Cuando hablamos de la iglesia muchas veces pensamos en un edificio o en un local. A través de los siglos en muchos países cuando uno hace referencia a una iglesia siempre se piensa inmediatamente en un templo, una catedral o en una basílica. La verdad es que en la palabra de Dios, la iglesia no es un edificio sino que son aquellos que han aceptado a Cristo como Señor y Salvador de sus vidas. Se puede decir que los creyentes forman y son parte del cuerpo viviente de Cristo aquí en la tierra.  La palabra iglesia proviene del griego ekklesia que significa “los llamados” y en el Nuevo Testamento la palabra iglesia se usa 115 veces. Vemos en Efesios 1:22 y 23 que nos dice: “y sometió todas las cosas bajo sus pies, y lo dio por cabeza sobre todas las cosas a la iglesia, la cual es su cuerpo, la plenitud de Aquel que todo lo llena en todo.” También vemos en Efesios 5:25 al 29 como Pablo habla de la iglesia comparándola a los maridos y a las esposas: “Maridos, amad a vuestras mujeres, así como Cristo amó a la iglesia, y se entregó a sí mismo por ella, para santificarla, habiéndola purificado en el lavamiento del agua por la palabra, a fin de presentársela a sí mismo, una iglesia gloriosa, que no tuviese mancha ni arruga ni cosa semejante, sino que fuese santa y sin mancha. Así también los maridos deben amar a sus mujeres como a sus mismos cuerpos. El que ama a su mujer, a sí mismo se ama. Porque nadie aborreció jamás a su propia carne, sino que la sustenta y la cuida, como también Cristo a la iglesia.” La iglesia no es un club o una organización social, es un cuerpo viviente.

La verdad es que la iglesia no es una institución como un hogar, un estado o una escuela; por eso la iglesia nunca debe ser llamada una institución.  Es un organismo que es caracterizado por una vida espiritual.

Es algo viviente y dinámico. Nos hacemos miembros de su cuerpo por lo que Cristo hizo por nosotros; no por lo que nosotros hemos hecho. Nosotros no podemos crear la iglesia; es el cuerpo de

Cristo y simplemente somos añadidos a ella. La iglesia es compuesta de creyentes en Cristo que saben que tienen una vida eterna por medio de Él. La iglesia es una congregación o una asamblea de los fieles listos para servir y adorar al Dios vivo.

Se dice de un pastor que recibió malas noticias una noche sobre su iglesia. Le informaron: “Hemos venido para decirle que hubo un incendio en su iglesia esta noche y todo fue destruido. No quedó nada.”

El pastor replicó inmediatamente y dijo: “Si mi iglesia se quemó, se tenía que haber quemado los cien miembros. ¿Fue así?” Respondiendo dijeron: “Ninguno de sus miembros se quemaron.” El pastor concluyó diciendo, “Así es, lo que se quemó esta noche no fue la iglesia, fue el edificio. Pronto la iglesia edificará otro edficio.”

Beginning in September 2012, Texas Southern Baptist churches offering Royal Ambassador (RA) and Challenger programs will no longer be able to order their missions materials through the North American Mission Board. 
Responsibility for the historic missions education program created for boys in grades 1-12 has been shifted to the Woman’s Missionary Union, the SBC auxiliary group credited with developing the program in 1908. 

According to an April press release, the WMU will “assume responsibility for resourcing for RA and Challengers with mission education” as part of NAMB’s organizational overhaul. Previous responsibility for RAs rested with the missions education area of NAMB’s communications group, which has developed the missions curriculum since 1997. Prior to that the former Brotherhood Commission had the task.

Former pastor Steve Heartsill has been tapped as managing editor for the resource as well as liaison between WMU and NAMB. Heartsill serves as WMU design editor of the missions leader resource team. 

In the April release, national WMU Executive Director Wanda S. Lee said she is excited about the coming changes and what they will mean for local churches. 

