I WISH THE BGCT NO ILL

Inconceivable as it may sound, there are bloggers out there who have stated that they do not intend to be present at the BGCT meeting in Houston and that they hope others will join them in absenting themselves from the sessions.

I know I am just a grunt out here, but I don’t understand that reasoning. Why would anyone wish for the demise of the BGCT? Why would anyone wish no one would attend the sessions?

Now, I understand disillusionment. I understand that individuals may wish to absent themselves from the convention meeting. I understand that meeting in Houston makes attending from El Paso, Lubbock or Amarillo a bit dicey. I understand that some from far regions may find it too difficult to attend.

I do not understand, though, anyone hoping that no one attends and that the BGCT would, as a result, suffer embarrassment or apathy from its churches. That seems a bit mean-spirited to me. Also, weakening the BGCT only hinders the cooperating churches from benefitting from the convention’s ministries to those same churches.

A lot has happened at the BGCT since I retired that I disagree with and a lot has happened that made me downright angry. However, one thing I know is that the BGCT is not the people who did things that made me angry or did things with which I disagreed. The BGCT is not the Executive Director nor the staff. The BGCT is the churches. If the churches fail to elect messengers to attend the convention, and if messengers fail to make their wishes known, then they forfeit the right to stand on the sidelines and criticize the decisions of the convention.

I have heard people say they will never attend another convention and then harangue decisions made by those who do attend. Motions will be presented almost every year that many of us find disagreeable. That will be the case this year. Some have stated they intend to make motions at this year’s convention to change the fundamental manner in which we elect volunteer servants. I disagree with those motions. However, I will fight to my death the right of any messenger to make any motion they wish. That is the Baptist way.

Staying on the sidelines and sniping is not the Baptist way. The courageous thing to do would be to come to the convention, stand up in the business sessions and state your case, make your motions and trust the messengers to make the correct decisions. Even if your motion is defeated, you made your opinions known. Your idea at least got a hearing.

I hold no ill will toward the convention for the things they did or did not do with which I disagreed. I wish them no ill will because they did not do things the way I would have had them done. Those who do hold ill will toward the BGCT should either stand up or shut up. Either stand up in a convention session and speak your piece, or just be silent.

Lobbying to hurt the convention or hinder its work, by blog, or by word of mouth, to get others to feel the way you do is not a Christ-honoring way to do things. Attending, speaking up, and voting….that’s the Baptist way, and, I believe, the Christ-honoring way.

I CHANGED MY MIND ON CELL PHONES

I guess you could say I scoffed when New York passed a law making it illegal to hold a cell phone up to your ear while driving. I scoffed when several American cities did the same thing. However, I have changed my mind.

Several near misses from drivers drifting into my lane while talking on a cell phone, as well as people talking on their cell phone while sitting at a light and failing to go when the light turns green. I now believe too many people are distracted by talking on their phones while driving.

Spare me all the platitudes about freedom, etc. No one has the freedom to endanger others or to impede others just so they can enjoy the convenience of their own personal telephone booth. Their freedom ends when it infringes on the freedom of others to drive safely.

Since I live in Texas, I suspect I will be long gone before our legislature does anything about this issue. Texans are an independent lot and will scream bloody murder if their cell phone “rights” are violated.

The incident that caused me to change my mind occurred this week when I was nearly side-swiped by a lady in an SUV who was apparently texting while driving. Now, I suppose we could outlaw texting in vehicles, but I believe it will be better to just outlaw having a phone in your hand while behind the wheel of a vehicle.

There have been a number of accidents recently where a cell phone was considered part of the reason for the accident. Two local teenagers were killed while the driver was on a phone. A couple of serious train wrecks this year have been chalked up to cell phone use, primarily texting.

In fact, perhaps the law should be called a distraction law and include some of the other serious things that distract drivers, including eating while driving.

In short, here is one old guy who can change his mind, and on this issue I have definitely changed my mind.

JOYLESS CHRISTIANS

In all the writings of the Apostle Paul he had a lot to say about joy. I want to focus on one particular place. In Galatians chapter 4, in the midst of what could only be construed as an angry outburst toward the believers in the church, Paul asked in verse 15, “What has happened to all your joy?”

Apparently, conflict between the Judaizers and the believers had caused many of the people in the church to fall back into their old pagan ways. This frustrated Paul in such a manner as it caused him to scold these believers for their lack of joy.

Paul’s Galatian believers were not the last to be drawn by legalism back into their old ways of living. Call me weird, but I believe one of the reasons so many worldly people want to stay away from church these days is that when they go they see very little joy, and a whole lot of bickering about such things as doctrine, etc.

