Posted: 11/07/03

Prof says BF&M needed for Trinity view

FORT WORTH (BP)–One word can make all the difference between voicing an incorrect view of God and confessing the God of the Bible, said Malcolm Yarnell, assistant dean of theological studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

That is precisely why changes to the Baptist Faith & Message, the Southern Baptist Convention's statement of beliefs, were necessary, Yarnell said in chapel Oct. 30.

“For a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I wondered whether a number of evangelicals were actually trinitarian,” he said. “The Trinity was notably absent from many evangelical pulpits for much of the 20th century … even among Baptists. The 1963 Baptist Faith & Message could easily have been affirmed by modalists.”

Modalism is the belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are “modes” of God's existence rather than true and coeternal persons capable of interacting with one another.

Early church councils, Yarnell said, rejected this heresy, but it still lives on today in numerous places–even among some Southern Baptists in the last century.

The 1963 Baptist Faith & Message noted that, “The eternal God reveals himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.”

“Fortunately, those who revised the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message stuck in one word that would make it impossible for a heretic to affirm it,” Yarnell said. “If you left it as it was, you only have the economic trinity but no essential Trinity. But the committee added one word, the word 'triune.'”

The Baptist Faith & Message now reads, “The eternal triune God reveals himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.”

Posted: 11/07/03

Court ruling on 'under God' will matter either way

By Kristen Campbell

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–The Supreme Court's decision to consider whether the 1954 addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance is constitutional has religious leaders weighing the possible impact of a court ruling on religious liberty.

The challenge of Michael Newdow, an atheist who objected to recitations of the pledge at his daughter's California public school, received national attention in 2002 when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Congress violated the First Amendment when it added the words “under God.”

In taking the case, the court will engage in a debate older than the nation itself.

The ramifications of its decision would affect the law in almost every state, according to Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice.

The struggle to articulate and safeguard the nation's ideals of religious liberties never has been easy. But in recent years, as Americans have asked judges to define and protect rights constituents believe are articulated in the First Amendment, the battle has grown more emotional.

In the end, some of the war's spoils may not amount to much.

Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., said he expects the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals' court decision unanimously.

“It seems to me highly unlikely to impossible that the court will reverse decades of thinking by justices, even though there is no Supreme Court case upholding the pledge,” Haynes said.

“There are many cases that have dicta, or have expressions of opinion by justices about the pledge, about other references to God, such as 'In God We Trust' or 'The Star Spangled Banner.' … Generally, these have been cited as ceremonial deism. And in some cases, justices have even said they have lost any religious significance they might have had. … They are no longer really religious expressions as much as they are sort of historic affirmations of our national identity and so forth.”

Haynes finds the situation ironic.

“Religious people, in my view, win little when they win the right to keep religion as long as it isn't meaningful,” he said. “Efforts to push for acknowledgment of God or religion by the state often end in doing more to harm authentic faith or religious expression than to enhance it.”

But Sekulow said, “It just would be a sad day for this country if we have to remove a phrase that actually arises out of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.”

In his dedication of the Pennsylvania military cemetery, Lincoln said: “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Lincoln's use of religious rhetoric during a time of national crisis is far from unusual.

“When the nation feels very threatened, when there's high anxiety about the state of the nation and enemies from within and from without threatening the nation, there is always, really, in our history a kind of return to this affirmation of the United States as a nation under God to somehow assuage the anxiety, to somehow recover our strength,” Haynes said.

Such motivations may have played a part in adding the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in the first place.

In the midst of Cold War concerns about political enemies some lawmakers described as “godless communists,” the Knights of Columbus encouraged Congress to amend the pledge to include the words “under God.”

In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower approved the change and stated, “From this day forward, the millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.”

If the Supreme Court affirms the decision rendered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, other national expressions of religious sentiment would undoubtedly be challenged, Sekulow and Haynes agreed.

“The political fallout would be profound,” Haynes said. “There would be such a backlash in the country.”

What's more, Haynes said, it could create an environment in which some might seek to amend the First Amendment in an effort to make clear that government can acknowledge God. Such action is unprecedented, Haynes said, and could weaken the country's commitment to religious liberty.

Even those Americans who don't want government involved in religion see these expressions as part of the nation's heritage and identity, Haynes said.

“Taking a stance that basically sanitizes public language, public discourse, of any religious reference is a mistake, as much of a mistake as trying to establish a particular religious confession as the religion of the nation,” said Christopher Viscardi, chairman of the philosophy and theology division at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala.

“If we get into the mindset of forbidding whatever somebody finds offensive, I think the intent as well as the functionality of the Constitution will be lost.”

Posted: 11/07/03

Virginians may withhold from Averett

By Robert Dilday

Virginia Religious Herald

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)–Virginia Baptists will be asked to withhold about $350,000 they planned to contribute to Averett University next year until a dispute over homosexuality and biblical interpretation can be resolved.

The Baptist General Association of Virginia's budget committee has amended its 2004 budget recommendation, asking messengers at the BGAV's annual meeting this month to escrow Averett's allocation “until such time as the (BGAV) covenant committee … can reach an agreement with the university as to its future relationship” with the BGAV.

The budget committee recommends the money be released to Averett in April 2004 if a “resolution of our differences can be achieved by that time.” Otherwise, the budget committee will propose at the BGAV annual meeting in November 2004 a reallocation of the money.

The 144-year-old Averett has longstanding ties with the BGAV. Last year, the BGAV contributed about $450,000 to the university, most of it for scholarships for students from churches affiliated with the BGAV. The state association nominates about one-fourth of Averett's trustees.

