
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-04/17/2007

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Nation reacts to mass killings
by Erin Roach
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

BLACKSBURG, Va. (BP)--Students, faculty and their families gathered on the campus of Virginia Tech University to mourn the day after a gunman killed 32 students, including at least one involved in the school's Baptist Collegiate Ministry.

President Bush and his wife, Laura, attended the public convocation at Cassell Coliseum "with hearts full of sorrow" on "a day of sadness for our entire nation."

"Across the town of Blacksburg and in towns all across America, houses of worship from every faith have opened their doors and have lifted you up in prayer," Bush said April 17. "People who have never met you are praying for you; they're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured. There's a power in these prayers, real power.

"In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God," the president said. "As the Scriptures tell us, 'Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.'"

The Virginia Tech family also heard from Gov. Tim Kaine, university President Charles Steger and representatives from the Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian communities on campus. The thousands in attendance at the coliseum and in overflow seating at the football stadium recited the Lord's Prayer and closed with emotional chants of the school cheer "Let's go Hokies."

Darrell Cook, campus minister at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Virginia Tech, reported that at least one student from their group, Brian Bluhm, was killed in the shootings.

"We have been overwhelmed by the support and prayers of our campus ministry family around the nation," Cook said in an e-mail circulated to Southern Baptist collegiate ministers April 17. "... We are doing all we can here to help students walk through the first steps of grief."

Cook requested prayer for Bluhm's family and friends as well as for the staff at the BCM as they minister to people in the campus community.

Jim Burton, senior director of the partnership mobilization division at the North American Mission Board, told Baptist Press about 300 students gathered at the BCM Monday night for a prayer and worship service.

The BCM is sponsored by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, and two chaplains were on site at the campus ministry building to assist students in the grief process, Burton said. The chaplains were continuing to assess the needs, including how to support churches as the school's 26,000 students disperse to their hometowns, he reported.

Burton also told BP that the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia sent a disaster relief kitchen unit to Blacksburg and had parked on the street next to the dorm where the first shooting occurred. They reportedly were preparing 200 meals for Bush's entourage and planned to feed about 250 law enforcement officers Tuesday night.

"The spirit of cooperation between the two Virginia conventions has been exemplary and is very reflective of the Baptist spirit," Burton said. "... The bottom line is I think we're at the appropriate level of response right now, and we're prepared to up our presence through disaster relief chaplains as needed, and the Virginia Baptist conventions anticipate being able to handle that in state."

Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, expressed his "deepest concern and prayer support for the students and faculty of Virginia Tech as well as for the townspeople."

"When tragedy like this occurs, sometimes people look to the Lord, and I pray that all will do so and find the comfort that only He can bring to their hearts," Page said in a statement to Baptist Press. "At the same time, Southern Baptists stand ready to help in any way that we can to assist and encourage these victims and their families. We are all shocked and horrified at this egregious expression of violence. Our prayers and love are with all those affected by this tragedy."

Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called the massacre "a brutal reminder that life is fragile and that evil exists in our world" and pointed to the hope found in Christ's resurrection during a time of intense trial.

"While such an event is troublesome for a believer, for those who are not people of strong religious faith the random and horrific nature of this violence is going to be much more difficult to handle," Land said. "It is my fervent prayer that Christians on the Virginia Tech campus will, in God's strength, reach out to meet the emotional and spiritual needs of their fellow students in this dark hour.

"The staff of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission joins all believing Americans in lifting up in prayer to our Almighty God all those whose hearts are broken over the bloodshed and whose lives are shattered because of this terrible tragedy," Land said. "May they find comfort in our Father's arms."

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said Christians cannot shrink from calling the shootings evil.

"One of the things we have to say is that we understand that the Bible never flinches from dealing with evil as evil," Mohler said during the seminary's chapel service April 17. "There is no euphemism in the Scripture. There is no glancing away from the reality. There is the honest assessment that evil is not only as evil as it appears; it is far more evil than we could imagine. For it is not only what we do to each other. It is our effort to rob God of His own glory."

When speaking about tragedy, Christians must never stop with the message of sin but also must explain that sending Christ to die on the cross was God's answer to evil, Mohler said, adding that Jesus accepted upon Himself God's wrath against evil.

The gunman was identified as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior majoring in English at Virginia Tech. Cho was a legal immigrant from South Korea, and The Chicago Tribune said he left a note in his dorm room railing against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus. Acquaintances told authorities Cho's behavior in recent weeks had become increasingly violent and erratic, and his creative writing pieces in English class were "disturbing."

Cho allegedly opened fire in a dormitory around 7:15 a.m. Monday, killing two people. Two hours later, shots were fired in multiple classrooms in the school's engineering building before the gunman killed himself in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
--30--
With reporting by Dwayne Hastings & David Roach.


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Baptist grad student among 32 victims
by Mickey Noah
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

BLACKSBURG, Va. (BP)--Brian Bluhm, a Virginia Tech graduate student who had been involved in the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, was one of the 32 victims of the April 16 massacre at the Blacksburg, Va., campus, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

"Pray for the family of Brian," Darrell Cook, the BCM director at Virginia Tech wrote in an e-mail after the tragic day, identifying Brian as "a grad student in our ministry who was killed yesterday. Pray for our alumni and students that were close to Brian as well."

Mark Appleton, associate BCM director at Virginia Tech and a Mission Service Corps missionary with the North American Mission Board, said Brian "was very active at the BCM as an undergraduate but as a graduate student we didn't see him as much. But everyone knew him."