Joyless Christians are, I believe, as much an affront to the Lord as they were to Paul.

Here’s a question to ponder. Do people lose their joy because of doctrinal disputes, or are there doctrinal disputes because they have lost their joy? It’s hard for me to imagine that these folks who argue so much about doctrine and cast aspersions on those who disagree with them live lives of joy.

Most of the people I have known who are rabid about doctrine are joyless people. Only the Lord understands their hearts, but when we consider all Jesus had to say about our relationships, we have to consider the possibility that doctrinal hard-shells have difficulty expressing any semblance of joy.

Joyless people are not a testimony for the Lord. The best witness they could have for Jesus is to live joyfully before all men.

THE CRAZY UNCLE IN THE ATTIC

Sometimes our bureaucratic government reminds me of that crazy uncle in the attic. We love him. He is family. But he embarrasses us with his antics. The difference is that when our government starts its antics people usually get hurt.

Don’t get me wrong. I love this country. I would gladly give my life for her. (Ever wonder why we refer to our country as “Uncle Sam”, but call the country “her” when we are talking about her?) But, one of the things I like about living here in the good ol’ USA is that we can criticize her without fear of being locked away.

Sometimes I just don’t get it, though. For instance, the good guys at the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recently decided to outlaw the manufacturing of liquid morphine. As you know, that is a potent pain killer and is usually used to keep terminally ill patients comfortable and pain free in their last hours.

Following an outcry by doctors all over the country, thankfully, the FDA reversed their ruling. However, this is the same group of geniuses who refuse to allow experimental drugs to be used to help terminal patients because the drugs are “too dangerous.” What are these drugs going to do to a terminally ill patient…kill them? The fact that it might help them is not even a part of the equation.

No wonder people travel all over the world looking for cures that show promise for their diseases. They have to in order to be able to even have a chance.

On another front, years ago I read a newspaper story about the United States Navy buying tomatoes that had to be shipped from California to Virginia. At the same time, the army bought a shipment of tomatoes that were to be shipped from Florida to the west coast. The two shipments met and passed each other in Oklahoma City. Sort of takes the mystery out of that $600 toilet seat the Pentagon once purchased, doesn’t it?

These days, some people seem to remember the things they read about in the papers, which is why so many of them get upset when they think about bureaucratic hirelings running our health care system. Would you turn the family books over to that crazy uncle in the attic?

Even so, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Thank God for the USA.

ITS ALL IN HOW YOU LOOK AT THEM

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view….” (2 Corinthians 5:16 NIV)

This was a verse in our Sunday school lesson. It is a verse that comes in the midst of a passage on our having been reconciled to God through Christ, and about how Christ died for all people.

It got me to thinking about the worldly ways we look at people around us. When the world looks at people it sees with worldly eyes. It doesn’t see someone who was worth the death of Christ. It sees race, gender, intelligence or lack of it, etc.

If there were no other verse in the Word of God that teaches us to be careful about how we condemn people because of their sins. When the Bible teaches us that Christ died for ALL, that means there are no exceptions. We are instructed to try to see people the way God sees them. That is very hard to do.

However, the fact that it is hard to do is no excuse for our lack of attempting to do so. Many of us are quick to condemn people because of certain sin in their lives. That is a sure sign we are looking at them from a worldly point of view, instead of through the eyes of God.

Well, that’s about all I wanted to say about this. It was on my mind, so I wanted to share it.

AN HISTORIC EVENT

This weekend a group of young women will observe a history-making event, as the very first graduates of a brand new Nursing School at Wayland Baptist University San Antonio will be pinned.

A mere two years old, the Wayland School of Nursing is already accredited by the state of Texas and anticipates national accreditation in October. This venture into nursing instruction has been fabulously successful, limited at the current time only by space.

Including pre-nursing students, more than 400 are currently enrolled in the Wayland nursing program in San Antonio, with others in pre-nursing at the Wayland campus in Plainview, Texas. It is highly likely that the School of Nursing will be expanding into other cities in Texas in the near future.

The RN to BSN program is offered on-line, also. Explosive growth is expected in the LVN to BSN program. Since the program and the school of nursing is so new, virtually every event is an historic event, as is the case with the pinning ceremony to be held this weekend.
Dean of the School of Nursing is Dr. Diane Frazor. She is the individual that developed the proposal for the School of Nursing, led it to accreditation in Texas and is now leading toward accreditation by a national body of Nursing.

