Month: May 2011

La Iglesia un Cuerpo Viviente

Cuando hablamos de la iglesia muchas veces pensamos en un edificio o en un local. A través de los siglos en muchos países cuando uno hace referencia a una iglesia siempre se piensa inmediatamente en un templo, una catedral o en una basílica. La verdad es que en la palabra de Dios, la iglesia no es un edificio sino que son aquellos que han aceptado a Cristo como Señor y Salvador de sus vidas. Se puede decir que los creyentes forman y son parte del cuerpo viviente de Cristo aquí en la tierra. La palabra iglesia proviene del griego ekklesia que significa “los llamados” y en el Nuevo Testamento la palabra iglesia se usa 115 veces. Vemos en Efesios 1:22 y 23 que nos dice: “y sometió todas las cosas bajo sus pies, y lo dio por cabeza sobre todas las cosas a la iglesia, la cual es su cuerpo, la plenitud de Aquel que todo lo llena en todo.” También vemos en Efesios 5:25 al 29 como Pablo habla de la iglesia comparándola a los maridos y a las esposas: “Maridos, amad a vuestras mujeres, así como Cristo amó a la iglesia, y se entregó a sí mismo por ella, para santificarla, habiéndola purificado en el lavamiento del agua por la palabra, a fin de presentársela a sí mismo, una iglesia gloriosa, que no tuviese mancha ni arruga ni cosa semejante, sino que fuese santa y sin mancha. Así también los maridos deben amar a sus mujeres como a sus mismos cuerpos. El que ama a su mujer, a sí mismo se ama. Porque nadie aborreció jamás a su propia carne, sino que la sustenta y la cuida, como también Cristo a la iglesia.” La iglesia no es un club o una organización social, es un cuerpo viviente.

La verdad es que la iglesia no es una institución como un hogar, un estado o una escuela; por eso la iglesia nunca debe ser llamada una institución. Es un organismo que es caracterizado por una vida espiritual.

Es algo viviente y dinámico. Nos hacemos miembros de su cuerpo por lo que Cristo hizo por nosotros; no por lo que nosotros hemos hecho. Nosotros no podemos crear la iglesia; es el cuerpo de

Cristo y simplemente somos añadidos a ella. La iglesia es compuesta de creyentes en Cristo que saben que tienen una vida eterna por medio de Él. La iglesia es una congregación o una asamblea de los fieles listos para servir y adorar al Dios vivo.

Se dice de un pastor que recibió malas noticias una noche sobre su iglesia. Le informaron: “Hemos venido para decirle que hubo un incendio en su iglesia esta noche y todo fue destruido. No quedó nada.”

El pastor replicó inmediatamente y dijo: “Si mi iglesia se quemó, se tenía que haber quemado los cien miembros. ¿Fue así?” Respondiendo dijeron: “Ninguno de sus miembros se quemaron.” El pastor concluyó diciendo, “Así es, lo que se quemó esta noche no fue la iglesia, fue el edificio. Pronto la iglesia edificará otro edficio.”

What’s wrong with established churches?

One most often-cited and easily demonstrable reason for our denomination’s emphasis on church planting is the contention that new churches reach more lost people per 100 members than do churches over 15 years old. According to Professor J.D. Payne of Southern Seminary, new churches reach more than three times as many lost people as older churches.

Some mature churches do reach their hundreds, even thousands. Maybe you’ll think of a church of 30,000 members that baptizes 1,000 they win to the Lord each year. It sounds good, and a thousand baptisms would put even a large church near the top of SBC baptisms, but remember the ratio. At an average three baptisms per 100 members (according to Professor Payne), a church with 30,000 members would have to baptize 900 people just to be average. The fictional church noted above has baptized 3.3 per 100 members. It’s the same problem, only multiplied by 300. Church planting still seems like the best way to reach a community, even in a place with many churches that are no longer as effective as they once were in evangelism.

I don’t know why this is true. Over the period of my ministry, hundreds of books and thousands of articles have taken a shot at the problem. Some pastors have found notable success in their ministries but almost none of those who buy the books or attend the conference spawned by one church’s success are able to transfer the spark to their own ministries. “It’s a leadership problem,” many have said. “It’s a prayerlessness problem,” others chime in. Still others note the lack of outreach by many churches. Maybe the laymen need evangelistic training. Maybe we need revival in America. It’s hard to gainsay any of these ideas but some churches are doing better than others, seemingly based on being smaller and newer than the church in the next block.

Higher baptism rates are not the only reason to plant churches, by the way. In many places there are language groups that do not have a church that preaches the gospel to their culture or in their language. In other places, tens of thousands of people do not have a Bible-preaching church in their city. Most of the United States is not over-churched.
Do the characteristics of churches at different stages of maturity give us any clue for differences in evangelistic effectiveness? I think they might.

Smaller-newer churches don’t have enough money—Yes I know that a 40-year-old suburban church doesn’t have enough money either but that church spends 40 percent on personnel and another 30 percent or more on other fixed expenses. The newborn church can’t afford fixed expenses, yet. They have to do ministry without program money. They use what they have, people, every one of the 30-100 people they have.

Larger-older churches have obligations—They have a lot more ministry categories than their new sister churches. Each category needs a staff member to devote or split his attention to the success of the ministries contained therein. And each ministry has a constituency that will list that thing the church does as a very important reason that they attend the church. It becomes something the church must do, so long as they are able. Smaller-newer churches often look forward to the day when they can have a broader set of obligations. They can’t take them on, yet.

