NASHVILLE, Tenn.?The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee voted unanimously without discussion to continue to study whether the convention should remain affiliated with Broadway Baptist Church, a historic Fort Worth congregation that was involved last year in a controversy over whether homosexual couples should be pictured in a church directory.

The Executive Committee began studying the church’s affiliation last year after a messenger at the SBC annual meeting in June made a motion that the convention declare Broadway Baptist not to be “in friendly cooperation” with the denomination. Article III of the SBC Constitution states that churches “which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior” are not in friendly cooperation.

The church last February decided in a 294-182 vote to publish a directory without family portraits but with candid shots of members involved in various ministries and activities. Additionally, the pastor who had presided over the controversy?Brett Younger?resigned from the church in June to take a position at McAfee School of Theology in Georgia after a vote to oust him failed, 68-32 percent.

Church members, though, said the desire by some to remove Younger had less to do with the issue of homosexuality and more to do with a host of other issues, including his leadership and his support of a project that allowed homeless people to stay at the church at night.

The Executive Committee agreed Feb. 17 that the study should continue and that “further inquiries and continued communications with the church be made,” with the goal of “arriving at an appropriate report” to the convention at the June annual meeting in Louisville, Ky.

The church has about 1,400 members with 400 to 500 attendees on Sunday mornings.

Three people from the church?interim pastor Charles Johnson, minister of congregation care Jorene Taylor Swift and denominational relations committee member Lyn Robbins?voluntarily appeared and asked members of the Bylaws Workgroup and the Administration Subcommittee, both of which considered the matter, not to recommend breaking the relationship.

Two representatives of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, with whom Broadway Baptist is affiliated, also addressed the subcommittee as well as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson from whom Broadway’s interim pastor had sought counsel.

Much of the discussion during the workgroup and the subcommittee meetings focused on a Jan. 27 letter the church sent to the Executive Committee, which stated in part: “Broadway has never taken any church action to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior. Broadway Baptist Church considers itself to be in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention and has every intention of remaining so.” It further stated, “While we extend Christian hospitality to everyone?including homosexuals?we do not endorse, approve, or affirm homosexual behavior.”

The letter also said the church chose a directory without family portraits because it believed such an action would avoid sending the message the church endorsed homosexuality. The letter was approved by the church’s deacons and presented to the church with no objections.

Some members of the workgroup and subcommittee said they would welcome a stronger statement from the church on homosexuality so as to further disassociate itself from the church directory controversy. The church is autonomous and must decide the matter on its own.

“The committee has asked us to sort of strengthen our statement on the matter of homosexuality,” Johnson, the interim pastor, told Baptist Press. “We receive that challenge … and we’re going to take it very seriously and prayerfully and go back to our congregation and follow the light and leadership of the spirit of God.”

Johnson said he was “very heartened” and “encouraged” by discussions with committee members throughout the day. The Bylaws Workgroup and Administrative Subcommittee meetings each went past their scheduled end times, with members asking Johnson and the other two church representatives pointed questions about the church’s position on homosexuality.

Johnson, who began serving in his role in July, told Baptist Press he came to the committee meeting in order to tell members the church does not endorse homosexuality and to urge them not to act while the church “is healing” from losing not only its pastor but some of its members following last year’s controversies.

“Everyone has been gracious to us. We have felt a sensitivity from the committee toward our congregational situation, and we’ve received the wisdom of the committee,” he said. “We feel that we’ve taken a step of constructive engagement with the denomination. This is our denominational family. Instead of a step away, we’ve kind of stepped toward each other.”

The church’s letter to the Executive Committee acknowledged that not every member of Broadway is “in agreement about the propriety of homosexual behavior or the language regarding homosexuality in Article XV of the current Baptist Faith and Message.” Regarding that issue, the Baptist Faith and Message says “Christians should oppose … all forms of sexual immorality, incl

The February meeting of the SBC Executive Committee included five hours of subcommittee and workgroup discussions of a motion to disfellowship Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth. You can read more about the specific case elsewhere. I was drawn aside by the answers church representatives gave about their membership. Broadway’s examination was occasioned by the reported behavior of some of its members. In apparent candor, they admitted that they received members and put them in places of leadership without knowing all that much about them.

In one way, the answer will not have that much bearing on whether or not Broadway is found to be in friendly cooperation with the SBC. At the same time, many of our Southern Baptist churches could have been sitting in that room answering similar questions in the same way.

For example, one representative from Broadway said that he was unaware of the lives or reputations of candidates for church membership. He was also unaware of what kind of discussion the pastoral staff typically has with new members. Could that be your church? I’ll say that for most of my years at my current church it was true of mine.

