DALLAS—Christ-centered agencies can serve as instruments of community transformation, but their effectiveness depends on collaboration, the president of Buckner International told a national conference focused on world hunger.

“Honestly, our greatest challenges are not the needs we face. Our greatest challenge will be our ability to work together, to collaborate, to create alliances and synergistic relationships to deliver solutions to those who hunger and thirst,” Albert Reyes said.

Albert Reyes

Reyes addressed a conference at Dallas Baptist University called “An Evangelical Advocacy Response to Global Childhood Hunger.” Sponsors included Bread for the World, the National Association of Evangelicals, Micah Challenge and the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission .

Christian global missions agencies tend to develop expertise in one area, but they often fail to work cooperatively with other entities, Reyes noted. And as a result, lack of collaboration may result in a truncated view of the gospel.

“For far too long, we have diced and sliced the core message of redemption as an expression of the way we think of ministry. Our categories and compartmentalization have resulted in neatly organized silos of specialization, so that cooperation and collaboration for the work of redemption as a kingdom reality—on earth as it is in heaven—are, at best, minimal and marginal,” he said.

“You are either an evangelistic ministry or a social ministry or a missions ministry or a justice ministry but certainly not focused on all of them—or even a combination of them. In many circles, we have split the mission of Jesus and the gospel itself into ministry that is recognizable in part but not as a whole.”

Reyes pointed to three practical zones of ministry outlined by Thom Wolf, president and professor of global studies at University Institute in New Delhi, India—weeds, deeds and seeds.

“When we pull weeds of patterns of injustice, we are involved in bringing hope to people. When we do good deeds, we demonstrate the love of God to those we serve. And when we plant seeds, we are involved in laying the groundwork for faith to emerge,” he explained.

“Working in the weeds zone requires courage. Working in the deeds zone requires compassion. And working in the seeds zone requires conviction. So, as people of compassion, courage and conviction, we see the whole and are responsible for the whole syllabus of life, even though we primarily work in one zone or the other.”

Buckner International, for example, focuses primarily on the deeds zone, he explained. But the agency collaborates with organizations such as International Justice Mission in the weeds zone and with churches in the seeds zone, he added.

When confronted with the reality of global hunger that results in the deaths of 26,000 children in the world every day, Christians do not have the option of doing nothing, Reyes insisted.

Giving to reputable relief organizations and going to participate in hands-on ministry to alleviate immediate needs offer better alternative responses, but they still are incomplete, he asserted.

As a more holistic approach, Reyes offered the example of community transformation centers, such as the ones Buckner has established in Honduras, Guatemala and at strategic locations in Texas.

These centers work with families in communities to assess and identify needs, systematically fill gaps in the delivery of social services and enlist partners to provide an array of resources.

“Our goal is to provide a comprehensive solution to the community’s needs, so that within three years, there is a noticeable transformation in the community, and families are better and stronger,” he said.

Turning from the larger issue of childhood hunger around the world to the more specific but related issue of orphaned children, Reyes acknowledged experts differ widely in their estimates—anywhere from 143 million orphans to 16 million.

“Either way, the task to get to the least of these as quickly as possible is daunting and challenging. No single church, organization or NGO will be able to get the job done,” he said.

Together, Christians can make a difference, but they must move beyond self-imposed boundaries and think creatively about how to work together, he insisted.

“We are finding that donors and foundations expect collaboration and look upon duplication of services as poor stewardship,” Reyes said. “To fail to collaborate seems archaic and has become a death knell for organizations that insist on doing things on their own. These organizations will meet their own fate in the land of irrelevance as they travel back to the era of the Lone Ranger.”

Reyes called Christians to “kingdom collaboration”—working together to advance the kingdom of God rather than individual agendas.

“The mission of the kingdom is greater than the purpose of our own organization. The mission of Jesus was to bring good news to the poor. I think that would mean they don’t have to be poor anymore,” he said.

“Kingdom collaboration means that those of us that specialize in the deeds zone or the weeds zone or the seeds zone realize that we need each other, because we are responsible for the whole syllabus, not just the kingdom assignments we prefer. When kingdom collaboration happens, lots of people get blessed, because the kingdom comes near.”

DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board voted to take steps to renegotiate the relationship agreement between the state convention and Baylor University .

At its May 24 meeting in Dallas, the board directed Associate Executive Director Steve Vernon to invite Baylor University President Ken Starr to develop a process for renegotiating the agreement.

The action, which came in response to Baylor’s decision in February to allow non-Baptist Christians on its board of regents, passed without opposition.

Burleson Hall and Old Main at Baylor University. Baylor voted in February to allow non-Baptists on its board.

However, the language of a report brought by the nine-member task force regarding Baylor sparked extended discussion during a question-and-answer session with two university regents. And it even prompted a failed motion that would have apologized for "implying the entire board is profoundly upset and disappointed."

In February, the executive board directed Chair Debbie Ferrier to appoint a task force to consider the relationship between the BGCT and Baylor. The committee met twice—once with Baylor officials and regents and once to develop a response.

