Associated Baptist Press
July 29, 2008 · (08-74)
Greg Warner, Executive Editor
Robert Marus, News Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
In this issue
Wounded 'soldier of the Cross' scarred by Christian service
Gap between dreams, reality often cause of pastors' wounds
Rejected ministers find acceptance and help
Separate identity key to softening spouses' hurt
Mentoring program helps ministers chart true course
Appeals-court decision means Christian college gets state aid
Mimicking trends could turn musician into worship 'barista,' leader warns
Wounded 'soldier of the Cross' scarred by Christian service
By Ken Camp
BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (ABP) -- After 18 years serving the Lord in hot spots around the globe, Kevin Turner finally was wounded in the line of duty -- not physically, but emotionally and spiritually.
As president of Strategic World Impact and an ordained Baptist minister, Turner wanted to be "a soldier of the Cross." He traveled to war zones, disaster areas and regions where Christians are persecuted, convinced God had called him to provide emergency relief in Christ's name to people "standing on the brink of eternity."
In January, he planned to accompany a 20-member medical mission team to Darfur. The team intended to deliver supplies and Bibles to displaced people in the war-torn region.
The Oklahoma-based crew was slated to fly into southern Darfur on a cargo plane by way of Kenya. But as the mission team finalized plans, the situation in Kenya deteriorated. Riots broke out after a disputed presidential election and allegations of vote fraud. Due to roadblocks and other transportation problems within the country, fuel was unavailable for the plane scheduled to transport the team and their supplies from Kenya to Sudan.
"After Kenya flared up, I kept in the back of my mind that if we were needed there and couldn't go into Sudan, we'd do something in Kenya," Turner recalled.
Working with indigenous church leaders, the mission team planned to deliver emergency kits originally meant for Sudan to internally displaced people in Kenya. But at two sites where team members tried to work -- Nakuru and Molo -- they narrowly escaped violence.
"There were 11 fires burning in the city when we left Nakuru," Turner said. "People were throwing rocks as we stood between two vans and prayed, just before we pulled out. And right after we left, a mob ran into the lobby of the hotel where we had been staying. People were being chased by a crowd with machetes."
The team saw cars set on fire and listened to reports from pastors of revenge killings and random acts of wanton violence. At one point, the team was located in a gated park surrounded by a machete-wielding mob, unsure how they would escape.
"It was the straw that broke the camel's back. For me, I reached the pressure point," Turner said. "I've been in so many flipped-out situations through the years. I've had to make decisions that affect other people's lives -- people I'm responsible for before God and people I love with all my heart.
"Walking by myself in the bush, I prayed: 'God, I'm sick and tired of having to make decisions where people could die if I'm wrong. I've got to hear your voice. I need assurance.' I waited what must have been half an hour, and there was not a word from God. I was angry. I felt abandoned, in a sense."
Although the team managed to get out of Kenya alive, Turner returned to the United States broken and depressed.
"I didn't want to see anybody. I didn't want to talk to anybody. I sat in the dark, not wanting to engage the world," he said.
His trauma reached a crescendo one Wednesday night while his wife and children attended church. Turner "whacked out and blacked out," he said, finding himself disoriented and lost in his own garage for at least 15 minutes.
"I felt like my mind was shutting down -- like I was melting down," he said. When my wife came home, I told her: 'I'm going insane. I'm going nuts. You need to throw me away.'"
His wife persuaded him to seek medical attention at an after-hours clinic. The physician on duty--an Army doctor who had returned recently from service in Iraq--diagnosed Turner as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The doctor wanted to admit him to the hospital immediately, but Turner refused. Instead, the physician prescribed medications and sent Turner home with strict orders to seek specialized help.
In the weeks that followed, Turner's family physician and counselors confirmed the PTSD diagnosis, stemming not just from the trip to Kenya but from the cumulative effects of 18 years of ministry in crisis situations.
Although Turner reports progress over the last few months, he still feels he's far from fully recovered.
"My life has been in turmoil. The nights have been like hell for me," he said. "I've been able to keep my thoughts in some perspective in the daytime. But nighttime is the worst. It all comes flooding in."
