Posted: 11/07/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
You don't need 911 to dial heaven

By David Wilkinson

There ain't no busy signal

on the hotline to God.

—"Cotton Patch Gospel"

You know you're having a bad day when you dial 911 and get put on hold.

I was sitting semi-conscious on the couch a few minutes after midnight when the phone rang. It was my wife, Melanie, who was nearing the end of her two-day drive home from Minnesota after depositing our son, Micah, at St. Olaf College

“I need you to call 911 for me,” Melanie said as I answered the phone.

David Wilkinson

Before I could stammer a Stupid Husband Response like “You mean you don't know the number for 911?” she quickly explained: “I've just seen two guys breaking into a car. My cell phone is nearly dead, and I can't find the adapter.”

My wife has this thing about civic duty and Christian compassion. At least this Good Samaritan chose to call rather than apprehend the thieves directly.

“Call 911,” she repeated, resisting the urge to ask me to write down the number.

“Tell them I asked you to call because my cell phone battery was about to go dead and that I have just seen two men breaking into a car parked on the shoulder on the north side of Highway 121 just past exit 103.”

“Got it. Highway 121, just past exit 103,” I dutifully repeated without commentary. (After 25 years of marriage, I've learned a few things.)

I hung up and dialed 911.

“Please do not hang up,” intoned the recorded message. “Your call is important to us.”

“Glad I'm not having a heart attack,” I thought. After a minute or two, a live person came on the line.

“I am calling on behalf of my wife, who is traveling southwest on Highway 121 and has just witnessed two men breaking into a car parked on the shoulder on the north side of the road just past exit 103. She asked me to call because her cell phone was about to go dead.”

“Would you repeat that, please?”

I did.

“Exit 103. Did your wife give you a cross street?”

“No.”

“Hmmm, no cross street.”

“No, sir, she was careful to get the exit number, but she didn't give me a cross street.”

“OK, did she give you the names of some of the businesses at that exit?”

“No sir. I have told you everything my wife told me.”

“What about a description of the car?”

“It was a car. It was being broken into. She didn't say what kind of car; she just told me exactly where it was located–just past exit 103.”

“I'm sorry, sir, but I need more information than an exit number.”

I started to suggest he look it up on AAA's web site.

“Is that in the Fort Worth city limits?”

I tried to remain calm. “I don't know. All I know is the exit number.”

“OK. Well, since you don't know if it's in the city limits (how stupid of me), please stay on the line while I transfer you.”

After a few rings, Mr. 911 lateralled to Mr. Highway Patrol. I recited the details, all of them, again. And, I kid you not, this is what came next:

“Can you give me a cross street?” followed by “Can you tell me any of the business establishments near that exit?”

That pushed me over the edge. “With all due respect, I've been on the phone so long those guys are now enjoying a beer while going over their stolen items inventory.”

“Well,” he said, irritated by my attitude, “I guess I could send a car up Highway 121 for a look.”

I had hardly settled down on the couch again when the doorbell rang.

“For goodness sake, Melanie,” I grumbled, “the door is unlocked. And you're going to wake up Meredith.”

I opened the door to find a firefighter in full gear standing on the front step.

Behind him on the sidewalk stood two others.

Parked on the street behind them was a fire truck, red lights flashing.

As I tried to take in the sight, a police car pulled up behind the fire truck. I imagined the neighbors peeking through their mini-blinds.

The firefighter spoke.

“You called 911?”

I'm glad we pray to a God who “neither slumbers nor sleeps” and always knows where to find us.

Even without a cross street.

David Wilkinson is minister of education and discipleship at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth

Posted: 11/07/03

DBU students devote fall break to Guatemala trip

DALLAS–Fall break brought a respite from study but not from ministry, as 25 students and staff members from Dallas Baptist University traveled to Guatemala with Buckner Orphan Care International.

“We love working with college students, because they have the time and energy to travel, and also because of the special love they have for children,” explained Eraina Larson, mission coordinator for Buckner Orphan Care International. “Specifically, we partnered with DBU because of the quality of the students and their passion to help in countries like Guatemala where the situations are so desperate.”

The team, led by DBU Executive Vice President Blair Blackburn and Ozzie Ingram, assistant vice president for administrative affairs, served 100 children and teenagers at an orphanage in Xela, Guatemala.

The experience was life-changing, both for students and staff, said Adam Wright, director of freshman recruitment.

“Our journey to Guatemala put a whole new perspective on life for me,” he explained. “Sharing the love of Christ and the hope we have in the Lord with orphans in Guatemala was a moving experience I will never forget, and it made me realize, more than ever before, how blessed we are to live in a country like America. We don't have to be in another country to work for the Lord; there is a mission field in our own backyard.”

DBU senior Jason Hatch expressed a similar sentiment.

“It was amazing to be able to go into the orphanage and minister to all the children,” he explained. “Two young Guatemalan teenage boys approached me one night and told me they were Christians but they had no idea what they needed to do now. God has placed a sincere love in my heart for Spanish-speaking people, and after seeing what I saw on this trip, I am praying about going back to Guatemala on a long-term basis to help disciple the orphans. They desire to live godly lives and are hungry for someone to teach them.”

DBU senior Brance Barker entertains a Guatemalan orphan.

The team provided daily Bible school activities for the children as well as fellowship and evangelistic exercises for teenagers. These activities included Bible stories, Scripture memorization, crafts and recreational sports.

Twenty children and teens professed faith in Jesus Christ.

Working with the staff that manages the orphanage helped Katy Matthews, a senior English major, redefine the meaning of commitment and hard work.

