Lubbock-area pastors and churches joined with the SBTC’s evangelism department to focus the convention meeting on a citywide crusade event on Oct. 27, inviting Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt to speak in the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center theater while Team Impact?a group of weightlifters who perform strength feats and preach Jesus?amazed teenagers and children in the exhibit hall.

While Hunt preached the gospel to a crowd of 1,200 adults, Team Impact told the 2,417 teenagers, children and youth leaders how to receive God-given power to change the direction of their lives for eternity.

Adults leaving the theater after hearing Hunt challenge Southern Baptists “to get back on track in evangelism” began to spontaneously applaud as they grasped the magnitude of hundreds of lives changed by the power of the gospel in the hall opposite theirs. At the last minute, more Southern Baptists joined those who stood ready to guide new converts, distributing Bibles to new believers and connecting them with local churches for further discipleship.

Additional professions of faith were reported where Team Impact members spoke during related events at First Baptist Church in Littlefield and Victory Life Baptist Church in Lubbock.

Prayers for the event began in April; a day in early October was devoted to prayer and fasting for the annual meeting. Team Impact’s presentations on character to 26 Lubbock-area schools and the distribution of free tickets to Texas Tech tailgaters during the week prior to the crusade attracted students and their families to the longer performance where their feats of strength were punctuated by testimonies of how God changes lives.

Meeting for the second time in West Texas since the formation of a new state Baptist convention in 1998, the headcount of 889 messengers and 423 registered guests was only a few hundred shy of last year’s attendance in Houston. The crusade crowd expanded to nearly 3,700 as local residents responded to the invitations from area Southern Baptists.

In his address to the convention, SBTC President Bob Pearle told the audience, “By standing firm and holding on to those distinctives that make Baptists who they are, we will continue to reach this world and not go the way of every other denomination.” The SBTC has grown from the 128 churches that formed the new state convention in 1998 to a current total of 2,197.

West Texans were elected to every SBTC office, including President Byron McWilliams, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Odessa. Recording secretary Pat Anderson, a member of Keeler Baptist Church in Borger, was elected by a vote of 132-108 over Becky Illingworth, a member of Community Baptist Church in Royse City. Vice President Kevin Ueckert, pastor of South Side Baptist Church in Abilene, was

LUBBOCK?A handful of pastors and a best-selling author drew from different scriptural texts to encourage and challenge those gathered for the annual Bible Conference of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention as they addressed the theme “Renew, Refresh, and Recharge.”

During the Monday session of the Bible Conference at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, officers for the 2010-11 session were elected by acclamation and unopposed. Elected as president was Heath Peloquin, pastor, Brighton Park Baptist Church, Corpus Christi; as first vice president Nathan Lorick, pastor, First Baptist Church, Malakoff; and second vice president Bart Barber, pastor, First Baptist Church, Farmersville.

Tim LaHaye

The conference opened Oct. 25 at Southcrest Baptist Church with LaHaye, a popular author and speaker. Known for his books on end-time prophecies, LaHaye read from 2 Timothy, chapters 3 and 4. Making note of the passage 4:3-4, he said “itching ears” is a hallmark of the end times.

Believing the time of Jesus’ return is imminent, LaHaye said, “If there was ever a time when we need to teach the Word of God it is in this day and age. That is the one thing that will help people understand the true from the false.”

He added that when people leave church “they should go with some of the Word of God in their heart.”

It was put upon his heart many years ago the power of three words?message, morals and money. He said it is important how pastors perceive those three spheres of influence in their own lives and how they interject them into their messages to the local church.

He urged pastors to stay true to the written Word void of any insertion of secularism. The message of Christ crucified and resurrected should never be compromised.

Regarding morals LaHaye said the most damaging act to a Christian witness is marital infidelity. He said the legalization of pornography by the Supreme Court in 1973 has done the greatest damage to the fabric of American culture than any other court decision.

A person’s attitude toward money is vital. But staying focused on the end game is most encouraging. It’s all about the reward to come.

“You know what I want is to look into the eyes of Jesus and hear him say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.'”

Fred Luter

Speaking from personal experience, Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, told the conference to hold on to their faith in the face of difficulties.

“If the storms of life show up so does the Savior,” he said.

