Month: May 2014

Am I my brother”s keeper? Yes (so vote)

The head scratching you see over Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s proposed nondiscrimination ordinance (see the cover story) is but one more example of Christian negligence in civic duty. 

What more could be deduced when only 13 percent of eligible voters turned out last November to re-elect, for a third term, the first openly lesbian mayor of a major American city, who was intent on liberalizing her city’s social policies? One could support, theoretically, a lesbian conservative who didn’t have an ax to grind, provided she was the best available choice. But this was different.

Houston’s Union Association has 500-plus churches, some of the largest of which have thousands of members living in Houston proper. And I’m not including other theologically conservative congregations outside our fold. Where’s the electoral beef?

In San Antonio, with 1.4 million people, only 29,454 votes were cast last May in an election that gave a third term to Mayor Julian Castro, who championed a LGBT-tilted nondiscrimination ordinance passed last summer despite the courageous efforts of a few Christian leaders.

Houston’s Parker, taking a cue from Castro, must have been emboldened. Rumors flew last fall that such an ordinance, which expands existing civil rights protections covering all Americans to include new categories of sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status, would be coming soon.

The Houston Area Pastor Council tried to get the word and the vote out, but to little success.

So untethered to political consequences in her third term, Parker quickly moved to issue a directive to the city’s human resources director a few weeks after the last election that “same-sex spouses of employees who have been legally married in another jurisdiction be afforded the same benefits as spouses of a heterosexual marriage”—a move that violates the Texas Constitution and is on hold pending a lawsuit.

All this while federal politicians try to deal with the gummy mess known as Obamacare that is now stuck to our proverbial shoe. That gummy mess—if left as is—will force Christian parachurch ministries to provide contraceptive coverage that includes abortion-causing drugs or at least subsidizes those plans, remember? Private businesses, which have less of a legal leg to stand on, might have a steeper hill to climb regarding the HHS mandate. Just ask the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby chain of more than 500 arts and crafts stores, if staying home on election day has deleterious consequences.

The turnout in the 2012 presidential election was figured at 58.2 percent of eligible voters, with 2008 around 62 percent.  How many of the 40 or so percent of eligible voters who stayed home in those elections are in your church pews?

The meaningful abortion-restricting measure that pro-life legislators and Gov. Perry last summer pushed across the finish line was a poignant reminder that civic duty beckons and is worthwhile.

Across the board, Texas is still a mostly conservative state despite efforts to turn it blue. But righteous laws don’t just happen because good intentions outweigh bad ones in the hearts and minds of citizens. Couch potatoes lose; those who choose “The Voice” over just 10 minutes of daily news are amusing all of us to death.

Scripture puts it simply: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2).

It requires practicing our civic duty in this truly exceptional republican democracy. America is still the last best hope for man on earth as far as human devices go. Until Christ rules as king here, God has blessed us with an unusual ability to have a say in our society.

Romans 13, set in a less generous civic context than what we have, applies also in a government by the people and for the people. We are subjects to the governing laws and those who execute them, but the governing authorities are subject to us. What a blessed irony, if we only took the time to be informed and act accordingly.

One of the graces of America is radical religious liberty. From here, we can speak freely, share our stories, our convictions, our hope in Jesus, and preach his Word unfettered by censors. We stand to win the lost if we choose to work in the harvest as Christ commanded.

Also from here, we can launch missionaries and missions enterprises the world over—all because we operate from a position of strength, to wit, our freedom and our prosperity.

But shame on us if we squander that freedom and prosperity.

Some local elections are scheduled for May 10, with primary runoff elections May 27. Get informed and vote.

SBTC board calls ministry staff, grants funds for gospel work

ARLINGTON—The Executive Board of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention elected two ministry associates and approved $650,000 in grants from reserve funds for gospel work in India and Montreal, and dorm expansion at Jacksonville College.

During the board’s spring meeting on April 29 in Arlington, they also approved affiliation requests for 55 churches while removing affiliation for 41 churches, 38 of which have disbanded. Three others disaffiliated.

Through the end of March, Cooperative Program receipts were $6,658,338—$41,044 below budget but comparable to last year through March, Joe Davis, chief financial officer, reported.

The board elected Wes Hinote as minister-church relations (MCR) associate and Lance Beaumont to fill a vacancy as church ministries associate.

