Month: September 2021

FIRST-PERSON: The Bible is God’s Word

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Words matter. Without them, we cannot make claims or delineate truths. Sometimes, the claim we want to make or the truth we want to delineate focuses on just a single word. Indeed, a recent article illustrates the importance of the very word, “word.”

On Sept. 16, Baptist News Global published an opinion piece in which columnist Terry Austin argued that “the Bible is not the Word of God;” only “Jesus is the Word of God.” He made some of the same arguments that were a central motivation for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Conservative Resurgence several decades ago. I responded to the article with a tweet, noting the article is a reminder of why a high view of Scripture is the first non-negotiable pillar of our big-tent vision for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Bible is the Word of God written down, and Jesus is the Word of God incarnate, I noted.

Mr. Austin later responded to my tweet and essentially said that our tent is not big enough. On that point, we agree. The Southwestern Seminary tent is not big enough for people who deny that the Bible is the Word of God, instead affirming it only as the words of men. The Bible is not merely a record of how ancient men believed they encountered God experientially that somehow God can use today in a neo-orthodox or mystical way. Contra Austin’s assertion, the Bible is a collection of God’s words to us, not just a collection of words about God.

Mark Wingfield, publisher of Baptist News Global, took note of my tweet, writing:

In case you’ve forgotten what the two-decade battle within the Southern Baptist Convention was about, our columnist, Terry Austin, stirred up the old debate with a piece he wrote this week about Jesus being the Word of God, not the Bible. … You’ll recall that it was this very issue—the 2000 version of the doctrinal statement removed a line about Jesus being the criterion by which the Scripture is interpreted—that caused many of us to finally break away from the SBC and its new devotion to Bible worship.

Obviously, affirming the Bible as the Word of God is not akin to worshiping the Bible. But Mr. Wingfield adds that in the Baptist News Global style guide: “We refer to the Bible as the ‘word’ of God, meaning it is the written word of God, but we refer to Jesus as the ‘Word’ of God, the incarnate spoken presence of God.”

Mr. Wingfield’s statements remind me of two things.

First, the important theological issues at stake in the year 2000, when I had the privilege of being in Orlando as a messenger to the historic SBC annual meeting where the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) was revised. It was there, of course, where the long-disputed wording about Jesus being the “criterion” by which the Bible is to be interpreted was clarified. I was a student at Southwestern Seminary then, and I remember vividly being in the meeting hall during the BFM debate when a Texas pastor declared that the Bible was “just a book.” It is worth remembering that the original BFM adopted in 1925 did not include the criterion sentence. Indeed, it was added in 1963 specifically to rebut claims about the Bible coming out of the Elliot Controversy—a harbinger of the Broadman Bible Commentary controversy just a few years later. Garth Pybas, a member of the 1963 BFM revision committee, later went on record that the criterion statement was included precisely to refute claims of the Bible being just an error-filled book written by men. Unfortunately, because the criterion language was often used by some leaders and professors in Convention life to drive a wedge between Jesus and the Bible, claiming that the former, but not the latter, is the Word of God, clarification was necessary again in 2000.

The desire behind a broader interpretive understanding in 1963 is made clear in a 2004 doctoral dissertation by A.J. Smith. Through extensive research, Smith discovered that the original draft language of the criterion sentence was more expansive: “the person, work, and teachings of Jesus Christ.” After reviewing that language, Dale Moody, theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, replied that the phrase “teachings of Jesus” should be struck as it was “already being used by fundamentalists to prove that Moses wrote all five books of the Pentateuch … the unity of the book of Isaiah … and the Exile date for Daniel.” He knew the original draft language would undermine what many of his faculty colleagues were already teaching, and argued (successfully) that it should be reduced simply to “is Jesus Christ,” thereby allowing interpretive latitude for those whose trajectory was ultimately to separate Jesus from the Bible as “the Word of God.”

Second, I am reminded of the claims made after the 2000 SBC Annual Meeting by some dissenters to the updated confessional language removing the criterion sentence and replacing it with the affirmation, “All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.” Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, former Woman’s Missionary Union executive secretary and early leader with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, was quoted at the 2000 CBF general assembly saying that “Southern Baptists have the Bible as their authority while the CBF has Jesus as theirs.” Such a sentiment is utter nonsense. What Jesus is she referencing? The Jesus of Scripture. There is no true knowledge of Jesus apart from that which we find in the pages of the Bible. It is a fool’s errand to pit Jesus and the Bible against each other. Her sentiment, however, demonstrated the deep divide between conservatives and moderates at the time.

