The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-04/13/2000 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Constitutional amendment debate heads to Vermont Senate to uphold marriage by Art Toalston Date: April 13, 2000 - Thursday MONTPELIER, Vt. (BP)--A proposed amendment to the Vermont constitution to uphold marriage between one man and one woman has been forwarded to the state Senate by its Judiciary Committee.

Opponents of pending same-sex "civil unions" legislation are advocating a constitutional amendment as an alternative remedy to a Vermont Supreme Court ruling last December ordering marriage-like rights for same-sex couples.

The Senate Judiciary Committee action, on a 5-1 vote April 11, has met with apprehension by some observers who see it as merely a response to pressure against the proposed civil unions legislation, with a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment likely to fail in the state Senate.

The pressure has been intense and national in scope. The Colorado-based Focus on the Family organization led by James Dobson has published the telephone numbers of various Vermont Senate members, urging that calls be placed to them from across the country over the national ramifications if Vermont enacts same-sex marriage-like legislation.

One Focus on the Family official, however, commended the Senate Judiciary Committee for sending the constitutional amendment to the Senate for a vote. Senate debate will begin the week of April 17.

"This is an incredible breakthrough," said Tom Minnery, Focus vice president of public policy, in an April 11 statement. "Clearly, the people have spoken and the committee has responded positively. We want to thank the citizens of Vermont and [Focus' national radio broadcast] listeners all over the country for standing up in defense of traditional marriage."

Minnery noted: "While this decision does not bring an end to the debate, it is a vital first step in the protection of marriage." He urged that efforts also continue for the defeat of H. 847, the bill creating same-sex civil unions already passed by the Vermont House of Representatives.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's lone opponent to sending the proposed constitutional amendment to the Senate, Democrat Richard McCormack of Windsor, called it irresponsible to send out a proposal that the committee does not support, according to a Rutland (Vt.) Herald report April 12.

In addition to defining marriage as "the legal union of one man and one woman," the proposed amendment to Vermont's constitution states: "The General Assembly shall define the legal benefits and responsibilities associated with marriage. No provision of this Constitution shall be held to require that any such benefits and responsibilities be extended by the general assembly or the judiciary to any grouping of people other than one man and one woman."

A spokeswoman for Focus on the Family told Baptist Press April 13 that continuing participation is urged in the telephone campaign to Vermont senators.

The telephone numbers listed by Focus on the Family include those of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, (802) 828-3333, and Lt. Gov. Doug Racine, (802) 828-2226.

Vermont senators listed by Focus on the Family are Sen. Peter Shumlin, president pro tempore, office (802) 828-3806 and home (802) 387-4447; Sen. Jan Backus, (802) 655-7455; Peter Brownell, office (802) 656-5711 and home (802) 434-3923; Sen. Ann Cummings, office (802) 476-3630 and home (802) 223-6043; Sen. Sara Branon Kittell, (802) 827-3274; Sen. Elizabeth Ready, office (802) 388-9080 and home (802) 453-2899; Sen. Helen Riehle, (802) 864-5460; and Sen. Richard Sears, office (802) 442-6156 and home (802) 442-9139.

"If you call from outside Vermont, please acknowledge this and explain that you are calling because this bill could impact your state," the Focus alert stated. "Please be respectful and polite when you call."

Additional information is available at a Focus-related Internet site, www.citizenlink.org. A Vermont-based interdenominational group also is active in the issue, Take It to the People (TIP), with a website at www.TakeItToThePeople.org.

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has endorsed the nationwide telephone campaign, stating, "While Vermont's decision impacts only that state initially, given the track record of the activist federal judiciary over the last half-century, there is little doubt that if Vermont establishes such 'civil unions' for same-sex couples, the federal courts will eventually force other states to recognize such unions in some form. This would have disastrous consequences, even in those more than 30 states that have already passed defense of marriage laws."

A key concern of H. 847's opponents has been that the bill lacked a state residency requirement.

David Coolidge, director of the Washington-based Marriage Law Project, predicted in the Focus on the Family alert 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."

Vermont voters already appear poised to endorse a constitutional amendment. More than 50 of Vermont's 246 communities voted March 7 in opposition to same-sex marriages, and fewer than 10 towns recommended that the state legislature approve legal benefits for homosexual couples. The votes were taken during the annual "Vermont Town Meeting Day," the one day of the year when municipal budgets are decided and town officers are elected.

