The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-03/12/2014 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring break students highlight for Sandy relief volunteers by Sara Shelton Date: March 12, 2014 - Wednesday NEW YORK (BP) -- One of the highlights of the continued Sandy Rebuild effort is the arrival of college students using their spring breaks to serve the people of Staten Island, N.Y., according to at least one volunteer couple. This year Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers, including Ronda and Randy Corn, will welcome nearly 200 students from more than six states over a two-week period to assist in the cleanup and rebuild work on the island. When the Corns arrived in Staten Island in November 2012 -- just five days after Hurricane Sandy made landfall -- they didn't think they would still be there today. "Randy and I have been here since the beginning," Ronda Corn said, "and we plan to stay until the end. There's still such a mess here. Homes are gutted and unlivable. People are displaced. Below the surface there is just so much hurt. Time has passed and media attention has faded, but the people here still need so much help." Serving under local construction team leaders and fellow SBDR volunteers, students will hang sheet rock, tile floors, install doors, put up walls -- anything to help homes become livable once again. "The students work with a construction team leader and learn a lot about skilled labor," Corn said. "It's hard work but really an awesome experience." The experience is a stark contrast to the way many college students spend spring break. SBDR built a volunteer village on a three-acre field on Staten Island, complete with shower, kitchen and water units. Students will camp in tents built specifically for Sandy Rebuild workers. With New York closing out one of its roughest winters yet, volunteers face the difficult challenge of braving the elements. "Weather conditions this season haven't made our work easy, and we've tried to prepare students for the potential wet and cold weather we've seen all season," Corn said. "They're all still excited to serve. For all of us, it's not about the project itself; it's about the people. That's been our motto from day one, and keeping the hearts of the people we're serving in mind has helped tremendously on the difficult days." It's not just the hearts of the people they're serving but the hearts of the college students as well that the Corns and their team hope to see changed. "Our main goal is that the Gospel goes out to the people, both the ones we're serving in Staten Island and the college students here doing the work," Corn said. "There are opportunities for the body of Christ to minister both inside and outside our camp." Last year the Corns met a student named Belle. Though she didn't know Christ, she signed up to serve with her fellow students. She returned to her campus after the week with a new curiosity about Christ and, after talking with her group leader, placed her faith in Christ. This year, Belle is returning to serve and share what Christ did in her life through service to Staten Island last year. "It's an incredible story," Corn said. "This girl came to know Christ, and since then, has been walking with her roommate as she begins to seek Christ in her own life. She's even kept in touch with the homeowners she served last year, helping point them to Christ as well. Just one story like this -- one soul coming to know the Lord through serving here -- that makes all the difference." Students have virtually year-round service opportunities now with Sandy Rebuild. To explore more about assisting in New York, visit www.namb.net/sandy. From its disaster operations center in Alpharetta, Ga., the North American Mission Board coordinates Southern Baptist responses to major disasters through a partnership between NAMB and the SBC's 42 state conventions, most of which have their own state disaster relief programs. Southern Baptists and others who want to donate to disaster relief operations can contact their state conventions or contribute to NAMB's disaster relief fund via www.namb.net/disaster-relief-donations. Other ways to donate are to call 866-407-NAMB (6262) or mail checks to NAMB, P.O. Box 116543, Atlanta, GA 30368-6543. Designate checks for "Disaster Relief." --30-- Sara Shelton writes for the North American Mission Board. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp). -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethnic diversity viable in church, Newbell says by Tom Strode Date: March 12, 2014 - Wednesday NASHVILLE (BP) -- Barriers to ethnic diversity in the church -- barriers already torn down by the Gospel of Jesus -- can be eliminated in practice as Christians shed assumptions and overcome fears, author Trillia Newbell contends. Newbell, who has written a new book on diversity in the body of Christ, says relationships based on a humble desire to understand can be vital in a cause she is passionate about. "[Y]ou don't want to assume. You want to ask questions," she said in an online video interview for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "It's amazing what we can learn from each other when we are open and willing." "So I think that one would enter into a relationship without assuming that you know everything, [and be] willing to ask if you don't know," said Newbell, the ERLC's consultant for women's initiatives. Fear also can inhibit the effort