
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-04/16/2007

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Virginia Tech massacre
by Staff
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

BLACKSBURG, Va. (BP)--At least 32 people were killed and 29 wounded in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history April 16 at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va. Southern Baptists began mobilizing during the day to help the community cope with the tragedy.

An unidentified gunman opened fire in a dormitory around 7:15 a.m. Monday, killing at least one person. Two hours later, shots were fired in multiple classrooms in the school's engineering building before the gunman killed himself, law enforcement officials said.

Brandon Pickett, a media missionary for the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, said the state convention is organizing relief work and a grief counseling effort in response to the Virginia Tech shootings.

"We're networking our 500 churches in prayer, and we're asking all SBCV churches to set aside time to pray at noon tomorrow, which is the same time as the Virginia Tech convocation on campus," Pickett told Baptist Press April 16. "We're asking our churches to set aside that time to pray for the students, parents, instructors and administrators whose lives have been affected by this tragedy."

Pickett said the state convention is sending a disaster relief feeding unit and other relief resources to help in any way possible.

"Obviously we can't go on the campus because it's locked down right now, but we're going to be networking there to help in any way we can parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and anybody who comes in and wants to see how their children are doing. We want to minister to them," he said.

The SBCV will be assisting area pastors and churches in their efforts to deal with the shootings, Pickett said, and the convention has made itself available to help National Guard chaplains with grief counseling.

Jim Burton, senior director of the partnership mobilization division at the North American Mission Board, said the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Virginia Tech is reaching out to students on campus. The BCM is a ministry of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.

President Bush was described as "horrified" at the "shocking incident" and praying for those involved, Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said, and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine returned to the state from a previously scheduled trip to Japan.

"The university is shocked and indeed horrified that this would befall us, and I want to extend my deepest and most sincere and profound sympathy to the families of these victims, which include our students," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said at a news conference following the shootings.

Students were on lockdown and were following the developments via the Internet and cell phones while others were witnesses to what they described as "mayhem" and "mass chaos" on campus. 

"These two kids I guess had panicked and jumped out of the top story window and the one kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground," Matt Waldron, a student, told CNN.

The shootings came three days after a bomb threat caused classes to be canceled in three campus buildings. And on April 2, one building was evacuated after police received a written bomb threat. Police were investigating whether the threats and the shootings were related.

Serious wind conditions prevented helicopters from transporting victims to hospitals, the campus newspaper reported, but ambulances were being used. The campus was secure and students and faculty were advised to remain indoors during the aftermath, The Collegiate Times said in an update online. Counseling was available and Tuesday's classes were canceled.

"Southern Baptists from around the country are not immune from this crisis," Pickett said. "They are probably affected because of students that come from all over the country to Virginia Tech.... I'm sure students and parents and families from all over the country are affected by this and we ask everyone to come together in prayer."

Until the Virginia Tech shootings, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was on Oct. 16, 1991, at a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, when a gunman opened fire on a lunchtime crowd, killing 22 people before taking his own life. The deadliest campus shooting had been in 1966 at the University of Texas, where a gunman killed 16 people and wounded 31 before being shot by police, the Associated Press noted.
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Compiled by Erin Roach.


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LIFE DIGEST: Judge blocks Texas hospital's termination of care for young boy; ...
by Tom Strode
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

WASHINGTON (BP)--A Texas probate judge stands between a critically ill 17-month-old boy and no medical care.

Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman will hold a hearing April 19 in the case, which involves a decision by the Children's Hospital of Austin, Texas, to discontinue its care for Emilio Gonzales. Herman issued a temporary restraining order April 10, forcing the hospital to continue Emilio's treatment and providing more time for another medical facility to be found for the boy.

Until Herman's ruling, the hospital was scheduled to remove Emilio from a ventilator April 11.

Emilio, who has been in the hospital since December, is believed to have Leigh's disease, a nervous system disorder that normally does not permit sufferers to reach their teenage years, according to National Right to Life News. Emilio not only is on a ventilator to help him breathe, he also has a feeding tube.

The case has brought Texas' "futile care" law into the limelight. The 1999 state law empowers a hospital ethics committee to agree with doctors who believe further treatment of a patient is medically futile and to require the patient to be transferred within 10 days or have his care discontinued.

"This is a value judgment," wrote bioethics specialist Wesley Smith on his weblog at bioethics.com. "Members of ethics committees should have no right to impose their values over those of patients and families. Let us hope the Texas legislature revokes Texas' misbegotten futile care law."

Emilio's mother, Catarina Gonzales, 23, told NRL News she realizes there is "no cure" for her son.

"I know my son is going to die," she said. "But I want him to die when God calls him, not when someone pulls the plug."