In other developments, the idea of homosexuality being akin to race in requiring civil rights protection was challenged by Alan Keyes, the lone challenger to Texas Gov. George Bush for the Republican presidential nomination and himself an African American.

Joining in an April 6 rally at the state capitol for traditional marriage, Keyes told an audience of about 175 people, "If you say human sexual behavior is like race -- not subject to choice -- then it is also not subject to moral judgement ... .

"[T]hat's the ultimate goal of this entire movement," Keyes said, referencing homosexual activists -- "to destroy our ability to hold people accountable for their sexual behavior."

Keyes asked: "So shall we have to forgo all discrimination against all adulterers now? Shall we forgo all discrimination against people who exploit children? Shall we forgo all discrimination against rapists and people of this kind? Where do you stop in your willingness to say that human sexual behavior is a condition and not a choice?"

Keyes also was quoted as saying to the homosexual movement: "I can say clearly on my own behalf, as an adult person -- you take it back into the bedroom where it belongs ... . If you bring it out into the public arena we must fight you.

"I don't suggest and nobody has suggested ... that you punish people for homosexuality or in any way interfere with them until they step into the public arena and demand that we subvert law and institution for the sake of their indulgence," Keyes also was quoted as saying.

If Vermont lawmakers move toward a proposed constitutional amendment, the process would involve two-thirds of the Senate's 30 members approving it in two consecutive legislative sessions, before the amendment is submitted to voters -- a process that would take two and a half years.

In Hawaii in November 1998, 69 percent of the voters approved a constitutional amendment endorsing traditional marriage to remedy a 1993 court ruling in favor of homosexual couples. The same day, Alaska voters also placed a ban on same-sex marriages in their constitution by a 68 percent majority.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Cuban Baptist leader corrects report about stance on Elian Gonzalez crisis by Art Toalston Date: April 13, 2000 - Thursday NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Reuniting Elian Gonzalez with his father should be a family matter, not a political crisis, Eliezer Veguilla reported concerning the opinion of his father, Leoncio Veguilla, president of the Western Baptist Convention of Cuba.

Eliezer Veguilla, a Cuban exile in Miami, told Baptist Press April 12 his 69-year-old father wants his view set straight regarding the political standoff over the 6-year-old boy who was rescued at sea on Thanksgiving morning after his mother perished in an ill-fated boat escape from Cuba.

Tensions in Miami soared April 13 with the sudden announcement by the U.S. government of a 2 p.m. deadline April 13 for the boy's relatives in Miami to return him to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who arrived in the United States April 5 with the intention of reclaiming his son.

In a ChristianityToday.com report April 5 on the Internet, the senior Veguilla was quoted as saying he believes Elian Gonzalez should be reunited with his father.

Baptist Press, in an April 6 news story, quoted the Cuban Baptist leader's comments in the ChristianityToday.com report.

Eliezer Veguilla, a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, said he discussed the quotes with his father in an April 11 telephone call. Veguilla said his father felt the article did not accurately reflect his view of the controversy surrounding Elian Gonzalez.

Baptist Press made contact with the senior Veguilla by telephone April 13 at the Baptist seminary in Havana, where he serves as president. Veguilla said his son is correctly reporting his view of the U.S.-Cuban standoff over the boy.

The senior Veguilla's views, as relayed by his son April 12 to Baptist Press, now place the Cuban Baptist leader at odds with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's government.

It's familiar territory, his son said.

"That's the way he's been for over 40 years," Eliezer Veguilla. "Not only him but many others. He's a hero to me and has been a survivor in the midst of the communist ways and has preached the gospel [with] 'Cuba for Christ' as his main focus. ... My father has a great reputation of defending liberty in the country. What justice is, we're going to announce it, whatever it costs us."

It cost the senior Veguilla five and a half years in prison and two years under house arrest.

It cost his son, now 41, five months in prison in 1994 and 16 months under house arrest. In 1995, he and his wife and two sons were expelled from Cuba.

"Everything turns into a political question in Cuba," Eliezer Veguilla said.

Leoncio Veguilla, in his third term as president of the Western Baptist Convention of Cuba, also is pastor of El Cerro Baptist Church in Havana, in addition to leading the Baptist seminary in Havana.

Eliezer Veguilla, a physician with specialties in internal medicine and intensive care, now works with the Open Doors ministry of Brother Andrew as director for Hispanic work in United States and Puerto Rico. He also makes several medical missions trips each year to Spanish-speaking countries and he is a member of the Baptist World Alliance's Freedom and Justice Study Commission.