But the Danville, Va., university drew the ire of some Virginia Baptists in August when John Laughlin, chairman of its religion department, wrote an article in a local newspaper endorsing the recent action of the Episcopal Church to ordain an openly homosexual bishop and criticizing a literal method of interpreting the Bible. In September, John Shelby Spong, a controversial retired Episcopal bishop, lectured on Averett's campus, reportedly saying that the God who is revealed in a literal reading of Scripture is “immoral” and “unbelievable.”

The comments are “contrary to stated core values of Virginia Baptists,” said John Upton, BGAV excutive director.

The Virginia Baptist Mission Board's executive committee sharply rebuked Averett Sept. 9, declaring, “We … express our strong dismay and disagreement at the tone and content of public comments by Dr. Laughlin on homosexuality and the nature of Scripture, which were published in the Danville Register and Bee … . Furthermore, we are disappointed in Averett University's decision to host an appearance by Bishop John Shelby Spong to speak to the community and students.”

In a resolution adopted Oct. 24, Averett's board of trustees expressed regret at “any perception that Averett University has diverged from its commitment to being Virginia's flagship Christian university.”

But it added, “The board continues to feel strongly that the individual views of any single member of the academic community are the views of that individual alone and neither speak for nor reflect the views and values of the faculty, administration, board of trustees or Averett University.”

Posted: 11/07/03

Wayland students back on the air with news show

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW–It's 3 p.m. on Thursday, and Paul Finley is giving the springs in an outdated office chair a workout with his nervous energy.

Rocking quickly and tapping his fingers anxiously on the control desk in front of him, Finley bounces questions around the bustling control room and into his headset microphone, making sure all parties are ready to begin.

News anchors E.J. Martinez and Kira Ingle prepare to go live to tape with the newscast from Wayland's television studio on the Plainview campus.

With everyone in place, Finley points a finger to his left, cuing the video operator to begin the introduction. A photo collage comes up on the screen, and the audio controller starts the music, cuing the anchors to begin their introductions.

Just a minute in, the tape featuring a recorded interview lags, and Finley calls the whole process to a halt. A few takes later, they're back on track and well into the newscast. But time is ticking away, and Finley's slight rocking says he won't really be able to relax until the last fade out.

Welcome to the world of television news. Even as a freshman at Wayland Baptist University, Finley has become familiar with the details of newscasts, having worked a few years at an Amarillo news station just out of high school.

But this is not a network station, and his cohorts are not professional anchors and cameramen. They're all students, getting experience in television production and a crash course in patience and diligence.

A project of Wayland's mass communication department, the weekly newscasts began airing a month ago and are seen on WIN-TV, Plainview cable channel 6, the Plainview affiliate of FamilyNet, on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Fridays at 4:30 p.m. The show features news from the campus as well as city and national news, with sports and profiles on Wayland faculty.

The 30-minute newscast is filmed, edited and staged completely within the Wayland campus. A working studio located in the Harral Arts Complex is home to the casts' two anchors, seniors E.J. Martinez of Mesa, Ariz., and Kira Ingle of Little Elm, and the camera operators, Tino Garcia, a sophomore from Plainview, and Curtis Beeman, a sophomore from Lovington, N.M.

Director Paul Finley takes the helm in the control room during a taping of Wayland's weekly newscast.

In an adjoining room, separated by a large glass window, Finley sits at the control desk, while Daniel Coutinho, a sophomore from Komoros, operates the teleprompter and senior Dean Forest operates the video tape decks. Jason DeGray works the audio controls at the back of the room, while Paul Sutton, a freshman from Abernathy, puts a final read on his sports report from a nearby desk. Steve Long, assistant professor of mass communication at Wayland, oversees the newscast as adviser.

“The newscast is primarily put on by students from my production class, and there are about 10 students involved altogether,” Long said. “Our journalism students also help gather and write stories, and we edit all the packages for stories together during the week.”

The newscast is the first regular attempt at such a project in nearly 20 years, Long said, and he's excited to see current students get involved.

“Back in the 1980s, they did a newscast regularly. They were trying to do it on a daily basis, though, and I think they just burned themselves out on it,” Long said. “Every year, I've brought it up to our students, and when we mention what's involved with it, I don't get much interest.”

This year, that changed. Long said Finley and Sutton became interested in the often-daunting project last spring and began talking it up to other students. The two spent the better part of the summer working on ideas for the newscast and getting the studio and equipment in line with their needs.

“We have all this stuff here and felt like we should do something with it,” Finley said. “If we're going to have a mass communication department, it just needs to be done.”

Two recent donations of used cameras and editing equipment–from First Baptist Church of Lubbock and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary–helped beef up the studio resources.

The experience has opened the eyes of students, who are learning exactly what is required in producing television news and the time commitment necessary to make it work on a college campus.

Posted: 11/07/03

Weekday education brings unchurched to the church

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Non-Christians are walking in and out the doors of the church every week through church weekday education ministry, according to Ann Parnell, executive director of the Texas Baptist Church Weekday Education Association.

About 75 percent of the families served through church child-care and education programs do not attend any church, according to the association's research. Typically, such efforts include preschools, before- and after-school care, full-day care and Parents' Day Out programs.

While non-believers may be reluctant to darken church doors for worship services or discipleship groups, they are bringing their children to church-based care programs in droves, Parnell reported.

Proper church weekday education programs provide child care that working parents need during the day, she continued. Each program should be licensed, Parnell said, and she encourages churches to go beyond governmental safety requirements.

“With more mothers moving into the workforce in the last 30 years, more families needed care,” she said. “The churches stepped up to care for those children. I see it as responding to a trend. Where would children be if churches didn't provide loving, nurturing environments for them?”

And more congregations seem to be responding to this need, she said. The association's mailing list has grown from 700 to more than 1,800 churches, and more are joining regularly.

The association provides training seminars that count as educational hours licensed child-care workers must have. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary offers a certificate program for weekday educators. Employees of church weekday education programs are now eligible for benefits through the Southern Baptist Convention Annuity Board.

