Author: amadmin

Black church worship: A historical and theological interpretation of a people who were pressed, perplexed, and persecuted

I am often asked by white congregants if the church is moving toward unity and oneness in Christ Jesus, and if our convention (SBTC) has moved positively toward the “Look Like Heaven” emphasis. What is the reason for the emphasis on the black church and black worship in the month of February?

First, black worship is connected with black life and it is characterized by a religious sense inseparable from the suffering that determined it. When black people gather together for worship and praise to God, it is not because they have made a decision about the theological merits of Luther’s 95 Theses or of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Second, black worship has been wrought out of the experience of slavery, lynching, ghettos and police brutality. As my deceased father would preach speaking in terms of our pain, “… we have been ‘buked and scorned” and “talked about–sho’s you borned.” In worship, we try to say something about ourselves other than what has been said about us in society. Through sermons, prayers and songs, we have transcended societal humiliation and degradation to explore heavenly mysteries about starry crowns, long white robes and gospel shoes on golden streets.

For us, the church has been the citadel of hope–a sanctuary of peace. Whereas the church has been the only place where we could go with tears in our eyes without anyone asking, “What are you crying about?” We preach, shout and sing the songs of Zion according to the rhythm of the pain and the joy of life WITHOUT being subjected to the dehumanizing observations of intellectuals such as sociologists, psychologists and theologians.

In worship we can be who we are as defined by our struggle rather than be defined by modern society. Furthermore, our gathering for worship has been dictated by a historical and theological necessity that is related to the dialectic of oppression, and our attempt to liberate ourselves from it—for which we would have no reason to sing, “How I go over, my soul looks back and wonders how I got over …”

Third, black worship was born in slavery on slave ships and nurtured in the cotton fields of Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Georgia and Mississippi. It was birthed out of the struggle of black slaves seeking to define their humanity according to their anticipated freedom, and not according to slavery. For slaves, there was present the divine dower of “D Lawd,” who was greater than the white structures that enslaved them. When black slaves were tempted to give up in despair, this power (D Lawd) gave them hope that slavery would soon come to an end.

The source which black people used for explaining this power was the Holy Scripture as interpreted by our African heritage and our desire for freedom. Black worship is biblical! One of the most amazing facts of history is that many black slaves could not read, but their hermeneutics was not derived from an intellectual encounter with the text, but from a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Because slaves were able to make a radical epistemological distinction between the gospel of Jesus and the religion of the whites, the slaves came to a different theological conclusion about God. When African slaves heard of the Old Testament story of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, they identified themselves with the Hebrews and their white slaves masters as the Egyptians—and for them no exegesis could change that. It is this theological certainty that enabled them to sing, “… Oh Mary, don’t you weep, oh Martha don’t you moan, Pharaoh’s army got drownded in the Red Sea; Oh Mary, don’t you weep, oh Martha don’t you moan.”

Therefore, the theme of God as the liberator is found throughout the history of black religion. The theological conviction that the God of the Bible is the liberator of the poor and the downtrodden was and is the mindset of black people even today. For us as black people, God is a mighty God, our heartfixer, our mind regulator. In our worship he is known by the presence of his divine Spirit with us, giving us not only a vision that society must be transformed, but also giving us the power and courage to participate in that transformation.

Finally, black worship is a series of recitals of what God has done to bring his people out of hurt, harm and danger. In black worship, God is that divine miracle who enables his people to survive amid wretched conditions. In black worship, God is holy, personal and all-powerful. Our understanding of that fact is what drives us to sing, shout and preach, “He walks with me and talks with me and tells me that I am his own.” In black worship, God is everything we need in order to triumph over terrible circumstances.

But wait! You cannot leave out Jesus of black worship! In the black church, Jesus is known for his identification with the poor—and there is NO distinction in essence between God and Jesus. Jesus is our constant companion, the one who walks with his people. He is the oppressed one who experiences the brokenness of humanity.

Now that you have a better insight and meaning of the black church worship experience, my dear beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, I invite you for one Sunday in the month of February to go worship with your local SBTC black church and experience our unique heritage of praising our Lord!

Editor’s Note: Pastor Donald G. Burgs, Jr. is the president of the SBTC African-American Fellowship and has submitted this column as the nation commemorates Black History Month.

REVIEW: “Created Equal” reveals a Clarence Thomas driven by faith

He was a self-identified left-wing college radical who wore Army fatigues. He embraced Marxist leaders and took part in a violent protest. And when he graduated from law school in the 1970s, he thought working for a Republican would be “repulsive.”

But somehow, Clarence Thomas grew up to become one of the most conservative justices in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

A new documentary—Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words (PG-13)—tells the amazing story of Thomas’ life through the voice of Thomas himself. Based on 30-plus hours of interviews with Thomas, it follows this transformative figure, from his childhood, to his college and young adult years, to his unforgettable confirmation battle of 1991.

The film is the inside story of the most “silent” justice in Supreme Court history—he famously never asks questions—and it is as gripping as it is entertaining.

At times, it’s even surprising.

Thomas grew up in the segregated southern city of Savannah, Ga., initially living with his mother in a run-down house where sewage flooded into yards. (It filled the ditches, and they used a plank to walk over the smelly mess.) He then moved in with his middle-class grandmother and grandfather, who sent him to Catholic school. This is where faith was ingrained into Thomas. His grandfather had a “philosophy of life” that came from the Bible, believing the world was fallen because of what happened in the Garden of Eden.

A few months shy of his 16th birthday, Thomas decided he wanted to be a priest. He entered seminary—“I loved the contemplative life”—but was troubled by the racism of a handful of classmates. (One passed him a note in class reading, “I like Martin Luther King … dead.” When news broke of King’s assassination, a classmate exclaimed, “Good.”) The Catholic Church, he says, did not take a firm stance on civil rights. So, he dropped out.

