HAUT LIMBE, Haiti (ABP) — A medical missionary couple in Haiti jointly appointed by American Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship says it has not yet treated any cholera cases but is focusing on community education and prevention to halt spread of the earthquake-devastated island's first cholera epidemic in a century.

More than 250 people have died and more than 1,500 stricken with cholera in Haiti's worst public-health crisis since the January earthquake. Health officials said the outbreak appears to be stabilizing, but new cases reported in Port-au-Prince have renewed concerns that the disease could spread through tent cities that house up to 1 million Haitians left homeless by the quake in and around the nation's capital.

Haitian children receive treatment during a cholera outbreak that has killed hundreds.

Steve James, a physician, and Nancy James, a nurse, said in a blog Oct. 25 that they hear daily of more cholera cases arriving in north Haiti. So far all the cases are originating in the Artibonite Valley, a rural region north of Port au Prince and about 60 miles from the Jameses home in Haut Limbe.

The couple has been working as a team on community education and prevention alongside healthcare providers and ministry partners in vulnerable communities nearby. Their work includes addressing safe water and sanitation issues and preparation of community clinics to receive and treat large numbers of affected people in hopes of being able to contain the spread of cholera to the local communities.

Steve James worked Oct. 22 in the Ebenezer Community Health Center in Haut Limbé on a day when no cholera cases were diagnosed. Nancy prepared and helped distribute educational materials to providers and educators in the local communities.

They are working with Joel Dorsainville, coordinator of disaster relief services for the Haitian Baptist Convention, who is updating and coordinating efforts within the churches of Haiti. Next they plan to help two community health centers set up cholera treatment protocols and centers.

On Oct. 24 the couple participated in a conference on a method of solar water disinfection called SODIS — a simple procedure where contaminated water is filled in a transparent bottle and exposed to the sun for six hours. During that time UV radiation from the sun kills diarrhea-generating pathogens like cholera. The program has been operating in Haiti since January through the work of Medical Ambassadors of Haiti, a community health ministry and ministry partner to the Jameses.

Also on Sunday, ministry funds from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the American Baptist Churches were given to help purchase and transport medical supplies procured by Christian partners in the Dominican Republic. The funds will also help set up treatment centers to care for the very sickest, as well as to contain the spread of infection through health education, prevention and primary health care to partner community health centers.

The Jameses said they have been in communication with CBF field personnel nurse Jenny Jenkins in the south in Grand Goave. To date she had reported one cholera case hospitalized in Grand Goave after the person arrived from the north.

If large numbers of cholera cases develop in the north, the couple said, there is concern there will be a shortage of intravenous fluids, oral rehydration salts and antibiotics. The World Health Organization and international communities are working to address possible shortages.

"We ask for your prayers for protection for all at risk in Haiti, for the necessary education and prevention measures to be implemented, for the necessary medical supplies to reach the sick, and for strength and wisdom for those working in Haiti at this time that we all might serve in Christ-like love," the Jameses said.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary celebrated a milestone of 100 years at its current location with a chapel service Oct. 19 focusing on its founder, B.H. Carroll, and his successor L. R. Scarborough, who led the seminary from 1915 to 1942.

"The institution that does not revisit the principles of its founder and the commitments of its founder has made the most absurd mistake of any that you can find anywhere," current President Paige Patterson said in a chapel address specifically targeted to the seminary's board of trustees and faculty. 

Patterson, Southwestern's eighth president, said he spent the previous two weeks re-reading writings of Carroll and Scarborough to "find exactly what it was that most motivated them."

Patterson said he came up with "a list a mile long" but focused his remarks on five commitments.

Patterson described the "first stone mined out of the quarry" of the two men's writings as the incarnation and atonement of Christ. Patterson recalled words attributed to Carroll from his death bed uttered to Scarborough, "Lee, keep it lashed to the cross."

"The incarnation and the substitutionary atonement of Christ is the most fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith," Patterson said. "That's why we're here. That's why we hold forth hope to the nations. That's why we study. That's why we learn. That's why we go without fear of death."

The second founding principle of the seminary, Patterson said, was dedication to "the Bible as God's revelation." He noted that Carroll affirmed the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of 1833 that described Scripture as "truth without any mixture of error" and ruled that "no man can obtain a position on the teaching force" without signing his name to that article.

"Trustees, there comes a day when you will replace the president of this institution," Patterson said. "I want to challenge you today before God that you not make the mistake of getting anyone as president who cannot fully and absolutely conform to that statement of faith regarding the Bible."

"Faculty, I want to say to you today that whatever comes along through educational refinement, watch it carefully," he continued. "If it is in contradiction to the word of God that you have signed to be the binding arbiter of all in life, don't listen to it and don't dare teach it in these halls, and if you do you will have an appointment with the president."

Third on Patterson's list was "the preaching of the Bible."

"I don't care whether you call it exposition or not," he said. "That's immaterial to me, but friend, if you do anything other than preach the Bible and make its message clear and expound its truth, that's not preaching, that's the sharing of political opinion."

Patterson said the seminary's fourth task is "the teaching of the Bible," but that he and Executive Vice President and Provost Craig Blaising often lament "that we still do not do it here."

"You say, 'Well, I ought to go to a seminary that does.' Good luck," Patterson said. "The tragedy is that for all of the putting together of our seminaries we still don't teach the biblical revelation. We teach everything in the world about it, but we don't teach the Bible. If God will give me the grace to figure out how to do it, that's going to change."

Patterson said, "It is unfathomable to me that a student graduating here should ever be asked about a passage of Scripture and look blankly at the interrogator and say 'Let me call Dr. Blaising and ask him.'"

Patterson's final hallmark of the founders was "personal soul winning." One of Carroll's actions was to establish a chair of evangelism and choose Scarborough as its professor.

"Trustees, I want to say a shocking thing to you today," Patterson said. "It would be possible for you to choose a president of this institution who was theologically conservative, who believed all the right things, who affirmed the statement of faith. It would be possible for you to choose an educator and a fine one at that. It would be conceivable for you to choose a man who was a man's man and who could lead men. It would be in the realm of possibility for you to get a person who would know how to raise a ton of money and put the seminary on financial footing so that it would never have a need in the world. But if you do all of that and you fail to get a man who is a personal soul winner, you have failed in your duty."

