What Kind of Steward Will You Be?

Headlines lately have been probing the intended recipients of a tax rebate to consider what they will do with the money. Some have vowed to spend it immediately, others are going the savings route, some are paying down credit card debt, and others are investing in stocks. How about this for an investment, how about giving it away? There are loads of charities and needy who could use the money more than some folks. Some in our church have committed to give it to help retire the mortgage on our education building. Wouldn't it be great to see it go to some special fund in your church, the missions offering of your denomination, a food and clothing shelter in your city, or even simply to pass it on to a needy family in your own neighborhood? Investments in others are investments in the Kingdom.

How to Call a Meeting

Some weeks ago I read something complimenting President Carter about knowing how to call a meeting. The kudos went out over calling a national meeting that received nationwide press coverage and invited tens of thousands. It noted the speakers that were committed to come, President Carter himself, President Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore to name the most popular. Of course there were other political leaders and activist along with a few well known preachers such as Joel Gregory and Tony Campolo. All total, it looks as if 15,000 registered for the national event.

If this meeting means that President Carter really knows how to call a meeting, Don Cass is to be highly commended. Don is the director of evangelism for the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention and each year calls a meeting called an Evangelism Conference. This year the theme was When Time is No More and included various sermons dealing with themes around the second coming of Jesus and the end of the earth. As I search for news articles I am coming up short. Evidently Don didn’t know that you should publicize a Baptist meeting via the secular media. I have seen no reports of attendance but I do know the numbers were several thousand. Having attended for the last three years, it was easy to see the crowd this year exceeded previous crowds. The time has come to move to a larger venue. The facilities of First Baptist Church of Euless have been outgrown.

Imagine this; a meeting publicized within Baptist circles and not reported in the secular media drew several thousand perhaps 4000 or more. The SBTC today reports 2002 churches as cooperating. Let me see, that is close to 2 from each church based on pure guesses. Even if the attendance was half the 4000 it would still be 1 from each cooperating church. The NBC meeting boasted 30 Baptist Conventions as participating and it is plain that they did not draw any where close to one person from each church. As a matter of fact, the BGCT lists over 5000 churches and one from each of their churches would have likely doubled the attendance in many of the NBC meetings. Who knows how to call a Baptist meeting? I think Don Cass knows how to call a meeting.

Already Don is calling another meeting for next year. Having outgrown FBC Euless, the new home will be in the Tarrant County Convention Center. It will be exciting to see the list of speakers who come together to preach on the subject of the Holy Spirit. Now what do I choose? Do I choose to encourage the members of the church where God has allowed me to serve to attend a meeting about the environment or one that encourages evangelism? Well, if I believe the answer to man’s problems on earth can be solved by science I will go to hear Al Gore, if I want to see the souls of men saved in my community and the moral pollution cured, I think I will go to Fort Worth on Monday after the third Sunday in February of 2008.

Confused

I am confused. Nothing new here. I have been reading some of the news reports published by the New Baptist Covenant and they are either confusing or humorous. President Carter practically begs those in attendance not to speak critically of others. Now don’t get me wrong, those words are usually appropriate any time two humans get together whether they are Baptist or not. It is what he did not say that confuses me. Note this quote from their web site:
“For the first time in more than 160 years, we are convening a major gathering of Baptists throughout an entire continent, without any threat to our unity caused by differences of our race or politics or geography or the legalistic interpretation of Scripture," said Carter, who co-chaired the gathering with Mercer University President Bill Underwood.

President Carter raises some worthy issues, division caused by race, politics, geography and the legalistic interpretation of Scripture. Now pardon my bias, but some of the division has been caused by a liberal and unbelieving interpretation of Scripture. Speaking of politics and interpretations of Scripture, I believe it was Carter who walked away from the SBC over his disagreements.

I can not help but wonder; as I read the reports intended to promote the idea that the meeting was in unity, who was Campolo preaching to? Did he see some BMW’s in the parking lot when he drove in? What plane did Gore use to get to the meeting? Can you live in a mansion like Gore and fall into the classification Campolo placed those who drive BMW’s. Tony rarely pulls punches because of his audience and so perhaps he wasn’t preaching to those in were not in attendance but those who were in attendance. Yes he was preaching to most all of us in our lack of helping others.

Clinton’s reaching out to Southern Baptists was interesting. Was he sincere or hoping to pick up a few votes for Hillary? We will no know until his works are judged at the judgment seat of Christ as we won’t know even about some of our own until that day. His bias also came out:
Baptists who gained control of the SBC focused on "works" related to issues such as opposition to abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment and gay rights, he noted, while "more progressive Baptists" focused on fighting poverty, protecting the environment and providing housing for poor people, he said.
"I say this in good conscience: We all believe we are doing what we can. But so do they. They read the obligations of Scripture in a different way," he noted.
Calling for humility and respect, Clinton urged, "We should not let our response to the people who disagree with us be dictated by what they say about us or even how they treat people we care for. If there is any chance that this covenant can become an embracing one, that there can be a whole community, then there has to be a chance that we can find love."

You did catch the bias didn’t you? If you are not a Baptist Democrat, you do not care about the poor, protecting the environment of providing housing for poor people. President Carter knows better than this because even Republican Baptists have helped his poster organization, Habitat for Humanity.

“Grisham offered Baptists three suggestions for seeking unity: Restore their good name by respecting diversity, stay out of politics and ‘spend as much time out on the streets in ministry as in the church."

This was the most humorous of all. Grisham blasted anyone who would hold to a literal interpretation of Scripture while calling for respecting diversity. His funniest line in light of the other speakers was stay out of politics. If Gore is successful in his creation campaign it will be political. Marian Edleman is always political. The highlighted speakers come from political backgrounds.

Conclusion: When you are for something you are automatically against its antithesis. Baptists have never wanted to keep themselves out of politics. Leland would strongly object. Without the Baptist of the early colonies, we might not even have Bill of Rights. We just don’t want the government running the church. Baptists are not showing disrespect for diversity when they politically propose a moral agenda that departs from Grisham’s agenda.

We do know what the leaders of this meeting are against, at least from the press reports.
1. The war in Iraq
2. Tax Cuts
3. Literal and legalistic interpretations of Scripture.
4. Private Health Care
5. Poverty
6. Hungry Children
7. An overpopulated earth
8. Materialism
9. Consumerism


After the meeting, many went to a nice restaurant and ate an expensive meal, flew home on airplane emitting carbons, some drove BMW’s, Cadillac’s, Hummers, Lincoln’s, a few from Texas drove pickups, slept in expensive motel rooms just a few blocks from some homeless hungry on the street, and felt good about the call to save the environment and reduce poverty. I am amused and confused.