Crystal Cathedral in financial trouble. The Crystal Cathedral, the gleaming Southern California megachurch known for its Hour of Power television broadcast, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors. Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman said the decision came after some creditors chose to file lawsuits against the ministry. Church officials cited the economy as the main cause for its financial trouble. Revenue dropped 27 percent, to about $22 million, in 2009. In the last year, its staff was reduced by 140 and now totals about 200 people. The church owes creditors $7.5 million, said spokesman John Charles, including the vendor who provided camels, sheep and horses for its annual “Glory of Christmas” pageant. Also unpaid are expenses for television equipment and bills for airtime on some TV stations.

Some large religious charities fare better than other nonprofits. Several of the nation’s largest religious charities reported increases in private support as nonprofits overall saw decreases in donations last year, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported. Feed the Children, which ranked fifth in the annual Philanthropy 400, had a 1.2 percent increase in private support, which totaled $1.19 billion. World Vision saw a 4.5 percent increase in its private support, which totaled $870 million, giving it the No. 9 rank on the list. Catholic Charities USA was ranked third, with a 66 percent increase from the previous year—a figure the social service organization has questioned. According to the publication, Catholic Charities’ private support totaled $1.28 billion. Overall, donations to the country’s largest charities dropped by 11 percent last year. The Salvation Army, which ranked second, saw a decrease of 8.4 percent in its private support, which totaled $1.7 billion. The publication bases its rankings on charities’ reports of cash and other gifts received from private sources.

Canadian judges will decide on veiled witnesses. Ontario’s highest court has ruled female witnesses may testify in court while wearing a face-covering burqa or niqab, but such decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis by the presiding judge. In a 3-0 ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that witnesses’ right to freedom of religion must be balanced with the right of the accused to a fair trial and the right to face their accuser. The court effectively overturned a lower court’s order that required a Muslim woman to remove her niqab while testifying at the trial of two male relatives accused of sexually assaulting her. The high court said the woman should have been allowed to explain why her religious beliefs compel her to wear the niqab and to demonstrate the sincerity of those beliefs. But the court agreed the accused’s rights could be compromised if the woman’s facial expressions and demeanor could not be scrutinized while she gave evidence. The court stressed requests to have witnesses remove their veils must be considered on a case-by-case basis, because the subject does not lend itself to any clearly defined rules.

—Compiled from Religion News Service

Baptist churches across the board agree—Jesus Christ is the head of the church.

But when it comes to ways Christians discern Christ’s will for their particular congregation, handle its day-to-day administrative chores and make decisions about budget and buildings, Baptist churches demonstrate remarkable diversity.

Both the 1963 and 2000 versions of the Baptist Faith & Message identify the local Baptist church as an autonomous body operating through democratic processes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In such a congregation, each member is responsible and accountable to Christ, the faith statements assert.

In his book The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms, Walter B. Shurden of Mercer University linked the Baptist commitment to democratic church governance to the emphasis on the individual.

“Baptists practice democratic church polity not because it is more efficient or more reliable or even more biblical than other forms. They follow it because it accents the role of the individual within community, allowing the greatest freedom for the greatest number of people to have a say. Moreover, democratic church polity is a statement of the equality of all believers in determining the mind of Christ,” wrote Shurden, then-director of Mercer’s Center for Baptist Studies.

But how churches exercise their autonomy, carry out democratic processes and give members opportunities to carry out their responsibilities differ—particularly after their membership grows.

Some historians point to the thoroughly democratic practices of early Baptists in the Colonies as influencing early American democratic ideals and providing a model for the New England town hall meeting. Many small-membership congregations still hold similar monthly business meetings where member openly discuss and vote on every decision that affects the church.

However, allowing every person in a 50-member congregation an opportunity to speak publicly regarding an issue is one thing; allowing every person in a 500-member or 5,000-member church the same privilege is another.

So, some chur-ches have chosen to delegate certain authority to smaller groups, whether staff, deacons, elders or committees.

“I’ve come to believe the polity issue is usually resolved in Baptist churches of varying sizes by virtue of efficiency rather than theology,” said Gary Long, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gaithersburg, Md.

The way decisions are made and the number of people involved in that decision-making process tend to depend in part on the level of trust members have in leaders, he asserted.

“If trust is high, decisions are made more frequently in smaller groups and supported by the larger congregation. When trust is low and anxiety is high, there is more of a call from the congregation for a vote,” he said. “Good leaders seem to sense where decisions are along the scale of importance and weigh out when to act versus get congregational input.”

Polity also may be determined simply by how busy and involved members are at a particular point, Long added.

“The folk who are busy raising kids, coaching soccer, excelling at career and truly focusing on their own spirituality seem more interested in volunteering and serving than in leading and deciding,” he observed.

Long, former pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, noted he has served in a congregation where decisions of various types explicitly are categorized, and the level of congregational input was determined by perceived importance.

