It’s Sunday morning and you struggle to get yourself to church on time. On the other side of the ocean a young American wakes to the sound of gun fire and shouting soldiers.

Over and over again, the sacrifices of our service men and women have, among other things, provided the liberty to awaken oneself to get to church on a Sunday morning free and clear of danger or persecution.

Such sacrifices haven’t escaped the notice of some churches.

The father of one of those fighting to protect our country, Jim Leascher, pastoral counselor at First Baptist Church in Odessa, has begun a ministry called Honor Our Troops (HOT). The program is for those who want to support and show appreciation to those serving overseas by purchasing small care packages.

For $25, one may purchase a flat-rate care package containing objects that to military people in harm’s way are priceless: non-perishable snacks, toiletry items, and perhaps most valuable?a personalized letter and picture sent from the person, family or group supporting the service person.

Leascher established this organization when his son, Army specialist Chad Leascher, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2003. In 2004, after being honorably discharged, Chad safely arrived back on U.S. soil. “We praise God Chad is back with us and out of harm’s way,” Leascher said.
Many war veterans leave the combat behind but are sometimes haunted by what they witness, Leascher said.

“This is why it is so very important to let our military know we appreciate them, we pray for them, and we think of them often,” Leascher said.
The packages come with Oreos, Pringles, sunflower seeds, and beef jerky as well as deodorant, lotion, and baby wipes. Among all the goodies are a picture and a post card from the sponsoring family.

“The response from the folks here and military overseas has been overwhelming and has confirmed over and over that we at HOT are doing what God has intended us to do,” Leascher said.

HOT has one-day events in churches, businesses, and at sporting events across Texas. One recent event at Central Baptist Church in College Station spotlighted the HOT ministry. Central pastor Chris Osborne attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with Leascher.

“We want to encourage our troops while they are in harm’s way,” Osborne said, “and are hoping to provide HOT with at least 1,000 care packages, if not more.”

The church met the challenge, purchasing 1,440 care packages.

“Unbelievable,” Leascher said. “We hope to pattern what we had at Central with other churches and events,” Leascher said.

“We praise God for Jim and his ministry,” Osborne said. “What the Lord did here at Central is small compared to what his plans really are. God will give Jim everything he needs to fulfill God’s plan.”

For more information about the HOT ministry, call 432-889-0177 or e-mail them at honorourtroops@live.com. The website address is hot-honorourtroops.com.

This issue of the TEXAN is being handed out at the Corpus Christi annual meeting of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. If you are reading this in Corpus, “welcome.” I am glad you made it. We are in for an exciting experience. God is ready to move in our lives. Get ready by “Praying and Listening,” which is our theme this year.

If you are not able to be with us, you can pray. Please pray that God will protect those who travel. Pray for His Spirit to move on hearts. Pray for the messengers and guests to leave Corpus different from how they arrived. Pray for the SBTC staff to carry out the will of the churches under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Your prayers are important.

The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is your convention. Your church and 2,260 other churches make up this convention. We need each other. Working together we can Reach Texas and Touch the World.

Thank you for being a part of the SBTC. It is my joy to serve you.

FRISCO?”Jesus Christ is Lord!” taken from Philippians 2:9-11, is the theme of the 2011 Empower Evangelism Conference, scheduled Feb. 28-March 2 at the Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco.

The annual conference will feature a wide array of speakers, including pastors such as Jack Graham, Kie Bowman and Bryant Jones, best-selling author and apologist Lee Strobel, “Total Church Life” author Darrell Robinson, and others. Musical guests will include Babbie Mason and Charles Billingsley.

“The Empower Evangelism Conference is designed to inspire and motivate followers of Jesus to be more zealous about the Great Commission and the Great Commandment of our Lord,” said SBTC Evangelism Director Don Cass. “You will be blessed by great music, dynamic testimonies, and great preaching that will lead us to refocus on the Lordship of our Savior.”

FORT WORTH?Less than a year after acquiring three fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has added three more biblical fragments, making it the largest collection at an institution of higher education in the United States.

The new fragments were obtained from a private collector in Europe through a gift from an anonymous donor and friend of the seminary.

