Posted: 2/02/08

Time in God’s presence primary
requirement for spiritual discipline

By Jim White

Religious Herald

ATLANTA—When it comes to spiritual discipline, simply spending time in God’s presence is the primary requirement, seminary professors Linda Bryan and Loyd Allen agreed.

Bryan and Allen led a session titled “The Spirit of the Lord Upon Me” during the New Baptist Covenant gathering in Atlanta, Feb. 1.

The session relied on the central scriptural theme of the three-day celebration taken from Luke 4:18-19 as its springboard. Jesus, speaking to his hometown neighbors, began his inaugural message with the words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me.”

Allen, who teaches church history and spiritual formation at the MacAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, emphasized that Baptists of this age need to rediscover the spiritual disciplines that create Christ-likeness.

“Baptists tend to run before they are sent,” he said. “Prayer is the personal communication with the divine.”

Bryan emphasized “developing a familiar friendship with Christ” through meditation and contemplation.

Prayer must spring from one’s own voice according to Bryan. “Prayer is the time we take to sit with God. …We have too many cookie-cutter prayers” she said.

Allen alluded to the Protestant Reformation as the point in church history when the practice of contemplation and meditation was abandoned in the tradition from which Baptists sprang.

“But the soul and body are one” he declared.

Spiritual formation impacts body as well as spirit. Each professor emphasized reading the Scriptures and praying with imagination, placing one’s self in the Scriptures.

“The text draws us into the context,” Bryan said.

Authentic prayer is the kind “that leads one to do what a Christian is supposed to do,” Allen said. It leads to “solitude, silence and simplicity.”

Touching on fasting as an expectation of Christ when he said “whenever you fast….” in Matt. 6:16, Bryan said it is a discipline that takes time and can be done in a variety of ways. “Food is not the only deprivation that creates spiritual awareness.”

Posted: 2/02/08

Program enables watershed
experience for seminary students

By Bob Perkins

ATLANTA—A program endowed by a $100,000 gift from Oklahoma Baptist Robert Stephenson has ensured that seminary students from around the nation could participate in the historic celebration of the New Baptist Covenant.

The Stephenson Seminary Scholars program helped underwrite the participation of 178 seminary students from 16 different divinity schools.

Bailey Nelson, the program’s coordinator, said her involvement has been an inspiration.

“I am overwhelmed by the diversity of the group and the passion they show,” Nelson said. “They are driven and hungry. Their big question is: What’s next?”

Nelson said the meeting has been a watershed moment for many members of the group who are beginning to understand their role as Baptists.

“We can’t wait for others to tell us what to do. It’s time for us to decide for ourselves,” she said. “It’s not about becoming members of the power structure; it’s about developing relationships.”

Because there had been no contact among the seminarians prior to this week, Nelson said the students are exploring ways to keep in touch after the event. “There’s been talk about starting a Facebook group to stay connected with each other through e-mail, and there are others who are talking about collaborating on a book.”

Derrick Sellars, who attends Shaw Divinity School in Raleigh, N.C., said the program has helped students from different backgrounds share experiences.

“It really forces us to deal with what we’ve been trying to hide for many years,” he said. “There was a time when black people weren’t allowed to go to seminary. This gives us the opportunity to find out what others are teaching and maybe we are learning what we should be teaching seminary students.”

“It helps us to learn the intellectual side of what it means to be Baptist,” Shaw said. “I think some of us don’t even know what Baptists believe. Yes, we submerge believers in water, but it’s much deeper than that.”

Angelita Clifton, who attends Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, N.J., shared Shaw’s excitement about the Baptist identity.

“I think we will be bringing back the tools for us to share with our congregations what it means to be Baptist, and to be more aware of the Baptist identity,” Clifton said. “I came here with the idea that I was going to learn something from this once-in-a-lifetime gathering of Baptists.

“It’s much easier to think that we are all somehow different,” she said. “But when we come together to exchange ideas and theology, we find out that we don’t have to agree on everything to be able to work together on common goals. We are unified under the umbrella of God’s love.”

Posted: 2/02/08

Biblical witness commands God’s
people to ‘welcome the stranger’

By Patricia Heys

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

ATLANTA—Professors Daniel Carro and Richard Wilson drew on biblical examples as they discussed immigration issues at a special interest session “Welcoming the Stranger” Feb. 1 at the celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta.

“Our question today is who is a stranger,” said Carro, as he showed the audience of more than 90 people a diverse array of faces. “If you can’t define who is a stranger, you can’t define who you should welcome. And friends, I presume that all of us are strangers. Each of us is a stranger to someone else. In the wrong place, in the wrong moment you become a stranger, refugee, alien, non-entity, intruder, immigrant, trespasser, [and an] outlander.”

Carro, a professor of divinity at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies in Arlington, Va., immigrated to the United States from Argentina in 2000 and will be eligible for U.S. citizenship next month.

