Posted: 6/010/03

RUSSELL DILDAY:
Baptists Today, yesterday and tomorow

Below is the text of a message delivered by Russell Dilday, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, upon his receipt of the Judson-Rice Award for leadership and integrity from Baptists Today April 25.

By Russell Dilday

I consider this recognition as immensely significant in part because of the other recipients: Jimmy Allen and Tony Campolo. To be included in that noteworthy duet is humbling.

Second, it is significant, too because of the heroic personalities for whom the award is named. Adoniram and Ann Judson and Luther Rice founded the modern missionary movement and brought together their scattered Baptist congregations into a cooperating denomination. The Judsons and Rice personify the core ingredients of what it means to be Baptist.

Third, the recognition comes from Baptists — my extended family. I know being a follower a Jesus — being a Christian — is the crucial identity, but what kind of Christian you are really matters.

Our Baptist identity, history, heritage, and convictions are very important to me and I know to you too.

BAPTIST ROOTS

When the Dilday family settled on the east banks of the Tennessee River in the early 1800s, they established The Baptist Church at Dilday’s Landing. The church site was covered by the Kentucky Lake, but you can still see the stone steps when the water is low. My great, great grandfather was the church clerk.

My grandparents and my parents were active Baptist believers. My wife Betty and her family have a long history with Dr. James Leavell and Dr. E.D. Head at First Baptist Church, Houston and Dr. Truett at Palacious Encampment on the Texas Coast. Our children and grandchildren continue that tradition.

And to top it off, a few weeks ago, because of research done by Baylor professor Frank Leavell and my sister Ann, I discovered that I am the great, great grandson by marriage of Noah T. Byars – Texas Patriot and Baptist pioneer. It was in Byars’ blacksmith shop at Washington on the Brazos that the Texas declaration of independence and the Constitution of the Republic of Texas were signed.

He served as Sam Houston’s official armorer, a hero of Texas Independence. But he also became a Baptist minister and missionary.

Noah T. Byars (my great, great grandfather by marriage), founded the First Baptist Churches of Waco, Corsicana, and Brownwood as well as 60 other churches in north Texas. He also organized a dozen associations including the one that became the Dallas Baptist Association.

He was on the small committee that organized Baylor University and was co-founder of Howard Payne University where I am completing my term as interim president.

So. Betty and I have deep Baptist roots, and therefore any recognition that comes from our Baptist family is meaningful to us .

Another reason this recognition is important to me is my high regard for Baptists Today — its work, its history all the way back to Walker Knight and SBC Today, its current staff, and the exceptional luminaries who serve with Chairman Jim McAfee. on the board.

This is one of those causes worth living for and giving for.

LOOKING BACK

The name of the news journal is especially enlightening: Baptists Today. It calls to mind the two other dimensions on either side of it: "Baptists Yesterday" and "Baptists Tomorrow." All three are important.

Twenty-five years ago, who could have imagined the Baptist scene today – this peculiar mixture of disappointments and exhilarating prospects? What a mess and what an opportunity!

We take great pride in Baptist men and women today – lay persons and ministers – who refuse to cower in the safety of a non-commitment that brags on the fact that it hasn’t taken sides.

We admire persons who with courage tempered by a Christ-like spirit do what they can to correctly define and defend authentic Baptist principles today. That’s what the Baptists Today organization is trying to do and all of us here are grateful.

What about "Baptists Yesterday?" No one wants to get bogged down in a nostalgic reflection that dwells in the past.

But the Bible says: "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith."

We must never forget our spiritual birthright — the Baptist heritage — because our history informs us who we are.

Tragically, there is an effort being made by some to rewrite our history. They want to erase the true Baptist vision and reshape it. Some have called them pseudo-Baptists, rogues inside the family who never knew or have forgotten what our true identity is and are distorting it.

Unless this effort is addressed, the species called Baptistus Authenticus is threatened with extinction and a new breed called Baptistus Counterfeitus will be grafted in its place.

My plea is for us "Baptists today" to help shape "Baptists tomorrow" by preserving the authentic heritage of "Baptists yesterday."

DISTINCTIVE MARKS

What are the distinctive historical marks of Baptists yesterday — Baptistus Authenticus?

Traditional Baptists share with most other evangelicals those core biblical beliefs of Creation, Trinitarian, Christology, Redemption, and those great Reformation doctrines Sola Scriptura and Justification by Faith. But there are other convictions that taken together are unique to true Baptists:

1. No Creed but the Bible (Some call us non-creedal but we’re not. We are one-creedal)

2. Believer’s baptism by immersion, a regenerate church membership

3. Symbolic ordinances

4. Security of the believer

5. Voluntary cooperation

6. Soul competency and the priesthood of each believer

7. Religious freedom, liberty of conscience and the separation of church & state

This individual freedom to respond to God through Christ without coercion is so central. Baptists treasure their freedom.

Paul said, "I was born free." Baptists were born free too. Individual liberty of conscience is deep in the genetic DNA of Baptistus Authenticus.

Unfortunately, these seven distinctive convictions are, as theologian Leo Garrett says, "threatened with serious attrition if not absolute extinction."

They are being challenged by another set of opinions from a group often labeled "fundamentalists" — or what Roger Olson calls "maximal conservatives." E.Y. Mullins called them "ultra brethren."

ELEVATED OPINIONS

Here are some of the alternative ideologies promoted in place of our historil Baptist distinctives:

1. An absolute form of Biblical inerrancy

2. Calvinism in its more extreme form

3. Pastor-centered authority

4. Male domination and female subjection

5. Pre-millennial dispensationalism

6. A "young earth" version of creationism

Olson, a theology professor at Baylor’s Truett Seminary, makes a helpful distinction between dogma, doctrines, and opinions:

Dogma, he says, comprises the great historical essentials of the faith upon which all evangelical Christians agree such as Creation, Redemption and the Trinity.

He defines doctrines as those convictions such as believer’s baptism by immersion, autonomy of the local church, once saved always saved.

