NASHVILLE (BP)—After the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, many people at Woodmont Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., were upset, Pastor Nathan Parker said.

“They had heard press reports coming out of the convention and asked if we could face it,” Parker told Baptist Press. “Some members were calling for us to withdraw from the SBC.”

So, Parker called a town hall meeting.

Woodmont Baptist Church wasn’t the only one holding such talks after SBC messengers’ approval of the first step toward a constitutional change limiting the office of pastor to men.

But in the case of Woodmont Baptist, the church’s history cannot be ignored as it provides context for that family meeting—as well as why Woodmont is being discussed among Southern Baptists now.

As listed on the church’s website, Parker earned degrees from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and Lipscomb University. The executive pastor is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The other two ministry staff members are women and listed as ministers, holding degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The staff all support the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, Parker insisted.

Those details are important, as Woodmont is currently part of the broader SBC discussion, particularly online.

Historic role in forming CBF

Bill Sherman, Woodmont’s pastor for 30 years, led the congregation when the church was instrumental in forming the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. CBF broke away from the SBC in the early 1990s in response to what CBF characterized as the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC and what supporters in the SBC call the conservative resurgence.

Sherman’s brother, Cecil, was a key leader—arguably the key leader—among that group that formed CBF while serving as pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C.

Fast forward to 2023. On Aug. 17, interim SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Willie McLaurin resigned from that role after acknowledging he falsified information on his resume. He was removed by the president and CEO search committee as the likely candidate to fill the position.

The next day, Executive Committee Vice President for Communications Jonathan Howe was announced by Chairman Philip Robertson as the new interim president and CEO.

In recent days, social media posts and articles reported on Woodmont’s CBF connection while pointing out Howe’s wife, Beth, serves at Woodmont as minister of students and discipleship.

Writers on social media noted the SBC debate over women serving in pastoral roles on church staffs.

“I’ve told my church that I see a lovingly designed, spiritual male headship in Scripture, but it’s not a make-or-break issue,” Parker said. “Originally, we wanted Beth’s position to be for a male pastor.

“But when she emerged as the best candidate, we changed the job description to remove some of the 1 Timothy elder-qualification [language] because she’s not an elder and doesn’t want to be an elder. None of the women on our staff want to be elders or pastors.”

At the town hall meeting, Parker taught for 30 minutes from Genesis 1-2 about the “God-given, lovingly designed, spiritual male headship to be exercised in the church and the home” as he sees it.

Parker said he did not see it as a gospel or salvific issue “as long as we are still submitting ourselves to the authority of Scripture.”

Wounded by the SBC conflict

Parker’s congregation consists of many who remember the division of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s and early 1990s differently than the majority of the SBC today.

“There are folks who were deeply wounded by those on the SBC side,” said Parker, a Nashville native who became Woodmont’s pastor in January 2017. “There’s real trauma there, from both sides. Mud was thrown in both directions.”

According to the 2022 Annual Church Profile, Woodmont designated 1.6 percent of its budget to be given through the Cooperative Program, the highest in eight years.

Members are free to designate the denominational giving portion of their regular budget giving to either the SBC, CBF or both as well as above their regular tithe at Christmas for international missions efforts.

The “vast majority” of those gifts go toward the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, Parker said. Woodmont gave $42,134 to that offering in 2022.

The church also financially supports the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s state offering, the Nashville Baptist Association, Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes and Tennessee Baptist Adult Homes.

COVID dealt Woodmont, like churches everywhere, a financial hit in 2020. Since then, the church has steadily increased giving to Southern Baptists’ signature missions offerings by 35 percent.

‘We’re better together. But some days it’s hard.’

Accusations over a lack of commitment to Southern Baptist causes can have an impact, Parker admitted.

“I like to believe that we’re better together,” he said. “But some days it’s hard.”

The front steps of Woodmont’s sanctuary are only a few minutes away from the SBC building in downtown Nashville.

“We’re focused on being the healthiest church we can be to the glory of God,” he said. “My job as pastor is to shepherd the flock, to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment as faithfully as possible. Those denominational power struggles are not necessarily part of that mission.”

At that church town hall meeting this summer, a 92-year-old Bill Sherman approached Parker, thanking him for the leadership displayed at that moment.

The two are friends, Parker said. They see eye to eye on what they deem to be faith essentials. Tertiary issues, not as much, and they believe that’s all right.

“He has been nothing but encouraging and kind to me,” Parker said. “He said we can agree to disagree on this, and we walked out of that meeting as a family of faith. No one was upset. No one cried.

“We disagreed on something, and it was really healthy. It exhibited a lot of Christian maturity and love for one another.”

