Baptists have not always agreed among themselves on doctrinal or ethical issues, but they have had some common beliefs that they have defended and on which they have been united. When one of these is challenged or rejected, the Baptist community is likely to be in a crisis as to how to respond.

Currently, a movement has been launched to convince Baptist churches to adopt open membership. That means Baptist churches should no longer insist that all individuals received into membership—barring some physical disability—have been baptized upon and after profession of faith in Jesus Christ by the mode of immersion. Instead, people who have had only infant baptism, who have had baptism by pouring or sprinkling, and possibly those who have had no baptism, may be received into Baptist churches without immersion so long as they profess faith in Jesus. Open membership is to be clearly differentiated from open communion, even though open communion has sometimes led to open membership.

Should Baptist churches be encouraged to adopt open membership, or are there good reasons for not doing so? I would like to offer five of the latter.

First, believer’s baptism by immersion is probably the all-time central Baptist distinctive. Other answers have been given to that question. Soul competency can hardly be traced behind E.Y. Mullins, leading Southern Baptist theologian who made it the clue to Baptist identity in 1905. Congregational polity has from the beginning been shared with Congregationalists. The priesthood of all believers has also been strongly affirmed by Lutherans. Religious liberty for all originally was a Baptist distinctive, but today it has been affirmed by most other Christian denominations. The Lordship of Christ has been claimed by others, if not applied as thoroughly.  

Although not a few non-Baptists today practice believer’s baptism by immersion, the majority of professing Christians in the world today practice infant baptism. It is true, of course, that John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, having recovered believer’s baptism, did not practice immersion. The Particular Baptists, who believed the death of Christ was intended for and actually brings about the remission of the sins of only those elected by God, a quarter of a century later adopted immersion. General Baptists, who believed that the death of Christ was adequate for the remission of the sins of all human beings but is effective only among those who believe, soon followed, unless, as Stephen Wright of England recently has argued, some Generals began to immerse a few months earlier. Thereafter, immersion became the normative mode of baptism for Baptists.

English Baptists were attacked for their baptismal beliefs and had to defend such; indeed it was this belief that provided Baptists their name. Texts such as Romans 6:1-4 and 1 Peter 3:21 were employed in that defense. To make believer’s immersion optional in Baptist churches would be to denigrate the central reason for a Baptist witness and a Baptist denomination. According to William H. Brackney, a respected present-day historian of the Baptists, “believer’s baptism by immersion is essentially Baptist,” and it is “the major Baptist contribution to modern Christian ecclesiology (doctrine of the church).”

Second, open membership has been a very marginal deviation in Baptist history. John Bunyan often is cited, but we must remember that his church in Bedford, England, was in the beginning and still is in the 21st century a mixed Baptist-Congregationalist (infant-baptizing) church—a pattern not followed by most all later Baptists. Open membership has become common only during recent decades in England, and now a few churches in the United States have embraced it. Should others join in the adoption of open membership? Tell that to Benjamin Keach, who was jailed and put in the pillory for explaining to children the Baptist understanding of baptism, to William Kiffin, who insisted infant baptism is not genuine baptism, to Obadiah Holmes, who was publicly whipped and jailed in Boston for his Baptist convictions, to Henry Dunster, who had to resign as the first president of Harvard College because he was a Baptist, or to Adoniram Judson, who lost his appointment as a Congregtionalist missionary and in Burma wrote to affirm his Baptist convictions about baptism!

Third, adopting open membership would not be prudent for today’s Baptists because the cause of believer’s baptism by immersion has not been a failure. Between 1850 and 1950, half a dozen new Christian denominations in the United States adopted believer’s baptism by immersion, and this trend is being replicated today in various indigenous Christian movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We should be grateful that believer’s baptism by immersion is no longer a Baptist distinctive. We should have the Spirit-led wisdom not to trivialize or abandon this foundation for Baptist life. To do so could leave Baptists with an uncertain and undefined ecclesiology, drifting on the high seas when Mormons, Roman Catholics, Pentecostals and—yes—Muslims are more confident and explicit about their beliefs.

Fourth, the adoption of open membership may be based on a false ecumenism. For Southern Baptists in particular, who have been influenced in the past by Landmarkism, the problem may be acute. Landmarkers insist only Baptist churches have the authority to administer believer’s baptism by immersion, and hence Baptist churches should not recognize “alien immersions,” that is, immersions of believers performed in non-Baptist churches and/or by non-Baptist ministers.

The growing rejection of anti-alien immersion, especially after other denominations have adopted believer’s baptism by immersion, has led some Baptists to “throw out the baby with the bath water.” They are ready to jettison the earlier, historic, pre-Landmark Baptist understanding of baptism in order to be accommodating to members of other denominations.

Three things need to be said in reply. The first principle of healthy interdenominational dialogue is to represent one’s own beliefs faithfully and accurately. It is not prerequisite to such dialogue to deny one’s own beliefs. Second, Baptists have defended immersion from the Greek verb baptizein (ital.), meaning “to dip, plunge, or immerse,” from examples of baptism in the New Testament (Acts 8:36, 38-39), and from Romans 6:1-4. But current advocates of open membership discredit that evidence. Third, truth and unity need to be kept in balance.  Jesus both made truth claims and prayed for the unity of his followers. We indeed should seek more extensive Christian unity but not at the price of the compromise of truth. Nor should Baptists deny that infant-baptizing churches may in some sense be true churches.

Believer’s baptism by immersion is not merely a practice such as whether to use wine or grape juice in the Lord’s Supper; it is a principle with deep theological connections. Does one expect Roman Catholics to renounce the primacy of Peter or Pentecostals to deny a post-conversional baptism in or with the Holy Spirit?

Fifth, believer’s baptism by immersion, as well as the Lord’s Supper, is closely connected with and is proclamatory of our Lord’s death, burial and resurrection. Paul understood this and made it the basis for the Christian life (Romans 6:1-14). No other mode can picture these events—death, burial and resurrection. Moreover, for Paul these events were veritably the center of the gospel proclamation (1 Cor. 15:3-8). The ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are gospel ordinances.