“Hiring and firing ministers were A level, for example. Calendar decisions were C level and agreed upon by the staff. Plans for a yearly focus or a new ministry partner were B level and decided by committees in consultation with ministry staff,” he said.

Even so, some level of ambiguity remained.

“Of course there were times when I was left wondering, ‘Is this a B or a C level issue?’ Those were the times when I deferred to the next level up the chain, rather than guessing I had the authority to decide something on my own,” he said.

“It was slow, but I don’t recall ever getting criticized for counting on other church members to help with decisions.”

In some respects, First Baptist Church in Woodbridge, Va., follows a similar approach. The church votes on major decisions in a church meeting that requires 50 percent of active members for a quorum. Major decisions include budget, incurring debt, hiring a senior pastor and making changes to bylaws or constitution.

At a members’ meeting every other month, the church receives financial reports, grants transfer of membership and accepts new members, approves any mid-year budget changes and votes on hiring any staff other than the senior pastor.

However, the Woodbridge church adds a different approach in terms of day-to-day administration. Elders deal with matters of spiritual discipline and proper doctrine. An administrative ministry team—which includes an elder—manages the church’s resources. Deacons work in a servant role, alongside dozens of ministry teams.

Ray Bearden, who has been pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodbridge, 17 years led his congregation to institute the role of elder about seven years ago, but he emphasized the elders’ primary role is to provide spiritual leadership. Elders are selected on the basis of already exhibiting the gift of spiritual leadership and as being people to whom the congregation looks for wisdom, he explained.

“They are not ruling elders,” he stressed. “These are people who have spiritual influence already.”

Bearden led the church to install elders in part because was wanted the accountability to a group whom the congregation acknowledged as spiritual leaders. Also, he felt many deacons were operating outside their spiritual gifts. Deacons who clearly had the spiritual gift of service but lacked the gift of administration and leadership were devoting much of their time and energy to “administrative minutia,” he said.

According to the system the Woodbridge church instituted, the congregation has a minimum of five and maximum of seven elders, including the pastor, who is the only elder not subject to a term limit. Other elders are limited to two consecutive three-year terms.

“We meet every Tuesday night for two to three hours, with at least one hour spent in prayer,” Bearden said. “It’s a pretty heavy commitment.”

An elder-selection committee nominated the initial group of elders, and the congregation approved them. Subsequent nominees have been suggested by the congregation, considered and nominated by the elders and then affirmed by a vote of the congregation.

First Baptist Church in Marshall follows a more traditional Baptist approach to decision-making and day-to-day administration. The church makes significant decisions in general business meetings, and most of the recommendations come from committees.

“When the committee system works well, it provides a shared sense of being given ownership and being involved—that a particular project is not just staff-led or pastor-led,” Pastor Kevin Hall said.

Hall acknowledged some churches have moved toward granting most decision-making authority to a board of elders, to staff or even to the pastor alone, but he questioned the wisdom of that approach.

“It’s more Baptist to have as many of the people making the decisions as possible,” he said. “Granted, it’s more arduous. It slows things down.”

But allowing church members time to work through processes at their own pace also means providing time to build consensus. Objections can be addressed along the way, corrections can be made, and the church can benefit from the process.

A friend jokingly refers to lengthy processes as “traveling at the speed of church,” Hall noted.

“Moving at the speed of church may be slower, but it may be better.”

AUBURN, Ala. (RNS)—Chad Gibbs has been on a pigskin pilgrimage throughout the South, searching for spiritual truth in Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, Gainesville and Fayetteville.

He grew up a fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide and switched allegiance to his alma mater—and the University of Alabama’s archrival—Auburn University. For a while, Gibbs became so fanatical he wondered if football had replaced God as his god.

“I wondered about how much I could care about football before it starts to hinder my faith,” said Gibbs, a 2002 Auburn graduate who lives less than a mile from the school’s famed Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Gibbs set out to find how other Christian football fans handled their dual obsessions. For 12 weeks he attended football games involving every Southeastern Conference football team.

That quest resulted in Gibbs’ new book, God and Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC, which tracks college football’s near-religious following in the heart of the Bible Belt, where many fans worship their SEC teams on Saturdays and God on Sundays.

In the summer of 2009, he contacted churches and campus ministries in all 12 SEC university towns.

“I was looking for fanatical fans that were also Christians,” Gibbs said. “My idea was to go to the games and spend time with them and see how they balance the two.”

Among the many memorable people he met was a Catholic priest, Gerald Burns, pastor of St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, La., who watches Louisiana State University games on his big-screen, high-definition TV. He once joined the LSU crowd in chanting, “Go to hell, Ole Miss!” while wearing his Roman collar. LSU won 61-17.

Gibbs soon realized he wasn’t the only one who got carried away with football, letting it become his religion.

“If you ask them point-blank, ‘Do you worship football?’ they’d say no,” Gibbs said. But for some, football clearly trumps God, he said.