KILL THE KIDS, AT LAST -- Howard Johnston finally has gained what he has fought for during more than five years of legal battles -- the right to have his embryonic children destroyed.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Johnston, who lives in Gloucester, England, had the support of British law in refusing to allow six embryos created by in vitro fertilization to be implanted in his former fiancée's womb, BBC News reported April 10.

The decision ended the hopes Natallie Evans, Johnston's former fiancée, had of preserving the embryos.

"I am distraught at the court's decision," said Evans, 35, the BBC reported. "It is very hard for me to accept the embryos will be destroyed."

The embryos were produced by IVF while the couple was together in 2001, according to the BBC. Evans was infertile from cancer treatment. Under British law, both parents must consent before the embryos are implanted.

When their engagement ended in 2002, Johnston asked the clinic to destroy the embryos. Evans took the case to court, arguing she should be able to use the embryos without Johnston's permission, since he had agreed to their creation and use.

After Evans lost in the British court system, she appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. She lost in that court in March 2006 but appealed to its Grand Chamber, the BBC reported. The Grand Chamber ruled unanimously the right to life would not be violated in the case.

According to the BBC, Johnston said, "I feel common sense has prevailed. Of course I am sympathetic, but I wanted to choose when, if and with whom I would have a child."

ABORTION BAN FALLS IN PORTUGAL -- Portuguese President Cavaco Silva signed into law April 10 legislation that legalizes abortion in the traditionally Roman Catholic country through the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, LifeNews.com reported.

The law, which was approved by Portugal's Parliament March 8, reverses a ban that had exceptions in cases of rape or a "malformed" fetus, or to protect the mother's life or health. The latter condition was narrowly interpreted. The previous law required imprisonment for women who broke it.

It was one of the most conservative abortion laws in the European Union. After Portugal's action, only Ireland, Malta and Poland will remain as European countries that ban abortion.

Brazil, another Portuguese-speaking country, also may be moving toward liberalization of an abortion ban. Jose Gomes Temporao, Brazil's minister of health, has called for a debate on abortion and legislation to legalize the procedure, LifeNews reported. The current law prohibits abortion except in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother's life. An August poll found 63 percent of Brazilians support that law.

Cuba and Guyana are the only Latin American countries to legalize abortion, but abortion rights advocates in other countries in the region are seeking to loosen restrictions, according to LifeNews.

APPROVING IMAGES -- The Georgia Senate approved April 11 legislation requiring a woman seeking an abortion to be given the opportunity to view an ultrasound image of her unborn child before she undergoes the procedure.

The 36-17 Senate vote followed House of Representatives approval, which was by 116-54, according to LifeNews.

The South Carolina Senate, meanwhile, weakened April 12 a bill that would have required a woman to view an ultrasound of her baby before having an abortion. The new version does not force a woman to watch an ultrasound, only to be given the opportunity to view one, LifeNews reported.

The Senate is expected to pass the new measure, according to LifeNews.

The Georgia bill also requires an abortion clinic to provide for a woman a list of doctors and clinics that will perform ultrasounds without charge, LifeNews reported.

Nine states have enacted bills requiring doctors to offer ultrasound viewings to abortion-minded women. They are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin, according to the National Right to Life Committee.

Increasingly, crisis pregnancy centers in the United States have added ultrasound machines to serve women considering abortion. 
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Page says '20/20' segment one-sided
by Staff
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Much is being done and more can be done to protect children from sexual predators within Southern Baptist churches, but an ABC News "20/20" segment on the issue April 13 amounted to "yellow journalism," SBC President Frank Page says.

The segment focused on child sexual predators within Protestant churches, focusing on 10-20 occurrences within Southern Baptists' 40,000 churches. In introducing the 16-minute segment, 20/20's Elizabeth Vargas said, "What surprised us ... is how little is being done to stop it." ABC's Jim Avila used the term "preacher predators." The segment spotlighted a youth pastor who sexually abused minors at a church in Kentucky, and then moved on to a Missouri church and did the same.

Avila interviewed Page for roughly two hours recently, but in the end used just a few seconds of the interview, and Page said, left out what the denomination is doing to address the problem. 

"Much is being done right now and much is being done on the local level," Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., told Baptist Press. "They did not want to include that because it would have tainted their piece."

Officials on the national level, including those at the SBC Executive Committee, Page said, "are looking to improve wherever possible."

"I felt that it was an intentional slice-and-dice effort to portray the SBC and its president as uncaring and uninformed," he said. "It was more than a two-hour interview reduced to less than 60 seconds of choppy response. It was a prime example of yellow journalism, in which a broad brush was used and the whole truth was denied a fair hearing." 

