PASTORS
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AUGUST 2016
Newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention N MORE NEWS AT TEXANONLINE.NET
SOUTHEAST DALLAS COUNTY
OVERTURNED
U.S. SUPREME
COURT STRIKES
DOWN TEXAS
ABORTION LAW
By Bonnie Pritchett
TEXAN Correspondent
Dallas County church
quenches physical,
spiritual thirst in
community void
of potable water
By Jane Rodgers
TEXAN Correspondent
R
SEAGOVILLE
esidents of Sandbranch in southeast Dallas County have lacked potable water due
to contaminated water wells for a startling three decades, but a local church has
committed itself to quenching the physical and spiritual thirst of this 138-year-old unincorporated community.
Four years ago, Eugene Keahey became pastor of
Mt. Zion Baptist Church and saw an immediate need
to serve the tiny, 100-member community of Sandbranch. He decided to expand the services of the 501c3
organization, Project Dreamhaus, that he and his wife,
Deanna, founded in 2001. Once focused on providing
scholarship and educational opportunities for youth,
now Project Dreamhaus also helps to bring basic services to the Mt. Zion community.
See WATER, 2
Dallas
churches
respond to
shootings,
encourage
unity
By Jane Rodgers
TEXAN Correspondent
Dallas-area churches responded quickly
to the racially motivated shooting during
a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown
July 7, where a gunman targeted police officers, leaving five officers dead and seven
wounded in addition to two civilians.
WASHINGTON, D.C. In a 5-3
decision June 27, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a 2013 Texas
law regulating the operating
standards of abortion providers and the clinics they
operate. The decision not
only overturns a lower court
ruling upholding the law but
puts into jeopardy similar
laws across the nation.
The upbeat mood of prolife advocates in front of
the Supreme Court turned
on a dime as the decision
was released shortly after
10 a.m. EDT. In a live stream
posted on the Students for
Life of America Facebook
page, cheers broke out offcamera as pro-abortion
advocates celebrated the
court’s decision. The ruling overturns requirements that abortion clinics
maintain specific operating
standards and their doctors
have admitting privileges
at nearby hospitals.
“This is not something to
celebrate,” Kristan Hawkins,
president of Students for Life
told the crowd.
See ABORTION, 3
Churches close to the scene offered physical and spiritual support, and others hosted prayer services and funerals to help the
community heal from the tragedy.
See DALLAS, 7
2
COVER FEATURE
S O U T H E R N
B A P T I S T
sbtexan
T E X A N
“We have to
bring a real Jesus
to a real need.
It’s not enough for me
to talk Jesus on Sunday
from the pulpit. I have
to walk Jesus in
the neighborhood.”
5Sandbranch community
members receive food bank
services at Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
The church provided 100,000
gallons of drinking water and
distributed 1.7 millino pounds of
food to the community last year.
PHOTO BY EUGENE KEAHEY
Pastor Eugene Keahey of Mt.
Zion Baptist Church baptizes a man
in the portable baptistry provided
by the SBTC. Several people have
waited two years or more to be
baptized. PHOTO BY BARRY CALHOUN
WATER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The organization operates out
of Mt. Zion, last year providing
100,000 gallons of drinking water to the community and distributing 1.7 million pounds of
food, fruit and vegetables, Keahey said.
“It all takes place at the
church. People come and go
shopping each Saturday. They
sign their names and give their
zip codes and take what they
need,” Keahey explained, noting
that food bank services extend
beyond Sandbranch to southeast Dallas County. “We serve
from Wilmer Hutchins all the
way up to Balch Springs.”
Much of the food distributed
is provided by the North Texas
Food Bank, Keahey said.
In 2015, Mt. Zion and Project Dreamhaus also sponsored
back-to-school events, free haircuts, a clothes closet and Christmas giveaways, sometimes with
corporate sponsors like Ozarka
and Baylor Medical Center.
“We have to bring a real
Jesus to a real need,” Keahey
said. “It’s not enough for me to
talk Jesus on Sunday from the
pulpit. I have to walk Jesus in
the neighborhood.”
Walking Jesus in the neighborhood is exactly what Keahey
does. Afternoons often find him
playing a board game with Sandbranch children or rocking on the
porch with an elderly resident.
In Sandbranch, serving up
living water also means providing bottled water.
“For you and me, bottled water is dispensable. If we drink
half of it fine,” Keahey elaborated. “But not in this community. [Here] it is life or death, a
human necessity. They use it
for drinking, cooking, washing, bathing.”
Like the community, Mt. Zion
Baptist Church also lacks potable water.
“[Church] water comes from
a sandpit,” Keahey said. “One of
our members goes to the sandpit
and drains water out so we can
flush the latrines on Sunday.”
Keahey added that he even
sets an alarm on his watch
to remind him to wrap up
Wednesday night services
within one hour because of the
absence of working restrooms
during the week.
“I didn’t think I’d be using any
of my degrees in a third-world
country,” Keahey, a former
middle school math teacher and
youth pastor, laughed.
But until water and basic
services come to Sandbranch,
the area is essentially a “thirdworld” territory that Mt. Zion
plans to continue to help.
Hope for the community
is on the horizon from other
sources, too. The Dallas Morning News reported in April
that the Federal Emergency
Management Agency had
approved infrastructure improvements in Sandbranch,
lifting a ban that had been in
place for years because the
community has a one percent
chance of annual flooding
from the Trinity River.
“Agencies have come forward to help,” Keahey said,
noting that the United States
Department of Agriculture
has offered assistance to
pay for water and repairs to
houses and that the Environmental Protection Agency has
affirmed the quality of the
community’s septic tanks.
The USDA also approved funding for an engineering survey
as a preliminary step to bringing water to Sandbranch. The
Weatherford engineering firm of
Jacob & Martin LLC received the
contract to supply water to Sandbranch, Keahey said, adding that
the firm presented its findings
in a community meeting at the
church on July 2.
— EUGENE K EAH EY, PASTOR
M T. ZI ON BAPTI ST C H UR C H
In the meantime, a Clean
Sandbranch Day on June 1 was
a great success, Keahey said.
“We wanted 300 to show up.
But as God does, it was over 500
people. We cleaned the entire
community, fellowshipped, ate,
had a really good time. People
from all walks of life came to
see the community and help it.
Some came from as far away as
Tyler, to help clean up.”
With assistance from the
Southern Baptists of Texas
Convention, another church
need was met by the donation
of a portable baptistry, Keahey added, praising the efforts
of SBTC mobilization director
Barry Calhoun in facilitating
SBTC involvement and pastor
Wm. Dwight McKissic, Sr., of
Arlington’s Cornerstone Baptist
Church in initially making the
needs known to the SBTC.
A special baptismal service
was held at the church July 3
and attended by Calhoun.
“It was the first time since
I’ve been there that we have
actually baptized at the church.
Some have waited over two
years to be baptized,” Keahey
said of the four believers baptized Sunday. Eleven more are
awaiting baptism.
“It was an historic service
for Mt. Zion Baptist Church in
a community lacking the essentials,” Calhoun said. “They
could do something every
church should be able to do:
baptize people who have dedicated their lives to the Lord
Jesus Christ.”
“Our church is small,” Keahey said, explaining that the
church had grown from 35 to
100. “We were going to hold
the baptisms in a horse trough.
Then the SBTC showed up to
support us. We are so appreciative. The baptistry is beautiful. And it heats up. We can
now baptize in summer and
winter. You can’t do that in a
horse trough!”
For more information and
links to the community of Sandbranch, visit projectdreamhaus.
com or email Keahey at eugene@
projectdreamhaus.com.
AUGUST 2016
ABORTION
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The decision nullifies two of the four
parts of House Bill 2 drafted and passed
in 2013 in the midst of clashing demonstrations at the Texas State Capitol by
abortion activists vehemently opposing
the bill and pro-life advocates pressing
for its passage. The two standing regulations prohibit abortions after 20 weeks
of conception and require that abortion
inducing medications be administered
per manufacturers’ instructions. Under
scrutiny in the case—Whole Women’s
Health v. Hellerstedt—were requirements that physicians providing abortions also have admitting privileges at a
hospital within a 30-mile radius of the
abortion facility and that abortion clinics meet ambulatory surgical standards
of care.
The revocation of Texas admitting
privileges and ASC standards puts into
peril similar laws in other states. A close
reading of the court’s rationale would
determine if similar laws are equally undermined, Denise Burke, vice president
of legal affairs at Americans United for
Life, told the TEXAN.
In Texas, approximately 16 abortion
clinics were still in operation pending
the outcome of WWH v. Hellerstedt.
How many clinics will re-open since being shuttered in 2014 is unknown.
Writing the majority opinion, Justice
Stephen Breyer cited the court’s 1992
Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision
and its ambiguous “undue burden” test.
In his opinion, he wrote, “We conclude
that neither of these provisions offers
medical benefits sufficient to justify the
burdens upon access that each imposes.
Each places a substantial obstacle in the
path of women seeking a previability
abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access.”
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in
his dissenting opinion the majority
ruling “radically” rewrote the undue
burden test, which had affirmed states’
rights to regulate abortion providers
and their clinics. He said the decision
employed far greater scrutiny of abortion clinic regulations than the Casey
precedent allowed.
“These precepts are nowhere to be
found in Casey or its successors, and
transform the undue burden test to
something much more akin to strict
scrutiny,” Thomas wrote.
Additionally, Thomas argued, the
scrutiny is selective. Noting the previous
T E X A N O N L I N E . N E T
week’s Fisher v. The University of Texas
decision allowing public universities to
consider a potential student’s race in admission standards, Thomas wrote, “This
term, it is easier for a state to survive
strict scrutiny despite discriminating on
the basis of race in college admissions
than it is for the same state to regulate
how abortion doctors and clinics operate
under the putatively less stringent undue-burden test. All the state apparently
needs to show to survive strict scrutiny
is a list of aspirational educational goals
… and a ‘reasoned, principled explanation’ for why it is pursuing them.”
Citing two particular objections Justice Samuel Alito was equally critical of
the majority’s decision. First the majority
refused to consider the bill’s severability
clause that should have saved portions
of the challenged regulations. Secondly,
the court should not have agreed to hear
the admitting privileges challenge since
that provision had already been tried
and lost in an earlier lawsuit by Planned
Parenthood. That, Alito said, should
have ended the legal challenge of that
provision of the law.
“The Court’s patent refusal to apply
well-established law in a neutral way is
indefensible and will undermine public
confidence in the Court as a fair and neutral arbiter,” Alito wrote.
The court’s ruling puts into question
a state’s authority to regulate abortion
providers as affirmed in Casey. Texas
State Representative Jodi Laubenberg,
who authored HB 2, told the TEXAN
there are no plans as yet to address the
courts undermining of state regulative
authority. It would take a constitutional
amendment to undo what was done,
she said.
“This decision is bad news for women
and a sad day for our nation,” she said in
a prepared statement following the decision. “Women deserve the same standard of care at abortion clinics as they
would receive at a medical facility. Obviously the politics of abortion supersedes
the health and safety for women.”