Gibbs interviewed evangelist David Nasser, a football fan, who talked about how discussing football opens doors to sharing faith. Nasser added, however, that “football is a great hobby, but a horrible god.”

The statement struck a chord with Gibbs, and became the theme of his book.

“I was using football for my self-awareness and identity as a person,” Gibbs said. “I was trying to get too much out of football. On a Sunday morning after a loss, I was still pouting. … I was looking to get so much out of football that football really can’t give you. I learned you have to take it as what it is, as a game.”

People who look for the meaning of life and salvation from football always will be disappointed, he said.

“When you try to fill that void where you’re supposed to put God, if you try anything else, it doesn’t work,” Gibbs said.

“It’s not something to build your life around. Football’s certainly not worth being miserable about. When you start leaving games depressed, you may want to step back and take a critical look at things. I began to realize what about football had me so wrapped up. I was looking for more from football than I should be looking for from football. It’s hard to fit a football into the God-shaped hole in your heart.”

After Auburn’s win over Clemson this season, Auburn Coach Gene Chizik said, “It’s a God thing,” which stirred up a lot of commentary over how much God really cares about football.

“When I heard it, I did kind of cringe,” Gibbs said. “I know how it sounded. It sounded like God made Clemson miss a field goal.”

Gibbs thinks what the coach was getting at was turning a loss into a learning experience. And while Gibbs clearly thinks football shouldn’t be more important than spiritual issues, he doesn’t rule out that God cares about football.

“I don’t think God gets upset if we go to football games,” Gibbs said. “You can obviously take it too far. I think God’s big enough to hear prayers about Sudan and football at the same time.

“I don’t think God’s a fan of a particular team. If he is, right now he’s an Alabama fan.”

—Greg Garrison writes for The Birmingham News in Birmingham, Ala.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When comedian Stephen Colbert brought his act to Capitol Hill last month and stole the spotlight with his satirical shtick, no one was more surprised than lawmakers.

“You run your show,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers scolded him. “We run the committee.”

When Colbert finally let his well-coiffed hair down and got serious about the “really, really hard work” done by migrant farmworkers, even more people were surprised when the funnyman gave a glimpse of his private faith.

“And, you know, ‘whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers,’ and these seem like the least of our brothers right now,” Colbert said, quoting Jesus. “Migrant workers suffer and have no rights.”

It was a different kind of religious message than Colbert typically delivers on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, where he often pokes fun at religion—including his own Catholic Church—in pursuit of a laugh.

Yet it was the kind of serious faith that some of his fellow Christians say makes him a serious, covert and potent evangelist for their faith.

“Anytime you talk about Jesus or Christianity respectfully the way he does, it is evangelization,” said Jim Martin, the associate editor of the Jesuit magazine America, who has appeared on Colbert’s show four times. “He is preaching the gospel, but I think he is doing it in a very post-modern way.”

Colbert’s on-air persona is a bloviating holier-than-thou conservative whose orthodox Catholicism is part of what makes him funny. On air, Colbert has chided the pope as an “ecu-menace” for his outreach to other faiths, referred to non-Catholics as “heathens and the excommunicated” and calls those who believe in evolution “monkey men.”

Diane Houdek has tracked Colbert’s on-air references to Catholicism on her blog, Catholic Colbert. When he recites the Nicene Creed or Bible verses from memory, it shows how foundational his faith is, she said.

“He is moving in an extremely secular world. It is hard to get a lot more secular than Comedy Central,” Houdek said. “Yet I feel he is able to witness to his faith in a very subtle way, a very quiet way to an audience that has maybe never encountered this before.”

It’s particularly powerful to Catholics, Houdek said, when the lines blur between Colbert’s personal faith and that of his on-air alter ego.

She pointed to a 2007 segment in which his character reveled in Pope Benedict XVI’s statement that non-Catholic faiths were “defective.”

“Catholicism is clearly superior,” Colbert crowed beside a picture of the pope. “Don’t believe me? Name one Protestant denomination that can afford a $660 million sexual abuse settlement.”

It wasn’t just funny, Houdek said, but also powerful. “He really made a strong criticism of the church.”

Colbert’s personal opinions about Catholicism usually are not so clearly displayed, and his range of guests offers few clues. Guests have ranged from the theological left—openly gay Catholic writer Andrew Sullivan—to the conservative Catholic League President William Donohue.

Houdek regularly fields comments from readers who believe they’ve found a fellow traveler in Colbert.

“You can’t pin him down,” Houdek said. “He becomes kind of a Rorschach test for what the viewer’s beliefs are.”

David Gibson, a Catholic writer who covers religion for PoliticsDaily.com, said Colbert’s ability to present his character and himself at the same time is where his strength as a Christian role model lies.

“I think what he models most effectively is the talent for discernment,” Gibson said. “He shows what is important to the faith and what can genuinely be debated and disparaged.”