Spanish-speaking congregations also are getting involved, Parnell said. The association has developed some Spanish resources and plans on creating more.

Church size should not be a barrier to providing a weekday education program, she noted. Depending on enrollment, a congregation can start a program with as little as one room and two people.

“It's not just a thing big churches do,” Parnell affirmed.

Karen Fowler, the association's regional assistant in West Texas, said the ministry can be tough some days, but “just one little child running down the hall giving you a hug makes it all worth it.”

Church weekday education is not simply a care program, Parnell stressed, saying workers are “laying the foundation” for future Christians. By encouraging children to trust Christian caregivers, workers are stacking the building blocks of one day trusting Jesus, she added.

The association encourages churches to give each child a Bible as they enter kindergarten.

Through church weekday education, children and adults are becoming Christians and families are becoming involved in churches, Parnell said. This spiritual aspect sets apart Baptist programs from secular childcare efforts, Fowler added.

For more information, contact the Texas Baptist Church Weekday Education Association at (800) 475-5851.

Posted: 11/07/03

Youth will look to athletes as role models, Sturm says

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

ARLINGTON–Christians can raise up athletes as role models if they push through negative media stereotypes to spotlight people acting out their faith, said Bob Sturm, a Dallas sports-radio talk show host.

The media encourages an image of athletes as rule-breaking thugs by focusing on negative stories such as the Kobe Bryant criminal case and Dennis Rodman's antics, Sturm said at the Youth Ministry Conclave, a Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored training event.

“One of the travesties is that the good story is so boring that it is never told,” said Sturm, who is a Christian.

Despite the prevalent image, youth are going to look up to athletes, he advised. Posters will adorn their rooms. They will purchase a soft drink or sneaker because of an endorsement from their favorite star.

“To a kid, they are not God-like, but they are idols,” Sturm said. “They can do nothing wrong. Whatever they tell you to buy, you buy.”

Looking up to people is a fact of life, he added. Youth are going to want to be like someone they see, athlete or not. It is a matter of whom that person will be.

“Your kids are going to idolize people,” he affirmed. “There are people they are going to pattern their lives after. We would like it if they got all their role models from the Bible, but it's not true.”

Christians must push through the negative images to find athletes who act out their faith by donating their time and money to causes, starting team chapel services and speaking openly about their beliefs, Sturm argued.

He urged youth workers to subscribe to magazines like Sports Spectrum, which highlights Christian athletes. Posters of these athletes can be displayed in Sunday School classes. Athletes such as David Robinson, Reggie White and Roger Staubach are prime examples of believers in the sports world, he added.

“There are a lot of great guys out there who believe the same thing you do,” Sturm said.

The difficult part of raising up athletes as models of faith is that youth leaders do not know whether the athlete's faith is genuine, Sturm noted. Society has a hard time accepting people have truly changed and turned to God.

Be assured the media is looking for self-professed Christians to fail, Sturm warned, so if they stumble, the media will cover it.

“We get very cynical because a lot of people who get in trouble, especially in the sports world, play the God card,” he explained.

Posted: 11/07/03

Road to youth evangelism ministry
passed through rural Texas paths

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Standard

GRAND PRAIRIE–After graduating from Texas Tech University, Keith Roberson was eager to sink his teeth into ministry. Instead, he found himself delivering dental products all over the Texas Panhandle.

“I drove an 11-hour route, three times a week, delivering teeth to the greater Panhandle of Texas,” he said. “But it was a most humbling year and God-ordained. I had hours alone in a car to pray, listen, worship and learn about waiting on Jesus. I learned more about God's definition of success, ministry and servanthood that year than I could have ever possibly imagined.”

Roberson knew he was called to vocational ministry, but he also believed God wanted him to stay in Lubbock after graduation. The problem was, he had no vocational ministry opportunities and no immediate options for theological education.

The time of waiting became a time of preparation.

Youth evangelist Keith Roberson (center), shown with his brother, Craig Roberson, and recording artist Shane Barnard, works through Texas-based Waiting Room Ministries. Roberson is among a growing number of youth evangelists, youth motivational speakers and youth worship leaders used by churches for camps and special events. These itinerant youth workers represent yet another way youth ministry is changing today.

Eventually, he began serving in a college ministry in Lubbock, where he worked for two years as college pastor. Then he joined with Waiting Room Ministries, which is based in Grand Prairie.

The 25-year-old Lubbock native now draws upon his experience in prayer, patience and perseverance as he speaks to youth across the country.

He describes a “burning desire to see students fall passionately in love with Jesus Christ.”

“I work with Waiting Room Ministries to spread a passion for the beauty and majesty of Jesus Christ,” he said. “I do that primarily by traveling and speaking to students ranging from junior high to college.”

He draws upon his own experiences as a way to be relevant to his audience, he said. “I never preach about something unless I have in some way experienced it, felt it or wrestled with it. Students are desperately looking for something real.

“One of the greatest things about working with students is that they are so often uninhibited in their worship,” he added. “This worship is where God's beauty is most exhibited to me. Watching students in genuine worship is so refreshing and always challenging.”

Through Waiting Room Ministries, he works with recording artists Shane Everett and Shane Barnard, who has been a friend since ninth grade. Roberson's brother, Craig, also is the worship band's manager.

These friends and Matt Chandler, pastor of Highland Village First Baptist Church in Lewisville, have profoundly influenced his ministry, Roberson said.

Now, Roberson really is sinking his teeth into ministry, with recent speaking engagements at places like Texas Tech, Dallas Baptist University, Baptist youth camps and Hawaii Baptist Academy.

“I love talking about Jesus,” he said. “When I speak in front of students, I feel like I'm busting at the seams inside. When someone is speaking with passion and conviction, I think people perk up. We want to feel and experience something real. When people see that from the pulpit, I think it stirs them to long for that same passion. We give passions to so many things. I just aim to direct those passions to the only place that will fully satisfy that inner craving.”