“God’s concern for strangers is rooted in the fact that strangers do not possess the typical rights and privileges afforded to other members of the community,” Carro said. “This is why they are vulnerable and why God wants to take care of them.

“Today strangers are not just ignored, they are actively isolated,” Carro said. “Sometimes worse—we build fences and barriers to separate some groups of people from others. Why do we do that? Wasn’t one of the greatest events of our time the falling of the Berlin Wall? We applauded the falling of the Berlin Wall, but now we build walls.

“But the worst wall is not of concrete. The worst wall is a wall of hostility. If we don’t tear down the walls of hostility, other walls will come. In immigration, the biggest battle we face is an internal battle. We need to tear down in our hearts. There is no need for walls. What are we going to do—hostility or hospitality? The choice is ours.”

Wilson, a professor of theology at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., met Carro in 1984 while on sabbatical in Argentina. He also provided biblical examples, citing the Old Testament story of Sarah and Abraham welcoming a stranger in their tent, the disciples meeting a stranger on the road to Emmaus and the woman anointing Jesus’ feet.

“I encourage you to think with me today what a theology of hospitality might sound like, but what more importantly what it might look like,” Wilson said. “A theology of hospitality is, first, a theology of doing and, second, a reflection of what has been done, with the hope that we find God is our midst.”

Wilson, a member of the First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Ga., provided examples of how his church has reached out to immigrants in their local community. For 20 years, the church provided space for a Korean congregation. Members also teach conversational English classes.

“The surprise of welcoming the stranger is that you find yourself on the receiving end of the welcome,” Wilson said. “It takes two to give a hug. To reach out to a stranger is to open yourself to the reciprocal hug.”

Former President Jimmy Carter, who attended the session with his wife, Rosalynn, said that in his small hometown of Plains, Ga., there are 80 to 85 immigrants.

“What we really need out of this session is some very tangible and specific recommendations on what participants, individuals, congregations and this entire body of Baptists can do once we return home,” Carter said. “The totality of our collective voice speaking out on behalf of undocumented workers would be very powerful.”

Posted: 1/31/08

Christians called to tear down walls,
not build them, South Texas pastor says

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

ATLANTA—Christ came to tear down walls that divide people, a South Texas pastor told Baptists at a prophetic preaching conference. So, he asked, can Christians find any real security in a fence built along an “imaginary line” to separate two nations?

“Jesus didn’t come to build walls. He didn’t come to build fences. He came to tear them down,” said Ellis Orozco, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen.

Orozco participated in an afternoon session on prophetic preaching during the celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta, Jan. 31, offering a biblical response to illegal immigration.

“I live on the border,” Orozco said. “But then again, who doesn’t live on the border these days? The border keeps moving. We don’t cross the border anymore. The border crosses us.”

While they speak of a fence as a way of securing the nation’s borders, the unspoken reason many people support the building of a barrier along the United States’ southern border is because they fear “the browning of America,” he said.

For generations of poor males in Mexico, answering “the call to head north” to help support their families has become a rite of passage, Orozco said. Desperation drives them across the border, he insisted.

“We always call 1-800-MEXICO when we need more poor people to do work we don’t want to do,” he said. “Who do you think is rebuilding New Orleans? For that matter, who do you think is going to build the fence?”

The Spirit of Christ compels Christians to look at the immigration situation differently, Orozco insisted.

“Jesus comes to us in the eyes of the stranger,” he said.

Walls and fences alienate and separate people, dividing them into “us and them, in and out,” he said. But Jesus alone possesses power to do the impossible and “make the two one,” Orozco said.

Undocumented Mexican immigrants “are not the enemy who have come to take from us,” he insisted. “They are the neighbor who has come to help and to be helped.”

Some may quote an American poet who said, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Orozco offered a rejoinder to that assertion: “I know Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a good friend of mine. And Robert Frost is no Jesus Christ.”

American treatment of Mexican workers and reaction to immigration from Mexico has caused “a loss of moral authority in the global community,” he asserted. Every nation has the right to secure its borders from attack, but walls do not contribute to peace or promote security, Orozco said.

“As long as there are walls, there will never be peace,” he said.

Posted: 1/30/08

Church security demands all hands on deck
–but maybe not with arms

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

FORT WORTH—Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth has employed personnel to patrol its campus, escort women to their cars after dark and ensure buildings are locked since before Russ Hibner became the church’s facilities manager seven years ago.

But after a security guard stopped a gunman who entered a Colorado Springs church in December, leaders at Travis Avenue Baptist decided to take another look at how it provides security.

“We’re in transition,” Hibner said.

In recent weeks, the church secured training for its courtesy patrol to enable them to become certified noncommissioned security officers. As noncommissioned security officers, they are trained in how to handle emergencies and to understand the scope of their authority, but they are not permitted to carry deadly weapons. For occasions when the church believes armed personnel are needed, it hires off-duty police officers, Hibner explained.

“We have to weigh a lot of factors and seek a balance,” he said. “We want to provide a service for our members and guests without going overboard and making it an armed camp.”