Kurt C. Wiesner, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Littleton, N.H., writes a blog about religion and popular culture. Watching Colbert’s congressional testimony, he saw something that reaches beyond Catholicism.

“He offered a human witness, without a doubt,” Wiesner said. “He gave witness to what Christians are often called to do, but the message isn’t be a Christian like him. It is that one’s faith calls us to be engaged with our fellow human beings.”

Baptists long have been known as strong advocates of the priesthood of the believer—the idea that every individual can approach God and have a personal relationship with the Creator. Each person has the right to interpret Scripture for himself or herself.

The concept of the priesthood of the believer gave rise to the congregational form of church governance—each member having a say in the decisions the church makes, from calling a pastor to determining the color of the nursery walls.

The democratic process is the congregational form’s strength, Pastor Kevin Payne of First Baptist Church in Independence, Mo., believes.

“It’s the recognition that everyone has a voice. It recognizes each person’s value,” he said. “The congregation holds people accountable.”

Payne believes democracy also is the system’s weakness. “The democratic process has serious flaws,” he said. “It’s dominated by those with strong personalities.”

It’s unwieldy, he added, slowing decision-making. Often, requests must pass through several committees before getting to First Baptist’s quarterly business meetings.

Fewer members participate in business sessions, particularly younger members. “They don’t want to talk about money and routine business matters,” Payne said. “They want to do ministry.”

Mark Wingfield, associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, believes the congregation’s character, rather than its size, determines governance. Wilshire, which averages about 1,100 in worship, follows a slightly modified congregational structure, with deacons.

Wilshire uses committees for business issues, such as personnel, and for structure, such as worship and education. When the church discovered some committees, such as baptism, had little to do with churchwide decision-making, they were converted to ministry teams.

“Our congregation is pretty easy-going, and the history of the church shows that it has not been acrimonious,” Wingfield said. “There is a high trust level, and we have been intentional about balance on our committees between male and female, married and single, old and young.”

Leaders at First Baptist in Independence may explore other governing options based on demographics rather than size. The church averages about 215 in Sunday morning worship.

One option First Baptist may consider is a governing form gaining acceptance among some Baptists—elders, either as a “ruling” elder board that decides administrative and business issues or as a “spiritual” body that leads in doctrine and ministry.

The Acts 29 Network, which includes some Baptist churches, advocates use of ruling elders. The pastor is the lead elder, with a group of others who decide most issues—business and spiritual.

But elders in other Baptist congregations focus on spirituality and service. First Baptist Church of Woodbridge, Va., uses a congregational form of government enhanced with a small group of elders.

Pastor Ray Bearden believes the governing process remains congregational at heart, because church members can express their opinions in business sessions held every other month and participation in ministry teams.

The church uses an administrative ministry team for day-to-day business. Major issues, including the budget, are brought to the congregation. Members can bring up anything from the floor during business sessions.

The church also has deacons whose primary focus is to care for church members and to concentrate on ministry delivery.

Elders at the Woodbridge church “ensure proper doctrine and exercise church discipline,” Bearden said. They also can step in to help the pastor or teams deal with conflict. Elders “may wade into” the discussion on any issue that needs “spiritual clarity … to make sure team members maintain … a spiritual focus,” he said.

He believes the combination of deacons and elders works well for his church, because it allows people to serve where they are gifted and helps keep the focus on ministry.

Cowboy churches tend to use an elder system, as well, explained Charles Higgs, director of western-heritage ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. In most cases, they serve as the “spiritual soul of the church,” rather than as ruling elders.

Most cowboy congregations, at least in Texas, primarily are lay-led, with elders serving alongside lay pastors. Usually the church has no deacons, and business and ministry are handled through ministry teams.

Generally, the church only conducts an annual congregational business meeting, but additional business conferences can be called for land or building purchases or to call a pastor.

Accountability is a key strength, Higgs believes. The pastor is accountable to the elders, who are accountable to the congregation who elects them.

Elders are not elected for life, but, instead, usually are elected to three-year rotating terms. The pastor and elders determine who will serve on the various ministry teams. The first Sunday of each month, everyone is asked to stay after worship to participate as part of the leadership team.

The system works well because cowboy churches target and tend to reach adults (70 percent of baptisms are adults), particularly men, many who are put off attending traditional churches because of a perceived emphasis on money. Several rural congregations have adopted the model, calling themselves “country” churches, Higgs said.

Higgs sees two drawbacks. First, he has seen a few congregations suffer when elders “felt empowered” to control the church and resort to an elder-ruled system.

Second, communication can become mired. Pastors and elders must make sure they communicate to the congregation. Higgs believes encouraging all members to participate on the leadership team is a way to bridge the communication gap.

As some congregations reach out to minister beyond their church campus, many have chosen to begin second or third or more sites under the church umbrella. Adding more sites usually means adjusting the congregation’s governing structure.

