Posted: 10/31/03

Worship is as important as breathing, Gaddy says

By Marv Knox

Editor

ABILENE–God demands worship because it is good for people, not because God needs to be worshipped, Welton Gaddy told a Hardin-Simmons University audience.

“Worship is as essential to life as breathing and as life-giving as breath,” Gaddy told participants in HSU's conference on music and worship.

Gaddy is pastor for preaching and worship at Northminster Baptist Church in Monroe, La., and executive director of the Interfaith Alliance in Washington. The conference was sponsored by Hardin-Simmons' Logsdon School of Theology and School of Music.

When people learn God commands worship, they appropriately ask why, he acknowledged. For example, a Texas newspaper reporter once asked if God is so egotistical that God has to receive praise and adoration all the time.

“This is a good question,” Gaddy conceded, stressing worship benefits the worshipper, not God.

“God calls on us to worship because through worship, we attain our best nature. Through worship, we do what we were created to do,” he said. “So, God is not insisting on praise for God's sake, … but for us to be the individuals we were created to be.”

Consequently, people cannot fulfill their human mandate without worshipping God, he said.

Gaddy defined worship as “a personal response to the call of God.”

“True worship is a voluntary act of willful praise given to God by persons created in the image of God and devoted to doing the will of God,” he said.

Emphasizing the voluntary nature of worship, Gaddy added: “Worship is laced with freedom. … Worship is not about divine puppetry.”

For worship to be authentic, God leaves humans free to obey or disobey the command to worship.

“It is out of freedom that worship takes on moral and ethical significance,” he added. “God summons into worship stammering, stuttering pilgrims; frustrated, frightened believers; awkward, inexperienced disciples; ashamed, burdened sinners.”

From those worshippers, “God is not looking for a good show, but for freely and sincerely offered praise …, praise that delights God and nurtures maturity among those offering it,” he said.

Worship is the church's most important activity, and it's biblically and historically linked inseparably to church fellowship, Gaddy noted.

“Practically, you cannot build a church on worship alone, but you cannot have a church apart from regular experiences of meaningful, God-directed worship.”

And worship is oriented toward God, not toward the worshippers, he insisted, citing the understanding of worship described by Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard.

If worship is compared to a drama, most people think of the ministers as the actors, God as the off-stage prompter of the action and the congregation as the audience, Kierkegaard explained. In reality, however, the ministers are the prompters, members of the congregation are the actors and God is the audience.

“Worship has only one purpose, just as worship has only one audience,” Gaddy said. “God alone is worthy of worship. …

“The church is to exist as a homeland of the soul into which people come to worship to give glory to God, pleasing God and thus allowing them to be the people whom God has called them and created them to be.”

Posted: 10/31/03

Churches called to excellence,
regardless of worship styles

By Marv Knox

Editor

ABILENE–Commitment to excellence–not performance of any particular style of music–provides the key to worship, Tom Stoker stressed during a conference on music and worship at Hardin-Simmons University.

“Do you want to change the world? Help people find a way to worship God. Help them find excellence,” urged Stoker, a congregational worship consultant and former Baptist minister of music.

Hardin-Simmons' Logsdon School of Theology and School of Music sponsored the music/worship conference on the Abilene campus.

Stoker acknowledged conflict over which style of music to use in worship has divided countless congregations, but he stressed attitudes that fuel the conflict miss the point of worship.

“Does God want us to fight over worship? Should it be divisive?” he asked. “No, God wants us to be loving, for God is love. It is only in a loving, trusting environment that we will approach the throne of grace and touch God in worship.”

Quoting the Apostle Paul, Stoker said Christians are to seek excellence in their worship.

“We are to concentrate on being our best selves, to think about being better than we are,” he said. “And who determines what is our best? That is where the dialogue must begin. To achieve excellence, we must first begin to talk and trust.

“We must reclaim our Baptist view of our relationship with God. … And if we want to hear from God, the best way to do so is to listen to as many different people's opinions as possible before moving forward.”

True worship of God begins with “dialogue with each other,” he noted.

“We must discover each other's talents and abilities, and then we must agree on the kind of worship that will occur in our (church) house based on our resources, architectural structures of our worship spaces, and the talents and abilities of the congregation.”

The answer to the worship question will be as unique as the congregation, Stoker reported, noting it depends upon the talents and abilities of church members themselves.

“It may be a praise team, it may be a choir, it may be worshipping with the sound of guitar, or organ, or piano, or it may involve an orchestra,” he said. “It may include those who dance, or sculpt, or paint or speak through drama.”

In seeking the worship styles that are right for an individual church, leaders should avoid consumerism that turns a service into an occasion to fulfill the whims and desires of members, he warned.

“We must be careful about turning Sunday worship into just another opportunity to say, 'Give me some of that,'” he said, citing William Willimon, dean of the chapel at Duke University.

Instead, worship should help people know Jesus and meet the needs Jesus places in worshippers' lives, Stoker said. “Plug people into Jesus, and the rest will take care of itself. Helping people meet Jesus will take care of it. And that requires excellence–excellent planning and excellent execution.”

Churches can incorporate several steps to facilitate worship excellence, he suggested. They include creating teams to assist ministers in worship planning, building a worship-resource library, “finding music the congregation can sing,” seeking texts that confront issues in people's lives.