Smaller-newer churches are more motivated in evangelism—They need people. Yes, they strongly desire to see the lost come to Christ and so does the church down the block. The smaller-newer church also needs people to do the work and to fund the ministry. The Lord uses need to motivate us to do more energetically the things to which we’re committed already. A smaller-newer church has fewer distractions from the main thing in addition to a real need that may be less keen in churches that reached critical mass decades ago. J.D. Payne has also noted that the evangelistic effectiveness of a new church begins to decline after three years of life. Maybe the urgency fades a little at a time during the first decade.

Church planters are more likely to seek experienced help—The pastor of a mature church has decades of experience and has pastored two or more churches already. He’s less motivated to look for help. If, as many say, 80 percent of our churches are plateaued or declining, why aren’t 80 percent of our churches desperately seeking revitalization? Is complacency a temptation that follows experience?

No one goes to a new church plant to hide out—It’s a blessing of being smaller and newer that the church membership is thoroughly mixed up in the lives of brothers and sisters. The mature church, of 1,000 members or so, is a place where a person can usually attend and watch without anyone bothering him. It’s a difficult problem that grows with time as more and more people come and go or just come and sit. In that church of 1,000 members, nearly the same number of people are intimately involved in what the church does as in the newer church of 100. In the small-new church the percentage is near 100 percent. That drops with time and success, in most cases.

It makes me wonder why a church planter would ever look at another ministry and think, “someday.” But there is another way to look at it.

Mature churches are a resource—Remember those ministries and categories and staff members and fixed expenses? Well those are the things that make many community ministries possible. Smaller-newer churches may want to go to a youth camp planned by a staff member of the bigger-older church, in an office, in a building facilitated by some level of bureaucracy.

Mature churches give money to missions—The concept of missions is that more established ministries give to establish gospel outposts in less-reached places. Those are relative terms, but the life of a missionary or church planter or seminary student would be much more difficult without the missionary hearts of churches over 15 years old.

Larger-older ministries baptize hundreds of thousands each year—Their percentage effectiveness may, on the average, drop over time, but a lot of people are saved in mature churches.

Older churches currently minister in places where we’re not planting churches—Rural counties and small towns need love too. Unless we respect ministries in small traditional places, we’ll neglect the spiritual needs of millions of our countrymen. Our talk, even among our friends and co-workers, should indicate that even churches that might be gone in a generation are not yet gone or irrelevant.

Churches with a long history are tempted to forget their reason for being. I believe revitalization is possible if the church courageously focuses on first things. The focus, energy and almost desperate closeness of a new church start has much to teach churches that are dragged too often into maintenance. Older churches can reach people for Christ if they can shake off ossifying comfort. These churches have a responsibility to remain vital for the whole of their lives. In fact, their responsibilities grow as they are trusted with more influence and more resources.

From observation, it seems true that churches have life stages like people do. Some churches do remain healthy over the course of a hundred years but it’s rare. Most slow down and come to a stop long before that. That doesn’t mean they cease to have a purpose or that there is no hope, just that each stage of life has its own challenges. But if a church can be like a person, a denomination of churches can be like a family—an amazing collection of diverse individuals bound by cords not easily broken. Without new members, the family declines and without the generations of parents and grandparents, the young ones lack nurture. Like families, we also tend to take one another for granted or squabble over nothing. Let’s hear no more cynicism about the well-established need for church planting or, on the other hand, calling ministries different from our own “irrelevant.” It’s not the way families should talk about each other.

Church planting by the numbers

When it comes to counting church plants, one person’s dozen may be a “baker’s dozen” to the next guy counting.

Although most evangelistic and church planting strategies lead to new converts, not all can rightly be called churches, said Terry Coy, SBTC missions director.

Unfortunately for those who track such things at the North American Mission Board (NAMB)—Southern Baptists’ domestic missions agency in suburban Atlanta—the 43 Baptist state conventions it cooperates with use varied criteria for determining what a church plant is.

“Nationally, it’s been apple to oranges,” Coy said. “What we’ve discovered is the need for a more standardized definition of a church.”

NAMB’s new president, Kevin Ezell, has said NAMB will implement such a standard.

At the SBTC, a church plant is regarded as a new work planted with some SBTC funding and accountability—in partnership with local churches and associations—that practices the New Testament functions of a church. A church plant practices the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, has a pastor, and is intentional in its formation and identity as a local church.

The convention doesn’t take credit for churches planted without the church planting team’s involvement or new congregations formed from church splits. Organic strategies that involve Bible studies, multi-housing outreaches, or other similar ministries are also not counted as church plants until, and only if, they grow into intentional congregations.

“That is, there are many ministries that might be church planting strategies, but they do not always nor necessarily lead to a new church. All should be encouraged and celebrated, but we’re calling it a church after the fact, not before,” Coy explained.

Last year, the SBTC helped plant 25 new churches, with about 40 expected this year.

Ezell, speaking to state Baptist paper editors in February, said that in his assessment of NAMB’s work with the various state conventions, a plethora of accounting formulas led to “a lot of smoke and mirrors” to make numbers look better than they were.

For example, Ezell said, “One time I got five different answers to the same question because I asked five different people on purpose. … It’s very hard to solve a problem when you don’t have the right components to add or subtract.” He wants uniform counting standards that don’t tempt people “with skin in the game” to pad numbers.