The 2000 debate about the Bible was the crescendo of the Conservative Resurgence, which worked to clarify unambiguously where Southern Baptists stood on this critical issue. The Bible is the Word of God, and here we stand with clarity and conviction. Not a single person on the faculty of Southwestern Seminary today believes otherwise, and I am confident the same is true of our five sister SBC seminaries. All Southern Baptists can and should have confidence that the same convictions fought for in the Conservative Resurgence are maintained today. There is not and should never be any liberal drift related to the inspiration, authority and sufficiency of the Bible as the written Word of God. Because, after all, words do indeed matter.

Reach Texas sees record giving

Southern Baptists in Texas contributed to the annual Reach Texas state missions offering in record-setting fashion, SBTC Executive Director Dr. Nathan Lorick announced Monday via Twitter.

This year’s Reach Texas offering came in at $1,527,969 — exceeding the statewide challenge goal by nearly a quarter-million dollars. The figure also exceeded last year’s giving total by $239,000.

"The churches of the SBTC continue to be incredibly generous and have a strong desire to see the gospel advance across Texas.”

Nathan Lorick, SBTC Executive Director Tweet

“The churches of the SBTC continue to be incredibly generous and have a strong desire to see the gospel advance across Texas,” Lorick said. “We absolutely believe that God is going to use this offering to further His kingdom through the missional ministries of the SBTC. Great days are ahead.”

Reach Texas giving is collected year-round, but churches participate in a Week of Prayer and offering emphasis during the month of September. One hundred percent of Reach Texas giving is spent on missions and evangelism strategies, including disaster relief and church planting.

The next SBC missions offering is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which supports international missions efforts. The Week of Prayer for the offering will be November 28-December 5.

SBTC to host summer 2022 Israel trip for pastors

GRAPEVINE—The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is providing a rare opportunity for its pastors next July. A 10-day trip to Israel will be available to the convention’s pastors with $1,000 in financial assistance for pastors visiting the Holy Land for the first time provided by a grant from reserves approved by the SBTC Executive Board at their summer meeting. Clergy members travelling must be currently pastoring an SBTC church.

The trip will depart Dallas, July 12, 2022, and return July 21. Total cost of the trip for pastors, from Dallas, is $2,195 ($1,195 for pastors visiting Israel for the first time, after the $1,000 grant from the SBTC) and $2,495 for pastors’ wives. This price includes various fees and taxes, plus gratuities.

Highlights of the tour include Caesarea Maritima, Megiddo, Mount Carmel, Galilee (including a boat ride on the sea), Caesarea Philippi, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Temple Mount, Masada, the Dead Sea, the Shrine of the Book, the Garden Tomb and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. This list is not exhaustive but illustrates the thoroughness of the travel among significant sites.

The tour will be led by SBTC executive director Nathan Lorick. Lorick expressed great anticipation at seeing Israel again, “Traveling in Israel—seeing the places where Jesus walked and preached—is truly a life-changing experience. I look forward to seeing it again with many of our pastors and church leaders. Come join us!” For more information, SBTC pastors can contact the SBTC office.

At this time, Israel is requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for entry into the country. This requirement may change between now and July, so travelers are encouraged to keep track of changing requirements. Current information and registration are posted at sbtexas.com/israel.

Mission City opens new campus in former dance hall

After five years in a temporary facility, Mission City Church in San Antonio opened its Northwest campus with over 1,000 in attendance on Aug. 15. Pastor Matt Surber began a new series from Acts on that day and many have responded to the gospel and have engaged in ministry at both the Central and Northwest campuses.

“What is so exciting to me, is that 95 percent of the Northwest campus is new growth, with no connection to the Central campus in Castle Hills. Our philosophy of campuses is like a new church plant, only there is a connection to the greater church. Our prayer is for four or five ‘Mission City Churches’ in communities all around San Antonio,” said Surber.

Early in his tenure as pastor of Mission City, Surber was praying about additional San Antonio locations. One day, while washing his truck, he spotted the Leon Springs dance hall, a historic spot in the fast-growing northwest corridor of San Antonio. He asked if they would be open to a church meeting there and the owners agreed.

During the construction of the new Northwest campus, COVID hit, and the church went to online worship for a time. Surber felt like the pandemic was an opportunity, not just a negative. Donnie Anthony, who has served for 20 years at the church and is currently mission pastor, shared, “We more than doubled our weekly food ministry and expanded our community outreach. We saw over 80 trust Jesus as Savior in our drive-through distribution of food during COVID.”

That year of ministry laid the groundwork for a successful start to the church’s new campus.

