Posted: 1/18/08

Oklahoma Baptist feels called
to minister in global hot spots

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

BARTLESVILLE, Okla.—Day 27 of a planned 40-day fast, in a cabin on Michigan’s upper peninsula, Kevin Turner believes God called him to ministry—specifically in war zones, disaster areas and places where Christians are persecuted.

“I believe we’re sent into the hot spots of the world,” said Turner, president of Strategic World Impact, based in Bartlesville, Okla. “Our approach is to get in, be part of the solution, make an impact and get out safely. We’re not doing long-term development. It’s a stopgap ministry to touch the lives of people who are standing on the brink of eternity.”

Over the last decade, that mission has taken Turner and his staff to about two-dozen nations, including multiple trips to Sudan and Eritrea. This month, Strategic World Impact is sending a 20-member medical missions team to Darfur.

The United Nations estimates about 400,000 people have died as a result of conflict in Darfur since 2003, and more than 2 million have been displaced.

The Stategic World Impact team—including five physicians associated with In His Image International in Tulsa, one dentist and several nurses, paramedics and disaster relief specialists—plans to deliver 1,000 kits containing tarps, mosquito netting, eating and cooking utensils and hygiene items to displaced people in the war-torn area.

The volunteers, who plan to fly into southern Darfur by way of Kenya on a cargo plane, also will deliver a donated solar-powered water purifier, as well as Bibles for distribution.

“We bring in Bibles because the Christians there ask for them,” said Turner, an ordained Baptist minister. “We never do the kind of distribution where people are told they have to take a Bible in order to get something else they need. … Nobody can accuse us of manipulating people in their time of need.”

Travel costs are significantly higher for this trip than for most missions Strategic World Impact undertakes, Turner noted. The cost of the cargo plane alone is about $34,000, and the organization still lacks about $13,500 to cover expenses, he noted.

“But the Lord always has been faithful to provide, and we’re trusting him,” he said. “This is our chance to get in to Darfur, and we never know how long the opportunity will be available.”

Last April, Turner conducted an on-site assessment in Darfur. He encountered displaced women, children and elderly people who lacked food and water and needed medical attention.

“I saw people walking or crowded onto the back of gravel trucks, fleeing through the desert. There were people who had traveled three days on foot since their last water supply in up to 130-degree temperatures,” he recalled.

Turner acknowledged the safety concerns inherent in ministering in places like Darfur, but he noted Strategic World Impact trains staff and volunteers in how to minimize risks. Still, as the father of three children—ages 11, 14 and 17—he recognizes the danger.

“In our case, the kids haven’t ever known anything else,” he said, noting he and his family lived more than four years in Bosnia, and they also lived in Cairo. “It’s all in what you become accustomed to. It’s a different lifestyle.”

Even so, while he avoids placing himself or anyone else in a risky situation without proper preparation, Turner added, “There’s nothing that can be taken from you when it’s all surrendered to the Lord.”

Posted: 1/18/08

Andrew Bentley, a member of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, examines a young resident of the Ministry of Mercy orphanage in Otutulu, Nigeria.	Cathy Steenhoek from Pella, Iowa, works with a boy during a Buckner International mission trip to Kenya.	Nancy Stretch, a nurse practitioner from Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, examines a child in Busia, Kenya. Wilshire has an ongoing partnership in Busia through Buckner.

Hands-on missions in Africa

When needs become names and epidemics emerge as faces

By John Hall 

Texas Baptist Communications

USTIN—When she made her first trip to Congo, situations Laura Seay was studying in books became real to her. And soon, it grabbed her heart as the country became part of her life.

As a University of Texas doctoral student, Seay is studying the infrastructure of Congo. Each day, Seay—a member of First Baptist Church in Austin—looks for signs of hope and places where Baptists can aid people in need. Most often, she finds them in churches that have begun shouldering the load of providing social services such as medical care.

Jon Cannon, a member of First Baptist Church in Amarillo, comforts a baby after the child receives an injection at a medical clinic at the Baptist Children’s Center in Nairobi, Kenya, a ministry of Buckner International. (Photo/Courtesy of Jeff Raines)

“I have been in some danger in the Congo, and I have seen horrible, unspeakable atrocities, suffering and poverty that’s 10 times worse than what you witness elsewhere in the developing world,” she said.

“It’s impossible to come away from encounters with 6-year-old victims of gang rape or mothers who are starving to death and not be affected by the situation. The pain of what people endure is unbearable sometimes, and I’m only a witness to it. The temptation is always to turn away, say a prayer of thanksgiving that it’s not me, and move on with life. 

“But it wouldn’t be right to turn away from these realities. All those Scriptures about taking up our crosses and going out of our way to help those in need point to the idea that the life of a disciple of Christ isn’t always going to be easy. The paradox, of course, is that by taking up these burdens, we’re set free to love without condition and to sacrifice everything, maybe even our own comfort and safety—and maybe our lives—to follow God’s call.”

In recent years, Africa’s needs have been thrust toward the forefront of social consciousness, and Baptists have taken note. The Baptist General Convention of Texas has a partnership with the Nigerian Baptist Convention. Texas Baptist Men and Virginia Baptists have missions partnerships with Baptists in South Africa.

