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Archives For November 30, 1999

The Briefing: ‘Ridiculous’ travel bans, abortion stories, unwelcome student groups

ib2newseditor —  April 12, 2016

The BriefingBans on travel to Miss., N.C., called ‘ridiculous’
At least nine U.S. cities and five states have banned non-essential travel by government employees to North Carolina, Mississippi or both, claiming religious liberty bills adopted there discriminate against homosexual and transgendered persons. Pastors and other Christian leaders call the bans “ridiculous.”

Women share abortion stories with the Supreme Court
Twenty-five years ago, two women found themselves in the same position: freshmen in college, pregnant and scared of derailing all they had worked toward. Both women walked into a Dallas abortion clinic. It’s what happened when they walked out, and in the weeks and decades that followed, that places them on opposite ends of the most significant abortion case to be heard by the Supreme Court in a quarter of a century. These and other women are sharing their abortion stories through friend-of-the-court briefs in the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.

Colleges welcome diversity, except evangelical Christians
San Diego State University recently withdrew official on-campus recognition from an evangelical sorority and an evangelical fraternity, stripping them of the privileges that all other on-campus student organizations possess. The problem according to the university was that these Christian student organizations were engaging in discrimination because they restricted their members to Christians in agreement with their statements of faith.

The footnote that could split the Catholic church
Some believe a footnote in Pope Francis’ new exhortation on marriage and the family, Amoris Laetitia could cause fractures in the Catholic church. There is an ongoing debate in the church about admitting remarried couples to the Eucharist. The footnote could further inflame that debate. Francis wrote, “In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments. Hence, ‘I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy’.”

Bible makes list of books most challenged
On the latest list of books most objected to at public schools and libraries, one title has been targeted nationwide, at times for the sex and violence it contains, but mostly for the legal issues it raises. The Bible.

Sources: Baptist Press, Washington Post, World Magazine, Gospel Coalition, Fox News

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Ancient reconciliation: Jesus and the woman at the well

Meredith Flynn —  March 26, 2015

Tony_EvansNashville, Tenn. | “Jesus reversed over 800 years of racial discord in 24 hours,” Tony Evans preached this afternoon at the ERLC’s Summit on the gospel and racial reconciliation.

Walking his listeners through John’s account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, Evans, pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, made application to modern times:

Jesus met the woman on common ground, at Jacob’s well (John 4:6). “Jews didn’t like Samaritans, Samaritans didn’t like Jews, but since they both loved Jacob, that’s where he stopped,” Evans said. The Old Testament patriarch was viewed as the father of both Orthodox Jews, and the pariah Samaritans.

He didn’t hide who He was. The woman at the well knew Jesus was Jewish (John 4:9), even though he didn’t say it. But though he looked and talked like a Jewish man, Evans noted, he didn’t act like one to the woman, who other Jews would have viewed as an outcast. Nor did he try to be something he wasn’t.

God is not asking you to stop being different than you are to reach somebody different than you are, Evans said. He doesn’t want white people to be black or vice versa. “He’s asking both to be biblical.”

Jesus earned the right to deepen the conversation. “Because he was willing to drink out of her cup” at the well, Evans said, “he has now earned the right to take a normal discussion about water and turn it into a discussion about eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

Jesus was about his father’s business. Father God plays an integral role in the story of the woman at the well. The conversation changed when the Samaritan woman brought Him up, trying to change the subject when Jesus reveals he knows her current situation (John 4:19-20).

Jesus uses the opportunity to show her what she’s always known to be true about her history, her background, and her identity isn’t, in fact, true. Jesus’ words apply to the racial absolutes we live by too, Evans inferred.

“Black is only beautiful when it’s biblical, and white is only right when it conforms with holy writ,” he said.

Many more Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, John writes. How can the reversal detailed in the story happen in just 24 hours, Evans asked. Because Jesus was about his father’s business.

Watch the Summit online at live.erlc.com.

