The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-04/07/2000 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Vermont governor's switchboard lights up over same-sex unions by Todd Starnes Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday MONTPELIER, Vt. (BP)--The telephones have been "ringing off the hook" at the Vermont state capitol as citizens from across the United States protest a bill that would establish "civil unions" for same-sex couples in Vermont.

Opponents of the bill say the bill will have national implications. It is in the Vermont Senate, having already been passed by the House.

A spokesperson for Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's office said they have received hundreds of calls from both supporters and opponents of the bill. A rally sponsored by opponents was scheduled for April 6 on the steps of the state capitol.

Most of the callers to the governor's office were respectful and polite, the spokesperson said. "It makes you feel proud to live in a democracy when you can argue your positions respectfully," she said.

Several other top state officials reported voice mailboxes full of messages, including Lt. Gov. Doug Racine.

The telephone campaign was started through a nationwide alert distributed by Focus on the Family.

"We're having a hard time getting facts and figures, but we do know that hundreds of people are calling the Vermont senators, even at home," said Melinda Brewer, a states issues analyst at Focus.

Such alerts normally do not list home telephone numbers, Brewer said, but Vermont is a unique state. "Many of the senators don't have offices. They work at home," she said. "And their phone numbers are public record. And until they do the right thing and vote down this bill, we will keep calling."

The proposed bill, which was rejected by Vermont voters in sample town hall votes in March, would create an alternative to marriage for homosexuals, yet provide the legal benefits of traditional marriage.

In its present form, the bill doesn't require Vermont residency to establish a civil union, noted David Coolidge, director of the Marriage Law Project in Washington, D.C.

"We expect that gay partners in other states will go to Vermont to register their relationship as a civil union, then return to their home state to seek recognition of their union, possibly by challenging existing marriage laws," Coolidge said.

Brewer said that's why the nation should be concerned about the Vermont legislation. "We cannot allow Vermont to decide the fate of marriage for the rest of this country," she said.

"We are going to continue to call people to action," she said. "The majority of Vermonters and Americans are against this."

Brewer said concerned citizens may contact the following legislators in Vermont at area code 802:

Gov. Howard Dean, 828-3333; Lt. Gov. Doug Racine, 828-2226; Sen. Peter Shumlin, Senate president pro tempore, 828-3806 or 387-4447; Sen. Jan Backus, 655-7455; Sen. Peter Brownell, 656-5711 or 434-3932; Sen. Ann Cummings, 476-3630 or 223-6043; Sen. Sara Branon Kittell, 827-3274; Sen. Elizabeth Ready, 388-9080 or 453-2899; Sen. Helen Riehle, 864-5460; and Sen. Richard Sears, 442-6156 or 442-9139.

Among evangelicals encouraging participation in the telephone campaign is Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Cooperative Program giving boosts Alaska church's can-do attitude by Todd Starnes Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday ANCHORAGE, Alaska (BP)--Whether it's supporting a new Russian congregation or ministering to native Alaskans, when it comes to spreading the gospel, First Baptist Church members in Anchorage, Alaska, consider themselves on mission 24 hours a day.

Marvin Owen, who also serves as the president of the Alaska Baptist Convention, said his church is a "proud supporter of Southern Baptist mission work through the Cooperative Program."

"It's very important for us to keep missions on the forefront of our ministries," Owen said. "It's a huge part of our heritage."

And the heritage of the Cooperative Program will be at the forefront of many Southern Baptist churches on April 9th, a day designated as Cooperative Program Sunday to highlight CP giving and how Southern Baptists witness to the world about Jesus Christ.

First Baptist Church, Anchorage, was the first Southern Baptist Church planted in Alaska. The church was organized on Sept. 19, 1943, with 17 members, including two civilians and 15 soldiers.

First Baptist has withstood the devastation of fires and earthquakes to become an important part of Southern Baptist ministry in the state. Now located in downtown Anchorage, the church boasts more than 700 members. The congregation has planted eight new churches in the state and supports three missions, including one in Nome.

The church recently started an internationals ministry and is reaching out to the Anchorage community through a disaster relief center.

"Missions is important to us and that's why this church is a solid Cooperative Program church," Owen said. "We continually keep that in front of the people. We tell them that we are just a part of a much bigger ministry."