While in Cuba, he served as president of the Western Baptist Convention of Cuba's youth department and is a former BWA youth department executive committee member.

Eliezer Veguilla said his father does not believe his comments were reported inaccurately on purpose by the ChristianToday.com reporter in Cuba. There may have been an incomplete understanding on the part of the reporter, Veguilla said, because his father must be careful in what he says to reporters in concern for how it may affect others in Cuba.

Eliezer Veguilla noted that his father's views parallel those of Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, as quoted in the April 6 Baptist Press story.

Land stated, "The issue of whether Elian stays or returns to Cuba should be decided in a family court in the United States where people are free to express their true feelings and where free and independent psychiatrists can testify as to what is in the best interest of Elian, not just his father or the family in Miami. Elian's best interest should be the paramount factor here."

Among comments quoted from the senior Veguilla in the earlier news reports: "The boy should come back to Cuba. ... When Elian grows up, let him decide what he wants to do."

Recounting his father's view, Eliezer Veguilla said, "...in this specific case, we're not really encountering a simple case. The child is in the middle of a psychological trauma. He's not just in any country -- he's being used by two political enemies.

"It's really a family situation. ... [It] should be resolved in a family court" in Florida. "Or the ideal is they would resolve it among the family."

Leoncio Veguilla told Baptist Press April 13, that his opinion, as relayed by his son, "has any [relationship to a] political matter."

"For nearly 50 years in Cuba ... I have been preaching without hate," Veguilla said from Havana April 13. "We are not afraid to be a minister to everybody in Cuba. We would like the best for our country -- Jesus in the heart of everybody."

Jim Oliver, an emeritus Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionary to Colombia now living in Montgomery, Ala., assisted in translating the interview with Eliezer Veguilla.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Southern Seminary trustees mark new era by eliminating Covenant Renewal document by Tim Ellsworth Date: April 13, 2000 - Thursday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Trustees of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary eliminated the Covenant Renewal, a document intended for a time of transition implemented by the school in 1991, during their April 10-11 meeting at the Louisville, Ky., campus.

Trustees also adopted the 2000-2001 budget, gave final approval for construction to begin on a new conference/guest housing facility, approved a name change for the James P. Boyce College of the Bible and elected three faculty members.

The elimination of the Covenant Renewal document was an action that symbolically marked the end of the period of extreme controversy in Southern Seminary's history.

Adopted in 1991 by the seminary's faculty, administration and trustees, the Covenant Renewal document was a "negotiated way of pointing toward the future," Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said. "It was a document adopted unanimously by neither the faculty nor the trustees. It represented a very difficult time."

The document pledged the school's "respect for the convictions of all Southern Baptists and our intention to be sensitive to conservative viewpoints within the Southern Baptist Convention."

It was designed in an "effort to achieve a balanced representation through intentional employment of conservative evangelical scholars" for future faculty openings.

"It came at a particular time in this institution's history when the trustees and administration and faculty were not unified on the direction of the seminary and its future," Mohler said. "Looking back in a historical perspective I can understand the origin of this document, but the time has clearly come when it is no longer necessary."

Several weeks ago the faculty committee brought to the faculty a proposal to eliminate the Covenant Renewal document. The faculty passed the proposal unanimously and asked the administration to bring the matter before the trustees, who also approved the document's elimination unanimously.

"This board of trustees, our current faculty and our current administration have a covenant for which we need no document," said Stephen Corts, vice chairman of the board and chairman of the board's executive committee. "Our covenant is recorded in the Word of God, centered in the Great Commission, founded upon our common allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and our shared confidence in God's Word as it is in truth.

"It is time for this," Corts continued. "It is past time for this. It is the right time for this. It is time to take this step with joy, looking back at all that God has done to make this possible."

In his report to the board, Mohler said the seminary had 1,368 students on campus in the 2000 spring semester and more than 2,400 students for the 1999-2000 academic year, combining on- and off-campus students. Mohler also affirmed as "sound" the seminary's financial situation.

Mohler also announced the appointment of two professors to the Southern Seminary faculty: Randy Smith and Carl Stam.

Smith will begin June 1 as assistant professor of missions at Boyce College. He has been youth pastor at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., the past nine years. He is also the founder and chief executive officer of Youth Ministry International, a youth missions organization in Grand Rapids. He previously served on staff at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., and Firestone Road Baptist Church in North Canton, Ohio.

