Robert O. Feather, Texas Baptist minister and denominational leader, died Dec. 14. He was 93. Born June 30, 1928, in Shawnee, Okla., Bob Feather was the eldest son of Othal and Rhette Feather. Bob spent his early years in Austin and graduated from the Greenwood High School in Springfield, Mo., where he played football, ran track and was a state champion hurdler. In 1946, he moved to Waco to attend Baylor University, where he was a member of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce and twice elected a Baylor yell leader. He also served as music director in Youth Led Revivals in 1947. After graduating from Baylor in 1950, he went on to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he earned a Master of Religious Education degree in 1953 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. During the summer of 1951, he met Carolyn Grigsby at the Ridgecrest Baptist Encampment in North Carolina. For the next 68 years, their lives were devotedly intertwined through their church, alma mater and the everyday busy life of raising two children. In 1953, his first church assignment took him to Bowling Green, Ky., where he served as the minister of education. His ministry then brought him to Dallas, where he served at Wilshire Baptist Church from 1956 to 1964 and as associate pastor for administration and education at Park Cities Baptist Church from 1964 to 1978. He left Dallas in 1978 to work within the leadership of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association as executive vice president of the World Evangelism & Christian Education Fund. He considered the years spent working alongside Billy Graham some of the most rewarding of his life. In late 1980, his alma mater Baylor University invited him to serve as vice president for external affairs. While at Baylor, he was responsible for the university’s financial development, charitable gifts and future endowments. During his 19-year tenure at Baylor, the university’s endowment quadrupled. After retiring from Baylor, he served as vice president of the Texas Baptist Laity Institute and as a consultant for the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation for innovative partnerships with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Some of the many awards and honors he received included the Baylor University W. R. White Meritorious Service Award, Baylor University Herbert H. Reynolds Award, Baylor University Retired Administrator Award, Texas Baptist Legacy Award, Baptist Association of Christian Educators Distinguished Leadership Award, an honorary doctorate degree from William Carey College in Hattiesburg, Miss., and most recently, the Pioneer Award from the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation.  Some of the leadership roles he filled through the years included service as president of the Religious Education and Music Conference of Dallas Baptist Association, the board of the Dallas Baylor Club, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Religious Education Association, trustee of the San Marcos Baptist Academy and president of the National Alumni Association of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was a faithful member of the Baylor University Old Main Society, Baylor University Endowed Scholarships Society, Baylor University Athletic Director Hall of Honor and the Boone Powell Senior Society of the Baylor Scott & White Health Care System. He and his wife Carolyn enjoyed traveling to more than 35 countries.  He was a 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Mason, Sharon Shrine Temple and member of Rotary Club International  He was also a proud member of the Bob Glaze Men’s Sunday School Class and Park Cities Baptist Church for 39 years. As a lifetime season ticket holder at Baylor University, he rarely missed a Baylor football game in 75 years. He enjoyed water skiing and snow skiing with all of his grandchildren. He is survived by his wife Carolyn; son Bobby Feather and his wife Lisa of Fort Worth; daughter Sunni Brookshire and her husband Britt of Dallas; six grandchildren and six great-grandsons; and a brother, Col. George Feather of Boerne. A memorial service will be held at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas on Monday, Dec. 20, at 2 p.m. with a family reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family suggest contributions to the Baylor Line Foundation of Waco, the Cook Children’s Medical Center of Fort Worth or Park Cities Baptist Church.

NASHVILLE (BP)—All proceeds from the sale of a new children’s book about missionary surgeon Rebekah Naylor go to support the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which supports missionaries around the world.

Rebekah: An American Surgeon in India was written by Ann Lovell at the International Mission Board, and it already is listed as the No. 1 new release in Amazon’s children’s religious biographies category.

Naylor said she hopes the book will help children develop a passion for missions.

“I’m just grateful that the story of what God has done can be shared with all ages, because that’s the whole point. It’s not what I did, but what God did by using me, and I was just privileged to be used in the way that I was,” Naylor said.

“Children need to know about missions, and I hope they can get a real picture of what it means to follow Jesus, to be his child and to have their own faith story.”

Lovell, director of internal communications for the IMB, said the book is based on Naylor’s biography, Rebekah Ann Naylor, M.D.: Missionary Surgeon in Changing Times, written by Camille Lee Hornbeck.

Lovell, who spent more than 15 years on the international mission field, said reading missionary biographies as a young person heavily influenced her eventual calling.

A few years ago, Lovell wrote a biography for children about missionary Bill Wallace. She said the lessons from Naylor’s story made it an easy choice for her next book project.

“The lesson I think for kids and for all of us really from the book is when God calls you to a path and makes it clear, he also makes the way forward for you to fulfill it in spite of obstacles,” Lovell said.

