RICHMOND, Va.—Cheryll Harvey will be remembered by those who knew her growing up in the far West Texas town of Sudan as quiet, meek and mild, “a friend for life,” with a good sense of humor.

On Sept. 7, Jordanian authorities announced the arrest of a young Jordanian man in the stabbing murder of the 55-year-old Southern Baptist worker, whose body was discovered in her apartment in Irbid, Jordan on Sept. 4.

Robbery was the apparent motive, officials said.

Harvey, a single woman, served the Jordanian people for 24 years, demonstrating the love of Jesus by teaching English and other subjects in connection with the Jordan Baptist Society.

Robert Roecker, pastor of First Baptist Sudan, said the church is in a “state of shock.” Harvey had visited her childhood church several times since Roecker became pastor, offering slideshows of her work in the Middle East.

A friend of Harvey’s relayed to him that “Cheryl talked about how when she retired she might just stay in Jordan. She just really loved it there and loved the people.”

Ten years ago Harvey founded the ESL language center where she taught in Irbid, Jordan’s second-largest city and home to several universities. The center, which averages between 300 and 400 college students each semester, is so popular that a lottery system is used to determine which students can apply for entrance. Previously, Harvey taught primary school-age children at the Ajloun (Jordan) Baptist School.

Teaching wasn’t just a job for Harvey; it was a passion. Co-workers had to pressure her to take a vacation once in a while.

“God has given me the ability to teach,” she once said—and she used that ability to the fullest. But it wasn’t an end in itself. For her, teaching was a way to express the love of Christ to generations of Jordanian students.

“It’s obvious that they love her because they feel her love for them,” a friend observed.

Despite her relentless work schedule, Harvey made time to connect with her students as a friend and mentor.

“What was so amazing to me about Cheryll was that she could be the director of the center and teach full time and make numerous visits every week [to her students’ homes],” said a colleague. “In my whole life I’ve never known anybody who could pack one day with as much as Cheryll constantly did.”

“Cheryll was greatly loved by both our personnel in North Africa and the Middle East and by her many students,” said IMB President Tom Elliff. “We are faced once again with a sobering reminder of the brevity of life and the importance of faithfully serving the Lord to the very end of our time on earth. Cheryll has left for us a great example that we should follow.

“She … will always be remembered for her quiet and unassuming spirit, as well as her passion for sharing the Good News.”

Harvey was a member of College Heights Baptist Church in Plainview, and grew up attending First Baptist Church in Sudan. Family and colleagues were notified late on Sept. 4. Harvey is survived by two brothers who reside in Texas.  

She received the bachelor of science degree from Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas; the master of arts degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth; and the master of education degree from Wayland Baptist University in Plainview. She taught in several Texas schools before going to Jordan, including the elementary school in her hometown where she'd attended as a girl.

Harvey is survived by two brothers who reside in Texas. Funeral arrangements are incomplete pending the ongoing police investigation of her death.

“As with any event such as this, it is imperative that we remember Cheryll’s surviving family members and friends, and that we lift them up in prayer during these days,” Elliff said. “We best honor her by giving honor to the Lord Whom she so faithfully served.”

Roecker, the FBC Sudan pastor, recalled: “The thing that always astounded us was when you heard her speak she was just a meek and mild person with just a soft voice. It’s not the picture you have in your mind of someone who is on the front lines in Jordan. To have that courage and faith was amazing to us. The folks who knew her here were always saying how surprised they were at what was God was able to do through her.”

LaDelta Vernon, Harvey’s third-grade teacher who would often talk to her while the missionary came home on occasional furloughs, said she always imagined the quiet, well-behaved girl with the distinctive laugh would grow up and raise three daughters. As it turned out, she never married. She was a helper, Vernon said, so her teaching English wasn’t a surprise. That she taught it in the Middle East was, however.

“She was a good student. If she was your friend, she was your best friend. She didn’t talk behind people’s back. She was just a sweet, sweet girl,” Vernon said. “She was doing what she wanted to do, what God called her to do.”

TIRELESS TEACHER

Harvey spent many hours of her own time tutoring Jordanian high school students to pass the high-stakes, comprehensive exams that determine who graduates, who gets into college and what they will study. 

She helped one student struggle through nursing school, even studying medical terms and textbooks to tutor him more effectively. He respected Harvey so deeply that he asked her to visit the family of his prospective bride to help him decide if she would be a suitable wife.

“She had such a gentle and mild spirit,” said a friend. “She was a person that people could come to.”

It was the same with her younger students at the Baptist school in Ajloun.