And Luter knows about storms.

As Franklin Avenue Baptist Church had outgrown its facilities, the members, with the enthusiastic blessing of their pastor, had plans to build new facilities on nine acres of land not far from their current location.

Then, Luter said, “A woman named Katrina came calling.”

The congregation, like the rest of New Orleans, was dispersed. The vision Luter had for his church was gone with the surge o

CUERO?The members of First Baptist Church of Cuero had a disagreement in 1947, leading a few years later to the forming of Calvary Baptist Church. Sixty-two years later, the two Baptist churches in Cuero?about 100 miles southeast of San Antonio?are reconciled and working together to take the gospel to city residents.

Glenn Robertson, now pastor of the First Baptist Church, and Bill Gleason, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, weren’t around when the split occurred. But they sought closure to past errors.

Two years ago, Gleason began to meet weekly with another pastor for the purpose of praying for Cuero churches. The group quickly began to grow and developed into a ministers’ alliance of over 20 pastors that reach across denominational and racial lines.

“We were praying about some strongholds in the city?things that were keeping people from coming to Christ,” said Gleason of one of their weekly meetings. “We had a map of the city on the floor, and in that prayer time God revealed to me there was something wrong. There was rebellion in [our] church.”

Gleason said Calvary Baptist Church became the recipient of a stained-glass window that was originally owned by First Baptist Church. After First Baptist split, the woman who donated money for the window left the church and asked to take the window as well.

“The pastor [at the time] gave her the window back and boarded up the space,” Gleason said, explaining that the window was later given to Calvary. “What had happened was our church had accepted the gift that was given to God at another church. That [window] was taken in rebellion. I felt we needed to do something about it according to Scripture.”

Gleason approached Robertson, who was also a member of the ministerial alliance. Robertson, who has led FBC for 16 years, said he was initially uncertain of what to do.

“I had to pray about it, think it through, and talk to Bill to get his heart about it. Once I sensed that Bill really felt like God has spoken to him about that, I felt I needed to honor that no matter what,” Robertson said. “He felt the stained-glass window represented a rebellious act against God and left a spirit of rebellion that had sowed through the seeds of generations. He felt like God was saying, ‘You need to address this publicly, because this was done in the public.'”

Robertson said the members of FBC were also uncertain in the beginning. “When we first began to talk to the churches, no one understood because none of our members had anything to do with [the incident],” he said. “That happened about 60 years ago, so no one could understand why we would take action on something that happened so long ago.”

But as Robertson began to pray about the relationship between the churches, he said God began to work.

“About the same time, in my office we’d been doing cleaning and renovating, and we came across the records of the split. I began to sense there was something that my church needed to address related to that split and the cause. And something that wasn’t handled properly here. If Bill’s church was going to make some public acknowledgement, then I needed to make the same acknowledgement for our church, both in the public.”

On Aug. 16, the two churches came together for a unity service held at First Baptist. Gleason preached from Joshua 7 and the sin of Achan, emphasizing that devoted things of God should remain in God’s house. At the close of his sermon, Gleason asked FBC members to forgive members of Calvary Baptist Church for taking and accepting a “devoted thing” that was given to God.

Robertson preached out of Daniel on repentance, asking for forgiveness for its role in the church split and the removal of the window.

Typhoon Ketsana dumped a month’s worth of rain in 12 hours, Baptist Global Response reported, wreaking havoc in Manilla, a city of 12 million that sits below sea level.

In all, typhoons Ketsana and Parma affected 6 million Filipinos.

Twenty-nine Southern Baptist volunteers from the SBTC, Texas Baptist Men, Oklahoma and Kentucky traveled to Manilla.

“The SBTC team set up logistics for the other teams,” explained Jim Richardson, SBTC DR director. “Once again, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers were on the front lines in quick fashion, aiding in practical and desperately-needed human needs amid crisis, sharing the love of Christ in deed and word.”

Beyond mud-out and clean-up work in homes and churches, Richardson said the SBTC team helped identify additional needs, assisted their Baptist field partners and trained native volunteers and churches in DR ministry.

Flooding often is followed by severe medical concerns and that is the case in Manila, noted Jim Brown, U.S. director for Baptist Global Response.

