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Spanish| It’s hard to understand from within. Some of our best go to dangerous places. It doesn’t seem right they would fall to the insane acts of evil men. It raises age-old questions about good and evil. To our way of thinking the best and the strongest should win every time. On the surface this doesn’t seem to be happening in places where national Christians are persecuted and visiting Christians are murdered.
It’s hard to understand from without. Our denomination and our churches pray and give and support and send and go, and then this happens. Isn’t this the worst possible outcome? In talking to and listening to media representatives it’s a common question. Will we pull our workers out of dangerous places? How can we better protect our workers? Will future missionaries be afraid to go? These are strange questions to our minds. Non-Christians don’t understand the nature of Christian obedience or the lordship of Christ in our lives. They don’t understand that our calling makes us combatants in a war as old as Eden. They can’t understand it but they can hear the testimonies of those who do.
Non-Christians and Christians alike are tempted to think of those who are murdered as victims. A letter in USA Today following the Yemen murders questioned the wisdom and sanity of those who go into dangerous places. A murdered aid worker, he reasoned, is a lost asset. Similar criticisms were made of Heather Mercer and Deyna Curry after they returned from their ordeal in Afghanistan. They should have known better, it was said. Don Caswell, a wounded survivor of the attack on our hospital in Yemen, says he thought that way before going overseas. He thought it was foolish to go places where people hated Christians or Americans. His call to missions changed his mind. His work in Yemen changed his heart. Christians tend also to be wrong-headed when we assume that a safe rescue is a victory and martyrdom is a tragedy. Is this always true?
We see with eyes that do not comprehend eternity. What frightens or confuses us must be bad by definition. In hindsight we know this isn’t always true.
Compare two fairly familiar scenes. One is a missionary commissioning service. Scores of newly-appointed candidates parade across the stage and excitedly tell of the work they have been called to. A recent service I attended commissioned a large percentage who were going to places that could not be named for security reasons. They went joyfully onto the front lines of Great Commission work. It is safe to assume that some few will fall to disease, auto accidents, or violence during the course of their service. Yet they go.
The second scene is a military deployment. Men and women are lined up to get on a transport plane, rucksacks and rifles slung over their shoulders, babies and loved ones attached to their arms and legs. It’s a moving scene partly because of the long separation but mostly because of the clear danger they will face. As sorry as they are to leave people they love, military folks are ready to go where they are needed and do what they have been trained and called up to do. Some will not return alive from this deployment whether they fall in battle or to an accident. This is grievous to us but not usually seen as a tragedy unless the mission is a failure.
I know the two missions are different. There is a reason, though, that the God who reveals himself in Scripture used military imagery frequently in describing our service to him. The sacrifice is similar, the risks are similar, and the battles, spiritual and physical, require a similar commitment of all we are. A key difference is the assurance of victory we have as we serve the Creator of all things. Not assurance of safety or visible success or comfort or long life, just ultimate victory and eternal reward.
In great heroic battle stories, say the Alamo or the 300 Spartans, it is said that these few “sold their lives dearly.” That means that the enemy suffered disproportionate, even mortal losses in overcoming the defenders. That’s true of Christian martyrs. The first century church was strengthened by the witness of those killed for their faith. The fact that they would die before they would recant lent credibility to the gospel. The manner of their deaths belittled their killers and the evil cause they represented. Fox’s Book of Martyrs is full of such stories from the history of Christianity.
Our work today is heartened by the examples of Bill Wallace, Lottie Moon, Jim Elliot, and now Bill Koehn, Kathy Garrity, Martha Myers, and William Hyde. In these more modern examples also, the enemy lost ground in the deaths of these believers. The gospel will reign in some new place or heart because of their witness. After Mr.Hyde’s death, I heard his seminary professor, pastor, an IMB representative, and current seminary students headed for missions service all give powerful gospel testimonies on national television. They had this opportunity because a deceived man in the Philippines thought he could destroy those he disagreed with. He failed like all his predecessors have, all the way back to the garden. The best and strongest has won. Our mistake is forgetting that he is the Lord. |
Month: March 2003
Scioto Valley Baptist Association
As a part of its 2003 partnership with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, the Scioto Valley Baptist Association (SVBA) of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio is requesting mission teams for summer 2003. Through the ministry IMPACT 2003, simultaneous mission work will occur throughout the state in connection with SVBA, other Ohio associations and churches and SBTC churches.