Appleton had just been dismissed from jury duty and was returning to the BCM center on the edge of Virginia Tech's 2,500-acre campus when he spotted a large detail of police officers and vehicles quickly converging on the campus. It would be the beginning of 12-hour ordeal for Appleton and everyone else in Blacksburg.

The BCM center became an oasis of prayer, grief, sharing and peace at 7 p.m. Monday when Appleton opened the facility to any students who needed a place to come. More than 300 students -– mostly Southern Baptists and members of Campus Crusade for Christ -– came by.

"As far as people coming together, it has been amazing," Appleton said. "In the middle of the chaos, it's been a beautiful thing to see the body of Christ work. We've been contacted by ministries all over the U.S., offering prayer and resources.

"Local churches have been fantastic. They brought food. The Baptist General Association of Virginia sent trained crisis counselors to be available to students. The center became a place where students could process what had happened and could come to talk, eat or just cry. We set up side rooms where students could pray. We had a corporate time of praying and even singing," Appleton said.

More than one student told "just-by-the-grace-of-God" stories of how they miraculously altered their schedule and were not at Norris Hall when the shooting rampage began around 9:15 a.m., Appleton said.

"One student said he had a foot that was hurting so he left Norris Hall just before the shooting started. Otherwise he would have been there.

"Another one of the students was a grading assistant to a professor who was shot and killed by the gunman. The assistant didn't go to Norris Hall yesterday because he had not yet graded all of the professor's recent test papers.

"There were a bunch of stories like that -– small tales of joy in the midst of the horror," Appleton said. 

In his two-year ministry at Virginia Tech, Appleton said it was easily his worst and most challenging day ever. What words did he have for the few hundred dazed and grieving students at the BCM center Monday night?

"It was a time for them to cry, talk and even laugh. There was a lot of processing going on. But we all acknowledged that Christ is still on the throne and the world is in God's hands.

"If anything, it's a testimony for the need for Christ. To me, it's a blaring message of the hope and love Christ offers. That was a lot of our focus at the center last night."

He said over half of the prayers voiced by the students were pleas for the further proclamation of the Gospel and that God would make something good out of the unprecedented campus tragedy.

"Right now, prayer is the best thing Baptists can do for us," Appleton said. "The Holy Spirit is working here already and needs to work in even mightier ways in the days ahead."

Appleton said three Southern Baptist churches are close to the Virginia Tech campus, where 26,000 students are enrolled. Virginia Tech -– officially called Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University -– is located in the middle of Blacksburg, a town of 40,000 people in southwest Virginia.

The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia sent a disaster relief kitchen unit to Blacksburg and had parked on the street next to the dorm where the first shooting occurred. They reportedly were preparing 200 meals for President Bush's entourage for the April 17 campus convocation and planned to feed about 250 law enforcement officers Tuesday night.
--30--


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Friends come together for comfort, healing
by Brandon Pickett/SBCV
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

BLACKSBURG, Va. (BP)--Amid a sea of orange and maroon, two freshmen friends sit together. Looking around, you'd think they were waiting for a sporting event to start, not a convocation service that will mourn 32 teachers and students shot to death just yesterday by a student gunman who committed suicide.

Austin Murray, from Richmond and Jerod Stepp from Abingdon met each other at Virginia Tech during their first year on campus. They are from two different churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia convention but now fellowship together on campus. Never did they think their freshmen year would end like this.

Austin lives in the dorm that was first attacked by the gunman. He praises the Lord that he was in the library at the time of the shooting, but he mourns for a friend who was shot and killed. Jerod lives in the dorm next to Austin and awoke to the sounds of sirens and swat team members pointing a gun in his window to tell him to stay put and stay out of sight. They both say none of it seems real, yet.

But today in this coliseum, reality is starting to sink in. As comforting words from the governor, president and other dignitaries flow, so do the tears. All around, students who had been extremely quiet through much of the hour-long convocation now are sobbing, hugging, praying. Jerod says he knows that through this tragedy God has a higher purpose and he wants to be part of it. "I think my role is to be a comforter. It'll never be the same here, so many people are confused and feel lost. But I can talk to them during this time about God's love."

On Monday night, hundreds of students like Austin and Jerod joined together with the Baptist Campus Ministry and Campus Crusade for a prayer service. It started in praise and worship but quickly moved to prayer. Students began in prayer on their feet but ended on their knees, sobbing and crying out to God for healing and comfort. Prayer services like this are planned throughout the week at various Southern Baptist churches around the Roanoke, Va., area.

Both freshmen say that they're still looking forward to their sophomore year, but for different reasons. Austin is going to be a resident assistant for a dorm floor and knows there will be plenty of opportunity for ministry. Jerod says he just wants God to use him however, wherever and whenever He wants to. "We've been praying for God to break the heart of this campus," Jerod says. "I can see that God is doing something really big here on this campus, He's still in control."
--30—-
Brandon Pickett is a media missionary with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia state convention.



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SBC baptisms down amid other growth
by Russ Rankin
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--While the number of Southern Baptist churches in 2006 increased by 524 and reported more than $11.3 billion in total receipts, LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom S. Rainer reported April 17 that total baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention fell for the second consecutive year.

According to the Annual Church Profile gathered by LifeWay, baptisms last year dropped from 371,850 to 364,826, or 1.89 percent, eclipsing 2005 as the lowest annual total since 1993. The 2005 ACP reported a 4.15 percent drop.

"While it is certainly encouraging to see new Southern Baptist churches being birthed, our baptism totals once again show that we are not doing an effective job stepping up to the task of sharing the Gospel with a lost and dying world," Rainer said.