Just by their presence, the courtesy patrol probably has deterred some criminal acts, Hibner noted. Personnel routinely patrol parking lots in vehicles with flashing lights, and on more than one occasion, small groups have “dispersed quickly” when the vehicles came into sight, he said.

Although security officers will not carry guns, they do carry direct-connect radios that enable them to contact other staff or call 911 in case of an emergency that requires professional assistance.

Ambulance service and police have responded promptly when summoned, Hibner noted, and police cars often use the church’s parking lot as a gathering spot at night.

“We’ve very happy about that, and we tell them they can use our parking lot any time they want to,” he said.

In addition to the security officers and off-duty police, a parking committee helps provide additional parking lot security during worship services, and the church also instructs ushers and deacons how to handle minor disturbances during worship services.

All churches should train ushers to recognize potential security problems, said Phill Martin from the National Association of Church Business Administration.

“They should be the first line of defense,” he said. “The day of ushers just handing out bulletins is long past. They need to be trained in what to watch for. They need to understand if something looks suspicious, it may be. A church should have procedures in place to help ushers know how to respond.”

Church staff members periodically should ask a series of “what if” questions to prepare for a variety of security-related issues, Martin suggested.

“We highly recommend church staffs do scenario planning” where they think through proper responses to various situations, he said.

At Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, armed off-duty police officers patrol the facility on Sundays and Wednes-days, but they aren’t necessarily the only people carrying weapons, according to Senior Associate Pastor Ken Warren.

Paid uniformed officers work in the parking lot with both traffic flow and security, and they are present in the sanctuary when the offering is collected to escort the ushers from the worship center to the church’s safe.

Their presence is augmented by a significant number of law enforcement officers who worship at the church and stand to respond in emergencies as members of Green Acres’ security ministry team, Warren said.

“They are required to be armed even when they are off-duty,” he said. “So, they may be sitting up in the choir or in the congregation, but they are alert and prepared to respond as needed at a moment’s notice.”

Posted: 1/30/08

What should worshippers do
if their church is attacked?

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—Last December, worshippers at a Colorado church lost two members to a murderous shooter. In 2006, a man entered an Oregon church and threw fuel during a Sunday service, intending to set the building ablaze. And in 2005, a man opened fire in a Wisconsin church, killing seven people and wounding four others.

In this day and age, even elementary schools are better prepared to deal with violent attacks than churches, experts say, because church-goers think it won’t happen to them. But that false sense of security gives physical and psychological advantages to any would-be attacker.

There are two main reasons churches are attacked, according to Rick Schaber, risk control manager for Church Mutual Insurance Company in Merrill, Wis.

“First, worship centers are open to the public, so gaining access is extremely easy,” he said. “Second, people are passionate about their faith. When someone wants to take extreme action against their church, oftentimes, it isn’t difficult.”

Most risk experts say worshippers have five options when threatened by a shooter.

• Escape. Experts say the first choice for anyone in a threatening situation is to escape. Churches should develop plans that determine how people will leave the building and where they will meet afterward (buddy systems work well for people with disabilities). Security teams should highlight escape routes and assign people to ensure everyone gets out.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., Pastor Brady Boyd lost two church members when a man with a gun entered his church. But the New Life Church security team quickly activated a crisis plan that helped people escape.

“People were ushered off the campus or taken to safe places,” Boyd said in a press conference the next day. “We had security details in each of those locations to keep people safe.”

• Lock down. “Lockdowns are designed to be exercised when the threat is outside of the building or outside a specific room,” Schaber said. “It’s designed to prohibit the person from entering an area.”

For example, a safety newsletter from Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company noted, the killer on the Virginia Tech campus didn’t take the time to force his way through locked doors—he looked instead for easy targets.

See related articles: • The security of the believer: Protecting churches from attack • Church security demands all hands on deck–but maybe not with arms • What should worshippers do if their church is attacked?

Ideally, all church rooms should have locks on them, and children’s areas should be secured by one entrance that teachers can quickly lock, protecting everyone inside.

• Hide. If escape and lockdown are not possible, hiding under tables or chairs can reduce vertical targets for a potential killer, safety consultant John Nicoletti said in the Brotherhood Mutual letter.

• Play dead. “This is one of the more difficult options. It requires people to have already been shot, and you have to really look dead,” Nicoletti said. But at times, it has been effective.

• Confront the killer. Experts urge this tactic only as a last resort, since it is inherently risky. But resistance did stop a school shooting in Springfield, Ore., in 1998.

The question of whether church leaders or security guards should carry guns is a tricky one, Schaber admitted. Each religious organization must determine an answer for itself.

“There are risks involved” to having guns on the premises, he said. “Training is extremely important, as is the selection of the person given the responsibility of carrying a gun.

“There is a lot that can go wrong if you have armed security at a service and a threat, or perceived threat, occurs. However, that presence also might prevent a threat from ever happening.”