SVBA Association Missionary Bill Wellman said the total population of the area numbers 475,000, providing ample opportunities for ministry.
“We have 10 counties that cover 5,000 square miles,” Wellman said. “The association consists of 33 works with a total membership around 7,000. The best data available for the area indicates between 75-80 percent are unchurched. Point being there is a great need to start new works.”
To reach the lost in Ohio, Wellman issued requests to participate in IMPACT 2003 on behalf of 11 areas in the SVBA. Each location needs five separate mission teams from SBTC churches to complete the joint mission venture. IMPACT 2003 includes surveying the community (June 22-28), conducting Vacation Bible School (July 16-20) or block parties (July 20-16), participating and planing crusade meetings (Aug. 3-9), and following up on prospects for new church starts (Aug. 17-23). Housing and meals must be provided by the mission teams.
“Several other communities are without Southern Baptist works. It is our desire to have a Southern Baptist work in all communities,” Wellman said. “This would allow people to attend a God-centered, Bible-teaching, evangelistic, mission-minded church.”
The Ohio locations include: Nelsonville, Oak Hill; West Portsmouth; Coal Grove; Beaver; Kingston; Tuppers Plains; Chauncey; Murray City; The Plains; Crown City; and South Webster.
Locations where churches are already being started or have been planted are also in need, Wellman said. Pastors or sponsor churches are ready to work alongside SBTC mission teams. These include: Portsmouth; Wellston; Chillicothe; Wheelersburg; Coalton; Jackson; Glouster; McArthur; and Lucasville.
For more information on any of these areas contact Leroy Fountain in the SBTC office at (972) 953-0878 or Bill Wellman at (740) 286-4484 or svbaohio@adelphia.net. For more information about IMPACT 2003 or the Scioto Valley Baptist Association log onto www.svbaohio.org.
Texas ministry fishes for fishermen
FRISCO, Texas – It’s a beautiful winter day in Texas. There is a slight chill in the air, but with a few extra layers of clothes and a disposable pocket warmer, it’s bearable. The smell of exhaust from a 200-horsepower Evinrude motor begins to fill the nose with a familiar pungent odor that brings joyous memories of being on the water with dad. The brain begins to forget the chill and focuses instead on plunking that new Pro Model Scum Frog into the murky green water and landing that 10-pound largemouth “Hawg.”
Every weekend thousands of Texans take to the state’s waterways in an effort to catch a big fish – the Hawg. Bass tournaments are scheduled where teams of fisherman compete against each other to see who can land the biggest fish.
Some folks call fishing a sport. Others say it’s just a hobby. Jesus called it a way of life – sort of – when he said his followers would be fishers of men. The Fishers of Men Ministry believes fishing is a sport and a way of life.
Fishers of Men (FOM) began in 1998 in Sumter, South Carolina. Founder Al Odom wanted competitive fisherman to have a chance to compete in bass fishing tournaments and still be in church on Sunday (most secular tournaments are on Saturday and Sunday). Now the ministry is spread out across 22 states, including Texas.
Larry Shine, pastor of Pine Forrest Baptist Church in Onalaska, serves as the Texas State Chaplain.
Shine said he became involved with the ministry four years ago as a competitor. He took on the chaplain role about a year ago.
Each tournament follows a basic format. Fishermen arrive on the designated lake on Friday to “pre-fish.” Anglers are trying to uncover the hiding places of the big fish for the next day. Everyone has to be off the water by 5:30 to prepare for the next stage of the event.
When the teams of two return to the marina, the participants gather at a local church or a nearby pavilion to draw numbers for the following morning’s launch sequence.
The host church will provide a meal for the participants and some good wholesome entertainment. After dinner, the host church or Shine will present an evangelistic message. This is part of the two-fold mission of FOM.
“The mandatory Friday night services provide an avenue of telling lost fisherman how to be saved,” Shine said.
Evangelism is not just left up to the pastors and others “trained” in sharing their faith. Everyone can have a part in making an impact in someone’s life. Shine said, “active Christians are encouraged to fish with lost partners to expose them to the gospel.” Over 600 people were saved last year as a part of the ministry’s events – 29 of those were in Texas.
After a night of rest, the teams awake in the wee hours of Saturday morning and hit the waters. They have their boats inspected for safety and then begin their quest to coax the largemouth bass out of the water.