Southern Baptist messengers in 2002 adopted a resolution calling on churches to "rid their ranks of predatory ministers" and "to cooperate with civil authorities in the prosecution of those cases." (The entire resolution is available here.

Page and other Southern Baptist leaders have repeatedly encouraged churches to conduct criminal background checks and to call a candidate's references -- as well as people not listed on the candidate's reference list -- to make certain a candidate's past is clean. To assist in that, in 2002 LifeWay Christian Resources negotiated reduced-rate background check services with a company, U.S. Investigations Services. Information on background checks through USIS is available here.

LifeWay offers other resources for helping prevent child sexual abuse in churches. Among them:

-- The "Pastor Search Committee Handbook," which is available at LifeWay Christian Stores and which includes information on how to conduct criminal and credit background checks.

-- "4 Steps to Prevent Sexual Abuse in Your Church," available here.

-- "Preventing Sexual Abuse," available here.

-- "7 Ways to Protect Your Church Staff from Scandal," available here.

-- "How to Protect Your Church from Lawsuits," available here.

D. August Boto, general counsel and vice president for convention policy with the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, also issued a statement of concerns, listing what he described as misperceptions fostered in the ABC 20/20 segment (Read the entire text).

"Unfortunately, the 20/20 report last Friday had the effect of misleading at least some of its viewers to believe that the Southern Baptist Convention somehow condones, hides or denies sexual offenses committed by ministers in SBC-affiliated churches," Boto said. "The convention does none of those things. Quite the contrary."

The segment, Boto, said, did include "accurate assertions." For instance, he said, "in some of those instances" of sexual abuse, abuse "had occurred earlier at churches where those men had been previously employed."

"It is apparently true that at least in one case a church previously employing a sexual predator and the church employing the offender at the time of his ultimate arrest, did not communicate with each other in a way that disclosed any earlier indication of moral failure," Boto said. "It may be true that other churches have similarly failed to communicate."

But "it is not true," Boto said, that any of the ministers had been "qualified or endorsed" by the Southern Baptist Convention. Local churches, he said, "do the qualifying." The SBC website referenced in the program included a list of ministers across the SBC, with some on the list having been convicted of sexual abuse. The convention, Boto said, "merely shares information provided by its affiliated churches." In other words, the list is a compilation of names given to the SBC.net website by churches. 

"I do, however, see a major benefit to the airing of the 20/20 segment -- that it significantly raised the level of apprehension and wariness among Southern Baptists who have responsibilities in qualifying volunteers and prospective employees," Boto said. "Significant impact in reducing instances of sexual abuse must start at the local level. The authority is there, the children are there, the applicants are there, the circumstances are understood better there, and the child's most motivated defenders are there -- their parents."
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STATEMENT: Response to ABC 20/20 segment on sexual predators in ministry
by D. August Boto
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Unfortunately, the "20/20" report last Friday had the effect of misleading at least some of its viewers to believe that the Southern Baptist Convention somehow condones, hides or denies sexual offenses committed by ministers in SBC-affiliated churches. The Convention does none of those things. Quite the contrary.

The report included accurate assertions, certainly. For instance, it is true that Southern Baptist ministers have been charged and/or convicted of sexually abusing children. It is true that in some of those instances, abuse had occurred earlier at churches where those men had been previously employed. It is apparently true that at least in one case a church previously employing a sexual predator and the church employing the offender at the time of his ultimate arrest did not communicate with each other in a way that disclosed any earlier indication of moral failure. It may be true that other churches have similarly failed to communicate.

It is not true, however, that the Southern Baptist Convention has qualified or endorsed any minister a church has chosen. There is an explicit statement saying as much on the same page the interviewer used to locate the ministers he named. So it is the local churches which do the qualifying, not the SBC. 20/20 referred to the list of ministers as "the list of available ministers." It would have been more accurate to refer to it as the "list of serving ministers." The Convention merely shares information provided by its affiliated churches.

It is ironic that a news service would find fault in the SBC's reporting of a fact. Imagine what 20/20 would have said had the Convention NOT included the names of those men in its list of present church ministers. Whether 20/20 approves of the practice or not, we believe it is best to report openly, for the benefit of everyone INCLUDING VICTIMS, the names of ministers our affiliated churches are employing.

The ABC report also left a misperception regarding what the Convention "would allow." By posing the question to President Page as the interviewer did, and editing out the bulk of the interview and Dr. Page's responses, the report left the impression that the Convention was being arbitrary in "not allowing" women ministers or homosexual ministers, and yet "allowing" ministers who are convicted or suspected sexual predators.