In annual reports to NAMB, some state conventions counted as new church plants those that had “been alive maybe 30 to 40 years but on a church plant list.” Others have included Bible studies held at campgrounds, Ezell said, or recounted the same newly planted churches two or three years consecutively.

“Southern Baptists, when they hear that number, assume those are new church plants,” Ezell said.

Coy said the SBTC would rather undercount the number of church starts than overcount.

Organic strategies that involve multi-housing and people group strategists may be supported with church planting funds and are considered planting strategies but not considered church plants on the front end.

“Let’s plant the seeds, let’s start it, and let’s see what it grows into,” Coy said. “If and when it has the New Testament functions of a church, then we’ll call it a church.”

Some of the catalytic approaches to church planting “will become New Testament churches; others will become feeder ministries for existing churches,” he said.

“I am willing to call all of these methods church planting strategies and they all need to be celebrated, but they are not necessarily church plants.”

Offering bread for life renders ‘Bread of Life’

FORT WORTH—The book of James instructs Christians not to merely tell naked and hungry people to be warm and well fed; instead, true faith is demonstrated by clothing and feeding them.

Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth has done that over the years as it has ministered to the needy through its benevolence ministry. That’s how Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana de Travis began.

“Travis Avenue’s benevolence ministry reaches about 1,200 people each month, and that’s what wrought vision for the church plant,” said Homer Hawthorne, Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana de Travis’ pastor. “A number of people came to Christ through that ministry, and the need for a church was born.”

Launched in June 2010, the church is supported by Travis Avenue, the Tarrant Baptist Association and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Travis Avenue “chose to stay and minister to this community that was predominantly Anglo but has now transitioned to 70 percent Hispanic,” Hawthorne said. “There is a great need for Christ in the Hispanic neighborhoods all around us here at Travis. There are so many Hispanics that, for Sharon, my wife, and I, it is almost like living again in a Hispanic country.”

Reaching the unreached

“Our goal is to reach the unchurched,” Hawthorne said. “If someone is already involved in another evangelical church, we don’t invite them to our church. Our goal and desire is to reach those who don’t know Christ so the church will grow from conversions and not transfer growth.”

To reach unchurched Spanish-speaking Hispanics, the Hawthornes asked the first few believers of the church plant to list several people they knew who were not Christians, and to pray daily for their salvation as they expressed “Christ’s love to them,” said Hawthorne, who also led church members to pray corporately for the unbelievers every Wednesday night.

As the prayers proved effective and others became Christians, Hawthorne repeated the process to reach more unbelievers.

Not only is the prayer ministry teaching the new believers “to be sensitive to the Lord’s working in those lives but also how to share the gospel. We now have 45 baptized believers and an average of 50 attendees every week, and we continue to see conversions to Christ every month.” Hawthorne said.

A Hispanic woman volunteering in the benevolence ministry had previously committed her life to Christ, but had never been baptized, Hawthorne related. After her baptism, the church prayed for her husband. He soon allowed Hawthorne to make a home visit, but the man wasn’t yet ready to respond to the gospel. He began attending some church meetings, after one of which he invited Hawthorne back to his home.

“I went over there and asked him if he was ready to receive Christ. ‘Yes, I’m ready,’ he said. And he got on his knees and gave his life to Christ,” Hawthorne recounted. “Out of that the daughter of the family, who is 20, was converted and baptized, and so was the 19-year-old son. It’s really something to see how the Lord works through the Hispanic culture, where relationships are everything.”

Citing a “great victory,” Hawthorne recounted the conversion of an unmarried couple and their 9-year-old daughter: “I was on the verge of sharing with this couple that, now being Christians, they needed to be married. But they came to me first and said, ‘We need to be married. This is not right that we are living together.’ This was truly a work of the Holy Spirit,” Hawthorne said. “The couple’s wedding drew almost 150 guests, many of whom were not Christians.”

Hawthorne said that such converts to Christ “face a lot of peer pressure and persecution” because Hispanics have an intensely cultural Catholic background.

“Many Hispanics aren’t active Catholics, but when peers and parents hear that they attend an evangelical church, the pressure mounts,” he added. “But the great thing is to see these converts live for the Lord.”

“The Lord didn’t command us to make decisions,” Hawthorne said. “He commanded us to make disciples. It’s not enough to lead someone to Christ. We must baptize them, teach them how to walk with the Lord, how to share Christ with others and how to grow in Christ’s likeness. It’s so exciting to see God change people’s lives.”

Practical and financial support

“The SBTC’s church planting process—the training, equipping and follow-up—it’s the best I’ve seen anywhere,” said Hawthorne, citing quarterly church planter evaluation sessions. The meetings are “very encouraging. The guys help you see what’s working and what’s not, and they are very constructive in suggesting any changes that would help. We feel a great deal of support.”

The advice and the support network “is essential in ministry, especially for first-time church planters,” he added. “You’re out there working hard. You’re challenged emotionally, spiritually, financially. You really need someone to support and encourage you.”

Also encouraged by Cooperative Program support, Hawthorne said the CP “made it possible for Sharon and me to fulfill our call through the IMB for 29 years in Brazil, Belize and Mexico. Now, after retirement, we continue to be blessed by it as well as the Reach Texas Offering. This support is vital to church planters, and to the SBTC’s church planting ministry.