“Cheryll was known throughout the village,” recalled a co-worker. “She visited in the homes of all of her students. She even showed up at students’ homes when they weren’t expecting her. … Cheryll was all about the people. She spent a large portion of every year visiting her students, making sure that she went into the home of every single student.”

A colleague asked Southern Baptists to pray for the many people touched by Harvey’s life.

“Cheryll was a gentle person who loved Jesus,” he said. “She showed that love to Jordanians, first to the many children she taught in Ajloun and their families and then to those in Irbid as she taught English. … She connected with her people at the heart level. We pray that her witness continues to bear much fruit. … Cheryll’s life has crossed the finish line. She was faithful through the end of this life and to the beginning of her real life.”

—Reporting by the IMB’s Don Graham and Erich Bridges and the TEXAN’s Jerry Pierce

RIDGECREST, N.C.—Accented by news of The Gospel Project Bible study curriculum’s early success, LifeWay Christian Resources trustees heard an encouraging report during their Aug. 27-28 meeting at Ridgecrest Conference Center as product sales in several categories and cost-savings measures improved the bottom line.

The positive forecast will allow for a 3.7 percent increase in next year’s operating budget of $509.5 million.

Noting economic challenges and methodological changes in churches, company President Thom Rainer said, “I have never been more challenged at LifeWay, and I’ve never been more optimistic.”

“For most of our history, LifeWay has been a print organization,” he said. “Now we’re moving rapidly into a time where digital is not just a transitional stage. It is the new reality. Digital resources are where our churches and individuals are and will be.”

Now in its third printing, Rainer said The Gospel Project serves as an example of meeting the needs of churches and individuals. With over 17,000 people downloading the preview material the summer, over 7,000 churches have ordered the three-year systematic curriculum. An estimated 500,000 people will be using the material by the end of the year, LifeWay reported.

Gospel Project general editor Ed Stetzer, a LifeWay vice president, told SBC messengers last June that it answered a request for “something that goes more in depth in theology” while staying within “the parameters of the Baptist Faith & Message.”

“We’re not going to stop with The Gospel Project,” Rainer told trustees. “We’re planning other curriculum launches and re-launches. We’re not going to be satisfied until we’ve brought curricula to the bride of Christ that is deeper and more relevant to churches and individuals.”

Church Resources Division Vice President Eric Geiger told trustees of changes that will occur in two popular curricula as well. With the relaunch of current offerings over the next two years, Geiger said church leaders who prefer different starting points will be able to choose from lines that focus on theology via The Gospel Project, life application with Bible Studies for Life and the text with Explore the Bible.

While all three options will contain the key elements of theology, life application and text, LifeWay is also piloting a customized line described at discipleshipincontext.com to help churches align curriculum with what’s being taught from the pulpit.

GLORIETA STUDY
Rainer spoke briefly of the challenges remaining at Glorieta Conference Center.

“The decision last year to find another owner for Glorieta was very hard,” he said. “We thought we’d found a potential buyer, but there are some questions to be answered theologically.”

He told the TEXAN that LifeWay and prospective buyer Olivet University had agreed on asking the National Association of Evangelicals to serve as a third party to review the theological compatibility of the two entities. Currently, Olivet is renting previously unused facilities at Glorieta for 200 students, faculty and staff.

Concerns were raised about Olivet’s relationships and theology, particularly its association with The Christian Post, an Internet news site which has been criticized by some Southern Baptists and Olivet’s founder, David Jang, who has been accused of teaching beliefs contrary to the gospel. (A Baptist Press article, dated Aug. 17, details the concerns.)

Conversely, Ridgecrest Conference Center is enjoying record occupancy at camps with a waiting list for some age groups reserving space next summer. The 1,300-acre North Carolina campus was the only Christian conference center named among the 15 top properties receiving the 2011 Praise Award from the Religious Conference Manager Association.

B&H PUBLISHING
Rainer said he is encouraged with “the incredible turnaround of B&H Publishing Group, which was once an afterthought but is now a strategic part of our organization”; with LifeWay Research where “pastors can find out what is taking place in churches and the culture”; and, with acquisitions like WordSearch, Student Life and Auxano consulting.

“Our reward is not financial though,” Rainer said. “Our reward is seeing what God is doing in churches and individuals through our resources. It is exciting to wake up every morning and see how LifeWay resources are impacting the bride of Christ.”

ACQUISITION OF STUDENT LIFE CAMP  
LifeWay’s recent acquisition of the Birmingham-based StudentLife, as well as earlier receipt of World Changers and Power Plant from the North American Mission Board, and continued offering of Centrifuge and M-fuge camps, brings their scope of influence to over 130,000 students.

