
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-04/18/2006

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Blind missionary shares her ‘vision’ with a lost world
by Shawn Hendricks
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

LA MARQUE, Texas (BP)--Kendra Lindsey is legally blind and unable to drive or leave her house alone. Yet her vision for overseas missions is crystal clear.

This spring, Lindsey and her husband, Rod, and their four children will move away from their home in La Marque, Texas, to Western Europe. There, they will help start churches as Southern Baptist missionaries. If being a missionary seems intimidating to most people, consider filling that role without the ability to see.

But 38-year-old Lindsey isn’t looking for sympathy.

“If He wants to move you, God will use us no matter who we are and where we are in life, so long as we are open and faithful in seeking what He wants for us,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey was born with a birth defect that left her blind in her right eye. She also has a condition that has gradually deteriorated the vision in her left eye, leaving her with no peripheral vision. A contact gives her minimal vision in that eye, allowing her to read e-mail with a program that enlarges print.

Though Lindsey is legally blind, her warm personality and good eye contact hide her impairment. She’s the typical healthy-looking and vibrant mother of four. Her husband has led music and education at First Baptist Church of La Marque for the past 10 years.

As their move to the mission field draws closer, Kendra Lindsey looks forward to the challenges ahead.

In Western Europe, mosques are being erected, while churches and unused cathedrals are being torn down or rented. Most people who live there still need to hear and accept the Gospel. Despite the tourism and ornate buildings, it’s a spiritually dark place, Lindsey said.

While growing up, Lindsey struggled with her own dark days of resentment and frustration toward her visual impairment. In recent years, however, she has accepted her limitations as a gift -– and uses them to share her faith.

“God has used the fact that people come and pick me up and take me places as times to have one-on-one personal conversations,” she said. “Sometimes that has been a ministry to people.

“I think &#91;being blind&#93; really made me more determined. It made me more determined to be the best that I could be in whatever God was wanting me to do.”

There are still many unanswered questions Lindsey will have to entrust to God when she moves with her family to the mission field. She will depend heavily on public transportation and hunt for language courses that cater to the visually impaired.

“I may not know or understand all of those logistics of how language study will happen or how my ministry will specifically be,” she said. “But I know that God uses me here ... and He will use me wherever He’s called me.”

Lindsey didn’t always feel that way. After starting a family and participating in occasional volunteer mission trips, she said life seemed to be “falling into place.”

“We were working for God, we were finally having children,” she said. “&#91;Becoming a missionary&#93; didn’t make sense to me.”

But during a mission trip to Western Europe, Lindsey’s perspective toward fulltime missions changed. She and Rod were passing out Bibles on Sept. 11, 2001. That morning a couple asked them if they had heard that the United States was “under attack.” In the following days, the Lindseys worked alongside missionaries as they coped with the crisis.

“It really let us have some insight into what some of the dearest missionary families were going through,” she remembered. “&#91;We witnessed&#93; some of the things they sometimes faced, some resistance on the field. At that point, I knew God wanted me to work on the mission field.”

Lindsey admits there were still doubts that the International Mission Board would appoint her as a missionary. 

“I kind of still hung on to the ‘Well, I’m visually impaired, they won’t send me,’” she said. “I thought I was going to be a hindrance.”

The couple’s passion for missions, however, overshadowed any doubts IMB candidate consultant Ken Eells might have had about her abilities.

“You could really tell they were called to missions,” said Eells, a consultant for 10 years.

“They never, never, never looked back,” he said. “I think if they would have wavered in their call, I would have hesitated. But I think they would have gone even if we didn’t send them. They were that passionate about their call.”

Eells encourages those with disabilities to consider contacting the IMB before dismissing the idea of serving as missionaries on the mission field. Before the Lindseys, the IMB has sent deaf missionaries and others with physical challenges.

“We can’t sit here and make a blanket statement that we will send &#91;everyone with physical disabilities&#93;,” he said. “We deal with each person individually, case by case. The only way we are going to know is if they contact us.”

Lindsey said she hopes her blindness and heart for missions will challenge others with physical disabilities to follow God’s call.

“My attitude is that this is who I am now,” she said. “And He is going to use me because I’m who I am.”
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Special needs ministries reach those 'dear to the heart of God'
by Andrea Higgins
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

VIENNA, Va. (BP)--In 1998, the church Janet Long attended had no place for her only son Gordon, who has autism.

“We were about ready to quit church before we came here,” said Long, who has attended the McLean Bible Church since then.

Gordon, now 14, was completely non-verbal when he began attending the Access Ministry for special needs at the church, located in the Washington-area suburb of Vienna, Va. Today, Gordon has some language, plays hockey in a special league and participates actively in the Beautiful Blessings Sunday School class.

