Posted: 7/25/03

BIBLE STUDY BREW:
Coffee's influence at church

By John Spalding

Beliefnet

WASHINGTON (RNS)–When Maryetta Anschutz arrived at Christ and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Westport, Conn., three years ago, she noticed a disturbing trend at coffee hour.

“People were sneaking off to Starbucks down the street,” she recalled. “Some would even return with their decaf mocha latte shamelessly in hand. I was the first to call them on it. I'm the church coffee cop.”

Anschutz knows exactly what's wrong with her church's coffee. “It's sludge!”

But coffee hour is “the center of our community,” she noted. “It's why many people who have few chances to socialize because of family and work go to church.”

Finally, after tiring of trailing parishioners to Starbucks, Anschutz found the perfect solution: She got Starbucks to donate pots of regular and decaf each Sunday, and sold coffee to parishioners at $3 a pop. The proceeds went to the high school outreach group she's taking to build homes in Jamaica this summer. In two months, she raised more than $2,000 from coffee hour alone.

It's hard to exaggerate the importance of coffee to American church life. Pulled apart by their views about salvation, biblical interpretation and social issues, nearly all Christians share a common dedication to the beany brew.

In most mainline Protestant and Catholic churches, parishioners gather before or after services in the fellowship hall or church basement for kaffeeklatsches that often bear modest names like “fellowship hour” or “community hour.”

An old Lutheran joke calls coffee hour the “third sacrament,” after baptism and communion.

Young evangelical Christians have taken coffee spirituality off-site. In the past decade, hundreds of coffeehouses have popped up across the country with names like “The Jesus Shack,” “Holy Grounds,” “One Way Cafe,” “Cup O' Joy” and “The Revelation Room.”

So essential is coffee to churchgoing that when someone added arsenic to the coffee urn at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in New Sweden, Maine, this spring, killing the 78-year-old head usher and hospitalizing 15 others, parishioners defiantly drank coffee for the TV cameras the following Sunday. Bishop Margaret Payne even showed up to take the symbolic first sip.

“I just wanted to make it clear that this isn't a place where you have to be afraid of drinking coffee,” she said on CBS news.

As with many Christian practices, a whiff of the pagan lies at coffee hour's root. The preparation of coffee has a timeless alchemy about it–grind beans (crush wing of bat), steam milk (boil cauldron), add cinnamon (toss in eye of newt), followed by ritual incantation: “How do you take it?” “Cream and sugar?” “One lump or two?”

And though not as strong as the Native Americans' peyote or the Norsemen's mushrooms, coffee contains a drug–albeit the one drug Ned Flanders can take without feeling guilty.

Caffeine also does what Christian fellowship is supposed to do. It's uplifting; the drink itself is warm and inviting. Coffee hour offers a “level-playing field,” noted Anschutz. “It's not the yacht club. Anyone can come and mingle freely. Even if you don't discuss your faith, something in a sermon may draw you into a meaningful discussion about God and life.”

Christianity hasn't always cottoned to coffee. In her aptly titled book “Coffee,” Claudia Rosen explains that 16th-century priests wanted Pope Clement VIII to ban “the devil's drink.” They insisted Satan had forbidden his followers–Muslims–from drinking wine because it was used in Holy Communion. Instead, the devil provided this “hellish black brew.”

The elixir made from coffee beans does in fact have a long history in Islamic regions. African tribes mixed the crushed beans with animal fat and molded them into balls to eat as a stimulant before battle. Arabs made the first hot coffee beverage, in 1000 A.D. Dervishes–mystic devotees of Islam's Sufi sect–consumed coffee at all-night ceremonies as fuel for achieving religious ecstasy.

Coffee may have remained a Middle Eastern exotic had not Clement VIII decided to put it to the taste test before banning it. “Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious,” he declared, “that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall cheat Satan by baptizing it.”

In 1683, a Franciscan friar named Marciano d'Aviano stopped a Turkish invasion of Austria, and along the way, some claim, invented cappuccino. The retreating Turks left behind bags of coffee beans, historians say, which the Viennese found so bitter that they added milk and sugar, creating a frothy, sweet beverage. Legend says the word “cappuccino” comes from d'Aviano's Capuchin order, so named for their brown robes. Pope John Paul II, himself an avowed coffee lover, beatified Marciano d'Aviano this spring (citing other, presumably decaffeinated, miracles he performed).

Still, in mid- to late-18th century Europe, coffee was viewed with mistrust.

Johann Sebastian Bach, an avid coffee drinker and devout Lutheran, composed his “Coffee Cantata” in 1732. In this satirical operetta, a stern father forbids his daughter to touch the evil drink. She pleads: “Father, don't be so severe! If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat.”