At least five BGCT-affiliated institutions—Baptist Child & Family Services, Baylor Health-care System, Baylor University, Buckner International and Wayland Baptist University—have ministries in Africa.

The Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger supports a variety of efforts across Africa, as does the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions Offering and the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

A 12-church network is ministering in Ethiopia. A network of churches, including Texas Baptist congregations, is working across denominational lines to serve in North Africa. Several associations have taken mission trips to Africa, and some plan to develop longer partnerships.

Like Seay, many of the groups serving in Africa are drawn to render aid in a continent dominated by political, economic and social strife. Where Buckner serves in Kenya, about 40 percent of the people have AIDS. Five African countries continue to top the list of worst human-rights offenders. In Nigeria, Baptists have focused on assisting the Baptist hospital and seminary.

“They have such overwhelming needs that we can’t ignore,” said Steve Akin, minister of missions at First Baptist Church in Athens, which is serving in Ethiopia. “We’ve ignored it too long.”

The needs draw Baptists to Africa, but the people they encounter keep them involved there, participants agreed. A volunteer is no longer helping orphans with AIDS, but loving a child she is holding in her arms. A doctor isn’t just providing medical attention in a needy area; he is saving the life of a man from what in the West is an easily curable disease. Causes become families, needs turn into names, and epidemics emerge as faces.

“I can hardly begin to explain the attachment our congregation has developed for 50 Kenyan orphans, whom most of us never have met,” said Mark Wingfield, associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. “We have sent Christmas presents, clothes and medical supplies. In addition to the initial commitment to build the child development center, we have added a kitchen and a medical clinic.

“Vaccines and other essential medicines are available through the government in Kenya, but Busia is one of those places where the government had no distribution point. Our clinic is becoming that distribution point. With help from an individual donor and the BGCT, a water well was installed near the child development center. This one water well has changed the lives of everyone who has access to it.”

Baptists who serve in Africa often say they are blessed by the experience.

“For me, it was worshipping with the people, just the vibrancy of the churches there, the Christian witness there in the midst of great need,” said Jeff Raines, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Amarillo, which had a partnership in Uganda and now has one in Kenya.

The emotional connections have fueled multi-year partnerships between Texas Baptists and African Christians. And the ministry appears to be making a difference as part of a concerted evangelical effort in the continent. A recent Christianity Today article noted Christianity is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world. Christians now make up 46 percent of the continent’s population and outnumber Africa’s Muslims.

But despite more than $600 billion in aid sent to Africa in the last 50 years, living conditions remain difficult in most areas. Africa’s estimated income per person is less than 5 percent of that in the United States. The continent continues battling genocide, AIDS and divisions based on politics, ethnicity and economics.

Bryan Houser, Amarillo Area Baptist Association director of missions and former missionary in Africa, doesn’t expect the statistics to change much. While people talk about Africa as a whole, it is a diverse continent with complicated, multi-faceted issues that are difficult to solve—too big for one church.

Fortunately, God isn’t calling one congregation to change a continent by itself, Houser said. God calls churches to minister and share the gospel in specific ways in specific places. If a congregation is obedient, the life of a person, a family and maybe even a community will be changed.

“The needs of Africa will swallow you up very, very quickly,” Houser said.

“You’ll never make a dent in the problems in Africa. What you can do is make a difference locally in a few people’s lives.”

Posted: 1/18/08

Caring for the poor:
Whose job is it–church or state?

By Marv Knox

Editor

Care for people Jesus called “the least of these” requires response from both congregations and government, according to specialists who focus on ministry to the poor and on church/ state relations.

As participants in both church and state, Christians should minister directly to the poor and also advocate to the government on their behalf, specialists stressed.

Christians are “citizens of two kingdoms”—God’s kingdom and the nation in which they live, said Stephen Reeves, legislative counsel for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

“As churches, we should be following Jesus’ model. Doing things to help the least among us is following his model,” Reeves said.

“As American citizens, we have the opportunity to influence policies and our elected officials. In being good citizens of both God’s kingdom and the United States, you can do that by advocating in the political realm.”

First and foremost, ministry to the poor is a Christian concern, specialists said.

“Jesus urges the (church) community to be involved in the needs of ‘the least of these,’” explained Fritz Gutwein, a lifelong Baptist who works as field coordinator for the National Council of Churches. “If we want to live in community with one another, we must be concerned about ‘the least of these.’”

But people who say only the church, and not the government, should care for the needs of poor people aren’t thinking clearly, added Jimmy Dorrell, executive director of Mission Waco, a faith-based community ministry in Waco.

“Practically, it’s fallacious to believe the church can do what the government does for the poor,” Dorrell said. He cited research that shows each church, synagogue and mosque in America would have to contribute $300,000 each year to fund the basic poverty-relief programs provided by the government.

“People say, ‘The church should be doing it,’ but we’ve lost that battle,” he reasoned. “We’re giving only about one-half of 1 percent of each congregation’s budget to meet the needs of the poor.”

