Month: September 2009

Port Arthur couple says missionary thinking needed as world settles in Lone Star state

PORT ARTHUR?Brent and Savannah Sorrels moved to Texas in 2005 to work with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention as strategy coordinators in Port Arthur. Having served as IMB missionaries in Costa Rica, the Sorrels expected to put their Spanish language skills to use with the area’s growing Hispanic population. But as they prayer-walked through area neighborhoods, the couple discovered large communities of unreached Vietnamese immigrants in Port Arthur.

“When we first came we tried to reach everyone,” Brent Sorrels said. “We had big maps of the city blocked off. But we kept running into Vietnamese, and it seemed no one was doing anything to reach them.”

BUDDHISTS & NOMINAL CATHOLICS

There are 5,000 Vietnamese immigrants in Port Arthur, a city totaling 60,000. “We are not big, but we have a lot of diversity,” Sorrels said, noting that among the 5,000 Vietnamese, about 60-65 percent are Catholic and the remainder are Buddhist. Many practice ancestor worship in addition to their official religion.

“We are still learning about them, but I found that Buddhists are more open to studying the Bible than Catholics,” Sorrels said. “Somewhere in the family history they stopped being Buddhists and became Catholic. They feel like they’ve gone as far as they need to, like they’ve made all the conversion in their family history that is necessary. They are much less open to studying the Bible even if they don’t know the Bible or don’t read it.”

While only 10 percent of the worldwide Vietnamese population is Catholic, Sorrels attributed Port Arthur’s high percentage to several factors.

“A lot of these folks were from the same part of South Vietnam?a heavily Catholic part of Vietnam,” he said. “Another factor is Catholic charities helped settle the Vietnamese here.”

Key to the work of a people group missionary is intimate knowledge of the different subgroups comprising a people group. Blanket missions strategies to one people group often fail. The Catholic/Buddhist divide among the Port Arthur Vietnamese is an example.

“We worked on a translation project to have some Bible studies designed for Catholics,” Sorrels said, noting a partner church in Houston translated the studies into Vietnamese. The studies worked well in reaching Catholics, he said.

“You can assume a lot of things with Catholics regarding the Trinity, sin, and who Jesus was and what he did?coming, living, and dying and paying for sin?that helps us as a common point that we don’t share with our Buddhist friends. We tried to use the same Bible studies with the Buddhists but it wasn’t getting past their worldview issues at all?we were assuming too much.”

“So we are currently using Bible stories, beginning in Genesis, and assuming our folks are literate. And in doing so, we have them read the Scriptures together and then have them ask questions,” he said. “We are teaching them the Bible, but we are also teaching them to obey the Bible and what changes should appear in your life as a result. And we are asking them to share their faith at the end of each lesson.”

Currently, Sorrels leads four storying groups with 16 attendees. The groups are facilitated with the help of a few local men, two of whom Sorrels hopes will become leaders for a movement among the Vietnamese. A new study in English recently began for second-generation Vietnamese. During the summer Sorrels utilizes two Vietnamese-speaking interns conducting English classes

The group recently baptized its first disciple, who was kicked out of her home as a result of her decision. But Sorrels has hopes for more baptisms soon.

“We have a 17-year-old atheist who accepted Christ in the last week or so,” he said. “And my hope is we’ll have a few more accept Christ by the end of summ

Excitement building for Lubbock meeting

Four years ago messengers gathered in Amarillo for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. It was the first time to have the annual meeting in West Texas. We are going back west. This time it is to Lubbock on Oct. 26-27. Excitement is building for one of the most unusual events SBTC has ever had.

On Tuesday night of the annual meeting, Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga., and president of the Southern Baptist Convention, will bring an evangelistic message in the theater of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center. Area churches will provide a combined choir to bring a powerful musical presentation. At the conclusion of worship an invitation will be extended for people to come to Christ. Under the same roof in the exhibit hall, Team Impact will be giving a display of physical strength and spiritual truth. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young people will be attending. We are asking God to give us the joy of seeing many people come to Jesus. There is no greater way to close out an SBTC annual meeting than seeing people come to know Christ.

If an outpouring of God’s spirit on Lubbock is to happen, there must be intercessory prayer. Even if you are not attending the convention, you can have a part in uplifting the name of Jesus through prayer. October 7 is set as a Day of Fasting and Prayer. Please join us in asking God to show himself mighty. If you can participate in person, be on hand to distribute material at the Texas Tech-Texas A&M football game Saturday, Oct. 24. This is our Crossover Lubbock Day.

