Month: September 2011

Southwestern’s homeschool program begins classes

FORT WORTH—So far, 14 young people are doing a part of their homeschool studies on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. If the vision to help seminary families and homeschooling parents in the community flourishes, more will join them.

“It has been the vision of Dr. and Mrs. Patterson, who have long watched the homeschooling phenomenon and have fought to encourage and support homeschooling parents,” explained Waylan Owens, dean of the Terry School of Church and Family Ministries at Southwestern, which hosts the homeschoolers for classes in secondary school subjects, including math and science, even Latin—a draw for many homeschoolers.

“With the exploding number of homeschooling families, the Terry School is eager to learn from the homeschooling families as we serve them.”

Owens said the program seeks to be a supplementary resource for parents, not a replacement for the education at home.

A homeschooling father himself, Owens said such a program gives parents options as their children reach middle and high school and subjects become more challenging for parents and students.

The program also offers weekly chapel and extracurricular activities as well as a support system for parents.

The Southwestern Homeschool Program offers advanced courses in subjects such as chemistry, algebra, history, Scripture and foreign languages. Educators from the Southwestern Seminary family will teach these courses, and classes will be offered on Monday and Wednesday. Tuition for one class is $160 per semester.

For more information about the Southwestern Homeschool Program, visit the Southwestern Seminary website at swbts.edu/homeschool.

An anti-religion test for the presidency?

Bill Keller, the editor of the New York Times, wants a president who “respects serious science.” This came from a column in which he pledged to ask tough questions about the faith of presidential candidates, particularly the weird ones. His column is part of a larger debate regarding the evangelical beliefs of Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, both announced candidates for the 2012 presidential race, and their “exotic” or fringe doctrines.

Most all of you would not consider the more troubling of Bachmann or Perry’s beliefs that controversial. In fact, the big one, the teaching that Jesus is Lord of all aspects of a Christian’s life is pretty standard in churches that read the Bible.

Mrs. Bachmann set off alarms early in her campaign when she credited Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer with showing her that the various roles and aspects of her life were all part of her devotion to the God who made her. I consider that to be Schaeffer’s core message and Candidate Bachmann got it. Of course the difficulty that follows is that she decided that this biblical insight would affect the way she went about her profession, raised her family, related to her husband, and engaged in politics. I’ll admit it is a radical way to live but the idea is merely Christian.

Francis Schaeffer is an alarming influence because he helped so many influential evangelicals understand that their citizenship is part of their stewardship. He also opened the eyes of many of us to the most extreme expression of our nation’s spiritual corruption—abortion on demand. The engagement of non-Catholics, including Southern Baptists, in the pro-life struggle is based more on Schaeffer’s teaching than on any other single person’s influence. He went further, though. Abortion is the inflamed symptom of a culture increasingly opposed to the truth of God revealed in creation, in his word, and in his Son. The two worldviews are contradictory at their roots; people base their lives on God’s truth or on one of several lies. Thus the fierce battle over the origins of mankind, thus the desperate fight over the value of human life at all stages, thus the guerilla warfare over the indoctrination of our young. It matters very much to the combatants because their convictions flow out of their essential perspectives.

Some few have gone beyond Schaeffer’s message to say that Christians must establish the kingdom of God by means of American politics. A few would advocate a dominion of God’s people that sounds like establishment of a state church. Others use terms and doctrine sloppily so that it’s not clear what they are talking about. The differences between these more extreme people and a mainstream evangelical like Francis Schaeffer are too subtle for some reporters to discern.

Another obstacle to clarity has to do with the several degrees of separation between a candidate’s views and those of his endorsers. Texas is a very lively place for religious dialog between conservative evangelicals. Our state has several types of Baptists, neo-Charismatics, larger and small denominations of many stripes, and thriving para-church Christian ministries. Given the right circumstances, we could argue with each other all day long. There is no way that one person, even a presidential candidate could agree in detail with everyone in this spectrum who might endorse him for president. This diversity was all in one place during the August 6 prayer meeting in Houston. The Response was called by Gov. Perry and scheduled just a few days before he announced his candidacy for president. More than 30,000 people showed up to pray, not campaign. As some of these diverse religious leaders support Mr. Perry’s run for Washington, I expect the secular left to try to force him to disavow in detail every kooky thing that any of these supporters have said or implied, aloud or in print, during the campaign season. Michelle Bachmann is already being pilloried for the viewpoints of those she has never met or even cited as influential.

