Posted: 9/19/03

Repent of idolatry, Blackaby says at Cedars

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

CEDAR HILL–Prayers for revival will go unanswered until Christians repent of idolatry, Henry Blackaby told participants at the Cedars of Lebanon spiritual awakening retreat.

“Revival tarries because we will not return to God,” said Blackaby, author of the popular “Experiencing God” discipleship materials. “A major reason for departing (from God) is idolatry. … Whatever you turn to when you ought to turn to God is an idol.”

Blackaby and his son, Richard, were featured speakers at the 15th annual Cedars retreat, sponsored by Texas Baptist Men. More than 300 people from 13 states and four countries attended the Labor Day weekend event at Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment.

Idolatry is “something we fashion for ourselves out of our own substance,” Blackaby explained. In Christian circles, it may take the form of depending on “the words of men rather than the word of God,” he said.

Religious activity–even prayer and worship–can be an idol if it becomes the focus of Christian attention rather than directing believers toward God, he added. “Religious activity is not the same as a relationship. It is not the activity of prayer that is neglected. It is the relationship with God.”

“Evangelical idolatry” also may take the form of reshaping God to fit human desires, rather than allowing Scripture to shape the Christian's understanding of God's nature, he observed. And that's particularly true concerning the doctrine of eternal punishment.

“We have made God in our image, leaving out those elements we don't want to hear,” Blackaby said. “We are told we are not seeker-friendly if we speak on hell. But we are not God-friendly if we do not.”

God wants to speak to his people, but they must be ready to receive a word from God and then obey it, said Richard Blackaby, president of Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in Cochrane, Alberta.

“Worship does not take the place of obedience,” he said. “Worship is what happens when the obedient child comes home to fellowship with the Father.”

Other speakers at the Cedars retreat were Richard Owen Roberts of International Awakening Ministries in Wheaton, Ill., and Don Miller, prayer seminar leader with Bible-Based Ministries in Fort Worth.

Roberts pointed to the need for godly spiritual leaders who will obey the moral law of God.

Miller used many of the object lessons–such as a yoke, a plow, a cream separator and broken glass–from his 12 previous messages at Cedars to remind participants that God wants his people to obey and spend time with him in prayer.

“Prayer is the welcome mat laid down for the Lord's visitation,” Miller said.

Posted: 9/19/03

Richardson woman has attended
same church for all her 100 years

By George Henson

Staff Writer

RICHARDSON–Amy Rutledge found a church she loved, and she stuck with it–for 100 years.

Rutledge, who was born Sept. 24, 1903, has attended First Baptist Church of Richardson since she was a baby, brought there by her parents. At the time, the church was called Mount Calvary Baptist Church.

Amy Rutledge's parents took her to Mount Calvary Baptist Church (today known as First Baptist Church of Richardson) when she was born in 1903. She's stayed there ever since and remains an active member at 100 years of age.

One hundred years later, the church name and many other things have changed, but Rutledge's devotion has been unwavering.

“She's an inspiration to everybody,” said Pastor Brian Harbour. “She's here every Sunday, taught Sunday School until just a few years ago and still sings in our Golden Heirs choir. Her spirit is just amazing.”

The church holds many memories for the still-lively Rutledge.

“I was baptized when I was 12, but I couldn't be baptized at the church,” she recalled. “I was baptized in White Rock Creek. The church had a baptistry, but it leaked so bad we couldn't use it.”

She remembers her mother and father thought she was too young to be baptized until they talked with Pastor P.C. Scott. “They didn't think I knew what I was doing, but he told them I'd been at church all my life and that I knew exactly what I was doing.”

One of her favorite memories is of the dinners on the ground. Her mother brought wash tubs filled with food for the picnics.

She began teaching the junior girls' class when she was 16. She enjoyed teaching so much she continued until she was 92 years old. During all that time, she took only a short break after the birth of her son until he was ready to go to the nursery.

Rutledge had wanted to be married at the church, but her mother was so ill “we had a lawn wedding so she could be there,” she recalled. “I wanted a church wedding, but I wanted her there more.”

That wedding day came in 1926, when she married the love of her life, Jack Rutledge, a statistician with Texas Power & Light Co.

“I remember the day I met him,” she said. “He was staying with some of our relatives who had come out to our house to get some eggs. He had hurt his knee and couldn't get out of the truck, but he saw me.”

He must have liked what he saw, because by the end of the week he had written her a letter.

The couple spent 52 years happily married. Although he died years ago, the thought of him still brings tears to her eyes.

“I was always his sweetheart–that's what he always called me,” she explained. “I had a wonderful husband. He wasn't famous or anything, but we had a good life.”

He, too, was baptized at Mount Calvary. Their son was baptized there as well.

First Baptist Church of Richardson is “my church home, and I've loved it,” she said. “I still do. It's changed quite a bit, but that goes along with being there 100 years. I've enjoyed my church; it's a part of me.”

Posted: 9/19/03

CHURCH ON THE MOVE:
Location, location, location

By George Henson

Staff Writer

FRISCO–Most churches know that a key to their growth is found in the old axiom location, location, location.

But what happens when the ideal location changes?

A Frisco church decided to move–not only the congregation, but the building as well. Only the building and congregation went separate ways.

Pastor Ray Wilkins stands in front of the historic home of Lebanon Baptist Church, which has been moved to a new location in a historic district as the congregation prepares to occupy a new place of its own.