Among the advocates of open membership concern has been registered about “toddler baptisms” (under the age of 8) in Baptist churches. One should not deny the existence of problems in this regard. But concern must also be registered about the dry baptistries, the few baptisms and the plateaued congregations that are so prevalent. The effective proclamation of the gospel needs to be accompanied by the great symbols of that gospel.

For these reasons and in the awareness of the gravity of the issue, I ask you to reject open membership and to give renewed and celebratory emphasis to believer’s baptism by immersion.

James Leo Garrett is distinguished professor of theology, emeritus, at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of Baptist Theology: A Four-Century Study (Mercer University Press).

Baptism and local church membership have been inextricably linked historically in the minds of many Baptists. But that view is shifting as a decline in denominational loyalty and the easy movement of American Christians among churches of all stripes have created what writer Phyllis Tickle is calling the “great emergence”—a swirling convergence of denominational traditions toward a spiritual Christian core.

Nearly half of American adults have switched denominational affiliation at least once, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. As Baptist churches find growing numbers of Christians from other traditions knocking on their doors, assumptions about membership requirements have been shaken.

Although the vast majority of Baptists churches have retained their characteristic commitment to believer’s baptism by immersion, responses to membership requests vary—and more churches are exploring the available options.

Expanded watchcare

Baptists have long offered “watchcare” status to anyone wishing to affiliate with a church on a temporary basis without relinquishing membership in what they regard as their “home church”—a practice especially popular with college students. Typically, watchcare members’ participation is limited in some way, usually when it comes to voting on church business.

Faced with growing membership requests from Christians raised in traditions which don’t practice believer’s baptism, however, many churches have found watchcare a convenient vehicle to permit fellowship without modifying baptism requirements for full membership. In some churches, that has become watchcare’s primary purpose.

At Williams Trace Baptist Church in Sugar Land, near Houston, watchcare is “a way to catch and hold the attention of people who are not yet members,” said Pastor Phil Lineberger, whose church restricts full membership to Christians baptized as believers by immersion.

“For those who are Christians but are not baptized as we believe, we do this to keep families together,” said Lineberger. “If someone is a Methodist or Presbyterian, we want the family to join together at the same time. What we want to do is help them understand that the family unit is very important, and we consider it to be sacred. We don’t want to create division.”

While membership at Williams Trace is tied to baptism experience, Lineberger downplays the privileges of membership, which usually have to do only with disposition of property or other routine issues, he said.

“I’ve never found a potential church member who came to our church specifically to be able to vote on something,” he said. “The idea that you have to be a member to vote on these things—they really don’t care about that. You can’t build a great church around a business meeting.”

For Lineberger, watchcare also is associated with something closer to what the Emerging Church would describe as “belong first, then believe.”

“We allow them to become part of our fellowship and we’ll watch over them, whether or not they ever become a Christian or a Baptist,” he said. “They come and listen and participate and decide for themselves what they want to do.”

In the last few years, the church has baptized both Muslims and Jews who made professions of faith Christ after years of watchcare affiliation. One watchcare member—a Jewish man whose wife is Christian—is a teacher in the church’s college Sunday school class, where his grasp of the Old Testament and fluency in Hebrew make him a “rich resource,” said Lineberger.

“Some churches would be threatened” by a non-Christian teaching Sunday school, Lineberger said. “We’re not.”

Open membership

A growing number of Baptist churches—particularly on the East Coast—are adopting open membership policies, not requiring immersion of Christians who have been baptized by any form, including infant baptism.

“The conversation I have with potential members (from other denominations) is to emphasize soul freedom and the priesthood of the believer,” said David Washburn, pastor of First Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Va., which adopted an open membership policy in the 1980s.

Deep Water Dilemma

“I ask, ‘Has there been a time beyond your infant baptism when you were able to claim faith in Christ and make it your own?’

“If they tell me they have claimed that faith and that it is their own experience, we don’t re-baptize them.”

On the other hand, the conversation often leads in a different direction, he said.

“Sometimes they say, ‘Well, let me think about that. That faith really wasn’t mine.’ Our openness allows us to extend the conversation to talk about baptism in a more significant way. … We cheapen the significance of baptism when we make it more of a ‘punch-the-ticket’ requirement for membership.”

First Baptist Church in Clemson, S.C., whose open membership policy dates to the 1970s, is motivated by the same desire to avoid devaluing baptism—and by the baptismal experience of its pastor.

“I grew up as a Methodist and was sprinkled as a baby,” said Rusty Brock, who became pastor in Clemson about five years ago. “Then I was sprinkled again at 13, and when I was 18, I joined a Baptist church which required that I be immersed. I told the pastor I was a Christian and had been baptized, and he agreed, but he had to abide by the church’s bylaws. So, when he baptized me, he said, ‘Rusty has been a Christian for a long time, and we’re baptizing him into the Baptist faith.’

“I didn’t think about it at the time,” said Brock, a graduate of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. “But when I got to seminary and thought about it, I said: ‘Wait a minute. You don’t baptize people into a denomination; you baptize them into the body of Christ. Period.’ I realized we had made baptism an initiation into church membership.”

Both the Waynesboro and Clemson churches continue to baptize only believers by immersion. But like Washburn, Brock said the less restrictive membership practice “opens the door so you can have a dialogue with people. You can ask, are you secure in your baptism? And if faith in Christ is something you have never claimed, let’s talk about it and pray about it and consider baptism. But if your earlier baptism is valid in your faith journey, who are we to say that the last 20 years of your Christian discipleship doesn’t count?”

Believer’s baptism by any mode

In 2004, Northwest Baptist Church in Ardmore, Okla., modified its membership policy, retaining believer’s baptism as a requirement for membership but no longer insisting that it be by immersion.

“We feel that baptism should come after a profession of faith in Christ,” said Jonathan Blose, the church’s associate pastor. “But we don’t insist on a particular mode.”

Pastor Leonard Ezell, who has been at Northwest for less than two years, said probably half of his congregation comes from a non-Baptist background—and he wants them to feel welcomed.