“I’m amazed at the initiative the convention is taking, the amount of churches they are planting. I especially applaud the SBTC’s missions department—the motivation and emphasis on training Hispanic church planters—it’s tremendously important since more than half the Texas population is Hispanic.”

“Our heart’s desire and the DNA of Primera Iglesia Bautista de Travis,” Hawthorne said, “is to be a reproducing, multiplying church of disciples—a Hispanic church that will start other reproducing, multiplying Hispanic churches.”

SBTC church planting process much more than dollars

Judging by the dollars, planting churches is No. 1 on the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s to-do list.

It’s the largest line item in the SBTC’s annual in-state budget—that portion of Cooperative Program giving kept for Texas ministry. In 2011, that amount is $1.4 million, plus an additional $400,000 from the Reach Texas Offering to supplement CP funding.

Yet the convention’s church planting philosophy is only partly about being a funding source, crucial as it is. More significant, says Terry Coy, the SBTC’s director of missions, is its partnership—monetarily and otherwise—with local churches, associations and networks in developing sustainable, healthy, doctrinally sound and evangelistically growing congregations.

Texas continues to attract international immigrants and transplants from other states, creating a diverse and missiologically challenging landscape, Coy explained. Church planting remains the optimal strategy for advancing the gospel, he said.

CHURCHES PLANT CHURCHES
In a collaboration of church planting partners, a sponsoring church is the essential piece and the leading partner, Coy said.

“We believe, biblically, that churches plant other churches. That is primary in our church planting philosophy. The stronger the involvement of a local church and association, generally speaking, the stronger the church plant. We want the local church to be the first line of doctrinal, moral and ethical accountability.”

Last year, the state convention had its hand in 25 new church starts; the number will approach 40 in 2011. Meanwhile, about 70 prospective planters have submitted applications with the SBTC; the convention will likely end up working with about 25 of those.

Coy said his team struggles with the tension of how much to fund a given planter, and with balancing the temptation to plant more churches at the expense of quality.

“By 2020, our goal is 100 church plants a year,” Coy said. “But we want 100 healthy, growing church plants a year.”
In years past, the five-year success rate for SBTC plants was more than 70 percent, which was above the national average. In the last few years, with a honing of the process, the rate has increased to around 85 percent, Coy said.

“The reason the percentage has gone up is better coaching and better assessment of prospective planters,” Coy added.

On average, the SBTC provides church plants about $1,500 monthly over a three-year cycle, with the amount decreasing each year. A few churches receive a little more, some less. Coy said it is a “prayerful, strategic, case-by-case” process with multiple considerations, including how many other planting partners are involved.

“The idea is we build a budget alongside all of the other partners—churches, associations, etc. We want a budget the church will be able to grow into and sustain down the road,” Coy explained.

Provide too little or too much funding and “you are setting that planter up for failure.”

About 14 percent of SBTC congregations have been involved in any recent church planting. Coy said he wants to see more churches catch the vision for reproducing.

Church planting involves much more than dollars, and some churches participate through prayer, mentoring, and doctrinal or methodological accountability, Coy said.

“Bottom line, we may be putting in the most money in a given situation, but the boss is the local church.”

“You need not be a megachurch to be a church planting church. Even if a congregation is giving $50 a month, they are the planter’s best friend.”

WHAT KIND OF CHURCH?
Whenever someone asks Coy what kind of churches the SBTC plants, his answer is often “All kinds” or “Whatever kind it takes,” provided it is sufficiently biblical and baptistic. Besides some basic ecclesiological standards, Coy said, matters of taste and method are up to the sponsoring local church.

“What we are going to say is, ‘Local church, you determine those questions.’ Of course, we stand ready to say ‘no’ on something that is unhealthy or unbiblical.”

“We want the right church planter doing the right thing in the right place at the right time,” Coy explained.

Barry Calhoun, SBTC church planting team leader, said the types of churches the SBTC has helped plant range from cowboy churches to traditional to contemporary to multihousing. They reach groups indicative of the cultural diversity of Texas, among them Russian, Burmese, Asian-Indian, Egyptian and African in addition to more traditional Anglo, African-American and Hispanic congregations.

SELECTING PLANTERS
The vetting process for prospective SBTC planters includes doctrinal and lifestyle questions, personality and skills assessments, an interview and assessment with the planter’s wife, reference and background checks, and a willingness to be coached through the planting process.

For example, “If the wife is not on board, the process doesn’t go forward,” Coy said.

The SBTC isn’t seeking perfect candidates, Coy insisted, but rather God-called candidates who have the maturity, gifts, and vision to plant a viable New Testament church.

Once a prospective planter is identified and he agrees to the process, an orientation is required to ensure he understands the place of the local church in the cooperative endeavors that form the basis of the SBTC. He also agrees to be coached and mentored through the three-year process.

The orientation includes a good dose of history explaining the convention’s core values and the shared missions funding strategy of Southern Baptists—the Cooperative Program.

“Barry (Calhoun) and David (Alexander) on our staff have worked very hard to develop an awareness of who the SBTC is and why it’s important and healthy to stay connected once their funding process ends,” Coy said.

“The heart of our strategy is we want to do the right thing and we want to work hard at doing it the right way. It’s not perfect. But it has to be done prayerfully. It has to be in partnership. And it has to be purposeful.”

In Muslim-majority Nazareth, Baptist school nurtures faith

NAZARETH, Israel (BP)–Flat-roofed houses still dot the Nazareth skyline like they did in Jesus' time, but these days they're covered with satellite dishes.

