ARLINGTON?More than 1,000 people attended the Conference of Texas Baptist Evangelists (COTBE) meeting Feb. 9, hearing challenges from conference preachers Bill Britt, Bruce Northam and Johnny Hunt to answer Christ’s radical call and to trust God as their power source.

The COTBE meeting, which preceded the emPOWER Conference of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention at the Arlington Convention Center, included music from the Randy Fair Family, Don Thornton and Jim Holcombe.

Britt, an evangelist from Mesquite, said God is calling Christians not to be cool or popular but to be soul winners who answer the “radical call of Christ.”

Citing German preacher Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s statement that when God calls a man, “he bids him come and die,” Britt said “when you get saved, you quit being the big shot. You become the little shot and God calls all the shots.”

Britt noted that when Saul of Tarsus was converted, he was a terrorizer of the church intent on stopping it, but he relinquished his plans for God’s plan.

Houston evangelist Bruce Northam told the audience the believer’s power is in God alone. Preaching from 2 Kings 2, Northam noted that when Elisha assumed Elijah’s mantle of power, Elisha asked, “Where is the God of Elijah?”

His was more than a question; it was a quest, Northam said. “The God of Elijah is what Elisha sought,” not just his mantle.

“With him all things flourish and without him nothing will work.” Northam noted “the same God is with us as was with Elisha, the same God as was with Peter and Paul.

“The power is where it used to be. The power is where it’s always been, not in the mantle, but in the God of Elijah.”

Johnny Hunt, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga., preached from 1 Kings 17, emphasizing the importance of being “there” in God’s will, whether showing one’s face before God or hiding in God.

“There’s no place like being there (in God’s will),” Hunt said, noting his first “there” was his first church pastorate in South Carolina. “If you are there, let the blessed storms come. Nothing will keep you there like knowing you are there.”

Hunt said his second there was moving to First Baptist Church of Woodstock during a church split; the church was a laughing stock in the community and others couldn’t understand why he’d take that pastorate, he said.

“But I was there.”

Hunt said there are times God leads believers into the desert to hide you in preparation.

“When God hides you he’s preparing you. If you show up before he’s finished preparing you,” you will fail, he said.

Some churches are full of dry bones, but “if you preach faithfully to these bones, sooner of later the winds of God will blow.”

Too often, “When the brook dries up, we start sending out resumes.” Stay on mission until God moves you, Hunt warned.

Hunt noted God met Elijah’s needs through a brook, birds and a widow. “When God calls you somewhere, he’s preparing someone to meet you there.”

“God is looking for people who will allow him to be himself in them. ? Are you there?”

Betty Moni, music evangelist from San Antonio, said she assumed she had to be a “super Christian” until the burden got so heavy so could no longer hold it up. She said she was so discouraged she prayed, “If this is all there is, take me home.”

During a Bible conference, God impressed on her through a sermon Ephesians 5:18’s command to be “filled with the spirit.”

“God forgives and he heals and he teaches us through our failures.”

Moni said her grandson taught her a profound lesson one day when she asked the little boy how he was able to get the basketball high enough to make it in the hoop.

“I’m little but my Daddy is big,” her grandson explained, “and he will lift me up and make me stronger.”

Inauguaral event draws near-capacity crowd to Arlington

ARLINGTON?Strive to know God intimately. Seek his agenda. Let him empower you.

Those themes dominated messages preached during the inaugural emPOWER Conference of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, which drew near-capacity crowds Feb. 9-10 to the Arlington Convention Center to hear preachers such as Henry Blackaby, noted vocalist Larnelle Harris and others.

emPOWER, formerly the State Evangelism Conference, drew an evening high attendance of 1,400 and day crowds of around 750 for two days of preaching, music and celebration of Southern Baptist missions work.

The conference, preceded by Monday’s Conference of Texas Baptist Evangelists (COTBE) meeting, included a Tuesday Cooperative Program Luncheon hosted by the SBTC that drew more than 600 people and featured International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin.

Another notable event was the presentation of the W.A. Criswell Lifetime Achievement Award for Pastoral Evangelism to Stan Coffey, pastor of San Jacinto Baptist Church in Amarillo and one of the leaders in the founding of the SBTC.

Blackaby, best known as the author of the “Experiencing God” Bible study, preached in two sessions, explaining God’s empowerment of his servants using Zechariah and Mary as examples and reminding those attending that the same power that raised Christ is available to believers to conquer sin and do God’s will.

Blackaby noted God’s enabling power is in the one he chooses, which includes every believer, for his specific purposes. He noted that in Luke 1 God sent the angel Gabriel to Zechariah and Mary, but has sent the Holy Spirit as a messenger to believers.

