Posted: 12/19/03

Bittick marks 25 years with Denton Association

DENTON–In the modern mobile society, long-term employees are rare. Long-term volunteers may be rarer still, but Janie Bittick has served Denton Baptist Assocition as its associational clerk 25 years.

“I really love it,” she said. “Staying after it for 25 years, I've gotten to meet and know a lot of saints–a few sinners, but mostly saints–and they have inspired me greatly on my journey.”

The experience also has given her a bit of historical perspective, as far as the work of the association goes.

“I've been given a sense of history, seeing how the vision for the association has progressed and been realized over the years,” she said. “I've really enjoyed seeing all the new churches that have become a part of the association over the years and watching the ways the older churches have kept at it and continued to minister to their communities.”

Having someone stay in that position for an extended term is a definite boon to the association, said Director of Missions Gary Loudermilk. “Consistency would be the No. 1 benefit, and improved record keeping over the years would be another,” he said.

Bittick, who also has served her church, Southmont Baptist in Denton, as clerk, helps the association by offering instruction for church clerks.

“The most important thing is to be accurate and to remember that you learn by your experience,” she said.

Posted: 12/19/03

Baptist Briefs

Johnson leaving WMU. Trudy Johnson, national director of Christian Women's Job Corps through Woman's Missionary Union, has resigned to take a new position at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Ala. Debra Berry, adult ministry consultant with WMU, will give interim leadership to the program while a new director is sought.

Southwestern awards degrees. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary awarded 274 degrees Dec. 12 in winter commencement ceremonies at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

CBF offers kids' camps. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will partner with Passport to offer camps for children completing third through sixth grade under a new program called PASSPORTkids. The camps will be directed by veteran children's minister Mark McClintock, who recently left the staff of Seventh & James Baptist Church in Waco. For 2004, camps will be held in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Missouri. The four-day camps run from mid-June through the end of July. For more information, visit www.passport-kids.org.

Theologian Henry dies. Carl F. H. Henry, famed evangelical theologian and first editor of Christianity Today, died Dec. 7 in Watertown, Wis., following a lengthy illness. He was 90 years old. In 1977, Time magazine called Henry the leading theologian of American evangelicalism. He is credited with helping shape the defense of evangelicalism as intellectually credible. A Southern Baptist, Henry was a member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.

Barrows donates hymnals to Southern. Cliff Barrows, longtime music director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, has donated his collection of 298 hymnals to Boyce Centennial Library at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The collection includes songbooks from Graham crusades, compilations by Barrows, along with solo and duet songbooks used by the Graham ministry. It also includes hymnals purchased by Barrows in every country where Graham held a crusade.

Johnson to lead Criswell. Jerry Johnson has been named president of the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, which includes Criswell College and Criswell Communications. Johnson, 39, has been dean of Boyce College at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He succeeds Richard Wells, who resigned to take a pastorate in South Dakota. Johnson gained notoriety in the 1980s when as a young trustee of Southern Seminary, he accused then-President Roy Honeycutt of not believing the Bible. Johnson went on to serve the seminary board as chairman in the early years of President Al Mohler's administration. He later resigned his Colorado pastorate to enter doctoral studies in Christian ethics at Southern, then joined the seminary staff. He is a native of Malakoff and a 1986 graduate of Criswell College.

Frost leaves NAMB for New York. Gary Frost, vice president for strategic partnerships with the North American Mission Board, has been named executive director of the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association. Before taking the administrative post with the Southern Baptist Convention mission board in 2001, he was pastor of an Ohio church and served two terms as the SBC's second vice president.

Alabama Baptists support commandments displays. Messengers to the Alabama Baptist State Convention voiced their support for publicly displaying the Ten Commandments. Meeting at Cottage Hill Baptist Church in Mobile, messengers overwhelmingly adopted a Ten Commandments resolution that encouraged elected officials to "uphold righteousness, acknowledge the biblical foundations of government and contend for the right of religious expression provided for the American people within the Constitution of the United States of America."

Posted: 12/19/03

Richardson church touches world with internships

By Marv Knox

Editor

RICHARDSON–Someday, a parents' night out ministry in Texas may touch families in Britain. And a class for Spanish-speaking immigrants in Richardson may lead Pakistanis to Christ in Birmingham, England.

The link in such a global chain of events is First Baptist Church of Richardson's British internship program.