I think the concerns cited in publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Times are sincere concerns from those who think observant evangelical Christians rare, ignorant, and dangerous. Maybe the level of hysteria they will doubtless engender over the next year is more agenda-driven than sincere but regardless, the presidential ideas of any earnest evangelical Christian will get too little play compared with the real and imagined tenets of their faith. A candidate like John Huntsman who describes himself as a not very religious Mormon is OK. So is a candidate who says he is a Christian but plays golf on Sunday morning. The ones that go to church will be seen as too overtly committed to their religion. That’s nothing but bigotry, and it is, more importantly, not true.

Every president, every governor, every soldier or airman or sailor or marine who’s ever taken an oath to support or uphold our laws or a constitution, is more committed to his religion than he is to those laws or that constitution. It’s true of theists and atheists. Carnal Baptists and observant Jews alike will live out their oaths according to the number one conviction of their lives—that is, their religion. Editor Keller is wrong when he supposes a unique threat from a president who might place “fealty to the Bible, the Book of Mormon … or some other authority higher than the Constitution and laws of this country.” Every president and editor ever born has done that very thing. Keller is comfortable with his own belief system and intolerant of others.

If we can start with that understanding, I think we can have an interesting debate. What a fun time we’d have if a presidential candidate would just come right out and say, “I’m a Mennonite, though functionally atheist, who is ruled by my own appetites,” or “I’m a lapsed Catholic, but generally think that mankind is a valueless, random collection of electro-chemical impulses.” Of course that won’t happen but it’s a dream that we could know the true core beliefs of those who would deal with a thousand situations that none of us can foresee. The American people seem to want political leaders who are far more religious and moral than the celebrities they idolize, and at least a little more religious and moral than themselves. That’s why most sane candidates would never open their souls to the public. Those who have, like Perry and Bachmann, provide a warning to those who are tempted.

I actually agree with those who, perhaps with ill intent, would dig deeply into the religious convictions of candidates. But let’s not give a pass to those who apparently aren’t very committed to any church tradition. All they’ve done is tell us what’s not important to them. Bachmann and Perry have opened themselves up for special scrutiny merely because they’ve claimed to actually practice Christianity. That’s fine, but they aren’t the only ones who live by faith. I think a debate moderator could actually ask a candidate questions about apparent differences between his professed view of ultimate things and his conduct. Why is that less important than other kinds of integrity? Questions of policy are simply outgrowths of a leader’s view of what’s true.

Our culture’s affection for harmless religion, particularly tame Christians, should be a warning to us. Our current age is trying to teach us the acceptable boundaries of our religious devotion. No one minds if we handle snakes (gently), swing from the rafters, or burn incense to a live oak tree on Sunday, so long as we don’t live differently than our neighbors the rest of the week. In fact, we can even practice some faiths during the week, but not evangelical Christianity. That faith is too radical for the opinion makers of our culture to get their heads around. Done right, it is counter cultural and unusual. They are right to suspect that it is a threat to their own view of the world.

But the several false worldviews of our culture are really no threat to God’s truth. So long as we tell the story and are not cowed by the ridicule and misunderstanding of our message, God’s message, we can be at peace that truth is more powerful than the imaginings of a man. We don’t need to shout down the opinions of the lost because we are more confident in our message than they are in theirs.

I don’t know what will happen to the Bachmann and Perry campaigns. I know both of them will not, perhaps neither will, be elected president; this is not an endorsement of either candidate. In fact, I have not voted for and will not ever vote for someone merely because he or she has a credible testimony of faith in Christ. I’ve known many genuine believers that I would not let repair my car or keep my kids. But mark me down as someone who considers it positive when an aspiring leader appears to live according to his professed beliefs. I trust people who don’t consider their religions of record to be incidental details in their resumes. And I suspect that most Americans, God-fearing and not so much, are comfortable with a credible confession of faith in the God that even New York City editors suspect just might be real.