At the end of the day, each team turns in their catch. The top five fish from each team are weighed and the team with the most pounds of fish wins the competition.
At last year’s National Championship in Alabama, a duo from Winston-Salem, North Carolina combined to catch over 41 pounds of fish over the two-day event.
Shine said attendance at the regional events around Texas can vary.
“There can be as many as 150 teams of two or as few as five teams,” he said. Participation varies depending on the area, competition with other tournaments and the weather.
The majority of those in attendance are believers. This is the other half of the two-fold mission of the ministry: a place for Christian fisherman to compete without having to sacrifice church services on Sunday.
The peaceful surroundings of nature and the solitude of two people in a boat can lead to great opportunities of ministry. Shine remembers a time while fishing a regional tournament in Greenville, Miss.
“A grandfather/grandson team were competing,” Shine said. “The Lord impressed on me to witness to the grandson, whom I knew was lost. Rules say you must remain 25 yards from any other competitor unless you receive permission.”
Not wanting to alienate the other team, Shine asked the grandfather for permission to come close and speak with the young man for a few minutes. The grandfather agreed and Shine led the boy to faith in Christ.
“Best catch of the day for me,” Shine said.
The ministry continues to grow each year. Fishers of Men has an official magazine called Hawg Heaven that goes to each of the ministry’s members. The magazine keeps anglers up-to-date on results from past tournaments, dates of upcoming events, as well as inspiring the avid fisherman with uplifting stories and testimonies from other fisherman. A website is also available for information about the organization at www.fomntt.com.
Wetting a hook and trying to land a big fish is not just an American idea. Shine said he is looking at taking the idea of the ministry on the road. He said he was working with one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s missionaries in South America about making a trip there. They want to use fishing as a way to reach the people of the South American Amazon.
“We hope to help those fishermen,” Shine said, “and may even arrange to do some fishing ourselves.”
In a sport that is probably best known for its embellished stories about the “one that got away,” fisherman across the state are now sharing the truth of the gospel.
Jill Briscoe shares lessons with staff wives
FORT WORTH, Texas – When Jill Briscoe arrived at the little church in Wisconsin where her husband Stuart pastored and grew Elmbrook Church in suburban Milwaukee for over 33 years, she had no idea how a pastor’s wife should behave. So she walked up and down the aisles of the church, asking women to write on paper their expectations of her.
“I took that paper home and made an English cup of tea which is what you do in times of crisis,” Briscoe shared with the Great Hills Ministry Staff Wives Retreat at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Feb. 20-21. “I read the paper and there wasn’t one of my gifts on it. I was devastated.” After explaining her frustration to her husband, she recalled that he looked at her unsympathetically and said, “‘Jill, the job has to be done. So just do it badly.'”
Arguing that she wanted to “do it goodly for Jesus and His church,” she realized she could not because she did not feel gifted to do all of the things listed by the women from the church. “He said it’s better to do it badly than to not do it at all,” Briscoe remembered. “He’s very logical because he’s English.”
She drew inspiration from Col. 3:23 to “do it heartily unto the Lord.” Briscoe soon began “doing it badly and doing it heartily for Jesus.” As a result, two things happened. “All those women looked at me and said, ‘Oh, that poor woman, she needs help. People who could do it ‘goodly,’ but had sat on their backside all those years came out of the woodwork. It was obvious I needed help and they came. Also, I discovered gifts I didn’t know I had.”
Briscoe said, “In England we have a saying–you have a go. You just have a go. You don’t have to do it excellently,” she added. “That’s the problem with American women, insecurity that if you can’t do it well, you don’t do it at all. Well, I’m British, so I didn’t care. It had to be done and I wanted to do it and I did it for him.”
At the age of 67, Briscoe said she is having the best time of her life as she and her husband serve as ministers at large for the church from which he retired three years ago. “My soul will never return to its original shape after these last three years. Never. It’s incredible,” she said, describing opportunities to minister in restricted countries where biblical training has never been available to pastors and their wives.
In her two messages to the 170 women gathered for the staff wives retreat, Briscoe related some of the lessons she had learned over a lifetime of ministry:
1. Make yourself time. Recognizing that there are never enough hours in the day to do all there is to do, Briscoe said, “We are distracted by the work of the Lord from the Lord of the work.