As abortion advocates railed against
HB 2 regulations the past three years,
Planned Parenthood—the nation’s largest abortion provider and recipient of
almost $500 million in tax-payer funding—opened a new HB 2-compliant
abortion mega-center in San Antonio in
direct competition with WWH v. Hellerstedt lead plaintiff Amy Hagstrom-Miller. Opening the new abortion facility in
San Antonio instead of the Rio Grande
Valley, where abortionists claimed the
need for a facility was greatest, indicated
the fight was not about abortion rights
but abortion revenues.
COVER FEATURE
3
“ T H E S U P R E M E C O U R T T O D AY
H A S TA K E N A S TA N D O N T H E W R O N G
SIDE OF JUSTICE, THE WRONG SIDE
O F H U M A N D I G N I T Y, A N D T H E
WRONG SIDE OF THE GOSPEL .
The church must stand
ready to receive more
refugees from the sexual
revolution’s broken promises
and shattered hopes. For them,
we have a better word
than any court could give.”
— R U S S E LL M O O R E , P R ES I DENT OF TH E S OUTH ER N BAPTI ST
CO N V E N TI O N ’ S E THI C S AND R EL I GI OUS L I BERTY COM M I S S I ON
“The abortion clinics are about money. They go where the population is,”
Laubenberg told the TEXAN.
Clarke Forsythe, acting president
of Americans United for Life, said the
high court decision contravenes explicit
precedent allowing states to regulate
the abortion industry within their
borders. In a prepared statement, Forsythe wrote, “In striking down these
commonsense requirements, the Supreme Court has essentially accepted
the abortion industry’s argument that
it should be allowed to keep its profits
high and patient care standards low.”
In his dissent, Alito said he did not
dispute that HB 2 was responsible for
the closure of some Texas abortion clinics. But he noted the law was drafted in
the wake of the conviction of Pennsylvania abortionist Kermit Gosnell for the
murder of three infants born alive and
the manslaughter of a woman seeking
an abortion in his unregulated clinic.
“If Pennsylvania had had such a requirement in force, the Gosnell facility may
have been shut down before his crimes.
And if there were any similarly unsafe facilities in Texas, HB 2 was clearly intended
to put them out of business,” Alito said.
Pro-life advocates, many of whom
were young adults, rallied near the Supreme Court building and declared their
determination to press on despite the
huge legal setback.
Laubenberg and other Christians recognized the work of promoting a culture
of life will not take place in the court but
in the public square.
“This morning I was praying about
this,” Laubenberg said. “I said, ‘Lord, what
is this a reflection of?’”
Answering her own question, the representative said a self-centered society
has wrought the decision.
“This is part of it—disposing of babies,”
she said.
In his response to the ruling, Russell Moore, president of the Southern
Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, wrote,
“The Supreme Court today has taken a
stand on the wrong side of justice, the
wrong side of human dignity, and the
wrong side of the gospel. The church
must stand ready to receive more refugees from the sexual revolution’s broken promises and shattered hopes. For
them, we have a better word than any
court could give.”
4
OPINION
S O U T H E R N
B A P T I S T
sbtexan
T E X A N
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN
Gary Ledbetter
Editor
“Blasphemy” is irreverence
for God and for the things he
has declared holy. The scene
from Daniel 5 is a perfect picture of blasphemy. Belshazzar,
the son of Nebuchadnezzar and
king of great Babylon, is having a party. In an effort to exalt
himself over all things, he has
the implements taken from the
Hebrew temple brought so he
and his guests could drink libations to pagan gods from these
vessels. A sobering moment
came when the king saw “the
handwriting on the wall.”
You know the story. Daniel,
the aging prophet, was brought
to read and interpret the mysterious words, “Mene, Mene,
Tekel, Parsin.” Before doing so
he rebuked the king for his
pride and dishonor before God.
The message was that Babylon
would fall to an army that, unbeknownst to the revelers, was
already invading the city. Ancient historians record that the
Persian army sneaked into the
city while a great feast was underway. That night, Belshazzar
died and Babylon fell. His spe-
cific blasphemy of that night
only followed a life of obstinate
pride and impiety on the part
of the empire and its king. But
when Babylon fell, the empire’s
leaders were caught doing the
things that typified their condemnable course.
No lesson in Scripture has
seemed more pertinent to me
over the past few weeks than does
this final event in the history of
Babylon. Just a year ago the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in Obergfell
v. Hodges—essentially overturning the voters’ verdicts in several
states that marriage has a fixed
and coherent meaning. This year’s
big finale also overturned the ability of voters to speak on a crucial
and foundational issue, this time
the value of mothers and babies.
Many have spoken eloquently
on this particular case, Whole
Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt;
none speak for my heart so well
as Justice Clarence Thomas in
his dissent, (supremecourt.gov/
opinions/15pdf/15-274_p8k0.pdf).
The celebratory response to
both decisions was startling
and overt in its blasphemy.
The most familiar example is
a tweet from The Daily Show
that praised this victory for
industrialized and unregulated
abortion by crudely encourag-
LIKE DANIEL, LET US TAKE SERIOUSLY THE
THINGS OF GOD—WE MUST BE KNOWN FOR THAT,
TO A GREATER DEGREE THAN NOW. WE’RE NOT
UNDONE WHEN OTHERS DO OTHERWISE, BRINGING
CATASTROPHE ON THE NATION; BUT NEITHER
SHOULD WE BE TEMPTED TO JOIN THE PARTY,
HANDLING IRREVERENTLY THE THINGS OF GOD.
ing men to impregnate women
in Texas. Some of the other responses of private individuals
were worse and more crude.
One columnist spoke of being
happy that the late Justice Antonin Scalia is dead, especially
after the Whole Woman’s
Health ruling. Clearly, we have
gone beyond the “Safe, Legal
and Rare” myth. The celebratory responses to Obergfell
were just as mean and irreverent, if less bloodthirsty.
I guess I’m saying that if
America falls tonight, this is
what our nation will be caught
doing, showing future generations the reason for our fall.
Those who fear God use the
word “sanctity” to describe marriage and life indicating our
belief—certainty, really—that
these things are God’s particular
prerogatives. We disrespect his
person when we scorn them.
I offer two thoughts about the
whole matter of blasphemy and
cultural wreckage. First, Daniel was not undone or aflutter
about all this. He’d seen kings
and their outrageous behaviors
come and go; still, the unchanging Sovereign abides. You can
see his confidence when the
old man rebukes the king of
Babylon as if he is a disobedient
child. He refuses to sell his credibility for trinkets, he scorns the
threats of kings, and he stands
as empires rise and fall. That’s
God at work, not Daniel. He’s
still at work and will be as nations, even ours, wax and wane.
The second thing is an “in
the meantime” encouragement.
We’re still here, and we still
have rights as full citizens of
a free country. It’s not time to
build a monastery or stockpile
ammunition against that day.
We should have the truth of
God in our mouths and a voter
registration card in our pockets.
We should show up for Election
Day for however many years or
generations we are allowed to do
so. In this way, when Belshazzar
asks us to speak for our God, we
should do so. We are frequently
reminded after a Supreme Court
legislative action that elections
have consequences. Presidents
elected without substantial
turnout from our churches
appoint the justices. Senators
elected without substantial
turnout from our churches approve those justices. And so it
goes all the way down to the lesbian sheriff of my county to the
Fort Worth ISD school board in
neighboring Tarrant County.
We act surprised when something terrible happens.
Like Daniel, let us take seriously the things of God—we
must be known for that, to a
greater degree than now. We’re
not undone when others do
otherwise, bringing catastrophe on the nation; but neither
should we be tempted to join
the party, handling irreverently the things of God.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR,
LETTER TO THE EDITOR,
LETTER TO THE EDITOR,
I am a bit dismayed by the open letter written
by Duesing, White and Yarnell [in the July issue
of the TEXAN]. Just how far are we Baptists to
go to accommodate other religions? In order to
give religious freedom to Moslems do we let them
practice Sharia Law with all its cruelty…beheading
Christians and anyone else who disagrees with
Islam and preaching violence in the Mosques.
They state, “We ask our brother and we ask all
Baptists, as well as other people interested in
human freedom, to join us in preserving this first
freedom, freedom of religion, and in rejecting any
restrictions on its universal application.”
I do not believe the writers of our Constitution
or the statements they quote from past Baptists
had anything like that in mind. The writers of
the Word of God certainly do not approve of
the practices of Islam. If these “leaders” have
no better understanding of the world of Islam
and the Word of God than they exhibited in their
letter, they should not be in Baptist Universities
or seminaries. Their letter could easily have been
written by an Imam!
In reference to the July 2016 article in
the Southern Baptist Texan titled “An Open
Letter For Preserving the First Freedom of
Universal Religious Liberty”:
The writer(s) said in the article, “The
Southern Baptist Convention has adopted
dozens of religious liberty resolutions
since our inception in 1845, and this
resolution, from 2011, specifically supports
the freedom of Muslims to build mosques.”
If this belief is supported by the Southern
Baptist Convention and the writer(s), then
should it not also be right to say to the
Church of Satan, “we support the building
of your Satanic Temples and your right
to sacrifice and worship as you please”?
It is sad to think that if I come up with a
religion I can do whatever feels good or
seems right. What happened to testing
everything against God’s true Word?
(Judges 21:25)
I am sad to see this. We as Southern
Baptists should not join in a lawsuit to
help build a mosque. It is ridiculous.
Russell Moore talks about “soul freedom.”
I have heard this term used for years
by ultra-liberal groups and individuals. I
notice one of the groups in the lawsuit is
Unitarian Universalists. They are not even
Christian either.
I do not want my tithe going to this. His
salary and the salary of his staff are paid by
Southern Baptists, and I hope trustees will
address this at their upcoming meeting. Dr.
Adrian Rogers would “roll over in his grave
to see this.” The Bible tells us to not be
teamed with the ungodly.
Why would we as Southern Baptists join
hands with a false religion who wants to kill
us … and is killing us already in America and
bragging about it? If Planned Parenthood
wants to build a church sanctuary, are we
going to help them?
With Respect, and In His Service,
Steve Cannon
—C.E. Butler, retired Baptist pastor, Lovelady, TX
Southern Baptist TEXAN
VOLUME
NUMBER
15 08
Jim Richards, Executive Director
Contributors:
Gary K. Ledbetter, Editor
Keith Collier, Managing Editor
Tammi Ledbetter, Special Assignments Editor
Gayla Sullivan, Circulation Manager
Russell Lightner, Layout/Graphic Artist
Rob Collingsworth,
JC Davies, Michael
Foust, Nathan Lino,
Bonnie Pritchett, Erin
Roach, Jane Rodgers,
Terry Turner
AUGUST
2016
sbtexan
texanonline.net
sbtexan
Skeet Workman
Lubbock, Texas
The Southern Baptist Texan is the official newspaper
of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention,
P.O. Box 1988, Grapevine, Texas 76099-1988.
