Fifty-seven students and one adult prayed to receive Christ during six emPOWER Rallies held across Texas in January and February, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention evangelism department reported.

The regional rallies, held in conjunction with the state emPOWER Conference held Feb. 9-10 in Arlington, drew total attendance of 3,218, including 2,168 adults. Rallies were held at Park Hills Baptist Church in San Antonio; Gardendale Baptist Church in Corpus Christ; Ridgewood Baptist Church in Port Arthur; Sherwood Baptist Church in Odessa; Lifeway Fellowship Baptist Church in Amarillo, and Exciting Emmanuel Baptist Church in El Paso.

“The regional emPOWER Rallies call laypeople and bi-vocational ministers to be involved in an exciting evangelism event that they could not attend any other way,” said Don Cass, SBTC director of evangelism. “Added to that, 58 people prayed to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. That makes these regional emPOWER Rallies worthwhile.”

The youth events included high-energy praise music from the band Rhythm and youth speaker Pat Cammarata.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.?The SBC Executive Committee, meeting in Nashville Feb. 16-17, voted 62-10 to adopt a report recommending the SBC withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance?an organization it helped start 99 years ago. In other business:

• SBC President Jack Graham said in his address to the Executive Committee Feb. 16 that he would appoint a committee to study a name change for the SBC.

• The Executive Committee on Feb. 17 voted overwhelmingly to request that New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary trustees amend the school’s charter to make the SBC the “sole member” owner of the seminary. The request involves corporate language designed to clarify ownership and came after months of disagreement between NOBTS trustees and the Executive Committee staff about legal and Baptist polity implications regarding sole membership language under Louisiana corporate statutes.BWA Action

In the BWA action, the nine-member BWA study committee alleged aberrant theology and anti-American rhetoric evident at some BWA-sponsored events in its report. Messengers to the SBC Annual Meeting this June will vote on the BWA recommendation. BWA leaders and many moderate Baptists have criticized the expected separation between the SBC and the BWA.

Executive Committee President Morris Chapman opened the discussion by reading from a BWA funding study committee report revised since its initial release in December.

“(W)e need not now justify or vilify, but can simply do what we preferred to do in the first place, which is politely withdraw from an organization that, at least for us, no longer efficiently communicates for the unsaved a crystal-clear gospel message that our Lord Jesus Christ is solely sufficient for salvation,” Chapman said.

Despite claims by critics that the SBC’s move to withdraw from the BWA is fueled by the alliance granting membership to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship?an organization that has its own missionary network led largely by Southern Baptist moderates?Chapman said it is not, citing SBC reviews of the BWA’s mission and doctrinal integrity dating to 1997.

“One soaked by rain need not blame the last raindrop,” Chapman said. “We strongly affirm the right of the BWA to determine its own membership and affiliation. It is the very right we now recommend that our convention exercise.”

Chapman noted the action “is not intended to cast aspersion upon the many godly and enthusiastically evangelical Baptist fellowships that are members of the BWA. We fully intend to continue to partner with our oldest and best friends worldwide, and to develop new and vibrant friendships and joint endeavors to reach the world for Christ.”

Chapman said the proposed withdrawal is a stewardship issue and that if the harvest is multiplied by working through new channels, “there’s no true Christian who should take issue.”

The Executive Committee’s action urges the SBC to continue seeking ways to deepen relationships with “conservative, evangelical Christians around the world” and to seek a meeting between the BWA study committee and selected BWA representatives in Nashville prior to May 1.

Nancy McGuigan, Executive Committee member from Coatesville, Pa., read a letter on behalf of the administrative committee of the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania-South Jersey, asking the SBC to seek reconciliation with the BWA, partly based on the state convention’s ethnically diverse membership and its connection with BWA member bodies.

Executive Committee member Janet Hoffman of Bernice, La, the national WMU president, also urged the Executive Committee to seek reconciliation with the BWA, while voicing admiration for her Executive Committee colleagues.

In discussing the proposed severance from BWA, Hoffman said WMU leaders’ prayers had been for unity.

“It is nevertheless true that (WMU leaders) represent grassroots churches from all the conventions too, and there are different positions that are held by those conventions, so we don’t go there,” Hoffman said.

Instead, they talk about the passion of being Great Commission Christians, she said.

“There’s a stewardship of witness here too,” Hoffman said.

Calvin Wittman, pastor of Applewood Baptist Church in Arvado, Colo., argued the action would be “a peaceful move” less divisive than remaining in the BWA, because of theological differences with the BWA’s more liberal members.

Bruce Martin, pastor of Villa

NASHVILLE, Tenn.?A name change for the Southern Baptist Convention has been proposed before, but the time is right to do it or put it to bed forever, SBC President Jack Graham said in his Feb. 16 address to the convention’s Executive Committee.