Psychologist Dan McGee noted the symptoms Turner described, coupled with his prolonged exposure to trauma, fit the PTSD profile.
"The mind, in order to survive day to day, must assume the position of invincibility. It is a carryover -- somewhat a gift and curse -- from adolescence when none of us really believes any of the bad stuff will really happen to us. Without this defense mechanism, we would be compelled to live in a state of anxiety that would overtax our mind/body system, and make a normal life impossible," McGee explained.
"Therefore, when life-threatening things really do happen around us, the adaptation is made possible through coping skills learned over time. The problem is that they are not meant by the Creator to be used as a permanent solution."
When those coping mechanisms break down under overload, raw emotions and behaviors surface, he said.
McGee, an independent contractor working with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, noted ministers particularly are subject to overload, burnout and compassion fatigue. He cited three reasons:
-- Ministers are expected to be the stabilizing force at times of illness, injury, death, divorce or other kinds of loss.
-- They are "unfortunately believed to be immune from error, misjudgment, temptation or failure."
-- They tend to misinterpret "calling" to override their own needs and the needs of their families.
Even Jesus needed a break, McGee noted.
"There were times when Jesus did not heal, did not raise [people] from the dead, or even drop everything to be a first responder," he said. "One gigantic lesson that helping professionals must somehow grasp is the importance Jesus placed on regularly withdrawing to a quiet place for restoration. Failure to do so results in overexposure, poor choices, damaged relationships and burnout -- and eventually disqualification as a helper."
Turner's assistant the last three years, Linda Beaty, has traveled into global hot spots with Strategic World Impact since 2000. Like Turner, she and other staff members have experienced difficulty in dealing with long-term exposure to trauma.
"Kenya, particularly, rattled many of us in some very deep places," she said.
Beaty sees recent months as a season of healing for the caregivers. "The Lord has allowed things to slow down to provide a time for Kevin and all of us to heal," she said.
Strategic World Impact has been "an intense ministry, constantly moving forward," but Beaty expects that to change to some degree. "We have realized the need to slow down" and spend time drawing strength from "a new level of interdependency," she said.
Turner expressed gratitude to the Strategic World Impact board for granting him time to begin healing and to his family for their constant support.
Along the way, Turner said he has learned important lessons about God's sustaining grace. But he had to jettison some of the "Christianity-lite" and trite clichés he once accepted.
"I've given up on pat theological answers," Turner said. "There are a lot of things I believed that I've had to give up. But a lot of the other things I believe have gone deeper, down into the bedrock. ... I used to have a lot more tools in the toolbox, but the tools I still have left, I definitely know how to use."
Turner acknowledges he still struggles with how to reconcile some biblical teachings with his own experience, such as the ability to "overcome evil with good" when he has seen the power of evil firsthand. He also cringes when he hears a Christian tell a troubled person, "All you have to do is pray."
"A suffering heart wants truth, not flippant Christian answers," he said.
Turner hopes what he has experienced will allow him to minister to hurting people in a new way -- as a fellow sufferer.
"Being there -- to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice -- is important. The hand on the shoulder, the love that is expressed matters more down the road than what is said," he said.
Wounds have no value in themselves, he noted. But if they are sustained in Christian service, they signal credibility. "I'm a bit remiss now to trust anyone who doesn't have a limp," he confessed.
"I've come to believe that God values brokenness.... In the past, I would have said a minister should hide his scars. Now, I believe he should be identified by them," he added. "In God's economy, scars can be beautiful."
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Gap between dreams, reality often cause of pastors' wounds
By Jennifer Harris & John Hall
(ABP) -- Wounds can cause ministers to question -- or even abandon -- their call to ministry. But what wounds a minister?
"There is a great deal of idealism wrapped up in a pastor's desire to serve people through the church and to serve people in the church," said Bob Perry, congregational health team leader for the Baptist General Convention of Missouri. "The reality usually doesn't match."
This gap between expectation and reality often leads to a degree of disillusionment when pastors find their churches are less than the ideal they had hoped.
Pastors study this ideal in seminary, but often aren't prepared to deal with situations they actually encounter, Perry said. "Ministers sometimes lack some of the basic leadership skills."
