The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-05/09/2018 DISCLAIMER: Baptist Press should be credited for any reprinted stories that originate with BP. Suggested credit line: Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. Please note that Baptist Press periodically carries stories from other sources by permission. Individuals interested in reprinting non-BP stories should contact the entity where the story originated to seek reprint permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST-PERSON: Staying teachable by David Frasure Date: May 09, 2018 - Wednesday SOUTH LEBANON, Ohio (BP) -- We all understand the value of a good education, but even more valuable is a teachable spirit. I know that after 35 years in ministry I still need to learn and grow in the very areas in which many think I am most proficient. Even the apostle Paul spoke of his personal need to continue to grow in his understanding of Christ (Philippians 3:12-14). If Paul had to stay teachable, I certainly do as well. Here are a several things I am learning about staying teachable: The enemy of a teachable spirit is pride. Pride damages us in so many ways. It makes us think we don't need counsel from others -- especially from those younger and less experienced. It makes us think we don't need to pray about an issue or seek God concerning a decision. It creates in us an unhealthy confidence in ourselves and a lack of dependency upon God. It causes us to shut down any constructive criticism and dismiss those who seek to help us. Pride is something that God finds detestable, so when it enters our lives, it always leads to brokenness and discipline from our heavenly Father. Pride is so easy to see in others, but very difficult to see in ourselves. It is kryptonite to any kind of personal growth. A teachable spirit is enhanced through difficult circumstances. Our first response to a trial or conflict is to remove it as quickly as possible rather than see it as an opportunity to grow and learn. We often forget that God has sovereign purposes for our lives and is much more concerned with our spiritual maturity than our personal comfort. There are just some things we cannot learn from a textbook. We must experience wrestling with God to learn what it means to surrender. We must have a crisis to know how to walk by faith and not by sight. We must learn to obey God when it is uncomfortable to do so, so we can learn obedience. We must experience sorrow to really know what it means to have hope. We must struggle in spiritual warfare to know we really have victory in Jesus. This is how we become thankful in all things. We are not thankful for the trial, but for what we are learning in the trial. A teachable spirit moves us to a deliberate plan of growth. Personal growth, as with any other kind of growth, is never accidental. Just like a garden, deliberate effort is involved to achieve the desired results. One must plow the ground and plant the seed correctly. Weeds and obstacles must be removed so that healthy growth can occur. As on the farm, God does His part, but we have to do our part to see growth and fruitfulness become a reality. The potential for growth is in all of us. No matter how old or talented or educated we are, we still have a lot to learn. So, we need to read books, attend seminars, hear teaching, etc. We all need time for recreation, but we need not waste much time with trivial pursuits when there is so much to learn. Of course, a teachable spirit is most evident in our personal devotion time with the Lord. That's when we either excuse our sin or receive His correction. That's when we blame someone else for the conflict or we deal with our part of it. That's when we make a correction in our lifestyle or we decide to take the easy path of least resistance. As the Holy Spirit teaches us in those intimate moments of prayer and Bible study, our response to Him is the ultimate test of teachable spirit. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Calif. bill already impacting religious expression by Bonnie Pritchett/WORLD Date: May 09, 2018 - Wednesday LOS ANGELES Calif. (BP) -- The California state legislature's latest effort to outlaw biblical views on sex, marriage and gender identity appears to have claimed its first casualty. Citing concerns over possible legal repercussions from a pending bill, Colorado-based Summit Ministries has canceled a summer conference at Biola University in the Los Angeles area. "The vagueness of the bill has opened up threats to religious communities that the author did not intend," Biola communications director Brenda Velasco said. Assembly Bill 2943 amends the state Consumer Legal Remedies Act by outlawing "sexual orientation change efforts" under the state's consumer fraud law. It labels as fraud any financial transaction of goods or services that promote "sexual orientation change efforts." Summit Ministries' summer workshops target 16- to 25-year-olds and address cultural issues from a biblical perspective including God's