Posted: 11/07/03

By any and all names, youth work is changing

By Toby Druin

Editor Emeritus

He, and sometimes she, has had many titles–youth worker, youth leader, youth director, often youth and music director or other combinations, youth minister or minister to youth, student minister or minister to students and now, in many instances, youth pastor.

When Third Baptist Church of St. Louis called a person to work with its youth in 1937, believed to be the first such action by a Southern Baptist church, he was called “youth director.” Now with 5,000 to 6,000 serving Baptist churches full time–2,240 of them in Texas–and another 11,000 serving in part-time or volunteer capacities, he or she is most often known as the youth minister.

At First Baptist Church of Waxahachie, Minister to Students Gary Chadwick, 41, has 22 years' experience in youth ministry. He expresses a long-term commitment to working with youth, although he realizes his role may change in the future to become a mentor and teacher to younger youth ministers.

Once such a person might have been called to a church or called out of a church simply to give the young people something to do–to keep them too busy to sin. The youth minister often was someone who could play a guitar, organize some games and keep the teens busy enough at Bible study that they stayed out of trouble or, at least, out of sight and sound of their parents.

Today, in most churches, much more is expected.

“We now see youth ministers as equippers, mobilizers, as the champions of a team of adults who are called to ministry with kids,” said Richard Ross, professor of student ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

“In the past, the youth minister was the key element in every youth activity, in every youth trip, and other adults simply supported him or her. We are trying to turn that 180 degrees to where the youth minister supports other adults in their ministry with young people.”

Family ministers

“Today's youth minister can rightly be called a 'family minister,'” said Phil Briggs, distinguished professor of collegiate and student ministry at Southwestern Seminary.

“And the youth ministry position may be redefined as family ministry with a focus on students because of the emphasis on parent training,” he continued. “You don't touch a lot of teens unless you touch their homes. Many pastors now want family ministers with training in youth ministry.”

By “family” ministers, Briggs, Ross and their colleague, Wes Black, also professor of student ministry at Southwestern, mean men and women who work with the total church family that is involved with youth–the youth themselves, the adults who work with them and the parents of the youth.

The ideal program, Ross said, is one where a youth minister spends about a third of his time with students, a third with the parents and a third with teachers of youth.

“There have been several shifts in how schools prepare youth ministers,” he said. “Now there is a stronger focus on the youth minister's role with parents. Years ago, there was the perception that he just worked with the teens themselves. Now we realize he can have a much greater impact by reaching the teens' homes and parents.”

Training the called

Southwestern Seminary hired Philip Harris as the first professor of youth education at a Southern Baptist Convention seminary in 1949. Now, all six SBC seminaries have professors in the field, as do many colleges. Howard Payne University for many years has offered a major in youth ministry.

Youth ministry is second only to international missions as the preferred area of service indicated by students at Southwestern, said Briggs, who noted that he averages a call a day from churches seeking a youth minister.

Enrollment at Southwestern has remained somewhat level, between 100 and 150 students, in the student ministry concentration, 30 percent of whom are women.

Among Baptists seeking graduate training in youth ministry, the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries–and particularly Southwestern–continue to hold a corner on the market.

Although many new outlets for theological education have sprung up among Baptists in the last two decades, few of them offer graduate-level concentrations in youth ministry.

Truett Seminary at Baylor University is considering a new concentration in youth and student ministry within the master of divinity degree, said Don Mattingly, who teaches some youth ministry related courses there. “We know we're behind on this, but we're working on it.”

Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University offers a master of arts in family ministry and a family ministry concentration within the master of divinity degree. Neither is uniquely geared for youth ministry.

On an undergraduate level, Howard Payne University continues to offer a vibrant concentration in youth ministry, with more than 50 students currently enrolled in the youth ministry major, said Chuck Gartmann, who oversees the HPU program. As at Southwestern Seminary, about 30 percent are women.

The HPU program offers “a broad education ministry degree with an emphasis on youth ministry,” Gartmann said. “Students have to complete a core curriculum in ministry, which includes classes in biblical studies, practical ministry studies and general religious education studies, in addition to classes required for youth ministry.”

Some students who complete the undergraduate program go directly into youth ministry or are already directing a church youth program when they graduate, but Gartmann said the youth ministry degree is not promoted as a terminal program.

“We want to prepare students for future study at the graduate level,” he said. “We have students who feel it is enough, but we do not perceive it to be.”

Despite changing patterns of training required by churches for the youth ministers they hire, there remains a market for youth ministry education at the seminary level, Black said. “These are people who definitely sense a call to youth ministry and when they graduate will seek a youth ministry position or other youth area.”

Tique Hamilton, a graduate of the HPU program, has been youth minister at Potosi Baptist Church since June 2002. He earlier served an internship at First Baptist Church of Brownwood.

He came to Potosi initially to fill an interim position on Wednesdays and Sundays, but it has become full time. His biggest challenge, he said, is trying to stay up with the youth culture, even though he is fresh out of college and only 23. “So many things have changed with computers and music,” he said.

He is fortunate that many of the parents of his youth also are the youth leaders, which makes it easier to plan. He is focusing on discipleship and leadership training to help his youth become more evangelistic and able to take over leadership roles.

Hamilton intends to go on to Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University for a master's degree and then on to a doctorate in youth ministry. He's in it for a career, he added.

Career youth ministers?

Careers in youth ministry are the exception rather than the rule. Gartmann said he tells youth ministers who claim it is a lifetime calling to find a church where they can serve and stay there.

“From my experience and research,” he said, “not many youth ministers who are over 50 are receiving many calls to change churches. I know several youth ministers who are over 50, but they have stayed in their churches for many years.”

Ross, however, said he knew of several youth ministers who had reached retirement age and many others who are in their 50s.