“If they feel that their baptism as a believer—by immersion or sprinkling or pouring—was valid, we’ll accept them,” he said. “If they request to be rebaptized, of course we’ll do that, too.”

Separating baptism and membership

At Faith Community Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Barre, Vt., a concern not to devalue baptism by associating it only with church membership led it to separate the two.

“Even in churches that only practice believer’s baptism, if we automatically link baptism and church membership, we may well be hindering instead of helping people’s spiritual growth,” Pastor Terry Dorsett wrote in a recent blog.

Dorsett, who also is director of missions for the Green Mountain Baptist Association in northern Vermont and is partly funded by the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, wrote that in his church, believer’s baptism by immersion makes a person eligible for membership but doesn’t automatically add him or her to the roll.

“After they are baptized, if they want to become a member of church, they go through a separate process,” Dorsett wrote. “Though this approach goes against the tradition of most churches in our own particular denomination, we feel that it more accurately follows the biblical model.”

Dorsett maintained that while some New Testament passages seem to link baptism and church membership, others don’t.

“For example, the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 came to personal faith in Christ and was baptized in the middle of the desert,” Dorsett wrote. “There was literally no church for him to join. Philip baptized him anyway, resulting in him being a baptized Christian but not a member of any particular church. He most likely became part of a church at some future date, but not at the moment of his baptism. This passage indicates that baptism and church membership are not automatically connected.”

Redefining membership

At All Souls, a congregation with Virginia Baptist ties that is forming in Charlottesville, Va., the “bigger conversation is reflecting on what membership means,” Pastor Winn Collier said.

“It’s just not missional to say that before you can become part of us in a meaningful way you have to think like us, act like us, believe like us,” said Collier. “At the same time, there is something important about people who are truly attempting to live a way of life together and who are compelled by the same narrative, which for us is the narrative of Jesus—dead for our sins, resurrected, inviting us into the kingdom of God.”

As a sign of deeper commitment to the community, All Souls offers those who are part of the community an opportunity to adopt a rule of life that focuses on hospitality, restoration and peace.

“We ask people to commit to that way of living and form a personal rule of life for a year and challenge people to make specific choices about how they live their lives in those three areas,” Collier said. “But we don’t use the term ‘membership’ because membership speaks of being an insider. We say that no one is receiving any more privileges by taking on this rule of life. Everyone has a place at the table, everyone belongs, everyone has a part. But if you are ready to lay down your life for Jesus, consider adopting this rule of life.”

As a new church, Collier said, All Souls still is determining how and when baptism connects with the rule of life, and some observers might claim “we take a lower view of baptism because someone can be part of us without going through it.

“But, ironically, we take a much higher view of baptism. It’s not something where we just dunk believers. It’s not just an object lesson of their individual faith. The community of Jesus is accepting them; it’s not just them grabbing God but God grabbing them.

“For all of our attempts to try and come up with a culturally alive way to invite people into community—and I think we must always be contextually attuned—we just can’t recreate baptism. There’s nothing better. You die with Jesus, and your old life is drowned, and you come up resurrected and that’s the gospel. It’s powerful. And over the years following that act, we learn more and more about what it means.”

Like a lot of long-time church members, when I move to a new town I look for a home church with a worship style and doctrinal stance similar to where I have attended in the past. Moving a few years ago to a small town that didn’t have my kind of Baptist church, I started visiting a congregation in a larger town a few miles away.

One Sunday morning before I had moved my membership, I overslept and decided instead of arriving late I would—out of curiosity—visit a Presbyterian church not far from my home. Prior to the service, the pastor spotted me and approached my pew to check me out.

I introduced myself and told her I was a Baptist. She replied that a lot of the members of her church are former Baptists. I didn’t bother explaining to her that I wasn’t a prospect, because my job required that I belong to a Baptist church, but I thanked her and told her, truthfully, that I might drop by again sometime in the future.

It happened to be Epiphany, the Sunday when some Christian traditions commemorate Jesus’ baptism, and the children’s sermon that morning was about the meaning of baptism. What happened next took me totally by surprise.

As the pastor invited the children forward to dip their fingers into the baptismal font placed in the pulpit area, feelings rose up inside me that I could barely contain. I didn’t physically grab the front of my pew, but it was close. She was talking about infant baptism.

I don’t remember a single word from the service after that moment, and to this day don’t fully understand why I reacted so viscerally.

I grew up in a part of the country strongly influenced by Landmarkism, a fiercely sectarian Baptist movement in the 19th century that taught that Baptists were the only New Testament church and had been around in unbroken succession since the time of Christ.

Unlike the polemical writings of the likes of J.R. Graves and J.M. Pendleton I read while in seminary, on this day I wasn’t primarily concerned that Presbyterian children were being inducted into a “corrupt and irregular” body that was in reality a “religious society” and not a “gospel church” or that “paedobaptist” preachers were false ministers that “do not belong to the church of Christ.”

I wasn’t even cognizant of the argument that the Greek word transliterated “baptize” in the King James Version means “dip” or “immerse” but wasn’t translated that way because it wasn’t the mode used by the Anglican scholars who wrote it.

It didn’t even particularly bother me that for this church, the symbolism of baptism was apparently less about the individual convert’s witness to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and more about the congregation’s faith and a pledge to raise this newcomer in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Shoot, even in Baptist churches I had begun to wonder what we really meant by “believer’s baptism.” Most of the baptisms I had seen over the years were not adults but children, some at a very young age. I am sure a preschooler can believe that Jesus is his Savior, but I wonder how much it really means when she also believes in Santa Claus or that storks deliver babies.

One by-product of this almost-infant baptism is that often the young person will later have a more mature salvation experience and come forward either to be rebaptized or to “rededicate” his or her life.

Somehow, I managed to miss the first go-around. I wasn’t a bank robber or anything. I grew up in and out of churches and knew the plan of salvation. I suppose I was one of those “continue in sin so that grace may abound” types that Paul warned about in Romans 6.

