A team of Southern Baptists, including four people from Texas and two from Florida, has returned from a 10-day trip to China to assess possibilities for work in that persecuted country. The trip was coordinated through the International Mission Board and included a Southern Baptists of Texas Convention group.
Out of the 1.9 billion Chinese people, there are about 480 people and language groups and varied religions. One of the cities the team members stayed in had 1.3 million people. In the communist country, there are 166 cities that have over 1 million people in them.
“On average, there are 20,000 people a day coming to Christ in China,” said David Kimberly, director of missions for the Big Spring/Lamesa Association and a member of the SBTC contingent. “It would take us through the 21UP>st century to reach every one of them, and only five percent of China‘s population call themselves Christians.”
In China, Christian churches are generally required to register with the government and are controlled and monitored by authorities, which has spurred an underground church movement.
Most Chinese have an understanding of heaven; the plethora of religions active through the nation include Taoism, Confucianism, astrology, Chinese folk religion, shamanism, ancestor worship, Buddhism and Islam. Forty-two percent of China‘s population actually claims no religion after the government’s atheist rule became preeminent.
Kimberly said the underground church movements are multiplying quickly within the country. “Two house churches are each larger than the Southern Baptist Convention’s membership [totaled],” Kimberly said. “The Chinese people who are Christians are taking the good news to the Muslim world and back to Jerusalem.”
Kimberly said a local businessman was hired to drive and interpret for the group as they traveled the Chinese countryside. During their stay, they talked with the man about Christ, including him in the worship service they conducted in their hotel room during the week.
“He would ask questions about children, how to raise them, and other things,” Kimberly said. “We would answer him from a biblical standpoint. It intrigued the driver. He saw the joy we had in the Lord.”
After Kimberly and Garland Stuart, pastor of MidwayBaptist </
FORT WORTH?”I have 8,200 jars of baby food, do you want them?”
That’s probably not a question most people face every day. But that was the question posed to Westland Heights Baptist Church Pastor Richard McCormack.
McCormack said he received a call on a recent Monday morning from someone asking if he could use three pallets of baby food?two pallets of squash and spaghetti noodles and one pallet of nonperishable baby cereal. He said yes. Then reality set in: “What I’m I going to do with 8,200 jars of baby food?” he thought.
The church kicked around a few ideas, including sending the food to Mexico. Then they began to ponder who in their neighborhood could use this type of gift.
McCormack’s wife called the Fort WorthPregnancyCenter and the PregnancyHelpCenter, also in Fort Worth, to see if they might have needs. Both said yes, and most of the food was redistributed to these outlets.
Polly Isinghood, director of the PregnancyHelpCenter in west Fort Worth, said they see about 130 women per month. The center offers free pregnancy tests, sonograms, parenting videos and food to young women in the Fort Worth area.
She said women are referred to her office through various means, including high schools, the web page and telephone book advertisements.
“Word of mouth is usually the biggest,” Isinghood said.
The church donated about 100 cases of the baby food jars and 25 cases of the baby cereal to Isinghood’s agency.
DENTON?The 174 students gathered at the University of North Texas July 12-16 had one goal in mind: to “feel the burn” and to spread its heat among their peers.
Jeremiah 20:9 states: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”
Using the verse as a theme, the students?all considered leaders in their student groups from churches across the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention?mixed classroom time with small group “breakout” sessions talking about such things as servant-leadership and defending their faith against false claims.
No church brought more than14 students to the “Outbreak” student leadership camp this year; most brought groups of six or eight students, which is the camp’s intent, said Tom Cottar, SBTC youth evangelism associate. Last year, some churches brought entire youth groups, but Cottar said he wanted Outbreak to focus on equipping leaders to elevate their ministry and witness. Working with smaller groups of students facilitates that, he said.
“Our goal is to equip students for evangelism and apologetics and to build a foundation of a Christian worldview,” Cottar said.
In a group of about 15 high school juniors and seniors, Ron McGowin, youth pastor at First Baptist Church of Fairfield, explained that Christian leaders must exhibit a servant heart and must learn to love God and others as the Scriptures command.
McGowin said the prerequisites for Christian leadership demand loving God with all one’s heart, soul and mind and then loving others as oneself.