The bottom line? Don’t rely on instinct. Church attacks are a reality in the modern world, so it pays to prepare, Boyd said: “I don’t think any of us grew up in churches where that was a reality, but today it is.”

Posted: 1/30/08

The security of the believer:
protecting churches from attack

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—One day after a shooter killed two sisters at Colorado’s New Life Church, Pastor Brady Boyd told reporters the church had become a target because of its size and its notoriety.

But the toll to the former church of Ted Haggard, the pastor accused of homosexual acts and drug abuse, could have been much worse, Boyd quickly added. The church security team quickly and effectively subdued the attacker, a 24-year-old man who ultimately was shot and killed in the attack.

“Because we took extra precautions, we saved a lot of lives yesterday,” Boyd said. “We have had a plan in place here for many years, before I ever came as senior pastor, for situations like this. And for a group of volunteers to be able to pull off an evacuation plan the way they did yesterday was supernatural and unbelievable.”

But what should an average church do to prepare for a violent crisis? What’s more, how should staff members prepare a congregation for the unthinkable without terrifying it in the process?

It’s helpful to recognize that simply articulating security plans doesn’t mean a church is dangerous any more than pointing out emergency exits on an airplane means it will crash. It just means precautions have been taken.

Experts say the first step to ensuring safety is deciding what kind of image a particular church wants to present and then acting on it. Richard Schaber, risk control manager for Church Mutual Insurance Company, said there are two basic ways to address security in a church—like a shopping mall or like an airport.

Each method has its own irregularities. Shopping malls have lots of open space, allow for fluid motion of crowds, and have several points of entry and exits. For better or for worse, airports don’t.

“Unfortunately when we mostly look at (a church) like a shopping mall, it’s very difficult to secure. You’ve got people coming and going,” Schaber said. But using metal detectors at a single entrance “certainly has an impact on those attending and members. When you treat it like an airport and you’re wanding people, that doesn’t always go over very well.”

Ultimately, there’s no one right way to form the plan for a particular church, he said: “You’ve got to keep what the church wants in mind. How do they want to be seen?”

The essential thing is to make response plans tailored to a specific church, at specific times and in specific scenarios. That begins with forming a security team to identify potential threats. The team should include staff members, volunteers and church members with skills in the medical, military or law-enforcement fields.

Members should then brainstorm threatening scenarios, including events during weekend services, weekdays, nights, school hours and special events.

It’s important to remember that each church will have specific needs, experts say. Generic policies may not fit what a particular congregation is able or willing to implement, and misguided or unheeded policies can increase liability, said Phill Martin, deputy chief executive officer of the Texas-based National Association of Church Business Administration.

Churches need to establish clear security policies, but one size does not fit all, he stressed.

“Be careful what policies you put into place,” Martin warned, noting the “boilerplate” language of generic policies may not fit what a particular congregation is able or willing to implement. “If you have a policy and don’t follow it, it can increase your liability.”

Security policies should include a sunset clause that renders them void if they are not reviewed and ratified periodically. “A security policy should be reviewed every six months by somebody,” he suggested.

Three of the basic threats to churches are the presence of a weapon, the use of a weapon, and a hostage situation or barricaded gunman. After determining the vulnerability to and potential impact of a worst-case scenario, members should assign each other responsibilities that will minimize damage to people and property. Duties could include locking the building, checking classrooms, calling authorities, conducting head counts, administering first-aid and counseling victims.

A simple step toward mitigating the consequences of any security threat is to improve general building security, according to a newsletter from the Wisconsin-based Church Mutual. Keeping doors and windows locked, installing video cameras and adequate lighting, trimming bushes and changing locks annually can prevent a crisis before it starts.

Small churches that can’t afford or don’t need to hire professional security should reach an understanding with local police about what to do in a crisis. Networking with community schools or area churches also is valuable.

Once a team is formed and a safety plan established, church staff should inform the congregation—if someone with a weapon enters the building, panic inevitably will ensue. A crime prevention checklist from Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company suggests using announcements during services to outline evacuation plans, show emergency exits and explain how children will be protected in the nursery. It also suggests posting emergency policies on walls, printing them in the church bulletin, posting them on websites and printing them in visitor packets.

Unfortunately, as worshippers at New Life Church know, the impact of a crisis doesn’t stop after danger is eliminated. A key responsibility of any safety team is to designate a spokesperson for media inquiries—and depending on the nature of the crisis, it could be a huge task.

Church employees and members should direct all media questions to the designated person—usually a pastor, business administrator or board chairman.

A communication plan should be included in the overall security plan—pastors should neither seek nor hide from media coverage, and they should be ready to respond to media questions with more than a “no comment.”

“Your spokesperson needs to realize how the media coverage will affect the families and the victims,” Shaber wrote in a column for Church Mutual. “Above all, tell the truth.”

Boyd took the expert advice to heart—and it paid off.

Hundreds of lives were saved because of the pre-determined plan, he told reporters. “We are grateful to God for giving us the wisdom to do that.”

Managing Editor Ken Camp contributed to this story.

