Month: June 2010

Eight years out, SBTC Disaster Relief having global impact

Disasters have their own schedules, striking anytime, anywhere, anyone. Recognizing the history of hurricanes along the Texas Gulf Coast as a continuing pattern, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention leadership prepared for future calamities by tapping in 2002 Gibbie McMillan as missions services associate to develop, among other assignments, a disaster response system and volunteer network.

Disaster relief for the SBTC was born.

The foundation laid by McMillan is now a full-fledged structure under the leadership of Jim Richardson, who succeeded McMillan in 2006 as the SBTC’s first-ever Disaster Relief ministry associate.

“What we tried to do when I got here,” McMillan said, “was to serve churches interested in disaster relief, and to discover the areas of greatest need. So we developed a disaster relief program that included chaplaincy and construction teams we called Baptist Builders.”

McMillan soon began organizing chainsaw crews, and their popularity and success was not long in coming as several deployed to Florida in September of 2004, responding to Hurricane Charley’s devastation.

After careful research and thoughtful dialogue, the SBTC and Texas Baptist Men, a longstanding disaster ministry, entered into a relationship in 2003 intended to bolster the capabilities of both ministries, McMillan said.

HURRICANE KATRINA

By the time Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, SBTC Disaster Relief was up and running. An army of SBTC volunteers, many of them rookie DR workers, prepared and served more than 300,000 meals in Louisiana in the week after the storm hit. Chainsaw crews were there, too, along with mud-out workers. In all, nearly 1.1 million meals were served to survivors, rescue workers, soldiers and police at shelters, food stamp lines, neighborhoods and military posts from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

During the three weeks of Hurricane Katrina-related ministry, dozens of salvations were recorded, hundreds of gospel tracts and Bibles were distributed and thousands of prayers were offered for victims by SBTC volunteers.

The experience of SBTC DR workers in Louisiana proved invaluable as training for their response to Hurricane Ike three years later. In less than a month after that storm, the SBTC-led disaster relief kitchen had served more than a half-million meals on Galveston Island.

Upon his departure in 2006, McMillan had formed an agreement that allowed SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers to operate one of the Salvation Army’s feeding units. He also garnered the SBTC’s first water purification unit; “even though it was only as big as a suitcase?it was cutting-edge, then,” he said. The water purification unit was part of the equipment McMillan had begun to acquire for SBTC DR efforts.

As part of the SBTC’s DR program, McMillan coordinated chaplaincy ministry in cooperation with the North American Mission Board.

He said the most significant part of his ministry was when he trained 32,000 people for mass-feeding so they’d be qualified to serve Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Meeting at Second Baptist, Houston, the project “took three days. We had Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, atheists, and more. It wasn’t easy, but we got the job done,” he said.

When McMillan accepted a position with the Louisiana Baptist Convention in 2006, Richardson came on board, having previously served the Georgia Baptist Convention in disaster relief.

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Choosing a Bible no simple task

It is hard to believe that just over a century ago, there was only one popular English translation of the Bible. But walk into a Christian bookstore today, and there are dozens of versions and translations from which to choose.

 

Bible translations are not a modern invention. In the third century B.C., Jews translated the Scripture from the original Hebrew into the language of the people of Alexandria, a Greek-speaking city. These Greek-speaking Jews could no longer read Hebrew, so reading and understanding the Word of God became impossible.

 

Following the command of Christ, early Christians fulfilled the Great Commission by taking the Word of God to the nations, translating the Scripture into many languages, including Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Egyptian, Coptic, and many more. Christians understood the importance of reading and understanding the Scripture in their native language.

 

Under the influence of the Roman Empire, Latin emerged as the common language for Bible translation. After Jerome translated the Scriptures into Latin in 382 A.D., priests and prelates for centuries limited translation to Latin and restricted its use for the clergy, leaving most people without access to the Bible.

 

Into English

English translation began under the study of John Wycliffe, a professor at Oxford University. Just before his death in 1384, he published a literal translation based on Jerome’s Latin Bible, the “Vulgate.” Because of his work as a Bible translator, Wycliffe was denounced a heretic, his body was exhumed and burned, his ashes cast into a river, and his translation and many of its copies burned.

 

But threat of death and flame would not stop Christians from translating the Scripture into the language of the people. William Tyndale (1492-1536), who studied at Oxford and Cambridge, became a professor at Cambridge University and translated the Scripture from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. Tyndale, like the German Reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), desired to translate the Bible into the common language of Christians.

 

From Tyndale’s translation flowed the basis for English translations for over 400 years. To this day, English translations are affected by the work of Tyndale, including the King James Version and the American Standard Version and its successors (RSV, NASB, NAU, NRSV, ESV).

 

Translation theory

Until the middle of the 20th century Bible translations operated under the singular goal of literal word-for-word translation, rendering the words of the original languages (Hebrew and Greek) from the text of Scripture into the language of the people, insofar as the new language allowed the translation.

 

During the mid-20th century, a new era in Bible translation began. Under the influence of modern linguistics and cultural anthropology, Bible versions multiplied, applying new principles of language science to the process of translation.