Brandon Rea Followell of San Marcos died Aug. 20 in a car accident in Buda. He was 22. Brandon was born on Oct. 6, 2000, in Waco to David Nemmer Jr. and Kari Anderson. Through a series of events as a child, Brandon and his brother David came to live with Clint and Monica Followell when he was 10 years old. This led to a full adoption in 2012. In the same year, the family moved to San Marcos, where he lived the rest of his life. He graduated from San Marcos High School in 2019. He was employed at Centex Pressure Washing Services. Friends and family said Brandon’s love for the “unlovable” or the “outcast” was his greatest attribute. To him, everyone was worthy of love, and he showed that in his actions. Brandon also took his role as big brother seriously, making sure to attend every possible game, concert or production involving his siblings. He is survived by his adoptive parents, Clint and Monica Followell, who are campus ministers at San Marcos Academy and on staff at First Baptist Church in San Marcos—he as minister of students and she as minister of missions. He also is survived by his brothers, David and Asher Followell; his biological parents, Kari Anderson and David Nemmer Jr.; and his grandparents, Anthony and Melissa Modesto, and Dennis and Rebecca Tuchalski.

FORT WORTH—The Fort Worth City Council and the city’s Housing Finance Corporation on Aug. 22 approved the $11 million purchase of 15 acres previously used as student housing by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Six months earlier, Southwestern Seminary accepted a nonbinding agreement to move forward with the sale of the Carroll Park housing village.

The sale represents one step in the seminary’s ongoing plan to “reduce our campus footprint and the resource commitment it takes to maintain it,” President David Dockery told the board of trustees last October.

Carroll Park will be converted into affordable housing for the unhoused and for families fleeing domestic violence.With the earlier sale of a five-acre portion of Carroll Park, the total purchase price for the property will be $14.225 million.

“I’m grateful for these actions and for the opportunity Southwestern has to partner with the City of Fort Worth to address the housing crisis in our city,” Dockery said.

“From the earliest conversations about the sale of Carroll Park, we were seeking an opportunity that could meet both the financial needs of the seminary and the future needs of our community. … We look forward to continuing our work with the city to finalize this sale.”

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker thanked the seminary administration and its board of trustees for their “patience in this project.”

Parker said affordable housing in the city “has been a topic of concern for every single council member. She expressed appreciation to seminary leaders who “recognize that rather than attacking affordable housing the traditional way, we have had to think differently about this.”

 The city hopes to “involve the private sector and philanthropy around this opportunity,” she said.

In October 2022, Dockery told the seminary board of trustees Southwestern had received several offers for the Carroll Park property, which is not contiguous with the main campus.

While the 200-acre campus is a blessing, it also “presents significant challenges,” Dockery told the trustees.

In June, the seminary’s board of trustees released a financial overview that revealed the school’s annual operating expenses rose 35 percent from 2002 to 2022, while full-time enrollment dropped 67 percent, resulting in a cumulative $140 million operating deficit.

“Over the past 20 years, the financial health of Southwestern Seminary has progressively deteriorated,” the document stated.

The board document concluded the cause of the seminary’s financial struggles centered on spending an average $6.67 million more than it received during 19 of the years examined.

Earlier this month, Dockery reported total enrollment for the just-completed 2022-23 academic year was 3,574, an increase of 171 students from the previous academic year.

He also reported $3.2 million in unrestricted giving for the academic year, compared to $2.8 million the previous year.

Based in part on information provided by the communications staff at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Owen Strachan, former Southern Baptist seminary professor turned anti-woke activist, has spent years warning that liberals were undermining America’s evangelical Christian churches.

Now Strachan is taking aim at a new threat: “mono-ethnic Christian nationalism.”

In a series of recent posts on social media and in his newsletter on Substack, Strachan makes clear that the ethnicity in question is European American.

Christian nationalism—or, as Strachan described it, “the unbiblical view that we must preserve white ethnicity to build a Christian nation”—has taken root in the Reformed wing of the evangelical church, he warns.

Strachan has singled out for disfavor Christian nationalist activists such as Andrew Torba, founder of the far-right social media platform Gab, and conservative internet influencer Matt Walsh, who describes himself in his X—formerly Twitter—profile as a “Theocratic fascist” and bestselling children’s author.

“By the minute, we are smoking out white nationalism—godless ethnocentrism—in Christian circles,” Strachan wrote in a series of posts on X. “By grace, we will fight this wicked ideology.”

Calling out racism and antisemitism

Strachan, provost of Grace Bible Theological Seminary in Arkansas and author of Christianity and Wokeness, said he has been concerned for some time that racist and antisemitic ideas have been finding their way into conservative churches.

He felt the need to call out the trend earlier this month after a video appeared of Walsh saying white Americans needed to have more children to save the country from outsiders. Strachan already had seen comments from Torba on social media, since deleted, saying God created different ethnic groups with a purpose and preserving them “is to preserve God’s creation and is therefore an inherent good.”

Strachan called Torba’s comments “hot nonsense” that was nonetheless invading churches. Torba declined to be interviewed for the story or to respond to Strachan’s comments.

Once a rising star among Southern Baptists, Strachan is a former president of the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, an influential group that promotes complementarian theology, based on the idea men and women have biblically circumscribed roles in the family and society.

He taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary before moving to Arkansas.

But in recent years, he has become best known for his stature within a corner of the evangelical world known for its love of stark Calvinist theology and dark-suited, bespectacled and bearded pastors, often tagged by evangelical insiders as “Theobros.”

Calvinism, the teachings of 16th-century French Protestant theologian John Calvin, undergirds some mainline Protestant denominational beliefs but is represented most prominently in various evangelical groups that identify as Reformed.

As political and cultural polarization has deepened over the past decade in the United States, it has attracted the Theobros and other ultraconservative Christians, because Calvin’s theology also inspired early American religious colonists such as the Puritans.

Hot topic among Calvinists

Christian nationalism has become a hot topic among these Christians. In its extreme form, the ideology claims special privileges for Christians—including the right to rule, no matter what the outcome of elections.

It often views Jews, Black Americans, immigrants and progressives as God’s enemies. Early forms of Christian nationalism were outspokenly antisemitic and racist and were especially opposed to interracial marriage.

A bestselling book, The Case for Christian Nationalism, published in 2022 by Canon Press —founded as a ministry of Christ Church, an influential Calvinist congregation in Moscow, Idaho—argued that “interethnic” marriage can be sinful and that America should be run by Christians.

The author, Stephen Wolfe, later clarified he does not think “interracial marriage, interethnic marriage, or intercultural marriage” is sinful.

Canon is now a private company whose authors include Douglas Wilson, pastor of Christ Church. Wilson also owns a minority share of Canon.

In 2022, he wrote a blurb praising a book on Christian nationalism by Torba, who is known for expressing antisemitic and white nationalist views.

Strachan said Wilson had a responsibility to call out racist ideas in Reformed churches.

“I’m very interested—with a lot of people—to see how Moscow operates in days ahead,” Strachan said. “Because I think they bear a real duty.”

Embrace ethnic heritage, reject ‘kinism’

In a phone interview, Wilson said he agreed with Strachan that he has a responsibility to speak about racism or antisemitic ideas. He also said he has seen glimpses of racism in Calvinist circles.

“I see guys flirting with something I don’t want them flirting with,” he said.

He rejected the ideas proposed by Walsh that white Christians needed to have more white babies to save the country or any notion that interracial marriage is sinful.

“You can have an ethnic affection for your people,” he said. “The problem would come when you mandate or say we are going to discipline you or come down on you hard if you marry outside the tribe.”

Wilson also pointed to a pair of 2022 statements issued by the Knox Presbytery of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, of which Christ Church is a part. Those statements condemn both antisemitism and kinism, which claims God wants different ethnic groups to be segregated.

“While an ethnic heritage is something to be grateful for, and which may be preserved in any way consistent with the law of God, it is important to reject every form of identity politics, including kinism—whether malicious, vainglorious, or ideologically separatist/segregationist,” read one of the statements, which are published on Wilson’s blog.

But Wilson said Wolfe’s book had been misunderstood, arguing political progressives are looking for ways to make conservative Christians look bad.

“I think the strategy is, very simply, for the progressive left to kick the dog until the dog bites,” he said.

He also said he agrees with Strachan that churches need to address overt racism.

“I would say, ‘We’re way ahead of you,’” Wilson said. “I condemned this nonsense decades ago.”

For his part, Strachan hopes his comments will lead to an anti-kinist movement among evangelicals, similar to the anti-woke movement he is a part of. That movement was attracted by Calvinists and Christian nationalists, but that partnership may now be on shaky grounds.

‘Colorblind’ outnumber overt racists

Still, Strachan said he’s gotten some pushback for his remarks from fellow Calvinists who see him as betraying their team by being critical. He plans to address the issue of kinism during a meeting in September organized by G3, a Calvinist organization with Baptist ties.

George Yancey, a professor of sociology at Baylor University, said Strachan is like a lot of Americans who want to believe race does not matter anymore, but who draw the line at overt racism. That belief, however, rejects any notion of institutional racism or the view that past racism still affects American culture.

“I think colorblind is the right word,” he said. “He’s a true believer.”

Yancey said he has been seeing signs of outright racism in Christian nationalist circles, taking the form of kinism.

He suspects Americans who hold a colorblind view like Strachan’s exceed the number who hold intentionally racist forms of Christian nationalism. While Christians of all stripes have spoken against Christian nationalism, Strachan’s willingness to criticize allies in his war on wokeness is striking.

Strachan’s analysis is right in this case, Yancey said.

“And if he’s right about something, I’m going to say he’s right,” he said. “This kind of kinism is racism—and racist in the traditional sense of being racism. If he is going to go after them, I am going to say, ‘Go after them.’”