Posted: 2/01/08

Baptists urged to reach out
to victims of sexual exploitation

By Patricia Heys

CBF Communications

ATLANTA—Sexual exploitation is a worldwide issue, Lauran Bethell told an audience at a special interest session of the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.

Bethell, an American Baptist Churches USA global ministry consultant, led a panel discussion on sexual exploitation Jan. 31, at the Georgia World Congress Center. Panelists included Lia Scholl, founder of Star Light Ministries, Inc.; Susan Omanson, of the NightLight ministry center in Thailand; and Charity Marquis, who started a branch of NightLight ministries in Los Angeles.

For 14 years, Bethell served as director of New Life Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which ministered among victims of human trafficking. Bethell said that in many developing countries women feel they have an economic responsibility to their families and will sacrifice themselves in prostitution.

“I don’t believe that women are going into prostitution as a life choice—that they are growing up thinking that is what they want to do for the rest of their lives,” Bethell said.

“There is also a pattern of brokenness among women in prostitution, with large numbers of women who are victims of child and sexual abuse. I know that the common thread between those in developed and developing countries is that these women need to know that they are precious daughters of God.”

Omanson, who previously served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Sioux Falls, S.D., said God has called her and is calling the church to reach out to victims.

“We, as Baptists, have come together this week, and we are saying to God, ‘Here I am, help us, hear us,’” Omanson said. “There are people all over the world that have that same heart cry. There are men, women and children who have been caught in exploitation, and I have seen this firsthand in Thailand.”

NightLight reaches out to women and children working in the bar areas of urban Bangkok. The center provides job training, education, shelter, emergency assistance and relational evangelism. Seven women from the center were recently baptized, Omanson said.

Marquis, who is Omanson’s daughter, has facilitated the start of a Los Angeles branch of NightLight, which provides training on recognizing human trafficking and works with local organizations to reach out to victims.

“We wanted to give people an opportunity to partner with us not only globally but also locally,” she said.

Scholl’s ministry is focused in the United States, as Star Light Ministries volunteers reach out to exotic dancers. Scholl said that most exotic dancers are between the ages of 18 and 24, and they often have little no relationship with their families.

“We don’t leave our college students without chaplains, so why would we leave these young women?” Scholl said.

Scholl listed five qualities people need to engage in ministry to exotic dancers:

—“You believe that one event in your life shouldn’t determine whether you have a good life. You believe in second chances, third chances and seven times 70 chances.”

—“You believe that lives can be transformed—God transforms lives and people can transform their own lives. And those two things working together can transform society.”

—“You see people and lives as possibilities.”

—“A really great game face. You will hear stories that will make you want to cry, that will make you shudder, that will make you lose your faith in human beings. But you can’t show it—you have look at the young woman with love and acceptance.”

—“You are compelled to learn.”

The panelists encourage audience members to pray for their ministries and ministries around the world. They also urged people to get involved with local organizations reaching out to victims of sexual exploitation.

Posted: 2/01/08

For Casting Crowns, performing
and recording music is just a side job

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

FAIRFAX, Va.—On one night, youth pastor Mark Hall puts plans together for his Wednesday night youth service at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of McDonough, Ga. The next night, Hall is on stage in the Washington suburbs, fronting his Grammy-nominated band, Casting Crowns.

For Hall and other members of his group—all of them involved in youth ministry in Atlanta-area churches—middle-school and high-school students are top priority. It just happens they end up reaching them both on stage and off stage.

“Our priority in our scheduling and our priority in how we do things is definitely student ministry because you can’t pop in and pop out of the student ministry,” said Hall, the 38-year-old leader of the band known for its pop contemporary and worship music.

“You can’t just come in for a day and be a youth pastor—or I would hope you couldn’t. You can’t be a good one, anyway.”

Despite the success of Casting Crowns—their latest album debuted at No. 2 in the nation on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, coming in behind the High School Musical 2 soundtrack—Hall said their music and mission are focused on helping average Christians, whether teenagers or former teenagers, grow closer to God.

The group’s latest album, The Altar and the Door, dwells on the difficulties faced by Christians who are challenged to live life a certain way when they’re inside the walls of a sanctuary but seem to forget some of those lessons once they leave church.

Juan DeVevo, 32, a guitarist for Casting Crowns who works with the

student praise band at Eagle’s Landing, said the high ranking on the

Billboard chart is a sign that their music also is reaching

non-Christians.

“Believers are giving our CD to nonbelievers, and they’re feeling like that stuff can speak to people and help them in their time of need, even though they may not even go to church,” he said.

The band found fame when a college student at the church put their CD in the hands of Mark Miller, frontman for the country music group Sawyer Brown. He started the Beach Street Records label in 2003 and became the band’s producer.

Three albums later, Casting Crowns took home the “favorite artist” award in contemporary inspirational music at the American Music Awards last November.

