The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-03/07/2007 DISCLAIMER: Baptist Press should be credited for any reprinted stories that originate with BP. Suggested credit line: Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. Please note that Baptist Press periodically carries stories from other sources by permission. Individuals interested in reprinting non-BP stories should contact the entity where the story originated to seek reprint permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘Triumphant spirit’ prevails at funeral for teens killed by tornado at Ala. high school by Erin Roach Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday ENTERPRISE, Ala. (BP)--Though the pain runs deep over losing eight teenagers to a natural disaster, a triumphant spirit is emerging in Enterprise, Ala., as family and friends bury their loved ones, the head of the Alabama State Board of Missions told Baptist Press. “The preacher in me will tell you that there is a lot of turmoil down there in the city trying to get things organized,” Executive Director Rick Lance said. “There were a lot of tears -- you could just see the tears all the way through, the young people especially -- there was a lot of good testimony of how the grace of God is at work in the lives of people in a time of adversity. And yet there was a triumphant spirit.” Lance attended the joint funeral at Hillcrest Baptist Church March 6 for A.J. Jackson and Ryan Mohler, two best friends who hunted together, played sports together and died together in a hallway at Enterprise High School when a tornado struck. “They were very good friends and wouldn’t leave each other, and they stayed and tried to help some other people get out including one young girl who was at the funeral in a wheelchair,” Lance said. Jackson’s grandfather, Joel, is a former director of missions for the Coffee Baptist Association in Enterprise, and his uncle, Mike, works in the evangelism department at the Alabama State Board of Missions and helped lead the funeral service. Lance said Mike Jackson lost his son three and a half years ago and lost his other nephew 13 years ago. “There were three grandsons in that family and all three of them are now gone,” Lance said. “But Mike spoke from his heart and was very upbeat, very positive, very grace-oriented, and did not try to answer the question ‘Why?’ “He was just trying to point everyone to the future, to the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Although it was very tearful and touching, it also was a testimony of the lives of those two young men and how they had impacted other young people prior to this tornado,” Lance said. “We sang praise songs and hymns, which speak of life, not death.” The older sisters of Jackson and Mohler appeared together to recount memories of their brothers during the standing-room-only service. “April Jackson spoke about her younger brother. She talked about him in a very heartwarming way and how proud she was as a big sister, and she spoke of the last time she saw him,” Lance said. “He gave her a big hug and said, ‘I love you.’ The other sister, Kristine Mohler, talked in similar terms about her younger brother.” Lance urged Southern Baptists to pray that the tight-knit community of Enterprise will continue to be unified in their efforts to recover. “I would even place before that the prayer that this would be an opportunity for a spiritual awakening among the people, not just young people but adults, about the fragile nature of life -- how fragile it is and how quickly our lives can be turned upside down by events way beyond our control,” Lance said. “And pray that during the grief process the grace of God would help fill the void of grief that they feel and that out of this terrible tragedy a wonderful testimony of God’s love and grace will be realized.” Also on Tuesday, another Southern Baptist church in Enterprise hosted a funeral for a teenager who gave evidence of a relationship with Christ through his concern for missions. Mikey Tompkins, 17, had participated in mission trips with the Coffee Baptist Association, and his father alluded to a popular video clip of the son’s goofy dancing that is circulating on the Internet. “I’ve been asked many times how I can still have a smile,” Bill Tompkins said at his son’s funeral at Open Door Baptist Church. “The answer is: God is still in control. I know without a doubt where my son is. ... He’s dancing before Jesus. You all know he is. But hopefully it’s not the one on YouTube.” Tompkins’ navy casket was topped with his baseball glove, #19 jersey and baseball cap from his days on the school’s baseball team, the Associated Press reported. Bill Tompkins is a chief warrant officer with the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq when his son was killed. He is one of many in the town that borders Fort Rucker coping with the irony of soldiers burying children who were supposedly safe at home, AP noted. “You expect the possibility to happen to you when you’re overseas and in a war zone,” Ricky Davis, who served with Tompkins in Desert Storm, told AP. “You never think that anything like this is going to happen to your kids, so you have that feeling of ‘My family’s safe. They’re not in a war zone like I am, so they should be fine.’ You just never dream that anything like this could happen.” Funerals for Michelle Wilson, Katie Strunk and Michael Bowen were held March 5, and services for Peter Dunn and Jamie Vidensek were pending. As the town mourns, Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers are still helping to clear the community of debris and repair houses that were damaged by the powerful tornado that struck March 1. A feeding unit is set up in a park owned by First Baptist Church in Enterprise, and crews were planning to serve about 2,000 meals on Thursday, according to state disaster relief coordinator Tommy Puckett. A 12-person Baptist childcare team working with the United Way was going to set up at Westview Baptist Church to assist the community with childcare needs. Other teams were helping with minor cleanup and placing tarps on damaged homes, Puckett told The Alabama Baptist newsjournal. Lance told BP that Southern Baptist volunteers have done a “remarkably good job” of clearing trees from people’s homes so that they could safely enter and begin the restoration process. “One lady told me standing in front of her yard that you could not even tell she had a house until the disaster relief units from Montgomery got there,” Lance said. “She went on to say, ‘These yellow shirts are angels to me.’” Lance said on behalf of Alabama Baptists that he wanted to thank all Southern Baptists for their prayers. Enterprise was not the only place affected by a vast string of tornadoes last week, but it’s where there greatest concentration of deaths and damage occurred. “The city of Enterprise is known as the city of progress,” Lance said. “That’s their motto, and they will recover. That high school is a focal point of the community, and it will be rebuilt and they’ll come back bigger, better, greater and stronger.” --30-- With reporting by Grace Thornton of The Alabama Baptist. -------------------------------------------------------------------- CULTURE DIGEST: College of W&M cross returns (sort of); fame & fortune corrupt again; leaders' immorality a plague... by Erin Roach Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The 2-foot-high brass cross at the center of a months-old controversy at the College of William and Mary will be permanently on display in a glass case in historic Wren Chapel as a compromise between the school’s president and his critics. “The case shall be located in a prominent, readily visible place, accompanied by a plaque explaining the college’s Anglican roots and its historic connection to Bruton Parish Church [a local Episcopal congregation],” a committee appointed to study the matter recommended March 6. “The Wren sacristy shall be available to house sacred objects of any religious tradition for use in worship and devotion by members of the college community.” A donor had withdrawn a pledge valued at between $10 million and $12 million to the nation’s second-oldest college because of the president’s decision last October to remove the cross from the chapel. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported March 1 that James W. McGlothlin, a former member of William & Mary’s board of visitors, revoked his pledge in protest of what he called an “unbelievable” move by college President Gene R. Nichol. A spokesman for the college told the Times-Dispatch he was not yet aware whether the pledge would be reinstated in light of the compromise. Wren Chapel opened in 1732 and was used for mandatory morning and evening daily prayer on the Williamsburg, Va., campus at the time. But Nichol determined that the presence of the cross made some students, faculty and staff who do not support Christianity feel unwelcome in the chapel for the building’s modern uses. Nichol ordered the cross, which was installed in 1940, removed, and in December he agreed to let it appear each Sunday in response to outcries from alumni and others who support the school’s Christian heritage. After news of the withdrawn pledge surfaced, Nichol wrote an editorial piece for the Times-Dispatch March 1. He said he would not back down, lest the college lose prospective students to more secular institutions. “Is it acceptable, as an aspiring public university, to open our doors less fully to some because of their religious affiliations? As strongly as we value our own beliefs, will we make others less welcome because of their own?” Nichol wrote. More than 17,500 people signed an online petition organized by the group “Save the Wren Cross” asking Nichol to reverse his cross removal order, compared to just 2,000 who supported the removal of the cross. The Times-Dispatch reported that the study committee would continue meeting to consider the broader question of the role of religion at William and Mary. FAME & FORTUNE CORRUPT AGAIN -- Pacman Jones, star cornerback for the Tennessee Titans, is under review by the NFL’s personal conduct policy after at least 10 incidents involving police since he became the team’s top draft pick in 2005. His latest two episodes include a triple shooting at a Las Vegas strip club and felony charges of obstructing police during a drug bust in Georgia. And Jones is accomplishing all of this before his 24th birthday.
"I have told him about trying to be in the right place at the right time so much instead of always being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it kind of goes on deaf ears."
Pacman Jones' uncle, Robert Jones
“Pacman just draws attention to himself with the way he carries himself,” his uncle, Robert Jones, told The Tennessean newspaper Feb. 28. “He goes into clubs with six cats that call themselves ‘security.’ Well, what kind of attention do you think that’s going to get? He doesn’t need all that.... They know he’s there, but he has all these cats surrounding him like he’s the Buddha or somebody. “And a lot of people around him don’t have his best interest at heart,” Jones added. “I tell him, just like I’m telling you, but he’ll leave me or go on out the room when I am talking to him. He knows right and wrong. I guarantee you that. But he just thinks the dollar bill can get you out of everything.” Pacman Jones joins an extensive list of young athletes in the United States who were lauded with fame and fortune before their maturity level could handle the demands. Now his grandmother hopes he’ll just make it to age 26, which is something his father didn’t do before he was shot in the back of the head and killed. “I have told him about trying to be in the right place at the right time so much instead of always being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it kind of goes on deaf ears,” Robert Jones said. “... I understand he is young and all, but sometimes he has to take into consideration the places he’s at and the things he’s doing.” MORAL FAILURES PLAGUE PUBLIC LEADERSHIP -- Recent reports of moral failures among people in positions of leadership signal a continuing trend of corruption in American culture. City commissioners in Largo, Fla., voted 5-2 Feb. 27 to begin the process of firing city manager Steve Stanton after he announced plans to pursue a sex change operation. Stanton, 48, confirmed that he is a transsexual and is receiving hormone therapy in preparation for the surgery, according to The New York Times. As he undergoes a “gender reassignment” to become “Susan Stanton,” he is forcing his wife and 13-year-old son to come to terms with where they will fit in his new life. Commissioner Andy Guyette told The Times he voted to fire Stanton because he fears that since the city manager supervises about 1,200 employees he could not lead the city without favoring his supporters. Commissioner Mary G. Black agreed that Stanton’s personal behavior was bound to affect his job. “I do not feel he has the integrity, nor the trust, nor the respect, nor the confidence to continue as the city manager,” Black told the Associated Press. News also broke recently of the controversial personal practices of leading financial advisor Suze Orman, whose latest book is “Women and Money.” In an interview with The New York Times Feb. 25, Orman announced that she has been in a homosexual relationship with a woman named Kathy Travis. “We’re going on seven years,” Orman, a frequent columnist in Oprah’s magazine and host of a CNBC television show, said. “I have never been with a man in my whole life. I’m still a 55-year-old virgin.” While the idea is up for debate, the assertion that she is a “55-year-old virgin” made headlines. When asked if she would like to marry her partner, Orman was clear. “Yes. Absolutely,” she said. “Both of us have millions of dollars in our name. It’s killing me that upon my death, K.T. is going to lose 50 percent of everything I have to estate taxes. Or vice versa.” A third example of the continued moral unraveling of society is a Feb. 24 report by The Washington Times that said federal authorities charged the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia with receiving and possessing child pornography. Conservatives typically don’t hold the ACLU as a bastion of morality, but the fact that Charles Rust-Tierney, 51, of Arlington served as a leader of youth sports organizations in Virginia adds to the problem. Rust-Tierney reportedly had subscribed to various child pornography websites over the past several years and had downloaded videos and photos. On behalf of the ACLU, Rust-Tierney was a leading proponent in the late 1990s for unrestricted Internet access, The Times noted. He argued that parents should bear the responsibility for guarding their children against online dangers. --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- In Seattle, don’t presume people have seen or read the Bible by Mickey Noah Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday EDITORS’ NOTE: March 4-11 marks the 2007 Week of Prayer for North American missions. This is the second of eight stories in Baptist Press featuring North American Mission Board missionaries and their ministries supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. SEATTLE, Wash. (BP)--Seattle can seem like one big paradox. On one hand, it is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest, with nearly 574,000 people in Seattle proper and about 4 million in the metro area. Also known as the “Emerald City” because of the region’s lush evergreen trees, Seattle has been called the most literate city in the United States. The most recent census found that Seattle has the highest percentage of college graduates of any major U.S. city. And according to Men’s Fitness magazine, it is the fittest city in the country. The area is home to Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks. Seattle also is a multiethnic city where some 190 different languages can be heard and many world religions are represented. More than 80 percent of the residents say they believe in something beyond the physical realm. At the same time, only about 4 percent of greater Seattle’s 4 million people are evangelical Christians. “Seattle has never been a Christian city,” noted Gary Irby, church planting missionary for the North American Mission Board and the Puget Sound Baptist Association. “It’s not post-Christian -– it’s never had a predominant Christian influence.” And therein lies the rub for 46-year-old Irby, whose sole mission is to plant new churches to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Puget Sound area, which is about 100 miles long and 40 miles wide. Irby is among the 5,300-plus missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. He’s one of eight missionaries highlighted as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 4-11. The 2007 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $57 million, 100 percent of which is used for missionaries like Irby. “One of the important things we’ve discovered is that you cannot presume that people in Seattle have a basic understanding of the Gospel,” Irby said. “You can’t assume they’ve ever been in church, that they’ve ever even seen or read the Bible. Many people around the country don’t understand that there’s a part of the United States like that. “What we have to do is listen in order to share. Seattle people want to know that you genuinely care about them before you can start to share your faith. So when we talk to people, we talk about their belief systems. We ask them, ‘Where are you in your spiritual journey?’ And as they open up, we gain the opportunity to share our faith with them.” Irby is a native of Fort Wayne, Ind., who considers Richland, Wash., as his hometown. He earned degrees at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif. He pastored churches in Seattle and Oregon. He’s been married to Joyce, his childhood sweetheart, for 25 years, and they have four children. Irby also comes from a long line of church planters. “My granddaddy was a bivocational church planter in north Texas. Then my dad went into the ministry at an early age, moved to Indiana and planted eight churches there before I turned 7 years old. “But even with my background, it wasn’t an absolute sure thing that I was going to be a minister, much less a church planter. I thought about music, education and even politics before God led me into the ministry.” As a young minister in Washington state, Irby served a church that was growing, albeit slowly. He became frustrated with himself and with God. He said he prayed and did the things he needed to do to grow the church but it just wasn’t happening. Irby asked God, “Lord, what’s going on here? What gives?” “And God said to me very clearly -– the clearest I’ve ever heard Him -– ‘Gary, you’ve been adding. It’s time to start multiplying.’ In other words, He meant that it was my turn to get involved in churching planting.” And during his 20 years as a church planter -– nine of them in Seattle -– Irby has been answering God’s call to multiply. “About seven years ago, we had about 100 churches in the area,” Irby said. “We’ve seen that number grow to about 170 churches in 20 different languages. Over half of the new churches we’ve started have been churches using a language other than English.” These include Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Russian and Spanish. In addition to planting churches focused on nationalities, Irby and the 65 church planters he’s directed over the last nine years have targeted groups based on age. For instance, some churches focus on the “Millennials” (teens and 20s), the “Busters” (early 30s to 40) and, of course, the “Baby Boomers” (late 40s to early 60s). They also have planted new churches in apartment complexes, theaters and schools. Irby said that while the Scripture is constant and unchanging, church planting methods should be flexible and church planters need to think outside the box and adapt to the local culture. “One of the first things I tell church planters is that the only wrong kind of church plant is the one in which its planter thinks that’s the only way to do it -– that the church has to be this or that only,” he said. “My role as a church planting missionary is to help recruit and train church planters, to assess them, to help them find partners and to help them discern where God is leading them to plant a church. A lot of planters come in and say, ‘Just tell me where to plant a church.’ I tell them I won’t do that. I’ll leave that to God. We’ll show them a half-dozen possible places and pray with them about where God is leading them.” Church planting can be lonely, challenging work, Irby said; it’s tough to be away from one’s family and to leave a place where you’re comfortable to move to a non-Christian location like Seattle. “Another challenge is having enough resources and partners to help. We find that it takes an average of six churches to help support every new church plant. So it can be a great struggle if they don’t have enough people coming alongside them,” Irby said. “It’s a constant struggle to find enough churches to come and help us with the new church plants. It takes prayer support, mission involvement and financial giving. But as much as we need money, it’s more than that. We want supporting churches that will commit to pray for us regularly and consistently, and churches that will send people to come and help us with short-term missions.” For Irby, it’s not just planting churches that excites him the most. “I love to see people come to faith in Christ. That’s why we plant churches. It’s just such a cool thing to see the new churches celebrate every time they hold baptism services. It’s like a big party. People are so excited about their new life in Christ that they practically jump out of the water.” How does Irby feel about the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering? “It’s such a huge blessing to know that when I get up in the morning, I can immediately get after what God has called me to do instead of figuring out how I’m going be able to live, survive and feed my family. We need a great deal of resources, and the core of those are the resources that come from the Annie Armstrong offering.” --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ridgecrest marks 100 years, touching 3 million lives by Don Beehler Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP)--About 180 ministry and community leaders attended LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center’s centennial luncheon March 6 to commemorate its 100th anniversary. Speakers recalled the many ways God had worked in people’s lives at Ridgecrest during the past century while voicing anticipation of things yet to come at the conference center located just outside Black Mountain, N.C., near Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Black Mountain Mayor Carl Bartlett, who attended Vacation Bible School at Ridgecrest in 1948, brought greetings on behalf of the city and read a proclamation recognizing Ridgecrest for 100 years of service. The governor of North Carolina, mayor of Asheville and Buncombe County commissioners also issued proclamations. “Ridgecrest has been called a mountain of faith,” Bill Bowman, general manager of LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center, said as he listed the center’s challenges in its early years, which included a fire, two floods and a series of financial crises. Bowman recounted how in the late 19th century B.W. Spilman dreamed of establishing a place for Southern Baptists to meet and learn how to teach the Bible to the multitudes. “It was his faith in God and His purposes for Ridgecrest that kept Spilman going,” Bowman said. Jack Epps, who worked as a summer staffer in the 1930s as a college student and then returned 40 years late after retiring to spend another 26 years as a volunteer, gave greetings from Florida via video. “You come join us as a volunteer -– there’s no better place to work,” said Epps, who plans to return to Ridgecrest this summer for his 27th year as a volunteer and celebrate his 90th birthday there. Epps was followed by 25-year-old John Mark Woodard, who served as assistant director for summer staff the past two years. “Things happen here that can’t happen anyplace else. God is actively working here,” Woodard said, noting that despite their age differences, “Christ’s spirit connects Jack and me.” Byron Hill, executive director of LifeWay Conference Centers and Camps, discussed recent upgrades and new construction at Ridgecrest and plans for a new convention center with an 8,400-square-foot ballroom/exhibit space. When the renovation plans are completed, “every building on campus will be new or made to look like new,” Hill said. Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, cited Psalm 78 in which God reminds Israel of what He has done and will continue to do for them. “I want us to remember the past, the place and the plan,” Rainer said. “The past has been a story of tremendous blessing…and of changed lives. Never let us forget the past and what God has done. “God reminds us throughout Scripture to remember the place,” Rainer continued. “Ridgecrest is God’s place, and it can never be replaced in terms of all that has happened here. “God has a plan for even greater days and more lives to be changed,” he concluded. Mike Arrington, vice president of LifeWay Capital Resource Development, was the final speaker. “We serve a hurting world and can be a shining light,” Arrington said. “What God has done in the last 100 years in the lives of 3 million people is a great and awesome thing.” --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Henry reflects on a lifetime of experiences at Ridgecrest by Don Beehler Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP)--Jim Henry first set foot on the grounds of LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center at age 13. Today, the retired pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., looks back on a lifetime of rich memories not only for himself, but also for his wife, children, grandchildren and members of his congregation. As a Ridgecrest summer staffer in 1953, the 16-year old Henry was assigned to the library and media department, where he ran a slide-show projector in Spilman Auditorium during Sunday School Week, Woman’s Missionary Union conferences and other gatherings. He met people from different cultures, backgrounds and states -- and witnessed God’s work in their lives. “I was exposed to great preachers and