When worship is “done right,” it enables people to experience God's love, Stoker said.

But one particular style is not better than another in accomplishing that feat, he added. “It is not that the worship of the post-modern church is better than the worship of yesterday's church. It is that we must offer to God our best efforts.”

That means varying worship and avoiding the same ritual every week, as well as not merely copying worship from another church, he said.

Churches also must beware making worship into “a commodity that the consumers drive us to create,” he said. “We must not give people what they want. We must be aware of what they need. We must help people meet God.

“My greatest concern about some seeker-driven worship is not that we don't need to make worship accessible to people. Worship should be accessible. But we must not allow a seeker to shape our view of God. The church must do this, and not all of the encounters with God will be easy, user-friendly ones.”

Churches should avoid “the latest, greatest fad” in worship, he cautioned, urging worship planners to incorporate the strengths of their heritage but also respond to needs of today.

“Speak new words, but don't forget the old language,” he said. “Find new symbols, but bring the old symbols along: That we might walk together toward the throne of grace. That we might walk together to encounter this living, loving wonderful God.”

Posted: 10/17/03

Hispanic Baptist Theological School family reunion SAN ANTONIO–More than 200 people attended homecoming at Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio Oct. 4. The annual event highlighted the diversity of the student body, especially at a food exhibit, where culinary delights from a dozen nations were represented. In the photo above, left, a Japanese student demonstrates how to layer the dish of noodles and soup he has prepared. Students and alumni presented displays of native attire and crafts as well. The day concluded with an authentic game of “football,” meaning soccer. The game pitted Mexico against “the world.” At the end of the allotted time, the score was tied, so everyone left a winner. A highlight of the day was the dunking booth (right), where children and adults alike lined up to take a chance at immersing HBTS President Albert Reyes. Several, including Reyes' own children, were successful. Featured speakers for the day were two HBTS alumni who now serve as mission workers in country closed to traditional missionaries. Their names could not be identified due to security concerns. Their college-age daughter, who now plans a career in missions herself, offered assurance to families considering missions service. “When God calls a couple to missions, he also calls their children, and he will equip your children to walk alongside you in living out your call,” she said. “Don't let concern for your children keep you from following God's will.”

Posted: 10/27/03

WorldconneX mission network names leader

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–Nearly a year after the Baptist General Convention of Texas voted to create a new missions network, the previously unnamed entity has both an identity and a staff leader.

Meeting in Dallas Oct. 23, the network's board adopted "WorldconneX" as its corporate name and elected BGCT Associate Executive Director Bill Tinsley to lead the new entity, effective Dec. 1.

The 32-member board, with 27 present, met for more than three and a half hours in executive session before publicly announcing Tinsley as the inaugural leader of WorldconneX.

During the open portion of its meeting, the board of trustees formally approved the WorldconneX name, adopted articles of incorporation and bylaws and named a seven-member administrative committee to work with the new leader.

"WorldconneX reflects what we are about as a network, and that is connecting God's people with mission opportunities and resources both here in Texas and the world beyond. It also reflects the connection of Christ to the world," said Justice Anderson, board chairman.

Anderson will serve on the board's administrative committee with Albert Reyes of San Antonio, Keith Parks of Richardson, Carol Childress of Rockwall, Leon Miller of Kerrville, Frankie Harvey of Nacogdoches and Mike Stroope of Dublin.

Eschewing terms such as "chief executive officer" or "executive director," the board of trustees chose simply to describe Tinsley's role as "network leader."

"From the beginning, we have asked the Holy Spirit to be our CEO, and our search for a network leader could not have ended better," Anderson said. "Bill Tinsley is a deeply spiritual, mission-minded individual with leadership experience at every level of Baptist life. He is a superb choice."

In accepting the position, Tinsley said the challenge facing WorldconneX is "stepping beyond the traditional methods" of missions.

"God is moving in the emerging generation and among the laity with unprecedented power. Our task is to connect thousands of people in whose hearts and minds God is giving visions and dream to serve him around the world in bold and creative ways," Tinsley said.

"To say I have all the answers about how we will do this and where it will take us would be misleading. The only way we could have all the answers would be to do what we have done before. We are moving into new regions and new areas where we will be challenged to learn together."

Reyes, chairman of the board's search committee, said Tinsley possesses the characteristics, abilities, skills, experience and education the network needs in its inaugural leader.

"More importantly, we believe Bill has the vision and heart of a missional servant leader," said Reyes, president of Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio and vice chairman of the WorldconneX board.

"The increasing chaos of our world, its resulting mission opportunities and the rapidly changing Baptist environment are the context in which the new mission network must operate. We cannot do business as usual, yet neither can we abandon our heritage," Reyes said in the committee's official recommendation to the board.

"We believe Bill Tinsley and the team he will assemble can link the missions passion of Baptists that is inherent in our past with new approaches to connecting God's people in the cause of missions that will shape our future."

The search committee received more than 50 resumes and letters of recommendation for the leader's post before narrowing the field of candidates and recommending Tinsley. In addition to Reyes, other search committee members were Childress, Karen Hatley of Lorena, James Heflin of Abilene, Kyle Reese of San Angelo, Paul Swinney of Tyler and Dennis Young of Houston.

