AMMAN, Jordan (ABP) — Baptist leaders and other dignitaries — including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair — took part in a ceremony dedicating a new evangelical Christian baptism center at the Jordanian spot traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus' baptism.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair participated in a dedication service for a baptism center in Jordan. Blair, now a special envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia, said it “took courage and leadership” for Jordan to allow the baptism site in a part of the world often torn by sectarian strife.

The afternoon celebration at the Baptism Center at Bethany beyond Jordan included more than 120 baptisms by immersion in the Jordan River. They were conducted by pastors from the Jordan Baptist Convention.

Eron Henry, associate director of communications for the Baptist World Alliance, said in a travel blog it is the first time Baptists in Jordan have received such prominent coverage in Jordan's major media outlets.

One of several new churches being built along the Jordan River at about the location Christian pilgrims have long believed Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the center is intended to cater to Christian traditions that practice believer's baptism by immersion.

BWA General Secretary Neville Callam, in the day's major address, called the center "a place where people from all parts of the world may assemble for a journey and an experience." He expressed hope that "the waters of the Jordan extinguish the crippling fires of hopelessness that burn in the hearts of those who have no knowledge of God."

Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., sent a congratulatory letter saying he could not attend the dedication ceremony, but plans to make a pilgrimage there when he next visits the Middle East in 2010.

During a dedication service for a new baptism center in Jordan, Baptist World Alliance President David Coffey read greetings from two former United States presidents— Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Baptists—and presented a gift on the behalf of the BWA to Jordan’s Prince Ghazi. A plaque to be placed on the building upon its completion was unveiled at the ceremony. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of the Alabama Baptist/Bob Terry)

BWA president David Coffey read greetings from former United States presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Baptists, and presented a gift on the behalf of the BWA to Jordan's Prince Ghazi.

A plaque to be placed on the building upon its completion was unveiled at the ceremony. The plaque reads, "The Commission of the Site of the Baptism of Jesus Christ welcomes here visiting pilgrims from the member churches of the Baptist World Alliance."

Also participating in the event were Imad Maayah, a Baptist and former Member of the Jordanian Parliament; Toma Magda and Tony Peck, president and general secretary of the European Baptist Federation; and Nabeeh Abbassi, former president of the Jordan Baptist Convention and chief organizer of the dedication and opening.

An estimated 1,700 persons attended the dedication and opening ceremony.

Blair, now a special envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia, said it "took courage and leadership" for Jordan to allow the baptism site in a part of the world often torn by sectarian strife. The founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation said it also modeled the spirit of compassion and justice that run through the teachings of Jesus, the Old Testament prophets and Islam's founding prophet, Muhammad.

Jordan is about 92 percent Muslim, but relations between Muslims and a Christian minority estimated at 6 percent are generally good. While Islam is the state religion and proselytization of Muslims and conversions from Islam are prohibited, the Jordanian Constitution promises religious freedom as long as rites do not violate public order or morality, and recognizes several Christian denominations.

Founded in 1957, the Jordan Baptist Convention consists of 20 churches with combined membership of about 2,000. It operates two schools.

The offer of a designated plot of land for a baptism center came from Jordan's King Abdullah II during a meeting he held with Coffey in September 2007. In 2008, Coffey visited the site and met with Prince Ghazi, who chairs an independent trustee board that runs the site as a national park. The board facilitated the construction.

"In our Baptist faith and order, the baptism of Jesus is of central importance to our understanding of the baptism of Christians," Coffey wrote in a 2008 letter affirming the authenticity of the baptism site. "We believe baptism rests on the command of the risen Lord and is integrated with his command to preach the good news to the world; and this command is given authority by his own example at the beginning of his messianic ministry."

Bethany beyond Jordan — not to be confused with the village near Jerusalem the Bible says was home to Lazarus, Mary and Martha — was on a pilgrimage route between Jerusalem and Bethlehem to the west and Mount Nebo to the east. It is regarded one of Christianity's three holiest sites, along with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jeruslam and Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

It was a military border zone until the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan and today is regarded one of the most important recent discoveries in biblical archaeology. Excavations didn't begin until 1996, and so far more than 20 churches, caves and baptismal pools dating from Roman and Byzantine times have been uncovered.