DR volunteers minister amid devastating wildfires

AUSTIN—Disaster relief volunteers with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention continued serving firefighters and displaced residents as colossal wildfires raged on in Bastrop County, east of Austin, and in Montgomery County, north of Houston.

As of Sept. 8, the wildfires, some jumping creeks and ravines and driven by changing winds, had burned more than 35,000 acres and nearly 1,400 homes in Bastrop County alone, displacing 5,000 residents, the Texas Forest Service reported. Some of those evacuees were able to return home, state officials said. That fire was about 30 percent contained.

State officials said the Bastrop County wildfire is the worst on record. Earlier in the week, the charred bodies of two people were found—the only fatalities reported so far there. Meanwhile, in Montgomery County, state officials said 11,000 acres and 75 homes had burned.

About 40 SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers were serving meals and providing showers, at First Baptist Church of Bastrop and at First Baptist Church of Magnolia, said Jim Richardson, the SBTC’s DR director.

“It’s going to be at least a week or more before we can do any clean up work,” Richardson told the Southern Baptist TEXAN. SBTC DR volunteers offer clean-up and recovery, shower ministry and chaplaincy in addition to feeding thousands during disasters.

With low temperatures forecasted around 60 degrees, fire officials were hoping to step up their efforts. But there was concern that if winds picked up, the fires could gain momentum again. Statewide during the first week of September, state officials reported that 1,626 homes had burned in 176 separate fires engulfing a combined 126,000 acres.

Earlier in the week, Richardson urged prayer for the fire victims, the firefighters and the nearby churches. “The churches have the opportunity to share the hope of Jesus during this crisis time. Also, pray for more people to get trained in disaster relief,” Richardson said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry broke from his presidential campaigning on Sept. 6 to tour some of the burned areas by helicopter.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the first responders who are working around the clock to keep Texans out of harm’s way, and with the families across our state who are threatened by these wildfires,” Perry said.

President Obama telephoned Perry on Sept. 7, offering condolences for lives lost and promising federal assistance.

It has been one of the hottest, driest Texas summers on record. Of 254 Texas counties, 250 remained under burn bans, the Texas Forest Service reported.

Attorney: Students have broad religious freedoms in school

PLANO—As a new school year begins, how much freedom do public school students and teachers have to express their religious viewpoints or even share their faith?

A great deal, says Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the Plano-based Liberty Institute, a non-profit organization that promotes traditional values and helps protect religious freedoms.

“In most parts of the country, students enjoy broad First Amendment protection and are allowed to engage in religious speech amongst the students and amongst their friends certainly during all non-instructional time and during all other time as long as it does not cause a material and substantial disruption to the educational activities at the school,” Sasser, an attorney, told the TEXAN.

The standard for “material and substantial disruption” is quite high, he added. Offending people, hurting their feelings or even motivating them to protest does not qualify speech as out of bounds in public schools, Sasser emphasized.

Applying that standard to religious speech allows teachers and students to express their faith in a variety of ways.

PRAYER
Students are free to pray alone and with one another during recess, in the cafeteria, on playing fields and during any other designated free time in the school day, Sasser said.
“Students can pray all that they want to as long as they’re not causing a material and substantial disruption to the school activities,” he said.

Similarly, teachers may pray together as much as they desire during non-instructional time. That includes time in the teachers’ lounge and before and after school.

Teachers are prohibited from leading students in prayer only during instructional time. Once instructional time has ended and teachers are not acting as representatives of the government, they may pray with students, Sasser said.

“A teacher may be constitutionally prohibited from leading a group of school children in prayer in her classroom at 1:59 p.m. and at 2:01 p.m. a school district may be constitutionally prohibited from stopping the same teacher from leading the same group of school children in prayer in her classroom,” he wrote in an article on religious speech in public schools.

EVANGELISM
A similar standard applies to evangelism, Sasser said. Students may share their faith with one another whenever such witnessing does not interfere with instructional time, and teachers may witness among fellow teachers, he said.