“Sometimes, things are not going to go as we expect or plan. But they are still part of God’s will, and he still is at work. We just have to trust him. If you commit your life to him, he will finish what he started.”

Naylor a trailblazing missionary surgeon

Naylor is known for her work as a surgeon in Bangalore, India, during a time when women doctors were uncommon.

She began as a medical school student at Vanderbilt University during the late 1960s, and a summer mission trip to Bangkla, Thailand, after her third year cemented her desire to become a surgeon.

During the trip, the surgeon she worked with let her help in the operating room, which was against the cultural norms of the time.

This experience helped develop Naylor’s love for surgery, and eventually culminated in her work at the Bangalore Baptist Hospital in India. She served as a surgeon and eventually chief of staff for the hospital and continued to do medical work in India until the early 2000s.

Naylor now works for the IMB, helping lead its Global Help Strategies network. She also is a distinguished professor of missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Legacy of obedience to God’s call

Lovell said Naylor’s continuing legacy of obedience to God despite challenges is something all people can learn from, but is particularly inspiring to young women.

“She is a model for how women are crucial to the work of missions and to getting the gospel to the nations,” Lovell said. “She shows young women that there is a path for them to serve, and I think that’s incredibly important. She’s now training and enlisting the next generation of medical professionals to also use their skills to reach the nations, and that is a lasting impact that we can never fully measure.”

Naylor said keeping her mind on eternal things is what inspired her to keep going when ministry got difficult. She hopes her story can illustrate that God can do incredible things through ordinary people.

“When God called me into missions, I thought I was too small and insignificant. But God takes us who are very ordinary people, and he can do great things through us and use us,” Naylor said.

“I’m passionate about missions. I’m passionate about reaching people who do not know Christ. I’m passionate about health care, so putting all that together is something that I want to continue to communicate as long as I can.

“I want to keep telling the coming generations what amazing and wonderful things God has done in my life and in the lives of those whom I’ve met along the way.”

After being held hostage two months, 12 North American mission workers kidnapped by a street gang in Haiti have been released, Christian Aid Ministries announced.

The Ohio-based missions organization posted a notice on its website Dec. 16 saying: “We glorify God for answered prayer—the remaining twelve hostages are FREE! Join us in praising God that all seventeen of our loved ones are now safe. Thank you for your fervent prayers throughout the past two months.”

The nonprofit organization—primarily supported by Amish, Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist churches—added it hoped to release additional information soon.

Gary Desrosiers, a spokesman for Haiti’s National Police, also confirmed to the Associated Press the hostages’ release.

Previously, kidnappers had released two hostages a few days before Thanksgiving and another three on Dec. 5.

At that time, Christian Aid Ministries asked Christians around the world to join in three days of praying and fasting for the remaining hostages. The organization also had asked Christians to pray for the kidnappers, “that God would touch their hearts and bring them ‘out of darkness and into his marvelous light,’” quoting a passage from 1 Peter 2:9.

On Oct. 16, a dozen Christian Aid Ministries mission workers and their five children were returning to their home base after visiting an orphanage when they were abducted in Ganthier, about 20 miles east of Port-au-Prince.

The 400 Mawozo street gang claimed responsibility and demanded $1 million ransom for each hostage. It is not known at this time whether any ransom was paid for the release of the kidnapped North Americans.

The abduction of the Christian Aid Ministries mission workers occurred less than three weeks after gunmen attacked First Baptist Church in Port-au-Prince. The assailants killed 60-year-old deacon Sylner Lafaille and kidnapped his wife. Marie Marthe Laurent Lafaille was released four days later.

ROBSTOWN—Cuando las iglesias reanudaron la adoración en persona después de meses de servicios solo en línea debido a COVID-19, muchas congregaciones continuaron luchando financieramente y aún no han alcanzado los niveles de asistencia prepandémicos

Pero una congregación predominantemente hispana en el sur de Texas creció en todos los aspectos durante los últimos 20 meses.

“Solo se puede atribuir a Dios. No hay una explicación lógica aparte de eso”, dijo Raúl Elizondo, pastor de New Life at the Cross Church (Iglesia Nueva Vida en la Cruz), una congregación bautista de Texas en Robstown.

Elizondo fundó lo que entonces se llamaba Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida en la sala de su casa hace más de dos décadas.

“Hace un par de años nos iba bastante bien. Nuestro edificio nos quedó pequeño y decidimos ponerlo a la venta y reubicarnos”, dijo.

Del regocijo al cuestionamiento

La iglesia vendió su propiedad en Northwest Boulevard en Calallen en marzo de 2020 e hizo planes para reunirse en edificios portátiles a partir del domingo de Pascua, 12 de abril, pero ahora en Robstown.