A good bit has changed since Jesus grew up in the Galilean city. But one thing rings true across the years: Christ's hometown still needs His peace, said Charles Tyson*.

“People think of Israel, and they automatically think of biblical Israel instead of the modern-day political state of Israel,” said Tyson, a Southern Baptist worker in Israel. They don't realize that Israel is a diverse nation of many different ethnic populations, he explained.

The residents of Nazareth — including the members of Israel's first Baptist church, planted 100 years ago — are Arabs, not Jews, even though Israel is majority Jewish. The Word is preached today in Arabic at Nazareth Baptist Church, just as the church's first sermon was preached decades before Israel was a nation.

Today in the town of 80,000, roughly 80 percent are Muslim, 20 percent are Christian by background and a tiny sliver of that number are evangelical believers in Jesus.

It's that way even though Christians have had strong roots in the town since Jesus' day. Two churches — including the Church of the Annunciation, the largest church in the area — claim to be on the place where Gabriel told Mary she would bear God's Son.

“Even in Nazareth where we've had a Christian presence for a long time, it's hard for Arab Muslims to see what a Christian is,” said Adam Roberts *, a Southern Baptist worker in Israel. “We want to show them that it's not just our identification or our background. Our faith … transforms our whole life in Christ.”

It's slow work to overcome religious barriers, but workers are still tending the mission field where Baptists began planting spiritual seeds in 1911, Roberts said. One way he's doing this is through his work at Nazareth Baptist School, where he teaches Bible to teens. About 20 percent of the K-12 students are from a Muslim background, he said.

“The parents in the community respect the high academic reputation of the school to the degree that they are willing to accept that their children will be taught about the Bible,” Roberts said. “Because of this, I'm able to talk openly about the Gospel.”

“Openly” is a bit of an understatement — he said he's shared the Gospel more in one year at the school than he did in several years of youth ministry back in the States, he said.

“I encourage them to speak freely about their questions and their own faith and talk about where our beliefs are different,” Roberts said. “I tell them if we fall to the temptation to say we are the same, we are robbing both of us of important aspects of our faith. It's good to talk about what we share, but it's also good to discuss where we are different.”

Roberts asked for believers to pray:

— for the 1,000 students who attend the Baptist school in Nazareth.

— that the school will find qualified teachers who are Christ followers.

— that churches in the United States will partner with the school, leading a week of chapel at the school or partnering in other types of work.

–30–

*Names have been changed. Ava Thomas is an International Mission Board writer/editor based in Europe.

Navy reverses course on ‘gay marriages’

WASHINGTON (BP)–The U.S. Navy rescinded May 10 its permission for chaplains to perform “same-sex marriage” ceremonies on base when the ban on open homosexuality in the military is lifted. The switch came after members of Congress charged the change in policy violates the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Chief of Chaplains Rear Adm. Mark Tidd reversed course after his April 13 memo became publicized May 9 and drew a sharp rebuke from more than 60 representatives. Tidd said late May 10 he was suspending his authorization “pending additional legal and policy review” and enhanced cooperation with other branches of the military, according to The Washington Post.

News media coverage and the outcry from Congress caused armed forces lawyers to review Tidd's memo, a Pentagon spokesman acknowledged, according to The Post. “That raised the issue, so the [Navy] legal counsel looked at it and determined it needed further review,” Col. Dave Lapan said.

In his April memo, Tidd authorized Navy chaplains to officiate at on-base, same-sex ceremonies in states where such unions are allowed. He also said naval base facilities “may normally be used to celebrate the marriage” if the base is in a state that has legalized “same-sex marriage.”

Sixty-three members of the House of Representatives complained to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus after Tidd's memo was revealed. Led by Rep. Todd Akin, R.-Mo., the representatives said they “find it difficult to understand how the military is somehow exempt from abiding by” the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

DOMA, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, defines marriage in federal law as being between a man and a woman and empowers states to refuse to recognize another state's “gay marriages.”

“Offering up federal facilities and federal employees for same-sex marriages violates DOMA, which is still the law of the land and binds our military, including chaplains,” the House members told Mabus in a May 6 letter.

Akin said in a statement released May 9 with the letter, “While a state may legalize same-sex marriage, federal property and federal employees, like Navy chaplains, should not be used to perform marriages that are not recognized by federal law.”

On May 11, Akin was expected to introduce amendments in the House Armed Services Committee to the yearly Defense authorization bill that would ban military chaplains from performing “same-sex marriages” and bar the use of armed services facilities for such ceremonies, according to The Post.

After Tidd's memo was publicized, a Navy spokeswoman told the Navy Times chaplains would not be required to perform “gay marriages.”

The Navy's initial response to the House complaint actually made things worse, said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. In his reaction to news of the memo, Perkins cited a Navy statement, which he said included: “If the chaplain declines to personally perform the service, then the chaplain MUST facilitate the request … “

Perkins said, “That's a big leap from simply allowing the ceremonies to take place. As much as the weddings violate DOMA, the referral order is a direct assault on the freedom of conscience. And it it's enforced, it could be what drives evangelical chaplains out of the military altogether.”

If the Navy proceeds with a policy change for its chaplains, it will not take effect until President Obama, as well as the secretary of Defense and the chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, certify that terminating the prohibition on open homosexuality will not harm the military.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell barred homosexuals from serving openly but also prohibited military commanders from asking service members if they are homosexual or about their “sexual orientation.”