Today, it is sometimes more proper to be a coffee believer than a Christian one. In Salt Lake City last year, where Mormons generally shun caffeinated beverages, Baptists ran a coffeehouse as part of their ministry at the Winter Olympics.

Christian rock bands commonly play the coffeehouse circuit as a way of building an audience. For years, Jars of Clay included in their concerts a paean to coffee usually introduced by Dan Haseltine's dead-on imitation of the rude whorling sound of a barista steaming milk for cappuccino.

Many young evangelical Christians frequent coffeehouses because they are looking for a place to congregate that is not a bar.

They have that in common with recovering alcoholics. Coffee has been a staple at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since the non-denominational group's formation in 1935. While its high is relatively benign, coffee is nearly as effective a social lubricant as alcohol.

Some faiths are too pure even for coffee. Mormons drink Postum, the cereal-based coffee substitute that made C.W. Post a fortune at the turn of the 20th century, after he smeared coffee as unhealthy in an aggressive ad campaign.

Few church coffee drinkers, however, think coffee may be the least Christian drink of all.

“I pay $4 for a latte,” said Christ and Trinity's “coffee cop,” Anschutz. “I should put the money I spend on coffee every day into my United Thank Offering box and send it to sub-Saharan Africa. Did you know that a grande latte only costs Starbucks 11 cents to make and 22 cents in overhead?

“It's appalling,” she said, “and yet I still go in and buy them.”

Posted: 7/25/03

Court rules for Bible club

WASHINGTON (RNS)–A Pennsylvania high school wrongly barred a student Bible club from meeting during an activity period before the start of classes, an appellate court ruled July 15.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the decision after Melissa Donovan, a senior at Punxsutawney Area High School, claimed the school district would not permit FISH, her Bible study group, to meet after school started at 8 a.m., the Associated Press reported.

School officials were wrong to prevent the club from meeting during an in-school “activity period,” during which other student groups were permitted to gather, the three-judge panel ruled.

“FISH is a group that discusses current issues from a biblical perspective, and school officials denied the club equal access to meet on school premises during the activity period solely because of the club's religious nature,” Judge Ruggero John Aldisert wrote.

Donovan graduated in the spring, which rendered part of her suit moot. But the court said her constitutional rights to free speech and assembly were violated, so she may be due attorney fees and damages.

School representatives could not be reached for comment. The district had argued that permitting the group to meet during the school day would amount to an inappropriate government endorsement of religion.

The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization that sued the district with Donovan, welcomed the decision.

“The court's strongly worded opinion should send a message to school districts throughout the country to think twice before excluding religious students,” said John Whitehead, the institute's president.

Posted: 7/25/03

D.C. vouchers get postponed

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Congress' latest attempt to use the District of Columbia as a laboratory for school-voucher programs hangs in the balance after a Senate panel unexpectedly postponed a vote on the proposal.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, in a raucous July 17 session, postponed a vote on the District's $5.6 billion budget for at least a week. The bill contains a provision that would create a program of publicly funded scholarships for private schools, including religious schools.

The committee's Republican leaders were scrambling to find enough votes to pass the bill after the defection of one of their own. Committee member Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., citing his own objection to vouchers on church-state grounds, said he would oppose the measure.

Senate Democrats have threatened a filibuster to kill the bill if it is brought to the floor with the voucher provision intact.

A House committee approved a similar D.C. voucher plan earlier in the week.

Congress directly oversees much of the way Washington's government operates. City leaders have objected to voucher proposals in the past. But Mayor Anthony Williams and D.C. School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz recently acquiesced to the voucher proposal, reportedly under pressure from the White House. Vouchers are a central part of President Bush's education policy aims.

However, the city's non-voting delegate to the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, hailed the Senate decision to put the brakes on vouchers. “I very much regret that vouchers have returned to haunt and halt another D.C. appropriations bill,” she said. “People really underestimated how unpopular vouchers are in Congress.”

Norton referred to a 1997 attempt by Republicans to attach vouchers to a D.C. appropriations bill. They backed away from that plan after then-President Bill Clinton promised a veto of any bill containing a voucher program.

Voucher opponents object to providing government money to religious schools and often claim that vouchers will hurt struggling public schools by diverting money that otherwise would have been spent on those schools. Voucher supporters claim that “school choice”–delivered through private schools and public charter schools–is the only hope many students in failing inner-city schools have to get the kind of education those in their communities with more money can afford.

The District of Columbia already has one of the nation's largest charter-school programs.

About 68,000 students are enrolled in regular public schools, while almost 12,000 more are enrolled in public charter schools. Another 14,000 attend private schools located in the city.

