Prestonwood group ministers in Boston after bombing FBC Dallas

April 18, 2013 • ISSUE 7
A growing chorus of evangelicals, including
Southern Baptist pastors such as Houston’s David
Fleming and Dallas’ David Galvan, are calling for
immigration reform that includes a path to legal status
for illegal immigrants and increased border security.
But can they win over their critics?
+Prestonwood group ministers +FBC Dallas dedicates
in Boston after bombing
$130 million expansion
Contents
2
5
The freeing restraints of God
As our nation marches happy-go-lucky into
so-called “marriage equality,” we may find that
sex sans Christianity was not the freer option.
3-4 Passings
Graham associate George Beverly Shea,
NFL’s Pat Summerall remembered
Media pay heed to
Gosnell trial—finally
The murder trial of Kermit Gosnell entered
its fifth week with new media interest in an
abortion doctor who allegedly practiced
infanticide in his clinic.
6 COVER STORY
11
Prestonwood group
ministers in Boston
after bombing
A young adult group from Prestonwood
Baptist Church in Plano who were in
Boston during the marathon ministered
in the aftermath of the bombings.
13
San Diego pastor, Texas governor
help dedicate FBC Dallas facilities
Members of the storied First Baptist Church of
Dallas were reminded to turn outward in their
mission by two very different messengers on
April 7 during dedication services.
On the immigration issue,
evangelical group calls for bold
reform while others worry about
follow-through on border security.
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Jerry Pierce
The freeing
restraints of God
W
hen the older of my two sons
was about 8, he decided to entertain himself with the slack
of a spare seat belt in the back
of our van. We were traveling back to Dallas
from Oklahoma City, and I was carefree about
it until I heard him say in a panicked voice
something like, “I’m stuck” and “it hurts.”
After my wife crawled back to unleash him
and failed, I exited the interstate—not a happy
camper—and pulled off on the shoulder to
resolve this. I failed too. Exasperated, I drove
until I found a fire station in Ardmore, Okla.,
where several gracious firemen solved our
problem.
The irony was that the more we tried to
loosen the knotted seat belt strap, the worse
his predicament. For passenger safety, the seat
belt manufacturer didn’t design the belt to get
looser upon being jerked. Just the opposite.
I can’t help but think of that irony as our
nation marches happy-go-lucky into so-called
“marriage equality.” In Texas, we are far from
going there by choice—I think—but the dominos are falling faster than we realized. Our
friends’ and neighbors’ convictions were wobblier than we thought.
And if Rod Dreher, a former Dallas Morning
News columnist, is correct, the whole movement is not merely another chink in the armor
but a grievous wound signaling Christianity’s
defeat in Western culture. Freedom requires
limits. Societies are defined by what they prohibit, Dreher notes. The ironic unintended consequence of laissez-faire morality is eventual
enslavement of the powerless by the powerful.
Writing in the American Conservative, Dreher says that “put bluntly, the gay-rights cause
has succeeded precisely because the Christian
cosmology has dissipated in the mind of the
2 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
West.” Dreher was recalling a 1993 article in The Nation that
described a “cosmology”—used here in a philosophical sense
of understanding reality and the universal order of things—
created by homosexuals to explain their condition in a society
with a sexual identity crisis. The article contended that given
their cosmological aspirations, a “small and despised sexual
minority will change America forever.”
Change seems to be here, helped along by a “Live and let
live!” philosophy inside and outside our churches.
We are past the tipping point, Dreher believes, and it happened faster than anyone thought possible largely because of
decades of dismantling Christian constructs, beginning with
the Enlightenment but bearing discernable fruit in the 1960s
sexual revolution.
That era of sexual revolt pitted individualism against community or religion or superstition. “Live and let live!” and
“If it feels good, do it!” took root in hearts far beyond hippie
hamlets and college dorms. Those mantras subtly went mainstream. They are in our churches. Think of that couple in your
church, seemingly happily married, that divorces because
one spouse is feeling unfulfilled in mid-life or because one of
them has met a “soul mate” who isn’t their spouse.
If a fair number of professing Christians are committed to
their marriages only conditionally, then is it a surprise that a
growing number of our seemingly conventional, freedom-loving, flag-waving neighbors are open to changing their minds
on gay marriage? We devalued the thing first—in the name of
freedom and self-fulfillment.
A poster on Facebook recently spouted, “Who cares about
who gets married” when we have so many people out of work?
This person is a professing Christian, and I gather, fairly
conservative politically. But she apparently doesn’t believe
there is much to lose culturally by “who gets married.” She is
dangerously nearsighted.
The illusion is that we can be free of theological claims on
our lives, or others can be, and it can remain a private matter. But the irony is that the further off the leash sexually and
morally we go and the more we attempt to define our own
essence, the more severe our bondage—personally and corporately.
We must look back to our origins, making a case for a worldview that explains God, man, sin, corruption and redemption.
Maybe we shouldn’t omit the Bible’s sexual metaphors in our
talks about the gospel. Maybe we shouldn’t talk philosophically about sex without also discussing marriage and the
mystery of Christ and his church.
And maybe we should start in our homes and in our
churches.
Briefly
Dallas mayor
criticized for
attending
First Dallas
Dallas Mayor Mike
Rawlings found himself
defending his choice to
attend a dedication service on April 7 for new
facilities at First Baptist
Church of Dallas, citing
his reason as a belief in
tolerance.
In its story on Rawlings’ attendance at the
same
service
where
other dignitaries such
as Texas Gov. Rick Perry
NORTH AMERICA
Bev Shea, Graham soloist, dead at 104
George Beverly Shea, the longtime
soloist for Billy Graham Crusades, died
April 16 after a brief illness. He was 104.
Shea and Graham were lifelong
friends, for decades living only a mile
apart from each other in Montreat, N.C.
“I first met Bev Shea while in Chicago
when he was on Moody Radio,” Graham
said. “As a young man starting my ministry, I asked Bev if he would join me. He
said yes and for over 60 years we had the
privilege of ministering together across
the country and around the world.”
Graham added, “Bev was one of the
most humble, gracious men I have ever
known and one of my closest friends. I
loved him as a brother.”
A lengthy New York Times obituary
said Tuesday Graham wasn’t always the
more famous of the two. When Graham
asked him to sing at his preaching events
in the 1940s, Shea already was a nationally known voice in Christian music, The
Times said. Graham, at the time, was a
“fledgling minister.”
“As has been widely reported, their
early revival meetings were often advertised like this: BEV SHEA SINGS. Billy
Graham will preach,” The Times said.
By the time old age led to the winding
down of their ministry together, Shea
had “faithfully carried the Gospel in
song to every continent and every state
in the Union,” the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) said.
