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The Right Frame of Mind, Visiting An 'Old-fashioned Woodshed'
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By Rev. Mark H. Creech
October 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - According to a recent article in USA Today, there is one thing the nation's most successful CEOs have in common -- they received their share of spankings as children.
[Read the Full Atricle Here]
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New dean communicates family-centered vision for SBTS leadership school to trustees
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October 13, 2006
By Jeff Robinson
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The School of Leadership and Church Ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will take a new approach to equipping students for local church ministry, but it will be centered around creation’s oldest institution—the family, new dean Randy Stinson told seminary trustees Tuesday during the board’s annual fall meeting.
In recent years churches have fragmented families by segregating them according to gender, age or other categories, Stinson said. Southern Seminary hopes to change that by teaching future leaders how to integrate local church ministries in a way that builds healthier families and churches, Stinson said.
“Most local church ministries tend to act independently of one another,” Stinson said. “You have a women’s ministry doing its thing over here, and you have a men’s ministry doing its thing, and you have youth ministry and children’s ministry, and they tend to act independently of one another.
“Consequently, they tend to lack a unified vision. [When] everything is segregated by age or gender or in some other way, it inadvertently ends up fragmenting the way that the family should operate.
“We are going to seek to reinforce spiritual growth as it occurs as a family. This will be done by integration of various church ministries…in a way that they reinforce each other and keep a unified vision of how they are supposed to operate and what they are supposed to be doing.”
Stinson was appointed dean of Southern’s School of Leadership and Church Ministry in August. Stinson succeeded Brad Waggoner, who served as dean for five years before becoming the director of research at LifeWay Christian Resources. Stinson also serves as executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
Stinson said the new vision of local church ministry will equip students to:
• Integrate women’s ministries in local churches with children and youth ministries so that older women are teaching and mentoring younger women in a Titus 2 mold.
• Coordinate men’s ministries that work directly with ministries to women, children and youth to provide male leadership for families, widows and orphans in a James 1:27 vein.
• Promote a philosophical unity between the various ministries of the local church to include unified views of marriage and parenting as well as a unified vision of gender roles in the home and church.
• Equip and encourage husbands and fathers to serve as spiritual leaders in their homes.
• Aim all local church ministries toward evangelism. “I see this operating in a way that there is a specific evangelistic component in all of this so that when a father recognizes that there is a young boy in the church that doesn’t have a father, “said Stinson, “he reaches out to that young man, so when he takes his boys to a ball game or a fishing trip, he is bringing this young man with him and in turn will eventually meet the boy’s father and will eventually have the opportunity to share the Gospel with that father. The same thing would be true for women’s ministry in the Titus 2 format.”
Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said the family-centered vision of church ministry is unique among Christian institutions of higher learning.
“I don’t think we realize how revolutionary this kind of vision is,” Mohler said. “No other school on the planet is trying to do quite what we have just described here. There is something very unique that God has given us the opportunity to do here and Randy Stinson is the man to do it.
“I believe that God created him for this purpose because when we were looking to the future of this school, to set its future in terms of direction, it was just really clear that the issue of family ministry was at the very heart of what we wanted to see take place in our local churches through this school.”
In other reports to the board:
• Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism, Missions and Church Growth, said the school is building on the unchanging vision of reaching Louisville, the state of Kentucky, North America and the world for Christ.
“As we look at the future of the Billy Graham School, I do think our job is to keep missions, evangelism and healthy, biblical church growth at the forefront of everything that we do in this institution. That is a great challenge and privilege for us…This is not a new vision for us, but building on a vision we already have…Our vision is to be a Great Commission school with an Acts 1:8 impact.”
Lawless mentioned numerous initiatives the Graham School is implementing to carry out the task of taking the Gospel to both the local area and the nations. The school will be matching up students with area pastors for practical training and mentoring, he said.
The Graham School is also sending its first mission team to the state of Kentucky in several years and next year will sponsor nine student mission trips across both North American and the globe, said. Lawless noted that the Seminary is also establishing a scholarship fund to assist with student expenses for annual mission trips.
• Mohler, in his state of the seminary address, spoke from Titus 2, pointing out that Southern Seminary exists only because the grace of God has appeared.
And because the grace of God has appeared, Southern must continue to be an evangelistic, gracious, sensible and godly seminary, he said, pointing out that the seminary does not exist to serve itself but the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“The purpose of the seminary is not accomplished at 2825 Lexington Road,” he said. “It is in the churches, churches made up of regenerate believers who have covenanted together under the authority of Jesus Christ and the authority of God’s Word in order to be God’s people in that place accomplishing all that the church is called to accomplish.