Toll-free 877-953-7282, Phone 817-552-2500,
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AUGUST 2016
OPINION
T E X A N O N L I N E . N E T
5
RACIAL TENSIONS & VIOLENCE IN AMERICA
Jim Richards
Executive Director
W
ith a 24-hour news
cycle by the time
you read what I’ve
written something
else may have captured your
attention. We cannot let the
events of last month be so easily forgotten or swept under the
rug. The deaths of two black
men at the hands of policemen
in Louisiana and Minnesota
brought tension across our nation. Just a few days later the
targeting and shooting of Dallas policemen, the killing of five
of them, raised the tension to
tragic heights.
The five Dallas police officers were laid to rest with great
honor. These five men whom
God describes in Romans 13
as “minister[s] to you for good”
will be remembered for their
courage. They sacrificed their
lives protecting people of all
races. We now honor their
fellow officers for their continued service. They are God’s
servants in the civic realm. Let
us strive to be ministers in the
spiritual realm of God’s peace
and righteousness.
The two African-American
men who were shot by police
will be mourned as well. There
is no less heartbreak that these
lives were taken. These men
were fathers. They left behind
loved ones. Their lives were cut
short. These men were made
in the image of God. They possessed eternal worth. All people
should be respected regardless of color, ethnicity or economic status. Let us work to see
Christ’s law of love as a reality.
God’s people are bearers of
his answer to grief, to racism
and to rage. Churches are hosting prayer meetings around the
state. Perhaps God can use the
tragic deaths of policemen and civilians to drive us to our knees in
unity around the cross of Christ
and dependence on our merciful
God. I think of the SBTC’s “Look
Like Heaven” emphasis that was
born in the heart of Pastor Terry
Turner when he served as our
convention president. He saw
in his heart that God’s people
will be one in purpose and one
in love without regard for the
I PRAY THAT THIS SEASON OF PRAYER WILL
EMBOLDEN YOU TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS
OF LIFE IN CHRIST EVERYWHERE YOU GO.
TRANSFORMED LIVES WILL TRANSFORM
COMMUNITIES.
external things that try to divide us. May the Lord’s churches
look more like heaven even as
we pray for that day when we
gather around the throne of God.
Only at the foot of cross can we
find level ground. Our relationships are built on our mutual
love for the Lord Jesus.
I encourage you to devote
yourself to prayer. Our nation
is in desperate need of spiritual awakening. We must have
God’s guidance and mercy for
all people. I pray that this season of prayer will embolden
you to share the good news
of life in Christ everywhere
you go. Transformed lives will
transform communities.
God bless you as you minister
reconciliation in your congregations and communities in the
coming days. It is my great joy to
serve alongside you in this eternally significant work.
Reflections on time with gospel
warriors in closed countries
gether of their entire region of
the world is called an Affinity
Nathan Lino
SBTC President
Group Meeting and is rare—the
Pastor, Northeast
Houston Baptist Church last time it happened was in
2004. Over 1,300 people were
present. Security was very high.
… And thus I make it my amFor seven days the attendbition to preach the gospel, not
ees received spiritual proviwhere Christ has already been
sions we consider normal here
named, lest I build on someone
else’s foundation, but as it is writ- in the States. There were daily
ten, “Those who have never been worship services led by a welltold of him will see, and those known preacher and a band
who have never heard will un- from Kentucky. There were
individual counseling and
derstand.” Romans 15:20-21
marriage enrichment opporturecently spent a week in nities. There was a children’s
Europe at a meeting of camp and one for the teenagsome of our gospel war- ers. There were day-long trainriors who serve on the ing sessions for the workers to
front lines in some of the most learn best practices for their
difficult closed countries in the specific ministry contexts. Adworld—North
Africa-Middle ditionally, about 20 SBC pastors
East (NAME). The gathering to- were present.
I
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One of the many things that
really impacted me was the
daily worship services. These
workers don’t get to worship
in groups larger than 10 people
or at a volume above a whisper. So when they got in a room
with over 1,000 people, in a free
country, with a good band, you
should have seen them singing!
Self-consciousness and personal inhibitions went by the wayside. I think I got a taste of the
roar of the Israelites as they finished their seventh lap around
the walls of Jericho. The workers sat through hour-long sermons from David Platt writing
down every word they could,
visibly disappointed when it
was over. The prayer times
in the worship services were
fervent. It was a considerable
blessing for me to get to sit in a
worship service like that.
Along the way I learned several facts that I think our SBTC
churches ought to know.
As president of the organization, David Platt is prophetically
and courageously insisting that
all global church plants hold to
BFM 2000 theology and ecclesiology. In fact, I’d consider President Platt’s 12 characteristics
that define a New Testament
church to be a goal worthy of
all our stateside churches, including text-driven preaching,
meaningful church membership,
biblical conversion, and church
discipline. I rejoiced listening to
him call for biblical precision in
church practices, citing the Lord’s
Supper as a specific example.
Stories of our forefathers in the
faith being burned at the stake
AS PRESIDENT OF THE [IMB],
DAVID PLATT IS PROPHETICALLY
AND COURAGEOUSLY INSISTING
THAT ALL GLOBAL CHURCH PLANTS
HOLD TO BFM 2000 THEOLOGY AND
ECCLESIOLOGY.
for opposing transubstantiation
have proven to us the necessity
of sound doctrine in Christian
practice. I left the meetings very
confident in the vision and leadership of David Platt.
Morale is high. Following the
financially driven reduction of
the workforce, I was curious to
get a sense of the morale among
the workers. Don’t get me wrong;
tragically, the reduction of workers has impacted many teams
and the scope of work that can
be done. Teams are still assimilating into the “new normal.” But
what was just as clear was the
widespread, visible excitement,
joy, and optimism. One big example was during the meetings,
the workers gave a voluntary,
one-time kingdom advancement
offering of $193,000!
The need for the gospel across
this region of the world is still
desperate and substantial, yet the
opportunities for SBC churches
in NAME are great. Unbelievably, there are still 500 Unengaged Unreached People Groups
(UUPGs) in NAME alone, not
counting UPGs. If you are wondering where to get your church
involved in global gospel advancement, I urge you to consider NAME. Consider creating an
escalating ladder of involvement
opportunities for your people:
A. Focus missions segments
in worship services on some
NAME people groups; pray
and give financially from
right here at home.
B. Use a worker, home on
stateside assignment, to lead
a workshop on Islam and
engaging Muslims.
C. Establish a ministry to
NAME peoples in your
American city or one nearby.
D. Take a group of members
on a vision trip to a more
open country in NAME.
E. Prayerfully seek a partnership in a more open country
in NAME.
F. Prayerfully seek a partnership in a more difficult
country in NAME.
As you build the escalating
ladder of involvement, urge
your people onto it and then
lead them to go to the next rung
and then the next.
6
OPINION
S O U T H E R N
B A P T I S T
sbtexan
T E X A N
DO ALL LIVES REALLY MATTER?
Terry Turner
Pastor, Mesquite
Friendship Baptist Church
Former SBTC President
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and
whoever loves has been born
of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not
know God, because God is love”
(1 John 4:7-8).
Love in the midst of trauma
is the answer to the cry “Do
Black Lives Matter?” This question has sent America into one
of the most confused race-relationship eras since the Civil
Rights movement of the ‘60s.
There are many voices speaking out in this racially charged
climate, but too many are not
inspired with the words of
God to bring unity and healing. When America is caught
in a racial divide, the body of
Christ must impact the world
with the love of God for all
people. The federal, state or local governments cannot solve
hatred within the hearts of
people—only the love of God
displayed by the people of God
can help to change the wickedness in human hearts. God’s
people are consistently called
to show love in the midst of
sinful situations. The Apostle
Peter reminds us of the power
in love; he says, “Above all, love
each other deeply, because love
covers over a multitude of sins”
(1 Peter 4:8). Believers must
love those who are difficult
for us to love if we are going to
make a difference in the lives
of lost men and women.
Please hear this cry: enough
is enough. Christian brothers and sisters, it’s time to put
away the biased thinking that
keeps us divided and embrace
all people in godly love. Our
lost world will never change
unless the people of God see
the pain of all people groups.
Our hearts are broken over
the killing of our police officers
in Dallas, but we should also
have had broken hearts over
every black life taken by police over minor offenses, guilty
or innocent. To see men die
for trivial reasons is despairing in the black community. It
is our hope that all Americans
will love and respect the law
enforcement officers that protect us, but it’s difficult when
one group is frequently traumatized by killings. My dear
mother would always say, “A
right does not wrong anybody,”
and, “Baby, God sees those who
do ugly.” Amazingly, in America, we have lived so long in our
biased world that wrong is not
always realized when seen.
The people of God must open
our eyes, ears and hearts to the
lives and struggles of others of
different races. Will God hold
Christians accountable for loving brothers and sisters who
look like themselves or for loving all the human family? “If
anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and
hates his brother, he is a liar; for
he who does not love his brother
whom he has seen cannot love
God whom he has not seen. And
this commandment we have
from him: whoever loves God
must also love his brother” (1
John 4:20-21).
When the love of God is
missing, the world becomes
a wicked place and we find
ourselves asking the tough
questions. What is happening
in America when Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old black man,
takes a gun into Dallas and
kills five white police officers
in the name of racial hatred?
How powerful is racial hatred
when a white man, Dylann
Roof, walks into a black church
prayer meeting in South Caro-
THE FINAL QUESTION CHRISTIANS MUST
CONSIDER IS HOW HISTORY WILL RECORD
OUR HANDLING OF SIN, HATRED AND
RACISM IN PRESENT-DAY AMERICA. WILL
THEY SEE US WALKING IN THE POWER OF
LOVE FOR HEALING OR YIELDING TO THE
WILES OF SATAN THROUGH HATRED,
RACISM AND DIVISIVENESS?
lina and kills nine church
members after joining them in
prayer? What causes a police
officer to kill a man over the
trivialities of selling cigarettes,
selling CD’s on the streets or
for a broken taillight? What
fear is in the hearts of police
officers that causes them to
kill a 12-year-old boy playing
in the park with a toy gun?
The ultimate questions lie
with the body of Christ. When
will Christians love all people
enough to stop the madness in
our land? Will the church ever
stand up and call those in the
body who are divisive in their
statements into accountability? We must realize those who
love some and not all provide
a negative image of the body
of Christ. “So Peter opened his
mouth and said: ‘Truly I understand that God shows no
partiality, but in every nation
anyone who fears him and does
what is right is acceptable to
him’ ” (Acts 10:34-35).
All Lives Matter is a call to
join in healing of the hurts endured by people from all races.
The power of love born in the
hearts of the people of God is
the only answer for the racial
issues that exist in Dallas and
America. When the church
is committed to live as Jesus
commanded, she can teach
the world that the love of God
is able to deliver from racial
hatred. Yes, all lives matter to
born-again Christians who are
committed to live by the Word
of God. The cry of the protesters from the Black Lives Matter
movement is a call for America
to see the pain of black Americans who are losing their lives
over senseless reasons. This
chant does not reduce the importance of white lives, brown
lives, red lives or yellow lives—
yes, All Lives Matter. There are
some in America who say the
cry “Black Lives Matter” is not
being inclusive of all people
groups and is therefore a racial statement. In contrast, the
majority of black Americans
might consider it offensive to
question the fact that black
lives matter and think it is racist not to be supportive of the
statement. Black lives are a part
of “all lives;” therefore, black
lives matter.