Patterson said the same goes for faculty. "Don't you elect a man to the faculty, a woman to the faculty who's not a consistent winner of men and women to the faith in Jesus Christ," he said.

Southwestern Seminary began as an outgrowth of Baylor University in 1905. It separated from Baylor and was re-chartered in 1908 as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a separate board of trustees. The seminary operated two years on Waco, Texas, campus before moving to a section of Fort Worth today known as "Seminary Hill."

In 1925 the Baptist General Convention of Texas turned control of the seminary over to the Southern Baptist Convention. During the inerrancy controversy within the SBC during the 1980s and 1990s, the seminary moved toward a fundamentalist perspective to the right of the moderate-leaning BGCT, prompting Baylor to open its own George W. Truett Theological Seminary in 1994.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

A Ukrainian church where the Singing Men of North Central Texas group was scheduled to perform a concert burned to the ground, but the Texas Baptist church musicians rented a concert hall for two performances.

Fire destroyed the 1,300-seat sanctuary of Central Baptist Church in Dnipropetrovsk the day before the choir’s scheduled performance. The cause of the fire had not been determined.

“Thanks goes to those who have attended our concerts over the past couple of years and have given so graciously, the Singing Men are able to pay the $2,000 to rent the hall with no problem. God is always so good at providing for our needs,” one of the participants wrote on the Singing Men of North Texas blog.

“The entire team of partners and Singing Men are making pledges to send when we get home to help this church rebuild. … We are seeing if among us—and the churches we represent—if we can raise at least $50,000 to send back to this church here in Dnipropetrovsk,” the blog said.

“The positive side to this story is the publicity that fire has received has thrown more publicity on our being here and the concert getting relocated. We hit the streets this morning to pass out flyers announcing the change in venue. Pray that the flyers that are passed out will bring people to the concert. …We are confident that our great God will turn this tragedy into a triumph. They will be able to build a much nicer building, perhaps even in a better location, and be able to reach many more people.”

A later blog entry noted the combined attendance at the two concerts roughly equaled the capacity of the destroyed church sanctuary.

For the latest information about the Singing Men of North Central Texas mission trip to Ukraine, visit http://smonct.wordpress.com/ .

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP) – The editor of North Carolina Baptists' newspaper has agreed to resign his post to prevent a threatened motion to defund the publication from being made at the upcoming Baptist State Convention of North Carolina annual meeting.

Norman Jameson offered to resign his post at the Biblical Recorder prior to a regularly scheduled board meeting in Charlotte Oct. 21. Board members expected their meeting to include discussion about an announced challenge to the newspaper’s funding through the state convention when the organization holds its annual meeting Nov. 8-10.

Jameson, editor of the Recorder for just over three years, called his resignation “not required, but necessary.”

“Nobody asked me to resign,” Jameson said in a telephone interview Oct. 22. “Nobody threatened to fire me.”

Sandy Beck, director of missions in the Hendersonville-based Carolina Baptist Association, recently wrote convention leaders warning that if Jameson were not removed as editor, there would be a motion from the floor of the convention to amend the Cooperative Program unified budget to defund the Recorder.

“It seems that Mr. Jameson does not know the mindset of this predominantly biblically conservative state,” Beck wrote. “Enough is enough. If his board of directors cannot influence his lack of sensitivity, perhaps the conservative pastors and laity of this state can.”

Cooperative Program funding accounts for about 45 percent of the Biblical Recorder’s $726,500 budget in 2010.

Jameson, a Baptist journalist since 1977, said he was confident until just hours before his board meeting that the Recorder would survive such a challenge if it were to materialize. But with no such confidence expressed by the board, he offered to resign.

“It was necessary because I came to the conclusion eventually that the threat to the Recorder was real, and in the grand scheme of things I’m a pretty small fish,” he said.

Jameson, 56, has been criticized recently for continuing to cover North Carolina Woman’s Missionary Union, which is no longer recognized by the state convention but still is active in most of the convention’s churches. The paper has also continued to include stories about the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a moderate breakaway group that was included in one of the state convention’s multiple budget options before they were eliminated in favor of a single plan that excluded CBF, but kept giving to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Bill Flowe, chairman of the Recorder’s board of directors, affirmed Jameson’s “many positive personal qualities and his excellent work for and dedication to the Biblical Recorder and to North Carolina Baptists.”

“The editor’s job is not only to report but also to challenge readers to think in ways they otherwise might not think,” said Flowe, a lawyer and member of First Baptist Church in Liberty, N.C.  “This duty makes the job precarious. The perception that Mr. Jameson is not a good fit as editor with the current direction of the convention resulted in the painful decision to make a change.”

News of Jameson’s resignation spread as directors and friends of Associated Baptist Press celebrated the 20th anniversary of the independent news service’s founding in reaction to censorship concerns related to the Southern Baptist Convention’s official news service, Baptist Press.

Meeting Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tenn., ABP directors unanimously went on record noting sadness about Jameson’s resignation and affirming his professionalism as a journalist.

“We believe the health and vitality of the Baptist movement and the integrity of the Baptist witness are best served by a free and unfettered flow of information,” the statement said in part. “As champions of truth and freedom, Baptists must be ever diligent to guard the role of a free and unfettered press as an essential corollary to our historic Baptist principles of religious liberty, freedom of conscience and priesthood of the believer.”

ABP directors said Jameson’s ministry “has been marked by the utmost integrity and the highest standards of journalistic excellence” and pledged admiration and support for him and his family as he seeks new employment.

Jameson said the paper’s directors asked him to work through the end of the December and “were kind” in their severance offer.

“There is no animosity in my heart and no anger toward any person,” he said. “The meeting ended on a very positive note. The board members seemed genuinely appreciative of my work and of me as a person. It just felt that I was not part of the tribe.”

Jameson worked as executive leader for public relations for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina before moving to the editorship of the Biblical Recorder in August 2007. He succeeded Tony Cartledge, 55, who resigned to become a professor at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, N.C. 

