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Lettie Perry, who had role in SBTC founding, dies at 85

Lettie Perry, a Texas woman who played a major role in the founding of the SBTC and the hiring of its first executive director, died April 24. She was 85.

Perry was a long-time organist and pianist, playing at churches her husband, Casey, pastored, and also at SBTC evangelism conferences and senior adult camps.

During the late 1990s, she was one of a group of individuals who argued the BGCT had drifted too far to the left and that Texas needed another state convention. 

She was a member of the committee that hired Jim Richards as the first executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, which was formed in 1998. Richards still serves in that role.

“When it became apparent that the state convention would not experience the same type of return to biblical fidelity as the Southern Baptist Convention, she was one of the voices calling for a new state convention,” said Richards. “Because of her courageous spirit she was chosen to be on the search committee for an executive director as the new convention was being formed.”

Lettie, Richards said, “stood by her convictions.”    

She and her husband served in North Dakota and Kansas as well as the Texas cities of Mercury, Terrell, Arlington and Malakoff. She started hand bell choirs at multiple churches.

She is survived by Casey, her husband of 64 years. 

“Over these last 20 plus years she remained a constant by her husband’s side in the advancement of the gospel,” Richards said. “Her musical talents and missionary zeal was only muted by her debilitating illness in the last few years of her life. She is now enjoying her eternal home she had secured by receiving Jesus as her Savior. My life was enriched beyond measure by my friendship with Lettie Perry. I look forward to seeing her again.”

Family will receive friends from 4 to 7 p.m. April 28 at Max Slayton Funerals and Cremations in Terrell, and from 4 to 7 p.m. April 29 at First Baptist Church of Malakoff. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. April 30 at Eastlawn Memorial Park in Early.

Nature’s revenge?

Is the created order hostile to mankind? This week saw tornados rip into several communities as cases of COVID-19 rose alarmingly around the world. The earth, innocent and elevated in the minds of some religions, harbors things dangerous to our lives. Pantheism, the belief that everything is God and popular in some Eastern religions, worships no personal god but rather the impersonal force of nature. What justice or purpose there might be in the universe is built-in, the same way gravity can punish someone careless enough to ignore it. Pantheism’s American denomination tends to worship nature as wiser and more benevolent than personal beings can be. It is the god of the environmental movement, whose radical wing refers to people as a virus and longs for pristine nature untainted by human interference. I’ve often wondered if radical environmentalists imagine themselves exempt from the “no humans allowed” rule. 

Catastrophe always leaves us with hard theological questions, but natural catastrophes would seem to be a particular challenge to those who consider nature worthy of worship. Pope Francis seemed to illustrate the confusion of modern pantheists when asked about God’s role in sending the coronavirus pandemic, “There is an expression in Spanish: ‘God always forgives, we forgive sometimes, but nature never forgives’ … I don’t know if these are the revenge of nature, but they are certainly nature’s responses.”

But nature is not our judge or the earth our lifeboat or created things our god; we must then have another guide, rescue and god. It is no surprise in the biblical worldview that a corrupted earth will sicken and kill corrupting mortals without any intent. The best the world bent by sin can do is breathtakingly flawed in its beauty and careless in its cruelty. We know why that happened. 

It started with us, the lords and ladies of creation—servants of the one Creator of all things. We, at our fall into sin, became the harbingers of predation and pestilence in the good creation. The animals dread us, the crops resist us and weeds and diseases—themselves perversions of something good—fight our lives and well-being. This is not because we are the enemies of creation but because we are its stewards.  

How strange to worship the things that cannot by the order of creation be better than we are. Thus, the world will not be healed until we are healed. Neither will the world be healed by any means except the means of our salvation. To remove mankind from creation altogether is no salvation for the created order. Cruelty and disease would continue without us. Creation would suffer then without hope. 

In a biblical personification more satisfying than that offered by Francis, Romans 8 tells us that suffering creation—which suffers because of our sin—“eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons of God.” That’s us. Creation will be delivered from corruption by our salvation, just as creation was delivered to corruption by our sin. 

So this earth is not our mother, or even our source. It can be a revelation of God (Romans 1:20) or a proving ground as we learn to follow God (Hebrews 12:1-2); it certainly is a stewardship for which we are accountable (Genesis 1:28). It cannot be our master. 

Pantheism as an organized religion, a private conviction or a political movement is the very definition of the sin described in Romans 1:25, serving and worshipping the creation rather than the Creator. It is therefore very much a part of the problem and no true answer to any question.