“What impacted me the most during the trip was the encouragement we received from the staff that worked at the orphanage in Xela,” she said. “They are understaffed and often struggle to take care of more than a hundred children, several with special needs. They ministered to me because of their dedication and genuine love for the children.”

DBU students involved with the trip were enrolled in a course titled “Mission: Servant Leadership.” The course provided a study of servant leadership theory, but the trip provided hands-on training in the area of servant leadership.

And the lessons learned came more from personal experience than textbooks.

“It was such a blessing to go and work with the children in Xela,” said Candice Wright, a master's student. “You can tell they long for love, and we had the opportunity to not only love on all of them, but to share with them how much their heavenly Father loves them. The faces of each of these orphan children will forever be engraved on my heart.”

Posted: 11/07/03

D.C. convention looks ahead despite cuts

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

SILVER SPRING, Md. (ABP)–Despite having nearly a third of its funding cut off by the Southern Baptist Convention, leaders of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention gave upbeat reports during the organization's 127th annual meeting Oct. 27-28.

Among other actions, messengers adopted a 2004 budget that reflected a slight reduction from the 2003 budget, approved a minimum annual contribution for participating churches, signed a covenant reflecting the re-organized convention's purpose and accepted 10 churches into the fellowship.

The meeting was held at Luther Rice Memorial Baptist Church in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Md.

The SBC's North American Mission Board announced last year that it would cut off nearly $500,000 in annual funding it sent to the DCBC because of perceived doctrinal differences between the two organizations.

The D.C. convention is unique among Southern Baptist-related state or regional conventions in that it also affiliates with two other national Baptist bodies–the American Baptist Churches in the USA and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

In addition, many D.C. churches are affiliated with two moderate splinter groups of the SBC–the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists.

About 150 churches belong to the D.C. convention, including many in Washington-area suburbs of Virginia and Maryland and beyond.

“Over the last year, we have endured much hardship as soldiers of Jesus Christ,” Jeffrey Haggray, the convention's executive director-minister, said. He especially noted that, two years ago, the convention employed 23 full- and part-time staff members. Now there are 10.

Despite the hardship, the de-funding and attendant reorganization plan created timely opportunities, Haggray said. “Our churches want hands-on ministry that is indigenous, contextual, staffed by their members and is driven by them as they feel led by the Holy Spirit.”

Another inadvertent benefit, he added, is that all convention staff members' salaries are now 100 percent underwritten by the D.C. convention itself.

And although leaders of at least two churches supportive of the SBC's conservative wing indicated they would withdraw support from the D.C. convention as a result of the controversy, Haggray noted several times as many congregations have affiliated with the body since the controversy began.

In an additional move to shore up finances, messengers adopted a motion to set an annual minimum contribution of $500 for cooperating churches. Previously, the convention's constitution required only that member churches be financially supportive of the convention without specifying any required amount.

Posted: 11/07/03

COMPANIONS IN DEATH:
No One Dies Alone

By Inara Verzemnieks

Religion News Service

EUGENE, Ore. (RNS)–And so it has come to this: Alone in a hospital bed, no family or friends to hear the last ragged breaths, the sounds of a lifetime ending.

The nurse with the purple highlights running through her hair and a penchant for quoting Mother Teresa–although she points to the purple as proof she is more Madonna than Teresa–picks up the phone and punches in numbers.

More than 200 people are on her list–a roster of hospital staff–housekeepers, engineers, food service workers, administrators–who have volunteered day and night to come and sit with the dying who have no one else.

Sandra Clarke, a nursing supervisor at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, Ore., started the No One Dies Alone program. Volunteers from the hospital take turns sitting at the bedside of dying individuals who otherwise would have no one. (Motoya Nakamura/RNS Photo)

It has been nearly two years since Sandra Clarke, a nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center, launched the program she calls No One Dies Alone, but already her grass-roots effort has earned national attention, and hospitals around the country are asking how they can replicate her idea.

As baby boomers age, as families shrink and settle far apart and as more people choose to live by themselves, the number of those who have no one to be with them at the end of their lives likely will grow.

Even now, Clarke picks up the phone two or three times a month to arrange for a volunteer to sit with someone who might otherwise die alone.

According to the American Geriatrics Society, the size of the older population will double in the next 30 years. By 2030, one in five people will be 65 or older. At the same time, people are living longer and having fewer children, narrowing the circle of family and friends they can depend on as they age.

More people also are living alone. About one in four households consists of a single person, the U.S. Census Bureau says. Among those 65 and older, it's one in three.

“This is only going to get worse,” said Charles Cefalu, chief of geriatric medicine at Louisiana State University medical school. “It's going to become a significant problem.”

In a hospital, demographic shifts–the signs of families fragmented and far flung–play out in the simplest human terms: An elderly man, slipping away, called weakly to the nurse, “Please sit with me.”

But Clarke was busy, just starting her rounds, with six or seven others who needed her first. It was 1986.

“I'll be right back,” she remembers telling him. She'd meant it, too; she hurried to his room as soon as she could. But he already had died.

“That plagued me,” explained Clarke, 61, a nursing supervisor.

As she walked the hospital hallways, staff streaming by, she wondered: With all these people working here, wouldn't there be someone who had time to sit with the dying who otherwise would have no one?

For several years, Clarke played with her idea. Then one day three years ago, she mentioned it to another nurse. The director of pastoral care overheard Clarke and urged her to write a proposal.

By November 2001, No One Dies Alone was running. And since then, Clarke, an energetic woman who laughs easily and often, the daughter of a professional wrestler turned Hollywood stuntman, has devoted hours to seeing her vision take form.