Unas horas después de que la iglesia cerrara por la venta de la propiedad, sus líderes comenzaron a escuchar sobre el cierre de los distritos escolares de Texas debido al virus COVID-19. Enseguida el gobernador Greg Abbott declaró el estado de emergencia para todos los condados de Texas.

“Pasé de un tiempo de regocijo a decir: ‘Señor, ¿qué hicimos?”’ Recordó Elizondo.

El domingo 18 de marzo, el pastor le dijo a su congregación que suspenderían temporalmente los servicios de adoración en persona y comenzarían los servicios de transmisión en línea en inglés y español durante “algunas semanas”. Al día siguiente, el gobernador Abbott emitió una orden ejecutiva que esencialmente colocó a Texas bajo un bloqueo.

“Tuvimos 30 días para mudarnos a nuestra nueva ubicación durante el cierre”, dijo Elizondo.

Dado que estaba brindando un “servicio esencial”, la iglesia se mudó con éxito a su nuevo sitio, pero hizo planes para continuar brindando adoración solo en línea y estudio de la Biblia por Zoom durante un período prolongado para garantizar la seguridad de sus miembros.

Incremento dramático en donaciones

Elizondo les dijo a los líderes de la iglesia que esperaran una disminución en las donaciones, y les aseguró que tomaría un trabajo de medio tiempo si fuera necesario para evitar poner a la iglesia en un aprieto financiero.

“Sorprendentemente, nuestras donaciones aumentaron. Subieron alrededor del 30 por ciento”, dijo. “La gente dio más cuando no tenía que verme en persona. Esto provoca humildad”.

La iglesia comenzó a permitir que los miembros que deseaban reunirse en persona para los servicios de adoración se reunieran a mediados del verano del año pasado, pero no volvió a abrir por completo hasta enero.

Tanto el servicio en inglés como el servicio en español no solo llenaron el espacio asignado en un edificio portátil, sino que también llenaron múltiples espacios adicionales.

“En un muy buen domingo antes de COVID podríamos contar hasta 240 personas en los dos servicios combinados”, dijo Elizondo. “En el Día de la Madre de este año, tuvimos 300”.

La asistencia ha seguido aumentando y los miembros han seguido dando. La iglesia New Life at the Cross recibió un préstamo de Baptist Church Loan Corporation (Corporación de Préstamos para la Iglesia Bautista) y recientemente comenzó la construcción de su nuevo edificio. A menos que haya retrasos por interrupciones en la cadena de suministro, la iglesia espera mudarse a sus nuevas instalaciones el próximo verano.

“Es una cosa de Dios”

“Podríamos sentar a 150 en nuestro antiguo santuario. Habrá 600 asientos en el nuevo”, dijo Elizondo.

En lo que va del año, la iglesia New Life at the Cross ha bautizado a 22 nuevos creyentes. Si bien la congregación sigue siendo predominantemente hispana, más del 15 por ciento de sus miembros son anglosajones y también asisten algunas familias afroamericanas.

“Esperamos volvernos más multiétnicos y multiculturales”, dijo, y señaló que los miembros de habla hispana representan múltiples nacionalidades. “COVID no detuvo la Gran Comisión”.

Elizondo no se atribuye el mérito del crecimiento de la congregación en un momento en que muchas otras congregaciones continúan luchando.

_______

https://baptiststandard.com/news/texas/south-texas-hispanic-church-prospers-through-pandemic/

John Thielepape to GlocalNet and Multi-faith Neighbors Network effective Jan. 14 from Parker Baptist Association, where he is director of missions.

WACO—Baylor University has received a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to help Truett Theological Seminary launch its Future Church Project.

The project—co-directed by Truett faculty Angela Gorrell and Dustin Benac—is designed to respond to the expressed needs and challenges of the church through relational engagement, research and resourcing.

“We are grateful for Lilly Endowment’s vision and its support for the Future Church Project,” Benac said. “In a time of so much transition for the church and its leaders, I am hopeful because of what is emerging in this moment: the renewal of theological education through more collaborative approaches to ministry, teaching and leadership.

“We look forward to partnering with many others across Baylor, Truett and the broader Waco community to envision and implement this collective work.”

Gorrell likewise expressed appreciation to the Lilly Endowment for its support and excitement about the project.

“With great hope and joy, we look forward to collaborating with excellent scholars, practitioners and students to pilot helpful, imaginative solutions to challenges facing the church,” she said.

The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, a three-phase initiative designed to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face as they prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future.