Shea composed the music to one of
his best known solos, “I’d Rather Have
Jesus,” at age 23.
were present, the gaycentric Dallas Voice described the church as
the “anti-gay First Baptist Church of Dallas”
and referred to Pastor
Robert Jeffress’
Falling fertility rate poses
problems, author says
“ex-
treme anti-gay views”
Benches built to push couples to sit closer togeth-
for calling homosex-
er, special holidays and monetary incentives are
ual
“unnatural,”
all ways other countries have tried to boost fertili-
“filthy,” “perverse” and
ty rates, author and demographer Jonathan Last
acts
told a Washington audience recently.
“abnormal.”
Rawlings
said
he
The “bad news,” Last said, is there are
considers himself to be
few examples of effective public policy
a “Christ-centered per-
to nudge fertility rates upward. Other
son” but he disagrees
countries that have tried to do so failed,
with Jeffress on the is-
the author of “What to Expect When No
sue. He said he is com-
One’s Expecting” said during an April 3
mitted to working with
lecture at the Family Research Council.
all people in Dallas.
The world population will peak before
The wife of Rawlings,
the end of this century and then quickly
a Presbyterian, report-
contract, Last predicted in a February opin-
edly grew up at First
ion piece for the Los Angeles Times. This
Baptist Dallas.
would be the first time this large and quick
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 3
of a contraction took place
since the Black Plague hit
Europe in the Middle Ages.
Pat Summerall ‘finished well,’ pastor says
Today, 97 percent of the
world’s population lives in
countries where the fertility
rate is falling, Last said in the
article.
At the Family Research
Council event, Last cited some
past efforts to boost fertility
rates.
“The first attempt we see as
pro-natalist public policy is
actually from Caesar Augustus,” Last said. “He passes in
the late days of the Roman
Empire, when they were
having a fertility crunch, a
bachelor tax—to get unmarried young men to get married and start [having] kids.
That did not work.”
“Pre-1968—broadly speaking, you could not have sex
without getting married. You
could not have sex without
having a child nine months
later, and you couldn’t have a
kid out of wedlock. Certainly
people did those things certainly on their own outside,
but in broader society people
didn’t do that,” Last said.
“The sexual revolution plays
an enormous role on fertility,” Last said.
In 1965, four percent of all
births were to single mothers;
today, it is 47 percent. It is not
that America is unwilling to
produce children; the problem is broken homes and the
dropping fertility rate, Last
said. America’s ideal fertility
rate is 2.5; it is currently 2.1.
“What has changed is not
our conception of what the
ideal family is but our ability
to achieve it,” Last said.
4 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
Pat Summerall stood in the front row at
Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano on
Easter Sunday, next to his wife Cheri, as
the congregation sang “The Old Rugged
Cross.”
“I looked over there at Pat, and big
tears were streaming down his face,”
Prestonwood Pastor Jack Graham said.
“Of all the times I’ve watched him on
television, of all the times I’ve heard his
Summerall accepted Christ later in life.
voice, my greatest memory is going to be
His partnership with Brookshier exremembering Pat with his eyes lifted up tended beyond the broadcast booth, as
to heaven, tears soaking his face, singing the two became close friends and drink‘The Old Rugged Cross.’”
ing buddies. Much of Summerall’s life
Summerall, the famed NFL broadcaster, was characterized by alcoholism and
died April 16 in Dallas of cardiac arrest at abandonment of his family.
age 82. He had been in Zale Lipshy HosIn 1992, Summerall’s friends and family
pital after surgery for a broken hip.
staged an intervention on his behalf and
Graham said with all the accolades and he ended up at a treatment center, angry
applause that Sumat his condition.
merall received for his
Then he began read“[F]or the first time in my
sports
broadcasting
ing the Bible.
life, I knew what people
work, his walk with
“My thirst for almeant about being ‘born
Christ is what mattered
cohol was being reagain. I had already acthe most to him.
placed by a thirst for
cepted
that Jesus Christ
“He finished well,”
knowledge
about
was the Son of God who
Graham said. “His faith
faith and God,” Sumdied for our sins. Now, I felt merall wrote. “I began
was strong in Christ
I was truly part of his family. reading the Bible regand he was prepared
I felt ecstatic, invigorated,
for eternity. His comularly at the treatment
mitment was stronger
happier, and freer. It felt as
center, and it became
than ever. Even though
a part of my daily routhough my soul had been
he was battling illness
tine. The more I read,
washed clean.”
and the personal chalthe more I felt a void in
lenges of aging, he was
my life that needed to
—Pat Summerall
joyful and constantly
be filled.”
engaging people with
He was later baphis life and his testimony. He was always tized at First Baptist Church in Euless.
willing to share what Christ had done in Summerall described emerging from the
his life and the transforming power of Je- water and said he had surfaced to a new
sus in his life.”
world.
After 10 years in the NFL as a kicker,
“[F]or the first time in my life, I knew
Summerall spent more than 40 years call- what people meant about being ‘born
ing NFL games for CBS and FOX, most again,’” Summerall wrote. “I had already
notably with analyst John Madden. Prior accepted that Jesus Christ was the Son
to Madden, Summerall teamed with ana- of God who died for our sins. Now, I felt I
lyst Tom Brookshier.
was truly part of his family. I felt ecstatic,
“We lost one of the all-time greats invigorated, happier, and freer. It felt as
yesterday in Pat Summerall,” said Mike though my soul had been washed clean.”
Greenburg, host of ESPN’s “Mike and
Graham was scheduled to preach SumMike in the Morning,” on his April 17 merall’s funeral at Prestonwood on April
show. “He was one of the great football 20, with a live broadcast link to the servoices—maybe the greatest football play- vice accessible at prestonwood.org.
by-play man there ever was.”
Media pay heed to Gosnell trial—finally
By Tom Strode
(BP)—The murder trial of Kermit
Gosnell entered its fifth week with new
media interest in an abortion doctor
who allegedly practiced infanticide in
his clinic.
Gosnell, 72, faces seven counts of firstdegree murder in the deaths of viable
children who were killed after delivery
and a count of third-degree murder in
the death of a Virginia woman during a
2009 abortion.
Those seven babies were only some of
hundreds at least six months into gestation who were killed outside the womb
after induced delivery at Gosnell’s West
Philadelphia clinic, a grand jury reported in 2011. After delivery, Gosnell—
or another staff member—would jab
scissors into the back of a baby’s neck
and cut the spinal cord, according to the
grand jury. Gosnell called the killing of
these children “snipping.”
Witnesses recounted the killings of
babies struggling for life outside the
womb and the horrible conditions at the
clinic during the trial’s first four weeks,
but most major news organizations ignored or paid little attention to the trial
despite the sensational testimony.
By April 15, however, that had begun
to change. After an outcry from some in
the news media and a pro-life campaign
on Twitter, CNN covered the story in
prime time April 12. “CBS This Morning”
telecast a nearly four-minute report.
When the trial reconvened on April 15,
reporters from The Washington Post
and other major news outlets were present in the Philadelphia Common Pleas
Court for the first time.