—Mission City Church

Widespread devastation stretching Southern Baptist Disaster Relief thin

HARRISBURG, Pa. (BP) – Kenton Hunt, disaster relief director of the Baptist Resource Network of Pennsylvania/South Jersey, expresses a heartfelt burden to help the hundreds of homeowners in his region trying to recover from flooding and tornadoes wrought by Hurricane Ida.

“It’s hard to find enough help to work with, and most of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief was concentrated on Louisiana, because that’s where Ida hit first and did the most damage,” Hunt said. “So now here we are way up on the upper edge of where Ida went off shore and finally petered out, but dropped a lot of rain, as much as 10 inches in some places. … That’s a lot of water to handle in one storm. … I’ve had to ask for help because it’s so much bigger than we can do ourselves.”

Seven state conventions are helping with flood cleanup including chainsaw work, feeding, chaplaincy and assessment in three Pennsylvania counties Hunt serves, but Hunt said the widespread need for help has stretched volunteers thin. And he’s not aware of another relief organization currently in the area to help homeowners clean up from the storm.

“We are not going to meet all the needs. … But everybody’s leaning on us, and we’re a small state convention. I’m feeling the weight of it,” Hunt said. “I feel responsible to do everything we can to meet the needs of the people … that truly need assistance to clean up, to remove the trees that they cannot do themselves or cannot pay someone else to do. Or to clean up their home, to get it where it’s safe and sanitary to live in again, and remove debris that’s just holding the water and getting rid of mold and other contaminants in the home that make the house unsafe.

“I feel responsible. We know how to do this stuff, but just having the manpower. I know my counterpart north of us in New York and North Jersey is facing the same thing.”

A mobile kitchen team from North Carolina get meals ready for distribution in Louisiana.

Mike Flannery, disaster relief director for the Baptist Convention of New York, is receiving help from and has commitments from six state conventions to mainly conduct mud-out and mold remediation, but he also voices concern.

“We didn’t get much (news) coverage up here in the New York area, maybe one or two days, then it’s off the front pages,” Flannery said. “Not to complain or anything. I’m not complaining about that. But I am concerned that a lot of times people don’t think anything’s going on in flood recovery areas. When I’d tell people from Buffalo I’m going to go over to New York City to do flood recovery they said, ‘What flood. What happened?’ They just don’t remember or they missed those two days of news reports that they had on mainline TV.

“But there’s hundreds of houses, thousands of houses. I think the five boroughs had 15,000 requests for assistance. But in New York City, the city has to go out and inspect it before they allow volunteers to come in.”

Both leaders express appreciation for the help they’re receiving from other states, local churches, donors and other volunteers. Work is expected to continue into October in Pennsylvania/South Jersey, and possibly into November in New York.

“We do have plenty of callouts, plenty of work to do,” Flannery said. “We want the Southern Baptists to know that we’re still working … and they can volunteer. We’d love to have them.”

Among conventions helping Flannery and Hunt, in addition to Pennsylvania/South Jersey and New York, are the Baptist conventions of Kentucky, Maryland/Delaware, Michigan, New England, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah/Idaho, and the Baptist General Association of Virginia.

The work in the northeast is in part of the larger Southern Baptist response to Ida including Louisiana. Meanwhile, work in Louisiana was hampered by rain from Hurricane Nicholas, which came ashore near Matagorda, Texas, Tuesday (Sept. 14) as a Category 1 storm with wind gusts of 95 mph. As much as 10 inches of rain was reported in parts of Louisiana, weather.com reported, with rain expected to linger for days.

Southern Baptists have together logged 9,700 volunteer days, prepared more than 530,000 meals and aided more than 500 homeowners with chainsaw work, debris removal and temporary roofing, the North American Mission Board reported yesterday (Sept. 16). More than 106 professions of faith have been reported through nearly 500 presentations of the Gospel, NAMB said.

“I never cease to be amazed by how God’s people come from across the United States to serve as the hands and feet of their Lord Jesus, filled with His compassion,” said Sam Porter, national director for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief with Send Relief. “With catastrophic hurricanes, the recovery can go on for months as SBDR volunteers help individuals and families clear trees from their homes, place temporary roofing or gut out flooded homes so that they can rebuild.”

Coy Webb, crisis response director for Send Relief, said he expects work to continue for weeks as teams “continue to assist survivors with hundreds and hundreds of damaged homes across southern Louisiana and from Virginia to New York in the Northeast.”

ERLC unveils new technology, pro-life initiatives

NASHVILLE (BP) – The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission plans cutting-edge work the next 18 months on technology and pro-life issues, trustees of the Southern Baptist entity were told at their annual meeting.