The fact is the Convention does not control a church's employment of its ministers on ANY basis. A church is free to employ anyone it wishes as pastor. All the Convention says is that if the church employs a gay person as pastor then the Convention will no longer consider that church to be in friendly cooperation with the Convention, but that does not mean the Convention can control whom a church employs as its pastor.

Additionally, as is always the case when alarming, but misleading information is first reported, public reaction is to call for correction. Unfortunately, the solutions being offered often relate to the misperception that was received, and therefore many of those solutions are either inappropriate or unproductive.

For instance, the suggested solution of producing a list of sex offenders at the Convention level overlooks the fact that, in most of the cases being cited, the perpetrators had no criminal record.

Additionally, the 20/20 report made the point that in the cases cited, including the egregious cases involving Ken Ward and Shawn Davies, the churches where those men initially committed their crimes did not report them.

The quality and ameliorative ability of any national database would be directly proportional to the quality of the input. In neither of those cases would a national database have been of any help at all because it would have contained no report on either of those men. Nevertheless, we are still examining possibilities of that option. But any solution which is of no real benefit holds no appeal for us, especially if it operates to create a false sense of security as people depend on it.

I do, however, see a major benefit to the airing of the 20/20 segment -- that it significantly raised the level of apprehension and wariness among Southern Baptists who have responsibilities in qualifying volunteers and prospective employees.

Significant impact in reducing instances of sexual abuse must start at the local level. The authority is there, the children are there, the applicants are there, the circumstances are understood better there, and the child's most motivated defenders are there -- their parents.
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D. August Boto is general counsel and vice president for convention policy with the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.


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Land says Clinton stance is misreported
by Staff
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Richard Land is asking The Washington Times to set the record straight regarding his assessment of 2008's potential presidential nominees.

The Times, in an April 16 article, paraphrased the Southern Baptist ethics leader as saying "he'd vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, over Mr. (Rudy) Giuliani if the 2008 presidential race came down to such a choice."

"Here is another object lesson in the old saying: 'Don't trust everything you read,'" Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said in a news release.

Land said he has never indicated he would vote for Clinton for president in the 2008 election.

Land said he has repeatedly identified himself as pro-life and "could never vote for a pro-choice candidate." Senator Clinton, he said, "is most definitely a pro-choice candidate."

Land acknowledged that he is on record as having said that if former New York Mayor Giuliani were the Republican presidential nominee, he would not vote in the presidential election for any candidate.

Land also disputed The Times article's statement that he has taken a "hard line against virtually all the major Republican candidates."

Land said he has taken a "hard line" with only two Republican candidates, Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Land stated that his conscience would not allow him to vote for either man because of character issues related to their marital infidelities. Land added that he is "not ethically flexible enough to have made President Clinton's marital infidelities a character issue and then give Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Gingrich a pass."

Land confirmed The Times' characterization of his outlook toward Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz. Many evangelicals are concerned about McCain's "unpredictability," Land said, and they "don't have any real confidence about where McCain is going to come down on issues of importance to them, like embryonic stem cell research and the federal Marriage Protection Amendment."

Concerning Mitt Romney, another GOP candidate, Land said he is on record as believing that the former Massachusetts governor should address "the Mormonism issue in a speech similar to the one then-Sen. John F. Kennedy gave to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in September 1960" regarding his Catholicism.

Land has said he doesn't believe Romney's Mormon faith necessarily is a "deal breaker," but that only Romney is the only one who can make a majority of Americans comfortable with voting for a Mormon for president.

Land said he has "made it clear for more than a decade that people should vote their values, beliefs and convictions."
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Steeple signifies NOBTS restoration
by Gary D. Myers
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--The steeple that served as a beacon of hope in the city of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina once again graces the top of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's Leavell Chapel.

Workers from Kentucky-based Campbellsville Industries completed the installation of the new steeple on March 29, 19 months to the day after Hurricane Katrina. The three-day installation process culminated with the placement of the 46-foot spire, and a small crowd of seminary students, professors and staff members cheered as the crane operator gently eased the last section into place.

In the days following Hurricane Katrina, seminary officials worked diligently to restore power and illuminate the steeple. Their desire was to offer a symbol of hope in a hurting city. In October 2005, the illuminated steeple provided the lone point of light in a sea of darkness -- the only light for miles.

While the aluminum-clad steeple suffered only minor external damage, Katrina weakened the internal steel structure. Last July, seminary officials opted to remove the steeple and replace it with a new one. 

"During the darkest hours in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the steeple shining in the night was a beacon of hope, a reminder that God had a future for us," Chuck Kelley, president of the seminary, said. "To have that steeple back in place shining in the night once again is a reaffirmation that that future has started."