Luke 1:35 records Gabriel announcing to Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Almighty will overshadow her. Blackaby noted Luke 1:37 says nothing is impossible with God; Mary’s faithful response is recorded in Luke 1:40.

“What God assigns is more than you deserve and more than you can handle,” Blackaby said. But nothing is impossible with God, he said.

“Ask God, ‘What are you doing? What’s on your heart?'”

Blackaby said like Mary, Christians can have the “power of the highest order to overshadow” them. “In your ministry, are you living in the power of the highest overshadowing you?”

Like the creation in the beginning with God’s spirit hovering or brooding over it, “the power of the highest will literally brood over you,” Blackaby proclaimed.

“Don’t ever ask God to use you if you’re not ready for him to do it,” he said, recounting an example of God using a church he led in California to reach gang members who were threatening the nearby community. “He can bring harmony to a community when he broods over a community like he did at creation.”

Blackaby exhorted the conference to not only believe with the head but trust with the heart that God’s resurrection power is available to every Christian for accomplishing his purposes.

The conference also featured noted layman and motivator Zig Ziglar, a member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.

Ziglar told how he became a Christian in 1972 because of the stubborn witness of an elderly black woman and then was warned by friends his speaking career was over if he intended to talk about his faith on the podium. Ziglar said he has not solicited a speaking engagement in 32 years and that the Bible revolutionized his public speaking.

In 2002, Ziglar related how he nearly died after losing six pints of blood; he believes an angel visited him during his bout, hand gesturing to indicate he would continue living for awhile.

“I have a sense of urgency now that I didn’t have when I was first saved,” he said, adding that he is more overt about his faith than before.

Ziglar said “preachers will not win this war” of a decaying culture. “We’ve got to take (the gospel) to the marketplace” and show a distinction between Christianity and all other ideas.

“We’re the only Bible some people read. ? What we say and what we do is so important.”

The conference honored baptism leaders among SBTC churches. In percentage of baptisms to Sunday School enrollees, New Life Complete in Christ Baptist Church in Fort Worth led with a 1

ARLINGTON?More than 600 people attended a luncheon Feb. 10 hosted by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to honor its top giving churches and to celebrate Southern Baptist missions.

The Cooperative Program Luncheon?held during the emPOWER Conference in Arlington?exceeded attendance projections, SBTC officials said.

Prior to keynote speaker Jerry Rankin’s address, Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, told how his congregation committed to giving more to missions while embarking on a $44 million facilities upgrade.

“God has invited Southern Baptists to be part of his mission-sending program,” said Brunson, whose daughter serves Southern Baptists abroad. “He has given Southern Baptists the premier missions giving and sending program” in the CP.

Brunson said many churches believe more CP giving reduces available funds for church ministry, but the opposite is true, he said.

Not only is the church giving monetarily, more people are surrendering to ministry, including Brunson’s youngest such encounter, a 13-year-old, and the oldest, a 77-year-old man who believes he’s being called to ministry.

“I told him, ‘I don’t know quite what to do with you, but God does and we’ll work at it together.'”

First Baptist, Dallas, gave a record $1.2 million through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. Brunson presented the check for that offering to SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards at the luncheon. State conventions typically administer missions offering gifts, 100 percent of which goes to the mission board for funding.

Rankin, president of the International Mission Board, a former missionary and a Southwestern Seminary graduate, said he is grateful for the faithful missions giving of Southern Baptists of Texas churches.

He told of joining the heads of other evangelical missions groups for a retreat and hearing one leader tell of his organization’s 30 percent attrition rate for missionaries because they could not raise enough support to sustain themselves once on the field.

He said he was almost embarrassed because Southern Baptists were experiencing their eighth straight year of missions giving gains.

“God continues to bless that vision” of the Cooperative Program, begun in 1925.

Even with gains however, Southern Baptist giving has not kept pace with unprecedented numbers of mission field volunteers, Rankin said.

Last year, Southern Baptist missionaries saw nearly 500,000 people baptized, started 16,000 new churches and began working among 192 new people groups, 140 of which heard the gospel for the first time, Rankin said.

“God’s mission will be fulfilled. The only question is, ‘Will we be faithful to participate?'”

Like the contemporaries of Caleb who were afraid to go up against the inhabitants of Canaan as recorded in Numbers 13:31, “We’re overwhelmed by the lostness” and other worldviews that are the antithesis of the gospel.

Such overwhelming lostness can be found in cities such as Jakarta, Indonesia, with 12 million people, Mexico City with 19 million and the megacities of China. “We are prone to say, ‘Lord, it’s too much.'”

Caleb, unlike his contemporaries, believed Israel could prevail, Rankin noted.