What local reporters, and some from
conservative news organizations, heard
in the trial’s first four weeks in the major news media’s absence included:
4Former clinic staffer Adrienne Moton told jurors March 19 she “couldn’t
give you a number” of how many times
Gosnell killed infants outside the womb
by cutting their spinal cords, according
to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
4Gosnell joked about the size of one
born-alive baby he killed, “This baby is
going to walk me home,” said Ashley
Baldwin, who started working at the
clinic as a 15-year- old, The Inquirer
reported.
4A “snipping” is “like a beheading,”
said former Gosnell employee Steven
Massof April 4, The Inquirer reported.
When mothers were given drugs to
induce sudden contractions, “it would
rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over
the place,” Massof said, according to
WCAU-TV, NBC’s Philadelphia affiliate.
“It was interesting to hear, however,
how the people working for Gosnell
were needy, desperate people with few
options in life. He seemed to seek out
people like that for his clinic,” said
pro-life advocate Cheryl Sullenger,
who added all of the former employees
except one seemed “emotionally affected in a negative way by their work
at Gosnell’s clinic.
Sullenger said she hopes the trial “will
awaken Americans to the ugly truth
about how abortion clinics are run in
America and how a lack of oversight
only allows abortionists to prey on and
exploit women, especially poor women
of color.... Maybe the public will now be
open to hearing about abortion abuses
that go on in clinics every day and
realize there is no such thing as a ‘safe’
abortion clinic. We hope it will lead to
stronger laws restricting abortion and
greater oversight and enforcement.
Perhaps if America can begin to understand the truth about the barbaric
practice of abortion, we as a nation will
finally stop tolerating it.”
BP requested comment from three
leading abortion rights organizations—Planned Parenthood Federation
of America, NARAL Pro-choice America
and National Abortion Federation—to
two questions involving the Gosnell
trial: What is their response to testimony Gosnell killed viable babies who
survived abortions? How can state government make sure conditions similar
to those reported at Gosnell’s clinic are
not duplicated at other reproductive
health centers?
Tarek Rizk, NARAL’s communication
director, said in response, “This is an
example of what happens to women
and basic dignity when abortion isn’t
available to all women by safe and legal
providers.”
Planned Parenthood and National
Abortion Federation did not reply before this article was submitted.
The Gosnell trial continues as health
and safety complaints against abortion
clinics mount. For instance, two nurses
quit their jobs at Planned Parenthood of
Delaware because of conditions at the
clinic, they told WPVI-TV, the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia. One told a reporter,
“I couldn’t tell you how ridiculously
unsafe it was.” On April 10, WPVI-TV
reported five patients at the clinic allegedly have been taken to the emergency
room since early January.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Board of
Health gave final approval April 12 to
new regulations that require abortion
clinics to comply with hospital-like
building standards.
Major news organizations seemed
to begin to backtrack on what critics
described as a news blackout of the
Gosnell trial after Democrat columnist
Kirsten Powers wrote a scathing piece
April 10 in USA Today. The former
Clinton administration official said the
“deafening silence of too much of the
media ... is a disgrace.”
“You don’t have to oppose abortion
rights to find late-term abortion abhorrent or to find the Gosnell trial eminently newsworthy,” Powers wrote. “This is
not about being ‘pro-choice’ or ‘pro-life.’
It’s about human rights.”
Some reporters or editors acknowledged their pro-choice affinity and confessed their news organizations should
have been covering the trial.
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 5
As a diverse evangelical coalition seeks
reform with a path to legal status, some
of their brother politicians are wary of
border control problems.
By Bonnie Pritchett
diverse coalition of 170 pastors and leaders calling itself
the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) has created a bold
proposal for solving the illegal immigration problem that
strives to balance compassion with common-sense reforms.
Among its most visible members are Southern Baptists
Richard Land, longtime convention ethics agency leader,
and Houston pastor David Fleming, an Executive Board
member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
Former SBC President Bryant Wright was also an early signer.
The group is watching closely for the roll-out of a 1,500-page
bipartisan Senate document calling for immigration reform that
includes a path to citizenship for otherwise law-abiding illegals—
something long overdue, some critics of the current system contend.
But they are not the only Christian evangelicals, let alone Southern
Baptists, who are eyeing the much-touted proposal by the Senate’s
so-called “Gang of Eight”—a collaboration of Republicans Marco
Rubio of Florida, John McCain and John Flake of Arizona, Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina, and Democrats Chuck Schumer of New
York, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Richard Durbin of Illinois, and
Michael Bennet of Colorado.
Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert (R-Tyler) said he is in agreement
with the EIT’s goals of compassion and reform, but he said he is
6 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
troubled by talk of legal status without
stricter border controls.
Any reform must meet biblically
based criteria, according to the EIT.
The group includes conservatives
as well as a few on the left edge of
evangelicalism. Jim Wallis, president
and CEO of Sojourners, is on board
with EIT, as well as Ronald Sider with
Evangelicals for Social Action.
In Texas, signers include former
SBTC president and Dallas pastor David
Galvan, Malcolm Yarnell, systematic
theology professor at Southwestern
Seminary and editor of the school’s
theology journal, Daniel Sanchez,
missions professor at Southwestern,
and Lamar Cooper, senior professor
of Old Testament and archaeology at
Criswell College.
Additionally, leaders of numerous
Christian denominations, including
the Assemblies of God, the Christian
and Missionary Alliance, and the
Evangelical Free Church, signed the
document, according to a list on the
EIT website.
The coalition struck an accord and
drafted a resolution in November
asking Congress and the president to
address the issue in a manner that
reflects biblical standards and the
nation’s “commitment to the values of human dignity,
family unity, and respect of the law.”
The EIT has broadcast radio ads in five states
including Texas. In the 60-second Texas spot, Fleming
is the voice, identifying himself as a pastor and calling
for reforms “that are both just and compassionate. So
please join a growing movement
of Christians asking our political
leaders for solutions which
reflect each person’s God-given
dignity, respect the rule of law,
protect family unity, secure
our borders, ensure fairness to
taxpayers and establish a path
to citizenship to those who
David Fleming
qualify.”
“For me it’s a moral issue,” Fleming, pastor of
Champion Forest Baptist Church, told the TEXAN.
Fleming and Land make no excuses for illegal
immigration or overstaying legal visas. But fixing the
problem demands Christian principals that balance
charity, human dignity and prudence, they say.
Gohmert, a Southern Baptist deacon, commended
the EIT tenets that pay heed to human dignity, family
unity and reform. But Gohmert
told the TEXAN, “As fellow
Christians these are things we
believe in. But we are not called
to be in government as total
fools.”
Previous immigration reforms
assured secure borders but didn’t
deliver them, said Gohmert,
Louis Gohmert
referencing the 1986 amnesty
bill signed by President Ronald
Reagan. A provision of the bill called for securing the
borders to stem the tide of illegal immigrants.