Each July, a young couple, fresh out of seminary, arrive in North Texas. They spend the next six months serving on the staff and observing the ministries of the Richardson congregation.

Kerrion and Bill Miller, British interns at first Baptist Church of Richardson, talk with Candy Smith, asssociate pastor for ministry, and Pastor Brian Harbour.

And when they go back home to British Baptist churches, they carry more than Texas souvenirs. They return with a supply of ideas for sharing the gospel with people where they live.

That's how it has worked for Bill and Kerrion Miller, the fifth British internship couple, who have watched, learned and ministered at First Baptist in Richardson since the middle of last summer.

The Millers have been creating “video memories” of ministries conducted by the progressive Texas Baptist church, he reported.

They want to learn a variety of ways to share the gospel and meet people's needs in Jesus' name. Later, they'll test many of them in West Bromwich Baptist Church, a multi-national inner-city congregation located in the “urban sprawl” of Birmingham, one of England's largest cities, where he will become pastor Jan. 31.

The Richardson church developed its British internship through a partnership with Blenheim Baptist Church in Leeds, England, explained Brian Harbour, First Baptist's pastor.

The concept fit nicely with the church's desire to be a “teaching church,” a congregation that provides internships for young ministers, Harbour said. By the time the British internship got started, First Baptist already had launched an intern program for students at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary, as well as a youth ministry internship.

“This program is now a major player in the overall direction of our church to be an Acts 1:8 model church,” added Candy Smith, the church's associate pastor for ministry. Acts 1:8 in the New Testament records Jesus' command to spread the gospel “to the ends of the earth.”

“Part of our dream is to be able to touch the world,” Smith said. “So, to be able to have a couple or individuals come over and get training, and for our relationship to continue, we get to be a little part of the plan of what God is doing to influence that whole country.”

For First Baptist's part of the plan to work, church members Jerry and Margaret Redmon traveled to Britain and convinced the principals at the Baptist colleges–which provide the equivalent of a U.S. seminary education–to participate in the program and promote it on their campuses.

For Redmon, the internship program was an opportunity to exercise stewardship and build bridges.

“Our staff is a very talented teaching staff. We like to see them have an opportunity to train youngsters,” he said, noting the British Baptist principals liked the idea of sending some of their “best and brightest” students to learn from talented ministers.

Also, the church already had committed to build bridges with Christians in other parts of the world, he added, explaining the opportunity to train young ministers with whom they could maintain relationships was a way to make certain the traffic on those bridges would “go both ways.”

The first intern couple, Andy and Jo Caldwell, had a positive experience. Their advocacy “gave peace of mind to others,” said Harbour, who praised the Caldwells' courage for trying out an untested program.

Since then, counting the Millers, four couples and one single male have participated in the internship. They arrived in July, lived with church members for six months, acclimated themselves to Texas and learned from, as well as ministered to, an active Baptist church.

“We have given them full rein as far as where they want to be involved and where their gifts and interests are,” Smith said. “So, every intern has had a different involvement and impact on our church. Not only do they observe, but they have been very involved in hands-on ministry.”

This year, in addition to other ministries, Bill Miller has been involved in the church's English-as-a-Second-Language program, and Kerrion Miller has focused on preschool ministry.

The Millers put their “permanent” ministry on hold for six months to come to Richardson in order to participate in and learn from a kind of church they probably never will experience again.

“Why not get exposure to a whole range of ministries?” he asked. “We've been getting to know lots of different kinds of programs.”

That contrasts with West Bromwich Baptist Church, which is much smaller, as well as their sense of calling to serve small, inner-city churches for the rest of their lives.

“I'm really looking forward to getting back and getting involved,” he stressed. “But it's easier to do this now–to just get a different view on ministry–than it would be later.”

“Like after we start a family,” she added.

Although First Baptist in Richardson is many times larger than West Bromwich Baptist, and Texas culture is distinctly different from British society, the Millers said they expect to transfer much of what they have learned this year to their new ministry back home.

“There are programs we can see being implemented on a much smaller scale,” she said. “The church we're going to is multi-cultural, with seven or more nationalities, so we might try to do English-as-a-Second-Language.

“Child care is different, but we learned some lessons,” she added, noting First Baptist's parents' night out–which provides childcare so moms and dads can have an evening together without children–would work well at West Bromwich.

A few weeks ago, at a missions banquet, Miller absorbed a new way of promoting a cause that's central to Christian faith.

