The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-03/09/1999 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------- No illness reported by employees after ‘anthrax scare’ at SBC o by Art Toalston Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--No illness was reported by employees as the Southern Baptist Convention Building reopened March 9 after a suspicious letter opened March 5 prompted a number of precautionary steps by Nashville, Tenn., emergency officials.
Four employees of the SBC Executive Committee and a fire department captain underwent a decontamination wash of 10-percent Clorox and water, in addition to being given antibiotics, for possible exposure to deadly anthrax bacteria. The SBC Building was closed March 8.
The letter, postmarked on the West Coast, was forwarded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to a lab for tests, which were not available March 9 but were expected within a week.
The letter was opened in the Executive Committee offices on the SBC Building’s seventh floor during in the late morning of March 5. Bill Merrell, vice president of convention relations for the Executive Committee, said local authorities were contacted and precautions they recommended were taken, including limiting access to the building.
Emergency officials, who were on the scene for more than four hours, responded from the FBI, Metro Police Department, Metro Health Department, Nashville Fire Department and Metro Office of Emergency Management. Numerous emergency vehicles were dispatched to the scene.
The suspicious envelope did not appear to contain any toxic contents, Merrell said of the authorities’ initial assessment.
“There was a sense the Lord was here, guiding us through the day and giving us strength,” said Morris H. Chapman, Executive Committee president, said of the calm among staff members on the building’s seventh floor who were confined for several hours to the floor. Chapman was among those on the floor.
Emergency workers led a debriefing session with Executive Committee staff, and Chapman led in a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s grace during the incident and the local officials’ assistance.
“I was stunned” upon opening the envelope, said the first employee, who asked not to be identified, to see the contents of the letter. Later came “a peace about it, knowing it must have been a hoax,” she said.
Jack Wilkerson, vice president for business and finance, and one of the four employees exposed to the letter, said, “We’re thankful all of our employees are OK.” They responded appropriately to the situation, he said, “and we fully cooperated with the police and health officials. The health and safety of our employees and other people in the building were our paramount concerns.”
After a phone conversation earlier in the afternoon between Chapman and James T. Draper Jr., president of LifeWay Christian Resources across the street, sandwiches and other food items were delivered from LifeWay’s cafeteria for the confined Executive Committee staff members and the assisting emergency workers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Teacher-author Beth Moore urges missions workers to a deeper walk by Mary E. Speidel Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Seated in a waiting area at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, Beth Moore fixed her gaze on her open Bible as she memorized a Scripture passage.
Like the other travelers around her, Moore, a popular Bible study teacher and author from Houston, tried not to stare at an elderly man slumped in a wheelchair nearby. His matted gray hair flowed down his back. His fingernails were overgrown. His clothes hung loosely from his emaciated frame.
As Moore studied her Bible, she felt the Holy Spirit speaking to her about the man. “PLEASE, Lord, don’t make me witness to him,” Moore, a member of Houston’s First Baptist Church, argued with God.
“I don’t want you to witness to him, Beth,” the Lord replied. “I want you to brush his hair.”
“Brush his hair?” Moore retorted. “You’ve got to be kidding, Lord!”
Moore tried to ignore the impression and continued her Scripture memorization. But God wouldn’t leave her alone. Finally, she slammed down her Bible and walked over to the man.
“Sir, may I have the privilege of brushing your hair?” she asked softly.
“Speak up,” he said. “I can’t hear you.”
“Sir, may I brush your hair?” she repeated, nearly yelling.
The man agreed. As Moore, still angry with God, searched for a brush in the man’s suitcase, “a miracle of God came over me. I have never been so overcome by the fruit of the Spirit,” she recalled.
When she finished brushing the man’s tangled hair, she knelt in front of his wheelchair. “Sir, do you know my Jesus?” she said.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “When I met my bride, she wouldn’t marry me unless I gave my life to him.”
The man explained that he’d recently had open heart surgery in another city and was flying home to his wife, who’d been too weak to visit him in the hospital. He hadn’t seen her in months. “Before you came up, I was sitting here thinking what a mess I will look like for my bride,” he told Moore, author of a popular women’s discipleship series published by Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tenn.
This poignant account was one of many real-life stories Moore shared March 2-4 during Spiritual Emphasis Week at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board in Richmond, Va. During Bible studies based on Romans 12, Moore challenged IMB employees and missionaries-in-orientation to seek a deeper walk with Christ in order to fuel their global ministries.