The Future Church Project will connect the seminary’s Program for the Future Church, the Truett Church Network and local nonprofit organization Mission Waco to achieve five goals:

• Discover and address current and emerging challenges that confront local churches while cultivating collaboration between Truett, the church and the community.
• Build collaborative, interdisciplinary hubs for research around the challenges facing the church.
• Create a culture of experimentation and exploration of alternative modalities for theological education and leadership development.
• Nurture and enliven the souls and work of early-career ministers.
• Increase Truett’s financial sustainability through innovative fund-raising and recruitment efforts.

With a focus on forward-thinking strategies and initiatives, the Future Church Project will strengthen Truett Seminary’s capacity to prepare and support pastors and congregational lay ministers into the future.

Address the needs of churches and ministry leaders

The Future Church Project also will support collaborative and interdisciplinary research across Baylor University, engaging researchers in order to understand and pilot solutions to the complex challenges facing local communities and Christian leaders.

“The grant award by Lilly Endowment affirms the Seminary’s ability and potential to address the needs of congregations and ministry leaders in thoughtful and innovative ways,” Baylor Provost Nancy Brickhouse said. “We are grateful to Lilly Endowment for this award and look forward to witnessing the realized goals of the Future Church Project.”

Truett Seminary is one of 84 theological schools that will benefit from a total of more than $82 million in grants through the second phase of the Pathways initiative. Together, the schools represent evangelical, mainline Protestant, nondenominational, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Black church and historic peace church traditions such as Church of the Brethren, Mennonite and Quakers. Many schools also serve students and pastors from Black, Latino, Korean American, Chinese American and recent immigrant Christian communities.

“Theological schools have long played a pivotal role in preparing pastoral leaders for churches,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Today, these schools find themselves in a period of rapid and profound change.

“Through the Pathways Initiative, theological schools will take deliberate steps to address the challenges they have identified in ways that make the most sense to them. We believe that their efforts are critical to ensuring that Christian congregations continue to have a steady stream of pastoral leaders who are well-prepared to lead the churches of tomorrow.”

Lilly Endowment launched the Pathways initiative in January 2021 because of its longstanding interest in supporting efforts to enhance and sustain the vitality of Christian congregations by strengthening the leadership capacities of pastors and congregational lay leaders.

“Even though various reports of the demise of the church in North America are greatly exaggerated, this is no time to rest on ecclesial laurels,” said Truett Seminary Dean Todd D. Still. “That Lilly Endowment would invest so generously and Drs. Gorrell and Benac would devote themselves so fully to such a timely and necessary project is a great grace.

“Through the years, Lilly Endowment has helped to fund significantly a number of strategic programs at Baylor in general and at Truett in particular. May the multifaceted, innovative, collaborative work of the new program for the Future Church flourish and bear much good fruit.”

Howard Payne University recently received a $200,000 grant from the Dean Foundation to establish the William B. Dean, M.D., Lecture Series and Community Impact Day, annual events focusing on the importance of community service. “These events will recognize Dr. Dean’s longstanding example of Christian service to his community,” said HPU President Cory Hines. The Dean Foundation is chaired by David A. Dean, son of the late William B. Dean, Dallas-area pediatrician and trailblazer in conditions affecting children such as dyslexia and polio. The inaugural lecture and service day is scheduled March 30, 2022, with keynote speaker Scott Venable, a 2002 HPU graduate and lead pastor of Northwood Church in Keller.

East Texas Baptist University granted degrees to 132 graduates—83 undergraduate degrees and 49 graduate degrees—during two commencement ceremonies on Dec. 11. Speakers at the ceremonies were Jeph Holloway, professor of Christian ministry at ETBU, and Roy Cotton, retired director of African American ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and now coordinator of Texas Baptists’ Ambassador Program. Alayna Grace Scull received the ETBU President’s Award, given to a graduating ETBU student who is considered the best representation of a Christian leader, scholar and servant. Scull graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management degree, maintaining a 4.00 GPA. She is a member of Sigma Beta Delta Society and the 2021 recipient of the Business Department’s Academic Excellence Award. She also is a Baptist Student Ministry leader for worship and prayer.

With a goal-line stand in the final seconds of a 21-16 victory over Oklahoma State University, the Baylor Bears clinched the 2021 Big 12 Football Championship. Baylor will face the University of Mississippi in the 88th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1. In other Baylor University sports, the men’s basketball team—reigning NCAA men’s national champions—climbed to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll after a 57-36 victory over the Villanova Wildcats on Dec. 12.

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders will compete in the NCAA Division III National Championship— Stagg Bowl XLVIII—on Dec. 17. The Crusaders will face the North Central College Cardinals in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. The Cru football team advanced to the championship after defeating the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks 24-7 in the NCAA Semifinal game.

