Posted: 10/26/07

BOOKS: Faith in the Halls of Power

Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite By Michael Lindsay (Oxford University Press)

A common-but-wrong as-sumption—the evangelical population has burgeoned in the United States since the 1970s—piqued Michael Lind-say’s curiosity and prompted this insightful new book.

“Most people assume that the number of evangelicals had grown dramatically since Jimmy Carter ran for president,” writes Lindsay, a former consultant at the Gallup Institute. He checked the statistics and found that’s not true. The percentage of U.S. adults who claim to be “born again” inched up only six points in 30 years, from 35 percent in 1976 to 41 percent last year.

So, why does it seem like the number of evangelicals has increased rapidly during the past three decades? Lindsay, a sociology professor at Rice University, spent three years criss-crossing the continent 28 times seeking an answer. He interviewed 360 prominent evangelical leaders—not only pastors and heads of denominational and parachurch groups, but also laypeople in the secular marketplace and two former presidents.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

Lindsay discovered evangelicals’ visibility and influence in American culture increased far beyond their numerical gain. That’s because evangelical membership in the “American elite” rose sharply. They seem more prevalent because evangelicals whose presence commands attention are more numerous, and those evangelicals stand astride the highest echelons of power and influence.

Faith in the Halls of Power tracks the increasing population of evangelicals within the leadership of four major segments of society—government, academia, entertainment/media and business. Lindsay shows how evangelicals gained prominence, primarily through networking, encouraging one another and installing rungs on the ladders of success. For example, already-prominent evangelicals at the prime of their careers formed and funded ascendancy-oriented programs—such as academic scholarships, political and business internships, and artists’ groups—to pave the way for younger evangelicals to join them at elite levels of their respective fields. They’re focused on “transforming the cultural mainstream.”

Lindsay tells their tale with a researcher’s eye for documentation and a storyteller’s passion for detail, expression and poignancy. He explains how evangelicals’ “elastic orthodoxy” differentiates them from fundamentalists and enables them to work ecumenically without watering down their faith. He describes the differences between old-school, highly visible evangelical leaders and institutions, such as James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, and a kindler, gentler evangelicalism by talking about the differences between “populist” and “cosmopolitan” evangelicals.

Research for Faith in the Halls of Power turned up numerous surprises, Lindsay acknowledged in an interview. “I was not expecting to find the insignificance of the role of the local church in these evangelical leaders’ lives and the proportionate significance of parachurch organizations for them,” he noted, citing his biggest shock. As a whole, the evangelical leaders are only nominally involved in local churches, but they tend to populate the boards of parachurch groups.

The counter-trend is membership in megachurches. “It’s not the size of the church or the opportunity for anonymity” that attract evangelical elites to the huge congregations, he explained. “They want pastors they can respect as leaders—pastors as religious entrepreneurs. They want to see their pastor as a leadership peer.” In his book, Lindsay quotes a business leader who paid his pastor the ultimate elite compliment—he could have been “a Fortune 10 CEO.”

Churches can learn a couple of lessons from evangelical leaders’ aversion to strongly identify with congregations, Lindsay suggested.

“One is we have to do a better job of recruiting strong leaders into pastoral roles. We need strong leaders leading our churches,” he said. “Also, we need to realize spiritual formation comes in lots of different shapes and sizes. … I can’t tell you how many small-group meetings (of evangelical leaders) take place over conference calls. They may meet in person only once or twice a year, but they may call in from Dubai, New York, Los Angeles or from home in Dallas or Houston. It’s a new way of doing small groups.”

Aversion to local-church involvement also is “not good news for denominations,” Lindsay conceded.

“Denominational identity is at an all-time low. I don’t see signs for denominational affiliation growing” among evangelical elites, he said.

But the Baptist General Convention of Texas is one of the few denominational or-ganizations situated to buck that trend, he added.