 

Missionaries worked with translators to develop texts that could be used when working with unreached people groups, resulting in thousands of translations of the Scripture. Translation into tribal languages brought extra challenges, such as transforming the language of the original Hebrew and Greek into very different grammatical/syntactical systems employed by the biblical authors.

 

In the last half of the 20th century, Bible translators differed with each other as to the best way to render the ancient biblical text into contemporary language. Translation principles developed and conservative scholars were chosen to develop new translations into contemporary English.

 

Formal Equivalence

Modern versions of the Bible pursue one of two philosophies of translation, known by the technica

South Texas church spreads its FAITH south of the border

ROBSTOWN?When River Hills Baptist Church in Robstown, near Corpus Christi, offered to host a FAITH Sunday School evangelism training clinic in Monterrey, Mexico, they were wishing to help equip a church to share the gospel in its neighborhood. What resulted was the beginning of “something bigger.”

It doesn’t take long to recognize the passion Bill Simmons, pastor of River Hills Baptist Church, has for reaching the lost. Using FAITH as their primary evangelism strategy has helped make sharing the gospel a part of the culture of the church.

“The church has been doing FAITH for several years now and has 100-150 participants each semester,” Simmons said. “We try to be intentional about reaching the lost and very intentional about being evangelistic.”

Their intentionality has shown positive results?with FAITH the number of baptisms has significantly increased.

“Last year 70 were baptized, the year before that 100. I baptized three people last Sunday as a result of FAITH,” Simmons said.

The FAITH strategy, he said, is part of the follow-up in Sunday School classes as well as hospital or other ministry visits.

Church member Kenny Myers got involved in FAITH four years ago?shortly after recovering from a stroke. That experience helped him realize that sharing his faith is an crucial step to help people come to know Christ.

“I see it like this: one day I will stand before the Lord and I want him to say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You shared me with people,” Myers said.

SOUTH OF THE BORDER

For Elizabeth Younkers, FAITH training “has given me the ability to tell and spread what the Bible says.”

Younkers’ involvement in the FAITH program at River Hills served as the start of the now thriving ministry taking place in Monterrey, Mexico. Having grown up in Mexico, she asked Simmons if the church could take FAITH to Mexico and help train a church in Monterrey.

Pastors from River Hills and New Life Baptist Church set up a meeting with a Monterrey pastor, and traveled to Mexico to discuss how they could partner together and help train the church in FAITH.

“It’s a long story, but a story in which only God could work out the details. God led, the American pastors were introduced to Bro. Rolando Guzman, a leading pastor in Monterrey, and things began to happen,” Simmons said.

Plans to have several churches in Monterrey trained in FAITH started to come together. Guzman invited the Texas pastors to a Christmas party to discuss details of the upcoming FAITH clinic. While fellowshipping together a phone call was made to Bobby Welch, the co-founder of the FAITH curriculum and the SBC’s strategist for global evangelical relations.

“Welch immediately wanted to be a part of it,” Simmons said. Welch suggested including Doug Williams, co-founder of FAITH and Mike Smith of LifeWay Christian Resources.

Funding for the clinic stretched beyond the means of the church, and fac

Texas pastors assess GCRTF final report

The TEXAN invited the opinions of four Texas pastors who were among the 6,594 people who committed to pray for the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. The men were asked to analyze the seven components of the final task force report to be offered June 15 at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Orlando. Their comments follow:

 

BRAD JURKOVICH, pastor, Victory Life Baptist Church, Lubbock

>VOTE: I pray that the efforts of the GCRTF will be received, prayerfully considered and courageously implemented. We must do whatever it takes for advancing the hope of Jesus in America and the world.

>COMPONENT 1 (Vision): I appreciate the recommendation for our convention to adopt a biblically clear and compelling mission statement. It speaks to the passion and priority of the Lord Jesus and the clear testimony of the early church. The more we hear this mission and the more our churches and convention filter every priority and budget item through this mission, then I believe we will see greater impact and we will see more pastors and churches inspired to give and go for God.

>COMPONENT 2 (Core Values): The recommended eight core values are strong and valuable for the greater impact of our convention. We all need to know what is expected of each other going forward. These core values are being implemented in our church in various ways already, but it is nice to see them enumerated on a convention level.

>COMPONENT 3 (GC Giving): I don’t believe this new designated option will impact CP giving negatively. Already, my church staff and leadership team have been evaluating our Great Commission strategy. What I see happening is that when our dialogue in our local church is seen through the lens of our Great Commission strategy, giving towards CP and other avenues increases across the board.

>COMPONENT 4 (NAMB): I believe this recommendation will yield greater impact in the coming years. Our church has grown from a handful of families to hundreds of families. We have to evaluate all the time how our individual ministries are being implemented. If we need to reinvent, realign, or reassess leadership and resources then we do it. Why? Because the passion and commitment to accomplishing the Great Commission needs to drive everything we do. NAMB is a dynamic ministry front. But America is changing and how we partner, how we plant churches and how we penetrate America’s lostness needs to be constantly evaluated.