“I was thinking, we will do it on a shoestring budget in a very different way,” he said. “It probably would start as a bring-and-share meal, but the same principles apply: What a useful thing, to have an annual event that puts global missions on the agenda and keeps it there.”

They've also pondered Sunday School, which in Britain primarily is offered for children. Miller has tried to imagine how he might incorporate some of those training opportunities so adults can learn more about the Bible and grow in their faith.

Through six months of work and learning, the Millers have created images–quite literally–of ministries they may implement someday. They have taken digital photos of practically everything they've done, so the pictures will prompt their memory when they return to Britain.

But beyond studying programs and learning methods, a key to the internship is relationships, he noted.

“I've said to the ministers: 'You might well get an e-mail from me someday. I don't know what the question might be, but you will hear from me.'”

Those relationships have been strong and significant, she added. “We've said over and over again that we've been overwhelmed by the welcome of the Texans.”

In addition to involving them in ministries and church functions, First Baptist friends have fed them meals and taken them to a rodeo, as well as baseball, football, basketball and hockey games. “And don't forget high school football, which in Britain is not such a big deal,” she added.

The Millers particularly appreciate First Baptist members Dave and Becky Harless, who have kept the couple in their home for six months. “They looked after us like their children,” she said.

“Despite the cultural difference, I was really impressed by how friendly a big church can be,” Miller said.

Throughout the internship program, First Baptist in Richardson also has gained many benefits, Harbour affirmed.

“They've been great people,” he said. “I've told Bill and Kerrion that just the opportunity to get to know Christian leaders from another part of the world is a blessings. They've all been unique personalities, very gifted. They have to be 'on the edge' to take this leap. These are exceptional, committed Christians.

“And we've learned from them. Several times along the way, we've told them what we do, and they raised that innocent question: 'Why are you doing that?' And sometimes we didn't have an answer. They've helped us see our habits from a fresh perspective.”

Many of the interns have been ministers who could make strong, ongoing contributions as more-permanent members of the First Baptist staff, Harbour acknowledged. But the church has avoided that “temptation.”

“It would undermine the credibility of this program,” which is geared to teaching and returning interns to their British churches, he explained.

And the program continues.

The Millers finish their assignment Dec. 28 and leave Richardson Dec. 29. The church already has lined up another couple, who will arrive next summer.

Posted: 12/19/03

Canton children make a market for missions lesson

By Orville Scott

Texas Baptist Communications

CANTON–Fifth-grader Preston Hutcherson of First Baptist Church in Canton read about an idea for a prayerwalk in conjunction with the Lottie Moon Offering for international missions.

Members of the fourth-grade Sunday School class shown with teacher Jan Longenecker are Brittany Arnold, Caroline Giles, Kelsey Koym and Dylan Cleere.

“We could do that at our church,” he told his parents. “It would be so cool.”

Hutcherson's parents, Perry and Lisa Hutcherson, who teach fifth graders in Sunday School, shared the idea with other Sunday School teachers for children in grades one through five. They agreed it was worth a try.

Teachers and students created representative mission fields with pictures and replicas in the classrooms and then invited the entire congregation to walk through and pray as they viewed mission challenges in other countries.

“It made a wonderful impression on both adults and children,” said Nan Skidmore, director of the children's classes.

“I think it will help our church reach its Lottie Moon Offering goal of $20,000,” she added. “We decided to leave the prayer-walk scenes up throughout December.”

In the fourth-grade class, five girls dressed in African garb and volunteered to stay in a thatched roof building created to portray life in Africa while adult classes participated in the prayer walk.

One of the five was Caroline Giles, whose grandparents, James and Mary Nell Giles, served 34 years as missionaries to Colombia with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

Giles said the prayerwalk and her missions experience during the summer “made me want to take Jesus' love and salvation to the people who don't know him.”

Last summer, Giles and her family, along with the Hutchersons and other volunteers from the Canton church, served with a church in Latvia, helping lead more than 50 orphans to faith in Christ at an encampment.

Posted: 12/19/03

Three schools claim part of B.H. Carroll's legacy

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

Three drastically different ministerial training schools in Texas now claim to be in the tradition of B.H. Carroll, a towering figure in Baptist life in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Ironically, all three stake valid claims to some degree, according to Carroll biographer Alan Lefever.