In presenting the recommendation of the search committee, Reyes characterized Tinsley as an "authentic spiritual leader," a "relational team leader" and a "lifelong missional leader."

Tinsley, 56, has been BGCT associate executive director for two years. Previously, he was executive director of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention from 1993 to 2001.

The committee's recommendation also noted that Tinsley is a product of Texas Baptist churches and institutions, having grown up as the son of a deacon at First Baptist Church of Corsicana, where he was licensed to the ministry. The committee also pointed to his "local, state and national connections with Baptist and other Christian leaders."

"He understands well the diversity, dynamics and changing landscape of Baptist life in the 21st century," the recommendation stated.

Tinsley graduated from Baylor University in Waco and earned master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

He was pastor of churches in Bremond, Mexia and Franklin before becoming founding pastor of First Baptist Church in The Colony. He went on to serve four years on the BGCT church extension staff before accepting the director of missions post in Denton Baptist Association, where he served from 1986 to 1993.

Tinsley and his wife, Jacqueline, live in Rockwall, where they are members of Lake Pointe Church, a congregation dually aligned with the BGCT and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. They have three children and three grandchildren.

At a reception after the board meeting, representatives of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas, Texas Baptist Men and various BGCT-related missions ministries greeted the new leader. Tinsley told the group, "I believe this represents a fulfillment of God's missions call on my life."

"We do not intend to be a reactionary replacement of traditional Baptist missionary entities but want to offer an additional way to help churches who want to administer and support their own missions personnel and projects," Anderson said. "We're not trying to create another traditional missions agency to compete with the existing ones. We want to be a broker of missions relationships and resources."

Posted: 10/27/03

Methodist ad for Times Square rejected

By Kevin Eckstrom

Religion News Service

NEW YORK (RNS)–A $30,000 deal to bring a glitzy United Methodist ad campaign to the heart of Times Square has been rejected because of its religious content.

The United Methodist Church's "Igniting Ministry" campaign signed a deal to show a 30-second video spot on a 22-story electronic billboard on the Reuters building.

But after the signing, Reuters rejected the contract because its policies prohibit ads for products or services that are "pornographic, political, religious, libelous, misleading or deceptive in nature."

Church officials blasted the global media company for displaying ads for beer but rejecting messages about how people "can bring order and peace to their lives."

"Reuters is an international communications company that has decided it will be the arbiter of what the public sees and hears," said Larry Hollon, chief executive of the church's Nashville, Tenn.-based communications agency.

The 11-screen billboard is located at the corner of West 43rd Street and Seventh Avenue in the heart of the Great White Way. Reuters says advertisements on its 7,000 square feet of signage are seen by 1.5 million people per day.

The deal, part of a $20 million "open hearts, open minds, open doors" ad campaign, was to include a 30-second video segment called "The Gift" that was to be shown 10 times daily starting Nov. 15. The ad would have been seen during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Reuters spokeswoman Samantha Topping said the contract was negotiated by the Toronto-based Outdoor Television Network Limited advertising agency.

"They have our policies," she said. "Why they didn't enforce them is something we're looking into."

Ron Walker, CEO of the Toronto ad company, apologized to the church and offered to help find space in Times Square to offer "the same message to the same audience in a similar medium."

"Reuters did not choose to make the United Methodist Church an outcast," he told United Methodist News Service. "It was purely an oversight on our part. We apologize to the church."

The Times Square ad was to be the second high-profile Big Apple billing for the 8.4 million-member denomination. The church displayed an ad near Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that said, "Fear is not the only thing at work in the world today."

Hollon accepted the apology but said the issue is not settled.

"A policy that arbitrarily shuts out religious organizations from speaking in the public marketplace is discriminatory," he said. "I will continue to speak out against such discrimination."

Posted: 10/27/03

Stanley interview suggests he
disagrees with SBC position on women

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

FORT WORTH–For the second time, Charles Stanley has been quoted in the secular press disagreeing with the Southern Baptist Convention's position on women. And for the second time, he contends he was misquoted.

In an interview with veteran religion reporter Jim Jones of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Stanley said the SBC issuing a mandate that wives should be graciously submissive to their husbands was "ridiculous."

And the Star-Telegram indicated the former SBC president doesn't support the convention's prohibition on women serving as pastors.

The article was published in the newspaper's Oct. 18 issue. It was based on an interview given during Stanley's visit to Texas to promote his latest book, "Finding Peace: God's Promise of a Life Free from Regret, Anxiety and Fear."

Six days later, the SBC's Baptist Press issued lengthy coverage of Stanley's remarks, including his assertion that his words had been twisted.

However, Jones released a transcript of the tape-recorded interview that verified the words he had quoted Stanley as saying.

According to that transcript, Jones asked Stanley about some other Christian denominations that allow women to serve as pastors.

Stanley responded: "Yeah, and for example in other countries of the world where men are not taking responsibility, women are beginning to be pastors of churches. The women are rising up in different places. So you can't go to somebody (in) like India or Japan or wherever it is and tell some woman who is preaching the gospel, people are being saved, lives are being changed, big churches (are being established) and say, 'You can't do that.' My feeling is this: You have to leave God's calling to whomever God calls. Period. And I just say no. I think getting into that was a mistake. What happened was it just stirred up anger and resentment toward Baptists that probably people hadn't even thought about Baptists before. And you know, if a woman is going to be submissive, she's not going to be submissive because of the Southern Baptist Convention. So it's just ridiculous."