Most of the patients the program serves are elderly. Many have outlived friends and relatives. A few have been abandoned by family. Some have alienated themselves.

Clarke tells of one man who died with a hospital engineer at his bedside. When the nursing staff called the family to tell them they might want to come soon, they said: “Good riddance. We hate him.”

“Who's to say they weren't right?” Clarke admitted. “But I feel at that point, it's not our time to judge.”

Others among the dying are far from home–new residents or strangers traveling in the area when tragedy strikes, and family can't get to the hospital soon enough.

When the nursing staff learns of someone who has less than 72 hours to live, a “do not resuscitate” order and no one else around, they page Clarke, who gets out her list of volunteers and starts to call.

Anyone who volunteers with No One Dies Alone must be employed at the hospital or have at least six months' experience volunteering there. Everyone attends an hour-long orientation, which covers topics such as how to determine whether someone is in pain and how to tell when someone has died. Volunteers get few instructions, although they are told not to talk about religion unless the patient asks.

Clarke urges volunteers to treat the dying person as they would family or friends. “It has to come from the heart,” she said.

For Penny Jones, who works in hospital admitting, that has meant stroking patients' arms, moistening their lips, covering them when they shiver.

For Jim McFerran, a leadership and employee development specialist, it has meant leaning forward and whispering to an elderly woman, as she drew her last breaths, that she was loved, that she would be missed.

For Jim Graham, 67, retired after years of building homes, it has meant playing soft music and offering stories about his own life. “I tell them I wish we could have talked under different circumstances,” he said, “but we all come to this place.”

Volunteers sign up through a hospital website to spend as little or as much time as they like at a patient's side. Some offer to sit until Clarke can summon someone else. Others volunteer to sit all night.

At every orientation, Clarke–who recently completed a how-to guide for hospitals that want to start their own programs –asks each volunteer why they want to do this.

Some say they had a parent or a grandparent or a sibling who died alone and they want, in their small way, to make up for that. Quite a few say they themselves are afraid of dying alone.

“It's not something for everybody, in the sense that being with somebody who is dying causes you to have to think about what that means to you personally,” said Barry West, who works in information technology at the hospital and helps Clarke run the program. “It's the sort of thing that raises unresolved issues, feelings and questions in the person who volunteers.”

In many ways, it is as much a program for the living.

Before going to sit with a patient, a volunteer picks up a duffel bag from a battered metal filing cabinet near the hospital's main entrance. Inside is a compact disc player, a few discs, including harp music and Mozart symphonies, a Bible, a journal in which volunteers can write their thoughts, and a stack of notecards.

The notecards were a volunteer's idea–a way to relay what happens in the person's final hours.

When a patient dies, a card accompanies the body, so that if anyone should claim it, they might take comfort in knowing that someone was there to mark the end.

Posted: 11/07/03

DOWN HOME:
Letterman's in for tiring, happy time

Comedian David Letterman announced the birth of his first child last week, just a few days before our oldest daughter, Lindsay, turned 20.

Letterman is 56–nine years older than I. If you're a math whiz, you've already figured out I was 29 years younger than Letterman is now when Lindsay joined our family. Her sister, Molly, followed three years and three days later.

So, I'm celebrating Lindsay's 20th and Molly's 17th birthdays this week by counting my blessings.

No matter what else happens in this life, at least I became a father when I was young enough to enjoy, not to mention endure, having babies in the house.

MARV KNOX Editor

Honesty compels me to admit I had it pretty good during Lindsay's and Molly's babyhood. We were blessed so that Joanna, their mama, stayed home. That meant that, nearly all the time, I stayed in bed during the middle-of-the-night feedings.

But I still remember how tired Jo and I were, adjusting to the irregular rhythms of nine-pound crying, burping, spitting, pooping alarm clocks. We walked a marathon every night Lindsay was a baby–walking and patting, patting and walking–trying to get the kid to sleep. Later, I'd be bone-tired from work, and I'd read myself to sleep reciting “Goodnight, Moon” for the 5-millionth time, only to snap awake with a little voice in my ear, “Read it again, Daddy.”

“God was brilliant to devise biology so that mammals have children when they're young,” I thought many times. “Otherwise, they'd never have the energy to survive.”

But now Letterman has his first child at 56. He's already older than any of my grandparents were when I was born. They probably have a nanny for this baby. And the nursery probably is all the way across the mansion from the master bedroom. But the thought of having a baby at 56 still makes me tired.

On the other hand, our first “baby” just crossed the chasm of teenhood, and the second child is only three years and three days behind.

That makes me happy, of course. Raising children is a delight. Watching them become young adults whom you respect and admire and find fascinating is a blessing you can't really appreciate until you experience it.

Every phase of parenthood presents new opportunities and pleasures. That's why I look forward to the coming years, even the so-called empty nest.

Jo and I had a great time before we had children, and I'm sure we'll enjoy the freedom that comes with more control over our calendar.

Still, I can't help but feel a little envious of Letterman. Those years with babies and preschoolers are precious. But maybe by the time I'm his age, I'll be reading “Goodnight, Moon” to my grandkids.

Posted: 11/07/03

EDITORIAL:
What do you have to do to call your church 'Baptist'?

A lawsuit in Georgia has raised a good question: Who owns the rights to a religious name?

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta has sued Mision Catolica: Capilla de la Fe (Catholic Mission: Chapel of Faith), charging the network of Spanish-speaking churches falsely represents itself as Catholic.

“You cannot simply set up whatever church and call yourself 'Roman Catholic.' That's fraud,” archdiocese attorney David Brown declared.