“The only issue that would raise an Establishment Clause concern at all would be if teachers were actively sharing their faith with their students in their role as a teacher for the public schools. That would create an issue,” Sasser said.

“It wouldn’t be a problem if those same students happened to be in the teacher’s Sunday School class at the church. Obviously she can evangelize there all she wants. Just by virtue of her being a teacher she is not forever prohibited from evangelizing people, 24-7. She is just simply [prohibited] in her role as a teacher because she’s a representative of the government at that point.”

STUDENT-LED GROUPS
If a school allows other non-curricular clubs to meet on campus, then it must grant the same privilege to a Christian club, Sasser said.

“If they have no non-curricular clubs at a school, then they don’t have to allow a religious club, a Bible club or whatever,” he said. “But if they do have a non-curricular club at school, just one—like the chess club, the crime stoppers club, the dance squad or whatever—if they’ve got something like that, they have to allow the Bible club or the religious club. They have to allow them, and they don’t actually have a choice. That’s a federal statute that was passed almost 20 years ago now.”

A Christian club also must be granted the same access to school resources enjoyed by other non-curricular groups, like making announcements over the loud speaker or using a school bulletin board, Sasser noted.

OUTSIDE GROUPS
Outside groups, like churches, have no fundamental right of access to students during school. However, if a school allows one outside group to access the campus, it must grant the same privileges to all outside groups—provided they are not lewd, vulgar or age-inappropriate, Sasser said.

“If they allow Pepsi Corporation to come in and distribute free Pepsis and Pepsi promotional literature, then certainly the Gideons could show up and distribute free Bibles,” he said. “But if the school said, ‘We’re not going to allow the Gideons or Pepsi,’ then the Gideons would have no right to show up to distribute their Bibles.”

PARENTS
While parents have no special rights to address students during the school day, their right to discuss religion with students on campus is not restricted after school. And parents are always free to talk about religion with other parents—on and off campus, Sasser said.

“There’s no special power associated with the geography of the school. … As long as you’re not interfering with its educational function, you’re fine,” he said.
Additionally, if a school opens its campus for some parents to address students during the day, it must do the same for all, he said.

RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Sasser cautioned that students in Texas may be especially prone to have their free speech rights restricted due to unusual rulings by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appeals court governing Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. More than any other district in the country, the Fifth Circuit gives schools leeway to restrict speech based on its content, Sasser said.

However, the Fifth Circuit’s unusual standards should be overturned if they are ever appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, he said.

If teachers or students find that public schools violate any of their rights, Sasser recommended a process of appeal: First go to the school district directly; then if necessary, take the case to court.

While Christians have no duty to use the court system when their rights are violated, Sasser said there is biblical precedent for it.

When rights violations occur, believers “should do what Paul did when his rights as a Roman citizen were being violated when he was trying to engage in religious speech: He appealed his case through the government process that had been set up to govern over him. He appealed his case to Caesar,” Sasser said.

“And I think if that was good enough for Paul, then that’s the appropriate answer for the rest of us too. And fortunately we live in a free country where we have access to courts.”

2011 NIV removed from Bible Drill options for gender-neutral translation philosophy

GRAPEVINE—Bible drill and speakers’ tournament participants will rely on either the King James Version or Holman Christian Standard Bible when they compete next spring in regional and statewide competition sponsored by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. The decision to drop the New International Version as one of the options resulted from concern that the 2011 NIV translation features extensive gender-neutral language left over from the controversial TNIV, published in 2005.

This shift in translation principles sets a potentially dangerous precedent in biblical interpretation, said SBTC church ministries associate Kenneth Priest, who announced the decision in a letter to pastors. After studying press releases from the NIV’s Committee on Biblical Translation and consulting with Southern Baptist scholars and the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, a recommendation was made against using the new NIV.

The 2011 NIV is an updated translation to both the 1984 edition of the NIV and the later TNIV, which flopped commercially. Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix last June approved a resolution offered from the floor that discouraged use of the new NIV due to gender-neutral translation methodology.

