By Kay AdkinsTEXAN Correspondent

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS The Leadership track of the Southern Baptists of Texas Conven-tion’s Aug. 11 EQUIP Conference will feature sessions on two ‘hot topic’ issues challenging churches today: the foster care crisis in Texas and human sexuality.

Saturday morning, Cindy Asmussen, the SBTC’s Texas Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee advisor (TERLC), will conduct a two-part workshop, “Foster Care: How Can Your Church Be Part of the Solution?”

Asmussen has served for more than 10 years in legislative and director roles with Concerned Women for America in Texas. Mother of two adult sons, and recent adop-tive mother to a 7-year-old daughter, she will

Hispanic Ministries adopting more unified structureBy J.C. Davies TEXAN Correspondent

GRAPEVINE

A s the Hispanic popula-tion in Texas grows, the SBTC is changing to bet-ter meet the needs of its

members through a more unified approach to Hispanic ministry.

Historically, many of the conven-tion’s conferences and training op-portunities for Spanish-speaking pastors and church members have been independent of their English-language counterparts. But that dynamic will soon change, as the Hispanic Ministries department

transitions in 2019 to a new format as “SBTC en Español.”

With the new model, Spanish language events, including the men’s and women’s conferences, regional conferences, the Equip Conference, the pastors and wives retreat, and the Hispanic Summit, will merge with the convention’s English events, with an “en Espa-ñol,”—or Spanish language—track available.

“I welcome the change because it’s going to unify us,” said Mike

Gonzales, director of Hispanic Min-istries. “It’s going to make us one family, and we will be able to work together as one body.”

As the transition takes place, for-mer Hispanic Ministries initiatives will be incorporated into various SBTC departments so that leader-ship from both English and Spanish language ministries are working alongside each other to offer more diverse opportunities.

EQUIP tacklescultural challenges churches will face

AUGUST 2018 Newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention N MORE NEWS AT TEXANONLINE.NET

See ESPAÑOL, 8 See EQUIP, 2

S B T C E N E S P A Ñ O L

Hispanics from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention gather each year prior to the annual meeting for a night of worship in Spanish.

A mission team of 12 adults and five teenagers from First Baptist Church of Pampa traveled to Gilbert, Haiti, in July to led a Vacation Bible School, minister to the community and visit a new church plant. PHOTO COURTESY OF FBC PAMPA

MESQUITE CHURCH ENTERS INTO COVENANT REVITALIZATION 7

FEDERAL COURT PROTECTS LIBERTY, LIFE IN TEXAS CASE 13

MISSIONARIES YOU SHOULD KNOW:

GEORGE LIELE PAGE 12

By Jami SeymourAmarillo News Channel 10

PAMPA The First Baptist Church in Pampa has done mission work in Haiti for years.

“Our church has been involved with a ministry called Back to Life that helps to support an orphanage, school and church in Gilbert, Haiti,” said Kathy Cavalier, a church and mission team member at First Baptist Church.

Most recently, a mission team of 17, including 12 adults and five youth, went to the country to work.

“We’ve had a Vacation Bible School for anywhere from 400-600 children from the surrounding area,” said Cava-lier. “There are only 20 at the orphan-age itself, but the children come from all over.”

See PAMPA, 3

FBC Pampa team sees God work after protests delay return home

share her and her husband’s story of fostering and adopt-ing, explain the urgent need for more foster homes in Texas. She will also share how to be sufficiently prepared for foster/adoption care.

In April 2016 more than 31,000 children were in foster care in Texas. In January 2017, 3600 children were waiting for adoptive families. More than 1,000 each year “age out” of the foster system, losing state care without ever having a perma-nent place to call home. The shortage of foster homes results in many Texas children being re-located hundreds of miles from their communities, and some have had to sleep in Child Pro-tective Services offices, Asmus-sen said.

Attendees will also learn ways to establish ministries that undergird foster and adop-tive parents and to advocate for foster children. “It is a full-time mission field, but the rewards are eternal and this is the mis-sion of Christ,” Asmussen said. “It’s messy and sometimes over-whelming, but we are called to bring order into chaos, light into

darkness, and minister whole-ness to the distraught and bro-ken-hearted. Together, we can do this.”

Brooke Stembridge of Texas Baptist Home for Children will address how to foster or adopt children through the Waxa-hachie-based ministry.

During the Saturday after-noon EQUIP Leadership track, Benjamin Wright, TERLC chair and pastor of Cedar Pointe Bap-tist Church in Houston, will moderate two sessions on min-istry challenges related to hu-man sexuality.

“I do think there’s a real pos-sibility that our churches are going to be pressured into com-pliance with the agenda of ab-solute sexual freedom. And I do think there’s a real possibility that our churches are going to be pressured to conform with our culture’s confusion on gen-der,” Wright said.

He added, “People who have lined up as our cultural oppo-nents are fundamentally people we need to love . . . so our ses-sions at EQUIP are designed to take a step forward in helping our churches understand the is-sues in light of Scripture, antici-pate the future, respond bibli-cally, and advance our mission.”

Evan Lenow of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

will present the first afternoon workshop entitled “Gender Identity and Human Sexuality.”

Lenow, an associate professor of ethics, teaches the courses Christianity and Human Sexu-ality and Ethics of Marriage and Family. He said, “[Gender iden-tity] is where conversations are going—what people are talking about. I am covering what ‘gen-der’ means biblically. Gender is part of who we are. It is the bio-logical reality of creation.”

He added, “Then I’ll address the cultural reality we are in. I want pastors and leaders to understand that the Bible is ac-tually our friend. I want them

to be proactive in their under-standing of what gender is, and know how to speak positively.”

Lenow hopes to build aware-ness in pastors and leaders of the questions they need to be prepared to answer, and the policies they may need to think through regarding this issue.

“What do you do with your bathroom policy? How do you address where kids are sleep-ing at youth or children’s camp? These are questions we have to ask,” Lenow said, adding, “I’m wanting us to not live in fear but to use these opportunities to pro-claim who God made us to be.”

In the fourth breakout ses-

sion attorney Ray Kaselonis from Alliance Defending Free-dom (ADF) will present “Gender Identity: Engaging People with the Mind of Christ.” Kaselonis serves as senior counsel for Church Alliance with ADF.

According to the ADF web-site, “Kaselonis represents and advises churches belonging to the ADF Church Alliance to protect their right to minister freely and to engage in defense of religious liberty.”

Hosted by North Richland Hills Baptist Church, EQUIP will offer 21 ministry training tracks including: age-group ministries; men’s, women’s and family min-istries; ethnic specific ministries; worship, technology, evange-lism, and more.

The wide variety of breakout sessions within each track aims to strengthen, inspire, and edu-cate any church leaders in their specific roles.

“Every church wants more leaders. Every church wants to see their current leaders devel-op into better leaders,” states the EQUIP 2018 web page. The con-ference is open to anyone. The registration fee which includes lunch, is $10 per person through Aug. 6 and $15 thereafter.

For a complete conference agenda, and to register, go to sbtexas.com/equip.

S O U T H E R N B A P T I S T T E X A N2 TEXAS sbtexan

EQUIPCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“People who have lined up as our cultural opponents are

fundamentally people we need to love . . . so our sessions at EQUIP are designed to take a step forward in helping our churches understand

the issues in light of Scripture, anticipate the future, respond

biblically, and advance our mission.”

—BENJAMIN WRIGHT, TERLC CHAIR AND PASTOR OF CEDAR POINTE BAPTIST CHURCH IN HOUSTON

TEXAS 3T E X A N O N L I N E . N E TAUGUST 2018

By Jane RodgersTEXAN Correspondent

HOUSTON James Miller (not his real name) loved being an elementary school teacher, a natural fit for the Houston native and Baptist pastor’s son who had majored in theology in college.

Then God used a podcast and an on-line dictionary to change his life.

While eating lunch at his desk at school and listening to the podcast, Miller was struck by the speaker’s de-scription of hearing God’s voice, not an audible declaration but a clear impres-sion. Miller prayed, “God, how have you called me? What is my identity for you?”

The word “emissary” came to mind. He turned to an online dictionary, where the example sentence, “The emissary was sent to a faraway land to proclaim a peace treaty was signed,” seemed portentous.

“Did God just speak through Dictionary.com?” Miller thought, eyes tearing.

Before long, he had joined an effort launched a decade ago by the South-ern Baptists of Texas Convention to engage unreached people groups, after being trained by Houstonians working among the local Muslim community. Through that, he heard accounts of God moving in powerful ways.

“I sat at the feet of guys seeing fruit in ministering to the Muslim world,” Miller said. Eventually, mentors recom-mended developing relationships with Muslims.

He befriended a Saudi student, Ahmed, who welcomed him to his apartment for refreshments. Miller be-gan using an evangelistic “tool” with Ahmed, only to be told, “Oh, I see what you are doing. I am not interested in spiritual conversations.”

Deflated, Miller asked mentors if he should look for someone else to invest in, only to be gently reminded that he must not view Ahmed as a project.

“What if I just be his friend?” Miller asked, and he did so for the next three years, even taking his wife to Ahmed’s apartment where they were greeted by offers of tea, coffee, juice and a plate heaped with candy.

“He is just a regular person,” Miller’s wife observed, noting the threatening stereotypes some Christians have of Muslims.

Months passed. Spiritual conversa-tions grew more significant. One day, Ahmed told Miller, “You are like a brother to me.”

“That reminds me of my favorite psalm,” replied Miller, quoting Psalm 133:1-2a: “Behold, how good and pleas-ant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head.”

Ahmed checked the Bible reference, then bolted upstairs, returning with a tiny vial of oil. “We make this in my hometown,” he exclaimed, explaining that the quarter ounce of oil was worth hundreds of dollars.

“This guy is teaching me about an-cient Hebrew Scripture because he grew up in the neighborhood,” Miller mused, adding that two months later, another Muslim whom Miller met through Ahmed, remarked, “Ahmed is telling me you have our oil in the Bible.”

Ahmed’s discussing Scripture with other Saudis is remarkable, Miller said, admitting that evangelizing Muslims remains “a slow, hard road.”

After several years of training, the Millers moved to the Middle East as language students and missionaries. But when geopolitics forced them back to Houston after a year, Miller adapted, continued his calling to Muslims right in his hometown.

“God has brought the nations to us. There are 250,000 Muslims in the greater Houston area. If they come to the kingdom and go back to their closed countries, they will be a thou-sand times more effective at reaching those tribes than I would ever be,” said Miller, who since returning to Houston in 2014 has been a fulltime missionary to Muslims.

“Most Muslims think the Christian agenda is to change their culture, get them to switch teams and forsake par-ents, but if the agenda is love, they are OK with that,” Miller said.

Sharing the gospel with Muslims begins with relationships, easily culti-

vated from a single friendship, Miller added, noting that Ahmed introduced him to dozens of Saudis. He offered ad-vice, paraphrased here.

Don’t be afraid. Muslims aren’t the enemy. Muslims, Christians and all humanity share a common enemy: Sa-tan and his fallen angels. Islam is not a threat because we serve a King who will never be usurped. Muslims have been coming to Christ in increasing numbers over the last 30 years. You likely won’t even strike up a conversa-tion if you are intimidated.

It’s not up to you to make something happen. Just be open to what the Lord leads you to do. He has pursued these folks long before we met them. Jesus is showing up in dreams and visions. Muslims are seeing healings and other miracles. One friend has a recurring dream in which Jesus Christ, “Isa al Masih,” appears, destroys the powers of darkness, judges the world and takes his followers into paradise with him. I have prayed with Muslims who have heard God speak to them in real time and observed an elderly Pakistani man healed from chronic pain following my prayers for him.

Pray. God does the work. He causes the growth, new life and transforma-tion. Talk to God about your Muslim friends. Tell them you’re praying for them. Offer to pray with them. I’ve nev-er been turned down for prayer.

With his language skills, Miller’s strategies include speaking Arabic to anyone who looks Middle Eastern.

With a quarter of a million Muslims in the Houston area, and almost as many Hindus and Buddhists, oppor-tunities are vast. Many SBTC church-es have answered the call to engage, evangelize and plant churches among these groups.

Bay Area First Baptist and Houston First Baptist are among congregations supporting workers like Miller and hosting SBTC Texas Missions Initiatives trainings. Houston’s First has sponsored SBTC Reach the Nations and People Group Discovery and Engagement trainings in English and Spanish.

Metropolitan Baptist and Champion Forest Jersey Village have also held Peo-ple Group Discovery and Engagement workshops while others such as Emman-uel Baptist, Willow River Church and In-ternational Victory Christian Church of Pearland have sent members for train-ing. Braeburn Valley Baptist welcomes a Nepali-speaking house church to con-duct baptisms, weddings and Christmas events in its facilities. Houston’s First, Champion Forest and Second Baptist of-fer vibrant ESL programs.

The harvest is ripe, the methods many, the work ongoing.

Skyler Womack, missionary liaison at Houston’s First, told the TEXAN, “The Lord is bringing the nations to our back-yard and is positioning the church to respond.” He praised the work of Miller and other global workers who have returned and remain to help churches reach their multicultural neighbors in the heart of Texas.