“We were told he couldn’t do any of those things,” Long said. “He’s happy. He loves coming to church. His grandparents got to see him up on a stage for the first time when he was 8. He wasn’t singing, but he was there with the other kids.”

Long attends a support group offered by the Access Ministry, which is especially poignant because she lost her husband to thyroid cancer three years ago and might not have had a church family without the special needs ministry.

Access Ministry director Jackie Mills-Fernald, underscoring the need to embrace the disability community with open arms, said, “We are the hands and feet of Christ.

“Jesus spent His time here on earth with the disenfranchised, lame, sick, blind, deaf and mentally ill, an outreach ministry very near and dear to the heart of God,” Mills-Fernald said at McLean Bible Church’s seventh annual Accessibility Summit.

By extension, she said, the church should use Jesus’ example for how it operates -- where the doors are flung open and everyone is assured that with God all obstacles can be overcome, she said.

The yearly Accessibility Summit aims to provide inspiration, information and training workshops on disability issues such as homeschooling, financial planning, the latest rehabilitation equipment, special needs of non-disabled siblings and advice on how to start a disability ministry.

Conference speaker Jim Pierson, president of CCFH Ministries (The Christian Church Foundation for the Handicapped) based in Knoxville, Tenn., said 40 years ago churches didn’t do much outreach to people with special needs and parents were advised to institutionalize their children who were born with a disability.

“Many families listened to that advice, but then they missed the joy of seeing a person embrace faith –- &#91;and do so&#93; in a way that makes ours look bad,” Pierson said.

“It’s hard to find sometimes, but lots of wonderful things are going on,” he said of the growth of disability ministries over the years. People are able to go to church, no matter how severe their family member’s disability, he said.

“Jesus touched the eyes of people who couldn’t see, the ears of people who couldn’t hear. He made mentally ill people well. We want to duplicate that in our ministries,” Pierson said.

“We want people who walk though the front door of the church to feel welcomed,” he continued, offering a key word of counsel: “Be sure your philosophy is clear. The reason for any program in the church is to teach people about the love of Jesus. Period.”

He added: “There’s no footnote in John 3:16.”

While special needs ministries usually are started by people who have been touched by a disability, Mills-Fernald said they usually do not get off the ground unless senior church leadership is on board.

Such was the case at McLean Bible Church, where senior pastor Lon Solomon has a daughter with a severe seizure disorder.

Access Ministry was started 10 years ago when the church had three families with children with identified special needs.

At the time, one teenage girl had been staying in a large coat closet playing with puzzles while her mother attended worship. Volunteers would help with the others who came to the church.

Back then, the church had about 1,500 members; today, the sprawling campus in northern Virginia serves 13,000. Nearly 700 church families have a member with a disability. Mills-Fernald said 300 of the families are touched by the Access Ministry on a regular basis, while others might take advantage of the respite care or other services only occasionally. When Access began, it had a budget of $2,000. Today, it is $56,000, not including 11 full- and part-time staff salaries.

The Accessibility Summit, an outgrowth of the Access Ministry, began seven years ago with 30 people in attendance. This year, more than 700 caregivers, family, community and church members representing any number of denominations from 27 states at the March 24-25 conference.

According to statistics compiled from various sources for the summit, 54 million people in the United States have a physical, intellectual, emotional or sensory disability. It is a segment of the population that is predominantly unreached for Christ.

Financial and emotional pressures often are intensified by the birth of a child with special needs. Many families face insufficient insurance coverage -- or no coverage at all -- for a child with special healthcare needs, while parents often cut back or stop working to care for their child.

Mills-Fernald said some estimates are that four out of five marriages with a child with a disability end in divorce. Others put that number at 65-72 percent but, either way, it’s a higher than average divorce rate. That’s one reason couples should be able to worship together, she said, rather than “tag-team” or not attend services because there is no nurturing place for their child with special healthcare needs. Unchurched or not, only a small minority of the population with a disability claims to be Christian, Mills-Fernald said.

Accessibility Summit leaders said ministry to such families is an untapped mission field that can transform churches as well as lives. Placing an emphasis on eliminating physical, emotional and educational barriers is vital for the health of the church -– especially since the disability community is growing at three times the rate of the “typical” population. Autism, for instance, once appeared at a rate of two in 10,000, Pierson said; today that ratio is one in 166 births.

“We need to give voices and choices to people with disabilities,” Mills-Fernald said. “That means worship and service.” She attributes the phenomenal growth among special needs families at McLean Bible Church in large measure to the attitude and atmosphere that has fostered the involvement of more people through Access Ministry.