They need to know how to work with people and understand the power structure in the church, he said.
Ron Herring, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas' congregational-leadership team, agreed. "Probably the thing they [ministers] do most often is assume they have more authority than they do," he said.
They try to make rapid changes without understanding the unspoken "value system" of the particular congregation, he added.
Young ministers don't know which questions to ask to help determine expectations, said Emily Prevost, BGCT's associate coordinator of leader research and product development.
"We have thrown our pastors into this work sort of sink-or-swim, and it's getting harder to swim," Herring said.
Expectations -- for both the minister and the minister's spouse -- need to be made clear, Herring said. A congregation's previous pastor and spouse often create expectations for the new couple.
Disappointment with people also can wound pastors. They often expect criticism from certain church members, but "they don't expect their friends and supporters not to defend them," Perry said.
Church conflict also can lead to broken relationships. Even if the pastor is not the cause of or central to the conflict, he or she is naturally the focal point, Perry said. The division can be painful and hurtful to the minister and his or her family.
Failure to set appropriate boundaries can be a source of pastors' wounds. "It's very easy not to set boundaries to protect your family, health or spiritual development," Prevost said. "You're doing God's work."
Help exists for ministers to move beyond the wounds and forward with service.
Organizations, such as the Ministering to Ministers Foundation, facilitate the healing process and can help pastors take the next step, Perry said.
Local directors of missions try to respond when ministers are facing trouble or are in pain. Baptist conventions also have staff to help pastors across their states.
Ministers who survive wounded situations often point to their calling as the reason they made it. They know this is what God wants them to do, Prevost said.
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Rejected ministers find acceptance and help
By Jim White
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) -- Statistically, a pastor stands a better chance of being fired than does a coach in the National Football League.
Charles Chandler, executive director of the Ministering to Ministers Foundation, reports more than 2 percent of all pastors will be fired or pushed out of their churches at some point in their careers.
He formed Ministering to Ministers in 1995 after a small group of disgruntled church leaders forced his resignation as pastor of a Baptist church in Richmond, Va. His foundation offers a five-day wellness retreat where clergy and their spouses meet others in similar circumstances and talk with support staff. A growing number of churches that terminate ministers include the cost of underwriting the retreat in severance agreements.
From the moment a retreat begins, Chandler fights the clock, because much needs to be done in a brief timespan, he noted. Although the participating couples come from varied denominational backgrounds, they share the emotional bruises, spiritual scars and psychological pain of rejection.
"Our first objective is to get them to tell their stories" Chandler said. "They come in with strong feelings of isolation and failure. Telling their stories helps them to know they are not alone. It is amazing how similar their stories are."
As each person shares, others in the group provide him or her the balm of empathy.
"It is hard to know for sure, but according to the most reliable information we have, it seems that across denominational lines about 1,600 ministers per month are being dismissed or forced to resign," Chandler said.
"Their trust has been shattered -- and their dreams. They're experiencing doubts about whether there is a place for them in the local church. Will they have to find fulfillment in ministry outside the parish setting?"
Chandler believes more small churches are affected by forced termination because professors, often with little church experience, are preparing seminary students for service in larger churches.
And some small churches are dominated by members of a single family, presenting challenges for which many new ministers find themselves unprepared.
"Pastors come to these churches looking to make a difference and they run into the matriarch or patriarch who doesn't want anything to change," he said.
An emerging trend Chandler has observed is music ministers and other associate-level ministerial staff forced out of church staff positions by authoritarian pastors who either are insecure and inexperienced or who have adopted the leadership styles of megachurch pastors whom they have chosen as mentors.
Wellness retreats concentrate on helping ministers and their mates understand some of the reasons for their circumstance. A therapist always is on hand to guide discussions and answer questions in the group setting or privately.
Couples who attend the retreats usually have more anger than they have allowed themselves to realize or express, Chandler said. They have "stuffed it rather than acknowledging it and dealing with it."
Because many participants feel isolated even from God, the retreats seek to renew a sense of spirituality and reliance on God's presence in their lives. Since they often have been crushed by the power structures in their churches, the ministers have come to distrust and avoid power, he noted.
