Month: October 2004

Johnson inaugurated as Criswell College president, charged with clinging to Word

DALLAS?Affirming the Baptist doctrine of the priesthood of believers, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson declared at the inauguration of a new Criswell College president, “One thing has never changed?God’s people still need leaders.” In the Sept. 14 charge to Jerry Johnson, Patterson said God raises up leaders from among his people at strategic moments in time.

Johnson studied under Patterson while completing a bachelor of arts degree in biblical studies. Patterson preached from an “unusual passage” of Leviticus 8:22, recalling the dedication of the Aaronic priesthood. He noted the symbolism of placing a drop of blood on the priest’s earlobe, thumb and big toe, challenging his former student to place the God’s Word on his ear, hand and steps.

He warned Johnson not to hear too much of what is said by those who criticize or who compliment, lest he become ineffective due to discouragement or flattered by praise. Instead, Patterson said Johnson should listen to God’s Word regularly.

Secondly, Johnson should keep God’s Word in his hand for a lifetime of study, Patterson exhorted. Having paid the price of study to become a scholar, Patterson said, “For you to depart from that enterprise in order to do lesser things would be to squander the blessings of God upon your life.”

Thirdly, Patterson said Johnson’s greatest impact on students would be the example of his life. “Don’t turn aside to the right or the left. Don’t become another casualty,” Patterson insisted, adding, “If you do, I’ll come looking for you. Walk as a man of God.”

Johnson responded in his inaugural address by pledging to “contend earnestly for the faith,” quoting Jude 3. He applied the exhortation by expecting the school to contend for the Christian Word, the Christian worldview and the Christian witness.

“In our confession we contend for the Word,” he said, referring to the “Baptist Faith and Message.” The college’s curriculum gives evidence of that priority, Johnson added, citing studies in biblical languages, Old and New Testament, systematic theology and hermeneutics. “We can’t contend for the Word without studying and knowing the Word of God.”

Johnson praised the introduction of a humanities program by former TCC President Richard Wells. Unlike some Christian colleges that require two or three religion classes, Johnson said non-biblical studies majors at TCC would be double majors studying 30 hours from the core curriculum alongside the content of their particular discipline.

Above all else, Johnson said TCC would contend for the Christian witness, stating, “If anything has represented The Criswell College through the years, it is a heart for the lost.” Students will continue to report how God is using them in evangelism through the Encounter Missions program first established by Patterson. “You’re going to need a passport if you come to The Criswell College because before you leave you’re going to go overseas and share the gospel,” he added.

Former TCC president Richard Wells brought greetings from Southern Baptists in South Dakota where he serves as senior pastor of South Canyon Baptist Church in Rapid City. He praised Johnson as one who would keep the school on the course God set for it many years ago. “I give thanks for a school where a president can design a logo such as this and a school that produces students who can read it,” Wells said, referring to the crest depicting a Bible and the Greek word logos.

SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards noted the presence of several TCC faculty members at the founding meeting of the state convention in 1998. “TCC defied a trend of Baptist colleges by establishing a relationship with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. A number of Baptist colleges had left their family of churches in the state conventions, but The Criswell College saw the wisdom of being a part of SBTC through affiliation.” Richards said school trustees approved a new five-year affiliation agreement with SBTC in the pre-inauguration trustee meeting held Sept. 13.

TCC Chancellor Donald McCall “Mac” Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, praised Johnson as a scholar and academician with the heart of a pastor. He expressed confidence that Johnson would carry on the vision of founder W. A. Criswell who in 1969 called for an institution that would provide biblical teaching that would be both intellectually and spiritually sound.

Hog’ ride leads to missions awareness

TYLER?For Kerry Baxley, hogs were key in getting some adults in his church interested in missions.

The pastor from First Baptist Church in Splendora conceived the idea of having a bike ride?the “hog” kind of bike?from his church just north of Houston to Mercy Ships, a Christian ministry in northeast Texas, to benefit the ministry.

“The Bike Rally got our men excited about missions,” Baxley said. In all, 21 bikers, including the pastor, made the 200-mile journey that started at 6:30 a.m. and ended at 1:15 p.m. on a Saturday, Sept. 11. A combination of ministries from various churches actually started the project by collecting materials and money to send to Honduras through Mercy Ships and a Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Mission Service Corps volunteer, Collene Myers, who works with Mercy Ships.

First Baptist’s girls and women’s missions groups started promoting the project. “Then I sent out letters to all of the churches in the Tryon Evergreen Baptist Association and other churches,” Baxley said. “In all I sent out 109 letters for churches not only to send motorcycle riders but to share with the project.”

First Baptist, Splendora used money raised by elementary-aged students and its Vacation Bible School. Other churches helping in the project included Woodland Place Baptist Church in Magnolia, which used their VBS mission offering, and First Baptist Church Patton Lakes.

The project as a biker ride started out informally, and then as interest grew, “we started recruiting.” It eventually extended beyond Baptist churches, including the Ark Family Church in Conroe, which has a motorcycle fellowship ministry in its church.

Baxley then partnered up Myers, a North American Mission Board MSC volunteer through the SBTC, who works through Mercy Ships in Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Belize.