“We are a servant to those churches and we had better reflect the character that is called for in God’s people. The grace of God has appeared and we had better demonstrate that grace.”
[Read full story here]
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SBC Committee Member Agrees With Call for Public School 'Exit Strategy'
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By Jim Brown
June 6, 2006
(AgapePress) - A second member of the Resolutions Committee for the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, says the denomination needs to consider developing a plan to remove its children from America's public schools.
The SBC Resolutions Committee will meet Thursday to begin poring over resolutions that have been submitted for consideration next week. Among them is a proposal authored by Dr. Bruce Shortt and Executive Committee member Roger Moran that calls on the denomination to develop an "exit strategy" from public schools.
While second-year committee member Ida South of Mathiston, Mississippi, would not comment on the resolution, she agrees with Dr. Albert Mohler's belief that such a strategy is needed. Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and host of a daily national radio program, has publicly stated that "now is the time for responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy from public schools."
South, a veteran educator who is now retired, says the situation in the public schools is "getting worse all across the country." She feels most schools now are teaching a completely secular worldview.
The retired teacher points to one issue in particular as being symptomatic. "The teaching of homosexuality as being perfectly normal is more or less a symbol of what's wrong with our schools," she says, "because all the other things kind of fit in with that."
And South believes it is just a matter of time before Christian views are entirely censored from the public school setting. She admits this is a concern that may slip up quietly on Christian families and educators in the heartland or the "Bible Belt" areas, but she insists that creeping secularism is a rapidly spreading threat.
"I think we who are in areas where there's very little problem are kind of shaken when we find that someone is about to sue because their child heard the word 'God' mentioned in school," the Southern Baptist committee member and former educator says. "So even those of us in areas that have very little problem are beginning to wake up to realize that we do have problems."
As awareness grows among denomination members about the current state of America's public schools, South hopes more Southern Baptists will respond. She says leaders in SBC churches need to get more serious about providing alternatives to public education, including Christian schools and home schooling.
Grassroots political activist Rick Scarborough and evangelist Voddie Baucham, Jr. are also among those Southern Baptist leaders who have endorsed a proposed resolution favoring Mohler's call for an exit strategy from U.S. public schools.
[Read Full Story Here]
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Another Call for Exit Strategy
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Baptist Pastor Trumpets Another Call for 'Exit Strategy' from Schools
By Jim Brown
May 25, 2006
(AgapePress) - A Southern Baptist pastor from Florida says Christians are losing the battle in public schools. The pastor, a member of the committee that brings resolutions forward for the denomination's consideration, says the Southern Baptist Convention should consider developing an "exit strategy" for children from those schools.
Pastor Darrell Orman is the pastor of First Baptist Church - Stuart, Florida, and a member of the Resolutions Committee for the upcoming SBC annual meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina. He says the denomination should consider a proposed resolution that encourages Baptists to develop a strategy for leaving the nation's public school system. Another education-related resolution that has been submitted for consideration urges Baptists to support public schools.
The Southern Baptist Convention has voted on similar education-related resolutions in the past, and last year approved a resolution calling on its churches to investigate what impact the homosexual agenda is having on public schools. Orman believes evangelical churches underestimate the influence of the public education system to silence even godly Christians working in it.
"Evangelism's down across the nation. People are intimidated. Our kids are not being the salt and light that a lot of times they should be," the pastor shares, "and that's why right now, the statistics I keep seeing over and over again say 85 to 90 percent of our kids, when they leave high school, ... also leave our churches and never come back." The Florida pastor says according to information he has been told, that ratio corresponds almost directly with the number of children in churches who are in public school.
Pastor Orman cites reasons he sees for the effectiveness of efforts to squelch the Christian message in public schools.
"I think the public school system has moved so far [to the] left, part of it with the influence of the teachers union and the left leanings of the teachers union across the nation," he says. "And then you've got the ACLU and others, the separation of church and state people, who are trying to inoculate the public system from Christianity, pretty much."
Orman suggests that churches, if they are able to do so, would be wise to start Christian schools that provide families an alternative to public education.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
© 2006 AgapePress all rights reserved.
[READ HERE]
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The Southern Baptist Exit Strategy: Let Our Children Go!
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The following article appears at
The Southern Baptist Exit Strategy: Let Our Children Go!
by Nicholas A. Jackson
May 16, 2006 08:11 AM EST
All Eyes on Greensborough
In the year 2006, never has there been such a clear antithesis between those who love our God, our country and our children, and those who wish to destroy our God, our country and our children. Nowhere is this battle being fought more aggressively and fiercely than in the halls of our government (public schools).
Federal circuit court judges held in November 2005 in Fields v. Palmdale that "parents have no constitutional right ... to prevent a public school from providing its students with whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual, or otherwise, when and as the school determines that it is appropriate to do so."
[Read the full article here]
(c)2005 The Conservative Voice. All rights reserved. Some portions (c)The Associated Press.
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SBCHEA - In the Press!
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SBCHEA meeting to address home education issues
May 10, 2006
By Staff
Baptist Press
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP)--Nathan Finn and Greg Thornberry will be the featured guests at this year’s Kingdom Education Summit during the SBC annual meeting on Wednesday, June 14.
Hosted by the Southern Baptist Church & Home Education Association (SBCHEA), Christian theologians and educators will meet with pastors and parents to discuss the unique needs of the Southern Baptist homeschooling community for theological training, family-integrated missions and evangelism opportunities, and guidance in college preparation. The summit will begin at noon EDT.
Finn is a writer, church historian and associate archivist at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. Thornbury is dean of the School of Christian Studies at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. He co-edited "Shaping a Christian Worldview: The Foundation of Christian Higher Education."
Discussion topics will deal with: making churches homeschool-friendly; co-op groups; planting family-integrated churches; designing a rigorous, Christ-centered college preparatory program for home-educated high school students; and helping students qualify for scholarships and internships at Baptist schools.
SBCHEA Executive Director Elizabeth Watkins said SBCHEA strives “to unite the teaching ministries of the church and home for Kingdom education.
Tickets to the luncheon are available until May 31 at $15 each through the SBCHEA website at www.sbchea.org/custpage.cfm?frm=2736&sec_id=2736. The Elegant Sky Room of Georgia K is the site for the meeting to be held from noon to 4 p.m. within a half mile of the convention hotel.
[Read Here]
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3 New Kingdom Education Sponsors
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May 10, 2006
2006 SBC Pre-Annual Meeting Weekly Update
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 1:4
SBCHEA invites you to join us for the
2nd Annual Kingdom Education Summit
Wednesday June 14th 2006 12:00 - 4:00pm
We have 3 new sponsors this week, and a wonderful addition to our list of 2006 Summit Speakers!
*New Sponsors*
Mark Beuligmann was the very first supporter of the Southern Baptist homeschooling community, back in 2004. Thank you for your loyalty, Fellow Pilgrim!
"Christian Liberty Press is dedicated to finding, evaluating, and producing curriculum materials which are rooted in the Word of God and express a biblical worldview."
Thank you from the bottom of my heart Dr. Dorothy and Dr. Paige!! From the very beginning of our homeschooling ministry, you have been there for us. Neither of you has ever backed down from a Kingdom fight, (or wild animals!), and you are wonderful Titus 2 role models. We love you, and are honored to have your schools represented at the summit!
"Whether your calling is to pursue full-time vocational ministry or to be an effective witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ as a lay minister, The College at Southwestern will prepare you to live with a heart on fire and with a head full of wisdom of God."
"Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary exists to provide theological education for individuals engaging in Christian ministry. Southwestern strives to provide a community of faith and learning that develops spiritual leaders with a passion for Christ and the Bible, a love for people, and the skills to minister effectively in a rapidly changing world."
With one foot out the door, the discovery of Dr. Mohler's ministry at SBTS is what kept the Watkins Family in the SBC and a Southern Baptist church! His courageous stand for TRUTH and our CHILDREN, no matter what the cost, is what has endeared him to many, many Southern Baptist parent educators. We love you, Dr. Mohler, and are so proud of you and your precious family!
"At Boyce College you will receive the finest academic preparation from professors who are committed to Great Commission Christianity. You will also find a strong emphasis on spiritual development at Boyce. We know that what is in your heart is as essential to serving Christ as what you learn. And at Boyce College you will have an opportunity to merge classroom concepts with real world Christianity."
"Under the lordship of Jesus Christ, the mission of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is
to be totally committed to the Bible as the Word of God, to the Great Commission as our mandate,
and to be a servant of the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention by training, educating, and preparing ministers of the gospel for more faithful service."
*New Speaker*
Dean, School of Theology
Senior Vice President for Academic Administration
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
"It is exciting to see all that the Lord is doing these days through the SBCHEA.... As you know, we (Dr Mohler and Dr. Moore) are solidly behind SBCHEA and the Kingdom Education agenda."
Bio from SBTS:
Dr. Russell D. Moore became Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in January 2004. Moore is the author of The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective (Crossway, 2004) and co-editor of Why I Am a Baptist (Broadman and Holman, 2001). He has written articles for various publications including Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and SBC Life. Moore is a senior editor for Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity to which he is also a regular contributor. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Carl F.H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement and is a regular columnist for Baptist Press. Moore has served on the pastoral staffs of two Mississippi Baptist churches. Prior to entering the ministry, Moore was an aide to United States Congressman Gene Taylor.
Wow, when I received his email, I did a little Southern Baptist-happy dance all over my floor! Last spring, I went to the Criswell Theological Lecture series presented by Dr. Moore. He was a wonderfully inspiring speaker, and I have thoroughly enjoyed his book, The Kingdom of Christ.
It's beginning to look like our 2006 Kingdom Education Summit will be THE PLACE to be, during the Southern Baptist Annual Meeting! Please reserve your summit luncheon seat by May 31, 2006. We must reserve a limited block of tickets to sell at the Annual Meeting, June 11-14. The tickets left over will be all that is available at the door. You will have to call us on Wednesday, June 14th, to see if seats are available. 972-513-5460
Are you unable to come to Greensboro this year, but would like to support SBCHEA at the Annual Meeting? (In 2007, the SBC Annual Meeting is in San Antonio.) Please consider purchasing luncheon tickets for summit scholarships. We've had several pastors and homeschooling families contact us, saying that they would love to come, but are bringing their children to the Annual Meeting, but the $15.00 per person summit cost would be too expensive. The vast majority of homeschooling families must survive on one income, (including the Carl Watkins Family!) We are also child-friendly, (as long as they are threatened to within an inch of their lives to use "respectful, company manners" at the summit, including the Watkins girls! ) To donate ticket/tickets, please visit our website, and indicate in the "Message to Seller" box that they are scholarship tickets. [ Purchase Tickets Here]
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Education Resolution News
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Well, it has certainly been an interesting week. Even through all of the May showers here in Northeast Louisiana, we felt the heat from Southern Baptist conversations all over the country. SBCHEA has tried to archive all media coverage for the 2006 Kingdom Education Resolution Debate:
Resolution on Developing an Exit Strategy from the Public Schools That Would Give Particular Attention to the Needs of Orphans, Single Parents, and the Disadvantaged, Submitted by Roger Moran and Dr. Bruce N. Shortt, April 24, 2006
SBCHEA greatly appreciated the comic relief provided by one Rev. Jim West in Tennessee:
"The only people who pull their kids from public schools out of fear are the same sort who haven’t ever read the Bible in Greek or Hebrew. In other words, they are the sort of people who get all their information second hand. This whole crusade is nothing but another in the long line of senseless crusades entered into by frenzied, uninformed, twaddling and prattling mobs of unwashed peasants. And it is doomed to failure. Fortunately."
After google-ing "unwashed peasants" you will find some very interesting comments this accusation has inspired within the homeschooling community. Thank goodness our distinguished summit speakers are willing follow Jesus's example, and get down in the dirt, and bless us by their words of wisdom!
And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Mark 2:15-17
Maybe after that we will be better informed twaddlers and prattlers! Sadly, homeschooling mothers can do nothing about living frenzied lives.
On a very serious note, what can you do to help support Roger Moran, Bruce Shortt, and the resolution?
1.) Take one minute and express your support on our SBCHEA guestbook. This was very effective last year, and SBC leaders did take notice!
2.) Take two minutes and email Dr. Mohler at mail@albertmohler.com or call his radio program at 1-877-893-8255. He wants to hear from us on this issue! Every Wednesday is "Ask Anything Wednesday" and the first caller last week asked about Dr. Mohler's stand on an Exit Strategy. The response was bold and convicting. My post to the Deliberately Christian community includes an "unofficial" transcript of Dr. Mohler's response. (Please listen to the show first, his number of website hits is important!)
3.) Take another two minutes and email Dr. Jerry Johnson, President of Criswell College at talk@jerryjohnsonlive.com or call his new talk radio program at 1-800-881-9270. He is a homeschooling father, very supportive of SBCHEA, and we need to let him know of our support of the resolution. Unfortunately, his radio programs are not yet archived on the website, so we don't know if this has yet been a program topic.
4.) If you really want to help make sure this resolution passes out of the 2006 SBC Resolutions Committee, write or email the committee and SBC President Bobby Welch. This is a great homeschool writing project, so include your children in this! Actual letters have proven to be more effective than email, if possible, but please do whatever time allows. Letters from supportive Southern Baptists are what led to victory for our children in 2005!
SBC Annual Resolution Committee, 2006 [Total of just ten]
* Rev. T. C. French (Pastor & Chairman of the Committee)
Jefferson Baptist Church
9135 Jefferson Hwy.; Baton Rouge, LA; 70809;
225.923.0356. [Appointed by Rev. Bobby Welch, First Bap. Ch., Daytona Beach, FL]
* Dr. Robin Hadaway.
Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
818 Sagebrush Dr.
Worland , WY, 82401
307.347.8228
Member of First Southern Baptist Church in Worland, WY
* Pastor Dwayne Mercer
First Baptist Church
45 W. Broadway St., Oviedo, FL, 32765
407.365.3484
* Pastor Darrell Orman
First Baptist Church
201 SW Ocean Blvd , Stuart, FL , 34994
772.287.7422
Taylors Baptist Church
200 W. Main St .
Taylors, SC, 29687
864.244.3535
* Pastor Forrest Pollock
Bell Shoals Baptist Church
2102 Bell Shoals Rd., Brandon , FL, 33511 [Go to web. He has six young children!]
813.689.9183
Rt 2. Box 618; Mathiston, MS; 39752.
(662) 263-5323. .
* Pastor Mike Stone
5283 Rose Austin Ln, Blackshear, GA , 31516
[He is pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church. We're assuming the above is his home.]
912.449.1839
______________________________ ______________________________ ____________
Not on the Resolutions Committee
Dr. Bobby Welch (President of the Southern Baptist Convention!)
First Baptist Church; 118 N. Palmetto Ave.; Daytona Beach, FL 32114.; 386.253.5691.
(Bobby Welch is a highly decorated VN War hero. Please visit their church site.)
SBCHEA greatly appreciates the support of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, and their recent endorsement of the resolution:
"...Home School Legal Defense Association welcomes the debate within the Southern Baptist denomination and endorses the proposed resolution. Many current homeschoolers have already considered the issues outlined in the resolution and freely concluded that public school is not an acceptable alternative for the provision of a Christian education..." (full endorsement) http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/20060502.asp
One more event happened this week, LifeWay announced the most serious issue in the
This has been an informative project on LifeWay's part, even though none of my answers were chosen to be published. :) Take a moment to read the comments from pastors and ministry leaders. (It's worth a visit, even though LifeWay / Broadman & Holman is not yet a sponsor of our summit.)
"The NEA and Public Schools have access to our children more than any other entity. Even the church struggles to get even a portion of a child's time. Due to this fact, the children are indoctrinated into a worldly, politically correct mindset. A mindset in opposition to God's mindset." -Colby M., Independence, KS
There is a lot going on this week, and it's an exciting time to be a Southern Baptist homeschooling family! Things are changing quickly, literally by the hour. We are rapidly transitioning from the ugly ducklings to the beautiful swans of the SBC! If we will just show up and speak up, we can help remove those stumbling blocks keeping our Southern Baptist children from Jesus.
"He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him..." - Hans Christian Andersen
1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
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Questioning the Exit Strategy?
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SBC Official Questions Wisdom of Public School 'Exit Strategy' Proposal
By Jim Brown
May 4, 2006
(AgapePress) - The chairman of the Resolutions Committee for next month's Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is being careful not to throw his support behind the idea of developing a plan to remove Baptist children from public schools.
Members of the Resolutions Committee will begin meeting June 7, a week before the SBC meeting, to compile a list of proposed resolutions they deem relevant to this year's convention. One of the submitted proposals calls on the denomination to resolve to develop an "exit strategy" from the public schools, giving "particular attention to the needs of orphans, single parents, and the disadvantaged."
Resolutions Committee chairman T.C. French, the pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, says he has yet to review the "exit strategy" resolution, but that the committee "dealt pretty carefully with" a similar issue last year and "presented a resolution that was passed by the Convention last year regarding that."
Read Full Article Here: [http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/42006b.asp]
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Southern Baptist's Stress Importance of Christ-centered Education!
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Southern Baptist Pastors, Theologians, Historians and Parent Educators Stress Importance of Christ-centered Education at 2006 Summit
Summit Theme 2006
"Exit Strategy: From the world to the home, from the home to the world."
(SBCHEA, Inc. West Monroe, Louisiana) On Wednesday, June 14th, 2006, theologians and scholars at the highest level of Christian Education will meet with concerned pastors and parents at the 2nd Annual Kingdom Education Summit, hosted by the Southern Baptist Church & Home Education Association. The conference will be held during the 2006 SBC Annual Meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, and all pastors, homeschooling families, ministry leaders, and encouragers are invited to attend.
There were several significant events that led to the creation of SBCHEA, but two in particular brought awareness to the unique needs of the Southern Baptist homeschooling community, for theological training, family-integrated missions and evangelism opportunities, and guidance in college preparation.
On May 8, 2003, the Baptist Press published the article, Wanted: Deliberately Christian Parents, by Nathan Finn on May 8, 2003. ...“The good news is, there are some encouraging trends in evangelicalism that just might help bring about a needed reformation in Christian parenting. First there is homeschooling. While not for every family, many a parent has realized that homeschooling provides a natural atmosphere where they can actively evangelize and disciple their children. The teaching parent, normally the mother, spends quality time with their children every day. Many homeschooling curricula are Christ-centered, making it easier to talk to children about spiritual things. By all indications, homeschooling is only going to become more popular as time goes on.“... http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=15878
On April 13, 2004, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the first Southern Baptist seminary interviewed Dr. David Dockery, president of oldest Southern Baptist university, on Choosing a Christian College. http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2006-04-04 By listening to this program, we realized with horror how ill-prepared many homeschooling parents are to choose a Christian college or university they can trust for continuing the Kingdom Education of their children.
Therefore, SBCHEA is very excited to announce Mr. Nathan Finn and Dr. Gregory Alan Thornbury, of Union University are among the honored guests at this year's conference.
Nathan Finn, writer, church historian, and Associate Archivist at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Baptist history is critically important for Baptist ministry. Our history tells us where we have been, provides perspective to where we are and helps instruct us in where we are going...And let's all pray that the sovereign Lord of history would teach us how we can turn our world upside down with the Gospel. " - Nathan Finn, http://www.sebts.edu/olivepressonline/index.cfm?PgType=2&ArticleID=404
Gregory Alan Thornbury, the newly elected, first Dean of the School of Christian Studies at Union University, and co-editor of Shaping a Christian Worldview: The Foundation of Christian Higher Education. Dr. Dockery has this to say: “Greg Thornbury is perhaps the brightest young theologian in Baptist life today. His deep commitments to the church, to Baptist life, to Union University, to the orthodox Christian faith and to the vision of this institution make him an ideal person to lead the expanding work of the School of Christian Studies.” http://www.uu.edu/news/NewsReleases/release.cfm?ID=999
The mission statement of SBCHEA , the homeschooling ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention is, to unite the teaching ministries of the church & home for Kingdom education. While the ministry enthusiastically endorses the 2006 SBC Resolution Urging an Exit Strategy from the Public Schools, as it did the 2004 and 2005 resolutions on Kingdom Education, homeschooling families are painfully aware of the lack of a true partnership between church/denominational leadership and parents to provide Southern Baptist children with a genuine, Christ-centered education. Resolutions have come and gone over the years, with no subsequent plan of action. The hard work and dedication of T. C. Pinckney, Bruce Shortt, Voddie Baucham, Grady Arnold, David Scarbrough and Roger Moran will all be in vain, if a true church-based support system is not developed to assist parents, grandparents, and guardians in removing their children from the government-based system.
The Kingdom Education Summit, to be hosted annually by SBCHEA, will bring together those ready to make a significant difference, for the sake of our children. (Last year, summit participants voted to endorse a new ministry by Exodus Mandate, Homeschooling Family to Family. We are looking forward to a report from the new National Director, Mrs. Jube Dankworth.) Topics to be discussed are how to begin homeschooling, how can a pastor make his church more homeschool-friendly, how do I help start a homeschooling co-op in my church, how can we plant a family-integrated church, how we can we design a rigorous, Christ-centered college preparatory program for our homeschooled highschooler, how can we help our children become eligible for scholarships to our Southern Baptist colleges and universities, are there workshops and internships available within the Southern Baptist Convention, and much more!
..“In an age of encroaching barbarism, now is the time for the Christian church to reassert and reclaim its educational role and responsibility. The Bible teaches clearly that parents bear the first and most fundamental responsibility for the education of their children. Informed Christian parents may partner with others in this great task, but this parental responsibility cannot be given to others as a franchise. Faithful Christian parents may choose from among a number of educational options, but the failure to exercise parental responsibility is an option foreclosed from the beginning. ...Churches must also be involved in this recovery, developing ministries that partner with parents, encourage the development of Christian alternatives, and instruct the entire congregation about the centrality of the educational task.“ - Dr. R. Albert Mohler http://www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/mohler/?adate=8/17/2004#1279573
Individual 2006 Kingdom Education Summit tickets (lunch is provided) are available until May 31st, for $15.00. Summit details, sponsor information and tickets are available here at our SBCHEA website.
Our ministry is deeply grateful for the following early and dedicated sponsors of the 2006 summit:
Without their encouragement, faithfulness, and support, this conference would not be possible. Please consider joining them today!
Who Else Supports Kingdom Education?
Dr. Paige Patterson: (President-SWBTS Seminary, SBC President 1998-99) He said that if he were rearing his children today he would home school them "for the sake of relationship, academic accomplishment, safety, and Christian commitment." (Lee Weeks, "Homeschooling-SEBTS Style" Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Outlook, Vol. 48, p.7) In 2002, under his leadership at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., over a hundred faculty, staff, and student families had chosen to home school their children.
Dr. Jack Graham: (Sr. Pastor of Prestonwood Church, SBC President 2003-2004) "The world is too much with us and so, while we are not trying to cocoon our children, we don't want to put our children in a position to fail," Graham said in a Nov. 11 interview with the Florida Baptist Witness. "I think Christian schools put children in a position to succeed spiritually." Graham is pastor of Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano ..."That's the whole purpose. To train a new generation of leaders to make a difference. ... To develop a new generation of young dynamic leaders who understand their faith, who are able to communicate their faith and to live their faith in whatever their career or calling may be," http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=14723
Dr. Jerry Johnson: (President-Criswell College) “We, Dr. Streett and I, have chosen to homeschool. We see it as the best way, your first option, for educating your child.“
Dr. Tom Elliff: (Vice President-International Mission Board, SBC President 1997-1998) “We have a large homeschool group here at First Southern Del City. I think what you are doing with SBCHEA is wonderful, and I can think of several families right now who would be encouraged by the ministry. Everywhere Jeannie and I go we talk about homeschooling.“
Dr. David Dockery: “We are to have the mind of Christ, and this certainly requires us to think and wrestle with the challenging ideas of history and the issues of our day. For to do otherwise will result in another generation of God's people ill equipped for faithful thinking and service in this new century. A Christian worldview is needed to confront an ever-changing culture. Instead of allowing our thoughts to be captive to culture, we must take every thought captive to Jesus Christ.“
Dr. Albert Mohler: (President-SBTS Seminary) “Far too many Christians neglect to pay attention to what is distinctively Christian about Christian education. In Romans 12:2, Paul wrote, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." That powerful sentence represents the very heart of Christian education. Rather than conforming to the prevailing worldview of the secular culture, Christian education is to be transformative--demonstrating the power of God's truth in human lives. A true Christian education is like a light shining in the darkness. In a day when the prevailing secular culture is not even certain that truth exists, Christian education is established in the name and to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life.“ http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2006-04-05
C. H. Spurgeon: (The “Prince of Preachers” 1834-1892) “Withdraw from a child the only divine rule of life, and the result will be most lamentable. An education purely secular is the handmaiden of godless skeptics.“
Martin Luther: (The “Father of the Reformation”1483-1546) “I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God's Word becomes corrupt“
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Discussion over education resolution back in the media!
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SBC DIGEST: Discussion over education resolution back in the media; Proposal “On Dissent” stirs exchange
Apr 28, 2006
By Art Toalston
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The Baptist tug of war over education is back in the media.
A proposed resolution has garnered media attention for urging Southern Baptist churches to develop “an exit strategy from the public schools,” with the assistance of Southern Baptist Convention entities. Meanwhile, the Baptist Center for Ethics, a liberal group regularly critical of the SBC and substantially funded by the Cooperative Bapti | | |