Smith and his wife, Lynn, have three grown sons.

Stam will be a music professor in Southern Seminary's school of church music and worship. He has been pastor of worship and music at Chapel Hill Bible Church in Chapel Hill, N.C., since 1991. Stam formerly taught in the department of music at the University of Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina. He holds two degrees from UNC, including a master of music degree in choral conducting.

Stam and his wife, Doris, have three children.

The board approved a 2000-2001 operating budget of $18,440,732, a 9.4 percent increase over the current year. As part of the budget, trustees agreed to reinstate revenues and expenditures for the seminary's Child Development Center, which was scheduled to close in July.

After reconsidering the matter, however, seminary officials decided to leave the center open, at least for another year. Mohler asked trustees to appoint a task force to study the matter and propose a course of action.

The board also gave final approval for the Rice and Judson project, part of the 10-year, $70 million campus plan. The seminary will renovate Rice Hall and Judson Hall and transform the buildings from student housing to conference/guest housing. As part of the $5.75 million project, a new building will be added to connect the two halls.

Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in August, with a target completion date of Dec.31, 2001.

After receiving final trustee approval for the project, the seminary held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site April 11.

"We are reminded by the Scripture that unless the Lord builds the house, the builders build in vain," Mohler said at the ceremony. "Let us pray that the Lord will bless this project, and that we will use it to his glory and his glory alone."

Trustees elected three professors to the Southern Seminary faculty with tenure: William F. Cook as associate professor of New Testament interpretation; Thomas J. Nettles as professor of historical theology; and Gregory A. Wills as associate professor of church history.

Since 1991, Cook has been associate professor of New Testament and Greek at Florida Baptist Theological College in Graceville, Fla. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Central Florida, a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas and a doctor of philosophy degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

In addition to his teaching duties at FBTC, Cook has taught at Southern Seminary as a visiting professor and at New Orleans Seminary as a contract teacher. He has contributed articles to such publications as the Biblical Illustrator, Echoes and The Theological Educator.

A native of Kentucky, Cook and his wife, Jaylynn, have three children.

Nettles has served as professor of historical theology at Southern Seminary since 1997, when Mohler appointed him to the position. He was professor of church history and Christian thought and chairman of the church history department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., from 1989-97. He has also taught at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Tennessee and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A graduate of Mississippi College, Nettles earned both a master of divinity degree and a doctor of philosophy degree from Southwestern Seminary. He is the author of such books as "Baptists and the Bible" and "By His Grace and For His Glory."

Nettles and his wife, Margaret, have three children.

Wills has been with Southern Seminary since 1994, first as archivist, then as adjunct professor of church history. In 1997 he became assistant professor of church history; in 1999 he became associate professor of church history.

A two-time graduate of Duke University in North Carolina, with a bachelor's degree and a master of theology degree, Wills earned his master of divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts and his doctor of philosophy degree from Emory University in Atlanta.

He is the author of "Democratic Religion" and has contributed articles to several other publications.

He and his wife, Catherine, have three children.

In other action, trustees:

-- changed the name of the James P. Boyce College of the Bible to Boyce College. This change was made primarily to remedy problems graduates might face when trying to enter some foreign countries. The college opened in the fall of 1998 and is the undergraduate school of Southern Seminary.

-- re-elected Roger Spradlin, pastor of Valley Baptist Church, Bakersfield, Calif., as chairman of the board; Corts, pastor of Edwards Road Baptist Church, Greenville, S.C., as vice chairman; Otis Ingram, president of Ingram & LeGrand Lumber Co., Macon, Ga., as second vice chairman; and Byron Boyer, a retired teacher from Louisville, Ky., as secretary.

-- approved sabbaticals for nine seminary professors.

-- authorized the seminary's financial board to conduct a feasibility study for post-retirement insurance benefits for full-time faculty and staff of the seminary. The trustees also gave the Financial Board the authority to implement such benefits, if feasible.

-- approved a resolution regarding limited retirement benefits to conform to legal requirements.

-- passed resolutions of appreciation for three trustees ending their service on the board: Thomas Harding, of Ballinger, Texas; James Harris, of Dayton, Ohio; and Thomas Taylor, of Louisville, Ky.

Trustees also responded to a referral from the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee requesting that the entities of the SBC review their cooperative endeavors with other denominations and religious groups. The trustees approved a report to the Executive Committee saying that the seminary "conducts no cooperative endeavors with other denominations and religious groups, other than participation in academic associations, accrediting agencies, and educational consortia. ...