Many Christians are praying
for the day when Americans
will have no need to recognize
the race of a person and we can
be truly one race. America has
come a long way, but we still
have a long way to go if we are
going to overcome the dark
days of our past. Perhaps, the
people who see the Black Lives
Matter movement as racist
have forgotten that America,
in its infancy, promoted racism
and black America has always
been its main target.
The power of love within
Christianity has been a source
of healing for many in the black
community as proclaimed by
the Lord Jesus Christ, “The Spirit
of the Lord is on me, because he
has anointed me to proclaim good
news to the poor. He has sent
me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight
for the blind, to set the oppressed
free” (Luke 4:18). This Scripture
is key to healing in our country
because America termed blacks
as chattel slaves and subhuman from 1619 to 1865—black
lives did not matter. This way of
thinking continued from 1865
until 1965 when black lives in
freedom were legally considered second-class citizens under
Jim Crow laws, a time when
black lives did not matter as
much as white lives. Now we
are only 51years after the end of
the Jim Crow laws, and the residuals of racism are still in the
hearts of many in our country.
For many whites today, the concept of superiority over blacks is
associated with the belief that
blacks should be feared or subjected to abuse.
The final question Christians
must consider is how history
will record our handling of sin,
hatred and racism in presentday America. Will they see us
walking in the power of love for
healing or yielding to the wiles
of Satan through hatred, racism
and divisiveness? We all need
each other’s understanding to
overcome these perilous times.
Let’s be intentional and love
everybody, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
And walk in love, as Christ loved
us and gave himself up for us, a
fragrant offering and sacrifice to
God” (Eph. 5:1).
AUGUST 2016
DALLAS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
In Mesquite, the hometown
of shooter Micah Xavier Johnson, Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church held an “All Lives
Matter” community prayer
event attended by local pastors
and city officials Monday evening, July 11.
MFBC pastor and former
SBTC president Terry Turner
opened with a call not to sweep
events “under the carpet,” but
to deal with the tragedy “face
to face.” Reminding the congregation that the shooter
was from their city, Turner affirmed, “that’s not what we are
like in the city of Mesquite.”
Calling the Black Lives Matter protest “good,” Turner stated
that the issue became “a matter
of all lives matter” when the officers were killed. The protest
was in response to two unrelated incidents in Louisiana and
Minnesota where black men
were killed by police officers.
Turner referenced growing up in the Jim Crow era,
saying, “I believe in the Black
Lives movement because I’m a
black American living in black
America. I know what we have
to deal with, … what it’s like to
be treated like a second-class
citizen.” He called for races to
love one another in the name
of God. “There is greater power
in love,” he said.
Among the MFBC guests was
Mesquite mayor Stan Pinkett,
who said, “What’s behind dark
clouds is the sun. And I am here
to proclaim tonight that we
have the Son that we know is
also lighting the world.” Applause drowned out Pickett’s
remaining words.
Another largely AfricanAmerican congregation, Arlington’s Cornerstone Baptist
Church hosted Arlington police chief Will Johnson at their
two morning services on Sunday, July 10, with 1,400 attending. Johnson participated in a
question-and-answer session
after the second service.
“Our goal was for our people
to be safe—s.a.f.e.—and saved,”
said pastor Dwight McKissic,
PRAYER
T E X A N O N L I N E . N E T
describing the services titled
“Finding Calm in the Chaos: Dallas, Baton Rouge, Minnesota.”
In an interview with the TEXAN, McKissic said Johnson was
brought in to explain how members of the congregation could
avoid becoming victims. McKissic praised Johnson for helping
the congregation “understand
the mindset of a police person”
during tense encounters.
“Respect begets respect,”
McKissic said. “If the police
respect the citizens, then the
citizens respect the police, you
can greatly reduce the odds of
[tragedies] happening.”
McKissic spoke on Luke 13 in
Sunday’s services, drawing parallels between current events
and Jesus’ response to violence.
McKissic emphasized that Jesus focused not on fairness or
fate but on faith. “‘Except ye
repent, ye shall likewise perish.’ Ultimately, Jesus says we
are all going to die. … If we die
at the hands of a madman, or a
tower falling, or citizen brutality, or police brutality, whatever
reason we die, we are going to
likewise perish.”
In the wake of the inevitable, McKissic called upon the
congregation to live lives of
“repentance and faith” so that
they will be prepared. “My
goal was to make sure everybody got saved.”
Incendiary social media posts
and a perceived hostile tone in
the community prompted First
Baptist Church of Farmersville
pastor Bart Barber to contact
area pastors to participate in a
Sunday night prayer service
July 10.
“I could see some of the
same divisions we see playing
out across the country unfolding right here in our town,”
Barber said. “I just felt a real
obligation that the churches
of our community should get
out in front of this and bring
everyone together.”
Some 200 from six churches
attended the service at FBC
Farmersville. The mayor, city
council members, police and
fire department representatives, and other first responders also came. Rev. Paul Mack
of Mt. Calvary, Farmersville’s
largest
African-American
7
Prestonwood Baptist Church pastor Jack Graham joins retired DPD officer and Prestonwood member Mike Gurley
and Texas Rep. Scott Turner to lead the church in prayer for racial healing July 10. PHOTO PROVIDED BY PRESTONWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH
“Our goal was for our people
to be safe—-s.a.f.e.—-and saved.”
—DW I G H T MCKI S S I C, PA STOR
CORN ERSTO N E B A PT I ST CH URCH
“I have seen things calm down and a willingness to
see both sides of the story. ... People who walked into
that prayer service kind of defensive, walked out of that
prayer service smiling and hugging each other.”
—B A RT B A RB ER, PA STOR
F I RST B A PT I ST CH URCH OF FA RMERSV I L L E
church, attended with his wife
and members, Barber said.
Every pastor participated in
the service, leading in prayer or
reading Scripture. The service
concluded with small group
prayer, with each group including people from other churches.
“It was pretty powerful,” Barber noted of the prayer time.
“I think that it’s always good
when God’s people get together
and talk about things and learn
about each other’s perspective
on things,” said Barber, describing a decrease in community
A woman thanks and shakes the hand of Mesquite Police Capt. David Gill after a community prayer service at
Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church, July 11. PHOTO BY GARY LEDBETTER
tension. “I have seen things calm
down and a willingness to see
both sides of the story. … People
who walked into that prayer service kind of defensive, walked
out of that prayer service smiling and hugging each other.”
Dallas mega-churches also responded to the crisis. The night
of the shootings, a team of ministers from First Baptist Church
in Dallas, which is located
downtown, deployed to Baylor
hospital and DPD headquarters.
Executive pastor Ben Lovvorn represented the church
at an interfaith prayer vigil
held the morning of July 8 at
Thanksgiving Square. Lovvorn
described the event in a FOX
news interview: “Pastors of all
faiths came to lead our people in
prayer, praying for our city, for
the Dallas Police Department,
for Chief Brown, for unity.
“Our prayer is that God will
use this tragedy to turn our
nation back to him and the ultimate healer, Jesus Christ. …
Pastors and churches must lead
the way.”
Additionally, the church
held a prayer gathering in Jeffress Fountain Plaza at 8:45 a.m.
Sunday.In Plano, Prestonwood
Baptist Church also held a time
of prayer during its July 10
morning services. Onstage with
Pastor Jack Graham were Mike
Gurley, retired DPD officer and
Prestonwood member, and State
Representative Scott Turner.
Prestonwood also opened its
facilities for memorial services
for two fallen officers: Sr. Cpl.
Lorne Ahrens on July 13 and
Officer Michael Krol on July 15.
Graham said of the crisis:
“Today we pray for those who
mourn. We weep with those
who weep. We pray to comfort
one another and ask God to heal
our land and restore our hopes.
There is an opportunity to put
feet to our prayers and recommit to serving our community
and boldly proclaiming the love
of Jesus. This is a heart problem,
and the only lasting solution is a
Savior who died and rose again
so that we may be saved. The
church must rise up and stand
together across America and
offer biblical answers to life’s
most important questions. We
must overcome evil with good
(Romans 12:21); to turn on the
light and be the light of Jesus in
our communities.”
Retired pastor and SBTC African-American ministry consultant E.W. McCall lives in Dallas.
In an interview with Baptist
Press at the Black Church Leadership and Family Conference
July 11-15 at Ridgecrest, N.C.,
McCall said African American
Christians must have a plan of
action to follow after the talking, marching and grieving over
violence end.
“I don’t see a strategy,” McCall
said. “The only time the system
changes for us [minorities] is
when it economically impacts
the majority community. Martin Luther King was nonviolent, but ... he impacted the economic position of the majority.
And once you have that pocket,
[the majority begins] to think.”
McCall pointed out that
blacks must be active in legislatures and Congress to impact
lawmaking. After pastors point
out injustices, the next step is
to strategize to determine how
we can change the condition of
blacks in society, McCall said.
“If you’re ever going to make
changes, you’ve got to be at
the table where the laws are
being written,” McCall said. “If
you’re not at the table, you are
on the table being carved up
and forgotten.”
8
SBC
S O U T H E R N
B A P T I S T
sbtexan
T E X A N
MOSQUE-BUILDING SATIRICAL
RUMOR EXPOSED AS LIE
By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE A rumor promulgated by satirical news-like
websites and blogs that the
Southern Baptist Convention
and at least one cooperating
state convention are building
Islamic mosques is being exposed as a lie.
The self-proclaimed “Christian apocalyptic … news satire
and parody site” The End Times
wrote perhaps the first posting
of the false report as early as
May 28 when it claimed the
SBC had launched a “Mosques
Across America” campaign “to
build mosques all across the nation in order to help foster religious tolerance and a general
sense of niceness towards all.”
As the satire gained momentum, The End Times in a June
16 follow-up proclaimed that
“Saddleback pastor Rick Warren, who recently changed
his name to Muhammad Hussein Warren in order to help
advance the Chrislamic cause
and promote his new book, The
Purpose-Driven Mosque, had
nothing but praise for the new
SBC mosque-building initiative.”
The satirical posts were reposted as fact and subsequently generated questions to the
Southern Baptist Convention
Executive Committee offices,
who are clarifying that the
posts are indeed lies.
“The Southern Baptist Convention promotes planting and
building soul-winning Baptist
churches that proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as the one and
only means of salvation,” SBC
Executive Committee President
“BROTHERS AND SISTERS, IF SOUTHERN BAPTISTS
ARE TO BE GUILTY OF GIVING MUSLIMS ANYTHING,
MAY WE BE GUILTY OF FREELY AND FREQUENTLY
GIVING THEM THE SIN-FORGIVING, LIFE-SAVING,
SOUL-AWAKING, HOPE FOUND EXCLUSIVELY IN THE
PERSON AND WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.”