Four of the group’s seven members started playing together in 1999 as a band at First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., where then-pastor Bobby Welch didn’t even know of Hall’s musical abilities when he hired him. But after Hall moved to Georgia and the band became more established there, Welch invited them to perform at the 2006 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, when Welch was SBC president.

“I don’t think he’s just doing a unique balancing act,” Welch said of Hall. “I think his music and his ministry make each other.”

Tricia Whitehead, a spokeswoman for the Gospel Music Association, said other Christian artists have come out of the church and continued to work as music ministers even as they performed onstage. But Casting Crowns, with its involvement in youth ministry, is different.

“Casting Crowns has set a standard that is fantastic to see, that they continue to be so involved in ministry alongside the huge success they’re having” as musicians, she said.

When Hall meets with youth pastors at concerts, he reminds them that relationships, not lectures, are the key to reaching young people.

“You’ll teach more in the car on the way to Burger King after church than you will in your Bible study,” Hall said. He may spend hours working on “neat, artsy, cool” worksheets for his Wednesday night youth group, but he finds teens are more interested in one-on-one time to discuss a personal matter.

Reagan Farris, the other youth pastor at Eagle’s Landing, said most of the students at the church are unfazed by the band’s success.

“Not many students in the student ministry are just in awe that they’re Casting Crowns,” said Farris, 29, who was once a member of Hall’s youth group. “He’s their youth pastor. He’s not Casting Crowns. He’s Mark.”

In addition to reaching students, Hall has tried to help parents understand the sometimes mysterious lives of teenagers—especially the side of kids they only reveal online. He wrote a song, and then a column in USA Today, after a voyage through FaceBook and MySpace.

“They just want to have a friend to sit with at lunch,” Hall said. “They want to be accepted and sometimes your need for acceptance lures you outside of what you know to be right, what you know to be godly.”

Hall’s life is a constant balancing act. Before hitting the road for the concert in Virginia, he attended a staff meeting and sketched out worship plans. Then he met with about 400 youth for their weekly gathering, and hung around afterward to meet with a parent and help a student in crisis.

After sleeping on the bus from Georgia, he helped home-school one of his three children and also kept in touch with youth back in Georgia.

“I texted 22 students this morning with a sort of a verse-for-the-day kind of thing I like to do with them,” he said. “You don’t just check out of student ministry. It’s impossible.”

Posted: 2/01/08

New book examines life and
contributions of ‘Daddy King’

By Greg Trotter

Religion News Service

NEWFIELD, N.Y. (RNS)—Few dispute that Martin Luther King Jr.’s courageous leadership in the civil rights movement of the 1960s forever changed the course of American history. But even before he led the historic Montgomery bus boycott and other nonviolent protests, another King was pounding the pulpit and the pavement for social justice—his father, Martin Luther King Sr., known as “Daddy King” to his family, friends and members of his church.

Gurdon Brewster has decided to make Daddy King’s story better known. Brewster’s memoir, No Turning Back: My Summer With Daddy King, recounts the months in 1961 he spent with the elder King and his wife, Alberta, in Atlanta.

The book offers an intimate look at the King family in that turbulent time and reveals the inner conflicts of Brewster—a white Episcopalian from the North immersed in the black struggle for freedom and equality.

The memoir illustrates the pivotal role of the senior King in the nonviolent fight for racial equality, while also raising questions of faith and social class within the young narrator.

“People don’t know much about Daddy King,” Brewster said in an interview. “But Dr. King stood on the shoulders of Daddy King, who stood on the shoulders of (his father-in-law) Rev. A.D. Williams. There’s a long legacy of civil rights work there.”

In 1961, Brewster was a 24-year-old seminary student in New York who volunteered to participate in a program that sent white Episcopalians into black churches in the South for the summer. He requested Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Daddy King, a stocky preacher with a booming voice, served as pastor.

The Kings welcomed Brewster into their household to live when no other family in the congregation offered to take him.

Over plates of grits and bacon in the mornings, Brewster learned the story of Daddy King’s hard-fought journey, from sharecropper’s son to big-city pastor.

“Daddy King and M.L. shared a very similar faith in Christ,” Brewster said. “But they expressed it differently because of where they came from.”

Martin Luther King Sr., seen here in an undated photo, set the stage for his son’s remarkable career fighting for civil rights. (RNS file photo)

While the younger King grew up middle-class in Atlanta, Brewster said, Daddy King was reared in rural Stockbridge, Ga. His father plowed the fields on a white man’s farm; his mother scrubbed floors for a living.

Although his father wanted him to farm, Daddy King moved to Atlanta to go to school. He was so far behind that he had to attend the fifth grade when he was 20 years old.

After scrapping his way through the intellectual rigors of Morehouse College, he became pastor of Ebenezer in 1931. In 1935, about 20 years before his son led the Montgomery bus boycott, the senior King led a march on City Hall for improved black rights. He soon got hate mail for his efforts.

“People think that the civil rights movement started with Rosa Parks” in 1955, Brewster said. “But Daddy King was leading marches in the 1930s and 1940s.”