In its report—presented to the executive board but not voted on by it—stated: “The task force expresses its profound and deep disappointment that Baylor University acted unilaterally in changing the agreement between the BGCT and Baylor. While we recognize the right expressed in the agreement for Baylor to change its bylaws, we believe that the current agreement was intended, from its inception, to contain substantive obligations and covenants incumbent upon each party to respect.”

The task force report specifically cited one provision in the agreement—“No amendment to this agreement shall be effective unless the amendment is in writing and lawfully executed by both parties.”
The report said the “spirit of the agreement” expressed in that provision “has not been observed in good faith by Baylor’s board of regents.”

The task force expressed its desire for a renegotiated agreement between the BGCT and Baylor “in light of current circumstances and without precondition, with a view toward presenting a revised agreement for consideration by the executive board at its September meeting.”

The report noted two items for special consideration:

• Funding—“The BGCT and Baylor should agree on strategic funding that is mutually beneficial for shared interests. Texas Baptists have historically given to the Baptist General Convention of Texas to fund Texas institutions to support ministries of interest to Texas Baptists, of whose interests we bear a responsibility of ongoing stewardship.”

• Representation—“The BGCT and Baylor should revisit the policies and guidelines under which BGCT-elected regents are selected for the Baylor board of regents.”

After the vote, Baylor Regents Chair Dary Stone and David Harper, a member of the board of regents, addressed the executive board.

“We are happy to engage in dialogue with the BGCT regarding our relationship. We want a healthy and strong relationship with the BGCT,” said Harper, an attorney and member of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.

However, Harper expressed concern about the language of the task force report—particularly the “profound and deep disappointment” expressed and the conclusion the regents did not act “in good faith.”

“From my own perspective, I believe we came to the decision very thoughtfully, prayerfully and deliberately,” he said, noting the regents’ expressed desire to advance the university’s Christian mission and to build in safeguards to protect the school’s distinctively Christian identity.

“It’s hurtful to us,” he said, concerning any suggestion the regents failed to act in good faith. “We’re on a faith journey.”

Harper and Stone noted Baylor regents had been as open as possible regarding their intentions, within the bounds of confidentiality. They pointed to conversations regents had with former BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett long before the university board acted, as well as subsequent contact with BGCT Executive Board staff leaders at the time of the regents’ decision.

“We really thought we had laid a good ground work for what we tried to do,” Stone said. “Clearly, that was not universally received that way.”

Jay Abernathy, pastor of First Baptist Church in Palestine, made a motion that the BGCT Executive Board apologize for "implying the entire board is upset and disappointed." The motion also would have affirmed ongoing dialogue in recognition of the state convention’s historic relationship with Baylor.

“The only thing that deeply and profoundly disappointed me was this report,” said Randy Wallace, pastor of First Baptist Church in Killeen, speaking in support of Abernathy’s motion.

Others voiced a different perspective. “This Executive Board does not owe anybody an apology,” said Vernon Webb from First Baptist Church in San Antonio. Abernathy’s motion failed.

Significant discussion surrounded the process for nominating BGCT representatives on the Baylor board of regents. Stone and Vernon disagreed on whether two of the three names submitted by Baylor for consideration met established guidelines and whether normal procedures had been followed in securing sufficient input from the school’s president.

The BGCT Committee on Nominations for Board of Affiliated Ministries will determine whether any exception to guidelines—as interpreted by subcommittee—should be made. Final determination rests with messengers to the BGCT annual meeting in Amarillo.

In other business, the executive board:

• Agreed to guarantee two renewed loans by Baptist University of America—for $2.5 million and $2.18 million, each with a three-year maturity. Based on BUA’s current forecast, the BGCT should not have to make any debt-service payments, according to the recommendation of the administration support committee.

• Designated the proceeds of the H.C. and Irene Hogue Memorial Trust Fund for state missions.

• Authorized that a bequest from the estate of Ellen Webb Massengill be contributed to the 2011 Mary Hill Davis Offering for State Missions.

• Approved the use of $200,000 from the Ella Bachman Jones Memorial Trust Fund to pay for foundation repairs at historic Independence Baptist Church.

• Authorized a property swap with Texas A&M Kingsville related to the Baptist Student Ministry building.

• Allowed $230,000 of accumulated income from a fund related to Christian education be used to fund a deficit in the building account for the UT-Tyler BSM building. The deficit resulted when a $200,000 pledge became uncollectible due to the bankruptcy of the donor’s business.

DALLAS—Christ’s parable of the judgment of sheep and goats as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel deals more with justice than charity, said Nicholas Wolterstorff , professor emeritus of philosophical theology at Yale University.

On judgment day, God's blessing does not depend on acts of charity or piety but on pursuit of justice, he insisted.

Nicholas Wolterstorff

“By not doing justice, we violate what Jesus was anointed to do,” Wolterstorff told a world hunger conference at Dallas Baptist University . The event, “An Evangelical Advocacy Response to Global Childhood Hunger,” was sponsored by multiple Christian groups including Bread for the World, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission .

The word typically translated “righteous” in Matthew 25 and elsewhere in the New Testament might better be rendered “just,” he asserted.

He pointed, for instance, to the Beatitude, “Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake.” Wolterstorff maintained it might better be understood as “they who are persecuted for the sake of justice.”

“Upright people are either admired or ignored but rarely persecuted,” he insisted. “Those who seek justice are the ones who ruffle feathers and get under people’s skin.”

Wolterstorff took issue with Christians who claim Jesus’ teaching about love supersedes the Old Testament prophets’ emphasis on justice.

“Love incorporates justice,” he said. “Shalom goes beyond justice, but where justice is missing, shalom is missing.”

Christians should move beyond voluntary, occasional acts of charity toward seeking justice as Jesus requires, he insisted.

“Gratuitous charity is optional. Justice is not optional. Justice is basic,” Wolterstorff said.

Matthew 25 teaches that failure to seek justice for the vulnerable does injury to Christ, he maintained.

“The injustices of the world are the wounds of God,” he said.

DALLAS—The answer to “What is a Baptist university?” is complex and nuanced, according to panelists assembled by the Baptist History & Heritage Society.

They spent the better part of a morning discussing the question, examining it from perspectives of both mission and practice, during the society’s annual meeting at Dallas Baptist University May 21.

The response to the question “is more about a conversation than it is about an answer,” said Bill Bellinger, chairman of the religion department at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

“We seek in our mission to be grounded in Baptist identity as part of a larger community of faith,” Bellinger said, noting Baylor is launching a Baptist research center in part to help identify what terms such as “Baptist identity” and “Baptist tradition” mean.

At Baylor, the religion department is committed to Christian faith and Baptist identity that produces “an informed faith” in students, he said. Teaching and research are conducted “according to rigorous academic standards in a context that is friendly to faith and church.”

Four key factors define a Baptist university, said Sharon Emberton, provost at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall. “We hope to continue to be the torchbearers, not being afraid to say, ‘Jesus saves,’” she reported. “Scholarship and academic excellence endeavors must be placed on a seamless integration of faith and learning.

“A Baptist university must serve as a beacon … for training the next generation of leaders and workers. And a contemporary Baptist university must celebrate missional experience—service learning and missions involvement.”

The mission of a Baptist university can be described by key words from the letters of the word “serve,” insisted Fitzgerald Hill, president of Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock. They are:

• Serve. “It’s not about me,” he said. “I’m not getting a big salary. That’s all right; we’re saving lives.”

• Energize the situation. “We have to bring energy to our students every day.”

• Respond. “We can be known for the problems we create, the problems we solve or the problems we do nothing about,” Hill said, noting the historically black school actively seeks to respond to the problems faced by its students, many of whom come from poverty and difficult situations.

• Vision. Too many Americans focus on themselves, but a Baptist university should help students see the needs and opportunities of the world around them, he said.

• Empower. “He (God) empowers our situation, so we can be a light like him in a very dark place,” Hill concluded.

“‘Baptistness’ (of a university) is not defined by curriculum or control, but by cooperation in the community and the world,” stressed Sheila Klopfer, professor of religion at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky.

Since its foundation in 1829, Georgetown has embraced its mission “to remain rooted in Baptist life while open to a Christian non-sectarian tradition,” she said. That heritage served the school well in 2005, when the college and the Kentucky Baptist Convention parted amicably, she added, noting Georgetown has created strategic alliances with at least eight other Baptist organizations.

The Baptist practices of a university first must be congruent with its identity as a university, then as a Christian university and finally as a Baptist Christian university, maintained Loyd Allen, professor of church history and spiritual formation at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta.

Those Baptist practices should honor freedom, support individual choices and enable each person to obey conscience, and point outward to lead members of the university community to serve others, Allen said.

A Baptist university’s practices should include involving Baptists as trustees, administrators, faculty and students, and maintaining a Christianity department that “comes out of the Baptist tradition,” he said. A Baptist university also should provide scholarships and missions opportunities for Baptist students, integrate academic life and spiritual practice in a Baptist tradition that includes worship and service, and “tell the Baptist story often.”

The quality, commitment and perspective of faculty play a huge role in forming a Baptist university, said Brad Creed, provost at Samford University.

Noting his most important task is hiring faculty, Creed reported he spends a great deal of time talking with prospective teachers about community. They serve students out of “a common commitment, sharing a common purpose, with common effort on common ground in a community to which they willingly belong,” he said.

Most Samford faculty are Christians, although a few are Jews who were attracted to the Baptist school because of its values, treatment of students and purpose, he said.

The key to a university’s identity is “getting the right people to be part of your team,” Creed stressed. “It’s not curriculum. The right people will develop the right curriculum.”

Dallas Baptist University reflects President Gary Cook’s deep respect for Texas Baptists and possesses institutional gratitude to Texas Baptists for saving the school when it faced financial ruin, Provost Gail Linam said.