The Bible Conference starts on Sunday night at Southcrest Baptist Church. The Monday morning, lunch and afternoon sessions will be at the Civic Center. During the annual meeting, which starts Monday night, Bob Pearle and Byron McWilliams will bring messages. Other preachers, singers and persons sharing testimonies will provide a worshipful atmosphere while we take care of a little business on the side.

Remember, Tuesday night is the highlight with an outreach to those who need to know our Lord and Savior. This could be the greatest annual meeting in the history of state conventions. Plan to be a part of this incredible possibility. Pray that God will be pleased to visit us in a special way. I hope to see you in Lubbock.

Just the facts

The TEXAN has published more than eight articles on the content of school textbooks in the past few years. For our state, the issue is of special importance because publishers count on Texas to buy 10 percent of the nation’s textbooks and to set the standard for many smaller states. The arguments are familiar in our culture’s war of worldviews; liberal vs. conservative, theist vs. atheist, objective vs. subjective morality, and so on. We’re very interested in who wins but maybe we don’t ask ourselves what winning would look like.

One conservative Texan was characterized, not quoted, in the New York Times as wanting to ensure that “they [textbooks] are stripped of ideology and offer a straightforward, objective statement of facts.” Sounds good, doesn’t it? I don’t believe it’s possible, or even desirable to strip foundational subjects of their ideological baggage. Facts have meaning, after all. Let’s look at how integral ideology is to a few basic subjects.

Literature–This one is pretty easy to see. Prose and poetry, at least the best sort, has a viewpoint. It expresses a view of truth. Actually, it has a theology that can be discerned by a thoughtful reader. We want our kids to be thoughtful readers, don’t we? Whoever chooses Charles Dickens over Kurt Vonnegut has made a choice, maybe based on time limitations or age-appropriateness but a choice that nonetheless has a theology to it. Another school that chooses Maya Angelou over Rudyard Kipling has made a decision ripe with ideology. In fact it is hard to imagine a truly neutral reading of a good story or poem.

Well-told stories put you in another place and let you experience something you might not be able to experience in your lifetime. You begin to understand why characters did a certain thing and what consequences the author projects from those actions. Who’d want a story that did not do these things? And yet, doing so supposes good people and bad people (at least in the actions narrated) and positive or negative consequences to earlier events. The author who does this has a view of how things and people work. He has an opinion about which of his characters are most or least admirable. Likewise a good poem makes you understand something or feel something that words and their arrangement can evoke. I’d not want my children taught by a professor whose viewpoints have nothing to with his choice of reading assignments. But I would want to agree at significant points with his viewpoint. Neither of us should be disinterested.

History–Maybe some people think history is easier to teach objectively. It is, however, anything but an ideology-free zone. Consider the perspective of history, how the story is told. A generation of college students has been taught that the “great men” view of history is a flawed description of “dead white men.” Instead, perhaps we should tell the story of 1776 through the eyes of General Washington’s stable boy. Rather than focus on the positive outcomes of our westward expansion across the U.S. we might think about the people who did not want us to cover the continent or maybe a woman in a wagon train who was not allowed to vote in the family decision (or most recent election). However you view this philosophy of history, it is a philosophy and not dispassionate.

How should we understand our own nation as we read a version of American history? For every action of the majority there was a minority who experienced things differently. A history book or class that focuses on one more than the other will seek to affect the viewpoint of each student. The events we emphasize, facts we choose, people we honor, and correlations we draw in the study of history are the fruit of our opinions. For any side of these interpretations to portray its perspective as “simply the facts” is not credible. It isn’t simple and it shouldn’t be.

History, like other disciplines, also influences how we view the principles of those sister subjects. Does it affect our view of the Scopes trial in Tennessee to know that John Scopes agreed to violate the law against teaching evolution at the urging of publicity-hungry town fathers? You may learn about Scopes in biology class, but you might not hear why he did what he did. Does it matter if a history teacher includes that story or not? In history class you may learn the context of “David Copperfield” or of the real events that inspired “The Last of the Mohicans.” Knowing these contexts makes a difference in how you read the fiction.

Math–Even the steely and cold objectivity of numbers is not so divorced from meaning. In fact, if a person is not careful in his study of mathematics he may get the idea that there is some objectivity or linear direction in the way the universe works. That idea has baggage Math tries to describe symbolically the span of things, the relationship between these and those, even what might happen next. Isaac Newton, a pious man and the inventor of calculus, saw his invention as a revelation of God whereby we might have the key even to predict the future. In fact, Newton’s faith led him to assume that there is an orderly and somewhat predictable relationship between heavenly bodies like the earth and moon and between earthly bodies such as an apple that falls to the earth. If you learn that in history, I’ll be surprised, but if so, someone made a choice. Such an understanding imbues the numbers with life and possibilities you might not see if equations are merely bland tools rather than discoveries.