>COMPONENT 5 (IMB): This recommendation is valid in that it sees how America has changed. The world is different. Why not use the expertise and missional punch of the IMB in a greater way. I think this recommendation will wake up many local churches to the reality that America needs serious attention.

>COMPONENT 6 (CP): The state convention relationship is very valuable and makes the most marked impact on my local church. I know the staff. I hear from that leadership the most. And if they continually encourage and communicate the missional vision of our convention and build relationships with our local church then there will be tremendous benefits. I am grateful for the national convention’s efforts to promote CP and the greater vision, but my relationship with the state convention will be more beneficial in the long run.

>COMPONENT 7 (EC Funding): Does this recommendation go far enough? Well, do we all want to reach every person possible? Absolutely. Every local church and every ministry has to balance where the majority of money is going. One percent is a strong statement in that it is breaking a barrier. I think because of our size as a denomination it doesn’t seem like much, but it is, and it sets in motion the track of expansion in that area.

>SUMMARY VIEW: The implementation of these recommendations will produce change. But if we all will humble ourselves and ask God to guide our steps, I believe the living God will honor these efforts even if these recommendations are the start of further work down the road. Until Jesus comes, we will always need to be willing to change and do whatever it takes to penetrate our world with the hope of Jesus.

 

NATHAN LORICK, pastor, First Baptist Church, Malakoff

>VOTE: My hope is that the GCRTF report will be embraced and passed overwhelmingly. As a young pastor who care deeply for the SBC, I believe it is imperative for us to continue to press forward with changes and improvements to this great denomination. If we continue to do what we are now doing, we will continue to get the results we are now getting. We desperately need to wake up and embrace necessary changes for the furtherance of the kingdom and the future of the SBC.

>COMPONENT 1 (Vision): I believe that a new and fresh mission statement is needed and I believe this is a great statement of the renewed direction of the convention. This is not the same convention as 30, 20, or even 10 years ago.

>COMPONENT 2 (Core Values): It seems that there are so many different faces of people in the SBC. There are the mega-church pastors, small-town pastors, bi-vocational pastors, evangelists, and lay people. There is not really anything that helps us to rally around the values that make our convention such a great convention. I believe these eight concise, yet clear values will help guide us to a renewed sense of purpose and devotion to win the world to Christ.

>COMPONENT 3 (GC Giving): It is my hope that Great Commission giving will spark a fire in people and churches to give sacrificially to reach the world for Christ. If we ever lose sight of the benefits of the CP, then we have lost sight of the greatest mission funding effort ever known to mankind. We must keep giving to and supporting the work of the CP. I believe that the Great Commission giving will spur people on to a fresh view of the CP.

>COMPONENT 4 (NAMB): I believe this recommendation lays the groundwork for the church planters in my generation to be fully equipped to make a dent in the lostness of our nation. I fully support unleashing NAMB to become focused on planting healthy churches in the most needed areas. As a board member of my state convention, I wholeheartedly support phasing out cooperative agreements to give NAMB the freedom to be reinvented and revitalized. The ultimate goal is not money, but reaching people with the message of Jesus Christ. We should do whatever it takes to get ourselves in position to make the message most available.

>COMPONENT 5 (IMB): This will allow people and churches to focus on a people group here in the U.S. and not have to travel abroad to reach a people group.

>COMPONENT 6 (CP): While the promotion of the CP ultimately falls upon the pastor, I do believe that state conventions are better equipped to assist churches in education and promotion of the CP than any other agency.

>COMPONENT 7 (EC funding): I believe where we spend the majority of our money is where our heart and interests lie. Therefore, I believe that increasing the percentage to the IMB is great. I personally would like to have seen it increased more so that we could send more men and women across the world with the gospel.

>SUMMARY VIEW: I believe the GCRTF did a wonderful job of assessing the needs of the SBC. I believe there are more aspects of the SBC that could be improved or reinvented. However, for the short amount of time that they had to work together, I believe the task force did a great job.

PATRICK PAYTON, pastor, Stonegate Fellowship, Midland
>VOTE: I sincerely hope this final report is adopted as a bare minimum starting point of monumental change and adjustment within the SBC and its churches. This report does not even begin to challenge the SBC as an organization to enough radical change….I hope we are headed in a direction where we will push even harder for greater and more effective goals.

>COMPONENT 1 (Vision): I am in favor of trying to gather together a unifying statement for all to rally around. My concern in this matter is that we have become so caught up in mission/vision statements and forgotten that a mission/vision statement is nothing more than a lofty set of words that will mean nothing if lofty and courageous actions are not taken [as well].

>COMPONENT 2 (Core Values): The statement that we need a set of unifying core values seems very odd to me this late in the game as a convention. When I read over the proposed core values they seem rather obvious. It would seem to me that if we need to be reminded of these eight core values, then our problems are much deeper and damaging than we might imagine.

