Direct benefit

Please tell me I misread in “Ten traits to teach today’s ministers” (July 27 ) that “Texas Baptists benefit directly from three—Baptist University of the Americas, Logsdon Seminary at Hardin-Simmons University and Truett Seminary at Baylor University”—seminaries.

I have attended every state convention since becoming a Texas Baptist in 2001. I am involved in Texas Hope 2010. The church I pastor has supported the Baptist General Convention of Texas through its budget for 55 years. And I am a 2003 graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary-Houston.

I am sure I am not the only graduate from SWBTS who has chosen to pastor a BGCT-affiliated church. It seems to me Texas Baptists have benefited quite a bit, even recently, from SWBTS. When will SWBTS and its graduates stop being pushed aside and counted as insignificant by the Baptist Standard and other BGCT leadership.

I thought this would end with the departure of Charles Wade. I guess I was wrong.

Clay Bowers

Houston

Baylor and alumni

For 150 years, loyal alumni of Baylor University have given sacrificially to support the institution they loved.

To learn that the Alumni Association’s voluntary connections to the university—telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, website unity—have been severed due to university mandate is at best disappointing and at worst offensive. The Alumni Association initiated collection of alumni contact data years ago—long before the advent of e-mail addresses and cellular phone numbers and the university’s recognition of the value of such information. Baylor University has benefited well from the services performed by its Alumni Association, but that matters little to those now in power who have consumed the Alumni Association’s database and wish to control its independent voice.

When the university seeks to silence the association—historically Baylor’s loyal supporter from attacks without and Baylor’s loyal opposition from attacks within—concerned and engaged alumni and Baylorites everywhere should rise up and demand answers from those directing these decisions from their armchairs and comfortable corporate quarters.

Some suggest certain members of the board of regents are directly responsible for this decision. That, too, merits consideration—and action. As one who once pledged “Anything for Baylor” and who always expected his three sons would one day be students there, I confess I would never recommend they—nor anyone seeking my advice—attend that institution until the board of regents’ house has been cleaned. Nor would I send any money in that direction.

Fred Norton Jr.

Past president, Baylor Alumni Association

Texarkana

Unkind cut?

Americans are appalled by female circumcision elsewhere but less disturbed by male circumcision here.

Infant circumcision is not recommended by any national medical association.

Some Christians mistakenly think that because the Bible mentions circumcision, they should circumcise. The Council of Jerusalem determined Christians have no religious requirement for circumcision (Acts 15:1-10). The Apostle Paul repeatedly warned against circumcision.

Most U.S. circumcisions are done for cultural reasons or because of medical misinformation. The U.S. circumcision rate has declined to 56 percent but remains a painful reality for too many babies.

God designed the human body perfectly.

As Christians learn more about circumcision, they protect their sons from the sexual losses and harms resulting from it. See www.icgi.org/birth_care_providers.htm.

Petrina Fadel

Groton, N.Y.

The fear of violence that has left Juarez with the bloodiest month since the Mexican revolution in 1911 is beginning to spill over into El Paso.

Will the hope of Christ that El Paso churches are sharing through Texas Hope 2010 spill over into Juarez?

Two hundred forty-four people were killed in Juarez last month, bringing the total to 2,800 who have been killed since the government began its attempt to seize control from the drug cartels. Some of the Christian leaders have described the situation as darkness covering the city of 2 million.

A recent article in the Dallas Morning News reported, “The best-selling CD (in Juarez) is a rap song called ‘Delinquent,’ followed by a folk song, glorifying the hit men for the Juarez cartel.”

El Paso Baptist Association has another message to share. Last week, the first 250,000 CDs that have been prepared to share the hope of Christ throughout Texas arrived in El Paso. The El Paso director of missions, Joseph Christopherson, said all of the CDs have been picked up from the distribution center by the ZIP-code captains and are ready for distribution by the churches.

El Paso is the first region in Texas using the new bilingual (English and Spanish) Texas Hope 2010 CD. Churches will place one of these in every household in the county, either by going door-to-door or by mail. The multimedia CD is the result of a partnership between the BGCT and Faith Comes by Hearing.