They are important. We would die for them, but we don’t condemn those who don’t hold these views as being non-Christian.

Opinions, however, are those details about the end times, worship styles, the days of Creation, Calvinism vs. Arminianism and capital punishment. Baptists have always honored differences of opinion in these areas.

The trouble comes when a group elevates their opinions to the level of dogma and then demands everybody accept them or be excluded. The Baptist way has always been: "In essentials – unity; in non-essentials – liberty, and in all things – charity."

Rejecting the strengths of "Baptists yesterday," these revisers are trying to reshape "Baptists tomorrow" by minimizing our traditional beliefs and promoting their opinions as non-revisable dogma.

QUESTIONABLE METHODOLOGIES

It is not just their beliefs that are often alien to historic Baptist convictions, but their methodologies are questionable as well.

J.I. Packer, a well-known conservative Anglican scholar, has edited a book called Power Religion which is a critique denouncing this brand of fundamentalism. The book description of "Carnal Conservatism" sounds very familiar.

1. Authoritarian styles of pastoral leadership

2. Use of secular political strategies even though the Bible forbids the use of such weapons in Christian service (II Cor. 10:3-4, 6:7)

3. Fanning emotional fears by supposed conspiracy theories

4. Government entanglements in which the church is reduced to nothing more than another political special interest group

5. Using peer pressure to enforce conformity (ganging up, ostracizing and withholding rewards from those who don’t fall in line)

6. Total defeat of those who disagree — an ugly denominational version of ethnic cleansing.

Sounds all too familiar don’t they? Well let me leave you with one example of how this revision of our Baptists heritage is being carried out.

In a new Broadman & Holman book by Southern Seminary president Al Mohler, he criticizes E. Y. Mullins, one of Southern Baptists’ most respected theologians and the subject of my doctoral dissertation.

Mullins, a former president of Southern Seminary, was a definer and defender of traditional Baptist distinctives in the early 1900s. He believed — as most historic Baptists — in biblical authority, the priesthood of every believer, local church autonomy, separation of church and state, a regenerate church membership, and believer’s baptism.

He named "soul competency" as the basic Baptist distinctive on which most other distinctives were grounded. For Mullins, soul competency is not human self-sufficiency. It is the idea that every human being is free to respond to God directly through Christ without human mediators — a priest, a church, a creed, or a civil authority. It is indeed a priceless concept, distinctive to Baptist thought and practice.

But Mohler in a tragic misreading or an unfortunate distortion of his theology, blames E. Y. Mullins for "setting the stage for doctrinal ambiguity and theological minimalism." In other words, E. Y. Mullins is to blame for what Mohler believes is a drift towards theological liberalism in Baptist life.

Mohler calls Mullins’ emphasis on soul competency "an acid dissolving religious authority, congregationalism, confessionalism and mutual theological accountability."

But on the contrary, E.Y. Mullins is considered by most traditional Baptists to be an ideal example of Baptistus Authenticus. From 1899 to 1928 he served as seminary president under circumstances remarkably similar to those we face today.

He was involved with what has been called the "Modernist-Fundamentalist" controversy in the 1920s. He became a spokesman for what I like to call the "constructive conservative" faction, rejecting liberalism on the left with its lack of convictions, and rejecting fundamentalism on the right with its authoritarian legalism.

Mullins was neither a hardened traditionalists nor a faddish liberal, but a constructive conservative who sought to communicate the Christian faith in contemporary terms. He showed you can be conservative without being cranky.

‘A SMIDGEON MORE’

By the way, are you having trouble like I am with names for all the theological positions today — fundamentalist, conservative, moderate and liberal?

David Solomon, a Texan and a Baptist who is now teaching at the Center for Ethics and Culture at Notre Dame, said he had some friends who are "not liberal, but a smidgeon more than moderate."

Some of us have never been too fond of the term moderate, so I guess you could say that Baptists like Mullins — and like some of us — are not fundamentalist, but a smidgeon less than moderate.

Mullins spoke out intelligently against theological liberalism: naturalistic evolution, rationalistic higher criticism, and the social gospel. But on the other hand, he strongly opposed the legalistic, hard line extremism of the fundamentalists that he also saw as a serious threat to our Baptist heritage.

He objected when fundamentalists from the seminary board set up what he called "smelling committees" to periodically visit faculty members in their search for heresy. He openly worked toward the defeat of "radicals and extremists who want to put the thumb screws on everybody who does not agree in every detail with their statements of doctrine."

Mullins described the fundamentalists as "hyper-orthodox," "ultra-brethren" and "lacking in common sense."

In his ongoing conflict with fundamentalist leader T. T. Eaton, Mullins pointed out that he rejected both the "half Baptist" (or liberal) who had no convictions as well as the "Baptist and a half" (or fundamentalist) who could not tolerate any doctrinal differences.

By the way, Eaton countered Mullins’ challenge by saying he gloried in being a "Baptist and a half!"

AVOIDING EXTREMES

As a constructive conservative, Mullins faulted both fundamentalists and liberals for their extremism that led to name-calling rather than fruitful communication.

He represented the historical Baptist approach when he declared, "The really safe leaders of thought are between the extremes." Gordon Fee calls this position the "radical middle."

Mullins strongly repudiated creedalism. "No creed can be set up as final and authorit-ative apart from the scriptures," he said. "For Baptists, there is one authoritative source of religious truth and knowledge. It is to that source they look to in all matters relating to doctrine, to policy, to the ordinances, to worship, and to Christian living. That source is the Bible."

But Mullins made it clear that the Bible is authoritative only because it leads persons to God through Christ.

"The Scriptures do not and cannot take the place of Jesus Christ," he said. "We are not saved by belief in the Scriptures, but by a living faith in Christ.

"The authority of Scripture is that simply of an inspired literature which interprets a life. Christ as the Revealer of God and Redeemer of men is the seat of authority in religion and above and underneath and before the Bible. The Bible is the authoritative literature which leads us to Christ."