There should be no discussion of legalization
and citizenship before the U.S. borders are secure,
Gohmert argued, because such talk encourages
unlawful entry by those believing they will receive
amnesty.
“We’re going to do this again and in the wrong
order,” said David Welch, director of the Houston Area
Pastor Council, citing the concerns of some council
members.
In 2010 the Houston council passed The Pastors’
Declaration on Border Security and Immigration
Reform, urging elected officials to remedy the issue,
balancing the scriptural demands of justice and
compassion. The resolution first called for securing
the borders. Fleming helped draft that document.
But while legislators take what could be years
to resolve the problem of porous borders, Fleming
said those already here illegally
linger in an untenable limbo.
He recounted stories of church
members whose immigrant status
defies conventional stereotypes.
Fleming told of a woman
whose husband came to the U.S.
on a work visa sponsored by his
employer. Since her husband’s
David Galvan
death four years ago the woman
has no legal recourse for staying in the country.
Despite working through proper channels, her request
to stay here with her American-born teenagers was
denied. Instead she was told to return to her native
country to reapply for entry. “The line” to get back to
America is 15 years long, Fleming said.
“This is an unfair, unjust response to this mom’s
circumstances,” Fleming argued.
Approximately 40 percent of
illegal immigrants in the country
have overstayed their visas,
Gohmert said.
Regardless of how they came
here, many have become members
of churches. Jesse Contreras, SBTC
language ministries associate,
estimates that 60 percent of
Richard Land
members in Spanish-language
churches are illegal residents.
Land, who is retiring and will become president
of Southern Evangelical Seminary, cited similar
numbers. He said of Latino converts to Baptist
churches, “We evangelize them and they become
Baptists … part of the Iglesia Bautista.”
Putting a face on illegal immigration stories is
compelling, Gohmert said. It is the impetus for seeking
reform. But the face of the illegal immigrant also
belongs to members of the drug cartels smuggling
narcotics across the southern border, he said, and the
single mom whose car was totaled by an unlicensed,
uninsured, undocumented drunk driver.
“That is not how you treat people with dignity,”
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 7
Gohmert said.
immigration reform. The Southern Baptists of Texas
But, EIT proponents say, any immigration reform
Convention passed a similar resolution in 2006.
must include background checks to ensure those
The last SBC resolution, in 2011, called for gospel
here who are awaiting legalization meet strict
proclamation balanced by justice and compassion,
requirements. And those seeking legalization must pay with border security and hiring practices also a
a fine to compensate for their illegal entry.
concern. With secure borders, the government should
Once an immigrant is deemed qualified, the
seek a “just and compassionate path to legal status,
legalization process would begin while the person
with appropriate restitutionary measures, for those
remains in the country. No one would be forced to
undocumented immigrants already living in our
return home and “get in line.”
country.” It specified the resolution was not to be
Also, the EIT argues, deporting the millions already
understood as supporting amnesty.
here is not a viable solution. To “retroactively” enforce
An SBTC resolution in 2006 called for a
the law for those who have been in the States for years
“comprehensive set of reforms that embody biblical
without the threat of deportation
justice and mercy while vigilantly
would be unjust, Land said.
protecting the sovereignty and
“It’s
immoral
to
break
the
“It’s immoral to break the law
security of our nation’s borders.”
law
but
also
immoral
to
but also immoral to not enforce
The resolution also called on
it,” he added. “To suddenly
government agencies to work
not enforce it. To suddenly
impose immigration laws that
together more effectively and for
impose immigration laws
have heretofore gone unenforced
employers to follow the law in
that
have
heretofore
gone
violates biblical mandates to treat
hiring practices.
unenforced violates biblical
people justly and with dignity.”
Furthermore, the SBTC resolution
Keeping families intact is a
asked churches to “cultivate
mandates to treat people
key principle for the coalition.
opportunities to minister to
justly and with dignity.”
Fleming said requiring the mother
immigrants in times of need, to
—Richard Land
from his church to return to
offer classes in English as a Second
her native country would either
Language, to help immigrants in
separate her from her children or
their pursuit of legal residency or
force them to leave the only home they have known to
citizenship, and to demonstrate the love of Christ to all
live in a foreign land.
those residing in our communities” and “to obey the
“The people most affected by the current policy are
Great Commission by redeeming every opportunity to
not anonymous to us. We know their names and their
present the gospel of Jesus Christ to the immigrants
faces, their hopes and dreams, their gifts and their
whom God has brought into our communities.”
skills. We recognize their inherent value and their
The Houston Area Pastor Council declaration was
great potential as human beings,” Fleming told Baptist used to help draft the EIT document. But how those
Press last year.
proposals are fleshed out is where the contention lies.
The admonitions of Romans 13 entreat Christians in
Polls conducted by the Pew Research Center and
this debate to find a just resolution for both citizen and the Brookings Institution indicate the majority of
immigrant, Gohmert said. As an elected official, he is
Americans (71 percent and 63 percent, respectively)
especially mindful of his “duty to the people and to
agree immigrants in the country illegally should be
uphold the law.”
afforded a path to legalization and/or citizenship if
But that law, Fleming said, is to be just law. The
specific requirements are met. The Pew survey broke
current law does not do justice to the nation’s
down the number to indicate that of the 71 percent,
values—a point not lost on Gohmert, even if they
43 percent said immigrants should be afforded a path
disagree on how to get there.
to citizenship while 24 percent of respondents said
Twice in recent years, Southern Baptist Convention
they should only be permitted to apply for permanent
messengers supported resolutions calling for
residency. Four percent did not indicate a preference.
8 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
For SBTC’s Contreras, Reagan’s
amnesty was a life-changer
By Jerry Pierce
curity number could be obtained
within a few hours.
Jesse Contreras was 8 when he came
to Texas from Monterrey, Mexico with his
parents and three of his sisters in 1985.
They had the clothes on their backs,
a tourist visa good for several months,
a temporary place to live and little else.
Millions took their chances in
breaking immigration laws that
were never consistently enforced.
A year later, in 1986, President
Reagan granted the possibility
of amnesty to illegals that came
Jesse Contreras
prior to 1985 through the Immigration Reform and Control
Act. Nearly 3 million came out of the shadows, went
through the process and became legal residents.
When the tourist visa expired, the family, like
“I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have
many peer families, stayed. They settled in Dallas’ Oak
put down roots and lived here, even though some time
Cliff neighborhood after a seven-month stay with an
back they may have entered illegally,” Reagan said in
aunt in Garland.
a 1984 debate with Democratic presidential nominee
Contreras, now a language ministry associate at the
Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and an Ameri-
Walter Mondale.