"As a nation and a people we are blessed with enormous financial resources and gifts, and our churches reflect that," he added. "How blessed we would be if our churches adopted that same fire and fervor for evangelism."

The 2006 ACP shows growth in several areas. Total membership of Southern Baptist churches increased slightly to reach 16,306,246 members. The net increase of 524 churches, more than double the net increase from 2005 -- for a total of 44,223 -- represents a 1.2 percent boost for 2006. In the 2005 ACP, there was a net increase of 234 churches.

Primary worship attendance rose to 6,138,776, reflecting a 1.43 percentage growth. Church-type missions -- defined in the ACP as "a body of baptized believers having a distinct identity that meets regularly for worship, engages in Bible study and evangelism, and provides opportunity for stewardship and fellowship, but has not yet constituted as a church" -- was the largest percentage increase in 2006, up 2.06 percent.

Rainer pointed out that numeric/percent changes for certain categories could not be accurately figured for the 2006 ACP, as some state conventions or associations did not ask for some items to be reported, or asked in a way that gave results that were not comparable to totals reported in the 2005 ACP.

The impacted categories and their 2006 totals include: 

Total receipts: $11,372,608,393

Total tithes, offerings and special gifts: $10,425,420,529

Undesignated receipts: $8,293,404,321

Total mission expenditures: $1,285,616,031

Sunday School enrollment: 7,931,753

Discipleship training enrollment: 1,503,826

Music ministry enrollment and participation: 1,466,124

WMU enrollment: 811,139

Men/boys mission education enrollment: 376,379

"Southern Baptists are a people committed to the Gospel," Rainer said. "Missions and evangelism have always been our rallying cry. Churches should view this report as a commendation, but also as a sobering reminder that there is much more that we need to be doing. Our mandate to share the Good News of Jesus Christ remains our focus, but as a convention we must renew our passion for reaching the burgeoning masses in our states, cities and neighborhoods."
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Impact of 'Everyone Can' assessed
by Art Toalston
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The ambitious goal for Southern Baptists to baptize 1 million people in 2006 was not met, according to yearly statistics reported by SBC churches.

Baptisms for 2006 instead declined by 1.89 percent –- 364,826 in 2006 versus 371,850 in 2005.

The baptism thrust was launched by the SBC's immediate past president, Bobby Welch, at the outset of his two years in office in June 2004.

Named the "'Everyone Can!' Kingdom Challenge," it targeted 2006 as the year when Southern Baptist churches, for the first time, would reach the 1 million milestone in baptisms -– in essence, more than doubling the number recorded in recent years.

SBC President Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., told Baptist Press, "To hear news of a continued decline in baptisms is discouraging. However, Dr. Bobby Welch's emphasis upon evangelism and soul-winning is nothing but an echo from God's heart. Therefore, his pleas are biblically based and God-inspired. However, our obedience continues to lack both substance and passion."

Page said he would be "working closely with our North American Mission Board, our state partners, directors of missions as well as others to bring to our nation a true long-term, flexible, multi-faceted evangelism strategy which will enable us to help our churches know better 'how' to implement the wonderful encouragement from Dr. Welch and others to be soul-winners."

"Please pray for this national, continent-wide strategy," Page added, noting that it will be partly unveiled during the SBC's June 12-13 annual meeting in San Antonio.

Welch, the newly named Strategist for Global Evangelical Relations with the SBC Executive Committee and retired pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., assessed the positive results of the campaign and voiced concern about what the baptism decline means for Southern Baptists in a column for Baptist Press April 17.

The Everyone Can initiative sought to "challenge everyone to do their very best," Welch noted. "It has done precisely what was hoped for by so many pastors and churches. A large number of our people made their very best efforts for Great Commission evangelism-discipleship. Many broke their recent history records in baptisms and more set new benchmarks in evangelism-discipleship and baptisms.

"For these people, it has been life-changing, world-changing and eternity-changing," Welch stated.

Welch continued by stating that "while many did their very best, many others did about the same or less than before," prompting him to underscore his belief that "a collective commitment" for evangelism-discipleship is needed among "a vast number of leaders at all levels of the SBC -- national, state and association and especially the local church."

The decline in baptisms "in the face of an all-out effort by so many sounds the most urgent cry Southern Baptists will ever hear, and it comes from the handwriting that is now on our wall -– and it is this: BACK TO THE FIELDS!" Welch wrote, referencing the "harvest fields" of non-Christians across the nation and the world.

Harry Lewis, executive vice president of missions with the North American Mission Board, said a decline in baptisms "is never good news for Southern Baptists. However, for the 364,826 people who did receive Christ as Savior and follow Him in believer's baptism, it was the best news of their lives.

"Every Southern Baptist should be both informed and alarmed that our declining baptism trend means we are not coming close to keeping up with population trends," Lewis said, noting that many SBC churches are plateaued or declining.

"This should call us all to have a renewed passion for sharing the Good News with our family, friends and neighbors," Lewis said. "... We should be reminded that God's plan for reducing lostness in North America is still His people, in His church, sharing Jesus with every lost person, through the power of His Spirit. When we as Southern Baptists recognize the serious consequence for those without Christ and become intentional about sharing Christ with others, spiritual renewal will come to North America, and our baptism trend will reverse."

Roy Fish, the longtime professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary who recently served as interim president for the North American Mission Board, said he was "grieved" by the latest report.

"This is what we will continue to see as long as churches are ministering outside the context of spiritual awakening," Fish said. Putting recent baptism statistics into the larger perspective of history, Fish said past significant upswings in SBC baptisms have been linked to larger spiritual movements.