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Baptist summit on racial reconciliation starts today

Meredith Flynn —  March 26, 2015

Nashville, Tenn. | Racial reconciliation is the main topic of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s 2015 Leadership Summit, which starts today at 1 p.m. The Illinois Baptist is in Nashville covering the event, which today includes plenary sessions on:

  • Why racial reconciliation is a gospel issue
  • Ferguson, Eric Garner, and your community
  • Key issues in racial reconciliation: Poverty, fatherlessness, criminal justice and urban ministry

Tonight, ERLC President Russell Moore will interview civil rights leader John Perkins, and speakers Danny Akin and H.B. Charles will explore how racial reconciliation is shaped by the gospel and the Great Commission. The evening session will conclude with a panel discussion on the church and multi-ethnic ministry.

The Summit was originally scheduled to focus on pro-life issues, but unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and other U.S. cities caused ERLC leaders to change the topic. “Racism and injustice are not just social ills; they are sins against God,” Moore said last year.

“This summit will help equip us to tear down carnal divisions, to bring about peace, so that churches reflect the kingdom of God.”

LifeWay Research has found that while 86% of Protestant senior pastors have congregations with one predominant racial group, only 40% of American churchgoers believe their church needs to become more ethnically diverse.

Check back here for news from the Summit, and in the next issue of the Illinois Baptist.

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Fred Luter’s lasting legacy

Meredith Flynn —  June 26, 2014

Fred_Luter_revivalCOMMENTARY | Eric Reed

I’ve never been prouder – of Fred Luter or of the Southern Baptist Convention – than when, on the second day of the annual meeting in Baltimore, they suspended the agenda and spent most of an hour in prayer.

Will this be Bro. Fred’s lasting contribution to the SBC, I thought to myself, that he was willing to lay aside the fixed orders of business, to call us all to our knees, and to take our deep needs to the Lord?

Two years earlier, I sat on a bench in the cavernous lobby of the New Orleans Convention Center talking with a pastor-friend of mine. He’s African American. I seemed more excited by Luter’s election that day than he did. I posed a question about the new president’s lasting impact.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” was his response. “Will this be a one-time thing, or has the Convention really changed? Is there room for me in leadership?”

That has been the response of several people I’ve asked since then, even Luter himself. Many people, especially African American pastors, said they wanted to see what happened after Luter’s term. Would he really be able to increase the ethnic diversity on SBC boards and in leadership? Would there be a lasting place at the table for black, Hispanic, and Asian leaders?

Under Luter’s direction, the committees responsible for manning those boards have attempted to broaden representation. In fact, messengers at the Phoenix convention in 2011 had ordered the start of such a concentrated effort even before Luter’s election as the SBC’s first African American president.

It was good to see several African American pastors on the platform in 2014: Southern Seminary Professor Kevin Smith spoke for the Resolutions Committee. Chicago’s very own Marvin Parker of Broadview Missionary Baptist Church served with the Committee on Order of Business and Michael Allen of Uptown Baptist Church was elected “back-up preacher” for the 2015 annual meeting.

But it took a messenger from the floor to confirm what those watching the live video stream had noticed. There was not a lot cultural diversity on the worship platform. The messenger moved that the music teams next year be more diverse, because, he noted, while the choirs and bands were almost all white, the Convention isn’t anymore – and heaven won’t be either.

I saw a similar message in the official photograph of the incoming SBC officers: five middle-aged white guys in dark suits. Except for one goatee, that photograph could have been snapped in 1974.

Or 1954.

We missed an opportunity to extend Bro. Fred’s impact. Korean-American pastor Daniel Kim ran for president, and his showing as a late-entry against winner Ronnie Floyd was respectable. But both first and second vice-presidents ran unopposed. Why? Because no one else stepped up.

Fred Luter’s lasting impact may not be that he radically altered the composition of committees or platform personnel. Instead, he demonstrated the door is open and there’s room at the table. And he was willing to take the risk.

As a pastor in New Orleans, Luter suffered jeers for his embrace of the historically white denomination. And before he agreed to run for SBC president in 2012, one advisor warned, “Look at the racial make-up of the Convention, Fred. You might lose.”

But he won. In a big way. Unopposed. Twice. To cheers and tears and shouts of joy from a whole lot of people glad that a new day had arrived for Southern Baptists.