It is my hope that many who do not worship the God who made them will come to the end of themselves during this season of man. There is no hope in nature, and our own strength is laid low by something we can’t see without lab equipment. Modern as we are, our sense of autonomy and ability has taken a hard hit by weeks of involuntary isolation and doubt. All of us may come to the end of our own power. 

How easily our perceived ability to save or prosper ourselves has been stripped away. Some of us will never again be so self-assured as we were. We’re hearing reports of men and women seeking hope and finding it in Jesus. I expect believers and churches are also walking more humbly before God and gently toward mankind in this season of anxiety. 

Nature is as broken as we are, and for the same reason. But it does not punish us for our sins. It cannot forgive our sins. The problems we face are always essentially spiritual—whether disease or poverty. If we are laid low by these it is to drive us back to the God who alone can save us. That’s the lesson. That’s always the lesson.  

Churches meeting mental health needs brace for COVID-19 fallout

“Global pandemic.”

It’s a term that can strike fear in the hearts of anyone—even those who trust in God’s sovereignty. But for those living with mental health disorders the COVID-19 pandemic adds angst upon angst. And while the various stay-at-home orders may slow the spread of the virus, isolation and a break from normal routine accelerates the onset of anxiety and stress for some.

“Isolation is one of the breeding grounds for more anxiety and depression,” said Nicole Fitzpatrick, a licensed psychologist and director of counseling at Hyde Park Baptist Church Counseling Center. Depression and anxiety are two sides to the same coin she said.

Mike Schumacher said the months-long anxiety stoked by COVID-19—compounded by a ravaged economy—can exact a toll from once healthy lives and relationships. Schumacher, director of Sagemont Church Counseling Center, is a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist.

“I don’t think we’ve thought through the outcome,” Schumacher said of the pandemic and the government response.

Schumacher and Fitzpatrick spoke with the TEXAN in March as diagnoses of COVID-19 rose exponentially in some regions of the country and local and state governments ordered residents to stay at home and practice social distancing.

“It’s not only catastrophic just for a handful of people,” said Schumacher. “But all of us are going to have struggles. This is a chronic long-term traumatic situation. It’s going to have some long-term implications.”

Typically, Fitzpatrick meets virtually with 30-40 percent of her clients who live in Austin and around the world. But in March both counseling centers closed their doors to all in-person meetings and moved all client meetings to online or teleconferences.

‘It’s normal to struggle’

Since the days of the early church, Christians have sought to alleviate human suffering by caring for the sick, widowed and orphaned. Meeting physical needs opened the door for communicating the gospel and humanity’s fundamental need for redemption. But physical security and comforts could not assuage fears, anxieties and depression brought on by external circumstances or mental illness.

In the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Fitzpatrick and Schumacher anticipate an increase in clients. Some will have pre-existing mental health problems. Some will be returning clients. Others with no diagnosed health issues may simply want help processing what has happened.

More than 30 years ago members of Hyde Park Baptist Church and Sagemont Church saw the need for mental health care in their respective communities. They opened counseling centers to offer healing along with the hope that is found only in Christ.

Christians “are not immune from struggle, from mental illness. It’s normal to struggle” Schumacher said. And after three decades of developing relationships in their communities and speaking to churches and ministry groups, he said, Christians increasingly view mental health care as part of overall health care. Fitzpatrick said most Christians recognize that caring for others —spiritually, mentally and physically—requires they care for themselves in the same way.

“You can’t pour from an empty vessel,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not living truth. People see that.”

Mental health in the church, by the church

Biblical counseling and church-sponsored support groups play important roles in the church, Schumacher said, but some individuals also benefit from professional counseling. Effective lay counselors work in partnership with those counselors and can refer their clients for individual care.

The Austin and Houston centers treat the whole person with “Christ-centered” counseling. Their licensed counselors “… offer a broad range of expertise to treat conditions including addictive behavior, anxiety and depression, compulsive behavior and substance abuse. The centers also offer premarital and marriage counseling.”.

Their clients are children and adults. They are Christians and non-Christians. Most of Sagemont’s clients come from the congregation. Most of Hyde Park’s come from the community. Others are referred by their home churches and a network of individuals and ministries.

They struggle with a wide-range of mental health disorders, and are referred to staff members who specialize in specific areas of care.

Clients may meet with a counselor for a few sessions learning skills they can apply independently without further meetings. Others require long-term care—weekly sessions for a few years. Putting off counseling only exacerbates the problem and inevitably requires longer care, Schumacher said.