— RAN DY DAV I S , E X E C U TI V E D I R E CTO R
T E N N E S S E E BA PTI ST CO N V E N TI O N
Frank Page said in a press statement. “Neither the convention
nor any of its entities promotes
building houses of worship for
any other religious group.”
The satirical posts were
likely a parody based on the
Southern Baptist Convention’s
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s and the International
Mission Board’s decision to sign
an amicus brief in support of
the religious liberty rights of a
Muslim community to build a
mosque in Bernards Township,
N.J., Page said.
“This controversy stems
from a satirical website that
falsely characterized an amicus (friend of the court) brief
filed by the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission as an endorsement of
building mosques,” Page said.
“Concerned that infringement
of the rights of one will affect
the rights of all, ERLC President
Russell Moore responded to
a messenger’s question at the
SBC annual meeting that the
ERLC brief seeks to defend the
right of all religious groups to
construct their own houses of
worship, saying that when the
religious liberty of one group is
assaulted, the religious liberty
of all is threatened.”
The trumped-up story also
generated queries to the Baptist
and Reflector, the newsjournal
of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, where TBC Executive
Director Randy Davis responded in a June 23 editorial.
“Neither the Southern Baptist Convention nor the Ten-
nessee Baptist Convention
has ever built a mosque and
will never build a mosque,”
Davis wrote. “However, let
me emphatically state that
my prayer is that the gospel
of Jesus Christ would sweep
through the Muslim community in Tennessee and around
the world and empty every
mosque because those dear
people have had an encounter
with the living God. Would it
be that every mosque would
become a house of worship
lifting up the name of Isa (Jesus in Arabic).
“Brothers and sisters, if Southern Baptists are to be guilty of
giving Muslims anything, may
we be guilty of freely and frequently giving them the sin-forgiving, life-saving, soul-awaking, hope found exclusively in
the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ.”
AUGUST 2016
TEXAS
9
COUPLE
LEADS
CHURCH IN
REACHING
MUSLIM
NEIGHBORS
By JC Davies
TEXAN Correspondent
IRVING
F
ive years ago, Grant and
Kimberly Goodrich were
content serving the local
church through youth and children’s
ministry, but while participating in
an apartment ministry, the couple’s
eyes were opened to a people group
in their own backyard in desperate
need of the gospel.
“We found out we had a large group of Somali
refugees that were living in our apartment complex
and in the apartment complex next door, probably
about 30 families. We didn’t know anything. We
didn’t know anything about culture, worldview, traditions, Islam, nothing,” Kimberly said.
Though the couple had no background working
with Muslims, God soon burdened their hearts for
their neighbors, and they saw that the need was
greater than they ever realized.
Grant and Kimberly began learning from a church
planter with the North American Mission Board,
who helped the couple understand and practice
how to share their faith with their Muslim neighbors. While making weekly home visits to apartment units in their complex, the Goodriches soon
met hundreds of Muslims from all over the world.
Two short-term trips overseas followed, offering
Grant and Kimberly a chance to be immersed in Islamic culture and further softening their hearts for
Muslim people. The Goodriches committed their lives
to reaching Muslims with the good news of Jesus.
Though they were burdened for the millions of
unreached Muslims overseas, Grant and Kimberly
saw how God also was bringing the unreached to
their own community in Texas, so in 2013 the Goodriches began attending MacArthur Boulevard
Baptist Church in Irving, where they began a Muslim outreach program.
Irving is home to thousands of Muslims, Grant said.
But despite growing numbers of Muslims, the Goodriches said many in their congregation had never
before interacted with someone of the Islamic faith.
Early in their ministry at MacArthur, Grant and
Kimberly learned that Muslim ministry would be a
long-term investment. For Muslim hearts to change,
the hearts of church members would first have to
change, including laying aside any misconceptions
or stigmas about Muslims.
“If there’s no transformation of hearts, they will
never truly get behind it. They may agree that the
church is to pray when we’re called
upon in church to pray for (Muslims),
but for it to extend to something
we’re regularly doing there has to be
consistency,” Grant said.
Their ministry began with only a
few church members committing to
pray alongside them. They now lead
a group of MacArthur church members on a prayer walk around their
community twice a month and are
seeing God change hearts through
the simple act of praying together for
their Muslim neighbors.
“Different people have come, and
the amazing thing is even though
their heart might be
still hard toward the
Muslim people group,
… it has been so powerful to watch as we’re
standing there praying
together, the Holy Spirit transform people’s
hearts, even in the middle of their prayers,”
Grant said.
Grant and Kimberly
also lead seven-week training sessions for church members who want
to learn more about how to effectively engage their Muslim friends,
neighbors and coworkers with the
gospel. They host weekly roundtable
discussions to help answer questions
Christians have when faced with opposition to the gospel by their Muslim friends.
No matter what steps individuals take, Grant said his desire is that
everyone in the church would do
something, would take some step toward loving their Muslim neighbors.
“Everyone has a place in this.
That’s what we want to communicate. No one is exempt. Not everyone
has to be called to do this for their
life, … but if they can be lead in their
hearts to at least pray, at least be
willing to consider these people in
Christ,” he said.
MacArthur Boulevard Baptist
Church pastor Josh Smith said Grant
and Kimberly have been an “invaluable gift” to the church and have
equipped the congregation with three
major tools—awareness, engagement
and training. Prior to the Goodriches
arrival, Smith said the congregation
had no established ministry geared
toward engaging and reaching Muslims in the Irving area.
“They’ve helped take
away, I think, some of
the fear I know a lot of
people have about Muslim people,” Smith said.
“People now, particularly in the metroplex, live around Muslim people
but don’t have a clue anything about
them, don’t get to know them. One of
the things I appreciate about Kimberly
and Grant is their consistent goal to
say, ‘Go get to know a Muslim person.’”
Smith said reaching Muslims in
their community is the “God-given
assignment” of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church. Currently,
“Gospel conversations flourish in
a setting of security and safety, and
that’s usually in a home. What we’ve
found is there are so many misconceptions, so many wrong ideas about
what Christians stand for, what we
believe and what is the gospel,” he
said. “To have that opportunity to
clarify and begin to introduce the
gospel or stories from the Bible and
what we stand for, it really happens
on a one-on-one level
in a home where they
can trust.”
As they help lead
the MacArthur congregation in obedience to the Great
Commission, Grant
and Kimberly also
continue to learn
more and more about
what it looks like to
accomplish this goal among Muslims.
“What we’ve learned the most is
to be patient, loving people and seeing them as a person and a friend
and not a project. In church ministry
we talk a lot of programs. Everything
is program-based. Muslim ministry
has no program,” Kimberly said.
Though the couple strongly supports international mission work,
the Goodriches believe God is providing unique opportunities for the
gospel to reach the nations from
right here in Texas, and they are
committed to remaining here to be
part of that work, in hopes of raising
up a future generation of believers
who will love and share Christ with
their Muslim neighbors.
“We’re the first generation of the
church that’s having to deal with
this changing look of America,
the change of Texas, but the youth
right now are going to grow up and
never know life without children
of all these other cultures and faith
backgrounds in their classrooms at
school,” Kimberly said.
“So we have to be raising up our
children and our youth in a church
that stands upon the gospel and that
loves other people. That’s the only
way, long-term, beyond any of us,
for this to be successful.”
“EVERYONE HAS A PLACE IN
THIS. ... NO ONE IS EXEMPT.
—G RA N T G OODR I C H
an Islamic mosque is being built
less than one mile from the church
building, serving as a fresh reminder
that now, more than ever, Christians
in their church need to rise up and
engage the thousands of Muslims
who share their community.
“We’re not just trying to be a multiethnic church. We’re trying to be a
church that reflects our community,
and our community is one of the
most diverse zip codes in America,
so we don’t have an option. If we’re
going to achieve our God-given assignment and reach our community,
we’ve got to figure out how to reach
Muslim people,” Smith said.
One of the Goodriches’ long-term
goals is to have the mosque leaders
and attendees know MacArthur
Boulevard Baptist Church by name
and to know its members by the
love they show.
That goal is being accomplished
on a smaller scale as believers begin
on a personal level, by intentionally
seeking relationships with the Muslim people in their own lives, and by
investing time into those relationships. Grant said this most often looks
like an individual or couple from the
church inviting a Muslim friend or
couple into their homes to share a
meal and get to know one another.
10
SBC
S O U T H E R N
B A P T I S T
T E X A N
sbtexan
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS
DIFFER ON HOW TO APPROACH ELECTION
PASTORS & POLITICS:
By Staff
As the U.S. presidential race
heats up and the two less-thanideal major party candidates
have been solidified, politics
has become a lightning rod issue among Southern Baptists.
At the core of the discussion has
been whether Christians should
apply a “lesser of two evils” approach in the voting booth.
During the annual meeting
of the Southern Baptist Convention in June, pastors and denominational leaders addressed the
topic in a number of sessions.
Panel Discussion
Proclaiming Scripture instead
of promoting controversy is
their approach when addressing
political issues, pastors said during a June 15 panel discussion.
In a session titled “Pastors and
the Church in American Politics Today” and moderated by
Ronnie Floyd, now former SBC
president, five Southern Baptist
pastors addressed how they
handle political issues in their
churches, especially during a
tumultuous election season
that has found many Southern
Baptists and other evangelical
Christians dismayed at their
presidential options.
“I do not try to be controversial; I want to be biblical,” said
A.B. Vines, senior pastor of New
Seasons Church in Spring Valley, Calif., and a past president of
the National African American
Fellowship (NAAF) of the SBC.
“I want to give them the
Word of God,” Vines said, adding he teaches the people of
New Seasons Church “to trust
God in these moments.”
David McKinley, pastor of
Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., echoed Vines, saying,
“I don’t want to add to the controversy. I want to help people
to think biblically.”
McKinley seeks to teach “that
every one of us—Republican,
Democrat, whoever we are—are
to come under the authority
of Scripture. And I think if we
preach that and teach that, we
will be an equal opportunity offender in what we do.”
Hance Dilbeck, pastor of
Quail Springs Baptist Church
in Oklahoma City, said he hears
“a lot of disappointment” from
church members with their
choices for president.
“It’s almost like an expression
of grief,” he said. “I can see all
the five stages, you know, anger
and denial and bargaining and
depression and acceptance.
“[W]hat they’re grieving is at
least the loss of perceived cultural dominance, where Biblebelieving people were a majority that could exercise political
power and always win the day,”
Dilbeck told Floyd.
While Americans have “tremendous political tools,” Christians “have so focused on those
tools that some of our spiritual
muscles have atrophied, and
we’ve gotten weak when it
comes to prayer and to purity
and to proclamation of the
gospel,” he said. “[Pastors] have
this great opportunity to call
our people back to the kind
of biblical, spiritual influence
that is always going to be our
primary influence.”