“A loving servant is one who loves God and loves others,” McGowin said.
The week was to culminate with the Youth Evangelism Conference at The Criswell College. See the Aug. 9 edition of the TEXAN for YEC coverage.
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Another SBTC-sponsored event, Summer Worship University, was held at UNT simultaneous to Outbreak.
Ken Lasater, SBTC church ministry support associate, said students participated in ministry tracks of their choosing, such as orchestra, vocal music, drama and multimedia.
Last year’s SWU helped several participants assume leadership in developing music ministry geared toward their peers and, in at least one case, transformed a student from a passive observer to an active leader, Lasater said based on reports he got from pastors and youth pastors.
During the daily recreational time and evening worship, students from Outbreak and SWU congregated together, Lasater said.
An amazing percentage of life is focused on our vocation. Small children are asked what they will do when they grow up. Their play often centers on being a cowboy, homemaker, soldier, astronaut, accountant (just kidding), or other vocational role. Between 12 and 20 years of education is largely aimed at success in a later career. After graduation(s), our days are involved with our vocation, our nights are controlled somewhat by our next day’s work schedule, our weekends may be overproduced and frantic in celebration of our time off?for about 60 years, our work has our attention. After that, we are still identified by what we did formerly and are, even then, not free from a variety of daily chores which are a mundane part of our work.
It is stylish, particularly among those who produce nothing but entertainment, to ridicule this expenditure of our lives. We are “hamsters on a wheel,” “wasting our lives” in a “dead-end job” in so many popular songs, movies, and plays. I doubt this portrayal stands up to closer examination.
Contempt for work was a luxury mostly reserved for the idle and the artists, up until the rise of the Baby Boomer generation. We wanted “more.” We wanted fulfillment in our work, fulfillment beyond what we earned or produced. Our jobs must now be our passion or calling. Those stuck working for their daily pay are pitied by many of us. A throw away comment in a travel magazine caught my eye last week. The writer marveled at the joy a Caribbean farmer found in his “chosen vocation.” It was a condescending comment that assumed joy was a function of what we do, not in the doing of necessary, noble, productive work. That is the voice of contemporary Americans who do not understand their parents or grandparents. More on that later.
Why do we work? The short, incomplete answer is that we work to earn our keep. Working and working for a living are two different things introduced at different times in history. We work because we bear the image of God. Adam and Eve were given the privilege of continuing God’s creative work in Genesis 1:28. He told them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue the earth, and rule over every creature on the earth. The next verse says that their food would come from every seed-bearing tree on the planet. Their work and their food were not tied together at this point. It was not until Genesis 3:17-19, after sin entered the world, that God said that Adam would “eat from (the ground) by means of painful labor” and that he would “eat bread by the sweat of (his) brow.” We would, or should, work even if we didn’t need to for survival. It is part of our nature and our reason.
This is apparent every time I take a vacation. I like kicking back for a few days. It restores me to play with my family, see someplace new or visit with old friends. After a few days, though, I start to feel useless. I’m ready to continue projects I left behind or to try new ideas that occur to me while I’m away. My inner Baby Boomer says that this is neurotic, too much. My reason says he’s wrong. I don’t need to work simply because it feeds my self esteem (although it does); the fact that I work confirms my place in God’s creation and my submission to his purpose.
Contempt for our workaday world may be born out of humanist perversions of work. Work, thus twisted, can become dehumanizing and ignoble. One such mistake ascribes worth to a worker and his labor according to what he produces. If he produces what we consider valuable, he is considered more important than someone who produces fewer or more common things. Thus, an entertainer who produces little of significance is celebrated because we value his wealth and notoriety.
Personally, we may consider ourselves important if our work allows us to acquire goods or surpass our competitors. This is a variation of the same humanistic error. In this scheme, we have no inherent value given by our Creator. Our work is not an extension of his and thus worthwhile. Again, we are esteemed if what we do is temporally valuable. This viewpoint is a powerful motivator, like hunger, but our work becomes a form of slavery. We will come to hate it, what we do, the “sweat of our brow” required, and even that we have to do anything at all. We will hate it because it will not satisfy us, regardless of how much we attain or who we defeat. In this model work is an act of worship, but the object of our worship is human, no greater than ourselves.