Their convictions about how clients might be perceived dictate where their ministries are located. The Sagemont Counseling Center is located off campus. Christians seeking mental health care should not have their struggles compounded by shame. Schumacher said his clients need the assurance that their visits will be unobserved by fellow church members or staff.

“It’s hard to share, ‘I’m struggling with depression or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and I’m not doing well,” he said. Many of the pastors and missionaries he sees have no confidant within their respective ministries and they “feel trapped” and want privacy.

Originally established off campus, the Hyde Park Counseling Center is now in the church building. First-time clients must pass through the church to get to the offices, reminding clients—if they were uncertain—of the ministry’s Christ-centered ethos. Returning clients are given a pass code to enter the offices from the street.

If the centers’ locations do not testify to the foundation of their work, the initial interview should leave clients with no doubt. They are asked about their faith and informed of the centers’ biblically-based approach to treating the whole person. Agreeing to that approach is part of the contract between client and counselor.

That approach is what draws most Christians to their facilities, Fitzpatrick and Schumacher said. Even non-Christians will concede to the approach. All of them are looking for answers.

“There’s a lot of hope in that,” said Fitzpatrick.

The counseling centers incorporate the gospel into their sessions but differ on the approach.

“We pretty much bring [the gospel] in immediately. Life is too short not to share the gospel,” Fitzpatrick said.

Schumacher said sometimes the preliminary interview does not adequately assess a client’s relationship with Christ. That requires each counselor to discern how to effectively intertwine the gospel into each session. His hope is that healing and spiritual growth occur simultaneously.

But some clients bring anger toward God or the church into the sessions he said. For them, forgiveness becomes part of the healing and spiritual growth process.

Both Sagemont Church Counseling Center and Hyde Park Baptist Church Counseling Center are part of their respective churches but their operational models differ. Sagemont Church offsets operational costs so counselors can charge a lower-than-standard rate.

Hyde Park Counseling Center is funded by the professional-rate fees they charge.

Neither center turns away prospective clients because they cannot pay. Hyde Park offers scholarships and both centers will work with individuals to establish affordable rates.

Identity in Christ

The Christian life is not one of ease Schumacher said. Messages from pastors and teachers that preach otherwise—especially during global chaos—can be destructive.

In March both counselors said fears of COVID-19, isolation and economic ruin will take their toll on people’s mental health—even for the most faithful Christians. And, as with the coronavirus, no one is immune from the contagions of fear and anxiety.

In that climate people long for normalcy and the human connection daily routines provide. Even with the ability to “over-connect” electronically, screen time does not replace the sense of community people need, especially in a time of crisis said Fitzpatrick. While grateful that technology allows them to continue counseling, both said returning to a normal schedule that includes in-person engagement will help relieve anxious clients.

“There’s going to have to be some healing after this,” said Fitzpatrick.

Remembering who is in control of everything can bring peace to anxious hearts and minds. Fitzpatrick said Romans 5 “brought freedom to my soul” and she wants to share that with her clients. When the world and their lives seem out of control, understanding who they are in Christ begins the healing process.

Pastors open up about mental health struggles

Two years ago, Micah Meurer’s lifelong struggle with mental health came to a head. Constant panic and anxiety attacks led to an eight-day hospitalization to get the psychiatric care he needed. Thankfully, through medication, counseling, a healthy lifestyle and walking with God, his mental health improved. He was even able to resume his duties as assistant pastor at Paramount Baptist church in Amarillo.

But his mental health journey didn’t end there. When an opportunity arose to preach at Paramount last summer, he knew what God was calling him to do. “I felt like the Lord wanted me to share my testimony,” said Meurer, who also serves as a field ministry strategist for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

He did, and the response was overwhelming. Of some 1,100 people in attendance at Sunday worship, more than 300 contacted Meurer about the sermon, including many who confessed their own struggles with mental health.

“I was a pastor and I’d gone through it,” he said. “So they felt like, ‘I can talk to him.’”

At least two other SBTC pastors have joined Meurer in sharing their struggles with mental health: Danny Forshee in Austin and Byron McWilliams in Odessa. They urge all pastors to speak openly about mental health—regardless of whether they struggle with it personally—because such openness creates opportunities for ministry.

Pastors & mental health

Mental illness is not uncommon among pastors. LifeWay Research found 23 percent of U.S. Protestant pastors say they have experienced some kind of mental illness, a percentage similar to the mental illness rate among the American population at large.