Mullins sought to avoid both extremes. He rejected the liberal position which makes the Bible little more than another ancient book, full of errors and contradictions, and not authoritative. On the other hand he rejected the fundamentalist tendency to elevate the Bible to a level it never claims for itself, in some cases to a position even above God himself.

With a voice that divided Baptists need to hear today, Mullins warned against the destructive nature of bitter denominational disputes with all the name-calling and pigeon-holing. He knew that divisiveness and loss of trust within the Baptist family diverts us from our main functions of evangelism and missions.

"I have no right to refuse to call a Baptist my brother merely because he does not happen to be my twin brother," Mullins reminded his fellow Baptists. "And I also maintain that another Baptist has no right to refuse to call me brother (and nag and torment me) because I am not his twin."

As a heroic representative of Baptists yesterday, I believe E.Y. Mullins is an example to follow as we look to the future. No wonder those who want to reshape the Baptist vision don’t pay much attention to him.

So my plea tonight is for us "Baptists today" to help shape "Baptists tomorrow" by preserving — like E.Y. Mullins — the authentic heritage of "Baptists yesterday."

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/12/03

COMMENTARY:
Father's love

By Rusty Walton

Brenda and I are having some trees removed from our yard. One of the big pine trees out back is infested with beetles. A couple of pileated woodpeckers (those big Woody Woodpecker types) have pecked off most of the tree’s bark in their never-ending search for insects and nesting sites. Dead limbs, pinecones and chips of decaying wood lie in a thickening mat over our usually well-manicured St. Augustine lawn. This tree is in the "dangerous" stage of deterioration, so hiring a professional to carefully remove it has become a necessity.

A smaller pine in the backyard and a little sweetgum tree next to our driveway also need to be removed. The pine tree is growing too close to the house. Its falling needles clog the gutters and downspouts, and in a few years any limbs that fall will likely drop onto the roof. Pine trees also are notorious lightning rods, and Mrs. Preacher says I attract enough lightning already.

The sweetgum tree is too close to the driveway. Sweetgum roots grow close to the surface, and in a couple of years, these roots will crack the concrete, causing extensive damage, demanding costly repairs. A wise homeowner will remove a sweetgum next to a driveway.

When we lived in North Texas, I never would have dreamed of cutting down even one tree, much less three. We built our house in Dallas in a pasture, and I planted the only trees on the lot. I watered those twigs every-other day for three months. I mulched and manicured and nurtured my baby trees for as long as we lived in our little house in the Windmill Hill subdivision, a bald knob void of any vegetation except Johnson grass and buffalo burr. We did not cut down trees on Windmill Hill. We venerated them.

You can imagine my emotions now as the chainsaws are roaring and the sawdust is flying. I keep thinking about our little house on the prairie and wondering what sort of sacrilege I am committing by removing these trees.

I think my feelings of uneasiness spring from something my father said to me 40 years ago.

We had been hunting all morning in a thickly wooded area near his old family home and decided to stop and rest and have a little lunch. Sitting on an aged log and snacking on Vienna sausage and saltine crackers, we could hear the distant sounds of a logging crew as they chewed up the woods.

For years, these Tunica Hills had been safe from loggers. The winding sandy creeks and step ravines were simply inaccessible. But new and better ways of logging had been discovered. We did not know it at the time, but this would be one of our last hunts in this beautiful place my dad loved so much. The loggers were scheduled here next.

Dad took a long drink from his favorite water bottle, an old hip flask once filled with something my father no longer drank. Almost in a sacred moment, in the softness of that forest cathedral, Dad whispered, "One day there won’t be any trees." Forty years ago, but I still remember.

Some things penetrate our souls more deeply than others, and I suppose my soul was touched that day in a way a 17-year-old could not fully comprehend. I saw in my father’s face the anguish of losing something he deeply loved.

Until that moment, I thought I loved those beautiful, wooded hills as much as my father loved them. Or perhaps I had never before really thought about my father’s love. But having seen it, even for that brief moment, I have never forgotten it.

In this unusual moment of personal reflection, I am increasingly aware that it is another Father’s love that, once seen, also can never be forgotten.

Rusty Walton is pastor of First Baptist Church in Conroe, Texas.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/13/03

'Bringing Up Boys' takes
Dobson back to his roots

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

At the apex of his career, James Dobson has returned to the communication medium that first made him one of the nation's foremost spokesmen for conservative Christian family values.

Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and host of a daily radio program of the same name, has produced a new 11-part video series to be shown in churches and other group settings.

The series, “Bringing Up Boys,” harkens back to the 1970s, before the advent of video, when Dobson's message was projected via film in churches around the nation. That instructional film series, titled “Focus on the Family,” put the child psychologist on the map and sparked the dawn of a different style of family ministry in many evangelical churches. More than 70 million people viewed that series in church fellowship halls, sanctuaries and Sunday School rooms.

The new video series is based on a book also titled “Bringing Up Boys,” a book Dobson labels the “fastest-selling” of his 19 published titles.

In promotional comments released by Focus on the Family, Dobson described his first film series as “the booster rocket that put Focus on the Family into orbit.”

The new video series has that same energy, he said, explaining, “I worked as hard on this project as anything I've ever done.”

Over the past 30 years, Dobson discovered radio to be a more effective means than film of getting his message out on a daily basis. His radio programs now are heard by 200 million people on 3,000 stations in North America and 3,300 overseas.

The video series, however, presents a medium suitable for group interaction and discussion, he said.

“The purpose for this is to get neighborhoods together that don't know these Christian principles,” he explained. “It's very soft-sell so it doesn't offend people who don't know these principles of the faith.”

More liberal-minded critics of Dobson and Focus on the Family aren't likely to find the videos soft-sell, however, as he places the blame for troubles raising boys today on feminists, liberals and homosexual activists.

The problem parents face in raising boys, Dobson said, is “they don't know what it means to be a boy, and they certainly don't know what it means to be a man. Everything masculine has been vilified.”

That vilification, he said, has come from feminists who hate men and from others who wrongly have taught that boys and girls should behave similarly.

