas Baptists listened to him,” Wade said.

Posted: 6/11/04

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for June 20

God uses unassuming people to do his will

2 Kings 5:1-27

By David Morgan

Trinity Baptist Church, Harker Heights

Names like Rumsfield, Meyer and Sanchez roll quickly off our lips because of news reports regarding the war in Iraq. But soldiers with names like Beverly, Buddy, Chris and Jason find themselves sleeping in makeshift tents during their year-long assignments. These unassuming soldiers are daily fighting an unpredictable enemy and working to help rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. They toil to improve the quality of life for Iraqis of all religions and ethnicity.

Compare this scenario with the recounting of a general's healing in 2 Kings 5. Naaman, the highest-ranking military official (“commander”) in the Syrian (“Aram”) army, had a chest full of medals and a wall full of citations. He had captained the Syrians to victory over Israel. Note that he is the only high-ranking official to be named. We know from other sources the names of the kings: Ben-hadad of Syria and Jehoram of Israel. The narrator chose instead to emphasize the role played by three unassuming figures in securing Naaman's healing.

A commander struck down

No one doubted Naaman's greatness. Both his master and his troops respected him for leadership and bravery. The narrator alluded to God's sovereignty over all nations when he stated God had given the foreign general victory over God's people. God had used Naaman to bring judgment on Israel. Naaman's name, which means “gracious” or “charming,” suggests a good life. Everything looked good except Naaman's skin. He had leprosy.

“Leprosy” covers a wide variety of skin diseases. It even refers to mold in houses. The root meaning of the term is “to strike down.” Why Naaman was still living at home is perplexing, because for many lepers the first step was quarantine and social isolation. Perhaps he still was in the early stages. But he certainly realized the fate that awaited him. As the disease progressed, one would lose sensation in the extremities and limbs actually could fall off.

A maiden extends hope

The narrator had set the stage for the first unassuming person to help Naaman–the Jewish maiden who attended his wife. The young captive told her master a prophet in Samaria (another name for the Northern Kingdom, Israel) could cure Naaman. The verb “cure” commonly means “to gather together.” It was especially appropriate because Naaman could anticipate isolation and separation as the disease progressed.

Naaman relayed the girl's words to his king who wrote to Israel's king requesting he cure Naaman. The general left for Israel with the letter and expensive gifts.

Receiving the letter troubled the Israelite king. He suspected it might be a pretext for attack.

A prophet gives instructions

Enter the second unassuming character, Elisha. He had heard about Jehoram's reaction and sent word to direct Naaman to him. Elisha's words, “he will know that there is a prophet in Israel” imply he would heal the Syrian.

Naaman arrived at Elisha's house with all the trappings associated with a military commander. Elisha did not appear to be impressed, but sent instructions for healing through a messenger. He told Naaman to “go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed” (v. 10).

Naaman was livid. No one dismissed him that way. Furthermore, he expected some spectacular activity, but Elisha told him to wash in the muddy Jordan. Naaman pouted that Syria had much better rivers for bathing.

Aides offer advice

The final unassuming people to intervene in Naaman's behalf were his aides. Addressing him as “father” suggests they had a genuine concern for him and his health. They may have been subordinates, but the relationship was more than simply master and servant.

They carefully and tactfully approached the general, mildly rebuking him for being unreasonable. They reminded him he would have performed difficult tasks had Elisha prescribed them. But all Elisha commanded was the simple task of dipping in one of Israel's rivers, albeit a muddy one.

The servants' words had their desired affect. Naaman accepted Elisha's remedy and obeyed the prophet. He went down to the Jordan to wash himself. The words “went down” may suggest a double meaning–he went down physically to the river, and he demonstrated his humility. When he finished dipping himself in the water, he was clean. His skin was in better shape than any man his age. It was like a little child's.

Unassuming people make a difference

A general who was a leper needed help doctors and kings couldn't give. God chose instead to heal him using ordinary people and means.

God often uses the meek and modest to accomplish divine tasks. People may want spectacular, but God uses humble and unassuming. In this case, Naaman returned to his homeland declaring Israel's God was the God of all the earth.

Question for discussion

How have you seen God work?