Archdiocese officials claim the Capilla de la Fe churches conduct Mass, trick new immigrants into believing the congregations are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church and “raise considerable funds” trading on the Catholic name.

This situation bursts with irony. On the one hand, the Roman Catholic Church says Capilla de la Fe illegally benefits from using “Catholic” in its name. On the other, more and more churches have dropped “Baptist” from their names, explaining the label is a liability when they try to reach out to people in their communities.

Although threatened by new trends, the name “Baptist” still stands for believer's baptism by immersion, the Bible, religious liberty and missions.

Suppose, however, a church still wants to write “Baptist” on its marquee. What are the absolute minimum standards, beliefs and practices that should qualify a congregation for the name?

Of course, myriad distinctions define Baptist churches. Many of them are quite common to various denominations. Let's set apart those characteristics that have given Baptists their unique perspective, form and personality.

Historically, Baptist conventions themselves have set a low bar, with two primary standards–money and “cooperation.” Both the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention constitutions describe the financial qualifications required for churches to send messengers to the annual meeting, the primary yardstick for defining a church as Southern or Texas Baptist. The constitutions also stipulate that affiliated churches should be “in friendly cooperation” (SBC) or “voluntarily cooperate” (BGCT) with the conventions.

So, strictly speaking, a church can call itself “Baptist” if it gives money to a Baptist convention and in some way supports denominational programs.

But what makes a Baptist church truly Baptist? Here are some traits that have distinguished Baptists for almost 400 years:

Believer's baptism by immersion. This is where we get our name. Baptists historically believe baptism by immersion is a symbol of Christians' obedience to Jesus' command to be baptized; identification with Jesus' death, burial and resurrection for our sins; affirmation of our own death to sin and new life in Christ; and faith in eventual resurrection and eternal fellowship with Christ.

Since we do not believe baptism is necessary for salvation or has power to save, we do not baptize infants to secure their salvation. Our forebears suffered extreme persecution for refusing to baptize their infants, and yet they persevered, wearing their name “Baptist” as a badge of faithfulness.

This belief is threatened on two fronts today. Some churches are baptizing children at increasingly young ages. When children who cannot understand their actions are baptized, the practice borders on pedobaptism or infant baptism. Other churches are urged to negate the importance of believer's baptism and baptism by immersion, primarily through the influence of believers who join from other faiths–some who were baptized as infants and some who were sprinkled–who do not wish to be baptized again as an adult.

Authority of the Bible as God's word. Whatever language they use to describe it, Baptists traditionally have strongly affirmed the Bible as a completely authoritative and trustworthy guide to Christian faith and practice.

The primary challenge to the historic undertanding of the Bible now comes from the right. Some people who claim the name “Baptist” seem to elevate Scripture to the authoritative level of deity, a position seemingly taken by the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement.

The religious-liberty cluster. From our beginnings, Baptists have understood that each soul, every person, is competent to relate directly to God and seek divine guidance. This is why we believe in the priesthood of the believer, the doctrine that each Christian is privileged and responsible to stand before God and needs no intermediary or priest to arbitrate forgiveness of sins and holy wisdom. This is why we practice democratic church governance, because we believe God leads Baptists through the divine direction provided to the believer-priests collectively. A corollary to this is the autonomy of the local church. No ecclesiastical authority reigns over the individual congregation, because, as a gathering of believer-priests, the local church is able to chart its own course under God.

Through these understandings, Baptists historically have been the foremost champions of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. We instinctively know that to be authentic, faith must be free. Coerced faith is not faith at all. Government interference in church matters, and vice-versa, weakens the church and corrupts the government. Baptist history is written with the blood of martyrs who died for these principles. American history is written, in part, with the sweat of Baptists who labored to secure these liberties.

Unfortunately, several forces seek to undermine these principles. One is a denominational tendency toward control that seeks to tell congregations what they can and cannot do and whom God can and cannot call as their pastor. Another is a desire for funding faith-based programs that willfully accept government money, turning a blind eye to the likelihood that all such money comes with government strings attached in the form of regulations and oversight. A third is disdain for the religious beliefs of minority religions to the degree it would disallow them to practice their faith freely.

The priority of missions. With the exception of the hyper-Calvinist Primitive Baptists, Baptists have been global leaders in world missions. We take seriously Christ's command to carry the gospel to “the uttermost parts of the earth.” Even when Baptists divide, the first thing we do is start another missions program.

All kinds of Baptists continue to do all kinds of missions. The chief threat on the horizon is the resurgence of hyper-Calvinists. They claim to be missions-minded, but the logical progression of their theology would lead Baptists away from missions, since God would save whoever God chooses, no matter what people do.

Consistent contrariness. Sadly, Baptists shift toward schism. The first Baptist church endured division, and we have fought ever since. Walter Shurden wrote one of the best Baptist histories, “Not a Silent People,” as a story of denominational discord. Unfortunately, from convention conflict to worship wars, we show few signs of letting up.

Despite this last characteristic, “Baptist” is a good name. It stands for virtues that are vital among the fellowship of the faithful.

–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted: 11/07/03

LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Nov. 16

Christ has given new meaning to 'triumph'

Colossians 2:6-23

By John Duncan

Lakeside Baptist Church, Granbury

The theme of Christ's triumph is a basic belief for Christians. The Apostle Paul penned a letter to the church at Colossae, warning them of deceit and false teaching. He exhorted them to surrender their legalism. He further reminded them of the victory Christ purchased for them. This victory brought abundant life, forgiveness and a new life. Paul condensed his words by painting a word picture of Christ's triumph (2:15).