design for sex and marriage. Critics of the proposed law fear such discussions in any forum where participants pay to attend, like the Summit Ministries conference, could put the host organization at risk of a lawsuit. Typically, about 200 participants attend the California conference, Jeff Myers, president of Summit Ministries, said. Only 79 had enrolled for the June event at Biola when Myers pulled the plug and reassigned participants to conferences in other states. Myers defended the preemptive move, saying he feared the bill would pass swiftly through the California Senate and on to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature in June, which is also designated Gay Pride Month. "What if I'm speaking at a camp, and I'm not telling them to change their [sexual] orientation, but I'm asking people to not act upon their attractions," Christopher Yuan, a frequent Summit speaker, said. "It might fall under this bill and be considered illegal." Yuan, an adjunct professor at Moody Bible Institute, is attracted to the same-sex but is celibate. He speaks to audiences of teens and young adults across the United States about finding their identity in Christ, not their sexual orientation. If the California bill passes, Yuan believes those conversations could put him and his hosting organization, even a church, in jeopardy of a fraud lawsuit. Velasco added, "As currently written, AB 2943 endangers the religious freedom of clergy, pastors or leaders of a number of faiths who care for [LGBT] persons in their communities." John Jackson, president of William Jessup University in Sacramento, Calif., said he finds the bill's lack of exemptions most troubling. Without legal protections, Christian universities and colleges could find their teachings under scrutiny. "We all have a psychology department," Jackson said. "We all have pastoral ministry counseling. And we think this bill, as it's currently written, attempts to say a therapist can't speak to a client that wants to change their sexual orientation. That could be very destructive for people seeking help in California." The bill passed in the House and is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "California legislators are really struggling with this idea of religious liberty in a pluralistic society," Jackson said. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Fla. Baptists celebrate 1,100 baptisms by Nicole Kalil/Florida Baptist Convention Date: May 09, 2018 - Wednesday TIERRA VERDE, Fla. (BP) -- On a day focused on celebrating life transformation, the Quinlan family decided to be baptized together as a symbol of how Jesus had been working in their lives. Their church, The Island Chapel in Tierra Verde, was just one of hundreds of Florida Baptist churches that participated in Acts 2:41 Beach Baptism emphasis on May 6. Becky Quinlan, along with husband Scott and children Emma, Anna and Brady, joined nearly 1,100 others who were baptized at beaches, lakes, springs and even fountains in a celebration of life transformation that echoed from coast to coast all around the state. Tommy Green, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, launched this baptism emphasis last year by challenging Florida Baptist churches to get outside and baptize new believers in public places, highlighting the power of the Gospel testimony. "I am grateful for the strong evangelistic heartbeat of our Florida Baptist churches," Green said as stories of baptisms were shared and celebrated on social media. Cornerstone Baptist Church in Inverness had a record number of baptisms at a lake this year. Thirty-one people were baptized, up from the 19 that were baptized last year. Pastor Greg Kell said having a baptism service at the lake creates a special moment for people and keeps the conversation about the Gospel going for weeks afterward. A father and his three children chose to visit Cornerstone on Acts 2:41 Sunday, and they all made professions of faith in Jesus and were baptized that day. In the 24 hours following the baptism at the lake, Kell noted, the church had three people confirmed for baptism on May 13. And baptisms are now scheduled for three of the next four Sundays. The baptism celebrations actually began on Saturday (May 5) when 79 people were baptized at the One Family event in South Florida. Churches of different ethnic and racial backgrounds gathered on Key Biscayne to publicly proclaim, that no matter their differences, they are united in the Gospel. See related Baptist Press story. "Events like this are a catalyst for us," Kell said, speaking of the Acts 2:41 Beach Baptism day. Kell said his church enjoys knowing that they are joining with congregations all over the state impacting people outside of the four walls of the church. Green noted, "What a powerful testimony of salvation and baptism through the Acts 2:41 emphasis. We rejoice in lives that are eternally changed through Jesus Christ. Let's keep pressing on with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!" Go to http://flbaptist.org/acts-241-beach-baptism-heres-whats-happening/ for pictures from churches around the state celebrating baptism on Acts 2:41 Beach Baptism Sunday. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Evangelicalism needs to focus on cross, Moore says by Tom Strode Date: May 09, 2018 - Wednesday PRINCETON, N.J. (BP) -- American evangelical Christianity needs to be born again to an embrace of the cross of Christ, Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore said in a lecture on the Princeton University campus. The president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) told an April 17 audience in Princeton, N.J., "Any evangelicalism that is worthy to face the future must be cross-shaped, must call all people everywhere to repent and believe in Christ, must call all people everywhere to demonstrate love of God and neighbor in our various communities and callings, but most importantly, evangelicalism must point to the cross." Moore's comments -- under the title "A Rebirth for the Reborn: American Evangelicals and American Culture at the Cross" -- came in the annual William E. and Carol G. Simon Lecture on Religion in American Public Life. The Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions co-sponsored the event. American evangelical Christianity, while also marked by a "gospel-centered resurgence," appears to find itself in a couple of categories at this time -- "triumphant ascent and plummeting catastrophe," Moore said. "On the one hand, evangelicalism seems to be triumphant, seems to be in the media quite a bit as a political phenomenon with no small amount of influence. On the other hand, survey after survey after survey shows trouble demographically with millennials and Generation Z churchgoers or ex-churchgoers." He told the audience, "Younger evangelicals are not yielding to the inevitability of secularization, nor are they leaving churches in large numbers because they want to liberalize historic doctrine or ethics. The obstacle, it seems to me, is not secularism but cynicism. Many are wondering whether evangelical Christianity is just another badge of tribal identity or another vehicle for political action, or, even worse, just another marketing scheme." Moore's call for a cross-shaped evangelicalism comes while American Christians identified with the movement continue to debate what the word "evangelical" means and whether it is a label they should continue to embrace. The 2016 presidential campaign and election played a critical role in prompting the discussion. While some associate "evangelical" with a political or cultural identity, others who profess to be evangelicals apply the word to people who are outside biblical orthodoxy or morality, Moore said. "[S]o often in 2018 America, 'evangelical' is associated more with Iowa caucuses than with the empty tomb." By "evangelical," he refers to the "informal link of renewal and revival movements that are united in historic confessional orthodoxy with an emphasis on the necessity of personal conversion and evangelism." He referred to historian David Bebbington, who defines the word in terms of "biblicism, conversionism, activism and cruci-centrism," Moore said. The centrality of the cross is the beginning and end for evangelicals, he said. By the cross, he means the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 15, Moore said. At its best, the so-called "gospel-centered resurgence" in evangelicalism aspires to be an application of the Gospel not only to the steps required for conversion to Christ but to the entirety of the church's self-understanding "and the grid through which the church interacts with the outside world," he told the audience. While American culture "will not see the relevance of an evangelicalism that is lashed to an explicit and robust theology of the cross," the Gospel progresses not because it is familiar but because it introduces people to the strangest concept imaginable -- a "God who justifies the ungodly," Moore said. "God does not need the evangelical movement, but the evangelical movement desperately needs God," he said. "And to that end, those of us who are evangelicals should work for reform -- for a multi-ethnic, theologically robust evangelicalism that can pass the torch to a new generation with the message that we first heard down at the cross. To that end, our reform efforts should start and end not with another political slogan or another cultural cliché but with a prayer: 'Make evangelicalism born again.'" The answer for evangelicals is not found in market-driven messages or a leftward effort to "save the church," Moore said. "A cross-shaped Christianity" will communicate "a deep sense of both God's righteous judgment against sin and his gracious mercy in forgiving the sinner who comes to him through Christ," Moore told the audience. Such an evangelicalism will be marked by gentleness, calmness and support of the vulnerable, he said. "We ought not to see people categorized as 'with us or against us,' 'winners and