>COMPONENT 3 (Great Commission Giving): Personally, I have no idea what this element will accomplish or not accomplish. It is my opinion that the Cooperative Program (the SBC’s shared funding method) is neither the problem nor the issue for Southern Baptists. For us, as a local church, the matter pure and simple is effectiveness; and for us, the institution of the SBC is in desperate need of a total overhaul. Focusing on the CP is the wrong place to focus.

>COMPONENT 4 & 5 (NAMB & IMB): I believe the recommendations for the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the International Mission Board (IMB) fall woefully short. I see no justifiable reason why we should not, as Southern Baptists, reorganize our missions agencies into one centralized Global Missions Agency. I personally believe that any “tweaking” of NAMB and IMB responsibilities is little more than shifting the furniture when in actuality walls need to be torn down and some remodeling done. We continue to hear and read from current Executive Committee leaders and longtime denominational employees that we have the best system and we must not do anything that might move our churches back to a societal method of missions. So comical in the warnings related to societal missions is that we are already back to a societal methodology. Many churches are moving towards mission agencies and groups that are tuned in to the local church; they do not want to only support missions through agencies, they want to be on the field and in partnership on the field.

>COMPONENT 6 (CP Promotion): The promotion and funding of the CP boils down to addressing a symptom and not a root issue. In a day and time when “Doing missions” is so much more direct and opportunistic that it once was, the SBC still operates much like a GM or IBM rather that an Apple. Every size church can find an effective way to get engaged in open and closed countries without the SBC; finances are not the issue.

>COMPONENT 7 (EC funding): Money always flows to that which is perceived to hold the greatest value and return; the funding of SBC work and CP is not a percentage issue or a challenge issue, it is a vision and effectiveness issue. As long as a new generation of church leaders and planters of the 21st century perceives the work of the SBC to be “non-effective,” “behind the curve,” or woefully naïve” about the changes in culture and methodology, the money needed for ministry in and among SBC entities will continue to dry up and go elsewhere. It is not a matter of churches giving or doing less; it is a matter of churches giving and doing more in more effective and diverse ways outside of the SBC.

>SUMMARY VIEW: I believe the task force went for a field goal when they should have gone for the touchdown. I had sincerely hoped to see a greater call for change and reorganization on all levels—from the missions agencies becoming one new agency to a more church-based methodology and focus in the seminaries that pushes towards regional availability and shorter preparation time. My hope is that this report is a the very least a door to major change.

JARRETT STEPHENS, Teaching Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist, Plano
>VOTE: My prayer is that we will overwhelmingly approve the recommendations and signal to the world that we are a cooperative body of believers with a lase-focus to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that we refuse to let anything, even our own preferences and systems, stand in the way of accomplishing our mission.

>COMPONENT 1 (Vision): I do think that the SBC needs a new, unified mission statement—having a stated goal of what an organization is attempting to establish is both critically important and wise. It keeps before us a “big picture” of where we intend to go, allows us to monitor progress, and hopefully keeps us from getting off mission and doing something of lesser value. Also the SBC currently has no written mission statement that I am aware of and this is essentially “the Great Commission” reworded—certainly we can rally around this.

>COMPONENT 2 (Core Values): The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message gave us the parameters, the non-negotiables, that we hold to doctrinally. It serves as the fence, if you will, that we are to all play ball in. I see Component 2 as the actual rules of the game. They reinforce the idea that we are all on the same team. In a convention where our churches and seminaries all “play different positions,” keeping these core values before us reminds us that the team is most important.

>COMPONENT 3 (GC Giving): The CP is already being impacted negatively. Will designating “Great Commission giving” add to its two-decade decline? I don’t think anyone can fully know that answer. If we plant more strategic churches in North America, I would hop the CP would increase simply because more churches are giving towards it. If the CP does continue to decline, it won’t be because fo Component 3. More than three-quarters of the component is directed toward an affirmation and plea to CP giving.

>COMPONENT 4 (NAMB): I thought one of the strongest aspects of the report was the task force call for part of the “reinvention” of NAMB to be about a focus on leadership development, contextual evangelism, and church planting. We must do anything and everything as a convention to maximize our resources in order to have the greatest impact in reaching the lost within North America. Phasing out cooperative agreements will exhibit within the convention our cooperation in fulfilling our missional vision. Dissolving these agreements will allow more resources to go directly to unreached people groups in our most unreached places within our own country.

>COMPONENT 5 (IMB): Practically, this will only help the mission ventures of our church because it will serve to complement them. We already have church plants that we work with in many of the metropolitan cities that would be targeted for these unreached people groups. Removing the geographic limitations would allow us to broaden our scope of work in those partner cities with an organization that is already established and one that we trust.

>COMPONENT 6 (CP): This component was warranted because the state conventions are the ones on the ground working with the associations and individual churches. I firmly believe that CP giving will increase when championed, supported and promoted within a context of relational trust. It makes sense that those who work with these churches on a regular basis take the lead in the education and promotion of it.