Churches of various Christian denominations — including Anglican, Catholic, Coptic and Russian Orthodox — have been constructed or are in the process of being built nearby.

Pope John Paul II was the first Roman Catholic pontiff to visit the site, making his pilgrimage there in March 2000. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to visit the holy site in May.

Bethany beyond Jordan is also sacred to Jews and Muslims. In addition to Jesus' baptism, it's said to be the spot where Joshua first led the Israelites into the Promised Land and where the prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire.

While in Jordan, the BWA delegation met with Islamic journalists and scholars to discuss the BWA response to A Common Word Between Us and You, a letter written by 138 Muslim scholars and leaders to Christians in October 2007.

Callam later crossed over into Turkey to preach at the Izmir Baptist Church. Today Turkey's third-largest city, Izmir in ancient times was called Smyrna, a place mentioned the second chapter of Revelation among seven towns and cities in the area then known as Asia Minor.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. (ABP)—Asking whether women should be ordained to the ministry is the wrong question, Baptist professor Curtis Freeman insisted.

“The question is, ‘Who is being gifted in the church?’” said Freeman, research professor of theology and director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School. “Where are those gifts being displayed?”

Freeman was guest lecturer for the Vivian B. Harrison Memorial Lecture at Mount Olive College in Mount Olive, N.C.

Ordination doesn’t give one the gift of preaching; rather, ordination is the church recognizing that gift, he said.

“The point is, the church doesn’t really call people into ministry,” he said. Instead, “We help people discern God’s call on their life.”

The lectures included an overview of four 17th-century Baptist women who wrote about their experiences, producing at least 748 pages of material—much of it in pamphlets, which were cheaply reproduced and available to a wide audience.

“The pamphlet was like the 17th-century Internet,” Freeman said.

Historical records indicate the women influenced early English General and Particular Baptists, according to Freeman.

“Through their writings, they surely attained an even wider audience,” he said. “Yet there was also a tension between the prophetic voices of these women, the gathered churches and the wider society that eventually refused to swallow their prophetic pill.”

Freeman said revolutionary forces in England at the time had destabilized governmental power and other forces that “long had kept women in their place.”

“The social spaces that opened up enabled women not just to think freely but to speak their minds freely,” he said. “Yet, as the Baptist movement became organized and institutionalized, many of the more egalitarian expressions of the early days dissipated.”

These and other women who spoke out were on the fringes of the early Baptist churches, Freeman said.

“Maybe these women standing on the edge see something those of us at the center of the church can’t see,” he said.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP)—Members of the Baptist World Alliance’s executive committee heard a sobering financial report detailing investment losses over the last year, agreed to slash the group’s budget, gave initial approval to organizational changes and met BWA’s new director for freedom and justice during their annual meeting.

Gathering at the organization’s headquarters in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Falls Church, Va., BWA leaders agreed to slash the 2009 budget by nearly 30 percent, from an original figure of $2,973,155 to $2,111,155—a reduction of nearly $900,000 in expenditures.

Ellen Teague, finance director for the worldwide umbrella group for Baptists, said the cuts are necessary to maintain a decent amount of reserve funds, heavily depleted over the last year because of huge investment losses.

The organization was forced to draw heavily from its reserves to cover heavy investment losses owing to the world’s tanking markets. BWA transferred more than $2.3 million in unrestricted reserves to the operating fund to cover the losses.

In order to stick to internal guidelines that require a minimum of $500,000 in reserves—and even under a best-case 2009 income scenario of donation income similar to 2008’s—Teague said BWA would have to slash its spending dramatically.

BWA General Secretary Neville Callam said the organization’s staff already had instituted pay-raise freezes and significantly cut their expenditures in anticipation of a reduced overall budget. After the committee approved the new budget figure, Callam said he and Teague would go line-by-line to figure out exactly where the additional cuts should come. Callam added he hoped to identify new sources of revenue by beefing up BWA’s list of potential contributors.

The body also gave initial approval to a set of bylaws revisions necessitated by constitutional changes already in motion. The BWA General Council—a larger governing body that gathers annually—is scheduled to have a final vote on the recommendations at its next meeting, set for July 27-Aug. 1 in Ede, Netherlands.