After receiving an anonymous $1 million gift, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary announced it has the necessary $2 million to complete funding of the endowed Jack D. and Barbara Terry Chair of Religious Education. Established in 2007, the Terry Chair is named for Jack D. Terry Jr., former dean and long-time faculty member, and his wife of more than 60 years, Barbara. The School of Educational Ministries was named in his honor in 2009.

Howard Payne University’s 2020-21 Model United Nations team was named one of the top 50 teams in the United States and Canada and the top team in Texas by Best Delegate. HPU’s team was placed in the second tier of the rankings, which included teams from Brown University, New York University, Stanford University, The Ohio State University, University of Michigan and Michigan State University. The team was led by head delegates Madeline DuPré, a 2021 HPU graduate from Leander, and Jacob Lehrer, a 2021 HPU graduate from Midland. Other team members were Hallie Burden, a junior from Nederland majoring in social work; Joseph Lahmann, a 2021 HPU graduate from Killeen; Brooke Robbins, a junior from Kerrville in the Guy D. Newman Honors Academy; Sierra Ross, a 2021 HPU graduate from Galveston; and Madison Tuck, a sophomore from Edgewood, N.M., majoring in the Honors Academy. Dave Claborn, professor of government, is the Model United Nations team sponsor.

MAYFIELD, Ky. (BP)­—Southern Baptist disaster relief teams began working Dec. 14 in west and south-central Kentucky in some of the areas most affected by the tornadoes that tore through the mid-South on Dec. 10.

Teams from Kentucky, North Carolina, Missouri and Texas have responded to calls for help.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at least 100 Kentuckians remain missing as recovery efforts continue. The storms that stretched across Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee early Saturday morning have left more than 70 dead.

Kentucky Baptist Glenn Hickey, the incident commander for the site in hard-hit Mayfield, Ky., called the destruction the worst tornado-related damage he’s ever seen.

As he drove to the site on Saturday morning, he took note of damage stretching more than 150 miles between Bowling Green and Mayfield.

Disaster relief crews are providing chainsaw assistance as they help people get to their homes and remove trees from homes, Hickey said.

“We have teams going out and tarping where there’s roof damage—trying to protect whatever is left of homes, if we can,” he said.

For many in Mayfield, repair is not an option.

“Many houses will be condemned and will have to be completely rebuilt,” he said.

A Southern Baptist Send Relief tractor trailer made its way west Tuesday from Ashland, Ky., to Mayfield and to Mt. Juliet, Tenn., bringing enough roofing material for 480 homes, Kentucky Today reported.

Baptist disaster relief chaplains also are on the ground near the most gruesome sights where survivors’ loss is great. Vande Slonecker is helping lead the chaplain team as they assess the area and make their first contacts with residents.

“Right now, people are having an adrenaline shock. It’s very hard for them to understand what they’re seeing,” she said. In the coming days, she added, adrenaline will wear off, and shock will set in as residents will need help to process and comprehend the devastation.

“The reality will set in, and the grief will come,” Slonecker said. “It’s our job to say, ‘Yes, you are going through a very rough time, but God is here, and he sent us to be here with you, holding your hand, helping you through this the best we can.’”

Slonecker, a veteran chaplain and caregiver, has worked disaster response in the Gulf Coast, along the East Coast and in Kentucky. She said the devastation is massive, because it is so widespread.

So many people have lost everything, and for those recovering, “the rebuilding process and what is ahead for this town is mammoth compared to some of the places I’ve been,” she said.

Cathy Lynn Lawrence, longtime ministry assistant with Texas Baptist Men, died Dec. 13 in Dallas. She was 71. She was born Aug. 24, 1950, in Dallas to Arnold William Dollgener and Hallie Marie Kirkland. She worked for Texas Baptist Men as a secretary and ministry assistant 15 years until her retirement. She was a lifelong member of Hickory Tree Baptist Church in Balch Springs. She enjoyed her retirement spending time with family, friends and her beloved pets. She was preceded in death by her first husband Alan Pace Smith, her late husband Robert Lawrence and seven siblings. She is survived by son Chris Smith and his wife Kim, son Shane Lawrence and his wife Kristin, and daughter Andrea Harrison and husband Taylor; five grandchildren; and brothers Robert Dollgener and James Dollgener.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Next week, most Americans will celebrate Christmas, marking the birth of Jesus. But a new poll from Pew shows the share of U.S. adults who consider themselves Christian is falling.

Only 63 percent of Americans self-identify as Christian this year, a marked drop from 75 percent 10 years ago.

The declining percentage of Americans who say they are Christian is offset by a growing number of people who call themselves atheist, agnostic or people of no particular faith. These unaffiliated Americans make up a full 29 percent of the U.S. population, up from 19 percent in 2011.