Representatives from more than 30 Marshall-area churches participated in the annual Church Day at East Texas Baptist University on Aug. 16. The event takes place the first week of class each fall to introduce students to area churches. This year, local churches set up booths and tables in the university’s Quad to offer free t-shirts, snacks and promotional items, and share information about the heart of their ministries. Prior to the event, Bobby Contreras, chair of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board, addressed students in the morning chapel service. Contreras, pastor of Alamo Heights Baptist Church in San Antonio, told students: “One of the most important decisions that you will make during your time here at ETBU is the community of people that you connect yourself to, knowing that you cannot and should not do life on your own. Something happens when we get together in crowds for Jesus’ name.”

As a part of Student Welcome and Transition (SWAT) week at Dallas Baptist University, 520 students spread throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area for a day of service. One group packed 580 boxes and wrote encouraging messages to support mothers with unexpected pregnancies. Another group of student volunteers painted houses with 6 Stones, an organization committed to constructing and refurbishing residences for underserved families. Other student groups served at Mission Arlington, Cornerstone Baptist Church in Dallas and Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas, along with more than a dozen other ministries and community service organizations.

Wayland Baptist University President Bobby Hall addressed the university’s annual convocation chapel service, encouraging students to recognize the treasure God has stored in them. Basing his message on 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, Hall called on students to recognize the potential God has placed in them. “Within us—within these clay jars—resides a divine treasure, making us capable, not merely of ordinary deeds, but of extraordinary deeds if we have the courage and conviction to harness this all-surpassing power,” he said. “Scripture clearly implies that we are made for more.”

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty named Abigail Villagrana, a Master of Divinity degree student at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, to the BJC Fellows 2023 class. BJC Fellows completed an intensive training seminar over five days in Colonial Williamsburg, Va., to equip them for advocacy to protect religious freedom. BJC staff and other legal and theological experts, plus Colonial Williamsburg’s own historic interpreters, provided instruction in the historical, legal and theological underpinnings of religious liberty during the seminar. Villagrana is a graduate of Dallas Baptist University. She is a resident chaplain in a Baylor residence hall and a volunteer chaplain for asylum seekers at the Naomi House, operated by DaySpring Baptist Church in Waco.

Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers served meals to about 340 students during a back-to-school event on the Dallas Baptist University campus. Volunteers with the Dallas-based Dixon Unit set up the TBM food truck on the perimeter of the DBU Quad, serving hot pulled-pork sandwiches and treats to students. Gaylan Mathis of Forney was on-site coordinator of the 14-member TBM team.

Wayland Baptist University marked the dedication and grand opening of the Ben and Bertha Mieth School of Nursing on Aug. 21. Wayland named the school for Ben and Bertha Mieth in recognition of their $2.5 million gift, which made possible the school’s relocation from New Braunfels to its Live Oak location in suburban San Antonio.

As a part of the celebration, Wayland Baptist University President Bobby Hall announced Wayland posthumously was conferring an honorary Bachelor of Nursing degree on Irene Wilson George, Bertha Mieth’s mother. Hall noted she left school “one class short” of completing her degree, and the university “would like to help her complete that journey.” The Mieth’s gift also established the Irene Wilson George Endowed Scholarship in Nursing at Wayland. Patricia Hough was named as the first recipient of the scholarship. Hough said she had to defer her acceptance to another nursing school in 2003 when she found out she was pregnant. “Twenty years and three kids later, I decided it was finally time to fulfill my lifelong dream,” she said.

Glorioustean “Gloria” Veals, the “first lady” of City Church in Tulia, died Aug. 18. She was 74. She was born May 30, 1949, in Liberty, Miss., to Charlie and Gracie Powell Faust. She attended Prentiss Junior College in Prentiss, Miss., receiving a certificate in education. She and Matthew Veals married March 15, 1971, in New Orleans. They moved to Houston in 1975, where she worked first as a seamstress and then in the radiology department at Methodist Hospital. In 1980, they moved to Tulia, and she worked in retail. Her last job was working 15 years at Panhandle Transit until her retirement. She served faithfully in the community outreach program at City Church, where her husband is pastor, and she cooked many meals for the children who benefited from its ministry. Gloria loved to sew for her friends, who knew she had a big heart to help anyone in need. She also was supportive and eager to help in the activities of Caprock Plains Baptist Association. She was preceded in death by her sisters, Dorothy Hunt and Hattie Rose Faust; and a brother, George Faust. She is survived by her husband Matthew Veals; daughter, Mecca Perkins and husband Greg of Waco; son Albert Knighten and wife Monica of Baton Rouge, La; seven grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; brothers Arthur Ben Faust and Roscoe Faust of Houston, Charlie E. Faust of Oxnard, Calif., and Charlie Faust Jr. of Liberty, Miss.; sisters, Betty Faust of Kenner, La., Rita Davis of New Orleans, Yelva Washington of Glenburnie, Md., and Cephus Winding of Liberty, Miss.