Wayland San Antonio will have an enrolment of more than 1600 students this fall in all disciplines, judging from current registration figures. It is the desire of Wayland San Antonio to be a training locale for nurses, teachers and preachers. Operating under a strategic plan to reach more than 3,800 students by 2019, the San Antonio branch of Wayland Baptist University is one of fourteen extension centers in six states and Kenya, Africa.

TAKE BAPTIST OUT OF THE NAME

The Reverend Fred Phelps was in my town this past weekend, with a group of his members from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. This is the one group of people I wish would take Baptist out of the name. This is a church of hate-filled people, led by a hate-filled pastor.

They were in my home town to picket churches, synagogues and other places where there are people with which they disagree. I do not know Rev. Phelps, but assume that he is a brother in Christ and for that reason I must love him and treat him with dignity.

However, I thoroughly disagree with his gospel of hate, which is on display in the signs and slogans they shout as they picket military funerals and other places where there might be a homosexual or two. They view the deaths of military personnel as some kind of divine retribution for the nation’s tolerance of gay people.

In the Tuesday edition of the my hometown newspaper, columnist Gary Clack chronicled the work of this misguided group, once again letting the world know there is an intolerant Baptist preacher with an intolerant Baptist congregation.

Clack wrote, “One of the best stories about Phelps and his crew was written in 2005 by my colleague, Roy Bragg, who summed up the demented breadth of Phelps’ hatred: ‘Among Westboro’s enemies: gays and anyone who doesn’t hate them; AIDS victims and their families; Presidents Bush, Clinton, and Reagan; The U.S. Military and the police; judges and politicians; Billy Graham; James Dobson; the religious right and most other clergy; the nation of Sweden; and anyone who doesn’t interpret the Bible exactly the way its filtered through the old-time, fires of Hell pulpit of Pastor Phelps.’ ”

Fortunately, the presence of Pastor Phelps and his members received very little attention from the media, which must have been particularly sad for them, since they crave media attention.

Here’s why I mention this at all. While I understand this is not a Southern Baptist group, but an independent Baptist church, I feel there are too many Southern Baptists that have begun to sound a lot like the reverend from Topeka.

In particular, there are too many Southern Baptists who have determined in their own minds that they cannot fellowship with other Christians who do not interpret scripture the way they do.

My own heart tells me that our Lord is grieved at the hatefullness of one Christian toward another.

The gospel hate will never win the world to Jesus. His gospel is the exact opposite. It is one that says love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you. Call no man a fool.

I wonder if the Lord would be pleased if this man Phelps would quit calling himself a Christian. I know I would be pleased if he would quit calling himself a Baptist.

IS THE U.S. HOSING US?

Not everyone feels the way I do, but I get the distinct feeling that I, a citizen of the United States living in my senior years, may be getting hosed by the very government that is supposed to be looking out for me.

Almost every day it seems the congress and president come up with a new way to give away tax money paid in by hardworking people. A lot of that money is being given to those who pay virtually no taxes, both rich and poor, and to those who contribute heavily to campaign coffers.

I am not fooled by all the talk of “stimulus” when most of the stimulus is going to the unions that supported the majority in power. Bailouts to the car companies were largess for the unions. For crying out loud, they even came out owning 17% of the new General Motors when all the bankruptcy deals were done.

This cash for clunkers amazes me. We own 60% of General Motors, and statistics show that this company benefitted most from the Cash For Clunkers give away. So, in effect, we gave away and average of $4,200 so that people could buy cars from the company we taxpayers and the unions own. What a deal!

Is our government creating a population of people who expect something for free every time they look up? Who doesn’t like getting free stuff? I like free stuff, although there are some things I wouldn’t want even if it was free. High on that list is sushi. Short of a famine, I wouldn’t eat sushi if it was all you could eat for free.

A lot of Americans, though, seem to clamor for free stuff. Free food, free rent, free school supplies, free clothing, and on and on it goes. I am certainly not opposed to helping truly needy people.

Things are getting all screwed up in my country. Deficits that were way too high under President Bush have more than doubled in six months of our new president. Some say there is no way we will ever pay our way out of debt. Our biggest debt holder is China, and who among us trusts those folks.

I won’t even start on this health care package working its way through congress. I can’t believe that it is necessary for our government to run the health care in this country just to get the costs down, and does anyone really believe they can actually get costs down? Is there any enterprise run by the U.S. Government that is doing that? The post office is losing money.

Amtrak is losing money. Social security is going broke. Medicare is going broke. Tell me. What makes anyone think that a government-run health plan will fare any better?