“The secularizing shifts evident in American society so far in the 21st century show no signs of slowing,” the Pew researchers concluded. “The religiously unaffiliated share of the public is 6 percentage points higher than it was five years ago and 10 points higher than a decade ago.”

Though Christians are still a healthy majority, their decline is perhaps best reflected in two questions from the poll: how often people pray and how important religion is in their lives.

Only 45 percent of U.S. adults said they pray on a daily basis (down from 58 percent in a similar 2007 survey).

And the number of Americans who say religion is “very important” in their lives is also falling: 41 percent of Americans consider religion “very important” in their lives, down from 56 percent in 2007.

Politic environment a factor

Protestants account for most of the decline—down 4 percentage points from five years ago and 10 percentage points since a decade ago, with both evangelical and nonevangelical Protestants declining overall to 40 percent of U.S. adults. Catholics held relatively steady at 21 percent.

“This is at least in part a reaction to the political environment,” said David Campbell, professor of American democracy at the University of Notre Dame who has written about American secularization.

“Many people turning away from religion do so because they think of religion as an expression of political conservatism, or as a wing of the Republican Party. That’s especially true of white Americans. The more religion is wrapped up in a political view, the more people who don’t share that political view say, ‘That’s not for me.’”

There was no corresponding rise in the number of Americans adhering to other faiths. A total of 6 percent of Americans identify with non-Christian faiths, including 1 percent who describe themselves as Jewish, 1 percent Muslim, 1 percent Buddhist, 1 percent who are Hindu and 2 percent who identify with a wide variety of other faiths.

But notably, the number of atheists and agnostics in the survey roughly doubled in the past decade to 4 percent and 5 percent respectively, up from 2 percent and 3 percent in 2011.

Bigger culturally than numerically

Some scholars said this doubling may not be as big a shift numerically as it is culturally.

“There’s less stigma attached to being an atheist,” said Ryan Burge, assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and the author of a book about the “nones,” or the religiously unaffiliated. “It’s revealing of what’s been there for a long time, rather than a big shift. People may not have answered honestly 20, 30 years ago.”

But Burge said the decline of Protestant Christianity from 52 percent in 2007 to 40 percent today is significant.

“It’s more evidence that America is going to be much different,” Burge said. “Think of American history. For a plurality of Americans to say religion is not important, that’s a big shift in how we think about ourselves.”

A survey released by PRRI during the summer found that the religiously unaffiliated had lost ground, making up just 23 percent of the country. But the Pew poll found little to support that conclusion. The number of people with no religion grew steadily from 16 percent in 2007 to 29 percent in 2021, Pew indicated.

The poll was part of the National Public Opinion Reference Survey conducted by Pew online and by mail between May and August. The survey was conducted among 3,937 respondents, who took the poll on their own (not in response to an interviewer). It has a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.

WASHINGTON (RNS/AP)—Jacki King, the women’s minister at Second Baptist Church in Conway, Ark., first felt a call to ministry as a college student.

She decided to follow it, giving up her pre-med major and her spot on a college softball team for ministry training at a small Bible school with a mostly male student body. She picked Criswell College in Dallas because it was where her pastor was a dean. She wanted to teach the Bible the way he did.

King thought at the time she only had two options for ministry—marrying a pastor or serving as an overseas missionary.

“I really didn’t want to be married to a lead pastor,” she said.

But God, as the saying goes, had other plans.

She met Josh King, an aspiring preacher at Criswell, fell in love and married him. They went into ministry together with his pastor role opening doors for her.

Today, King is an author as well as a Bible teacher, and she worries too much of the conversation about women’s roles in the church is focused on what they cannot do—namely, serve as senior pastor in a Southern Baptist church—rather than what they can do.

The Bible shows women and men as partners and portrays women leading in the early church, King said. She points to Phoebe, who is mentioned in the New Testament book of Romans, along with other women leaders.

“Women are part of the Great Commission,” she said, a reference to Jesus’ command to spread his teaching around the world and make disciples.

Tension in the SBC over the role of women

Few congregations could function without the work of female members. Still, there is tension in the Southern Baptist Convention over the role of women, mainly over how to put a section of the denomination’s statement of faith—the 2000 version of the Baptist Faith and Message—into practice. That section, based on the SBC’s interpretation of Bible verses like 1 Timothy 2:12 and Titus 1:5-9, deals with leadership in churches.

“While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” the statement reads.

But local Southern Baptist churches, because they are governed autonomously, are free to decide how to implement that teaching.