The presumptive presidential
nominees—Democrat Hillary
Clinton and Republican Donald
Trump—have prompted some
Southern Baptists and evangelicals to declare they can vote for
neither major candidate. They
find Clinton unacceptable because of her support of abortion
rights and government funding
of abortion, as well as other liberal policies. They reject Trump
based on his inconsistent positions on such issues as abortion,
religious liberty and immigration; autocratic inclinations;
insult-laden rhetoric; and a lifestyle marked by adultery.
Others
have
supported
Trump in the primaries or plan
to vote for him in the general
election only because of the
Democratic alternative, while a
much smaller group appears to
be prepared to vote for Clinton.
Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas (center)
participates in the panel “Pastors and the Church in American Politics
Today” during the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in St.
Louis on Wednesday, June 15. PHOTO BY BILL BANGHAM
Southern Baptist leaders participate in a wide-ranging panel discussion hosted by Baptist21 coinciding with the
annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention Tuesday, June 14 in St. Louis. PHOTO BY BILL BANGHAM
Refusing to vote is not an option, said Jack Graham, pastor of
Prestonwood Baptist Church in
Plano, Texas.
“You can’t sit this one out.
You can’t say, ‘I’m not going to
participate.’ The stakes are too
high,” said Graham, a former
SBC president.
“Isn’t it great to know, number one, that God is not in heaven wondering, ‘What am I going
to do with Donald or Hillary?,’”
he said, adding, however, Christians are responsible to act in
the election. “[W]e simply must
not abdicate our responsibility
to pray, to participate, to vote
and, as pastors and leaders in
our churches, to encourage others to do the same.”
He is focusing on three primary considerations in determining how to vote in this
presidential election, Graham
said: (1) A candidate who will
seek God’s wisdom in making
Supreme Court nominations; (2)
someone who will support the
sanctity of human life; and (3)
a person who will defend religious liberty.
K. Marshall Williams, pastor
of Nazarene Baptist Church in
Philadelphia, Pa., and another
former NAAF president, said
the church needs to be “passionately praying” for those in
authority.
Also, he said, Christians
should “maintain a collective,
incarnational, redemptive presence in the church and in the
culture.” The church should
not only address such issues as
the sanctity of life and religious
freedom, but “attack systemic
racism and injustice in our land,”
Williams said, and “be concerned about the pipeline from
school to prison, that one out of
every three African-American
men are tied to the criminal justice system.”
All five pastors encouraged
Christians to run for local offices. Williams prays God “would
raise up men and women to go
into public office of moral courage,” he said.
Floyd opened the session by
encouraging pastors and other
Christian leaders not to be judgmental of one another during
this election season. “Disagreement does not have to result in
a strained relationship with a
brother or sister in Christ, especially over politics,” he said.
9Marks & ERLC
The “moral formation” and
unity of the church are two vital considerations for a pastor in
guiding God’s people during a
disturbing presidential election
season, attendees were told during a June 13 event sponsored
by 9Marks, a church health
ministry based in Washington,
D.C., and the Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission.
9Marks President Mark Dever and ERLC President Russell Moore answered questions
about pastors and politics.
Moore said his primary concern when a church member
asks a pastor how to vote “is
going to be for the moral formation of my people.”
In this election, Moore said he
thinks “there would be a very
clear difference between someone who is simply walking into
the voting booth and saying,
‘Let me try to decide between
these two train wrecks,’ which
I know a lot of people are doing, and what is happening in
the moral degradation of many
people supporting both of these
two candidates and in so doing
not only excusing clear injustice
and immorality but, as Romans
1 would put it, heartily approving of that.
“The issue for me is not what
happens to those two horrific
candidates debating back and
forth,” he said. “The issue for me
is what happens to us.”
As a pastor, Dever said he
would be concerned if he has
“someone loudly in our church
saying, ‘Morally, you cannot do
this or that.’”
That “feels like Satan’s device to divide the church,” said
Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill
Baptist Church in Washington,
D.C. “The way that I’ve heard
evangelicals articulate support
for a wide variety of political options to attain good ends, I may
disagree with all of them that
I hear. I may even think some
of them involve sin,” but he
wouldn’t prevent that person
from taking communion.
Rather, he would try to understand what moral issues a
church member can see are at
stake in his or her vote, Dever
told the audience.
Baptist 21 Luncheon
The issue was also addressed
during the eighth annual Baptist 21 luncheon June 14, where
Moore and Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary President
R. Albert Mohler Jr. responded
to questions regarding the 2016
presidential election.
Both said they would vote
third-party or write in a candidate in November. Mohler
noted that while he cannot
vote for a pro-choice candidate,
he also cannot vote for a candidate simply on pro-life claims
because “character is an indispensable issue.”
Mohler recalled first meeting
former President Bill Clinton
hours after appearing on national TV calling on him to resign during the scandal involving Monica Lewinsky. Mohler
said he could not be consistent
if he voted for Republican nominee Donald Trump, whose
character “eclipses” Clinton
with his unrepentant adultery
and support of the pornography industry.
“I find myself in a situation I
never envisioned in my life as
a Christian or as an American,”
Mohler said. “But I’m going to
have to be Christian in order to
be a faithful American.”
Moore explained his reason
for writing in a candidate because “character matters” and
“the life issue cannot flourish
in a culture of misogyny and
sexual degradation ... when you
have people calling for the torture and murder of innocent
non-combatants.”
“You lose an election, you can
live to fight another today and
move one,” Moore said. “But if
you lose an election while giving up your very soul, then
you’ve really lost it all.”
—compiled from Baptist Press reports
by Diana Chandler, Harper McKay, S.
Craig Sanders and Tom Strode
AUGUST 2016
T E X A N O N L I N E . N E T
TEXAS
11
Drivers hear
the gospel,
receive
ministry at
truck stop
chapel
By Bonnie Pritchett
TEXAN Correspondent
W
ith more than 3 million
truck drivers in the U.S.,
reaching them with the
gospel is like hitting a moving target.
But forced by either the laws of man
or the call of nature, truck drivers
have to stop sometime. Those who
stop at the Pilot Flying J truck stop in
New Caney will meet Don DeSimone,
who is quick with a “Hi! How are
you? It’s good to see you.”
Just by his presence every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at the Pilot Flying J truck stop at US Hwy 59 and Hwy
242, DeSimone begins the conversations that lead to discussions of eternal
significance. Those opportunities have
multiplied in the two years The Church
at 242 has partnered with Transport for
Christ International, a ministry reaching truckers in North America, Russia,
Zambia and Brazil with the gospel.
Established in 1951 TFC was as mobile
as the people it sought to reach. A converted tractor trailer served as a chapel
and truck stops became temporary way
5 TFC@242 director of chaplains Don
DeSimone, David Parish, Dennis Paris greet
truck drivers as they walk around the Pilot
Flying J truck stop in New Caney.
PHOTO BY BONNIE PRITCHETT
4Construction of the trailer that will be
delivered to New Caney as a permanent
chapel is still underway. The chapel will seat
about 20 people and will have central air
conditioning and heating. PHOTO BY BONNIE PRITCHETT
stations. Sixty-five years later, TFC has
chaplains and permanent chapels at
truck stops in 45 U.S. states and around
the world.
One of the newest chapels will be
delivered in September to the Pilot Flying J truck stop, where it will blend in
with the 150-170 tractor-trailers parked
in the back lot each night. The Pennsylvania-based ministry transforms a tractor trailer into a meeting space that will
seat about 20 people. The New Caney
unit will be the first with central air
conditioning and heating.
For The Church at 242, the permanent chapel is an answer to years of
prayer and a means for advancing the
two-year old ministry that has seen
at least three people come to faith in
Christ. The truck stop’s media room
currently serves as a chapel for Sunday
morning services.
About 20 years ago, Dennis Parish,
pastor of The Church at 242, watched
the truck stop being built and prayed
God would establish a ministry for
the sojourners who stop there. Unbeknownst to him, DeSimone, a retired
air freight sales representative owner
and member of the church, felt called to
minister to the trucking community.
They said the Holy Spirit led them,
along with Parish’s son, David, minister of music at Magnolia Baptist
Church, to partner with TFC. The creation of TFC@242 marks the first time
a church—Parish’s congregation—has
partnered with the ministry. The
church and a growing network of likeminded churches and individuals took
on the challenge of raising the $20,000
necessary to build, transport and set up
the chapel.
Once in place, a chaplain will be on
duty 24/7 and the chapel will never close.
The ease with which they gained
access to the location only confirmed
their calling. David Peake, Pilot Flying J general manager, recognized the
venture as a win-win situation. As a
Christian he heartily welcomed the opportunity to offer Christian ministry to
the drivers. As a business manager he
recognized the benefit of partnering
with an organization that had a vested
interest in the safety and well-being of
his customers.
Hoping to expedite the weeks-long
process of gaining corporate approval
for the establishment of an on-site TFC
ministry and chapel, Peake wrote to corporate headquarters asking for approval.
Within 24 hours it was granted.
From this way station on US 59—a
major trucking highway connecting
Mexico and Canada—the TFC@242
chaplains have met people from 42
states and five countries.
The TFC mission statement—“Leading
truck drivers as well as the trucking
community to Jesus Christ and helping
them grow in their faith”—is exemplified by the chaplains. Walking through
the snack foods aisles and the laundry
and shower facilities, DeSimone greets
employees by name. He knows their
stories. They know he cares. A friend of
one of the employees is on the verge of
making a profession of faith, he said.
He’s ministered to a variety of people,
including a trucker crushed by his infidelity to his wife; a husband and wife
whose truck is their livelihood and,
sometimes, the source of their marital
struggles; and a driver from Buffalo, NY,
who feared losing his relationship with
his 16-year-old son.
DeSimone prayed with them all and
encouraged them with a word from
God. He remains in contact—a key element of the TFC ministry.
The world is stopping at the Pilot Flying J truck stop in New Caney and a
growing list of chaplains have enlisted
to minister to them. Even as this way
station is being equipped for gospel
ministry, the TFC@242 ministry team
plans to locate four more chapels across
the state.
“This is their oasis,” Dennis Parish
said. “They’re hungry, tired.”
Faith in Christ, the chaplains said,
gives the truckers hope for the road
ahead.
12
NEWS
S O U T H E R N
BRIEFS
Russian law restricts
evangelism
A Russian law that
places significant limits on
Christian evangelism has
drawn opposition from
the International Mission
Board, U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse
and a New Orleans Baptist
Theological Seminary
professor, among others.
Passed by both houses of
Russia’s parliament in June
and signed by President
Vladimir Putin in July, the
bill has been called “a step
toward an Iron Curtain” by
an opposition leader, the Los
Angeles Times reported.
According to Christianity
Today, the measure
requires citizens who wish
to share their faith obtain
government permits and
only do evangelism in
church buildings and at
other religious sites. Online
evangelism and witnessing
in a private residence both
would be restricted.
Foreign visitors who
violate the law could face
deportation. Individual
Russian violators could face
fines of up to U.S. $780, with
groups fined up to $15,500.
from bpnews.net
Gender identity law
takes aim at Iowa
churches
Two Iowa churches
say the Iowa Civil Rights
Commission’s interpretation
of a state civil rights law
could force them to open
restrooms to members of the
opposite sex and inhibit their
ability to teach biblical truth
about gender.