The new Carroll Institute's founders say they want to create a theological education model involving “teaching churches” and mentors. That resonates with Carroll's desire to see theological education centered on ministry in the local church, Lefever explained. From the early 1870s until the turn of the century, Carroll trained ministers at First Baptist Church of Waco, where he was pastor.

B. H. Carroll

Truett Theological Seminary, supported by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, is a part of Baylor University. The last time Baylor was home to a seminary, Carroll was its dean. Truett Seminary is reminiscent of Carroll's commitment to a theological school that had access to the broad and deep resources of a liberal arts university, Lefever noted.

In the early 20th century, Carroll led Baylor Seminary to pull away from the university and relocate from Waco to Fort Worth, primarily due to a struggle over financial resources. “He liked to be able to call the shots and be his own man,” Lefever asserted.

When Baylor's seminary became a free-standing institution and moved 90 miles to the north, Carroll became founding president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, now a Southern Baptist Convention-supported school that claims Carroll as its godfather.

Each school represents one aspect of Carroll's vision for educating ministers, according to Lefever, who holds degrees from Baylor and Southwestern and is director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection.

“The problem is that Carroll never articulated a single vision for theological education. It was a progression in his thought,” said the author of “Fighting the Good Fight,” the definitive Carroll biography.

When he was inaugurated in October as Southwestern's eighth president, Paige Patterson pledged to lead that institution toward “a full and thorough reaffirmation of the doctrine of B.H. Carroll and the founders” of the school.

Patterson particularly singled out the missionary and evangelistic zeal of Carroll and other early leaders of the seminary. He mentioned 15 key doctrines of the founders, including the incarnation and atoning work of Christ, commitment to expository preaching and an emphasis on the sanctity of marriage and the family.

In his charge to the new president, SBC Annuity Board President O.S. Hawkins challenged Patterson to follow the example of Carroll as a man of courage, conviction and consistency.

Founders of the new Carroll Institute, all with Southwestern roots, picked up on another aspect of the Carroll legacy at a news conference announcing the school's inaugural faculty a few weeks later.

Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, pledged that his church would be one of the first of what organizers hope will be 100 “teaching churches” affiliated with the institute. Describing Carroll's approach to educating ministerial students in the context of a local church, Denison said, “We are returning to his vision and advancing his vision.”

Without a doubt, it's a return to one aspect of Carroll's vision, but it's not necessarily “advancing” the vision, according to Lefever. In fact, what the Carroll Institute proposes may be “a step back,” he said.

While Carroll used the mentoring approach and taught ministers in a local church for a number of years, the influence of a single instructor produced “Carroll clones,” said Lefever, who teaches part time at Truett Seminary.

That won't be true of the Carroll Institute, responded President Bruce Corley. The institute will avoid the trap of students “emulating a single style pastor or teacher” by offering a “blended learning approach” that combines personal, face-to-face classroom and mentoring experience with Internet-based distance learning, he said.

“We're not going to replicate old models,” Corley said. “We intend to take up the vision of B.H. Carroll by making post-baccalaureate education affordable and accessible for any person and relate it to congregational experience.”

The Carroll Institute's claim to the Carroll name also has been questioned by Southwestern's Patterson.

“People are, of course, free to employ whatever name they wish. Whether this is done with integrity depends on whether the principles of the one whose name is thereby invoked are honored and espoused,” Patterson said in a statement released after four senior professors left Southwestern to launch the Carroll Institute. “While one may question the justice of using the name of the founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in a competing effort against that seminary, the real test will be whether they have honored Carroll's name or just used it.”

Lefever questioned which “principles” of Southwestern's founder Patterson wants to see honored and espoused.

Carroll unquestionably was theologically conservative, he noted. But the only prescribed guide for faculty at Southwestern under his tenure was the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, a relatively broad statement compared to the SBC's 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, he observed.

When asked to elaborate on what he meant regarding steering Southwestern toward a return to the doctrine of Carroll, Patterson declined any comment beyond a listing of the 15 points in his inaugural address.

The problem with predicting how Carroll would respond to any of the institutions claiming his legacy is that he was such an independent thinker and complex personality, Lefever asserted.

“No one could speak for B.H. Carroll but B.H. Carroll. He's one of the most difficult people in Baptist life to pigeonhole,” he said. “I don't have a problem with any of the schools claiming a legacy of Carroll, but I don't think any of them can claim 'the legacy' of Carroll.”