Glenn Akins, assistant executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, works with multi-site congregations. Currently on sabbatical to study multi-site governance, Akins favors a business model form of church polity.

In addition to his state role, Akins also is a member of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond that has four campuses.

The multi-site approach to church growth has three advantages over establishing independent congregations, Akins believes. Multi-sites are more cost effective. They build on a “recognized brand”—the church already is known in a community or city. Also, “there is a synergy of resources that the satellite has access to,” he said.

Akins sees governance in multi-site churches as akin to franchising. Most sites remain as part of the whole rather than become independent congregations because of their “shared DNA,” he said. “They are so integratedly woven, so there is no obvious way to cut them apart.”

Governance has been the last piece of multi-site work to receive much attention, he explained. Congregations concentrate on ministry first. Business franchises operate from a plan that spells out the relationship and the financial agreements between the parent company and the franchisee.

“I haven’t seen one for multi-sites yet. There are pieces but no complete document,” Akins said.

Eugenia Freiburger addressed the topic at a recent Southern Baptist Research Fellowship conference. An adjunct instructor on leadership at the Baptist Seminary at Richmond and at Union Theological Seminary, she stresses the importance of developing a framework within which a satellite will be launched.

“The framework allows the church to make intentional choices—to determine what’s negotiable and what’s non-negotiable for all aspects of church life, including governance,” explained Freiburger, also a freelance consultant on leadership. “The framework helps the congregation to talk through the issues before the launch takes place.”

The church and the satellite would determine the form of governance based upon identity, organizational design and ministry strategy.

“You must answer the question: Does the governance facilitate the strategy or can it change?” she said. “I believe form follows function.”

Other patterns

As new ways to minister develop, likely church governance will take different forms. The missional movement already has affected polity issues in some areas.

For example, the California-based Ecclesia Network, of which New Life Christian Fellowship in Blacksburg, Va., is a part, uses an equipping team composed of individuals each gifted with one of the “basic gifts” listed in Ephesians 4.

And a handful of congregations scattered across the country still follow a very old polity—union. During western expansion and the days of circuit-riding preachers, diverse congregations shared a building and often gathered to hear one another’s minister.

Hopewell Union Church near High Point, Mo., retains that flavor. Southern Baptist, Presbyterian and Independent Christian congregations have shared the building since 1829. They have shared the last two pastors who together have served for about 20 years.

“There are theological differences,” explained current Pastor Randy Smith. “But there hasn’t been a problem.”

Members of each denomination determine issues that affect themselves, and each denomination is represented on the full congregation’s trustee board. Items such as building and grounds or participation in community events are simply brought up for a vote following a worship service.

Auto parts store charged with religious harassment. A Sikh employee of AutoZone has sued his employer, asserting he was harassed for wearing a turban. The suit, announced by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, said employee Frank Mahoney-Burroughs was treated like any other employee at the store in Everett, Mass., until he converted to Sikhism and started wearing a turban. “Then, AutoZone managers called him a terrorist, told him that he was offending customers and terminated him,” said Sandeep Kaur, a staff attorney for the Sikh Coalition. When customers made terrorist jokes or called Mahoney-Burroughs “Bin Laden,” none of his coworkers stepped up and intervened, the EEOC claims. He also allegedly was told not to wear a turban or the kara, a religious bracelet—articles of faith for Sikhs. The EEOC is seeking stronger antidiscrimination policies and training at AutoZone and monetary relief for Mahoney-Burroughs.

Zacchaeus’ tree beckons tourists. A huge sycamore tree in Jericho that some believe was climbed by Zacchaeus the tax collector to get a better view of Jesus is the centerpiece of a new tourism campaign by the Palestinian government. Once the winter home of the wealthy elite thanks to its balmy winter weather, Jericho has seen hard times in recent years, especially since the start of the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s. But the current Palestinian administration is working to reestablish Jericho as a tourism destination, and it is placing the Zacchaeus tree at the core of the town’s 10,000 birthday celebrations, part of a yearlong series of events. Although no one can say for certain whether the gnarled old tree is the same one cited in the New Testament, experts who have examined it say it may very well date back to the time of Jesus.

Judge rejects suit against religious language. A federal judge has dismissed a suit arguing that engravings of “In God We Trust” and the Pledge of Allegiance at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center are unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge William Conley of Madison, Wisc., dismissed the suit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation due to lack of standing. He said the Wisconsin-based organization did not make a sufficient link between their taxpayer status and the money spent on the engravings that included the national motto and the words “under God” in the pledge.

Court lets pierced teen return to school. Ariana Iacono, a high school freshman in Clayton, N.C., was allowed to return to class after missing more than four weeks of school for wearing a small nose stud that violated the school dress code. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of Iacono, claiming the school was violating her right to religious freedom as a member of the Church of Body Modification, which believes rituals such as tattoos and piercings are essential to spirituality and connect followers to the divine. The emergency court order will allow Iacono to attend school while the lawsuit continues on the constitutional questions raised by her case.