Triumph

The Greek word Paul used to describe Christ is “triumph” (2:15). The ancients sang a hymn in a procession to Dionysus, the Roman god of wine. We might liken this to a parade where the participants sing as they march. Later, the word referred to a triumphal procession of Roman generals who won military battles. The general defeated enemies in surrounding regions. The Roman army captured prisoners. They loaded the trophies and spoils of war in a caravan. Next, they marched to Rome. A victory celebration ensued.

As the general led his troops toward Rome, crowds gathered on the outskirts of town. The general led his men through the gates and into the streets of Rome. The general rolled into Rome on a two-wheeled chariot pulled by four horses. He glowed as he rode the chariot while dressed in purple and gold. He wore a crown of victory. The crown became a symbol of triumph. The general carried a laurel branch in his right hand and an eagle scepter in the left. These visible tokens were held high as a sign of conquest and power.

Soldiers followed behind displaying the spoils of victory. They arrogantly waved jewelry, trinkets, signs and silver for the onlookers to see. Liberated Romans, former prisoners of war, came next. Captured prisoners were led along as slaves. A pompous parade of dancers, a small group of singers and a jubilant crowd completed the procession.

The historian Josephus told of how Roman citizens decorated the city with garland laurels during a time of triumph. He further related how the Roman emperors and other military leaders of Rome marched in a triumph. The emperors were preceded by soldiers carrying the tokens of victory. Many of Titus' soldiers carried objects from the temple in their conquest of Jerusalem in 66 A.D.

The soldiers held high Jewish candelabras and the golden table. As they filed in front of jubilant Romans, they displayed the Laws of the Jews, scrolls of the Old Covenant. Following closely behind was one of the prizes of the victory in Jerusalem.

Simon the tyrant

This prize was a man named Simon (not Simon Peter). Josephus referred to him as Simon the tyrant, the son of Gioras. Simon had hidden many of his friends in a cave during the attack on Jerusalem. They stayed underground with food and provisions. When their supplies ran out, Simon emerged on the streets of Jerusalem wearing a white frock and a purple robe. He ended up, along with his friends, a captive in Roman hands. Simon was placed in bonds as a cherished prize of victory.

Simon the tyrant was pulled through Rome with a rope around his head. The bystanders mocked and humiliated him. The prize captive was then displayed in front of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome. He was killed as a sacrifice of victory. Upon his death, the crowd shouted for joy. The victory was complete. A feast and celebration then ended the so-called triumph.

How is the triumph of Christ different from that of a Roman general?

Christ's triumph

Christ's triumph differs from a Roman triumph. The Romans came in the pomp and splendor of feast and celebration. Their arrogance not only filled their heads but was on parade to be viewed.

Christ, on the other hand, came in humility. He entered the streets of victory not on a glistening chariot but on a lowly donkey. And while the Roman symbol of triumph was a crown, Christ's symbol of triumph was a cross. Paul alluded to the cross of Christ's triumph in 2:14. Paul clearly saw the cross as the garland laurel symbolic of Christ's victory over sin and the law. In a sense, the cross became the chariot of victory.

The Roman generals repeated their marches of triumph periodically. They did this as new battles arose and as enemies were defeated. Paul declared Christ's triumph as final. There would be no occasion to march again.

Christ's triumph, as indicated by Paul, ends with a hint of gratitude. The only other place in the New Testament where the theme of Christ's triumph appears is 2 Corinthians 2:14. There Paul addressed the Corinthian church with its many troubles. He warned the church of deceit that comes by the sly hand of Satan. Paul reminded the believers of Christ's sacrifice. He wrote words of gratitude and triumph. Paul simplified the Christian response to Christ's triumph as joyful thanksgiving.

At Colossae, triumph meant God's people could be thankful they were complete in Christ (see 2:9-15). Gratitude flowed freely because sins were forgiven in the victorious Christ. Songs of thanksgiving reigned, as believers were no longer chained to the old law. They served Christ as he showed them a new covenant. Words of thanks touched the lips of believers because evil was defeated.

Question for discussion

What has Christ redefined in your life?

Posted: 11/07/03

LifeWay Family Bible Series Lesson for Nov. 16

Complacency can strangle ministry still today

Acts 13:1-52

By David Jenkins

New Hope Baptist Church, Big Sandy

The curse of complacency, of being satisfied with the status quo, has been the greatest enemy of Christ's commission to believers to “go into all the world and preach the gospel.” Even after the Day of Pentecost, the early believers were hesitant to leave Jerusalem and carry the good news of their faith to other regions.

The first inkling of the early church's missionary spirit and outlook came with the missions of Philip to Samaria (Acts 8:5-13) and to the Ethiopian nobleman (8:26-40) and of Peter to Caesarea (10:23-48). Believers, forced to flee Jerusalem after the martyrdom of Stephen, also shared their witness in other places (8:1,4). Luke's record of the church's activity in Acts 13, however, reveals the first account of an organized missionary campaign to the Gentile world.

The birth of a vision

Sometimes God works in unexpected ways to accomplish his purposes. Who would have thought the base of missionary operation would be transferred from the church at Jerusalem, made up predominantly of Jewish believers, to the church at Antioch, where the majority of the Christians were Gentiles?

Throughout the book of Acts, we find traces of discrimination by Jewish Christians toward Gentile believers. Apparently God knew the Jerusalem church never would embrace a Gentile missionary campaign with the openness and enthusiasm of the believers in the Antioch church.