All of DBU’s trustees are Baptists, as are most faculty and staff, she added, noting all new faculty and staff are taught the Baptist story. DBU also engages with the Baptist World Alliance and the Baptist General Convention of Texas, teaches freshmen about Baptist distinctives, provides church-matched grants and scholarships to Baptist students, and involves students in missions training and activity.

“We would not be here if not for the Baptist family,” Linam observed.

The practice of a Baptist university reflects the essence of Christ, said Mark Tew, provost at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. “What we do as educators is incarnational. We incarnate God just as Jesus did,” he insisted. “We need to recognize relational issues as opposed to definitional issues. When we do that, we’ve got the possibility of being Christ to those students.”

Universities have been entrusted with students and will be held accountable for what they do with them, he said. As long as Baptist educators see their task as reflecting the presence of Christ into students’ lives, “it’s possible to do some truly remarkable things in Christian higher education.”

DALLAS—A seemingly unlikely alliance between conservative Christian evangelicals and Mormons recasts American history as the founding of a distinctively Christian republic, Stephen Stookey told a gathering of church historians.

Self-styled historian David Barton and conservative provocateur Glenn Beck—both inspired by the late Mormon conspiracy theorist W. Cleon Skousen—use tactics of half-truth and faulty scholarship to create a mythical America constitutionally established as a Christian nation, said Stookey, professor of church history and director of the master of arts in theological studies program at Dallas Baptist University .

Stephen Stookey

“Defenders of Christian America historiography claim they are merely recovering accurate American history from revisionists who seek to expel Christian voices from the public square and expunge all vestiges of Christian influence from America’s past, present and future,” Stookey told the annual meeting of the Baptist History & Heritage Society , May 20 at DBU.

Some efforts to secularize, minimize or ignore America’s religious heritage certainly exist, he acknowledged.

“However, in reacting to perceived revisions of American history, Christian America advocates recast American history, creating a quasi-mythical American tale—a story with just enough truth to give the air of credibility but riddled with historical inaccuracies,” said Stookey.

Proponents of Christian America presuppose the United States “was, is and should continue to be a constitutionally established Christian nation,” he explained. Any evidence to the contrary is ignored or recast, he said.

“Supportive data is either exaggerated or manufactured,” Stookey said. “In short, this camp presumes an inerrant historical understanding of America, as well as the original intent of the Constitution.”

Christian America advocates use out-of-context quotations and some outright falsehoods to give the Founding Fathers impeccable Christian pedigrees, ignoring or at least minimizing Enlightenment influences, he said.

“The historical reality is that the Founders were a varied collection of orthodox Christians, nominal (church) attenders, Christian moralists, deists and nonbelievers,” Stookey said.

While some advocates of the Christian America position long have existed, in recent years, they have moved into new prominence, he noted.

“Once a marginal group at the fringes of American culture and politics, dependent upon mimeographed newsletters and self-published books, this camp now enjoys significant access to public discourse via the Internet, publishing houses, television news networks and mainstream churches,” he said.

Proponents of the Christian American position gain credibility by dazzling with documentation—extensively footnoting their position papers with quotes carelessly copied from secondary or tertiary sources, he noted. Sometimes, quotes are abridged so much they imply the opposite of what originally was stated.

Barton, founding president of Wall Builders in Aledo, leads the pack, abetted by popular pundit Beck on Fox News, he maintained.

“Barton is a charismatic personality whose presentation is a spirited recitation of alleged quotations from and stories about America’s Founding Fathers,” Stookey said. “Barton’s historical blitzkrieg leaves little doubt in the minds of the undereducated listener as to America’s origins as a Christian nation.”

Barton capitalizes on real fear of moral failure and cultural chaos, he noted.

“It is clear that Barton has tapped into a collective angst within conservative ranks, particularly among conservative religiously motivated citizens,” Stookey said. “The story of a stolen Christian heritage plays well among those who see America in the grips of a post-Christian culture. One’s political enemies are not simply political foes but enemies of God, agents of Satan. Fears of Islamic aggression find refuge in a Christian Constitution that should preference Christians.”

Barton has been a frequent guest on Beck’s programs and events Beck has sponsored, including the “America’s Divine Destiny” event, held the night before Beck’s massive Restoring Honor rally.

“The alliance between a conservative evangelical political activist and a Mormon political pundit is not so odd when it comes to the Christian America story,” Stookey said.

“A Christian foundation for the United States is crucial to the Mormon narrative of Joseph Smith’s revelations leading to the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and America as God’s elect nation. It is in America, per Mormon doctrine, where the New Jerusalem will be established. Barton benefits from the partnership by gaining significant national exposure.”

Both Beck and Barton owe inspiration to Skousen, a former FBI agent and professor at Brigham Young University who became a frequent speaker on the John Birch Society circuit in the 1970s, Stookey observed. Skousen frequently is cited in the works of evangelical Christian America advocates like Barton, he noted.

“Skousen argues that the genius of America is found in the production of wealth through free market capitalism and natural law. His writings decry the decline of America’s Christian foundations, presenting the nation as a constitutionally established Christian nation. There is striking parallel in Skousen’s works and Barton’s The Myth of Separation,” he said.