—Compiled from Religion News Service

When evangelist Billy Graham, social activist Jim Wallis, pastor Rick Warren, theologian Al Mohler and author Brian McLaren all can fit under the umbrella term “evangelical,” some theological and cultural observers wonder if the term has lost its meaning.

And at the same time, some Baptists who either continue to identify themselves as Southern Baptist or grew up in that tradition question whether the label fits them.

On the right, some Southern Baptists have embraced engagement with evangelicals in conservative Christian political concerns, but they question how long their denomination can maintain fellowship with a movement with such broad parameters.

“Southern Baptists and other evangelical groups may be ships passing in the night,” wrote Steve Lemke, provost of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, in a paper on “The Future of Southern Baptists as Evangelicals,” delivered in 2005 at a Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary conference. “Many evangelical institutions seem to be shifting to the left, while Southern Baptists have made a sharp course correction to the right.”

On the other hand, some Baptists who hold to strict separation of church and state have shied away from the term “evangelical” because they believe it has be co-opted by the Religious Right. That tendency could be seen early in a 1976 Newsweek magazine cover story, “Born Again! The Year of the Evangelicals.” In it, a noted Southern Baptist ethicist and agency head emphatically sought to distance himself and his denomination from the growing movement.

“We are not evangelicals. That’s a Yankee word,” the late Foy Valentine, then executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission, told religion reporter Kenneth Woodard. “They want to claim us because we are big and successful and growing every year.

“But we have our own traditions, our own hymns and more students in our seminaries than they have in all of theirs put together. We don’t share their politics or their fussy fundamentalism, and we don’t want to get involved in their theological witch hunts.”

But things changed in the intervening 34 years. Decades of bitter denominational controversy transformed the landscape.

• A survey conducted by LifeWay Research for Outreach magazine recently named the largest and fastest growing churches in the nation. While some of the top five in each category have Baptist roots, only one—Second Baptist in Houston, the country’s third-largest congregation—has the word “Baptist” in its name.

• Many Baptist churches sing the same praise and worship choruses as independent evangelical congregations.

• Denominational gatherings generally pale in attendance compared to conferences sponsored by networks of evangelical megachurches.

• And the six seminaries supported by the Southern Baptist Convention no longer have a virtual monopoly on educating the next generation of ministers.

“Looking at theological education, when I began teaching, the Association of Theological Schools was dominated by the Ivy League schools and by the mainline denominational seminaries. Today, ATS is dominated by the evangelical schools. Nearly all the largest seminaries are evangelical. It’s a different ballgame,” said James Leo Garrett, distinguished professor emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of Baptist Theology: A Four-Century Study.

A 1983 book by Garrett and Glenn Hinson sought to answer the question, “Are Southern Baptists Evangelicals?”

Hinson took the position that Southern Baptists and evangelicals shared some common ground, rooted in the Protestant Reformation. But he insisted Baptists in general—and Southern Baptists in particular—placed priority on the experience of voluntary, uncoerced faith. Evangelicals, on the other hand, emphasized objective, propositional truth as they believed it be revealed in Scripture.

Garrett, in contrast, classified Southern Baptists as “denominational evangelicals.” He noted they shared with evangelicals in general a commitment to the authority of Scripture, Christ-centered doctrine, gospel proclamation, the experience of grace and the imperative of evangelistic and missions endeavors.

Garrett believes events in the years since his and Hinson’s book have validated his position.

“Fewer Baptists today would utterly deny that Southern Baptists are evangelical,” he said.

As far as his designation of Southern Baptists as “denominational” evangelicals, Garrett said if many Southern Baptists today look more generically evangelical than distinctively Baptist, he cites two causes—failure to teach distinctive Baptist principles and fallout from denominational in-fighting.

“One of the greatest causes of dropping Baptist identity has been 30 years of controversy,” he observed.

But while some Baptists have discarded their own de-nominational label, others have shied away from the term “evangelical” because of the political baggage it carries.

Theologian William Brackney regrets that tendency. In an article for EthicsDaily.com, he emphasized his belief that the evangelical label is among those “terms above being hijacked for special purposes.”

“I use it in a particular way—to denote any professing Christian who defines faith in the context of Scripture, who understands Jesus Christ as a unique union of God and humanity, and who holds to the necessity of conversion and vital Christian experience and witness,” wrote Brackney, professor of Christian theology and ethics at Acadia University and Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia.

“I happen to believe that ‘evangelical’ legitimately applies to groups or persons in Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox categories, regardless of race, gender, lifestyle or socio-economic status.”

Although Brackney says he uses the term to describe “gospel-friendly people of many different stripes,” he acknowledges some use to it describe a particular social, political and cultural viewpoint rather than a doctrinal commitment.

“A whole new phenomenon has arisen in political evangelicalism that is identified with anti-abortion, opposition to same-sex unions, anti-big government, anti-socialism, anti-Islam racial profiling, as well as pro-individualism, pro-capitalism and various degrees of neo-nationalism,” he wrote.