The churches from southeast Texas collected $5,000 worth of merchandise to make 350 hygiene kits and 11 cases of Spanish New Testaments.

Explaining how the kits would be used, Myers said she would be teaching a total of 32 health classes, emphasizing nutrition, how to treat fever, diarrhea, dehydration. She added that the Bibles provided helps as she teaches about the spiritual element of health.

In her teaching, she uses verses like Luke 2:52 to talk about the whole person, not just the physical. When talking about nutrition, she uses verses that talk about spiritual food too.

As a MSC volunteer missionary, Myers is self-funded, but is associated with NAMB.

“I know I’m getting prayed for and it also helps that I have an account through the North American Mission Board.”

Along the way, the bik

Generosity is our mandate and our privilege

Why should biblical Christians care about the physical well-being of their neighbors? We know that poverty will always be with us and that our physical bodies are less important than our spiritual lives. Still, Southern Baptists are at the forefront of hunger relief, disaster relief, clean water initiatives, and other responses to human need. There are some good reasons why our commitment to biblical authority and the doctrine that flows from it will lead us to a more constant commitment to the relief of human suffering.

For one thing, we don’t depend on our own perception of another person’s value. Some responses to famine, for example, have been successful or not depending on the poignancy of the victims. Such pleas may also depend on making the potential givers guilty for being well-fed and rich. Charity based on these appeals will be spotty, temporary. Christians know that people are valuable because God has ascribed value to them. That’s the most exalted thing we can say of ourselves; we are in God’s image and the objects of his love. Our response to these truths will not be based so much on our feelings.

The quickening of the Spirit in our lives also gives us the supernatural ability to love people we would otherwise take little notice of. We love people because God enables us to love them. Understanding that love is more than a feeling will cause us to do something helpful. We are different because our lives have been transformed; we behave differently for this reason.

A biblical understanding of stewardship tells us that all we have is for God’s glory. We are therefore open to his leading when he wishes to use us to serve our neighbors. There is no, “I’ve done my share,” thinking when we see God as the source and owner of everything. America is the most generous nation on the planet because a biblical view of life is hardwired into our culture. As this biblical influence wanes, so will the generosity of our nation in general. This should not be true of Christians.

We are not only enabled but also commanded to love our neighbors. Again this means more than just feeling kindly toward them. Jesus identified our devotion to him with the way we treat the hungry, naked, and otherwise helpless people among us. Obeying Christ is an act of the will for the redeemed person. Helping our helpless neighbors is a concrete way we can express gratitude for our salvation.

Unlike our more liberal or non-religious fellows, biblical Christians care about the whole man. Some have suggested a kind of immoral equivalence in the way that liberals neglect direct evangelism and conservatives neglect social ministry. This does not bear up to a second look.

Liberals may, by their own testimony, equate missions and social ministry; but conservatives are committed to feeding the body and the spirit. Florida pastor and SBC President Bobby Welch recently shared a story I think is typical. He came across two retired men with chainsaws in a neighborhood ravaged by wind damage. They were worn out and apparently not accustomed to the heavy work involved in removing downed trees from living rooms and bathrooms. Red-faced and shaking with exertion, this freelance chainsaw crew happily told Welch of all the people they had shared Christ with. They were happy to help people reclaim their homes; they were even happier to direct them to a permanent home in Heaven. They loved the whole person in each neighbor they helped.

Southern Baptists’ response to Iraq’s devastation also tells something about how our faith leads us to respond to others’ needs. By one count, our people collected, bought, packaged, and delivered nearly 2.5 million pounds of food to Iraqi families. A sticker on each box bearing the Arabic text of John 1:17 was the most overt witness included with this relief effort. Some liberals protested the inclusion of a scriptural message, by the way.

October is the month we emphasize hunger relief in the SBC. Our World Hunger Fund is an amazingly good deal. Promoted by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the North American Mission Board, and the International Mission Board, this fund is primarily disbursed through the mission boards. This means the administrative apparatus, distribution network, and relief workers are already in place with the 10,000 missionaries Southern Baptists support. Thus, every dollar designated for this fund goes to relief efforts.

Here’s what that does in a typical year. More than 200 overseas projects, using over $6 million, are addressed annually with our hunger relief funds. These projects may include clean water projects, medical assistance, training, and hygiene ministries. In the U.S., hunger relief funds will help churches and church-run community centers provide food for homeless people, victims of natural disasters, and those in poor neighborhoods who just don’t have enough. Divorce remains a leading cause of poverty in our country, so women experience hunger at a much higher rate than men. Millions of children are hungry in our own country. The needs are great and thousands of workers are in place. We can make a difference with our gifts.

According to the ERLC, a gift of $20 per month can either support one child through another relief organization or provide clean water and food for scores of people through our own relief network. There’s really no comparison between the efficiency of our network and that of others. We’re big enough, organized enough, and dispersed sufficiently to be the best choice for Southern Baptist churches that wish to help with world hunger relief.

Unfortunately, our own response to hunger needs waxes and wanes, depending on what’s in the news.