One of the churches, Fort
Des Moines Church of Christ
in Des Moines, filed a lawsuit
in federal court July 4. The
other, Cornerstone World
Outreach in Sioux City, sent
a demand letter to the Iowa
Civil Rights Commission July
5 asking the Commission to
amend its policy regarding
churches and gender identity
discrimination.
At issue is an undated
brochure published by the
Commission, which states
churches must “sometimes”
permit locker room and
restroom access based on
self-perceived gender identity
rather than biological sex.
The brochure, titled “Sexual
Orientation and Gender
Identity,” explains, “Iowa law
provides that these [antidiscrimination] protections
do not apply to religious
institutions with respect to any
religion-based qualifications
when such qualifications are
related to a bona fide religious
purpose. Where qualifications
are not related to a bona fide
religious purpose, churches
are still subject to the law’s
provisions. (e.g., a child care
facility operated at a church or
a church service open to the
public).”
from bpnews.net
South Carolina
megachurch pastor
Perry Noble fired for
alcohol abuse
NewSpring Church,
a multi-campus
megachurch based
in Anderson,
S.C., announced
Sunday that the
B A P T I S T
sbtexan
T E X A N
church’s board of directors
fired pastor Perry Noble
for alcoholism, his “posture
toward his marriage,” and
other “unfortunate” choices.
Noble served as pastor
of the Southern Baptist
Convention–affiliated church
since its founding in 2000.
The church has since grown
to 17 campuses and 30,000
members statewide
Duffy told the congregation
the firing was a “difficult
and painful decision,” but
added that Noble was “no
longer qualified to serve
as pastor” and was under
psychiatric care. Duffy noted
that church leadership had
confronted Noble on several
occasions about his abuse
of alcohol and his “posture
toward his marriage.”
Duffy then read a
statement from Noble, who
was not in attendance, in
which the former pastor
apologized for his actions,
admitting his “obsession to
do everything possible to
reach 100,000 and beyond
has come at a personal cost
to my own life and created a
strain on my marriage.”
In his announcement, Duffy
declined to explain the details
of Noble’s other poor lifestyle
decisions for the sake of the
family’s privacy, but Noble,
in his statement, noted the
undisclosed vices did not
include domestic abuse, theft,
a relapse into a former porn
addiction, or other sexual sins.
NewSpring has clashed
with the Southern Baptist
Convention and other
evangelicals over the years
for theological reasons.
from WORLD magazine
CP 5.22% above
projection at fiscal
year three-quarter
mark
Year-to-date contributions
to Southern Baptist
Convention national and
international missions and
ministries received by the
SBC Executive Committee
are 5.22 percent above the
year-to-date SBC Cooperative
Program Allocation Budget
projection, and are 2.88
percent above contributions
received during the same time
frame last year, according
to a news release from
SBC Executive Committee
President Frank S. Page.
Replica of
Noah’s Ark
opens to public
Thousands of supporters
and media descended on the
rural town of Williamstown,
Ky., in early July for the ribbon
cutting of a life-sized replica of
Noah’s Ark.
It is the centerpiece of the
Ark Encounter theme park,
which also features a petting
zoo, restaurant and zip lines.
Inside the ark, three decks
are packed with exhibits. It
was built by the apologetics
ministry Answers in Genesis.
Answers in Genesis also
ChristianMingle.com
agrees to open site
to gays, lesbians
The online matchmaking
service ChristianMingle.
com now must now provide
services to connect gays
and lesbians, following a
settlement approved by a
California state judge.
Two gay men had sued
the parent company, Spark
Networks Inc., after they found
no options for connecting with
other gay men who claim to
be Christian. They claimed
The year-to-date total
represents money received
by the Executive Committee
by the close of the last
business day of June and
includes receipts from state
conventions, churches and
individuals for distribution
according to the 2015-16
SBC Cooperative Program
Allocation Budget.
from bpnews.net
Jeffress, Graham,
Floyd, others are new
Trump advisers
Immediate past Southern
Baptist Convention President
Ronnie Floyd and Texas
pastors Robert Jeffress and
Jack Graham are among a
diverse group of evangelicals
Donald Trump named June 21
to advise him on religion and
politics.
Trump’s 25-member
Evangelical Executive
Advisory Board includes at
least eight Southern Baptists.
They were among more
than 1,000 conservative faith
leaders who attended a June
21 invitation-only questionand-answer session with
Trump and Ben Carson in
New York, hosted by United in
Purpose and My Faith Votes,
and moderated by former U.S.
presidential candidate Mike
Huckabee.
A document made it clear
that members of the board
aren’t necessarily endorsing
Trump, although Jeffress,
pastor of First Baptist Church
of Dallas, has supported
Trump for months. Graham is
pastor of Prestonwood Baptist
Church in Plano, Texas
operates the Creation Museum
in nearby Petersburg.
Visitors can see animatronic
figures of Noah and his family, as
well as cages containing detailed
animal replicas, including
dinosaurs, that Answers in
Genesis President Ken Ham
believes would have been
present on the ark.
Based on dimensions given to
Noah in the Bible, the ark stands
at a staggering 510 feet long,
85 feet wide and 51 feet high—
believed to be the largest timber
frame structure on the planet.
Answers in Genesis President
Ken Ham has been unapologetic
about his real motive for building
the structure.
“I believe this is going to be
one of the greatest Christian
the lack of service for gay and
lesbian couples violated the
California’s Unruh Civil Rights
Act, which requires “business
establishments” to offer equal
services to clients regardless
of their sexual orientation.
The company will pay each
plaintiff in the case $9,000 and
reimburse nearly $500,000 in
attorney’s fees.
from ChristianExaminer.com
Other Southern Baptists on
the executive advisory board
are David Jeremiah, pastor of
Shadow Mountain Community
Church, El Cajon, Calif.;
Jerry Falwell Jr., president
of Liberty University; former
ERLC President Richard Land,
current president of Southern
Evangelical Seminary; James
MacDonald, founder and
senior pastor of Harvest Bible
Chapel in Chicago, and Jay
Strack, president of Student
Leadership University.
from bpnews.net
California bill targets
freedom of Christian
colleges
A California legislative
committee passed a bill
June 30 that would subject
Christian colleges to
regulations forbidding them
to act on their religious
tenets if their students
receive state grants to
support their studies. SB 1146
“could destroy the ability
of numerous faith-based
colleges and universities to
pursue the mission for which
they were created,” warned
Ed Stetzer, the executive
director of Wheaton
College’s Billy Graham
Center for Evangelism, in a
blog post.
Asuza Pacific University
president Jon R. Wallace said
the bill “significantly reduces
religious freedom” and
“would effectively eliminate
faith-based institutions as a
choice for California’s most
disadvantaged students.”
from ChristianityToday.com
outreaches of this era in history,”
said Ham, who expects 2 million
visitors the first year. “We built it
as a reminder for people that the
flood really happened and that
God’s Word really is true.”
Ham is a vocal supporter of
young-earth creationism, which
is the belief that Earth is several
thousand years old.
On July 8, Ham gave a
personal tour of the Ark exhibit
to evolutionist Bill Nye, “the
Science Guy,” and a camera
crew. The two debated opposing
worldviews on creation in 2014,
and Ham noted following Nye’s
Ark visit that the two re-engaged
in “passionate discussion” during
the tour.
from bpnews.net
AUGUST 2016
T E X A N O N L I N E . N E T
TEXAS
13
14
TEXAS
S O U T H E R N
B A P T I S T
T E X A N
sbtexan
STRACHAN STEPS DOWN
AS PRESIDENT OF CBMW
By Keith Collier
Managing Editor
LOUISVILLE, Ky. The Council on Biblical
Manhood and Womanhood announced
on its website July 12 that Owen Strachan had resigned as president of the
organization. He had served in the position since 2014 following two years as
CBMW’s executive director.
Strachan, who also serves as associate
professor of Christian theology and director of the Center for Theological and
Cultural Engagement at Midwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas
City, explained his reasons for stepping
down on his blog July 12.
“I first started thinking over my role
a year ago,” Strachan said. “The responsibilities of full-time leadership and a
professorship at Midwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary were not small.
CHURCH POSITIONS
PASTOR
u Center Hill BC is seeking a FT pastor. Submit
resume to [email protected] or
Center Hill Baptist Church, PO Box 190, Oakhurst,
TX 77359. Experience is required. Candidates
must not be divorced and remarried.
u FBC Spurger is seeking a FT senior pastor. FBC
is a rural church with an avg worship attendance
of 145. Parsonage is included. Please submit
resumes to [email protected] or to
FBC Spurger, Attn: Pastor Search Team, PO Box
89, Spurger, TX 77660.
u Community BC in Eldorado is seeking a bivocational or FT pastor. The church is a small
West Texas church with a very good church plant
and is debt-free. Send resume to Randy Mankin
at PO Box 878 Eldorado, TX 76936
MUSIC
u FBC of Linden, aligned with the SBTC, is
seeking a FT minister of worship. Responsibilities
include adult choir, praise band, youth choir and
praise band, and coordinating children’s graded
choirs. Interested individuals may email a resume
to [email protected], Pastor Jackie Stanfield.
u Highland Park BC, Bartlesville, OK, a
conservative, reformed Southern Baptist Church,
is seeking a FT worship pastor to lead in a
blended worship style service. Preferred abilities
include choir conducting and media skills. Visit
Fundraising in particular is a preoccupation for most any
non-profit
leader.
My goal was to leave
CBMW in a strong
financial
position,
which meant putting
on our April 2016 ToOwen Strachan
gether for the Gospel
pre-conference. By
God’s grace, that event was a success.
This meant that I could step down in
good conscience.”
CBMW praised Strachan’s leadership
and the growth experienced by the
organization under his direction. The
statement also explained that Strachan
will serve CBMW as a senior fellow.
Board member and CBMW co-founder
Wayne Grudem said, “Owen has served
as an excellent president for CBMW, and
the organization has grown remarkably
in influence through his leadership.”
“I’m sorry to see him leave the presidency of CBMW, but I am glad to know
that he will continue associating with
CBMW as a senior fellow, and I fully
expect that we will continue to see additional valuable contributions from his
writing and speaking on issues of biblical manhood and womanhood.”
A theological debate this summer regarding the relationship between God
the Father and God the Son—a debate
that has included criticism of CBMW—
“played no part” in Strachan’s decision to
resign, he told Baptist Press in an email.
“The summer of 2016 has been surprisingly active in terms of theological
debate, but the online discussion has
played no part in my decision,” Strachan
said, noting, “My decision was made
months ago.”
At issue in the debate is the argument of Strachan and other theologians—including Grudem and Bruce
Ware of Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary—that God the Father and
God the Son eternally have been equal
in divinity but that the Son eternally
has submitted to the Father. Strachan
articulated that view in his 2016 book
The Grand Design, coauthored with
Gavin Peacock, and defended it in subsequent blog posts.
Strachan and other proponents of this
view additionally argue that the “authority-submission dynamic” within the
Trinity illustrates the proper relationship
between a husband and wife: possessing
different roles but equal in value.