Many are quick to latch on to favored aspects of Carroll's personality, but few are willing to embrace every part of the hot-tempered, cigar-smoking, post-millennialist's life, Lefever asserted.

“Would someone who struggled with alcoholism as a young man, who was divorced early in life, and who had women deacons serve in his church in the 1870s fit in at Southwestern Seminary today, not just as a student but as an instructor and even as the president? If the presidency of Southwestern Seminary were open, would Carroll be considered?” he asked.

“If you're going to be a B.H. Carroll fan, take all of him.”

Who was B.H. Carroll?

Born Dec. 27, 1843, in Mississippi

Died Nov. 11, 1914, in Fort Worth.

Buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Waco.

Enlisted as a Texas Ranger at the start of the Civil War to guard the Texas frontier. Later served with the regular army, assigned to the 17th Regiment of Texas Infantry.

When the war interrupted his college studies, Baylor University granted him a B.A. degree. Later received honorary doctorates from the University of Tennessee and Keatchie College.

Became a born-again Christian in 1865 following a period of skepticism. Joined a Baptist church in Caldwell, Texas.

Ordained to the gospel ministry in 1866. Served as pastor of rural churches and taught school for three years.

Pastor of First Baptist Church in Waco from 1870 to 1899.

Elected corresponding secretary for the Texas Baptist Education Commission in 1899.

Taught theology and Bible at Baylor University from 1872 to 1905.

Organized the Baylor Theological Seminary in 1905.

Led in founding Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, chartered in 1908. Served as president of Southwestern until his death in 1914.

Authored “An Interpretation of the English Bible,” a 13-volume commentary, as well as a number of sermon collections.

Source: Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists, Volume One

Posted: 12/19/03

Posted: 12/19/03

'Are you Santa?' child asked missionary

By Melanie Kieve

CBF Communications

SKOPJE, Macedonia–“Are you Santa Claus?”

That's what Serxhane, an 11-year-old Albanian orphan, asked Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary Rick Shaw, after receiving textbooks from CBF volunteers.

But according to Shaw, it wasn't the gift as much as God's love demonstrated through giving that created the mistaken identity.

“I told the young Albanian that like (Santa), we love people–especially the children of the world,” he said.

Serxhane was one of 500 children who received textbooks, along with backpacks and school supplies. The textbook project was part of the Shaws' ongoing ministry among orphan and indigent children in Skopje and surrounding villages, made possible by the Fellowship's 2003-04 Global Missions Offering.

The children who received textbooks are either orphaned or have only one parent who is employed. Most are ethnic Albanians who face discrimination and lack of educational and employment opportunities in Macedonia.

“Many of the children are very bright and … dream of a better life,” but they face obstacles to learning such as having to provide their own books, said Shaw's wife, Martha. “You can imagine what a challenge this is when no one in the home is working.”

When Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., learned of the textbook shortage, members quickly responded. They spread the word to other CBF churches, while the Shaws contacted churches in the Balkan region. In all, more than $40,000 was raised.

Two Texas churches participated in the project–Trinity Baptist Church of Harker Heights and Memorial Drive Baptist Church of Houston.

In August, three Highland members and one member of Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., traveled to Skopje, where they distributed textbooks and visited in schools and orphans' homes. They were joined by several local Albanian and Macedonian church members.

Since the volunteers' return, Highland Baptist has discovered many Albanians live in Louisville. The church hosted a Thanksgiving meal for local Albanians as part of an emerging cultural exchange-oriented ministry, said team member Phil Collier, an attorney and lay leader.

“Our church has been energized by this project,” Collier said. “We have become more missions-oriented, with a large percentage of our members becoming involved in missions work and justice issues.”

The CBF Global Missions Offering, with the theme “Everyone Everywhere, Being the Presence of Christ,” encourages this kind of personal missions involvement, along with prayer and financial support.

The offering's importance to ministries among Albanians cannot be underestimated, Martha Shaw said. It “provides funding for us to be here, to establish ministries among orphans and widows, and to communicate with CBF constituency churches and other churches the Albanian story. The offering is the financial foundation of our presence in the Balkans among Albanians. Without it, we could not be here.”

In addition to the textbook project, the Shaws have developed other holistic, transformational ministries alongside Albanians, including English as a Second Language classes; clothing, food, medicine, firewood and heater distribution; medical care arrangement and financing; church starting and discipling; human rights advocacy; sewage system installation in villages; and prison ministries.