>COMPONENT 7 (EC funding): Personally, I would have like to see even more taken from the facilitating ministries budget. We have people waiting to be assigned to the mission field right now and it’s not because we don’t have the funds to send them; it is because the funds are going elsewhere. Giving over half of our CP monies directly to the IMB signals that we are a denomination with a focused priority to fulfill the Great Commission. I am for cutting from the Executive Committee and any other ministry budget for that matter, to ensure “reaching the world” remains a priority in word and in action.

>SUMMARY VIEW: With an organization as large as the SBC, small change over time is significant change. I think the recommendations the GCRTF has given will help in creating significant change. Time will only tell if they went “far enough” but certainly this is a very needed start.

 

 

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That Bible you carry

What’s behind the Bible you use every Sunday? You know that others in your congregation, maybe in your own family, use Bibles with different wording in many verses. Are those Bibles all equally reliable? The path between the pens of Moses or Luke and the Bible you use most often is complex. While I say at the beginning and at the end that your Bible (assuming you’re using a mainstream version) is reliable, it’s worth understanding some of what has gone into making that statement true.

First, the raw material behind your own version of the Bible is voluminous and intimidating. The work of textual criticism (criticism here meaning “evaluation”) is to work through the biblical and even extra-biblical material so that we have the text of Scripture in a reliable form, as close to the original writings of God’s messengers as possible. Textual critics are theologians, archeologists, experts in ancient languages and history, and tedious analysts. They further utilize such tools as carbon dating and chemical analysis of ink and writing media.

Old Testament translations are primarily based on a text from about 1000 AD called the Masoretic Text. This was the Old Testament in Hebrew. Some other materials were available?a significant additional resource was the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. The Septuagint (seventy), often abbreviated “LXX,” is named for the 72 scholars who, in about 200 BC, translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek over the course of 72 days in Alexandria, or so the story goes. This Greek translation is the Bible the apostles and Jesus used most often, it is the Bible Paul quoted when he quoted an OT passage. One significant feature of the Septuagint is that it was translated earlier than our existing Hebrew text. This difference in age brings us closer to the original authors and thus gives us greater confidence that copy errors or other factors have not changed the text. This older text also bears strong witness to the reliability of the Masoretic Hebrew Bible of later centuries.

The way we understood Old Testament translation changed in 1948 when a shepherd boy found clay tablets containing biblical material in a cave near the Dead Sea. By the time several area caves had been excavated we had copies or portions of every OT book except Esther. These copies were more than a thousand years older than the Masoretic Text. One of the most amazing things we discovered was how little the language had changed during that long period. Another was how few differences there were between the older copies and the later ones. It was a great testimony to the reliability of the Hebrew text upon which modern versions were based. Bible versions translated or revised in the past 50 years have worked with an awareness of these Dead Sea scrolls and the insights we gained from their discovery.

For the New Testament we have thousands of manuscripts and fragments, one dating to within 20 or 30 years from the original. The examination of these resources allow biblical scholars to make informed decisions on the authenticity of a book, the most reliable manuscripts, and ultimately the best reading of the text. The work of these scholars is an art based on a great number of facts. They factor in archeological evidence that helps them understand the locales and language of the Bible. The type of ink used to write, as well as the material written upon, allows scholars to determine the era in which biblical material was penned. Even the style of writing?is it capital or lower case, are there breaks between words or not, is it uncial (a kind of cursive style) or printed?testifies to the era and authenticity of a Scripture portion. Their analysis of the vocabulary, writing style, historical references and so forth, in a book that claims to be written by one of the apostles or during that time often allows us to know if such material is what it claims. That kind of criticism has ruled out many of the so called “hidden” or “suppressed” books of the early church?a fact Da Vinci Code conspiracy theorists find inconvenient.

Less so than in the examination of Old Testament materials, New Testament scholars must also sort through well-meant (or agenda-driven) efforts to “fix” the grammar or theology of the biblical books. They therefore have to be versed in church history so that they can know when a controversy arose so that they can distinguish between verses written by first-century apostles and third-century debaters. I suppose it’s similar to those who would change biblical words to better fit the sensibilities of our time related to gender-specific references to God the Father or Jesus the Son. Scribes that handled the Old Testament reverenced the text to such a degree that far less of that kind of editing took place.

As rules of thumb, our Scripture CSI team developed some principles that allow them to spot the best reading of biblical material. First, older material is generally preferred over later material. This makes sense because every generation that passes from the original results in untold numbers of copies and with those, the possibility of errors or edits in the copy process. Second, readings more difficult (for the scribe) and/or shorter are preferred over easier or lengthier writing. Again, an edit would likely be intended to smooth out a tough passage and may also require greater length to clarify. Third, readings that are most broadly (geographically) accepted are preferred over those that could more easily derive from one source. I include this description to give you an insight as to how deliberate and serious these researchers are. They are trying to get us as close as possible to the source?the originals.