Committee members also voted to recommend the General Council approve Raimundo Cesar Barreto as director of the new BWA Division of Freedom and Justice. Council members created the new division—which will focus on religious freedom and justice issues that affect BWA member bodies—last year at the organization’s annual gathering in Prague, Czech Republic.

Barreto, currently a pastor in Salvador, Brazil, holds a doctorate in Christian ethics from Princeton Theological Seminary. He also has degrees from Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology and the North Brazil Theological Seminary. He has taught at theology schools in Brazil and the United States.

Executive committee members also heard that the recipient of the 2009 Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights Award is Indian Baptist activist Leena Lavanya.

Lavanya’s Serve Trust organization operates several charities among India’s poor and dispossessed. They include HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention and other ministries to female sex workers as well as homes for the elderly and those suffering from leprosy.

Leonard to step down as Wake Forest dean. Bill Leonard, the founding dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School, is stepping down next year, school officials announced. Leonard will retire from that post June 30, 2010. But he will continue to teach full-time as professor of church history and Baptist studies in the divinity school and professor of religion in the university’s religion department. Leonard, who recently turned 63, said the university has established a standard tenure of 10 years for deans. It has been 14 years since he came to Wake Forest, and next year will be the 10th year since the divinity school held its first classes in the fall of 1999. “It was time to move along as dean and back to full-time teaching and research,” he said.

Former Criswell College president named seminary VP. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees approved the selection of former Criswell College President Jerry Johnson as vice president of academic development during their meeting in Kansas City, Mo. Johnson, in addition to his election as professor of ethics and theology, was named chief academic officer to succeed Thorvald Madsen, who becomes dean of Midwestern Baptist College, SBC. Johnson, 44, joins Midwestern after serving nearly five years as president of Criswell College in Dallas, where he also taught theology and ethics and hosted a daily syndicated radio program on ethics and public policy. He earlier served as dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s undergraduate Boyce College in Louisville, Ky., and also taught Christian ethics and worked in development while working toward a Ph.D. from the seminary. He also holds a master’s degree from Denver Seminary and an undergraduate degree from Criswell College. Johnson’s early pastoral experience was in Texas, serving Ireland Baptist Church and interning at First Baptist Church in Dallas, then moving to Colorado to serve as pastor of churches in Aurora and Littleton. He and his wife, Rhonda, have two children, Isaiah and Eva.

Kentucky seminary honors Hinson. The Baptist Seminary of Kentucky honored one of its founding professors for 50 years of teaching by launching an endowed lecture series in his name. The free-standing Baptist school on the campus of the Disciples of Christ-related Lexington Theological Seminary established the E. Glenn Hinson Lecture Series to honor the life and work of its senior professor of church history and spirituality. Future lectures will build on Hinson’s legacy of study in spiritual formation, church history, ecumenism and Baptist history. Before coming to the Kentucky seminary, Hinson taught at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond from 1992 until retiring in 1999.

MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) — The widow of slain Baptist pastor Fred Winters says she harbors no anger toward her husband's alleged murderer.

"I do not have any hatred or even hard feelings toward him," Cindy Winters said March 16 on the CBS Early Show. "We have been praying for him." 

She said one of the first things her daughter said after the attack was that she hoped the accused gunman, 27-year-old Terry Sedlacek, would somehow come to "love Jesus" because of the experience.

"We are not angry at all," Winters said.

She said she does not have any opinion about what should happen to Sedlacek in the legal system but she hopes that he "finds peace with God."

"I hope that he understands that God loves him in spite of his sin, and he can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."

Winters said she and her daughters are holding up well under the circumstances. "I think I'm a great example that prayer works," she said.

Winters said she did know Sedlacek and had never seen him before, but now she would like to reach out to his parents.

"In some way we have been united through this crisis, and when they are ready I have a desire to meet them and let them know personally that I love them and in some way I feel their pain. I feel like we're united together in our pain."

"The way I was comforted by others, I have a desire to comfort them."

Winters said she is grateful that neither she nor either of her daughters was in the early service March 8 during the attack. She said she attends the second of the church's three regular morning worship services and had not yet left home. Her older daughter was at church, but helping out in the nursery.

"None of us, fortunately, were in the service to experience what happened, and I am so grateful to God for that," she said.