Posted: 6/11/04

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for June 27

Life viewed through eyes of faith brings clarity

2 Kings 6:8-22

By David Morgan

Trinity Baptist Church, Harker Heights

“God is at work in the world. God takes the initiative to involve me in his work. God must take the initiative to open my spiritual eyes, so I can see what he is doing. When I see the Father at work around me, that is my invitation to adjust my life to him and join him in that work. God's revelation is my invitation to join him” (Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King, “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God,” p. 67).

These statements summarize the Christian's walk with God. They also summarize Elisha's viewing life with eyes of faith.

See God at work

Aram (Syria) and Israel waged war regularly during Elisha's prophetic ministry. The young maiden who told Naaman about the prophet that could cure him had been captured in one of these sporadic border raids (2 Kings 5).

2 Kings 6 begins with Syria's king planning with his staff officers to attack Israel. They plotted strategy and made plans to attack. God revealed these plans to “the man of God.” Elisha then revealed the plans to Israel's king. Elisha's advance notice allowed the king to avoid an ambush set by the Arameans on several occasions.

An old saying warns: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Ben-hadad, the Syrian king, could not believe Israel could have guessed correctly at his moves more than once or twice. He angrily confronted his staff, suspecting one of them was a traitor. He summoned his aides to interrogate them to discover who was feeding this intelligence to the Israelites.

The staff proclaimed their innocence. One of them informed the king the spy was not one of them. He identified Elisha, Israel's prophet, as the informant.

See God's presence

Ben-hadad responded quickly. He ordered his staff to locate Elisha's whereabouts. One lieutenant reported the prophet lived in Dothan. Dothan was located about 12 miles from Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom. The city's location in a valley made it highly vulnerable to attack.

The king launched a major assault against this one prophet. It was a case of overkill, unlike the response of the Texas Rangers, whose motto is “one riot, one ranger.” The king mobilized a great army of horses and chariots which surrounded Dothan during the night.

This excessive show of force greeted Elisha's servant early the next morning as he left the house. The attendant reported to Elisha what he had seen. Despair and hopelessness overwhelmed him. What chance did an unarmed prophet and his servant have before these soldiers? But God had forces only eyes of faith could see.

Elisha told the servant, “Don't be afraid.” God had already positioned forces to defend them. “Don't be afraid” is a standard response in the Old Testament to someone who is terrified. Specific words of assurance usually follow this command. God was ready to help his servants. The prophet informed the servant that God's forces and strength exceeded those of the Arameans. Although unseen, God's armies were real.

Elisha prayed for God to open the servant's eyes and reveal divine armies to him. Note the prophet did not pray for God to send deliverers. They were present. He prayed the servant would see God's protective legions. He asked God to give the servant eyes of faith.

God answered Elisha's prayer. The servant then saw God's horses and chariots of fire surrounded the enemy. At Elijah's earthly departure, Elisha encountered the “chariots and horsemen of Israel” when Elijah was taken (2 Kings 2:12). The words “all around Elisha” suggest the horses and chariots stood between him and his enemies, much as the pillar of cloud kept Pharaoh's armies from reaching the fleeing Hebrews at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:19, 24). God's protective army had already taken its place. God's forces were poised to defend the prophet.

See God's mercy

The Syrian army approached Elisha to seize him. The prophet prayed, and God blinded the soldiers. Elisha then led them to Samaria. After arriving and in answer to another prayer of Elisha, God restored their sight.

Israel's king asked Elisha, whom he referred to as “my father,” if he should kill the enemy. “No,” said the prophet, “prepare a feast for them.” The king had not captured them. They were the prophet's captives. Elisha would determine their fate. The day would not be one of killing but one of celebration and feasting. The king obeyed and prepared a feast for his enemies.

Many people want to counter hostility with more hostility. Nations lift up weapons against other nations, and war persists. Hostilities escalate as violence begets more violence.

God's approach to hostility differs. God brought the armies of Israel and Aram to the table for food and conversation. And although the results were not permanent, the narrator reported “the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory.”

God works to accomplish the divine plan and to bring nations and peoples together. God's people need to look with eyes of faith at the resources available for their deliverance and reconciliation with others.