But, Brackney and Garrett agreed, whatever its shortcomings, the evangelical label finds its grounding in Scripture. For a people who emphasize the authority of the Bible, it’s difficult to argue with that.

“It’s rooted in the good news of the gospel,” Garrett said. “It’s hard to make an argument for a better term.”

Atheists, agnostics, Mormons and Jews appear to have a better understanding of world religions than Christians, according to a recent nationwide Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey.

If that’s the case, Texas Baptist leaders believe a lack of knowledge could impede efforts to share the gospel.

In a poll that questioned people about their knowledge of various religions, religious figures and religious history, atheists and agnostics scored highest, correctly answering an average of 20.9 out of 32 questions. Jews and Mormons followed closely behind, correctly answering 20.3 and 20.5 questions respectively.

Protestants averaged 16 correct answers per quiz, and Catholics fared even worse, netting an average of 14.9 correct responses.

Agnostics and atheists scored higher on questions about religions other than Christianity, while Mormons and Christians correctly answered a higher percentage of questions about Christianity. The more people were involved in religious activities, the better they did on the survey.

Baptist leaders across Texas found Christians’ apparent lack of knowledge about other faiths particularly troubling, noting that knowledge of other people’s beliefs helps create and facilitate relationships, which are the key to evangelism ef-forts.

“A Christian should absolutely know about other beliefs,” said Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director-treasurer of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas.

“We are called to take the gospel to the nations. To be an effective witness, we must engage peoples of other faiths. How can we hope to do that without a basic understanding of other beliefs? Having an informed discussion with a Muslim regarding the five pillars of Islam would enable an honest dialogue that communicates respect and will open doors for future discussions.”

Jim Denison, Baptist General Convention of Texas theologian-in-residence and president of the Center for Informed Faith, agreed. Denison noted even the earliest Christians used their knowledge of other faiths as a path to sharing the hope of Christ.

“Paul studied the religions he found in Athens, then used what he discovered as a bridge to the gospel,” he said.

“Early Christian leaders explained Greek philosophy in equipping believers to fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus called us the ‘light of the world’ and the ‘salt of the earth,’ change agents who are called to take our faith into public life. The more we know about the be-liefs of others, the more effective we will be in showing them why Christianity is relevant to their lives.”

Phil Miller, director of the BGCT Bible Study/discipleship team, said one of the reasons for Christians’ seeming lack of knowledge about world religions has been their reluctance to engage those around them in recent years.

By talking with people of other faiths, Miller said, Christians have the opportunity to learn about other religions. And by listening, Christians gain their respect and earn the right to share the gospel.

“We need to know what we believe well enough that we can share it with someone else,” Miller said. “We have come to a day in society where even if we are diametrically opposed to what they believe, we have to be able to sit down with someone and ask them what they believe. Then be quiet long enough to listen. Afterward, we will have the opportunity to tell our story.”

Discussions about faith not only help Christians understand the beliefs of others and open avenues through which the gospel can be shared, they also aid believers in better understanding their own faith, said Keith Lowry, BGCT single adult/family ministry/ senior adult specialist.

“The best way to get to know the faith of your neighbor is get to know your neighbor,” Lowry said. “Best way to learn about your faith is to share it with your neighbor. If more Baptists are willing to do that, I think we could change the world.”

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (RNS)—Say a group of immigrants wants to build a mosque in Mayberry, right next to All Saints Church. A Bible study guide asks, “WWAD: What Would Andy Do?”

The question of a mosque, of course, never surfaced in the beloved Andy Griffith Show that chronicled life in the bucolic town of Mayberry, untouched by the battles of civil rights and war that festered in the 1960s.

Tucked somewhere into the cool green hills of North Carolina, Sheriff Andy Taylor mediated minor feuds in the largely homogeneous hamlet, guided his son, reined in the excitable Deputy Barney Fife and set an example for common-sense leadership that still in-spires today.

Joey Fann, a software engineer from Huntsville, Ala., who has written The Way Back to Mayberry, a popular study guide for small groups in churches, wonders what the calm lawman of Mayberry would make of America’s current collective agitation.

“What impressed me first about the series is the friendships between the characters and the compassion Andy has for everyone,” Fann said. “There are a lot of values in that, even 50 years later.”

Fann’s book has been re-issued in time for the show’s 50th anniversary. At 44, Fann is too young to have seen the show until it went into re-runs. The show lived on long past its run from 1960 to 1968, and Fann thinks the gentle unfolding of those basic values— which Fann also finds in his Christian faith—are why.

“Andy Griffith insisted that each show have a moral,” Fann said. “And religion is portrayed the way it fits into the life of people of faith: Just as part of everyday affairs and conversation. It’s a secular show, but you know these are church-going, God-fearing people.”

