Associated Baptist Press
February 16, 2009 · (09-21)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Arkansas House passes bill allowing guns in church (288 words)
Pastor says faith sustaining family of pilot in deadly plane crash (470 words)
Service central to becoming externally focused church (1,210 words)
Simple steps lead to 'next-level' ministry to communities (451 words)
Contact with global partners gave church expanded vision (380 words)
Basketball player at Baptist university suspended after altercation (307 words)
Arkansas House passes bill allowing guns in church
By Bob Allen (288 words)
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) -- The Arkansas House of Representatives approved a bill Feb. 11 that would allow people with concealed-weapon permits to bring their guns to church.
The bill, approved by the House by a vote of 57-42, now goes to the state Senate. If passed, it would amend to state's gun laws to remove "any church or other place of worship" from a list of places where firearms are currently banned.
Rep. Beverly Pyle (R-Cedarville) said she introduced the measure, which has 14 co-sponsors, in response to a series of church shootings across the country.
"It is time we changed our concealed-handgun law to allow law-abiding citizens of the state of Arkansas the right to defend themselves and others should a situation happen in one of our churches," Pyle said, according to the Associated Press.
Proponents of the bill point to incidents like the 2007 shooting at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., where a gunman killed two and wounded three others before he was shot down by an armed security guard while heading toward an auditorium packed with 7,000 worshipers.
Opponents say it flies in the face of the centuries-old tradition of the church as a "sanctuary" free from the fear of violence.
Drew Smith, director of international programs at Henderson State University and a Baptist minister, called House passage of the bill "a hasty and tragic response to our need to feel safe everywhere we go."
If the bill passes into law, Smith said in his blog, "I would hope that faithful Christians and faithful churches would reject the need to arm themselves, reject the attempt to create false security, and most importantly, reject violence and the system that promotes it as necessary."
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Pastor says faith sustaining family of pilot in deadly plane crash
By Bob Allen (470 words)
LUTZ, Fla. (ABP) -- The pilot of a deadly plane crash Feb. 12 in upstate New York was a Southern Baptist.
Marvin Renslow, captain of the Continental Connection commuter flight that went down and crashed into a home while trying to land at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, attended First Baptist Church in Lutz, Fla.. The 900-member congregation is affiliated with the Florida Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention.
Alan Burner, an associate pastor at the church, read a statement from the Renslow family.
"They're very proud of Marvin's accomplishments as a pilot," Burner said. "They know that he did everything that he could to save as many lives as he could, even in the accident."
He continued, "They want you to know that their faith is that God is sovereign and God is in control even when it seems that everything is out of control.
"They want you to know that their faith, their trust, their hope is in the Lord, the one true and living God," he said. They know -- through their faith -- that life does not end on this earth, but life continues as believers with God in heaven. They know that Marvin's physical life as ended, but his eternal life has just begun."
All 49 people aboard the aircraft perished in the fiery crash, along with one person on the ground. The flight originated in Newark, N.J.
Renslow, 47, was an Iowa native who lived in the Tampa suburb of Lutz with his wife and two children. He had logged more than 3,300 flying hours since joining Colgan Air, the company operating the flight, in September 2005.
Investigators don't know what caused the plane to drop off the radar and nosedive to the ground amid light snow and sleet around 10:20 p.m. Crew members did not indicate there were any mechanical problems and no distress signal was given -- but other pilots around the same time reportedly complained of ice building on their wings.
"We are greatly saddened by this accident," said Philip Trenary, president and CEO of Pinnacle Airlines Corp., parent company of Colgan Air. "Our prayers are extended to the family and loved ones of those aboard Flight 3407 and those affected on the ground. Please know that we will commit all needed resources to assist the [National Transportation Safety Board's] investigation of this accident and work to ensure that a tragedy such as this does not occur again."