Posted: 7/25/03

Deaf called to more prayer

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

WACO–Evangelism begins with God but relies on believers to do the legwork, according to a featured speaker at the Texas Baptist Conference for the Deaf.

Darrell Bonjour, pastor of Paramount Deaf Church in Amarillo, encouraged workshop participants to pray faithfully in preparation for sharing the gospel.

Prayer has proved to be the basis of successful evangelism, Bonjour reported, noting that Christians pray for months or sometimes years before revivals, including the Billy Graham crusades, to open communities to the gospel.

Evangelism begins with prayer “because God has to teach us,” he said. “The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray. The Bible says if we pray and follow his will, he will answer.”

Faithful living helps believers recognize witnessing opportunities, Bonjour continued, citing conversations about death, personal issues and spiritual seeking as examples.

“Through your life, you meet people, and you can witness,” he said. “I have to be honest. God has given me chances to witness and I missed it.”

Believers must adhere continuously to their faith for their testimonies to be meaningful, Bonjour warned, because people are cynical and looking for any inconsistency in believers' actions.

Above all, Christians must step outside their comfort zones to reach non-believers, Bonjour emphasized. Too often believers shrink away from the world rather than impacting it, he implored.

“You have to meet people who aren't Christians. You have to be nice to them. Don't live in your small world.”

Posted: 7/25/03

DOWN HOME:
OK, so the officer didn't laugh, too

Except for an encounter with one of Krotz Springs' finest, we had a perfect vacation.

Joanna, Lindsay, Molly and I spent a week at the beach, the favored summer retreat of our teenage girls. The other day, I tried to count; this was the ninth or 10th trip we've taken to the beach. I hope the girls remember these trips as fondly as I remember the vacations my family took when I was a kid.

Back in the “old days,” we lived in the Panhandle, where Daddy was a pastor. The beach seemed a million miles away, so we went camping in the mountains of New Mexico or Colorado. I still favor a mountain vacation–the sound of wind rushing through the pines; the pungent smell of the woods; the sting of icy water when you wade in the streams; the cold nights that induce great sleep.

Jo and I have taken Lindsay and Molly to the mountains a couple of times, but the girls prefer a trip to the Gulf of Mexico. It's probably the terrific routine–sleep until you wake up; eat breakfast on the porch, listening to the waves; slather on sunscreen and mosey down to the beach; play in the water when you get hot and sit and read when you're not; jump in the pool to rinse off the sand and sweat; clean up; eat dinner; spend the evening walking on the beach or watching movies or just talking.

Even as a fan of mountain grandeur, I've got to admit a beach vacation is a wonderful retreat from the “real world.” I particularly like the sound of a peculiar form of silence–no telephone calls–and the most beautiful range of music–my wife's and daughters' laughter. We laugh quite a bit at our house, but the laughter of vacation has a free, easy sound that's tangibly different from home laughter.

Unfortunately, I became the object of some of that laughter about halfway home on the last day of vacation. You know, when you're heading home, you just want to get there.

That's not a good emotion in parts of rural Louisiana, where the speed limit on long stretches of Highway 190 has been reduced to 45 miles per hour, thanks to road construction that is not visible to the naked eye.

Well, I tried to be good, honest. But when we reached a seven-mile-long narrow viaduct over the swamp, I opened back up to the speed limit God intended, just a notch or two above 70. The viaduct went great. It has no shoulder, so the state troopers can't stake it out.

At the end of the swamp, a beautiful arching bridge spans the Atchafalaya River. At the bottom of the other side of that bridge sits a Krotz Springs, La., police officer, toting up city revenue.

“Sir, I clocked you going 73 in a 55-mile-per-hour zone,” he told me, writing my first speeding ticket in 30 years. At least Jo and the girls waited to laugh until he walked away.

Now, I'm $90 poorer. But I still thank God for relaxing vacations and family laughter.

Posted: 7/25/03

EDITORIAL:
Speak the truth or show love? Why can't we do both?

The folks in Chama, N.M., won't forget Ben Martinez's funeral mass any time soon.

About 200 mourners gathered in the sanctuary of St. Patrick Catholic Church after Martinez died at age 80 last summer. Chances are, they expected to hear the priest, Scott Mansfield, eulogize Martinez as a lifelong Catholic who served his community as a town councilman.

Instead, according to members of the Martinez family, Mansfield stamped their recently departed loved one's passport to hell.

Once they got over their shock, the Martinezes did what millions of Americans of many faiths would do in this day and age.

They sued.

They claim Mansfield described Martinez as “lukewarm in his faith” and “living in sin,” according to Religion News Service. Most graphically, the priest reportedly added, “The Lord vomited people like Ben out of his mouth to hell.”