The Plano pastor, in his last address before that body as president, said he would appoint a committee “in the coming weeks representative of the convention both geographically and generationally. And it’s my prayer that this committee will be able to report back to the Southern Baptist Convention by the year 2005.”

A proposed name change has been discussed for several decades, Graham told the committee, noting that the late W.A. Criswell recommended it to the SBC Annual Meeting in 1974; it was last revisited in 1999 and voted down.

“I am so thrilled that we are committed to expanding the mission of Southern Baptists,” Graham said. “We are no longer a regional denomination. Across America, north to south and east to west and around the world, Southern Baptists are making a global impact. We are a network of churches which circle the planet. We are now kingdom focused. Empowering Kingdom Growth indicates the heart of this convention to move beyond ourselves and to advance the kingdom of God.

“It certainly is my view that now is the time to consider?seriously and prayerfully reconsider?a prayerful study of a name change for the Southern Baptist Convention, a name which will reflect who we are and what we are doing nationally and internationally.”

Graham said the Southern Baptist name has served the convention well. “But the fact is, this name that I love and you love is a name which speaks of our region and doesn’t move us beyond to the great cities of the Northeast, to the West, to the Midwest, and I believe once again it is time for us to look at the possibility of choosing ? a name which reflects our future.

“Why would we do this? Only one reason, and that is to strengthen and lengthen our witness here in America and around the world. Why would we do this? Because people are wounded, people don’t know Jesus and we are determined to do whatever it takes to connect with our culture and our country and the continents of the earth.”

“This is a season of time, a time set apart. And I believe it is time for us to take some bold steps as Southern Baptists. And I know that a name change ? will not change the hearts of people. But I believe a name change speaks to others in our cities?New York, in Los Angeles, Pacific Northwest, in Canada and around the world?of our intent to be a global, international network, convention, of churches which are determined to fulfill the mission, the passion of Jesus Christ in our day.”

Southern Baptists have always been willing to embrace change to further God’s work, Graham said.

He said a visit with missionaries in New York?one of Southern Baptists’ Strategic Focus Cities?impressed on him the importance of removing barriers to influencing people for the gospel’s sake. His home church, Prestonwood Baptist in Plano, has a missions partnership with a Baptist church in Boston.

In 1999 the convention rejected a proposed name change, instead adopting an Executive Committee report that noted the convention name had become a brand of sorts that transcended its Southern roots.

A WAR ON MANY FRONTS

Before announcing the possible name change, Graham told the committee America is in a war on many fronts.

Graham opened his address by telling of meeting former Marine Col. Oliver North and hearing of a battlefield conversation North witnessed between a reporter and a U.S. Army soldier who had carried several wounded men, including one Iraqi, to a helicopter while dodging crossfire.

The reporter asked the soldier, “Hey, didn’t you notice that that man was an Iraqi?”

The soldier reportedly replied, “Hey, didn’t you notice that man was wounded?”

Graham said Christians are in a war on many fronts and there are scores of wounded people who need to be rescued with the gospel.

“I want us always to remember that the wounded, the people who have been broken by sin, those who are the enemy of the cross, are greatly loved by the Lord Jesus Christ,” Graham said.

“It is a unique time in history, isn’t it? And God has called us to the kingdom for such a time as this. And there is a war. It is a war of worldviews. It is a war that we didn’t quite understand until perhaps we saw the face of the force of evil on 9-1-1, 2001. We recognize that we are in a spiritual war. The question is, ‘Who is God?'”

FORT WORTH?Honest and supportive relationships between worship leaders are necessary for a church to reflect God’s plan for worship in weekly services, popular Bible teacher Chuck Swindoll said at the 2004 Church Music Workshop at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Feb. 19.

Swindoll, who serves as senior pastor at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, is known for his radio ministry, “Insight for Living,” and many books. At the Church Music Workshop he and Bruce Stevenson, executive pastor of worship and music at Stonebriar, talked about how pastors and staff can work together.

“Relationships are the foundation. Just beyond the relationship with Christ is the [importance of] relationship with one another, and we don’t tolerate lingering offenses or difficulties among individuals,” Swindoll said. “If there is such, I’m not aware of it, and as soon as I’m aware of it, we talk it through. If we can’t, somebody has got to go.

“We embrace worship as a major reason we are on the planet and Sunday provides us with the opportunity to do it corporately,” Swindoll said.

Stevenson outlined five pillars of worship: education, balance, excellence, creativity and character. He said that education was a vital element of worship because it ensures continuity between the history of the church and future generations.

Swindoll and Stevenson both emphasized several times the importance of balance in worship. Acknowledging that many churches face dissension between members about worship styles, Swindoll put the issue in perspective.