“God is calling us to reach out to as many people groups as we can in Texas,” added Dan Acharya, the SBTC missions strategy associate who leads the Texas Missions Initiatives. There are over 421 people groups in Texas who are speak-ing over 300 languages. Through Texas Missions Initiatives, over 1,000 people in over 100 churches are trained each year to reach Muslims, Buddhists, Hin-dus and other groups with the gospel.

For more information on training con-tact Acharya at 817-552-2500 or email dacharya@sbtexas.com.

REACHING THE NATIONS IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD

However, when a part of the group went to another region to help another church, they got caught in roadblocks af-ter protesters took to the streets following a government-ordered fuel price hike.

“We had gone out to be a part of a new church plant that had taken place in a village a couple of hours away from where we were staying,” said Zackary Greer, associate pastor of missions and administration. “On the way back, we encountered some roadblocks, it was a pretty volatile situation.”

During the intense situation, Greer says the Haitian people, in turn, helped them.

“When we got trapped by one of the roadblocks, we went back into a town and the people were gracious and took us in,” said Greer.

The team was originally set to return earlier but because of the roadblocks in capital Port-au-Prince and a U.S. Embas-sy shelter-in-place notice, they were not able to fly home until July 13.

Greer says the experience has in-spired them to go back to the country even sooner to work.

“We’ve come to a point where we are more excited and have more urgency and have more desire to go back and work with the Haitian people than we ever have and we’re excited about that,” said Greer. “We had some young team members, we had some teenagers, and they are so excited about their opportu-nity in the future to go back and work with the Haitian people.”

Greer later told the TEXAN, “Because of the way things went down, we stayed another five days.” He spoke of the chaos during the night as the group heard gunshots and individuals trying to disassemble cars to break through the roadblocks.

“Those were the times when the group drew closest to the Lord,” Greer said. “The Bible studies, prayer and fasting were extremely powerful. God strips us of things sometimes to speak to us.”

This article is reprinted with permission from KFDA-TV’s online report by Jami Seymour with additional reporting by the TEXAN in the closing paragraphs.

PAMPACONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

G rammy and I have been praying for you since before you were born. We are grateful

that God brought you safely into our family and that you have flourished in the homes he gave you. These days we pray that God will bring you into his household and make you mighty in his kingdom. I also think a lot about what it will be like to grow up and be-come a woman in our nation. It appears to have some challeng-es that, while not new, have in-tensified in my lifetime.

Our culture struggles to understand femininity. That struggle has gone on since the first woman become of the mother of us all. Today, the same society that acknowl-edges the equality of women as citizens, employees and leaders will also objectify and demean women in popular culture. Women even do this to them-selves as they confuse the lib-erty to do anything at all with true freedom. A discussion to-day involves overturning laws and customs regarding modesty in public, and even calls for the

exaltation of self-destructive behaviors and humiliating vo-cations. It is true that “absolute” freedom includes the right to destroy yourself, but a culture that blesses such behavior is no friend to anyone. Follow the examples of your moth-ers, grandmothers and great grandmothers. They are digni-fied and accomplished ladies who have negotiated their own times wisely. They learned be-fore you met them that liberty is submitting to the right things and people and God rather than doing any wicked thing you imagine.

Part of femininity is that you will be physically smaller than most men you meet. They can loom over you, even pick you up when they are young and strong. That leads some men you meet to treat you as some-one less—less smart, less im-portant, less worthy of courte-sy—than themselves. Men will sometimes make their physical advantages too much a part of your relationship, even as they

may find your physical beauty more interesting than anything else you are. Enjoy being a girl, and being pretty, but avoid such loutish men. Be no one’s “arm candy” and trust no one who separates your humanity from your femininity.

Love is also a complicated thing in our world. You are blessed to witness daily a model of unselfish love in your parents. While they talk about “loving” a certain food or ar-ticle of clothing, you already know that it means something different, lesser, than their love for you. You also see their love for one another—giving, respectful, affectionate, joyful. Much that we call love across our culture is none of those things. It is better described as desire or even greed. Whether in a friendship, a marriage or a relationship between a dad and a daughter, love is not the commerce between a giver and a taker. It is the happy con-nection between two givers. Settle for nothing less. Know-

ing your moms and dads will prepare you to understand the perfect gift of love between your heavenly father and you, his beloved daughters. Others will say “love” to you or use love as an inducement to change your convictions to suit their agendas. You are equipped already to recog-nize the counterfeit because you have experienced the real thing. Be brave enough to walk away. Walk away from people, a career, marketing, entertain-ment, churches—anything re-ally—that would divert you from true love and the true Word behind it.

I pray that God will call each of you to follow him. When he does, he will call you to serve him first above all. That means you have a mission from the God who has revealed himself through Scripture. Nothing else your family or culture can call out for you to do can over-rule this primary calling from God. Wherever you go, you have a message and a source of authority more sure than what you feel or want, or what anyone else wants. You may need to say no to opportuni-ties and people you find very appealing, and which in other circumstances are just fine, if they conflict with your call from God.

At the same time, God will not mystically call you to do something that is contrary to his revelation in Scripture. You are not going to be called by God to pastor a church, for example. When God has said “this” or “not this” the delib-eration is over. I’m only saying that you have a higher calling on your life than the unrepen-tant can understand. Don’t compromise it for things that won’t last.

In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul tells the young pastor to remember the faith, the examples of his moth-er and grandmother. That’s what I’m saying to you—stick to the things you’ve already come to know as true, as mod-eled by those who have loved you. We’re here to remind you and hopefully to model con-tinued obedience to the Lord who made us a family. When we fail in that, you mostly know enough to tell that we are wrong. There’s a lesson in that as well.

We love you and very much look forward to watching you grow and learn for the years the Lord grants us together. The work is the Lord’s and we are so happy to part of it.

Editor’s note: We are blessed with four granddaughters, 9 (and a half!), 3, and 16 months (X2).

LOVE IS NOT THE COMMERCE BETWEEN A GIVER AND A TAKER. IT IS THE HAPPY CONNECTION BETWEEN TWO GIVERS.

SETTLE FOR NOTHING LESS.

THE APOSTLES DID NOT PROPOSE A PLAN OR A PROGRAM, THEY APPEALED FOR

QUALIFIED PEOPLE.

S O U T H E R N B A P T I S T T E X A N4 OPINION sbtexan

The Southern Baptist Texan is the official newspaper of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, P.O. Box 1988, Grapevine, Texas 76099-1988. Toll-free 877-953-7282, Phone 817-552-2500, FAX 817-552-2520. Email: gsullivan@sbtexas.com

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Southern Baptist TEXANVOLUME

17NUMBER

08AUGUST2018

Jim Richards, Executive Director

Gary K. Ledbetter, EditorTammi Ledbetter, Associate EditorGayla Sullivan, Circulation ManagerRussell Lightner, Layout and design

Correspondents: Bonnie PritchettJane RodgersKay AdkinsErin RoachKaren L. WilloughbyJ.C. Davies

sbtexan sbtexantexanonline.net

Needing qualified people

O ld football coaches have a saying, “It’s Jimmies and Joes not X’s and O’s that win

football games.”A team might have an excel-

lent game plan, creative forma-tions and cutting-edge equip-ment, but if their players are untrained, weak and slow, they will not win many games.

The players are the key, not the plays.

The church in Jerusalem was struggling, and they were distracted by a division over the care of widows that threat-ened the advance of the gospel. In response to the challenge,

the apostles put the spotlight on the need for players, not plays. They called for qualified people to rise up and address the matter so that the church could pursue her mission. The apostles did not propose a plan or a program, they appealed for qualified people.

As recorded in Scripture, “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task” (Acts 6:3).

Consider this call for quali-fied people:

Our churches depend on peo-ple who are morally qualified—people of good reputation who live with integrity in the home and at work, and people marked by honesty and a consistency of character that wins the respect

of their communities. It is tragic when the men and women who ought to be leading our church-es forfeit their capacity to lead through moral compromise.

Our churches depend on people who are practically qualified—people who will take charge of a task. Too many of us want to come to a worship service that suits our prefer-ences and then serve when the notion strikes us, shirking long-term responsibility. This kind of irresponsibility makes our churches weak.

Our churches depend on peo-ple who are spiritually quali-fied—people full of the Spirit and wisdom. The late missions leader Oswald Sanders used to say that spiritual work can only be done by spiritual people us-ing spiritual means. Too many of us are weak and ineffective because we do not walk with Jesus consistently. If we abide in him we bear much fruit, but apart from him we can do noth-ing (John 15:5).

The honest truth is that the problems in our churches are

spiritual problems; the enemy we face is a spiritual enemy. Only men and women able to wield spiritual weapons—prayer, the sword of the Word, purity of life, proclamation of the gospel—and who are spiritu-ally strong can address the prob-lems that plague our society.

Many of our churches are weak because many of us are weak. We do not need to search for better plays, rather we need to become better players.

O Lord, we beg you to raise up men and women who are mor-ally, practically and spiritually qualified to lead your churches. Do this fresh new work by your grace, through your power and for your glory. Amen.

Hance Dilbeck is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

Hance DilbeckGuest Columnist

TO MY GRANDDAUGHTERS Gary Ledbetter Editor

I t’s a dangerous time for the church. There’s no de-nying it. There’s no point burying your head in the

sand. Every church is in dan-ger—and that includes yours.

In Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, we read about seven churches and the dangers they faced—the very same dangers that we still face today. It’s both a warning that we need to be on our guard and—much more importantly—an encouragement that we can trust fully in our all-powerful, all-conquering savior.

As you read through these seven dangers that could be facing your church, don’t for-get that God is with us, God is for us, and God guides us by his

Word and Spirit.

1. Loveless OrthodoxyThe church in Ephesus bat-

tled false teachers and their false doctrines. By the time we get to Revelation 2, though, the Ephesian church had righted its doctrinal ship. Sadly, in their battle for doctrinal purity, they forgot about love. Right doc-trine and right church practices, while important, do not in and of themselves make a church a healthy community or a faith-ful witness. As Paul reminds us, if we do not have love we are “a noisy gong or clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). Is your church in danger of fighting for doctrinal purity apart from love?

2. Fear of SufferingPersecution is the world’s

rage against God’s king (Je-sus), and Christians always get caught up in it. However, it’s

easy to forget or overlook the fact that God permits Chris-tian suffering for his glory and our good. We must learn to endure all things, safe in the confidence that we will be con-formed to the image of Christ. However, there’s a real danger that instead, we will do our best to avoid suffering and live a comfortable Christian life. If we do this, we’ll miss out on God’s refining work in us.

3. CompromiseIn this hostile world, the temp-

tation to compromise our biblical convictions in order to “fit in” is strong. When our faith is chal-lenged, will we continue to be-lieve that Jesus’ words are true and good, or will we turn to the words of someone else? We must not compromise on the truth. Is your church in danger of having its faith chipped away—whether by the opinions of society or through false teaching?

4. ToleranceIn the name of “love,” the

church is tempted to not ad-dress sin and not practice church discipline. Love, af-ter all, “is patient.” So when it comes to speaking the hard truths of the Bible to those we love, we are far too often will-ing to tolerate sin. Could this be true of your church?

5. A Good ReputationEven in these dangerous

times, though, some churches still appear to flourish. They have “good reputations” in their communities. Conse-quently, they may be tempted to think they’re OK, healthy, out of danger from the world’s rage. When we’re tempted to trust in our “good name,” we must ask ourselves, “Do we care more about what people think of us or about doing and say-ing necessary hard things in love?” Too many churches have chased name recognition, but not cherished the gospel. What about yours?

6. Self-doubtThe majority of churches

in the world, though, are not large. They’re quite small and unimpressive in the world’s eyes. If you’re tempted to compare your church to other churches of “good name” and large influence, you will be in danger of becoming discour-aged because of a lack of vis-ible success. We must continu-ally remind ourselves that God values our faithfulness to him. He looks at our hearts, not the size of our congregations, the number of our baptisms, or the amount of our budgets. Don’t be discouraged! Remain faithful!

7. Self-sufficiencySadly, in many cases, today’s

church is no different than the world. Just like the world, we depend on our ingenuity, wealth and resources. Our af-fluence so easily deceives us into believing we don’t need anyone else: not even God. We’re in danger of relying on our prosperity. When we do, we will stop relying on the risen Christ for everything we need. Who or what is your church relying on?

How is your church doing?We are all weak in some (or

many) ways, but we have a mighty Savior who cherishes us, graciously warns us of pitfalls, and who has won the ultimate victory on our behalf. In Revela-tion 2 and 3, Jesus not only ex-poses these seven dangers facing every church, he also provides the answer—look to the risen Christ and long for his return.

I wrote Seven Dangers Facing Your Church for every church leader and member committed to playing their part in helping their local church thrive in an increasingly hostile environ-ment. I pray this book will be a great encouragement to you and your church.

You may order a copy of Seven Dangers Facing Your Church on Amazon. Down-load a free chapter at challies.com/spon-sored/your-church-is-in-danger/.

T E X A N O N L I N E . N E TAUGUST 2018 OPINION 5

Seven Dangers Facing Your Church

Juan SanchezSBTC PresidentPastor, High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin

G od has been on the move in the South-ern Baptists of Texas Convention. He has

showered his favor on us. Let’s give him praise together. Here is my praise report.

The summer began with staff retreats. The senior staff met separately, followed by all minis-try staff having a time of discus-sion and deliberation. Planning consisted of 2019 calendaring, preliminary budgeting for min-istry and personnel evaluations. We are always seeking to make the SBTC staff better in order to serve the churches.