Cartledge cited discord in the state convention and threats to the paper’s independence as factors in his departure. In 2006 North Carolina Baptists defeated a bylaw change that would have given convention-related institutions such as the Biblical Recorder more influence over the appointment of trustees and directors.

Raised in a small Wisconsin farming community, Jameson graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University and worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph before being named feature editor of Baptist Press in 1977.

He entered Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1982, where he finished his degree while working as associate editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger. He then became communications director for Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina in 1987, a position he held for 12 years.

Jameson and his wife, Sue Ellen, have three adult children and are members of Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press. 

Full text of statement from Associated Baptist Press follows.

The Board of Directors of Associated Baptist Press, at its semi-annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 22, adopted the following statement:

We are dismayed to learn of the resignation of Norman Jameson as editor of the Biblical Recorder of North Carolina, one of Baptists’ historic and most respected newspapers. 

Ironically, this news came to us on the same day that the Board of Directors gathered with other friends of ABP to honor those Baptist state paper editors and founding board members who stepped forward 20 years ago to establish and lead ABP as a free and autonomous news service for Baptists and other Christians worldwide.

We believe the health and vitality of the Baptist movement and the integrity of the Baptist witness are best served by a free and unfettered flow of information.  As champions of truth and freedom, Baptists must be ever diligent to guard the role of a free and unfettered press as an essential corollary to our historic Baptist principles of religious liberty, freedom of conscience and priesthood of the believer. 

Norman Jameson’s ministry among Baptists has been marked by the utmost integrity and the highest standards of journalistic excellence.  We are grateful for Norman’s principled leadership of the Biblical Recorder, his commitment to providing accurate and reliable information to North Carolina Baptists, and his fair-minded and insightful editorials on matters of faith and current issues.

For Norman, serving as editor of the Biblical Recorder was the fulfillment of a dream and a glad response to the calling of God.  Now, at this unfortunate and unanticipated juncture in their lives, we wish to assure Norman and his wife Sue Ellen of our prayers, our admiration and our continued support as they prayerfully contemplate a new direction in life and ministry.

Baptist churches across the board agree—Jesus Christ is the head of the church.

But when it comes to ways Christians discern Christ’s will for their particular congregation, handle its day-to-day administrative chores and make decisions about budget and buildings, Baptist churches demonstrate remarkable diversity.

Both the 1963 and 2000 versions of the Baptist Faith & Message identify the local Baptist church as an autonomous body operating through democratic processes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In such a congregation, each member is responsible and accountable to Christ, the faith statements assert.

In his book The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms, Walter B. Shurden of Mercer University linked the Baptist commitment to democratic church governance to the emphasis on the individual.

“Baptists practice democratic church polity not because it is more efficient or more reliable or even more biblical than other forms. They follow it because it accents the role of the individual within community, allowing the greatest freedom for the greatest number of people to have a say. Moreover, democratic church polity is a statement of the equality of all believers in determining the mind of Christ,” wrote Shurden, then-director of Mercer’s Center for Baptist Studies.

But how churches exercise their autonomy, carry out democratic processes and give members opportunities to carry out their responsibilities differ—particularly after their membership grows.

Some historians point to the thoroughly democratic practices of early Baptists in the Colonies as influencing early American democratic ideals and providing a model for the New England town hall meeting. Many small-membership congregations still hold similar monthly business meetings where member openly discuss and vote on every decision that affects the church.

However, allowing every person in a 50-member congregation an opportunity to speak publicly regarding an issue is one thing; allowing every person in a 500-member or 5,000-member church the same privilege is another.

So, some chur-ches have chosen to delegate certain authority to smaller groups, whether staff, deacons, elders or committees.

“I’ve come to believe the polity issue is usually resolved in Baptist churches of varying sizes by virtue of efficiency rather than theology,” said Gary Long, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gaithersburg, Md.

The way decisions are made and the number of people involved in that decision-making process tend to depend in part on the level of trust members have in leaders, he asserted.

“If trust is high, decisions are made more frequently in smaller groups and supported by the larger congregation. When trust is low and anxiety is high, there is more of a call from the congregation for a vote,” he said. “Good leaders seem to sense where decisions are along the scale of importance and weigh out when to act versus get congregational input.”

Polity also may be determined simply by how busy and involved members are at a particular point, Long added.

“The folk who are busy raising kids, coaching soccer, excelling at career and truly focusing on their own spirituality seem more interested in volunteering and serving than in leading and deciding,” he observed.

Long, former pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, noted he has served in a congregation where decisions of various types explicitly are categorized, and the level of congregational input was determined by perceived importance.

“Hiring and firing ministers were A level, for example. Calendar decisions were C level and agreed upon by the staff. Plans for a yearly focus or a new ministry partner were B level and decided by committees in consultation with ministry staff,” he said.

Even so, some level of ambiguity remained.

“Of course there were times when I was left wondering, ‘Is this a B or a C level issue?’ Those were the times when I deferred to the next level up the chain, rather than guessing I had the authority to decide something on my own,” he said.

“It was slow, but I don’t recall ever getting criticized for counting on other church members to help with decisions.”

In some respects, First Baptist Church in Woodbridge, Va., follows a similar approach. The church votes on major decisions in a church meeting that requires 50 percent of active members for a quorum. Major decisions include budget, incurring debt, hiring a senior pastor and making changes to bylaws or constitution.

At a members’ meeting every other month, the church receives financial reports, grants transfer of membership and accepts new members, approves any mid-year budget changes and votes on hiring any staff other than the senior pastor.

However, the Woodbridge church adds a different approach in terms of day-to-day administration. Elders deal with matters of spiritual discipline and proper doctrine. An administrative ministry team—which includes an elder—manages the church’s resources. Deacons work in a servant role, alongside dozens of ministry teams.

Ray Bearden, who has been pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodbridge, 17 years led his congregation to institute the role of elder about seven years ago, but he emphasized the elders’ primary role is to provide spiritual leadership. Elders are selected on the basis of already exhibiting the gift of spiritual leadership and as being people to whom the congregation looks for wisdom, he explained.