“Caleb saw them, but he saw them through the eyes of God.”

God was faithful to Caleb because Caleb had a spirit to follow God fully, Rankin said.

The churches that follow fully “are the churches that God is blessing in their ministries and outreach,” Rankin said.

The following churches were honored for missions giving through the Cooperative Program, in categories of total dollars and per capita giving.

Per capita giving leaders were:

1. Little Cypress Baptist Church, Orange.

2. Leavell Baptist Church, Beaumont.

The East Texas Church Leadership Training Conference is scheduled March 13 at Hillcrest Baptist Church in Jasper.

Sponsored by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in partnership with the Sabine-Neches Area Association, the conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 3:15 p.m..

It will feature a special pastor’s session and pastor’s wives’ session featuring LifeWay Christian Resources President James Draper and his wife, Carol Ann, at the respective events.

Other areas addressed will be deacon ministry, church growth, stewardship, women’s ministry, senior adult ministry, collegiate, youth and children’s ministry and more.

Early registration is $8 and due Feb. 25. Regular registration is $10. For more information call Georgette at the SBTC offices, 972-953-0878 or e-mail georgettel@sbtexas.com. For location information, call Bill Gardner at 409-384-3371.

ARLINGTON?We are living in an age of opinion in which Christians must boldly proclaim truth, Ergun Caner told the attendees at the emPOWER Conference, sponsored by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, Feb. 10.

Caner is an associate professor of theology and history at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He told the audience Christians are called upon, now more than ever, to provoke our culture.

Caner should know a little about provoking a culture. He was born into a Muslim family. His father was a mwazien, similar to a preacher in the Christian faith. When Caner was 16, he attended a Christian revival meeting, was saved, then ridiculed and beaten by his classmates and rejected by his father.

He endured, however, and has written books and speaks about Islam extensively throughout the United States.

Caner said our culture is chock full of protests. Every day hours of talk show guests spouting opinions permeate broadcast airwaves.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we don’t live in the age of technology; we live in the age of opinion, the flea market of ideas,” Caner said.

Caner reminded the group of more fiery days of pulpiteering when Christian pastors would demonstratively preach about the truths of Scripture.

“We [the church] now lecture and the shouting is taking place in the streets. Those that have opinions are taking it outside the church walls. It’s almost as if we have more prophets outside the church walls than inside.”

“Where, in the midst of the flea market of ideas, is the church? We have been tried and found wanting. We have been silenced,” Caner said.

There seems to be an all out attack on the church from the culture today, Caner said. The church is the only group that is socially acceptable to mock while speaking of homosexuality negatively is stigmatized.

“The church has been shoved into the closet from which the gays sprang.”

During his sermon, Caner spoke from 1 Corinthians 2, where Paul proclaimed, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Paul wanted the Corinthians to know there was nothing special about him, but something very special about his savior, Caner said.

First, for the church to confront the culture, it has to do so with an anchored faith. “It’s not about us, it’s about Jesus,” Caner said.

There was a time when the church viewed most things about the culture as wrong?sin. He said the church has allowed culture to turn the argument around. The culture begins pointing an accusatory finger at what it deems as hypocrisy in the church. However, Caner points out that the culture is also guilty of hypocrisy. Caner said we have to tell them, “I’m not perfect but I am redeemed.”

Also, the church tries to alter its approach to appease the accusing crowd, Caner lamented. “It’s not about your method. It’s about Jesus. It’s not about developing methods to get people to come to your church. More people are busy building crowds than they are building churches.”

“Methods without a message are meaningless,” Caner said.

“I started this week by being called a narrow-minded bigot,” Caner said, speaking of an interview where he spoke negatively about Islam. An interviewer asked Caner if he truly believed Muslims were bound for hell.

“I said, ‘Look you don’t have an argument with me. The book says there is no other name above Jesus by which a man can be saved,'” Caner said, quoting from Acts 4.

Second, Caner said the church must have an authentic faith. Paul told the Corinthians, “I came to you with weakness, with trembling, with fear.”

Caner said the church today needs to be “transparent” when witnessing. We have to show them we are humans, but that we serve a Christ that was both God and man.

Third, if the church is going to reach the culture, Caner said, “We’re going to have to do it with an audacious faith.”

“He has not called us to spiritual lethargy. He can do the amazing through us if we will just let him,” Caner said.

Not long ago, a Southern Baptist traveling the country could visit any Southern Baptist church and find many similarities to his congregation back home. From the Sunday School quarterlies to the hymns, there would be enough common ground to make him comfortable worshipping with another body of believers.