“Parents hear five days a week what their child cannot do,” she said. When they come to church, she counseled potential ministry leaders and volunteers to at least start out with what the child did well.

The church should not limit itself to a children’s ministry, she said, because people need opportunities for spiritual growth and meaningful service throughout their lives.

In fact, a plan to create a special needs ministry might not work without first inviting adults with disabilities to serve in the church, she said. They can serve as greeters, for example, but it’s not just a matter of people in wheelchairs passing out bulletins, Mills-Fernald said, emphasizing, “There are no mistakes from God.”
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‘I’d take Johnny every time,’ coach says of Down son
by Andrea Higgins
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

VIENNA, Va. (BP)--“Sometimes something we think is bad ain’t all that bad,” drawled football coaching legend Gene Stallings of University of Alabama fame in talking about his son John Mark being born with Down syndrome.

“Forty three years ago when Johnny was born, they told us to put him in an institution. ‘After a year,’ they said, ‘you’ll forget you had him,’” Stallings told attendees at the seventh annual Accessibility Summit at McLean Bible Church.

His wife Ruth Ann, however, was committed to raising all their children at home.

Stallings affirmed his wife’s resolve, noting that he has been enriched beyond anything else in his life by his son.

“I prayed to God that He would change Johnny, but He changed me,” Stallings said simply.

When he was asked to write a book about parenting a child with Down syndrome, he first objected.

“You see, I didn’t want to remember those early days,” Stallings said. But he did write “Another Season,” published in 1997, with the subtitle of “A Coach’s Story of Raising an Exceptional Son.”

“It sort of takes a while,” Stalling said of his growth as Johnny’s dad. “We live in an environment where we want it now. You see, it takes a while.”

Doctors told them Johnny wouldn’t make it to age 4, and when he did, they said he wouldn’t live past 11 because of heart and lung issues common to people with Down syndrome.

“He’s 43! My girls judged the men they married by how sensitive they were to Johnny.”

All the bleak predictions proved wrong, and Stallings noted that achievements like being on the coaching staff for the Dallas Cowboys’ 1978 Super Bowl win or, in 1992, as head football coach at the University of Alabama producing the first perfect regular season since 1979 don’t compare to what Johnny brought to his life.

Stallings has become an outspoken advocate for special needs, as a motivational speaker and in working on initiatives such as serving on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities and coordinating RISE, a multi-state, community-based program which prepares developmentally disabled infants, toddlers and preschoolers for the public school environment by integrating them with non-disabled peers.

Stallings said he couldn’t have been prouder than when his son was honored by the University of Alabama, which named their football equipment room after him.

“If I could have one wish for my child, it would be that he could spend eternity in the presence of God. You’re raising a child that’s gonna be in the presence of God forever,” he told participants at the Accessibility Summit.

He said if God offered him the choice of going back and having a “perfect” son without a disability or having Johnny, “I’d take Johnny every time.”

Throughout Johnny’s life, Stallings said the little acts of kindness from friends and strangers stand out in his mind in terms of making life a little bit better for his son.

“What a joy to be in the presence of people that aren’t just talking about it, but doing something about it,” Stallings said.

Christopher Simning, who also addressed the March 24-25 gathering at the Washington-area McLean Bible Church, had a few football stories of his own. He used to play football when he was a kid, despite the fine motor cerebral palsy that caused his hands to shake. He loved football and was good at it. Then, one morning in the eighth grade, he woke up with a muscular disorder that caused an eventual twisting of the body, affecting the nervous system and muscles, landing him in a wheelchair.

Upon first reading John 5, when Jesus asked the invalid if he wanted to get well, Simning humorously recalled, he was perplexed about the necessity of that question.

“Jesus, did You really ask that question? Isn’t that obvious?” he recounted with mock incredulity, drawing laughter from the crowd.

As he pondered Jesus asking such a question, he realized it wasn’t about the desire to be well. It was about the mat, he said, explaining, “I wonder if we are sitting on our mats. Our mats can be anything that hinders our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

“How many times do I make excuses and still sit on my mat?”

As a sophomore in college, he took a swimming class to earn his required physical education credits, and it wound up being what enabled him to walk again, though still with great effort.

“I didn’t think I would ever see the day -– I’m driving a car. Scary. Stay off the road,” he joked. “And I’m a full-time motivational speaker,” joking again that the audience could be honest that he’s not exactly what they envision when they think of that.

“Do you ever want to just scream because of the way that life goes? This is not the life I signed up for. But this is the life the Lord has for me,” Simning said.