The resolution criticized the alteration of hundred of verses, “erasing gender-specific details which appear in the original language,” adding that the 2011 NIV “has gone beyond acceptable translation standards.”

Since Biblica, which holds the copyright for the NIV, will no longer produce copies of the popular 1984 edition, orders of new Bibles used in drills would rely on the updated version. Priest said he and other state convention leaders would explore whether to expand to a third option other than the NIV in 2013.

The Baptist Faith and Message confessional statement supports complementarianism—the view that the Bible teaches distinct roles in the home and church for male and female, both bearing God’s image and equal in nature and worth.

“Feminists who claim that women can be pastors and elders will find much to their liking in the 2011 NIV because it tilts the scales in favor of their view at several key verses,” observed Denny Burk, associate professor of biblical studies at Boyce College and a former Criswell College professor.

The new NIV also changes “father” to “parent” even though the Hebrew text clearly refers to a father. In other instances, changes diminish the role of the father in Israelite society, Burk argued. “These new NIV verses are not translated as accurately as possible, but they are consistent with the new NIV’s practice of removing male-oriented details of meaning from the text of the Bible.”

A desire to avoid the words “man” and “son” prompts changing Psalm 8:4 from “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” to read, “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”

Noting use of the same phrase in Hebrews 2:8, Burk wrote that “the connection to the New Testament and to Christ is obscured with the new NIV, as it removes male components of meaning from verse after verse.”

Changes to “he” and “him” to “they” and “them” account for the largest category of changes, but causes a difference in meaning. Burk said, “Changing singulars to plurals removes the emphasis in a verse on individual, personal relationship with God and specific individual responsibility for one’s choices and actions.”

While he commends the translation team for changing 933 places where gender-neutral translations were used in the TNIV, Burk said the vast majority of problematic gender renderings from the TNIV are retained in the updated NIV. According to a study by CBMW, 2,766 gender language revisions remain from TNIV to NIV 2011. The complete analysis may be viewed at cbmw.org.

Southern Baptists serving on CBMW include Danny Akin and Daniel Heimbach from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Mary Kassian, R. Albert Mohler and Bruce Ware from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and Dorothy Patterson from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The SBTC’s decision is in line with the findings of the CBMW, Priest said.

“The strongest consideration in weighing the 2011 NIV should be its faithfulness to translate the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic biblical manuscripts into readable modern language without regarding social or doctrinal trends.”

Louisiana Baptist Convention and Georgia Baptist Convention leaders indicated they are also removing the NIV as a translation used in Bible Drill and Speakers’ Tournament.

Kids Beach Clubs taking gospel to elementary campuses after school

EULESS—Land-locked Euless is about as far removed from the beach as a ground-soaking thunderstorm was from just about any part of Texas this summer. But despite the apparent disconnect, the Kids Beach Club, founded in the north Texas city, gives elementary school students the chance to encounter God’s Word on their school campuses.

Kids Beach Club founder Jack Terrell said the program was created to “get outside the walls of the church” and reach the children of his community for Christ. Terrell, who was on staff at First Baptist Church of Euless at the time, began working in 2003 with the Good News Clubs, a ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship. The program connects churches to elementary schools where they host weekly after-school meetings with students on their campuses. Church volunteers use CEF materials that include games, Bible stories, and music.

Terrell called their club “Kids Beach Club.” The name was a spin-off of a popular children’s ministry of FBC Euless called “Treasure Island.” Hundreds of grade-school students met each Sunday “on the island” and the hope, Terrell said, was to draw children from the “beach” at the elementary school to the “treasure” of salvation, and fellowship in a church home for them and their families.

After working with CEF, Terrell wanted to tweak a few elements of the ministry, especially the organization’s prohibition of inviting students to church—a policy Terrell said has since changed. Terrell also wanted to focus the ministry solely to children in third through sixth grade in order to more effectively direct the curriculum and discipline.

The Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District is one of the few Texas school districts that incorporates sixth grade classes into the grade-school campus. Most districts include sixth grade in the intermediate schools.

So in 2006 Terrell, with support from his church, established the Kids Beach Club. The format of the program is similar to the Good News Club but is a high energy introduction into the gospel, he said.