to achieve ethnic diversity, she said. "If you don't know someone or something about someone, you might just be fearful," Newbell told Daniel Darling, the ERLC's vice president for communications. "Also, it's a hot-button issue. ... And so people are, I think, just afraid, afraid to talk about it because of what we see not only in the media but in our backyards. It can be kind of a touchy topic, but it doesn't have to be. It can be something we should be talking about, because I think when we start talking about it, it will help break these divides and barriers, especially with Christians because there isn't one, there shouldn't be one." The Gospel has eradicated such divisions for followers of Christ. "The Gospel unites us and makes us brothers and sisters," Newbell said in subsequent interviews. "Only in the body of Christ can two people be different and yet the same (equal in creation, equal in redemption). Jesus' blood breaks the divide that so often entangles us." Despite the Gospel and God's celebration of the diversity in humanity, "the problem with the current church model and experience for most of us is that while we affirm these truths with our lips, Sunday morning reveals a different story," she said. Converted to Christ as a young woman, Newbell was part of a Knoxville, Tenn., church made up mostly of white people for a decade. A request from her pastor led to the writing of her book, "United: Captured by God's Vision for Diversity." "My pastor at the time asked me to read and review John Piper's book 'Bloodlines,'" she told Baptist Press. "I was so affected by the book because it was the first time that I had read so clearly about issues of race from a white male theologian. From there I wrote a blog about my own concerns and struggles as a black female in a predominantly white church. The response was pretty remarkable to me. So many seemed to resonate with what I was sharing. It seemed like a topic that needed to be addressed." Newbell grew up in the South, and her father told her about being beaten for refusing to sing "Dixie" at a sports event, and about the suffering blacks experienced in those days. He also taught her to love all people, regardless of their ethnicity. When she became a Christian, she grew to understand being black "wasn't even my first identity," she wrote in her book. "And though the richness of that truth took some time to sink in, I had become first a Christian, then a black woman." In addition to finding her identity in Christ, she also benefited greatly from deep relationships with two young Christian women -- one white and one Chinese. Those friendships fleshed out for her the ethnic diversity of the body of Christ and form much of her personal pilgrimage described in the book. "By building into diverse relationships, we display the reconciliation and redemption of Christ to a world that is broken and divided," Newbell said. "True unity is found first through being reconciled to God and then to each other. To walk in that unity arm in arm with people of every tribe and race is to declare to the world that Christ's blood is enough for the fight for racial reconciliation." Because Christ's salvation of sinners cuts across all ethnicities, "our churches should be the most gracious environments on the planet," she wrote. "More than any other place, the church should be more open to and excited about having people unlike themselves." Newbell; her husband Thern Newbell, who is white, and their children moved to the Nashville area last year and are part of another predominantly white congregation, a new Southern Baptist church plant. Churches, especially their leaders, can take intentional steps to foster ethnic diversity. "I think it's important to try to develop a staff that reflects their desire for diversity," she said. "I also think it's important that they talk about it and cast a vision for it to their congregations." Christians can promote diversity in their families by inviting people of different ethnicities into their homes and by reading books together "about other people, other nations, other tribes," Newbell said. "Hospitality teaches children, one, to love people and to serve others because you have to be others-focused to be hospitable, but also it can teach them that they welcome other people who are not like them in terms of ethnicity in their home," she said. Newbell is lead editor of Karis, the women's channel for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and blogs on such sites as The Gospel Coalition and Desiring God. Her book, published by Moody Publishers, is available at Lifeway Christian Stores, other Christian booksellers and Amazon. --30-- Tom Strode is Baptist Press' Washington bureau chief. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp). -------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Insanity of obedience' explored by Ripken by Tess Rivers Date: March 12, 2014 - Wednesday RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- Biblical obedience to God is insane. That's the conclusion of Nik Ripken, based on his 15 years of research and hundreds of interviews with persecuted believers around the world. In Ripken's latest book, he asks: -- Why else would a man like Dmitri,* imprisoned for leading an illegal house church in communist Russia, insist on singing a praise song to Jesus every morning for 17 years, even as prison guards beat him and fellow inmates ridiculed him? -- Why else would overseas Christian workers in a Muslim country closed to a Gospel witness gather to share Christian communion after a Muslim extremist shot four colleagues, killing three of them? -- Why else would a man like Ripken move his family from the safety and comfort of a small Kentucky town to settle in Africa where they encountered sickness and death and witnessed unspeakable suffering among their neighbors and friends? Insanity is the only plausible explanation by the world's standards, Ripken states in "The Insanity of Obedience." But for Ripken and other believers choosing to stay in difficult places to share the Gospel, their belief in the power and love of Christ enables them to persevere. A personal journey Ripken's first book, "The Insanity of God," recounts his personal journey to relieve human suffering in war-torn Somalia, the appalling sorrow he experienced and his struggles with a God who would allow His followers to endure such pain on His behalf. "The Insanity of God" raises challenging questions for evangelical believers living in the relative comforts of the West: What is the cost of obedience? How can Christians in the U.S. come alongside persecuted believers and ignite churches in America to be serious about fulfilling the Great Commission? Ripken answers these questions in his latest book. Drawing from his years of experience as an international Christian worker, he seeks to develop practical applications for Western churches. Persecution redefined Ripken challenges how American Christians commonly define persecution in what he calls a "post-Pentecost" era in America -- an environment in which the Gospel has been preached widely, churches are present and Christian literature and education are easily accessible. "Persecution, it seems, is rare in a post-Pentecost setting," Ripken writes. "Often pastors say to us, 'Persecution is coming to the church in America.' When asked to explain ... the response often revolves around conservative evangelical stances on homosexuality and abortion ... But the U.S. church's stance opposing these activities and lifestyles is the same as conservative Islam!" In what Ripken calls a "pre-Pentecost" or "Old Testament" environment, persecution is perceived differently. Approximately 9,000 people groups representing nearly 4 billion people live in settings where there are few believers and few, if any, churches. In some of these places, the Gospel message has not been shared because there is no believer present to share it. In other places hostile to the spread of the Gospel, believers who share their faith do so at risk to their and their families' safety. Ripken suggests that churches in the West do not face significant persecution as they become less and less a threat to a spiritually lost world. However, in pre-Pentecost settings, religious persecution comes not from taking a stand on social and cultural issues but from making Jesus known to those who have little or no opportunity to hear about Him otherwise, he says. In these very different settings, discipleship approaches also differ, Ripken notes. Churches living in persecution use a "New Testament house church style" of discipleship out of the necessity of believers bonding in small groups to endure persecution together, Ripken explains. They learn together and teach each other, modeling locally what being a believer in Christ means. As non-believers see followers of Jesus meeting human needs and alleviating suffering, the love of Christ becomes tangible, drawing those outside the group to learn more, Ripken explains. Ripken contrasts this approach with some Western-based discipleship programs that are essentially "information transfer." "Discipleship in settings of persecution is based on relationship," Ripken writes. "New believers are asked how they are treating their wife and children ... about their use of money and their time on the Internet. In the Western world, a believer can go to a denominational college and get multiple seminary degrees and never be asked these kinds of questions! Discipleship is about building character, not simply transferring information." The scariest challenge Learning discipleship methods from believers experiencing persecution may be a radical concept for evangelical believers comfortable with a highly programmatic style of church, Ripken acknowledges. But discipleship needs to be personal and bring about significant life changes in believers, he says. True discipleship, coming alongside each other, is messy, inconvenient and rarely goes according to plan, he says, but it is necessary to life transformation and being obedient to God. "Lost people must not be merely the focus of Western workers," Ripken writes. "Instead, lost people must become their family." To build healthy, growing Christians and churches, evangelical believers must open their homes, their lives, their families and their hearts to those who don't know Christ and those who don't live according to conservative evangelical principles, Ripken says. Obedience that influences Dmitri learned this lesson in a Russian jail cell, Ripken shares. Every morning for 17 years, he stood at attention by his bed, faced the East, lifted his hands to heaven and sang a praise song to Jesus. He was beaten by his captors and ridiculed by fellow inmates, who often threw food and human waste into his cell in attempts to stop his singing. Then, one day, after finding a piece of paper on which Dmitri had written