His next stop was Holy Cross, which he entered in 1968 during a tumultuous era in U.S. history. Thomas quickly embraced this radicalism by wearing Army fatigues and aligning himself with radical groups and leaders. Yet after he took part in a violent protest on another college campus, he felt guilty. He stopped in front of a chapel and prayed to God, “If you take anger out of my heart, I’ll never hate again.”

Thomas graduated from Yale Law School as a registered Democrat, but his only job offer was working with Republican Missouri Attorney General John Danforth. He considered the idea “repulsive,” but nevertheless took the job. That’s where Thomas’ outlook on life began to transform. In 1979 he took a position as a legislative aide to Danforth, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1980, Thomas voted for Ronald Reagan, a Republican. He then accepted a position within the Reagan administration. (He was attracted to Reagan’s push to stop the “social engineering” of the 1960s and 70s.)

Thomas’ judicial philosophy was influenced by his study of slavery and segregation in the U.S. — and why a nation founded on equality could have permitted both. He was searching, he says, for a set of legal ideals that said slavery and segregation were wrong. He discovered natural law, which he says was embedded in the Declaration of Independence’s statement that “all Men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

“The framers understood natural law and natural rights a certain way, and it is an underpinning of our Declaration, which then becomes a foundation for the Constitution,” Thomas says. “They start with the rights of the individual, and where [do] those rights come from? They come from God. They’re transcendent.”

His personal views about a law, he says, don’t matter.

“When interpreting constitutional text, the goal is to discern the most likely public understanding of a particular provision when it was adopted. … A bad policy can be constitutional. A good policy can be unconstitutional. So that’s why we start with a text.”

Thomas’ faith is a major theme in the documentary. During his contentious 1991 confirmation hearing—he was facing allegations of sexual harassment he denied—he and his wife held a Bible study with friends. The subject: Paul’s admonition to wear the “armor of God.” (His wife says of the allegations, “It felt like the demons were loose.”) Minutes before Thomas went before the Senate committee to respond to the allegations, Danforth told him, “Go in the name of the Holy Ghost.” Thomas labeled the committee’s handling of the allegations a “high-tech lynching.” “God,” he told the senators, “is my judge.”

Thomas also answers those who mock and ridicule him for not aligning himself with positions historically held by black groups. He calls such mocking “stereotypes draped in sanctimony and self-congratulation.”

“If you criticize a black person who is more liberal, then you’re racist,” he says, “whereas you can do whatever to me, or to now Ben Carson, and that’s fine, because, ‘You’re not really black because you’re not doing what we expect black people to do.’”

The Supreme Court often is often viewed as mysterious, partially because cameras aren’t allowed in the courtroom. And Thomas—because he rarely speaks during the sessions—perhaps is the most misunderstood member of the court.

Created Equal gives us a fascinating peek into Thomas’ life. Just like other recent films about the justices—RBG and On the Basis of Sex come to mind—it’s worth watching.

Content warnings: The film includes brief footage of Anita Hill’s sexually explicit testimony—footage that earned it a PG-13 rating. Coarse language includes d–n (4), misuse of “G-d (3) and SOB (1). Most of the language involves Thomas quoting someone else.

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements including some sexual references.

Visit JusticeThomasMovie.com for a listing of theaters.

Entertainment rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Family-friendly rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Is the SBC Returning to Theological Liberalism?

So you’re upset with the “liberal direction of the SBC?” You’ve heard talk of leaders endorsing homosexuality. You’ve seen social media posts about Resolution #9 on Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. You’ve interacted with blog postings about the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements. Just reading the words “social justice” or “gospel issue” evokes emotions from deep within you—maybe positive, maybe negative.

Are we headed toward theological liberalism or are we finally waking up from a season of ethnocentric and misogynistic comatose? Are we denying our roots and veering off track or are we finally opening our eyes to real issues? What’s the story in the SBC today, really?

We live in the age of information, where opinions and facts are craftily entwined then readily circulated on social media platforms. The truth is in there somewhere, but is not always easily distinguishable. Some disheartened pastors and churches feel their only recourse is to pull out of the convention altogether. But there’s something I think we seem to be forgetting…

You are the convention.

The Southern Baptist Convention is not a parachurch organization with a top-down org chart. The SBC is a fellowship of autonomous churches whose decision-making power is vested in the collective body. The churches make the decisions, bringing their voices to the table at every annual meeting. They collectively decide on their leadership, resolutions, doctrinal parameters, governing structure, etc.

Much debate has arisen over some decisions made at the 2019 SBC Annual Meeting in Birmingham. But in fact, only 7 percent of SBC churches sent messengers to the 2019 annual meeting. The SBC 2019 annual meeting shows us a voting majority’s opinion from 7 percent of SBC churches.

Run Resolution #9 through this filter, just for example. I was there and estimate it passed by a margin of maybe 10 percent but we’ll say 15 percent to be sure. So 65 percent of 7 percent of our churches passed Resolution #9—that’s 4.55 percent of the SBC. Do the majority of SBC churches support Resolution #9? We can’t know based on the voting at the 2019 annual meeting. No one can really say if the SBC is going liberal or not. The good news is you are the SBC. Regardless of today’s buzz, you can influence the narrative moving forward.

Here are three ways your church can become part of the positive future narrative of the SBC:

1. Give sacrificially and regularly through the Cooperative Program. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s constitution allows for 10 messengers from every affiliated church, regardless of CP participation. The SBC’s allows two messengers from every affiliated church, plus one more for every $6,000 (or 1 percent of the church’s budget) given, up to 12 maximum. SBC giving is measured from the end of September of the previous year. If you want to have a voice in the direction of the SBC, make a continual, sacrificial financial investment in the ministry of the SBC.