“With WMU producing these materials, it will be so much easier for churches to order all their missions education resources from just one place—WMU,” Lee said. 

In a written response to the TEXAN, Mike Ebert, vice president for communications at NAMB, said the entity looks forward to working with the national WMU to bring RAs to new churches while continuing to serve churches that have faithfully offered RA programs throughout the years. 

“National WMU has assured us that they will work with any church that wants to bring RAs to its congregation,” Ebert said. 

However, the re-organization might prove difficult for churches uniquely affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, one of two state conventions lacking a working relationship with the long-time women’s missions auxiliary. 

Because current WMU bylaws restrict the SBC auxiliary from having more than one relationship with conventions in any given state, it does not recognize the SBTC as a working partner in missions. Consequently, Texas WMU materials exclusively feature Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) missions. 

Housed in offices of the BGCT, Texas WMU promotes and hosts web content for BGCT mission projects and the BGCT’s state offering (Mary Hill Davis) on its new website. In-state training opportunities and mission camp opportunities typically focus on these same priorities.

Despite the lack of partnership between the SBTC and WMU, Tiffany Smith, SBTC missions mobilization associate, said that dually or uniquely aligned SBTC churches may still order missions education materials by contacting both SBTC and national WMU offices.

“Although the SBTC is not recognized by the WMU, this should not in any way hinder the church’s ability to have a WMU program,” Smith told the TEXAN after WMU released news of the re-organization. 

And although the reorganization of responsibility over RA material compounds the long-standing problem of no relationship between WMU and the SBTC, Jim Richards, SBTC executive director, said he would still like to see a relationship established.

“My goal for the WMU-SBTC relationship is for the WMU to recognize the SBTC as a state convention. In doing so, I would want the WMU to allow the women of the SBTC churches to elect a WMU president and have a place on their board,” Richards said. “In essence I simply want the SBTC to be afforded the rights and privileges that any other state convention has in their relationship with the WMU.”

After news of the shift of RA responsibility was released, the TEXAN contacted the national WMU for clarification regarding its position toward SBTC churches. In an e-mailed response to the TEXAN, Julie Walters, corporate communications team leader of the national WMU, maintained that WMU focuses on resourcing churches with missions materials. 

“While we resource the churches, we also partner with all Baptist state conventions equally for the purpose of resourcing churches with Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offering materials,” Walters said. “As Wanda [Lee] has communicated in the past, we relate on a state level with state WMU organizations. To say that we don’t ‘recognize’ the SBTC sounds like we ‘recognize’ all conventions and are singling the SBTC out. That is not true. Again, we desire to resource any church—regardless of their affiliation—with missions education resources.”

The WMU has also withheld a relationship with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV). 

NAMB’s Ebert told the TEXAN he understood the shift in responsibility could intensify tensions arising from the lack of relationship between the WMU and dual-convention states. 

“We can’t anticipate every scenario, so we look forward to helping resolve any specific challenges a church might have as we enter this new partnership,” he said.

Yet despite no formal relationship between the WMU and the SBTC, Ebert said NAMB would like “to see more churches and more boys participating in RAs.”

“NAMB has a long history of working well in dual-convention states,” he said. “In Texas, we helped coordinate efforts last year with GPS: God’s Plan for Sharing, the evangelism emphasis in which both state conventions participated. The same was true in 2007 for Crossover San Antonio. And we work with both state conventions to help coordinate national disaster relief responses.”

The SBTC’s Smith emphasized that additional resources for missions education are available for churches that opt for other missions education programs. 

“We have vision trips throughout the year to mobilize churches in missions and we work with Paula Hemphill and ‘Kingdom Women’ at the IMB.” Smith said. “In addition, we have created materials and lessons to be dropped into ongoing missions curriculum or AWANA.”

For more information regarding SBTC missions education resources, call Tiffany Smith toll-free at 877-953-7282 (SBTC) or e-mail her at tsmith@sbtexas.com.