Family members have defended Martinez, saying illness prevented the practicing Catholic from attending church the last year of his life. Nine of them also claim the priest and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sante Fe owe them money for severe emotional and physical suffering.

Both the archdiocese and the priest have denied the accusations. Sometime soon, a court will decide (a) if the American legal system can penalize a priest or preacher for calling them as he sees them, spiritually speaking, and (b) the punitive price of hellfire and damnation.

This issue raises a question of propriety. What should a minister say over the coffin of a scallywag? Dwight Moody, chaplain at Georgetown College in Kentucky and a former pastor, considered Mansfield's funeral sermon in a recent column: “There is a time and place, I suppose, to talk about sin and damnation. Jesus himself had a few choice words on these matters. But I doubt a funeral is that time and place. I myself have officiated at funerals of people widely held to be scoundrels, but even such people have a few redeeming qualities that can be the focus of a eulogy.”

So, when is the time for hellfire and the place for damnation? That question reminds me of an e-mail sent by a friend in my Sunday School class:

The Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches in a small Texas village were overrun by squirrels. Each group decided to handle the situation according to its faith and order.

The Presbyterians called a council and determined the squirrels were predestined to be there, and the church shouldn't interfere with God's sovereign will.

The Methodists prayed about the situation and felt led to refrain from harming any of God's creatures. They humanely captured the squirrels and released them a few miles down the road. The squirrels came back three days later.

Only the Baptists came up with an effective solution. They baptized the squirrels and registered them as church members. Now, they only see the squirrels at Christmas and Easter.

This little joke would be funnier if it didn't point to a truth. Our churches fill up on Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday. They brim with people who show up acting like they're doing God a favor. This hit home a year and a half ago, as I waited while one of my daughters got her hair cut. The stylist and client chit-chatted about their holidays. “Of course, on Christmas Eve, we did the church thing,” the stylist reported. Her family's attendance at a candlelight Lord's Supper service had no more apparent meaning than a trip to the park to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Many Christmases and Easters, I've admired my pastors' warmth and grace. They've welcomed these awkward occasional worshippers with joy and dignity. They've attempted to help these twice-a-year congregants feel welcome and wanted.

But I've always wondered if we've done the right thing by making these holy days services all sweetness and light. Do we inoculate people with just enough religion to trick them into thinking they can get by, when what really happens is they miss out on the chance to create an authentic relationship with the Christ whose birth and resurrection we celebate?

Talk about the right time and place: About the only time we get some people into our place of worship is at Christmas, Easter, funerals and weddings. Members of a Texas Baptist church recently left a funeral broken-hearted, because the presiding minister, from another denomination, refused to preach the gospel during the service. They instinctively understood this would have been a wonderful opportunity to share the good news of sin's redemption to people who wouldn't cross another church threshold until the next time somebody died.

Here is a message for the Christmas/Easter/ wedding/funeral crowd: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. … The wages of sin is death. … But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. … The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. … If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. … For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The Apostle Paul admonished followers of Christ to “speak the truth in love.” Some of us are so eager to speak the truth that we're not very loving. One of my daughters' friends spent her lunchtime telling classmates they were “going to hell” because they didn't know Jesus. She made a big impact, scaring elementary schoolchildren almost speechless. She didn't convert any of them. They felt judgment, not love. But more of us are so afraid we won't seem loving that we refuse to speak the truth. What could be more loving than to help someone understand that a relationship with God's Son, Jesus Christ, offers the promise of eternal life?

The court has not determined what Mansfield said at the funeral. But if the priest had spoken lovingly to Martinez before his death, maybe he wouldn't have felt compelled to speak so truthfully afterward.
–Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Posted: 7/29/03

Police identify body of Dennehy;
Baylor teammate Dotson held

By Hannah Lodwick

Associated Baptist Press

WACO, Texas (ABP)—Authorities have positively identified the body of missing Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy.

Searchers found the body in a Waco-area field July 25. A medical examiner in Dallas confirmed a positive identification for Dennehy two days later. Officials did not specify a cause of death.

After finding the decomposed body, investigators continued to search through high weeds in the rural area roughly five miles south of Waco. They found a head the morning of July 27.

Carlton Dotson, Dennehy’s former teammate, reportedly told FBI agents he shot Dennehy after the player tried to shoot him, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The two had been shooting guns in a country field. On July 21, police in Maryland arrested Dotson for murder. Dotson denies he confessed to murdered.

Dotson’s attorney, Grady Irvin, told CNN he feels concerned about the mental well-being of his client. Dotson reportedly called 911 before his arrest and complained about hearing voices.

"Any statements that were given by Mr. Dotson, if any, couldn’t have been given freely, couldn’t have been voluntary, and couldn’t have been done when he was coherent in any way, shape or form," Irvin told CNN.