She urged them to heed the Apostle Paul’s advice to present themselves as “living sacrifices” to God and to depend upon his “resurrection power” to keep from burning out in the Lord’s work to bring all the peoples of the world to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
In an interview at IMB headquarters, Moore said she developed a love for international missions while growing up in Girls in Action at First Baptist Church, Arkadelphia, Ark. At age 18, she felt God’s call to full-time Christian service while serving as a GA camp counselor in Arkansas. Yet later she began to wonder why God gave her a passion for missions but didn’t call her to serve on the mission field.
As she prayed about the matter, “God began to make it very, very clear to me that my mission service is to encourage those who serve in global missions, to help them keep that flame hot and keep abiding in his love.”
While in Richmond, Moore also led a Bible study attended by more than 1,000 area evangelicals -- mostly women. During the study, sponsored by the IMB and First Baptist Church of Richmond, she noted that one reason Paul’s ministry was so successful -- despite his hardships -- was that he had planned beforehand not to stray from the course, no matter what.
“When everything is said and done, all that is going to matter is when Christ has the opportunity to say to us, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant,’” Moore said. “Our lives will be measured based on what we did with who he is.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Helps for women’s ministries relayed in 7th annual consultation by Kelly Coakley Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Women from 11 states attended the seventh annual Women’s Leadership Consultation for people working in women’s ministries and encouragement for today’s Christian women.
“Are you tired or are you weary?” noted author and speaker Dorothy Patterson asked as she kicked off this year’s conference, focusing on “Encouraged and Equipped for the Task” and drawing 180 women to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., Feb. 25-27.
The words “tired “ and “weary” struck chords of familiarity with the crowd as Patterson noted the busy and sometimes chaotic nature of a life associated with ministry.
Patterson -- wife of Paige Patterson, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. -- cited the vast differences between the words tired and weary in her keynote address based on Isaiah 40:28-31.
Tiredness is a physical condition that can be remedied with rest. Weariness “is something that not only wears you down, but weariness strips away your freshness. It also strips you down to your very soul, so that there is a despondency. There is a despair. There is a lack of satisfaction. It is a spiritual attitude, and it can only be removed by spiritual warfare -- by coming to God’s Word,” explained Patterson, whose comments set the tone for the weekend of plenary sessions and workshops.
“When I think of spiritual weariness in my life -- of the problems that come to me and the day-in and day-out agonies that I would go through on behalf of someone else or in my own life -- I realize the first place I have to start in dealing with these things is in recognizing who God is,” she said.
“I have to be reminded of the distinction between God and any human I have ever known,” she said, noting the God to whom Christians run in their weariness will never grow weary himself.
Patterson said every believer facing weariness should “know how our weary souls can be restored and refreshed: ‘Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint,’” she said, quoting Isaiah 40:31.
She noted the natural progression of walk, run and then soar; however, she said the supernatural order of things is just the opposite. A new Christian soars with excitement. Then, the patient running of the Christian race begins. Walking with God means slowing down, being still, abiding in God and spending time in his Word. “It is at this point where you learn that renewal comes from waiting on him,” Patterson said, “and where you can exchange your weariness for his strength.”
Bobbye Rankin, wife of Jerry Rankin, president of the SBC International Mission Board in Richmond, Va., led a plenary session on “Encouraging a Heart for God Through World Missions.” Rankin cited ways God had blessed her during 15 years of missionary service with her husband in Indonesia, underscoring the greatest goal of ministry by recounting times when she had personally experienced God work in the lives of others halfway around the world.
After noting the importance of spreading the gospel worldwide, she said “many people we come into contact with daily also need to hear the same gospel message.”
She characterized Christians as “pilgrims for God” who should share the gospel of Christ, whether they cross oceans and visit foreign lands or simply share as they cash a check, pump gas or just talk with a co-worker.
“To spread the gospel, one has to first know the One of whom they will proclaim,” said Jaye Martin, women’s evangelism/family evangelism associate at the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, Ga.
Though some believers are intimidated by personal witnessing, Martin challenged the ladies to “have a heart for evangelism,” just as the disciple Andrew had.
Martin examined the life of Andrew in the New Testament and shared six facets of the call to leadership:
-- the call to Christ, one’s own conversion.
-- the call to multiply, exemplified in Andrew telling Simon of the Messiah.
-- the call to multiply God’s power by spending time with God in his Word.
-- the call to multiply one’s resources by giving Christ all of ourselves.
-- the call to multiply the cause, or to become “fishers of men.”
-- the call to leadership, which is reflected in helping others answer God’s call on their lives and in an attitude of seriousness regarding the urgency associated with sharing the gospel.
Carol Ann Draper, wife of James T. Draper Jr., president of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn., encouraged listeners to “have a heart for God through spiritual growth.” She compared the marriage relationship with the relationship one has with God and challenged listeners to examine both their physical and spiritual love lives.