"The Southern Baptist Theological reports that the school is involved in no interdenominational or inter-religious endeavors or activities that would compromise our cherished convictions in any manner, nor lead to any confusion concerning our mission and identity as an institution serving the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention," the report says.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 bills on sex trafficking set for Senate consideration by Staff Date: April 13, 2000 - Thursday WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider two bills designed to contend with the growing problem of international sexual trafficking in women and children.

Sens. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., and Paul Wellstone, D.-Minn., announced April 12 their intention to introduce separate bills, saying, however, they would both support whichever bill is approved by the committee.

Their bills are similar, with one significant exception. Brownback's legislation calls for mandatory sanctions on nonhumanitarian aid to countries that fail to make a good-faith effort to combat sex trafficking. Under Brownback's bill, the president has the authority to waive such sanctions. Wellstone's bill leaves the matter of economic sanctions to the discretion of the president.

A House of Representatives version, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (H.R. 3244), provides, like Brownback's, for mandatory sanctions, with the president possessing waiver authority. The House version has been approved by the International Relations and Judiciary committees.

"We support both members in their efforts to address this critical issue," said Shannon Royce, legislative counsel of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "However, we feel that the mandatory sanctions requirement in the Brownback bill is essential in final legislation."

Both Senate versions strengthen criminal penalties against traffickers, provide increased protection for trafficking victims and change immigration laws to discourage quick deportation of victims.

Each year, from 1 million to 2 million women and children are victims of trafficking worldwide, according to the U.S. State Department. It is estimated about 50,000 sex-trade victims are brought into this country each year.

The Foreign Relations Committee's Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs Subcommittee, which Brownback chairs and on which Wellstone is the ranking minority member, has held two hearings on the trafficking problem. Victims from Mexico and Russia have been among the witnesses.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- SBC, BGCT leaders have 'helpful' meeting after Wade chapel message by Matt Sanders Date: April 13, 2000 - Thursday FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--An undisclosed number of leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist General Convention of Texas met at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary April 6 to discuss relations between the two groups.

An agreed-upon statement was released after the meeting at the Fort Worth campus. The statement did not report who attended the luncheon.

The statement reported: "Participants said the informal luncheon was a friendly and helpful conversation concerning ways the conventions can continue to work together in Kingdom causes. While acknowledging that there are concerns which continue to be studied, participants said it was the sort of conversation that can lead to a new level of trust and partnership."

Prior to the meeting, Charles Wade, BGCT executive director, spoke at chapel. In his sermon, he said Christians need to help lost people see Jesus and wrap their arms around hurting people even when doing so is unpopular among other Christians.

Comparing Christians to the people who blocked Zaccheus' view of Jesus, Wade said, "We've got front row seats to see Jesus, and we don't want anybody getting our seats.

"Sometimes people can't see Jesus because the people who love him the most won't get out of the way. ... Our calling is to be a people who get out of the way and let people get a good look at Jesus."

Speaking from Luke 18:35-19:10, Wade told of Jesus' trip through Jericho during which Jesus healed a blind beggar on the way to the city and ministered to Zaccheus, the despised tax collector.

"You can feel in the text that the arms of Jesus reach out to embrace this beggar in the street who can't see and this rich man hated by the people ... and Jesus brings them close to himself," Wade said.

Wade became executive director of the BGCT Feb. 1. The 2.7-million-member state convention is the largest in the 15.8-million-member Southern Baptist Convention. It has about 6,000 churches and an annual budget of $51 million.

When he was asked to be executive director, Wade said he struggled with the decision for two reasons. First, he had to stop pastoring, the only career he had wanted since he was 11 years old. Second, he knew how big a responsibility it would be to minister to the entire state.

He said he put a map of Texas on his table and began to pray, "Lord, if you want me to do this, begin to give me a heart for this state."

He said he soon realized "with the help of the men and women of Texas who love Jesus, together, we can put our arms around this state and we can hug the people of Texas up close to God. The rich and the poor, those who can't see because they are blind and those who can't see because we've been in their way.

"Not only in Texas but in other states and around the world, there are people dying without Christ who want to see him, there are churches to be built, there are ministries to be begun, there are hearts to be touched, and you and I by the power of our Lord Jesus have been given the arms of Christ," he said.