Dennehy’s family reported him missing June 19, about a week after he was last seen on the Baylor campus in Waco. His mother and stepfather, Valorie and Brian Brabazon, had traveled to Waco to gather their son’s belongings but left for their home in Nevada the morning of July 27.

Baylor President Robert Sloan expressed shock and asked for prayer in a July 28 e-mail addressed to the entire "Baylor family."

"Baylor has endured the heart-wrenching loss of students before, but never in such a startling and perplexing manner," Sloan wrote. "We grieve the loss of Patrick and the impact of that loss on the Baylor community."

In response to alleged impropriety on the men’s basketball team, Sloan’s letter also described an investigative committee he formed to "perform a full and credible review of our basketball program." Sloan said he has no reason to believe the accusations but takes NCAA rules seriously.

"Integrity is the cornerstone on which our entire athletics program is built," Sloan wrote. "We will spare no effort to determine if that commitment was compromised in any way."

The committee includes three Baylor law school professors and the former mayor of Austin—a Baylor alum—as outside counsel.

Both Dotson and Dennehy had transferred to Baylor on basketball scholarships, Dotson from Paris Junior College and Dennehy from the University of New Mexico.

Dotson remains jailed without bond in Maryland while he fights extradition to Texas.

Posted 7/29/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
From a rock house

By John Duncan

I am sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering an old rock house. An old rock house sits in Pilot Point. The old rock house might be down some dirt road or out in the country or on an asphalt road near the center of town. I know not where that house sits. I do know that on Sept. 14, 1940, Aunt Essie delivered her nephew, Cordell. Cordell had a last name—Parker. That rock house served as conduit of education, values and spiritual roots.

Not long ago, a speech teacher named Cordell Parker died. Cordell taught at Tarrant County College and served as an educator for over 40 years. Today people change jobs faster than a lightning strike. Forty years at the same task and purpose occurs to me as a remarkable feat. In the Summer of 1980, Cordell served as my speech teacher. He loved talking about life’s most basic commodity—communication. Communication makes the world go around. Today S-P-E-E-C-H is on my mind.

S-Story. Life swells with laughter and drips with tears. Cordell could laugh. He loved stories, a part of the ever-flowing river of communication that puts characters and life into the drama and context of the flow of life. The ancient Greek thinker Heraclitus once said, "You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you." Stepping into the same rivers twice is one thing, but telling a story twice is always permitted. Eugene Peterson once announced stories as a pastoral care, understanding the people, places and powers that influence people’s lives. He called his visits with people "occasions for original research on the stories being shaped in their lives by the living Christ." Stories shape life. Telling stories influences lives.

Stories flow like a river—of tree houses; of wedding plans; of the church parking lot where Cordell met Irene, his wife; of swimming pools where a father tosses his daughter, Kippy, in the water, clothes and all; of wrestling matches where Cordell once dressed as a sumo wrestler, baring his body and soul to raise money for the United Way; of cars and Cadillacs and trucks spray painted on a dark night; of life’s No. 1 fear, public speaking; of Artem and monster trucks and hip-hop music with words like, "It’s time to go"; of an interest in the funeral home business and mortuary science; and of a rock house. Stories refresh and connect life like people gathering on a porch to talk while drinking cool cups of water from a mountain river.

P-People. In more recent days, I have concluded that life is really about people—the wired and weird; the stable and unstable; the happy and sad; the big and small; those wilting under the heat of life’s pressure and those blooming in the sunshine of life; the healers and hurt; the non-communicative and the communicative; the thinkers and feelers. People influence, often with stories.

Cordell loved to meet people. He always seemed to have a knack for researching their stories and delivering the news of people’s lives. If you will live joyfully, two necessary relationships lay a happy foundation—a relationship with the Person of Christ; relationships with people. Cordell himself spoke of people—his father in the grocery business; Irene and Kippy; Mrs. Hall, his teacher in high school; Jack Schmidt, whom he worked for in his younger years in the funeral business; his friend Michael; and colleagues like Jane Harper. The circle of life surrounds with a circus of joy when relationships with Christ and people form an unbreakable bond. Did Cordell learn about those bonds in a rock house?

E-Encouragement. Encouragement, of all qualities, is the one thing that everybody needs. Cordell’s booming voice (for after all, he was a communicator himself) asked two questions: "What can I do for you today?" and, "Can I pray for you?" P.T. Forsyth once noted: "Prayer is the highest use to which speech can be put. It is the highest meaning that can be put into words." Cordell constantly inquired about my wife, Judy, during her tumultuous bout with cancer. His "today" question and his prayerful spirit in the circle of life’s stories remind me of two vital keys to genuine communication—care and prayer. Richard Foster once said, "Intercession is a way of loving others." Before his death, Cordell shared with his good friend Michael that he was going to retire and intercede daily for others. That was Dr. Parker, an encourager in the stories of life.