2. Set aside money for your leaders to attend national and state annual meetings. The vast majority of SBC churches run 150 or fewer in worship. In my experience, these churches may feel like convention decisions are not representative of their convictions. But they often don’t participate in the decision-making processes of the convention. I know their pastors are getting by on a slim salary, and their budgets are strained in every way, every year (this is the kind of church I pastored). But if the direction of the SBC is important to your church you need to send messengers to the annual meeting every year. Add a convention expense allocation to your leaders’ salary packages. Or add a convention expense line item to the church budget to cover travel costs for elected messengers from the church body. Don’t be frustrated with the direction of the convention while not making provision for having a voice in that direction. Churches of this size are not “small” in the SBC. They are normative.

3. Send a full slate of messengers to every annual meeting. Call a business meeting and elect as many messengers as your church is allowed, plus 2-5 alternates. Preregister them on the annual meeting website. Pray over them before they leave and hear a report from them when they return. If you are going to have ownership in the narrative of the SBC, you must have representatives in the decision-making processes of the SBC. Send messengers who will vote your church’s convictions. Send them all.

The SBC is still the most theologically conservative, effective mission-giving and mission-sending mechanism on earth. We are a family of churches, and every family member has a voice. I encourage you to stop just speaking about the SBC and start speaking into the SBC. I wonder how the Southern Baptist Convention might be different if half of our churches sent messengers. Or 75 percent. Or 100 percent. Until we have more voices speaking into the decision-making processes, we will not have accurate conversations about the decisions being made in our processes.

Is the SBC headed back toward theological liberalism? Impossible to say right now. But your church’s voice can impact the present direction. Come to the SBC annual meeting this year. I’ll see you there.

One story behind the pro-life Super Bowl ad you won’t see this year

MESQUITE—Josiah Presley, one of the abortion survivors featured in a 30-second ad that Fox Sports chose not to run during the Super Bowl, is a Criswell College graduate and a youth pastor at Galloway Avenue Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas.

“Can you look me in the eye and tell me that I shouldn’t be alive?” Presley asks in the ad made by Faces of Choice. The group’s founder said she repeatedly met additional terms set forth by Fox and in the end was not given a suitable reason why the ad was rejected.

“We are the survivors of choice. We are the faces of choice,” abortion survivors say in the ad.

When she was two months pregnant, Presley’s mother in South Korea had a curettage abortion, which “is the type of abortion where a doctor goes into a mother’s womb and rips the baby apart and brings him out in pieces,” Presley told the TEXAN.

The woman was sent home, but a few months later she realized the abortion “had actually failed and I was still very much alive,” he said. Presley was born in 1995 and placed with a foster home in South Korea. At 13 months, Randy and Kathy Presley of Norman, Oklahoma, adopted him and raised him along with nine other adopted children and two biological children.

Presley has a deformed arm, which is believed to have been caused by the type of abortion attempted. Throughout his childhood, he struggled secretly with low self-esteem, thinking he was less than others because of his deformity. “I thought I wouldn’t go anywhere in life,” he said.

When he was 13 years old, Presley’s parents told him he had survived an abortion. Though he was grateful to know his story, the news sent him deeper into darkness.

“It became apparent to me at that time that my life actually was worthless because the people who should have loved me the most thought my life was so unvaluable they tried to take it,” Presley said.

As a young teenager, Presley developed hatred toward anyone who was pro-choice, including abortion doctors, post-abortive women and Planned Parenthood workers. “I thought they were the scum of the earth because it was people like them who made me the way I was, so broken,” he said.

All the while, he continued projecting a good church kid façade at Trinity Baptist Church in Norman, where his father was a worship pastor. The summer after his sophomore year of high school, God got Presley’s attention at Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center in Oklahoma. The camp pastor that week talked about the Greek word dunamis and how God imparts in the believer the power to overcome the trials of the world.

“I remember thinking I didn’t have that in my life,” Presley said.

He accepted Christ as his Savior that week and started seeing changes in his outlook. He realized his value was not in what he did but in the fact that he was created in the image of a God who had a purpose for his life, he said.

“He has proven his love to me by dying on a cross for the punishment of my sins when I was far from him,” Presley said.

As God worked in his heart, Presley was convicted of the hatred he had toward his birth parents for the choices they made. “He has forgiven me of so much, the least I can do is forgive them for the wrongs they committed against me,” he said. “I found forgiveness there, and I found healing there.”

Presley graduated from Criswell College with a psychology degree in 2018, is married to Bethany and works as a student success manager at Criswell while serving as a youth pastor.

He lamented the 60 million lives lost to abortion in the United States since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

“We live in a culture that tells women, ‘If you want to get ahead in life, if you want to go anywhere in life, you have to take a life,’” Presley said. “We live in a culture that tells men, ‘Fulfill the passions of your flesh, and you are not held responsible for your actions.’

“We live in a world that applauds evil as seen by its support of the taking of the most innocent of human beings’ lives. That’s a culture of death.”

The only light strong enough to overcome that kind of darkness, he said, is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“If you’re a follower of Christ, that light has been placed within you, and it is your calling and your duty to take that light into the world,” Presley said, pointing to Matthew 5.

The task starts with loving neighbors, those who are born “so that the world believes it when we say we love our unborn neighbor,” he said.

It also means caring for and loving the abortion doctor, the Planned Parenthood worker, the abortion-minded woman and the post-abortive woman, Presley said.

“Why? Because they’re people created in the image of God.”

Though he was disappointed, Presley said he wasn’t surprised Fox Sports chose not to air the Super Bowl ad that Faces of Choice submitted. He hopes the chatter that has followed the decision will still get the message into American homes, especially as pro-life people direct others to the various abortion survivor videos at facesofchoice.org.