Citing the “newness and excitement” in the early stages of one’s relationship with a spouse, Draper compared the same joy and eagerness with the early stages of being a Christian while advising that Christians “should never forget what those days were like.”
Since the Lord loves his children so much, then his children “need to be reminded that if you really love someone, you will want to spend time with them. That includes God and our spouses,” she said.
“When we spend time with God, there is no doubt that we will become more and more like him,” Draper said. “In fact, we will have a passion for loving, knowing and following Christ. We will be transformed into having a heart that longs to serve God by serving others.”
Speaking on “Encouraging a Heart for God Through Service,” Tonya York reflected on her own desires and struggles involved in servanthood. York is married to Hershael York, associate professor of preaching at Southern Seminary.
Quoting Romans 12:1-2, York said Christians are to be “living sacrifices, and we need to fill our lives with the things that matter most in life.” She advised that Christians should examine the way Christ served. “His passion was to serve, and that is what he came to do,” she said.
The Holy Spirit of God will “impress upon us what to do. Our job is to work on our perception and obedience,” York said. “As we learn to abide in him, we will be infectious, intentional and impartial servants of God.”
Many other wives of Southern’s faculty shared their experiences in the various workshops. Dealing with difficult people, mentoring, prayer ministry and planning special events were a few of the areas discussed.
Mary Mohler, wife of Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr., led the effort to organize this year’s conference.
“Tape sales from our meetings and workshops have far exceeded such sales for any other meeting the seminary has held in the last 30 years,” said an elated Mohler.
“The ladies came not just to listen, but they have proved they wanted to take the consultation home with them.”
Of the women attending the conference, “scores have called me or written personal notes or told me in person that the consultation changed their lives,” Mohler added. “Certainly, this is a testimony to God’s use of our invited speakers who ministered to us all. I am so grateful for them and everyone else who helped encourage and equip us to serve the Lord more faithfully.”
Tapes are still available by calling Southern Seminary’s office of media services at 1-800-626-5525.
Next year’s annual Women’s Leadership Consultation will be held at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Landgrave overcomes serious injury to finish gospel-based musical drama by Steve Smartt Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Philip Landgrave usually walks off the tennis court after a match. Last Jan. 15, paramedics carried him off. The professor of church music at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., slipped and hit his head on the floor, fracturing his skull.
Landgrave’s injury left him unconscious for three days. Doctors considered his condition grave, so they instructed his wife to “call in the family.” Family members were told to prepare for the worst.
Not only did the accident threaten his life, it also threatened his completion of “God’s Love Song,” a musical drama he was writing based on the Gospel of John.
Landgrave did regain consciousness. But he temporarily lost his ability to speak and to hear. God heard the countless prayers of friends and family from around the globe, however, as a subsequent X-ray revealed Landgrave’s condition to be on the mend.
“It was an overwhelming experience to get e-mails sent by friends from South Korea, Brazil, Panama and many other places,” Landgrave reflected. “It is a witness to me of how God can use his people to uphold other people.”
While lightheaded and dizzy, Landgrave worked from his hospital bed to fine-tune and add finishing touches to the 500-page score for “God’s Love Song,” including the remaining orchestral parts, sometimes working up to 12 hours a day.
Landgrave’s passion for “God’s Love Song” and the events surrounding his effort to finish it wrought a unified commitment on the part of Southern Seminary’s music faculty and students to complete the work for its already-scheduled public performances.
The need to finish brought a response of heightened energy and was identified as a “mission of ministry” for all involved, said Mozelle Clark Sherman, also a church music professor and director for the Church Music Drama Theatre at Southern who primarily has been responsible for staging and producing “God’s Love Song.”
“We who are working on this can feel it,” she said. “This is a mission that has been given.” Sherman said Landgrave’s determination, confidence and purpose in the work had been “ignited by God.”
The 140-minute musical drama features more than 50 acting roles, two choirs and Southern’s orchestra.
Though he’d been home barely two weeks, Landgrave was forced back into the hospital on Feb. 2 by phlebitis and blood clots. But he kept on working on the musical drama.
“Always, such a large work needs refinement,” he said. “So, I continued straightening out small discrepancies and making sure everything would be ready.”
What began two and a half years ago as a project involving a broad sweep of the Gospels has evolved into a dramatic presentation of the Gospel of John. Driven by his reverence and love for the message of the New Testament book, Landgrave has based every word of his musical drama on the gospel narrative. Described as an expression of the gospel through music, “God’s Love Song” emphasizes the evangelistic focus of John’s motive.