“Jesus wants to move us. He doesn’t want us to be bitter people because of life’s woes and worries. He wants us to be better.”
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Carlisle Driggers to retire from S.C. leadership post
by Don Kirkland
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

WINNSBORO, S.C. (BP)--B. Carlisle Driggers, saying “the time has come for me to announce my retirement,” will step aside as executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention on Feb. 28, 2007, after 15 years at the helm of the nation’s oldest state Baptist convention.

His will be the second-longest tenure for an executive director in South Carolina. Charles Jones held the position for 17 years, from 1925-42.

Driggers, 68, who said at the time of his election in 1991 that he wanted to be remembered as one who “tried to help the churches grow,” made the announcement during the April 17 spring meeting of the executive board at the convention’s White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro.

Calling it “the best of times for me to step aside,” Driggers said in a prepared statement that the South Carolina convention is in a “positive and healthy condition.” He called attention to “a kingdom growth focus” across most of the state, with “strong finances, state staff members who love to serve, a committed Executive Board, worthy institutions, lots of growing churches, missions-driven associations, and strong relationships in place with the various entities of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Saying that “these are uncertain, complicated, even perilous times we are experiencing and facing,” Driggers said South Carolina Baptists must pray and “search the mind of Christ” in seeking the convention’s next leader. “We have no alternative,” he declared, “but to stay together, focused on the Lord’s kingdom work to be accomplished rather than being distracted by our own small kingdoms to pursue.”

The search for a new executive director-treasurer will begin immediately with the appointment of a committee selected from the executive board by the chairman, Mike Hamlet, pastor of First Baptist Church in North Spartanburg. In a likely timetable, the search committee would bring its nomination for the position to the executive board at its Oct. 9-10 meeting and, if approved, move it forward for a vote by messengers to the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention Nov. 14-15 at First Baptist Church in Taylors.

In October 1991, Driggers was the unanimous choice of the former general board to succeed Ray Rust, who retired on Feb. 29, 1992, as executive director-treasurer. Don Davis, then pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Cayce, chaired the search committee which, he said, was impressed with the Driggers’ “great vision for South Carolina Baptists.”

That vision led to Empowering Kingdom Growth, a strategy for enhancing church growth that Driggers said would be his focus. The convention’s 10-year EKG emphasis became the centerpiece of the Driggers administration, which was renewed for an extended five-year run in 2002 and gained national prominence when adopted as a strategy by the Southern Baptist Convention. Driggers chaired the SBC’s Empowering Kingdom Growth Task Force from 2002-05.

In the Nov. 7, 1991, edition of The Baptist Courier, Driggers explained, “Kingdom growth goes far beyond numbers. Kingdom growth also is measured by such indicators as spiritual enrichment through Bible study, prayer and worship, missions involvement, and stewardship development.”

The accent, he made it clear, would be placed on the work of the local church. “If the church is weak,” he said, “how can we carry out the Great Commission of Christ? If we are going to be effective, we must put the focus on the local church.”

Driggers wrote about the impact of Empowering Kingdom Growth on the churches of the South Carolina convention in a book published in 2000 titled “A Journey of Faith and Hope.”

Driggers, a native of Hartsville, S.C., served as executive assistant to Rust from 1990-92 after returning to the state from Conyers, Ga., where he was minister of outreach and pastoral care at Northminster Baptist Church for two years. Previously, he had worked at the former Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) for 13 years, first as associate director of the black church relations department from 1975-78 and as regional coordinator for planning and budgeting for the eastern seaboard states from 1978-88.

Driggers is a graduate of Mars Hill and Carson-Newman colleges as well as Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and Pittsburgh Seminary, where he earned his doctorate. He holds honorary doctorates from North Greenville and Charleston Southern universities.

Driggers and his wife Jeanette, who are members of Lexington Baptist Church, have two married children, Jana and Dave, and five grandchildren.
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Don Kirkland is editor of The Baptist Courier, newsjournal of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, on the Web at www.baptistcourier.com.


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Pastors’ Conference to include breakout sessions
by Michael Foust
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP)--Attendees to this year's SBC Pastors' Conference in Greensboro, N.C., will experience something different -- breakout sessions.

For the first time, a series of breakout sessions will be a major part of the Pastors' Conference, which traditionally has been a forum solely for preaching and music. The sessions -- covering more than 10 topics -- will take place Monday, June 12, at the Sheraton (the convention hotel), from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST. There will be no preaching on Monday morning. The Pastors’ Conference itself begins Sunday, June 11, at 5:45 p.m. in the Greensboro Coliseum.

"A breakout session allows a pastor or a church leader to be fed in very specific topics that may not be addressed in a worship-preaching-type session," said Bryant Wright, Pastors' Conference president and senior pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga.