CBMW’s statement said the organization will “name its next president in a
forthcoming announcement in the next
few weeks.”
our website at highlandparkbaptist.net. Email
resume to: [email protected].
u FBC Hico seeks bi-vocational worship leader
to oversee choir, worship team, in blended style
service. Must have flexible availability. Contact
Jim Felty, 254-485-0287 or FBC @ 254-7964238, [email protected].
minimum) and experience (at least three years
full-time). Over 100 students are waiting for you.
Send resumes to [email protected].
u Kirkwood Church, Houston, is seeking a FT
student pastor to work with high school and
college students. Contact Pastor David Mai 281495-7783 or email resume to davidmai_79201@
yahoo.com.
u Webb BC in Arlington is searching for a PT
youth minister. Located in the heart of the DFW
metroplex. Resumes or questions can be sent to
[email protected].
OTHER
u Sagamore BC, Fort Worth, is seeking a PT
pianist, as well as a soprano and tenor vocalists
in order to strengthen choir. Contact Philip at
817-939-7222.
u FBC Uvalde, a Southern Baptist Church, is
seeking a FT associate pastor to lead worship
in a blended worship style service. This position
also includes some pastoral, administrative, and
senior adult responsibilities. Visit our website at
fbcuvalde.com. Email resume to: personnel@
fbcuvalde.com.
CHILDREN
u Maplewood Baptist Fellowship is seeking a
bi-vocational children’s minister. Please send
resumes to [email protected].
ANNOUNCEMENTS
u Toby Irwin celebrated his 10th anniversary as
pastor of Belmore BC, San Angelo, on June 3.
COMBINATION
u FBC Lakeside City is seeking a PT youth and
children’s pastor for a rapidly growing church. As
the church grows, this position will eventually be
full-time.
YOUTH
u FBC Prosper is searching for a FT youth pastor
to oversee the total youth ministry with hands-on
leadership of the senior high ministry. The ideal
candidate is a self-starter, a disciple-maker, a
missions-advocate, and a leader. Send cover
letters and resumes to [email protected]
by August 15.
u College BC, Big Spring, is seeking a FT youth
minister. Please send resumes to cbc1957@
suddenlinkmail.com.
u FBC Newton is seeking a FT youth pastor.
Please contact Pastor Dean Ferguson at
409-379-3381 or email resumes to pastor@
newtonfbc.com.
u Indiana Ave BC in Lubbock is seeking a FT
minister of youth. The qualified candidate
will need both education (Bachelor’s degree
PAID CLASSIFIEDS
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Great prices and free shipping across the state! Small and large orders welcome. Printed by
Christian owned and operated business. Call Southeast Texas Printing Co. 409-622-2197.
AUGUST 2016
TEXAS
T E X A N O N L I N E . N E T
15
TEXAS STUDENT WINS NATIONAL BIBLE DRILL
By Jane Rodgers
Bible Drill and Speakers’ Tournament
TEXAN Correspondent
Brian Beto of Esperanza Del Rio Community
Church emerged victorious in a
drill-off to determine the winner of the high school division
at the National Invitational
Tournament for Bible Drill held
at First Baptist Church in Colleyville on June 16-17.
The Friday evening drill-off
concluded this year’s National
Invitational Tournament for
Bible Drill and Speakers’ Tournament attended by some 200
participants and families from
across the country and hosted
by the Southern Baptists of
Texas Convention.
The tension-filled drill-off
was held at the banquet the
evening of the competition,
said Emily Smith, SBTC associate over women’s and children’s ministries. Smith, with
representatives from three other state conventions, served on
the NIT planning team.
Bible Drill has long been
a staple of Southern Baptist
churches, with associations
and state conventions holding competitions. Children
grades 4-6 participate in the
Children’s Drill. Young people
in grades 7-9 take part in the
Youth Drill, while older teens,
grades 10-12, compete in the
High School Drill and Speakers’ Tournament.
COLLEYVILLE
Youth Bible Drill State Winners 1st Place: Janice Beto, Esperanza
Del Rio Community Church; 2nd Place: Kole Tatum, Bethany Baptist
Church; 3rd Place: tie—Lilly Parker, Prestonwood Baptist Church &
Elisabeth Thomas, First Baptist Church Euless.
High School Bible Drill State Winners 1st Place: Brian Beto,
Esperanza Del Rio Community Church; 2nd Place: Braden Samuels,
First Baptist Church Stinton; 3rd Place: Andres Mena, Esperanza Del
Rio Community Church.
Speakers Tournament State Winners 1st Place: Kailyn Newson,
Cornerstone BC; 2nd Place: Monique Allman, Cornerstone BC; 3rd
Place: Alan Njomo, Tate Springs BC.
Brian Beto of Esperanza Del Rio Community Church (right) stands with
SBTC church ministries associate Emily Smith after winning the high school
division at the National Invitational Tournament for Bible Drill June 16-17.
PHOTO BY NEIL WILLIAMS
Only youth and high school
competitors advance to state
and national levels. The children’s competition terminates
at the regional level.
SBTC began sponsoring Bible Drill competitions in 2002.
Since the Baptist General Convention of Texas also holds competitions, nationals featured
two teams from Texas. This
year, Beto defeated the BGCT
national finalist in the drill-off.
Bible Drill requires students
to memorize Scripture and
locate Bible passages. Competition is intense as a caller issues a command and students
have only eight seconds to
locate chapter and verse in
their Bibles. Contestants must
earn certain scores at their local association or church level
to qualify for regionals. In the
Speakers’ Tournament, students prepare and deliver 4-6
minute talks on assigned topics.
“It’s very impressive,” Smith
said. “It’s exciting, and it will
put you to shame to see how
much the kids know.”
At the regional level, 270 students representing 38 churches
participated. State finals were
held April 30 at the SBTC offices in Grapevine, where they
have taken place 14 of the last
15 years.
Bible Drill participation runs
in families. Brian Beto has gone
to nationals in both youth and
high school divisions, while
his sister Janice won the SBTC
state youth drill competition
two years in a row and placed
second at nationals in 2015.
Anna Moreno, Bible Drill
sponsor at Bethany Baptist
Church in Breckenridge, is a
veteran winner of both drill
and speaker competitions at
the regional and state levels.
“My mother is a huge proponent of Bible Drill,” said
Moreno. Moreno’s mother,
Tami Wood, a children’s minister often invited to call drills
at competitions, helped start
the program at Bethany. When
Moreno and her husband,
Bethany’s associate pastor of
youth and family, came to the
church nine years ago, Anna
volunteered to coach Bible
Drill, with impressive results.
When asked about the value of Bible Drill, Moreno said,
“Memorizing Scripture and
hiding God’s Word in your
heart will never return void.
It encourages children in a fun
way to learn Scripture. I have
found personally that a lot of
those scriptures I learned as a
child come back to me. Besides,
I just loved the competition.”
SBTC awards college scholarships to those placing first
($1,000), second ($500) and
third ($250) at the state level
in the youth, high school and
speakers’ competitions.
For more information and
published results of SBTC regional and state competitions,
see
sbtexas.com/bibledrill.
For an expanded article, photos and a list of the children’s
division perfect scorers, visit
texanonline.net/archives/5376.
Every church wants more leaders.
Every church wants to see their current
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That's where EQUIP comes in.
august 13
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LE A D E R S H I P TRAINING F OR A L L A S P E CT S O F M I N I S T R Y
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+ Preschool/Children
+ Men
+ Evangelism
+ Children’s Music
+ Women
+ Missions/ESL
+ Preteen
+ Discipleship
+ Leadership
+ Student/Collegiate
+ Family
+ Library
+ Adult Home Groups
+ Communication & Technology
+ Pastoral
+ Single Adult
+ Worship
+ Spanish
+ Adult Sunday School
+ Black Equipping Churches
EQUIP is a conference designed for the
local church and offers leadership training
in all aspects of ministry. In fact, EQUIP
offers 20+ areas of ministry training.
Whether you are a pastor, children's
minister, deacon, or lay leader, EQUIP has
something to help you become a better
leader in your church.
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KEYNOTE:
JOHNNY
HUNT
16
TEXAS
S O U T H E R N
B A P T I S T
T E X A N
sbtexan
CRISWELL COLLEGE ANNOUNCES $1M GIFT,
ESTABLISHES SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENT
By Rob Collingsworth
Criswell College
DALLAS
Criswell
College
president Barry Creamer announced today a gift of $1 million from the estate of Barbara
F. Marshall, a long-time supporter of the college.
In conjunction with the
Southern Baptists of Texas
Foundation, the funds will establish the C. Frank and Barbara F. Marshall Scholarship
Fund as an endowment to benefit and assist students seeking
education at Criswell College.
“The assets
and resources which put
Criswell College in such
a strong position today
have come primarily from the
generosity of families and individuals just like Barbara Marshall,” Creamer said.
Marshall and her husband,
who died in 2000, were longtime members of First Baptist
Church of Dallas and active
members in
the Sunday
School class
taught
by
Criswell theology professor R. Alan
Barbara F. Marshall Streett Sr.
“Such estate giving not only bears immediate fruit, as it has here
impacting the college, the
denomination, and countless
churches, but also continues
to bear that fruit indefinitely—
something especially important to Criswell as we expand
to produce
Christian
leaders who
can
transform the culture,” Creamer added.
The living trust established
by Marshall places provisions
on the gift that assign general
guidelines in regard to its use.
Funds must be disbursed out
of the endowment’s interest
and may only be awarded to
current, full-time students
who possess an exceptional
commitment to preaching
and demonstrate a need for
financial assistance.
The Marshall gift is a major step forward as Criswell
moves to eliminate federal
funding as a means of paying for college, removing
some of the burdens caused
by threats to religious liberty. The school’s Title IX
exemption request, which
would free Criswell from
governmental regulations on
matters such as transgender
bathroom access, is currently
under review.
Criswell announces new VP of advancement
By Rob Collingsworth
Criswell College
DALLAS After an extended
search, Criswell College announced the hiring of Michael Clayton as the new
vice president of advancement, effective July 1.
A Dallas native, Clayton
received his undergraduate
degree from Dallas Baptist
University and pursued theological education at Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Fort Worth as
well as Luther Rice Seminary.
Over the course of his career he spent 15 years as pres-
ident of the
S o ut h e a s t
Texas Better
Business
Bureau and
more than
Michael Clayton
20
years
serving local churches in administrative and pastoral roles.
For the last four years
Clayton has addressed audiences across the world as a
keynote speaker, corporate
trainer, and as a business
consultant to numerous clients including State Farm,
Coldwell Banker, and the U.S.
Department of the Treasury.
“It is an honor to serve
Criswell College to advance
its mission to engage minds
and
transform
culture
through the power of God’s
Word and his leadership,”
Clayton said.
As vice president of advancement, Clayton will
oversee the Departments
of External Relations and
Development. He will also
lead efforts to secure financial support for the school
through development of the
annual fund, coordination of
major gifts and management
of estate planning.