For many years, Lebanon Baptist Church stood at the center of the community of Lebanon, near the school, store and a handful of homes that formed the core for hundreds of acres of farm land.

But the town of Lebanon dwindled from its small beginnings to nothingness. All that remains to mark the town's existence are the church, a road and the memories of a few long-time residents.

Decades ago, Lebanon was annexed by the burgeoning city of Frisco, which had grown because it sits on the rail line. In time, the church found itself in the midst of development, but not residential development. The cotton fields of 1874 yielded to development of businesses along Preston Road, including the 160-store Stonebriar Centre shopping mall.

The church now sat on prime real estate, but its very location was strangling its chances for survival.

“All we owned was an acre, and we really couldn't really afford to buy any more land to make the improvements we needed to make,” Pastor Ray Wilkins said.

The age of the building, constructed in 1904, also was not appealing to many of the younger professional families moving into the area.

“We had a lot of visitors, but we couldn't get them to come back,” he lamented. Many couples wanted to have wedding ceremonies in the quaint, old-fashioned church, but they did not want to invest their lives there.

So the church decided on a change of location.

The building has moved to downtown Frisco, where it will become part of a large historical area.

The church itself is moving about a quarter-mile from the old location. The new location sits across the street from a school and in the middle of more than 100 homes less than five years old with more on the way.

“The value of the land was such that we were able to get rid of the one acre and buy seven acres and still have money left over to build,” Wilkins said.

Until the church's new building is completed next summer, the congregation is meeting at a local elementary school. The church cannot meet in the school across from its new location because that is a middle school, and only elementary schools are available to churches in Frisco.

The 50 to 60 people attending each week are a mixture of senior adults and young married couples in their 20s, Wilkins said. “What we're missing is the people my age, in the 30 to 40 range.”

Still, some members have long and cherished memories attached to the building recently sold.

“Some of our seniors are not crazy about selling it, but they are on board with it,” Wilkins explained. “They are excited and sad at the same time. It's a mixture of emotions with them, but they want to do what needs to be done to reach people for Christ.”

The bell installed at the church in 1904 is making the move to the new site with the congregation.

In the end, Wilkins said, the best location for a church to be is the center of God's will.

Posted: 9/19/03

I² is a formula for church's growth

COLLEYVILLE (BP)–At First Baptist Church of Colleyville, “I²” is a mathematical formula for exponential growth.

The slogan stands for “invest and invite,” a strategy infused into the congregation by Pastor Frank Harber and Chairman of Deacons Ron Cogburn.

Members are challenged weekly to invest themselves in relationships with non-Christians and then invite them to church.

“We tailor everything in our church for our people to come and bring people. That's why our church has grown so fast,” Harber said. “The church is the New Testament strategy to reach people on this planet. So the church has to be involved in the mindset to do this.”

In the past two years, First Baptist has grown from 400 members to 1,800.

Regardless of the sermon topic, Harber presents the plan of salvation in every message.

“People receive Christ every single week. Our people know that our church is a place that they are going to hear the gospel,” he said. “We've created a climate where people know how to bring their friends.”

The strategy also extends to those who are not within reach of attending the Colleyville church, as exemplified by Cogburn, president of a Dallas consulting firm.

On a recent business trip to Saipan, Cogburn explained the gospel daily to people he met along the way. As people responded, he sent home e-mails requesting tools to help them understand their new relationship with God, such as Filipino Bibles and a discipleship books.

One of Cogburn's friends, Kyle Mabry, said of the e-mail reports, “I don't want to over-dramatize this, but you almost felt like you were reading one of Paul's letters.”

While in Saipan, he also visited with a Baptist missionary, Bob Berkley, who made contact with the new converts and invited them to attend church services there.

Closer to home, Cogburn led First Baptist last year to become engaged in both social and evangelistic ministry in an impoverished neighborhood in Grapevine. A December kickoff called Mission Colleyville (see the Standard's Dec. 16, 2002, issue) opened the door for continued ministry.

Now, a church has been established in that neighborhood.

Posted: 9/19/03

Can a university be distinctively
Baptist and academically excellent?
—Yes

By Joel Gregory

As a double graduate of Baylor University, I see my alma mater as standing at a crossroads. It is looking both ways at an intersection and will have to make a decision. That decision superficially appears to be about debt, football, a disgruntled faculty or factious regents. To limit the historic decision confronting the school to those issues trivializes its impact on 158 years of Baylor history. The controversy transcends the disparate issues raised by those with a bushel basket of beefs about the Bears.

The decision before Baylor drills down deep into its reason for existence, its very soul. Why is Baylor here, and what is it for?

To answer that question requires a view from 50,000 feet rather than the immediate battlefield. The very idea of the university in western culture grew out of the Christian faith.

Baylor's quest: Joel Gregory Ella Wall Prichard Chris Seay

The spires of the college churches loom over the famous quads at Oxford and Cambridge. The eminent English universities grew root and branch out of the Christian faith. So also did the prestigious colonial colleges. The minister John Harvard gave his library and one-half of his estate to establish Harvard in 1638. Increase and Cotton Mather, fiery preachers both, helped found Yale in 1701 as a reaction against the Deism and Unitarianism that had invaded Harvard. Princeton resulted from a Presbyterian revival when its first students gathered in May 1747. Even secular religious historians affirm that the founders of these celebrated academies were religiously motivated. Yet no one confuses them with Christian academies today. The parents of these academic icons intended to build institutions that combined the highest commitment to the Christian faith with a rigorous dedication to intellectual growth. Each desired to integrate faith and understanding. None ultimately persevered in that goal.