Stretching 170 feet above the New Orleans Seminary campus and visible from points throughout the city, the steeple gives testimony that the city is slowly recovering. And for the seminary family, the steeple is an enduring witness of hope rooted in Jesus Christ.

The new steeple is an exact visual replica of the original steeple which was patterned after the steeple of the first Baptist church in America, First Baptist Church in Providence, R.I. The internal design, however, is much stronger than the original. It features an improved structure which meets Louisiana's post-Katrina wind load standards.

Workers also repaired the steeple's broken clock, which stopped working years ago, and replaced the broken carillon. The chimes were given several practice sessions April 2 and 3 with tunes that included the New Orleans Seminary alma mater and other hymns. Kelley said that the carillon primarily will be used to celebrate special occasions.

Before the spire was added atop the three other steeple sections, Kelley inscribed the interior with a short note that described the increased significance of the steeple following the storm.

"After Katrina, the only light between downtown N.O. and Slidell was this steeple," Kelley wrote. "May it ever be a beacon of hope! Jeremiah 29:11."

In many ways the steeple's return marked a symbolic conclusion to the seminary's reconstruction efforts following Hurricane Katrina. The campus is once again full of life and most of the restoration projects are complete or nearing completion. In most cases, seminary officials chose to make significant upgrades on campus.

"The reconstruction process has just been a miracle of God," Kelley said. "With the help of our outstanding contractor, Mr. Mike Moskau, we have been able not simply to repair what was broken, but to improve the entire campus along the way."

Among the improvements are remodeled and updated dormitory rooms, new windows for older apartment buildings, improved roads, new raised sidewalks, improved sidewalk lighting and additional benches along sidewalks. 

The complete update to the men's and women's dorms includes upgraded electrical wiring and a new heating and air conditioning system.

The new raised sidewalks that weave through the campus are essential in the area's humid subtropical climate. Before Katrina, frequent afternoon rains that are so common in New Orleans left campus sidewalks covered with puddles. Now, rain water quickly drains off the raised sidewalks.

Lighting also was an issue before Katrina. The old lighting along sidewalks has now been replaced with New Orleans-style lampposts, which provide improved visibility at night with a design that compliments the French Colonial architecture so prominent on the campus. 

A few restoration projects are still underway. Work continues on the campus gym and swimming pool, and the construction of the new operations building is on-going. All three projects will include significant upgrades and improvements.
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Seminarians share Gospel with city's lost
by David Roach
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--More than 100 students and faculty members at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary took the truths they are learning in the classroom to the streets during "Reaching Out 2007" recently.

The annual outreach event gives members of the seminary community a chance to share the Gospel with unchurched people in Louisville in coordination with local churches. Activities at the March 17 outreach included door-to-door witnessing, Spanish language ministry, Bible distribution and evangelistic surveying.

"We had a large turnout here on campus and even more people waiting for us at the churches where we went to minister," said David Sills, director of Southern's Great Commission Center and associate professor of Christian missions and cultural anthropology. "It is great to have the opportunity for students and faculty to minister shoulder to shoulder in the Louisville community."

Sills, who has served as a missionary in Latin America, was on a team that went door-to-door at an apartment complex in southern Indiana inviting Spanish-speaking residents to attend a local Spanish church. A number of people expressed interest in having an opportunity to learn more about Jesus in a Spanish-speaking environment, Sills said.

"One pregnant young woman asked that someone from the church come pick her up for church the next day," he said. "We made arrangements for one of the church ladies to go by and get her for worship."

Ricky Hardison, a master of divinity student from Macon, Ga., served on a team at Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville that picked up trash in a local neighborhood and looked for opportunities to speak with people about Christ. One man Hardison encountered was open to listen to someone speak about Jesus although he did not want to speak much himself.

"This one particular gentleman was probably in his early 20s, and he was willing to hear about the Gospel. I pursued him with some questions after that, but he was really kind of soft spoken," Hardison said, adding that he had other similar opportunities during the day.

Hardison's team also encountered a woman whose grandchildren attended Vacation Bible School at Immanuel last year. They picked up trash from her yard and invited her to return to Immanuel.

Angela Van Neste, whose husband Scott is a master of divinity student, was part of a team at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville that distributed Bibles and invited people to attend an Easter worship service.

Despite encountering several people who said they were either uninterested in church or didn't have time, Van Neste met one man who was open to hearing the Gospel. Van Neste's husband told the man how he could become a Christian and have eternal life.

Although most of the people Van Neste encountered seemed uninterested in spiritual matters, the group was able to give a witness that will hopefully bear fruit later, she said.