This tool will help us share the hope of Christ with everyone in Texas in their own heart language. A copy of the Texas Hope 2010 multimedia CD will be mailed to every BGCT pastor. Even the packaging for the CD invites people to find hope in Christ. A number is listed for seekers to call 1-888-NEEDHIM and speak with a person trained to share how they can give their hearts to Christ.

The CD includes six testimonies about real people from our Texas Baptist churches whose lives were hopeless until they found hope in Christ. It also includes a dramatic reading of the Gospel of John and a website where the entire New Testament can be downloaded for free in any of 377 languages.

Another aspect of the CD is a website, www.WhatsMissingTexas.com, or for the Spanish version, www.QueteFaltaTexas.com. This site houses all the videos on the CD, plus a sample of an ad created to run in movie theaters. This site was established to help people share Christ’s message of hope online.

The Juarez Baptist churches want to use these CDs to share this good news of Christ in their city. Other evangelical churches there and some of our ministry partners have expressed an interest in helping our neighbors receive this message of hope.

All Texas Baptist churches should be praying for this evangelistic effort in El Paso.

We also should be praying about a way to get these CDs into every home in our communities.

U.S. health care is a mess. Will a trillion dollars really make any difference? Tune in after the Congress returns from its August recess to find out.

For several weeks, six key senators sat around a table drinking coffee and eating chocolate-covered potato chips, negotiating how to revamp the American health care system. The problem? More than 1,300 insurance companies insure about 80 percent of the population. That leaves more than 40 million folks uninsured.

The president somehow thinks that dumping in tons of cash will fix the system. But here’s a news flash: Too often it doesn’t matter if you have insurance.

As anyone who has dealt with passive-aggressive insurance providers can tell you, the quality of care is often unrelated to the type of coverage you buy. Even if you are “covered,” the name of the insurance game is “delay, deny, delay.”

A century of insurance industry growth has changed a not-for-profit charity enterprise into a mega-industry. The insurance concept is good: We all put some money into the pot; if and when we need it, we take some out. But the road from concept to execution is now paved with gold.

What happened? Well, for one, there’s old-fashioned greed, which seems to have replaced the heart of health care. The staggering profits of insurance companies, combined with their unwillingness to pay, are, quite simply, sinful.

What to do? A specific contrast comes to mind.

As the 20th century beckoned in New York City, a young nurse named Lillian Wald founded what came to be the Henry Street Settlement and, later, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. This now-huge operation provides home nursing care throughout the metropolitan region.

Dear Lillian would have to wait a long time to send a nurse to your door these days. Sometimes—too many times—the system fails. Fax this form. Make this call. What is the code? Where is the referral? Bottom line: No money, no service.

In the early 19th century, a Catholic woman named Jeanne Jugan brought an ill and elderly woman home and put her in her own bed. Other women joined her ministry. Now, 2,700 members of the order she founded, the Little Sisters of the Poor, provide residential care for elderly poor who have no one to care for them and nowhere to go. The nuns fund their U.S. residences through Medicaid and private donors. Bottom line: come, the sisters say, and we’ll worry about the money later.

Wald and Jugan saw similar needs. Sick people need nursing. Elderly people need assistance. Both organizations that began as non-profits continue as non-profits. Wald’s idea got caught up in the insurance behemoth; Jugan’s did not.

Which brings us back to the senators, the president and the president’s money truck. I’m all for spending money to fix a broken system, but I am not convinced money will repair the fractured machinery that keeps us from the health care we need and have already paid for.

But I am convinced the nature of caring—whether it grows from secular or religious values—is at the root of the problem. Does our society think it is necessary to pay attention to the wounds of others? Where is the profit in changing a bandage? What is that value of feeding an old person?

That, my friends, is the bottom line. We look for “value” and “profit” in too many places these days. Not-for-profit health care organizations are being squeezed by insurance companies. The first step to fiscal recovery? Health insurance should be a not-for-profit enterprise. Until it is, U.S. health care will remain the mess that it is.

Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University. Her column is distributed by Religion News Service.

As part of “Salmon Frenzy” in Kenai, Alaska, we helped fishermen for three weeks during dip-net season. While I was there, I noticed that Alaskan culture is quite different than the southern culture. People are more stand-offish.

When Brenda, our supervisor, told us not to bring up spiritual conversation with the fishermen, I was a bit taken aback. I thought that was why we were there. She asked that we do everything we could to serve them and love them.

For Go Now missionary Abby Wood, servant leadership included sanitizing portable toilets for fisherman in Alaska.

So, that’s what we did. We didn’t say who we were or why we were there, other than to help them catch their fish. People were blown away. They would not stop asking us, “Why are you here?” Over and over again, the doors opened for us to talk about the love of God through Jesus. But instead of going at it with an agenda, the conversation was on their terms. They asked the questions and we simply answered. 

One day, as I walked down the beach, I saw five guys sitting around a campfire. I began a conversation with them and offered them hot dogs and water. 

Thomasine, a native Alaskan Christian, worked closely with the Go Now Missions team on the “Salmon Frenzy” outreach. Student missionary Abby Wood, bids farewell to Thomasine and her daughters, Elsa and Alyssa.

Two of them, Matthew and David, walked with us to the tent and got some water. They were probably in their early 20s. Matthew kept asking me: “Who is paying for this? Are you taking donations? Why did you come all the way from Texas to do this?”

I got to tell him that God showed his love to me by giving his son, Jesus. I told him that my life is changed at the realization of God’s love. He asked me if I paid to come. I told him how God took care of it by using other people who also realize his love.

We hung out with Matthew for a couple of hours, talking and playing ultimate Frisbee. Later, we played praise and worship music and listened to testimonies in our tent. Matthew came to watch me sing and stayed for a while. Pray for Matthew that God would bring him to a realization of his grace.

Abby Wood and two other members of the “Salmon Outreach” missions team lead praise and worship in a tent on the beach in Alaska. In the audience is Matthew, a young man the team met at a campfire.

Abby Wood, a student at Howard Payne University, served as a Go Now Missionary in Alaska.

Our paths continued to cross on the campus. Our conversations would consist of nothing but: “Hey! How are you?” On one of our meetings, I brought up the Bible once again, and his response remained the same. As we parted, I said one silent prayer, “God, please change his heart about your word.

”During the course of the next few days, he heard the testimonies of several locals. I then received a call from him, asking me if we could meet to talk about something. We arranged to have lunch for the next day, and he began to pour out his heart. He told me the testimonies that he heard changed his heart, and that he wanted to learn more about the Bible. So, I gave him a Bible, and we began to study it together.

I found out he was not a Christian. But now, he is a baptized believer. He reads his Bible every day and is learning more every time he reads. He knows how to witness and can share with his family back in his hometown.

It is amazing what God can do with a simple prayer. We may think that one prayer is not sufficient, but a prayer that is prayed in faith, can move mountains. And a mountain was moved in a student’s life this summer.

Chris, a student at Tarleton State University, served in East Asia campus outreach with Go Now Missions . His last name is withheld for security reasons.

 

It really isn’t a question about the people’s hearts. The people of the Northwest are so nice. They are warm-hearted and love where they are.
It is more of a question of importance. What is more important?



We are teaching kids in Vacation Bible School about Peter, a disciple of Christ. In the beginning, Peter was a normal, uneducated fisherman. Day in and day out, he mended his nets in preparation for another catch. He was married with a successful business and loving family members.
And then one day, Jesus showed up on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. There may have been more said that day, but all we know is that Jesus asked him to stop his routine. Quit his projects. Leave his father and business and come.
It was that simple. There wasn’t planning. No need for closure. Just come.
 And he did.


So, when we drive to church on Sunday and see fishermen along the river, my heart hurts for them.
They are missing it.
They are missing the blessing of fellowship, praise and worship to the God who really matters.
They are missing hope, love and forgiveness.