It is not necessary that we enjoy our work every day, Genesis 3:17-19 says that we won’t. God’s command, given before the Fall, indicates that it is also wrong for us to resent the fact that we must work at all.
Apply this to your father or grandfather. Most who read this, particularly those over 30, were raised by men in middle class jobs. They made things, grew things or fixed things. They did hard, noble work but didn’t consider it a calling. Usually, they didn’t do it because it was a “career choice” or fulfilling in itself. It was a means to an end, providing for the family. Work was also what a man did. Mostly, our predecessors would rather earn a little than take charity. Our fathers found a satisfaction in producing something that would have been denied them with charity. Like the Caribbean farmer mentioned earlier, their joy was based on satisfaction that came from taking care of business, and with just plain working. Be careful when you speak disdainfully of that.
Although it is still a hot Texas summer, your convention staff is preparing for the annual meeting of the messengers of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Oct. 25-26 at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. The first session is Monday night and there are three sessions on Tuesday. The program is almost complete.
So who will be there? No, I am not talking about the featured guests, pre-convention speakers or talented musicians. Who makes up the messenger body of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention?
Some of the largest churches in the SBC are affiliated with the SBTC. With fear of leaving out someone, I’ll mention FBC Dallas, Prestonwood, FBC Houston, Second Baptist, Houston, Sagemont, Houston, San Jacinto in Amarillo, Castle Hills in San Antonio, Great Hills in Austin, FBC Euless, Fielder Road in Arlington and Fellowship Church, Grapevine. Many other near “mega” churches are a part of the SBTC. These churches will have messengers who will bring excitement to the annual meeting.
Suburban churches and county seat churches will send messengers. Some are in growing areas, others in declining areas. They all bring a desire for fellowship and encouragement.
Significantly, the SBC is comprised of small membership churches. Churches averaging fewer than 150 in attendance are in the vast majority. Small membership churches provide strength to one another through the convention. Without this segment there could be no SBTC. I thank God for the faithful pastor and congregation in the country and small towns who are witnesses for Jesus. They will bring commitment, boldness and humility to the annual meeting.
African-American churches have affiliated with the SBTC in unprecedented numbers. African-American pastors have expressed a sense of belonging and full partnership in the cooperative work of the churches. A great movement of God is taking place among the black churches of the SBTC. They will bring diversity and enthusiasm to the annual meeting.
Hispanic, Korean and other ethnic churches constitute over 10 percent of the affiliated congregations. God has brought the world to the United States in general and Texas in particular. The SBTC has the joy of many languages in its fellowship. The ethnic churches’ messengers bring a worldview to the annual meeting.
House churches, Cowboy churches, Saddleback-style churches and other affinity-type congregations are a part of the SBTC. Contextualized missions produce a variety of expressions of the body of Christ. These churches are reaching people where they are with the gospel. These messengers will bring a positive broadening of methods to the annual meeting.
Who makes up the messenger body of the SBTC? It is not some monolithic, lock-step group of “fundamentalists.” It is group of people who come from churches that affirm the Bible as inerrant and infallible. They have chosen the SBTC as a provider for mission strategy, ministry assistance and facilitating organizations. They believe that the best giving method is the Cooperative Program, because it pools the resources of all the churches to do the most good and reach the most people. The messengers look very different from one another, but they have one heart, one vision and one mission.
Plan to be with us Oct. 25-26 at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.
TYLER?In light of the overwhelming generosity of Southern Baptists through record-setting contributions to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, IMB trustee chairman Thomas Hatley of Arkansas said, “We awakened a giant. When the need for more to be done in our finances was personalized to the churches by demonstrating to them the number of people who could not be appointed because of a lack of funds, they responded with generosity.”
Hatley said the resources of Southern Baptist are greater than they realize, setting a goal of “balancing the need for the called to respond and the need for the called to be sent.”
“Until we have more money than missionaries we are not again balanced,” Hatley said. “To this end I am launching my own study of the relationship between those who are willing to go and the level of resources needed to send them to the field and keep them there. I want to know how much it is going to take, above what we are already doing, to send all those who are willing to go.”
Hatley predicted Southern Baptist churches would respond when they see the need. “Part of our job is to define, personalize and communicate that need.”