"Hopefully some seeds were planted there," she said.

Sills said Reaching Out is a good opportunity for students and professors to work together to take the message of Jesus outside the seminary campus.

"It was a great opportunity to interact with the students and to engage the community," Sills said. "The students see their professors in the classroom on a regular basis, but in the Reaching Out Louisville Great Commission event we have the opportunity to see the Kingdom value of the disciplines we teach."
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Pastor emphasizes need for theology
by Joy Rancatore
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--Too many pastors have forsaken the proper handling of the Word of God, which should be central to their ministries, Bill Curtis told students at a Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary chapel service.

Curtis, chairman of the North American Mission Board's trustees, noted the popularity of televangelists whose preaching is anything but expositional or exegetical.

"If we're to be careful handlers of the Word, we must let the Word speak," Curtis said April 11 with 2 Timothy 2:14-26 as his text.

Like many others, Curtis said he grew up listening to ministers who preached their own agendas and interpretations rather than the whole counsel of the Gospel. Such occurrences did not stop there, he said.

"I would go so far as to say that even in our own Southern Baptist Convention, I marvel at the number of sermons that masquerade as biblical exposition," Curtis, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Florence, S.C., told students.

A graduate of Southeastern, Curtis commended the institution's commitment to expositional preaching, and he reminded students that learning must go beyond the classroom.

"It is essential that we not just talk about it, that we not just read about it, but that we actually become equipped to do it," he said.

According to Curtis, three characteristics of a careful expositor are a commitment to biblical interpretation, a commitment to theological instruction and a commitment to moral integrity.

"It's not enough to just have all the head knowledge about exposition, the principles of hermeneutics, the 12 essential skills," Curtis said. "If we're to be careful handlers of the Word of God, if we're to be committed to authentic, biblical interpretation, we must exert the effort &#91;and&#93; invest the work to become knowledgeable of how to rightly handle the truth.

"And then we have to develop the expertise to use the skills correctly. And, friend, listen. If God has called you to ministry, that is His expectation for you," Curtis said.

Because of the importance of theology in the church, Curtis said church members need to be taught theology but pastors must first study it themselves.

"As we handle the Word of God rightly, as we encounter the doctrines of the Word of God, it is incumbent upon us to teach them rightly," he said. "And my concern -- my fear in many ways -- is that we, as ministers, as followers of Christ, have lost sight of how significant our own understanding of theology is to this task to which God has called us as elders."

He compared the failure to rightly handle the Word of truth to the spread of gangrene.

"Our capacity to navigate the waters of theology is important because the poor handling of truth, the poor handling of theology, will allow truth literally to be eaten away by error," Curtis said. "And so we have a tremendous need, to not only develop our own theological understanding, but the wisdom of how to teach in a way that will grow the body, preserve it from disunity and protect it from error."

Curtis said a commitment to moral integrity is important because "it is the quality of our character that provides us with the capacity to teach rightly." In order to preserve good character, a pastor must flee from wickedness and pursue righteousness, he said.

"Just as we are diligent to invest our lives in the careful handling of the Word so that we might instruct the people of God rightly, so too we are to pursue with great passion the righteousness of God," Curtis said, urging students to pour themselves into their studies and make the careful handling of the Word of God the supreme goal of their ministries.
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Mission team readies for Uruguay harvest
by Brent Thompson
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (BP)--Crop farmers know it takes a lot of work and planning before a harvest can be gleaned from a piece of land, and one of the first things to do even before seeds are planted is clear away rocks and brush. 	In an evangelical sense, that is what a team of 10 Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students, professors and their spouses were doing in the South American country of Uruguay in March.

"Uruguayans are an aggressively unchurched, secular people," said Keith Eitel, director of the seminary's World Mission Center who led the group along with his wife Glenda. Eitel said there are obstacles to the Gospel that must be softened or removed so that subsequent mission teams can water seeds of the Gospel and bring in a harvest of souls.

Uruguay lies on the South Atlantic bordering Argentina and Brazil and has about 3.5 million people living in an area slightly smaller than the state of Washington. The city of Montevideo, where the Southwestern team took up their assignment, is the capital. The culture is highly secularized and post-modern. Most of the population identifies themselves as Roman Catholic, but Eitel said there is a widespread distaste for things associated with organized religion.

Eitel explained that by "aggressively unchurched" he means that many people in Montevideo are aware of Christianity but deliberately reject its message. This is particularly true in the Montevideo community of Pocitos where the Southwestern team was assigned. Missionaries estimate more than 20,000 Jews live in that area, and their presence traces back to immigration during World War II.