The Southern Baptist Conven-tion was held in Dallas and al-lowed the SBTC to be front and center before the messengers. The SBTC was able to secure a coveted spot directly behind the registration desk in the ex-hibit hall. Everyone who came

through the main entrance passed by our booth. We were able to connect with people who wanted more information about the SBTC or needed assistance. SBTC was a headline partner with the ERLC in the Global Hunger Relief Run. This gave us an opportunity to connect with younger pastors. The SBC Executive Committee allowed the SBTC to direct the prayer room for the annual meeting. Ted Elmore led this effort as we sought to keep the focus on spiri-tual matters. I believe the prayer involvement allowed a more positive outcome to the annual meeting than otherwise would have been the case.

The SBTC staff has worked overtime this summer in nu-merous student camps. The final numbers are not in but at this time hundreds have made professions of faith and scores have answered God’s call to ministry. This summer is the largest registration for student camps in SBTC history. Next summer the SBTC is expand-ing camp opportunities. We

are grateful to God that he has given us the privilege of invest-ing in the next generation.

On a personal level, I had 32 preaching events in the first 26 weeks of 2018. My fourth book was released at the Southern Baptist Convention. The title is Hard Hat Area: Building Biblical Families. Families live in a con-struction zone. Prayerfully this book will help strengthen lives. It was my privilege to serve on the SBC Evangelism Task Force appointed by President Steve Gaines. Our report was given at the annual meeting. Once again Southern Baptists are challenged to make gospel conversations a high priority. In addition to these activities, I have attended various de-nominational meetings, SBTC

events, directed staff and had one on one conversations about ministry with pastors and staff.

The preceding paragraphs were part of a report I gave to the SBTC Executive Commit-tee and later to the Executive Board. It is important to re-member that the denomina-tional headquarters is the lo-cal church. Each local church has a say in the direction of our shared work through the convention. Messengers elect members to the Executive Board. The Executive Board is tasked to represent the conven-tion between the annual meet-ings. The Executive Committee, comprised of the officers of the Executive Board, acts for the Executive Board between board meetings. All of this orga-

nization enables the churches to have a constant presence in the life of the state convention. Transparency produces trust. The SBTC Executive Commit-tee and Board have sought to keep the churches apprised of our mutual mission and min-istry. The churches, through their messengers, have the fi-nal say at the annual meeting. Neither the Executive Com-mittee nor the Executive Board can overturn a decision of the convention. The local church remains the headquarters.

This fall, messengers from the churches of the Southern Bap-tists of Texas Convention will meet at Second Baptist Church, North (Kingwood). Our theme is, Entrusted: A Gospel Legacy for the Coming Generations. I will give my report to those who gather. I look forward to thank-ing God for his blessings of the past 20 years. I join with you looking to the future as we con-tinue to promote unity around the BF&M 2000 to accomplish cooperative work through the Cooperative Program.

GOD WORKING THROUGH OUR EFFORTS TOGETHER

Jim Richards Executive Director

ONCE AGAIN SOUTHERN BAPTISTS ARE CHALLENGED TO MAKE GOSPEL CONVERSATIONS A HIGH PRIORITY.

SBTC RESOLUTIONS DUE BY OCT. 29

The SBTC Resolutions Committee will complete its work before the convention’s 2018 meeting, November 12-13 in Houston at the Second Baptist Church North campus in Kingwood. In order for the committee to have adequate time to consider its report, all resolutions must be submitted to the SBTC offices by Monday, October 29.

Resolutions may be submitted by email to gsullivan@sbtexas.com or to Gayla Sullivan at Box 1988, Grapevine, TX, 76099. All submissions must include the name, church membership, phone number and email address of the submitter. Mailed submissions must be typewritten for the sake of legibility.

By Kaylan PreussTEXAN Correspondent

ARLINGTON “The Speakers’ Tournament has been a real-ity check for me. It holds me accountable. And after people have heard your speech—the people who look up to you—they expect you to live by it.”

This account came from Kailyn Newsom, a recent high school graduate and member of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington.

The “reality check” she talks about is the Speakers’ Tourna-ment, an annual competition hosted by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention for stu-dents in grades 10-12 who deliv-er speeches four to six minutes long on biblical topics provided by the SBTC. This year’s state competition was in mid-April.

The program exists so stu-dents can mature in their faith, share God’s Word with others, become skilled and comfort-able with public speaking and earn college scholarships (for those who place 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the state levels).

Each fall, students begin the challenge by picking topics, de-veloping outlines and writing their speeches. Over the win-ter, in the company of coaches, they refine, memorize and prac-tice. By spring, they’re ready to present to their churches and associations with the hopes of advancing to regional, state and

even national competitions.Mark Haire, a speakers’

coach at Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, said stu-dents choose from a list of 10 topics per year.

“The idea is for them to pick something that’s biblically re-lated—usually having to do with spiritual disciplines or how to engage the culture—and drive them to wrestle with the verses they choose in order to formu-late a coherent speech. It be-comes life-impacting for them,” Haire said.

In the past, topics have ranged from “Being Christian in a Pagan World” and “The Christian Life Is Not a Popular-ity Contest” to “Acting My Age” and “The Greatest Spiritual Les-son I’ve Learned So Far.” Some students choose to take an inspirational approach, while others present in an argumen-tative format.

Haire said, “A lot of times students will select a historical figure—like a martyr, great mis-sionary or notable speaker—and use that as their inspiration.”

The whole experience is more than just memorizing a script; it’s also practicing to make perfect a powerful delivery, refining the composition, working on vocal inflection and eliminating ver-bal tics.

“I tell our speakers that one of the most powerful things they can do in their culture is to become effective public

speakers,” Haire said. “The skill is rare, so it will set them apart. This program is a hard sell to this teenage culture, but it’s im-pactful for those who do par-ticipate. They can go and have tremendous influence in their churches, jobs and families. My own kids have grown up to see the value in it.”

Rickey Wilson, an elder and tournament preparation leader at Cornerstone in Arlington, assembles a team of up to 20 students each year. He’s been involved with the ministry in his church for more than 20 years, since his own daughter was a speaker.

During that time, he’s seen the age of social media emerge and spread among teenagers, caus-ing a shortage of face-to-face and verbal communication. Being glued to a phone may seem like a hindrance, but Wilson says stu-dents are still interested in what the program is about.

“We try to connect with them and encourage them to have an encounter with God during the process,” he said. “They gain a unique skill set. It prepares them for college pre-sentations, but also to share the gospel with others. Our former kids come back and let us know how valuable it was for them.”

According to Cornerstone’s Newsom, the Speakers’ Tour-nament was a spiritually trans-formative experience. She’s done Bible Drill for years, but

she says God used the speak-ers’ competition to encourage her in very specific life les-sons at the right times. “Every year, when it was time to pick a topic, the Holy Spirit said to me, ‘That’s the one.’ Little did I know how it would impact me later,” she said.

During her junior year, New-som was a track star headed for the varsity team. Then she sus-tained a hip injury that doctors couldn’t put a finger on. She said, “All I’d known was track. It’s what people knew me for. When I stopped doing that, I didn’t have a purpose.”

That year, the topic she chose was “Having Peace in a Trou-bled World.” Newsom found a new purpose in writing and speaking in front of people. As she waited for her hip to heal, she also began writing po-etry, doing debate, and started a Christian club at her high school called Awaken.

This past year, she picked the topic “True Love Waits.” She memorized the verses and dug deep into the topic so that it was engrained in her.

“I’ve never had a boyfriend before and didn’t when I chose the topic, but I just recently started dating someone,” she said. “I had heard about the struggle, but I didn’t know the struggle was that real. I’ve been able to go back to what I wrote and learned, to call upon the verses in my speech and be en-

couraged toward purity.”Newsom says she’s learned

how to hide God’s Word in her heart over the last few years because of the Speakers’ com-petition. This fall, she’s headed to the University of Texas in Austin to study communica-tions, and where she hopes to use what she’s gained thus far.

“Through this ministry and these speeches, Scripture gets into the hearts of these stu-dents,” Wilson said. “They’re not just saying words; their hearts are affected and they minister to others who need to hear God’s Word.”

Karen Kennemur, SBTC chil-dren’s ministry associate, agrees that the Speaker’s Tournament helps students prepare for col-lege. “The time spent in speech preparation requires digging into the Scriptures and research-ing topics,” she said. “It improves writing skills and enhances pub-lic speaking abilities.”

In addition to giving students opportunities to compete for college scholarships at the state and national levels, she said the SBTC pays for the winning stu-dent and one parent to attend the national tournament.

Next year’s regional competi-tion occurs April 5-6 at First Bap-tist Church in Euless and April 12-13 at Spring Baptist Church near Houston and First Baptist Church in Odessa. Winners progress to state competition April 27 at the SBTC offices in Grapevine.

SPEAKERS’ TOURNEY YIELDS LASTING FRUITS O U T H E R N B A P T I S T T E X A N6 TEXAS sbtexan

By Marilyn StewartBaptist Press

NEW ORLEANS Bap-tisms in the Southern Baptist Convention have been in de-cline for 16 years. To change that, Chuck Kelley hopes to start a conversation.

“The Southern Baptist Con-vention is facing the greatest evangelism crisis in its history, with an unprecedented gap be-tween the number of churches and the number of baptisms those churches record,” said Kelley, president of New Or-leans Baptist Theological Semi-nary.

A new book by Kelley, Fuel the Fire: Lessons from the His-tory of Southern Baptist Evan-gelism, published by B&H Aca-demic, examines the causes behind the longest running decline in baptisms in SBC his-tory and what can be done to reverse it.

Fuel the Fire is not filled with “data charts and footnotes,” Kel-ley notes in the introduction. Rather, it’s a book written for every Baptist that he hopes will stimulate research and start a

conversation. The book is part of the Treasury of Baptist Theology series.

“The puzzle to be solved is the future, but perhaps some clues on how to solve that puzzle can be found in under-standing our past,”

Kelley writes.The book maps out the his-

tory of Southern Baptist evan-gelism from a defining moment in 1904 when a Georgia pastor made a motion from the con-vention floor and sparked what Kelley calls “The Great SBC Evangelism War.” The motion called for direct denomination-al involvement in evangelism and revivalism and sparked a two-year debate over the role of the local church versus the role of the denomination.

“For many of the messengers, the real issue was a matter of Baptist polity ... for evangelism is ultimately the responsibil-ity of the local church,” Kelley writes, adding that the ques-tion became, “Why should the denomination get involved in doing what every local church should be doing on its own?”

The “turning point of the debate” came when B.H. Car-roll, prior to his role as founder and president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, addressed the 1906 convention on the role of evangelists.

Kelley recounts that Carroll told convention messengers, “Brethren, give me evangelists. Deny not fins to things that must swim against the tide, nor wings to things that must fly against the wind.”

With the founding of the evangelism department within the Home Mission Board, Kel-ley writes, the SBC drew from a unique four-point paradigm of preaching that called for commitments, personal evan-gelism and planned outreach, Sunday School and small group Bible study, and revivalism. The method, Kelley adds, was “the genius of Southern Baptist evangelism.”

“Through the years the SBC developed an evangelistic para-digm in its churches that pro-duced explosive growth and made the SBC the largest Prot-estant denomination in Amer-ica,” Kelley told Baptist Press. “Fuel the Fire describes that re-markable paradigm and why it

was so successful for so long.”Change came as mega-shifts

disrupted the nation’s culture, Kelley writes, and waning dis-cipleship brought a dip in evan-gelism. He discovered alarming evidence of decline when Bill Day, NOBTS distinguished pro-fessor of evangelism, showed him a chart of two decades of SBC statistics.

“Clearly the SBC is a conven-tion in decline,” Kelley said. “Clearly the severity of the de-cline in baptisms is ... something we have never seen before.”

Rekindling the fires of evan-gelism, Kelley writes, will re-

quire a focus on prayer, setting goals for evangelism, and help-ing members share testimonies and explain the gospel.

Telling others about Christ is something every believer, every Baptist can do, Kelley insists, citing 2 Timothy 4:5 to show that now is the time.

“The bottom line is simple. Get started. Do something. Get engaged yourself in sharing the gospel with the lost in your community, and help others learn to share the gospel with them,” Kelley writes in his con-clusion. “There will never be a better time than now.”

‘Fuel the Fire’ to spark baptism conversation

BIBLE DRILLAndrew Horton, at left, of First Baptist Dallas won the national competition for the Youth Bible Drill competition. His brother, William Horton, also of First Baptist Dallas, took second place in the High School Bible Drill. They are the sons of Randy and Shannan Horton. The tournament was held June 15 at Stone Mountain, Ga.

T E X A N O N L I N E . N E TAUGUST 2018 TEXAS 7

By Karen L. WilloughbyTEXAN Correspondent

MESQUITE A lightning-sparked fire in 2005 sapped the strength of Galloway Avenue Baptist Church, which was al-ready declining from its high of 500 weekly worshipers in the mid to late 1990s.

By March of this year, the remaining attenders, about 60 who are fiercely loyal to God, longtime member Lenny How-ell told the TEXAN, were will-ing to do whatever it took to save the church. The best op-tion, they believed, was a revi-talization program.