Faye Jennings Henthorn, a lifelong Tulia resident who served First Baptist Church there more than four decades as church secretary, died Aug. 13 in Lubbock. She was 91. She was born Feb. 1, 1932, in Tulia to Robert and Lois Brewer Jennings. She graduated from Tulia High School in 1949 and married Donald Eugene Henthorn on Dec. 21, 1949, in Portales, N.M. She worked as secretary at First Baptist Church in Tulia from 1975 until her retirement in 2017, when the congregation marked the occasion as “Faye Day.” She was director of Vacation Bible School 35 years, instructor of the children’s choir 30 years, and also sang in the church choir. She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald Henthorn; daughters Carol Ann Henthorn Pergrem and Pamela Kay Henthorn Harrison; and son Robert Henthorn. She is survived by her other two sons, Mike Henthorn and his wife Donna of Lubbock, and Tim Henthorn and his wife Suzanne of Fairview; 12 grandchildren; 26 great-grandchildren; and a brother, Bob Jennings. Memorial gifts may be made to First Baptist Church, 101 N. Crosby, Tulia, TX 79088.

LAHAINA, Maui (BP)—Lahaina faces an uncertain future following the Aug. 8 wildfire that consumed the town.

As survivors continue reckoning with the series of chaotic events that generated one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, local pastors and residents are asking what it will take to persevere through the tragedy.

The latest official death count reached 114, but with roughly 850 people unaccounted for, the toll may climb to multiple hundreds.

“From our house in Lahaina, we came out in the evening, and normally there’s a sunset,” said Richard Murray, pastor of Kaanapali Beach Ministry in Lahaina. “And I could see this dark, black, what we thought was a cloud just over the town facing the water.”

Murray at first thought there was a major storm brewing before a friend pointed out it was smoke from a fire. Lahaina was burning.

A combination of drought-parched land and gale-force winds turned the wildfire into what Murray described as a gigantic blow torch.

“About 20 minutes later, the police were coming around the corner saying: ‘Evacuate. The fire is headed this way.’ So, we had to grab my wife’s two therapy dogs,” Murray said. “We jumped in the car, and we evacuated.”

The Murrays thought this would be like similar wildfire evacuations they’ve experienced in their 30 years of living on the island. They expected eventually to get the “all clear” signal and return safely to their home.

Instead, the fire reduced their home to ash.

Ministry in the midst of loss

Barry Campbell is serving as the transitional pastor of Lahaina Baptist Church. Campbell and his wife, Marci, had moved out of an apartment complex in Lahaina Town just a few months earlier. That entire complex was destroyed.

“All but two of our families (in their church) have lost their homes and everything they had,” Marci said. “So, we’re just working with our families, trying to meet immediate needs and trying to get them places to stay.”

The Campbells cooked and provided meals for their neighbors after the fire went out. They tracked down their church members and helped them find missing loved ones, and they opened their home for some who had been displaced by the fire.

Erik Naylor, a Send Network church planter, arrived on Maui last December to be sent out from Lahaina Baptist Church to help a core group grow into a new congregation. He and his family were renting a home in Lahaina, and their dwelling and most of their belongings were lost.

“In the early afternoon, our cell phone service went out. The wi-fi went out, so we didn’t have any communication,” Naylor said. “Probably around 2 or 3, all of Front Street is burning down, but we didn’t know it. We were walking distance from Front Street. We just didn’t realize it was that bad.”

Right before they left, they walked across a field toward Lahaina Baptist Church and saw the massive cloud of smoke. His neighbor and fellow church member, Todd, went over and prayed for the church building, which miraculously survived the fire.

The Naylors said God has provided them temporary housing through a believer on the island opening their home for the next few weeks. Now, as they help their own family of seven get back on its feet and into school, Naylor and his wife Danni have continued ministering to their community by engaging others and sharing the gospel.

“We have seen God show up through churches (from the mainland) and agencies like Send Relief just showing up to be there for us, support us, encourage us, pray for us,” Campbell said. “People praying for us has just been huge. We’re so thankful for the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention and local churches contacting us.”

Long road to recovery

Several churches that were outside the burn zone have been meeting needs and supporting the survivors who had been displaced by the fire. Send Relief has helped to undergird some of those efforts financially in cooperation with the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention.

Texas Baptist Men has provided support to Waiehu Church, a congregation planted by Kahului Baptist Church five years ago. The church met immediate needs by providing generators, water, food and other necessities. Members opened their homes to families who were displaced by the fire, with one family hosting 28 guests.

Send Relief sent a shipment of fire recovery supplies to Maui to assist Southern Baptist disaster relief teams as they serve families who have lost everything. This shipment left Send Relief’s warehouse in Ashland, Ky., and was packed with protective gear including Tyvek suits, N-95 masks, goggles and more.

“Traveling around the island this past weekend speaking with pastors and residents in Maui, you can’t help but grieve with them over the tremendous loss of life,” said Bryant Wright, president of Send Relief, following a visit to the island.

“There is a long road of recovery ahead, and we at Send Relief want to help connect churches from the mainland to the needs in Hawaii.”

BRENTWOOD, Tenn.—Many Americans believe financial prosperity is God’s plan for them, but they need to give more to ensure that blessing.