AUSTIN—Gov. Rick Perry on May 19 signed a bill requiring most women seeking abortions in Texas to undergo a sonogram at least 24 hours prior to the procedure and to hear a description of the baby’s physical features. It passed both chambers of the Texas Legislature on May 5.

House Bill 15 gives a woman the option of seeing her unborn baby and requires the person performing a sonogram—a physician or certified sonographer—to describe the dimensions of the baby and the existence of the baby’s arms, legs, and internal organs, including a heartbeat. 

Women living in counties of fewer than 60,000 people or beyond 100 miles of an abortion facility and those in a life-threatening medical emergency are exempted from the 24-hour waiting period. Rural women would instead have to wait only two hours. Also, in cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormality, women could refuse hearing the verbal description from the sonogram.
  
In January, Perry placed the bill on emergency status at the start of the legislative session, which gave it priority consideration over other bills. It became effective upon signing.

Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, was chief sponsor of the House version, with state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, sponsoring the Senate version.

Patrick told the TEXAN in April that a few pro-life groups criticized the bill as not stringent enough, but it got support from Liberty Institute, Texas Right to Life and Eagle Forum. 

It was roundly opposed by abortion rights groups, who claim it violates doctor-patient privacy. The Texas Medical Association opposed the bill, arguing that it not only “sets a dangerous precedent of legislation prescribing the details of the practice of medicine, but it also clearly mandates that physicians practice in a manner inconsistent with medical ethics.”

But Miller told reporters: “House Bill 15 will protect human life, the lives of the unborn victims of abortion, as well as those facing life-changing decisions. … This legislation will save numerous unborn lives.”

After it passed the Senate, Perry said in a statement: “The Texas Senate has taken admirable action today by passing this significant sonogram legislation, and I want to thank Rep. Sid Miller and Sen. Dan Patrick for their work on this issue. Ensuring Texans have access to all the information when making such an important decision is a critical step in our efforts to protect life, and I look forward to this legislation reaching my desk very soon.”

A similar bill passed last year in Oklahoma is in limbo, awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, based in New York City.

DALLAS—Full-tuition scholarships are being offered by Criswell College to children of career missionaries employed by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, according to an announcement May 20 by Jerry A. Johnson, president of the Dallas-based school.

“We want to partner with our missionaries by continuing the training they have given their children, providing them with a solid college education that emphasizes Scripture, theology, missions, evangelism and the Christian worldview,” Johnson stated at the Richmond, Va., meeting where IMB trustees had gathered.

“We had been praying about a way that we might thank and encourage those who daily give so much to the Lord and his work,” Johnson said, adding that the “Great Commission initiative” will begin with the fall 2011 semester. Any children of career missionaries employed by the IMB will receive a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to enroll in an undergraduate degree program at Criswell College. “It is also our hope that we might demonstrate to those belonging to the SBC that we are committed to the Great Commission Resurgence and will do what we can to advance this vision,” Johnson emphasized.

In addition to applying and being accepted to Criswell College, any student who wishes to receive this scholarship must provide the Criswell College business office with a letter signifying their parents’ involvement with IMB. “They will then have free reign to benefit from all Criswell College has to offer,” said Joe Thomas, director of admissions.

IMB trustee chairman Jimmy Pritchard, who also chairs the Criswell College board and pastors First Baptist Church of Forney, Texas, said he expects the offer of a tuition-free education will benefit more than just the “missionary kids.”

“This is such a positive opportunity for everyone involved. It is positive for our missionaries in that it provides great financial relief in their kids’ education, and it is an education that is of the highest quality available anywhere. It is positive for Criswell College in that it is a service to our Lord and these MKs who come to Criswell will enhance and bless the school. I am excited about this development.”

IMB President Tom Elliff expressed gratitude for the new initiative, stating, “It is always such an encouragement when one of our excellent Baptist institutions affirms their love and support for missions in this manner. Thank God for this decision.”