“A complete restructure of the church, that’s what appealed to most people,” said Howell, chair-man of the personnel commit-tee, who was left leading the congregation after the associate pastor and deacons all resigned about nine months after the pastor resigned. “We were talk-ing about starting from scratch, constitution and bylaws rewrit-ten, new leadership and some-one to lead us in the process of doing all that.

“When you get to a low point, there’s not much you can do but look up,” Howell contin-ued. “I really think the people are willing to do whatever it takes for the church to get back on its feet.”

On March 18, at the church’s request, Kenneth Priest, direc-tor of convention strategies for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, brought a message in the morning service. At the end of the service he presented the covenant revitalization model he believed would work best for Galloway Avenue.

The following week the church voted to commit to the program and directed the pas-tor search committee to seek a pastor to lead them.

In early June, Galloway Av-enue called Gary Wagoner for a three-year term as revitaliza-tion pastor. Wagoner had been pastor of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Jonesville, La., for 14 years when he and his wife, Nina, moved last November to the Dallas area, where their two sons and one grandson live. Once there, they waited for God’s call to their next ministry.

“I just really want to see God move and revive this church,” Wagoner told the TEXAN. “To be able to participate in the church growing and blossom-ing again, I want to be part of that, and to see God move in the church. I believe Jesus’ church should be alive and vibrant.”

Galloway Avenue paused for a covenant revitalization ceremo-ny with Priest at the close of the June 17 worship service, Wag-oner’s first Sunday as revitaliza-tion pastor. After he preached from Isaiah 64, the prayer of the hungry heart, Wagoner, church trustee Larry Buchanan and Priest signed the covenant.

“The covenant is a spiritual undertaking, not a legal docu-ment,” according to the docu-ment’s first line. “The pastor and the church commit themselves to a cooperative partnership for the fulfillment of this covenant as part of the church’s ministry of worship, education, fellow-ship, and service to others, as it seeks to proclaim the good news of God’s love in Christ.”

Galloway Avenue members met together for prayer Sunday

afternoons for several weeks before Wagoner arrived, and individually they had gone through a resource, 40 Days of Prayer for Church Revitaliza-tion, which the SBTC provided.

“They’re very committed people,” Wagoner said. “They love their church; they love the Lord. That’s very evident talk-ing with them, their passion for the church and their passion for the Lord.”

The covenant revitalization process starts with a 13-week preaching series that covers the letters to the seven churches mentioned in Revelation, with Scripture verses suggested by SBTC to address pertinent as-pects of church life.

“They don’t give us the mes-sage,” Wagoner said. “We take the passages designed to teach the church particular truths, and pray the Lord will use that to open eyes and teach hearts.

“Then [after the 13 weeks] we will sit down and have a dream session,” Wagoner continued. “We’ll talk about things that are and aren’t working, things we’d like to try, and a ‘dream list’ of things we could do that people are eager to see happen. Then we’ll set in motion the wheels to accomplish the things the church needs to have done.”

Wagoner said his job isn’t to tell the congregation what to do, but rather to help facilitate thinking and discussion as the church together decides what it wants to do.

“My role,” Wagoner said, “is to lead the church in examining everything from bylaws, con-stitution, Sunday School, every program, and to look for ways the church can improve, min-istries that can be started, and just in general to pray and seek revival in the life of the church.”

Galloway Avenue, begun in 1990 as the merger of two church-es, continues in its commitment to missions and ministry. It gives 5 percent of undesignated offer-ings to missions through the Co-operative Program.

This is the fifth year for Gal-loway Avenue to host a week-long summer soccer camp for more than 60 young people, with the help of several volun-teer leaders from First Baptist Church of Mauriceville.

Community outreach pro-grams for children through the sixth grade also include Vaca-tion Bible School in the summer and a Back to School Bash for the neighborhood before school starts, providing an interactive Bible story and school supplies.

Another Galloway Avenue ministry, Hand of Hope, is a dis-tribution site for Sharing Life Community Outreach and the North Texas Food Bank. In years past, the church offered support groups for people dealing with divorce, abortion recovery and chemical dependency.

Galloway en Español is a min-istry started by a previous pastor that meets at the church with Juan Manuel Garza as pastor.

“I have found the people of Galloway Avenue to be a very loving, caring congrega-tion,” Howell told the TEXAN. “They’re very compassionate people who love the Lord.”

MESQUITE CHURCH ENTERS INTO COVENANT REVITALIZATION

Church Revitalization DinnerA Church Revitalization Dinner is planned for Monday evening of the Nov. 12-13 annual meeting of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in Houston. Joining SBTC’s Kenneth Priest in a presentation on revitalization and replanting will be Mark Clifton, the North American Mission Board replant director. Email dstaats@sbtexas.com for 2 free tickets for each senior pastor. Additional information will be available in the exhibit hall booth for Church Revitalization and you can visit sbtexas.com/revitalization.

The Jesus 2 Others ministry of Galloway Avenue Baptist Church adopted Tisinger Elementary School and hosts a teacher appreciation lunch each year.

This is the fifth year for Galloway Avenue Baptist Church to host a weeklong summer soccer camp for more than 60 young people.

“To be able to participate in the church growing and blossoming again, I want to be part of that, and to see God move

in the church. I believe Jesus’ church should be alive and vibrant.”

—GARY WAGONER, REVITALIZATION PASTOR, GALLOWAY AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH

By Karen WilloughbySBC LIFE

CARROLLTON The world is the common denominator that links all the ministries of Semi-han Church in Carrollton.

Even the church’s name re-flects this linkage: “Se” is part of a Korean word for world. “Mi,” part of a word for the United States. And “Han” is part of a word for Korea.

Semihan’s ministries include special needs, refugee, American Indian, Bangladeshi, and Korean people groups. New this fall: out-reach to English-speaking Amer-icans, the friends, neighbors, and coworkers of the 1,600 post-high-school age Koreans who worship each week at Semihan.

Children, not counted in at-tendance figures, are considered a part of the church’s missions outreach, even as youngsters as young as kindergarten are taught to start ministering in age-appropriate ways.

“We would like to grow our kids to be global leaders, 100 percent world-aware, Ameri-can and Korean,” Executive Pas-tor Jun S. Choi told SBC LIFE. “When they have lessons about missions when they are young, more than likely they will con-tinue doing that as they grow up.”

Informally known as the “Korean Council,” the South-ern Baptist fellowship group of about 850 Korean-language churches met at Semihan Church in June in conjunction with the SBC annual meeting.

Semihan has five ministry pillars, Choi explained, that to-gether are represented by the acronym WORLD: to be a Wor-shipping church, Oikos small-groups church, Reaching-out church, Life-giving church, and Discipling church. Each year, the church rotates through one of the pillars.

“This year is ‘life-giving,’ so this year we focus on missions and evangelism,” Choi said. One

example of how this is done: Over the course of nine weeks this fall, church members will invite people they know to a variety of Semihan-sponsored sport and fun activities, such as golf, bowling, soccer, ping pong, and jokgu (a Korean foot game) tournaments and a fall festival.

“We share the gospel every time,” Choi said. “We are trying to expose them to the gospel as much as we can. . . . That’s our mission, our purpose.”

Worship services at Semihan are in Korean, with smartphone app audio translation to English.

The church has grown to include five children’s de-partments, which start with expectant parents, and nine branches of 71 community groups for adults, plus a half-dozen senior groups and singles and college groups.

Having learned to share their faith through Sunday School, Team Kid and age-appropriate missions projects, by the time Semihan youngsters are in the sixth grade, they’re allowed to participate in the church’s monthly ministry to the home-less in south Dallas, which in-volves providing a meal and wor-ship service for about 100 people.

Semihan Church also hosts a “Destination Korea” week-long camp each summer that introduc-es the Korean language and cul-ture to the Korean-born children of adoptive American families.

Ministry to refugees is an-other major missions initiative, now in its third year at Semi-han church, where members visit refugees, help them get settled in the United States, and share the gospel with them.

“At the beginning we have individual contacts, 56 the first year,” Choi said. “If they need we help go to the market and other things, and our team reg-ularly visit their houses. We start helping them out and can naturally share the gospel with them. There’s no guards up.

“We realized there are small

refugee churches and now we are backing up their church-es,” Choi continued. “We are working closely with African, Myanmar, Iranian and Paki-stani churches.”

One of Semihan’s three cur-rent church plants is the Paki-stani church.

Another major local initia-tive is Beanyard Coffee, a cof-fee shop open six days a week that is housed in a corner of the expansive church’s facili-ties. Special needs Koreans are the baristas. Semihan Church donates the space to the Texas Milal Mission, a Christian non-profit, which runs Beanyard Coffee as a way of providing work for the graduates of its job-training programs.

“We are trying to balance all three fields of our goals,” Choi said, referring to local, national and international missions. “We know the sharing of the gospel is our purpose.”

Semihan’s Church Planting Institute started within the last year. Choi, working with the North American Mission Board, translated NAMB materials into Korean to better aid Korean sem-inary students become NAMB-endorsed church planters.

“We like to train and equip

them for two years, and send them to a SEND City where NAMB is targeting,” Choi said. “What we are hoping for is we can pump out church planters on a regular basis. Our senior pastor got the vision we can do this. I think we are the first Ko-rean church trying to do this in a systematic way.”

Semihan Church can provide students with the experience needed—twice in each depart-ment over the two-year training period—to expand on their semi-nary training, including preach-ing in front of the senior pastor. “He will coach their sermons; he will talk about how to be a senior pastor,” Choi explained.

For missions outside the lo-cal area, Semihan Church has focused on American Indians in Arizona and New Mexico. Six trips to reservations are planned for this summer, in the continuation of a ten-year commitment to minister among people who “need to be healed in Christ,” Choi said. “We kind of share the same feelings of abandonment and the hurts and wounds of previ-ous generations.”

In Bangladesh, Semihan’s main international thrust, the church for the last five years

has operated a school consid-ered to adhere to the highest standards of education in the South Asian nation.

“It’s for the kids,” Choi said. “We want them to be the next leaders in Bangladesh who love Jesus Christ. We send one of our missionaries there as the principal, and send books in English. This year we are sending a layman team to share the gospel, help expand classrooms and teach com-puter skills, taekwondo, and Korean culture.”

Byeong Rack “Lloyd” Choi be-came pastor in 2002, though as a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he had been a member of the church when it started. He considers prayer to be an essential compo-nent to Semihan Church.

“Prayer is embedded in our church’s DNA, and is a driving force of our church,” Choi said. “Starting with Friday night prayer service, where the whole church prays together, it is also focused on our early morn-ing prayer service, small group gatherings, and our meetings even for kids. So we know it is not [up to] us to make decisions and live our life, but we only do what God told us to do.”

SEMIHAN CHURCH EXTENDS MINISTRY TO THE WORLD

At a refugee block party in Fort Worth, Semihan members set up six ministry stations, including sharing family goods (clothing and toys), bounce house fun, face painting, picture-taking, sharing the gospel and praying.

S O U T H E R N B A P T I S T T E X A N8 TEXAS sbtexan

“It will help us have more communication among our de-partments, and we’ll be able to better minister to our different Hispanic churches with their different needs,” Gonzales said. “Next year, when Hispanic indi-viduals in these ministries see our makeup, the way we are go-ing to be reshaped, they are go-ing to say, ‘Hey, we can connect with the convention now.’”

Because Hispanic communi-ties differ throughout the state,

Gonzales said the en Espa-ñol initiative will be tailored, particularly for the regional conferences, to the local demo-graphics, with a range of lan-guage options available.

“It just depends on the situa-tion. If you go down by the bor-der, everything will continue to be done in Spanish. If you go to Lubbock or Odessa, we might have an English track because lots of Hispanics there are bilingual.”

In addition to increasing convention-wide unity and opening up more opportuni-ties for Hispanic members, the shift is aimed at reaching and

serving a changing Hispanic community, one in which sec-ond and third generations are becoming the majority.

“As young (Hispanic) people in the church continue to grow, they do prefer English. In order for the Hispanic church to re-tain young people, a lot of them are having to start providing at least bilingual services or have an English service. For us as a convention, that’s vital, I think,” said Hispanic Ministries associ-ate Jesse Contreras.

By combining all of the con-vention’s conferences and events, Contreras hopes to see future Hispanic leaders better equipped

to serve and lead others.“In the past, the conferences

were a bit limited because they were all in Spanish. Now, they can bring their young people and college-aged students, and they can take part in the whole conference,” he said. “I’m hop-ing that we can connect with some future leaders—Hispanic men and women who are able to handle both languages, both cultures—and to continue their leadership development be-cause there’s a need for solid, theologically astute students who can help our churches for the coming generations.”

While the en Español model

will be new at the convention level, it’s one Gonzales said many larger SBTC congre-gations have already begun adopting and one he predicts will become more prevalent with time.

“Most of our bigger Anglo churches are moving toward the en Español model, and the reason is because it becomes one church, not two churches,” Gonzales said. “That’s the reali-ty. That’s going to be the future of the Southern Baptist church, ministering to all the people in all cities in their different lan-guages and in their different backgrounds.”

ESPAÑOLCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

AUGUST 2018 SBC 9T E X A N O N L I N E . N E T

By Diana ChandlerBaptist Press

DURHAM, N.C. Keeping the Southern Baptist Convention out of politics remains a goal of the SBC’s president and vice presidents, J.D. Greear said in defending their endorsement of President Trump’s justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“All three of us have a desire to keep the SBC out of politics, but we also want to speak with clarity in those places we feel like there is clarity,” Greear said in a July 12 Facebook Live in-terview. “And when it came to potential justice Kavanaugh, here’s somebody who has a his-tory of standing for the sancti-ty of life and religious liberty.”

Greear, the SBC’s newly elected president, and first vice president A.B. Vines and second vice president Felix Cabrera publicly endorsed Kavanaugh July 9 as President Donald Trump’s choice to re-place retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Sev-eral SBC entity leaders and for-

mer SBC presidents are among 39 signers of the endorsement.

“Our community may dis-agree about where we vote at the end of the day,” Greear said in the interview, “but we can agree that somebody who respects these things [life and religious liberty]; and has a his-tory of it, that’s good for the na-tion and to build the kingdom of God.”

Todd Unzicker, pastor of sending at The Summit Church in Durham, N.C., con-ducted the interview with Greear, the church’s senior pastor, for 15 minutes in Gree-ar’s office July 12.

The endorsement of Kavana-ugh, Greear said, stands on gos-pel the Bible clearly delineates.

“It’s not that the gospel is not political, because it is, because good policy is often how we love our neighbor,” Greear said. “We recognize that there are some things the Bible’s clear on, and then there’s some things that Christians can disagree on. But where the Bible is clear, we should be clear.

“So we want to show some constraint and not align our-selves with a particular plat-form or administration,” Greear said, “but we do want to speak with clarity.”

In the interview, Greear dis-cussed his SBC activities since his June 12 election in Dallas.

Press interviews and meet-ings with various state Baptist leaders are comprising much of his time in the summer months, Greear said.

“Jimmy Draper told me, ‘Just be careful. You don’t speak for the SBC; if anything, you speak to the SBC,’” Greear said. “In one sense I know I am representing Southern Baptists to the press, so I’m just trying to speak with grace and truth.” Draper, cur-rent SBC Executive Committee ambassador, was SBC presi-dent from 1982-1984 and is president emeritus of LifeWay Christian Resources.

Interviews have focused on SBC changes, accomplishments and goals.

“Our identity is built in the gospel, not in cultural homoge-

neity. It’s not in political align-ment,” Greear said. “Our unity is in the Great Commission; our identity is in the gospel; and I feel like those are some trends that are coming out in the in-terviews. That’s what they’ve been asking about.”

Prayer, evangelism, the gos-pel, revival and exhorting college students are among his priorities, Greear said, an-nouncing plans to meet with state leaders this summer.

“My goal as the president is

I’m the least important person in the conversation,” he said of state leaders. “And I want to say to these state agencies and these conventions, ‘How can I serve in what God has put on your heart to do and be a cata-lyst to help you facilitate evan-gelism in your area?’”

First vice president Vines pastors New Seasons Church in San Diego, Calif., and second vice president Cabrera leads Iglesia Bautista Central in Okla-homa City.

KAVANAUGH NOD NONPARTISAN, PRO-KINGDOM, GREEAR SAYS

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By Jane RodgersTEXAN Correspondent

McALLEN, TEXAS and LA VETA, COLO. South-ern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief units have been stretched this sum-mer, deploying to the Rio Grande Valley following widespread flooding in June after two days of torrential rainfall from a tropical storm system, then to Colorado in July to serve those fighting raging fire-fires.

SBTC DR volunteers departed McAl-len on July 14, but SBTC groups were scheduled to redeploy the week of July 22 and continue flood recovery in the area in conjunction with Texas Baptist Men, SBTC DR associate Wally Leyerle told the TEXAN.

The governor’s June 22 state of the emergency declaration specified Aran-sas, Cameron, Hidalgo, Nueces, San Patricio and Willacy counties. Prior to the announcement, mayors of McAllen, Mission, Weslaco and Edinburg—the largest cities in Hidalgo County—de-clared states of emergency for their cit-ies, the Valley Morning Star reported.

It was not a typical flood event from an overflowing river or burst dam.

“It came from the sky. [The water] just dumped on them,” George Yarger, SBTC DR’s initial incident commander, told the TEXAN. Yarger, who arrived in McAllen June 25, said he observed hundreds of flooded homes, many clustered in neigh-borhoods or low lying “pockets” where the water could not drain. Thousands of homes may be affected, he added.

By June 27, volunteers in chaplaincy, assessment, clean-up and recovery, feed-ing, administration and incident manage-ment were assisting victims throughout the affected Rio Grande Valley area.

Assessors started work June 26. By July 14, some 70 work orders had been com-pleted, most involving clean-up and mud-out operations, including work on Memo-rial Baptist Church of Edinburg said Daniel White, SBTC DR task force member.

A clean-out crew from Broadview Baptist Church of Abilene, under the leadership of Brian Batchelder, consist-ed of individuals recruited from vary-ing locations and largely unacquainted with one another before the deploy-ment, Yarger said.

More than 100 spiritual contacts in-volving prayer, gospel sharing and dis-tribution of Bibles and tracts occurred by mid-July, said Mike Jansen, who re-placed Yarger as incident commander.

Chaplains and assessors are sometimes called to share out of their own heart-wrenching experiences, as DR volunteers Wayne Barber and Julian Moreno dis-covered after approaching Tom, a flood victim in his 60s working in his yard.

“If you lost your life in this flood, do you know where you would be?” Barber asked Tom, only to be surprised at the man’s response. Tom replied he hoped God would “open the door” so he could “slap him,” Barber recalled, explaining that Tom’s bitterness stemmed from the death of his child, years before.

“He [also] said he had seen too much death from working in hospitals,” Barber said, noting the Tom couldn’t understand how God could allow such tragedy.

Moreno explained to Tom that he also had lost a child, his first, in infancy. Moreno shared how heartbroken the death left him, and how he found peace through faith.

Tom was visibly affected by Moreno’s testimony and transparency, said Bar-ber, who afterwards asked the man if he, too, wanted to trust Christ as savior.

“You could tell the change had already started. He said yes,” Barber said. “He was a totally different man, with the peace that only God can give. God used this ex-perience to bring him to Jesus.”

The week of July 9, members of a crew mudding out a home shared the gospel with a homeowner in the natu-ral course their conversation. “One would share, then another would come through,” Jansen said, adding that the homeowner prayed to receive Christ.

These were two of 26 salvations dur-ing the deployment, Yarger and Jansen confirmed, meetings deemed “divine ap-pointments” by Barber.

Yarger and Jansen praised the gener-osity of First Baptist Church of McAllen for hosting SBTC DR teams. The church also provided interpreters, “always a great need” when along the border, Jan-sen added.

FEMA representatives arrived in the Valley to assess flood damage in the area the week of June 27, KRGV.com re-ported. Public officials also prepared for an “expected explosion of disease-carry-ing mosquitoes” as floodwaters receded, the Valley Morning Star said. Following President Trump’s July 6 disaster dec-laration, FEMA disaster crews began door-to-door visits the next week.

Colorado WildfiresWhile SBTC volunteers sought divine

appointments in South Texas, Colorado DR requested assistance feeding firefight-ers and National Guard troops responding to wildfires sweeping that state.

When Scottie Stice, SBTC DR director,

called for a team to travel to La Veta, Colo., to relieve Colorado DR feeding crews, Beth Wilbanks of Diboll replied that she was already there.

Wilbanks and her husband, Gerry, were actually en route to Wyoming to work with Volunteer Christian Build-ers when the call came.

“I am headed that way. I will go,” Wil-banks told Dewey Watson, SBTC DR task force supervisor for feeding. Her husband drove six hours to drop her at La Veta in southern Colorado on July 12, where she worked through the week-end, joined Saturday by two additional SBTC volunteers from Texas. A second three-person SBTC feeding team was scheduled to deploy to Colorado July 22-31, with a six-person team rotating in the following week, Watson said.

DR crews from SBTC, Colorado and other states are feeding first responders

using trailers from the North American Mission Board. Volunteers are staying in both the church parsonage and the SBTC DR’s mobile bunkhouse, parked at Mountain View Baptist Church in La Veta and taken to Colorado, Watson said.

Wilbanks, who accompanied Colorado assessors on a run following her feeding shift one day, described the ongoing ash-out work that promises to occupy crews for months. The effort requires heavy equipment to remove twisted metal de-bris, volunteers to sift through ashes for valuables, and skid steers to move mounds of ash, Wilbanks noted.

Ash-out is “a hard job” and “also dan-gerous. You cannot breathe that ash,” Watson added. He said SBTC DR efforts would continue to focus on feeding vol-unteers and first responders as relief and recovery efforts expand in Colorado.

SBTC DR TACKLES FLOODS AND WILDFIRES

Beth Wilbanks washing pans in NAMB kitchen trailer at La Veta, CO. PHOTO COURTESY OF BETH WILBANKS

Ash from Colorado wildfires poses challenges for disaster relief teams.

A team of SBTC DR volunteers deployed to McAllen to help flooded homeowners.

Ben HaysReach Houston Strategistbhays@sbtexas.com

sbtexas.com/reachhouston

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“He was a totally different man, with the peace that only God can give. God used this experience to bring him to Jesus.”

—DR VOLUNTEER WAYNE BARBER SPEAKING OF A MAN AFFECTED BY THE RIO GRAND VALLEY FLOOD

T E X A N O N L I N E . N E TAUGUST 2018 SBC 11

By Diana ChandlerBaptist Press

MCCREARY COUNTY, Ky. Tiny homes under construction spearheaded by a small Appalachian congregation will of-fer sanctuary and livelihood to people recovering from addiction and other life setbacks.

Crossroads Community Church in Stearns, Ky., bought a 13-acre site and is building 20 homes of 300- to 540-square-feet to meet the needs of a community impacted by poverty, broken families and substance abuse addiction.

About 75 people attend the church “on a good Sunday,” many of them re-tired or unable to work, pastor Grant Hasty told Baptist Press. Yet God has given the church a multifaceted minis-try with the help of others.

“Everything we do is through dona-tions and volunteers,” Hasty said, includ-ing volunteers from the church. “Most [Crossroads Community Church mem-

bers] are unemployed, some are retired, some of them are unable to work. We’re just giving them an opportunity to serve and to give back. And then we also part-ner with a lot of churches, and not just summer, but throughout the year.”

The housing development, called The Light Community, is about 12 miles from The Lord’s Café where the church worships and serves free hot meals four days a week.

In addition to building homes and serving hot meals, volunteers from 16 churches are conducting a free summer camp four days a week, giving away groceries once a week, washing clothes in a laundromat ministry four days a week and conducting a crafts ministry at a privately owned adult day care, all while spreading the gospel with those at each outreach.

“A few years ago, we began having a few individuals come in and just need-ing a place to stay, sometimes tempo-rarily,” Hasty recounted. “Some were

dealing with addiction, some were deal-ing with being burned out, others were dealing with child protection services” or other issues.

The needs birthed The Light Commu-nity in Strunk, modeled after the Com-munity First Village outreach by Mobile Loaves and Fishes ministry in Austin.

“I really fell in love with the model … in Austin to combat homelessness,” Hasty said, “and so we’re bringing that back to rural Appalachia and adapting it to our culture.”

The Light Community will house people who have demonstrated a clear effort to recover from substance abuse, such as opioid addictions that place Kentucky fifth in overdose deaths in the U.S., according to the 2016 Overdose Fatality Report of the Kentucky Office of Drug Policy Control. Overdose deaths numbered 1,404 in Kentucky in 2016, compared to 1,248 the previous year, the report said.

But seeing individuals in need, rather

than knowing the statistics, was the driving force in founding The Light Community, Hasty said.

Rent paid by a couple to live in a two-bedroom cabin at The Light Community site, coupled with an outside donor, cov-ers the mortgage and utilities for the construction site.

“The project is not costing the church anything each month,” Hasty said. “All we do through ministry is by donation and volunteers. God is good.”

Volunteers will construct homes in four sections of five homes each, with each section costing about $20,000 and including two studio homes and three two-bedroom homes, Hasty said. The first homes should be ready for occu-pancy in the spring of 2019. Christian faith won’t be a requirement for tiny home residents, which Hasty said will give the church additional opportuni-ties to spread the gospel.

“They’re going to have to work,” Hasty said. “It’s not a handout; it’s a hand up.”

TINY HOUSES: SANCTUARY FOR

NEEDY SHOWS ‘GOD IS GOOD’

Volunteers are helping Crossroads Community Baptist Church in Stearns, Ky., build the light Community of 20 tiny homes to help former addicts and others gain a firm foundation in life. PHOTO BY GRANT HASTY

By Helen GibsonBaptist Press

NASHVILLE Mental health struggles and thoughts of suicide may be more com-mon than church leaders realize—even among some of the youngest members of a congregation.

Around one in three high school stu-dents (31.5 percent) say they’ve experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopeless-ness, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Additionally, 17.2 percent say they’ve seriously considered attempting suicide, while 13.6 percent say they’ve made a suicide plan, 7.4 percent have attempted suicide, and 2.4 percent were injured in a suicide attempt.

In the light of recent high-profile suicides and because it’s easy for men-tal health struggles to remain hidden, church leaders may want to take note of the CDC’s latest findings.