“The way you do youth ministry obviously has to shift and modify across the decades,” Ross said, “but it is possible. I was the youth minister in a local church for 30 unbroken years and the last years were much richer than the early years.

“Even in terms of relationships with teens, an older youth minister can have a significant impact. Young people today mostly have holes in their hearts because of non-existent or broken relationships in their homes. They are desperate to have a significant relationship with adults.

“When a middle-aged adult offers unfailing love, absolute acceptance and affirms the beautiful parts of a teen's life and encourages them, they will over time open their hearts. It's not automatic, but an older youth minister can build relationships with teens, and they can do it for a lifetime.”

At 41, and after 22 years in youth ministry, Gary Chadwick, whose title is minister to students at First Baptist Church of Waxahachie, has a long-term commitment to working with youth. But he sees his future ultimately pointing toward teaching youth ministers.

A native of Goldsboro, N.C., he is a graduate of Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C., and earned a master of arts degree in Christian education at Southwestern Seminary, where he now is working on a doctor of philosophy degree.

“Youth ministry is where God called me,” said Chadwick, who has a son and two daughters. “It is my heartbeat, my passion.”

He is drawn to the “energy and vibrance” seen in the transformed lives of teens, he said. “Unlike adults who are saved, teens are willing to let go and get excited” about what has happened to them.

His focus is on youth, Chadwick said, and he spends about 40 percent of his time with them on an individual basis or in group settings. But he tries to spend that much or more time with adult leaders of the youth, many of whom are parents of the youth, preparing them to teach and getting them involved. The balance of the time is spent in the “drudge work” of administering the youth program.

Chadwick believes a good youth program will balance discipleship and evangelism, but it must have goals. “When we have fellowship, worship or Bible study, we want to increase our knowledge. All our activities are focused on our objectives.”

Changing landscape

His ministry has changed over the 22 years, Chadwick acknowledged.

“When I started, the kids were available; there was little competition for their time. I was at their schools almost as much as I was at church. Now that is very difficult.

“But one of the biggest changes, one of the most important, is that the self esteem of the average teen has absolutely plummeted. Teens are being forced to excel at everything and never feel anything is good enough. I am in a constant process of building them up and letting them see themselves as God sees them.”

Ministry has become complicated, Chadwick said, because of school and social demands on his youth. They have an abundance of money, and many options open to them on how and where to spend their time.

“Finding a free night in the summer was almost impossible,” he said. “Almost our entire junior class was involved in summer school preparing for college. Homework consumed them when they were not in class. Nevertheless, we managed to take 41 on a mission trip to Kentucky.”

Chadwick said he wished his education had included more Bible and biblical languages, counseling and administration and that his early years as a youth minister had been spent under the tutelage of an older youth minister.

“I definitely would suggest that if a youth minister is not going to seminary that he should work as an associate youth minister first,” he said.

Stepping stone?

Briggs and Black voiced opposition to using youth ministry as a stepping stone to the pastorate.

“It is wrong for someone to have a 'preacher-in-waiting' mentality,” Black said. “I think it is wrong, practically, because the man who says he will be a youth minister for two to three years and then move on to the pastorate too often doesn't get the proper training, experience or hone the skills to do a good job. It is also wrong theologically. If God has called you to be a pastor, you need to get on with being a pastor.”

Ministers who come to the point of leaving youth ministry for the pastorate, Briggs said, “have not identified their pilgrimage, defined their sense of calling and often are not equipped emotionally or developmentally to stay with youth.”

“They may also have other ego needs,” he added. “There is the desire to be elevated in their career. The pastor is at the top of the heap. He makes more money and has more authority.”

The ideal, Ross observed, would be for every Baptist church to have a fully funded minister of youth, “but that is an impractical desire. In the real world, churches have to call ministers in combination positions and some to serve part-time and even some to be volunteers. And there will always be some people in positions they know to be somewhat temporary, including some who know their long-term call is to be a pastor.

“Rather than negating the validity of that service,” he added, “I simply would call on those who are doing youth ministry for some short period to do it with quality. For example, it would be so important for that person to build strong ministries and an organization to do Bible study with teens rather than relying on his speaking ability to be the only source of discipleship. He also should try to strongly impact the parents and partner with them rather than focusing entirely on the teens.

“It is so important to build an authentic, deep relationship with teens because most ministry happens in the context of relationships,” Ross continued. “It is a temptation when you know the situation is short-term to remain aloof from those you serve. That would be a major mistake in youth ministry. We call on those who will do youth ministry as a stepping stone to the pastorate to do their youth ministry with authenticity for whatever period they serve.”

Longer tenures

That churches have begun to realize the importance of youth ministry is indicated in increasing salaries. In many, the youth minister is no longer the lowest paid member of the church staff.

“Pastors and personnel committees who have become weary of revolving doors where youth ministers arrive and leave, breaking the hearts of the kids, now are sensing it would be wise to call someone who will stay and put down roots,” Ross explained.

“That long term tenure requires a larger salary, and in some churches it is parents who are pushing for that shift because they have seen the weakness of immature leadership and leadership that changes too quickly. There are now some youth ministers making in the $60,000 range, and as they move up, others will move up as well.”

The characteristics of a good-quality youth minister, Briggs said, include a passion for kids. “He has to love students. He has to be affirming. As long as he has to deal with teens, he will be dealing with an immature commodity, and he has to be able to put up with that immaturity.”

Another key to a good youth ministry, Ross said, is “a willingness to listen carefully to the hopes and dreams and thoughts of the parents and adult leadership team.”

“I consistently find youth ministers being fired or losing all effectiveness because they will not listen and respond to thoughts about how youth ministry should be done.