The synthesis between faith and learning has always dissolved in the favor of rationalism rather than religion, the academic rather than the spiritual side of the equation.

Why do such lofty spiritual aspirations fail? James Tunstead Burtchaell, a Catholic and former president of the American Academy of Religion, and a commissioner for the Danforth Foundation, the Lilly Endowment and the Fulbright Program, wrote 868 pages in “The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from their Christian Churches.” To say the least, he does not have a dog in our fight. Yet he has much to tell us. He chronicles the discouraging story of Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics and Evangelicals who have lost their schools to secularism, rationalism, agnosticism and, in many cases, open hostility to the Christian faith.

In detailed case studies, Burtchaell describes the stories common to all denominations founding schools to integrate faith and knowledge, and then losing those schools when they became embarrassed by the faith. Those schools moved from Christian devotion through a series of degrading steps. Some marginalized the Christian faith to a private pietism. That is, faith was considered the individual concern of privatized persons but not a lively presence throughout the academy. Students parked their brains at church and took their books to college.

Others moved to a vague religious jingoism, trumpeting their commitment to “our core values,” “ideals” or “service of humanity,” with just enough religious nuance to suggest some vague connection with an ill-defined Deity who had moved off campus but hovered somewhere nearby. Thereafter, these academies moved into rationalism and, in many instances, antagonism to the Christian faith.

Many alumni dread that a similar antagonism to the Christian faith will overtake Baylor if Vision 2012 is derailed. Some Bears do not believe that the highest aspirations of the academy can be coupled with the deepest levels of Christian devotion. For example, a former Baylor regent wrote in the Dallas Morning News June 22, 2003, “If he were a twenty-first-century century Texas high school graduate hoping to learn as much as possible about this complicated world, What Would Jesus Do? Probably go to Harvard.” Is it really impossible for Baylor to join the top 50 universities in America and confess that Jesus is Lord?

There is another option.

That is the challenge before Baylor, and it is the vision of its president, Robert Sloan. A son of Baylor, Sloan earned his divinity degree at Princeton Theological Seminary and his doctorate at the University of Basel. He reads theological German as easily as you read this paper. He holds the best credentials of anyone in his generation of Baylor ministerial students. He is a member of the prestigious Studiorum Novi Testamentum. He is international in his scope of learning and cosmopolitan in his urbane grasp of contemporary culture. He is no novice, beginner or sophomore in the international academy.

And he has a vision. That vision challenges Baylor to do something no other major Protestant university has ever done. He wants Baylor to join the top rank of American universities and maintain a commitment to canonical Christianity that informs every aspect of the university's institutional and intellectual life.

When you clear away all the blather around the Bear battle, this current Baptist brawl is the highest stakes game in Baylor's history. To do what Sloan wants to do requires risk, change, expense, discomfort, sacrifice and tenacity. That is, his vision demands everything most folks do not like. It is little wonder that disgruntled faculty, old alums who want the comfort of an alma mater that never changes and powerful opinionated professional graduates with their own ideas have clashed with the intensity of such a vision. He knew it going in. The wonder would be such a vision without conflict.

The other questions in the current debate wither in the light of this one great question:

Is this vision possible? There are some in the Baylor community who openly say no. They do not believe it is possible to become a university of the first rank and openly, integrally confess the Christian faith as part of the institutional life. In the final analysis, they do not believe in the possibility of an intellectual Christian who can compete in the marketplace of ideas and at the same time hold the historic faith. Bluntly, they do not think the faith can stand the heat of academic trial and the light of unfettered inquiry. Waco can never stay in the ballgame with Cambridge or New Haven. Baylor is consigned to the academic also-rans just because it adheres to the traditional Christian faith: Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God who rose from the dead, as has been accepted by all Christians in all places at all times for 2,000 years.

Baylor 2012's bold vision, implemented by Sloan, has attracted more money and better students, built the best facilities and attracted the most credentialed scholars than any comparative time in Baylor's history. The 2003 faculty accessions include Ph.D.'s from Princeton (2), Harvard (1), Yale (2), Cambridge (3), M.I.T. (1), Chicago (1), Duke (1), Michigan (1) and Notre Dame (2). These scholarly Christians are coming for one reason: Sloan's vision for Baylor 2012.

Baylor has the opportunity to do a unique thing. The vision already attracts the people and the money. Faith is sometimes faith in the face of the facts. Texas Baptists should avoid the determination that this vision cannot happen. Further, Robert Sloan should be the man who makes it happen. This vision is not transportable. It is great men who make history, not vice versa. His vision is not a file that can be handed to another without the same passion.

It is a risk worthy of Judge R.E.B. Baylor and his cohorts who in 1845 dared to found a university in the wilds of the Texas Republic. No one at Independence would have dreamed of today's huge campus with an international reputation, a $600 million endowment and 125,000 living alums. To dream that this is one place that a major university should not flinch before the challenge of giving the utmost in academics for God's highest glory is not Texas Baptist triumphalism; it is a mandate from all that has gone before.

Joel Gregory, a Baylor graduate, is publisher of Chile Pepper Magazine; he is a former president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and a former Texas Baptist pastor.

Posted: 9/19/03

Can a University be distinctively
Baptist and academically excellent?
—No

By Ella Prichard

The lists of “top universities in America” include the great public research universities; once-Christian universities, such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton; a few private institutions founded as secular universities after the German model, such as Stanford and Johns Hopkins; and a handful of elite Catholic universities.