According to a Lifeway Research study, 52 percent of American Protestant churchgoers say their church teaches God will bless them if they give more money to their church and charities, with 24 percent strongly agreeing. This is up from 38 percent of churchgoers who agreed in a 2017 Lifeway Research study.

Additionally, churchgoers are more likely today than in 2017 to believe God wants them to prosper financially (76 percent, compared to 69 percent) and that they have to do something for God in order to receive material blessings from him (45 percent, compared to 26 percent).

Today, 3 in 4 churchgoers (76 percent) believe God wants them to prosper financially, including 43 percent who strongly agree. A little less than half (45 percent) believe they have to do something for him in order to receive material blessings from God, with 21 percent strongly agreeing.

“In the last five years, far more churchgoers are reflecting prosperity gospel teachings, including the heretical belief that material blessings are earned from God,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.

“It is possible the financial hits people have taken from inflation and the pandemic have triggered feelings of guilt for not serving God more. But Scripture does not teach that kind of direct connection.”

Most churchgoers believe God wants them to prosper financially—a belief especially prevalent among both the youngest and least educated churchgoers. Churchgoers ages 18 to 34 (81 percent) and 35 to 49 (85 percent) are among the most likely to say God wants them to prosper financially.

Furthermore, those who are high school graduates or less (81 percent) or have some college education (80 percent) are more likely to hold this belief than those with a bachelor’s degree (67 percent) or graduate degree (65 percent).

Belief that God wants people to prosper financially also is more common in some religious settings than others. Methodist (93 percent) and Restorationist movement (88 percent) churchgoers are among the most likely to hold this belief. And those with evangelical beliefs are more likely than those without such beliefs to agree (80 percent vs. 74 percent).

“Pursuing holiness was never designed by God to be a plan for financial riches,” McConnell said. “The size of one’s finances is not the measure of anyone’s service to God nor relationship with Him.”

As more churchgoers affirm prosperity gospel beliefs, younger churchgoers—those 18 to 34 (63 percent) and 35 to 49 (66 percent)—are more likely than older churchgoers—those 50 to 64 (53 percent) and over 65 (31 percent)—to affirm their church teaches that if they give more money to the church and charities, God will bless them.

“This research does not rule out the possibility that biblical teachings were poorly heard by more young adults, but they definitely have experienced a lack of clear biblical teaching on the reason for generosity,” McConnell said.

Denominational and demographic differences

African American churchgoers are the most likely to say their church teaches that if they give more money to the church and charities, God will bless them in return (71 percent). And those who attend worship services one to three times a month are more likely to say the same than those who attend at least four times a month (57 percent vs. 49 percent).

Churchgoers without evangelical beliefs are more likely than those with such beliefs to say their church teaches that if they give more money, God will bless them (55 percent vs. 48 percent). The opposite was true five years ago when 41 percent of evangelicals and 35 percent of non-evangelicals agreed.

Denominationally, Methodist (85 percent) and Restorationist movement (71 percent) churchgoers are among the most likely to agree their church teaches God will bless them if they give more money.

Of the three beliefs surveyed, churchgoers are least likely to believe they have to do something for God in order to receive material blessings from him. Still, like the others, this belief is most prevalent among younger churchgoers.

Those 18 to 34 (65 percent) and 35 to 49 (58 percent) are more likely than those 50 to 64 (43 percent) and over 65 (22 percent) to hold this belief. In 2017, churchgoers ages 35 to 49 were the least likely age group to agree (19 percent).

“Large numbers of young adults attending church regularly still believe their good deeds can tilt God’s gifts in their direction,” McConnell said.

Those who are high school graduates or less (50 percent) or have some college education (48 percent) are more likely than those with a bachelor’s degree (38 percent) or a graduate degree (30 percent) to agree. And African Americans are the most likely to agree (65 percent).

Among regular church attenders, those who attend a worship service least often (one to three times a month) are more likely than those who attend at least four times a month to say they have to do something for God in order to receive material blessings from him (49 percent vs. 42 percent).

Methodist (85 percent) and Restorationist movement (68 percent) churchgoers are once again the most likely to hold this belief. And those without evangelical beliefs are more likely than those with such beliefs to agree (50 percent vs. 37 percent).

The online survey of American Protestant churchgoers was conducted Sept. 19-29, 2022, using a national pre-recruited panel. Quotas and slight weights were used to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, education and religion to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,002 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.3 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

More than 100 Texas chaplains—including at least 34 Baptists—signed an open letter to all school board members in the state, urging them to reject government-approved chaplains in public schools.

“Because of our training and experience, we know that chaplains are not a replacement for school counselors or safety measures in our public schools, and we urge you to reject this flawed public policy,” the letter states. “It is harmful to our public schools and the students and families they serve.”

SB763—approved by Texas lawmakers in May and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June—calls on school districts to vote on whether to create a paid or volunteer chaplain program. The law goes into effect Sept. 1.