But Southern Baptist churches have become more diverse. Worship styles, facilities, staff roles and the involvement of members give each church a unique identity. Still, bedrock beliefs are fairly stable. Doctrinal convictions drawn from a New Testament model form Southern Baptists’ view of ecclesiology–the study of the church, its structure, order, practices and interrelationships.

When the Southern Baptist Convention formed in 1845, its view of the church was solidly “separatistic and distinctively Baptist,” according to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Thomas Nettles. In “An Historical Perspective of Southern Baptists: 1975 – Present: A Trust Re-established,” a study commissioned by a taskforce of the North American Mission Board, Nettles described the early Southern Baptist churches.

“Regenerate persons, baptized by immersion upon profession of their faith in Christ as their only hope constituted the material for church membership. Forgiveness, righteousness, holiness, and eternal life issued from Christ’s perfect obedience. Members expected to be disciplined by the body to which they belonged,” Nettles added.

Often, when describing the Southern Baptist churches, missionaries and church planters naturally veer toward a discussion of the purposes of a local church–featuring elements such as evangelism, ministry, worship, fellowship and prayer. Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren prescribes balancing all five elements to maintain church health. Many Southern Baptist congregations have embraced Warren’s perspective, finding his approach helpful in renewing and starting churches.

Before determining if a church is accomplishing the purposes of God, SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards said Southern Baptist churches should determine who they are as a people of God. “I think it’s more important for us to settle the issue of who we are rather than what we do. Who we are dictates what we do.”

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary theology professor Malcolm Yarnell told the TEXAN that the covenant of a Baptist church serves as a common confession. “The covenant outlines the authority for and purpose of the church. The confession outlines the doctrines that the church maintains.” While a constitution and bylaws are important in a local church, Yarnell said the covenant and confession are the most important.

A New Testament church definition is dependent upon doctrinal reality, Richards added. “It’s who we are that makes us a New Testament church.” He described the faith of which a Christian testifies as “salvation by grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone.” Richards added, “For a church to preach salvation by grace and keep it by works, that in my understanding would disqualify their congregation as a New Testament church. “That is not to say that they are not in the family. There is a difference between the family of God and the church of God.” Combined with that explanation of salvation, Richards said four other beliefs comprise the irreducible doctrinal characteristics of a New Testament church. Included are:

>baptism by immersion of believers only,

>the Lord’s Supper as not sacramental,

>a theodemocracy that rejects a hierarchical form of government, and

>the Bible as the final rule of faith and practice.

“If we are who we are supposed to be then we will accomplish the purposes of the church,” Richards concluded. “By using the five qualifiers for a New Testament church you can go back through history and find in the third through 15th centuries groups of people who banded together and formed a New Testament church as described in the Baptist Faith and Message. They were not called Baptists. I don’t think it’s essential to have Baptist over the door for it to be a New Testament church. There are many evangelical churches that meet these qualifications that are not called Baptists.”

Nettles and co-author Russell Moore, also a Southern Seminary professor, published “Why I Am A Baptist” several years ago, concerned that Southern Baptists need to recover an understanding of their roots. “Biblical authority and theology drove Baptists from the first,” Nettles said, adding that Baptist ecclesiology and Baptist concepts of confessions are worthy of study.

“If we do not recover a sense of Baptist identity, there will not be a Southern Baptist Convention to greet the 22nd century,” Moore said. Two conferences offered in February and March reveal renewed interest in the subject as New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary offers “Issues in Baptist Polity” (www.baptistcenter.com) and Union University address “Baptist Identity” (www.uu.edu).

Yarnell said a church planter should understand Southern Baptist priorities and convictions and intentionally set out to propagate them through the witness of his own life and through the foundational documents of the church.  To that end, NAMB is using the Nettles paper as a resource for church planters in reviewing the historical context Southern Baptists use to plant churches.

Nettles wrote, “The doctrine of the church separates Baptist evangelicals from other evangelicals.  Baptists have historically contended that their view of the church expresses more consistently the biblical gospel than those groups that included baptism of infants as part of their church life.”

Baptist ecclesiology builds on a consistent application of core doctrines, Nettles said.  Included in his list are:  the Lordship of Christ; the total depravity of all individuals born of the seed of Adam; the necessity of the new birth; the acceptability of the sinner only through justification by faith; the new covenant as the manifestation of the mode by which God always had saved sinners; Christ as the one who by his death effects the provisions of that covenant of redemption; and the work of the Spirit as the means by which his people are known to the world.  Nettles added that the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 affirms all these distinctives clearly and concisely.

When the Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee presented a revised statement of faith in 2000, chairman Adrian Rogers cautioned against misunderstanding Baptist polity, noting the convention’s affirmation of the BF&M is not binding on local churches.  “We don’t have the right, the authority or the power to limit anybody.  We would resist that.  What we are stating is what we believe mainstream Baptists believe.”