In one discussion, another Broadway representative referred to Augustine’s teaching that the church should welcome all and be made up of those who are only apparently believers as well as those who are actually redeemed. Augustine actually interpreted the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 so that the field upon which the seed was sown was the church rather than the world. The various responses to the gospel seed were thus all responses of people within the church?the lost and saved (everyone, I suppose) should be in the church, then.

Recognizing that this is the reality (as in Matthew 13’s parable of the wheat and tares) of churches in this present time I still don’t agree we should be at peace with this definition of “church.” A New Testament church is a believers’ church.

Augustine clearly understood and rightly noted the difference between those who join with a church and those who are additionally joined with Christ. He was not teaching that all who say “Lord! Lord!” would be saved. He was, in my view, demeaning the visible church in favor of the invisible one. And yet it is the local, visible, struggling church that represents the invisible church.

As an aside, we should note that demeaning the visible church in favor of the invisible has become very popular in ways that Augustine did not imagine and would not approve, I think. Those who profess to love Jesus and disdain local churches are doing this. They claim to be part of the body of Christ and yet want no part of any present-day manifestation of it. They may take this position because of the hypocrisy of (other) Christians or because real things cannot usually stand up to our vision of ideal things. In any case, their union with Christ is pretty hard to express and harder still for others to discern. In our current discussion we might note that solitary Christians find themselves without the needed edification of discipline if they disregard the local church, or if they are neglected by the local church they’ve joined.

My church and yours stand as concrete images of that transcendent church made up of only wheat. Imperfect as it is, we are wrong to discount it. God certainly does not. Our churches stand individually as complete bodies. The commands to edify one another, care for one another, hold one another accountable, etc. apply to specific congregations each and all.

While lost people often profess faith in Christ, we must not call this acceptable. How many of our congregations practically accept that many members are not redeemed people? I’d say many, if not most. I say “practically” because it’s a place where our practice falls short of our intent. This was the upshot of a year-long discussion about regenerate church membership within the Southern Baptist Convention. Many churches, mine included, noted that discussion and are taking greater care to know the spiritual state of their members. Many more should be making this effort.

I’m always troubled by controversies that are understood so narrowly that the rest of us think we have nothing to learn. That thought crosses my mind when someone I know or someone more famous falls from ministry prominence into humiliating scandal. It is not enough for me to say that I’m unlikely to commit the particular sins of Ted Haggard or Jimmy Swaggart or Jim Bakker. I must ask myself what “small” compromises we have in common that led them to places I now find unthinkable.

Sure, most churches would not knowingly continue membership to those who openly live an immoral lifestyle. Do we know the lives of the scores or hundreds of our members we never see, though? In what ways are we edifying those members? I think we could say that months or even years with no participation in worship, ministry, or giving indicate a spiritually troubled church member?one apparently in open disobedience to the commands of God.

I’m not saying that your church or mine is likely to be challenged by a motion at the Southern Baptist Convention. It matters when that happens but we more certainly stand before a greater tribunal than the denomination. I’m merely saying that when we are scandalized by the behavior of another person or group we should stop a minute and consider our own stewardship or guilt. Otherwise the lesson is lost.

Not all sins of negligence are equivalent in their impact. I also don’t buy the argument that one person’s guilt excuses another person’s guilt. The spectacle of another’s failure should not make us feel righteous or proud, though. Our lives and ministries are not judged by such an imperfect standard, although the temptation to think so is very seductive.

This short column is not about

NASHVILLE?One by one, the heads of Southern Baptist Convention entities took a seat at a table Feb.16 across from members of the SBC Executive Committee’s Cooperative Program (CP) Subcommittee, which is tasked with recommending the funding percentage each entity receives from Southern Baptists’ cooperative missions giving program.

Without exception, each leader thanked Southern Baptists for their faithfulness even in tough economic times.

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary President Jeff Iorg said that two weeks earlier, another seminary in his region had closed. The school was dependent upon one donor for its funding, Iorg explained, reminding him again that “through the Cooperative Program we have a gift from God for challenging times.”

Unlike their counterparts in economically depressed industries, those at the helms of Southern Baptist mission boards, commissions and seminaries echoed Iorg’s sentiment that “there is no doubt we are going to move through this,” with each pledging to stay on mission.

The Executive Committee voted Feb. 17 to recommend a $204.3 million CP Allocation Budget to the SBC during its June 23-24 annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., down more than $1.3 million from last year’s budget. CP receipts for 2007-08 (down 0.65 percent from the prior year) set the maximum amount allowed for the 2009-2010 CP Allocation Budget.