"In the early 1900s Southern Baptists saw their largest year-to-year increase in baptisms and that was in the context of a global awakening that was taking place," Fish said. In the 1950s nearly a full decade of baptism increases stemmed from what Fish called "the Mid-Century Revival." The 1970s, he said, "were also times of increase in our baptisms and that was a spill-over from the Jesus Movement."

Fish was quick to say that even outside the context of spiritual awakening, churches that are obedient and consistent in evangelism will see results.

"Even when the spiritual tide is out, there are still pools of God's activities, and churches will see success if they are faithful in sharing Christ regularly," Fish said.

States recording increases in baptisms in 2006 were (with number of the increase over 2005 in parenthesis): Alabama, 22,439 baptisms (up 1,070 over 2005); Alaska, 559 (147); Arkansas, 12,987 (591); California, 18,860 (11); Colorado, 1,935 (108); Florida, 39,148 (3,785); Hawaii-Pacific, 845 (391); Kentucky, 17,642 (272); Nevada, 1,512 (129); Ohio, 5,026 (221); Pennsylvania/South Jersey, 4,612 (169); South Carolina, 16,234 (18); Tennessee, 25,630 (877); Baptist General Association of Virginia, 8,136 (42); West Virginia, 1,162 (45); Wyoming, 381 (63).

States recording decreases in baptisms were (with number of the decrease from 2005 in parenthesis): Arizona, 2,840 (99); Dakotas, 240 (35); District of Columbia, 520, (175); Georgia, 31,185 (1,055); Illinois, 5,286 (1,193); Indiana, 3,451 (50); Iowa, 591 (81); Kansas-Nebraska, 2,635 (237); Louisiana, 10,219 (2,311); Maryland-Delaware, 3,380 (183); Michigan, 1,396 (71); Minnesota-Wisconsin, 407 (452); Mississippi, 12,829 (114); Missouri, 12,548 (512); Montana, 565 (9); New England, 1,191 (168); New Mexico, 2,269 (106); New York, 1,929 (102); North Carolina, 22,329 (680); Northwest (Washington-Oregon-northern Idaho), 2,101 (458); Oklahoma, 15,279 (652); Baptist General Convention of Texas, 41,953 (2,146); Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, 23,912 (612); Utah-Iadho, 905 (41); Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, 23,912 (580).

Welch, in his BP column, noted, "One of the little-recognized deterrents to many people's earnest hard work in evangelism has to do with the last decade of poor seed sowing. It is impossible to reap much or anything where little or no seed has been sown, watered and cultivated. This last decade has seen many persons preoccupied with attempting to discover a magic way to do evangelism that does not call on people to go out into the world and intentionally sow seeds. We are now all faced with vast wastelands of seedless soil in North America."

Welch's hope that the Everyone Can campaign will continue to yield results is reflected at such congregations as Creekside Community Church in Bessemer City, N.C., where pastor Bob Wise recounted that he had begged God to let him leave the church prior to last June's SBC annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C.

"I was like, 'God, please. I want to be somewhere else. I can't take it no more. There's nothing happening,'" Wise said.

Creekside was meeting in a doublewide trailer beside a trailer park -– a transient community which left the church without enough stability to grow.

Welch's Everyone Can emphasis at the convention struck a chord with Wise, and he told his wife they had to take drastic measures at their church in order to see the kind of results Welch said were possible.

In September and October, the church was part of three evangelism events, including a Will Graham Celebration where church members served as counselors, and through those events they gained a substantial list of prospects.

"We just stayed at it for six weeks, knocking on doors and being obedient and talking to people and inviting people," Wise said. "And it just busted loose. We've had other people come and join the church that have already been saved and baptized and feel led to come help this church grow."

Last fall the church baptized 13 new believers, and in the first few months of this year they've baptized five people and have a couple more waiting, Wise reported.
--30--
With reporting by Mike Ebert & Erin Roach.


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Handwriting on the wall
by Bobby Welch
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

SAN ANTONIO (BP)--As I emphasized last year, the 1 million emphasis on baptisms by churches in the Southern Baptist Convention was to be the target that would challenge everyone to do their very best. Like the bar for high jumpers, the goal of 1 million baptisms was and is to draw the very best effort from us as the "jumpers."

It has done precisely what was hoped for by so many pastors and churches. A large number of our people made their very best efforts for Great Commission evangelism-discipleship. Many broke their recent history records in baptisms and more set new benchmarks in evangelism-discipleship and baptisms.

For these people, it has been life-changing, world-changing and eternity-changing. They will never settle for low bar jumping again.

The 2006 decline in baptisms in SBC churches likely will disclose that while many did their very best, many others did about the same or less than before. This, of course, amplifies the point that has not yet been seized –- the critical importance of a convention-wide unified effort for a unified purpose.

Such a synergy cannot be accomplished by one person over one or two years. It demands a collective commitment by a vast number of leaders at all levels of the SBC -- national, state and association and especially the local church. It absolutely can be done, should be done and must be done soon. Any and all distractions that take us off this course now are forcing the SBC beyond the point from which there is no return.

Someone said to me, "I shudder to think where we would be this year in baptisms if we had not had such an all-out 'sounding of the alarm' as the 'Everyone Can' initiative over the last year did." While that initiative did encourage a lot of people to do their best, it was still only an alarm. There must be a unified acceleration for Great Commission evangelism-discipleship convention-wide. We must be honest and realistic -– we are not waiting on God, God is waiting on us.