“They are not ruling elders,” he stressed. “These are people who have spiritual influence already.”

Bearden led the church to install elders in part because was wanted the accountability to a group whom the congregation acknowledged as spiritual leaders. Also, he felt many deacons were operating outside their spiritual gifts. Deacons who clearly had the spiritual gift of service but lacked the gift of administration and leadership were devoting much of their time and energy to “administrative minutia,” he said.

According to the system the Woodbridge church instituted, the congregation has a minimum of five and maximum of seven elders, including the pastor, who is the only elder not subject to a term limit. Other elders are limited to two consecutive three-year terms.

“We meet every Tuesday night for two to three hours, with at least one hour spent in prayer,” Bearden said. “It’s a pretty heavy commitment.”

An elder-selection committee nominated the initial group of elders, and the congregation approved them. Subsequent nominees have been suggested by the congregation, considered and nominated by the elders and then affirmed by a vote of the congregation.

First Baptist Church in Marshall follows a more traditional Baptist approach to decision-making and day-to-day administration. The church makes significant decisions in general business meetings, and most of the recommendations come from committees.

“When the committee system works well, it provides a shared sense of being given ownership and being involved—that a particular project is not just staff-led or pastor-led,” Pastor Kevin Hall said.

Hall acknowledged some churches have moved toward granting most decision-making authority to a board of elders, to staff or even to the pastor alone, but he questioned the wisdom of that approach.

“It’s more Baptist to have as many of the people making the decisions as possible,” he said. “Granted, it’s more arduous. It slows things down.”

But allowing church members time to work through processes at their own pace also means providing time to build consensus. Objections can be addressed along the way, corrections can be made, and the church can benefit from the process.

A friend jokingly refers to lengthy processes as “traveling at the speed of church,” Hall noted.

“Moving at the speed of church may be slower, but it may be better.”

AUBURN, Ala. (RNS)—Chad Gibbs has been on a pigskin pilgrimage throughout the South, searching for spiritual truth in Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, Gainesville and Fayetteville.

He grew up a fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide and switched allegiance to his alma mater—and the University of Alabama’s archrival—Auburn University. For a while, Gibbs became so fanatical he wondered if football had replaced God as his god.

“I wondered about how much I could care about football before it starts to hinder my faith,” said Gibbs, a 2002 Auburn graduate who lives less than a mile from the school’s famed Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Gibbs set out to find how other Christian football fans handled their dual obsessions. For 12 weeks he attended football games involving every Southeastern Conference football team.

That quest resulted in Gibbs’ new book, God and Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC, which tracks college football’s near-religious following in the heart of the Bible Belt, where many fans worship their SEC teams on Saturdays and God on Sundays.

In the summer of 2009, he contacted churches and campus ministries in all 12 SEC university towns.

“I was looking for fanatical fans that were also Christians,” Gibbs said. “My idea was to go to the games and spend time with them and see how they balance the two.”

Among the many memorable people he met was a Catholic priest, Gerald Burns, pastor of St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, La., who watches Louisiana State University games on his big-screen, high-definition TV. He once joined the LSU crowd in chanting, “Go to hell, Ole Miss!” while wearing his Roman collar. LSU won 61-17.

Gibbs soon realized he wasn’t the only one who got carried away with football, letting it become his religion.

“If you ask them point-blank, ‘Do you worship football?’ they’d say no,” Gibbs said. But for some, football clearly trumps God, he said.

Gibbs interviewed evangelist David Nasser, a football fan, who talked about how discussing football opens doors to sharing faith. Nasser added, however, that “football is a great hobby, but a horrible god.”

The statement struck a chord with Gibbs, and became the theme of his book.

“I was using football for my self-awareness and identity as a person,” Gibbs said. “I was trying to get too much out of football. On a Sunday morning after a loss, I was still pouting. … I was looking to get so much out of football that football really can’t give you. I learned you have to take it as what it is, as a game.”

People who look for the meaning of life and salvation from football always will be disappointed, he said.

“When you try to fill that void where you’re supposed to put God, if you try anything else, it doesn’t work,” Gibbs said.

“It’s not something to build your life around. Football’s certainly not worth being miserable about. When you start leaving games depressed, you may want to step back and take a critical look at things. I began to realize what about football had me so wrapped up. I was looking for more from football than I should be looking for from football. It’s hard to fit a football into the God-shaped hole in your heart.”

After Auburn’s win over Clemson this season, Auburn Coach Gene Chizik said, “It’s a God thing,” which stirred up a lot of commentary over how much God really cares about football.

“When I heard it, I did kind of cringe,” Gibbs said. “I know how it sounded. It sounded like God made Clemson miss a field goal.”

Gibbs thinks what the coach was getting at was turning a loss into a learning experience. And while Gibbs clearly thinks football shouldn’t be more important than spiritual issues, he doesn’t rule out that God cares about football.

“I don’t think God gets upset if we go to football games,” Gibbs said. “You can obviously take it too far. I think God’s big enough to hear prayers about Sudan and football at the same time.

“I don’t think God’s a fan of a particular team. If he is, right now he’s an Alabama fan.”

—Greg Garrison writes for The Birmingham News in Birmingham, Ala.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When comedian Stephen Colbert brought his act to Capitol Hill last month and stole the spotlight with his satirical shtick, no one was more surprised than lawmakers.

“You run your show,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers scolded him. “We run the committee.”

When Colbert finally let his well-coiffed hair down and got serious about the “really, really hard work” done by migrant farmworkers, even more people were surprised when the funnyman gave a glimpse of his private faith.

“And, you know, ‘whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers,’ and these seem like the least of our brothers right now,” Colbert said, quoting Jesus. “Migrant workers suffer and have no rights.”

It was a different kind of religious message than Colbert typically delivers on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, where he often pokes fun at religion—including his own Catholic Church—in pursuit of a laugh.

Yet it was the kind of serious faith that some of his fellow Christians say makes him a serious, covert and potent evangelist for their faith.

“Anytime you talk about Jesus or Christianity respectfully the way he does, it is evangelization,” said Jim Martin, the associate editor of the Jesuit magazine America, who has appeared on Colbert’s show four times. “He is preaching the gospel, but I think he is doing it in a very post-modern way.”