Renslow and four other crew members died in the crash. So did 44 passengers, including an off-duty airline pilot, the widow of a man killed in the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, one of the world's leading experts on genocide in Rwanda and two members of jazz musician Chuck Mangione's band. Two other people in the house escaped with minor injuries.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Service central to becoming an externally focused church
By Marv Knox (1,210 words)
WACO, Texas (ABP) -- Chase Oaks Church in Plano, Texas, and LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colo., minister 817 miles apart. But they stand side-by-side in their response a devastating question-and-answer.
Q: If their church evaporated, would anybody outside the church notice?
A: Probably not.
Glen Brechner, pastor of leadership at Chase Oaks, and Rick Rusaw, senior minister at LifeBridge, acknowledged the pain of that answer. But they told participants at the recent Next Big Idea Conference at Baylor University their response also revolutionized their churches. Baylor's Truett Theological Seminary, the Baylor School of Social Work and the Leadership Network sponsored the conference on the Baylor campus Feb. 9-11. It brought church leaders and academic researchers together to discuss how congregations could make a difference in their communities.
Both Chase Oaks and LifeBridge were successful churches by conventional standards, Brechner and Rusaw recalled. They enjoyed vibrant worship, pulled members together into meaningful small groups, and operated a plethora of programs.
"But we were an internally focused church," Brechner acknowledged. "We had lots of programs. We were a really busy church. Our church was healthy ... but so focused on the church that it did not effectively reach the community and meet community needs."
Leaders at LifeBridge had a hunch they were in the same predicament. That prompted them to pose the question that became "the turning point for our church," Rusaw reported. "We asked, 'If our church disappeared, would anybody miss us?'"
The realization that they made little impact outside their own membership alarmed leaders at both churches, Brechner and Rusaw said. So, both congregations decided they must serve others -- for the very existence of the churches, the benefit of their communities and the fulfillment of God's kingdom.
Their response places them within an emerging trend, noted Eric Swanson, a staff member of Leadership Network who works with "externally focused" churches.
"God is taking the church and placing it back in the community," where it can make a difference in the lives of all kinds of people, Swanson observed.
Churches exist in a context that involves three key variables, he said. They are the needs and dreams of the city, the callings and capacities of the church, and the mandates and desires of God. Service is the "sweet spot" where all three of those variables intersect, he added.
The place where the interests of the church and God overlap is where salvation takes place, where individuals come to know Jesus as their savior, he said. And the place where the mandates of God and the needs of the city overlap is called "common grace" -- where the overall welfare of the community is served, such as police and fire protection.
To illustrate those two areas of overlap, Swanson cited 16th-century Reformer John Calvin, who observed: "We pay taxes to provide for common grace, and we pay our tithes to support saving grace."
The point of overlap exclusively between church and city is a sensitive zone, where struggle for control can exist, Swanson said. This is why separation of church and state is important, so that one does not dominate the other, he added.
But the "sweet spot" -- the place in the middle, where God's mandates, the city's dreams and the church's capabilities all intersect - is service, Swanson said.
"That's where churches serve and bless their cities," he noted. Churches' ministry to the needs of people in the community achieves "the things God wants, the city wants and the churches can do."
The trend toward service is bubbling up from within churches, explained Diana Garland, dean of the Baylor School of Social Work and a prolific researcher of American church life.
The Church Census, which studied more than 100 congregations across 15 years, asked families to tell how their church can help them, offering almost 50 options from a variety of aspects of family life, she said.
"Help in serving others outside our family" was the No. 1 request in every age category, except for couples in their 20s and 30s, whose greatest desire is help for developing strong marriages, Garland said. And even for those younger adults, "serving others outside our family" ranked second.
That strong desire to serve others transcends family types, from families headed by married couples, to remarried couples and divorced singles, she said.
"The most interesting challenge for the church is to offer guidance and support for families ... that are grounded in the beliefs and values of the Christian faith," Garland said. "Only the church can ground these life issues in Christian values and practices.... These families are asking their churches to ground their service in Christian mission."
That's exactly the track taken by Chase Oaks and LifeBridge churches.