Hinote serves as pastor of First Baptist Church of Plum Grove and has served in student and music ministry in other Texas churches. A native of Orange, Hinote will help connect younger pastors with the convention’s work through the SBTC’s Forge ministry among other duties, MCR Director Heath Peloquin told the board.

Hinote holds a bachelor’s degree from Dallas Baptist University, a master of divinity from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and a master of arts in expository preaching from Louisiana College.

Hinote and his wife Rhonda have two daughters.

Beaumont will fill a vacancy left by Ken Lasater, now serving as music minister at First Baptist Bowie, and will facilitate the needs of churches in worship arts, music education and worship technology. He serves as associate professor of music and worship at Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Ore.

Beaumont has served numerous Texas churches, most recently from 2007-2012 as associate worship leader at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood while serving as assistant professor of music at Howard Payne University. He holds a bachelor of music and a master of music in guitar performance from Texas Christian University and is completing a doctor of music education at Boston University.
Beaumont and his wife Brandy have three children.

MINISTRY GRANTS
The ministry grants include $300,000 to help with construction of new dormitory space at Jacksonville College, an associate degree-granting institution affiliated with the SBTC.

College President Mike Smith told the board the dorms will help accommodate student population growth at the East Texas school. Describing the college as a mission field, Smith told of seven students who made professions of faith during weekly chapel this year and students from all over the world who are hearing the gospel, some for the first time.

Smith said Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby purchased nine acres adjacent to the school in December with plans to sell it to the college after one year for $1. The family-owned arts and crafts chain gives away millions of dollars annually, mostly to Christian causes.

The board also approved $250,000 to the Canadian National Baptist Convention for a church multiplication center in Montreal, Quebec, one of the North American Mission Board’s SEND focus cities where former SBTC missions associate Chad Vandiver serves as NAMB’s church planting coordinator.

Vandiver and his Montreal pastor, David Pothier, shared with the board how five new Montreal churches baptized 170 converts last year. Nine churches have been planted in the last two years including La Chappelle Church, where Vandiver is a member.

A year ago the church consisted of four people meeting in a living room. At Easter, more than 700 people worshiped together. The church baptized 100 people in the last year.

SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards told the board his trip to Montreal in December evidenced “a move of God that I haven’t seen since the Jesus movement of the ’70s,” with many young people coming to saving faith.

The goal is to plant, over five years, 50 healthy, reproducing churches throughout seven cities in Quebec, where only one-half of 1 percent is identifiably evangelical.

The mainly French-speaking province is home to nominally Catholic natives as well as immigrants from Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist countries.

A third grant of $100,000 was designated for the Indian Baptist Society of Bangalore, India, to accommodate increased ministry in training and equipping pastors and church leaders. The society’s training center works in concert with International Mission Board missionaries.

FINANCIAL REPORT
Davis told the board that January was strong but CP giving tapered off some since then. All told, CP giving is nearly on budget pace, however. With CP gifts, other income streams and under spending, the net operating income through March was $490,402.

CP receipts through the end of 2013 finished just $4,803 shy of the $25,919,116 budget, and were $708,956 ahead of 2012 receipts, Davis said.

Total net operating income for 2013 was $1,969,289.

EXECUTIVE REPORT
Addressing the board, Richards reminded them that the convention staff serves “at the pleasure of the churches” and the convention is not merely a doctrinal entity but exists to further the Great Commission through the funding mechanism of the Cooperative Program. Through it, Baptist churches collaborate in a state, national and international strategy to reach the nations.

Richards said that while some churches have increased their CP giving, others are pulling back. He said he is “heartbroken” that there are Southern Baptists “standing in line to go overseas” but there is not enough money to send them.

According to the IMB’s latest count on April 7, there were 4,810 missionaries under support—a drop from the previous decade when the force exceeded 5,000.

OTHER BUSINESS
The board amended a longstanding succession plan for the executive director to reflect the current staff structure. Among other things, when the old plan was approved, the board had allocated funds for an associate executive director—a position that was never filled. The funding was eventually reallocated but the succession plan was never updated to reflect current staff.

The amended plan also designates the group that would appoint an interim executive director, who would be elected on a majority vote of the Executive Board chairman, vice chairman, and convention president. An interim executive director would not be eligible for election as executive director.