Over the past decade, the rate of mental illness has been met by emphases on mental health within both the Southern Baptist Convention and the SBTC. In 2013, the SBC adopted a resolution “on mental health concerns and the heart of God.” A year later the SBC Executive Committee formed a Mental Health Advisory Council.

Last year, the SBTC adopted a resolution “on mental health, the local church, and the need for gospel compassion.” The convention also held a panel discussion on mental health at its 2019 annual meeting in Odessa.

Attention also has been drawn to notable ministers, past and present, who have dealt with mental illness. The Puritans wrote much related to mental health, including Richard Baxter’s A Christian Directory, which chronicled hundreds of mental, emotional and spiritual problems he encountered in pastoral counseling. Some have speculated that 19th-century Baptist pastor Charles Spurgeon would have been diagnosed with clinical depression had he lived a century later. Pioneering American Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson likewise struggled through dark periods emotionally.

More recently, prominent Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren addressed mental illness following the suicide of his adult son. Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, fought to remove the stigma from mental illness after his son Matthew took his own life in 2013.

Yet despite the heightened emphasis on mental illness, many pastors don’t feel comfortable broaching the subject from their pulpits. According to LifeWay, 66 percent of pastors seldom speak to their congregations about mental illness. Health care professionals and pastors who have opened up wonder if enough ministers will address mental illness to improve mental health among churchgoers.

Chuck Hannaford, a Tennessee clinical psychologist who counsels ministers in his practice, told LifeWay Research pastors need not share the details of their diagnosis, but they may want to consider acknowledging that they struggle with mental illness.

“It’s a shame we can’t be more open about it,” Hannaford said. “But what I’m talking about is just an openness from the pulpit that people struggle with these issues and it’s not an easy answer.”

‘Even my pastor deals with this’

Forshee, pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, has told the congregation about his longtime struggle with anxiety and depression. He also has preached a sermon on mental health at several guest speaking engagements over the past two and a half years. In addition, he has shared his mental health journey with the SBTC Executive Board, which he chairs.

Today, Forshee takes a mild anxiety medication daily and says his wife and the Holy Spirit “have kept me sane in ministry.” But he hasn’t always done so well. During a previous pastorate, he once pulled his vehicle off the road on the way to church and thought, “I don’t know if I’m going to make it into church to preach.” On another occasion, he had an anxiety attack while lying in bed and thought he was dying.

Sometimes church conflict brings on anxiety and depression, Forshee said. Sometimes heavy sadness and discouragement come on almost inexplicably.

“The pressures of ministry intensify” depression and anxiety, he said. “Oftentimes I’ve dealt with it on Sunday morning … It’s not nearly as frequent now. It used to be every Sunday morning.”

The clinical depression and anxiety disorders faced by these pastors are distinct from normal sadness and worry, even intense and prolonged sadness and worry. Some common symptoms led both Meurer and Forshee to conclude they were facing true mental illnesses. The sadness became debilitating, it didn’t wane when circumstances improved and it made them want to withdraw from people.

The problem is part physical, part emotional and part spiritual, Forshee explained. So the solution is multifaceted too. For Forshee, that has meant medication, exercise (marathons and triathlons specifically), observing a weekly Sabbath day and spiritual accountability.

He has discussed both the problem and the solution with the people he pastors.

“My being open and transparent about it empowers people,” Forshee said. “It lets people go, ‘Wow, I’m not alone. Even my pastor deals with this.’”

McWilliams’ struggle with anxiety hasn’t been a lifelong battle, like it has been for his two colleagues in ministry. But it has been intense and inhibiting. Four years ago, he began to feel the pressure of ministry in a new way. It hit him acutely on a hunting trip with his son while sleeping outdoors in 25-degree weather.

“I felt a sense of anxiety and panic that I’d never felt before,” said McWilliams, pastor of First Baptist Church in Odessa. Despite the freezing temperature, “I just had to come out of the sleeping bag because there was just a sense of great panic and dread and anxiety upon me.”

Initial healing for McWilliams came after the hunting trip when a fellow staff member at First Baptist came to his house and shared about his own struggle with mental health. Later, McWilliams called his doctor and learned other ministers experience similar mental health challenges. A major part of his recovery has been setting boundaries—like turning off his phone from early evening until morning, being more protective of his time during the day and relinquishing some control of First Baptist’s ministry to the staff.

McWilliams has come a long way from an earlier phase in his ministry, when he viewed people with mental illness as somehow weak or deficient.

“I can remember standing in the pulpit and preaching that if you can’t manage your anxiety and stress apart from taking medication, then there’s something wrong with you,” he said. “I realized how foolish and stupid I was … When somebody comes to me with anxiety now, I get it.”