"So I appeal to you, put your arms around your church, around your community," he continued, "and all of us together, we can reach our arms around the world without God and hug this world up close to his heart through Jesus Christ our Savior who died for all the world and who was raised in power from the grave that the victory might be secured in our lives."

From the text, Wade cited Jesus' passion for people, noting that Jesus stopped to minister to the beggar, who nobody else had any time for other than to toss a few coins at him.

Jesus' question to the beggar -- "What is it you want me to do for you?" -- is helpful in ministry, Wade said.

"I find that oftentimes Christians are quite willing to do for people what we think they need us to do," he said. "And we will keep on doing anything for anybody as long as they are grateful."

He added that Christians often want to minister only to people who they feel are worthy.

Wade also found a lesson in how the man responded to Jesus by asking to be healed.

"Sometimes, we ask for too little," Wade said. "What he asked for was what only Jesus could do and that's what we need to come to Jesus asking, 'O God, help me.'"

In accepting his position at the BGCT, Wade said he prayed for wisdom and courage "in ways I never quite understood I needed to pray" but with confidence in the promise of James 1:5 that God gives wisdom generously, without criticizing and "begrudging us."

Jesus' question also helped the man receive the salvation he really needed, Wade said, explaining that the Greek word for healing used in the text is related to the word for salvation.

"Your faith has made you whole," Jesus told the blind beggar.

In Jericho, Jesus encountered Zaccheus. Because he was short, Zaccheus had difficulty seeing Jesus through the crowds so he climbed a tree for a better view.

"I'm really grateful that [Zaccheus] didn't do like a lot of people and say, 'Those people at the church are so rude. They don't like me, so I'm not going,'" Wade said.

Jesus saw Zaccheus in the tree and said he was going to the tax collector's home. This did not sit well with the other people who hated Zaccheus, Wade said.

"And so they murmur just like people do today when you reach out to people they don't like, they don't want around, when you reach out to people [who are] different," Wade said.

Wade credited Zaccheus for taking repentance seriously, giving back over and above what he had stolen from the people as a tax collector.

"We are so good at cheap repentance," he said, "repentance that never causes us to change what we can about what we've done. But [Zaccheus] says, 'I'll make it right the best I can.'"

Wade concluded by saying that Christians need to see themselves as the body of Christ and reach out to people the way that Jesus reached out to the blind beggar and Zaccheus.

"It's a great privilege God has called us to do," Wade said, "and we have a great God who knows how to heal and save and embrace and lead us [so] that we become more and more like his own dear Son."
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Training center preps missionaries for life & witness at the 'uttermost' by Russell Rankin Date: April 13, 2000 - Thursday ROCKVILLE, Va. (BP)--Southern Baptists expect the International Mission Board to prepare their newly appointed missionaries for overseas ministry and service.

And just as the IMB seeks to find the most innovative methods for reaching a lost world with the gospel, the training and orientation new missionaries go through also require employing cutting-edge techniques, says Greg Holden, who directs missionary orientation for the board.

Images of classrooms and daily lectures, however, don't come close to describing the extent of orientation undertaken at the agency's Missionary Learning Center.

Located 15 miles outside Richmond, Va., the Baker James Cauthen and Eloise Glass Cauthen Missionary Learning Center (MLC) has been equipping missionaries since its completion in 1984.

But the way missionaries are trained has changed in the last 20 years, partly because new and innovative missions strategies require a new kind of preparation, Holden says. In addition, many new missionaries already have had overseas experience through short-term missions

Before departing for their assigned field, all missionaries spend five weeks at MLC. Missionaries returning for stateside assignments also spend time there for debriefing.

Under Holden's leadership, the missionary orientation process has been streamlined and revamped to better provide for the needs of today's missionary.

For one thing, all personnel now go through orientation together, instead of in separate conferences for career, journeymen, Masters and International Service Corps.

"Two- and three-year missionaries today are on the front lines, shoulder-to-shoulder with the career missionary," Holden says. "They need to have the same level of orientation as career folks."

Also, he says, "Many short-termers are testing the waters to see if long-term service is what God wants them to do. If they are called to career service, they generally will not need to go through orientation again."

The process also has been shortened from eight weeks to five to accommodate the large numbers of Southern Baptists flooding toward the mission field, Holden says.

To help build team relationships with other missionaries from the same region, MLC now houses orientation participants by the region of the world where they will be serving, rather than by appointment classification, as formerly done, he says.

Addressing the learning needs of each missionary is crucial to a successful transition overseas, Holden says. He and his staff use a "head, heart, hand" approach to learning.