When I made a profession of faith at age 19, it went something like this. I was told that I could be saved by walking the aisle and praying to receive Christ, but in order to join the church I would need to be baptized. To be honest, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me that faith alone was enough to make me right with God but not with the Baptist church, but the preacher said it was in “obedience to Christ.”

Once in the water my pastor asked me if I had accepted Christ as my Savior. (He already knew the answer, because I told him that when I walked the aisle the first time.) I said “I do.” Splash! I was in.

Given that baptism numbers are down even in the Southern Baptist Convention, which is supposedly more focused on soul-winning than it has been in decades, I must not be the only Baptist who wonders why in today’s pluralistic society—where it no longer seems natural to view Presbyterians, Methodists or even Catholics as a different religion—that something like believer’s baptism is still important.

But brother, I can tell you that it is to me.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

British army “targeting” mosques? Muslims in England are demanding the British army apologize for using apparent replicas of mosques for target practice on a firing range. The Bradford Council for Mosques, whose area is populated heavily by Muslims, claims the Ministry of Defense has set up seven phony mosques, complete with green-domed roofs, to shoot at on its firing ground in North Yorkshire. The Muslim group wants the army to dismantle the offensive targets and apologize for using them. In a statement, the Ministry of Defense did not apologize but insisted that it had “no intention” of causing offense and that the targets were part of “providing the best training facilities” for British armed forces now operating in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Graffiti sprayed on pope’s birthplace. Vandals in southern Germany spray-painted obscene graffiti on the birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI. The graffiti, painted in foot-high blue letters, was found over the door to the house in the Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn where Joseph Ratzinger was born in 1927. Police would not release the content of the three-word phrase, which was removed the same day, but a spokesman described it to the Associated Press as a “defaming remark from the realm of the obscene” which was not specifically aimed at the pope. A police spokesman told Agence France-Presse that “one can say (the graffiti) is connected” to the spreading international scandal over the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. That scandal has focused in recent weeks on charges that Benedict, when still a cardinal, mishandled cases of pedophile priests in Germany and the United States.

Pope plummets in polls. As sex abuse scandals continue to roil the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI’s approval ratings have plummeted, according to a new study, with 44 percent of Americans saying he has done a “poor” job handling the issue. Just 12 percent of Americans say the pope has done an “excellent” (3 percent) or “fair” (9 percent) job with the scandal, a significant drop from April 2008, when the pope visited the United States. At that time, 39 percent said he had done an excellent or good job addressing clergy sex abuse. The poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, was based on a national telephone survey April 1-5. The maximum margin of sampling error for the survey is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Want services in Quebec? Unveil. The Canadian province of Quebec has introduced unprecedented legislation that effectively would bar Muslim women from receiving or delivering public services while wearing a niqab, or face-covering veil. According to the draft law, Muslim women’s faces would have to be visible in all publicly funded locations, including government offices, schools, hospitals and daycare centers. Fully veiled women in the niqab or burqa, for example, would not be able to consult a doctor in a hospital or attend classes at public schools or a university. The province will hold public hearings on the draft legislation, but it is widely expected to pass.

ANAHEIM, Calif. (RNS)—Megachurch pastor Rick Warren stood on the mound at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., and delivered his Easter Sunday pitch.

“Baseball is a game of numbers in which every player falls short of perfection,” said Warren, a best-selling author and pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. “Similarly, in life, while we have all had a few hits or scored a few runs, we strike out a lot.”

Whether we’re superstars or benchwarmers, God’s our biggest fan, Warren concluded.

To the 50,000 people who watched Warren’s “Sermon on the Mound,” the striking similarities between baseball and religious life were clear as a summer Sunday. But, as a sprint around the bases shows, Warren is just one of a number of preachers, scholars, players and fans who hears echoes of the ethereal when the umpire cries “Play Ball!”

To some, baseball, which F. Scott Fitzgerald famously called “the faith of 50 million people,” is revered as a religion in itself. It follows a seasonal calendar—begun this year on Easter Sunday—and builds towards a crowning moment. Its players perform priestly rituals, its history abounds with tales of mythic heroes, and its fans study and argue about arcane information with the intensity of Talmudic scholars.

“Like a church, with its orthodoxy and heresies, its canonical myths and professions of faith, its rites of communion and excommunication, baseball appears in these terms as the functional religion of America,” writes religion scholar David Chidester of the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Or, as Annie Savoy poetically puts it in the 1988 film Bull Durham, “The only church that feeds the soul, day in, and day out, is the church of baseball.”

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas, a fellow fan of the Durham Bulls, has written that “there are few things better that Christians can do in and for America than play and watch baseball.”

Shaun Casey, an ethicist at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, isn’t willing to go that far. But he does teach a class called “Church of Baseball” at Wesley.

During the weeklong class, students go to a baseball game, learn to keep score, and read a box score. In addition, they read Robert Bellah’s famous essay on America’s civil religion, watch Ken Burns’ magisterial documentary on baseball, learn about Jackie Robinson’s integration as the first black player in the major leagues, and read how the St. Louis Cardinals beat the vaunted New York Yankees in 1964 by building a team that blended black and white players.

The point of the class, Casey, says, besides convincing students of the “divine blessedness” of the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, is to help seminarians think theologically about pop culture.

“It’s my belief that pastors ought to be able to interpret pop culture to their congregations,” Casey said, adding that ministers who know their way around a baseball diamond are equipped to “connect to the community and empower the people within their congregation to witness to the world.”

Some scholars say the national pastime is an integral part of the country’s civil religion—the secular events and places Americans invest with spiritual significance. Baseball’s civil rituals include having the president throw out the first pitch, as President Obama did in Washington on April 5, and singing the national anthem before games, which began during World War II.

William Herzog II, vice president for academic affairs at Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts, co-edited a book about baseball and religion called The Faith of Fifty Million, which explores the sacred status of baseball in American culture.

Baseball is just a game, Herzog said. It doesn’t feed the hungry, or care for the sick, or settle disputes between warring nations. And yet, he says, there is something ineffably stirring and nearly transcendent about sitting in Boston’s Fenway Park and seeing the outfield where great players once roamed—the “great cloud of witnesses,” or “communion of saints,” if you will.