McWilliams has applied his newfound knowledge by preaching a sermon series on overcoming anxiety, this time with rounded counsel about spiritual, emotional and medical solutions.

How to minister

When openness about mental health prompts other believers to confess their struggles, the three pastors said, there are several steps pastor can take. First, listen to their story.

“If a pastor loves his people, listens to them, shares the Word of God with them and just empathizes with them,” Forshee said, “that goes a long way.”

Second, pastors should know the reliable Christian counselors in their area and refer to them individuals dealing with mental illness, Meurer said. When necessary, a counselor can refer a patient to a psychiatrist for medical treatment.

Churches also can provide classes, books and other resources on mental health. Among the books the three SBTC pastors have found helpful:

  • Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness by Matthew Stanford
  • Walking on Water When You Feel Like You’re Drowning by Tommy Nelson and Steve Leavitt
  • The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero
  • Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordiero

As for Meurer’s personal mental health, he continues to do well through a regimen of physical, spiritual and emotional care, including biweekly visits to a counselor. While he’s glad “God can redeem our struggles for his glory” in this life, he also looks forward to eternity—when mental illness will be no more.

“Mental illness is real and painful,” he said, “but our God is able.”

Scripture “speaks to the deepest needs” during pandemic

FORT WORTH  As people navigate the increased levels of fear prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, churches such as Christ Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth are reaching out to offer the hope of the gospel through biblical counseling.  

Greg Cook, Soul Care pastor at Christ Chapel, said Scripture “speaks to the deepest needs of our hearts and our experience.” Soul Care primarily uses trained volunteers to minister along the lines of 2 Corinthians 1, he said, with people who have been comforted then comforting others. 

In Christ Chapel’s counseling ministry, volunteers lead people to “the Helper, the Counselor,” and discipleship drives the ministry, Cook told the TEXAN. 

“As we’re called to share the gospel with others, make disciples of them and send them out, there’s no difference between that and what we’re trying to do; it’s just a specific area,” Cook said.

All counseling is about change, Cook said, adding that the fundamental change a person needs is a restored relationship with God.

“For those who don’t know Christ, we try to introduce them to the real source of true comfort and peace because unless we’re restored to God, we can’t be restored well to others,” Cook said.

Soul Care, in part using curriculum from LifeWay Christian Resources, guides individuals and small groups through loneliness, fear, rejection, grief, addictions and struggles with purity, among other challenges.

“Oftentimes in the individual care process, I’m having others observe and learn how to do this work of caregiving,” Cook said. “It’s formal. I hope it translates to something more informal later on. We have a lot of dedicated volunteers who just give their time to listen and then hopefully speak biblical truth into each other’s lives.”

Christ Chapel has continued their small groups online during the pandemic. Their website includes an invitation for people to seek help, and they plan to offer more training online in the coming days.

“We have individual mentors, and they continue to make calls,” Cook said. “That ministry has continued. Part of our ministry is individual-based, part of it is small groups-based and part of it is training and equipping.”

Some of the classes Soul Care offers encourage people to think about the role of emotions, “and that opens people up to the idea of the heart as a focus of change, realizing our emotions are never disconnected from the rest of us. They’re closely connected to our desires and longings,” Cook said.

“How do we understand our angry responses, our fearful responses, our depressive responses in light of what the Scriptures say is true about us?” Cook said. “Of course we have hope because by the work of the Spirit we can be transformed and become more and more like Jesus. Those emotions can come under the control of the Spirit and the purposes of the Savior.”

Last year Soul Care served an estimated 750 people, and they typically have 20 to 30 lay counselors, Cook said. 

Cook reminds people of God’s sovereignty and his unchanging character during this uncertain time. 

“It’s helpful to know God is in control, and though this [pandemic-prompted] change represents a great threat to us, it’s never threatening to God. There’s a great hope in knowing the one who is unchanging is guiding us through, whether we can tangibly feel it or not,” Cook said. “He’s always presenting himself as a source of peace to us, and I think the peace comes from the knowledge of his character.”

Often, Cook said, the temptation to try to predict how things will go “only creates chaos.” 

“When I’ve struggled off and on with depression, it’s overwhelming fear and also a hopelessness,” he said. “Hopelessness is attention to a circumstance or our own power, so when I look to the person of God, his character always settles what’s unsettling to me. In other words, my focus is either on the circumstance or on the Savior.”