10 years, no improvementThe CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Sur-

vey, which has been conducted every other year since 1991, asks students from public and private high schools about their sexual behavior, substance abuse, violence victimization and men-tal health. The most recent report, re-leased earlier this month, shows data collected from 2007 to 2017.

When it comes to issues of mental health and suicide, researchers have seen concerning trends persist or get worse over the past 10 years.

The percentage of students who say they’ve experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness has increased by three points since 2007.

The percentage of students who’ve seriously considered attempting suicide has increased by 2.7 points, while the percentage of those who’ve made a sui-cide plan has increased by 2.3 points.

Meanwhile, the prevalence of suicide among members of the general public has increased quite significantly. Suicide claimed the lives of just under 45,000 Americans in 2016—over 10,000 more Americans than it did in 2007—accord-ing to additional CDC research.

Among those ages 10 to 34 years old, suicide is the second leading cause of death, according to CDC data compiled by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Mental health, suicide, and the church Still, in 2017, LifeWay researchers

found that suicide remained a “taboo” topic in many Protestant churches.

The survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors and 1,000 Protestant and nondenomi-

national churchgoers found that while many want their churches to be a place families and individuals dealing with suicide can turn, a disconnect still exists.

Eight in 10 pastors agreed their church is equipped to assist someone threaten-ing suicide. However, only three in 10 strongly agreed, meaning more than two in three pastors acknowledged they could be better equipped to deal with suicide.

The survey also found mixed re-sponses from church members when it comes to questions surrounding suicide.

Some churchgoers said they’d seen different kinds of support from their church following a suicide. But 55 per-cent said people in their community were more likely to gossip about a sui-cide than help a victim’s family.

Additionally, even fewer churchgoers said their church leaders publicly address suicide or provide resources to help those in the midst of a mental health crisis.

This includes:u 24 percent of churchgoers who say

their church has shared a testimony in the past year of someone who has struggled with mental illness or thoughts of suicide.

u 22 percent who say the church has used sermons in the past year to discuss issues that increase the risk of suicide.

u 13 percent who say their church has taught what the church believes about suicide.

u 14 percent who say the church trained leaders to identify suicide risk factors.

u 13 percent who say their church shared reminders about national resources for suicide prevention.

Study shows troubling picture of teens, mental health

By Katie ColemanSouthwestern Seminary Writer

During a recent mission trip to South Asia, Ruth,* a master’s student at South-western Seminary, noted the desire of those she met to be a people of worship. Unfortunately, Ruth says, their worship was always misplaced in objects or one of the thousands of Hindu gods that they believed would help them, bless their homes and give them a valuable life.

People were searching, Ruth says, for an answer to their hardships. “Many people are just trying to survive,” she continues. “But then God reminded me that money is not the ultimate solution to life’s struggles. Jesus is the solution.”

Eight Southwestern Seminary stu-dents partnered with South Asian mis-sionaries, May 23 – June 11, to share this solution with people by going into neighborhoods to spread the gospel to their residents. By the end of the trip, more than 60 people had professed faith in Christ and were connected with local missionaries for follow-up, baptism and discipleship.

Ruth, who grew up in China, says she was accustomed to having to convince people that any god exists. In contrast to this past experience, sharing the gos-pel with people in South Asia required an approach that clearly explained that there is only one true God.

Many were resistant to the gospel, but many more were eager to add Jesus to their list of gods whom they worshiped. “My heart was broken for these people,” Ruth says. “They are blinded and deaf to the truth. Even when you tell them,

they often do not understand.”Because of this, Ruth says, the spiritual

needs are great, and opportunities are un-limited. Master’s student Bonnie Jacobs found this to be especially true when reaching South Asian women. In that social context, men and women usually are not allowed to freely interact with one another without special permission. Jacobs therefore discovered that she had some unique opportunities as a woman to reach other women with the gospel.

Many of the Southwestern students, including some male students, realized that their presence drew the attention

of many locals and would often find themselves surrounded by a group of people curious to discover what they were doing there. Each time provided a chance to share the gospel, usually re-sulting in multiple salvations at once.

But Jacobs noticed that her interac-tions with women were of a different nature. Many of them, she says, had been treated as second-class citizens and felt that they had no hope.

After entering a Hindu temple, a woman whose job was to clean the temple approached Jacobs and asked her if the temple was clean enough for her.

“Oh, yes,” Jacobs responded. “That is not a problem at all. The only problem is that I believe there is only one God, and here I see that there are many gods.”

As Jacobs began to share the gospel, the woman sat on the floor to listen. To the surprise of this woman, Jacobs joined her on the floor. “She was so happy that I sat next to her,” Jacobs says, “that I cared enough to sit next to her and talk with her.”

This simple act sent a profound mes-sage to the woman. Jacobs says that, as someone who was often looked down on because she is a woman from a lower group in the Hindu caste system, cultur-al prejudices had made the woman feel inferior and of little value.

As they spoke, several other women crowded around to hear their conversa-tion, allowing for about a dozen women to hear the gospel in the middle of a Hindu temple. Although curious, the women ul-timately said they could not live without their Hindu gods. The first woman said, “Without my gods, I would have no hope.”

Jacobs was discouraged that the gos-pel message did not get through to these women but says that this brought to her attention the important role she and other women can play in reaching women in international missions.

“For women, the different gods that they have, that’s the only hope that they have—that this god or that god will make their lives better or happier or healthier,” Jacobs says. “That’s where they put their hope. But we know that hope is truly found through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.” *Name changed to protect future mission work.

By Lesley HildrethBaptist Press

RICHMOND One of the most significant figures in the history of Christian mis-sions is a freed Georgia slave named George Liele. Even though William Car-ey may be called the father of the mod-ern missionary movement, George Liele left America and planted the gospel in Jamaica a full 10 years before Carey left England.

Conversion and early ministryGeorge Liele came to Christ in 1773,

at the age of 23, and was baptized by his white pastor, Matthew Moore. Some time after Liele’s conversion, his owner, Henry Sharp, who was a Baptist dea-con, gave Liele his freedom so he could pursue God’s call. Liele preached for two years in the slave quarters of planta-tions surrounding Savannah and into South Carolina after his conversion.

Because of his faithfulness and pow-erful preaching of the Word, many sur-rendered their lives to Christ. George Liele was ordained on May 20, 1775, becoming the first ordained African American Baptist preacher in America. After his ordination, he planted the first African American Baptist Church

in North America, a church still in ex-istence today.

An open door in JamaicaIn 1778, Henry Sharp was killed in

the Revolutionary War. After his death, Sharp’s heirs took steps to re-enslave Liele. As a result of their actions, Liele was thrown in jail. Eventually, he was able to produce proper documentation concerning his freedom and was set free.

Soon after his release, Moses Kirk-land, a colonel of the British army, be-friended Liele and helped him leave the country. Kirkland helped pay for Liele’s trip to Jamaica, and after two years Liele paid this debt and obtained a certificate of freedom for himself and his family. George and his wife Hannah and their four children left Savannah and landed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1782.

When Liele landed in Jamaica it was a British colony. There, Liele found land

and a people who needed a mission-ary. Slaves were brought from Africa to Jamaica to work on the sugar plan-tations. These men and women had no real knowledge of Jesus Christ and the gospel. Liele planted a church and held a baptism service every three months. These baptisms were public events in which professing converts were bap-tized in a nearby ocean or river.

An integrated ministryThe work of the church and the pub-

lic baptisms caused persecution. Eventually, Liele was charged with

preaching sedition and was thrown into prison. He was later acquitted of these charges. Despite facing these hostilities, during the eight years of preaching, he was able to baptize 500 people and es-tablish a strong church.

Not only did Liele’s ministry lead to a spiritual impact on the island, but his work also made a social difference for the Jamaican slaves. By July 31, 1838, slavery was eradicated in Jamaica.

In 1814, there were only about 8,000 Baptists in Jamaica. This number includ-ed slaves, freedmen and some whites. However, as a result of Liele’s ministry, by 1832 there were over 20,000 thou-sand believers.

Author David Shannon summed up Liele’s life of ministry this way: “The Christianity practiced by Liele was not limited to one nation, colony, or ethnic group but was a faith found and spread through interaction with colonists and national leaders in the Americas and England. In turn, this broad vision of Christianity shaped and spread a vari-ety of Christian experience that became widespread and influential in black, white and integrated congregations in Georgia, South Carolina, Jamaica, Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone and beyond.”

Missionaries beyond JamaicaNot only was Liele an effective mis-

sionary and evangelist, he was known for encouraging his converts to go preach the gospel to the lost. As a result of his leadership, they went to Savan-nah, Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.

Adoniram Judson is often cited as the first Baptist missionary from the United States. But, in fact, this designation be-longs to George Liele. His story is an im-portant part of missionary history.

George Liele died in 1828. He may have begun life as a slave, but he lived as a free man in Christ. He left a rich legacy of thousands who were transformed by the good news of Jesus.

S O U T H E R N B A P T I S T T E X A N sbtexan12 SBC

SOUTHWESTERN MISSION TEAM BRINGS HOPE TO SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITIES

Eight Southwestern Seminary students partnered with South Asian missionaries, May 23 – June 11, going into neighborhoods to spread the gospel to residents.

Missionaries you should know: George Liele

By Tom StrodeBaptist Press

WASHINGTON A federal ap-peals court ruling that protects a church’s internal communi-cations buttressed both reli-gious freedom and defense of the unborn, according to the Southern Baptist Convention’s church-state entity.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Ap-peals in New Orleans reversed July 15 a federal judge’s order requiring the Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops of Texas to turn over their private delib-erations on what they describe as doctrinal and moral issues.

Though the case involved the Catholic Church, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) had said in a friend-of-the-court brief a failure to vacate the order would also endanger the religious freedom of South-ern Baptist and other congrega-tionally governed churches.

ERLC President Russell Moore applauded the Fifth Cir-cuit’s opinion.

“The court’s ruling, which af-firms religious liberty, as well as the sanctity of human life, is a victory for all Americans,” Moore said in a written state-ment. “Churches and religious organizations shouldn’t be

forced to disclose private infor-mation that could sabotage their ability to protect human dignity and engage in the public square. I am thankful the court acknowl-edged this in their decision.”

Moore said he prays the bish-ops and other religious organiza-tions “will continue to stand firm in their convictions as we work to ensure the state respects their constitutional rights.”

The case involves a challenge by the Whole Woman’s Health abortion clinic network—as well as Texas abortion doctors and other abortion providers—to a 2016 state law that requires fetal remains from abortions or miscarriages to be buried or cre-mated rather than discarded in a landfill or by other means. The Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops (TCCB) is not a party to the lawsuit, but Whole Wom-an’s Health sought its emails seemingly because the bishops have offered free burial for fetal remains in the church’s cem-eteries in the state.

Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin refused June 13 to sup-press Whole Woman’s Health’s subpoena of emails and attach-ments involving TCCB Execu-tive Director Jennifer Allmon since Jan. 1, 2016, on the dispos-al of the remains of aborted ba-

bies. The documents sought “do not address religious doctrine or church governance,” Austin wrote in his order.

On June 18, the Fifth Circuit Court halted the order at the TCCB’s request and called for the filing of briefs in the appeal by June 25.

In the Fifth Circuit’s July 15 divided opinion that blocked Austin’s order, Judge Edith Jones wrote for a three-member panel to say past U.S. Supreme Court opinions “have protected religious organizations’ internal deliberations and decision-mak-ing in numerous ways.”

While none of those decisions have directly addressed discov-ery orders as in this case, “the importance of securing religious groups’ institutional autonomy, while allowing them to enter the public square, cannot be un-derstated and reflects consistent prior case law,” she wrote.

Problems regarding both the First Amendment’s protection of religious free exercise and prohibition on government es-tablishment of religion “seem inherent in the court’s discov-ery order,” Jones said. “That in-ternal communications are to be revealed not only interferes with TCCB’s decision-making processes on a matter of intense

doctrinal concern but also ex-poses those processes to an op-ponent and will induce similar ongoing intrusions against reli-gious bodies’ self-government.”

Judge James Ho agreed with Jones and wrote in a concur-ring opinion, “It is hard to imag-ine a better example of how far we have strayed from the text and original understanding of the Constitution than this case.”

The abortion providers’ ef-fort to gain the TCCB’s internal communications causes the court to wonder if it is an at-tempt “to retaliate against peo-ple of faith for not only believ-ing in the sanctity of life—but also for wanting to do some-thing about it.”

Judge Gregg Costa dissented from the majority opinion, say-ing the TCCB documents sought by the abortion providers in this case “do not come close to the concerns” addressed in the Supreme Court’s line of deci-sions on religious free exercise and establishment of religion.

Before Austin’s order, the Texas bishops provided more than 4,300 pages of external communications at the request of Whole Woman’s Health but they refused to grant about 300 internal communications that included “private theological

and moral deliberations,” ac-cording to Becket, a religious liberty organization represent-ing the TCCB.

Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, said in a written release after the Fifth Circuit decision, “Let-ting trial lawyers put religious leaders under constant surveil-lance doesn’t make sense for Church or State. The Court was right to nip this abuse of the ju-dicial process in the bud.”

In its brief in support of the TCCB, the ERLC—joined by the National Association of Evan-gelicals—said the SBC is not hierarchical, unlike the Catho-lic Church, but its cooperating churches and other congrega-tionally governed bodies still “would face serious harm.”