There will be three blocks of breakout sessions, and each session plays off the Pastors' Conference theme: "Reaching Today's World for Jesus Christ." One of the most popular sessions figures to be the session titled "Reaching Today's World Through Differing Views of Election" -- a dialogue on the doctrine of election between Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson.

Other breakout session topics include The Da Vinci Code, church discipline, apologetics, small town evangelism and global outreach. In addition to Mohler and Patterson, scheduled speakers include Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources; William Lane Craig, author and professor, Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, Calif; R. Philip Roberts, president, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Mo.; and Ben Witherington, professor, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Ky.

"&#91;I&#93;n recent years the Monday morning sessions of the Pastors' Conference have been the poorest attended," Wright said. "I feel like by offering something that is different and hopefully fresh and relevant to what the pastors are dealing with, it will be very attractive."

The complete Pastors' Conference breakout session schedule follows: 

Monday, June 12, 2006

9 a.m. -– 12:30 p.m.

Breakout Sessions at the Sheraton Greensboro (the convention hotel).

BLOCK 1 (9 a.m. -– 10 a.m.)

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Differing Views of Election": R. Albert Mohler Jr., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Paige Patterson, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Location: Guilford Ballroom A-C.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Men's Ministries": Robert Lewis, Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock, Ark. Location: Victoria A.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Women's Ministries": Marsha Crowe, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga. Location: Victoria B-C.

-- "Reaching Today's World In and Around Small Towns": Darrell Henry, Oakwood Baptist Church, Chickamauga, Ga. Location: Blue Ashe.

-- "Reaching Today's World By Confronting The DaVinci Code": Ben Witherington, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Ky. Location: Guilford Ballroom D.

"Reaching Today's World Through Leadership Development": Steve Stroope, Lake Pointe Church, Rockwall, Texas. Location: Guilford Ballroom G.

BLOCK 2 (10:15 a.m. -- 11:15 a.m.)

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Differing Views of Election": R. Albert Mohler Jr., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Paige Patterson, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Location: Guilford Ballroom A-C.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Multi-Campus Churches": Ronnie Floyd, First Baptist Church, Springdale, Ark. Location: Guilford Ballroom D.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Global Outreach": Steve Stroope, Lake Pointe Church, Rockwall, Texas; Paul Jimenez, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga. Location: Guilford Ballroom G.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Breakout Churches": Thom S. Rainer, LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville, Tenn. Location: Guilford Ballroom E.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Church Discipline -- Are You Kidding?": Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.; Art Wilder, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga. Location: Guilford Ballroom F.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Men's Ministries": Robert Lewis, Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock, Ark. Location: Victoria A.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Women's Ministries:" Marsha Crowe, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga. Location: Victoria B-C.

-- Reaching Today's World Through Apologetics: R. Philip Roberts, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Mo.; William Lane Craig, Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, Calif. Location: Blue Ashe.

BLOCK 3 (11:30 a.m. –- 12:30 p.m.)

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Multi-Campus Churches": Ronnie Floyd, First Baptist Church, Springdale, Ark. Location: Guilford Ballroom D.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Global Outreach": Steve Stroope, Lake Pointe Church, Rockwall, Texas; Paul Jimenez, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga. Location: Guilford Ballroom G.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Breakout Churches": Thom S. Rainer, LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville, Tenn. Location: Guilford Ballroom E.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Church Discipline -- Are You Kidding?": Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.; Art Wilder, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga. Location: Guilford Ballroom F.

-- "Reaching Today's World In and Around Small Towns": Darrell Henry, Oakwood Baptist Church, Chickamauga, Ga. Location: Victoria B-C.

-- "Reaching Today's World Through Apologetics": R. Philip Roberts, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Mo.; William Lane Craig, Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, Calif. Location: Blue Ashe.

-- "Reaching Today's World By Confronting The DaVinci Code": Ben Witherington, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Ky. Location: Victoria A.
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Patterson academic building gets SEBTS trustees’ go-ahead
by Jerry Higgins
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--A three-story, 36,050-square-foot academic building is on the horizon at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The new building will be named the Paige and Dorothy Patterson Hall for the former SEBTS president and first lady.

The seminary’s trustees approved the concept and construction of the building during their April 10-11 spring meeting at the Wake Forest, N.C., campus.

The new building will house the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture, the Ph.D., D.Min. and Ed.D. offices, six large classrooms and 19 faculty offices.

There will be no debt on the building because the $5.9 million construction cost is either in hand or pledged toward the much-needed facility, Southeastern’s vice president of administration, Ryan Hutchinson, told trustees.

Trustees also unanimously voted to inaugurate the Bush Center, which will “engage the culture and defend the faith,” according to the center’s mission statement.