"We use Bob Perry's book, Pass the Power, Please, as the starting point and emphasize that power is simply the ability to get something done," Chandler said.
Ministers need to develop a healthy sense of power in themselves and their ministries, he added.
Ministering to Ministers helps teach ministers how to write a resume and prepare for a job interview. The retreat also includes a component designed to demonstrate that ministerial skills are transferable to non-church ministries and secular posts.
"This gives hope. Sometimes ministers feel there is nothing else they can do," Chandler said. "And when you feel that you have failed at the only thing you are qualified to do, it takes away the joy of service. It is freeing to realize that you have skills that are transferable to secular positions."
Chandler concedes a few ministers who attend the retreats simply are not well-suited to ministry, and the moral lapses of others -- about 7 percent nationwide -- require dismissal.
But he insists most of those with whom he works are gifted ministers. Many, he believes, are even better equipped for ministry following dismissal or forced resignation because they possess greater humility and empathy.
Overall, 54 percent of ministers who experience forced termination go back into church staff ministry. Among those who receive help from Ministering to Ministers, the figure stands at about 70 percent, Chandler reported.
"Still, we are working to redeem an even greater number of those who have been wounded in Christ's service by Christ's own people," he said.
"This has not dampened my enthusiasm for ministry. I would not want to discourage anyone from entering ministry, but the expectation that a minister will not face opposition is just not factual. Even in the church, a minister will experience opposition. Jesus' greatest opposition came from religious people."
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Separate identity key to softening spouses' hurt
By Vicki Brown & Kaitlin Chapman
(ABP) --"What are we going to do?" the young pastor's wife asked as she drew her infant closer. The baby was only a week old when some members of the church the couple served suggested the young man resign or they would lead the congregation to fire him.
"I hate being a minister's wife, and I don't want to talk about it," the older pastor's wife said, and slammed down the telephone receiver.
The minister isn't the only one who bears the pain when a congregation or a group within the church turns on him or her. The spouse does also, whether members have simply criticized the way the minister handles aspects of the job or have made a concerted effort to oust him or her.
And in some congregations, expectations placed on a minister's spouse can be overwhelming. Members may have a stereotypical, idealized image of a pastor's wife who can cook, clean and care for her family while managing the church nursery, playing the piano, leading Vacation Bible School, hosting potluck dinners, and attending every wedding and funeral -- all with a positive attitude and energy to spare.
"It all depends on the internal culture of the church and biblical parameters that Jesus gave us," said Kim Wenzel, director of Smoldering Wick Ministries, a non-denominational ministry to help burned-out, wounded and rejected ministry leaders. "A church that puts love and caring and living in the tree of life above everything else won't have these problems."
But some ministers' spouses acknowledge congregations may fall short in the "love-and-caring" department.
"It seems like it comes down to just selfish behavior [rather] than really listening to what God wants you to do," said Jill Stowe, pastor's wife at First Baptist Church of Monahans, Texas, and president of the Texas Baptist Ministers' Wives Fellowship. "In these situations, if people would really follow Christ and do what he wants them to do, it would be much better."
"I think people need to understand that the pastor and his family are people as well, that they are God's children and a part of the church," said Sharon Jeffreys, who served as a minister's wife in Texas several years and now is helping her husband plant a church in Murrieta, Calif.
Obstacles ministers' spouses face include poor communication, judgmental attitudes and a sense that people are talking behind their backs -- not to mention open confrontation.
"It is hard when people very openly oppose your husband, because you love him," Jeffreys said. "You hear things before you hear them from the individual [causing the disagreement], and that can be hurtful. The best conflicts we've had were the people who came to our door and said they had a problem with us, whether big or small. We were able to talk it out and resolve it."
Spouses of ministers who serve isolated rural congregations face additional challenges -- the expectations of people in the community as well as the congregation and lack of financial security.
"In a larger church, there is a little more give-and-take," said Sherry Burrows, director of women's ministry at PastorCare, a national clergy support network. "If it is a smaller church, she is expected to pick up where other people drop off -- whether it is her gift or not."