One of the little-recognized deterrents to many people's earnest hard work in evangelism has to do with the last decade of poor seed sowing. It is impossible to reap much or anything where little or no seed has been sown, watered and cultivated. This last decade has seen many persons preoccupied with attempting to discover a magic way to do evangelism that does not call on people to go out into the world and intentionally sow seeds. We are now all faced with vast wastelands of seedless soil in North America.

Even though most local churches do not do enough going to share the Gospel, they do, on average, have a heart and desire to reach the world and their family and friends around them. Given leadership and training in that area, they do very well. I see it all the time. This week in a neighborhood church of around 100 attendees in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, in one and a half hours "ordinary" church people helped more than 20 people pray to receive Christ and are hot into the follow-up. All these were in walking distance of their church.

This year's report of a decline in baptisms in the face of an all-out effort by so many sounds the most urgent cry Southern Baptists will ever hear, and it comes from the handwriting that is now on our wall -– and it is this: BACK TO THE FIELDS!
--30--
Bobby Welch is the newly named Strategist for Global Evangelical Relations with the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee. He is the SBC's immediate past president and former pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he served 32 years.


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Mo. investigative report made public
by Norm Miller
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., (BP)--The report which led to David Clippard's April 10 dismissal as executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention is public.

The redacted, or edited report cites reasons for Clippard's dismissal; notes issues related to Don Hinkle, editor of The Pathway, MBC's state paper; and relates other matters regarding the MBC's nominating committee, Cooperative Program and church planting.

Released April 16, the edited report omitted specific details in certain personnel matters regarding Clippard. MBC legal counsel Michael Whitehead said in the board's April 10 meeting that redactions would be necessary so as to minimize embarrassment to various individuals and legal liability.

The MBC executive board approved a motion last December brought by board member Wesley Hammond, pastor of First Baptist Church in Paris, Mo., to form a committee to investigate rumors affecting Clippard's character and other matters related to the board. Hammond's motion also called for the investigative committee to follow the biblical principles of "discipline and reconciliation and bring back a report."

After hearing the report and discussing it for four hours, the MBC executive board voted April 10 to dismiss Clippard, 44-7 on a secret ballot.

While board members are privy to specific details from the original report, the edited report cites six findings that led to Clippard's termination. Three findings are in their original form; three appear below in their edited form per the committee's public report:

-- "David Clippard's answers have not always been sufficiently forthright when confronted on various issues."

-- "David Clippard acted unwisely in managing the settlement of a lawsuit against the Convention, the Executive Board and himself by providing insufficient information to the Board about the facts of the case and the terms of a settlement and confidentiality agreement entered by Clippard on behalf of himself, the Convention, and the Board, his employer, in a case in which he was the employee-defendant accused of wrong-doing; and by asserting the authority to sign the settlement and confidentiality agreement for the Convention and the Board, without adequate knowledge or approval by the Board."

-- "Attorney-client communications about the risk of future lawsuits or liabilities being brought against the MBC."

The three unedited findings noted in the report are as follows:

-- "Employee morale at the Baptist Building is low because of David Clippard."

-- "The reputation of Missouri Baptists is being portrayed unprofessionally because of David Clippard's conduct and comments."

-- "David Clippard demonstrated a spirit toward the Investigative Committee that was divisive."

Based on evidence reviewed, the five-member investigative committee voted 4-1 to tell the full board in executive session April 10 that members of the ad hoc committee had "lost confidence in David Clippard" and recommended "that he be discharged of (MBC executive director) responsibilities effective immediately."

In an April 15 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article about Clippard's departure, Whitehead was reported as saying Clippard was shown a copy of the report April 9 and was then given the opportunity to resign, but refused. The news story also said that Clippard's pastor, Monte Shinkle –- a member of the MBC ad hoc investigative committee and pastor of Concord Baptist Church in Jefferson City -- urged Clippard to resign.

Clippard told Baptist Press in an April 16 e-mail that he had never seen the report. Baptist Press later sent Clippard a copy of the report on April 16 and 17 and invited his response.

In a telephone interview with Baptist Press April 17, Clippard said: "The first time I ever saw the report in print was on the Pathway website."

Acknowledging he "is not a perfect man," Clippard noted his "disappointment" that he was excused from the MBC's April 10 meeting and was "not allowed to address the board or speak to the issues" or "face my accusers."

Whitehead told the Post-Dispatch that Clippard was not welcome to participate in the board's private meeting because he was not a governing board member. He said Clippard already had plenty of opportunities to plead his case. "This was a deliberation room, and the person on trial does not come into the deliberation room," Whitehead told the Post-Dispatch.

While Clippard still has "personal questions" about each of the six items noted in the report, he told Baptist Press that he'd asked three of the five ad hoc committee members if he was guilty of "anything that was immoral, unethical, unbiblical or financially irresponsible. I asked about those issues very directly, very pointedly, and they all told me that one-word answer, 'No.' For that I was grateful," he said.

Clippard attributed his demise to differences in "management styles," he told Baptist Press.

"Nobody does everything exactly the same," he said.

In the Post-Dispatch article, Whitehead characterized Clippard's downfall as a management issue.

Clippard related specific information to Baptist Press that reflected a portion of the MBC's official April 10 statement regarding his dismissal: "There have been many positive accomplishments for the Missouri Baptist Convention during &#91;Clippard's tenure&#93;; not the least of which includes financial stability, increased emphasis and budget given to church planting, evangelism, partnership missions and the assembling of a fine staff to serve Missouri Baptists. Both parties express their gratitude for one another in accomplishing these and many more advancements. We believe the Kingdom is richer for it."