Even the children and teenagers at First Baptist have gotten involved in "Partners in the Harvest," the nationwide campaign marking the CP's 75 anniversary. "We include everyone," Owen said. "No one is too young to learn about how we reach people for Christ through the Cooperative Program."

And the congregation backs up their talk with action. First Baptist leads the state in Cooperative Program giving. In addition to allocating 10 percent of its budget to CP, the church gives 2 percent of its budget to associational missions. This year the church also exceeded its Lottie Moon goal of $6,500.

The church sends $100 a month to a struggling Baptist congregation in China. "They meet in a house," Owen said. "And they're trying to raise money to build a church. Hopefully, we are going to be sending a team to help them."

And what about that mission church in Nome, just 60 miles from the Russian border? Even its members give to the Cooperative Program, Owen reported.

"They may be the only Baptist church in the country where every church member tithes," he continued. "Of course, there are only five families, but they have 100 percent tithers."

Owen said it's a challenge to maintain awareness of the Cooperative Program in Anchorage because it is a transitional community. "We have a lot of military and oil company people here," Owen said. "And we are reaching a lot of new people, people who've never been to a Baptist church."

As a result, the church sponsors a class called, "How we work together as Baptists." The class teaches new members what it means to be a Southern Baptist.

Alaskan Baptists are excited about mission opportunities, even though they are isolated from their fellow Baptists in the continental states, Owen said.

"We can all be a part of missions," Owen said. "We can all be a part of sharing Christ around the world. That's what it's all about."
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Dutch weigh legalized euthanasia even for children as young as 12 by Patrick Goodenough Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday THE HAGUE, Netherlands (BP)--Pro-life activists in the Netherlands are facing an uphill struggle as they mobilize opposition to a government proposal to legalize euthanasia and "assisted suicide" -- even for children as young as 12.

Arrayed against them are the ruling coalition with its parliamentary majority, a powerful pro-euthanasia lobby and even the Royal Dutch Medical Association, said Bert Dorenbos, head of the pro-life organization Cry for Life, in an April 6 report on the CNSNews.com Internet site.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide -- where the patient takes his or her life while a doctor stands by to help if needed -- have been technically illegal in the Netherlands, although widely practiced. Physicians have generally not been prosecuted if they follow prescribed guidelines.

About 4,000 Dutch patients die each year from active euthanasia in the form of a lethal injection, and more than half of the country's doctors have carried out the practice.

Now, a bill pending before the parliament would make the Netherlands the first country in the world to legalize these practices, and it may be passed as soon as this summer, Dorenbos said.

The bill also includes guidelines, including the requirement that doctors obtain a second opinion, report each case and that patients be suffering incurable and unbearable pain.

But opponents point out that some Dutch doctors have been flouting the existing guidelines for years, and research shows that many cases already are not being reported.

The bill's proposal that children as young as 12 should be eligible has been particularly shocking.

Dorenbos explained that the reasoning arose from previous legal decisions involving teenagers.

An earlier law involving pornography and abuse had set a precedent that victims between 12 and 16 had to report cases of sexual abuse to the police in person, rather than via a parent or guardian.

A 1995 bill allows girls of that age to have abortions without parental consent.

Because of the earlier laws, Dorenbos told CNSNews.com, supporters of the euthanasia bill argue that the same principle has to be applied with children who are terminally ill, that they should have the right to ask to kill themselves, even against the wishes of one or both parents.

Even though doctors working at large Dutch children's hospitals had indicated that such cases were practically unheard of, Dorenbos said it would only be a matter of time before this changed, should the bill be passed.

"If you make the law, you create a market," he said.

Cry for Life and an alliance of other pro-life groups plan to march to parliament in The Hague on April 22, where they hope to cover the square in front of the building with a blanket bearing the names of half a million people "missing" because of euthanasia and abortion.

Dorenbos said a petition would then be handed to the queen and lawmakers urging them to throw out the euthanasia bill.

One of the issues of greatest concern to Dutch pro-lifers is the fact that patients are being allowed to take their lives -- or doctors are doing it for them -- even where the criteria of "unbearable suffering" is not met.

Court decisions have found that the pain being experienced can be emotional or psychological, and not just physical.

In one celebrated case, Dorenbos recounted, a woman in her 50s whose husband had died asked her doctor to help her to die, saying she was deeply depressed. The doctor did so, and was subsequently prosecuted -- but only for not obtaining a second opinion.

