East Texas Baptist University collected donated items for Texas Baptist Men disaster relief ministries to help individuals affected by Hurricane Ida in Louisiana. Items collected during the donation drive include bottled water and bottled Gatorade, infant and adult diapers, baby wipes, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies and paper goods. The donated items were transported to the TBM warehouse in Dallas. TBM will deliver the donated items to the impacted areas in Louisiana, where TBM volunteers are serving as they meet needs in the aftermath of the storm. “Service has always been at the heart of East Texas Baptist University and its student body,” TBM Executive Director and CEO Mickey Lenamon said. “This tremendous outpouring of donations reflects that spirit once again. These basic necessities will help families across Southern Louisiana take their first steps in recovering from Hurricane Ida. Thank you, ETBU, for partnering with TBM to deliver help, hope and healing to people in their most difficult days.” TBM has more than 120 volunteers deployed in St. Amant, Gonzales and LaPlace, La. Through Sept. 13, they had prepared more than 71,000 meals, purified about 17,500 gallons of water and completed more than 100 chainsaw jobs.

Baylor University has created the Vance Masteller Endowed Research Chair in Communication Sciences and Disorders within the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences’ Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The endowed chair was funded through an anonymous $1.5 million gift from university alumni, which will be matched through the Baylor Academic Challenge initiative and provide research and teaching support in autistic spectrum disorders. The Vance Masteller Chair will provide leadership as Robbins College begins a $2.5 million expansion of the Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic to create an autism clinic, with facilities and research space dedicated to the study of autism spectrum disorders. The expansion, announced in March, will create nearly 12,500 square feet of new and remodeled space, doubling the capacity for providing services to individuals with ASD. “Endowment support for Baylor’s faculty provides transformational, long-term impact within our academic programs and departments, and I am grateful for the generous gift these Baylor alumni have made to position the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders for future success and growth,” said Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone. “At the heart of this gift is a genuine desire to advance Baylor’s mission and ensure that this nationally recognized program has the resources and endowment needed to conduct research and educate future practitioners at the highest levels of excellence.” The chair recognizes two individuals who were inspirational to the donors establishing the endowed position. Lawrence Vancewas an ordained Baptist minister, an insurance lawyer, and a charter member and deacon at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Rod Masteller began his ministry as pastor of Westwood Baptist Church in Waco, and he went on to serve Baptist churches in Oklahoma, Louisiana and elsewhere for more than five decades.

Susan Sharp, teacher certification officer at Howard Payne University, was elected president of the Texas Association of Certification Officers for this academic year. In this role, Sharp will conduct monthly Zoom sessions with certification officers across the state and preside over sessions at the annual Consortium of State Organizations for Texas Teacher Education Conference in San Marcos and at the association’s annual conference in Austin. Additionally, she will represent the association on the Educator Preparation Advisory Committee and the consortium board. Sharp served in Texas public schools for 35 years as an English teacher, coach and principal. She has been a staff member at HPU almost a decade.

Buckner Children and Family Services signed a joint agreement with Georgia-based Connections Homes to provide a more extensive support network to youth aging out of the Texas foster care system. Connections Homes matches young adults about to age out of foster care, or who already have aged out, with mentoring families. The signing of the memorandum of understanding marks Connections Homes’ first work outside of Georgia since announcing its planned expansion to Texas in June 2021. Each year, 1,200 young men and women age out of the Texas foster care system, joining tens of thousands of young homeless on the streets. Since 2014, Buckner has served more than 1,000 youth aging out of foster care with transitional programming throughout Texas. “We are so honored to join Buckner in this very important challenge to meet the needs of thousands of foster youth in Texas who have challenging futures ahead of them without a safe, stable adult in their life,” said Pam Parish, founder and CEO of Connections Homes. “Buckner knows the needs of children and youth in this area, and we believe they will guide us where to target the most vulnerable youth aging out of foster care who need support.”

Anniversary

150th for Ash Creek Baptist Church in Azle. A reception is scheduled on Saturday, Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. On Sunday, Sept. 18, a time of fellowship is slated for 9:30 a.m., prior to the 10:45 a.m. worship service. After a lunch at the church, an anniversary celebration service is planned for 2 p.m. Wesley Shotwell is pastor.

Retirement

Phil Christopher after 26 years as pastor at First Baptist Church in Abilene, 40 years as a pastor of Baptist churches and 46 years in congregational ministry.

Food insecurity spiked during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting one in four Texas households, according to a recently released analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture data by Northwestern University.

However, the combined response of the federal government and private-sector charitable organizations—such as ministries supported by the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering—helped mitigate food insecurity later in 2020.

Overall, one in eight Texas households struggled to avoid hunger between 2018 and 2020, with an average 13 percent of Texas households experiencing food insecurity—a comparable percentage to several years before the pandemic.

“Food insecurity is about economic uncertainty, and these latest data reflect the roller-coaster of uncertainty launched by the pandemic. While many Texans experienced this uncertainty for the first time over the last 18 months, the reality is that millions of families faced hunger prior to the pandemic,” said Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas.

“This uncertainty is likely to continue for some time, particularly given the resurgence of the virus. In the meantime, we need to sustain our efforts to keep our neighbors nourished and our communities resilient.”

Private charity, public investment ‘bridge the gap’

Cole emphasized Texas cannot “food bank” its way through the end of the crisis.

“But we have seen clearly that private charity partnered with public investment in nutrition programs, unemployment assistance and child tax credits can bridge the gap. COVID may be a tough battle to conquer, but hunger is easily treated,” she said.

The pandemic brought into focus the reality of how many Texas families are potentially vulnerable to food insecurity. But it also reinforced the importance of ministries supported by the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering that “deal with food insecurity in sustainable and holistic ways that minister to the body and soul,” said Katie Frugé, associate director of the Christian Life Commission.