“The acquisition constitutes another significant milestone in the development of our programs in biblical studies and archaeology,” said Paige Patterson, Southwestern’s president. “We are especially grateful for the friends of Southwestern who have made these acquisitions, as well as three other fragments, possible.” Patterson also credited his wife Dorothy, professor of theology in women’s studies, and Ph.D. student Candi Finch for having worked “tirelessly to get them to Fort Worth.”

The set of six fragments is one more than those owned by Azusa Pacific University near Los Angeles, which acquired five pieces in 2009. The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago also owns a fragment.

Steven Ortiz, associate professor of archaeology and biblical backgrounds and director of the Charles D. Tandy Archaeology Museum at Southwestern, noted that having one fragment would be just as important as owning six.

“It is not a race to see who can collect the most fragments,” Ortiz said. “The goal is to get these out of the hands of private collectors and make them available to the public, especially scholars. ?

“Our institution has been entrusted with an important role to play in biblical scholarship and the archaeology and history of ancient Palestine. In addition, since these are some of the oldest biblical texts, Southwestern has a sacred trust to see that these are properly studied and preserved for perpetuity,” Ortiz said.

Southwestern worked with the University of Southern California’s West Semitic Research Project in September to digitally image all of Southwestern’s scroll fragments as well as other rare ancient texts and artifacts in the Tandy Museum for future study and scholarship. Southwestern students were trained in the latest technology and methodology of imaging ancient pieces. Study of the documents is already underway.

“We have hired new faculty members who are trained in Dead Sea Scroll research and archaeology as well as brought the top team to photograph the fragments,” Ortiz said, adding, “We are currently in advisement with the Dead Sea Scroll Foundation to assist in the analysis and publication of these fragments.”

Early analysis shows the new fragments include portions of Deuteronomy 9:25-10:1, Deuteronomy 12:11-14 and Psalm 22:4-13. Psalm 22 is known as a prophetic messianic psalm that describes the brutality of Jesus’ death 1,000 years before he was crucified.

Plans for Southwestern’s new chapel, which is currently under construction, include the secure, climate-controlled Ira Leeta Phillips Library for housing the fragments and a pen made from a palm tree which was found with the Dead Sea Scrolls and presumably was used by the scribes who wrote them. Once the chapel is completed, the pieces will be on display and potentially will travel in national exhibits.

“One cannot overestimate the significance of these valuable artifacts for Southwestern Seminary, for Fort Worth, for Texas and for all the Americas,” Patterson said. “I cannot but express my gratitude to our Lord for enabling us to be a significant part of this ongoing vital research.”

In 1947, Bedouins discovered the scrolls in caves overlooking the Dead Sea near the ancient city of Qumran, east of Jerusalem. Nearly 10 years of excavation in the caves produced fragments from approximately 825 to 870 separate scrolls containing biblical manuscripts, biblical manuscripts with commentary, apocryphal manuscripts and extra-biblical literature.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have made a profound impact on biblical studies, especially in the area of scribal transmission. Dating back to the time of Christ, these documents pre-date the Masoretic Text of Hebrew Scriptures by 1,000 years. When Southwestern acquired the first three fragments in January, Patterson said the discovery of Daniel fragments in the Dead Sea Scrolls showed that “it was clear that these were copies of copies of copies so that it established the certainty that Daniel was written when it claims to have been written.”

The Muslim looked at his Christian friend and asked, “If this salvation gift is so important, why did you wait six years to tell me about it?”

Chad Vandiver, SBTC’s missions strategies associate, related that anecdote in explaining the People Group Champions Project (PGCP) he directs.

“The PGCP represents our efforts to help churches embrace and reach for Christ the ethno-linguistic people groups in their city who may be Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists,” Vandiver said. “The project provides training and coaching so church members can serve as missionaries to these people groups.

“During the training, we lead students by taking them to the people group’s places of worship, and to their restaurants and grocery stores so we can model what’s being taught,” he said. “We never want to teach theory only. We find opportunities for the church to get engaged.”

The project is designed for participation at differing levels of involvement, Vandiver explained: “the praying church, the adopting church and the transforming church.” The ultimate goal is for each church to progress into “a modeling church.”

The modeling church is one that has successfully completed and is implementing all phases of the PGCP, and is also training other churches via the PGCP curriculum. Training includes recognizing and/or fostering a church planting movement among the people group.