She also said she knows that coping with her loss is going to be a long process. "I know that the same way God got me through last Sunday, he's going to get me through the next week and he is going to get me through the next 10 years," she said.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) — One of a select fraternity of pastors who has experienced a church shooting consoled and challenged an Illinois Baptist congregation one week after its popular pastor was fatally shot while preaching his Sunday sermon.

"You are the most prayed-for church in all of Christendom this morning," Al Meredith, pastor of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, told worshipers in one of three morning worship services March 15 at First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill.

Meredith delivered the sermon from the pulpit where 45-year-old Pastor Fred Winters' life was cut short March 8, when Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, of nearby Troy, Ill., killed Winters with a gunshot wound to the heart. No motive for the shooting has been revealed, but Sedlacek's family claims he is mentally ill.

Meredith's church suffered similar violence nearly a decade ago, when 47-year-old Larry Gene Ashbrook interrupted a youth prayer service with gunfire that killed seven and wounded seven others.

Meredith warned the Illinois congregation it is "heading into uncharted waters" in dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy. He said the old hymn line, "every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before" is "baloney."

"Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before," he said. "Some days are evil days, and last Sunday was an evil day."

Still, he said, the message of the gospel is, "there is hope in this violent world."

"That's why the media are so eager to hear your story, because it's so unique," he said. "We live in a hopeless world."

Describing in detail events of Sept. 15, 1999, that turned Wedgwood Baptist Church into "a killing field for a hopeless madman," Meredith said one question asked during an initial press conference is if there is anywhere in society that is safe.

"Of course not," Meredith said. "We live in a hostile world. The only real place of safety is in the center of God's will." But even that, he said, does not guarantee against untimely death.

Another question Meredith said he received was, "where was God?" when the shooting took place.

"God is exactly were he was when his own dear son was cruelly tortured and murdered," he said. "He is a parent who knows what it's like to lose his only son."

Meredith said God is in control and gives Christians who struggle the ability to get through when they need it.

He also said there are members of his church who are still having counseling nearly 10 years after the tragedy. He warned the Maryville congregation to reach out for help and avoid the "phoniness" of claiming "victory in Jesus" and going it alone.

"Get help from the body of Christ," he advised. "We are still struggling."

Meredith said the Wedgwood tragedy gave him numerous opportunities to share a Christian witness through the mass media.

"God has given us hope and peace in the face of life's worst tragedies," he said. "God gives a peace that the world doesn't understand."

On the other hand, Meredith said, tragedy can cause doubt.

"Faith is not having no doubts," he said. "In fact, faith necessitates doubt."

It's one thing to believe in God when everything makes sense, he said. It's when "God pushes into the abyss where it doesn't make sense" that faith comes into play.

"You don't really have faith until you're pushed beyond your controls," Meredith said. "Most of you are control freaks, and you want to have all your ducks in a row, and last week your ducks all fell apart."

Meredith challenged the Maryville congregation "it is time to put up or shut up" about their faith.

"You are what you are under pressure," he said. "If you squeeze an orange, you don’t get Dr Pepper…. When you're squeezed, what's on the inside is what comes out."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Related ABP stories:

Slain Baptist pastor hailed as hero, martyr (3/13)

Wedgwood pastor to preach Sunday at grieving Illinois church (3/11)

Pastor gunned down in pulpit (3/8)

MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) — A fellow pastor and former church member hailed slain Baptist preacher Fred Winters as a "hero and a martyr" at a memorial service at First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill., March 13.

"I believe with all my heart Pastor Fred died as a hero and a martyr," Tim Cowin, pastor of the The Rock Church in nearby St. Louis, said of his friend of more than 20 years, who was struck down by a gunman's bullet while preaching from the same pulpit March 8.

Without going into detail Cowin said, "Because Fred acted last Sunday, many lives were spared."

"A martyr is a person who is killed for his faith," Cowin said, adding that Winters "died the way he lived his life, in the midst of service to his King Jesus."

Cowin said a martyr is also someone whose death is a witness to the Christian faith.

Cowin said he does not know why God would allow his friend to die, but that already God was using the tragedy to "raise people to a higher level" of Christian witness.