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reversed many of the “positive gains communities had made in the past few years combatting hunger,” Frugé said.

“Recovering will require us working together, combining the best of all available resources providing training, education and support. Hunger offering ministries provided emergency aid and training at the peak of food insecurity in 2020 and will continue to play a crucial role going forward,” she continued.

“Now more than ever, faithful and continuous support of the hunger offering is one of the most impactful ways to help support Texas Baptists as our hunger ministries work to serve the least of these.”

Othal “O.C.” Madden Jr., a Lubbock layman who served on numerous Texas Baptist boards and committees, died Aug. 29 in Tyler. He was 86. He was born Oct. 21, 1934, in Hamlin to Othal C. and Ann Robert Madden, but his family moved to Lubbock when he was a baby. He began his lifelong association with First Baptist Church in Lubbock when he was placed on the Cradle Roll as an infant. He graduated from Lubbock High School in 1953 and enrolled in Texas Tech to study accounting. During his third semester at Texas Tech, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was sent to Ft. Benning for basic training and then deployed with the 8th Infantry Division in Ft. Carson, Colo. When he later was transferred to a post in Jacksonville, Fla., he served as a clerk in an executive officer’s command station. Because of his professionalism and attention to detail and protocol, he was selected as the dedicated driver and attendant to President Dwight Eisenhower when he was on station. Upon his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army, Madden returned to Texas Tech to complete his studies, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. He went on to become a certified public accountant and held membership in Texas and New Mexico professional organizations for more than 50 years. He married Shirley Bellar on May 22, 1959, at First Baptist Church in Lubbock, where he later served as a deacon and a fourth-grade Sunday school teacher, as well as working in many other areas of church life. Through the years, he served in many volunteer capacities with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, including its Executive Board and finance committee, as well as with Texas Baptist Men. He was preceded in death by a son, Charles. He is survived by his wife of more than 62 years, Shirley Bellar Madden; son O.C. III and his wife Lara; daughter K’Lin Noble and her husband Jeff; five grandchildren; and a brother, Robert Madden.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS)— Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, wrote an essay a year ago describing the leadership structure of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

In the essay, he cited a cherished ideal held by Southern Baptist pastors: “The local church is the headquarters of our Southern Baptist Convention.”

“If we ever invert this order in our mindset and practice, then we will begin a downhill slide that may become irreversible,” wrote Floyd, whose agency oversees the work of the convention between the SBC’s annual meetings.

“Churches operate under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, not under Baptist bodies who exist to assist these churches in their work of the Great Commission.”

Now, an investigation into the Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse claims over the past two decades may test Floyd’s commitment to that ideal.

Abuse advocates called SBC leaders to account

Over the past two years, the SBC has been rocked by a sex abuse scandal, following an investigation by the Houston Chronicle that detailed hundreds of abuse cases in Southern Baptist churches.

That led SBC leaders to hold a service of lament and to launch a new denominational program to care for abuse survivors. The denomination also set up a system to cut loose any church that had covered up or mishandled abuse.

Earlier this year, the SBC Executive Committee ousted a pair of churches that employed pastors who had been abusers.

But abuse advocates claimed that SBC leaders themselves had to answer for mistreatment of abuse survivors and how they mishandled claims of abuse. Those claims were repeated in letters from former Baptist ethicist Russell Moore, which became public after his departure from the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Local church messengers to the SBC’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., in June rejected plans by the Executive Committee to hire an outside firm to review its handling of abuse claims and treatment of abuse survivors.

Instead, the messengers instructed SBC newly elected President Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor who holds a mostly ceremonial role, to appoint a task force to oversee an independent investigation of the Executive Committee.

Guidepost Solutions to conduct investigation

That committee, according to a motion approved by the messengers, is responsible for hiring an outside firm for the investigation and setting the boundaries of the investigation.

The task force was also directed to agree to follow best practices suggested by the outside firm they hired, “including but not limited to the Executive Committee staff and members waiving attorney client privilege in order to ensure full access to information and accuracy in the review.”

On Sept. 9, the task force announced it had completed the first part of its mandate by hiring Guidepost Solutions, an international consulting firm, to carry out the investigation and waived its attorney-client privilege in all communications with Guidepost or the Executive Committee, according to a letter of agreement between the task force and Guidepost.

But in public statements and written communication to Executive Committee members, Floyd has not committed to waiving the committee’s attorney-client privilege in its contacts with Guidepost. Floyd also raised questions about whether doing so would violate SBC bylaws.

Floyd questions best practices outlined by Guidepost

Floyd did not respond to specific questions from Religion News Service, but according to a letter to the Executive Committee obtained by Religion News Service, Floyd said that statements by the task force should not be considered legal advice, adding that the committee had to decide whether or not to follow the best practices outlined by Guidepost.

“We should seek to understand these best practices before we decide which practices to apply,” he said. “For example, if we do this incorrectly, will we be as a nonprofit organization, denying our rights to effective counsel in the middle of litigation?”

Floyd also downplayed the role of the abuse task force, saying its only role was to hire an outside firm, wait for that firm to issue a report and then report back to the messengers.

The task force argues, however, that attorney-client privilege has been used in the past by other groups to hide important information from investigators and that claiming privilege would run counter to the will of SBC messengers.

“The messengers sent a clear message to members of the SBC Executive Committee by passing the motion and emphasizing that they expect an open and transparent investigation with waiver of privilege,” the task force stated in an update on its website. “Members of the SBC Executive Committee, who hold a position of trust within the SBC, have a duty to be open and forthright, and operate at the direction of the messengers.”

Waiving privilege essential, maker of motion says

Grant Gaines, pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., agrees. Gaines drafted the motion at the SBC’s June meeting calling for the independent investigation, and when action on the motion was delayed, he appealed to messengers to overrule that decision. That appeal was successful, and the motion passed by a wide margin.