Setting aside 10 minutes a day to meet with God without an agenda can be lifesaving, she said. “When you’re in ministry and you’re giving out, preparing, thinking, and discipling– whatever you’re into-you get in a habit of reading everything with that in mind,” she warned. “We have to meet with him, just for his sake, not for Mrs. Smith, for her or him, but for his sake.”
2. Pray yourself quiet. “It’s my observation that the western church talks too much in prayer, in teaching, in everything,” Briscoe observed. “God is thinking, nicely, just shut up. Just listen,” she said, citing the instruction of Isa. 50:4 to get up early and receive a word for the weary.
“If I’ve gotten up and listened to him, He will give me a word in the morning for the evening and it will be the right word and it will do away with all our little canned formulas. I’ve often thought if I had missed that this morning, whatever would I have said to her? How would I have grappled with the situation I’m in now? For that you have to pray yourself quiet; have to learn to listen, and deal with some solitude which is something we do very badly in the West.”
By “taking your wristwatch off” during their times with God, Briscoe said the wives of ministers may conclude that they do not have to do half of the things that had previously considered priorities. “If the unexpected blessings [of extra time] happen in a crowded day, try not to dash to the washing machine. It doesn’t matter. Don’t sweat it. The tyranny of the urgent finishes off ministry people all the time.”
3. Keep your hands clean. From Ps. 24:4, Briscoe reiterated the need for clean hands and a pure heart. “I’ve got 13 grandchildren and there’s always a parent saying to one, ‘Go and wash your hands!” Similarly, God reminds his children to wash their hands, she said. “We often go straight to the selfish intercession first when we haven’t done the repentance bit first,” she said.
“If I don’t have clean hands there won’t be any fire on my ministry,” Briscoe said. “I’ll be like the prophets of Baal and will have to repair the altar of the Lord.” She added, “There is carnage in ministry today because people are not living with clean hands. And there, but by the grace of God, go every one of us.”
4. We know ourselves loved. At a recent conference for ministers and their wives, Briscoe learned that three-fourths of those present had been terminated by a church at some point in their ministries. “The pain in that conference was incredible. I was overwhelmed listening to stories I could not believe.”
Briscoe responded, “If you do not know that you are loved of God, affirmed by God and get your encouragement from him alone, you will not survive in a situation like this.” Just as a flight attendant advises passengers to secure an oxygen mask on themselves before aiding any children, Briscoe said, “Breathe in that wonderful air and then you’ll be able to rescue and help others. We’re too busy shoving oxygen masks on everybody else’s face.”
5. Think yourself clear. Briscoe recalled taking her preschool children out of their playpen as she stepped into the fenced area with her cup of tea and Bible. “I was away from their sticky little fingers for just 15 minutes,” she remembered, telling her children she needed to spend time with Jesus. Her oldest son, David, looked at his 2-year-old sister, asking, “‘Can you see Jesus? Mommy said she sees Jesus in our playpen.'”
Years later she heard her son recount the story while preaching, explaining that he learned to leave his mother alone when she was sitting in their playpen, because she was a whole lot nicer mommy when she got out than when she got in. “I was not deliberately modeling anything except desperation,” Briscoe added.
“Your husband is your head, but he is not your brain. We have to do the hard work of sorting this out before God, with our Bible. “Having observed that many pastors’ wives are just taken along on the coattails of their husbands’ calling, Briscoe said, “That’s not going to work.”
6) Hear yourself called. By submitting to each other following the pattern of Ephesians 5, Briscoe said, “You put on your gifting, calling, background, and training together and you will become formidable to God as partners; both submitting to Lord.”
As a result, assumed priorities may shift according to the demands of the day, she said. “I need to be obedient to the priorities God dictates in my life. If we can do that our family is going to do just great; so are our kids. If we teach our kids the world revolves around them, they won’t be ready to reach out.”