Critics of the new law terminating Don't Ask, Don't Tell have warned it will result in infringements on religious liberty, as well as harm to the readiness, privacy and retention of service members.

–30–

Compiled by Tom Strode, Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press.

5th week: China arrests more Christians

BEIJING (BP)–At least 13 members of a Beijing church were arrested Sunday, May 8, in the fifth straight week of its defiance of the Chinese government, which continued to force people out of their homes in an effort to pressure the congregation.

One family learned they were being kicked out of their home at 6:40 Sunday morning, before the service even began.

The high-profile clash between the government and Shouwang Church — one of the largest unregistered illegal churches in Beijing — has led to hundreds of house arrests or detentions. More than 500 church members were placed under arrest on Easter weekend alone, prevented from leaving their houses or apartments.

ChinaAid, a U.S.-based organization that monitors religious freedom in the country, said the government, as in previous weeks, continued “rendering church members homeless by pressuring their landlords to evict them.”

Shouwang Church itself is homeless, having lost its meeting space when the government pressured the owners of a restaurant — its last home — to kick out the church. The church also has tried to rent space, only to see various landlords pressured not to cooperate.

Each week during the past month, the church has tried to worship at a public site in Zhongguancun in northwest Beijing.

Churches in China are legal only if they register with the government and join what is known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. But ChinaAid founder Bob Fu, in an interview with Baptist Press, said churches have a solid, biblical reason for refusing to register with the government.

“Fundamentally,” Fu said, “the number one reason is focused on who is the head of the church? Is it the Communist Party, the Chinese government or Jesus Christ alone? The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is nothing but a political organization with a religious uniform. All the leaders are appointed by the Communist Party, the United Front Work Department and the State Administration for Religious Affairs, and they are salaried. And many of the leaders are also Communist Party members.

“Secondly, once you join the government-sanctioned church, you lose pretty much all the freedom of evangelism. There are lots of limitations and rules that will forbid you to do any evangelism outside of the four walls of the church building. You can't baptize anybody under 18 years old, you're forbidden to have a Sunday School. There are fundamental differences.”

More than 160 were arrested the first week Shouwang tried to meet outdoors, about 50 were arrested the second week, approximately 40 on the third week and about 30 on the fourth week. The declining number of arrests likely is due to the government placing so many other members under house arrest, which prevents them from even leaving their homes.

Included in the latest round of arrests was a woman who is a member of another illegal church, New Tree House Church. She showed up at the outdoor site to show solidarity with her fellow believers, ChinaAid reported.

–30–

Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press.

Bible literacy aim of new study

JACKSON, Tenn.—For decades Southern Baptists have mourned biblical illiteracy among children and adults in local churches and more broadly among the general population. Former Texan George Guthrie experienced this frustration firsthand as a Baptist college professor who found incoming freshmen averaging just 57 percent on a basic biblical literacy exam he offers at the beginning of each semester.

While Guthrie teaches at a school where the average ACT score is over 25 and most students grew up attending Southern Baptist churches, his results were consistent with what other professors reported at top Christian universities across the United States.

It’s not that the multiple-choice questions he asks are terribly hard: Which of these books would you find in the New Testament? Whom did Pontius Pilate release during Jesus’ trial? How many temptations did Jesus experience in the wilderness? Where would you look in the Bible to find the Sermon on the Mount?

Compared to a catechism used before the founding of America which taught children to remember “K is for Korah, God’s wrath he defied and low to devour him the earth opened wide,” the test Guthrie composed should be a breeze.

Unfortunately, the track record among older adults is no better. “Ask one hundred church members if they have read the Bible today and eighty-four of them will say ‘no.’ Ask them if they have read the Bible at least once in the past week, and sixty-eight of them will say ‘no,’” Guthrie wrote.

“Even more disconcerting, ask those one hundred church members if reading or studying the Bible has made any significant difference in the way they live their lives. Only thirty-seven out of one hundred will say ‘yes,’” he reported.

“Since we as Christians should be ‘people of the Book,’ something is wrong with this picture. We should know the Bible well, but we really don’t. All of the polls show those who claim to be evangelical Christians only do marginally better than their nonbelieving neighbors when asked questions about the content of the Bible, and a biblical view of the world is not making inroads into how we think about and live our lives.”

Ultimately, Guthrie said, “Our biblical illiteracy hurts us personally, hurts our churches, hurts our witness, and thus, hurts the advancement of the gospel in the world.”

Two Southern Baptists have teamed up with LifeWay Christian Resources to recover biblical literacy among a people known for their allegiance to the Word of God. Knowing that the challenge requires an air assault and a ground war, Guthrie and Alabama pastor David Platt are enlisting church leaders and especially families to emphasize the goal of an initiative known as “Read the Bible for Life.”

“As a pastor, I’m fighting the air war,” Platt explained during a recent workshop promoting the campaign. Like thousands of Southern Baptist pastors, Platt said he exposes those attending worship services to the Word of God week by week. “But if all they’re doing is sitting in a seat and listening to me, once a week, preach the Word, it’s not going to soak in where biblical orientation can take hold.”

That’s where the ground war comes in, Platt said. “Through Sunday School classes or small groups—however the structure looks—this is how the gospel will spread through the ends of the earth with disciples making disciples more than events where you go listen to good Bible teachers.”