"The killing itself was approved, and this set a [legal precedent]," Dorenbos said.

"The real issue is not euthanasia [to relieve suffering], the issue is that they'd like to legalize to right ... to allow anybody to kill himself at the moment he wants to die."

A recent report in the British Medical Journal said guidelines in place in the Netherlands were failing. In 1995, almost two-thirds of cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide went unreported, the BMJ report noted.

One in five cases of euthanasia occurred without the patient's request, and in 17 percent of such cases alternative treatment was available -- even though going ahead when alternative options exist contravened the guidelines.

The BMJ said that more than half of the doctors surveyed said patients' main justification for requesting death was "loss of dignity," rather than the release of suffering required by the guidelines.

Goodenough is a writer on the CNSNews.com foreign desk. Reprinted by permission.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Modern-day David takes on Goliaths to reach America's cities for Christ by John Gaskin Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--Bruce Schmidt is a modern-day David assisting Southern Baptists in an effort to take on several Goliaths -- American's major cities -- for the cause of Christ. But God hasn't delivered this David from lions and bears, but rather, from witch doctors, bullets and even crazed buffaloes.

Speaking April 4 at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Schmidt declared that because of his experiences in Kenya and Uganda, he is confident God can change the reputation of a city, noting, "God is in the life-transforming business."

Schmidt is a career missionary with the International Mission Board on a short-term assignment with the North American Mission Board. He is assisting with the board's Strategic Cities Strategies.

Schmidt, in his chapel message at the Kansas City, Mo., seminary, spoke from on Habakkuk 1:5, which is God's message to the Jewish nation that he would do amazing things that they would not believe even if someone told them.

Many people today do not know about God's amazing ways because they are too afraid to place themselves in places where God can show them his amazing activity, Schmidt.

During a span of less than four years, Schmidt witnessed a movement of God in Kenya that resulted in more than 100,000 Masai people coming to faith in Christ.

Going into Uganda, Schmidt saw God turn a valley of death among a very hostile tribe into a place of life and reconciliation where it is not uncommon to see 500 to 1,000 people sitting under a tree worshiping Jesus. He has even seen witch doctors become evangelists.

"I take witch doctors very seriously," Schmidt said. "Spiritual warfare is real and if you are not serious about it, God needs to wake you up. If you get serious, you will become desperately dependent on intercessory prayer and totally dependent on the Word of God."

While serving in Kenya, Schmidt and his family were ambushed under the orders of a witch doctor. He and his 14-year-old daughter were wounded by glass and shrapnel. Bullets meant for their death missed them. "God's security is wonderful. This was not a disaster, it was a deliverance," he said. "We saw the almighty hand of God intervene. I read Psalm 56 to my family that evening. It concludes, 'You have delivered me from death.'"

The confidence in God that such events produce is evidenced by Schmidt's daughter who, one year after the ambush, is spending her spring break on a mission trip to Argentina.

Sharing other remarkable stories of deliverance, Schmidt told the seminarians to follow God in confidence that God will protect their families. "There is amazing opportunity, amazing difficulty and amazing security. Psalm 91:9 says that when you make the most high your dwelling, even the Lord is my refuge, no harm will befall you. Risk is not determined by where you live, but by where you dwell."

Schmidt added, "The great need in ministry is for men to get close to God. There are gimmicks and trends to help you grow a great church -- but until you are desperate for Almighty God, until you are close to God, you cannot experience the power and promise of God. The promise of the Great Commission is God's presence. The byproduct is fearlessness."

In a humorous moment, Schmidt shared that he once heard a cry for help from neighbors who were being attacked by a buffalo. He grabbed a Masai spear that was a decoration in his home and ran out to help. "All the way there I was praying that God would show me what to do with the spear. When I got there, God made it very clear. There was a Masai warrior without a spear. I handed mine to him and I climbed a tree. It took four men with spears to stop that bull. My spear was the one that was used to pierce the animal's heart and bring it down.

"God's will is not a blueprint, it is a scroll, and God reveals what you need to know, when you need to know it."

Referring to the Strategic Cities Strategies of the Southern Baptist Convention, Schmidt said he believes God is getting ready to do amazing things in these cities and encouraged students to volunteer for mission opportunities in America and internationally.