Besides, the scale of need is just too massive for the church alone, Gutwein added.

“There are needs that can only be met by government; the church is just not capable of doing it,” he said. “Think about healthcare, or feeding the hungry. Those are huge tasks. They’re similar to infrastructure: We wouldn’t expect the church to pave all the roads between a person’s home and church.”

Melissa Rogers, an attorney and visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C., echoed that theme, stressing church and government should tend to their appropriate roles.

“There are some things that essentially only the government can do—like building and rebuilding levees in New Orleans or ensuring every Amer-ican has healthcare,” Rogers said. “And there are some things only religious communities can do—like spreading the gospel and meeting other spiritual needs.

“And an additional part of the religious community’s job is to call on the government to do what only it can do—like maintaining a safety net for people in particular need of assistance, and making sure they’re safe and secure in the wake of disasters.”

Some Christians also need to get over the erroneous notion that government can’t be trusted to do something good, like helping poor people, Dorrell added.

“We’ve determined the government and society are evil, and we’re good,” he said. “That’s bad theology. Government was ordained by God; it’s the structure God created to take care of people. We as faith-based people should be the corrective force. Clearly, (government) goes off course. It’s the role of Christians to navigate back to a biblical viewpoint.”

So, if both church and state are involved in helping people in need, how do people of faith negotiate the fault line between the two potent institutions?

A key is how the work is focused and financed, explained Cynthia Holmes, an attorney from Clayton, Mo., who has served on the boards of several First Amendment organizations.

“The government needs to engage in social programs, but it doesn’t need to do the work of the church or the mosque or the synagogue,” Holmes said. “The Good Samaritan didn’t say: ‘Hang on. I’m going to get a government grant to take care of you.’”

And even though the tasks are enormous, congregations must keep their focus and identity clear, Rogers added. Congregations “should always maintain their independent and prophetic voice and not be encumbered by government rules and regulations.”

“As Christians, if we ask the government to do our ministry for us, that ministry is diminished,” Holmes noted. “A cup of water given in the government’s name is not the same as Jesus’ name.”

Both Holmes and Rogers suggested if churches wish to set up programs that receive government funding, they should create completely separate corporations.

“Churches should never seek or accept government funding for what they do,” Rogers urged. Churches that want to engage ministry that receives government grants can “spin off separate religiously affiliated organizations,” but even then, the lines between what is done for the general good and what is religiously oriented should be bright and wide.

“Don’t use (government) money to proselytize,” Holmes stressed. “Don’t ask the government to do for you what it wouldn’t do for others and discriminate against others. … And don’t feel discriminated against just because the government won’t advance your religion.”

A church goal in this kind of ministry should be “transforming culture,” Dorrell said. That involves calibrated collaboration—working and interacting with both private and public sectors, including the government, whose services meet the needs of the poor and disenfranchised. “We collaborate, but we’re not beholden to,” he noted.

Rogers offers similar advice to faith-based ministries.

“Religion and government should be in conversation about these issues. But neither one should be commanded, controlled or co-opted by the other,” she said. “Conversation is always good. Coop-eration is sometimes good. But having either the government or religion trying to command, control and co-opt the other is never good.”

An important part of conversation is advocacy on behalf of the poor, Reeves said.

“It is legitimate to look at our government’s budgets, to see that they reflect our Christ-ian values,” he said. “Advocate and vote for folks who will be good stewards of our tax dollars.”

And churches should bear witness to that advocacy with their actions, Gutwein insisted. “You can’t do one without the other. You can’t be involved in advocacy without being involved with the homeless who are on the street corners,” he said.

Besides, involvement may not only serve the needy, but it just may save the church, he added. “It’s important for churches to be involved if they’re going to survive,” he explained.

“People don’t come to church because of orthodoxy, but because of what churches do. … The primary thing is what the church is doing, not what they believe. People get the orthodoxy after they come to church.

“And churches are getting it, too. First, they’re concerned about charity, but then they become concerned about the root causes of poverty, so they start doing economic development. Then, seeing the root causes that impact development, they get involved in advocacy.

“Charity, development, advocacy and justice. To meet the needs of ‘the least of these’ in society, we have to be involved in doing them all.”

Posted: 1/18/08

Responding to the Luke 4 mandate

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

For some Christians, listening to the news is like hearing a prayer list. More than 2 million people displaced in Sudan. More than 1.5 million Iraqi children left homeless. Residents of Southeast Texas and Louisiana still rebuilding two years after hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

Nearly every story is a reminder of the pain and suffering that remains in the world. And God uses many of them to call people and churches to serve around the globe.

An increasing number of Christians are responding to global issues, noting biblical calls for such action. They commonly cite Luke 4:18-19—when Jesus announced the inauguration of his public ministry by quoting an Old Testament passage about good news for the poor. They also point to Micah 6:8 and other verses that call for compassion toward the poor and the need for God’s people to seek justice for the vulnerable.

The call to social justice particularly appeals to young evangelicals. According to a 2006 Cone Inc. survey of people across faith backgrounds born between 1975 and 1985, 72 percent had educated others on social/environmental issues, 63 percent volunteered time for social/environmental issues and 64 percent donated money to such causes.