Jason Thacker, chair of research in technology ethics, and Elizabeth Graham, vice president of operations and life initiatives, outlined the plans in their areas of responsibility during their reports to the ERLC board Sept. 15 in Nashville. Acting on the final day of their two-day meeting, trustees unanimously approved motions after both reports to affirm the work in both areas and to encourage the staff’s continued efforts.

Thacker unveiled to the trustees a new research project he is leading – the Digital Public Square. Launched after the trustees’ vote of affirmation, the project is designed to produce resources to assist churches and leaders to “navigate this digital age with wisdom and to think through some of the most complex and crucial ethics challenges to our faith with wisdom and insight,” he said in his report.

The project, Thacker said, will help answer such questions as:

What is the proper role of government in digital governance?
How do I disciple other people if they’re primarily being shaped by technology in their use and habits?
How do we champion free speech and religious freedom in an increasingly polarized society?

The resources to be provided during the next 18 months consist of four major elements, he said: (1) A “state of digital governance report” that will present a portrait of current and future technological issues; (2) an evangelical Christian statement of principles on “content moderation and digital governance;” (3) a church resource kit scheduled to be released in the summer of 2022; and (4) two books to be published next year – “Following Jesus in the Digital Age” and “The Digital Public Square: Ethics and Religion in a Technological Society.” Thacker is writing the former for Broadman & Holman Publishing and editing the latter for B&H Academic.

“Given the current state of debate over the proper role of free expression and religious freedom and digital governance,” the ERLC believes this is an important area in which to invest, Thacker told the trustees. It will produce “substantive resources” and “seek to equip the church in the digital age and allow us to advocate for these principles in this important arena,” he said.

Thacker’s work on technology ethics the last several years has resulted in ongoing opportunities to “give critical feedback, as well as counsel, to a lot of these large technology companies, as well as their policy teams, as they’re forming and crafting” policies, he said. When one of those companies learned about the Digital Public Square project, it offered to provide support.

The project is funded by the Cooperative Program, the SBC’s unified giving plan, but Facebook Technologies LLC also provided a research grant after the effort was under way. Thacker provided assurances to the trustees and on the project’s website – www.erlc.com/digital – regarding the ERLC’s independence in accepting the grant.

“This research grant was provided on an unrestricted basis, meaning the grant monies will be used at [the] sole discretion of the ERLC leadership team and board of trustees without any direct or indirect oversight by Facebook in research efforts nor any influence on project outcomes or resources produced,” according to the answer to one of the Frequently Asked Questions on the website. “All materials produced in this research project will be copyrighted to the ERLC and/or the individuals contributing.”

Facebook and other technology companies have approached the ERLC for resources because “there is a dearth of literature in this area,” Thacker said to the trustees. “There’s been very little if any research done into the nature of religious freedom and religious expression in the digital age.”

Brent Leatherwood, named acting president at the board meeting, told trustees Thacker “is quickly cementing his reputation as one of the leading voices, if not the leading voice, in evangelicalism as it relates to technology ethics, and we believe this project is a natural place to house all of this research, to produce resources that will equip the church and to again just allow him to have a platform to speak into these issues.”

Elizabeth Graham outlined the ERLC’s pro-life agenda leading up to the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Graham described the ERLC’s pro-life work, including its leading role in a campaign with other organizations as the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade nears. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in its Jan. 22, 1973, decision in Roe.

The Road to Roe50 “is our short-term strategy to engage the church,” Graham said of the alliance, which she said also has mid-term and long-term strategies. “With this moment, we see the chance of a lifetime to bring awareness to our work and action to the church.”

The effort “is a strategic window of opportunity” the ERLC and its partners believe can “unify and mobilize the church” leading to Roe’s 50th anniversary, she told the trustees. “The purpose of Roe50 is to inspire, educate and activate the church to support and defend the dignity of each human person.”

The church is “not deeply engaged with the abortion issue,” Graham said, citing a series of statistics in multiple surveys as evidence. More than 60 percent of women who have had an abortion say they are “religiously affiliated,” according to a survey by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute that is supported by other studies, she said. A Lifeway Research survey sponsored by the pregnancy resource center network Care Net in 2015 showed 36 percent of women were attending a Christian church at least once a month at the time of their first abortion, she told the trustees.

“We need to make abortion illegal, but we need to make it unnecessary and unthinkable,” Graham said. “We believe the church is the answer. This is why the role of the church is so important. This is why what we’re doing and hoping to accomplish at the ERLC is so important.”