“Our prayer is that it still has an impact and it still shows people the truth of what abortion is,” he said.

Though some people may want to boycott the Super Bowl because Fox chose to run a Sabra hummus ad featuring drag queens and not one with a pro-life message, Presley said an additional response could be to watch the game with unchurched friends or family and use what happened to the Faces of Choice ad as a springboard to talk about the value of every human life.

“They might not go to church with you, but they might watch the Super Bowl with you, and you might just in that moment have that opportunity to start a conversation about life,” he said.

People inspired by the ad’s message can get involved in the pro-life movement by looking for crisis pregnancy centers in their cities where they can get involved or by joining pregnancy help or adoption support ministries in their local churches, Presley said.

“Get involved in those ways. If there aren’t those ministries in your church, maybe God would call you to start those,” he said.

“Love your neighbor in a tangible way so that as we speak for truth, as we affirm the value of human life, the world knows it by the way we value the lives of the born.”

Austin Rally for Life Pray for an End to Abortion

AUSTIN—Karen McDaniel was one of thousands of pro-life activists to march to the Capitol steps on Jan. 25 to make their voices heard; to pray, and give glory to God for limiting abortion in Texas; and to hear how the pro-life movement’s goal is to stop abortions nationwide.

McDaniel marched in the Texas Rally for Life with members of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, carrying a sign that read “Pray to end abortion.” She said abortion harms women, but the clinics and media work in tandem to hide the evil side of the industry.

McDaniel said she founded the Champion Forest Coalition for Life in 2008, after attending a church-sponsored Roe v. Wade conference, where she met women with testimonies about the horrors of abortion. Until then, she said the media had her believing pro-life activists were the bad guys, and abortion was a viable healthcare option for women.

Since then, in hopes of ending abortion, McDaniel has worked at her church, and in the community to educate women about the abortion industry. She also organizes prayer at abortion clinics, trips to pro-life rallies, and group participation in the Life Chain. “We need to seek God, rise up against abortion, and pray that the Lord will overturn Roe v. Wade,” she said.

Speakers at the Texas Rally for Life, commemorating the 47th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, included GOP State Rep. Jeff Leach, Claire Culwell, an abortion survivor, and moderator Sylvia B. Johnson-Matthews, of the Houston Pregnancy Help Center.

Leach said the 2019 legislature approved more restrictive laws against abortion, but the number of abortion clinics in Texas doubled to 10 in the past year, with most opening in West Texas. He said nationwide, many recent laws banning abortion and protecting the unborn cannot be enforced due to court challenges. The good news, he said, is these new laws may also force Supreme Court challenges to Roe v. Wade, and a woman’s legal right to an abortion.

Culwell, who survived an abortion that took her twin sister, said she was adopted, but located, and forgave her biological mother for her part in the failed abortion. “Abortion hurts us, but life, and motherhood empowers us,” she said.

Johnson-Matthews said since Roe v. Wade more than 60 million babies have been aborted, and their “spilled blood is crying out to God,” but the Lord is hearing their cry. “We are winning the battle against abortion thanks to the Lord, science, and you taking a stand for life.”

Symphony Brown, another member of Champion Forest attending Stephen F. Austin University, participated in her first Rally for Life carrying a sign that read “Defund Planned Parenthood.” Brown said she recently joined Lumberjacks for Life, and became more educated about abortion. She now believes unborn children have a right to life, and is sharing her beliefs with family, and friends.

Others carrying signs reading “I regret my abortion,” shared testimonies of how they were pressured into having an abortion, and then became suicidal and drug-addicted before meeting Christ. They now educate about the negative impact of abortion, and minister to those wounded, and hurting after their abortion.

David Krauss of Austin rode a scooter to the rally, and others marched to the Capitol using walkers, and canes. “I am here to defend the unborn,” Krauss said. “I believe a baby is formed at conception, and that abortion is murder. I believe that what God has created, man should not destroy.”

SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers more than 48,000 hours in 2019

GRAPEVINE Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, homelessness, mass shootings and migration crises—storms of all kinds—saw Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief workers donate thousands of volunteer hours throughout the Lone Star state, the Midwest and the South in 2019.

The year was characterized by unusual deployments. SBTC DR crews served along the Texas/Mexico border as thousands sought entry to the United States, ministered in the wake of tragic shootings in El Paso and Odessa, helped victims of unprecedented October tornadoes in Dallas and prepared meals for Austin’s homeless.

SBTC DR crews crossed Texas, serving in Alto, Austin, Bastrop, Beaumont, Borger, Brownsville, Brownwood, Bryan, Dallas, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, El Paso, Hamshire, Harlingen, Kilgore, Kountze, League City, Madisonville, Mineral Wells, New Baden, Odessa, Pflugerville, Port Arthur, Robstown, Sargent, San Augustine, Raymondville and Vidor.

Outside Texas, volunteers ministered in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

The Quick Response Unit, a mobile food truck, saw significant use in 2019, including serving meals near a predominantly Muslim neighborhood in tornado-ravaged Dallas and moving rapidly to feed fire victims in Madisonville this fall.

SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice praised the efficiency and flexibility of the QRU and the volunteers manning it, telling the TEXAN that SBTC DR added two more QR kitchen units to its fleet this year.

The response to the migrant crisis at the border proved to be “the most evangelistic ministry we had this year,” Stice said, noting that the ministry provided opportunities to build relationships with government agencies and further partnerships with Samaritan’s Purse and the Salvation Army.

“God really blessed SBTC DR ministry this year. We praise God for the great results. Personally, I thank God for SBTC DR volunteers. They come from churches from all over the state and give their time and their love to those in need,” he added.