LifeWay’s management of World Changers and Power Plant will eliminate redundancies while increasing efficiencies and economies of scale in the areas of registration, marketing, summer staff recruiting and warehousing of materials, according to a NAMB release.

Many of the World Changers and nearly all of the PowerPlant projects next year will be in NAMB’s Send North America cities including New York City, Indianapolis, Chicago and San Francisco.

SUBSIDIARY FOR CHINA
Trustees addressed a number of business issues during the meeting, including approval of a for-profit subsidiary “to facilitate ministry operations in the country of China.” The new company, to be called LifeWay Global Inc., will help “make Bibles, Bible study materials, training and other expertise available to churches and Christians in China,” according to background information given to trustees.
LifeWay Chief Financial Officer Jerry Rhyne explained that creation of a for-profit subsidiary is necessary because China is not granting registration for not-for-profit companies.

In response to a question from Texas trustee Kenneth Carter, associate pastor of Southcrest Baptist Church in Lubbock, Rhyne assured trustees “dividends from a for-profit company will not jeopardize LifeWay’s tax-exempt status. In fact, it will help safeguard our nonprofit status.”

Creation of subsidiary companies of SBC entities requires approval of the Southern Baptist Convention or the SBC Executive Committee so the issue will be referred to the Executive Committee.

SBC MOTION ON 2011 NIV
LifeWay trustees passed a motion declining to reopen a study of whether to sell the 2011 NIV Bible translation in its LifeWay Christian Stores, over the objections of two trustees—Lynn Snider, director of missions for South Texas Baptist Association in Spring, and Dale Clayton, associate director of athletics at Carson Newman College in Morristown, Tenn.

The action was in response to a motion from Tim Overton of Halteman Village Baptist Church in Muncie, Ind., referred by the 2012 Southern Baptist Convention, requesting that LifeWay reconsider its decision last February to continue selling the updated 2011 NIV translation.

Board chairman Adam Greenway, who chaired the special task force that studied the request, reiterated to trustees what he shared in the spring. “Our decision to make the 2011 NIV available for purchase at these retail outlets does not constitute an endorsement of the 2011 NIV. We endorse what we publish and the translation we publish is the Holman Christian Standard Bible. It does not mean, however, we should not carry the 2011 NIV.”

Greenway described Overton’s motion as a request that “we perhaps expand our horizons,” adding that “perhaps unintentionally the maker of the motion thought we didn’t do due diligence.”

Speaking for the task force, Greenway insisted, “I can assure you we did do due diligence. We heard from voices that would have been very much against us selling the 2011 NIV and those very much in favor of selling the 2011 NIV. No attempt was made to exclude or not consider any relevant or pertinent information to help us, as a board of trustees, do our due diligence in making decisions about products we carry at our retail chain,” he added.

The motion takes issue with public criticism of the 2011 edition, noting, “The translation does not use gender-neutral wording for the names of God and contains no gender changes with respect to God’s name.” With some biblical scholars affirming the translation methodologies used in producing the newer NIV, the motion added that even some who do not prefer that translation agreed LifeWay should provide it as a choice to customers.

Through passage of the motion by a 51-2 margin, the board reaffirmed the earlier decision to “carry the translation alongside other versions of the Bible, while endorsing only the HCSB as our translation of choice.”

Snider told the TEXAN he did not agree with the gender-neutral approach of the NIV translation, a perspective shared by Houston Baptist University English professor Louis Markos, who described gender-neutral language as an “enforced agenda” in an article for the spring 2012 Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

“I didn’t agree with it then,” Snider said in reference to the earlier vote, adding that he intended to cast a negative vote but may have failed to do so since that February vote has been recorded as unanimous in allowing the sale of the 2011 NIV in LifeWay stores. When the chance arose to cast a stand-up vote opposing reaffirmation of the decision, both Snider and Clayton stood at the August meeting.

“I don’t think LifeWay ought to be selling Bibles that aren’t as close to the original autographs as we can get them, though it’s obviously politically correct.”

—Marty King is director of communications for LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Tammi Reed Ledbetter is news editor for the TEXAN.

If there were an effective way to prevent the consequences of every excessive behavior known to mankind, could it make us better people? If you could take a pill that kept cookies from turning to body fat or if you could avoid all the painful consequences of drunkenness, would it change your habits? Is the possibility that lying or rage could shorten your life motivating to you in a way that other negative aspects of those behaviors are not? You may consider these questions rhetorical but many in our society do not consider the answers obvious.