Young ministers' spouses with children also experience much scrutiny. They have the task of balancing the needs of their family and the demands of ministry.
"My mission, being a mama now, is making sure my kids are taken care of," said Darcie Hill, wife of the music minister at First Baptist Church in Garland, Texas. "The challenge isn't to please people but to please God. As a minister's wife, I first have to be a God-pleaser and first do what he has called me to do. And sometimes that means that I stay home from church on Sunday nights because my kids are exhausted and that's what they need. I don't serve where people want me to. I serve where God wants me."
A minister's wife for 36 years, Anne Bracken believes the best way to deal with the pain a spouse may face at church is identity. Through surveys of ministers' wives across the country, she discovered loneliness as a primary issue. Many women isolate themselves, either because of competition with other ministers' spouses, their personality or a negative church experience.
"Many don't have the social support they need," she said. "The average woman has five to nine people she is close to, and she usually looks for more. But the average minister's wife has from one to three, and she usually doesn't look for more."
Bracken's studies indicate women who work outside the home are less lonely because they develop a social network outside the church. "Find an identity outside the church, or find a time that is identity-related outside the church so that you have someone outside you can turn to for support," she said. "But even then you have to be careful."
Spouses can find identity not only in work, but also in hobbies, education or ministries outside their local-church setting. Take a class, learn a new skill, or volunteer in a community or nonprofit event or program.
The happiest ministers' wives, she discovered, were those who felt their husbands were their best friends. Mutual support helped both husband and wife to weather church criticism and crises.
The idea behind developing a separate identity, she noted, allows empathy and concern without being totally consumed by the church. "You can say, 'If someone insults my husband, it doesn't affect me.' Yes, it hurts, but you can help each other through it. If you only live through him, you can't separate yourself from attacks on him.
"You are not him and he is not you. That has to be established when you go to a church. With separate identities, you can be a help to each other, instead of trying to live his life for him. It's overwhelming to take on both."
Although Baptist churches do not include many female senior pastors, women serve in a number of church staff roles, including as ministers for children, youth, worship, missions and discipleship. Their husbands also can experience pain and frustration.
Tim Pennington-Russell, whose wife Julie is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga., believes his personality and his wife's place in history has helped him.
"I can pretty much be myself [at church], because people don't know what to expect from a pastor's husband," he said.
Because his father was a pastor, Pennington-Russell "kind of knew the lifestyle a little" before choosing to marry a minister.
He feels he has been fortunate because his wife has faced "very little" criticism within the local churches she has served. "I know a lot of women who have had a hard time. There has not been as much for her," he said. "Most of the criticism she has faced has come more from the larger denomination."
He added he does not need the support of other ministers' spouses. "I'm a fairly private person to begin with, so I'm not inclined to seek support," he said.
Although he feels no pressure to take on certain tasks at church, he said, "In some ways I may have been more assertive if I was just a regular church member."
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Mentoring program helps ministers chart true course
By Carrie Joynton
(ABP) -- No one ever promised vocational ministry would be easy, said Michael Godfrey, executive director of True Course Ministries. That's why he began his mentoring program for clergy.
Godfrey's 32 years experience in Christian ministry revealed to him a huge disconnect between seminary education and the practical demands of full-time ministry.
"I've had my own bumps and bruises along the way, in terms of just dysfunctional situations, relational situations...issues with self-awareness, perceptions of others," Godfrey said.
After leaving one particularly difficult situation, Godfrey realized his struggles weren't unique.
"I came to the realization that people and systems can turn, and you can get caught in the middle of it. It just opened my eyes and I saw there was a whole lot of that," he said.
In 2001, Godfrey began pursuing a doctor of ministry degree at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary. While enrolled at Truett, Godfrey found ministry direction during a visit to the Baptist General Convention of Texas minister/church relations office.
"When I was working on my D.Min. [doctor of ministry degree], I went to Jan Daehnert's office and asked him: 'Where's the hole? Where's the need?' He said we have plenty of after-care [for forced termination], but we don't have any preventive care. That's the hole," Godfrey said.