Successor Floyd called him “the most beloved president” in recent SBC history. Luter traveled widely and preached in churches of all sizes and ethnicities. He embodied the new spirit of the SBC, and he did it with characteristic joy and grace. For all that, he is deservedly and deeply appreciated.

But, for me, Fred Luter’s lasting impact is that he was willing to step up.

Eric Reed is editor of the Illinois Baptist.

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#angrybirds respond in tweets to Baptist sexuality summit

Meredith Flynn —  May 15, 2014

COMMENTARY | Meredith Flynn

The tweets came fast and furious. They poured in, at least a dozen every 30 seconds or so, throughout the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s April summit for church leaders.

By the end of its first day, the conference on “The Gospel and Sexuality” had become one of Twitter’s top trending topics.

Most of the posts were angry. One might have guessed the subject matter would cause a stir, and indeed, many of the objecting tweets came from activists and others who don’t believe the Bible is the ultimate authority for marriage and sexuality.

But not all the messages addressed what the speakers said. Some pointed out that the majority of the speakers were white and male. Out of two dozen personalities who would take the stage during the three-day conference, only two were women.

Amid the tweets about homosexuality and gay marriage came a different complaint: Where was the diversity?

The topics covered certainly were diverse: pornography, pastoring church members through sexual sin, teaching kids about sex.

The speakers handled their topics with sensitivity, encouraging church leaders that the best way to truly love people in their communities is to teach what the Bible says about sex and marriage.

Their messages echoed the ERLC’s current tone, described by President Russell Moore as “convictional kindness.” It’s what most Christians think when they hear the phrase “speak the truth in love.”

Or, as Moore told conference attenders, “A refusal to speak to consciences, clearly and openly, is a refusal to love.”

While men populated the platform, in the back of the room it was mostly female journalists who covered the summit. One of them blogged about the summit’s overall tone and applied it to the angry tweets about so few women at the podium.

Chelsen Vicari of the Institute on Religion and Democracy wrote that while she would have appreciated more female voices, “it cannot be disputed that the ERLC’s tone is shifting in a genuine attempt to mirror the Gospel and balance a message of grace, respect for all women and men, repentance and  reconciliation in a troubled post-modern world.”

But on Twitter, and for the outside world, a new tone wasn’t enough. The world is watching to make sure when we Baptists preach a Gospel for everyone, we really do mean everyone.

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Tuesday Briefing: Five reasons pastors pray, a lifesaving app, and the dream of diversity

Meredith Flynn —  January 21, 2014

Tuesday_BriefingTHE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

Nearly 400 Southern Baptist pastors met in Atlanta last week to pray for revival and spiritual awakening, doubling the attendance of a similar meeting last fall. Ronnie Floyd, an Arkansas pastor who organized the meetings, reflected on the most recent gathering on his blog by posting five reasons pastors pray:

1. They’re burdened for a great move of God.2. They’re aware they’re limited, and their churches are in need.
3. Pastors are concerned beyond words for our nation.
4. They believe the Great Commission (Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:18-20) can be fulfilled in their generation.
5. Pastors know we need to work together now more than ever before.

The pastors’ prayer meetings raise a question: What is the role of Christians in America’s next great awakening? Read the full story from the Illinois Baptist here.

Phone app calls people to pray for women considering abortion
What if there was a way to direct a woman considering abortion to a crisis pregnancy center, and simultaneously rally a national network of partners to pray for her? Online for Life, a nonprofit business, has developed online marketing techniques to connect abortion-minded women to CPCs, and an app to mobilize intercessors to pray for them. Read the story, first reported by the Southern Baptist TEXAN, in the January 20 issue of the Illinois Baptist (page 6).

Hannah_Gay‘God cured that baby,’ HIV specialist says. ‘I just happened to be standing close by.’
Hannah Gay, who describes herself as “the shiest pediatrician in America” has been in the spotlight for months after achieving a functional cure of a child with HIV. The continued lack of any replication of the virus indicates the first documented case of HIV remission in a child, The New England Journal of Medicine reported in October. Read the full story at BPNews.net.