One back-to-school article I read decried a clothing store that marketed shirts mocking drunkenness to kids who cannot legally drink. The reasons the journalist cited for the outrage surrounding this campaign had to do with consequences of drunkenness, increased unprotected sex and drunk driving specifically.

A second article was by a father who hopes, but doesn’t expect, his college freshman will avoid the hard-drinking initiation bashes he believes will pervade the campus to which he has delivered the child. He notes his own youthful excesses in a kind of moral shrug.

I read another article that asserted that lying is harmful to your health. Lying, our credentialed researchers concluded, takes a lot of work and damages relationships. Damaged relationships and the mental stress required to maintain a lie have negative consequences for our mental and physical health. Therefore we shouldn’t do it.

Of course, we know that all kinds of physical risks accompany sexual misconduct. What’s less sure to mature people is that a cure, contraceptive, or cover up will actually make us whole again. But I do think that is the story we’re told endlessly by our cultural spokesmen.

This might work if we are only bodies—a collection of electrochemical stuff that pointlessly cooperates to provide breath and sensation to the whole person. Not even the spiritually dead believe that, though. Thus, we talk about fulfillment, happiness, satisfaction, guilt, love, hope, desire, and all sorts of things not explainable if we are merely physical. What they miss is that if we possess consciousness, keeping the body healthy is not the whole job. Even if the belief is unspoken, we trust that these products of our minds each have an actual object, a focus not imagined. Those who would sell us things or lead us believe this also.

Don’t understand me to be scoffing at somatic idiot lights warning us that we have abused our flesh. Sin has a wear and tear that the Bible refers to often. The literal scars left by sin are reminders of pain that the wise will not wish to repeat. But these scars and regrets are embodiments of the more persistent spiritual toll willful sin takes on any life it touches. First Corinthians 6:16 seems to indicate that sexual immorality cannot be covered by a dose of penicillin or an abortion, even a contraceptive won’t suffice. Read the anguished words of Psalm 51 and then tell me that the ravages of sin are merely external.

How spiritually numb must we be to clothe our 13-year-old daughter in an overpriced t-shirt that announces that she is a member of USA Drinking Team—even if she never actually takes a drink? Drunkenness is only funny if you believe that the way we spend our brief days is of no importance. Is that what you want even your teetotaler kids to understand from the wardrobe you purchase for them?
Paul says that physical exercise is of little importance. He didn’t say “no” importance and he never praises sensual excess. But our motivation to do right is pretty pale if virtue is only in service of a somewhat longer life. In such thinking there is little purpose for those extended years.

What if, as in the case of many Christian martyrs, telling the truth actually shortens your life? Somewhere the Bible tells a story of three young men who found their rejection of idolatry to be risky behavior—the offended king tried to burn them alive. This would seem to argue in favor of lying in word or deed, if the point is to be the last and most beautiful man standing. We were made for more than that. The fact is that most of us will go into eternity with broken bodies, cranky knees, dim eyes, artificial joints, and wrinkled faces. How much worse it will be for those who put all their eggs into the prolonged youth and health basket, because they will every one of them fail miserably.

A casual attitude toward sin will betray us in the worst ways. The reasons we reject immorality, riotous living, and lies must be as eternal as the God who made us unfit for these vices. The reason I counsel(ed) my kids to do right was not entirely based on my desire for them to outlive me in prosperous earthly glory. I was highly motivated by the desire that they surpass me in righteousness, the pursuit of God’s approval. By faith I believe that this is the path of joy that will surely outlast this faithless flesh.

El simple hecho de vivir en este mundo, tarde o temprano vamos a enfrentarnos con conflictos que siempre surgen porque no siempre estamos descuerdo con todas las cosas. En nuestras iglesias cuando llega el tiempo de pintar las paredes o cambiar la alfombra, muchas veces la decisión que se hace divide la iglesia. Unos dirán, “a mí me gusta el color blanco.” y otros responderán con, “a mí me gusta el color azul.” A final la iglesia local decide el color y los que perdieron el voto, se van o peor se quedan dando la lata al cuerpo de Cristo. El conflicto muchas veces produce mal estar entre los hermanos e inclusive hay familias que quedan divididos o amigos divididos y el cuerpo de la iglesia empieza a sufrir.  Siempre se debe buscar una solución del conflicto a través de la Palabra de Dios. Aquí hay unos consejos que se pueden considerar para manejar y resolver conflictos en la iglesia.