He said that waiving privilege is essential to making sure that investigators have access to all the information they need. Gaines said he hopes the Executive Committee will abide by the will of the messengers.

“I expect the Executive Committee to vote to waive privilege when they meet in September,” Gaines said.

Failing to do that, Gaines said, would put the Executive Committee in conflict with the clear statement by church messengers.

Defying will of messengers the ‘nuclear option’

Floyd’s lack of commitment to waiving privilege or a refusal by the Executive Committee to follow the will of the messengers could lead to a crisis in the denomination, said Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, an expert on Southern Baptist governance.

Technically, said Barber, the Executive Committee is not obligated to heed the messengers on the question of waiving privilege. That decision is in the hands of Executive Committee members. But defying the will of the messengers was a “nuclear option,” Barber said, and could have significant consequences. The SBC’s entire governance model is built on “a rope of sand.”

“What makes that rope of sand work is trust,” he said.

Failing to follow the will of the trustees would be “a tremendous violation of trust” and undermines the claim that churches—not denominational leaders—run the convention, Barber added.

‘We have to do this the right way’

Rolland Slade, senior pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, Calif., and chair of the Executive Committee said that he believes the committee is obligated to abide by the will of the messengers.

“We don’t have a choice,” he said.

During the Executive Committee’s upcoming meeting, to be held Sept. 20-21, in Nashville, Slade expects committee members to have in-depth conversations about how to comply with the will of the messengers.

“We have to do this the right way,” he said.

After the task force announcement about Guidepost became public, the Executive Committee issued a statement welcoming the news.

The Executive Committee’s statement also addressed the question of privilege, saying leaders were open to the idea of waiving privilege in a limited manner.

“We look forward to meeting again with Guidepost in order to expeditiously coordinate our activities in support of their important work. Also, in response to considerable and unhelpful speculation, we would like to make one additional point clear: the Executive Committee leadership is not opposed in principle to requests for the waiving of attorney-client privilege considerations when it is relevant, it is appropriate, and it is in consultation with the third party commissioned to conduct the inquiry,” the statement from the Executive Committee said.  “Speculation to the contrary is internet rumor and untrue.”

Helen Jean Parks, former missionary to Indonesia and advocate for missions causes, died Sept. 13. She was 93. She was born Jan. 4, 1928, in Abilene to W.D. and Lula Mae Bond. She graduated magna cum laude from Hardin-Simmons University in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a minor in journalism. After graduation, she served in a variety of ministry roles—as Baptist campus minister for three colleges in Springfield, Mo., and at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Rice University and Baylor University College of Medicine at Houston and as youth and music director at First Baptist Church in Henrietta. She earned a Master of Religious Education degree in 1951 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, where she accepted God’s call to foreign missions. In 1952, she married Keith Parks. Shortly after the birth of their first son in 1954, the Parks were appointed by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention as missionaries to Indonesia. During their 14 years in Indonesia, while her husband served on the faculty of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Indonesia, Helen Jean taught music and religious education at the seminary, led the Indonesian seminary choir, worked in small churches training Indonesians as teachers, and held conversational English classes with Muslim faculty wives of the Diponegoro State University. The Parks returned to the United States in 1968 when Keith was asked to be on the Foreign Mission Board staff, first as area director for Southeast Asia and then as president. She continued in her mission role as she spoke in churches and various conferences on missions, prayer and the Christian life in the United States and around the world. She visited countries around the world to meet local Christian leaders and people, and to encourage missionary families. In 1983, she wrote Holding the Ropes, a book on intercessory prayer for global missions. In 1994, she and her husband moved to Atlanta to help start the mission program for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Helen Jean Parks was awarded the HSU Distinguished Alumni Award, and in 2007, she was honored by the Logsdon School of Theology with the Jesse C. Fletcher Award for Distinguished Service in Missions. She is survived by Robert Keith Parks, her husband of 69 years; son Randall and wife Nancy, son Kent and wife Erika, daughter Eloise, son Stan and wife Kay; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to beyond.org to help spread the gospel where it has not been heard.

WACO—Chronic hunger has decreased globally in recent years, but armed conflict has increased the prevalence of acute hunger, the chief of the United Nations’ food-assistance and humanitarian agency said.

When he became executive director of the World Food Programme in 2017, “80 million people were marching toward starvation,” David Beasley told a crowd at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary on Sept. 10.

That number rose to 135 million at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

Beasley pointed to three causes of acute hunger: “Man-made conflict, and I emphasize the gender; global climate extremes; and fragile governance.”

Use food to wage peace

But just as food often is used as a weapon of warfare—and as a recruitment tool for terrorists—he insisted it can be used as a powerful tool “for defusing explosive situations.”

“We can end hunger by 2030, but it won’t happen unless we end man-made conflict,” Beasley told participants at the Forum on Global Hunger, sponsored by the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

“My goal is to put the WFP out of business” by making peace, eliminating hunger and promoting self-sufficiency, he asserted.

“Food brings peace. Hunger brings conflict and destabilization,” he said.

Last year, Beasley addressed the U.N. Security Council, warning members the world was teetering “on the brink of a hunger pandemic” at the same time it faced the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unless the international community intervened, he predicted the number of starving people could approach 270 million by the end of 2020. International leaders responded, and the most severe possible outcome was averted.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the WFP not only delivered food around the globe, but also served as the hub for transporting life-saving medical equipment at times when the supply lines and delivery systems were disrupted.

For its efforts to combat hunger, create conditions for peace in areas affected by conflict and “prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict,” the WFP received the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

See each person as created in God’s image

Beasley, former governor of South Carolina, spoke to the issues of making peace and fighting hunger from his own Christian faith. He began his address at Baylor by quoting the words of Jesus in Matthew 25: “Whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done it to me.”