For some in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the statement of faith means the senior pastor must be a man, but staff and other pastoral roles can be filled by women, including teaching the Bible to both men and women. For others, pastoral duties, especially preaching, are limited to men, and women are only allowed to teach the Bible to other women and children.

These two views clashed in spring 2019, when Beth Moore, then a beloved Southern Baptist women’s Bible teacher, tweeted about speaking at a Mother’s Day church service. It led to a social media firestorm and renewed criticism of women preachers and teachers from more conservative Southern Baptists.

In spring 2021, Moore left the SBC, citing a number of concerns, including how the denomination has handled sexual abuse allegations, as well as sexism and racism within its ranks.

“At the end of the day, there comes a time when you have to say, this is not who I am,” she told Religion News Service at the time.

Baptist women in ministry in a bind

This ongoing fight has left some women leaders who feel called to ministry in a bind.

“Until we stop debating or demanding an ever-narrowing conformity, we will continue to circle a revolving door of unnecessary controversy,” said Katie McCoy, women’s ministry director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and former seminary professor, in an email.

Jacqueline Scott, a member of Dorrisville Baptist Church in Harrisburg, Ill., and women’s Bible study teacher, said being a leader is a natural outgrowth of her faith, and she has always felt called to encourage people to reach their potential.

“I’ve realized that being a leader is just something that is almost ingrained,” she said. “You don’t even realize that you’re doing it.”

Scott believes her faith frees her from some of the limitations society puts on her gender. But, she said, Christians put up boundaries too, restricting what people can do for God and how they share the gospel—forgetting everyone has a place in the church’s mission.

Still, Scott believes the Bible limits the role of pastor to men, and she thinks they are better suited for that role.

“On the other hand, do I believe that women can be preachers?” she said. “Yes, I do.”

In 2019, King, McCoy and other faithful Southern Baptists launched the SBC Women’s Leadership Network to foster female leaders across the evangelical denomination.

“I get to have tons of conversations with women across our convention about … how they’re serving and how their creativity and resilience is changing communities and schools and churches,” King said. “None of that is platformed. None of that is shared to the world.”

‘Leadership is influence, not necessarily position’

King pointed to the examples of Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong, legendary missionaries in Southern Baptist life. Two of the largest denomination-wide offerings are named after the women.

Leadership is more than high-profile ministries, McCoy said. It can look like women hosting college students for the holidays, mentoring young moms and organizing community service projects, she said.

“Leadership is influence, not necessarily position,” McCoy said.

Called to ministry at 22, McCoy, who holds a doctorate in systematic theology, said her parents, professors and peers encouraged her to pursue leadership in Baptist life. Today, she is the new women’s ministry director for Texas Baptists, recently making the jump from an SBC seminary to the state convention.

Texas Baptist churches seemed to have worked out how to cooperate despite their differences over the role of women, and they do it “without the controversy—or perennial acrimony—the SBC experiences,” McCoy said. It is a local church matter and not a test issue for joining the state convention, she said.

“Many of our 5,300 churches are just as conservative as the SBC, affirming the same confessional documents,” McCoy said, adding that others allow women to preach or teach, but limit pastor and elder positions to men.

‘As a woman, I couldn’t grow beyond where I was’

When McCoy previously worked at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, she said she felt valued by the administration and supported by President Adam Greenway but felt limited as an employee of an SBC seminary.

“I felt that, as a woman, I couldn’t grow beyond where I was,” McCoy said.

Despite her credentials, McCoy knew teaching in the School of Theology wasn’t an option. It would be, she said, “at best, fodder for the next alarmist documentary, and at worst, a call for investigations and resignations” at the SBC’s national gathering.

“If the SBC ever looks around and realizes it has lost a generation of women leaders, it won’t be because those women drifted into liberalism. It will be because they’re exhausted,” she said.

Instead, McCoy was named an assistant professor of applied theology and women’s studies, but in the School of Educational Ministries, which prepares students for church ministry more practically. She doesn’t fault Greenway.

“I do, however, fault a religious culture that so caters to its fundamentalist fringe that it views women teaching theology courses as a more imminent threat to its doctrinal purity than decades of infighting and rancor,” McCoy said.

Ashley Allen, a women’s ministry professor and the director of news and information at Southwestern Seminary, does not feel restricted by the denomination’s beliefs.

“I abide by what Scripture says,” Allen said. “But at the same time, Scripture provides opportunities for me as a woman.”

In college, Allen knew she was being called to a Christian vocation, but she refined that calling through the example and guidance of the ladies at her church—many of whom didn’t carry a title.

“They were what I define leadership to be now, which is influencing,” Allen said. “When you are influencing somebody else, you’re leading them—good or bad.”

Men, including a seminary dean, a professor and a state convention leader, also championed Allen along her career path. Allen said they invested in her, ran interference and recommended her for different positions.