Colbert’s on-air persona is a bloviating holier-than-thou conservative whose orthodox Catholicism is part of what makes him funny. On air, Colbert has chided the pope as an “ecu-menace” for his outreach to other faiths, referred to non-Catholics as “heathens and the excommunicated” and calls those who believe in evolution “monkey men.”

Diane Houdek has tracked Colbert’s on-air references to Catholicism on her blog, Catholic Colbert. When he recites the Nicene Creed or Bible verses from memory, it shows how foundational his faith is, she said.

“He is moving in an extremely secular world. It is hard to get a lot more secular than Comedy Central,” Houdek said. “Yet I feel he is able to witness to his faith in a very subtle way, a very quiet way to an audience that has maybe never encountered this before.”

It’s particularly powerful to Catholics, Houdek said, when the lines blur between Colbert’s personal faith and that of his on-air alter ego.

She pointed to a 2007 segment in which his character reveled in Pope Benedict XVI’s statement that non-Catholic faiths were “defective.”

“Catholicism is clearly superior,” Colbert crowed beside a picture of the pope. “Don’t believe me? Name one Protestant denomination that can afford a $660 million sexual abuse settlement.”

It wasn’t just funny, Houdek said, but also powerful. “He really made a strong criticism of the church.”

Colbert’s personal opinions about Catholicism usually are not so clearly displayed, and his range of guests offers few clues. Guests have ranged from the theological left—openly gay Catholic writer Andrew Sullivan—to the conservative Catholic League President William Donohue.

Houdek regularly fields comments from readers who believe they’ve found a fellow traveler in Colbert.

“You can’t pin him down,” Houdek said. “He becomes kind of a Rorschach test for what the viewer’s beliefs are.”

David Gibson, a Catholic writer who covers religion for PoliticsDaily.com, said Colbert’s ability to present his character and himself at the same time is where his strength as a Christian role model lies.

“I think what he models most effectively is the talent for discernment,” Gibson said. “He shows what is important to the faith and what can genuinely be debated and disparaged.”

Kurt C. Wiesner, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Littleton, N.H., writes a blog about religion and popular culture. Watching Colbert’s congressional testimony, he saw something that reaches beyond Catholicism.

“He offered a human witness, without a doubt,” Wiesner said. “He gave witness to what Christians are often called to do, but the message isn’t be a Christian like him. It is that one’s faith calls us to be engaged with our fellow human beings.”

Baptists long have been known as strong advocates of the priesthood of the believer—the idea that every individual can approach God and have a personal relationship with the Creator. Each person has the right to interpret Scripture for himself or herself.

The concept of the priesthood of the believer gave rise to the congregational form of church governance—each member having a say in the decisions the church makes, from calling a pastor to determining the color of the nursery walls.

The democratic process is the congregational form’s strength, Pastor Kevin Payne of First Baptist Church in Independence, Mo., believes.

“It’s the recognition that everyone has a voice. It recognizes each person’s value,” he said. “The congregation holds people accountable.”

Payne believes democracy also is the system’s weakness. “The democratic process has serious flaws,” he said. “It’s dominated by those with strong personalities.”

It’s unwieldy, he added, slowing decision-making. Often, requests must pass through several committees before getting to First Baptist’s quarterly business meetings.

Fewer members participate in business sessions, particularly younger members. “They don’t want to talk about money and routine business matters,” Payne said. “They want to do ministry.”

Mark Wingfield, associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, believes the congregation’s character, rather than its size, determines governance. Wilshire, which averages about 1,100 in worship, follows a slightly modified congregational structure, with deacons.

Wilshire uses committees for business issues, such as personnel, and for structure, such as worship and education. When the church discovered some committees, such as baptism, had little to do with churchwide decision-making, they were converted to ministry teams.

“Our congregation is pretty easy-going, and the history of the church shows that it has not been acrimonious,” Wingfield said. “There is a high trust level, and we have been intentional about balance on our committees between male and female, married and single, old and young.”

Leaders at First Baptist in Independence may explore other governing options based on demographics rather than size. The church averages about 215 in Sunday morning worship.

One option First Baptist may consider is a governing form gaining acceptance among some Baptists—elders, either as a “ruling” elder board that decides administrative and business issues or as a “spiritual” body that leads in doctrine and ministry.

The Acts 29 Network, which includes some Baptist churches, advocates use of ruling elders. The pastor is the lead elder, with a group of others who decide most issues—business and spiritual.

But elders in other Baptist congregations focus on spirituality and service. First Baptist Church of Woodbridge, Va., uses a congregational form of government enhanced with a small group of elders.

Pastor Ray Bearden believes the governing process remains congregational at heart, because church members can express their opinions in business sessions held every other month and participation in ministry teams.

The church uses an administrative ministry team for day-to-day business. Major issues, including the budget, are brought to the congregation. Members can bring up anything from the floor during business sessions.

The church also has deacons whose primary focus is to care for church members and to concentrate on ministry delivery.

Elders at the Woodbridge church “ensure proper doctrine and exercise church discipline,” Bearden said. They also can step in to help the pastor or teams deal with conflict. Elders “may wade into” the discussion on any issue that needs “spiritual clarity … to make sure team members maintain … a spiritual focus,” he said.

He believes the combination of deacons and elders works well for his church, because it allows people to serve where they are gifted and helps keep the focus on ministry.

Cowboy churches tend to use an elder system, as well, explained Charles Higgs, director of western-heritage ministries for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. In most cases, they serve as the “spiritual soul of the church,” rather than as ruling elders.

Most cowboy congregations, at least in Texas, primarily are lay-led, with elders serving alongside lay pastors. Usually the church has no deacons, and business and ministry are handled through ministry teams.

Generally, the church only conducts an annual congregational business meeting, but additional business conferences can be called for land or building purchases or to call a pastor.

Accountability is a key strength, Higgs believes. The pastor is accountable to the elders, who are accountable to the congregation who elects them.

Elders are not elected for life, but, instead, usually are elected to three-year rotating terms. The pastor and elders determine who will serve on the various ministry teams. The first Sunday of each month, everyone is asked to stay after worship to participate as part of the leadership team.