The new trustee chairman also called for exposing myths posed by some. “For example, doctrinal clarity will not slow us down. It is a key element in what will propel us,” he stated. “Deliberative strategy will not create hesitation, but will streamline ministry and offer years of better ministry.”
By incorporating discipleship principles into the church planting movements, Hatley said the advancing edge of growth will be slowed, “but it will prevent the world and the devil from diverting it.”
Hatley concluded, “Hell has a plan for this board. We will only take a moment to glare at it with disdain as we lift our eyes unto the hills from whence comes our help.” He prayed, “Lord, we are here at your request and we stand poised for your commands. Please pick out for us a battle so large that to fight it and win it will cause the populations of heaven, hell and the earth to say, ‘only God could have done that with those people.’ “
SBC won’t urge public school pullout; messengers nix name change study, end BWA ties
Debates in Indy show conservative
don’t march in lockstep on secondary issues.
INDIANAPOLIS–More than 8,600 messengers to the June 13-14 annual meeting in Indianapolis dispelled any notion that Southern Baptists march in lockstep now that conservatives lead the largest non-Catholic denomination. Over two days, messengers:
>voted overwhelmingly to sever ties with the 211-member Baptist World Alliance due to objectionable theological differences that indicate “a continual leftward drift,” according to BWA study committee member Paige Patterson of Fort Worth. The allocation of funds to BWA will be honored for the current budget year;
>agreed by a margin of 63.5 to 36.5 percent to an Executive Committee recommendation requesting New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary amend its charter to “name the Southern Baptist Convention as the sole member” and thereby “clarifying the messengers’ historic rights and giving the Convention legal immunity,” and
>in a very close vote, rejected an idea floated by Plano pastor Jack Graham to study whether to change the denomination’s name.
>refused to amend the SBC Resolutions Committee report to include a widely publicized call for parents to remove their children from what two laymen described as “godless” government schools;
>and elected a new president, Bobby Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church of Daytona, Fla.
Virginian T. C. Pinckney and Texan Bruce Shortt drew widespread secular media attention weeks before the convention meeting when they publicized their proposed resolution urging a Christian exodus from public schools. The Resolutions Committee chose not to recommend any proposals on education, noting the convention had passed 11 resolutions on education in the last 19 years, pronouncing its support for public, private and home schooling.
Chairman Calvin Wittman of Colorado said the Resolutions Committee believes “this is a responsibility that God has given to the parents of each individual child, and we encourage parents to exercise that God-given responsibility.” He added, “We must be careful as a denomination not to usurp the authority that God has placed firmly in the home.”
The conservative variation on “unity in diversity” demonstrated a common commitment to the authority of God’s word for faith and practice while offering different perspectives on new issues put forth for debate. Even this year’s presidential election featured a last minute alternative candidate who received 20.3 percent of the vote against Welch, whose nomination was announced last summer.
Also elected were Gerald Davidson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Arnold, MO., as first vice president and David Young Hwan Gill, pastor of Concord Korean Baptist Church in Martinez, Calif., as second vice president. Re-elected were Recording Secretary John L. Yeats, editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger, and Registration Secretary Jim Wells, director of missions for Tri-County Baptist Association in Ozark, Mo. The five officers represent the regional diversity of the SBC, including Southern Baptists from California, Oklahoma, Missouri and Florida.
Twenty-five years ago the SBC began a conservative resurgence that, in the words of a resolution honoring the anniversary, “led our beloved Southern Baptist Convention back to its original foundations, rooted in and committed to Jesus Christ and to the Scriptures as the inspired and inerrant Word of God.”
With appreciation expressed to “those elected and employed leaders who now effectively maintain a Christ-centered emphasis in life and work” of the SBC, it came as a surprise to critical onlookers when several key issues led to spirited debate that required extension of time allotted for business.
Still, the unity of purpose was clearly demonstrated during the International Mission Board report on Tuesday evening as the capacity crowd rose on four occasions to applaud record-setting financial support and risk-taking missionary service. Carrie McDonnall, the lone survivor of an attack that killed her husband and three other workers in Iraq, received a standing ovation at the beginning and end of her brief testimony.