Each phrase in the BF&M article on the church clarifies a particular doctrinal belief and practice.

AUTONOMOUS LOCAL CONGREGATION

The BF&M leads with an affirmation of local church autonomy.  The reorganization of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1995 refocused the importance of the local church as the denomination’s headquarters.  While associations, state conventions and SBC entities exist to assist local churches, every one of the more than 42,000 Southern Baptist congregations is directed by its own members.  Each church decides its involvement at other levels of Southern Baptist life.  Assignments for many of the SBC entities have been revised to focus on “assisting local churches.”

“The local church is the cutting edge of everything we do,” NAMB President Robert Reccord stated.  “It’s not the denominational structure, but the local church that God has placed at the center of everything he is doing.”

Several leaders of the conservative resurgence in the SBC have observed that a denomination’s reformation could not have occurred among many of the mainline denominations because of their ecclesiology.  “Their ecclesiastical systems rendered it ultimately impossible for them to effect a lasting return to the faith of their fathers,” wrote Paige Patterson in a chapter of “Why I Am A Baptist.”  “Because Baptists rejected all forms of connectionalism, and Baptist churches, associations, state conventions and national conventions are independent, autonomous entities, the people in the churches fid it possible, though not easy, to rise up and say, ‘We do not approve of the direction that our denomination is going, and we want this corrected.'”

Essayist and pastor Mark Coppenger applied the same argument in a discussion with members of the conservative, evangelical wing of the Anglican Church who were appalled at the nomination of a homosexual as bishop of Reading.  “My British friends had heard of the Southern Baptist ‘conservative resurgence,’ and they wanted to know how it happened.  How could a large denomination replace leaders willing to accommodate and defend professors and staff who questioned the miracle accounts, preached the finite God of process theology, advocated abortion, disparaged male pronouns for God, and flirted with universalism?  As I tried to retrace the steps, I felt more and more helpless.  I finally had to say (with a smile) that they needed to start by becoming Baptist.”

In his column for Baptist Press, Coppenger explained, “As long as the Bible is read and preached in the churches, the people will keep their leaders honest.  They don’t have to catch the attention of a liberal or secular prime minister to make a change.  They just have to load up a van and head for the convention center.  It’s so Baptist.”

 BAPTIZED BELIEVERS

The most obvious characteristic of Southern Baptist churches is their expectation that candidates for membership first profess their faith and be baptized.  The biblical word for baptism indicates immersion as the proper mode.

“Baptism is no mere custom started by ancient church leaders, then passed down from generation to generation as an encrusted ecclesiastical tradition or meaningless religious ritual,” wrote Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Don Whitney in “Spiritual Disciplines Within th eChurch.”  Ordained by Jesus Christ himself, the practice of the ordinance symbolizes washing away of sin.  The death, burial and resurrection of the Lord are represented by lowering the believer into the water and raising him to a new life.

Only a believer in Jesus Christ should be baptized.  “A Baptist is an individual who has experienced salvation through personal faith in Jesus Christ,” stated James T. Draper, president of LifeWay Christian Resources.  In an essay for “Why I Am A Baptist,” Draper reminded, “Baptist do not believe in proxy faith, where a priest or any other person mediates between the individual and God.  Every individual must come to the time in life when he or she receives Jesus Christ as personal Savior.”

ASSOCIATED BY COVENANT IN THE FAITH AND FELLOWSHIP OF THE GOSPEL

One way to preserve a regenerate church membership is by using a church covenant that sets behavior standards.  “Faithful commitment to the contents of a biblically-based covenant can constructively influence the creation and maintenance of a disciplined church membership,” argued Charles W. DeWeese in his study titled “Baptist Church Covenants.”

According to Gregory Wills, Southern Seminary church history professor, this implies agreement to maintain the discipline by which Christ intended the preservation of fellowship.  In an article for SBTS’ journal, Wills said, “The discipline includes admitting those only who credibly profess faith in Christ; correcting, warning and rebuking those who stray from truth or righteousness; excluding those who refuse the church’s loving entreaties to return to the path of truth and righteousness; and restoring the repentant to fellowship.”

While many churches include a covenant statement in their founding documents, few make actual use of it.  DeWeese described it as “a series of written pledges based on the Bible which church members voluntarily make to God and to one another regarding their basic moral and spiritual commitments and the practice of their faith.”  A covenant focuses on Christian conduct, he explained, what a confession of faith centers more heavily on beliefs.

