BUA reception slated. The Baptist University of the Américas’ alumni and friends reception at the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in McAllen, Fiesta Con BUA, will be Nov. 9, 9-10:30 p.m. in Ballroom A-D of the McAllen Convention Center.  For more information, contact Rhoda Vance at (210) 298-3165 or rvance@bua.edu

Buckner at work in Sierra Leone & India. Buckner International has established official nongovernmental organizations in Sierra Leone and India. Buckner Sierra Leone is led by Alfred Sima Kargbo and works in collaboration with the Global Connections Partnership Network. The organization currently is recruiting board members and beginning its work in the west, with plans to expand over the next two years. First Baptist Church in Arlington is helping support this program, focusing on foster care and kinship care for orphans, rehabilitation and vocational programs. Buckner India is led by country representative and social worker Anthony Praveen Gaddaren and board director Ananda Reddy in Hyderabad, India.

TBM rally focuses on ‘God’s activity.’ The annual Texas Baptist Men rally will be held at 6:30 p.m., Nov. 7, at Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen. The rally will feature reports on “God’s activity” through TBM ministries, organizers noted. A light meal will be provided, but reservations are requested. Call (214) 828-5356 or e-mail cathy.lawrence@texasbaptistmen.org.

Workshops focus on Acts 1:8. In line with Texas Baptists’ Hope 1:8 emphasis, breakout sessions during the Baptist General Convention of Texas will feature Bible studies based on different aspects of Acts 1:8. Conference leaders are Jim Denison, BGCT theologian-in-residence and president of the Center for Informed Faith; Joel Gregory, professor of preaching at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary; and Ellis Orozco, pastor of First Baptist Church in Richardson.

Estate gift funds ETBU nursing scholarships. East Texas Baptist University and its School of Nursing received a $500,000 gift from the estate of  Frances Louise “Peggy” Nehls for scholarships.

Crystal Cathedral in financial trouble. The Crystal Cathedral, the gleaming Southern California megachurch known for its Hour of Power television broadcast, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors. Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman said the decision came after some creditors chose to file lawsuits against the ministry. Church officials cited the economy as the main cause for its financial trouble. Revenue dropped 27 percent, to about $22 million, in 2009. In the last year, its staff was reduced by 140 and now totals about 200 people. The church owes creditors $7.5 million, said spokesman John Charles, including the vendor who provided camels, sheep and horses for its annual “Glory of Christmas” pageant. Also unpaid are expenses for television equipment and bills for airtime on some TV stations.

Some large religious charities fare better than other nonprofits. Several of the nation’s largest religious charities reported increases in private support as nonprofits overall saw decreases in donations last year, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported. Feed the Children, which ranked fifth in the annual Philanthropy 400, had a 1.2 percent increase in private support, which totaled $1.19 billion. World Vision saw a 4.5 percent increase in its private support, which totaled $870 million, giving it the No. 9 rank on the list. Catholic Charities USA was ranked third, with a 66 percent increase from the previous year—a figure the social service organization has questioned. According to the publication, Catholic Charities’ private support totaled $1.28 billion. Overall, donations to the country’s largest charities dropped by 11 percent last year. The Salvation Army, which ranked second, saw a decrease of 8.4 percent in its private support, which totaled $1.7 billion. The publication bases its rankings on charities’ reports of cash and other gifts received from private sources.

Canadian judges will decide on veiled witnesses. Ontario’s highest court has ruled female witnesses may testify in court while wearing a face-covering burqa or niqab, but such decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis by the presiding judge. In a 3-0 ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that witnesses’ right to freedom of religion must be balanced with the right of the accused to a fair trial and the right to face their accuser. The court effectively overturned a lower court’s order that required a Muslim woman to remove her niqab while testifying at the trial of two male relatives accused of sexually assaulting her. The high court said the woman should have been allowed to explain why her religious beliefs compel her to wear the niqab and to demonstrate the sincerity of those beliefs. But the court agreed the accused’s rights could be compromised if the woman’s facial expressions and demeanor could not be scrutinized while she gave evidence. The court stressed requests to have witnesses remove their veils must be considered on a case-by-case basis, because the subject does not lend itself to any clearly defined rules.

—Compiled from Religion News Service

• Children’s Mission Involvement Day will be held Nov. 6 at the Texas Port Ministry in Freeport. Bobby Fuller, the ministry’s director, will speak to children about the ministry and how they can be involved in shipping the Good News around the world. Children will help put together Christmas gifts for international seafarers, truckers and port workers to be delivered by Texas Port Ministry volunteers during December. There is no cost to participate. For more information, call (979) 233-5641.

• Rhonda Furr, professor of music at Houston Baptist University and organist at First Presbyterian Church in Houston, will be the featured organist Dec. 3 at noon for the university’s recital series.