"God is going to do something in your day," Schmidt said. "He is pouring out his Spirit around the world. We are in the decade of the harvest." A special event is planned for July 8 in Chicago called "Taste of Chicago." "An additional 1 million people will be in Chicago that day. We need 30,000 volunteers to help take the gospel to that city."

Stressing the urgency of the need to be a part of what God is doing, Schmidt said, "Delayed obedience is not procrastination; delayed obedience is sin."
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Ban on Internet gambling gets House committee OK by Tom Strode Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday WASHINGTON (BP)--A ban on gambling on the Internet moved out of committee in the U.S. House of Representatives April 6.

The House Judiciary Committee approved the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act with a 21-8 vote. No date has been set for a vote on the House floor, a committee staff member said.

The Senate passed a similar bill in November.

The House legislation, H.R. 3125, is designed to update a 1961 law prohibiting betting over telephone wires. It targets the operators of Internet gambling enterprises rather than the gamblers. It also provides protection for Internet service providers that comply with notification and other requirements.

The bill does not apply to pari-mutuel wagering, which encompasses betting on horse and dog racing, as well as jai-alai; some already legal gambling activities by Native American tribes, if conducted on Indian land; or fantasy sports leagues.

The penalty for violating the ban would be as much as four years in prison and a substantial fine.

Barrett Duke, a Southern Baptist specialist on the gambling issue, said he was encouraged by the vote.

"The strength of the vote indicates considerable concern in Congress about the threat posed by Internet gambling," said Duke, vice president of research for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "Today, a person can hardly surf the Net without being bombarded by advertising to visit gambling websites. With current legal gambling coming close to $600 billion a year, the last thing we need is more gambling.

"Though I hope that one day we will reach the point when we realize all gambling is destructive, this bill makes a good first step in stopping this predatory behavior. I commend the House Judiciary Committee for having the courage of their convictions and hope the rest of our lawmakers will be as courageous."

The bill "protects the right of citizens in each state to decide through their state legislatures if they want to allow and regulate gambling within their borders and not have that right taken away by offshore, fly-by-night operators," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R.-Va., in a written release.

Goodlatte is the chief House sponsor of the legislation.

The bill has received the endorsement of such organizations as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Major League Baseball Players Association, the National Football League and the National Association of Attorneys General.

The National Gambling Impact Study Commission recommended a ban on Internet wagering in its report, which was issued last June after two years of work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Global missions call is for all, missions leaders tell seminarians by Cindy Kerr Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--While the March 28 tornadoes in Fort Worth missed Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary by a few miles, the sweeping message that all Christians are called to take the gospel to the nations made a direct hit on campus during Global Missions Week March 27 through 31.

"You are probably very much aware in the last year of the devastating landslides and floods in Middle America and cyclones in Bangladesh and earthquakes in Istanbul and Taiwan," said Jerry Rankin, president of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, at a breakfast meeting with faculty March 29 at the Texas seminary.

"One of our objectives for being here is to give the campus exposure to what the mission field is really like," he continued, "but we did not bring the tornadoes!"

Rankin and other IMB personnel did, however, bring a challenging message communicated through chapel sermons, in-class presentations, seminars, one-on-one meetings and a missions marketplace, which included exhibits from various regions of the world.

"God is moving. He is crumbling walls and opening doors," Rankin told students during a March 30 chapel service, referring to his recent visit to Cambodia.

Rankin noted that first-century Christians understood they were called by God to be a royal priesthood with the responsibility of proclaiming the gospel to the world.

"It is not only about us and our special relationship with God," he continued. "Why, then, do only about 5 percent of the students gathered here feel the responsibility to share with the nations?"

While the Southern Baptist mission force will likely reach 5,000 this year after 7 years of record growth, there will still be only one Southern Baptist for every 2.8 million people and there are 1.67 billion people who have not heard the name "Jesus."

But knowing the need is not enough, Rankin said. "The Great Commission is sufficient authority to send us to the lost, but it's not enough to motivate us to go," he said. "Our impulse comes from the indwelling presence of God. The only motivation that will send us is passion for God and broken-heartedness that God is being deprived of his glory."

The IMB is urging all Christians to develop a passion to hear God praised and exalted by every people group of the world.

"To be consumed by the local is to miss God's global purpose," said Don Kammerdiener, IMB executive vice president, during a March 28 chapel sermon.

"Today world culture is coming together," he said. "We think, 'Surely my task starts where I live,' but realize that where you live is already a place of global significance."