As a Christian, Beasley said, he has been able to appeal to other Christians, Muslims and even atheists to recognize the wisdom of the command in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

In fact, he learned from a Jewish scholar assigned to the Vatican that an alternative translation from Leviticus is “love your neighbor as your equal.” Beasley said he interprets that command as being grounded in the reality that all people are equal because every individual is made in God’s image.

“Even the worst of the worst is created in the image of God,” he said.

So, in his work with WFP, Beasley seeks to appeal to the God-given desire to help people—at least their own people—that exists even among warlords and terrorists.

“We meet with bad guys in bad places,” negotiating for access to deliver food to people in critical situations, he said.

When asked in an interview after his public presentation how he makes peace with difficult people, Beasley suggested: “Be honest. Don’t play games. Speak from the heart. You’ve got to listen and take the time to let them share. That’s how you develop relationships that impact the hearts of leaders—sit down, break bread, and build trust.”

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP)—A task force appointed by Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton has selected Guidepost Solutions to oversee a third-party review of the SBC Executive Committee’s past handling of sexual abuse issues.

According to a statement released by the task force, Guidepost Solutions was selected in part due to its “extensive background in abuse, trauma, and abusive dynamics, with considerable background involving abuse in religious contexts, significant experience with corporate and legal dynamics which contribute to the mishandling of or proper responses to, sexual abuse, survivor care and abuse prevention.”

The task force also cited Guidepost Solutions’ “robust understanding of and focus on the impact of leadership, with significant skill assessing and reporting on cultural dynamics of an institution and their impact on abuse and abuse prevention.”

Guidepost’s “in-depth understanding of best-standards practices for investigations and assessments with the ability to provide clear guidance and input to the task force on best methods for pursuing transparency, accountability, and reform in the investigative process” was also commended in the task force release.

Mandated by SBC messengers

Messengers approved the formation of the task force at the 2021 SBC annual meeting in June, just five days after the Executive Committee had announced Guidepost would conduct a similar review at its own request. The Executive Committee-commissioned review was subsequently put on hold pending the actions of the task force.

In a statement released to Baptist Press, the SBC Executive Committee welcomed the announcement saying: “Now, nearly three months after the annual meeting, the Executive Committee welcomes the announcement that Guidepost Solutions has been chosen by the task force to conduct the third-party inquiry of the Executive Committee.”

Rolland Slade, Executive Committee chairman, also affirmed the Guidepost selection, saying: “I thank the task force for their diligence in selecting Guidepost Solutions. Now that we know the firm, we can all move forward to the next steps. As I asked in June, please be patient with all of us as we walk this road together. We want to make sure we do things right.”

The task force previously had released a statement Sept. 3 posting answers to frequently asked questions regarding the task force and its work. Recommendations in the statement ranged from the scope of the independent review to methods of funding the probe.

Regarding funding for the review, the task force noted that the “Executive Committee is responsible for figuring out how” to fund the review but recommended the Executive Committee use its cash reserves to cover the associated costs, though the original motion stated that “the review shall be funded by allocations from the Cooperative Program.”

Probe does not include abuse at local-church level

The task force also clarified that while the time frame of the independent review goes back to Jan. 1, 2000, its scope should focus on the actions of the Executive Committee alone, saying the parameters of the third-party independent review “do not include any allegations of sexual abuse or mishandling of abuse at the local church level, except to the extent that those allegations against local church pastors impacted or were impacted by the words and actions of the Executive Committee.”

The group is also calling on members of the Executive Committee to waive attorney-client privilege, saying that “an overwhelming majority of SBC messengers has requested it.”

The task force said it believes waiving attorney-client privilege “is necessary for assessing any mishandling, for accurately making recommendations for reform, and for accountability and transparency. Waiver is absolutely critical to ensuring that the third-party firm has full access to relevant and material information.”

Regarding the questions related to attorney-client privilege, the Executive Committee statement said “the Executive Committee leadership is not opposed in principle to requests for the waiving of attorney-client privilege considerations when it is relevant, it is appropriate, and it is in consultation with the third-party commissioned to conduct the inquiry, Guidepost. Speculation to the contrary is internet rumor and untrue.

“Ultimately, these are decisions for the Executive Committee’s board of trustees, and we are working to provide information to the board of trustees so they can make informed decisions they deem appropriate within the confines of all legal (i.e. fiduciary) considerations as everyone seeks to appropriately implement the will of the messengers. We urge the public to leave this review now to Guidepost and the Executive Committee to be handled in an appropriate and professional manner on behalf of all Southern Baptists.”

Executive Committee meets next week

The SBC Executive Committee will meet Sept. 20-21 and is expected to address items related to the independent review at that time.

Task force members are Chair Bruce Frank, lead pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church of Arden, N.C.; Vice Chair Marshall Blalock, pastor of First Baptist Church of Charleston, S.C.;

John Damon, chief executive officer of Canopy Children’s Solutions, Jackson, Miss., and member of Broadmoor Baptist Church, Madison, Miss.; Liz Evan, judicial law clerk at Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, Nashville, and member of Hilldale Baptist Church, Clarksville, Tenn.; Heather Evans, director of Evans Counseling Services, Coopersburg, Pa., and member of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Center Valley, Pa.; Andrew Hébert, lead pastor of Paramount Baptist Church, Amarillo; and Bucas Sterling III, senior pastor of Kettering Baptist Church, Upper Marlboro, Md.

Rachael Denhollander, an attorney, advocate and educator from Louisville, Ky., and Chris Moles, an ordained minister from the Christian and Missionary Alliance and ACBC certified counselor, serve as advisers to the group.

According to the task force release, survivors, witnesses and other members of the public who wish to communicate with the Guidepost team can email ECCInvestigation@guidepostsolutions.com.

The task force also stated that “persons reporting information to this email address can do so anonymously. Names and other personally identifying information of survivors and witnesses who choose to report information to this email address will remain private so long as permitted by law. Only Guidepost will have access to the information submitted to this email address; it is not accessible to the task force or the SBC.”