“I like to compare a good youth ministry with a butter maker,” Ross added. “You agitate the 'milk,' allowing thoughts of the people to rise and inform you about what good youth ministry should be. Many people have hopes and dreams of what a good ministry is. The youth minister gives shape and form to that and moves it into something like a square of butter, which he hands back to the church and asks, 'Is this where you want us to go?' Leaders prosper who do that for the church. Those who arrive with their own agenda, with their own ministry and who pay no attention to deep-seated and sometimes volatile thoughts of leaders and parents will find their ministry coming to an end.”

“Good youth ministry,” Black added, “takes someone who is a good planner, who can not only think about what to do Sunday night after church but what a seventh grader should know about the Bible, his church and Christianity when he graduates high school.

“It takes a person who knows the Bible and current literature in the field. He needs to be an educator, a happy person with a good sense of humor and in good shape mentally and physically.

“And he must see youth ministry as a part of the local church's ministry,” Black said. “You can't separate youth ministry from what God is doing through the church. It has to be in relationship with the church.”

Posted: 11/07/03

Religious involvement helps parents of teens

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

Teenagers who live in families that are religiously involved report stronger relationships between their parents than other teens, according to a new study.

The research, funded by the Lilly Endowment, was conducted by Christian Smith and Phillip Kim of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

It examined data reported by early adolescents, ages 12 to 14, who evaluated the relationship between their parents on 12 variables. On all 12 points, teens who live in families that are religiously involved reported better relations between their parents.

Only 11 percent of the youth in the representative national sample live in families classified as heavily involved in religion. Families received that designation if they participated in some form of religious expression, such as attending church, praying or reading Scriptures together, at least five days a week.

The reported quality of relationships between parents fell off some for youth in families that are somewhat religiously involved. Any religious involvement, even one day a week, showed better relationships between parents on average than in families with no religious involvement.

Worship attendance alone does not produce the same effect on families as deeper religious involvement, the researchers noted.

Daily prayer shows a positive correlation to better relationships between parents, however. “The 52 percent of youth with a parent who prays more than once a day are often more likely than youth whose parents pray daily or less to report better relationships between their mothers and fathers,” the study summary said.

Teens in religiously involved families reported better relations between their parents in that each parent encourages the other, expresses love to each other and compromises with each other. Parents in religiously involved homes are less likely to blame each other, insult each other or scream at each other.

Bible Study Resources

Posted: 11/05/03

Four Southwestern faculty resign
to join new Carroll Institute

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

DALLAS–Four faculty members have resigned from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to become the inaugural faculty of the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute.

However, founders insist the new seminary has not been formed in reaction to changing leadership at Southwestern and will not seek to draw students away from Southwestern or other traditional seminaries.

Bruce Corley, former dean of theology at Southwestern and former faculty member at Baylor University's Truett Seminary, has resigned as a New Testament professor at Southwestern and will become president of the Carroll Institute, announced Russell Dilday, former Southwestern president and an organizer of the new enterprise.

Corley will be joined by Jim Spivey, Budd Smith and Stan Moore.

Spivey, who has taught church history 16 years at Southwestern, will teach historical theology at the Carroll Institute. At Southwestern, he also has been administrative dean for the seminary's Houston campus.

Smith, who has taught Christian education at Southwestern for 24 years, will teach in that same field in his new assignment. At Southwestern, he also has directed the Oxford Studies Program.

Moore, a former missionary to Brazil, has taught church music at Southwestern for 16 years. He currently is acting dean of the School of Church Music there.

Dilday and Scotty Gray, a retired administrator at Southwestern, announced the first faculty appointments at a news conference Nov. 4 at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.

Park Cities will become the first of what organizers hope will become 100 teaching churches–the backbone of the Carroll Institute's concept. Numerous other churches have expressed interest in the concept, but no other agreements have been finalized, Dilday said.

However, churches currently served by the 1,400 doctor of philosophy graduates of Southwestern Seminary are "the kind of churches we're targeting," he added.

Neither Dilday nor Gray will draw compensation from the seminary, although Dilday has been given the honorary title of chancellor. Gray has served as director of the seminary during its initial development.

Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church, explained the concept of a teaching church tied to seminary studies will provide a more practical education than an institutional seminary.

"This is a new way of doing theological education that at the same time returns us to our roots," Denison said. He and the other organizers cited the original vision of B.H. Carroll, who as pastor of First Baptist Church in Waco founded the precursor to Southwestern Seminary as a department of Baylor University. Carroll became the founding president of Southwestern when it separated from Baylor and moved to Fort Worth in the early 20th century.

This happened in the context of educating ministerial students within the local church, Denison said. "We are returning to his vision and advancing his vision."

Ironically, when Baylor University formed Truett Seminary in 1991, it was hailed as a fulfillment of Carroll's vision of placing a seminary within a university. More recently, Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson in his inaugural address pledged to tie Southwestern to the founding vision of Carroll.

Although Carroll's name and vision have been tapped in various ways, this is the first time an institution has been named for him.

The Carroll Institute is needed, organizers said, because of its different approach to theological education and because existing seminaries are not producing enough trained ministers to meet demands.

"In the past 20 years, the number of Southern Baptist churches has grown by 17 percent, but the number of ministers has grown only 10 percent," explained a document distributed to reporters. "The number of SBC seminary graduates per church has declined 30 percent. The number of SBC seminary graduates per member of SBC churches has declined 45 percent."

Although the institute will have a small headquarters somewhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, its primary work will be done through affiliated teaching churches. Ideally, organizers said, students will be engaged in ministry roles with those and other churches concurrent with their studies.

"Carroll Institute will not aim at recruiting students who desire to attend one of the residential seminaries already in existence," according to information given to reporters. "It will recruit students who desire to continue ministering in their own local congregations while pursuing theological education at a teaching church very near their home base."

Instruction will be delivered in four ways, the organizers said:

Traditional classroom settings with face-to-face interaction between teachers and students.