E-Education. Cordell graduated from Denton High Scholl and North Texas State University, and he loved education, students and speech-communication. He once threatened to quit school in the real pressures of education, its costs, and its challenges. He relented, though. "I promise I’ll finish," he told his mother. He did finish, completing his doctorate in education and surrendering his life not to his beloved interest of mortuary science, but to education. Life takes unexpected twists and turns. Stories wind and bend with surprise.

One lady called him a "giant of a man." He won awards for teaching in 2001—the prestigious Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award; the Golden Apple Award; and the Humanities Distinguished Award. It served as my privilege to introduce whim when he won the Golden Apple Award. Afterward he thanked me, adding, "Thanks for taking the time to drive this far to introduce me. I never knew that speech class meant that much." He once told me, based on my speech class experience, that he thought I would be a man of letters (an educator), but not a public speaker. We laughed about that. Who knows what God will do to shape and surprise in the story of life?

C-Communication. I hear an echo in my ear, "You have verbal and non-verbal communication." If you will have a happy marriage, a successful business or serve as a good employee, you need good skills of communication. If you walk through life’s valleys or stand on life’s mountains, you will need to communicate to endure or to celebrate. If you raise kids or raise corn, you will need communication. If you live life with laughter, love and abundant life, communication will serve as your most basic tool. I wonder what Aunt Essie communicated on the day Cordell was born in that rock house?

H-Hope. Cordell loved gospel music, especially the Florida Boys. He researched stories of people and church and Christ at home in the heart. As a boy, he sold newspapers. I liked to think he liked the news, but more than that loved the Good News of Jesus. I see him in my imagination—throwing newspapers at dawn; sitting on a riding lawn mower on a hot summer’s day at the funeral home; making a body-run with the funeral home director; driving an ambulance through a busy street; standing in a church parking lot; laughing, side-splitting laughter, while standing beside a splashy pool; standing in front of a speech class talking; giving a speech; smiling as he receives an award; promising his mother; sitting in church while I preach ("A-," he said that day); loading his office in a box; telling stories, and crying in a rock house while Aunt Essie holds him close to her chest in love.

Most of us never get too far from where life begins—its education, values and spiritual roots in places like a rock house. Jesus asks us not to get too far from him. He tells us about life and death, the stories and the story: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you." I am here under the old oak tree pondering a rock house in heaven and a wooden porch where a guy in a cowboy hat sits in a rocking chair near a pond in a circle of people. By the way, if you listen real close, he’s telling stories.

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

Posted:8/4/03

Dennehy services set

A funeral service for Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy will be held at 11 a.m. Pacific Time Thursday, Aug. 7, at the Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose, Calif.

Cards may be sent to: Family of Patrick Dennehy, c/o Jubilee Christian Center, 175 Nortech Parkway, San Jose, Calif. 95134.

The university will hold a campus memorial service for Dennehy at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, in the Truett Seminary Chapel on the Waco campus.

For more information, contact Baylor's university ministries office at (254) 710-3517.

Posted 8/5/03

Commentary:
God's man for two seminaries

By Ted Stone

Eleven years ago, area media accounts of the election of Paige Patterson to the presidency of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary carried the prediction by the more ardent detractors that his coming would result in the death of the Southern Baptist seminary, located in Wake Forest, N.C.

Many denominational loyalists wondered if the hard-driving Texan, who had earned his spurs as a leader in the conservative resurgence, would be a good fit for the more traditional East Coast seminary. After all, he was fresh from the presidency of Criswell College, and some feared that such a background ill-prepared him for the educational challenges of higher education.

Friends and enemies were greatly surprised at the disarming, friendly demeanor of the Baptist leader who had been falsely heralded as a bully and administrator of an inquisition. By God’s grace, and blessed with the visionary leadership of Patterson, the struggling campus began to rise from the ashes of despair to the pinnacles of Christian service it enjoys today. Some faculty members retired, while others chose to teach at other schools, but not one single faculty member was fired during the days of changeover.

Patterson’s passion for evangelism and missions became evident during the early days of his tenure. Church planting became a priority, and students were encouraged to discover the meaning of missions firsthand by active involvement across the world. The seminary president and his wife, Dorothy, often traveled to foreign lands to offer encouragement to their dedicated young students. An outstanding Ph.D. program was instituted for the first time at Southeastern, and a thriving liberal arts college was founded. The student body grew by leaps and bounds.