At Antioch were five dynamic, Spirit-filled leaders who were spearheading the work of the church. The church had grown by leaps and bounds, but still the hearts of these men were continually seeking God's leadership in the direction of the church's ministry. They gave themselves to fasting and prayer and thus were sensitive to the Holy Spirit's guidance. They were led to set apart two of their number, Saul and Barnabas, to carry the gospel to the Gentile world.

Any body of believers that sustains a vital relationship with the Lord is going to reproduce itself, just as the branches produce fruit because of their connection to the vine. Saul and Barnabas were sent out with no idea what lay ahead for them. They were armed, however, with the gospel message and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The power of the gospel

From the time Saul and Barnabas landed on the island of Cyprus, they encountered satanic opposition. For the first time, the light of Christ's gospel was penetrating the spiritual darkness of the Gentile world. Naturally, Satan did all in his power to thwart their efforts and to dissuade those who heard them from accepting the truth of their message. After the party left Cyprus, Luke referred to the two leaders as “Paul and Barnabas,” rather than Barnabas and Saul. It seems obvious that Paul became the leader of the mission.

When they arrived in Antioch of Pisidia, Paul was invited to preach in the local synagogue. His sermon was all-inclusive. His introduction was to the men of Israel “and you Gentiles who worship God” (3:16). He began with the sojourn of God's people in Egypt and their wilderness journey to Canaan, the land God had promised them through Abraham. He covered the ministry of the judges and the prophets and explained God's plan in the reign of David. From the descendants of David came the Savior, Jesus.

Led by the Holy Spirit, Paul brought his message to a close by declaring the redemptive mission of Jesus–his crucifixion, followed by his victorious resurrection. He completed his message with the good news that forgiveness of sin was available to all who exercised faith in what Christ had accomplished. He told Jews that they could not be justified by the law of Moses, but only through Christ.

The response of the hearers

Paul's passion, his knowledge of Scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit in his preaching awakened a deep sense of concern in the minds and hearts of both Jews and Gentiles. As the congregation was leaving the synagogue, the people urged Paul to return and preach to them again the next Sabbath. The people followed Paul and Barnabas out of the synagogue, and the two men urged them to “continue in the grace of God” (v. 43).

Again, Satan capitalized on the prejudice of the Jews toward the Gentiles. They were incensed that Paul would include the Gentiles in his invitation to accept God's privileges. Many devout women were swayed by the Jewish propaganda against the apostles. Some of them were wives of government officials. They were used by the Jews to influence their husbands, the chief men of the city, to arrest Paul and Barnabas and expel them from Antioch.

Paul and Barnabas “shook the dust from their feet” as they left the city. This act signified the Jews of Antioch had taken a curse upon themselves by rejecting the gospel and those who had proclaimed it to them. But the irony of it all was that those who had been changed by the gospel “were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (v. 52).

Questions for discussion

What confirmed the Lord's leadership in this missionary endeavor?

How do Christians today allow complacency to hinder the true mission of God's people?

Posted: 11/07/03

FFH stands for wholesome fun for the whole family

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Standard

The popularity of the Christian band FFH has gone “out of this world.”

Space Shuttle Endeavour astronauts took FFH's “Found a Place” album with them on their December 2000 mission. In 1999, FFH wrote and recorded a song used in a Coca-Cola national advertising campaign that aired on 4,000 radio stations. They performed a private concert for Joe Gibbs' NASCAR racing team, and they teamed with the Make a Wish Foundation to perform for a terminally ill child.

By performing halftime concerts at various sporting events, they have unique opportunities to share the message of salvation when people are least expecting to hear about it.

FFH is Jeromy and Jennifer Deibler, Michael Boggs and Brian Smith.

“We love performing at sporting events, because the people are just going to see the game, and they might hang around and say, 'What's this concert all about?'” FFH member Brian Smith explained. “Then, we present the gospel. It's awesome because we know there are people there who have never heard of Jesus before, and we get to tell them about him.”

Wherever FFH performs, they remain true to their convictions and their desire to see lives changed.

Four musical talents make up the group–Jeromy Deibler (lead vocals, guitar and piano) and his wife, Jennifer (vocals), Michael Boggs (guitar and vocals) and Smith (bass, vocals and trumpet).

Smith and Deibler grew up together and began sharing musical gifts with their home church in Pennsylvania.

“Our parents were real involved in the music of the church,” Smith explained. “My mom was the youth choir director. Jeromy's dad was the senior choir director. So, we really didn't have a choice–we had to be in choir. That's kind of where it all started, and we both played in band. Jeromy played drums, and I played trumpet. The music in both families goes way back. Even our grandparents were very musical. But we started getting really interested in music during high school. About the same time, we started FFH.”

Twelve years ago, FFH began with Smith, Deibler and two other guys at a family camp in Lancaster, Pa.

“We just got together two songs for special music at a youth talent show at the camp,” Smith said. “We just did a cappella stuff, and that's kind of how it all started. I went off to college right after high school, and we did weekend shows. We would just pack our bags and head out to do 60 to 70 shows over the summer. When I graduated college in 1996, that's when we felt like it was time to start full-time.

“So, we prayed and prayed about it because that was a big decision. I graduated with a music education degree. I could have become a teacher and had a normal income and led a normal life. But we felt like God was calling us to at least give it a shot. That's when we took that giant leap of faith. It was awesome, because while we knew it was a huge leap of faith, we also knew our parents supported us 100 percent. If we needed any help in any way, we knew our families were there backing us up.”

In 1994, Jeromy met Jennifer in Nashville, where they both were attending the Gospel Music Convention. About a year and a half later, they got married. Shortly after that, one of the original members left FFH, and the group asked her to join.