“Masculinity was God's design,” Dobson explained in the publicity materials. “Males and females are different. They are intended to be different.”

In the publicity and in the video series, Dobson contends feminists have for the last 30 years attempted to make men “look like little boys, to make them look foolish.”

As evidence, he points to common themes in television commercials and TV sitcoms.

Christian parents, he contends, must hold up the model of masculinity as a worthy goal and stop trying to make boys behave like girls.

God has created boys to be more rambunctious and physical than girls, and nothing parents do can change that internal yearning, he said.

“In the late '60s, a really goofy idea came along, a really crazy idea, and it was the notion that males and females are identical except for the ability to bear children and that boys and girls are different only to the degree to which they've been raised differently,” Dobson says in the first video.

However, he adds, “The people who were behind this movement in telling parents how to raise their kids were not married, were not mothers, had never raised kids, didn't like men and had no academic training whatsoever and had no basis on which to tell parents how to raise kids.”

This philosophy permeated schools with the notion that “men are kind of goofy, so we need to fix boys while we can,” he says.

New medical technology, however, should end the argument forever, Dobson says, explaining that new imaging techniques demonstrate that “male brains are different from female brains” and testosterone makes the difference.

Christians must reclaim the uniqueness of maleness because men and boys are in serious trouble today, Dobson contends.

“When compared to girls, boys are three times more likely to be on drugs, four times more likely to be emotionally disturbed, six times more likely to have learning problems, 12 times more likely to murder someone,” Dobson reports on the video. “Four of five suicides are boys.”

Further, “boys are not linking in to life in quite the same way as girls,” he adds, reporting, for example, that 59 percent of graduate students are women.”

The causes of today's problems with boys are many, Dobson admits, but he finds the root of the evil in “the disintegration of the family.”

Two of the 11 videos deal with homosexuality, how it impacts males and how parents can inoculate their children from becoming homosexuals.

Dobson and three guest speakers on the homosexuality segments advocate that homosexuality is caused by nurture, not nature. The two most common ingredients in the backgrounds of homosexual men, they contend, are fathers who were either distant or critical.

Other segments of the video series leave behind controversial topics and engage in the bread-and-butter parenting advice format that has built Dobson's audience from the start. Two of the 11 segments feature Dobson fielding questions from parents and grandparents in a studio audience. One segment includes humorous interviews with a sampling of young boys.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted 6/17/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Higher ground

By Donna Van Cleve

Train up a child in the way he should go…

A friend once told me he was going to let his children choose what to believe about God when they got older. I wonder if he applied that same philosophy to other important areas of his children’s lives. Did he leave it up to his children to discover proper nutrition through the years, assuming they would eventually learn to make the right choices in eating balanced meals? Did he let his children choose their own bedtimes? Did he allow his children to decide whether they wanted an education or not? And they chose not, did he allow them to stay home?

Donna Van Cleve

Did he sit back and say absolutely nothing about his children playing Little League baseball and later, sports in school? Did he never take them to games or watch sports on television with his children or pitch the ball with them out in the yard to influence them in any way about their choosing to participate in sports? Or did he insist they participate because he knew they would learn lessons they’d never learn in the classroom? Or did he insist they play so it would give him the opportunity to relive his glory days through them? Or on the other hand, would his expectations of his child’s athletic capabilities unrealistically exceed his own memories and experiences?

If sports were a religion, and our arenas, stadiums and golf courses were churches, our society would have the most active, most dedicated, most faithfully attended churches in the world. The Golden Rule would state, Do unto the other team before they do unto you, and glory and honor would come only from winning at any cost. We’ve taught our children well about the importance of sports in our lives, even now scheduling local sports events on Sundays. Our silence and lack of resistance to this speaks volumes to our children about which is more important to us.

People are more than physical and intellectual beings. We each have a spiritual facet as well, but unfortunately that is the most neglected part of us. For the first twenty years of our children’s lives, we make every effort for them to develop their minds by sending them to school and encouraging their learning at every opportunity. At earlier and earlier ages we’re training our children physically and having them compete individually or on teams. From every source imaginable, pictures of finely toned bodies of physical perfection are exposed to our children, who often times assume that unrealistic image is expected of them as well.

If a parent left all the decisions about nutrition and education up to a child, most of us would think the parent was neglecting and abusing that child. But we don’t give spiritual neglect a second thought, even though the lack of character and honor among people today is screaming the result of our society’s neglect in developing our spiritual natures.

God created a spiritual need in all of us that He intended for us to fill with a relationship with himself through Christ. And if people do not know God, they will spend a lifetime searching to fill that void by whatever means possible: material possessions, addictions, obsessions, self-honor and praise, cults, fame, and so on.

Our children know what’s important to us by watching our actions. My friend didn’t realize it, but in choosing to let his own children make up their minds about God later on, he had already taught his children a monumental lesson about his own lack of faith and commitment to God.

…and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Posted: 6/20/03

BGCT calls Christians 'back home'
to transform Texas city centers

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is calling Christians to transform city cores–diverse, largely unchurched areas in the hearts of urban areas–by “coming back home.”

The BGCT Church Missions & Evangelism section recently launched the Texas City Core Initiative, an effort to develop strategies and models that enable spiritual, social and economic transformation in urban areas abandoned by many traditional Baptist churches.

These areas have transitioned several times to become a hodgepodge of cultures, lifestyles, ethnicities and income levels, according to E.B. Brooks, director of the BGCT Church Missions & Evangelism section. In many cases, high-priced loft apartments sit blocks from crime-ridden neighborhoods. Different cultures continuously engage each other.

“People from our churches drive into the inner city to work, but they see freeways, not neighborhoods,” Brooks said. “They miss places where crime, poverty and hopelessness exhibit themselves. They also miss the places where regentrification is happening and where people are moving back to the city core.”

Although many people are aware that Texas' largest cities–Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin–have large unchurched areas in city cores, they may overlook relatively smaller Texas cities similarly affected.

Census statistics indicate 50 Texas cities have more than 50,000 residents, including Port Arthur, McAllen, Killeen and Amarillo. Twenty-three of those cities have more than 100,000 people. All 50 have a city core, according to Brooks.