Winters' widow, Cindy, said she met her future husband when she was 14. "We grew older together, but he never grew up," she said of the fun-loving pastor, husband and father.

She said Winters used to leave chocolate for her in her purse and at night would snuggle with her and ask how he could pray for her.

"He loved being a pastor," she told a packed sanctuary. "He had a pastor's heart. When you hurt, he hurt. When you were happy, he was happy."

"I never heard him once get sick of it," she said. "He loved you guys, and he would be proud of you."

She said Winters would be angry if people put too much attention on him. "The best way we can honor him is by honoring God," she said.

"Fred and I have been talking a lot about how God is on the verge of doing incredible things through this congregation," she said. "Satan knew it, too, but nothing's changed."

"I refuse to let Satan win," she said. "He's not going to steal my joy. He's not going to steal my passion. I'm not going to hate, and I want to carry out the mission of this church."

"I'm not going to survive this thing," she said. "I'm going to become a better person because of this thing."

Fred Winters was born Dec. 4, 1963, in Kansas City, Mo., and felt the call to ministry while in high school. He and Cindy Lee Jackson were married in 1987. They have two daughters, Alysia, 13, and Cassidy, 11.

He graduated from Southwest Baptist University in 1985 and earned a master's degree from Wheaton Graduate School in 1987. He earned a master of divinity degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1991 and went on to receive a doctor of ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Winters came to First Baptist Church in Maryville when the church consisted of just a few families. Today membership has grown to 1,400 and a weekly average 1,200 people attend worship services. In 2007 Fred and Cindy Winters celebrated both 20 years of marriage and 20 years of service at First Baptist Church.

Adam Cruise, a former staff member at First Baptist Church in Maryville who now leads a church of his own, told mourners that his mentor would not want his death to result in discouragement or defeat. Rather he borrowed an illustration from a World War II story — something that Winters often did — to challenge the church to carry on its mission.

"Let the future generation of First Baptist Church Maryville look back on this generation and this moment and say this was our finest hour," he said.

Terry Sedlacek, the 27-year-old gunman charged with murder and aggravated battery in Winters' death, was released March 12 from the hospital where he was treated for self-inflicted stab wounds. When they searched his home in nearby Troy, Ill., police seized a planning calendar with March 8 marked "death day."

Cindy Winters read a message from her daughters at the memorial service saying "it was not death day for my daddy" but rather "the best day of his life."

"On Sunday my husband did not die," Winters said. "He just simply got a promotion."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Related ABP stories:

Wedgwood pastor to preach Sunday at grieving Illinois church (3/11)

Pastor gunned down in pulpit (3/8)

BLUEFIELD, Va. (ABP) — Taiwanese kung-fu master Liu Chang probably didn't think a routine seminar he led at Virginia Baptist-affiliated Bluefield College would lead to him converting to Christianity. But that's just what happened.

Liu, a widely-respected karate expert, was one of two visiting instructors at a martial-arts seminar hosted by Doug Minnix, Bluefield’s assistant professor of exercise and sport science and faculty advisor for the school’s Karate Club. Liu was joined by Kimo Wall, an American karate expert who conducts seminars around the world.

“Master Liu is no typical kung-fu master,” Minnix said. “He is a 12th-generation direct descendant of the White Crane system.”
The White Crane system is a southern Chinese martial art widely practiced around the world. It is characterized by deep-rooted stances, intricate hand techniques and fighting mostly at close range. There are different levels of the White Crane system; the Feeding Crane level, at which Liu excels, is the most combative.

“[Liu’s] technique reminds me of the legendary methods that are only read about and no longer to be found,” said Minnix. “How such a remarkable individual ended up on tour with Kimo Wall and in the small town of Bluefield, I believe was orchestrated by God.”

Before making his own profession of Christian faith, Minnix, who was a student at Bluefield College in the late 1980s, practiced the principles of Zen Buddhism and traveled to China to research the particular style of karate to which he was devoted.

But, “In the midst of a culture dominated by Zen, I had a God moment,” Minnix recalled about his trip to China. “While walking down the streets, a young man witnessed to me about Jesus and handed me a gospel tract. This seed stayed in my heart and would remain, yet undeveloped, until I returned to Bluefield College.”