In 1998, the group met Boggs while he was leading worship at a youth camp in Missouri. “We were there for a concert, and we found out that our guitar player was leaving, so we asked Michael to join,” Smith explained. “That's kind of how the four of us came together.”

Today, FFH has a busy touring schedule. The group is on the road most of the year.

Unlike many bands, catering to a specific age group, FFH concerts are designed for the entire family. “We love to see parents and their kids coming to the concerts,” Smith said. “We've gotten tons of e-mails from parents saying, 'Your music is the only thing we can agree on.'”

Before each concert, FFH prepares spiritually by praying together.

“One thing we always know is that we need to be prayed up before we go on stage,” Smith said. “We especially pray for Jeromy, because he's the one who presents the gospel and gives his testimony. He needs to be covered in prayer because he's the front man out there.”

In their travels, FFH has impacted many lives, but one in particular holds a special place in their hearts. While they were in California, they heard about a man who was dying of cancer. His dying wish was to hear the group perform.

“We found out that 'One of These Days' was his favorite song,” Smith explained. The song says, in part, “One of these days, I'm going to see my Savior face to face.”

“His church asked us if we could somehow stop by and sing during the morning worship service. All this man wanted was to hear us sing. It was awesome how it worked out. We were actually coming through that area on Sunday morning, and so we stopped in San Jose to play in the morning worship. We played a bunch of songs, and we ended with 'One of These Days.'

“The man could hardly stand and had to be in a wheelchair. As we looked down during 'One of These Days,' he was singing every word, and he stood up out of his wheelchair. Just to see that, for the first time, the song really came to life. We realized that while this man was getting very close to seeing 'One of These Days,' he was praising God with his life.”

Posted: 11/07/03

Prof calls for raising up the sacred in burial acts

By Chris Meehan

Religion News Service

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (RNS) –Burial rituals of the Tlingit Indians in Alaska contain all the sacred and ancient elements sorely lacking in many modern funerals, according to theologian Thomas Long.

Long, professor of preaching in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, believes American society is missing that ongoing sense of the sacred and its meaning in death.

What happens at funerals and burials speaks of the faith of a culture, professor Thomas Long says.

“We are seeing deep changes in our social fabric,” Long said during a recent symposium for funeral directors, clergy and hospice workers.

In funerals and death rituals, Long said, society “needs a sacred sense of community and of the person being very sacred. … But these things are under attack and being eroded in our mobile culture.”

“The underlying meaning of how we look at death has shifted,” Long said. “Instead of seeing a dead, sacred person as traveling to a new land accompanied the last mile by the community, we now see the deceased as dead and going nowhere.”

As part of his research on the relationship between worship and Christian practices, Long traveled to Prince of Wales Island in Alaska to view firsthand the death rituals of Native Americans.

He chose the Tlingit tribe because members hold funerals in a manner that dates back hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

There are two bands of the tribe, one known as the Ravens and the other as the Eagles. Each takes on everyday duties for members of the other band when a death occurs.

“As soon as word goes out that an Eagle died, the Ravens take care of the mundane aspects of life. This makes it possible for the Eagles to have the space they need,” Long said. Roles are reversed when a Raven dies.

Evident in this is the tight, communal nature of the Tlingits' funeral rites, which include:

Cleansing and preparation of the body by family members.

Transportation of the body in a simple coffin to the community hall, where residents gather for an all-night vigil.

Taking the coffin the next day to a church for a Christian funeral service.

After the service, driving the coffin to the water's edge, where the deceased is loaded into a boat and accompanied by the tribe's chief and the minister to a burial island.

A year later, holding a ceremony at which a tombstone is placed on the grave.

“This is not simply a series of steps,” Long said. “This is actually a piece of community drama. Properly understood, these activities are derived out of profound values.”

Those values reflect a belief that the deceased is a sacred person of worth who “is traveling to a new land and who the community is accompanying the last mile of the way.”

The Tlingits act out their communal drama to honor the dead person but not just as someone moving into another realm of being. They also believe the body itself and not just the spirit has depth and purpose.

They show in their rituals “that the dead person is someone who took up space,” Long said. “They had children and jobs. They occupied ground.”

Long was joined in the presentation by essayist, poet and funeral director Thomas Lynch and Detroit-area funeral director David Techner.

“Death is an opportunity to help people get in touch with their own faith, to discuss the great mystery and the afterlife,” said Techner, a producer of the Emmy Award-winning documentary “Generation to Generation–Jewish Families Talk about Death.”

Techner criticized those who fail to include children in the process of the death and burial of a parent, sibling, grandparent or close friend.

Children understand much more about death or are able to as long as adults speak to them in terms that they can grasp, he said.

“We need to start making funerals meaningful for these kids,” Techner said. “Remember that children are part of a community. They grieve. They mourn. They have questions just like adults.”

Lynch decried the funeral rituals, or lack of them, he often encounters today. He said families call him from another city, ask him to cremate a dead parent and then to ship the ashes.

Techner described a couple who wanted to make sure the funeral went fast so they could go on vacation.

“For the first time in the history of our culture, we've got the warm fuzzies and the ways to deal with mindless grief,” but where does that leave us? Lynch asked.

Yet another sign of the times is the growing trend of holding memorial services in the weeks or months after the death. When this happens, there is no coffin or container of ashes in church.

“Would you do a baptism without the baby there?” Lynch asked. “The most convenient thing to do when someone dies is nothing at all.”

The changing landscape–the almost cavalier way in which some people deal with death–is likely to require new but meaningful rituals, Long said.