losers,' 'my tribe versus your tribe,' or 'my ethnicity versus your ethnicity', or 'my nation versus your nation,'" Moore said. "Our theology means that people are divided up as either crucified or un-crucified, and those in the latter category are in the precise position as those in the first, before the gracious intervention of God. "[T]he centrality of the cross in an evangelical movement upends the Darwinian values of worth through power and prestige, and puts the church where the church has always been -- on the side of the vulnerable," he told the audience. "A cross-shaped evangelicalism will also bear a certain sort of tranquility, it seems to me, in the face of cultural tumult, which we do not often see in a kind of siege mentality that is often present in American life." During the question-and-answer session that followed the lecture, Moore cited two wrongly conceived approaches evangelicals can adopt. "The sort of evangelical movement that becomes obsessed with politics easily turns into a vehicle to be used by the state and by parties," he said. "And an evangelical movement that overreacts to that by saying we will speak simply to evangelism and discipleship and not speak to political matters becomes just as political as the first and sometimes more so by baptizing the status quo." Video of the lecture is available at https://jmp.princeton.edu/events/rebirth-reborn-american-evangelicals-and-american-culture-cross. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Former N.C. pastor Mark Harris unseats GOP congressman by David Roach Date: May 09, 2018 - Wednesday CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP) -- Former pastor and Baptist State Convention of North Carolina president Mark Harris has become the first congressional candidate this year to force an incumbent out of office. Harris -- who resigned the pastorate of First Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., last year to focus on a run for the U.S. House of Representatives -- defeated three-term U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger May 8 by a 49-46 margin in the Republican primary for North Carolina's 9th District. "From the beginning, this race has been about giving the people of this district a voice," Harris told supporters on Election Night, according to video from Charlotte's WSOC-TV. "You have stood up tonight across the 9th District, and you have made that voice loud and clear." Harris challenged Pittenger in the 2016 GOP primary and lost by 134 votes out of approximately 26,000, setting up this year's rematch. Harris finished third in the 2012 primary for one of North Carolina's U.S. Senate seats. According to The Washington Post, Pittenger was endorsed this year by House Speaker Paul Ryan among other Republican establishment figures and shared a stage with Vice President Mike Pence last month. Harris was endorsed by the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund and, according to The Charlotte Observer, he "ran as much against the GOP-controlled Congress as Pittenger." Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, said she is "elated that voters recognized that Mark Harris has the integrity, leadership skills and conservative values to represent the 9th Congressional District." "Because he has marched for the dignity of human life, defended and protected marriage and the deeply-held religious beliefs of all North Carolinians, supported efforts to enforce long-standing privacy rights ensuring men and women use separate bathrooms and showers, and advocated for peace in the street with other community members, Mark Harris is the best candidate to represent North Carolina's 9th Congressional District," Fitzgerald, a trustee for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said in a statement. After resigning his pastorate in 2017, Harris told Baptist Press there is "a distinct need" for pastors "to get engaged" in American public life. "There continues to be a tremendous need [in politics] for voices that are going to stand on righteousness, that recognize where we are moving as a nation," Harris said in 2017, noting "the culture seems to become more and more infected with a liberal point of view." In November's general election, Harris will face Democrat Dan McCready, a Marine Corps combat veteran who states on his campaign website that he was converted to faith and Christ and baptized while serving in Iraq a decade ago. The Associated Press reported he once worked for Campus Crusade for Christ. McCready has campaigned as a centrist, according to The Observer. Though Republicans have held the 9th District for 58 years, The Observer reported, McCready has a six-figure advantage in fundraising thus far. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM THE COLLEGES: TMU to use digital cadaver in classes; Judson seeking successor to David E. Potts; Union names Van Neste & Baker as deans by Baptist College & BP Staff Date: May 09, 2018 - Wednesday In today's From the Colleges: Truett McConnell University Judson College Union University Truett McConnell to use digital cadaver in classes CLEVELAND, Ga. (BP) -- An interactive virtual anatomy dissection table will become part of the biology and exercise science programs at Truett McConnell University's Pilgram Marpeck School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) this fall. An Anatomage Table, an advanced anatomy visualization system, has been featured in numerous journals, on PBS and in a TED Talks presentation by Jack Choi, founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley-based company behind the new technology. Robert S. Bowen, Truett McConnell's STEM dean and associate professor of physiology, noted, "So much of anatomy is based on experience, relationships and repetitive inquiry." With the Anatomage Table, Bowen said, "Like a real cadaver, the detail is a much finer resolution than what can be achieved with plastic models. The table also provides an interactive environment and a hands-on experience with both human and animal study." At a cost of more than $71,000, TMU's Anatomage Table has been fully funded with grant money from the Hearst Foundation, the Carolyn Ragan and King Charitable Foundation and the Georgia Baptist Health Care Ministry Foundation. Truett McConnell's Anatomage Table currently is on Cleveland, Ga., campus, with Bowen and other faculty now developing curricula to utilize the technology in STEM classes at the Baptist-affiliated university. The table depicts multi-layered scans of the male and female anatomy, allowing students to perform dissections on different parts of the body with the ability to redo portions of the process or undo any errors. "Fixing errors will allow our students to effectively learn from their failures and improve their understanding on human and animal anatomy," Bowen said. Both the biology and exercise science programs require "extensive knowledge of anatomy and the table will be a nice addition to our instrumentation and training resources." Some of TMU's senior biology students have had an opportunity to get a firsthand look at the various features of the digital cadaver. "Using the table provides you with a hands-on learning experience," Elise Lombard, one of the students, said. "You can only see and learn so much through a lecture. Being able to manipulate a [digital] cadaver allows a greater understanding of the anatomy and function of the human body. "There are many different paths that a biology student can take," Lombard added, "and this table allows you to customize and personalize your learning experience for your individual goal." Bowen noted, "Up until the addition of the table, anatomy education was a significant weakness for both the exercise science and biology programs. The table has made strides to correct that deficiency; however, it is already apparent that the table is going to be in high demand and additional tables would serve our programs well...." The Anatomage Table, Bowen said, is "another example of the technology that God is blessing TMU with and will coalesce well with the other equipment and resources that are available to train the next generation of scientists and practitioners." ********** Judson seeking successor to David E. Potts MARION, Ala. (BP) -- Judson College, a four-year women's college affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention, is in the process of searching for a successor to David E. Potts, who died March 28 at age 66. Potts had led the college since 1990. Judson, a 466-student college with degree programs in liberal arts and the sciences, is one of the oldest women's colleges in the U.S., founded in 1838 by members of Siloam Baptist Church in Marion, Ala., where the organizational meeting of Southern Baptists' Home Mission Board was held in 1845. The college is named after Ann Judson, the first wife of Adoniram Judson, pioneer missionary to Burma (now Myanmar) in the early 1800s. Ann Judson, known as the first Protestant overseas female missionary, translated the Old Testament into Burmese before her death after nine years on the mission field. Scott Bullard, Judson's senior vice president and academic dean and associate professor of religious studies, is serving as the college's interim president. Bullard has been a member of Judson's faculty since 2008. Potts, a Birmingham native, had served as executive vice president for administration from 1987 until Judson's trustees elected him as the college's president in 1990. He had previously worked at Judson as vice president for development from 1980-85. Potts also worked at Samford University, his alma mater, during much of his career as financial aid director and, earlier, as an admissions representative at the university in Birmingham. Highlights of Potts' tenure at Judson include growing its endowment from $2 million to $19 million and raising $35 million through capital campaigns for new construction and facility restoration, including the refurbishment of Judson's historic Jewett Hall, the 30,000-square-foot