Referring to a lawsuit that included allegations regarding sexual harassment, which was cited in the ad hoc committee's report, Clippard said, "The federal judge exonerated us completely. I had two attorneys guiding me through that and I followed their instructions."

MBC bylaws allow the executive director "wide latitude in making independent decisions" regarding MBC operations, Clippard further said.

"I was trying to act within the framework of those guidelines and act in the best interest of our convention," he said.

The suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money.

"The board had a right to terminate (me)," Clippard concluded. "I understand that, and that's OK."

The investigative committee's report cleared Don Hinkle, editor of The Pathway -- MBC's official newsjournal -- whose credibility came under the committee's scrutiny regarding an incident involving Clippard and Hinkle. Clippard initially denied the matter, but later recalled it and apologized after an eyewitness came forth.

The ad hoc committee considered other matters regarding Hinkle, but because most matters "given to this committee regarding Don Hinkle were from individuals who have never taken their issues or concerns to Don directly" and who had not given the matters "appropriate Biblical due process as prescribed in Matthew 18," the report states, "this committee believes it would be inappropriate to make a final determination regarding Don's continued employment with MBC based on these types of rumors."

The committee did offer an opinion, however, that "morale of the MBC staff has suffered because of the perception that Don lacks accountability to anyone in the Baptist Building."

Like a number of other Baptist state papers and their editors, the Pathway is not under the purview of any MBC staffer. Rather, the Pathway editor serves at the pleasure of the MBC's elected board members.

The report also stated: "We understand there is significant consternation regarding some of the editorials Don has written. Many Missouri Baptists are concerned to the point of passing resolutions to condemn some of his writings. We are fully cognizant that the issue of Don's employment with the Missouri Baptist Convention has become a matter of controversy. Further, there are a number of MBC employees who have expressed to this committee that they have great personal difficulties with Don."

By a 4-1 vote, the ad-hoc committee recommended April 10 and the board approved "that the Executive Board refers (sic) the matter of evaluating Don Hinkle's ministry work performance to the Administrative Committee of the Executive Board along with the appropriate involvement of the Pathway Workgroup. We recommend that the MBC Administrative Committee report back to the full Executive Board at the July 2007 meeting."

Hinkle told Baptist Press: "As editor of The Pathway, I have a role not unlike the God-honoring pastors across our great Missouri Baptist Convention, who stand week-to-week and speak prophetically from God's Word to God's people.

"Like other Christian journalists, I struggle with the balance between doing this job redemptively as well as professionally. While these terms are hardly mutually exclusive, they still represent the balance that must be struck. So, to all my fellow Missouri Southern Baptists, who believe my words or actions seemed to have tipped those scales inappropriately, I express to them my deepest, heartfelt regret and apology.

"We have a new day in the Missouri Baptist Convention, and I humbly and publicly recommit myself to that ministry to which God has called me, and also to those principles of operation for The Pathway that we have posted on our office wall, the first of which is to bring honor and glory to God."

The report cited concerns with the MBC's requirement that all its new church starts contribute to the Cooperative Program 10 percent of undesignated receipts, and that some board members attend churches that give 1 percent or less.

The committee recommended and the board approved the MBC nominating committee "seek to nominate men and women who are members of churches that show strong and ongoing support, including financial support, for the Cooperative Program, while not endorsing a certain percentage," and that "the Executive Board members ... be examples in their own church's financial support of the Cooperative Program, particularly since the Executive Board has responsibilities to recommend a Cooperative Program budget to the convention for approval, to promote the Cooperative Program and to exercise wise stewardship as it relates to how Cooperative Program Funds arc used in Missouri to advance the Kingdom of God."

For the entire current board, the average is 8.6 percent of undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program.

The committee investigated concerns about alleged improprieties regarding the MBC nominating committee process but found that the nominating committee "acted accordingly as sub-committees and then as a full committee."

To read the edited report in its entirety, go to www.mbcpathway.com.
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INTERNATIONAL DIGEST: Israel says Pelosi delivered wrong message to Syria; ...
by Mark Kelly
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, delivered the wrong message from Israel when she visited Syrian President Bashar Assad April 4, according to the offices of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Pelosi, who was leading a bipartisan "fact-finding" tour of the Middle East, announced in a Damascus press conference that both Israeli and Syrian leaders had told her they were open to peace talks, which have been stalled since 2000, according to CNSNews.com. Olmert's office quickly protested the announcement, saying Olmert had not asked her to deliver such a message.

"In order to conduct serious and genuine peace negotiations, Syria must cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizballah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran," a statement released by Olmert's office said.

While lawmakers from both parties occasionally visit countries with whom the United States has strained relations, Pelosi was criticized for engaging in foreign policy discussions without authorization from the State Department. Pelosi has said that the Democratically controlled Congress will exercise more leadership in foreign policy and added that she also is open to a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

RADICAL CLERIC DEMANDS FIRING OVER HUG -- The leader of a pro-Taliban mosque has demanded Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf fire a female member of his administration after newspapers published a photo showing her hugging a non-Pakistani man identified as her skydiving instructor.

Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar was in France for an early April fund-raising event to raise money for victims of an earthquake that killed 73,000 people in Pakistan in October 2005, according to Reuters news service. She hugged her instructor after completing a jump.

Abdul Aziz, leader of Islamabad's Red Mosque, said: "Her act was un-Islamic and against our social norms. She earned a bad name for Islam. She should be punished." Aziz also announced a Taliban-style vigilante court would be set up to enforce Muslim law and warned that efforts to crack down on his followers would be met with suicide-bomb attacks.