“It seems that the kind of mission projects and trips that interest and excite both students and older Christians are those that offer the opportunity actually to do something to address people’s needs,” said Rob Sellers, the Connally professor of missions at Hardin-Simmons University. 

“I don’t hear as often about evangelistic teams going somewhere as … construction teams, medical teams, literacy teams, or other groups going to do hands-on social ministry. I hope that this seeming trend represents a growing awareness that Christians must re-spond to people’s holistic needs and not just to their spiritual needs.” 

Billy Metcalf from First Baptist Church in Amarillo examines a child during a mission trip to Kenya with Buckner International. (PHOTO/Buckner)

Some churches adopt African villages. Others sponsor children in developing countries. Still others dig wells to provide clean water.

Churches often work together across denominations through parachurch organizations such as WorldVision and Samaritan’s Purse—as well as broad-based Christian agencies with denominational roots, such as Buckner International—that can help coordinate the efforts of multiple groups in a strategic way.

Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, believes evangelical engagement in social issues helps send a clear message about what it means to be a Christian. And that message may result in more people becoming Christians.

“I think if evangelicals were more concerned about the poor and more concerned about the environment, the secular world would be more open to hearing our message,” he said in an interview during a recent speaking engagement at Hardin-Simmons University.

Kelsey Simons, a Baylor University nursing student, helps provide a basic medical exam during a mission trip to Mexico. (PHOTO/Baylor)

Making an impact on big issues is difficult, but it’s possible if a church is focused for a long-term effort. Steve Seaberry, Baptist General Convention of Texas director of Texas Partnerships, encourages a church to have at least a three-year partnership in an area when working with social causes.

Bob Roberts, pastor of Northwood Church, routinely has said it will take at least 30 years to make any significant impact in a situation that needs to be changed drastically. His church focuses on helping build infrastructure in developing countries through long-term partnerships.

Long-term commitment requires the cause to remain in front of the congregation. Members must stay connected to the cause and be inspired to continue serving. The congregation must provide a way for all of its members to participate in the partnership, whether that’s through missions education, trips, giving money or donating items.

“Even for a progressive congregation like ours, there’s a lot of education yet to be done about social justice,” said Mark Wingfield, associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. “We have not arrived. Many of the people from Wilshire who have traveled to Kenya will tell you that trip changed their perspective of the world.”

Even if a congregation remains behind the effort, some members of the church are going to be called to service in other places or ministries, noted Jeff Raines, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Amarillo. Churches have to balance focused mission efforts with the freedom to allow church members to respond to God’s calling upon their lives.

Teens from a youth group at First Baptist Church in Salado work on a Habitat for Humanity housing project in New Orleans. (RNS photo/Ted Jackson/The Times-Picayune in New Orleans)

“I think it’s hard,” Raines said. “It’s a constant tension. I listed Brazil, Mexico, Kenya (as missions emphases). We’ve had some people connected with a missionary in Slovakia. It’s not really staff-driven, but we’ll certainly promote this group is going to Slovakia. … We don’t want to squelch that.”

Sellers believes the tension between a focused effort and allowing individuals to follow God’s calling is a healthy one. The key is involving as many people as possible in the mission work God wants them to do.

“I think that working in multiple places around the globe doing multiple kinds of ministries will engage more people than focusing on one location, which may tend primarily to be one kind of ministry,” he said.

Taking on social causes also can create a bit of missiological tension within a congregation. When discussing mission work, some socially conscious Christians tend to emphasize Mathew 25, saying God wants Christians to meet human needs. Other Christians focus on the evangelistic Great Commission in Matthew 28 in which Christ commands his followers to go make disciples.

Ideally, Sellers said, congregations will find opportunities to provide humanitarian aid and share the gospel verbally. However, if they aren’t in a situation where that is possible, the tangible aid sends an unspoken message about the people providing it.

“I believe that if a church were to go into a poor African village, for example, and drill a deep well to provide clean water so that babies didn’t die of dysentery, but never got the opportunity to talk about Jesus as Living Water, that they would still be carrying out God’s mission,” he said.

Others—such as Seaberry of Texas Partnerships—stress the importance of a verbal witness. Although he understands there are some situations where open mass evangelism is not possible, he believes sharing the gospel is imperative in missions. That action is central to the exercise of the Christian faith.

“Do you mention Christ?” he said. “If not, what makes you different from a Muslim group? What makes you any different from the United Nations?”

If a church works through the tensions, remains committed to the effort and sees it through a long-term partnership, it must be realistic about its possible impact, Sellers emphasized. A church is not going to put an end to a significant issue like human trafficking by itself. But it can change the lives of a select group.

“Yes, a church can take on a social cause, even a huge one, and still make a difference for individual needy people whose lives they touch,” he said. 

“The expectations should be realistic. Churches should not think that their one- or two-week project in a given country will change grave injustices that are a consequence of a long history of systemic evil in that place.

“But their efforts can help a given poor congregation or a select group of needy individuals, and—perhaps more importantly—the project can open the eyes of American Christians who can return to this country as eyewitnesses to injustice that must be addressed.”