Today, Allen is doing the influencing, and she would like to see more women in Southern Baptist life fostering leadership among their peers in “whatever it may be, but really coming alongside those ladies and giving them opportunities to be able to serve and to use their gifts.”

This story is part of a series by the Associated Press, Religion News Service and The Conversation on women’s roles in male-led religions. 

GARLAND—When multiple tornadoes ripped through the mid-South, a Dallas-area Baptist congregation partnered with Texas Baptist Men to deliver supplies to help a Hispanic Baptist pastor in Mayfield, Ky., minister to his community.

Late Friday night Dec. 10, a series of tornadoes swept through Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky. The longest-tracking tornado, packing wind speeds in excess of 150 mph, originated in Arkansas and appeared to remain on the ground more than 200 miles into Kentucky.

During a Dec. 13 news conference, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed 64 deaths in his state due to tornadoes. However, he added, “undoubtedly, there will be more” fatalities, noting 105 people remained unaccounted for at that point.

TBM placed its statewide network of disaster relief volunteers on alert over the weekend, and leaders began working with counterparts in other states on a coordinated response.

David Estevez, who leads the Hispanic ministries at South Garland Baptist Church, and Jorge Rivera, the Garland congregation’s student minister, contacted Jaime Masso, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana in Mayfield, Ky., to check on his well-being.

Estevez is a longtime friend of Masso, and Rivera had been working with him to plan a student mission trip to Kentucky this summer.

At a regularly scheduled church council meeting on Dec. 12, Estevez and Rivera reported to South Garland Baptist Church leaders about needs in southwestern Kentucky.

Masso was safe, and his church facility was not damaged seriously, but its sponsoring congregation—First Baptist Church in Mayfield—lost most of its buildings, Estevez said.

The American Red Cross and several other organizations were using the Hispanic church’s building as its headquarters for relief. Masso was providing shelter in his home for some people affected by the tornado. But like other Mayfield residents, his house lacked electricity and likely would be without utilities for an extended time.

Rivera told the church council a member of South Garland Baptist Church already had offered to loan two generators to Masso. By later Sunday evening, another member offered to let him borrow two more, if they could be transported to Kentucky.

Appeal for donations

At 8 a.m. Monday morning, Pastor Daniel Camp sent an email to members of South Garland Baptist Church reporting on the needs. He appealed for donations of disposable diapers of all sizes and women’s hygiene products, along with financial gifts for the Hispanic church in Mayfield.

“By 9 o’clock, we already had received $1,500,” said Marcy McLendon, the church’s ministry assistant.

Within 24 hours, South Garland Baptist raised $3,450 and collected more than 650 diapers, assorted feminine hygiene products and other personal items, along with four generators, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, assorted extension cords and other supplies.

The church also received an envelope filled with notes of encouragement for the people of Mayfield from students at Conrad High School in Dallas, where Estevez teaches.

In the meantime, the pastor connected with Rupert Robbins, associate director of disaster relief for TBM. Robbins enlisted a driver—Steven Branch, a volunteer from The Village Church in Flower Mound—and TBM provided a truck to transport the donated items to Kentucky.

The loaded truck left the South Garland Baptist Church parking lot at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, a short time after a mobile freezer filled with food left the TBM headquarters in Dallas, bound for Murray, Ky.

Loving ‘in truth and action’

“1 John 3:18 tells believers to love not in words or speech, but in truth and action, and you were exceedingly faithful to that command,” the church’s pastor wrote in a follow-up email to members. “Presented with an opportunity to help those in need, you stepped up in a big way, and I am overwhelmed with pride and gratitude for your generosity.”

He asked members to pray for Branch as he made the trip to Kentucky and for Masso as he and his church ministered in their hard-hit community.

“And let us all give thanks for the privilege of being used by God to help his people,” he concluded.

In addition to helping the Garland church deliver donated items to Mayfield and sending the mobile freezer to support Southern Baptist disaster relief teams already on the ground in Kentucky, TBM also was making final preparation to send chainsaw teams to the disaster sites, TBM Executive Director Mickey Lenamon said on Tuesday morning.

“All our chainsaw teams are on standby to minister, and some of them may deploy as soon as this week,” Lenamon said. “We know the needs are immense, and TBM volunteers are striving to meet them as quickly as possible.”

All other TBM volunteers—emergency food service, shower and laundry, chaplains, asset protection, damage assessors and incident management personnel—remain on alert for later deployment in what likely will be a lengthy relief operation.

To support TBM disaster relief financially, visit tbmtx.org/donate or send a designated check to Texas Baptist Men, 5351 Catron Drive, Dallas, TX 75227.