“Skousen, like Barton, employs spurious historical material, skewed historical interpretation and Mormon-nuanced understandings of the past, present and future trajectory of the United States.”

According to Skousen’s perspective, “America is on the precipice of the great cleansing predicted in Mormon eschatology before the Kingdom of God is established in America,” Stookey said.

Three factors lead Christian evangelicals to buy into the Mormon-influenced vision of Christian America expounded by Skousen and promoted by Beck, Stookey asserted:

• Historical ignorance. “In general, Americans tend to have minimal knowledge about the details of American history. We highly value our Founders and want to think the best of them. We are familiar with elements of Christianity’s history in the United States. Thus, it is easy to assume a golden age of Christianity once existed in the colonial and early federal period of our national story,” he said.

• Cultural tension. “The social upheaval of the mid-20th century has left many grasping for reasons as to why the moral compass of America appears off kilter,” he said. Liberal academicians, activist judges and liberal preachers offer easy targets. “Fear is a powerful motivator of the undereducated.”

• Political tensions. “The alleged culture wars appear to have accentuated political divisions—between Democrats and Republicans and within parties,” he said.

Stookey voiced tentative hope that the “God gap” may be narrowing as a centrist movement begins to take shape in evangelical circles. “Subtle signs have pointed to this eventuality. An understanding of Christianity and public life is emerging that does not fit easily within the polarizing labels of liberal and conservative, Democrat or Republican.”

But as proponents of the Christian America position continue to assert their influence, Baptists should respond by examining their own heritage and claiming its distinctive contributions to religious liberty, Stookey asserted.

“We need informed and courageous Baptists to challenge our communities to engage in truly civil discourse—to remember who we are and act like it,” he said.

SAN FRANCISCO (ABP)—“You cannot go to church,” Christian philosopher Elton Trueblood once said. “You are the church wherever you go.” That is especially true if you are the pastor.

While many people with high-demand occupations view Sunday worship as a haven from day-to-day pressures, ministers are on call 24/7. Clergy rank high in job satisfaction, because most don’t enter the field expecting to get rich but are motivated by wanting to make a difference in people’s lives. At the same time, clergy rank among the highest rates of obesity, depression, high blood pressure and adult-onset diabetes when compared to other professions.

For that reason, congregational experts say it is extremely important—but often neglected—that ministers and congregations take seriously ministerial wellness and self-care.

“Healthy clergy make for healthy parishes,” Pamela Lee Cranston says in a clergy-wellness handbook for the Episcopal Church. “Unfortunately, unhealthy work patterns practiced by clergy in congregations have resulted in burnout, if not actual physical, spiritual, emotional and psychological breakdowns.”

The Episcopal Church is among American denominations advocating a holistic understanding of work for clergy and taking a closer look at issues of “wellness” related to ministry.

Cranston says clergy face several unique career challenges. One is “dual relationships.” The reality of clergy vocation is that, whether they would like to or even if they should, ministers never can completely “de-role” with members of the congregation.

Another is ambiguity about expectations. In secular fields, employment usually is evaluated by “performance.” The vocation of ministry, however, is not defined as just another job, but rather in relational terms of “being” and “doing” in ways not always measurable by a bottom line.

Closely related is the dual nature of the relationship between minister and congregation.

“The reality of today’s church is that the working pastoral relationship between clergy and congregations is both contractual and covenantal,” Cranston writes. “It is both a job and a vocation, although not in equal measure. Covenant assumes the best aspects in a pastoral relationship, while contracts protect both the clergy and congregation from the worst.”

Studies suggest 75 percent of the stress in clergy life is related to unclear and improper sense of boundaries related to work. According to the Alban Institute, to work more than 50 hours per week is considered “dangerous,” but many ministers are expected to do this consistently.

Roy Oswald of the Alban Institute says one in five clergy score high on the burnout scale. “With stress, too much change or novelty forces people to overuse their adjustment capacities and after a while they become physically or emotionally ill,” he said. Furthermore, he adds, burnout occurs “when people over use their listening and caring capacities.”

Research also links clergy burnout to family problems, poor communication with congregations, financial responsibility and clergy sexual abuse.

“Clergy are not called simply to be ‘institutional CEOs and business managers’ but are in the ‘health and wholeness business,’” Cranston says. “The healthier and more whole clergy are the more likely parishioners and congregations will become healthier too.”

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America profiled its typical ministers as a 51-year-old male with symptoms of depression, high blood pressure and overweight with heightened risk of

heart disease and other illnesses. He works 60 to 70 hours a week in a sedentary job lacking physical exercise and reports considerable work-related stress. He is married with three children. One expresses interest in following their father into full-time ministry. The pastor, however, expresses little enthusiasm for encouraging a child to do so.

The ELCA promotes a “Wholeness Wheel” model for balancing the interconnected aspects of individual wellness:

• Physical well-being. “While we are not all born perfectly healthy and no one makes it through life without injury or illness, with tending and nurturing we can live well even with disabilities, injuries or illness. Those with good health can lose it as a result of unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors. Keeping the wholeness wheel in perspective means optimizing our physical health through good nutrition, physical activity and avoiding risks to our health.”