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Seminal events occurring in Orlando

Greetings from Orlando! Actually, I am still in Grapevine while writing this column but I wanted you to know that your prayers are needed for the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Fla., June 15-16. There are several seminal events about to transpire:

?A new SBC president will be elected. There are currently four announced candidates. We have the luxury of knowing that all of them believe in the inerrancy of the Word of God. We have come a long way in 20 years. You can cast your ballot without being concerned that Southern Baptists will be taken down the wrong path as far as the nature of Scripture is concerned. The candidates differ on their vision for the SBC’s future. Carefully study their comments and prayerfully vote for the one of your convictions.

?The SBC Executive Committee search committee has announced Frank Page as their selection. While the SBC messengers do not vote on his election (only the Executive Committee), a new day will begin after the vote. Morris Chapman has served for 17 years. There will be a new person at the helm in the fall. Pray for God’s direction.

?With vacancies in the executive offices of the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board, the boards’ search committees have not announced any candidates. It is very unlikely this will happen in Orlando. This could be the gathering when the persons who will direct our missions efforts surface in the hearts of the search committees. Pray for God’s leadership in the search.

?Finally, the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report is on the program for Tuesday afternoon (June 15). It is unfortunate that some have made the report more about personalities and style than the facts. Individual Southern Baptists and the churches of the SBC are in desperate need of spiritual renewal. This has to be done in the heart. The report challenges all of us toward a deeper devotion to the Lord Jesus.

Structural recommendations of the GCRTF are not criticisms of good plans and godly leaders. The desire of the Task Force is to show the difference between good and better. It is better to penetrate lostness in the underserved regions of North America and the unreached peoples of the world than to concentrate our resources in the more served areas. Southern Baptists are being called to sacrifice for the gospel. We must prioritize our limited resources in such a way as to have the greatest impact in penetrating lostness. More personnel and funding must go to the least reached places. This will result in a Great Commission Resurgence.

My prayer is that we will pay any price, go any place, and do any service to accomplish the Great Commission as a convention of churches. By the grace of God this is my personal pledge to you.

Demolition team grows church in Port-au-Prince

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti?Over the last few months, volunteer work in Haiti has revolved around demolition. With so many buildings damaged beyond the point of repair, teams had to go in and tear down crumbling structures and clear foundations before anything could be rebuilt.

Steve Dorman, pastor of First Baptist Church of Brownsville, led one of these demolition teams. Dorman and his team went to Port-au-Prince to work on demolition and reconstruction of a church.

“One of the walls had fallen apart and the roof had caved in,” Dorman said. “The other walls were concrete blocks, but they were very unstable. You could push on them and they would fall over.”

The team knocked down the walls and cleared off the slab. They then built a retaining wall and a wooden frame structure as well as a roof. The result was on open-air pavilion where the church could meet and have room to grow.

“We originally had planned to rebuild it with concrete blocks,” he said, “but the pastor was really hoping to expand the church in the near future so he asked us if we would build a wood frame wall so that he could take it loose easier and make a bigger structure.”

While Dorman and his team worked on the church building, a Mississippi couple was building the church in a different way. Steve and Kay Griffin, working through the North American Mission Board, acted as the team’s facilitators on the ground in Haiti. They helped to get all of the tools and supplies the team needed for their project.

As the team worked, the Griffins spoke to the children of a school that was attached to the church. In Haiti, parents have to pay to send their children to school, so many churches offer schooling and meals for children who cannot afford an education otherwise. The Griffins gave the kids the plan of salvation and 19 of them prayed to accept Christ.

“It was an answer to our prayers,” Dorman said. “We didn’t just want to do physical things to help them. We wanted to help them spiritually in a way that would last for eternity.”

“They were a super team,” Steve Griffin said about Dorman’s demolition team. “They had a major building and clearing project, and they did a great job.”

Though proud of what he and his team accomplished, Dorman acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to be done in Haiti. Rubble still lines the streets and people still live in fear and insecurity, unwilling or unable to go back into their homes.

“There are so many different needs,” Dorman said. “The country needed all of these relief organizations before the earthquake because of the poverty and the instability and the lack of infrastructure and the human need. But after the earthquake there will be needs for years to come.”

For more information on volunteering, contact Jim Richardson by e-mail at jrichardson@sbtexas.com or by phone at 940-704-9346. You may donate to disaster relief efforts online by credit card or writing a check to “Disaster Relief.” All funds go directly toward current or future disaster relief efforts. Checks should be mailed to the SBTC office at PO Box 1988, Grapevine 76099-1988.

SBTC joins others in regional children’s ministry conference

BROKEN ARROW, Okla.?More than 900 preschool and children’s leaders from six states met at First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow, Okla., for a two-day conference called “Heart of the Child.” The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention joined state convention leaders from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas-Nebraska in planning the bi-annual conference, which covered areas such as music, missions, Bible skills, weekday ministry, camps, and numerous related topics.

LifeWay Christian Resources, International Mission Board, North American Mission Board and WMU also participated.