“John, the evangelist, told us of the things that he had seen and heard so that we might believe,” explained Landgrave, who sees the purpose of John’s writing as a way for people to indeed understand who Jesus Christ was and have an opportunity to believe in him.
“I want for ‘God’s Love Song’ the same thing the Apostle John wanted for what he wrote: that people would believe in Jesus,” said Landgrave in an interview from his home.
“We are retelling the greatest story ever told,” said Landgrave, his “we” including seminary students and other singers from area churches who will help present the musical drama.
“We will do as John’s book does and bear witness with him that the things concerning Jesus are true,” Landgrave said.
Landgrave, who continues to recuperate at home, said, “I have to be careful that I walk straight and don’t fall down. Hey, now there’s a message,” he quipped.
The Church Music Drama Theater at Southern will offer two performances of “God’s Love Song,” at 1:30 p.m. on March 20 and 7:30 p.m. on March 23. Admission is free. Groups of twenty or more may reserve seats for the March 20 performance by calling (502) 897-4115 for more information. Local cable viewers may view the March 23 performance live on the Faith channel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Baptist presence made official at Church of God university by Lonnie Wilkey Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday CLEVELAND, Tenn. (BP)--Persistence finally paid off for Steve Roper, a collegiate ministries specialist with the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
For about a decade, Roper, campus minister at Cleveland (Tenn.) State Community College, saw the need for an official Baptist work on the campus of Lee University, the only institution of higher education owned by the Church of God denomination based in Cleveland, Tenn.
“I was convinced there was a need to develop a community to Baptist students there,” Roper said, noting over the years several students approached him about beginning an official Baptist ministry on the Pentecostal denomination’s campus.
“What I have seen is a steady increase of Baptist students there. It’s a good school with a good Christian environment,” Roper observed. He estimated there are now about 400 Baptist preference students at Lee, comprising as much as 15 percent of the university’s student population.
During the last four years there has been a nominal Baptist presence on campus, Roper said, through efforts led by First Baptist Church, Cleveland.
Roper said students in his ministry at Cleveland State would transfer to Lee, but come back to Cleveland State collegiate ministry activities. “We felt we needed to create an emotional place for those students at the school they attended,” he said.
Meanwhile, Roper was patient and tried to take advantage of any opportunity to discuss a ministry at the school with Lee University officials. “We don’t go where we are not invited. We try to build a relationship [with school officials] where they are glad to have a partnership.”
About a year and a half ago, Roper said, two Lee students, led by Emmanuel Cosian, came to him and said they wanted an official presence on campus. “We made a covenant together. I told them I would do what I could to help,” Roper said.
He encouraged them to do what they needed to convince school officials to let them begin a Baptist ministry on campus.
“Emmanuel was persistent and was given a hearing with school administrators. He tried to help them understand who we are and assured them we would not proselytize,” Roper said.
Roper, who became involved, noted “we tried to help them understand who we are as Baptists. What we found was we didn’t understand them and they didn’t understand us.
“But we both wanted what was best for the students. They wanted their Baptist students to be encouraged in their faith without compromising who they are as an institution,” Roper said.
As a result of those meetings, Lee University gave approval for the organization last fall. Several of the faculty who are Baptists are serving as sponsors, including Carlanna Gill of First Baptist Church, Cleveland, said Roper, who is now officially recognized by the university as a student adviser.
Roper credited Lee officials with “showing trust where none has been earned yet.”
Slowly, the student ministry at Lee has begun to grow from the handfull of students who first met in the fall.
At a December meeting at Gill’s house, Roper and other students met to see where the ministry needed to go and what needed to be done. “We needed students to provide leadership and share responsibilities so we could do more,” he said.
Students have responded well, Roper said, noting one meeting in January drew more than 20 students. They recently elected officers and were able to fill six positions needed.
“We have gone from two students who did everything to 10 or 11 who are now sharing leadership.”
The future of the Baptist ministry on the Lee campus, which also is supported by Bradley County Baptist Association, is bright, Roper said. “The potential is there because of the Baptist population on campus.”
Roper does not take credit for the ministry other than being persistent. “If you believe something is right, God, in his own timing, will bring it to pass.”
The collegiate ministry leader is grateful to Lee University officials. “I appreciate the trust they have shown. Our job now is to show that trust was justified.
“We must show the best of who we, as Baptists, are,” he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Missions a joke to most Christians, speaker laments at student conference by Cindy Kerr Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--World missions is insignificant to most Christians because they are reading only half of the Bible, Bob Sjogren told 300 students at Mpact 99, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s annual student missions conference Feb. 26-28.