The church-engagement strategy of Road to Roe50 includes, Graham told the board:

Curriculum for all ages that is designed as a three-year discipleship program. The separate material for children, teenagers and adults will have a prelaunch release in the fall of 2022, with a general release in January 2023.
A Roe50, multi-state tour to strategic cities in the fall of 2022.
A Roe50 event in Washington, D.C., in January 2023.
A broad digital campaign to affirm life, as well as to train and mobilize people to serve “vulnerable moms, preborn babies and families.”

The ERLC and its partners are asking people to “join us on the Road to Roe50,” Graham said. “We want Southern Baptists to be leading the way [in] serving women and children” who are in crisis.

The ERLC’s other pro-life efforts include the Psalm 139 Project, which helps provide ultrasound technology to pro-life pregnancy centers. The ERLC has placed ultrasound machines at 18 centers so far this year, Graham told trustees in a committee meeting Sept. 14.

After Graham’s report, David Prince, presiding in his final meeting as the board’s chair, told the other trustees, “There is not an evangelical organization in the world doing life work with the depth and breadth of the ERLC. And a lot of other organizations are bolstered by the fact that the ERLC is doing life work with such depth and breadth.”

FIRST-PERSON: Champion your pastor in October

NASHVILLE (BP) — The month of October is Pastor Appreciation Month. This is the time to champion your pastor.

Pastors are God-called servant-leaders who feed the people of God through the ministry of preaching the Bible and lead the people of God by providing spiritual oversight of the church. In his shepherding role, the pastor prays for the people regularly, and especially when they find themselves in a time of great need.

There is nothing like the pastor-church relationship

One of the most special relationships on this earth is the relationship between the pastor and the church he serves. Each week when he delivers the Word of God in an effective manner, the people receive the Word from their God-called pastor. No pastor is perfect. He knows it and his wife surely knows it; but through the ministry of preaching, the people learn to receive him as he is.

The pastor’s relationship with God’s people is taken to a more personal level when he celebrates in their successes and grieves with them in their losses. There is truly nothing like the relationship with a pastor and his church. Through these times, trust is built in his relationship with the people of God. Living life together with God’s people and worshiping the Lord with them weekly is, for the pastor, indescribable.

Four ways to honor your pastor this October

Regardless of the size of your church, the length of time the pastor has served, or whether the relationship is healthy or not, honoring your pastor is the right thing to do. He is not an idol. He is a man. He needs you. You need him. Here are a few ways to honor and encourage your pastor:

1. Recognize the pastor and his family one Sunday in October in a public manner.

Honoring your pastor and his family is more about honoring the calling of this gift to your church given to you by the Holy Spirit. Make them feel special. Verbally recognize them in an encouraging way. Whether by video or in person, have two to three church members bless them publicly.

2. Give the pastor and his family a special gift this October.

It is not about the amount of the gift you give; it is about making them feel special and appreciated. This has been a difficult season for every pastor and his family. Blessing them with a special gift says “thank you” in a respectable way. In whatever you do, do it in a generous way. Honor those to whom honor is due.

3. Pray for the pastor and his wife one Sunday morning in October.

Plan a focused prayer time in a worship service one Sunday morning. Have the pastor and his wife come before the church for an intentional time of prayer for each of them. Give five to 10 minutes for this prayer time. You could have the men come to pray for the pastor and women come to pray for the pastor’s wife. You could have two to four people publicly call out to God in prayer while those gathered around them, as well as the church, agree in prayer. Praying for the pastor and his wife demonstrates your faith in the Lord alone who will use them, anoint them, and empower them to serve with faithfulness.

4. Present the pastor with the special blessing of 31 members who will own one day a month in October, specifically praying for him and his ministry to the church.

In the assigned day of the month, whether it be Day 1 or Day 16, this is your day to focus your prayer upon him and his ministry to the church. Write him a note or send him a text asking him for three specific prayer requests for himself, his family and/or the church. Whatever his burdens are, you are there to pray him through.

One Sunday morning about 25 years ago, 31 men walked into a private prayer room during my regular prayer time with men from our church. A spokesman for them said, “Pastor, we are giving you a special gift today. Each of us will pray and fast for you one day each month. Here is a commitment we are making to you.” They presented me with a framed commemorative letter that had each of their names on it. This is one of the greatest gifts I ever received.

Friends, champion your pastor. Love him. Honor him. Respect him. Pray for him. Bless him. Do this daily throughout the year, not just in October.