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)—Desiring to help its personnel maintain access to unreached peoples and places and remain healthy, the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board announced a policy Sept. 8 related to COVID-19 vaccinations.

This policy addresses the challenges of overseas life and travel requirements for IMB missionary personnel and staff members who travel overseas.

The policy requires IMB missionaries and their children ages 16 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to attending field personnel orientation prior to their long-term field service.

IMB missionaries and their children ages 16 and older also are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to attending a stateside conference during their periodic return to the United States.

Attendance at the two conferences is mandatory for missionaries before initial entry or return to a country of service. The policy also requires staff members who must interact with field personnel at field personnel orientation and stateside conferences to obtain COVID-19 vaccination. The policy is effective immediately.

Volunteers serving with IMB field teams must follow the recommendations and requirements of the government of the hosting country for the volunteer trip. IMB does, however, recommend those who are not required to be vaccinated by the host country to consider being vaccinated, given the risks associated with travel.

The recommendation for volunteers is designed to protect not only the volunteer, but also the field personnel, national partners and ongoing field ministries.

Maintain access to unreached, protect health

“The International Mission Board exists to serve Southern Baptists in carrying out the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations—even to those people in the overpopulated urban cities, even to those in the hardest-to-reach jungles and plains,” said IMB President Paul Chitwood.

“And the IMB is pressing forward to share the gospel even in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic that is no respecter of geographical boundaries or human demographics.”

“We must make every wise decision, even when a decision is exceptionally difficult, that maintains our team members’ access to the growing number of unreached peoples and places around the world where vaccines are required for entry,” Chitwood added. “We also want to do all we can to undergird our team members’ spiritual and physical health to maximize our effectiveness as we serve Southern Baptists in our global gospel endeavors.”

A growing number of the countries in which IMB field personnel serve are requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccine to enter, remain in or exit the country. Some field personnel have reported incidents in their countries of service where proof of vaccination must be shown for adults and older children to board a subway, enter a shopping mall, eat in a restaurant, or board an airplane for travel.

Vaccination requirements are not new for the IMB. Since the IMB implemented vaccine requirements for field personnel in the 1980s, the number of vaccine-preventable illnesses have significantly decreased among IMB field personnel and their families.

Adhering to WHO and CDC recommendations

The IMB requires certain vaccines for several reasons:  Vaccines prevent unnecessary sickness, suffering, and even death for field personnel and their families; vaccines protect national partners and those who missionaries minister to from contracting illnesses from IMB personnel and their families; vaccines help ensure better health for field personnel so they can focus on the missionary task; and vaccines lower medical expenses, which fosters good stewardship of the funds that have been entrusted to IMB.

IMB’s medical team and senior leadership team are adhering to precautions recommended by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and are following all local and federal regulations with the policy. As of Sept. 3, 2021, the Pfizer vaccination is available in the United States and is authorized for everyone age 16 and older. Personnel and staff received a list of additional approved vaccines that fulfill the policy for adults, as well as directives for those personnel who have a physician-documented medical exception.

Senior leaders acknowledge that the policy may result in some field personnel and staff members choosing not to join the IMB; to take a leave of absence; or to discontinue their employment with the IMB because of the requirement. Throughout the years, others have opted out of serving internationally with IMB due to other vaccine requirements.

“We take seriously our responsibility to make the best decisions we can for those serving with IMB,” said Todd Lafferty, IMB executive vice president. “The challenges of COVID-19 continue to deeply affect us all. Some have lost loved ones, others have dealt personally with terrible illness, and many remain in lockdown throughout the world. Just when it seems the pandemic may be loosening its grip, more information arrives, and we encounter new complications.”

“Praise the Lord that we all have hope and faith in Jesus Christ to carry us through these turbulent times,” Lafferty added. “We know exactly who is in control, and we cannot lose sight of how God is using us for his purpose and mission in our day. We are called to bring the hope of eternal life to those who have not yet had the opportunity to hear the gospel.”

Navigating difficult decisions

Chitwood said IMB’s senior leadership team and medical personnel continue to navigate many difficult decisions stemming from COVID-19 and the ways in which it affects various family situations and plans for IMB’s field personnel and staff. He said they continue to seek God’s wisdom as the organization navigates each difficult decision and as conditions continue to change.

Ultimately, he said, the IMB aims to remain on mission, unwavering in its work to advance the gospel.

“We’re praying that this will be a time of global awakening, that many would come to know the Lord as the fear of the global pandemic lingers,” Chitwood said. “We know that the Lord has given an ultimate cure.

“As humans, we’re afraid of death, but the believer doesn’t have to be afraid of death. Death has no sting, and the Lord’s given us his vision in Revelation 7:9—a great multitude from every nation, from all tribes, all peoples, all languages around the throne in heaven.

“We’re praying and trusting that some will be there because of the way God used this pandemic to foster a new openness to the gospel. We want to be on the field to take that good news to these souls.”

NASHVILLE (RNS)—The melody that changed Keith Getty’s life was first scratched out on the back of an electric bill in a humble flat in Northern Ireland.

At the time, he thought it wasn’t that great. But it was the best he could come up with.

So, he sent a recording of the melody on a CD to Stuart Townend, an English songwriter he’d met a few months earlier at a church conference, in hopes Townend might be able to turn the melody into a serviceable hymn.

Getty was right.

Success came as a surprise to creators

That melody became the basis for “In Christ Alone,” released in 2001. It is one of the most popular songs in Protestant churches, according to the Christian Copyright Licensing International, which tracks songs sung in churches. The song also launched a new era of modern hymn writing.

And it all came as a surprise to the tune’s authors.

In a 2016 interview recounting the origins of “In Christ Alone,” Townend said there was nothing memorable about his meeting with Getty.

“We got together, we had a coffee, nothing particularly eventful happened,” Townend recalled. “He said he’d send me a CD with some of his song ideas. … It arrived and I wasn’t expecting anything.”