“Our goal is to guide Albanians to see the gospel as powerful, real and relevant to their lives and culture,” Mrs. Shaw said.

Posted: 12/19/03

THIS CHRISTMAS:
Receive the gift of hope this season

By BO Baker

After another year of meeting life's complications, its barrage of hazards and hurts played out upon the grand world stage, I've concluded once more that our deepest and most urgent need is for hope–Christian hope.

This is the hope that does not come grandstanding, gift-wrapped or party-dressed. Not a kind of shallow masquerade of make-believe bequest to dreamers only, or even hope for the millions who would not know a Bible from the Far-mer's Almanac. But a hope deliberately resting upon the integrity, the absolute dependability of the God who spoke the galaxies into existence, who breathed life into the man he made and, and “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

BO Baker

I contend for a hope resident and resilient in the person of Jesus Christ, not a hope provided by practitioners of unkept promises, nor for the warden of some “life island” adrift in space, dark with questions seemingly unanswerable.

Rather, the hope that shepherds found lying in a manger of a lean-to in the tiny town of Bethlehem over 1,900 years ago. They knelt, stunned in wonder, at the coming of Mary's babe. They arose transformed, never to be the same again.

Dear God, it is the hope we need so desperately this Christmastime–hope that still believes in the God of divine intervention in spite of mockery, malaise and malcontent. How we need a hope that does not segregate or pretend to bleed in bodies tendered to look the part of suffering without the slightest reminance of pain, or for that matter, the giving of a single drop of blood!

It's time, and far past, to ring the bell of hope again–the Christian hope. It's time to ring it out for all to hear–every Cross-bought one of us, wherever he or she may be. It's time to ring it loudly enough for the weeping to hear, for the lost to find their way to the land of grace and the weary to breathe new winds of caring love.

Yes, we all need to be reminded that there's hope enough left in the heart of God for every human being to find solace and inspiration, to look up and live victoriously again, to know that “he who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20).

What a gift to receive at Christmas, the gift of hope! Hope by the heartful!

BO Baker, a longtime Texas Baptist pastor and evangelist, has written a Christmas reflection for the Baptist Standard for 28 consecutive years

Posted: 12/19/03

CHRISTMAS VIEW:
Celebrate Christmas from now on

By Charles Walton

We put our Christmas trees up early this year. Our big tree in the living room and our smaller tree in the family room were in their places by Nov. 30.

This is a record for us. We usually do not have a tree up until the middle of December.

One reason for my annual tardiness is that our trees are stored in the attic. Getting them down is difficult. Sometimes, I “skin” my knuckles. Sometimes, I mutter under my breath. I do not anticipate with joy getting our Christmas trees out of the attic. Putting them back is even worse.

For several years, I have been threatening to leave our Christmas trees out all year long. Even though they are artificial, they're both pretty. Both are well-decorated, brilliantly lighted and truly inspiring.

Charles Walton

I like to think I would have rejoiced with Joseph and Mary and the shepherds, but I suspect I would have been too caught up in my own concerns to notice what God was doing.

If we kept the trees up all year, we would not have to leave the same decorations on the trees for 12 months. We could change the ornamentation to fit the season.

In December, the trees would be covered with the garnishments of Christmas. For Valentine's Day, we could replace December's ornaments with hearts and cupids with bows and arrows.

In the spring, the trees would be covered with Easter imagery. Each season or special event–such as birthdays, anniversaries and the like–would be represented by appropriate decorations festively hung on a beautiful evergreen.

This seems a fine idea to me, but I have been out-voted by Mrs. Preacher. I know there are only two of us here, but every husband knows that his wife has at least two votes to his one. A tie means she wins.

Brenda says a Christmas tree is for Christmas. She says we did not put up a Valentine tree or an Easter tree or a “Holiday” tree. We put up a Christmas tree.

Several years ago, I did leave up our Christmas tree for three months. I got out the artificial tree on Dec. 18 and took it down on April 1.

Mrs. Preacher is embarrassed for you to know this, but it doesn't bother me.

We put the tree up and decorated it on Dec. 18, and that was the last time we looked at it until January. The “busyness” of the season got in the way of Christmas. We seldom were home long enough to enjoy our tree or anything else about Christmas.

So, for a few nights in January, February and March, I sat in the darkness of our living room with only the lights of the tree for illumination. I played Christmas music, drank apple-cinnamon cider and relished the quiet renewal of solitude.