As a student at Baylor University from 1959 to 1963, I dreamed of the day when Baylor would become a “Baptist Harvard.” Later, I came to realize the term was an oxymoron; a university can't be Baptist and Harvard at the same time. My attention turned to Notre Dame, a national Catholic university; and I began to ponder the concept of a “Baptist Notre Dame.” But Notre Dame and her sister institutions are marked by openness and freedom of inquiry, very different from top evangelical colleges, such as Wheaton and Calvin. And both those models, Catholic and Calvinist, are marked by an authoritarianism foreign to Baptist tradition.

Baylor's quest: Joel Gregory Ella Wall Prichard Chris Seay

Texas Baptists have believed in and supported higher education since pioneer days, and Baptist universities dot the Texas landscape. While mine is a Baylor experience, Baylor's issues apply to all our institutions. What is the role of the Baptist university in the 21st century?

It begins with mission. The Baylor mission statement is probably not too different from other Texas Baptist institutions: “To educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community.” In one statement, we find the purpose, process and culture of a Christian institution. This intent has largely remained the same since 1845.

However, one question remains unanswered: On which side will the university fall when the choice must be made between what the academy defines as “academic excellence” and faith and doctrine? Historically, Baptist institutions have chosen the side of faith. For most of the 20th century, Baylor was successful in maintaining a delicate balance on the tip of the mountain, avoiding both the slippery slope to the left, which leads to abandonment of faith commitment, and to the right, which is the route chosen by fundamentalist Bible colleges. As a student newspaper editor at the beginning of the McCall administration and as a parent and then regent at the end of Herbert Reynolds' tenure, I can testify that the administration and board were very intentional about maintaining the proper balance between faith and learning in order to nurture the kind of community that produces servant-leaders. Today we hear talk of “restoring” and “returning” Baylor to its historic purpose. Baylor, like our other Texas Baptist schools, never left.

I would like to rephrase the question, “Can a university be distinctively Baptist and academically excellent?” to “Must our Baptist universities dilute our doctrinal distinctives in order to gain academic respectability?”

Excellence is implicit in the words, “to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service.” Mediocrity does not produce leaders who can impact the world. “Service” is the added value Baptist schools offer. Historically, we have sent missionaries, preachers, teachers, business people, doctors, lawyers and nurses around the world to lead and to serve. We have produced more than our share of governors and judges. An impressive number have attended the most prestigious graduate and professional schools. Excellence is proved by the quality of our graduates and their contributions to the world.

The purpose is not to add to the body of knowledge, to serve faculty and administration or to bring honor to the institution, though that is good. Students are our purpose. At our Baptist institutions, all other goals and aspirations must be subservient.

That is not to say academics are unimportant. Our Baptist schools must provide academic excellence if they are going to equip graduates who can impact the world for good. Our classrooms, labs and libraries must be comparable to those at the best undergraduate institutions in the nation. We must recruit the best faculty possible.

Can Baptist schools do this? We find a handful of once-Baptist universities among the nation's elite institutions but not a single university still affiliated with a state Baptist convention. The primary reason is lack of resources. Top universities have the top endowments. They attract gifts in the tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars. They pull in many more millions in research dollars, much from government sources.

We Baptists have the admirable goal of keeping our schools affordable for the average Texas Baptist. But look at the facts: Most of our children are going to state schools. Why? Because they are more affordable. If we want Baptist schools that are both affordable and excellent, we must individually, through our churches and through the convention, provide sufficient revenues to increase quality while maintaining affordability.

Academic excellence is only half the equation, however. Christian commitment must be our hallmark. This is far from administering religious litmus tests or keeping track of how often faculty attend Sunday School. Until recently, prospective faculty at Baylor merely needed to affirm they were Christians, “friendly to the mission.” Not just, “I can live with paying lip service to faith,” but, “I want to be in a place where academic freedom includes the freedom to express and practice faith; where honesty, kindness and the other Christian virtues are valued; where people matter.” Faculty were encouraged to involve themselves in their students' lives; they were rewarded for excellent teaching and for service. The model was academic servant-leadership, performed with excellence and with Christian integrity.

The dynamic tension between a diverse faculty, who emphasize academic excellence and academic freedom, and a Baptist administration and board, who tend to focus on Christian commitment, results in a fine balance where both faith and learning are valued.

Furthermore, our Baptist campuses offer a unique community based on Christian principles. During Baylor's sesquicentennial, church historian Martin Marty was asked about the Baylor “bubble” and painted a word picture of the environment at a Christian university. He described an old greenhouse with a few broken panes and a door that didn't fit tightly. While some of the winds from outside might seep in, the tender young plants growing inside were protected from fierce storms until they matured and were ready to be planted outside. A nurturing gardener prepared the plants for life outside the greenhouse.

By definition, research universities focus on graduate work. Their faculties direct research of graduate students who, in turn, teach undergraduates. These institutions do not nurture undergraduates like our fine Baptist colleges, with their strong teaching faculties and emphasis on undergraduate education. Our Baptist schools tend to be much smaller than regional state universities, and community life on these campuses is another added value.

Here our Baptist distinctives can make a difference. Our legacy of soul competency, priesthood of the believer and freedom of conscience demands that members of the community respect one another's beliefs and convictions. We do not demand adherence to any narrow interpretation of faith and practice.