Rebecca Kennedy, Baylor’s director of university missions, said she believes exposing students to the situation in Africa changes their lives. Faculty and staff members help students process what they’re seeing and encourage them to reflect on how they can make a difference in the world around them.

“Because of the places we go in Africa, we see the poorest of the poor,” she said.

“We see poverty, smell it, touch it. It’s real. That’s impacting. We spend a lot of time debriefing, asking questions: ‘What does this mean to you? What different choices are you going to make?’”

Posted: 1/18/08

On the Move

• Kim Bartel to Central Church in Bellaire as associate pastor.

• Jack Bourland to First Church in Inez as interim pastor.

• Alan Dawson has resigned as children’s minister at Parkside Church in Denison to accept a similar position in Tulsa, Okla.

• Tyler Freeze to First Church in Gunter as minister to students.

• Bernie Gallagher to Crutchfield Heights Church in Sherman as interim pastor.

• Kirk Gentzel has resigned as youth minister at First Church in Sherman to accept a similar position in Austin.

• Loris Glenn to First Church in Whitesboro as minister of education intern.

• Henry and Ellen Goodson have resigned as music leaders at Memorial Church in Denton to do supply and interim music ministry. They can be contacted at (817) 319-5104.

• Dan Gregg to Sandia Church in Albuquerque, N.M., as pastor from Crestmont Church in Burleson.

• Michann Heath to First Church in Sherman as children’s minister.

• Matt Jeffreys has resigned as young adult minister at First Church in Lewisville to start a church in California.

• Kevin Landis has resigned as pastor of Denton County Cowboy Church.

• Jerry Lemon to First Church in Waxahachie as interim senior adult minister.

• Ruben Mesa has resigned as pastor of Christian Multi-Ethnic Church in Victoria.

• John Moore to First Church in Abilene as pastor for missions.

• Dean Nichols to RidgeCrest Church in Abilene as interim pastor.

• Paul Pierce to Caps Church in Abilene as pastor.

• John Reynolds to North Hills Church in Whitesboro as pastor.

• Roy Rochell to Georgetown Church in Pottsboro as interim pastor.

• Jeff Scott to First Church in Shallowater as associate pastor from First Church in Levelland, where he was youth minister.

• John Sursa has resigned as pastor of Forreston Church in Forreston.

• Willard White has resigned as pastor of Olivet Church in Celeste.

Posted: 1/18/08

BUA dedicates Piper Village

Posted: 1/18/08

Rob Bell: Christians shouldn’t
fear controversy over doctrine

By Drew Nichter

Kentucky Western Recorder

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP)—Precise definitions and formulations of doctrines aren’t necessary prerequisites to evangelism or Christian unity, said author Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., who has become an increasingly controversial figure among evangelical Christians.

Bell rose to prominence rapidly after his Mars Hill congregation, founded in 1999, grew to more than 10,000 members in only a few years. He also has a popular video series and has written two best-selling books, Velvet Elvis and Sex God.

With that success has come plenty of controversy, which Bell maintained he does not pay attention to. “I don’t Google my name,” he said.

If he did, he would find a Rob Bell archive on a website called Apprising Ministries.

The site is the work of Ken Silva, who describes himself as “an ordained (Southern Baptist) minister who has dedicated himself to the study of comparative religions and non-Christian cults.” He touts the site as a “labor, specializing in apologetics and counter-cult evangelism, rooted in classic, historic, orthodox Christian theology.” The website includes more than 100 entries criticizing Bell’s teachings, lectures and ministry.

The criticism most often leveled at Bell is his affiliation with the emergent-church movement. He often is linked to Brian McLaren, a strong proponent of the movement. In 2005, McLaren was invited and then disinvited to speak at Kentucky Baptists’ evangelism conference because of some controversial passages in his book, A Generous Orthodoxy.

When asked whether he is an emergent-church leader or claims any affiliation with the movement, Bell simply said, “No.” But he said he understands the movement to be “simply a conversation asking, ‘What does it mean to be the people of Jesus?’”

Addressing anyone who is critical of such a movement, Bell said: “I wonder whether that person is a Christian. That seems like a conversation they ought to have.”

Another charge leveled against Bell is that his teachings oversimplify the gospel for the postmodern generation. In his lectures, Bell asserts God is not angry and has made peace with all humanity through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This principle prompted backlash and protests outside at least one tour stop.

Jeff Fuson, a longtime youth minister who recently became a church starter, attended Bell’s lecture in Louisville. Fuson agreed that while some of what Bell teaches can be seen as “divisive,” it can help believers think about their faith.

“Even if we don’t agree with (Bell), he still challenges us to think and to pull some things apart and to wonder about our faith,” Fuson noted. “If a person can’t think about their faith, then their faith may be too brittle.”

Bell had much stronger words for those who are frightened by such an approach to theology, comparing them to Pharisees.

“They’re obsessed with absolutely minutiae issues surrounding, ‘What words do you use to define the Bible?’” he said. “They absolutely obsess about people who, in their minds, don’t use the exact proper definitive language they’ve agreed upon somewhere.”