Online baptism, Lord”s Supper among webinar”s discussion topics

GRAPEVINE—Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have varied among pastors in the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Bart Barber of First Baptist Church in Farmersville has performed a baptism since the congregation he leads stopped gathering in person, but he feels the Lord’s Supper should not be administered online. Pastor Nathan Lino hasn’t administered either ordinance since coronavirus scattered Northeast Houston Baptist Church, but he believes both are permissible online. Pastor Tony Mathews of North Garland Baptist Fellowship is concerned about nonbelievers potentially participating in an online Lord’s Supper, yet he suspects benefits will outweigh risks if the stay-at-home order drags on for months.

Those are just some of the views expressed April 23 in an SBTC webinar entitled “Online Ecclesiology: Worship Services, Preaching , Ordinances, Membership, and Social Distancing.” Joining Barber, Lino and Mathews in the discussion were SBTC executive director Jim Richards and Juan Sanchez, pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin.

Webinar panelists agreed that the biblical norm for a church is gathering physically and that the Baptist Faith & Message defines parameters of Southern Baptists’ doctrine of the church. But they differed over which church functions can be performed online during the COVID-19 pandemic, with congregations unable to assemble.

The discussion has taken on heightened relevance in recent weeks. By the end of March, just 7 percent of U.S. Protestant churches were still meeting in person, according to data from LifeWay Research. Only 8 percent of pastors were not providing video sermons or worship services. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott told residents to stay at home except for essential trips out beginning April 2, effectively pausing most church gatherings.

Panelists were unanimous that the pandemic has temporarily removed an essential element from church life.

“There is, in the physical gathering of a church, a supernatural presence and dynamic that is not present when the church is not gathered,” Lino said, citing Matthew 18:20. “We are still the church” despite physical separation, but believers are “missing out” whenever they are not able to assemble.

Richards went a step further, asserting “there really isn’t a church scattered. There are believers that are scattered,” but “the only time the church exists is when it’s together.” By definition, the Greek term for “church” in the New Testament (ecclesia) refers to “a called out assembly,” he said.

Webinar host Tony Wolfe, SBTC director of pastor/church relations, asked viewers in a poll whether they agreed that “for the local church of tomorrow to be effective in the Great Commission, she must integrate online ministries and activities with on-campus ministries and activities.” Of roughly 100 participants voting, 57 percent agreed, 39 percent disagreed and 9 percent were undecided.

All panelists disagreed with the statement in the poll question, citing online ministries as helpful in many circumstances but not demanded by Scripture.

Online ministry is “not required at all,” Mathews said. Still, North Garland began offering online worship services amid the pandemic, and they have yielded both additional attendees and new givers to the church. When physical services recommence, he said, “we have to be prudent” not to present online worship as an alternative to gathering with the church.

All panelists said it is not biblical to join a church and be considered a member in good standing without ever gathering with the congregation physically.

Regarding online baptism, webinar viewers were split but all panelists said the practice is permissible. In response to a poll question, 41 percent of viewers agreed it is “biblical” to video baptisms privately and share them with the congregation through an online platform. Thirty percent disagreed, and 28 percent were undecided.

In support of online baptisms, Sanchez cited “examples in Scripture where there were true baptisms” under “irregular circumstances” apart from a local church assembly—like the Ethiopian eunuch’s baptism beside a road in Acts 8:39. “Some flexibility” seems to exist in how a church administers baptism during the pandemic, he said, provided the congregation practices believer’s baptism by immersion and regards baptism as “the initiatory rite for the new covenant community.”

When discussion turned to administering the Lord’s Supper online, opinions varied among both viewers and panelists. Just 21 percent of viewers agreed it is “biblical to lead observance of the Lord’s Supper through an online platform with church members participating in their own homes.” Fifty-four percent disagreed, and 26 percent were undecided.

In expressing his openness to online administration of the Lord’s Supper, Lino cautioned that it “should take place under the authority of the local church.” He will “probably” observe the Lord’s Supper online if the stay-at-home order extends for months, but he wants to help Christians understand it is improper to observe the Lord’s Supper on their own, apart from a local church.

Barber grounded his opposition to online communion in a congregation’s responsibility to take the elements as a body.

Baptism can be administered online “because the function of the congregation is to witness the baptism” after affirming the new believer’s testimony of faith in Christ, he said. “But in the Lord’s Supper, we are partaking together and that is a different mode of participation for the congregation.”

All topics considered in the webinar “are tough issues,” Sanchez said. “Each pastor and each church leadership is responsible to the Lord for studying the Scriptures” and obeying according to their conscience. “We’ll all give an account.”