Godfrey developed Robinson, Texas-based True Course Ministries as he felt God directing him to offer support and continued education to ministers. "About 90 percent of ministers feel inadequately trained," he said.
The program, now completing its fifth year, earned the Malcolm S. Knowles Award for Excellence in Adult Education from the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education in 2007.
"It's a ministry God put on me to equip people," Godfrey said.
Several months of informal surveying showed Godfrey ministers were seeking mentors to help deal with feelings of isolation, loneliness and burnout. Godfrey also wanted his program to address church struggles and prevent forced terminations.
"I really knew God wanted this," Godfrey said. "Within the first six months, I just started talking to people...and the thing we kept hearing again and again, almost without hesitation, was, 'This is a need.'"
True Course Ministries focuses on administration, leadership, social and emotional understanding and communication.
One-on-one, personal mentorship with individually customized goals distinguishes the ministry. Concerned church members sometimes refer ministers to True Course, but church staff members also choose the program themselves -- often simply to develop skills and to further education.
At an initial meeting, a mentor works with the minister to write a mutual covenant of responsibility. The pair continues to meet monthly to discuss issues, growth and future goals. Official collaboration can last up to two years, and many participants retain a close friendship with mentors long after completing the sessions.
True Course Ministries' mentors are seasoned ministers themselves, experienced in the ups and downs of ministry. According to the group's website, truecourseministries.com, the mentors are "highly trained in adult education and experienced in leadership of volunteer organizations."
Mentors also must remain active in church leadership. Some serve as interim pastors. Others focus on conflict management and on counseling ministers and their families following forced termination.
Taylor Sandlin, pastor of Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas, had a positive experience with True Course. Sandlin wanted to continue his education after seminary, and the True Course program appealed to his desire for accountability and educated feedback.
"Ministry can often be a lonely endeavor," Sandlin wrote in a testimonial.
The program helped connect him with other ministers and to transition from the close-knit seminary community to full-time congregational ministry, he said. His mentor and mentor's wife "have become for my family more than mentors; they have become our friends -- kindred spirits in this life of faith," Sandlin wrote.
In their sessions, Godfrey and Sandlin focused on creating and maintaining long-term vision, a skill that has shaped his decisions ever since, Sandlin explained.
"Developing goals...is probably the thing that I've carried with me," he added. "What do I want my ministry to look like? What do I want to look like, in spiritual or family life, in five years, and how do I get there?
"[D]eveloping...and focusing on those goals...allowed me to say no to a lot of good things that nevertheless would have taken away from those long-term goals of family time and nurturing a healthy church."
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Appeals-court decision means Christian college gets state aid
By Robert Marus
DENVER (ABP) -- A federal appeals court has said Colorado may not deny scholarships for students who want to attend an evangelical Christian university or a Buddhist school in that state.
The ruling is one of a string of federal and state court decisions in recent years that have reduced states' ability to deny sectarian colleges access to government-funded programs available to more secularized schools.
The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 23 that Colorado officials overstepped their authority when declaring that two institutions of higher learning in the state did not qualify for a state scholarship program because they were "pervasively sectarian."
A unanimous three-judge panel, in an opinion written by Judge Michael McConnell, declared the state's policy unconstitutional. Officials had denied scholarships to students at Colorado Christian University and Buddhist Naropa University, but offered them to students at secular, Methodist and Catholic-affiliated ones.
"By giving scholarship money to students who attend sectarian -- but not 'pervasively' sectarian -- universities, Colorado necessarily and explicitly discriminates among religious institutions, extending scholarship to students at some religious institutions, but not to those deemed too thoroughly 'sectarian' by government officials," McConnell wrote.
The case pitted the First Amendment's two religion clauses against each other. The establishment clause prevents the state from establishing or supporting a religion. The free-exercise clause, meanwhile, prevents the state from unnecessarily inhibiting an individual's or group's religious practice.
Officials at Colorado Christian sued the state, claiming that denying scholarships to the school because it requires its faculty to affirm a confession of faith and forces its students to attend chapel services unfairly targeted its evangelical nature.
McConnell seemed to agree.