Mother-daughter duo finds kindness the ultimate weapon against abortion

MARIETTA, Ga. – Suzanne and Rachel Guy exude kindness.

It shines in their eyes. It resonates in their voices.

The mother-daughter duo from First Baptist Church Woodstock, Ga., are on the frontlines of the continuing battle over abortion, but their approach is markedly different from the more militant pro-lifers often seen on television news programs in front of abortion clinics waving graphic signs and shouting hateful rhetoric.

The Guys’ placards say, “We Will Help You.” Instead of mere words, they dole out gift cards from grocery stores and restaurants, even small boxes wrapped in ribbons and bows, filled with goodies for newborns, including a baby-size shirt that says, “Best Gift Ever.”

Rachel Guy shows one of the gifts she gives to expectant mothers.

They spend a lot of time on a narrow strip of grass across the parking lot from a Planned Parenthood clinic in Marietta, some 50 feet from the front door. Each time a young woman arrives at the clinic, Suzanne beckons to her.

“We would love to talk to you,” she says sweetly. “We’re here because we love you. Would you talk to us while you wait?”

Suzanne, who has been a sidewalk counselor outside abortion clinics for years, always speaks in soothing tones. It’s a natural trait her daughter inherited. Together, they’re helping lots of young women choose life for their unborn babies.

“These young women are frightened and confused,” Suzanne said, standing on the patch of public property that Marietta police have told her she and Rachel are allowed to occupy. “They may be being pressured by boyfriends or their own families to get abortions. We want them to know there is help, that we’re here for them.”

A young woman hears Suzanne’s pleas and walks tentatively across the parking lot to where she and Rachel wait. They greet her with reassuring smiles and strike up a conversation. The connection is immediate. It’s as if they’ve known each other for years. It’s apparent Planned Parenthood has lost yet another customer.

Rachel explains all the resources available to the young lady through the many Christian ministries in Georgia. Some provide food and housing for expectant women in need. Some provide ultrasounds and prenatal care to ensure a healthy delivery. Some provide maternity clothing for expectant mothers and newborn outfits for babies. Some supply diapers and other necessities. Some provide counseling and training in how to be a mother. Some provide baby beds and other furnishings. No needs go unmet.

“The financial struggles are huge,” Rachel said. “Often, these young women feel they can’t afford to have a baby. We want to take away that concern We want them to know there is hope and there is help.”

Most of the young women going into the Planned Parenthood clinic in Marietta don’t respond to their invitations to talk. But enough do to keep Suzanne and Rachel motivated. In the past year and half, they have convinced 20 of them not to go through with abortions.

Saving unborn babies has been a passion for Suzanne since she was pregnant with Rachel, who is now 23 years old. Doctors insisted Suzanne abort Rachel, telling her during her first ultrasound that her baby wouldn’t live and that, if she somehow did survive, she’d likely have severe physical and mental disabilities.

“I’m lying on the table; the cold gel is on my stomach; and the ultrasound tech is moving the wand around,” Suzanne explained to Focus on the Family President Jim Daly in a nationwide radio broadcast earlier this year. “I’m excitedly looking at that beautiful baby, the humanity of that beautiful child on the ultrasound screen, and the next thing I know the technician says, ‘I need to excuse myself and go get the doctor.’ Now I knew in that moment that something was probably not right, but I was not prepared for what was about to happen.”

In the next moment, the doctor came rushing into the room frantically and repeatedly telling her she needed an abortion.

“Half your amniotic fluid is gone,” the doctor told her. “Your baby must have a chromosomal abnormality not compatible with life. You could die and your baby most certainly will die.”

When the doctor finally paused, Suzanne gave her adamant and emotional reply:

“I would never get an abortion. Stop saying that.”

When the pregnancy reached 26 weeks, Suzanne underwent a C-section. Her husband Peter saw Rachel the moment doctors lifted her from the womb. She weighed only 1 pound 2 ounces, but, he said, she was very much alive, wiggling and crying and waving her tiny arms around.

“My wedding band went over her hand and slipped past her elbow,” Peter said in the Focus on the Family broadcast. “That’s how tiny she was.”

That experience is what made the Guy family the pro-life activists they are today.

Rachel, now a student majoring in Christian ministry at Trinity International University and leader of the pro-life group Marietta 40 Days for Life 365, said she’s grateful her parents refused to listen to the doctors who wanted to abort her.

“It shocks me to think that they devalued me,” she said of the doctors. “It makes my heart hurt.”

So they stand on the grassy patch in Marietta, reaching out to frightened young ladies considering abortions.

“Will you come talk to us?” Suzanne pleads with another young lady. “Please? We can help.”