“There are a lot of things about baseball that tug at the heart strings,” Herzog said. “You don’t see that with any other sport.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—As Francesca Battistelli performs concerts around the country, she shares life lessons, hoping to encourage young girls with the message that God has a plan and purpose for their lives—and they should settle for nothing less than what God has designed for them.

“It’s been really cool to hear stories about how so many girls are realizing that God created them uniquely and that he loves them unconditionally,” Battistelli said. “I think it’s so important for them to hear that God has different plans for each person, and they don’t have to measure up to someone else’s standards. They really are free to be who God created them to be.

Francesca Battistelli has received five nominations for the Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year, Artist of the Year and Song of the Year.

“When I was in school, I went through a time in my life where I struggled a lot with thinking that I had to be perfect in order for God to love me. I’m so thankful that’s not the case.”

At an early age, Battistelli expressed an interest in music and began performing in musical theaters and singing at church. After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in English, Battistelli moved to Nashville to begin a full-time music ministry.

“While I was in college, I felt like I should be doing music but also knew that I needed to be committed to finishing school,” she said. “It was during this time that God helped me to get better at my craft and allowed me to keep pursuing music even when I couldn’t devote myself to it full-time.

“When I moved to Nashville, it was tough because I didn’t know anyone and had to leave everything that was comfortable to me. But I’ve found that it’s during these times of feeling inadequate and stepping outside my comfort zone, that God is teaching me the most valuable lessons about relying on him.

“My parents have always encouraged me to take bold steps for Christ. Through each experience, the Lord constantly shows me that it’s worth it to trust and obey him.”

In 2008, Battistelli released her debut album, My Paper Heart, which contains a collection of songs about life and faith. 

Because of the authenticity and vulnerability expressed in her songs, Christian radio stations around the country have been inundated with requests for her songs.

This year, Battistelli was nominated for a Grammy award and garnered five nominations for the Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, including Artist of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year and Song of the Year.

In addition, Battistelli’s songs have received prominent placement in the movie Julie and Julia, and television programs including Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Biggest Loser, The Hills and So You Think You Can Dance. 

Through these opportunities, Battistelli has been given many platforms to share about the hope and security that she has because of her relationship with Christ.

“Ultimately, I want to be an encouragement as a believer,” she said. “I’ve been through so many experiences where I have known sorrow, and I have known joy.  During these times, God has spoken quietly the words of his heart, and he has shown me colors in the grayest hues of winter. 

“He has sung songs over me in solitude, and he has never let go of my fragile heart. He knows every corner of it—the tattered, torn and untouched places. He knows the songs that move it, the words that pierce it, and the people he uses to change it. So, I know that I am forever safe in his hands and want to share the message of hope with others.”

VENTURA, Calif. (ABP) — Nearly four of every 10 "unchurched" Americans avoid worship because of negative past experiences in churches or with church people, according to new research by The Barna Group.

The research firm that tracks the role of faith in America and provides ministry resources said that while many churches place high value on attracting people who do not participate in the life of a church, the unchurched may be different than they expect.

Rather than being "lost," or without faith, 61 percent of non-attending adults label themselves as "Christian." That's lower than the 83 percent of all Americans who self-identify as Christians, but it still outnumbers by a 3-2 margin the 39 percent of unchurched who do not embrace Christianity.

Instead of foreigners to church culture, a majority of the unchurched (53 percent) have distanced themselves from being Protestant or Catholic but at one time were associated with one of those groups. Thirty-seven percent said they stopped going because of painful experiences in a church setting.

Nearly one in five (18 percent) answered a standard set of questions used by Barna to categorize them as "born again."

Two thirds of the unchurched (68 percent) believe God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe and still rules that universe today. A third (35 percent) believe the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches.

One in five (22 percent) agree that the ultimate purpose of life is to love God with all their heart, mind, strength and soul, but just one in seven (15 percent) claim their religious faith is very important in their life.

Just 14 percent — about one in seven — claim to have a clear sense of the meaning and purpose of their life.

Barna's data indicates that 28 percent of adults have not attended any church services or activities within the last six month. That translates to nearly 65 million adults. Adding children under 18 who may be living with him, the number swells to 100 million. If the unchurched population of the United States were a nation of its own, it would be the 12th most-populous nation on the Earth.

Barna says the demographics of the group also defy common assumptions. There re more unchurched women than men. Boomers and their elders outnumber the young. Conservatives are more likely than liberals to be unchurched, and whites outnumber minorities nearly 3-1.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

A growing number of American Christians—and even some secular groups—are beginning to believe John Wesley had the right idea: “Make all you can; save all you can; give all you can.”

Hard work, thrift and philanthropy seem counter-cultural in a time and place where debt is pervasive, with individuals, families, companies and even the government borrowing increasing amounts of money.

Churches can offer American culture the gift of stewardship, Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission Director Suzii Paynter said. Church leaders preach about wise stewardship of time, energy and resources. Through church-sponsored financial seminars, people learn how to get out of debt and stay that way. And some congregations take seriously the responsibility to model wise stewardship to the world.

A group of primarily African-American congregations in three Central Texas counties have formed Texas Congregations United for Empowerment, an effort that brings together 6,000 church members to create better access to financial services, including loans from banks, for lower-income individuals and families.

While many people struggle in their attempts to describe stewardship and thrift, churches have a long history of living and promoting it, Paynter said.

“Stewardship is in our DNA,” she said. “It’s in our culture. It’s in our language.”

Taking chances and borrowing money is as much part of American culture as the Protestant work ethic, said David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values.

For example, two of the more prominent historical figures in the country are Ben Franklin and Daniel Boone, he noted. Franklin encouraged people to build wealth slowly and steadily. Boone was a risk-taker who became known for his adventures, but he also fled creditors.

When Christians follow biblical teachings, it makes an impact on others.

This dichotomy still can be seen in figures such as Warren Buffett—known for value-based investments and a lifestyle of personal frugality and philanthropy—and Donald Trump—known for his lavish lifestyle and his willingness to incur massive debt, he added.