“Don’t think,” I whisper to them. “Just come. Drop your nets. Leave your lives, and come worship the One who carved out the river you so desperately love. Come and worship our King.”



Katherine Jaynes, a student at Texas A&M University, is serving with Go Now Missions in Columbia Basin, Washington.

We led weeklong Backyard Bible Clubs at a church member’s house that is close to a popular apartment complex and were kind of disappointed when only one family came.

However, God showed that he is in control. All three adults in that family accepted Christ. They have opened their home for an adult Bible study, and now we can bring the Backyard Bible Club right to the kids.  

We have done two clubs so far and have had several kids come to Christ. It is amazing to see the joy on their faces when they realize that we would come just to spend time with them. God has shown me that his plan is always better than ours, and that if we trust him, amazing things are possible.

Lisa Whitfield, a student at Howard Payne University, is serving this summer with Go Now Missions at the Freehold Lighthouse to Latinos in New Jersey.

I had been praying for a couple of weeks for one of the international students at my school who was on the verge of accepting Jesus into his heart. There wasn’t anything else that my friend, Audri, or I could say to him. It was truly left to God.

Finally, Divahar, the international student, accepted Jesus into his heart. When I talked to Divahar not long after he made his commitment to Christ, he shared with me how he was so excited to see how God is going to use him and how much God has been moving in him. As I listened to him, I could hear the love that he has for Jesus and I wondered when the last time was that I was that passionate about God.

When was the last time that I talked about God like that? When was the last time that I sounded like I was truly in love with God? God really spoke to me, and it made me realize how far I slipped away from him and how much I need him. I was reminded of how much God gives to me, and all he ever asks of me is to love him—with all my heart, all my mind, all my strength, and all my soul for all of the days of my life. And that is what I desire. I desire to love him with everything I am and to serve him with all that I have.

Kyrstin Mills, a student at Midwestern State University, is serving with Mission Arlington through Go Now Missions.

Just like so much of life these days, the way we train ministers is changing. This trend is vital, because even though Baptists affirm the priesthood of all believers, pastors’ and staff ministers’ influence is inversely proportional to their actual numbers. An exceptional minister cannot single-handedly build a great church, but he or she can impact hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. And a poor minister can bring a church to its knees and ruin its influence.

This issue of the Standard carries a cover package about creative new approaches to ministerial training. They supplement outstanding training provided by traditional Baptist seminaries and theology schools. Texas Baptists benefit directly from three—Baptist University of the Americas, Logsdon Seminary at Hardin-Simmons University and Truett Seminary at Baylor University.

With due respect to all these programs, here are 10 skills seminaries need to emphasize. Churches also need to support these skills with opportunities for lifelong continuing education. Most seminary graduates do a passable job of interpreting Scripture, preaching and/or operating church programs. But a vast majority of church travail traced to ministers involves failure touching on one or more of these skills:

• Spiritual discipline. Seminary students spend so much time handling the sacred it can seem mundane. The same is true in ministry. So, a life of prayer and devotional Scripture reading is vital. Ministers can’t survive without this.

• Communication. A huge number of church challenges stem from poor communication. Pastors and staff must be able to present ideas and vision and even basic information clearly. The often-overlooked key is learning to listen.

• Team-building. A church is an army of volunteers. Success often hinges on enabling members to pull together in the same direction. An equally important corollary of this skill is learning to motivate with integrity, not manipulation.

• Conflict mediation. Churches are going to experience conflict until “the roll is called up yonder.” Ironically, conflict can be a catalyst for many valuable developments, such as learning from one another, clarifying goals and expectations, healing old wounds and finding common ground. Unfortunately, many pastors waste these opportunities by either pretending conflict doesn’t exist and allowing it to fester or escalating the conflict into win-lose scenarios that damage their ministries and hurt their churches.

• Transparency and vulnerability. Pastors quickly learn to mask their weaknesses, because some church members will exploit them. But this skill set can strengthen and empower church members by enabling them to identify with and learn from their ministers’ struggles.