“To the average person on the pew, missions are a joke,” Sjogren said. “The average Christian can think of eight verses of the 8,000 in the New Testament that focus on God’s global purpose. Missions has at best a 1/1000th priority, giving the Great Commission a ‘by-the-way’ emphasis.”
On Christianity’s bookshelf are numerous books about money, marriage and family, justice, youth and church growth, said Sjogren, co-founder of Frontiers, an evangelical, interdenominational mission agency that plants churches throughout the Muslim world.
But missions, which should be the shelf on which all Christianity rests, is a small, thin paperback book pushed back in the kingdom of God series, he said.
Sjogren blamed the neglect on Christians’ failure to read the entire Bible.
“The Bible is one book with one complete story,” Sjogren reminded, adding many Christians practice a “yearbook theology,” reading the Bible like students read their school yearbooks -- scanning the pages and asking, “Where am I in this?”
Instead, he said, Christians should realize that with God’s blessing, “the top line of the covenant,” comes responsibility, “the bottom line.” To illustrate his point, Sjogren asked the students, most of whom are weighing mission careers, to quote Psalm 46:10. In unison all said, “Be still and know that I am God.” But only a few could finish the verse saying, “I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted among the earth.”
Although most Christians have heard slogans like “To know him and to make his name known” or illustrations about their vertical relationship with God and horizontal relationship with each other, the North American church has caught the Christian “cold” of thinking only “bless me, bless me,” Sjogren said.
“Our Christianity and a Mexican dinner are alike: By the time we eat all the salsa and chips, we aren’t hungry,” he said. “We are so satisfied with God’s blessings, and the amazing thing is that God will bless us even if it kills us. He’s looking for people who can survive the blessings.”
Sjogren pointed out many familiar Bible stories have a bottom-line responsibility for world missions not often shared. He cited the story of King Darius, who after seeing God rescue Daniel from the lion’s den wrote a praise to God and sent it to “the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world” (Dan. 6:25-26).
The bottom line of the Ten Commandments found in Deuteronomy 4:6, Sjogren said, is that Israel’s obedience to God’s law will capture the attention of other nations.
Sjogren lamented that currently the Muslim world sees Christianity in light of American television shows like “Beverly Hills 90210” and the President Clinton scandal and not Christians’ obedience to God.
A neglect of bottom-line responsibility results in an “A is greater than B lifestyle,” Sjogren explained. If A is the “us-es” and B is the “thems,” the A is greater than B lifestyle says, “Bless us, and if the blessing spills out on them, OK, but the higher priority is God blessing us.”
God desires the A = B lifestyle, Sjogren said.
God says: “I want to bless your socks off so you can be a blessing to others; I love them just as much as I love you,” Sjogren said.
If God’s desire is the A = B lifestyle, missions service is not just for the “called,” Sojgren said. In the New Testament, called, or “kaleo” in Greek, means called to be a Christian, not a special calling to go overseas, Sjogren said.
“God doesn’t steer a parked car,” Sojgren said. “We can’t sit comfortably in our culture and say, ‘OK, God, talk to me.’ As you’re ministering, God will steer you.”
Sjogren warned of the default mentality: “When I get out of school, I should get a job or a ministry here in the United States.”
Instead, he said, Christians must have closure mentality: Seek closure to the harvest. He cited Matthew 24:14 and five other passages that directly link taking the gospel to all nations and the end of the world and asked, “What is the end?”
“I don’t know,” he continued. “But if we don’t reach all nations, God has broken his promise to Abraham. Something happens when nations worship God together, when there is harmony among the diverse -- God gets greater glory.”
“Consider how valuable you are,” he told the students. He gave the following statistics: 10 percent of the world “really knows Christ,” while .0001 percent of those are missions-minded and .00000001 percent have a biblical foundation.
He cited more statistics: 99.99 percent of all full-time ministers serve in America, or one for every 200 people. Worldwide, there is one missionary for every 2 million Muslims. Less than 4 percent of the .01 percent who comprise the overseas missionary force go to the Muslim world.
“And you want to start another church in your city to put your flavor into it?” he asked.
He added even if Christians are called to minister in America, they need to go overseas.
“Many of you need to serve overseas for at least three years even if you’re called here to North America,” Sjogren said. “The biggest obstacle for effective ministry is comfort in your own culture. You won’t know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you’ve got.”
In addition to messages by Sjogren, the missions conference included seminars on numerous, related topics and opportunities to minister in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- To reach into Generation X culture, he urges innovation, understanding by Matt Sanders Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--They speak a foreign language, dress exotically, have odd eating habits and participate in strange tribal customs, including piercing and coloring their bodies.