In a study of 300 Southern Baptist congregations aimed at understanding the best way to retain church members, Thom S. Rainer determined successful churches expect more of their members.  The dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Seminary discovered that less than seven percent of churches required the signing of a covenant for membership.  However, those churches that used a covenant actively had an attendance virtually equal to their membership, effectively closing the back door.

Also noting the value of a new-member class, Rainer reported more that 63 percent of churches used the church covenant in the class.  “Membership in the high-assimilation churches in our study truly means something,” Rainer wrote in “High Expectations.”  “Indeed, the members are expected to live and minister in a way that is consistent with New Testament precepts.  They are expected to attend worship and Sunday School regularly, to adhere to doctrine, to be involved in ministry, to attend new member classes and, if they are new Christians, to be discipled one-on-one, as well as to give a public testimony of their salvation.”

Yarnell said Baptists form churches based on a covenant, building on an ecclesiological understanding of Matt. 18:20.  “When we intentionally gather together in Christ’s name, he brings to us his presence and his power that is seen in his threefold office of prophet, priest, and king.  By virtue of this threefold office of Christ, Christians gathered in covenant have the authority to preach, to pray, and to govern themselves under the authority of Christ.”

OBSERVING THE TWO ORDINANCES OF CHRIST

Southern Baptists set themselves apart from many mainline denominations by limiting the practice of ordinances to the only two ordained by Jesus himself–baptism as the initial identification with Christ and the Lord’s Supper as an ongoing remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.  While some faith groups include other rites passed down by church tradition, Southern Baptists reveal their dependence on the Bible to determine which ceremonies they should practice.

Southern Baptists make it clear that neither ordinance conveys salvation to the participant.  “I’ve known people who wanted to be baptized again and again, or who tried to take the Lord’s Supper as often as possible because they were convinced that such efforts would surely win God’s favor,” Whitney observed.  Only through repentance and faith does an individual become a Christian, he noted.

Not all Baptists remain committed to immersion as the mode of baptism.  In the closing chapter of “Why I Am A Baptist,” Moore related how some moderate Baptists are calling for “A new sacerdotal understanding of baptism that is a marked departure from the Baptist distinctives they once championed.”  He referred to moderate newspaper Baptists Today advocating acceptance of those christened as infants into the membership of Baptist churches “for the sake of ecumenical cooperation.”

GOVERNED BY HIS LAWS EXERCISING THE GIFTS, RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES INVESTED IN THEM BY HIS WORD

No change has ever been made to this portion of the BF&M article on the church, emphasizing the responsibility believers have to minister according to God’s guidance.

“Whatever your gift, God gave it to you for you to use in His service.  And the result of serving Him with your gift is glory to God,” Whitney explained.

SEEKING TO EXTEND THE GOSPEL TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

In this phrase Southern Baptist declare their missionary passion.  The vision of the International Mission Board is “to lead Southern Baptists to be on mission with God to bring all the peoples of the world to saving faith in Jesus Christ.”

Yarnell and Richards warned against an incomplete pursuit of the Great Commission.  “Christians that evangelize but do not seek to incorporate converts into a local church through baptism and continuing discipleship ar not engaging in Great Commission evangelism,” Yarnell said the last two reveal the ecclesiological nature of evangelism.

“Great Commission evangelism demands incorporation into a local church through baptizing,” he stated, adding that Baptists historically understood that believer’s baptism is the door into the church.  The reference to teaching implies continuing life in a local church, he explained.  “The most orthodox teaching occurs not on an ad hoc basis, but within the ongoing life of the local church under the leadership of a God-called and congregationally-ordained pastor.”

Yarnell expressed concern that some southern Baptist missionaries hesitate to encourage the formation of a visible Christian congregation.  “For instance, I have seen one too many pictures of Muslims converted to Christianity who have not formed Baptist churches and still pray like Muslims.”  Missionaries with whom he spoke feared the prospect of persecution in the culture where new Muslim converts live.  “My rejoinder is that such Nicodemite Christians may be worshipping in spirit, but if they are not visibly congregated as Christians, they are not being truthful.  Perhaps our seminaries have not been as adept at putting out Baptist church planters as we shoul have been.”

Richards appreciated the urgency of the mission task, while warning against practicing “a truncated Great Commission” by failing to incorporate new converts doctrinally.  “Winning converts is really different from making disciples.  You have to change some of the meaning of the words to say[we must] win converts and baptize, but never teach them everything Jesus said we were to teach them.”

OPERATES UNDER LORDSHIP OF CHRIST THROUGH DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES

Former SBC President James Sullivan distinguished between a pure democracy and theodemocracy in the practices of Southern Baptist churches.  “Theodemocracy operates in a different spirit and manner, and it seeks answers which it feels are God’s solutions to the problems, rather than advancing personal opinions.”  By ascertaining divine purposes over personal prejudices, Sullivan added that a theodemocracy produces calmer business meetings and more correct and permanent answers.