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—Throughout the month of May, SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers joined Southern Baptists from around the country to assist victims of the F5 tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 27. 

The mile-wide tornado tore through neighborhoods, damaging hundreds of homes and taking dozens of lives. As is typical of tornadoes, when DR teams arrived on May 1 they noted that some neighborhoods seemed untouched. Businesses were open and life went on much as usual. A block away, however, all that remained of some homes were foundation slabs.

Jim Howard, pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Atlanta, Texas, served as the “white cap” in charge of the SBTC teams working in Tuscaloosa. Howard and four other men had been attending a DR training when the call came to head to Alabama. The three-day climbing training perfectly prepared them for the work ahead. Trainees had learned to use climbing equipment safely to scale trees for chainsaw work. A large part of the recovery included chopping up uprooted trees and those that fell on homes or strewn across yards.

“We were able to go immediately to Alabama and start using those new skills,” Howard said. “It was incredible how that worked out.”

As the white cap, Howard was the first Texan on site to assess the damage and begin processing work orders. The first of the teams arrived and began work two days later. Volunteers were assembled into an operations team, a feeding team and two chainsaw teams. According to Howard, the teams were larger than usual due to the scope of the damage.

Trailer house frames wrapped themselves around buildings and trees. Mangled cars lay where the twister scattered them. Trees not entirely uprooted stood, stripped of their branches.

“The trees in that area are huge,” Howard said, “and dangerous. One tree had fallen on top of another in one backyard. We had to hold the tree up while we were cutting it. As we cut one section, a 14-foot limb came crashing down and we had to jump out of the way. So the work can be dangerous.”

Now, the nearly month-long DR marathon is coming to an end. For 20 grueling days an average of 60 volunteers were working. Volunteers rotated in and out of Tuscaloosa in five-day shifts trying to help as many people as possible without spreading themselves too thin. With approximately 80 work orders completed, Texas relief teams planned to finish their operations by May 20, leaving the few remaining work orders to be completed by Alabama teams. But, Howard acknowledged, for the people suffering through this tragedy, the recovery process will continue long after the DR teams go.

“It will take at least a year for them just to get back to a place where they’re on track again,” Howard said.

Recovery also includes emotional trauma. Volunteers recalled story after story of heartbreak and human loss. With no time to grieve, many of these were already back at work only days later, struggling to support the survivors.

Many of those the volunteer teams talk to were Christians; others were weighing what they believed.

“We had a conversation with one family wondering why this happened,” Howard recalls. “We were able to tell them that when sin entered the world, it not only affected man, but also the whole of creation. We told them that since that time all of creation groans and will groan until Christ’s return. I think we were able to help them understand that this was not caused by God, but it was caused by sin.”

The greatest contribution Howard hopes to make in the victims’ lives is that of hope. That is the real gift teams give as they cut up trees, haul off debris, and provide warm meals. 

“The bottom line is that we want everything we do to bring glory to God,” Howard said.

SBTC Disaster Relief director Jim Richardson said the Alabama tornado is proof even more DR volunteers are needed for large-scale disasters.

“We’ve had enough volunteers to deal with it all,” Richardson said, “but we’d like to double our number in the next couple years. We’d like churches to see the SBTC as an extension of their local ministry. We’re going to continue to recruit volunteers and push training.”

For more information on volunteering for DR ministry, contact Richardson by e-mail at jrichardson@sbtexas.com or by phone at 940-704-9346. You may donate to SBTC Disaster Relief online by credit card or writing a check to “Disaster Relief.” All funds go directly toward current or future disaster relief efforts. Checks should be mailed to the SBTC office at P.O. Box 1988, Grapevine 76099-1988.

NAZARETH, Israel (BP)–Flat-roofed houses still dot the Nazareth skyline like they did in Jesus' time, but these days they're covered with satellite dishes.



A good bit has changed since Jesus grew up in the Galilean city. But one thing rings true across the years: Christ's hometown still needs His peace, said Charles Tyson*.