And they are as close as the bedroom down the hall, the neighborhood high school or nearby college or the local shopping mall.
They are disgusted with the world and want to change it, but they are not sure how.
Their generation has been labeled “X” to symbolize their seeming apathy and worthlessness. But one missionary to this group sees the X as God’s stamp of approval.
“What the devil meant for bad, God has meant for good because X is the symbol for Christ in Greek,” said Tim Bisagno. “Do I not think that God is interested in a generation named after his own Son?”
God must have decided, “I’m gonna call this one Generation Jesus,’” Bisagno continued, with God perhaps saying, “I like that one because they’ve been rejected and I know my Son is going to be rejected as soon as I send him to earth. I can use that.”
Bisagno is director of Mission X, a ministry begun in 1994 in Houston, which includes “MXTV,” a weekly Christian rock music and evangelism television show. The first year more than 270 young people prayed to receive Christ after calling the show and speaking to a staff member or volunteer.
Mission X also produces two-minute radio spots for parents of youth, holds monthly worship and Bible study “Steigers” and conducts weekly discipleship classes. The ministry’s band, Inhoud, plans international evangelism tours to countries on nearly every continent.
Innovative, cross-cultural evangelistic methods are needed to reach America’s young people, Bisagno told Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students in early February, but use new methods without changing the message of the gospel that “always has and always will cross cultural differences and language barriers.”
“May God help us,” Bisagno said, “May God help us to reinterpret the gospel to this generation. May we speak clearly, because they’re screaming for an answer.”
Southwestern President Kenneth S. Hemphill agreed with Bisagno, closing the chapel with an emotion-filled prayer that God would “help us to be missionaries to a generation named for your Son.”
“To learn their language so that we might communicate the timeless truths of God’s Word,” Hemphill continued in a trembling voice. “We often see them as lepers with earrings and colored hair and tattoos. But, Lord, help us to risk the touch for the sake of the gospel.”
Appearances aside, Bisagno said young people are not apathetic but passionate about changing a world that “disgusts” them, noting this generation has more volunteerism and more entrepreneurs than any generation in history.
Speaking for Generation X, Bisagno said, “I need you as my leaders to teach me how to risk. Show me that by having your pastors express vision and by the teachers showing me the hearts of the historians, not just the stupid facts.
“Please show me that if I will take a risk that was born out of the heart of God it promotes faith and it brings life.”
Bisagno asked Christians to answer the following questions for young people: “Is there anything out there? Does it exist -- anything that is the same yesterday, that is the same today and will still be there tomorrow?”
When this generation gets passionate about God,” Bisagno said, it will change the world. However, if Christians do not act decisively now, Bisagno predicted young people will direct their passion wherever they can find a thrill, whether it be drugs, extreme sports, sex in any form, a relationship with anyone who seems to care, or suicide.
“We need a challenge, and we want a challenge and we’re going to find a challenge and we want a risk and we’re going to take the risk,” Bisagno said young people are saying. “We will because it’s way too deep within our spirit not to.”
Bisagno told the audience that Christians must do “more than just pray for this generation. We’ve got to understand them.”
Saying many church leaders and parents are in denial or confused about the plight of young people, Bisagno cited a Newsweek article reporting on deaths from heroin overdoses by “good kids” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area the previous three months.
Much of Bisagno’s message was in first-person, speaking as a member of the younger generation, outlining beliefs that mold its worldview.
The first is that they feel the pillars of society -- family, government and church -- have failed.
“I’ve got to take care of myself because no one else is,” Bisagno said young people are saying.
He cited contradictions within young people that lead to “a sense of guarded hopelessness.”
“Even though I live at home longer, I seem to grow up too soon,” Bisagno said. “Even though I’m highly individualistic, I need to belong. Even though, yeah, I’m disillusioned, I’m not going to give up.”
Quoting lyrics by singer Alanis Morissette to sum up the attitude, Bisagno said, “I’m broke but I’m happy. I’m poor, but I’m kind. But what it all comes down to is that everything is going to be fine, fine, fine. ... If it’s here today, it’s going to be gone tomorrow so get used to it and smile.”
Second, Bisagno said, today’s youth view relationships as more important than things.
“Teenage girls are having babies to have a sense of family,” he said. “Boys join gangs for the same reason. It’s not the stuff, it’s you that we want.”
Advertisers have figured it out, emphasizing not their products when marketing to young people but trying to connect to shared experiences and relationships, Bisagno said.
“To me there’s no relationship without connection,” he said young people believe. “There’s no connection without respect. And there’s no respect without authenticity.”