According to the transcript, Jones then asked: "Speaking of submissive, what do think about that issue? You know, they talk about every verse of the Bible where (you) have statements on submission."

Stanley answered: "Well, Jesus said to honor one another. Submissive doesn't mean doormat. Submissive means should submit yourselves one to another. That husband and wives understand each others' needs, try to meet each others' needs. The Bible talks about unity and oneness. If I love my wife and she loves me, we are going to come to some kind of agreement. But the emphasis is usually, 'OK, the man is up here and the woman is down here.' And so, that's the message that gets sent no matter what you believe. So my feeling is that we don't need to discuss the issue."

Jones asked further: "So you disagree on that issue with Southern Baptists?"

Stanley responded: "My opinion was it wasn't necessary for it to come up."

In the Baptist Press coverage, Stanley contends Jones "did not quote me accurately, and I noticed he sort of rearranged a few things."

The quotes attributed to Stanley in the Star-Telegram story, however, appear essentially as verified by Jones' transcript.

Stanley insisted to Baptist Press he does not disagree with other conservative SBC presidents and leaders on theological issues, as the story seems to indicate.

Further, he said of Jones: "He asked me specifically, which he did not include in his article, 'Would you vote for a lady to be the pastor of a church, a woman?' I said, 'No, I would not.' I said, 'That's my personal opinion, and I certainly respect other people's opinions, but I would not vote for a woman to be the pastor of a church.' But he never put that in the article."

Jones responded that he has no recollection of asking such a question and that no such question or answer appears on his tape recording of the interview.

Stanley, pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, was elected president at the peak of the battle between SBC moderates and conservatives. His re-election victory in Dallas in June 1985, when more than 45,000 messengers registered, is considered a pivotal moment in the so-called "conservative resurgence."

However, Stanley later fell out of favor with some SBC leaders after he and his wife divorced and he stayed on as pastor.

Both edicts Stanley reportedly criticized were additions to the SBC's Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement approved by convention messengers in 2000. Those controversial additions were penned and promoted by some of Stanley's allies in the fight to change the direction of the SBC beginning in 1979.

The fact that Stanley was converted under the preaching of a female Pentecostal preacher in Danville, Va., has been previously reported.

In the summer of 2000, soon after the revised Baptist Faith & Message was adopted, Stanley told a group of pastors in North Carolina: "There are some godly women out there. I would never say that a woman could not preach. … You just can't put God in a box."

Stanley quickly backed away from that report, however, saying his words had been "twisted and distorted" by the Charlotte Observer. At the time, he drew a distinction between a woman being a preacher and being a pastor.

He reiterated that distinction in his latest comments to Baptist Press.

"There are a number of women who are preachers who are preaching the gospel today, teaching the gospel today, and they are being very successful at it, and they are meeting people's needs," he told BP. "You can't tell a woman who is called by God to teach that she cannot teach the word of God."

There is a difference, he insisted, "between the authority of a pastor and a Bible teacher. And I think that's the distinction."

Posted: 10/20/03

New Orleans trustees reject request
to name SBC 'sole member' of corporation

NEW ORLEANS–Trustees of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary unanimously rejected a request by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to name the SBC the "sole member" of the seminary's corporation.

All other SBC entities have acceded to the request, which was intended to prevent the possibility of a seminary or mission board ever declaring its independence from the national convention.

New Orleans Seminary President Chuck Kelley voiced strong opposition to the request on grounds of Baptist polity, suggesting such a change would result in a form of Baptist "connectionalism" rather than traditional Baptist autonomy.

He and trustees also objected to the change because of some peculiarities of Louisiana law, which is based on the Napoleonic Code rather than the British Common Law upon which the other 49 states based their law.

Despite rejecting the Executive Committee's request, New Orleans did approve a motion expressing their "deep and abiding commitment to the Southern Baptist Convention."

In a chapel address given to open the current academic year, Kelley told students, faculty and staff he supports the SBC and the changes in leadership that have occurred within the convention over the past 25 years. However, the trust held between the seminary and the SBC should be sufficient to maintain the relationship without opening the door to what he called the dangers of connectionalism.

Executive Committee President Morris Chapman expressed disappointment in the trustees' position.

"I deeply regret the New Orleans Seminary board of trustees has chosen to pass on this opportunity to secure that institution for SBC posterity," he said. "Had the board adopted the Southern Baptist Convention as sole member, it would have legally clarified the seminary's relationship to the convention, the seminary's parent corporation and benefactor. More importantly, as sole member, the Southern Baptist Convention could have more easily protected the Cooperative Program, the financial lifeline for all our entities, from the avarice of today's new breed of aggressive litigators."

Posted: 10/17/03

NAMB trustees OK BGCT cooperative
agreement, settling year-long debate

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board has approved a new cooperative agreement with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

The trustee action came after the BGCT Executive Board on Sept. 30 approved a revised agreement between the state convention and the missions agency. At previous meetings, the BGCT board had voted on two earlier versions of the document, but each was met by counter-proposals from NAMB.