Statistics indicate an influx of people into these “inner city” regions, Brooks explained. Although people have surged into the area, few traditional churches are there to serve them because most relocated to the suburbs in conjunction with the “white flight” and regional industrialization of the 1940s and '50s.

Brooks hopes to change that phenomenon by calling “the churches back home” to impact the communities. In addition to raising interest in city core development, Brooks hopes to harness the outreaches of house and organic churches that can rapidly multiply in such areas.

“The need and opportunity is mind-boggling, but we need to understand God is not threatened by the need or the opportunity, and everything we accomplish will reduce the overwhelming need,” he said.

“I do believe we have tremendous untouched resources in the churches of Texas to do this task. I believe our people will be challenged by it.”

While the challenge is great, the initiative is not starting from scratch, organizers reminded. Project leaders hope to network existing ministries cross-denominationally and facilitate new ministries to fill needs.

“We're not starting from ground zero. We think of all the problems that are present in the city core. For every problem, there is a Christian response,” said Tommy Goode, who has been contracted to help with the project.

“The timing of this is remarkable in that there are so many things going that make the Texas City Core Initiative fit in with the work of Baptists and other evangelicals,” Goode added.

The Lord's Prayer inspires Goode's effort. He views the prayer as an active call to make God's “kingdom come, his will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
Pastors should prohibit proselytizing others' members

By Ron Sisk

Most ministerial codes of ethics forbid “proselytizing.”

By that, they mean seeking to increase your church membership by recruiting members from other Christian churches.

But the practice is perhaps more common than ever. Evangelicals love to convert Catholics. Catholics take quiet satisfaction from the flow their way of disillusioned evangelicals. And, of course, the consumer mentality among churchgoers means folk regularly shift congregations or denominations in order to meet their preferences.

Megachurches unabashedly market to all comers. And mainline ministers faced with declining membership rolls are just glad to see any new faces come through the door.

The result is a kind of ongoing degradation of ministerial courtesy that, like the biblical Jubilee, may have been more theory than practice in any case.

The idea was twofold. First, a minister should never actively seek to recruit members from another church. The underlying assumption is the unity of the kingdom of God. This was always ignored by groups who believed they held an exclusive corner on the truth.

If you were a Baptist who believed Catholics had no knowledge of personal salvation, it became your duty to convert Catholics.

The early Assembly of God and Church of Christ movements came largely from Baptists who became convinced that either the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Assembly of God) or baptismal regeneration (Church of Christ) were necessary for salvation.

They proselytized with impunity and glee. Little can be done to alter such practices without first altering the assumptions that fuel them.

The second part of the prohibition of proselytizing is more interesting, though.

It suggests that no Christian should jump from church to church for trivial or unhealthy reasons and that no minister should willingly assist such a change.

In my own years in the pastorate, I seldom saw this idea addressed well.

One colleague from a sister church in town did make a point of telling me he would always notify me if someone from the congregation I served began considering joining his. He never actually did so though.

A second colleague urged a disgruntled couple from our church to talk with me before moving their membership. But he allowed them to do so without following through.

Nor was my own record much better.

Shouldn't there be a better way? What if we developed in advance a clear protocol for dealing with visitors from neighboring churches? What would happen if every minister visited by those from another congregation began asking three simple questions:

Why do you want to leave the other church?

Have you discussed your feelings with your pastor?

May I call to suggest that your pastor call you?

Unhappy members in one church frequently make unhappy or marginal members in the next. Pastors have an obligation both to their colleagues and to their own congregations to make certain that the body of Christ stays as healthy and as unpolluted by unresolved conflict as possible.

As much as possible, people should work out their conflicts within their own community of faith. It won't always work, and people do have legitimate reasons for changing congregations. But pastors who make it too easy contribute little to the spiritual welfare of those they accept.

This, it seems to me, is the essential genius of the proselytizing prohibition.

I wish our seminaries, conventions and ministerial associations did a better job of pushing us all in this direction.

Ron Sisk is professor of homiletics and Christian ministry at North American Baptist Seminary in Sioux Falls, S.D. His column is distributed by EthicsDai-ly.com, a ministry of the Baptist Center for Ethics

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

Patriots pitcher Jeff Gilmore (left) aims a pitch at the plate, but pitching isn't the only area the university teaches him to keep a true aim in. DBU's athletic programs combine an intensive faith focus along with athletic excellence. "I want something to challenge me besides baseball," said Patriots pitcher Justin Orozco (inset below). Players often find fulfillment in ministry projects such as preparing Christmas gifts for needy children. Pictured (right) are Lance Bina and Diamond Belle Kaylee Reynolds.

DBU BASEBALL: Faith's on first

By Kambry Bickings

Staff Writer

DALLAS–A day in the life of a Dallas Baptist University baseball player consists of more than running, weight lifting, pitching and batting. DBU's coaches not only equip players for the next inning but for the game of life.

The Patriots took their first title in the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association this year. But that alone does not describe their distinction among the nation's universities.

DBU considers its baseball program unique because of the way coaches interact with team members, the activities the team undergoes together on and off the field and the spiritual support provided for all student athletes.

In addition to academic and athletic training, the university boasts that it is “committed to every athlete growing toward spiritual maturity.” A discipleship program provides four areas for players to grow, learn and mature in Christian faith, as well as excel in athletic abilities.

The first form of discipleship comes through the university's Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. FCA meets once a month for praise and worship and a message from a guest speaker, such as recent appearance by Woody Dantzler, special teams player for the Dallas Cowboys. Logan Stout, assistant baseball coach, leads the worship.

Second, each DBU athletic team also meets together weekly for a team Bible study, often led by one of the coaches. Last spring, for example, the baseball team studied 1 Peter.

“Not only does the mentoring take place within a Bible study setting, but there are spiritual ties and connections made on bus rides, walking to and from practice, and through other routines the baseball team undergoes together,” said Wayne Poague, athletics director

Third, the teams also participate in small-group discussions led by and made up of their peers. This spring, the baseball team went through a small-group study of Thessalonians.