“We teach students to recognize the global networks of the people group and how to utilize them so immigrants returning to their homeland may take the gospel with them,” Vandiver said. “We ask the question: ‘How can the local network tap into the global network for the sake of the gospel.'”

Each phase of the training “is critical because it teaches the best ways to intelligently engage people groups,” Vandiver said.

The “praying church” option raises a congregation’s awareness to people groups in their area, teaching their basic culture and ultimately leading the church to prayer-walk where the prospects live and work.

“This classification is for churches not yet ready to personally engage people groups, but willing to pray for them and for opportunities to reach them,” Vandiver said.

The “adopting church” training option introduces students to the worldview of certain people groups. It also prepares students for long-term relationships with the prospects in their communities, and to look for ministry and evangelistic opportunities among them.

“It gives students biblical methods of implementing contextualized evangelism among the people group,” Vandiver said. “Though it’s limited to the pastor, certain staff members, and select spiritual leaders in the church, once a passion for the people group takes over, the church is ready to move to the next stage of training?becoming a transforming church.”

The transforming church training option is available to all church members. It instructs students how to develop meaningful, cross-cultural relationships, and teaches biblical passages for use in leading members of the people group to faith in Jesus Christ. The training prepares the student for all aspects of relationship evangelism.

“We provide students with the people group’s history and other significant cultural information so they can become the ‘Jesus expert’ among the people group,” Vandiver said.

“There’s a missions movement happening in the U.S. with multiple people groups coming and living among us,” he added. “We either decide to join in or we don’t.”

A Transformed Church
First Baptist Church of Euless?now a “transforming church”?has joined the PGCP and trained many of its members for the purpose of reaching the thousands of Muslims in the area.

“The PGCP is a great resource for encouraging believers to begin seeing Muslims through the lens of the cross and empowers the local church to make an eternal impact,” said Greg Love, evangelism pastor at FBC Euless. “Simply put, the program moves believers from awareness to action.”

However, “Cultivating this response is a challenge due to the negative emotions of most American church members toward Muslims,” Love said. “This is why the PGCP is so helpful. It serves as a catalyst for transforming fear into awareness and action.”

An additional motivation, Love said, is that the birthrate among Muslim families is four times greater than most other ethnic groups. “This is why First Euless seeks to offer the PGCP training throughout the church. Our desire is to be positioned for kingdom impact,” Love noted.

FBC Euless members have prayer-walked Muslim neighborhoods, visited local mosques and shared fellowship meals, frequented Muslim-owned businesses, and established “first-name” relationships with many local Muslims for the purpose of sharing Christ. Future efforts include offering English classes within mosques.

“Our desire is to impact our community with the gospel,” Love said.

The PGCP training has motivated a broad spectrum of First Euless members, Love said. Retirees are visiting mosques to meet people and prayer-walk. One member built a relationship with a Muslim woman, visited her home and was able to converse about salvation through Christ. Later, this same Muslim woman visited worship services while her children visited Kidopolis, the children’s ministry of First Euless.

“She’s not a believer yet,” Love said. “But, she’s heard the truth about Christ.”

Another FBC member is considering moving into an apartment complex concentrated with Muslims to establish relationships and share the gospel. This single woman “became so incredibly burdened for Muslim women trapped in darkness that she began equipping others in her sphere of influence to reach Muslim women for Christ,” Love said.

For Love, the PGCP is far more than just a method to reach local Muslims: “This resource helps church members develop a heart for all the nations.”

“The people groups are here,” Vandiver added. “And I believe God has called us to be missionaries to them. He has given us the Great Commission, and it’s a command, not a suggestion. We need to be reaching these people groups in our communities and overseas. We cannot neglect either field.”

For more information on how your church can become a PGCP church, contact Chad Vandiver toll-free at 877-953-7282 (SBTC) or e-mail him at cvandiver@sbtexas.com.

DALLAS?Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee Chairman Roger Spradlin reminded the Criswell College homecoming audience of the priority of preaching that reflects the Great Commission.

“We as Baptists and evangelicals are Great Commission people. But even though that’s the underpinning of so much of what we believe and do, it’s easy to neglect preaching on the Great Commission,” said Spradlin, co-pastor of Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Calif., and one of two featured speakers at the 40th anniversary of the school’s founding on Oct. 5.