• Emotional well-being. “Being emotionally well means feeling the full range of emotions and expressing those emotions appropriately. Not feeling emotion is a sign of stress or depression, just as having emotions that you cannot control may be the sign of emotional distress. Physical health problems can affect our emotions, and emotional problems affect our physical health.”

• Social well-being. “We were created to be social persons by God with instructions to help and love each other. We are nourished by the love and intimacy of our family and friends. Isolation is a significant risk for depression and premature death. Whether we are introverted or extroverted, regular social contact is essential for health. Being healthy means having healthy relationships with family, friends, co-workers and others. Studies have shown that volunteering in service to others actually lengthens life.”

• Intellectual well-being. “Alzheimer’s disease or dementia is feared by all who have seen or heard about the personal frustration or social disruption it causes. While we cannot be certain that we will never experience dementia or something similar, using our minds keeps them alert and active. … We can stretch our minds by experiencing new things—music, art, hobbies or travel. Pushing ourselves at work by seeking out new responsibilities and pursuing lifelong learning keeps us healthy and growing.”

• Vocational well-being. “Having a sense of purpose is important in living a healthy life. We all want to feel that we are using the gifts God has given us to make this world a better place. We need to be aware of what those gifts are and make good use of education and training to hone our skills. We need to always be seeking for opportunities to make a difference. If not through our occupation, then perhaps through volunteering in the community, nurturing our family, or actively participating in church.”

• Spiritual well-being. “Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength impacts everything we do and everything we are. … Nurturing your relationship with God through daily prayer or devotion is the first step. Knowing that God is always present and has given us the gift of grace through the death of Jesus Christ allows us to stumble along the way and keeps us from getting lost.”

By fall 2012, churches seeking age-level missions education materials can find one-stop shopping at national Woman’s Missionary Union.

WMU will reassume responsibility for producing resources for Royal Ambassadors—the missions program for boys that originated with the women’s missionary organization more than 100 years ago—and the Challengers program for teenage young men, effective next year.

Steve Heartsill, who has worked the past 10 years as design editor with WMU, has been named managing editor of RA and Challenger resources.

For now, churches will continue to order curriculum and supplemental resources from the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. WMU will send renewal notices for curriculum beginning next May and will assume delivery with the September 2012 issues.

Currently, Texas Baptist Men also offers RA and Challengers leadership materials on its website at www.texasbaptistmen.org. Keith Mack, RA/ Challengers director for TBM, welcomed the news WMU will produce materials.

“In my opinion, this will strengthen the Royal Ambassadors and Challengers programs within the local churches,” he said. “We will be working with the national WMU staff as they begin working toward producing new materials for RAs and Challengers and will be sharing many of the tried and proven ideas that many of the men use to work with the boys and young men.”

HERNDON, Va. (ABP)—Most congregations know healthier clergy lead to healthier churches, but few consider how clergy wellness and congregational busy-ness are related, said Larry Golemon, an ordained Presbyterian minister and former research manager at the Alban Institute.

“Clergy wellness can be understood by the term ‘shalom,’ a state of well-being intended for God’s creation,” Golemon writes in the Alban Institute’s Congregational Resource Guide.

Gwen Halaas, director of the Center for Interprofessional Education at the University of Minnesota, writes, “God wonderfully creates us as physical, emotional, social, intellectual, vocational and spiritual beings.”

From that perspective, Golemon adds that “wellness is nurtured by keeping the right balance between these God-given dimensions for all congregation members; and clergy are expected—fairly or not—to do an exemplary job of this.”

Assuming their clergy have unusual spiritual resources that give them an edge in staying healthy, Golemon said, many congregations pile expectations on clergy. He maintains churches need to accept their ministers are human, just like anyone else, and need the same kinds of support and resources for personal and professional well-being as other members of the faith community. Some experts believe they need even more.

Studies show many clergy suffer enough personal, familial and occupational stress to put their health and vocation in jeopardy, Golemon said. Those pressures include problems in a family or marriage, a bad vocational match, relational and emotional deficiencies and time demands and emotional pressure of the ministry.

Other factors for ministers are boundary intrusions on clergy families, the stress of high expectations against the limitations of congregational life and the relative isolation and lack of interpersonal resources compared to other helping professions.

That points to the need “for more active work by clergy to engage in spiritual renewal and self-care,” Goleman said. But congregations also have a role in helping to “shape realistic expectations and evaluations of the work” that pastors do.

Research inks clergy burnout to family problems, poor communication with congregations, financial responsibility and clergy sexual abuse.

Clergy wellness also involves personal support of the minister’s commitments outside of congregational life, such as family, time with clergy colleagues and their own self-renewal. Goleman quotes one pastor who told him, “I have two therapists: Harley and Davidson,” and his rather straight-laced congregation relishes the outlet and image.

In addition to things like planning and honoring vacations, days off and time for personal study or recreation, Goleman says clergy and churches can do several things to promote wellness of both minister and congregation.