Finally, DBU athletes also are encouraged to put their faith into action. Last year, the baseball team participated in a weekly reading program with the Grand Prairie school district, reading to at-risk children in the classroom, as well as at the Boys & Girls Club.

“The kids are so receptive to the baseball players,” Poague said. “I think they believe they are major-league players. We have them wear their jerseys when the go into the classrooms.”

Baseball players also were active in raising support for Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse ministry. Their gifts aided Operation Christmas Child.

The baseball team also switched sports for a weekend this spring to play basketball with inner-city youth at the Beautiful Feet Church in Fort Worth.

Such experiences contribute to developing spiritually as a team and an individual, Poague said. “There's more to life than baseball. These guys have to get a degree; someday they'll be husbands and dads. Being a spiritual leader for a family is important too.”

Dallas Baptist also consistently sends several of its baseball players each summer to be part of Athletes in Action. This summer, eight DBU players are participating in the Campus Crusade for Christ program, which consists of all-star teams that travel around the world playing baseball and sharing their faith in Christ. At the end of each game or between a double-header, one player from each team gives his testimony, and several people often are led to faith in Jesus Christ. Each player must raise his own support for the May-to-August mission. The leagues range in location from Missouri or New York, to the Netherlands, Germany, England and beyond.

DBU's student players report satisfaction with the extra attention they get from coaches and staff.

“Our coaches know us on the field but off the field as well,” said Justin Orozco, pitcher for the DBU Patriots and a junior from Mesquite. “They are there to support us in all areas of life.”

Although he didn't originally plan on playing at DBU, he thinks he knows now why God brought him there.

“I want something to challenge me besides baseball,” he explained. “It's easy to get distracted by baseball alone, especially during the season. Having coaches who care to challenge us to excel in all areas of life makes all the difference.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

DOWN HOME:
Dogs get all the mosquito breaks

Here's a scientific breakthrough I can't figure out: If veterinarians can prepare a pill that protects dogs from all kinds of flying bugs, why can't doctors make medicine to keep mosquitoes, say, 10 feet from people?

I can't turn on the TV without seeing a commercial about a new pill of some color and purpose. Most of the time, the announcer doesn't explain what the pill's for, only that you should “call your doctor.” (Don't you know doctors love that? Every time a new pill premieres, all the hypochondriacs call up asking if the brand-new Zynthrax would be right for them.)

MARV KNOX Editor

Forget human pharmacology. I've been intrigued by the commercial with the dog who trit-trots down the sidewalk, encapsuled in canine bliss because his owner fed him an anti-mosquito, flea and tick pill.

With West Nile Virus steadily advancing across the continent, wouldn't logic suggest every man, woman, boy and girl in America would be better off if he or she could swallow an anti-mosquito pill?

I've thought about this and figured out the trick is in the dosage. If my 7-pound dog, Betsy, is good to go with one pill, do I need to take 22 pills? And if I take 22 pills of dog medicine, will I develop irresistible urges to chase rabbits and eat grass?

So far, I'm too big of a chicken to try anti-mosquito dog medicine. But the whole issue is more than rhetorical at our house.

Our next-door neighbors, who never got the hang of keeping their above-ground pool clean, have moved away. Their house sits empty. Worse, the oh-so-still water in their pool is dark yellow and turning pea green.

A guy from the health department said empty tires, clogged rain gutters and old tin cans–just about all things that hold stagnant water–are dangerous breeding grounds for killer mosquitoes. And if a tin can can breed enough mosquitoes to present a health hazard, that slimy pool next door might morph into a mosquito megalopolis. Maybe if I feed Betsy her pills and carry her every time I go into our backyard, she'll keep the mosquitoes off both of us. Another reason why a dog can be man's best friend.

When “the roll is called up yonder,” I'm planning to ask the Lord about mosquitoes. Of course, God's will is perfect, but I haven't exactly figured out the divine plan for mosquitoes. Ditto for wasps. (If wasps were as big as chihuahuas, they're so mean they'd rule the world.) Some parts of creation don't seem exactly necessary.

Of course, biology tells us birds need bugs for food. Besides pitying the birds that have to eat wasps, I've always wondered why birds couldn't be vegetarians.

Just think of a place where birds eat weeds and nobody ever heard of mosquitoes, crickets and cockroaches. We'll probably call it heaven.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/20/03

EDITORIAL:
SBC & BWA illustrate alternative approaches to unity

Credit Denton Lotz with the most ironic-yet-gracious line of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 17-18 in Phoenix.

Messengers had just voted overwhelmingly not to reconsider the SBC's 2004 budget. Their decision clearly ensured the convention would cut its allocation to the Baptist World Alliance, which Lotz leads, from $425,000 to $300,000.

Following the set agenda, SBC President Jack Graham immediately introduced Lotz, who stepped to the podium to present the BWA report.

“Good morning,” Lotz said, smiling although $125,000 poorer. “The Lord has a wonderful sense of humor, doesn't he?”

Some messengers laughed nervously, but Lotz went on to deliver a wonderfully generous message. “We Baptists … want to stick together,” he said, not a trace of sarcasm or bitterness in his voice. “We stick together because we belong to Jesus Christ.”

The BWA embraces 206 Baptist unions and conventions whose membership numbers 46 million baptized believers around the globe, Lotz noted. They worship in 193,000 churches and minister in more than 200 countries.

The SBC is the largest and wealthiest affiliated convention in the BWA. Its 30 percent cutback in funding reflects strong disapproval of the BWA's openness to consider accepting the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as a member.

The Fellowship left the SBC 12 years ago, its members disenfranchised by the increasingly fundamentalist nature of the convention. Now, the Fellowship has petitioned to join the BWA, whose membership committee has slated the request for consideration this summer. SBC leaders claim they are pulling money from the BWA because they aren't being “heard adequately” and because they disagree with the process the BWA membership committee used in considering the Fellowship's petition. The bottom line, however, is SBC leaders despise the Fellowship and are furious the BWA might allow the upstart organization to join.