every Scripture reference, Bible verse, story and song he could recall, his jailers beat him severely and threatened him with execution. As they dragged him from his cell down the center corridor toward the courtyard, Dmitri heard a strange sound. The 1,500 hardened criminals who had ridiculed him for nearly two decades stood at attention by their beds. They faced the East, raised their arms and began to sing the song they had heard Dmitri sing to Jesus every morning. "Who are you?" a guard demands to Dmitri. "I am a son of the Living God, and Jesus is His name!" Dmitri replies. They returned Dmitri to his cell. Some time later, he was released and told Ripken his story. That's the kind of influence for which Christians should strive, Ripken says. But, it only comes through "insane" obedience to God's commands. --30-- *Name changed. Tess Rivers is an IMB writer. Both of Ripken's books, "The Insanity of God" and "The Insanity of Obedience" are available at imbresources.org. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Children's pastor pleads guilty to sexual abuse by Staff Date: March 12, 2014 - Wednesday MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (BP) -- A Baptist children's pastor in Alabama has pleaded guilty to 16 counts of sodomy, three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 and one count of child pornography. Jeffrey Dale Eddie, the children's pastor and administrator of Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, was arrested Feb. 4. Eddie, who was released from his duties upon arrest, had served on the Highland Park staff for 16 years. Eddie was charged with two counts of child pornography, 31 counts of second-degree sodomy and three counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, according to The Alabama Baptist newspaper. Court documents indicate Eddie confessed to performing multiple sex acts on children from the church he served. WAFF-TV reported Eddie will serve at least 30 years in prison under his March 7 plea. The sentence will be served concurrently. Prior to his role at Highland Park Baptist, Eddie was employed by North Highland Baptist Church near Tuscumbia, North Village Baptist Church in Florence and one other unconfirmed church, according to his personal website. Brett Pitman, pastor of Highland Park Baptist, discussed at the Alabama State Evangelism Conference in Montgomery Feb. 24-25 the church's desire to minister to the hurting families affected by the tragedy. During his sermon, Pitman said suffering provides an opportunity for God to be glorified. He urged listeners to allow weeping to lead them to worship. "When you are stripped bare ... beaten down ... and yet in the midst of that through [a] broken heart you're able to stand and worship the one true, holy God," Pitman said, "... it will be the most glorious worship you will ever experience. In the midst of suffering, get your eyes off the storm and ... on Jesus." Following Eddie's arrest, Highland Park Baptist released a statement saying the church was "outraged, shocked and deeply saddened" by the news. "First and foremost, we are striving to assist any children and families that have been affected by these events," the statement said. "The health and well-being of these children is our number one priority at this time." The Muscle Shoals Police Department picked Eddie up for questioning Feb. 2 after the church's worship arts pastor, Jeff Beech, found two pornographic images of young males among Eddie's laptop files. Beech and Pitman had asked to see Eddie's electronic devices after a church member walked into Eddie's office in late January and witnessed a child sitting on his lap with Eddie's hands up the child's shirt. When questioned by police Eddie, 41, said he was addicted to pornography and the images on his computer were downloaded from the Internet. The investigation was originally focused on child pornography but evidence pointed authorities to additional charges, the police said. Though Eddie reportedly admitted to sexually abusing multiple members of Highland Park's children's ministry, he was unable to recall all of the victims. One victim said Eddie engaged in sexual acts with him at least once a month beginning in 2011 when the child was 11 years old. Eddie has two sons, and according to court documents, his wife Melissa filed for divorce Feb. 3. Five counselors from Pathways Professional Counseling and Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association Disaster Relief chaplains were serving as resources to church members. --30-- Compiled by The Alabama Baptist staff. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp). -------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST-PERSON: Frozen in fear by Jeremy Pierre Date: March 12, 2014 - Wednesday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- My daughters sat intermingled with their cousins in the theater seats watching the movie "Frozen," spellbound by a colorful world of ice. But when I later heard one of my bouncy-haired girls belting out, "No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free," I felt no small amount of uneasiness. Some likeminded friends have picked up on the regrettable message in Frozen's hit song "Let It Go." One friend commented on the Dante-like danger of Elsa's desire for freedom by shedding self-restraint while the other rightly bemoaned its popularity as a haunting example of the dangerous beauty of being true to yourself. As