Brewster’s book depicts him learning of Daddy King’s struggle and reflecting on his own respective place of social privilege. He also discovered first-hand how difficult the younger King’s message of nonviolence was to put into practice.

“To love your enemy like Dr. King preached is a huge piece of faith,” Brewster said. “It’s much easier to just go buy a gun.”

The younger King also schooled Brewster on the role of the church in American society. According to Brewster’s account of their conversations, King felt that churches of all races and denominations should do more to promote social justice.

“What Dr. King did was take Daddy King’s prophetic vision and thrust it into the public arena,” Brewster said.

After his summer with the Kings, Brewster went on to serve as chaplain for Cornell University in New York for 35 years. In 1979, he invited Daddy King to visit Cornell and speak to the students.

A recent book notes that Martin Luther King inherited not only his preaching ability, but his passion for social justice from his father, “Daddy King.” (RNS file photo)

Daddy King was then the survivor of his two sons and wife. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968; his other son, A.D., drowned in 1969. His wife, Alberta, was killed in 1974 when a gunman opened fire as she sat at Ebenezer’s organ.

In his 1979 sermon to the Cornell students, Daddy King discussed his losses and expressed an unwavering gratitude and faith in God. He died five years later of a heart attack. He was 84.

Brewster continues to serve as an Episcopal priest, works as a sculptor and lives in Newfield, N.Y.

Brewster contends that both Kings would still be fighting for social justice if they were alive today. Though much progress has been made, Brewster said, there is still much more that churches could be doing.

“It’s a strange time we live in,” Brewster said. “There’s a lot of milquetoast Christianity, soft on issues of justice. And that’s a shame, because at the very heart of Christianity is a great tradition of justice and fairness.”

Posted: 2/01/08

VeggieTales creator’s self-image:
More Mr. Rogers than van Gogh

By Andrea Useem

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—VeggieTales co-creator Phil Vischer views the new feature-length movie, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, like a biblical parable.

It teaches about the Kingdom of God through an entertaining story—in this case, the tale of three bumbling vegetable friends who must band together and overcome their fears to save their friends.

Q: Why would the movie appeal to non-Christian parents and kids?

Phil Vischer

A: This is a fun adventure that shows how everybody can be a hero and how the hero isn’t the tallest or the strongest or the best looking. The hero is the one who does what’s right, no matter how hard.

Q: Is hard for a Christian movie to compete with mainstream movies that don’t have Christian themes?

A: Eight out of 10 Americans still identify as Christian, even if they haven’t gone to church since their parents made them when they were kids. But when they become parents, all of a sudden they look at their own kids and ask, “What values am I passing onto them?”

Q: What makes a movie religious? Is Finding Nemo a Christian film?

A: It’s not an un-Christian film. There are very strong Judeo-Christian values in most successful family films, though not all. It’s hard to tell a compelling story that goes against those values or disregards them. You’d have to be wildly cynical as a filmmaker to craft a kids movie that throws Judeo-Christian values out the window.

Q: So how is The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything a biblical movie?

A: The movie is an allegory, like a parable. If you read the parables in the Bible, none of them mention God or Jesus explicitly, but there’s always a character that represents God. Parables are lessons about the kingdom of heaven wrapped into the vernacular of the day. With this movie, I said, “Let’s create a modern day parable about what it means to be a hero.”

Q: And what do you hope kids will learn about being a hero?

A: What we don’t say is, “Every one of you has such extraordinary capabilities that you can, under your own power, be a hero.” What we’re really saying is: Regardless of how you view yourself, God has created you to do something really cool. That’s why we’re here, and it involves helping others, and it has nothing to do with how big and brave and strong you are, and everything to do with trust in God to give you what you need to do what he’s asked you to do.

Q: Is it a theological problem that you can create a “biblical movie” without any overt references to God or Jesus?

A: Our movie is allegorical, but it is a fairly overt allegorical statement about God. I don’t know that a movie from a Christian filmmaker has to stand apart that much from a well-told film. There are so many films that have compelling messages with spiritual implications. When Christian filmmakers say, “Mine has to read like a tract,” you’re not making movies anymore, you’re making sermons with a camera.

Q: But you yourself exist in the Christian world …

A: So we’ll get some flack. But we always get flack; it goes with the territory.

Q: As an artist, do you sometimes feel suffocated by the Christian community?

A: Honestly, many do. I know Christian artists who just can’t take it; they walk away from the Christian world and get on with their art. I am more a teacher than an artist, which is why I have been so happy making VeggieTales, where a tomato gets down on his knees and says, “God made you special and loves you very much.” At the end of the day, I’ve got more Mr. Rogers in me than van Gogh.

Q: In the movie, the three pirate characters have a ball that guides them and tells them what to do. Does the ball represent the Bible?

A: No, it’s God’s call. It’s just a device of beckoning, the instrument through which God reaches out and says, “Pssst. I’ve got something for you.” The danger of allegory is that everyone starts trying to find biblical characters around every turn. It’s better to look at the allegory in a simple way; otherwise you’re making stuff up.