The full video from the event is available at https://training.sbtexas.com/onlinetraining

SBTC DR crews assist Houston Food Bank Neighborhood Super Sites, serve victims of Onalaska tornado

HOUSTON—Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief volunteers are supporting the Houston Food Bank at its two Neighborhood Super Sites at the Texans Training Bubble near NRG stadium south of downtown and at the Cypress Premium Outlets mall in northwest Houston.

SBTC DR volunteers are preparing hot lunches for food bank volunteers and manning the hospitality tents at each location where thousands of families receive needed food during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Super Site support is just one way SBTC DR volunteers and churches are assisting the Houston Food Bank serve a city in crisis. 

Churches serving as sites for food distribution

SBTC churches such as Spring Baptist and Houston’s First are offering their campuses to function as smaller food bank distribution sites throughout the week.

For Jason Mayfield, associate pastor of Spring Baptist Church, the chance to help the community was an easy decision. Not only did Mayfield and his wife, Fran, serve as SBTC DR hospitality hosts at the food bank’s Texans Training Bubble Super Site on April 18, but Spring Baptist also opened as a smaller food distribution center on April 7, a task Mayfield said the church will continue each Tuesday as long as needed.

Spring Baptist volunteers unload and sort pallets of food delivered to the church on refrigerated trucks, then place food boxes into people’s cars as they drive up and pop their trunks. All recipients either pre-register online with the Houston Food Bank or provide their basic information to church volunteers on site.

Spring Baptist member Jennifer Meehan, a counselor at Spring ISD, connected the church to the food bank. Mayfield said church members were eager to volunteer, adding that women from the church had also begun sewing masks for Houston Food Bank volunteers.

“People are so excited to get out of the house and serve,” Mayfield said, adding that 30-35 from the church help weekly in the distribution effort that saw 186 families receive food on April 14.

Large-scale ministry at the Super Sites

The Houston Food Bank’s Super Site food distribution works similarly but on a larger scale. National Guard troops direct traffic as thousands of vehicles drive into the parking lots where HFB volunteers load boxes into the cars.

Each day’s Super Site undertaking involves 200-plus volunteers, some of whom arrive early to pack boxes while others work loading vehicles. 

Feeding them will be the task of SBTC DR crews through April 25 and longer if requested, said Scottie Stice, SBTC DR director, adding that the connection with the food bank was made by Kyle Sadler, a member of United City Church in Humble, who volunteered with the Mayfields April 18 at the Texans Training Bubble.

That day, the Mayfields joined other SBTC DR volunteers to serve pizza donated by Papa John’s to volunteers, but on April 22, Ronnie and Connie Roark of Salem-Sayers Baptist near San Antonio transported the QRU quick response kitchen, a DR food trailer, to the Cypress Super Site.

The Roarks fixed fajitas for Cypress volunteers, who ate in 10-person shifts, spaced to accommodate social distancing, guidelines followed by all workers including SBTC DR volunteers.

The Roarks cooked with masks on, placing the food in hinged disposable containers, where it was carried to hungry volunteers inside the nearby hospitality tents by SBTC DR volunteers such as Kim Scott from Houston’s Clay Road Baptist. Tomi Sue and Gary Burgess of Spring Baptist were also among Wednesday’s volunteers, which included members of nearby Grace Life Baptist.

SBTC DR volunteers at the hospitality tent are also checking in food bank volunteers, taking their temperatures, and distributing masks and gloves, said Brandon Reed, SBTC DR task force member. Reed, associate pastor of United City Church, is coordinating the Super Site volunteers for SBTC DR.

The Roarks will return to Houston and cook for the group at the Texans Training Bubble on April 25.

“The food bank had so much food and so many people who needed it,” Connie Roark said of the initial experience at Cypress. “It was a great day for us. The food bank expected to serve 5,000 by the evening.”

“DR has changed during the coronavirus,” Scottie Stice said. “It’s a new day in DR. Now we try to do day trips as much as possible.” Should the need arise for overnight stays at churches, policies for social distancing will be followed, he added.

“We will be available to continue as needed assisting the Houston Food Bank unless we are called to another disaster,” Stice confirmed.

Onalaska tornado

Disaster struck Wednesday, April 22, in the small East Texas city of Onalaska, some 85 miles north of Houston in Polk County, claiming at least three lives, destroying 46 homes and damaging 245 others, the Houston Chronicle reported April 23.