The Apostle Paul's admonishment to the Corinthians to be a body, valuing everyone's unique gifts, is appropriate for the Christian institution as well as for the church. As a preamble to the “love chapter,” Paul writes, “And now I will show you the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).

The late Abner McCall, Baylor president from 1961 to 1981, said it best in a 1985 article, “Why Baylor,” published in the Baylor Line:

“Our Baptist universities and hospitals should in all respects be as good as educational and health-care institutions as the secular state or private universities or hospitals. The Christian characterization and emphasis should always be an added extra dimension.

“Further, when we designate our institutions as 'Christian,' we profess that their services are rendered in a Christian manner–with respect, concern, compassion and love for those serving and those served. The Scriptures clearly and repeatedly proclaim that the sine qua non of Christian living and service is love for each other. …

“Do our university trustees, administrators, teachers and other employees have such respect and compassion for each other and for every student?

“If this be true, we can rightfully claim that our hospitals and universities are 'Christian' institutions.

“If it is not true, no matter what rules, policies or declarations of orthodoxy are adopted, our institutions are not 'Christian.' There is no substitute for Christian love in our institutions. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, without love, we are nothing.”

Ella Wall Prichard, a Baylor graduate, is a former member of the university's board of regents

Posted: 9/19/03

The Baptist Standard asked three Texas Baptists to write from differing perspectives on one of the questions at the heart of the current debate over the future of Baylor University:

Can a university be distinctively Baptist
& academically excellent?

By Joel Gregory	By Ella Wall Prichard	By Chris Seay
As a double graduate of Baylor University, I see my alma mater as standing at a crossroads. It is looking both ways at an intersection and will have to make a decision. That decision superficially appears to be about debt, football, a disgruntled faculty or factious regents. To limit the historic decision confronting the school to those issues trivializes its impact on 158 years of Baylor history. The controversy transcends the disparate issues raised by those with a bushel basket of beefs about the Bears. More…	The lists of “top universities in America” include the great public research universities; once-Christian universities, such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton; a few private institutions founded as secular universities after the German model, such as Stanford and Johns Hopkins; and a handful of elite Catholic universities. As a student at Baylor University from 1959 to 1963, I dreamed of the day when Baylor would become a "Baptist Harvard." More…	As I travel the country speaking to pastors, I get a lot of questions about my commitment to our denomination. I believe denominations are quickly becoming dinosaurs. So, many wonder why I invest my time and resources as a Texas Baptist. I tell them straight up that the Baptist General Convention of Texas is more like a family than a denomination. More…

Posted: 9/19/03

City Core Initiative targets four Texas cities

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

The Baptist General Convention of Texas City Core Initiative will focus on spiritually and economically reviving the historic hearts of Tyler, San Antonio, Dallas and Abilene.

Local Baptist association leaders in all four locations agreed to partner with the BGCT in gathering information about the people, population shifts and ministries in the city cores of their respective areas. Local leaders also will help connect initiative organizers with existing ministries and networks.

The cities were chosen because they offer variety in how the city cores have changed as well as bringing geographical variations, according to Tommy Goode, BGCT City Core Initiative consultant.

With this mix of cultural diversity, he said, “whatever we learn can be applied to all cities.”

The cities also were chosen because of their locations near major interstates. I-20 runs through Tyler, Dallas and Abilene, I-35 through San Antonio and Dallas

“Change and population shifts tend to occur more rapidly along Interstate corridors,” Goode explained

The initiative also includes collaboration with community, church, network and denominational leaders in hopes of finding a way to build on the strengths of ongoing ministry and develop new ministries where needed.

Goode said he hopes to do at least one model project in each of the four cities. Projects would be designed to bring local groups together to unite and impact their communities.

An interdenominational dialogue of Dallas-area leaders has started between the BGCT, the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The BGCT and the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church have committed to surveying the Dallas city core for on-going ministry and ministry needs.

Goode cautions that it takes more than excitement and an effective strategy to spiritually revive city cores. It takes Christians acting out of their faith.

“There is a spiritual warfare in place for us to reach our world for Christ,” he said. “We're wise to keep in mind that to reach the city is more than a good strategy. It's to do spiritual battle with Satan and evil.”

Posted: 9/19/03

Crossover Lubbock planned

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

LUBBOCK–The Baptist General Convention of Texas annual session is still seven weeks away, but plans to share the gospel in the host city already are under way.

Churches across Lubbock Baptist Association kicked off Crossover Lubbock Sept. 13 with training sessions and dinner. Congregations plan block parties, door-to-door evangelism, Bible and tract distribution, alternative Halloween activities and inner city efforts to spread the gospel in the region through Nov. 9.

The BGCT annual session will be held in Lubbock Nov. 10-11.

Baptists also will share their faith during weekend Old Mill Trade Days and the South Plains Fair, which is attended by more than 200,000 people.

Local churches will follow up on visitations and newly established relationships and bring prospects into congregations, said Judy Edgmon, chairwoman of the steering committee for Crossover Lubbock.

Leaders of the outreach effort want to connect people with churches to help them grow in their faith, not just lead them to make faith decisions and abandon them. Larry Jones, director of missions for Lubbock Baptist Association, said he would like to see baptisms increase 15 percent in the region as a result of the Crossover work.

“The potential for seeing those who are saved baptized in our churches should be greater than when we had the Franklin Graham crusade,” Jones said. “I hope to see people baptized in our churches. I know we will see people saved.”

While the evangelistic outreach will run through the weekend prior to the BGCT annual session, Edgmon prays the effort will be the start of a larger spiritual movement as people from around the state get involved.