When SBC President Jack Graham urged Southern Baptists to step up to the assignment to evangelize, wise up by thinking biblically and living truthfully, speak up on moral issues such as same-sex marriage and gear up to preserve and protect God’s territory, the audience frequently applauded.
In an introduction of President George W. Bush–who spoke to messengers on a live video feed–Graham praised the fellow Texan’s “strong and courageous appeal to our shared values of the sanctity of life, moral responsibility, individual freedom and personal faith that provides us all with hope and encouragement.”
Messengers rose with cheering affirmation when Bush appeared on projection screens and offered applause at least 19 times in the brief speech. The strongest responses came when the President called for passage of a Federal Marriage Amendment, respect for the sanctity of marriage and an end to partial-birth abortion.
In his convention sermon, Alabama pastor Steve Gaines said America is hungry for a greater emphasis on authentic, prophetic preaching and weary of other aspects of some contemporary churches. “I think America is fed up with drama skits, coffee talks, interpretive dances, operatic cantatas, operatic Frankenstein music [and] pop psychology sessions from the pulpit.”
Numerous references to the importance of encouraging voter registration and participation in upcoming elections surfaced throughout the meeting. The ERLC emphasis known as iVoteValues drew attention through a semi-trailer truck debuted on the exhibit floor that will carry the message across the country.
Expressions of concern regarding the SBC came from a number of speakers. Newly-elected SBC president Bobby Welch called for a recommitment to evangelism and SBC executive Committee President Morris Chapman warned Southern Baptists not to fall into the error of Pharisaism.
“Could we ever, while priding ourselves on orthodox beliefs, be out of fellowship with the Living God and the true saints of God? The threat is real,” Chapman stated.
“It is the sin of Pharisaism when good people, whose theology and ministry are above reproach, are slandered, discredited or ostracized simply because they refuse to blindly follow particular political posturing.” Chapman added, “Innuendos, unfounded rumors, sly winks and nods are as deadly as an assassin’s bullet and usually as ungodly.”
Lifeway Christian Resources President James T. Draper spoke of the decline in baptisms and lack of involvement among younger ministers in leadership as two significant challenges that the SBC faces.
Annual sessions were once marked by caustic debate requiring ballots to count divided votes. More recently the SBC transitioned to unopposed presidential candidates and abbreviated business sessions where messengers uniformly raised ballots demonstrating approval. The series of unpredictably divided votes at this year’s meeting dispelled moderate claims that messengers were under the spell of influential leaders who called the shots.
Still, when several SBC leaders offered honest assessments of disconcerting trends—declines in stateside baptisms and dwindling denominational interest among young adults—moderate editorial writers snatched the opportunity to spin the meeting in a negative light.
Routine motions recommending the next year’s budget and new committee assignments sailed through without question. Messengers approved the 2004-05 SBC Operating Budget of $7,975,000 and SBC cooperative Program Allocation Budget of $183,201,694.
They also approved an amended ministry statement allowing the Annuity Board to serve other evangelical ministry organizations and change its name to GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention pending a second vote next year. The SBC Calendar of Activities was approved through 2006.
Texans approved for various assignments include: Randy White of Katy and Wayne Lee of Southlake to next year’s Committee on Nominations; Jim Caldwell of Plano as Annuity Board trustee; Louis A Moore of Garland and Bob Graham of Cleburne as International Mission Board trustees; IMB trustees Skeet Workman of Lubbock and A. C. Halsell of Plano were re-elected.
Also re-elected were LifeWay trustee Rocky C. Weatherford of Trinidad; John Mark Caton of Coppell, Sandy Killebrew of Lubbock, Geoffrey M. Kolander of Amarillo and Stacy W. Taylor of Houston as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees; Penna C. Dexter of Plano as Ethics & Religious Liberty commission trustee and Bruce G. Coe of San Antonio to the Committee on Order of Business.
Of the 29 motions introduced from the floor in Indianapolis, four were made by Texans, including:
> Stephen Parks of Lufkin presenting a motion celebrating associational ministries in 2007 that was referred to North American Mission Board.
> Claude Thomas of Euless seeking the creation of a committee to study the name of the SBC. After considerable debate, messengers turned down the request by a vote of 55.4 to 44.6 percent.