EACH MEMBER IS RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE TO CHRIST AS LORD

The BF&M study committee regarded soul competency–each person is ultimately accountable to God and able to discern biblical truth–in light of Baptist theologian E.Y. Mullins’ clarification that it is “a competency under God, not a competency in the sense of human self-sufficiency.”

SCRIPTURAL OFFICERS ARE PASTORS AND DEACONS.  BOTH MEN AND WOMEN ARE GIFTED FOR SERVICE.  THE OFFICE OF PASTOR IS LIMITED TO MEN AS QUALIFIED BY SCRIPTURE

This section of the BF&M attracted the most media attention in 2000.  “The Bible is clear in presenting the office of pastor as restricted to men,” stated Rogers.  With far less than one percent of SBC churches having ever called a woman as pastor, Rogers said Southern Baptists are united in this conviction.  Although the office of deacon is mentioned in the BF&M, the committee did not choose to identify the role of an elder as the 1925 FG&M did.  (See related article on elders and deacons on page 9.)

While deacons are vital to the operation of a church, Sullivan emphasized in his book “Baptist Polity” that Scripture designates deacons as servants, not as legislators or administrators.

Yarnell noted that a church becomes a church when it is convenantly gathered in Christ.  Electing and appointing biblical officers helps the church toward completeness.  “Without a pastor, the church may be a church, but it will be anemic and in danger of ultimate dissolution.”  He quoted 17th century Baptist father Benjamin Keach in his book “The Glory of a True Church,” as stating, “‘Therefore such are very disorderly Churches who have no Pastor or Pastors ordained, they acting not according to the Rule of the Gospel, having something wanting.'”

THE CHURCH AS THE BODY OF CHRIST INCLUDES ALL REDEEMED OF ALL AGES, BELIEVERS FROM EVERY TRIBE, AND TONGUE, AND PEOPLE, AND NATION

The language of the 1963 BF&M regarding the universal church was retained in the 2000 revision.  Rogers explained the reaffirmation of the New Testament heritage of Baptist congregationalism expressed in the 1925 BF&M while affirming the contribution of the 1963 statement.

It is in its role as reflector of the wisdom, power, and grace of God that Nettles finds the church’s preeminent function in the proclamation, defense and confirmation of the gospel.  “Of great consequence, therefore, to both pastor and people, is the determination that they agree on the content of the message that largely will give shape to their lives together and their mutual efforts to glorify God.”

Reflecting on my public school education, two subjects have provided me the most practical help?typing and debate. The typing reference is obvious to anyone who depends on a keyboard for most of what they do. Debate taught me research, logic, analysis and organization. Tournament competition taught teamwork, overcoming stage fright and flexibility, all of which I’ve used as a minister’s wife in church and denominational settings.

So the report of a California Baptist University debate team refusing to defend partial-birth abortion (see story above) caught my attention. The team wanted tournament judges to know they did not believe in the awful medical procedure that destroys a partially-delivered baby.

I couldn’t agree more with their depiction of this form of abortion. I applaud them for their commitment to be salt and light in a world that needs the answers only God can give. I don’t question if each debater made the right decision according to his conscience. It is not, however, the only decision a Christian could make in such circumstances.

I was a little younger than these college students when I first encountered the abortion debate. A few years before the Roe v. Wade case, I had no idea or even interest in understanding why any woman would seek an abortion?until a friend made that decision. Those were days when the “health of the mother” argument allowed a young, unmarried girl a way around the law. Desperate to try and stop her from taking a life, I became more informed on the subject and sought counsel from my pastor. Neither of us could convince her to halt an abortion that her parents and boyfriend’s family hastily encouraged. Nor did I convince her to consider Jesus’ claims for her own life, praying he would turn her life around.

I can’t second guess what might have changed her mind, but the experience convinced me to learn and prepare to face moral decisions from a Christian perspective.

Upholding a Christian perspective in an increasingly anti-Christian world requires understanding the issues. Every time a debate topic was assigned, our first response was to speculate if the affirmative or negative position would be easier to advance. When opposition to the Vietnam conflict was growing, we worried about defending a resolution on the military industrial complex. That forced us into a research mode that produced compelling arguments we had never considered.

A person who holds a Christian worldview may have little motivation to explore the arguments for partial-birth abortion. A biblically-based regard for the sanctity of life negates what defenders of the procedure can offer. That is because our conviction regarding God as the author of life is more important than temporal values of man. Whatever the circumstances, the partial delivery of a baby to expedite its death is immoral and repugnant.