That was my perspective. Brenda just thought I was weird.

On these special nights, my thoughts almost always returned to the first Christmas. I imagined myself in Bethlehem with all the others forced to be there for the Roman census. I like to think I would have rejoiced with Joseph and Mary and the shepherds, but I suspect I would have been too caught up in my own concerns to notice what God was doing.

When Brenda scolded me for refusing to take down the tree, I said I wasn't through with Christmas. The opposite was true. Christmas wasn't through with me.

A dusty attic is no place for a Christmas tree, especially if storing your tree keeps you from noticing what God is doing.

Christmas is too good a deal to let a cramped attic or a full calendar determine how we celebrate.

God is busy in our world, so leave your tree up all year long–even if your Christmas tree is only in your heart.

Charles Walton is pastor of First Baptist Church in Conroe and sometimes listens to the beat of a different little drummer boy

Posted: 12/19/03

CHRISTMAS VIEW:
Celebrate Christmas from now on

By Charles Walton

We put our Christmas trees up early this year. Our big tree in the living room and our smaller tree in the family room were in their places by Nov. 30.

This is a record for us. We usually do not have a tree up until the middle of December.

One reason for my annual tardiness is that our trees are stored in the attic. Getting them down is difficult. Sometimes, I “skin” my knuckles. Sometimes, I mutter under my breath. I do not anticipate with joy getting our Christmas trees out of the attic. Putting them back is even worse.

For several years, I have been threatening to leave our Christmas trees out all year long. Even though they are artificial, they're both pretty. Both are well-decorated, brilliantly lighted and truly inspiring.

Charles Walton

I like to think I would have rejoiced with Joseph and Mary and the shepherds, but I suspect I would have been too caught up in my own concerns to notice what God was doing.

If we kept the trees up all year, we would not have to leave the same decorations on the trees for 12 months. We could change the ornamentation to fit the season.

In December, the trees would be covered with the garnishments of Christmas. For Valentine's Day, we could replace December's ornaments with hearts and cupids with bows and arrows.

In the spring, the trees would be covered with Easter imagery. Each season or special event–such as birthdays, anniversaries and the like–would be represented by appropriate decorations festively hung on a beautiful evergreen.

This seems a fine idea to me, but I have been out-voted by Mrs. Preacher. I know there are only two of us here, but every husband knows that his wife has at least two votes to his one. A tie means she wins.

Brenda says a Christmas tree is for Christmas. She says we did not put up a Valentine tree or an Easter tree or a “Holiday” tree. We put up a Christmas tree.

Several years ago, I did leave up our Christmas tree for three months. I got out the artificial tree on Dec. 18 and took it down on April 1.

Mrs. Preacher is embarrassed for you to know this, but it doesn't bother me.

We put the tree up and decorated it on Dec. 18, and that was the last time we looked at it until January. The “busyness” of the season got in the way of Christmas. We seldom were home long enough to enjoy our tree or anything else about Christmas.

So, for a few nights in January, February and March, I sat in the darkness of our living room with only the lights of the tree for illumination. I played Christmas music, drank apple-cinnamon cider and relished the quiet renewal of solitude.

That was my perspective. Brenda just thought I was weird.

On these special nights, my thoughts almost always returned to the first Christmas. I imagined myself in Bethlehem with all the others forced to be there for the Roman census. I like to think I would have rejoiced with Joseph and Mary and the shepherds, but I suspect I would have been too caught up in my own concerns to notice what God was doing.

When Brenda scolded me for refusing to take down the tree, I said I wasn't through with Christmas. The opposite was true. Christmas wasn't through with me.

A dusty attic is no place for a Christmas tree, especially if storing your tree keeps you from noticing what God is doing.

Christmas is too good a deal to let a cramped attic or a full calendar determine how we celebrate.

God is busy in our world, so leave your tree up all year long–even if your Christmas tree is only in your heart.

Charles Walton is pastor of First Baptist Church in Conroe and sometimes listens to the beat of a different little drummer boy

Posted: 12/19/03

Hunt family pledges $5.5 million matching funds to DBU

DALLAS–Dallas Baptist University could receive up to $5.5 million–its largest such grant ever–if funds donated by the family of Ruth Ray Hunt are matched by other donors.

Representatives of the Communities Foundation of Texas and the Hunt family announced the gift in late November. It will designate $1 million in matching money to each of five priorities identified through a strategic planning process.