main academic building named for the college's founder, Milo Parker Jewett. Nine new academic programs were added, including three of the current five largest majors. Potts also initiated an exchange program for faculty and students between Judson and the Kachin Theological College and Seminary in Myanmar. In addition to his service at Judson, Potts worked to improve higher education across the Southeast, serving as both a commissioner and Executive Council member for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the regional body that accredits Judson and other colleges and universities in the Southeast. He served as a member or chair of numerous SACSCOC on-site review committees to help institutions measure their effectiveness. In 2013, Potts was honored with SACSCOC's James T. Rogers Distinguished Leadership Award for Outstanding Contributions to Higher Education. Working with community leaders around the state, Potts was a founding board member of Sowing Seeds of Hope, a faith-based nonprofit organization seeking to address the root causes of poverty in Alabama. As a member of Sowing Seeds of Hope's board of directors and health care task force, he helped bring a dialysis center to Marion, promoted programs that helped children gain health insurance coverage, and actively worked toward the reopening of a hospital in Perry County. He was a former president of Alabama Possible, formerly the Alabama Poverty Project, an organization co-founded by his father, former Alabama Baptist Convention Executive Secretary A. Earl Potts, which seeks to raise awareness of poverty issues statewide. Potts' personal commitment to service influenced the Judson community as well. For each of the past 11 years, more than 80 percent of Judson students have participated in community service through the college's nationally recognized Faith-Based Service and Learning program, which Potts established in 2005. He served alongside them, often engaging in manual labor as he listened to students' stories and told them about ways they could use their gifts to serve those referred to as "the least of these" in Matthew 25, a passage that he often read to students. Potts also was instrumental in establishing Judson's non-traditional, external degree program for adult learners during the early 1980s that would grow into Judson's Distance Learning Program. He held a Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Alabama and master's and undergraduate degrees from Samford. An eight-member search committee, with five females and three males, is seeking Potts' successor in a national search. The committee chair is James Sanford, a businessman and farmer and member of First Baptist Church in Prattville, Ala. Also on the committee are Charlie Dunkin, trustee chairman and a Perry County businessman; David Byrd, former trustee chair and pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Jasper; Daphne Robinson, assistant attorney general for the state of Alabama; Susan Jones, Judson's senior vice president and dean of students; Joan Newman, a financial adviser at Edward Jones; Lesley Sheek, head of Judson's education department, associate professor of education and associate dean of the college for assessment and teaching effectiveness; and Mary Ellen Clements, Judson's executive assistant to the president and member of Siloam Baptist Church. Robinson, Jones and Newman are Judson alumni. Potts is survived by his wife Nora Beth Bloodworth Potts, two daughters and eight grandchildren. A service honoring Potts was held April 8 in Judson's Alumnae Auditorium. In lieu of flowers, the family requested that gifts be sent to Judson College, Sowing Seeds of Hope, Siloam Baptist Church or Marion Academy, a K-12 Christian school in Marion. ********** Union names Ray Van Neste & Hunter Baker as deans JACKSON, Tenn. (BP) -- Union University has named Ray Van Neste as dean of its school of theology and missions and Hunter Baker as dean of the college of arts and sciences. Van Neste, professor of biblical studies at the Baptist-affiliated college in Jackson, Tenn., has served on Union's faculty since 2001 and also is director of the R.C. Ryan Center for Biblical Studies. Baker, associate professor of political science, joined Union's faculty in 2010 and has held a number of roles at the university, including senior associate dean of arts and sciences, dean of instruction and associate provost. The outgoing dean of the school of theology and missions, Nathan Finn, is leaving Union to become provost at North Greenville University in South Carolina, while Baker succeeds John Netland, who became Union's provost last fall. Van Neste is a native of Millington, Tenn., who holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland; a master of arts degree in New Testament from the Chicago-area Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; and an undergraduate degree from Union. Van Neste wrote the commentaries on 1-2 Timothy and Titus for the Baker Illustrated Bible Background