About 10 percent of the chaplains who signed the letter are affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said Eric Whitmore, associate endorser for Texas Baptists. Fourteen of the chaplains identified with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

‘Spiritual malpractice’

In part, the chaplains registered opposition to the public school chaplain program on religious liberty grounds.

“As trained chaplains, we strongly caution against the government assertion of authority for the spiritual development and formation of our public school children,” the letter states. “We would never provide spiritual care to someone without their consent. And when children are involved, parental consent is necessary.

“Not only are chaplains serving in public schools likely to bring about conflict with the religious beliefs of parents, but chaplains serving in public schools would also amount to spiritual malpractice by the chaplains.”

The letter asserts government-sanctioned chaplains “make sense in some settings”—such as the military, prisons or hospitals, where individuals cannot otherwise access religious services—but “not in our public schools.”

“Public school children simply do not face the barriers to religious exercise that service members, prisoners, and patients face. Parents or guardians must have the right to choose the religious leaders who will influence their children’s spiritual journey,” the letter states. “Public schools should not interfere or alter parental decisions in the realm of religious exercise or spiritual care.”

Education and expertise required

The letter notes SB763 does not require any specific training or qualifications for public school chaplains. It also does not demand chaplains refrain from proselytizing in schools or require them to serve students from different religious backgrounds.

“SB763 allows a school district to give any employee or volunteer who can pass a background check the title of ‘chaplain.’ This is simply not enough,” the letter states.

The letter points out professional chaplains “have specific education and expertise to fulfill our role in helping others engage their own religious practices and traditions.”

Normally, chaplains are required to have a graduate theological degree and be endorsed by an approved religious organization or denominational body. In some settings, chaplains must have one to two years of full-time experience as a spiritual leader, and often they are ordained ministers.

The letter points out the law provides for chaplains’ salaries to be drawn from funds dedicated “to improve school safety and security.”

“Those funds are directed at—but not limited to—the roles of restorative discipline and justice practices, mental and behavioral health support, and suicide prevention, intervention and postvention. We are deeply concerned about using chaplains in these roles to provide these services, particularly as the law does not require any specific training or qualifications,” the letter states.

The chaplains who endorsed the letter noted they work in cooperation with mental health counselors, not in competition with them. For example, therapists and police investigators receive specialized training to interview juveniles about sensitive matters, but many chaplains do not have that expertise.

Furthermore, chaplains typically are not trained in active-shooter situations or in how to be public safety professionals, the letter notes.

The letter to school board members concludes: “We urge you to support religious freedom and parental rights by rejecting this harmful program to have government-approved chaplains in our public schools. We believe that a strong public school system is one in which the limited funding for safety and security of students is used to hire the most skilled professionals for those roles. We believe that families, not the government, are entrusted with their children’s spiritual development.”

‘Misguided effort’ that will inject division

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the Interfaith Alliance and Texas Impact organized and released the letter.

“Public schools are not the place for religious instruction. That is best left to houses of worship, religious institutions and families,” BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler said.

Tyler expressed concern about “growing Christian nationalism” in Texas.

“Christian nationalism conflates religious and political authority, and our public schools should not be endorsing religion. They should continue to leave that up to the students and their families,” she said.

“School districts should reject this misguided effort to inject more religion and division in our schools.”

RED OAK—The first thing anyone notices about Nancy Ellard is her energy.

She talks fast, using her hands and every muscle in her face to convey what she’s thinking. She laughs easily. She works, moving from one task to the next—always on the move.

Ellard retired last year and became a Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteer. In June, she helped clean a family’s fire-devastated home in Grand Prairie. A week later, she headed to Perryton after a tornado hit the Panhandle town.

Last month, she went to Corsicana with the TBM Ellis County chainsaw team and participated as a victim in a “mass casualty” police training exercise.

Recently, she went to New Hampshire with teams from Collin County and the Amarillo area to assist with the aftermath of the extreme flooding.

Next, she plans to help remove and replace a fence for a women’s ministry.

 “I am bold for the Lord,” she said. “I love people, if they’ll put up with me. … I’m a motormouth. … I don’t like to sit still. I like to go.”

And TBM “gave me an opportunity to do that, and do that while I tell others about Jesus.”

On the move

Ellard has been on the move in one fashion or another throughout her life. She’s a native of Santa Fe, N.M., who moved to Texas after she married, raising two daughters as native Texans.

She turned her energy into activity, working as a paralegal, investment banker, warehouse manager and chef, among other things. D Magazine featured Ellard in 1986 when she started “Texas’ first breakfast in bed service, where I went to your home and prepared and served a four-course gourmet breakfast.”

On the side, “a long time ago,” Ellard participated in dirt bike riding.

“That was great fun,” she said. “Mostly, it was just getting to hang out with the guys and jumping off of ledges and stuff like that.”