“Be authentic; we’ve seen the hype before,” he continued. “We don’t connect with the flashy youth program. We connect with the authentic youth minister. We more readily connect with a speaker who’s open and available and realistic enough to speak of his shortcomings more than we’ll listen to the preacher whose speaking of tomorrow’s ‘second coming.’”
Thirdly, America’s youth believe they are the authority on morality because churches and parents largely have abdicated their role, Bisagno said, especially with regard to sex.
“I see the church as avoiding the issue,” he said young people say. “I see Mom and Dad not even sitting on the same couch anymore. What could they know about sex? Remember I learn by example and I live by experience.”
Young people rely on experience to learn, because they are growing up in a culture with no moral absolutes, Bisagno said. Reinforced by a media barrage that proclaims there are no boundaries, relativism is inescapable for young people, he said.
“You should do theology like you do a crossword puzzle,” Bisagno said young people would say. “You should do it in pencil, because to do it in pen would mean that you’re quite arrogant. You actually think that you wouldn’t have to change your answers.”
This attitude is a survival skill learned at a young age by members of the first generation marketed to as consumers, Bisagno said.
When toy advertisements that “brainwash” children into believing products can do the impossible don’t match reality, the children are left disillusioned.
“We’ve reached for the silver star in the sky and realized and found and learned that it’s made out of tin foil and cheap glitter,” Bisagno said.
When things are rarely what they seem and change is the only constant, he said, young people are left with only one thing to trust -- experience.
“If my experience feels right, then it probably works,” Bisagno said young people believe.
That trust in experience, however, is the key to drawing them to church, he said.
“At least initially we come [to church] to catch the feeling and to be with our friends and to experience the power,” he said young people believe.
But the initial experience must be accompanied by instruction in the truth because young people long for it, but they must see the truth lived, not just talked about, he said.
“Until I see the teachings move from the classroom in the churches into the living room,” Bisagno said, “I really don’t have any other choice other than trust my experience.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Young Jr.: Mesh creativity with Bible truths in worship by Ken Walker Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday LEXINGTON, Ky. (BP)--Creativity is the spark missing from many churches’ and Christians’ lives, according to a pastor whose sermon illustrations have included live sheep, interviews with baseball players and sugar and salt piled on a plate.
“God says create,” said Ed Young Jr., senior pastor of the Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. “Every time we do, it’s an act of love and worship to God. A lot of us get creativity cramps. We trade in creativity for dogma.”
Young lamented pastors and laypeople who feel they are sleepwalking through life because of embracing the same daily rituals.
They mistakenly reason that a different marital relationship, better-paying occupation or new climate would change life for the better, he said. But their real problem, Young insisted in an address at Kentucky Baptists’ evangelism conference Feb. 23, is neglecting creativity.
He said his church goes to great lengths to put this gift into practice.
When it moved to a new home three miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, the church painted a 150-by-45-foot logo atop its building. Not only does it attract the attention of flyers, Fellowship Church has been featured on “Good Morning America” and in publications like The New York Times and USA Today.
Stunts like bringing sheep on stage while preaching on the 23rd Psalm also attract attention. So do drama, multimedia shows and videotapes -- a favorite element of Young’s sermons.
Thanks to connections in the baseball world, he once taped major leaguers talking about the designated hitter -- an illustration of the roles played by members of blended families.
On another occasion, a crew filmed him ordering a meal at McDonald’s. He compared that to “drive-through Christians” who cruise through church for a quick serving of grace but who never commit to serve.
But Young said innovation doesn’t require the same resources as Fellowship, which attracts 7,300 people on Sundays.
In 1990, with 150 members meeting in rented space, he carried a blender on stage to illustrate blended families. For a message on the body as the Holy Spirit’s temple, he heaped up the sugar and salt in the average diet to demonstrate the harm of overeating.
“You don’t have to have cash to be creative,” he said, recalling the time he passed out Juicy Fruit gum after speaking on the fruit of the Spirit. “That’s an illusion.”
Young answered three questions about creativity:
-- Why be creative? Because God invented it, he said, reading about the creation of the earth, while Ephesians 5:1 calls Christians to be imitators of God. Jesus modeled creativity, using illustrations and stories to drive home a point, he said.
People also need it, Young added, referring to a statistic that 74 percent of people are visual learners.
“They’re begging for it,” he said. “They want to hear (Bible truths) in compelling, authentic and creative ways. God used a piece of fruit with Adam and Eve, salt with Lot, a boat with Noah ... and ultimately a cross with the world.”
-- Where should Christians be creative? Wherever they are involved in relationships, he said, ranging from marriage to the local church. The Bible is exciting, so if people hear a boring message they should blame the messenger instead of God, he said.