"We want to build aggressive learners," he says. "Missionaries need comprehensive preparation, so we address learning needs in the head (cognitive), heart (character and spiritual) and hand (skills)."

Exposing missionaries to other cultures, especially other religions, helps them prepare for the transition to another culture, Holden says. Small-group sessions teach new missionaries how to engage people of other worldviews.

Missionaries in orientation also take field trips to observe followers of other world religions in their places of worship.

A parallel program helps the new missionaries' children prepare for their own changeover to another culture.

Missionaries also spend almost two weeks on what Holden calls "the Main Thing" -- helping them develop personal strategies for church planting, personal growth and evangelism and reaching their people groups.

"Integrated in that time is a challenge to figure out not only how they will disciple others, but also how they will receive spiritual nurturing on the field," Holden says. With many new missionaries heading for highly restricted countries, the need for personal spiritual disciplines and growth is even more crucial.

Veteran missionaries also are involved to a greater degree in the revamped training strategy.

"They are the teachers. It's the dynamic of rubbing shoulders with those coming right from the field, intentionally spending time together and gleaning information and better learning skills," Holden says.

Personnel in orientation also spend time preparing for health issues they may face overseas, such as malaria, water purification and other illnesses.

"Missionaries may have to be their own doctors in many cases, deciding what treatment might be appropriate and when they may need to go somewhere else for professional medical care," says Travis White of the IMB's medical department.

A medical consultant, White helps oversee the health needs of about 9,000 missionaries and children, a job that begins about a year before orientation. More than 6,000 immunizations -- for everything from Japanese encephalitis to rabies -- were given at MLC in 1999.

A total of 1,318 missionaries, plus 391 children, prepared for overseas service at MLC in 1999, Holden says. With Southern Baptists coming forward for missions service in ever-larger numbers, the strain on the MLC facility will only increase.

To address that critical need, IMB trustees have approved a $23 million construction project that will add living quarters, expand the dining facilities and build a larger children's educational complex.

"We see equipping as a lifelong process," Holden says. "Missionary orientation is just one link in a chain of preparation that begins with helping people explore the call to missionary service and continues throughout a missionary's career.

"Our focus is to make MLC an intensive, rich learning experience for our new missionaries preparing to go to the field," Holden says. "We want them to leave here with new skills for learning and growing."

(BP) PHOTO (horizontal) and cutline posted in the Baptist Press area of the Southern Baptist Convention website (www.sbc.net) by the Richmond (overseas) bureau of Baptist Press. File name: mlc.jpg.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Christians are the only ones left in the closet, Kennedy says by Michael Foust Date: April 13, 2000 - Thursday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--America is in moral decline, but Christians still have many reasons to be optimistic about the future, D. James Kennedy said April 11.

"In 1980, I couldn't have been more pessimistic about the future of this country than I was," Kennedy said at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. "There were no bright signs that I could see. But since 1980, in the last 20 years we have been in the greatest spiritual awakening in the history of the world -- if you describe that as a new interest in religion [and] conversions to Christ."

Kennedy, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., spoke in a chapel service as part of the seminary's "Great Commission Week," which highlighted the need for missionaries and church planters throughout the United States and the world. Also on the Louisville, Ky., campus were representatives from the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board who spoke to students about specific needs and prayer requests.

David Jackson, a church planter in Boston, spoke in the same chapel service about the need for more church planters in his city of 4.5 million people, only 15 percent of whom attend church.

"Perhaps for the very first time, when you think about Boston, I want you to think about lost people," Jackson said. "People without hope and without eternal life. A mass of humanity separated by sin from God. Multitudes ignorant and unconcerned about the destinies of their own souls."

The need in Boston is great, Jackson said, and he needs more help.

"I want to challenge you to prayerfully consider Boston, a city birthed to be a Christian witness in the world, to be a city upon a hill, but so lost today that many will live their entire lives without even hearing the good news that Jesus died for them too," Jackson said.

Kennedy said Charles Dickens' famous line in "A Tale of Two Cities" -- "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" -- could aptly describe America.

"We obviously know it is the worst of times," Kennedy said. "We have seen the morality of our country sink lower and lower and lower with each passing year and decade, until there seems to be nothing that is too shameful to be put on television, to be put on our films, to be written about. And we see scandalous sin everywhere."

Such immorality, he said, can be seen by groups that "come out of the closet," like homosexuals, prostitutes and fornicators. But one group remains hidden.