“I think people have a misconception when the word
can citizen since 2005, spoke no English when he be-
‘amnesty’ is thrown out—that it’s a free ride,” Contre-
gan fourth grade in Texas that year. Seven years later,
ras said. “But it’s actually a very costly, tedious and
he was confronted with the gospel and was saved
time-consuming process. You have
and baptized. He went on to earn
to really want to be here legally.”
bachelor’s and master’s degrees
from Criswell College and entered
the ministry.
Looking back, he sees God’s
providence all along the journey.
“I sincerely believe that God
brought me here to this country
to hear the gospel and to change
the trajectory of my life,” Contreras said.
He’s a believer in obeying the
“I think people have a
misconception when the
word ‘amnesty’ is thrown
out—that it’s a free ride.
But it’s actually a very
costly, tedious and
time-consuming process.
You have to really want
to be here legally.”
laws, but the system is broken on
The Contreras family went
through that process. A Presbyterian pastor in Oak Cliff, who
was Hispanic, helped the Contrerases and many other families go
through the proper channels of
legalization, driving them to the
courthouse, and to Catholic Charities, which was active in helping
thousands of Hispanic families
complete their paperwork.
With help from Catholic Chari-
both sides of the border, he said.
ties his parents spent about $2,000 for amnesty and
Reasonable, realistic and compassionate reform is
work permits before applying for permanent resi-
needed, he said in an interview with the TEXAN.
dence. Following that process the children were legally
In the mid-1980s, one could find Hispanic grocery
stores around Dallas where a bogus driver’s license,
permanent residence ID (green card) and Social Se-
documented, Contreras explained. His fourth sister
was born here and is a citizen by birth.
The family had been “nominally Catholic” in Mexico,
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 9
but after being befriended by the
have seemingly changed. Enforce-
they receive kickbacks or some
Presbyterian pastor, they began
ment, not uniformly applied in the
other demand. For many families,
attending the Presbyterian church
past, has become more stringent.
the safe option is to cross into the
with Jesse’s father eventually join-
For example, Contreras said he
ing and becoming an elder.
When Contreras was a teenager,
knows of one man here for more
U.S.—albeit illegally.
Also a problem, Contreras said, is
than 20 years who is driving with
deportation of families where the
the family moved back to Garland,
an expired license because getting
children have only spoken English
to an apartment where two Criswell
his renewed at the local Depart-
for years and have been educated
College students going door-to-
ment of Motor Vehicles office now
in America. They are thrust into a
door on a Saturday morning shared
means facing possible arrest by
Mexican culture that is foreign to
the gospel with Contreras in a way
Immigration and Naturalization
them and are punished for their
that resonated in his heart. They
Service (INS) agents. Previously, he
parents’ actions.
also shared something he hadn’t
could get a valid license and have it
heard: “God loves you.”
renewed periodically.
“I knew Christ died on the cross,
“It’s definitely a reality that you
“The immigrants are here and
they will tell you they should have
gone through the proper chan-
but I did not understand surrender
deal with here in Texas every day”
nels,” Contreras said. “But because
and trusting Christ as savior.”
with illegals constantly looking
of corruption on the Mexico side it
over their shoulders, he said.
is difficult to go through the legal
They invited him to church—
Northrich Baptist in Richardson.
“There might have been two
brown faces,” Contreras recalled.
“I don’t remember anything about
process from that end as well.”
Danger, exploitation
and ethical dilemmas
tunity to become legal residents,
Ethically, it’s a dilemma for
“would jump on it. If there’s a fine,
Most illegals, if given an oppor-
the sermon. I do remember they
Hispanic Baptist churches, where
they would pay it. They want to be
gave an invitation. I told them I had
Contreras estimates 60 percent of
productive citizens, and they want
placed my faith in Christ.”
members are here illegally.
that for their children too.”
At age 15, he was baptized at
Their underground status makes
But until a solution is found,
Northrich Baptist. Later, his mother
them vulnerable to being exploited
illegals “are our neighbors, they
and four sisters also were baptized
on American soil by angry land-
attend our schools and our church-
there. Today, his mom and a sister
lords, neighbors or bosses who
es, they are a part of our mission
are members of Crossroads Baptist
might threaten to turn them into
field,” he said.
Church in Rowlett and another
INS if they don’t comply with de-
sister is involved with Woodbridge
mands.
Bible Fellowship, a church the
In one church where Contreras
“I do know a couple of pastors who have gone back out of
conscience’ sake—at great cost,”
SBTC is helping plant in Wylie. His
served, a church member was
Contreras added, but they are the
dad still attends his Presbyterian
turned into INS and deported while
exception.
church.
his legal resident wife and two chil-
“They took me in, that whole
He also knows a businessman
dren, both U.S. citizens, were left
from Monterrey whose life was
church, even though I was the only
here. To keep the family intact, the
threatened by drug cartels. “He
Hispanic there at the time,” Contre-
church took the wife and children
came here to survive,” Contreras
ras said of Northrich Baptist.
to the Mexican border to be reunit-
added.
It took him about five years to get
ed and begin anew in Mexico.
“It’s a mess. It’s a broken system
permanent residency after his par-
But many regions of Mexico are
and it needs to be rectified. It’s bro-
ents gained legal status. He became
not hospitable to families because
ken here and it’s broken in Mexico.
a citizen in 2005 after another long
of government corruption and
And most people aren’t going to
process.
rampant drug cartel violence. The
go through the hoops of doing the
cartels often threaten business
right thing.”
Contreras said fear is constant
among illegals because the rules
10 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
owners and their relatives unless
Prestonwood group ministers
in Boston after bombing
By Erin Roach
BOSTON
day after two bombs exploded near
the finish line of the iconic Boston
Marathon on April 15, pastors
and other leaders were urging
people to pray for Boston as the
city grappled with the questions that arise from tragedy
that claimed three lives and injured
dozens of others.
Amid that shock, a group of young
adults from the Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano were
making themselves available to talk
with and pray for passersby on the
streets near the site of the bombings.
The group had been in town since
April 11, working with Hope Fellowship
Church, a Southern Baptist congregation about three miles away in Cambridge.
On April 15, the Prestonwood mission
team handed out gum and invitations
to Hope Fellowship to people who were
watching the marathon.
“Some of our people actually walked
down toward the finish line,” Josh
Steckel of Prestonwood told Baptist
Press.
Around 2:30 p.m., less than half an
hour before the blasts went off, the
group started heading back to the
church.
“Some people said they heard something that sounded like gunshots,”
Steckel said. “We were away from the
city when it happened, on our way back
from the marathon already.”
That night Hope Fellowship opened
its doors for people to stop in and
pray. Though residents of Boston were
Runners and bystanders rushed to help the injured after two bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon
finish line on April 15. In the aftermath, a group of young adults from Prestonwood Baptist Church in
Plano were making themselves available to talk with and pray for passersby on the streets near the site
of the bombings. The group had been in town since April 11, working with Hope Fellowship Church, a
Southern Baptist congregation about three miles away in Cambridge.
encouraged to stay home following what is being investigated as a
terrorist attack, a few people from the neighborhood who aren’t normally part of the church showed up to pray and to be prayed for, the
church’s pastor, Curtis Cook, said.