A dinner was held April 10 during which Bush and his wife Cindy were honored for their service to Southeastern and Southern Baptists. Bush, who has served as dean of the faculty and senior professor of philosophy and religion, will begin his new role as center director June 1.

Trustees also elected Bush to the positions of academic vice president emeritus/dean of the faculty emeritus and distinguished professor of philosophy of religion, and they passed a resolution voicing “gratitude to God for the life and service” of Bush, of whom SEBTS President Daniel Akin said, “The Southern Baptist Convention has no finer philosopher and apologist for the faith.”

Akin described the trustee meeting as historic, noting, “The construction of Patterson Hall enables us to handle a student body we believe will grow to 3,500. The Bush Center for Faith and Culture will equip a new generation of soldiers for Christ to defend the faith and engage the culture, to explain to anyone who asks both what we believe and why we believe.”

Trustees approved a revision of the graduate and undergraduate programs. Across-the-board changes were made to strengthen the seminary’s core requirements in such critical areas as biblical interpretation and theology.

Akin presented a new organizational setup to the trustees, who unanimously ratified the new structure along with accompanying changes to the seminary bylaws. The academic vice president/dean of the faculty position was renamed to senior vice president for academic administration/dean of the faculty. David Nelson, the senior associate dean/associate professor of theology, was named for this position and will oversee all academic departments.

Hutchinson was named senior vice president for business administration to oversee business/facilities matters. Dennis Darville was named to a new position of vice president for communications and student recruitment, while Kenneth Keathley was elected as professor of theology and named the new senior associate dean.

Akin said these changes were necessary as Southeastern continues to grow. Southeastern is approaching 2,600 students, a record number, and changes in administrative structure were needed to meet the demands of a larger institution, Akin said.

The trustees also approved:

-- new accounts to start the M.O. Owens Chair of New Testament, John Dagg Chair of Theology, John Graham Student Aid Fund and Christopher Scott Harmon Student Aid Fund.

-- promotions of John Boozer from associate professor of church music to professor of church music; Robert Cole from assistant professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages to associate professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages; David Hogg from assistant professor of church history and medieval studies to associate assistant professor of church history and medieval studies; Bruce Little from associate professor of Christian philosophy to professor of Christian philosophy; and Nelson from associate professor of theology to professor of theology.

-- approved an operating budget of $20,064,804 for the coming year, an increase of 4.12 percent over the 2005-06 budget.

-- elected J. Stacy Davidson of Jackson, Miss. to fill a vacant seat on the board of trustees.

-- re-elected Mark Harris of Charlotte, N.C., as trustee chairman, Ron Cherry of Dallas as vice chairman, Steve Felker of Colonial Heights, Va., as secretary and Jim Goldston of Raleigh, N.C., as treasurer.

-- recognized Timothy Lewis of Troy, Ill., and Jim Jacumin of Connelly Springs, N.C., as they leave the board after 10 years of service. Lewis, a former trustee chairman, headed the presidential search committee that brought Akin to Southeastern. Jacumin also served on that committee and has been a major friend to the school as the Jacumin-Simpson Missions Building is named for him.
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Strengthened degree requirements approved by SEBTS trustees
by Jerry Higgins
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s trustees approved a revision of the seminary’s graduate and undergraduate programs during their April 10-11 spring meeting on the Wake Forest, N.C., campus.

The revision was the culmination of a curricular review by Southeastern’s faculty that began last spring. During this process, the faculty considered how it can better accomplish the seminary’s mission “to equip, train, and mobilize God-called men and women to impact the world for Christ.”

“A seminary needs to reform itself continually in light of Scripture in culture,” said Southeastern President Daniel Akin. “We reform our programs of study according to the Word of God, and we tailor them to address the issues our students will confront as they assume ministry assignments across our nation and around the world. We believe our new curriculum will equip them to do this better.”

Across-the-board changes were made that strengthened the seminary’s core requirements in such critical areas as biblical interpretation and theology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

The faculty drafted five “Core Competencies” for the seminary and college programs: Spiritual Formation, Biblical Exposition, Theological Integration, Christian Leadership and Ministry Preparation. The curriculum changes are designed to develop these competencies to produce Southeastern graduates with well-trained minds and fervent hearts.

Every master of divinity student will now benefit from required courses in hermeneutics, Hebrew, Greek, preaching/communications, Introduction to the Cooperative Program, and an expanded Christian theology sequence. The curriculum also includes newly designed coursework focusing on spiritual formation and Christian leadership, which Southeastern hopes will be attractive to college graduates, especially those who graduate from its undergraduate school, Southeastern College at Wake Forest.