“People think of Israel, and they automatically think of biblical Israel instead of the modern-day political state of Israel,” said Tyson, a Southern Baptist worker in Israel. They don't realize that Israel is a diverse nation of many different ethnic populations, he explained.



The residents of Nazareth — including the members of Israel's first Baptist church, planted 100 years ago — are Arabs, not Jews, even though Israel is majority Jewish. The Word is preached today in Arabic at Nazareth Baptist Church, just as the church's first sermon was preached decades before Israel was a nation.



Today in the town of 80,000, roughly 80 percent are Muslim, 20 percent are Christian by background and a tiny sliver of that number are evangelical believers in Jesus.



It's that way even though Christians have had strong roots in the town since Jesus' day. Two churches — including the Church of the Annunciation, the largest church in the area — claim to be on the place where Gabriel told Mary she would bear God's Son.



“Even in Nazareth where we've had a Christian presence for a long time, it's hard for Arab Muslims to see what a Christian is,” said Adam Roberts *, a Southern Baptist worker in Israel. “We want to show them that it's not just our identification or our background. Our faith … transforms our whole life in Christ.”



It's slow work to overcome religious barriers, but workers are still tending the mission field where Baptists began planting spiritual seeds in 1911, Roberts said. One way he's doing this is through his work at Nazareth Baptist School, where he teaches Bible to teens. About 20 percent of the K-12 students are from a Muslim background, he said.



“The parents in the community respect the high academic reputation of the school to the degree that they are willing to accept that their children will be taught about the Bible,” Roberts said. “Because of this, I'm able to talk openly about the Gospel.”



“Openly” is a bit of an understatement — he said he's shared the Gospel more in one year at the school than he did in several years of youth ministry back in the States, he said.



“I encourage them to speak freely about their questions and their own faith and talk about where our beliefs are different,” Roberts said. “I tell them if we fall to the temptation to say we are the same, we are robbing both of us of important aspects of our faith. It's good to talk about what we share, but it's also good to discuss where we are different.”



Roberts asked for believers to pray:



— for the 1,000 students who attend the Baptist school in Nazareth.



— that the school will find qualified teachers who are Christ followers.



— that churches in the United States will partner with the school, leading a week of chapel at the school or partnering in other types of work.

–30–

*Names have been changed. Ava Thomas is an International Mission Board writer/editor based in Europe.

WASHINGTON (BP)–The U.S. Navy rescinded May 10 its permission for chaplains to perform “same-sex marriage” ceremonies on base when the ban on open homosexuality in the military is lifted. The switch came after members of Congress charged the change in policy violates the federal Defense of Marriage Act.



Chief of Chaplains Rear Adm. Mark Tidd reversed course after his April 13 memo became publicized May 9 and drew a sharp rebuke from more than 60 representatives. Tidd said late May 10 he was suspending his authorization “pending additional legal and policy review” and enhanced cooperation with other branches of the military, according to The Washington Post.



News media coverage and the outcry from Congress caused armed forces lawyers to review Tidd's memo, a Pentagon spokesman acknowledged, according to The Post. “That raised the issue, so the [Navy] legal counsel looked at it and determined it needed further review,” Col. Dave Lapan said.



In his April memo, Tidd authorized Navy chaplains to officiate at on-base, same-sex ceremonies in states where such unions are allowed. He also said naval base facilities “may normally be used to celebrate the marriage” if the base is in a state that has legalized “same-sex marriage.”



Sixty-three members of the House of Representatives complained to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus after Tidd's memo was revealed. Led by Rep. Todd Akin, R.-Mo., the representatives said they “find it difficult to understand how the military is somehow exempt from abiding by” the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). 



DOMA, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, defines marriage in federal law as being between a man and a woman and empowers states to refuse to recognize another state's “gay marriages.”



“Offering up federal facilities and federal employees for same-sex marriages violates DOMA, which is still the law of the land and binds our military, including chaplains,” the House members told Mabus in a May 6 letter.