Warning against a tendency to sacrifice families on
Resolution of partnership passed by TBM board
Whereas the Mission Statement of the Texas Baptist Men mandates that we assist Texas Baptist Churches as they lead their men into a love relationship with Jesus Christ that will thrust them and their families into a lifestyle of missions and ministry, and
Whereas Texas Baptist Men believe the Bible is the source of this mission statement and mandate, and are convinced that the Bible is the accurate witness to the miracles that happened (in the precise time and space) as recorded, Texas Baptist Men believe the events of the Bible are historically accurate and that every word of the Bible was breathed by God through those He chose to be the authors, and
Whereas Jesus’ life is the model for the ministries of Texas Baptist Men–for example as Jesus in His miracle of multiplying the loaves and fish to feed a hungry multitude so Texas Baptist Men respond in times of disaster to feed the hungry; as Jesus is the builder of His church, Texas Baptist Men respond by building church buildings which are the houses that local churches use; as Jesus taught His followers to walk in a deep love relationship with Him, Texas Baptist Men respond through Kingdom Renewal, and
Whereas Texas Baptist Men believe that salvation is God’s grace gift to anyone who responds to Him through faith, that believers should identify with Him through baptism by immersion, and that this gift of salvation is an eternal relationship with Him, and
Whereas Texas Baptist Men believe that those whom God calls to Himself in salvation are also called and gifted to serve Him, Texas Baptist Men provide varied ministries as entry points allowing men and their families to be on mission with Him, and
Whereas Texas Baptist Men believe the Bible is the final authority for our faith and practice and the ministries of Texas Baptist Men are God led and Biblically based enabling men and their families to live out that love relationship with Him and fulfill the Great Commission.
Therefore, be it resolved, that Texas Baptist Men go on record, by board action, that we continue unabated to live in an unique affiliation and partnership with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and that we continue to partner with other state conventions in their Baptist Men’s ministry in cooperation with the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and thus we will officially work with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and their churches in a mutually supportive relationship, and with all associations of Baptist churches in Texas to assist them to encourage the men in their churches to be a part of the family of Texas Baptist Men as we work together for the glory of God.
March is a Time for Families
| March is usually the month of spring break. When I was a pastor I knew that one of two things were about to happen: There would be a special student event or families were about to scatter. Sometimes both happened. Schools were different in the pre-social revolution of the ’60’s when I was growing up. They did not worry about political correctness. We had “Easter break” back then. It would be Friday before and Monday after or maybe even a half week. We almost never got a whole week. Our son Nathan is getting two weeks off for spring break this month! He is my reason for writing.
As some of you know, June and I are later-in-life parents. While most people our age have grandchildren, we have a twelve year-old. [I thought this was a good story until I was with Sam Douglas, pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist in Greenville last month. He is fifty-two and his wife is having a baby.] There is nothing like having a kid in the house. I cut the TV on to watch the news and it always comes up the Cartoon Network. It was baseball tryouts and a basketball game all in one day last Saturday. We find notes from school about events that happen tomorrow although the notice was sent a week ago. Hamburgers, pizza, and junk food are regular fare. It would drive someone at Cooper Clinic crazy. How many questions can a kid ask? I never feel so stupid, unintelligent or ill-prepared as when some of the most profound questions roll off of my twelve-year old’s lips. And of course, don’t even think about beating him at a video game, I quit that a couple of years back. Now he is 5’6″ and 165. I don’t even want to wrestle him. Hunting and fishing had to be a recessive gene going back to an uncle or grandfather. I like fishing OK, but Nathan would just as soon stay out in the woods or on the lake all the time. How can a city boy have this attraction to something that makes you get up before daylight rambling around in foul weather? Even when we end up with nothing at the end of the day, he wants to go back. God blessed us with two wonderful daughters. We enjoyed them. But I wish I had known then what I know now. I would have enjoyed them growing up even more. June and I praise the Lord for the blessing those girls are to us. Well, this spring break I don’t know what we will do. It may not be a special trip, but we are going to “hang-out” with Nathan. You see one of the things we have learned, is that one day he will move on and spring break just won’t be what it is now. We trust that God will bless him and use him in the days ahead. Who knows, maybe in a few years we might have grandchildren to “hang-out” with during spring break. Take time to tell some family member you love them. Enjoy your spring break. |
What Parents Do
| Training our children is one of our most important tasks. The lives we impact through our ministries and careers are a legacy of those who taught us; our children’s life impact will be part of our own legacy. Our duty in this area is a whole. It is not limited to the lessons stereotypically associated with our homes. Forming a child’s character is usually the focus of Christian messages on the subject, and this is important. It is part, not the whole of what we must teach our kids. All the things our children need to know are our responsibility, whether we teach them or someone designated by us does the work. We will answer for our stewardship over our children’s education.