The statistics to the left tell the story. The ministry of churches along the border such as West Brownsville Baptist saw more than one thousand salvations.

Although SBTC DR has over 6,000 trained volunteers, the number of total volunteers refers to days deployed rather than to separate individuals. Over 4,800 deployed means 4,800-plus days in the field. Many volunteers faithfully served repeatedly in 2019.

For more information about online and site-based SBTC DR training to become a DR volunteer, visit sbtexas.com/dr.

West Central Texas church revamps Wednesday nights

COLEMAN—First Baptist Church has been one of the strengths of Coleman, Texas, since the church was established in 1877, and now in modern America it’s finding its place again as a light drawing people from all corners of its sparsely populated county, partly by emphasizing Wednesday night gatherings.

“It’s an old church, but we’re reaching new people and doing new things here,” said Chas Shira, the church’s pastor. First Baptist recently affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Coleman County, in the West Central region of the state, is one of the older counties in Texas, Shira said, and First Baptist’s sanctuary—though renovated within the last year—was built around 1916.

“We’re a county seat church, and we have people who come from all edges of the county. That’s our mission field,” Shira told the TEXAN.

To frame the mission, Shira said he tells the congregation, “There are about 8,000 people in the county, and if we are one of the largest churches and on a good Sunday we have 150, then that means there’s at least 7,000 in the county that aren’t in church. Some of those people might identify themselves as Christian, but they don’t attend church regularly.

“I expect to run 8,000 someday,” Shira said. “That should be our goal if we’re trying to reach this county. There are a lot of unchurched, nominal Christians. The fields are white in Coleman County.”

Last fall, First Baptist launched The Gathering, a revamping of Wednesday night to include the whole family.

“Wednesday nights weren’t heavily attended when I got here,” said Shira, who arrived in April 2018. “What we wanted it to become is a chance in the middle of the week for Christians to gather.”

The Gathering starts with a meal in the Family Life Center at 6 p.m., and then youth and children split off for age-graded Bible study and other activities. Adults stay in the room where the meal was served and study the Bible, Shira said, tackling even difficult passages and applying them to life.

“It’s a chance for the entire family to gather on a Wednesday. We’ve seen a lot of growth,” he said. “It’s been great. Our youth numbers have been up. Our children’s numbers are up. Our adult numbers have creeped back up.”

The church has a youth minister and a children’s director who is a former principal of the local elementary school.

One reason First Baptist emphasizes The Gathering is “there are a lot of churches in our county that don’t even have Wednesday night activities. They’ve just gotten so small,” Shira said.

Without trying to take members from other churches, First Baptist invites people to take advantage of the ministry space and offerings they have midweek. Partnering with smaller churches in the community is a priority for Shira, and the day he spoke with the TEXAN he had met another Baptist pastor for lunch.

First Baptist has been a strong supporter of the Cooperative Program all along, Shira said, and in the years ahead he hopes to lead them to participate in missions by identifying, with the International Mission Board’s help, a place in the world where they can make repeated trips for long-term involvement.

For now, they’re focusing on personal contacts in Coleman. Last fall, Shira led the church in the “Who’s Your One?” evangelism emphasis, and he plans to continue that each year.

In an effort to be a good community partner, First Baptist has been part of the local fall festival for the past couple of years.

“We have a neat downtown area that’s kind of being revitalized. Coleman’s a neat place. It’s a pretty part of Texas, so there’s some growth here and some storefronts and some things coming back. So we’ve been partnering—doing sidewalk games, passing out candy,” he said.

A graduate of Hardin-Simmons University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Shira said one of the appeals of affiliating with the SBTC is being on the same page theologically.

“Partnering with people that affirm the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 is huge, to know that whatever ministry SBTC helps fund, it’s funding a ministry that has already agreed to the same Baptist Faith & Message that we do here.”

A Texas native, Shira is married to Katie, and they have three children, ages 4, 1 and four months. Their oldest son was adopted through foster care. Recently they bought a hundred-year-old house near the church and are renovating it as their new home. The house had been vacant for 60 years, Shira said, and when they bought it all of the windows had broken out.

“We love Coleman and love being a part of the community,” Shira said.

“The SBC is built on relationships, and we have weakened that,” Albert Mohler on BF&M 2000, nomination, Twitter

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary since 1993, will be nominated for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention when it gathers June 9-10, 2020, in Orlando. Mohler, who served on the committee that drafted the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, recently spoke with the TEXAN about his nomination and his view and vision of the SBC.

TEXAN: How would you define a successful presidential term, should you be elected?

Mohler: I think we’re at an interesting and strategic moment for Southern Baptists, and I would define success as helping Southern Baptists to move in unity and in theological health towards a future that will be even more faithful, even more evangelistic, even more committed to missions. At this particular moment I think there’s a tremendous need for the affirmation of Southern Baptists and for affirmation by Southern Baptists of the convictions that shape us, and I think this is a moment of generational transition in the SBC where we’re in a season of enormous cultural challenge and I think Southern Baptists need to think and talk very openly and honestly about these issues, and to do so in the right spirit. So, I would consider that to be success if I could help to facilitate those conversations and help Southern Baptists move forward.

TEXAN: What other challenges or opportunities do you see facing the convention today?

Mohler: We’re looking at an unprecedented cultural challenge to the SBC. The SBC is accustomed, as a fellowship of churches, to being rather at the center of our own culture. And candidly, we are now in a situation in which all of the major cultural forces now present a significant challenge to us. Southern Baptists face challenges to our faithfulness that no previous generation has had to consider. When you just take into account the moral revolution pressing so many issues on us, there is a great need for Southern Baptists to have a united front and a united heart, but there are challenges to that unity. There are issues that have arisen over the course of the last several years that have probably sown seeds of unnecessary disunity, in one sense because Southern Baptists evidently have forgotten how to talk to one another and even how to discuss issues. So, I’m just hopeful that Southern Baptists are up to this kind of conversation. And what I hear from Southern Baptist pastors and denominational leaders and lay people is that they want this kind of conversation, and that they don’t want it to take place on Twitter. They want it to take place face to face.