Bell insisted he is not worried about offending fundamentalists, adding that each time he does so, “there are a thousand (new) people who are now listening.”

Fuson emphasized there currently is a “clash of worldviews,” adding that “It’s a very challenging debate right now and it’s way bigger than Rob Bell.”

He said that debate is between those who believe that in order to be a follower of Christ, one must adhere strictly to certain doctrines. On the other side are Bell and other “new thinkers” who are challenging such assumptions.

But Fuson added they’re all on the same team and could learn from one another.

“What the people talking about doctrine are trying to accomplish and what Rob Bell is trying to accomplish are actually the same thing,” Fuson suggested. Both, he said, want “to arrive at a place where you have people who are full-on followers of Christ. Both want the same thing, but they’re attempting different methods. The reality is we probably need to learn from both sides.”

Responding to those he has offended, Bell said he has one question: “What are you scared of?”

“If you trust somebody who died and was resurrected, you’re trusting in somebody who doesn’t fear death,” he declared. “There are no questions that you need to be scared of. There are no new ideas that you need to be fearful of. … There is no fear.”

Posted: 1/18/08

Survey: Unchurched Americans
say church is full of hypocrites

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Almost three-quarters of Americans who haven’t darkened the door of a church in the last six months think it is “full of hypocrites,” and even more of them consider Christianity to be more about organized religion than about loving God and people, a new survey revealed.

Almost half the people surveyed—44 percent—agreed with the statement: “Christians get on my nerves.”

But the survey of “unchurched” Americans by LifeWay Research also found about 78 percent said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to tell them about his or her Christian beliefs.

Researchers, affiliated with Southern Baptists’ LifeWay Christian Resources, defined “unchurched” as Christians who haven’t attended church in six months as well as non-Christians such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

The findings echoed a previous study by the Barna Group that found the vast majority of young non-Christians view Christianity as anti-gay, judgmental and hypocritical.

Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research, said Christians should be challenged by the finding that 79 percent of respondents thought Christianity was more about organized religion than about loving God and people.

“That really needs to cause the church to check themselves a little bit and to say, ‘OK, how can we get back to the main thing?’” he said.

Other findings showed many of those surveyed believed in God but don’t feel the need to express those beliefs within a church building.

Almost three-quarters—72 percent—agreed God “actually exists.” An even larger percentage—86 percent—said they believed they could have a good relationship with God without church involvement.

The study was based on an overall sample of 1,402 adults interviewed by phone in 2007, including 900 ages 18-29 and 502 age 30 and older. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Posted: 1/18/08

Former Klansman reflects on how
God’s grace redeemed a life of hate

By Roy Hoffman

Religion News Service

SPRINGFIELD, Va. (RNS)—Softspoken Tommy Tarrants leans back in his office chair, surrounded by books on religion and philosophy, and looks down at a newspaper headline from Nov. 28, 1968. It reads: “Tarrants Found Guilty, Sentenced to 30 Years.” The 60-year old sees a mugshot of himself at age 21 next to the story.

“A self-styled guerrilla waging a holy crusade’ against a ‘Communist-Jewish conspiracy’ was convicted Wednesday night of the attempted bombing of the home of a Jewish businessman,” the article said.

“I feel shame and disgust,” he said. “You can see what a head case I was.”

Today, he is president of the C.S. Lewis Institute, a nondenominational organization with the motto “discipleship of heart and mind.” His life is a stark contrast to the violent bigotry of his youth.

His work includes mentoring C.S. Lewis Fellows—men and women who come to the institute to deepen their understanding of spiritual matters. He tells them of his own trials as “an example of the life-changing power of God’s grace.” He talks about his boyhood in Mobile, Ala., the sin of hatred that consumed him, and his salvation in a jail cell.

His listeners find it hard to envision him as a young man raising his hand to grab the throat of a Jewish classmate or a gun to blast into homes of black families.

“I was filled with rage,” Tarrants said. In his 1979 memoir, The Conversion of a Klansman: The Story of a Former Ku Klux Klan Terrorist, Tarrants sketched out his slide toward vehement hatred of Jews and blacks.

While he was aware of Jewish people in town—he describes a grammar-school crush on a Jewish girl and notes his grandmother worked at a Jewish-owned jewelry store—he knew nothing of Jews personally, nor the tenets of their religion.

As a teen, he became a loner, alienated from his family.

Press clippings document the life of former white supremacist and KKK member Tommy Tarrants.

“I hated my father,” he said. He stored a handgun, a sawed-off shotgun and a machine gun in his bedroom, all bought with money from after-school jobs.

He glimpses something of his own youth when he sees stories of alienated teens who explode, such as the massacres at Columbine and Virginia Tech.

“I was a problem waiting to happen,” he said.

The anti-Red fervor of the 1950s and ’60s, along with a conviction that the Jews were behind an international Communist conspiracy, focused Tarrants’ rage. He devoured propaganda literature about an alleged Jewish plot to control the world. He linked up with members of the Klan, a secret paramilitary troop known as the Minutemen and the National States Rights Party. He would drive through black neighborhoods, shooting into people’s homes. He prayed for the coming race war.