LifeBridge's mission is to "help people know Christ, grow in Christ and live gracefully," Rusaw said. Chase Oaks disbanded most of its programs and focused members on "connecting to God, connecting to people and connecting to need," Brechner added.
Both congregations re-tooled their standards for members, stipulating they are expected to attend worship (LifeBridge's "know Christ" and Chase Oaks' "connecting to God"), participate in small groups that study the Bible ("grow in Christ"/"connecting to people") and serve others ("live gracefully"/"connecting to need").
But service transcends the categories, Rusaw indicated, noting, "We believe you grow best when you serve."
Chase Oaks conducts four churchwide ministry projects per year. But it also serves on a smaller, more direct and more continuous scale, Brechner said. Each adult life group is expected to have a "bridge" -- an ongoing human-needs ministry in the community. During every fourth meeting, each life group meets at its bridge and serves non-members in the community.
Similarly, LifeBridge has linked its small groups with 54 partner organizations in its community -- from schools to non-profit agencies and other social-service organizations.
In fact, LifeBridge intentionally avoids starting ministries, because that would waste resources and pass up opportunities to build relationships outside the church, Rusaw said.
"We won't start something that already exists," he said. "The church has one thing that every agency in your community needs -- people. They need volunteers. So, the church is not the competition [to non-profits, schools and social-service groups]. Partner where you can partner."
Often, the church's service not only meets the felt needs of the community, but it also reaches deeper to transform lives. For example, through LifeBridge's service in public schools, hundreds of teachers and coaches and administrators have come to faith in Christ, Rusaw reported.
That relates to something Swanson has seen as he's worked with externally focused churches: Good deeds prepare the way for people to hear the good news of Christ.
But externally focused, service-oriented churches are, like Christ, committed to meet people's needs, he noted -- whether or not they respond spiritually.
"Evangelism is our ultimate motive, not our ulterior motive," he said. "We always want people to come to Christ, but even if no one comes to Christ, we'll still keep doing these acts of service."
So, service improves lives, strengthens churches and changes communities, Swanson said.
Referencing Jesus' Great Commandment, he added: "Spiritual transformation occurs when people are loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Societal transformation occurs when people are loving their neighbors as themselves."
Marv Knox is editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Simple steps lead to 'next-level' ministry to communities
By Marv Knox (451 words)
WACO, Texas (ABP) -- Churches can strengthen the ministries they provide to their communities by taking five key steps, ministry specialist Amy Sherman told participants during the recent Next Big Idea conference at Baylor University.
The "next level" of ministry effectiveness is attainable by:
· Moving from commodities to relationships.
Benevolence ministries become frustrating when they focus merely on giving people things but do not develop relationships, said Sherman, a senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research and director of the Center on Faith in Communities. A good way to break past this barrier is to ask benevolence recipients, "Is there something you would like to learn or change that would help you in avoiding your problems?" she said.
One church that sponsored a food-and-clothing closet asked this question and learned people in their neighborhood needed tutoring, English-as-a-Second-Language training and ministry for their children while they shopped in the food pantry, she said.
The new ministries provided opportunities for friendship that enriched lives.
· Moving from emergency relief to betterment and development.
Rather than merely running a soup kitchen, a church can turn it into a jobs-training program by hiring some recipients of the ministry as kitchen apprentices, Sherman suggested.
· Engage more of the congregation in ministry.
"Use small groups in your church to engage more people in ministry," she said. "Community service is in the DNA of what small groups should be about.
"And don't just leave it up to them. Prepare [local-service-provider] partners that are willing to use volunteers in their work."
She describe how a church choir participates in a local Christmas store for low-income families, a men's Bible study class "adopts" boys who need male role models, and a Mothers of Preschoolers program created a parallel MOPS program for teen mothers.
· Get more strategic in collaboration.