“Texas Baptists have figured out how to create partnerships for different kinds of ministries” that appeal to evangelical leaders, he said. “That’s the future—building collaborative partnerships.”

Also, the BGCT is home to 27 agencies and institutions, which provide a denominational alternative to parachurch involvement, he noted. “Institutions—that’s where a lot of these folks are plugged in. They exercise their leadership not through involvement on a board of deacons, but through the boards of strong institutions.”

Lindsay’s connections to Texas Baptists run deep. He graduated from Baylor University in Waco before heading east to earn a master of divinity degree at Princeton Theological Seminary and a doctor of philosophy degree at Princeton University. He served as a special assistant to the president at Dallas Baptist University. In Houston, he’s a member of West University Baptist Church.

Although his research took him shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders at the highest levels of academia, business, entertainment and politics, it also underscored an important lesson for ordinary people of faith, Lindsay said.

“I was struck by the great desire of people, that their spiritual lives would help them be more effective witnesses in the workaday world,” he explained.

“This was true not only of leaders, but also of their secretaries and others who escorted me to their meetings—the need to connect between Sunday and Monday, to integrate their professional lives and their faith,” he said. “There has to be relevance between your faith and what you do.”

Marv Knox, editor

Baptist Standard, Dallas

Posted: 10/26/07

Baptist Briefs

Brister to retire at OBU. Oklahoma Baptist University trustees accepted the retirement of President Mark Brister during a mid-October special meeting on the university’s campus in Shawnee. Brister, who will retire effective Nov. 10 at the conclusion of OBU’s annual homecoming, has led the Christian liberal arts institution since Sept. 1, 1998.

His nine-year tenure as OBU’s 14th president is the third-longest in the university’s 97-year history. During the trustee meeting, John Parrish, executive vice president emeritus, was elected interim president, effective Nov. 11. Parrish retired from the university’s administration in November 2002 after more than 38 years at OBU. He was executive vice president and chief financial officer from 1995 until his retirement.

CBF falls short of budget. The Coopera-tive Baptist Fellowship reached only 86 percent of the amount budgeted for its recently completed fiscal year and ended the year with a shortfall, the CBF Coordinating Council learned at its mid-October meeting. CBF leaders reported the Fellowship received $19.1 million in total revenue, including $14.8 million in undesignated receipts (a category including the CBF Global Missions Offering), for the 2006-07 fiscal year. Expenses for the year totaled more than $21.6 million. The $8.2 million in undesignated contributions for 2006-07 was about $700,000 less than the previous year, continuing a three-year downturn, according to financial data. The Fellowship’s financial report indicated the organization finished the fiscal year 2006-2007 with a shortfall of $649,974 in unrestricted funds and $2.5 million total.

Seminary to Name Center for SBC’s Land. Officials at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary have announced plans to create a Richard Land Center for Cultural Engagement, honoring Southern Baptists’ public-policy guru. Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission since 1988, has represented Southern Baptists’ concerns in the media and on Capitol Hill for two decades. The center will conduct research in Christian morality and political action and study cultural and philosophical issues. Land joins another well-known fundamentalist Baptist activist, Paul Pressler, in becoming a building namesake. Pressler, a Texas judge who helped lead the so-called “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention, will have a law school named after him at the Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College.

Scholarships available for communications students. Baptist Communi-cators Association will award three scholarships next spring for the 2008-2009 academic year to communications students. Dec. 7 is the deadline application. A $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to an undergraduate student and a $500 scholarship to a graduate student in the name of Al Shackleford and Dan Martin, former editors of Baptist Press. The $1,000 Alan Compton/Bob Stanley Minority and International Scholarship is given to an undergraduate student of minority ethnic or international origin. Applicants must have at least a 2.5 GPA and have vocational aspirations in religious communications. Funds may be used for tuition, books, housing or food and will be forwarded to the institution in which the student is enrolled. Students may apply online at http://www.baptistcommunicators.org/about/scholarship.cfm. For further information, contact the BCA office at (615) 904-0152 or bca.office@comcast.net.