I think the best question I have heard in this health care debacle is this one: “Will the congress be forced to use the same program they want everyone else to use?” What will you bet they won’t? In fact, they voted down an amendment to that effect just last week.

Now we are hearing about a web site that is run by the White House that is asking citizens to snitch on their neighbors. If you receive an e-mail criticizing the president, you are to go to that web site and turn in the person who sent it to you. If George Bush had done that he would have been run out of town on a rail. I suppose someone will send in this blog post. O.K. Go ahead. Send it in.

People all over America have let the government know they have reached the limit of government they will tolerate. The country voted for change, but they would never have voted for what they have gotten.

What they have gotten is hosed by their government!

WHEN THE HOLE GETS TOO DEEP

There is an old adage that says when you are digging yourself into a hole, stop digging. Some of us have been applying that to government in recent days, as it seems everything our government tries to fix gets more broken. Sadly, though, government is not the only place that needs to stop digging.

Lots of churches need to stop digging, also. In my humble opinion, the greatest problem most churches have these days is that we do so much that is good that we have no time for that which is best. What churches need is not more ministries and programs, but fewer. Like government, ending a program is almost impossible.

Instead of ending programs and ministries, we keep piling them on. We have failed to learn the lesson that says, “Good is the enemy of the best.”

Churches need to spend a lot of time praying and studying, seeking to determine what of all they are doing is really making an impact on our mission. Strategic planning is almost passé these days. So much of what we do is making no progress toward an agreed upon objective, because we do not have an agreed upon objective.

Is the saying, “If you don’t know where you are going you will end up somewhere you don’t want to be” applicable I your church? Do you have an agree upon objective and some agreed upon strategic goals that will mark your progress toward that objective?

I have never been much of a wheel greaser, just content to keep the machinery going. I am much more inclined toward breaking things up by asking hard questions that people should be able to answer.

I know how it is. Someone in the church gets an idea that the church should do so and so, and the pastor doesn’t want to ask, “How is that moving us toward our objective?” It sounds like a good thing, and the person with the idea says, “You don’t have to do anything. I will take care of it all.”

We give our consent and the first thing you know the pastor is being asked to push it from the pulpit, or write about it in his church paper column. Again, he is unwilling to say, “I thought you said I wouldn’t have to do anything.”

There are many good resources and consultants available to help churches with the development of a plan that will finally get them to quit digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole. When a pastor has access to a planning document he can consult, he is more able to remind members what and what does not move them toward their objective.

I'M FOR A TWO-TERM PRESIDENCY IN THE BGCT

I’m not quite sure where and when this “tradition” of serving only one term as president of the BGCT began, but memory tells me it was with Dr. Ken Hall, who made the personal decision not to serve a second term. Since then we have had a succession of one-term presidents.

Some believe this is good because it gives more people an opportunity to be president. Politically, that may make sense to those who desire to be “king-makers” each year and personally select the candidate who will be put up for election. Often this is done under the guise of desiring minority candidates, including women, to have a shot at the presidency, which in and of itself is a noble goal.

However, in my own personal opinion, unless that candidate is savvy enough to work the system, it is a wasted nobility. Just to have a woman or a minority is not enough of a reason for one-term presidents.

I would not be so bold as to suggest that this is nothing more than an effort to weaken the office of president of the BGCT. What I mean is that I would not suggest this is an intentional effort to do that. But, even if unintentional, it has that effect.

I go back to days when powerful personalities were elected president and these personalities could challenge Texas Baptists to do more because they and their churches were doing more.

Back in the days when we had two week Vacation Bible Schools, there was a saying: “The first week we get hold of the material. The second week the material gets hold of us.” I feel that way about the presidency of the BGCT. The first term, you are just trying to figure out what needs to be done. The second term you might actually get some of it done. Those who cry out for one-term presidents understand this. They know that if the president stays two years he might actually get something done, and it might not be what the king-makers want to see done. In other words, if the president is effective enough to accomplish something, the power of the kingmakers is diminished.

David Lowrie has been an effective president in this year of getting to know all the players. A second term will allow him to work with those players to actually accomplish some things for the good of the convention.

I am all for returning to the system as it once was, and as our constitution envisioned it. The constitution of the convention allows for two consecutive terms. Tradition has always honored that, until recently. I am ready to go back to it. Let’s encourage Dr. Lowrie in his second-term run and re-elect him. The convention needs him.