“I thought I was a Christian fighting against the Communist-Jewish conspiracy,” he said. “I was doing it for God and country.”

In the fall of 1963, the integration of his high school proved to Tarrants that his world was being turned upside down. He angrily called the office of Gov. George Wallace and left a message asking for intervention. A response came from the FBI, which called his home looking for him. He was suspended from school 10 days. Surely “the Jews were behind it,” he thought.

Tarrants headed to Mississippi, met with the Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and joined their ranks.

An application for the White Knights stated, in part: “We do not accept Jews, because they reject Christ, and, through the machinations of their International Banking Cartel, are at the root center of what we call Communism today. We do not accept Papists, because they bow to a Roman dictator. … We do not accept Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals, Negroes nor any other person whose native background or culture is foreign to the Anglo-Saxon system of government by responsible, free individual citizens.”

He had been grievously misdirected, he says now.

He felt certain that he would go to heaven.

“I went about feeling like I had had my ticket punched,” he said. “I had made a profession of faith. But I had no change of heart, of life.”

He was unbowed in that arrogance, even after being convicted in 1968 of the attempted bombing of the home of Meyer Davidson, a Jewish man in Meridian, Miss.

Placed in solitary confinement at a Mississippi prison following a brief escape, Tarrants began to plumb his soul.

In a 6-by-9-foot jail cell—“reading was the only thing that kept me from going crazy … crazier”—he began to reflect on the meaning of his life.

He embraced Matthew 16:26: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

He recalled, “I fell on my knees and prayed and felt a thousand-pound weight lifted from me.”

That began what he describes as “a startling transformation.”

Others came to believe Tarrants was a changed man and spoke on his behalf, including Al Binder, a Mississippi lawyer who was Jewish and influential in political circles.

In December 1976, Tarrants left prison on a work-release program that enabled him to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Three years later, he published his memoir.

Knowing the Klan would call him a traitor and possibly try to harm him, Tarrants moved to Washington, D.C. He completed a master’s degree in divinity and a doctorate in ministry, and became a minister and spiritual counselor.

When he looks back over his life, he realizes he had close calls along the way.

When he dropped a homemade dynamite bomb, it didn’t go off. He was wounded in a police ambush where his accomplice was killed. In a prison escape, one of the two inmates who fled with him was killed by FBI gunfire.

“In every one of these situations, I deserved more than the other person to be the one who died,” he said. “But I was spared.”

He dedicated his life to helping people reconcile their differences—race, religion, differences of the heart.

“By God’s grace I was protected, despite my vile behavior,” he wrote in his memoir.

“It was a miracle. … Truly, the living Christ was active to redeem me and work out his plan for my life.”

Roy Hoffman writes for The Press-Register in Mobile, Ala.

Posted: 1/18/08

Texas Tidbits

Ruane named Standard development director. Tom Ruane, who served 36 years with the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board staff, has been named director of development for the Baptist Standard. He will work alongside Leroy Fenton. Ruane served as a campus minister and Bible teacher at Tarleton State University, Howard Payne University and the University of Texas at Arlington. He worked in the student ministry division at the Baptist Building from 1979 to 2000. Since then, he has been associate coordinator of institutional ministries and director of church relations consultants. He has been interim pastor of 26 churches and the pastor of two cowboy churches, in Ennis and in Kaufman County, where he continues to serve.

Weslaco church returns funds to BGCT. First Baptist Church in Weslaco returned $26,550 in Baptist General Convention of Texas church-starting funds that were used in a questionable manner. The funds were allocated to First Baptist Church to start a congregation that would originate as a third worship service at First Baptist Church. Most of the membership of First Baptist Church reportedly never understood it was starting another congregation, and former Pastor Jonathan Becker claimed the BGCT funds as a salary supplement for leading the new church. Last fall, Becker returned the funds to First Baptist Church in Weslaco, and the church agreed to return the funds to the BGCT. The BGCT has agreed not to seek any additional funds from the congregation. The total returned matches the amount BGCT records show went to First Baptist Church in Weslaco for the church-start in question. Additional funds were used to support First Baptist Church’s work in starting two other churches that continue operation. BGCT funds appear to have been used according to the guidelines in those instances, administrators report.

DBU meets challenge, receives $1 million grant. Dallas Baptist University received a $1 million challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., after raising $15 million toward the construction of the Patty and Bo Pilgrim Chapel. Pilgrim Chapel will be a 77,000-square-foot facility with a 1,500-seat sanctuary, as well as classroom space, faculty and staff offices, reception hall and prayer ministry offices.

Cepeda named bivocational/small church director. Robert Cepeda has been named Baptist General Convention of Texas bivocational/smaller membership church ministries director. Cepeda assumed the role Jan. 1 after serving as a BGCT church starter in the Rio Grande Valley since 2007. Prior to joining the BGCT Executive Board staff, Cepeda was pastor of First Baptist Church in Los Fresnos. He also served as associate pastor and later as pastor at Primera Iglesia Bautista in San Benito. He was on staff at Baptist Temple Church in San Benito and First Baptist Church in Overton. Of his 17-year ministry experience in churches, more than half was in bivocational service. He is first vice president of the Texas Bivocational/Smaller Membership Church Ministers and Spouses Association. For three years, he served as second vice president of the group. He was a member of the BGCT Executive Board two years, including service as chairman of the Missions & Ministry Committee.