> Ed Ethridge of Irving asking that 2005 be designated as Southern Baptist year of the Bible and that LifeWay produce materials to help in fulfilling the Great Commission. The motion was referred to LifeWay for further study.
> Bruce Shortt of Spring, seeking to amend the Resolutions Committee report in order to urge Christian parents to give children a Christian education.
Other motions that were referred to appropriate SBC entities for consideration included:
> asking NAMB to assist in creating Good News Clubs in public elementary schools;
> amending SBC Bylaw 11 to refer to Roberts Rules of Order, Newly Revised,
> asking the Executive Committee to study SBC ministries to single adults,
> seeking study by a committee of hearing-impaired, visually-impaired and physically disabled messengers to assist in logistical planning at the annual meeting
> asking all SBC entities to comply with a federal law requiring companies establish a system for employees to anonymously report financial misdeeds;
> asking state conventions to provide a good faith estimate as to when they will begin to divide Cooperative Program gifts equally between state convention ministries and SBC ministries as originally intended;
>asking that more time be scheduled for business in future meetings;
> asking that the text of proposed resolutions be published no later than the first day, part two of the SBC Bulletin;
> asking the Executive Committee to adopt sole membership at its next scheduled meeting in time for approval at next year’s annual meeting;
> studying trustee orientation and education;
> moving college campus ministries from LifeWay to NAMB,
> boycotting Carnival Cruise Lines for promoting gay cruises and requesting the Annuity Board to divest any holdings in Carnival,
> instructing the ERLC president to produce and promote a comprehensive resource on domestic and foreign adoptions of children; and
> asking the SBC to state that local church ordination is not required for service as a military chaplain and that qualified men and women be endorsed.
Motions ruled out of order addressed child abuse, seminary ministry to international students, commendation of Walt Disney Pictures for releasing “America’s Heart and Soul,” commending the work of Vision America, reinstatement of an IMB Office of International Outreach, opposition to killing babies under any circumstance and keeping the King James Bible preeminent in churches and curriculum.
The Southern Baptist convention is a voluntary association of 43,000 affiliated churches having 16.3 million members representing all 50 states.
With Baptist Press reporting by Keith Hinson, Michael Foust, Tom Strode, Chris Turner, David Roach and Jeff Robinson.
Messengers defeat proposed study of new name for Southern BaptistsINDIANAPOLIS–A proposed study committee to consider changing the name of the Southern Baptist Convention proved controversial when the idea came to the floor of the SBC annual meeting June 15 in Indianapolis. Messengers voted by a slim margin to refuse the suggestion outlined by SBC President Jack Graham in February to appoint a committee. It was presented to messengers as a motion by Texas pastor Claude Thomas. With about 8,500 messengers registered at the time of the ballot Tuesday night, 1,731 (55.4 percent) opposed the motion while 1,391 (44.6 percent) were in favor of the proposed study committee. In what Graham praised as “a spirited debate,” most of those calling for a study related the challenges that local churches face when ministering in an area that is far from “southern.” In the Midwestern region where the annual meeting was held, Southern Baptist work is relatively new compared to the SBC’s 159-year history in the South. Southern Baptists in Indiana organized in 1958 during a decade when the convention began expanding to the West, North and Northeast. A comity agreement with Northern Baptists (who changed their name to American Baptists) fell apart as migrating Baptists from southern states started churches like those from which they came. In the case of Indiana, Southern Baptists found encouragement from their neighbors in Kentucky and southern Illinois who helped plant the earliest Hoosier churches. SBC President Jack Graham informed the Executive Committee in February of his desire to have a study committee consider a name change. At the EC’s pre-convention meeting June 13, Graham said he had received “a very positive response” to the proposal. The issue has been raised almost every decade over the last half-century, Graham said, but has never received a favorable recommendation. “The South isn’t your daddy’s South anymore,” Graham said, noting he observed more Yankee and Red Sox fans than Ranger supporters at recent baseball games in Texas. “That’s primarily because of the vast number of people from New York City and Boston who have moved to Texas. “This is not only about the missiology of the name and its relationship up north,” Graham added, “It has to do with our identity all across America and potentially around the world.” Graham conceded the biggest challenge would be in finding a name better than the one that has been used since 1845. Claude Thomas, pastor of the