• Ataque el hecho, no a la persona. Proverbios 15:1 dice—“La blanda respuesta quita la ira; Mas la palabra áspera hace subir el furor.”
• Sepa perdonar. Proverbios 17:9 dice – “El que cubre la falta busca amistad; Mas el que la divulga, aparta al amigo.”
• Olvide los errores del pasado. Filipenses 3:13 dice—“Hermanos, yo mismo no pretendo haberlo ya alcanzado; pero una cosa hago: olvidando ciertamente lo que queda atrás, y extendiéndome a lo que está delante.”
• Sepa controlar el enojo. Efesios 4:26 dice—“Airaos, pero no pequéis; no se ponga el sol sobre vuestro enojo.”
• Esoja bien el tiempo y las palabras para afrentar el conflicto. Proverbios 15:23 dice—“El hombre se alegra con la respuesta de su boca; y la palabra a su tiempo, ¡cuán buena es!
• Oren juntos acerca de su conflicto. Santiago 5:16 dice—“Confesaos vuestras ofendas unos a otros, y orad unos, para que seáis sanados. La oración eficaz del justo puede mucho.”

Busquemos siempre la unidad en Cristo en nuestras congregaciones. Si todos tenemos nuestra mirada en Cristo, seguro que podemos resolver los conflictos en nuestras iglesias.

SAN ANTONIO—Messengers to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention annual meeting will gather at Castle Hills First Baptist Church in San Antonio Nov. 12-13 under the theme “Hearing & Doing.”

The convention, in its 14th year, is returning to San Antonio, where it last met in 2000, at Castle Hills.

A guest sermon on Tuesday night from Charles Stanley, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta and internationally known for his “In Touch” television and radio ministry, will close the meeting. Stanley served as the Southern Baptist Convention’s president two terms (1984-1986) during a tumultuous period of the SBC’s conservative resurgence.

SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards encouraged Executive Board members to bring fellow pastors and laypersons to the annual meeting. Richards said Stanley’s sermon offers a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to hear “in person one of God’s choicest servants.” The encouragement of other like-minded believers and a celebration of shared ministry through the Cooperative Program are more reasons to attend, he added.

Also speaking during the annual meeting will be SBTC President Terry Turner, pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church, who will bring his message to the convention on Monday night.

David Fleming, pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, will preach the annual Convention Sermon on Tuesday morning, and Richards will bring his report on Tuesday afternoon.

During the annual meeting, voting messengers nominated to represent their churches will adopt an annual convention ministry budget, approve resolutions on social and theological issues, and conduct other business.

The annual meeting is preceded by a Crossover evangelism outreach the Saturday before the convention and the SBTC Bible Conference, held Sunday night and Monday at the host church.

The theme of this year’s Bible Conference is “Forged by Fire,” taken from Isaiah 43:2, 1 Peter 1:6, 2 Corinthians 4:7, and Jeremiah 20:9.

Bible Conference speakers will include Rudy Gonzales of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s San Antonio campus, and pastors Danny Forshee of Great Hills Baptist Church, Austin, Robert Webb of Calvary Baptist Church, Kaufman, Tony Mathews of North Garland Baptist Fellowship, Garland, Tom Pennington of Countryside Bible Church, Southlake, and Ronnie Floyd of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas.

The President’s Luncheon on Tuesday will feature Frank Page, president of the SBC Executive Committee.

For additional information, visit sbtexas.com/am12.

BATON ROUGE, La.—Disaster relief volunteers from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention were responding to needs in Louisiana a week after floods from Hurricane Isaac inundated the coast and southern portions of the state. Those trained in mud-out recovery, damage assessment and chaplaincy were working side by side in Baton Rouge and in Franklinton, La.

The SBTC teams were scheduled for four weeks of ministry there, with a new team deploying weekly.
Forty-seven SBTC volunteers trained in mass feeding, cleanup and recovery, water purification, shower and laundry ministry, childcare, and communications were being housed at First Baptist Church of Franklinton, La., and Zoar Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, SBTC DR Director Jim Richardson said.

Especially devastated by floodwaters were mobile home owners, he said. “We’ll be helping them remove furniture and trying to recover their belongings,” he added.

Rains from the hurricane, which made landfall in southern Louisiana on Aug. 29 and dumped torrential rains on Louisiana and Arkansas while moving north, caused the evacuation of an estimated 60,000 people along the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts and left 1 million people without power, news reports said.

Flooding ranged from 12 feet in Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, where waters surged above a levee, to a foot of water in Slidell, northeast of New Orleans, officials reported. Heavy rains followed a path north into Arkansas and far eastern Texas and southeast Oklahoma.

Also, an SBTC DR shower unit was ministering at a shelter at Faith and Grace Church in Houston in the days following the flooding.