Final approval of the agreement came after more than a year of negotiations between NAMB and the BGCT. One key issue was the NAMB requirement that its personnel comply with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, a faith statement approved by the Southern Baptist Convention but not by the BGCT.

The approved cooperative agreement retains the requirement that jointly supported personnel conform to procedures and requirements of both NAMB and the BGCT but acknowledges the BGCT's disagreement. It states, “When North American Mission Board funds are used, both entities acknowledge that personnel must comply with North American Mission Board's requirements concerning the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, though this does not indicate affirmation of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.”

NAMB provides full financial support for fewer than 60 missionaries throughout North America. Most NAMB-appointed missionaries are funded cooperatively by local Baptist associations, state Baptist conventions or both. NAMB typically pays for insurance benefits and often contributes a salary supplement, while the other partners bear the remaining expense. BGCT leaders have said the Texas convention will pick up the entire compensation package for any missionary related to Texas mission efforts who does not wish to affirm the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.

E.B. Brooks, coordinator of the BGCT Church Missions and Evangelism Section, expressed appreciation both to NAMB and BGCT leaders for their efforts in negotiating the cooperative agreement.

“I believe this affords us the opportunity to continue our historic partnership with the North American Mission Board to do very effective evangelism and benevolent ministry in Texas,” Brooks said.

Terry Fox, chairman of the NAMB board of trustees, described the agreement as a “win-win situation” for everyone involved. “This agreement is the best thing for the kingdom of God,” said Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan.

NAMB President Bob Reccord said he was pleased the new agreement “clearly resolved” what he termed “two cornerstone issues” for his agency–the personnel policy regarding affirmation of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 and the BGCT practice of retaining funds the convention believed NAMB would have routed back to Texas.

That policy grew out of a recommendation by the BGCT Missions Sending Agency Study Committee in 2001. The rationale cited at the time for retaining funds was to “enable Texas Baptists to plan and fulfill missions strategies within Texas more efficiently, by greatly reducing paperwork, bureaucracy, time-consuming documentation and delays.”

BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade wrote to his Executive Board members recently: “That rationale no longer holds. New processes and funding channels created by NAMB assure us that the problems faced earlier will no longer be present.”

More significantly, Wade pointed out that continuing to retain funds would put the BGCT in the position of keeping money not designated to return to Texas. The current amount of funds retained has been based on commitments NAMB made in 2001 at an annual strategic planning meeting.

“Because we have been in the process of framing a new cooperative agreement, no such meeting has been held with the BGCT since 2001,” he said. “Therefore, there has been no commitment of funds to Texas. We must not be in the position of withholding funds not allocated to Texas.”

Reccord expressed appreciation to Wade for his actions that “opened the way for … continued partnership” between NAMB and the BGCT.”

“I believe this agreement will be a key to reaching Texas and the rest of North America for Christ,” Reccord said.

The last formal cooperative agreement the BGCT had with a domestic Southern Baptist Convention missions agency was negotiated in 1991 with the Home Mission Board. That board merged with the Brotherhood Commission and the Radio & Television Commission in 1997 to form the North American Mission Board.

The approved cooperative agreement retains the requirement that jointly supported personnel conform to procedures and requirements of both NAMB and the BGCT but acknowledges the BGCT's disagreement.

Posted: 10/17/03

Size of church impacts per capita benevolent giving

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

ROCK HILL, S.C.–When churches lose members, giving to benevolent causes usually takes a disproportionate hit in budget cutting, a new study documents.

Church size is not the only factor in giving trends for benevolent and missions causes, but it is a significant factor, according to Robert Stonebraker, associate professor of business administration at Winthrop University. His study on the topic was published in the September issue of the journal Review of Religious Research.

While Protestant churches often encourage their members to tithe 10 percent of their income to the church, few churches apply the concept of proportional giving to their own missions mandate, Stonebraker noted. “Instead of paying an off-the-top percent of local revenues as benevolence, congregations often pass along only what local programs and committees cannot grab first.”

In the report, he cited previous studies documenting a decline in benevolence or missions giving as a percentage of church income. This trend in Baptist life was reported in the Baptist Standard's Aug. 25 issue. Further, a Southern Baptist Convention Funding Task Force recently issued a warning that the SBC will face a funding crisis if these trends continue.

Other researchers have noted a variety of factors contributing to the decrease in missions giving as a percentage of local church income–a national trend that crosses denominational lines. Reasons cited include declining interest in denominational programs, lack of vision, lack of understanding of worldwide needs, discontent with denominational leadership and direction, and increasing costs to pay and provide benefits for church personnel.

Stonebraker proposes changes in church size as another contributing factor. To study this notion, he examined a random sample of 2,085 congregations affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The comparative data covered 1990 and 1996.

Like most other mainline Protestant denominations, the ELCA experienced membership loss during that period. The average number of members in an ELCA church fell from 275 in 1990 to 265 in 1996.

At the same time, the real value of average benevolence giving–what Baptists would call missions giving–from ELCA congregations dropped from $17,674 to $16,091, and the share of church income going to benevolence fell from 12 percent to 10.3 percent.