Previous money from the Hunt family enabled the university to develop a facilities master plan, which will serve as a blueprint for moving the university “from good to great” over the next 10 years, said DBU President Gary Cook.

At the news conference where the $5.5 million matching grant was announced, Ray Hunt and June Hunt (first and third from left) visit with Julie Turner, chairwoman of the DBU board, and Edgar Fjordbak, director of the Communities Foundation of Texas

The five areas of focus are:

Hiring, training and retaining high-quality administrators.

Recruiting and retaining faculty, including a new faculty position to guide students through mission work.

Establishing new scholarships and financial aid to increase enrollment by 1,000.

Enhance the spiritual life of students through a lecture series, cultural events and trips abroad.

Erecting additional buildings on the South Dallas campus.

Four of the five areas will receive the Hunt money on a dollar-for-dollar matching basis as others give. The Hunt gifts to the spiritual life component will prlvide one dollar for every 50 cents pledged by other sources.

DBU trustee Chairwoman Julie Turner praised the Hunt family for their generosity, a spirit she said was exemplified by Ruth Ray Hunt. “You had a wonderful mother who loved Dallas Baptist University,” she told Ray Hunt and June Hunt.

Before her death in 1999, Ruth Ray Hunt had a long association with the university, serving as a trustee, volunteering and giving generously to fund the school.

The outline of the newly announced gift was worked out before her death, her son said, noting that some of the happiest days of her life were spent planning for DBU's future.

June Hunt recalled seeing her mother discreetly give aid to people throughout her life. “She gave covertly,” she said. “Giving that would be recognized would not be the norm.”

Yet her mother “had a gift for anticipating a need and then going on and meeting it,” she added.

The same is true of the major gift to DBU, explained Edgar Fjordbak, director of the Communities Foundation of Texas.

The grant was “very carefully crafted” to inspire greater giving by others, he said. “Dallas needs this kind of university,” which he said exemplifies “servant leadership.”

Cook acknowledged raising the matching funds will be a challenge for the 4,500-student school. “But we've got five years to do it, so it doesn't all have to be done right away,” he said.

For more information about the matching-gift requirements, contact DBU at (214) 333-7100.

Posted: 12/19/03

DOWN HOME: Blessings erase wishes on list

My Christmas “wish list” probably drove my family nuts this year.

Around our house, we're big on drawing up lists of gift suggestions. You know–stuff we'd like to receive for Christmas or birthday.

Maybe we don't have enough imagination, but I like to think we do this because, if we're going to spend the money, we want to give something the recipient really wants.

Also, we're not really the kind to go in for big-ticket items. For example, you won't find “high-definition plasma-screen TV monitor” on anybody's list. We all love music, but you won't see “personal digital music recorder” on a single list until ubiquity and market forces drive the price way, way down. And although I personally think the best way to improve my looks at my age would be to sit me behind the wheel of an Audi TT, I wouldn't even dream of writing “expensive German sportscar” on my list. Even when I've got a sugar buzz from eating too much Christmas fudge.

MARV KNOX Editor

This year, Joanna and I wrote our Christmas lists on the December page of the kitchen calendar. I checked mine the other day, and it included three items–a burnt orange knit cap to keep my head warm when I run, a videotape of “Greater Tuna” and something else–a CD, I think it was. Not much to go on.

But it's not a symbol of my altruism, either. Our family is blessed. We already own everything we need and much more besides. We don't wait for Christmas or birthdays to buy shoes and books. We couldn't even think up a place to put another TV set, and everyone has fair access to the computer. We get rid of clothes because we get tired of wearing them. Small wonder thinking up a “wish list” is such a chore.

But that got me thinking about what I value most at Christmas:

The assurance that Jesus is our Savior and his love is unconditional and eternal.

The laughter of our daughters, Lindsay and Molly, as we sit around the dinner table.

Jo's head on my shoulder as we snuggle on the couch.

The look on Mother's face when all the family gathers under one roof.

A thousand voices singing “Silent Night” by candlelight at our church on Christmas Eve.

Jo and the girls in our family sedan, listening to Karen Carpenter sing “Ave Maria” as we drive around looking at the lights.

Hot coffee, a blazing fire and the soft glow of our Christmas tree.

Cards and pictures from friends we've known across a quarter-century in places we've lived all over the country.

Reading “'Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the girls for the 21st Christmas Eve in a row.

With blessings like that, how could I “wish” for more?