Posted: 10/26/07

Buckner’s Lufkin program celebrates
10 years of ministry to single parents

By Jenny Pope

Buckner International

LUFKIN—Buckner Family Place, a self-sufficiency program for single parents, celebrated its 10th anniversary Oct. 23 with a dedication ceremony of a newly constructed community room named after local philanthropist and advocate Murphy George.

George, who has chaired the Family Place advisory committee since its inception 10 years ago, has been instrumental in leading the cause to support single parents seeking higher education and breaking the cycle of abuse and dependency, Executive Director Judy Morgan said.

“We’ve had 230 families, including 500 children, come through Family Place since we first began,” she said. “These parents are now an active force in our workplace, in our hospitals and in our schools. And they’ll never again have to think about being dependent on the government for financial assistance or upon their families and friends. It’s a life-changing thing.”

In addition, children have learned to appreciate education in a more meaningful way, Morgan said.

“There is a whole generation of children who have already made long-term education plans and will pursue them because of their parent’s inspiration,” she added.

Buckner Family Place provides single parents with safe, affordable housing and free child care as they receive their degrees in higher education from Angelina College. Parents also are provided with individual and group counseling, parent and life skills training and job readiness preparation.

Posted: 10/26/07

Buckner opens Child
Development Center in Romania

By Jenny Pope

Buckner International

TARNEVENI, Romania—At least 60 Roma—also known as “gypsy”—children will be given a head start in life through the opening of the Buckner Child Development Center in Tarneveni, Romania, a struggling community of 30,000 people with an estimated 85 percent unemployment rate.

Randy Daniels, Buckner’s director of global initiatives, recently joined Phil Brinkmeyer, director of Eastern European ministry, and the mayor of Tarneveni for the dedication ceremony of the new center. Twenty children are enrolled, with enrollment expected to grow to 60 by the end of the year.

“This is the only ministry of this type to the Roma population outside of Bucharest,” Daniels said. “It’s one of a kind. We understand the ultimate importance of this school—not just to educate these children, but to create a culture change. This school will provide these children with the foundation they need to be successful in elementary school, in high school and in the rest of their lives.

“If we want to make a change in this culture, we have to start with the youngest ones. When education becomes routine, when it becomes the norm, these changes will last.”

A typical school day lasts from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with each child receiving breakfast and lunch—often their only meals of the day. Tuition is free, but parents are expected to participate in the school as they can—cleaning, volunteering or providing resources.

Buckner hopes to use the relationships built through the school to reach the extended Roma population through the center, Daniels said. Several Buckner mission teams have paved the way for these relationships by reaching out to the surrounding community, and a local Baptist church has played a significant role by providing volunteers and support.

An East Texas company—Red Dot Building Systems in Athens—funded the construction of the school, which was a hospital before it closed seven years earlier and squatters stripped it.

“There wasn’t anything left inside this building when we first came; it was just a shell,” Daniels said. “They even took the plumbing out, the tiles from the roof. I think there was only one toilet left in the entire building, and it was shattered.”

Today, the children’s classrooms are clean and bright. It’s a beacon of hope amidst a village engulfed in poverty, Daniels said.

“There is still a long way to go in this community to gain the trust of the people,” he said.

“But give us more time and we’ll become a trusted partner; we can do so much more.”

For more information about the Buckner Child Development Center in Romania, e-mail rdaniels@buckner.org.

For information about mission trips, call (877) 7ORPHAN or e-mail missions@buckner.org.

Posted: 10/26/07

Posted: 10/26/07

Posted: 10/26/07

CBF council affirms UN anti-poverty goals

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

DECATUR, Ga. (ABP)—The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s governing board endorsed the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, joining many governmental and religious bodies in the global fight against extreme poverty, hunger and disease.