Mike Griffin, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s legislative agent who works on public policy at the state level to curb abortion, said the Guys are both passionate and effective in saving the lives of unborn babies.

Griffin has joined them on the grassy patch in Marietta, and he has marveled at the number of young ladies who heed Suzanne’s call to talk.

“I believe the Lord has anointed her voice, that when she’s talking to people, they can hear her heart, her compassion, and that makes the difference,” he said.

The Guys welcome like-minded people to join them outside the Planned Parenthood clinic, but not if they’re there wave graphic signs or shout angry rhetoric.

“We’d humbly ask that they not do that,” she said. “And if they persisted, we’d ask that they not stand near us. This place is holy ground.”

SBTC DR crews brave heat and humidity to help Ida survivors

HAMMOND, La. Battling mosquitoes, poison ivy and the lack of electrical power, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention disaster relief volunteers endured sweltering temperatures and soaring humidity to assist survivors of Hurricane Ida, which struck Louisiana on Sunday, Aug. 29, 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina blasted ashore.

Crews continue to serve, even though Hurricane Nicholas made landfall as a category 1 storm at 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 14, southwest of Sargent Beach, Texas, and moved toward Louisiana.

The SBTC’s response to Katrina, led by the late Gibbie McMillan, the convention’s first director of disaster relief who died of COVID this August, marked the inaugural major deployment of SBTC DR.

SBTC DR crews continued building on McMillan’s legacy as they again traveled quickly to Louisiana, where they were joined by Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers from across the country.

Even as Ida still raged, a four-person SBTC DR incident management left Texas for Alexandria, La., where they established operations from Aug. 30-Sept. 12 to help coordinate SBDR activities across the Bayou State. A feeding team staffing the mass feeding unit from the Unity Baptist Association was soon joined by another mass feeding team and unit from First Baptist Pflugerville in Gonzales, La. New volunteers have rotated in to relieve the original crews.

To date, the feeding teams have produced more than 190,000 hot meals distributed by the Salvation Army to survivors.

West Monroe, Hammond and six other sites

Other SBTC DR workers have since joined hundreds of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers to help Louisiana in a deployment with what Scottie Stice, current SBTC DR director, called, “many moving parts.”

Shirley and Cliff Spencer of Spring set up the SBTC DR shower and laundry unit from the Bowie Baptist Association on Sept. 2 in West Monroe, where they began doing laundry for survivors at a shelter there, work that is ongoing. Other SBTC DR shower / laundry units deployed to Gonzales and Denham Springs, La. to serve both feeding teams, power line crews and recovery units. Some of the shower / laundry units will demobilize by Sept. 17.

A quick response kitchen deployed to Denham Springs to feed DR volunteers. A second QRU set up operations in Kenner, La.

An SBTC DR utility support unit deployed to Houma to assist Alabama Baptist DR feeding efforts there, and a recovery team will work under the direction of Oklahoma DR in Morgan City, La., beginning Sept. 19.

SBTC DR recovery units also arrived, rotating in and out over ensuing weeks, working under an incident management team from Arkansas in the Hammond area.

The eight sites manned by SBTC DR volunteers by mid-September marked the most of any state Baptist DR team, Stice told the TEXAN.

Chaplains see fruit

In addition to feeding, shower / laundry and recovery crews, SBTC DR chaplains and assessors came to Louisiana.

Chaplain Wayne Barber of Jasper found unexpected opportunities to share the gospel in Hammond as he and assessor Jim Casten of Collinsville traveled through mostly middle-class and working-class neighborhoods to offer assistance.

Amazingly, Barber said, many of the gospel encounters happened seemingly at random, at addresses where the team had not intended to go.

“Every night, we just prayed for divine appointments the next day,” Barber told the TEXAN. “I asked the Lord to prepare their hearts and prepare my words.”

"Every night, we just prayed for divine appointments the next day. I asked the Lord to prepare their hearts and prepare my words.”

Wayne Barber, SBTC DR Chaplain Tweet

One elderly gentleman at first seemed reluctant to talk, telling Barber that he had gone to church. The men kept visiting.

“We talked. He started crying,” Barber recalled. “Then he prayed to accept Christ as Savior.” The new believer was 86.

“That’s pushing it pretty hard,” Barber, himself a young 77, said of the man’s late-in-life decision.

Another time, finding their intended road blocked by the fire department, Barber and Casten headed down an alternate route where they spied people sitting outside their manufactured home to escape the heat inside.

“We stopped and asked if they were O.K.,” Barber said. “Did they need anything?” After conversation, five of the men prayed to accept Christ.