The system works well because cowboy churches target and tend to reach adults (70 percent of baptisms are adults), particularly men, many who are put off attending traditional churches because of a perceived emphasis on money. Several rural congregations have adopted the model, calling themselves “country” churches, Higgs said.

Higgs sees two drawbacks. First, he has seen a few congregations suffer when elders “felt empowered” to control the church and resort to an elder-ruled system.

Second, communication can become mired. Pastors and elders must make sure they communicate to the congregation. Higgs believes encouraging all members to participate on the leadership team is a way to bridge the communication gap.

As some congregations reach out to minister beyond their church campus, many have chosen to begin second or third or more sites under the church umbrella. Adding more sites usually means adjusting the congregation’s governing structure.

Glenn Akins, assistant executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, works with multi-site congregations. Currently on sabbatical to study multi-site governance, Akins favors a business model form of church polity.

In addition to his state role, Akins also is a member of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond that has four campuses.

The multi-site approach to church growth has three advantages over establishing independent congregations, Akins believes. Multi-sites are more cost effective. They build on a “recognized brand”—the church already is known in a community or city. Also, “there is a synergy of resources that the satellite has access to,” he said.

Akins sees governance in multi-site churches as akin to franchising. Most sites remain as part of the whole rather than become independent congregations because of their “shared DNA,” he said. “They are so integratedly woven, so there is no obvious way to cut them apart.”

Governance has been the last piece of multi-site work to receive much attention, he explained. Congregations concentrate on ministry first. Business franchises operate from a plan that spells out the relationship and the financial agreements between the parent company and the franchisee.

“I haven’t seen one for multi-sites yet. There are pieces but no complete document,” Akins said.

Eugenia Freiburger addressed the topic at a recent Southern Baptist Research Fellowship conference. An adjunct instructor on leadership at the Baptist Seminary at Richmond and at Union Theological Seminary, she stresses the importance of developing a framework within which a satellite will be launched.

“The framework allows the church to make intentional choices—to determine what’s negotiable and what’s non-negotiable for all aspects of church life, including governance,” explained Freiburger, also a freelance consultant on leadership. “The framework helps the congregation to talk through the issues before the launch takes place.”

The church and the satellite would determine the form of governance based upon identity, organizational design and ministry strategy.

“You must answer the question: Does the governance facilitate the strategy or can it change?” she said. “I believe form follows function.”

Other patterns

As new ways to minister develop, likely church governance will take different forms. The missional movement already has affected polity issues in some areas.

For example, the California-based Ecclesia Network, of which New Life Christian Fellowship in Blacksburg, Va., is a part, uses an equipping team composed of individuals each gifted with one of the “basic gifts” listed in Ephesians 4.

And a handful of congregations scattered across the country still follow a very old polity—union. During western expansion and the days of circuit-riding preachers, diverse congregations shared a building and often gathered to hear one another’s minister.

Hopewell Union Church near High Point, Mo., retains that flavor. Southern Baptist, Presbyterian and Independent Christian congregations have shared the building since 1829. They have shared the last two pastors who together have served for about 20 years.

“There are theological differences,” explained current Pastor Randy Smith. “But there hasn’t been a problem.”

Members of each denomination determine issues that affect themselves, and each denomination is represented on the full congregation’s trustee board. Items such as building and grounds or participation in community events are simply brought up for a vote following a worship service.

BUNA—William and Wynna Withers never expected to fall in love with the people of Ukraine. In fact, for most of their married life, the couple never imagined leaving their home in Buna, deep in the East Texas Big Thicket.

William and Wynna Withers of Buna heard God’s call to missions in Eastern Europe, and they spent three years serving in Ukraine. (PHOTO/Jennifer Rash Davis/The Alabama Baptist)

They certainly never anticipated moving to Ukraine for three years—especially at ages 65 and 64, respectively.

But they did, and now they are back in the United States, telling everyone they can about the missions opportunities in Eastern Europe.

The couple liked their quiet life. He was a basketball coach and teacher for many years before going into the insurance business. She was a stay-at-home mom but later served as the office manager for her husband’s business. They were faithful church members of First Baptist Church in Buna, where they served in different capacities.

But they came to the conclusion God wanted something more from them.

“I was sitting at my breakfast table the second week of February 1992 reading Open Windows” (devotional guide), Withers said. He prayed for a team that was traveling to the former Soviet Union with a pastor from San Angelo.

“I was sitting there and very clearly I heard, ‘William, I want you to go.’ … I knew it was God, and I was excited,” he said.

After he returned from his first trip to the former Soviet Union, Withers couldn’t say no to going back. He began going on missions trips to that area of the world two to three times a year. It was during this time that God was “training me to be a missionary,” he said.

For Mrs. Withers, the call to missions came a little later.

“When God spoke to William at that kitchen table in 1992, he didn’t say anything to me,” she said. “When (her husband) told me he was going and asked me to go, I said, ‘No, thank you.’ I didn’t want to fly; I didn’t want to leave my kids.”

The Ukraine

While taking a discipleship training class based on Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God, Mrs. Withers said she realized that without faith, it’s impossible to please God, and God rewards those who earnestly seek him.

“I didn’t want to fly; I didn’t want to go to a country that possibly didn’t have electricity and running water. But (to put) this faith in action, I needed to have that reality,” she said. “William was having all these wonderful experiences, and I wasn’t in any of that. It slowly began to come to me that I was missing out. So I prayed, ‘God, enable me to go wherever you want me to go.’”

About three years later, she went on her first international missions trip to southern Ukraine with her husband and stayed two weeks. From 1995 to 2005, they took about 15 trips but never very long ones.

Then, one day, Mrs. Withers told her husband she thought she could stay for a couple of months next time. But as they were discussing going for a couple of months, they learned about the International Mission Board’s Masters Program, which allows adults 50 years of age or older to serve overseas for two to three years.

“All of a sudden … we were talking about a two- or three-year commitment,” Mrs. Withers said. “I had a peace that I can do this—leave my children. I got the same peace like when I was saved.”