Live electronic instruction via the Internet, akin to distance-learning concepts in use in many universities.

Online classes.

Electronic correspondence studies.

Classes will begin in fall 2004, and tuition will cost $100 per credit hour. The rate will be the same for both Southern Baptist and non-Southern Baptist students.

The business plan calls for reaching 500 to 1,000 students enrolled in the Metroplex alone, with 200 to 300 at each additional teaching church site.

The institute will develop both a physical library and a virtual library, Dilday and Gray said. Students also will access other existing libraries in or near where they live.

The institute's primary collection received an initial boost from Eddie Belle Newport, widow of John Newport, longtime academic vice president at Southwestern. The 4,892-volume Newport library will be housed at the institute's headquarters.

In addition, the Carroll Institute library will include 500 volumes donated by Lois Hendricks, widow of William Hendricks, longtime theology professor at Southwestern Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Christian University's Brite Divinity School.

Six other retired faculty members are "in the process of making their libraries available to us," reported Carl Wrotenbery, retired director of libraries at Southwestern.

Full implementation of the Carroll Institute's business plan, including endowments, will require $35 million to $50 million, Gray said. The initial cost is estimated at $8 million to $10 million.

Required funding for the first year will be about $400,000, Dilday said. To date, about half that amount has been raised, he added, including one large gift and a number of smaller and mid-sized gifts.

The Carroll Institute plans to remain an autonomous Baptist institution that will "seek to build collaborative and collegial relationships with all Southern Baptists, with the Southern Baptist denomination as a whole, with state conventions and with local churches," the press statement said.

Dilday and Denison insisted the Carroll Institute will not serve only moderate Baptist churches disaffected by the rightward shift in the SBC.

"We do not see this as a moderate seminary," Denison said, adding that the institute will not become "politically identified."

Information given to reporters said the "sole authority for faith, practice and teaching" in the institute will be "Jesus Christ, whose will is revealed in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The confessional position of Carroll Institute is the consensus of opinion concerning those articles of the Christian faith and practice that have been most surely held and expressed in historic Baptist principles and practices."

Articles of incorporation filed with the Texas Secretary of State May 1 list three men as directors of the corporation: Gray, Herbert Howard and William Latham, all of Fort Worth.

A strategic plan document lists 16 people as members of the strategic planning group that has birthed the Carroll Institute. In addition to Dilday, Denison, Gray, Howard and Latham, they are Tom Chism, Tom Coston, Robert Feather, Tom Hill, Cheri Jordan, Hilda Moffett, Joan Trew, Fran Wilson, Michael Wright, Wrotenbery and Jerry Yowell.

The institute also announced a website–www.bhcti.org.

A formal launch of the institution, along with announcements about a headquarters location and more teaching churches, will occur in January, Dilday said.

Posted 11/04/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Grace, hope & marriage

By Brett Younger

In September, my family went to a Texas Rangers baseball game. It was late in the season, so the Rangers were out of the pennant race. (That would have also been true in May.) In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Rangers were losing 3-0. The pitcher for Kansas City, Paul Abbott, who reminds no one of Nolan Ryan, had a no-hitter going.

Then the announcer said with his first hint of excitement, “Would you please turn your attention to the Jumbotron for a special message?” In big letters, it said, “Britney, will you marry me? John.” The camera zoomed in on section 30 to show John kneeling in front of Britney.

Brett Younger

The crowd started chanting, “Say yes,” but I couldn’t bring myself to join in. I’ve performed dozens of ceremonies to join Britneys and Johns who didn’t stay joined. I tried to start a new chant: ”Think hard.” But it was too late. Britney may, however, be having second thoughts by now. Would you marry someone who takes it no more seriously than to propose at a ballgame?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently ran an article giving advice on how to propose. If your bride-to-be is shy, don’t go for a big show. (I’m thinking a Rangers game wouldn’t qualify as a big show.) If you plan to pop the question on Valentine’s Day, don’t go to a romantic restaurant, or you may find yourself upstaged by someone else with the same idea. Think twice about surprising your girl by tucking the ring inside a dessert. This seems self-explanatory. None of the suggestions encouraged the prospective couple to think about what it means to be married.

You might guess that the Bible would be a good place to look for help on how to propose, but you would be wrong. Have you read how husbands find wives in Scripture? Boaz buys some land and gets a wife as part of the deal. God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute. King Solomon thought quantity was the way to go. In the Book of Judges, the men in the tribe of Benjamin are instructed to go to a party and hide in the tall grass. When the women come out to dance, they are to grab one and carry her off. One law in Leviticus says that if your brother dies and you’re a male then you have to marry his widow. Some of you are now imagining that, and the hair is standing up on the back of your neck.

But somehow, couples keep making it to the church. The relatives gather. The organist plays. The mothers nervously light the candles. The minister asks, “Who brings the blessing of these families?” The father of the bride struggles to remember his line. The minister speaks, knowing that no one is listening. Someone reads Kahlil Gibran or an Apache blessing that no Apache would recognize. The minister asks, “Will you?” The handsome prince says, “I will.” The beautiful princess says, “I will.” They promise for better, worse, richer, poorer, joy, sorrow, sickness and health, to love and to cherish, as long as they both shall live. They kiss, take a lot of pictures and leave under a shower of birdseed.

The romantic giddiness hasn’t completely gone away when new questions start popping into their heads. Why didn’t he help with the wedding? Why is the garage his? Why doesn’t he ever answer the phone? Why does he expect credit for every little thing he does around the house? Why does he get to keep his last name?

Why does she keep talking about the wedding? Why is the bedroom hers? Why is she on the phone so much? Why doesn’t she give me a little credit for helping around the house? Why didn’t she understand that when I said she could paint the kitchen any color, I meant any color as long as it’s white?