Fann began to analyze Barney’s antics and Andy’s tender shepherding of Mayberry while he was a student at Churches of Christ-affiliated David Lipscomb University in Nashville. It’s also when he fell in love with Mayberry.

Those conversations grew into a mid-week small-group class he taught and still leads from time to time at Twickenham Church of Christ in Huntsville.

The class received national attention and spawned his website, BarneyFife.com, where he and others share lessons and conversations about the show.

In 1999, an editor from B&H Publishing in Nashville contacted Fann to see if he’d consider writing a book. “I’m a software engineer, not a writer,” Fann told the editor.

But he picked out 30 of the episodes that had stuck with him and wrote essays on each, much as he would start a discussion for one of his group meetings at church. Each short essay begins with a Bible verse he sees illustrated by the episode.

The show is reaching a new generation in his home. Fann’s 4-year-old daughter, Josey, loves to watch the episodes with her father. Fann encourages other families to discover—or rediscover—the show to learn from the time-tested example of a town where everything was, in a loving kind of way, black and white.

“Any time you are talking about The Andy Griffith Show, you are going to have a good time,” Fann said. “Being a friend, being compassionate to people not like you, taking responsibility, being a good dad—I think we all need a little Mayberry in our hearts.”

The National Association of Evangelicals has a seven-point statement of faith.
Members affirm they believe:

• The Bible is the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative word of God.
• There is one God, eternally existent in three persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

• In the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his virgin birth, in his sinless life, in his miracles, in his vicarious and atoning death through his shed blood, in his bodily resurrection, in his ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in his personal return in power and glory.
• For the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
• In the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
• In the resurrection of both the saved and the lost—they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
• In the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Source: www.nae.net

Christian researcher George Barna defines evangelicals according to nine questions.
By Barna’s criteria, an evangelical is someone who:

• Has made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in his or her life today.
• Believes he or she will go to heaven based on confession of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior.
• Believes faith is very important in his or her life today.
• Believes he or she has a personal responsibility to share religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians.
• Believes Satan exists.
• Believes eternal life is possible only through grace, not works.
• Believes Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.
• Asserts the Bible is accurate in all it teaches.
• Describes God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect Deity who created the universe and still rules it today.

Source: www.barna.org

Are Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mainstream Baptists evangelicals? The answer is yes and no.

Formed in reaction to the Southern Baptist Convention’s shift to the far right in the late 1980s and early 1990s, both the CBF and Mainstream focus on what they perceive as historic Baptist principles—a personal experience and relationship with Jesus Christ, priesthood of the believer and the responsibility to share the gospel. In that sense, they are evangelical.

Are Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mainstream Baptists evangelicals? The answer is yes and no.But when the word “evangelical” becomes synonymous with a political movement, the CBF and Mainstream distance themselves.

Daniel Vestal, the Fellowship’s national coordinator, believes most individuals and churches that identify with the CBF would consider themselves as evangelicals. “I think they would … because of their desire to share (the gospel). Missions and evangelism are at the heart of who Baptists have been historically,” he said.

“Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was focusing on the gospel before it became a hot-button word,” Vestal added. “Sharing the Good News is in our DNA. … In our heart, it is who we want to be. … We are both evangelical and ecumenical—committed to sharing the Good News and committed to the body of Christ beyond our tradition.”

Mainstream Baptists, too, sharply distinguish between the traditional spiritual definition of evangelicalism and its link to a political movement. “We are born-again Christians. In so far as evangelicals are born-again Christians, then yes, we are evangelicals,” noted Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists.

“But as part of a political movement, then no, at least this individual Mainstream Baptist is not in anyway shape or form part of the Religious Right.”

Mainstream Baptists are evangelical because they are “concerned about euangelion,” concerned with sharing the gospel and having a personal relationship with Christ, Prescott emphasized.

Because they are “strong advocates” of the separation of church and state—a long-held Baptist stance—Mainstream Baptists “are not part of any secular political movement.”

Public confusion over the word’s meaning has created a problem in clearly communicating the stand the two entities take—serving Christ and advancing the kingdom through historic Baptist principles.

“When a word changes from a description of a concept to a brand, it becomes difficult to find a substitute term,” noted New Baptist Covenant Coordinator Jimmy Allen. A former SBC president, Allen is considered as the last moderate to hold that post.

He and Vestal were instrumental in forming the CBF as a separate entity, calling moderate Baptists together in the Consultation of Concerned Baptists in August 1990.

Evangelicalism used in its traditional sense “describes a historic commonality of believers who have rejected hierarchies and ritualistic religion for experiential religion, biblical authority, congregationalism and urgent missional outreach,” Allen said.

He believes the National Association of Evangelicals, a network of about 40 denominations that bills itself as “the gold standard of evangelical belief,” has co-opted the word.

Under the association, “the word has become a brand of its own,” Allen added. “It now stands for an ultra-conservative, fundamentalist-leaning fellowship.”