The couple were assigned to Odessa, Ukraine, in October 2005, and their assignment was to assist local churches, especially in regard to evangelism, and coordinate American volunteers who came to work in the area.

After receiving training in Richmond, Va., they went to Odessa in January 2006 but had to return to the United States after only a year for Mrs. Withers to have neck surgery. The couple were allowed to start their term over halfway through 2007.

In 2009, they were asked to move to Transcarpathia, an area in the western part of the country that is home to mainly Hungarian-speaking people.

At first, they were reluctant to leave the relationships they had formed with only a year left in their term. But once they were told that there had been only two teams that had gone to work in Transcarpathia in the past five years, their hearts were broken.

The Witherses moved in August 2009 and worked with the Roma (Gypsies), university students and missions teams from Alabama.

Now back in Texas, the Witherses—who well up with tears every time they speak of Ukraine—plan to travel across the United States telling about God’s work in Ukraine and rallying volunteers and support for Ukrainian churches.

The couple believe they are a testimony God can use anyone no matter how old or settled in life one is.

“I’m not a goer,” Mrs. Withers said. “I like my nest, my ‘mesta’ (the Ukrainian word for ‘nest’ or ‘place’). I didn’t want to leave my mesta. My home was my mesta. But God enabled me to do it, and the more I did it, the more he enabled me and the more his grace grew, and (Ukraine) became my mesta.”

ATHENS—An East Texas pastor who proposed a process to change how the Baptist General Convention of Texas handles messenger-seating challenges plans to bring up the issue again at the convention’s annual meeting in McAllen, Nov. 8-9.

Kyle Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Athens, made a motion at last year’s meeting to amend the BGGT bylaws to create a process to deal with messenger-seating challenges in advance of the annual meeting.

His recommendation was referred to the BGCT Executive Board, and the board created an ad hoc study committee chaired by Bob Fowler of Houston. When the study committee brought its recommendation to the board’s Sept. 28 meeting, the Executive Board overwhelmingly rejected it.

“I was disappointed with the lack of action by the Executive Board and intend on making a renewed motion at the annual meeting this year and resisting any effort for it to be referred back to the Executive Board,” Henderson said.

Proposed changes

Henderson’s proposed bylaws revision would have required any messenger who wanted to challenge the seating of another messenger to make “a good faith effort” to contact that messenger’s church at least 18 days before the annual meeting.

He further proposed that a statement of intent to challenge seating be presented to the BGCT credentials committee at least one week prior to the meeting.

According to Henderson’s proposal, the credentials committee would have to await an official vote of the church whose messenger was challenged before bringing a report to the convention floor to seat or unseat anyone.

The study committee presented a modified proposal, because it felt Henderson’s recommended process would have mandated a church respond to allegations made by any messenger, Fowler told the Executive Board.

The committee’s recommendation said, in part: “Any messenger intending to challenge the seating of another messenger should verify the grounds upon which such a challenge is being made. At least two weeks in advance of the convening of a meeting of the convention, the challenging messenger should present the challenge to the Committee on Credentials, including steps taken to verify the basis of the challenge. …”

The committee’s proposal also allowed for challenges to be presented to the credentials committee any time prior to its report to the annual meeting, but it said “adequate time should be afforded the committee to consider a challenge, including time to communicate with the challenged messenger and the messenger’s church and to permit an appropriate response to be received.”

Bylaw questions

When the board discussed the study committee recommendation, Van Christian, pastor of First Baptist Church of Comanche, noted his appreciation for the original intent of the proposal, but he asserted the recommendation from the committee would have violated the BGCT constitution and bylaws.

The only requirement for a messenger is that he or she be duly elected by an affiliated church, and he said the proposal would have put the credentials committee in the position of determining if a church is in good standing with the convention.

In a subsequent interview, Christian elaborated on his position. He pointed specifically to the language of the constitution saying the convention in session is composed of “messengers elected by Baptist churches that shall voluntarily cooperate with the convention.”

The bylaws—which indicate the terms “supportive,” “cooperating” and “affiliated” are interchangeable in the governing documents—stipulate two criteria for affiliation. If a church “identifies itself with, aligns itself with, and endorses, generally, the purposes and work of the convention” and if it is otherwise eligible to send messengers, then the church is affiliated with the BGCT.

Bylaws also spell out the duties of the credentials committee as being “responsible for verifying credentials of prospective messengers, enrolling messengers, for investigating any contention arising out of the enrollment of messengers, and for reporting its findings to the convention.”

Christian objected because he believed the motion the board considered granted more authority to the credentials committee than is permitted in the convention’s governing documents.

“The point I made at the Executive Board session,” he said, “was that according to these statements, the only thing that the credentials committee can verify is that a messenger is a member of, and has been duly elected by, a church voluntarily cooperating with the convention and has presented the appropriate credentials at the meeting. Any contention arising out of prospective messengers can only be investigated by the credentials committee to this extent.

“Questions as to the determination of the relationship of a church to the convention based on other matters, and the determination of whether such church is in cooperation with the convention, must be addressed by the convention in annual meeting or by the executive board in interim, as has been our history.

“The proposed document gave the authority to the credentials committee to make such a determination and report to the convention. I cannot see how any reading of the constitution and bylaws could grant them such authority.”

Fowler, an attorney and member of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, agreed the credentials committee’s job is limited to determining that every prospective messenger was duly elected by a BGCT-affiliated church—not determining whether a congregation should qualify as affiliated, he said.

“I think that Robert’s Rules, at least, permit any messenger to challenge the seating of any other messenger. However, a reading of our governance documents, as they were revised and restated less than 10 years ago, would seem to support Van’s interpretation of the limited criteria necessary to send valid messengers to the annual meeting.

“Does that mean that Kyle’s assertion that BGCT’s processes and procedures permit any messenger to challenge the seating of any other messenger? I think Kyle is right, at least from a historical Texas Baptist tradition, although the current constitutional and bylaw provisions might bode otherwise.”

Fowler sees both the original recommendation and the committee’s proposal as conflicting with the BGCT constitution and bylaws. The credentials committee “does not exist to be an arbiter of church affiliation qualifications.” he said.