“I like Daniel Boone, and every once in awhile I have a wink and smile with Donald Trump, but I think we need to shift toward Ben Franklin and Warren Buffett,” Blankenhorn said during the recent Christian Life Commission Conference in McAllen.

The “spend and debt” culture even has affected the government, said Stephen Reeves, CLC legislative specialist. Many state governments are betting on gambling as the path to increased revenue, forgetting its detrimental impact on citizens.

“The government itself becomes an addict,” Reeves said. “It becomes addicted to that revenue.”

Comparing it to “grandma’s famous elixir,” Blankenhorn said only a societal ethic of thrift can turn the nation back to its saving ways. Churches are key to that effort because they are the “custodians of the stewardship ethic.”

While many people turn to credit cards and payday lending companies for money, they didn’t always have to, said Tim Morstad, director of advocacy for Texas AARP.

Savings and loan associations were a widespread movement that encouraged financial saving while investing in the lives of others. Credit unions have used a similar approach. In times of crises, many people turned to churches, which often found ways to help people.

“Before the last 20 years in Texas, people did have access to credit,” he said.

Blankenhorn encouraged churches to be leaders in pushing the culture back to those days. Savings and loan associations have declined greatly. Many people chose not to turn to churches for help.

“Middle class and working class people are no longer surrounded by such institutions.”

Ellis Orozco, pastor of First Baptist Church in Richardson, told participants at the CLC Conference the way Christians view their time and resources can set them apart practically from other people. People who use what God has given them wisely show others what life could be like if they followed biblical principles of living, he said. When Christians follow biblical teachings, it makes an impact on others.

“Everything belongs to God,” he said. “It is given to you, but will all return to him. It is given to you as a stewardship. To live as if it belongs to you is practical atheism.”

Payday loan outlets have grown like kudzu in recent years. Texas has more payday lender outlets—about 3,000—than it has McDonald’s and Whataburger restaurants combined.

And some churches and pastors are asking how they can equip people living in poverty—as well as members of their own congregations—to make decisions regarding payday lenders.

Teach biblical principles about money

Joseph Parker, pastor of David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Austin and an attorney, insists the first step is to have an open conversation about personal financial practices—and realize the Bible speaks on money.

Haitian women have begun a micro-credit loan program to help them establish small businesses to lift them out of poverty. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Mission Waco)

“There are people who don’t know what the Bible says about money and financial principles,” Parker said. “So, we have to equip the people and tug at them through what the Bible says. It will help them filter daily decisions through the mandates of Scripture.”

Many Scriptures—particularly in the law and the prophets of the Old Testament—speak against practices similar to those used by payday lenders.

Payday loans are small-dollar loans with high service fees and interest rates that offer instant cash with no credit check. Since the borrower typically is required to pay off the loan in full at the end of two weeks, payday loans often can create a cycle of debt. In this cycle, fees and interest rates can reach the equivalent of up to 500 percent APR.

Many payday loan users already struggle to make ends meet. A recent survey conducted by Texas Appleseed, an advocacy group for low-income families, showed most payday loan borrowers earned $30,000 or less income and used the loan for recurring expenses of basic needs like rent, utilities and food.

In addition to Bible studies, churches can offer financial education programs such as Money Smart—sponsored by the FDIC—to explain how to budget income to become better stewards of money while avoiding the predatory practices of payday lenders. Education brings economic empowerment, Parker observed.

“Those living in poverty might think that high interest is just part of their lives unless they have a sense of empowerment,” he said. The message is more than dollars and cents.

“The church can embrace this idea about economic empowerment and teach people how they should manage their money and how they should be treated.”

Learn from global examples

But financial education is not the only answer. It is difficult to tell someone not to use a payday loan when it is the only option, Parker noted.

“The loan is born out of desperation,” he said. “Without having a reasonable answer, what do you do? It’s hard to tell people that are poor not to use payday loans without having some other alternative to meet their needs. Without filling the need, it becomes an intellectual conversation.”

Churches have supported organizations around the world that fill the need for credit through microlending. Microcredit organizations, like the Grameen Bank and the Institute for Integrated Rural Development, extend small loans to people living in poverty in countries outside the United States. These loans are used for self-employment projects that generate income, allowing people to care for themselves and their families.

For example in Bangladesh, IIRD gives small loans to women to buy silkworms for producing raw silk. After the silk is produced, women sell their product to other women who own looms, many of which were bought with microloans as well. Microloans are paid back with reasonable interest and include certain requirements that involve the borrower and lender sitting down and deciding what’s best for the borrower.

The Grameen Bank, for instance, requires lenders to make 16 decisions that will improve their own future as well as their family and community’s future. Among these 16 decisions are the statements: “We shall educate our children and ensure that they can earn to pay for their education,” and “We shall always be ready to help each other. If anyone is in difficulty, we shall all help him or her.”

Aaron Tyler, an ordained Baptist minister and chair of the Graduate International Relations Department at St. Mary’s University, explains that microlending helps to lift people out of poverty.

“Microlending and other sustainable development projects facilitate a person’s own creative approaches,” Tyler explained. “This participatory approach to development encourages proactive listening and a better understanding of the local community and culture.”

Some advocates for payday loans say they are the only option for struggling families in Texas and throughout the United States. Like microlending, payday lenders can help people during difficult financial times. Both provide small loans to people who need money quickly.

However, Tyler points out, payday loans and microlending are fundamentally different.

“A primary distinction is the motivation,” he said. “Microlending can encourage a mutual respect and accountability. Payday lending is not designed to eradicate poverty. Instead, it can exploit poverty.”

Consider the role of regulation

Some payday lenders exploit the poor by bypassing existing state regulations. The Texas Finance Code sets some restrictions on small-dollar loans to create a healthy market. However, most payday lenders operate as consumer service organizations, avoiding licensing and regulation by the office of consumer credit commissioner. In the most recent Texas legislative session, several bills were proposed to bring consumer service organizations under the regulation of the consumer credit commissioner’s office, but none was passed into law.