“We have centuries of history, which is one of the treasures of the church,” Swindoll said. Stevenson said that incorporating the great hymns of the faith and modern Christian music into worship services helps keep things interesting.

If someone consistently and uncharitably complains about the church’s worship style it may be in the church’s and that person’s best interest for him or her to worship elsewhere, Swindoll said. At the very least, worship leaders should not let the vocal minority shape how they plan worship services.

“You cannot let a carping critic or two shape your philosophy,” Swindoll said. “We are not here to give you what you want; we are here to provide what you need.”

“If you build it they will come.”

That’s a classic line from a movie. Unfortunately, that idiom doesn’t work in the church. The church, however, does need buildings for worship, fellowship and education. But churches have limited resources. And because it’s really God’s money we are stewards of, using those resources responsibly is a high priority.

That’s where Texas Baptist Builders?a ministry of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention?comes in.

The Texas Baptists Builders (TBB) formed last June to tackle church and church-related projects throughout the state?and anywhere else they may be called of God to help.

The work can be done for much less than what they might pay for a commercial building to be built by the private sector. TBB director Bill Ibos said the savings can be as much as 40 to 50 percent or more.

“Usually your building runs 50 percent material and the other 50 percent is labor,” Ibos said. The TBB is usually able to buy materials at contractor’s pricing or even distributor pricing. However, the majority of the savings for churches come from the labor that is donated by the volunteers that work with the TBB.

Ibos warns not to think that because a person is a “volunteer” they don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to construction work.

“It’s really a misnomer,” Ibos said of the word “volunteer.” “These people have been doing construction work from anywhere from four years to as long as we [Ibos and his family] have.”

Ibos and his wife of 49 years, Martha, have spent 40 years volunteering for construction projects like the ones the TBB takes on. Ibos said he learned the skills of the construction business while working for the Army Corps of Engineers.

The TBB currently has about 50 to 75 people involved on a regular basis. But with 23 projects underway, they are always looking for a few good men?and women.

“What we’re looking for is to recruit families, singles, college students, and high school students to be involved in construction and remodeling of church buildings as the Lord leads and directs us,” Ibos said.

The TBB has taken Texas and divided it into nine zones. Each zone is responsible for about 28 counties. Zone leaders make contact with associations in their zone to find out what the needs are. Work is then prioritized according to needs and plans get underway.

Churches also have responsibilities in the projects.

According to Ibos, the churches are responsible for buying the materials and having them at the location two or three days prior to the arrival of the work crews. They provide hookups for RVs for the volunteer or arrange other housing and provide two meals per day for the workers.

There’s good news for those who aren’t able to swing a hammer without bending a few nails: the organization needs you, too.

“We’ll train you,” Ibos said. “We’ll train you in both metal stud construction and wood construction.” Each site will have at least two or three people who are professionally-trained construction workers. He said speed is not an issue, they just want to train the novice to “do it right,” Ibos said.

What about the person who can’t commit a week or more to construction projects?

“It’s going to take not only volunteers, but prayer warriors,” Ibos said. “If they can’t go out and work, they can pray for the groups that go and pray for the projects to be accomplished.”

If individuals or churches want more information about serving one week on a project or if churches are interested in having TBB assist them, contact Ibos at 817-625-9391 or e-mail him at baptistbuilder @juno.com.

The Waco Trib reports that the Council of Girl Scouts serving the Waco area partnered with Planned Parenthood in a sex education event. The Bluebonnet Council is also reported to have honored the local Planned Parenthood chief executive as a “Woman of Distinction” (role model?). Two troops have withdrawn and some parents are up in arms about the association of two such disparate groups. Some defenders argue that PP is not “about abortion.” And McDonald’s is not about burgers, I guess. Sure they do other stuff, but? Any association with Planned Parenthood should be controversial. It is a wicked organization, even if only part of what they do is evil.

Some prominent youth leaders are calling for a greater emphasis on parents. Southwestern Seminary’s Richard Ross, author Josh McDowell and other national leaders in youth ministry are questioning the exclusive focus on teenagers that characterized student ministry over the past 60 years. McDowell notes that parents are 300 times more influential than the church in the lives of students. Amen. Parents need help but must be primary in educating and discipling their children. Churches have not always honored that priority. See the Call at http://youthworkers.net/parents.

Sorry, it’s still on the front page. People from around the world have flocked to San Francisco in the past few weeks to obtain marriage licenses for their same-sex unions. San Francisco’s mayor compares his own flouting of the law with the Civil Rights movement. It’s a bad, self-exalting comparison from a man who will not likely face any consequences for his actions. Let’s vote issues this year. Those who agree with Mr. Mayor should not be elected to lead those who don’t want to see this anarchy repeated in their own town.