Colleen Burroughs, executive vice president of Passport Camps in Birmingham, Ala., made a motion at the June general assembly urging CBF to adopt the Millennium Development Goals as a framework for addressing urgent global issues. Her motion asked the council to study the issue. The council’s endorsement, approved without opposition, will be presented to the general assembly for approval in June.

The council was briefed on the global development goals, as well as work already under way by CBF missionaries that addresses the social needs highlighted by the UN in 2000. The eight goals, targeted for completion by 2015, are:

• Reduce by half extreme poverty and hunger.

• Achieve universal primary education.

• Promote gender equality and empower women.

• Reduce child mortality by two-thirds.

• Reduce maternal mortality by three-fourths.

• Reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

• Ensure environmental sustainability.

• Develop a global partnership for development.

“For the first time in history, we have the technology, the resources and the knowledge to get this done,” said Erin Tunney, senior international policy analyst for Washington-based Bread for the World, who briefed the Coordinating Council on the goals. “All we lack is the will. As Christians, we have the opportunity to get involved and help achieve these goals.”

Posted: 10/26/07

New collaboration shows ‘reconstruction’
of Baptist family, CBF leader maintains

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

DECATUR, Ga. (ABP)—The Baptist family is undergoing “something of a reconstruction” these days, said Daniel Vestal, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

After decades of infighting within and isolation between various Baptist groups, an unprecedented opportunity has emerged for Baptists to work together and learn from each other, said Vestal, a leader among moderate Baptists nationwide.

“God is at work in this family creating new (patterns of) cooperation,” Vestal told members of the CBF Coordinating Council, the Atlanta-based group’s administrative board, at their mid-October meeting.

“There is a desire among Baptists, north and south, … to collaborate in mission, and that is a gift of God.”

Vestal and other Baptist leaders are organizing the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant, a three-day confab of like-minded Baptists scheduled for late January in Atlanta. Organizers say it is an opportunity for Baptist conventions and organizations to unite around an agenda of meeting social needs rather than theological conformity or political activism.

Notably absent from the January meeting will be the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest of the nation’s Baptist bodies with 16 million members, which was invited to participate but not to help organize the meeting. The organizers represent 40-plus U.S. Baptist organizations affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance, an umbrella group composed of most of the world’s Baptist denominations. The SBC withdrew from the BWA in 2004 amid charges of liberalism.

“When the elephant left the room—when the SBC left the Baptist World Alliance—the other Baptist groups discovered we had a lot to learn from each other,” said Vestal, whose own organization distanced itself from the SBC in 1991.

Many Baptist bodies in-volved in the New Baptist Covenant emerged during the last 150 years out of inter-necine divisions with other Baptist groups that are now working together to create the coalition. That new cooperative spirit is “reconstructing” Baptist life in the United States, Vestal suggested.

“We have an opportunity for learning that we desperately need, and that is a gift from God,” he said.

“Most of us lived through the dissolution of a culture and an ethos, not to mention institutions,” Vestal continued, recalling more than two decades of battles for control of the SBC. During the same period, he noted, “deconstruction” was taking place among other Baptist groups.

Vestal said he spent a “blessed day” recently in conversation with Roy Medley, general secretary of the American Baptist Churches USA, the group that emerged from the slavery-fueled split with the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, and Tyrone Pitts, general secretary of the predominantly black Progressive National Baptist Convention, which emerged from a 1961 split from the National Baptist Convention USA Inc. over desegregation policy.

Last June, the three groups —CBF, ABC-USA and PNBC —held a joint worship service that leaders said demonstrated the new spirit of collaboration.

Such collaboration does not require participants to abandon their distinctives or history, Vestal said.

“The best way to build Christian community is for each (organization) to live within its own skin,” Vestal said. “… Then we can be more effective in reaching out to others in the group. When community is based on a generic kind of Christianity, the conversation is very bland and little in the way of Christian community develops.”