"[T]he Colorado exclusion expressly discriminates among religions ... and it does so on the basis of criteria that entail intrusive governmental judgments regarding matters of religious belief and practice," he wrote.
Colorado officials had relied on the Supreme Court's Locke v. Davey decision. It said the State of Washington could deny a student at a Christian college a government-funded scholarship because he was majoring in theology and planned to be a pastor.
In Locke, the justices said the Washington student's right to the free exercise of religion had to be balanced with the state's interest in not subsidizing the training of clergy members.
But in the Colorado case, McConnell and his colleagues read the Locke decision narrowly. They noted one difference between the cases is that Washington's denial of the funds did not discriminate between religions, but between fields of study.
Several conservative Christian organizations supported Colorado Christian University in friend-of-the-court briefs, while several groups that support strong church-state separation filed briefs in favor of the state's position.
In a July 24 post on the Americans United for Separation of Church and State blog, Sandhya Bathija said McConnell's decision would end up supporting religious discrimination rather than alleviating it.
"The real discrimination here is that practiced by 'pervasively sectarian' universities such as Colorado Christian University," Bathija wrote. "Not everyone in the state can attend the school, since it requires a commitment to a particular religious belief. Why should the state's taxpayers support a school that discriminates against students who do not want to attend chapel weekly (at CCU, students who miss chapel must pay a fine) and who refuse to sign statements promising to live as Jesus lived?"
The decision is one of several by federal and state courts in recent years that have expanded sectarian colleges' ability to participate in aid programs on an equal basis with non-sectarian schools. Since 2004, the 4th Circuit, the 6th Circuit and the California Supreme Court have all ruled unconstitutional states' attempts to exclude sectarian colleges from government-backed bond programs.
The case is Colorado Christian University v. Weaver, No. 07-1247.
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Mimicking trends could turn musician into worship 'barista,' leader warns
By Lee Ann Marcel
WACO, Texas (ABP) - Trying to adapt to every trend in worship can become
disruptive and distracting to a church, said Tim Studstill, director of music and
worship for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Serving in a trend-driven congregation, Studstill said, can turn a worship leader
into a "barista" -- someone who prepares coffee drinks -- "blending a heritage of
hymns with a collection of ... choruses, serving a perfectly satisfying selection of
worship to discriminating worshipers."
Churches that focus too much on ever-changing worship trends can get distracted from the real issues of the heart, Studstill said. Likewise, defining congregations by their worship styles is dangerous.
Sometimes churches get caught up in definitions like traditional, contemporary,
postmodern, emerging and Western heritage that define churches.
"Denominations are identified according to [worship], and congregations spilt over it, and ministers resign over it," Studstill told a gathering of worship leaders.
Music ministers from across the nation came together July 21-25 at Baylor
University to examine worship trends and where they may be leading.
Approximately 250 people attended the Alleluia! conference, representing a variety of denominations and states.
"All ideas of worship are here," said Randall Bradley, director of Baylor's Center
for Christian Music Studies. "It's a place were people can come together and
dialogue about ideas."
Studstill described several trends that are influencing worship: relaxing the dress
code, embracing a more contemporary approach to music, and using more
technology. Churches also have begun to throw out printed materials such as the
church bulletin and the order of worship.
Gary Chevalier, pastor of worship arts at The Avenue Church in Waxahachie,
Texas, said his church has done away with the order of worship.
"It just becomes a checklist," he said.
Terry York, associate professor of Christian ministry and church music at Baylor's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, helped attendees look to the future of the church and what it might look like.
Attendees predicted denominations will no longer have significant meaning,
worship might become less performance-oriented and more participatory, and
churches may offer music therapy to individual members, in the same way they
offer counseling now.
During the Alleluia! conference, music-reading sessions where held to sing newly published music given by Jubilate!, a music distributor and publisher. Other event sponsors included the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching at Truett Seminary, YouthCUE and Choristers Guild.
"When I hear 250 well-trained voices singing songs together, it just thrills my
heart," said Joseph Martin, director of sacred publications for Shawnee Press.
Martin said the conference provides a glimpse of what heaven will sound like.
"Something dynamic happens when people with different cultures come together," Martin said.
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Answer: Joshua.
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