Platt said the focus on church and worship gatherings tends to “squash out spreading the Word in the seats or pews.” To make a difference, individual believers must “fight the ground war hard core,” he told church leaders April 15-16. “Wherever you have spheres of influence, saturate with the Word.”

He and award-winning musician and author Michael Card joined Guthrie, the Benjamin W. Perry Professor of Bible at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., to train 700 church leaders and students to utilize the curriculum in their own ministry settings. Nine of Union’s Christian studies faculty led breakout sessions on related topics, with podcasts available at uu.edu/events/ReadtheBibleforLife/.

“We all need to realize this is a spiritual dynamic,” Guthrie related. “It is not a natural thing for people to orient their lives around the Word of God, an ancient book, rather than go with natural currents of the culture.” With that in mind, he urged those leading out in the fight for biblical literacy to pray consistently that God would bring about a deep commitment to the Word.

B&H Publishing Group, the trade publishing arm of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, in partnership with Union’s Ryan Center for Biblical Studies, has already released Guthrie’s book “Read the Bible for Life: Your Guide to Understanding and Living God’s Word.” It features 16 narrative conversations the author conducted with biblical scholars, discussing basic tools and attitudes needed to read the Bible more effectively and includes several daily Bible reading plans and interactive application.

The companion video curriculum is designed specifically for small groups and includes creative teaching segments, interactive exercises and guest interviews with many of the scholars featured in the book.

It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach he’s recommending; some churches will utilize the curriculum in Sunday School or small groups, many will take advantage of individual reading plans and others will involve the whole congregation studying together.

“You have to be obedient to what God calls you to do in your own life and your family and the ministry of teaching God has given you in the local church. Be available, and then make Spirit-led appeals in the church to consider some of the opportunities we’re talking about,” he told conference participants.

Guthrie described the nine-week curriculum as basic training, offering a 30-minute video-based instruction and the expectation that actual teachers—not just facilitators—will instruct class participants in that week’s assignment while students keep up with workbook lessons at home.

“It walks through a step-by-step process of how we read the Psalms, etc., and doesn’t go into great depth, but there are basic principles so that people will ask questions,” he explained. “If you’re reading about Gideon, you’ll ask how is God the hero of this story. What does this have to do with God’s covenant?” The book itself offers greater detail for those who want to study beyond the workbook.

Directing participants in the curriculum back to God as the source and subject of every biblical passage, Guthrie warns against viewing the Bible as a self-help book, looking primarily for what it says to or about our lives.

“It’s true that the Bible is relevant to us and should be applied to our lives, but we can discover its true relevance only to the extent that we encounter God through Scripture,” he writes in one workbook chapter.

After receiving an orientation during the nine-week study, churches are encouraged to read through Scripture together over the course of a year, preferably while the pastor preaches through highlights in his messages.

“Obviously a pastor can’t preach everything, but you get the framework for the story of Scripture.” In the process, Guthrie said, students remember the principles they learned during the foundational study and hear those reinforced.

“We need people reading the Bible individually, discussing it in small groups and hearing dynamic messages on key passages, and then it starts coming together.”

In November LifeWay will release “Reading God’s Story: A Chronological Daily Bible” organized to make clear the step-by-step development of the biblical story and “A Reader’s Guide to the Bible,” featuring a one-year chronological Bible reading plan and brief commentary, coaching readers to apply the Scripture to life. Union University will be posting podcasts of the chronological readings for download by those who prefer to listen to Scripture being read.

Guthrie will serve as keynote speaker for a promotion of “Read the Bible for Life (RTB4L)” sponsored by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. The training is planned from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on Sept. 9 at First Baptist Church of Euless. Breakout sessions will be offered to apply RTB4L throughout all of church life. How to apply RTB4L to children’s ministry will be taught by Karen Kennemur, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary assistant professor for childhood education.

A session on using the approach with students will be led by Ken Lasater, a family approach session will be led by Lance Crowell, and “Connecting RTB4L with Your Sermons and Running a RTB4L Campaign in Your Church” will be led by Kenneth Priest along with Guthrie. Lasater, Crowell and Priest are SBTC ministry associates. A working lunch will be offered during the final breakout session and Guthrie will deliver the final keynote message to close the session.

While the SBTC’s training will help church leaders involve all ages in Bible study, Guthrie said he hopes to see parents teaching their own children instead of following a common trend of passing the buck to Sunday School teachers who have limited influence and time.

“We’ve been hustling to get the four main tools out there,” Guthrie said in answer to a question about additional age-graded resources. “What we’re doing in the first phase is to provide foundational tools for the church as a whole, though teenagers can certainly engage in the video curriculum and book as it is written at a level that is very readable,” he responded.

When The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham utilized the curriculum, Platt and other staff members developed family devotion guides that track with the chronological reading plan and are making them available to download.

“My heart and David’s is the same in that I really believe the beginning place for all this is the family,” Guthrie shared. “If parents will read the Word, love the Word and live the Word in the context of their family, that’s the real foundation they need. In some ways that’s far more than any graded Sunday School.”

Platt added: “That’s why we wanted to equip our heads of households in our church to walk their children through the Word together.” The four-page daily worship guides are based around the text for that week with a teaching guide to make the material applicable for preschoolers, children or youth; a prayer card for the nations; Scripture memory and worship song and a coloring page based on the lesson.