it turns out, Let It Go was originally meant for a villain, and Disney re-wrote the movie around the song in order to establish a sympathetic portrayal of Elsa, the lost girl-become-queen who had suppressed her magical powers so long. I can see why folks might think that Let It Go was sort of an unfortunate anomaly in an otherwise Christian message of love and self-sacrifice. After all, the trajectory of the story followed a much healthier arch than most Disney princess movies. Self-sacrifice, not sentimental romance, was squarely placed as the defining factor of love. Frozen was an anti-Cinderella story in which love is a commitment proven by sacrifice. Frozen had such a better take on love, maybe we should take our concern with its main song and just let it go. Yet the song's theme is not just a melodic inconsistency, but woven throughout the movie. Christian parents can use it as an opportunity to teach their kids discernment. Frozen, like all narratives, portrays an understanding of what makes people tick. This is unconscious building material for your kids to understand their own experience. Since Scripture is the quality control for all such building material, let's pose a question that will be a good quality test: Why did things go wrong in the story? The answer given throughout the narrative is simple. Fear. Specifically, the fear of others knowing what's inside you. This particular brand of fear is otherwise known as shame. The bad things Elsa did were because she feared that this strange power within would be found out by others or would hurt them. Her parents put her behind closed doors, and she lived her life dealing with what was inside her by stuffing it deeper. We hear her own testimony on the subject frequently. As she breaks free, she declares, "The fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all." As she ruminates on her past method of coping, she sings, "Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know. Well, now they know." And when it later becomes clear she can't be safely isolated, she bemoans, "No escape from the storm inside of me. I can't control the curse. There's so much fear." Even the resident troll chorus instructs us on the anthropological causes of the story's conflict: "People make bad choices when they're mad or scared or stressed." The strain on Elsa of keeping this hidden inside finally causes her to break into that glorious, icy anthem. The problem is finally resolved when Ana's love teaches Elsa she no longer needs to fear others knowing what's inside her. In this new state of acceptance, Elsa's powers create ice skates instead of polar monsters. This lesson is not entirely wrong. Christians should acknowledge that shame reaps relational havoc and corrodes a person's soul. Hiding from each other was the very first effect of sin and it causes people to do terribly self-destructive things (Genesis 3:7). We should also acknowledge the temptation to take on the values of others and feel embarrassed that they don't line up. Simply trying to conform to those values will build up desperation until a polar explosion occurs. The problem with Frozen's lesson on shame, though, is that it tackles an essentially theological topic without theology. It tells a story about shame with no reference to a moral standard, only to other people's expectations. Thus, shame is solved relationally. None of our children have magical freezing powers. But the power of narrative is that we relate our experience to the heroine's. Children, particularly as they grow through adolescence and into their teenage years, will be aware of things inside them that don't fit the expectations of everyone around them -- including moral standards of God taught to them by others. The solution will not be found on the plane of human relationship -- either by throwing off their opinions and living openly in isolation (as in Let It Go) or by finding people who will accept what's inside (as in the movie's ending). Since shame is theological, its solution is also theological. Though Adam and Eve's sin made them first hide from each other, their greater fear was that God would find them (Genesis 3:8). And this has been our fear ever since. Shame is not merely the product of stuffing your true feelings because of others' expectations. Shame is an internal witness that there is something profoundly wrong that only God can set right. The only solid building material for our children's identities is that backwards message of Jesus, who came to tell good people that they are actually quite bad, and bad people that He can make them good (Mark 2:15-17). Such a message made one particularly shameful woman shout openly in the streets, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" (John 4:29). So use Frozen as an opportunity to talk to your kids about shame. Give them fair warning that there will be things inside them they will be tempted to hide. But fear can keep them from being open to grace. Jesus has powers, too. But unlike the problems and solutions of an imaginary world, His saving power changes reality. Even the reality within us. --30-- Jeremy Pierre is dean of students and assistant professor of biblical counseling at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He also pastors at Clifton Baptist Church and is co-author of the forthcoming book "Pastoral Counseling: The Basics of Helping Members in Need" (Crossway). Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).