Opponents of tighter regulation claim restrictions on payday lenders are harmful to a free market. They say the market will set reasonable interest rates and consumers are best equipped to make decisions about credit for themselves. They insist the best way to protect consumers is to allow for a competitive and healthy short-term lending market.

Others maintain a healthy market includes moral restraint. In an online article posted on his website last summer, Dave Ramsey applauded legislation in Arkansas that shut down payday lending businesses. Ramsey, a financial adviser and author of Financial Peace, explained such legislation illustrated moral restraint. He used an illustration by Michael Novak, former U.S. ambassador and author of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, to make his point.

“Michael Novak says our economy rests on a three-legged stool comprised of political freedom, economic freedom and moral restraint,” Ramsey explained. “Without any of these three ‘legs,’ the economy—as we know it—collapses. …

“In this instance, payday lenders had no moral restraint. They commonly took advantage of lower-class people by charging outrageous interest rates. So the government had to step in and pass laws to keep these predators from operating. Capitalism without moral restraint is anarchy.”

Some Texas cities have taken it upon themselves to exhibit moral restraint through tighter regulation. In December, Brownsville placed a six-month moratorium barring new payday lenders from opening any new stores in town. A recent article from Daily Finance quoted Mayor Pat Ahumada as saying, “Our most vulnerable citizens are easy prey for these legal loan sharks, and we want to protect our citizens by regulating them.”

Brownsville has joined a half-dozen other Texas communities—Irving, Mesquite, Sachse, Richardson, Garland and Little Elm—that also have sought restrictions for payday lenders—most having passed zoning laws preventing the payday-lending industry from expanding into new locations.

In the same Daily Finance article, Mesquite Mayor John Monaco said, “Any business that depends on people who are desperate and preys on them has no place in my community.”

Create constructive alternatives

Some organizations have created alternatives to payday loans. West End Neighborhood House in Delaware has produced Loans Plus to help those families who would normally use a payday loan. Loans Plus offers small-dollar loans that function similarly to payday loans in that borrowers use the same documentation to qualify and cash is received the same day. However, Loans Plus interest is only between 12 and 15 percent.

To receive a loan, customers fill out a spreadsheet with an adviser to establish a budget and determine how much money they should borrow—an exercise in financial education. Loans Plus offers no roll-over payment plans. Instead, payment plans of up to 3 months are offered.

Loans Plus has a 70 percent approval rate for loans. Customers who are not approved for loans are directed to crisis help. The Loans Plus product provides a way for people to get out of crisis rather than perpetuate a cycle of debt.

Several Texas nonprofit organizations, working in partnership with credit unions and banks, are in the early stages of developing similar alternatives to payday loans. While few are available yet, there is hope that small-dollar loan products for struggling families will be available in the next few months.

“Parishes and churches are beginning to ask themselves, ‘How do we proactively offer alternatives to payday loans?’” Tyler of St. Mary’s University noted. “This is an ideal place for churches to be involved. Christians and churches offer a humane way of contributing to the conversation.”

Amy Wiles is a member of First Baptist Church in Austin and a student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary who plans to graduate with her Master of Divinity degree in May 2011. Before entering seminary, she taught music in public schools five years, after completing her undergraduate degree at Baylor University in Waco. She is serving a public policy research internship jointly sponsored by the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission and the Baptist Standard, made possible by a grant from the Christ is Our Salvation Foundation of Waco.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The number of churches that reported a drop in giving due to the sour economy rose nearly 10 percent last year, according to new survey.

In 2009, 38 percent of churches reported a decline in giving, versus 29 percent in 2008.

Megachurches—those with 2,000 members are more—were hit hardest, with 47 percent reporting a decrease in giving last year, up from 23 percent in 2008.

The second State of the Plate study, by Colorado Springs-based Maximum Generosity and Christianity Today International, was based on data from 1,017 churches. The study included small and large churches, as well as mainline, evangelical, Pentecostal, nondenominational, Catholic and Orthodox parishes.

“Multiple research projects last year documented the sharp decline in church giving,” said Brian Kluth, founder of Maximum Generosity. “Our research this year shows things have only gotten worse for a growing number of churches.”

West Coast states suffered most from the depressed economy: 55 percent reported decreased giving.

Mountain states were close behind with 48 percent reporting a drop in giving.

The study also found December contributions, usually high during the holiday season, fell short of expectations, leaving many churches in the hole as they started the new year.

Even so, 45 percent of churches increased their budget for 2010, and 24 percent kept their budget the same.

The report said the 34 percent of churches that scaled back made cuts in travel and conferences, ministry programs, and expansion or renovation projects.

The survey, sent via e-mail, was not a traditional random phone sample and does not have a statistical margin of error.

Status in society can influence how people read and interpret the Bible—and often how they will act on it, according to some Christian leaders.

Miguel de la Torre, associate professor of social ethics at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colo., said too many American Christians read the Bible through the eyes of a middle-class Caucasian United States citizen.

Speaking at a recent Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission Conference, De la Torre noted the original audiences of Jesus and his disciples were quite different, primarily consisting of poor people living more than 2,000 years ago. They lived drastically different lives than contemporary American Christians and viewed Christ’s teachings differently.

“My fear is when we write that kind of sermon, we are being influenced by how we’ve been taught to read the Bible,” De la Torre said, specifically speaking of sermons on the Sabbath. “That is, we read the Bible through the eyes of middle- and upper-class privilege.”

Caleb Oladipo, the Duke K. McCall professor of Christian mission and world Christianity at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, agrees the West has lost the original intent of Christ’s message. Western biblical view is shaped more by logic than understanding.

The habit of reading the Bible empirically “doesn’t mean it doesn’t get us closer to God. The more we realize what it means, the closer we can get to God. But the power of Scripture is sometimes lost,” said Oladipo, who is originally from Nigeria and taught previously at Baylor University.

De la Torre pointed to the Bible’s teaching about the Sabbath as an example of how people of different socioeconomic levels interpret Scripture differently. For people with some level of financial security, the focus is on the need to take time away from work to focus on God and family. De la Torre recently met a pastor of a church of migrant workers who saw the Bible’s teaching on the Sabbath as a command for people to work six days a week.