Questions for discussion

What hampers our ability to see through eyes of faith?

Is it easier to see God's working, his presence or his mercy?

Posted: 6/11/04

LifeWay Family Bible Series for June 20

Building God's kingdom focus of church leaders

1 Timothy 3:1-7; 5:17-18;

Hebrews 13:7, 17-18

By Rodney McGlothlin

First Baptist Church, College Station

I must confess that this lesson has been harder for me to write than any other. On the sixth draft, I decided it might be time to call the Standard and pass the pen to the next writer.

This lesson is on church leadership. There was a time many years ago when the answers to leadership questions came easily to me. In those days, all answers came easily to me. My seminary professors are to be commended for giving me all the answers to the questions of ministry. If only they had given me the memory to keep up with them.

Leaders need good judgment. The problem is, as someone smarter than me has noted, “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” If that is true, I have had plenty of opportunity to gain experience.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about the qualifications for church leadership in 1 Timothy 3. These verses frequently have been the source of controversy. Taken too literally, we will never have leaders. Who among us is “above reproach”? Taken too lightly, these verses allow anyone to serve in leadership.

I wish I knew where I put all those answers! Oh, well, let me tell you what Paul says about church leaders.

Leaders must have an unquestioned commitment to Christ. Many of the attributes ascribed to leaders in the Timothy text are restatements of the “fruits of the Spirit” as outlined in other parts of Scripture. Church leaders must be Christ followers. They should give evidence in their lives that they have been conformed to the image of Christ.

Leaders must have an unquestioned commitment to their family. They must be committed to their spouse and to their children. They must give loving, nurturing, caring leadership in the home.

I often am asked to explain the “husband of one wife” portion of the text. It is beyond the limits of this writing to jump in the middle of that one. Suffice it to say, after 30 years of marriage, I think I am beginning to understand a little of what that means.

Let me confess the part of the text that concerns me most. The King James Version said a church leader should be, “One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection, with all gravity.”

You will need to ask me again in another 30 years. My children will need to be in their 50s before judgment can be fully rendered on that one.

Seriously, this is good news and bad news to parents. Keep being faithful. The book isn't closed on their raising. Don't despair. God is not through with them. Don't be proud. They can still stumble and fall. Keep praying. Keep raising.

Leaders must have an unquestioned commitment to the church. After 25 years of serving as a pastor, I have a more realistic view of the church. I know many of its shortcomings. I know where the skeletons are in the closet.

I also believe in it more than ever and am more committed to it. It is the bride of Christ. He loves his bride. Don't tell me you do not like my wife. If you do not love my family, you do not love me. I love the church of Jesus Christ, warts and all.

Leaders are examples. Hebrews 13:7 says: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” Leaders must proclaim the truth faithfully. They also must be conformed to that truth personally. We remember the words of O.J. Simpson's attorney: “If you can't trust the messenger, you can't trust the message.” Leaders need to be trustworthy. They must have exemplary character.

Leaders should be followed if they are leading us to Jesus. We do not follow pastors and deacons because they are perfect. We follow them because they are following the One who is. It is a journey we take together. We all will need a little help along the way. He has given us leaders to serve all those who follow Christ. Thank God for them. Serve with them. Pray for them. Follow Jesus with them.

The church needs leadership. Church leaders should be like conductors of great orchestras. When they do their best work, the audience hardly knows they are there. Never self-serving, they are servants to the music, faithfully leading their performers to work together to recreate the music of the masters. When church leaders do their best work, we do not seek to build monuments to the leader. We seek to follow the Savior. We desire to build his kingdom.

Questions for discussion

How can the line be drawn between taking these verses too literally and taking them too lightly?

Is one of the qualifications for church leadership seemingly more important than others to you?

Posted: 6/11/04

LifeWay Family Bible Series for June 27

God gave you to your church for a reason

1 Corinthians 12:4-15; 20, 27

By Rodney McGlothlin

First Baptist Church, College Station

God has given his church everything it needs to be effective in ministry and service. This gifting of the church for ministry also has been the occasion of misunderstanding and division.