“It’s VBS on steroids,” said Pastor G.J. Walton of North Euless Baptist Church, whose church sponsors a club at a nearby elementary school.

After being in class all day, Terrell said the kids are ready to work off some energy. All of the fast-paced activities are Bible based and designed to draw the students back to Scripture and the treasures found in them.

Five years after establishing the ministry, clubs have opened across Texas and in Georgia and Florida (The Florida club is actually near the beach in Jensen Beach, Fla.).

Linda Colston, part-time pre-school children’s minister at Shady Oaks Baptist Church in Hurst, said the Kids Beach Club provides a tremendous opportunity for churches to incorporate home missions into their overall evangelistic endeavors. Shady Oaks Baptist Church began hosting a Kids Beach Club when the ministry was in its fledgling stage, adding a second school to its outreach two years later. Beginning Sept. 22 the volunteers of Shady Oaks will be on the campuses of Shady Oaks Elementary and Harrison Lane Elementary.

Colston said if it were not for Kids Beach Club, many of the school children would continue to go through their young lives without knowing anything about God because their families do not attend church.

“What I’m seeing there is a good many kids who are not involved in church anywhere. We are spreading the gospel to kids who will not hear it any other way,” said the 20-year children’s ministry veteran.

Many children in the neighborhoods surrounding the schools need love and a sense of stability, Colston added. Kids in their clubs come from broken homes and the message of acceptance and the security of salvation speaks volumes to them, she added.

The influence on the kids was evident to Colston recently on a trip to Wal-Mart. Her shopping was interrupted by shouts of “Miss Linda! Miss Linda! Do you remember me?”
The child, a Kids Beach Club member from the previous year, ran and embraced her.

“We just love on them,” she said.

Once a school board gives approval for a club to meet on the campuses of their district, it is up to the churches to choose which school they will sponsor.

That decision was not at all difficult for the small congregation of North Euless Baptist Church. North Euless Elementary School sits just across the street. Walton said the Kids Beach Club ministry gave his church the opportunity to reach out to families in the working-class neighborhood.

He said his church has built a good working relationship with the school through the ministry.

“The school was very accommodating. They saw us as volunteers who were helping them out,” Walton said.

Upon review of parent registration materials, Walton also saw that there were a good many children without a church home or who attended church on a “regular” basis as defined by the parent. He even noted that two of the students were from Muslim families.

Walton and Colston said students from their respective clubs have attended their Vacation Bible Schools and other outreach ministries. Some of the children’s families receive support from an area para-church organization called 6 Stones, which also began at First Baptist Euless. Shady Oaks and North Euless partner with the ministry, which increases the opportunity for church members to see their Kids Beach Club members outside of club.

But it is in the club where they have the greatest impact. Children have made professions of faith in the clubs, Walton and Colston reported. In a statement posted on the Kids Beach Club website, First Baptist Euless Pastor John Meador said, “Kids Beach Clubs have given us an arm of outreach into the community and a place for people to serve the Lord! This past semester alone, our Beach Clubs saw more than 96 kids accept Christ. We’re working to expand our number of Beach Clubs this year. This is one of the best ministry investments I’ve experienced!”

Taking on the responsibility of hosting a Kids Beach Club does not require a large investment of time and people. Volunteers from both churches have included retirees, stay-at-home moms, and business men. Colston said there is a place for everyone. The 24-week program requires little preparation each week as the Kids Beach Club organization provides lesson plans for each week’s meeting. Time spent on campus, Colston said, is just over an hour. Volunteer training for the ministry is provided by Kids Beach Club.

“Beach Club makes it easy,” Colston added.

Walton said all he needs in volunteers are “people to come in and love on the kids.”

Churches can be local schools’ biggest fans

CARROLLTON—The school principal spotted the sea of blue T-shirts clustered in the middle section of the bleachers. Hollering above the background noise of cheerleaders and students, Carrollton Ranchview principal David Hicks thanked the 160 or so strangers there to cheer on the Wolves football team. He seemed to marvel at the turnout.

He’d heard they were coming to cheer, but not like this.