An SBTC DR chainsaw crew from First Baptist Bellville led by Mike Phillips deployed to the area the day after the disaster, where they will be joined by the QR truck staffed by crew from Flint Baptist directed by John Robertson. The quick response feeding truck will provide meals for first responders and DR crews and will be housed at Pineywoods Baptist Camp, Stice said.

West Texas crude plummets while churches persevere across the state

On April 20 the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil plummeted to negative territory—a historic low. The drop to negative $37 a barrel came as oil production outpaced storage capacity. By Thursday the per-barrel-price opened at $14.20. While the industry’s volatility, brought on by global political and pandemic conditions, has observers anxious, two pastors in oil industry-dependent regions hold out hope for their communities.

For Texans living and working along the Gulf Coast and in West Texas the oil market fluctuations only exacerbate existing economic woes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial uncertainty is disconcerting for many in their communities said Byron McWilliams, pastor of First Baptist Church Odessa, and Jim Turnbo, executive director of the Golden Triangle Baptist Network in Beaumont.

“They’re hanging on. There’s still a positive atmosphere,” Turnbo told the TEXAN.

He has held the executive director post only a year but Turnbo, born and raised in Houston, is no stranger to the vacillating nature of the oil industry. 

Because oil refineries, not wells, fuel the Beaumont region’s economy, the tanking oil price has not yet impacted his communities he said. Pastors who have lived and worked in the area for decades told him their congregations have learned to live with the oil industry’s cyclical nature.

They told him there is no talk of lay-offs from the refineries that are operating with scaled back crews. Engineers who can work from home do. Those whose jobs require they be on-site, go to work each day ever conscience of the need to keep the coronavirus at bay.

“What has changed is all the plants were planning expansions and that has slowed down,” he said. That means some employees have gone from working overtime to normal shifts.

More than the oil price fluctuations, the government stay-at-home orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic have taken their toll on local economies, personal income and tithing Turnbo said. Church offerings have recovered, on average, to about 60 percent of pre-pandemic giving—some churches are on budget and some are struggling he said.

In his 16 years at FBC Odessa, McWilliams has experienced the ebbs and flows of the oil market. But he thinks there are some Odessa churches that might not make it through the current iteration. He said the global pandemic with its weeks-long economic impact and the tanking oil prices “conspire together in the perfect storm.”

“I know there are smaller churches in the area who are getting nailed,” he said. “There are churches in the area who might not make it through this.”

As of April 22, when McWilliams spoke with the TEXAN, there had been no reports of widespread lay-offs due to Monday’s historic low oil price. But his congregation and community have been buffeted by them.

Employees and employers, both experiencing the economic pangs, looked to McWilliams and the church for solace.

One of his members works for an oilfield service company. Dipping oil prices in recent weeks lead to decreased drilling and lower demand for his services. Monday’s plummet was the last straw. He called McWilliams and said, “We’re laying off today. So, pray for me.”

Two weeks earlier a member, a single mom of two, lost her job.

“From a pastor’s perspective we’re asking what can we do for people like that,” McWilliams said.

FBC Odessa has a fund to assist those who need help paying bills, but it does not have the resources to provide aid for a large number of church members or Odessa residents should mass lay-offs begin.

McWilliams explained that while an oil boom is preferable to a bust, the former is not without its drawbacks. A booming oil industry raises the cost of living for all Odessa residents. When he and his family moved to Odessa in 2004 the price of oil was about $35-$38 a barrel and the housing market was depressed. Since then he’s seen oil prices as high as $150 a barrel and rent for a one-bedroom apartment reach $1500 to $1700 a month.

So, compared to what people would need to make ends meet if lay-offs expanded to include oil field workers, what FBC Odessa has to offer is “small potatoes” McWilliams said. The church partners with the Permian Basin Mission Center, which can also provide aid.

McWilliams and Turnbo will keep a watchful eye on the oil market and its impact on their communities. But, for now, they both said what they hear from church members and pastors is frustration.

Churches along the Gulf Coast have not all recovered from damage caused last year by another storm—Tropical Storm Imelda. Churches and homes took on water only a year after enduring Hurricane Harvey.

“These crises, in our minds, have really run together,” said Turnbo. “We’re tired. But we’re persevering. The Lord who has been with us in the past is with us now.”

Being able to meet in person for church will make a world of difference for both communities they said.

But in the meantime, McWilliams encourages his congregation to maintain a different attitude from people whose trust in not in Christ. He said, “What we are experiencing is unprecedented for us. It is not unprecedented in human history … or to God.”