Dallas-Fort Worth-area First Baptist Church of Euless, made the motion proposing the study, recognizing “the expanse of our mission and ministry has transcended regional identification.” Thomas said he believes it would be wise to authorize the SBC president to appoint a study committee to determine whether identification with a southern region “has been an impediment to our effectiveness” in reaching across North America and the world. The four messengers voicing support for the motion were from regions outside the South — while a number of other messengers cited concerns about the resources that would be needed to conduct such an assessment. In support of the motion, John Flint of New Horizon Baptist Church in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., spoke of serving a small church in upstate New York where any mention of Southern Baptists “is almost evil” due to cultural perceptions. “We don’t have Baptist in our name,” Flint said, “not because we’re not proud we’re Baptist, but because it becomes an impediment to sharing the Gospel.” He said he would rather see the name changed in order to see one more person saved than continue using a name that might be a stumbling block to non-southerners. In opposition to the motion, messenger Sid West of First Baptist Church of Bosque Farms, N.M., asked for an estimate of the cost of the study, amusing the audience when he said the question made him “sound like a deacon.” “The brief answer to your question, my brother deacon, is we don’t know,” Graham answered. “It certainly will require financial resources to do the right kind of study.” Ed Taylor of Amissville (Va.) Baptist Church, cal
INDIANAPOLIS?The oldest son of the world’s most famous preacher told Southern Baptist Convention messengers June 16 they are called to be witnesses and must tell the truth of sin and redemption even if it offends hearers.
Franklin Graham’s sermon closed out the SBC’s annual meeting, which drew nearly 9,000 messengers to the Indianapolis Convention Center. Sounding more like a fiery prophet than his evangelist father, Graham lamented a U.S. News & World Report article that he said described evangelical churches that “have a McDonald’s franchise in the lobby” and make visitors to feel like they are anywhere but a church.
The nature of the gospel makes people uncomfortable, Graham said. Believers must carry out the Acts 1:8 mandate of being Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth?even amid criticism.
“A witness has to tell the truth always. ? has to tell the truth no matter what,” Graham said. “You see, the truth is what God sent his Son to do ? the truth that Jesus Christ rose, suffered and died on the cross without sin, the truth that Jesus Christ is the only way to achieve eternal life. ‘You see, no man comes unto the Father but by me,’ Jesus said.”
The world dislikes hearing that its human goodness isn’t enough, he said. “It’s offensive, yes, but friends, you’ve got to tell the truth if you are going to be a witness.”
More than 3 million people have been executed by the Sudanese government in recent years, including many Christians, yet Graham said the church has flourished and grown amid the persecution.
Graham told of meeting the Sudanese president who had the “blood of millions on his hands.” Graham shared the gospel with him and told him about a hospital Graham’s ministry, Samaritan’s Purse, helped build in southern Sudan.
Seven times the government tried to bomb the hospital but missed every time, Graham said. When Graham brought up the bombings in their meeting, the Sudanese leader laughed and promised to make Graham a convert to Islam.
The Sudanese government planned to annihilate the church by the year 2000, but instead the church there doubled, Graham said.
“Friends, we must be a faithful witness in the things God calls us to do.”
Graham told messengers of a Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) program to train and certify children to be evangelists to their schools. If a youngster completes the training, he or she will receive a card certifying their training.
“I want to see child, at least one child, in every classroom in every public school in America who is a witness for Jesus Christ. Let’s not surrender the public schools; let’s take them back,” Graham said, drawing loud applause.
“I believe the Lord of Lords and King of Kings is coming soon. ? I must tell them the truth because this is heaven or hell.”
Hymns’ demise greatly exaggerated as youngest Christians taking ancient songs to heart.
By Ben Hines
TEXAN Correspondent
ABILENE–In church music, circa 2004, the old is new again. And the line between “old time religion” and modern worship styles is getting harder to distinguish, as today’s youngest worshippers are finding great meaning in hymns sometimes centuries old.
Hymns that five years ago were found mostly in traditional church services are gaining widespread use among the youngest generation in worship settings both inside and outside of church. The songs beloved by Baptists and other Christians for centuries are the trend in “modern” musical worship–though pipe organs have given way to electric drums and rhythmic guitar riffs.