Married life includes lots of decisions—these are hypothetical—I’m making these up out of thin air—about vacations (the gorgeous relaxing mountains or the humidity infested beach), which movie to rent (another in a long line of dull romantic comedies or something intelligent) and where to set the thermostat at night (where normal people are comfortable or where people raised in the Sahara desert might feel at home). The couple quickly learns why J-Lo and Ben are having such a tough time.

When the romance of marriage starts to fade, the romance of family often begins to brighten. Visions dance in their heads of reading to their children, peewee soccer and homemade cookies after school. The romantic picture is two children, a dog, a spotless house and roast for dinner every Sunday.

Soon the couple goes to the maternity ward. The relatives gather again. They kiss, take a lot of pictures and leave with a bundle of joy.

It takes awhile, but eventually their picture-perfect family starts looking less like Ozzie and Harriet and more like Ozzy Osbourne. The house isn’t always spotless. The dog is depressed. They have Arby’s roast beef sandwiches on Sunday.

Two-year-olds throw temper tantrums, 9-year-olds hate to do their homework, and 16-year-olds don’t want to hang out with their parents on Friday night.

On the way home from the parent/child dedication ceremony for his baby brother, Jason sobs in the backseat of the car. His father asks him three times, “What’s wrong?” Finally the boy replies, “The preacher said my brother should be brought up in a Christian home, but I want us to stay together.”

Families are stressed out and time-crunched. It’s no surprise that people are afraid to get married. Over the past 10 years, the number of unmarried couples living together in the United States has risen from 3 million to 5 1/2 million. Between 1970 and 1996, the divorce rate in America quadrupled (AM/FM Audio Magazine for Family Ministry, Baylor University, 2003, issue 13). Almost one in two marriages ends in divorce. Sixty percent of second marriages fail, and 75 percent of third marriages bite the dust (Art Toalston, “Communication: Key to a Lasting Marriage,” Facts and Trends, November 1995, 6-7). Twenty-one percent of husbands and 11 percent of wives admit to being unfaithful. Experts think the real numbers are much higher. (James MacDowell, Seven Words to Change Your Family, Chicago: Moody Press, 2002, 142).

Family life is hard. St. Paul had a point when he argued that single life is superior and encouraged single people to stay single. It would be helpful if at some point in the Gospels, Jesus said, “Here are three things that will keep a family together,” but that’s not what we get.

Here’s what Jesus says about family life: “Whoever does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”

Then there was the time someone said, “Jesus, your mother and brothers are outside asking for you.” Jesus replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

Jesus said, “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”

We wish Jesus would say one sentence about the family that you could put in a Hallmark card, but Jesus sends no roses or chocolates.

What Jesus did do was come down hard on being true to our commitments, like in a story in Mark 10 that smart pastors have learned to ignore. The Pharisees come to Jesus itching for a fight. A battle is raging between two schools of rabbinic thought on the issue of divorce. One school (the Hillel) says a husband may dismiss his wife for virtually any offense. If she burns the toast, he can send her packing. Another school (the Shammai) takes a stricter position, saying that a husband may divorce his wife only on the grounds of marital infidelity. A lack of commitment is winning the day. Husbands are casually abandoning their wives. The women are left with terrible choices (prostitution or begging), but the Pharisees aren’t there out of concern for the family.

Jesus replies, “I’m not nearly as interested in what the rabbis say as I am in what God says.” God says his dream for marriage is that husband and wife will be faithful to one another. And by extension, God’s plan is that parents will be faithful to children, children will be faithful to parents, and brothers will be faithful to sisters. Jesus responds not with a new legalism, but with a call for justice. His point isn’t that divorce is always wrong, but that God is always serious about families.

Jesus refuses to discuss what’s legally permissible but insists on talking about what God intends. Later, the surprised disciples ask Jesus again just how serious he is about this. Jesus’ words were mercy to the abandoned women of his day, but they don’t sound like grace to modern ears.

For the many of us here who are divorced and remarried, Jesus’ words may seem like burning coals thrown on the heads of those who are already hurting.

It’s important to listen carefully. Jesus is clear that divorce is permitted, even as he insists on faithfulness in all our relationships. God’s hopes should never be used as a weapon against those who suffer cruelty in a marriage that is far from anything God intended. Jesus is not saying that a husband and wife should stay together no matter what, not saying that an abused wife should continue to be abused, or that if she gets a second chance she shouldn’t find a new husband who will be kind to her. The word of mercy is the hope of beginning again.

My first semester at seminary in David Garland’s New Testament class, we were studying the Sermon on the Mount. One morning a student came in who was obviously upset. He’d gotten a call from his parents the night before. They were getting a divorce. During the preceding class, we had talked about Jesus’ words, “If you divorce and remarry you commit adultery.” The young man said: “The more I read Jesus’ words, the more distressed I become. There’s no loophole here, no way around it.”

The teacher was silent for a moment: “You’re absolutely right. There’s no loophole for your parents. In fact, there’s no loophole for any of us. Jesus hates it when families fall apart. Jesus also said, ‘You have heard it said, do not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who lusts warrants condemnation.’”

Then the professor asked if everyone who had ever lusted would stand up. We all stood as he said, “That’s the point that Jesus was always trying to make. We’re all in the same boat—single, married, divorced and remarried. We all fall short, and God offers grace.”

God calls on families to hold together and offers forgiveness when they don’t. God brings healing and hope to all of us.

What we’d like are blueprints for the perfect home. What God gives us is love to stay together and mercy when we fail.

What God gives us is the wisdom to see that there are no perfect families. We are challenged again and again by our real differences with the people to whom we are closest.

What God gives us is the grace to be kind long after the wedding bells have stopped ringing, to be as polite to one another as we are to our friends, and to joyfully fulfill our vows to those we love.

Being in a family is hard, but God knows that and gives us grace and hope.

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth