The face of love is Jesus

“We never see Jesus until we see him in every face,” said Julie Pennington-Russell, who preached during the Thursday evening session of the New Baptist Covenant celebration.

Pennington-Russell, pastor of First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga., said the diverse gathering of Baptists at the New Baptist Covenant celebration was a real gift. “We want to bless each other tonight and this week and give each other the best gifts straight from the heart,” she said.

Noting the broad racial, economic, geographic, cultural, and theological differences present, Pennington-Russell said “We are practicing the Baptist tradition of respecting each other’s differences.”

“Respectfulness” is a good gift, she said, but “is this really the gift we came so far to give this week?”

Respect alone “has no power to change something that is broken between you and me,” said: “only love can do that.”

Respectfulness is not a bad gift, “but it runs out of steam at the fifty-yard line,” she said. “But love, like Forrest Gump, runs all the way down the field, through the end zone, and into the parking lot.”

We have the ability to be respectful of others while still holding them at arm’s length, Pennington-Russell said, but “love doesn’t let us get away with that.”

“Jesus is the face of love,” she said, the one “who showed us what the power of real love could do through us in this world.”

Following Jesus in that path is not easy, she acknowledged. “Let’s not pretend we’re any good at this, but above all, let’s never doubt that Jesus Christ through us has the power to change the world.”

Pennington-Russell recalled a recent lightning strike that destroyed two trees, blew a hole in the ground, and damaged her family’s cars and home.

“There is a power just as free and just as frightening running through the church and through your heart and mind,” she said: “the power of love wants to blow a hole in all the separations we have contrived.”

Jesus came reaching out to us, “and in light of such a love, maybe it’s time for you and me to do some reaching, too,” she said, challenging participants to think of someone they have difficulty loving.

“Let love take you by the hand and lead you like a child to a new way of seeing that brother or sister, and look for Jesus in the face of that person,” she said.

The unholy trinity

Churches must recognize the spread of HIV/AIDS as a justice issue and overcome pervasive stigmas about the disease if they are to live out the gospel in their communities, according to panelists at a special interest session on “The HIV/AIDS Pandemic” during the New Baptist Covenant celebration January 31.

The issue is plagued by “an unholy trinity of silence, shame and stigma,” said Raphael Warnock, pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Warnock said HIV/AIDS, once considered a disease of gay white men, now affects a disproportionate number of both men and women of color. African Americans make up just 12 percent of America’s population, but account for more than 50 percent of persons newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, he said.

AIDS has become the leading cause of death among black women aged 25-44, he said, but “As the epidemic has swung to people of color, the money has not followed the epidemic.” The response would be different if there was a proportional increase among white women, he said.

The spread of AIDS is “inextricably connected to America’s growing prison-industrial complex,” Warnock said. With more than two million people in prison, most for non-violent offenses, many men are leaving prison after participating in homosexual encounters, then returning to the general population to infect their wives and girlfriends, he said.

D. L. Jackson (right), pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Chicago, said HIV/AIDS has also begun making inroads among senior adults, many of whom are uninformed and don’t think they are at risk.

Carla Nelson, education facilitator for Canadian Baptist Ministries, said churches should respond to the AIDS pandemic by simply “being the church” – accepting others and reaching out to them as Christ did.

“We must end the isolation and turn the stigma around,” she said, speaking of a Rwandan pastor on the outskirts of Kigali who led his congregation to make it a matter of pride to be tested for HIV and to sponsor “guardian groups” to care for those who suffer from the disease.

Malcom Marler (lower right), who has worked since 1994 as a chaplain in an AIDS clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), went beyond seeing HIV/AIDS as a needed field of ministry.

“I believe HIV/AIDS is not only a calling for the church to respond to in practical and caring ways,” he said. “This disease offers the opportunity for the renewal of the church” because getting to know people with HIV/AIDS can remind the church “what grace is all about.”

“If we’re going to find Jesus, we’d better go find people with HIV,” Marler said. “If we get it right on grace, everything else will fall into place.”
Participants talked about practical means by which churches can minister to those who suffer from HIV/AIDS.

Church leaders need to take the lead in getting tested, the panelists said, as a way of encouraging others who need the testing but might be afraid to get it. “Ministers have to set the example,” said Warnock. “Deacons and trustees and people who’ve been married for 60 years – if they all go, then people at risk can get lost in the movement.”

Jackson described a residence facility his church founded for persons and families affected by AIDS. Called “Vision House,” the ministry provides housing at reduced cost, a wholesome environment, and counseling services, he said.

All four speakers emphasized the importance of education, and not just in special seminars. Nelson cited a Ugandan study showing that children who do not attend school are three times more likely to contract AIDS by their early twenties than children who are educated.

Warnock said being informed is essential. “We need to educate our children and not be afraid to talk about sex in church,” he said.

Marler echoed his thought: “We’ve always had a hard time talking about sex or drugs in the church, but we need to talk about the people we are called to be with, to rediscover where Jesus already is.”

People need to know that they don’t have to be afraid of people with HIV, Marler said. They need to know “You can’t get it from sitting beside them, hugging them, being baptized in the same water with them, or taking communion together” he said.

When people are well informed, they don’t have to suffer from “AFRAIDS,” he said – “A Fear Related to AIDS.”

Human need in the spotlight

While participants at the New Baptist Covenant enjoyed rare fellowship with brothers and sisters from different traditions, On Thursday morning they were sharply reminded of needs throughout the world and of Christ’s call to minister to the poor.

Tony Campolo’s sermon was composed mainly of recycled stories, as usual, but still made an impact as he challenged participants to take Jesus seriously and to spend time with the poor rather than just throwing a few dollars their way.

Campolo gets respect, not just because he tells it like it is in a powerful way, but he lives it like it is in his own life and ministries.

Campolo was followed by someone with far less flash, but even closer experience with those who are truly poor and oppressed. Naw Blooming Night Zan spoke in rather subdued tones as she talked about her work among the Karen (pronounced “ka-RINN”) people of Burma, whose current leaders call the nation Myanmar.

Zan is a native of Burma who spent the first four and a half years of her life in the jungle as her family sought refuge from the soldiers of the military regimes that have kept Burma in turmoil for half a century. She knows poverty and oppression from the ground up.

Ultimately, Zan escaped and gained an education, including a theological degree. She talked about her work with the Karen Women’s Organization, which provides relief and development services to refugees. The poverty she described, and the lack of freedom and opportunity, was eye-opening.

“Praying is not sufficient,” Zan said. People need to go and see the needs, bring them back, and “be a voice to your brothers and sisters.”

Zan was followed by Marian Wright Edelman, who founded the Children’s Defense Fund and works in behalf of poor, minority, and handicapped children -- as a start.

Edelman said America fails its children every day, describing a bleak picture in which many children die from gun violence, where cities could be populated with the children of unwed teenagers, and where educational performance is 20th or worse compared to other developed nations. “Would we be satisfied with 20th place in the Olympics?” she asked.

Edelman condemned the “excessive materialism” of “affluenza.” An unequal playing field has created a “cradle to prison pipeline” for poor children, she said, citing a parade of alarming statistics.

“We need to come to our senses,” she said, to stop arresting children, and to get involved on the community level in making life better for children.

We have to begin by confronting and ending our adult hypocrisy, she said. “We are our children’s problem.”

Noting America’s wide economic disparities and the number of children who are uninsured, she said “We don’t have a money problem in America, we have a values and priority problem.”

Americans need to rediscover Martin Luther King, she said, not just remembering him as a dreamer, but following his example as an activist.

Otherwise, she said, the church risks being little more than an irrelevant social club.

Altogether, it was a morning for introspection about our concern for needs of the people in this world.

Next on the agenda: a luncheon with Al Gore to learn more about needs of the world itself.

Students learning, contributing

Students from moderate minded divinity schools are learning from and participating in the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta. Each session features a student as the scripture reader, and others are serving as ushers (like these guys from Campbell, getting instructions from usher chair Charles Qualls.

Many of the students are participating in credit classes through their schools, including more than two-dozen students from Campbell University Divinity School. They've been reading for a month or more, and learning from the sessions, and will soon be writing papers to reflect on their experience.

I hope it will be a meaningful time for them, perhaps even formative. This is a historic event, and I'm glad they have the chance to be a part of it.

A well-deserved welcome

I'll leave it to others to comment at more length on Jimmy Carter's speech during the opening session of the "Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant." The speech was quite good and called Baptists to remember what being Baptist means, but my favorite part came before Carter had said a single word.

Everyone present knew how hard Carter has worked to bring people of the world together, including Baptists. His efforts have not always been successful, but that hasn't stopped him from trying, and even his detractors should recognize that.

Carter was greeted with a sustained standing ovation that didn't end until he motioned for the congregation of well over 10,000 to be seated. That expression of spontaneous appreciation for a man I admire was special, something that was clearly meaningful to the former president. It's a moment that I (and my digital picture file) will remember for a long time.

Praying for voters

Planners of the New Baptist Covenant celebration have worked hard to downplay any political aspects of the meeting, though they have constantly been accused of having a political agenda. It hasn’t helped that presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, notable Republicans who had agreed to speak, decided to back out of their commitments.

Planners of a joint meeting of four National Baptist Conventions were far less squeamish about inviting political candidates to speak during the closing session of their meeting. Charles Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, said all of the presidential candidates were invited to attend the meeting and speak.

None of the Republican candidates responded, he said. The two candidates who did choose to address the meeting were Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Obama spoke first, via a video link from California, where he was campaigning. The audio quality was poor, so I missed a lot of what he said. The word I did hear – again and again – was the word “hope.”

Obama said he’s often asked why he’s running this year rather than waiting until later. He said he didn’t think the country could afford for him to wait.

“We’ve seen the power of hope throughout this campaign,” he said, and obviously he hopes that people will put their hopes in him.

Obama closed with a promise to pray for the National Baptists.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, appeared in person and began with a conversation about prayer. Clinton noted that she was raised Methodist but is married to a Baptist, so she understands the Baptist proclivity to healthy disagreements.

Clinton said she was raised as a person of prayer, and remains a woman of prayer. If she hadn’t been a praying person, she said, the first week in the White House would have made her one.

Both candidates were greeted warmly, though neither drew the kind of overwhelming enthusiasm they might have hoped for, perhaps because the audience seemed to have high appreciation for both of them.

Both are praying, I suspect, that the favor meter will swing their way before Super Tuesday.

Labyrinthine, sartorial hallways

I don’t get to use these words often, so I’ll do it while I have the chance … the hallways of the Georgia World Congress Center’s three interconnected buildings are not so labyrinthine as they are long, and the place is organized so that you not only have to go around your elbow to get to your thumb, but around your shoulder, too.

I had a heavy box of books to deliver to my car today, and could see the parking lot within 100 yards of my position near the press room of the WCC – but I had to walk more than half a mile and traverse six flights of steps to get there. The return journey was just as long, but at least my load was lighter.

And, for much of the walk, I enjoyed a delightful fashion show. The four largest national African American Baptist groups are meeting just prior to the New Baptist Covenant celebration: about 7,000 delegates are present for that meeting, I’ve been told, and it’s a treat to be around them.

While Anglo Baptists have turned “business casual” into an art form and tattered jeans into haute couture, our National Baptist brothers and sisters hew to a higher standard, demonstrating sartorial splendor the likes of which you’ll rarely see among white folks. The exhibit hall is home to more clothing stalls than I've seen since visiting the night market in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Hats, for one thing, are much more popular, especially among the women. For the men, fedoras and berets are abundant, but the more popular new trend is wearing a baseball cap with a tailored full-dress suit.

Snazzy.

WMU-NC settles on a site

While thousands of National Baptists are gathering in Atlanta today, and thousands more are planning to join them for the New Baptist Celebration beginning Wednesday, an old friend has found new lodgings.

Woman’s Missionary Union of North Carolina (WMU-NC) will soon move into an office building on the north side of Raleigh, a symbolic step in a critical transition year for the organization. WMU-NC’s new 3,600 square foot office suite is about one-third larger than the organization’s former space at the BSC office building in Cary. It is located in the Northside Center at 1200 Front Street, just inside I-440 between Wake Forest Road and Atlantic Avenue. WMU-NC will occupy the corner of the building shown at right.

A Baptist layman is making the space available at a reduced cost, while other donors have offered to assist with rent and moving expenses. Additional volunteers have been at work packing and preparing for the move, which Fulbright hopes will take place before the end of March.

This month, the organization is resurrecting the “Heck-Jones Offering” it relied on before agreeing to fold it into a combined North Carolina Missions Offering three decades ago. The BSC voted in November to remove WMU-NC from the statewide offering.

WMU-NC needs to raise $1.2 million just to provide basic budget costs for the year. My personal hope is that they will go well above the goal, because the organization also has some meaningful new ministry ideas on tap that will need additional financing.

One of the most exciting things about the New Baptist Covenant celebration is that it will bring together African-American, Anglo, and other ethnic Baptists in a way that is unprecedented.

One of the most hopeful things about WMU-NC's adoption of greater independence is that it will unleash the power and compassion of Baptist women in ways we have yet to see.

In both cases, there is truly cause for new Baptist celebrations.

Out-of-this-world expectations surpassed

With the global economy struggling, political candidates wrangling, and an unhappy war muddling along with no end in sight, we have to celebrate successes where we can find them. That's one of the reasons I have home pages for the Mars Exploration Rover mission, the Cassini-Huygens Saturn mission, and the Mercury Messenger mission all bookmarked on my Firefox browser's toolbar.

And talk about success. While on a close-in fly-by preparatory to a future orbital mission, The Mercury Messenger recently snapped hundreds of high-resolution photos of a side of Mercury that had not previously been seen. Three and a half years after entering Saturn's orbit, America's Cassini orbiter routinely sends back staggeringly beautiful and scientifically revealing images and data on Saturn and its moons. In January 2005, the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, which was part of a joint venture with NASA, successfully penetrated the thick atmosphere of Titan, an earth-sized moon, and reached the surface.

The real tough guys of space travel, however, are the solar-powered, six-wheeled iMars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which celebrated their fourth anniversary on Mars this month: Spirit landed safely on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity touched down on the opposite side of the planet Jan. 25. Engineers hoped the rovers would last for 90 days under the harsh conditions on Mars -- but both have gone way past their warranties, providing mountains more data than ever envisioned.

That's some engineering.

Funding to continue doing science through the Mars mission was recently extended for the fifth time, in hopes of keeping the rovers roving through 2009, if they continue to hold up. Thus far, Spirit has traveled more than 4.5 miles and returned more than 100,000 images. Opportunity has driven more than seven miles while returning a similar number of images. Together, the rovers have discovered abundant evidence of water, studied the planet's geological history, and even found metallic meteorites on the surface.

With so many things going badly, it's good to celebrate some things that are going right, so here's a big tip of the hat to NASA -- and a prayer that next week's "Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant" will also surpass expectations in its mission to build unity among Baptists by rallying around Jesus' own mission statement of concern for the downtrodden.

Safe travel.

Another good label lost

Thirty years ago, most Baptists who would today be labeled as "moderates" considered themselves to be conservative in most matters. They tried to follow the teachings of Christ, believed the Bible was inspired by God, gladly shared their faith, and held very few hermeneutically radical ideas.

In the late 1970s, however, as the winds of change struck the Southern Baptist Convention, vocabulary was one of the prizes up for grabs. The mainstream Baptists who had led the convention for many years labeled the ideological uprising that reshaped the convention "the fundamentalist takeover." Leaders of the movement, who made biblical inerrancy their watchword, insisted that they were not fundamentalists, but conservatives. Today, their standard term for the power shift is "the conservative resurgence."

While the struggle continued, there were intense debates about what labels were appropriate. Fundamentalists cried foul when they were called by that name, which they considered pejorative, and insisted that they be called "conservatives." Middle-of-the-road Baptists who had always considered themselves to be conservative complained that fundamentalists had usurped the adjective and redefined "conservative" much more narrowly. Only begrudgingly did they begin to use the anemic-sounding term "moderate," and then only for lack of a better alternative. They didn't want to accept the fundamentalists' charge that they were liberals, but couldn't come up with a better term than "moderate" to describe "non-fundamentalists who aren't liberal."

For a while, Baptists media tried using the combination monikers "conservative-fundamentalists" and "conservative-moderates," but they were too ungainly to be very useful and too hard to fit in a single column of newsprint.

Ultimately, those who could accurately be called fundamentalists won the battle along with the SBC's public relations machinery, and became sole owners of the "conservative" brand. Non-fundamentalists who didn't want to be called "liberals" were then stuck with the name "moderate," which inaccurately implied a lack of passion.

For a while, however, moderates could still safely consider themselves to be "evangelicals," thinking that the term meant what it said -- that they believed Christians should lead an evangelistic lifestyle that encourages others to follow Christ.

Over the past few years, however, the term "evangelical" has also been co-opted and used as a descriptor for the politically conservative religious right, or as another euphemism for "fundamentalist."

We see this in a quantifiable way in the terminology used by popular pollster George Barna. In a recent survey that showed sharp differences in the primary concerns voiced by various segments of society, Barna showed that Americans in general considered poverty (78 percent), personal debt (78 percent), and HIV/AIDS (76 percent) to be their three greatest concerns among ten domestic or social issues presented to them (concern about the war in Iraq was not an option).

Respondents that Barna calls "born again" (defined as people who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ and believe they will go to heaven when they die)
were right on track with the general population, listing the same three concerns and comparable percentages.

Those labeled as "evangelicals," however, chose decidedly different options. Their top three concerns were abortion (94 percent), personal debt (81 percent), and the content of television and movies (79 percent) -- closely followed by concern about homosexual activists (75 percent), and gay and lesbian lifestyles (75 percent).

This becomes more understandable when one checks out the criteria Barna uses to consider someone an "evangelical." In addition to meeting the characteristics of being "born again," evangelicals must also meet seven other criteria: "Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today."

Thus, by Barna's definition, one must meet nine specific criteria to be an evangelical. About one-fifth of all "born again" Christians qualify, Barna says.

The pollster carefully notes that respondents are not asked to self-identify themselves as "born again" or "evangelical," and whether they actually go to church has nothing to do with it. The labels are applied on the basis of responses to survey questions about personal beliefs.

The end result is that "evangelical," at least in Barna's useage, has now gone the way of "conservative." While both terms once described Christians who trust God, trust the Bible, and believe in the importance of sharing their faith, they are now applied to a very narrow band of believers who could accurately be called "fundamentalists" -- but don't want to be.

Salutes in order

Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a perfect man, but when cultural winds collided to create a perfect storm of change, he became the ideal leader. His mixture of calmness and courage grounded in compassion -- even for violently racist opponents -- set an important example for others to follow.

And, while we set aside this day to celebrate King's life and achievements, we remember that he was not alone. We also recall names like Rosa Parks and Daisy Bates and James Meredith. We even remember numbers like "the Little Rock Nine" and "the Greensboro four."

The names I remember best are Lula Elam, Laura Elam, and Willie Murray, three brave souls from the west side of town who dared to enroll in Lincolnton High School (Georgia) in 1965. I will never forget how much tension there was when they first walked into the science lab that served as our ninth grade homeroom, or how much abuse was heaped upon them, or how they endured.

With shame, I confess to being among the oppressors on that day. In their steely courage played out over four years, however, my conversion from racism was born.

Today, wherever they are, I salute them.

The brain is for remembering

In thinking through my options for a post today, I was intrigued by a continuing spate of articles relative to neuro-science. My last post cited research showing that the brain's pleasure center can influence it's taste center, explaining why we sometimes judge something to be better because we expect it to be better -- a more expensive bottle of wine, for example.

I've also run across an article claiming that a German researcher using functional MRI scans can "read minds," predicting with 78 percent accuracy whether a test subject is thinking of a hammer or a pair of pliers -- assuming that he has captured brain scans when the same subject was previously thinking about those particular tools. He thinks the ability to predict what someone is thinking will only get better.

And, I was particularly intrigued by a Time magazine article on the brain and belief. Sam Harris, a neuro-scientist better known for his antipathy toward religion, joined other researchers who also used functional MRI scans to observe brain activity while persons were faced with a series of propositions that they believed to be either true or false. While activity in the "higher" levels of the brain was ambiguous, the scientists discovered that when subjects believed something to be true, a primitive area of the brain associated with things like reward, emotion, and taste "lit up" on the scan.

When subjects disbelieved something, however, whether it was a false math statement like "2+2=5" or an abhorrent ethical proposition like "torture is good," brain scans showed higher activity in another primitive part of the brain, one that is also associated with taste, but more closely related to pain perception and disgust -- the same area that lights up when we're confronted with a foul odor that stinks so bad it makes us want to heave.

At our house, on January 18 our brains are largely occupied with remembering. It is an anniversary day for us; not of our wedding day or any other happy day, but of the day our daughter Bethany's brain stopped working after her skull was crushed by a drunk driver.

That, of course, has a lot to do with my own brain lights up with distaste relative to the subject of alcohol, no doubt fueling my personal aversion to its use as a recreational drug. For those who take offense at my occasional rants against booze, you can blame it on my brain.

On a higher level of thinking, I can understand the concept of drinking alcohol in moderation and for reasons other than getting wasted. And, though the very thought induces my gag reflex, I can appreciate the idea that some people truly think that wine, beer, and even hard liquor tastes good. The primitive part of my brain, however, doesn't think in such categories. It remembers only the pain and loss and disgust associated with knowing our daughter died because an otherwise promising young man had become a slave to beer: and that stinks.

Fine wine in the mind

It should come as no surprise that we tend to perceive things that cost more to be of higher quality, even when they're not.

A researcher at the California Institute of Technology recently demonstrated that the fineness of wine is largely in the mind: test subjects routinely said Cabernet Sauvignon wine priced at $45 a bottle tasted better than wine priced at $5 -- even though both samples came from the $5 bottle. The same was true when samples from a $10 bottle were labeled as costing either $10 or $90. Taste-testers thought the sample labeled $90 was better, even though it came straight from the $10 bottle.

The cynical tee-totaler in me would like to observe that grape juice gone bad is still grape juice gone bad, whatever you charge for it. I once signed up for a "wine-tasting" experience, hoping to get some idea of what others see in it. Whether red or white, sparkling or flat, last year's crop or ten years old, it all tasted nasty to me. I couldn't imagine drinking the stuff long enough for it to start tasting good. I did that once when switching from regular to diet soft drinks, and once was enough.

Of course, my personal aversion to anything that smells of alcohol is not the point of the study, which used a high-tech brain scanner to peek at what was going on in the taster's mind when imbibing differently priced wines.

It turns out that the "taste center" of the brain was not fooled -- it showed the same sort of activity when subjects were tasting the samples from the same bottle of wine. In contrast, the brain's pleasure center lit up as subjects tasted wines labeled with higher prices, suggesting that the anticipation of some juicier juice had a lot of influence on how it was perceived.

Marketers have long known that how products are packaged and priced has a lot to do with how consumers perceive them. At the grocery store, cheaper "store brands" are often identical to more expensive name brands. Have you ever noticed, when there's a recall of something, how many different brand names are given to the same product? And they can be sold at widely different prices. But we think we're getting a better product when we pay more.

I'm too church-minded to pass on wondering how much similar factors play into our choice of a congregational home. Many factors come into play as we look for a church in which we can best express our faith and live out our commitments. Packaging and popularity (roughly equivalent to the price on a bottle of wine) can't be ignored, but what really matters is on the inside, and that takes time to appreciate.


(The image of brain scans, from the University of California at Berkeley, is illustrative and not directly related to the study at Caltech).

Met a "mystery worshiper" lately?

If you think the church visitor who came in and sat near you is taking more notes than the pastor's sermon deserves, there's a chance he or she might be a "mystery worshiper," especially if you live in Britain, where a group called Christian Research is getting ready to expand a pilot project designed to give churches a visitor's-eye view of their congregation.

Writing church reviews isn't new: for some time volunteers have posted online reviews of churches around the world on the Ship of Fools Web site. If you work for Christian Research, however, you can get paid to attend worship, pay attention, and complete a report on everything from the cleanliness of the bathrooms to the friendliness of the people and the relevance of the sermon.

A popular book making the rounds of many Christian leaders in America is based on a similar concept: in Jim & Casper Go To Church, minister-author Jim Henderson hired an atheist copywriter and musician named Casper to visit churches with him across the U.S., comparing notes on their experiences. Any number of pastors are finding the book quite helpful.

Christian Research also hopes its company's feedback will provide valuable information to churches in Britain, many of which have suffered severe decreases in attendance.

The concept of a mystery worshiper is intriguing, and it could indeed assist greatly in helping churches understand why they are -- or are not -- attracting and/or keeping new members.

It has often been said, but remains true -- you only get one chance to make a first impression.

A prayer for peace between publishers

Would a denominational publisher resort to underhanded tactics in a bid for Baptist business?

That's the impression one might get from reading a letter sent out in mid-December by Lex Horton, publisher of Smyth & Helwys, a publishing house that produces books, curricula, and electronic resources used mainly by moderate Baptists. The letter stated that United Methodist publisher Cokesbury -- which many moderate Baptists also use, had been calling churches and informing them that Smyth & Helwys was going out of business and would no longer publish a dated curriculum, and that Cokesbury was the preferred Sunday School and resource provider for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Since none of that information was true, the folks at Smyth & Helwys had reason to be upset, as did longtime customers who thought the company they depended on was about to fold. That led to Horton's letter to CBF churches who have been customers of the company. Horton emphasized that Smyth & Helwys is alive and well, entering its 18th year with a strong commitment to continuing its publishing mission. And, it has no plans to discontinue its dated curriculum, he wrote.

I spoke to Ed Kowalski, who is senior vice president for sales and marketing at Cokesbury, and asked him what had happened. Kowalski said Cokesbury did recently sign an agreement to be one of CBF's preferred resource providers (the CBF website lists "partnerships" with The Upper Room, Smyth & Helwys, and Cokesbury). As Cokesbury's customer service representatives started calling CBF churches to introduce themselves as a preferred provider, he said, one of them misinterpreted the information and wrongly assumed that Smyth & Helwys was going out of business.

That person contacted 38 churches with the erroneous information on Nov. 12, Kowalski said. When a pastor contacted Cokesbury about it, officials quickly stopped all outgoing calls until they could figure out what had happened. Once they did, he said, Cokesbury representatives immediately starting contacting those churches to apologize and correct the misinformation, reaching all of them by Nov. 15. Kowalski said Cokesbury contacted Smyth & Helwys about the same time to explain what had gone wrong and what had been done to correct it.

Unfortunately, the story was just juicy enough to spread like a spilled smoothie, and the brief interval between the initial and follow-up contacts with the churches provided ample time for word to get out among Baptists that the Methodists were playing dirty.

Horton told me the problem was bigger than the 38 churches who were initially called. A number of church representatives who called or e-mailed Smyth & Helwys indicated that Cokesbury's sales representatives had corrected the erroneous claim that Smyth & Helwys was going out of business, he said, but had continued promoting Cokesbury materials over Smyth & Helwys resources and stating that Cokesbury is CBF's preferred resource provider. Churches were still getting confused, he said, and Cokesbury's callbacks had not adequately cleared up the situation. Some callers were actually angry at Smyth & Helwys, Horton said, thinking that the company had decided to close down without telling them. Thus, he said, Smyth & Helwys thought a clarifying letter to all of the CBF-related churches who buy from the company was needed.

In his letter, Horton said "We are at a loss to explain why such a large-scale publisher would feel the need to resort to such tactics."

There was no such need, according to Kowalski. "It was a very unfortunate mistake," he said. "We have absolutely no reason to create a story like that." Cokesbury is very respectful of all who are involved in publishing ministries, he added.

Kowalski said conversations are ongoing between officials of Cokesbury and Smyth & Helwys, and that he hopes a joint letter of understanding regarding the situation can be released. Horton was less confident about a joint letter, saying the matter was now two months old and "water under the bridge."

One way or the other, let us hope for peace between publishers. Smyth & Helwys and Cokesbury are both quality companies, and Baptists need them both. Smyth & Helwys is more targeted to the particular resource needs of moderate Baptists, while Cokesbury offers a broader range of liturgical, academic, and church resources.

Let's hope the unfortunate dust-up will quickly blow over, and continue to profit from the good resources that both publishers provide.

Why do younger Baptists avoid the SBC?

A new study from LifeWay Christian Resources notes that the percentage of younger adults attending the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting has declined significantly for the past 27 years, with an even steeper drop since 2004.

The study found that messengers in the 18-39 age group comprised 33.6 percent of the messengers in 1980, but made up only 13.1 percent in 2007.

The numbers were reversed for the oldest age group: the percentage of messengers aged 60 and above increased from 12.9 to 35.4 percent during the same period.

Little change was seen in the middle group: messengers aged 40-59 made up 49.9 percent in 1980, compared to 51.6 percent in 2007.

LifeWay's research director Ed Stetzer observed: "Simply put, the proportion of those under 40 attending the SBC is declining precipitously –- down by more than 50 percent since the beginning of the Conservative Resurgence."

Note that Ed made the "Conservative Resurgence" connection, not me. He went on to note that some folks have debated whether the decline in participation by younger people is real. With evidence in hand, he concluded, "My hope is that now, finally, we will stop debating and instead ask the hard question: 'What is causing so many young leaders to stay away?'"

I can't speak for others, but I can recall why I attended the SBC when I was younger. I fit into the 18-39 age group from 1970 to 1991. I drove to my first convention (Miami) in 1975, and missed only a couple during the remainder of my "young pastor" years, even though finances were tight. In 1981, the Tabbs Creek church in Oxford took a special offering to help me get to Los Angeles, where I ate mostly crackers. In 1984, Jan and I slept in our car to avoid spending money on a hotel while driving to Kansas City. It was a struggle, but I thought it was important to attend.

Why?

In the earliest years, at least, I made the effort to attend because:

1. I loved the SBC, wanted to support it, and believed it was relevant.

2. I admired the statesmen who led the SBC executive committee and its agencies, and wanted to learn from them.

3. I thought it mattered.

To the extent that the above statements remain true for younger Baptists, I believe they'll come to the meetings. If not, they'll put their time, energy, and travel money into something they believe is more relevant.

With their 61 percent drop in attendance, it appears to me that younger Baptists are sending a clear message. Whether anyone beyond LifeWay will pay attention to it remains an open question.

Starry Eyes

In honor of Epiphany (January 6), which marks the traditional date of the wise men's arrival in Bethlehem, I thought I would post an unusual interview I was able to obtain with one Mr. Gaspar, despite his having been dead for nearly 2,000 years.

Due to his dead condition, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of all his responses, but perhaps they will be of interest to some of our readers, or at least a few pastors who might want to file away a sermon idea for next year's Epiphany service. [Art by Zaki Baboun, of Palestine]

Cartledge: Mr. Gaspar, we are very grateful for your willingness to talk with us.

Gaspar: Please, drop the "Mister." And I'm glad to do it. The whole point of being a wise man is to share your wisdom with others.

Cartledge: We know something about your role from Matthew 2:1-23 in our Scriptures. Beyond that, what we know of the "wise men" who visited Jesus is largely speculation. Would you tell us how you got involved with the famous expedition to Bethlehem?

Gaspar: Yes. I was the youngest of the Magi who traveled from ancient Parthia to pay homage to the Christ child. I had not expected the privilege of joining our aged leader Melchior and my dark friend Balthazar, but there were surprisingly few volunteers. Some thought it was a fool's errand for us to go traipsing off for thousands of miles in search of somebody else's king.

Cartledge: Can you tell us more about the Magi?

Gaspar: Of course. Sometimes you Westerners call us "wise men," and you are correct. We are in fact wise. At other times you call us "kings." In that, you are wrong, though we do serve in the royal court and I suppose our appearance was like that of kings when our caravan swept through the rustic village of Bethlehem. We were the king's representatives.

There are other "magi" in your scriptures who are nothing but charlatans and sleight-of-hand magicians. They give our profession a bad name, for our true business is wisdom. We are scientists, historians, philosophers, and priests. For hundreds of years our order has recorded the history of humankind. We have studied copies of holy writings from every land. We have searched the stars every night without fail, and have sought to draw connections between events on the earth and the heavenly signs that speak of their advent.

Cartledge: It is my understanding that you did not normally worship the God of Israel. Can you tell us why you decided to visit the Christ child?

Gaspar: Yes, it is true that I am a Gentile. All my life I have addressed the deity as Ahura Mazda. But God's handwriting in the stars drew my life and yours together. It all began in the 31st year of King Phraates IV, of Parthia. Once our land was called Persia. Now you know it as Iran. We Magi had gathered one evening, taking up our assigned posts on the rooftop observatory.

It had been a very eventful year. Three times in six months the moving stars Jupiter and Saturn had passed each other high in the constellation Pisces, not far from the Ram. You must understand that for us the constellation Pisces points to the last days. The moving star Jupiter speaks to us about rulers of the world, and we think of Saturn as the star of Palestine. All of this heavenly activity led us to believe that something very significant was about to happen. Melchior thought that a king to rule in the last days was about to be born in Palestine.

So, we were watching even more closely for one last sign, for four is the number of completion for us, the number of the elements of the earth. Four months after the last conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn we were gathered at the watch when someone began to shout. Not only had Jupiter and Saturn converged again, but ruddy Mars had also drawn near, so that all appeared as one bright star. Melchior was convinced that God was telling us something, though we still were not sure what it was.

And then--and then--as we debated the meaning of this triple conjunction, there came a shout from the other side of the observatory and we turned about to find the western quarter bathed in light from a star that came from nowhere and lit up the skies with its brilliance. None of us had ever seen anything like it.

Cartledge: Was this the star of Bethlehem?

Gaspar: Patience! I'm getting to that. Melchior quickly sent an apprentice to bring up all the holy writings we had collected. These included the Hebrew scriptures, for Jews have lived among us since Cyrus the Persian established his great empire. Melchior had always paid special attention to the Hebrew prophets, and he also had a keen interest in the book you call Numbers, because it contained the prophecy of a Gentile wise man named Balaam. Balaam had connections with our own ancestors--some even think that Balaam and our founder Zarathusthra were one and the same.

But I digress . . . what matters is that Balaam once came in contact with the Hebrews and he uttered a prophecy about them. What he said was this: "a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel . . . one out of Jacob will rule" (Num. 24:17aβ, 19a). Well, there it was. The star must point to a new king.

Melchior also knew the words of the latter Isaiah who lived in Babylon. He once said "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you . . . nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn . . . they shall bring gold and frankin¬cense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord" (Isa. 60:1, 3, 6b).

And so it was that we found ourselves preparing a small delegation for the long journey to Palestine. We wanted to greet this new king of the Jews in behalf of our own king. To be truthful, we also wanted to confirm that our speculations were correct, to convince the skeptical that we were not just worthless stargazers.

Cartledge: Can you describe the journey for us?

Gaspar: Of course, if you will only stop interrupting. We had to travel some fifteen hundred of your miles, so our camels were loaded lightly, and extra pack animals were brought along. Soldiers in shining headgear escorted our distinguished party through the Zagros mountains and down to the bridge over the river Euphrates, but there at the border they left us with no protection but our own wisdom.

We rode for days, for weeks, for months. We rode in blazing sun and blinding dust. We rode until all of us wished we had never smelled a camel or sat in a high wooden saddle, but finally we arrived on the outskirts of Jerusalem, the holy city of the Jews. Melchior wanted to go there because we didn't know where the infant king was born, and Jerusalem was the most likely place. Even if he was not there, then surely we could discern his whereabouts.

Cartledge: And this is where you met King Herod?

Gaspar: You are correct, though I don't like to remember it. We were shocked to discover that no one knew anything about a new king being born, but everyone was extremely curious. We asked a simple question: "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?" Soon, the entire city was in an uproar, and a band of soldiers was escorting us to the palace.

We were not aware that King Herod had become so paranoid and suspicious in his old age. As you may know, Herod was so afraid of being deposed that he had his own wife and several of his children executed for fear that they could not wait for him to die. He was markedly distressed to hear us inquiring about a new king, and we feared for our lives. Diplomatic immunity means nothing to a crazy man.

But, Herod feigned politeness. He was old and covered with sores. There was a bad smell about him that even perfume could not hide. We had a bad feeling about him, too. We knew he had called in the chief priests and forced them to tell him where the Christ was to be born. One of them remembered something from the prophet Micah, and he was so nervous that he misquoted the text, but the essentials were there: "And you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel" (Matt. 2:6, cf. Mic. 5:2).

Cartledge: So Herod already knew the child was born in Bethlehem?

Gaspar: Yes, but he was ignorant concerning the child's age. He called us close and spoke in a hoarse whisper, wanting to know the exact time of the baby's birth. We didn't trust the old king by now, and pretended not to know anything specific. He sent us away with a wicked smile and these instructions: "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage" (2:8). We could tell that homage was not his intention.

Cartledge: But it was your intention?

Gaspar: Absolutely. We had only the best of motives. Oh, we were so relieved to escape from that putrid palace and get back into the clear night air--I was even happy to mount my camel again! Bethlehem was a small hamlet just about six miles due south of Jerusalem, on the main road, so we decided not to wait until morning.

As we guided our beasts out of the great city and into the desolate country¬side, the most amazing thing happened--the star of his birth suddenly appeared again! Words cannot express the joy we felt, but the strange thing is that no one else seemed to notice. Perhaps your Lord prepared the star for our eyes only. Perhaps only our eyes were practiced enough to notice the presence of one new star in all of the heavens.

In any event, we rode toward the star, and it led us to Bethlehem, straight to a small mud brick house with the coals of a cooking fire glowing in the tiny courtyard. The doorway was covered with a heavy cloth, so we knocked on the lintel. The man who pushed the curtain back was surprisingly young, but we could see in his eyes that God had made him wise beyond his years. He had already seen many surprises.

Cartledge: This must have been Joseph.

Gaspar: Of course. Joseph let us in, and there we saw a baby in a well-built cradle, playing under the watchful eye of his mother. He appeared to be at least a year old by now. We were astonished at the simplicity of the home, but the mother Mary told us that the child had actually been born in a stable, and first laid in a manger!

This did not look like a king's home, or a king's parents, but we trusted the star. Not wanting to draw Herod's attention, we quickly presented our gifts. We brought gold as a symbol of royalty. We brought frankincense as a sign of immortality. And, we brought myrrh. I don't know why. Myrrh is a fragrant burial spice and a symbol of suffering, but something had laid it on our hearts to offer it. Little did we know how appropriate it was, or just how much suffering this child would bear.

They told us his name was Jeshua, "Yahweh is salvation." We were more convinced than ever that this child would be no ordinary king. As we prepared to leave quickly, and by a route that did not go through Jerusalem, we advised this young family to do the same, for we were certain that Herod's spies were close behind. Later we learned that Joseph and Mary took the child to Egypt until Herod finally died. We also heard that the wicked old king murdered every boy child in Bethlehem under two years old! The Christ child was not the only one who suffered.

Cartledge: Gaspar, do you have any parting words for our readers?

Gaspar: Yes, thank you. I would ask you to consider these questions:

1. You claim to worship Christ. How much effort do you put into seeking him?

2. If you believe that Christ is Lord, what gifts are appropriate for you to bring?

3. Since meeting the Christ child, my life has not been the same. What difference does he make in your life?

The presidency is decided?

The Iowa caucuses brought some surprises to the U.S. presidential campaign and established Barak Obama and Mike Huckabee as the early front runners in the world beyond opinion polls.

They did not, however, decide the presidency: there's a long way to go. Several states that host upcoming primaries don't necessary share Iowa's inclinations, and several candidates who finished near the top still have boatloads of money. The race is far from over, and we will have to suffer through many more political advertisements before the final results are in.

Barring an unexpected surprise, however, the contest to be the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention has most likely been decided: after being rumored as a candidate for more than a year, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler has publicly declared his candidacy, going the traditional route of having a supporter announce that he plans to make the nomination. In this case, Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, did the honors.

Like Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson, who was twice elected to the SBC's top office while serving as president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1998-2000), Mohler is a primary architect of the Convention's extreme makeover .
Mohler differs from Patterson primarily in being an outspoken proponent of five-point Calvinism. Like many other contemporary Calvinists, however, he somehow manages to simultaneously believe in both the reality of predestination and the need for evangelism.

Mohler has received occasional (mostly anonymous) criticism from professors and staff who find his leadership style to be abrasive and tempermental, but he has been in the position long enough to weed out most opposition to his view of what theological education should be. That view, among other things, is so opposed to the idea of women as pastors that female students at Southern are not allowed to enroll in preaching classes, or so I've been told by folks in Louisville.

Mohler is as well known for his frequent guest appearances on national news programs, vying with Richard Land of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission to be the "go-to" guy to weigh in on Southern Baptist thought. Look for both of them to get lots of face time in discussing the candidacies of former SBC pastor Mike Huckabee and faithful Mormon Mitt Romney.

In addition, Mohler writes a popular blog in which he reviews movies and comments on social issues such as family life, once arguing that couples who are childless by choice are guilty of sin.

There will be opposition to Mohler in Indianapolis: how potential opponents fare depends on who they are and what they bring to the tablel. Little known William L. (Bill) Wagner, president of Olivet University International in San Francisco, announced Sept. 7 that he will allow his name to be put in nomination, but he is unlikely to be a factor. Perennial SBC gadfly Wiley Drake may give it a go, but while messengers laughingly elected him to the meaningless post of second vice president two years ago, they are unlikely to put him in the top spot.

Perhaps the most spirited challenge would come from Oklahoma pastor and influential blogger Wade Burleson, who would be a favorite of many Southern Baptists who have chafed under the SBC's current steamroller status quo. Burleson, who was recently censured by the fellow trustees of the International Mission Board for daring to speak his mind, has not publicly indicated a personal interest in running.

In a New Year's Day blog, however, the first of 10 predictions Burleson made is that "A pastor with a strong commitment to the Cooperative Program will be elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2008, defeating Al Mohler." Burleson correctly predicted on Jan. 1, 2007 that Mohler would become a candidate, noting that the 2009 SBC meeting is slated for Mohler's home base in Louisville.

Will Burleson run? Will another pastor with a strong giving record, like current president Frank Page, rise to the challenge? Or will Mohler mow them down? I suspect the latter, but with Baptists, most anything is possible.

The upside is that the decision can be made without subjecting the populace to political ads on television, and it will all be over in six months.

Let's give thanks for small favors.

Resolve to reach out

Being a peacemaker may not have made most people's New Year's resolutions list, but it's not to late to add it. Jesus did, after all, declare peacemakers to be blessed, according to Matt. 5:9. The Greek word used by the gospel writer could be translated as "happy," and it should be self-evident that a rise in peacemaking could bring a happier new year to this troubled world.

Several interfaith advocates are collaborating to promote peace by posting selections from the book Interfaith Heroes, by Daniel Buttrey. Each day during January, a new post will appear at www.readthespirit.com. Each post highlights the actions of a historical or contemporary person who has worked to promote peace and understanding among people of different faiths. It's well worth the small effort required to bookmark the site and read each day's selection, sign up for e-mail notifications, or even buy the book.

No one should need convincing that our world is a contentious place, and the contention is often fueled by religious differences that lead fundamentalists of various stripes to try and conquer, kill, or marginalize people of other faiths, rather than seeking to understand them and live in cooperative harmony. Global unrest and violence that has at least some roots in religion continues to march unabated.

Most years, I resolve that I will do more to build bridges to people of other faiths. Most years, I fail to do as much as I had hoped. Here's a prayer that many of us will strive to be peacemakers this year, even if it takes heroic efforts to do it.