There at Carrollton ISD’s Standridge Stadium, not nearly a quarter full, sat the crowd from MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, each person wearing a blue T-shirt bearing the message “We cheer for Ranchview” on the front and “MBBC” and a player’s jersey number on the back.

Ranchview High is just down the street from MacArthur Boulevard Baptist and is just inside the Irving city limits, though it’s in the Carrollton-Farmer’s Branch school district. Much like the Valley Ranch area of Irving where the church is, the school is increasingly diverse, ethnically and by social class.

After Hurricane Katrina, the area drew a number of evacuees, some of whom have since joined the church. The school also drew of number of evacuee students, but attendance at football games has been sparse, the church learned last year from a coach who was visiting the church.

“There is affluence in this area, and there is also a mix of low-income housing, singles, young marrieds, different ethnicities from all over the world,” said Darren Mechling, an associate pastor at MacArthur Boulevard Baptist.

When Mechling learned from the coach last year that at one game only 38 Ranchview fans were in the stands (the coach stopped the tape and counted), he had an idea born from a desire to serve the community around them: Why not provide a cheering section of sorts for the football team?

It didn’t take long before 65 families were signed up to show up at home football games, some driving in 15-20 miles from Keller and Grand Prairie. Also, the church plans to serve a pregame meal to coaches and players at the school before four of the five home games this season.

MacArthur has already served a teacher appreciation luncheon, and it hosted a sports camp this summer for kids in the neighborhood, Mechling said.

“I’ve really been excited about how our church family has stepped up,” Mechling added. “This is an area where we have struggled to know how to reach out and minister, and this helps us to exhibit the love of Christ in a tangible way to our community.”

MacArthur’s pastor, Josh Smith, said his church has slowly grown more diverse in his five years there, and getting outside the church walls can only help as it attempts to minister to the community.

“We’ve tried really hard to be multiethnic, and the Lord has really blessed that,” Smith said.

Jamie Brooks, who grew up attending MacArthur Boulevard Baptist and graduated from Irving schools, brought his family—wife Esther and sons Caleb (6) and Zachary (3)—to the game on Sept. 3 against Prosper High School. The family was wearing shirts with the number 9 on the back, the jersey of wide receiver Chris Wimby.

“This is a good way to meet a practical need that [the team] had and to do it in the name of Christ,” Brooks explained.

Before the game and before the second half, church members raised the inflatable tunnel the Ranchview Wolves run through to enter the field, cheering on the team and offering words of encouragement. They needed it.

Down 37-0 at the half, Mechling and another MacArthur Boulevard member consoled an injured player who stood by as his teammates prepared to rally for another half.
Prosper, ranked No. 6 that week in the 3A/2A area rankings by the Dallas Morning News, prevailed, 54-13.

•••

Bill Liggett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Burkburnett, near Wichita Falls, said such outreach to local schools is a great ministry to school district employees, many of whom have to make do with fewer resources and often need a pat on the back or an offer of prayer if they so choose.

A surprising number, Liggett said, take him up on the offer of prayer.

No stranger to public school outreach—the churches he has pastored have hosted kickoff luncheons for school district employees 20 years straight and eight years at FBC Burkburnett—Liggett said such outreach and kind gestures give him and his staff a rapport with the school district, Burkburnett’s largest employer.

When crisis ensues or a need is felt, he is often the de facto chaplain on the scene.

“We don’t abuse that access, but we do have a relationship with the school system because of the love and care we have shown to the administrators, teachers, even the people who work at the bus barn.”

On Aug. 19, the church, with gifts from businesses and school boosters, gave away about $2,500 worth of door prizes to school district employees who showed up for a simple serve-yourself, cold-cuts sandwich luncheon and a rock-paper-scissors tournament. Grand door prize: $1,000 cash. Second place: $600 package to the Gaylord Texan Resort.

“We take written prayer requests. They know I’m the only one who will see them. It’s not something I’m going to hand out to someone else,” Liggett said.

Liggett said he had the opportunity to pray with several teachers and an administrator the week following at their request. Many school district employees are already members of FBC Burkburnett.