“We would like to think this is going to set the tone. It is my hope and prayer this is the beginning of revival,” she said. “It is such a neat thing to see what other churches are doing. I'm hoping people will come here and get their appetite whetted and take it back to their churches.”

Planning for the event is bringing churches together, one of the purposes of the work, according to Wayne Shuffield, BGCT local church evangelism consultant.

“I see Crossover as a way to help churches partner together for a common goal to share the gospel and be the presence of Christ,” he said.

For information on how to get involved, contact Edgmon at (806) 791-4442 or Shuffield at (888) 269-3826.

Posted: 9/19/03

Dawson family protests Beckwith's
appointment to Baylor institute

By Marv Knox

Editor

WACO–Twenty-nine members of the J.M. Dawson family have called on Baylor University to remove the associate director of the institute that bears Dawson's name.

In an open letter dated Sept. 11, Dawson family members question the appointment of Francis Beckwith as associate director of Baylor's J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies.

However, two of Beckwith's key colleagues have claimed the protest is misguided, affirmed Beckwith's qualifications and championed Baylor's right to select a diverse faculty.

Dawson was a 1904 Baylor graduate who served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Waco 32 years. In retirement, he became the first executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington. His 1948 book, “Separate Church and State Now” is considered a landmark treatise on church-state separation and religious liberty.

In an open letter dated Sept. 11, Dawson family members question the appointment of Francis Beckwith as associate director of Baylor's J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies.

In their open letter, the Dawson family members say they have asked Baylor President Robert Sloan to remove Beckwith as associate director of the Dawson Institute and reassign him to “another, more appropriate, position.”

Matt Dawson, J.M. Dawson's son and a retired Baylor law professor, and Alice Cheavens Baird, a granddaughter from Waco, signed the letter. Including that pair, the letter carries the names of one child, 12 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. Fourteen of them are Baylor graduates.

The letter accuses Beckwith of holding church-state positions contrary to the strong stand for separation advocated by J.M. Dawson. Therefore, he should not be a leader of the Dawson Institute, it notes.

“We are troubled because Dr. Beckwith is a fellow of the Discovery Institute. The activities of this organization are widely recognized in the academic community as engaging in political activities that contravene the fundamental principle of the separation of church and state for which J.M. Dawson stood,” the letter says.

“The Discovery Institute works to get the concept called 'intelligent design' into the science curriculum of public school textbooks, claiming that intelligent design is a scientific, not a religious, concept. In our judgment and in the judgment of the scientific community, this is a ruse for getting a religious notion into the public schools–clearly a violation of the separation of church and state.”

Intelligent design–a theory that counters evolution by advocating a rational plan behind creation–is not a new controversy at Baylor. The university's faculty, particularly science and religion professors, protested more than three years ago, when President Sloan created the Michael Polanyi Center, intended to focus on whether mathematical and scientific formulas can prove an intelligent design behind creation.

“The vast majority of scientists view intelligent design as the latest version of creationist theory, though the Discovery Institute works tirelessly to refute this fact,” the Dawson family letter says.

It cites several articles in scientific and church-state journals that claim intelligent design actually is a religious theory rather than a scientific endeavor. Consequently, since intelligent design advocates attempt to introduce the theory into public school science classrooms, they violate longstanding principles of church-state separation, it adds.

“We … ask the question: Is Baylor University going to maintain its commitment to the separation of church and state? Is the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies going to remain committed to its mission? How can it possibly do so if an associate director is a fellow of the Discovery Institute, an organization that violates the church-state separation principle?” the letter asks.

In response, both Baylor Provost David Jeffrey and one of Beckwith's colleagues in the Dawson Institute, Barry Hankins, affirmed his fitness for leadership in the institute. The Dawson Institute's director, Derek Davis, was out of the country and unavailable for comment.

Beckwith topped the list of candidates for the Dawson Institute during a national search, Jeffrey said. Among Beckwith's credentials, Jeffrey cited his academic accomplishments, including a doctorate from Fordham University and a master's degree in juridical studies from Washington University, as well as publication of articles in numerous scholarly periodicals, including the Dawson Institute's own Journal of Church and State.

He has been a research fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and he is a fellow in the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute. He has held full-time faculty appointments at Trinity International University, Whittier College and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

His latest book is “Law, Darwinism, & Public Education: The Establishment Clause and the Challenge of Intelligent Design.” Other books include “The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement,” “Do the Right Thing: Readings in Applied Ethics and Social Philosophy,” “Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air,” “The Abortion Controversy 25 Years After Roe v. Wade,” “Affirmative Action: Social Justice or Reverse Discrimination?” and “Politically Correct Death: Answering the Arguments for Abortion Rights.”

“He's nuanced in some of his opinions, but we try to have diversity on the faculty here at Baylor. He's a proponent of separation of church and state,” Jeffrey said. “He was the strongest candidate.”

The Dawson family's protest reflects a double misunderstanding, Jeffrey surmised.

“First is the actual nature of his (church-state) views,” the provost said, noting Dawson Institute Director Davis holds the same views.

“Second is the climate of intellectual freedom we want to have here at Baylor. At Baylor, we're vigorous proponents of freedom of conscience and academic inquiry,” he added, noting the faculty represents a broad spectrum of views on their various disciplines.

The challenge to Beckwith, “apparently on the basis of his having received a grant and fellow status from an institute that specializes in intelligent design theory,” is dismaying, added Barry Hankins, associate professor of history and church-state studies in the institute.