Scott Bryan, who chairs Bluefield’s exercise-and-sports-science department, mentored Minnix during his days as a student at Bluefield and shared more about Christianity with him. During his senior year, Minnix answered the call of Christ and subsequently gave up his study of martial arts.

“But, in my devotional time, I kept running across Scriptures that seemed to run harmoniously with karate principles,” Minnix said. “It was during that time that God gave me a vision for a martial-arts ministry.”

That same karate ministry, which involves Scripture memorization and Bible study, is what brought Liu and Wall to Bluefield last summer. Wall, a former Zen Buddhist who also converted to Christianity and who is a longtime sensei (a Japanese title used to address teachers in martial arts) to Minnix, brought Liu to Bluefield to present the Feeding Crane system to karate students from the college and community.

Kung Fu master Liu Chang (center) offers a demonstration during a Bluefield College martial arts seminar. (PHOTO/Bluefield College)

But, the karate students were not the only individuals to leave the martial-arts seminar changed by the experience. During an after-hours dinner, Liu shared the details of a series of events that led him to find both lost relatives and martial-arts techniques. The circumstances, he believes, were magic, because they were too well orchestrated to be coincidence. Wall boldly responded, “Not magic, but a miracle, the power of God.”

Later during the seminar, Liu received word from Taiwan that his home had been damaged by a typhoon. Concerned about his family, Liu found encouragement from people within the college and local church community. They offered Liu support and prayer. Sensing God’s direction in the entire experience, Minnix gave Liu a Chinese/English Bible.

“Following some encouragement by Kimo sensei, I finally presented Mr. Liu with the gospel,” Minnix said. “He opened the book, and with tears in his eyes and a humble disposition, said, ‘All my life I hear about this book, but today [is] the first day I see it.’”

Minnix shared later that he, along with Wall, were amazed at how a man of such stature, position and power could be so quickly touched by God.

Minnix recalled, “He said to me, ‘Now you first time from now on study Feeding Crane; now I first time from now on study the book.’ I can’t explain how I felt that night. God truly intervened and crossed cultural lines to connect us in a very special way.”

Liu would end his trip to Bluefield with a visit to Minnix’s church, and said afterwards, “This is [the] first time I go to church. I feel very special power [that I have] not felt before.”

Liu communicated later with Minnix and others his desire to learn more about Jesus. He also said his Bluefield experience is one he plans to share with students all over the world.

“I will never forget Bluefield,” Liu said. “Bluefield is [the] place where I first talk to God. I go home and tell people here, and they cannot believe. ‘You talk to God?’ Amazed.”

–Crystal Kieloch writes for Bluefield College.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — An Arkansas lawmaker says she will reintroduce a bill to allow concealed weapons in churches after a deadly Illinois church shooting March 8.

State Rep. Beverly Pyle (R-Cedarville) originally introduced a measure Jan. 29 to remove "any church or other house of worship" from a list of places where people licensed to carry concealed weapons are prohibited from bringing their guns.

The bill passed the Arkansas House of Representatives on a 57-42 vote Feb. 11 but then died on a voice vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 25.

After a gunman entered First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., and killed Pastor Fred Winters with a gunshot to the heart, Pyle told Little Rock CBS affiliate KTHV Channel 11 she was making changes to the bill and planned to take it back to the committee hoping for more votes.

"I have received numerous e-mails and phone calls concerning this wanting me to bring this back, none against it," Pyle told the TV station March 9.

The station talked to one Arkansas legislator — Sen. Hank Wilkins (D-Pine Bluff) — who indicated he might change his vote from "no" to "yes."

"In light of the shooting yesterday I think there will be a number of legislators who will want to reconsider this," said Wilkins, who is also a United Methodist pastor.

Police said the suspect in the shooting, 27-year-old Terry Joe Sedlacek, was armed with enough ammunition to kill as many as 30 people and had planned the attack to the point of writing "death day" on is planning calendar for March 8.

His weapon jammed after four shots, however, before he pulled a knife and wounded himself and two church members trying to subdue him.

Dave Travis, managing director of the Leadership Network, told the Associated Press that most megachurches have coordinated security plans and undercover guards, but smaller congregations are often more vulnerable.