Stonebraker's detailed analysis of the Lutheran data proved his hypothesis true: Smaller congregations give less per member to benevolence than larger congregations.

Further, changes in benevolence giving correlate to changes in church membership, he found. “When congregations lose members, revenues fall, and they fall faster than expenses. A loss of members means leaner offering plates with few offsetting drops in cost. The pastor must still be paid, the church must still be heated, and the organ must still be repaired.”

The resulting financial squeeze leaves fewer benevolence dollars for the larger church.

When churches grow, their benevolence giving per member tends to increase because of better economies of scale, he also noted. This is true despite documentation that larger churches tend to receive less income per capita than smaller churches.

The latter trend is known as the “free-rider” effect. Stonebraker explains it this way: “The larger the group, the easier it is to hide. Shirking one's proportionate responsibilities is tough in a group of two but easy in a group of 2,000. For those seeking only marginal commitment, large congregations are the places of choice.”

Free riders raise the costs of operation for more committed members because while they don't give, they tend to demand services at high levels.

On the flip-side, the larger the church, the less expensive it is to deliver services on a per-person basis, Stonebraker added. For example, building and maintaining a structure to house 1,000 worshippers is not twice as expensive as building and maintaining one to house 500.

Therefore, the larger the congregation, the larger the percentage of budget made available for discretionary use.

Stonebraker's study documented the actual impact of size on benevolent giving: “A congregation with twice as many members as another devoted about a 21 percent larger share of its receipts to benevolence than did its smaller counterpart in 1990 and 17 percent more in 1996. In other words, if a small congregation allocated 10 percent of its receipts to benevolence, a congregation twice as large, on average, would have been sending about 12 percent of receipts into benevolence.”

But even larger congregations have demonstrated the same drop in benevolence giving as a percent of total income.

“Ultimately, it is a matter of priorities,” Stonebraker said. “Denominational loyalties have declined, and with few parishioners directly affected by benevolence, benevolence is rarely the priority. The self-interest of congregations is often to keep their own staff and committees happy.”

However, exceptions do exist, and those exceptions often relate to pastoral leadership, he added. “One mainline church official commented privately that pastors held the key to benevolence; that he could trace the movement of pastors from congregation to congregation merely by looking at shifts in congregational benevolence payments. Different people do have different priorities and, in the end, people determine budget allocations.”

Posted: 10/17/03

Baylor cuts $9 million from budget due to enrollment

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

WACO–A second year of missed enrollment goals has led to a $9 million cut in operating expenses at Baylor University.

A university news release announced Oct. 10 that all department heads had been notified to curtail the balance of their operating expenses for the current fiscal year by 25 percent. The fiscal year began June 1 and still has more than seven months to run.

Additionally, department heads were told to reduce unspent capital budgets by 75 percent.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the budget reductions, university staff members will receive modest pay raises. A pool of money equal to 2 percent raises will be available, although individual raises will be based on merit, the news release said.

“Our first priority in adjusting our expenses to reflect our revenue realities was to take care of the dedicated staff who serve our faculty and students,” said David Brooks, vice president for finance and administration. “In an environment where many of our peer institutions–public and private–are having to deal with actual year-over-year budget reductions and have had to lay off faculty and staff, we are very grateful that we are able to meet these challenges by reducing the rate of increase in our operating budget.”

This year's Baylor budget is $320 million, and the projected reductions represent about 3 percent of the total budget, Brooks said. “Operating budgets” as defined in the budget-cut order to department heads does not include personnel costs but rather covers line items such as travel, library materials, consulting fees and marketing, Brooks explained.

Even with the cutback, this year's budget still represents a 10 percent increase over the previous year, Brooks noted. That 10 percent increase has funded additional financial aid and scholarships, new faculty and staff positions and academic program enhancements.

Since the Baylor 2012 vision was launched in 2001, Baylor has added nearly 200 faculty and staff positions, funded creation of an Honors College and begun construction of a $100 million science facility, the first student housing built on campus in 40 years and additional parking and office space.

However, this fall's budget cuts include what the university calls a “soft” hiring freeze. All staff positions that have gone unfilled since June 1 are frozen until the next fiscal year. Ten of those 25 positions were new, officials said.

Filling any staff positions that become vacant during the remainder of this fiscal year will require approval by the division head, the vice president for human resources and enrollment management, and Brooks. No position upgrades and no additional positions will be approved for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Fall enrollment at Baylor is 13,937, a drop of 1.6 percent or 222 students from last fall. Total undergraduate enrollment is 11,712, a decrease of 2.3 percent or 275 students.

The university budget anticipated 2,775 freshmen and 500 transfer students this fall. Freshman enrollment missed the budget goal by 97 students, an improvement over last year, when freshman enrollment fell short by 225. This year's transfer student enrollment fell short of budget goals by 80.

Posted: 10/17/03

Eldorado mourns church bus crash

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

ELDORADO–A church bus accident in eastern Louisiana claimed eight lives, left seven passengers hospitalized and broke 2,000 hearts.

The bus–taking 12 senior adults from First Baptist Church of Eldorado and three of their friends on a tour of historic sites–slammed into the back of a parked tractor-trailer rig near Tallulah, La., just before noon Oct. 13.