• Healthy families. Here’s a strength that becomes a weakness: Ministers are so committed to the church they sacrifice their families. Then, when their marriages corrode or their families crumble, everyone loses. Ministers’ families must come first, before church, just as marriage preceded the church.

• Financial management. Many—most?—churches should do better at compensating their staff. But in this materialistic, consumeristic age, ministers must exercise financial discipline and teach values by the way they conduct their personal business.

• Basic planning. How can you get where you’re going if you don’t know the way? We need pastors who can lead, and it starts with the ability to conceive and execute plans.

• Healthy lifestyles. This is important on multiple levels. Like everyone else’s, ministers’ bodies are the temple of God. Ministers perform best when they’re healthy. And church members need to see the example of fit ministers.

• Humble courage. Maybe neither of these traits can be taught, but they are essential. Both arrogant tyranny and passive cowardice ruin churches.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard. Visit his FaithWorks Blog.

I defeated my fear of spiders years ago—in 1973, if memory serves me correctly. That was the second summer I worked for Clarence, a carpenter, friend and fellow member of our church.

Up in the far northern Texas Panhandle, most houses sit on pier-and-beam foundations. They rest about 18 inches above the ground on wooden frames that are mounted on concrete posts. As the weather changes, the ground under the houses shifts, and the houses get out of line.

So, Clarence and I spent a good bit of that summer crawling underneath people’s homes. I used a hydraulic jack to lift the beams, and Clarence tapped wooden shims in the space between the beams and the piers. Folks all over Perryton got level homes that summer.

And I got over my fear of spiders, who just love to crawl around under Panhandle houses.

What I am scared of is heights. Maybe Clarence and I should’ve built skyscrapers, and I could’ve scaled my fear of heights.

Turns out, I also must be a little bit scared of water. In mid-July, Joanna and I spent a long weekend at Lake Granbury with our girls and their guys—Lindsay and her husband, Aaron, and Molly and her boyfriend, David.

Now, I never really thought about being afraid of water, since we frolic at the beach almost every summer. But, apparently, I am.

On Saturday morning, David and I went out riding the jet skis. I was nervous. Not because I was scared of drowning, but because I didn’t really know how to operate a jet ski, and I was afraid of revealing all of my doofusness to the rising generation of young Texans.

Well, I got the thing started and eventually felt comfortable at the controls. Before long, I was tearing down the middle of the lake, the wind streaming through my … well … the wind streaming around my head.

For some reason, I decided to turn sharply to my left, and the jet ski sort of cut into the water, and I found myself leaning sharply into the wake, which now was on the side of my jet ski.

For a second, I experienced a clear and present fear: “You’re the King of Doofuses. You’re about to turn this jet ski over on top of yourself. And you might swallow so much water, you’ll drown with a life vest on. Doofus.”

So, I let off the gas.

Jet skis stop really, really fast when you let off the gas. And when you’re cutting a tight turn, the front stops immediately, and the back keeps on spinning, completing the circle. Water sprays all over you.

And then you thank God—from whom all blessings flow—for water and jet skis and speed and even that little twinge of fear that caused you to discover the thrill of cutting 360s in the middle of the lake. I may be a scaredy-cat doofus, but I’m a grateful scaredy-cat doofus.

How can I teach my children to be more earth-friendly?

The question itself takes a great step toward your children’s commitment to be more earth-friendly. If parents model appreciation for the world’s condition, our children will notice. That having been said, how can we intentionally pass along to our children our environmental commitment? The best source for this answer comes from my “green” daughter. My wife, Laurie, and I admire Katherine’s loyalty to God’s creation. As a recent college graduate, she exhibits as much devotion to God’s earth as any individual I know. What were her impressionable moments during her growing years? She remembers five simple, but profound, actions in our family:

• Recycle. Seeing the recycling bin on the curb every pick-up day and returning plastic bags to the grocery store revealed in her early years that we could do better than shift trash from our cans to a dumpsite. Today, she understands those dumps are not bottomless pits.