TEXAN: Could you give an example of what you see are some of the greatest opportunities facing the convention?

Mohler: I think of the generational transition that Southern Baptists are now experiencing as itself a great opportunity. Let me give you the best news I can think of about that transition. Virtually every other denomination has had an effective loss of biblical fidelity in the current generation of young adults. The statistics, denomination by denomination, are catastrophic. Here’s the great good news: we have six seminaries populated by some of the most conservative, convictional and gospel-minded young pastors and preachers you could imagine. We have a rising generation just as committed to the Great Commission as their forefathers and foremothers, and in one sense even more so, given the opposition they will face. I just want to tell Southern Baptists, look, we have one shot at this generational transition and we’re starting out with an enormous blessing when you look at the generation of pastors now serving the SBC.

TEXAN: You mentioned unnecessary disagreement on Twitter. In the face of these and other serious disagreements, how do you plan to lead us as a convention toward unity?

Mohler: Well, I do think Southern Baptists are far more united than divided right now. I don’t think we’re suffering a crisis of disunity. But, there are issues that clearly have come up again and again on the floor of the SBC. All you have to do is listen to the denomination conversation after our meeting in Birmingham to know there are some real issues that Southern Baptists want to talk about. And look, just to be candid, the only reason we’re able to have this conversation is because Southern Baptists experienced a great theological reformation in the period of the late 70s, the 1980s and the 90s and beyond. We are the inheritors of that reformation. And we dare not lose it. When you look at every other denomination that has been in precipitous decline, generally accompanied by theological apostasy, we just need to be really thankful for what unites Southern Baptists. And I don’t have a doubt about that, by the way. I don’t doubt that if these major issues were to come up on the floor of the SBC that the Southern Baptist Convention would be enormously united, on the integrity of the gospel, on the inerrancy of Scripture, on the exclusivity of the gospel of Christ, you go down the list—that’s unprecedented in any major American denomination. And not only am I unspeakably thankful for that, I’m determined to perpetuate that.

TEXAN: Why you? Why should Southern Baptists select you in 2020 at the Convention?

Mohler: The folks who have come to me over the course of the last several years and asked me to do this, and in the last several months more pointedly, have convinced me to do it because they have been looking for someone they know who loves the Southern Baptist Convention and is committed to it with a lifelong commitment, someone who has lived through the last several decades of Southern Baptist life and knows what must not be lost, and someone who loves Southern Baptists at every level and will give Southern Baptists and the state conventions and our denominational entities encouragement. And I mean convictional encouragement and encouragement for leadership and understanding of how the SBC works. I will simply say that I don’t have anything to stand on but three decades of service to the Southern Baptist Convention and people by now have pretty much figured out who I am.

TEXAN: We’re meeting in the same city, 20 years after the BF&M 2000 was adopted. Is the current version of the Baptist Faith & Message sufficient for the challenges facing the convention today?

Mohler: I’m an enthusiastic proponent of the 2000 edition of the Baptist Faith & Message and I would not encourage the revision of that confession at this time. I think what you see in the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message is a very powerful statement of Southern Baptist conviction. My job is to be a theologian, and as a theologian and as a confessionalist I’m very worried about revisiting the confession too often. That just does not represent theological health. I’m not saying that Southern Baptists should never revisit the Baptist Faith & Message, but there will be the temptation on the part of some to revisit it at every meeting of the convention, and that’s not how a confession of faith operates. Theological health is having an ongoing conversation about Southern Baptist convictions, but I think right now—and here’s another piece of really good news—the Baptist Faith & Message really does represent what Southern Baptists believe, what is taught in our seminaries, and what is affirmed by our state conventions. And when you consider the denominational landscape around us, that’s just incredibly good news.

TEXAN: Highlighting the areas in which we are unified and agree—is that going to be a major theme as you lead us as president?

Mohler: Well, if the Lord gives me that opportunity, I think that’s the most important thing I can do. The Southern Baptist denomination is not a hierarchical denomination. The president of the SBC doesn’t have much control, but he does have some influence, and I hope to use that influence to help Southern Baptists to move into this new decade with convictions intact, with Great Commission passion, enthusiastic, and with honest hope. And honest hope means it’s not a hope based on avoiding some hard conversations, but actually having those hard conversations. And I’ve been at this for a very long time—I know Southern Baptists are capable of having real conversations, but we have made it very difficult to do so in our current denominational climate.

In the first sense, we’ve cut our meeting time down so that there’s very little time for either formal or informal conversation at Southern Baptist meetings. And I know this was all done in the name of efficiency, but it’s kind of like a family reunion right now where everyone flies in, has a meal, and leaves without talking to one another. We need to have those conversations, so I’m concerned about the fact that we’ve lost the formal conversations that we used to have, but also the informal conversations. We just have lost a lot of the connective tissue in the SBC where state convention executives and pastors and Southern Baptist leaders and lay people were together even just to have a meal and to have a coffee after a meeting. The SBC is built on relationships, and we have weakened that tissue of relationships. That’s not healthy.

The second thing is the rise of social media means that some people are trying to have ongoing conversation and debate 280 characters at a time. No denomination, in fact no church, of course, could exist trying to move its conversation onto the combat of Twitter. Now, that’s not say that real issues do not arise there and it’s not to say that nothing good could be said there, but it is to say Twitter is a very bad place to go to the Southern Baptist Convention. You actually need to go to the convention. We need Southern Baptists to be actively involved.