missionaries; this opened a whole new world to me,” Henry recalled. He also met some “tremendous young men” on staff who modeled serving others. “Seeing God at work in nature and watching people serve were powerful influences on me as a young man,” he said. “I saw Christ modeled in staff’s lives and said ‘I want to be like that.’” Years later, after he was married, Henry became director of visual aids at Ridgecrest while his wife Jennette worked in the library. What makes Ridgecrest special from other conference centers he has visited throughout his long career as a Southern Baptist preacher is its spiritual atmosphere, Henry said. He recalled one occasion when preaching at Ridgecrest and no one moved when he dismissed them. “God’s spirit was so strong there. Years later, people still remember and recount that experience.” Henry recalled another time when he was scheduled to preach at a marriage retreat at Ridgecrest. A pastor friend who was engaged approached him and asked if he would marry him and his fiancée during the retreat, to which he agreed. “After I finished speaking about marriage, I said, ‘Now we’re going to put this in practice.’” The bridge and groom came forward and the groom gave his testimony. Henry performed the marriage ceremony, pronounced them man and wife and “everyone cheered!” Another favorite memory is hearing his then-seventh-grade daughter Kate sing in the auditorium at a talent show. “She looked like a child, but when she started singing she really connected with people.” Her performance ended with a standing ovation and launched her singing career, which today takes her all over the world. Henry also remembers losing his high school ring in the woods at Ridgecrest after going running. He prayed he would find the valuable keepsake. “The sun came through a tree and I saw it shining. I thanked God that He would care enough to help a high school kid find his ring in the woods.” Last October, Henry was on hand when an auditorium at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center was dedicated as The Dr. James B. “Jim” Henry Auditorium. “People who come to Ridgecrest have a great opportunity to have an experience with God,” Henry said. “I saw it happen so many times; Jesus met them in a special way at Ridgecrest.” The occasion of Ridgecrest’s 100th anniversary generates not just nostalgia for Henry but also anticipation. “I am thankful for its past,” he said, “grateful for its present and excited about its future.” --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Theologian & atheist debate at ‘Point-Counterpoint’ forum by Gary D. Myers Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Alister McGrath and Daniel Dennett both advocate freedom of conscience. However, the two take very different paths with their freedom -– McGrath embraces Christianity and Dennett embraces atheistic Darwinian naturalism. McGrath, an Oxford professor and prolific Christian author, and Dennett, a philosopher and professor at Tufts University, spoke on “The Future of Atheism” during the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Feb. 23-24. Now in its third year, the forum seeks to help students and ministers learn to think critically about issues in secular society. “Truth is objective and real, anyone who is searching for truth, we believe, will ultimately end up at the feet of Jesus Christ,” NOBTS President Chuck Kelley said about the forum, which he said demonstrates “how to engage non-Christian worldviews and how to be seekers after truth.” In a two-hour dialogue, McGrath and Dennett interacted with each other with kindness and respect despite their divergent views. “I’ve always valued freethinking,” McGrath said. “I have to say to you I never suspected where my freethinking would lead” -- to the Christianity he had opposed earlier in life. Growing up in war-torn Northern Ireland, McGrath witnessed firsthand the bitter conflict between Catholics and Protestants. What he saw turned him against religion. When McGrath enrolled in Oxford University in 1971 he was an atheist, a Marxist and a Darwinist. His view was simple -– get rid of religion and the conflict will go with it. “I went on to study the sciences but I also discovered Christianity and it turned out to be more intellectually resilient and stimulating than anything I could ever hope to describe,” McGrath said. “My science was reinforced by my religion.... [T]hese things seemed to belong together, giving fresh energy and impetus to each other.” Intellectuals in the 1960s taught that a new secular age one day would dawn, that religion would be replaced by secular humanism, McGrath said. “We were told, I think quite forcefully, that God was a delusion whose time was passed,” he said. “Certainly, I was very much aware of this and also thought it was a rather good thing. I can remember looking forward to this prophesied demise of religion with a certain grim pleasure.” But the demise never came; just as McGrath went on to embrace Christianity, many others continue to believe in God. This trend, he said, has even been noticed by key secularists. McGrath cited the book “How We Believe” by Michael Shermer, director of the Skeptics Society and publisher of Skeptic magazine. In the book, Shermer wrote that a larger percentage of Americans believe in God now than at any other time in the nation’s history. Dennett, however, disagreed that religion is on the rise. He believes that the number of atheists is actually outpacing growth in religions. “According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, the only religion that is growing worldwide is Islam,” Dennett said. “And secularists and non-religionists are growing even faster.” Dennett pointed out the number of adherents of the world’s major belief systems. The non-religious category represents 16 percent of the world’s population. Thirty-three percent are Christians, 18 percent follow Islam and 16 percent are Hindus. “Southern Baptists are now baptizing about 300,000 a year according to the figures I was able to get,” Dennett said. “That’s about the same as you were doing in the 1950s. You are not growing faster now than you were then, but the population has doubled.” Dennett said he offered these figures because the media often claims that religions are growing in the United States and in the world. These claims, he said, are not true. “Religions are making a lot of noise, they are getting a lot of attention, but if you go and look for the facts, you find out that some of those are very misleading,” he said. “It is simply not the case that religion is booming and that atheism is on the wane.” As a naturalist, Dennett said he believes religions have an evolutionary history. He said religions started out wild and beliefs were first shaped by natural selection. The fittest belief survived while others failed. Gradually, religions were domesticated, Dennett claimed. At that point, humans began to shape and change religion through the years. “Religions are brilliantly designed systems. They’re robust, efficient, powerful, long-lived institutions,” Dennett said. “This we can study with the tools of science.” Dennett said he does not hate religion and claims that his book “Breaking the Spell” is not an attack on religion. He said religion is best explained as a natural phenomenon and should be studied with scientific methods. According to McGrath, Dennett speculates the existence of a “mystical gene” responsible for religious belief, one that could be favored by natural selection. “I wonder where the science is,” McGrath said. “Where’s the rigorous evidence for this. There’s a huge way between ‘might’ and ‘did.’ There is no real creditable evidence for this.” McGrath also offered a stern critique of Dennett’s reliance on the “meme” hypothesis. Richard Dawkins pioneered the idea that culture items have an evolutionary history in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.” Dawkins called these culture items or themes “memes.” According to Dennett, memes are much like genes or viruses. Dennett said viruses are “strings of DNA with attitude.” Their shapes allow them to utilize the “replicating machinery” of a cell. “Dawkins’ brilliant idea is that ideas can do that too,” Dennett said. “They can go inside the mind and get that mind to make a copy and another copy and another copy. They send that copy out into the world where it make more copies.” McGrath, saying he is not convinced that memes are supported by science, noted, “I think there are some very serious problems with [memes].” The issue, he said, “has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with whether scientifically there is such a thing. I say there is no evidence for this idea that is satisfactory.” McGrath criticized the fact that arguments for the meme often are based on analogy. He also pointed out that the idea of memes would work as well against atheism as religion. In a sense, McGrath said, all ideas would simply be memes. He also criticized proponents of the meme for circular reasoning and the lack of a testable model which science holds so dear. In his conclusion, McGrath spoke of the limitations of science. Issues such as the meaning of life, he said, remain outside the scope of science. Dennett, however, criticized those who appeal to faith. Those who believe often “play the faith card,” he said, when scientists raise questions they cannot answer. Dennett encouraged religious people to “join the conversation” and get reasons for their belief. Those who agree not to “play the faith card” can utilize all the wisdom in their religion and spread those beliefs to others, he said. Dennett encouraged the teaching of world religions in pubic and private schools, believing that such teaching should be required to guard against toxic forms of religion. The forum continued Feb. 24 with presentations by William Lane Craig, research professor at Talbot School of Theology; Ken Parsons, professor of philosophy at the University of Houston, Clear Lake; Evan Fales, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa; and Hugh McCann, professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University. Each presentation was followed by responses from McGrath and Dennett. “I thought the evening went very well,” said Robert Stewart, associate professor of philosophy and theology occupying the Greer-Heard Chair of Faith and Culture and director of the Greer-Heard Forum. “I thought both listened to each other. So often these things wind up with people talking at each other rather than talking to each other.” --30-- Audio recordings of the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum are available at www.greer-heard.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Atheism debate stretches from pop culture to history by Michael McCormack Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Honest dialogue rather than heated debate characterized day two of the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Feb. 23-24. Scholars Keith Parsons, William Lane Craig, Evan Fales and Hugh McCann continued the discussion of the topic “The Future of Atheism.” Akin to previous Greer-Heard Forums, both scholars from the Friday night dialogue -– evangelical theologian Alister McGrath and atheist professor Daniel Dennett -– responded to each of the four presenters. Parsons and Fales, representing an atheist viewpoint, offered some of the most challenging questions of the day. Parsons, professor of philosophy at the University of Houston at Clear Lake, started the Saturday sessions with his paper titled “Atheism: Twilight or Dawn.” Parsons responded to the book by McGrath titled “The Twilight of Atheism,” in which McGrath points to the decline of atheism and the resurgence of religion in the 20th century. Parsons was unconvinced. “How odd, in that case, to find atheist books recently heading up the bestseller list and atheists showing up on the TV talk shows to make the case for unbelief,” Parsons said. This, he said, evidences the public’s pro-atheism leaning. Parsons, though, didn’t rest his argument on public opinion. He attributed the success of atheism to religious institutions themselves. Religions, namely Christianity, set themselves up to fail, he said, because of the claims they make for themselves. “The Christian church, according to its own account, was charged by its founder to be the light of the world and the holder to the keys of the kingdom of God,” Parsons said. “When so much is expected of an institution or an individual, moral lapses are going to stick out with particular vividness. “It cannot be enough to be no worse than others when you present yourself as setting the standard.” Parsons then posed this question: “Who needs atheist agitators when the day-to-day impact of the church on people’s lives is so small?” In response to Parsons’ charges, McGrath warned today’s Christians by way of history: In his book The Twilight of Atheism, he found that whenever in history Christianity became linked to power, atheism played a major role in the revolt against it. With this in mind, he cautioned American Christians against becoming too politically powerful. “There is a burden on all of us who hold a religious position to ensure that this is actually lived out properly and does not lead to violence,” McGrath said. “That seems to raise a whole range of political and ethical issues.” He pointed to the Amish community who, when violence occurred at one of their schools in 2006, gained the attention of much of the world through their response: forgiveness. “They have recognized in the DNA of Christianity is the nonviolent ethic of Jesus of Nazareth,” McGrath said. “The Amish made no call for retribution but instead offered forgiveness.” MOTIVATION Evan Fales, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa and the second atheist to speak, devoted much of his attention to the matter of motivation: If a person believes there is no God, what is there to motivate him or her toward moral living? “Devotion to family and friends and to the wellbeing of all humanity, happy pursuit of one’s calling, delight in the beauties of nature and art, commitment to moral ideals and courage in their defense: these are all enough to fill a life with worthy goals and satisfactions,” Fales said. Also, because the atheist does not believe in God, he or she cannot rely on God ultimately to right all of history’s wrongs, Fales said, which, too, is a motivation to moral living. “That ... makes life infinitely more precious and the need to pursue the good while we can an infinitely deeper obligation,” Fales said in contending that God’s existence has no bearing on morality. McGrath’s response to Fales’ argument, therefore, didn’t simply hinge on the existence of God. Instead, it focused on the existence of a personal God. McGrath told how he, as an atheist when he was young, would gaze up at the stars and sense the temporal nature of life. “Now as a Christian, I look at the same stars and they symbolize something very different,” he said. “In dealing with God, we are not dealing with an indeterminate, divine entity. We are dealing with a very specific, divine entity who chose to enter into this world and put Himself at the disposal of people.” ARGUMENTS FOR THEISM William Lane Craig, research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, and Hugh McCann, professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, made the case for theism. Craig, who has presented papers at all three Greer-Heard Forums, discussed current convincing philosophical arguments for theism, which include the cosmological argument, the Kalaam cosmological argument and the teleological argument. Ultimately, he said, these reasoning tools point to the universe having both a beginning and a cause. That cause, he said, necessarily transcends space and time and is, thus, changeless and immaterial. “Such a cause must be beginningless and uncaused,” Craig said. “Such a transcendent cause is plausibly taken to be personal.” Dennett, however, did not think the idea of a changeless God to be an appealing one. “The problem with a changeless God is that it is changeless. It is outside of time,” Dennett said. “Don’t bother praying to it and certainly don’t expect it to hear and answer your prayer.” McCann briefly addressed the personal nature of God. He presented three areas in which religion offers a source of knowledge about God. Through religion, adherents gain an understanding about the origin of the universe and, therefore, the creator of the universe. In addition, believers gain knowledge of particular events that occurred miraculously. The third source of knowledge spoke to the question of the personal nature of God raised by Dennett after Craig’s paper. That last source of knowledge is experience. “Suppose someone tells us he has had an encounter with God,” McCann said. “For him, he says, the matter is settled. He knows there is a God because he has learned it from direct experience. “Is there a way to approach a claim such as this with a scientific spirit?” McCann asked. “In part, I think the answer is yes. Those who make such statements are testifying to something they say they have observed.” McCann offered Jesus as an example. “Regardless of what you think about who Jesus was, this is a guy who had a rich spiritual life,” McCann said. “He told people about it. It had quite a profound effect [on the world].” Even though personal experience of God is not necessarily scientifically measurable or observable, McCann said, it does not make that knowledge inadmissible. A CONTINUING DIALOGUE The success of the Greer-Heard Forum was measured in dialogue, said Bob Stewart, associate professor of philosophy and theology occupying the Greer-Heard Chair of