Posted: 1/18/08

TOGETHER:
Texas Baptists ‘Engage’ evangelism

“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1).

The Apostle Paul loved people. He yearned for them to know God as he had come to know him. It is much too easy to get preoccupied with good things and neglect the main thing, the matters that have eternal consequences.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

The Engage evangelism conference stirred my heart for those who need to know Jesus and his power to change and save their lives. There is eternal value in listening to evangelists preach the gospel and share their stories. We all need times of reminding that people are all around us whom we are not seeing, and they are hungry for a relationship with God. A Christian loves to share with people that they do matter to God, and Jesus is the proof.

We heard challenging preaching and authentic testimonies. I am grateful that in my last month as your executive director, I had the privilege of being a part of the rebirth of the evangelism conference. I call on all Texas Baptists to pray for Jon Randles, our new evangelism director, and his wife, Kelly, as they offer themselves to God and to our churches for renewing in our hearts a passion for souls.

Let me encourage you to attend one of the five regional Engage XP conferences in your area in February—El Paso, First Baptist Church, Feb. 10; Belton, First Baptist Church, Feb. 11; Kingwood, Woodridge Baptist Church, Feb. 12; San Antonio, First Baptist Church of Universal City, Feb. 13; and Midland, First Baptist Church, Feb. 14.

You can order tapes from the conference, and they will bless and encourage you. But do make a point to be in one of these one-day conferences, and let the messages, the worship, the times of prayer and the fellowship reignite your zeal for reaching people for Christ.

I will be a better preacher Sunday because of what I heard and felt at Engage. And I will be more alert to every person I meet, too.

I heard three stories from bivocational pastors who, within the last two years, had gone to churches that were almost dead, and now those churches are thriving. I met a pastor who found new zeal in ministry as he helped start a new cowboy church. I shared the stories of three of our new church starts that baptized over 100 people this past year—a multi-ethnic church in Abilene, a traditional/contemporary church in Boerne and a cowboy church in East Texas.

I visited with several pastors at Engage who shared with me that the conference had called them to a new hope that they could help their people be effective in sharing their faith and drawing people to Christ.

You don’t have to baptize 100 people to be successful in the eyes of God or of your fellow pastors. But we all have to be alert to people all around us and to be intentional in helping people find their way to God if we are to be faithful to our calling.

We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

Posted: 1/18/08

Satanists arrested on suspicion
of arson in Ala. church burnings

By Grace Thornton

Alabama Baptist

PHENIX CITY, Ala. (ABP)—Two professed Satanists have been charged with a recent series of arsons at Baptist and Methodist churches in rural eastern Alabama.

The men—both age 21—allegedly set fires at Woodland Baptist Church in Phenix City, Greater Peace and Goodwill African Methodist Episcopal Church in Crawford and Greater Bethelpore Baptist Church in Smiths Station.

Authorities have not arrested the person they say set fire Jan. 12 to Providence Baptist Church in Alabama’s rural Chilton County. The blaze destroyed the church’s fellowship hall, education space and office.

“The officials say they have gotten some really good fingerprints, footprints and tire prints,” said Allen Foster, the pastor of Providence Baptist. The church’s sanctuary— located just feet from the charred remains of neighboring buildings—suffered some vandalism but remains standing.

Providence Baptist is the second church in Chilton Baptist Association to burn in recent weeks. Its sister congregation, Maple Springs Baptist Church in Clanton, burned Dec. 29.

The pastor of Maple Springs, Roland Davis, said Jan. 11 that his church is still awaiting word from the state fire marshal on the fire’s cause. But after the Providence Baptist fire, the Birmingham News reported that a fire marshal spokesperson called the cause “unknown, but suspicious.” Both church fires happened after 3 a.m.

“We’re just thankful no one was hurt and that we have a place to go home to,” Foster said, speaking of the church’s relatively undamaged sanctuary. He added, “We hope if we can get the burned part cleaned up and get the water fixed up to the sanctuary we can meet in our own facilities next week.”

The Providence congregation, emotional but in good spirits, met for services Jan. 13 a couple of miles down the road in a facility lent to them by Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Birmingham.

The Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions provided both churches—as well as the Phenix City congregation—checks from a disaster-relief fund.

For now, Maple Springs Baptist’s congregation is meeting in the old sanctuary of nearby Samaria Baptist Church. A building committee has already been chosen so the church can rebuild, Davis said.

Providence Baptist plans to do the same soon, Foster said.

“We’ve got lots of decisions to make, but we’re going to make them as a family,” he told the congregation Jan. 13. “We’re going to get through this thing. It’s bigger than you and I but not bigger than the God we serve. It felt like a death, didn’t it? But it wasn’t. The church is still alive.”

The fires happened nearly two years after three young men made national news by burning nine Baptist churches in western Alabama.