• Travel. Mission trips to less-developed countries revealed the evils of our wastefulness as compared to the need of others’ frugality. Witnessing how our neighbors lived accentuated the surplus we have and misuse. Today, she understands our need to protect the world for them, as well as for us.

• Turn out the lights. It sounded like a simple instruction to cut electric bills to a young girl. But today, she understands it not only saves money, but it also saves the planet. The energy spent on silent wastes of electricity, such as lighting an unused room or running a clock display on an empty coffee pot, was reducing available resources for others and cluttering the environment with its excess waste.

• Dispose of your trash properly. On a trip to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the grandeur of the monument almost was overshadowed by the mounds of trash tourists had thrown on the ground below. The long wait for the ride to the top was spent picking up trash at the bottom. It seemed a futile effort at the time. But today, she understands a small action in a brief moment can make an eternal impact. A few other tourists joined the effort.

• Turn off the water. Water from the faucet was so easy to obtain, it was difficult to imagine its value when she was young. Trips to poverty-stricken countries, especially when potable water could only be found in purchased bottles, taught the value of clean water. Today, she understands the world’s pollution eventually could reduce an already-scarce water supply throughout the world and water should be treated respectfully, even through such simple acts as turning it off while brushing teeth or stopping a dripping faucet.

These small efforts may seem to be very simple in the eyes of young children, but they potentially lead to a way of life that reveals love and respect for God’s earth.

Allen Reasons, senior minister

Fifth Avenue Baptist Church

Huntington, W.Va.

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.

Homosexuality & church

“Extreme disappointment” describes my reaction to your July 13 editorial .

You implied the presence of homosexuals within Broadway Baptist Church was the cause for the Southern Baptist Convention’s action.

I would expect similar action to be taken against a congregation that condoned advocacy of gossiping, back-biting and tattling if the practitioners of such were unrepentant.

Complacency toward sin is intolerable. I would call upon the staff of Broadway to preach against the advocacy of any and all sin and not shy away from any particular sin, just because it might hurt the feelings of a group.

You mentioned the harm done by mean deacons and ministers. Such meanness is not a thing of the past. Just as we should not excuse those indefensible mean practices, neither should the leadership of any church defend or tolerate flagrant sin of any nature.

The church’s error was not their failure to root out homosexuality. Their error was in failure to take a scriptural position when the extent of homosexuality tolerance within their congregation surfaced. Loving the sinner in no way allows us to do anything but hate the sin. God does.

Let them declare to us all that they hate homosexuality; and don’t water down that statement.

Congregations are filled with women who have had abortions, practitioners of abortions, tattlers, back-bitters, gossips, and mean deacons and ministers. Their presence and our God-mandated willingness to forgive them does not require our acceptance of militant in-your-face flaunting of sin.

Paul Wrightsman

Copperas Cove

Open membership?

My friend Fisher Humphreys seems to think that among Baptists there has been a four-century history of the practice of open membership (July 13 ). Open membership is the practice of Baptist churches in which they receive into full membership, without believer’s baptism by immersion, those who have had baptism only as infants, those whose baptism was by pouring or sprinkling, or those who, claiming to be Christians, never have been baptized.

I wrote that John Bunyan made a case in 1672 for open communion and open membership “as a quasi-Baptist or Congrega-tionalist.” The Bedford church was a mixed Baptist (believer’s baptism)-Congregational (infant baptism) church and is even today. Whether Bunyan should be regarded as a Baptist has been debated for three centuries. Particular Baptists did not replicate the Bedford pattern. Some followed Bunyan’s practice of open communion; others followed William Kiffin’s strict communion.

Robert Hall Jr., a major advocate of open communion, writing in 1815, did not mention or advocate open membership. The latter practice began to be adopted by some English Baptist churches, both General and Particular, in the 19th century. Hence, Baptist open membership can be properly identified as a “modern (19th and 20th centuries) development.”

James Leo Garrett Jr.

Fort Worth

Speak up. Send letters to P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267 or marvknox@baptiststandard.com. Max is 250 words.