Jeffrey Hawkins, executive director of the Christian Security Network, said 75 percent of churches have no security plan, making them a "soft target" for attack. He said security isn't only about preventing things from happening, but having a plan for dealing with catastrophic events after they occur.

First Baptist Church of Maryville said on its website that all activities at the church are canceled for the week following the attack, and that grief counselors are available if anyone needs to talk or have someone pray with them.

Visitation for Winters, 45, is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. March 12 at the church. The funeral service is scheduled 10:30 a.m. March 13, also at the church. Graveside services are private.

The church is accepting gifts both to a Winters Family Memorial Fund and to the church building fund.

"In this day, where uncertainty seems to abound creating an environment in which people are vulnerable in doing things they might not do otherwise, one thing is certain, we, as human beings need a foundation upon which we can live our lives," said a statement on the website. "We at First Baptist Maryville, along with other Christian believers, share this conviction: that foundation is God's Word. In the pages of the Book we call the Bible, we find the pathway for peace, hope, and a quality of living life despite what circumstances we find ourselves in.

"To those who believe in the power of prayer, we covet your prayers right now."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Related stories:

Pastor gunned down in pulpit (3/8/2009)

The security of the believer: protecting churches from attack 

HARTFORD, Conn. (ABP) — Baptists may be the grayest of any major religious group in America, according to a study released March 9 by Trinity College of Connecticut.

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, the third set of data in a landmark study tracking changes in religious loyalties, reported 21 percent of the people who identify themselves as Baptists are 70 and older. That compares to 12 percent of the general population, 13 percent of Catholics, 14 percent of mainline Christians and 10 percent of Mormons who fall in that age range. 

Forty percent of the national population is 50 or older, while 58 percent of Baptists fall into that age bracket.

Related to that, the percentage of Baptists who are widowed is 12 percent, twice the national average. One demographic in which Baptists have far less than their share is among never-married singles — who make up 13 percent of Baptists, but a full 25 percent of the general population.

Smaller percentage of population 

(Photo by Chalmers Butterfield)

Baptists have gained members in the last 18 years, but comprise a smaller percentage of the population than they did when the study first compiled statistics. In 1990 there were 33.9 million Baptists, 19 percent of the population. In 2008 they numbered 36.1 million but declined to 15.8 percent of the population.

Baptists are still less educated than the general population and most denominations, but the percentage of Baptists who are college graduates increased from 11 percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2008.

The survey defines "Baptist" in a broad sense, including Southern Baptist, American Baptist, Free Will, Missionary and African-American denominations.

In general the survey found that the American population self-identifies as predominantly Christian, but Christianity's share of the population is decreasing. Ten percent fewer Americans self-identified as Christians in 2008 (76 percent) than in 1990 (86 percent.)

The portion of the population claiming no religion grew from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008, a gain of almost 20 million adults. Researchers called the rise of the so-called "Nones" as "one of the most important trends on the American religious scene."

"Surprising" percentage of pagans 

Seventy percent of Americans said they believe in a personal God, while 12 percent are either agnostic, atheist or unsure. A surprisingly high percentage, 12 percent, expressed belief in a deist or pagan view of a higher power, but not a personal God.

Researchers found views on religion changed more during the 1990s than since 2000, attributing that to large numbers of immigrants from Latin American countries who are overwhelmingly Christian and Catholic.

Baptists lost ground, meanwhile, both among Hispanics and Asians. Seven percent of Hispanics self-identified as Baptists in 1990, compared to 3 percent in 2008. Asians were 9 percent Baptist in 1990 but now make up 3 percent of Baptists. Asians were also the group most likely to profess no religion.

Researchers said the loss of religious identity could have long-lasting consequences for religious institutions. One sign of the lack of attachment of Americans to religion is that 27 percent do not expect a religious funeral at their death.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) — A past president of the Illinois Baptist State Association died March 8 when a gunman walked into his church and gunned him down during an early morning worship service.

Fred Winters, pastor of First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill., died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Witnesses said the bullet passed through his Bible, which he tried to use as a shield, before striking him.

After the .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol jammed while he attempted a second shot, the assailant reportedly pulled out a knife and began injuring himself. Several male church members subdued him, and two received non-life-threatening cuts that sent them to a local hospital. About 150 people were attending the 8:15 a.m. service, one of three worship services the 1,400-member church holds each weekend.