Second Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo., wanted to make a difference in its community but realized the task was too big for one church alone, she reported. So, they invited participants from other churches to meet for breakfast once a month and also invited local leaders, such as the mayor and sheriff, to "come and talk about what the churches could do to improve the city."
Ultimately, the churches banded together to conduct a citywide tutoring program. They ensure that every third-grader in Springfield will learn to read, because learning to read by that stage in a child's life is a key indicator in whether she or he will drop out of school later.
· Move from ministering "to" to ministering "with."
"Ask people about their dreams for their community," Sherman said. "And recognize the people ... we're trying to reach have gifts, too. Work with them."
Marv Knox is editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Contact with global partners gave church expanded vision
By Ken Camp (380 words)
WACO, Texas (ABP) -- When Lynne Hybels and her husband, Bill, started a church in suburban Chicago 33 years ago, they had two dreams. As a young pastor, he wanted to plant the kind of church where people who were far away from God could be reconciled to him. As a social worker, she wanted to develop a community of faith who wouldn't be afraid to confront "the messiness of life."
Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill. -- now one of the nation's largest and most influential congregations -- combined those two visions by ministering to the spiritually broken people God led to their congregation and by expanding its outreach to meet needs and confront injustice internationally.
Through its global partnerships with churches in Latin America and Africa, Willow Creek gained a deep sense of responsibility to mediate God's love to hurting and oppressed people, Lynne Hybels told participants at the recent Next Big Idea Conference at Baylor University. Baylor's School of Social Work and Truett Theological Seminary jointly sponsored the event in conjunction with the Leadership Network.
Willow Creek ventured into caring ministries incrementally, she noted. The church began by offering recovery ministries, support groups and other programs for troubled people who came to the church who "who needed the compassion of God mediated to them through caring people," she said.
Next, the church began extension ministries -- entering partnerships with other churches, groups, social-service agencies and organizations already meeting needs in the communities around Willow Creek. The most significant step of faith involved entering partnerships with churches internationally -- first in Latin America, later in Africa -- that were transforming their communities.
Rather than going to churches in developing nations and presuming to have all the answers, Willow Creek learned from those indigenous Christians and was inspired by their selfless devotion, she stressed.
"We were transformed by our global partners," Hybels said.
Contact with Christians around the world has affected the way Willow Creek members view news reports about war, poverty, disease and suffering around the world, she added.
"We are all part of the human family," Hybels said. "Every member of the family is as important to God as you are. ... If there is tragedy anywhere in the world, it is touching my family."
Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Basketball player at Baptist university suspended after altercation
By Bob Allen (307 words)
DANVILLE, Va. (ABP) -- A student athlete at historically Baptist Averett University has been suspended from the men's basketball team and could face and could face criminal charges after allegedly beating a teammate at practice Feb. 13.
The Register & Bee newspaper in Danville, Va., reported that freshman forward Rakeem Davis was kicked off the team after an altercation with freshman guard Mike Ferrell in a hallway following a team film session.
The newspaper cited unnamed sources who said Davis punched Ferrell in the face, Ferrell fell to the floor after hitting his head on a wall and Davis jumped on Ferrell and hit him twice more before being restrained by a teammate.
Ferrell, 19, was taken to a local hospital and transferred Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he was moved to intensive care. A university spokesman said he is expected to fully recover from the injuries and was scheduled to be transferred out of hospital's intensive care unit Feb. 16.
Averett players wore Ferrell's initials and uniform number on their socks during a Feb. 14 victory that moved the team into first place in the USA South Athletic Conference standings.
Davis, 19, was reportedly removed from campus and, pending the outcome of an investigation by the Danville Police Department, could face criminal charges. While enrolled, he also is subject to the university's student judicial process, which could result in his expulsion from the school.
Averett's student code of conduct forbids fighting and "expects each of its students to be of high moral character and meet or exceed all standards of decency normally expected" of an institution founded on Christian principles.
Averett was affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia for 145 years, until a dispute over homosexuality prompted the state's Baptists to sever ties with the 800-student school in 2005.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
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