On we could go; and you’ll notice I restrained myself from mentioning biology at length (you’re welcome). I think we could see this strain of theology in everything a person does, particularly those things that require abstract thought. Meaning is everywhere; that’s how I read Romans 1:19-20.

So, teaching in no context is objective. I’d add that it should not be. And yet we’re not so happy with the confused product of an American institution that has become so focused on diversity that it neuters everything from vocabulary to the rules of dodge ball. Efforts to avoid offending that any imaginable one person truncate the right of the majority to more broadly influence our communities. Gripe about it all you want but that’s the way the wind blows for now. What should we do?

First, I’d insist that efforts to exalt biblical truth in every discipline are worthwhile. Truth is truth after all. A biblical worldview undergirds invention, enterprise, imagination, and philanthropy. We are not doing anything hostile by pointing out that there are two sides to the culture war, and by vigorously engaging the issues. We don’t bless anyone by throwing up our hands and quitting.

That said, there is no shortcut solution to what is ultimately a heart-by-heart problem. Winning a textbook fight will not change everything; it might change nothing. We cannot pick and choose a sanitized bit of what our community’s servants have to offer. If our schools us a fair history text, someone will supplement it with one-world nonsense.

There is then, no way around knowing your kids’ teachers, knowing the subject material they study, and guiding them through it. We don’t send our kids to others for tutelage so we can wash our hands of their education, do we?

Neutrality toward all worldviews in public and private schools sounds good at first. It is contrary to education, though. That’s why parents lead, because the lessons our children learn sprout from a view of truth. If the only way public education is palatable to biblical Christians is if teachers teach only random facts with no discernable context, then we must pull our kids out. There is no easy way that’s also morally acceptable, one that involves no close participation or sacrifice on our part as parents.

The radicals who insist that materialistic Darwinism and substantial human causation of climate change are “settled science” have an agenda based on what looks like the plain truth to them. Those same people who think it necessary to point out every flaw of America’s founders lest students believe them noble do not treat every historical figure that same way. That’s because they also have an agenda on this subject to which they are committed. We should oppose such anti-intellectual viewpoints in the educational system we fund and own. Let’s be honest though, a system based on biblical worldview, as ours should be, is also taking sides. There is no way to avoid taking sides and still produce nominally educated citizens.

10 years ago, personal grief, theology carried Wedgwood pastor

Pastor Al Meredith leans against the cross podium inside the worship center of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth. (photo by Jerry Pierce)

FORT WORTH–Just a day removed from preaching his mother’s funeral after “praying her into Heaven” with his two sisters, Al Meredith sat on a dock near his boyhood home in Michigan, watching a freighter pass by and thinking to himself: “When I get back to Fort Worth, I’m going to need time to process my grief.”

A faithful God, Meredith said, knew what Meredith couldn’t know–later that day, a tragedy awaited that would thrust the pastor and his inconspicuous, working-class church into the international spotlight and would require uncommon composure on his part to console church members, plan funerals, and speak wisdom before a host of news media that converged on the church’s campus tucked away in a transitioning neighborhood of south Fort Worth.

On Sept. 15, 1999, a troubled Larry Ashbrook passed a dozen or so Baptist churches traveling through Fort Worth and inexplicably stopped at Wedgwood, entered the church building on a Wednesday night, and shot dead seven people and injured five others before fatally shooting himself.

Looking back on the experience is partly a blur for Meredith; he marvels at what he said to the media in the dozens, maybe hundreds, of interviews he gave in the weeks following, because amid the shock he couldn’t recall details of his conversations with reporters.

“And people would say, ‘Oh, you blessed me so much on the radio’ or on ‘Larry King Live!’ or Katie Couric. And this is the truth, I said, ‘Well, tell me what I said, because I was brain dead.’ You know, because of my own grief and emotionally being numb, I was out of the picture and so I was literally a vessel that God could speak through. In fact, I’ve gone back and viewed the videotapes of all those interviews and I can’t believe it myself.”

Meredith said the grief of burying his mother earlier that week “was God’s way of anesthetizing my spirit so when all of this hit” he was able to respond.

In addition, Meredith had himself been rooted in and attempted to root Wedgwood through his 12 years of leading the church prior to the shooting in “a healthy theology of grief and tragedy.”