For once, let’s put the needs of the convention ahead of the personal agendas, even if those agendas might be worthy. If having a minority or a woman president is important, let them be a candidate in an open electoral process. If the convention agrees having a minority is more important than having a strong, effective, knowledgeable leader, the convention will elect them.

There are strong, effective, knowledgeable, minority leaders out there, and one day we might want to honor him/her with two consecutive terms. The system is set up so that we can choose not to re-elect an ineffective president. But it is also set up to honor with election for two terms those who are effective.

Cast my vote for the two-term president, and specifically, in this case, Dr. David Lowrie.

A HOT TIME…A REALLY HOT TIME.....

On Sunday, August 2, San Antonio officially set a new record for heat. The summer of 2009 is now officially the hottest on record in the Alamo City.

The previous record of 36 days where the official temperature reached at least 100 degrees was broken and shows no signs of abating. August 2 was day number 37 for 2009.

Now, most people who do not live in San Antonio think 100 degree temps are a regular occurrence in San Antonio, but that is not true. In fact, the average summer temperature in San Antonio is less than that of Dallas. It is rare indeed when the temperature reaches 100 more than about a half dozen days in a normal year.

Accompanying the hot days is an unusual drought. We are mere days from stage three water restrictions. We have been in stage two for several weeks. This is a drought that started twenty-three months ago, during which time San Antonio has had a total of twenty-four inches of rain. This in a city that has an annual rainfalll that is normally about thirty inches, which means we have had only about one third of our normal rainfall.

With no hurricane- induced rains, we are seeing our underground water reservoir drop precipitively.

Just as locales experience 100 year floods, we are experiencing what must be a 100 year heat wave. However, this is the second such experience in the past eleven years, the last one being in 1998 when the previous hottest record was set.

Most of us who live in San Antonio know that we have been droughts before and they eventually do end. As bad as it it is here, some places are worse. Kerrville, for instance, in the Hill Country, is already in stage three water rationing.

I ask all my friends to join us in praying for an end to this drought, which is costing literally millions of dollars in lost agricultural revenue. Farmers and ranchers are hurting.

A BLOG I READ AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND

I know there are many preachers who read this blog and it is to you that I write to recommend you check out http://jewelrygemsandjesus.blogspot.com/. This is a blog written by Jay Phinney, a dear friend who designs and manufactures custom made jewelry. He has found a unique way to incorporate his faith into his business. You will find many good illustrations by reading it. Enjoy!

MINISTRY BY GIFTEDNESS

We hear a lot these days about joining God, or finding out what God is up to and joining Him in it. The truth is, that is precisely what God wants us to do. However, a whole lot of what is being done by Christian groups, churches included, may not be the work of God so much as the desires of men.

Romans 12 teaches us that if we truly want to partner with God there are some things we have to do.

First we have to make sure all we are, have and seek is sacrificed or surrendered to God. Too often we get caught up in the patterns of this world, rather than the pursuits of that world which is to come.

Second, we have to seek, find and use our gifts to bring glory to the Father…our King. In my humble opinion, the most under-taught doctrine of our faith , especially in Baptist churches, is the doctrine of spiritual gifts. In too many churches, when we start talking about spiritual gifts everyone’s minds go to tongues, or the speaking in tongues.

However, there are more gifts available to us by the sovereignty of the Almighty than the gift of tongues. In Romans 12 seven different gifts are mentioned. Others are spoken of in other texts. None of us as believers has all the gifts, but all of us have some of these gifts.

It is God’s plan that we use these gifts for the building up of the church. The simple truth is that God’s plan for evangelizing the world is the church and His plan for keeping the church energized toward that objective is the bestowment of spiritual gifts in all His followers.

The third thing we must do if we would partner with the King is to demonstrate God’s love by our own. Throughout the writings of the Apostle Paul we find the words “one another.” As we focus on the King in our church we carry out that focus by showing our love for one another.

We are admonished to pray for one another. We are told to bear one another’s burdens. We are directed to provide for one another, to take care of one another.

In God’s economy, no member of the body has more worth than another. Each member's gift is essential to the proper function of the whole congregation.

We are called to surrender to God every dimension of our lives, use our giftedness to serve others, and love others, both believers and non-believers. This is what demonstrates to the world that we are authentic followers of the Lord Christ.

Jonathan Edwards wrote in his diary these words: “Resolved first: that every man should live to the glory of God. Resolved second: that whether others do this or not, I will.”

Living to the glory of God suggests that we will allow God to determine our place in His Kingdom’s work. In the words of William Carey, “I am not my own, nor would I choose for myself. Let God employ me where He thinks fit.

Seems to me to be good words for us all to live by.