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| View videos of the 2011 TBC Breakfast at the BGCT in Amarillo: | Bill Jones' TBC Update | Entire program | |
TBC Update - January 2012
View Bill Jones' TBC update at TBC Breakfast in October 2011
On January 1, Bill Jones began his second year as associate executive director.
From January through May 2011, TBC produced 71 Baptist Briefs videos, each lasting 2 to 3 minutes, on Baptist history and principles. The full set of 71 Baptist Briefs videos is now available on DVD to any individual who makes a $75 donation; and to any church upon request by the church office.
On May 11 of last year, we published and emailed the first edition of TBC Midweek Baptist Roundup, which is emailed weekly to all of our friends and supporters. Join our email list.
On October 25, we held our first TBC Breakfast at the BGCT in 3 years. Over 100 attended and heard our keynote speaker, Ellis Orozco, pastor of First Baptist Church, Richardson.
Our Board is continuing to develop new initiatives for carrying out our mission. If we at TBC can be of assistance to you or your church, please contact Bill Jones at bjones@txbc.org or 214-986-7136.
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What's faith without freedom?
by Bill Jones
TBC Associate Executive Director
(from TBC Midweek Baptist Roundup, January 26, 2012)
Attacks on Baptist freedom are not simply part of our history. They're an ever-present reality. One key area in which Baptist freedom is at risk today involves the education of our kids and grandkids.
Ten years ago, William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, faced the choice between freedom and control. At that time, the Missouri Baptist Convention contributed almost $1 million annually to William Jewell, or about 3 percent of the school's budget.
In 2001, according to Sun News of the Northland, the Convention faulted the William Jewell administration for, among other things:
A more extensive list of convention demands is in "This Jewell Is a Real Gem," an article carried in a 2003 issue of Academe magazine.
William Jewell President David Sallee and the college's trustees stood up for Baptist freedom, ultimately declaring the college's independence from the Missouri Baptist Convention. William Jewell is thriving today. In 2008, at my request, David Sallee wrote a Baptist Reflections column for TBC, entitled "Academic Freedom at Baptist Colleges and Universities," in which he explained that"establishing clarity of function and commitment both to academic freedom and to broad Christian principles . . . should produce graduates in whom no part of decision-making is untouched by faith and no part of faith unaffected by the world in which they live."
David Sallee and I both graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1973. Today, academic freedom at OBU is endangered.
In December 2011, Jacob Lupfer, a 2002 OBU grad, started a blog - titled Save OBU - whose mission is to report on the goings-on at OBU and build a consensus for separating OBU from its affiliation with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Jacob is grateful for receiving a good education at OBU and has grown concerned that the BGCO is on its way to destroying the academic freedom that helped make OBU special to so many of us. He worries that OBU will soon become an indoctrination-oriented "Bible academy" rather than a robust Liberal Arts university. Jacob regularly posts specific concerns and reports of specific incidents and actions that have led to those concerns. He posts at saveobu.blogspot.com.
We've been linking to Jacob's Save OBU posts for several weeks, and his posts are drawing considerable attention from our readers. A lot of you are obviously OBU grads. But I suspect that many of you just simply care about the freedom of those students and faculty, because you're Baptists!
Jacob has recently begun asking concerned OBU alumni and retired OBU faculty to send their stories for him to include in his blog, and several have responded.
My own story is of an OBU that challenged me to think for myself and grapple with hard questions. I entered OBU as a freshman, thinking I had all the answers. But I experienced a severe faith crisis, beginning early in my sophomore year. I have no doubt that this crisis was God's doing, because what I had wasn't faith at all, and God knew that I had to lose this false "faith" before I could have a real, authentic relationship with Him. My "faith" was built on a set of beliefs that I thought were facts. Once I realized I couldn't prove any of my beliefs to be true, all of the doubts I had suppressed came rushing in as a flood that overwhelmed me.
The OBU community, the OBU atmosphere of open and free inquiry, was instrumental in helping me find my way back to Christ. The faith journey that is at the center of my life today began on Bison Hill. There were late-night "bull sessions" in Brotherhood Dorm, a pastor at University Baptist Church across the street who would listen to my doubts and offer me guidance as I struggled to find faith, a professor who challenged me to dig deeper than I had ever dug before, and Christian Focus Week services that acknowledged the doubts with which so many of us were grappling - the theme one year played off the popular mantra of the day, "Christ is the answer" by asking "But what is the question?"
My relationship with God wouldn't be what it is today - if I even had any relationship with Him, for that matter - without OBU. I want OBU students of today and tomorrow - as well as students at Baylor, Howard Payne, Dallas Baptist, Hardin-Simmons, and the rest of our wonderful Texas Baptist schools - to have that same freedom to ask questions, to hear different perspectives, and to journey with our God who isn't afraid of their questions but welcomes them.
TBC embraces freedom because freedom is Baptist. And Baptists love freedom because it opens the door to a deeper relationship with God in Christ.Is Your Church Looking for a New Pastor?
Then we can help you!
Your Pastor Search Committee's first call should be to the Pastorless Church Team of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. You can reach Karl Fickling, Director, by calling him at 214-887-5491 or by email. This team is anxious to provide your church with the resources you need as you approach the critical choice of the person to lead your church as pastor.
Also, here on the TBC Web site, you will find links to information that is essential to helping your committee and church navigate the process of finding and calling a new pastor. These links are provided on two pages on our Web site.
First, Texas Baptists Committed is now making available online, in printable PDF format, articles that have been contained in the Help for Pastor Search Committees packet that we have provided to pastorless churches for many years. Your church and pastor search committee will find these articles to be helpful and informative.
Links to TBC pastor search committee resources
Second, TBC provides links to resources provided on the Web site of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. These include essential resources such as questions that your committee needs to ask prospective pastors, as well as sample documents related to the search process.
Links to BGCT pastor search committee resources
Please keep in mind that you are free to copy any of these materials (from both TBC and the BGCT) for the use of your committee. Permission is not given, however - by either Texas Baptists Committed or the BGCT - to reproduce any portion of these materials for sale.
We also recommend that you go directly to the Texas Baptist Pastorless Churches Web page for additional information and resources regarding the following:
- Initial Assistance
- Initial consultation
- Referrals to supply preachers and trained traditional interim pastors
- Intentional Interim Ministry
- Training for Pastor Search Committees
- Finding Candidates
- Leader Connect résumé-matching service
- Job Descriptions (English/Español) for a variety of ministry staff positions