That perspective was evident in the worship of the church prior to the shooting, and has continued afterwards, Meredith said.

“Our services have always been positive and always been upbeat, but there is a place for ‘It Is Well with My Soul?.’ And so the music is true, it’s not phony. We don’t sing ‘Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before,’ because that’s not true. Even Jesus said, ‘Stand against the evil days.’ Some days are more evil than others. Jesus did promise us this?this is one of the promises we don’t think is too precious: ‘As long as you are in the world, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'”

It is a necessary part of the gospel message that trials and tribulations accompany authentic discipleship, a truth that Meredith said needs preaching often in contemporary churches where the Bible’s wisdom literature often is taken as a guarantee that God will bless people by protecting them from harm or hurt.

“Those aren’t necessarily guarantees,” he said. “And the ultimate purpose for our life is not a happy and carefree life. The ultimate purpose is God wants to conform us to the image of his son. And the only effective way of doing that, unfortunately, is through trials. It’s through tribulations and heartaches and disappointments that God knocks off the rough edges of our character and conforms us to the image of Christ. And it’s a painful process. It’s not fun. But far more important than what God does for me is that I can know him, the true and the living God and have a living, vital relationship with him.”

Meredith has been able to offer comfort through the church’s experience to others who are hurting. In March, he preached the Sunday following the shooting death of Fred Winters, who was gunned down in the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill.

The Maryville church’s youth pastor and his wife were two of many seminary students who called Wedgwood home during their days at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth—a group numbering hundreds around the world whom Meredith affectionately calls “Wedgies.”

The brother of the shooter planned to attend a commemorative service on Sept. 13. Wedgwood and a nearby Church of Christ congregation were able to minister to the Ashbrook family following the tragedy.

Several of the victims’ families and many friends were also planning to attend, Meredith said.

According to Old Testament tradition, churchgoers will be invited to set small white “Ebenezer” stones on a memorial to commemorate the life of each victim.

“The question is not ‘why do bad things happen to good people?’ The reality is there are no good people—there is none righteous, no not one. The real huge question is, ‘Why do good things happen to sinners like me?’ That’s the really perplexing thing,” Meredith observed.

“The verse that God gave me that first radio interview, that first morning afterwards, was Habakkuk 3:17-19,” Meredith added. “In fact, that’s the text I’m going to be using on the 10th anniversary: ‘Though the fig tree shall not blossom, though the fruit not be on the vine’—Here’s an agricultural society absolutely going down the tubes—‘yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will join the God of my salvation.’
“And if the Lord is your source, then no matter what your circumstances you have reason to rejoice. But you have to choose to go on. And so you go on. It’s important you don’t deny your pain. And you don’t tell people you shouldn’t cry or you shouldn’t be angry. Feelings are. And nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to feel. Just don’t let your feelings determine your actions.”

Ends of the earth may be next door’

As Southern Baptist churches in Texas identify their “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and ends of the earth,” SBTC Missions Director Terry Coy believes all four may be in a church’s neighborhood, workplace or school. “The ends of the earth may be next door?that may even be your connection to go around the world.”

“What changes are we going to have to make in our evangelism, missions, ministries and methods?”

Instead of focusing on all the things we need to change, Coy proposes talking about the unchanging message we have to share in the midst of a constantly changing world.

The SBTC recently launched Texas Missions Initiative (TxMI) to focus on mobilizing churches to reach Texas for Christ through creative ministries and evangelistic strategies that will result in multiplying disciples and new congregations. The missions emphasis is more fully described in the fall 2009 issue of Texas Baptist Crossroads, which arrived in mailboxes earlier this month and is available online at sbtexas.com/crossroads.

“We must consider and adopt new methodologies if we are going to reach lost people for Jesus Christ, particularly among those from other countries who are settling in Texas,” Coy told Crossroads. “The majority of Texas is lost, and that majority is not only growing in size, but also growing in complexity, diversity, and lostness.”

Featured on the pages of this special report are examples of how that creative approach is unfolding in Port Arthur and Houston, profiled by reporter Melissa Deming; Norm Miller writes about a new church-planting strategy called Project Borderlands Outreach, being launched in the highly under-evangelized city of Laredo.

Also included are reviews of two recent books that can help mission leaders get a handle on understanding the people groups that remain unreached in Texas, explaining how to reach a diverse culture and the common values they hold.

For more information on TxMI, contact the missions department toll free at 877-953-SBTC (7282) or visit sbtexas.com/missions.