“Religious deliberations over doctrine and mission and mo-rality are just as protected by the church autonomy doctrine for congregational churches like the Baptists as for any oth-er religious organization,” the brief said. “The threat posed by the subpoena in this case is equally menacing to religious freedom as if it had been lev-ied against a Baptist minister, a state Baptist convention, a Bap-tist cooperative entity, or any other religious body.”

By Baptist Press

FORT WORTH The International Mission Board and an alleged sexual assault victim of a for-mer missionary have presented differing accounts of how the board handled an investigation of the alleged misconduct.

After Baptist Press pub-lished a July 16 update on the case of former IMB missionary Mark Aderholt—who has been charged in Fort Worth with

sexual assault of a child under 17—his alleged victim, Anne Marie Miller, sent an email to BP disputing the IMB’s represen-tation of its 2007 investigation into the alleged misconduct. Miller was 16 and Aderholt 25 when the assault allegedly oc-curred in 1996-1997.

Aderholt served with the IMB from 2000-2008 and went on to serve on staff with Im-manuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., and with the South

Carolina Baptist Convention.In response to Miller’s claims,

board spokesperson Julie Mc-Gowan said, “We stand by the statements we made. We are cooperating with an ongoing criminal investigation, and we do not plan to share informa-tion publicly that could inter-fere with that investigation.”

Among Miller’s claims: She did not decline “multiple times” to report the abuse, as the IMB claimed, and the IMB is not

“supporting” her. Miller also said that while others could have reported her alleged abuse to Texas law enforce-ment in 2007, IMB was the only organization or person with “an intimate knowledge of what happened” until she “gave the details to law en-forcement” earlier this year.

“As the victim in Mark Ader-holt’s case,” Miller said, “I assure you I did not say ‘multiple times’ that I did not want to report the abuse to law enforcement.” Miller wrote that she made the comment one time following what she characterized as “an emotionally stressful and in-appropriate line of questioning from the IMB” in its 2007 in-vestigation. She also faults the IMB for not encouraging her to file a report or offering to help her “psychologically deal with their investigation.”

The fact that others could have reported “does not let the IMB off the hook, especially with their in-depth knowledge of my abuse,” she wrote.

Miller added, “In order for the IMB to ‘support’ me, they need to accept their own respon-sibility for not reporting this crime and publicly apologize to

me and the thousands of SBC members who could have been negatively impacted by the IMB not informing other entities of this heinous act.” She also wrote “[IMB]’s actions are not consis-tent with the [SBC annual meet-ing’s] resolutions about women and sexual abuse.”

McGowan told BP in an email, “We have a process to openly share information with media, and we have shared that information.”

She reiterated that “IMB has a zero-tolerance policy against sexual misconduct that is shared with all personnel. If anyone has knowledge of a case involving sexual misconduct, we strongly encourage them to come for-ward, and we provide multiple avenues for them to report. When we are informed of pos-sible cases of sexual misconduct of any kind, we investigate those situations immediately and, if warranted, take the appropriate action to report it to local au-thorities and remove individuals from IMB employment.”

Ministries and other employ-ers looking to hire any former IMB missionary can request a reference, McGowan said, by emailing references@imb.org.

Ex-missionary’s accuser disputes IMB response

SBC 13T E X A N O N L I N E . N E TAUGUST 2018

FEDERAL COURT PROTECTS LIBERTY, LIFE IN TEXAS CASE

S A M P L E P A Y M E N T R A T E SAGE RATE AGE RATE65 5.10% 80 7.30%70 5.60% 85 8.30%75 6.20% 90+ 9.50%

Notes: Rates are subject to change. Rates are based upon one-life.

14 BRIEFS

Compassion International boy was among those rescued from cave

One of the 12 boys rescued from a Thailand cave in July was a child sponsored through Compassion International, a Christian child advocacy ministry.

The biological parents of the child released a statement thanking people around the world for their prayers.

“Thank you to God,” the mother said in a video released by Compassion International. “I’m so happy and so thankful to see my son again. Thank you so much to everyone that has been praying for us and the boys and helping us; thank you.”

The names of the parents and the child were not released to protect their privacy.

The boys were part of a soccer team that practices on a field owned by Baag Jong Church, where the unnamed boy attends a Compassion program. The church was used as a base by rescuers.

—Compassion International

Polls overstate public support for Roe, professor says

Surveys show that a majority of Americans back the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, but a prominent political science professor says support erodes when people understand what the ruling did.

“Many wrongly think that overturning Roe v. Wade would result in [a] national ban on abortion, [when] instead a

reversal of Roe would return the issue to the states,” wrote Michael J. New at NationalReview.com. New is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Moreover, the public largely doesn’t realize that Roe “effectively legalized abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy and makes it difficult to place limits on late-term abortions.”

Polls historically have showed little support for second- and third-trimester abortions, New wrote.

“For instance, a Gallup poll that was released this June found that only 28 percent of people thought second-trimester abortions should be legal and only 13 percent thought third-trimester abortions should be legal,” he wrote.

New’s primary point: The public doesn’t support Roe, as is often assumed.

“Pro-lifers would do well to not be discouraged and stay the course.”

—NationalReview.com

Popular Bible app: 330 million downloads and in every country, too

The church behind the YouVersion Bible app celebrated the app’s 10th anniversary in July and revealed it had been downloaded on more than 330 million devices—and in every country of the world—since the app’s 2008 debut.

Life.Church’s YouVersion Bible was among the first 200 free apps when Apple launched the App Store in July 10, 2008.

“We never could have predicted the results we’ve seen as millions of people around the world have read, listened to, shared, and interacted with the Bible and each other in new ways,” said Bobby Gruenewald, Life.Church

pastor and YouVersion founder.Life.Church said the app has

been used to:u Read 70 billion chapters of

the Bible.u Listen to 12 billion audio

chapters of the Bible.u Make 4 billion highlights,

bookmarks and notes. u Complete 2.4 billion Bible

plan days. “Early on, we discovered that

proximity helped us engage with the Bible,” Gruenewald said. “As soon as I had access to the Bible on the phone that’s always in my pocket, my connection to it naturally became more frequent.”

—Christian Newswire

‘I Can Only Imagine’ opens at No. 1 in DVD sales

I Can Only Imagine, the faith-based film that shocked Hollywood by debuting at No. 3 in theaters, had an even more impressive opening in the DVD market.

The Erwin Brothers film was the No. 1-selling and No. 1-rented DVD the week it released to the home entertainment market June 12, according to data from MediaPlayNews.com. On the sales chart, I Can Only Imagine was followed by Tomb Raider, Black Panther, Sherlock Gnomes and A Wrinkle In Time.

The film—which grossed more than $83 million at the box office, tells the true story behind MercyMe’s famous song of the same name.

—MediaPlayNews.com, Icon Media Group

Online counseling degree & flex Ph.D. approved for SWBTS

A fully online master of arts in biblical counseling degree and an ongoing flex-access Ph.D. program have been approved for Southwestern Seminary by the institution’s accrediting agency.

The board of commissioners of The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) met in June to discuss three

petitions from Southwestern, with the third being the relocation of the Havard campus in Houston to nearby Sagemont Church. All three petitions were approved.

Southwestern’s M.A. in biblical counseling (MABC) is a 65-hour program of study designed primarily to equip Christian men and women to minister God’s Word through counseling in the context of the local church or other Christian ministries.

The flex-access Ph.D. initiative began in 2015 as a three-year experiment. The initiative allows students to participate in the seminary’s existing Ph.D. program as residential students or online through live video web conferencing. With the three-year term drawing to a close, Southwestern petitioned and won approval for the program to become an ongoing initiative.

Southwestern reported that offering Ph.D. coursework through synchronous video had allowed the Ph.D. program to grow over the last three years, with online Ph.D. students increasing from 13 in 2015 (5 percent of all Ph.D. students) to 45 (15 percent of all Ph.D. students).

All actions of the board of commissioners were effective as of June 5.

—Southwestern Seminary

6,000 Nigerian Christians killed or maimed during attacks

Nigerian Christian leaders are calling on assistance from the international community following a series of attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen this year that left more than 6,000 Christians either dead of maimed. Most of them were children, women and elderly people, according to a statement by church leaders.

Open Doors reported that in one four-day stretch in June, a dozen villages were wiped out and about 200 people killed. Some were buried in mass graves. Among the dead were 120 people who were hacked to death while they returned home from a funeral.

“There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing,

land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage,” read the statement from church leaders. “What is happening in Plateau state and other select states in Nigeria is pure genocide and must be stopped immediately.”

The church leaders appealed “to the international community, particularly the United Nations” to intervene.

—CSW.org, Open Doors

Tariff concerns needn’t worry investors

Current news of tariffs and trade disputes has added volatility to the financial markets due to the uncertainty it creates but likely will have little impact on long-term investors, according to analysts with GuideStone Financial Resources.

Despite initial concerns that the moves could hamper growth, global markets have generally continued to trade in a narrow range while investors evaluate other, likely more impactful, near-term economic developments.

Regardless of the economic news, GuideStone encourages long-term retirement investors to focus on their long-term objectives and not short-term headlines and social media posts.

“Sensationalist headlines meant to garner investors’ attention, such as Harley-Davidson moving some motorcycle production overseas, merely serve as a distraction to a long-term investment plan,” said David Spika, chief strategic investment officer for the Southern Baptist financial services entity.

“While these headlines increase volatility to the markets in the short term as investors seek to react for better or worse to such news, history shows that long-term investors who don’t try to time the market and its cycles are rewarded.”

He added, “If one were to assume that the maximum amount of proposed tariffs was implemented, the hit to U.S. GDP would peak around 0.1 percent. However, there is a risk that a more negative result could occur if a more comprehensive trade war were to break out.”

—Baptist Press

BRIEFS

Survey: Inviting people to church is common

Nearly two-thirds of Protestant churchgoers say they’ve invited at least one person to visit their church in the past six months, according to a new report from LifeWay Research that involved a survey of 1,010 Americans who attend a Protestant or nondenominational church at least once a month.

“It’s a fairly easy thing for churchgoers to do,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “In any six-month stretch, there are major Christian holidays and often other special events that are perfect occasions for churchgoers

to invite friends and acquaintances.”Churchgoers were asked how often

they’d invited an individual or a family member to attend a worship service with them at their church in the last six months. They could include repeated invitations to the same people. Invitations counted even if they were turned down.

Seventeen percent say they extended an invitation. Twenty-one percent extended two invitations, while 25 percent extended three or more. Nine percent say they don’t know how many invitations they extended.

Three out of 10 say they didn’t invite anyone (29 percent).

—LifeWay Research

S O U T H E R N B A P T I S T T E X A N sbtexan

SBC 15T E X A N O N L I N E . N E TAUGUST 2018

CHURCH POSITIONS

PASTOR u West Main BC of Alice is accepting resumes for a FT pastor. Email to wmbcpsc@yahoo.com or mail to West Main Baptist Church, PO Box 1229, Alice, TX 78333. u Calvary BC, Dumas, is seeking a FT pastor. Experience, education and a heart for youth and missions is important; bilingual helpful. Please send resumes to: Pastor Search Committee c/o CBC, PO Box 633, Dumas, TX 79029 or email to MRP@amaonline.com. u Obrien BC in Obrien is looking for a FT pastor for our conservative, traditional church. Salary 40+ plus, insurance and parsonage 3/2/2. Send resume to obrienbaptist@yahoo.com. u Herty BC in Lufkin is seeking a pastor/shepherd. Average attendance is 25-40 on Sunday mornings. Parsonage is available. Please send resume to Herty Baptist Church, c/o Pastor Search Committee, 2914 Atkinson Drive, Lufkin, TX 75901. u Friendship BC in Caldwell is seeking a bi-vocational pastor/shepherd. Average attendance is 25-40 on Sunday mornings. Please send resume to Friendship Baptist Church, c/o Pastor Search Committee, PO Box 191, Chriesman, TX 77838. u Greggton FBC in Longview is seeking a PT/bi-vocational pastor. Please send resume to secretary@greggtonfbc.org or Greggton FBC, Pastor Search Committee, 4520 W Marshall Ave, Longview, TX 75604. u Weidner Road BC in NE San Antonio is seeking a bi-vocational pastor for a small community church. Please send resume to Weidner Road Baptist Church, 121 N Weidner Road, San Antonio, TX 78233. u FBC Bayside is looking for a bi-

vocational or retired pastor. Please remit resume to Pastor Search Committee, PO Box 85, Bayside, TX 78340.

MUSICu FBC of Winona is prayerfully seeking a PT minister of worship to lead our congregation of 150 in blended worship. Details can be found at www.winonafbc.org. Please email resume or recommendations to resume@winonafbc.org. u FBC North Zulch is in search of a PT music minister with a focus on a blended style of worship to lead praise team in practice and services on Sunday mornings. Being able to play an instrument (guitar, piano, etc.) is a plus. Pay is dependent upon experience and training. fbcnorthzulch.com. Send resume to Chip Parmer at ccav5809@msn.com.