Then he popped in the CD and immediately changed his mind. He eventually called Getty and the two talked about writing a musical version of a church creed that would recount the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

The song originally started with the line “My hope is found in Christ alone.” Getty suggested switching the verse around to start with “In Christ alone.” After some hesitation, Townend did so, and the song came to life. Getty has described Townend’s lyrics for the song as “absolutely brilliant,” capturing the story of Christian faith in a powerful and lovely way.

Paved the way for other modern hymns

Getty has sometimes called “In Christ Alone” a “rebel song”—a kind of protest against the more contemporary worship songs that sound more like pop music than traditional hymns. It was the first of a series of modern hymns he’s helped write, combining singable melodies with theological reflection.

He believes they are the type of songs Christians need in a complicated and ever-changing world.

“If we’re going to build a generation of people who think deep thoughts about God, who have rich prayer lives, and who are the culture-makers of the next generation, we need to be teaching them songs with theological depth,” he said in a 2016 interview about his approach to hymn writing.

Getty and his wife, Kristyn, who perform together and tour with their four kids and an Irish-themed band, are back in Nashville, Tenn., after nine months on lockdown in Northern Island, where they have a home. Being back in Ireland was respite for the Gettys after a decade and a half of touring, recording and building a music publishing business. They spent much of the time walking on beaches, hanging with their kids and hosting weekly hymn sings on Facebook Live.

They returned to Nashville just in time for their annual Sing! conference, which is expected to draw about 6,500 people, with an additional 40,000 streaming online. The event, held this year on Sept. 13-15, has drawn more than 16,000 people in person in the past and has included packed hymn singing events at both the Grand Ole Opry and the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville.

Presbyterian minister Kevin Twit, founder of Indelible Grace, a Nashville music company that sets traditional hymns to new tunes, is a big fan of the Gettys. He sees “In Christ Alone” as a marriage between well written and inspiring lyrics and a hymn tune that’s both compelling and flexible. The song works as well on a pipe organ with a choir as it does in a small church with a guitar and a handful of voices, he said.

“That’s hard to do,” he said.

Theological depth in contemporary setting

Twit, who leads the Reformed University Fellowship at Belmont University in Nashville, said “In Christ Alone” appeared on the scene just as a number of younger evangelicals were looking for songs with more theological depth than the contemporary songs they had learned in church growing up. Getty, Twit said, understands the way songs people sing in churches shape both their theology and the way they live their lives.

“I think he really gets that worship is formative,” he said.

Constance Cherry, professor emeritus of worship and pastoral ministry at Indiana Wesleyan University, believes “In Christ Alone” has succeeded by combining the traditional structure of a hymn with the kind of instrumentation used in more contemporary worship settings.

She said the structure of a hymn makes it easier for hymn writers like Getty and Townend to dig deep into a theological topic.

Cherry also appreciates that the Gettys are focused on creating hymns that make it easier for congregations to sing together. That’s a lost art, she said, in a time when many more contemporary worship songs are modeled after what is popular on the radio. While she appreciates contemporary praise songs, she said they are often focused more on the musicians than on the congregation.

“Every worship song in any worship service has one goal—and that is for the people to sing,” she said.

Brian Hehn, director of the Center for Congregational Song, the outreach arm of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, also points to the flexibility and beauty of the melody of “In Christ Alone” for the hymn’s enduring success. The melody falls in a comfortable range for most people and is simple and accessible while still intriguing to listen to. And it works for praise bands and choirs alike—a key to a successful congregational song, he said.

Broad and theologically complex lyrics

Townend’s lyrics, Hehn added, are beautifully crafted and full of nuance. They walk the worshipper through the life of Jesus, from the Incarnation—“Fullness of God in helpless babe,” as the hymn puts it—to the death of Jesus and then his resurrection. The song also connects God to the life of worshippers, “from life’s first cry to final death.”

Because of that, the hymn works in a variety of settings, from a Christmas or Easter celebration to a regular Sunday service.

The song also contains surprising theological complexity, said Hehn. It’s perhaps best known for a line about the wrath of God being satisfied in the crucifixion, which reflects a theology known as penal substitutionary atonement that’s commonly accepted in evangelical churches. But that has led other churches to change the lyrics of the hymn—and caused the song to be dropped from a Presbyterian Church (USA) hymnal after a proposed lyric change was rejected.

But “In Christ Alone” also references the Christus Victor view of the atonement, which celebrates Jesus’ victory over the grave, and the ransom view of the atonement, which stresses that God purchased forgiveness of human sin from the devil with the sacrifice of Jesus.

“I find that wonderfully broad,” he said.

While congregational singing may be on decline in American churches, Hehn said, it remains vital in many churches around the world. And there will always be a need for songs like “In Christ Alone.”

“No matter how you interpret the Bible, it is impossible to get around the fact that we’re supposed to sing together,” Hehn said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A day after President Joe Biden announced sweeping policy changes to continue to address the COVID-19 pandemic, one of his administration’s top health officials said he doesn’t expect widespread use of religious exemptions to get around them.

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, also acknowledged Sept. 10 he is “a bit” frustrated with fellow evangelicals who have hesitated or refused to get the vaccine, even as the delta variant has led to an average of more than 1,000 U.S. deaths a day.

Collins said he hopes the “much more muscular requirements” will make “a big difference” in reducing the number of unvaccinated Americans, noting the country needs to vaccinate at least five times the 800,000 who are being vaccinated daily in order to overcome the variant.

Among the new policies is an “emergency rule” Biden said the Labor Department will develop to require U.S. businesses with 100 or more employees to mandate their staffs are fully vaccinated or show weekly they have tested negative for COVID-19.