Akin said in a statement released May 9 with the letter, “While a state may legalize same-sex marriage, federal property and federal employees, like Navy chaplains, should not be used to perform marriages that are not recognized by federal law.”



On May 11, Akin was expected to introduce amendments in the House Armed Services Committee to the yearly Defense authorization bill that would ban military chaplains from performing “same-sex marriages” and bar the use of armed services facilities for such ceremonies, according to The Post.



After Tidd's memo was publicized, a Navy spokeswoman told the Navy Times chaplains would not be required to perform “gay marriages.”



The Navy's initial response to the House complaint actually made things worse, said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. In his reaction to news of the memo, Perkins cited a Navy statement, which he said included: “If the chaplain declines to personally perform the service, then the chaplain MUST facilitate the request … “



Perkins said, “That's a big leap from simply allowing the ceremonies to take place. As much as the weddings violate DOMA, the referral order is a direct assault on the freedom of conscience. And it it's enforced, it could be what drives evangelical chaplains out of the military altogether.”



If the Navy proceeds with a policy change for its chaplains, it will not take effect until President Obama, as well as the secretary of Defense and the chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, certify that terminating the prohibition on open homosexuality will not harm the military. 



Don't Ask, Don't Tell barred homosexuals from serving openly but also prohibited military commanders from asking service members if they are homosexual or about their “sexual orientation.” 



Critics of the new law terminating Don't Ask, Don't Tell have warned it will result in infringements on religious liberty, as well as harm to the readiness, privacy and retention of service members.

–30–

Compiled by Tom Strode, Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press.

BEIJING (BP)–At least 13 members of a Beijing church were arrested Sunday, May 8, in the fifth straight week of its defiance of the Chinese government, which continued to force people out of their homes in an effort to pressure the congregation.



One family learned they were being kicked out of their home at 6:40 Sunday morning, before the service even began. 



The high-profile clash between the government and Shouwang Church — one of the largest unregistered illegal churches in Beijing — has led to hundreds of house arrests or detentions. More than 500 church members were placed under arrest on Easter weekend alone, prevented from leaving their houses or apartments.



ChinaAid, a U.S.-based organization that monitors religious freedom in the country, said the government, as in previous weeks, continued “rendering church members homeless by pressuring their landlords to evict them.”



Shouwang Church itself is homeless, having lost its meeting space when the government pressured the owners of a restaurant — its last home — to kick out the church. The church also has tried to rent space, only to see various landlords pressured not to cooperate.



Each week during the past month, the church has tried to worship at a public site in Zhongguancun in northwest Beijing.



Churches in China are legal only if they register with the government and join what is known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. But ChinaAid founder Bob Fu, in an interview with Baptist Press, said churches have a solid, biblical reason for refusing to register with the government. 



“Fundamentally,” Fu said, “the number one reason is focused on who is the head of the church? Is it the Communist Party, the Chinese government or Jesus Christ alone? The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is nothing but a political organization with a religious uniform. All the leaders are appointed by the Communist Party, the United Front Work Department and the State Administration for Religious Affairs, and they are salaried. And many of the leaders are also Communist Party members. 



“Secondly, once you join the government-sanctioned church, you lose pretty much all the freedom of evangelism. There are lots of limitations and rules that will forbid you to do any evangelism outside of the four walls of the church building. You can't baptize anybody under 18 years old, you're forbidden to have a Sunday School. There are fundamental differences.”



More than 160 were arrested the first week Shouwang tried to meet outdoors, about 50 were arrested the second week, approximately 40 on the third week and about 30 on the fourth week. The declining number of arrests likely is due to the government placing so many other members under house arrest, which prevents them from even leaving their homes.



Included in the latest round of arrests was a woman who is a member of another illegal church, New Tree House Church. She showed up at the outdoor site to show solidarity with her fellow believers, ChinaAid reported.

–30–

Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press.