Faith and Culture and the forum’s director. “I fear that too often we become entrenched like battles in World War I,” Stewart said. “We rise up periodically to fire off an intellectual mortar and never know if we hit anyone or do any good or ill. “Let’s talk to each other more in the future. Let’s talk with conviction and respect.” --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Creationist Kurt Wise critiques secular science on program by David Roach Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Secular scientists who fear allowing the conclusions of creationism into secular universities have good reason to be afraid because they are accountable to the creator, Kurt Wise, professor of theology and science at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said on the Albert Mohler Radio Program in February. “If it’s true that there was a creation, then you realize that means there’s someone in control,” Wise said on the broadcast hosted daily by Southern Seminary’s president. “And if there was a flood -- in other words, a creator who actually judged this creation -- that means we’re in big trouble. So I think there’s every reason why an evolutionist would be very frightened of creationists advocating creationism.” Wise appeared on the Feb. 13 show to comment on discussion stirred by recent news articles on evolution in commemoration of what would have been Charles Darwin 198th birthday Feb. 12. A USA Today article pointed out that some secular scientists are upset over the fact that a number of creationists have obtained doctoral degrees from major universities recently. Wise earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University in paleontology under late evolutionist Stephen J. Gould. Mohler noted that famed evolutionist Richard Dawkins called Wise “the greatest disappointment he knows in modern science” -- a designation Mohler said should be worn with pride. “I am absolutely thrilled you end up in the center of his target, and that’s why you are on the program today,” Mohler said. “It’s because you have so boldly set out the case. Richard Dawkins can’t imagine anyone who understands modern science in terms of its theory and history and paradigm and model and still believes the words, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’” It is important for Christians to talk about evolution, Mohler noted, because too often believers have responded inadequately to the challenges of Darwinism. “For the better part of two centuries the Christian church has been trying to figure out how to respond to the challenge of Darwinian theory and the prevailing evolutionary model,” Mohler said. “I’ll just be very candid to say that in so many cases the church has failed.” The two greatest errors Christians have made are capitulating to evolution on one hand and rejecting it in an unintelligent way on the other hand, Mohler said. Wise argued that accepting the Bible’s account of creation makes intellectual sense. “If you want a correct account of an event, you want an eyewitness,” Wise said. “You want an eyewitness who’s reliable. You want an eyewitness who understands. Who better than God Himself? If He really is the creator, then He has the accurate account. How could a scientist thousands of years later, who wasn’t there, actually have a better account of the origin than God Himself?” Modern science is limited because it draws conclusions based only on the things scientists can observe and experience, Wise said. Scientists “cannot deduce anything about a creation,” he said. “They’ve never seen a creation before -- not a creation out of nothing of the universe. Their experience is limited to what they see and hear in the present. With those kinds of limitations, they couldn’t possibly deduce the right thing about the beginning of things.” Humans cannot separate science and religion because scientists begin their work with assumptions about the world that are “deeply religious,” Wise said, adding, “Science drips with theology. You cannot do science without making theological assumptions.” Mohler pointed to the writings of prominent evolutionists as evidence that theology and science overlap. “All you have to do is read the evolutionists,” he said. “They’re always talking about the meaning of life. Richard Dawkins tries to find it in the mystery in the sheer accidental nature of the whole thing. The late Carl Sagan tried to find it in the immensity of what appears to the human eye to be limitless space.... You can’t talk about humanity without talking about the meaning of human life.” In response to a question from a caller, Mohler and Wise said they believe the earth is relatively young because they trust the Bible’s account of creation as accurate and straightforward. “At the end of the day, I cannot interpret the straightforward words, sentences and propositions of Genesis 1-11 any differently than Romans 1-11,” Mohler said. “So that’s why I hold to a young earth.” Wise agreed. “It seems to be a clear reading of Scripture that God told us that the earth is young,” he said. “And I hold that position for that reason. I also believe that science is such that these (evolutionary theories) are theories of humans. So if it’s a choice between God’s clear Word and humans’ reason, then I’m going to take God’s Word.” --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Roberts, in SEBTS chapel, warns against false prophets by Joy Rancatore Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--When sin entered man in the Garden of Eden, it brought a distorted view of God that would manifest itself in false prophets until the second coming of Christ, R. Philip Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said at a sister seminary. “False prophets have been with us, are with us, and they will be with us to the very end,” Roberts said after reading from Matthew 7 in a March 6 chapel at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. “And if we take the Word of God seriously, they will be even more evident as the Day of the Lord nears.” He noted that in the Old Testament false prophets worked to destroy the truth proclaimed by the prophets that God had ordained, and in the New Testament Christians were warned against false teachers. Modern false prophets in the United States include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Scientists and New Age adherents, he said. “There are false prophets because many people want to twist and use the essence of Christianity to actually divert attention from the truth and the heart of the message of the Gospel,” Roberts said. “Their puny little minds won’t absorb the truth of the Lord. Their hearts won’t be obedient to what God has commanded them to do -- to repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ. “So they reconstruct the essence of what the faith is in an attempt to divert themselves from facing the truth,” he said. Roberts said sinful, fallen humanity inevitably wants to counterfeit the truth about Jesus Christ, and typically someone who attempts to counterfeit does not choose something of little worth but something invaluable. False prophets, he said, often want to appear to be Christian, similar to the wolves in sheep’s clothing that Jesus mentioned Matthew 7:15. Such false prophets will always add to the Bible, subtract from the two great doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of God, multiply the way of salvation and further divide the body of Christ, Roberts said. But such prophets ultimately will not succeed. “Every false prophetic movement that pretends to be the true expression of the church of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God ... is doomed for utter, complete failure,” Roberts said. “And if Jesus tarries, every false prophetic movement we see in our midst today will one day end up on the trash heap of history.” Roberts exhorted seminary students to reach out with the true Gospel to the cults around them before they’re able to cause further destruction for themselves and others. “Unless we take the Gospel to them and are active about sharing the truth of Jesus Christ with those caught up in error and untruth and a reconstructed false gospel, their destiny is one of separation from the Lord Jesus Christ,” Roberts said. --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Workshop on Christianity & Dead Sea Scrolls draws crowd by Rachel Waligorski Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--A workshop on Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls drew more than 330 people to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, filling the chapel auditorium and overflowing into the library for the opening session of the two-day event. Craig A. Evans, distinguished professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, addressed the relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and