In February, someone at her church, First Red Oak Baptist, encouraged people to attend a TBM disaster relief training event. Told that the initials stand for Texas Baptist Men, she asked if women could be involved. Ellard was told 43 percent of volunteers are women. So, she signed up.

“I didn’t yet know what it was all about, but all my life I had wanted to be a missionary. The Lord told me, ‘Nancy, you need to quit praying to be used and start praying to become usable.’ Which hurt my feelings, but he was right.”

God ‘gave me my mission field’

TBM training involves general certification and then specialty training, often in a one-weekend setting. Ellard received her certification then went to a feeding class and then to a box unit class. She walked out of the box class thinking she “didn’t need to spend three hours learning how to carry a box to a door.”

She headed to a mud-out class, but never made it because she felt drawn back to the box class.

“I went back to the class and said: ‘I’m sorry. I really do want to sit here and do this.’ And then I found out what a box unit really did.”

Ellard began to choke up as she shared the memory. “As I was watching the film … it struck me that you’re not taking boxes to people. You are taking Jesus to people.”

At that point, Ellard felt God then told her she was finally ready.

“And he gave me my mission field. He gave me the desire of my heart in his always perfect time and will,” she said. “I started crying, and people were trying to talk to me as I was leaving, and they were saying, ‘What’s wrong with that woman?’ I was overwhelmed and excited.”

‘It has enriched my life’

The volunteer work since her training “has been nothing but a joy.” She spoke of the disaster victims she has met while serving and of opportunities to share the gospel with them.

“They just come and hold you, and hug you, and cry on you, and all you can do is cry with them and offer help, hope and healing,” she said.

“It has just enriched my life. It has given purpose to getting out of bed in the morning. I am deliriously happy to be a part of TBM.”

“I haven’t met a person in this organization—man or woman—who isn’t just filled with the love of God. It just exudes from them in everything they say or do. They never are out of character. They’re humbly thinking about the Lord and giving him glory and working hard. That’s so awesome to me.”

And she’s always ready to go on the next TBM assignment.

“I actually have a room where I keep everything ready,” Ellard said. “The minute I come home from a deployment, I wash everything, I repack it. … Everything’s there and ready to go. Within five minutes, I can grab my cot and my very comfortable mattress, and I’m ready to go out the door.

“I’m not married. I don’t have children nearby. I don’t even have pets, except a feral cat, and he looks really sad when I say: ‘Here’s your water and food for a week. See you around.’ And I’m gone.

“And I love it. It’s exciting and rewarding. It’s like a kid waiting to go to a sleepover—with Jesus.”

JARANWALA, Pakistan (BP)—An outlawed Islamist group has been charged with inciting destructive riots in Pakistan after two Christian brothers were accused of blasphemy there.

Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan clerics shouted inflammatory slogans from mosque loudspeakers after the brothers were accused of defacing a Quran, Reuters reported Aug. 21, citing police and community members as sources.

Rioters burned 20 churches, vandalized 80 homes, burned belongings and desecrated a Christian cemetery, many news outlets reported. No deaths were reported.

“Better to die if you don’t care about Islam,” police quoted one cleric as saying, global news agency Agence France-Presse reported Aug. 19.

“That cleric should have understood that when you gather people in such a charged environment … in a country in which people were already very sensitive about (blasphemy) it is like adding fuel to fire,” the news agency quoted police.

“He’s not saying go and burn their houses. But when the mob gathers, it’s really impossible to control that.”

Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan clerics denied the accusations, police said, and joined peace efforts after the riot in attempts to dupe police.

Blasphemy accusations trigger riots

The Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan—with its rallying cry of “death to blasphemers”—focuses mainly on protecting Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws. The group has been active in electoral politics since the 2016 execution of Mumtaz Qadri, a police guard who received the death penalty for assassinating Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer in 2011. Taseer had sought to reform Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

While approximately 130 Muslims were arrested after the riots, the two Christian brothers were also arrested for blasphemy.

The case began after Muslims in Jaranwala accused 24-year-old Umar Saleem, known as Rocky, of tearing pages from the Quran and writing defamations on the pages in red, Morning Star News reported. Rocky’s brother Raja, 21, was also charged.

Reportedly, the defaced pages were found in the street with Rocky’s and Raja’s names, addresses and national identities attached. The two men, members of a Full Gospel Assemblies church, surrendered to police. Charges against them are punishable by life imprisonment and death.

A court ordered the two men be held in police custody seven days for questioning, Reuters reported Aug. 21. Their release date would be this week, but there are no reports of the charges being dropped.

False charges of blasphemy are a common method of persecution of Christians in Pakistan, but Pakistani officials acknowledged the mob attacks were a “planned conspiracy,” Morning Star reported.

Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi told Christian leaders the government would restore the churches and homes damaged or destroyed in the incident.

“Whatever damages took place, as a government, Muslims and humans, we will restore them,” Morning Starquoted Naqvi.

Another leader quoted in Morning Star News, Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, apologized for the violence and said he was committed to protecting “our Christian brothers.”

“We are ashamed,” he said.