Collins spoke to Religion News Service about how that rule might affect religious organizations, how clergy can help congregants view vaccinations and how part of his “calling” is to encourage religious groups to work to end the pandemic.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Love your neighbor and get vaccinated

President Biden said on Thursday that “this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” and you have urged your fellow evangelicals to get vaccinated as an “opportunity to do something for your neighbors.” But studies have shown white evangelicals are among the most resistant and hesitant toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Does this make you frustrated with your fellow believers?

Well, to be honest, it does a bit. But I’m also trying to be sure I’m listening carefully to what the concerns are because I don’t think lecturing is probably the best way to get people to change their minds.

It is odd because evangelicals generally believe strongly in this love-your-neighbor principle. And we do know if we want to get this terrible pandemic to come to an end, it’s going to require all of us to get engaged in getting immune, and the best way to do that is with a vaccination.

And by vaccinating yourself, you’re also providing protection to the people around you who are depending on you not to spread that virus to them, particularly people who are immunocompromised from cancer or organ transplants or kids under 12 who can’t be vaccinated yet.

There have been some reports of pastors with near-death experiences with COVID who have changed their mind about their resistance to the vaccine at that point. Is their example what it might take for some people to roll up their sleeves?

I think every person’s got a somewhat different threshold for what it’s going to take. It’s often somebody they trust, who’s willing to talk with them, listen to the concerns—much of which are fed by conspiracies on social media that basically don’t have any truth to them but are troubling if you’ve heard them several times—and then basically get the confidence of that person that the evidence really is in favor of this. And that, for somebody who’s a believer, this is what you could call an answer to prayer.

If we’ve all been praying to God to somehow deliver us from this terrible pandemic, and what happens is these vaccines get developed that are safe and effective, well, why wouldn’t you want to say, “Thank you, God” and roll up your sleeve?

As the new announcement by the administration was made Thursday, a senior administration official told reporters there’ll be “limited” exemptions for federal workers for religious reasons. Do you know what that means or could you give an example of what that might be?

I think every agency is going to have to figure out exactly how to interpret that. I would say if people are going to say there’s something special about COVID-19 vaccinations that require even more religious exemptions than you would have for a flu vaccine, they’re going to have to explain why that is.

Somehow COVID-19 has taken on this big concern, this cloud of uncertainty, that it doesn’t deserve. And it’s been approved now by the FDA in full approval. If people are planning to do the religious exemption, (they’re) going to have to really come through with a coherent argument about why that applies in this place.

Religious organizations that have more than 100 employees—I would imagine they would generally be expected to follow this mandate and have people vaccinated or have a weekly negative COVID test. Could an organization like that get a wholesale exemption for all of their employees?

I would have a very hard time imagining how that could be justified, given the importance of getting everybody protected against this. And to do this wholesale, it’d be hard for me to understand how that would apply. What would be the basis of that? I can’t really come up with a good example of how that fits.

‘The truth will set you free’

For months, you and other people in the administration have talked about faith leaders of various perspectives as being “trusted partners” in the efforts to get people vaccinated against COVID-19. Has that approach shifted, or do you think those efforts haven’t worked as well as you had hoped?

Oh, I think they have worked in many individual circumstances. I do think faith leaders have been in a tough spot. And some of them, even though they’ve come around, personally, to the view that the vaccine is something they want for themselves and their families, they’ve been reluctant to raise it amongst their parishioners because of the fear this might be divisive.

I’m hoping we’ve now reached the point where the evidence is so strong—where we see people dying around us—that those faith leaders will decide it’s worth taking the risk to get some pushback. To basically say, folks, let’s look at the truth of this. The truth will set you free.

And what role in general, other than what you’ve said, do you see ahead for the involvement of faith leaders, with the new rules the president has announced?

Well, no doubt they will be asked whether this is a violation of personal freedom. And I hope pastors listening to that will listen carefully, but also remind us as Americans freedom is about rights but it’s also about responsibilities.

I cherish my freedom as an American. I’m proud of my country. But I know I’m not free to go out and get drunk and get behind the wheel of an automobile.

There are limits here, in terms of what that freedom implies and those responsibilities, for a pandemic, kind of kick in and they have for decades. Go back to when we had smallpox that was killing people across this country more than 100 years ago, or polio.

When you have those circumstances where it’s not just about a person, it’s about the whole community, then we all have a shared responsibility. And I hope pastors will feel comfortable reminding people of that, and Christians especially ought to resonate with that, since we’re all known for our ability to reach out, our determination to take risks to help other people. Here’s a chance to do exactly that.

Evangelicals not a homogeneous group

Circling back to the question about evangelicals and hesitancy, or resistance. Are there misconceptions about white evangelicals and the COVID vaccine and shifts, perhaps, in their attitudes about them that people may not realize?

Well, it’s certainly a mistake to try to imagine white evangelicals are this highly homogeneous group. There’s lots of different people who fit into that particular description of a faith tradition. I’m one of them, but I’m probably a little different than somebody you might meet in a typical white evangelical church in Mississippi. But I think what we share as believers is this commitment as followers of Jesus that we want to share that good news with other people.

And here’s a chance to share the good news in a different way. I don’t know that it would be fair, though, for me to try to generalize whether white evangelicals, as a group, have come around. Some certainly have. Some are still pretty resistant.

Are you still continuing to speak to religious groups as you have from the National Cathedral to webinars with evangelicals, or is that part of your work more complete?

No, I am willing to speak to any religious group at any time about this. This is part of my calling, I guess, as a scientist who’s also a believer. So I’d be delighted to find opportunities to do that any day, every day.

NASHVILLE (RNS)—Two of the best-known ex-Southern Baptist leaders in the country got together at a Nashville church on Sept. 9 for a night filled with Bible verses, banter and bittersweet memories.

The event, entitled “Lessons in Leaving (and Staying),” featured Bible teacher Beth Moore and ethicist Russell Moore—and was the first live event for a new Public Theology Project from Christianity Today magazine, where Russell Moore landed after leaving the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

The event, held at Immanuel Church, west of downtown Nashville, started with a mock confession from Beth Moore.