The proposed budget maintains current allocations to the convention’s ministries, including 50 percent of receipts to the International Mission Board and 22.79 percent to the North American Mission Board. The convention’s six seminaries will receive a combined 21.92 percent. According to the seminary enrollment formula, Southern would receive 4.96 percent (down from 4.98 percent); Southwestern, 4.84 percent (up from 4.81 percent); New Orleans, 4.39 percent (down from 4.41 percent); Southeastern, 4.04 percent (down from 4.15 percent); Midwestern, 1.90 percent (up from 1.77 percent); and Golden Gate, 1.80 percent (down from 1.81 percent).

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission would continue to receive 1.65 percent
of the budget, while the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives would receive .24 percent. The SBC Operating Budget, encompassing the SBC annual meeting costs, the work of the convention between annual meetings and the Executive Committee, would receive 3.4 percent of the CP budget. The current staff salary structure for the Executive Committee employees will continue with no pay raises projected.

“Never has there been a time the six of us so recognized what a gift CP is to our Southern Baptist seminaries,” added Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Governments come and go. The stock market rises and falls. God, in the midst of it all, is still on his throne,” Akin wrote in his report.

Each seminary president outlined cost-cutting measures that in some cases included staff reductions and hiring freezes to survive the prospect of reduced income, several of them noting severe losses to their endowments.

“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good and it has made all of our seminaries more grateful for the Cooperative Program and our churches when they’re faithful in spite of the struggle,” noted Paige Patterson of Southwestern Seminary.

New Orleans Seminary President Charles Kelley said contingency plans are in place with a commitment to operate in the black, even while continuing to recover from the impact of Hurricane Katrina.

“Theological education is a personnel-intensive industry as we put teachers in touch with well over 4,500 students at Southern Seminary,” explained R. Albert Mohler.
“The real security and power of CP is not the money, but that your six seminaries belong to someone?the churches.” They not only provide the funding, he said, but a voice.

“We don’t want to waste a crisis,” he added, pledging strategic use of CP funds. “We are six different institutions with six different stories, but we belong to one family of Southern Baptist churches.”

Economic realities are impacting student enrollment, one seminary president noted, explaining that many students cannot afford to return from one semester to the next.

Midwestern Seminary President R. Philip Roberts eased the serious tone with a lighthearted confession at being grateful that the Kansas City school has the least endowment of all six seminaries.

“There’s probably never been a time I thanked God that we are the most dependent of all the seminaries on the Cooperative Program,” he said, sharing that half of the MBTS budget comes from CP allocations?which are not as susceptible as endowments to market changes.

Still, Roberts, while also reporting good financial reserves, said precautions were taken to under spend the current budget by 10 percent and freeze non-essential hiring,.

EULESS?”Evangelism is going to the battlefield where prayer has been and picking up the spoils of war,” Don Harms told those gathered at the Empower Evangelism Conference on Feb. 17. “Real evangelism is preceded by prayer.”

Harms, pastor of First Baptist Church, Porter, in suburban Houston, began his sermon titled “A Recipe for Revival and Requirements for Real Evangelism,” by describing the apostles’ steadfastness in preaching the gospel before the Jewish Sanhedrin as told in Acts 4:13.

“The Bible says they took note of them that they had been with Jesus. That’s the premium. Can the world tell you’ve been with him?”

Harms explained that deeper into the chapter, after the believers’ gathered for prayer, Acts says the place where they were praying was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Harms added, “Every revival that I can ascertain in the Word of God was preceded by prayer.”

The book of Judges is a never ending cycle of Israel falling into sin and despair followed by repentance and revival, Harms said, noting also that the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day and God’s show of power with Paul and Silas’ in the Philippian jail were preceded by fervent prayer.

In Acts, “the ground shook and the shackles fell off and revival happened right there,” he said. “The same is true in our churches today. If revival is going to come, if we are going to reap a harvest of souls, then prayer is essential.”

“We live in a time when people talk about revival and evangelism and do very little praying for it. The Bible said that when they had prayed, the place was shaken. Let me ask you a question you don’t want to answer: Have you shaken any places lately? Has your church shaken any places lately?”

Harms told of praying, prior to a series of revival meetings, over every seat in the small church where he pastored in Stanford years ago.

“When that revival had closed, we had baptized more people than attended our church on any given Sunday. God was at work. My friend, prayer is the answer.”

Additionally, real evangelism is powered by the Paraklete?the Holy Spirit, Harms said.

As a young pastor Harms said he tried to imitate Billy Graham in the same way many young preachers try to mimic someone they admire.

“Listen folks, those who say cute things are a dime a dozen, but the premium is to have the power of God on your life.”

Quoting Romans 5:5, which states: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us,” Harms added, “I contend that our congregations must be like this today. And our power comes from above, it does not come from within.”

Real evangelism is also propagated by the Word of God and permeated with the gospel message, Harms said.

“Have you every noticed how many times Jesus quoted Old Testament Scripture? Every sermon in the book of Acts is based on the Word of God as they knew it. And yet some sermons are just stories. Actually, they are illustrations with Scripture enveloping it and building around it.