In February, a Muslim radical murdered a female government official in Punjab province because he believed women should not hold political office. Musharraf's government has not taken action against Aziz, raising fears that his moderate, pro-Western government cannot rein in the extremists.

U.S. DOUBTS IRAN CLAIM TO EXPANDED NUCLEAR ABILITY -- The government of hardline Irnaian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced the dramatic expansion of its ability to produce nuclear fuel -– potentially enough to manufacture a nuclear bomb -– but experts in the United States are skeptical about the claim.

Iran announced April 9 that it had begun operating 3,000 centrifuges -– nearly 10 times the previously known number -– defying U.N. demands to halt its nuclear program, according to an Associated Press report. However, observers expressed doubt that Iran actually could operate that many machines and said the announcement may be intended to shore up Ahmadinejad's flagging support among the Iranian people.

"From a political perspective, it's more important to have (3,000 centrifuges) in place than to have them run properly," nonproliferation expert Michael Levi told AP. The United Nations Security Council has set a late-May deadline for Iran to halt its nuclear program.

TALIBAN BRINGS BACK HEROIN POPPIES -- Muslim radicals who wiped out Afghanistan's opium poppies less than a decade ago now are forcing farmers to replant the flowers -– and extorting millions of dollars in "taxes" to fund their insurgency against the country's pro-Western government and the foreign troops that support it.

"Drugs are bad. The Koran is very clear about it," NATO political adviser Gafus Scheltem told the Associated Press. But to fight the enemy, "all things are allowed. They need money and the only way they can get money is from Arabs that support them in the (Persian) Gulf, or poppies."

Corrupt government officials, warlords, landowners and farmers all benefit from the cultivation of poppies in Afghanistan, which provides 90 percent of the world's heroin supply. When the Taliban was in power, they initially banned poppies as being "against Islam," but later decided it was acceptable to produce the drug as long as it was not consumed locally.

The United Nations estimated the street value of Afghanistan's 2006 opium crop at $3.5 billion.

STATE GAMBLING MONOPOLY 'TARGETS POOR' -- Sweden's state-owned gambling company is deliberately targeting poor people by placing gambling machines in areas with major social problems and low incomes, according to a survey conducted by the country's parliament. One low-income suburb of Stockholm was found to have 52 "Jack Vegas" gambling machines, while one of the city's wealthiest suburbs had none at all.0

Swedish lawmaker Tomas Tobé criticized the government for increasing access to gambling in poor communities while providing virtually no help for gambling addicts in those areas, according to The Local, a Swedish newspaper.

Jesper Kärrbrink, CEO of the state gambling company, defended the actions, saying, "Our job is to provide safe and responsible options in the areas where the players are. It is quite possible that there are more people interested in playing on these kind of machines in Botkyrka than in Danderyd. It is therefore quite natural that our machines should be situated there."

Tobé called for the state to privatize gambling –- ending its role "as a player on the market" –- and establish stronger regulation of the industry. He said he would introduce a bill in October to abolish the state's gambling monopoly.

SURVEY SAYS HOMOSEXUALS LESS THAN 2 PERCENT -- The largest random sex survey ever conducted in Canada has revealed that no more than 2 percent of adults engage in homosexual behavior. The 2003 survey of 121,300 adults found that 2 percent of 18-44-year-olds, 1 percent of 50-year-olds and only 0.3 percent of subjects 60 and older considered themselves homosexual.

Researcher Paul Cameron asked, "What happened to the older homosexuals? Some may have ceased to be sexually active, or they may have died. Recent reports from Scandinavia indicate that the life expectancy of homosexuals is 20+ years shorter than that of heterosexuals."

While activists in the United States claim 6 percent to 10 percent of the population is homosexual, Cameron said a government survey in 1996 reported that 1.3 percent of men and 1.1 percent of women under the age of 60 said they'd had homosexual sex in the last 12 months. It also found the oldest male who engaged in homosexuality was 54 and the oldest female 49. So it appears that homosexuality is a young person's activity -– one that may contribute to an early death."

The findings were delivered March 23 during a meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association Convention in Philadelphia as part of a report titled "Federal Distortion of the Homosexual Footprint."

Even though some homosexual activists in the U.S. claim homosexuals make up close to one-tenth of the population, in 2003 a coalition of leading homosexual organizations wrote a legal brief in the U.S. Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas case in which they said the most "widely accepted" statistic is that 2.8 percent of men and 1.4 percent of women are homosexual.

NORTH KOREA WARNS DEADLINE MAY BE MISSED -- With a deadline looming, North Korean officials have warned they may not be able to meet the terms of a nuclear disarmament agreement produced in February by six-way talks with the reclusive communist country. The accord with South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia gave Pyongyang 60 days to shut its nuclear facilities in return for energy assistance.

North Korean delegates walked out of the talks in March, demanding the release of $25 million in frozen assets held at a bank in Macau. The U.S. State Department said it had found a way for the funds to be transferred, but observers were uncertain that would resolve the dispute. North Korea has a history of continually adding demands before abiding by agreements it has signed.

A top government spokesman for Japan said the assets dispute must not delay implementation of the agreement, according to Reuters news service. "The BDA issue is outside the framework of the six-party talks," said Yasuhisa Shiozaki. "They cannot make that an excuse not to abide by the 30- or the 60-day deadlines. We need to resume the six-party process."
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DOCTRINE: The Bible & tongues
by Jimmy Draper
Date: April 17, 2007 - Tuesday

<i>EDITORS' NOTE: Today is the second day in 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)--Recently there's been much discussion about the issue of tongues in Southern Baptist life. I know individuals who believe in the gift of tongues and know that they love the Lord and His Word. So with what I write I am not attacking anyone. I only endeavor to summarize the scriptural teaching on this matter.