“We will have a special service this evening as a time to pray, read
Scriptures, sing and have a chance for others in the neighborhood
who might want to come in as well,” Cook said on April 16. “Obviously, we’ll speak to it on Sunday as well as part of our services.”
Steckel’s team from Prestonwood was back out on the streets the
day after the bombings, handing out granola bars, this time with
signs on their bags that said, “Need prayer? We are available.” That
simple invitation afforded several opportunities to pray with people
and share the hope of Jesus, Steckel said.
They also secured cases of water and gave them to police and National Guardsmen stationed near the blocked-off crime scene. The
mission team was scheduled to leave Boston on April 17.
“Tell people to pray boldly in Jesus’ name that the gospel-centered
church planters and pastors here would have more opportunities
to share the gospel and love on the people of Boston,” Steckel said.
“Also pray for healing, that God would use this for revival and for
his glory.”
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 11
Steve Brown, a bivocational
church planter who moved to Boston last summer with his wife and
two children from Grand Prairie,
was anticipating opportunities to
speak with his coworkers at The
Container Store as he drove into
work Tuesday morning.
“The people that we’re close with,
our friends and the people I work
with for sure, they know that we’re
Christians, and when things like
this happen it just creates a lot of
questions in people’s minds whether they are up front in talking
about it or not,” Brown told Baptist
Press.
Brown was asking God to give him
opportunities to share the hope and
comfort of Christ with people in the
midst of those questions.
“I think it makes people think
about their worldview whether
they realize it or not. People think
about why these things happen
and where such evil comes from
and where does God fit into this,”
Brown said.
When tragedy struck in Newtown, Conn., in December, Brown
had conversations with coworkers
“I think it makes people think about their
worldview whether they realize it or not.
People think about why these things
happen and where such evil comes
from and where does God fit into this.”
—Steve Brown, a bivocational church planter
about how to process and respond
to evil events in the world. He
hopes to build on those conversations now, leading people to place
their faith in Jesus.
Josh Wyatt, pastor of Charles
River Church in Boston, landed at
Boston’s Logan Airport just half an
hour after the bombings and expected his wife and three children
to be at the finish line to support
one of their friends who was running. He was going to meet them
there.
“By God’s grace, at a church marathon party that morning, church
members talked my wife out of
going because the crowds would be
too challenging to navigate by herself with three young kids. Instead,
she picked me up at the airport,
we prayed with our children and
began supporting victims and their
loved ones and hurting Boston residents,” Wyatt told Baptist Press.
There are about 100 churches
that cooperate with the Greater
Boston Baptist Association.
The SBTC will host a vision trip to
the Boston area Sept. 17-18 in connection with SEND Boston, a North
American Mission Board effort. For
more information contact Barry
Calhoun in the SBTC missions
office, bcalhoun@sbtexas.com or
877.953.7282 (SBTC).
sbtexas.com/crossover
12 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
San Diego pastor, Texas governor help
dedicate FBC Dallas’ $130 million expansion
By Jerry Pierce
DALLAS
Members of the storied First
Baptist Church of Dallas were
reminded to turn outward in their
mission by two very different
messengers on April 7 during dedication services for the church’s
new $130 million expanded campus that aims to be a “spiritual
oasis” downtown.
Billed as “the largest church
building campaign in modern
history,” the project aesthetically
complements its surroundings
in an area of downtown where
new multi-million dollar theaters,
museums and parks dot the landscape.
David Jeremiah, pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church
in El Cajon, Calif., whose relationship with the church dates back
to his days as a Dallas Theological
Seminary student, and Texas Gov.
Rick Perry, known for his bold
evangelicalism, headlined the
list of dignitaries attending the
first in a series of April services
marking the historic church’s new
facilities.
“The temptation will be to take a
deep breath and to say ‘We finally
did it,’” Jeremiah told a packed
audience in the new 3,000-seat,
state-of-the-art worship center
with a 150-foot-wide IMAX-quality
screen spanning the stage.
Jeremiah’s selection to preach
the dedication was a historic fit.
W.A. Criswell, legendary pastor
of First Baptist Dallas, went to San Diego years ago to preach dedication
services for Jeremiah at Shadow Mountain Community Church.
Jeremiah, a Southern Baptist with an international broadcast ministry
called “Turning Point,” told of being captivated by Criswell and First Baptist Dallas while he was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. In recent years, Jeremiah and First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress have become
friends, with Jeremiah encouraging Jeffress to expand his “Pathway to
Victory” media ministry, Jeremiah said.
It was announced during the service to applause that “Pathway to Victory” began in late March with broadcasts into mainland China with a
potential audience of 1 billion people.
To illustrate his sermon, Jeremiah turned to a Vincent van Gogh painting called “The Church at Auvers” that depicts a church building without doors to go in and out of and which sits in its own shadow, neither
reflecting nor emanating any light.
Like the church in the painting, the danger for the modern church is
that it would become a “lifeless relic that the people bypass to avoid its
dark shadow,” Jeremiah said.
But with diligence toward the purpose of the church (“the glory of
God”), the program of the church (reaching out to those on the outside),
and the priority of the church (“the Great Commission”), First Baptist
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 13
David Jeremiah
Rick Perry
Dallas can become “thousands of
points of light illuminating the darkness,” Jeremiah said.
Through 40 years of ministry and
eight building projects, “I’ve come
to believe that all of the benefits the
nuclear family accrues from having
a place to call home” also apply to
churches. But much work awaits on
the outside, he reminded.
“God has not just put this church in
this community so if can be a beauti14 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
ful, a monumental, place for people to visit. This is not just a place
where people should come into the church, but remember, the doors
are open both ways. The church must go out of these doors, into the
community and touch the lives of the people who are needy and are
needing what Jesus Christ alone can bring,” Jeremiah said.
Perry began his six-minute address to the church by saying he
was wowed by the facilities as a “beacon” where “our savior and our
light can truly be seen.”
Noting his own depravity and his need for a savior, Perry said his
Austin pastor often says church is a “hospital for sinners.” In the
same manner, the mission of the church is not to condemn people
“but to point people to the one who is the way, the truth and the life.
We as fellow sinners will never condemn someone to salvation, but
God can use us to show them grace and love them to it.”
After reading Matthew 7:3-5—the passage about judging without
first removing the “plank in your own eye”—Perry added, “We cannot condemn certain lifestyles while turning a blind eye to sins that
in God’s eye are just as grievous. We must love all, welcome all.”
Though Perry didn’t refer to it, Jeffress and First Baptist Church
received national media attention in February after NFL quarterback Tim Tebow withdrew from speaking during the church’s
dedication celebration following public pressure from homosexual
activists and liberal pundits.