This rift between the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist World Alliance reflects two worldviews. Those perspectives illustrate the difference between the leading approaches to Baptist unity. The SBC seeks unity based on doctrine, requiring adherence to well-defined, strictly interpreted adherence to a set of beliefs. The BWA seeks unity missionally, finding ground for relationship through a common purpose.

The SBC hasn't always utilized doctrine as its litmus test for unity. When the SBC began in 1845, affiliates checked doctrinal differences at the door. Calvinists and Arminians sat down together, as did worshippers who loved the high-church liturgy of Charleston and others who roused to the fiery evangelism of Sandy Creek. They joined together because they needed each others' strength to do missions. For years, their only institutions were foreign and home mission boards. For eight decades, they never felt they needed to write a statement of faith.

But in the past quarter-century, the SBC shifted its focus to doctrinal-based unity. In fact, the convention's “conservative resurgence” or “takeover” revolved around conformity to a narrowing set of beliefs. This trajectory reached its apex in 2000 with the adoption of the new Baptist Faith & Message statement. It describes itself as an “instrument of doctrinal accountability,” or what some observers have called a creed.

The language used by speakers on the SBC platform in Phoenix illustrates their desire for firm doctrinal parameters. They described–with strong justification–the moral decay that pervades American society. But they also repeatedly talked about how Southern Baptists are oft-persecuted and much-maligned. This is ironic, since the SBC enjoys unparalleled and unprecedented access to the White House and Congress, and SBC leaders appear frequently as commentators on talk TV and other media. Their language illustrates how they feel attacked by a hostile culture. So, a rigid doctrinal emphasis creates a protective fence around the faithful, defining who can and cannot come inside. However, they have diminished the diameter of that fence and may, in time, declare the BWA, with its 205 other member bodies, outside their fold.

The BWA, on the other hand, embraces many of the poorest and most persecuted Baptists on the planet. Lotz described baptisms in bathtubs in Afghanistan, performed in secret so the pastors and new converts would not be executed. He told about ministers imprisoned in Turkmenistan and harsh sanctions around the globe. Baptists worldwide hail from many cultures and articulate some doctrinal distinctions differently. They uniformly affirm the lordship of Christ, believer's baptism, the authority of Scripture and a regenerate church. But in the BWA, they rally around mission. They sacrifice to spread the gospel across the globe, to strengthen and encourage churches, to fight for religious liberty in the face of totalitarian regimes. BWA members include some of the world's most oppressed people, yet they persevere for fellowship and common purpose.

Leaders of both groups clearly articulate their rationale for Baptist unity. While the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's possible membership in the BWA is the focal point of current conflict, it really is beside the point in the larger picture. For its own reasons, the SBC will continue to delineate doctrinal demands for unity. Likewise, the BWA will rally under the common Lordship of Christ and a shared heritage. This may mean the SBC drops out of and defunds the BWA (a possibility presaged by SBC Vice President Paul Pressler, who twice referred to the BWA as the Baptist Joint Committee, a religious liberty group the SBC defunded a decade ago).

If you affirm the SBC's doctrinal unity, you will approve the departure. If you support the BWA's missional unity, you will want to help make up the financial shortfall by leading your congregation to become a BWA Global Impact Church, which provides at least $1,000 annually to the BWA budget.

What's your basis for Baptist unity?

For informa- tion about the Baptist World Alliance's Global Impact Church program, contact Global Impact De-partment, Baptist World Alliance, 405 N. Washington St., Falls Church, Va. 22046; globalimpact@bwanet.org; (703) 790-8980, ext. 129.
–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted 6/23/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Mowing & praying

By John Duncan

I am sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering the lazy days of summer and working up the energy to mow my yard. The desert monks coined a word for laziness, "acedia," which means listlessness. "Acedia" has Greek roots, meaning "an absence of care." Today I am listless, but the yard must be mowed.

The poet Langston Hughes once lamented, "Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair." When it comes to my yard, the grass grows, the flowers fade and the yard must be mowed. My yard ain’t no crystal stair. I guess I will jolt myself out of this listless state and start mowing.

When I mow, I pray. "Everything that one turns in the direction of God is prayer," Ignatius of Loyola commented. I mow the tall weeds, and I trim my grass, and I turn stuff in God’s direction.

JOHN DUNCAN

I am mowing and praying–for the world; for the church, God’s church; for kids on drugs; for soldiers in war; for families in grief; for a friend’s son whose choices have catapulted his life into a whirlpool of descending trouble. I am mowing and praying and recalling that Langston Hughes also said, "Descent is quick; to rise again is slow." I am praying for my friend’s son to rise again in the power of the Almighty. I mow and pray. The lawn mower throws grass in the direction of the ground, and I toss words in God’s direction. The sunshine falls. Prayer rises.

I am mowing and pushing–grimace, grunt, groan. I agreed to mow my neighbor’s yard. His yard takes longer to mow and challenges my body. I push the mower uphill, around trees while ducking under limbs, back and forth in ankle-thick grass freshly watered by dripping drops of rain splashed into mother earth. Life ain’t no crystal stair.

I am sweating and praying for my neighbor Bill, that his company will renew his job. Companies lay people off, the economy sags, and I am praying that God in his economy will allow Bill to keep his job. The grass shortens. Prayer lengthens my soul. Jesus hears.

I am praying and dreaming because every time I turn a corner in Bill’s backyard, I see the lake and his jet ski. Think of me as no saint. Mowing Bill’s yard also means I receive the privilege of using his jet ski.

The heat withers my body, blades of grass stick to my legs, dust flies in my face and I dream of zipping across the lake at break-neck speeds with the wind blowing through my thinning hair. Life ain’t no crystal stair, but you cannot spend your whole life mowing the yard. A man needs jet-ski flair every once and awhile. I have a dream.

I am jet skiing and praying. Now I zip across the lake and pray. Karl Barth once noted, "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."