Fred Winters, pastor of First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., died after being gunned down in his pulpit March 8.

The gunman, who has not yet been identified, allegedly entered the 1,000-seat sanctuary in suburban St. Louis and walked toward the pulpit. He exchanged words with the pastor before revealing a weapon and shooting him. It was unclear if the two men knew each other, and a staff member who saw the man briefly said he did not recognize him.

Winters, who had been senior pastor of First Baptist Church since 1987, presided over the Illinois Baptist State Association meeting in 2007, its 100th anniversary year. Nate Adams, executive director of the state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention, released a statement. 

"Our great God is not surprised by this, or anything," Adams said. "That He allows evil and free will to have their way in tragedies like this is a mystery in many ways. But we know we can trust Him no matter what, and draw close to Him in any circumstances. Let's draw closer to Him and to one another during this terrible tragedy, and renew our faith and obedience to His purposes for however many days we have remaining to serve Him."

Mark Jones, the worship minister at Maryville First Baptist Church, told reporters gathered outside the church that the congregation sometimes used dramatic elements in worship, and the attack caught everyone off guard. He said quick response by church members probably saved other lives.

Jones said in an interview on local TV station KMOV he had no idea about the shooter's motives, but the church will carry on.

"Things will come our way in life, but what we need to tell the people is our foundation is the rock, which is Jesus Christ, and the Bible tells us about the life that we can have in him," he said. "We can go through challenging times. We can go through storms. And if we have that faith and the trust that will help us to have that internal peace."

Jones said the church would probably consider added security after the shooting, but "we think this is a one-time situation."

"We have seen attacks in our country," he said. "People cannot stop living their lives. People cannot be paralyzed with fear. We're going to continue to live our lives and we're going to live with a greater intentionality and purpose," he said.

"I know that our senior pastor would definitely want the church to continue to pursue with passion and intentionality exactly what has been pursued these last 20 years," Jones said.

Winters is survived by his wife of 21 years, Cindy, and two children.

A prayer service was scheduled the evening of March 8 at Metro Community Church in nearby Edwardsville, Ill.

Winters earned a master's degree in systematic theology and church history from Wheaton Graduate School in Wheaton, Ill., a master of divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., and a doctorate from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He was an adjunct professor at Midwestern Seminary, according to the church website.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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WASHINGTON (RNS)—Henry J. Lyons, former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, who was imprisoned on charges of fraud a decade ago, is one of two candidates running to be the group’s next president this September.

The other candidate, Julius R. Scruggs of Huntsville, Ala., confirmed he and Lyons are the two certified candidates announced at the convention’s mid-winter meeting.

Lyons resigned from the presidency of the historically black denomination in 1999 after being convicted of swindling millions from corporations wanting to market products to church members. He was released from prison in 2003.

Lyons could not be reached for comment, nor could the church’s current president, William J. Shaw, who is completing his second five-year term.

Scruggs, the vice president-at-large of the denomination, declined to address his feelings about Lyons’ run and past imprisonment, saying, “I have no comment on that.”

To become certified, candidates for the denomination’s presidency had to turn in letters of support from 100 churches by Jan. 1, he said.

Lyons is pastor of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla. His new presidential run is not his first attempt to regain a position in his denomination.

In 2007, he ran again for the presidency of the Florida General Baptist Convention but was defeated.

Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, professor of African-American studies at Colby College in Maine and an assistant pastor of a Massachusetts church with ties to the NBCUSA, said it would be inappropriate for Lyons to lead the denomination again.

“If the National Baptist Conven-tion wants to be relevant in the 21st century … they need new leadership,” she said.

“While we forgive him, we embrace him and we love him and he stumbled and made a mistake—and people do make mistakes—sometimes, as Paul says, everything is lawful but not everything is helpful. His becoming president … again would not be helpful.”

Scruggs, the pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville for more than 32 years, said he is running in hopes of expanding the mission work of the denomination beyond Africa and other locations.

“Some of our individual churches do mission work in Haiti,” he said. “I’d like to see our convention have a presence there.”

Scruggs also said he’d like to see the denomination develop a public policy commission to better address issues such as health care and public education.