“We weren’t supposed to even be there, but God had a plan,” Barber said.

Another God-ordained appointment came when the pair encountered a young mother with two small children whose military husband was enroute back from Afghanistan. The volunteers returned the next day with two packs of diapers.

“She was so appreciative that we came back. She said she sure could use [the diapers],” Barber said.

One man told the pair it was the first time anyone had ever told him about Jesus. Another man was alerted to the coming of the chaplain team by his Christian mother, whose home they had just visited. She didn’t need help, but he did.

“I hope they tell you about Jesus,” the mother said.

They did, and the young man, an EMT in his thirties, prayed to receive Christ. He also filled out a work request for his home.

Bringing hope and help in crisis is the heart of disaster relief. One survivor who had been helped at her home in Hammond texted her thanks to recovery team leader David Dean, adding this:

“Tonight, when things quiet down, I’m signing up with SBC to give back to my community. God is good.”

Efforts to help Ida survivors in Louisiana are ongoing, Stice said, even as SBTC DR also stays on alert to help survivors of Nicholas as needed. For more information about SBTC DR, visit https://sbtexas.com/disaster-relief.

SBTC DR response to Ida (as of Sept. 15)

945 -- volunteer days
190,285 -- meals provided
23 -- professions of faith

SBTC DR response to Ida (as of Sept. 15)

945 -- volunteer days
190,285 -- meals provided
23 -- professions of faith

Getty Sing! Worship Conference meant to ‘Reset. Restore. Reunite.’

NASHVILLE (BP) – Several Southern Baptists were among the noteworthy speakers and worship artists at the 2021 Sing! Worship Conference, hosted by hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty.

The fifth annual conference, held Sept. 13-15, attracted a large crowd to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

“When we sing, we’re singing worship to our Lord, but we’re also singing to one another and encouraging one another in what we believe and in what we affirm,” Keith Getty said as he opened the conference Monday (Sept 13).

After last year’s conference was hosted solely online with recorded videos, this year’s conference was live with an available online option. The theme for the conference was “In Christ Alone” and operated under the tagline “Reset. Restore. Reunite.”

The theme was appropriate, as this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Gettys’ well-known hymn “In Christ Alone.”

Monday’s evening session featured a time of worship, including a performance from the Gettys that included all the songs from their upcoming album.

Also Monday, songwriters and worship leaders Matt Papa and Matt Boswell premiered their full upcoming album. Boswell is pastor of Trails Church in Prosper, Texas, and assistant professor of church music and worship at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Other notable musical guests at the conference included Chris Tomlin, Shane and Shane, CityAlight and Bill Gaither.

Notable speakers included Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President (SEBTS) Danny Akin, John Piper, David Platt, Alistair Begg, Paul David Tripp, Dane Ortlund and SEBTS professor Karen Swallow Prior.

H.B. Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., spoke during the opening plenary session Monday afternoon about focusing on God alone during worship.

“True worship is God-centered,” Charles said. “We don’t gather to proclaim our cause. We gather to proclaim the virtues of Him who called us into the marvelous light.”

Charles, who has released two albums of original music himself, preached out of 1 Peter 2:4-5 about the Church both proclaiming Christ through worship and relying on Him in the midst of trials.

“We are not the ones who nurture the Church, sustain the Church or advance the Church,” Charles said.

“If this extended pandemic has taught us anything, I hope it has taught us the Lord doesn’t need us. Pastoral leadership, ministry leadership, worship leadership do not grow the Church. … The Church stands firm because Christ is the Cornerstone. In Christ the Cornerstone, we are safe, strong and secure.”

Charles acknowledged that the last year and a half has been challenging, but Christ is sufficient for meeting the needy where they are.

“It is in Christ alone that we find total sufficiency for all of the needs of our lives, especially the deep needs of our souls …,” he said. “There are many of us who gather here weak and weary and worn out. How do we reset, find renewal and restoration – as we come to Him.”

During the final conference session Wednesday (Sept. 16), Keith Getty had a conversation with Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Danny Akin about living a missional life and the role of worship in fulfilling the Great Commission.

“At Southeastern I’ve had music professors that were the most active in going to the nations in my entire faculty,” Akin said.

“They (music professors) recognized the value of teaching different people groups songs in their heart language, not just exporting our songs, but teaching them how to create, how to write, how to put melody to songs in their heart language.

“For the musicians here, I would say get your passports. … God can use you in an incredible way because music is universal and barriers come down very easily in that context. Barriers come down and friendships are quickly established around God’s great gift of music.”