"Today the closet is virtually empty -- unless you push aside some of the big heavy winter coats and maybe move some of the large empty suitcases, and cringing in the corner you'll find the Christian," Kennedy said. "In fact, you'll find a lot of them that are still in the closet. They don't come out and proclaim what they are. No, they are too fearful. They're afraid that somebody might do something absolutely horrible to them -- like lifting an eyebrow."

But there is plenty of encouraging news. Kennedy quoted a study by the Center for World Missions in California reporting that the yearly rate of Christian converts is at an all-time high.

In 100 AD, the study said there were a mere 100 converts to Christ per year.

By 1900, that number was up to 943. It increased to 4,500 in 1950; 20,000 in 1980; 100,000 in 1995; and an estimated 200,000 this year.

"That is totally invisible," Kennedy said. "You'll never read about it in the newspaper. You won't see it on the 6 o'clock or 11 o'clock news. But it is happening, and it is growing."

Kennedy said the spiritual awakening has even reached Washington.

"In 1989, they could find six born-again Christians in Congress," he said. "Today, there are a hundred born-again Christians in the House. What's going to happen when that's 200 or 250?"

Kennedy said there other statistics that point to a spiritual awakening. He cited a yearly survey that asks Americans specific questions about their Christian beliefs.

The survey tries to find the percentage of committed Christians in America by asking detailed questions, such as "Are you born again and have you had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?" and "Do you believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God?"

"I have seen those statistics go up over the last quarter century from the 20s to now 43 percent," he said. "What's going to happen when that figure goes over 50 percent? It's going to [have to top] 50 percent, because unfortunately many Christians don't do much of anything. But I think when that figure reaches something like 55 percent, you're going to see some dramatic changes in this country. I am extraordinarily optimistic about what the future holds."

Kennedy attributes such large numbers to the "multiplication factor."

"The disciples multiplied, and they multiplied exceedingly," he said. "You can never catch up with the multiplication of the world by addition. We have to multiply, and that can only come when you not only equip your laypeople how to witness, but use them to train others as well. And then multiplication takes place."

But Kennedy said that more witnesses are needed.

"We need people who have courage -- courage to go out and talk to people about Jesus Christ," he said. "And I say that as one who could not have lacked it more until somebody took me by the hand and took me out, and I watched him lead person after person to Christ. My life was totally transformed."
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Ouachita offers financial plan to maintain costs over 8 semesters by Staff Date: April 13, 2000 - Thursday ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (BP)--Ouachita Baptist University is offering a financial plan aimed at eliminating student concern over annual cost increases in tuition, fees, room and board.

Under the Baptist-related university's "guaranteed fixed cost plan," all incoming students, including freshmen and transfers beginning this fall, will pay $7,050 per semester for tuition, regular fees, room and board. This cost will be guaranteed for eight semesters.

A new monthly installment plan also is being introduced.

"We are excited about this new concept as an opportunity to help families plan for a Ouachita education," said Andrew Westmoreland, president of the 1,600-student university in Arkadelphia, Ark. "By taking the guesswork out of the cost of Ouachita over a student's four-year stay, we believe families will be able to plan more effectively."

Rates next fall for returning students will vary depending on when he or she entered Ouachita as a full-time student. Students who have attended the longest will have the greatest price break though the fewest semesters at the guaranteed price.

"It's important to remember that the cost levels are not based on academic classification," said. "Students progress through academic classifications at different rates because they're based on hours taken and passed. This system, based on when a person enters Ouachita as a full-time student, allows equal treatment to a cohort group."

Compared to projected increases equal to Ouachita's 10-year average of cost increases, both returning and new students will save money with the new plan if they stay in school. Students who entered last fall will have a one-year increase higher than Ouachita's 10-year average increase, but they will pay less than the projected cost in the following two years and graduate with a savings estimated at $1,298. Those planning to graduate in 2001 or 2002 will save an estimated $332 and $676, respectively.

The guaranteed fixed cost plan applies only to tuition, regular fees, basic room and board charges for fall and spring terms. Summer school, May term, external programs and additional charges are not affected by the new fixed cost plan.

Richard Stipe, vice president for administrative services, said he expects many families also to take advantage of a new 12-month payment plan. Families can divide the annual cost of Ouachita into 12 equal payments due June through May. They may choose to either begin payments in June or make a single three-month payment by Aug. 10, followed by subsequent monthly payments.