And businesses are eager to contribute prizes. In fact, Liggett said not one business turned them down this year.

Also, Liggett is a big fan of Burkburnett High School athletics, even serving as the public address announcer.

During pre-season football, he calls a local grocer a week ahead of time and orders a pallet of watermelons. When they arrive, they load them in a truck and serve the football team all the watermelon they can eat at the end of practice.

“Those players know when watermelon day is and believe me, it’s a hit.”

Liggett said the church tries to extend the same support to local firefighters and police.

An early morning trip to the school bus barn the first week of school, two dozen donuts in hand, afforded him ministry opportunities he wouldn’t have otherwise had, Liggett said.

One conversation was with a guy he would have had difficulty connecting with in a different context.

“He spent 30 minutes talking to me about his recent open heart surgery,” Liggett said. Because of such outreach, “we’re the first entity anybody calls when there’s a need.”

House fire causes pastor to live out his sermon series

BASTROP—The Sunday bulletin for River Valley Christian Fellowship in Bastrop challenged those in attendance to number God’s blessings—“a spouse, kids, job, and a roof over your head.”

Within a few days, at least 11 families from that church and 20 from a sister Southern Baptist church, First Baptist Church of Bastrop, had lost their houses in a catastrophic blaze that spread across the county Labor Day weekend and continued to burn the next week.

As of Sept. 8, wildfires in Bastrop County, southeast of Austin, had destroyed nearly 1,400 homes, the Texas Forest Service reported.

Pastor Cody Whitfill of River Valley and his family were among the thousands of residents evacuated on Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend. In the next two days church members prepared 5,500 hamburgers and over 1,000 tacos for relief workers battling the most destructive wildfire on record in Texas.

After a long day of delivering meals, Whitfill learned the fire had moved within a half mile of his house but had not jumped the road along the subdivision.

“That was a good report,” he said, recalling that he went to bed with the assurance that his house was fine. By Tuesday morning, Sept. 6, he was standing on his property looking at only the ashes that remained.

Much of the pastor’s focus in the pulpit in recent weeks has centered on “suffering well for Christ,” he said. “When I stand up and preach next Sunday the message will be the same—that Christ really is our hope,” Whitfill told the TEXAN. “But I wonder how well that would have stuck had we not gone through this with people who had lost everything in the same way. It will help our witness.”

When the opportunity arose to serve those fighting the fires, the six-year-old church already had experience grilling 500 burgers each Monday night for the homeless, low-income folks and anyone else who shows up on Main Street. Their work through a non-profit ministry formed by members of the church made it easier to be prepared when the need arose to serve relief volunteers.

Whitfill believes their continued demonstration of concern for physical needs will provide an opportunity to care for spiritual needs as well. In the words of his wife, Melinda, speaking to a reporter from KPRC-TV in Houston hours after learning her own house was gone, “This is our community, where we live and we love them. We’re to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

SBTC continues ministry in Bastrop, Montgomery County fires

BASTROP—Disaster Relief volunteers with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention continued serving emergency workers and displaced residents as massive wildfires raged on in Bastrop County, east of Austin, and in Montgomery County, north of Houston.

As of Sept. 8, the wildfires, some jumping creeks and ravines and driven by changing winds, had scorched more than 35,000 acres and nearly 1,400 homes in Bastrop County alone, displacing 5,000 residents, the Texas Forest Service reported. Some of those evacuees have been able to return home, state officials said. That fire was about 30 percent contained.

“It’s going to be at least a week or more before we can do any clean up work,” Richardson told the Southern Baptist TEXAN. The SBTC also fields DR teams for clean up and recovery work during disasters, as well as chaplaincy.

Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry broke from his presidential campaigning on Sept. 6 to tour some of the burned areas by helicopter.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the first responders who are working around the clock o keep Texans out of harm’s way, and with the families across our state who are threatened by these wildfires,” Perry said.

President Obama telephoned Perry on Sept. 7, offering condolences for lives lost and promising federal assistance.

It was one of the hottest, driest Texas summers on record. Of 254 Texas counties, 250 remained under burn bans, the Texas Forest Service reported.