Using the Gospel Advancement Project (GAP) as their evangelism strategy, the Southwestern team joined up with Charles and Karen Clark and Paul and Pam Sheaffer, missionaries to Uruguay appointed by the International Mission Board. The Clarks have been church planters in Uruguay for many years, and the Sheaffers for about a year.

First, the Southwestern mission team walked throughout the Pocitos community and prayed that God would open doors and give opportunities to get inside the guarded, gated apartment complexes where thousands of people lived.

One of the group's guides around Pocitos was a believer. He told them that it was difficult to hand out religious literature in the apartment buildings because guards controlled access to those residences. 

"Of the many apartment complexes we targeted, the guards in all but two of them gave us access to put the leaflets in the apartment mailboxes," Art Savage, associate director of Southwestern Seminary's World Missions Center, said. "One of our guides was amazed and told us he was seeing an openness in his country he had never seen before."

Bill Goff, a professor of Christian ethics at Southwestern, also was part of the mission team. He is fluent in Spanish, having spent 27 years in service with the IMB before moving to Southwestern in 1998. Goff had traveled all through Uruguay during his time as a missionary regional supervisor, and he confirmed Eitel's assessment of Uruguay as "perhaps the most secularized, unchurched country in South America."

But Goff also was delighted to see an emerging openness to the Gospel among the people he met on the March 10-18 trip. One evening, Goff gave a Spanish-language presentation on Christian character development to about 30 members of four cell groups planted by the IMB missionaries.

"It was a discipling effort," Goff said. "All but one of them had been saved for less than a year. These are highly educated and successful business people."

The Southwestern team also went door to door and distributed copies of the Gospel of John. Despite some rejections, the team followed a carefully mapped strategy and ended up distributing more than 3,800 copies.

On the streets and in public gathering places, team members paired up with translators, some of whom were the teenaged children of the missionaries, and did personal evangelism. Another part of the GAP strategy was handing out Gospel tracts in the marketplaces and along the boardwalk as well as invitations to a free health fair to passers-by. Over the course of the week in Pocitos, the team handed out more than 1,000 Gospel tracts and personally witnessed to some 100 individuals. 

Paul Sheaffer was especially pleased with the results. In a post-trip update, Sheaffer reported that the Southwestern team uncovered 12 "excellent prospects" who wanted to come to a small group Bible study.

"We have already received several inquiries from people receiving their Gospels asking for more information," Sheaffer wrote. "While there &#91;were&#93; no immediate salvation decisions, the gospel was shared in a powerful way and we believe several individuals will make decisions in the near future."

Goff said that to have a dozen people interested in the Gospel is remarkable and is a good indicator of the spiritual potential in the area. 

On the last evening of the mission trip, the Southwestern group put on the free health fair. Curtis Bogard, team member and husband of Southwestern master's student Patricia Bogard, is a dentist and helped answer questions about dental care while his wife gave a seminar on dental hygiene. Team member Glenda Eitel is a Southwestern Seminary campus nurse and a lactation specialist. She gave information on breast-feeding babies. 

A psychiatrist and a psychologist who are recent believers and attend the missionaries' house church gave seminars on depression and the importance of friends. Goff said a recent double digit increase in suicides in Uruguay has made the citizens "very quickened" to these kinds of presentations. At the end of the health fair, Goff spoke in Spanish and invited those in attendance to the next set of presentations scheduled for April.

"It was a wonderful opportunity for the Southwesterners and local Christians to work together to build relationships and water seeds of the Gospel that had been planted earlier," Savage said.

This is the second trip Southwestern students and faculty have taken to Uruguay over a two-year period. Savage is hoping that a third trip can be put together for follow-up evangelism next year.

"Our students saw God knock down barriers in an area that was supposed to be hard to reach," Savage said. "Everyone was amazed at how doors opened to share the Gospel."
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DOCTRINE: Baptism by the Holy Spirit
by Jimmy Draper
Date: April 16, 2007 - Monday

<i>EDITORS' NOTE: Today Baptist Press launches a week-long series of columns on biblical doctrine by former LifeWay Christian Resources President Jimmy Draper. The series coincides with "Baptist Doctrine Study" week within the Southern Baptist Convention. </i>


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Great confusion surrounds the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. For some it is viewed as a subsequent work of grace in a believer's life and is equated with the filling of the Holy Spirit. Others associate the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the gift of tongues. Still others diligently seek it as an unusual work of God in the life of the believer which confirms God's power and allows a special closeness to God never before experienced.

The phrase "baptism of the Holy Spirit" does not appear in Scripture. Christ is always described as the baptizer in the Gospels (see for example Matthew 3:11) and Acts, and then the Holy Spirit is His agent in the epistles.