extra-canonical gospels (those not included in the New Testament). Evans, author of “Christian Beginnings and the Dead Sea Scrolls” and other books, noted popular culture’s hype of writings such as the Gospel of Thomas, Egerton Papyrus 2, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Peter and the Secret Gospel of Mark. Too many scholars, Evans said in regard to the authenticity of the canonical Gospels, are “hypercritical when it comes to the canonical Gospels, but gullible and uncritical when it comes to the non-canonical gospels." Commenting on people’s interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Evans said, “There are lots of people out there with a spiritual hunger, interest in things about Jesus, things about God, but they don't really know where to turn. They have vague ideas of what Christian faith is all about, vague ideas of the church and what it stands for and its mission and so forth. “So I think you have non-Christians and seekers, Jewish people interested in the scrolls because maybe [they think] the scrolls will tell us something about where it all comes from, maybe the scrolls will shed light on things we ought to know about, think about God." On the second day of the conference, Evans noted, "What the Dead Sea Scrolls provided us with … was the vital linguistic and conceptual background that we needed to sort out better what [the Apostle] Paul was talking about in Galatians. "And when that got sorted out, we were able to resolve the tension between Paul and James. And that's the value of the scrolls,” Evans said. “It isn't like, 'Well, now I can believe,' or 'Now I have faith' or 'All my doubts have been answered.' The scrolls help us answer important questions that lead to fresh further-clarifying discoveries, and that's the value." Workshop speakers from Midwestern’s faculty were Stephen J. Andrews, professor of Old Testament, Hebrew and archaeology; Terry Wilder, associate professor of New Testament and Greek; N. Blake Hearson, associate professor of Old Testament and Hebrew; and Radu Gheorghita, associate professor of biblical studies. MBTS President R. Philip Roberts described the Dead Sea Scrolls as “a very critical issue for Christian apologetics. A working knowledge and understanding of them is important for every believer." The large turnout for the Feb. 9-10 conference, Andrews said, “reminded me of the great importance of the scrolls for the study of the Bible and for understanding the background of our faith.” MBTS is making plans for a follow-up workshop, "Jesus, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls," scheduled for the end of April with Evans returning as the featured speaker. --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Seminary team celebrates salvations from Cameroon trip by Melanie Lloyd Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday CAMEROON, Africa (BP)--Jesus taught His followers to store up treasures in heaven, and modern-day missionaries reap heavenly rewards for their work among indigenous people groups around the world. But professors and students from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary got some unusual earthly rewards on a recent, short-term, seminary mission trip to Cameroon, Africa: Their first Sunday in the West African country garnered not only 26 professions of faith, but also several live chickens and even a goat. “We definitely ate well for the next couple of weeks,” said Keith Eitel, professor of missions and the group’s team leader. From Dec. 27-Jan. 14, a team of 23 Southwestern Seminary faculty members and students ministered among the Hausa and Gewe people of Garoua -- the capital city of the North Province of Cameroon -- and the surrounding villages. Connecting with International Mission Board missionaries Larry and Trish Davis, the team was tasked with not only sharing the Gospel but also helping organize several house groups to lead Bible studies. “We saw a total of 52 professions of faith and two households each in the Hausa and Gewe areas that opened their homes for Bible study,” Eitel said. “One of the neatest things to me happened in the first Gewe family we saw come to faith. The father said, ‘Ever since you came, my heart has been changed.’ That phrase just stuck with me. Even though he didn’t yet understand all of the ramifications of what he had done, he knew something had changed.” The man later invited several guests to his home to hear the Gospel presentation, and they also made professions of faith. “I really think that family will be a key household for Christ in that village,” said Art Savage, a team member and the associate director of Southwestern's World Mission Center. IMB research, Eitel said, shows that the 20 Gewe people that made professions of faith are the first known believers of that people group. “Revelation 5 says that people of every tribe, tongue and nation will be represented, so we had a part in seeing the first Gewe get their reserve seating around the Throne,” Eitel said. The Gewe, as well as the Hausa, are considered folk Muslims. They generally mix Islamic beliefs with tribal beliefs and practices as well as secularism and syncretism. “Very few of the people could cite the Koran in Arabic,” Eitel said. “And even then, it was only rote memorization. Most of the people would admit they didn’t know what they were saying. One of the things we tried to communicate to the people was that the God of the Bible, who loves them very much, saw to it that His word was in their language, and the god of the Koran had not.” The churches where the team members preached generally are not composed of former Muslims, Eitel said. Those with Christian backgrounds, living and working in the area, have established the churches and are ministering to their own people. One cultural event attended by the team provided an opportunity to be silent witnesses to the most influential person in Garoua. “We were invited to this big event with the Lamido -— the Emir, or spiritual authority -— for northern Cameroon among Muslims,” Eitel said. “We were there when Muslims celebrate the Feast of the Ram. During this time, local tribal warriors take the opportunity to affirm their loyalty to the Lamido.” Because they were special guests at the event, Southwestern team members sat behind the Lamido in a traditionally prominent place and watched as horse-mounted warriors rode their horses up to the Lamido, stopped right in front of him, and shook their swords at him. “In return, the Lamido would take his sword and just motion back at them to show his affinity for what they were saying,” Eitel said. After the event, the team was invited back to the palace to talk to the Lamido. “To have that experience was quite an honor,” Savage said. “God just gave us the right time to be there. He gave us his blessing more or less to be there, talk to the people and understand the culture, which also included religion.” One particular experience that left an intense impact on the team involved a five-year-old boy and a near-death experience. According to Eitel, missionary friends of the Davises were involved in a car accident in which a local boy ran out in front of their vehicle and was hit. “From all visible signs, (the boy) looked dead. But the missionaries scooped him up and headed to the nearest hospital, which was about 30 minutes away,” Eitel said. Amazingly, the Southwestern team included a doctor and a nurse. Both went to the hospital and were critical to the boy's survival. Team member Paul Stoltje is an M.Div. student at Southwestern and a trained pediatric endocrinologist. “I really debated with God for awhile about this trip, but I had a sense of needing to investigate it further,” Stoltje said. “So, I followed up with Dr. Eitel, I did a lot of praying, I talked with my wife (Susan) and a few days later decided to go. It was very sudden and unexpected.” On the team’s first day in Garoua, Stoltje was called upon to do something God already knew he would have the training and ability to do. Along with Glenda Eitel, who is a registered nurse and Keith Eitel’s wife, Stoltje assessed the boy’s condition, which included a severe head injury. “This boy was hit by a Land Rover going 65 mph,” Stoltje said. “For all intents and purposes, he should have been killed. Nobody would have or even could have done anything for him in his village, and most Cameroonians would have left him there to die.” Stoltje and Glenda Eitel temporarily took responsibility not only for the boy’s medical care, but also for prescribing the right medicines needed to bring down the swelling in the boy’s head. “The hospital did not supply anything for the patients, so it was up to family members to provide everything, including medications,” Stoltje said. “So, we got him what he needed and instructed the hospital staff on how and when to administer the medications.” God’s