Preaching from Matthew 28:18-20, Spradlin said: “Great Commission preaching emphasizes both evangelism and missions.” The Bible commands believers to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,” or literally, Spradlin added, to the 1.7 billion people from among “clans, tribes, ethnicities and people groups” without a gospel witness.

“Taking the gospel to the nations, to the people groups?that involves what we would call missions. But it also involves evangelism, because God doesn’t save people groups, he saves individuals.”

“There’s something of a generational divide in understanding the Great Commission,” Spradlin said. “In the past, some have talked about the Great Commission purely in terms of evangelism. It would seem the goal simply is to populate heaven with as many born-again people as we can. Yet, some now interpret the Great Commission solely in terms of missions?taking the gospel to various people groups. The fact is, it is both: Evangelism is reaching individuals with the gospel, and missions is taking the gospel to the people groups.”

“Great Commission preaching emphasizes all of the biblical revelation [because it] permeates the whole of the Word of God,” said Spradlin, who traced from Genesis to Revelation multiple verses that reveal the salvific intent of God and its results among the nations.

“We tend to dilute the Great Commission. We make the message simply about witnessing … but it’s more than that. It is also missions; it is God’s grand plan for his kingdom as seen throughout the Old and New Testaments.”

Also, Spradlin also said believers are “conditioned to think of salvation in terms of us. We say sometimes that if we were the only one on earth, then Jesus would have died for us.” Though true, Spradlin characterized the notion as “egocentric theology,” which he said “misses the big picture. What is the big picture? The big picture is what God is doing among the nations, the people groups of the earth.”

“Many in our churches, when they think of the Great Commission, they think the command is to go. Actually, the only imperative is to make disciples,” he said.

“The goal isn’t a participle; it’s as we go?plural?that puts responsibility on us,” he said. “God has the power but we have the responsibility.”
“Great Commission preaching also emphasizes the significance of baptism,” Spradlin said, noting that baptism is a means of identifying with Christ and the people of God. “Some want to devalue and deemphasize baptism. But we should not deemphasize what Christ has emphasized in the Great Commission.”

Finally, “Great Commission preaching emphasizes obedience as well as knowledge and discipleship,” Spradlin said.

“We’ve developed a kind of Gnostic Christianity. We’re so proud of theological knowledge that we think the one who knows the most Bible verses is the most spiritual. What we do in our churches is fill the room with people, and then we fill their heads with Bible facts and we call that discipleship. But true discipleship is obedience based,” he said. “Discipleship means a Christian is a learner of, and follower of Jesus.”

The responsibility to spread the gospel “creates a crisis in our thinking,” Spradlin continued. “Do we really believe that people without Jesus are lost and without hope? It’s so easy in our culture to think that faith is a matter of taste rather than truth.”

Spradlin related an anecdote about the famed missionary to China, Adonirum Judson, who was asked if the main requirement to be a missionary is it to love souls. According to Spradlin, Judson said, “No.” The main requirement “is to love God.”

“When you love God, you’ll love souls,” Spradlin said. “A heart for the nations is born in a heart that belongs to God.”

DALLAS–Acting on the unanimous recommendation of the presidential search committee for Criswell College, the school’s trustees, in turn, unanimously elected former president Jerry Johnson to fill the post he resigned two years ago.

“There’s really only one reason I would want to come back that matters, and that is if God calls me,” said Johnson at the Nov. 5 board meeting prior to trustees’ secret ballot vote.

“I am a Baptist and believe in the process of the people, committee and the board. And if God is leading, I receive that, along with what I’ve sensed in prayer: God’s call to come back and finish the assignment I started years ago.”

Johnson resigned in August of 2008, when Criswell was under the ministry umbrella of First Baptist Church of Dallas. But now the school is self-governing and independent.

“This is a week of elections,” Johnson told the board. “I don’t know if I can top what happened on Tuesday for some of you.”

Johnson said many in the recent election cycle emphasized a return to the Unites States’ founding documents, and that reminded him of Criswell College’s founding documents. Displaying a written copy of W.A. Criswell’s vision for the school, and a Bible, Johnson said, “What I have to say about the college, and what I believe about Criswell College, really comes from these two documents.”