Spiritual gifts. Two words. “Spiritual” suggests the source of these gifts. They come from God, given by his Holy Spirit to his church. The word “gifts” has as its root the word “grace.” Spiritual gifts are grace gifts from God that equip his people for effective ministry in his world.

The Corinthian church loved their giftedness. They especially loved the showy gifts. To be able to mesmerize a crowd with an unknown tongue or an eloquent prophecy was highly esteemed.

One can only begin to imagine the Corinthian cacophony as all wanted the speaker's box at the same time. All talking and no listening makes Jack a confused Christian. The lost world must have thought it especially strange.

You have a gift

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). You are included in that phrase “each one.” Our salvation is never to privilege alone. It also is a calling to responsibility within the kingdom of God.

God chose Abraham, and he promised to bless him. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great” (Genesis 12:2). That is privilege. He also promised to use him. “And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). That is responsibility. C.S. Lewis said that God chooses some for the sake of those he has not yet chosen.

By the same Holy Spirit that brought us to Christ and the privilege of salvation, we also have been gifted for service and responsibility. You have a service gift.

Your church has ministry needs

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

Have you noticed that there are different lists of gifts in the Bible? Did Paul expect his readers to combine them into one exhaustive list that would contain all the possible spiritual gifts? Or did he offer them as suggestive lists within individual churches? The lists may have been different because the needs of the churches were different.

I have been to seminars and read books on spiritual gifts. They often seem to suggest that believers can discover their gifts in some sort of spiritual isolation booth. It seems to me that any attempt to discover spiritual giftedness apart from a prayerful look at the needs of the church always will result in selfish pride rather than selfless service.

Wasn't that the problem in Corinth in the first place? They were highly gifted. They also were terribly proud and selfish.

A discussion of spiritual gifts from the perspective of this text needs to be church-centered. If the Corinthians had focused their discussion of spiritual gifts on the needs of their church rather than on the desires of individual members, they would not have been so contentious about it.

The place to begin the discovery of your spiritual gift is with a realistic look at the needs of your church. If there is a need you can meet, you have found your gift. Paul says these gifts are “for the common good.” They certainly are not for the exaltation of one church member over another.

You are God's gift to your church

“And in the church God has appointed apostles … prophets … teachers … workers of miracles … those able to help others, those with gifts of administration and those speaking in different kinds of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:28).

In this passage, Paul does not merely say the Corinthians have gifts of prophecy, teaching, helping or preaching. He says they are apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, helpers and administrators. This is crucial to understanding Paul's theology of spiritual gifts.

It is correct to say all believers have a spiritual gift. It is more correct to say all believers are a spiritual gift. You, as a spiritually gifted individual, are God's gift to your church. What kind of gift are you?

When you give a gift to someone, you want it to be an expression of your love for them and something that will be useful to them. Spiritual gifts fulfill these two gift prerequisites. Spiritually gifted individuals should be seen as an expression of God's love for the church. They also equip the church to fulfill our Lord's mission for his church.

Does your church view you as a gift from God? Are you helping your church achieve its mission? Do you work in concert with other gifted individuals “for the common good”? Somehow, I think the answers to these questions are more important than our usual debates over the issue of spiritual gifts.

Questions for discussion

Are you convinced that you are spiritually gifted?

How will it change your service if you begin to think of yourself as a spiritual gift to your church?

How is a church affected by lack of service by members?

Posted: 6/11/04

After 50 years, Gallup passes
his poll on to next generation

By G. Jeffrey Macdonald

Religion News Service

SOUTH HAMILTON, Mass. (RNS)–For the past half century, the Gallup Poll has been phoning strangers, asking personal questions and then telling the world what Americans believe on topics from prayer to haunted houses and the afterlife.

The Gallup Poll's fascination with religion and spirituality has had little to do with the usual rationale for polling–a client's need to accrue market research data. Instead, the polling giant has been probing the inner life of Americans for a far more personal reason–the boss wants to see souls saved.

“The most profound purpose of polls is to see how people are responding to God,” George Gallup Jr. said after giving the spring commencement speech at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. “When I ask a question on these subjects, what I'm always trying to find out is: 'Are we doing the will of God?'”