The review produced a new master of arts concentration in women’s studies and a new master of church music emphasis in worship leadership. New M.Div. tracks include expository preaching, ethics and Christian ministry. In a new M.Div. with advanced standing for students with an undergraduate degree in biblical or religious studies, students who qualify can complete their M.Div. with a minimum of 75 hours of coursework.

The revised undergraduate program at Southeastern College at Wake Forest features an enhanced biblical studies component. Every bachelor of arts student also will take a required course in hermeneutics, expanded courses in Old Testament and New Testament and an expanded Christian doctrine sequence. Each B.A. student at Southeastern College at Wake Forest earns a major in biblical studies and then takes a second major. Second majors include Christian worldview, humanities, English, history, music and Christian teacher education.

The B.A. degrees include enhanced coursework in the History of Ideas program, where students learn by reading the “Great Books” of Western history in the context of a Christian worldview in small classes. 

Jerry Vines, retired pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., who preached at Southeastern on April 11, said this type of curriculum would have helped him earlier in his career.

“Several years ago, &#91;former Southeastern Seminary President&#93; Dr. Paige Patterson pointed me to the 60-volume ‘Great Books of the Western World.’ Desirous to continue study and to broaden my education, I undertook the 10-year reading plan. I would recommend every preacher purchase these volumes and follow this plan,” Vines said of the series published by the Encyclopedia Britannica Corp.

“I went again to the writings of the great philosophers, world-renown mathematicians and great novelists. Every preacher should continue to be a student. Even now in my season of retirement from the active pastorate, I intend to pursue a vigorous program of study.”

In explaining the significance of the History of Ideas component, Southeastern College at Wake Forest dean Peter Schemm said, “Understanding the history of ideas -— great ideas and not so great ideas -— through the ‘Great Books’ of Western thought is how students become culturally literate. And if our college students are going to reach people of other cultures, as well as our culture, they must be culturally literate.”

The curricular review produced more than just a revised curriculum, said David Nelson, who will become Southeastern’s senior vice president for academic administration on June 1. Nelson cited a renewed focus on the integration of faith and learning and the idea of “faithful learning” in a uniquely Christian environment with professors committed to the Great Commission and Christian scholarship.

Early in the process, Nelson said, the curriculum review committees and the faculty recognized that this review wasn’t just about revising a curriculum.

“We have a maxim that we’ve repeated often during the process: ‘Curricular reform without faculty reform is meaningless,’” Nelson said. “Southeastern already has an excellent faculty. But we want to improve every aspect of training at Southeastern, and this faculty is committed to do so.” 
--30--


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FIRST-PERSON: A big church bounces back
by Russell D. Moore
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--First Baptist Church of Gulfport, Miss., is still the first thing I think of when I hear the words “big church.” First Baptist Church was no mega-church, certainly not compared to the massive multiplexes of today’s evangelical world. But compared to my small rural congregation, nearby Woolmarket Baptist Church, it was massive. And now it’s gone, kind of. 

With the building blown away by Hurricane Katrina last August, the congregation recently voted to move, to start over, just north of downtown. 

The reason First Baptist Church so impressed me as a child was because my grandfather belonged there. Occasionally my mother and brothers and I would meet him there on a Sunday. We always knew where we’d find him. He’d be in the foyer preparing for his job of taking up the offering during the offertory. I would sit in awe of this huge church. At the time, the ceiling seemed so high, the stained glass bathing everything in blue, I was sure this must be what the Vatican was like, except Baptist like us. “Mom,” I would whisper. “This is a big church.” 

When I was in college, I spent most of my time as a campaign press spokesman and congressional assistant for our United States Congressman Gene Taylor, whose campaign and district offices were located in Gulfport, just down the street from First Baptist. I’d walk down to the church sometimes (it was almost always open) and pray, struggling with a call to ministry. I didn’t know that this call to ministry would lead me one day to stand in front of a casket containing my grandfather, as I preached his funeral there in that big church.

The horror of Hurricane Katrina hit me again when I pulled out of my mailbox the Christian Century magazine, with on its cover a picture of the hole that Katrina left behind at First Gulfport. When I went home for the first time since the storm, I was sickened to see that once stately red brick building that overlooked the Gulfport Harbor looking like a Mississippi version of Ground Zero. The strewn brick and rotting pews lay there in the coastal sun like an exposed corpse. 

I looked at the rubble and thought about how this big church is not just part of my story, but every Southern Baptist’s story. Some titanic figures were associated with that church, including the Southern Baptist statesmen Joe T. Odle and Landrum Leavell a generation ago. I can’t even imagine how many mission churches First Gulfport has planted over its history, or how much money it sent to the Cooperative Program for the training of ministers all over our Convention, for the sending of a missionary force all over the world. 