Saying some might suspect his motives as the leader of a “seeker-sensitive” church targeting young people, Young admonished pastors to employ their unique talents in bringing new life to sermons.
“Don’t get off on this style stuff,” he said. “Preach and teach this message filtered through your creative style and let God do what he will with it.”
Many churchgoers have an incomplete picture of God, Young said. Some think he is like a grandfather; others see him rewarding his children with riches; and others as simply a sword carrier, Young said.
In an effort to round out these pictures, he recently preached a series on the nature and character of God. He showed how God also believes in work, purpose and value.
-- How can Christians be creative? Ask God to enhance your creativity, Young said. He mentioned his surprise in reviewing his prayer journal and realizing how often he has made that request.
Pastors must also take action to become more creative, he said. Associate with creative people and take time during the day to do the hard work of thinking, Young advised.
Finally, he suggested using the “confusion principle.” He learned it from his personal trainer, who kept changing his workout routine every few weeks. When he asked why, the trainer said he wanted to confuse the muscles because they get used to the same workout and don’t grow.
“Boom! That’s churches!” Young said. “If you confuse them, they’ll grow.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Clinton support for religious liberty panel questioned by Tom Strode Date: March 09, 1999 - Tuesday WASHINGTON (BP)--The Commission on International Religious Freedom awaits three presidential appointments for completion of its membership amid questions about President Clinton's commitment to the panel's purpose.
While supporters of the commission are pleased with the six members named by congressional leaders, some have criticized Clinton's failure to fund the panel in his new budget and his tardiness in making his selections.
The commission was established as a result of the adoption of the International Religious Freedom Act in October. Enactment of the legislation was the result of a long and often contentious struggle to adopt a measure intended to alleviate the persecution of religious adherents in foreign countries.
The nine-member commission established by the law is to report annually on countries guilty of committing or permitting violations of religious liberty. The president is required to respond to the report, but he has options ranging from diplomatic protest to economic sanction as measures to use in dealing with offending governments.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D.-S.D., and House of Representatives Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D.-Mo., made the most recent selections to the commission by the late February deadline established by the law. Daschle named Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic archbishop of Newark, N.J. Gephardt selected David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
The first four panel members were named in December. Outgoing Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R.-Ga., named Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom, and Elliott Abrams, a former assistant secretary of state. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R.-Miss., nominated Bill Armstrong, a former U.S. senator from Colorado, and John Bolton, a former assistant secretary of state.
The president is "considering candidates" and will announce his choices soon, a State Department spokesperson said March 11. The White House met with Daschle and Gephardt and chose to allow them to make their nominations first, she said.
In January, Clinton announced his selection of Robert Seiple as ambassador at large for international religious freedom. He will serve as an ex-officio member of the commission. Seiple, former head of the Christian relief organization World Vision, was named last year as special representative for international religious freedom in the State Department.
The president's failure to include the commission in the new budget brought questions from Rep. Frank Wolf, R.-Va., on the floor of the House. Wolf, a veteran fighter against violations of religious liberty and human rights overseas, told his colleagues in mid-February he is "concerned that the administration may be all talk and no action when it comes to promoting international religious freedom."
"President Clinton talks as if he supports the bill, but when the rubber meets the road, there is no financial support," Wolf said.
The legislation forming the panel authorized $3 million for each of the next two years. Since the commission is not in the White House's new budget, Wolf is pushing Congress to appropriate funds for it.
"But we wonder," Wolf said, "if we give them the money, will they even put their efforts behind it and support it?"
The passage of the bill establishing the commission came after the White House, major American businesses and some religious organizations, such as the National Council of Churches, opposed previous versions.
Adoption of the legislation came after a more stringent anti-persecution measure sponsored by Wolf and Sen. Arlen Specter, R.-Pa., passed the House easily but failed to gain support in the Senate. Sen. Don Nickles, R.-Okla., introduced the alternative eventually adopted without dissent by Congress. Nickles made a series of changes in the bill in order to gain bipartisan support and to prevent a Clinton veto.
The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission was among a broad array of organizations that worked for passage of the bill. Other organizations supporting the Nickles legislation included the Christian Coalition, Anti-Defamation League, National Association of Evangelicals, U.S. Catholic Conference, Episcopal Church, Christian Legal Society and American Jewish Committee.
It is estimated more followers of Christ have died for their faith in the 20th century than in all the 19 previous centuries combined. Those cited most frequently as countries where religious persecution persists include the Sudan, China, Vietnam, Iran, Cuba, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Laos and Burma.