“For a regional training, I think it is one of the most beneficial conferences to attend,” said Karen McNeece of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. “The keynote speakers are relevant and fresh and it’s a weekend of recharging and renewing yourself to better share the gospel with boys and girls. It’s also a fabulous time to be with your teaching team?to connect to one another, to make a plan and share a vision on how to be the most effective teachers.”

The next Heart of the Child Conference is scheduled for April 20-21, 2012, at First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow in suburban Tulsa.

Bible tools for families offered

At a young age children love listening to stories and turning through pages in books. They excitedly point at pictures even before they can put words together to describe what they are thinking and seeing. But where should a parent who loves Jesus begin exposing children to the life-changing stories and truths found in the Bible?

Christian parents desire for the curiosity and interest of their children to be directed toward God and the book he has written to young and old alike.

Two recently released titles provide parents tools to teach their children about the Bible. Crossway offers “A Family Guide to the Bible” by Christin Ditchfield as a family-friendly look at Scripture to help parents make teaching it a part of everyday family life.

According to Ditchfield, the book is not intended as an exhaustively-detailed resource, but is written to be user-friendly for families. “‘A Family Guide to the Bible’ was written to help busy parents, grandparents, and teachers with the basics: what’s in the Bible, where to find it, and how it all fits together,” Ditchfield said. “It’s intended to be simple, family friendly and easy to understand and follow.”

The book begins with three short chapters, each detailing an important aspect of studying Scripture. Chapter one addresses the history of the Bible and explains how Scripture was canonized. Chapter two examines the authority of the Bible and looks at the unity, accuracy, history and prophecy of the Bible and how these elements serve to prove the inerrancy of Scripture. Chapter three discusses the message of the Bible and how that message runs from Genesis to Revelation in a cohesive theme.

Following the opening chapters, Ditchfield lays out a book-by-book overview of the Old and New Testaments. These overviews include the book name, author, audience and setting, as well as key verses or passages and vocabulary words to know. Other sections include: “Where to Find More on the Story in the Bible,” which details how the story continues in other passages; “Did You Know?” which highlights important facts; and “Making the Connection,” which shows the link between the Bible and modern-day events.

Following the book-by-book overview, Ditchfield includes a chapter on how to study the Bible, including how to choose a translation and how to use other biblical resources, such as a Bible dictionary, encyclopedia and concordance. She also includes study tips for personal Bible study and family devotions, as well as Bible reading plans.

The final chapters of the book are reference guides with a chapter titled “Where in the Scripture to Find Everything,” which includes references for finding stories from the Old and New Testaments that everyone should know, Bible heroes, the miracles and teachings of Jesus, as well as where to find verses for specific life events. Ditchfield also includes a chapter of biblical maps and a chapter listing additional Bible study resources, such as books, maps and charts, software, movies, and online resources.

“I Want to Know About the Bible” by Christina Goodings exposes readers to many of the treasured stories of the Bible beginning in Genesis and continuing all the way through to Revelation. The book, published by Lion UK, gives a simple overview of stories, characters and themes that provide parents with an easy way to share with their children about the Bible.

Informative insights on how the Bible was written are included throughout the book in feature boxes. In one example, Goodings describes how thousands of years ago some of the first stories in the Bible were told by grown-ups to their children. She writes, “In this way, they were treasured long before they were written down.” The feature boxes also cover topics like languages used for original writings and information on biblical writers. The beautiful illustrations by Jan Lewis depict everything from the Ark of the Covenant to a map showing the Apostle Paul’s journeys and the destinations of some of the letters he wrote.

Goodings’ approach in writing “I Want to Know

Bible societies exploiting technology to spread Word

Walk into any Christian bookstore in America and you will find shelf after shelf of Bibles in every shape, size, color and translation possible–Bibles tailored to every special interest group–women, men, children, teens, military, medical, and even sportsmen. These Bibles are no doubt a blessing for those who have both the resources to purchase them and the ability to read them.

But what about those who have neither? According to audio Bible distributor Faith Comes By Hearing, approximately 50 percent of the world’s population is illiterate. Even if they could afford to purchase a Bible in a bookstore, they couldn’t read it.

However, in today’s technology-driven age, groups are rising to meet the challenge of providing the Bible to those who are illiterate or have limited literacy. These groups are taking the gospel to far-flung areas of the earth in print, on CDs and MP3s, and over the Internet.

“We are building our part of the wall of the kingdom,” said Eric Fellman, president of World Bible Translation Center, based in North Richland Hills. WBTC exists to translate the Bible into an easy-to-read format in the top 100 languages spoken in the world. “We are a group that is totally committed to the original language. We believe the Holy Spirit wanted the common people to understand.”

To enhance understanding, WBTC translations of the Bible use vocabulary that is understandable for the average fourth- or fifth-grader. “Even in America, literacy level is dropping from ninth-grade level to seventh grade,” Fellman said. The Easy-to-Read Version of the Bible helps people grasp biblical concepts in everyday language.

WBTC has an Easy-to-Read Version of the Bible in 30 of the top 100 languages in the world. These versions are distributed in print and/or audio at cost by WBTC partners around the world. In addition, every edition is made available free of charge in a PDF format on the WBTC website.