Commenting on one of the school’s unique distinctions?a commitment to the “inerrancy, infallibility and authority of Scripture”?Johnson said, “Whatever else happens here, we must hold this is our top value.

Board members applauded when Johnson said, “Every faculty member will always be asked initially and annually to recommit to the inspiration, infallibility and inerrancy of Holy Scripture.”

Johnson noted the school’s requirement that all students study Greek and Hebrew.

“If we believe this is God’s Word, then teaching students to understand the way it was written is important.”

Criswell College “is a school built for the glory of God to magnify the Lord Jesus and his mission and meaning to the world,” Johnson continued. “Yes, this is a preacher college. But Dr. Criswell, even in the school’s infancy, envisioned more: kingdom workers, lay people, not just to the church, but to the world.”

Saying he wanted to continue with the counseling and humanities curricula, Johnson revealed his desire to expand to education, communication and other disciplines.

Citing a third focus of the school–evangelism–Johnson added, “That has been a unique distinctive of Criswell College.”

“Criswell College is positioned to train the next generation of Christian leaders for our Lord and I am excited to serve him in this great mission,” Johnson said. “So, I say, ‘Back to the future.'”

Search committee chairman Steve Washburn said the committee reflected a “healthy diversity of convictions. We decided to take an objective approach to our search, using the presidential qualifications specified in our new bylaws as our standard.Each committee member used this standard to conduct personal evaluations of every candidate.”

“In the course of our work we were privileged to consider some of the most godly and qualified men in the Southern Baptist Convention, and we ultimately agreed that Dr. Jerry Johnson was the only man who met all the specified qualifications for president,” said Washburn, pastor of First Baptist Church of Pflugerville. “We asked the Lord to overwhelm us with clarity in our choice, and we’re grateful to God for doing so.”

No stranger to theological academia, Johnson has been serving as vice president for academic development, dean of the faculty and professor of ethics and theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., since January 2009.

“On October 5 of this year the Criswell College celebrated its fortieth year carrying forth the vision God gave our founder, Dr. W.A. Criswell. How appropriate that exactly one month later God would select a new president by returning Dr. Jerry Johnson to lead the college,” wrote Lamar Cooper, executive vice president and provost, who has served for the last two years as Criswell College’s interim president.

Cooper said Johnson is “eminently qualified by his proven leadership as dean of Boyce College at Southern Seminary, as vice president for faculty development and dean of the faculty at Midwestern Seminary, and four years as the president of Criswell College. I join the student body, staff, and faculty in welcoming the return of Dr. Jerry Johnson.”

His second stint as president begins Nov. 15, though he will continue serving Midwestern Seminary two days a week until Dec. 31. This allows Johnson to begin his presidential role at Criswell, to represent Criswell College at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and to complete the fall semester at Midwestern as the seminary prepares to fill the position Johnson vacates there.

A native of Malakoff, Johnson was licensed and ordained to the preaching and pastoral ministries at First Baptist Church of Malakoff.

Johnson earned a bachelor of arts in biblical studies at Criswell in 1986; a master of arts from Denver Seminary in 1997, where he majored in historical and theological studies; and a doctor of philosophy from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003, where he majored in Christian ethics and minored in systematic theology and philosophy.

Associated with Southern Seminary in various roles for 14 years, Johnson was dean of Boyce College, served on the seminary’s executive cabinet, was assistant director of development, and a trustee from 1989-98, serving as board chairman two of those years.

As Criswell president from 2004-08, student enrollment increased by more than 50 percent, from approximately 300 to almost 500. Johnson led the school to financial profitability and garnered a multi-million dollar land gift for a future campus or for liquidation.

His experience includes a pastorate at Ireland Baptist Church, an internship at FBC Dallas and service as a youth pastor at Central Baptist Church in Aurora, Colo., where he later became pastor. He also served as pastor at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Littleton, Colo.

“Jerry Johnson has the head of an academician, the heart of a pastor and the hands of a servant. He is uniquely equipped to lead Criswell College into the future,” said Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. “He has my enthusiastic and unqualified support. The SBTC has a dear and devoted friend in Jerry Johnson.”

—-Tammi Reed Ledbetter, TEXAN news editor, contributed to this story.