Commentary series, co-edited "Reformation 500: How the Greatest Revival Since Pentecost Continues to Shape the World Today" and contributed study notes on the pastoral epistles for the Holman Christian Standard Study Bible, among numerous other projects. Van Neste and his wife Tammie have six children. Baker came to Union from Houston Baptist University, where he served as director of strategic planning, associate provost for academic affairs and assistant professor of government. He is the author of three books -- "The System Has a Soul: Essays on Christianity, Liberty, and Political Life," "Political Thought: A Student's Guide" and "The End of Secularism" -- and has contributed articles to such publications as Christianity Today, First Things, National Review, The Federalist and The Gospel Coalition. Baker was one of 13 Republican congressional candidates in 2016 for Tennessee's 8th Congressional District. David Kustoff of Memphis won the primary and general election. Kustoff is a former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee. Baker also is a research fellow with the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and an affiliate scholar of the Acton Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in religion, politics and society from Baylor University; a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center; a master's degree in public administration from the University of Georgia; and an undergraduate degree from Florida State University. Baker and his wife Ruth have two children. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Return to sender': Casket proclaims life journey by Diana Chandler Date: May 09, 2018 - Wednesday KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Retired Southern Baptist missionary Patricia Stooksbury wanted everyone to know her life's journey. She had it printed plainly on her pine shipping-crate-modeled casket. "Return to Sender." "To: Heaven thru Jesus Christ." "This end up." "Fragile." John Green, pastor of Wallace Memorial Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., described the casket as unique and unlike anything he'd ever seen. "I was so impressed because it was such an interesting way to share about her faith," Green told Baptist Press today (May 9). "Everyone recognizes a shipping crate is sending you to another destination. That's the story she was telling, even in her death -- the story she was telling all throughout her life, which is that through faith in Christ we can have another home where we'll spend eternity." Stooksbury, of Powell, Tenn., returned to her eternal home April 29 at age 70. Her journey was recounted and celebrated May 3 at Wallace Memorial Baptist Church, named in 1953 for William Wallace, a medical missionary to China for 17 years until his death at the hands of the communists in 1951. At Stooksbury's funeral, the custom-built casket was front and center. By then, many friends and family members had signed the casket with well wishes. "God speed." "See you on the other side." "Thank God for missionaries." The International Mission Board commissioned Stooksbury for the mission field in 1976. She spent more than 36 years spreading the Gospel, first as a Journeyman in Ecuador, then as a missionary to Costa Rica and Bolivia. She took medical leave in 2010, returning to the U.S. with pulmonary hypertension and stage 3 kidney failure. She commissioned her casket in 2014 from Stevens Mortuary in Knoxville, the Knoxville News Sentinel wrote at the time. "I think it's appropriate for the occasion," the News Sentinel quoted her as saying. "I want those at my funeral to notice my witness. I am going back to God, so I had them put 'return to sender' on top. "On the sides, in English and Spanish, it says 'To Heaven [thru] Jesus Christ,' because it is because of Him and what He did that I can get there." Friends who spoke at her funeral, including her Knoxville pastor Mark Sasser, said she relished heaven. "Here's what I learned about Pat over the years that I've known her -- she was ready to go," said Sasser, pastor of Callahan Baptist Church. "She was ready to go. She had made her preparation." Stooksbury accepted her call to missions while a teenage member of Wallace Memorial Baptist, under the tutelage of former and longtime pastor Jim McCluskey. She joined Callahan Baptist after retiring from the mission field. Retired Southern Baptist missionaries Carter and Charlotte Davis, longtime friends of Stooksbury, also noted her eagerness for heaven. "Why isn't the Lord calling me home?" she asked Carter Davis two months before her death, Davis said at the funeral. Davis didn't know what to tell her, he said, other than God still had use for her on earth. Bringing greetings from IMB to Stooksbury's survivors, Davis read from Ecclesiastes 7:1. "A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth (NIV)," Davis said. "That's the way Patricia viewed death, something to behold and celebrate. Patricia, we love you and we miss you. We return you to sender."