The impact of the crash was felt 500 miles to the west in Eldorado, a town of 2,000 residents about 40 miles south of San Angelo.

Madison Parish Sheriff Larry Cox surveys the damage hours after a church bus from Eldorado crashed into a 18-wheeler that was parked on the shoulder of the eastbound lane of Interstate 20 near Tallulah, La., Oct. 13. The crash killed eight of the 15 passengers on the bus. The driver of the 18-wheeler was not injured. (Reuters/Melanie Duncan Thortis/The Vicksburg Post Photo)

Ken Thomas, 66, was driving the church-owned bus at the time of the accident. Thomas received a misdemeanor citation for careless operation, according to a statement by Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran. No criminal charges initially were filed, and no arrests were made. The National Transportation Safety Board and federal Motor Carrier Administration are investigating.

Thomas, treasurer and past chairman of deacons at First Baptist Church of Eldorado, was hospitalized at River Regional Medical Center in Vicksburg, Miss., following surgery on a broken leg.

The accident left First Baptist Church mourning the immeasurable loss of a deacon, a choir member, an all-around handyman, a missions-minded registered nurse and a “grandmother to all the kids in the church,” according to Pastor Andy Anderson.

And it rallied the church in prayer for the seriously injured survivors who remained hospitalized in four widely scattered medical centers in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“The folks on that trip are the reason this church has been so great all these years,” Anderson said. “They are the backbone of the church.”

The five deceased church members included two couples–Kennith and Betty Richardson, both 81; Delia Piña, 72, and Domingo Piña, 65–as well as Mary Ruth Robinson, 63, and three non-members, Jean Demere, 74, and Jimmy Teel, 68 of Water Valley and Laverne Shannon, 76, of San Angelo.

The remains of the five Eldorado residents arrived home Oct. 15. They were to lie in state at First Baptist Church because the small local funeral home did not have enough rooms for that many caskets.

Anderson, who has been at the Eldorado church seven years, described the deceased as the kind of people who “took care of each other and took care of people outside the church.”

Kennith and Betty Richardson were “so devoted to each other,” Anderson said. “After all these years, he still opened the door for her.”

She was an active member of the choir. He was a deacon, known in the community for being willing to read storybooks to schoolchildren in his unmistakably resonant voice. “He had this one-of-a-kind voice, kind of like James Earl Jones,” said Sylas Politte, youth minister at First Baptist Church.

Domingo Piña was a volunteer firefighter who also gave his time as a general handyman and mechanic at First Baptist Church. Mrs. Piña was a retired nurse who served on the local hospital board. Both volunteered in missions along the Rio Grande in the Mexican towns of Piedras Negras and Acuña.

Mary Ruth Robinson was “the church's grandmother. All the kids loved her,” Anderson said.

In addition to Thomas, other hospitalized church members were:

Billy Frank Blaylock, 78, in fair condition at University Medical Center in Jackson, Miss. He was reported to be “in and out” of consciousness, suffering a brain hemorrhage and broken arm.

Mabel Blaylock, 76, in serious condition at the surgical trauma unit of LSU Hospital in Shreveport, La. She suffered a pelvic fracture, punctured lung and broken arm, and she sustained considerable blood loss.

Mary Barton Robinson, 75, who suffered multiple lacerations, was transferred to a hospital in Monroe, La., from Rayville, La. She then was released within a couple of days to Waco to be near her daughter, Kathy Hillman, president of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas. Mrs. Robinson is WMU director at the church and served as coordinator for the senior adult trip. She was to undergo surgery in Waco Oct. 16.

Oleon Stricklan, age not available, was to be released from Regional Medical Center, Vicksburg, Miss., Oct. 16, where she had been treated for a broken ankle, broken ribs and gashes.

Dana Owens, 75, was in stable condition at River Regional Medical Center, Vicksburg, Miss. She damaged a recent knee replacement and was awaiting surgery Oct. 16.

Jim Robinson, 70, was transferred from Rayville, La., to North Monroe, La. He had surgery and was expected to be released within a few days after the wreck. His wife, Mary Ruth Robinson, lost her life in the accident.

When the wreck took place, the “Senior Ambassadors” group was on the second day of a planned 16-day tour that was to take them to Colonial Williamsburg, Valley Forge, Philadelphia, Gettysburg and through the Pennsylvania Amish countryside.

Pastor Anderson initially learned about the accident from a motorist on I-20 in Louisiana. The passerby called on a cell phone after seeing the church's name painted on the side of the badly damaged bus. The caller reported that the wreck looked “really serious” and all the windows were “blown out” of the vehicle.

On the day after the wreck, Anderson struggled to find time to prepare for three funerals of accident victims scheduled at his church on Friday, Oct. 17. The Richardsons' service was slated for 11 a.m., Mary Ruth Robinson at 2 p.m., and the Piñas at 4:30 p.m. He wasn't yet sure what he would say.

“I'll attempt to preach a message of comfort to the families, based on the hope we have in Jesus Christ,” Anderson said.

“Of course, this is as much of a shock for us as it would be for anyone. The big difference is our faith in Christ and our hope of a future beyond this life. We don't understand tragedy, but we know the Lord is with us. We can't understand and can't see his hand in this, but we know his heart. And that makes it possible to get through it.”