Paige Patterson always has been accessible to students, faculty and others who love the seminary. His office is crammed with mementos from mission trips and safaris. That he is an avid hunter is no secret to his admirers. And the presence of his loyal dog in his office or the front seat of his car is an everyday event. Those who have been fortunate (and there are many) to enjoy the hospitality of Magnolia Hill, the presidential residence, know that the president and his much-respected wife are renowned as top-notch hosts. They love people!

When I returned home from the trustee meeting at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth in April, at which Southwestern’s beloved President Ken Hemphill announced his resignation to pursue another area of denominational service, I was sad at his departure and frustrated with challenging problems that still needed to be resolved at the institution long considered the flagship seminary of our denomination.

The rumor mill was active, and the media speculated that Paige Patterson might be a leading candidate for the presidency of the largest evangelical seminary in the world. Because of my deep concerns for the future of Southwestern and the ties that had been developed with the Southeastern president during my tenure as a member of the Southeastern board of visitors, I scheduled a meeting with Patterson in his office at Wake Forest.

I poured out my soul, discussing each of the pressing needs at Southwestern. I knew already that this man of God shared my enthusiasm for evangelism, and I carefully told him of the dream that I shared with Southwestern professors Roy Fish and Malcolm McDow to see a school of evangelism established on the Fort Worth campus. And then he added to the conversation, "I believe there is a great need also to see a chapel erected in the heart of the campus!" I shouted "amen!" loud enough to be heard on the second floor of the administration building, for I had discussed only a few months prior that same vision with Southwestern Vice President Jack Terry.

Patterson, soon after arriving in Wake Forest 11 years ago, had turned his attention to developing an exciting and challenging chapel service as the core of the daily activities. Those attending this service at Southeastern are always impressed by a full house in attendance, and in recent years Southwestern chapel service, held in a less worshipful atmosphere, an auditorium, rather that a chapel with a steeple like the worship center at Southeastern, has lagged far behind with less than 200 often in attendance.

I asked my friend to join me in prayer for God’s will to be done. We both knelt on our knees and prayed without ceasing, seeking God’s plan for the two seminaries, both of which had special places in our hearts. When we returned to our chairs, I asked the seminary president for permission to recommend him to our search committee at Southwestern. I could feel his inward pain, because he and his wife have both come to love Southeastern so much. I knew, too, that those of us who love Southeastern would be grateful to retain the services of Patterson until the Lord calls or until he comes. But because this faithful servant seeks nothing except to do God’s will, he honored my request, and I mailed the recommendation letter to each search committee member. Many of these men were already praying that God would call a leader in the mold of Patterson.

My fellow trustees agreed with me that at Southwestern we need a president of great strength and fortitude, a team player, who will be emboldened by the knowledge that he daily seeks to walk in the steps of Jesus. Paige Patterson is such a leader. For weeks he and his wife prayerfully sought for evidence of God’s clear call in the proposed move, and once they had found peace in God’s leadership, the trustees of Southwestern on June 24, under God’s direction, formally and unanimously extended the invitation.

When the trustees agreed to pray daily that Patterson follow in the steps of Christ in leading the seminary and asked him to, in return, pray for God’s leadership for the trustees, the newly elected Southwestern president added, "Please pray always that God will grant me wisdom for the decisions that I must make." Remembering the human tendency to rush important matters, he reminded us that he was keenly aware that his every decision would greatly impact individuals and their ministries.

Certainly there will be some who will expect and others who will wish for the new president to come bearing a sword of change or a broom to sweep clean the institution’s past history of service. Just as the fortunetellers were mistaken in their dire predictions 11 years ago, so will these current prognosticators be greatly surprised at the heart and spirit of this dedicated servant of God.

Patterson has a great appreciation for the legacy of the heroes of the faith who have helped develop Southwestern. There is no question that he will remain faithful to the charge of B.H. Carroll, the first president of Southwestern, who urged his successor, "See to it that every day and hour, every month in every year, every year in the long future, this seminary is kept lashed to the Redeemer."

On July 31, with heavy hearts at leaving behind the magnolia-laden campus where God had used them in such a special way, yet buoyed by the sure knowledge that their move was directed by God, the Pattersons headed westward for a brief weekend visit in Arkansas with daughter Carmen, her husband Mark Howell, pastor of Little Rock’s First Baptist Church, and the grandchildren. Then they continued on to Fort Worth and the exciting challenge that lies before them. They have already named their new residence "Hacienda del Pastor." Early Monday morning, Aug. 4, Dr. Patterson and his loyal dog, Noche, headed for the office and the mountain of seminary business that has been awaiting the new president’s arrival.

Paige Patterson has been God’s man for the 11 years spent in the town of Wake Forest, and by God’s grace, he will occupy that same special designation at Fort Worth, "God’s man for this special time!"