If Christians feel guilty, Kammerdiener said, it should not be because they aren't missionaries but because they aren't involved in God's global purpose. He challenged the students to stop drawing mental walls, noting that he drew such a wall around communist countries during his youth and was caught by surprise when communism fell. He had also said of war-torn Colombia, one place where he served, "That's one place I'll never go."

"There is no sense of obligation to seek missionary appointment," Kammerdiener said. "You let God determine that. But be desperately guilty if you eliminate places that [you believe] God will not touch."

God is not only touching the world, but in the words of Habakkuk, is doing work "so amazing you would not understand it even if you were told," said David Garrison, IMB vice president for strategy coordination and mobilization, during his March 29 chapel message.

The church planting movement erupting throughout the world today was once not part of Southern Baptists' mental map, Garrison said. "Our vision was too small. We didn't expect churches to grow so fast," he said.

The IMB's current emphasis is on reaching people groups. At least 12,000 distinct ones are identified today.

Lynn Kennedy is working among one, the Dagaari, in West Africa. "In the past it was normal for missionaries to be sent to a specific place and to stay there, doing their jobs in hopes that as people crossed their paths, they could witness," she explained during a seminar March 30. "Just four or five years ago, Southern Baptists and other groups looked at what we had been doing -- with countless missionaries and millions of hours of missionary labor we still have 1.67 billion who have never heard of Jesus Christ."

The IMB and other organizations responded by changing methods, not the unchanging message of the gospel, Kennedy reminded. As a result, she continued, most IMB requests are now aimed at sending missionaries to unreached people groups.

"I work among animistic people who have never seen a light bulb and daily offer animal sacrifices to keep their dead ancestors and a plethora of gods happy," said Kennedy, noting that most Americans find it difficult to believe that a third of the world's population has never heard Christ's name.

Today, after less than two years among the Dagaari, Kennedy reports a spiritual harvest well ahead of the schedule she had projected. She credits the spread of the gospel among the Dagaari to the extensive web of prayer support she set in place in the United States and around the world. She is also networking with other evangelical missionaries in her area.

Most recently Kennedy has lobbied for Campus Crusade to produce the "Jesus" film in the language of the illiterate Dagaari. A national Christian whom Kennedy is discipling will eventually take her place. "Dream big dreams," she said. "Make plans that cannot possibly happen unless God shows up."

The IMB is also reporting a spiritual harvest as administrators travel the world "mending fences" and strengthening IMB partnership with national Baptist conventions on nearly every continent. A recent meeting with Latin American leaders "started at a point where we hoped we would be when we ended the conference," Rankin said.

The Latin leaders' only point of discussion with Southern Baptists: how to break into spiritual darkness, Rankin said.

"National missionaries in South America will soon surpass our total number of Southern Baptist missionaries," reported Avery Willis, IMB senior vice president of overseas operation, at an appointment service held March 31 at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

"God is giving them a heart for the nations," he added.

Missionaries in Western Europe are reporting that God is saving people and calling them to lead simultaneously, Garrison said earlier in the week.

"One missionary from the area told me, 'We didn't start it, and we couldn't stop it if we tried,'" he said.

While 51 percent of the Southern Baptist missionary force has passed through the halls of Southwestern, Rankin admitted it is a challenge to maintain that involvement. He shared that the IMB's goal for visiting the seminary, however, is not to mobilize and enlist students to go as missionaries.

"We trust that in God's providence that will happen, but that is not our objective," he said.

Realizing that Southwestern will graduate thousands who enter pastorates or serve on church staff and other ministries, Rankin said, "How tragic if they should go into those God-called, confirmed places of service without a heart for missions and reaching the whole world."

Rankin encouraged Southwestern to adopt WIGTAKE (Whatever It's Going to Take), a philosophy circulating among IMB mission workers.

"No longer focus on just maintaining traditional strategies, programs and institutions," he said. "Start instead with the end vision of 'whatever it takes' for all peoples of the world to come into relationship with our Lord. Then he will receive their praise and be glorified."