Music leaders across the country are now incorporating hymns as major fare for audiences of youth and college students, and a new all-hymns collegiate worship CD indicates that the trend toward hymnody is only growing. The release of “Passion: Ancient and Modern Hymns–Live Songs of Our Faith,” by Passion Conferences, represents a significant step in this trend, particularly because the Roswell, Ga.-based ministry has been the leading edge of musical worship for several years.
The CD contains 14 hymns, 13 of which are 100 years or older. These include songs very familiar to traditional worshippers, such as “How Great Thou Art,” “Worship the King,” and “Doxology,” as well as one hymn that dates to the fourth century. At the same time, the artists have set the hymns in a more modern musical arrangement.
Phil Briggs, nationally known authority on collegiate ministry and chair of the Department of Collegiate Ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has seen the incorporation of hymns in modern worship for a few years, sung right alongside more recently authored confessions.
“It is not neglecting one or the other,” Briggs said, “but a blending” of tradition and newer worship. He said a new mainstream worship CD like “Hymns” could be a major step in this trend, particularly given the popularity of the Passion Conferences ministry. Passion “has such a reputation of quality stuff and trend-setting that I think it will be well-received,” Briggs said.
The chance to present older songs of Christendom was a welcome experience for Chris Tomlin, prominent worship artist and worship pastor at The Austin Stone Community Church, an SBTC-affiliated church in Austin. Tomlin performed four songs on the “Hymns” CD, including a rendition of “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.”
“As far back as I can remember, singing ‘All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name’ has been a favorite hymn of mine,” he related. “It was one of the top 10 favorite songs in the church I grew up in. I love the reverence and grandness that this song evokes in me.”
Louie Giglio, founder and director of Passion Conferences, said the trend brings students back to an appreciation of hymns through a method he described as “wrapping the rich tradition and heritage of music of the church in the modern musical skin of our time.” He looks with disdain on the tendency to discard tradition simply for the sake of progress, he said.
“Somewhere along the way, tradition became a casualty in the explosion of contemporary worship that has swept the church around the globe in recent decades. Yet, we would be fools to discard the rich treasures that have guided the church through ages past just because they are old.”
Charlie Hall, a lead worshipper for Passion Conferences, described returning to these same traditional roots in an interview with Baptist Press. After growing up in a Baptist church and regularly singing hymns, Hall had moved away from such tradition, believing it to be a hindrance to authentic devotion to God. Recently, however, he realized the beauty of these songs and how much the audiences he led in worship were missing by not being familiar with the hymns of the faith.
Briggs said it is hymns’ theological content that has drawn students and their leaders to use them in worship. “Through hymnody we regain some of our theological moorings,” he says. “We have taught more theology through hymnody than anything else.”
Hall recognizes this value, as well. “The songs that have come down the pike–including some of the things I’ve written–haven’t had much theology,” he said. He believes hymns, on the other hand, have much to teach. “The majority of them are rich in theology. Studying God should cause your heart to burst in worship. That is my goal with those songs.”
A key part now of Hall’s walk with Christ is reading through hymnals, including two that he received from his grandmother. And that relevance to his own life comes out in the many services he leads, such as at last summer’s Collegiate Week at LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center and at Oklahoma City’s Bridgeway Church, where he serves as worship pastor. For instance, he said ” ‘The Solid Rock’ has become one of my greatest confessions in my life over the last few years,” after having had to face several trials in that time. The song is also one of three Hall performed on the “Hymns” CD.
By using hymns in these contexts, Hall said he hopes to deepen the experience of Christianity.
“The people who are older in faith, who grew up in church, feel a deep connection in that worship,” he noted. “Most [younger students] have grown up without hymns, so I’m teaching them to them. What they’re getting is the depth of the faith. This thing goes way back. We are part of the big story.”
In this way, Giglio and Hall both hope the growing use of hymns in modern worship will strengthen ties between older and younger Christians, Giglio said.
“Modern worshippers have tended to discard these ancient confessions of worship because they are old, while traditional worshippers have failed to embrace modern confessions because they feel they are shallow and void. With this [CD] project, we wanted to create a common ground where worshippers, traditional and modern, can join in worship.”
Briggs said he agrees that familiarity with hymns can connect generations of worshippers.
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