• Baylor University presented its Meritorious Achievement Awards to 10 recipients during homecoming festivities. The Pro Ecclesia Medal for Christian Service was presented to Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Emeritus Bill Pinson. He served from 1983 to 2000 as BGCT executive director, the longest tenure of anyone in that position. The Pro Texana Medal for Civil Service was presented to State Sen. Kirk Watson. He is a 1980 graduate of the university and a 1981 gradutate of the Baylor Law School. Cary Gray was named alumnus of the year, and Katie Kilpatrick was tapped as young alumna of the year. Gray, who has three Baylor degrees, is a lawyer in Houston. Kilpatrick and her husband, Ben, have taught in a Christian school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, since December 2009. Founders Medal recipients were Charles and Mary Alice Wise. He served as a regent from 1993 to 2002, and they have established several endowed scholarships at Baylor. They have spent 40 years volunteering in prison ministry, including 16 years focusing on women on Death Row. They are members of Trinity Church in Gatesville. Receiving the school’s Legacy Medallion were Sadie Jo Black, Sue Getterman, Harold Riley and Clifton Robinson. Black, a 1950 graduate, taught at the university 35 years as an assistant professor of home economics. She has established numerous endowments to the university. She is a member of First Church in Waco. Getterman served on the university’s board of regents from 2001 through 2010. She and her husband, Ted, are credited with the largest gift to Baylor women’s athletics in the school’s history and have supported many capital projects and established several scholarships. She is a member of Columbus Avenue Church in Waco. Riley, a football letterman who played on the 1952 Orange Bowl team, and his wife, Dottie, established a permanent endowment for the sports chaplaincy program. They are members of Hyde Park Church in Austin. Robinson’s contributions include the Clifton Robinson Tower that houses hundreds of the university’s staff. The Robinsons also have endowed several scholarships. In 2003, he created Friends of Baylor, which donated $1 million to the university.

• Mallory Harrell of Houston and Zach Standley of Spring received East Texas Baptist University’s Bob and Gayle Riley Servant Leadership Awards. Each received a miniature replica of Max Greiner’s sculpture of Jesus washing the feet of Simon Peter and a cash award of $1,000. From that amount, they each donated $250 to a charity of their choice.

• Dallas Baptist University presented honorary doctor of humanities degrees to Andy and Joan Horner, co-founders of Premier Designs, during the school’s fall convocation service. The Horners have established the Joan Horner International Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Andy Horner Endowed Scholarship Fund at DBU, where she is a member of the board of trustees. DBU’s newest building, which houses communication and music business programs, has been named in their honor. They are members of First Church in Dallas.

• Howard Payne University President Bill Ellis attended the Oxford Conclave on Higher Education. He was one of six university presidents from the United States invited to attend the conference.

• Brent Davison has been named vice president for development at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

• Hardin-Simmons University President Lanny Hall has received the Friend of Education Award by the Consortium of State Organizations for Texas Teacher Education.

Ordained

• Garrett Vickrey, to the ministry, at Royal Lane Church in Dallas. He is a pastoral resident at Wilshire Church in Dallas.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (ABP) — A state appellate court in California has dismissed a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs including a former Southern Baptist Convention officer claiming that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and therefore is not eligible to occupy the White House.

California's Third District Court of Appeals threw the lawsuit out Oct. 25, ruling that election officials are not required to erase doubts about Obama's eligibility among individuals who have come to be known as "birthers."

Wiley Drake

Retired Presiding Justice Arthur Scotland, sitting by assignment, said determining the eligibility of a presidential candidate is the responsibility of party officials and Congress and not California's Secretary of State.

The court said plaintiffs Alan Keyes, Wiley Drake and Markham Robinson failed to prove that a lower court erred in finding that Secretary of State Debra Bowen had a duty to administer a legal election but not to investigate whether nominees of political parties are eligible.

"Any investigation of eligibility is best left to each party, which presumably will conduct the appropriate background check or risk that its nominee's election will be derailed by an objection in Congress, which is authorized to entertain and resolve the validity of objections following the submission of the electoral votes," Scotland wrote in the court's opinion.

Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., served as second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006-2007. He was Keyes' vice presidential running mate on the California ballot in the 2008 presidential election. Both were nominated by the state's American Independent Party. Markham was the party chairman.

The trio had asked the appeals court to order the Secretary of State to verify the "constitutionally required qualifications of Obama, and any and all future candidates" for president. To do otherwise, they argued, "not only allows, but promotes, an overwhelming degree of disrespect for our Constitution and for our electoral process, and creates such a lack of confidence of voters in the primary and electoral process itself, that it would confirm a common belief that no politician has to obey the laws of this Country, respect our election process, or follow the United States Constitution."

Drake's attorney, Gary Kreep of the conservative advocacy group United States Justice Foundation, reportedly planned to meet with his clients to discuss whether to appeal the dismissal.

Kreep recently filed a court paper in a similar case under appeal in federal court arguing that allowing a lower court's ruling against his clients to stand would strip minorities in the U.S. of "all political power" and allow laws to be based "upon the whims of the majority" instead of the Constitution.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Previous story:

Drake's lawyer claims legal precedent for courts to remove a head of state

OSLO, Norway (ABP) — A judge in Uzbekistan refused Oct. 14 to overturn fines against five Baptists convicted of illegal worship, an international news service that specializes in religious freedom coverage reported Oct. 26.

Fines totaling roughly 10 times Uzbekistan's minimum monthly salary stemmed from what police termed an "anti-terror" raid on an unregistered congregation worshipping in a home Aug. 15 in Samarkand, the nation's second-largest city. Worshippers told Oslo-based Forum 18 that officers roughed up members of the congregation, a charge which police denied.

On Sept. 21 a judge in Samarkand Criminal Court found five Baptists guilty of violating the state's ban on teaching religious beliefs without permission of a registered religious organization. The church is part of the Baptist Council of Churches, which rejects state registration in all the former Soviet states where it operates.

Appealing the ruling Oct. 14, the Baptists argued they committed no offense by meeting "for joint prayer and worship of God" without state registration, as they did each Sunday. They referred articles in the Uzbek Constitution and religion law guaranteeing freedom of conscience.

The court rejected the appeal, ordering that religious literature confiscated during the raid be turned over to the state state's Religious Affairs Committee.

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.”