WBTC Easy-to-Read Version has just recently been translated into Arabic and is being distributed in the Middle East.

“The Arabic version is incredibly important to supporting Christians in the Middle East,” Fellman said. “In Egypt there are currently 6 million believers with no version of the Bible available until now.”

In addition to world-wide efforts, the WBTC Easy-to-Read Version Spanish Bibles are being used to teach English in Texas and other areas with large Hispanic communities. “Our Spanish translation is side-by-side with simple English,” Fellman said. “It is a good tool with ESL.”

WBTC is ready and willing to partner with individuals, churches, and large organizations to get Easy-to-Read Versions of the Bible into the hands of those who need them most. Missionaries representing Southern Baptist mission boards have taken advantage of the resources for work around the world. For more information about how to partner with WBTC, visit their website at wbtc.org.

. . . 

In 1972, Jerry and Annette Jackson were ministering on a Hopi Indian Reservation where they found unused Hopi Bibles and realized that even though the Word was there, the people couldn’t use it because they were illiterate. Out of that experience, the ministry of Faith Comes By Hearing and its audio Bible listening program were born.

FCBH focuses providing the Bible to the poor and illiterate in a culturally relevant way. According to FCBH statistics, the group has 24 recording centers throughout the world, staffed by 40 recording teams of national workers. In 2008, over $14.5 million was given to FCBH for its programs. Currently, FCBH has 454 audio Scripture recordings available in 388 languages. These recordings reach 4.5 billion people in 135 countries.

According to the FCBH website, spreading the gospel around the world presents special challenges. “Offering every person on our planet equal access to the Bible requires meeting the unique needs of generations, technical societeis, and fast-paced lifestyles. It also means meeting the cultural and literacy challenges presented when working in underdeveloped countries. Faith Comes By Hearing is rising to meet the biblical needs of a complex world through modern technology. An MP3 Bible, “BibleSticks” for all ages, and a third-world culturally adapted playback unit, called The Proclaimer, are just a taste of the technology that God is using to spread his Word throughout the world with Faith Comes By Hearing programs.”

Two FCBH programs provide audio versions of the Bible in the United States and around the world. “You’ve Got The Time” is an effort to provide an audio version of the New Testament to every adult and teenager in participating local churches. In addition, children are provided with the Kidz Audio Bible. According to FCBH, listeners are disciple and then they are asked to participate in providing audio Bibles to the poor and illiterate through FCBH’s international programs.
“You’ve Got The Time” is sponsored by Christian business people and foundations who are concerned about biblical illiteracy in the U.S.

The international program, “Faith Comes By Hearing,” takes audio Bibles in native languages to people groups who generally follow an oral tradition of transmitting information. Pastors or leaders commit to listening with their people for 30 minutes a week and then follow the listening with a time of discussion.

In addition to CD and MP3, FCBH also offers over 400 audio Bible downloads free of charge of its website, faithcomesbyhearing.com

. . .

Producing and distributing Bibles in a digital format, especially for areas of the world where the gospel is not readily available, is the mission of The Digital Bible Society. Based in The Woodlands, Texas, the group provides both audio and video versions of the gospel, primarily in China and the Middle East, as well as other areas of the world.

Started in 2000 as an all-volunteer group of software developers, missionaries, pastors and Bible students, The Digital Bible Society believes that the personal computer has opened new opportunities to share the gospel in a digital format—opportunities that are both vast low cost. “In the past, Bibles have cost missionary societies several dollars each to produce and ship. Now, an entire library with Bibles, audio=scriptures, evangelical media, commentaries, devotionals, inspirational works, and biographies can be reproduced on a quality computer disk for 50 cents. That same CD can be copied and given away in minutes. Imagine, an entire Christian library, resources worth thousands of dollars—taking up several meters of shelf space—copied freely in minutes and carried away in a shirt pocket,” state the society’s vision statement.

In keeping with its vision, The Digital Bible Society is currently focusing on distributing Chinese Treasures 5.0, a CD containing four Chinese Bibles, two commentaries, a New Testament Audio Bible, as well as various reference works, discipleship and training materials, evangelistic tracts, biography and history material. In addition, the CD contains 177 Classic and inspirational Christian books, as well as “The Hope,” an 80-minute video that presents the gospel. These CDs are available free of charge to those living in China or those who will be traveling to China.

In addition to making the CDs available for free, The Digital Bible Society encourages those who receive the CD to make as many copies as possible and distribute them in china. While there is no way to know how many times the CDs have been copied and given away, over 200,000 original copies of Chinese Treasure 5.0 have been distributed in China.

The Digital Bible Society is also working on Arabic Treasure, a project similar to Chinese Treasures, but targeted to Christians in the Middle East. They hope to have this project completed soon. Other language groups targeted for CD projects include Turkish, Indonesian, Russian and Farsi.

There are many ways to participate in The Digital Bible Society’s efforts to spread the gospel. To find out how you can be involved, visit their website at dbsbible.org.