A statement from the church at the time disputed characterizations that Jeffress’ message was hateful, noting that “contrary to
editorializing in the media, Dr. Jeffress shares a message of hope,
not hate; salvation, not judgment; and a Gospel of God’s love, grace
and new beginnings available to all.”
The First Baptist expansion includes a glass sky bridge connecting
the worship center to the five-story Horner Family Center and parking garage.
An outdoor cross-tower and fountain—officially announced during the dedication service as the Jeffress Fountain Plaza—includes
a baptismal pool and is surrounded by three-fourths of an acre of
community space for pedestrians. The cross towers 68 feet with
multiple fountainheads that can be synced to orchestral music.
Also dedicated were the Jennifer, James and Geneva Donald Preschool and Children’s Suite and the Donna and Hollis Sullivan Media
Center—which will broadcast services and serve as home to the
“Pathway to Victory” ministry.
Among the dedication service dignitaries were Dallas Mayor Mike
Rawlings and two former First Baptist Dallas pastors, O.S. Hawkins,
who offered a dedication prayer, and Joel Gregory, who read Scripture.
Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, preached on April
14. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson was scheduled for
speak during a luncheon on April 21.
First Dallas members weigh
history during dedication
Jerry L. Halcomb, a deacon at
was one of Criswell’s closest friends
First Baptist Church of Dallas and a during his long tenure, said she sat
member there since 1965, recalled
on the same family pew in the old
the day the late W.A. Criswell, then
sanctuary for 65 years.
in the prime of his long pastorate
When George Truett took leave of
at First Baptist, called him into his
the church to fight in World War
office to ask him why he was dating I, he placed his hand on Baker’s
a Roman Catholic.
shoulder and told him, “Take care
Despite Criswell’s concerns,
of my church while I’m gone.”
Halcomb eventually married Betty
Baker was on the pulpit comand began bringing her to Sunday
mittee that called Criswell to First
School. She eventually made a proBaptist Church in 1944. Her father,
fession of faith and was baptized—
a lawyer whom she described as
all under Criswell’s ministry. Their
an “entertainer and a showman,”
son Doug, now
served as choir direcpastor of a nontor during Criswell’s
“[H]e would be
denominational
first 2½ years at the
amazed.
He
knew
this
church in Lubbock,
church, taking an
was also saved and
all needed to happen. under-utilized music
baptized at First
program into full
It
has
happened—but
Dallas.
bloom at Criswell’s
An architect, Halinsistence. When
all in God’s timing.”
comb said his first
criticism came after
—Church member Jerry
church project was
deacons realized the
Halcomb speaking of the
late W.A. Criswell
at First Dallas years
choir was being paid
ago. To see the
to sing, Criswell told
current renovation and expansion
Baker, “Ralph, I want a choir. You
completed is “the hand of God,” he
just take the heat.”
said on dedication Sunday, April 7.
On dedication Sunday, standing
He has known Pastor Robert Jefbelow a 150-foot-wide IMAX quality
fress since Jeffress was a youngster video screen, the large First Baptist
growing up at First Baptist, and it
choir was on full display.
is very meaningful to see God use
“He said he wanted to build
Jeffress to lead the church to this
people, not a Sunday School,” M.
point in their ministry, he said.
Douglas Adkins, Carole Adkins’
As for Criswell, “he would be
husband and longtime deacon at
amazed. He knew this all needed to
First Dallas, said of his father-inhappen,” Halcomb said. “It has hap- law, who taught a large Sunday
pened—but all in God’s timing.”
School class.
Carole Adkins, whose father,
The new and expanded facilities
Ralph D. Baker, was a pillar of the
downtown—what the church is billchurch going back to early 20thing a “spiritual oasis in downtown
century pastor George Truett and
Dallas”—gives the church greater
potential to do that, the Adkinses
said.
Doug Adkins, also a GuideStone
Financial Resources trustee and a
longtime Dallas attorney, chaired
the building committee for the
church’s Criswell Center, a $50
million project completed in 2006
that paved the way for the latest expansion. Adkins said the
235,000-square-foot Criswell Center provided needed space during
the renovations, but also provided
spiritual evidence that the people
were willing to give sacrificially
toward the $130 million expansion.
Adkins was also on the planning
and development committee for
the new worship center.
On the fourth floor of the Andy
and Joan Horner Family Center on
campus is the Ralph D. Baker Theater, which replaces Ralph Baker
Hall, a space his close personal
friend and client, women’s business pioneer Mary Crowley, dedicated in his honor in the facility
that was torn down.
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 15
Russell Moore
Kermit Gosnell
& the gospel
L
ast week I was typing the name
“Kermit Gosnell” and my phone auto-corrected the name to “gospel.”
I shuddered. What could be more
contradictory than the name of an abortionist
on trial for child murder, and the good news of
the mercies of God in Christ? My smart phone,
it turns out, was smarter than I was.
The Gosnell case is stomach-turning. Testimonies in court point to a sadistic man who
would sever the spines of babies, in and out of
the womb. They tell of a man so cold-blooded
that he would keep the feet of unborn children
as trophies of his evil. They speak of a man who
preyed upon the most vulnerable women in his
community in order to destroy their lives and
those of their children. It’s hard to think of the
gospel in the midst of all that evil.
That’s the point.
In the crucifixion narrative of Jesus, the
Gospel writers tell us that he was not hanged
alone. On either side were thieves. That word
“thief” has taken the edge off of this scene for
many contemporary Westerners. When we
think “thief” we tend to imagine a shoplifter or
a burglar cracking a safe. In this context “thief”
communicated a murderous terrorist, feared
and reviled by all. Jesus identified himself with
the worst and most violent of sinners, even in
the geography of his death.
One criminal responded the way most of us,
left to ourselves, would. He didn’t want repentance but deliverance. He taunted Jesus to
rescue him, not from his sin but from its consequences. This is what Gosnell seeks, to defend
himself and escape prosecution. The one we
have come to know as “the thief on the cross”
acknowledged the justice of his sentence, and
16 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
pleaded for mercy. He identified himself with Jesus as King:
“Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
The gospel isn’t a mere matter of God exempting people from
consequences. We could understand such pardons, handed
out for cosmic misdemeanors or victimless crimes. The gospel
comes to those who are the horrible, the damned.
How could this murderous doctor do what he did? How could
his nurses and assistants suppress the screams of these children, the spattering of blood? They do so by suppressing the
conscience and walling over the embedded revelation of the
justice of God. They pretend there will be no reckoning, no
judgment seat, that somehow they can take these secrets with
them to the grave.