Primary passages in two books -- Acts and 1 Corinthians -- describe the gift of tongues. One resulted in thousands being saved, the other in confusion and problems in the church. In Acts 2 the apostles and about 120 other disciples were gathered in a room near the temple when the Holy Spirit filled these believers and they began to praise God in other languages. People had gathered from 15 different provinces, yet each person heard the words of praise to God spoken in his or her own dialect.

In Acts 10, Cornelius -- the first Gentile convert -- had a similar experience but without all of the supernatural manifestations. Several years later in the city of Ephesus the Apostle Paul met 12 believers in Christ who had been led to the Lord by a follower of John the Baptist. They had an incomplete understanding of the Gospel, so Paul instructed them, baptized them and placed his hands upon them. The Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with languages and prophesied (19:6).

Each of these instances involved individuals speaking in a known language they had not learned. Their speaking was understood by those who heard them. No evidence is found that anyone sought or prayed for the gift of speaking in other languages. Every occurrence was the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit. The fact that this phenomenon was not mentioned in all of the other great experiences recorded in Acts shows its lack of importance as an ongoing ministry.

The emphasis in Acts is not on the gift of tongues, but the filling of the Holy Spirit in believers. That filling revealed the continuous control that the Holy Spirit exercised over the disciples so they could witness in power (1:8).

In the 22 books of the New Testament that follow Acts, only 1 Corinthians mentions tongues. These 22 books contain 143 chapters, yet only three chapters make any reference to this gift, and only one chapter treats the subject in detail. Whatever we may deduct from this, it certainly means that speaking in tongues was not a major factor in the spread of the Gospel or in the practice of the apostolic church.

Additionally, when Paul listed the spiritual gifts in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, he did not mention speaking in tongues. Believing that the Holy Spirit has inspired every word of the Bible as He spoke through the writers, we must conclude that the gift of tongues was either not a matter of importance, or that it was not practiced by the Christians in Rome, Ephesus and elsewhere.

In the three chapters in 1 Corinthians several things emerge regarding gifts that need to be noted. No one is left out. Everyone is given a spiritual gift or gifts. They are not rewards for spiritual maturity and achievement. It is not the normative experience for all believers. Chapter 12 clearly teaches that the gifts are divinely distributed and work for the good of the entire body of believers. They are designed to prepare a people to function as a witnessing community.

Another thing is abundantly clear in this passage. The abuse of tongues was a problem in the church in Corinth. Care was given to regulate and restrict the use of tongues in the church and not to encourage their use. Clearly it teaches that no believer has all of the gifts and none of them are equated with the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Paul used a distinctive negative participle in all of the questions asked in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 which indicates that the answer to each one was "no." None of these gifts is bestowed upon all, nor are all bestowed upon any one individual. The great apostle concludes in verse 31 that the Corinthian believers should "desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way." The better way is love, according to chapter 13.

In chapter 14, Paul provides restrictions for the use of the gift of tongues and in-depth instruction on how to correct abuses found in the church. The key is found in the last verse of this chapter when we read, "But everything must be done decently and in order."

Paul noted something positive about the gift of tongues, but each time he did so he followed the positive with a qualifying statement. For instance, he wrote in verse four that tongues edifies only the person speaking, but follows that with the better alternative. It is best, he wrote, to do what builds the body of believers. In verse five he expressed a desire that all of the Corinthian believers should speak with other languages, but he desired even more for them to prophesy. That is, he wanted them to expound the Word of God in a language that was understandable. Paul saw this act of proclaiming the Gospel as being far superior to speaking in other languages. Though he spoke in languages more than those in Corinth, he wrote that he would rather speak five words with understanding than 10,000 in another language (14:18-19).

Careful restrictions were given on the exercise of the gift of tongues in these chapters. Here are just a few. The gift of tongues should not be exercised in the presence of unbelievers (14:23). Only one person at a time is to speak and not more than three in one service and an interpreter must always be present (14:27). This must not cause confusion among believers (14:33). Women are not to speak in tongues at any time in the church (14:34-35). This was probably because it would be too similar to the temple prostitutes' ecstatic frenzies as they practiced their pagan, immoral rituals. In no way does this mean that women cannot teach or speak in church. That issue was settled in 1 Corinthians 11:3-10 when Paul gave instructions to the women as to how they were to dress when they prayed or prophesied in the church.

One thing is clear: pre-occupation with tongues-speaking is childish (14:20). It was a problem with the immature and carnal Christians in Corinth. These chapters were not given to recruit people to speak in tongues, but to correct, control and restrict the use of the gift.

All spiritual gifts are divinely bestowed by our sovereign God. He can give the gifts as He pleases and to whom He pleases. No one can "develop" a gift or be "taught" how to exercise a gift. This gift must not be a test of fellowship, but it must be restricted and regulated by Scripture under the authority of the ministers of the church. It should not be a reason for disfellowship unless the one practicing the gift uses it in a way that promotes confusion and disharmony. 

We must remember that nowhere in Scripture is anyone commanded to speak in tongues. Gifts are sovereignly bestowed individually by God. The church must be a ministering church expressing love as the greatest gift, "the even better way."
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Jimmy Draper is the former president of LifeWay Christian Resources.