“I am Russell Moore’s mother,” she said, and then pointed to a pair of screens on the side of the stage, where a series of photos from a fake family scrapbook flashed, all with Russell Moore’s head pasted on each of them. In real life the two are not related, a fact often lost on their critics.

The joke set the tone for the night—which was filled with good-natured banter about the state of the evangelical church, as well as poignant reflections on what each lost in departing from the faith community that raised them.

Left SBC after controversy

Both of the Moores left the SBC earlier this year after months of ongoing controversy, most of it related to their public criticism of Donald Trump, their concerns over racism in the denomination and their advocacy for survivors of sexual abuse among evangelicals.

Leaving the Southern Baptist Convention was like a death of a close friend, said Beth Moore. The SBC had been her whole world, and her home church had helped save her while growing up in a troubled home.

Her faith in her fellow Baptists was rocked when many Baptist leaders rallied to support Trump after the release of Access Hollywood tapes that captured the then-presidential candidate making lewd comments about forcing himself on women.

Beth Moore, who has spent decades in women’s ministry, said she felt compelled to speak up after hearing the remarks, which she learned of while traveling home after spending time with Native American women in Arizona, where some of the women she spoke to had experienced abuse.

“What would you expect out of someone who lives their whole life serving women,” she asked the audience of about 250 people who gathered for the live taping of the newly launched “The Russell Moore Podcast.”

Then she added: “I expected Donald Trump to be Donald Trump. That was not a shock to me. I did not expect us to be us.”

Her 2016 criticism of Trump did not land well. Her ministry, Living Proof, lost millions in revenue, and she became a symbol of “liberalism” invading the SBC, according to her critics.

‘The pulpit had become a threat to women’

Things got worse, she said, after she joked about speaking in a church on Mother’s Day, leading to accusations that Baptist women were trying to take over the pulpits of Southern Baptist churches.

Nothing could be further from the truth, she said. Women are not a threat to the pulpit.

“No, no, no,” she said. “Forgive me. The pulpit had become a threat to women.”

The fallout from leaving the SBC has had moments of consolation, Beth Moore admitted. Many friends have reached out to commiserate with her, and she has found new allies along the way.

She does have one pet peeve. Many well-intentioned friends have reached out to say, “I am so sorry that so many people hate you.”

“There is nothing about that I find helpful,” she said to raucous laughter and applause.

Cost of staying at ERLC too high

For his part, Russell Moore—who recently joined Immanuel, which is not affiliated with the SBC—spoke about his public departure from the ERLC, which came after years of conflict and a pair of investigations into whether or not Moore’s public statements about Trump and issues like immigration and abuse had hurt the SBC.

He said he could have stayed at the ERLC. But the cost would have been too high.

“I could have won the conflict that needed to be fought,” he said. “But I realized I would have to have a conflict. And I didn’t want to be the kind of person I would be on the other side of that.”

Russell Moore also noted his friendship with Beth Moore had come as a surprise. A proponent of complementarianism, a theology that prescribes different roles for men and women in the home and in the church and bars women from the pastorate, he had been critical of her leadership and ministry in the past.

With some chagrin, he pointed out that in 2006, he had called her teaching “a gateway drug to feminism,” a statement he now regrets.

When he was under fire, however, Beth Moore reached out with support, first by direct messages on Twitter, and later with texts. Russell Moore and his wife, Maria, eventually became friends and confidants with Beth Moore, supporting each other through the maelstrom that engulfed them both.

Russell Moore joked that many friends also supported him, some of them even offering to buy him a beer or share a shot with him, something that had not happened since he was a teenager.

Still called to ministry, committed to Jesus

Both of the Moores said that, while they have left the SBC, they have not lost their faith in Jesus. While both love the church, they urged the audience to put their faith in Jesus and trust God is at work.

“I couldn’t let myself ever think this doesn’t end well,” said Beth Moore. “Because that was unacceptable.”

Both of the Moores said they plan to stay in ministry, though Beth Moore admitted retreating from the public eye sounds appealing at times. But God called her to ministry, she said, and had not yet told her to stop.

She made that point while recalling an online controversy caused by outspoken California pastor John McArthur, a noted critic of women in ministry. During an event in 2019, McArthur said Moore should “go home” rather than teaching the Bible.

McArthur’s comment, which was referenced several times on Thursday as a punchline for jokes, never bothered her, Beth Moore said, since the pastor was not a Southern Baptist and she did not know him.

Then she turned to the audience and whispered, “I am not going home.”

“You can’t make me, because you are not my boss.”

Thomas Dale “Tommy” McMillan of Plainview, assistant baseball coach at Wayland Baptist University, died Sept. 5. He was 67. He was born on Oct. 30, 1953, in Lubbock to Denzil and Jeane McMillan. He grew up in Plainview and played basketball and baseball for Plainview High School. He earned an undergraduate degree from Texas Tech University, where he played baseball for the Red Raiders. He married Susan Kruzensk on Jan. 7, 1977, in Lubbock. McMillan was an accountant more than 30 years. After he retired from accounting, he became the assistant baseball coach for Wayland Baptist University, which he considered his dream job. He was involved with the Wayland Baseball program from 2007 to 2021. McMillan was a member of First Baptist Church in Plainview where he was a deacon and served on many committees. He also was involved in the community as president of the Lion’s Club, Optimist Club and Bulldog Booster Club. He was heavily involved with the local, regional, and national Babe Ruth Baseball program, umpiring many Babe Ruth regional and World Series tournaments. Survivors include his wife Susan McMillan of Plainview; daughter Lori Johnston of Plainview; son Chance McMillan and wife Kelsey of Plainview; five grandchildren; and brother Ronnie McMillan and wife Dawn of Frisco.