“The emphasis that those of us with economic privilege, the emphasis is on taking the day off,” he said. “The emphasis for those who do not have jobs is somewhere else.”

Chuck Arney, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Lee’s Summit, Mo., agrees economic status colors an individual’s view of Scripture—both for the poor and for middle- and upper-class Christians.

Arney, president of Coldwater, a not-for-profit ministry to the suburban poor in Lee’s Summit, points to the Lord’s Prayer request for “daily bread” as an example. “We (with economic stability) tend to spiritualize it,” Arney said. “Food is viewed differently. Ours is that food tastes good. Theirs is: ‘How can I feed my children tomorrow?’”

Christians with a middle-class context tend to view giving time or money as their only responsibility, Arney said.

“We are cultured in capitalism. We have received heavy doses of the concept of ‘this is mine,’ and we act with the view of ‘what I’ve earned,’” he said. “We may say, ‘The earth is the Lord’s,’ but we live by ‘I’ve got to pick myself up by my bootstraps.’”

If Christians understand contemporary impoverished people view the Bible similarly as Jesus’ original audience, De la Torre believes the scriptural command to serve the poor also becomes an important opportunity to learn about Scripture. Coming to see their vantage point enhances an individual’s understanding of the Bible’s teachings.

Milton Horne, executive director of the Center for Justice & Sustainability at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., sees education as a key to assist individuals out of poverty and to be a catalyst for getting more Christians involved in social justice issues, including economic injustice.

“Economic justice is a problem. People with capital continue to prosper. Those without cannot,” he said.

“Economics is a real factor in justice. The simple truth is poverty has played a role in how some people understand the Bible, but ultimately education determines how people interpret the Bible.”

Launched in 2009, the center hosted its first summit on sustainability issues this spring. The center also provides education and hands-on opportunities, including internships, for Jewell students. Through the center, the college partners with area organizations to meet community needs.

The center broke ground for a common garden at the end of February in a partnership with Second Baptist Church in Liberty.

John Bennett, board chair of Missouri IMPACT, an ecumenical and interfaith legislative social justice advocacy nonprofit in Jefferson City, Mo., believes the economically disadvantaged “tend to find comfort and challenge from the prophetic literature and from the liberating message of Jesus.”

Connecting with the impoverished broadens the thinking of many Christians who are economically more secure, De la Torre said. They begin to see the need to help people in need, no matter how dire the situation may be.

“I don’t do justice because I’m going to succeed,” he said. “I do justice because that’s what I’m called to do.”

Connecting is the most important aspect of justice, Arney believes. “What we (Coldwater ministry participants) tend to concentrate on around people struggling is that there’s hope—that ultimately God provides hope in Christ. If the world’s not fair, there’s still hope,” he said.

Oladipo believes hope is what draws the poor to God. “To the poor, the Bible becomes their ally. … The way they see themselves and the way they see each other is more from the point of view of hope. The Bible give them hope,” he said.

“In the affluent world, if you need a Coke, you go to the machine and pull one out. If you need to go from Richmond to California, you can get there by flying. But in situations of poverty, none of these things can happen. They know these are not available to them. That causes them to rely more on God.”

Arney also believes when Christians grasp their own indebtedness to the poor, they will recognize their calling to minister and will be more willing to do so.

In his ministry to the Gentiles recorded in Romans, the Apostle Paul “levels the spiritual playing field” by pointing out that all have sinned, Arney said.

Paul’s work also leveled the economic playing field, Arney argued, because Paul collected funds for the poor on his missionary journeys.

“In the Romans context, the poor were the Jerusalem Christians experiencing famine. Paul shows … (Gentiles) that they must give to the poor because the poor have given you the gospel. That principle ties over to today,” Arney said.

“The economically poor in a suburban context … are hungry for spirituality,” he added. “But what they’re looking for is not so much biblical truth, but finding friendship, connection and hope.”

–With additional reporting by John Hall and Robert Dilday.

RICHMOND, Va.—Christians in the developing nations read Scripture differently than their brothers and sister in the affluent West, according to missiologist Caleb Oladipo.

“The way we read the Scriptures in the western world particularly is through empirical knowledge—that is, through our five senses. It’s what we can affirm in a logical way. Africans and people in the nations of Latin America and Asia don’t read the Bible that way. They read the Bible from a devotional point of view. In particular, Africans don’t see the Bible as a book of reference but as a book of remembrance,” said Oladipo, the Duke K. McCall Professor of Christian mission and world Christianity at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Previously, he taught at Baylor University and Truett Theological Seminary.

All cultures value and are influenced by some aspects of their pre-Christian heritage, and Africans are no exception, said Oladipo, who is originally from Nigeria. They bring those understandings with them when they are converted to Christianity.

“The Bible speaks to them from the wellsprings of their own spiritual life. And they read the Bible in that sense,” he said.

“Africans often say that the West has the Bible, but they have lost the Scriptures. Because we have all the logic, all the ways of reading the Bible, all the Greek and Hebrew, we (in the West) see the Bible as something we can dissect. It’s like looking at a car. You open the bonnet (hood), you see all the parts, and sometimes you see what’s wrong the car. They (Christians in the developing world) don’t see the Bible that way. They see the Bible as devotional. And it is not a weapon but a tool to see God. It’s a tool that opens the biography of God.”

For prosperous Western Christians to read the Bible through the eyes of the poor, they first must realize Christianity no longer is a Western religion, he noted. Christianity is growing and prospering in the developing world, and Christians in the West can learn from believers in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Western Christians also can learn about the powerful sense of community among Christians in developing nations, he added.

“That comes straight from their own understanding of their faith. In the West we are isolated and individualistic, and we think we should to it all alone. That is not helping us. We become so isolated that the sense of interdependence is not strong, and that is weakening our society,” he said.

“In Africa and Latin America and Asia, what is so powerful about Christian commitment is the sense of community, and that is what they can teach us. By looking at that, we can read the Bible differently.”