“Frank's views on the constitutionality of teaching intelligent design in public schools, however debatable, are scholarly and reasonable,” Hankins said. “I have found him a scholar of integrity and one who is always prepared to listen and dialogue about important matters.”

Hankins also debunked what he called rumors that have surfaced since Beckwith arrived at Baylor.

“It is simply not true that Frank was forced on the department by the administration,” Hankins insisted. “He was the best qualified person for the job and in my view strengthens the department, both because of his credentials as a scholar and because of his views on various church-state matters.

“There are faculty at Baylor who believe Frank should not have been hired because of his work on intelligent design or because he could be called a 'cultural conservative.' I believe the academic enterprise is strengthened when a variety of views are represented in institutes and departments where complex and controversial issues are to be debated. We are in the business of educating, not indoctrinating.”

For his part, Beckwith noted he is “surprised and saddened that the descendants of J.M. Dawson would invoke his name as an authority in their request that Baylor University take action that is contrary to the academic and religious liberty that … Dawson stood for.”

Citing a 1964 quote from Dawson, “Most people know how sickly is mere conformity,” Beckwith added: “It is disappointing to know that some today are requiring ideological conformity for faculty at an institute that bears the name of J.M. Dawson. There can be no academic freedom if alumni are successful in their attempt to remove faculty who hold views contrary to their own.”

Beckwith, who in addition to his administrative position is associate professor of church-state studies, affirms the principles championed by the Dawson Institute, he said.

“I am a strong proponent of the separation of church and state as well as religious liberty, though in a free society such as ours, citizens of goodwill will differ on how to understand these principles in the 21st century, an era nearly a half-century removed from the time J.M. Dawson published the bulk of his work,” he said.

“For example, my scholarship on law, Darwinism and public education explores a new, important and fascinating question …: Would certain critiques of Darwinism, including intelligent design theory, pass constitutional muster if subjected to standard judicial tests?”

Beckwith's affiliations with think-tanks such as the Discovery Institute are merely affiliations, he stressed. “Think-tanks are not churches or lodges; there are no oaths or statements of faith that one must sign. …

"My work is my own, and I stand by it. However, it is inappropriate and not in the spirit of J.M. Dawson's philosophy for his descendants or any members of the Baylor community to blacklist faculty because they receive funding, however modest, from think-tanks and foundations with which other members of the academic community disagree."

Posted: 9/19/03

DOWN HOME:
A 'Marv' by any other name …

We've reached a new era in our family. My youngest daughter, Molly, calls me by my first name.

Well, not precisely my name, but an endeared version of my name. And she does it only part of the time.

Say it's almost time for dinner, and Molly's upstairs, and she needs to come down to eat. I stand at the foot of the stairs and call out, “Molly!” She's taken to calling back, “Marvie!”

MARV KNOX Editor

In my lifetime, I've known a zillion people, and Molly's the only one who's ever called me Marvie.

My real name's Marvin, but since I'm named for my dad and lived in the same house with him for almost 19 years, I've never gone by my real name.

At first, I was Little Marv, which baffled me, even as a toddler. Daddy was Marvin, not Big Marv, so why did all these people insist on calling me Little Marv. I felt So Big when they dropped the Little.

Growing up, I had a couple of family names. On Daddy's side, everybody called me Buddy. Don't know where that came from, but it stuck. At weddings and funerals, cousins still call me Buddy. Mother's dad, Popo, called me “Boy!” about half the time. It always seemed to bother Mother for him to do that, but I loved it. Something about the way he said it. “Come with me, Boy!” Or “Wanna go fishing, Boy!?”

By the time I got to junior high, I got called names because Daddy is a pastor. Mr. Barnes, the choir teacher, took to calling me Moses. Theologically speaking, that never made sense to me, but then again I didn't expect much theology out of Mr. Barnes, and at least he didn't call me Judas or Jehoiakim, although I probably would've thought Nebuchadnezzar was cool.

Soon, my friends took over, and they started calling me Rev, short for Reverend. Some preacher's kids might not have liked a nickname like Rev, but I enjoyed it. And it was loads better than some of the lockerroom names we called most of my friends.

In college, my Alpha Phi Omega nickname was Woodstein, after journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame. The moniker was too contrived, and it never stuck. My friend Mop started calling me Jack, but that's a long story.

After college, the nicknames sorta dried up. Of course, Joanna, my wife, calls me little names I won't tell you. And some readers have written to call me names I can't tell you.

But I've gotten a kick out of being called Marvie. However, I appreciate being called Daddy even more, since I adore the name because it's also the title of my favorite job.

What do people call you? One of the great things about the Christian faith is the realization that the God of the universe knows your name and speaks it with love.

Posted: 9/19/03

EDITORIAL:
Add love, grace & forgiveness to 'Baylor family' values

You don't have to live among Texas Baptists long to meet up with folks whose passion for their “Baylor family” seems stronger than their feelings for the blood relatives they see during holidays. This summer, that passion boiled over, as members of the “family” conducted a public squabble over the future of their beloved university.

This family feud has left many loyal Texas Baptists outside the Baylor fold scratching their heads, wondering if all those Bears love their school too much–or not enough.

President Robert Sloan and Baylor 2012, the university's 10-year strategy, have been the twin lightning rods of the internecine strife. (The death of basketball player Patrick Dennehy was tragic, and scandal in the men's basketball program was appalling, and they received national attention. Although these are terribly painful issues that bring great sorrow to all of us, they are not directly involved in the battle for the soul of Baylor.)