Using Halaas’ definition, he outlines the following strategies for:

• Spiritual well-being. “Examples of spiritual practices that congregations and clergy can pursue together or support in one another include meditation and prayer, regular Scripture and theological study, meaningful corporate worship, sabbatical and study time and Sabbath-keeping—the time set aside for rest, renewal and spiritual enjoyment.” Intentional spiritual practices and relationships “are a source of pastoral resilience through times of stress and trial,” Golemon said.

• Emotional well-being. “One of the best ways to cultivate emotional health and healthy relationships in the work setting is for congregations to be holistic and collaborative in clergy/staff evaluation and professional support.” One model advocates “mutual ministry” that a pastor shares with the congregation by evaluating the professional ministry alongside that of key lay leaders. Such systems, Golemon says, “foster mutual accountability and shared work ethics in the church.” Other safeguards for healthy relationships include “coaching of conflict” when it arises, emphasizing “healthy forms of communication and responsive decision-making by clergy, staff and laity.”

• Vocational well-being. “There are many approaches for clergy to strengthen their vocational health, and for congregations to support them. They might consider preaching and sharing more about their own vocations, as a way to inspire and reflect with congregants about pastoral and the religious calling.” Pastors also can seek peer groups to reflect on the meaning of their work and support one another in study. Developing a leadership style that fits is essential to vocational health. Golemon says clergy also should expect their sense of vocation to change over time, in various “seasons of ministry.”

• Intellectual well-being. “Intellectual well-being can be strengthened in so many ways through clergy practice and congregational life that it is harder to pinpoint. Clearly resources around continuing education and life-long learning is helpful here, as clergy—like other service professions—need time to update their skills, knowledge and self-reflection on their work.”

• Financial well-being. “Congregations can be most supportive in two ways: first by paying their clergy and staff well and by offering financial services to clergy, like tax advice and financial planning—often available from members.”

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—Clergy wellness means different things at different stages of a ministry, and ministers who come to Ministering to Ministers Foundation are at a point of personal or professional crisis.

The Richmond, Va.,-based organization provides weeklong “wellness retreats” for ministers who either have been involuntarily terminated or whose ministry is on the brink due to conflict with their congregation.

Charles Chandler, who started the ministry after his own involuntary separation from a pastorate, said 978 individuals have gone through the retreats since Ministering to Ministers began in 1994.

For every minister that comes to a retreat, Chandler estimated, 10 others reach out to the ministry in some fashion, meaning he has worked with between 9,000 and 10,000 ministers in crisis.

Ministers are notorious for neglecting self-care, he said, and when conflict arises, it is the first thing to go.

“A trend I’m seeing at the retreats is when they get under attack, there is sort of a built-in concept somewhere that you deal with it by working harder,” Chandler said.

The most common charge against ministers under fire is they are “not effective,” so they respond by increasing their activity, he said. Studies show, however, that pastors who work more than 60 hours a week are less attentive than those who work fewer hours, setting up a vicious cycle.

“There’s a point of diminishing return,” he said.

Part of the retreat experience is reminding wounded ministers of the importance of self-care. That includes exercise, nutrition, work ethic and sense of humor. When someone loses the ability to laugh, Chandler said, it indicates a lost emotion that professionals consider a danger sign.

Chandler started Ministering to Ministers shortly after he was asked to leave a Baptist church where he had been pastor for five years. In the aftermath, he felt Baptists lacked adequate services to help him through the crisis, and he set out to do something about it.

Chandler gathered a group of fellow ministers who had experienced involuntary separation from their congregations, along with interested laity, to discuss the needs of ministers. That discussion led to formation of Ministering to Ministers.

While the organization offers a variety of services, the most visible is its wellness retreats—week-long events where ministers and their spouses going through a church-minister crisis begin the process of emotional and spiritual healing.

Retreats begin with couples telling the story of their crisis. During the week, they learn how to cope with anger, techniques in conflict resolution and ways to improve physical well-being. They also are encouraged to participate in an ongoing support group and receive practical tips in understanding and marketing their skills.

“You can’t really explain the retreats,” he said. “It’s synergy. The sum is greater than the parts.”

Chandler acknowledged not every ministerial firing is unmerited—bad matches do exist—but they should be handled in ways that cause minimum damage to both the minister and the church.

Any time a minister is involuntarily separated from his or her church, Chandler said, “both church and minister are damaged, and the joy of the gospel is dampened.”

He summarizes the foundation’s purpose by the acronym CARE:

• Communicating ways to improve church-ministers relations through building strong initial foundations, healthy dispute resolutions and mediation.

• Advocating for church-minister covenants that outline procedures in the event of separation. These covenants are adopted by ministers and churches as tenures begin.

• Reclaiming spiritual and emotional support for ministers and their spouses who experience involuntary separation.

• Equipping, by seeking to discover agencies and/or programs available to ministry recipients for career assessment and job placement possibilities, along with possible sources for emergency funds to assist those without adequate compensation during their crisis.

External factors like the economy add to already existing stresses between churches and ministers, Chandler added.