The gospel, though, reveals the justice of God. Sin cannot
be hidden, and judgment cannot be escaped. The cries of the
oppressed, the orphaned, the murdered, are heard, and their
redeemer is strong. Justification isn’t a matter of waving away
consequences. It’s a matter of self-crucifixion, of embracing the judgment of God and agreeing with his verdict. And,
in Christ, it’s a matter of being joined to another, one against
whom no accusation can stand.
The Gosnell case is horrific. It ought to revolt us and to turn
our stomachs and to shock our consciences. But Kermit Gosnell’s criminality is one of degree, not of kind. Left to ourselves,
we would all be given over to the kind of cruelty and rage he
displayed. Our hope, and his, cannot be in simply evading
consequences. After all, the worst consequence facing Kermit
Gosnell is not that he be executed or imprisoned. The worst
consequence facing Kermit Gosnell is that he be handed over to
being Kermit Gosnell, eternally separated from a just and holy
God.
If we minimize God’s justice, and ignore the evil here, we
eclipse the gospel. But there’s another danger too. Many Christians are rightly upset that the media have ignored the Gosnell
trial. Our internal media do the same thing, with our own cosmic crimes against God. Our hope isn’t in indulgence but in the
kind of mercy that crucifies and resurrects.
The Kermit Gosnell story is one of severed spines and seared
consciences. A gospel of justification without justice cannot
picture a holy God. A gospel of justice without justification ultimately leaves us all without hope before the tribunal of God.
The gospel of Jesus Christ speaks of both justice and justification, and brings them together in a man drowning in his own
blood at the Place of the Skull.
And on either side of him, there were thieves.
Russell D. Moore is president-elect of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
First Baptist Church of Academy
turns loss into ‘Backpacks of Love’
By Jane Rodgers
Last school year began and ended with
tragedy for the central Texas community
known as Little River-Academy in Bell
County.
Two Little River-Academy High School
seniors died in car accidents: one in fall
2011 and the other the night before baccalaureate in May 2012. An Academy school
bus driver was killed and several children
injured in a separate mid-year mishap.
The driver, James Johnson, 71, died on
Feb. 15, 2012 of injuries from the crash in
which a Lowe’s truck ran through an intersection on a foggy morning, hitting the
bus and sending 29 adults and students to
area hospitals. A 14-year-old girl remains
paralyzed from the waist down from the
accident.
Amid these community tragedies, the
congregation of First Baptist Church of
Academy also lost its beloved music minister, Ray Batson, in February 2012, only a
few weeks after the church had hosted the
funeral service for the bus driver, James
Johnson.
“There was just a lot of grief that people
experienced here,” said Brent Boatwright,
pastor of First Baptist Church of Academy.
Community tragedy opened doors of opportunity for the congregation. The traffic
accidents provided occasions for ministry,
even though none of those fatally injured
were members of the church.
“God gave some opportunities for us to
be in the schools, myself and fellow pastors
following each accident,” Boatwright said.
“I have a good relationship with the principal. We had good opportunities to minister
and help the kids and teachers deal with
what had happened.”
First Baptist of Academy is working with an area benevolence ministry in a backpack
effort providing food for local school children and their families. The church pays $10
per month for the supplies for each backpack. At least a dozen First Baptist members are
involved in this ministry.
Boatwright and fellow pastors spent several
days in local schools following each incident.
“That’s the advantage of a small town,” Boatwright said when asked about the access to the
public school system that he and other ministers
share.
Little River-Academy has about 2,000 residents.
“Everyone is affected,” Boatwright said of the
Ray Batson
tragedies.
In addition to the suffering of the tightly knit
community, Boatwright and his congregation mourned the loss of
Batson, who lost his battle with cancer.
“God gave some opportunities for us to be in the
schools, myself and fellow pastors following each
accident. I have a good relationship with the principal.
We had good opportunities to minister and help the
kids and teachers deal with what had happened.”
—Brent Boatwright, pastor of First Baptist Church of Academy
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 17
“Ray [Batson] was always a man who loved young people and
was generous to meet the needs of others. He would have found
great joy in being a part of this new ministry in the school.”
—Brent Boatwright
“In October of 2003, First Baptist Church of Academy called me to be
pastor. I was just shy of turning 30 years old,” Boatwright recalled. The
church had an interim music minister and some in the congregation were
calling for a more contemporary style of worship.
“As we have seen through the years in these battles within churches, you
do not have to throw one style out for another style,” Boatwright said. This
was Ray Batson’s conviction also. The congregation called Batson to be associate pastor of music and senior adults in 2004.
“Ray, nearing retirement age, was a wonderful gift to a young pastor who needed a trusted friend in the ministry,” Boatwright said. “He
brought a great sense of unity to the church. He empowered young people
to lead in worship.”
Batson even paid for music lessons for several young people and encouraged many to attend the SBTC’s Summer Worship University camp.
Russell Kurtz, who now directs music at First Baptist of Academy, was one
of the young men mentored by Batson. Services remain blended—a mix of
traditional hymns and contemporary praise songs.
18 TEXANONLINE.NET April 18, 2013
First Baptist of Academy continues to serve the Little River-Academy community.
In January, the church embraced a new opportunity: Backpacks of Love.
“We are supplying food to
needy students based upon the
recommendation of the schools,”
Boatwright said. “On Fridays,
eight different elementary school
students receive backpacks filled
with basic food supplies.” Students return the backpacks the
following week, and Boatwright’s
congregation fills them again.
First Baptist of Academy is
working with an area benevolence
ministry, CTLC (Churches Touching Lives for Christ), in the backpack effort. CTLC purchases the
food for the backpacks from the
Capital Area Food Bank. First Baptist members fill them and deliver
them to the schools. The church
pays $10 per month to CTLC for
the supplies for each backpack.
At least a dozen First Baptist
members are involved in picking
up, packing, or transporting the
backpacks.
“Other churches are doing
this in other communities,” said
Boatwright, who noted that a few
churches in nearby Temple are
working in a similar effort with
schools there. “We are it for Academy,” said Boatwright, who added
that the church hopes to expand
the outreach to the local middle
school as soon as possible.
“Ray [Batson] was always a
man who loved young people and
was generous to meet the needs
of others. He would have found
great joy in being a part of this
new ministry in the school,” Boatwright said.
I’m encouraged to
know when I give
money through
the Cooperative
Program, it is used to
minister to others. IN
Disaster Relief, I was able
to see people’s needs
met through feeding,
childcare, chainsaw
recovery, mud outs,
and many different
things. If you want
to be involved in
something you know
is working for the
Lord, I encourage you
to give through CP.
—DEWEY WATSON, YOUTH PASTOR,
FBC LEONARD & DR VOLUNTEER
JESUS
TOGETHER,
BUT
GETTING THE
GOSPEL OF
CHRIST TO THE LOST PEOPLES
OF THE WORLD IS DAUNTING
WORKING
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS
Southern Baptists of Texas Convention
Toll free 1.877.953.SBTC (7282)
www.sbtexas.com
APRIL 18, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 19