I guess that’s why, even as I’m sad for First Gulfport, I was happy to see the news that they’re planning to rebuild. True, there’s not enough usable land downtown for them to reconstruct there, but they’re sending a signal to the Coast -- inviting all of them recently to one last service amidst the wreckage as they pledge to get up, rebuild, and move on. 

When a church decides to move, usually it is the result of years of planning and praying, of looking at growth demographics and surveying members. There’s usually a transition strategy and a committee to sell the old building and to buy the new land. Occasionally -- very occasionally -- a church, however, doesn’t have time for things like that. Sometimes a church is just blown away.

First Gulfport will recover. It will be a fixture on the skyline of coastal Mississippi again. People will get saved there, baptized there, called to ministry there, married there, and buried there. But there will be a difference. 

Part of what it means to be Baptist is a recovery of baptism. We are an immersed people, who know that our baptism proclaims that, in Christ, we are drowned beneath the wrath of God, buried with Christ, and raised with him. First Gulfport has seen not just the baptism of its members, but, in a sense, the “baptism” of the church, beneath the waters of a violent sea. They’ll probably never hear the parable of the house built on the rock the same way again. And they probably will find something all the more precious about Jesus’ promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church. 

No one will see that spire across from the harbor anymore. And First Baptist Gulfport doesn’t look all that big, or all that established, anymore. But, maybe, if they’re paying attention, the people of the Coast will see something of what it means to see the church as God does: a flock of sheep scattered, and gathered again by a mighty warrior Shepherd. Maybe in its weakness, First Gulfport can demonstrate something more powerfully than it could in its stability, a vision of a militant assembly of the crucified One, “awesome as an army with banners” (Song of Solomon 6:10). 

I couldn’t go to the last service at the old First Baptist Gulfport, and it’s kind of sad. I can only watch from here up north as a congregation says to a community of their lost neighbors: the church is more than a pile of bricks, and the mission of Christ is mightier than a Category 5 hurricane.  

And, all I can think is, “What a big church.” 
--30--
Moore is dean of the school of theology and senior vice president for academic administration at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.


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FIRST-PERSON: Making evangelism good news again
by John Forrester
Date: April 18, 2006 - Tuesday

KOTZEBUE, Alaska (BP)--My name is John Forrester, and I am a North American Mission Board church starter strategist serving in the Arctic of Alaska. The following is a true story that happened in my ministry.  

Near the end of the summer of 2005, a young Eskimo man named Glenn came to my church. He told me that he had been living in the lower 48 and had given his life to Christ down south at a Baptist church but that he had to return home to Alaska to be baptized. He asked me if I would baptize him; he believed that to be obedient to the Lord, he needed to follow through with baptism. I agreed with him but told him our baptistery was rotten and the church did not have the funds to purchase a new one yet, and that would need to wait. (None of the other churches in town had a working baptistery).   

Glenn responded by saying we could use the ocean, which is located just across the street from the church. I reminded him that even though it was the end of August, the water in the ocean would be very cold. Remember -- this is in the Arctic.

“I am an Eskimo, I can handle it," he said.

So we set up a date a couple of days later, which by now was the first of September. We had a visiting mission team from Georgia working with us that week, and the visiting pastor asked if he could go in the water with me. I said he could.

We did the baptism on a Tuesday evening. The entire team came out of the church to watch, as did several others from the church and some unchurched people. Some 25-30 people were watching. The visiting pastor was wearing insulated waders, but I did not have any waders -- I just wore jeans and a shirt. The guest preacher had a thermometer on his boot that registered 40 degrees. The air temperature was 28 degrees and the wind was blowing very hard.  

Glenn stripped down to just some swimming shorts and no shirt. The visiting preacher prayed, and then I baptized Glenn. After I took him down under the water, he came up shaking so hard I thought he was going into shock. But he was just excited to be baptized. The visiting mission team videotaped the whole thing. When Glenn came out of the water, he got in front of the video camera and shouted, “My name is Glenn and I just got baptized for Jesus in the Arctic Ocean!”  

You know, it seems strange -- while the water was very cold and the wind made the temperature feel even colder, the joy of baptizing Glenn took the sting out of the bitter weather.
       With every salvation decision, heaven rejoices as a new member comes into the Kingdom of God, and Satan screams.
       Glenn has a burning desire to share Jesus with everyone that he can. He even feels that the Lord is calling him into the ministry.
       It is awesome how one step of obedience can lead to more.
--30-- 
Forrester is a North American Mission Board church starter strategist in Alaska.