“There’s no question but that the volume of calls increased greatly with the meltdown of 2008,” he said. The same thing happened with another drop-down in the spring of 2010.

“I think that’s pretty well documented,” he said.

The language of love in action communicates around the globe, an 11-member Texas Baptist team recently discovered as they shared the hope of Christ in two Senegalese villages.

In a trip facilitated by Texas Baptists’ Office of African-American Ministries, the team served in villages in South Senegal alongside Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board Missionary Bertha Vaughns, who formerly led the Texas Southern University Baptist Student Ministry.

Charlie Singleton from the Texas Baptist Office of African-American Ministries works at a human needs project in Senegal. (PHOTO/Courtesy of BGCT Office of African-American Ministries)

The group conducted two medical clinics in villages that had never before had easy access to any medical care. The team served more than 200 people, providing donated medicine as they could and shared the gospel with the use of French audio players.

Avis Reynolds, a member of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Texas City, said the doctor leading the clinic treated a variety of issues, including aches, pains and rashes. In one case, he had to give a patient a cortisone shot.

“She got up and started praising (God) she could walk without pain,” Reynolds said. “It was just an amazing experience.”

Baba Diop, Passe village chief, examines gifts from Texas Baptists.

At a school in one of the villages where the Texans served, the team noticed the institution lacked any shade where students could rest or play out of the sun. Touched by the need, the group gave enough money to provide roughly 100 shade trees and a green space on the campus.

The Texans also built relationships with students at the school, visiting with the ones who are learning English. Trip participants distributed more than 200 flying discs with Scripture to the students.

Despite the condition of the 1,000-year-old village—little electricity or modern transportation and housing in thatched roof huts—students remained upbeat and determined, Reynolds said. They worked hard to learn English, understanding how important it is to improving their living conditions. Young people dreamed of being teachers and even a correspondent for a major news network.

In response to the teams’ efforts, students at the school created an environmental club to learn about cultivating and caring for the green space. The young people who are learning English asked their new American friends to be their pen pals and conversation partners via letters and Internet video conferencing.

Texas Baptist missions volunteer Avis Reynolds, a member of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Texas City, enjoys time with nationals in Senegal.

“It was just awesome to see God work,” said Charlie Singleton, director of Texas Baptists’ Office of African-American Ministries.

Singleton said the trip is part of an effort to get more African-American congregations involved in international mission work. He hopes every African-American Texas Baptist church will have a Hope 1:8 vision, based on Acts 1:8’s directive to share the hope of Christ locally, statewide and around the globe.

As a result of the Senegal trip, several participants have volunteered to return to serve in the area again. Singleton believes seeing God’s work globally encourages people to get involved in it.

“We’re really trying to get more African-American churches involved in missions,” he said. “Some are already involved, but we’re trying to expose more to missions.”

San Marcos Baptist Academy honored Robert Fanning, who served on the school’s board of trustees longer than any other individual, by naming the main road through the school campus “Robert Fanning Drive.”

Many current and former trustees, students and staff, as well as friends and family of Fanning, attended the dedication ceremony.

Taking part in the ceremony were Academy President John Garrison, President Emeritus Jack Byrom, board of trustees Chairman Jimmie Scott, retired Baylor University Chaplain Milton Cunningham, and two representatives of the student body, Tiara Hansen and Zachary Middleton.

After the ceremony, Fanning cut a ribbon by the newly installed street sign to officially open Robert Fanning Drive.

A practicing attorney for more than 50 years, Fanning is chairman emeritus and the founding shareholder of Fanning Harper Martinson Brandt & Kutchin in Dallas. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Baylor University in 1953 and his law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1959. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities from Dallas Baptist University in 1997.

In 1961, Fanning was named to the board of trustees at San Marcos Baptist Academy. Twice appointed as chairman of the board, he continued to serve until 2002. In 1970 and again in 2003, Fanning received the Exemplary Service Medal, one of the academy’s most distinguished honors. He is the only individual to receive this award twice.

Fanning has served on numerous other boards, including the Council for Institutional Development at Baylor Univer-sity; the Dallas Baptist University Foundation; the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission; and the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

A military veteran, he served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Air Force, Judge Advocate General’s Office, Fifth Air Force, Japan. Fanning has had a distinguished career as a trial lawyer and is licensed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Fanning and his wife, Margaret, have two sons, Barry and Marc.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America lists 10 best practices for ministerial health and wellness:

• Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

• Love your neighbor as you love yourself — be an example of self-care as well as caring for others.

• Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy — be intentional about time for rest and renewal within your week, church year and life in ministry.

•Honor your body as a gift from God and temple of the Holy Spirit. Feed it healthy foods and build your physical and emotional endurance with regular physical activity.

• Honor your mother, father, siblings, spouse and/or children with your love, respect and time.

• Reflect your faith and use your gifts in your vocation.

• Develop healthy habits to keep your wholeness wheel in balance and to be fit for a ministry of service.

• Equip yourself to use your gifts effectively to proclaim and live out the gospel in the world.

• Practice and seek forgiveness.

• Pray daily.