“News reports indicate the water is still waist-deep, even chest-deep in places,” Brown said in a BGR news release. “It has been standing for three weeks now. The longer water stagnates, the greater the risk of diseases like malaria, dengue fever, diarrhea?even typhoid.”

In addition to the Philippines disaster, the SBTC is also preparing to aid in flooding response to India, where the worst rains in 100 years forced 1.5 million people into relief camps.

As of Oct. 13, Southern Baptist DR teams during the year had served more than 260,000 meals, performed 596 mudout jobs, more than 6,000 chainsaw jobs, presented the gospel 698 times and seen 101 people profess saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Members of the SBTC team included Larry Shine of Onalaska; Paul Easter of Mount Pleasant; Billy Joe Jones of Lufkin; James Fuller of Lufkin; Jim Howard of Atlanta; and Doug Scott of Atlanta.

There’s a great line in the 2002 movie “Catch Me If You Can,” based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr. Before his 19th birthday, Frank successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks by being able to make people think he was a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. In the movie, Frank Sr., portrayed by Christopher Walken, is instructing his son, Frank Jr. (Leonardo Di Caprio) in the fine art of making the con work.

He says, “Do you know why the Yankees always win?” Frank Jr. answers, “Because they’ve got Mantle?” The father says, “No. It’s because the other team’s too busy staring at the pin stripes.” One of the key ingredients to pulling off a deception is getting the victim to focus on something other than the obvious. Sadly, that is the common strategy the gay community most often uses in trying to con the public into believing something other than the barefaced, clear, and conclusive truth of the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality. Politicians use this trick all the time. When caught in a lie, deception, or other problem, crafty office holders will blame someone else or use techniques like “playing the race card” to divert attention away from the real issue.

We’re seeing the same technique used today by the gay community when it comes to trying to legitimize homosexuality. The urban dictionary defines “playing the gay card” as, “Similar to playing the black card, playing the woman card, playing the disabled card, et cetera. When someone exploits positive discrimination to get their way, and points to a personal trait of theirs as a fault which somehow justifies their actions or inability to do something they’d ordinarily be expected to do. Also used to guilt trip people into taking back something they’ve said on the grounds of them being insensitive.”

I asked a few of my friends in ministry to give me their take on “playing the gay card.” Best-selling author and Christian historian Peter Marshall says, “In a time of increasing sexual confusion, American Christians need to be clear about where we stand on the issue of homosexuality. Is it sin, or not? From a Christian point of view, it comes down to whether or not we accept the binding authority of Holy Scripture. First Corinthians 6:9-11 is quite clear:

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

If you believe that the Bible is indeed the Word of God and therefore binding in all matters of faith and conduct, then it is obvious from this passage that homosexuals cannot receive salvation from the Lord Jesus until they repent of their homosexuality. And God’s Word also makes clear in this same passage that homosexuality is not an inborn condition of human beings, since it is put on a par with other sexually immoral practices such as adultery.

First Timothy 1:10 also lists men (meant generically to include women also) who practice homosexuality with those who are sexually immoral, again indicating that this is a behavior issue, and not one of genetics. Leviticus 18:22 is also explicit: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” If the Creator God viewed homosexuality as a natural condition akin to skin color, it would never be presented in the Bible as something for which people need to repent in order to receive salvation. For the color of one’s skin is certainly never mentioned in that context.

Deron Biles, professor of Old Testament at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, says: “The question of God’s view of homosexuality is not in question. God has made two things abundantly clear: God loves all people and he hates all sin. God has given us his Word, and his Word is clear. Sin isn’t wrong because I believe what God said, and it’s not right because I disagree. Sin is sin because God said so. You and I don’t have to agree with his standard, but our lack of agreement doesn’t mean he hasn’t said it.”

One of my mentors in the ministry, Dr. Stan Coffey, says it like this: “Gays and liberal theologians often say that Jesus did not say anything against homosexuality. The truth is that Jesus did condemn homosexuality. In Matthew 19:3-8 Jesus stated that marriage was between a male and a female. ‘That at the beginning the Creator made them male and female.’ In the passage Jesus also said that all forms of sex outside marriage don’t fit into God’s perfect plan. That would include homosexuality as well as adultery.”

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