The various Baptist bodies are best understood as a “family,” Vestal said—a term he prefers to “denomination.”

“The word ‘denomination’ draws reactions ranging from nostalgia to revulsion,” he said.

The name “Baptist” has its greatest value “in familial terms,” not abstract ideas, Vestal said. He declined to call CBF a denomination, saying he prefers to think of CBF as occupying a small room in the larger house of Christianity.

Posted: 10/26/07

‘I love to see people come together to worship’

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Baptist Standard

GRAPEVINE—When Chris Clayton leads worship services at student events, he wants young people to do more than enjoy the experience. He wants them to learn about the meaning of worship and embrace worship as a lifestyle.

“My prayer is that people will be reminded that we serve and worship a holy God who is more than we can ever fathom,” Clayton said. “Sometimes I feel that we often tip our hat to God and go about our week without ever encountering him and recognizing him for the holy and righteous God that he is.

“For me, it isn’t about going out and pounding a Bible over a person’s head, but instead, striving to reflect God in everything I do. Worship is more about a lifestyle than any song written or any service on a Sunday morning.”

While he was in high school, Clayton began leading worship for his youth group on Wednesday nights. That’s when Clayton sensed God calling him into music ministry. 

“I felt God tugging at my heart, through an overwhelming passion to use music for his glory,” Clayton said. “Although I had no idea what that involved at the time or where he was going to take me, … I just knew that God was leading and I needed to be obedient to his calling.”

During his collegiate years, Clayton led worship for a campuswide Bible study at Dallas Baptist University. 

“Even in college at DBU, as God began to open doors for me to lead worship, the yearning to serve God with my gifts grew,” he said. “It is amazing to look back and see God’s fingerprints all over the path we have taken thus far to get where we are today.”

After graduation, Clayton began his full-time itinerant ministry—leading worship in various youth, college and young adult capacities at events around the United States. In addition, Clayton opened his own recording studio, the Bedington House, and began working as an independent producer and engineer as a way to assist fellow worship leaders and bands.

“My ministry is really made up of two parts,” he explained. “First, I travel all over the country with a great group of guys in my band, leading worship for various youth and college events.

“Second, I love to invest in worship leaders and bands and help transform a simple idea into a beautiful song. I love to hear the stories from the artists I have worked with about how their songs are impacting people. I can even recall a time of hearing how a project I was a part of a few years back had reached soldiers in Iraq. That was a cool thing to hear.

“All around, my favorite part of what I do is building relationships and encouraging individuals to develop a relationship with Christ. I love to hear the stories of God changing people. I am encouraged when a song we lead during an event really impacted someone and they let us know about it. It’s cool to get home and read the e-mails and MySpace messages from students about how God broke through and stirred something in them. I love to see people come together to worship. When they come from all walks of life, but are all striving to lead a life of worship pleasing to God, it’s a beautiful picture.”

Clayton keeps a busy schedule leading worship at Disciple Now weekends, youth rallies, retreats, conferences, worship services and camps. This summer, he led worship at Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment in Cedar Hill, and he also leads worship for the student ministry at his home church, 121 Community Church in Grapevine. 

Posted: 10/26/07

2nd Opinion:
A lifelong friend & the Messiah

By James Leo Garrett Jr.

He and I became friends in third grade in a public school more than 70 years ago. He was from a Jewish family of the Reform faith. I was from a Southern Baptist family. As a youth, I tried to live as a Christian before my friend but made no overt effort to lead my friend to Christ. Through elementary school, junior high and senior high, our friendship continued. In adulthood, despite living in separate locations, that friendship endured.

My friend turned from the career of his distinguished lawyer father to farming and ranching, becoming a major statewide leader in that field. He was not devoted to Reform Judaism and married a Gentile. He became more accurately a secular man with a high sense of integrity and honesty but believed that death brings the end of existence.