Well-known passages in Proverbs 22, and Deuteronomy 4 and 6 highlight our duty to teach our children the ways of the Lord. Tammi and I have always considered this to include walking and talking and discernment and reading as well as spiritual growth. The words “teach” in Deuteronomy and “train” in Proverbs render two different words in Hebrew. The first describes the impartation of knowledge, in this context the ways of the Lord. The second calls on us to show and demonstrate what our kids should be. In both words, parents superintend the work. The ways of the Lord can rightly describe an endless variety of true things. Our curriculum is thus enormously broad. Look at it another way. Our children depend on us for critical knowledge starting well before we hear our first barrage of “whys.” Almost all of what they know and know how to do comes directly from us for their first few years. It should not be a given that at six or seven years we send our children to learn from others and assume that things will turn out right. Neither common sense nor Scripture give us sound reasons to expect that will happen without our close involvement. Make a knowledgeable choice, one that takes into account the unique nature of each child. The use of the singular “child” in Pr. 22 (“train up a child?”) implies that you train each one in the way he should go, not adopt some cookie cutter solution. When we started home schooling, we had friends and family members who would often ask how long we planned to teach our children at home. They asked hopefully as if we might have repented our choice. Our answer was honest and probably disconcerting. “This year, we’ve not decided what’s best for next year yet.” That has been our practice from the beginning. One year, we had one child in private school, one in home school, and one in public school. Three appropriate solutions for three different people. At one point or another, each of our kids has tasted of each option. Understand that the choice you make, whether you make it by default or intentionally, is one you will be held accountable for. The outcome and the process must be of interest to parents. For over a decade, home schooling was our method of preference. We weren’t mad at anyone but believed the attention we could give our kids would allow them to flourish according to the gifts God had given them. Our experience tells us that the outcome more than justified the sacrifices we made in that work. Friends have had great experiences in private and public schools. The academic performance of some of these kids has compared well with that of our children–way above the norm. This is primarily because of the part, the primary part that each set of parents has played in educating their kids, not because of the method chosen or the inherent intelligence of the children. Maybe this is the secret we’ve sought for years in the face of poor performance by our nation’s students. If I hear public school teachers cry out for one thing most consistently, it is parents who care about the education of their children enough to get involved. They don’t usually ask for the things we give them instead, not more pay or smaller classes or more extensive bureaucracy above them or more guidance counselors or computers in each classroom. If this is the answer, our churches have something our nation’s families need. We must equip and encourage our families to do their spiritual duty. Churches must also assist single parent homes to do alone work that is more than enough for two. Public school teachers must also be encouraged in their work and trained to incorporate their faith into what they teach and how they relate to children and parents. It is difficult and vital work they do. Christian public school teachers are the true missionaries in our government institutions, not our children. Christian schools, if we start them, must be different and not just separate. Spiritual discernment and maturity should be a more basic qualification for Christian school teachers than an education degree. Our Christian schools must be something more than a poorly-equipped public school plus a chapel hour. The university model described in this issue is a good and effective model. We chose our current home partly to be close to such a school. Nothing this side of home schooling has invited and required parental involvement to the degree we’ve seen in the university model. Our government also has a responsibility to help or at least not hinder parents as they take the lead in educating their own children. Any kind of voucher system would arrive too late to help my family so my motives are pure when I say that this is a common sense approach that deserves broad support. Vouchers are not government support for religion but rather fair treatment for families who want to make private educational choices. Giving parents this choice with the use of their own money will result in better education for our children–the stated goal of so many failed and expensive programs already.