providence was demonstrated to the entire village when the boy recovered. In less than a week, he was well enough to be discharged from the medical clinic. “Glenda, who used to work in an emergency room, thought that the boy probably wouldn’t survive,” Eitel said. “But she and Paul prayed for him; four days later the boy was sitting up and playing, and on the fifth day he was able to go home.” “The neat thing is that on all of these types of trips, God assembles a team just how He needs it to be in place,” Savage said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better team.” In 2008, Southwestern will be sending students back to West Africa as a part of the M.Div. in International Church Planting program. “We wanted to strategically plan trips like this one so that we could engage the regions where future deployments for the M.Div. in International Church Planting program are going to be,” Eitel said. “Next January we are planning a trip to India. This will give students the opportunity to be exposed to the setting where deployments with the IMB of two or three years will take place.” --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Women’s leadership network convenes at Golden Gate by Taryn R. Hutchison Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)--The rain could not keep 190 women from an event that only comes to Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary once every six years -- a women’s leadership consultation sponsored by the Seminary Women’s Network. Every February, the network, which includes women in leadership at all six Southern Baptist seminaries and the SBC’s various entities, meets at one of the seminaries. This year was Golden Gate’s turn. Women’s ministry leaders, pastors’ wives, Bible study teachers and seminary students attended the Feb. 10 gathering at Golden Gate’s Mill Valley, Calif., campus, focusing on the theme “Pure Water in a Muddy World: Effective Ministry in a Confused Culture.” Three keynote speakers and 14 workshop leaders offered a biblical foundation and practical tips for making a difference in the world. General session speakers were -- Golden Gate President Jeff Iorg, who noted that “the Gospel is clear and it is pure.” -- Linda Clark, women’s ministry specialist with the California Southern Baptist Convention, who defined purity as being “untainted and undiluted.” -- Rhonda Kelley, wife of Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, who cautioned the women to “be on guard -– don’t ever take purity, righteousness or godly living for granted.” -- Ann Iorg, wife of Jeff Iorg and co-coordinator of the event, who said the consultation aim “is not about tea parties and decorations; it’s real ministry that can translate in principle into any culture anywhere.” Alicia Wong, a 1999 Golden Gate graduate who served in East Asia for two years as a missionary, co-led a workshop on “Women’s Ministry for Postmodern Women.” “Be relevant and authentic, but don’t ever sacrifice the truth,” Wong exhorted her audience. “You have to live out your faith in front of postmodern women.” Wong is director of women’s programs at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. Trish Hawley, who led the workshop with Wong, is assistant professor of women and women’s ministry coordinator at New Orleans Seminary. “We as Christian women need to think about and understand who we are as a culture, both positively and negatively,” Hawley said. “We need to ask ourselves: What does Jesus say about despair and uncertainty? And we need to think about how to minister to women who live in that.” Wong’s goal for their seminar was to “help women change the way they think and strategize about reaching women in the world [as they] go back to their churches and do ministry differently.” Many of the consultation’s participants came to do just that. Beth Patel, who directs the women’s ministry at Tiburon (California) Baptist Church, hoped to “take home ideas to inspire and encourage the women in our church.” Heather Henry, whose husband Brandon is a GGBTS student, wanted to “get more fired up about women’s ministry,” while Ticia Gorney desired to be “more equipped to minister alongside” her husband. Franci Cupp, a student at GGBTS, added, “It’s a rare opportunity to worship with other women, and I didn’t want to miss out.” --30-- -------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST-PERSON: Writer knows who gave Ultimate Gift by Phil Boatwright Date: March 07, 2007 - Wednesday KANSAS CITY, Kan. (BP)--The highly anticipated "The Ultimate Gift" opens Friday, March 9. The Fox Faith release featuring James Garner, Brian Dennehy, and this year’s youngest Oscar contender, Abigail Breslin (for "Little Miss Sunshine"), concerns a rebellious rich kid who learns he has to accomplish several tasks before receiving his inheritance. Through these arduous missions and the grounded people he meets along the way, the young man comes to a spiritual enlightening. Based on the book by Jim Stovall, "The Ultimate Gift" doesn’t preach, it merely suggests. (The movie is rated PG for thematic elements, some violence and some language.) "Had I come out with a blatant faith message I would have lost a lot of the target audience I want to reach," Stovall said. "I had to be cognizant of why people come to the movies. They didn’t come to get a motivational, inspirational, biblical message. They came to enjoy their evening. "If we are doing what I think we’re doing with this film, people will walk up the aisle after having invested two hours and 10 bucks thinking about their lives," he added. "I can’t give them all the answers in two hours, but I’m hoping they can start thinking about some of the questions. For many of those people it will take them down a path that will lead to a personal commitment." Stovall has a personal commitment with Christ. “I grew up in a Christian home, I went to First Baptist Church in Tulsa (Okla.), and I made a decision in Vacation Bible School," he said. "But what often happens when you come face to face with a crisis, you learn the difference between religion and relationship. That happened for me in my 20s. Suddenly, the quarterly lesson of the week was not enough. You gotta get down to a real relationship with Christ.” The crisis Stovall speaks of concerns his physical blindness. “A degenerative eye disease started when I was 17," he said. "It was a slow decline until age 29.” Like many determined people, Stovall doesn’t allow this obstacle to eclipse his mission. “Any time we have a challenge, it causes us to think of what’s important and what’s not," he said. "People go through any number of personal or family problems and we’re only as big as the smallest thing it takes to divert us from where we want to be.” Though his book has sold over 4 million copies and is being taught as a curriculum in almost a thousand schools, Stovall doesn’t consider himself a writer. He is the co-founder and president of the Narrative Television Network, which makes movies and television accessible for the nation’s 13 million blind and visually impaired people and their families. “I wrote the book in five days," he said. "I dictated it between my calls and meetings.” The book and now the film concern a 12-step journey of self-discovery. The grandfather has shown his love for his grandson by sending him on 12 missions, each designed to develop his character. And what are those gifts? According to the story, they are: -- Work: He who loves his work never labors. -- Money: Money is nothing more than a tool. It can be a force of good, a force of evil or simply be idle. -- Friends: It is a wealthy person, indeed, who calculates riches not in gold but in friends. -- Learning: Education is a lifelong journey whose destination expands as you travel. -- Problems: Problems can only be avoided by exercising good judgment. Good judgment can only be gained by experiencing life’s problems -- Family: Some people are born into wonderful families. Others have to find or create them. Being a member of a family is a priceless privilege which costs nothing but love. -- Laughter: Laugher is a good medicine for the soul. Our world is desperately in need of more such medicine. -- Dreams: Faith is all that dreamers need to see the future. -- Giving: The only way you can truly get more out of life for yourself is to give part of yourself away. -- Gratitude: In those times when we yearn to have more in our lives we should dwell on the things we already have. In doing so, we will often find that our lives are already full to overflowing. -- A Day: Life at its essence boils down to one day at a time. Today is the day! -- Love: Love is a treasure for which we can never pay. The only way to keep it is to give it away. For more information, visit www.foxfaithmovies.com/ultimategift. --30-- Phil Boatwright is the editor and film reviewer for previewonline.org