“People don’t come to church to be entertained; they come to hear ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ The Word of God transforms people’s lives.”

Harms said Paul’s simple advice to Timothy to “preach the Word” is as relevant as ever.

“And my friend, the best thing you can do, as best as you know how?you may be a college student, you may have never have gone to college at all?just get in the Word of God and tell your people what God has told you. You don’t have to put it out in homiletical form. You don’t have to have an outline. You don’t have to be cute about it. Just stand up and preach your heart out and people will come to Christ because God honors his Word.”

The simple gospel message should be included somewhere in every sermon, Harms said.

“Our church is culturally relevant. Our church addresses real-life problems that people face today. But we address problems in light of the Scripture and in every case Jesus Christ is presented as Savior and Lord. I think every church service ought to be one where if a lost man walked in he could hear enough gospel to get saved.”

He said that on Jan. 20, 1963, he walked into a church in Alaska, where he was stationed in the military, having never been to church or ever read a Bible verse for himself. Before he left that night, he was born again.

EULESS?Using country music singer Tim McGraw’s song “Live Like You Were Dyin'” as a setup for his testimony and 2 Timothy 1 as the text for his sermon, Sammy Gilbreath pleaded with those attending the SBTC’s Empower Evangelism Conference to live with eternity in mind.

Gilbreath had a blood clot and rare aneurism in his left ventricle that his physicians, including those at the Mayo Clinic, said would kill him quickly. Instead, he has defied
the odds, but knowing that each day is a blessing that might be his last.

With funeral arrangements already in place, Gilbreath has continued to serve in his role as evangelism director for Alabama Baptists.

“I hope you get a chance to live like you were dying,” Gilbreath told the crowd. “It is my prayer this afternoon that the Holy Spirit of God will empower you to learn to live like you are dying.”

“If you are going to live like you are dying, the very first thing you must learn is the value of the promise of life,” he said.

Gilbreath said he has learned to replace the words “got to” in his vocabulary with
“get to.”

“Before this happened I would have said, ‘I’ve got to go to Texas tomorrow.’ No, you get to go to Texas tomorrow. ‘I’ve got to go to that deacon’s meeting.’ No, you get to go to that deacon’s meeting. ‘I’ve got to go to work in the morning.’ You get to go to work in the morning. ‘I’ve got to make that visit to the nursing home.’ No, you get to go visit the nursing home.”

In the routine of life, Gilbreath said to seize opportunities to minister to people, because the way believers’ respond “may determine where [others] spend eternity.”

“If this coming Sunday is the last Sunday that you will serve Yahweh God and his beloved son, the sermon that’s spinning around in your mind, how would you change it if Sunday’s the last Sunday you will ever preach?”

Also, Gilbreath said Christians must learn that spiritual blessings are more important than physical things.

He was blessed to live long enough to marry his son and daughter-in-law, even though doctors warned him not to travel to the wedding across two states. He even thanked God for the blessing of being able to rake leaves?something he hated as a kid.

Worried that his family would need him after he died, he said he cried out to God.

“And in that prayer time God said ‘grace is never given in advance. Grace is always given at the point of need.’ So sweetly, he said when they need the grace there will be more than enough. And then almost as a reminder he said, ‘Oh, by the way, I can take care of them better than you can.’ I don’t worry about them any more.”

To live like one is dying, he must live with a clear conscience, Gilbreath added.

“You may decide after this conference that you are going to change some of your behavior, some of your study habits, some of your personal time with the Lord. That’s admirable but that’s not a clear conscience. Only God grants a clear conscience, following repentance.”

Finally, “If you are going to live like you are dying, you are going to have to learn the value of remembering.”

Noting Paul’s remembrance of the faith of Timothy’s mother and grandmother in 1 Timothy 1:5, Gilbreath asked: “Who led you to the Lord? Who stood by you when no one else knew you were struggling?”

If that person died, what would you spend the rest of your life wishing you had told them? he asked.

“I wish mentally you could just come and get on that stainless steel cardiology table with me, your feet dangling off, your family sitting right there with you. The cardiologist calls you by name and looks at your family and says ‘you’re going to die, and you’re going to die very, very quickly.’ What is it that you need to do this afternoon in this session for that to be all right? It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit of God will empower you to learn to live like you’re dying.”

The Hispanic session of the Evangelism Conference, held Feb. 15 at First Baptist Church of Colleyville and Feb. 16 at the Campus West facility of First Baptist Euless drew 1,000 people and resulted in approximately 100 salvation decisions after evangelist Alberto Mottesi (middle photo) preached. In top photo, participants sing during the Feb. 15 rally. In the bottom photo, a young man takes notes during a breakout session on Feb. 16.