During my friend’s later years, as Parkinson’s disease began to inhibit his mobility, I visited him more frequently. I gave him selected Messianic passages from the Old Testament, but with little effect, for he was not familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. But when I gave him Lee Strobel’s The Case for Easter, he eagerly read it.

A Christian nurse was employed to assist in my friend’s home. She later married a student in Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. This devoted couple ministered to my friend and his wife, both physically and spiritually. They prayed for and with my friend and shared the gospel of grace and the promise of eternal life. A lady who has a Christian ministry to Jewish people prayed daily for my friend. The pastor of my friend’s farm manager came regularly to pray and to give testimony.

As the disease became increasingly debilitating, my friend was less able to speak. But on a crucial Sunday when two people offered my friend an opportunity to surrender to and believe on Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah and Son of God, he responded affirmatively by uttering the single word “Christ.”

Twenty days later, my friend passed through the portal of death. He was not baptized; he was not a member of any Christian congregation. But neither was the repentant thief on the cross, who asked Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” and was told, “Today, you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).

Our Jewish friends need our continued witness, and, short of death, it is never too late.

James Leo Garrett Jr. is a retired professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Posted: 10/26/07

God-sized vision drives Corpus
Christi church to plant churches

By George Henson

Staff Writer

CORPUS CHRISTI—Pastor Bil Cornelius and members of Bay Area Fellowship have a dream—commit $ 1 million a year to plant 10 churches a year for 10 years.

“If I heard that from most people, I would think it was a nice plan, but with Bil Cornelius involved, it’s going to happen,” said Ed Jump, director of missions for Corpus Christi Baptist Association.

Bay Area Fellowship started with five people gathered in Cornelius’ apartment living room on Sept. 15, 1997. At that first meeting, he told that handful of people, “We’re going to be a church of thousands some day.”

Ten years later, more than 4,600 gather the church’s new building for one of four services most weekends—one on Saturday, three on Sunday.

Cornelius’ route to Corpus Christi was circuitous. After growing up in First Baptist Church in Friendswood—“a great church,” Cornelius said—he began looking more closely at God’s calling on his life.

“I didn’t feel called to the pastorate, youth or anything but to reach my generation for Christ,” he recalled.

Convinced the best way to accomplish that goal was to start a church from scratch, he took a map of the United States and started praying for the place God had in mind for him and his family.

Eventually, Cornelius believed God made it clear Corpus Christi was the place where he should invest his life.

While the Apostle Paul traveled to many places starting churches, Cor-nelius doesn’t believe the New Testament teaches that the people who led those churches moved from one congregation to another.

“I don’t see in Scripture where you see pastors move from place to place. Find the place where you’re really called, and park it,” he encourages young pastors.

“Some pastors are always dreaming of the next great church and never realize that next great church can be the one where they’re already serving.”

His plan for starting 100 churches in 10 years is simple. “If you have the right leaders, you invest the capital and let them do it,” he said.

And there’s no need to go searching for those leaders, either. “What we’ve found out is that when leaders find out you’re interested, they’ll find you.”

Not everyone who thinks he is ready to start a church really is, however. It is important to find leaders who not only can start a church, but also sustain and grow a church.

Because of that, he looks for certain things when people come to him with the idea of starting a new church.

“Why do you want to start a church?” he asks each potential church planter.

“God did not call us to be creative and innovative of itself. We are called to be creative and innovative in order to reach the lost. If I can’t see a real passion for the lost, and often that means tears, they’re not who we’re looking for,” he explained.

“Who is coming with you?” is his second question.

“One of the first indicators of a good leader is if anybody is following them,” Cornelius said. “If their friends and family aren’t interested in following them, that’s a pretty good indicator they may have trouble finding other people who will also.”

How long the person plans to stay with the church is another important question.

“I realize that God sometimes calls someone for a season, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be the norm,” he said.

Cornelius’ church-starting vision is to “to reach Rick Warren’s kids”—to evangelize the generation coming to maturity after the Baby Boomers.