Q: And your simple message is that everyone can be a hero?

A: Yes, and the message is also: Stop being a consumer and be a producer, because our culture is all about consumption. If you reach adulthood under the impression that the world exists to entertain you, you are going to be on the couch your whole life.

That’s not what God is telling us to do. The world is on fire. He wants us to jump in, grab a bucket, and start putting out fires.

Q: In your movie, the character symbolizing God is a bearded old white man. Do you see that as problematic?

A: Actually, he’s green; he’s a zucchini. But yes, he’s an old bearded man. I think that may be an issue for 0.7 percent of the audience.

Posted: 2/01/08

Explore the Bible Series for February 10

Do you obey in faith?

• Genesis 22:1-18

By Donald Raney

First Baptist Church, Petersburg

Years ago, a man was walking through the desert in Nevada when he came across an old abandoned store with a pump to a water well next to it. Upon approaching the pump, he noticed there was a note attached to the handle.

It read: “I had to close the store, but all who pass by are welcome to use the well. This pump is connected to a continuously supplied source of natural underground spring water. Due to the climate, however, the pump must be primed with each use. Under the white rock to you left is a sealed bottle of water which contains enough to prime the pump but not if you drink any first. Pour about a fourth of the water slowly around top to soak the washers and then pour the rest directly under handle and pump quickly. It may take a minute, but keep pumping. The well never has run dry. When you get water, refill the bottle and put it back for the next person. Signed Desert Pete P.S. Remember, don’t drink first. Have faith and prime the pump. You will have more water than you can hold.”

If you had walked across desert for hours without water and found this, what would you do? The Christian life is a life lived by faith. Sometimes God asks us to let go of things that we think we need to hold tightly in order to more fully trust him. Abraham had such an experience with God that can teach us how to obey through faith.

When God’s call does not make sense (Genesis 22:1-2)

Imagine how Abraham must have felt and what he must have thought. He faithfully had left his father’s house with all of its security and followed God to a foreign land. He faithfully had waited 25 years for the birth of the promised child. He had already lost one son, Ishmael, who was banished from him home. And now when he was well over 100 years old, God asked him to sacrifice the life of his only son—the child through whom all of God’s promises would be fulfilled.

Why would God ask for such a sacrifice? Everything seemed to be following a logical course. Although the timing of sending the child when Abraham was advanced in age seemed out of the ordinary, now that Isaac was a growing boy, the path to the fulfillment of God’s promises seemed to be clearing. What God was asking now just did not make sense.

Today, many believers are fully committed to follow God as long as the road is smooth and the course follows a logical path. Occasionally we may even begin assuming that we know what the next step is before God leads. Then suddenly God steps in and asks us to change paths. It does not take faith to walk along a well-lit path. That is why God sometimes calls for us to take a step without illuminating the path. We must step where we cannot see where our foot will land or what we might encounter.

Abraham’s swift obedience to God’s call to sacrifice Isaac challenges us to obey in faith even when it does not make sense.

When God’s call requires work and costs (Genesis 22:3-10)

Not only did God’s call to sacrifice Isaac not make sense, it called for considerable effort on the part of Abraham. Since he knew he would be gone at least six days, he had to first arrange for the care of Sarah and his flocks. He had to explain where he was going to Sarah. He had to chop wood and gather provisions for the journey. With each task, Abraham certainly questioned God’s directions.

Then for three days as they traveled, he must have wrestled with himself and with God over what he was doing. For three days as he watched Isaac obediently following his father, Abraham must have wanted to turn back many times. Who could have blamed him? God was asking too much. Up until this point, each time God had spoken to Abraham, God’s call for Abraham to act had come with a promised reward. This time there was no such promise and we must remember that Abraham did not know this was simply a test. But Abraham proved to have a faith that persisted through the physical and emotional difficulties of the task of following God.

According to Hebrews 11:17-19, Abraham’s faith led him to believe God would fulfill his earlier promises, even if it required raising Isaac from the dead. When God calls for his followers to faithful obedience, it often requires physical and emotional effort and cost.

God rewards our faithful obedience (Genesis 22:11-18)

For many years, God had tested Abraham. Each test called for a deeper level of faith on Abraham’s part. While each of the previous tests had involved considerable effort, none had required Abraham to give up something so special to him. God knew Abraham would follow him. Now he wanted to see if Abraham could let go of all earthly attachments and fully trust God to provide.

When Abraham demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, God responds, “Now I know that you fear God seeing that you have not withheld your son from me.” God knew Abraham’s faith had the potential to pass the test, but that potential had to be given the opportunity to be realized through testing.

Abraham’s faith passed the test, and God rewarded him. Not only does he return home with Isaac, but God reaffirms his covenant oath to greatly multiply Abraham’s descendents. God often does call us to do difficult things which require us to stretch our faith. Yet if we can summon the strength to let go of all else but God, we will find great reward.