What they may be, he's not sure. But of one thing he is certain: “As ministers, funeral directors and hospice workers, we need to speak to people, pray with them and indicate our friendship by our presence. We need to talk to them about the holy responsibility we have of taking care of the dead.”

Posted: 11/07/03

Georgia Methodist home settles discrimination case

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

ATLANTA (ABP)–Critics of government funding for faith-based initiatives have declared victory in a Georgia case involving a Methodist child-care facility.

The state of Georgia and United Methodist Children's Home in Decatur reached separate agreements in a case involving two contentious issues–how public funds are spent at religious social-service providers and whether those providers are exempt from employment discrimination laws.

The latest settlement, announced Nov. 5, prevents the children's home from discriminating against employees or clients on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. It also prevents the home from attempting to steer clients who express questions about their own sexual orientation toward religious programs or other therapy designed to “convert” them into heterosexuals.

An earlier settlement required any organizations–including religious ones–that contract with the Georgia Department of Human Resources to separate religious activities from secular, state-funded activities in their programs.

Lambda Legal, a gay-rights organization, filed the suit on behalf of two Georgia taxpayers, Aimee Bellmore and Alan Yorker.

Bellmore was a youth counselor at the home who was fired when administrators discovered she is a lesbian. Yorker, a psychotherapist, was interviewing for a job at the home when his interviewer cut the session short upon discovering he is Jewish.

Both the employment-discrimination issue and the issue of providing taxpayer funding directly to churches and other pervasively religious organizations have been flashpoints in the controversy over President Bush's plan to provide government funding to religious service providers.

Many social conservatives have long supported government funding of faith-based initiatives. However, supporters of strict separation between church and state oppose the idea as a violation of the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion.

Greg Nevins, Lambda Legal's senior staff attorney, said the lawsuit was both a legal victory for his clients and good for public education on the issue.

“This forms a baseline,” he said. “If an organization is motivated by faith and they are going to take money from the government, they can't take that money and discriminate in regards either to whom they provide the services or whom they hire.”

Derrick Dickey, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue said the settlement means “all Department of Human Resources contracts will provide that the faith-based organization has a clear division between its religious and secular activities, and that also in the hiring practices that there will be a distinction in the activities between the religious hiring and the secular hiring.”

But the settlement doesn't change the governor's view “that direct funding of secular activities of faith-based organizations is permissible under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” Dickey said.

Posted: 11/07/03

Hall completes triple crown with inauguration at Howard Payne

BROWNWOOD–Lanny Hall made history Oct. 17 when he was inaugurated as Howard Payne University's 18th president and became the first person to serve as president of three Texas Baptist universities.

Previously, Hall was president of Wayland Baptist University and president and chancellor of Hardin-Simmons University.

“Howard Payne is a special place, and I am here for a purpose,” Hall told the 850 people attending the inauguration ceremony.

He pledged to work to increase enrollment to 2,000 students, continue providing technology enhancements in academic programs, build the institution's endowment and raise funds for scholarships, student housing and other facilities.

Howard Payne trustee Rudy Camacho, first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, greets President Hall at the inauguration. (Dumas Photography Photos)

“I truly believe our university stands at the threshold of a new period of hope, growth and opportunity,” Hall said.

The day's events began with a prayer service at 8 a.m. in the University Chapel. The inauguration ceremony took place at 2:30 p.m. on the lawn north of Old Main Tower Plaza and was followed by a community reception.

Hall, who assumed his duties as president in March, is in the 32nd year of his career in education and government. In addition to his positions in higher education, Hall has served as a public school teacher, a congressional aide, deputy executive secretary of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and, for five years, a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

In the Texas House, he served on the Appropriations, Higher Education, Public Education, Rules and Resolutions, and Transportation committees. During the 68th Session, he served as chairman for budget and oversight of the Transportation Committee. While in the Legislature, he wrote legislation in the areas of transportation, education and health care.

Hall's current service at HPU marks the third time he has served as an administrator at the Brownwood school. He served as executive vice president and chief academic officer from 1986 to 1989 and returned for five weeks during the summer of 2002 to serve as acting president.

Lanny Hall and his wife, Carol.

He first visited the campus in 1964 when, as a ninth-grade student, he attended a student council workshop.

Bud Stephens, pastor of Lifeway Bible Church and an HPU trustee, presided at the one-hour prayer service. He has known Hall for 17 years. Stephens was a graduate student at Hardin-Simmons University while Hall served as president there.

The inauguration was held at Old Main Tower Plaza.

Prayers were led by campus leaders and friends–Carrie Dubuque, Steve McMeans, Frankie Rainey and Robert Smith.

A devotional message on prayer was delivered by Donald Williford, associate vice president for academic affairs and professor of New Testament at Hardin-Simmons University. Williford is a 1970 graduate of HPU.

Donnie Auvenshine, vice president for academic affairs, presided at the afternoon inaugural. Delegates from 60 colleges and universities were recognized.

Congratulatory greetings were delivered by eight individuals: David Fair, a member of the Brownwood City Council; Victor Carrillo, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission; Keith Bruce, director of institutional ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Texas; Bob Riley, president of East Texas Baptist University; Jeremy Barnes, student body president; Glenda Huff, director of financial aid; Elizabeth Wallace, president of the faculty assembly; and Greg Collins, president of the HPU Alumni Association.

HPU Chancellor Don Newbury presented the chancellor's charge. Trustee Richard Jackson offered a prayer for the president.

Trustee Chairman Walter Wilson presided at the formal investiture, presenting Hall with the presidential medallion.