Anderson expressed appreciation for the support offered by churches of all denominations in his community, from the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and particularly to Director of Missions Roger English in Concho Valley Baptist Association.

“It's going to take a long time even to discover all we lost,” the pastor said. “But we will rally, and through it all, we pray the Lord will be glorified.”

Posted: 10/17/03

Uninsured clergy face trials when surgery needed

By George Henson

Staff Writer

CORSICANA–Mark Chadwick loves his wife, but she needs surgery they can't afford. And that hurts them both.

Chadwick is pastor of a small Texas Baptist church that can't afford to provide him health insurance. He can't afford to buy it on his own, either.

The Chadwick family's plight, although more severe because of the urgent need for medical care, is shared by hundreds of other ministers.

“I get calls from small churches and bivocational pastors all the time asking what the Baptist General Convention of Texas can do, and I don't have anything to offer them,” said Bob Ray, director of the BGCT's office of bivocational and smaller church development. “It's a ongoing problem that seems to be getting worse, but I don't have any statistics to back that up.”

The Southern Baptist Annuity Board, which is the principal conduit for insurance for Southern Baptist pastors, does not track the number of pastors who are uninsured, either.

However, a ministerial compensation study conducted through multiple state Baptist conventions last year found one-fourth of full-time pastors do not receive medical insurance through their churches and 85 percent of bivocational pastors do not receive such a benefit.

Two Annuity Board officials said the agency realizes the problem and is working to address it.

“At a time when health-care costs are increasing so rapidly, the board understands the difficult situation many of our pastors face,” said Doug Day, executive officer for benefit services. “Our response for 2004 has been to redesign all our medical plans to provide more flexibility in benefits and costs to our participants.”

Annuity Board President O.S. Hawkins added his concern for “the pastor at the crossroads, the pastor who is out there serving in a smaller church, striving to be a good steward of the money his church provides him.” Such pastors “have been foremost in our minds as we've restructured our medical plans. We believe we have some helpful solutions for those who previously did not have access to a network or could not meet underwriting guidelines.”

But for now, insurance is not an option for the Chadwicks. And the clock is ticking for Becky Chadwick, who will need blood transfusions for anemia if she cannot find the $20,000 to pay for a complete hysterectomy.

Chadwick, full-time pastor of West Side Baptist Church in Corsicana, earns an annual salary of about $30,000 before taxes. He has investigated buying medical insurance for his wife and three children but learned the cost would be about $1,000 per month–more than one-third of his pre-tax income.

“It's just not a viable mathematical possibility,” he said. “What you really have to do is what we've been telling people for years–you live by faith.”

The Chadwicks have a son in college and a daughter who is a senior in high school.

“I really haven't been able to do anything for (the son in college) except buy him a book or something like that,” Chadwick said. “He's had to do everything through student loans, and my daughter's going to have to go that same route,” he said.

All that takes a distant back seat, however, to the health of his wife. She works as a secretary for another small church in Dallas, which also cannot provide health insurance.

When she first began seeing a doctor about six months ago, she was diagnosed as anemic. Doctors reported her blood volume was about a 2, with a normal score being about 15. “Basically, he told us over half her blood was not in her body,” Chadwick said.

Iron tablets made her extremely ill, but a substitute eventually was found. Then other symptoms began to arise.

Her doctor advised a hysterectomy is a must. Otherwise, she will need to begin blood transfusions in a matter of weeks.

“And then he sat us down for a little chat where he told us that they really are not that good at screening blood yet and it would be possible that she could catch some other disease through the transfusions,” Chadwick said.

To have the hysterectomy without insurance, however, will cost $20,000, and the local hospital will not schedule the surgery without a large down payment and the balance subject to high interest charges.

Chadwick is a man in turmoil.

“It really takes the wind out of you,” he said. “My wife is my testimony. I wouldn't be a Christian, much less a pastor, if it weren't for her. We were high school sweethearts, and I started coming to church chasing her.

“And now I'm wondering if I'm going to have to rush my wife to the hospital in the middle of the night so they can give her blood. I worry about what could happen every time she drives to work in Dallas from here in Corsicana.”

But beyond their own trials, the experience has made Chadwick worry about the challenges faced by many other pastors.

“Ministers in smaller churches tend to be paid less than their counterparts in the secular world,” he said. “We just know that there are so many more out there in the same position. I want them to know that we care about them and love them. When you work with smaller churches, a lot of times you feel isolated.”

In the last month alone, the Chadwicks have spent more than $600 on medical expenses.

“That's a big chunk for us, but I've learned with the Lord, don't try to add it up,” Chadwick said. “It won't make sense. We're just trusting God. I'm still tithing every week. I preach tithing, and it is my responsibility to my church to show leadership in that area.”

While it's been hard, the pastor has tried not to let his wife's medical difficulties affect his work as a congregational shepherd.

“I've tried not to let it shine through in the pulpit,” he said. “I've still got a responsibility to preach the good news and the hope that is in Jesus Christ.”

Chadwick praises his congregation of about 100 for their support. “They are tremendous people, and I'm grateful to be their pastor,” he said.

Now, he's praying that some way will be found to help the love of his life.

“We celebrated our 20th anniversary in September,” he said. “I am hoping to have at least another 20 years with her.”