COMBINATIONu FBC Bridgeport is searching for a FT minister of worship and membership care. Please send resume and cover letter to Craig Erb at cerb@fbcbridgeport.com. Include links to worship services. u Macedonia BC, Longview, is seeking a FT minister of administration/education who will help the pastor execute the mission and values of the church. Send resume to Macedonia Baptist Church, 4656 Page Rd, Longview, TX 75605 or cheryl@macbc.org. u FBC of O’Donnell is hiring a minister of youth and discipleship. For more information, please contact Taylor Wood at taylor.j.wood0620@gmail.com. u FBC Hamlin is seeking a FT minister of music/education. Great salary, benefits and parsonage provided. Submit resume to kenny@fbchamlin.com.

STUDENTSu Community BC in Dublin (close to Stephenville) is seeking a PT youth director with experience to lead children

on Wednesday nights and teach Sunday school. Please request an application by calling 254-445-4479. For more information, email gregjudy56@yahoo.com. u First Baptist Church Roby is hiring a PT youth director for Sundays and Wednesday evenings, plus camps in the summer. Contact Robert Terry at 325-207-4609 or send resume to First Baptist Church Roby, 112 Barb St., Roby, TX 79543. u Bethel Baptist Plainview seeks a PT youth/college minister to establish and grow a youth and college ministry for the church and community. Plainview is home to Wayland Baptist University. A college student willing to make a

commitment would be considered. Send resume and letter of introduction to bethelbaptistplainview@gmail.com.

CHILDRENu Harmony BC in Weatherford is seeking paid interns to serve in nursery and children’s classes on Sundays and Wednesdays. For more information please contact Lynn Crosslin at lynncrosslin@gmail.com.

OTHERu Basin Baptist Network in Midland–Odessa is accepting resumes for the position of Network Coordinator (DOM). Please email resumes to resumesbbn@gmail.com.

CLASSIFIEDS

u FBC of Cherryfield, Maine is seeking a new bi-vocational pastor. Our independent church, evangelical and Bible-based, ministers to a congregation (around 40) in a small downeast community in Maine. Annual salary is currently $20,000 with four weeks paid vacation. Church parsonage is available with paid utility costs, including heat and electricity. Health insurance is not provided. Direct inquiries to Mrs. Hayes at 207-546-3389 or Church Clerk, 102 N Street, Cherryfield, Maine 04622.

u 2002 Freightliner 37 passenger bus for sale with 62,000 miles. $62,000 or best offer. Please contact Jim Slaton at FBC Jasper for more details at 409-384-2527.

u DO YOU NEED A CHURCH PIANIST? Try piano accompaniment CDs for congregational singing from Worship Service Resources. Hymns, Choruses, DVDs, Lyrics - FREE DEMO - Call 1-877-977-6800 or visit wsrpianocds.com. Try before you buy!

u Memorial Heights BC, Claremore, OK, is prayerfully seeking the man called by God to serve as our FT pastor. Please send resumes to memorialheights@sbcglobal.net.

u Messiah’s Ranch Christian Camp, near Bryan/College Station, invites you to check us out at messiahsranch.org. It is a great camp!!

u FBC Marlow, OK is seeking God’s person to lead our children’s ministry (pre-K-4th). This is a full-time position. Resumes may be sent to Dr. Joe Ligon, First Baptist Church, PO Box 111, Marlow, OK 73055.

u FBC Pineville, LA seeks a minister of music with a passion for leading congregational worship, overseeing an age-graded choir ministry and a growing comprehensive music ministry. We (fbcpineville.net) have a blended service utilizing choir, praise team and an instrumental ensemble. Submit resumes to pastoroffice@fbcpineville.net.

u First Baptist Church of Tijeras, NM is seeking qualified candidates for lead pastor. Please visit our website at: www.fbctijeras.com for more information.

By Morgan Collier Baptist Press

NASHVILLE As Kathy Howard started taking care of her father-in-law and then her own parents, the physical and emotional demand became increasingly apparent.

“But I was unprepared for how spiri-tually challenging this journey has been,” said Howard, author of 30 Days of Hope When Caring for Aging Parents, a new book from New Hope Publishers.

Howard uses her own personal experi-ences in caregiving in the book as well as those of others who have gone through or are in the process of caregiving.

“The book is a 30-day devotional that offers the encouragement needed as you strive to care for your parents in a way that pleases God and still shows them honor and respect,” she said.

Through this time in her life, “I began to see how God was going to use me car-ing for my parents as a part of his spiri-tual refinement in my life and it was quite challenging,” she said.

In taking her father-in-law to his medical appointments, she felt she had to adjust her life accordingly.

“I was having to cancel lunch with friends to take him to the doctor,” Howard said. “While I wanted to help him, I still

felt that selfish sin na-ture that we all have.”

Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s, a disease that progres-sively destroys memo-ries and other mental functions.

“My mother can say some really hurtful things sometimes and it is from the disease, but my emo-tions still pop up,” Howard said.

“There have been multiple times where I have had to really lean on God to help me act in the Spirit rather than out of my own emotion-filled response.”

Howard grieves for the loss of her mother’s mental health and for her father who suffers from Parkinson’s, a long-term disease that attacks the central nervous system which affects movement.

“It’s emotionally difficult to watch this happen to them,” Howard said. “I grieve myself for my mom because I feel like I have already lost her even though she is still here, and I grieve for my dad be-cause he is still aware of what he has lost and what he is unable to do.”

Howard notes the biggest struggle in caregiving is figuring out how to parent them while also honoring them as a par-ent as God instructs in Scripture.

“Whatever I do ... I need to do it in a

way that obeys God’s commandment to honor my parents,” she said.

In one of the devotionals in the book, titled “Holding onto Hope,” Howard of-fers a reminder that there is still a hope in Christ through the tough times.

“There were days that I wrote and I had to stop and pause because I was overcome with emotion,” she said. “There were other times that I would have to stop and praise God because he impressed these words and experiences on me as I was writing.”

Howard encourages current and fu-ture caregivers to stay in God’s Word, stay connected with other people, stay connected with the body of Christ and allow others to help.

“If you are overwhelmed with the caregiver responsibilities and don’t have much alone time, get creative and pur-poseful to find time with God, because that is where our source of strength comes from,” she said.

“Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help as well.”

Caregivers often find the majority of their time filled with caring for their parents during their time of need but, Howard emphasizes, “it is more than OK to accept help and take time to get away.

“A caregiver that is totally and com-pletely burned out and exhausted is no good to their parents,” she said. “We need to give caregivers the freedom to have time for themselves.”

Howard said God has shown her that caring for her parents is something that pleases him and encourages other care-givers to see the situation as a ministry opportunity.

“So often it feels like we have to put our life on hold to take care of our par-ents,” she said. “We feel like they are unable to fulfill our ministries when, really, we are in a season that God has brought us to. Doing that in itself ... pleases him.”

CAREGIVING: AUTHOR’S DEVOTIONALS SEEK TO CONVEY HOPE

Kathy Howard

“If you are overwhelmed with the caregiver responsibilities and don’t have much alone time,

get creative and purposeful to find time with God, because that is where our source of strength comes from.”

—KATHY HOWARD

S O U T H E R N B A P T I S T T E X A N sbtexan16 CULTURE

By Bob SmietanaBaptist Press

NASHVILLE Most churchgoers will put up with a change in music style or a dif-ferent preacher, according to a LifeWay Research study released today (June 26). But don’t mess with a church’s beliefs or there may be an exodus.

The study of Protestant churchgoers found most are committed to staying at their church over the long haul. But more than half say they would strongly consider leaving if the church’s beliefs changed, according to the study, which was conducted Aug. 22–30, 2017.

Pastors often worry about changing church music and setting off a “worship war,” said Scott McConnell, executive di-rector of LifeWay Research. But few say they would leave over music.

Churchgoers are much more con-cerned about their church’s beliefs.

“Mess with the music and people may grumble,” he said. “Mess with theology and they’re out the door.”

Churchgoers stay putLifeWay Research surveyed 1,010

Protestant churchgoers—those who at-tend services at least once a month—to see how strongly they are tied to their local congregations.

Researchers found most churchgoers stay put.

Thirty-five percent have been at their church between 10 and 24 years. Twen-ty-seven percent have been there for 25 years or more. Twenty-one percent have been there less than five years, while 17 percent have been at the same church for between five and nine years.

Lutherans (52 percent), Methodists (40 percent) and Baptists (31 percent) are most likely to have been at their church for 25 years or more. Fewer nondenomi-national (11 percent) or Assemblies of God/Pentecostal churchgoers (13 per-cent) have such long tenure.

“Most church members have been at their church longer than their pastor,” Mc-Connell said.

More than half (57 percent) of church-goers say they are completely commit-ted to continuing to attend their current church. About a quarter (28 percent) are “very much” committed, while 11 per-cent are moderately committed. Two percent are slightly committed, while 1 percent are not committed at all.

The more people go to church, the more committed they are to attending their same church in the future. Those who attend at least once a week are twice as likely to be completely commit-ted to attending their church (62 per-cent) than people who go once or twice a month (31 percent). Those who attend once or twice a month are more likely to be moderately committed (36 percent) than those who go at least once a week (7 percent).

Churchgoers with evangelical beliefs are more likely to be completely com-mitted (67 percent) than those who don’t have evangelical beliefs (45 per-cent). Baptists (60 percent) are more likely to be completely committed than Lutherans (47 percent).

About two-thirds (63 percent) of

churchgoers who are 65 or older are completely committed to attending their same church in the future. That drops to 50 percent for those younger than 35.

Older churchgoers are also least like-ly to want to leave their church. When asked if they’ve thought about going to another church in their area, 92 percent of those 65 or older say no.

Overall, 15 percent of churchgoers say they have thought about going to another church in the past six months. Eighty-five percent say they have not.

Of those thinking about going to an-other church, about half (54 percent) have already visited another church. Forty-six percent have not.

“If people are thinking about leaving your church, chances are they’ve already started looking,” McConnell said. “So they’re probably halfway out the door.”

Most feel their beliefs line up with the churchFor the most part, churchgoers say they

agree with their church’s teaching. About half (52 percent) say their beliefs are com-pletely aligned with those of the church. Forty-two percent say their beliefs are mostly aligned. Fewer than 3 percent say their beliefs are slightly aligned, not aligned or they don’t know their church’s beliefs.

Education plays some role in how churchgoers view their church’s theol-ogy. Churchgoers who have graduate degrees are less likely to accept all their church’s teachings. Only a third (35 per-cent) say their beliefs are completely aligned with those of the church. Sixty percent say their beliefs are mostly aligned.

Two-thirds (62 percent) of churchgoers who have evangelical beliefs say they are completely aligned with their church’s theology, while a third are mostly aligned. By contrast, 39 percent of churchgoers who don’t have evangelical beliefs say they are completely aligned, and about half (53 percent) are mostly aligned.

Sixty percent of churchgoers at big churches—those with more than 1,000 at-tenders—say they are completely aligned with their church’s theology. That drops to 46 percent at churches with fewer than 50 attenders.

Baptists (57 percent) and nondenomi-national churchgoers (61 percent) are more likely to say they are completely aligned with their church’s theology than Lutherans (43 percent) or Method-ists (25 percent).

Still, churchgoers don’t like to see changes in their church’s doctrine. More than half (54 percent) say they’d seri-ously consider leaving if church doc-trine changed.

Researchers asked about other factors that might cause churchgoers to switch churches. Nearly half (48 percent) would change churches if the churchgoer moved to a new home.

Some churchgoers would leave if the preaching style changed (19 percent), if the pastor left (12 percent) or if a fam-ily member wanted a new church (10 percent). Nine percent say they would leave over politics. Fewer would leave if they didn’t feel needed (6 percent), if the music style changed (5 percent), if they

had a conflict (4 percent) or if a friend stopped attending (3 percent).

The survey shows churchgoers care about doctrine, McConnell said.

“Still, pastors can’t assume everyone in the pews agrees with their preach-ing,” McConnell said. “Overall, 94 per-cent believe most or all of their church’s teaching. But there’s still substantial wiggle room.

“Every time a pastor gets up to preach, there’s a good chance more than a few people in the pews are going to dis-agree,” he said.

Most find church programs helpfulResearchers also looked at how effec-

tive churches are in helping people grow spiritually.

Most churchgoers think their church is doing a good job. Three-quarters (76 percent) think their church has been either extremely helpful (36 percent) or very helpful (40 percent) in their spiri-tual growth. Sixteen percent say the church is moderately helpful.

Relatively few say the church has not been helpful (1 percent) in their spiri-tual growth or are not sure (2 percent).

Churchgoers did have some sugges-tions on ways churches can help them grow. Among them:

u 27 percent want their church to help

them understand more about God and the Bible.u 20 percent want their church to help them find new ways to serve.u 19 percent want their church to pro-vide more Bible study groups.u 16 percent want their church to help them get to know more people in church.u 14 percent say their church could provide forums to answer their spiri-tual questions.u 13 percent want their church to give them more chances to serve.u 13 percent want their church to pro-vide worship experiences that fit their needs.u 9 percent want their church to pro-vide more interaction with the pastor.u 8 percent want their church to pro-vide them with a mentor.Even though most churchgoers are

staying put and are relatively happy, there’s some reason for concern, McCo-nnell said.

At any given church, about 15 per-cent of the congregation is thinking about leaving. If they go, the church could suffer.

“The average church in the United States has less than 100 attenders,” Mc-Connell said. “Losing 10 or 15 people could make a huge impact.”

CHURCHGOERS STICKING AROUND FOR THEOLOGY, NOT MUSIC

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