-------------------------------------------------------------------- Author urges Golden Gate students to use power of story in sermons by Staff Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)--Using a bevy of stories, quotes and illustrations, author Calvin Miller told Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary students to work hard at illustrating the transcendence and mystery of God by using the "power of story" and other kinds of narrative in sermons. "I think preaching is one of the most percussive arts," said Miller, professor of divinity at Samford University's Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, Ala., during the seminary's annual H.I. Hester Lectureship on Preaching March 21-23. Building two of his sermons around two original stories and the third from a box on a stool next to him, Miller relayed the power of story and mystery to those attending the lectures at the Mill Valley, Calif., seminary. "We like stories," Miller said. "Our culture likes stories, so perhaps our sermons should be 90 percent story and 10 percent precept." The Bible is mostly story, Miller noted. "When a Jew asked Jesus, 'Who is my neighbor?' he told the Good Samaritan story instead of giving three Hebrew roots," he quipped. "We are a people who tell stories because they bring a kind of relational intrigue, and how can you be a Christian preacher and not be interested in the literature where it all comes from?" As stories are much more memorable, their usage in sermons can help with relational communication and biblical literacy, Miller said. "In a culture where people think Joan of Arc was Noah's wife, we have a lot of work to do," he said. Stories also aid in communicating change. "The church being a community of change is most important," Miller said. "The best churches aren't ones that give insight or instruction. Church is where you go to change." Yet changing American culture makes it even more challenging to express the gospel effectively, Miller said. "We live in a godless culture called upon to speak in multicultural situations and to be politically correct. But we've a story to tell and we must tell it in a meaningful way in a changing culture." Miller then told a story called, "The Burden of God," from his book "An Owner's Manual for the Unfinished Soul," which focused on a rabbi who made a child that later rebelled against him. The burden of all makers, it concludes, is how the children will turn out. "The best preaching is the story of redemption, and the best story is the story that permeates the Scriptures along with our testimonies," he said. "Exegeting" images, especially those concealed in bags and boxes, is also quite powerful, Miller said, reminiscing a presentation of five smooth stones from the Valley of Elah where David killed Goliath. He also referred to one featuring several weapons plus a cow's tongue to show how the tongue can be more dangerous than a gun. But the most mysterious box in the Bible, he said, is the Ark of the Covenant. "It was in the center of ancient Israel," Miller said. "During the exodus, God gets on the top of the box and goes on ahead of the group. Then he is put inside the Holy of Holies, and so sacred is that box that no one ever really sees it. It's a symbol of who God is." Miller said he suspects all cultures reckon with transcendent symbols such as this. "The most powerful thing that redeems us is what we cannot explain," he said. "What disturbs me in our how-to world is the loss of transcendence. It seems to me that how-to practical sermons always seem to abrogate the beautiful ends of transcendence, heaven and hell. Hell is so missing in sermons now and in all our ecclesiology. Are we finally devising a kind of Christianity so pragmatic that it comes without the box? There isn't any mystery anymore. We're earth's dwellers fastened on earth's things." Yet the first two sermons in Acts referred to heaven, Miller said. "And to be honest with you, I believe what people look for in my and your poor sermons is the hint that we believe in a world other than the one in which we're living. I suspect that most people come back to church not because of the questions you answer for them, but the questions you create for them." Not only should sermons be artful and mysterious, Miller said, but they also should have a sense of urgency and fear. "These central themes must be what the message of the box is all about. The box is what kills and what makes us alive. Which one of us has been in God's presence and not been terribly afraid? Have you ever had a prayer experience so real that you felt that if you looked up, you'd be afraid you'd actually see the Lord?" Using a box of his own to illustrate Christ's sacrifice and the Lord's Supper, Miller said preachers should use sermons to bring listeners into the presence of a God they can fear. "This way, they dare not fail to listen to his requirements," he said. "Transcendence should be the center of our preaching." -------------------------------------------------------------------- CALENDAR by Staff Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday MISSOURI--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustee meeting, April 10-11, Kansas City.

CALIFORNIA--Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary trustee meeting, April 10-11, Mill Valley.

NORTH CAROLINA--Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary trustee meeting, April 10-11, Wake Forest.

KENTUCKY--Southern Baptist Theological Seminary trustee meeting, April 10-12, Louisville.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Southwestern Singers (photo only) by Morris Abernathy Date: April 07, 2000 - Friday NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--LifeWay Christian Resources cafe was the setting for a ten minute Southwestern Singers presentation. Dr. Joe King directs the well known student choir while here for a visit and tour of the LifeWay facility. (BP) photo by Morris Abernathy. This is a stand alone photo.