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University model and classical education
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The newest approaches to Christian education are some of the oldest-increased parental involvement and a return to classical education. A parent-based method known as University-Model School began a decade ago in Arlington, Texas, while the renewed emphasis on classical education comes out of Moscow, Idaho, with adherents throughout Texas. University-Model Schooling integrates desirable attributes of traditional schooling and homeschooling, emphasizing academic standards; character-driven student activities; a strong work ethic, with more time for parents and other adults to mentor their children-all at about half the cost of a traditional, private education. “The immediate goal is quality, cost-effective, college-preparatory education accomplished in a way that gives parents more time for imparting the faith and values they hold precious,” explained Southern Baptist John Turner, Jr., author of Character Driven College Preparation and the dean of character education at Grace Preparatory School in Arlington. A pastor of Southern Baptist churches since 1981, Turner received his master of divinity degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He described the ultimate goal of UMS is that of “producing wholesome, competent men and women of character who make a positive difference in the next generation.” In addition to the initial Arlington campus, UMS schools have begun in Denton, Fort Worth, Lubbock, Lucas, Marble Falls, Waxahachie and Wylie, Texas, with four other schools located in Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina and Kansas. Elementary students typically attend Tuesday and Thursday classes led by qualified professional educators, then study for those classes at home on Monday, Wednesday and Friday under the guidance and supervision of their parents. When the students reach seventh grade, the class schedule shifts to Monday, Wednesday and Friday and study is completed at home on Tuesday and Thursday.As children progress through the grades, the role of the parent changes from that of a primary teacher to a co-instructor, and study guide. In athletics and fine arts, the parent serves as a coach or active supporter. The test school for the university model, Grace Preparatory Academy in Arlington, has grown from its original 186 students to over 635 in 10 years. Hundreds more are on a waiting list to be admitted. The majority of those graduating receive college scholarship offers. “Some students take only one or two classes a semester and receive the rest of their instruction at home,” Turner said. “Others take a full load of five or six courses a semester and will graduate with a diploma that is commanding greater and greater respect among the nation’s universities because of the college-simulated training it represents.” Turner believes all approaches to education are strengthened when parents are meaningfully involved, but he is quick to say that the university model absolutely depends upon such participation. “To lay the responsibility for America’s educational crisis only on the schools is to fail to understand the issues,” Turner said. “Even in the best of school situations, teachers and administrators must work with children who are products of home environments that both precede them and extend beyond their scopes of supervision. Parents are the ones responsible for preparing their children to show, at the very least, reasonable respect for authority and basic consideration of others so that, once in school their instruction can be accomplished in an ordered environment conducive to learning.” Because schools reflect homes, Turner finds, “University Model schools are accessing the most powerful known single influence for reforming education in America-meaningfully involved parents.” Proposed solutions to America’s educational problems typically recommend more time in class, removing students even further from the teachers they need most, Turner said, referring to parents. “University-Model schools are not only empowering and ’employing’ parents in their teaching paradigm, they are also demonstrating the positive differences made when parents know that they are built into the learning process-needed, wanted and expected.” Another crusader for an educational reformation is Douglas Wilson, one of the founders of Logos School in Idaho. In order to be Christ-centered, Christian education must be more than a baptized secularism, Wilson said in Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. Wilson observed the way life in the western world, including the theological and intellectual history, laws and social customs have grown out of the heritage of the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. As the gospel spread thoughout the ancient classical world, the early Christians developed a teaching method which revolved around what were called the Seven Liberal Arts, he explains. The first three of these Seven Liberal Arts were called the Trivium and comprised the means by which students were given the “tools of learning.” Adoption of the Trivium as a method of instruction is essential to the formation of a classical school. The first part, grammar, concerns the particulars of any given subject. Logic is the second and deals with the reasoning which ties all the various particulars together. Rhetoric is then used to teach the students how to express what they have learned in a polished and effective way. The Trivium is a teaching model that seeks to tailor the curriculum subject matter to a child’s cognitive development. Concrete thinking and memorization of the facts of the subjects is the focus of elementary school, analytical thinking and understanding of the subjects begins in middle school while abstract thinking and articulation of the subjects is emphasized in high school. Classical Christian education is also characterized by exposure to the history, art and culture of Western Civilization, including Latin and Greek, reading of the Great Books of Western Civilization and the Christian tradition through the study of philosophy and literature and the development of a biblical worldview with “theology in its proper place as the Queen of the Sciences.” “From the chanting grammar of the elementary students, to the logic class in junior high, to the inventive rhetoric and study of literature by the high school students, the various stages of the Trivium are thoughtfully lined up with the abilities and desires of the students,” Wilson explained.
AQUILLA, Texas — Texas Baptist Men will have an “ongoing dialogue and relationship building commitment” with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention following a unanimous vote of TBM board members Feb. 15 at Latham Springs Baptist Encampment near Aquilla. The request for a new fraternal relationship will be considered by the SBTC’s executive board on April 3. If approved, Texas Baptist Men will become one of the many avenues available for the 1,258 SBTC churches to be active in missions initiatives. |