“Therefore, I have become persuaded that Kyle Henderson’s and my own committee’s recommendations each go down the wrong path under our governance documents. They each could have the unfortunate result of stirring up challenges on doctrinal and church practice issues that are better left to the governing bodies as a part of orderly consideration,” he said.

Both the original proposal and the study committee recommendation “were honestly seeking to improve the fairness of a process that perhaps should not really exist,” Fowler concluded.

Biblical process

Henderson emphasized he wants to improve the tone of business at BGCT annual meetings, as well as making sure the state convention follows biblical procedures when conflicts arise. He noted he chairs a committee that is recommending significant changes in the BGCT annual meeting format to increase participation.

“This process will be undermined if we do not change some of the basics of our meeting. It has to get less political, less adversarial and more Christlike,” he said.

The motion he presented at last year’s annual meeting essentially follows the teaching of Jesus recorded in Matthew 18 in regard to conflict resolution among Christians, he insisted.

“It says go individually first, then with others, and only then take the grievance to the large group. Our process of challenging messengers at the annual meeting is not biblical, it is not kind, and it is divisive. Requiring someone to give notice before challenging another church’s messengers is polite, at the very least,” he said.

“It is not in conflict with our bylaws, but even if it were, when the ways of Jesus are at odds with our rules, then our rules should change. We can’t blame our rules. We make the rules.”

Speaking from experience

Henderson noted he and the other pastors involved in crafting the original proposal last year examined the minutes of five annual meetings when the BGCT voted not to seat messengers. On at least one occasion, a messenger recommended a change to the messenger-challenge process, he added.

Speaking from personal experience, Henderson recalled serving on the credentials committee several years ago.

“We were told people were planning to challenge the seating of messengers from a church. The people were never identified. The committee prepared for a coming anonymous storm,” he said.

“Last year, the credentials committee was told that a churches’ messengers would be challenged, though they were never told who would make the challenge. The committee formulated a response plan of action. This is already our process.”

Concern last year focused on Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth . The Southern Baptist Convention had severed ties with the church on the basis of its perceived acceptance of homosexual members.

Broadway Baptist decided just prior to the 2009 BGCT annual meeting not to send messengers, rather than risk a challenge. Last month, the church voted to approve a statement indicating it was severing its relationship with the BGCT.

Henderson insisted he couldn’t understand why his motion, which mandated a church respond to allegations made by any messenger, was considered inappropriate.

“Our process and procedures allow any messenger to challenge any church’s messengers. This is already in place,” he said.

“What my motion does is take appropriate steps to ensure any challenge to messengers would be given to that church before the annual meeting so that the church had opportunity to hear the charges against them and have opportunity to respond. Our ecclesiology indicates that only a church can speak for a church—a pastor does not, the deacon chairman does not. We do not elect delegates; we elect messengers. Therefore, the only authorized body to solve a charge leveled at a church is the church voting in business session. Its messy, but it is what makes us Baptist.”

Under the current system, any messenger could be recognized at a microphone at the annual meeting and challenge the messengers from any church, he added. The matter would then be referred to the credentials committee.

The committee “would have to make their recommendation without consulting the church that is being challenged. This is a clear violation of our core beliefs about the authority of the church,” he said.

“As the process stands now we have to work with hearsay and accusations, not deliberative information and truth. My motion would change the process, protect churches from unwarranted and unfounded accusations, mirror the Jesus model of conflict resolution, and take our inner debates off the front page of the paper when we try to deliberate in public what can only be solved in private.”

MCALLEN—Texas Baptists will gather in the lower Rio Grande Valley for the first time for their annual meeting Nov. 8-10, spreading the hope of Christ throughout the region, as well as being encouraged and empowered to share the gospel when they return home.

In another annual meeting first, messengers to the gathering are being encouraged to participate in local mission projects ranging from feeding hungry children to providing books for children in the region, as well as exploring service opportunities and extended partnership possibilities.

The efforts give Texas Baptists an opportunity to live out the meeting’s theme, “Spreading Hope,” Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Randel Everett said.

By partnering with churches throughout the Rio Grande Valley, Baptists from across the state can help strengthen existing ministries that have a long-term impact in the area.

“The Rio Grande Valley is one of the most exciting and challenging areas of Texas,” Everett said. “Texas Hope 2010 was launched here in September of 2008, and now we have re-turned here to kick off Hope 1:8.”

Messengers will celebrate how God worked through Texas Baptists in Texas Hope 2010, an effort to share the hope of Christ with every Texan by Easter 2010 and alleviate hunger in the state.

Through the initiative, Texas Baptists shared more than 860,000 multimedia gospel compact discs, increased efforts to feed people in need and raised a record amount of more than $1.5 million for hungry people worldwide through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger.

Building upon the momentum of Texas Hope 2010, convention leaders hope to encourage every Texas Baptist to be involved in Hope 1:8, an effort based upon Christ’s command in Acts 1:8 that his followers will be his witnesses throughout the world. Organizers are seeking to help each Texas Baptist understand he or she is a missionary, whether locally, in another city, in another nation or in another country.

To help accomplish that goal, annual meeting messengers will consider a total budget of $48 million, including anticipated income from investments, Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions, to Texas Baptist worldwide mission efforts and giving to missions through the Cooperative Program, the primary giving channel for Texas Baptists. Convention leaders anticipate $35.85 million will be given through the Texas Baptist Cooperative Program in 2011.

The budget aids Texas Baptists in sharing the gospel throughout the state and around the world through churches, health care systems, aging care facilities and child care institutions. It helps congregations start congregations, assists churches in feeding the hungry and undergirds mission and evangelism efforts.

Messengers also will consider a motion that would change the planning and execution of future annual meetings, affecting their schedules, locations and focus.

Convention officers also will be elected during the meeting. Candidates who have announced they will be nominated during the meeting are Victor Rodriguez, pastor of South San Filadelfia Baptist Church in San Antonio, for president; Jerry Carlisle, pastor of First Baptist Church in Plano, for first vice president; Ed Jackson, member of First Baptist Church in Garland, for second vice president; and Sylvia DeLoach, member of First Baptist Church in Richardson, for second vice president.