TEXAN: What are some of the serious issues that you believe we should learn to talk more healthily about?

Mohler: The good news is those issues [of the Conservative Resurgence]—such as the inerrancy of Scripture at the very center of that debate—they’re not up for question in the SBC, nor, I think, is a basic commitment to complementarianism. But there are new issues that have arisen in relationship to the appropriate roles for men and women in the church and in the Christian life that really were not a part of the picture even in 2000 when the Baptist Faith & Message was revised. They really weren’t very much a part of the picture when the Danvers Statement was adopted. So, I don’t fear those conversations. I don’t worry that Southern Baptists are tempted to go liberal on these issues, but I do think Southern Baptists have a basic commitment to complementarianism and are going to need to figure out what constitutes an adequate basis for our cooperation. There’s something going on in the SBC right now, or at least in some public conversation about the SBC, and that’s the assumption that the Southern Baptist Convention is to take a position on every theological question. That is not, and never has been, true. The Southern Baptist Convention is not a monolithic denomination. It’s got different traditions, it’s got churches with different worship styles, and it has from the beginning. And so what the Baptist Faith & Message has represented is an adequate basis of our theological cooperation. We are, as a denomination, centered in those common beliefs, but the SBC has never been monochromatic.

TEXAN: Some seem inclined to divide the SBC over issues about which the BF&M 2000 would indicate no need for division. Can we move on without settling such issues?

Mohler: I do not believe that health and integrity is ever found in avoiding a conversation. So, I am quite convinced that Southern Baptists are up to having a good, honest conversation about any of the issues that might be brought forward. And, we should not see the fact that those issues are brought forward as a threat or as an assault upon the SBC. But, at the same time, Southern Baptists don’t have a position on any number of issues that some people would like the denomination to speak to. There, I just count on the great wisdom and the conviction of grassroots Southern Baptists.

TEXAN: Specifically, Critical Race Theory and women preaching have become flash points in some quarters. Are these among the serious conversations you envision?

Mohler: I have spoken to these issues as clearly as I know how and Southern Baptists know exactly how to find out what I think about anything because you can Google and for good or ill find what I have said and thought about anything, and I certainly hope for good. My life has been committed to trying to help the Southern Baptist Convention and to serve the SBC in this way. So, just to take that one issue [women preaching in SBC churches]: I do not believe that the vast majority of Southern Baptist churches are open to having a woman to preach in the worship service, and I do not believe that they are wrong. I believe that’s an appropriate and right reading of Scripture. I believe that’s an instinct and an intuition that’s driven deeply into the Southern Baptist Convention by conviction. It’s not, however, an issue to which the Baptist Faith & Message directly speaks. Now this is complicated, because I would argue that when the Baptist Faith & Message says “pastor,” it means both office and function. But there are Southern Baptists who argue that it means office and not function. I think Southern Baptists should not be reluctant to have this conversation. I don’t worry that Southern Baptists are going to fracture over this question. I think that there will be some Southern Baptists who will hold a position different than my own, and I do not sense that the Southern Baptist Convention has the will to define these issues differently or beyond what is in the Baptist Faith & Message.

TEXAN: What will be your guiding criteria when you make appointments to the Committee on Committees?

Mohler: I would pledge to make appointments by the very same criteria used by faithful Southern Baptist Convention presidents ever since the election of Adrian Rogers in 1979. I will seek to find the most judicious Southern Baptists and responsible Southern Baptists to fulfill that responsibility and I will do so, I can pledge to you, in a way that Southern Baptists will feel confident when they would see such a list.

TEXAN: Imagine a small town church in East Texas running about 50 people on an average Sunday morning. What’s your case for why a church like that should be a part of the SBC?

Mohler: Well, from my heart, that’s the easiest case to make. Cooperating with Southern Baptists is the way a church like that can reach to Zimbabwe and Zaire and Miami and San Francisco and, for that matter, within their own association and their neighboring associations, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every single church in the Southern Baptist Convention, by the miracle of the Cooperative Program and our cooperative work, is at work right now for the gospel of Christ, taking the gospel to the nations. And no one of our churches, no matter how large, can do that alone. But we’re able to do that together. And, that church can have the assurance that the missionaries being sent by our International Mission Board are committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the sufficiency of Scripture. And they can be assured that when they are training missionaries through six seminaries, they know what’s being taught at those seminaries and that it’s consistent with the Baptist Faith & Message. They know that when the North American Mission Board is planting churches, it’s doing so on behalf of not only that church in East Texas, but almost 40,000 other Southern Baptist churches. Making the case for the Southern Baptist Convention or for our state conventions is just about the easiest case I know how to make.

TEXAN: Is there anything else you would like to say?

Mohler: I think this is an issue of importance, too, when you consider the sex abuse crisis and the issues that confront the SBC. I just want to say that that crisis is real and is going to call out the very best of Southern Baptist conviction and compassion and honesty, and that Southern Baptists are going to have to figure out, as the world is watching, how we’re going to respond to this challenge in ways that befit the gospel of Jesus Christ, what we know the Bible to teach about the protection of the vulnerable, what we know the Scriptures to teach about the integrity of ministry, and what we believe about Baptist polity. If resolving these issues were easy it would have been done long ago. But, under the leadership of President J.D. Greear, the Southern Baptist Convention has begun the process of responding to these issues, and this is going to take a lot of work by the Executive Committee, and a lot of investment by Southern Baptists. But we have one opportunity to show the world, based upon the gospel of Jesus Christ, how this denomination will respond to this challenge.

Editor’s Note: On Jan. 14, a group of pastors announced their intention to nominate Randy Adams, executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention, as SBC president. The TEXAN will include coverage of Adams’ nomination in a future issue of the paper.