After 50 years in the family business, Gallup finally has traded his pollster's cap for quieter days in retirement. Although he plans to remain influential in the business and active in its outreach projects, he will no longer craft the questions or write the analyses that have earned him opportunities to give weekly public speeches and author 16 books.

Before stepping aside, however, Gallup seized the chance to share more than the latest survey data with a graduating class of soon-to-be evangelical pastors. After rattling off a few significant figures, he went where he never goes in his official analyses, adding a sermonic spin that tells where his heart has been all along.

“The world knows a lot about Jesus, but do they know him?” Gallup asked the commencement crowd. “It is for the churches to seize this moment, to take the vague spirituality of the day and turn it into a faith that is solid and transformative.”

Gallup, now 74, could have been a priest at age 24. He explored the calling then while volunteering at an Episcopal church in Galveston.

But he came to believe the enterprise founded by his father in 1935 “could be a ministry.” So upon graduation from Princeton University with a degree in religion, he went to work beside his dad as an assistant editor. Primary task–write good questions.

Over the decades, the polling enterprise transformed from a wonkish interest practiced by a smattering of eccentrics to a dominant force in American marketing and politics.

All the while, Gallup was writing questions that would take the nation's pulse on crucial issues–abortion, gun control, the Vietnam war. Through times of peace and tumult, however, he never lost interest in also “measuring” what he understands to be the work of the Holy Spirit.

For instance, at the start of this new millennium, Gallup has found that 50 percent of Protestants feel uncertain of their salvation. On one level, Gallup infers from this a generally anxious society, but on another level, he sees the effects of neglected teachings on the sufficiency of God's grace through Jesus Christ.

“Churches have neglected what they should be all about, and that's discipleship,” Gallup said in an interview. “Therefore, there is no transformation. People look at churches, and they don't see lives being changed. The core is getting mushy. … Anything that doesn't lead to Jesus should be cast off.”

Gallup's passion for his Savior and unrivaled access to the ordinary person's mind have carved for him a unique position among evangelicalism's celebrity personalities.

Just as the movement reveres Franklin Graham as evangelist, Charles Swindoll as preacher and Chuck Colson as top dog for prison ministries, so also does George Gallup Jr. enjoy a bit of royal status as evangelicalism's foremost statistician and researcher, the one who feeds front men precious facts they need to know about believers and potential converts alike.

“The more you know about your audience, the more effective you can be in communicating the gospel,” said Robert Coleman, professor of evangelism and discipleship at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Gallup “always seems to be ahead of the curve, to know what's coming in the future. … It shows how God has gifted people in many different ways. His is a ministry as a gifted pollster.”

Where Gallup stands out further is in shaping a secular domain as well as a religious one. Unlike mainstream journalism and science, where researchers generally are expected to approach their subjects with disinterested objectivity, polling has evolved to presume the questioner has certain interests at stake.

Gallup, say his colleagues, has shown how methodology can be rigorously objective without disenfranchising the researcher of his or her deepest concerns.

“It's essential for there to be a human and interested component to survey development,” said Nancy Belden, president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

“When George Gallup Jr. brings an interest in religion and spiritual life to his research, he is going to ask questions that are enlightened by his own thinking. It should not be a source of bias but of improvement to the questions. He's shown how that can happen.”

In retirement, Gallup plans to engage the broader side of his interests, which include playing trumpet, tinkering with a 1923 Packard and traveling with his wife, Kingsley. Yet more time to spare also means more time for Christian service, as he plans to keep writing books and leading seminars on the vast potential for small-group ministries.

As for the Gallup Poll's future, questions on religion and spirituality are sure to continue, Gallup said, under leadership that shares a keen interest in the topic.

Frank Newport is editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll and vice president of the Gallup organization in Princeton, N.J. His father, John Newport, served more than 40 years as a philosophy of religion professor and administrator at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

And because George Gallup Jr. still carries his pocket-sized notebook, for scribbling down survey questions that might come to him at any hour of day or night, his ideas might even find their way into a questionnaire now and then.

“The inner life is the new frontier of survey research in coming years,” Gallup said. “We know so little about mystical experiences, yet the religious dynamic is perhaps the most powerful of all in American culture. This is a way to unite our country on a deep level and produce a more peaceful world.”