Ryan Center for Biblical Studies Director Ray Van Ness closed the April conference by holding up a copy of the 1615 edition of the Geneva Bible, reminding those present of the power of Scripture to change the world.

“God has done this before in the church,” Van Ness said. “He is ready and willing to bless us in this Word.”

More information about the book, as well as other resources about the “Read the Bible for Life” project are available at readthebibleforlife.com. Guthrie’s blog and many of his interviews are available at blog.georgehguthrie.com.

Board hears good CP report, hires Hispanic & Ethnic Ministries associate

SAN ANTONIO—Cooperative Program receipts were ahead of budget in the first quarter of 2011 and were $480,777 ahead compared to the same time last year, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Executive Board was told during its April 26 meeting in San Antonio.

The board hired a new Hispanic Initiative & Ethnic Ministries associate, Jesse Contreras, and learned of the planned retirement of Don Cass, SBTC evangelism director, who joined the convention staff eight years ago. In a letter copied to board members, Cass said he plans to leave his post at the end of February 2012.

The board also approved the affiliation of 58 churches while also clearing its roll of 39 congregations. Of those, 33 have disbanded, three disaffiliated with the SBTC and three others merged with other churches. The total number of SBTC affiliated churches as of May 4 was 2,362.

GIVING AHEAD OF BUDGET
The $6.28 million in undesignated receipts was $33,747 ahead of budget through the end of March, Chief Financial Officer Joe Davis reported. Compared to the same period last year, CP receipts were up $480,777. Total net operating income through March was $373,138.

The 2011 CP budget is $24,940,475, with 45 percent—or $11,752,726—marked for in-state ministry.

Through March, giving through the Reach Texas Offering for state missions was up $5,722 over the same period last year; the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions and the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions were both down from a year ago, by $750,667 and $78,213, respectively.

Davis also reported that a $422,631 CP shortfall at year’s end was offset mostly by under-spending, resulting in a total net operating income of $1,101,553 as of Dec. 31.

NEW ASSOCIATE
Contreras, the newly elected associate for the Hispanic Initiative and Ethnic Ministries, will direct and assist with the Spanish-language portions of the SBTC annual meeting and the Empower Evangelism Conference, youth camp at Alto Frio, regional Spanish equipping conferences, and related ministries with and for Hispanic Baptists and other ethnic groups.

Contreras came to faith in Christ following the witness of Criswell College students in 1992. He went on to earn a bachelor of arts in biblical studies and a master of arts in Christian education from Criswell.

Contreras has served churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and in Manila, The Philippines. Most recently, he was worship and discipleship pastor at Woodbridge Bible Fellowship in Wylie.

A native of Monterrey, Mexico, Contreras moved to Dallas in 1985. He and his wife Wendy have three children.

CASS RETIREMENT
Cass said in his retirement letter, addressed to SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards and copied to the board, “I can hardly believe I am at that [retirement] stage in life, but reality tells me I am.”

Cass said his frequent travel schedule and his wife’s scheduled back surgery—her fifth—makes his continuing as evangelism director “no longer wise.”

“Forty-five years ago I promised her and God that next to Jesus she would be my highest priority in life and I must keep that promise,” he wrote.

Cass came to the SBTC as evangelism director on March 1, 2004, succeeding interim director Ronnie Yarber. He served six years as New Mexico Baptists’ evangelism director and also served as an associate evangelism director at the Baptist General Convention of Texas as well as pastor of numerous churches in Texas and New Mexico.

SBTC FOUNDATION
Johnathan Gray, SBTC Foundation executive director, told the board the foundation’s assets as of Dec. 31 had grown to nearly $20 million. Gray said the SBTCF Enhanced Cash Fund—a short-term investment available to churches and ministry institutions—ended the year with an annualized 1.4 percent return. Meanwhile, the annual return rate of the SBTCF Endowment Fund was 13.52 percent while the SBTCF Income Fund garnered an annual return rate of 7.41 percent.

The foundation has also begun offering the Next Generation Fund, a perpetual ministry fund that annually support the ministries aided by the Reach Texas Offering, Gray said.

Also, Gray said an online estate planner is now accessible at sbtexasfoundation.com.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards spent most of his report time speaking of the Cooperative Program, the unified missions funding channel that fuels cooperative Southern Baptist work in Texas and worldwide.

Richards said a CP Summit in February with leading CP giving churches revealed that more needs to be done in explaining and promoting CP to church leaders and members. He lauded a new promotional video (accessible at sbtexas.com/CP) that includes testimonies of how the CP propels ministry endeavors in Texas and beyond.

“The response to the renewed emphasis on the Cooperative Program has been encouraging and the confidence that we have here in Texas in the SBTC CP has been a blessing. But there still are some alarming trends,” Richards said. “And these trends show us that unless there is more information and then enthusiasm of giving through the Cooperative Program, that there will be a debilitating effect.”

Over a 15-year-span, “the dollars have increased, the church budgets have increased, but the Cooperative Program percentage of giving has decreased,” Richards said, adding that at current levels of giving decline, the SBC missionary and education ministries could become “unsustainable.”

“And the only thing we can do is turn it around. So let’s turn it around. It’s not time to give up, it’s time now to be enthused by all these testimonies we’ve heard, all these people who are getting saved, all these new churches getting started. It’s because we’re doing it together. We’re doing it through the Cooperative Program.”

Richards urged pastors and lay persons to join the convention staff in taking up the cause of championing the Cooperative Program.