Ted Stone is president of Ted Stone Ministries, a member of Southwestern Seminary’s board of trustees and Southeastern Seminary’s board of visitors.

Posted 8/5/03

Commentary:
Other Baptists and bossy preachers

By Curtis W. Freeman

Back in 2001, when I still was unpacking boxes from my move to North Carolina from Texas, I received a phone call from the chair of a pulpit committee. "Can you send us a pastor?" asked the voice on the line. "We had a bossy preacher from the seminary, but we want a Duke preacher like the one down the road at Hickory Rock." It was a quick lesson on Baptist politics in the North Carolina Piedmont, put in cornbread language.

Twenty years ago, things were different. In the Southeast, there was pretty much only one theological school Baptist churches turned to when it came to finding a preacher–Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. But that was before the "conservative resurgence" of the Southern Baptist Convention, also known by moderate Baptists as the "fundamentalist takeover."

The initial effect of this Baptist Civil War was an exodus of faculty, staff and students from Southeastern. When the first "conservative" president stepped down after failing to turn things around, trustees made a surprising choice. They tapped Paige Patterson, who had become both famous and infamous as a key leader of the Southern Baptist re-formation.

Looking back, some will no doubt argue that Patterson was "the right man for Southeastern," pointing to increased enrollment, new buildings and balanced budgets. Clearly, his 11-year tenure has made an impact on theological education in the Piedmont, but not exactly in the way that some might expect. Today in North Carolina and Virginia alone, disaffected Southern Baptists have established six new theological schools and programs with a combined enrollment approaching 1,000. Together, they are now graduating as many potential Baptist preachers as Southeastern Seminary.

The Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School was the first. It began in 1988 with 25 students. Now, just under 100 Baptists are at Duke preparing for ministry. Others quickly followed–Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, divinity schools at Wake Forest, Gardner Webb and Campbell universities, and more recently the John Leland Center.

The Association of Theological Schools reported that in the three-year period from 1997 to 2000, the number of students attending "other Baptist" schools (defined as those outside the Southern Baptist Convention and neither American nor National Baptist) grew an incredible 200 percent, from 400 students to more than 1,200–a growth rate far outpacing that of mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist theological schools.

There are good reasons to believe this growth curve will continue rising in the current decade, as the demand for an alternative to bossy preachers continues.

But this spike in students at "other Baptist" schools doesn’t give the full picture. During the same three-year period, the number of theological schools serving "other Baptists" nearly doubled, from 52 schools to 84 schools. What this suggests is that after over a century of uniformity and homogeneity, things are changing dramatically.

Theological education for Baptists is becoming more institutionally diverse. Baptists of all types, with the exception of Southern Baptists, are attending more schools for theological education, resulting in greater institutional diversity than ever before. They are being trained for ministry in a variety of settings–freestanding Baptist seminaries, divinity schools in Baptist universities and programs within theological schools of other denominations, such as the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School. Clearly, a growing number of Baptist pastors and other church leaders will come from this new type of theological school.

To what can the growth and diversity of Baptist theological education be attributed? It may be too much to say that Paige Patterson alone is the cause. Yet there can be little doubt that he possesses a unique ability to galvanize support from conservative loyalists and polarize opposition of "other Baptists" with whom he disagrees. Now that he is leaving to take the reins of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, I can say to my fellow Baptists in the Lone Star State: If Patterson does for theological education in Texas what he did in North Carolina, you can expect to see more bossy preachers and "other Baptists" in the days ahead.

Curtis W. Freeman is research professor of theology and director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C.

Posted: 8/8/03

Cobb leaving CBF leadership

ATLANTA (ABP)–Reba Cobb, chief operating officer of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, will leave CBF Sept. 1 to become religious action director for the Children's Defense Fund in Washington, D.C.

Founded in 1973, the Children's Defense Fund is a private non-profit organization that advocates for children's issues.

Cobb, 60, has been with the CBF since 2001. She serves as coordinator for the organization's Resource Center in Atlanta and supervises the 52-person staff.

She was recommended for the new position by a friend and was contacted in May, she said.

Cobb has “a passion” for the work of Children's Defense Fund, she said. In her new position, she will enlist support from religious groups for issues that affect children, such as providing health care and education and preventing violence.

“Our goal is to provide the best possible start for children,” she explained. “I will be working with all the faith groups.”

Cobb is experienced in interfaith work. She was executive director for Kentuckiana Interfaith Community in Louisville, Ky., when she was hired by CBF.

CBF has not announced whether it will fill Cobb's position or restructure it. She was hired for the new position two years ago to free Daniel Vestal, CBF's national coordinator, to focus on external relations.