To do that, he felt it important to build a church that would be relevant to them, and for him that wasn’t a particularly traditional-looking church. He is quick to add, however, that he respects the people and pastors of traditional churches.

“Guys like me, in their zeal, they can get so excited about what we’re doing, that we somehow knock what has gone before and don’t realize that they were the innovators of their day,” he stressed.

“One reason I wouldn’t want to go to pastor an existing church somewhere else is because I respect the ministry of those churches. They generally don’t call someone to come in and change their church.”

Cornelius believes in the importance of constantly evaluating a church’s ministries.

“We’re good at strategically starting, but we’re not so good at strategically stopping. We have to watch closely to determine when a ministry has run its course,” he said. While tradition is important to congregations, it can’t be allowed to control the future, he said.

“The danger of just holding on to traditions is in losing our children who are looking for new things,” Cornelius said.

But if a church can’t change or won’t change, starting new churches is a way for it to keep its traditions and continue to minister to new generations—or even people who are the same age but aren’t a part of those traditions, he said.

“Is your goal to see who you can keep or who you can reach? Our focus is on who we can reach. Some people come here and because of that (focus on outreach, they eventually) leave, and it hurts. The only thing that would be worse is vision hijackers,” Cornelius said.

Vision hijackers are people who would deter the church from its vision, he explained. Starting a new church with people with little church background frees a church starter to lead with the vision God has given with a minimum of interference, he said.

“The church has to give the pastor the ability to lead. We have sheep trying to shear shepherds. I’m not talking about some kind of power trip, but a structure that allows pastors to follow the vision God has given them.”

“I tell church planters, you typically don’t want to start a church with a large core group from an existing church,” he said, because they will subconsciously or even consciously try to make it a clone of their former church.

“Our instinct is to say our weakness is that we don’t have enough Christians, but we just turned that on its head,” he said.

A key ingredient is to start with a small group that is interested in telling others about Christ.

“My opinion is that there are more people looking for Jesus than there are people making the introduction,” he said.

Currently the church plans to start churches in San Antonio, New York City, McAllen and Bryan/College Station, as well as six in India.

The vision for planting 100 churches came in a concentrated 100 hours in prayer, he said.

“For the first 10 hours, I had the audacity to try to convince the God of the universe to do something big. For the next 90 hours, I listened to God say he wanted to do something bigger.”

Posted: 10/26/07

Campaign for debt relief
brings unlikely allies together

By Mary Orndorff

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—An Alabama congressman is promoting another round of international debt relief because previous loan forgiveness has improved health care, education and security in developing countries.

Rep. Spencer Bachus is the lead Republican sponsor on the latest attempt to cancel more longstanding international debt, this time for up to 67 countries where even interest payments can be crushing. His motivation is a mix of religious conviction and concern for human rights and national security, and it dates to 2000 when the first of two debt relief measures was approved.

“Tens of millions of schoolchildren in Africa alone are attending class that weren’t seven years ago,” said Bachus, a Baptist. “The fact that their future prospects are so much greater and poverty will begin to fall with education, the benefits of that to our country and to the world are unimaginable.”

An expanded debt relief bill backed by religious groups, known in shorthand as the Jubilee Act of 2007, is sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, a liberal Democrat from California who acknowledged the unusual partnership she’s had with the Alabama conservative. She called their friendship, developed over the debt relief bill, a “miracle.”

“We worked together in a way that I never thought we would,” Waters said. “We were up early in the morning at meetings, and it has been one of the most delightful experiences I’ve had in Congress.”

The legislation cites some recent examples of what countries have done with the money that otherwise would have been spent paying back loans. Zambia, for instance, in 2006 used its savings of $23.8 million for agricultural and health care projects. In Uganda that same year, almost $60 million was spent addressing electricity shortages, primary education, malaria control, health care and water infrastructure.