I zigzag across a crystal lake as the evening sun glistens off the water as if a mirror lay beneath my path. I watch for approaching watercraft and enjoy the aura of God’s creation. The heavens declare God’s glory, not to mention the beauty of the lake. My hands tightly grip the handlebars on the jet ski, and my heart grips prayer.

I pray for an uprising against the disorder of the world–for grief amid pain in Israel where bus bombers create disorder; for soldiers in Iraq wincing in the chaos of ambushes and confusion; for peace in homes where Satan hurls missiles of disorder into homes; for joy to return to those who lost jobs as God in his economy provides new jobs and stable incomes again for struggling souls; for those climbing life’s stairs and finding the uphill climb difficult like hiking Mount Everest.

Life ain’t no crystal stair, but the yard must be mowed, jet skis need to come off the rack, and prayer needs to rise up against the disorder of the world.

Are you praying?

So now here I am, back under the old oak tree, drinking bottled water purified by mountain springs and praising my Lord the yard got mowed. Life ain’t no crystal stair, but prayer makes life crystal clear! And Jesus hears.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines.

Posted: 6/27/03

Tight budget taps out church funds

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas Church Starting Center cannot fund any more church starts for the rest of the year.

The center has committed all budgeted monies to support recent church starts. The BGCT funds up to 50 percent of new churches' budgets for a maximum of three years.

BGCT consultants are looking for new avenues of funding church starts through associations and sponsoring churches for the rest of the year. More funds will be available to the center in January.

Funding for this year has been stretched particularly tight for several reasons, explained Abe Zabaneh, director of the center.

BGCT Cooperative Program funds, Mary Hill Davis Offering gifts and income from the New Church Fund all have declined, he noted. These are the primary sources for church-starting funds.

Last year, the staff budgeted for 150 new churches but actually helped launch 264. The ongoing financial commitment to these recent starts takes the bulk of the budget, Zabaneh said.

The center typically commits its entire new church budget before the end of the year, but this is the earliest a shortfall has occurred, Zabaneh said. Last year, the center committed the budget by October.

BGCT staff members have helped facilitate 94 church starts this year, well below their goal of 259 churches. Despite the drop, Zabaneh remains optimistic. He hopes the center will start 150 churches with the help of partners by the end of the year.

Zabaneh encouraged Texas Baptists to give faithfully to the BGCT Cooperative Program, Mary Hill Davis Offering and the New Church Fund.

“Our new churches are very effective at reaching people for Christ,” Zabaneh said. “They're very evangelistic. New churches are a good investment, because not only do they reach people, they give back. The more churches we start, the more churches we have that give to BGCT Cooperative Program ministries.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 6/27/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
Parents must reinforce messages

By David Gushee

Imagine you are trying to get into the mind of someone. Your goal is to communicate some kind of message to that person so that he or she will not forget it. What will your strategy be?

The answer is repetition.

You will put your message in front of your target as many times as possible, in as many venues as possible, in as attractive and unforgettable a manner as possible.

You will “flood the zone,” so your target will encounter your message everywhere.

David Gushee

Now, imagine that you are someone attempting to block the transmission of this message. You have more limited resources, but you do exert some control over the activities of the target. What will your strategy be?

As parents of a teenager and two pre-teens, this is our life. My wife and I are trying to block the transmission of messages that are being sent to our three children by the mass media. What an uphill struggle!

Take an average day: When my oldest daughter gets up in the morning, she is awakened by a clock radio tuned to her favorite radio station. There are two main stations that are popular with most teenagers we know. They offer two primary messages. One says, “I am a hormone-crazed young person who wants to party and have sex.” The other says, “I am a depressed young person who wants to jump off a bridge.” About 20 minutes an hour, both say, “Come to this or that club and party with other hormone-crazed and depressed young people.”

Let's say I employ my message-blocking role to demand that these two radio stations be turned off, as at times I have. This might reduce the message-sender's target penetration by some small percentage.

But my daughter has other options.

To shape their children's moral perspectives, parents must be more than message-blockers. They must be message-senders as well.

She can always go down the hall and listen to the same music on the Internet or through file-swapping programs. Or if we tell her there are certain songs or “artists” she cannot listen to, she can turn on the TV and see them featured on various programs and commercials there–even if she isn't looking for them.

If we tell her she cannot watch the TV, or at least certain shows on the TV, she can then go out with her friends and listen to the same music in the car or over at a friend's house.

For that matter, if she goes to the mall, she will hear some of the same music in various stores. If she goes to a restaurant, she often will receive the message piped in through the sound system. If she goes to a movie, she will receive similar messages, often accompanied by the same music and the same artists.

Our nation's children have been and will continue to be masterfully inundated by the messages being sent by the mass media.

One could hardly imagine a more comprehensive strategy for teaching someone something.

On the other hand, only so many strategies are available to parents seeking to be message-blockers in this culture.

Some parents opt for an attempt at total prevention. They remove all radios, televisions, video cassette recorders, compact disk players and Internet providers from the home. Even this radical strategy cannot prevent out-of-home transmission of unwanted messages.

While such a total home media blackout has its benefits, it is not the path we have chosen in our household.

We have believed there are valuable resources available through the mass media if it is used selectively and supervised carefully. Thus we embark on the screening process: There are television stations we do not watch, types of movies we ban, songs we refuse to hear, Internet sites we block and so on.

It is a war, and it sometimes feels like we are on the losing side. The struggle itself is just plain wearisome. But it is one we cannot abandon.

One final dimension impacts this struggle. Parents must be more than message-blockers. We must be message-senders as well.

A merely defensive strategy never will be adequate. We must have our own message to send, and we must send it with just as much energy as we can.

For our family, it is a message about the good, the true and the beautiful. And the God who is the author of all three.

This is a message we send repeatedly, with our involvement in church, with our moral teaching, with the books we read, and–we pray–with our lives. It is a message we hope our children will make their own as they leave us and make their way in the world.

What are you doing to win the battle for your child's mind?

David Gushee is the Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. His column is distributed by Religion News Service

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.