The gospel above all

The theme for the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando has been announced, and for the first time ever the theme will be a repeat from the previous year. “The Gospel Above All” is worthy of a second year. Actually, this should be our continual focus.

The SBTC Empower Conference is Feb. 24 and 25 in the Irving Convention Center. It is the largest state convention gathering for evangelism in the SBC. Great worship music, anointed preaching, training workshops and fellowship meals are all on the schedule. It is a highlight of the year for church staff and laypersons. This event should be the catalyst to propel us into another year of sharing the gospel.

“Who’s Your One?” was successful in 2019. The challenge was to find one person you would pray for and witness to. Many stories were told about people coming to know Jesus. People will respond if we will tell them about our Lord and Savior. It is just a tool, but it works. We have to work to make it work. Stay focused on the gospel.

The apostle Paul told the Corinthians the gospel was about Jesus’ death according to the Scriptures, his burial and his resurrection according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4). Through repentance and faith a person receive eternal life that is in Christ. It takes place at a moment in time, then lasts forever.

Recently, some important topics have surfaced that needed our attention as a group of churches. We have formed task forces, appointed committees and passed resolutions. Some of these topics have been described as “gospel issues.” The gospel is about the transforming power of God to move a person for death to life. While we have moral and biblical matters that relate to the gospel we must remember that it is The Gospel Above All.

The political and cultural climate clamors for us to trade the best for the good. While we are to be involved, informed citizens we are to remember it is The Gospel Above All. Let us never surrender biblical convictions. In doing so, may we always remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

There are 29 million people in Texas, and some say there are 19 million Texans without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. There are over 3,000 people groups and 4-5 billion people in the world who are lost without our Savior. We need to be engaged on many levels, but there is one place imperative for us to focus: The Gospel Above All.

We need each other. We need a confessional fellowship of churches. We need a fresh breath from the Spirit of God. Join me at the Irving Convention Center to be encouraged, challenged and equipped to live a life that puts The Gospel Above All.

Good News People

“Is there any good news?” a pastor once asked me. I was taken aback for a minute. “I don’t know of a church or a family that’s really doing great. Do you?” he continued. I did know some good news, as it turned out, but I was struck by his earnest hunger for something that wasn’t depressing. We all know some good news, but there are times we’re not thinking of it because our personal situation seems unbearable. And sometimes it is unbearable. The stories we see in the news today of cruel parents, loutish husbands, violent dictators and just plain local meanness often drag us down. Our near-instantaneous access to news of every sorrowful event in every place makes tragedy seem more imminent and common than it may be.

I’ve seen TV stations try featuring one “good news” or “happy news” story during a broadcast. The result often looks like a slow news day with a camera crew showing us a policeman playing street ball with some kids or a new baby giraffe at the local zoo. Of course, they’re trying to make their newscast less overwhelmingly negative, but it looks to me like they’re whistling past the graveyard.

It’s a little different for believers. We know things don’t always go well, but we are convinced we have some answers. When we hear about the threat of war in the Middle East we know it’s serious, but instead of clucking our tongues or despairing we pray for those making decisions and those who will be at the pointy end of diplomacy. We see to missionary workers in that part of the world, grateful to have the resources and the plans to keep them out of harm’s way. We think of chaplains and pastors in military towns who will be offering real help to those who might deploy and the families they leave behind. Those are good news responses, gospel responses.

Disaster relief has been the easiest good news story to track. No one rejoices when a hurricane or wildfire or tornado ravages a community, but neither do God’s people stand idly by, watching our neighbors suffer. The first thought of local churches is, “How can we help?”

We see again and again churches housing people and feeding people and sharing the good news of salvation in Jesus. As this response begins, our brothers and sisters across the state, and across the country in many cases, are packing their gear in preparation to show up and help. The result is encouraging rather than discouraging; it is hope rather than despair; it is very often life-changing for those who earlier considered themselves victims.

People who staff children’s homes are good news people. Their work has to be difficult and discouraging at times. They deal with families at their neediest, children at their most vulnerable. If you’ve heard the stories of children removed from their homes by police or abandoned by their parents, you know the daily work of our child placement agencies. But what drives them? What gives them joy? What stories do they most enjoy telling?

What I hear are stories of kids who are no longer homeless, or kids who have found a “forever home” with a family that loves them. These folks get excited when they tell of a kid or a parent who has believed in Christ. They know what darkness looks like, but they know that the darkness does not overwhelm the light.

Some of my favorite good news people are volunteer staffers at pregnancy resource centers. They see tragic situations as well. While it is disheartening to hear the situations of young women who have been abused, deceived and neglected, they also see some of those women redeemed and joyful. They get to see families and grown children come out of impending tragedy. Their willingness to enter dreadful situations with love and hope bears fruit as God gives the increase.

Pastors and church people are good news folk. We join together each week because our Lord was dead and is no longer dead. Our commission is to love our neighbors in ways that have eternal consequences. Our churches feed the hungry, clothe the naked and comfort the afflicted because we know that our neighbors are eternal souls, beloved of our God. That is an optimistic view of the world: that this present darkness will give way to eternal life for all who believe. That’s why we give our neighbors the good news of the gospel along with the temporal aid we provide.

As I said, we know that bad things happen. We see the news like everyone else. We grieve at gravesides and in hospital waiting rooms. But we know that this is not the whole story, the last word. Our message is not that everything is rosy—far from that. Our message is that there is hope in this life and of the next life.

Being good news people is quite apart from wealth and circumstances, though we share our wealth in awareness of circumstances. Those who see only external things—and we are often tempted to see things this way—are prone to despair in the midst of grievous events. But even when we grieve, we grieve as those who live in the hope of eternal life. That’s the good news that drives us.