All members of the Baylor family want their school to be great. But right now, it needs to embody character-istics of Christ's family– love, grace, compassion and forgiveness.

Critics have leveled five primary charges: (1) Escalating tuition threatens to change the very fabric of Baylor's student body, pushing the university out of range for the children of typical middle-class Texas Baptists, the historic majority of Baylor students. (2) Increasing debt brought on by a building boom threatens the school's financial viability. (3) Loyal long-term faculty have been shunted aside by an emphasis on research, and this threatens Baylor's legacy of excellent classroom teaching. (4) An alleged theological litmus test required for tenure threatens Baylor's reputation for seeking truth and will turn the university into a fundamentalist school. (5) Sloan himself is not competent and trustworthy to lead Baylor.

Supporters of Sloan and 2012 have responded in kind: (1) While tuition has increased, so has scholarship aid, and new students' median family income has decreased. (2) The university's debt is a small and manageable portion of its annual operating budget. (3) Classroom teaching and research both are vital, and solid researchers make strong classroom teachers. (4) Faculty at an overtly Christian university like Baylor should be able and willing to integrate faith with teaching in their disciplines. (5) Attacks on Sloan are petty, personal and, in some cases, fueled by ties to former administrations and others seeking to settle unrelated scores.

Disagreement is not unusual, particularly regarding the future of a beloved school. Especially in today's rapidly changing academic climate, university constituencies often disagree. But what makes Baylor unique is the demarcation line and depth of disagreement. Baylor hasn't pitted faculty against alumni or students against administration. Among faculty, alumni and students, both sides claim a majority, although no one knows where all parties stand on the issue. Moreover, many have taken an absolutist stand, countenancing no room for disagreement. Some equate loyalty to Baylor with support for Sloan. Others take the opposite view. And neither gives the other credence. For example, a caller last week said of a fellow Baylor alum who took an opposing view, “Well, I thought we were friends.”

Ironically, the rift has divided loyal Texas Baptists who have stood together for more than 20 years to fight fundamentalism. It has provoked many to embrace tactics they abhor in others. They have impugned the character and integrity of longtime friends. They have questioned the character and loyalty of Baylorites who have sacrificed to make Baylor great.

Sadly, both groups have resorted to power to force their will. Relying on a majority base in the board of regents, Sloan supporters have assumed if the regents vote, the issue is settled. Conversely, opponents have pointed to their strong resources to provide funds and future students and have threatened a kind of siege that could cut off and starve the administration. Neither side seems to see what is obvious to outsiders: Both sides reflect elements of truth. They have far more in common than they hold in disagreement. They need each other if they want Baylor to be great. The surest formula for doom is to refuse to reconcile this family feud.

Last week, the regents voted 31-4 to reaffirm Sloan's leadership. Since they are the only ones who can hire and fire the president, his position appears secure, at least for the short term. Regents agreed to proceed through the work of three review committees–one to study faculty relations, faculty hiring, provisional students, “Baylor traditions” and the school's relationship with the Baylor Alumni Association; another to look at finances, bonded indebtedness, tuition and the board's conflict-of-interest policy; and a third to examine pending litigation.

Although an anti-Sloan alumni group immediately denounced the regents' action, it could provide an opportunity for reconciliation, provided several steps are taken:

First, the regents need to conduct more of their work out in the open, for all constituents to observe. Texas Baptists have entrusted their institutions to boards of trustees or, in Baylor's case, regents. The regents want their process to work. For generations, Baylor's board has been comprised of regents whose reputations for trust and responsibility have been well-deserved. Texas Baptists have faith that they can solve the university's problems.

Regents must acknowledge, however, that mistrust currently prevails. The surest way for it to be restored is for business to be conducted in the sunshine of openness, so that all Baylor's varied constituents can share their dreams and visions, explore options for reaching them and hold each other accountable for progress. Of course, the board holds legal responsibility for its actions, and sometimes regents must work candidly behind closed doors. Still, in the current climate, they must realize closed doors only increase suspicion and mistrust. The review committees need to function openly. And when fiduciary duties close doors, regents must emerge with clear and public plans for proceeding and share those plans with Baylor's constituencies.

Second, the administration needs to reach out. Last week, Sloan promised to communicate and to listen. That's a great start, but it needs to extend further. The president can build bridges to alumni and faculty by offering specific steps to respond to their concerns. He does not need to abandon Baylor 2012 to alleviate some fears of faculty, alumni, students and their families. Even Sloan's opponents have affirmed many components of 2012. He has an opportunity to cement their support by responding collegially and gracefully to their fears and concerns–not only in words, but in actions.

Here's a specific step: The administration could allay anxiety and set the tone for the future by clearly explaining its faith-related requirements for faculty hiring, tenure and promotion. Sloan advocates the ideal that a university can be uniquely Christian and academically excellent. A clearer explanation of how Baylor can achieve those dual goals and how faculty can participate would be a reconciling step.

Third, the administration's adversaries need to exercise patience and allow time for progress. This does not mean accountability is ignored. But it does mean placing a moratorium on personal attacks, cordially presenting alternative views on how 2012 can be implemented without causing worst fears to come true, and acknowledging the administration and its supporters also love Baylor fervently.

All Texas Baptists need to pray for Baylor University. All members of the Baylor family want their school to be great. But right now, it needs to embody characteristics of Christ's family–love, grace, compassion and forgiveness.

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