Poll: Most pastors want diversity, but most churches aren’t diverse
“Having a racially diverse church remains more dream than reality for most Protestant pastors,” reports LifeWay Research about a study released just before the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s birthday. While 85% of senior pastors of Protestant churches say every church should strive for racial diversity, only 13% have more than one predominant racial or ethnic group in their congregation. Read more at LifeWayResearch.com.

The (church) dating game
A new game show will test the matchmaking prowess of church members competing to set up a single member of their congregation. “It Takes a Church,” set to premiere on GSN this year, will be hosted by singer Natalie Grant. “There are a growing number of singles in the church who do not want to be single,” Grant told The Christian Post. The show will visit a new church each week, and the winning “cupid” gets a donation made to the church in their name. The best part: GSN says the unmarried church members will be “unsuspecting” until camera crews arrive. Read more at ChristianPost.com.

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Tuesday News Briefing: Southern Baptist Convention sees 66% jump in diversity

Meredith Flynn —  February 5, 2013

THE BRIEFING | Meredith Flynn

The number of non-Anglo congregations in the Southern Baptist Convention has increased by more than 66 percent since 1998, according to data from the convention’s agencies. Of the SBC’s 50,768 congregations, just over 10,000 identified themselves by an ethnicity other than Anglo in 2011, up from 6,044 in 1998.

SBC President Fred Luter, elected last year as the convention’s first African American president, rejoiced over the shift.

“I remember at one time I was the only [African American pastor] in my city who was Southern Baptist,” Luter said. “I caught a lot of flack as a result of that. Thank God I’m able to see some of the fruit of my labor – not only at my particular church but in the associations and conventions across the country.”

In Illinois, one-fourth of Southern Baptist churches, missions and church plants identify either as an ethnicity other than Anglo, or as a multi-ethnic church.

“Having been Southern Baptist since 1969, and to see the changes and see the increase, it’s simply exciting to me,” said Don Sharp, pastor of Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church in Chicago. “I really get a good handle on it when I go to Black Church Week at Ridgecrest, N.C., and see the gathering of close to 2,000 who come there who are Southern Baptist.

“I remember some years ago when we went there, and there weren’t enough of us to fill up one little room.”

The largest jump in non-Anglo congregations within the SBC has predominantly come from an 82.7 percent increase in the number of African American congregations, but Hispanic congregations also have seen a significant increase over the same span – nearly 63 percent. And the number of Asian congregations affiliated with the SBC has grown by 55 percent. Read more at BPNews.net.

-From Baptist Press, with additional reporting by Meredith Flynn

Other news

Richard Blackaby says prayer is hard workWhile in Springfield to speak to directors of missions and associational leaders, author Richard Blackaby sat down with the Illinois Baptist for a Q&A on prayer and character development. Blackaby, who comes from a famously prayerful family (his father Henry co-authored “Experiencing God), said prayer is hard work.

“It must be, because so many Christians struggle with it. I mean, it’s not really hard to do, but it is a discipline because you’re talking to someone that’s invisible. You don’t hear His voice, and you’re busy, and you start thinking of all the other stuff you should be doing.”

The solution? Carving out unhurried time with God, to start with, Blackaby said. He also suggested writing out your prayers. “Not my prayer requests…but actually writing out in sentence form what I was asking God to do.

“I’d get my hands on it better when it was written out.”

For more of the IB‘s interview with Richard Blackaby, see the next issue of the Illinois Baptist, online Feb. 8 here.

Stanford opens religious liberty clinic
One of the country’s most prestigious law schools has opened the first legal clinic exclusively for religious freedom cases, Baptist Press reports. “It’s not needed because the U.S. is uniquely persecuting – it’s not,” said Stanford Law professor Michael McConnell. “I believe we are the freest and most welcoming country in the world … But we still be to fight and to think and to litigate and protect.” The clinic works like a small law firm, where students handle real cases under the supervision of a professor. Read full story at BPNews.net.

Help from above?
A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found 27% of Americans believe God “plays a role in determining which team wins” in sporting events. And 53% believe God “rewards athletes who have faith with good health and success.” Institute CEO Robert P. Jones told CNN that many Christians believe in “a God that is very active in their daily lives and very concerned about the things that matter to them. So far as sports are one of the things that matter, it stands to reason that God is playing an important role.” Read more on CNN’s Belief blog.

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