Abortion clinic sidewalk counselors often captivate pregnant mothers with images revealing the amazing design of a tiny fetus in the womb. All the rationalizations that bolstered her confidence in seeking abortion sometimes collapse when she looks at her decision from the perspective of the child growing within her.

In arguing against partial-birth abortion, it helps to be thoroughly familiar with the arguments for it. Then you can better relate to the person with whom you’re debating and possibly convince her to consider the value of pre-born babies.

I don’t insist that Christian debaters violate their consciences. And yet, even what the California students described as an extreme topic might have stretched them to consider why defenders of this murderous procedure believe it is acceptable. Who knows? Perhaps the debate judge and debaters would have their eyes opened to some light shed on a dark subject.

Debate team forfeits instead of defending partial-birth abortion
By: Kelli Cottrell

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (BP)–Four California Baptist University students chose to forfeit the chance to win a debate tournament rather than argue that the Supreme Court should reverse a ban on partial-birth abortion.

“We wanted them [the judges] to know firmly that we did not believe in partial-birth abortion,” said Mary Pryfogle, 20, captain of the CBU team. “It’s not like theater where you role play and distance yourself from your morals. … We’ve debated other moral issues that were not as heavy, but Scripture is very clear on this.”

Several members of other debate teams and one of the judges congratulated the CBU students for their stance.

“We are Christians first and debaters second,” said team member Wendeth Matyas, 26. “This is a ministry for us. I’m proud that our coach [Mike Marsh] supported our decision on this.”

Matt Taylor, coach of the host California State Long Beach debate team, drew from current events in framing the topic on partial-birth abortion as one of the tournament’s topics, he said in an e-mail to Baptist Press.

“I always like to see people stand up for their principles,” he wrote. “In this case, I wish the debaters could have seen a way to debate and maintain true to their faith. … Students from Pt. Loma [Nazarene], Azusa Pacific [University] and the Christian members of my own team were able to role play without sacrificing their faith.”

Taylor said he had never seen anyone forfeit a debate before.

“I do not remember a time when debaters refused to debate,” said Taylor, who teaches debate and coaches the CSULB team.

The tournament drew participants from several private Christian colleges as well as secular universities last December.

CBU’s two-member senior team and two-member novice team forfeited their matches when they would have had to argue why the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn the ban on partial-birth abortion approved last year by the Senate and House of Representatives and signed by President Bush. Under the procedure, a physician punctures the skull and vacuums out the brain of a partially delivered baby, usually in the second or third term of a pregnancy.

“We thought, surely, this is not what they are asking us to defend,” said Matyas, Pryfogle’s teammate and a speech major. “We went back to discuss how we could rearrange the topic to find a way to debate it. But there is no good in killing four- to nine-month-old babies.”

Marsh, a CBU graduate and former debater who is a teaching assistant at California State University at San Bernadino, said, “The students came to me and said they couldn’t do it.

“It was a pretty extreme topic. I haven’t seen this [forfeiting] done before, but I try to instill education rather than the winning aspect. I was supportive of their decision.”

CBU team members appreciated their coach’s support in refusing to debate. “We are so proud to be a part of this team,” said Marina Fanning, 19, a CBU sophomore. “Some other coaches would have said they need to have the win.”

The students wrote a paragraph to the judges telling them, “We feel this resolution reflects intolerance and the tremendous lack of respect for those who have chosen a religious point of view.”

“It was very admirable,” said John Pate, chairman of the CBU communication department. “They had other students coming up to them all day long telling them they did a good job. There was a win within a loss. More people noticed their stand for losing rather than winning. It stuck with students all day long.”

And word spread across the nation as Focus on the Family Radio reported the story before Christmas.

Not everyone was happy at their decision.

Thomas Gerstheimer and Fanning, the novice team, were surprised and a little disappointed at their judges’ reaction.

“Our judge, who was from a Christian college, was shocked,” said Gerstheimer, 19, a CBU sophomore. “She asked us twice if we were sure we didn’t want to debate it.”

The judge, who Gerstheimer would not name, compared the decision to her teaching the educational benefits of the grocery strike when she didn’t believe in it.

“She wanted us to debate it,” said Gerstheimer, of Ogden, Utah. “We could’ve tried to find some advantages but it wouldn’t have been right. It should be our natural response as Christians. That’s why we are there — to be light.”

Pryfogle was surprised at other Christian students who did debate the issue.

“They made us feel like we were not good enough debaters because we didn’t do it,” she said. “It was as if they had to justify their decisions.”

Although it was tough for the team to lose the round, they would do it over again, they agreed, with Gerstheimer saying, “I’m tired of being passive. I’m glad we had the opportunity [to take a stand].”
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