The only verse that actually deals with the doctrine of "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" is 1 Corinthians 12:13. There are narratives in the book of Acts that deal with encountering the Holy Spirit under special circumstances. Acts is a history book that details the supernatural origin of the church. It is a transitional book. It is descriptive, but not generally prescriptive. It describes that unique time in history when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be the Paraclete, comforter and companion. But Pentecost was not the beginning of the work of the Holy Spirit any more than the incarnation was the beginning work of Christ. We cannot build a theology of the Holy Spirit from the book of Acts.

One thing is very clear today. We need the Holy Spirit! We need Him now, we need Him desperately and we need Him always. There is an experience for believers that is called "the baptism of the Holy Spirit". We need it and we need to understand it.

It is a misunderstood experience. We actually have misnamed it. We refer to the baptism "of" or "in" the Holy Spirit as if He is an impersonal substance. From Scripture it should be "by" or "with" the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 12:13 is a good example. The Greek preposition "en" can be translated "in," "by," "with" or "of." Here it is clearly instrumental and should be translated "by."

The very meaning of the word "baptism" is often confused. The primary meaning of the word is "to immerse or submerge." It also means "to be joined with." It is a word used to describe the process of dyeing cloth. If you wanted a piece of cloth to be purple, you would dip it in purple dye. When the cloth came out of the dye, you had a different looking piece of cloth because it had been immersed or dipped into a colored dye. It was joined to the color. The baptism is not the dye; it is the act of immersing.

A redeemed sinner experiences a transformation when converted. God chose the imagery of baptism to explain the Spirit's ministry of taking sinful people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and immersing them into a whole new dynamic of life, an entirely new realm called the "body of Christ." The Holy Spirit is not the solution in which we are immersed; He is the agent by which we enter this experience.

When does the baptism occur? The clear teaching of the New Testament is that it takes place at conversion. Note our key verse again. The word "baptized" is in the aorist tense, which refers to a past completed action. It refers to a once-for-all experience that is not repeated. Ephesians 1:13 tells us that we were "sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" when we believed. Every believer has been baptized by the Holy Spirit, but only once. You may be filled with the Holy Spirit many times, but there is no scriptural indication that baptism by the Holy Spirit is ever repeated.

Some identify this experience with the "tongues of fire" described in Acts 2 and use John the Baptist's statement in Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16 to substantiate that conclusion. But that is incorrect because it ignores the context of John's statement. In both those passages John says that the One coming has a winnowing fork in His hand to clean out His threshing floor and He will gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn up with "unquenchable fire." Clearly the reference is to the fact that the coming Messiah will bring judgment as well as salvation and calls for a decision.

Nowhere are we commanded to be "baptized with the Holy Spirit." We are commanded to be filled (Ephesians 5:18), but never to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Surely if this was a necessary experience we could expect the Word of God to urge us over and over again to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. But the subject is never mentioned in Scripture -- not one time, in one syllable of one word in any sentence.

Baptism by the Holy Spirit is a wondrously unique experience. By that experience we are joined to the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13, Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:27). It is personal, but it is also corporate. "We are all baptized." There is only one body of Christ, one family, one church. Baptism by the Holy Spirit is not some extra-ordinary manifestation, for it happens to all believers.

This baptism by the Holy Spirit is positional, not emotional or empowering. It places us in a position in Christ which makes it possible for us to receive power. It does not guarantee power in our lives. The Corinthians were baptized by the Holy Spirit, yet they were a very sensual and carnal church. They lived by the flesh, soaked in immorality, saw rampant litigation, conflicts and disputes between church members, and even abused the Lord's Supper. Yet Paul said, "We are all baptized." That baptism has to do with our position in Christ and it is universal for all believers.

This means that you don't get a piece of Spirit baptism when you get saved and then more later. God does not baptize on an installment plan. All of the Holy Spirit you are ever going to get as a believer you got when Jesus baptized you by means of the Holy Spirit into His body at your salvation. The question is not, "How much of the Holy Spirit do you have?" Instead, you should be asking, "How much of me does the Holy Spirit have?"

A newborn baby has all he needs to be an adult. He will never get new parts as he ages; he simply grows in his ability to use the parts he has. The Spirit's baptism is a unique, completed ministry. Thank God there are no second-class members of the body of Christ. None of us deserves to be in that body, but we are by His grace. All of us are joined to Him by the Spirit's baptism and we all have access to the resources of the spiritual life that come through the continual filling of the Holy Spirit.

Thank God for this wonderful experience of the baptism by the Holy Spirit. It brings us new life, a new identity and a new nature.
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Jimmy Draper is the former president of LifeWay Christian Resources.



